April’s pasture growth rate was 22 kgDM/ha/day and in calculating this figure, I have allowed for the patches of dead grass in the paddock (I estimated this to be 20 per cent). The areas of green pasture would have grown about 27 kg/day for the month.
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The rain at the end of the month has ensured May growth will be, at worst, average, (15 to 20 kg DM/day). The fodder budget for the Bookham site is giving me a pasture mass of around 1100 kgDM/ha at the end of May (running 7.1 ewes/ha), well above the normal levels. Even if this is out by 200, we are still in a strong pasture position. From what I have seen, the clover germination has been good, which means that pasture quality is high and stock will be gaining weight at rates higher than we would normally expect. Ewes should be in the upper band of fat score.
May has a strong probability of being dry, which is not an issue as soil moisture is good enough to drive growth. Any small falls will keep the top soil moist.
The rain has also helped the worm population to increase. Testing is your only way of being clear of the burden.
Wether trial
The third year of the current Bookham wether trial was sown last week. Wool cut ranged from 5.3 kg to 3.9 kg clean weight with a trial average of 4.5 kg. Fibre diameter went from 17.3 um to 20.3 um with an average of 18.4 um. The wool prices used to value the wool was a 12 month average from April 2016 to 2017. This gave $/hd figures ranging from $87.77 to $62.28 with the average of $74.05. The prices used were about 350 to 400 c/kg clean below the market average for 2017. Running a top quality wether flock generates a very competitive return/ha when you consider the labour involved. While on the topic of $/ha, I have just calculated the returns off the Bookham grazing site for the year May 2016 to May 2017. This includes the lambs born in 16 plus the wool harvested in May 17 (link the wool grown to the right pregnancy and lactation). The lambs and wool are valued on the prices applying at the time of sale.
The gross income was $1014/ha, with expenses of $382/ha including overhead costs giving an operating profit before finance and tax of $631/ha. This is up $190/ha on 2016 and $260/ha up on 2015 mainly due to prices rather than production. The fertiliser applied over the last 19 years has averaged 64 kg of single super per year. In five years out of the 19, nothing has been spread based on soil test data. Based on $400/t spread for super this works out at an annual cost of $25.60/ha over the 19 years to run a 12 dse/ha breeding operation. There was no fertiliser spread in the 2017 year.