Ashburton Guardian | Dairy Focus | December 2019

Dairy Focus

DECEMBER 2019

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INSIDE

EDITORIAL COMMENT

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hile Fonterra may be on track to deliver its fourthbest milk price this season, it’s not surprising dairy farmers are in a cautious mood.

Despite Fonterra’s payout now in a narrower and slightly higher range of $7 to $7.60/kg of milksolids, dairy farmers face many head winds.

With break-even costs nudging $6/kg last season, even good payouts don’t leave a lot of margin.

The agriculture sector accounts for around 14 per cent of lending, with two-thirds of that to the dairy sector. Debt in the dairy sector remains high and concentrated.

Average debt levels on dairy farms have remained about $4 million for a while.

The Reserve Bank says that despite above-average dairy commodity prices and reasonable profitability for the dairy sector as a whole, a significant share of the dairy sector remains financially vulnerable.

“Many farms have little resilience to weather another period of low commodity prices,” the bank said in its financial stability report.

Banks have been diversifying their agricultural lending and while dairy sector debt decreased 0.9 per cent in the year to

Heather Chalmers

RURAL REPORTER

September, credit to horticulture and sheep and beef sectors has grown.

It’s a sharp turnaround from the dairy boom days when banks were falling over themselves to lend for dairy conversions and expansion.

At least interest rates are at record lows. However, a requirement for trading banks to increase their capital holdings as a buffer against a potential economic slump is expected to lift lending rates.

In addition, the dairy sector faces longer-term cost challenges to reduce its environmental impact.

Freshwater reforms and increasingly stringent requirements to lower methane emissions and nitrogen leaching means on-farm management will have to change.

Dairy farmers will have to get smarter about how they farm, to achieve this without losing profitability.

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Clearbrook Farm on N warpath A coastal Mid Canterbury dairy farm is reducing its rates of applied nitrogen and switching to more grass-based wintering as it seeks to significantly reduce its environmental impact from nitrogen leaching.

Clearbrook Farm is owned by the Tait Family Trust, an intergenerational family business at Lowcliffe.

The 275-hectare home farm was previously operated as a sheep farm with some cropping and beef before being converted by the Tait family for the 2011-12 season.

Another 123ha, 1km east of the farm, was purchased in 2014 to provide dairy support.

Initially milking 700 cows, the farm has increased its herd size to 820 cows for the past three years.

It is largely self-contained, apart from some bought-in palm kernel and grain, with grazing of young stock and wintering done on-farm.

Campbell Tait, with the support of his wife Martine,

Heather Chalmers

RURAL REPORTER

runs the business as an operations manager, assisted by about four other staff.

At a field day at Clearbrook Farm, Tait said he was approached by DairyNZ consulting officer Stuart Moorhouse two years ago about joining a project assisting farmers in the Hinds and Selwyn water management zones to meet their nitrogen loss limits while maintaining a profitable business.

“It was a good way of getting into the nitty gritty of what we were doing and understanding the drivers of our nitrogen loss and ways to mitigate these.

For “better or worse” Clearbrook Farm was a

complicated system, Tait said.

When analysed, the farm had 30 to 40 different management blocks depending on soil type, irrigation type and crop regime.

“It has definitely shown that I need to do better in my recording.

“We have some good information now, enabling the farm to implement some changes last season and we have made some progress.”

From a peak nitrogen loss in the 2016-17 season of 104kg/N/ha, changes in management had reduced this to 90kg/N/ha in the 2018-19 season, but Tait acknowledged there was a long way to go.

“It is daunting wondering how we will get there, after putting quite a bit of effort into reducing levels last season.”

While an N loss of 104kg/ ha was high for a centre pivotirrigated dairy farm, this figure included the wintering block. continued over page

Right – Clearbrook Farm operations manager Campbell Tait has already made cuts to applied PHOTOS HEATHER CHALMERS nitrogen and winter cropping to reduce the farm’s nitrogen loss.

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Dairy Focus

From P3 “A lot of the run-off is on light soils, so this contributes to a high N loss number,” Tait said.

Both the home farm and support block had Lismore and Lowcliffe shallow silt loam soils which were free draining, had low water-holding capacity and were vulnerable to drainage and N leaching.

