Manawatu District Monitoring Information – Compiled by Totally Vets Ltd.

Nelson Monitor Farm Pasture accumulation rates 2009-2010

Dennis and Trish Meade Methods

Cage cut: At each site a pasture cage is located in a ‘representative’ part of the paddock. Descriptions of the grass type in each paddock are below. The amount of pasture that has grown under the cage each month is assessed via a standard ‘cut and dry’ protocol to give the pasture accumulation rate in kilograms of dry matter per hectare per day (kgDM/ha/d)

Pasture accumulation rate (kgDM/ha/day) Site Measure Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 Kairanga From cage 122 96 39 54 28 20 21 (Tetraploid rye with Derived* 65 65 40 45 20 15 10 red & white clover) From cage 75 106 8 2 35 30 36 (8 year old perrenial) Derived* 65 20 8 2 35 15 12

Kiwitea From cage 84 85 23 37 18 18 25 (08 sown 'Bealy' tetraploid Derived* 45 25 20 18 20 14 10 NEA2) Apiti From cage 29 56 69 26 11 12 4 18 (8+ yr old perrenial) Derived* 29 60 56 8 8 15 15 10

Ashhurst/ From cage 38 28 48 27 9 11 8 9 (09 sown 'Revolution' AR1) Derived* 25 20 20 25 16 8 10

beef + lamb ltd freephone 0800 beeflamb (0800 233 352) email [email protected] website www.beeflambnz.com Page 1

Manawatu District Monitoring Information – Compiled by Totally Vets Ltd.

Nelson Monitor Farm Pasture accumulation rate (kgDM/ha/day) Site Measure Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 DennisWhangaehu and cage Trish Meade From cage 17 9 17 Whangaehu derived Derived* 25 20 19

(Kikuyu dominant unimproved) Wishnowsky flat cage From cage 33 55 8 8 2 4 9 17 Derived* 49 24 21 8 8 13 11 19 ('Jeane' Italian rye) Wishnowsky hill cage From cage 84 8 2 18 13 10 Derived* 21 8 8 13 11 12 (Perrenial pasture) * 'Derived' pasture growth rates are an estimate for the whole property taken retrospecticely from the feed budget, taking into account the average pasture cover at the end of each month and the amount of feed consumed by grazing stock.

Note: Care when interpreting winter pasture growth rates - the following sites had 35- 42kg of fertiliser nitrogen applied to all or part of the farm area in May: Marton, Kairanga, and Halcombe. The Halcombe site also had a gibberellin-based plant hormone treatment applied in this window.

Interpreting cage cut data: The amount of pasture that accumulates in a cage each month tends on average to be about 120% of what we can account for by what stock have eaten and how much the average cover has risen or fallen. There are two main reasons for this: 1. It is highly unlikely that the pasture grown under a small (often 1m x 1m) pasture cage will be representative of what has grown over the whole farm 2. The pasture cut from a cage includes dead matter and matter in the early stages of decay; this material ‘disappears’ in a real farm system where stock have a choice, as they won’t eat it unless forced to. For this reason derived pasture growth rates come closer to the cage cut values in winter and in drought where stock have less choice about what they eat.

beef + lamb new zealand ltd freephone 0800 beeflamb (0800 233 352) email [email protected] website www.beeflambnz.com Page 2