We want more information! 10/08/2015
As a class we are going to make up a survey to give our Young Farming Champion, Bessie and Nan Bray from the White Gum Wool farm in Tasmania.
We want to find out as much information as we can so that we can compare and contrast the different methods of Australian Wool farmers. We are going to produce a written piece as a class (complete with a venn diagram) and in groups create an electronic visual presentation to share our findings.
There are a number of things we want to know more about:
- We want to find out how they run their farms.
- We need to know what farming practices they mostly use.
- What makes their farm unique and different from others?
- How big is their farming operation and how many are employed?
- What are the weather conditions and seasons like through the year?
- Are there any geographical features that make your farm unique?
- How many heads of sheep do they run?
- What is the biggest expense on your farm? Why?
- How does the environment and the climate impact on the growth of the fleece?
- How do you treat sheep when maggots and flies land on their fleece? Is that a huge problem on your farm?
- What is the message you want everybody to know about wool farming in Australia?
- What is your biggest challenge being a wool farmer in Australia?
- How are the sheep on your farm grouped? Why?
- What do the sheep use for shelter?
- Are there any natural threats to the sheep on the farm?
- How do you control those threats?
- At what age can the sheep first be shaun?
- When does a sheep become too old to sheer….is there an age limit?
- Does the quality of the fleece change as the sheep matures?
- How many years have you worked on your farm?
- What is the best thing about being an Australian wool grower and working on your farm?
We have emailed this set of questions to both farmers and from their answers we will formulate a response.
Below are the responses sent back to us from Bessie and Shannen. We now have a lot to discuss in class….we love learning more and more about what Bessie does on her farm. We are very grateful for being part of the Archibull Prize in 2015, because otherwise we would never have learnt all these things about wool farming in Australia!
- We want to find out how they run their farms.
Our farms are family owned and operated farms, run by my husband, his dad and mum, and me. The health of our animals is our main priority and for our animals to be heathy their environment has to be healthy too, which means the health of our environment is vital to our operations as well. Most of the farm and animal welfare decisions are made around the weather, food and water availability, and any environmental impacts (drought, flood, pests and weeds etc).
We farm across three properties – let’s call them Farm A, B and C. In March each year we shear at farm B and crutch (shear just around the sheep’s bottom to keep it clean) at farms A and C. In September each year we shear at farms A and C and crutch at farm B.
Shearing and crutching in March and September means the weather is more predictable in our region and it’s unlikely to be become dangerously hot or cold for the sheep when they’ve just been shorn. They also have to do a lot of walking in and out of the paddocks to get to the shearing shed at these times, so it’s important for the weather to be moderate when the sheep have to walk long distances.
Our main lambing season is April – before the weather gets too cold and to give the best opportunity for tasty grasses growing on the ground for the new mums to keep healthy – and lambs are marked in June, when the flies are usually still asleep before spring and summer!
- We need to know what farming practices they mostly use.
Having healthy and happy sheep is the most important part of our farm and so their welfare is at the forefront of our minds when we wake up every day. We farm in a very challenging environment with a highly variable climate, which means managing our sheep in a way which can help them cope with everything from high rainfall events to long periods of extended drought, as well as extremely hot summers.
Our aim is to give them the best whole life experience we can. Do to this, our practices currently include marking lambs, mulesing or tail docking lambs, and shearing and crutching sheep every year.
When new lambs are two months old our first job is to mark them. This means putting a farm name tag and number in one ear, taking a little snip out of the other ear (neighbouring farms have different ear mark shapes specific to each farm, so if a sheep is found on someone else’s farm the farmer knows where to return it to), castrating the male lambs so they don’t become rams (to maintain quality breeding genetics), and tail docking or mulesing the merino lambs.
