Thursday, 19 July 2012 11:53

Crunch number to plan crops

Written by 

GET THE calculator out and don’t leave it to guesswork when planning winter feed crops for next year.

That was a key message to come out of a Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day on Waiouru Station earlier this month (see p23).

“Sometimes farmers will say I’m going to sow 10has of crop and the stock class is then going to have to fit that,” explained PGG Wrightson Seeds’ specialist Charlotte Westwood.

“Instead, they should be saying I have 2000 ewes to winter, therefore I have demand for X amount of dry matter per head per day over a given period.

“It’s about the need to plan: how much area you need to grow; and how to grow the best yielding crop,” she stressed.

Westwood’s other key message is, having grown a crop, accurately determine the amount of feed using quadrant samples tested for drymatter.

There’s no point “eyeballing” crops to determine yield because few, if any, people can do it accurately.

“There are book values out there for the crops, but they are unreliable, especially for kale because it’s quite variable with dry matter percentage… there can up to a 2 or 3 % dry matter difference.”

If the book value percentage is higher than actual drymatter, and farmers are unaware of this, they’ll end up underfeeding stock, she warns.

“You must send a sample away to do a dry matter assessment. And while sending it away have it nitrate tested.”

Crops are a good option in areas where pasture growing seasons are limited by climate but yields do need to be high, says Westwood.

Where cold winters limit pasture growth, beside brassicas providing a weather-proof bulk of feed to carry stock through, they also have a lower minimum temperature for growth, so will grow a little when the pasture has long since stopped.

The other benefit to factor in is growing a crop is a good start to a re-grassing programme.

More like this

Feed help supplements Canterbury farmers meet protein goals

Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.

Balanced diets key to keeping cows in milk

Waikato dairy farmers are well-placed heading into the peak of summer, thanks to favourable growing conditions late last year that resulted in abundant onfarm feed reserves.

Featured

Big return on a small investment

Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.

Editorial: Sensible move

OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Overbearing?

OPINION: Dust ups between rural media and PR types aren't unheard of but also aren't common, given part of the…

Foot-in-mouth

OPINION: The Hound hears from his canine pals in Southland that an individual's derogatory remarks on social media have left…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter