Results of research project to be revealed

BY RICHARD WOODD

Farmers will be able to hear scientist Kevin Macdonald presenting the first results from New Zealand's biggest-ever animal research project, at the Westpac Taranaki Agricultural Research Station, Whareroa, open day on Tuesday, March 30.

This is the feed conversion efficiency trial, a two-year evaluation of 1000 dairy calves, costing more than $5 million, and also being replicated in Australia.

It began in January last year with the first of four batches of weaned heifer calves fed lucerne cubes in a controlled environment at WTARS, which sits in the shadow of the giant Fonterra plant, south of Hawera.

The final group under evaluation will be on show in their specially- built enclosures at the open day and Dr Macdonald will speak and answer questions.

Calves which most efficiently convert food to weight gain will next be milked to see if that trait also applies to milk solids.

Some of the cows are also being taken to Massey University for methane gas emission testing under controlled food intakes.

Dr Macdonald believes some animals require 10 per cent less food than others to grow and he is looking for a genomic marker so that future identification can be based on a blood test.

Other keynote speakers are:

The recently elected Fonterra director and Massey lecturer, Nicola Shadbolt, on dairy farming in a volatile international environment.

Top sharemilkers Paul and Lorette Davidson on financial management and analysis of the cost benefits of supplementary feeding.

Waimate West demonstration farm manager Joe Clough, who is attempting to break the feed barrier and grow 40 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year, using crop and pasture rotations. The average at Manaia is 16-18 tonnes.

Shirley Hayward, of DairyNZ, on the results of eight years of monitoring the Waikoura Stream catchment, a trial involving farmers using all available best practices to reduce nutrient runoff.

The research station was originally at Normanby and later moved to Whareroa.

It is operated by a volunteer trust created when Government funding was withdrawn. It has been responsible for some of the dairy industry's ground-breaking research discoveries.

This is an abbreviated list provided by WTARS farm consultant Debbie McCallum:

Lime interfered with magnesium absorption and caused grass staggers and milk fever.

Severe grass grub damage to pasture. Insecticide trials showed effective control was maintained by soil organisms. Solution: Do nothing.

Lucerne trial: 24 per cent more DM, but 22 per cent less milk solids.

Tall fescue and phalaris trial: Grew more DM, but lower nutritional value than ryegrass/white clover and only useful in dry summers.

Trial withholding fertiliser or no pasture conservation, to see effect on production: Zero conservation had no effect and saved $300/ha; deferred grazing practised to shift surplus feed from spring to summer. Phosphate withholding no effect on milk production first year but from years two to four it steadily declined.

Nitrogen small plot trials: lower rates gave better responses, better in spring than autumn.

Silage: For maximum results, shut early and harvest within 42 days.

Heifers: If running with main mob, introduce early.

Pasture: Development of seasonal plate meter equations; renovation of pugged paddocks gave 20 per cent increase in regrowth.

Milking: Once a day evaluation 2000-2006.

David Hopkins, the WTARS chairman, says the station is funded largely out of farming levies and the facilities are, to a large extent, taken for granted by farmers. "Yet, our activities have had a profound effect on the dairy industry.

"Solving a problem with a newly developed chemical seemed to be mainstream farming thinking in the past, driven by commercial organisations.

"Today, we all know of the long- term problems of chemical residues in the food chain.

"Recently I spoke to a past executive of a chemical company which manufactured some of the organic phosphates that were applied at the time. He spoke of free-wheeling the marketing with high demand and higher profit levels, completely unrelated to the cost of production. 'We priced our products to what the market would bear, enabling us to take a very large share of profit from the applied chemical,' was what he told me.

"Without the timely research into, for example, grass grub control at TARS, we could well have today large areas of our farmland unable to produce food. Chemical companies, of course, would not have accepted any liability."

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