Reports regarding autumn grass supplies are more variable this year, with a higher percentage of farmers citing tighter grass supplies.

As conditions currently stand, many farmers are potentially facing an earlier winter housing or winter feeding period, with grass growth rates trending at a low level and supplies exacerbated by a lower percentage of heavier covers.

While there are often challenges in grazing heavier covers, they are important nonetheless at this stage of the year, as they provide a bulk of grass dry matter that will generally sustain ewes for a longer period of time.

The concern for many farmers with low covers is that sheep will graze through these much quicker, particularly if ground conditions are poor.

Taking stock

It has been mentioned in recent weeks that options available to take corrective action will reduce greatly as the year pushes on.

The focus at this stage of the year is to take stock of existing grass supplies, and to put a plan in place to try and extend the grazing season.

The target for this time of the year is to have at least 30 days grazing ahead of stock at the end of September. This essentially means that if grass growth ceased in the morning, there would be enough grass present to last the number of stock on hand for 30 days.

If grass supplies are falling below this level, then it is likely that there is a higher percentage of lower covers which, as outlined above, makes it difficult to build covers. Farmers actively measuring grass will have this information available at the click of a button through management software.

For farmers who are not measuring grass, an estimate can be achieved by walking paddocks on the farm and recording the height of grass available. Most farmers have a rough guide as to the area of lands in certain fields.

Table 1 details the number of grazing days for a range of grass covers based on 100 ewes grazing a one hectare plot and offered 170kg DM/day.

This equates to each ewe receiving a grass dry matter allocation of 1.7kg DM per ewe daily. A ewe grazing at present will have a grass dry matter intake ranging on average from 1.2kg DM to 1.5kg DM per day.

While grass utilisation is currently good, and hopefully this will remain the case, on average utilisation in October, November and December will do well to be in the region of 75% to 80%. Hence an allocation of 1.7kg DM at 75% utilisation will provide 1.3kg DM/ewe.

Corrective actions

With grass growth rates running at a low level and the window closed for applying chemical fertiliser and slurry, there are not many options there to promote growth. Applying farmyard manure and lime will bring about longer term benefits, but is not an immediate solution.

Therefore the only real solution available at present where grass supplies are deficient is to reduce demand and give covers a chance to build. The most obvious target is reviewing the drafting pattern of lambs and cull ewes. The target for mid-season lambing flocks is to have 80% of lambs drafted (including replacements retained) by early October.

Adopting a different finishing plan for remaining lambs or considering the store lamb market is one option to reduce demand from competing lambs.

Lambs can be housed on meal or concentrate supplementation ramped up at grass to reduce demand. Marketing cull ewes, whether to the factory or mart, is an obvious solution.

While ewes may not be realising their normal sales value, the benefit of retaining and allocating valuable grass supplies will be quickly negated by leaving the main flock short on grass. An option is to introduce concentrate supplementation to increase the rate of finishing, but it is important to do the sums to see if this is really worthwhile.

There are not too many options available to reduce grass demand for ewes joining rams in the coming weeks. Carrying out a final health check on ewes may identify a few more cull ewes and is an important exercise, but it will not rapidly transform fortunes.

Segregating out ewes still requiring preferential treatment and introducing a level of concentrate supplementation will help ewes regain condition faster, but it will not have a major influence on slowing down demand, as such ewes often tend to have a higher intake requirement. Feed buckets can also be used to sustain performance and condition.

Maximising utilisation

The only other options are taking steps to maximise grass utilisation and availing of temporary grazing agreements where available. Where heavy covers exist, then splitting paddocks in to smaller sections will generally improve utilisation.

Ewes can be forced to graze down lower quality material at the base of the sward for a short period without having any substantial effect on performance. A critical aspect here is having good fencing in place at the outset.

Temporary grazing

The potential for temporary grazing agreements is also in cases looking bleaker than in recent years, as with low growth rates many beef farmers have also lower covers of grass available. Where present, the need to notify the Department of Agriculture and required movement documentation depends on the farm to which sheep are moving to.

If sheep move onto a farm with no stock present or to a separate parcel of land to that which stock are retained on, then sheep can be moved to and from temporary grazing without notifying the Department.

Where sheep are moving to a farm or land block where there are livestock already present, then the Department must be notified. As there is no change in ownership, the onus lies with the owner of sheep to notify the Department.

Notification of the return from temporary grazing is completed by sending the white copy of the dispatch document clearly marked “return from temporary grazing” to your local veterinary office.

Targeted closing

Attention will also be soon turning to closing paddocks. The target closing pattern for an early-to-mid March lambing flock stocked at 10-12 ewes per hectare is to have 20% of the farm closed by late October, 40% by mid-November, 60% by late November and 80% by mid-December.

This will provide a rest period of 120 days and give enough time for paddocks closed first to have a cover of grass present before growth grinds to a standstill.