Making better use of crop stubbles on mixed farms

Summary

Falkiner Ag was contracted by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) to examine the opportunities, challenges and risks associated with using crop stubbles (and potentially dual purpose cereals) as part of the feedbase on mixed farms. The examination included contributions from farmers, advisors and researchers as well as the scientific literature. Insights were to inform the MLA and partners of reasons (if any) to invest in tools and technologies that would allow mixed farmers to make better use of crop stubbles on mixed farms.
Information gathering involved phone interviews, small group discussion and a facilitated workshop. A focussed conversation method was used for the phone interviews and face to face discussions. Sixty people contributed to the findings, including 40 farmers, 12 advisors and eight researchers. Interviews were conducted in October and November 2011 by FalkinerAg. The workshop was facilitated by Nicon Rural Services.
Three distinct farmer zones were evident from the interview. These were:The crop dominant wheat sheep zone including areas of Southern Western Australia, Southern and Western NSW and Northern Victoria and South Australia. This zone was characterised by crops with lighter stubble loads, long dry summers and soils that are potentially more prone to erosion. Livestock enterprises are generally a smaller proportion of the overall farming business.
The southern high rainfall zone which includes Southern Victoria and East South Australia characterised by heavier textured soils, a cooler shorter summer and large residual stubble loads after harvest. Livestock has traditionally been the main enterprise.
The northern summer/winter cropping zone of northern NSW, characterised by annual rainfall which is distributed about two-thirds oversummer and one third over the winter. Summer rains are often intense, leading to a high likelihood of erosion. Livestock are present and are an important component of agriculture in the region, but sheep and cattle are often run on separate parts of the property where cropping is not practiced.

The most striking aspect of the interviews was the strongly entrenched belief by most farmers and advisors in the wheat sheep and northern summer/winter cropping zone that introducing livestock would compromise their stubble management. They believe grazing stubbles reduces the capture and conservation of soil moisture, makes stubble more difficult to manage in the next cropping phase and increases the risk of erosion through removal of groundcover and loosening of the topsoil. Significant research and farmer experience supports this position. The authors believe this attitude will limit the opportunities to develop, promote and practice stubble grazing in these zones. Greater opportunity exists in the southern high rainfall zone, where the shift to cropping has been more recent, moisture conservation and groundcover are lesser issues and livestock still play a major role in the enterprise mix.
Despite these previous comments some opportunities were identified, however these opportunities often address cropping, farming systems or integration issues rather than the direct use of stubbles as a valuable feed source for livestock. They are also only likely to have localized application.