Cutting feed costs appeals to farmers
Cutting feed costs without reducing their milk production is the aim of Matthew Herbert and Brad Markham in a pasture management programme.
The pair contract milk 350 cows on a 100 hectare effective block at Kaponga.
Their operation will be one of about 20 key farms working with agronomists and each other to improve their pasture management skills through DairyNZ’s Tiller Talk programme.
The chance to involve experts in their decision making was an exciting one, Herbert said.
‘‘We’re looking forward to getting some advice on how we can improve our home grown feed without cutting milk production.
‘‘The payout over the last couple of years has shown how reliant we all are on our pasture.
‘‘When there is less money coming in, you don’t want to be spending it on bringing in feed, so having good pasture is important.’’
Herbert, a former political advisor, and Markham, a former journalist, made the switch to farming in 2014 and have enjoyed the challenges dairy farming presented.
They were keen to push themselves and their milk production, Herbert said.
‘‘It will be great to get advice on how we can push things beyond the average. If you farm average, you get average results and I don’t like being average.’’
Target production for this season, their first on the property, was 175,000 kilograms of milksolids and they hoped to push that out to 190,000kg/MS within two seasons, Herbert said.
‘‘With less brought in feed,’’ he added. ’’We bring in more feed than I’d like to so it would be good to get some advice on changing that without affecting production.’’
During the project, the farmers would receive advice and support from DairyNZ experts and agronomists but their experience would also benefit others, Herbert said.
‘‘There’s a lot of information sharing, a lot of discussion with other farmers about what we’re doing and the things we’re trying.’’
Small groups of farmers would follow the progress made at each of the key farms, visiting at key times of the year to discuss pasture management decisions and assess the results.
Progress would also be shared at field days, small on-farm workshops and online forums so Herbert and Markham’s experience could also improve the profit margins of neighbouring farmers.
DairyNZ Tiller Talk project leader Elodie Ganche said pasture was one of the biggest influencers of profit.
‘‘This is a real opportunity for those farmers who take part in this project to deepen their knowledge of pasture, gain confidence in their decision-making and consequently improve their bottom-line.
‘‘This is about farmer-to-farmer learning. The farmers are the ones who will drive the decisions and identify areas for opportunity.’’
Ganche said regional benchmarking showed large differences in pasture harvested, even on farms close to each other.
‘‘It’s not uncommon for neighbours to differ by three tonnes dry matter per hectare.’’