North West producers are being encouraged to enrol in a practical, hands-on, industry-led training course designed to help develop practical livestock and pasture assessment skills and improve the profitability of their grazing systems.
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The Prograze course, presented via a series of eight half-day workshops, is delivered by Local Land Services (LLS).
The course content is based on understanding the interaction between pastures and grazing livestock.
LLS senior land services officer, mixed farming extension, George Truman, Gunnedah, said participants developed skills in pasture and animal assessment that improve the productivity and sustainability of grazing systems.
"The aim of the courses is to improve grazing management which links in really well with drought preparedness," he said.
"People have had a lot of good pasture growth particularly after the dry periods, and understanding how to get the best production from the grasses and pastures is probably the key thing.
"That aligns with feed budgeting, so the big bonus is being able to know how much feed you've got, so how many animals you can stock and for how long.
"This is all about being able to better manage pastures through the dry times and through excessive growth times is probably the key thing."
Mr Truman said producers who took part in the training were generally better prepared for the seasons, because they were looking ahead rather than being reactive.
"They plan and understand their pasture base better, so they know which are the good grasses or the more desirable grasses, both native and introduced," he said.
"This makes them more resilient in terms of having higher stock numbers when they have good growth and pastures - without putting themselves in a situation where, if things turn dry they will get into difficulty.
"They understand feed on offer, the pasture quality and quantity - they are the ones who understand their feed budget and the different tools available to them."
Mr Truman said Prograze graduates were less likely to need to seek guidance on drought feeding.
Producer and Prograze graduate, Gus Greenaway, "Leyburn", Mullaley, said the course was not designed to teach you everything, but it "gives you tools".
"It means you stop guessing.
"You can go into a paddock and in the past you might walk in and wonder at how much feed there was, never able to put a number to it.
"You would 'think' there might be six weeks of feed in it for stock.
"In our case it was always 'I think, I think, I think', now we have ways to measure it.
"You can go into a paddock, do measurement and know how much feed you have for how many head of stock.
"For us, Prograze gave us the tools to do that."
LLS will run small-group, local Prograze courses run across a period of six to eight months based on demand.
"This is to ensure grazing systems are similar for each group while reducing travel time. Groups will require a minimum of 8 producers," Mr Truman said.
During the eight practical on-farm workshops, the course covers:
- visual pasture assessments
- understanding how quality and quantity impacts animal production
- grazing management techniques
- matching pastures to livestock
- fat scoring techniques for sheep and cattle
- worm control strategies.
Participants will also be shown how to use fodder budgeting to optimise the use of pastures and crops as well as the role of pasture assessment to make supplementary feeding decisions.
Mr Truman said these skills, combined with well researched pasture and livestock benchmarks, lead to informed grazing decisions where producers can be proactive in knowing how stock will perform on pasture.
"These tools are the key to improving the productivity and profitability of grazing systems," he said.
The course will cost $300 per business (valued at $1500 but subsidised by North West Local Land Services). This includes a Prograze manual, training costs and two feed tests.
The next course is focused on Tamworth, Attunga, Manilla and surrounding areas. Organisers hope to kick off at end of February or early March with a group across these locations.
