Page 13 - Calga Dohnes Newsletter 2020_Flip Book Neat
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170% lambing results at
Moama Grammar
Danielle Garden - Primary Industries Teacher
At Moama Anglican Grammar, Agriculture and Primary Indus-
tries students are extremely fortunate to have their own
school farm and sheep flock. The flock was started in 2019 with
the generous donation on 6 Caroonboon Dohne ewes in lamb.
The school farm and animals play a vital role in the completion
of the Primary Industries course and Agriculture subjects
which are offered between Years 8 and 12.
which we were very pleased with.
“Having the sheep at school is helpful as it allows us to relate
the theory-based learning to practical skills” said Lucy Nelson, The school sheep have complemented classroom learning of
Yr 11 PI and Agricultural student. topics such as animal behaviour, low stress stock handling,
animal husbandry, disease and nutrition. Students are respon-
At the beginning of the year we added another 8 ewes from sible for all animal husbandry operations including lamb
Caroonboon Station to our flock giving us 14 ewes to lamb this marking, drenching and vaccinating, feeding and training of
year. We began lambing at school in May and the students animals on halters ready for showing next year.
from all years have keenly followed the birth of the lambs. This
year from our 14 ewes, 13 gave birth to 22 lambs (9 sets of The Dohne Merino breed has been great as they are dual pur-
twins) resulting in a lambing percentage of 170% which was pose which allows us to learn about both sides of the sheep
fantastic, highlighting the fertility of the Dohne’s. industry. We shear during August and students learn about the
wool and sell it through the local broker and at the end of the
The lambs even became local celebrities through the schools school selected stock are sold. Last year we made $360 each
Facebook site and local paper with several articles written and lamb which we put forward to buying the new ewes.
published about them.
We are looking forward to another fantastic year with the
During weekly practical lesson, students have been weighing sheep and students are really looking forward to being able to
the lambs to chart and record their growth rates. Most lambs take in the regional agricultural shows once COVID is over,
were born around the 6-7kg mark and after 1 week weighed in especially the Australian Sheep and Wool show held in Bendi-
at around 13kg. At 4 weeks the average lamb weight was 22kg go.
Drought decisions never
easy Bill Pyes’ decision to make 2000 tonnes of silage in 2013 was
certainly a well thought out strategy.
Malcolm & Susie Webb ‘Miagunyah’ Warrumbungle NSW
We are living in uncertain times but with a very low sheep
flock, I am sure breeders with plenty of surplus sheep to sell
will be well rewarded in the next few years.
Our rainfall records go back to 1886 to 2019 with 910 points was
the driest year ever, and 2017, 2018 & 2019 with a yearly aver-
age of 12-15 points was the driest three year period ever. In
2019 we did harvest a small grain crop and with grape marc
and the grain produced we were able to carry our dohne
breeders through the drought. Reasonable lambing over the
last 3 years and selling the wether lambs as store lambs has
enable us to join our full breeders numbers in 2020. The first
seven months of 2020 has given us over 20 inches and we are
enjoying a very big season at present with most of the ewes on
oat crops, it was a tough decision to keep feeding over the last
3 years but we are pleased we did as with the looks like a
good lambing coming up in the spring hopefully we should be
back in full production shortly.
Making decisions in a drought is never an easy task, but the
plan of carrying our core breeders though will pay dividends
this year as I am pleased we are not in the market at present
trying to buy quality breeding ewes to build up our numbers.
At the world dohne conference in Dubbo, Michael O'Brien from
Walgett stated that his theory on drought reserves was to have
100 tonnes of grain on hand for every 1000 sheep your property
carried, this would go a long way towards getting you through
a year long drought, but a 3 year drought requires a lot more
thought. 11 month old ewe lambs on crop at ‘Miagunyah’
Warrumbungle NSW