A remarkable seasonal turnaround in western NSW is seeing high lamb marking rates that are helping graziers recoup their losses after the long drought.
For the Turners at Polpah near White Cliffs, good rains have kept falling since last November. With Suffolk, Dorper and Merino cross ewes they are recording marking rates at 60-70 per cent, that has Barry Turner very pleased.
"These are excellent conditions for lambing," he said.
The steady rain over this year has brought pasture growth not seen for decades. While producing unwanted problems such as weed growth, especially with the invasive American Noogoora burr along creeks, the booming growth will see lambs fattening very quickly.
Mr Turner said the lambs will fatten on native grasses that includes copper burr, spinach, bladder saltbush and other native annuals.
"In an average season we send them to the abattoirs when they have reached 18-22 kilograms, which is normally in October.
"If it's a dry season and they don't come up to scratch we'll put them into the saleyards."
Scanning rates have been down in some western areas prior to the bulk of the rain, but recently they've noticed a 100 per cent upsurge in scanning rates across the Far West "which looked quite good", according to Western Local Land Services (LLS) livestock team leader Gemma Turnbull.
Gemma Turnbull said any ewes, Dorper and Merino, joined in October last year through to January this year, before the bigger rain, saw scanning rates at a very poor 30 per cent. "Anything now joined in February to April is coming back at scanning rates of 130 per cent," she said. Maiden ewe scanning rates were above average as well.
This would see a good rise in sheep numbers in the Far West. Many station holders in pockets that had missed rain earlier were now bringing their sheep back from agistment to home after fill-in rain, including Matt Jackson near Broken Hill.
It's a slightly different story though in central and northern sheep areas as graziers battle outbreaks of barber's pole and black scour worms because of the persistent wet weather, a threat to lambing ewes .
Disturbingly, vets have reported some resistance to worm drenches in some flocks. The worm issue has affected growth and production in areas north of Dubbo, with humid wet weather and mild nights creating perfect conditions for worm outbreaks.
Central West LLS district veterinarian Dr Jillian Kelly said paying for a worm count would be the best money sheep producers would spend this year. Some fecal worm counts had been alarming - approaching tens of thousands, when the level to intervene with a drench was normally about a 500 count in fecal matter.
Some producers had lost 50 sheep in a day to worm infestations - most likely barber's pole worms during summer. The danger now was for black scour worms in winter. Producers have been battling the worm outbreak for at least a year since the wet weather set in.
Unless graziers got on top of the worm issue now, they would suffer again in spring when the worm larvae re-emerged. It would not take long for pastures to be infected with barber's pole worms having a reproduction rate of 10,000 eggs a day. Strategic grazing and regular worm counts were essential to stay on top of the problem, Dr Kelly said. The milder autumn nights had only added to the problem.
It was also important to know which species of worm had infected sheep. It might be advised for some graziers to trial drenches on weaner ewes that had mild infections to see what worked for them. The differences could be stark even between neighbouring farms in how to approach the worm problem and with which drenches.
Barbervax was an alternative to drenches to control barber's pole worm. Dr Kelly sad any producers relying on old drenches could be in trouble as they had seen resistance to some worm drenches.
Scanning rates were a little lower this year in areas around Coonamble.
Hartin Schute Bell stock and station agent Jason Hartin said the worm problem in sheep in the central-west was quite large. Ewes were also walking away from lambs as they tried to escape the wet. A lack of dry material in the paddock was not helping the issue.
Armatree grazier Jenny Bradley though said they had avoided worm issues by strategic grazing. They have locked up paddocks at New Armatree Border Leicesters, ready for lambing, with an exceptional season ready to produce as good a lambing season as 2020. Scanning rates there were at 158 per cent. The Bradleys fed for production, not survival, during the drought in containment paddocks and this had seen them hit the ground running after the drought broke.
John Ellicott
journalist and author
journalist and author
