The Muster- Graham Butcher: Maintaining Feed Levels

Graham Butcher looks at keeping optimal feed levels during a slow growth season.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The musters on the Farm, brought to you by Southland
District Council working together for a better Southland.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Graham Butcher, fun Consultant, joins us once again on this
overcast afternoon down in the south. Graham, how are you.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm very good in yourself, Andy.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
You're not too bad. We'll acknowledge the weather in the
situation is not as bad as this time last year,
but it's not a big change. Really.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well, I've had clients ring up.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
They're getting into tractive work now, so you probably wouldn't
have done this last year.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, So yeah, I mean that's what it is. We
just have to manage your way through it.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
And that's the subject for today. We're talking past you covers.
How are people coping at the moment. They're getting through
pretty good.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Oh. I think at the stage covers are probably starting
to pick up a wee bit so all temperatures are rising,
so light at the end of the tunnel maybe, but
it's been a difficult spring. I probably talked about this
several times this season and probably previous years as well,
just talking about pasture covers and body condition score use.

(01:11):
I came across some relatively old data from twenty years ago,
which in my book that's not that long ago, put
out by meat and walk, So that'll give you an
idea of how old it is. It's looking at peak
in takes of ues and pasture covers that aren't required
to get there. We know this information shows that it's

(01:35):
seventeen if you want your peak and take if you
use so they get a good lactation, it peaks at
around seventeen hundred. K's a dry matter, so once you
get to seventeen hundred cover the US can't actually eat
a hell of a lot more so it's a bit
of a bit like grass growth. Really, once you get

(01:56):
down to eleven hundred, there's no way can they have
the that they need to produce a good lactation. Between
eleven hundred and thirteen hundred is a very sharp increase
in the intake of the U and between thirteen hundred
and seventeen hundred the intake slows down, but it peaks

(02:16):
at about seventeen hundred, which raises a pretty good question actually,
is that the pasta covers we're getting in the spring
here probably nowhere near what's required to have a peak
you intake and a peak you intake. You need that
to get good lactation underway. And the lactation is really
critical because now it is the easiest time to put

(02:37):
live weight gain on lambs. There's no question about it.
Once you hit weaning, once you hit the higher temperatures
in summer, pasta quality drops off. They haven't got the milk.
Your potential to grow those lambs is a lot less.
So we've got to make hay. Why the sunshines at
this time of the year from now until weaning is
absolutely critical. So to get those higher pasta covers in

(02:59):
the spring, you can sit down and do the aristh
particular winter feed budget and determine first to may you
need that sort of cover, so you come out of
the winter at that cover that we need a bit
tied up to with how much brasca crop you grow.
You can take a lot of stock off our pasture
let it grow over the winter if you've got plenty
of brassacre. So that's an important thing to do, managing

(03:23):
or determining first to make cover more particularly managing your
feed over the winter, so you come out in the
spring with a decent cover, So that's important. The other
bit of information that came across from the meat and
all again from twenty years ago. Is the impact of
body condition score on milk yield and use quite interesting.

(03:44):
The difference between our body conditions score three and two
is actually quite a significant amount of milk, particularly if
your feed conditions are not where they need to be.
So the way I sort of look at it, you
can do your feed budget first to make covers, allocate
your feet over the winter, come out of the spring.
You can budget and plan to do that, but often

(04:06):
things go astray. You might lose a padic of swedes,
or if something goes wrong, or you have a dry
autumn and you don't get the growth you're expected, So
we need plan to have that first to make cover.
Bit often it's things go astray, that's just farming they do.
So in that situation where you can expect things going

(04:26):
astray your body conditions score that you will actually buffer
that lactation in the spring, so really important to do
your planning for better covers in the spring and have
your use in good condition coming out of the winter
is particularly important. But so lactation actually kicks off and
your lambs go quicker and you have higher winning drafts,

(04:48):
and that takes pressure off in the summer and it's
more easy to get a good first to make cover,
or you plug in some store lambs or whatever. So
all those things body conditions, core pasture covers on the spring,
all under your control.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
This is interesting as well. We talked about this a
couple of weeks. Now we'll just go back to the
wall price in the way that there has been a
second big sale out of christ Church last week was
almost as positive as a fortnight ago. Did you catch
up on that.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
I haven't caught up on that one.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, I think they are out of christ Church, right,
that's just yesterday or that was last week, late last week.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, that's good to see. I must look up the
graph and hope that we check up. We saw last
time it carries on.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, oh look, I think it was still another thirty
cents or something on the sale compared to the forty odds.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
So good. Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Hey, when you're talking to your clients as well, just
farmers in general, when it comes to six months sharing,
given that the price is coming up. When it comes
to it's interesting thought process around this, right, do you
go to eighth month sharing to do six month or
do you go to twelfth month because it becomes just
a sustainability thing price wise, But Joinity your clients, how
do they look at it? Horses for courses?

Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think eight months sharing you don't see a lot
of it these days, a little bit more difficult to manage.
So the twelve months sharing cost wise it's pretty good,
or quality wise probably not so good. Animal health wise,
probably not so good, which is why you probably see

(06:19):
more two times sharing in a year because people that
do that put a great amount of store on animal
health issues, casting a sheep in the spring, all that
sort of stuff, and that's important. With a bull price
coming up, it probably becomes a bit more economic to
do double sharing in a year. But in terms of

(06:42):
your net woole income it's not particularly good. But that's
off set against animal health issues and what have you.
So farmers that do it put a great deal of
store in that. So I think it's horses for courses. Really,
if you've got hell country difficult to get round, if
you're losing cast us, yea, a two month sharing might

(07:05):
be on for you.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
We talked about this a while ago. Just to wrap
up to you talked about a three and twenty four Lambing.
Anybody taking that on? No, are you looking for somebody
to volunteer?

Speaker 4 (07:17):
I think when you look at it technically, it's really
interesting and management.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
In Southland that's going to be the thing. Getting someone
to Lamb and May and Southland.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
I think it is. But you have to reimagine what
your whole sheep farm looks like.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Absolutely always food for thought. Graham Butcher, thanks for your time.
As always, thank you, Graham Butcher, Farm Consultant. You're listening
to the muster up next way to close ber In Station.
We talked to Grant Disaster McMaster