Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Simple Feed Budget in one of a suite of tools and resources available to help support farmers grappling with tight winter feed supplies.
While the Simple Feed Budget was developed several years ago, it is now easier to access and a user guide has been written to help farmers put together a feed budget that will quickly identify where any shortfalls may lie.
B+LNZ’s General Manager North Island Matt Ward says the Simple Feed Budget helps farmers consolidate their thinking and gives them actual numbers to inform their decision making around the management of stock and feed and the use of supplementary feed.
“As the name suggests, it is an easy-to-use tool, but it can be powerful in that it takes the guess-work out of feed allocation.”
“The Simple Feed Budget augments our existing feed resources and tools and while B+LNZ, along with other industry bodies offers a feed planning service, this on-line version gives farmers the ability to work through the numbers in their own time,” says Matt.
While recent rain has been welcomed in drought-affected areas, it is just the start in terms of restoring soil moisture and severely depleted water reservoirs.
It is certainly too little, too late to ease winter feed shortages in Hawkes Bay and Northland and farmers in most other regions are also having to be careful with their feed planning as they head into the colder months, says Matt.
“Prolonged dry weather has affected large parts of the country while very wet weather has reduced crop yields in Southland. This means there are widespread feed shortages and limited opportunities to sell store stock or off-farm graze which puts added pressure on many farmers.”
Matt urges farmers to make use of the tools and services that are there to support them. These include the feed planning service which have been set up by B+LNZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Federated Farmers, DairyNZ, Deer Industry New Zealand and AgFirst.
B+LNZ has also commissioned case-studies from Northland through to Southland to show how farmers in areas affected by feed deficits are managing their resources and outlines their decision-making process and outcomes.
In addition, B+LNZ has commissioned a supplementary feed table, listing a wide range of supplementary feeds along with their feed value and estimated costs.
To access the Simple Feed Budget, email resources@beeflambnz.com and request the Simple Feed Budget. A link will be sent to the tool and a step-by-step guide on how to access and use it.
Support
For either the Feed Planning or Feed Coordination Service call:
- Dry stock sector- Beef + Lamb: 0800BEEFLAMB (0800 233 352)
- Dairy sector-DairyNZ 0800 4 DairyNZ (0800 4 3247969)
Resources
A range of other B+LNZ feed management resources can be found at: