ISSUE 48 – DECEMBER 2012
DARWIN REGION
GPO Box 3000
Darwin NT 0801
Phone: (08) 8999 2214
Editor: Arthur Cameron
ISSN: 1320-727X
Message from the Editor
There is still change in the air at the moment. Future Beef is the new collaboration to provide information to beef producer in Northern Australia (P2).
There is a changing of the guard in the new/old Department with Dr Malcolm Anderson replacing Dr Brian Radunz as Chief Veterinary Officer for the NT (P15-16). The outbreak of Bovine Johnes’s Disease (BJD) in Queensland will lead to changes of BJD herd status for parts of that state. This may also have some impact on Territory herds (P9).
Progress is also being made towards the development at Ord Stage Three (P8).
Have a safe and happy Christmas, particularly if you are travelling over the holiday period.
Cheers from the Editor
Arthur Cameron
January 2013
Tune into FutureBeef
Heidi Wright, FutureBeef Operations Officer, Katherine Research Station
How do you stay ahead in the northern beef industry? How do you access the latest research, information, tools and services to help you and your business become more competitive, productive and profitable?
FutureBeef is a new collaboration of state agricultural research agencies and Meat and Livestock Australia, committed to bringing the best of beef research, development and extension (RD&E) to your door step. As a joint force, FutureBeef has worked hard to centralise and simplify resources, ready for you to take home and best apply to your business.
Through training workshops, producer demonstration sites, field days, forums, facilitated producer groups, webinars (online seminars), videos, newsletters and publications, Territory producers can now access what they need, when they need it, like never before!
Key themes underpinning the program include reproduction, grazing land management, nutrition and growth, and animal health and welfare.
So, how do you participate or access information through FutureBeef? Jump online and visit the FutureBeef website. There, you can access essential resources, information on key themes, training/event dates, research projects, industry insights and more. You can also sign up to receive the eBulletin in order to keep abreast of industry directives and FutureBeef activities. Email to subscribe.
FutureBeef was officially launched in Rockhampton at Beef 2012 on 9 May by the Hon John McVeigh MP, Queensland Minister for Agriculture. FutureBeef is represented by the state government agriculture agencies of NT Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, Western Australia Department of Agriculture and Food and Queensland Department of Development, Employment, Economic Development and Innovation.
Phosphorus Management of Beef Cattle in Northern Australia
The Phosphorus management of beef cattle in northern Australia manual is now available from MLA.
Publication title:
Phosphorus management of beef cattle in northern Australia
Publication code:
9781741919561
In many of regions of northern Australia, phosphorus (P) is a serious nutritional limitation to cattle production. Phosphorus deficiency results in poor performance in most of the factors that make beef production efficient and profitable. This book outlines general principles that can be applied to strategies and practices when feeding phosphorus to beef cattle.
Authors:
· Désirée Jackson, Joe Rolfe, Bernie English, Bill Holmes and Rebecca Gunther (QDAFF)
· Rob Dixon (QAAFI)
· Peter Smith (DAFWA)
· Neil MacDonald (DPIF)
Key messages for managing phosphorus nutrition:
In many of regions of northern Australia, phosphorus (P) is a serious nutritional limitation to cattle production, reducing its efficiency and profitability. Some general principles can be applied to strategies and practices when feeding phosphorus to beef cattle.
1. The animals that need phosphorus most are growing stock, late-pregnant heifers and cows, and lactating cows.
2. Deficient animals respond best to P supplement when their diet has adequate protein and energy. This is why P supplementation is most effective during the wet season.
3. Signs of acute phosphorus deficiency include bone chewing, broken bones, peg-leg, poor body condition of breeders and botulism.
4. There are no simple diagnostic tests for the P status of cattle. Blood and faecal P are the most useful indicators.
5. If P is fed over the wet season on deficient country:
· young growing stock can increase their growth by 30–40kg/year
· breeders can increase weaning rates by 10–30%
6. Deficiency is related to soil P status. As a general rule, where soil P levels:
· are deficient (5mg/kg or less), all classes of stock are likely to respond to feeding P
· are marginal (6–8mg/kg), young breeders are likely to respond to feeding P
· exceed 8mg/kg, the economic benefit from feeding mature cows diminishes.
