INCREASING stocking rates by improving pastures is a surefire way to improve livestock returns. But another method, and an area where huge potential gains can be made, is to improve pasture growth and grazing management.

This can be achieved through strictly-structured rotational grazing systems such as Technograzing, which can increase gross margins from the average of about $300 a hectare for traditional set stocking to $700/ha.

Feeding livestock on pastures is the lowest input production system Ð particularly for spring pasture, which has the very least cost of production, the highest nutritional value, and produces the most efficient liveweight gain.

This gives southern livestock producers the opportunity to increase pasture utilisation significantly, mostly in spring.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute, Livestock Systems Centre, Struan south of Naracoorte, has been running a Technograzing system for three years with the goal of producing 1000 kilograms of liveweight gain a hectare from bulls, and as close as possible to this figure from steers.

This was not achieved in 2003 because of poor spring pasture growth, but there was still more than 750kg/ha produced Ð more than twice the average produced in the South East.

One of the most efficient ways to make the most of spring pasture is to have a high stocking rate of bulls, because they have the capacity to consume large amounts of feed and efficiently convert it into beef.

Struan farm manager John Cooper is running the new Technograzing system, which controls cattle behaviour, to improve pasture management.

Technograzing is the brand name, and the system Ð bought by the producer Ð provides most of the infrastructure and information needed to set it up.

Designed by New Zealander Harry Wier, it uses a global positioning system to line-up the paddocks and posts perfectly.

The paddocks are divided into equal-area lanes using three-wire electric fencing and these lanes are divided again by a movable electric tape that runs at a right angle across the eight lanes.

The Struan Technograzing system is 192ha, divided into six permanent areas with eight lanes, each of 4ha, making a total of 60 cells of 0.067ha.

This is the third year the system has been in place after initial setup costs of $350/ha from a bare-paddock start.

While this might seem like a big outlay, with gross margins of about $700/ha thanks to the high stocking rate and better pasture use, it can be viewed as much cheaper than buying more land at market prices of about $4000/ha.

Stocking rate for the pasture area has risen from 16 DSE/ha to 40 DSE/ha and John says some Technograzing producers have paid off set-up costs in their first year.

A dozen southern Australian graziers are using the system.

The stocking rate is about four bulls/ha with 16 bulls in each line, grazing unimproved phalaris/strawberry clover pasture.

"That's the nub of why we took up this system," John said. "Traditional systems use only 28 per cent of the available pasture in a 12-month cycle, particularly in the spring pasture peak. The new system is using what pasture is already growing. So we can ratio out what growth we have."

The stocking rate can be increased through the spring growth period.

Struan is running 850 bulls, but getting the required quantity at the right time can be difficult.

Friesian bulls from dairy herds are normally used because they are better growers than Jerseys.

A weak link in the chain might be the calf-rearers, which often struggle to make good returns. But so far John says they have obtained enough calves.

Bulls are usually bought in at 250 kilograms in May-June and sold at 500kg in late November.

He says the system is not restricted to bulls Ð any dry animal can be used Ð but entire animals have the ability to convert more dry matter into beef.

Struan is comparing steers with bulls, with four lines of each, and steers gain 0.8kg/animal/day while the bulls gain 1.38kg/day.

Although steer prices are generally better, bulls still come out on top, on recent prices.

At $2/kg for steers this equals returns of $934/ha, but bulls are ahead at $1.40/kg, making $967/ha.

Bulls are normally sold to T&R Pastoral, Murray Bridge, and some are taken by Midfield Meats, Warrnambool, Victoria.

"Any of the big exporters usually takes bulls, which often go to the United States," he said.

As any stockperson knows, running bulls together is often an interesting exercise, but groups of less than 25 work out a hierarchy.

"The top bull can hold his own against 24 of his mates, but no more," he said.

"We've had a few box up this year but the problems are pretty minimal with the electric fencing."

A major bonus of the system is its efficiency.

"For 800 bulls it takes one person about six hours a shift, and one labour unit for 2000 bulls is not bad," he said.

"So one labour unit for every 10,000 DSEs is not very labour-intensive and there is opportunity to double our carrying capacity."

Another advantage of the system is being able to know exactly how much feed will be available, making feed budgeting easier.

This also opens up producer options for entering contracts because they know exactly how many and when stock will be ready for market.

"It's also the ideal system for back-grounding stock for lotfeeding," he said.

While John hopes 1000kg of beef/ha will soon be achieved, this year the tough spring produced only 780kg/ha Ð but 900kg beef/ha has been produced in past years.

Pasture levels, height and kg/ha of dry matter are monitored regularly, all which affect the length of the mob's rotations.

The electric tape is moved using a four-wheel motorbike, and John says after about a week the operator gets the hang of it.

Micro troughs automatically fill when the cattle press their nose onto the base.