The grass is always greener – especially after pasture renovation. You could say the money is in the green. Farmers in our pasture renewal special feature report the grass being greener and growing lots more of it. Once they start measuring the grass growth across their farms paddock by paddock, they can see how the growth rates are widely varying and understand the need and benefits from undertaking pasture renewal. Our Expert Eye column lays it out in black and white and sums it up to me: there is an ‘enormous’ amount of profit to be made from growing and eating more pasture; the amount of renewal each farm should do depends on the state of current pastures’ performance or underperformance; and smart renewal is through measuring individual paddocks – allowing you to decide the paddocks most requiring renewal and then tracking how successful the method was in order to make future decisions. Get your hands on the full story in the February Dairy Exporter and start planning your renewal now. Secrets to farm careers Anne Lee reports on the Canterbury Farm Capability Society and the work they are doing placing staff on dairy farms and making sure they are supported with pastoral care and individual training programmes. The farmer members want to be seen as employers of choice – making it easy to attract and retain staff. Green, green grass of Camden The pasture renewal on Canterbury’s Camden group of four farms was conducted like a military operation and is delivering real benefits. Grow-you-own riparian plants Lisa and Paul Charmley have thrown themselves into improving their farm environment and Lisa has set up a propagation area in their back garden into to grow their own ri