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Autumn Is The Time For Fox Control

With autumn lambing commencing in Gippsland, the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is reminding landholders that now is the time to implement fox control strategies to protect sheep flocks from fox predation.

By Department of Primary Industries - 28th April 2005 - Back to News

Foxes can take as many as 30% of lambs in some areas and at the prices paid for lambs in the past 12 months, that sort of loss can add up very quickly. Many of the lambs disappear overnight and are never recorded, meaning that landholders often underestimate the impact that foxes are having upon their business.

Experience has shown that the most effective way to reduce fox numbers - and avoid large lamb losses - was for neighbouring landholders to work together to carry out coordinated baiting programs. Their ability to travel large distances and quickly re-colonise areas, means that to achieve effective fox control requires a spirit of cooperation between neighbours.

The best time to bait is in the month prior to lambing. Once lambs are present, baiting programs are likely to be less effective in reducing fox impact on lamb marking percentages.

Other control methods such as shooting and den fumigation should also be used to complement baiting programs to get the best results and reduce the negative impact that foxes have on businesses.

DPI is working with landholders across Victoria through the Fox on the Run program to reduce the impacts of foxes on the State’s prime lamb and wool industries.

For more information contact your local DPI Catchment Management Officer.

COW HOTELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Thursday March 10 marked a watershed day for the DPI Ellinbank Research Centre. This was the day the new cow calorimetry chambers were first run under full test conditions - cows and all.

There are two chambers, located in the animal house at DPI Ellinbank. They are the only such operational chambers in the Southern Hemisphere, but their design is based on similar chambers in the United Kingdom.

Each is airtight and designed to completely enclose a single cow. Cows are milked in place, while fresh-cut pasture or other rations are brought to them on a stainless steel platter. It’s the bovine equivalent of silver service!

Airflow through the chambers, as well as temperature and humidity, can be controlled from the instrument room next door. This allows virtually continuous analysis of the air entering and leaving the chambers – these data are then logged automatically into a computer.

The primary use for calorimetry chambers such as these is for energy balance studies. Changes in the levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane in air as it passes through the chambers are measured. Further measurements are made of the energy content of the feed consumed, and the milk, urine and faeces produced.

Altogether, this information indicates how a cow is partitioning its energy – whether it is for milk, condition gain or methane production. Thus the chambers will be very useful, for example, in studies of feed conversion efficiency.

In the short term, however, the chambers will be used in the Greenhouse in Agriculture research program ultimately aimed at reducing methane emissions from grazing dairy cattle.

First up, the established field technique for measuring methane emissions from grazing cows - known as the SF6 technique - will be tested in the calorimeters to ensure that our background information is correct.

Next, various dietary supplements and nutritional strategies will be tested for their efficacy in reducing methane emissions.

To do this, a collaborative team has been established including researchers from Victoria, New Zealand and Canada. The calorimeters provide a powerful tool to do this because they can effectively measure total methane output over three consecutive days per cow.

So, keep an eye out – the DPI Ellinbank Cow Hotels are now open for business!

FOULED SILAGE

You’ve gone to all the trouble of growing the feed, mowing, raking, baling, wrapping, storing the bales and then you feed it out only to find the cows prefer to use the silage as bedding.

How much does wasted silage cost you and how can you reduce wastage?

Find out at the TopFodder Silage Farmer Short Course how to make, store and feed out silage so the cows can benefit from it by eating it, rather than sleeping on it.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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