Friday, March 29, 2024

Policies prove their worth

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The policies and procedures of the past two seasons were behind the Southland Demonstration Farm’s record production, the farm’s business manager Stacy McNaught says.
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He told a focus day is mid-July the farm finished the 2013-14 season producing 490kg milksolids (MS)/cow and 1420kg MS/ha with farm working expenses at  $4.02/kg MS.

“Even though we budgeted for production of 340,000kg MS and got $367,794kg MS, we’re still budgeting the next season at 340,000kg MS again,” McNaught said.

“If we get a good season like the last one we know we will do more but if the worst happens we know we can still do 340,000. If we budgeted using last season’s production it would be an easy way to fall into the trap of increasing farm working expenses/MS without realising it.”

Key policies on the farm had proved their worth.

“We make sure all cows must individually meet the body condition score targets at all times and if they are under four at any stage during milking they are straight away put on once-a-day. It’s non-negotiable. We don’t wait until the winter to try and fix body condition.”

As well, growing and utilising as much high quality pasture as possible was a major focus and the when pasture was identified as a limiting factor supplements were introduced.

“Strategic and light-rate nitrogen and fertiliser applications, in other words little and often, are used to achieve a consistent supply of pasture and regular monitoring of grass growth and discussion keeps everybody up to date with what is happening.”

Regularly reconciling the farm’s actual position against the targeted position kept the farm and staff on track.

“We develop a plan around our system early and keep everyone involved on farm informed of it at all times,” he said.

“By knowing where we are at we can react to a vast majority of situations before they become an issue.”

Farm manager Barry Bethune said planning had already been carried out for spring.

“We’ve sat down with as much data as we can, grass covers and calving dates, to produce a spring feed budget,” he said.

Every cow is allocated a daily amount of pasture, depending on whether she is yet to calve, in the colostrum mob, or milking.

“That way we can easily figure out how big each break should be.”

He said cows were transitioned off winter crop on to grass using silage or balage before calving.

“Even after they’ve calved we keep up the silage. We find when they don’t feel too flash after calving they won’t eat the grass but they will eat silage so we push as much of that at them as we can.

“If they leave a bit of grass behind we’re not too worried. It’s more about getting the cows to eat then getting paddocks down to the residuals we want at this time. If we have to get the mower out before the second round then we’ll do it.”

At first light the springer mob is checked and cows which have calved are identified with their calves and the break fence is shifted.

With up to 40 or 50 cows calving a day at peak, calved cows are drafted out later on at the dairy using Protrack instead of trying to do it in the paddock. At the time of drafting, the break fence is shifted again.

“By shifting the fence twice a day we find all the cows get something to eat. If they’re calving they won’t be eating and by then all the grass in the break could be gone. If we only shifted the fence once a day then those cows would miss out eating for a whole day,” Bethune said.

DairyNZ Southland consulting officer Nathan Nelson said working out a spring feed budget before calving started was essential.

“During this time farmers need to be able to fully feed cows so they do not lose more than one body condition score, they need to optimise pasture growth rates, and also make sure they’ll have enough high quality feed on hand for mating,” he said.

Farmers should know when the balance date on their farm was.

“Balance date is when cow demand equals grass grown. Some people call it turning the corner, and it will be 50 to 70 days after the start of calving.

“At that point you should be at your lowest average pasture cover on the farm that you want to be at because after that the grass is going to grow more than demand and you will have a quality problem if your average pasture covers are not low enough. But if you reach that point before balance date you are going to run out of feed.”

He said when farmers had a plan in place they had something to measure against.

“If you don’t know where you should be at on a particular day then you don’t know if you are on track. Having a plan takes the guesswork out of it.”

DairyNZ has a spring rotation planner calculator as part of the production and feeding section under pasture management.

Six-week challenge has longer term benefits

The Southland Demonstration Farm has proved increasing the six-week in-calf rate also improved the herd’s Breeding Worth (BW), LIC genetics consultant Jack Hooper says.

In the past three years the farm’s six-week in-calf rate had increased from 66% to 72%, providing on average 15 AB heifer calves more a season. This meant the farm was getting more genetic gain as it had more calves to choose from for replacements, Hooper said.

By reaching the six-week in-calf rate industry target of 78%, the farm would produce a further 15 AB heifer calves.

In the past season, 273 heifer calves were reared and had an average BW of 173. By selecting the top 200 of those animals, the average increased to 187.

The farm’s BW is 127 with is in the 19th percentile of herds nationally. The national herd average is 104. But by looking at the breakdown of the herd by year born, it has risen from 108 for those animals born in 2005 to 151 for those born in 2011.

Jack Hooper – praise for genetic gain in recent years.

“The greatest gains on this farm are from those animals born in the past three years, so the farm is about to benefit from their production,” Hooper said.

The farm had increased its genetic merit by having more choice of AB heifer calves because more cows were pregnant to AB, as well as the annual gain from improvement in the bull teams and also culling low BW cows.

“Remember, genetic gain is both permanent and cumulative,” Hooper said.

“The Southland Demonstration Farm is fast-tracking genetic gain and so herd performance. From the same amount of feed eaten, fewer cows will be required to produce the same total of milksolids.”

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