The Toolbox - MLA eLearning
The Toolbox - MLA eLearning
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MMFS Module 8: Turn Pasture into Product

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  1. Chapter 8.1 - Know your feed supply

    Key decisions, critical actions and benchmarks
  2. Review annual rainfall patterns
  3. Determine your current pasture growth pattern
  4. Determine variability in your pasture growth
  5. Modify your pasture supply
  6. Deferred grazing through containment feeding
  7. Utilise cereal crops
  8. Chapter 8.2 - Know your animal demand
    Key decisions, critical actions and benchmarks
  9. Estimate feed quality
  10. Estimate pasture mass/feed on offer
  11. Set annual targets for livestock classes and pasture
  12. Assess stock condition
  13. Set trigger points and plan to meet your targets
  14. Monitor your plan
  15. Modify the annual animal demand curve
  16. Time of lambing
  17. Stock sales and purchases
  18. Time of shearing
  19. Chapter 8.3 - Match animal demand to feed supply and minimise risk
    Key decisions, critical actions and benchmarks
  20. Introduction
  21. Plan your feed year
  22. Does pasture supply meet animal demand?
  23. What animal factors can I change?
  24. Complete regular feed budgets (measure and monitor)
  25. Manage the grazing system to control stock intake
  26. Manage the grazing system to maintain optimum pasture levels
  27. Implement tactical grazing
  28. Are paddocks unevenly grazed?
  29. Increase pasture utilisation on part of your property
  30. Plan for drought

Annual rainfall and its distribution influence pasture growth. To review your annual rainfall pattern, graph your own average, long-term rainfall figures, or to find long term rainfall information, visit the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Climate Data Online website.

In ‘1: Selected: Monthly climate statistics’ section, for the first dropdown menu ‘Data about’ choose ‘Weather & climate’, then in ‘Type of data’ click ‘Monthly’ in the ‘Statistics’ area. Then select your relevant weather station and click ‘Get Data’. See example in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1: Example BOM Climate Data Online search page. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

When the results load, in the ‘Rainfall’ section, click the Plot icon at the far right of the table to graph your Decile 5 (median) rainfall (mm) as shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2: Example of where to access Decile 5 rainfall monthly climate statistics. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

What does the annual rainfall pattern look like in your district? Can your existing pastures use the rain whenever it falls? Could pasture types with growth patterns different to those of your current pasture types fill some seasonal feed gaps in response to rain?

See below examples (Figure 8.3) of median 5 rainfall in Dubbo NSW and Kojonup WA. The rainfall in Dubbo is historically evenly distributed across the year, so sheep producers could grow green feed almost all year round in response to rain, but this is much less likely at Kojonup with winter dominant rainfall.

Figure 8.3 Median rainfall at Dubbo NSW (left) and Kojonup WA (right). Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

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