AFTER running a pure Prime SAMM flock for 15 years Darrel Hudson and son Peter have made the switch back to using Merino rams on their Dowerin property.
The decision to put Merino rams back into the mix was an easy decision due to the breed's dual-purpose attributes.
Not only now are the Hudsons breeding a sheep with a quality carcase, but they are also improving the wool quality of their flock which was their number one goal.
Prior to breeding Prime SAMMs in 2005 they had used British breed rams for prime lambs, as well as running a Merino flock.
Darrel said the Merino was a very different animal to what it was when we first ran them.
"Back then they were more of a pure wool breed and we wanted a more dual purpose prime lamb type and that was why we moved away from them and started using Prime SAMMs," Darrel said.
"But they have changed a lot over the years and they are now more versatile and you can now breed a dual-purpose type with both quality wool and carcase traits."
The Hudson family has been farming in the Dowerin locality for 70 years with their home farm, Yleena Farm first being worked in 1950 by Darrel's father, Peter, who moved there from Kalannie when he was 16 years of age
Darrel is the second generation to work the farm and Peter (junior) is now the third, returning home last year after working as a wood machinest in the building trade in Perth.
The family also runs a second property Mandalee Farm, which is 25 kilometres away and was purchased in 1999, giving them a 50:50 split between sheep and cropping operations.
The breeding flock of 1800 Prime SAMM ewes are now all joined to Merino and Poll Merino rams sourced locally from the Jones family's Ejanding stud, Dowerin.
While they have made the switch to Merino sires to improve their wool quality, the Hudsons are still also focused on maintaining high flock fertility which has improved since they introduced Prime SAMMs.
Darrel said the injection of Merino genetics was a recent thing.
"While wool prices have dropped back in recent months, they were very good in the few years prior and that was the main reason we have brought Merinos back in," Darrel said.
"We thought if we were going to run an animal that grows wool, we may as well try and grow the best wool we can."
When it came to deciding on where to source their Merino rams, the Hudsons chose Ejanding because the stud provides Estimated Breeding Values for all the rams it sells.
Darrel said having these figures was important when trying to breed a good dual-purpose animal.
"Ejanding takes a lot of measurements for both wool and carcase traits including micron, wool cut, body weight, eye muscle and fat which are all important to us," Darrel said.
To fit in with their cropping program and to ensure most of their ewes are lambing onto green feed, the Hudsons aim to lamb at the end of June, meaning the rams go into the ewes on February 1 and stay in for a five-week period.
Prior to lambing Darrel said they confinement fed their ewes for a month, regardless of how well the season was going.
"By doing this it allows the pastures to get a head start, before the ewes begin lambing on them," Darrel said.
Pregnancy scanning is also a big part of the breeding program, ensuring the business is getting the maximum productivity from its flock.
The Hudsons have pregnancy scanned their ewes for nearly 20 years and Darrel said when they did, they were specifically looking for twins.
Last year they mated 1800 ewes and when they scanned them 1700 were pregnant and the 100 ewes which weren't in lamb were sold.
After testing, the ewes are separated in dries, singles and twin bearers and treated accordingly.
Dry ewes are offloaded, regardless of their age and any ewes which are still having twins at five to six years of age are kept, as long as they are still sound.
Darrel said this year they found that about half their ewes were having twins.
"We figure if you get as many ewes as you can to lamb or have twins you can build your profit margin that way, but it does mean that your management has to be pretty well spot on," he said.
When the Hudsons first started concentrating on their ewes having twins they were struggling with their lambing rates.
Then in 2007, when it was one of their drier years, they had to supplementary feed their ewes on self-feeders with maintenance pellets in June and July during lambing.
"We just needed to feed the ewes as much as we could, as there were no pastures," Darrel said.
Prior to this he was dubious of overfeeding his ewes, fearing they would have trouble lambing, but changed his view after attending a seminar where Dr John Milton said that a ewe carrying twins couldn't be fed too much.
From there they put their ewes on self-feeders and found their lamb survival rates improved.
Darrel said now any of their ewes scanned and carrying twins have feeders in their paddocks a few weeks before they start lambing.
With this new management strategy, last year the Hudsons averaged more than 140 per cent for their lambing percentage, with one mob going as high as 174pc.
Shearing on the property is also designed to fit in with the cropping program and as a result the Hudsons usually shear at the end of March or beginning of April.
Darrel said they used to shear in September but they switched to an autumn shearing as it just made a lot more sense to shear in the autumn.
Currently their mature ewe flock average 21.5 micron and 65 per cent yield with an average cut of 5.5kg a head, but with the switch to Merinos the Hudsons are aiming to improve these figures.
Darrel said their aim was to maintain their micron at around 21 and increase their wool cut per head.
When it comes to marketing their lambs the majority are sold to WAMMCO, however they do sell some direct to the local Dowerin butcher.
Usually the Hudsons aim to sell their lambs when they are about 54kg liveweight so they dress out at the target weight of 23-24kg.
"We try to wean our lambs and grow them out on quality pastures and sell them from December onwards," Darrel said.
But with the 2019 season being dry and shorter than usual Darrel said they sold most of their 2019-drop lambs in January, with the last ones going at the end of May and they managed to do well.
"Price-wise it's probably the most we've ever received for our livestock," Darrel said.
"We averaged $170 a head through WAMMCO."
Weighing their lambs is also a focus, with every lamb having to stand on a set of scales at least once before leaving the property.
"We do it to make sure we are meeting market specifications," Darrel said.
Investing in new equipment for their sheep enterprise has helped the Hudsons improve their time management.
"We have some automatic scales we use because we are trying to get equipment on our farm that will help make life easier," Darrel said.
The new scales allow Darrel to speed up the process.
When it comes to the lambs sold to the local butcher they are sent to the Northam abattoir before being delivered to the Dowerin Gourmet Butcher.
"We supply the Dowerin butcher all year round and that means that the butcher can get a better product out to the community at a reasonable price," Darrel said.
COVID-19 has impacted most businesses in a negative way, but the Dowerin Gourmet Butcher shop has reaped the benefits, with new non-local customers driving up demand.
"It's funny because before the virus hit they would have been doing three lambs a week and then when the coronavirus hit he did 27 lambs over three weeks," Darrel said.
"People who don't normally shop here travelled out this way because they couldn't get anything at their local shops."
On the cropping side of the business, the Hudsons tend to concentrate on their pastures, with the exception of some wheat and oat crops.
"To make life easier we just grow wheat and a bit of oat for feed and then maintain our pastures," Darrel said.
Roughly half of the land between the two properties is cropped with some paddocks being used for pasture renovation.
"We plant some clover, medics and Serradella to improve the pastures because we are big on maintaining a high quality of pasture," Darrel said.
The Hudsons like to have plenty of feed on hand, keeping grain in storage in addition to their pasture and hay paddocks.
"We had a lot of barley come up with the lucerne so that's where we get our hay from and that has been good this year," Darrel said.
As for the current season there has only been a few rain events in March, with no rain in April or May.
"We only had 230 millimetres last year and this year we've already had 160mm up until the middle of July but half of that total occurred over summer," Peter said.
"We have got sub-soil moisture but so far this year it has been a little dry," Darrel said.
"We are still waiting for the wet winter that they keep forecasting," Darrel said.
"If you look at the season so far we can only say it has potential."
