Better farming is focus for Brenton
Focus Farms is all about making better farmers – and there’s no better example than Jindivick’s Brenton Ziero.
Brenton, who share farms on Steve Ronalds’ Jindivick property, is a young farmer with a thirst for improvement.
In becoming one of three Focus Farmers for the 2016-18 project, his aim was to finish a better farm than he started.
“I reckon I already am, which was the whole idea of it. I’ve changed the way I farm for the better,” he said at a recent open day.
“It’s had its ups and downs, but overall it’s been very positive. I’d do it again, put it that way.”
The Focus Farm program is jointly supported by GippsDairy and Dairy Australia. The program gives farmers and agribusiness professionals the opportunity to participate in the decision-making processes of a dairy farm business, which is assisted by a facilitator and support group.
“It’s helped just having the support group there with its finger on the pulse each month,” he said.
“We’ve been putting more grass down the cows’ throats and really improved the nutrition side.”
For Steve Ronalds, watching the improvement in Brenton has been the reward for the effort they have put into the Focus Farm project.
“For me, this is all about Brenton, but whatever he does, obviously, affects what we do as a business,” Steve said.
“It was all about him honing his skills. He’s the one who is doing everything day-to-day.”
“The passion of the support group members and their desire to make it work and be positive has been really good.”
Like most other farms, the Ziero/Ronalds operation has been hit hard by the milk price over the past couple of seasons.
Facilitator Matt Hall said that a decision was made to try and improve output from the 430 milkers in the Jersey herd.
“After the 16/17 season, the support group decided that we needed to get more milk solids per cow and that would come from similar pasture management, better diet balancing and better additives for animal health,” he said.
“The additive area is a really challenging one. A lot of people think that you can spend a lot of money on additives for not a lot of result, but in this case it is an area that is returning on investment.”
The Jindivick Focus Farm is one of three, including Fish Creek and Won Wron, which are funded by the dairy levy as a way of improving farmer knowledge and skills.
GippsDairy regional extension officer Karen Romano said the Ziero/Ronalds sharefarm had shown how fine-tuning of a farming operation can have positive outcomes for the bottom line of the business.
“The changes made here have not been drastic, but they have been significant,” she said.
“Brenton, in particular, has listened, learned and made the changes he thought appropriate for the farm situation and has reaped benefits from it.”