Dairy farms like the Tait family’s, in the Hinds water zone, were required to progressively reduce their N loss beyond good management practice levels by 15 per cent by 2025, 25 per cent by 2030 and 36 per cent by 2035.

As a result of becoming involved in the five-year DairyNZ project, a range of options were considered to reduce N loss on Clearbrook Farm.

“It was based around where nitrogen surplus existed in the farming operation.

Consideration was given to soil type, the timing of N use, irrigation and cropping.”

An obvious first choice was to reduce synthetic nitrogen fertiliser applications, which were cut from about 250kg/ha in the 2017-18 season to 203kg/ ha in 2018-19.

“That was an easy thing to do,” Tait said. Reductions

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were made to application rates on both crops and pasture.

Clearbrook Farm was on track to likely utilise less N in the system this season.

Another change was to reduce the area in winter fodder crops in favour of wintering on grass.

In both the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons about 65ha (one-third of the home farm and two-thirds of the support block) was planted in kale, fodderbeet and sugarbeet to support wintering of the dairy cows and young stock.

Last season this was reduced to 56ha and this season was expected to be cut further to 48ha. Much of this area was followed by cereal crops that acted as catch crops to soak up the excess nitrogen before it potentially leached through the soil profile. Cropping was also being targeted to more suitable areas of the farm.

“Coupled with a slightly lower stocking rate, we are working towards having 200 cows on grass for winter in 2020. That is an area where we can make

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significant reductions as on light soils there is a high risk of N leaching.”

Tait said that for grass wintering the farm would need to be disciplined in achieving cow body condition score targets by the start of May, to avoid the need for significant weight gain and increased feed intake during winter.

“There will not be the bulk of feed we are used to having in winter.

“We will need a buffer for wet weather and a much higher pasture cover over winter. We

will need a longer pasture round length earlier to achieve that.

“The upside is that once we hit September, we will have 235ha of grass for the first round rather than 210ha.”

A switch was also made to variable rate fertiliser applications for phosphorus and potassium after it was identified that Clearbrook Farm had variable levels of Olsen P and potassium.

“These were the nutrients holding us back, not N,” Tait said.

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From left to right: Perrin Ag agribusiness consultant Leighton Parker has modelled management options that enable Clearbrook Farm to achieve its required nitrogen leaching reductions while lifting profits.

Some of the herd will be wintered on grass, rather than fodder crops from next winter.

Clearbrook Farm has free draining soils with a low water-holding capacity which are vulnerable to drainage and nitrogen leaching.

sampling showed that Olsen P levels averaged 16, well below the optimum status of 30 needed to achieve good pasture growth. Higher rates were applied where levels were low, with nothing applied on land with an Olsen P above 30.

“This should mean we get a better response from N applied.”

To assist Clearbrook Farm to achieve its required N leaching reductions, two scenarios were outlined by Leighton Parker, an agribusiness consultant for Perrin Ag.

These targeted a 25 per cent reduction in N loss below the baseline, to align with the farm’s 2030 reduction target.

“Further reductions will be required to achieve the 2035 target (of 36 per cent reduction) and it is assumed that these can be achieved through future scientific breakthroughs,” Parker said.

As Clearbrook Farm had an estimated baseline N loss of 85k/N/ha, its figure needed to be no more than 63kg/N/ha by 2030, a total reduction of 39 per

cent from 2016-17 levels.

The two scenarios were a low intensity strategy and an infrastructure strategy which required investment in a feed pad.

The low intensity strategy required a reduction in N fertiliser use from 235kg/ha to 142kg/ha and lifting of the dairy farm’s Olsen P status from 16-17 to an optimum status of 30. High loss activity, such as cropping, would be targeted to areas of the farm with less leaky soil. Fodder and cereal crop area

would be reduced from 81ha to 57ha with catch crops utilised where possible to minimise bare soils.

The number of beef weaners reared would be increased from 30 to 300, while milking 800 cows.

This strategy provided additional beef income, provided a closer match to the pastoral feed supply and supported a lower feed demand in late autumn/winter when N leaching risk increased, Parker said. The second scenario was

similar, with the addition of a feed pad and a higher stocking rate, peak milking 840 cows.

