The question is whether to dry off or milk on
At this time of year, I regularly get asked a version of the same question: Should I dry off or keep milking my cows? I often see farmers tempted to milk on when the milk price is high.
Longveiw is a family owned company run by David Pearce, managing director. He’s been there since 1976, not long after he completed his B Agr Com at Lincoln University. The property is close to the coast, close enough for at least one young seals from a nearby colony to brave a stream on the farm to visit the cows.
While the focus of the field day was on dairying, it is important to note that Longview also runs 2000 ewes and finishes 1700 heifers each year. The total area of the property is 3000ha. Much needed rain, wind-driven, on the day of our visit limited the view to what one could see from the window of a ute.
The two dairy farms are different not just in the TAD/OAD set-up. The established 390ha TAD platform, called Paetaia, supports just over 1200 Friesian cross cows on fertile silt soils which, though good, can compact. The cows are run as three separate herds. This season they expect to produce 530,000kgMS or 1359kgMS/ha, or 416kgMS/cow.
The TAD farm runs as a system 4 operation with 29% of the feed imported. The cows are milked on a 60-bail rotary; a calf rearing shed can hold 240. The stocking rate is 3.2/ha.
This contrasts sharply with the OAD farm, Riverside. This was converted about four years ago and runs about 600 Jersey cross cows on 200ha. A total of 207,000kgMS is targeted for 2012/13 or 1025kgMS/ha or 351kgMS/cow. This farm is on sand country, so it dries faster than the TAD farm. Longview is working hard to establish new pasture including some chicory. The stocking rate is 2.9 which perhaps reflects the slightly poorer pasture on this farm. Milking is through a new 50-bail rotary with the new ADF milking system. Sharemilkers Lyall and Sindy Hooper run the OAD, whereas Paetaia is managed.
Both farms have access to a 2000ha run-off block.
The reason for putting the new herd on OAD, says Pearce, was to see if they could iron out some of the problems they were encountering with the TAD herd, including improving the six-week in-calf rate and lameness. “We thought OAD might be the answer to it… on the smaller new farm, to see how it went, and if it came up trumps we’d see if we could transfer the technology to the main farm.”
The lameness issue with the TAD herd was solved by improving the cow flow by installing rubber matting at the entrance to the rotary shed. To mitigate the mastitis issue with the OAD herd, Pearce had the new ADF teat spray/teat seal system installed; it has helped but remains a work in progress.
One lesson from the OAD ‘experiment’ is a change in farm systems. “Next season we are dropping 100 cows from the TAD farm then putting one of the herds from that farm onto OAD. And we are moving from system 4 to system 2 on both farms, which we think will make for greater profitability.”
The other change is to the cows themselves. Like many Taranaki farmers, Pearce likes Jerseys – more profitable and easier to get into calf. As a result of the OAD experiment he plans to have Jersey crosses on both farms.
A comparison which hasn’t been done – one Pearce says would be interesting – is determining the level of N leaching on the two farms, especially the very different soil types. “It’s something we will do,” he says.
In profitability there is little real difference between the OAD and the TAD farms. The numbers show the OAD farm has higher overheads due to the depreciation of the new shed. But the farm income per kgMS is almost identical at just on $7.
As to the future, Pearce and his team plan to continue re-grassing to improve pasture quality and to move to the more profitable Jersey cross cows.
Impressive about Longview is the property’s good data using DairyNZ’s DairyBase. Knowing the state of play has been a major factor in the changes made.
