Winery waste good fodder for monitor farms stock

A byproduct of Marlborough's wine industry has been helping the region's monitor farmer combat the autumn dry.

Greg Harris believes grape marc could be Marlborough's answer to palm kernel reports The Marlborough Express. Without the cheap supplement, he would struggle to feed his stock this winter. Mr Harris told farmers about his use of the product on his Awatere Valley property, Mt Adde, at last Thursday's monitor farm day. Grape marc – grape skins, seeds and pulp – is a byproduct of the wine industry. Mr Harris said he sourced the grape marc from a neighbouring vineyard for free and fed it out as up to 20 per cent of his supplementary feed regime.

Up to 400 tonnes of grape marc had been used on his farm annually for about six years. This season, he had fed out about 100 tonnes more than usual. He also fed his animals sorghum and straw. "[Grape marc] is better quality than poor-quality pasture." Mr Harris said the product was made up of about 38 per cent dry matter and was best fed wet to animals in a large heap. Animals would burrow to expose fresh material as the pile's surface dried. Mr Harris said farmers who were not already using grape marc should try it and see how they could integrate it into their farming system.

However, a few hang-ups which Mr Harris had never experienced with the supplement were raised at the meeting. The Vet Centre's Pete Anderson said farmers needed to be aware of manganese deficiency that could arise from feeding animals grape marc, and feeding it to pregnant cows could result in deformed calves. He said farmers should add manganese to grape marc to "be on the safe side". There were also conflicting opinions shared about the impact grape marc had on pasture growth.Mr Harris said pasture grew faster the following season on areas where it had been dumped, while other farmers said it completely killed off their grass.