This would require a capital investment of $520,000 to increase cow numbers, construct the feed pad and additional effluent storage as well as working capital for maize silage.

Both scenarios met the N loss reduction targets, achieving reductions of 26 to 27 per cent.

Profitability was increased by 16 to 18 per cent, compared with the Taits’ current system.

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Dairy Focus

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Getting rid of DIRA will be a long haul I

recently found myself in a pub with a group of people I’d only just met, and, for reasons that still remain unclear, found myself waxing lyrical about the myriad shortcomings of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA).

I was as eloquent and convincing as only a man on his fifth pint can be, and when I finally paused for breath to consider whether I’d missed any crucial points, the woman next to me fixed me with a cool stare and asked “Is that your opinion or Fonterra’s?”

Less than a week later I was online watching DIRA submissions to the Primary Production Select Committee and saw National MP Amy Adams ask Federated Farmers’ dairy chairman Chris Lewis almost exactly the same question.

Why, Adams wanted to know, should the select committee take any notice of a Federated Farmers’ submission.

“I’m just trying to understand,” Adams said, “how you ensure that it isn’t effectively the Fonterra

Craig Hickman

ELBOW DEEP @dairymanNZ

Shareholders’ Council by another name.”

Was Lewis voicing the federation’s opinion or that of the shareholders’ council?

Therein lies the problem for the committee of MPs. How do they cut through the obviously self-serving nature of every submission and arrive at the decision of what’s best?

Fonterra, its shareholders’ council and Federated Farmers all spoke strongly in support of amending the legislation and, among other things, halting the subsidisation of new competition.

Competition can set up shop in New Zealand, they said, but make them compete on a level playing field and stop making Fonterra, a co-operative, subsidise it.

While I fully support their submission and truly believe it’s in the best interests of farmers, the industry and the country, there’s no escaping the fact it’s also what’s best for Fonterra.

The importance of changing this legislation was clear when both Fonterra’s chief executive Miles Hurrell and chairman John Monaghan turned up and pushed the co-op’s case to the committee.

The other processors and their advocates put forward arguments as to why DIRA should be retained as is, and it was pretty hard to watch:

Goodman Fielder believe they shouldn’t have to pay a nominal fee to Fonterra for piggy backing off Fonterra’s supply chain, even though they have had 18 years to set up their own.

Miraka voiced a complaint that is shared by most independent processors; that Fonterra pays farmers too much and uses this as a tactic to squeeze the competition.

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compelling argument, and under questioning Miraka admitted that it actually pays its suppliers more than Fonterra does.

Open Country Dairy, who is in the middle of a High Court battle with the Commerce Commission over milk price calculations, made the bold move of opening its submission by insulting the select committee chair. Even veteran Fonterra critic Peter Fraser, an ex-economist, failed to make any convincing arguments for the retention of DIRA. The problem the independent processors faced is they were arguing for legislation that clearly hamstrings Fonterra and the only beneficiaries are themselves, and it’s difficult to come across as the underdog.

Given the lacklustre arguments from those who submitted in favour of retaining DIRA unchanged, it’s little wonder that Synlait, which recently won the South Island contract for fresh milk

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7

l supply from Goodman Fielder, decided not to front. Writing a submission is one thing, but defending it in the face of tough questioning is another.

Things got better when actual farmers spoke; Don and Jess Moore were

passionate about improving their farm and aspired to supply Fonterra when they could afford shares. They were passionate advocates of the co-operative model and, like so many other farmers who submitted, firmly believed that Fonterra keeps the independents honest.

Fonterra is required to pay the maximum sustainable milk price; private companies by their very nature want to keep the cost of their raw product as low as possible.

Leighton Pye, a Canterbury largescale vegetable grower and dairy farmer, told a cautionary tale of how vegetable growers are paid for carrots and potatoes; the

processors calculate the grower’s costs and pitch their price just high enough to ensure a 5 per cent margin.

This, he warned, was the future for New Zealand farmers should the co-operative model be replaced with private companies.

The select committee hearings showed two clear sides to the DIRA debate; arguing for reform were Fonterra and farmers, even farmers who supplied other processors, and on the other side were the independent processors who want to maintain the status quo.

