Successful wintering for South Canterbury farmers Brendan and Katya Caird is all in the planning and monitoring. It’s what helps mitigate risks, although, as they found out this season, it’s hard to eliminate them altogether.
Brendan and Katya own their own 90ha support block, adjacent to their 162ha milking platform, although the blocks are not directly accessible to each other thanks to the Opihi River.
Owning the support block, wintering cows and youngstock there as well as rearing their replacements is about control rather than lowering costs because it gives the couple more direct influence over body condition score (BCS) and animal health.
Brendan knows the longer term impacts that wintering can have on production and reproductive performance, and getting to BCS targets is a prime focus.
“We couldn’t winter our cows and youngstock here for any less than we’d pay elsewhere most years so it’s more about making sure that for the same money we actually achieve what we want to,” he says.
The block includes 65ha of owned land they bought in 2008 for $2 million as well as 26 ha of lease land that has an annual lease cost of $3900. They invested in irrigation infrastructure with two centre pivots that cover 55ha and K-line which waters 35ha as well shares in Opuha Irrigation.
This year they’re wintering 480 cows, 165 heifers and 165 calves with cows wintering on fodder beet and kale with silage and straw included, calves also on fodder beet and heifers on grass and whole-crop cereal silage.
Brendan’s calculated a return on capital (ROC) of 4% using income figures estimated on market rates for grazing of $28/cow, $21/heifer/week for wintering and $11/rising two-year-old and $7/week/calf for grazing costs. He puts the growing cost of kale at up to $1000/ha with fodder beet growing costs at up to $2000/ha.
Putting a value on security and control is more difficult but it’s enough for Brendan and Katya to be content with that 4% ROC. The couple have a great track record of controlling costs, managing their financials and assessing opportunities.
Brendan started out, directly from school working for wages for Alvin and Judith Reid. After five years with the couple he and the Reids went 50:50 in a joint venture that leased a small property and milked 200 cows.
Future problems from poor wintering
The risks of poor wintering can linger across seasons with failures to achieve body condition score (BCS) targets hitting production and reproduction DairyNZ says.
Cows mobilise body condition following calving to provide fatty acids for milk fat and amino acids for milk protein. The better the condition they’re in the more they have to mobilise.
Studies show mature cows calving at BCS five produce 12kg milksolids (MS)/cow more than those calving at BCS four.
The impact of not hitting the BCS calving target extends to reproduction as well, so has an effect on the next season’s performance as well. DairyNZ studies suggest 6% fewer cows are detected with pre-mating heats when they calve at a BCS four than if they calve at BCS five.
Youngstock also need to be hitting growth and BCS targets if they’re going to have a successful first calving and come into the herd with a better chance of getting back in-calf for a second time.
Over the next six years cow numbers grew and more land was leased until they were milking 600 cows. By 1998 Brendan owned 300 cows and half of the dairy co-operative shares that had doubled in value from $1/share as Fonterra’s precursor co-ops merged. It gave him enough equity to buy a 58ha farm at Winchester that over the next nine years grew to be 128ha. During that time he had also bought a 98ha runoff in the Totara Valley.
In 2007 Brendan and Katya planned to sell the runoff and buy their current dairy farm near Seadown, just south of Temuka, but instead, after an approach from the runoff’s neighbours, they took up an opportunity to convert it in a joint venture taking extra land.
That meant selling their Winchester farm instead of the runoff but continuing on with the purchase of their current dairy farm. The equity partnership at Totara Valley now includes 237ha and milks 830 cows.
Brendan and Katya have added further land to their Seadown dairy farm taking it from milking 480 cows in their first year to 585 last year and 620 this year.
Their low input, low cost focus meant last year they bought in just 100kg drymatter (DM)/cow as milking supplement and produced 1550kg milksolids (MS)/ha. They also grew 200kg DM/cow of fodder beet on 6ha of the milking platform fed in the autumn.
Farm working expenses were less than $3.50/kg MS in the 2012-13 season and will come out close to that again for last season. The support block is instrumental in achieving that because the coastal climate, lighter soils and crops allow them to put condition on cows over winter allowing them to milk the herd through to the end of May while still ensuring they hit those critical calving BCS targets.
Planning for winter begins before October the previous year as fodder beet and adjacent kale paddocks are selected and preparations are made for sowing. Soil tests identify any specific issues but as a general rule 40-60kg of phosphorous is applied each year to the fodder beet area with lime also put on as necessary to ensure the range is pH 6-6.2 as the crop doesn’t like acidic soils.
Cropped areas are rotated around the 60ha of the farm that’s irrigated by two pivots with the 30ha area covered by K-line kept in grass.
They don’t follow fodder beet with fodder beet because specific beet pests and diseases can build up. Care has to be taken too if following a brassica because beet is very sensitive to any residues left from some post-emergence weed sprays used on brassicas.
Brendan and Katya have grown fodder beet for the past four years and last winter achieved an average yield of 25t DM/ha. While they were expecting a similar yield this year, and their initial feed budget planning was based on that, consistent monitoring of the crop and the fact it’s being grown on their own support block meant they were quickly alerted that something was amiss and could make adjustments to the amount of feed they’d need on hand by June 1.
