Grazag

20/10/2026

Have you ever wondered why your Agronomist wants you to start spraying out paddocks in October in preparation for sowing the following Autumn?

Many growers struggle to spray out paddocks early looking at the feed they are sacrificing, not to mention the 4-5 months that paddock is then out of production for.

There are several really important reasons that spraying early leads to improved results and why it is so vital for the success of your pasture improvement program.

Pasture improvement results are directly linked to moisture! Both that the falls on the paddock once it has been sown down, but more importantly that moisture which has been stored in the soil.

This becomes even more important in the drier than average years. Anyone can jag a crop if it keeps raining post sowing, but when moisture is very limiting plants rely 100% on what moisture is in the soil.

Just to muddy the waters, just like oils ain’t oils, soils are not just soils! Soil texture plays a massive part in the amount of moisture that can be stored. The percentage of Sand, Loam, Silt and Clay is hugely important, as is the amount of organic matter (especially organic carbon).

It is no surprise that we have a direct correlation between the textural class of soils and the available water storage capacity of soils. In a nutshell the more Clay the soils have, the more moisture they can hold, and the more sand the less moisture they hold. So what does this mean for the New England?

We have 3 main soil types, locally known as Basalts, Traprock and Granites. A clay soil (basalt) will hold 200mm per metre of soil, a fine sandy loam around 140mm and a sand 83mm. The devil really is in the detail, which is the depth of our soils.

A heavy basalt (red or black) will hold around 200mm as they are generally nice and deep, so hold roughly the equivalent of 8” of rain which is a nice start. A traprock soil (fine sandy loam) will hold roughly 100mm, a fine granite 75mm and a coarse granite (50mm).

These stored amounts matter a lot in a year like 2026, where we have seen very little failure in pasture sowings on country that was fallowed correctly.

The second major reason for spraying early is to capture our rainfall when it occurs. The Northern Tablelands is predominantly summer dominant rainfall with over 60% falling in the spring/summer months.

If you look at Armidale our dominant rainfall months are as follows:

✅October 68mm
✅November 83mm
✅December 89mm
✅January 101mm
✅February 88mm
✅March 67mm

This is a total of just under 500mm (20” on the old scale) occurring before and at sowing.

To capture this moisture at this time of the year makes perfect agronomist sense. When you bookend that with the fact that our driest months on the calendar year are April (45mm) and May (43mm), which coincide with early post sowing, it makes even more sense to have stored moisture there for newly emerges seedlings.🌱

The final kicker that Agronomists get really excited about when deciding to spray paddocks out early, is removing the competition. Removing existing competition and reducing the seed bank are vital to the success of any crop/pasture sowing!

Once again October is a key month on the calendar for many annual weeds in particular grass weeds. Barley Grass, Vulpia (Rats Tail Fescue), Winter Grass, Soft Brome, African Lovegrass, Chilean Needle Grass, Serrated Tussock, not to mention Saffron Thistles that are all getting ready to throw seed head in late October and must be prevented from doing so, to stop that seed from going into the seed bank in the soil.

As an example, Vulpia is a prolific seeder (>150,000 seeds/square metre), of which 98% if soft seeded, so by preventing that from entering the soil we are saving a virtual carpet from germinating at the same time as your valuable pasture. For weeds with a longer dormancy, the old saying one one years seeding equals 10 years weeding is one to remember.

Summer weeds also become part of the program, especially grass weeds such as Couch and Crab Grass which are a real problem from a competiton point of view.

Another concept that is often forgotten about is removing the “Green Bridge” which can be a haven for many diseases and insects.

As our seasons become more variable and dry spells are becoming more prevalent, we need to seriously manage our soil moisture to guarantee success with our pasture programs. If we prepare for the dry times as being normal we will be better off.

Take some advice from your agronomist and start preparing early, the old saying of prior preparation prevents p**s poor performance is still very apt in today’s digital world 🌍

01/10/2026

🌱 It is that time of year again where we begin to fallow our paddocks for our 2027 pasture programs. 🌱

❓A few quick questions you should ask yourself as we kick off the fallow season:

1️⃣ Have I got Vulpia (Rats Tail Fescue) in my planned pasture paddock for next year?

2️⃣ Am I seeing an early seed head on my Vulpia?

3️⃣ Have I had RLEM/other insects on my farm this year?

As our agronomy team have been driving around we have noticed that Vulpia (Rats Tail Fescue) has started to throw an early seed head. It takes about 18 days from flowering to seed maturity, however this can vary from 7 to 30 days depending on growing conditions. With the dry conditions we are having we can expect to be looking at the shorter time. Over 95% of Vulpia seeds will germinate in the first year spraying it out while in seed head will dramatically reduce the presence in your pastures next year. You might want to think about spraying a week or two earlier than normal.

