An all or nothing approach to lifting their EFS by $100 EFS/ha has been adopted
by Tararua farmers Stuart and Jude Ellingham.
The couple has undertaken a whole farm nitrogen trial in conjunction with being
the local beef focus farm that is finishing bulls on hill country.
It has involved some massive changes to their farming system and has generated
interest from farmers who turned out to the introductory field day held last month.
Currently earning $400 EFS/ha they are already at the top of the game in terms of
profitability but are driven by debt to attain $500-$600/ha by the end of 2006/07.
They also were looking to make the system simpler to free Stuart up for other
activities.
“Both of these projects were the way we were going to go anyway and by being a
part of them we have the opportunity for 15 more brains aiding in policy decisions,” says
Stuart.
They preferred a trial that ran for a full year and over the whole farm to ensure all
aspects of the operation were given full representation by the changes made.
The two previous years monitoring data through the pastoral monitoring system
will be used as the benchmark for comparison to plan and production levels attained.
The trial is to run for three years, this year being a transition period and next year
obtaining some conclusive results from the new system (table 1).
Pasture growth rates, livestock weight and conditions scores, pasture composition
and loss of nutrients from the soil are being measured.
The Ellinghams’ and stock manager Gary Robinson run a 564ha effective
intensive breeding unit on medium/steep hill country, including 95ha of rolling aspect.
The property is situated at a high altitude ranging from 360m to 652m asl, which
ensures a summer safe environment, receiving an average rainfall of 1400ml/year. The
pH is 5.9 and Olsen P levels from 14-20.
The Rissington Breedline Highlander ewe flock run on the hill country is the main
focus of the system and the cattle provide flexibility.
One of the major changes in the system has been the purchase of a 50ha
Waipukurau property to grow out and lamb replacement ewe lambs for the breeding
block.
They will return to the main flock as two-tooths the following February. Their
lambs will also be finished on this block, depending on feed conditions.
Ewe numbers have increased from 3000 to 5200 on the breeding block and the
cattle policy changed from cows and purchasing weaner bulls to buying in yearlings.
A 100ha-finishing unit has been intensified to carry extra liveweight and finish
the majority of male lambs between early January and April.
The beef policy has changed from buying in weaners for finishing at 20-months
(290kg CW) to buying 280 yearling bulls in spring for sale at the end of the following
December at 330kg carcaseweight.
A $22 gross margin/ha advantage over the other policies considered was the main
driver for moving to this policy (table 2).
“This policy gives us greater flexibility than the weaner policy because we can
buy and sell when required.
“This year we were buying bulls in September whereas if we had a cold wet
spring like the past year we would have waited until November, whereas in the weaner
system they arrived in early November regardless of feed conditions.
“It also lessens the market risk because we are buying and selling on the same
market and so our margin is largely protected.”
The new policy has eliminated the 80 head cow herd because Stuart says there is
“less need for them as ewes numbers increase to eat the spring surplus of feed.”
These changes have resulted in a significant increase in the amount of
liveweight/ha wintered.
In October of this year they were carrying 926kg LW/ha compared to the 830kg
LW/ha average for 2003-2005. The ratio of sheep:cattle has also gone from 65:35 to
78:22.
“We are really aiming to tweak the system financially and management wise it
has made it simpler. There are only two classes of stock and the system is more robust
because of the increased flexibility in the older bulls.”
To carry the extra liveweight the rate of nitrogen applied to the breeding unit has
been doubled to 72kg N/ha in two applications, autumn and spring rather than the 40kg
N/ha in spring previously used.
“We ran a number of scenarios through Stockpol and it showed the net benefit
above 80kg N/ha was very small and the risk much greater.
“In our environment a southerly storm can case feed covers to change very
quickly which is accentuated by carrying more stock to harvest the extra grass.”
Stuart also classes the autumn application was the most important in his system.
“We are limited here in winter by pasture growth rate but the spring period is
good so we need to concentrate on being able to carry the stock though to October 1
when grass growth starts to exceed demand.
“The nitrogen in spring doesn’t correlate with an early lambing and so you end up
loosing control in late spring.”
The spring application is more flexible and is targeted for the ewe’s peak
lactation.
He says this year he could have got away with 20kg N/ha at September 1 instead
of the 30kg N/ha applied on August 1, but hindsight is a great thing.
