Ovine Observer

Feed365 Trial Update – Pastures

The recent Feed365 field day held at Katanning Research Station was an opportunity to reflect on the performance of the experimental treatments over the last year, and while we still have a lot of data analysis to do, it is possible to provide some preliminary insights.

The trial consists of 0.5 ha plots grazed by sheep spread across two sites, the first having 11 treatments the second 13. Plots are grazed depending when they are best utilised during the year and whether they have adequate feed-on-offer (FOO). The goal is to develop profitable livestock systems based on forages that minimise the use of supplement by reducing feed gaps.

The 2023 growing season ended in October with the traditional subclover/ryegrass pasture having a FOO of around 1100 kg DM/ha, by contrast the wheat stubble had a FOO of around 5000 kg DM/ha. All the remaining treatments had FOOs between these two, the exception being those that had been sprayed and sown to summer crops.

During the summer period, the treatments that provided more grazing than the wheat stubbles either included triticale/cereal rye, serradella/ryegrass dry residues or summer-active perennials including veldt grass, tedera or tall wheat grass. For example, one of the best performing treatments, veldt grass, was grazed for 12 weeks compared to the wheat stubble which was grazed for 4 weeks (Figure 1). This was impressive given the dry hot summer and low perennial growth rates.

Figure 1. Veldt grass/serradella (left) compared to wheat stubbles (right) at the beginning of December 2023 at the Katanning Research Station.

In the summer period, only the perennial forages tedera, veldt grass, tall wheat grass, lucerne and kikuyu remained green. However, following rain in late summer after a long dry spell we did get patchy germination of the summer crops, which resulted in very modest amounts of green feed in February and March 2024. The most impressive summer crops were sunflower and sorghum.

The 2024 growing season commenced in May however it was not until mid-July that we commenced grazing most treatments because of the lack of feed and the need to control Red-Legged Earth Mites (RLEM). Exceptions included the perennials veldt grass and lucerne/cocksfoot which were able to be grazed following the break of season. When the bulk of grazing commenced in July the treatments with the most FOO compared to the typical subclover annual ryegrass pasture (1800 kg DM/ha) were a dry sown mix of forage and black oats (4100 kg DM/ha) and dry sown awnless triticale DynaTrit 1143 (3400 kg DM/ha) (Figure 2). This indicates that perennials and dry sown forage crops can substantially improve feed availability during the autumn and winter feed gap.

In mid-spring, the perennial pastures are being rested to be utilised for grazing in late spring and early summer. Several of the forage crops have been grazed hard to be sown to summer crops in October, and the remaining pasture treatments will be grazed until the season finishes or feed availability reaches the minimum required to protect soil surfaces.

Figure 2. Forage and black oats (left), awnless triticale DynaTrit 1143 (middle) compared to subclover and annual ryegrass (right) in July 2024 at the Katanning Research Station.

In conclusion, treatments that provided more feed during feed gaps included triticale/cereal rye combined with subclover or serradella, awnless triticale DynaTrit 1143, veldt grass/serradella, tedera, tall wheat grass/subclover and lucerne/cocksfoot. Sorghum and sunflower are potentially useful summer crops however they do require further research. Encouragingly, the forage treatments combined were able to provide feed for most of the period reported including a dry summer. This gives us confidence that some combinations of these treatments as a forage system will meet the objectives of the project to increase the number of days of the year that pasture grown in the paddock can support livestock production.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the financial support of SheepLinks (DPIRD and MLA) and the seed companies Barenbrug, Nutrien, RAGT and DLF.

For more information and updates on the Feed365 project see the website here.