This month we caught up with Charlie Blomfield and Eleanor Falkiner from Boridgeree, Canowindra. Charlie and Eleanor run a breeding ewe and trade lamb operation through fodder crops and an automated feedlot program in their Cabonne Shire operation. Charlie has found the depth of genetics, consistency and management advice offered by Haddon Rig second-to-none. His focus is on starting with lambs with strong genetic potential for growth whilst maintaining good quality wool production
Tell us a bit about your operations
We stablished ourselves at Canowindra in 2019, and currently run 2,300 breeding ewes and up to 4,000 trade lambs on fodder crops and through our automated feedlot.
Our breeding program focusses on producing fast-growing merino lambs from a fertile ewe flock that cut a good amount of quality wool. To do this we have purchased HR Poll Merino sires that show early growth traits, good wool characteristics and have easier animal husbandry. Due to our location in Central NSW and access to fat-lamb markets, we also join half of our HR-blood ewes to Poll Dorset rams to produce high quality first-cross lambs. We sell the first-cross ewes to restockers and put the wether lambs through our fattening program.
Poll Dorsets are highly muscled and the cross-bred lamb produced gives a larger carcase than the straight merino. The first-cross ewes are currently in high demand and we target alternative markets with the heavier lambs. The whether lambs perform better in the feedlot – but you don’t get the wool income. At the moment we are looking to diversify so not everything is focussed on the wool market and we find the Haddon Rig genetics provide the perfect base.
What investments have you made in HR genetics and what has the impact been on your flock?
In 2019 we purchased a team of Poll and Horned Merino Rams as well as some stud and commercial ewes. We needed a younger line of ewes so we bought the 2017 drop of ewes from Michael Ricketts in the Tumbleton North dispersal sale. There’s 15 years of HR genetics there, classed by Andy McLeod – Michael was buying the best of HR’s rams, so we were lucky to get some of those ewes. We choose Haddon Rig due to the strong depth of genetics from which to select sires for our flock. HR’s recent investment and commitment to the Poll Merino stud has produced rams with strong growth and wool traits with outstanding conformation. The added value that the team provides to clients in terms of experience and advice is second-to-none.
Despite a tough, drought joining over Summer – the results have been great. Given the conditions, we were pleased with 138% scanning rates from the 2019-2020 joining. Of the total SIL ewes, we achieved 104% marking, and 140 to 155% from twin SIL ewes. Of the total ewes joined we achieved 98% marking rates. Overall, we had only 11% total dry ewes from the time of joining, and 5% from scanning. This was an incredible result given the tough, dry conditions of joining and very cold, wet conditions the lambs were born into.
Once born, our ewes and lambs progress very well. <<need weaning results 7 August>> In improved grazing paddocks, our merino lambs achieved 180 to250g per head per day liveweight gain , and 280g per head per day weight gains on canola.
Looking forward, we will continue to invest in Poll Merino genetics so 100% of our Merino Program is covered by Poll rams.
A lot of our clients are looking to add value and size to their flock through feed lotting. Can you share some of the results of the Boridgeree program?
We operate a 4,000 head automated feedlot. Lambs are backgrounded on crop then inducted at 36-40kg liveweight for 7 to 10 days, then put into the feedlot for 5-7 weeks (depending on how they perform). Upon induction they get animal health treatments, weighed with an EID tag and slowly introduced to a grain ration. Our merinos are achieving 295 to 400 g per head per day with a feed conversion ratio of 4 to 5kg feed to 1kg LWG, and mortality rates at 0.5%. Lambs are sold at 50-55kg liveweight depending on the contract market specification and grids available. This year we fed our lambs 90% high-protein barley and 10% pellets (including acid buffer and minerals). This year we will likely add lupins or faba beans to bolster the protein levels of the barley with expected lower quality feed grain with the big season.
During 2019, our merino lambs achieved the same or better return as our trade cross-bred lambs in the feedlot when wool was considered including the current lower COVID wool pricing. The downside of cross-bred lambs in the current market is that they still need to be shorn, and the wool doesn’t cover the shearing costs. If and when the wool market recovers, merinos outperform cross-bred lambs in our production system. Lambs must be shorn – particularly before putting in the feedlot. Wool has dropped from a record high, but is still reasonable on a long-term basis. We will be keeping a close eye on prices to inform our selling strategy coming up to October.
HR genetics gives us the flexibility to adapt to the market – whether for wool or meat, replacement females and fat lambs.
Our merino lambs achieved $7.50 to $9.00 per kg carcase weight throughout 2019-2010 financial year which we were very happy with. We aim for a return of $40 per head for sheep put through the feedlot including all labour, grain and inputs. Running at 100% utilisation, we could turn off 16,000 lambs per year. In reality, we are buying and selling all the time and when lambs are too expensive, we aren’t in the market. Heading into Winter we’ve been selling our trade lambs, and will look for buying opportunities in the Spring. At classing in August, any ewes that are below condition score 3.5 will be managed separately prior to joining, and if required, put in the feedlot. We can also use the feedlot for weaning, and to spell paddocks for a period
Given the learnings from the drought, we plan to join a portion of our ewes in confinement as an experiment to compare to paddock joining.
In terms of design, we are constructing shade over the winter and tested the height/angle with a few shade sales over the past Summer and have now refined the design. By doing it ourselves, we are doing it for about $16,000 ($1,000 per pen) whereas the commercial quotes we got were about $140K. We take principles learnt from the best cattle feedlots and apply it to sheep.
We don’t skimp on any of the inputs so we can maximise animal health and production efficiency outcomes – (supplements, animal health, auto-drafting and weighing equipment which enables us to process about 600 lambs per hour, tagging and record keeping). This means we can get a B-Doubles of lambs off the truck and drafted in a very short period of time. Having the feedlot close to the yards and infrastructure is important and having all jobs designed for 1, or a maximum of 2people has been the main focus of any of our designs.
How is Boridgeree positioned to meet the changing demands of the next few years?
We prioritise starting with lambs with good genetic potential for growth, fertility and wool – then it’s up to management to achieve that potential! We are focussing on producing multi-purpose sheep that can be sold into a range markets. The sheep meat markets will hopefully stay strong and wool markets will hopefully recover following COVID-19. Given our proximity to markets, we can generate a regular supply of lambs to end markets, and quality ewes to the re-stocker market.
We are looking to manage our multiples more effectively in 2021 by scanning for triplets and manage separately. This will likely mean running triplet ewes in smaller paddocks / fenced-off vegetation areas for lambing. We bought a couple of alpacas this year – we thought we purchased 2 from Ricketts sale but ended up with 16... They’ve been split up into 8 pairs and put with different mobs of sheep as a trial. You don’t see them chasing foxes, but they definitely hate my dogs! They provide a bit of amusement around the farm – Raffy and El both love them. Last year it was hard to coordinate a good baiting program. This year alpacas are part of the puzzle (plus baiting) and general amusement – so it’s looking much better.