WAMMCO’s October Producer of the Month title winners, the Taylor family of “ Tiarri Prime Samms” Lake Grace, believe that feedlotting the right lambs still pays, despite high grain prices.
A good start to the season saw their May drop SAMM lambs put on plenty of early condition and the October winning consignment consisted of 216 of 600 SAMMs delivered straight from the paddock to WAMMCO in October.
Another 600 went into the feedlot and have been going to Katanning throughout November at minimum weights of 50 kg liveweight.
The winning consignment of 216 SAMMs was processed on October 27. WAMMCO Select paid a $474.60 bonus or $5.10 per head on 93 lambs (or $2.20 per head over the total consignment)
“I do not agree with those who say feedlotting lambs does not pay – providing you have the options provided by good genetics,” Ross said. “Producing our own grain on legume rotations also broadens the cost and profit margins.
“We normally aim to turn off lambs from the feedlot from January, through to April to capture the higher prices,” he said.
But an excellent start to this season fired their legume based pastures and brought the SAMM lambs on early. They were in good forward condition when the rains stopped in August, enabling the decision to sell early.
The Taylor family, Ross, wife Pauline and daughter Kelly won their first WAMMCO Producer of the Month title in February 2007, soon after they began introducing South African Meat Merinos, when 50 percent of their sheep were Australian Wool Merinos and there was a 50/50 sheep/cropping mix.
The Pure Wool Merinos have now been bred out in favour of the Meat Merino lamb enterprise , which now underwrites their farming operation. The Samms still have a merino fleece, just not as much of it and the Taylors are hoping to develop a separate line of Samms with soft, finer wool traits to cater for the strengthening market for ‘next to skin’ wool apparel.
Their ‘Tiarri’ stud was founded on SAMMs from ‘Rockdale’ and expanded in 2008 with the purchase of the’ Kindelka ‘ SAMM stud from the Walker family at Newdegate. This year saw the first auction in August and the clearance of 100 SAMM rams, mainly to local buyers, at an average of $105.
Ross sees the new $5 million boning room at Katanning as confirmation of WAMMCO’s faith in the lamb industry.
“Value adding is a key to our survival and we are going to need all the help we can get over the next few years from everyone, including processors like WAMMCO as well as live exporters and the local trade.”
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