Andrew Edgar farms sheep and cattle on the family’s farm at Nareen, in western Victoria.
Careful planning of feed and water resources has allowed one Western District farm to almost double the number of ewes they join.
Andrew Edgar farms sheep and cattle on the family’s farm at Nareen, in western Victoria, and has applied innovative approaches learned through drought management to the everyday running of their farm.
Better ways of delivering water to stock, combined with the use of containment areas at certain times of the year, has meant they are now joining about 7000 ewes a year compared to the 4000 they used to join.
“I have more stock because I chose to build up numbers during the drought by investing in a water reticulation system, containment areas and supplementary feeding sheep, rather than selling them,” Mr Edgar said.
“Now the drought has finished, I have more stock to sell, while others are trying to rebuild numbers and prices are at an all-time high.”
The stock on the farm are watered using a 20-megalitre capacity dam, which services much of the property. The dam cost $60,000 to install in 2004, after a year of going through the appropriate approval processes.
Water is pumped from the dam to a 100,000-litre tank using an electric pressure pump. This tank supplies several troughs and provides two to three days emergency water for the containment areas.
In the past few years, five dams had gone dry and 17 others had dropped dramatically. And rather than enlarge and clean out more small dams, Mr Edgar spent another $70,000 on tanks, eight kilometres of poly pipe, 15 water troughs and a solar pump.
“Water security is extremely important for livestock producers,” he said.
Added to their water supplies were the containment areas, which Mr Edgar has used to lock up stock prior to an autumn break. This means paddocks grow feed after autumn rains and decrease the need for supplementary feeding.
Mr Edgar’s advice was to do improvements in stages but do it right.
“Set things up properly the first time and spend the money but do it in stages if you have to,” he said.
Advice on stock containment and water planning is available through Agriculture Victoria at http://go.vic.gov.au/RLCFkA.