CA-CoP CONSERVATION
AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
for sustainable production
intensification
Dear colleagues
For what it is worth, almost all CA practiced in New Zealand involves pasture leys regularly integrated into the system. Sometimes these are cut for hay. Other times they are intensively grazed in situ. Often they are subjected to both. One of the more intensive system involves spraying the ley with glyphosate about 3 days before harvesting it for silage and then immediately no-tilling a new arable or forage crop into the cut (and dying) ley stubble.
There is no doubt that pasture leys have a positive effect on soil health in the NZ CA systems, but of course this all takes place in a temperate climate, making it easy to achieve compared with arid or semi-arid climates. Nonetheless, we have come to understand how leys fit into the CA system better than most.
Kind regards
Dr C John Baker
CEO and Chairman
Baker No-Tillage Ltd
89 Kawakawa Road
PO Box 181
Feilding 4740
New Zealand
Phones: +64 (0)6 323 1119 (O)
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