Nambucca Valley graziers learned elements of pasture management during a recent three-day workshop hosted by Local Land Services.
The workshop, taught by Judi Earl, Coolatai, and Lewis Kahn, from Agricultural Information and Monitoring Services, Armidale, focused on an evidence-based approach to pasture assessment rather than a visual one.
“There has been a general shift towards adopting principles of grazing management,” said Dr Kahn, who also works with the University of New England experimental farm at Armidale.
Understanding how pasture exists can give graziers confidence that the number of cattle on a paddock is right for the season and the purpose.
- Lewis Kahn
“Best practice involves an integrated approach to soils and pastures,” said Dr Earl.
“It’s often seen as fertility versus grazing management, but actual management involves deciding how many stock – and controlling the timing of their movement between paddocks. Our approach is to use evidence to help better manage pastures and estimating pasture mass is a key skill,” said Dr Kahn.
“That’s why we have cut and weighed many pasture samples, to provide graziers with a reliable method for estimating pasture mass. We want people to back up their observations with simple and rapid measurements. In a year like this it is even more important to measure pasture in this way, not only to avoid the pitfalls of having too little feed on the ground, but also to gain an opportunity should one arise.” As an example, Dr Earl said at this time of year most paddocks fail to adequately support cattle below 1500 kilogram-per-hectare dry matter while above 4000kg/ha dry matter there is “no advantage”. Moving cattle at the right time so as to manage pasture can preserve root systems for the near future and also avoid soil loss in a downpour.
“Understanding how pasture exists can give graziers confidence that the number of cattle on a paddock is right for the season and the purpose,” said Dr Kahn.
“We’ve seen broadacre croppers adopt this kind of evidence-based management as have dairy farmers and now we’re seeing it taken up by beef producers.”