Throw away your beef hat and put on your grass hat, you’re a grass farmer more than a beef farmer.
The advice was from veterinarian, consultant and beef farmer, Rod Manning, who visited East Gippsland recently, running a low-stress stockhandling workshop at Marlo and speaking in Buchan. 
Decision making strategies for productive farms was the topic of discussion at the Buchan meeting, where Mr Manning told farmers “Growing more feed and utilising it better is the key to beef farming”.
“All we’re doing is converting one form of energy to another,” he told the group of 25 farmers at Buchan.
“Pasture to kilos of beef - pasture production is what drives profit.”
He said over in his area, around the Mansfield district, people ran 8-11 dry sheep equivalent to the hectare, whereas his better clients ran 18-23dse/ha.
“There are huge gains to be made in the kilograms of beef that goes off farm and really in being in control of expenditure,” he said.

IMAGE: Veterinarian, consultant and beef farmer, Rod Manning (inset) says it is time for beef farmers to put their grass hat on. Manning spoke at workshops in Marlo and Buchan recently where he discussed growing more feed an utilising it better on beef farms.