New containment yards proving a valuable tool for EP woolgrowers

The family - Paul and wife Caitlin, parents John and Jo, Paul's sister Nicole and her husband Joel Fitzgerald - run a 4500-hectare cropping and sheep enterprise.

They run a 1200 to 1400 head self-replacing Merino flock, with a primary focus on wool production, and grow wheat, barley, lupins and some oats for hay.

Paul Schaefer said the catalyst for the confinement yards and making a change was starting a farm business course two years ago, which had a big focus on benchmarking.

"Our first result showed we technically made a loss from our sheep enterprise when our time, labour and more was accounted for," he said.

Paul said that course, along with dry summers and a lot of time spent feeding sheep, made them realise they needed to make a change.

"Our intention was to increase our stocking rate by keeping the same amount of ewes on reduced winter grazed hectares," he said.

"By using the confinement area to allow feed to get away we have achieved this, with the added benefit of now looking at a very dry season and being able to lock the sheep up from late spring and control their feed to a maintenance ration."

In February, the Schaefers finished the construction of four containment pens, which are conveniently located near their existing sheep yards and shearing shed.

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Two pens of 2500 square metres and two pens of 1600sqm allow enough space for their 1200 ewes, with Paul saying the stocking rate could be increased if needed.

"There was a bit of an existing laneway so we built the pens onto that," he said.

"It had mains water already running past it and was close to the yards so they can double as an extra holding area at shearing or marking."

Paul said their pregnant ewes went into containment pens for two months after shearing in late March this year.

An old hammer mill from when they owned a piggery was used to mix lupins and cereals, with an auger extended to load into lick feeders.

"Even though there was only a minor break to the season this year, we sowed some feed and it just gave it enough time to get away," Paul said.

"If we had ewes on there as it was poking up they would have mowed it off because they hadn't seen any green feed for a while.

"In better or more average years it will provide the time to get feed established early and then put sheep on."

WITH his family having recently installed containment yards, Paul Schaefer, Pinkawillinie, said they planned to put their ewes in after weaning in mid-October.

"Now the yards are there and ready to go, the ewes will go back in as soon as we wean the lambs until harvest when we get some paddocks free," he said.

"That'll free up what pastures we do have left and will be good for lambs to be weaned on.

"The ewes will be in there for at least another month from October to mid-November, perhaps even longer depending on how the season turns out."

Paul said the family had learned many valuable lessons during their first foray into confinement feeding, saying that feed testing hay and knowing their grain and what ration they were giving - so they do not overfeed - was important.

"We're still learning but we've definitely noticed improvement in soil cover over our paddocks," he said.

"We've got a fair bit of sandy loam and soft hilltops where the sheep like to camp and they were losing soil cover and drifting. We wanted to keep them off those vulnerable areas."

With another dry season looming, Paul said the family also planned to switch from lick feeders to trough feeding, allowing them to focus on feeding maintenance rates, and upgrade from using an old hammer mill to a mixer with scales.

The Schaefers also plan to erect sails for shade, plant shrubs and trees to act as a windbreak and invest in larger permanent storage for their grain, which is presently stored in field bins.

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