FOR Ian and Noelene Cargill, taking over the family farm has also meant re-assessing where the best future returns would lie.
In the past six years, they have increased the lamb turn-off from the family’s Braidwood property, “Billaglen”, to about 1500 head a year.
“Billaglen” has been in the Cargill family since 1929 – and has always run some sheep.
But the lambs are now just as much a focus of the operation as their commercial cattle herd.
When Mr Cargill assumed management of the 607-hectare property from his parents David and Jean in 2005, one of his first orders of business was to increase lamb numbers.
And they have nearly doubled the number of lambs since, turning off 800 in 2005 to 1500 second-cross lambs this year.
Poll Dorset rams are used over first-cross ewes, mainly Merino/Border Leicester and some Merino/White Suffolk.
“My grandfather Thomas Cargill purchased this property in 1929 and built the house in 1932,” Mr Cargill said.
“Since then, there’s always been some form of sheep on “Billaglen” and it made sense to increase the lamb numbers when we took over.”
The prime lamb operation now occupies a joint focus for the Cargills, who also run 250 Angus cows on “Billaglen” in addition to 60 Angus cows on a 202ha block in Braidwood, and a further 100 Angus cows and 400 Merino ewes on a third 1619ha block, 25 kilometres west of Braidwood.
“We’ve had Angus on the property since the early 1950s, and we sold cattle at the first Blue Ribbon sale at Braidwood 53 years ago,” Mr Cargill said.
There are plans for the prime lamb operation to continue to grow as the Cargills are keen to increase their stocking capacity in coming years.
But for now, their priorities rest in maintaining successful returns after a few years of difficulty towards the end of the drought.
This year has been a good year, however, thanks to a better season – and a buoyant lamb market with it.
Just last week, they sold lambs at Goulburn to a top of $122.
“Looking at the lamb market at the moment, we were very happy to be making that sort of money,” he said.
Mr Cargill said a lot of input costs went in to producing a good lamb, so it was good to see encouraging prices being paid at the markets.
“We did miss out on those really high prices earlier in the year because of timing, but we are happy when we are averaging $120 or $130 for our lambs,” he said.
“Noelene and I remember when we were kids, when lambs would be $20 or $40, and then they later jumped to $80.
“Since those prices have jumped even more in the past couple of years, we realise we need to maximise on that, so we aim to meet the buyers’ specifications for prime lambs as best we can.”
He said they sold lambs to buyers like Southern Meats, mostly through Wagga Wagga or Goulburn.
Mrs Cargill said a big part of their management and marketing plan was to seek as much feedback from the trade and export buyers as possible.
“We want to talk to the people we supply as well as the feedlots to see exactly what they want in our lamb, and we try to meet their specifications as best we can,” she said.
When they sell through Southern Meats, they receive valuable feedback on specifications including weight range, fat and muscle scores.
Mr Cargill said their target market for their lambs – based largely upon that feedback – was for about 22 kilograms for the trade lamb market and above 24kg for the export markets.
He said they also aimed to produce quick maturing lambs, with good body shape and length for buyers.
They have received good feedback from buyers on these production aims.
While they seek to meet the buyers’ requirements, specifically in terms of weight range which they typically achieve, a big priority for the Cargills is building up their numbers.
“At the moment we are going through a growing phase, trying to build up our numbers – once you build your numbers you can get fussier,” he said.
“Once we get our numbers up we will cull accordingly and focus more on those specifications.”
The Cargills sourced their rams – about four or five each year – from the nearby Bobar Poll Dorset stud.
“Poll Dorsets are a good meaty sheep, and a seecond-cross they just work,” Mrs Cargill said.
Mr Cargill said he admired the Bobar rams and the studs’ nearby proximity was also a bonus.
“When we are purchasing rams each year, I’m looking for something that is the right shape, and those rams do very well,” he said
They aimed for an August/September lambing – this year they achieved a 140 per cent lambing.
Any lambs that were not sold were shorn in January and the Cargills aimed to sell them before winter.
Pasture management was important and superphosphate and fertiliser were applied every second year.
“My grandfather started a lot of pasture improvement and much of the improved pastures are still here which is good,” he said.
With hard work comes rewards but also plenty of challenges, as has been the case for the Cargills.
“One of the biggest challenges for us has obviously been the drought, but also the availability of stock at a price we can afford,” Mrs Cargill said.
She said when they wanted to build up numbers, they had to wait for the right prices to come along.
“We often buy replacement stock when it becomes available at a good price; we’re very opportunistic buyers,” she said.
“And there are plenty of challenges all the time.”
Yet their work was proving to have a positive impact and there were continued plans for growth in both the lamb and cattle operations – with plenty of help from the Cargill’s three daughters.
