One of the great privileges of working in dairy consultancy is being able to observe and collect innovations and exciting ideas from successful farmers in one location, and then mould, adapt and apply these to a wider variety of situations with other farmers that are also willing to innovate and try new things. Our recent field day at Lemongrove was a great example of just this concept. For many years I have been working together with clients and their farms on developing pastures that break away from the norm and start at cover some of the gaps in their pasture production and risk management systems. The field day wasn’t just a great chance to showcase some of these great pastures and how we go about getting them. It was also a great opportunity to explore how farmers ideas and observations can be captured and developed into farming systems, and how individuals that think “outside the square” and challenge conventional wisdom can shift “out of the box” concepts and techniques into the mainstream with benefits for many.

1. Neil Moss BVSc PhD Dip Vet Clin Stud
SBScibus
www.sbscibus.com.au

3.  To introduce you to our pasture program at
Lemongrove
 To show you around a little
 To discuss what we are trying to achieve and
how we are going about it
 To present some data and to discuss some of
our early findings

4.  Background- most coastal dairy pastures in
kikuyu-ryegrass rotation
◦ Produces forage for most months of year
◦ High but variable yielding system
◦ Retains drought and weed resilliance of kikuyu base
◦ Resistant to wet weather and pugging
 But!
◦ Needs resowing every year
◦ Highly dependent on nitrogen
◦ Shallow rooted
◦ Moderate summer feed quality

5.  Background
◦ Attempts made 10-15 years ago to replace kikuyu
with perennial rye based pastures
 Poor persistence
 Grass weed invasion
 Poor summer productivity
 Endophyte issues
 Poor growth in dry periods
 Maybe we have been looking at the wrong
perennial pasture options?

6.  Could work well if we can establish and
maintain them
 Much lower requirement for nitrogen
 Could have a different growth curve to grass
based pastures
 Many are tap-rooted
◦ Deeper moisture and nutrient extraction
 Could have excellent pasture quality in
warmer months
 May form part of a pasture portfolio-risk
management benefits

7.  But!
◦ May have problems with broad leaf weeds
◦ Risks with water-logging
◦ Would need enough area for a constant rotation
◦ May not produce enough feed
◦ May need cultivation to establish effectively
◦ May not produce enough feed in winter
◦ Persistence issues?
There is a need to know more!!

8.  Started to look at new options 7-8 years ago
with innovative clients on the MNC

10.  Apparent success needed to be backed with
data
 Lemongrove Research Farm applied
successfully through Caring for Country grant
to allow a quantitative field study into these
pastures
 Project commenced beginning 2011

11.  We new that timing was important
 We had stabilised a preparation strategy and
sowing method
 We had a good indication of the shape of the
pasture curve and had looked at ways to
address is deficiencies
 We were achieving some fantastic feed quality
with responses in the vat
 We were using substantially less fertiliser

12.  Treatment and control paddocks selected
◦ Treatment – oats followed by legume/herb pasture
◦ Control- traditional kikuyu rye pastures
 Soil tested
 Preparation and sowing program defined
 Get started!

13.  Pasture growth
 Nutrients applied
 Changes in soil chemistry
 Feed quality
 Milk production (anecdotal)
 Chemical use
 Soil moisture

14.  Knockdown herbicides in summer prior to
crop- prefer 2 sprays
 Remove trash if necessary
 Direct drill forage oats in late February
 Control broadleaf weeds, graze, fertilise
◦ Targeted >3 grazings before spraying out again in
late winter
 Spray out late winter
 Sow pasture mix in Late July/August

15.  Direct drill with disc seeder in early August
 Mix
◦ 8.5kg/ha Stamina GT6 Lucerne
◦ 4kg/ha Bulldog red clover
◦ 1.5kg/ha Kopu II white clover
◦ 1.5kg/ha Will ladino white clover
◦ 2kg/ha Tonic Plantain
◦ 2,5kg/ha Puna Chicory

17.  Kill out
oats
 Direct
drill
new
seed
mix

26. 10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
2000
6000
8000
4000
0
Date
20/02/2011
9/04/2011
16/04/2011
2/05/2011
7/05/2011
30/05/2011
1/06/2011
29/06/2011
30/06/2011
2/08/2011
7/08/2011
31/08/2011
24/09/2011
18/10/2011
9/11/2011
12/11/2011
4/12/2011
6/12/2011
5/01/2012
6/01/2012
24/01/2012
31/01/2012
14/02/2012
21/02/2012
treatment
cumulative yield
cumulative yield control

27. total 16413 15310
grazings 11 13
average 1492.091 1177.692
yield since crop online 8134 6407

28. Components: Treatment Test 1: Control Test 1: Treatment Test 2: Control Test 2:
% NDF 30.7 46.3 30.4 51.4
% Crude Protein 32 24.1 33.1 27.5
% Ash 13.33 11.34 11.35 10.41
Lignin % NDF 12.4 3.9 16.8 5.6
% Calcium 1.23 0.58 1.37 0.53
% Phosphorus 0.45 0.42 0.45 0.43
% Magnesium 0.36 0.3 0.36 0.26
% Potassium 3.28 3.13 3.18 3.16
% ADF 23.6 26.3 23.1 26.7
% Lignin 3.8 1.8 5.1 2.9
% NFC 25.2 18.6 27.6 14.4
Relative Feed Value 214 138 217 123
ME (MJ/kg) 11.63 10.8 11.76 10.97
ME CPM (MJ/kg DM) 10.16 8.58

29. Treatment control
Urea kg/ha N kg/ha kg/ha N kg/ha
urea 445 204.7 urea 1115 512.9
pasture pasture
boosta 240 55.2 boosta 110 25.3
259.9 538.2
N units since N units since
July 55 July 287.5

30.  Retain legume/herb stand for next 12
months
 Continue summer grass control (Chem) and
broad leaf (machinery)
 Oversow with PRG in Autumn 2013- aim for 2
years from this

31.  Need to control broad leaf weeds in oats in Y1
 Need to be careful being too aggressive with
annuals oversowing- lost plants in winter 1 with
this
 Need to control grass weeds better in summer 1
and 2- need to be prepared to take annual rye out
in late November
 Need to be careful with N use and grazing
management of ryegrasses when oversown
◦ Shading and competition risk
 Water-logging is major risk- drainage critical
 Need to improve effluent application