7. Responses to P supplement may be lower if animals running on P-deficient country have access to adjacent areas of high-P soils, such as frontage country.
8. Supplements should be compared on the cost of their P content, on the practicality of feeding out and on whether the animals will be able or willing to eat target amounts.
9. A typical wet season loose-mix P supplement should contain at least 8% P; a typical dry season supplement will contain 2–4% P and also non-protein nitrogen (eg urea).
10. On deficient country, lowering the stocking rate will not reduce the need to feed phosphorus.
11. Where the native pasture on deficient country contains sufficient stylo, cattle may respond significantly to P supplement during the dry season because of the extra protein in their diet.
12. Because cattle eat more pasture when P supplements are fed, stocking rates should be reduced to avoid overgrazing.
13. The economic benefits from feeding P are maximised when done in conjunction with other aspects of good herd management.
To order and/or download:
· To order hard copies of the publication (you can order boxes), call the MLA membership services hotline on 1800 675 717 or email
· To download, visit the MLA website
http://www.mla.com.au/Publications-tools-and-events/Publication-details?pubid=6024
Indonesian Students get a Taste of the NT Pastoral Industry
Whitney Dollemore – Katherine Pastoral Production
NTCA recently supported eight Indonesian students from two universities to undertake work experience and training within the live export industry. The two month exchange included 2-weeks formal training and 6-weeks on-station work placement. The formal training component of this program was conducted throughout the NT with students spending time in Alice Springs, Douglas Daly, Victoria River and Katherine regions, and aimed to increase the students’ knowledge and skills in animal handling, husbandry and animal production. Afterwards, the students then spent 6 weeks on-station training on commercial stations, some of the stations that participated in this program were Cave Creek, Lakefield, VRD, Newry and Carlton Hill. The program placed emphasis particularly on training in Animal welfare which involved a formal Intensive Animal Welfare Training course that was conducted at the Katherine Research Station.
The training course was conducted on the 20-21st July 2012 and was supported by the NTCA, the Department and DAFF. The training course was designed to complement the practical experiences that the students had gained on the on-stations work placements. The course also aimed to equip the students with the extension tools necessary to assist them to train others within the industry upon returning to Indonesia. The topics covered by the course included; animal welfare and the impacts of poor animal welfare, animal behaviour and handling, safety, best practice in livestock handling and transport and traceability and data collection.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the program with Safitri highlighting that “this program is extremely important and should be repeated in the future”. Animal welfare and traceability were hot topics with the students as many of them aspire to be involved in the feedlot, animal transport or research sectors of the Indonesian beef industry in the future. On completion of the program, all students stated that they had gained an extensive amount of knowledge over the past 2 months and intended to pass this information onto others upon return to Indonesia. The hospitality and support of all parties involved in this program are greatly acknowledged and to the students themselves, who always maintained an open-mind resulting in the success of this program.
Excellent Attendance at Breeding for Fertility Workshop
On the 11th and 12th of April a workshop focusing on the genetics of female reproductive performance was held at the Katherine Rural College, run by the Department and funded by FutureBeef (the recently launched northern Australian collaborative extension program) and the Beef CRC. The workshop would not have happened without the support and prodding of the Katherine Pastoral Industry Advisory Committee (KPIAC) so a big thanks goes to them.
Producer numbers attending the workshop well exceeded expectations and the engagement throughout the workshop proved that the sessions raised plenty of interest and plenty of questions. Overall, participants rated the workshop a 9/10, with 100% saying that they learnt something new. Eighty-nine per cent of participants said the workshop changed their opinion of what they thought was possible to achieve in their business and that they planned on making changes as a result of attending.
