“With no nutrition in the drought-hit pastures, breeders also needed a substantial energy and protein boost from supplements such as molasses and urea, whole cotton seed or copra meal,” Mr Murphy said.

The overwhelming industry demand for molasses and whole cottonseed severely limited supply in December and an increasing number of producers including Mr Smallcombe opted for the copra meal supplementation for breeders.

Mr Smallcombe said that their winter, dry season management approach practiced for the past 20 years was to begin supplementing the breeders in late May using an effective home-made lick.

“Our country is phosphorus deficient so we vaccinate for botulism and supplement with a home-made mix comprising 10kg of urea, 5kg of salt, 3kg of granulated ammonium nitrate, 3kg of cement, 5kg of Kinophos, 4 litres of molasses, 10kg of cottonseed meal, and 40kg of a commercial grain-based feed.

“We mix up 1 tonne a week at a cost of about $600 and feed the paddock lick in strategically placed half 200L drums.

“The objective is to provide about 500 grams per head per day. The lactating cows were probably eating a little more and they all held up well,” he said.

Mr Smallcombe said that by October, the situation had deteriorated markedly and the decision was made to early wean a line of 28 calves from struggling first calf heifers.

The calves were secured in the yards in late October and fed 300gms/head/day of Riverina brand Calf XLR8 pellets with ad-lib access to lucerne hay in open troughs.

“We took off a second draft of 23 calves down to six weeks of age in early December and boosted the Calf XLR8 intake to 500gms/head/day.”

Mr Smallcombe held the calves in the yards from seven to 14 days and they were then turned out into a 32ha improved pasture hospital paddock where they have been fed daily with the calf ration.

The 51 early weaned calves also have access to an additional cottonseed meal and molasses mix fed out in cement troughs. The mix is based on 20kg of cottonseed meal and 100 litres of molasses and the calves are consuming 20kg daily.

Mr Smallcombe has done the sums and the cost of the early weaning feeding program equates to $2 per head per week with minimal labour input. When the weaners reach 150kg liveweight, they are removed from the feeding program.

From early November, the first calf heifers and a percentage of the breeders were supplemented with 1kg/head of copra meal fed every second day into purpose-built tractor tyre troughs placed at the watering points.

“We found that by adding 25L of water with every 20kg of copra meal to make wet mix, there was much less wastage,” he said.

The copra meal supplementation has been extremely successful. With the exception of a few cows that have refused to eat the copra meal, the herd is back on track with the heifers already cycling.

The supplement troughs are made from old tractor tyres. He used a chain saw to cut a 10cm deep scallop off one wall. On the deep tyre section, boards were bolted on to make a floor and the resultant trough was placed on top off another old tyre casing. Being 60cm off the ground, cattle cannot get their feet into the trough.

The shallow tyre scallop was also bolted to another tyre to make an effective elevated calf trough ideally suited to paddock feed the early weaner mix.

Mr Smallcombe said the rain started falling in the last week of December and to January 13, Clayfield recorded 350mm. This has replenished empty dams and revived the black spear and couch grass native pastures.

“Our improved pasture paddocks based on Bisset blue, signal, Callide and Katambora Rhodes and humidicola grasses coupled with legumes such as Seca and Verano stylos and Wynn cassia are also back on track to finish steers for the 300kg dressed weight domestic trade,” Mr Smallcombe said.