Lamb finisher says keep it simple for good results

Last week, Mr Maher, who is a well-known finisher of lambs, hit a record price for the selling centre, selling his extra heavy, second-cross lambs for $300 a head.

This week he repeated the top price for 178 lambs in one run.

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Before the sale, he said the lambs had good size and shape, weighing around 42-43 kilograms carcase weight.

"Hopefully they will go alright again," he said.

And they did, which was a silver lining after what he said had been a very difficult year.

"It's been very dry from Christmas time until about May with basically no rain," he said.

"We have done a lot of irrigation, so even though they have made a lot of money, it's cost a lot of money to get them to this stage."

He said the lambs were bought in from Bendigo and Ballarat with the assistance of the TB White & Sons agents.

He said even though prices were high now, "they will get dearer and records could be broken on a weekly basis".

"I've been doing this for a long time, I hope to get good at it one day," he said.

TB White & Sons livestock manager Xavier Bourke said Mr Maher's lambs were a magnificent yarding, which "couldn't get much better".

"It's a fantastic effort to get them to this weight under the conditions," Mr Bourke said.

Mr Maher said the lambs were run on the farm's lucerne and also given a little silage to "boost them up".

"Good shelter and good clean water are essential to produce the article," he said.

He said he didn't have enough land to breed his own lambs.

"I leave the breeding to the professionals to do that job," he said.

"They have a lot more acres than me."

"Keep it simple. You can't worry too much," Mr Maher said.

In line with that philosophy, he buys better quality lambs and then keeps costs down.

He said he didn't feed grain because of the cost.

"Like everyone else you have got to keep your costs down and your profits up," he said.

"Everyone strives to produce a good lamb in their area and they should be rewarded now with the higher prices that are coming through the system now."

Mr Maher said he tried to buy the best quality lambs for finishing.

"I'm guided by TB White & Sons and their expertise in buying lambs, the better quality costs a bit more money at the start but you get the premiums when you are selling," he said.

"Buy the right lambs for the right job, I stick with the Poll Dorset second-cross lambs.

"I find the other breeds don't yield as well and aren't as heavy."

Mr Maher said his numbers were well down at about half his normal numbers this year because of the dry season.

"But you're better off doing a good job with 1000 than a bad job of 2000," he said.

"Especially in a dry year, keep your numbers that you can handle rather than putting too many on."

He starts buying in October through to January, depending on what feed was available.

"We shear them when we can, but finding shearers is hard," he said.

He starts turning them off "when the price is right".

The lambs were run on lucerne and the odd bale of hay or silage.