This year we have seen plenty of insect pressure🦗🕷️.

One of note has been the RLEM. At the moment the summer eggs are being produced before they go into diapause from November through to March. The mother RLEM co**se will dry out over the summer providing a protective casing that shield the dormant embryo’s from the summer weather. This means from next April onwards once mean temperatures are below 19 degrees for 10 days and we get 5mm of rain the eggs will hatch and be a problem again. Incorporating an insecticide spray into our fallow spray could be an option for you.

Preparation is key in these dry times ✅.
The longer we can fallow our paddocks, the more moisture we can capture (when it rains 🌧️) to have a fuller bucket for planting next Autumn! And the less chance of weeds/ insects in our pastures next year.

🌱If you have any questions feel free to give one of our Agronomy team a call 🌱.

01/10/2026

🚨 IMPORTANT ALLFLEX ORDERING UPDATE 🚨

ALLFLEX is transitioning to a new SAP system, with the cut-over period beginning 16th October 2026 - 9th November 2026.

📅 15th October is the last day Allflex will be processing orders using current pricing.

To avoid delays, we strongly recommend getting your upcoming orders in ASAP.

⚠️ Orders placed from 19 October may have 4–6 week lead times while ALLFLEX works through the transition.

👉 If you need ALLFLEX tags or products in the coming weeks, please get your orders in early!

If you have any questions give us a ring on 02 6770 3400

Thanks for your understanding and patience 🐄 🐑

13/09/2026

11/09/2026

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Claim now at https://au.virbac.com/spring-cashback

24/08/2026

Grass Tetany & Milk Fever: a timely reminder for the New England

G’day GrazAg clients,
With the conditions we're currently experiencing across the New England, I thought it was worth sending out a quick reminder about Grass Tetany (hypomagnesaemia) and Milk Fever (hypocalcaemia).
We're seeing short, green pick, cold conditions and plenty of cold drizzle to the east, while many operations have livestock with very high mineral demands, lambing ewes, calving cows, and lactating animals.
At the same time, many producers are still feeding according to the seasonal conditions and are well into their winter feeding programs.
Feeding commodities such as cottonseed, PKE, cereal hay, cereal grain and faba beans can all be very useful feeds, but an energy or protein rich ration doesn't necessarily mean the animal is receiving enough calcium and magnesium.

Grass Tetany: Low Magnesium
Keep an eye out for:
• Restlessness and nervous behaviour
• Muscle twitching, particularly around the face and ears
• Stiff or uncoordinated movement
• Increased sensitivity to noise and movement
• Excitability or sudden bolting
As it progresses, you may see staggering, falling, violent muscle contractions, convulsions, and potentially sudden death. Grass tetany can progress extremely quickly.

Milk Fever: Low Calcium
This is particularly important around calving and early lactation when calcium demand increases significantly.
Early signs can include:
• Reduced appetite and rumen activity
• Depression and weakness
• Stiff or uncoordinated movement
• Cold ears and extremities
As it progresses, animals may become weak and sit down, become unable to stand, lie flat on their chest or side, turn their heads back towards the flank, become comatose and eventually die.
Don't Confuse the Two
Grass Tetany = often nervous, excitable and twitchy.
Milk Fever = often quiet, weak and depressed.
However, both metabolic conditions can overlap, and an animal can be deficient in both calcium and magnesium at the same time.

Risk Factors
Pasture
• Short, lush green pasture, particularly rapidly growing ryegrass
• High potassium pasture, which can reduce magnesium absorption
• Young, actively growing pasture with low magnesium availability
• Low calcium availability
• High nitrogen fertiliser contributing to lush growth
• Cold, wet and drizzly weather
• Rapid pasture growth following rain
• Moving animals quickly from a restricted winter diet onto lush green feed

Feed and Ration
The other side of the equation is what we're feeding and the things we need to consider:
• The mineral contribution of all hand-fed feeds needs to be considered
• Extended feeding of stored feeds without a balanced mineral program
• Rapid changes in diet
• Low total dry matter intake during cold, wet conditions
• An overall unbalanced calcium and magnesium supply
The highest risk combination: late pregnancy and or early lactation + short, lush green pasture + cold, wet weather + winter feeding + inadequate calcium and magnesium supply. This is a mob worth paying close attention to.

