RETURNS from shedding sheep have been so strong for Mallee farmer Denis Russell that he has moved away from cropping to focus solely on livestock production.
Denis and his wife Bronwin share-farm a 2800 hectare property at Parilla.
In the past, about a third of the farm was used for dedicated cropping.
Now, only 400 hectares is put to crop, and that is used solely for sheep feed, with only barley is sown, because of its reliability.
"We changed over from cropping, to having the sheep as a core business, because of profitability," Denis said.
"The returns, especially in the drought years, were much higher from prime lamb production.
"Also, we're not doing as much work to make money. There is a lot of capital involved with cropping with machinery and maintenance, and we found we just weren't getting the returns on it."
The Russells run up to 2400 ewes.
"All but 100 do not require shearing," Denis said.
"We produce prime lamb, which we sell straight over the hooks.
"In the past, occasionally, we experienced a discount in the saleyards, because buyers didn't understand what they were buying. So, we went to hooks sales and haven't had any issues since."
The Russells have been producing clean-skin sheep since the early 1990s.
Denis says he is a "bit of an experimenter" and has tried breeds such as Minis, Speckled Persians and Van Rooys. But his sheep predominantly have a White Dorper influence.
He said Dorpers were the stand-out for meat quality, for muscle and lean meat production.
"I find them to be the best performing meat sheep," he said.
"I worked with Merinos a lot of my life. In the 1990s I bought some Wiltshire Horn ewes and in the late '90s, when the African breeds started to come in, I was involved with the importation and promotion of the Dorper breed in particular.
"African breeds are adjusted to our harsher, dry conditions and are much better converters of feed."
Denis says Dorpers are able to convert lower grade pasture into meat and lambs.
"With the provision that there's some volume with that pasture, they won't grow on nothing," he said.
"They are good on woody weeds and very good at cleaning up stubbles."
Denis says with the optimum conditions weight gains of up to 500 grams a day can be achieved with Dorper-cross lambs.
"Feed-lotters are finding that they are able to meet their weight requirements a lot earlier and with 20 per cent less inputs," he said.
Denis has also enjoyed good results from the Meat Master and Drought Master breeds.
"They are a White Dorper composite," he said.
"They offer much the same performance as a White Dorper but they are a little tougher, probably because of their hybrid background."
Denis says producers should be careful not to overstock with shedding sheep, because they breed quickly.
"If you overdo it, you can have trouble finishing them, because you have so many," he said.
"They have a faster turnover, higher lambing rates and lamb more often."
On the Russell's property, lambing rates of between 110 to 120 per cent are typical, but Denis says he has predator issues on his property and that even higher rates can be achieved.
Lambing times are adjusted to the available feed.
"I have some groups that we lamb continuously, we wean the lambs and then put the rams in again straight after," he said.
"Other groups only lamb once a year or when the opportunity presents itself.
"This year, because we have a lot of feed, we are mating the bigger mobs two months earlier than normal because we know they will have enough feed to get through."
While all the wether progeny are sold over the hooks, strong breeder demand for clean skin females means there is now a waiting list for ewe lambs.
"In the last year, the amount of interest has been absolutely overwhelming," he said.
"We have got a lot of cropping clients that are getting back to a 50/50 operation, rather than cropping, with 'opportunity' sheep.
"In the past six months, my enquiries would equate to about 20,000 females, while I only have 1000 available," he said.
Interest is not just coming from Australia, but overseas including China, the Middle East and South Africa.
This huge interest has led to the creation of the Australia-first International Cleanskin Sheep Symposium, Show and Sale. The event will be held on February 18 and 19, 2010 at the Adelaide Showground, Wayville.
The event has been designed to provide a world wide stage for the promotion of the cleanskin sheep industry in Australia.
Details: www.cleanskinsheep.com.au
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