Pusing Northland pasture production

7 March, 2006

PASTORAL : MEDIA RELEASES 2006

A Far North sheep and cattle farm is going into the 2006 winter with no less than 1200kg LW/ha on 143ha within intensive beef systems (IBS). Dennis and Rachelle O'Callaghan, of Taipa, the Meat and Wool New Zealand monitor farmers for the region, have confidence in their winter rainfall, temperatures and pasture production, boosted by nitrogen and utilised with the help of Farmax.

Dennis gave a paper on grazing management to the Northland Pastoral Farming Development Group conference at Waitangi. He said that the numbers of cattle in the IBS units had increased 150 head every year since 2002 and would be this winter nearly 900 head. Cattle are run in smaller mobs of 20 to 40 head, on longer winter rotations of up to 48 days, shifted every two days.

“If we are to effectively control our spring and summer growth, then we must have high spring demand, which means higher winter stocking rates. As a consequence of the higher stocking rates we are going to have to settle for lower animal growth rates in the winter,” said Dennis.

The biggest challenge in managing pasture more effectively is matching feed demand to supply, that is improve, pasture utilisation.

“This is a bigger challenge on sheep and beef farms than dairy farms and you need something more than a cigarette packet to work it out. We use Farmax, which not only helps with feed planning, but means our mistakes are made on the computer and not on the farm.”

The short-term goal is to produce a net 1000kg LW/ha from the cattle IBS units.

The O'Callaghans also want to produce 650kg/ha of lamb weaning weight from the sheep farming areas of the property. Generally they have had good pasture control on the lambing paddocks with 10 to 12 twin-bearing ewes set stocked per hectare for lambing which begins in early August.

“Last year we learned on the lambing platform that we must apply nitrogen more aggressively in the spring, so we will likely apply 40kg N in late July and 20kg in September.”

Dennis believes thinking of the 614ha farm in four to six management units helps as different parts of the farm perform differently.

The property carries 4000 sheep and 900 cattle (4500 cattle stock units) for a total of 8565 stock units, around 15/ha. The sheep to cattle ratio is now 47% sheep, having been up over 60% only two years ago. Docking is 150% and calving 98%.

“Every season is different but winters have been shown to be the most consistent periods for pasture production. Our winters in Northland are kinder than further south so this period also becomes a time when we have a comparative advantage.”

But more intensification goes hand in hand with crucial stock sale and purchase decisions as the farm moves closer to the knife edge with feed demand and supply.

The conference also heard from sharemilker Danny Woodcock, Waiotira, who is putting into practice in Northland the pasture management system used on the Lincoln University Dairy Farm, Canterbury, outlined by Dexcel consultant Adrian van Bysterveldt at last year's Northland pastoral conference.

Danny gave examples of lower post-grazing residuals and longer rotations during spring on the 500-cow farm to utilise more pasture and to maximise pasture quality for later in the season. The farm achieved nearly 100kg milk solids per day, during September and October, above that of a common Northland dairy farm example, through more feed eaten and more energy in the pasture.

A rising plane of nutrition was also achieved going into the mating period.

Danny had less than 10% empties while maintaining the lower residuals.

However, the system requires constant pasture monitoring and confidence that the results will follow even when the farm appears to be short of feed when compared with neighbouring farms.

The conference was held at Waitangi on February 24, as part of the Sustainable Farming Fund Northland Pastoral Extension Project, with the support of Enterprise Northland, Northland Regional Council, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Hine Rangi Trust, Summit Quinphos, PGG Wrightson, Ravensdown and Northplan Investment Specialists.