While inspecting pastures on a property west of Blayney last week, I could not help but notice the difference in utilisation rates of some paddocks.
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After a reasonable fall of rain in December, the producer explained that the phalaris on the mid-slopes went to head very quickly.
However, the valley floors were well utilised with significantly less standing biomass.
While there are very few areas in the Blayney district that have the luxury of underutilised pasture at present, unless you’ve been lucky enough to get under a local storm cell, I believe there are lost opportunities in the lower slopes of paddocks in the region.
I hear you ask, “if the lower slopes were better utilised, then why are there lost opportunities in this area? Surely the lost opportunities are in the mid-slope where the dead rank stalky phalaris is as thick as hairs on a cat’s back”.
Sure, there are lost opportunities in the rank phalaris on the mid-slope, but it is not the fault of the pasture. Low stocking pressure is the culprit in this instance.
On closer inspection of the lower slope area of this paddock, there was a distinct lack of perennial grass density.
It was dominated by winter growing annuals, such as soft brome, vulpia, ryegrass, bent grass and clovers, which produce little to no green feed from December to February.
Perennials such as yorkshire fog, phalaris and paspalum were sparsely scattered in this low lying area, which is the reason why the area looked better utilised from the comfort of the ute.
It is easy to be distracted by unsightly weeds such as saffron thistle, spear thistle and Bathurst burr. Producers often spend many hours and hard earned cash on controlling these annual weeds. However, often these annual weeds are well less than 5 per cent of the total pasture area and therefore I propose that it is an ascetic problem, rather than a real production problem in most cases.
Perhaps resources would be better spent investigating which pasture variety is best suited to utilise soil moisture in the lower slopes in the warmer months on the Tablelands and then embarking on a program of pasture renovation to best suit the landscape.
Central Tablelands Local Land Services offer many different training events that can help producers identify pastures, improve soils, assess pastures and livestock.
There is a pasture and livestock assessment workshop scheduled for Thursday March 8 at Barry. If you’d like more information on these events, please call Phil Cranney on 0458 745 478.
