The Lucerne for Lambs Sustainable Farming Fund
project used on-farm data and whole-farm modelling
to help farmers understand the impact of increasing
the amount of grazing dryland lucerne on Central
Otago farms. On-farm results from 2 years showed that
spring stocking rate on lucerne-based pasture averaged
10 ewes and their lambs per hectare compared with 3
ewes and their lambs on dryland grass-based pasture.
Lamb growth rate was approximately 50 g/day
higher on lucerne-based pastures, resulting in a total
lamb production of 358 kg liveweight/ha at weaning
compared with 108 kg liveweight/ha on grass-based
pastures. Whole-farm modelling showed that increased
profitability could be achieved by the addition of
significant areas of grazing lucerne. Profitability
increased by $119/ha on a 5000 ha traditional merino
property. Profitability of a 522 ha partially irrigated
valley floor property running crossbred ewes was
increased by $249/ha. Using lucerne for spring grazing
also reduced the impacts of both winter and summer
droughts in the variable conditions of Central Otago.[Show full abstract]
![[PDF]](/themes/LURA/images/mimes/b_pdf.png "PDF file"){kind=small}
