Growing grass and subsequent pasture management is the most fundamental element for Waikato farmer Ross Crabb.
Buying in supplement and not maximising pasture harvested onfarm is defeating the purpose of owning land in the first place, he says.
“Be aware of substitution – doing a hash job of growing grass and buying in food to make it up. It might be easy, but it’s expensive.
“There is no point owning land and not using it to the best of its ability.”
That message is never more pertinent than in the current economic climate for dairy farmers. Many are carrying high debt levels from buying expensive dairy land and with the pressure of a low milkprice are trying to cut costs. Many farmers can’t simply drop their stocking rate and bring home the young stock or change to a low-input system because they are locked into production targets to ensure they can pay fixed costs such as interest and leases, Ross says.
Ross has been farming on his family farm at Te Hoe for more than 20 years. He bought 82ha three years ago and leases the remaining 120ha from the family trust.
His farm working expenses are $3.21/ kg milksolids (MS) for this season, but he hopes to reduce that to less than $3/kg MS next season.
Maintaining production and feeding the cows 16kg drymatter (DM)/cow/day at the least possible cost is his focus.
“One of the most important things for me is keeping consistent feed levels. If the drymatter offered to the cow is too much one day and not enough the next, it can affect her milk production.
“If the drymatter offered is 17-18kg DM they’ll leave grass behind and if you’re only giving them 13-14kg DM you can tell they’re going hungry. If they go hungry one day they may drop and might not fully get it back.”
Ross has created his own feed intake tool, which calculates the amount of drymatter the cows are getting daily. It can be adjusted according to round length, pasture cover, grazing residuals, herd size and supplementary feed inputs.
He uses a drymatter tester for the supplementary feed in the cows’ diet, which he also inputs into the tool. It helps to ensure more accuracy to reach the target of 16kg DM/cow consistently.
Ross is also using the Land and Feed app to help maximise productivity and profit.
The farm is a DairyNZ System 3, buying in 8-10% of feed every year with a stocking rate of three cows/ha. Young stock are grazed off-farm.
Ross grows 17ha of maize every year on part of the milking platform that is difficult to access with milking cows, and feeds an average of 580kg maize/cow/ year.
He has planted more maize on the milking platform in the past, but now prefers to leave the platform in grass and buy it in if required – although he won’t be buying any maize this year.
He plants annual ryegrass between maize crops, which is added feed for wintering 650 cows.
Palm kernel is fed in the in-dairy feeding system at a rate of 1-3kg/cow/ day if the feed calculator shows it’s necessary.
The 400-cow feedpad is used to feed maize in autumn and spring.
He contracted 200 tonnes of palm kernel in December in anticipation of drought conditions, but has yet to use much this season because of favourable summer rainfall so will have that up his sleeve going forward.
“This is the best summer I can remember.”
Ross usually makes 170t grass silage annually and always looks to predict any grass surplus.
Platemeter results are not 100% accurate and he uses the results simply as a guide, Ross says.
Ross has also got a list of which paddocks are best suited for day and night breaks depending on the round length. When the round length changes, night paddocks become days, day paddocks become nights.
Having the right rotation length and monitoring grazing patterns is important.
“We look back at the last month and pay attention to what paddocks have been spelled the longest.
“Sometimes paddocks need to jump up or down the list order a bit.”
This season when the farm was getting dry in November, he put the cows on to a 39-day round, which worked well.
“It’s been highly beneficial to have a higher cover coming into summer and it has decreased moisture loss. It’s given the grass longer to grow and kept it greener. I’ll definitely keep this in mind as a tool in the future.”
Ross uses the DairyNZ spring rotation planner and does the farm walks during calving when the staff are busy.
“I like to get the full picture of the pasture growth and intake at this critical time of the year.”
Ross does a lot of the tractor work, including pre-grazing topping as a grass management tool before summer. It makes it easier for the cows to eat and the paddock is left in good condition.
“The cows hoover it up in a couple of hours and then they rest and get to ruminate. Pre-topping is a tool to help them increase intake and decreases waste, I think it’s beneficial.
“Post-grazing residuals are one of the biggest indicators of your pasture management successes or failures.”
Ross spends a lot of time looking at residuals and if they are not near the desired 1500kg DM/ha a change is quickly made.
During summer when pasture covers get low, supplements are fed to try and maintain the 16kg DM/cow intake, and also to try to stop over-grazing, which in the case of a drought is usually inevitable.
Ross uses a direct drill to undersow any underperforming paddocks. In the past he was undersowing one third of the farm every year with a tetraploid, which only lasted a few years and then the paddocks were open and sparse again.
Now he undersows perennial ryegrasses more selectively on problem paddocks, which has been very effective. The under sowing is done in autumn behind the cows, which he is able to do because he has his own drill.
“Agfirst farm adviser Nico Mouton has been visiting me for as long as I have been farming here. I have found him to be a great sounding board over the years, and he keeps me up-to-date on what’s happening outside the farmgate.”
Two feed budgets are normally done in a season, one in autumn to ensure sufficient pasture cover is achieved for calving, and one in early spring to ensure covers don’t drop too low before balance date. The budgets identify any possible issues that can be acted on before they happen.
Ross also follows the cows with nitrogen. He applies 154kg N/year at a rate of 25kg N/ha each dressing.
“My policy is, if soil moisture and temperatures are ideal, apply nitrogen, it’s still a cheap source of feed.”
He does soil tests every spring.
“The fertiliser recommendation used to be to apply the same amount of nutrients to the soil that has gone out the gate in the form of milk. These days we look at our soil tests results, and the fertiliser decisions are made on that basis – soil tests are cheap.”
Farm facts:
Location: Te Hoe, Waikato
Owner: Ross Crabb
Area: 210ha effective (194ha permanent pasture)
Cows: 620 Kiwicross
BW: 118/43, PW: 134/57 (91% ancestry)
Production: 235,000kg milksolids
Farm dairy: 52-bail rotary, Protrack, Halo, walk-over weighing
Pasture grown: 17t DM/ha
Pasture harvested: 14t DM/ha
