SHELBOURNE wool grower Kieran Flood says it has been a tough year in central Victoria, but his genetics have stood up.
“We had a wet summer and the sheep didn’t like the long grass,” he said.
But after shearing earlier in the year, some of the top lots fetched 1179 cents a kilogram greasy.
“It’s the best price we’ve ever had,” Mr Flood said.
Mr Flood, who runs 1600 Merino ewes with his wife Terrie and four children, has been shearing before lambing in April for the past 10 years.
“The idea behind that is the ewes tend to hold their condition better,” he said.
“It takes more energy to maintain a full fleece than it does to rear a lamb.”
But the drawbacks include grass seed and fly management.
“You get a high vegetable matter, but I reckon it’s a pretty good trade-off,” he said.
This year’s ewe wool clip averaged 6.5kg or $60 a head.
“The other thing about this year’s wool is that it was white,” he said. “Because of the rain, some of the other clips in the area were slightly off-colour, so I’m hoping it’s the breeding that’s helped.”
Mr Flood selects rams from Hamilton Sheepvention and the Australian Sheep & Wool Show at Bendigo.
The most recent addition has been rams from the Kerrilyn Merino Stud, Dunluce.
“I prefer bigger, plainer-bodied animals,” he said. “As a result you get lambs that mature quickly.”
The past three years, the family have been using a feedlot to fatten wethers and lambs, which are sold at market or over-the-hooks.
“We had a few bad seasons, so the feedlot really helped and grain was cheap too,” he said.
Pastures include a mixture of clover, ryegrass and phalaris, while Mr Flood has also been testing chicken manure as fertiliser with good results.
A total of 80 hectares of oats and barley is grown for hay and grain to feed the flock through summer.
“The crops help with input costs and cleans the paddocks up, so we can sow fresh pasture,” he said.
“We have also resown some areas back to dryland lucerne, which the ewes and lambs love. It’s been a magnificent feed source.”
Before joining his Merino ewes in December, Mr Flood says he puts his ewes on the best feed available.
“You need to make sure the ewes are on a rising plain of nutrition, so they have a better chance of lambing,” he said.
The nutritional efforts appear to have paid off.
“We scan in February split into multiples, singles and dries,” Mr Flood said.
“The ewes scan better than 100 per cent, but we always lose a couple after lambing.”
As a side-line business to the wool operation, the family joins 900 Merino ewes to Border Leicester rams for the first-cross market.
“I only leave the rams in for seven weeks, and then I have been putting in Dorset rams,” he said.
“It is more profitable to have an even line-up of Merinos, instead of the later lambs.”
The Dorset-cross lambs are placed in the feedlot, while the first-crosses are sold locally and fetch attractive prices.
“I sold 270 ewes in Bendigo, which made to $161 and averaged $155,” he said.
“I was rapt with the price, especially because they showed signs of a tough winter.”
Mr Flood said retaining a Merino ewe base through the drought had allowed him to diversify into different markets, as well as capitalise on the current wool revival.
Email a friend