May 30, 2024

Episode 20 - Capturing more profit from pasture

1 hour 5 minutes

What we do in winter has a fundamental impact on the productivity of our pastures, from a persistence perspective, a soil health perspective, and from a production yield perspective. But where do you start?

Farmers Will Grayling and Will Green discuss their two dairy farm businesses. The pair both focus on profitable pasture-based systems and share their top tips on hitting pasture cover targets. Barenbrug’s Graham Kerr also chats about getting the most out of your pasture crops, when to start having conversations, making strategies, and communicating them.

Guests include:

Will Grayling, Singletree Dairies Limited
Will Green, Greener Grazing Limited & Dairy Holdings
Graham Kerr, pasture systems manager, Barenbrug

Hosts:

Sheryl Haitana, Editor, Dairy Exporter
Anne Lee, Deputy Editor, Dairy Exporter
Sarah Perriam-Lampp, Managing Director of CountryWide Media

Will Grayling and Will Green hosted the 2023 Spring Pasture Summit in Ashburton, and while their approach to supplement use is vastly different, their end goal is the same: pasture is king. Anne gets into the nuts and bolts of their individual systems, and how they’re faring in the current business landscape.

Will Green is in his fourth season sharemilking for Dairy Holdings, and uses minimum bought-in supplement (<80kg drymatter per cow). Will Green has been in an equity partnership for the last decade with the van der Poels, and uses 900-1100kg of drymatter per cow.

Barenbrug’s Graham Kerr says when it comes to pastures farmers need to know what their strategy is. Once you have the plan you communicate it to everyone involved.

He talks about the research behind the impacts of pugging in crops, and encourages farmers to be thinking about managing it, if they aren’t already.