21 February 2007
Workshops in southern Queensland this year will take the development of Meat and Livestock Australia's (MLA's) feed demand calculator a step closer to relevance to livestock producers in the Border Rivers and Maranoa/Balonne regions of southern Queensland and northern NSW.
The calculator was originally designed and developed by the MLA's More Beef from Pastures program and CSIRO Plant Industry to help producers match feed demand with feed supply in temperate southern Australia.
But Robert Webb, chairman of the Border Rivers region of the national Grain & Graze program, headed a group of producers who thought something similar should be developed for the particular environment and climate of southern Queensland and northern NSW.
"The Border Rivers is a difficult area to understand if you don't live here, because its farming systems and rainfall patterns can't really be classified as northern or southern," Mr Webb said.
"On paper our average, annual rainfall looks reasonable but it comes in a variable pattern, sometimes in big licks and sometimes not at all.
"But we felt that was a barrier we could overcome to share in useful modern management tools like the MLA feed demand calculator."
The principal of DJM Livestock Consultants, Dr David McNeil, is advising the Grain & Graze regions of Border Rivers and Maranoa/Balonne in the modification of the calculator for their production areas.
"These two regions have feed resources completely different from those the original feed demand calculator uses in southern Australia," Dr McNeil said.
"Livestock producers in the north generally rely on a mix of native pastures, stubble, possibly lucerne or tropical legumes like lablab and short term fodder options like forage sorghum rotated with grain crops.
What's needed is a quick and easy way of combining these in an overall feed supply package that also takes into account the highly variable rainfall pattern".
"Rainfall variability can change pasture and fodder crop situations enormously and understanding the effects of variability will be a major factor in the development of this feed demand calculator.
"In some seasons feed supply from different sources is going to overlap and the challenge will be to develop an understanding of how we can total all these potential resources to provide a year round feed supply for a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep."
Dr McNeil said modification of the feed demand calculator for the production systems of the Border Rivers and Maranoa/Balonne is still at the stage of "a work in progress", with the QDPI&F and CSIRO scientists involved being heavily dependent on local advice.
But the process will be worthwhile, because the calculator will help producers understand how much pasture is growing on their properties and how much their stock are actually eating or likely to eat.
It will also allow them to calculate how much more pasture they could use without running the risk of overgrazing, and allow them to make long term plans for optimising herd or flock structure.
"The real advantage of the calculator will be moving producers away from thinking about a fixed stocking rate for the year and into stocking rates as they change from month to month during the year," Dr McNeil said.
"In a reproducing herd that also includes trading stock there will be a particularly big variation in animal demand for pasture at different times of the year."
MLA More Beef from Pastures is an innovative information and support program that gives beef producers across southern Australia a framework for incorporating world class strategies and tools into their management.
For more information about the MLA More Beef from Pastures program, visit www.mla.com.au.
Grain & Graze is a collaborative partnership between Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Australian Wool Innovation (AWI), the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Land & Water Australia (LWA).
Its aim is to lift the profitability of livestock and cropping operations on mixed farms around Australia while simultaneously improving natural resource management.
For more information about the Grain & Graze Program in the Border Rivers Region, contact Regional Coordinator, Rachel Charles on 07 4671 7900 or mobile 0417 468 861; in the Maranoa/Balonne Region, contact Regional Coordinator Stephen Ginns on 07 4620 8122 or mobile 0429 341 598; Richard Price, National Coordinator, on 02 6295 6300 or mobile 0409 624 297; Gillian Stewart on 02 6263 6042; Lynne Sealie on 02 6263 6021, or visit www.grainandgraze.com.au
