Dairy industry strategies have demanded feeding systems with high productivity and high quality. A 45 t DM/ha annual target for feed production was addressed. Six crop sequence treatments were established in large plots (40*12 m) at Lincoln, Canterbury, in the first year of a 2-year experiment to determine practical upper limits for yield. Summer crops included maize, kale and whole crop barley and these were followed by combinations of winter crops (oats, Italian ryegrass, forage rape, tick beans and triticale). Crops were grown with minimal transition time to reduce potential yield losses, and with optimum nitrogen and irrigation management. Highest plot yield in the first annual crop cycle was 11.9 t DM/ha short of the 45 t DM/ha target. Best productivity was with a maize - triticale+tick bean (32.5 t DM/ha) sequence followed by maize - wheat (30.0 t DM/ha), barley - oats+Italian ryegrass (28.1 t DM/ha) and kale - triticale+tick bean (26.1 t DM/ha). Fertiliser management, crop water use in high input cropping systems are discussed together with practical issues around handling crops with large accumulated biomass.
