Even if it rains tomorrow many livestock producers in the Hunter and Mid North Coast will still be faced with weeks if not months of hand feeding – as they say its doesn’t rain grass.
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And the later the season breaks the shorter the growing period meaning we are heading into autumn and winter with no paddock feed.
Given this outlook many producers could well be faced with feeding their stock through winter.
“Planning for that situation now is vital and can I stress it’s never too late to make those plans or take action to ensure your livestock enterprise remains viable,” said Richard Noble, an agricultural adviser of 40 years experience.
Scone based Mr Noble, operates Agricultural Optimisation Services, and he is currently busy advising clients on feed options that will not only maintain their cattle but more importantly make them profitable.
“Producers have to start thinking about more than simply maintaining their herd but wherever possible finding a feed source that is cheaper per kilogram to feed than what they will receive in the market for their stock,” he said.
“In the case of weaners if you can buy feed in that costs under $2/kg gained liveweight you are probably better to feed them as that’s cheaper than the current liveweight price and fed correctly those weaners will be gaining weight on feed.”
This is exactly what one of Mr Noble’s clients is doing. Upper Hunter Resources owns five properties covering 1102 hectares in the Deman and Wybong districts. Owned by Sydney based businessmen they run 380 Angus breeders producing F1 Wagyu calves destined for feedlots and live export.
The drought has been particularly punishing during the last 12 months but they are fortunate to have 200ha of irrigation that has been used to grow lucerne hay to supplement the herd. However given the severity of this drought the decision was made to early wean this year’s calves.
Calves have been weaned as young as two months to ease the pressure on their dams and ensure they keep gaining weight.
These calves are being fed pellets produced by Premier Feed and Fibre, Finley which Mr Noble said is perfect for young cattle and contains 16 per cent protein. The product cost $390/tonnne + GST delivered to Denman.
The pellets are described as containing fibre sources such as Vetch, Lucerne and Cereal hays, mixed with selected quality grains like barley, wheat, all uniquely blended in pea pollards, high-quality vegetable protein meals, faba beans and peas.
On entry into the feeding program the calves were weighed and will be checked weekly to see how they are adjusting to their new regime. After a week on the pellets with some additional hay all the calves were extremely well settled and gaining weight.
According to one of the business partners Darren Silvio the pellets cost $1.90/kg gained delivered which was still way under the market for F1 Wagyu steers at $4.94/kg/liveweight.
“By opting for early weaning and this particular feed regime will aim to have the calves going along very nicely and capable of meeting markets requirements at a profit,” Mr Silvio said.
Mr Noble said putting kilos on is the name of the game whether there is a drought or not but don’t think you can’t achieve this because of the drought. He also stressed the importance, once the weaners are on feed, to weigh and record that information on a regular basis.
“One of the best pieces of on-farm technology is electronic scales and a recording program that way you can follow your stock and gain a greater understanding of individual performances,” he said.
“Too many livestock producers don’t know one how many kilos the cattle produce per hectare and second the cost of producing those weight gains.
“This is even more vital during a drought so you can make sound decisions based on those figures including which animals to sell, which to ones to keep and what to feed.”
Mr Noble said before starting a feeding program think about how many you can feed and have you got secure clean water.
Running an innovative, commercial feedlot at Wagga Wagga for more than a decade taught agricultural adviser Richard Noble many skills.
One of the most important being able to understand how best to utilise protein and energy to maximise profits from the operation.
Its a mindset he wants more producers to take up and apply to their own operations so they know exactly how many kilos of weight or litres of milk they are producing from every hectare and the costs involved.
“Dairyfarmers and grain growers are probably better at this analysis but beef producers need to get on-board and be able to quote those type of figures,” he said.
“The top 10 per cent of beef producers are able to do so and we need everyone who wants to run a sustainable and profitable beef and sheep operation to be able to quote those figures. Sadly too many producers will tell me they know the sale weights of cattle and nothing else.
“Thats not good enough in this day and age and especially during the current drought.”
A regular visitor to the United States Mr Noble said their beef producers were away ahead of us in terms of technology uptake and genetics.
Many landholders, in particular investors with no previous farming experience, will spend vast sums of money on their property and after a few years question why the operation isn’t making money, he said.
“I often get called in and asked what to do – should they sell or is it able to be fixed?” he said.
“So then we think about land as an investment and their livestock operation being able to pay for the use of that land. Once again you have to start talking about what is produced/ha and what it costs.”