Grazing management a key drought recovery strategy

These were key grazing management issues to ensure best drought recovery as well as best pasture and livestock productivity, detailed in a recent serious of MLA northern Australia seminars, delivered by grazing land management consultant Jill Alexander. 

Mrs Alexander, a renowned Queensland grazing management consultant, message is also relevant across the vast range of pasture types in NSW. Her background includes pasture agronomist for Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries before starting her own business “Applied Ag” in 2011. She works with landholders, pastoral companies and government organisations in the area of grazing land management. 

“Regardless of what grazing system a producer used or how they managed their country, if they came out of a dry spell with good pasture stubble, that was a sign one had probably managed their grazing pressure about right.” Jill Alexander emphasises.

She said: “it’s not about the system you're using, it’s about better aligning stock numbers with short-term carrying capacity.  Carrying capacity is determined by land type, land condition and climate".

Mrs Alexander highlighted the science behind detailed MLA funded grazing management research that compared productivity, pasture composition and soil attributes over four years of different grazing management systems.

“We found that intensity of grazing system had no consistent effect on soil surface condition, pastures or carrying capacity when compared to less intensive systems on the same property. This confirms other studies that have consistently shown stocking rate management is the major driver of pasture and animal productivity rather than grazing system per se,” she said.

Another key message from Jill Alexander’s seminars was not to rush in and hammer new season pasture growth too quickly after rain. Most damage is done to pastures early in the growing season, not in the dry, she noted.

"This is when a lot of land condition decline happens, when the season breaks, not during the drought. When in poor condition, it’s ideal if pastures can be rested to give them a chance to rebuild their root systems and build soil seed reserves, so pasture density can be improved”.  

"Timing of spelling and stocking rate management was the biggest driver of pasture and animal productivity," Mrs Alexander stressed. She also advised to regularly monitor pasture, animal, and land so that one can anticipate and avoid feed shortages, diminished animal performance and land condition decline.  “Pasture will tell you well in advance likely animal performance decline before you will see it in animals," she said.

Jill Alexander also said there was a level of flexibility in herd structure and grazing management to allow for timely adjustment of stock numbers as seasonal conditions fluctuate and short-term carrying capacity changes. 

A major NSW northern tableland study (Cicerone), involving producers, researchers and extension specialists, also noted high soil fertility enhanced productivity more than any given grazing management, without imposing risks to the environment. More water runoff (with less available for pasture growth) is also a common aspect of overgrazed pastures. And grazing before pastures are allowed to adequately recover means green leaves, which are like miniature solar panels fail to grow anywhere near their maximum.