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Home-grown pasture is your best friend when times are good. But when budgets are stretched, it truly comes into its own as a high value, high return asset.

Summer forage crops are a useful feed source when pasture quality is poor and thanks to their high-quality feed profile, they deliver good results when used for finishing stock or for milk production.

Pasture renewal is a crucial practice for improving the productivity and profitability of a farm. By replacing underperforming pastures with new, high-yielding varieties, farmers can significantly enhance their pasture's performance.

The next three months is very important in getting it right with your agri-chemical applications to maximise your quality and yield in these crops. These crops are all at different growth stages or have yet to be planted so timing of agri-chemical applications is based on what growth stage the crop is at as well as what weed, and disease pressure is happening now and in the future.

This year the winter period has been a lot colder, and we have seen a lot more frosts this year compared to the last few years. It also has been a lot drier as well. This has impacted on the growth of both grass and arable crops.

It has been suspected for some time and now the numbers prove it; herbicide resistant weeds are widespread on arable farms.

Sulphur (S) is vital in any farm setting, but often lacking in New Zealand soils, especially in spring when it’s most needed. Despite being essential, relatively cheap and straightforward to apply with other nutrients, S is still easily overlooked.

For the next three months, we will look at the following: autumn sown arable crops, barley grass control in pasture and weed control in lucerne.

‘Dry’ has been and remains a commonly used term when describing weather and soil conditions for the first half of 2024. That’s meant favourable conditions for cultivation and drilling post-harvest, however low commodity prices, reduced seed contracts, and high input prices appear to be keeping optimism low among the arable industry.

North Otago mixed arable farmer Peter Mitchell says he is reconsidering where ryegrass fits in his rotation and is looking for ways to extract more value from the crop.