Rotational Grazing in Australia

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burglar

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Have any Australian/NZ in the forum applied the daily rotational grazing method to cattle farming? I see Joel Salatin is making numerous trips to AUS to speak on this and wondering if our climate and grasses work for us as well as it does for our USA friends. Would also love to hear pro's and cons to this method from both Aus and USA farmers who have implemented this method.
Cheers
Dale
 
Dale, I rotationally graze my paddocks, but not daily. Some times of the year they might have 4/5 days in the paddock times like now only 2 days. Just depends on what feed is available, I probably look after my paddocks better than my cows, if things are not good I'll dump them into the scrub next door for a couple of weeks rather than send them around the paddocks again and have them knocked around. When we get rain then they are right to go again.
I have 8 paddocks in the rotation, it has certainly made a big difference to the evenness of the grass coverage compared to when I bought the place with all the open areas just very short or bare from the previous set grazing.
As you know we are very sandy granite soil here. When there is little coverage it dries out extremely quickly and with little holding the soil together it is easily turned to powder by their hooves. With rotational grazing I have been able to push them into areas that they would have otherwise left alone. I think it gives me much better utilisation of the whole place and grass species that were not seen before are now appearing.
Ken
 
Thanks Ken, How big are your paddocks you rotate on and how many head do you average on them. I have a lot to learn in this area, but with only 50 cleared acres it seems it is my best bet to maximize my productivity.
Dale
 
Probably 15-20 acres, but each paddock has varying areas of rock and trees. At the moment I have about 30 cows plus calves in the rotation. I feel I am a little overstocked at the moment, I might dump some cows and calves at Xmas if things don't look too good. As I have said, I have the advantage of having about 500acres of scrub next door that I can dump the cows into while waiting for rain. If it is a good season, the place will easily handle that no. of cows.
Ken
 
Rotationally grazing dairy cattle in NZ - I'm not sure how far what we do in a relatively mild maritime climate can be applied to Australia.

I agree with Ken on the changes rotational grazing makes to the pasture - grazing pressure and dung distribution is improved but the real boost in production comes from resting the paddocks from trampling/grazing after the cattle have been through. The change in appearance of my current farm within the year has been incredible and though it's also had fertiliser and seed thrown at it most of the improvement is from rotational grazing with cattle.
 
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Thanks Ken and Regolith, I am encouraged by both your messages. My property will certainly need improvement so this type of grazing will be a great start. Ken have you planted seed in the past? Any suggestions to what works well in the Stanthorpe area? Do you buy from Killarney Coop?
 
Dale I go down to Killarney Coop for their customix grain for the bulls and fertiliser. I was buying a lot of my stuff from NWF at Cottonvale but the fellow that was working there left and they have closed down to just 3 days a week now so I'll probably start picking up a bit more from CRT.
I have tried lots of seed in differant ways, I can point you in the direction there. The trouble here is our light soil, it dries out so quickly, unless you are very lucky, when you go to the trouble of a prepared seed bed more often than not you don't get the rain when required and things fail. We also have the problem of African Love Grass which is very opportunistic with disturbed soil. I suspect up on top of your hill things will dry out very quickly.
I have done a lot of deep ripping with minimal disturbance of the surface soil. This aerates the soil, allows easier root penetration and helps the water to go in. I trickle out behind the tine on the broken soil, grass and legume seed. Some seed, I have not seen any evidence of germination, some have been ok. Cocksfoot, Plantain and the legume Seradella have given the best results. Digit grass, I have had some limited success with at Sugarloaf Rd but virtually nil at Lode Ck.
Anyhow there are a couple of names for you to look up.
Ken
 
Should be able to have good access with your proximity to New Zealand. I was suprised at how many of our extension agents took trips to New Zealand to learn about rotational grazing. Most of our new electric fencing technology has come from there also.
 
wbvs58":1thso6j2 said:
Dale I go down to Killarney Coop for their customix grain for the bulls and fertiliser. I was buying a lot of my stuff from NWF at Cottonvale but the fellow that was working there left and they have closed down to just 3 days a week now so I'll probably start picking up a bit more from CRT.
I have tried lots of seed in differant ways, I can point you in the direction there. The trouble here is our light soil, it dries out so quickly, unless you are very lucky, when you go to the trouble of a prepared seed bed more often than not you don't get the rain when required and things fail. We also have the problem of African Love Grass which is very opportunistic with disturbed soil. I suspect up on top of your hill things will dry out very quickly.
I have done a lot of deep ripping with minimal disturbance of the surface soil. This aerates the soil, allows easier root penetration and helps the water to go in. I trickle out behind the tine on the broken soil, grass and legume seed. Some seed, I have not seen any evidence of germination, some have been ok. Cocksfoot, Plantain and the legume Seradella have given the best results. Digit grass, I have had some limited success with at Sugarloaf Rd but virtually nil at Lode Ck.
Anyhow there are a couple of names for you to look up.
Ken
Click to expand...

Thanks Ken, that is certainly some very valuable local advice, much appreciated.
Dale
 

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