Cath Goulter 
The journey to a new paddock of Bonavaree mix (Prairie Grass, Lucerne, Plantain) is well under way now. We visited the North Face paddock again last week, and it was looking vastly different to last time, see photos below. From this to this Plans for this paddock from our last visit went according to schedule … Read more
Jeffries Front Flat has been spelled from the grazing rotation for 40 days to enable the Avery’s to apply a weed spray, and re-grow before the next grazing. The paddock was grazed down to an approximate height of 2 cm before applying the chemical. Because this was a late spray the stand was not grazed … Read more
This field day is another Beef + Lamb issues based Field day for Canterbury. I have been to the Marlborough based days, and they are truely worth attending. The theme for this field day is highly topical for dryland farmers: Profitable Lucerne and Lamb production. Derrick Moot (Lincoln University) and Tom Fraser (AgResearch) will be available … Read more
David and Jo Grigg own Tempello Farm which is situated in the Brancott Valley, Marlborough. Tempello is 4,800 ha (2,600 ha effective) and lies between the Awatere and Wairau Valleys. Tempello could be characterised as a “warm” farm with a late-August start to spring pasture growth, and often growth through winter. The pasture growth curve … Read more
The ewes and lambs were tailed off this paddock on the 6th September, and the paddock was being spelled when I visited on the 14th September. You can see by the photo below that all the species in the mix are showing signs of regrowth, especially the Prairie Grass component. Lambs are weighed individually at … Read more
This Omaka Barley Paddock is still managing to supply a good quantity of feed to the lambing hoggets when I visited on September 14th. The pasture height was between 30-32 cm in height (see photo below). The quality of the pasture has declined now that the Barley is starting to go into reproductive (seeding) phase. … Read more
Lambing in Jeffries Front Flat has now finished. It is certainly not a normal season at Bonavaree. Having had the total annual rainfall in only 8 months (200 mm since lambing started) has delayed a few things. The lightly set stocked ewes on this paddock, and many others, would usually be mobbed up into larger mobs … Read more
This season has been incredibly wet at Bonavaree, the total average rainfall has been reached already, and there are still 4 months to go! The ewes and lambs have shown remarkable resilience to this wet, with very high lamb survival rates, even when the weather was at its worse. The ewes have lambed in very … Read more
Omaka Barley is a great crop to use at Bonavaree. Barley is used here because it really fits in well with the Avery’s system. The Omaka variety has been bred locally, and is very suitable for reliable dry matter production in a Marlborough dryland environment. It is a multipurpose crop at Bonavaree, in that it … Read more
This paddock of Torlesse is currently grazed by twin lambing ewes. Lucerne/Prairie Grass/Plantain, and Annual Ryegrass paddocks are also used for multiple bearing ewes to provide maximum nutrition in late pregnancy and lambing. Single bearing ewes are not grazed on lucerne, as this is better utilised for multiple lamb production. Fraser uses lucerne paddocks to … Read more