What this discussion needed was a submitter with either interests that encompassed the whole industry or no vested interests at all.

At the 11th hour that submitter came forward in the form of the Dairy Workers’ Union (DWU).

The DWU views the debate from a unique position as it has relationships with all the processors and their interest is in the wellbeing of the MILES HURRELL workforce.

The DWU

wants what’s best for their members in terms of pay, benefits and health and safety.

During its submission it became clear that Fonterra sets the standard for worker conditions.

While the number of jobs in the industry may remain static as the milk flows from one processor to another, the DWU reminded the select committee that not all jobs are created equal. “We have a huge fear from our members inside Fonterra at the moment that they are seeing direct loss of roles, while just down the road more and more operations are establishing who aren’t meeting industry standards.”

The DWU didn’t hold back when it came to naming names: “Fonterra is required to set and pay the milk price, and you have competitors such as Open Country that do not meet the industry standards, do not pay the appropriate wages to workers, and I could go into the health and safety record of the Talley family, but I won’t.”

It wasn’t just workers’ rights, the DWU obviously shared my concerns with Fonterra being

required to supply milk at cost to new competitors and said: “It is hard to imagine, apart from trying to hamstring your opponent, why you would predicate a business case on three years’ worth of supply.

That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

To have one of the country’s biggest unions and one of the Labour Party’s biggest donors speak so strongly in support of Fonterra’s submission, and to publicly hold Fonterra up as the company that sets the standard for working conditions, is huge.

I would like to think it’s a game changer, but sadly that’s not how this game is played.

Compelling evidence, facts and logical arguments are only enough to win you some concessions, but politics will always have the final say.

I hope Fonterra’s board isn’t expecting to get everything they wanted; they’ll get some changes, their team has fought hard and deserves them, but there’s a long way to go and there will be another review before DIRA is consigned to its rightful place in the history books.

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Dairy Focus

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Keeping your system in shape As 2020 begins the irrigation season is in full swing.

It is inevitable that conditions will most likely get drier as the summer season continues.

Therefore, it is important that on-farm systems are accurate.

Something that is important to take into consideration is that irrigators operate within a farm’s boundaries, especially to make sure water is not being applied on public roads. One of the most common reasons water can often go out of boundary is the extra spray guns on pivot irrigators and travelling irrigators getting too close to roads.

High winds, especially the nor’west, can cause water drifts on roads too. Careful placement is needed in windy conditions.

These challenges can be easily avoided by checking both set-back distances, making sure travelling irrigators are an adequate distance from the road and checking that end guns are set and operating correctly.

Not only is it important to make sure water is being best used for the water user’s purpose, but also for the safety

Elizabeth Soal

IRRIGATION NZ

of others.

Water going on to roads is not only inefficient, but has the potential to create safety issues for motorists. It can be difficult to moderate this when there are high winds and changing weather conditions, but it can result in a lot of waste.

Something else to consider is doing a bucket test to evaluate your system. It should be done at least once a year to ensure the system is working well.

The bucket test method is based on collecting irrigation water in strategically placed buckets and measuring water collected over a certain period of time.

Doing a bucket test will help determine the application depth, rate and how uniformly

water is being applied during an irrigation event.

The best way to do a bucket test is by using the bucket test app from IrrigationNZ. The app steps you through the bucket test process and calculates your results. You can find out more information about the app on our website, https:// www.irrigationnz.co.nz/ PracticalResources/GMP/ BucketTest. We also have other resources to help you evaluate your irrigation system.

Some common signs of poor performance are, the pump is operating under-pressure or under-flow, irrigator is operating under-pressure or under-flow, incorrect depth applied, off-target irrigation, ponding or runoff, brown grass or dry ground.

The most common reasons for underperformance are incorrect sprinkler nozzle selection, maintenance has fallen behind, for example, broken sprinklers, blocked screens or worn pumps, pushing the system too hard.

Adding new sprinklers without upgrading mainline or pumps,

long return interval. Irrigators that take too long to come back around, resulting in stressed plants, poor sprinkler spacing.

