By Agrista
The Productivity & Profitability series presents new and topical information to help southern producers increase the success of their businesses.
Beef, sheep and goat producers ca
... more
The podcast currently has 14 episodes available.
Welcome to episode 14 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Elke Hocking from Elke Hocking Consulting. Elke talks about the importance of measuring and monitoring to manage for reproductive success in heifers.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Elke discuss that by proactively managing weaner heifers to achieve critical mating weight targets and condition scores prior to joining (60% of SRW prior to heifer joining and 85-90% of SRW prior to second joining), beef businesses have the potential to improve the reproduction rates in their heifers and second calving cows.
This episode covers that by developing an annual management and health plan for their beef business, producers can optimise the health and welfare of their animals, reduce mortality rates in their herd, achieve target liveweights and realise the genetic potential of their herd.
To watch our webinar with Elke head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To find out about the project head to: https://www.mackillopgroup.com.au/blog/reproductive-health-and-management-practices-for-beef-heifers/1577113
More information about condition scoring cattle can be found here:
Other links to resources to provide more information on this topic are:
Final Report: https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/reports/2024/p.psh.1280---pds-reproductive-health-and-management-practices-for-beef-heifers/
More Beef from Pastures manuals: https://mbfp.mla.com.au/
https://paraboss.com.au/annual-program/western-victoria-and-south-australia/
https://www.mla.com.au/extension-training-and-tools/tools-calculators/Cost-of-production/
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 13 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Callen Thompson from AgSTAR Projects. Callen talks about growing beef from dairy, the benefits, barriers and next steps for the industry.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Callen discuss the importance of relationships and understanding what the end user of your product wants. Callen highlights the benefits of dairy beef, including carbon emissions, eating quality and consistency of supply. Beef and dairy producers looking to get involved in the Dairy-Beef supply chain need to breed, feed and manage their calves with their end market in mind.
To take advantage of these opportunities we will need to address several barriers including increasing capacity to rear calves, developing a greater understanding of market specifications for both beef and dairy producers and producing an animal that consistently meets market specifications.
To watch our webinar with Callen head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To find out about the Growing Beef from Dairy project Callen mentioned head to: Growing Beef from Dairy | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
This project is funded 50:50 by Meat and Livestock Australia and Dairy Australia.
To sign up to receive updates on this project head to: Growing Beef from Dairy - Industry engagement survey (office.com)
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 12 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Sally Martin from SheepMetriX. Sally talks about how electronic identification can be used in your business to add value.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Sally discuss the importance of being clear on what you want to achieve when collecting data. Sally highlights that there are multiple avenues for data collection using eID and it is how you efficiently use this data that will enable you to reap the benefits.
Sally's key steps for getting started with eID technology are:
1. Have a plan and a staged approach before purchasing lots of equipment – build your confidence first.
2. Understand how it will fit into your current farming business and operation.
3. Stick to your key profit drivers when deciding what data to collect and use.
To watch our webinar with Sally head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To find out about the eID workshops Sally mentioned head to: Sheep Consultant & Ram Breeding Advice (sheepmetrix.com.au)
To learn about setting a breeding objective head to: BredWell FedWell hub | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
A Benefit: Cost ratio figure for eID investment can be found here: https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/reports/2019/return-on-investment-for-implementing-electronic-identification-tags-in-a-commercial-sheep-flock--wa/
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 11 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This special edition episode features Dr Shane Thompson from Holbrook Vet Clinic, Ed Rigall from AgPro Management and Felicity Turner from Turner Agriservices. In this episode we discuss the business, pasture and livestock management considerations when managing a late seasonal break or failed autumn period.
Your host, Tanisha Shields speaks to the specialist panel about the importance of assessing and managing business risk to make informed decisions to manage the failed autumn. We discuss how to conduct a supplementary feeding analysis, including which stock to feed and for how long and prioritisation of reducing numbers. The expert panel talk about what to consider to promote pasture growth during winter and into spring and the fertiliser budgeting implications for this season and looking ahead for next year.
We also cover the animal health and nutritional requirements during the winter period and how to manage lambing and calving with limited feed. Confinement feeding is discussed as a strategy to manage livestock and pastures through to spring.
Some key messages from the panel:
"No plan survives first contact - you've just gotta keep planning" Ed
"The only thing worse than feeding, is feeding and not achieving the outcome" Shane
"Be kind to yourself and look after our mates" Felicity
To find out more about containment feeding, listen to our webinar and podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2197784/13976041 or at Webinars + Podcasts - Agrista
More information about managing livestock nutrition can be found at:
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 10 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Anne Collins of AC Ag Consulting. Anne talks about how to maximise dorper reproductive performance, particularly in challenging environments.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Anne discuss how to utilise condition scoring as a management tool to inform decision making, the importance of pregnancy scanning and how to use the scanning results to improve flock reproductive performance.
