Sunday, 04 September 2016 19:55

How will you manage your farm’s footprint?

Written by 
At a focus day in March. At a focus day in March.

With the impending release of the ‘Healthy River’s Plan for Change’, Owl Farm’s next Farm Focus Day on Wednesday, September 14 will include a session on changing environmental legalisation.

Mike Scarsbrook from DairyNZ will set the context and explain what the likely changes will mean for farmers.

Ian Tarbotton from Ballance will discuss Owl Farm’s nutrient management strategy and philosophy of how they plan to manage the changes.

“Changes to environmental regulations are going to be critically important to how we operate our businesses,” says Farm Demonstration Manager Doug Dibley. “Understanding what these mean and the options we have available to manage our footprints are therefore vital.”

The Focus Day will start with a season-to-date wrap-up, discussing how the farm has fared through calving, and how it is placed going into mating.

PGG Wrightson Seeds will discuss some of the results from the farm’s investment in pasture renovation following a recent pasture condition scoring exercise. This has shown a significant improvement in the pasture condition since the same exercise was undertaken this time last year.

Following on from this but staying with PGG Wrightson Seeds there will be a discussion of summer cropping. Last season, Owl Farm planted chicory as a summer crop. “This was largely a success,” says Doug, “but we have identified several factors which can be implemented to improve the overall performance of our summer cropping.”

PGG Wrightson recently undertook a performance review of the chicory, covering how much was grown per hectare and what the cost of this feed was, including the cost of pasture forgone. Using this simple process, it is envisaged other farmers will be able to objectively review the relative performance of their own crops to determine if they remain a viable option going forward.

Owl Farm Focus Days are for farm owners, farm workers and rural professionals to meet, network and share ideas. Join Doug and industry members on September 14 to find out more about planning for change, meeting environmental standards, summer cropping and more.

Owl’s Farm in the Waikato is a joint venture between St Peter’s School and Lincoln University.

More like this

Strong uptake of good wintering practices

DairyNZ has seen a significant increase in the number of farmers improving their wintering practices, which results in a higher standard of animal care and environmental protection.

Better animal genetic gain system

A governance group has been formed, following extensive sector consultation, to implement the recommendations from the Industry Working Group's (IWG) final report and is said to be forming a 'road map' for improving New Zealand's animal genetic gain system.

OSPRI's costly software upgrade

Animal disease management agency OSPRI has announced sweeping governance changes as it seeks to recover from the expensive failure of a major software project.

Musical chairs

OPINION: DairyNZ's director elections has seen scientist Jacqueline Rowarth re-elected for another three-year term.

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter