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Utilisation through summer and autumn
Chris' story
The Stacey family have been farming Riddings Farm for over 20 years. Located in Korakonui some 20 km south of Te Awamutu, the 240 hectare farm consists of a 155 hectare dairy platform with 450 cross breed cows and 40ha of native bush. Led by Chris and Jude Stacey, alongside their children Tom and Stella, this top performing Waikato dairy farm isn’t without its challenges.
The summers are dry and to ensure they have enough feed for the summer, the Staceys grow a range crops including fodder beet which is a perfect supplementary feed late summer/early autumn.
Chris Stacey explains:
“We grow turnips, fodder beet and maize. So, the cows go on to turnips for about two months from mid-January, and then we transition, after about six weeks being on turnips, we start transitioning them onto the beet, and then they're on the beet for approximately a six week period.”
Chris believes turnips provide a good source of protein for that summer period, and the beet with its high carbohydrate and sugar content, allows the cows to keep milking and delivering the high yields they need. Chris details his system:
“When we start transitioning the cows onto beet, we use the lifting bucket. So we're measuring, using the scales on the feeder wagon, so we know exactly what we're feeding to the cows. After that two week transition period, we then move to strip grazing the cows on the beet. And in the summer dry periods, we use the beet paddock as a sacrifice sort of, slash standoff area, to save the pastures.”
No weed burden. Higher utilisation
Like many farms, the main challenge with growing fodder beet is the weed burden and gaining control of it. And this is where the CONVISO SMART System impresses Chris.
“I've been very impressed using the CONVISO SMART system for the beet. There’s no need for plant checks after the spray. It's been very simple to use the two post-emerge sprays. The crop has been very clean, and has yielded very well, so I'm very happy with it.”
When it comes to weed control, Chris reckons the CONVISO SMART system performs well at the initial knockdown and the residual control.
We've been able to control Amaranthus or Red Root, which in the past we've had issues with that weed in our crop. I've only had to spray it three times. I did a soft pre-emerge and then the two post-emerge CONVISO’s approximately two weeks apart. In the past I've had to be sometimes four or five times over the crop, so it’s definitely a lot easier with this system and at a reduced cost.
Chris has been running with the red rooted KWS SMART JOSINA fodder beet variety which has worked well for the farm with a yield assessment of around 28 tonnes a hectare. The herd also loves the beet and they find the grazing easy, getting the beet out of the ground with little effort and leaving very little behind – like 95% utilisation.
While this is just his first year using the CONVISO System, Chris Stacey is pretty sure it’s already paying dividends.
“The system is a fair price, with the seed and the chemistry. I think we've definitely saved money on our growing costs, and we've gained yield, so our cost per kg of dry matter grown, is lower,” says Chris.
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