Priceless information about their lambs

The main property is one of five in the group which all combine to maximize livestock production according to their location and soil types.

The three breeding properties comprising 3300ha are Fairview, Glenroy near Binalong and managed by Georgie Constance and The Lagoons near Binalong managed by Matt Parker, while the fattening properties, each of 485ha are Mingay, near Coolac, managed by Henry Knight-Gregson and Glendaloch, Borambola, managed by Paul Julian are close to Gundagai where the terminal lambs are processed by Gundagai Lamb.

On the breeding properties 12,000 Composite ewes are run. Mature ewes are joined to Cloven Hills, Primeline and The Willows genetics which forms the base of the self-replacing flock. Maidens are joined to Suffolk genetics sourced from The Willows. The third breeding farm Fairview joins all the ewes to terminals, utilising both Suffolk and Dorset genetics selected for their growth and eating quality traits. Around 12,000 lambs comprising composite wether lambs and terminal sired lambs are finished on the irrigated fattening properties.

On Glenroy and The Lagoons, the Composite ewes are joined in self-replacing flocks with Primeline and Cloven Hill sires being used at Glenroy, and a Primeline base being joined to The Willows sires at The Lagoons, while the ewes on Fairview are joined to terminal sires.

Mr Hewlett said the focus on using the Primeline genetics was simply a matter of breeding as many lambs as was possible, from a ewe who can perform under pressure.

"Fertility, doability, and fast growth are the main profit drivers for us," he said.

"We are chasing early growth and fertility primarily through the Composite genetics. And with our maiden program and our terminal program here we are chasing high growth and very good eating quality."

Attention to those breeding and management principles saw the Old Bundemar group awarded the Producer of the year by local processor Gundagai Lamb, in their inaugural producer event.

Sited in proximity to major prime lamb producing areas in southern NSW, Gundagai Lamb has a mission to provide their clients with priceless information about their lambs. The brand's focus is on increasing the proportion of lambs with a higher percentage of intramuscular fat and the perfect balance of lean meat yield.

Gundagai Lamb CEO Will Barton said his company wanted to recognise and support the lamb producers who are doing their utmost to breed lambs which are attractive to the consumer.

"We're in the business to help people eat better, cleaner and fairer," Mr Barton said.

"Our vision is to establish Gundagai Lamb as the highest quality and most trusted source of lamb, certified by a world-first eating quality guarantee, the new industry standard.

"The result creates an exceptional eating experience; a rich and mouth watering cut of marbled lamb, guaranteed to be of the highest quality, setting a new world standard in the lamb industry."

Mr Hewlett said their participation in the Gundagai Lamb producer event was verification of the genetic and management direction taken within the Old Bundemar aggregation.

But it was a matter of 'proximity' where the processor is close to the company's fattening properties, that meant Gundagai was the preferred processor.

"Typically at weaning there will be a small percentage of lambs that will be finished on the breeding farms, and they go straight to the processor," he said. "The rest are trucked to the two fattening farms, but transport costs, especially in the past twelve months have become critical in reducing our margins.

"This past selling season when Gundagai Lamb brought out the grid paying on eating quality, we basically wanted to test our genetics through the growing season."

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Mr Hewlett said the grid was a great opportunity to see if his feeding and management regime across the group was producing the aimed-for results.

"The transparency of the kill data and the information we got back has been second to none," he said.

"Combined with eating quality, the data regarding animal health issues has allowed us to tighten up practices at lamb marking such as where the vaccinations are made on the lamb."

Mr Hewlett was 'a bit surprised' by the recognition of 'Producer of the Year'.

"The information we were trying to garner from sending lambs to Gundagai was identifying trends based on the type of feed for a certain period of time, and how age affects the quality of the product." he said.

"We did get some very good data on the different genetics we have been using, and that was what we were looking for," he said.

"Now we will focus on whether certain crosses are going to give us better eating quality.

"We really want to produce a good eating quality, high growing lamb that can be finished on grass."

When Gundagai Lamb initiated the program, Mr Hewlett thought it would assist in the development of the lamb breeding and finishing program.

"It fitted with what we wanted to do," he said. "And from the program, we have a better understanding about what our genetics can do in meeting our goals, and now we can 'fine-tune' our operation."