WITH fewer drenches on the market and an increase in parasite resistance, more and more producers are looking at alternative ways to control parasites.
For several years wool producer Robert Kelly has been implementing various strategies to control parasites on his Guyra property, “Mt William”.
With a view to breeding productive sheep while maintaining a wool type that will fit the traditional Italian spinners market, Mr Kelly has also been very stringent on parasite resistance, considering it to be one of his major breeding objectives, and today runs a base flock of 1800 ewes with little to no parasite problems.
“We take a holistic approach and incorporate an integrated parasite management program with strategic drenching, breeding for resistance and rotational grazing,” he said.
“More producers really need to look at alternative ways of controlling parasites, particularly now with fewer drenches coming on the market and more resistance to these drenches.”
Mr Kelly runs his flock through an intense techno grazing system, which he said has dramatically impacted on parasite control.
Over the past five years his ewes have only had one short-acting, pre-lambing drench, despite above average rainfall on the property.
“It certainly reduces the parasites because (the sheep are) not eating the same area all the time; the paddock’s getting a spell and most parasites are dying off within that period of time,” he said.
“We also trade roughly 900 cattle, depending on the season, and they run through the system as well, so they help with parasite management.
“We place a high emphasis on worm resistance, which plays a big part in what we do – a mix of the breeding for resistance, the rotational grazing and the cattle. And worm testing as well.”
Mr Kelly runs 1800 commercial Merino ewes, joined to his own Merino rams, along with 400 cast-for-age (CFA) ewes which are joined to terminal sires.
In addition to breeding for parasite resistance, Mr Kelly aims to produce productive animals that can stand up and perform under the sometimes harsh climatic conditions of the New England region.
“We are looking to breed a low-maintenance sheep,” he said.
“Our sheep require – even in our area – very little drenching; they’re fairly resistant to flies, no adult sheep have any preventative chemicals applied to control body strike and they can grow productive wool at a decent micron (17) in the conditions under which I run them.
“I’m not after a big-framed sheep – if they’re too big a frame, once they wean a lamb we’ve only got a short window in which to get enough body fat back on them in order to join.
“With our moderately framed sheep we’ve still got the body of meat when the wethers and ewes are older, but they are not too big to have that extra maintenance requirement.”
Mr Kelly is now strictly non-mulesing, having ceased the practice six years ago.
He found, as he was already breeding a plainer-bodied sheep, the transition to non-mulesing did not take long.
“I decided to cease mulesing and see how it went for a couple of years,” he said.
“We’d been breeding for body-strike resistance for a number of years and we had been trying to breed a plainer-bodied sheep – we were finding the plainer-bodied sheep more productive anyway.
“Our breeding objectives took us down the path of a reasonably framed sheep that was plainer bodied and so the transfer over to non-mulesing didn’t take a lot of doing.”
Mr Kelly joins his ewes to his own sires, bred on farm, but also outsources at least one ram per year to benchmark his breeding program.
Only rams that have been measured with Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) are used.
Predominantly focused on wool production (with CFA ewes sold to restockers and the wethers to the mutton market), Mr Kelly markets his wool all year round.
“Mt William” wool is tested in Newcastle and generally sold either through the auction system or on Wool Trade.
“Wool Trade allows me to put a price on the wool, and if it reaches that reserve it is sold and if not I still have the alternative of putting it through the auction system,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly chooses to spread his sales out throughout the season to “diversify the risk” and last year grossed approximately $1200 per hectare for wool production (across the intense techno grazed areas of “Mt William”).
He said considering the economic situation overseas, the wool market is currently holding up reasonably well.
“If you look at the medium and broad wools, they’ve been trading fantastically right throughout the whole period,” he said.
“That finer edge is lagging behind a bit, but overall those medium and broad wools have been trading over the 50th percentile and they’ve even been up to the 100th percentile over the last 18 months.
“While it would be nice if it was an even trading throughout every year, we can’t expect prices to be at the 100th percentile annually.
“And if we can’t use last year’s profit for this year’s wool production then we seriously have to look at what we’re doing.”
