MOST farmers would never knock back a free feed.

But they are when it comes to winter grazing cereals says Grain and Graze co-ordinator and Winchelsea livestock manager Simon Falkiner.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Simon Falkiner
  • What: Grain and graze
  • Why: A free feed
  • Where: Winchelsea
  • Report: JAMES MEEK

"Free food for livestock is simply going to waste every winter," Simon said.

The idea of grazing crops is not new.

Winter active crops such as red wheat have long been a source of food during the winter for animals.

However it is only in the last few years that farmers have had the management techniques to be able to graze all their crops, such as white wheat, barley and canola with no crop yield penalties.

Timing is everything.

Crops can be grazed as soon as their root system is anchored and the key is taking livestock off before the crops reach the crucial stem elongation stage, known as growth stage 30.

Simon said the easiest way to think about it was to imagine the crop as a child.

"When the crop first comes up it is like a baby and needs to be looked after carefully and nurtured."

When it became a toddler it was fairly robust and could take a few knocks and be grazed.

However once hormones started being produced and it became a teenager, then trouble wasn't far away.

"You never want to interfere in the teenage year," Simon said.

"Once it hits growth stage 30, you can't give it a clip over the ear."

Simon said it was important to understand what happened during a crop's life cycle.

"The initial tiller the plant sends up dies, so we spend all this money and stress growing that, and then it dies on us.

"But if that gets eaten, you are effectively utilising dead money."

The benefits of grazing winter crops varied, the obvious being the ability to utilise a high quality feed source in June and July that would otherwise be wasted.

Grain and Graze trials also showed removing livestock from pastures during the early winter months could increase the available feed by 25 per cent come spring.

Other benefits included delaying flowering, helping reduce the threat of frost damage and better disease control.

Simon said trials had shown that grazing a crop twice reduced the number of times it needed to be sprayed.

One of the other major advantages was stubble reduction, allowing many farmers the benefit of direct drilling the next year.

"We have seen stubble reduction by around 30 per cent, so from about five tonne to three tonne, which most gear can get through," Simon said.

However there were some issues that needed to be managed, as the paddock was being asked "to do twice as much".

Grazing crops early opened the canopy which in "dirty" (weedy) paddocks could mean more herbicides.

Water logging and pugging could damage soil structure during wet periods and there were potential animal health issues such as milk fever and a lack of key minerals such as calcium and magnesium in sheep.

Most crops would now be passed or coming up to growth stage 30 soon, so it was important not to leave the animals on too long.

Leaving animals in past growth stage 30 would reduce yield as would late grazing paddocks with a shortage of sub soil moisture.

However, Simon said all these problems could be overcome with proper management.

"Profits rise by combining both sheep and cropping.

"But you don't need to lock yourself into keeping livestock on the property all the time for this to work.

"Which is good because there are a lot of tractor guys out there who really don't like sheep."