From dry to damp: getting your pastures ready
New Zealand farmers know that pastoral fortunes can shift rapidly once summer’s extreme dryness gives way to cooler, wetter autumn conditions.
He's using winter crops for the cattle to achieve two main objectives: avoiding pugging winter pasture and progressively re-grassing the farm to grow better lambs.
Cattle are a 'farm tool', as they are on many farms, but they're making a good few dollars as well, he says.
Of his 6,400 stock units, 1,300 are cattle: steers, cows and heifers, but no bulls. "I don't like them," he told the field day.
He grows two winter crops – kale and oats, typically 10ha and 6ha respectively, with some swede seed mixed into the kale.
"I sow my kale at the end of November. I put fertiliser down with each seed through the drill and that gives it a good boost."
Oats are sown in March.
"I normally grow the oats so they grow over the top wire of the fence then graze my cows on that."
He's careful to test the forage for nitrates to avoid poisoning before introducing stock, which are then strip grazed.
The strip grazing is quite an art, says Murley, and it starts with doing, and getting right, pasture measurements.
"I work out how much crop and how many kilos of dry matter that will produce and take it from there."
Grazing is arranged so strips are narrow but long to ensure all animals get fed well and are not struggling to access crop. It also minimises waste, but accuracy in setting the break is crucial to avoid over or under feeding. Murley uses a special cutter on his quadbike to get clean, well measured breaks.
Another objective, which probably accounts for his comment about bulls, is to have 'quiet' cattle.
"My policy is not to 'dog' cattle; rather to try and get the cattle to be friendly and move freely. In my view not enough stock are used to human connections."
Cattle bought in as yearlings are "very toey" compared to his own stock, he notes.
"They are not quiet, are rigid, and they fight in the cattle bail, whereas mine are much quieter and they just stand there. I drench mine with the hook and they just stand there and open their mouths."
The cattle policy is designed primarily to improve grazing for ewes and lambs, though some pasture is set-aside from September for weaners.
"I am using cattle to make money and as a tool to develop my native grasses and develop better grasses to have a more efficient sheep policy with the aim of lamb finishing.
"I crop the paddocks twice, then it goes into chicory and clover and plantain, and then it's oversown with ryegrass."
Chicory and plantain have proved "very good" feed and he attributes his success with them to getting and acting on good professional advice.
Coming back to the no bulls policy, he says he finds cows are less fussy, and on rough steep country they're the best converters of kilos of dry matter to dollars you'll get.
"When you've got native grass, rank browntop and all that sort of stuff, the cow is the perfect animal to clean that up and get the fresh growth for the sheep to do well on. That's what cows are for. That's why cows are on the East Coast around Gisborne and not in the Manawatu and Hawkes Bay where they have good grass!"
