HubWatch – 16 January 2026

Grass baleage cultivation trial paddock: Paddock 27 was grazed at 10 t DM/ha last winter as grass baleage. Given the lower bale density, we decided to run a small cultivation trial to understand grass growth relative to cultivation method. One half of the paddock was fully cultivated, while the other half was lightly cultivated (disked, not ploughed). While it's still early days, platemeter readings show the fully cultivated area at 2,975 kg DM/ha, compared with 2,545 kg DM/ha for the lightly cultivated half. We plan to plate these weekly to track growth differences over the year, but there is already a notable difference.

Phantom cows: Of the 28 phantom cows scanned at the end of December and treated with PG (prostaglandin), only seven were not mated by the end of mating. Mating finished on Sunday 11 January 2026. We're very pleased the scan was completed, as it gave more cows the opportunity to get in calf and helped reduce the Not In Calf rate.

Kale: Mike Fairburn from PGG Wrightson Seeds assessed establishment of the kale crops. He identified a few gaps in seed strike, mainly in ex-swede paddocks where clumps in the seedbed affected establishment. As a safeguard, we decided to broadcast additional seed via drone. We're keen to see the strike rate from this method. Spreading was done by Nick from Southland Drone Services, who also applied slug bait a week earlier. This approach avoids plant damage and provides good accuracy of seed placement.