Farm Tech

PasturePlan

‘Kohitane’, Dennis Munro

Location: Wairoa.

Farm size & type: 770 ha sheep and beef finishing farm.

Topography: Ranges for steep hills to valley floors.

Rainfall: 1,400 mm/yr.

Climate: Can suffer typical east coast droughts.

Soil type: n/a.

Fertiliser regime: More than 25 kg/ha of potash phosphate annually. The farm has another set of trials looking at nitrogen on steep hill country running at the same time and AgResearch technicians come up monthly to take samples.

Stock numbers: 8,500 su. Finish 3,000 ewes, 300 cows, 850 cattle and 1,000lambs over winter.

Carrying capacity: n/a.

Plot descriptions: (a) New ryegrass. (b) Old ryegrass.

Detailed description: One cutting site is on the flats, while the other is on a better quality, hilly site with high pumice fertility.

Farmer's comments: "Monitoring is another useful tool and a good discipline from my point of view. Knowing a farm's production capabilities is very important. The logistics of getting a mower in to do the cuttings has been tricky in the past, but being part of a well set out national scheme is an added bonus." (Dennis Munro)

Results published: Hawkes Bay Today.