Farm Source TSRs and farmers are finding Nufarm’s Grassmanship app streamlines pasture decision-making on-farm.
You know the old saying that knowledge is power? Well, now you can quickly access knowledge that will empower your choices about keeping pastures productive and profitable this autumn. It’s as easy as asking your Farm Source Technical Sales Representative to open Grassmanship.nz on their phone and calculate exactly how much you stand to gain (or lose) by investing in weed control.
And as many TSRs and their clients have already found, there’s no better way to streamline what can be a complex, time-consuming decision making process.
The Grassmanship app is from Nufarm, and is pre-loaded with several calculators that use your farm data as well as industry data to present the results of different weed control scenarios in terms of net return on investment (ROI) per hectare. It equates the ROI with relevance to milk solids, making it an easily digestible value.
Farm Source Matamata TSR Rebekah Buchanan says it means cost-effective weed control plans can be made while on-farm, without the need to return to the office to do the sums: “there's never been a tool at our fingertips like it.”
She used Grassmanship.nz recently to help a farmer first quantify the scale of a very heavy pasture weed burden in some areas, then calculate the economic value of an appropriate herbicide programme to stop those weeds from continuing to affect pasture yield.
“I took them to the Grassmanship website on my phone, and together we estimated across the farm that they had a weed burden of approximately 10-20% of their sward. I showed them that you could put the Waikato average growth curve in and what the weed severity was and how much pasture growth was potentially being lost per hectare,” she says.
“We then moved onto product selection from weeds present and came up with a recommendation of Sprinter® 700DS, Valdo® 800WG and Bonza® Gold at recommended rates.”
This then gave a cost per hectare for control which, when set next to the loss of potential milk production from weed-suppressed pastures, showed a clear net financial benefit from spraying 70ha.
“Having a calculator so accessible changes the game for us in the field, having a tool to show real time numbers that are relevant to their farm and the proposed scenario is helping make educated decisions on farm while looking out for the best interests of our farmers and ROI,” Rebekah says.
Nufarm Technical Specialist Celese Smit says Rebekah’s case is a perfect example of the Grassmanship.nz in action.
“This is exactly why we created and launched it. It’s a powerful, efficient decision tool that supports TSRs in helping farmers get the best out of their pastures year-round.”
Grassmanship.nz has calculators that are specific to dairy in both the Northand South Island, and cover common weed control scenarios like new pasture, winter weeds and spring weeds. Celese says clean, productive pastures offer a double win, because they are feeding higher quality pasture with increased yields and greater dry matter, than those infested with weeds.
“That sets up on-going systemic benefits, not least being easier grazing management, happier animals and more milk in the vat.”
If you’d like to use the Grassmanship.nz calculators to make better decisions on your farm this autumn, talk to your Farm Source TSR today or visit their website.