A PROJECT conducted at Minnipa Agricultural Centre on the Eyre Peninsula has shown the importance of managing lambing ewes well to maximise their survival.
Through best practice management and a more concerted effort to control predators they have just marked 447 lambs from the 350 Merino ewes involved.
This 128 per cent lambing percentage is 10pc higher than the 2012 marking figures.
The Demonstration and extension of flock management strategies to improve lamb weaning percentages in low rainfall mixed farming regions project, funded by the South Australian Sheep Advisory Group, conducted by Eyre Peninsula Agricultural Research Foundation and South Australian Research and Development Institute, was an extension of another 12-month project the previous year on identifying causes of lamb losses in low-rainfall mixed farming regions.
SARDI research officer and project coordinator Jessica Crettenden said the 2012 results left them wanting to understand more about the primary cause of losses with a high percentage of lambs being secondarily predated.
"About 36pc of the dead lambs we never found, the whole carcase was gone," she said.
In 2013, they adopted best practice management ensuring the ewes were in at least condition score 3 at joining; lambing in flocks according to ewe pregnancy scan, and improving predator monitoring and control methods.
Predators were a major issue in 2012 when Ms Crettenden and fellow research officer Suzie Holbery erected trail cameras in trees near the birth sites to monitor this activity.
"It came as quite a surprise that the majority of the photos taken on the cameras featured cats as opposed to foxes, however the exact impact cats have on lamb survival is still unknown," Ms Holbery said.
Fox lights were also trialled, but their effectiveness as a single control measure was yet to be determined because the Minnipa study used a combination of predator control techniques.
Ms Crettenden said the drop in lamb losses from 21pc in 2012 to 15pc in 2013 showed the difference which could be achieved by better management.
* Full report in Stock Journal, August 29 issue, 2013.