Increase Natural Capital on Your Farm Waikato

Day One:  Gain more from Less

The successful road to farming is to keep things simple.  Managing pastures and soils through grazing management is something many farmers avoid by maximising production.  Cut through farming information to reduce risk, improve resilience, cash surpluses and create quality of life farmers deserve. 

Be introduced to what actions drive farming success and how to make choices to strengthen soil function, pasture production and the bottom line.  Random actions produce random results so learn techniques to improve consistency, clarity and efficiency by preventing farm problems becoming surprises. 

Learn...

• How livestock production improves soil health  Lift fertility without fertiliser.
• Design your own pasture mixes, get beyond ryegrass.
• Observe landscape signs regarding fertility and rainfall absorption.  Optimise rainfall capture.
• Balance family life with production management.  Take control and focus on things that matter.
• Invest to strengthen farming enterprises.  Focus on what gives biggest bang for dollar.
• Lift potential farm profit without computer software.  Put profit first.
• Leave with ideas of what to do next on the farm.

Itinerary

Day One:  Gain more from Less

9.45 arrive grab a cuppa

10.00am Introductions housekeeping, agenda for today and tomorrow

10.15am Expectations

10.30am Getting beyond problems of traditional management

•  How to manage environmental demand, profits, livestock production and a social life
• Where to start to create your own farming journey.
• What questions you need to ask to keep on track and reduce confusion and procrastination
• What does it mean to be pro-active

11.30:  Finances: Gain emotional equity with the numbers

• What is profit?  Creating freedom to fail by filling the tank.
• What are wealth generating expenses and where to target investment.
• Prioritise cash, time and resources
• Increase the likelihood of being profitable.
• Understand the commitment to monitoring for corrective action and success

12:30pm Lunch

1.00pm:   Eco-processes and observation “looking under the hood.”

• Learn the engine of your business.
• Find what levers to pull. Get beyond ryegrass.
• Unlock the nutrient in your soil to build more topsoil and store moisture.

1.30: Finally

• What to do first?
• Where to look for first signs of change.
• What are you going to do when you get home?

2.00pm: Outside to observe soil surface criteria to learn what are the pre-profit indicators ON A FARM.

• Visit Farm
• Soil surface observation activity
• Pasture walk

3.45pm:  Review Expectations

4.00pm: Finish

Day Two:  Boost Pasture Productivity

What you'll Learn...

Successful Holistic Planned Grazing on Kiwi farms

High energy pasture and livestock performance

Lift pasture productivity per unit of input

Build deeper topsoil with grazing management

Proactively manage weather fluctuations

Design easy to monitor fertilizer trials

Manage grazing to promote and keep plant diversity

Do-it-yourself regen monitoring

How can farmers be climate hero’s

Let your farm teach you how to get productivity pumping

Itinerary

9.45  arrive grab a cuppa

10.00  Grazing  to Lift Pasture Productivity

· Jumpstart nutrient cycling

· Optimal recovery for your class of stock

· The health of your livestock mirrors the health of your soil

11.00 Five Opportunities to Lift your Grazing Wedge

• Five regen hacks to include in your grazing plan

12:00 pm LUNCH

12.30  Holistic Planned Grazing Introduction by John

1.30   Starting a grazing plan for your farm

· We guide you through the step-by-step planning process

3:30  Planning pasture moves to balance animal performance and grass growth

· Example farm

· Using the NLG Computer spreadsheet to speed up the process

· Know how much to machine harvest in spring

· Know how much area to defer