Resilient Breeders Field Day
Resilient breeders was the theme of a recent collaborative field day between Macintyre Ag Alliance and Karbullah Poll Merino Stud.
The field day was held at Vicky and Mark Murphy’s property and home of Karbullah stud, located 70km north of Goondiwindi.
More than 60 producers attended to learn from some of the best in the industry on topics focussed around building resilient people, livestock and businesses.
The field day featured a quality line up of speakers including ANZ’s Regional Business Manager, Jeffrey Schrale, who provided a historic snapshot of the Australian sheep industry and some projections about where it’s headed as well as an economic update.
Chloe Bunter, from Meat and Livestock Australia spoke on the topic of ASBV’, explaining how producers can utilise them to achieve certain outcomes within their sheep enterprise.
The keynote speaker of the day was Jason Trompf, sheep consultant and developer of educational programs including Lambs Alive. Jason emphasised the most important asset on a farm is yourself.
A takeaway message was his 4x4x4 initiative which suggests every producer should strive for four weeks of holidays each year, four days of training and trial four new initiatives. Jason’s passion for improving lamb survival also runs deep. He believes Australia is lagging in this space and he outlined five key objectives producers should be focusing on to improve lamb survivability:
1. Ewe body score
2. Pregnancy scanning
3. Paddock allocation and mob size
4. Joining period.
5. Time of lambing
The final speaker of the day was Justin and Lorroi Kirkby of Amarula Dorper Stud, based near Gravesend, NSW. The Kirkbys explained how they have regenerated the soil on their property through the planting of mixed species crops, and have transformed a compacted, cultivation block into a beautiful, diverse woody grassland. The couple outlined the positive outcomes this has had for their business, sheep flock and their overall wellbeing.
The day wrapped up with a farm tour of Karbullah, guided by Ben and Luke Murphy. Tourers visited a crop paddock regenerated with multi-species and another paddock prepared for pasture cropping, and received some sound advice on planting saltbush for livestock.
Attendees enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch with Karbullah lamb, and drinks sponsored by ANZ Goondiwindi. A big thank you to our hosts, the Murphys, as well as Southern Queensland Landscapes and the National Landcare Program for helping to fund the event, and to event sponsors ANZ, Meat and Livestock Australia, Objective Livestock Marketing and North West Rural Goondiwindi.
