WHITE Suffolk-cross lambs are finishing quickly and helping woolgrowers and lamb producers Craig and Kate Smith boost numbers at Innesvale, Oaklands.
The Smiths and their children Georgie, 12, Ella, 10, Sophie, 8, and Tom, 5, have a large cropping program on the 2650-hectare property, which is run alongside about 2000 sheep, mostly Caroonboon-blood Merinos.
They also have a second-cross lamb operation, using White Suffolks as the terminal sire.
Numbers are down as many of their crossbred ewes were sold during the drought in 2018 and 2019.
This year the Smiths joined about 1500 ewes, but they're planning to rebuilding the flock to around 2000.
The family had had a secondary lamb operation for many years, originally using Dorper genetics.
"Instead of joining cast-for-age ewes to a White Suffolk or Poll Dorset we joined our maiden Merinos ewes to a Dorper," Mr Smith said.
While the Dorpers had exceptional fertility rates - up to 124pc marking to joined maiden ewes - they didn't fit into overall program, with no skin value and the impact on wool prices.
"In some years it doesn't make much difference, but declaring a shedding breed runs on the place, particularly with maiden ewes that have the finer wool and the best yielding types, it was a penalty of 50 to 100 cents a kilogram (greasy) with our wool," Mr Smith said.
"Because we originally had heavy-skinned, finer Merinos, they were good wool cutting animals but not the best with reproduction and lamb survival.
"We've gone to a bigger, plain-bodied Poll Merino, and we are going to try to put a bit more skin back on them now to cut a fraction more wool.
"In 2019 and 2020 we joined the maiden ewes back to Merinos because the fertility has improved over the past 10 to 12 years but were still only getting around 85 per cent marked lambs to ewes joined."
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Before selling many of the crossbred sheep during the drought, Mr Smith was using genetics from Paul Routley's Almondvale stud at Urana.
"I was getting some very good lambs, so with this last joining we picked some finer-bodied, long, stretchy White Suffolk rams to go over the maiden Merino ewes, and this year we've marked right on 100pc to joined.
"There's definitely some more vigour in the lambs, but they're still behind the main line of self-replacing Merinos at 118pc marked to joined.
"Because we had been using Paul's rams with the first-cross years ago, we thought we'd go back into the White Suffolks because they're good lambs."
I was getting some very good lambs, so with this last joining we picked some finer-bodied, long, stretchy White Suffolk rams to go over the maiden Merino ewes, and this year we've marked right on 100pc to joined. There's definitely some more vigour in the lambs.
- Craig Smith, Innesvale, Oaklands
Mr Smith is about to wean the crossbreds, and any lambs weighing more than 48kg - potentially 50pc to 60pc of the drop - will be offloaded and sold through saleyards at Wagga Wagga or Corowa.
"They're March and April-drop lambs and we target around 25kg dressed," he said.
"We're focused on the sucker market because there's not a lot of work to that point and with the prices at the moment it's an easy decision to sell them.
"They're in grazing crops at the moment, then we'll lock those paddocks up and take them through to harvest.
"The cropping gives the pasture a spell and lifts our stocking rate."
Grazing canola - Clearfield variety 45Y91 and Wedgetail wheat work well alongside the predominantly sub clover and ryegrass based pastures.
The Smiths also have good on-farm storage for barley, wheat and hay.
"The last couple of paddocks have been Mintaro and Campeda sub clovers, and we've also sown Tetila and GrassMax ryegrass, and that spreads out our feed through autumn, winter and spring," Mr Smith said.
"We're constantly doing pasture improvement in rotation with the cropping country, and we've got some irrigation so generally there's one paddock of irrigatable sub clover and ryegrass that we get the ewes on early for lambing, and then cut for hay in the spring."
Mr Smith plans to continue using White Suffolks in a second-cross production, as he builds numbers in his first-cross ewe flock.
"Having just White Suffolks keeps it streamlined and simple, and there's no contamination with a shedding breed."