The Lucerne for Lambs Sustainable Farming Fund project used on-farm data and whole-farm modelling to help farmers understand the impact of increasing the amount of grazing dryland lucerne on Central Otago farms. On-farm results from 2 years showed that spring stocking rate on lucerne-based pasture averaged 10 ewes and their lambs per hectare compared with 3 ewes and their lambs on dryland grass-based pasture. Lamb growth rate was approximately 50 g/day higher on lucerne-based pastures, resulting in a total lamb production of 358 kg liveweight/ha at weaning compared with 108 kg liveweight/ha on grass-based pastures. Whole-farm modelling showed that increased profitability could be achieved by the addition of significant areas of grazing lucerne. Profitability increased by $119/ha on a 5000 ha traditional merino property. Profitability of a 522 ha partially irrigated valley floor property running crossbred ewes was increased by $249/ha. Using lucerne for spring grazing also reduced the impacts of both winter and summer droughts in the variable conditions of Central Otago. Keywords: dryland, lamb growth, lucerne, modelling, profitability, stocking rate, whole farm systems.
Two experiments compared the effects of five rates (0, 100, 200, 300, and 400 kg urea/ha) of urea (46% N) applied to existing pasture on subsequent establishment and final yields of two direct drilled brassica crops (turnips and kale, and swedes) on different soils in East Otago. Keywords: brassica, fertiliser, kale, nitrogen, swede, turnip
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.