Techniques for pasture spelling

Graziers often say they cannot rest pastures because the property is fully stocked. While this is true in one sense, we have to ask the question: Does the potential for resting and regeneration actually exist in our present pastures? The answer is usually yes, as I discovered. I successfully rested pastures following rain without selling livestock. It is when "rest" is thought of as time that it is impossible to rest without destocking. If "rest" is seen as timing, then the animals only have to be off the pastures for a much shorter period of time, which can be managed.

Fence to soil types

With most properties, there is usually one area of a paddock that has a lower quality soil type compared to the rest of the paddock. Often the grasses on this soil type, although inferior, are adequate for production when green.

Through fencing, the stock should be forced onto the inferior country following rain while it green. In this way the most productive country can be spelled by using the inferior country when it is at its most productive. The increase in production of the best country through resting enables the inferior country to be rested over a longer period of time, to ensure it is also rested after rain before being restocked again.

Double stocking

If one paddock is in good order, then double stock it for a short period following good rain, to rest a degraded paddock. Alternatively, spread the stock of the paddock being rested, over a few paddocks that are in better order.

Overgrazing established and "healthy" perennial grasses to spell other pastures only creates a short term drop in production until the next rainfall event. It has little impact on the health of the pasture.

On the other hand, with "good timing", degraded country can be raised to a much higher long term level of production. It is the initial introduction of carbon reserves that allows a paddock to reach the threshold, and then further regeneration can occur at an increasing rate.

Using saltbush as a resting tool

This requires overcoming the well held paradigm of Old Man Saltbush (OMSB) as only being a drought reserve. Because it is drought resistant, frost resistant and not eaten by kangaroos, it is a source of protein at the end of dry spells, which enables animals to be removed from the pastures when good rains often arrive. Of course OMSB can be used any time it rains, to allow pasture resting.

Saltbush plantations planted for the purpose of resting pastures should have sufficient grass between the rows to allow animal performance, as saltbush is low in energy. The CSIRO lent their support to this concept, and coined the phrase, "using saltbush in the mud, not the dust".

The advantage of using saltbush as a resting tool is that only a small percentage of the property is needed to rest the whole property. The lower the average rainfall, the truer this is. It has been calculated that in lower rainfall country, only 2% of a property has to be planted to saltbush to enable the whole property to be rested for one month each year following rainfall.

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