Cropping and pasture

There are several different types of ryegrass ranging from perennials, long and short-lived hybrids, annuals and bi-annuals.

Know your pastures

By Gerald Piddock

Knowledge is power when it comes to managing plant species in your paddocks.

Farmers considering using ryegrass alternatives on their paddock sward need to understand the different roles these species can play in a pasture mix.

That means farmers need to take a bit of personal responsibility to learn about these species so they can make a more informed decision, Agricom’s Allister

Moorhead told farmers at the Smaller

Milk and Supply Herds conference near

Lake Karapiro.

Knowing that information can be empowering for the farmer, he says.

Species such as cocksfoot, prairie grass, tall fescue and brooms are used throughout New Zealand and in many cases are the right species for that space.

“All of these species have a position and a place,” Moorhead says.

“There is a diversity of options. What

I implore you to do is know your plants because knowing your plants helps build expectations and your expectations will be met by knowing what you are doing.”

Outside of ryegrass, other species have not been a traditional go-to option for the dairy industry.

He says this is because ryegrass had been so simplistic and easy for farmers that it was the last thing they would want to move away from.

A 2015 report by the NZIER showed that the value of this plant species to the

NZ economy was around $14 billion.

“Perennial ryegrass – I can’t emphasise enough – it is big, it is massive. Some of you see it as being imperfect now, but the reality is there is nothing as good as perennial ryegrass in the whole world to base a cow outdoor feeding system on. It is a magnificent grass species.”

This grass, however, copped a hiding when it did not meet those high expectations. This was particularly the case in the upper North Island where the pastures were no longer lasting.

White clover, which was essential for milk production and fixing nitrogen was valued around $2 billion.

In contrast, brassica crops’ contribution was around $200 million and Lucerne, chicory and plantain crops also contributed $42-$45m.

While Moorhead believed these are underestimated, it still put the scale of ryegrass’s contribution into perspective.

“Look at the scale. There is no way that even the increase we have seen in chicory or lucerne could compare to the economic return of ryegrass for this country,” he says.

There are several different types of ryegrass ranging from perennials, long and short-lived hybrids, annuals and biannuals.

Cocksfoot, for example, was capable of great dry matter production in conditions that are not ideal for ryegrass. Its downside was it took a long time to establish.

“If you are not ready for that, it’s going to be a shock to your system,” he says.

Discussions around diversity in pastures and regenerative farming associated with that had pushed these conversations beyond just above the ground to the animal.

It had made more people realise the soil and the roots played a huge role in understanding why some plants may not be working to their potential.

Moorhead says ryegrass, for example, may not be growing properly if the ground was compacted.

“It’s pretty hard to deny that if the ground feels like concrete under this much topsoil that it is having an interaction with what might be happening with your plant in dry conditions,” he says.

“Probably this discussion around diversity, around regenerative agriculture has got us back to a discussion where we are prepared to take the time and scratch the surface and look at stuff we probably should have been always looking at.” n

Even brassica crops’ $200 million contribution cannot compare to the $14 billion that ryegrass contributes to the NZ economy, Agricom’s Allister Moorhead says.

Hard to replace

By Gerald Piddock

A leading scientist agrees that the global food system should be plant based despite the large amount being wasted.

The global food system needs to be plant-based but animal optimised to reflect the critical role animal-sourced nutrition can play, Fonterra chief science and technology officer Jeremy Hill says.

Speaking at the Pasture Summit in Hamilton via Zoom, Hill said Riddet Institute modelling had proven this, showing the critical role animal-sourced nutrition played with providing all the nutrients people require.

“We often hear that the global food system should be plant-based. I actually agree with that, it should absolutely be plant-based,” Hill says.

About 77% of the nine billion tonnes of plant-based biomass in the global food system ends up as food chain and around 23% comes from animals.

Of the 1.5 billion tonnes of the world’s animal-based biomass, about half of it was milk. In global diets, people consume 75% plant-based biomass and 25% animal biomass.

“But staggeringly, 91% of the world food’s biomass waste comes from the plant-based food system and about 9% from animals,” he says.

“Looking at this another way, of the 100% of the plant-based food biomass produced, we end up consuming 39%.”

About 15% of plant-based biomass was used to feed animals, but people ended up consuming 78% of 100% of the animals produced.

“This is often missing from the debate,” he says.

He believed there were enough macronutrients in the world to feed 8.5 billion people by 2030 provided it was properly distributed and accessible.

“Macro-nutrient deficiency is not the problem it’s been made out to be,” he says.

“We actually produce enough protein and the essential amino acids in the protein to feed the protein requirements of the global population in 2050.

“The key point is that 7-8% of the biomass that leaves the world’s farms as milk has a disproportionate contribution to nutrition.”

Not only was it a major supplier of nutrients, it is hard to replace when compared to the contributions of other foods and it was hard to replace without dramatically increasing other food groups.

“We’re not just talking one or two-fold, we’re talking 10-20, or even more, fold,” he says.

