New Zealand
February 16, 2011

Former Central Plateau sharemilkers of the year Warren and Louise Berry have worked hard during the past three years on the ‘re-conversion’ of a 232 hectare dairy farm in the Tapawera Valley near Nelson.

In a testing environment, where irrigation is considered essential in summer and a cold and wet winter last May brought floods followed by snow, the right pasture selection is vital and Warren has trialled different ryegrass cultivars and observed the herd’s varied responses.

“As far as having a gutsy grass through summer, it’s definitely AberDart high sugar grass under the centre pivot (irrigator). It will become our predominant summer and autumn pasture,” said Warren.

“The first grazing of AberDart was just a light nip (to freshen growth). The second grazing our milk went up by 600 litres and the next grazing it was up 400 litres.”

The gain of 1-to-1.5 litres of milk per cow per milking is significant and Warren plans to sow another 12ha of AberDart or AberMagic high sugar ryegrass this season in both the irrigated and unirrigated areas of his farm.

“Every time they are in that grass their milk goes up,” said Warren, whose 400-cow herd at Riverina Jersey Stud, first registered 14 years ago, is the product of top-line breeding.
“Until you see the milk increase you would think it’s a bit of waffle, but the cows do love this grass.”

Other ryegrasses on trial have proven to be less palatable.

“We could grow truck loads of one particular grass but the cows just did not like it. Another was an annual variety that the cows could be knee-high in, have a sniff and be looking for the gate.”

The Riverina cows averaged 370kg of milksolids (kgms) per cow last season, which is well above the national Jersey average of 290kgms, and the goal is to continue to improve production.

The herd is bred for strong udder confirmation and high milk production and 10 of Riverina’s bulls have been accepted into sire proving schemes over the past five years, among them Riverina Greenman presently standing at Ambreed.

As well as pasture renewal, Warren and Louise have ripped out hawthorn and brambles, re-raced and re-fenced and invested in a new 44-bail rotary dairy and a large-scale, two-pond effluent system.

Irrigation is essential for good summer growth and the farm’s centre pivot has been upgraded and lateral lines extended to irrigate a milking platform of 90ha. An additional 40ha is unirrigated and grows less grass but is useful for wintering cows, rearing young stock and growing maize.

Only 20 percent of the herd’s diet is from supplements in the form of home-grown maize silage plus meal that’s fed in dairy bins – the rest is all fresh pasture.

Website: http://www.germinalseeds.co.nz/

Published: February 16, 2011