Pasture utilisation
This is module 4 of the MLA More Beef from Pastures - The producer's manual, which offers practical information to help lift the productivity and profitability of southern beef businesses.
It will help you to increase stocking rate and adopt a plant growth based approach to grazing management.
What this module is about
- Aim to consume 50% or more of your pasture when it is in the green growing phase.
- Graze your pasture based on plant growth rate and growth stage
- Increase and decrease stock numbers to meet different animal and pasture objectives at various times.
- Manage grazing so that pastures get adequate rest and regrowth before the next grazing.
There are 5 steps to help you increase pasture utilisation
- Determine stocking rate, plan paddock sequences and use tactical grazing
This provides the essential link between planning stock numbers for the cattle enterprise and achieving the highest efficiency of green pasture utilisation.
- Select a paddock and determine grazing duration
Select a paddock using pasture objectives (growth phase, mass and quality) that meet animal production targets.
- Start grazing before energy content and growth starts to decline
Accurately timing the start of grazing is critical to the efficiency of converting green pasture into product and the overall productivity of a beef herd.
- Stop grazing before regrowth potential is affected
This can prevent over or under-grazing and the associated impact on stock productivity, pasture regrowth and resource management.
- Determine the rest period
Rest enables pastures to regrow and store energy reserves before the next grazing. Temperature and rainfall are the main predictors of the rate of regrowth.
Toolkit 4
These tools will assist the on-farm implementation of each step in this module:
-
Pasture rulers, sticks and meters
-
Methods for setting pasture targets for slow rotations and set stocking
-
Daily pasture growth estimates for localities and regions across southern Australia
-
Information sources on pasture utilisation
-
Grazing management options to convert pastures into beef production
-
Plant-based grazing management methods
-
Linkages to other modules
This module uses information from Module 1: Setting directions and Module 2: Tactical stock control to set the initial herd structure and stocking rate, to understand tactical adjustment of stocking rate, and to forecast the grazing sequence and rest period for each grazing unit.
It also has a pivotal relationship with Module 3: Pasture growth, Module 6: Weaner throughput and Module 8: Meeting market specifications.
More information
|