FRANCES producers Wayne and Sally Hawkins, Circle H Farms, were "blown away" when announced as the JBS Great Southern Lamb Producer of the Year winners at a gala awards evening at Crown Casino in Melbourne earlier this year.
They said the key to their win was a focus on good genetics, good dams with maternal instincts and fertility, feeding them well and measuring everything to make sure it meets specifications.
Despite marketing between 7000 and 8000 lambs annually, cropping remains the main enterprise on their 3000-hectare property.
Circle H Farms crops about 2400ha of clay country with wheat, barley, canola, beans, lucerne and clover for grain, small seeds and hay. They use 13 centre pivot irrigation circles, averaging more than 50ha in size, with nine in operation in any one year.
The remainder, being lighter country, was only suited to grazing.
"Cropping and sheep work well together but necessary actions need to work in-line with each other. All enterprises need to intermesh," Mr Hawkins said.
Attention to detail was key for lamb production, with all ewes pregnancy-tested then divided into mobs depending on whether they were carrying single or multiple lambs, and fed accordingly.
Lambs were marked at six weeks and received a 6-in-1 inoculation booster, with earlier protection given by the ewes passing on immunity from their annual pre-lambing inoculation. At that pre-lambing inoculation the ewes are also capsuled, giving 100 days of worm protection.
"There is always a cost factor, but the result of using capsules is a lot less handling and stress," he said.
"Lambs are weaned at 12 weeks and go onto the best pasture, with ewes going onto a maintenance ration on dryland grazing areas."
The JBS weight grid gives an 18-30 kilogram carcaseweight range, but aiming at a target of 22-24kgcw, based on a 44 per cent to 46pc dressing percentage, means most lambs hit that grid.
"The weight and condition score of lambs must be spot on, or they don't go," he said.
This attention to detail might explain their JBS win - based on a 96.5pc compliance rate to grid specifications.
Clover and beans from the cropping program are used to supplement the nutritional needs of the sheep enterprise. Lambs were weighed and condition scored, with those that matched targets consigned to JBS at Bordertown.
Any carryover lambs were shorn and grazed clover-lucerne- based pastures until bean stubbles were ready.
Circle H Farms started their sheep enterprise in the late 1990s with wethers. They then progressed to a self-replacing Dohne flock with the assistance of agribusiness consultant and Stock Journal columnist Ken Solly.
They run 5500 Dohne ewes and 500 Dohne-White Suffolk ewes, but a transition is underway to switch their entire breeding flock to composites.
"I really like the way these crossbreds get-up and go straightaway. From a maternal perspective, the White Suffolk ewe lambs are generally a little leggier with cleaner points, giving us management advantages," Mr Hawkins said.
They have bought mainly White Suffolk rams in the past couple of years to build-up ewe replacement numbers. Poll Dorset rams are used over Dohne-White Suffolk ewes. Rams are bought from the Funke family's Bundara Downs stud at Western Flat.
Mr Hawkins is a huge advocate of the Lifetime Ewe Management program.
"It ticks all the boxes covering all relevant management issues like ewe condition, pasture quality assessment, what feed the ewes need and when, plus the importance of measuring and recording to improve. It is so important; everyone must do it," he said.
