There’s a veritable smorgasbord on offer at Aberystwyth Dairy, for man and beast alike.
Staff on the 1200-cow, Mid-Canterbury dairy farm can pluck a peach, plum or apple fresh from the tree on the way to milking while their four-legged charges get to dine on anything from wheat and maize grain to carrots and potatoes or even bread.
It’s laid out for them along the feed-lane in the 618-bed cubicle barn that was built four years after the farm was converted.
The wet, miserable spring of 2012 was the catalyst for the investment after equity partners Wyvern and Beth Jones and Jeff and Kelly Gould decided they didn’t want to repeat the challenges sodden paddocks brought for pastures, cows, people, the environment, and, importantly, profit.
Vege waste can include carrots and potatoes.
They’ve invested close to $2.2 million in infrastructure that includes a $1.8m cubicle barn, a $200,000 calving barn, an extra $200,000 worth of machinery and $300,000 worth of concrete to store bought-in feeds.
It was all put in place in time for the 2013-14 season, but certainly wasn’t done to house dry cows over the winter.
“We couldn’t see how you’d make it pay having just dry cows in there,” Jeff says.
He’s estimated it costs about $21/head/week to winter heifers in the barn.
So they’ve taken a change of tack, moving to split calving this year.
They typically calve about 40% of the herd, 400 cows, in March and will milk through to late December/early January, aiming to have cows dry for a maximum of 60 days.
Autumn-calvers are in the barn overnight and part of the day, going out to graze through the middle of the day over winter as conditions allow. In June they were getting on average about 4kg drymatter (DM)/cow/day of their daily 18-20kg DM/cow ration as grazed pasture and producing 1.8kg milksolids (MS)/cow/day. This year the winter milkers have included carry-over cows.
Rising two-year spring-calving heifers come into the barn through the winter to get used to the system and reduce the number of animals at winter grazing. The remainder of the herd winters on crop at Wyvern and Beth’s mixed cropping farm across the road.
All transactions between the two farms are done on a commercial basis. A weighbridge on the dairy farm means every kilogram of feed bought from the cropping farm is accurately accounted for.
While Jeff doesn’t want to have cows indoors 24/7, all year round because it’s just not how he wants to farm, he wants to make full use of the investment in infrastructure and the significant savings the partnership can make by slashing feed wastage.
‘The cubicle barn is used throughout the season and for spring calving cows too. As spring-calved cow numbers rise production becomes the ticket to a bed indoors.’
That better utilisation, which he puts at more than 90%, is largely behind the extra profitability he believes they’re making.
The cubicle barn is used throughout the season and for spring calving cows too. As spring-calved cow numbers rise production becomes the ticket to a bed indoors.
The 600 highest producing animals stay in the barn and the lower producers are out on grass full-time with any supplement fed in the farm dairy.
By October even the top performers are outside most of the time grazing high-quality grass that makes up the majority of their diet. They will still be fed in the farm dairy and will come into the barn through the middle of the day over summer to eat a mixed ration that includes vegetable waste.
To get the vegetable waste through the shoulder months of the season the farm must buy a minimum volume over the summer.
That bought-in feed investment through a period when grass growth is also good means the equity partnership wants to see a return in the vat, so it’s the top producers that get it.
Average production across the herd is 530kg MS/cow with the top 20% of cows producing an impressive average of 750kg MS/cow.
In total over their lactation, spring-calving cows are consuming about 1400kg DM/cow in supplement. That’s less than they were fed before the barn.
The drop in wastage, coupled with the extra pasture DM they’re growing thanks to reduced pasture damage, is pushing up the income side of the ledger and cutting the costs side.
DairyNZ calculations, using milk production minus supplementary feed inputs, put annual pasture eaten at 17.6t DM/ha before the barn and Jeff estimates that’s risen to close to 18.6t DM/ha.
He hasn’t taken his eye off the ball when it comes to pasture management. His focus is on round length and achieving a consistent residual. If that means going out and shifting cows at 10pm then that’s what happens. Staff are on board with the stance on grazing management and dedicated to maximising quality.
Cow condition is monitored monthly by their farm advisor, who assesses a sample group of cows, and thanks to their herd management software and milk meters cows can be individually fed in the farm dairy, whether to lift condition on lighter cows or feed high-yielding cows more.
They’ve got four feed heads coming into the dairy which typically deliver wheat, maize grain and a soya or canola mix as well as molasses when needed.
“What we feed is driven by the economics,” Jeff says.
Potatoes, bread and carrots provide a ready source of starch at a price competitive with grass, and forages such as alkalage, grass or maize silage, and pea and oat silage are all used depending on stage of lactation.
The partnership employs a nutritionist who visits once a month, although Jeff says he speaks with him weekly. He helps ensure the ration is balanced, particularly for the winter milking cows where the majority of the diet is bought in.
With the extra pasture being grown now and a reluctance to increase stocking rate, the partnership is planning to increase the summer cropped area to about 70ha.
They’ll grow barley for alkalage that will likely be followed by an Italian ryegrass and annual clover mix that’s cut for silage in spring. They’ll also have spring-sown pea and oat crops cut as whole crop silage with those paddocks then sown into permanent pasture.
He favours alkalage because even though it’s more expensive than whole-crop silage there’s a good production response straight away and it’s simple to make and safe to feed.
