Rebuilding soils and optimising animal nutrition in dry seasonal conditions

On 18 and 19 March, FBG had the pleasure of hosting two excellent speakers – Col Bowey and Mark Emonson at two workshops, the first focussing on cattle (thank you to Craig & Nat Davis), and the second on sheep production (thanks to Paul & Melissa Barrett).

In response to last year’s challenging season, FBG was able to run this workshop thanks to the State NRM Program and extend this to our area’s livestock farmers.

The workshops were topical and thought provoking, with some different ideas broached to challenge the participants and provoke discussion. There were a couple of (very) brief take-home messages which certainly don’t convey what an interesting couple of days we were lucky enough to partake in.

·        Farmers need to maximise food production and chase dollars per hectare by boosting livestock numbers (in response to more food grown);

·        There are valuable lessons to be learnt from the cropping sector in maximising water use efficiency and making the most of every mm rainfall.

·        In a dry year such as 2018:

o   The importance of being proactive is highlighted;

o   Value your groundcover;

o   Know when to pull animals off a paddock;

o   Traditional ‘cropping’ (knife points and draper fronts) are generally not well suited to livestock production in dry years.

For more information, contact Maddy Wylie on 0421 645 410