IT WASN’T just the change in climate Mike and Lucy Rosser had to deal with when they shifted from Tasmania to western NSW – the move also meant a shift from superfine Merinos to meat sheep.
The young couple and their children, Ella, 5, Ava, 3, and Harry, four months, own and run Argyle Station, 20 kilometres east of Wanaaring.
They’ve completely changed businesses since purchasing the 45,000-hectare property with Mike’s father Gary and his wife Tracey in March 2005.
“We had 6500 acres (2630ha) in Tassie and 6000 Merinos, and we weren’t too fond of Dorpers because of the medullated fibres,” Mike said.
“Because it’s so cold in the winter in Tassie no native pasture grows.
“If you don’t get an autumn break or spring break you can go 18 months with a paddock completely unusable.
“That’s why we took this opportunity and moved to Dorpers.”
Sheep are sold as lighter lambs to Victoria.
“They pay a premium for the 12- to 18-kilogram dressed range so we try to target that market,” Mike said.
“In a good season we can get them to 18kg to 20kg but it’s more breeding country than fattening country.
“We have some contracted to Hassad which gives us the option to go with the live trade.
“It means we don’t have to finish the lambs here because they’re taking them at a lighter live weight.”
The couple started with Damaras, which had the ability to survive in any country.
“We had five years where there wasn’t any feed around but they still did well,” Mike said.
“The Damaras paid for all the improvements on the property.”
Those improvements saw the Rossers spend the past nine years fencing and running pipes for stock.
The boundary was fenced first to tackle the goat problem then they started on the internal fences, before fencing off the Paroo River and other water sources.
They’ve worked hard to set up holding paddocks near water sources, using traps to catch stock before a muster.
“We’ve refenced the place totally and laid 60km of poly pipe,”?Mike said.
“Now there’s 250km of hinged-joint on the boundary and internal fences.”
All 5000 sheep are in the one mob and are moved regularly in the Rosser’s rotational grazing plan.
“Having them in the mob lets us give paddocks a rest and it also means if we have a major water drama we can just move them to the next paddock,” Mike said.
“We can run up to 10,000 sheep but it’s been brought back to 5000 with the dry conditions.
“It’s rated 11,000 dry sheep equivalent (DSE) but it’s not really that anymore.
“It probably should be about 7000 DSE.”
Buying the property during drought set the Rossers up, allowing them to see the property at its worst.
It’s helped them work out what they needed to do to get the best out of the country, which has a good mix of native grasses, including buffel grass, mulga grass and oats, Mitchell grass, button grass, kangaroo grass and neverfail grass.
“Coming out here when it was dry was the best thing,” Mike said.
“If we can make the place work and get by when we’re in the worst drought in 100 years, then we’re going to do well most years.
“We’ve had four good years out of 10, but the margins are so fine now that the good years aren’t making up for the bad ones.
“The good years don’t put us ahead but let us catch up.”
The 2009 drought saw the Rossers destock dramatically but giving the country time to respond to wet weather the following year was a good move.
“We decided not to buy more stock, but to just let the natural increase happen,” Mike said.
“In 2010-11 we didn’t make as much money as we would have liked but we came out of the drought with more sheep than we would have had before.
“We probably could have taken advantage of the feed and put more stock on the property, but we still want each paddock to have that 12-month break.
“The aim is to keep groundcover and the longer you leave a paddock, the quicker it is to respond to any rainfall.”
