Farmers, graziers need agreements

With the dairy industry expanding ,more sheep and cattle farmers are taking on heifer grazing to supplement their incomes.

But unless clear concise agreements are entered into spelling out targets and responsibilities, arguments arise.

Grazing young heifers to reach target weights needs a feeding plan that allows and costs periods when pasture feed is limiting.

If farmers take on these young animals to just soak up surplus feed, they could be exposing themselves and the cattle to disappointing results.

Dairy farmers and graziers are being advised to communicate well ahead of entering into grazing agreements – or face each other at mediation.The Waikato's Anexa/Animal Health Centres, whose vets have been involved in a a few mediation cases recently, held workshops for graziers at Te Uku near Raglan and Huntly last week in a bid to get dairy farmers and graziers on the same page. Katrina Roberts, herd health veterinarian, suggested graziers weigh arriving stock themselves rather than rely on somebody else's weights when they arrived at a property for grazing reports The Waikato Times.

She said dairy farmers wanted less than 5 per cent heifers empty at the end of the first mating, with a mortality rate of less than one per cent. They expected all heifers in a group to be at 90 per cent of mature live weight by the time they were 22 months old. With more than 75 per cent calves in three weeks and 95 per cent calves in six weeks. She advised the parties to enter into a contract that needed to include realistic expectations for both parties. That could include arrival weights, vaccination details, target weights, time frames and supplementary feeding options.

"Unfortunately communication with graziers is getting worse," Andy Collier, a farm consultant for Intelact, said."Young stock have become more and more of an issue... They (dairy farmers) have got to get their heifers back home better. They can't afford to have poor growing of young stock, on the other hand they are not telling you (the graziers) that. There's miscommunication there."

Mr Collier said a dairy farmer would expect a grazier to get a typical friesian heifer which weighed 90kg at three months to 500kg by two years. The heifer should be 150kg at six months, 200kg at nine months, 250kg at one year, 300kg at 15 months, 365kg at 18 months and 450kg at 22 months."You need to allow for four tonnes of feed if you are taking it on," Mr Collier said.  Most calculations are based on 11ME/kg/DM. Grass silage, Mr Collier said, had "a lot less" than grass.