Research

Three ways to milking

By Cheyenne Nicholson

New research underway on the South Island demonstration farm will look at the opportunities in the New Zealand farming system.

New research is underway on the Lincoln University Dairy Farm which will look at variable milking frequency, moving the forage base to include plantain and replacement rate reduction.

Three new farming systems are now being implemented to expand Lincoln University Dairy Farm’s (LUDF) focus and extend its outlook through to 2030. The research is on variable milking frequency; moving the forage base to include plantain and replacement rate reduction.

Variable milking frequency

The variable milking programme, which was implemented this season, involves moving from the traditional twice-a-day milking to a more flexible milking regime, with 10 milkings over seven days.

The South Island Dairying Development Centre (SIDDC) demonstration manager Jeremey Savage says that the decision to opt for this over other milking frequencies was down to the science behind it.

“DairyNZ have done some really good trials around variable milking,” Savage says.

“We’ve learned that cows don’t drop as much production as you think they would. They’re only dropping around 5%, which is lower than on once-a-day.”

A variable milking programme will not only improve cow welfare through less lameness, better overall health condition and enhanced vigour, Savage says they’re hoping this change to variable milking will also help improve their empty rates, which will have flow-on effects on their replacement rates.

There are also opportunities to be had around the safety and wellbeing of staff, with kinder rosters, fewer early starts and more condensed workloads allowing for better work-life balance.

“It’s a potential game-changer in terms of how we showcase dairying as a career and entice people into the industry. Lincoln students have been helping out on LUDF this year, which we haven’t done before but the more flexible hours make this achievable for students,” he says.

Increased use of plantain

Starting in October, LUDF will plant at least 10% of the farm a year into plantain.

“This is a forage that may significantly reduce nitrogen leaching. With cow intakes of 30% plantain or higher, we anticipate LUDF will achieve further improvements to its nitrogen leaching results,” he says.

Plantain has been found to have several modes of action when it comes to decreasing nitrogen leaching. It acts as a diuretic making cows urinate little

and, often, reducing the dietary nitrogen in the urine. The nitrogen cycle is slower, allowing more time for plants to take up nitrogen, plus there appears to be a plant-related nitrification inhibitor also involved.

By introducing plantain, LUDF is applying research from the Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching (FRNL) project. FRNL was a six-year cross-sector programme that looked at ways forages can reduce nitrate leaching.

Nearby, Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm is also part of the Plantain Potency and Practice programme – a $22 million research initiative into plantain on dairy farms.

One of the challenges of using plantain is getting the establishment right. LUDF is a “grass-growing machine” and tends to drown out plantain.

“We’ve had some issues with dock as well, so we’ve worked with Agricom to come up with an establishment programme to make sure we get it right the first go,” he says.

The growth rate profile and quality profile of plantain stacks up well against a ryegrass clover mix, which further encourages the team that this will be a winner.

“The potential benefits of reducing onfarm nitrogen leaching by up to 20% by managing the cows’ diets, and without reducing overall herd numbers, are obvious and compelling,” he says.

Replacement rate reduction

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions modelling shows significant gains can be made by dropping the current 28% replacement rate to a target of 1518%.

“LUDF has pulled all the management levers we can to reduce GHG emissions. We’ve dropped supplements, stocking rate and nitrogen use. If we pull these harder, we risk dropping profitability, so being able to fine-tune things like replacement rate is important,” he says.

Savage says that they are hoping that the switch to variable milking will positively affect their empty rate, which has been quite high for the past few years, which will then influence replacement rates.

“We know we have opportunities to look critically at the age structure of the herd – because our empty rate has been high, we have quite a young herd,” he says.

“With all three of these initiatives, we are very well supported by the science and are hoping to showcase to other farmers what can be done. We’ll be giving regular updates on our website, on Facebook and via our focus days.”

SIDDC has revised LUDF farm systems to more effectively contribute to New Zealand dairying and the wider primary sector.

Speaking on behalf of the partnership, Lincoln University deputy vice-chancellor Professor Grant Edwards explains that SIDDC is committed to taking a leadership role in dairy farming in Aotearoa through LUDF.

