Using selective reduction and early weaning to manage drought

Hi everyone, welcome to our series of case studies with producers across northwest New South Wales. My name is Kate McCarthy and I'm a livestock officer. Today I'm here with Matt Avendano and we're talking about some of the strategies they used with their beef cattle enterprise during the drought—how it all came about, why they implemented those strategies, in particular confinement feeding and early weaning. So thanks for talking to us, Matt, and if you could just run through, I guess, how it all came about and what you implemented?

Well, we obviously early weaned our calves. We went pretty early, down to 100 kilos, and they came off mum. But it kind of started at the start of 2018. Things had been pretty dry the year before, although for a number of years before that—even with 2016—we had a wet winter, but aside from that it was another below-average year. We didn’t have our large pasture reserve which we’d usually operate on.

Looking forward, we realised, you know, coming out of the warmer months—our typical growing season for our subtropicals where we grow our feed—so we thought that we had to do something. The feed was short and we had little calves at foot. We actually went to an LLS day that Sally Belmain and Naomi Hobson ran about early weaning. We had already started thinking about it before, and that was a really good starting point. It gave me a good basis to know where to start and look into things from there.

After that day, I realised how much I didn’t know, so I started to look into it step‑by‑step. I started off with the weaning—obviously, what had to be done there. That’s a pretty common thing, obviously, weaning, but weaning down to this size was different. So I spoke to a few people.

They were weaned at 100 kilos—anything above 100 kilos got weaned, which is a pretty small calf really. Normally we might wean at 250 to 300 kilos. So starting off with calves that small, I thought I needed to find out who I could talk to. I spoke to a few people I know—Ray’s dairy pod works with very small calves, and I talked to livestock officers and also a few nutritionists about their requirements. I started from there and spoke to district vets about a health program for them.

Being such little calves, it was going to be a pretty stressful time when they came off mum. The plan was a pretty extensive vaccination program. In your early weaning and confinement feeding setup, we had about 850 weaners the first year. They were split three ways based on weight—the size of the animal. Ideally, you might also split by gender, but we didn't have that capability, and once we started doing it, I couldn't see a downside.

We split them based on how far along we thought their rumen development would be and what kind of diet they needed. From 100 kilos up to 150 or 175 kilos, they got a much higher protein diet and we were much more careful with those guys. Then from around 175 kilos to 300 kilos, they got another particular ration. The big guys went on to what was more or less just a basic feedlot ration.

Looking at some of the bunker feeding setups, I thought at first that the space wasn’t quite suitable, but I didn’t think it was impractical. I looked at the recommendations for feed bunk area per animal and water trough space per animal, and I couldn’t get anywhere close to those recommendations. At the time, I had to make do with what we had. We made some rough homemade feeders. Before that, we bought some Waste Not feeders because initially we weren’t mixing a ration and didn’t have a feed mixer. They got hay in a Waste Not feeder and grain separately in an Advantage feeder. They were both more expensive feeders, but they were worth it with the price of feed at the time.

Before this, we’d never supplementary fed at such an intense level. We're a pretty big party operation; in tough winters cows might get some cottonseed, but nothing like this. We’d only just started to grain feed anything with weaners in the few years before, so it was a big step out of what we normally do.

Because this was a drought strategy, we wanted it to be practical and user‑friendly for our enterprise. The first step was getting a mixer, and we were lucky we could do that. We had been having good success feeding straw and hay separately to grain, plus a dry lick, which was really important for little calves being fed intensely so they got all macro and micronutrients.

Afterwards, things were going alright, but it could have been more cost‑effective with a feed mixer. So we got one and started to mix a proper ration. We converted the Waste Not feeders into one long feeder and made homemade trough feed bunks out of things we had—like cutting old 4000‑litre water tanks in half and turning them upside down.

We had to be very cost‑effective. I couldn’t afford proper feed bunks or water troughs.

When doing the case study, you really broke down your costs and made sure you were doing it with precision—especially with ration specifics, how much they got, and how much it increased. The first thing is you’ve got to talk to people who know what they're doing. It’s no good asking your mates if they don’t know. Speaking to the right people was easily the most valuable thing. Nutritionists, especially those with feedlot experience, were incredibly helpful.

With their encouragement, I rang around and spoke to lots of people about different feed options and where to source them. After that, you’ve got to measure what you put into them every day, and weigh the animals regularly—at least once a month—so you know what they’re averaging and what they need in terms of quantity.

You said earlier you weren’t doing it for maintenance; you were doing it for productivity. If you're going to spend that much money, you have to consider cost‑effectiveness—what they’re consuming, how much productivity improves. At worst, I could break even. The only way to break even was if it rained and they could go back to the paddock. But it didn’t rain the first year, so they had to be fed for production the whole way through. They went to markets like Woolies and Coles.

It was challenging to source roughage and sometimes grain during the drought. We had very little on farm; we'd made a bit of hay in the past but after several hard years, we didn’t have anything. I had no experience buying fodder, so ringing around really paid off—talking to nutritionists, grain brokers, anyone who could help. Everyone I spoke to was really helpful, which made a huge difference.

On the early weaning side of things, the cost and size of the little 100‑kilo calves was the main challenge. Many were young enough that their rumen wasn’t developed. That was the number one priority—develop the rumen, and after that things would get easier.

With the stress of everything, talking to vets reinforced that animals get sick when stressed. Before weaning, we tried to ensure they were fully protected with vaccinations at the point of weaning to help during that stressful time.

So for people listening, if we ever encounter this again—hopefully not soon—my biggest advice is: talk to people who know what they're talking about. That’s the most important thing you can do. It’s the best use of time.

Thanks for talking to us, Matt, and hopefully you’ve pulled some key messages out of seeing how the Avendanos did things, what drove them to make those decisions, and what they learned from it. So thanks for that, Matt.