Farmers grazing stubbles with livestock this summer will no doubt be noticing how quickly any available feed is disappearing.  If not already doing so, farmers thoughts will soon be turning to supplementary feeding to maintain livestock until some rain falls and dryland pastures begin to regenerate.  Hopefully an early break to the season is on the cards for this year.

Early autumn rains provide an opportunity to sow cereals for grazing.  While the soil temperature is still fairly warm, cereals germinate and establish quickly, and are therefore able to provide an alternative to regenerating pasture feed a bit quicker.  Being able to utilise the bulk of feed produced by a cereal during this time of year allows for pastures to better recover and establish better quantities of feed.  Of course, an added bonus of a cereal for grazing is that if the season turns out favourably, then the paddock can be shut up and allowed to go through grain fill.  Given the current grain pricing, there is the opportunity for a nice ‘bonus’ off of the paddock after it has been grazed.

Some of the benefits of sowing a cereal for grazing are beginning to show out in the Pastures, Profits and Broomrape competition site, located near Mannum.  After two years of competition, the local Younghusband farmers group are leading the way, having achieved the most grazing days and best cumulative gross margins with their grazing cereal systems.  The Younghusband group grew triticale (undersown with medic) in the first year, and an oats and vetch mix last year.

Following along closely behind the Younghusband farmers group are the Rural Solutions SA consultants group.  Sowing cereals for grazing has also been the strategy, with oats sown in the first year, followed by barley last year.  The grazing days and cumalitive gross margins are just a bit less than the Younghusband farmers group at this stage. 

As the grazed cereal systems have been showing out in the above trial to date, a NLP funded Sustainable and Productive Forage Systems in the Mallee project is currently running, aiming to establish how best to fit grazed cereals into current crop / pasture systems.  One component of this project will be to monitor the production and sustainability of a grazed cereal paddock against a self regenerating pasture paddock on a local farmers property.

So, as you’re out in those stubble paddocks feeding your livestock, give some thought to sowing a cereal for feed, as a relatively low risk means of keeping up livestock production.

AUTHOR: Grant Johnson, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Consultant, Rural Solutions SA
CONTACT: Grant Johnson, Rural Solutions SA Murray Bridge Office, Telephone: 08 8535 6402, Mobile: 0428 115 205, Email: johnson.grant@saugov.sa.gov.au