FOCUSING on the "one percenters" has paid off for one Mid North farming operation, with the property's ewe mortality rate during lambing below 1pc.
Operating at Caltowie and Booborowie, the property is home to 800 self-replacing Merino ewes, operated by the Henderson family.
"Since 2017 we've really started to focus on on the one percenters, which coincided with my return to the farm," Alison Henderson said.
"I got a good feel for what targets I wanted to achieve on-property and kind of set off from there."
Ms Henderson said she marked out the different traits she wanted to see in the commercial flock and started making small changes to achieved those goals.
Outlining objectives in the future of the flock, Ms Henderson said she wanted to focus on staple length, reproduction and growth and would seek out these specific traits when she was buying rams.
"I think the best thing I did was to combine visuals and Australian Sheep Breeding Values and line them up side by side," she said.
"Before a ram sale, we work out what our priorities are and then I'll go through the catalogue and fine tune a list that fit those specifications.
"On sale day I look at the visual phenotypical things and match them up with the ASBVs and at the end we buy five or six rams."
Prior to lambing, the family's flock is placed into confinement - something that came into practice three years ago.
"In 2018 it was a pretty rough year and we first brought confinement feeding into our operation," Ms Henderson said.
"We've got four larger areas on the farm that range from two to five acres (0.8-2 hectares) with tree shelter and good drainage that we can lot ewes in at this time of year.
"We just had another late break, which makes things pretty tough, but I know when our ewes start lambing they'll be on the maximum amount of feed we can grow for them at this time.
"They'll still be in good condition though and hit that green feed at lambing with plenty of reserves on board."
Ms Henderson said scanning for multiples and singles had been a game changer for the operation - splitting the ewes into separate mobs for more focused feeding practices.
"We've done that for four years now and split them up into their mobs and fed them accordingly," she said.
"I have a lot more peace of mind feeding them in their specific twin and single mobs.
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"I can see and put my hands on them know their condition score is around the mark and know they're going to hit lambing time with the resources they need."
Through these practices, Ms Henderson has been able to bring ewe mortality rate below 1pc during lambing - losing less than five out of the 800 ewes each year.
"It's something we're proud to have achieved and it's something everyone is capable of getting to," she said.
Move from commercial into stud breeding a first for Caltowie family
TRANSITIONING into Merino stud breeding can be a challenge for commercial operations, but Hendowie's Alison Henderson has taken the challenge in her stride.
While helping fine tune her family's commercial flock at Caltowie, Ms Henderson saw the opportunity to use some of the ewes they had bred as a foundation for a stud flock.
"I've always loved data and towards the end of my uni degree I realised precision shaped management using data was a passion of mine," she said.
"Through focusing on genetics and breeding in our commercial flock, I thought I could do the same with a stud and combine those passions.
"It made it easy because my new flock comes from the tops of our commercial flock.
"So already having confidence in what our flock was doing, because we had been measuring it for two or three years, helped me have a pretty good base to start with and I think the numbers and figures I've got on my ewes and rams this year prove that theory is right."
Putting the plan into gear last year, Ms Henderson said she aimed to have her first ram sale this year and, although it was a daunting process, she was confident in the future of her stud.
"It's not something that's ever been done in the history of our family, but I'm really enjoying the process," she said.
"I've also had great support from other studs and our agent in showing me exactly what needs to be done.
"There are so many factors I had never even thought of before, but knowing I have quality sheep takes the stress off of everything else at least a bit."