Friday, March 29, 2024

Productivity lift on hard hills

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A trial using forages to lift the productivity of uncultivable hill country generated enough extra income to cover establishment costs in one year.
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This was the finding of a Beef + Lamb New Zealand demonstration farm programme on Whangara Farms, a 8500ha, 80,000-stock unit enterprise near Gisborne, where the focus was on increasing the productivity of hill country by establishing plantain and clover.

Whangara general manager Richard Scholfield says the trial evolved over five years to include a number of components, including stocking rates, weaned lamb performance, triplet-bearing ewe management, persistence of plantain and the performance of hoggets on the forage.

Because Whangara Farms, which is a partnership between three Maori incorporations, is also part of Farm IQ, all sheep are individually electronically identified which ensures the accuracy of the data collected.

The hill-country development programme began in 2012 at a cost of $521/ha, including chemicals, seed and helicopter time.

In that first year, the stocking rate doubled from 5.5/ha on old pasture to 11/ha on the developed area.

The kilograms of liveweight produced lifted from 235kg LW/ha on the old pasture to 442kg LW/ha on the plantain and legumes. This is an extra 207kg of LW/ha, which at a value of $2.50/kg is worth $517/ha.

Based on the success of this initial trial, Scholfield extended the area in plantain and legumes and aims to double the developed area from 200ha to 400ha in the next three years.

Having seen the value of the development programme, he urges other hill country farmers to consider doing the same.

“Even a small area of improved forages can have a significant impact on the whole farm system.”

The plantain clover mix generated some fantastic summer growth rates over February and March of 128kg DM/ha/ day compared to grass which grew at just 26kg DM/ha/day, he says.

The forage mix can also handle hard-grazing which allows it to carry a high stocking rate throughout the year.

“It’s idiot proof. Even under hard grazing it just bounces back.”

The management team learnt a number of lessons over the four-year programme, including the value of putting the area earmarked for development through a summer crop such as Pasja.

General manager Richard Scholfield says even a small area of improved forages can impact on the whole farm system.

Using forages to lift hogget performance was part of Whangara’s demonstration farm programme. The farm has a designated hogget block of 700ha which carries 9000 hoggets.

Scholfield admits managing ewe hoggets to reach their target two-tooth mating weight of 60kg by March has always been a struggle.

All ewe lambs weighing more than 40kg by mid-April are mated so the management team recognises the need to improve pasture quality over summer and autumn to allow these sheep to recover body condition post-weaning and reach their two-tooth mating weight.

They established plantain and clover on 40ha of cultivable country then sought to determine the best management strategies to maximise production in their hoggets.

‘Plantain seems to be a great partner crop for the clover. It really helps get clover established and stock do well on it.’

Scholfield says the hoggets performed extremely well on the forage mix, producing 584-815kg lambs LW/ha compared to 392-459kg LW/ha off standard grass pastures.

The hoggets were set-stocked at 20/ha going into lambing and to determine the optimal pre-weaning grazing management, a grazing trial saw a proportion of the flock being rotationally grazed between tailing and weaning while the remainder were set stocked throughout.

The lambs from the set-stocked mob were 20% heavier than those on the rotational grazing treatment.

Both single and twin-bearing hoggets achieved satisfactory weaning weights of 58-60kg and had no problem reaching their target two-tooth mating weights.

Scholfield says the plantain and clover mix was a great success in their ewe hogget system and the forage withstood high grazing pressure from both the set stocked and rotationally grazed ewes and lambs.

Management-wise, he says it is important to spray out grass weeds annually and he found topping to be a good tool for weed control and to allow clover to flourish.

While he would only expect the forage to last four years, the development costs were recovered in the first year, so it is a cost-effective system.

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