Nuffield scholar Stuart McDonald mixes a match
Dual-purpose grain and graze crops can spread risk and provide greater overall return to farming businesses, Nuffield scholar Stuart McDonald says.
THE benefits that can be gained by integrating livestock into continuous cropping systems are multiple.
That’s according to NSW farmer Stuart McDonald, who says dual-purpose grain and graze crops can spread risk and provide greater overall return to farming businesses than crops for grain only.
Stuart, who runs his family’s mixed-farming operation at Canowindra in central-west NSW, recently completed a Nuffield scholarship on the livestock and cropping system integration.
His studies were borne out of a passion to more efficiently use every drop of rain that falls on his property, which receives about 650mm of non-seasonally distributed rain annually.
On his farm, Stuart plants spring crops on his best arable land, mostly in a three-year rotation of two years of wheat followed by canola.
The remainder of the property comprises improved pasture carrying sheep and cattle. Stuart said the livestock only accessed cropping land when grazing cereals or canola are grown — either for limited periods within the growing season or post-harvest.
Wheat stubble is generally burnt when crop yields are average or above.
Over the past 10 years, wheat yields have averaged 3.9 tonnes/ha while canola has returned 1.8 tonnes/ha.
Stuart said the cropping system was “one of high inputs, medium risk and good profitability”. Water-use efficiency declines with above-average rainfall.
In 2016 the farm had a water-use efficiency of 12 with 830mm of rain compared to a WUE of 17 in 2015 from 590mm.
He said continuous cropping had been adopted following financial benchmarking assessment on individual paddock performance.
The transition between cropping and pasture phases and back to cropping were identified as underperforming parts of the rotation, he said.
“By focusing on a continuous cropping rotation with higher returning crops with greater intensity over the rotation, financial returns were made more consistent across paddocks,” Stuart said.
“We found that crops incorporated livestock grazing were consistently higher returning than grain-only crops within our business.”
Looking to his studies, he said to achieve a higher level of return across the whole rotation he wanted to identify the degree to which livestock grazing could be applied.
He said he aimed to build a system on his property that improved soil carbon and associated soil properties — such as higher fertility, higher waterholding capacity, higher water infiltration, improved soil structure, increased biological activity — that had less risk, equal or greater profitability and used and captured rain more efficiently.
GLOBE TROTTER
AS part of his studies Stuart travelled to France, Ukraine, the UK, the US and New Zealand.
In his scholarship report, he said integrating livestock into a continuous cropping enterprise could establish a more robust and resilient farming business.
Firstly he said crop flowering times could be delayed with grazing to assist with early plantings and frost risk at flowering, allowing flexibility in variety choice and planting windows.
Furthermore, grazing offers opportunity to grow a more diverse rotation than wheat and canola alone, he said.
“While an emphasis can remain on grain production the focus on winter only grain can change,” Stuart said in his report.
“A grazing ‘crop’ allows versatility in planting times and harvest, extending what can be the busiest times of year on farm and spreading the workload into more manageable pieces.”
He said while grazing crops could add fertility, organic matter, and rotation options in terms of weed control for a paddock, grazing could be a damaging tool when not applied in a sympathetic way to the goals of the system “much like a plough can also damage soil structure when not applied with the end goal in mind”.
“Flexibility in a grazing system to stocking rates is important,” Stuart said.
“This can involve each business identifying mob composition between breeding and trading, and relief valves like feedlots and agistment that allow for stock removal when land condition dictates.”
Stuart said while extra management, infrastructure, expertise and labour was involved in introducing animals into a cropping system “livestock can quickly turn plant growth, generated at any time of the year, into money”.
“Higher rainfall provides greater opportunity to generate income,” he said.
“With better utilisation of rain as it falls there’s scope to increase returns generated per 100mm of rainfall received, minimise salinity (leakage from the system), stop erosion, and improve the dynamic properties of soil within every land managers’ control.
“A greater understanding of biological processes in soils and how management, including livestock grazing, influences these processes, can lead to greater efficiency in production.”
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