Too little overlap between sprinklers leaves dry areas in between application depth is too high and some of the applied water is lost to drainage, wear and tear due to normal system operation. Equipment just wears out over time, especially pumps.

There are lots of different ways you can make improvements. It is important to remember that changing or improving irrigation system capability should not be done in isolation, but incorporated with soil moisture monitoring and continual performance evaluation to achieve maximum improvements in irrigation efficiency.

With that, your irrigators should be in excellent form for the season ahead. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the New Year, happy irrigating.

Elizabeth Soal is chief executive of IrrigationNZ

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Holstein friesians put to the test High school students aren’t the only ones facing exams – about 50,000 dairy cows are undergoing their own rigorous assessments.

Trained inspectors are visiting hundreds of farms across New Zealand to assess each cow’s characteristics and traits.

“The data we collect is hugely important. It helps shape the genetics powering our multi-billion-dollar dairy sector,” said Holstein Friesian NZ inspector Tony O’Connor.

“We record a cow’s height and weight, and score her udder, legs, rump, capacity, condition and behaviour in the milking shed.”

The data is combined with milk production records and is used to evaluate the performance of the country’s top bulls.

Herd-owning sharemilkers Dean and Aimee Perrett milk 260 cows on 73 hectares at Manaia in South Taranaki.

They’re one of around 400 holstein friesian breeders having their cows’ traits other than production (TOP) assessed this spring.

“It’s a really important informationgathering exercise for our business. It gives us more data to help improve our mating decisions,” Dean Perrett said.

“Our cows have great udders, but the TOP assessments have highlighted rump angle as a weakness we need

South Taranaki herd owning sharemilkers Dean and Aimee Perrett have their holstein friesian herd’s traits assessed each spring.

to consider when selecting bulls at mating.”

It’s believed changes in a cow’s rump angle can be partly blamed for a decline in her fertility and ability to get in calf quickly.

The Perretts have all their two-yearold heifers and a handful of older cows assessed under the TOP system each spring. They also herd test, which records a cow’s production, six times a year.

The coastal farm produced 110,000 kilograms of milksolids (kgMS) last

season and is on track to produce 120,000kgMS this year.

“Our herd sits in the top 1 per cent for holstein friesians in New Zealand for BW (breeding worth),” Dean said.

“I’m trying to breed a cow that’s a solid producer with an udder built to last. Longevity is important.”

The Perretts have sought-after genetics with breeding companies seeking to contract mate almost 40 of their cows this season.

The couple didn’t mate the spring calving portion of their herd this

Casualty

year. They are in the process of transitioning to a fully autumn calving system.

“We started the transition in 2016 when we milked our cows which didn’t get in calf through the winter,” Dean said.

“This area is suited to winter milking.

We can grow 30kgDM/ha/day of grass at that time of the year. Growth rates are as low as 5kgDM/ha/day in the summer.”

About 100 tonnes of palm kernel and 220 tonnes of homegrown maize silage are fed on a feed pad. They also buy in 80 tonnes of Proliq and harvest surplus grass for silage.

“Our goal is to lower our stocking rate and have cows producing close to 600kg of milksolids each. That’s the benefit of having holstein friesians, you can produce more milk with fewer cows,” Perrett said.

Holstein Friesian NZ TOP inspectors will assess more than 31,000 holstein friesian cows and two-year-old heifers this spring.

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0900 97 933 or book online at

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10

Dairy Focus

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Protect your valuable stock with us Alan has been involved in the concrete industry for 35 plus years and 10 years ago established Concrete Grooving Services when he saw a need to provide the dairy industry with a service grooving worn and slippery concrete.

More M. bovis information for farmers All dairy farmers will be supplied the results of their bulk milk tests for cattle disease mycoplasma bovis by early next year.

Until now, non-detect results were not communicated to farmers, with only those recording a detect result being contacted.

An automated system for reporting bulk tank milk ELISA non-detect results to farmers was being actively developed.

“Our goal is for farmers to be able to access bulk tank milk non-detect results in early 2020,” the Ministry for Primary Industries said.

Ongoing nationwide Bulk Tank Milk Surveillance (BTMS) of all supplying dairy farms was being carried out as part of the M. bovis eradication programme.

