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 20 November 2019

CO comment  

After some better growing conditions over the last week, pasture growth has been exceeding stock demand and some useful feed surpluses have developed. Maintaining pasture quality will need to be the prime focus for the next while.

Daily milksolids production has been holding up reasonably well, with cows still able to be adequately fed on good quality pasture.

As pasture growth rates climb to exceed stock demand, the tendency will be for residual grazing height to lift, which will impact on pasture quality in the next grazing round. Maintaining pasture quality by regular pasture monitoring and achieving a consistent and even residual will be critical if current cow production levels are to be maintained. Identify lower performing paddocks, or those that need some other improvement, and consider them for renovation now. Dropping them out of the grazing round now will assist in managing a potential feed surplus.

Monitoring pasture growth is one thing, but it is also important to keep an eye on budget vs actual spend and perhaps consider doing some benchmarking of your figures too.

Remember next year the West Coast is getting its own Mark and Measure course. Registrations open on 1 Dec with very limited spaces. For more information visit https://www.dairynz.co.nz/business/mark-and-measure/

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Farm Summary

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

 Previous Weekly Summaries

 2019

2018

2017

2016