Eliminating high endophyte ryegrass was one of Phil and Viv Gray’s goals
in the early to mid nineties. They farm 330 hectares near Waiau in North
Canterbury. They had seen animal performance suffer from the debilitating
effect of staggers. For seven years they ploughed over and double cropped
half the property at great cost to replace the ryegrass with fescues.
Yet within 18 months of paddocks being resown in fescue the ryegrass was
back.
“It was very demoralising,” says Phil. “We were spending our way out
of debt but digging ourselves in deeper. Everywhere I looked I could
see the ryegrass coming back and there seemed no way of getting on top of
it. But looking back now I realise there was probably over a hundred
kilograms of high endophyte ryegrass seed per hectare here. What were
a few kilograms of fescue seed ever going to achieve?”
Phil and Viv also planted cocksfoot, chicory, timothy, plantain, and prairie
grass in pasture mixes. “Species like timothy and prairie grass never
came through. We only started to see their presence across whole paddocks
after we changed our grazing regime.”
Phil observes “Ryegrass will not dominate the sward under the grazing we
are doing. Now we are seeing more prairie grass and timothy in pastures
each year. This year red clover appeared in paddocks its never been
sown in the 20 years I’ve been here. I want paddocks that have diversity
as it lengthens our grazing season and improves animal health and performance”
Phil and Viv are looking to match their animal demand to their pasture supply.
Most farmers are doing it the other way round, trying to figure out how to
get their pasture supply to meet their animal demand. In the process
they crank up their production costs that often leave themselves vulnerable
to adverse market and seasonal conditions.
Furthermore, many farmers notice their animal health bill climbs as they
become more intensive adding to the pressures of production. Yet the
Grays have lowered their health bill as their stock have become more robust.
They are experimenting cutting the use of drenches and vaccines to harden
stock, as well as changing to biological fertilisers to release and cycle
pasture nutrients better.
|