“It’s important that the partnership regularly reassesses and revisits the farm’s systems to consolidate its position at the vanguard of current and future scenarios,” Edwards says.

DairyNZ general manager for New Systems and Competitiveness Dr David McCall says NZ’s dairy sector is committed to remaining the most sustainable milk producer.

“As a SIDDC partner, we support LUDF implementing new farm systems. It is also exciting to see the adoption of variable milking frequencies, following DairyNZ’s three-year flexible milking project, which highlighted the opportunities this system presents farmers,” McCall says. n

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South Island Dairying Development Centre demonstration manager Jeremey Savage and farm manager Peter Hancox with the herd that will be the focus of three trials looking at different farming systems. Accurate, easy and fully automated - let us help take the stress out of identifying both cycling and attention cows.

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Planning for the future

By Samantha Tennent

Environmental challenges could threaten the country’s food production and food security.

Protecting the billions of dollars New Zealand agriculture contributes to our economy depends on how we deal with the environmental challenges and the future risks of adapting to climate change. Around 83,000 jobs are hinged on agricultural production and related industries in NZ and approximately 14% of Kiwis live rurally.

At a recent webinar hosted by Massey

University, Dr Lucy Burkitt, a senior research officer from the School of

Agriculture and Environment, explored the future of farming. She explained how Massey research is informing how we might best manage the environment for a sustainable future.

“With climate change, parts of the country will get warmer and drier, other areas will get wetter and colder, and this will influence the types of crops we grow, pests and disease prevalence and the risk of nutrient loss from storms,” Burkitt says.

“And we’ve got other challenges too, like greenhouse gas emissions, consumer preferences, changing diets, alternative proteins, trade and market access and importantly, sustainable production and water quality and availability.”

All of the challenges threaten the food supply and the industries that surround it.

“We don’t have to look too far to consider some of the potential impacts of food security,” she says.

“We saw on the news as we went into lockdown the bare shelves in supermarkets as a result of panic buying due to the covid-19 pandemic.”

She went on to explain her vision for the future of farming in NZ and how she thinks it is really important that we take time to understand the geology, the soils and the landscape we are dealing with.

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Dr Lucy Burkitt, Massey University senior research officer from the School of Agriculture and Environment, is part of a team researching best management practices of the environment to ensure a sustainable future in farming.

“It’s critical we have that understanding because then we can match our agricultural enterprises to the right land and minimise the risk of nutrient and sediment loss,” she says.

“And we need to explore new agricultural enterprises that potentially add value and create a win-win for the environment.”

She described a future in a broad aspect that could have mosaics of agricultural systems throughout catchments that match the right land, soils and landscapes to the most suitable practices. In the meantime, applying mitigation strategies to minimise risk where risky agricultural enterprises exist.

“Things like bio-reactors and detainment bunds strategically placed in the environment may be an option for us,” she says.

“I also think it’s important that we look at adopting technology like real-time water quality monitoring, something that we’ve used here at Massey.

“Currently, we can monitor nitrate every 15 minutes in streams and rivers. It’s expensive but hopefully over time that technology will become more readily available.”

She also talked about the opportunities to improve the way things are managed through using technologies like precision agriculture, GPS and soil moisture monitoring. And how integrating native trees and shrubs within agricultural landscapes protects soils and also provides shade for animals, sequesters carbon and increases biodiversity.

Painting the picture of what it could look like, she described how areas with high nitrogen attenuation could host more intensive agriculture industries like crops and animal production, and where the nitrogen attenuation capacity is lower there could be less intensive industries, such as sheep and beef production, for example.

“And then we could add some of these other technologies, use of plantain, for example, introducing more trees into our landscapes, whether it’s forestry or space planted native species,” she says.

“But where we still have issues where we’ve got intensive agriculture we could add in those mitigation strategies like woodchip bioreactors, and finally adding in some real-time monitoring to help farmers identify when and if they’re having an impact on the environment, what they need to act on.”

She says the research Massey undertakes is vital to planning for the future. It is used to inform teaching at all levels, undergraduate, post-graduate and professional development.

