I believe this conference is about New Zealand's greatest asset. It concerns the growing of grass in a "grassland" country. I believe too, that as farmers, we have a tremendous responsibility to use this asset to the best of our ability. I am fortunate to be farming in South Taranaki on the Waimate Plains. This area was originally fern covered which made development easier, and has been established for dairying for about 100 years. The soil type is free draining Egmont black loam. Our rainfall varies from 30-50" a year. I like to think myself as a true grassland farmer concentrating on these five points: (1) Growing the maximum amount of pasture. (2) Managing a dairy herd to eat all the pasture I grow. (3) Maintaining a high quality herd. (4) Obtaining the milk they produce in a simple efficient manner. (5) Having good staff relationships. During the development of this farm I have put these points into practice. A 48ha dairy unit adjacent to my home property was purchased in 1970. At that time it was producing 9000 kg of butterfat. In my first season it produced 14,000 kg from 125 cows and last year it produced 28,180 kg from 160 cows, (Figure 1) with 35 heifers grazed off from May to May.
