While at Bonavaree last week, Prof Moot took the opportunity to question Fraser about his current grazing management of lucerne. Fraser highlighted that they missed most of the rain the rest of the country has experienced in the last month so the land is drying out quickly. He is hopeful that he can get through … Read more
This week we really welcome El Niño – strong westerlies and warm temperatures. Prof Moot spent the weekend in Marlborough and visited ‘Bonavaree’ (Fraser Avery’s farm). There the ewes and lambs are happy munching on lucerne and the tagasaste, which can provide emergency feed during a drought, was in full flower. The Wither Hills have … Read more
Rule 1: Never set stock on lucerne Rule 2: If you want to set stock on lucerne – read Rule 1. Rule 3: If you have a large area of lucerne (more than 15% of your farm) and are running out of lambing area you may need to set stock for a short period (up … Read more
Presentation on Hill Country Management by Professor Derrick Moot (Dryland Pastures Research team, Lincoln University) to the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science (NZIAHS) forum on the “Impact of changing landscapes on primary production” held at Lincoln University, New Zealand on 23/10/2019. (approx 26 mins including questions). An accompanying PDF of the presentation … Read more
This presentation was made by Prof Derrick Moot on 31 Aug 2018 at the European Society of Agronomy Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland. The presentation discusses the process of moving from a data driven research program to development new grazing management rules for grazing alfalfa through to on-farm adoption of a new system to increase … Read more
Prof Moot was at Bonavaree farm in Marlborough over the weekend where lambing is in full swing. The mild weather is making ideal conditions for lambing and Fraser is confident he has sufficient cover across all paddocks to get him through his major pinch period of mid August. He is is smiling here as he … Read more
Rachel Fields presented her PhD exit seminar on Friday 14th July at Lincoln University’s Field Research Centre (FRC). This video is a shortened version of that seminar presenting her main research findings. The topic of Rachel’s PhD was ‘Causes of elevated coumestrol in lucerne and mitigation of the subsequent risk to ewe reproductive performance’Coumestrol is … Read more
Every now and then we hear about animals performing poorly on lucerne compared to grass pastures – yes it can happen and for several reasons (ill thift, lack of time to acclimatise to a new feed source, lack of access to fibre and salt …) – but, when it comes down to facts, mean daily … Read more
A dry spring in Canterbury has resulted in our dryland pastures at Ashley Dene being destocked on 25 Nov. Spring rainfall of 78 mm is only about half that expected in an average year and pasture growth has now ceased. In this video Derrick Moot discusses grazing mangement of lucerne in the spring period and … Read more
In this blog post, filmed at Ashley Dene on 9 Oct 2015, Derrick Moot outlines the grazing management required to successfully set stock lucerne during early lactation. Using this method the persistence of the lucerne stand in the long term should not be detrimentally affected. Also a copy of the Derricks presentation at the New … Read more