Plantain showing its mettle
The plantain product Ecotain has been shown to reduce nitrate leaching from urine patches in dairy pastures by up to 90%, says Agricom product development specialist Allister Moorhead.
Moorhead discussed the relative merits of chicory, turnips and plantain on March 14 during a farm field day run by the Northland Dairy Development Trust.
The venue was the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF).
While turnips had been popular in Waikato and other dairying regions, Moorhead advised farmers to consider other crops to best match the climatic conditions they expected and stock management changes they planned to make.
He says chicory has come into its own in the last five years especially in Waikato as drier climatic conditions lead to turnips not lasting beyond February. "It quickly became the right species for Waikato for the weather conditions."
Chicory gives exactly the same amount of standing feed as turnips and can be grazed two, four or even six times before being exhausted.
"It has become a popular six-month crop, sown in October/November and then either sprayed out in April or May, or combined into pasture for another 12 months depending on conditions and the farmer's intentions."
But he warns the crop must be planted early enough as chicory requires warm, relatively moist conditions for a good strike rate.
This message was repeated by NARF consultant Rod Hodgson who labeled their experiment with chicory a partial financial failure.
A chicory crop was planted early November on the rye grass farmlet for summer supplementary feed but they were only able to graze cows on the crop twice by March.
"The number of grazings you get defines how profitable a crop is," says Hodgson. "To get the most out of a chicory crop you need at least four grazings," he says.
To be profitable chicory and plantain needs to be grazed about every 20 days.
Hodgson says the soil was too wet in October to even consider putting chicory in and this was the main reason for the failure of the crop.
Chicory is a harder crop to manage in wetter, heavier soils like those common in Northland for this reason and plantain may be a better alternative, Moorhead says. "Chicory likes light free-draining soil and suits most parts around the East Coast."
Regardless of whether chicory or plantain is planted Moorhead says farmers still need some form of nitrogen fixing. He recommends mixing in red clover as it was able to compete with the crop for space unlike the white clover which tends to grow lower to the ground. If no clover is used then 300-400kg/ha of urea will make up for the lack of nitrogen fixing.
Moorhead characterises plantain and chicory as multi-functional crops. Turnips are strategic.
"With chicory you must decide whether to spray it out or let it continue," says Moorhead. "With turnips there isn't that decision; they are strategic and have a long lifespan in dairy for that reason."
