Rural Diary

In autumn, lice populations on cattle increase. This is due to temperature and humidity levels becoming more favourable for lice survival on the animals. Lice populations rise to reach their peak in winter and early spring. 

In New Zealand, there are two types of lice, a sucking species which pierces the skin and feed on tissue fluids, and a biting lice which feeds on the surface debris of skin. Both cause irritation to the animal resulting in rubbing or licking, hair loss, and damage to the hide.

Damage to fencing or troughs is often a result of excessive rubbing by cattle. The most visible areas of hair loss are generally on the neck, shoulders and along the flanks. As temperatures cool down and coat thickness increases, the environment for lice is more favourable for population increases. With increased numbers, the frequency and intensity of rubbing behaviour by cattle escalates.
Lice can’t fly and need close animal to animal contact to spread in a herd. They don’t survive long off the animal. This is important in the management of lice as all animals need treating, especially if mixing of mobs is occurring.

When treating animals for lice, it is best to start in late summer or early autumn when lice numbers are lower and coat thickness is less, allowing greater amounts of chemical exposure to the lice population. 

There are three chemical groups that are currently registered for use in cattle in New Zealand. Pour On organophosphates (for example Destruct) or synthetic pyrethroids (for example Blaze or Delmax) target lice and nuisance flies. On the other hand, Mectin based products target both internal worms and lice, for example Cydectin, Dualmax.

It is important to note that when any of these products are applied in winter, on animals with full coats or covered in mud or faeces, only suppression of lice numbers will be achieved at best. Lice numbers rebuild again over six to eight weeks, often requiring another treatment. This is due to some lice escaping a lethal dose of drugs in thick coats, and none of the drugs having an effective persistent effect on lice or killing eggs.

The take-home message for lice management is to treat animals early when lice numbers are low, so population control is managed better. For further information call into your local PGG Wrightson store or talk to your local Technical Field Representative.

We all know that weeds in pastures are undesirable, but a recent study sponsored by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment¹ has reported that we have likely been underestimating their full cost to New Zealand agriculture. 

The study estimated that the total cost for just 10 common pasture weeds was likely to be over $1.3 billion a year in lost production, while Californian thistle alone takes over $700 million per annum 
from farmers. 

Farmers need to get on top of weeds to protect pasture yields, and fortunately they have some good tools at their disposal like Tropotox™ Ultra. Tropotox Ultra is a selective, grass and clover friendly herbicide that controls many broadleaf weeds in pasture, peas, clover and grass seed crops. It has a broad spectrum of activity with strength on thistles, buttercup, and seedling docks.

Tropotox Ultra contains 25 grams a litre MCPA and 375 grams a litre MCPB in a soluble concentrate formulation. It is a member of the phenoxy herbicide group, which were first discovered back in the 1930s, developed and commercialised in New Zealand in the 1980s, and still form the backbone of many of our pasture weed control programmes today.

Phenoxy herbicides mimic the natural plant growth regulator auxin in plants, causing abnormal growth, twisting of stems and cupping of leaves in susceptible species followed by plant death. However, monocots (for example grasses) are largely unaffected by the rates of phenoxy used, but many dicot plants (for instance broadleaves weeds) are highly susceptible. 

Tropotox Ultra is absorbed into foliage of growing plants where it moves to the growing points and interferes with key plant functions. Visible symptoms, such as twisting and curling of foliage, can be seen in a day or two but death of weeds can take several weeks. Clover, and some other legumes, lack the mechanisms that converts the product to the herbicidal active form, and once clover has at least two true trifoliate leaves it is tolerant to Tropotox Ultra.

Best use guides:

• Apply Tropotox Ultra to small, actively growing weeds once clovers have passed two true tri-foliate leaves.
• Do not apply to weeds under stress for example drought, water logging.
• Use the higher rate where weeds are more advanced.
• Avoid spraying where rainfall is expected within two hours of application.

For more information on how to get the best out of your pastures by using Tropotox Ultra, talk to your local PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative.

Supplied by Agritrade
¹Saunders JT, G. G. (2017). The economic costs of weeds on productive land in New Zealand. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

When soil sampling, we usually collect the sample by block or by paddock. This is purely driven by ease of sampling logistics, such as crop area or fencing around a paddock, rather than yield variability and soil type, which in fact have the biggest influence on available plant nutrient.

Zonal soil sampling uses knowledge of historical management and spatial factors to direct where to take samples and determine if these areas have different fertiliser needs. Tools such as yield maps, crop sensor maps, Electro Magnetic (EM) soil maps and aerial imagery provide more information about variability in the field and where soil sampling can help interpret variability.

