TO ensure his livestock are fed only the best, South East mixed farmer Brett McLaren resorted to growing and cutting his own hay this season to ensure the highest quality forage, saving him more than $20,000.

"The seasons were starting to dry off earlier and we were using more hay than normal," he said.

"We haven't needed to cut a lot of hay before. It was only used as supplementary feed during winter when pasture was short.

"But in the past few years, I've had to feed stock at the end of the summer as pasture was short then too."

With wife Rebecca, Brett runs Moreview in Kingston, which includes 9000 self-replacing Merinos and 240 Hereford cattle.

* Extract from a full report in Stock Journal, October 2 issue.