Sheep handler forms part of long-term drought plan

Graeme Ross, along with his son Simon, run about 2000 breeding ewes on the 809-hectare property.

They showcased their handler as part of a MerinoLink field day recently.

Mr Ross said they bought the handler about five years ago to form part of their drought management plan.

Their stock had electronic identification tags to allow them to easily identify the poorer performers, he said.

If the season began to dry off, they were able to progressively cull the bottom tiers and retain the better animals before going to supplementary feed, Mr Ross said.

Any time a cull animal was identified, it was scanned with a stick reader and added to the cull list even if a physical draft had not occurred.

The animal would then be automatically identified the next time it came through the handler, he said.

They also recorded whether ewes had raised singles or twins over the years to work out the profitability of each animal.

As well as being used to manage drought, the handler had also saved significant amounts of time, and therefore money, he said.

"One person can crutch 1000 sheep in a day without getting sore wrists, hands or back," he said.

"We do all our own crutching now."

Crutching was carried out twice a year with about 6000 head each time.

Mr Ross estimated this had saved the business up to $15,000 a year by eliminating the need for contractors.

He said they could comfortably weigh about 400 sheep an hour, although they could get through more if they needed to work faster.

Mr Ross said they had looked at a couple of different handlers before deciding to go with the Te Pari model.

Like a lot of the different models, the Te Pari handler was on wheels to allow it to be set up at various yards on the property.

Mr Ross said they had since invested in upgrading their main yards, including building a shed. The new design had made a difference in how quickly the sheep would travel through.

"I think you've got to have a system that flows," he said.

One of the downsides was that the machine was not setup to ring wethers, he said.

There were also occasionally glitches with the tag reader, which was part of a Te Pari subscription.

Mr Ross said this continually improved each time a program update was carried out.