But while dairy is a nutrient-dense and rich food, it was not a good source of all nutrients. While it had a pivotal role in the food system, he says it did not do it all.

While it could be replaced as a pure protein source, it was much more difficult when it came to finding replacements for the other nutrients dairy provides compared to other foods.

“Nutrition comes first and any food system that fails to meet the minimum nutrition requirements of the global population cannot be considered a sustainable food system,” he says.

On the question of greenhouse gases (GHG) and whether dairy consumption should be reduced, Hill says globally, around 20-30% of GHG are caused by the food system and dairy was responsible for 2-3% of that, shifting to 4% if dairybeef is included.

When put into the context of its nutritional composition compared to plants, he says it was arguably a good tradeoff.

“It’s a good deal, but not a perfect deal … and we need to improve the efficiency and the sustainability of our dairy chains,” he says.

Hill says this had to be done because dairy played such a valued role in global nutrition. n

Fonterra chief science and technology officer Jeremy Hill says dairy has a huge role to play in the global food system.

Interest in maize growing

Recent changes in environmental regulations for winter cropping and a significant increase in the price of imported supplements, including palm kernel, is driving higher dairy farmer interest in maize silage.

“While the recently announced

Essential Freshwater rules will have significant implications for grazed crops, they represent ‘business as usual’ for growing maize,” Pioneer farm systems and environment specialist Ian Williams says.

One of the most talked about new rules is the cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser application.

“While we encourage responsible nitrogen use, it is important to note that the 190 kg/ha synthetic nitrogen application rule does not apply to maize silage or grain crops, regardless as to whether they are grown on arable or livestock farms,” he says.

The new rules introduce restrictions on intensification activities with resource consents being needed to expand the area of grazed forage crops or dairy support activities above historical levels.

Intensive winter grazing of forage crops will also require a consent where the activity occurs over 50ha, or 10%, of the property, whichever is the greater and where it occurs on slopes 10 degrees or steeper.

“Maize silage is harvested and stored so it is not affected by the intensification or winter grazing restrictions that affect most other crops,” he says.

“It offers a proven solution for livestock farmers who are looking for wintering options which don’t involve intensive grazing.”

Maize is also proving to be a great option for farmers who have relied on high amounts of palm kernel in past seasons.

“The great thing about maize is that it is locally grown and so we don’t see the large price swings you get with an imported commodity,” he says.

This season palm kernel price has lifted on the back of higher point-of-origin prices, but also drastically increased shipping costs. The Baltic Dry index, which provides a daily benchmark for the price of moving bulk raw materials, Maize silage is a low-cost supplement that’s great for increasing cow condition, extending lactation and filling feed deficits and has the potential to reduce nitrogen leaching.

“A maize crop offers farmers a financially viable option to mop up surplus nitrogen on effluent paddocks or after grazed winter crops.”

Ian Williams

including feeds, by sea has risen more than 110% in the past year.

“Maize silage is a low-cost supplement that’s great for increasing cow condition, extending lactation and filling feed deficits,” he says.

“And if you are a Fonterra supplier, you can feed high amounts of maize silage without having to worry about any impact on the Fat Evaluation Index (FEI).”

Maize also has well-documented water and nitrogen use efficiency benefits. The maize plant has a water-use efficiency 2-3 times that of perennial ryegrass and it can draw nutrients, including nitrogen which have dropped below the rooting depth of pasture species.

Williams says maize has the potential to reduce nitrogen leaching on dairy farms.

Recently published research conducted by Pioneer® brand seeds shows the annual nitrogen leaching loss under maize silage followed by a harvested annual ryegrass catch-crop can be as low as 6kg N/ha.

“A maize crop offers farmers a financially viable option to mop up surplus nitrogen on effluent paddocks or after grazed winter crops,” he says.

“It’s a crop with a lot of proven environmental benefits and continued advances in crop establishment and management practices will see maize become even greener in the years ahead.” n

A winning formula

By Gerald Piddock

Dairy products and in particular, grass-fed products, are performing strongly post-covid in overseas markets.

The post-covid world has presented huge opportunities for grass-fed dairy products because of how it has changed consumer buying patterns, leader of Ireland’s billion-dollar Kerry Gold dairy brand says.

Speaking via Zoom at the Pasture Summit in Hamilton, Ornua chief executive John Jordan says there is “without question” growth opportunities for grass-fed dairy products.

Ornua is the owner of Ireland’s Kerry Gold brand, exporting to 110 countries around the world.

What is unknown, he says, is what life will be like post-covid.

In developed markets, it forced consumers to eat at home and this magnified some of the emerging consumer trends pre-covid.

These included the absolute need and want for brand transparency and integrity.

“The questions and engagement they ask is phenomenal. The trust they have in products is critical and it’s really important that we protect that,”Jordan says.

He says there had been a realisation that what people ate impacted on their health and dairy has been seen as a very positive part of a diet.

It had led to a resurgence of dairy and it had performed very strongly in all of Ornua’s markets.

