Grow more, emit less, bank bigger profits

If your dairy farmers have been talking about emissions intensity lately, spring is a great opportunity to advance that discussion with practical steps to help get their numbers down.

That’s because t here’ s a new way to make money this season that could add tens of thousands to the bottom line for dairy farms across New Zealand.

Think of it like carbon farming, but better – no pine trees !

Four years of research has just proved what we have long believed: Every kilo of homegrown feed eaten directly by cows cuts farm emissions intensity.

And milk with low emissions intensity is now worth serious money – up to 25c per kilogram of milk solids, depending on the dairy company.

On an average South Island dairy farm, producing 281,000 kg milksolids a year, a low emissions premium of 15c per kg adds up to $42,000 extra income.

The same premium for an average North Island farm producing 136,000 kg milk solids a year is $20,400,

The best part, according to a leading national pasture expert?

“This is something several hundred farmers can achieve, without a lot of disruption, using resources they already have. In fact, they can start working towards this straight away. And those not far off will be looking at how they can get their farm over the line.”

Graham Kerr, pasture specialist for Barenbrug, says key findings from the biggest study of its kind in New Zealand dairy farming are reassuring, in that cutting greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t reduce farm profitability.

“The study showed there was no relationship between the two. There are farms across the country combining industry leading profitably and industry leading emissions efficiency.”

Better yet, the effect holds true no matter the farm system, location or herd size.

Emissions and Profitability is a joint project between DairyNZ, Fonterra and LIC that used data from 8000 NZ farms to analyse the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and farm profitability over the p ast four years.

Researchers released their first results in July, and say more analysis is planned this season.

Graham Kerr says all dairy farmers can start benefiting from what has come out of the study without delay.

That’s because the analysis found the best performing farms in terms of both emissions intensity and profitability had three things in common.

They all grew more feed, of higher quality, with more efficient use of nitrogen, than the others.

With spring here, there’ s no better time to act on this knowledge, Graham says.

His advice?

“In terms of growing more, fi rst up, help your farmers do a really good job of this season’s pasture renewal and spring cropping.

“That means getting the right level of renewal or crop across the farm; identifying how many under-performing paddocks they have, and ticking all the boxes in the process of getting these back up a high level of production.

“Well planned and established, this means they grow more feed at home.”

Barenbrug cultivars are well-suited to this goal.

“We’re hugely proud of the performance of our varieties in industry-run National Forage Variety Trials. Maxsyn and Array perennials , and Forge hybrid ryegrasses are particular standouts for high yields.

And we have great crop options like 501 chicory, and Dynamo summer turnip.”

And spring’ s the pivotal time for maintaining high pasture quality.

“Eighty per cent of pasture quality is influenced by management. That includes identifying and managing surplus pasture, and creating a culture of achieving consistent post-grazing residuals, day in, day out, to set up quality at the next grazing.

But we have cultivars with the genetics to help.”

What about improving nitrogen use efficiency, the third common trait o f high performing farms in the emissions and profitability study?

“Clover is king here, for its natural nitrogen-fixing ability. When renewing pastures, remember clover seed must be sown shallow, no more than 10mm deep. So much is wasted every year because it never emerges.”

Growing more clover is a double win, Graham says, because it also enhances feed quality.

“Use top clover genetics like Ruru and Kotuku to really improve clover performance in pastures. They’ re aggressive growing, and high yielding with good pest resistance.”

If clover is missing or lacking, spring’ s a good time to oversow seed.

Other ways of using nitrogen more efficiently include sowing Array perennial ryegrass, which can extract more nitrogen from the soil in deficit periods; and introducing tetraploid rye grasses.

“On their own or mixed with diploids, they can be grazed half a leaf stage later than straight diploids, so again, you effectively harvest more feed from the same amount of nitrogen.”

Whatever path your farmers take using homegrown pasture to reduce emissions and lift profitability, help is at hand.

“We’re always here to discuss options and provide advice as as needed,” Graham says. “Just contact us.”