Glendemar Newsletter August 2025

Glendemar Newsletter August 2025 - By Ben Duxson

Thanks once again for some ripping feedback from our last newsletter.  Please feel free to either phone, email, text, whatever, any comments, good or bad.  Feel free to pass this onto anyone you think might be interested and I can also add new members as well.

Glendemar MPM

Open Day Wednesday 1st October – All rams penned – Food and drinks provided

On-Property Sale Wednesday 8th October – Auctions Plus and Livestreamed

Maternal Magic – We have two basic systems on the breeding side – maternal and terminals. Terminals to cross and sell everything, maternal as a self-replacing flock, that then sells any surplus to requirement ewes into the breeder market. However, the past 2 years, drought in the south, low sheep prices, big decrease in confidence, has seen surplus ewes go into the slaughter market. This was the start of the liquidation of the sheep flock. Now we see such strong mutton prices that again liquidation of the breeding flock is accelerating.  It is like the industry is cannibalising itself in front of us.

On the producer side we just need to aim to be as productive as possible. Higher lambing conception and survivability, faster growth to turnoff and reproduction, feed efficient ewes, low input ASBV traits, animal welfare traits and structurally sound, robust ewes.  This is the engine room of our industry and will provide many opportunities into the future. We have spoken of ewe lamb joinings, another alternative is accelerated joinings, i.e. joining for 3 lambings in two years.  I will expand on this in future newsletters as I have a client doing just this. 

The maternal breeding ewe will be the gold nugget of the sheep industry as we look to arrest declining numbers and provide the demand that is required.  Opportunities will present themselves for anyone willing to work in the maternal space and turn off quality stock.  Maternal breeding, where the magic happens.

$$$ and Sense - There is a lot of talk in the industry that today’s prices are unsustainable into the future.  Whilst we have recent bias, in the form of low prices for a few years just recently, it certainly does not have to be this way.  Farm input costs have been on the up and to counter this we need robust prices.  Worldwide lamb prices only faulted in the major sheep producing flocks of Australia and New Zealand with other parts of the world that have limited supply remained high. In Sweden an Aussie producer has set up system that has $18+ kg as a forward price for the next 5 years.

There are not too many input or consumable items that have not risen significantly and stayed high, post Covid.  Beer in a pub, quick stop at a bakery, grocery shopping, insurance etc are all relatable costs that seem to be ever increasing. I even saw, maybe on SM (social media) where one of those big biscuits sells for $11. Why should our farming commodities be any different?

Here lies the big issue, with most of us stuck in the commodity market.  There are one or two lamb branded products, but in general it is nothing like beef.  I get this as it is bloody hard to get 52 week a year supply of quality consistent product.  Technology developments in the past 10 years are allowing Individual MEQ to be determined.  Apart from Gundagai Meats, no other processor is either giving a premium or offering feedback, even though they have the technology in their works to do so.

For consistent high prices we need consistent high-quality products.  For consistent high-quality we need quality feedback, quality genetics and quality feeding systems.  Can people see the chicken and egg scenario at play here?

There is great hope that this will be just around the corner.  Maybe the current decile of supply and high demand will see processors implement such technology, to increase margins for the high prices they are currently playing. Never have I seen such emphasis on EQ.  I can tell you you’re MPM genetics have very good EQ traits.  It is coming so we need to be prepared, to capture extra value from each carcase.

I will leave you with this one, hogget is the best eating quality sheep-meat product, my opinion only.

Ewe Clean – these are stock trough’s that are made locally here at Marnoo.  We are now converting our containment yards to all Ewe Clean trough’s.  Instead of pulling out bungs or sweeping all water and dirt out of troughs, Ewe Clean trough have a swivel that allows water to be cleaned then dumped in about 5 seconds.  Great for feedlots or containment area’s where we know the supply of good clean drinking water is essential

Recipe of the week – this goes back to my classing days when I used to go to Graeme and Cheryl Supples.  Four-quarter chops cooked long and slow in the oven, say for 4-6 hours.  That’s it. Fall off the bone, still moist, fantastic taste, tender.  I am sure these where certainly not lamb but beautiful aged mutton.

Joke of the week – Out in outback Queensland old farmer Ted let a cancerous ewe slip through and a shearer dragged it out.  Complaining the whole time how he won’t shear it, how dare he do that to shearers, we will go on strike if this happens again, blah, blah, blah farmer Ted turns to him and says “you won’t shear them but your happy to eat them”.