To date this year, bulk milk screening had led to seven new farms being confirmed as infected.

A sample is taken in the first two weeks of each month and is screened for M. bovis using the ELISA test.

Farms with a detect result are placed under a Notice of Direction restricting cattle movements out of the supplying herd while on-farm sampling takes place.

Changes to the way MPI was sampling on-farm had significantly reduced the time farms were under restrictions.

In testing between July and

November, 68 farms had a detect result.

So far, two of these properties had been found to be infected. Most of the others have been cleared and had restrictions lifted, and a few were still completing on-farm testing.

For the autumn-winter period, 157 farms had a detect result, five of which were found to be infected, with another five completing additional on-farm testing.

Most farms with bulk tank milk ELISA-detect results were confirmed as not infected with M. bovis.

Typically, 3.5 per cent of farms with a detect result (that weren’t already known to be infected) were found to be infected.

Once a farm was confirmed as infected, MPI investigated how the disease got on to the farm, and how the farm was connected to the network.

MPI would expect to find farms through BTMS that it hadn’t traced to yet, which allowed it to prevent further spread off these farms earlier.

For farms that MPI was investigating due to bulk tank milk ELISA detect results, it took an average of 29 days from serving the movement restriction to lifting the movement restriction.

More than 10,500 farms were screened in autumn-winter and a further 11,213 since.

To date, 211 properties have been confirmed with M. bovis, with 126,751 animals culled.

Grooves are cut 12mm wide and 75mm apart and are in both directions which gives cows’ hooves something to grip on when moving through the concrete yards.

This provides a safer and more stable surface for both animals and staff.

After concrete has been grooved the surface can be walked on immediately, minimising disruption to your daily routine.

Grooving reduces slips and injuries,

cows are happier with more stable footing, flow is improved through the cow shed, faster milking, and it can improve water run-off.

Alan’s customers often say that the loss of stock and its production is a huge cost.

Protect your valuable stock.

Alan has saws for all applications, from yards to pens and races. He also has some options for slippery areas around the milking platform for your staff.

Alan provides this service throughout the South Island, available to work around milkings during the season or grab a booking for the off-season. He will often groove through the night after your last milking allowing your daily business to continue as normal. He is available when you need him.

Book him in now, he will be in your area soon.

Call Alan on 0274 328 442 or visit www.grooving.co.nz Advertising feature

‘Take the SLIP out of your workplace’ Alan Hayward 0274 328 442

www.grooving.co.nz

www.guardianonline.co.nz

11

Avoid heat stress We are getting close to the shortest day of the year, mating is coming to an end, summer is well and truly here, and we are getting different risk factors to deal with when it comes to lameness.

Heat stress being one factor and time budget being another factor that I would like to touch on in this article.

Heat stress is a serious risk factor for lameness.

A cow’s optimum air temperature is between 5-15°C. Depending on humidity levels, a cow is starting to feel hot over 15°C. The reason why it is so low is because a cow has a big rumen that creates a lot of heat when it is digesting food.

Cows that are suffering from heat stress tend to stand a lot more. They congregate around the water trough and you can see them panting in the yard.

When they get to that point they have already been suffering for a while.

There is a strong link between heat stress and lameness, and we need to take it seriously. Part of the problem is that we don’t have the trees that cows need to shelter from the sun.

That is not an easy thing to change but there are other things we can do such as having more water troughs and ensuring they are cleaned on a regular basis.

Water is the most important nutrient for a cow. Her body is made up of 80 per cent water. It is the cheapest nutrient and yet it is the most overlooked nutrient.

You can never have too many water troughs on your farm. Have three or four per paddock and also along the track. Put them in the exit in your cow shed. If cow flow is affected because of water troughs you know that they don’t have enough access to water and

Fred Hoekstra

VEEHOF DAIRY SERVICES

that is costing you money - probably more than you think.

Another way to combat heat stress is to put sprinklers on the yard. When you do this, it’s important to ensure the water going through the system is not too cold.

It’s not fun to have a bucket full of ice-cold water poured over you when you are hot and you don’t want to replace one form of stress for another.

And another suggestion is to have some misters in the cow shed. It is a good way to cool the shed down and it also reduces fly numbers in the shed.

