News -

Long summer dry brings diverse challenges for Northland farmers

The long summer dry has delivered a round of challenges for Northland farmers - drought, lower pasture growth, facial eczema spore counts on the rise - and now crickets.

None are insurmountable, however, according to Northland's FarmWise Consultant, Neil Smith.

In general pasture cover throughout the region is lower than average for this time of year, with pasture growth rates 50% below for early March.

"Lack of rain, combined with increased numbers of black crickets causing pasture damage, facial eczema spore counts on the rise and cows at risk of, or already, losing condition are just some of the things farmers need to be proactively addressing," Neil Smith says.

"It's important that farmers regularly check on availability of water for all stock and ensure replacements are fed to requirements.

"Calves need 4kg DM (dry matter) each a day and farmers should continue feeding them meal or palm kernel, particularly if pasture supply is limited.

"Heifers should be fed between 5kg and 7kg of Dry Matter each per day, and palm kernel where required.

"Feeding supplement to in-milk cows should continue and cows producing less than 0.30kg MS (milk solids) per day should be dried off.

"Autumn calving farms need to prioritise feed for calving in late March/early April and supplements used to increase grazing round length."

Neil Smith says the aim of most farmers is to maintain as many cows in profitable milk production as possible to the end of the season.

"In order to maintain profitable milk production and hold spring cows at 60-65% of peak production, farmers will need to maintain grazing residuals at 1300 - 1500kg DM/ha.

"They should be targeting daily milk production at between 0.7 - 1.0kg MS/cow/day.

"Grazing rounds should be held at 30 days for spring calving herds, with round lengths increasing to 50 - 60 days by the end of March for autumn calving herds.

"Any cows below CS3 (condition score) must be dried of immediately and their intakes targeted at 9kg DM/cow/day."

Neil Smith warns heat stress could potentially be a major issue for many cows in the region at the moment.

"To help avoid heat stress farmers should, where possible, reduce the walking distance and speed to the cowshed. For those milking twice a day it is better to milk later in the afternoons and to walk to the further-most paddock after afternoon milking."

Neil Smith said, "now is the time for dairy farmers to complete a feed budget for the next eight to nine months so they are then able to calculate feed demand and feed supply on a monthly basis and calculate a feed wedge.

"LIC's MINDA Expected Calving By Date Report will help them calculate feed demand. All paddocks should be plate metered monthly and grazing residuals monitored.

"Good pasture management and planning will ensure feed supply is matched with cow demand for both in-milk and dry cows and will help farmers predict the level of supplement to be fed, and the amount of nitrogen required.

"Monitoring will allow farmers to keep track of pasture growth rates and changes in pasture supply helping build an overall picture of annual growth patterns.

"Typical feed demand per hectare is 35 - 45 kg DM ha/day, in a normal season average pasture growth rates in March are between 30-35kg DM ha/day (currently half this) with pasture utilisation at about 80%.

"Milking cows are now, on average, eight months post-calving, requiring (assuming 11.0 MJ ME (mega joules of metabolisable energy) feed) 11kg DM/day for Jerseys, 13kg DM/day for crossbreds, and 15kg DM/day for Holstein Friesians."

Neil Smith said Northland farmers are generally buoyant, feeling more optimistic now that payouts have stabilised and are making the necessary plans to see their herds calve and achieve optimum production in the 2010/2011 season.