STOCK DAIRYNZ
Off for a comfy liedown you were to pick up a handful of soil you could clump it together, but your hands armers often tell me that would still be relatively clean from mud. caring for their cows and the To truly assess this onfarm, try using environment lies at the heart the gumboot scoring method. If you put of their dairy farming your gumboot into the ground, observe practice. Over winter, the pooling of water in the print. If ensuring we are doing daily it quickly fills up with water or the checks and reacting to our soil oozes into the footprint, then animals’ behaviour and the ground is too wet for a cow to to weather conditions is find comfortable. essential. You want to see a boot imprint Implementing good with no liquid pooling. management practices will Wet mud and surface pooling of Dawn Dalley. help you make a difference this water will have a negative impact on winter. Below are some of the lying time, so a suitable lying area main areas you should be considering, to should be provided, especially if weather support your animals’ health and comfort. conditions do not improve within 24 hours.
Words by: Dawn Dalley
F
LYING TIME
Cows need to lie for at least 8 hours per day to maintain their health and comfort. We have observed that these needs are often met, but some animals do not achieve this throughout winter. Research has shown that during and on the day after rainfall events, some animals do not sit down for up to 24 hours due to sodden soil conditions with water pooling. Once the weather improved, they spent more time lying down, to compensate.
IDENTIFYING SUITABLE LYING AREAS
We need to provide cows with a comfortable lying surface, but what does that look like? Cows prefer soil which is ‘crumbly’. If 72
PROVIDING A COMFORTABLE LYING SURFACE
Here are a few suggestions of how you can do this: • Move the break fence regularly to provide fresh ground, as long as it does not result in overallocation of crop and create potential nutritional risks. • Strategically graze the paddock, avoiding wet areas. • Protect the area closest to the feeding face by grazing animals into the prevailing weather conditions. • Save drier areas, especially any with shelter, for your contingency plan. • During wet conditions allow cows more space by giving access to ground behind
STRATEGIC GRAZING There are a few different options to consider. • Graze towards critical source areas (CSA) or water bodies to protect them from overland flow. • Ensure grass buffers around CSA’s are left ungrazed until the end of winter. • If you have cultivated your CSA, create a buffer of ungrazed crop to protect the CSA and eat this off at the end of winter. Next winter remember to identify and leave CSA’s uncultivated. • Graze from the top of the slope down to reduce overland flow, by maintaining soil structure and allowing water to soak into undamaged soil. • If you don’t want to graze your animals downhill, graze across a slope with a buffer at the bottom. • Save breaks near shelter or drier areas for your contingency plan. No two farms will have the same threshold for implementing a plan B. Plan with your team in advance, so everyone is on the same page for implementing your contingency plan and understand daily expectations during winter. • Winter grazing plans and additional information to support farmers this winter are available at dairynz.co.nz/wintering.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | June 2021
