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.