Drought Action Plan
Feed shortages are changing situations which require continual reassessment of feed and financial resources and an ability to quickly take relief measures at minimum cost. For these reasons there is no standard recipe on how to best manage beef cattle in a feed shortage.
No two periods of feed shortage are the same. For instance, the best course of action will depend on such factors as:
Current saleyard prices for stock
Size of existing drought reserve
Cash-flow limitations on fodder purchases
Expected duration of satisfactory stock water reserves.
Courses of Action
Amendments to the Protection of Animals Act (1986) and the publication of Codes of Accepted Farming Practice for the Welfare of Livestock removes the option of 'doing nothing'. Cattle must not be left to starve to death or die of thirst.
The following courses of action are open to producers:
agist stock
sell stock
feed stock
Agistment
This can be a cheap solution to the problem. Your agisted animals may even fatten on good quality agistment and any cattle left at home will have less competition for feed.
Before agisting cattle there are certain points that you should consider and this is best done by inspecting the agistment area:
fencing should be secure and cattle handling facilities available
good quantity of quality feed
good water supply
stock must be supervised to minimise theft or deaths
stock need to be identified in some permanent way, preferably NLIS electronic identification
Only agist cattle strong enough to travel.
It is an advantage to have the agistment area close to markets so that agisted cattle do not have to be brought home again.
Most agistment will be snapped up early during dry times, particularly if it is widespread so this decision must be made swiftly.
A more widely used form of agistment used now days is to send your cattle to a commercial feedlot, particularly finishing cattle for slaughter. While this is expensive, the high cost may often be offset by the sale of the resultant finished cattle at a premium price.
Sell Stock
Sale of cattle provides ready cash as well as extra paddock feed for stock on hand.
Timing of the sale and the type and number of cattle to be sold are the crucial management decisions in this course of action.
During any feed shortage there inevitably occurs a period of intense selling with large saleyard yarding and resultant depressed prices. As much as possible, plan selling to avoid such buyers' markets.
When selling cattle the best policy is to sell the less productive animals, so that at the end of the feed shortage a core of high-producing animals will remain. The decision to sell should be made quickly, before the condition of the stock deteriorates and market prices become depressed.
The best cattle to retain through a drought are young breeders of good quality. An effective breeding program will result in the young breeders being the best genetics in the herd. Such cattle are difficult and expensive to replace at the end of a prolonged feed shortage. They will provide the basis for bringing a beef herd back into production.
An example of such a selling policy for a breeding herd would be:
pregnancy test and sell all empty, late-calving and low-producing cows
sell inferior bull(s)
sell non-breeding cattle: weaners, yearling steers and bullocks
sell aged cows and aged bulls and lightweight heifers
wean calves over three months of age and sell or feed separately
progressive reduction in the breeding cow herd - reassess cow herd and sell the poorest performing cows and heifers, with the young breeders (2-5 years) being the most important to retain
Feed costs, saleyard prices and expected duration of stock water supplies are key factors that need to be assessed each time the number of stock to sell is considered. Herd rebuilding can be a slow process, so long-term as well as short-term implications of any selling policy need to be considered.
Feed Stock
Inevitably, a decision will be made to feed at least some stock. Drought feeding of cattle is most efficient if the stock are segregated into various classes so that they can be fed according to their nutritional requirements. Suggested classes could be:
early weaned calves (less than six months)
weaners (6 to 13 months)
yearlings (12 to 18 months)
cows with calves at foot
dry cows
bulls
steers and bullocks (over 18 months).
Each class of stock varies in its susceptibility to feed shortage.
It is important to obtain and provide vendor declarations on all cattle sold or purchased to meet industry requirements. Vendor declarations are available from stock and station agents or the Department of Primary Industries.
Stock feeds vary in their feed value available to the animals; moisture content, protein and energy level together determine the relative value of one feed against another.
Generally, grains are more readily available during periods of severe feed shortage. Hay, although desirable for lactating cows, in addition to grain, tends to become scarce and overpriced quite early in a period of feed shortage.
Your own attitude to risk and accuracy of feed budgeting will determine when you buy in additional feed.
Grazing Management
Pasture growth will be the cheapest source of feed over winter and pasture height has a major effect on pasture growth. However, during a green drought where germination occurs but due to a dry cold winter, pasture growth is minimal, other action is required. To maximise pasture growth over autumn/winter, fodder supplements should be used to lengthen a grazing rotation and to build up a bank of pasture or 'feed wedge' ahead of the herd. As well as assisting in pasture growth, this will also give some height to pasture so that it can respond to nitrogen fertiliser.
