Drought Response Jan 2018 Deane Carson What has Happened? 8 th - PDF document

Drought Response Jan 2018 Deane Carson What has Happened?

8 th November 24 th November

15 th December What are clients doing? - Database Average farm 465ha 10.9SU/ha 87% sheep Lambing Ewes 148% Hoggets 80% (50% mate hoggets) 185,000 lambs on Database

What are clients doing? - Database Percentage of Sales Achieved 25% 20% 15% % 10% 5% 0% 1/11 8/11 15/11 22/11 29/11 6/12 13/12 20/12 27/12 3/01 10/01 17/01 24/01 Client Average 2017/18 Client Average 2016/17 What are clients doing? - Database kgCW/head 19 18 17 kgCW/head 16 15 14 13 12 Client average 2017/18 Client average 2016/17

What are clients doing? - Database $/kg 7.5 7 6.5 6 $/kgCW 5.5 5 4.5 4 1/11/2017 1/12/2017 1/01/2018 1/02/2018 1/03/2018 1/04/2018 1/05/2018 1/06/2018 Date Client Average 2016 Client Average 2017/18 Client Average 2016/17 What are clients doing? - Database $/ha 400 350 300 250 $/ha 200 150 100 50 0 01/01 04/01 07/01 10/01 13/01 16/01 19/01 22/01 25/01 28/01 31/01 03/02 06/02 09/02 12/02 15/02 18/02 21/02 24/02 27/02 01/03 04/03 07/03 10/03 13/03 16/03 19/03 22/03 25/03 28/03 31/03 Client Average 2016/17 Client Average 2017/18

Variable Response Light soils 30% Stores 30% slaughtered 1300MA Grazing 700 2ths Grazing 300gms Grain feeding 1100kgDM/ha cover Dairy grazing veto Poor crops No Stock water issues Heavy soils 9% lambs slaughtered No grazing 1500kgDM/ha cover Stock water issues Cattle sold light What to do going forward Stock water is on farm priority # 1 Some farmers are upgrading systems with better $ -8week wait on drilling wells. Many are juggling stock shifts Some are carting water on trailers Some are cleaning out ponds for capacity Some troubles/risk with stock misadventure - CHECKS NEEDED

Feed is the next priority What is the smallest opportunity cost? Opportunity Opportunity Cost/Cost Selling Store Lambs 30kgLW 0.20cents/kgDM Selling Store Cattle 480kgLW 0.20cents/kgDM Grazing rising 2ths out $1.70/wk 0.20cents/kgDM Grazing MA 2ths out $1.60/wk 0.22cents/kgDM Baleage @$100 landed 0.43cents/kgDM Grain $390/tonne 0.46cents/kgDM Sheep nuts $565/tonne 0.66cents/kgDM Hay $85/bale landed 0.42cents/kgDM Urea 0.13cents/kgDM Giberallic Acid 7-10cents/kgDM*

On spot feed budget 2000ewes * 1.2kgDM/head = 2400 560-2ths *1.4kgDM/head = 780 20 rams = 20 2500 lambs *1.7kgDM/head = 4250 Total = 7450/240ha =31kgDM/ha Growth =2 15kgDM/ha Losing 30-15kg/day Other things to Consider protect the future let Ewes get to unrecoverable stage Ewes should be 3.0BCS mating some will be 2.5BCS = 5kg growth / 100gms/day = 50days (you have a month before action is needed) Some BCS 2.0 they need separated now 2ths often suffer in feed shortage- check them 1st Beware of post drought parasite boom-FEC 7days after an inch of rain dig for GG+Porina Weekly checks of crops

Other Issues Flystrike green fly Pleurisy Pneumonia Water yards avoid dust Rye grass staggers (AR37) and hassle Avoid successive grazing AR37 paddocks Seed head and hard grazing Young grass can suffer from pests like ASW Baleage requirement When? Review Stocking rate Silver Linings I found that water leak My kids loved the Summer holiday When it does rain pasture quality will be great Clover has had a good chance and flowered well Returns are helping to cope Dag free lambs

People are Important Look after yourself and your peers Use others to help Small actions regularly are better than big actions You are not alone in this ask for help Facebook groups great for sharing MAKE A PLAN and act NOW