Vetch feeds great lamb prices

"We crop about 890 hectares, 121ha to hay and the rest grain and we run about 2800 sheep," Mr Paech said.

The first pen of the woolly wether Murray Bridge sale offered by Mr Paech earlier this month, made the top price of $256.

Mr Paech says he normally makes good money with August/September sales due to buyers chasing new-season lambs.

Mr Paech's focus is on "good meat sheep" and he has been breeding his own lines of first-cross Prime SAMMs for the past three years.

"We buy Merinos in and put a Galaxy Park SAMM ram over them," he said.

"Galaxy Park stud is local to me and they have won a lot of ribbons at the Royal Adelaide Show with their lines.

"The lamb is a lot better because we get bigger lambs out of the SAMM genetics.

"I reckon they grow quicker, the mums have a lot more milk and I get a higher percentage of lambs out of them."

Mr Paech said they are running 53, 8.5-year-old SAMM ewes at Coonalpyn that are normally sold younger, however he got 103 lambs from them this year, which surpassed his expectations.

He said they run on the SAMM ewe lambs they breed and join them young.

"Normally you wouldn't mate sheep until they are a 1.5-year-old but we have been getting between 60 per cent and 70pc lambing out of them from joining them at nine months old," he said.

"It's the breed, the SAMMs being bigger framed means we can do that with them."

Mr Paech usually joins his ewes at the end of the second week of November and takes his rams out in January for an April lambing.

"The price of lambs is unbelievable so I am very happy with this years lamb's but it was certainly a slow start to the season out on the farm," he said.

"Lambs were dropped a lot later this year, they are probably three weeks behind because of the dry start and lack of feed."

RELATED: Woolly wethers sell at $256

Mr Paech usually sells his lambs from mid-August onwards and fed his sheep a supplement feed to get them through.

"We fed out roughly 600 round bales of vetch hay this year across the flock," he said.

"It is very high in protein so it is good for energy aiding growth and muscle development."

Mr Paech said the vetch hay helped to give his lambs a head start.

"This is the first year we have grown our own vetch.

"Usually we feed normal oaten hay and barley hay and then they get a bit of barley in the grain feeders, which they help themselves to whenever they want it."

Kelpies Bella, Skye, and Rusty, run across Craig Paech's farms as valuable contributors to his farming operations, assisting in mustering his sheep from the paddocks for shearing.

The pooches help with rounding the sheep up but aren't used around the shearing shed as they are too eager and keen.

"I don't like working the dogs in the yards because they push the sheep too hard, which then stresses the sheep," Mr Paech said.

Shearing got under way last week to shear about half his 2800-head flock.

"We shear our sheep yearly but half we shear now and the other half we shear in February or March depending on when our shearers are available," he said.

He says having Prime SAMM-Merino sheep brings more value in wool.

"They do produce better wool than a crossbred sheep," he said.

"We get about 80 millimetres in wool staple length and a micron of about 20."

Mr Paech lent a hand this week in the shearing shed with crutching duties.

"The kids help with tailing and drenching happens when shearing so we only need to bring the sheep in once a year," he said.

"I learnt a lot of what I know from my dad, he is very knowledgeable about sheep and it takes the whole family to run the farm."

Mr Paech says he has found what works best for his paddock conditions to raise good lambs.

"We are keeping 300 SAMM-cross ewes lambs for ourselves and then will buy more sheep at the local Murray Bridge market," he said.