To demonstrate how Pastures from Space technologies can be used to increase grazier’s skills in sustainably increasing stocking rates.
Key messages
The application of Pastures from Space technologies allowed wethers to be carried at a stocking rate 50% above the district average.
There were no significant differences in animal health or parasite burden between the two groups.
The per head wool production was reduced by approximately 5% in the PFS mob; however, the per hectare performance was 42% above the Control mob for CFW and 44% above the Control mob for wool income per hectare. This outstanding result demonstrates the ability of merino sheep to grow wool at close to maximum rates on 800 – 1000 kgs DM per hectare of good quality feed
Forward feed budgeting using the Feed Budget program was able to predict when it would be necessary to initiate supplementary feeding in the PFS wethers and when it would be necessary to remove sheep from the paddock altogether. This allowed forward planning to maintain adequate ground cover and hence preserve topsoil in the more heavily grazed paddock
The net benefit in the PFS wether group was $73.83 per hectare after allowing for the higher direct costs per hectare associated with the higher stocking rate and the extra supplementary feed required in the PFS wethers. Due to the extraordinarily high prices for supplementary feed in early 2008, the extra supplementary feed cost
$63.11 per hectare. This obviously had a large influence on the magnitude of the net benefit, with a benefit of $97.00 per hectare being achieved using long-term average supplementary feed prices
Lead research organisation
N/A
Host research organisation
N/A
Trial funding source
NLP
Related program
National Landcare Programme
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the sponsors:
National Landcare Program through Agriculture Kangaroo Island,
Trial source data and summary not available Check the trial
report PDF for trial results.
Climate
Derived climate information
No observed climate data available for this trial. Derived climate data is
determined from trial site location and national weather sources.
Parndana SA
SILO weather estimates sourced from https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/silo/
Jeffrey, S.J., Carter, J.O., Moodie, K.B. and Beswick, A.R. (2001). Using spatial interpolation to
construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data , Environmental Modelling and Software, Vol
16/4, pp 309-330. DOI: 10.1016/S1364-8152(01)00008-1.
