Dairy Farming in South East Australia Liam Robinson Intro This report will attempt to show how a dairy farm in Gippsland near Warragul could be run efficiently and productively. Background Information 1 Warragul is in a temperate climate and has “an average annual rainfall of 705mm” which is well 2 above the “national average rainfall of 277.6mm for 2019” . The average stocking rate on my farm is 2.4 cows per hectare which is slightly higher than the 3 “average 1.9 cows per hectare for the gippsland area” . This slight increase in stocking rate is reflected in a larger herd size of 387 cows on my farm of around 161 ha. Feed Choice 4 I use perennial Ryegrass as “it can grow all year if there is enough moisture in the soil”, allowing for a split calving system. According to Dairy Australia perennial ryegrass can provide “...at least 11 megajoules (MJ) of estimated ME per kg of DM for most of the year and rarely below 10 MJ / kg DM. 5 Similarly, crude protein (CP) levels rarely drop below 18-20% DM…”. This is a far higher nutritional value than alternative temperate grass species. Fertilizers The high rainfall can cause some leaching in the soils however due to crop rotations of nitrogen fixing legumes and the use of effluent on pastures the effects of leaching aren’t as prevalent. However when needed Urea is applied to pastures to promote growth and is done in a responsible manner to reduce risk of run-off into waterways. Cattle Choice I have a herd of 387 Jersey cows which I chose because of their “increased 18% Protein and 20% Calcium content in their milk compared to other cattle breeds” including Holstein-Freisian, resulting in 6 7 a higher quality milk. Their “average weight is between 400-500kg” and as such are smaller than the most alternatives, meaning that I don't have to feed them as much which saves the farm money on 8 feed. 9 “The ‘rule of thumb’ is to have 3 bulls for every 100 cows at the start of mating”, As such I use 11 Bulls and AI when its mating season. Calving System I use a split calving system where calving takes place in autumn and spring. This allows me to produce milk in autumn which can result in a premium on the milk produced, however this is not 1. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project Victoria Annual Report (Melbourne:State Government of Victoria,2019),pp.42-50,http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/492790/2018-2019-DFMP-Victoria-annual-report.pdf. 2. “Annual climate statement 2019,” Bureau of Meteorology, issued January 9,2020,http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/aus/#tabs=Overview 3. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project Gippsland Overview (Melbourne:State Government of Victoria,2019),pp.1,http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/493022/DFMP-Gippsland-overview-2018-2019.pdf 4. "Perennial ryegrass management," Dairy Australia, accessed May 3 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/feedbase-and-animal-nutrition/pasture/perennial-ryegrass-management 5. "Perennial ryegrass management," 6. "Jersey Cow Facts," Camperdown Dairy, October 22nd 2017), http://www.camperdowndairy.com.au/jersey-cow-facts/ 7. “DAIRY CATTLE Australian pure Holstein Crossbred Jersey Brown Swiss,” NASNA livestock, accessed May 3 2020, https://nasna.com.au/index.php/dairy/ 8. “DAIRY CATTLE Australian pure Holstein Crossbred Jersey Brown Swiss.” 9. “Bull Management,” Dairy Australia, accessed May 4 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/animal-management/fertility/bull-management 10 always the case as shown with last year's March quarter price of 46c/L and its June quarter price of 11 47.6c/L compared to the higher prices received in previous years. To mitigate the risk of losing too much money to poor autumn production I only have one third of my cows calving in autumn. Herd Health To maintain calf welfare I keep them in a deep litter shed as it provides “excellent ventilation, shelter 12 from the environment, easy access for cleaning and is fairly inexpensive”. This is a group housing system which means that disease can spread fast, however with thorough cleaning and passive immunity the risk of that should be reduced.13 To reduce the risk of disease among the herd I ensure that all cows are vaccinated and then to maintain immunity I give them boosters every year before calving, this also “allows some immunity to be passed onto the calves”.14 Milking System I use a rotary shed with automatic cup removers. The rotary unit can milk 50 cows at once and as such I only need one unit which cost me “$1,332,164 including GST, shed, concrete, yarding, plant 15 and equipment”. If I was to buy an automated milking system(AMS) that could manage the same 16 amount of cows I would need to buy 5 units which would cost me “$1,919,016 inc. GST”. And 17 although a Herringbone swing-over shed