Toodyay Land Conservation District Committee - Livestock Management



	Publications Weeds Soils Species lists Catchments Phillips Brook Wattening Jimperding Boyagerring Community Friends of the River Seed Orchard Naturalists Club Issues Salinity Sodicity Revegetation Erosion Livestock Management Advice for the Small Landholder Small Landholder Information Service Spatial data Shared Land Information Platform Pest Plants and Animals Feral Rabbit data Our Strategy For the Future		Back to the Home Page Livestock Management If you are thinking of acquiring livestock you should first ask yourself why and for what purpose. Do you just want a few sheep to keep the grass down and reduce the fire hazard? Do you only visit your block at weekends or are away from home much of the time? If you answered yes to these questions you may be better off buying a ride on lawn mower or getting a contractor to slash the area. If you do decide to buy livestock you must ensure that you can provide: food and water all year, especially through the long hot summer months protection from predators protection from diseases protection from the extremes of weather If you intend to keep stock as a money making enterprise, you will also need to consider the type and quality of animal you will buy. Before you buy livestock, check with your local shire, they may have restrictions on the types and numbers of animals you may keep in certain areas. If you want good breeding stock and you have no experience with animals, then go to a stud farm rather than the sale yards. Many animals are at sale yards because they have been culled from a flock because they have characteristics which make their management difficult. These animals can give you ongoing problems, so should be avoided. To protect your investment and ensure that activities you carry out on your land are sustainable you will need to ensure that your animals are not able to destroy native vegetation, or trees that are providing valuable shade and shelter. See Farmnote 60/99 Preventing tree damage by livestock. Keep stock out of waterways, soaks and creeks where they will pollute the water and cause bank erosion. If you have a good supply of fresh water, maintain water quality by protecting the source either by pumping water to troughs for stock or fencing off the area but allow limited access areas for stock. Sedges and rushes planted around water sources will use up excess nutrient, reduce algal blooms and provide habitat for frogs. If you are relying on a dam or soak to provide water for your stock, check out the water and salinity levels, particularly in late summer. If you have to cart water for stock it is time consuming task. In general cattle will produce the best results in higher rainfall areas. Sheep and goats will manage on less. Dairy cattle will not tolerate salt levels higher than 6ms/cm, whereas lambs, weaners and and breeder ewes will tolerate up to 10ms/cm and adult sheep up to 17ms/cm. Stocking Rates You need to be sure your land can sustain the number of animals you plan to run on it. There is a guide based on the measurement of how much animals eat. This is called the DSE or dry sheep equivalent. DSE is the number of adult sheep or whethers that can be sustained on each hectare. Each animal is given a DSE rating. A horse is 10 DSE A breeding ewe is 1.5 DSE A alpaca is 0.8 DSE How many animals you should run on your land will depend on the type of pasture you have. A good clover grass mix on a clay loam may support 8 - 10 DSE per hectare. If the pasture is unimproved, that is it is in a natural state and you are in low rainfall area it may be a lot less. Introduce a perennial grass into this mix and provide fodder shrubs and the stocking rate may increase. Consideration should be given to the slope of your land, exposure to wind and sun, soil type, vegetation, pasture quality and the surrounding water catchment when considering keeping stock. By sticking to below the stocking rates and improving your pasture you will keep your livestock happy and reduce land degradation problems such as erosion and compaction. Rotate you stock through at least three paddocks or divide larger paddocks into cells using electric or temporary fences . Set stocking causes the slow removal of the best type of preferred pasture plants and allows the least preferred to dominate. It also increases the likelihood of the build upof parasites (such as worms) in the soil. Poison plants Gastrolobium species are native plants found in most of the major plant associations. They play a vital role in the ecology of bushland. Native animals eat them with little effect, but they are very poisonous to domestic stock. If you are not sure if you have poison get it identified. Remnant vegetation containing Gastrolobium should be fenced off if you intend to keep stock. Patersons curse (Echium plantagineum) Contains a liver poison which can kill sheep if they are forced to graze it when there is little else. Horses and cattle will usually ignore it but poisoning has occurred where there is little choice of other plants. Cape tulip (Moraea flaccida) is very poisonous to stock even when dried out in summer although again most stock will ignore it if given a choice. Caltrop (Tribulus terrestris) causes photo sensitivity in sheep causing severe sunburn on exposed areas of skin. Sheep There is an excellant booklet available from the Ag dept entitled Getting into Sheep, Bulletin 4577 by Roy Butler and Keith Croker. Find it online at the Department of agricultures website at Dept of Agriculture and Food click on Sheep then type in "Getting into Sheep" in the search box. Cattle Pastures As pasture improvement is expensive it should be carried out as part of an overall farm or property plan. Annual Pastures Clover based pastures with ryegrass have been the most widely used in our region. New varieties for annual pastures are being released all the time and any one wanting to establish new pastures should seek out the latest information to find the best mix for their situation .Again soil testing and weed control are important. Perennial pastures Perennial species continue growing year after year. Through their deep root systems perennial species remain green later in spring than annual pasture. They respond quickly to summer or early autumn rain when feed is most useful. They intercept nutrients and water deeper in the soil profile than annuals can. Careful preparation is needed to establish perennial pasture. Good weed control is essential and use of an insecticide to control red legged earth mite and lucerne flea beetle are important to ensure success. Soil testing should be carried out to determine levels of lime, dolomite, gypsum and fertiliser that are required. Timing of sowing is important as soil temperature and moisture is critical. Usually mid to late August is the ideal time Perennial seed is more expensive, and there is a need to de-stock to allow establishment. The spray-graze technique This technique controls a range of broad leaved weeds in pastures by using sub lethal rates of MCPA amine or 2,4-D. There is no permanent damage to pasture, it is economical as it uses less chemical and has no effect on grasses and minimal effect on clovers if they have reached the eight leaf stage. If clover is younger you will need to reduce the rate. The herbicide is applied when the weeds are actively growing and at the rosette stage. Stock the paddock with sheep 2-3 days after spraying at 8-10 times the normal stocking rate and graze for six weeks. This technique works by making the weeds grow more upright and more palatable due to the rising sugar levels. WARNINGS Do not use low volume ester formulations within 5km of vineyards or tomato crops .These restrictions apply to all hormone herbicides. Check with the Dept of Agriculture and Food before spraying Be careful with pastures dominated by patersons curse or capeweed. Spray graze increases palatability and may cause poisoning due to excessive intake of toxins. Fodder shrubs Fodder shrubs can be used to fill the late summer autumn feed gap, when pasture feed is at its lowest. Planting fodder shrubs may reduce the need to buy in hay and other feed thereby reducing costs. Other benefits include shelter for stock, soil improvement by reducing water logging, erosion control, and nitrogen fixing if leguminous plants are used. Typical fodder shrubs include : Acacia saligna - useful in areas which become waterlogged ( nitrogen fixing) Atriplex sp (Salt bush) - some species are quite salt tolerant Tagasaste - useful in areas of deep sand. It needs to be managed to prevent spread to other areas as it can become a weed. Often used in alley farming and where wind erosion is a problem. References: Property planning manual for the Swan -Canning Catchment, Department of Agriculture publication number 14/2002 Farmnote No 68/2001 Summer growing perennial grasses in the Central Swan Coastal and Hills region. Productive Pastures Pay Bulletin 4302 Peter Arkell, Dept of Agriculture More information for small landholders is available from the Department of Agriculture and Food Small Landholder Information service. Department of Agriculture and Food then type in Small Landholder Information Service Back to the Home Page