WITH weeds a problem in-crop this season due to the late start, Murraylands lamb producer Glenn Richards decided to use his wethers as an alternative, and ultimately successful, method for control.
Mr Richards and wife Heather, with son Jordan and father John, crop Scepter wheat, Compass barley and oats, and run 1200 Merino breeding ewes on 1500 hectares at Brinkley.
He said they only started seeding in mid-June, waiting on a decent rain for the season break.
"We only finished seeding at the end of June," he said.
Mr Richards said this caused an in-crop weed burden in some paddocks.
On one particular paddock of Compass barley, he said they did not have time to spray the grasses out before it was sown, so decided to give his weaned eight-week-old wether lambs a go on it.
"We also didn't have a lot of sheep feed at that time because of the late start, so we decided to chuck our wether lambs in there to fatten them up," he said.
Mr Richards said once the lambs started grazing in there, the "barley just took off".
"The lambs ate more of the grass out, than the barley, possibly because it was slightly sweeter," he said.
"When they finally came out as five-month-olds, they had about an extra five kilograms on them than normal."
He was planning to keep all of the wethers to shear before selling them, but they came up so well that half were offered at the annual Murray Bridge woolly wether lamb sale on September 6.
The 150 Gunallo-blood lambs fetched $150 - not topping the sale - but Mr Richards said he was pretty happy with the exercise.
"That barley paddock is relatively weed-free now and should still go about 1.5 tonnes/ha, plus we got free sheep feed out of it - it's definitely worth doing," he said.
"Even if it confuses the neighbours!"
Mr Richards said they have not touched the crop since the wethers came out.
"The barley has shot up and a lot of it is now coming out in head," he said. "Hopefully we get rain this week to keep it going."
The rest of the April/May-drop wethers, about 166, will be shorn this week and sold at the next Murray Bridge feature sale on October 11, along with the family's popular 1.5-year-old ewes.
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Mr Richards said this year's young ewes were looking good, after finishing on quality pastures.
"Hopefully the rain this week will give buyers a bit of confidence," he said.
The Richards sheep are shorn every eight months, but not all of the flock at the same time, so shearing occurs about three times a year.
"It works well for us, the dates don't clash too much with other farm schedules," he said.
Test paddock performing well
ANOTHER barley crop looking the goods at the Richards' Brinkley property was a trial paddock sown by Ramsey Bros, who were test driving a new Morris 50-foot Quantum air-drill seeder.
Ramsey Bros Murray Bridge branch manager Linc Ramsey said the seeder's ability "to place seed really accurately would have also contributed to that crop's performance".
Glenn Richards said the 40-hectare Compass paddock was "by far" their best looking crop.
"After the crop was sown dry in early June, it jagged a good rain a week and a half later and germinated really well," he said.
"We haven't done anything to it, except give it RoundUp prior to sowing.
"August has been pretty dry however, so it will need that rain this week to keep it going strong."
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Alisha Fogden
Journalist at Australian Community Media newspapers since 2007.
Journalist at Australian Community Media newspapers since 2007.
