"Turbo-charging" reproductive performance has been the outcome of management changes for White Dorper producer Ben Polkinghorne who farms near Penong on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
In an effort to address declining lambing percentages in local flocks, Mr Polkinghorne was one of a group of Dorper producers on SA's semi-arid far-west coast who participated in a Meat & Livestock Australia-funded Producer Demonstration Site (PDS).
Implementing practices learned in this recently completed three year project, Mr Polkinghorne has seen clear production benefits in his Dorper flock..
Over the past three years, his flock's conception rate increased by almost 30 per cent and the marking rate rose by almost 40pc.
"The key practice that ultimately helped lift the overall flock marking rate from 99pc to 137pc across the course of the project was monitoring ewe condition score and feeding appropriately," Mr Polkinghorne said.
Although he was already scanning his ewes for multiples prior to the PDS, introducing the practice of differential feeding for single and multiple bearing ewes reaffirmed the importance of customising feed requirements according to nutritional needs.
It also illustrated the impact of the extra demand from twin lambs on ewe body condition score.
Monitoring ewe condition score, feeding according to nutritional needs and providing sufficient recovery time before re-joining were key drivers of the productivity improvements recorded throughout the project.
A good condition score is essential for effective joining, so Mr Polkinghorne wanted to make sure ewes had plenty of time to recover post-lambing before they were joined again.
"One of the key changes we've made is to bring forward our weaning date so that the ewes have more time to recover and get back into good condition for joining," he said.
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The project was coordinated by Anne Collins, AC Ag Consulting and Daniel Schuppan from Nutrien Ag Solutions.
Ms Collins said the takeaway from the project was definitely the importance of condition scoring.
"We found regular condition scoring of ewes allowed the chance to up the nutrition where needed," she said.
"Rams were also condition scored pre-joining which the majority of the farmers were not doing at that time.
"The ram scoring exercise was a hands-on day where we got the most engagement from producers.
"In the rams we looked at, there was one whose feet were not good and needed to be trimmed for him to be most effective.
"The importance of good ram condition scoring led this particular farmer to purchase a sheep handler to ensure ideal pre-joining condition for his rams in the future."
Other management strategies undertaken at the PDS were scanning for lamb numbers (singles or multiples), differential management strategies of ewes based on pregnancy status, assessing udder soundness and monitoring udder health, feed budgeting and weaning lambs at optimum time.
At the conclusion of the project, 100pc of the participating producers - around 25 across the life of the project - indicated that they had already adopted the majority of the management practices identified in the PDS, or that they intended to.
Full results from the project will be released by MLA in April.
"It will include valuable information about the relationship of condition score and conception rate," Ms Collins said.
