Waikato farmer Andrew McGiven has pulled back on some costs this year but has been careful not to affect his production long-term.
He hasn’t changed his feed strategy this season in terms of how much he’s feeding the cows, but has looked for cheaper substitutes where he can and eliminated some of the extras like molasses.
He is feeding 1.5kg of soyabean hull through the farm dairy and 2kg palm kernel on the 300-cow feedpad.
“I’ve been very careful of what we’ve cut out and what we don’t.”
Farmers can’t just farm for this season, they have to keep looking forward. The consequences of cutting out essentials to save money can be severe down the track, he says.
Unless the industry is going to endure similar low payouts for the next four or five years consecutively, farmers don’t want to make extreme changes to their operation.
“My strategy has been that we’re in the bottom of the cycle and hopefully we’re now coming out of it.
“This year we are going to try to break even as much as we can. It might set you back one or two years in debt reduction, but you start again.”
The main consideration is the cows are in good condition and are on target to produce 420kg milksolids (MS)/cow and mating started well with 95% submission rate in the first three weeks.
Being a part of the DairyNZ Tactics campaign has helped Andrew keep a closer eye on his budgets and monitor his performance this year.
The need to sit down and do updates has been tedious during the busy times, but it has definitely been worthwhile, Andrew says.
Andrew and his contract milker Graham Wallace planned their strategy at the start of the season, including cutting back on fertiliser and spending less on farm maintenance.
They haven’t used urea onfarm for four years now and instead are working to build up calcium levels in the soil as well as getting a balance of the other elements.
Apart from the fertiliser used to establish the summer crops, this season they will apply 4-5 tonnes/ha chicken manure on the non-effluent paddocks and 1t/ha lime which will be enough maintenance fertiliser to hold on for the year.
They have planted 16ha of summer crop, including 8ha of turnips and 8ha maize, which typically yield 19-20t drymatter (DM)/ha with the maize and 14-16t DM/ha with the turnips.
They are also harvesting as much grass silage as they can this spring and putting it under a stack where suitable as a cheaper option.
Waikato farmers almost expect a drought every summer now and it’s crucial to have as much supplement on hand as possible, Andrew says.
Andrew has been exploring more drought-resistant pasture mixes for the past 10 years to combat the increasingly dry summers.
He typically plants a mix of fescue, chicory, plantain and clover which seem to hold on and stay greener for longer. Last year he planted a seed mix of 16 different species, including eight summer-dormant and eight winter-dormant grasses such as prairie grass and Persian clover. They were some of his best-performing paddocks this winter and he’s looking forward to seeing how they go in summer.
The different mixes are growing well, harvesting 14kg DM/ha.
Andrew purchased a 42ha neighbouring block this year, which will act as runoff for grazing young stock as well as winter and summer grazing. Grazing costs have been creeping up and his transport costs were expensive so it will be a saving this year, along with extra grass silage available.
The stocking rate of 4.1 cows/ha will drop to 3.6 cows/ha in summer with the autumn herd grazed on the new block, which will take pressure off the milking platform during the drier months.
They switched to a split calving system this year and calved 70 cows in autumn. The decision was made because Andrew wanted to give his good cows another chance if they didn’t get in-calf early, and they are only 4km from the Fonterra factory.
They will calve 150 cows next autumn and Andrew looks forward to benefiting from the full premium next year when his winter milk contract starts.
To read Andrew’s updates and about how other farmers are planning to cope with costs this summer visit www.dairynz.co.nz.
