Pastures To Prosperity- Ross Newman

27/10/2026

🌱 SOUTH OF THE BORDER… ARE THEY AHEAD OF US WHEN IT COMES TO UNDERSTANDING PASTURE PRODUCTION? 🤔🐂

Recently, a follower from southwestern NSW reached out looking for some guidance based on my experience with pasture production systems.

As I normally do, rather than relying solely on observations and experiences from a previous life, I went digging through the research to put some science and data behind my thoughts.

And I must say, I was genuinely impressed!

The information available through NSW pasture research, particularly the pasture growth curves across different growing regions and pasture systems, is remarkable.

Not just for temperate winter-growing pastures either, but also for subtropical and tropical pasture species that we Queenslanders tend to consider our own backyard!

It got me thinking… 🤔

Why is this level of information readily accessible south of the border, yet comparable information for many of our Queensland pasture systems seems so difficult to find?

Is it a difference in research funding and priorities?

Is it a difference in how research findings are published and made accessible?

Or is it that producers south of the border have historically placed greater demand on this information to support their management decisions?

Because when you think about it, understanding the seasonal growth potential of different pasture systems is fundamental to making informed decisions around stocking rates, feed budgeting, pasture establishment, grazing management and ultimately profitability.

We spend plenty of time discussing how to grow more grass, but how well do we actually understand when our pastures have the potential to grow it?

And that brings me to the question I’m even more curious about…

👉 If Queensland producers had access to reliable, regionally relevant pasture growth curves for our different pasture systems, would we actually use them to make better management decisions?

Or would it become another valuable piece of research that gathers dust while we continue managing by what we’ve always done?

I’m not suggesting the research hasn’t been done in Queensland. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of finding it, bringing it together and making it more accessible.

I’m genuinely interested in hearing from producers, researchers and industry advisors on this one.

Is the missing ingredient the research, the accessibility of the information, or the demand from producers themselves?

🌱 Pastures To Prosperity — Looking beyond the grass to find the opportunities.

23/10/2026

🌱🐂🌾 CROPPING vs GRAZING – IS IT REALLY ABOUT THE RETURNS, OR IS IT ABOUT THE MINDSET? 🤔

Over the past six months, I’ve had numerous conversations with mixed-enterprise producers and advisors about the perceived financial returns from cropping compared to livestock production.

Some interesting debates, and even more interesting reflections!

But one question keeps coming back to me.

Are we actually comparing the profitability of two production systems, or are we comparing two very different approaches to managing them?

🌾 Let’s look at cropping.

A grower might spend $150–$250/ha preparing a seedbed to establish a crop using seed worth anywhere from $0.30 to $2.00/kg.

Throughout the growing season, they’re assessing crop growth stages, monitoring seasonal conditions, identifying constraints and making management decisions to protect yield potential.

As harvest approaches, yield potential is assessed. Once the header enters the paddock, losses are measured both in front of and behind the machine to maximise recovery.

Measure, monitor, adjust and maximise the return.

🐂 Now let’s look at grazing.

We might spend very little preparing a seedbed before broadcasting pasture seed worth $30/kg, then hope the season does the rest.

During the growing season?

“She’s getting a bit rank, the seed’s flying over the bullbar and the radiator’s clogging up. Better put some cattle in there!”

How much pasture grew? How much was utilised? What was the quality? How much production potential was lost?

Who knows? But there’s plenty of grass!

Then comes our version of harvest.

“The cattle look alright, their manure isn’t too firm, so they must be doing okay.”

Or perhaps we run them through the yards for a weighing, only to have a 40–50 kg variation in liveweight because curfew conditions weren’t consistent between weighings.

And then we try to calculate production and profitability from those figures!

Yet we wonder why the returns might be different.

Now, before anyone gets too excited, I fully appreciate that grazing country is often of lower inherent productive capacity than cropping country. Different soils, rainfall, capital requirements, production risks and operating costs all influence the economics.

But I do wonder…

What would happen if we applied the same level of planning, measurement, monitoring and corrective management to our pasture and livestock systems as we routinely apply to cropping?

Would we identify more opportunities?

Would we improve pasture utilisation, animal performance and kilograms of beef produced per hectare?

