Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) industry development officer Jim Fletcher has just undertaken a practical assessment of the moisture content of several grass pasture species on a number of district properties.

Mr Fletcher said the pasture sampling exercise was just one of many nutrition, grazing, breeding and business management FutureBeef initiatives being undertaken to improve the profitability and sustainability of Queensland’s beef industry.

“Most coastal grazing country has recorded in excess of 1500mm this wet season and sample testing undertaken in early March has shown a staggering 83 per cent moisture content of some pastures,” Mr Fletcher said.

“A 450kg liveweight breeder consumes around 2.2 to 2.5pc of her bodyweight in dry matter per day to maintain weight. This equates to about 10-11kg of dry matter.

“A pasture with 83pc water content has just 17pc dry matter which means the animal has to eat more than 60kg of pasture biomass daily just to maintain condition let alone gain weight,” he said.

This intake borders on the limits of the animal’s capacity for feed intake. With such high moisture content, the rate of passage of feed through the gut increases.

“Many cattle have diarrhoea-like faeces and this impacts on the ability of the digestive system to extract and retain the nutrients available in the pasture.”

Mr Fletcher said other factors were also at play.

“Cold, wet, boggy conditions can lead to a loss of appetite while increasing the demand for nutrients to generate warmth. The cattle also tend to ‘mob’ rather than spread out to access better feed. Buffalo fly can also contribute to the problem resulting in a far from optimal environment for high cattle performance,” Mr Fletcher said.

Mr Fletcher said as the season progressed and the land dried out, the ratio of moisture to dry matter in the pasture would balance out leading to greater feed conversion efficiency.