Grazing

Don’t let your hungry livestock eat away your precious soil cover pasture. There is potential to improve the profitability of livestock enterprises through improved grazing management while maintaining and enhancing the soil resource that these enterprises rely upon.

Find tips from local farmers who’ve trialled paddock rotations and subtly changed watering points to great effect. We have also compiled a range of resources about grazing.

Electric fencing

Using electric fencing can be a useful management tool for grazing. To help landholders with management of erosion-prone areas, we have four RAPPA electric fencing units available for loan from our Cleve, Wudinna and Port Lincoln offices. These temporary electric fencing systems are equipped with all the basic items to be used with the assistance of a quadbike or ATV, aiming to easily fence stock off from fragile soil areas in a paddock to increase soil cover.

Find out more in our flyer.

This SARDI fact sheet may also be useful - temporary electric fencing tips.

Resources

• This is a stocking rate calculator from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA). It is designed to determine the number of cattle or sheep you should put in a paddock based on its carrying capacity. See MLA's grazing management page for more information and tools.
• This calculator (spreadsheet) allows the user to compare the costs of feeding, agistment or selling livestock as strategies to dealing with dry times.
• This fact sheet from Upper North Farming Systems contains information about stubble grazing and factors to take into consideration while undertaking this practice.

Case studies

• This case study is about taking the pressure off cropping and looking at different ways to do things on a property at Poochera.
• This case study on a Poochera property showcases increasing stocking pressure to achieve even grazing.
• This case study is about doubling stock rate through better grazing management.
• This case study was based at Cowell and looks at managing land classes for better feed utilisation. The key recommendation from the landholder was for growers to be aware of the amount that cover crops can compete with available moisture when establishing perennial pastures.
• This case study was undertaken at Ceduna and looked at changing paddock management to increase stocking rates. It showed that grazing efficiency can be increased by splitting the paddocks and rotationally grazing the area compared with set stocking paddocks.
• This case study from Sheep Connect SA looks at electric fencing enabling better feed utilisation.
• The Barossa Improved Grazing Group has this case study about a property that used temporary electric fencing to divide a paddock into three cells, following a very poor growing season because of dry conditions. Using strip grazing, the property manager was able to lift their stocking rate.
• Another case study from the Barossa Improved Grazing Group, looks at smaller paddocks increase stocking density and improve feed utilisation.
• See this YouTube clip which shows how temporary electric fencing for cell grazing has helped Nathan Little successfully finish lambs on a mixed farm enterprise at Port Kenny.

This Improving Feed Utilisation booklet contains a number of successful case studies about improving feed utilisation (including some of those listed above). They have demonstrated that gains can be made by making better use of paddock feed. Sub-dividing paddocks using flexible fencing systems enables more even grazing across all paddocks and within paddocks and helps prevent the “baring out” of areas favoured by livestock. The demonstration sites detailed in the booklet have shown that there are many ways to improve feed utilisation while protecting soil.

Other resources

• From the Barossa Improved Grazing Group: making the most of early feed barley.
• From the Barossa Improved Grazing Group: a simple four paddock rotation lifts production on annual ryegrass pasture.
• This page from Sheep Connect SA is about benchmarking aiding improvement through increasing lambing percentages at a property at Kimba.
• This information from Sheep Connect SA looks at maximising seasonal variability opportunities through planning.
• This fact sheet from Meat and Livestock Australia looks at tactical grazing to maximise pasture and animal productivity.