Cropping programme paves way for new pastures

01-05-2010 | Not Specified

Waerenga has an extensive cropping programme, with 20 to 30ha of pasture sprayed out late in November and sown into Sovereign kale and Dominion swedes.

At a Meat & Wool NZ field day on the King Country farm, William Oliver said the original aim of the forage cropping programme was to shift surplus summer feed into winter and to be "a great development tool" for the new grasses which were sown in spring once the crop had been fed.

Nowadays, swede and kale crops are followed by a variety of summer crops for lamb and deer finishing.

"This has meant more opportunity to control broadleaf and grass weeds, and avoids the spring weed issues and unreliable weather which has been a feature of recent seasons."

The current cropping rotation has two variations. Some of the earlier grazed kale and swede crops are followed by Doubletake triticale for spring grazing before going into chicory and then new grass.

"We like to have the triticale sown by July 1," William said.

"It's lucky that soil temperatures in this district are usually favourable at this time, whereas in other areas it might be too cold."

He said getting the crop in earlier meant a bigger yield come September and was a good way of using ground that would otherwise be unused.

Later-sown swede/kale crops will be followed by just one crop of rape or chicory. Deer are breakfed on these crops in blocks of 2ha and the ewes are wintered on swedes behind portable sheep fencing on daily shifts. This helps to maximise use of the crop.

William said winter feed crops were budgeted at 14 tonnes drymatter/ha, at a direct cost of around 5cents/kgDM.

Some hay is made on the farm, with around 60 bales of baleage and 200 bales of hay (10 bale equivalents) made this season, but William believes the cost of making and feeding more hay would be too expensive to justify.

Crops are closely monitored. "They are a big investment, so I'm not afraid to call consultants in if something is not right."

This year has not been a particularly good one for the crops, with dry conditions, early frosts, pest challenges and weed infestations taking their toll on yields. The farm has had little rain since February and as a result crops were under moisture stress.

Rape crops were also infected by clubroot - a soil or waterborne disease that has decimated the crop population. "Although the crop started well, we decided not to take it into winter and it was grazed off and sown back into permanent pasture (Samson AR37)."

As a result of the infection, the affected paddocks cannot be cropped with brassicas for five years and this has prompted a move away from rape.

William said Choice chicory had been sown for the first time this season and this crop, sown in combination with Sensation red clover and Tribute white clover, provided excellent finishing feed for lambs. Chicory/clover crops are rotationally grazed and the aim is to keep them for at least 18 months "and hopefully up to 30 months" before regrassing.

"Chicory is a new crop for us, so we are still learning as we go."

New pastures had been performing well and now made up the best parts of the farm, William said.

"AR1 endophyte pasture has been sown previously but with the increase in black beetle populations recently, we have moved to AR37 endophyte ryegrasses to mitigate this risk."

He estimated the farm was now growing an average of 12.5 tonnes of pasture drymatter/ha annually.

"The cropping and regrassing programme is an important part of the farm's development. We strive to grow good crops efficiently and are prepared to spend money on inputs to ensure the success of the programme."

When the Olivers first began the cropping programme they targeted some of the poorer pastures and left what was considered to be the best land uncropped. A measure of the success of the cropping programme is that these uncropped areas of "best" land are now well behind the cropped areas in terms of performance.

William said the crop-pasture research and extension work done by Meat & Wool NZ had been a critical part of his programme.

"That work is certainly paying dividends for me."

The field day was held after the Meat & Wool NZ (now Beef & Lamb NZ) AGM in Te Kuiti on March 24 and was designed to showcase some of the research MWNZ has been involved with.

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