The Power Of Pasture
HOME | CONTACT US
ABOUT | NEWS | DAIRY | SHEEP, BEEF & DEER | RESOURCES | RESEARCH | TECHNICAL TIPS | SPONSORS | F.A.Q's
   
 
Home / Dairy / Which paddock[s] should I renew?
Region: National

Which paddock[s] should I renew?

Date: 2011-01-10 | Category: Dairy

Start with your poorest performing ones.

The best paddock[s] to renew are, obviously, the poorest producers. These have the potential for greatest improvement.

The trick is to know which ones these are.

DairyNZ analysis has shown that on dairy farms the difference between the best paddocks and the worst ones is commonly 100% - or in other words the former are producing twice as much dry matter as the latter.

Or, to put it another way, if the best paddock is producing 20 t DM/ha, the poorest is producing only 10 t DM/ha.

On dairy farms and sheep farms where the difference between paddocks is great, visual observation is usually a sufficiently accurate gauge to determine the most suitable paddocks for renewal.

In intensive situations, however, it’s not so simple, unless detailed grazing records are kept or some other objective measure of pasture growth, a platemeter for example, is used. If a farmer can establish which paddocks yielded the least grazings during a season, this will indicate which one[s] should be renewed.

High-performing farmers guided by such objective means are known to have renewed paddocks that would not have been their first choice on the basis of eye assessment.

It is important to establish accurately which paddocks are performing most poorly, because if they are successfully renewed, the return on the renewal investment is the greatest.



  PRINTABLE VERSION TOP
 
F.A.Q's
How much pasture should be renewed?
How much feed is required to replace paddocks under renewal?
What return on investment can be expected?
Click here for the answers to these & many more questions »
Recent Research

News in your region
 
 
Pasture renewal programme begins after 35 years. "My goal is to transform the farm over 10 years so I can farm with new pastures and flatter paddocks"
Graeme Harkness  |  View all testimonials »
 
HOME
ABOUT
NEWS
SPONSORS
F.A.Q's
TESTIMONIALS
RESEARCH
CONTACT US
DAIRY
» Money Making
» Renewal Rate Increase
» Replacing Lost Feed
» Renewing Paddocks
» Where To Start
SHEEP, BEEF & DEER
» Money Making
» Farm System
» Renewing Paddocks
» Where to start
RESOURCES
» Calculators
» Benefit Analysis
TECHNICAL TIPS
» Pasture Persistence
» Pasture Productivity
» Paddocks for renewal
» Repairing pastures