Gippsland - How Now Gippy Now - March 2010 Edition
Unlocking ‘pasture potential’ even after a stressful year
Managing your dairy business is complex enough, without additional stresses and complications that Glen and Carol Morely of Gormandale faced after last year’s devastating fires.
The Black Saturday bushfire made a big impact on their business because 12 km of fences and 60 ha of pasture was burnt.
Many things had to be changed, so Glen and Carol decided to join a Feeding Pastures for Profit (FPFP) program and found it made a big difference to their business.
“We are growing so much more pasture and the cows are better fed,” Glen and Carol said.
“It is difficult to see how much more money we are making with all the fencing that has needed to be done, but we are a lot more profitable as a result of FPFP.”
Glen and Carol have been able to recover from last year’s events and say they are in more control of their business as a result of participating in the FPFP program.
“We understand the profitable feeding zone and we know what is happening to our profit line when we feed different feeds.”
FPFP has enabled Glen and Carol to understand where they fit in the ‘zone’ as they now have an understanding of how each marginal decision affects the next – in other words what you do today, will affect tomorrow.
The cows are the core of the business and deciding how much to feed them daily is imperative. Too much feed and the margin is impacted, too little feed and the residual is affected decreasing growth for the next round - thus impacting the margin.
“With the ‘Rotation Right Tool’ we are able to allocate a consistent amount of pasture each day, which is key to understanding if other feeds are making us a profit or not,” said Glen and Carol.
Therefore, they can make an informed decision daily that will affect both their productivity and annual bottom line.
“The Rotation Right Tool also allows us to quickly identify surpluses before it happens, meaning we have more control over preparing silage contractors.”
“It also identifies upcoming shortfalls allowing us to slowly introduce supplements - meaning our cow’s rumens remain better balanced.
“We have been farming 25 years and have learnt so much from the FPFP program; and are really keen to send our staff along to a program this year.
“The cows are producing better than they ever have done in February, it’s fantastic!”
Glen and Carol are not unique in their praise for the program. It’s all about responding quicker to what your cows and the pasture are telling you. Can you continue to wait to ‘unlock the potential’ of your farm any longer?
To register for the upcoming courses or for further information, please contact Jason McAinch on 5147 0839 or Frank Mickan on 5624 2259.
