Sheep producers wanted for study

Producer demonstrations on-farm have found that flushing ewes with green feed for one week prior, and one week post joining delivers impressive reproduction benefits.

The demonstrations across New South Wales and Victoria have shown short term flushing of ewes with green feed such as lucerne, rape, millet or green pasture increased lamb production.

Agriculture Victoria, with funding from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), has conducted on-farm demonstrations over the past four years on 28 producer sites in Victoria and NSW, joining crossbred or merino ewes between December and April.

Implementing a simple but effective grazing management strategy can provide a short term flushing effect, which can generate increased lamb production and income through reducing the proportion of dry ewes and increasing the rate of multiple births.

We are seeking interest from producers for the final year of this demonstration, which will compare the reproduction rates of ewes joined on traditional dry feed, versus ewes grazing lucerne for one week prior and one week post joining (short flush), versus ewes grazing lucerne throughout joining (long flush).

Participants who join ewes from now through to May would need to make available 250-300 ewes for each of the above three treatments, which is 750-900 ewes in total.

The preference is for cross bred/composite