Turns out those critics were probably wrong both times.
In 2013 Camden Group, a family-owned dairy business that includes three dairy farms totalling 800ha of milking platform, embarked on a massive pasture renewal programme that meant taking out close to a third of their paddocks in the first season.1
By the end of the second season almost half the milking area would be regrassed with the grand-scale programme continuing until the total area had undergone renewal in a super-short timeframe.
But why go at such an extreme rate?
Camden’s general manager Leo Donkers says “The fact was, when we looked at our pasture records and the downward trend in what we were growing and the increasing amount of supplement we were having to buy in we couldn’t afford not to do this.”
Critics feared that in taking so many paddocks out for renewal Camden would risk production and making the most of the record payout in the 2013-14 season.
But as closer analysis of figures collected on one of the farms, Willsden, shows they halved the amount of bought-in supplement from 878kg drymatter (DM)/cow in 2012-13 to 478kg DM/cow in 2013-14 and produced more home-grown feed.
The newly sown paddocks produced 1.8-2.9 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha more of significantly higher metabolisable energy (ME) pasture in that milking season than the pasture production of the bottom quarter of Willsden, despite the new pasture being out of production for six to eight weeks as part of the renewal process.
The additional drymatter grown meant the first year of the radical programme paid for itself in six months and instead of less milk, the farm produced more milk per cow and per hectare.
In that first season 90ha or 30% of the 306ha farm was re-sown in four tranches. Of that total, 41ha was spray-drilled into a short-term Italian ryegrass to give fast feed and the opportunity to hit weeds and old grasses such as browntop twice with herbicide – once in establishing the Italian and once again 14 months later when the paddock was sown into permanent pasture.
The remaining 49ha was sprayed out, cultivated and sown into a permanent pasture mix using a drill designed to put half the ryegrass seed into drill rows while broadcasting the other half between rows to give good ground cover. Clover seed was also broadcast.
In the next season, 2014-15, the 41ha of Italian was sprayed out, cultivated and sown into a permanent mix while an additional 56ha of poorer pasture was taken out and sown in the short-term Italian.
Again the benefits were quick to appear from the renewal programme although last season, because of the very hot dry summer and shortcomings of the irrigation system the Italian averaged an extra 1.7t DM/ha of growth over the milking season, compared with 2.6t DM/ha the year before.
Still the additional production quickly covered the cost of the renovation despite a lower payout and Leo and the team at Willsden – operations manager Terry Kilday and farm manager Johnny Brown – were convinced of its benefits.
Not only had they seen additional pasture production, they had an estimated 10% increase in utilisation.
That was based not just on their own observations of how quickly and well cows were hitting residuals, but also from a close look at the detailed paddock records kept at Camden that include mowing records.
Pasture quality was also higher with new grass estimated to provide an extra megajoule (MJ) of ME per kilogram of drymatter.
There’s also a benefit beyond the milking season with extra growth through winter and early spring until the Italian is taken out and sown into perennial pasture in November-December.
That winter active growth provides about an extra 1.3t DM/ha.
So what happened this season?
The dire early milk price forecast of $3.85/kg MS, low advance schedule and unprecedented lack of retrospective milk payments meant the management team was staring down the barrel of an operating loss.
“We’d never been in a position where the operating budget looked so bad,” Leo says.
It meant the management and governance team had to work hard to carve costs out of the system.
“This year with payout tanking, we had to try to mitigate operating losses and as part of that we had to pare back every cost centre. Pasture renewal was a significant cost centre so we just had to cut it back,” Leo says.
It wasn’t a profit story but a cashflow issue in what have been exceptional circumstances.
But they didn’t cut pasture renewal out altogether, instead opting to reduce the area going into new annual and permanent pasture.
“If we’d carried on at the planned rate the cost in the budget would have been $72,800 but the revised programme meant a saving of $50,400 which is about 10c/kg MS off the expenses budget. That was significant when you’re trying to get the savings we were,” he says.
The revised programme meant reducing from a planned 38% of the farm being resown to 16%.
While a big drop, Willsden’s renewal level would remain above the estimated dairy industry average of 10%.
The new programme involved taking out just two old grass paddocks with a total area of 14ha. They were sown into the short-term Italian because they were the worst-performing paddocks on the farm and gains to be made through renewal would well exceed the cost of the exercise within the season.
“It’s a matter of chasing the solution to a low payout in two directions – production and costs. You have to find that balance.”
As part of the revision, only 14ha of the 56ha sown in 14-month Italian ryegrass the previous season was re-sown in permanent pasture this season instead of the full 56ha.
An assessment with the help of Agriseeds pasture systems specialist Graham Kerr identified three paddocks totalling 21ha that could be left to grow for another season. Another three thinner paddocks, also 21ha, were undersown to boost plant density. That was done in spring as a cost-cutting exercise but wasn’t a success.
Terry and Johnny agree undersowing and coming into the paddock with seed instead of spraying the paddock out didn’t push out the browntop which has invaded any gaps in the sward.
“We tried something to save some money but we may end up having to go back through another annual with some paddocks to get on top of the browntop again,” Terry says.
The result was poor compared to the results achieved through spraying out and drilling.
Graham agrees and says Willsden’s accurate paddock records will give hard data to base analysis on.
Leo points out the problem might have also been compounded by big changes in the farm’s irrigation infrastructure when it switched from groundwater to Central Plains Water.
Electricity pylons running through the farm limit the number of centre pivots that can be used and about 45% of the farm is still watered using Rotorainers.
The 3.5bar pressure at the turnout (where piped scheme water enters the farm) hasn’t been enough to operate the Rotorainers at some parts of the farm as effectively as they should be.
“It’s been a huge change in water infrastructure here and we’re still working through these pressure problems,” Leo says.
“We decided not to take any action this season until we could quantify the problem properly and come up with the right solution. We’ll be putting in additional pumps before next season so we won’t have a repeat of this issue,” he says.
The pressure problems this season had an effect on pasture production until early January.
However, some good rain through January and temperatures that weren’t as extreme as last season have helped growth since then and even allowed Camden to turn its irrigators off at times– a rare occurrence.
In hindsight Leo says if they’d gone ahead with the accelerated rate of renewal over the milking season the farm would likely have grown an additional 2t DM/ha (based on the results to date) over 112ha assuming 56ha of 14-month Italian ryegrass sown the previous season was resown in permanent pasture and another 56ha of old pasture went into 14-month Italian.
That would have given them an extra 224t DM that would equate to 17,230kg MS.
At $4.15/kg MS that’s $71,500, so even at the current payout it would have been close to a break-even proposition in the first season.
The benefits would have rolled into subsequent seasons, making it a profitable decision.
For example the 14-month Italian ryegrass from May 31 through to October when it’s sprayed out grows an extra 1.3 t DM/ha with a $400/ha value.
The profitability of the perennial pastures looks even better as they persist for a number of years.
In the longer term, even at the low payout this season, the original rapid renewal programme makes sense, Leo says.
“When we look at the results of the revised plan we really should have gone ahead and stuck to the original plan, even at a low payout.”
What they have learnt is that taking short-cuts with pastures that are battling with reversion to older grass species or weeds is not worth it.
