Fodder project feeds future of dairy farm knowledge

By Sophie Baldwin

Jan 25, 2024

The Fodder for the Future summer forages trial site at Kerang.

Murray Dairy has released its final report for its Fodder for the Future program.

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Driven by a volatile operating environment including limited access to irrigation and high water, the Murray Dairy region has undergone significant change, resulting in a reduction in traditional grazing systems and summer irrigation, flat calving patterns and an increase in alternative fodder solutions including winter cereals, vetch, legumes, maize and sorghum.

Engaging 2016 farmers and service providers, the Fodder for the Future program was aimed at assisting communities to develop strategies to maintain and increase economic activity.

The project established a two-year cropping trial over six sites to monitor the performance of different crops.

Winter cereal crops, vetch and other legumes were monitored over five sites, along with one trial site that monitored summer and winter forages.

Each site was representative of climate and soil type as well as geographic spread for dairy farmers and livestock producers.

Murray Dairy research and innovation coordinator Yvette Williams joined the project at the halfway mark.

She said the Fodder for the Future final report was a fantastic summary and the result of a large amount of work from right across the region.

“Overall we are a diverse region with a lot of variability and the best thing a farmer can do is plan for the season and grow the most appropriate crop, no-one can afford to get it wrong when building a feed base and bank is so essential,” Yvette said.

She said a key output of the project had been the development of the Fodder for the Future Network — a group that spans key organisations and has emerged as a critical player to deliver key information both technical and practical.

In 2022 the project was seriously impacted by widespread flooding with sites at Mitiamo and Kerang completely inundated — outcomes for each trial site were assessed individually however an overall analysis is presented below.

Yield v quality

It is well known post flowering, the quality of many crops particularly cereal declines rapidly while dry matter (DM) yield continues to increase.

The yield and quality relationships with growth stages highlights the variation between crop species and the DM yield penalty.

While dairy farmers focus on feed quality for lactating cows, lower quality forages can be suitable for young stock.

A key area for investigation moving forward is the economics of a trade off around yield verse quality.

Total nutrient yield may be an important decision making factor in some businesses and will drive the overall quality of forage and what type of stock it is fed too.

Silage v hay

The nutrient profile of harvested forage changes depending whether it is preserved as silage or hay.

There are more quality losses for hay compared to silage assuming they were both cut from the same crop on the same day and preserved under ideal conditions.

Winter cereals

Individual site seasonal conditions played a big role in variations of yield and quality.

The combination of strategies, crop selection and unseasonal conditions demonstrated how difficult it can be and complex interactions between these factors led to hugely variable results.

Increasing growth stage at cutting increased yields for barley and wheat but not oats.
There was a general decline in ME and CP concentrations as growth stage increased, however some observations were inconsistent.
Oats were usually higher yielding than wheat or barley.
Time of sowing and rates had variable effects on yield and nutritive characteristics.
Yields increased with nitrogen use but did plateau at higher levels.
There was no consistent effect of nitrogen applied on ME.
CP was highest at high nitrogen input levels and NDF was variable.

Vetch

Challenging growing conditions across both years resulted in a large proportion of low quality vetch samples, with only a quarter meeting AFIA A1 specifications.

Overall data shows no strong relationships between cutting stage and hay yield or quality, however a strong relationship between time of cutting and quality was found in Birchip Cropping Group’s year two trials — early maturing types can be cut at a more mature stage than late maturing types while still maintaining quality.

Common vetches tended to have better quality parameters than wooly pad or purple vetches.
Impact of variety on yield varied across sites with Birchip Cropping Group recording more variety impact than southern growers.
Time of sowing and rate were not tested on both sites limiting data.
Irrigation had minimal effect due to timing and volume of rains.

Faba beans

Faba beans produced large yields with good nutritional characteristics with quality improving as maturity progressed, however a high lodging tendency and high water content means there are practical challenges around harvesting and ensiling.

Maize and sorghum forages

Forage harvested from grain and forage sorghum varieties can achieve quality characteristics comparable to maize under the seasonal conditions experienced.

Maize was still a high yielding crop and had better water use efficiency even under mild to moderate deficit irrigation strategies.

Forage sorghum had comparable yield and WUE, starch concentration in the maize crops was lower than expected.

Fodder for the Future is a joint initiative involving Murray Dairy, Agriculture Victoria, Birchip Cropping Group, Irrigated Cropping Council, The University of Melbourne, Riverine Plains, and Southern Growers.

The report is available in hard copy or can be found on the Murray Dairy website.