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<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Hello All</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Well our perserverance has paid off and we have
been given approval to finance purchase of a dairy farm through Bank of
Melbourne.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>It seems that I am some what of a "dog at a
bone" and that if you knock long and hard enough they will succumb. I think
it also helped that we are dealing with a down to earth non number cruncher
person who could see beyond the square box mentality of the banks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Of course we will have to pay a slightly higher
interest rate as our equity position is borderline but at least we can get
in.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Thanks to all the people who sent messages of
encouragement & ideas.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>I think we now face the hardest part as we
negotiate the details of purchase!!! Phew. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>To anyone else considering this as their future,
I can only say prepare yourself well, have faith in yourself and be
professional.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>It has taken us the best part of 18 months to
get to this stage and the amount of time I have spent on this computer and the
phone doing financials etc is amazing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>I will keep you updated on our
progress.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>Regards Gerald, Sonya & Joshua
Hanratty</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
</x-html>From ???@??? Thu Apr 15 17:30:07 1999
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Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 13:27:42 +0011
From: Gregg COOK <cookg@maff.agvic.gov.au>
Subject: Re: Fescue at MRF
To: gippsdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au
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Thought I should add to the discussion on the ADVANCE fescue that has been
established at the Macalister Research Farm.
I too was very sceptical of the demonstration at first, but there is
a fair bit of evidence to suggest it is a real goer under the right
conditions. By the right conditions I mean it is really suited as an
option for making those poor soil structure paddocks that are distichum
or paspaslum dominant paddocks into something more productive.
I have attached a a summary of the growth rates and the grazings for
some of the paddocks at the MRF over the past lactation. When you
look at the number of grazings obtained for each paddock there
doesn't seem to be much in it. But when you compare the amount of
metabolisable energy that is drawn from each paddock it paints a
different picture.
The feed test for the different species were:
Paspalum 8.4 ME 18.3 Protein 58.9% digestibility
Distichum 8.5 ME 16.0 Protein 59.3% disgestibility
Ryegrass/Clover 12.6 ME 24.5 Protein 73.1% digestibility
Fescue 13 ME 24.0 Protein 87.9% Digestibility
Noel Pattison asked about the establishment of fescue. The
establishment fo rpaddock 14 into fescue took place in the Spring.
Because fescue is a summer growing species, it had a good growing season to get
established before its growth dropped off through winter. The
establishement of the Spring sown fescue has been very successful.
There has been another paddock established to Fescue in the Autumn 12
months ago. As seedlings were going into winter, and were less
activein growth it struggled to get established and was out competed with weeds.
This was interesting because 2 bays were planted to ADVANCE fescue
while one bay used VULCAN fescue. The Vulcan was a bit
of a disaster. Even now the growth on the vulcan bay is quite a bit
lower than the other bays. There were huge gaps between the plants,
these gaps have (Thankfully ) filled with clover. There was an
infestation of "Duck or Chick weed" in the autumn established
bays through the winter of 1998.
We had to top this chick weed to try an give the
fescue a chance to survive. Without this topping, I imagine there
would be very little left. The advance fescue bays have started to
establish reasonable well this summer, but the plants are probably
only half as dense as the spring sown fescue in paddock 14.
New Developments or Recommendations
Because the fescue is reasonable slow growing in winter (but still
comparable to ryegrass), we have
suggested that it should be planted with a winter active clover.
The idea of this is to fill the gaps between the fescue plants with
clover when they appear through winter. Many of the requests for
recommendations I have received in my office have been for sites that
are marginally affected by salinity. White clover is not very salt
tolerant and those clovers that are (ie strawberry) are not winter
active. In these cases, I have been suggesting to plant the fescue
with one of these fancy new upright plaintains such as "Tonic" plaintain.
These plaintains are salt tolerant and are winter active. It has
only been a recent recommendation and we haven't been through a
growing season yet, to assess its success. Richard Churchley
(Tullochs agronomist) is also backing up this recommendation
and is suggesting it as an approach to his clients.
Peter Gault (my great farmer mentor) suggested that he had heard a
rumour that the Fescue at the MRF was thinning. This is particially
true in that the gaps between the plants this unusually hot and wet
summer have filled with distichum. It is however still far from
unproductive. Now the cool break has arrived, it has put a
halt on the distichum invasion and suddenly the clover is reappearing. The
interesting point is that the distichum is only now coming back into
that paddock - we have had 3 good years of production out of the
paddock and it is far from stuffed yet. Whereas the other paddock
(paddock 23) which was cultivated and resown to ryegrass/clover at
the same time as the fescue is now completely distichum dominant and
is need of resowing. The board is in fact considering putting this
paddock to fescue in the Spring of 1999.
I suggest that it is well worth coming on a MRF farm walk to see this
demonstration for yourself. Bob Pitman and myself do the weekly farm
walk from 10:30 am each Monday. Anyone is welcome to attend.,
Look forward to seeing some of you at the MRF someday.
Cheers
Gregg Cook
Dairy Development Officer
Natural Resources and Environment
1 Stratford Rd, MAFFRA 3860
Phone (03) 51 390 144
Fax (03) 51 390 120
E-mail cookg@maff.agvic.gov.au
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