Community & Business
5 September, 2024
TPL hosts lamb info day
Farmers filled the lunch pavilion at the Gilgandra showground for the Tooraweenah Prime Livestock (TPL) Producer Information Day last week.
Peter Bonham, who attended, commented that “to keep up with technology [in our industry] you need events like this.” He added, “It’s good to get like-minded people together too… to share ideas and get away for the day.”
Held on Thursday, August 29, the day featured three guest speakers and a producers' Q&A panel as main events, as well as a catered lunch and morning tea. Geoff Duddy of Sheep Solutions spoke first on the importance of lamb genetics and the market specifications of lambs, such as scoring. He also cautioned producers on relying solely on good genetics, saying, “Nutrition is still 70 per cent of what comes off of the farm… good genetics means nothing if you don’t have good feed.”
Dr. Jillian Kelly of AHM Consulting spoke next on pastures and animal nutrition. “The worst decision you can make in farming is no decision,” Dr. Kelly said. “It’s just waiting for something to change. When you trade in cattle, you need a plan big or small; [it’s] the same in lambs.” Dr. Kelly drew on 20 years of experience in animal nutrition to present the importance of properly covering an animal's dietary needs at all stages of its growth, from different feed types by climate zone to the kinds of supplements needed to keep a lamb growing as needed. She also made special note of the typical feed gap periods – when there is more stock than feed on a farm – throughout the year, typically in the hotter summer months.
After lunch, three TPL member producers, Jack Bradley, JB Tancred, and Matt Howard, were invited forward to speak on their methods to the audience. Questions included what kind of farms they ran, their procedures for feeding lambs, and the most vital lessons they thought they could share.
James Ingrey spoke last, focusing on how to finish – to get ready for sale and slaughter – a lamb. Towards this, his main focus was on proper pasture mixes: what to grow, when to grow it, and why not to grow its alternatives. He talked about the difference between oats, barley, and wheat as feed crops, including the nutritional value of each and typical sheep preferences. “If you want to go with oats or barley, grow wheat,” he said. “Sheep will suck the tar off a road before they ever eat oats.”
The information day was capped by Max Laurie from Optiweigh regarding their new mobile sheep weighing platform. Max broadly covered changes coming to the sheep and other ruminant farming sectors through technologies like Optiweigh, making new methods available and streamlining parts of the industry.
TPL’s Amanda Cruickshank said the event was a really successful day with lots of people attending from all different areas. “A lot of feedback we got was positive: people understood what [our speakers] were saying on the day, which was what we set out to do. And the quality of our speakers was a drawcard: they are industry experts who are incredible voices within the industry,” she said.