“If you are going to put on N in spring you have to have the system to eat it and
this year we did buy the yearlings in September but were still not quite able to utilise it as
we had hoped.
“We had higher feed covers than expected going into lambing and the bulls were
on the kale crop but could have been controlling grass.
“As a result 10% of the farm is not where we want it to be in terms of quality.”
However since the field day a southerly weather event has meant feed levels have
been beaten down to the desired level.
“When you are at a high stocking rate a southerly for a week can make a big
difference to the feed situation.”
The total cost of applying the nitrogen is $1.41/kg N and the high cost is the
reason for restricting applications to two/year.
The extra liveweight carried as a result of doubling N inputs equates to an extra
production value of $173/ha ($1.8/kg LW) from an additional cost of $64/ha (40kg N/ha)
and capital cost of $14/ha. The net potential benefit was $95/ha or an additional $53,580
in gross farm income.
The results so far have shown a 27kg DM/ha response to each kg N to the autumn
application of 36kg N/ha and in spring the response was 23kg DM/ha for each kg N. The
duration of each response was about 60 days.
The environmental effect of the nitrogen showed predicted leaching rates of
between 7-12kg N/ha, which is in the range for an average sheep and beef farm in New
Zealand.
It was noted that the easier country was leaching an extra 3kg N/ha than the hill
paddocks because of lower water infiltration rates and also higher cattle numbers
compared to the hills.
STORY TWO
Managing the switching from finishing bulls to lambs over the summer is the
major challenge ahead of Stuart and Jude Ellingham.
Development of the 100ha-finishing block has been the focus in the past year as
the couple and stock manager Gary Robinson move towards carrying more liveweight/ha
through the winter.
“The biggest limitation was the water supply on this area and so we have
implemented a new water ram system, which has allowed us to centralise troughs in
paddocks and further subdivide the area with single wires”
The area is based on perennial pastures that are at the most five-years old and the
stocking rate has lifted from 2 bulls/ha to 2.8bulls/ha as a result of the development.
The aim is to finish bulls on this area from early May through until the end of
December, achieving 330kg CW. The switch then has to be made to finishing lambs.
“The challenge at this stage is to prepare these paddocks for lamb finishing from
weaning in early January until the end of April and the jury is still out of whether or not
we can do this,” says Stuart.
Yearling bulls are purchased in October/November at 200-250kg LW or when the
feed starts to get away on the ewes.
They are spread out amongst the ewes on the hill country through until early May
when they are transferred back onto the finishing unit.
Over the winter 2 bulls/ha are wintered on the grass finishing unit and 1bull/ha
grazes with the ewes before transferring to the 4ha kale crop.
When the ewes are spread out for lambing the balance of the bulls are moved to
the finishing unit.
“At this stage we have got between 1200-1600kg LW/ha on this block with some
paddocks carrying more than others.”
The bulls will be finished in December/January at about 330kg CW but in early
summer the pressure is on to also be preparing clover rich pastures for lambs. To achieve
this the paddocks will topped after the bulls on rotation.
The same scenario is also presented in late autumn when covers must be built up
again for bulls over the winter.
“Our cut off date is May 1 and if we aren’t going to hit target covers then lambs
will be sold regardless.”
From a management perspective, finishing lambs has been made easier by the
yearling versus weaner system.
“The weaner bulls used to compete with the lambs over the summer but they
don’t in the new scenario.”
The 2005-year has been a tricky one in terms of managing the transition towards
this new beef policy, as there are a number of different classes of bulls being carried.
The performance of the ewe flock is not expected to change in the new system
although the lambing percentage was down slightly this year.
They achieved 137% just short of the 140-150% achieved for at least the three
years prior. Higher ewe deaths from over feeding were one factor attributed to the result.
They begin lambing from 15 September and based on the past two extreme
springs Stuart thinks this is about right.
Hogget lambing on the new block at Waipukurau has however produced a better
result. They achieved 82% lambing (to the ram) compared to previous years ranging
between 60%-70%.
All lambs are weaned in the first week of January and the proportion of lambs
sold store and finished is flexible although the increase in ewe numbers could mean a
greater move towards store.
They are hoping to finish the majority of male lambs this year.