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 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
Hi, This reply has been posted in response to questions John posted on the blog Monday: Doug has supplied the 2012 soil test results (below) from ‘Bonavaree’ (0-7.5 cm soil depth). For ease the results have been averaged from 8 paddocks which were individually tested. Any fertilisers to be applied will meet requirements of the individual paddock. … Read more
On Friday (7 Sept) lucerne on the Home Block at Ashley Dene was about 22 cm high which we estimate as being about 2200 kg DM/ha of standing dry matter (DM). This is based on calibrations we developed previously. At this time of year we expect every centimetre of lucerne height to translate to about … 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
Here at Lincoln, we are currently getting ready to start grazing lucerne on the Home Block at Ashley Dene. These stands are about 3 years old now (sown Nov 2008) and we are looking at how different spring grazing management is going to impact on how the lucerne yield, persistence and animal liveweight production. The grazing … 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