Gippsland - How Now Gippy Now - September 2010 Edition
GippsDairy Focus Farms
Summary of Nar Nar Goon Focus Farm Issues
This winter Michael and Ancret Shipton and their two young children Kassandra, five, and Mitchell, three, have endured the same wet conditions experienced by others in West and South Gippsland.
Boggy paddocks, deteriorating farm lanes/tracks, and trying to protect the pasture base have been a problem. Sore foot problems (15% of the herd) and an increase in milk fever during this calving have caused concern.
The Shiptons sharefarm with Geoff and Debbie Bramley. Facilitator Peter Notman and Support Group members have to consider a range of issues when they meet on the farm.
Budget for Season 2010 - 2011
Assumptions for their budget are:
- 300 cow split calving herd producing 2.6 million litres (8,900 lt/cow), 4.03% Butterfat and 3.42% Protein. They are budgeting on producing 660 kg MS/cow. The herd produced 650 kg MS/cow in 2009-2010.
- Milking area 150 ha. Of this, 30 ha has been renovated and resown to permanent pasture in autumn 2010, and 12 ha sown to annual pasture.
- The annual pasture area was previously badly infested with Barley Grass. Therefore it is likely to be sown to a millet crop for summer 2011 and then put down to perennial pasture in Autumn, or cropped to chicory until autumn 2012 then sown to permanent pasture. The final decision will be made this month when a review of the seasonal conditions is made.
- Estimated pasture consumption will be 8.9 tonne DM (drymatter)/ha. In season 2009/10 pasture utilised was 7.5t DM/ha.
- There are 199 ha of adjacent land that has been leased, some is short term. It is available for young stock, dry cows, and cutting silage or hay. The leased area is lower productivity pasture.
- Stock numbers on 1 July 2010 were 300 milkers/dry cows, 58 yearling heifers, 17 calves and 2 bulls.
Because of the large area of land available this year it has been decided to rear all heifer calves plus some of the bull calves.
- Concentrate feeding is planned to run at approximately 2.5 tonne/cow.
- Milk price is $6.23/kg MS (47 cents/litre).
Farm Income $ Total
Milk income 1,265,868
Cull cows 25,000
Young stock sales 3,500
Total farm income 1,294,368
Farm Costs
Herd costs
Animal health/calf rearing 59,000
Total herd cost 59,000
Shed Costs
Power 20,400
Water 4,010
Dairy supplies 6,000
Total shed costs 30,410
Feed costs
Grain 209,664
Citrus/potato mash 24,500
Fertiliser/lime 35,000
Nitrogen 26,000
Contractor - renovation 20,000
Contractor - silage 35,000
Lease 61,975
Seed crop/pasture 17,000
Weed/pest 6,500
Fuel/oil 9,000
Total feed costs 444,639
Overhead Costs
Labour 51,000
Administration/vehicles 8,400
Phone/Internet 2,340
Repairs and maintenance -plant 12,000
Rates 2,954
Farm insurance 3,036
Total overhead costs $79,730
Total Farm Costs $613,779
Operating Surplus $680,589
Operating surplus is not profit. It is the amount that is budgeted to be available to the families in this share farm arrangement to cover their debt servicing, living costs, taxation and capital development.
Financial Indicators $ per Cow
Income 4,315
Herd costs 196
Shed costs 101
Feed costs 1,482
Overhead costs 265
Labour (paid) 170
Feeding Program
This is expected to follow the same pattern as last lactation where the aim was to fully feed every day utilising the lowest cost feed to meet the herd's energy, protein and micro nutrient requirements.
Because of their location close to Melbourne they can source by-products, and benefit from low cartage costs.
In the 2009-2010 lactation the following feed was brought onto the farm:
Wheat 155.2 t
Barley 196.4 t
Barley Mix 180.8 t
Total Grain 492.4 t
Balancer additive 97.3 t
Canola 24.4 t
ChocMalt 10.1 t
Total Protein Mix 131.9 t
Potato mash 429 t wet weight (86t DM).
Citrus pulp 565 t wet weight (113t DM).
Last year 500t DM of pasture silage was consumed
The potato mash will go into the diet from late December to the end of April. Citrus pulp from early January to mid July. Both are approximately 20% DM the potato mash is 14 ME, the citrus pulp is 13 ME.
To store the byproducts last season Michael made bunkers using conveyer belting and straw bales. This worked well with a low cost of $900 (plus a replacement wheel for his tandem trailer - conveyor belting is very heavy!).
Farm Labour
Their rotary dairy requires two operators. Adrian is a trainee, he works weekdays and occasional weekends. He puts in 40-45 hours per week.
Ancret looks after the bookwork and does four milkings each weekend. She works 20 hours per week in the business. Michael concedes that he is very full time, contributing 75 hours per week.
Fertiliser and Lime.
After the Autumn break an application of fowl manure will be made at approximately 7.5 cubic metre/ha.
Approximately 50t of urea has been budgeted for. To promote pasture growth one application of potassium will be included in a blend with urea.
It is planned to continue applying lime on the farm. 150 tonnes of lime is budgeted for Autumn 2011.
Farm Lane Upgrade.
The laneway system on the farm is breaking down. It was originally designed for a 120 cow herd. The increased cow traffic, heavy tractors and machinery, water not draining off lanes, that are too narrow for cow flow, and finally as a result of the track base wearing sharp stones come to the surface to create sore feet problems.
This Focus Farm is almost flat, and currently too wet to work on, however it does provide a good opportunity to see where drainage or culverts need to be placed.
The following is a guide to the current thinking for the farm. The costs shown have been taken from contractors experienced in building dairy farm lanes. The budget is done on a 9 metre wide track with a 150mm rise to the centre line.
It is essential that a grader blade can fit under the side fences to remove any lip to ensure water will not sit on the tracks.
- Purchased gravel/soft rock:
Width 9 metres, gravel depth 125mm, compressed to 90mm.
This will use 1.125 cubic metres/metre length.
The gravel/soft rock will cost $30.40/metre of laneway on their farm.
Grader cost $100/hr, estimate $2/metre of laneway.
- Shifting fence:
Estimate $2/metre of laneway if using posts again.
Total cost
$34.40/metre of laneway. (Lower when making narrower lane).
The cost includes cartage of soft rock from Cranbourne.
- Lane Maintenance
Spray twice each year using a blend of 2lt of Nutrazine and 3lt of Roundup Power Max with 100lt of water. Grade under fences if required.
The Focus Farm Project is an initiative of GippsDairy that receives funding from the Gardiner Foundation, Dairy Australia and GippsDairy.
For more information about the Focus Farm project contact: John Gallienne Mobile 0407 863 493.
