Sheep farm in Australia

All sheep farm in Australia have unique features and activities from others depending with their locations or regions. Dookie Agricultural College farm was established through the partnership of partners in the agricultural industry, community, and the government as an effort of meeting the challenge of food scarcity and security. The effort to grow the sheep enterprise is an ongoing project on 1200 hectares that with a pastoral size of 5000 merinos. The following is a calendar of activities that are done at Dookie Agricultural College farm for the Sheep Enterprise.

January

All weaned lambs should be considered for the best feeds

Check demand and supply of the feeds as its quality falls rapidly

Update the records for the animal health

Rams should be checked for good health and make sure feet does not develop any problem

The growth rate of the hoggets and lambs are checked

Make sure ewes are in good condition

February

n The weaners are fed as required

n The sheep begin to mate in mid-February if there are adequate feeds

n Health conditions of the rams should be the best. They are isolated from the ewes

n Shearing of the two teeth is considered

n Crutch ewes are enjoined with the ram

n Rapid fall of the feed quality is always apparent, thus making it difficult for flushing of ewes.

n Identification of pasture that needs renewal.

n The prevention of facial eczema continues

n Checking up of the lambs for general health and growth

March

n Flushing of the ewes although sometimes become difficult because of dry weather and lack of quality and dry feeds

n Hoggets are joined with the ram for mating, two weeks before the joining of the main flock

n Weaners are fed adequately

n Autumn rains may fall that make it possible to get new and quality feeds

n Renewal of pasture is started

n It is the best time to feed and quality silage

n The health conditions of the hoggets are checked, and trace or check element and mineral status of the youngsters are not growing

n Keep on checking if there is late flystrike

n Carry out soil tests to get the best-recommended fertilizer

April

n Rams are moved away from the ewes

n Identify the rams that are not needed for mating in the next season such as the ones with health issues

n Good and quality autumn feeds are available if there is reliable rain

n The time to finish the renewal of pasture

n Eczema protection is continued

n Weaners are fed adequately

n Making sure that all rams have recovered well after mating

n Ewes  are given the best feed available in the farm

May

n Ewes are put in the lambing paddocks

n The mated ewes are fed adequately

n If the fed budget is demanding, the feed supplements and grazing rounds are tightened up

n Weaners are fed adequately

n Light grazing are given if there are ready autumn-sown pastures

June

n Ewes are put in the lambing paddocks

n Feed weaners adequately

n February-mated are fed if there is unusually sparse or absent of green feed

July

n Ewes are a crutch in July

n Alternatively, the ewes are jet and crushed later in September

n Crutching of pre lambs is important if the ewes lamb in the full wool

n Lambing is usually started in mid-July of every year

August

n It is time for marking after week five of lambing

n It is essential to use diazinon for dusting wounds and knife is highly preferred for marking

n Make sure some dust reach all corners of the marking wounds

n Avoid or take precautions if there is blowfly during the lamb-marking time

September

n Hoggets and wethers are crutched before there is the fly wave

n Shearing the rams are conducted

n Jet the ewes, especially the sending time of mulesing and lamb, marking

n Rams are dipped at the time of jetting the ewes

October

n The second injection of enterotoxaemia to all lambs is conducted

n Weaning paddocks are mowed

November

n Weaning of lambs starts in early November

n Drenching is done to kill all parasites and immature worms

n Sometimes all the sheep are drenched to kill the immature parasites

December

n The testes of the rams are examines

n Hooves are trimmed

n Jet and drench the polls of the rams and keep them in a shady paddock and good feed

n Start feeding sheep-nuts if the sheep are living in poor condition

Breeding the sheep in February-March duration as outlined in this calendar, as mating in November-December period because they produce a similar number of lambs. Mating on February-March period in Dookie Farm is because the growth of pasture in June and July gives out quality feed that is needed by ewes during their late pregnancy.

Additionally, the growth of pasture in August and September gives out quality feed in the large quantity needed for lactation, thus being regarded as the best practice for not requiring supplementary feeding. Most probably, the grazing management needs to be organized in winter to avoid the challenges of underfeeding the ewes. Such efforts include setting stock-taking actions to spread the sheep in the available pasture during the lambing and late pregnancy of the ewe.

Other activities noted in this calendar regarded as the best industrial practice is the crutching, shearing, and weaning.  The selection by the farm to conduct lambing in July-August period is regarded as viable and simplistic because of the unmolested ewes are required to be crutched in July and before lambing process begins. In any case, the ewes are mulesed before lambing. They should be jetted. Weaning is always conducted off-summer because it is done where there are quality and best pastures. After the weaning time, the poor weaners are supposed to be put into a different good paddock that has grain supplements. As the best practice, the lambs need to be weaned after approximately 12 weeks to avoid infective worm larvae. Winter shearing is also avoided to avoid large feeding requirements and other issues such as availability labor and harvesting in the enterprise. Shearing during the summers has an advantage because of the fine weather of more daylight hours, although it would of no help to enterprises that hire contractors. Therefore, selecting the shearing time is considerable depending with different operational factors in the farm. As such, the Dookie Agricultural College farm selected is the best time as practiced by other farms in Australia.