Integrating dual-purpose crops mitigates feedbase risk and facilitates improved lamb production systems across environments: a whole-farm modelling analysis

Abstract

Context The winter feed gap is a common problem for livestock grazing systems worldwide, and changes to climate have made these deficits more unpredictable and extreme. Dual-purpose crops are an important tool in many southern Australian mixed crop–livestock systems to help fill the winter feed gap. Providing more reliable feed over winter can remove feed constraints and allow for earlier lambing in autumn with potential whole-farm system benefits. Aims We simulated a whole-farm livestock enterprise in the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) to examine the implications of spring- and autumn-lambing systems relying on a standard pasture-only feedbase compared with a farm where 25% of its grazed area is allocated to dual-purpose crops. Methods Twelve simulations were run across four locations in New South Wales, Australia, that varied in climatic conditions (both rainfall total and distribution) including two lambing systems (spring vs autumn) × two feedbase types (100% pasture vs 75% pasture and 25% dual-purpose crops) × three stocking densities. Key results For autumn-lambing systems, integrating dual-purpose crops helped to fill the winter feed gap and reduced supplement demand on average by ~28% compared with a pasture-only system. Compared with the standard pasture-only spring-lambing system, integrating dual-purpose crops into spring- and autumn-lambing systems more than doubled gross margin returns due to economic grain yield and lower supplement demand. A shift from spring- to autumn-lambing facilitated by dual-purpose crops also led to better reproductive performance of ewes in the subsequent year. In higher-rainfall, cooler environments, autumn-lambing systems with dual-purpose crops had the highest system gross margins, lowest economic risk and allowed for a safe increase in stocking density. In lower-rainfall, warmer environments, integration of dual-purpose crops into spring-lambing systems returned marginally higher gross margins than for the autumn-lambing system, but differences were less apparent at high stocking density. In lower-rainfall environments, dual-purpose crops helped to mitigate some of the economic risk, but the benefits were less clear. Conclusions We show dual-purpose crops can help fill the winter feed gap and support earlier lambing in autumn across a range of environments, especially in higher-rainfall cooler environments, with significant improvements in total farm gross margins. Implications Integrating dual-purpose crops will enable farmers to change their livestock system to mitigate their risks, reduce supplementary feeding and capitalise on other potential benefits, such as improved marketing and avoiding animal health problems.