Workshop teaches principles of effective

BY DAVID FAMULARO

On a warm summers morning last Thursday, a small collection of dairy sta˜ from around the South Wairarapa met at Kaiwaiwai Dairies on the Featherston-Martinborough highway for a DairyNZ organised discussion group on how to measure and allocate pasture.

Most of the attendees were young men and women, with Senior DairyNZ Extension Partner Abby Scott stressing, when I momentarily talked to her before the event started, that a good understanding of the basics of pasture management and feed allocation are key for anyone new to the industry.

Somewhat surprisingly, it turns out, this is a message that is also relevant for those who have been in the dairy industry in the Wairarapa for many years.

Supported by Aidan Bichan, one of the shareholders of Kaiwaiwai Dairies and part of its management team, Abby ÿ rst went through the principles of pasture allocation which turn out to be surprisingly simple, and which, with a few simple equations, can be used to determine the comparative rates of grown of di˜ erent paddocks on a farmknowledge of which can allow management to take a variety of di˜ erent actions to make their pastures as productive as possible.

“It’s all about getting the basics right”, says Abby. But, she adds, also about “measuring, measuring, measuring. I can’t stress that enough.”

The second part of the workshop was to step out on to two separate paddocks with a plate metre.

One of the attendees was given the job of using to measure the grass growth of the two which had been grazed at di˜ erent days and under di˜ erent conditions, followed by a discussion on the ÿ ndings.

One of the things that became clear was how much of a di˜ erence there could be between two paddocks so close to each other, and both using the same rye/clover/plantain/ chicory mix. The growth rate of two paddocks side by side can be considerably di˜ erent in just a matter of days.