Lush legumes put farming innovators in the clover
Lucerne and clover are fueling a top sheep performance on an award-winning Marlborough farm, writes Heather Chalmers.
At the start of January, Marlborough farmers Richard and Victoria Gorman were short of feed.
But 105 millimetres of rain has fallen since, the season has turned around and they now have ‘‘feed for miles’’.
Quickest out of the blocks is lucerne, which grew 15cm in a couple of weeks – its bright lush green a stark contrast to the region’s tawny hills of native grass. ‘‘As it is so soft and lush, we are waiting for it to thicken and dry off before putting lambs on,’’ says Richard Gorman.
‘‘Lucerne is not like ryegrass, it won’t just dry up and blow away. It will stay good quality until winter.’’
In the drought-prone region, the two high-powered legume forages of lucerne on the lower, cultivatable country and subterranean clover on the hills are helping to drive the Gormans’ livestock performance.
Last year their return on capital was an impressive 7.5 per cent, enough for the couple to win the Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year Award. This compares with the competition average return of 4.16 per cent, based on financial figures prepared by consultant Greg Sheppard.
The Gormans’ farm, Dumgree, is 770 hectares including leased blocks in the lower Awatere Valley, near Seddon. It’s predominantly a sheep operation, and the Gormans breed and finish lambs and cattle, as well as trade lambs.
They have grown their business over the last couple of years from 3500 to 5000 stock units while also lifting per-head performance. This has coincided with a significant expansion in lucerne plantings. Lucerne’s long tap root means the plant is able to access moisture and nutrients from deeper in the soil, continuing to produce high protein feed when other pasture varieties like ryegrass have dried off.
‘‘The farm has always had one or two paddocks of lucerne,’’ says Gorman.
‘‘Eight years ago we started putting in larger amounts with the aim of direct grazing, particularly by ewes with lambs at foot, as well as to grow out young stock and finishing lambs or trading lambs.
‘‘It also gives us the ability to preferentially feed any lighter capital stock so these obtain optimum weights for mating.
‘‘When you have one or two paddocks of lucerne, it is not enough for a grazing rotation. Ideally you need four or five paddocks so you can graze it for five or six days, then move on to the next paddock, on a 30 to 35-day rotation.’’
The Gormans now average about 160ha of lucerne and plan to lift plantings to 200ha, most of the property’s cultivatable area.
‘‘Then you end up with lots of rotations. We don’t have mob sizes of more than 350 ewes with lambs at foot. For lambs or hoggets we may have 700 to 800 in a mob.’’
Lucerne is also mixed with prairie grass and plantain. ‘‘We generally put this into paddocks that are steeper and harder to spray in winter.
‘‘Lucerne is most valuable in August at lambing. The key is not to hit it too hard with grazing too early.’’
Careful management is required in grazing lucerne. ‘‘Fresh growth can be dangerous. Livestock need salt and roughage. This can be part of the paddock, or by adding hay.’’
Dumgree runs 2275 ewes and
820 hoggets of Landcorp Farming’s Landmark breed, a maternal composite. Depending on the season they also trade lambs, but no more than 1500.
Mixed-age ewes lamb between
145 to 150 per cent, with lambing starting on August 5. All hoggets are mated and lambed from September 10. ‘‘There are no tailenders.’’ The Gormans’ ewes are big going to the ram, with a target weight of 75kg for mixed-age ewes and 55kg for hoggets. Gorman says they need to run big ewes to get the large, fast-growing lambs they require in their summer-dry environment.
Hoggets scanned at 147 per cent and lambed at 107 per cent last year, with all dries sold.
With an annual rainfall of 720mm, the Gormans’ farm system is set up to grow and sell lambs as quickly as possible, so they can look after their capital breeding stock through the summer dry.
From the third week of November, the Gormans start selling lambs straight off mum to take advantage of early-season premiums, ‘‘skim drafting’’, with lambs drafted down to a minimum of 38-40kg liveweight. All lambs are weaned by December 15, with the drafting weight reduced to 33kg liveweight. Post-weaning, lambs are grazed on either rape or lucerne to maximise liveweight gain, with an average lamb growth rate of 315 grams a day.
‘‘That’s one of the advantages of Marlborough. We are earlier country.
‘‘The aim with the lucerne and the genetics we have, is to kill as many lambs off mum at weaning as possible. The best we have achieved is 72 per cent and our goal is to get to 90 per cent.’’
In 2016, 72 per cent of the mixedage ewe lambs were sold prime at weaning, weighing 18.8kg carcassweight and 62 per cent of the hogget lambs at 18.2kg.
Lambs are sold to Anzco Foods to supply its Waitrose contract. ‘‘We have a strong relationship with Anzco. They are reasonably tight in their requirements and pay well in those brackets.
‘‘Last year we only had 39 of our own non-replacement lambs by the end of March. Then we buy in winter lambs.’’
Figures produced as part of the competition show that Dumgree lamb weaning has increased significantly over the last three years. In 2014, 1400 lambs were sold prime at weaning with an average weight of 17.8kg/cw. In 2016, 2300 lambs were sold prime at weaning with an average weight of 18.8kg. The lamb weaning draft has increased by 64 per cent and the average carcassweight of lambs at drafting has increased by 6 per cent in three years. In total, the productivity gains to weaning has been the production and sale of an additional 18,320kg, representing a 74 per cent lift.
In summer, only stock requiring timely weight gains are on lucerne. This means lambs being finished and to put condition on some lighter ewes for mating. To ensure ewes are a body condition score of 3 to 3.5 at mating, those that are 3 or under are grazed lucerne.
‘‘We try to be consistent on the weight of ewes at mating. If there are too many skinny ewes it’s detrimental; too many fat ewes are also detrimental.’’
Sheppard says the productivity of the ewe flock is undoubtedly a key driver in the success of the Gormans’ business, which produced a weighted average gross farm income of $909/ha over the three years analysed. ‘‘This is incredibly good relative to the average annual rainfall received on the farm.’’ Returns were enhanced by a relatively low level of operating expenses, reflecting attention to costs.
The Gormans believe the property has even more potential, particularly focusing on more lucerne and winter crops, fencing and fodder beet.
‘‘It’s a combination of genetics and feeding which have both improved hugely in the last five years, enabling our composite sheep to realise their genetic potential. Even though the farm is producing well we haven’t finished, there is still a lot of upside.’’
A herd of 87 mainly angus cows, as well as younger and trading stock, are used to maintain pasture quality for sheep.
About 200ha of adjacent vineyards are used for winter grazing, including 75ha owned by the wider Gorman family in a separate venture.
The cropping programme includes summer and winter brassicas and Italian ryegrass.
The key is not to hit it too hard with grazing too early. Richard Gorman