Exploring perennial pastures, multispecies mixes, cattle backgrounding and soil health at Koojan Downs Tour

By Simon Kruger, WMG Project Communications Officer

On Wednesday, August 14th, the West Midlands Group (WMG) hosted the Koojan Downs Perennial Pastures and Backgrounding Tour at the Harvest Road Koojan Downs farm. The event was another in the WMG Farmer Discussion series, this time highlighting the work of the Harvest Road backgrounding team of Nick Woods, Ian Greenwood and Troy Grundy.

The tour began at the Koojan Downs Transit Yard Gate, with participants traveling together in utes to various stops across the Koojan Downs cattle backgrounding operation, including Willow Springs and Danmoor farms. Each stop provided an in-depth look at the innovative practices being implemented by the Harvest Road team to enhance pasture quality, soil health, and overall farm productivity.

Key topics covered during the tour included large-scale perennial pasture establishment, in-field nutrition options for cattle, and multispecies mixes that can survive summer and bridge the autumn feed gap. Attendees also explored pasture and cereal species that improve ground cover and soil structure, as well as soil amelioration methods and amendment options such as compost across the different tour stops.

The day concluded with a relaxing sundowner at the Willow Springs shed, where participants enjoyed beverages and reflected on the day’s insights and learnings. Some of the key takeaways from attendees included:

• Perennial pastures can be widely used across different operations, especially how they can fit in high intensity systems and at the scale of Koojan Downs.
• The importance of rotational grazing systems and grazing management.
• Waste from one enterprise can be beneficial for another enterprise – with Koojan Downs using the manure from the feedlot to make compost and utilise across the backgrounding paddocks.

On top of other pop-up crop walks and discussion events throughout July and August, the Koojan Downs Tour has seen the WMG team host its fourth event in four weeks, with several more planned through September and October. As with other WMG events held across 2024, an in-depth Farmer Summary will be completed and shared on the WMG website in coming weeks.

WMG would like to thank the Harvest Road team, especially Nick, Ian and Troy for their expertise, time and knowledge and for guiding the group across the Koojan Downs cattle backgrounding operation. There is another tour of the Koojan Downs feed lot planned for later in the year, so be sure to keep an eye open for more details.

To see more detail of the topics discussed on the day and some of the key takeaways, be sure to read the WMG Farmer Summary of the event.