Wairarapa Times-Age Thursday, February 13, 2025 17
Managing autumn ill-thrift 2025 AUTUMN
PASTURE & FERTILISER 2024 was the second-driest year on record for Wairarapa, according to research from NIWA. Intermittent rain has since arrived, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that autumn pastures will support good animal productivity, much to the frustration of farmers. A complicated interaction of multiple factors can potentially lead to autumn ill-thrift - a common and frustrating seasonal syndrome that reduces stock growth rates. Technical specialists with PGG Wrightson provide advice on what factors to look out for and how to manage autumn ill-thrift. They say that because of the impacts of ill-thrift on growth rates, these factors cannot be ignored. Ineffective drenching, for example, can result in lower growth rates and increased pasture contamination by parasites. Parasite larvae are often most apparent in the autumn. A faecal
egg count one to two weeks after drenching, however, could help determine if your drench programme is working well. Lambs or calves with pneumonia also tend to have lower growth rates even if they are not obviously ill. A higher incidence of pneumonia is often seen in autumn because these lambs have been growing slower than others so are the last to make drafting weights. Checking the percentage of infected lambs over the entire season, not just from one late draft, is important. Young stock are fussy eaters so they won’t eat pastures containing high amounts of dead plant material or fungal spores or grasses that are high in fibre. An unbalanced diet also impacts animal performance, so analysis of herbage samples can be useful, particularly when grazing new growth after an autumn flush. Beef + Lamb New Zealand has a good resource to help determine if feed quality and quantity may be reducing stock performance. Continued over the page.
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