CSB - Justin Kitto - DairyNZ Senior Environment Specialist

Talking care for their animals over winter.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sport, the Latest from the Land and just great Rock.
It's the Country Sport Breakfast with Brian Kelly on Gold Sport,
your home of live commentary.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Time on the show. Now to catch up with Darien
Zed senior environment specialist Justin Ketto Justin, good morning, good morning,
how are you very well? Thank you want to touch
on well winter's arrived, winter is here. Can can you
discuss any key things maybe that farmers should be considering
to care for their animals over winter.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yep, oh, well it's been quite weak out there. We
had a very wet start to winter, particularly in Southland
and South Icago. But what we've been saying, and I
guess this is the key message. There's a lot of farmers,
while it was challenging, have been prepared for that wet
weather like it's always going to happen. But yeah, a
lot of farmers are prepared for it. So they've got

(00:50):
dry parts of the paddock that they know they'll use,
they've got shelter, they've created breakout zones, so they've left
grass strips within the crop paddock area to put the
hows on when it gets a bit wet, and yeah,
they've got a bit of extra straw around which they
can roll out as well to give the cows somewhere
to lie down.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Your latest wintering survey from last year from twenty twenty
three had some positive results there. Can you share some
of those with us?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Justin yep. So what we've seen is the amount of
farmers that are using a written wintering plan has increased
significantly year on year. What we do know is that
farmers with a written wintering plan are more likely to
implement more good management practices than those without a plan.
We know that seventy four percent of farmers are using

(01:40):
a minimum or at least five good management practices on
farm and we just know that, Yeah, the farmers that
have those wintering plans and have thought about it are
just more resilient to those wet weather conditions, and the
cows look better and the paddocks look better, and yeah,
it's all good with those wintering plans.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It makes a lot of sense, that's for sure. So
justin and farmers want more information, I imagine there's a
lot available as there.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yep. So we've just updated our website actually, and there's
some great content on there around cow lying time and
some of the strategies that other farmers are using to
ensure that cows can lie down for as long as
they want. And there's just some really good advice on
the management critical source areas as well. And in the

(02:27):
next few weeks we're going to be putting some videos
up on how farmers are implementing portable troughs and those
breakout zones as well. So yeah, I've encouraged farmers to
have a lot, especially now as we're getting towards the
end of winter and thoughts will start turning towards setting
paddicks up for next winter in the next next month
or so.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Fantastic, Justin doing a great job. Thank you for joining
us on the show this morning.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Thank you very much. Have a great day, Justin kiddo.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Darien Zed, Senior Environment Specialist. See on God Sport The
Country Sport Breakfast