Understanding the system

Dairy cows are commonly wintered on brassica crops during the late autumn/winter period. The use of fodder beet as a wintering crop is becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand. The use of fodder beet has been adopted by beef finishing farmers as a summer feed to fill the summer feed gap when decreasing pasture growth rates during the summer results in a feed shortage. However, dairy farmers have also started to adopt the use of fodder beet to supply feed during the dry period. Winter grazing of brassicas involves growing a crop during the late-spring/summer period and carrying the feed into the winter period where pasture growth rates are low. Cows are typically adapted to the crop over a period of 10-14 days and grazed on the crop during the dry period. Additional feeds such as silage, hay and/or straw are often fed in addition to the crop. Cows are allocated daily breaks to prevent cows overeating, which is important in preventing metabolic disorders. Cows can be grazed on the crop for the entire dry period and are typically transferred to a pasture and/or silage diet in the weeks leading up to calving.

The video below (0:00 - 8:00 mins) outlines some of the benefits of using fodder beet on beef finishing farms and the main points that relate to its use on dairy farms are outlined in the bullet points below.

Credit: Rural TVNZ Cattle Country

• Fodder beet allows a large quantity of high quality feed (~12.0 MJ ME/kg DM) to be grown across a small area
• Fodder beet can be incorporated into a pasture system and grazed
• New Zealand is the only country that grazes fodder beet with other countries using cut and carry methods to feed fodder beet
• Rumen acidosis is the major animal health risk associated with feeding fodder beet and this can be overcome by transitioning stock gradually onto the feed
• On dryland a yield of ~20 t DM/ha can be expected and upto ~30 t DM/ha can be expected on irrigated land. Kale on dryland typicall yields 15-16 t DM/ha
• The total establishment cost from sowing until grazing for fodder beet is ~$2,100/ha, based on a return of 25 t DM/ha, the cost of feed is ~6-9 c/kg DM, making it the cheapest feed on farm

References:

Dairy NZ Ltd. (May, 2013). Fodder beet - feeding to dairy cows (1-73). Dairy NZ Farmfacts. Retrieved from http://www.dairynz.co.nz/media/253800/1-73_Fodder-beet_feeding_to_dairy_cows.pdf

Rural TVNZ. (2014, May 11). EP. 1 - CATTLE COUNTRY - Fodder Beet & Early Weaning [VIDEO FILE]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et42MM-KbHI