Sheep earn their place with Stanich family at Pingrup

Ben and Mardi Stanich with their children Indi, Charlie, Louis and Nina are the third generation to work the family farm.

In 2005 Ben returned to the farm full-time and then married Mardi in 2012.

A year later in 2013 Ben and Mardi took over management of the farm from Ben's parents Anthony and Leanne.

The Stanichs were not new to running sheep as Ben grew up watching and working alongside his dad and uncle Des running 20,000 head of Damaras, SAMMs and Merinos.

When the sheep and wool market became stagnant in 2010, they sold their flock and went to a fully cropping business model.

Three years ago, they re-entered the sheep industry as a way to diversify and have found that sheep have again made a successful integration into their business.

"We entered into sheep opportunistically when we saw a good opening in the store lambs market," Ms Stanich said.

"After this being a success, we collectively agreed that store lamb trading would fit well into our business model and from there we have expanded."

The farm consists of a total of 9600 hectares across several properties spread from South Pingrup to Ongerup.

They sow 9400ha with cereal and legume crops, while 1000ha is dedicated to fodder crops, including vetch and oats.

"We often do a combination of pasture varieties in the fodder paddocks," Ms Stanich said.

Their sheep program involves buying in crossbred store lambs to put through the feedlot.

The lambs are usually bought in about September, but is dependent on seasonal variabilities such as weather and availability.

The Stanichs set up their feedlot from existing infrastructure on the farm.

"We have utilised pens that were initially installed for confinement feeding when Tony and Des previously ran sheep and we have since installed the shelters, silos and solar feeding system," she said.

"The ability to have just under 300 tonnes of pre-mixed grain stored in the silos is a critical part of the management processes that comes with sheep trading."

The lambs are a mix of breeds such as Prime SAMMs and Suffolks with 13,000 to 20,000 head of lambs going through the feedlot annually.

"We are looking at increasing those numbers over the next few years and we are in the process of expanding the size of the feedlot," Ms Stanich said.

On arrival at the farm, lambs are weighed in, with any weighing 42 kilograms and above going straight into the feedlot, while any lambs below that weight will be put onto the fodder crops.

Sheep in the feedlot are weighed on average every two weeks and put into three to four lines.

The Stanichs purchased their scales about a year into their sheep trading and say that this has been another game changer to having a successful sheep trading enterprise.

The lambs are fed a cereal and legume mix, which is made up on farm.

On average the lambs spend 25-30 days in the feedlot before being sold to WAMMCO at 52-55kg liveweight.

The introduction of prime lambs has paid off with their hard work being rewarded in 2020 when they won the overall WAMMCO producer of the year award.

"It was a huge surprise, as we hadn't been trading sheep for long, so we really hadn't expected to be in the realms of this award" she said.

Ms Stanich said they have a good system in place- she is dedicated to the office side of the business, while Ben has the ideas and execution side under control - "he has done a lot of hard work to achieve this," she said.

Ms Stanich referred to their relationship as 'synergistic'.

"We just work well together, he has his part and I have mine and we combine them and try to make something good out of it," she said.

Ms Stanich also said that they have a great team of workers behind them that have played a fundamental role in the successful execution of their business plans.

"Without our team of four full-time staff and my helper a lot of what has been achieved wouldn't have been possible," she said.

Nutrien Livestock, Katanning, agent Mark Warren has also played an important role in the store lamb trading side of business.

Mr Warren sources all lambs purchased in, which Ms Stanich refers to as a critical part of the game.

She said when it comes to trading sheep it is very much a margins game.

"I keep a very close track on all input costs to make sure that all lambs purchased in are profitable," she said.

"Part of this means they have a strong focus on conversion rates, which is something Ben has put a lot of time into successfully fine-tuning" she said.

She emphasised that making their own feedmix onfarm has been essential to achieving this.

Ms Stanich said overall the market prices had been very good when selling, but this also meant that they have been high when buying in, so it was a balancing act to ensure each purchase was profitable.

About three-quarters of the lambs purchased in are shorn, although Ms Stanich said that wool profit margins weren't significant and they don't put a heavy focus on the wool side of lamb trading, as the majority of stores were crossbreds.

The lambs are generally shorn before entering the feedlot or prior to being sold if the skins are going to be of some value.

Seasonal conditions have been tight for the Stanichs over the past three years and was one of the reasons they reassessed their operation and decided to introduce sheep back into the mix.

"They haven't been disastrous years by any means, but there were significant frosts and a lack of rainfall," she said.

The 2021 season has brought plenty of rainfall with 400 millimetres falling so far, exceeding the area average of 350mm.

"Our southern blocks have been particularly wet," she said.

Ms Stanich said they would continue to run sheep in the years to come.

"The sheep trading enterprise has fitted nicely into our business, largely because we haven't had to scale back our cropping program all that significantly, therefore having very little impact on the cropping aspect of the business" she said.

Poorer performing paddocks were chosen to be replaced with fodder crops, increasing profitability on otherwise lower performing paddocks.

In the future, the Stanichs would like to continue to upscale their prime lambs' program.

Their feedlot expansion is underway with an additional four pens being added before the 2021-2022 trading season begins.