Agriculture Victoria’s feed advice for drought-hit farmers

With southwest Victorian farmers battling drought into winter, vet Hannah Manning says cattle energy and protein requirements are worth examining.

Autumn and early winter calving season is set to be the most challenging in recent memory, with vets advising dairy farmers to take drought-linked precautions.

The Victorian Government expanded the drought zone this week to include the southern half of the Wimmera, parts of south Gippsland as well as councils covering central Victoria.

The newly-designated drought areas join southwest Victoria’s previously announced dry zone, which was confirmed by State Agriculture Minister Ros Spence in September.

Agriculture Victoria veterinary officer Hannah Manning said as autumn calving continued, there were many areas of the state where calves are being born onto paddocks with little valuable feed available.

“Cows require a significant amount of energy to produce milk when they’re lactating,” the Colac region vet said.

“Farmers know that hay or straw alone don’t provide adequate energy, but with the drought, it’s unusual in autumn calving season to have to take those extra steps with grain or pellets because usually the paddocks are green this time of year.

“It’s tough for many farmers in the drought areas because the hay that is available now is of poor quality- it loses it’s nutritional value over time.”

Agriculture Victoria vet Hannah Manning is advising farmers to take drought into account when feeding

Dr Manning said when livestock have an energy deficit diet, they lose condition which reduces their ability to lactate.

“The big concern is that when cows lose too much condition, it reduces their fertility an ability to get back in calf the following season,” she said.

“It’s important to score stock regularly because a drop in condition can sometimes be hard to spot just by looking at your calving cows.”

Agriculture Victoria advises that cows with suckling calves aged between one and four months old require an energy intake of 100 – 148 megajoules of metabolisable energy per day.

“Pellets and grain provide that supplementary energy and protein needed for body condition – the quality of the hay at the moment often doesn’t cut the mustard,” Dr Manning said.

“It’s important to know what you’re dealing with feed testing is good way of working out the quality of hay. It’s cheaper and better for the cow in maintaining condition — it takes a lot more feed to get the cow back into a reasonable condition if it’s behind on protein and energy.”

Allansford farmer Brendan Rae, who is also chairman of WestVic Dairy, said it was increasingly difficult for farmers across southwest Victoria to access reasonable quality hay as the drought zone spreads across southeastern Australia.

“I encourage dairy farmers to get in contact with WestVic Dairy if they have any questions about drought support or other support because the information is there and it’s easier than spending hours looking at website after website,” he said.