“We genuinely believe that because Ireland and New Zealand are the two countries remaining for grass-based systems ... that’s a USP (unique selling point) – it’s a real point of difference. It’s a physical difference you can see in the product.”

He described Kerry Gold as its “crown jewel” and a great asset.

“It’s Ireland’s first-ever billion-Euro brand,” he says.

That branding was centred on milk produced from grass-fed cows in Ireland.

Its butter was the second largest brand in the United States behind LandO-Lakes’.

There had been a fundamental shift in people’s attitudes, Nestlé head of dairy corporate sustainable agricultural development Robert Erhard said, also via Zoom.

People recognised they lived in a finite environment and they had a duty to take care of the planet.

“The sense of accountability is very strong. All of us have a role to play,” Erhad says.

It was no longer about what people or companies did, but what they were impacting and this is why companies had adopted language such as responsible sourcing and rebuilding nature.

Farmers needed to think about the inputs they use and the biodiversity that was there, how it was built up and nurtured and how they can capture evidence and proof of how they are driving that forward.

“You are doing a lot of things right. Let it be captured and let it be shared that you are on a regenerative form of agriculture,” he says.

“We as a dairy industry need to move towards low-carbon dairy farming or netzero dairy farming.”

He says this was challenging but possible.

“That is something if you are looking to the future to what will matter, climate is going to be an important part,” he says.

He defined regenerative agriculture as a farming method where the farmer works with nature rather than against it, including water and soil health and biodiversity and animal welfare.

Consumers were asking farmers to move towards this type of agriculture, he says.

There will be a transformation for the dairy production system and for those operating a production system closer to nature, it should be less challenging.

Nestlé had committed to being net zero emissions by 2050 and to regenerative agriculture. It wanted to achieve this through a collaborative approach to ensure dairy had a good future, he said.

Erhard says there are beverage products out there that are wanting to compete with milk and are trying to mimic milk’s nutritional elements.

“Moving away from animal proteins in a healthy diet realistically is very challenging for anyone up to 20-30 years of age,” he says.

He saw plant-based protein drinks as complementing dairy, rather than in competition as global population growth continued.

“When you look at additional milk volume growth that is happening on the plant, with the additional people that are required, I think we are seeing an enemy we may not actually have,” he says.

It was not a question of one or the other, but finding the right balance between the two. n

Ornua chief executive John Jordan says dairy produced from grass-fed cows gave products a unique selling point.

Nestlé head of dairy corporate sustainable agricultural development Robert Erhard says there has been a fundamental shift in people’s attitude towards dairy.

Accept the challenge

By Gerald Piddock

There are steps famers can take to meet the challenges around lowering emissions.

Dairy farmers need to let go of their fear and face up to the industry’s environmental challenges, DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Bruce

Thorrold says.

Those challenges are primarily the regulations around water quality lowering the industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, he said in updating New

Zealand’s progress around environmental mitigation at the Pasture Summit in

Hamilton.

The scientific challenge was that methane and nitrogen are the heart of farming systems.

“If we are going to break the link between nitrogen inputs and N loss, we have to reorganise the nitrogen cycle,” Thorrold says.

“If we are to break the link between feed eaten and methane production, we have to reorganise the rumen.”

He says these are major challenges to how farming is thought about.

There are lots of existing tools available to help with the N challenge, such as reducing N inputs, using off pasture systems to reorganise the N cycle and using plantain. Precision fertiliser technology such as Spikey and new kinds of inhibitors are also in the pipeline.

For GHG, the first target was to take waste feed out of the farming system. There are also methane inhibitors being trialled, such as seaweed, which could help reduce the industry’s emissions.

Thorrold says it was important to differentiate between total GHG emissions and GHG intensity, as the Government was much more interested in total emissions.

However, consumers are more interested in GHG intensity – how much GHG does it take to make a kilogram of product?

The two were quite different, he says.

Farmers can meet these targets through a mix of voluntary action, GHG pricing through He Waka Eke Noa and regulation.

A vaccination was still seen as the industry’s silver bullet, while other technology such as an early life rumen reset has also been looked at by researchers.

Low-emitting cattle are also being bred via genetics, with both LIC and CRV active in long-term projects looking at this.

“It’s not enough to be an efficient cow. You have to be a cow that breaks the link between methane and feed eaten,” he says.

Planting more trees was the simplest answer to storing more carbon on farms. New Zealand’s soils were naturally already high in carbon, meaning there are limited options to increasing carbon levels in soils.

Biochar is a potential solution if the economics could be made to stack up, but another solution is the pasture diversity and grazing management techniques used in regenerative agriculture.

NZ may be world-leading in dairy farming, but he says its competitors were moving quickly to catch up.

“We have options now. We have options to make our businesses more profitable and with a lower footprint and to set ourselves up for 2030 or for when the technologies kick through to give us a sustainable and productive sector,” he says.

Thorrold says food production was not exempt from the need to do better.

“Clearly what our DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Bruce Thorrold says the scientific challenge for reducing dairying’s environmental impact was that methane and nitrogen lay at the heart of farming systems.