Like everyone on the land in eastern Australia it has been an interesting 12 months. Our lambing months May and June 2022 were well below average for rainfall. It started to rain in August and by December we had received twice our yearly average rainfall. The rain stopped at the end of 2022; HR has only received 112 mil of rain for the first 5 months of 2023.
These conditions made lambing very difficult. Despite the massive change in seasons, the 2022 drop of rams are exceptional. Again, 12 of the ET bred ram lambs made it to the top group in the ram shed. All the shed rams averaged 12 kg per head heavier than this time last year and averaged 19.3 microns , 2.9 SD, 15.1 CV and 99.3 CF for their Bendigo and Dubbo tests last week. It is great to see the Poll rams continue to improve in wool quality and softness as well as growth every year. The huge investment in breeding and genetics is really paying off within the HR Poll stud. This is providing us with more quality rams so we can apply a lot more selection pressure when presenting rams for sale.
As a result of the flooding and the extreme wet, we made the decision to move the 2022 Haddon Rig ram sale to the Warren Show grounds. Again, we increased our Poll Ram numbers to 250 Rams and averaged $3130 also offering 133 Merino Rams to average $3198. It was great to see strong support for both studs.
Again, in December 2022 we did a large ET, AI programme (1800 Poll stud ewes & 504 Merinos). Feed quality was very low leading up to lambing, we have been trail feeding barley and lupins as well as putting out barley silage and ewe and lamb lick leading up to and during lambing. Considering the conditions, the AI and ET lambs have lambed very well and we can’t wait to start tagging them soon to get a good look at them. The naturally joined Stud and Commercial ewes have been fed the same ration and are 4 weeks into their 6-week lambing and look to be lambing well, we will tag them in July.
With the increasing cost of labour we have been looking at ways to improve our efficiency. Our ex-Jackaroo Will Mackley, who has just completed his third year at Marcus will construct two new sets of sheep yards in the Winter to reduce the travel time and distance from paddock to yard and make lamb marking, crutching, scanning and drenching easier and faster. We have also refurbished the square yards in Front Davis Hut.
We’re pleased to have completed the renovations of the historic Haddon Rig woolshed, thanks to Tom Saunders who did a fantastic job. The shed now has new boards, shoots and stands in line with the latest AWI and industry standards. We completely gutted the shearing and working area, removed all left hand drags and converted to 11 modern right hand drag shoots with the correct width and drop-in to make it much easier for our shearers. Each working area was completely rebuilt with a good storage area and power points for fans, phones and boom boxes. We’ve also made the catching pens the correct size and added a slope to the floor for much easier dragging. The shearers report it’s a great shed to work in now.
Our 100-kWh solar project, co-funded by the NSW DPI has been finalised. The solar panels now supply the Haddon Rig domestic houses, woolshed, HR feedlot, Hangar and associated bores. It has cut down our electricity bill by 70%. With rising energy prices this is a welcome relief. We have also constructed solar to supply the primary water bores at Boomanulla. We’re also carrying out trials for variable rate fertiliser mapping to reduce the use and cost of inputs. We have installed four Starlink systems for the Homestead, office, and employee accommodation, which has transformed the reliability and speed of the internet.
The next year will see shade erected in our feedlot and finalisation of more containment feed yards to prepare for drought. We have also added another 5km of exclusion fencing on our South Western boundary to strengthen our biosecurity.
Thank you very much to the whole HR team for their hard work and contributions throughout a very busy 12 months.
Andy Maclean
