By DairyNZ’s estimates, every additional one tonne of pasture and crop eaten on-farm is associated with an additional operating profit of around $300 per hectare.
Maximising your homegrown feed offers great efficiency on-farm. Farm Source recently met up with pasture partners Barenbrug and AIMER to discuss effective pasture management.
Why does efficient pasture matter?
By increasing what is grown on-farm, farmers can increase milk production from the same amount of inputs.
“Lifting homegrown feed by half a tonne per hectare can achieve an extra 50 to 60kg of milk solids per hectare. Ultimately, farmers can increase milk in the vat or milk revenue for no additional input – or even reduce the inputs required and lower on-farm costs,” says On-Farm Excellence Environment Team Programme Lead Julie Morris.
“Homegrown feed eaten or pasture and crop eaten is the metric with the strongest correlation to profit. Improved pasture management increases on-farm efficiency and ultimately the key outcomes of profitability, sustainability, and productivity.”
Increasing productivity on-farm means the emissions footprint is spread over more kilograms of milk. That reduces the farm’s emissions intensity, which is good for the farmer and good for the Co-op on our journey to our 2030 target.
“If we are maintaining our production but reducing the inputs that we use to achieve that, we’re reducing emissions footprint for the farm,” Julie says.
What are the ways that we can grow more pasture?
In order to increase pasture production, farmers need to select the right pasture seed for their farm from the outset. Farm Source works with a range of seed suppliers and experts in the field who can offer proven advice on perennials, annuals, diploids, tetraploids and hybrids.
Barenbrug Pasture Systems Manager Mark Shand says “most New Zealand farmers are good grass managers and are utilising most of their feed, but we want them to become even better and become really good grass managers.”
“The new tetraploids and hybrids on market have good annual growth and can really help you out in those pinch times where you’re a bit short of feed. With tetraploids, every mouthful of feed that your cows are going to be eating will have higher quality and higher energy to give you more milk in the vat,” he says.
“Prepping your paddock is essential so the seeds that you sow are at the right depth and the right amount. This way you’re going to get a nice dense pasture that won’t be full of weeds. Once it’s established, going in and grazing at the right pre-graze level and then graze down to the right residual is going to be important so it persists for years to come.”
Using technology for efficiency gains
Increasing homegrown feed yield, improving the quality, and improving the utilisation are simple concepts, but in reality, they are very challenging to balance and implement on farm, says Julie.
“For farmers to balance quantity, quality, and utilisation on a daily basis on-farm is really dynamic. It’s something farmers do every day and work really hard on with good advice and tools. Improving in this space is about small steps. Farmers are already on this journey, so we know that we grow and cows eat more and better quality pasture than 10 or 20 years ago, and cows are more productive as a result. Improving homegrown feed is about small steps or incremental gains. Farmers need to use all of the support and the tools and the products that are available to really maximise on that,” she says.
Farm Source’s partnership with AIMER and other industry specialists are providing a way to make efficient farm practices easier to achieve on-farm.
AIMER Farming is introducing new tools to allow farmers to accurately measure pasture using a smartphone. AIMER Vision, available in late March 2025, provides a 14-day feed wedge, saves time doing farm walks, and gives farmers recommendations on pasture management steps. AIMER also auto-generates grazing plans for individual mobs, improving pasture utilisation.
Farm Source has a range of resources available to help with pasture renewal and management including Best Practice Pasture Growth and Pasture Packs.
For more information contact your local TSR, visit a Farm Source store or see the links below.