Grazing standing crops is a profitable strategy for lamb finishing systems, according to Productive Nutrition livestock consultant San Jolly.
"The weight gains are very good," she said.
"I work on a budget of 180 grams to 200g of additional weight per day for Merino lambs and about 250g for crossbred lambs, and a lot of the time the animals will grow even faster than that."
Ms Jolly said introducing stock onto standing crops presented many benefits.
"Leaving paddocks aside for grazing provides good nutrition, and also provides early regenerative autumn feed in the following year, while farmers are sowing paddocks," she said.
The number of animals introduced onto a paddock is highly varied, with a preliminary test helpful for planning an approach.
"It's good to strip some grain off the heads and send it off for a test so you know what you're dealing with, and so you can work out if protein supplements will be needed or not," she said.
Ms Jolly said it was important to run a comparative cost analysis to determine the best grazing method.
"For a few years the gross margins from grazing were double and triple what they were from reaping it, however last year they were similar, as a result of good lamb and grain prices making the difference less pronounced," she said.
The best time for placing stock on crops depended on grain starch content.
We graze the barley early, just to close up that feed gap.
- CHAD MAKIN
"You have to be cautious with barley; some varieties you can go straight in and others you have to introduce grain beforehand to adapt the rumen," she said.
"With wheat you need to put the stock on at milky dough stage and let it ripen in front of them, and oats you can go straight in."
Keith farmer Chad Makin has been grazing ewes on his crops for about 10 years, allocating nearly 25 per cent of his cropping area to grazing.
"We graze about 15 ewes per hectare, mainly on barley, and we put the stock on at the mid-tillering stage," he said.
Mr Makin, who runs 2200 Merino breeders, said that grazing was an excellent feed supply that helped keep his stock in good condition.
"In our operation more than 50pc of our land is going into crop, and to run 2200 breeders we have to make a sacrifice and so we graze the barley early, just to close up that feed gap," he said.
The withholding period on seed treatment has reduced grazing availability for Mr Makin, but he intends to make changes to his program this season.
"We're going to drop the Gaucho from our seed treatment to shorten up that withholding window so we can graze for longer."
Mr Makin aimed to graze for a six-week period before pulling out the stock, but he said that allocating land entirely for grazing rather than harvesting is "on the radar".
Bloating had never been a problem for Mr Makin's stock, but scouring had been an issue - a problem he solved by feeding fibre to his stock.
"To keep the starch content up in their stomachs, they're on a feed ration of barley and grain before they go onto the crops, and we continue that feed ration while they're grazing," he said.
BREAKING BARRIERS TO SUPPORT NEW FEED STRATEGY
PRODUCTIVE Nutrition livestock consultant San Jolly understands farmers being content with their farming systems, but said for those willing to try grazing standing crops to finish lambs and other stock, the new method could potentially "change their life".
"The grazing of standing crops is something I'm trying to encourage farmers to adopt, particularly when they've got cropping equipment already," she said.
"It means they can sow really low cost feed rather than putting lambs in feedlots, which is significantly more expensive."
Ms Jolly said while farmers were often supportive of the idea, it could be difficult to implement the new system, especially near harvest time.
"People initially think it's a good idea, but when they see a beautiful golden paddock of barley at harvest time, one that's got a potential three tonne to 4t grain yield per hectare, it's impossible for them to keep their header out of there," she said.
"But for those who do, it absolutely changes their life during harvest and also when trying to feed sheep in summer and autumn."
Ms Jolly said while there were plenty of innovators and trailblazers in the farming industry, in general farmers still liked to see someone else try a new method before implementing it into their own systems.
"Farmers want to see some evidence that it all works well before they stick their neck out," she said.
