Barunah Park farmer increases lambing percentage and profit with 8500 Dohne sheep

Article courtesy of ACM (Barry Murphy) Stock & Land​

Russell Coad, Barunah Park, runs 8,500 Dohne sheep on 1800 hectares. Picture by Barry Murphy

A Barunah Park farmer has increased his lambing percentage and profitability with 8500 Dohne sheep.

Russell Coad ran a mixed cropping and sheep operation on 1800 hectares with his sons and changed up his flock about 20 years ago, never looking back.

His father before him farmed the land at Barunah Park from the early 1950s and his “quite keen” grandsons were now the fourth generation to be involved.

A range of factors, including a drop in wool prices, drove Mr Coad to alter his approach.

“Our operation changed a bit from what was more of a wool growing operation,” he said.

“It’s a Dohne-Merino cross, predominantly Dohne at this stage.

“It’s still a Merino type but there’s a couple of other factors in there as well.”

Mr Coad said the Dohne breed allowed him to get away from the practice of mulesing 14 years ago.

“They’re a lot plainer in the breech and all that sort of thing so we’ve been able to eliminate that problem,” he said.

He said the Dohne ewes were hardier and more maternal than pure Merino stock.

“We’ve got good survivability out of our lambs and the ewes tend to do reasonably well in adverse conditions,” he said.

“Even though they still need to be supplemented through feeding, they tend to hang on a bit better in those tough conditions.

“The ewes are pretty good mothers and they tend to milk very well.”

Mr Coad said the Dohne breed was hardier than straight Merino stock. Picture by Barry Murphy

Mr Coad said his lambing percentage had increased by approximately 10 per cent since moving to a Dohne cross animal.

“That’s certainly helped our bottom line,” he said.

He said the Dohne stock having Merino wool also meant he got a “reasonable return” for the wool harvested each year.

The Dohne cross flock was aimed at producing lambs for the meat trade, the MK (Middle East kill) trade specifically.

“It’s really all about lambs for the MK trade,” he said.

“They’re light lambs 18-21 kilograms dressed weight and that’s what our operation has been based on for the last 18 years,” he said

Mr Coad said he tended to lamb the flock at the end of winter or early spring, depending on the season.

“We might join a little bit earlier sometimes,” he said.

“It’s worked well and been pretty successful the last couple of years.”

Lambs were turned off from February to May, with most going to Midfield Meats, Warrnambool.

“Predominantly over the years it’s been wethers but this year we’ve had a fair old slice into our ewe portion so our stock numbers will be down,” he said.

The Coads had been farming at Barunah Park since the 1950s. Picture by Barry Murphy

He said the dry February and March and late autumn break had affected his business.

“It’s had a pretty big impact on our business at this stage because we were never sure how the season was going to turn out,” he said.

“The sheep are in reasonable condition at the moment and we’ve offloaded most of last year’s lamb production just as a bit of a preventative measure.

“We were able to get reasonable money for them.”

He said it was probably more profitable to turn off young sheep rather than older surplus animals for mutton.

He said the late break would have feed supply ramifications through to the end of winter and potentially, into spring.

“We’ve got some reserve, not a significant reserve because our cereal harvest probably wasn’t as good as we expected either with the wet conditions over the summer,” he said.

“Our feed reserves aren’t quite as high as we’d like them.

“We may have to buy in some additional fodder but we’ll make that assessment closer to the time.

“That’ll be a bit dependent on how the season develops.

“We’ve certainly got some reserves at the moment to take us through for a couple of months but after that we’ll have to make a different assessment.”

Interestingly, Mr Coad said he was looking at “a bit of a push back” into some Merino sheep.

“We want to try to put a little bit of wool back on some of the ewes,” he said.

“That’s the only little bit disappointing with a Dohne operation, you mightn’t get the wool production you get off the Merino sheep.

“But you’ve to try to weigh it up for what’s best for your operation.”

He said he wouldn’t go “full blow” on wool-type rams but planned to make a slight change.

Mixed cropping and sheep farming worked well in the region. Picture by Barry Murphy

Mr Coad also grew crops traditional for the area such as faba beans, wheat, barley and some oats, and summer fodder crops for the lambs.

“I will say the stock off the bean stubbles this year are probably the best I’ve ever seen them,” he said.

“The sheep done exceptionally well on it and it fits into our operation a bit better.

“We get some value out of the stubbles where as with canola, there’s little residual value for stock and also, the beans have some other benefits.

“They fit into a mixed operation quite well.”

Mr Coad encouraged young farmers to look at producing sheep and crops together.

“Traditionally, in this part of Victoria, there’s still a big opportunity in mixed farming,” he said.

“A lot of the country isn’t fully arable.

“That leaves it back to grazing so in terms of a mixed operation, sheep are still really important.”