Sheltered Lambs Win May Award
Another line of SAMM/Merino cross lambs has taken out WAMMCO’s Producer of the Month award, this time for well known Borden producers Graham and Shirley Moir of Glenelg Estate WA Pty. Ltd.
Graham was a foundation member of the Prime Merino Lamb Alliance and backed his faith in the future of lamb feedlotting by pioneering the use of eco-shelters on his property 12 months ago.
“The shelters are working well during the cold weather and even in summer when there is little growth,” Graham said.
“Lamb daily weight gains have been between 300 and 350 grams in both the Merino and Merino/SAMM crosses on a diet of grain and silage prepared on the property.”
He has also been following a pasture progression strategy with the flock using smaller paddocks to better utilise winter grasses and to reduce weight loss through walking. The system also presents the lambs in excellent condition for their six-week ‘topping up’ in the feedlot.
Glenelg Estate has a 4000 ewe flock based on Woodyarrup bloodlines and SAMM rams from “Allure” stud at Tambellup were used over more than 1,000 ewes to produce the current lamb crop.
The 175 lambs in the award-winning draft went to WAMMCO at Katanning on May 23 under a contract that paid an average of $3.16 per kg. With the excellent average carcase weight of 25.83 kg and more than 80 percent in the premium grade, $3.20 per kg category, the consignment averaged $81.53 per head.
The same lambs were shorn on the property prior to delivery with the wool returning about $8 per head net of shearing costs.
“These lambs had an excellent yield of 47- 48 percent and represented our best consignment for the season.”
The Moirs say the combination of finish feeding and contract selling is the only positive way for producers to go and they have also shown that it works well for ewe hoggets.
“We need to know that every lamb we produce has a price and a home to go to, and WAMMCO needs to know that we will actually deliver what we commit to.”
Graham said support from his family and from foreman Joe St.Jack and his staff were as important to the lamb enterprise as the stock and the strategies.
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