Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council
South Canterbury farmers Martin (pictured left) and Thomas Cochrane were chuffed to take out the top honours in the Ravensdown South Canterbury Winter Feed Competition in June.
They won awards for the best irrigated kale crop and irrigated fodder beet crop, with the former taking home the overall best winter feed paddock.
Crop grading is based on samples and weights taken from two sites to get an estimated tonnage. It considers the visual quality of the plants, consistency across the paddock, and weed burden.
The kale was estimated at 25t dry matter (DM)/ha and the fodder beet 38t DM/ha during the competition. However, because the paddock is sold standing to neighbouring dairy farmers, they are professionally assessed by an independent organisation, in this case Canterbury Feed Assessment & Laboratory (CFA). CFA assessed the kale at 15.8TDM/ha and the fodder beet at 27TDM/ha.
Preparing the perfect paddock
It certainly helps to have an environmental advisor in the family. Behind the scenes, our Ashburton-based Land Management and Biodiversity Advisor Jess Cochrane supports her father and brother at the family farm with good management practices for winter grazing.
There’s a lot that happens before the cows arrive on 1 June. The family sit down with the dairy farmer and go over maps of each paddock to point out the critical source areas (CSAs) to avoid, any nearby waterways that may need further fencing off from stock, water trough locations and the optimal direction of grazing.
They discuss runoff paddock options, the best management of the herd (one large mob versus smaller mobs), and there’s time to set up any portable water troughs before the cows arrive.
Managing critical source areas
When irrigation was added 10 years ago, it gave the Cochranes the opportunity to re-fence their pastures. They made changes like moving fencelines so significant CSAs were on the edge of the paddocks rather than in the middle, making it easier for contractors to avoid them when drilling and spreading.
“With technologies now, we no longer needed to have square paddocks, so we decided to work with the contours of the land,” said Jess. “It has led to some strange-shaped paddocks that are at times inconvenient, but we get around that with multiple permanent water troughs and portable water troughs when needed.”
During the winter grazing period, cattle graze towards the CSA allowing the crop to act as a buffer. If the CSA is within the paddock, it is left in grass, and where it has been drilled, it is eaten after the winter grazing period when the risk to the environment is lower.
Catch crops to mop up excess nutrients
After winter, nearly all winter grazing paddocks are prepped for a cereal crop or put into oats and annual grass for next year’s winter supplementary feed. A typical rotation is fodder beet/oats/kale/oats/kale/barley then back into permanent pasture for 5-8 years. Paddocks for the following year’s cropping are decided around May with yearly soil tests undertaken in June.
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Catch crops are a great way to not only prepare for next winter, but also to mop up excess nutrients in the soil from having mobs on-paddock for so long,” said Jess. “Oats and annual grasses are winter-active plants, which makes them the perfect candidate for drilling into paddocks as soon as the paddock is eaten off.”
A variety of stock types to match conditions on farm
It helps having large variety of stock types and classes, as they can match them to a variety of paddock management requirements.
“For instance, on a paddock prone to pugging in wet weather, we don’t want a mob on for a long time as the constant foot traffic would cause compaction in dry conditions and pugging in wet.
To manage this, they use a large mob of cows to eat it off quickly while the weather is good, or a mob of lighter stock to avoid causing the same level of damage that could happen if they were on the paddock for longer.
Often mobs are shifted around as the paddock conditions change.
“It’s about having a plan but also being flexible enough to make changes when required,” said Jess.
Support for environmental management
If you are unsure about what qualifies as a CSA, she suggests watching where the water naturally flows in a rain event. Without some form of protection on bare ground, adding water to a CSA is likely to result in some lost soil/runoff.
“All farmers know their soil is one of the most important components of their farming system, so it just makes sense to take steps to reduce potential soil loss. Reducing nutrient loss at the same time is another added benefit. We all want to do our part to protect our waterways.”
From critical source areas to catch crops, your local land management advisor can advise how to manage environmental risks on-farm. Call our customer advisory team on
0800 324 636 or email us and we will put you in touch.
