Owl Farm is a dairy partnership between St Peter’s School in Cambridge and Lincoln University. Last year demonstration farm manager Doug Dibley set up a trial with PGG Wrightson Seeds and Ballance Agri-Nutrients to look at the cost analysis of growing chicory.
“We’re just like any other commercial business, we need to be confident that ongoing investment in chicory will, like any farm expenditure, lend value to the Owl Farm business,” Dibley said.
He asked PGG Wrightson Seeds technical specialists Emma Bell and Charlotte Westwood to analyse costs to establish the chicory, assess probable drymatter (DM) yield from the chicory areas, and bring recommendations to the Owl Farm management committee about the ongoing use of chicory for spring 2016.
Last spring every paddock on the farm was condition-scored and seven poor-performing paddocks were ear-marked for chicory and soil tested.
Puna II and Choice chicory were direct-drilled into ground mid-October at 8kg/ha, once soil temperatures reached 12C and rising.
Despite the timely establishment of the chicory, early challenges included split strike of seed, with some seed striking early and others later. Split germination creates challenges for the timing of the herbicide application, meaning weed control can be difficult. If left too late, weeds become too advanced to be controlled, while too early can mean some smaller plants can be compromised.
By mid-December, the cows were grazing high-quality chicory paddocks as part of their daily feed allocation.
“Limited regrassing here over the years means our summer pasture quality isn’t that great,” Owl Farm manager Tom Buckley said.
“We found high-energy, high-protein chicory helpful for balancing out our poorer quality, often weed-infested pastures.”
Chicory paddocks were grazed four to five times between December and March, with cows averaging 2.2kg DM harvested/cow/grazing.
“We’d be the first to admit these chicory drymatter yields didn’t, on face value, look that great,” Dibley said.
As for any cropping, it’s reasonably straightforward to calculate costs to grow chicory, Bell said.
“Ironically 2015 chicory costs came in below budget for a range of reasons. Chemical and nitrogen fertiliser application costs were a saving as the Owl Farm team did these themselves.”
All up, the 12ha of chicory averaged costs of $666/ha, which is much cheaper than usual because no DAP was drilled with seed, something that will definitely happen next time around.
Chicory drymatter yields were calculated in two different ways. The number of grazing days for each paddock were calculated by determining the amount of chicory/cow/day eaten (energy requirements of cows less amount of pasture consumed).
The Waikato demonstration farm is using chicory to manage black beetle.
