THE massive hike in fertiliser price has southern livestock producers weighing up the value of putting any out this autumn, particularly in light of the ample amounts of feed in paddocks on the back of ripper seasonal conditions.
Calculations run by Local Land Services agriculture advisors does show, however, that the economic payback will still be there so price alone should not be a reason to skip fertiliser in 2022.
Senior ag advisor with South East LLS Matt Lieschke, Goulburn, presented analysis of gross margins for feeder steers sold at 18 months in relation to the application of fertiliser at a Seasonal Update webinar last week.
The work used a 2020 fertiliser price of $330 a tonne for single superphosphate compared to $850/t.
"Even though we've had a big increase in fertiliser cost, because cattle prices have risen at the same time the end result is the gross margin now is still in a very healthy position," Mr Lieschke said.
Gross income per dry sheep equivalent in 2020 was $63.55 and this year $95. That gave a gross margin per DSE of $51.83 in 2020 compared to today's $72.65.
"Fertiliser is a hot topic of late, with issues including price, availability and even getting onto paddocks," Mr Lieschke said.
There are, of course, reasons other than price not to fertilise this year. High priority paddocks may already have good soil fertility and skipping a year in one like this could make sense. Mr Lieschke advised using soil testing to make that call.
Stocking rates also could still be below normal levels, leaving surplus pasture in paddocks so spending money to grow even more grass that can't be utilised makes no sense.
"Some producers are going down the path of still spending the same dollars on fertiliser but putting out less," Mr Lieschke said.
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Green feed
LLS's soil moisture sensor network, farmingforecaster.com.au, indicates conditions have dried off in the past three weeks, and quite a bit in some southern NSW areas, Mr Lieschke reported.
The Bureau of Meteorology three-month outlook says the La Nina pattern, which has been a driving force of summer rain, is expected to fade out by mid-autumn.
The outlook, however, is still reasonably positive, for above median rainfall in many parts.
What that means for pasture growth this autumn is that even if you have green feed at present, don't expect it will continue on through autumn, even with more rain, according to Mr Lieschke.
"Autumn is a dynamic period in our pastures because we have summer growing material still going but when colder nights and frosts kick in, it will move to the dead pool," he said.
"Even if we do get a dry pinch now, plants will stop using soil moisture - that means we will still have subsoil moisture this year which is a big advantage in autumn."
Mr Lieschke advised breaking down this autumn's grazing strategy into three steps.
"First, assess your livestock requirements. What classes do you have and what are their nutritional requirements - weaners, cows with calves at foot, heifers and dry cows," he said.
"Then look for paddocks that match those requirements both on a quality and quantity basis.
"Feedback from producers over the past month has been the country looks good but stock are not performing as expected - that comes down to a quality issue."
The third step is to keep an eye on the future, to set up paddocks for later on.
Match it up
One of the big advantages of weaning is it makes it easier to allocate stock to different pastures.
"Weaners have a high requirement for protein and energy. After weaning, allocate them to the best pasture available, closely monitor pasture conditions and provide a supplement if the green disappears," Mr Lieschke said.
"We can use dry cows to clean up some of the poorer quality pasture without sacrificing calf growth rates.
"We want to set those paddocks up for later on in autumn when sub-clover and annual grasses germinate."
Cows with calves at foot are a key group of animals for many in the south at the moment.
Peak lactation occurs four to six weeks after calving, then the amount of milk produced gradually declines.
For those calves that were born in late winter/early spring last year, it's the green pasture in the paddock that is driving calf performance at present, not the milk they are getting from mum.
Using the decision support tool Grazfeed, Mr Lieschke presented an analysis outlining cow calf performance when calves are six to seven months grazing green feed at 500 kilograms of dry matter per hectare, 4cm in height, at 65pc digestibility.
In this scenario, where the rest of paddock is dry standing feed at 4000kg DM/ha at 50pc digestibility, the calf is consuming almost 6kg of pasture, not far behind mum at 8kg/DM. The cow is in holding condition, with no weight gain, while the calf is putting on 0.5kg/day.
With the green feed taken out of the equation, the cow starts losing weight slightly and the calf weight gain goes back to 0.3kg/day.
However, if the digestibility of the dry feed drops back it has a big impact. Then the calf really struggles to put on any weight and the cow goes backward significantly.
The key message, Mr Lieschke said, was it is going to be ok to put cows and calves in paddocks containing dry standing feed provided the calves have access to green leafy material.
Once that green disappears - or ideally a bit before - supplements will be needed to keep calves going.
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