On-farm trials with Advantage Feeders are revealing how farmers can increase pasture utilisation by feeding starch based feeds on new and high moisture pastures.
Stocking rates are often based on times of the year when there is low pasture growth.
This generally coincides with maternal stock being in late pregnancy or early lactation.
If stocking rates can be increased during these periods, this leads to increased production throughout the year.
Feeding a controlled amount of supplement helps maternal stock to maintain condition through these times of low pasture growth.
Not only that, it has also been shown to increase pasture utilisation.
Supplement feeding with Advantage Feeders has been shown to reduce the amount of pasture consumed by both sheep and cattle.
This is achieved as livestock are better able to digest feed and access nutrients.
This leads to more available pasture and the opportunity to increase stocking rates by around 50 per cent, and even up to 90%.
Supplementing stock in this way is not only beneficial for pregnant and lactating animals.
It can also be used to achieve better body condition with lower pasture consumption for all classes of sheep and cattle.
This is the case whether the goal is to achieve target sale weights or improve conception rates.
In addition, the use of stationary feeding systems rather than trail feeding leads to calmer animals.
They can reduce mis-mothering, as well as less wasted feed and less time spent trail feeding.
An on-farm trial found that a mob of two year old steers given access to one kilogram of grain, formulated to balance their diet, ate significantly less forage crop compared to the control mob which had no access to grain.
The 60 steers in the supplement mob grew an average 1.5kg a day, half a kilo more than the 60 in the control mob over the 60 day trial.
To find out more about how Advantage Feeders can help increase stocking rates and get the most out of your pasture, visit the team at AgQuip.
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