Hedging Our Forage Production

July at Dairytech Nutrition is Feed Budget month. In July each year we collate monthly ration analysis onto a spreadsheet we aptly term a ‘Feed Budget Post-Mortem’. It displays the previous twelve months feeding and production outcomes on one page. This is a perfect foundation to plan the next twelve months, hopefully improving outcomes from the previous twelve months experience, and coupled with what we’ve learnt in the last year!

The vagaries of seasons in recent years have taken the blame for many underperforming summer crops especially. Yet I weighted off turnip crops and sorghum crops of very good yields this past summer that never saw one drop of rain; and others that truly supported the above accusation against nature. We cannot change the weather (contrary to the belief of some!), but we can mitigate its impact through our management.

Rotating crops was once a common practice. Although I have no connection with cereal growers these days, they used to be the experts. Many farmers can understand nitrogen fixing crops, and there are other less understood gains from rotating crops; but do many of us practice crop rotations on our dairies? Summer cropping must increase to increase tonnes of dry matter per hectare per annum over our farms. Current economics of dairy farming are screaming for improved productivity as our only means of survival. Higher yields from both land and cows are the answer.

As seasons grow wetter or drier than normal, rotated paddocks will hold their yields while sequential monoculture ones have yield collapse, but always blamed on weather. The above mentioned turnip crop, sown in January in SW Vic weighted off at 5+ TDM and never saw rain. It was part of a crop rotation system; and grown on an organic farm with no chemical fertilizer!

There has also been a counter-cultural re-pasturing program that grew right through the summer of 15/16. Rotations are driven by soil types. Some paddocks are well drained, some poorly, and many that contain both soil types. We can grow a wide range of forages that will provide the nutrients our cows need to improve their yields. Cows need highly digestible fibre, sugar, starch and protein. Many plant species are capable of suppling these nutrient essentials. Yields per hectare are our concern. I have a few very entrepreneurial clients who are going to attempt several cropping systems I have seen work overseas. Yes, there are climatic differences, but I think we will learn what adjustments need to be made to make it work. We’ve done this with several feed additives, taking their attributes and applying them to our situation. Rumen Calm being just one.

Turnips, sorghums (grazing and forage varieties), cereals, Lucerne and red clovers are all capable of producing high quality nutrition as economically as maize silage. In fact, maize will stop growing above 30c, whereas sorghum will grow beyond 38c. Sorghum and summer active Lucerne love heat and root down deep in well drained southern dryland accessing both moisture and nutrient outside the reach of other plants. We’ve seen pasture continue to grow in southern dry land right through summer when preceded by a deep rooted crop. The assumption is, soil pans cracked by deep rooted crops allowing ryegrass to root down deeper than normal. Cows pulling up ryegrass plants is becoming common due to shallow rooting.

None of these crops are new, but need us to rethink about. We need obviously to match specific crops, times and soil types to take advantage of this rotational yield potential. Likewise, tillage/seeding equipment is emerging that can achieve good outcomes at lower costs. Combinations of spray-out/direct drilling correctly done can give us grazable paddocks in winter.

Winter cereals leave a paddock in early spring with 60% less available water underneath compared to bare ground allowing earlier tillage/seeding of cooler temperature summer crops (turnips). Sorghum under irrigation in Nth Vic will thrive on less than half the water needed by pasture and produce more tonnes of dry matter than pasture will in twelve months! There is evidence that BMR forage sorghums can produce twice the tonnage of dry matter of maize per 25 ml of water, and match maize on its ability to be converted to milk with the gain of higher protein.

Spreading our risk in unpredictable climate is the key to producing highly nutritious feed for our cows to convert to milk dollars over varied seasonal conditions. On well drained soils Lucerne will chase deeper moisture. Poorly drained soils will support good tonnages of red clover. Pasture grasses sown in spring can also do very well both over their first summer and the remainder of the year as they too root deeper after receding soil moisture. Weeds such as winter grass are not an issue in spring sown pasture. In any cropping scenario, one thing stands supreme: fertilizer; so often the missing link or at least inadequate amounts for the tonnages we are seeking. Fertilizer is always our cheapest feed.

Although our feed budget work focuses on the outcomes of the previous twelve months, then in consultation with the farmer, we set about to develop an individual farm plan to improved outcomes formalized into the Feed Budget. However, in the light of options listed above, and the knowledge that rotational cropping can produce superior yields, we need to develop a five year written plan to achieve any ongoing improvement in yields and farm profits. A five year plan is always open to adjustment as unpredicted variables become apparent; likewise, research is churning out large amounts of information that may be appropriate to incorporate in that plan.

John Lyne is a dairy production specialist with Dairytech Nutrition

www.dairytechnutrition.com.au