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.
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