Caring for sheep in our challenging environment means it is currently best practice for us to mules or tail dock or lambs. Mulesing or tail docking is just one safe and quick measure we can do to as part of our responsibility to care for a sheep’s health for its whole life. Mulesing is the removal of the lamb’s tail and a small section of skin around the lamb’s bottom and this is highly useful in preventing fly-strike. Fly-strike is when flies lay eggs (which turn into maggots) in the woolly, moist or dirty areas of a sheep. The tail and bottom region of a sheep is very susceptible to fly-strike if it is left woolly and long and once the maggots hatch in the sheep’s wool it can be very painful and even deadly. Mulesing or tail docking greatly reduces the chance of this happening by creating a bare area around the bottom instead of a woolly, wet area. Marking and mulesing a lamb takes about 30 seconds and then they go straight back to mum for a cuddle and a drink of milk. We constantly monitor the lambs and their mums after these procedures to make sure we get the best outcomes for our sheep.
Our sheep are first shorn at about six months old and then crutched and shorn once every year after that. Our geographical location and climate means our sheep are susceptible to fly-strike, worms and lice, so we treat them all with special sheep products – like preventative medicine – after every crutching and every shearing to make sure they’re well protected all year.
- What makes their farm unique and different from others?
The thing that makes our farm different and unique is the same thing that makes every farm different and unique – the people! More than 98 percent of Australian farm businesses are family farms and this means we get an amazing array of people, skills and personalities running Australian agriculture. I think this is fantastic because it means everyone has the opportunity to use their own skills to the best of their abilities on their farms. It means people can really connect with their farms, their animals and their environment, which makes running a farm a personal, emotional and special thing.
- How big is their farming operation and how many are employed?
Our farms are very average in size compared to all the other farms in our region. Altogether the three properties we farm sheep on add up to more than 180,000 acres which is about the same as one third of the urban/suburban area of Sydney. The four of us are the main workers for most of the year but we have a team of 14 people who come in to help with shearing and crutching, and during busy times such as lamb marking and mustering we do sometimes employ contract farm workers to help, as well as mustering pilots.
- What are the weather conditions and seasons like through the year?
Summers in far western NSW can easily be 40 degrees and hotter for many weeks at a time. In winter we do get frosts and have negative degree weather with cold winds and sleeting rain, but it doesn’t usually last for long and it doesn’t snow here. It is not usually humid, but rain at certain times of the year can cause humidity which then increases the chances of some pests and diseases. Our annual average rainfall is about 275mm (11inches), which is very marginal compared to the coastal areas of Australia, many of which receive more than 1000mm of rain a year.
- Are there any geographical features that make your farm unique?
Every paddock on our farms looks different from the next. On the farm where I live, one end is quite open and grassy but 30 kilometres away at the other end of the farm there are big rocky hills, deep washed out gullies, totally different soil types, trees and vegetation. There are red sandhills and spinifex in some areas, open clay pans in other areas, and thick gum trees and scrubby bush areas in others. None of our farms have any natural watercourses such as rivers or lakes. There is a seasonal creek on one farm but it only flows once every ten years, on average, when there’s exactly the right amount of rain at exactly the right location!
- How many heads of sheep do they run?
How many sheep we have depends greatly on the weather and seasonal conditions (food and water availability) from season to season and year to year. When conditions are at their best we can have up to 20,000 sheep. When there is drought we may only have a couple of thousand or even couple of hundred sheep – depending on how bad the drought is. On average we try to keep around 14,000 breeding ewes (female sheep who will have a lamb each year).
- What is the biggest expense on your farm? Why?
Tough question! The biggest ongoing expense is probably electricity and fuel. We have to run a lot of equipment and machinery and do a lot of driving to run the farms. And it takes a lot of power to run the extra bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and shearing sheds needed when we are shearing and crutching – which can be for two to three months of the year.
Shearing is another huge yearly cost, at about $6.50 per sheep overall.
- What do your sheep eat?
Our sheep eat the wonderful array of grasses, herbs and plants that grow naturally in this area. Some of their favourite foods are native spinach and the leaves of the rosewood tree.
- How does the environment and the climate impact on the growth of the fleece?
Generally when a season is drier a sheep’s wool becomes finer. Stress and food both influence the growth of wool, so when a sheep is more stressed or there is not enough grass to eat, the individual fibres in a fleece become finer (thinner). Big changes in the climate or environment causing lots of stress can cause a break in the staple of the wool – this is basically a breaking point where if you pulled the fibre from each end it would snap at that point, which is not good because we want a fibre that is strong and the right length to be processed and made into many different things.
