The Country 26/02/26: Dr Elena Duter talks to Jamie Mackay

Farmlands’ Head of Agronomy talks about the benefits of re-grassing. Why, how and when.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country. No one is better at
turning grass into high quality protein than us here in
good old God's own. The more high quality grass you grow, obviously,
the more protein you produce. To tell us how to
do it, Doctor Elena Duta, Farmland's head of Agronomy, Elena,
just before I talk about growing grass and when to

(00:21):
regrass and how to regrass. You've got a wonderfully interesting background.
You've worked for the United Nations, You've been a lecturer
at Lincoln univers Versity, You've been the honorary console for
Uruguay here in New Zealand. How did you end up
at Farmlands?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good afternoon, Jamie, And yes I do. We have some
different hats and how did they end it here? Well,
I think I've all started with my passion with the
land and New Zealand and eurowas here a lot of
common things that I think that some people do not realize,
how the similarities between both countries. I see that we

(01:00):
both breathed agriculture DNA, We walk around cows and sheep
and pastures, and two small countries that actually lived from
the primary sector. So yeah, that's how I started my
career of trying to learn more about New Zealand and

(01:21):
ended studying at Lincoln University and then became working at
Lincoln University teaching technology with doctor John Professor John Hampton.
And then I had the opportunity to apply for this
job at Farmland that I've been in the job nearly
coming to three years.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Okay, Well, talking about Lincoln University, Lincoln Colleges, it was
in my day. I left it border farm, a rundown
farm in terms of fertility and pasture spaces. And if
I had my time again, and if the Rural Bank
at the time would have lent me the money Elina
I would have. I would have borrowed a whole lot
of money and done a capital regrassing program. On day one,
I would have done half the farm paying just like that.

(02:03):
It didn't happen. That's maybe why I ended up in radio.
But the importance and the return on investment on capital
regrazing is huge. Regrassing, should I say, is huge?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Absolutely, You're so right, it's so important too. And to
be honest, it's really hard to make the decision for
farmers when when the grass, especially decision where we have
a lot of brain Jamie and the grass looks very green,
and making the decision of regrassing sometimes it's kind of
hard because you see your padducts and you go, oh,

(02:33):
they're doing really well. But the thing is grass's age
like anything that is living, and it's important also to
see that the contamination that you have in your products.
So regrassing is really important not only to keep the
productivity obviously for that grass to become protein and then

(02:56):
you know, into the profitability of your farm, but also
to prepare for also the best season for growing crops
that is our spring. So the autumn give us those
two things, you know, create better better forages for for
our farm, but also cleaning those products for the spring.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
You get more weights in the spring. But what about
light spring planting as opposed to autumn planting.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, it all depends on the farm system that you
working on. So that's we always talk about farm system.
We just don't talk about things isolated because it depends
on what the plants of that farmer. You know, what
is what is their plan on what they are producing
when they are selling their product in the market, And
that's why we kind of work it backwards. So depending

(03:49):
on what their ind gold or Her int gold is
we work backwards. What are we planting and what are
we targeting some with Definitely we want them to get
read in the autumn. Spring has a lot more of
inputs that we have to add on as well, so
it's kind of balancing also the account by doing some

(04:11):
of these activities during the automn.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Doctor Elena Duta with this Farmland's head of agronomy. She
has written a wonderful column called the Autumn Checklist. It's
in the Farmlander. You can go in store to find
out more all about when and how to regrass if
it's dry, post route recovery, managing nitrogen inputs and controlling
late summer weeds so you can get a perfect pasture

(04:34):
for spring grazing. Elena, been great to chat to you.
You've got a wonderful history. Keep up the good work.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Thank you, Thank you. Jamie