4 New era in weather Vol 19 No 3, January 25, 2021
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Rain secures feed surplus Gerald Piddock
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gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz
ARM temperatures and frequent summer rain have led to a bumper season for summer feed crops and pasture covers for livestock farmers in most regions up and down the country. It’s been a remarkable turnaround compared to 12 months ago, where severe drought had written off feed crops and farmers around the North Island were burning through their feed reserves to keep their stock healthy. DairyNZ general manager of farm performance Sharon Morrell says while it has been a good year for many, regions such as Northland was getting dry and areas of the Hauraki Plains also had declining pasture growth rates. Others such as Bay of Plenty are operating on a par compared to last season from a production perspective. In Waikato, Paeroa dairy farmer Bart van der Ven says he would typically struggle to grow a 21-tonne maize crop on the 171ha farm he sharemilks, but this year he believes it will yield at least 22t. “For us, that’s phenomenal. It got the rain at the right time as well, and we’ve just grown a bumper crop,” Van der Ven said. He delayed his planting this season by three weeks, from early to late October, after experiencing establishment issues in the past. This year the crop was out of the ground five days after sowing in
GOOD GROWTH: Paeroa dairy farmer Bart van der Ven says this has been his best year ever for growing maize.
late October and the combination of warmth and good rain saw it take off. He recently checked the cobs on some of the crop, which were 40 kibbles long by 16 kibbles around. “Everything just fell into place,” he said. Once harvested in early March, some of the maize will be fed out straight away while the rest will be stored until required. The extra feed will mean a longer milking season and he
predicts he will be easily milking into May. “I’m growing the most maize I’ve ever had. Last year I grew 4.5ha, this year 7.5ha. Last year I had to buy an extra 3ha of maize in and I still couldn’t milk into May,” he said. He says pastures are still growing strong with the feed quality holding up well. “Looking at the grass situation at the moment, we could have six weeks of a drought and still
milk into May. I’ve never been so stoked in the summer, the mental health’s doing really well,” he said. His herd is halfway through its second grazing on his 19ha chicory crop, which was also looking superb, getting 2.5kg of drymatter per cow off it. At Te Poi, south of Matamata, sharemilker Matthew Zonderop says the farm had so much grass for his 400 cows that it was posing a dilemma with his 12.5t/ha turnip crop close to being ready.
Everything just fell into place. Bart van der Ven Farmer The crop had to be eaten, while at the same time trying to maintain the pasture quality as
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