Soil depth and texture (sand, silt, and clay) change constantly across a paddock, impacting on the soil’s ability to hold on to moisture and nutrients, for instance a sandy soil has a lower water and nutrient holding capacity than a clay soil. By measuring the variability in sand, silt, and clay across a paddock and plotting it using GPS, we can create a map showing zones by soil texture and then sample those areas separately. This can be done either by a soil scientist taking soil cores and creating a soil classification report, or by using a scanning device such as an Electro Magnetic (EM) scanner or an Electrical Conductivity (EC) scanner. 

The scanner is towed across the paddock or area to be scanned usually at 12 metres swaths and sends an electrical pulse into the soil about every second as it drives forwards. The electrical pulse then bounces back to a receiver on the scanner having arced through moisture in the soils pores. Then, with the aid of an algorithm, a geo located reading of the soil porosity is done linking to the soil particle size and giving a soil texture indication.

A map is then created showing areas of soil texture change which can be sampled separately. A fertiliser plan can then be created by zone rather than by paddock. The spreader used must have the ability to variably apply fertiliser or lime. The map can also be used to variably apply seed, slug bait and even cultivations and help place soil moisture probes if you have irrigation.

The benefits of measuring soil variability are that you can apply lime and plant nutrients where they are required instead of carrying out a blanket application across the area to be fertilised. There are potential savings and environmental benefits by avoiding over fertilising areas, and crop output benefits from not under-fertilising areas, however the jury is still out with proven benefits of variable applied nitrogen (N).

For more information on zonal soil sampling, please speak to your local PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative.

When soil moisture is discussed, certain terms are used to describe its status, but what exactly do they mean? 

Water moves through soil and is held in pores and on soil surfaces. The relative size and proportion of the pores in the soil determine the vital soil physical characteristics, such as drainage and aeration. It is by understanding these differences in pore size that we can explain water movement and storage in soils. 

During heavy rain, many soils become saturated and the pores are filled with water. After the rain, water drains from the largest pores, called macropores, unless there is an impediment to drainage. This might take a couple of days and is an important process as once these big pores have emptied, air can get into the soil. At this stage, the soil might be thought of as a ‘reservoir’ for the plants, although not all the water left in the soil is available to plants. 

The actual size of the ‘reservoir’ and how much of it is available to plants varies markedly between soil types. Coarse-textured soils, known as ‘light’ sandy soils, have mainly large pores which drain quickly. Fine-textured soils, known as ‘heavy’ clay soils, have mainly small pores called micropores, which drain slowly, if at all. Neither of these pore sizes is ideal in terms of water storage for plants. The macropores drain quickly and don’t hold water for a long enough period for plant roots to access it. Conversely, micropores hold onto water with so much suction that this water is extremely hard to access. 

In between these two pore sizes are the ‘goldilocks’ zone of intermediate sized pores. These pores ‘hold onto’ the water and don’t drain, but the water in these pores is also easily extracted by plant roots. These pores tend to be most numerous in intermediate-textured soils. However, all soils have a combination of macro, micro and intermediate pores, and the proportion of sand, silt and clay in a soil play the major role in determining the drainage and water holding capacity of the soil.

As we go from spring into summer, we can often describe changes in soil moisture in the following sequence. If all pores are filled with water, the soil is said to be ’saturated’, for instance water may appear at the surface. If this saturated soil can drain, then the macropores start to empty. When most of this drainage is completed, the soil is said to be at ‘Field Capacity’ (FC). At FC, the water and air contents of the soil are ideal for crop growth. Gradually the water stored in the soil is taken up by the plant roots for transpiration, or evaporated from the bare soil surface. 

If no additional water is supplied to the soil, it gradually dries out. The dryer the soil becomes, the more tightly the water is retained and the more difficult it is for the plant roots to extract it. The uptake of water is insufficient to meet plant needs. The plant attempts to cope with this stress by wilting. If the soil continues to dry, the leaves may change colour from green to yellow and in extreme cases die. When the plant has taken all the water that it can get, the soil is said to be at ‘Permanent Wilting Point’ (PWP). The difference between FC and PWP is the ‘Profile Available Water’ (PAW). The PAW of a given soil is, therefore, the size of the ‘reservoir’ that is available to the plants. This usually tends to be larger in intermediate-textured soils and smaller in coarse sandy soils.

For more information on managing various levels of soil moisture, contact your local PGG Wrightson Technical Field Representative.