Cundinup livestock producer eliminates “guesswork” with managing grazing rotations principles

For a Cundinup livestock producer marrying into a generational farm, a workshop has helped eliminate the guesswork for managing grazing rotations. Paula Carroll said dealing with feed was “educated guesswork” before 2022 after taking on a property with her husband in 2016. To help learn more, she completed the Grazing Matcher Program coordinated by Western Beef Association with support from South West NRM, Healthy Estuaries WA and Federal Government. “I feel like we’ve got our animal health management and genetics performed really well for us, but pasture management was an area where we could improve, and I personally could improve my knowledge,” she said. “Visual assessments of the cows’ condition and adjusting feed allocations based on how much feed that they’re leaving behind, or if they’re cleaning up and needing more — that comes down to many, many years of experience.” Mrs Carroll married into the Carroll family who had been farming in Cundinup for 100 years as Tirano Farms with cows and bulls. “My husband is fourth generation on the farm, and our kids will be fifth generation,” she told the Times. “The way that we’re set up, we are farming in partnership with my mother and father-in-law. “We got the opportunity to purchase the property that we’re on in 2016. My husband has to work full-time off the farm. I love running the farm and working with my father-in-law.” Mrs Carroll said the property she purchased with her husband was “well set up for rotational grazing” due to the amount of paddocks, which helped to establish a solid grazing routine. “This has been the farm that we’ve been able to focus a lot of the grazing matcher principles on in the best way,” she said. “I’d been on the lookout for a pasture grazing course or a workshop for a while, and hadn’t really heard of anything that was tailored towards beef cattle and beef production.” Mrs Carroll said the program helped provide a “good understanding” of the quality and quantity of feed. “One of the best decision making tools I got out of Grazing Matcher was knowing — not deciding, but knowing — when to put the cows in on the pasture, and when they had to come out,” she said. “They give you really solid instructions to follow. “I can justify my grazing management decisions, and it pays off in the long run.”