Josh Hancock from Kingston SE attended the major containment field day in March 2021 and looked at some of the other containment ewe project sites through the Barossa. He was wanting to build a new containment lot on his Southeast property to preserve pasture and allow him to supplement ewes in a concentrated area prior to the break.
He constructed 4 x new pens and a feeding lane in April 2022 just in time to put ewes immediately in. He is feeding grain every second day in the feeding lane and letting individual groups out to eat the required quantity of barley. He has contained 1200 ewes this year and fed them predominately on silage and a small amount of Barley.
The South East has had a delayed break this year compared to their average break, locking the ewes off of the pasture has allowed the pastures to get ahead of the ewes. In established pastures there is 1200kg DM/ha of feed on offer (FOO) available and no supplementation will be required over lambing.
Josh has seen a big advantage to ease of managing the ewes and feeding in one area. He has also been impressed by the pasture recovery after the break and the ability to grow enough FOO for ewes prior to lambing. Ewes will be let out over the next week for lambing in 10 days’ time.