Beef + Lamb New Zealand, alongside four other industry-good organisations, has put together a winter grazing checklist to help farmers literally tick all the boxes of good management practice.
B+LNZ’s North Island General Manager Corina Jordan says B+LNZ has worked alongside DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, Deer Industry New Zealand and the Foundation for Arable Research to put together the checklist in what is a critical year for winter grazing practices.
She says it will help farmers grazing forage crops this winter assess whether they are prepared and highlight any potential gaps that need addressing.
The checklist will be supported by other new initiatives, such as webinars and workshops and regular information from industry bodies which are collaborating on advice to farmers to ensure it is coordinated and consistent. The advice is in line with new guidelines released by MPI recently.
B+LNZ is rolling out its winter forage crop workshops, (which is essentially the winter forage crop section of our new Farm Plan) and these are also available on-line on the B+LNZ website. DairyNZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries also have new wintering plan templates available.
“We all want to see the sector perform well this winter, with farmers and graziers making good calls during each phase – from planning through to wet weather management,” says Corina.
She says while the Government has delayed the implementation of the rules relating to the grazing of winter forage crops for one year, they have made it very clear they will be keeping a very close eye on management practices this winter.
“We have this window of opportunity to demonstrate to the Government that we do not need regulations to determine how we manage our winter forage crops in the future, but the onus is on us to get it right.”
B+LNZ will be running winter grazing events in many regions throughout the country. These will be notified in E-diaries.
Download the Winter Grazing Checklist (PDF, 575KB)
B+LNZ also has a number of resources and information on its winter grazing webpage at www.beeflambnz.com/wintergrazing