Making hay as sun shines

"They'll go back through the lamb feeders or feeding out to ewes in the paddocks," Mr Hodges said.

The couple only crop 200 hectares of Bimble oats, but concentrate on continually upgrading their pasture paddocks based mainly on a phalaris and clover mix on their three-property aggregation of 2230 hectares centred on "Avoca", Baldry.

Mr Hodges said he didn't do a lot of cropping but concentrated on grazing oats.

"I try to have them sown late February or early March, depending on season," he said.

"We let it grow and then graze it until mid-August and after working out how much grain we require to fill our silos, we'll lock up the number of paddocks required."

This year the Hodges will harvest about 140ha and cut the remainder for hay.

"If I can get a tonne of grain to the acre (2.5t/ha) I'm happy because I've made my money off the grazing," he said.

"The grain's a bonus.

"If the crop totally fails I haven't lost because I've had all the grazing off it."

Mr Hodges said he was looking at buying some wheat for his lambs using self-feeders.

"I reckon lambs do better on wheat than barley; I think it's better protein," he said.

For most farm work on the three properties, Mr Hodges relies on contractors.

"As I'm a one-man operation in the paddock most of my work is done by contract now," he said.

"Sowing, marking, mulesing, shearing, crutching, fencing and haymaking - it saves on machinery infrastructure.

"My contractors are very good; most have been working here for 20 years or more.

"I don't mind paying if I get the right contractors who come back every year.

"It works for me."

A nearby nephew looks after all the cropping with the Bimble oats sown by a John Deere disc machine at 17 centimetre spacings of seed at 80 kilograms per hectare with 100kg/ha of mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) or di-ammonium phosphate (DAP).

"This spacing allows for no wasted space between plants and gives plenty of ground cover," Mr Hodges said.

Pasture paddocks are of phalaris and clover with some areas of lucerne in the mix.

"I have four paddocks with reasonable stands of lucerne on which I try to finish crossbred lambs or bulk up to cut for hay when I can," he said.

"These days I have clover/phalaris mixed with cocksfoot and other pastures.

"I find phalaris loves the lighter country and grows very well on it."

Each year Mr Hodges tries to cut 1000 to 1500 round bales from his pasture paddocks.

"I have paddocks locked up now for haymaking this year if the season goes with me," he said.

Last year 1000 bales were made with 800 already fed out so far this year.

"But I still have 3000 round bales on hand at the moment," he said.

"Ideally I like to fill all my silos and have 3000 to 4000 round bales of hay on hand at the end of the season.

"Then I know I can feed for over 12 months if I have to."

The Hodges were running 11,000 sheep in August.

They keep their breeding ewe numbers up to 4500 in a 50/50 self-replacing Merino flock with half joined to GullenGamble Merino rams and half to Gillmore Poll Dorset rams.

"I don't run any crossbred ewes so I get wool cut, which returns me about $50 worth of 19- to 20-micron wool off each ewe and a lamb every six months," Mr Hodges said.

They have seven mobs which are joined every six months and ewes with lambs at foot are rejoined as the lambs drop.