Dairy News Australia - June 2020 - With Gippsland Region

JUNE, 2020 ISSUE 116

GIPPSLAND REGION

School is in session

COVID-19 brings unique challenge for the O’Brien family. Page 8

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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

2 // GIPPSLAND REGION

Chair’s message

Prepare for the season ahead THIS SEASON has been testing with bushfires,

COVID-19, drought in some areas and floods in others. More than likely we will be tested again next season. How we all approach the next financial year will depend on many factors, some of which we can control and others we cannot.

We largely can’t control milk price but there are plenty of farm business levers to pull to ensure we are still profitable. If the milk price is not what you had hoped, think about how you can adjust your business to still make the most of the year.

For our business, we increased grain this year to make the most of the good milk price.

However, if the milk price drops this coming season, we will not necessarily reduce grain back but will consider our options.

How does the milk-price-to-grain ratio stack up? Calculate if it is worth feeding that extra bit of grain; and if not, what else will go into the diet?

“Do your best with the factors within your control and plan for those that are not.”

We are thankful to have a good amount of grass currently, but things are starting to look a bit wet and muddy so we need to plan how we can look after pastures and avoid excessive pugging.

How the season rolls out is yet another uncontrollable factor, but we need to be putting in measures to manage whatever comes our way.

With a fair bit of uncertainty in the air, there is no better time than now to get a grasp of your cost of production. Once that’s calculated, you can determine how to adjust your business to work with the uncontrollable variables.

Dairy Australia and GippsDairy are rolling out

online versions of Farm Business Fundamentals and Our Farm Our Plan to help farmers determine the levers to pull in their business and how to identify risks.

With all the noise in the industry is on milk price, remember what you can and can’t control in your business.

Do your best with the factors within your control and plan for those that are not.

Whatever direction next season takes, make sure you’re in the driver’s seat to steer your business to success.

2 Grant Williams, GippsDairy chair

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GIPPSLAND REGION // 3

Managing farm risks JEANETTE SEVERS

RISK HAS been broken down to bite-sized

chunks for dairy farmers at a workshop hosted

by Agriculture Victoria and held at Orbost.

Risk assessment was identified as an action plan with trigger points.

Weather, climate, equipment, soil condition, pasture, health and safety, were all identified among the critical components that dairy farmers needed to consider part of their risk assessment.

Presenters were AgVic’s David Shambrook and climate specialist Graeme Anderson.

Farmers were encouraged to drive growth onfarm by embracing research from their industry organisations, investing in appropriate infrastructure and building their own knowledge about business management, new technology, biosecurity and trade potential for their products.

Risk assessment was as localised as planning for when a farm’s solar pumps needed servicing, compared to an animal health biosecurity issue, financial pressures brought on by trade markets, or a relationship breakdown.

“Solar pumps are essential for reticulating stock water. Trigger points for risk are service dates. If farmers keep spare parts on-site, then the pump’s downtime is reduced because it is only reliant on getting a technician to service it when needed,” Mr Shambrook said.

Soil tests were other trigger points for improving soil acidity and impacting on pasture density, which included varying the type of grass grown to meet long and short seasons; choosing crops that don’t rely on irrigation and rainfall for germination and to grow; and even being prepared to change the land’s contour to improve pasture and fodder production.

Mr Shambrook said farmers needed to assess how much risk they were prepared for if the person who grew the pasture became injured.

“If you’re a sole operator, and your safety is at risk, or you fall ill – what’s your backup plan?” he said.

For Marlo dairy farmers Mary and John McKeown, mitigating risk is built into their contracts with sharefarmers. Mrs McKeown’s family has been utilising sharefarmers as part of normal business operations since 1911.

“A lot of it is using common sense,” Mrs McKeown said.

“For example, it’s written into the contracts that sharefarmers are not to have children on or operating machinery; and children are not allowed to be in the vicinity of the dairy.”

She said the coronavirus pandemic had meant making some adjustments to how the farm operated.

“Bairnsdale is our major business centre, so we’ve had to adapt to dealing with reps over the phone, rather than face-to-face. Fortunately we’ve got good mobile coverage,” she said.

“A lot of the risk is about good hygiene in the dairy, so that’s a continuation of normal practices for us.”

