Pasture production under densely planted young willow and poplar in a silvopastoral system

In a four year grazing trial with dairy cows the application of 5000 kg lime/ ha (applied in two applications of 2500 kg/ha in winter of the first two years) significantly increased annual pasture production in two of the four years and dairy production in one year. In three of the four years lime significantly increased pasture growth over summer/autumn with concurrent increases in milk production. In the last year of the trial lime had little effect on pasture growth but a relatively large increase in milkfat production resulted. A higher incidence of grass staggers was recorded on the limed farmlets in spring for each of the four years. In the second spring immediately following the second application of lime significant depressions in both pasture and plasma magnesium levels were recorded. By the third spring differences in plasma magnesium levels were negligible but small depressions in herbage magnesium resulting from lime continued to the end of the trial. Lime significantly raised soil pH, Ca and Mg levels but had no effect on either soil K or P. As pH levels of the unlimed paddocks were low (5.2-5.4) in each autumn and soil moisture levels were increased by liming, these factors may suggest possible causes for the seasonality of the pasture response to lime

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Changes in soil quality following humping/hollowing and flipping of pakihi soils on the West Coast, South Island New Zealand

Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association ◽

10.33584/jnzg.2007.69.2666 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 265-270 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

S.M. Thomas ◽

M.H.Beare C.D. Ford ◽

V. Rietveld

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Soil Quality ◽

West Coast ◽

Land Development ◽

Hot Water ◽

Limited Information ◽

The West ◽

Organic Matter Quality ◽

Pasture Production ◽

Soil C

Humping/hollowing and flipping are land development practices widely used on the West Coast to overcome waterlogging constraints to pasture production. However, there is very limited information about how the resulting "new" soils function and how their properties change over time following these extreme modifications. We hypothesised that soil quality will improve in response to organic matter inputs from plants and excreta, which will in turn increase nutrient availability. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying the soil organic matter and nutrient content of soils at different stages of development after modification. We observed improvements in soil quality with increasing time following soil modification under both land development practices. Total soil C and N values were very low following flipping, but over 8 years these values had increased nearly five-fold. Other indicators of organic matter quality such as hot water extractable C (HWC) and anaerobically mineralisable N (AMN) showed similar increases. With large capital applications of superphosphate fertiliser to flipped soils in the first year and regular applications of maintenance fertiliser, Olsen P levels also increased from values

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Addressing on-farm management to enhance pasture productivity and persistence

Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association ◽

10.33584/jnzg.2013.75.2914 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 241-244

Author(s):

W.N. Reynolds

Keyword(s):

Management Strategies ◽

Dairy Farm ◽

Stocking Rate ◽

Pasture Management ◽

Pasture Production ◽

Operating Profit ◽

The North ◽

The Cost ◽

On Farm ◽

Attention To Detail

Following the 2007/08 drought, we experienced poor pasture production and persistence on our dairy farm in north Waikato, leading to decreased milksolids production and a greater reliance on bought-in feed. It is estimated that the cost of this to our farming operation was about $1300 per hectare per year in lost operating profit. While climate and black beetle were factors, they did not explain everything, and other factors were also involved. In the last 3 years we have changed our management strategies to better withstand dry summers, the catalyst for which was becoming the DairyNZ Pasture Improvement Focus Farm for the north Waikato. The major changes we made were to reduce stocking rate, actively manage pastures in summer to reduce over-grazing, and pay more attention to detail in our pasture renewal programme. To date the result has been a reduced need for pasture renewal, a lift in whole farm performance and increased profitability. Keywords: Focus farm, over-grazing, pasture management, pasture persistence, profitability

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