Calves. Lambs. Longer, busier, (slightly!) warmer days. One or two less layers of clothing. The end of winter brings many things, not least of which for a lot of you will include thinking 12 months ahead about how best to get through next winter.  

 

In our last Insight, two leading scientists shared their thoughts and research on the future of wintering systems as New Zealand farming adapts to changing environmental, social and welfare expectations.  

 

This time, we asked farmers themselves how and why they’re fine-tuning their own wintering practices for the good of their soil, water, animals and people.  

 

One has just made a big change; two others are optimising a technique they introduced some years ago. The single common factor? A mind open to experimentation and improvement. Let’s find out more.  

 

Grass vs brassicas, Central Plateau

 

Back in autumn 2024, a red meat farmer at Turangi who has always used brassicas for winter feed decided to try something completely different.  

 

He sowed 22 ha of Forge tetraploid hybrid ryegrass in mid March, and by mid June, growth was so prolific he had to take young cattle off kale, and put them onto grass instead.  

 

As of mid July, those weaners were ‘absolutely smoking’ and John Haywood is now seriously re-thinking next year’s winter crop programme for his breeding and finishing operation.   

 

Instead of daily shifts on kale this winter, he’s been able to rotate 50 weaners weekly around the Forge on 1 ha blocks, aiming to leave about 1200-1500 kg dry matter/ha behind after each move.  

 

“They’re not decking it, but they are grazing it properly. And they’re definitely doing better on it than if they were on crop,” he says.  

 

With 6000 stock units in sheep and beef on 525 ha to manage, John’s all about efficiency and fast liveweight gain. Grazing Forge instead of kale in winter is not only much easier, but should get animals out the gate at target weights quicker, he says.  

 

Mind-blowing

 

The farm, which John has leased for many years from local iwi, is 400-600 metres above sea level and is mostly hill country. Winter is always the tightest time for feed.  

 

He typically bridges the gap with 25-28 ha of kale and swedes, aiming to direct drill in early summer to minimise soil disturbance 

 

Rising two-year finishing steers take priority on the brassicas (with baleage), as he aims to start turning them off from August onwards. Some in-lamb ewes and hoggets are also wintered on brassicas to save pasture for lambing.   

 

Mud is rarely a problem with winter grazing; damage to free-draining pumice soils is minimal, and both humans and animals are accustomed to a daily shift on winter crops.  

 

But new perennial ryegrass genetics like Tyson were already helping John grow more cool season pasture, and adding Forge as a three to five year option to cut back on annual winter crop now holds real appeal.  

 

“It’s blown my mind this year, that’s for sure. I had one guy visit recently who said the place was looking like a dairy farm, there was that much grass.” 

 

John picked Forge for its winter growth with the help of long-time advisor Brian Richards from Farmlands.  

Beet and catch-crops, Canterbury  

 

Catch-crop one winter, calving pasture the next – after some experimentation, that’s the sweet spot Canterbury dairy farmer Brent Geddes has found sowing oats and Italian ryegrass straight after fodder beet is grazed. 

 

It means getting the contractor in to drill the mix up to three times in three months, as successive beet blocks are finished. But the benefits outweigh the time and money involved, he says.  

 

Brent doesn’t winter all the family’s 860 cows at home; some go to the neighbour. As well as using fodder beet in winter for cows that do stay home, however, he feeds it in autumn to support late lactation, so his earliest crops are grazed by late May. 

 

That gives McCarthy Contracting the chance to drill the first oats and Italian as early as 1 June, with subsequent sowings 1 August and 1 September depending on the season.  

 

The result? A bulk of high quality forage that can be fed straight to the cows from spring onwards, and still grows enough grass to calve on the following August, after which it goes back into permanent pasture in September.   

 

Perfect mix  

 

With measured yields of up to 32 tonnes of dry matter/ha, fodder beet grazed in-situ has been an integral, successful part of wintering dry cows for nearly 10 years, and Brent has no plan to change this.  

 

But when catch-cropping emerged as a way to mitigate nitrogen leaching from intensive winter grazing areas, he was happy to adapt, and five years ago started sowing straight Tabu Italian ryegrass straight after beet was grazed. 

 

“That worked really well for us. But then we were told that we should use oats to catch more nitrogen from the soil, so we started sowing a high rate of oats, with a bit of Tabu. And that didn’t work!  

 

“We would get a massive baleage crop off the first cut, but then by late December the paddock would be really open and it always felt like we had to re-grass around Christmas or January. It just seemed a waste of time and money.” 

 

With help from Barenbrug, Brent now has the perfect mix – 40 kg/ha of Hattrick oats with 20 kg/ha of Tabu.  

Catch-crop with a perennial twist – Canterbury

 

The first time straight oats were sown after fodder beet on a large dairy support block in Mid Canterbury, there was no doubt they did the job they were supposed to.  

 

That was over 10 years ago, and block manager Chris Keenan says he’s never forgotten how lush and vigorous they were with no fertiliser: “It just proved how much nutrient was still in the soil.”  

 

Chris credits his forward-thinking farm owners for being early adopters of the catch-cropping concept, and for supporting his continued experimentation with the mix.  

 

The business comprises three farms milking a total of 2000 cows, with the 170ha support block used for both wintering dry cows, and raising young stock.  

 

For several years now, grazed fodder beet on the block has been immediately followed by 70 kg oats per ha, plus a 24 kg perennial ryegrass, clover and plantain mix. Access to equipment is not an issue, so it’s easy to plant successive areas of this mix as beet is finished, down to as little as 1 ha at a time, Chris says.   

 

Less down time 

 

“The trouble with straight oats was that we’d harvest them late October, drill perennial grass and then have to wait two to three months for the new pasture to establish. The way we do it now saves that waiting. We get a thinner crop of oats but when they’re finished new pasture is already there.” 

 

Again, no fertiliser is required to establish new pasture in this scenario; it gets super-phosphate the following autumn, and urea after grazing as per the rest of the system, but soil nutrients left after beet are enough to get both oats and pasture off to a good start.  

 

Chris originally had some doubts about sowing the mix throughout winter, but there have been no failures or problems with establishment due to cold weather.  

 

“There’s only been one year when the soil has been too wet to get on the paddocks, but otherwise it works well for us.” 

 

What next?

 

If you’d like to fine-tune your own wintering system for 2025, we’re here to help. Book your free Pasture Health Check today.