New on-farm technology for sheep producers

Page last updated: Monday, 29 July 2019 - 4:08pm

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The new on-farm technology activity was part of the Sheep Industry Business Innovation project and completed a series of case studies on sheep producers who have successfully integrated technology, including labour-saving devices into their sheep enterprise. Producers were targeted that were achieving real savings in labour and had either maintained their sheep flock or had increased their numbers.

Introduction

On–farm labour has been identified as a key constraint in the expansion of the West Australian sheep flock. Whilst there are a range of labour saving tools and technology systems on the market, information is required on how best to integrate these into a sheep enterprise, and which products are most suitable to specific sheep enterprises. Specific case studies are available to the right. 

When determining the benefits of any technology, an acceptable pay-back period should be determined prior to investing in any new technologies. However, it is also important to consider other benefits that are difficult to value such as ‘peace of mind’ and reduction in error.

The below video discusses 5 key technologies sheep producers can introduce into their sheep enterprise to optimise management practices by increasing the number of sheep run per labour unit and improving efficiency and productivity.

Remote cameras on tanks and troughs save time, money and sanity

Chris Patmore farms in Eneabba in the northern wheatbelt of Western Australia (WA). He farms at five separate locations covering 10 000 hectares (ha), within four shires. The property is a 100% sheep operation comprising 4000 merino ewes, a Border Leiceister stud and a Poll Dorset stud. For the past five years, Chris has been using remote cameras positioned on water troughs to remotely monitor his stock water. Previously, he would need to drive 300–400 kilometres (km) every three days in summer to do a bore run and physically check each trough. This was expensive both in terms of labour and vehicle costs.

Remote cameras were installed at troughs where sheep had access to for water requirements. This allows Chris to regularly check the trough from home to ensure the supply and quality of water is good and there are no problems. The cameras can easily be shifted between star pickets when the sheep are shifted.

The cameras cost approximately $1500 each. Over a 10 year period, for every dollar invested in the remote cameras, there has been a saving of $5.30 in labour and vehicle costs. The payback period for the investment is two years.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Laneways lead to labour efficiency

Andrew Slade farms in Mount Barker with his wife Nicole and other family members. Their property covers 5000ha and the farm business comprises 6500 breeding ewes for prime lamb production, 700 cattle and 2500ha of crop. The annual rainfall is typically 500 millimetres (mm) but in 2016 they received 650mm for the winter and up to 800mm for the whole year.

Beginning 20 years ago, a 40km laneway network was constructed through the property. This has halved the amount of time checking sheep, feeding sheep and moving equipment around.

The laneways cost $8000/km to construct including fencing, grading, gravel sheeting and culverts for all-weather access. Across the farm, the total cost was $320 000. Over a 50 year life of the laneways, for every dollar invested there is a return of $2.60. The payback period for the investment is seven years.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Automated jetting race increases flystrike prevention and decreases labour costs

The Slade family has also invested in an automated jetting race for flystrike control. Previously, the Slades were applying preventative treatment for flystrike control using fire-fighting equipment, which was a time consuming and labour intensive process.

This investment allows an improved application of chemical, providing savings in chemical use as well as time, as ewes and lambs don’t need to be drafted separately. They can jet between 1000–1500 sheep per hour.

The automated jetting race cost $14 000 to purchase. Over a 10 year period, for every dollar invested there has been a saving of $4.10 in labour and chemical costs. The payback period for the investment is two years.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Sheep handler efficiencies affected by flock size

Scott Newbey farms in Broomehill with his wife Bec, brother Wayne and Wayne’s partner Abbey. Their farm business is spread over 2500ha and 80% is cropped and 20% are winter grazed pastures. They run 1500 merino and composite ewes, manage a Suffolk stud and combined with replacements shear approximately 3500 sheep each year. Scott was interested in trialling a sheep handler to discover how physically and economically beneficial the technology could be to their sheep enterprise.

The sheep handler was used for a range of tasks including weaning, crutching and drafting crossbred lambs, backlining ewes, drenching ewes and vaccinating ewes. The key outcome was that it would take an increased ewe flock size to make the investment financially viable.

