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Kiwi Helps District’s Farmers
Warwick Daily News,
August 19, 2005
New
Zealand pastoralist John King knows the
importance of innovative management practices in maintaining highly
productive
farms.
That’s
why he was one of the instructors at
the Grazing Management Workshop which was run in Warwick from Tuesday
to
Thursday this week.
Presented
by Landcare officer Helen Lewis,
the workshop focused on giving graziers the management tools and
information to
improve the productivity of their land and the catchment as a whole.
“I’ve
done a lot of work with farming
families developing innovative ways of working with the landscape to
achieve
low cost, highly productive farming,” Mr King said.
“Soil
issues, animal performance, labour
and compliance costs are all issues in New Zealand that also relate
closely to
grazing on the Southern Downs.”
Mr King
said creating farming systems that
were simple, flexible, and diverse was also important in managing a
farming
business.
“Some of
the stuff we see helps to
stimulate new thinking that can be easily adapted to this region.”
Wheatvale
grazier John Greacen said in
breeding and finishing prime lambs he could see the advantages in
looking at
new ways of farming.
“The
long dry period we’ve just experienced
has made us all aware management practices need to be refined so we can
manage
the next dry period, which seems to be inevitable as I’ve been
experiencing
them for the last 30 years on grazing properties in this region,” Mr
Greacen
said.
Ms Lewis
said grazing planning for the
winter, using the available feed to judge the time a given amount of
animals
could be run, was discussed at the workshops.
“Its
important to have animals in the right
place at the right time to make the most out of the feed available,’ Ms
Lewis
said.
Ms Lewis
said this was the first grazing
management workshop run in the Warwick district and she received a good
response from the participants, who were all happy with the results
they got
out of the workshop.
“We’ll
definitely be putting more together.”
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