1. Ryegrass Max, 100% perennial ryegrass pasture base, following the same management practices as in Phase 1 but with a slightly higher stocking rate (2.6 cows/ha, compared to 2.25 in Phase 1)

2. Pasture ‘Plus’. Also with a perennial ryegrass pasture base but implementing a pasture replacement rate of between 20 and 30% of farm area per year, and using cropping plus direct drilling. Stocking rate 3.1 cows/ha (compared to 2.9 in CF during Phase 1). High stocking rate plus high renovation rate are likely to ‘squeeze’ pasture supply from the remaining grazeable area during winter and early spring, and management of this is one of the key areas of development that we will focus on.

The research questions being addressed in Phase 2 are:

How important is a high rate of pasture renovation for sustaining profitability of ryegrass-based systems?

What is the best way to manage the pasture renovation process – with cultivation and cropping, or oversowing, mixture of both??

Are there suitable practical indicators of the need to intervene and re-sow old pastures that can be developed for farmers, and what is the decision-tree surrounding this?

For both farmlets, the calving date has moved forward by about 3 weeks, into early May. Both systems were modelled in UDDER, using the Ryegrass Max farmlet in 2007/08 as the base model, to which the changes described above were implemented.

Key results from the models are as follows:

Total home grown forage (HGF) consumed: Ryegrass Max 9.26 t DM/ha, Pasture Plus10.54 t DM/ha (+14%).
Concentrate fed: RM 1.62 t /cow (27.7% of total diet); P+ 1.48 t / cow (25.3% total diet)
Milk solids production per cow: RM 604 kg; P+ 606 kg
Milk solids production per hectare: RM 1585; P+ 1819
Feed conversion efficiency (kg MS per t DM consumed): RM 103.3; P+ 103.8
Operating profit $/ha: RM 2,188; P+ 2,437 (+11%)

Read the August 2009 Farmlet production summary report here.