Oorsig/Review
Revisiting the STAR Sheep
Production System
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Dr Dave Midgley
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Fig 1. STAR Sheep Production System (Source: http://blogs.cornell.edu/newsheep/management/reproduction/star-management/)
Soon after starting in private practice in Riversdale
in 1984, I started investigating and implementing
multiple lambing systems. At the first Farmers
Association
Meeting
(“Boerevereniging-
vergadering”) I attended, I asked those present
who were weaning over 100% and had no
response. The best I could find was in the high
“90’s”! Soon afterwards, in conjunction with the
National Wool Growers Association (NWGA), we
started an incentive scheme named “Club 120”
where farmers achieving this “mighty goal” were
recognised with a framed certificate for reaching
or surpassing a weaning percentage of 120%.
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Mating and lambing down sheep on a yearly
basis has never made sense to me. In my mind
lambing down every 8 months was simulating
what beef cattle farmers were doing i.e. mating
again 3 months after parturition. Mating half the
flock every 4 months with, or in, an eight month
cycle was the option most of my clients opted for.
I still do not see lambing down every 8 months
as an “intensive system” – let alone lambing down
every 9 months!
The STAR-system, on the other hand, comes down
to farming with sheep on the same principles