Grazing cereal crops in Mallee farming

Project: Grazing cereal crops in Mallee farming

Location: multiple

Species: Sheep

Date: May 2012 - Jan 2014

Status: Ongoing

Topic: Grazing and pasture management

State: Victoria

Objectives:

In 2010-2011 the Nullawil Best Wool Best Lamb (BWBL) group conducted a PDS project on rotational grazing. The results of that PDS defined the precision grazing practices and provided the participating Mallee farmers with the skills and techniques to strategically graze sheep in their cereal farming systems to best advantage.

The previous PDS also identified the opportunity for further work in the area of varietal selection and management of fodder crops to fill in the remainder of the feed gap from the senescence of the current fodder varieties in early September until the availability of the first stubble for grazing in early December.

During the previous project several issues were identified for further research including the need to:

• develop a value chain system to more effectively market the lambs produced
• better understand the maternal and paternal contributions to growth and carcase quality
• further refine and enhance grazing systems for the Mallee environment.

In this second project the The Nullawil BWBL group will refine and enhance the precision management of sheep under rotational grazing utilising both existing and new and emerging varieties of cereal, grain legume and forage crops and the introduction of precision sheep management utilising both Pedigree Matchmaker (PM) and Walk Over Weighing(WOW).

Progress:

This project is ongoing.

Preliminary cost benefit (BC) analysis of the trial to date has revealed that for the varieties under investigation a cost/benefit of up to $10.30:$1 depending on the variety used.

There has also been an increase in the growth rate of lambs run under the rotational system. The growth rates of lambs in the trial have improved on the previous trial (230g/h/d) with an average rate of 345g/h/d being recorded in the last season.

To date there have been over 50,000 records to analyse for pedigree matchmaker and a base weight, of 27kg on average, for the weaners has been collected at 12 weeks average age.

Lambs walking through the Walk Over Weighing system, July 2013

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