New Reviva Forage Rape Wins Over Dryland Farmers in First Year

Farmers who tested Reviva for summer feed last year say their animals did well on it, even when grazing was delayed by weather and they thought the crop might be past its best.

Bred by Barenbrug, Reviva offers high yields, multiple grazings and quality eating right to the ground, according to the company.

“It fits very well into dryland systems which rely on high energy forage crops to keep animals growing through summer,” says Barenbrug pasture specialist Graham Kerr.

In the Maniototo, where lack of rain is the biggest potential challenge to sheep and beef breeding and finishing for Matt McSkimming, forage rape is a staple crop for its hardiness.

Up to 45ha was sown in total last spring.

A small trial paddock of Reviva was planted three weeks later because of weather, but that didn’t hold it back.

“It went gangbusters, grew as high as the fence. I was a bit worried the lambs wouldn’t get through it because the stems might have got woody, but they chewed it right down,” McSkimming says.

Likewise, Chris Ensor in South Canterbury was surprised by how well his trial crop retained quality on a dryland finishing and grazing farm near Timaru.

“The usual issue with rape is that from maturity you really have to feed it quickly, because it loses nutritional value.”

Reviva got little rain after planting, but a month later, the rain started and never stopped, Chris says.

“By maturity, it was really nice and leafy, but we stayed off it because the ground was so wet, and we had heaps of grass.”

Dairy grazers finally got onto it three weeks later, and still averaged nearly 1kg liveweight gain/day over the next three weeks, he says.

King Country sheep and beef farmer and stud breeder Russell Proffit tried rape for the first time last year – including Reviva - to put weight on young cattle during a difficult time of year.

“Our biggest challenge here is during February, March and April. Between the humidity, facial eczema and poor grass quality, we’ve historically had zero weight gain in cattle no matter what we do.

“But we wanted to kill those animals before their second winter, so last season with some steers that are part of a trial with Beef+Lamb NZ and NZ Shorthorns to fatten we tried summer autumn crops of rape and kale.

“We decided to graze them on rape during February, and kale during March and April.”

As well as voluntarily grazing Reviva down close to the ground, (with a lot less stem on Reviva compared with another rape side by side) the steers did well on the crop, possibly better than they did on kale subsequently.

Lack of residue also made cultivation easier after the crop was finished.