Equity owners Michael and Megan Webster winter all their 600 cows at Ngatea and negotiate their environment by having strict strategies when it comes to standing off cows.
“When farming on the Hauraki Plains, you have to move cows all the time,” Megan says.
“There is a lot of work involved around July and August, it’s not easy.”
They used to winter-graze 200 cows off-farm when the payout was more lucrative, but have kept all cows home for the past two years.
Last season they also kept their calves on the farm until April and brought the heifers home in early May. It saved them $57,000 in grazing costs, but put extra pressure on to have enough cover leading into winter.
Consequently they knew they had to implement a sound feed budget leading into winter to ensure adequate pasture cover.
“Right at the start you need a good plan to know how you’re going to get pasture cover, how you’re going to put body condition score on and how you’re going to protect the paddocks. Once you can fit all that in the box it’s no trouble,” Michael says.
Their original target production for 2015-16 was 233,000kg milksolids (MS), but in light of the milk price and having extra stock onfarm it wasn’t worth pushing the cows. That decision helped set up a cover of 2300kg drymatter/ha heading into winter with the cows in good condition and the calves going off at good weights.
Constantly shifting cows in the wet months of the year can be tiresome and getting staff onboard is imperative. Michael and Megan engage their staff by giving them an overall picture of their business and try to build a team culture where everyone is trying to achieve the same goals.
“We want people who can really help drive us forward. You need a great team to help you achieve your ambitions and goals,” Megan says.
Protecting pasture is key to the success of the business because increasing the amount of grass grown and harvested onfarm ultimately improves the bottom line. They ensure staff understand that and the importance of taking cows off.
Rather than using a stick approach, they include staff and encourage them to take more responsibility in the business.
Michael and Megan post production results up at the farm dairy for everyone to see, alongside their monthly and yearly production targets to show how they’re tracking.
They’ve also started using the farm management software Agri360, so staff can see a snapshot on their phones of things like average grass growth and rainfall.
“They feel a bit more empowered, that they have some information as well and we are not a closed book,” Michael says.
Each staff member has their own mob they are in charge of when it comes to standing cows off in winter, which also gives them a sense of ownership.
They run smaller mobs of about 150-200 cows in winter to put less pressure on the paddocks. The farm has two large standoff pads, the farm dairy concrete yard and smaller loafing pads around the farm to use. They ensure no cows are standing off for more than 12 hours and rotate the mobs between the yard and the sawdust pads and consequently have minimal lameness issues.
“A lot of work has been done by DairyNZ regarding standing cows off and we try and follow best practice,” Michael says.
“You’ve got to make sure they’re well-fed. A rule of thumb is they have to have three to four hours to get their maintenance feed then we can look at doing things after that.”
Their trigger points include the weather forecast and soil moisture levels. If there’s any more than 10mm rain forecast, they will take cows off.
“We have a zero pugging tolerance to protect pastures at all costs,” Michael says.
It’s nothing strange to jump out of bed at 10pm, but he would rather jump out of bed for half an hour than have a pugged, muddy paddock in the morning.
If cows are left on the paddock and it has rained during the night they aim to move them before daylight so the cows aren’t searching for their next break and making a mess.
Focus on pasture
Webster Farms has been a focus farm for the P3 Dairy programme for the past two years.
P3 Dairy is an initiative led by a group of local dairy farmers that stands for Productive and Profitable Plains.
Supported by DairyNZ and ANZ, the trust’s aim is to increase farm profitability and sustainability across the plains for the benefit of the community. The project team sets goals for the focus farm, agrees on actions to achieve the goals with the farmer and measures results.
Being part of the P3 project has helped the Websters’ business adjust to the downturn in the past two seasons.
The declining farmgate milk price has forced Michael and Megan to make big changes to reduce costs and focus more on pasture utilisation. They had measured pasture sporadically in the past, but being involved in the project meant they had to do the things they should have been doing, including weekly farm walks.
In the past two years, they have only missed two walks and they use Minda Land and Feed to create a feed budget.
With that regular information they have absolute confidence to make proactive decisions when it comes to buying or selling cows, spreading nitrogen or feeding extra supplement.
“We can make timely decisions, sometimes you don’t want to hear the answers. If things are not right, we have to deal with it. If we are short of grass we have to do something.”
It’s a new mindset and requires a cultural change to get the whole team to buy into the importance of measuring grass every week, Michael says.
“The team has bought into it.”
Each staff member rotates between doing a third of the farm walk each week. Sharing the job makes it feel less like a chore, or a long job, Megan says.
Putting the extra emphasis on pasture has seen pasture quality drastically improve along with better utilisation.
The farm harvested an extra 2.9 tonnes drymatter per hectare last season than two years ago and the system has been able to reduce supplements, while increasing production per cow.
“If you drive past our farm now I’m proud of what it looks like.”
They took maize out of their operation completely, which was key to establishing a closer eye on pasture.
“Maize is a great tool, it has its place, but when we stood back and looked at things, we weren’t growing the grass and maize was masking what we were doing. Removing maize forced us to focus on grass,” Michael says.
Before doing the P3 Dairy project there was only a small percentage of the farm with pastures less than 10 years old. Since taking maize out of their system they have grown chicory instead and have regrassed about 10% of the farm every year.
They have leaned on increased nitrogen to fuel pasture growth over the past two seasons because it was the most cost-effective tool to grow extra feed.
Having increased their nitrogen by 71kg/ha over three seasons they won’t be increasing that figure any more, Michael says.
Instead they will focus on improving their nitrogen conversion efficiency.
Megan, originally from Auckland, works part-time as an accountant for Thames-Coromandel District Council. At home, she is constantly monitoring the farm’s performance, particularly the farm budgets versus their actual results.
The pair bought into the farm in 2010 and the peaks and troughs of the milk price volatility have been status quo, Megan says.
With the dairy industry open to the peril of extreme volatility, farmers have to be able to adjust and make decisions quickly throughout the season.
“That volatility is all we are used to. We are at the mercy of the payout.
“We try to follow best practice and concentrate on controlling the controllable – we focus on what we need, not what we want.”
This season their aim is to keep farm working expenses less than $3.50/kg MS and increase production to more than 1100kg MS/ha.
Although they have finished as a P3 focus farm they want to push forward and not lose momentum. They are diversifying their business by milking 400 goats this year. Michael and Megan have been researching milking goats for several years and this year bought a herd and built an 80-bail internal rotary and barn.
“We want to diversify the business and get the biggest return we possibly can for this piece of land,” Megan says.
Heavy marine clay is highly fertile, but susceptible to damage in wet conditions. They looked at all options including building a barn for the cows, but thought the goat operation was a better option.
It also has good synergy with the cow business, Michael says.
The cut-and-carry operation will use 24ha of the milking platform, which are the paddocks furthest from the farm dairies so the cows will have less distance to walk.
Farm facts:
Farm: Webster Farms
Equity owners: Richard and Gillian Webster, 60%, Michael and Megan Webster, 40%
Contract milkers: Michael and Megan Webster
Location: Ngatea
Area: 217ha effective
Farm dairy: 32-bail rotary, 26-aside herringbone
Cows: 600
