Choosing wisely will cut costs

English-born New Zealand sheep farmer Rosemary Hamilton wants British sheep farmers to carefully select breeding stock to reduce costs and improve profits.

Speaking at a West Midlands Better Returns open day at Ellesmere on Saturday, Rosemary explained that careful stock selection and good grassland management had enabled New Zealand sheep farmers to improve productivity by 25 per cent, and reduce costs, at a time when UK productivity has been static.

Rosemary, who farms 3,500 Coopworth and Suffolk ewes, and also lambs 1,000 ewe lambs each year, near Invercargill on South Island New Zealand, weans 165 per cent of her ewes after outdoor lambing and zero concentrate useage.

Careful selection of wedge-shaped ewes and rams produces easily-born vigorous lambs.

Culling of all stock that cause problems, including lambing difficulties, poor lamb survivability and foot rot, means that one person can manage up to 3,000 ewes.

Grassland with high clover content, and efficient grassland management means that no nitrogen is used.

Paddock grazing permits up to 2500 ewes to be grazed in a single mob on a rotational basis.

This all results in no concentrates being used at all on New Zealand sheep farms.

Event host Robyn Hulme demonstrated his pure New Zealand Suffolk flock, created by importing embryos over the last two years.

Robyn urged UK ram producers to copy New Zealand ram breeders by supplying their customers with the tools to run more efficient businesses.

He said: "Long living prolific rams that produce vigorous lambs with no foot problems or dags, and which finish off grass, are essential tools for future profitable sheep production in the UK."