Friday, March 29, 2024

Top crop

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A difficult growing season because of drought didn’t stop a North Canterbury farmer coming out on top. Lawrie O’Carroll’s greenfeed crops earned him several top placings recently in the 2015 Hawarden A&P Greenfeed Competition. The dryland hill-country farmer impressed the judges with his Coronet oats and mixed crop of Spitfire rape and Italian ryegrass. They awarded a first place for the oats and a first and second place for the mixed crops.
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Even though yields were down by 50% because of a late sowing date owing to drought the quality was good. 

Waitohi Downs is a 931ha sheep and beef farm running 1800 ewes, 600 hoggets and 40 beef cows as well as 75 horses that are used for the farm’s Alpine Safari horse trekking business.

The homestead sits at 365m above sea level with the tops of the farm reaching 670m. The growing season is short and stock need to be fed for at least 140 days of the year.

Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, part of the steep hill farm has a wide valley floor of 121ha that is used to grow about 51ha of greenfeed each year with 18ha resown in barley for balage.

Lawrie O’Carroll’s mixed crop of Spitfire rape and Italian ryegrass.

Courses for horses

Close to the Waitohi Downs homestead, on a mix of downs and flats, 11ha of Coronet oats are used to break-feed 50 of the farm’s trekking horses. A break 250-metres long by five-metres wide is shifted every day and when the horses have finished that in September barley is direct drilled for balage.

The horses are introduced gradually to the oats and are supplemented with meadow hay daily. Cropping farmer Lawrie O’Carroll says the oats are usually up about thigh-height but this year only reached knee-level at best. The oats were sown at 110kg/ha and also had Cropzeal applied. Once again, the dry weather prevented a normal sowing time.

No nitrogen was applied to any of the crops because there was no guarantee of rain to make it worthwhile. Fortunately a bit of nor-west moisture fell which helped growth along a bit. O’Carroll was luckier than most in the area who didn’t receive a drop.

Thanks to a good spring for the barley 650 bales of balage were cut this year which has proved invaluable with only half the usual amount of greenfeed available. While the dry conditions have been tough there has been one advantage to the season – an absence of insect damage. 

O’Carroll says there was no need to spray for aphids, which are usually a problem and no leaf had any holes.

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