springing heifers
This herd consists of 45 heifers due to have their first calf over the next few months and 18 dry cows, mainly expecting their second calf, who were under condition score 4.5 at dry-off. They're not quite at a score 5 yet, but getting there - the heifers, of course, are mostly well over 5.5. They get fed slightly better than the older, fatter cows, and are expected to leave a few clumps behind. The magnesium dusting is clearly visible - they're standing in grass that is about a 3100 kg DM cover, and was grazed by milking/suckling cows through May.
The very long, lodged grass seen swirling here would have barely had the tip nipped off it on the last grazing rotation. This is the effect of lax grazing - the centre of the clump will be brown and unpalatable, and the plant itself losing grass to rot as fast as it grows - so no net growth. The shorter plants around it would have been grazed down to 3 or 4 cm.
Dry cows have lower energy needs, and are ideal for restoring unpalatable, lazly grazed pastures back to a high quality, good growing condition. Both herds are getting extra hay (and a vastly increased area of ground) to compensate for the reduction in the length of grass offered - energy content of the feed isn't a great concern at this stage.
119 looks as if she'll be among the first to calve.
Dry cows
The 'Winter grazing' was finished two days ago and both herds are back this side of the road, going through paddocks that were laxly grazed by the milkers at the end of May.
The season has been kind so far - the rain has been light and there is very little pug damage. The paddocks that the cows will be in for the next three weeks were all badly damaged this time last year by grazing in heavy rain.
The deferred grass across the road was grazed off at between 3600 and 4100 kg DM/ha, and the cows only needed 0.15 - 0.2 of a hectare each herd - or about 25 square metres a cow, with 2 kg DM per cow fed out of hay.
The grass the cows are going into ranges from 2500 - 3100 kg DM/ha, with the grass ahead at 3500 - 3700 kg DM - the main purpose of putting them into the shorter grass is to clean out the long stuff they left on the last grazing rotation, ensuring quality regrowth for milking on. Also, these paddocks have had high effluent loading and can't be considered safe for newly dry cows, calving cows, colostrum cows - and even milking cows can get into metabolic trouble on them through spring. This is the best time to hard-graze them.
Hailstone's Giant Panda
Number 12 has been gradually springing (preparing to calve) for several days. She's not due unitl the end of July - I have my doubts that she'll hang on for that long.
This particular patch of ground was the edge of one of the breaks last year, and was completely churned up by the cows during heavy rain. Although the paddock was re-seeded in October, it's obvious growth is still sparse in these heavily damaged areas a year later.
The bucket and scoop are my high-tech magnesium spreading device. Blood testing in the autumn showed the cows were deficient in magnesium, and they've been getting MgO dusted on their silage at the rate of 50g/cow/day ever since. With calving approaching I've doubled the rate over the last week, and since they're on smaller breaks the whole break gets dusted. The dust clings to the wet grass, as seen in the photo above.
Drought
From my e-mail inbox (Federated Farmers): Rain has come too late for some North Island east coast farmers facing winter with little or no stock feed. Cool weather means reasonable grass growth is not expected until September or October. PGG Wrightson, in association with Federated Farmers, will continue taking calls from farmers able to supply or needing feed due to drought conditions. Coordinators at PGG Wrightson are handling a number of small donations of hay and baleage. Processes are being put in place to collect as many as possible but cost effectiveness has meant there are difficulties with freight. The feed coordinators have indicated that there may be the perception that there are large quantities of free feed on offer. This is not the case. The team is still on the look out for hay, baleage and grazing at reasonable prices. People in a position to supply feed can ring 0800 Drought (0800 376 8448). At this point those in need of feed exceed the availability but people in need of feed due to dry conditions can also call 0800 376 8448.
.
Support in place - Four agriculture recovery facilitators have been appointed by the East Coast Rural Support Trust to support farmers enduring drought in Hawke’s Bay. Facilitators provide budgeting and cash flow advice, feed budgeting for stock food and are able to put people in contact with other support agencies. The office is based in Hastings and is contactable on 0800 HB Relief (0800 427 354).
.
I took these shots last week, while driving across country then up and around the East Coast. Not far out of Dannevirke the pastures started looking like a typical dry summer - hard-grazed, with the dung pats sitting on the surface. It fooled me into forgetting for a few moments that a hard frost has just lifted - this is June, not summer.
Not far further on the country was brown, and livestock were few to be seen, and once past Waipawa the hills were bare and the few animals to be seen were in poor condition. A little further on - where I took the shots of the bales - were a few low-lying green paddocks with cattle and sheep very heavily stocked on these areas. My guess is that this is irrigated land rather than saved grass - I saw a single irrigator working a little further on. Condition among these flocks/herds was variable (of the ones close to the roadside). A few looked healthy, others in the same groups were clearly emaciated.
.
Overheard at Fieldays: He had 1200 sheep on there, now down to 300 and he still can't feed them.
.
Most of the stock have been sent out of the area to graze on greener pastures, sold or culled. Rain has fallen - past Hastings the coast areas I drove through looked green, but still very dry. The rain started that night (Sunday) and the papers the next day reported up to 100mm in 24 hours in some areas - a good break to the drought.
For some areas. It continued to drizzle on and off over the next few days, but the rain I encountered was not a large amount. A few heavy showers, periodic drizzle. That was it.
This morning, back in Taranaki, my car is crusted with an inch of frost. East Coast farmers are far from being able to rest easy. Driving into Hastings, sheep were grazing apples next to the orchards. On the flat country cattle are held tight on grass and silage. Horses in small sections are working into grass stubble, and given hay. The few animals left in the area will be reliant on conserved feed for the rest of the winter.
.
It was a sobering view.
edit because blogger is still cannily removing all my paragraph spaces before publishing.
The very long, lodged grass seen swirling here would have barely had the tip nipped off it on the last grazing rotation. This is the effect of lax grazing - the centre of the clump will be brown and unpalatable, and the plant itself losing grass to rot as fast as it grows - so no net growth. The shorter plants around it would have been grazed down to 3 or 4 cm.
119 looks as if she'll be among the first to calve.
