76 | Russell’s high performance sheep operation Russell laughton driving the combine. Russell Fredric MEAT & WOOL » Russell Laughton Soil biology and genetics are key contributors the high performance of the Laughton family farm’s sheep operation. The 294 effective Central Southland farm is a sheep and crop business which grows the crops on about 200 ha. This includes about 85ha of winter sown wheat, with the balance sown in oats, ryegrass, barley and peas. During autumn, oats combined with a small percentage of Moata ryegrass is direct drilled to provide green spring feed. Some of the farm’s key production indicators are enviable, with lambing at 170% plus and carcass weights of 20 to 22.5 kilograms. Purchased by Russell and Dawn Laughton more than 50 years ago, the farm is largely run by their son Malcolm who is married to Rachel. Malcolm has worked on the farm for about 30 years and son Brayden, 21, has also worked on it in recent years while daughter Courtney, 19, is studying a Bachelor of Commerce and Agriculture at Lincoln University. Brayden’s interest lies in machinery and cropping while Courtney favours livestock and the dynamics of growing crops but is likely to pursue a career outside of the farm in the short term. It carries 750 Romney/Texel breeding ewes and 180 ewe hoggets, with the genetics sourced from Meadowslea, Fairlie, but there is also an influence of the Inverdale gene which has contributed to the fecundity of the flock. For the terminal flock, Beltex rams have been sourced from Ashton Glen Farms, Clinton. The overall meat yield for lambs of all breeds is 56.5% while the carcass weight of the first draft of this year’s lambs processed before Christmas averaged an impressive 22.5kg. Fifteen years ago, lambing averaged 130 to 135% and a lower meat yield and the biggest challenge has been improving the eye muscle area, Malcolm says. “That was out biggest bugbear and we are slowly getting more meat in the eye muscle, but we want something that’s easy to lamb. It’s no point having a big lamb for starters, so we’ve gone for something that’s got reasonably fast growth rates once they’re born.” “There’s not a lot of money in wool these days. The carcass development, that’s where we’ve had to change over the last four or five years; we’ve gone from a sheep that produces a good average mixed carcass between wool and meat to one that’s producing more meat than wool.” Another key focus has been the use of fine particle fertiliser, a slurry applied on pastures by centrifugal force, much the same as solid fertiliser. Because it goes on in slurry form and sticks to the plants, it does not dissolve into the ground and goes into the plant and the root system. This application method is designed to improve the effectiveness of the fertiliser through greater surface coverage, which results in more grass per kilograms of nutrient than can be achieved with solid fertiliser, in combination with MagniGrow which restores the soil’s building blocks of fungi and bacteria to get the best results, Malcolm says. The process is claimed to improve soil condition, biological activity and plant available nutriRussell Laughton with a set of quads. ent, to reduce leaching by 50%, reduce emissions by 14% and increase water use efficiency by 38%, ultimately resulting in improved dry matter quantity and quality. Its use has definitely helped the pasture quality, he says. “It’s gone from very open and upright to a medium height pasture, but it’s very dense.” Proud to supply Genetics to Russell, Malcolm and Brayden Laughton David Giddings 027 229 9760 George Giddings 027 656 3323 www.meadowslea.co.nz
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