High sugar grass to earn millions for largest NZ station

Friday, 7 May 2010

Western District Farmer (Victoria, Australia)

New Zealand’s biggest privately owned sheep and beef station is resowing pasture into AberHSG high sugar grass after its grazing trials showed livestock gains that could be worth an extra $1 million in annual revenue.
The trials in March last year at Mt Linton Station, in Southland, showed lambs in AberHSG pastures averaged a liveweight gain of 411 grams a day while  lambs in other ryegrass pastures averaged only 172, 270 and 320g/day over the same period.
“It’s an awesome ryegrass. It seems to be the silver bullet for us as far as finishing lambs,” said farm technician David Bielski (pictured) after seeing the results in AberDart and AberMagic paddocks.
Responsible for pasture management for 12,145 hectares carrying 95,000 stock units, the country’s biggest farm in stock numbers, David repeated the autumn trial this year to compare the AberHSGs cultivars with other new ryegrasses.
Meanwhile they have sown AberDart, AberMagic and clovers into 450 hectares and plan to continue their pasture renewal with AberHSGs at the same rate each year.
The Mt Linton team estimates that the farm’s annual revenue could be increased by more than $1 million when all 3,800 hectares of their finishing country is growing AberHSGs.
“There was a lot of weed in some areas after a cold spring but after its first grazing the high sugar grass came back very well. It seems to handle the competition because it’s so densely tillered,” said David.
Mt Linton sheep genetics manager Hamish Bielski said high sugar grass is enabling the superior genetics of Mt Linton’s maternal Texel and terminal Suftex breeds to be more fully expressed.
“We have invested quite a bit into genetic breeding and measurement (using CT scans of carcasses) and the Aber sugar grasses are enabling us to capture that potential,” said Hamish.
He calculates extra revenue of $1.1 million from a predicted 10 percent increase in lambing with the extra 6,500 lambs earning $520,000, plus $460,000 from a 60% increase in lamb numbers from hoggets that have been given earlier access to top quality pasture.
The balance will come from an increase in cattle revenue when Angus steers are finished at a carcase weight of 270-to-300kg within 17-to-20 months.
Mt Linton Station manager Ceri Lewis predicts the AberHSG pasture renovation will have flow-on effects, such as easier winter management.
“The sugar grasses will fast-track the whole finishing programme,” said Ceri.
“It’s mostly been about changes in our farm management system but we need good feed to maximise the genetic gain. Now we have the AberHSGs that hopefully can continue lifting performance,” he said.
Caption: David Bielski finds AberMagic roots down to full spade depth at Mt Linton after eight months growth.