North Otago demands persistence, palatability

In the fickle climate of North Otago, dryland farming is all about making the most of your soil moisture, as well as your opportunities.
For CRT shareholders Ian and Anna Hunter, at Maheno, that means growing pasture and forage crops that work with the land and the weather, not against it.

Fertile, well-tended and well-planted with shelter trees, the home farm today totals 261 ha, with a further 106 ha bought three years ago currently being developed with greenfeed crops into new high performing pastures.

Soils are Timaru and Claremont silt loams; annual rainfall is an erratic 400 to 550 mm, and much of the rolling property lies to the north-west, meaning it can get very dry, very quickly, Ian says.

Romney-Poll Dorset prime lambs – born from early September and typically drafted from early December to April - are the mainstays of the business, along with trading beef. Last year’s crop of lambs averaged 17.85 kg carcaseweight, down from the previous year (18.4 kg) because of a dry summer.

The Hunters winter a traditional Romney fl ock of 2,500 ewes, which averages 150% lambing. Ian says he remains committed to the breed because it suits the country and he’s ‘ever hopeful’ wool prices will recover.
The dry summer means current hogget numbers are down by about 100 to 560; there are also 60 R1 and R2 beef cattle on board.

Keeping all these mouths well-fed entails a mix of summer and winter crops (forage rape and swedes); 20 ha of lucerne for silage and grazing; hay; grass baleage and plenty of good pasture.
Ian and Anna have always sown new pasture species as part of their annual rotation. These days they work with CRT Technical Field Officer David Linton to select their new varieties.
“You get such a good production boost (from new grass) compared to the old pastures,” Ian says. “After tailing, everything is set stocked here so you can see the differences between paddocks pretty quickly.”
It’s not always easy fi nding the appropriate pasture for their conditions, however.

“I don’t ever mean to give our grass a hammering, but it does get a hammering, just because of where we are and what the weather does.”
Persistence and palatability are the most important factors for any new pasture: “By persistence, I mean it has to recover after dry weather, and keep a dense ground cover to compete with the weeds.”
Picking the wrong pasture variety is extremely expensive – “I have a couple here I wish I’d never planted!” - but the right one is always a good investment.

Since 2007, the right one has been Alto Plus AR1 perennial ryegrass, spring sown after swedes with white and red clovers, and a light rate of cocksfoot.

Ian says it’s his first pick for several reasons. It can handle the conditions; it’s very compatible with clovers and herbs while maintaining a thick sward; and the stock like it: “If you leave the gates open the sheep will run into those paddocks, and out of the other.”

To give new paddocks the best possible start, he roller drills the Alto mix into a stale seedbed which is pre-spread with 250 kg/ha Cropmaster 15. (Lime is usually spread prior to the swedes.)
Newly emerged seedlings are lightly nipped off when they can’t be plucked out the ground. “I’ve learned that makes a huge difference to the tillering of the grass.” New paddocks are used for fattening lambs through spring and summer, then for fl ushing ewes ahead of mating. Urea at 60 – 80 kg/ha/year helps keep growth strong during the fi rst couple of years.

Published courtesy of CRT's AgLine magazine - August 2009