Pasture eaten is the foundation for profitability on dairy farms. The more pasture your cows eat, the more milk you produce, and the healthier your bottom line.
Barenbrug Pasture Specialist Graham Kerr has been working with New Zealand farmers for 40 years, developing pasture solutions tailored to individual farms. He says farmers can increase homegrown feed supply and milk production without additional inputs, simply by improving nitrogen conversion efficiency.
“Optimising nitrogen conversion is achieved through implementing strategies like establishing more clover, selecting high-performing ryegrass cultivars, and adjusting grazing management,” Graham says.
“Optimising nitrogen conversion is essential for maximising pasture growth while minimising environmental impacts,” says Barenbrug Pasture Specialist Graham Kerr.
Clover: The natural nitrogen provider
Clover is one of the most powerful tools for improving pasture performance, and as it fixes nitrogen naturally, it supports a farm’s environmental footprint, says Graham.
“Plus clover delivers more milk per kilogram of dry matter compared to grass alone, making it a win-win for productivity and profitability,” he says.
Tips to get clover pumping on your farm
- Sow seeds shallow: Clover seeds are tiny and need to be sown at or less than 10mm deep. If seeds are buried too deeply, they won’t grow, and a lot of clover seed is wasted due to this.
- Use top genetics: Modern white clover cultivars like Kotuku and Ruru yield more dry matter and fix more nitrogen than older varieties like Huia. Investing in top genetics is one of the smartest moves you can make.
- Oversow clover: If your paddocks lack clover, oversow with non-toxic Agricote-coated clover seed. This can be sown before grazing, allowing animals to trample it in for better establishment.
Select Array ryegrass: The nitrogen grabber
Array was the first ryegrass to emerge from Barenbrug’s focus on breeding for environmental sustainability, as well as plant and animal performance.
“Under low soil nitrogen conditions, Array has been shown to extract more nitrogen from the soil than other modern cultivars, resulting in more dry matter growth. This helps even out pasture growth when soil nitrogen is deficient, something that happens on virtually every farm at some stage during the year. Farmers can be assured a more even feed supply for their herd,” Graham says.
Choose tetraploid ryegrasses
Another way to boost nitrogen efficiency on-farm is to switch to tetraploid ryegrasses or tetraploid/ diploid mixes, which have the bonus of being more palatable and easier to graze than diploid varieties.
“Making sure every mouthful of pasture on the farm is as nutritious as it can be drives efficiency across the whole system. Tetraploid ryegrasses hold their quality longer, allowing for extended grazing rounds, and giving plants more time to use nitrogen and resulting in higher yields from the same nitrogen inputs. 4front is the highest-yielding tetraploid perennial we’ve bred,” Graham says.
