The Monitor Farm seminar in February was full of interesting concepts. Here are some of them.
Breeding/finishing farm update - Simon & Dennis Wishnowsky
The weather continued to have a negative influence in 2010 but close attention and timely decision-making has had positive influence on the farm. On the sheep front, home-bred hogget mating is occurring and the breeding-ewe performance this year has been well above the district average. The keys to a successful cropping/regrassing programme have been planning, monitoring and reviewing. Intensive soil-testing allowed targeted nutrient application with optimal performance from specified paddocks and reduced fertiliser costs.
B+LNZ District Monitoring Programme - Ginny Dodunski
One lesson learned so far is that the higher-performing farms showed the greatest difference between cage and budget for most of the year; a smaller winter ‘pinch'; higher total dry matter production; and a response to autumn-applied nitrogen that was both higher (kgDM/kgN) and more prolonged than standard budget figures.
The other lesson is that while it is important to efficiently utilise feed grown, it would appear more important to grow lots of it in the first place! Regular district monitoring data is available. E-mail GretaMMF@totallyvets.co.nz to receive this information.
Autumn weather update - Bob McDavitt, Metservice
This season, La Niña has dominated the summer and early autumn. With La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean is lower than normal which pushes the subtropical ridge south. We get more ‘tropical' weather in the North of the country, including rainstorms, but it also pushes more anticyclones onto the central region of the country, and the Manawatu is frequently drier than we would like! La Niña is expected to fade during autumn but beyond that, it is hard to predict.
Ovation - Ovine Innovation!
The ideal product: the perfect lamb is 18kgCW (best for restaurant-cut size), 10mm GR, well-muscled hind-quarters and loins and has similar mates turning up one week at a time for an entire year.
On-farm practices that influence product quality are:
- shearing (reduces microbial load on meat)
- minimising stress around trucking time
- minimal trucking
- good nutrition
FarmIQ - Collier Isaacs
FarmIQ is a collaboration between Silver Fern Farms, PGG Wrightson, and Landcorp that aims to create:
- ‘A demand-driven integrated value chain for red meat that delivers sustainable benefits to all participants'
- ‘A market-led approach that responds to consumer needs through a ‘plate to pasture' integrated value chain'
In its initial stages, FarmIQ is an information-gathering exercise:
- On our international meat consumers
- On how to better define the end product
- On meat-processing facilities: assessing internal systems, as well as carcass information that can be fed back to producers
- On the performance of various farm system components: genetics, forage types, management systems
This information will be used to improve linkages between farms (farm systems, genetics), the processing sector, and the market. The hope is that by better connecting consumer needs to farmer supply, all players in the production chain will make more money.
For more information go to http://www.farmiq.co.nz/
Healthy thinking - Dr Tom Mulholland
Dr Tom, a motivational speaker known as the Attitude Doctor, delivered messages including ‘It is not what happens to you that is important, it is your attitude towards it that counts'.
It is possible to change the way you think.
Think carefully about your expectations, do not expect too much. If things do not go to plan, the ‘grumpy centre' will be activated, releasing cortisol which increases the risk of strokes, Alzheimer's, altered decision-making, heart attacks, stomach ulcers, diabetes and increases blood pressure while suppressing the immune system.
We have a choice to think and act differently.
For more in-depth information on the Manawatu Monitor Farm Annual Seminar, go to www.totallyvets.co.nz/monitor-farms.html.
