Science made simple at field day

TIM and Grit Cashin’s farm at Leongatha South was the venue for Dairy Australia and GippsDairy’s field day on Friday and a drawcard for an almost 100 strong crowd.
A sizeable number of those attending were young farmers.
All were keen to see the progress made on the focus farm during a 12 month period as well as to hear guest speaker from Melbourne University, professor in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, Richard Eckard, talk about the effective use of nitrogen.
The effective use of nitrogen was the fitting theme of the day because it just that which has seen the condition of the Cashin’s farm make significant improvement since they took it over in July 2006.
As Professor Eckard pointed out, the Cashin’s is a wet farm but within its boundaries there are varying conditions each with differing nitrogen requirements.
The farm is effectively a farm of two halves which extensive ‘hump and hollow’ works have made far more manageable.
Teh field day included a farm walk to see the cows, pastures and farm layout including hump and hollow drainage and nitrogen treated pastures.
Mr Eckard said effective use of nitrogen was the best way to increase grass production and therefore cut down on the need to grain.
“The cheapest way to produce milk is with grass rather than grain,” he said.
The professor observed that coming off a ‘low base’ the Cashin’s farm is advancing well and they have markedly increased their grass cover.
“They are getting more grass down their cows’ throats than they were 12 months ago.”

Young farmers: from left, Sally Pate, Paul Sherar and Jason Lee were part of a large number of young people in attendance at the Cashin’s farm open day.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on May 19 2015. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry