Sub clover germinating in Marlborough this season

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

Preliminary spring production data from lucerne

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

How to avoid reducing the life of your lucerne stand when set stocking

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

How to reduce the lifespan of your lucerne by set stocking

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

How to successfully set stock lucerne during the spring lactation phase

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

Grazing begins in the lucerne monocultures on 17 Sept 2015

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.

State of the lucerne and lucerne-grass mixtures at Ashley Dene in early spring

In this video (taken on the 26th August) Prof Derrick Moot, of the Lincoln University Dryland Pastures Research Team, discusses the early spring grazing management of a lucerne monoculture vs. lucerne mixes established with either brome or cocksfoot (orchardgrass) as a companion species (approx 2 mins).