Would we make better investment decisions?

And most importantly, would the return on capital employed tell a different story?

Or, when we genuinely account for all expenses, labour, capital, risk and opportunity costs, does cropping simply deliver a superior percentage return?

I’m not suggesting one enterprise is better than the other. I’m questioning whether we’re always giving both systems the same management attention before drawing that conclusion.

Because there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the years:

It’s pretty difficult to improve something when you don’t know what you’re currently producing, what you’re losing, or what you’re potentially capable of achieving.

☕ With what might be a wet Saturday morning ahead, I’m genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts, particularly from those running both cropping and livestock enterprises.

Is the difference in returns driven by the enterprise, the country, or the mindset of the person managing it?

And perhaps the bigger question: How much production and profit are we leaving in the paddock simply because we’re not measuring it?

22/10/2026

I am grateful for the invitation from the team at NQ Dry Tropics to present this workshop. Rainfall and Sunlight are two of our most valuable resources and our management of both to turn them into leaf and subsequently beef, not only has a positive response to production but also to the soils that sustain them. I am looking forward to a day of open discussion, plenty of questions and potentially a different perspective of looking our systems.

The Rainfall to Beef workshop at Severnvale on November 12 with agronomist Ross Newman promises to look at management decisions that affect the process of converting rain to animal performance.

Managing green leaf, ground cover and soil function all feed into that topic.

Ross described it simply as a linear progression from rainfall to soil moisture to green leaf to beef... seems absolutely obvious when it's written like that but in regions like the Beylando-Suttor catchments, rainfall can be highly variable.

Long dry periods put pressure on pasture, livestock and, of course, graziers so it follows that focusing on making the most of whatever rain does fall should be a priority.

"We can't control when or how much it rains," Ross said.

"But we can have a significant influence over what happens to the rain once it hits the ground."

He said graziers could influence how much of the rain infiltrated and remained in the soil profile, how effectively plants converted the moisture into green leaf and ultimately how efficiently the feed was converted into livestock production.

The event from 8:30am-1pm will be catered so bookings are essential. Contact Callum Olver (0467 203 082) or [email protected] to reserve your place.

The Burdekin Productive Pastures project is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Natural Heritage Trust under the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program.

21/10/2026

19/10/2026

🌱🐂 BRIGALOW COUNTRY HAS PLENTY OF PHOSPHORUS… BUT ARE OUR CATTLE GETTING ENOUGH? 🤔

For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard producers tell me:

💬 “Brigalow country has plenty of phosphorus.”

💬 “We don’t need to supplement our cattle.”

💬 “Phosphorus supplements are too expensive.”

💬 “She’ll be right!”

Well, here’s something worth thinking about…

Over the past few months, my eyes have nearly gone square reviewing soil test results from grazing properties across Queensland.

And one thing keeps jumping off the page.

Extremely low levels of plant-available phosphorus, often associated with other soil nutrient imbalances.

Now, here’s where I think we need to challenge some long-held assumptions.

Just because phosphorus is present in the soil doesn’t necessarily mean it’s available to the pasture. And just because we’re growing plenty of grass doesn’t mean that grass is supplying enough phosphorus to meet our livestock’s requirements.

There are actually three different things we need to consider:

🌱 1. Phosphorus in the soil

Brigalow soils can contain considerable reserves of phosphorus, but not all of it is readily available for plant uptake. Soil chemistry, phosphorus fixation, pH and other nutrient interactions can influence how much phosphorus is available to the pasture.

🌾 2. Phosphorus in the pasture

The phosphorus concentration in grasses such as Buffel can vary with soil fertility, seasonal conditions, plant maturity and growth stage.

A pasture can produce a substantial amount of dry matter and still be relatively low in phosphorus.

However, low soil-test phosphorus doesn’t automatically mean the pasture is phosphorus deficient. We need to understand what the plant is actually taking up.

🐂 3. Phosphorus requirements of our livestock

This is where things get particularly interesting.

Our cattle don’t eat soil test results. They eat pasture!

And the amount of phosphorus they require depends on their class of livestock, growth rate, reproductive status and overall diet.