Over a 10 year investment period, a $17 000 sheep handler including load bars and an indicator for weighing, would leave the Newbeys $6600 out of pocket (or return $0.60 for each dollar invested). However, increasing the flock size to 2500 ewes would see the potential investment break even and beyond this help the Newbeys to make a return.

Other benefits that were noted but not incorporated into the economics were the reduced physical toll on the operator’s body, less back pain and better animal welfare with a reduced risk of trampling in a race.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Using Pedigree Matchmaker for ewes and lambs cuts labour costs

Thomas, Bruce and Trudy Pengilly farm 4000 hectares at Cascades, 100km north west of Esperance. They run a mixed–enterprise farming operation with 60% of the farm cropped and the balance carrying a 1600 ewe poll merino flock including a 500 ewe stud.

Previously, they would determine maternal pedigree in their stud flock by drafting off the ewes and lambs, then place each lamb in with the ewes to see who they were mothering up with. Each mob of 100 stud ewes would take 11.5 hours of labour or around seven minutes per lamb. The total cost to do the mothering up for all the stud ewes and lambs was around $1860 in labour (41 hours).

To reduce the labour cost associated with mothering up, the Pengillys invested in a Pedigree Matchmaker. It cost $3345 to purchase. With the system expected to last 10 years, the Pedigree matchmaker had a net present value (net benefits minus costs) of $8300. For each dollar invested, it resulted in a saving of around $3.20 in labour over its life. The payback period was three years.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Electronic identification improves data accuracy and flock productivity

Clayton South and his partner Polly runs a mixed cropping and livestock farm 30 kilometers east of Wagin.

The property is 4000 hectares, with 65% to 70% dedicated to cropping, and the remainder to livestock. Implementing Electronic Identification (EID) for the mating of six and a half thousand adult ewes annually, as well as a thousand ewe lambs, means the South’s have the ability to find out which animals are performing best by recording weight and growth rate while still continuing with normal husbandry operations.

From the South’s investment of $34 500 they were getting a return of about ninety two thousand dollars over 10 years, with a payback period of six years.

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Data management software and electronic identification saves labour and improves stud data recording

Peter and Rochell Walker farm 6500ha at Newdegate in the Lakes region of WA. They run a mixed farming operation with around 4000ha cropped each year, 3500 merino ewes in a commercial flock and two stud sheep flocks, Suffolk and white Suffolk, with 200 ewes in each. The stud flocks capture Australian sheep breeding values (ASBVs) to improve their performance.

By investing in electronic identification and using it to determine lineage (pedigree matchmaker), recording weights and muscle scanning data on the sheep (using a Gallagher EID wand and weigh head) and then using a program to put it all together (Sapien Koolcollect and Koolperform) they managed to dramatically reduce the cost to run the stud saving over 340 hours of time in the process. Overall the investment of $11,000 is on track to save $118,000 over ten years with every dollar invested returning $11 in savings. It is an investment worth making and has freed up time during one of the busiest times of the year.

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Large flock electronic identification leads to a 10-fold return on investment

Wayne and Jody Pech, together with Wayne’s parents, Ken and Judith, manage ‘North Stirling Downs’, a 13 300 ha property in the shires of Gnowangerup, Cranbrook and Broomehill - Tambellup. Around 50% of the property is cropped with cereals/canola and the other 50% is used for running sheep. Approximately 17 000 merino ewes are mated annually with approximately 70% mated to merinos and 30% mated to suffolks. Wayne has bred his own rams for the last 15 years using a nucleus flock of 330 merino ewes and a nucleus flock of 137 suffolk ewes.

The Pech family have invested in electronic identification (EID) in their sheep flock and since 2015 and have been applying electronic eartags to the merino ewe lambs in both their commercial and nucleus flocks. They have also purchased a 3-way autodrafter, a touch–screen indicator (TSI) and a stick reader. They are collecting data on their sheep using EID at several points in their nucleus and commercial flocks. This includes body weight, pregnancy scanning data, eye muscle depth, worm egg counts and fleece weights.

The net present value (NPV) for Wayne and Jody introducing EID into their sheep enterprise is $163 000. This has a benefit cost ratio of 10.6, meaning that for every $1 invested, there is a $10.60 return. It will take five years to pay back the initial cost of the investment.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Individual weight-based dosing with drench, vaccine and backline makes fast savings

Scott Newbey farms in Broomehill with his wife Bec, brother Wayne and Wayne’s partner Abbey. Their farm business is spread over 2500ha and 80% is cropped and 20% are winter grazed pastures. They run 1500 Merino and composite ewes, manage a Suffolk stud and combined with replacements shear approximately 3500 sheep each year.