Weather is the biggest risk for the dryland farm. In the past few years of drought, with less reliable rainfall, the business’ focus has been on purchasing maize and pellets to maintain production, rather than reducing herd numbers.

For the McKeowns’ sharefarmer, Blair Austin, drought risk also means managing inundation of saline water from the closed Snowy River estuary.

“We’re doing a lot of work repairing the levee banks. When the entrance closes at Marlo, about 50ha of pasture is covered with salt water; it’s about one-to-two hectares per paddock,” he said.

The levee banks are maintained above 0.8m level – 0.8m is the trigger for authorities to open up the entrance of the Snowy River at Marlo.

“We use an excavator to pack in the dirt, roll it out, repeat. Repairing breaches in the levee banks has been an ongoing job for the past couple of years,” Mr Austin said.

“If we can get it packed down enough, it could withstand a minor flood if we get enough rain.”

Climate specialist Graeme Anderson recommended using long-term rainfall records to help predict the probability of a likelihood of rain falling at a particular time.

“This might help with making decisions around sowing crop or managing for recovering pastures,” Mr Anderson said.

“But there’s plenty of big variability in the system.”

He recommended Australian CliMate, www. climateapp.net.au — a predictive tool that crunches data to predict the potential of a seasonal break. Using Bete Bolong as an example, he showed it was 73 per cent likely, of 88 years in 120, that a seasonal break of more than 25mm of rain could fall between March 1 and April 30.

Mr Anderson also said it was apparent the timing and impact of seasons was changing; since 2000, climate measurements demonstrated the seasonal rainfall zones had shifted southerly across Australia (www.aegic.org.au).

“In a lot of records, it’s clear autumn is changing in a lot of places from what we’re expecting,” he said.

Influences of the Indian Ocean dipole, the ENSO – Pacific Ocean moisture source, the Southern Annular Mode, trade winds, moisture in the air, rising pressure systems and changing temperature, were all discussed. Many of these are explained in the Climate Kelpie videos, available at www.climatekelpie.com.au Ultimately, rain is due to the availability of precipitable water in the atmosphere.

Mr Anderson suggested measuring subsoil moisture to gather data that aids, in particular, planning and decision-making around sowing pasture and the possibility or not of a seasonal break.

“If there’s no moisture at or below 50mm, or 50cm, how do you manage farm production?” he said.

Overall, Mr Anderson recommends accessing multiple tools for weather forecasting to help make seasonal decision-making around the type of pastures and crops to grow.

David Shambrook, Mark Laity and Brian Whinfield.

Jart Henderson and Blair Austin.

Jeanie Haynes, Graeme Anderson, Kelly Morgan and Mary McKeown.

DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

4 // GIPPSLAND REGION

Water and feed lift family’s confidence JEANETTE SEVERS

THIS SEASON is improving on the past few

years for Frank and Fiona Mills, with moisture in the ground at all their farms and feed to carry their entire herd through winter.

“It’s looking good,” Mr Mills said.

“You need water, warmth and sun to grow grass. We’ve got the moisture in the ground and, while the warmth has now gone and growth has slowed, we’ve still got the sun and a bit of grass growing.”

The couple runs two herds across two dairy farms at Kilmany, a total of 330 ha of country.

The herd is split into milking as early and later lactating cows.

“The 340 early lactaters are milked at the home farm, in a 30-double-up rapid-exit dairy,” Mrs Mills said.

“Late lactaters are milked at the second farm, using a 17-double-up dairy with cup removers. “ They also have an out-block at Perry Bridge for growing out heifers and steers.

They employ three full-time and one parttime workers. Their four teenage children also have responsibilities around the farm — helping

feed-out silage, raise calves and check irrigation.

Average production is 3.6 million litres, milking 546 predominantly British Friesian cows, the remainder crossbred with Jersey and Normande genetics. The split-calving herd is joined for two cycles of artificial insemination followed by bulls purchased from Solney British Friesian Stud at Cloverlea.

Depending on their size, heifers are joined to Jersey or Friesian bulls. The aim is to have 50 per cent of the herd calving from January 20 and the remainder from August 10.

The four children — Xavier, Aden, Rohanna and Logan — raise some Jersey-cross heifers to sell at point-of-calving. Mrs Mills raises the Friesian heifers for the herd.

