Pasture Plus | DairyNZ

Dairy farmers know that good pasture management drives profit. Get more milk in the vat for less through the skills and confidence you can gain at your local DairyNZ Pasture Plus group. The benefits are many:

Participants gain more motivation and confidence
They have the opportunity to benchmark their performance against experienced farmers
Improved pasture utilisation, better quality pasture, higher milk production and more profit.

Groups run throughout the year and are formed from a group of local farmers. Play a part in timely discussions with grazing decision makers from your local area and take advantage of the planning tools and valuable advice on-tap in every Pasture Plus group.

Past attendees have attributed a 10% increase in production to attending Pasture Plus.

Pasture Plus focuses on the key principles of pasture management:

Growing more pasture
Harvesting more pasture
Increasing pasture quality
Optimising the use of supplements.

...and covers all aspects of pasture management fundamentals:

Learn how to apply the principles of grazing management to feed cows well and achieve high pasture eaten
Increase your understanding on how plant growth affects quality and quantity of pasture grown throughout the year
Understand how pasture utilisation is linked to farm profitability
Implement proven autumn management strategies to set up for profitable production next season
Improve the allocation of supplements to maximise utilisation of pasture and farm profit
Understand the responses to supplements throughout the season
Benchmarking on-farm key performance indicators for your farm system.

A key aspect of pasture management is the effective use of the tools available to make better management decisions. During the season Pasture Plus groups will use tools such as feed budgets, Rising Plate Meters, Spring Rotation Planners and Feed Wedges. By using these tools on farm farmers will learn how to match supply and demand throughout the year, eliminate the 'guess work' out of feed allocation and optimise quantity and quality of pasture eaten (MJME pasture eaten/ha).