Quality green feed in summer and autumn is money in the bank no matter what the season brings, so if your farmers don’t yet have a cropping plan in place this season, it’s time to make sure they crack into it.
That’s the message from Barenbrug area managers Julie Gaukrodger and Craig Weir, who have been helping North and South Island farmers get the best out of their land and pasture for years.
“A fast game is a good game this season,” Gaukrodger says.
“Conditions are favourable; soil temperatures have warmed up and the sooner those forage crops like chicory and brassicas are in the ground, the quicker they can start growing, making the most of existing soil moisture.”
She and Weir say many farmers are taking the predicted dry summer seriously, and have implemented a range of contingencies, including crops and harvesting supplement early.
If this year’s El Nino does not meet expectation, however, there’s no downside to having paddocks of 501 Chicory, Dynamo turnip, and Reviva leafy forage rape on hand for summer grazing.
Reviva forage rape, as well as Bombardier easy-graze kale, have the additional advantage of providing feed into autumn.
“The beauty of all these crops is not just their yield, but their high feed quality,” points out Weir.
The first buffers farmers from feed deficits; the second compensates for reduced metabolisable energy (ME) of pastures in summer.
“Even if we do get summer rain, pasture quality during this period is typically low,” Gaukrodger says.
“Feeding these high-quality forage crops support significantly higher milk production and young stock growth rates than those achieved on lower-quality summer pasture.”
Bonus animal health benefits include lower parasite pressure in young animals, and access to non-pasture forage with less risk of facial eczema.
501 Chicory is a drought-tolerant annual cultivar that injects many tonnes of high energy dry matter into the summer feed budget, and is the perfect break crop to eliminate weeds and/or pests like yellow bristle grass and black beetle.
Because it establishes quickly, it also gives up to one extra full grazing more than some perennial cultivars.
Reviva is a new multi-graze forage rape bred for ample yields of leafy, high energy forage which is particularly well-suited to lambs.
Some older rapes, or those crossed with kale, tend to elongate as they mature, meaning there can be a quite a bit of stem at the bottom of the crop, Weir says.
“Reviva is different in that it is very leafy right to the ground. That’s good for animal utilisation, especially for lambs with their smaller mouths. It also means there’s less stem and the following grazing – and less residue left behind when it comes time to sow back into pasture or the next crop.”
Trials have shown Reviva has a very high proportion of leaf, averaging approximately 48% at the first grazing.
Typically maturing in 70 to 90 days, Reviva will hold its feed quality well for 90 days.
With very high stem quality and overall ME, Bombardier easy-graze kale can be used instead of summer-grazed rape, Weir says.
It’s high yielding, very palatable and well utilised. The key advantage it has is its flexibility. If it’s not needed in summer farmers can leave it to graze in autumn or even winter, a more flexible grazing window than forage rape.
Talk to your Barenbrug area manager for more advice about high quality forage this season.