Jeff estimates last season’s farm working expenses will be very close to the $4.40/kg MS of the previous year prior to the barn with high production diluting costs.
The aim is to be at 700,000kg MS within three years for little extra cost thanks to the reduced feed wastage, the use of low-cost vegetable waste and a move to more feed grown onfarm. They’re also aiming to increase cow liveweights through breeding. The herd’s average liveweight is 508kg so they’re already doing more production relative to their size than what’s expected.
In mid-June they were running 20% ahead of the production they’d done by the same time last year so Jeff’s very confident they’ll hit or exceed 650,000kg MS this season.
Earlier this year the partnership’s efforts and their extensive native plantings and presentation of the farm earned them the Donaghys Farm Stewardship merit award in the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
What they’d do differently next time
There are only a couple of changes the Goulds and Joneses would make to the 618-bed cubicle barn if they were to do it again.
The first would be to scrape the slurry back the other way so cows didn’t have to cross the slatted area that slurry is scraped in to when they move in and out of the barn for milking.
They’d also scrape it into a channel through one open slot rather than a slatted floor.
The equity partners would also lower the step height to the beds so that cows would feel more comfortable backing out of them.
To cut feed wastage even more they’d look at barriers that allow the cow to freely put her head straight up when feeding.
The current barriers mean cows often pull their heads back when they want to stand and chew a big mouthful and some feed inevitably falls into the scrapeway and is wasted.
Advice from those who know
Be patient and don’t sweat the fact some cows won’t lie in their cubicle beds perfectly early on.
“You have to accept it takes time; the best thing to do is just ignore it and relax,” Jeff Gould says.
They’ve found about 10% of animals just don’t adjust to the indoor system and they’re moved out, housed in the adjacent loafing barn used for calving or culled.
They have GreenStall Easy cubicles which use flexible plastic poles or sticks.
Some commentators criticise the system for being too flexible, allowing cows to lie sideways in beds or turn right around so they are facing out.
Jeff’s found a small proportion do that but finds most cows lie in correctly.
He favours the system because cows don’t hurt themselves as they can do with metal piping cubicles. They don’t get rub sores on their backs or legs and with no central lower brisket rail at all they have plenty of room to rise naturally although it may make it harder to keep beds clean as cows may lie further forward in the bed.
The beds are cleaned off twice a day and the backs of the beds, nearest to the scrapeway, are dusted with lime.
“We’d scrape off every 5th or 6th bed,” Kelly Gould says.
They’re not concerned about that and haven’t found any major problems with cows being dirty or increased mastitis although they do take extra care of hygiene during milking.
They had one grade shortly after they’d started using the barn and Westland Milk Products regional milk supply manager, Tony Watson, was quick to bring in advice and help nip any issue in the bud.
“I have to admit I didn’t see it as a huge deal but Tony recognised that with this kind of system you have to be a lot more careful. They talked to staff and worked in the dairy with them and we haven’t had another problem since,” Jeff says.
All the cubicle parts are clamped rather than welded making adjustment possible to get the cubicle dimensions right for the average cow size.
A calving barn too
Next to the cubicle barn a 50m x 25m calving barn is used for the springer herd and through the winter for on-off grazing.
It’s fully concreted with about 300mm of wood-chip bedding across all but a 3.5m wide scrapeway that runs the length of one side so cows can stand and feed at concrete bins that run along the outside of the barn. The scrapeway is cleaned off as required using a bucket on the tractor.
Across the barn the concrete floor has a 1% fall and what little liquid that runs off is collected in a tank and can be pumped to the effluent system.
A 5m concrete apron at that end of the barn also accommodates a bunker where slurry is scraped to and mixed with any waste feed or spoiled silage and spread on paddocks.
The bedding is topped up each week for eight weeks and grubbed through every three days. It’s scraped out completely once a year and also spread out on paddocks.
A nib wall was put in to keep the bedding from spreading on to the scrapeway and they’ve put in a crush and small set of handling yards at one end so a cow with calving difficulties can be attended to.
It holds up to 200 cows which are housed overnight and graze an adjacent paddock of Italian ryegrass through the day.
In the morning, when cows are let out to graze, the cows with calves stay behind as they do if they calve in the paddock during the day.
Kelly says cows remain clean as do calves. The newborns arrive with her at the calf rearing sheds in a much better state than they do if they’re born overnight in the paddock.
Winter milking cow diet in June
Quantities fed in the barn:
4kg DM grass
3kg DM bread
2.5kg DM potatoes
1.75kg DM carrots
1kg DM alkalage
0.5kg DM lucerne
1kg DM grass silage
1.5kg DM palm kernel
3 kg DM pea and oat silage.
Quantities fed in the farm dairy:
0.5kg DM wheat
0.75kg DM soya
0.5 kg DM maize grain.
Key Points
Farm: Aberystwyth Dairy
Owners: Wyvern and Beth Jones, Jeff and Kelly Gould
Area: 300ha
Milking platform: 280ha
Cows: 1160 cows peak milked
Stocking rate: 4.15 cows/ha
Production: 620,000kg milksolids (MS)
Supplement: 1.4-1.5 tonnes drymatter (DM)/cow
Irrigation: Five pivots, sprinklers in corners
Farm dairy: 60-bail rotary.
Automation: Cup removers, drafting, milk meters, ADF teat dipping.
