Friday, March 29, 2024

A good spread

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Fertiliser is one of the three major costs onfarm along with feed and wages, and with a $3.90/kg MS milk price, most farmers have been forced to mine their soils to reduce their fertiliser bill. That wasn’t an option for Waikato farmers Doug and Sandra Sanson when they bought a new farm in 2015 with areas that hadn’t seen fertiliser in five years. They talked to Sheryl Brown about strategic fertiliser spending. Otorohanga farmers Doug and Sandra Sanson applied 1 tonne/ha capital fertiliser on 45ha last spring despite an unattractive forecast milk price dictating farm costs. They had just bought a second dairy block across the road from their home farm and knew the sidlings on the rolling to steep property hadn’t had any fertiliser for at least five years. There had been plenty of fertiliser going on the rest of the farm, but the sidlings had been neglected and that was where they saw potential to grow and harvest extra pasture, Doug says. Spending the money on the sidlings was where they were going to get the best return for their money.
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It was a strategic decision to maximise pasture growth and get the farm growing more grass quickly.

They allowed $60,000 in their budget for fertiliser when they borrowed the money to buy the farm, and spent the entire budget, Doug says.

They knew they would need to apply significant capital fertiliser, a decision backed up by soil tests.

The new farm is 112ha of easy country and 27ha of medium to steep, mostly allophanic soils.

The soil tests showed a massive difference in soil fertility between the easy and steep country. The sidlings had Olsen P levels of 20-25, as well as low sulphur and potassium levels.

When the farm was signed up they got permission to apply fertiliser immediately and applied 200kg/ha DAP to the sidlings by helicopter.

In spring they spread another 1t/ha of 25% MOP potash and 75% Super10 on the sidlings, and the rest of the farm got 150kg/ha of ammonium sulphate.

They were able to make cut-backs on the home farm and saved about $17,000 by not putting on phosphate.

In comparison, in spring 2014 the home farm had 400kg mix of 83% Super 10 15K and 17% coated urea. In autumn they put on 400kg mix of 80% Serpentine Super and 20% Sustain.

From left, Ballance nutrient specialist Matthew Holwill, Brooke, Sandra, Charles and Doug Sanson onfarm at Otorohonga.

Doug is the third generation to farm the original 60ha Sanson family block, which he and Sandra have expanded to a 115ha effective milking platform.

It’s a rolling farm, with about 5ha of steep country. It’s mostly Otorohanga silt loam soil, with some peat over pumice soil on the flats.

The farm has had soil tests done for the past 60 years and Doug continues to do biennial testing.

Growing grass has always been their main focus and they’ve been aggressive with fertiliser over the past five years while the payout was strong.

The soils consequently have strong potassium and Olsen P levels and they were able to withhold phosphate last season to save money.

“We decided to withhold phosphate for a year,” Doug says.

“This year we will go back to our normal fertiliser regime. We will wait until we do some soil tests and see what the GDT is doing, whether it’s a bubble or a genuine recovery.”

If the payout doesn’t recover, they will have another look at what they do, but fertiliser is not something they like to skimp on, Doug says.

“With this downturn that’s lasting three or four years, you run out of options – it can become a bit of a trap.”

“It’s about priorities. There are always things you can spend money on with a farm – a fence that needs fixing or a drain that needs cleaning.

“We made an adjustment last year, but it should be back to business as usual this year. We’re very protective of our pasture  production – it’s the basis of our business.”

In the past, a lot of the decisions farmers make would have been blind, but with more data and technology available, they can make more informed calls on where they can cut fertiliser back and where they can’t.

Farmers who have withheld capital fertiliser and increased levels of nitrogen to chase cheaper feed during the downturn will be challenged to sustain that for longer than a season or two, Ballance Agri-Nutrients specialist Matthew Holwill says.

“With this downturn that’s lasting three or four years, you run out of options – it can become a bit of a trap,” he says.

Doug and Sandra have a contract milker on the home farm and their son Charles came home to run the new farm after a career working in digital marketing in Auckland.

