THE lessons from life and nature are free but the consequences of not learning from them can be costly.
This is the philosophy shaping the management strategies of James Mckay at Egremont, a pastoral property south of Lucindale.
James runs the property with wife Georgie and sons Tom, 12, Will, 8, Fred, 6, and Jock, 3. He has learnt from family history and personal experience that it is best to run enterprises that suit the property and aim at a good average production, rather than push the limits.
The McKays run a successful livestock grazing operation on their 1640-hectare property, with an equal mix of cattle and sheep. They lease another 475ha, 20 kilometres away where they run cattle.
The enterprise mix on Egremont has 360 Simmental-Poll Hereford composite and Angus breeding cows and 2800 Merino-Dohne breeding ewes.
On the lease block, the family has had a policy of running dry stock for management simplicity, but an opportunity to buy cows from Western Australia in 2010 altered this for the short term.
"If we can improve our profitability without complicating things we will pursue those opportunities, but we try to keep things as simple as possible," James said.
The foundation of any grazing enterprise is good pasture quality and these, in turn, rely on healthy soils. Egremont has strong stands of phalaris and ryegrass balanced with subterranean, strawberry and white clover.
The McKays use organic fertiliser manufactured by Lawrie & Co and applied at about 150 kilograms/ha. They also have 220ha of dryland lucerne used for growing-out lambs and young cattle.
The family has a rotational grazing system, rather than set stocking because it allows paddocks to rest and pastures to revive and strengthen. "Quietly moving stock regularly also makes it easier to handle them in the yards," James said.
The McKays have also built-in flexibility in their sheep enterprise, with half the ewes mated to Dohnes in a self-replacing breeding component and the older half mated to White Suffolk sires to produce top prime lambs.
The swing to Dohnes from a traditional Merino base has been a success.
"Our wool cut is back a little but we have no problem achieving the ideal staple length of 80 millimetres. The positives are increases in fertility and early growth rate," James said.
The best management plan to suit the McKays' overall property has evolved into a December mating with a five to six-week joining period, dropping lambs in May and June and weaning at the end of August. The tops of the White Suffolk-cross lambs have generally gone to Coles and the rest sold to backgrounders.
"We averaged $110 last year and 1600 were gone by November. If we shore and carried all of them through to finished heavier weights, it would impact on growing-out our heifers for the cattle operation," James said.
But they do carry the Dohne wether lambs through to the end of February.
*Full report in Stock Journal, February 2 issue, 2012.
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