Feed system minimises silage
In terms of tucker, Christmas Day comes every day for the 370 cow dairy herd farmed by Pihama dairy farmers, Paddy and Jemma Stevenson.
Paddy and Jemma are 50-50 sharemilkers on a flat, 110 hectare (effective) farm jointly owned by themselves and Paddy’s parents.
“Pihama Farms is the landowning company in which Jemma and I have a 45 per cent share and my parents a 55 per cent share,” explains Paddy.
“We operate a System 3 feed regime on this property, most of which is fed in our 44-bail rotary shed at the twice-daily milkings.
“We are bringing in around one tonne per cow of supplementary feed throughout the year.
“Out of the total feed we buy in, 20-30 per cent would be fed in the paddock in bins but the ideal scenario is to feed most of it in the shed.
“We feed up to four kilograms, per cow, per day during feed deficits through the in-shed system.
“However, we try to be a little bit more disciplined during those periods when there is surplus grass on the farm.
‘‘We minimise the in-shed feed to the smallest volume we can, which is around a kilogram per cow, per day, which they are receiving at the moment.”
A modern 44-bail rotary shed was built four years ago and features a reasonable amount of technology.
This includes automatic cup removers, teat sprayers and a milk metering system which measures the production per cow and cell count testing on animal status.
“It’s a one person cowshed really. Jemma, who is a lawyer, works off farm and I employ one fulltime worker,” says Paddy.
“We installed the in-shed feed system when the new cowshed was built.
‘‘Prior to that, most of the bought in supplements were fed in the paddock in feed bins.
“The in-shed system gave us the ability to give every cow its share of what we wanted to feed them, rather than have the lion’s share of the feed eaten by the dominant, bigger cows.”
The feed blend used in the in-shed feed offering comprises 80 per cent palm kernel mixed with 20 per cent corn gluten feed pellets, which is supplied by ADM, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers.
Annual production is round 185,000kg milksolids equating to 500kg per cow.
In addition to the ADM-sourced feed, around 80 large round bales of hay are also bought in annually.
“We also grow around 3.5 hectares of maize silage which in a normal year provides a yield of around 18 to 21 tonnes which we use to feed the cows in the autumn,’’ says Paddy.
‘‘This is fed in the paddock – we don’t have any feed pads or stand-off areas.
‘‘There is also 3.5 hectares of forage (kale) which we have just planted and which will provide winter feed for the herd for around 30 days.’’
Very little grass silage is made, as Paddy explains:
‘‘Our aim to graze the paddocks first and cut a surplus only when it’s absolutely necessary.
‘‘I like the efficiency of feeding the cows, putting the milk in the vat, then sending it to the factory and getting paid for it rather than paying outside contractors to come in and cut silage. Then we have to bulk feed it out again.
‘‘I tend to like to manage my cow numbers to suit so we carry maximum numbers in the herd over spring to harvest as much of that spring-grown pasture as we can.
‘‘We identify our empty cows early and cull as soon as possible into January to reduce the demand of stock over that period.
‘‘Part of why we run the system which we do is to carry the most efficient numbers of cows on the farm when the grass is growing most vigorously. We can harvest that surplus grass cheaply.
‘‘ If we were carrying fewer cows over that period then we couldn’t eat the grass. It would mean having to pay someone to make silage and then having to feed it out again.’’
A former bank manager who operated in a rural location, Paddy accepts that Fonterra’s payout largely determines the profitability of the farm’s system three feed regime, but says that even in seasons of low payouts, with a few minor adjustments, the farm has come through.
‘‘I do a lot of numbers. I definitely enjoy the numbers side of things but couple that with the fact that I have got control over what I am doing on the farm every day. This has an impact on whether those numbers are going to succeed or blow my budget!
‘‘With a few adjustments we ran a similar system to what we are running now through the lower payouts of $3.85 and $4.50 a few seasons ago. It kept the wolf from the door in terms of maintaining a balanced cashflow without making a loss. We didn’t make a profit in those years but nor did we go into a lot of debt.
‘‘My worker and I run the farm; we don’t get burnt out and yet we achieve upwards of 90,000 kg milksolids per labour unit.
‘‘We participated in Fonterra’s fixed milk price this year to give us some more certainty. We recognise that there are a reasonable amount of fixed costs in the way we run our business. We hedge around 40 percent of our total production as a good balance to manage that payout risk going forward.
‘‘This year we took a position of $6.80 in September which as it turns out will possibly be off the pace. However, over the coming seasons there will be wins and losses and this will protect our business from some of the volatility which is around.’’
Shared benefits:
Other farmers could find benefits for their own systems from the way Paddy Stevenson runs his farm, claims Grant Gibson (New Plymouth), ADM’s Taranaki area manager.
‘‘Paddy is a very good operator and runs a very tight ship,’’ he says. ‘‘He is always very efficient and well organised and a lot of farmers could find benefits in the system that he runs. It’s a very simple but effective operation.’’