Rain at the right time.

There will be some happy farmers in the north of the state today. This is the region where most of your meat comes from.  

In a message exchange from Tom Redden @naparoo, Coonabarabran yesterday morning he reported 65mm and still raining – so no doubt more on top of this figure. It looks like our old farm Blue Hills has been under over 125mm and in a rain report from the sprawling acre retirement block ‘The Range’ of Aunty Bronwyn at Barraba, a nice 75mm on top of the 50mm a few weeks ago!   

Rain Timing is Critical

This rain is very timely for many farmers. As we edge closer to winter and the soil temp cools, the growing season closes. For those farmers that rely on native grasses or pastures for their feed supply know that this rain will kick pastures on through and into the back end of winter. During winter there is always a ‘feed gap’. Those of you with lawns will know how much the growth has slowed in the last month and will continue until it stops as the cold weather approaches. It’s the same on a farm, there is growth from winter grasses but without the rain in autumn to start the plant germination this growth can be limited. Depending on where the farm is, if it’s similar to where we grew up in the hills above Barraba, some 1000m above sea level, the winter is longer so the growing season even shorter than the warmer plains below.

Managing pasture is a ‘grass farmers’ biggest job and the meat produced from the farm is a byproduct of their ability to manage the soil biome, and the grasses that grow on it. Farmers have a couple of different options pending their location and soil type. Most of our suppliers run a regenerative or holistic management system using high stock rotation through paddocks with long rest periods enabling the grasses to regenerate and seed through the cycle. But at the end of the day, when the feed runs out, the feed runs out! Even the best soil managers rely on the rain for grass growth, so if you don’t start to supplementary feed your animals to give them the nutrition they need – you need to start to sell animals. This is a simplistic explanation, and I’ll come back to this another time… 

So what is a farmer to do?

A regenerative farmer will remove the stock before the grass is eaten completely. This allows for cover of the soil, giving protection from the weather and in turn giving the soil biome the best chance to keep structure and seed base ready for germination at the next opportunity.  

For those that sow crops, both for animal fodder feed or grain harvesting, this is the perfect time for rain. The soil is still warm enough to get seed in the ground, germinated and growing. Crops like oats that are vigorous growing and hardy through the winter months give a animal farmer fodder to extend the capabilities of their farm through what could be a dormant growing period. Giving them an option to keep stock on farm for longer till the hopeful growth of spring arrives. To be clear, fodder is the use of the vegetation of the growing plant, not the seed itself once harvested. The best fodder crops (with follow up rain) can be locked up from the animals at the end of the winter and allowed to go to seed, then harvested for grain getting a double win for the farmer. This grain can be sold, graded and replanted or kept and used on farm as security for the next dry season which might not be too far away… 

You might think grain feeding is bad. But it has its place, let’s talk through it next time. 

Have a great week