High Steaks Farming

Today we’ve brought all the sheep home and are sorting them in preparation for scanning tomorrow. We have a contractor coming in who will ultrasound the ewes and tell us if they are carrying single or twin lambs or if they’re empty.

Usually, we try to interfere with the livestock as little as possible . . . → Read More: Scanning Ewes

Although autumn this year has stayed warm for much longer than usual, we’ve had about half our average rainfall for the season, and we’re now two years into this drought. We had a lot of pasture growth after the early summer rain, but, from the standpoint of water, the subsoil moisture is tremendously low . . . → Read More: Winter Feed Budget

We’ve been lucky this year and have managed to get ourselves right under some of those summer storms. We’ve had over 2 inches just in the last week. From a distance the place looks spectacular, the dams are full and it’s green as far as the eye can see. But when you get . . . → Read More: Some Difficult Decisions

This is my first ever solo effort at mustering sheep. I had a false start when they hid behind the dam, then I got distracted by a pile of horse hair on the ground and lost them for a moment; but in the end I got those bloody ewes in the . . . → Read More: Binky’s Blog

As we struggled to supply adequate nutrition to our livestock this winter, we realised just how unappreciated grass is. Our breeding ewes and cows were getting grain for energy, hay for roughage plus protein supplements, mineral supplements, salt and molasses to keep them going. All these had to be in just the right ratios . . . → Read More: For the love of grass

It seems like an eternity since shearing but we finally have yarn in our hot little hands!

Its taken a while; working through the logistics, understanding the process and getting a product we’re happy with.

We will be launching Mile High Merino at FibreFest in Singleton on Sunday 28 October. You will find us at . . . → Read More: Introducing Mile High Merino

As feed options for our sheep have been hard to come by, the best we could come up with was a wheat and lupin mix. There are many reasons we don’t like feeding grain to our animals, but we have to supplement with something as there isn’t enough grass to keep them healthy; so . . . → Read More: Sprouting Grain for Sheep

The reason for so many bundles of joy in the shed and the house is that the ewes are abandoning their lambs. This happens when they don’t have enough nutrition to produce milk for them. In a poor season, when there’s not enough feed available, this is the sheep’s defense mechanism to allow them . . . → Read More: A Terrible Lambing Season

Drought is a part of life in Australia, and we do plan for it. Our strategy has been to always have twelve months of grass on hand. The last time we had a growing season was Autumn 2017 and we managed quite well until the start of winter this year.

Unfortunately we are now . . . → Read More: More Drought Feeding