Regenerating land with Grazing Livestock
At time zero, with 2 million kilograms (5t/ha x 400ha) of 3 year old Coolatai grass to work through, high quality cattle were not at the top of the agenda when looking for livestock to purchase. The main criteria was animals that were adapted to low quality forage, that were prepared to forage and would survive those first years of the regeneration process and produce and raise a healthy calf.
The initial mob of 50 cows and their calves are the group referred to as the legends of The GO. Between them they represented almost every breed and certainly every colour across the cattle spectrum. These girls have also deepened my appreciation and love of these most wonderful animals. A line commonly heard in a range of situations and I’ve been guilty of repeating is ‘don’t love your cows’. How can you not? After the work they’ve done on the GO and the challenges I have put them through, they are champions.
In the early days mouths and feet were limiting factors and the culling criteria was based on teeth – anything with teeth stayed. The saddest days are those when I’ve had to send any of those old girls off – because they had lost their teeth and therefore their ability to maintain weight and health. With the help of very generous neighbours Angus bulls were hired and borrowed for joining for the first 2 seasons. Since then a Red Angus bull and a Popplewell Composite bull have been purchased and used with good results. Now that the preliminary clearing of Coolatai grass has been done more attention is given to production and breeding higher quality calves.
Numbers have increased over time and 160 head (1500 DSE) were on hand at the height of the last dry period in November 2014, equivalent to 3.75 DSE/ha. After the summer rain and the emergence of a large number of desirable native species cattle numbers were cut by 25% to reduce the grazing pressure on these plants.
The initial mob of 50 cows and their calves are the group referred to as the legends of The GO. Between them they represented almost every breed and certainly every colour across the cattle spectrum. These girls have also deepened my appreciation and love of these most wonderful animals. A line commonly heard in a range of situations and I’ve been guilty of repeating is ‘don’t love your cows’. How can you not? After the work they’ve done on the GO and the challenges I have put them through, they are champions.
In the early days mouths and feet were limiting factors and the culling criteria was based on teeth – anything with teeth stayed. The saddest days are those when I’ve had to send any of those old girls off – because they had lost their teeth and therefore their ability to maintain weight and health. With the help of very generous neighbours Angus bulls were hired and borrowed for joining for the first 2 seasons. Since then a Red Angus bull and a Popplewell Composite bull have been purchased and used with good results. Now that the preliminary clearing of Coolatai grass has been done more attention is given to production and breeding higher quality calves.
Numbers have increased over time and 160 head (1500 DSE) were on hand at the height of the last dry period in November 2014, equivalent to 3.75 DSE/ha. After the summer rain and the emergence of a large number of desirable native species cattle numbers were cut by 25% to reduce the grazing pressure on these plants.