BIGG Fleurieu Bus Trip

The following points provide an overview of each property visited:

Alastair Just - composite ewes and Angus cows

• Pioneer in sheep containment having built a containment lot 15-20 years ago.
• Currently has 3700 ewes in containment. Ewes go into containment early in the year and then will stay there until 2 weeks after the break, they then go out into his hills country which still has dry feed/have not been overgrazed for lambing
• Mates in containment at 1%. Scans at 170%, marks at 150%
• Big focus on low feed costs in containment, including feeding 100% grapemarc diet at times. Currently ewes being fed a mix of grapemarc and potatoes
• Has permanent irrigation (lucerne based pasture) which he uses to grow out lambs

Samatha Martin – Family dairy farm.

• Recent focus on refencing to smaller paddocks (2ha size was up to 14ha) for rotational grazing, including building a laneway which has access to each paddock.
• Interest in mixed species and for first time last spring sowed a 11 species summer mix across 17ha of the property.
• 17ha multi species mix + 5ha of lucerne + 5ha of millet sustained 60 heifers over this summer. This provided both a feed cost and labour saving (in past she would have had to feed out oaten hay and silage to sustain the heifers over summer)

Nobles (Chad Baker) – Cattle and composite sheep operation.

• High capital being spent across property – new fencing, new containment, centre pivots, pasture renovation, new feeders
• Trading operation of 10,000 lambs/yr on irrigated pastures. Has 4 pivots, 30-40ha each – sown down to a mix of annuals (Concord ryegrass/chicory/plantain/clover), but looking to instead sow to perennials in future.
• Rotational grazing of lambs under pivots, on a 20 day grazing rotation

This bus trip was funded by the Red Meat & Wool Livestock Technology Group.

Thanks to all of the producers who opened up their gates and shared their systems with others, the learning opportunities and networking provide a huge benefit to other producers.