is cheaper; only costing “$1,037,105 inc. GST”, it’s better suited to herds closer to 320 cows. The running costs are much cheaper, costing only $44,000/year 18 compared to the AMS $50,998/year. 19 The automatic cup removers “reduce over-milking, and the associated mastitis infections” and such 20 improve the herd health, they also reduce the milking time and as such reduces labour costs. The 21 savings from this means that it takes only “4 years to break even (before interest)”. Grazing Management Grazing management is a multi stage process. The first stage is to determine the rotation length for 22 grazing. This is done by multiplying the “target leaf stage by leaf emergence rate”, which equates to 23.75 days. Then to find out how much area I should be allocating each day to grazing I divide the 23 total pasture area (161 ha) by rotation length (23.75) = 6.7ha/day. 10. Andrew Cameron, Dairy outlook – March 2019 (Canberra: Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, last revised 4 November 2019 ),pp.1, https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/mar-2019/dairy 11. Andrew Duver, Dairy outlook – June 2019 (Canberra: Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, last revised 4 February 2020 ),pp.1, https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/jun-2019/dairy 12. “Calf Housing,” Dairy Australia, accessed May 5 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/animal-management/animal-welfare/calf-housing 13. “Calf Housing” 14. Jeff Cave, “Clostridial Diseases of Livestock,” Agriculture Victoria, Updated October 2013, http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/beef-and-dairy-cows/clostridial-diseases-of-livestock 15. Lloyd Davies, Andrew Alford, Kendra Kerrisk and Sergio Garcia, Economics of Automatic Milking Systems (Sydney: Future Dairy,2010), pp.8, http://futuredairy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/AMS-ECONOMICS-BRIEFING.pdf 16. Davies, Alford, Kerrisk and Garcia, Economics of Automatic Milking Systems,8 17. Davies, Alford, Kerrisk and Garcia, Economics of Automatic Milking Systems,7 18. Davies, Alford, Kerrisk and Garcia, Economics of Automatic Milking Systems,11 19.Future Farming Systems Research Division Victorian Department Primary Industries, Feasibility of automatic cluster removers in the dairy — do they pay? (Victoria: State Government of Victoria, 2010),pp.3, https://content.dairyaustralia.com.au/-/media/dairyaustralia/documents/farm/farm-business-management/farm-systems/dairy-economic-research/automatic-cluster-remove rs-in-the-dairy.pdf?la=en&hash=FF9C644DE46EE148B37C05210BE0C651F17F18B9 20. Victorian Department Primary Industries, Feasibility of automatic cluster removers,2 21. Victorian Department Primary Industries, Feasibility of automatic cluster removers,2 22. “Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles," Dairy Australia, accessed May 6 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/-/media/dairyaustralia/documents/farm/pasture-management/pasture/pasture-types/perennial-ryegrass-management/perennial-ryegras s-management--ii--practical-application-of-grazing-principles.pdf 23. “Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles" After finding this information out I choose which paddocks to graze and in what order. This is decided 24 “primarily by leaf stage and to a lesser extent by pasture cover”. The next step is to “estimate how 25 much feed is available on each paddock and is done by estimating the pre-grazing cover”. The 26 “post-grazing target (1,500–1,600 kg DM/ha)” is then subtracted from the pre-grazing cover to figure out how many kg of dry matter per hectare the cows should be consuming a day. Following that I multiply it by the grazing area allocated. Some adjustments may be required depending on if there’s more or less pasture than required by the herd. Any excess fodder that will otherwise be wasted will be harvested and turned into sillage. Financials Income I sell roughly 423kg of milk solids per jersey cow every year, this adds up to be roughly 163,701 kg of 27 milk solids per year for the whole herd, and I get roughly $6.12/kg of milk solid(MS) which adds up to 28 a gross income of $1,001,850.12 purely from milk sales. I also received an additional average of “$0.47/kg MS to gross farm income from livestock trade”29 which resulted in a gross farm income of $1,078,789.59 and an average of $6.59/kg MS. Expenses 30 On my farm variable costs are $3.63/kg of MS, while overhead costs are $1.82/Kg of MS. Adding both the overhead and variable costs gives the farm a total cost of $5.45/Kg of MS. Earnings before tax and interest Gross profit is $1.14/Kg MS. As my farm produces 163,701kg of Ms per year the gross profit is $186,619.14 before tax and interest. Time Spent in Office Communicating to suppliers and the factory about prices allows me to get an approximate