A recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Te Pahu Monitor Farm field day focused on how the use of cell grazing systems to intensify hill country had impacted positively on the farm’s bottom line.
Heather Gilbert and Elliot Kent farm the 326ha hill country property at Te Pahu and during their tenure as B+LNZ Monitor Farmers, they have set up a cell-type bull finishing system on their hill country using Halter wearable technologies.
Speaking at the field day, Ian Hanmore from Hanmore Land Management described the process of setting up a farm with grazing systems. This included using maps to identify the areas of the farm most suited to a grazing system. The number of cells within that system is then based on a farmer’s specific requirements.
Hanmore said the whole process can be done over the phone and email and while he had been working with Heather and Elliot to develop their grazing systems for over two years, the field day was the first time he had actually visited the farm.
For Heather and Elliot, the grazing system was a cost-effective way to intensify their farm and lift productivity and profitability and improve pasture quality.
At the field day, 50 attendees viewed a further 24ha ear-marked for development using the grazing systems. Currently running 55 bulls, stocking rates on this area will increase once the systems are up and running.
The couple has designed this system so cattle can be moved around the hills rather than up and down to get between cells.
The development of the grazing systems has also allowed Heather and Elliot to exclude stock from swampy parts of the farm.
In line with their use of technology, Robbie Hill from Resolution spoke about the Resolution product the couple use and how this user-friendly tool could be used by all staff to record all management information, including animal health treatments, health and safety, farm inputs and tasks.
The field day concluded with a BBQ supplied by Greenlea Meats.