High performance pasture - risky, but worth it - Roger Zuill
High performance pasture - risky, but worth it - Roger Zuill - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
 Uncovering a potential problem which could reduce the fertility of his herd by 10 per cent is one of the reasons why Roger Zuill is thankful he is a part of a Beef Profit Partnership.“Pestivirus has become a focus of the group recently. Up until now I’d ignored it because I thought the vaccine companies were just doing a good sell-job,” he said. “I had volunteered to have some cattle tested for pestivrius so the group could compare different management regimes. The results showed that 10 per cent of my herd could be infertile due to the disease.” It is the influence of the group that Mr Zuill appreciates most. “If you listen to every chemical company that comes knocking on your door, you could end up spending money on things that you aren’t sure even works,” he said. “If I wasn’t in this group I can honestly say I wouldn’t have investigated it. Thereby this group has helped me uncover a potentially significant issue.” A self-confessed follower, Mr Zuill likes the fact that being part of a BPP allows him to see what others have done on their properties before implementing it in his own. “The BPP is another way of getting involved with other farmers and building new networks,” he said. “Sometimes you look over the fence but you don’t really know what is going on until you talk to them and get the details of what they’re doing, what worked and what didn’t.” Prior to joining the Guyra BPP 4 years ago, Mr Zuill was a member of the another progressive group of beef producers called the ‘Ebor Beef’ group. It was during his time in that group that he began analyzing his Costs of Production. He continues to use this tool in his business today. “Before I joined the Guyra BPP we were toying with the idea of putting in high performance pasture. Basically this involved planting improved pastures and pretty much doubling the application of phosphorous and sulfer fertilizer and adding nitrogen fertilizer,” he said. I’d analysed the costs and discovered that farmers who were using high performance pasture were more economic than the farmers without.” Targeting the Japanese B3 feedlot market, Mr Zuill believes one of the easiest ways to decrease his Costs of Production is to increase the amount of beef he produces. “By putting in high performance pasture I figured I could more than double the kilograms of beef I produced,” he said. “I was producing 300 kilos of beef (liveweight) per hectare, and with the high performance pasture I reckon I could increase that to between 750 and 800 kilograms of beef per hectare.” He said planting high performance pasture was a risk, especially if the rain doesn’t fall at the right time. “From the partial budgets that I did I worked out that I would need to spend nearly $0.45 a kilogram to plant the pasture and maintain it,” he said. To reduce the risk, Mr Zuill used the opportunity of the Guyra BPP to look at other ways of increasing his turnoff. “Given the risk associated with high performance pasture, I was reluctant to improve the whole property,” he said. “But then I was faced with the dilemma of what to do with the rest of the property.” He said several options were available to him. Through the Beef Profit Partnership he investigated the use of superphosphate, technograze and compost (feedlot manure). He concluded that applying the conventional application every year was the best way to go. Although this wasn’t going to increase his production it would help maintain it. “I had been involved with cell grazing for several years before and the first thing they tell you is to stop applying superphosphate because there is already plenty there,” Mr Zuill said. “By year three my production had dropped by one third because I wasn’t putting fertilizer out.” He maintains that had he continued with cell grazing without fertilizer for another year, his production would have dropped even further. So he still uses the principles of cell grazing but adds phosphourus and sulfer over the whole property. “By not putting out fertiliser, I found I was not only turning off less steers, but the ones I did turn off had lower weights.” Mr Zuill has already planted the high performance pasture on 200 hectares and plans to increase the area by 40 hectares every year. “You can either plant fescue or you can plant rye grass which has to be planted more often," he said. “I am now in the process of comparing the two at the moment. One of the tools often used in the BPP process is called ‘trial and control’. I have planted 50 acres of each species and will compare the growth rates of the cattle,” he said. “I’ve been told that the growth rates are comparable, but I think the fescue will have a lower growth rate of 500 kilograms per hectare compared to 700 kilograms of beef per hectare from the rye grass.” He said that is one of the best things about using the tools of the BPP. You get to see what really makes a difference before jumping in ‘boots and all’. But increasing the kilograms of beef produced is not the only focus for Mr Zuill. “By analyzing my Costs of Production I had noticed that it was costing me between $0.90 and $1.10 to produce a kilogram of beef,” he said. “I get between $1.90 and $2.10 a kilogram return on my steers but I only receive about $1.20 per kilogram for my cows. So I soon realized there wasn’t as much profit in fattening cows.” Mr Zuill has now left all his case for age cows down at another block near Grafton. “Fattening cows for a profit of 20 cents a kilogram just didn’t make sense. I need to put weight on the highest value animal I can and not worry about the lower value animals.” He said while most people talk about sustainability, there is no way you can be sustainable if you are making a loss. “That’s what this BPP process is all about, helping you make a profit. If you’re profitable you have more options to plant trees or look at water courses and that sort of thing. “If you’re making a loss you can’t make improvements because you simply can’t afford to do it.” |
| For more information contact Bill Hoffman - NSW Department of Industry and Investment, Facilitator, Guyra BPP Tel: (02) 6662 2288 or email bill.hoffman@dpi.nsw.gov.au |
