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Think Ahead Before Filling The Stocking

It’s the time of year where when we think about trees, the good old Christmas tree is at the top of the list for a lot of people.

By Department of Primary Industries - 17th December 2003 - Back to News

However, if you are thinking about planting next year, now is the time to be ordering your plants for the 2004 Autumn planting season.

For most plantings that are being undertaken for biodiversity or farm forestry, there are particular species that a landholder wishes to plant and by ordering early, you are guaranteed that you will get what you want, when you want.

Most nurseries will appreciate the lead-time, and it means they haven’t grown any speculative stock to try and sell at short notice later next season. By ordering early, it also means you will get better quality stock as they have been grown for a specific purpose in the right timeframes to give the plants the best possible chance of survival once planted.

For further information regarding tree programs contact your local DPI office.

HOW SHOULD WE MANAGE OUR WEANED HEIFERS THIS SEASON?

Dr John Moran, Senior Dairy Extension Officer at Kyabram, reminds us that dairy heifers need to be well fed between weaning and first calving. Growth rates should be maintained, otherwise heifers will not reach their target live weights for mating and first calving. Undersized heifers have more calving difficulties, produce less milk and have greater difficulty getting back into calf during their first lactation. When lactating, they compete poorly with older cows for feed and because they are still growing, will use feed for growth rather than for producing milk. They are more likely to be culled for poor milk yield and/or infertility.

Last season, many heifer replacements really suffered, especially in the drought areas of Victoria. Agistment was very difficult to find and the price of contract heifer rearing increased dramatically as rearers had to purchase expensive supplements just to maintain target growth rates. Farmers culled poor performing cows and small heifers, meaning that the future genetic quality of their milking herd should improve in this and future seasons. However there is little doubt that farmers will suffer financially in future years if they do not give sufficient attention to their growing heifer replacements.

This year things are likely to be more normal, with agistment available and hopefully lower grain and fodder prices. Therefore it should be possible to feed the heifers to attain their target growth rates (0.6 to 0.78 kg/day, depending on the season). Checking liveweight gain is your job unless you are paying a contractor on a live weight gain basis; there is no guarantee that they are actually growing to target.

Beware of the long term economic implications of reduced feed for your heifers. Adopting low input feeding programs, such as reducing the amount of concentrates and hay fed and/or the fertiliser used, could decrease heifer rearing costs by, at most $300 per heifer. However 60% of the cost of heifer rearing occurs during the first year when management demands are higher. Cost reduction strategies should only be applied to yearlings and older heifers, when the long-term effects are likely to be less dramatic.

With increasing numbers of farmers calving some of their cows down in spring and others in autumn, they might consider mating them at 21 months, rather than at the normal 15 months of age, for a 30 month age at first calving. There are even farmers now with more than two calving periods each year, thus allowing them to reduce early growth rates of weaned heifers and mate them at normal live weights at, say 18 months, to calve down at 27 months of age.

The worst case scenario for spring calving herds would be to delay mating by 12 months. There is little doubt that the longer heifers are left unproductive in your herd, the less profitable they become.

Lifetime performance of poorly managed heifers can be adversely affected in at least three ways, as follows:

  • The potential milk production of dairy heifers is reduced by any increase in age at first calving. For example, if calving age was increased from 24 to 30 months and heifers produced 4000 L in their first lactation, each heifer would forgo 2000 L of milk.
  • Assuming a herd replacement rate of 25% for a 100 cow herd, delaying calving by 6 months would result in an extra 14 non-productive heifers competing with the milking herd for resources. If these resources were used to feed more cows, an extra 5 cows could be milked. Assuming cows produced 5000 L per lactation, this amounts to a loss of 12500 L (5000 L x 0.5 lactation x 5 cows) or 893 L per heifer.
  • Failure to reach target live weights at first calving can reduce lifetime milk production, by 20 to 23 L/kg below target live weight at first calving. This amounts to a potential loss of say 1050 litres heifers with 50 kg reduced live weights.

ROADSIDE SLASHING

Recently Trevor Whibley, Catchment Management Officer with the Department of Primary Industries, has become aware of large scale roadside slashing operations being undertaken by landholders and other authorities in preparation for the coming fire season. While the slashing of roadsides at the appropriate times is a very important part of fire preparation, some concerns have been raised recently, particularly in the Bairnsdale area, in regard to small infestations of weeds such as St Johns Wort and Patersons Curse.

Mr Whibley said that there were several instances last week where roadside slashing was observed taking place where small infestations of these Regionally Controlled weeds were present. "Once the presence of these weeds were highlighted to the machinery operators they were able to proceed with the slashing but avoiding the specific weed infestations."

These actions have assisted in reducing the growth and spread of these weed species.

The Department of Primary Industries, East Gippsland Shire and Vic Roads are continuing to work together to ensure that, where possible, a coordinated approach between the agencies assists in reducing the spread of weeds in line with other weed control programs.

For more information contact your local DPI Pest Plant and Animal Catchment Management Officer in Bairnsdale, Orbost and Swifts Creek.


Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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