West Coast farmers Tane and Rachel Little have always run a low-cost system, partly because of the debt they have carried since buying the farm six years ago, but also because they see little point in buying production.
The couple milk 310 Jersey cows on a milking platform of 130ha at Kowhitirangi, a lush dairy-dominant valley inland from Hokitika with a rainfall that can be a West Coast “low” of 2.5 metres one year and 3.5m the next.
They’re one of four monitor farms on the West Coast and it’s their eighth year in the spotlight, with the annual field day held in February for local farmers to analyse and quiz the motives and results of their farming system.
Last season, the farm produced 376kg milksolids (MS) per cow and 867kg MS/ha, following a low-cost system that equates to DairyNZ’s System 2. Its net imported supplements amounted to 457kg/cow and the cows were wintered on the milking platform and adjoining support block.
Out of necessity and desire, the Littles have run a low-cost system, with farm working expenses last season working out at $3.32/kg MS and an operating profit of $2.41/kg MS, or $2075/ha. Debt still has to be paid and this season’s lower payout is going to be tough, with little room to cut costs without limiting production. However, they are constantly monitoring and budgeting to maintain their low-cost structure.
Tane’s parents bought the farm in 2000 and employed him as a manager until he and Rachel formed an equity partnership with them in 2008 before buying them out two years later. Three years on they bought the 60ha dairy farm next door, which needed to be redeveloped. It pushed costs up initially as they regrassed, fertilised and developed it further, but now half that farm has been included in the milking platform, with potential to milk cows on the rest of it as well.
In the meantime, they are bringing home their grazed-out heifers from a nearby grazier to use that 30ha and save costs. Like most farming decisions, numerous factors needed to be considered before they came to that decision. They’ve been fortunate to have a good grazier very close who looks after the heifers well and once they give that up, it’s probably gone forever, Tane points out. Increasing cow numbers to utilise the land puts pressure on their system, especially with an 18-aside herringbone dairy, and while the payout is low the figures don’t stack up to milk more cows, he says.
“We’ve been number-crunching the figures to work out which is best. At the moment we winter-on all the cows and graze-off the R1s from May 1 to May 1 with really good graziers and you have to weigh that into the equation.”
A quick snapshot of the farm shows it produced an estimated 9.7 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha last season and basically utilised the lot, with its best production in recent years reaching 12.7t. The average pasture cover last season was 1930kg DM/ha and it consistently has poor winter growth that continues into the start of calving.
The weather can also take its toll on mating and Tane says they will either have a tough month leading into mating or during mating, with about 10% of the cows ending up empty.
Last year was a particularly tough year, with the lowest pasture growth for all four monitor farms since the project began. The Little’s Kowhitirangi farm was the only one that managed to maintain days in milk and that was because the new block began to contribute to milk production.
In Kowhitirangi’s climate, Tane says farmers concentrate on limiting pugging rather than residuals, because that’s the reality. The climate can be fickle from year to year too, especially through late spring and early summer, so it’s hard to plan ahead. Though the valley gets a lot of rain, it also needs a lot of rain, Tane says. Dry spells can bite and the soils can dry out fast.
Palm kernel has been used to top the cows up when there’s a pasture deficit and about 18 months ago they got a good contract for the supplement from a local retailer that provides them with 150t a year.
“We’re only feeding it to the milkers when needed, so we start and stop it through deficits in pasture production and that’s working really well. And we’re holding enough back to be able to feed through winter which means crops was a cost we could cut out.”
In the past they have grown swedes for winter on the new block as part of its regrassing programme and that will probably continue in the future once the palm kernel contract comes to an end.
A covered standoff pad caters for 200 cows in rough weather while a gravel feedpad with troughs and other gravel areas are all used to get the cows off the paddocks. They can switch the cows around to give them all time under cover and respite from the weather. Deluges of rain drain away quickly since gravel is never far below the surface of the silt and gravel soils.
It was suggested at the field day they could calve later than the August 8 start date because of the low average pasture cover at that time of year, usually about 1700kg DM/ha, or aim to leave more pasture cover for the beginning of August to encourage more growth, using the adage more grass grows grass.
But Tane isn’t so sure, because there’s a cost involved to save or grow more grass for that time of year when the cows aren’t ready to consume more.
“You either take it out of the end of the previous season or spend more on fertiliser. And our cows physically can’t eat that much just after calving. The milkers eat the most grass but I don’t find it makes much difference if they’re eating mostly pasture or a mixture of supplements.”
All their silage is made on 30ha of the developed block and that produces enough for spring when grass growth is still slow.
Since they have secured the palm kernel contract, less nitrogen has been applied to pasture so they don’t waste feed.
Tane says you have to get the timing right with the weather when applying nitrogen or risk flushing it down the valley, along with the money spent on it. Last season they used just 70kg N/ha compared with the other monitor farms which were 237-285kg/ha.
“I find palm kernel easier than nitrogen and we’re growing enough grass, so nitrogen is something to take out. We used to be around 150kg (N/ha) and once I’d committed to palm kernel I didn’t want to waste feed. If I don’t need that nitrogen, I don’t put it on. We’re growing enough grass anyway and if you grow more grass you have to do something with it.”
Animal health costs and breeding are also low on the farm at $47/cow for animal health last season and $33 for breeding and herd improvement.
“Most of that is because of getting on top of things early and identifying cows that need to be culled.”
In the breeding programme, short-gestation straws were trialled last year for the later cows and that worked well.
“We mate for replacements at the beginning of mating and then put the bull out for a break for a couple of weeks. You lose your focus otherwise and start putting up cows you aren’t sure about. Then I used the short-gestation straws and they calved two weeks earlier than normal, so it’s pretty good technology.
“It will be good when they have it the same length for beef breeds to get those beef-cross calves.”
One expense they haven’t cut out is labour, which combined with fertiliser and feed made up 82% of their farm working expenses last season. The couple employ one staff member; Filipino Dan Quinit, who worked on dairy farms back home and in Japan before arriving in Kowhitirangi. Tane says they wouldn’t want to be without him now.
It means they get away from the farm regularly and Tane says that’s crucial, especially when times are tight.
“It means you’re not chained to the place. Between December and the end of February I was away from the farm for a week every month and I think I’ve worked out it’s cheaper to be on holiday. I spend more when I’m on the farm.”
Lifestyle and family are important and when they found themselves short staffed at the beginning of December in the 2014- 15 season, they dropped to once-a-day (OAD) milking for the rest of the season so they could spend some of summer with their three children. This season they dropped to OAD milking in the middle of February for the benefit of both cows and people.
Though it doesn’t have the same appeal as their lifestyle choices, being one of the West Coast monitor farms has proven worthwhile as well. The project carries out weekly pasture walks on each farm, collects all the relevant data, analyses it and produces graphs, tables and trends so all that information is at their fingertips. The yearly interrogation at the field day means they have to give the reasoning behind their decisions and have it questioned. After seven years, they’re getting pretty used to that.
Farm facts 2014-15:
Effective area: 162ha
Milking platform: 130ha
Cows: 300 Jersey
MS/cow: 376
MS/ha: 867
System: 2
Stocking rate: 2.3 cows/ha
Planned start of calving: August 8
Fertiliser: 70kg N/ha/year
