With limited agistment or access to travelling stock reserves across southern and northern NSW, beef producers are turning to feedlots in the Riverina to custom feed replacement heifers.

Agronomist and cattle producer Mark Lucas told attendees at the Wagga seminar that custom feeding replacement heifers at about $18 a week an option.

“Feeding replacement heifers over 180kg is a guarantee of the future if you cannot handle them on your place,’’ Mr Lucas said.

“Everyday we are fighting the balance between not spending too much and keeping animals in good health.

It’s a day by day application … when every bale you put out is worth $180, it becomes important as to what you are feeding.”

However Mr Lucas said the demise of the NSW canola harvest had been a “god send’’ for livestock production.

“Anyone who bought fodder over winter paid a lot of money for inferior product coming out of Victoria with much of it up to three and four years old,’’ he said.

“We were at the bottom of the barrel in terms of roughage available and people struggled to buy something reasonable to support cows.

“Along comes the canola and there was plenty of bad press about what it does and doesn’t do.

“However, through intelligence and good science, we have managed a good product quite well.’’

And while fodder prices are high, they are high relative to the value of your profit margin, according to Mr Lucas.

“Mutton, lamb and wool are all at record prices and beef is surprisingly strong relative to the large dry area from southern NSW to Queensland,” he said.

“The mutton price has assured a lot of sheep have been slaughtered and the female cattle kill percentage is high at 55 per cent, having a huge impact on numbers going forward.’’

Mr Lucas hosted the Pasture Agronomy Services drought feeding and management seminar on December 11.

“No one does droughts well – as much as we try to prepare, we can never prepare sufficiently well,” he said.

“We have to be planning for at least another six months of supplementing livestock.

“For the eastern Riverina, this drought is going to be solid and will impact on autumn pasture response.’’

Mr Lucas said many grass pastures had failed to produce sufficient seed for 2019, especially north of Gundagai.

He said clovers would be the first pasture variety to recover, but grass density would be down.

A positive for grazing/cropping industries from the drought has been the maturation of online buying and selling platforms for hay and grain based on feed tests.

Mr Lucas reported southern NSW beef producers had achieved exceptional weight gains in young cattle on nutrient dense pasture last spring.