Farm facts
- Area: 430 ha effective, 440 ha total
- Dominant soils: Wakanui silty loam, Claremont silty loam over clay, and Cairnlea silty loam over clay.
- Average rainfall: approx. 800 mm
- 163 ha under pivot irrigation
- Crops grown include kale and fodder beet for winter feed, followed by catch crops, and Pasja, leafy turnips, rape, giant rape and maize for autumn feed.
- Animals:
- 2000 breeding Longdown ewes
- 23 breeding South Devon x Angus cattle (before 2017)
- Additional beef calves, R1 dairy heifer and winter dairy cow grazers
What did you get out of the FRNL programme?
- On farm, AgResearch provided some in-depth measurements of pasture growth and composition throughout the year, through the use of pasture cages and c-daxing.
- Being able to visit other properties in the group, seeing different production systems and mixing with some top farmers has been of value.
- Being able to offer a practical view to some research ideas has also been of benefit.
Why did you decide to join the programme?
“As we have winter dairy grazing by the river, we want to know the environmental impact of that and also want to be involved in finding solutions.”
Why do you think it's important?
"As time goes on, focus is shifting more on the environmental sustainability of our business. This has significant implications for society’s perception of the industry and our marketing."
How will farmers and the industry benefit?
“The programme discovered what improvements can be made at the small scale first. Now this can be filtered out to the wider community.”
Annual Summary
Irrigation has a marked effect on the management on farm and ability to cope during droughts. This has a notable effect on stocking rates and nitrogen (N) leaching.
Estimated N leaching increased over the monitoring period (see table below). This was due to an increase in winter grazing and a steady increase in the total amount of dry matter produced and consumed on the farm (2.8 million kg to 3.6 million kg). The area under irrigation also increased producing more herbage with an accompanying increase in stock density from 13 to 19 SU/ha. An increasing proportion of the dry matter was also consumed by dairy cows.
Winter fodder crops were identified as a large source of N leached from the farm and produced 15-20% of the dry matter intake. These are grown on a small proportion (<10%, or 44 ha) of the farm and the timing and intensity of grazing contribute to the higher N leaching losses. Catch crops were found to be the most appropriate solution to the problem.
Farm details |
2014/15 |
2015/16 |
2016/17 |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
Beef (kg)1 |
64,080 |
61,612 |
37,987 |
57,857 |
63,185 |
Sheep meat (kg) |
58,831 |
61,526 |
65,114 |
64,242 |
66,386 |
Wool (kg) |
15,458 |
15,000 |
15,186 |
15,377 |
15,715 |
Total animal production (kg) |
138,369 |
138,138 |
118,287 |
137,475 |
145,286 |
Pasture production (kg DM/ha)2 |
7,282 |
7,646 |
9,933 |
12,438 |
11,503 |
Total Dry Matter Intake (DMI; kg) |
2,820,611 |
3,187,959 |
3,312,786 |
3,131,522 |
3,640,429 |
Dry matter intake (OVERSEER; kg/ha) - total |
6,567 |
7,414 |
7,704 |
7,283 |
8,466 |
Stocking rate (SU/ha) |
13.5 |
13.6 |
14.5 |
16.2 |
19.1 |
N leaching losses (kg N/ha) |
20 |
23 |
25 |
38 |
45 |
N leaching (kg N/kg product) |
0.079 |
0.073 |
0.094 |
0.122 |
0.139 |
1 "Beef" means both beef carcass and that leaving the farm as live weight gain on grazed dairy cattle.
2 Weighted average from Farmax (potential + fertiliser N boosted)
Management and experience with implementing FRNL options
Concluding comments Blair
“Winter grazing of crops with cattle is our biggest risk of losing N to water. The Trials have shown early sowing of catch crops to take this N back up from the soil to be very beneficial. The practicality of doing this will vary each year, with soil condition, rainfall and stage of rotation of the paddock all needed to be taken into consideration. As farmers we still need sowing a catch crop to be a profitable exercise, and obviously want to minimise the risk of crop failure associated with sowing too early into damp, cold soils.”
“Plantain has shown benefits of lower N being excreted, but has severe limitations in being able to maintain a sward composition of 30%. We have definitely noticed this on our property, and feel that not being a great competitor with companion species will limit its N reduction use going forward.”
Full report
Download the full report on the Sheep and Beef monitor farms, including the catch crop results, here.