prediction of future cash flow and with that I can create a budget. Consistent reviewing of the budget allows for analysis of how the farm is performing. “Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) under its Standard 4.2.4 requires all dairy farms to 31 have a documented on-farm food safety program” and as such I maintain a food safety program and 32 as required I also have a “HACCP based Quality Assurance Program” to ensure that I can keep my license to operate. Conclusion There are many aspects to running a successful dairy farm in the Gippsland area, all of which take careful consideration and planning to maintain the productivity and success of the farm, this report only describes the way I manage these areas. 24. “Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles" 25. “Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles" 26. “Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles" 27. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project, 43 28. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project, 44 29. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project, 44 30. Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia, 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project, 46 31. “Dairy Food Safety,” Dairy Australia, accessed May 7 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/food-safety-and-regulation/dairy-food-safety 32. “Dairy Food Safety,” Dairy Australia, accessed May 7 2020, https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/food-safety-and-regulation/dairy-food-safety Bibliography Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia. 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project Gippsland Overview.Melbourne:State Government of Victoria.2019.http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/493022/DFMP-Gippsland-overview-2018-2019.pdf Agriculture Victoria and Dairy Australia. 2018-2019 Dairy Farm Monitor Project Victoria Annual Report .Melbourne:State Government of Victoria.2019.http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/492790/2018-2019-DFMP-Victoria-annual-report.pdf. Bureau of Meteorology.“Annual climate statement 2019.” issued January 9 2020.http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/annual/aus/#tabs=Overview Cameron,Andrew. Dairy outlook – March 2019. Canberra: Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, last revised 4 November 2019. https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/mar-2019/dairy Camperdown Dairy."Jersey Cow Facts." Published October 22nd 2017. http://www.camperdowndairy.com.au/jersey-cow-facts/ Cave,Jeff. “Clostridial Diseases of Livestock.” Agriculture Victoria,.Updated October 2013. http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/beef-and-dairy-cows/clostridial-diseases-of-l ivestock Dairy Australia.“Bull Management.” accessed May 4 2020. https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/animal-management/fertility/bull-management Dairy Australia.“Calf Housing.” accessed May 5 2020. https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/animal-management/animal-welfare/calf-housing Dairy Australia.“Dairy Food Safety.” accessed May 7 2020. https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/food-safety-and-regulation/dairy-food-safety Dairy Australia."Perennial ryegrass management." accessed May 3 2020. https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/farm/feedbase-and-animal-nutrition/pasture/perennial-ryegrass-management Dairy Australia.“Perennial ryegrass management II. Practical application of grazing principles." accessed May 6 2020. https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/-/media/dairyaustralia/documents/farm/pasture-management/pasture/pasture-types/perennial -ryegrass-management/perennial-ryegrass-management--ii--practical-application-of-grazing-principles.pdf Davies,Lloyd Andrew Alford, Kendra Kerrisk and Sergio Garcia, Economics of Automatic Milking Systems .Sydney: Future Dairy,2010.http://futuredairy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/AMS-ECONOMICS-BRIEFING.pdf Duver,Andrew. Dairy outlook – June 2019.Canberra: Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, last revised 4 February 2020. https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/jun-2019/dairy Future Farming Systems Research Division Victorian Department Primary Industries. Feasibility of automatic cluster removers in the dairy — do they pay?.Victoria: State Government of Victoria, 2010. https://content.dairyaustralia.com.au/-/media/dairyaustralia/documents/farm/farm-business-management/farm-systems/dairy-ec onomic-research/automatic-cluster-removers-in-the-dairy.pdf?la=en&hash=FF9C644DE46EE148B37C05210BE0C651F17F18 B9 NASNA livestock.“DAIRY CATTLE Australian pure Holstein Crossbred Jersey Brown Swiss.” accessed May 3 2020.https://nasna.com.au/index.php/dairy/
