Tools to help meet targets
20 July 2017
With patchy rainfall across southern Australia this winter, livestock producers planning to grain finish or supplementary feed animals in the lead up to spring can use these tools to maximise growth efficiency.
The Sheep CRC’s Lamb Growth Predictor is a valuable tool for making management decisions in lamb production systems. It uses repeated live weights to determine individual growth rates and will adjust these for future weight predictions according to expected climatic conditions. The tool then calculates approximately how many animals will reach a target weight on a specific date.
2. ‘Keep Your Sheep in Good Condition’ procedure
As part of the ‘Healthy and Contented Sheep’ module of MLA’s Making More From Sheep program, the ‘Keep Your Sheep in Good Condition’ procedure covers everything producers need to know about imprint feeding of lambs, feed budgeting, assessing feed quality and supplementary feeding.
It's easy for producers to look at lower grain prices and automatically assume there is profit to be made by turning the grain into kilograms of meat. This handy resource from NSW Department of Primary Industries assists in calculating the underlying costs of feeding and compares protein, energy and other components for different mixes of livestock feeds.
4. 'Meeting Market Specs on Time' procedure
MLA’s More Beef from Pastures program offers an abundance of tips and tools to understanding market specifications and assessing cattle weight gain to meet targets. This resource provides clear guidelines on how beef producers can manage the nutrition, health and welfare of sale animals to meet target market specifications on time.
The BeefSpecs calculator is a tool to manage cattle to meet weight and fat specifications. The calculator assists cattle producers in making more accurate management decisions that could increase carcase compliance rates for fatness and weight targets specific to various beef markets.
Other useful online resources are available from:
