Grow more, emit less
And bank bigger profits, too
There’s a new way to make money from grass this season, one that could add tens of thousands to the bottom line for dairy farms across the South Island.
Think of it like carbon farming, but better – no pine trees!
Four years of research1 has just proved what we have long believed – every kilo of homegrown feed eaten directly by your cows cuts your emissions intensity.
And milk with low emissions intensity is now worth serious money – up to 25c per kilogram of milksolids, depending on who you supply.
The best part, according to a leading local pasture expert?
“This is something several hundred farmers can achieve currently. Those not far off will be looking at how they get their farm over the line.”
Graham Kerr, pasture specialist for Barenbrug, says key findings from a big new study on emissions and profitability in New Zealand dairy farming show you can have industry leading profitability while keeping emissions low.
Better yet, the effect holds true no matter what farm system you run, or how many cows you have.
And any dairy farmer can start benefiting from what has come out of this study straight away, he says.
That’s because it found the best performing farms in terms of both emissions intensity and profitability had three things in common.
They all grew more feed, of higher quality, with more efficient use of nitrogen, than the others.
With spring here, there’s no better time to act on this knowledge, Graham says.
“In terms of growing more, first up, do a really good job of this spring’s pasture renewal.
“That means getting the right level of renewal across the farm; identifying how many under-performing paddocks you have, and ticking all the boxes in the process of getting these back up a high level of production.
“New pasture, well planned and established, means you grow more feed at home.”
Spring’s also pivotal in maintaining high feed quality.
“Eighty per cent of feed quality is influenced by management. That includes identifying and managing surplus pasture, and creating a culture of achieving consistent post-grazing residuals, day in, day out, to set up quality at the next grazing.”
What about improving nitrogen use efficiency, the third common trait of high performing farms in the emissions and profitability study?
“Clover is king here, for its natural nitrogen-fixing ability. When renewing pastures, remember clover seed must be sown shallow, no more than 10mm deep. So much is wasted every year because it never emerges.”
Growing more clover is a double win, Graham says, because it also enhances feed quality.
Other ways of using nitrogen more efficiently include sowing Array perennial ryegrass, which can extract more nitrogen from the soil in deficit periods; and introducing tetraploid ryegrasses.
“On their own or mixed with diploids, they can be grazed half a leaf stage later than straight diploids, so again, you effectively harvest more feed from the same amount of nitrogen.”
Whatever path you take using homegrown pasture to reduce emissions and lift profitability, help is at hand.
“We’re always here to discuss options and provide advice if needed,” Graham says. “Just contact us.”
1Emissions and Profitability is a joint project between DairyNZ, Fonterra and LIC that used data from 8000 NZ farms to analyse the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and farm profitability.
