Dead Feed Concern for Graziers

South East Local Land Services (SELLS) advise that pasture testing over the last two months across the South East region has shown that green feed is still good and unlikely to be the primary cause of poor livestock performance this season. However, there are problems for animal health where dead feed is concerned.

Matt Lieschke, Senior Ag Advisor with SELLS said that dead feed has very little nutritive value, with dry matter digestibility ranging from 39 - 48 per cent. The problem is less of an issue for sheep, who are more able to access and select green parts of pasture, than it is for cattle.

“Livestock will do their best at selecting out the green component in the pasture. The question is, can they readily access the green, or do they need to take some dead with it?” Mr Lieschke said.

“Even if animals are largely eating green material, it doesn’t take much dead feed in the diet to really pull back livestock performance.

“In seasons like this, when there’s a mixture of green and dead material in pastures, we need to pay close attention to what stock is grazing and provide an appropriate supplement if required.

“Livestock have really struggled this year for a whole range of reasons and in some cases it’s been put down to a lack of ‘guts’ in the pasture. The recent testing should give producers confidence that green feed is still good,” Mr Lieschke said.

Although the results from the recent testing are very positive, Mr Lieschke points out that it hasn’t always been the case this year.

“Some of the pasture testing in autumn did show some lower numbers and there were instances where energy and protein were out of balance. I think this explains why we saw some poor stock performance earlier in the year.

“While green feed has certainly improved in digestibility as the season has progressed, animal health issues have also increased dramatically and are having a huge impact, especially worms.

“Poor stock performance in most cases this year is from a combination of factors including pasture quality, worms, liver fluke and bad weather.”

For advice on supplementation and pasture assessment, please contact SELLS on 1300 795 299.

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• Agriculture