StayDry Beta Breed™ deliversin the Riverina

With the number of lambs weaned per hectare being a key profit driver for Simon Coddington in theNSW Riverina, it’s criticalthat he gets nutrition right duringpre-joining and lambing. 

Simon is livestock manager at both ‘Coolabah’ and ‘The Vale’ near Temora, running about 2200 Merino breeding ewesacross the two properties. At Coolabah they run a commercial sheep breeding enterprise while The Vale is morefocused on commercial research. 

Either way the overarching goal is to achieve the highest possible profitability both per hectareand per head, from wool cut and the number of lambs weaned.

A dry year in 2018 highlighted the impact environmental factors can have on that performance. The important role of livestock nutrition in a farming system and the potential for nutrition productsto improve profitability was reinforced for Simonthrough a discussion with a Grow® Livestock Agronomist during a visit to his property.

“We were approached by the Grow Livestock Agronomist who went throughsome products that would help us at key times of pre-joining and pre- lambing,”Simon recalled.

“We first went through the Grow StayDry Beta Breed™ productfor pre-joining, and the costs and benefits associated to that.”

StayDry Beta Breed is a waterproof lick powder nutritional supplement designedto improve fertility. It does this byalleviating deficiencies of macro minerals, trace mineralsas well as key vitaminsand carotenoids priorto joining.

After consulting with the Grow Livestock Agronomist, Simon set up an on-property StayDry Beta Breed trial with an aim to increasescanning percentages across hisMerino ewe enterprise.

The trial involved 760 ewes split intoage groups including maidens, two and three-year old’s. Within age groups the ewes were then randomly split into a treatment group, which received StayDry Beta Breed in the trialand the control group,which didn’t receivethe product.

“StayDry Beta Breed is a load-up product so we fed 300 grams per head over the four weeks pre-joining to both the ewes and the rams” Simon says.

“The ewes were probably in as good a condition as I’d like forjoining, yet the results from the trial were certainly still outstanding. Fromthe treatment group which had received StayDry Beta Breed, we had an increaseof 13 per cent scanned lambs in those ewes compared to ewes in the controlgroup which didn’t receive the product.”

“Getting those extra 13 per cent potential lambs at a cost of $1.44per head for the treatment led to a return on investment in StayDry Beta Breed of $17.44 per head.”

Simon says the potential to increase lambing percentage by so muchleads to both the ability to have more lambs on the ground as well as creatingmore selection pressure on young ewe lambs becausesimply put, there are more of them to choose from.

Critical to all farming operations is the need for efficiency, and Simon reportsthat StayDry Beta Breeddelivers in this regard.

“It was simple to feed out to the stock. Basically we added a dailydose to both the ewes and rams through just a small plasticcontainer in the paddock”Simon explains.

“I certainly think the StayDry Beta Breed product is easy to use. Ithas a known cost at the start so you know exactly what you’re up for when youstart the programme and the results and return on investmentare outstanding - from a production and profitability point of view, it’s greatutilisation of the land.”

“Given how dry the year was, and that the ewes were in as good a condition as we wouldwant them, to get a return of that level in those circumstances is reallyexciting and I am looking forward to see how it could perform in a year when the condition of the stockisn’t as optimal.”

A critical element to the success of the StayDry Beta Breed trialSimon emphasises, is the role the Grow Livestock Agronomist staff played fromfirst introducing him to the productand the potential role it could playin his farming system, through to on-going support throughout the process.

“The background provided and interaction between the Grow Livestock Agronomist, their nutritionists and vets, has certainly improvedour farm system,”Simon says.

“Importantly at an individual level, working with theGrow team has helped improve my knowledge in understanding the challenges weface and the solutions that we can achieve.”