Latest news with #silage
ABC News
07-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
Western Queensland grazier turns to cropping to prepare for next drought
Instead of grazing cattle and sheep quietly moving through the Mitchell grass plains of Boyd Webb's outback station, a harvester is reaping what he has sown. His property at Muttaburra sits in the geographical centre of Queensland and the heart of its grazing country, but for the past four seasons it has also been home to a cropping experiment. Growing grain without irrigation, he plans to bury the sorghum being cut as insurance for the next time the rain stops and his pasture dies. But far from an outlier, he is part of a growing push to grow crops in the bush. Mr Webb has sown more than 280 hectares of dry land sorghum between his cattle and sheep paddocks that he will use to feed his animals in the next dry. Spat into the back of a truck, the cut sorghum is moved to a deep pit that can store up to 3,000 tonnes of feed for years. Stored this way, the green plant material ferments and becomes silage, a kind of "pickled pasture" that preserves the nutrients. The silage will allow Mr Webb to keep feeding stock long after the grass stops growing. "We're not [going to be] pushed into a corner and have to sell [stock] because we've run out of feed or it hasn't rained," he said. He plans to expand his crop to more than 600 hectares next year, increasing the amount of feed he can store on the property. Eventually, he wants to have 20,000 tonnes of silage sorghum in storage. "There'll be droughts here every few years, so the fact that we can grow in a good season and put it away for a dry season is going to be worth a lot," he said. While recent years have been a much-needed reprieve from the decade-long millennium drought, Mr Webb said those dry times still weighed heavily on the minds of producers. Growing the sorghum allowed him to diversify and offered stability to his business in a part of the country where turbulent weather was common. Growing dry land crops that rely on rain for moisture might seem risky in country known for its dry times, but Mr Webb said the rain in good seasons was enough to store moisture in the soil and plants. "It may be that you don't plant a crop every year, maybe [you do it] every second year. "Basically, you keep letting it rain, store the moisture, and then once you've got enough moisture there to grow your crop, you can grow it." Mr Webb is not alone in experimenting with growing his own feed. In the Northern Territory some of the biggest names in cattle have applied for permits to clear country for cropping, including Gina Rinehart's Helen Springs Station and Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC). At a recent Farm to Feed forum in Katherine, Andrew Cochrane, who previously managed CPC's Isis Downs station in western Queensland but now runs Newcastle Waters, shared their approach. He said while some feed and supplements were still brought in, having access to their own feed had benefits, especially for younger cattle. "That weaning process … it's a very integral time and a big stress period on those animals," Mr Cochrane said. "You can smooth that out and keep them on a rising growth plane, we're turning those cattle off much sooner than in previous years. "It's a two-fold benefit — it's not just those weaners doing well and gaining weight, it's the cow's body condition [as well]." Tony Hayne is a vet, cattle producer and cotton grower at Douglas Station. He planted silage hay this year and used cottonseed to supplement during the dry season, when protein was hard to source in the Top End. "It takes a lot of pressure off through the dry and it's a by-product of the cotton," he said. In the four years since Mr Webb started experimenting, he has grown oats for hay and two sorghum crops before this latest crop. He said "farmer error" had forced a steep learning curve with every new crop he planted. "It's a whole new world," he said. "Probably the biggest limiting factor is how quickly we can absorb it, understand it and implement it … to an outsider there's a lot to learn. To get started, Mr Webb purchased second-hand machinery and equipment, and while that initial outlay could be expensive, he said older equipment did the job. "When I started, all our farming equipment was basically less than what you'd buy a buggy for," he said. "It doesn't have to be expensive because we're not trying to grow a cereal crop. "I think that's where farming is going to end up out here. It won't be for growing cereals, it'll be for supporting the livestock industry."
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Gloucestershire farmers struggle as record dry weather continues
Farmers say they need at least "a week of solid rain" as record dry weather continues to affect their farmer Richard Cornock from Tytherington in South Gloucestershire has been farming for more 40 years and has "never known a spring like this". It has been the warmest spring on record and the driest in more than 50 years, according to Met Office figures. A lack of rain has slowed the growth of grass used to produce silage for Mr Cornock's cattle, meaning he will now have to buy feed for the winter, which he said will have "a big financial impact". Mr Cornock said the volume of his silage was down by one third. He also planted two fields with maize but the dry weather means half of the crop has failed due to lack of moisture in the ground. "I probably put £700 worth of maize seed in the field which has failed or partly failed and I've started buying some silage bales in. I think we spent nearly £3,000," he explained. Despite some rainfall over the past week, Mr Cornock said he needs a solid week of full rain to make any real difference but he is not feeling optimistic. "It's leaving me with a real problem, because this drought is just going on and on and on. "It's unbelievable, everyone thinks it'll break soon and we'll get a heavy downpour and then it just goes on another week and another week." For other farmers, the recent weather conditions have brought positive Keene from Primrose Vale Fruit Farm, Cheltenham, said the sunshine has been great for his strawberries. He said the small amount rainfall means his pumpkins are now showing "good signs of growth" and he's also seen some benefits to his asparagus. "We're happy to see a little bit of rain, but not too much because the strawberries at this time of year are at their best, I'm sure lots of farmers would rather see a bit more," he added.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Country diary: Our fields are green, but this farm desperately needs more rain
May is the greenest month and this year has been no exception, given how high the water table was after such a wet start to last winter. There's a lush depth to the valley, with the hawthorn – which blossomed early and abundantly – creating a chequered green and white idyll. But it flatters to deceive. Like recent thunder, there's rumbling concern on farms here where sunlight bounces off concrete yards and there's only one conversation – 'when are we going to get some rain?' Data is exchanged like gossip: 'Only 28mm since February'; 'Just 17mm the other night and it mostly ran off'; 'We'll be out of grass this time next week'; 'Our barley's coming into head, it could be harvested this month, in May!' The first cuts of silage have been taken already because the grass simply stopped growing, resulting in poor-quality, low yields. And the fields, now mown or already grazed down, have the balding look of Centre Court in the second week of Wimbledon. Farming is often collateral. What's happening now has a knock-on effect – provision of winter forage, viable stocking densities and, potentially, the price of beef. The cattle are unconcerned. The crossbreed calves are dozing in a separate group this morning as I seek out my favourite. The last to be born, he's a jet-black, long‑legged Angus, but with a stout pair of North Devon knees. It's not uncommon for a cow beginning labour to fixate on another calf and decide it must be hers, which is what his mother did. Notwithstanding my eventual success in getting her calved and mothering, in the preceding chaos she hurdled a fence and lacerated her teats. For weeks he suckled the one undamaged teat, but had to be supplemented by me. I made sure to feed him beside her, giving enough to keep him going but still keeping him hungry, so he would continue to look to her. Eventually, as her teats healed and he became more tenacious, I was able to wind down our jobshare. With Pavlovian response, whenever he sees me he still gives a jerk of his head, but he no longer gets up. Unlike the ground on which he lies, he at least no longer thirsts. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
