Colin and Fay Jones

At Springside, near Orange, in the NSW Central Tablelands, Colin and Fay Jones breed Angus cattle on good quality basalt grazing country. Depending on the season, they sometimes buy in steers (mostly Angus) to fatten for the feedlot market.

Gaining a sound understanding of the interaction between pastures and grazing livestock has played a major role in the Jones’ management practices, and has led to the improved productivity and sustainability of their enterprise.

To gain new skills and greater knowledge in their assessment of pasture and livestock, Colin and Fay participated in the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ (NSW DPI) Prograze® course, which is based on established principles of pasture and livestock production.

‘The Prograze course was about analysing your pasture, determining what feed you had available and being able to assess, without too much effort, how many head of cattle you can carry on the available green dry matter,’ Colin said.

‘Being able to visually assess pasture quality and quantity and understanding how that impacts on animal production provides a basis for matching pastures to livestock requirements.

‘The course definitely helped me to look at my pastures with a little more forward thinking. And looking more closely at the interaction between the land and grazing allows me to plan further ahead.’

Colin said the combination of discussions with other producers and the on-farm practical sessions provided an excellent learning experience.

‘We met a lot of other producers with similar interests from around the area and we not only found out about how they manage, but were able to actually inspect their properties,’ he said.

‘Most of the sessions were held on someone’s property and that was a real plus. You discover that other people have similar problems and you are able to see how they are handling them.’

Colin said he also found the information with regard to fat scoring and livestock assessment of particular benefit.

‘Having a better understanding of how to assess your animals and what to expect from them plays a really important and helpful role in your day-to-day management decisions.’

Prograze is presented to groups over eight half-day field days about three to four weeks apart. The course is designed to help producers develop practical and relevant pasture and livestock assessment skills in order to improve profitability and sustainability of their grazing systems.

Producers can learn how to visually assess pasture quality and quantity and will gain an understanding of how this impacts on animal production. Fat scoring, fodder budgeting, supplementary feeding decisions, using grazing management as a means of worm control and learning how to recognise pasture species are also covered.