Nitrogen fertiliser
Nitrogen fertiliser can be used to promote extra spring growth, and enable a bank of feed for fodder conservation. Although there are costs involved and adequate rainfall is still required, it may be an option for some beef producers.
The cost of extra pasture produced from nitrogen fertiliser can be around half that of grain (and one third that of hay) assuming average responses from the fertiliser. A typical response time is four to six weeks, so action needs to be taken early to use this option.
Nitrogen needs to be used on responsive paddocks (high level of nutrients, adequate pasture height 4cm or greater and contain productive species). If in doubt about the response you would get you could try a trial strip and see what happens.
Summary
For beef producers facing a feed shortage a range of options are available but the earlier the decisions are made the better (and usually the cheaper the outcome). Each farm situation is different and needs to be considered on its own merits.
Pastures for Livestock Production
To improve the efficiency and profitability of grazing systems it is necessary to develop skills in pasture and animal assessment. Benchmarks for animal condition and pasture composition and availability, allow informed decisions on stocking rates and supplementary feeding.
Practice in estimating pasture quantity and quality is essential, and the more accurate you become, the more efficient your decisions on drought feeding can be. This will enable the most profitable and affective feeding decisions to be made.
Herbage Mass
The quantity of pasture in a paddock is called the herbage mass or pasture available and is measured in kilograms of dry matter per hectare. Herbage mass is defined as the weight of pasture obtained off a hectare if it was cut right to ground level and completely dried to remove all moisture. This definition is used to avoid complications with different cutting heights and moisture contents of varying pastures.
Measuring Herbage Mass
There are numerous ways to train yourself to accurately measure herbage mass. After a period of time, you will be able to 'eyeball' pastures to estimate the amount of herbage (height and kg/ha) on offer. Two methods of assessing pasture quantity are described below.
Method 1. Making and Using a Pasture Height Stick
Use a 1cm thick dowel about 30cm in length. Flatten on one side to allow graduations and units to be written in. Draw a line 0.5 cm from the end and then every 1 cm along the stick as shown in Figure 1.
Note: readings of 0.5 - 1.5cm are recorded as 1cm, 1.5 - 2.5 as 2cm, etc.
Method 2. The Gumboot Guide to Pasture Height
The gumboot as illustrated in Figure 2 is used as a measure of green pasture height and stock performance for perennial ryegrass/white clover pastures autumn to spring containing only a small quantity of dry pasture. The relationship between actual pasture height and pasture quality varies from district to district and from farm to farm.
Stock performance can be better than that indicated in Figure 2. when pastures are growing rapidly in spring. However, stock performance will be lower than indicated if autumn/winter pastures contain dry carry over pasture from summer. The amount of dry pasture has a large impact on stock performance. For example, if pasture contains 30% dry material, the stock performance shown in Figure 2 can be reduced by 30%.
Pasture Quality
There is no 'single' measure of pasture quality, it must be considered as a combination of several attributes of the pasture on offer including the digestibility of the green and dead herbage, clover content and the proportion of dead herbage present.
With dry herbage, protein content is also important as it can be a limiting factor to the performance of some classes of stock.
Digestibility is the proportion of the pasture eaten which is retained by the grazing animal. For example, if green pasture has a digestibility of 75%, it means that 75% of the pasture eaten will be used by the animal and 25% will pass out as faeces. A highly digestible feed will be digested quicker allowing for greater intake and hence greater animal production.
Other factors which influence quality of pasture include:
Green versus dead - green pastures will be of a higher quality than dead herbage of the same species. Quality gradually declines as the pasture ages and goes from the vegetative to reproductive state. Dead material also declines in quality as stock selectively graze the pasture and it is leached by rain.
Difference between grasses - there is often little difference between annual and perennial grasses early in the growing season. However, towards the end of the growing season, annuals quickly decline in quality when they produce seed heads and die. Perennial grasses maintain higher quality longer and usually have some green material present.
Legumes - animals gain weight faster when grazing legume pastures compared to a grass pasture with the same herbage mass. Some legumes such as white clover, persian clover and lucerne are of higher digestibility than the best perennial grasses. However, subterranean clover and other clovers and medics are usually about the same digestibility as the best grasses.
Table 1 Combines pasture quality and quantity together to give an indication of the minimum herbage mass required at different qualities for different classes of cattle.
