Thanks to all that answered my inquire about Kikuyu pastures. It has been
very interesting to see the reactions different people have about kikuyu.
Now that I know what you think, I would like to tell you what we do with
Kikuyu in Costa Rica.
With the climate conditions we have, kikuyu is present in every farm located
above 1600 meters. Some farms located above 2500meters have a mixture of rye
grass and kikuyu. We think it is the best grass for milk production!!!! It
grows all year long (a little less during December and January when it is
cold). Supplemented with concentrates we can get what we think are good milk
yields. In my farm, with an all Jersey herd, we have an average of 20.2
kilograms per cow/day. We supplement concentrates at a ratio of 3.1 to 1
average (milk to concentrate ratio). Concentrate has 14% protein. Before
visiting NZ four years ago and again last year, I used to graze kikuyu like
Liliana explained they do in Colombia: let the milkherd eat the top leaves,
and then dry cows and bred heifers eat the rest to prevent getting a mat.
Most farmers in CR still do that. We can not use the mechanical mulchers as
our kikuyu farms are on the sides of mountains and volcanoes and very few
have any flat land. In NZ I visited Murray Jaegger's farm near Wangharei and
talked to people involved in the"Kikuyu Action Group". I also read what they
were doing in Australia. Since then, what I do is change the rotation time,
from 24 to 34 days, depending on the time of the year, to prevent getting
the mat. We aim for 5 leave kikuyu when the cows go in. The pastures that I
don't use when my rotation period is shorter, I harvest into silage (50kg.
bags) that is used during the cold months. This system has worked real well
for me.
Any comments as to how to improve kikuyu pastures management will be
welcomed!!!
John J.Brealey
Jersey Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Liliana Sotomayor" <whitsot@uio.satnet.net>
To: <graze-l@witt.ac.nz>
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 9:15 PM
Subject: RE: [Graze-l] Kikuyu Pastures?
> Kikuyu, love/hate relationship. In more temperate climate like ours kikuyu
> is well established and difficult to eradicate. It seems like every region
> of the world that has it has developed a way to cope with it and make it
> produce. Certainly Murray's wealth of knowledge has helped me a lot, but
> still we haven't gone as far a using a mulcher. In some farms horses and
dry
> cows do the job by keeping the mat down to where the ryegrass can compete
> with it. We get occasional frosts that retard kikuyu growth and allow
other
> grasses to poke out. Good soil fertility is a must.
>
> Although a different approach, Colombians love kikuyu and let it get very
> tall and graze milk cows on the upper 1/3, then dry cows and maybe bring
it
> down with horses. Long rotation intervals, moist conditions, and lots of
> nitrogen applied are needed in this system.
>
> Being a subtropical grass it will not survive freezing conditions for very
> long. If you don't have it, definitely don't bring it in! There is a pest
in
> areas of Ecuador at around 1000-1200m that will decimate kikuyu pastures.
>
> Liliana Sotomayor, DVM
> Quito, Ecuador
>
>
> >Kikuyu is listed as a noxious weed for many states. So check before
> deciding to try to plant it in your area.
> --
> Oogie McGuire - oogiem@desertweyr.com
> Weyr Associates - Multimedia and Web Authoring Services & Consulting
> Desert Weyr - CMK Arabian horses and Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
> http://www.desertweyr.com/
> Paonia, CO USA
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