The trial will run 2 autumn calving herds. 1 with cropping and self contained and 1 herd with supplementary feed purchased of farm.
The trial will run 2 autumn calving herds. 1 with cropping and self contained and 1 herd with supplementary feed purchased of farm.
Similar to WTARS Kavanagh re autumn calving. The Waimate West Demonstration farm has conducted extensive cropping programs over the past 6 seasons with spring calving Jersey cows. The aim has been to demonstrate the ability to eliminate reliance on imported feed and grow all supplements on farm. Production advantage to the cropping farmlet has been around 300 kg MS/ha with profitability being payout dependent. The current demonstration is with 1 herd and cropping of maize silage and chicory but has no control comparison.
2 split herds of 62 Jersey cows with 17.2 ha/farmlet stocked at 3.6 cows/ha. All cows autumn calving with proposed date 20 March. Herd 1 with maize silage and fodder beet grown on farm. Herd 2 maize silage and PKE purchased. The first year would be a transition year with cows not mated in spring but mated the following winter (10 June) and dried off after 18 months of lactation, to start calving autumn 2019.
Proposal is to have 2-3 companion farms running similar systems with DairyBase analysis, and crop measurements.