The Farmed Landscapes Research Centre has had about 4300 students undertake professional development courses that cover sustainable nutrient management, farm dairy effluent, greenhouse gas emissions and farm environment planning.

“Since 2005, we have educated a huge number of students in terms of the latest understanding of soils, geology, how nutrients are lost and also what the potential mitigation options are,” she says.

“And it’s inevitable that educating these students and professionals will make a significant contribution to how we manage nutrients in agriculture in New Zealand in the future.

“And that’s the legacy that we’re really proud of and want to continue.” n

“It’s inevitable that educating these students and professionals will make a significant contribution to how we manage nutrients in agriculture in New Zealand in the future.” Dr Lucy Burkitt

A growing issue

By Cheyenne Nicholson

New research shows that dairy farms are being threatened by weeds resistant to herbicide.

Herbicide resistance is emerging as a serious and growing threat to New Zealand’s food production.

Recent surveys have found that over half of arable farms and vineyards in some regions have weeds resistant to commonly used herbicides.

AgResearch scientist Dr Trevor James says that when starting this research three years ago, they expected around 5% of farmers to be affected by herbicide resistance.

“The issue is that as this resistance grows, so does the costs and impacts on farmers and crop production in New Zealand,” James says.

“What we found was that the figure is actually closer to 50%. It was a surprising result and makes this a very present issue and not one we can push to the bottom of the list any longer.”

The common resistant weed species being identified include ryegrass, wild oats and chickweed, as well as first-time finds of resistant sow thistle (puha), summer grass, prairie grass and lesser canary grass. These new finds make the issue an emerging threat for dairy farmers as well.

“One of the new weeds we’ve found herbicide resistance to this year is summer grass and we found that in maize crops in the North Island. Any farmer that grows maize for silage knows that summer grass is a difficult weed to kill, so if it starts getting resistance to herbicides, it’s going to be an even larger problem,” he says.

“Similarly resistance in ryegrass is another problem for dairy farmers. While on the face of it you could view it as a good thing, being able to spray out a paddock without spraying out the ryegrass, but it’s quite likely that that resistance ryegrass won’t grow as well.”

Herbicide-resistant weeds were first detected in NZ in 1979, but until recently reporting of herbicide resistance has largely been ad hoc and left to growers and rural professionals to recognise and alert researchers. James stresses that farmers being open and talking about the issue will be crucial in efforts to fight this resistance issue.

“A big part of the issue that needs addressing is the social aspect. Historically and even today, herbicide resistance isn’t talked about among farmers enough,” he says.

“In tackling this we need farmers to be open and talk about it. Farmers are intelligent and have to make important decisions all the time, so a lot of our understanding of this issue from a wider perspective will come from farmers and the decisions they make and how that impacts herbicide resistance.”

He explained that herbicide resistance

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AgResearch scientist Trevor James says the number of farmers affected by herbicide resistance is far greater than expected. Trevor checking out some herbicide-resistant ryegrass in a vineyard.

is an evolutionary process resulting from repeated exposure to the same or similar herbicide and thus is a slow process, which we can use to our advantage. But the solution won’t be as simple as finding the next best chemical, but more in finding a solution through genetics.

Understanding the mechanisms involved in resistance and how it’s passed through the generations of these plants is vital to figuring out strategies to address the issue.

There are 24 known mechanisms that herbicides use, but herbicide-resistant plants have a number of ways of stopping the herbicide working, or translocating it to another site. Figuring out the genetics of these specific mechanisms are difficult to work out and take time.

Work is being done to predict weeds likely to be the next resistant invaders and try to find any commonalities in the weeds that are already developing resistance, as well as to develop a rapid test that enables farmers to leave samples that can be analysed to determine if they are resistant or not.

“We’re also exploring alternatives to herbicides that could help stave off or avoid resistance developing, including tikanga Māori practices and new technology,” he says.

Stepping back from intensification and incorporating cover crops into rotations are also being investigated.

The survey, which is the first of its type for arable crops, is funded from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund. n

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