The dryland farm at Perry Bridge is used to grow-out steers to two year olds. This farm has the capacity to graze 400 steers, the self-replacement heifers and an 80-head Angus breeding herd.

For several decades now, they have sold their milk to Parmalat, now Lactalis Australia.

The past three years of drought in central Gippsland has seen them incur additional expenses, especially sourcing fodder and extra irrigation water, that has increased their debt level.

Fiona and Frank Mills have pushed their production systems hard in the past three years of drought. It has paid off, with the farms bouncing back with rain to supplement irrigation.

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GIPPSLAND REGION // 5 “The extra cost of drought was $250 000, against the milk price,” Mr Mills said.

“But your costs are exponentially higher because you’ve got to look after the cows. We chased silage so we had the production volume.”

In the 2018–19 financial year, production dropped 20 per cent across the farms.

Last season, Mr and Mrs Mills sold some of their heifers into the export market and sold older cows out of the milking herds.

“We made the decision to dry-off cows that hit a lower production target of 12 litres/day,” Mrs Mills said.

“We sold some that were in-calf, we sold three-teaters, those with mastitis and cows with black feet.”

“It was a good chopper price, so we got rid of anything underperforming. We also sold 60 heifers, 180 kg, to the export market, for $1600 each,” Mr Mills said.

Bringing the herd down to 520 milkers, including first-calving heifers, helped cut their grain feed bill — they reduced the grain ration by half, to 5 kg/cow/day for the remaining milking cows.

They also ran the two milking herds as one for grazing and milking purposes.

“We did this because we put all the heifers on the other farm, to save on feed,” Mrs Mills said.

Without enough pasture at the Perry Bridge farm, most steers were sold as five-day-old calves. A mixed-age group of 120 steers last year were being fed rye-grass silage and straw bales every second day.

Mr and Mrs Mills invested in additional irrigation water on the dairy farms.

Production is driven by utilising runoff

$21,364

through a series of drains connected to a 30 Ml lagoon, where the water is re-used on 202 ha of pasture through three pivot sprays and flood irrigation.

They use a 389 Ml licence to pump water from the nearby Latrobe River into the lagoon, yearround, as well as accessing 300 Ml of drain water through CG Number Two Nambrok.

This water is used to irrigate, through the pivot sprays, 86 ha of the farm for cropping country, which is turned into chopped silage to be mixed with straw in the feeder wagon.

Soils are a mix of red sandy loam “that responds well to irrigation” and grey sandy loam “that responds well to fertiliser and irrigation,” Mrs Mills said.

Deep into the drought, they were feeding out nine-year-old silage from the bunkers in winter last year.

“It was perfect all the way to the top. By the end of August last year, we’d fed out our two years of drought reserve,” Mr Mills said.

Last year, they bought 800 Ml extra irrigation water in March and April, released out of Blue Rock Dam, to combat summer heatwaves, a short autumn and the ongoing drought.

Buying 200 Ml cost them more than three times the normal rate and it was used within three weeks, irrigating pasture for the milking herds. Pushing pasture growth on the irrigated country cost an extra 30 per cent in fertiliser.

But this season, with kinder weather and improved prices, is a turnaround in business.

In January, they spent $160 000 on 1100 straw bales and pit silage “to get us through”.

They hardly touched it because rain in February started turning the business around.

Drains across the farm help re-use irrigation water.

Already this year, Mr Mills is building up the drought reserve. Two months ago, he sowed 50 ha of new pasture and wheat country at Kilmany to graze over winter and cut for silage.

“If we get more rain, we’ll cut for hay too,” he said.

He sowed 120 ha of new pasture at Perry Bridge, to cut for silage and then grow again for hay.

Last month he harvested 25 ha of irrigated maize as silage and recently cultivated and sowed that country to annual rye-grass, which will also be harvested as silage.

Culling older cows in the past couple of years has opened the way for the retained heifers to move into the herd this season, building numbers to 550-plus.

“We have plenty of young stock coming into the herd in the spring,” Mr Mills said.

They have split the herd again, milking out of both dairies, which has brought their costs down.

They took up a new lease on a dryland turnout block 4 km from the home dairy farm, where 140 heifers and 35 steers graze.

