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
Here are some photos of sub clover taken by Doug Avery on ‘Bonavaree’ Farm in Marlborough. Legume–dominant pasture in spring 2016 The photo below shows Fraser Avery standing in high quality legume dominant pasture last spring (1 October 2016). This is ‘Antas’ sub clover which has been allowed to set seed in its first year and … Read more
Dryland Pastures Research team leader Derrick Moot talks with PhD candidate Rachel Fields about her experiments which are investigating the cause of high phytoestrogen content in lucerne herbage and its impact on ewe ovulation rates when grazed (approx. 5 mins).
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 video, taken on 9 October at Ashley Dene, Derrick Moot describes in more detail the management we applied to the spring set stocked lucerne treatment for research purposes in order to develop appropriate on-farm guidelines. Weed control and the invasion of the problematic perennial tap-rooted and rhizomatous weeds which indicate the stand is … Read more
As a follow up to our last blog post on how to successfully implement a set stocking phase in you lucerne grazing system we thought we should show you what will happens if the stand is set stocked with either too many stock and/or for too long in spring. Basically, for research purposes, we’ve halved … 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
Derrick Moot talks about grazing a runout lucerne stand. Video taken 6 October 2015 at Ashley Dene while ewes and lambs are grazing paddock 4 of a 6 paddock rotation in the first grazing cycle (approx. 1 min).
In this video, taken on 15 Sept 2015, Prof Moot talks about the stocking rate used on the rotationally grazed lucerne monoculture (6-paddock rotation). The quality (crude protein and ME) of the feed on offer during the early lactation phase at Ashley Dene, Canterbury is discussed.
In this video, taken on 15 Sept 2015, Prof Derrick Moot returns to the lucerne monoculture at Ashley Dene, Canterbury. This pasture underwent winter weed control and we look at how successful the herbicide application has been in relation to vegetative growth as spring grazing is initiated.