Golden rules for perfect suckers

That is why it is the product all the top prime lamb cockies are aiming for, according to Spicers Creek farmer Nick Mason, "Westwood".

"No other breed comes near it for suckers, and as a heavy export lamb they are as good or better than any other around," Mr Mason said.

"The most important thing when you are producing lambs is what it tastes like - if you want somebody to buy it again and again, it has to taste good."

Turning off 6000 lambs a year, Mr Mason, along with wife Mary, son Matt and daughter-in-law Kellie, runs a 4200-head flock of Border Leicester/Merino ewes.

Prime lambs are the cornerstone of the 2430-hectare mixed farming property, and Mr Mason said the trade paid a premium for that second-cross sucker.

"To do the job properly you have to have three things going for you - the best genetics available, high quality pastures, and your management has to be spot on - with suckers you can't afford a hiccup anywhere," he said.

The first rule - genetics - is where the Gilmore family, Tattykeel Poll Dorsets, Black Springs, come in.

"I went to John Gilmore in 1992 and asked him what it would take to buy the top of his flock-ram drop, but he wasn't interested, he said he couldn't fit us in - but when we started talking money we came to an agreement," Mr Mason said.

"We used to go to British breed ram sales in the 1980s, buying from here or there, and they just weren't even, they needed to improve.

"So we have been buying Poll Dorset rams from Tattykeel for more than 30 years and in my opinion they are the best - they have the most muscle without losing structure."

Selecting sires on structure and muscle, Mr Mason said the only thing that had changed at Tattykeel in that time was the rams had got better.

"John Gilmore was a great stud man and back in the '80's Poll Dorset breeders had lost direction, they started to breed a long, lean, lanky lamb with no fat on it and were losing muscle," he said.

"The Department of Agri- culture was trying to tell us we needed a two-score lamb, and they just had no taste, we were losing ground big time - John Gilmore had the foresight to stick to the structure and the muscle.

"Now when I go out and look at the rams in the paddock they are very even and are still good looking rams three to four years after you buy them."

The genetics of the ewe flock is also a crucial part of the operation at "Westwood" - and they are genetics the Masons know well.

They source the first-cross ewes from their next door neighbours at "Spicers Run", farmed by Mr Mason's brother Michael and nephews Joe and Sam.

"I know how good they are because I used to be in partnership with him for 30 years," Mr Mason said.

A split lambing, achieving 130 per cent in the autumn and 150pc in the spring, goes a long way towards making the most of those high quality pastures - the second rule of thumb.

"We are one of the few areas in NSW that can handle the two lambings, because of the climate, and it allows us to utililse all the feed we have, as well as utilising the rams better," Mr Mason said.

"In the autumn we get less lambs, but we sell them as suckers which is the premium market."

Those suckers are sold at 16 to 18 weeks old, weighing 22 kilograms, and have been averaging $148 a head.

Spring-drop lambs are taken through to heavy-weight ex- port lambs specifications after shearing, and sold mostly through Thomas Food Inter-national at Tamworth.

They reach 30kg by 10 months of age.

Mr Mason said that age gap was the difference in profitability.

"Selling suckers so young, that's where the money is in the prime lamb industry - that's what all the top fellas do, and to make any money in this game you have to be near the top."

And the final rule - management - is what gets the lambs on the ground.

This means managing your stocking rate for a varying climate, making the best of pastures and eliminating weeds.

"The most important part of the profitability of prime lamb (production) is lambing percentage - the best way to make money is to get more lambs per ewe," Mr Mason said.

"We keep the ewes and ram in very good order all the time, I use 2.5pc of rams in (with the ewes) for about nine weeks - three cycles - and the day the rams come out we scan the ewes.

"That gets the earlier lambers out, and we scan again in six weeks to pick up late lambers."