Speaking at a Beef + Lamb New Zealand ''Farming for Profit'' field day on August 22, Mr Brown outlined how he had boosted productivity with an experimental regime.
He has 425ha in the Levels Valley and 1400ha in Central Otago.
''I needed to try growing feed when it doesn't normally grow,'' he said.
''I started growing maize to harvest, a number of years ago. I could get 15 tonnes - 16.5 in a good year.''
In 2010, Mr Brown had managed to harvest his maize in a wet autumn, but other farmers did not. He heard some had put bulls on to the maize paddocks, where they had ''grazed it off''.
He discussed it, then approached seed company Pioneer. It had a grazing maize cultivar called Forage King, made from a mix of hybrids for different North Island growing conditions.
''I threw it in,'' Mr Brown said.
The summer greenfeed option was not suitable for silage. With a large seed, it could be planted deeply into the soil moisture zone. Its good root system allowed it to draw moisture out, even in a dry season, he said.
It could produce 16 to 17 tonnes of dry matter in a dryland situation.
''I work on 12 tonnes to do my cost estimates. I always end up with more than expected, so it must be cheaper than we thought.''
Its metabolisable energy of 10.3 was similar to leafy summer pasture.
''I now feed just maize, with no added protein,'' Mr Brown said.
''The first year, I put bulls on it. They could walk on and off to a plantain paddock and also a grass paddock.
''We made good money. Then we increased the area of maize. This year, we've got 150ha of maize, 16ha to be harvested and the rest grazing maize. It was planted on November 10 last year.''
By mid-January, it had grown taller than the cattle's backs: ''It's amazing how quickly it grows.
''You have to prepare the seed bed properly. We used a rotor spike.
''The roots can go down two metres in dry conditions, where nothing else will grow.''
At Levels, Mr Brown had 48ha of grazing maize, with 600 in-calf heifers grazing it solidly.
''We couldn't have carried them in the past, when we didn't have grazing maize.
''They will go back and eat the stalks, off the ground.
''In June, it looked and felt like cardboard. The plant grows a big cob - 50% of it is cob. It's a really good product. We left the tail-end heifers on it. They did really well.''
Fodder maize needed to have soil temperatures of 10 degrees and rising. It could be grazed from early January to late April.
Mr Brown direct-drilled ryecorn into the stubble, which would break down under the new crop.
''We get six tonnes of ryecorn. Then we will plant the paddock in fodder beet and get 20 tonnes from it.
''We try to grow as much dry matter as we can. This year, it should be 12,600kg per hectare. We put lucerne in where there was just rocks and rubbish.''
Grazing maize cost less than 10 cents per kilogram of dry matter, he said.
''We've got 250ha of fodder beet going in this year. With maize as well, we can carry a lot more stock than we could before we got into those two crops.''
- by Sally Brooker