Accounting for feed supply and demand

MLA has developed a free eLearning course on northern Australian grazing management, focusing on forage budgeting.

Forage budgeting is the process of balancing the feed supply on the ground with feed demand from livestock.

Co-developer of the module and livestock advisor Jessica Paton said despite forage budgeting being crucial in a business, it is often neglected.

“Through our experience consulting in northern areas, we identified a big knowledge gap between producers and understanding the process of forage budgeting,” Jessica said.

“It’s so important to make sure you’re not stuck at the end of the dry season with not enough grass and too many animals, or vice versa.”

Within the eLearning module, producers are given insight into how to make better grazing management decisions based on how long feed will last and how many animals can sustainably be carried.

“This will hopefully improve business productivity and profitability in the long term, as well as allow for prevention, restoration and development of degraded land by ensuring producers understand the importance of maintaining adequate ground cover,” Jessica said.

The free module takes producers through what forage budgeting is and its importance, and provides the appropriate tools to calculate forage supply and demand, before completing a budget which producers can tailor to their own circumstances.

Producers will also be referred to technology which can assist in the process of building a forage budget, focusing on satellite technology such as the Australian Feedbase Monitor tool.

“Forage budgeting has traditionally been a very time consuming and labour-intensive process, which is why a lot of producers have shied away from it in the past. However, there are now so many tools available, such as satellite technology, which make the process much easier.”

Jessica said all northern producers can benefit from this training.

“The reason we specify northern producers is because they have such distinct seasons and tropical pastures which function very differently to systems in southern Australia.”

“While the language is targeted towards northern producers, the content in the module would be beneficial for anyone who needs to understand what a forage budget is.”

The module was co-developed by Jessica Paton (Cibo Labs), Kate Blennerhassett (Brennan Mayne Agribusiness) and Sally Finch (Bush Agribusiness) during their participation in the MLA Livestock Consulting Internship program, which is a two-year program designed to provide the interns with industry experience and knowledge to accelerate their livestock consulting careers.

The northern forage budgeting module is available in The Toolbox through myMLA.