LANZA tedera, which was bred by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) with support from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), has shown to be valuable as an autumn feed option on one of the properties on which it was developed.
Dandaragan farmers David and Richard Brown and their stock agent were surprised by the performance of their store sheep on a 40 hectare paddock of tedera over a six week period from early March to mid-April.
A mob of 225 sheep was run on the paddock for two weeks, before another 100 were added, a further 100 arrived a week later and then another 180 for the last two weeks, resulting in a flock of 605 grazing the same stand of tedera.
David said they were delighted that the sheep did as well as they did and how quickly they improved
"While we had seen sheep perform well in department trials over the years, it wasn't until we saw the results in a commercial sense that we were convinced of the benefit of tedera," David said.
"It also impressed us how well the tedera performed and recovered, as it had only been harvested for seed production about 12 weeks prior to grazing.
"I would certainly recommend if people have a spare 30 to 40 hectares to consider planting tedera as a summer sheep feed."
DPIRD grazing trials on properties at Dandaragan and Kojonup from 2014 to 2017, which were co-funded by MLA, showed wethers grazed on tedera could gain more than 200 grams per head per day and did not require any supplementary feeding.
Lanza tedera breeder Daniel Real said he was pleased the commercial scale grazing on the Brown's farm confirmed the department's experimental results.
"The result is a financial windfall to the farmer of up to 20 per cent of the value of the sheep, by bringing the tail of the mob up to the same condition as the best quality stock with very little effort or expense," Dr Real said.
"The department will be continuing its program of grazing and agronomy experiments with MLA over the next 18 months, which will help to refine the Lanza tedera production package for WA growers."
Dr Real continues to work on developing new and improved varieties of tedera.
Lanza tedera was bred by DPIRD as part of the Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre.
