Weight gain from fodder beet feed
which runs out from the Seaward Kaikoura mountain range, can be extreme. ’’Two years ago we got 250mm in one day and the river was surging in flood,’’ he said.
A green tinge has covered the property after some recent rain, and more would be welcome towards lambing and calving from late August, he said.
Millton, together with Beef + Lamb NZ, hosted a field day for about 50 farmers and agri-business groups at Waipapa for an overview of the first season of planting fodder beet.
Millton is a member of the Marlborough Forage Partnership group made up of owners of nine sheep and beef properties in the province.
For the past 20 months, the group’s primary focus has been to lift forage productivity, and farm profitability, by 15 per cent over three years, at a rate of 5 per cent a year.
With the targets set before the drought took hold, the group have been forced to manage feed and livestock during some of the most challenging climate conditions experienced on the east coast, farm consultant Greg Sheppard said.
‘‘Progress within the group had been slower than expected due to the dry conditions and we are now pulling back the scope of the project,’’ Sheppard said.
‘‘The main thing is that everyone in the group is learning from the others.
‘‘It’s not rocket science and there is no silver bullet, we’re learning by trial and error and following the best management practices the best we can.’’
Sitting between 10m and 1000m above sea level, Waipapa includes 759ha effective land area, farmed in five blocks of 94ha irrigated flats, 75ha dry flats, 450ha medium and steep hill country, and 140ha semi-grazed range.
Millton farms 2400 romney ewes and 650 replacement hoggets, with lambs sold prime at 17-19kg carcassweight.
Last season lambing performance reached 146 per cent survival to sale, with the majority finished prime with 370 sold as stores.
There were no R2 cattle wintered on Waipapa due to the dry conditions, he said.
Instead they were grazed off, or sold prime at lighter weight before winter.
Milton said the reason to grow fodder beet was to carry more winter crop for a larger number of calves, on a smaller area, and achieve a faster liveweight gain for the mixed charolais cross, hereford, and angus calves over the colder months.
Up to 8ha of jamon cultivar fodder beet was sown in two paddocks-one with irrigation, and the other non-irrigated, in November at a cost of $2565/ha, or 11c/kgDM, he said.
‘‘Fodder beet does well in the dry and so we planted it to see what would happen and have been feeding the cattle from the start of May until September.
‘‘We were able to break feed 80 more calves than we usually do with an average yield of 23 tonnes for fodder beet compared to 3-12 tonnes for rape or kale.’’
The 250 calves, heifers and steers had gained an average 600gms a day fed on fodder beet, after three weeks of being weaned in the yards, he said.
As well, the 550 two-tooth sheep had also been fed up to 70 days on the fodder beet.
While a ‘‘little disappointed’’ not to get a kilogram a day weight gain from the cattle with fodder beet, he realised that figure was at the high end of growth rates.