Andrew Smith
@LauraHillsLamb
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Following
1,351
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Family Man & Farmer. Non mulesed Merino sheep, meat goats, cattle, soil, rotational grazing, cropping and cover cropping. Laura SA
Laura, South Australia.
Joined September 2014
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Farmers are doing it tough. Most of SA is drought, many crops are dying and the federal government has made things worse with bad policies. Shout out to those in Canberra today.
#keepthesheep
#NationalAgRally
#farmerprotest
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When lamb cutlets are still $50/kg it's hard for farmers to understand why they are getting $90 for the whole 20kg lamb.
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Australia has the best welfare standards and transparency for our live export of sheep. Despite this animal actives and our government want to shut it down. This is affecting lots of farmers across the country including me.
#keepthesheep
#liveexport
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A few pups have started their livestock guardian training.
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I just booked 40% of my breeding ewes to go over the hooks. But have to truck them East to get a fair price. To many WA sheep crossed the Nullarbor. Thank
@AlboMP
@MurrayWatt
and
#Labor
.
Farmers are doing it tough. Most of SA is drought, many crops are dying and the federal government has made things worse with bad policies. Shout out to those in Canberra today.
#keepthesheep
#NationalAgRally
#farmerprotest
33
112
497
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Multispecies cropping. We're sowing a mix of peas, trit, oats, vetches, raddish, canola and clovers. It should be an interesting paddock.
#intercropping
#plant20
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When a ewe knocks your kneecap around but you have to finish the drenching and vaccinating the mob. Duct tape fixes everything.
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My favorite tool on the farm is my Christie Engineering post driver. Dad stand them up, I knock them in. 20-25sec per post including walking to the next one. We did 400m of fence without a pause.
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Did you know goats can be used to reduce fire fuel loads to reduce bushfire intensity?
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The flow on effect of the live export laws are being felt across the whole country.
SA farmers are destocking due to drought at lower prices.
I'm down from 800 to 450 ewes. A mate from 2200 to 500.
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But only $107 million to transition the WA sheep industry away from live export and no industry supported plan that will likely be successful.
An Urban East Coast centric government is not what federation is ment to be.
#keepthesheep
#Labor
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@PeterRobins350
@samheagney
These lambs left our farm yesterday. Enough for about 35000 people to have a nice Sunday roast or BBQ. Each year our midsized farm produces about 100K serves of red meat plus grain and legumes.
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Hands up who thinks Canberra is out of touch with agriculture?
Recently the government released a draft threat abatement plan for unmanaged goats with, get this, no consultation with the industry.
The 2008 version was fine. The 2023 draft is a dogs breakfast.
#Thread
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This young shearer cracked his 100 for the first time. 106 by 5pm. The other shearer did 200 by 5pm
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Today's bird on the farm is one of our resident wedge tailed eagles.
Theu nest on the farm and help clean up dead animals such as this ewe that was put down recently. They also help keep our hare numbers low and our rabbits at zero. Hopefully they eat a few foxes too.
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Many years from now, after
#Labor
and activists phased out live
#cattle
export, over regulated interstate trucking and banned feedlots will you regret not joining the
#farmerprotest
?
#keepthesheep
You may take our livelihoods but you'll never take our right to protest.
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This is part of the reason why we have a city-country disconnect.
And 2% of the population are farmers.
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Murray Cod rewilding project. The dam seemed healthier with Murray Cod in it, more aquatic plants etc. We lost the whole population with ash from a fire 10 years ago. Today we populated.
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We found a great beach front spot to get away from the farm for a bit. The perks of having a fit and healthy Dad to farm with.
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The mortality rate on livestock transport ships is tiny.
0.15% per 20 day trip.
That's the same as a farmer with 100 sheep having 1 sheep die every 4 months.
#keepthesheep
#liveexport
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Did you know tourism has a bigger carbon footprint than all livestock?
@nightingales2_2
@Vegansup
@CarnivoreIs
@justinmanningv
Tourism is 8% of global emissions and caused mainly by the world's riches people. Livestock literally feed billions of people daily and only cause 5.8% of emissions.
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There are numerous fake farmer accounts claiming support for a live export ban. They don't post anything agricultural, don't follow a single real farmer but do follow
@AnimalsAus
.
I wonder if these accounts are paid for
#misinformation
.
#keepthesheep
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I had 3 generations in the shed today. My 9 enjoyed skirting, sweeping and baling. Mr 71 enjoyed it too.
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Dear
@RSPCA
,
@AnimalsAus
and
@MurrayWatt
If you have evidence that live export is cruel or in breach of our own standards all you have to do is report it and it would result in exporters and importers being banned.
Where is you evidence of cruelty?
#keepthesheep
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Lambing has nearly finished.
Zero lambs pulled, zero prolaps, about 1% maternal mortality.
