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Agricultural Chemicals
Animal Health
Fertiliser
Animal Feed and Nutrition
Farming
Tech Tips
March farm tips on animal health and nutrition and agronomy
- Take the time to walk the stubbles after harvesting maize to assess weeds. A change in herbicide strategy may be needed for next year.
- Monitor maize volunteers for fall armyworm and report incursions to the Ministry of Primary Industries.
- When regrassing new pastures, spray out the previous crop and create a firm fine seedbed to maximise seed-to-soil contact.
- Spray weed seedlings early. Most post-emergent herbicides are safe when clovers reach the two trifoliate leaves. Don’t forget pests, especially slugs.
- Autumn-planted cereal crops are in the ground a long time, so consider a pre-emergence herbicide.
- Monitor brassica crops for invasion by white butterfly, diamond back moth and aphids which can devastate crops over late summer.
- Remember Integrated Pest Management (IPM) when selecting insecticides.
- Autumn soil testing: Aim to take 15 to 20 cores of soil over a representative sample area. To reduce result variation, tests should be taken over the same transect line.
- Pasture tests should be taken at 75 mm and crop soil tests should be taken at 150 mm. Avoid areas such as gateways, fence lines and dung and urine patches. Ensure that your samples arrive at the laboratory overnight.
- Pasture worm challenge is often highest in autumn.
- When extending drench intervals beyond 28 days, regular faecal egg counts (FEC) and animal monitoring are recommended to avoid the severe impacts of chronic parasitism.
- Current Wormwise advice is to use effective combination drenches; we recommend the use of triple combination oral drenches.
- Ensure your drenching is effective by doing a post-drench FEC. Faecal samples are collected from ten accurately drenched animals, 7 to 14 days post-drenching.
- Where test results show eggs are present, a discussion with a trusted parasite advisor is required.
- Use a knockout drench from one of the novel drench families to slow the development of drench resistance.
- Determine the need to drench ewes pre-tupping by taking mob faecal samples first. Targeted drenching of light ewes may be all that is required.
- Consider having the herd independently body condition scored (BCS) to achieve BCS target of 5.0 to 5.5 by the planned start of calving.
- Cereal silages or grain concentrates contribute a starch component to the diet to help balance autumn flush pastures and optimise milk protein.
- The advantages to supplemental feeding include both body condition gain and more days in milk.
- Watch the fat evaluation index (FEI). As milk volume drops, FEI can increase, and reduced feeding of palm kernel expeller may be required to avoid grades.
- Now is a good time to weigh your heifers to accurately assess liveweights compared to the target. Draft a light mob if required, so they can be preferentially fed.
- In autumn, the pasture is rapidly changing and stock need to adapt to the lush pasture. Feeding supplements with good fibre, such as baleage, hay and/or silage, for 7 to 14 days through early autumn can help the rumen to adapt.
- If feeding winter crops, now is the time to plan how you will transition animals onto the crops. Successful transition will help to maintain good growth rates, condition gain and animal welfare.