Table 1. Minimum herbage mass to maintain production in different classes of cattle (kg total DM/ha)
Fat Scoring Beef Cattle
The body fat reserves of beef cattle are important at critical stages of the production cycle and determining drought feeding rations. By assessing the stock and the available pasture the manager can work out the rate of supplementary feeding required, from a full diet through to a part ration.
There are two ways to assess the condition of cattle by weight and fat scoring. Cattle should be weighed using scales instead of estimating. The weight of cattle varies due the breed, sex, age and pregnancy status, so when feeding during a drought for survival, fat score is used as the standard. Fat scoring can be assessed manually and visually both techniques are described here.
The objective of fat scoring is to obtain a simple and reliable estimate of the body fat reserves of live cattle. The fat score provides an estimate of fat reserves that is independent of size, and is a more reliable description of condition than liveweight alone.
Fat Scoring Techniques
The technique is easily learnt and, although subjective, has been shown to give reliable results when related to subcutaneous fat cover.
The manual method is a 'hands on' system, where two areas of the animal's body are palpated to assess fat cover (see Figure 3). The two areas are:
The spinous processes or short ribs
Around the tail head.
These areas are selected as assessment sites, because if any tissue is layed down at these sites it is fat. Other sites on the body are harder to assess due to the difficulty in determining the difference between fat and muscle.
The Short Ribs
The degree of prominence of the short ribs of the individual spinous processes, is found by placing the fingers flat over the short ribs and pressing the thumb into the end of the short ribs (see Figure 4). A fat score is given according to the ease with which the individual short ribs can be felt with the thumb.
The Tail Head The degree of fat cover around the tail head, is assessed by using the fingers and thumb and should be done at the same time as assessing the short ribs. The appropriate score is given depending upon the degree to which palpable fat can be felt.
The description of the scores are as follows:
0 Emaciated
1 The individual short ribs are sharp to the touch, no tail head fat. The hip, bones and ribs are prominent.
2 The individual short ribs can easily be felt, but feel rounded, rather than sharp. There is some tissue cover around the tail head. Individual ribs are no longer visually obvious.
3 The short ribs can only be felt with firm thumb pressure. Areas either side of tail head have fat cover which can be easily felt.
4 The short ribs cannot be felt and fat cover around the tail head is easily seen as slight mounds, soft to touch. Folds of fat are beginning to develop over ribs and thighs.
5 The bone structure of the animal is no longer noticeable and the tail head is almost completely buried in fatty tissue.
The score can be varied half a score depending upon the amount of tail head fat, for example if the short rib palpation (using the thumb) gives score 2H but the tail head is a typical 3, the score would then be 3L (H = high, L = low)
Minimum fat scores for cattle are , 2L for a dry cow, 3L for late pregnant cow, 2 for a weaner, steer or heifer and 3H for a bull. To achieve joining cows should be at least fat score 2H.
Within a mob of cattle there will be a range of fat scores, but while feeding for survival the bottom quarter of the mob should be monitored. To determine the situation and what changes in the feeding regime may be needed.
Select a small percentage of the poorer quarter of the mob to monitor regularly. They should be identified and assessed every 2-3 weeks, this will give idea of how the whole mob is going.
Visual Assessment
Visual assessment is less accurate but will give a good idea with paddock inspections of cattle. The two main factors associated with cattle condition and finish are fat and muscle. These are assessed visually at three main sites, the rear, brisket and flank.
As cattle become fatter:
the ribs become less visible
the tailhead softens with rounds of fat increasing behind the tail
muscle seams on the hindquarters become less evident
brisket, flank, cod and twist all fill out giving a squarer appearance.
Fat cattle look square, well-muscled cattle look rounded. From the rear, the topline gets rounder as fat score increases and the underline cuts up into the twist with some cod development. As cattle get fatter, knobs appear on both sides of the tailhead and there is greater development of the cod and twist.
Leaner animals will have a more prominent tailhead, the twist is cut up and more wrinkled, there is little fill in the brisket and minimal cod development. Individual muscle groups can be more readily seen in lean animals.
From the front, at the brisket, fat is most obvious as little muscle is laid over this area. Deep full briskets are indicative of excess fat. From the flank, this area contains relatively no muscle and so deep gut underlines, that do not cut up in to the hindquarter indicate the presence of fat.
By Agriculture Victoria - Last updated 16 November 2012