Scott trialled an applicator which is used for backline, drench or vaccine animal health products. The applicator calculates the optimal dose for each animal depending on their individual body weight. It communicates with a set of scales via an Android device to work out the dosage depending on the weight and dose rate required.

When using expensive animal health products the net present value is $26,390. The benefit cost ratio is 25.8, meaning that for every $1 invested there is a $25.80 return. The payback period is one year.

 

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Sheep handler use leads to less product waste, better operator health

Emily Stretch farms in south-west Kojonup with her father Digby and mother Nikki. Their farm has a total area of 3500ha and covers three properties. They run between 10 000 – 12 000 Merino sheep per year.

Using a sheep handler reduced the physical demands of working with sheep and increased the precision of animal health treatments such as vaccinating and drenching. There was also a benefit in completing multiple husbandry tasks in one pass.

It was difficult to quantify the benefits of the sheep handler in economic terms. There were numerous benefits that were documented such as improved occupational health and safety, reduced fatigue and increased operator comfort.

For more information see the case study on the right side of the page.

Returns drive investment into electronic identification and Australian Sheep Breeding Values

Jessica Horstman, Chris Hasleby and Pam Hasleby manage Mulga Springs poll merino stud. The property is located in the shire of Northampton in the northern agricultural region of WA. Approximately 4500 sheep are managed on the property, including 2800 commercial ewes as well as a 600-ewe poll merino stud.

Mulga Springs have invested in electronic identification equipment to improve efficiency of data collection as well as adopting Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) and providing ASBV data on their sale rams.

At this early stage, the family are just starting out and the challenge remains to get a return out of the investment. This analysis showed that the stud only needed to generate an additional seven ram sales a year or increase the average ram price by $35 (or achieve a combination of the two), to break even on their investment.

For more information, see the case study on the right side of the page.

Using maternal pedigree to calculate the number of lambs reared and ewe profitability

Clayton South along with his family and staff manage a 4900 hectare property north – east of Wagin. Approximately 60 - 70% of the farm is cropped annually and the balance is used for 6500 Dohne ewes in both a self-replacing and terminal flock.

Through use of pregnancy scanning and electronic identification, Clayton could identify how the ewes scanned over time but not how many lambs were reared through to weaning. Clayton wanted to know the repeatability of ewes that could rear a lamb to weaning. Further, Clayton also wanted to know the profitability of each ewe, based on how many kilograms of lamb she weaned and how many kilograms of wool she grew on an annual basis. Proximity collars, using Bluetooth technology, were placed on a mob of 900 ewes and 1150 lambs for 1 – 2 days to determine maternal pedigree based on the proximity of each lamb to its dam.

The gradual benefits of increasing the number of lambs weaned and the twinning ewe’s performance was not enough to justify the investment into the proximity collars. However, the proximity collars that were used as the basis for the costings were only new to the market in 2018 and as the cost comes down it is expected to become profitable in the future.

For more information, see the case study on the right side of the page.

Using an on-farm WiFi network improves data collection and decision making

Darrin Lee manages ‘Bligh Lee Farms’ near Mingenew, Western Australia. Bligh Lee Farms has been progressively adopting new technology since 2012. This includes weather stations, rain gauges, moisture probes across all soil types, security cameras and tank monitors. Darrin has installed a WiFi network across the whole farm in 2016 consisting of a server with two 20-metre towers.

The value proposition of Bligh Lee Farms around technology is to maximise profit, minimise expense, save time and improve management. Key benefits include simplified data entry, reduced time to monitor tanks and stock water, improved crop decision making and peace of mind. Costs include the $50 000 to purchase two towers, a server, modem, sensors plus the ongoing maintenance and internet access costs.

The net present value (NPV) for Darrin was $340 000 over a ten year period. The investment into the WiFi network had a benefit cost ratio of (BCR) of 7.9, meaning that for every $1 invested, there is a $7.90 return. It will take one year to pay back the initial cost of the investment.

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Author

John Collins

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