Case made for dedicated pasture phase
A trial organised by the Grain & Graze program has shown that pastures add value to mixed-farming businesses
A Western Australian farm trial that started out looking at extending pasture phases has shown that managed pastures can carry more sheep during spring and carry them longer, due to pasture longevity.
The trial was organised, with local support, by the national Grain & Graze program to extend current thinking about rotational practices.
“The year-in, year-out rotation is common in the region,” Avon Region project manager Linda Leonard says. “Farmers do it to improve the cropping component of their operations, as they generally accept that wheat is the most profitable of their enterprises. But farmers are becoming aware that good pasture management can drive productivity, and can be the key to increasing overall profit.”
Stephen and Linley Rose agreed to compare a straight, four-year pasture phase and the year-in, year-out rotation on their property ‘Tooarvee’, near Wickepin.
The Roses grow cereals and run a straight Merino flock, with Mr Rose’s pasture management typical of farms in the region – Timerite® spray topping, pasture manipulation and annual fertiliser application, and controlled grazing.
Over the years, Mr Rose’s practice has been to sow clover on an ‘as needs’ basis, but in May 2005 he had put down his four-year pasture with the support of Grain & Graze technical officer Kristy Baker.
It was a mix of species – Prima gland clover, Santorini yellow serradella, Rocket and Tetilia Gold tetraploid ryegrasses and Dalsa subterranean clover. The control site was in volunteer pasture and the treatment site in high-performance pasture.
“Stock and pasture availability were monitored regularly to prevent widespread over-grazing, and to ensure stock condition-score increased rather than decreased,” Ms Leonard says. “On average, sheep were grazed at four dry sheep equivalents (DSEs) in the first year to maintain even grazing pressure, and stock were removed when the pastures set seed to increase germination in the second year.”
The table shows the results after two years of pasture.
“It is still too early to determine if longer-term pastures are as profitable when you compare them to cropping, but pasture management and utilisation do have positive benefits,” Mr Rose says.
As well as extending their pasture phases, collaborating farmers were being encouraged to adopt other sheep-management technologies, such as ‘hands-on’ condition-scoring, pasture monitoring, manipulation of sheep numbers when required and faecal egg counts to check worm populations.
“Mr Rose has found condition scoring and weighing a useful practice,” Ms Leonard says. “By taking part in the Grain & Graze demonstration he has found it gives a more accurate understanding of what is going on with his sheep, and now believes the visual assessment he has been using isn’t accurate enough when the sheep are carrying wool.”
More information: Sam Clune, Grain & Graze Avon Region, 08 9690 2000, www.grainandgraze.com.au
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