StockedUp

For WA Sheep and Cattle Industries

Seasonal information and advice

• Assess stubble, grain and fodder reserves, and use feed testing to budget and formulate supplementary feed rations. 

• Start preparing for pasture establishment and management, as well planning strategies in case of a late break of season.  

• Proactively manage pastures. Ensure establishing pastures, particularly those overgrazed and in recovery, have the best opportunity to establish by minimising early grazing.  

• Supplementary feeding of weaners and adult cows may be required to meet growth targets and to maintain condition score during lactation for early calvers. 

• Ensure early calving cows and heifers are in appropriate condition score and on a rising plain of nutrition to meet the demands of lactation.  

• Keep an eye on early calving cows, 6-8 weeks following calving at risk of grass tetany. Whilst not as high of a risk as late calving animals, magnesium levels may be low in pastures grown on leached, acid sandy soils and cool season grasses.  

• Pregnancy scan ewes and allocate supplementary feed accordingly. Ensure that single bearing ewes are in condition score 3, and twin bearing ewes are in condition score 3.2 for lambing. The last 6 weeks before lambing will see a significant increase in feed requirements.

• Prepare lambing paddocks. Twin bearing ewes should be allocated paddocks with best pasture and shelter to reduce lamb mortality rates.

• Give ewes an annual pre-lambing booster vaccination and consider a worm drench based on faecal worm egg count with an effective drench. In high-rainfall regions, graze ewes on paddocks with low worm contamination.

Early decision making and seasonal strategies 

Looking to the growing season ahead, it’s important that livestock producers have clear plans in place for various timings for break of season. Having carefully thought-out plans for best and worst-case scenarios reduces decision fatigue during stressful periods and allows decisions to be made in a timely manner.

Things to consider:

• What do I have on hand versus what will I need?

Stocktake what you have on hand; stock numbers, feed, water and cashflow. Create budgets for various scenarios including early and late breaks to the season based on current flock/herd numbers. Identify whether extra feed and water are needed, and whether the cashflow is available for extra purchases. Determine the key decision dates and what needs to be actioned, such as feed purchases or stock sales.

• How can I grow more feed when the season breaks?

Coming off the back of a season with lower overall pasture production and seed set, it’s important to consider what strategies can be put in place to increase total pasture/fodder production for the season ahead. Using confinement areas reduces total energy demand and defers pasture grazing, preserving ground cover and increasing total pasture production. Sowing and grazing early crops also offer the opportunity to defer pastures. Consider historical pasture growth rates through Pastures from Space to estimate pasture production levels compared to other seasons. Adjusted your pasture estimates as the season progresses.  

• Can I keep water up to the cattle/sheep?

Assess current water reserves and total holding capacity, and whether this can maintain current stocking rates. The department’s Seasonal Climate Outlook provides further information on the rainfall and temperature outlooks for the 3 months ahead. If water may become limiting, plan for short-term options such as purchasing and carting water, as well as long-term options to expand water infrastructure, improving dam catchments, suitability of bores and/or desalination.

• Decreasing the stocking rate

In a late break scenario, planning can include reducing stocking rate by agisting or selling stock. Identify key decision dates for reducing stocking rate based on your situation. In general, the younger, reproductive stock are the priority to retain to maintain breeding capacity, while older, dry stock are the priority for sale if necessary. Pregnancy testing/scanning and eID recording are valuable tools for identifying high value stock to inform selling decisions.

Putting it all together

Develop a written plan for the season ahead including:

1. Stocktake what is currently on hand
2. List key dates for various break of season scenarios (early through to late)
3. Determine management options for each scenario
4. Plan actions required for each management option (linked to key dates)
5. Evaluate as the season progresses.

Below is an example of a seasonal strategy for a sheep producer.

Table 1: Example seasonal strategy for a sheep flock. Courtesy of Ashley Herbert, Agrarian Management and Ed Riggall, AgPro Management, 2017.

These steps are a guide to planning, and all management decisions should take current business financial position, overall goals and management capacity into consideration. Include professionals such as specialist livestock advisors and other trusted business advisors in the decision making process.

