LIVESTOCK management has recently taken on a higher profile, with the federal government placing a higher priority on production of livestock and agricultural products.
The University of New England (UNE) has joined forces with the Australian Department of Agriculture to conduct a livestock supplement trial on a commercial cattle herd on Burleigh Station, Richmond.
Still in its infancy, the project aims to demonstrate the safe replacement of urea with nitrate, primarily to reduce the net methane output of livestock.
The trial, among many objectives, also aims to test the effect of free choice of supplementation strategies on production and performance of grazing cattle.
The trial’s ultimate objective is to improve the precision of supplementation in rangeland cattle in order to improve production, reduce costs and reduce emissions intensity.
The trial is under the control of Professor Roger Hegarty, and project officer and junior research fellow Joe Miller, both of UNE.
A field day to explain the trial to graziers was held at Burleigh Station on October 24 and was attended by almost 50 local graziers and stakeholders.
Also presenting at the field day, Dr Geoffry Fordyce (QAAFI) and Dave Smith (DAFF) spoke about findings from the recently completed CashCow project.
Mr Miller told graziers the project hopes to improve the precision feeding of livestock supplements.
To execute this, there have been two, 4-way remote Precision Pastoral Pty Ltd autodrafters (also known as remote livestock management systems or RLMS) set up.
These will draft a selection of all breeds, weights and ages into four separate supplement feeding groups at two watering points – soon to be three – in a 8093-hectare (20,000-acre) paddock being managed under normal industry conditions.
Presently there are 650 head of mature breeder cattle involved in the trial, and if seasonal conditions improve, the number will be increased up to a maximum of 1000 cattle.
All supplement blocks are presented on a device (supplement feeder), which can not only weigh how much is eaten in a given time but, with the help of multiplexer ear tag readers, can determine an individual animal’s intake.
Remote satellite cameras and satellite telemetry provided by Harrington Systems Electronics deliver the data collected via a satellite-internet link so the data can be collected remotely and viewed anywhere in the world.
Harrington Systems has also helped the project in developing software to control the hardware on the remote autodrafters and supplement feeders.
One group will receive a 30 per cent urea block; one a 30pc urea block, a 12pc sulphur block and an 8pc phosphorous block.
The third group will be fed a 30pc nitrate plus 20pc urea block, a 12pc sulphur block and an 8pc phosphorous block, while the fourth group will have the same, plus a 50pc dried distillers grain – a bypass protein source.
The supplements supplied to groups 2, 3 and 4 is on a basis of free choice by the individual animal.
The supplement blocks for the trial are being supplied by Olsson’s, and Murray Olsson told the North Queensland Register he would be looking forward to the result of the free choice trial.
“We have long had some evidence that with free choice of supplements, animals do better at more efficient rates, so it is exciting that we will now hopefully get scientific evidence of that,” he said.
“We think a cow is better at deciding what supplement it needs than the farmer.”
Graziers will be invited to further field days during the trial to keep them updated on the results as they come to light, particularly as they relate to the changing seasonal conditions.
