FINDING a place to begin with implementing technology on-farm can be overwhelming but a Barossa Valley farming family realised that with a basic plan and simple goal, it can lessen the load quite quickly.
Sixth generation farmer, Georgie Keynes helps to manage the family farm at Keyneton and gradually, bit by bit, adopted affordable technology that has reduced work load and streamlined the sheep operation.
The Keynes run about 3000 Merino ewes, with a portion joined to Border Leicester rams.
The family's focus is firmly on getting as many lambs on the ground as possible and to achieve this, knowing as much as possible about ewe performance is crucial, according to Ms Keynes.
"We want to make sure ewes are producing as best as they can," she said.
Apart from being a Red Meat and Wool program focus farm, Ms Keynes said technology adoption had always been a priority but knowing where to begin was a challenge.
"There is a lot out there but we like to keep it simple and only use what truly benefits the farm," she said.
With some country that accumulates about 500 millimetres of rain a year and other paddocks that are non-arable rolling hills, the farm is varied but there is a lot of technology that can work across an entire farm, no matter how complicated or different it might be, she said.
For the past couple of years, they have used a ewe containment lot to help maintain ewes for three to four month in the summer period.
"It is priority for us to ensure ewes remain in condition score three - it is a key component for our business but it is also very expensive because of the amount of fodder that runs through there," Ms Keynes said.
To further strengthen the benefits of containment feeding and target specific weight groups - the Keynes introduced an electronic identification tag system on the farm.
"About eight years ago we bought a sheep stud and introduced the system in that operation. We have since moved on from that but continued the use of eID in the commercial side of the business," Ms Keynes said.
Following a less stressful approach, Ms Keynes said if a sheep lost a tag, it was just "tough luck".
"We just run it how it works best for us - that is important when using technology I think," she said.
A visual colour tag is used in conjunction with the eID system, to help identify ewes quickly.
"It identifies what ram the ewe has been joined to, either a Border Leicester or Merino - ewes jump in and out of mobs all the time and we can work out that mob information quickly instead of using the auto drafter,' Ms Keynes said.
An auto drafter determines weight for crossbred and Merino wethers that have been through the feedlot.
"We weigh all lambs at weaning to get a growth rate for them," Ms Keynes said.
"It helps us to easily split mobs into fats and skinnies and it gives us the flexibility to target what we are doing. We can look at ewe lamb average daily weight gains too."
EFFICIENCY FOUND WITH NEW CLAMP
THE Keynes are using an auto drafter for multiple data jobs, with it also being utilised for pregnancy scanning and fleece weighing.
Keyneton farmer Georgie Keynes said it was helpful to remove 'passengers' in the ewe mob.
"Ewes are joined for five weeks and anything that is dry is sold," she said.
"But anything that does not rear a lamb, we keep them on-farm for a year. So by storing that information, it helps us to determine if they leave the property for twice not rearing a lamb."
This year they are looking at early and late pregnancy scanning of ewes in containment, using the auto drafter.
"Rather than having to separate into too many mobs - we have the info in the tag and know that we can let the early ones out of containment about three weeks earlier," she said.
They weigh their fleeces.
Based on the fleece character, ewes are separated into hoggets, crossbred, Merino or cull mobs and an index is formed by combining all information for each mob.
They have also invested into a Combi Clamp, which holds each sheep in the same position and allows ease of handling and control as animal movement in minimised once clamped.
The Keynes bought the clamp through an agtech rebate.
"We recently used it to vaccinate and drench ewes," Ms Keynes said.
They were able to put through 500 ewes in two hours - which she said was reasonably quick.
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Vanessa Binks
I am the Markets Editor and journalist at the Stock Journal. I am based at Nuriootpa in SA's lower north.
I am the Markets Editor and journalist at the Stock Journal. I am based at Nuriootpa in SA's lower north.
