Nailing nutrition in tough country

Operating four cattle stations across the Longreach and Aramac districts and agisting cattle from the Northern Territory down to Roma in south-west Queensland, producer Jack Atkins oversees an expansive operation.

At the core of his role is ensuring the health and productivity of the 5,000 predominantly Santa Gertrudis cattle under his management.

Jack recently attended a Nutrition EDGE workshop, where we caught up with him to discuss his key takeaways from the three-day event.

Why is nutrition an important area for producers to understand and upskill in?

Nutrition is imperative to primary production. It doesn’t matter if you have sheep, cattle or goats; between looking after your country, gaining kilos on cattle or improving your calving percentages, it all starts with nutrition.

Prior to Nutrition EDGE, what was your experience with optimising nutrition?

Where I grew up, I had a bit to do with nutrition inside a feedlot operation but not with supplements like lick. Two of our properties are on quite marginal country, where we now feed lick 12 months of the year.

Knowing we were feeding that amount of lick and how critical to the operation to get it right is what drew me to the workshop.

What were some of your highlights from the workshop?

I learnt a lot about the way the rumen adapts to new environments, and how a fast change in environments can impact production.

I think every producer is guilty of holding cattle in a set of yards without hay for more than 24 hours at one stage or another. Now, nothing gets held in a set of yards overnight without roughage.

It was also great getting out of the classroom and running through different pasture species. Before, I might have walked out to a paddock and considered there was a lot of feed, but I’ve learned more about what in that paddock is and isn’t palatable.

Would you recommend others attend Nutrition EDGE?

I’d encourage any producer to attend, or even staff members of businesses within the industry. Three people in our company attended, which becomes a tool for when someone is feeding lick or checking waters to keep an eye on the condition of the cattle and the country.

They give you the tools to make a more informed decision at any time of year to suit whatever grass or fodder you have.