A dry cow, a lactating breeder and a growing steer can have very different phosphorus requirements.

So the real question isn’t simply how much phosphorus is in our Brigalow soils. It’s whether the pasture our cattle are consuming is supplying enough phosphorus to meet their production requirements.

And if it isn’t, what are we doing about it?

We have decades of research across northern Australia demonstrating the benefits of phosphorus supplementation where livestock diets are deficient.

Yet how often does the conversation focus on the cost of supplementation rather than the potential cost of NOT supplementing?

And let’s not forget, this isn’t just about breeder fertility!

What about our growing cattle?

Research has demonstrated additional annual liveweight gains of around 30–40 kg per head in young cattle grazing phosphorus-deficient country when appropriately supplemented.

But let’s put some practical numbers around it.

💰 Say you’re running 300 growing cattle through the wet season.

For this example, let’s assume:

🐂 Phosphorus supplement costs $1,600 per tonne delivered.

🐂 Each animal consumes an average of 60 grams per day over a 150-day feeding period.

🐂 That’s 9 kg of supplement per head, costing $14.40 per animal.

Allow another $4.20 per head for distribution, labour and other feeding costs.

Total supplementation cost: $18.60 per head.

At a liveweight cattle price of $4/kg, those animals only need to gain an additional 4.65 kg each to cover the supplementation cost on a simple liveweight-value basis.

Now imagine the response was an additional 15 kg per head.

That’s:

✅ $60 additional gross liveweight value per head.

✅ $18.60 supplementation cost per head.

✅ $41.40 per head potential margin above supplementation costs.

Across 300 head, that’s $12,420 in additional potential value before other costs and adjustments.

And that’s using a 15 kg response, not the larger annual responses demonstrated in some phosphorus-deficient grazing systems.

Of course, these are illustrative figures, not a guaranteed return. Actual intake, animal responses and sale prices will vary, and additional liveweight doesn’t always translate directly into extra sale revenue.

And here’s an important point: I’m not suggesting every producer should automatically start feeding phosphorus because their soil tests show low available phosphorus.

Soil testing helps us understand the nutrient limitations of our pasture system.

Pasture testing and an assessment of the livestock’s diet help us understand what phosphorus our animals are actually consuming.

And animal performance, livestock class and appropriate diagnostic testing help determine whether supplementation is warranted.

Soil phosphorus management and livestock phosphorus supplementation are two different management decisions, but they’re connected through the pasture our cattle eat.

With the 2026–27 wet season approaching, and producers looking towards potential market opportunities in 2027, shouldn’t we be positioning our livestock to convert the pasture we grow into kilograms of saleable beef as efficiently as possible?

Because the real opportunity isn’t simply feeding more supplement.

It’s understanding what our country is supplying, identifying what our livestock are missing, and investing where there’s a measurable return.

Perhaps it’s time we challenged the assumption that just because Brigalow country contains phosphorus, our livestock are necessarily getting enough of it.

And perhaps the most expensive phosphorus supplement is the one we decided we couldn’t afford to feed, when our cattle actually needed it!

👉 So who’s assessing their wet-season phosphorus requirements for BOTH breeders and growing cattle this year?

And more importantly, who’s measuring whether their supplementation program is actually paying?

18/10/2026

🌱 IS YOUR PASTURE TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING? 🍄

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a long-standing client at a property I hadn’t previously explored, with the objective of identifying opportunities to rebuild their grazing system.

The property certainly has a story to tell!

Run-down perennial pastures, scalded areas, plenty of bare soil between surviving grass tussocks, and a decent dose of pasture dieback thrown in for good measure.

Add 12 months of extreme drought, and it’s fair to say this grazing system has been doing it tough!

But rather than immediately asking what should we plant, spray or fertilise?, I prefer to start with a different question.

What’s actually limiting this grazing system’s potential?

Soil chemistry and biological samples were collected to help piece together the puzzle.

And because I’m a bit of a fun-guy (fungi 🍄) when it comes to what’s happening beneath our feet, I couldn’t resist some Sunday morning Biometer testing!

The early observations were interesting, but not entirely unexpected.

🔬 Low fungal-to-bacterial ratios in paddocks with poor ground cover and significant bare soil.