He had shown an interest in farming and when the neighbouring property came on the market, Doug asked him if he wanted to be a farmer.

Charles and his wife Brooke made the move back to Waikato to manage the farm and are contract milking this year.

“I was sick of Auckland and wanted a change, and farming seemed like a good option for a career pathway,” Charles says.

It’s great to have family involved in the business and the refreshing thing is Charles is always smiling, even in the most stressful of times, Sandra says.

Charles’ digital skills have come in handy in the farming world. He has created his own phone app to manage calving this year and also created a digital map of the new farm, which made it easy to highlight the sidling areas that needed fertiliser.

His digital map links to TracMap, which makes it easy to isolate the key areas they want to target. The pilot can follow them, which ensures excellent application accuracy.

The real challenge with the new farm is to put the fertiliser on accurately and not waste any, Matt says.

With high rates of capital fertiliser, the last thing farmers want is the fertiliser to end up where they don’t need it or on the neighbour’s paddocks.

Using the accurate map technology makes it easier to get high accuracy spreading it aerially and not waste a cent, Matt says.

Doug walked the farm after the dressing and was very happy with the accuracy of spreading.

Charles hopes to increase milk production in his second season as the cows get used to the steeper country. Doug and Sandra bought the herd from Kopu and the cows were used to the flats.

A few of them protested over the hilly paddocks to begin with, he says.

“We had some trouble with the cows and getting them to harvest the grass on the sidlings took a little while.”

The farm previously milked 280 cows and carried about 20 beefies, but Charles is milking 340 cows. The farm’s steeper country is ideally suited to keeping young stock at home.

He’s also carrying 56 yearlings and will keep his 70 replacement calves at home.

Fertiliser trends

A lot of dairy farmers have drawn down on their soil Olsen P levels in the past couple of years, Ballance sales general manager Campbell Parker says.

In tight times farmers have been more strategic with the type of product they buy, and when they apply it, he said.

Overall fertiliser sales had dropped 7% in the agricultural market. Farmers had bought 2% more nitrogen-basedproduct, but were being more strategic with phosphate, potassium and sulphur.

Dairy farmers were adapting their behaviour and using more tools like N-Guru to make decisions about where they could get the best response from fertiliser, he said.

“Farmers are using more data to make more timely and informed decisions. Information is power and enables better decisions.”

Some leading farmers were soil-testing their whole farm or doing more herbage testing to make more accurate decisions.

In the past 12 months, 30% of the soil tests had also done a total nitrogen test, he said. Farmer and market confidence was a big driver for fertiliser sales, along with the weather.

After the rise in global dairy trade auctions volumes had started to move again.

“Farmers have learnt the lessons of cutting fertiliser. The land is their physical asset and it needs reinvestment.”

•  Five-year-fertiliser-trend-table.pdf

FARM FACTS

Owners – Doug and Sandra Sanson
Location – Otorohanga, Waikato

FARM 1

  • Contract milkers Brent Martinovich and Kristine Dennis
  • Area 117ha effective
  • Cows 375 crossbred
  • Farm dairy 30-aside herringbone
  • System 3 bought supplements 120-150t maize silage, 100-150t palm kernel
  • Pasture harvested 13.61t DM/ha
  • Three-year average milk production– 140,655kg milksolids
  • Fertiliser spend 2015-16 $43,000

FARM 2

  • Contract milkers – Charles and Brooke Sanson
  • Area – 138ha effective
  • Cows – 340 crossbred
  • Farm dairy – 24-aside herringbone
  • System 3 bought supplements – 100t maize silage, 150t palm kernel
  • Pasture harvested – 11.8t DM/ha
  • 2015-16 milk production – 121,348kg MS
  • Fertiliser spend 2015-16 – $63,000

• For more tips on how to reduce fertiliser costs while getting the best bang for your buck go to www.dairynz.co.nz/news/latest-news/fertiliser-costs-what-to-do-in-the-downturn/

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