The other risk factor that I mentioned before is the time budget.

The idea of the time budget is to come up with ideas to ensure that the time cows spend in the paddock is maximised.

A waiting cow costs you money, so you don’t want cows to spend a minute longer on the tracks, holding yard or feed pad than is absolutely necessary.

As soon as a cow is standing doing nothing it becomes a waiting cow and walking on the tracks also belongs in that category.

The problem with the lack of paddock time is the accumulative effect of insufficient rest and food, which increases stress and decreases performance, all of which contributes to higher incidences of lameness amongst other welfare concerns.

• Concrete Water/Feed Troughs • Precast Panels • Water Tanks/ Effluent Tanks • Silage Pits • Concrete Bunkers • Weeping Walls • Cattle Stops • Wingwalls • Concrete Pipes

12

Dairy Focus

www.guardianonline.co.nz

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Your asset must be well protected Grain stored on-farm represents the ultimate asset a grower obtains from investing in sowing, fertilising, spraying and harvesting a crop.

This asset must be protected. While grain is in storage, unless it is managed properly, its quality and value will deteriorate.

An integrated approach is the key to grain storage management, says Peter Westaway, General Manager for Orion AgriScience.

With the grain harvest just around the corner Peter reminds us about the importance of good grain hygiene to minimise insect problems once the grain is stored.

Peter points out that in the years of hot dry harvests which resulted in low gain moisture levels like the 2018 harvest, growers were reluctant to use grain storage insecticides.

“This caused problems later on in storage with an unprecedented number of phone calls during the following winter regarding advice on how to treat pest infestations post harvest.”

The hygiene management process can be split into two halves – pre-harvest and harvest. Orion AgriScience has a range of products for each step of the way.

Pre-harvest (4 -6 weeks before harvest)

Good silo or grain store hygiene is an essential foundation for keeping grain insect free, explains Peter.

It is important that all old grain, debris and cobwebs are removed, including around hatches and doors.

This also applies to harvesting and handling equipment.

Step 1) Spray out vegetation with a 1-2 metre-wide buffer around the silo to prevent harbouring pests.

Step 2) Sweep all surfaces thoroughly and burn the sweepings.

Step 3) Treat all cleaned surfaces with Actellic®50EC liquid using 100ml/10L water and spray to the point of run-off.

Step 4) Complete the preharvest process by using GrainMaster® SuperSmoke® just prior to filling. The fine smoke produced by the firework-like smoke generator permeates the empty silo, ensuring insects in every nook and cranny are controlled. A single 60g smoke generator will treat a silo or grain store with a capacity of up to 250T of wheat or 200T of barley.

If capacity is bigger extra smoke generators will be required.

GrainMaster® SuperSmoke® is the

world’s first dual action smoke generator that combines two of the world’s leading stored grain insecticides into one easy to use product and was launched in NZ by Orion AgriScience a couple of seasons ago.

Pirimiphos methyl is the established active ingredient in the Actellic range, and provides the foundation for broad spectrum insect control.

Deltamethrin is a highly active second generation pyrethroid insecticide that provides a differing but complementary mode of action to pirimiphos methyl.

Harvest

At silo filling there are two ad mixture options using Actellic®Dust or Actellic®50EC. These insecticides should be incorporated evenly throughout the grain to provide the final level of protection.

The Actellic®Dust use rate is 200g/T. If the dust is not applied evenly throughout the grain, results will be compromised – this is the number one reason for poor results in New Zealand.

The other option is to use Actellic®50EC liquid which is applied through a calibrated spray system.

The use rate for this is 8ml/T diluted with sufficient water to obtain uniform distribution (Usually around 2L).

When used in conjunction with good hygiene and storage practices, Orion AgriScience grain storage insecticides provide exceptional knockdown and on-going control of common grain pests in New Zealand.

For more information these and other on Orion products, visit www.orionagriscience.co.nz or phone 0800 674-6627 Editorial supplied by Orion AgriScience General Manager, Peter Westaway ®ACTELLIC is a registered trademark of a Syngenta Group Company ®GRAINMASTER and ® SUPERSMOKE are registered trademarks of Orion AgriScience Ltd