INCREASED profit through higher stocking rates is the goal of a pasture project near Wangaratta, writes KIM WOODS

Drought and poor pasture persistence severely limited renovation options for Wayne Grimshaw in recent years.

His main focus had turned to keeping stud and commercial cattle numbers stable, by buying hay and pellets.

Dams ran dry on his property at Moyhu, in Victoria's North East, in 2006, so a bore was sunk the next year, with troughs installed in all paddocks.

But a return to "normal" seasons in the picturesque alpine valley this year has allowed Wayne to take a fresh approach to pasture establishment.

Wayne, who manages the Moyhu Wagyu and Angus beef herd for owner Bob Officer, undertook an intensive pasture renovation program in from 1997 to 2002.

Despite lime applications of 2.5 tonnes/ha, pastures have hit the wall in the past few years, with aluminium toxicity suspected of affecting phalaris persistence.

Wayne has now switched to using winter forage cereals, such as triticale and southern green cereal rye, to prepare paddocks for new phalaris pastures.

He is keen to find out the best phalaris varieties suited to the area and is taking part in a regional Landcare pastures project.

"We are chasing persistence and winter growth, to allow us to increase our current winter stocking rates of 17-18 dry sheep equivalents a hectare," he said.

"I chose triticale to clean paddocks for next year, as it gives me more spray options to get rid of sorrel and ryegrass."

He has been rotationally grazing the triticale and cereal rye with 150 Wagyu-Angus steers and heifers.

The weaners, aged eight to 11 months, average 260-300kg and are destined for domestic feedlots or live export.

Moyhu Wagyu is run on 600ha of freehold and leasehold country.

Bob Officer, a retired University of Melbourne finance professor, had been a commercial Angus breeder, turning off feeder steers at 420kg liveweight, before trialling Wagyu genetics in 1997.

Full-blood Wagyu bulls were used artificially over Angus heifers. Bob was impressed at the calving ease and premiums received for the first-cross progeny.

With the intention of breeding up to a full-blood Wagyu herd, Bob began producing F1 steers for the live export and feedlot markets, and heifers as replacements.

Carcass feedback from the home-bred F1 steers on 450 to 500-day fed programs convinced Bob to take the project further.

Seven full-blood Wagyu heifers and two bulls were bought from Takeda Farms and Goshu Wagyu in 2000, to build a stud herd using embryo transfer.

Selected full-blood heifers were added in 2003, from Westholme Wagyu.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bob and Wayne refenced the property into smaller paddocks, increased watering points, resowed pastures and increased fertiliser rates.

As a result, the pair increased the farm's carrying capacity by a third in five years.

Today, Moyhu Wagyu has a full-blood herd of 220 breeding cows and a commercial Angus herd of 150 cows.

Most of the full-blood cattle have a high percentage of Tajima blood (noted for its high marbling) while others have some shimane (milk and marbling) to avoid inbreeding and maintain frame size and meat quality.

Wayne said Wagyu bull sales had diminished during the drought, with the market flooded by poorly bred stock.

"Many people started breeding their own bulls, but weren't using the right genetics," he said.

"The market requires high Tajima-blood cattle, sired by particular full-blood bulls."

Bob and Wayne have offered Moyhu Wagyu as a trial site for the Burgoigee Creek Landcare's project, Managing Pastures for Climate Change.

The project aims to increase farm profitability by improving the establishment and management of perennial pastures.

At Mohyu Wagyu, the trial is comparing early and late-sown phalaris, different weed control, paddock preparation techniques and phalaris varietal performance.

Set in a 950mm rainfall zone, the undulating site has clay loam to loam soil types.

The site has been subject to a consistent lime and fertiliser program since 1996.

Single super and potash 3-in-1 have been applied each year at 125-300kg/ha, while lime was applied at three tonnes/ha in 1999 and one tonne/ha in 2008.

Subdivided into four cells, the site was sprayed for sorrel and goosefoot in February-March using Kamba at 500ml/ha, Surpass at 2.2 litres/ha and Hasten at 500ml/ha.

Project co-ordinator Tim Ekberg said that once sorrel had two true leaves, control options were significantly reduced.

Gramoxone was sprayed on areas to be oversown in April, while glyphosate was sprayed on the early and late-sowing areas.

Fastac duo and Talstar were applied to the early sown sites.

In May, Sprayseed was used on all later-sown areas at 2.3 litres/ha, with 100ml/ha of Astound (insecticide/miticide).

"The aim is to keep the good plants and thicken up the paddock with the oversown phalaris and clover," Tim said.

"There are some large subclover plants in these cells that may not be killed by using Sprayseed alone.

"If so, they will compete with the phalaris seedlings for moisture and light," he said.

In June, Tigrex was sprayed at one litre/ha on the early sown cell, to control sorrel and capeweed.

Tim said Tigrex would suppress the capeweed, but most of the plants were too large to be killed.

Advanced AT, Australian, Holdfast and Landmaster phalaris were used in the early sown cells and Landmaster, Holdfast and Australian were used in the early oversown cells.

The late sown cells contained Advanced AT, Australian, Holdfast and Landmaster.

The late oversown cell has Australian and Landmaster phalaris.

Using a Duncan seed drill, the phalaris species were sown at 4kg/ha, with 3kg of gosse subclover, 2kg goulburn subclover and 80kg/ha of DAP.

Advanced AT is adapted to strongly acid soils with high exchangeable aluminium levels.

It also has higher seedling vigour and first-year survival rates than Landmaster.

Landmaster is suited to mid to upper slopes of lighter, shallow, acidic soils, and is winter active.

According to soil tests, phosphorus levels (Olsen) in the cells ranged from 14.7 to 16.9 mg/kg, and soil pH was 4.5-4.8 (calcium chloride).

Tim said the early sown cells had weed problems, including annual ryegrass and capeweed.

"The annual ryegrass is a problem where hay wasn't made last spring," he said.

"Capeweed is more of a problem in cells sprayed with gramoxone.

"There are no herbicides that will control annual ryegrass in newly sown phalaris pastures."

In other paddocks, Wayne is using endeavour triticale and southern green cereal rye to prepare for phalaris pasture next year.

Annual ryegrass, sorrel and winter grass have invaded the triticale.

"Having seen the problems caused by ryegrass and sorrel in this year's phalaris paddocks, Wayne plans to control these weeds in the spring in the triticale and rye," Tim said.

"An option would be making silage and reducing seed set by spray topping.

"The winter grass will not be able to be controlled. The only way around this is to spray the winter grass after it has germinated and sow phalaris afterwards."

A farm walk is planned for the trial site at Moyhu Wagyu on September 8.

  • For details, phone Tim Ekberg on (03) 5727 3931.