New Zealand
March 4, 2011

The resilience of Aber high sugar grass has seen Tokoroa dairy farmer Graeme Barr (photo) through another dry summer.

“This area usually holds on to soil moisture longer than most regions but I have never seen Tokoroa as dry as this summer,” said Graeme, pleased that he has at least a third of his farm growing Aber high sugar grass.

“If it had not been for the AberMagic and AberDart paddocks then it would definitely have been more of a struggle,” said Graeme, who first planted AberDart six years ago and each autumn converts more paddocks into the dense and deep-rooted AberHSG (high sugar grass) pasture.

Reasons for planting more AberHSG are that it grows a denser feed crop than other grasses, especially in dry conditions, and it’s recovery after grazing, and after rain, is quicker.

It’s a grass that has also lifted the herd’s milk production.

Graeme’s milk collection receipts from Fonterra show a significant lift in milk production coinciding with dates when the high sugar grass paddocks were grazed.

The increases last season averaged an extra 195 litres a day, or just over an extra one litre of milk per cow a day, when the 176-cow herd grazed AberHSG pasture for 24 hours prior to a milk collection.

The consequent 10kg increase in milksolids is worth, at today’s payout rate, an extra $69 a day.

For each 12 hour grazing period of AberHSG pasture, plus 12 hours on another type of ryegrass pasture, the vat increase averaged an extra 45 litres of milk.

“The cows do milk well off the AberDart. The reason is that they’re firing on the extra metabolisable energy,” said Graeme, who last autumn planted the latest AberHSG cultivar, AberMagic, because it is a ryegrass offering even higher sugar content.

He plans to continue converting three-to-five paddocks a year into AberMagic.

He is pleased that their stocking rate is lower at just under three cows per hectare because it allows for less grazing intensity during the tougher seasons.

“I believe in less cows and more production,” says Graeme, a commercial helicopter pilot who has extended the farm developed by his father Jim.

Farm manager Neil Allers is enthusiastic about optimising cow condition and soil health while maintaining high production – the Friesian cows producing 400kgms (milksolids) per cow in a typical season and almost 1200kgms per hectare, which by both counts is well above the South Waikato average.

Graeme said the AberHSG paddocks have contributed to a more flexible farming system by providing resilient and high quality pasture, and more of it, especially during the dry summers.

“Typically there’s been an AberDart paddock that’s not due to be grazed for another seven days but the temptation has been to let the cows in sooner. Then they really do graze it to the ground.”

Agricultural consultant and former AgResearch scientist Mike O’Connor (photo), who visited four farms last winter to assess the performance of five-year-old AberHSG pasture, said the droughts have been a good test of their persistency.

“Graeme was, like the other farmers I visited, very strong on those points of persistency and palatability of the Aber grass. They are big benefits in anyone’s book,” said Mike.

He said the persistency of Aber high sugar grasses is enhanced by their deeper roots that access more soil moisture.

“The palatability to stock is very relevant but difficult to prove, but this was a quality emphasized by all four farmers I met, and all very good farmers.”

The AberHSG cultivars had apparently resisted insect attack better than other ryegrasses on those farms, he said.
 

Caption:
Tokoroa dairy farmer Graeme Barr opens a fresh paddock of AberDart high sugar grass that persists through droughts and lifts milk production.
Caption:
Agricultural consultant Mike O’Connor: persistency and palatability seen.
 

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

Published: March 4, 2011