With a fair bit of intellectual property under his belt from developing and commercialising the C-Dax pasturemeter, Hayden has a passion for measuring and monitoring. While he recognised the farm had received plenty of super and potassium in a normal annual blanket application through his parent’s tenure, it was apparent nutrient levels varied widely across different areas of the property, including an area of marginal former sheep and beef runoff land. He felt the process would be more efficient with a precise approach and some academic rigour around a policy of plan, measure, manage and review.
Fertiliser was the second-biggest expense behind supplementary feed on the dairy platform. Hayden says he thought the huge variation in soil nutrient levels was inefficient, and production could be maintained with fewer inputs by tightening up the variability.
With a good relationship with Mike Manning and Ants Roberts of Ravensdown he sat down to discuss transitioning the variability of Olsen P, potassium , sulphate and pH to a more even farm target range.
The plan was to reduce soil test variability between paddocks, by measuring with annual individual paddock soil tests, then managing 6-7 differing paddock application rates using a decision support system and reviewing the system by monitoring pasture production to ensure the programme was working.
“It’s not worth measuring if you can’t make management decisions from the measurements,” Hayden says.
After soil sampling every paddock on the farm, and geo-referencing the transects for future testing, the team came up with seven different options for fertiliser mixes to effectively boost nutrients where they were needed and mine them out of paddocks that were oversupplied.
Then came the hard bit, Hayden says – “managing the plan”.
He worked with local fertiliser company Sandfords and admits to having been nervous for the first few years.
“I actually followed them around the farm making sure the right mix was getting on the correct paddocks,” he says.
By 2012, six fertiliser mixes were used and Hayden says the process was much more streamlined.
“It’s been a real learning curve for everyone, including the fertiliser and spreading companies.”
The development of the My Ravensdown system with online ordering and data-sharing with spreading companies has improved hugely and Hayden says the technical data capture and reporting from the trucking makes the system more robust.
“Lots of people are doing whole-farm soil testing now, but the scary part is going to the next level and implementing a variable fertiliser plan.”
The cost of the whole-farm testing at $34/ha was easily covered by the savings in fertiliser not spread where it was not needed. Cost savings over the past five years have ranged from $131 to $195/ha compared to the previous blanket spreading regime and Hayden says that has not come at a cost to soil fertility or pasture production.
In fact pasture production has increased from 14.5 tonnes to 19t a year since 2008-09 and milksolids production has increased from 90,000 to 130,000kg MS over the same time. The operation has been importing 17% of feed, in the form of maize grain fed in the dairy along with a small amount of straw for the entry and exit to keep the cows content. The farm also grows its own maize silage and also 3ha fodder beet which Hayden says had a measured yield of 34.6 t/ha last season. The fodder beet is lifted using a Rata root crop bucket on the front of the tractor and fed out through the silage wagon on the night pasture break from May until the end of June.
In 2015 he introduced a precision liming programme averaging 1.4t/ha (ranging from 0kg/ha to 2600kg/ha) and urea is spread at a rate of 120 units of nitrogen a year, split between 5-6 applications.
“It’s still one of the cheaper supplements but only if the cows are eating it.”
One issue that arose out of the precision fertilising regime was the lack of sulphur going on when the superphosphate was missed in some paddocks to mine down the phospate levels. Easily fixed however, Hayden decided to use elemental sulphur in the urea mix in late autumn which ensures sulphur does not limit winter and early spring growth.
Overall Hayden is really pleased with the new regime and the cost he has dropped out of the system by not using a blanket approach to nutrient levels.
Hayden Lawrence testing the ripeness of the maize crop and with Fletcher.
Eighteen-month milking drives down cost
Making a major system change is not for the faint hearted and so 18 months of research went into Hayden and Alecia Lawrence’s move to calving every 18 months and milking their cows over a 465-day lactation.
“I found the way we were going with the new rules and regulations we were just chasing our tails – calving, firing in CIDRs, 16-hour milking to try and retain cow condition – so we looked at the research and decided to push calving out and calve twice in three years rather than three times.”
Citing Eric Colver’s work for DairyNZ, Hayden says pushing rebreeding out six months takes a lot of pressure off the cows and he can concentrate on milking them and retaining condition.
“New Zealand cows are thoroughbreds, bred for milking and if you feed them enough they will do just that. When you put the pressure on to a thoroughbred then something has to go – in cows that has been their fertility and longevity.”