It was a diverse group with participants from as far as Charters Towers and Broome. The 44 attendees contributed to the energetic discussion throughout the two days and represented many different production systems including bull breeders, commercial breeders, large scale company operations, small scale family owned operations, operations with nucleus bull breeding herds, indigenous managed leases, research and extension staff and veterinarians. Attendees represented a total of 31 pastoral enterprises, covering 67,000km2 and over 400,000 head of cattle.
Central to the discussions over the two days were Wayne Upton, formerly an extension specialist and consultant at the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit, University of New England, and John Bertram, formerly based in Alice Springs and more recently a Principal beef cattle extension officer with Qld DPI.
Mr Upton highlighted the latest results from the Beef CRC’s Female Reproductive Performance Program which has found that genetics play a larger role in female reproductive performance than previously thought.
Specifically two key components of lifetime female reproductive performance; age at puberty (which determines the start of a heifer’s breeding life), and the time from calving to cycling in first calf heifers; have been found to be moderately to highly heritable in Brahmans and Tropical Composites. Further, sires have a large influence on these traits in their female progeny so selecting on these traits will influence lifetime reproductive performance in your herd. This means that you can either make good progress if you are selecting the right bulls or go backwards quickly if you are selecting the wrong bulls.
Mr Bertram shared his expertise on the male side of the equation with one key message being that a bull will produce between 50 and 250 calves in his working life, while a cow will produce 3 to 8 calves. So bulls are driving the genetic progress of your herd meaning bull selection is pretty critical! He emphasised the value of Bull Breeding Soundness Evaluation (BBSE’s) in identifying reproductively sound bulls that will produce you plenty of calves. Mr Bertram also spent some time on understanding and utilising Estimated Breed Values (EBV’s) effectively. In terms of improving female reproductive performance, select bulls with larger, more positive scrotal size EBVs and lower, more negative days to calving EBVs.
From the Department, Tim Schatz presented an overview of NT female fertility research results highlighting that performance is generally low. Trisha Cowley presented information on the Poll Gene Marker Test that is now available to producers in today’s environment of ever increasing focus on animal welfare and what may be in store in regards to dehorning requirements. She also gave an update on Genomics and what this may mean for the Brahman breed in coming years in increased accuracy of EBV’s.
A mock bull auction was held where participants were provided with the EBVs of some young CDU and the Department Selected Brahman bulls and were charged with the job of “buying” 2 bulls with a $10 000 budget. Participants threw themselves into this wholeheartedly with energetic bidding, though several groups ended up with only 1 bull or none!! This was a highlight of the workshop for many as it put some of the science into practice.
General Manager of Victoria River Downs Station, Rusty Richter, was in attendance along with fellow managers from Pigeon Hole and Flora Valley, and said that “it was important to attend the workshop to broaden his and the company’s knowledge as well as hear different ideas from other producers in the room.”
He said, “Heytesbury will use EBV’s a little more now when looking at differences in bulls while also being mindful of the cost to gain of using such information. It is important to keep everything in context including conformation and structure to compliment EBV information.”
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Churchill Fellowships allow you to design your own research project, travel the world and further your knowledge in your chosen field, before returning to make a real contribution to Australian society.
In addition to around 75 core Fellowships awarded each year in any field of endeavour, the Trust also awards sponsored Fellowships which are generally for a specific field of endeavour that a sponsor is passionate about or sees a need for.
Sponsored Fellowships up for grabs this year include topics involving buffalo industry development, establishment of tropical food gardens in schools, homes or communities and leadership and management. See the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust website for more details:
What is AussieGRASS?
AussieGRASS is a spatial modelling framework that estimates various pasture characteristics (such as growth and total standing dry matter) over a given time period and compares it with historical records. It does this by using rainfall, climate, soil and pasture type information to estimate average pasture growth (among other parameters) over 5 km x 5 km square grids across Australia. Seasonal benchmarking tools such as this are potentially valuable in assisting pastoralists make informed land management decisions.
For more information on AussieGRASS visit the Queensland Government’s website.