Low rainfall over January and February restricted irrigation and Brendan’s priority was to water grass paddocks to ensure good quality feed for youngstock which are also reared on the block.
Brendan didn’t cut water to the crops altogether.
“We thought we were just keeping enough up to them to stop any moisture stress but the fodder beet came out at 22 tonnes DM/ha and that bit of water stress and the fact it went in a few days later than I wanted as well as the dull summer without a lot of sunshine hours probably made the difference,” he says.
The kale too came in at a lower yield than initially budgeted with 8t DM/ha measured rather than the 10-11t DM/ha Brendan usually gets from the Kestrel cultivar. It’s meant once cows were transitioned they were allocated 7kg DM/cow/day of fodder beet instead of 8kg DM/cow/day and 3kg DM/cow/day of kale as well as 2-3kg DM/cow/day of silage and 1kg DM/cow/day of straw. The heavier cows don’t get silage but get 2-3kg straw each day.
In autumn, prior to transitioning this year cows were all body condition scored and then grouped accordingly in May as transitioning began. Expected calving date information and another BCS assessment in early July allowed Brendan to make further adjustments to groupings to ensure targets will be met.
‘We couldn’t winter our cows and youngstock here for any less than we’d pay elsewhere most years …’
Transitioning is a critical part of feeding the water-soluble carbohydrate-rich fodder beet to stop animals getting acidosis.
The 6ha grown on the milking platform allows transition to be done very slowly during late lactation in May with the fodder beet paddock opened up using the forks on the silage grab. The grab is dipped into the ground and pushed along the length of where the face will be. The bulbs are scooped up by the grab and put straight into the silage wagon. Brendan opens up a strip of about 15-20m this way both on the milking platform and on the support block so that when cows come into the paddock they have plenty of room and silage can also be fed out.
The fodder beet in the silage wagon is fed out on grass at 1kg DM/cow/day for the first day and gradually increased over a week until they get to 5kgDM/cow/day. That coincides with drying off and three days out from drying off their fodder beet allocation remains at 5-6kg DM/cow/day but their pasture allocation is cut and straw added in. On the day of dryoff they standoff on a sacrifice paddock for much of the day and get 2-3kgDM/cow of silage, straw and fodder beet before they move to the support block.
This year Brendan lost three cows when they were brought over to the support block.
Loving that kale – a crossbred cow in the winter crop paddock.
They were lighter cows and he thinks they hadn’t been eating their full fodder beet allocation on the milking platform because pasture covers were good. That meant when they arrived on the support block they had actually gone from eating about 3kg DM/cow/day to 7kg straight away.
They were probably hungrier than normal too following the drying off process.
Brendan takes care through the wintering season to ensure the fences pack plenty of punch to ensure there are no breakouts and he checks cows personally in the afternoon to see they’re contented so they’re not going to go rushing into their fodder beet break in the morning.
The paddocks are pie or wedge shaped to fit with the pivot so fences run along the paddock like spokes with both crops grown within the wedge, fodder beet on one side of it and kale on the other so cows can get a break of each in a day. Cows get a break of fodder beet in the morning and are locked onto that break for 2.5 hours so kale breaks can be set up for the afternoon. That’s where silage and straw are also fed.
Utilisation of the fodder beet is extremely high.
“Cows will go back and dig up any that are left behind, there’s virtually no wastage,” Brendan says.
The couple grazes their rising-one-year calves on the crop too and have no problem with them adjusting to it.
Initially Brendan put a mob of cows in the calf break to open up some of the bulbs and he too took a spade in and broke some open so they got the idea about what to do.
Brendan and Katya have included kale with the fodder beet as part of the daily ration because it allows them to feed more of the daily allocation in the paddock as crop meaning less time bringing silage and straw in to the paddock.
Brendan also favours the mix because it means he can crop the fodder beet ground twice, following the fodder beet with kale. It means that instead of coming out of grass every four to five years it’s extended out to about every seven years.
Some Canterbury farmers are feeding up to 12kg DM/cow/day as fodder beet with silage and straw.
Lincoln University veterinary scientist, Dr Jim Gibbs, believes that providing cows are transitioned well, a diet of 80% fodder beet and 20% silage will provide them with all the crude protein and fibre they could need.
‘Cows will go back and dig up any that are left behind, there’s virtually no wastage.’
The high energy levels and the high yielding nature of a well-grown crop means that dietary ratio can significantly cut wintering costs with no impact on animal health as crude protein and fibre levels are adequate in that mix.
As calving approaches, the Cairds cut crop allocations back and silage and grass is increased to help transition cows through to calving and early lactation.
Magnesium oxide is dusted onto silage from three weeks before calving to limit metabolic problems post calving.
By early July the monitoring they had done was ensuring the 800 animals on the support block were on track to targets and Brendan was looking forward to a season where the business hit the ground running.
Key Points
Owners: Brendan and Katya Caird
Area: 162ha milking platform
Runoff: 90ha
Cows: 620 crossbred
Production: 1500kg MS/ha
Supplement: 100kg DM/cow
Farm Dairy: 36-a-side herringbone
Wintering: Fodder beet, kale and grass
