Winter crop bonuses

01-09-2010 | Not Specified

Tony and Catherine Turnbull created a money-making opportunity with Omaka barley and Interval rape this year.

Farmers at the Marlborough Beef + Lamb New Zealand Monitor Farm day were given a full run-down of how the Turnbulls use winter crops to make more money.

Tony Turnbull said that if he didn't have winter crops he wouldn't have been able to graze 70 bulls and 50 yearling steers and heifers over winter.

From the 33ha he expects to make $400/bull and $264/rising two-year-old.

Omaka Barley saved the day early on, providing grazing for newly weaned calves from April 26. It kept them going until it rained.

"Otherwise we would have had to sell them," Tony says.

There was no feed elsewhere on the farm but Tony says the barley was up to the top of his gumboots.

Jedburgh is northeast of Seddon and only a stone's throw from the coast. With annual rainfall a paltry 450mm each year, winter is a key time for production.

Soil temperatures are higher than inland so pasture growth gets a head-start in spring. The Turnbulls then capitalise on stock wintered.

This year crop establishment was a struggle, with only 36ml of rain between January and May.

While the Interval rape was not as good as last year (where it went above the wire), it still yielded around eight tonnes a hectare.

"I'm quite pleased with it."

It wintered the cattle and carried 300 twinning ewes for 40 days.

Tony says that he sticks with this older rape-kale cross cultivar because it is more tolerant of dry conditions during establishment. Interval was cheaper to establish than the Omaka barley ($205/ha versus $255/ha plus tractor costs). This included three sprays, to try to kill residual pasture.

He is also pleased at how it has gone on to cope with exceedingly wet conditions over winter.

Tony suggests farmers avoid planting Omaka barley in paddocks with a history of grass grub.

"If damaged by the grub it pulls out when grazed."

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