Demonstration farm report | Rural

Wet weather over late December and early January resulted in good pasture growth rates and feed conditions on the Stratford Demonstration farm for January, but growth has slowed down with recent dry weather.

The situation is however, still reasonably good for early February. Milk production was relatively poor for the
good feed levels up to mid January, but with more settled weather milk levels have lifted to be relatively good
for early February. As expected, the low- stocked low-input herd has had good levels of supplements made
 while the high-stocked high-input farmlet has only harvested a small amount and PKE supplement continues
to be fed.

After a good 10 days of hay making weather before Christmas, late December was very wet with  344 mm of
rain for the month, which was double over average levels. January started off wet, but has ended up with only 125mm rain or 85 per cent of average levels. This rain and warm conditions resulted in good January pasture
growth rates of 57kg DM/ha/day.

The early January pastures seem to lack energy and digestibility and milk production reflected this with relatively
poor milk production levels of  1.25 kg milksolids per cow per day from the herd on all grass feeding. This
has lifted to over 1.4 kg over late January. The high-stocked high- input herd with PKE feeding has maintained a steady level of 1.4 kg milksolids per cow per day over the period. Per hectare levels reflect the stocking
rate difference with the low-stocked herd currently doing 4.0 kg milksolids per hectare and the high-stocked
herd 5.6 kg milksolids per hectare. Total production for the season to end January is near 247 kg milksolids per cow for both herds and 691 and 977 kg milksolids per hectare for the low-and high-stocked herds, respectively. Supplements made are a high 403 kg DM/cow for the low-stocked herd, but only 22 kg DM/cow for the high-
stocked herd. This is much as expected with the different stocking rates. This should be sufficient for the low-
stocked herd to milk on well into May and feed the cows well in the winter without brought in feed. The high-stock herd will continue to need plenty of brought in feed for this.

Currently both herds are on near 30-day grazing rounds and the misty rain should keep grass growing well for early February. The low-stocked herd is being comfortably fed on all-grass feeding and should continue so for
the next few months. The high-stocked herd is being supplemented with around 4kg PKE/ cow/day to maintain a
good feed level and this will continue with more PKE if needed as long as pastures are being utilised well. It
can be difficult getting the right level of supplement feeding as it is easy to feed too much PKE and have good milk production levels, but waste pasture and have poor future pasture quality.

• Graeme Pitman is a farm management consultant.