West Coast Monitor Farm

Westland has some unique challenges such as high rainfall and seasonal dry peroids which are variable across the region. Westland has now been collecting data for 10 years and continues to building on the information currently available.

This project funded by Westland Milk Products, DairyNZ, CRV Ambreed, ARL-Ravensdown and Rabobank aims to generate reliable pasture growth and quality, and soil temperature information, over the next 12 months, on two commercial dairy farms in Westland.

Farm walks schedule for this season are weekly from August to May, and monthly over the winter period.

Each week we will provide a Weekly Summary of information from the following regions:

Buller: Mawheraiti (Stu and Deb Bland), Westland: Kowhitirangi (Anna and Jeremy Hart).

Expanded farm summary for the week ending 19 February 2020

CO comment 

Most people will have heard of the Spring Rotation Planner which is a tool used to create a grazing plan through spring to achieve desired rotation length and identify requirements for supplements.

DairyNZ has an Autumn Rotation Planner which essentially does the same thing but is used instead to set yourself up going into winter.

The Autumn Rotation Planner can help you plan the required change in rotation (area allocation per day) during autumn to meet rotation length and pasture cover targets for the start of winter (June 1).

Starting the winter with adequate feed cover and rotation length is vital, as there are very few opportunities during winter and early spring for any shortfalls to be filled by pasture growth being greater than feed demand.

The Autumn Rotation Plan maps out the rate of change in area allocation required to meet rotation length targets between the start and end of autumn. It can also be used to guide and monitor average pasture cover against target over the same period.

The Autumn Rotation Plan should be used during March until May. It can be started anytime from March 1 to April 30 and the end point is always May 31. While its mainly used to keep pasture cover and rotation length above minimum levels, it’s also important that there is not too much cover on the farm at the start of winter.

To download the Autumn rotation plan go to https://www.dairynz.co.nz/feed/pasture-management/feed-wedges-and-rotation-planners/autumn-rotation-planner/

Farm Summary

  NB: pasture quality data are for 1 sample collected from each farm

 Previous Weekly Summaries

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016