DairyNZ represents all New Zealand dairy farmers, to protect and advance their competitive edge on the global market

Stratford Demonstration Farm

Welcome to the Stratford Demonstration Farm.

Focus

The farm is situated on East Rd just east of Stratford in central Taranaki. It's flat to gently rolling topography and free-draining volcanic ash soil is typical of much of the dairying land in Taranaki. However at 310m asl altitude the climate is wetter (2050mm average annual rainfall) and cooler than the Taranaki average.

The farm, which is an incorporated society, was purchased in 1917 to establish and operate a model dairy farm to develop and promote improved farming methods. The general farm policy and governance is by a committee of local farmers and agricultural consultants. A farm manager is employed for operations, along with local farm management consultant Graeme Pitman as consultant and supervisor.

The farm is financially independent with all operating costs being met entirely from farm income, net profits and some sponsorship. Farmlet trials are usually carried out on the farm, along with occasional smaller trials. The farm is also used regularly for training and education purposes by various groups, including Taratahi, which has a training course based on the farm.

For more information on the Stratford Demonstration Farm, view the document below:

The Stratford Demonstration Farm booklet View PDF (41 kb)

Farm profile

Farm area	44ha owned 13ha leased off Stratford High School 52ha effective area
Stock	162 to 166 Jersey cows milked mid-season August 1 calving date 112 BW September 2008 Replacement stock grazed off
Soil	Stratford sandy loam Free draining volcanic ash
Infrastructure	20 bail herringbone dairy 46 paddocks (1.1ha average)
Pasture growth	12,500kg DM/ha standard pasture growth 14,000kg DM/ha with 150kg N/ha fertiliser

Current trials

New pasture farmlet trial

Objective	To trial and demonstrate the use of new pasture cultivars in improving dairy farm production and profit in Central Taranaki.
Layout	The farm is split into two 25.5ha farmlets with a target of 3.2 jersey cows/ha milked for a comparative stocking rate of 85kg lwt/tonne DM. One farmlet is a control farmlet which has all existing old pastures, generally 30 to 50 years old. One farmlet has all new pastures with 12% of the farmlet being regrassed each year, with some via summer turnip cropping and some direct grass to grass. All other inputs are equal between the groups and there is minimal brought in feed.
Funding	The trial has a MAF Sustainable farming fund grant, plus pasture seed is supplied by Agricom, Agriseeds and Wrightson seeds.

To find out more about this trial, you can also view the documents below:

Stratford new pasture trial description View PDF (11 kb)
Stratford new pasture trial 2008-09 Summary View PDF (37 kb)

FarmWalks

Find out more about the regular FarmWalks at Stratford Demonstration Farm.