Breeding Mob Live Weights
Breeding mob liveweights in FARMAX Red Meat
Maximising ovulation rate is a key component to the reproductive success of a dry stock farm. Whether it be flushing a mixed age mob or putting the final touch of weight of hoggets to get them north of 40kg, live weight at mating is a key driver of performance.
FARMAX red meat will predict a lambing percentage at three points in time: Scanning, Tailing and Weaning. This is based off a few factors, most significantly: dam breed and dam live weight.
Pregnancy percentage at scanning is dictated by the Scan Index. This is a figure which varies between breed. Scan Index multiplied by weight at mating will produce the modelled pregnancy percentage, which displays the importance of getting weights correct for accurate forecasting.
The best practice method for correcting Body Weight at Mating in FARMAX is to ‘Pop out’ the mating event you want to adjust by selecting the symbol at the top left of the Mating screen, producing the window to the right:
On this farm, ewes are intended to be mated at 66kg (1st April 17). As you can see, the current target is set at only 59.6kg.
You can adjust this in the Live Weights screen, by either dragging a point on the line graph or adjusting Body Weight Gain per day figures in the table view.
Tip: If you keep the mating window poped you, you can monitor any changes to the below modeled values, based on your update to the ewe live weight.
-Body Wt. at mating
-Scanning percentage (pregnancy)
-Lambing percentage at tailing. Losses to tailing percentage increases, as this is proportional to pregnancy at scanning.
-Lambing percentage at weaning
-Lamb weight at weaning
