Farm in focus: Ian Coates, Traynors Lagoon

Ian Coates lives at ‘Moana’, Traynors Lagoon with partner, Chloe and six month old son, Alfie. He farms with his parents, Robyn and Colin and Aunt and Uncle, Jan and Neil.

Enterprise mix: Sheep – 19-micron meat merinos; Crops – wheat, barley, beans and vetch hay

What’s happening on your farm at the moment?

We breed our own ‘meat merinos’ to be heavy in size and fleece. We focus on our genetics and I’m a member of the St Arnaud BESTWOOL/BESTLAMB group. We have a lucerne stand and if we have a paddock that could be taken out of rotation we generally under-sow it and use it to finish our lambs for a year.

We’ve just finished weaning our lambs and we’ve also been busy spraying and spreading urea, generally 80kg/ha of urea. We haven’t seen much disease in the crops yet, only a little Rhizoctonia in barley. We’re also laying a silo slab right now in preparation for harvest.

What did you find most interesting at today’s Sheep Management Showcase?

Ken Solly’s presentation about work/life balance was really good. We’ve recently had a baby (Alfie is six months old) and Ken’s presentation was a reminder to keep your partner’s needs in mind too. 

What areas of livestock research and development would you like to see? 

I would like to see transparency between the producer and the abattoir so if a carcass is condemned, the farmer can find out why. Can we make each carcass traceable so that we can log on to a database and see why we have lost money. I would like to see more education in good vaccination practice too so that carcasses aren’t damaged unnecessarily. 

What must livestock producers respond to in the future?

Consumer pressure to stop mulesing. What is the alternative? And is the premium for wool from unmulsed sheep worth it?

What are the production challenges on your farm at the moment?

It’s all about a balancing act for us! We want the optimal balance between land allocation for livestock and cropping, to work out where the dollars should be spent (at the moment, cropping gets it) and what infrastructure to invest in. Our main adviser is an agri-business adviser from Bendigo. It keeps us moving forward together and on the same page.