This week on the Head Shepherd podcast we have Charlie de Fegely chatting about things all things sub clover and beyond.
Charlie farms in Western Victoria in the foothills of The Grampians. They average around 550mm of rainfall per year and are in a predominantly cropping area but they have chosen to be all stock because of their heavy clay soils.
Charlie and his family will be mating 10,000 ewes this year. Last year he mated 8,300 and marked 12,000 lambs. Figures to be very happy with.
Charlie chats about his time at the Grassland Society and the "Longterm Phosphate Trial" and Sub Clover research.
"It was a terrible time [in sheep farming], and we were looking at alternatives to retain viability and long term profitability. Dr Peter Schroder came to me when I was president of the Grasslands Society and he said "Charlie, we've got the help these farmers pick themselves back up after the wool prices have been shot."
"The work they'd done at the long-term phosphate trial, it showed clearly that if you put fertiliser on for not much cost you can actually increase your productivity." Charlie says. "One of the ideas behind it was to not have to put a tractor and seeder through the paddock. And it did work. The sub clover seed was there, it just had to be grazed hard enough to let it come back, and fertilised. And people were ecstatic"
"It was a great time to be part of extending information to farmers as it actually put a smile back onto farmers faces... It was amazing to be a part of it." He says. "That was one of the programs they (MLA) ever invested in and there's a lot of people that actually need it again to understand pasture quality and the impact on the animal."
Charlie is still implementing those principles and is a huge fan of sub clover with some phenomenal looking pastures on his farm. "We've applied the principles... fertilising and grazing. Then all of a sudden the clover comes up"
Charlieexplains his weaning pastures which are an impressive sight. "We use a combination of sub clover and perennial ryegrass. I will say at 12/14kg ha of clover some people might think that's a lot, but it ends up looking like a fodder crop of clover."
"It carries another month of great quality. It allows us to finish weaning of mum and get a month of extra growth."
The "measure to manage" mindset has followed Charlie through his career. After period of consulting, Charlie realised "I could actually do better staying at home because we had the opportunity to expand."
Now at home full time, with the farm ever growing, Charlie is starting to dabble in genetics. When Charlie bred merinos he managed to remove dag from his flock, something of which he's keen to do again in his Composites. "We've got some really productive sheep but we've bought some traits in we don't like. So by breeding our own rams we can take out some of those traits."
Charlie and Mark also cover the Zanda McDonald award, mati
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