The Foundation for Arable Research (Far) and Beef + Lamb NZ held a joint field day on mixed arable and livestock farm systems at the Bierema family’s farm in Mid Canterbury’s Mitcham.
A group of four arable farmers was in a panel talk with Far and BLNZ staff to speak at the field day along with vets and other experts.
The farmers tackled the challenges, opportunities and trade-offs of combining livestock in their farming systems.
At the end of the day they gave their take-home messages.
Fairlie farmer Erica Callaghan said they run store lambs and winter grazing for dairy cows in their broad acre arable system to help with crop rotation and bring in an extra cash crop for the year.
"A big takeaway for us today is making sure that we keep a focus on what our goal is with using livestock on our operation and making sure it doesn’t distract us from what we are doing in our system."
"The biggest takeaway from today is probably getting the animals to suit your system and making it fit your particular business you do and try to get the most out of what suits you."
Westerfield’s Darryl Oldham runs a mixed cropping operation with store lambs through the winter.
"The take-home message today is just keep things simple and do what you love."
Methven’s Hamish Marr runs a 500ha mixed arable property.
About 400ha of arable crops is combined with dairy and heifer grazing and they also graze lambs for a neighbour on 100ha of pasture on a five-year rotation.
"The biggest take-home for me today was the realisation in farming systems of keeping a holistic view of your farming system and working out what your system is and not straying too far outside of it."
