Sunday, 13 March 2016 10:55

Focus on heifers

Written by 
The field day will focus on helping farmers manage through dry periods with a view to setting up for next season. The field day will focus on helping farmers manage through dry periods with a view to setting up for next season.

A heifer rearing field day in Central Hawke's Bay next week will provide information on ensuring young stock continue to meet target weights through summer and autumn.

The field day on March 15 will be held at Craig and Graham Anderson's farm near Waipukurau. The Andersons run a mixed business with heifers, winter cows, cropping, hogget grazing and some beef across four blocks totalling 1600ha.

DairyNZ consulting officer Scott Cameron says the field day will focus on helping farmers manage through dry periods with a view to setting up for next season.

"Summer can be quite extreme in Central Hawke's Bay. The timing and location of the field day was planned so farmers can see how the Anderson's manage through dry weather," says Cameron.

"Autumn is often the most challenging season to grow heifers due to low pasture growth rates and peak animal demand. To cover all bases we'll look at 'what-if' scenarios and strategies that can be put in place to ensure target weights that are set out in grazing contracts are met.

"The Andersons run 1200 heifers and 820 weaners with no irrigation, so careful planning is needed to reduce the impact of summer dry – that plan will be discussed at the field day."

Cameron says as well as talking through the Anderson's plans, the field day will provide an update on the region's heifer grazing focus farm near Marton, owned by Andy Stewart.

"To date we have run four field days hosted by Andy. These have covered a wide range of topics as we have tracked the animals from weaners in December through to in-calf heifers in May when they leave the farm," he says.

A final focus farm field day will be held at Andy's farm in May.

More like this

Bridging the gap with rural New Zealand

OPINION: One thing I keep hearing from rural New Zealanders is the importance of relationships. Strong relationships don’t just happen - they take trust, consistency, and time.

Featured

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter