ANIMAL HEALTH Stock check
Mixing it with sheep and cattle BY: TREVOR COOK
W
hen working with farmers in all of the northern hemisphere countries I have been to, it was almost a common surprise that sheep and cattle could run together. Monoculture systems are more common than here, but running them together was for most unheard of. In our sheep and beef sector, monoculture systems are common but mostly associated with finishing enterprises. Mind you, some almost 100% sheep hill country systems do exist in the South Island. For these northern farmers it was the fact that the sheep and cattle grazed together that was the surprise. But a lot of that surprise was because using pastures as the primary feed resource was still either a novelty or being mastered.
So why is it standard practice here? Theoretically it should only happen when the two stock classes have the same feed demand. So cows with ewes over the winter is common and clearly both have similar feed demands. Calving cows with lambing ewes is common but very often does not meet the feed demand of each. Cows more often than not seem to be underfed. It is one of the aspects of our hill country systems that defies our knowledge because I am frequently surprised how well those cows perform. Obviously not at their peak, but amazingly well for how little they appear to have consumed. Maybe there is more feed available than appears to be. Having cattle with sheep is very often justified on them keeping pasture quality. The cattle will eat that rough pasture. Really? Given the choice they will target the best stuff as much as the sheep do.
It really will be only when pasture covers get below 1200kg drymatter/ha that the cattle cannot compete for the better quality pasture. The competition from co-grazing cattle with growing sheep will always detract from the sheep performance unless pasture covers are very low. Are there other benefits from grazing sheep and cattle together? The one that is most often cited is in reducing the worm challenge to the sheep. I think this effect is massively over-stated as an outcome. Just how much of this occurs will depend on the sheep-to-cattle ratio, the length of the rotation and the feed levels. At best having the cattle with the sheep dilutes the worm contamination level. Instead of 15 lambs per hectare there are 12 because there are cattle, so there will be less contamination. But in reality that level of contamination needs to drop by over 50% to make any difference.
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Country-Wide
October 2021
