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18 March 2017

Contributor on 18 Mar 2017

Student blog: efficient use of grass on a New Zealand farm

WIT agricultural science student Roisin Horan is in New Zealand working on a 1,400 cow dairy farm. Here she writes why low-risk business may be the best strategy to deal with volatile milk markets.

Contributor

18 March 2017

Student blog: efficient use of grass on a New Zealand farm

Roisin Horan and Michelle Ward.

Currently the 1,400 cows are producing 2.3kg of milk solids and yielding a total of approximately 3,200kg of milk solids

The farm’s feed costs are 50% of the total costs of running the business, currently costing $2.60-2.80/kg of milk solids produced.

The Kolmar Dairies farm in New Zealand.

Some of the 1400 cows on the Kolmar Dairies farm.

Kolmar Dairies is a 1,400-cow operation owned by Bruce Turpie. He transitioned into dairy farming four years ago, following an extensive career in the tillage sector.The farm comprises of a 200-hectare dairy platform, which is accompanied by a further 211ha of land used for tillage.

Kolmar Dairies is a 1,400-cow operation owned by Bruce Turpie. He transitioned into dairy farming four years ago, following an extensive career in the tillage sector.

The farm comprises of a 200-hectare dairy platform, which is accompanied by a further 211ha of land used for tillage.

This is utilised for the production of feed for the milking cows and includes barley, maize, fodder beet and kale.

Presently, there are 32 paddocks of approximately 6ha on the grazing platform. Cows do not enter covers greater than 3,500kg of dry matter per hectare (DM/ha), the farm targets a 1,600kg DM/ha residual and the cows are given a clean break after each milking.

A plate metre is used to measure covers within the paddocks and cows are allocated grass accordingly. The dry cows graze behind the milking herds in order to achieve the 1,600kg DM/ha residual.

The grazing platform receives 80kg/ha of urea every month, driving the current daily growth rate of 56kg/DM, facilitating the existing 30-day rotation.

Furthermore, a grass wedge is utilised to maintain quality within the paddocks, with any surplus grass removed and baled as grass silage.

Four herds on the farm

The herd consists of Holstein Jersey crosses, which suits the farms high input, high output system. Currently, four herds exist on the farm, the high-producing herd, the low-producing herd, the lame herd and the red herd.

The high-yielding herd is presently yielding 50-55 litres per day, while the low-producing herd yields between 24 and 25 litres per day.

Heifers are also included in this herd and can yield anything between 18 and 40 litres per day.

The farm aims to achieve over 100% of a cow’s live-weight in milk solids. This year, on average, the farm was doing about 620kg milk solids per cow.

The combination of a high feed and grass system facilitates the yielding capacity of these high-producing cows.

The cows are rotated through a shed where they are fed a total mixed ration in kgs of dry matter as follows:

1kg of lucerne silage

1kg of grass silage

3kg of palm kernel

2kg of whole crop silage

3kg of maize silage

800grams of oilseed rape

Minerals: calmag, dicalcium phosphate and magnesium sulphate

In addition, through the parlour, the cows receive:

50/50 wheat/barley mix

Soya

200ml of molasses

The quantity of feed given in the parlour varies.

The high-producing herd is allocated 4.75kg of grain in the parlour, while the low-producing herd receives 1kg.

In the shed, the high and the low-producing herds receive the same ration mix but in various quantities, and this is determined by the time each herd spends in the shed.

The low-producing herd spends six to eight hours in the shed between morning and evening milking, and consumes approximately 8kg of DM. The high-producing herd spends 18 hours in the shed and consumes approximately 12kg of DM while there. At grass the cows receive a further 6-8kg of DM and therefore obtain 21kg of DM per day in total. Out of this they produce 2.3kg of milk solids, thus it is currently taking 9kg of DM to produce 1kg of milk solids.

Costs and a high-risk system

Currently the 1,400 cows are producing 2.3kg of milk solids per day and yielding a total of approximately 3,200kg of milk solids.

In comparison to your typical grass-based New Zealand system, which averages 1.5kg to 1.7kg of milk solids per day, it would take 2,000 cows to produce the same amount of solids presently produced by 1,400 cows here.

The farm’s feed costs are 50% of the total costs of running the business, currently costing $2.60 to $2.80 per kg of milk solids produced.

It is costing 15c/kg to grow grass, but this varies depending on fertiliser and irrigation costs. It is costing 25-28c/kg for the mixed ration feed, but it’s price, ingredients and time of purchase dependant.

With a farm breakeven price of $4.25, this type of system remains profitable for the farm as long as feed costs are kept under $3. Admittedly, this system is more of a high-risk model and is not commonly associated with New Zealand’s typical low-cost, seasonal, grass-based system.

Roisin Horan is an agricultural science student at Waterford Institute of Technology and is travelling as part of his professional work experience (PWE) programme. Roisin is a winner of the Agricultural Science Association – PWE Travel Bursary Award, which is supported by the Irish Farmers Journal and Arvum Group.