ON FARM NORTHERN CATTLE FEEDBASE f Feed that keeps on giving Sas close to it as he’s ever seen.teve Williams said there’s nosuch thing as a magic puddingin agriculture, but leucaena isSimilarly, if he wants to bring the cattle in tothe yards, he waits until they come out of theleucaena paddocks to water.Steve ran a cow‑and‑calf pastoral enterprise QueenslandSNAPSHOT:Stephen and ChristineWilliams, Dalby, The Williamses’ leucaena has been featured in western Queensland before moving to the l in MLA‑sponsored field days, but now their Darling Downs 15 years ago. experience will be made available to other “In a good season, 100 steers will eat out a producers through the Elders Innovation 40ha leucaena paddock in about 20–30 Project, which is co‑funded by Elders and days,” he said. MLA Donor Company (see story on page 33). “By the time they’re through the third one, One focus of the project is to provide they can go back into the first paddock, information and extension about research which has had about two months’ rest. and development that hasn’t been widely adopted, such as leucaena, using Elders “It helps that we have no debt.” agents and MLA. Area: Doing it right the first time 753ha Know your type It cost the Williamses about $500/ha to The Williamses buy in steers at 300kg and establish leucaena. Steve recommended Enterprise: sell them to feedlots at 450kg. Steve seeks planting at 40 seeds/m with a double Cattle backgrounding a ‘type’ of cattle, rather than a particular disc plough. (buy steers in at 300kg – breed, and ends up with a lot of black cattle, sell at 450kg) The leucaena is planted in double rows at although they’re invariably not pure Angus. 1m spacings and a 6m wide inter‑row. The Livestock: Using leucaena, they can fatten cattle at a inter‑row pasture of bambatsi panic, Rhodes Turn off: 600–800 head/year rate of 1kg/day forabout 35 weeks of the year.grass and the native creeping bluegrass is an important component of the feedbase. Pasture: Capitalise on cattle behaviour 320ha leucaena and 160ha The farm has eight 40ha leucaena paddocks, “If I was starting from scratch now, I’d put 10mforage oats set up in ‘cells’ of two or three around a between the rows to give more inter‑row pasture,” Steve said. Soil: central watering point connected to the cattle Predominantly Darling yards by a laneway system. “With the 6m inter‑row, I run out of grass butDowns black soil; varies from We don’t have any water in the leucaena I don’t ever run out of leucaena. clay to sandy “ paddocks,” Steve said. “Leucaena will get frosted, so you need a winter forage crop of some kind to maintain Rainfall: “The cattle come out to water.” this weight gain. 640mm Steve capitalises on this behaviour when “In a dry time leucaena comes into its own. In he wants to move the cattle on to a new Stephen Williams paddock he simply shus the gate in the; t a good season you can fatten cattle on any E: openbah@bigpond. grazed paddock and opens the gate to the pasture. By lowering your stocking rate you com new padock.d will still have weight gains of 1kg/day. You therefore have more control when it’s dry and the pressure’s on.” ■ Leucaena plays a crucial role in Stephen and Christine Williams’ cattle backgrounding enterprise. 36