AginED
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FOR E FUTURIA G R R S! U E N E R P
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Volume 20 I August 17th, 2020 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz
Taylor Bremner and her dog Polar Bear talk over some future farming strategies.
in your fridge
1 Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz 2 Find and watch the OnFarm Story of Mark Olsen “Get out there and move” and read the accompanying article “One step at a time”. 3 Where in NZ does Mark Farm? 4 What did Mark study at University?
Milksolids production per cow and per effective hectare since 1992/93
5 What is Mark’s other passion aside from dairy farming?
STRETCH YOURSELF: 1 What is Mark’s basic farming system? How does this work? If you were to go to your fridge now, how many dairy based products would you find? Now head to your pantry, do you think any of the things you have in your cupboards have any dairy origin? Read some labels and check to see if you were right. 1 Go the AgriHQ market snapshot page 2 What was the North Island steer price last week? 3 How is this tracking compared to year-ago levels?
STRETCH YOURSELF: This graph is from the DairyNZ Economic Survey. This shows milk production in kg of milksolids per cow on the average dairy farm increased by 5% in the 2018-19 season to 395 kilograms milksolids. 1 Looking at the whole graph, the overall trend is that the average milksolids per cow is lifting. Can you name some things that might be driving this? These could be anything from management practices, new technologies or even things such as improved genetics. 2 This graph shows the 2018-2019 season. In your opinion, what will the graph for the 20192020 season look like? Will milk production lift or fall? Think about things such as what the weather was like during that time. How might this have affected things such as pasture levels and therefore milk production for farmers?
Like a few other food types people are looking at substitutes for dairy staples that have graced our fridges and pantries for several generations. Why do you think people are wanting to look at substitutes for these? (excluding allergies). What do you think the health benefits (if any) are from either dairy or non-dairy substitutes? Send us your responses to: agined@globalhq.co.nz
2 Mark believes his sport has physical and mental benefits for him. Do you think that a sport or hobby off farm benefits farmers? Can you tell us what you see the benefits being? (If you need a starting point Mark talks about the ways he finds it helps him and his farming). 3 What is Mark’s current milking shed system? He talks about the possibility of modernising some features later down the track. What do you think would be of the most benefit to him taking into consideration his current farming system? 4 Mark tracks his pasture using traditional paper wedges. Outline what these are and how they work. What information is gleaned from these? 5 How big is Mark’s farm? How many cows does he milk? How much milksolids does he currently produce? He would like to increase his milksolid productivity, how does he propose to do that?
FILL YA BOOTS: 1 Can you name any three supplementary feeds commonly used in NZ for cattle? 2 Kiwifruit can be used as a supplementary feed. Is this statement true or false?
For answers to last week’s questions and more content head to our website: www.sites.google.com/view/agined/home