ON FARM SHEEP TELLING OUR STORY Over the fence In this series, Feedback follows a group of producers from across Australia as they manage their operations over the course of a year and respond to the challenges that arise in a modern red meat enterprise. This is the fifth and final instalment of the 2019–20 series. SNAPSHOT: Andrew Mitchell Andrew and Kimberley Mitchell, Mintaro, SA late winter lambing. In June, than sharing a vehicle. We S We were feeding sheep upwe tailed the autumn lambs.relaxed this a little as therate of new cases began until recently when they went falling. Apart from that, it out onto the pastures. hasn’t really affected our Our crops are also up and farming practices. out of the ground. We’ve got From a profitability canola, lupins, faba beans, perspective, it’s knocked our oats and ryegrass for hay, wool sales around. We lost which were all sown in April. about 30% at the wool sales Area: In July, we’ll be doing some because of the downward 3,300ha over several in-crop spraying. pressure on prices. I’ve been properties, plus WHAT COVID‑19 HAS positive about red meat 300ha leased SEASONAL CHALLENGES: MEANT FOR OUR previously, but at the top It’s been dry but we received BUSINESS: end – in the restaurant and Enterprise: 40mm of rain at the start of When we heard about the foodservice sector – the Dual-purpose Merinos, March and another 14–28mm situation unfolding, we market is not going to be cropping and wine grapes in early April, by which time ordered a lot of our farm there for us for a while, as Livestock: we’d sown all our pastures. supplies in early. We had people aren’t able to eat out 6,000 sheep, including We had perfect weather for chemicals and fertiliser the way they could before. 3,200 Merino ewes pasture establishment, with on-farm in March. We also I hope people will still buy mild, sunny days. heard some products, such lamb to eat at home. ■ Pasture: WHAT’S ON MY PLATE: as chemical labels, couldn’t Native pastures, sown We started seeding a week be shipped from China, so cereals, ryegrass and earlier this year because of we wanted to make sure white clover the coronavirus situation. we had our inputs on hand. Our employee returned early Our family is also heavily Soil: involved in sport, so with Heavy red-brown clay, some from annual leave because his holidays were cancelled, all that cancelled, we found chocolate brown earth we had a lot of extra time – so we started sowing as about 18 hours per week. Rainfall: soon as he came back to 600mm work. The ewes lambed in On the farm, we’ve practised April in favourable conditions social distancing as much Andrew Mitchell and it went exceptionally well.as practical, such as using E: aandkmitchell@ We scanned ewes in May for our own vehicles rather bigpond.com The Mitchells started planting crops a week earlier than usual this year. 2288