VERTICAL EXPANSION OF SHEEP FARMING THROUGH
IRRIGATED PASTURES AND PRECISION BREEDING
Hendrik van Pletzen (Voermol Feeds)
INTRODUCTION
• Sharp rise in land prizes hamper horizontal
expansion
Capital required per breeding ewe to buy veld
R4 000/breeding ewe
• Problems associated with horizontal expansion
Management and control
Lost to predators and stock theft
Climatic risks - drought
Look critically within your own farm
boundaries to expand sheep farming – own
potential
• Natural resources – soil, water and climate
• Genetic resources
SHEEP PRODUCTION ON IRRIGATED PASTURES
Important conditions
• Reliable water source and water quality – do
water analysis
• Soil potential – soil analysis
• Climate – restrictions e.g. very low
temperatures
• Good cultivation practices for high yield and
high carrying capacity
Sub standard – low soil potential or one
or other limiting factor?
PASTURE CHOICE
• Pasture must be well adapted to the environment
• Cultivars
• Annual pastures for irrigation farmers
More flexible
High yield (40 – 60 lambs/ha)
Rye, stool rye and clover mix
Pasture
Italian ryegrass
SSR 729 (stool rye)
Arrowleaf clover
TOTAL
kg/ha
10
20
6
36
Italian rye, stool rye, clover mix – more fiber, less
scours, better animal performance, better fodder flow
Perennial pastures
• Long term investment
• Management
• each pasture has a production pattern
• make provision in fodder flow planning
• fertilize depends on soil analysis – mutton
and wool are removed
• ± 35% nutrients re-circulate
• management of the pasture
100 N
0N
Fertilize 100 kg N vs 0 kg N/ha (Louw, 2009)
Too short
Short?
Too long
Too long, wastage!
ANIMAL HEALTH – A BIG CHALLENGE ON IRRIGATED
PASTURES
• Much more problems with a high concentration of
sheep, high risk
• Consult with vet and animal health representative
• Minimum treatment against internal parasites to prevent
resistance
• Dose according to dung samples and color of the eye
mucosa
• Coccidiosis (lambs) and scours
• Use ionophore in lick supplement
• Treat against blowflies
Characteristics of irrigated pastures
• High in protein (+ 20 %) but protein is highly
soluble and degradable
• Too little protein reach abomasum and small
intestine
• Shortage of bypass protein
• Energy value marginal
• Animals do not reach their growth potential
• High phosphate? - bladder stones
SUPPLEMENTS ON IRRIGATED PASTURES
 No NPN. Sufficient NPN in fertilized pastures
 Provide energy, natural proteins, minerals and
trace minerals
 Include medicaments that improve energy
utilization and prevent coccidiosis
 Palatable, molasses-based and low salt
 Must not blow away in August!
Voermol products on cultivated pastures
Superlamb
pellets
Energy block
Molovite
High octane
Medium octane
Lae octane
160
150
100
Energy
+++
++
++
Coccidiosis
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bladder stones
Yes
No
No
Sheep
Sheep and
cattle
Cattle and
sheep
250-500
250-300
200-250
Category
Protein (g/kg)
Animal type
Intake
(g/sheep/day)
Lucerne
• High quality low cost legume
• Flexible, make hay of surplus production
• Yield 16-22t/ha
• Carrying capacity of 25-30 ewes/ha
• Bloat, the biggest risk. High potassium soils
• Bloat can be managed to a certain extend
Fodder flow of lucerne (Fair, 1989)
Excellent sheep production on lucerne
Perennial grass clover mixture
Fodder flow of grass clover combination (Fair, 1989)
Sheep production on perennial irrigated pastures
Little information is available on carrying
capacity norms, sheep production and the
economics of such a system
A system study was thus conducted by Casper
Nel on the farm Modderfontein in the
Jamestown district to gain more information on
the subject. The study forms part of a Master’s
degree in Sustainable Agriculture at the
University of the Free State under supervision of
Prof Izak Groenewald and Hendrik van Pletzen
PERENNIAL PASTURE MIX
Pasture
kg/ha
Early-flowering type of tall fescue
Late-flowering type of tall fescue
15
10
Perennial rye-grass
Cocksfoot
Red clover
White clover
TOTAL
5
5
2
2
39
Average production data of ewes with lambs on irrigated pasture
ITEM
EWE DATA
Ewe mass one week before lambing (kg)
Ewe mass in October just after shearing (kg)
Ewe mass at the end of the study (kg)
Wool production of ewes (kg)
LAMB DATA
Birth mass (kg)
