AgInEd | July 6, 2020

AginED

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FOR E FUTURIA G R R S! U PR EN E

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Volume 14 I July 6, 2020 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz

L O O H SC DAY

E H T

I L O H EDITION!

UN- JUMB L E

these common cattle breeds!

Gunas Liosarach Talmenmis

Rumray Reyg Klepsec Prak Touhs Vonde

DID

MOO

KNOW?

During the school holidays we have a special two-page edition with extra activities for all levels, including fun competitions!

The Farming Kit giveaway!

Pick either the Hereford or Speckle Park breed and draw their typical markings on this cow, you may wish to colour yours in!

DairyNZ’s latest education resource, The Farming Kit, has been distributed to 500 schools to help kids learn more about dairy farming.

The kit is designed for ages 5-7 and contains four core tasks that will see kids designing their own farms, investigating how to mix secondary colours to create artworks, creating a science experiment on transpiration and using storytelling cards to tell stories of daily farm practice.

We have two kits to give away that you could use at home or to take into the classroom! To be in the draw; simply send us a farming related picture with your name and address to: agined@globalhq.co.nz

Hello I am Rosie from DairyNZ’s Rosie’s World. Keep learning these school holidays and take my cow quiz to see how your bovine knowledge stacks up!

1 Which region in NZ has the most dairy cows?

2 How much saliva does a cow produce each day?

3 What is the average herd size in NZ? 4 What is the most common breed of dairy cow in NZ? 5 How long do cows spend chewing their cud each day?

6 How much water do cows drink each day?

Check your answers at www.rosiesworld.co.nz/cow-facts

1 Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz 2 Find and watch the OnFarmStory of Chris Guy “Hold on to this land ” and read the accompanying article “Farming in the city ”.

3 Where is the Guys Farm located?

4 How big is their farm?

STRETCH YOURSELF:

SHOOTING

UP

This week we have been lucky enough to include two educational resources from DairyNZ! This week we will focus on grass! For answers and to see more, head to their website www.dairynz.co.nz and enter ‘perennial ryegrass’ in the search bar and open the grazing guide.

0-leaf stage (Immediately after grazing)

The above diagram shows grazing residual height.

A residual is the height of grass in cm that should be left after grazing to ensure that grass is able to grow back quickly and at a good quality.

1 Looking at the image above, what grazing residual height should be left in winter?

2 What do you think may happen to pasture if grazed too hard and to a very low residual height?

How might this affect the quality of future pasture in this paddock?

1-leaf stage

2-leaf stage

3-leaf stage

The above image from www.dairynz.co.nz shows the different stages and growth of ryegrass. A perennial ryegrass pasture is made up of a population of individual plants, each plant is made up of a number of tillers. and each tiller can only maintain 3 live leaves which grow from the base. By working out how many days it takes for new leaves to emerge from when the pasture was last grazed, farmers will then use this information to determine if and when the pasture will be ready to graze again. Typically, somewhere between the 2-leaf and 3-leaf stage is ready for grazing. Many factors including soil temperature and moisture levels affect growth rates.

Go out into a paddock and collect 5-10 ryegrass tillers being careful to pull them out as close to the dirt as you can. Compare each of the tillers with the picture above, what stage is your pasture at? Is it ready to graze?

SHOW US YOUR BOOTS!

In our school’s this week!

This week we have Feilding High School in the mighty Manawatu. This school is lucky enough to have a dairy farm called Ngakaunui where a robot milks the cows!

There is also a sheep farm called Manawanui where 22 students recently took part in a shearing course.

Send us photos of your much loved or repurposed gumboots! Over the next four weeks we are looking for the best photos of your favourite gummies!

Perhaps you have made yours into some other footwear, or maybe your dad has a pair that are older than you are!

So, send in your photos by 26th July and thanks to Skellerup you could win yourself a brand-new pair of children’s Red Bands if you are chosen as one of our winners!

Make sure you follow these steps to enter: 1 Head to: www.redband.co.nz 2 On their website, find the answer to this question: When was the first pair of Red Band Gumboots manufactured?

3 Include the answer in your email, attach your gumboot photo, and send through to us at: agined@globalhq.co.nz

For answers to last week’s questions and more content head to our website: www.sites.google.com/ view/agined/home

have a think!

STRETCH YOURSELF: 1 Because of their location Chris and his family have a lot of public scrutiny that more isolated properties wouldn’t. What does this mean for their farming practice? ie; What types of things do they need to be particularly mindful of?

2 How many generations of Guys have farmed in Karaka? Why do they think that they may not be able to continue dairy farming where they are in the future?

3 The Guy family touch on possible diversification.

What do you think some good options for possible diversification would be given the region and typography of their land?

4 What is their milk solids target per hectare going forward?

1 There is currently a growing interest in regenerative agriculture.

What is regenerative agriculture?

2 Why do you think people are becoming more interested in this?

3 What are the main benefits of regenerative agriculture? Can you list five examples?

Share your AginEd photos on our Farmers Weekly facebook page Remember to use the hashtag #AginEd Letters to: agined@globalhq.co.nz