The reports and recommendations for management of ewes to lifetimewool principles are based on the biological impacts of ewe nutrition and the economic implications of managing those ewes, including changes to stocking rate, supplementary feeding and wool and sheep trading profit.
Pregnancy Scanning and its impact on farm Profit
MIDAS analysis on Pregnancy Scanning impacts in the high rainfall zone (download pdf - 220kb)
Optimising Ewe Management and Regional Guidelines
Managing Ewes Profitably - summary of the modelling results including cost of missing targets and the impact of stocking rate. Full MIDAS economic analysis report (download pdf - 250kb)
High Rainfall Zone - se SA, Vic, Tas, se NSW
Managing Ewes Profitably - summary of the modelling results including cost of missing targets and the impact of stocking rate. Full MIDAS economic analysis report (download pdf 250kb)
Cereal Sheep Zone - WA & SA & Vic
MIDAS was selected as the modelling tool for this economic component of the project because it represents the whole flock and it includes a powerful feed budgeting module that optimises animal and pasture management across the whole farm. MIDAS is a computer model used to assess the impact of change in a farming system. It describes the biological relationships of a representative farm and calculates the profitability of the whole flock based on the productivity of each class of stock and commodity prices and the farm carrying capacity calculated in the detailed feed budget.
Being an optimizing model it calculates the optimum stocking rate and optimum rate of grain feeding that will maximize profitability while achieving the targets specified for the ewes. The model also accounts for changes in flock structure and the change in ewe energy requirements that result from increasing lambing percentage and the number of ewes pregnant or lactating with singles or twins when ewe nutrition is altered.
Including the biology that has been quantified as part of the Lifetimewool project in economic analyses, altered the outcome about the most profitable nutrition strategy for ewes that had tradionally been accepted.
The economic analysis was conducted by John Young of the Farming Systems Analysis Service, based in Kojonup, WA. John is recognised as one of Australia's most respected farm modelers and conducts analysis for many other major projects nationally.