The Perry Bridge farm has grown pasture since February and is now stocked with 40 autumn-drop steers, 150 spring calves, 120 joined Friesian heifers and the 80 Angus cows.

“We only just started feeding silage to the milking herd in late May,” Mr Mills said.

“We can spread the herd and young stock out more.

“We have more scope to grow silage and get a bit of drought reserve built up again. We can rear the steers to be bigger.

“We’ve got moisture in the ground now.”

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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

8 // GIPPSLAND REGION

Juggling many different jobs SOPHIE BALDWIN

HOME SCHOOLING her three children — Zoe,

14, Katie, 11, and Josh, 9 — was just something else Gippsland dairy farmer Sarah O’Brien has had to learn to fit into her busy farming schedule.

Like many others across the country, Sarah and her husband Mike have had to juggle life on the farm educating their children, and it has been a rewarding and challenging situation.

The two youngest attend a small country school while Zoe attends a private school.

“The teachers have been really good and there has been a lot of support from both schools for our three kids,” Sarah said.

“Zoe has been independently learning and if she gets stuck with maths and science, we have been able to Google our way around it.

“I found the work was a bit too easy for Josh and with the school’s guidance he was moved from Grade 3 to Grade 4 work and that has helped challenge him — initially he was zooming through his work and now it takes him a little bit longer.”

Sarah was amazed by the technical knowledge of her children, who know their way around computers, programs and uploading photos and documents very well.

Both her daughters are avid dancers and they have been completing online dance classes through Zoom, while Josh has been continuing taekwondo lessons.

“We have to learn to be flexible and Mike and I make a pretty good team,” Sarah said.

“We have been able to share the load — I was ill at the beginning of home schooling and Mike did a great job of settling the kids into home schooling when I couldn’t.

“Everyone in our farm team have been flexible with me not being so readily available with home schooling.

“Also staff have been fantastic settling into new hygiene and work practices we’ve adopted through COVID-19.”

Sarah was grateful she did not have to juggle home schooling with calving cows.

“Our herd is spring-calving, which gets under way August 1. I would hate to think how difficult

Mike and Sarah O’Brien and their children: Zoe, 14, Katie, 11, and Josh, 9

it would be if we had to do both; it certainly would have been a lot more hectic.”

Sarah and Mike sharefarm with Mark Wilms and Andrew Balfour at Denison, in the Macalister Irrigation District.

They moved to Gippsland in 2007 after the drought made progressing in the industry more difficult in northern Victoria.

“I wasn’t born into farming; I married a dairy farmer and had previously worked in management and in community welfare,” Sarah said.

She has now added milking, calf rearing, book work and mothering three children to her list of roles.

“When we first moved to Gippsland we worked on the Macalister Demonstration Farm

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GIPPSLAND REGION // 9 but after five years we had progressed as far as we could and we were looking for another challenge.”

Sarah said the opportunity to move into sharefarming at Denison was a decision they didn’t take lightly, first moving into a farm management role to see if all partners were a good fit.

“Often sharefarmers fall out of the industry because of breakdown in farmer/owner working relationships, sometimes with one trying to take advantage of the other, or expectations not being met, but honestly we couldn’t have found a better partnership.”

She said open communication, common goal setting and support from farm owners were key to the success of their partnership.

“The owners are progressive, always fair and we seem to have the same ideas and goals.”

The O’Briens own stock, machinery and a turnout block that’s used within the whole farm business, which supports the dairy farm platform. While they wouldn’t rule out one day owning their own farm, they are currently happy

where they are.

“Who knows what opportunities will pop up in the future; we work well with the owners and are happy with the share we currently have,” Sarah said.

“As part of our arrangement, our farm consultant runs his eyes over the books at the end of every financial year to make sure the cost base and profit base is fair and progressive for everyone.”

Sarah said the adoption of online learning by Dairy Australia had also been beneficial.

“GippsDairy staff have had great communication with us over the past few months keeping us informed of learning opportunities occurring online.

“And the benefit is there is nowhere near as much racing around getting all the morning jobs done and trying to get to a course on time.

“I can sit down at my desk with a coffee and I am ready for a webinar or whatever happens to be online.

