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Delivering surprising yields in the dry
Alby's story
The Anderson family have been farming in Otorohanga since 1969. First in beef and sheep and then converting to dairy in 1996. Today, son Alby Anderson and his wife run the 160 hectare dairy farm having taken over from parents who retired in 2011. They run a split calving operation, with 300 cows in the spring and 200 in the autumn.
The soil is mostly Miro Ash which is quite typical for the Otorohanga region and allows the Andersons to grow some 10 hectares of fodder beet and around 16 hectares of maize, plus five hectares of turnips.
With no access to irrigation, the farm is reliant on the weather and the famed Waikato autumn presents the biggest challenge for Alby.
“We grow fodder beet to mitigate the autumn dry and, we start feeding it from end of March onwards. We winter our cows on it as well. It’s a high yielding crop that enables us to extend the lactation for the spring calving cows, so they'll be transitioned onto fodder beet in early April, end of March, and they'll milk through on it till we dry off. “
Record breaking yields
Growing the CONVISO® SMART fodder beet has been a game changer for the Andersons. It’s beaten the weeds, has been a lot easier and has delivered unbelievable yields. So much so that Alby got the paddock assessed twice to double check the yield which came out at an impressive 35 tonnes of dry matter a hectare with a 12.ME.
“The CONVISO SMART system just makes it a lot easier to grow a decent crop of fodder beet and we've had a dry year this year, so I don't think we've reached the full potential of the crop,” says Alby.
The CONVISO system has also been doing an impressive job on weed control. Alby used Amaranthus or Pepper Weed as the indicator weed and it's done an outstanding job on those weeds as Alby explains:
“We've got a lot higher yields in our crops and the fodder beet isn't competing with the weeds. The CONVISO SMART system is easier to use, there’s a lot less spraying and it's just been easier to manage the timing of the sprays…”
Alby recommends leaning on some professional advice for spraying first time out. This enabled him to get his timings right on spraying, and that eventually delivered a better result.
“We delayed the first spray as long as we could and then we delayed the second spray. I think we got just a better outcome. We weren't that experienced, and we would've sprayed it earlier, rather than later, “says Alby.
The variety behind the success is the SMART JOSINA and it’s outperformed anything Alby’s has grown in the past:
SMART JOSINA has performed outstandingly well this season. Our yields have probably been 30%, at least above what we've grown in the past for fodder beet.
The Anderson’s have also noticed just how much the herd enjoy grazing the SMART JOSINA. They can't wait to get into the paddock to graze the crop. They run in tails up and don’t leave anything behind.
The final surprise for the Andersons was just how well the Conviso Smart crop faired in the summer dry.
“We haven't had substantial rainfall in this part of the country since December. So, this crop's been three months without significant rainfall, and it's still been growing, and it's still been green. So, it's quite amazing how it's weathered the drought,” concludes Alby.
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