Farmer in Focus
Norm Sharp

Brooke McKimmie, Norm Sharp and Glen Galbraith at the new Grazing the Hills demonstration at Norm's property in Cudgewa.

This month's farmer in focus is Norm Sharp, born in Corryong and a career farmer based in Cudgewa. Norm owns approximately 400ha in and around Cudgewa and is involved mainly vealer production.

Norm has been in the UMAG Pastures Group from its beginning has interests in improving farm productivity and new ideas in primary production, while networking with other farmers.

Norm has been a member of the Cudgewa Landcare group for 20 years and its president for the past seven. he is a participant in the Grazing the Hills project with a demonstration site on his Germans Rd paddock.

We look forward to watching the progress on this site over the next three years.

Steering Committee Update

The Grazing the Hills steering committee, who oversee the project, have been meeting regularly over the last few months.

Matters discussed at these meetings have included the appointment of project staff, selection of demonstration sites, management of sites and project planning in general.

Current members of the steering committee are Pete Forrest, Phil Whiteley, Dave Barry, John Star and Bruce Saxton.

If you would like to discuss or query any aspect of the of the GTH project feel free to contact them or myself Project Manager Bernadette Thomas, 0409 511 575.

January Pasture Group Meeting

Calibration demonstration at GTH January meeting.

The January meeting of the Upper Murray Agribusiness Group-Pasture Group focused on spraying and calibrating spray equipment.

This meeting which was well attended was held at the DSE Corryong looked at Tim's spray rig and a range of nozzles available to farmers.

A very interesting practical held in the car park provided good insight into spray distribution and accuracy of application rate.

Following the practical, Tim everyone moved inside where discussions continued.

Grazing the Hills Demonstration Sites

Demonstration sites for the Grazing the Hills project have been finalised. Nine sites have been selected from across the Towong Shire with sites located in Mitta Valley, Tallangatta Valley, Granya, Tallangatta, Cudgewa, Tintaldra, Corryong, Biggara, Nariel.

In consultation with the farmer some of these sites are going through a pasture establishment phase which will include a cereal phase other sites are going to be used for demonstrating management of perennial pasture using the existing pasture.

GTH demonstration site at Biggara.

Sowing for fodder

At the pasture group meeting we discussed what was the likely conserved fodder requirement of a cattle operation. This was not easily answered or calculated. The pattern seemed to be at least one tonne per head.

From that came the question: well how much should I sow to make sure that I have at least that much conserved? This is not easily answered either, particularly with the type of Springs we have been having.

Silage cuts carried out in cereals in 2007 in the Corryong district gave a yield of 12-14 tonne per hectare. This is possibly 6-7 tonne of dry matter.

Sowing a specific crop to provide fodder for conservation is well worthwhile as opposed to opportunistically harvesting pasture paddocks. The yield is inclined to be greater from the cereals although not as digestible.

The dry years have not favoured pasture paddocks that are decimated by cutting silage or hay with Spring cutting out so early. Annual pasture legumes just don't get a chance to set seed. The faster-growing cereals are making best use of what little winter rainfall there is and giving the most dry matter.

So making that effort to sow a cereal for fodder conservation is definitely worthwhile!