Regrassing partner’s top priority

Date: 2009-09-08 | Category: News

Raphael Knopf and H&T Agronomics consultant Duncan Thomas check out new grass on the Marton farm.

The brief for re-grassing Raphael Knopf’s dairy farm was simple. The plan was to get a huge amount of grass growing on the 190ha effective Marton dairy conversion farm for Knopf and partner David Wilton as soon as possible.

The pair formed a partnership after Swiss immigrant Knopf leased Wilton’s Marton farm for drystock and cropping whilst sharemilking, and then when Raphael and his wife Alana bought a small dairy farm across the road in May 2008 they decided to convert the combined block.

After combining the two farms, the partnership has built a new 60-bail rotary dairy shed, feedpad and triple feed bunkers, re-fenced to incorporate lanes, reticulated water, put in an underpass and dug a 150- day effluent storage pond.

Milking began on April 1, 2009, with 450 winter milkers and the herd will peak when a further 400 cows calve in the spring. Raphael says the winter milking was the best use of the capital required to build the milking shed and develop the farm.

“It is very expensive to have a couple of months with no milk.” With a high stocking rate of over 4 cows/ha, the plan is to feed supplements year round, and the pair are budgeting on 1000 tonnes of maize silage contract grown by a neighbour (700t used and 300t carried over), 500t of grass silage and 900t of palm kernel, to supplement the 12t DM/ha of pasture grown on the farm. Production targets are 460kg MS/cow and 420,000kg MS for the season.

Raphael says they will feed whatever supplement is cheap, as with a new 5t capacity Keenan feed wagon they are able to source cheap potatoes and other seasonal feeds.

The existing grasses on the Marton properties were old native perennials and only one or two paddocks had been re-grassed. In order to renovate all the pastures to modern high-producing cultivars, a cropping programme was the most economical way to go, says Raphael’s pasture guru, H&T Agronomics consultant Duncan Thomas.

“Cropping is also useful to remove the old pasture species and weeds as you can target these through the crop.”

Maize, wheat and milling barley were sown into 140ha in the spring of 2008 and the cereals harvested in February/March 2009 and the maize in early April.

Sixty hectares of pasture was retained to feed the cows which were purchased from all over the country after last summer’s drought. The autumn calvers were grazed on the Marton farm and another farm has been leased for the drystock and spring calvers.

The 50ha of pasture on the old dairy block were flat and well drained and able to be direct drilled with brand new perennial ryegrass cultivar one50, which Duncan says is a true perennial, late flowering with exceptional leaf production through summer and high drymatter production through autumn and winter.

Sown at a rate of 16kg/ha of one50 ryegrass, 6kg/ha Ohau hybrid ryegrass and 4kg/ha Tribute white clover, the pastures have established well and have had two grazings as at the end of June.

The other side of the farm, which tends to be wetter and has steeper sidlings, was sown with 24kg/ ha Ohau AR1 ryegrass and 5kg/ha Tribute white clover. Ohau is a fast establishing highyielding tetraploid hybrid ryegrass which Thomas says has stronger winter growth. “Ohau is also highly palatable so the cows will milk well off it during the winter.”

Raphael says the Ohau has “more zing in the winter” and that he expects it will “grow well through the winter and very well through the summer”.

Duncan says the trade-off with planting Ohau was that although it will grow grass through the winter, the plants will not persist as long as the one50. He estimates the Ohau production will drop off and the pasture open up after 3-5 years, whereas the one50 should persist for 5-7 years, and production will only really be slowed by pasture damage from the cows.

Raphael and David plan to move to a five-year rotation of pasture renewal at that time, planting turnips for a summer crop followed by a new grass, and they plan to start with the remaining old grass block at a rate of 20ha/year. The parts of the farm where Ohau was sown were rougher and required sub soiling and then rolling and cultivation.

The fertiliser status was good on the original farm, says Duncan, and as the paddocks were ploughed out of the old grass nitrogen became available for the crop.

After a base dressing of 1t each of super and lime, 120kg/ha DAP was drilled with the crop seed and a side dressing of 100kg/ha of urea was applied by air, as it was too wet for the truck.

Fertiliser was not applied with the grass seed, and now Duncan says regular maintenance dressings of super and lime will be used, as well as strategic use of urea. The 30ha of maize was late being harvested so a rapid establishment Italian ryegrass was used in that area, and although Raphael and Duncan were nervous of the late timing, they agree the results have been incredible and the grass will be ready for grazing in another few weeks.

They have also been pleased with the clover establishment, which has been strong which Raphael says will contribute to nitrogen (N) production.

Duncan says the clover should also persist for 3-5 years, and with a good start, a lot longer. He says management is important, to not let the grass get too long and shade out the clover, and that the selection of Tribute with a large leaf should help avoid the problem. Rapahel plans N applications to follow the cows, starting in August at a rate of 80kg/ha.

“In June and July the ground is too cold and I might use pro-Gibb to speed up the grass growth.” Over the past few months since milking started the cows have been fed on two-thirds supplement and one-third pasture, and Raphael says they are milking well and he will soon go to 50:50 feedpad and pasture.

He says the new grass in production is on a rotation of 20-25 days, which ideally he will stretch out to 30 days to maximise leaf growth, but while some grass is not yet grazeable it is a compromise. He is relatively comfortable with the progress, saying the first winter will be the hardest, and that the pastures should be up to full production by Christmas.

“The cows are milking well because of the feedpad and the new grass balances the ratio quite well.”

Published courtesy of Country-Wide - July 2009

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