October: Conception Consistency - lock it in before you even think about lamb survival

You can’t mark great numbers if the foetuses aren’t there. Here’s how we make them show up, every year.

When the seasons yo-yo, it’s easy to blame the weather. But the biggest, most repeatable lever in a prime lamb business is conception consistency. Do you know your scanning/conception rate every year? Does it swing around? More importantly, do you know why it swings?

Tim’s view is simple: you don’t get to big weaning percentages unless you first load pregnancies onto the ground, reliably, year after year. That’s conception consistency. And it’s built with boring, repeatable discipline, not heroics.

Why conception consistency matters (and the one big caveat)

• More pregnancies = more lambs = more kg/ha = more animals to sell and more selection pressure on your ewe base.

• But high scans only pay if survival keeps up. Triplets, in particular, carry higher lamb losses and the ewe herself is at greater risk than single/twin sisters. So we aim to lift and stabilise conceptions, while managing multiples with smart paddocks, smaller mobs and shelter.

  
  

The 5 habits Tim won’t compromise on

1) Measure condition score (properly, and at the right times)

If you don’t measure, you can’t manage. Condition score around teaser entry, ram entry, and pre-lambing. Build a 3 - 5 year “response profile” so you know how feed, timing and season translate into conceptions on your farm (not your neighbour’s).

2) Create a deliberate energy surplus at the front of joining

This one is non-negotiable: across the tease and the first half of a short joining, Tim targets an energy surplus of roughly 2 MJ ME/ewe/day for ~20 days. That’s what turns “okay” into “consistently good”.

3) Use teasers and short joinings (precision lambing)

Short windows (typically 12–17 days) pull a big chunk of the mob into oestrus together. Done right, 70–90% of ewes can conceive in the first cycle, giving you tighter lambing, cleaner marking drafts, and far better labour efficiency. It also lets you be precise with nutrition and animal health at the real “critical control points”.

4) Preg-scan with a purpose

Scan on time and draft singles/twins/triplets. Then treat the mobs differently, especially the multiples. Smaller mob sizes and sheltered paddocks for twins/triplets aren’t “nice-to-haves”; they’re how you convert high scans into saleable lambs.

5) Build paddock/feed systems that support the plan

Containment, deferred grazing and thoughtful subdivision aren’t buzzwords, they’re how you hit Feed-On-Offer targets when they matter (joining, lambing, peak lactation). They also help you keep multiples in smaller, safer mobs without turning the place into a traffic jam.

Tim’s quick diagnostic: are you set up for consistent conceptions?

Give yourself a tick for each:

• ☐ You know last 3–5 years of scanning/conception (%) and why each year landed where it did.

• ☐ You condition score at teaser/ram entry and use those numbers to set feed levels.

• ☐ You run teasers + a short joining window (≈12–17 days).

• ☐ You deliberately program an energy surplus (~2 MJ/ewe/day for ~20 days) spanning tease + first half of joining.

• ☐ You preg-scan on time and draft singles/twins/triplets, with mob size rules for multiples.

• ☐ Your paddock/containment plan can protect groundcover and build a feed wedge when autumn is late.

  
  

If you didn’t tick them all, start with two this month and nail them. The compounding effect over the next two seasons will surprise you.

What “good” has looked like here

In recent 14-day joinings we’ve recorded results like:

• 194% in-lamb is our  5 year conception average (including all rising 2 year olds)

• 85% -90% conception

Those aren’t one-off party tricks; they’re the result of doing the small things, the same way, every year, around condition score, teaser timing, join length and front-loaded nutrition.

October actions (Southern AU)

• Lock in teaser dates and short joining length now.

• Map the 20-day energy surplus (feed type, quantity, delivery).

• Book your preg-scanner early and set your drafting rules for multiples.

• Identify the lambing paddocks that suit twins/triplets (shelter, water, laneway access, size).

• Sense-check containment/subdivision so you can build a feed wedge if the break’s late again.

  
  

Final word from Tim

Consistency is not glamorous. It’s a checklist. But when you hold your nerve on the basics, CS, teasers, short joinings, energy at the front, you stop riding the seasonal rollercoaster and start steering your business.

-Tim & Georgie, Paradoo Prime