Product Used: Moby Forage Barley
A crop of Moby forage barley produced excellent lamb weight gains on the Chatsworth House property at Chatsworth, in the Western Districts of Victoria. Trent Adams, of Chatsworth House, said they traditionally grew a lot of oats on the property and were looking for a complimentary option to break up the cropping rotation. He said he put in a 25 hectare paddock of Moby barley in mid-May to see how it would perform as an alternative to oats. The crop was sown at 70 kilograms per hectare and received 100 kilograms per hectare of Megaeasy fertiliser when planted on May 14. Approximately 1000 lambs were introduced to the paddock in early July and grazed the 25 hectare area for the next two and a half weeks.
The lambs were weaned onto the paddock at ages seven to eight weeks and were sold aged 12 to 14 weeks. “At that time the lambs seemed to hit their peak and put a lot of weight on,” Mr Adams said. They achieved an average carcass weight between 22 and 23 kilograms each. On average each lamb achieved a weight gain of 3.5 to 4 kilograms per week or between 500 and 580 grams per day. Mr Adams said the growth of the Moby barley was very good and they were able to graze it when the crop was just six to eight weeks old. He said the Moby was between shin and knee height and then grazed down to just above ankle height. Outback oats has been the major forage cereal grown on the property in recent seasons and has performed particularly well. Moby barley and Tuckerboxtriticale were introduced this season to fill a feed gap in the middle of winter.
Trent Adams