#lambing
#lambing2023
#grassfed
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Some days I look at our crossbred lambs and wonder why we don't grow only XB lambs. Then I remember that our the merino ewes we breed are very much part of their productivity.
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Calm sheep chewing cud, looking healthy, ventilation on, feed, fresh water, shaded and clean sheep.
The
@RSPCA
claim these sheep are a welfare concern because of politics, not evidence.
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@drsplace
This paddock has fed 300-800 animals over 4+ months after harvest and before sowing the next crop. Making use of missed grain, weeds and crop residue and preventing a mice plague.
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Hypothetically, if the world reduced the number of cattle by 50%, but termite numbers doubled to eat the grass cattle were not eating and wild fires doubled their emissions with fewer cattle grazing. There would be no net change in CH4
#methane
#ClimateCrisis
#fires
#cattle
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After a decade of shearing every 8-9 months and select rams and classing ewes for staple lengths we on the verge of going to 6 month shearing. Today we started shearing our May drop merino lamb. Ave over 60mm in 5-6 month. :)
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1200 sheep on 15 acres for 6 day and nearly all of the ryegrass heads are gone and a some of manure has appeared and the sheep are bigger. The magic of livestock.
Now off to repeat it on the next section.
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@veganfuture
Herbivores don't eat plants.
They get their nutrition mainly via plantfed microbes in their gut.
Microbes are far more nutritious than grass.
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4.5 days grazing and time to rotate the sheep. It's amazing how quickly this will regrow. The lambs and ewes are loving it.
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Ready to start seeding in the morning. Not the flashiest rig but it's got discs that put the seed in the ground the right way up, the tractor has autosteer and none of it is owned by a bank.
#covercropping
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@MurrayWatt
@StevenJMiles
@AlboMP
@BeefAustralia
What would be great for drought resilience is a pathway to sell a large volume of sheep from WA via live export. This will help farmers destock when they need without flooding WA and SA processors and crashing the price in two states.
#keepthesheep
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#Labor
are trying to say East Coast processors are a way to increase processing capacity for WA sheep.
#keepthesheep
3 problems
1. Welfare on >3000km truck trips.
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Fire season is only about 100 days away. How cheap are passenger jets at the moment and how long would it take to turn them into water bombers?
It could be a good job creating project.
#fires
#jobs
#airtravel
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Most people have no idea about agriculture. That's not their fault. 42% of Aussies don't know anyone working in any rural job such as farming, horticulture, forestry fishing.
#farming
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@MurrayWatt
@stemplemanmp
@NSWSES
@NSWRFS
Murray, I've been to a lot of stubble and crop fires. Often, the only thing that stops them is a grazed paddock or pasture paddock. Lots of WA mixed ag farms will be only cropping from now on. This is an unintended consequence of your live ex policy.
#keepthesheep
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23 agricultural bodies across the whole country have a message for
@AlboMP
and
@MurrayWatt
Are they listening?
Agricultural sector makes last-ditch plea with Prime Minister to reconsider decision to end live sheep exports
#auspol
#Labor
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Our 9 month old ewe lambs are the best we've ever produced and the rams are in. MPM (
@BenDuxson
) based genetics with a bit of Glen Holme Dohne and now some
@BaderlooSRS
genetics to mix it up a bit.
#merino
#ewelamb
#sheep
Maiden hogget ewes are history.
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Who wants to tell
@GreenpeaceAP
that their map of deforestation is nearly the same as the map of where wheat is grown?
Does Greenpeace want Australia to stop growing grain?
What is their agenda?
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We have had about 2 inches of rain since these ewes were joined 5 months ago. It would be great to see some really rain sometime soon.
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Shearing tomorrow.
After 12 years of shearing every 8-10 months we are kicking into 6 monthly shearing. Just in time for a May lambing.
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Only 11% of Australians strongly agree with a live export phase out if it affects Aussie farmers.
If the live export phase out is affecting you directly or indirectly share your story on social media and use the hashtag
#keepthesheep
See my video in this thread
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It's great to have my Dad fit and healthy on the farm. The weather was amazing the lamb are looking alright but showing evidence of being born at the end of a very dry Summer and Autumn.
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Dear animal activist.
We are all on the same page, we want great welfare for animals. Some argue that footage like this is censored/sanitised. But every shipment
@rattle_ya_dags
is on has clean, well fed, healthy animals. Do you think the sheep has secret high welfare pen?
Crews onboard vessels carting Australian livestock have had training on handling stock in a low stress manor.
Here are crossbred lambs being discharged after 2 weeks onboard. All happy and healthy which is a credit to the care that has been put into them throughout the voyage.
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I love how modern merinos grow. These are May drop merinos.
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Some of the vegans that argue with me online amaze me with their lack of basic knowledge. Yesterday one said "Antibiotics are mandatory, otherwise you would die from bacteria from milk and meat." Today another didn't believee that it's winter in Australia.
