‘You can’t manage what you don’t measure’ was a key take home message from the Gecko CLaN’s ‘Making it to the Autumn Break’ field day on Wednesday 19th March. The day was presented by Ash Paech of the Department of Environment and Primary Industries, who spoke in detail about managing feed supply to maintain groundcover and therefore landscape health.
Ash spoke about when to feed, how to feed and how to ensure best value for money through feed testing to enable comparison. Ash explained how it is important to test for dry matter, digestibility, metabolisable energy and protein, and how to budget using DSE. Ash highlighted the importance of farming to the capability of the land.
In the last session the group went for a walk to apply this in the paddock. Participants were tested on the quality of different types of feed, and analysed the current condition of feed in the paddock. Gecko CLaN would like to thank Doug James for the use of his shearing shed and paddock again.