Pasture renewal only the first step

Entries are open for the pasture renewal persistence competition run by the DairyNZ-led Pasture Improvement Leadership Group. The contest was first held six years ago.

Competition organiser and DairyNZ developer Sally Peel says pasture renewal is a first step to achieving high-performing pastures.

“Improving poor yielding paddocks through good renewal practices can achieve a substantial increase in pasture tonnage and this competition highlights that,” says Peel.

Last year’s winner of the ‘best first year pasture’ category, Aaron Price, says choosing to focus on achieving quality pastures is an easy decision.

“Pasture is our cheapest feed on the farm and it’s important to maximise what we get from it. And regrassing is a significant cost so we have to get the full benefit from it,” says Price , who milks 244 cows near Morrinsville.

Te Pahu dairy farmer Noldy Rust, who won the ‘2015 best pasture more than three years old’ category with an 11-year-old paddock, says the win was humbling.

“I know there are many farmers around with great paddocks. It’s just our good fortune we entered a good competition and won it,” says Rust.

AgResearch senior scientist Dr David Hume, a competition judge, says Rust’s win shows the competition is not only concerned with showing a good pasture on the day, but rather with “a whole combination of things to make a pasture last a number of years”.

“Noldy’s paddock scored particularly well on content of ryegrass and legume, and a good cultivar choice. It was well looked after in winter and summer, had good grazing residuals and good soil fertility.

“Further, Noldy was familiar with new cultivar choices and was using AR37 endophyte on parts of the farm, where black beetle had been a problem.”

http://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/pasture-renewal/pasture-persistence-competition