Other useful tools 

• Annual feed budget for sheep enterprises
• Supplementary feeding calculator for pregnant and lactating ewes
• Feed cost calculator
• Deferred grazing calculator
• Sheep pregnancy scanning benchmarks
• More Beef from Pastures
• Profitable Grazing Systems training 

Early sown forage crops substantially increase winter feed

Cereal forage crops, such as oats, triticale and barley, are a great way to increase feed availability in winter. These crops:

• fill the autumn–winter feed gap, reducing reliance on supplementary feeding
• allow grazing of annual pastures to be deferred
• provide high-quality feed early in the season
• are versatile in different growing conditions
• allow livestock to maintain higher feed intake with less feed-on-offer due to their upright growth habit

Good management practices include:

• weed control for best yield results
• use of varieties with good early growth rates suitable for your area, triticale is better suited to poorer soils
• sow early with added nitrogen fertiliser
• start grazing once the crop is anchored (twist and pull test)
• graze at high stocking rates for even grazing
• remove livestock before all leaves are removed to improve recovery

When dry sowing paddock choice is important, things to consider include:

• emergence maybe patchy on non-wetting soils or soils with high clay content
• pre-emergent weed control and associated withholding periods for livestock

Also be aware that grazing pregnant ewes for an extended period (longer than 21 days) on forage crops may increase the risk of metabolic disease such as hypocalcaemia due to the mineral imbalance in cereals. For more information refer to this Ovine Observer article.

The FEED365 project (funded by MLA and DPIRD) has been trialling forage crops at the DPIRD Katanning Research Station. The figure below presents the winter 2024 yields on the station comparing a traditional subclover based pasture with a dry sown triticale/cereal rye or oats forage crop. On average across sampling dates the forage crops produced one and a half times more feed than the regenerating subclover based pasture.

Figure 1: Feed on Offer comparison between pasture and forage crops in 2024.

Images 1 and 2: Subclover based pasture (left) compared with a dry sown triticale/cereal rye forage crop (right) at Katanning Research Station on 16 July 2024.

Are flies bugging your sheep? 

Flystrike is a significant health and welfare risk to Australian sheep. Flystrike should be actively monitored and managed to prevent productivity losses and ensure good animal welfare. 

The ideal environmental conditions for flystrike to occur include: 

• Presence of a blowfly species; most commonly the Australian sheep blowfly (Lucilia cuprina).  
• Temperatures between 15 and 38ºC.  
• Recent rain: enough to keep suitable strike sites moist for multiple days.  

Suitable sites on the sheep’s body to attract flies and sustain larvae: body wrinkles, fleece rot, dermo scabs, urine, faeces and foot conditions like a foot abscess or footrot.  

Wind speeds below 9 kilometres per hour (km/h) allowing flies to disperse.  

The Australian sheep blowfly (L. cuprina) initiates approximately 90% of strikes. The damaged tissue and body fluid from a flystrike wound can attract other species of flies such as the hairy maggot fly (Chrysomya rufifacies).  

The lifecycle from egg to adult fly takes 17 days in warm weather. Adult flies usually live for approximately 2-3 weeks.  

Sheep are more susceptible to flystrike if they have significant body wrinkles, are daggy, have long wool and are left uncrutched or unshorn over high-risk times, and are rarely monitored.  

There are many options that will help you reduce your risk of flystrike. Genetic options are long term and permanent, making them a valuable tool in lowering your risk. In the short term, a range of husbandry options are also available, such as controlling worms, crutching and shearing, and strategic chemical application. 

For more information, please visit DPIRD’s webpage on Managing flystrike in sheep. 

Further information on prevention and management, including national flystrike risk maps are also available on the FlyBoss website.

Revel in research with DPIRD at Wagin Woolorama 

Producers can get the latest on sheep research and on-farm innovation at the DPIRD shed at this year’s Wagin Woolorama. Experts will be on hand to share insights, answer questions and showcase cutting-edge tools. 

Bring along water samples for free salinity and pH testing, and take away information on saltland rehabilitation and our Saltland Genie app.

You'll be able to hear about the latest research from our DPIRD and MLA funded Meat the Market project, and the importance of objective carcase measurement. 

Learn about our Worm Vaccine laboratory and how faecal worm egg counts are conducted, with the chance to win free faecal worm eggs counts for your mob!

Seasonal sheep management information will be available for you to take away, as well as demonstrations of the updated Lambing Planner app.

Come along and chat to our friendly team in the DPIRD shed on site 626, Kitchener St, opposite the ram pavilion.

Further information

WA Sheep and Cattle Industry news from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD). If you have any questions, or require further information please email livestock@dpird.wa.gov.au

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Important disclaimer 
The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it.

Copyright © State of Western Australia (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development), 2024