Savvy cocksfoot for sustainable farming

FOR the past 20 years, Justin and Melissa Ainsworth have turned nutrient poor soils and run-down pastures into a sustainable grazing business by finding out what works for their farm and sticking with it.

When the Ainsworths bought ‘Merriman Park’ near Stradbroke in 2005, much of Gippsland was in drought.

But thanks to many production changes over the years and the turnaround in seasonal conditions, they are now ahead of the curve, with nearly three years of home-grown feed in storage for their Angus cow and calf enterprise, in preparation for the next drought.

“After our first drought, we had a look around the paddocks and really the only grasses persisting were cocksfoots,” said Mr Ainsworth.

“We trialled quite a few types of cocksfoots, with varying levels of success, but one of these is now the mainstay of our pasture system and that’s the Savvy.”

Savvy cocksfoot is a high yielding pasture from DLF Seeds that is suited to lighter soils, disease resistant and bred to tolerate hard grazing.

Unlike older cocksfoot varieties, Mr Ainsworth says the stock find Savvy extremely palatable.

“In a straight Savvy pasture, the cattle will chew it down until it looks like you’ve topped it and in our multi-species paddocks, Savvy is the feed they will target first before looking to eat the other grasses,” he said.

“We’ve still got some old Porto cocksfoot in a couple of paddocks, and although it would have to be one of the toughest grasses out there, the cattle won’t eat it unless they have to, whereas they like eating Savvy, so that’s definitely an advantage.”

The Ainsworth’s now use Gary’s ‘Wellington Dryland Mix’ as their base pasture, which includes Savvy cocksfoot, sub clover and ryegrass. They add extra Savvy seed to make it more dominant in the pasture.

Mr Ainsworth says another key piece of their pasture success has been lifting soil nutrient levels with chicken manure.

“When we got here, the Olsen P levels were really low, mostly under ten and with one paddock at 1.9,” he said. “That made it difficult to get anything to grow.”

While they initially used some traditional fertilisers as their budget allowed, the Ainsworth family switched to chicken manure four years ago after seeing it work in local dairy systems.

They are also finding the chicken manure helps improves their soil health, observing an improvement in soil biology, crucial for plant health.

Rotational grazing is in place across nearly 40 small paddocks on their 140 hectare farm, allowing them to maintain their pastures sustainably.

“We’re involved in Landcare locally and know the importance of protecting and establishing shelterbelts for biodiversity and providing shade and shelter for stock, which have been strategically set up across the farm,” he said.

“Caring for the environment just has to go hand in hand with farming. I reckon we’ve probably planted 60,000 trees in our time here.

“Our focus is really on sustainability for the farm and a lot of that is preparing our pastures for the next drought that comes along.

“We know we’re on the right track because when it started raining in 2020, the pastures kicked like there was no tomorrow – they were ready to go.”