- How do you treat sheep when maggots and flies land on their fleece? Is that a huge problem on your farm?
Flies can be a big problem in far-western NSW with our challenging climate and weather patterns but we always do everything we can to prevent them from becoming an issue. We do this by tail docking or mulesing our lambs when they are young, and then by spraying them with preventative fly-strike treatments twice a year (after crutching and after shearing). If sheep do get fly-strike (where flies lay maggots in the wool) then we have to catch every sheep that has it and treat them with a liquid that kills the flies and maggots by applying it onto the affected area of the sheep.
- What is the message you want everybody to know about wool farming in Australia?
Australian wool is a 100% natural, sustainable, renewable and bio-degradable product that is beautiful to wear and use. Australian wool farmers love and care about the health and happiness of their sheep. We care about the environment and healthy future of their farms. And we care about ensuring everyone – including you – has access to natural, safe and affordable fibres for your clothes, homewares and hundreds of other products.
- What is your biggest challenge being a wool farmer in Australia?
The biggest challenges are the weather and changing climate (extended drought periods), declining natural resources (including less rain), and biosecurity (various diseases and pests such as flies). All of these things can threaten a farm to the point of not being able to farm at all.
Other animals (such as kangaroos, rabbits and feral goats) competing for the same foods the sheep eat is also a big challenge, especially when the numbers of those animals builds up to unsustainable levels.
- How are the sheep on your farm grouped? Why?
Sheep are really social animals and you’ll often find them hanging out together in groups even when they have kilometres and kilometres of space to spread out in. On our farms lambs live with their mums until they are old enough to be weaned – which is once they’ve been taught by their mums how to eat grass and drink water from a dam or trough and no longer need to drink their mum’s milk. At about five months of age the lambs go into a paddock with all their friends from the same age group. We do this to give the mums a break and time to get fit and healthy for having another lamb next year.
- What do the sheep use for shelter?
All of our paddocks have lots of trees so they use these for shelter from the heat and cold. Wool is a great insulating fibre so their wool keeps them warm in winter and cool in summer and it also naturally protects against the sun’s harmful rays.
If the sheep have just been shorn and the weather forecast is predicting extreme heat or extreme cold, then we would keep the sheep in or near the shearing shed for a few extra days so they can be protected from the extreme weather.
- Are there any natural threats to the sheep on the farm?
Pests and diseases can be an issue on any farm, which is why we take biosecurity very seriously. Foxes, wild pigs and wild dogs can all be a threat to young lambs, as can some protected native animals such as wedge tailed eagles. Flies are the biggest ongoing threat every year.
- How do you control those threats?
Controlling threats is important not only for the health of the sheep but also the health of the environment. We control feral animals such as foxes, pigs and cats by participating in government run baiting/poisoning programs.
We try our best to keep the sheep disease free by making sure any new animals introduced to the farm are properly fit and healthy before they are allowed to mix with other animals. When diseases do occur we call in a vet to help treat and manage the issue.
- At what age can the sheep first be shaun?
Mentioned above.
- When does a sheep become too old to sheer….is there an age limit?
There is no age limit to shearing a sheep but sheep do grow less and lower quality wool the older they get. We sell our sheep at about 7 years old, which is when they become less physically fit to survive at their best in our environment. They start to loose teeth as they get older too – just like humans! – and this can make it difficult for them to eat and live a healthy life.
- Does the quality of the fleece change as the sheep matures?
Wool quality does tend to decrease as the age of a sheep increases, but bloodlines (genetics), diet, the environment (including seasonal changes) and management practices are also extremely influential factors on the quality of wool.
- How many years have you worked on your farm?
I have lived and worked on our farm for four and a half years, since February 2011.
- What is the best thing about being an Australian wool grower and working on your farm?
The best thing about working on our farm is that it’s almost impossible to get bored! We get to work in a beautiful environment with animals and people that we love, with huge, fun machinery and toys, and lots of space to be ourselves… and there’s always something different to do every day.
