Friday, March 29, 2024

Treat with kid gloves

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Treat fodder beet like a baby until canopy closure, Tapanui dairy farmer James Hartshorne says. “You need to monitor and walk it regularly to see what it needs.” Sharemilkers James and Helen Hartshorne have produced a second consecutive 24.5 tonne/ha crop of Brigadier fodder beet on 172 ha (effective) near Tapanui. Although only their second attempt, fodder beet’s been on the Hartshorne’s dairy feeding radar for five years. 
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The 2012 Otago Sharemilker of the Year winners have picked up valuable tips from former Canterbury employers Brendon and Gail Woods as well as Lincoln University’s Jim Gibbs who 

they got to know through a dairy industry project. Further afield in Shrewsbury, Shropshire – where James Hartshorne grew up – long-established mangel and sugar beet growers also had good advice.

“They said planning and preparation is everything. It has a long tap root so you need a fine soil bed much like a vegetable garden so it can grow down.”

Bed preparation for this year’s crop from grass started last year with a Roundup spray on October 10, then grazing by cows and aeration on October 15 with a James aerator. The 8.5ha was ploughed, power harrowed and 500kg/ha of a fodder beet fertiliser mix including Cropzeal Boron Boost, MOP, AgSalt, sulphate of ammonia and boron applied, plus a top-up of lime. Another power harrowing followed.

“We could have harrowed it again – if you want to grow a good crop you can’t cut corners,” Hartshorne said.

The beet was precision drilled at 5-6km/hour in late October in rows of 50cm spacings at 90,000 seeds/ha.

Hartshorne budgets on two to three pre-emergent sprays.

“We had a problem with springtails this year so did three.”

The timing of sprays is crucial and comes back to walking the crop to assess the need and keeping the spraying contractor in the loop.

“I let them know at what stage the crop’s at so they get an idea of when they might be needed.”

In early December, just prior to canopy closure 250kg/ha of SustaiN 15k was applied by helicopter. A 200kg/ha dressing of SustaiN 25K followed at the end of January and a 100kg/ha dressing of urea on March 25.

James Hartshorne, left, with employee Ashley Madden.

“It’s a consistent metabolisable energy of 12 and we’ll be able to lift it and put it in front of the cows at 15-20c/kg DM which is half the price of buying in silage.”

The crop will be lifted with a four- to six-row harvester and stored either in the silage pit or wind-rowed alongside trees.

Lifting the crop will also free-up land for spring-sown grass.

Although not widely grown in West Otago, Hartshorne believes the beet has huge potential.

“I can see we could potentially grow 30t of bulb on the milking platform.”

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