UMAG Newsletter



www.umag.org.au	Issue No. 12, August-September 2009
Farmers in Focus: Kim and Wendy Bucholtz Kim at sowing, May 2009. Our Farmers in Focus this month are Kim Bucholtz and his wife Wendy. The couple are residents of Tallangatta Valley having moved from Deniliquin in NSW in 2001. Their 380ha property, Bucheen Creek, is hosting one of the Grazing the Hills demonstration sites. Initially slow to germinate, this pasture sown with triticale Tobruk is now considered one of the better performers in the project. Their current interest is beef production. Kim and Wendy have found the involvement in Grazing the Hills very rewarding as it focuses on two topics that are close to their hearts: improved perennial pastures for the high country and increasing productivity and profitability from pasture systems. We wish Kim and Wendy well with their GTH demonstration site and look forward to watching progress over the next three years. Pasture Discussion Group Meetings move to Tallangatta Bullioh PDG Meeting. In July the Bullioh Hall hosted the first GTH pasture discussion group meeting for the Tallangatta region. Until now, UMAG Pasture Group meetings have been based in Corryong. However, due to the very large area covered by the GTH project — essentially the whole of the Towong Shire — and the great interest in these informal but informative meetings, it has been necessary to provide other venues. This meeting, facilitated by the project agronomist Tim Paramore, discussed a range of topics relating specifically to the pasture demonstration sites and issues relating generally to pasture establishment and management. The Pasture Discussion Group Meetings are a core part of the GTH project enabling farmers to meet and discuss pasture management systems with each other and professional agronomists working with the project. The next Pasture Discussion Group meetings are: 7pm Tuesday 29th Sept DSE Office, Jardine St, Corryong; and 7pm Wednesday 30th Sept, Bullioh Hall. All welcome. Melbourne University working in Towong Shire David Chapman sampling pasture, Corryong. As part of the GTH project a Melbourne University team led by Professor David Chapman has been collecting data from the pasture establishment sites across the Shire. David is aiming to establish some production guidelines from the local demonstration sites for inclusion in the GTH Pasture Establishment and Management Manual for the Upper Murray which will be completed by March 2010. He has developed a great liking for the region and is very encouraged by the approach of the project and data generated from the demonstration sites. David's team is currently measuring several parameters. In the calculation of standing dry matter several quadrants 0.25m² in size are cut to ground level and the herbage dried and weighed. The data is converted to tDM/ha. On other sites, 0.5m² cages have been placed over the pasture to measure growth rate following the commencement of grazing. In this process the standing dry matter in the paddock is measured by cutting the 0.5m² area to ground level and an area immediately adjacent to the cage to give a rough measure of crop performance since sowing. Data will continue to be collected over the life of the GTH project and is reported at PDG meetings. We thank David for his work so far and look forward to seeing the results as they arrive. David and Pete Forrest assessing pasture growth at Tintaldra.	Rod Manning Presentation well received The Rod Manning – Matching Livestock to Pasture Production presentation was a great success. The day was sponsored by the Grazing the Hills project and held at the Towong Shire Office in Corryong. UMAG Chairman Bruce Saxton, who opened the day, was very impressed and enthusiastic about Rod's presentation. "Rod is a highly motivated and experienced beef producer and we are really lucky to have speakers of such high calibre," he said. The presentation dealt with a range of pasture and animal health issues and more generally with developing methods and systems for maximising beef production and profit in a sustainable manner. The Grazing the Hills project will continue to host specialist guest speakers with another scheduled for later this year. For further information on GTH events or other training opportunities please call Bernadette Thomas on 0409 511 575 . Pasture Production Tour, October The GTH project will be running a tour in early October looking at pasture management issues including rotational grazing and livestock management. The tour will be facilitated by project agronomist Tim Paramore and held on October 8th and 9th. The tour will include farm visits in the Mansfield area including the property of Dr Rod Manning, which will follow up on the presentation given by him in Corryong in August. Further enterprises in this region will be included on the schedule including the Euroa grazing group demonstration sites. For more information or bookings call Bernadette Thomas 0409 511 575 . Places are limited to twenty, so you will need to get in fast. SHARE OUR NEWSLETTER Tim's Topic As spring approaches and pastures start to run to head it is important to consider what that paddock might produce for next year. Now is the time, as the heads come out, to identify the barley grass, silvergrass, brome grass and ryegrass. There is often a month between the first flowering of the barley grass and the first flowering of the ryegrass. Spraytopping of these species to control seedset must be carried out when the seed is at the milky dough stage. Often they do not flower and set seed evenly making the spraytopping process difficult to achieve effectively. With spraytopping the aim is to reduce seedset without destroying the feed available, which is dying off anyway. Spraytopping is carried out by using 250-400ml/ha of glyphosate or 500ml/ha of paraquat. The latter can be carried out a little later. Usually the window for spraytopping is a fortnight. The effect of the glyphosate is to help the plant retain nutrients therefore increasing palatability. If there is a spread of flowering and many plants are still in the vegetative stage whilst others are flowering (as so often happens with barley grass) and 100% control of seedset is the goal, then a higher rate of glyphosate @ 800ml/ha is recommended. If the clover is not significant metsulfuron @ 5g/ha can be added for aiding control of onion grass, sorrel, dock and erodium. Don't forget to add some earthmite control such as Omethoate @ 100ml/ha.

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