42-day mass (kg)
Final mass at 128 days (kg)
Carcass mass (kg)
Slaughter percentage
AMOUNT
52.5
47.5
52.0
4.3
4.6
19
44.6
22.7
50.9
ADG OF LAMBS
AGE
Birth to 42 days
42 – 100 days
100 – 128 days
Birth to slaughter
ADG (g)
343
334
229
314
Lambs with Superlam pellets creep feed weigh 86%
of ewe mass at weaning
Estimate of gross margins according to different marketing %
100% Marketing
(R/ha)
140% Marketing
(R/ha)
INCOME
Mutton (lambs)
30510
42714
Wool (ewes)
Total
COSTS
Establishment costs
Fertiliser and irrigation
Supplement feeding
Veterinary
Total
GROSS MARGIN/ha
Gross margin/ewe
2417
32927
2417
45131
6476
2820
8700
1050
19046
13881
463
6476
2820
11340
1194
21830
23301
777
Conclusion
• The pasture carried 30 ewes with lambs per ha
with ease from August to December
• Under these nutritional conditions (high quality
pasture plus Superlamb pellets) it is possible to
slaughter a lamb at 4 months of age directly
from its mother
• Two tooth ewes were used in the study and it
is expected that lambs of adult ewes would
grow even better
• In this study only the spring production of the
pasture was utilised that is probably in the order
of 50% of the total annual production
• The actual potential of sheep production on
irrigated pastures is therefore considerably
higher (about double that of the quoted figures)
SUMMARY
Item
Veld
Irrigated
pasture
Expansion
Capital cost (R/ewe)
Carrying capacity (ewes/ha)
Production (kg live mass/ha)
Risk?
horizontal
R4000
0.67
40
vertical
R1300
30
1880
Opportunity exists for vertical expansion,
depending on natural sources
INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH
PRECISION BREEDING
Research shows that there are large differences
between animals in their ability to convert feed
(grazing) to animal products. Therefore
differences in efficiency
In some animals are more than double the
amount of starch and amino acids available for
absorption than other animals and these
differences are heritable (Meissner et al., as
quoted by Bosman, 2008).
Broilers: Comparison of a modern commercial
strain with a 1957 strain (Havenstein et al.,
2003)
Days to slaughter
Modern
strain
32
1957
strain
101
Feed conversion
1.47
4.42
“85% of these production efficiency
gains were due to genetic selection”
Beef cattle:
Residual feed intake (RFI) quantifies the deviation above
or below the expected feed intake needed to meet
requirements for maintenance and production (Carstens
& Eng, 2009)
Efficient animals secrete 36 % less N and 32 %
less P
Efficient cows consume 10.8 kg of roughage per
day versus 12.2 kg of less efficient cows. No
differences in reproduction and weaning weights
of calves
Prof Gert Erasmus, 2002.
“SA Merino breeders know much about change in a
changing world. Drastic changes to both their
breeding objectives and breeding methods have
led to a change in the Merino just short of a genetic
miracle.
Not all breeders, however, took up the challenge of
change and were left by the wayside. For those
who did, there are even greater challenges ahead”
Sheep breeding
THE BASICS
Life time offspring of a top flock ewe
8 progeny
Life time offspring of a flock ram
200 progeny
Merino sheep
Reproduction efficiency of daughters of different sires
(Van Pletzen and de Villiers, 1993)
Item
Lambing %
kg lamb/kg ewe
Reproduction
efficiency
Ram group A
Ram group B
85.1
0.237
100
95.3
0.293
148
Daughters of Ram group B produce 48 % more lambs
PRECISION BREEDING
Results of ewe progeny of 126 sires show great variation.
Reproduction efficiency varies from 106 to 195 (Brynard,
2010).
The reproduction record of the sire's mother is the most
important record.
Direct correlation between the number of lambs weaned
per pair chance of the mother and the reproductive
performance of the ram's ewe progeny.
Rams from fertile mothers, or even more important a
fertile dam line, breed fertile daughters.
PRECISION BREEDING
 Use breeding values to increase productivity
 TWW breeding value (total weight wean)
 CMW National BLUP Sire Rating of Merino SA
 Top 60 sires in SA (Merino SA Focus, 2010)
TWW breeding values vary from 6.38 to -1.56 kg
16 % more lambs = R10 000 increase in
income/100 ewes
 Breed money makers
Great opportunities to improve productivity
Great opportunities to improve productivity
Baie dankie!