Feedstuffs

Almost all feeds are grown and harvested on farm. 

Lucerne is the basis for several of our pastures and is often cut for hay during the first year or two of a new stand.  This hay is primarily fed to weaner calves as part of a dry ration, but is also fed to culls to fatten them for market.

Our 4000t of silage storage, which we lovingly call our 'Bacon Saver', is both our feedbank for drought and for growing out our bulls each year.  This silage is a high quality white grain forage sorghum that is harvested at soft dough.  For those that are interested, our dryland silage yields up to 32t/ha (at 30% DM) off a single cut with a RFV around 130, ME 10MJ/kg and protein 8%.

The silage is stored above ground on graded gravel pads using the SiloStop sealing system.  Since converting to SiloStop our losses due to spoilage have reduced to almost zero thanks to the greatly improved seal the system provides and also the resilience of the heavy tarps to animals (in our case foxes and birds).

Grain sorghum is also grown, and although it is not the same feed quality as most other grains, it is the crop that best suits our region.  Occasionally we may grow some wheat, but our winters and springs are notoriously unreliable and we do not have the heavy soil needed to store moisture for that cropping system.