The best thing about being a wool grower is being a part of the amazing group of people who provide consumers around Australia and the world with a beautiful, natural, renewable fibre that can be made into SO many different things.
Here are Nan Bray’s answers to the same survey questions….
When school goes back we will be comparing and contrasting both farming styles…it will certainly be a wonderful and insightful whole discussion.
- Only a woolgrowing/grazing operation. No cropping. Only sheep. Wool is made into hand knitting yarn and sold by me. (I maintain ownership of the wool all the way through the “supply chain”, investing as needed to pay the processing costs, but then being able to se the price at which I sell the yarn.)
We need to know what farming practices they mostly use.
Ethical: no chemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides used. Sheep are not mulesed or tail-docked. Lambs remain with their mothers through their lifetime (no weaning), flock stays together as a single entity (except rams, of course). Nutritional choice and diversity of forage is a priority, leading to good nutrition, which means no need to drench (for intestinal parasites), sound wool and lots of it, and generally very healthy sheep.
- What makes their farm unique and different from others?
See previous question
- How big is their farming operation and how many are employed?
1000 superfine Saxon merinos (mixed age and gender). I employ 2 shearers, 2 roustabouts (casual labour for a total of 2 weeks per year) and one person, 4 hours per week, to help with the yarn business. Otherwise, I’m on my own. I’m 63, female, and this is my second career, after being a marine scientist until 12 years ago. Oh, and 7 working dogs 😉 without whom this would not be possible!
- What are the weather conditions and seasons like through the year?
Rainfall is about 600 mm per year on average. Average rainfall is evenly spread through the year, but doesn’t in fact fall that way. We can get precipitation in any season, or dry conditions in any season. Winters are severe—heavy frosts (as much as -9 deg C), wind, rain, snow. Summers are not as hot as on the mainland—35 is an unusually warm day for us.
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Are there any geographical features that make your farm unique?
Not really. I do have an area of dolerite soil which has a lot of native plants—helps with the nutritional diversity, and is also rather pretty bush country
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How many heads of sheep do they run?
1000 at the moment. 1200 max. 3 dry years in a row have kept numbers down
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What is the biggest expense on your farm? Why?
Shearing. Labour costs.
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What do your sheep eat?
Grass, perennial herbs, shrubs, trees. No hand feeding.
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How does the environment and the climate impact on the growth of the fleece?
Nutrition is the main determinant of wool quality. Climate has a direct influence on what grows when. How much plant diversity there is in the environment has a direct impact on nutritional quality.
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How do you treat sheep when maggots and flies land on their fleece? Is that a huge problem on your farm?
Flystrike is limited by using an organically approved compound called Extinosad, which is applied with a jetting machine 2 or three times during fly season—Nov to March. Animals are checked every couple of days in summer to be sure none are struck, or to treat any that are. Treatment is clipping away affected wool, and using a concentrated application of Extinosad
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What is the message you want everybody to know about wool farming in Australia?
It’s possible to do it ethically and profitably
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What is your biggest challenge being a wool farmer in Australia?
Managing the interaction between landscape, weather and grazing needs of the sheep. It’s a very dynamic system!
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How are the sheep on your farm grouped? Why?
All in a single mob, to keep families together. Sheep are highly social animals who learn from each other, protect each other, and like each others’ company. They are much better off in a single big mob with all generations than in “year classes”.
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What do the sheep use for shelter?
Land forms, sags, shrubs, gorse, trees
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Are there any natural threats to the sheep on the farm?
No
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How do you control those threats?
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At what age can the sheep first be shorn?
1 year
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When does a sheep become too old to sheer….is there an age limit?
don’t know, but I’m working on finding out. Merinos can live to 16-18 years, and their wool seems to be ok at least until they are 12-15, maybe longer, but there isn’t a lot of evidence. I’m now trying to let my sheep live out their natural lives on the property, so ask me again in a decade 🙂
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Does the quality of the fleece change as the sheep matures?
Yes, younger sheep (less than 3 years) grow less wool of finer micron
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How many years have you worked on your farm?
- What is the best thing about being an Australian wool grower and working on your farm?
I love shepherding the sheep—being out in the open, on the land, and working with the animals.