Irrigation could be the shot in the arm north west cattle producers need to manage the vagaries of seasonal conditions.
At Sutherland, 120km north west of Richmond, the Lord family are already reaping the rewards of a small forage sorghum planting.
Nikko and his wife Jade farm with parents Ardie and Kacie Lord, running brahman cross young cattle on their home place, Sutherland, with three other breeder blocks all north of Richmond, and fattening country in central west Queensland.
While the family operation has been beef cattle for the past 38 years, they are now dabbling with a small amount of irrigation.
Nikko said the 40 hectares of forage sorghum planted last year has been a steep but successful learning curve.
“We grew a bumper crop which yielded approximately 50t/ha. Initially, due to our remote location, we purchased some small old silage cutting gear with the plan to pit the silage and feed from September through to our green date (January),” he said.
“Every mechanical disaster possible struck with the issues of a high yield crop and small old machines and we eventually got a contractor all the way from Toowoomba which is 1600 kilometres from us, but was well worth the expense and knowledge.”
“We also grazed parts of the crop at different heights with mixed results, but were taking 800 stock days per hectare per graze with .6 kg/day weight gain.
“I am confident this is the direction we will continue due to its simplicity and lower cost of gain.”
The Lords currently have a 500 megalitre licence which Ardie negotiated when the Government started the GABSI program in the early 1990’s for capping and piping three of four free flowing bores.
At the time they were flowing approximately 5000 megalitres annually and in return for capping, Ardie received 500 mega-litres for irrigation purposes.
The Lords are now trying to purchase more of this water back to upscale their irrigation business to a more viable size.
The Government late last year announced they were taking tenders for farmers to buy back the bore water with a $1420 per megalitre reserve price which has concerned farmers like the Lords.
Every mechanical disaster possible struck with the issues of a high yield crop and small old machines, we eventually got a contractor all the way from Toowoomba which is 1600 kilometres from us, but was well worth the expense and knowledge.
“With an estimate of utilising 8meg per ha to grow a crop that would mean we would need to a purchase $11,360 of water to grow a hectare” Nikko said
The Artesian Basin is one of the largest underground aquifers in the world with water remaining under there for supposably thousands of years.
But Nikko said there two key areas to be identified when considering the use of this underground aquiver
First is that this would be purely opportunistic in dry times and that when there was productive pasture in the paddock it would be hard to compete with the low cost of grass.
Secondly, to justify the overheads the Lords would need an annual license of more than 1000mg.
Nikko questions if there could be an option for businesses to “stockpile” the water underground and only use it when the opportunity presents.
“We would also ask why is the reserve price where it is when we are trying to develop a new region for irrigation with all the risks it presents with what is considered some of the most expensive bore water in Australia?,“ Nikko said.
“We’re not asking for handouts or infrastructure just the opportunity at the right price to develop our own region and allow jobs to be created. Previously we have worked on putting on 160kg per animal in this country annually. With the addition of irrigation we have pushed that out to 260kg per year. The extra 100kg per year gives us healthier cattle, faster cash flow, and keeps the cattle on a gaining plane of nutrition all year which in itself has enormous benefits in the north.”
Later on this year the Lords will endeavour to feed 2500 tonnes of a silage plus a feedlot ration for cattle targeting the live export market and propping up second round weaners.
They will again flood irrigate a forage sorghum crop with the legume (butterfly pea) added in with the purpose of grazing and possibly a silage cut. “It is not just our operation, access to water assists an entire community,” Nikko said.
