Autumn Saving of Pastures Demonstration
| Project start date: | 30 May 2014 |
| Project end date: | 30 June 2017 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle, Sheep, Lamb |
| Relevant regions: | Victoria |
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Summary
Autumn saving’ is the practice of deferred grazing to prevent sheep from accessing certain paddocks after the autumn break to give pasture a chance to grow. This aims to ensure there is sufficient Feed On Offer (FOO) to maintain feed through to spring. The challenge with this practice is it requires increased levels of supplementary feed while stock are kept in containment areas or on ‘sacrificed’ paddocks.
This project established an ‘Enhanced Producer Demonstration Site’ to examine the feasibility and profitability of autumn saving over three years. Sheep managed through autumn saving (deferred mob) were compared to stock that were not (set mob) and evaluated in regards to lambing percentage, lamb weight, ewe condition score and profit margins.
Autumn saving demonstrated clear economic benefits for sufficiently feeding stock, while also maintaining adequate FOO levels during autumn. In a survey of producers who attended the workshops, 61% indicated they would adopt aspects of autumn saving into their practices.
It was estimated the extra feed grown as a result of autumn saving may enable producers to run an extra two ewes per hectare, which will increase the overall productivity and profitably of sheep enterprises with high stocking rates.
Objectives
The overall aim of the project was to demonstrate autumn saving and measure the benefits of increased productivity and profitability over several years. Three field days and one workshop were held for producers to increase their knowledge and skills to enhance the adoption of autumn saving practices.
Progress
Keeping sheep off the paddock for 33 days resulted in increased pasture with an extra 850kg of dry matter per hectare. This meant an extra 27.7 tonnes of dry matter was available for the sheep once they were moved back into the ‘saved’ paddocks.
The extra 27.7 tonnes of available feed equates to $48/tonne dry matter, which demonstrates that autumn saving was half the cost of using urea to grow pastures ($100/tonne dry matter).
Animal performance varied considerably over the three year Enhanced Producer Demonstration Site and was negatively affected by management issues, such as condition score prior to entering containment, transitioning into containment and feeding in wet conditions (which led to poor feed utilisation).
An evaluation of producers who attended the autumn saving workshops showed improvements in knowledge (40% increase), attitude (20% increase), skills (32% increase), aspiration (28% increase) and intended adoption (30% increase).
