The timely rains over the past week, or even fortnight for some, present an ideal opportunity to sow a couple of paddocks with cereal that can be used for grazing during late June and early July.
Ewes in lamb and fast growing lambs have higher energy and protein requirements that can be met by a vigorously growing cereal crop, when other legume pastures are sluggish. With a large area of your property under crop, these paddocks help to fill the winter feed gap, reducing the need for paddock or containment feeding. They can also spell regenerating pastures and vetch from grazing, allowing them to bulk up and be able to  adhere to the grazing-withholding-period after grass spraying. These paddocks could  then be locked up and harvested, grazed again, or used for hay and weed management.
Sowing and grazing decisions are made to give plants the best chance to recover from grazing and regain biomass and yield grain. Plant recovery will depend on several factors: the variety (maturity type, winter vs spring growth habit), when the crop is grazed (growth stage), biomass remaining after grazing, and having adequate nutrition and moisture (stored and rainfall) to continue to grow .
For sowing in low-medium rainfall areas, it’s recommended:
- Sowing earlier:Â
– 1 – 2 weeks earlier (late April) for spring types, eg. Scout
– 3 – 4 weeks earlier (early April) for winter types, eg. Rosella and Wedgetail
This will grow feed earlier that can be grazed earlier, and keep plants flowering in the same, ideal window. - Use varieties that have a longer growing season. Grazing can delay plant development by fourdays to two weeks. Ideally, you want to manage the flowering date to avoid the frost risk, but not push flowering too late when warm spring days can occur and affect grain yield. Avoid very early maturing varieties – they can run out of growing season time to recover after grazing.
- Winter wheats can be successfully grown and grazed in a low rainfall environment provided they’re sown quite early. Their winter growth habit means they stay in the vegetative stage for longer, and need to accumulate cold temperature units before they will flower, so they must establish very early. This presents a valuable opportunity to use March, early April rainfall. See BCG 2013 Season Research Results article ‘Sowing in February: crazy or clever?’ pp. 39 for results on BCG’s February sown wheat trial at Curyo in 2013.
- Grazing will reduce the amount of dry matter at flowering, ie. grazing will reduce the hay yield. You may choose not to graze paddocks designated for hay, or graze early while plants are young, otherwise be prepared for a lower hay cut.
Making these decisions early will help create the best situation for both the crops and the sheep.
