The Robinson family of ‘Bedar’ in the shadow of Woondillon rock at Babakin, have capped the ‘best-ever’ dollar returns from their sheep enterprise that coincided with a timely sequence of farm business decisions, to win WAMMCO’s Prime Lamb Producer of the Month title for May 2017.
Their winning line of 180 Afrinos and White Suffolk lambs was processed at WAMMCO Katanning on May 10 to return an average of $136 per head including skin, with 98.3 percent of the lambs fitting the cooperative’s premium grid.
A bigger line of 445 lambs delivered to WAMMCO, averaged 24 kg to to return $150 per head.
Grant Robinson said a decision ten years ago to venture away from their family history of breeding merinos over the past three generations in favour of Afrino genetics from South Africa, was the first significant move.
“Wool prices were in the doldrums with few prospects for a recovery, and prime lamb production was the best option for producers like us who remained committed to sheep and wanted to retain a quality wool component.
“Afrinos were bred to cope with the dry conditions of the South African veldt country and offered easy care, good wool, prime meat and durability with lambings of around 120 percent.
“Most of our 2,000 ewe flock is now now pure Afrino and we are mating them back to Afrino rams we now breed ourselves, together with some White Suffolk rams purchased off-farm.
The second decision to plant a 130 hectare summer crop of of the forage sorghum variety “Sprint” in three separate paddocks to allow rotational grazing, was rewarded with 200 mm of rainfall in January and February, guaranteeing the ewes would thrive into the current lambing.