Lambing in southwest Victoria in 2024

Sue and Bugs Maconachie

Sue and Ian (Bugs) Maconachie run a sheep and cropping farm at Ballyrogan, 23 km southeast of Ararat. They run a 50:50 sheep and cropping operation. The sheep enterprise is a self-replacing Bond Corriedale flock, with half joined to White Suffolk rams for terminal lamb production. In 2024 they joined 1800 ewes and 400 ewe lambs.

Crops are red wheat, beans and canola.

The season

The long-term average rainfall for Ararat is approximately 500 mm. In 2024 the rainfall was 350 mm but 75 mm of this fell in January then another lot in December, so the growing season rainfall was much lower (i.e. 200 mm). The January rain meant there was green feed for ewes at joining which led to a phenomenal scanning percentage. 62% of ewes were scanned with multiples; 3.5% dry and the rest singles.

Ewe lambs were scanned for wet and dry with 85% scanned in lamb. So, like most sheep farmers in the southwest (and elsewhere) they started the season with heaps more lambs than usual in utero, but very poor follow up rain to produce pasture for pregnancy and lambing.

The main ewes start lambing on 21 May and the ewe lambs on 20 August.

Farm view

Managing pregnancy to weaning

Due to the lack of follow up rain from January and a late and disappointing autumn break, Ian and Sue fed through most of mid pregnancy to current (March 2025). The grazing crops however meant they did not have to use containment areas over pregnancy as they did provide some feed and ground cover. Ewes went on grazing canola and wheat over lambing and then to pastures and back to crops.

They fed out home grown beans (and hay) through lambing. The ewes were trail fed 3 times/week (plus ad lib hay) and usually later in the day. They found the ewes were not hungry so any that were lambing stayed with their lambs rather than rush to the grain.

They also feel the ewes do better with trail feeding than self feeders when there is some dry pasture. They would not usually feed through lambing but found a system that worked, and the lambs did really well.

The weather over lambing was dry with no bad weather events so lamb survival was exceptional (marked 160% across the flock). The hay they fed was self grown wheat hay, which they tested and were surprised at how good it was (Crude Protein of 8.1% and Dry Matter Digestibility of 65% so approximately 9 megajoules of energy/kg).

Sue and Bugs would have liked to have kept the ewes and lambs on the crops for longer, but the season meant otherwise. Lambs were weaned early off the crops – the youngest lambs were only about 7 weeks and ranged up to 13 weeks of age.

They then made the decision to sell 1000 of the smaller lambs (25-32 kgLWt) on AuctionsPlus. These lambs made $132/head which provided cash flow and income. It also freed up paddocks and feed for the rest of the lambs. and returned the flock to their usual number of lambs.

Retaining these additional lambs would also have used a lot of grain, hay and labour to get them up to the 25 kg carcase weight (CWt) that the rest of the first cross lambs were sold at. A rough estimate would be that it would take about 152 kg of grain to get a 25 kg lamb to 53 kg LWt plus all the other associated labour, selling, health costs etc to do this.

The rest of the lambs were weaned onto feeders with beans and oats plus hay. 1500 lambs were on 4 feeders which did really well. 500 first cross lambs were sold over the hooks in November and 1000 in January at carcase weights of up to 25 kg. Good prices for lambs over this period meant good returns.

The ewes have recovered from the high lambing rates. They have been fed constantly since at least mid-pregnancy but the grazing crops and early weaning have paid off. The ewe lambs needed a huge amount of feed to get through and so in hindsight they would not have joined them.

Ewes have recovered well – late March 2025

Crops

Yields were down but they grew enough beans to feed the sheep and sold some wheat and canola. They harvested frost affected wheat with yields of 2-3.5 t/ha but had some up to 6 t/ha.

Water

All water is supplied by dams as bore water is quite brackish. 35% of the farm is hilly and the remaining flat. Water availability has been fine until the last few months. The flat country, which is where the sheep are on stubbles, is starting to run out. Some of this country was purchased recently and doesn’t have the water infrastructure in troughs, pipes and good dams which the rest of the farm has. They are currently waiting on contractors to set this up.

Reflections – what would they do again and differently

Worked well:

• Having half sheep and grazing crops (initiated in the last few years) has worked well for Ian and Sue, providing some good grazing feed over pregnancy and lambing.
• Trail feeding ewes over lambing when there was some dry pasture feed. Feeding 3 times/week and usually later in the day. This plus feeding enough - 150g/head of beans per day, meant they had no problems with mismothering and ewes and lambs did well.
• Early weaning and selling small lambs provided extra income and meant they could focus resources into bigger lambs and ewe recovery.
• Ian and Sue are both active members of the Ararat BestwoolBestlamb (BWBL) and Perennial Pasture Systems groups and found the discussions with other farmers very helpful. The BWBL group used local nutritional adviser, Jess Revell, which was invaluable.
• Also – they are lucky to have their son Ash, who works as an agronomist with GroundupAg Services and loves the farm so this has been another great resource for them.

What didn’t work:

• They would have installed trough infrastructure sooner, ready for the dry season.
• They would not have joined ewe lambs, but it is always hard to read the season ahead!