On their 3240ha family property, “Kialgara”, southwest of Coonamble, Michael and Penny Denison make best use of available pasture by implementing a rotational grazing regime.
The property has been in the Denison family for over 100 years, and Mr Denison said he has embraced rotational grazing to allow best use of available pasture and to ensure plants are given time to recover.
“We now have three mobs of cattle,” Mr Denison explained.
“Normally we have 315 cows on the point of calving, with 230 cows and calves, but this year because of the excellent season last year we are also running 225 heifers on agistment.”
Mr Denison pointed out running cattle in such large mobs could put pressure on water supply, especially during a hot spell similar to that recently experienced across the state.
Stock water on “Kialgara” is provided by ground tanks in some paddocks which complement an extensive system of pipes delivering water to 20,000 litre tanks and associated troughs in all paddocks from a central bore.
“We have a Mono Solar pump rated at 1200 watts which tracks the sun and lifts water from a bore and pushes it out to our tank and trough network,” Mr Denison said.
“Everything depends on the pump … it works well in full sun, but during cloudy days, wattage could be halved, so we use a generator to back up so our stock have a constant supply of water.”
During excessively hot days, the troughs and tanks are checked daily in case floats become stuck open and drain valuable water.
Otherwise, they are monitored each second day.
“Running our cows in large mobs does put pressure on the trough and tank and especially when the feed is dry as it is now, they are drinking a lot of water,” Mr Denison said.
“The cows are on one watering point, so there is increased pressure on the system and it is even more critical to check the troughs and tanks.”
Mr Denison noted during hot periods, it can take a long time to rectify shortage of water supply if the tank and trough has become empty.
“Consumption can double, particularly with calving cows and at the further most points from the bore it can take a long time to replenish supply,” he said.
“At some of those points we have placed a second tank to ensure enough water is available.”
With his ground tanks, Mr Denison pointed out they were full at the end of last spring, but are now starting to evaporate.
“We can definitely see they are drying out quickly especially during the past couple of weeks,” he said.
“We are careful to watch for any bogging around the edges as it reduces water quality.”