Rhea Dasent has been helping her father on their 190ha Hastings beef bull farm during the drought.
The land has been in the family since 1907, originally as sheep, and transitioning to beef 20 years ago.
In mid autumn the farm had had only 26% of the rainfall expect on average by that time of year.
“The paddocks were spent and we had grazed everything – around the woolshed, along the roadsides, up the driveway … suddenly it was mid autumn and there was still no rain.
“We had destocked in December last year, used all our hay and were about to open the emergency silage pit. We needed new ideas.”
She rang the free feed planning service and Mark Harris picked up the call.
“Mark is dad’s generation and that was handy as they were able to have a yarn about the droughts in the 80s compared to this one. Last time the works were on strike while this time covid has complicated offloading stock – there’s always something. The positive is that there are different tools to help this time.”
Mark passed the family to consultant Lochie MacGillivray, who also co-chairs the Rural Advisory Group, and they went through some models.
The grass growth model showed in a graph the energy requirements of their animals against what the feed would provide.
Dasent says it was unmistakable.
“There was a big gap between the two lines and we could see clearly the feed deficit going into winter.
“It confirmed what we’d already suspected. Seeing it in black and white gave us the information to put a plan in place straight away.”
It took only a couple of days for the team to decide the plan to buy in extra feed and offload even more stock but it was harder to actually do it.
“No one was buying in stock and some of our stock were still too light to send to the works so that took about a week of still using up precious feed. And we all know how low feed availability is at the moment.”
Dasent says having the consultant helped them learn about using other feed options.
“We got in palm kernel as one of the few available feeds – I’d never even seen it in my life. Lochie helped us learn how to use it as a feed supplement with the best outcomes.”
MacGillivray says adjusting the way the farm uses paddock rotation is one of the techniques that will get it through.
“At the moment we are going through a lot of supplement as we are letting the pasture covers build.
“In some mobs 90% of the diet is coming from supplement and we will continue to feed this level of supplements for a further two to three weeks” he said.
“We are focused on the approach that grass grows grass. By slowing the stock rotation down as much as possible we can let the pasture sward recover. Those who set stock will be compromising the ability of the pasture sward to build.”
MacGillivray acknowledges some hill-country farms can’t have the same level of control as the Dasents because supplementing feed on hill country is not always practical.
In these situations other options need to be considered, which could include further destocking sooner rather than later. That is why it’s so important to do individual feed budgets for each farm.
While MacGillivray is confident the Dasents’ strategy is in place it’s still a challenge day by day for the father and daughter team who are accustomed to being all-grass farmers.
“We are in winter and have only really had one decent rain. Grass growth is still abysmal,” Dasent says.
“It’s really tough for the older farmers to see so much of what they have worked for just dry up and their options run out.
“Pick up the phone and see what help you can get to get through.”
MORE: For free feed planning support call 0800 BEEFLAMB (0800 23 33 52) or 0800 4 DairyNZ (0800 43 24 79 69)
