PLANNING is a must for Bob Stanbridge, but it pays off by the tonne.
A sheep and cattle producer from “Trellawarren” near Blayney, Mr Stanbridge has found a minutely planned crop rotation of lucerne and fodder crops has allowed him to maximise his return from livestock.
Mr Stanbridge shared his success with fodder crops at the High Country Crop seminar held at Blayney last week.
As well as his 350-hectare property near Blayney, Mr Stanbridge, along with wife Gwenda and son James, runs another 230ha nearby and leases 400ha at Mandurama.
The family property was first owned by Mr Stanbridge’s father James, who bought the property in the 1950s and grew peas, potatoes and wheat.
Mr Stanbridge now runs 3200 first-cross ewes and 120 primarily Angus breeders and says implementing fodder crops has increased his profits.
“Fodder crops open up our options. It is all about maximising our profits from livestock,” he said. “The grain is just secondary.
“The grain pays for putting the crop in.”
The lack of autumn rain makes the use of fodder crops in the higher areas of the Central Tablelands very useful for finishing stock, according to Mr Stanbridge.
“If you could guarantee you’d get six inches of rain in March each year, we wouldn’t even be talking about fodder crops,” he said.
“About one year in four is good.”
Mr Stanbridge aims for heavy weight lambs, and he says he can finish them more quickly on a fodder crop.
He also sells his cattle as weaners to feedlots or through the saleyards, or fattens them to sell on the heavy trade market.
Mr Stanbridge grows brassica for summer and oats for winter, and said planning in autumn and winter is crucial to getting the most out of his fodder crops.
“The process begins in November. This is when I make my decisions. You must have a plan,” he said.
Mr Stanbridge sprays out his paddocks in November, and then sows his Nile oats crop in February, putting on 180 to 200 kilograms a hectare of Starter 15.
He is also experimenting with using chook manure as fertiliser.
He said he allows the oats to grow for about six weeks before putting sheep on to give it a light graze.
“I just let them take the tip off it and then take the sheep out,” he said.
He then lets the oats grow up to about 120 millimetres in height, and then puts stock on the paddock for general grazing in about April.
Mr Stanbridge has found that on average he can finish 50 lambs a hectare on his oat crops.
The timing of when to shut up the crop is crucial.
Mr Stanbridge said he shuts up his crop in mid-September, putting on around 70kg of urea a hectare.
“This gives me an extra tonne of grain a hectare,” he said.
The oat crops are harvested at Christmas, and Mr Stanbridge said he yields 2.5 to three tonnes a hectare.
Last year’s crop yielded up to 4.5t/ha, but Mr Stanbridge said this was because he shut the crop up early due to a threatening El Nino.
“It depends on the year. If there is plenty of feed around, we get more crop and lose less [fodder crop] feed on grazing,” he said.
“We adjust our operation to climatic conditions.”
