Every sheep farm could benefit from a livestock containment area according to Glenthompson farmer Russell Mitchell.
"If I had realised the uses and benefits of stock containment areas, I would have had one years ago," he said.
A stock containment area (SCA) is a carefully selected part of the property which is set up to temporarily hold, feed and water livestock during dry seasonal conditions or following a fire.
While primarily used to protect soil and pasture during adverse conditions, the benefits of SCA's are numerous.
Mr Mitchell will discuss these benefits as part of a stock containment area workshop being held on his farm on Tuesday, 18 February.
He said a key benefit was that pasture paddocks can be locked up, giving plants the opportunity to recover and ensuring lambing ewes can then be put onto sufficient pasture following the autumn break.
"Stock containment areas are a really good management tool," Mr Mitchell said.
"I am saving time by not having to feed out in different paddocks over summer and it's much easier to monitor stock when conditions are not optimal."
Removing stock from paddocks and feeding temporarily in containment, has many other potential benefits, including:
- Reduced animal energy requirements, due to the reduced need to forage for food
- Potential to maximise animals' production with close monitoring of animal health and welfare and meeting requirements such as feed and optimum water quality
- Efficient use of on-farm labour and feeding resources, due to stock being close to feed and water supplies
- Reduced soil erosion in farm paddocks when stock are removed (due to less stock movement and overgrazing)
- Increasing pasture persistence in paddocks, due to not overgrazing dormant pastures over the summer
- The ability to develop a 'feed wedge' while stock are in containment.
Banking autumn savings using stock containment areas workshop
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