Dairy farm planting for shelter
Neil Cullen
New
Zealand Tree Grower November 2008
On many of the dairy conversions undertaken in the south, the first
victim is often the farm’s existing trees. Sometimes there are valid
reasons for removal of these trees. They may be
abortion-inducing macrocarpa or they might not fit in with new paddock
alignments.
Nevertheless the need for more shelter and shade on southern dairy
farms still exists and this motivated South Otago branch president Mark
Hay to organise a field day near Kaitangata during the last week of
August.
Two dairy farms
The venue for the field day was two established dairy farms on either
side of the Matau branch of the Clutha River. Soils on these farms are
deep alluvial types just a matter of centimetres above sea level with
pumps and flood banks keeping the water off the pastures.
On Evan Dick’s farm an extensive network of shelterbelts has been
established over many years with alders, poplars, willows and eucalypts
the preferred species. With temperatures on the day struggling to get
above five degrees, the advantages of having shelter for man and beast
were readily apparent. Local vet Bruce Bissett emphasised that the
provision of shade during summer was just as important for top
production and that customer concerns regarding animal welfare are
likely to increase in future.
From the protection of a well established willow shelterbelt, Edendale
Nursery owner Ron Hinton outlined what he considered to be the four
crucial elements in growing effective shelter. If any parts of
planning, preparation, planting and protection are neglected or done
badly then the end result will be failure.
Ron related examples of farmers forgetting to reduce hare numbers
before planting or giving the planting job to an inexperienced worker
as common causes of establishment failure. Grass control is especially
important on fertile dairy farms and needs
to be continued for three years.
With dairy farmers understandably reluctant to forego large areas of
pasture, shelterbelts are usually kept narrow. Ron’s favoured species
for coastal Southland and South Otago are hybrid willows and poplars, Eucalyptus subcrenulata
and E. cordata, Olearia
traversii and O.
paniculata, and Thuja
plicata.
At the second dairy farm, farmers were shown how areas such as effluent
ponds, tanker roundabouts and milking sheds can be enhanced or
disguised by strategic planting. On display was a bank surrounding a
large effluent pond that had recently been planted with a selection of
natives. The most important consideration with these plantings is
selecting the right species − and with the surf roaring in the
background a tolerance of salt spray was an obvious necessity for that
site.
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