Lach Harris inspects the Strategic Carryover Blend pasture used for finishing second cross lambs in winter, spring and summer.
A cost effective pasture program aimed at year round production and weight gain is paying dividends for a southern NSW enterprise.
Wokolena Pastoral Company operates the 1000ha property, Wokolena, at Wagga Wagga, and uses a combination of short term, high performance pastures, fodder crops, lucerne and permanent pastures to provide year round grazing.
A new legumes and chicory based short-term pasture, Strategic Carryover blend, has enabled second cross lambs to be finished to trade and export weights over winter, spring and summer.
The blend comprises clovers selected for their ability to develop specific seasonal high quality dry matter volumes.
Co-principal Lach Harris works with independent agronomist Mark Lucas, Pasture Agronomy Services, Tumut, to identify individual paddocks needing renovation.
Initial soil testing determines the need for any pH correction and other nutrient modification.
These paddocks are limed and sown with fodder crops in preparation for perennial pastures.
Set in a 525mm rainfall zone, the property runs 300 spring-calving Angus cows, turning off steers to feedlot entry liveweights of 450-500kg, depending on the season.
About 800 Border Leicester-Merino cross ewes are joined to Poll Dorset rams to produce 1000 trade lambs at 22-26kg dressed weight.
Soil types range from heavy alluvial river flats and rising sandy loam to granitic hills.
The hill country supports native pastures of red and spear grass, ryegrass and subclovers fertilized with single super and grazed by mature cows.
The sandy loam paddocks are used for growing oats, lupins and barley, while the heavier soils support Wedgetail grazing wheat, canola and high performance ryegrass varieties.
Grazing management is based on retaining a minimum of 1000kg dry matter per hectare for year round cover.
“Some of the hill country is almost set stocked with rest periods while the more productive paddocks are on a loose rotational grazing regime,’’ Lach said.
“We are careful not to overgraze the pasture species to ensure persistence and longevity.’’
Lach works with Mark Lucas to identify any paddocks lacking in carrying capacity and stocking rate.
Various pasture mixes and blends are matched with soil types and land classes.
“Our long term goal is to maximise livestock weight gain by choosing the most cost effective way to improve the pastures,’’ Lach said.
“The least performing paddocks are limed, if needed, at 2-2.5 tonnes/ha, and then put through a phase of grazing oats for a minimum of two years, followed by permanent pasture.
“Grazing wheat and oats provide our autumn/winter/spring feed whilst pasture mixes of lucerne, clover, fescue and phalaris provide the spring-summer production.’’
Yarran oats are dry sown in late summer into virgin paddocks to improve soil structure and clean up weeds.
Wedgetail wheat has proven the most profitable variety, filling the autumn-winter feed gap and yielding 3-5 tonnes/ha at harvest.
“We don’t graze the new pasture too heavily in the first spring to enhance maximum biomass development and recruit seed,’’ Lach said.
“We treat the pastures gently in the establishment year with low grazing pressure, monitoring for red legged earth mite and lucerne flea, and fertilise with single super.’’
Lach decided to try the new short term, high performance Strategic Carryover blend in 2015 to finish lambs rather than the annual re-establishment of brassicas, which are associated with high insect/pest pressures.
A 42ha paddock which had been in a grazing wheat and canola rotation for five years was sown to the overblend, comprising Puna II chicory (spring/summer growth), Antas subclover (mid winter vigor), Bolta Balansae (late winter/spring massive dry matter producer, waterlogging resistant and free seeding), and Zulu Arrowleaf (late spring/summer active).
Mark Lucas said the blend behaved like a well practiced relay race with the growth baton passed to the next performance runner.
“One of the most under-rated components of the pasture blends is the high digestibility of hayed off balansae runners,”Mr Lucas said.
“The high soil nitrogen build-up allows an ideal sowing for winter active cereals/tetraploid ryegrass for the next phase of production.
“It offers grazing period flexibility, spring insect tolerance, the ability to remove grasses cheaply and maximize grains for lambs and cattle.”
There was a pre-sowing application of 1.4 litres/ha of Roundup 540, 1.4 litres/ha of Treflan, 100ml/ha of Striker, 100mls/ha of Wetter TX and omethoate insecticide.
The Strategic Carryover blend was direct drilled on a 17.5cm row spacing at a depth of 1cm and seeding rate of 9kg/ha with 130kg/ha of single super.
A post-sowing spray of Broadstrike was applied to control shepherds purse and the pasture was lightly grazed in the spring with lambs.
The stocking rate was reduced in October/November and the pasture grazed by replacement heifers over the summer/autumn.
A mob of 950 lambs, weaned at 12 weeks of age, will graze the 42ha from late August to early December.
Access of lambs to a roughage source when grazing lush legumes dominant pastures is recommended, Mr Lucas said.
Lach has been impressed with the how well the new pasture handled the wet seasonal conditions. He said there had been minimal waterlogging despite parts of the paddock being under 3-4cm of water all winter.
“It has exceeded my expectations and has been low maintenance,’’ he said.
“Weight gains in the lambs have been good and the cattle did well on the chicory over the summer/autumn.
“It’s going to seed now and we will graze it with steers or kill heifers over summer.
“This blend is meant to be short to medium term but the conditions this year were ideal, enabling us to get a third year out of it.
“The paddock will then go back into permanent pasture.’’
Lach estimated total establishment costs at $220/ha.
“We aim to make high quality silage and bale cereal straw to be fed as roughage to stock on winter forage crops,’’ he said.
“We used to turn off steers at an average of 450kg liveweight well into January however most spring drop steers attain this weight by mid November.
“These pastures allow us to turn off all steers by Christmas.
“We are able to put weight on the cattle for the whole year, when they are fed good quality silage at weaning in January, grazed on high quality winter crops and finished on the permanent pastures.
“We aim to achieve weight gains of 1.1kg a day for the first 120 days post-weaning.’’
Lach said Winter Star ryegrass was sown in June, top dressed with 130kg of urea and grazed constantly with heifers, steers and lambs this year.
Diamond T ryegrass has been grown for high quality silage, yielding 5.5 tonnes/ha dry matter.
“You can spend a lot of money on permanent pasture but it has to be suited to your livestock and land class,’’ Lach said.
“We can’t control the amount of rain which falls but when it does fall, we want to make the best use of it to maximise production.
“Strategic carryover blend removes the seasonal risk of annual establishment and tailors growth to the rainfall pattern delivered.
“The blends ability to withstand extremes of climate has been highlighted this winter with amazing winter growth due to mild temperatures even in areas of inundation.”