Winter crop paddock selection
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6 min read
Good winter grazing starts with picking the right paddocks. Your choice impacts crop yield, cost, and wintering success. When selecting your paddock; consider slope, soil condition, and proximity to waterways, including the location of swales and gullies. Factors such as soil type, soil fertility, drainage issues and paddock history can affect performance. Plan for your grazing keeping national and regional regulations in mind. Effective management of winter forages can significantly cut losses of nutrients, soil and E. coli. Use this page to determine if paddocks are appropriate to select for winter grazing.
Paddock Selection
The success of winter grazing starts with choosing suitable paddocks. There are many factors to consider when deciding which paddocks to graze cows on next winter.
The benefits of reviewing paddock selection
Choosing your paddocks carefully is important as it affects the yield of the crop, the cost of establishing and growing the crop, and ultimately whether you will have a successful winter.
Other benefits include:
- Looking after your natural resources and animals.
- Water quality will be maintained or improved.
- Increased profit due to improvements in soil management, pasture growth and quality, and animal health.
- Complying with national and local regulations.
Aerial photo of a winter crop paddock in the South Island of New Zealand with low points and buffers with no crop established.
Before you start
Before you start planning, ensure you are aware of the national wintering regulations and regional council regulations. Regional information about wintering regulations can be found on your regional council website.
Successful wintering is an 18-month process of planning, calculating, implementing and reviewing.
Eight considerations for paddock selection
- Slope: Crops can only be established on slope less than 10 degrees unless you have a consent or certified freshwater farm plan.
- Shelter: During cold, wet and windy conditions, cows become susceptible to cold stress. Where possible, plant crop in paddocks with shelter. Alternatively, allow a feed buffer in your budget to account for feeding extra on cold, wet, or windy days.
- Water: Cows must always have access to fresh reticulated water. Water can be provided by a permanent trough, or preferably by portable water troughs. Before planting your crop, make sure your cows will be able to access water whilst grazing it.
- Soil type: Where possible, plant crops in areas with soil types that are less prone to pugging damage. These soils will also be more resilient to winter grazing and can be re-grassed earlier.
- Waterways/drains: Avoid selecting paddocks with waterways. If selecting a paddock with waterways, ensure that there is a minimum of a 5m grass buffer between the crops. Ensure stock do not graze the area during winter. Drains include natural or artificial channels to lower the water table and/or reduce surface flood risk and often make up the majority of lowland waterways. Find out more about drains.
- Swales and gullies: Critical source areas, such as swales, gullies and waterways, can transport large amounts of soil, phosphorus, and E. coli to waterways. Good practice is to leave swales and gullies in grass and temporarily exclude stock when using winter crop.
- Paddock history: The history of a paddock can have a significant impact on its potential yield. Each paddock on farm will have a different history. To grow high-yielding winter crops, it’s good to know the paddock’s soil fertility and it’s weed and pest history. Many agronomists will be happy to visit the farm on a regular basis to monitor your crops for weeds, pests, diseases and any nutrient deficiencies. Discuss your expectations with your agronomist before the crop is planted.
- Flood prone: Select paddocks that are of low risk to flooding. Land can be significantly impacted during flooding events after cultivation.
Please check in with regional rules and milk suppliers regarding winter grazing, as rules may differ in your local area.
How to assess the paddock
Use the risk matrix below to identify if a paddock is low, medium, or high risk before crop cultivation. Then assess the options below depending on your result.
| Factor | Low | Medium | High |
| Slope risk | 0-5° | 5-10° | >10° |
| Soil type | Well-drained, structurally resilient soil | Artificially-drained soil | Soil is poorly-drained and/or vulnerable to compaction |
| Waterways/drains | Paddock distant to streams and drains |
Paddock has an extensive network of artificial subsurface drainage |
Paddock is directly adjacent to stream or wetland |
| Swales and gullies | No critical source areas such as swales and gullies present | A few swales and gullies present that are easily fenced off and left ungrazed |
Occupying >5° of paddock areea |
| Shelter available | Yes | Very little | No |
| Flood prone | Never floods | Very occasional surface flooding, limited areal extent |
Flooding is known to occur over a large % of paddock |
| Paddock history (soil fertility and weed and pest issues) |
Good fertility and no weed and pest problems | Fertility or weed/pest issues | Fertility and weed/pest issues |
| Years out of pasture | First year in forage crop | Second year in forage crop | Third+ year in forage croop |
| Access points and water troughs | Multiple access points and easy access to reticulated water, easy to set up portable water troughs | Two access points and limited access to reticulated water | One access point and no reticulated water |
Low risk: Great choice. Start cultivating and consult your winter grazing plan to determine cultivation direction.
Medium risk: If your desired paddock is medium risk, consider options to mitigate potential risks. Reach out to your trusted advisor to discuss alternative actions to lower your risk.
High risk: Where a paddock is high risk for more than one factor, consider using an alternative paddock. If you're already established and your paddock is high risk, consider options to mitigate the risk. Reach out to your trusted advisor to discuss alternative actions to lower your risk.
Key takeaways
- Careful management of winter forages will significantly reduce losses of nutrients, soil and E. coli.
- If selecting a paddock with waterways, ensure that there is a minimum of a 5m grass buffer between the crops.
- Crops can only be established on slope less than 10 degrees unless you have a consent or certified freshwater farm plan.
- Where a paddock is high risk for more than one factor, consider using an alternative paddock.
Once you have selected your cropping paddock you may like to read more on cultivation for further consideration on establishment methods and crop type.