Pasture Management Notes 

Excel -Crop fish fertiliser provides an organic, holistic approach to pasture growth by building healthy soil, growing well nourished plants in turn offering a positive contribution to stock development.

For the ideal pasture fertility program apply essential minerals based on your soil analysis followed by the foliar application of Excel-Crop pure liquid fish at the recommended rates.

 

Background

 

Pasture production in Australia does not receive the recognition that other agricultural industries receive but on a hectare basis grass is probably the most important crop that we grow. Our beef, dairy cattle, sheep and other livestock all rely on good productive pastures to provide the health and growth required.

 

Pasture Management

 

Good pasture management is about supplying sufficient forage with nutritional characteristics that will enable grazing animals to not only make good weight gain but to keep them in good health and to ensure healthy progeny. Forage balanced in proteins and carbohydrates and a wide range of minerals will provide conditions that favour the production of milk, meat, wool, and other products. This means a balance between legumes to supply protein and grass to supply carbohydrates. A mixed pasture consisting of different varieties of these species will send their roots to varying depths to gather the essential elements that will result in a nutritious smorgasbord of feed for the stock.

 

Productive pastures means management of a number of essential areas. Mineral nutrition is important to ensure that all the elements required for plant growth are available to it. Soils in Australia vary enormously in their ability to supply satisfactory nutrition to the pastures growing on them. Many of our soils are acid ( highly loaded nitrogen fertilisers make this problem worse) and low in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and trace elements.

 

Inadequate nutrition from pastures may result in bone chewing and ring-barking of trees, calving and lambing problems, general infertility, parasite loads and other health related problems.

 

Soil Management

 

The management of the pasture soil's physical structure by the farmer to ensure water and oxygen penetration to the roots is essential and this may mean that soil aeration may need to be practiced on compacted pastures. Attention to stock numbers and the rotation of stock will assist in

ensuring that the herbage is grazed at the right time and at the right height to maximise nutrition, grass regeneration and to avoid compaction.

 

Herbage

 

Pasture swards should be managed so that stock graze them at a short leafy stage where proteins and minerals are at their highest. Taller spindly material is higher in carbohydrates and is less preferred by stock.

 

Legumes in particular that through the rhizobia bacteria concentrated in the nodules on their roots take nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into protein for the grazing animals, require adequate supplies of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and trace elements such as molybdenum and copper to ensure protein production takes place. In acid soils lime or dolomite may be required to supply calcium and magnesium while moderating the soil acidity which can affect the availability of other essential plant and animal nutrients.

 

A good pasture may actually provide up to 30% protein and yield up to 4000 pounds of dry matter to the acre annually which will contain a wide range of valuable minerals. Protein builds cellular structure, muscle tissue in animals while carbohydrates provide the energy component of feeds. As the great soil scientist William Albrecht calls it, “The Grow Food & the Go Food”.

 

Satisfactory protein levels in pasture will result in healthy animals producing good milk yields with high butter fat content, wool and other valuable products.

 

How Excel- Crop Grows Great Pasture

 

The ideal pasture fertility program will be based on the application of essential minerals to the soil followed by the foliar application of the Excel -Crop .

 

Excel-Crop is carefully formulated with essential major, minor and trace elements and contains important growth promoting substances to stimulate soil biological activity and increase pasture production.

 

Important ingredients in Excel-Crop have also been demonstrated to minimise a range of plant disease pathogens that will give your pastures the edge in production and protein supply to your stock.

 

 

Hay and silage cut from pastures utilising the Excel-Crop can be expected to supply high yields and a protein rich nutritious feed that will be eagerly devoured by stock during the non productive pasture period. Research conducted by Mississippi State, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech in the USA have demonstrated that foliar feeding pastures with biological preparations not only controlled fungus in grass species but led to better weight gains, improved carcass quality and more resistance to disease.

 

The Answer to Many Farmers Problems

 

Many of our stock related problems can be traced back to poor nutrition in our pastures. Even when grass production appears to be adequate stock problems may be present. Clearly the quality of the pastures is not sufficient. How often does the stock manager have to resort to feed supplements, antibiotics, expensive veterinary chemicals and other problem solving remedies in an attempt to improve the status of their stock?

 

We expect that using Excel-Crop in your pasture management program will lead to healthy well balanced pastures capable of delivering healthier stock.

 

Improved production, and healthy animals should yield high value end products such as meat, milk, wool, cheese and yogurt.

 

Application Rates

 

As a foliar spray it will benefit both pasture and soil biological activity. As a key adjunct to the pasture fertility program Excel-Crop should be applied at a rate of 5 litres per hectare OR dilution of 1:250 water. For cropping or faster results apply at 10 litres per hectare.

 

For rejuvenating soils apply at 30 litres per hectare when tilling soil.

 

Apply at least one applications in spring (two for faster results) and again in autumn during early to late growth stage. Excel-Crop can be applied via backpack or boom sprays or through irrigation systems. Flush any remaining mixture from spray tanks.

 

Excel-Crop is filtered to 100 microns but is stabilised to hold solids in suspension and requires coarse filters and nozzles. Check your filter and nozzle sizes before use. AN in-line filter may be required between the tank and filters at the nozzles heads.

 

Excel -Crop is a registered Trademark of APR Productions Pty Ltd