Metabolic Challenge Management
Look at the whole diet
• Don't just look at the pasture. Consider the contribution from both pasture and commodities and work out how much calcium and magnesium the animal is receiving.
Identify your high risk animals
Pay particular attention to:
• Cows around calving and early lactation
• Ewes around lambing and early lactation
• Animals going onto short, lush green pasture
• Livestock under cold and wet weather stress

Review the mineral program before there is a problem
Where risk is high, make sure animals have access to a reliable and appropriately formulated source of magnesium and calcium at an intake that will consistently meet requirements.
This is a time of year when pasture conditions, winter feeding and animal requirements are all changing at once.

The combination of short green feed + cold, wet weather + late pregnancy/lactation + an unbalanced mineral supply is worth reviewing before we start to see clinical metabolic disorders.
If you're unsure whether your current pasture, feeding program and mineral supply are meeting the requirements of your livestock, please give us a call or have a chat with the team at GrazAg. We're always happy to work through the ration and mineral program with you.

Cheers,
Ed & the GrazAg Team

20/07/2026

🌧️The Autumn break was exactly what our pastures needed…unfortunately the red-legged earth mites agreed. 🕷️

The welcomed Autumn rainfall combined with cool winter days has triggered the opening of RLEM activity. Over the past couple of weeks we have inspected some severe infestations in both newly sown and existing pastures. The mites feed by rasping the surface layers of plant tissues and sucking up the released juices.

Key Symptom in your pasture:
🌱Random bare patches in your pasture.
🌱Damaged leaves have a silvery, bleached appearance .
🌱Twisted/distorted leaves.

How to identify RLEM:
🕷️About the size of a pin head.
🕷️ Dark black/blue body.
🕷️ Red legs.

Blue oat mites are very similar looking however have a distinguishing red spot on their back.

Now is a great time to check your paddocks. Early monitoring helps to identify issues before they become widespread and cause significant decline in pasture production. If you’ve noticed signs of mite activity or aren’t sure what you are looking at we can do paddock inspections.

Give Safina a call on 0460 001 164 if you would like to arrange a paddock inspections. Check out the comments below to see damage vs undamaged pasture in the same 12 month old permanent pasture paddock.

15/07/2026

Happy to help out this extremely talented bunch of youngsters. Good luck in your quest at the F Class Long Range World Championships at Bisley (UK). May the wind gods be kind, we can’t wait to follow your journey.

24/06/2026

Here we are sitting around in late June in T shirts wondering when the real winter weather will arrive. The few frosts have been sporadic and not that spectacular, but it is the New England and it will happen eventually.

The cold weather triggers a number of things on our pasture Agronomy calendar that allows us to work through a checklist and stay on top of them.

✅Sowing has recommenced

The recent rainfall had certainly given most areas a nice top up in our soils that had allowed the final paddocks to be sown, and has given those early planted pastures and crops a reprieve, ensuring they will survive and be productive. 8 weeks ago this was no certainty and we were looking down the barrel of a complete disaster.

✅The Rats Tail Tidal Wave

Our public enemy number one has made a late but spectacular arrival since the recent rainfall.

Vulpia is a real pest in germinating and establishing pasture seedlings due to its aggressive nature and sheer volume of seedlings 🌱.

When Vulpia germinates it is generally a carpet which tends to outcompete everything around it. It also has a competitive advantage as it produces an allelopathic chemical which leaches from its roots, affecting the species around it, especially legumes.

In annual crops we have a huge problem as there are no means of dealing with this germination, but in Perennials we have a few options available.

✅Insect alert

The first few frosts normally leads to a spectacular hatching of both Red Legged Earth Mites and Blue Oat Mites. The cold weather sees them emerge from their summer diapause and in large numbers will cause significant yield penalty in pastures.

These major pasture pests are not particularly hard to control, but do come with a grazing with holding period and the costs of an application.

Symptoms to watch are silvering of the pastures or forage crops leaves. The best time to check is in the early morning or late afternoon and they are easily distinguished by their distinctive bright orange legs.

✅Winter Growth Promotion

We have still been getting pasture growth in the past few weeks but this will slow down as we get more frosts.

Given how late some pastures were sown, we are not going to get real growth until Late September, but if pushed into a feed deficit there are a number of tools available to promote the extra winter production.

✅Winter weeds

The dropping soil temperatures bring with it the germination of winter broadleaf weeds. Whilst broadleaf weeds don’t have the same yield penalty as grass weeds, they still compete hard for sunlight, moisture and nutrients, taking up space in the paddock.

Like all weeds you are better off hitting them early as it is cheaper and softer on your pastures and crops. It then allows the pastures to get away where they will generally out compete weeds going into Spring.

Contact our Agronomy team in Armidale, Guyra and Glen Innes to arrange a paddock inspection if you suspect you have an issue with weeds or insects or need extra dry matter.

18/06/2026

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