Shedding sheep breeds are a relatively easy-care, low labour input, enterprise option for producers, particularly mixed farmers who have multiple enterprises competing for their time. The number of lambs weaned is the key profit driver for a shedding sheep enterprise.
Anne talks about the results of a Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project, including how the adoption of improved management practices in the annually joined flock including: monitoring of ewe condition score; pregnancy scanning; differential management of single and twin bearing ewes; culling scanned empty ewes; ram and ewe soundness checking prior to joining; and timely weaning, resulted in an increase in conception rate in the monitored group of ewes from 125% to 159%.
The key take home messages for listeners from this episode are:
1. Learn how to condition score your animals, actually do it and use the results to make management decisions.
2. Ensure both rams and ewes are fit to join prior to mating through the use of physical examinations and attention to nutrition
3. Pregnancy scan ewes and manage accordingly. Quit or remate empties, feed twins, manage singles. Wet/dry ewes at lamb marking.
To watch our webinar with Anne head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To read the full PDS report head to: https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/reports/2023/l.pds.2017---pds-maximising-dorper-reproductive-performance/
To learn more about the MLA Donor Company project - Quantifying and improving reproductive performance of shedding sheep head to www.mla.com.au/shedding-sheep/ . Those interested in receiving occasional email updates should send their contact details to [email protected].
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 9 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Dr Jason Condon from Charles Sturt University. Jason talks about how implementing improved soil sampling intervals will enable better decisions about liming.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Jason discuss the movement and effect of liming to address lower soil acidity layers. We also discuss the how the management of acid soils removes one of the manageable constraints of the production system.
Dr Jason Condon is Associate Professor in Soil Science at Charles Sturt University and has taught and researched soils there since 1996. His research portfolio includes projects on fertiliser management, carbon sequestration, nitrogen cycling, salinity management in Vietnam and the formation and management of soil acidity in Australian crop and pasture systems in collaboration with NSW DPI, Holbrook landcare Network, FarmLink and Central West Farming Systems.
To watch our webinar with Jason head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
The liming charts mentioned by Jason can be found here: NLP Lime Calculator (sfs.org.au), Planning on Liming (nsw.gov.au)
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 8 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Shawn McGrath from Charles Sturt University. Shawn talks about the role of dual-purpose crops in livestock production businesses.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Shawn discuss the benefits of dual-purpose crops, when to sow a dual-purpose crops and how to manage grazing with different livestock species. We also discuss the complexities associated with dual purpose crops and how they alter the feed production curve for your business.
To watch our webinar with Shawn head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To learn more about grazing dual-purpose crops head to: grazing-cropped-land-a-summary-of-the-latest-information-on-grazing-winter-crops-from-the-grain-and-graze-program-2016.pdf.pdf (grdc.com.au)
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 7 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Cam Nicolson from Nicon Rural. Cam talks the carbon space which is rapidly evolving, we should expect the ‘rules’ and assumptions to change in the future.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Cam discuss why you should care about carbon, where it all began and how to get an understanding of the emissions in your business.
We discuss emissions intensity (amount of emission per unit of product) and why this should be your focus in the next few years, not carbon neutrality.
Cam talks about existing practices and technologies that can help reduce emission intensity tomorrow in any farming business.
To watch our webinar with Cam head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To access the MLA carbon calculator head to: MLA Carbon Calculator
To access the Greenhouse Accounting Framework Tools head to: Tools | Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (piccc.org.au)
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 6 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features Sally Murfet from InspireAg. Sally talks about the importance of managing and working with people in agriculture.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and Sally discuss the internal and external factors impacting human agronomy, the importance of clarity, communication and culture and how to get the recruitment process right.
To watch our webinar with Sally head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To access the people in ag website head to: People in Agriculture
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
Welcome to episode 5 of the MLA Productivity and Profitability media series. This episode features John Francis from Agrista. John talks about how to drive production in your business to manage risk and cost of production to drive profitability.
Your host, Tanisha Shields and John discuss what some of the targets for production are, how to design a cost structure to meet these production targets and to remove the focus on chasing price.
John talks about the importance of system design in livestock enterprises, ensuring you are matching feed supply and feed demand in order to drive a low cost of production.
To watch our webinar with John head to: Productivity & Profitability series | Meat & Livestock Australia (mla.com.au)
To access the cost of production calculator head to: MLA Cost of Production Tool
To access the feed demand calculator head to: MLA Feed Demand Calculator
This episode is brought to you by Agrista in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia.
The podcast currently has 14 episodes available.
1,208 Listeners
69 Listeners
467 Listeners
8 Listeners
3 Listeners
37 Listeners
0 Listeners
11 Listeners
1 Listeners
2 Listeners
35 Listeners
1 Listeners
14 Listeners
7 Listeners
17 Listeners