Pasture improvement is lifting stocking rates at Wongwibinda via Ebor where a deliberate program to replace depleted native pastures with a greater diversity of fodder grasses is greening the terrain.
Already a modified landscape since selection, the vast expanse of thinly scattered native grasses in view are under-utilizing the 1000 mm annual rainfall says Richard Ogilvie at Te-Angie, who runs the enterprise with his wife Kerryn and their son Michael and his partner Claire.
The family relocated from 28 km east of Robe South Australia, to the same distance west of Ebor on the Northern Tablelands and Mr Ogilvie likes to point out the new location is the backward spelling of the old location. Even the seasons are back to front as they learnt to deal with summer rainfall.
That was back in 2013, when they purchased 4000 hectares of rundown native grasses on the edge of the Guy Fawkes escarpment, and unwittingly arrived at the start of a six year unprecedented drought. The majority of the 1200 Hereford cows and calves, the core of the Te-Angie Family operation, were sent back to South Australia on Agistment.
Fires that started in the Guy Fawkes in the early spring of 2019 claimed 400 hectares of standing feed when it was declared a danger under section 44 of the Rural Fires Act and burnt to reduce the hazard by the Rural Fire Service. A $600,000 feed bill followed, with no compensation, Mr Ogilvie said.
When the rains returned just before Christmas late 2019 - earlier than most - the original herd had been reduced to just 86.
As the grass began to re-grow the Ogilvies focused on breeding back their Hereford cattle. They also bred Dorset and crossed them with White Suffolk. The rams from this cross were joined to the Border Leicester/Merino ewes.
"It's the carcass we're after," says Mr Ogilvie of the business model.
To realise their ambition involved creating a body of feed out of weed-infested native pasture. That first requires a direct drilled fodder crop, usually cereals like triticale, wheat or millet which is grazed off an sprayed out in spring to allow brown fallow until February, when a blend of permanent species like cocksfoot, phalaris, prairie grass, and fescues are direct drilled along with chicory, plantain and clovers all of which are grazed six weeks after planting.
"The fallow period is crucial for water storage and it allows us to spray for weed control," Mr Ogilvie says. "Having the paddock clean is the key because once established, permanent pasture out-competes the weeds."
Paddock by paddock the process has been on-going, even during the drought, with about one quarter of the property converted. Now that the seasons have turned for the better, progress is quicker but Mr Ogilvie says the farmer must be nimble and willing to bend the plan to fit the rain cycle.
The gains far outweigh the losses - even those months of idle grazing during the fallow period, with the property running a cow and a calf to four hectares prior and now a cow and a calf and seven sheep to the single hectare, near enough to an eight fold increase in stocking rate between native pasture and the cropped country.
On one 63 Ha paddock planted in February 2018 with permanent pasture, Te-Angie has been running 1000 sheep and 55 bulls since August.
"Every paddock is different and as a farmer we have to change and tailor our work depending on the season," Mr Ogilvie said. This year it was too wet for wheat so they grew ryegrass instead. When it was dry they had had no summer crops, for instance.
"We have our own equipment. We can't wait for a contractor. You've got to take advantage of opportunities as they arise."
At Wongwibinda weaners used to turn of at 175 -220 kg and now they weigh 280-360 kg, tipping them into the more lucrative feeder market. "Our stock are more saleable, healthy and fertile," he says. "In my mind the Northern Tablelands have the ability to be developed into some of the most productive country in the eastern states. There is rain and soil you just need to upgrade your pasture and fertilize it."
In this district permanent pasture costs $200/ha to establish and the Ogilvie family hope that it will last as long as it did in their home state of South Australia, where a pasture can exist for many years.
Inputs are important, and Mr Ogilvie adheres to tradition regarding single super as a necessary pasture ingredient and applies 100kg to the hectare every year.
"Many would disagree but I prefer to stick to the simple inputs, rather than the blends," Mr Ogilvie, says. "To my mind single super is the best bang for your buck."
Seeding rates were recommended by Te-Angie's agronomist at 24 kg/ha but Mr Ogilvie pulled that back to 18kg/ha and is happy with the result. There is no urea applied, and the clovers seem to be doing their job. There is an occasional dose of lime to balance the pH.
"Te-Angie soils range from basalt to trap, and I prefer the trap country," Mr Ogilvie says, " It seems to come away quicker and drains better than the basalt."
Nearly a Decade into the program of rehabilitation the enterprise is proving its potential .
"We were told that you can't sell fat stock in the winter here, but we do," Mr Ogilvie said. "We Lamb-out our ewes still having lambs teeth - not two tooth. We're getting a lamb a year earlier than the traditional method with the pregnancy rates of 150pc in last year's maidens."
Part of the fertility comes with the hybrid vigour of the composite breeding but it is clear that the added nutrition through improved permanent pasture is helping to kick that goal.
"Our only complaint is from the shearers, who make an occasional comment about our sheep being too big," he says, noting that prime lambs are turned off at 65-80kg for the heavy export market - still with their lambs teeth.
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