Is this contributing to the pasture decline, a consequence of it, or a combination of both?

The real intrigue will come when the soil biological culture and chemistry results arrive, allowing us to better understand what’s happening and develop a balanced approach to rebuilding the system.

Importantly, we’ll also be looking at what the existing pastures and even the so-called “weeds” are telling us about the conditions.

Because rebuilding a grazing system isn’t simply about introducing new pasture genetics.

It’s about understanding what’s holding the system back, addressing the underlying limitations and creating the conditions for those pastures to thrive.

After the drought these producers have endured, the opportunity now is to make informed decisions that improve productivity, profitability and long-term resilience.

💬 Here’s a question to kick off your Monday:

When you see bare soil, declining perennial grasses and increasing weeds, are you looking at three separate problems to fix, or three symptoms of a system that’s trying to tell you something?

17/10/2026

🎉🐂 HOLY COW! 4,000 FOLLOWERS! 🐂🎉

That’s a bloody big mob in the paddock! 😂🌱

A genuine, heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has followed, liked, commented, shared or joined the conversations here at Pastures To Prosperity.

What started as a way to share my knowledge, experiences and observations has grown into a fantastic community of people willing to question, challenge, share ideas and learn from one another.

To those who’ve been here from the beginning, thank you! And to all our new followers, a very warm welcome! I genuinely appreciate your support.

🌏 Now, I’m curious — where in the world are you following from?

👇 Drop your town, region, state or country in the comments. I’d love to see just how far this little paddock conversation has travelled!

Here’s to better pastures, good conversations and plenty more learning together! 🌱🐂

15/10/2026

HOW MUCH MORE EVIDENCE DO WE NEED BEFORE WE ACT? 🤔🌱🐂

This past week, I’ve had the opportunity to review and see firsthand some of the exciting research being undertaken through the Queensland Pasture Resilience Project, a statewide initiative involving MLA and DPI.

One of the discussions that caught my attention was around barriers to adoption and the ongoing need to demonstrate the economic benefits of investing in pasture improvement.

Ironically, this afternoon I sat down with a company that has spent the past seven years doing exactly that!

Not just small research plots.

Not a handful of cattle in a controlled trial.

But real producers, real paddocks, real grazing operations and independently assessed financial performance.

And some of the figures certainly caught my attention! 👇

📈 111% more beef produced per hectare — 116.7 kg versus 55.4 kg/ha/year.

🐂 26% higher average daily liveweight gain — 0.77 kg versus 0.61 kg/head/day.

🌱 Pasture utilisation increased from 21% to 36% of feed grown.

🌾 14% more dry matter produced.

💰 Approximately 57% annual return on a $350/ha investment, with a reported payback period of around 1.7 years.

And that’s before we start discussing the reported improvements in soil carbon and emissions performance.

Now, naturally, we need to understand the conditions, management practices, assumptions and limitations behind any results before applying them to another grazing business.

But here’s what I’m curious about.

We regularly hear that producers need more research, more evidence, more economic justification and greater certainty before investing in pasture improvement.

Fair enough. Investing money in a grazing business shouldn’t be a guessing game.

But what happens when the research has been done, the production gains have been measured, and the economics have been independently assessed?

At what point does the barrier to adoption stop being a lack of information and start becoming something else?

Is it access to capital? Risk? Confidence? Management capability? Or simply that we’ve become comfortable accepting the productivity of the paddocks we’ve already got?

We talk regularly about improving genetics, lifting reproductive performance and increasing kilograms of beef produced.

But are we prepared to invest in the pasture systems needed to deliver that potential?

So here’s my question to producers, researchers and industry alike:

👉 If you had seven years of real-world production data and independently assessed economics demonstrating the potential returns from pasture improvement, what additional information would YOU need before making the decision to invest?

I’m genuinely interested in the answers, because perhaps understanding what is stopping adoption is now just as important as doing the research itself.

Pastures To Prosperity — challenging the thinking behind profitable, productive and resilient grazing systems.