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Exclusion fences and controlled strategic grazing with livestock is a great way to improve ground cover and look after grassland ecosystems.
Not a popular opinion.
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Her names is "Trousers'. She's a bit special. First time with triplets. Small but up and feeding.
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First mob for lamb marking. The percentage looks good. Master 13 has stepped up to start catching. I've been demoted to vaccines, rings and tags. My Dad (71) is still on docking.
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These guys are masters of hide and seek. I know they are on the farm but 1 have seen 4 in 4 decades.
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#keepthesheep
How obvious is it that federal
#Labor
has anti agriculture policies and they don't want proper debate?
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My off farm job is requiring a lot of hours at the moment. I guest this is why working two jobs is called moonlighting.
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3 month rainfall total is 5mm. Even the wattle and gums are looking water stressed.
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Interested in farming goats?
If there are any farmers interested in getting into goats feel free to get in touch and I'll give you a farm tour and share how we do things. Kidding starts in late July. So August could be a good time to see kidding in action.
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We have grouped nearly all the sheep and all the cattle into mega mob of about 2000 DSE. They are now on grade tour of the farm visiting every paddock for upto a week per paddock. Grain n graze.
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There are 16 cutlets on a lamb. When a supermarket sells just the cutlets for a similar price as a whole lamb I have questions.
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It was insulting and not even funny. Poor form
@AlboMP
#keepthesheep
Albanese thinks all the farmers and truckles and small regional towns in
#WAPOL
who are going to be destroyed by his BROKEN PROMISE on the Live Sheep trade is a big joke in his inner-city latte licker
#CANBERRA
Albanese SPITTING ON FARMERS AGAIN.
Shame on him
#PERTHNEWS
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Honey glazed lamb ham.
Could lamb ham for Christmas boost sales of mutton to the domestic market?
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@MarronMarvel
@AzureDoo
To save time you can preboil water and put it in the freezer until you need it.
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We're now running almost all our sheep in one mob to have short intense grazing and longer gaps between grazing. About 1200 mouths on 18 hectares. 35 cattle and 8 small calves will join them soon.
Shame about the view.
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We kept two male pups to train. This is Steve Rogers aka Capt. and he is doing really well.
#maremma
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>99.9999% of farmers are not vegan because they know removing all livestock from all food production is rarely good for human health, rarely good for soil health, rarely good for farming profitability and rarely cruelty free.
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Why goats are the GOAT (
#Thread
)
1. Goat meat one of the most commonly eaten meats in the world and very popular with Australia's near neighbours and cultures that make up our multicultural society.
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Babies on board.
High tailing back to the paddock they know they are meant to be in after an unauthorised visit to greener pastures.
#goats
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I always love seeing these big monitors around the farm.
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The lambs have started grazing a near dead barley crop. What a season.
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119% marked on 6 year old merino ewes on a 30 day joining.
No maternal deaths.
No assisted birth.
No mulesing.
No preg scan.
No birth defects.
No teaser.
And we cover this mob with with a White Suffolk ram for a July/Aug lamb so there are more to come.
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A new PB for filling the shed with sheep. 35min solo in the dark and beating the rain with about 5 minutes to spare.
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Today I saw two large wedge tailed eagles attacking a 3 month old calf. The calf would be 100+kg. I scared them off before they did any harm to him but it's pretty scary that they would attack a something that big.
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Barley muffins
Makes 8.
2 cups of barley soaked in water overnight and drained.
1 egg
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp honey
Blend with enough milk to make it a thick paste.
Bake in oiled silicon muffin tray for 15 min 200C.
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With rain on the way we decided to put in another paddock if summer covers. Fingers crossed for an inche or three.
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@DiedSuddenly_
Please delete this tweet.
Sarah was a dear friend of mine. She has had a life long battle with several life threaten allergies. Her death is tragic but nothing to do with vaccines or covid.
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After 10mm Monday and 10mm this morning we're sowing some more summer cover crop. This paddock was moby/oat/vetch/ryegrass pasture through the winter then spraytopped. Millet/sorghum/sunflower/mung bean/buckwheat/vetch over summer.
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As these sheep graze this clover and ryegrass pasture scores of swallow hunt insect above them. A truly great spectical and example of a functioning farm ecosystem.
Self seeded, zero input pasture, zero insecticide.
#farming
#sheep
#BirdsOfTwitter
#birdphotography
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The bare breech trait is showing up in more of my ewes. It's not something I'm really chasing but it has happened anyway.
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15 years and 3 kids later she is still as beautiful as the day we married.
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The biggest sheep competition in Australia (maybe the world) is happening tomorrow. 210 merino wethers (70 teams of 3) in one competition. The school I have been working with has two very different teams. I'm looking forward to watching the judging.
#merino
@adelaideshow
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