Happy ANZAC Biscuit Season!

Welcome to ANZAC Biscuit Season. Peak Summer was months ago. Bunya Season came and went. And now with nighttime temperatures dropping, we have entered into what I call ANZAC Biscuit Season.

To connect more with the land on which we live, I believe we need to be more in tune with what is happening outside, rather than looking at our calendar saying we are now in Autumn (or Winter or Spring or Summer). Therefore, when seasons start, and finish, they may change each year. I believe that identifying more seasons allows us to connect better with the land and make better decisions.

To understand why I call this season ANZAC Biscuit, we need to go back to the origins of the ANZACs and the ANZAC Biscuit. The acronym ANZAC was coined in 1915 when Australian and New Zealand Army Corps were training in Egypt. The word ANZAC was eventually applied to all Australian and New Zealand soldiers in World War 1. The term is particularly associated with the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. ANZAC Day was inaugurated on 25 April 1916 to commemorate the first anniversary of the landing of the ANZAC troops at Gallipoli.

The origin of the ANZAC Biscuit varies slightly depending on the source. The story that I’ll share here is the one that has been passed down through my family. During WW1, solider food rations were limited in variety due to no refrigeration, food shortages at home, distances food needed to be transported and the slow nature of shipping from Australia, not to mention the challenges of the conflict itself. A staple on the frontline was hardtack biscuits, a nutritional substitute for bread, but unlike bread they do not go mouldy. And also, unlike bread, they are very, very hard and bland. Therefore, there was a call in Australia to design a more palatable food that could be made from the limited resources available, baked here, travel vast distances, would keep and still be highly nutritious and enjoyable to eat. The solution was what we now know as the ANZAC biscuit, made of rolled oats and golden syrup. Vast numbers of these biscuits were made in home kitchens and CWA halls around the country and sent overseas via the post and Red Cross.

Knowing this history gives meaning to why I call this season ANZAC Biscuit. Let me explain the reasons in more detail:

·       Firstly, ANZAC Day falls within this season. It is a time to pause and reflect.

·       Second, here in South-East Queensland on tropical grasses, the temperature has dropped, and we will have no meaningful pasture growth until it warms up later in the year. Note that we may get some quality feed growing with rain, however we won’t get any significant volume of feed. The feed we have now, is the feed we have. Therefore, like the ANZAC biscuit is made of few ingredients and need to last, this is the time I do a feed budget and make decisions around how I will ration this feed out through to later in the year.

·       Thirdly, the golden colour of the biscuit reminds me that at some point going forward I will be getting some frosts, and the grasses will be turning from green and slow growing to golden paddocks.

·       Fourth and final, the coming frost will mean that supplementation may be necessary for my livestock, like the nutrition was needed for the soldiers.

This year we have had good rain through Jacaranda Storm, Peak Summer and Bunya Season. Grass is still growing though temperatures are dropping overnight and will soon slow the grass right back. Even though we have had a fantastic growing season, we have had a significant amount of pasture dieback which will be very important to take into consideration when I do our pasture budget in the next few weeks.

From a pasture management perspective in ANZAC Biscuit Season the things that I’ll be doing include:

·       Slowing down my rotation as the grass growth slows down, so that by the time the mob goes back into a paddock, it has had enough time to regrow.

·       Planning what paddocks we’ll graze sooner rather than later. We know that some of paddocks will frost every year. We will graze the paddocks that frost sooner and a bit harder now, and only lightly graze the paddocks that don’t frost. By doing this we are leaving the paddocks that don’t frost for later.

·       Pasture budget. Working out how much grass we have grown.

·       Projecting stockflows. Working out how many head I can run through to the end of the year based upon the amount of grass I have grown.

·       Planning and thinking about protein supplementation through this coming winter. I’ll be closely monitoring cattle manure which is a good indicator that protein is lacking once it starts showing signs of stacking up. From experience, with the amount of rain we’ve had and less grass bulk where the pasture dieback is, I suspect that we will get a good self-sown crop of medics and winter herbage which will negate the supplement requirement.

·       Considering taking the opportunity to spread additional cool season pasture seed in dieback patches. These areas are going to be growing herbage (weeds) anyway, so is this year a perfect time to plant some multispecies pastures and/or legumes where the competition from the grass has been removed by Nature via dieback? Here’s a link to a previous blog about weeds and what are they trying to tell us.

·       While not technically grazing management, we will be doing tax planning and starting to do cashflow budgets and economic analysis.

I’ve always noticed that there are no more hot days by my birthday in mid-April, which coincides with what I’ve been calling ANZAC Biscuit Season. It will be interesting to see in the future if my birthday stays in ANZAC or if Bunya Season drifts later into April.

I’ve described what ANZAC Biscuit is for me and how it relates to where I live. Some of you will be able to relate to most of what I’ve said. Others, however, living in different parts of the country, will have different observations for this ANZAC Biscuit Season. Therefore, your challenge is to observe what is happening around you and then work out how to use these observations to make meaningful decisions.

Whatever season you are having, take time to pause and reflect. I wish you all the best for this coming year.