Extra lambs worth big money

"We need to get more lambs out the door and into our markets," Mr Ferguson said.

"Extra lambs are worth big bucks more than ever before. An extra lamb used to be worth $32 but with lamb worth $5.10 a kilogram and ewes $90 a head, that extra lamb is worth $62."

Mr Ferguson, who spoke at a Meat & Livestock Australia Making More from Sheep seminar at Clare last month, said Merinos in particular had the scope to be selected for higher fecundity and meat traits as in the past wool had been the main trait they had been selected for.

"Muscle has a positive impact on reproduction," he said. "So selecting for high-growth sheep will equal high lambing percentages."

He said Australian Sheep Breeding Values were a tool producers should use to concentrate on important traits like growth, reproduction, wool and easy care.

"High-growth animals equal heavier weaners," he said. "It can take 55 days less than the industry average to market lambs if high growth genetics (in the top 1 per cent) are used."

Mr Ferguson said producers should select Merino rams on ASBVs for yearling weight, yearling eye muscle depth, yearling clean fleece weight, fleece diameter, fleece coefficient of variation and fleece standard deviation.

"At the moment producers are missing out on a lot if they don't have access to any of these figures," he said.

He said ram selection should be based 30pc on visual inspection and 70pc on breeding values.

"The quicker you start the better off you'll be," Mr Ferguson said.

He said producers should consider mating ewe lambs, as they only needed to achieve a lambing percentage of 45 per cent, if lamb was worth $5/kg, to make money.

Mr Ferguson said when it came to reproduction, ewes in the top 1pc of YWT produced 15 more lambs per 100 ewes mated than the industry average.

When it came to reproduction and muscling, selecting for the top 1pc of YEMD meant 11 lambs more for every 100 ewes mated.

* Full Prime Lamb feature in Stock Journal, September 23 issue.