As seen in Farm Weekly, 04/04/2024

At Irwin Hunter & Co, we understand the challenges that smaller property owners have growing and maintaining good quality pastures.

Managing pasture on smaller properties in Western Australia requires careful planning and attention to optimise forage production, maintain soil health, and support livestock grazing.

Planning a good pasture starts with buying a good quality seed.

Irwin Hunter & Co., a WA family-owned leading distributor of Quality Improved Pasture seeds, provides an extensive range of varieties and seed mixes to suit your individual needs.

Effective pasture management on small properties

When establishing a new pasture, it is essential to choose pasture species that are well-suited to the local climate, soil type, and intended use.

Consider incorporating a mix of grasses, legumes, brassicas and forbs or herbs to improve pasture diversity, provide benefits to soil health and balanced nutrition for livestock.

Reduce the competition and implement effective weed control strategies for both weeds and unwanted grasses/species, and make sure the new pasture is adequately established before grazing.

Test soil fertility and apply appropriate fertilisers or amendments to correct nutrient deficiencies.

Due to higher stocking rates (in most cases), smaller properties are obviously under more pressure and, for this reason, need regular nutrition to keep up with the demand for the plant's growth.

Providing the best environment for pasture establishment is fundamental, including preparing a good seed bed, the correct planting depth and plant when you have the best chance of adequate moisture availability with follow-up rain.

Ensure adequate water sources are available for livestock and develop drought management plans implementing strategies to reduce the impacts of drought on pasture productivity.

This may include stockpiling forage, implementing rotational grazing, and providing supplementary feed when necessary.

Allow your pastures to seed set

Not doing so results in poor pastures with extremely high weed infestations in the subsequent year, as the livestock will selectively eat the pasture species, giving the weeds a better chance to set seeds to multiply.

Setting up several paddocks and implementing a rotational grazing system will assist, as you'd typically set aside at least one paddock to seed set at the end of the season.

This requires removing all stock to allow the pasture to produce and drop the seed to increase the pasture seed bank in that paddock.

This should also be done on an annual rotational basis.

Rotational grazing

Implementing a rotational grazing system helps to prevent overgrazing and allows pastures to rest and recover between grazing periods.

Good management comes down to rotating paddocks, allowing enough time for the paddocks to regrow, and ensuring the build-up of new growth.

Divide the pasture into smaller paddocks or use temporary electric fencing to rotate livestock regularly, as some animals are selective grazers and will overgraze preferred areas.

In contrast, others are not grazed at all.

Having smaller paddocks will assist in reducing preferential grazing.

It is essential to manage the paddocks by only allowing the animals to graze down to a level that will enable the pasture to recover quickly and then remove them to ensure the pasture can regenerate rapidly, since overgrazing will result in the plants taking longer to recover and produce again.

Sacrificial paddocks and firebreaks

Ideally, you'll also need to set out a "sacrificial" paddock or area where the animals can be fed if you run out of pasture, avoiding overgrazing - this sacrifice area is also useful when paddocks get boggy during high rainfall.

Alternatively, if you do not have enough space to allow for a sacrificial paddock, you could have your firebreaks fenced and use that firebreak area to keep the animals when allowing pasture to recover, saving you money on maintaining or clearing the firebreak.

This also works well where you have horses that could get too fat during the warmer spring months with ample pastures due to the increased growth.

These animals can be left to graze the sparse pasture on the firebreak area and are only allowed back into a paddock for short periods.

The extra growth on the paddocks will enable you to stretch grazing into late spring and early summer.

Irwin Hunter & Co have a selection of broad-based pasture mixes suitable for livestock with a wide range of diversity including; SouWest pasture mix, Equi1st Mix, Silahay mix, Self Regeneration mix, Maximix, Western Annual Ryegrass mix, Interow mix, Nitro mix, Green Manure Mix, and our Cover Crop Plus Winter and Summer mixes.

A Mix & Match option is also available for your on farm requirements.

Contact your local farm supplier or Irwin Hunter & Co regarding their extensive range of pasture seed and mixes.