Autumn Grazing Deferral - Update
Col Bowey and Ash Baldwin down at Green Range are currently practicing grazing deferral, which means allowing the annual plants that germinated with the summer thunderstorms to establish properly before letting the lambs in to graze the pasture.
At the moment they are using perennial grasses to keep stock in a holding pattern while they let the annuals get away. This will transition into a full rotation, starting soon after the next rain. This will give the annuals at least 10 -12 weeks since the thunderstorms at the end of January and start of February to establish before grazing them.
This next photo shows the pasture from last year, when the plants have grown enough for the sheep to be rotated through to graze.
Col and Ash are moving towards establishing perennial pasture, which includes chicory, plantain and lucerne which they will irrigate to maintain lamb finishing paddocks year round on the Green Range farm. The annuals in the photo below are mainly clover, with fodder oats under sown with clover in the ewes' paddock.
This is a work in progress and is a major step in supplying consistent quality lambs year round for Dirty Clean Food. We really appreciate Col and Ash’s hard work and investment in their farming system, to be able to supply us with the best lamb in WA!