In spring 2014 the Lawrences milked 240 cows until Christmas 2015 for a 465-day lactation producing an average of 935kg MS/cow, compared with a usual 270-day lactation producing 540kg MS/cow. The top cow produced 1400kg MS in 18 months. The cows were mated in June for 10 weeks using all AB with no intervention and a 6% empty rate which with Hayden was very pleased.
“By May they were all bulling like crazy.”
He dried the cows off in December 2015 at BCS 5 and says he has to be careful about not letting them get too fat over the 65-day dry period. While he usually pumps in the feed in the winter dry period to get the cows up to calving condition, over summer he has been locking them down to restrict intake to 8-9kg/day, which he says on reflection meant the residual was getting too low.
“I should have put in a turnip crop where they could stand off the pasture.”
The new system has been very successful in driving cost out the business with farm working expenses down by 15%. Most of the reduction comes from a 37% drop in animal health costs “which was becoming a major cost” along with reduced labour requirement and a drop in calf-rearing expenses.
Farm working expenses were sitting at $3.82/kg MS but now the couple are predicting driving that down to $3.15-$3.20/kg MS.
Traditionally they have employed a worker but now Hayden and Alecia are both milking and have an au-pair to help with their three children, Fletcher, 4, Finn, 2, and Emilie, almost 1.
Hayden says he can see some pretty major system improvements with the new regime.
“Not having to calve in the spring every year – that gives us some time in the system and with six months until mating it means we can just breathe.”
The cows appreciated the breather too, with none of the previous incidence of metriosis or dirty cows and Hayden says cow longevity and production will benefit from having fewer calves in their lifetime and less udder strain. To minimise the slowdown in genetic gain from a longer generation interval Hayden plans to keep more calves from each lactation. The family are very proud of their Friesian cows and run a Friesian stud, fully recorded on the CRV Ambreed NZMI system.
With Hayden’s PhD and background in pasture he has always been a keen measurer of his grass, with a weekly round of data collection with the pasturemeter now done by Alecia.
The system change has kicked his forward planning into hyperdrive, and sees him working on three-year predictive budgets to ensure enough feed on hand, and a financial budget planning five years out.
As an insurance policy through the major system shift, Hayden opted to calve a few cows in the spring and then synchronised 35 heifers to calve in the summer and 15 in the autumn to keep some money coming in.
“It means we haven’t had a break from milking, but keeps some income coming in. At the current payout level we put the tent up on the back lawn for our summer holiday with the kids because we couldn’t afford to go anywhere,” Hayden says.
With the fresh cows coming into the herd they managed to catch up to the previous year’s production by the end of January and are targeting ending the year 5% higher in production, with less imported feed and lower labour costs.
Usually by mid-January they are into the grass silage but have been able to push that out by six weeks and used it for the dry mob to lift residuals, in the absence of a turnip crop.
The plan for winter feeding of the lactating herd is a daily mix for each cow of 6kg DM maize silage, 3kg DM fodder beet, 6-7kg DM pasture, 2kg DM palm kernel and 2.5 kg DM maize grain fed in the shed.
With the fodder beet coming into the system Hayden has been able to drop out bought-in maize silage and the winter feed has not changed, but just moved from dry cow feed to milking feed.
“We have to do a regular diet check to ensure there is enough protein in the diet for the milking cows.”
Pasture renewal has been 10-12% through a 7ha maize crop followed by oats and annual grass mix to chicory and then permanent pasture, alongside the 3ha of fodder beet.
Now they are calving in March, every second year the maize will be taken off early and resown back into grass.
The milk will be supplied to Fonterra through a premium winter supply (+75c) rather than a winter milk contract because supplying under a contract two out of three years is not an option.
Next season will bring a new farm into the operation with the 60ha block next door bought and milking another 140 cows. Hayden and Alecia plan to employ a herd manager and will run a split-milk system in the short term until the payout improves. The two platforms have been joined together with 500m of new stockrace underway and in future they plan to invest in a new dairy for the 380-cow herd.
The first job will be to test the whole farm in autumn and formulate a precision fertiliser plan for the farm, which will likely carry next season’s crops for the operation.
- Get more: Read about Hayden’s A Precision Fertiliser Plan, Accurate and efficient use of nutrients on farms, as presented to the Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre conference in 2013 here.
