Winter grazing management effects on beef finishing system
performance
C.J. Boom and G.W. Sheath
AgResearch, Whatawhata Research Station, Private Bag 3089,
Hamilton, New Zealand
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production.
2000 60: 139-142
A beef farm systems experiment was conducted for 2 years in
which winter grazing management of either a fast rotation (FR) of 45
days, or a slow rotation (SR) of 120 days was applied to eight small
farms containing either rising-1yr, or rising-2yr Angus steers
(15/farm). All farms were managed in a fast rotation (<35 days) during
spring and summer. Average farm pasture covers at the end of winter were
563 (±80) and 347 (±53) kg DM/ha higher on the SR farms than the FR
farms for the first and second years respectively. The FR steers at the
end of winter were on average 26 (±4.0) and 22 (±4.2) kg heavier than
the SR steers in the first and second years respectively. By late
summer, the FR steers were 15 (±5.3) kg heavier and 2 (±5.6) kg lighter
than the SR steers. There were no significant management interactions
with age class. Live weight compensation of the SR steers was rapid
during the first 6 weeks of spring. The results of this experiment show
that winter grazing rotation length had little effect on the final live
weight achieved by summer. However, between-year differences showed that
systems compensation during spring is dependent on pasture supply,
pasture quality and stocking rate. With the ability of a whole-farm
system to show compensation, a slow winter rotation is a low risk option
if climatic uncertainty is an issue.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
grazing rotation; pasture cover; cattle live weight;
compensatory growth; farm systems.
Last Updated 12-07-2000