13/10/2026

🌱 AT WHAT POINT DOES A GRAZING SYSTEM STOP BEING A GRAZING SYSTEM? 🤔🐂

Over the past three months, I’ve travelled more kilometres than I’d care to admit. And with diesel prices getting dangerously close to bottled water prices, there’s been plenty of time behind the wheel to observe and think! 🚙💸

One observation keeps jumping out at me.

The alarming lack of grass and ground cover in some of our legume-based grazing systems.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge advocate for legumes and the role they play in improving pasture productivity, soil fertility and livestock performance.

But here’s the question I’ve been pondering…

At what point does a productive grazing system become little more than a legume paddock with bare soil between the plants?

And more importantly, at what point do we decide that’s no longer acceptable?

I regularly hear the same explanations:

💰 “Renovation is too expensive.”

🌧️ “We’re waiting for a decent season.”

🐂 “The cattle are still doing alright.”

🌱 “That’s just what happens in these systems.”

But at what point do explanations become excuses, and excuses become accepted management practices?

Because bare soil isn’t just an aesthetic problem.

It’s lost opportunities to capture rainfall, retain soil moisture, grow additional feed, cycle nutrients and maintain a functioning soil ecosystem.

And perhaps the greatest cost isn’t what it would take to renovate the paddock. It’s what that paddock is failing to produce year after year.

I’m not suggesting every paddock needs a complete renovation. Sometimes the greatest return comes from changing how we manage what’s already there.

But surely, doing nothing isn’t a long-term strategy either?

So, here’s what I’d genuinely like to understand from producers:

👉 How bad does a paddock have to get before you decide something needs to change?

👉 What information, evidence or financial return would you need to see before investing in improving it?

👉 Are we genuinely constrained by the cost of improvement, or have we simply become comfortable accepting the cost of doing nothing?

I’m interested in hearing from those who have invested in improving their systems, those considering it, and particularly those who have decided against it.

Because maybe the biggest challenge facing some of our grazing systems isn’t the soil, the season or the species we’re growing.

Maybe it’s the benchmark we’ve come to accept.

🌱 Pastures To Prosperity — challenging the thinking behind more productive, profitable and resilient grazing systems.

09/10/2026

☕ A SATURDAY MORNING COFFEE QUESTION… ARE WE BUYING MORE COUNTRY OR MAKING MORE FROM WHAT WE ALREADY OWN? 🐂🌱

As you sit down with your Saturday morning coffee, here’s something to ponder.

I was having a conversation with a producer this week who asked me an interesting question.

“Where do you reckon the best value for money is in buying more country at the moment?”

Now, that’s a good question. But it got me thinking about another one.

“What sort of return are we getting from the country we already own?”

With today’s land valuations, expanding a grazing business can involve some serious capital.

And unless there’s plenty of cash sitting around, that generally means borrowing money.

More land. More capital employed. More interest to service.

And potentially more pressure on the existing business to generate the cash flow to pay for it.

But here’s where the conversation gets interesting. 🤔

What if the productivity of the country we already own is declining?

Are we potentially borrowing money to purchase more hectares that are experiencing the same productivity challenges?

Meanwhile, how much consideration are we giving to reinvesting in the productive capacity of our existing land assets?

🌱 Improving pasture composition and productivity.

🌱 Increasing carrying capacity sustainably.

🌱 Producing more kilograms of beef per hectare.

🌱 Improving the return on capital already employed in the business.

So here’s my Saturday morning coffee challenge. ☕

Imagine you had access to capital equivalent to 10% of the current market value of your land assets.

Would you:

🐂 A — BUY MORE COUNTRY?
Expand your landholding, potentially increase your borrowing and generate additional production from more hectares.

🌱 B — INVEST IN WHAT YOU ALREADY OWN?
Improve the productivity of your existing country and potentially produce more kilograms of beef without purchasing another hectare.

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting one is always better than the other.

But perhaps we should be asking a different question when considering the future growth of our grazing businesses.

Are we chasing more hectares, or are we chasing a better return on the capital we’ve already got invested?

And here’s one final thought…

Why are we sometimes comfortable borrowing significant amounts to buy more country, yet hesitant to reinvest a fraction of our existing land asset value into improving its productivity?

☕ Something to think about as you enjoy that second cup of coffee!

What would you do with that 10%? And what numbers would drive your decision?