Fed exactly the same, some cows naturally produce more milksolids than their herdmates. What if you could achieve the same with ryegrass? Grow more kilograms of dry matter per ha, for the same amount of nitrogen?
Now you can - it's a new way to look after both your environment and your productivity, and it can be implemented straight away with no disruption.
Long before farm nutrient management came under scrutiny, one New Zealand pasture breeding company was routinely keeping all it's up and coming ryegrass cultivars hungry for nitrogen.
What started as a pressure test for life on commercial farms - where the risk of soil nutrient deficiency is ever present - is now an incubator for environmental gain.
Array NEA2 perennial ryegrass is the first of its type to come out of this programme, and Barenbrug commercial manager Graham Kerr says it shows pasture’s power to lighten NZ’s farm footprint.
"Array is exciting because it combines two things that seem completely incompatible. It's the highest yielding ryegrass we’ve ever bred, and it achieves this under the same exact nitrogen inputs, in the same soils, as its peers. Particularly when we create nitrogen deficiency.”
Sowing Array is one easy way to support sustainable, responsible farm production this season, but there are two others that require nothing more than a slight change of mindset, Graham says.
The first is grazing when ryegrass nitrogen levels are low. The second is prioritising feed quality.
Nitrogen levels in ryegrass vary as it grows. Grazing with this in mind by adding a few extra days to the round could decrease nitrogen leaching, Graham says.
"For most of the year we graze ryegrass too early, closer to the two leaf stage when it has high nitrogen content. Grazing later, closer to the three leaf stage when nitrogen levels are lower, means animals excrete less nitrogen in urine or dung."
This is most easily done using tetraploid ryegrasses, because they remain palatable at higher covers than diploids.
But Barenbrug is also currently checking how all its cultivars vary in nitrogen level throughout the growth cycle.
"If we can select for this in our breeding programme, we can further improve farmers' options."
Meantime, Graham says, making sure every mouthful of pasture on the farm is as nutritious as it can be drives efficiency across the whole system.
Higher quality feed can help to produce more milk and better nourished animals, which can actively contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and less nitrogen leaching.
Pasture cushions farming’s environmental impact more than was realised until quite recently, he says.
"It's exciting how far we've come in our understanding and application of this knowledge in a relatively short time.”
For more advice on your on-farm feed optimisation, talk to your TSR or visit your local Farm Source today.
Article supplied by Barenbrug.