This Waikato dairy farmer is into his third season of pasture renewal and believes his cows have never looked better

Waikato dairy farmer Phil Swney is in his third season of a pasture renewal programme and believes his cows have never looked better.

He and his wife Deb farm 125ha at Te Kawa, south of Te Awamutu. They took the decision to embark on their pasture renewal programme after listening to Murray Lane, then of Wrightsons, talking at a field day.

Phil, who had spent 10 years with AmBreed, had been breeding for traits other than production (TOP) for some time, but found that his pastures were letting him down. At a stocking rate of up to four cows/ha he felt he couldn’t afford to take out more than five percent of his total pastures for a conventional regrassing programme, but at that rate, improvements weren’t great enough for his liking.

In March 2006, he sprayed out around 20 percent of the farm and put in a short rotation ryegrass, along with chicory. This was grazed cowsover the winter and in October it was sprayed out and a turnip crop direct-drilled into non-cultivated soil. The turnip crop was grazed through January and February, and then sprayed out for a third time before permanent pasture was planted in March.

This programmed approach aims to get rid of all the old non-endophyte grass, replacing it with the more modern and pest-resistant endophyte varieties. Phil said it also has the advantage of removing residual clover pests from the soil, as no clover is present for the 12 months before the permanent pasture is sown.

However, one side-effect of the direct-drill approach is that insect control becomes an important part of the pasture renewal programme.

“I can see with my own eyes that what I’m doing is working, though I don’t yet have the detailed figures to prove it,” he said.

Wrightsons and DairyNZ are carrying out regular pasture cuts and will monitor the ME values until 2011, which Phil believes will prove the effectiveness of the programme in scientific terms too View Article.
Meanwhile, he intends to continue the programme across the rest of the farm.

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