“And I find it even more exciting for our Industry, as new people are tapping into this resource — I really hope it continues in the future, there’s definitely a place for online learning in farming.”

Sharefarmers Sarah and Mike O’Brien own stock, machinery and a run-off block, which are all used in the day-to-day operation of the farm.

Home schooling for farm kids Josh and Katie.

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DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

10 // GIPPSLAND REGION

Upskilling Victoria’s dairy workforce

The Dairy Farm Induction Program will provide training for job seekers to fill roles in the dairy industry.

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farmers looking for workers will receive specific training as part of the new Dairy Farm Induction Program.

The $715 000 program run by Dairy Australia and backed by the Victorian Government will help job seekers rapidly upskill and provide employers with training to induct new workers into their farm business.

Dairy Australia managing director David Nation said the program would fast track the dairy industry’s ability to upskill new workers and help make training more accessible.

"It is needed now to support the production of high-quality dairy products through the pandemic and to grow one of Victoria’s industry success stories," Mr Nation said.

“The need to find new workers to meet labour gaps in agriculture has thankfully been less than anticipated due to the strong position of our ag sector — but the effects of this pandemic will still be felt for a long time to come."

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The program is part of the $50 million Agriculture Workforce Plan which seeks to provide job-ready workers to meet labour demands.

As part of the Dairy Farm Induction Program, an online learning package will be offered to help job seekers understand the culture of the workplace and important day-to-day tasks, such as machinery operation and handling stock.

Consultants will also be available to support farmers by providing training support on their farms for a smooth worker induction.

Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes said the program would help Victoria remain the dairy heartland of Australia.

“The need to find new workers to meet labour gaps in agriculture has thankfully been less than anticipated due to the strong position of our ag sector — but the effects of this pandemic will still be felt for a long time to come," Ms Symes said.

She said the Victorian Government was working closely with the state’s agricultural sector to ensure its crucial supply chains could continue during the coronavirus pandemic.

DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

GIPPSLAND REGION // 11

GippsDairy adopts new learning platform ONE THING COVID-19 has taught us is farm-

ing life doesn’t stop for anything, not even a global pandemic.

GippsDairy and Dairy Australia have been on the front foot adapting to change and ensuring information continues to get through to the dairy community, implementing several changes which have been key to this delivery.

According to regional extension officer Libby Heard, the changes have been positive and well received.

Changes have included taking discussion groups and Focus Farm support groups to online meeting platform Zoom and using drone video footage for farm walks.

“We had a Service Provider Update webinar attended by 220 Victorian service providers, and one of the presenters — John Droppert — conducted his presentation from

the tractor cab,” Ms Heard said.

The Women in Dairy group has also benefited from Zoom, discussing the juggle of managing a farm while children are being home-schooled.

“Upcoming WID meetings will include HR protocols, new industrial manslaughter laws, mental health on-farm and managing wet soils, which will also be delivered online,” Ms Heard said.

GippsDairy will also be turning a number of its key programs into a blended online mode to complement its face-to-face programs when the lockdown is over.

“This will be beneficial not only during the COVID-19 challenge but also long term as it gives farmers an option to learn in a different way without going off farm, which for some farmers suits them at certain times of the year.

“The blended model will allow farmers to work through activities and content online at their own pace and then have regular tutorial sessions to consolidate information and to discuss further.”

Online programs include: Milking and Mastitis Management: designed for new farm employees to help get them up to speed with ways to reduce mastitis risk during milking; Farm Business Fundamentals: designed for farmers who are ready to start looking at management and taking control of the farm finances. The program includes getting organised, using software programs, introducing the standard chart of accounts as well as understanding cash flow and budgets; Our Farm Our Plan: helps equip farmers to clarify long-term goals and identify actions

needed to manage uncertainty and risk.

Dairy farmer Sarah O’Brien said online learning had been invaluable and as a levy payer she would love to see it continue.

“I have participated in a number of programs in the past and I am a big believer in upskilling. Some of the adaptations we have made during COVID-19 have allowed me to continue my learning with the online programs and discussion groups, whilst juggling the farm and home schooling. It is exciting to think how we can use online learning post-COVID-19 to complement our face-to-face groups.”

Ms O’Brien said logging into a webinar and finding the required information straight away had been extremely beneficial, and participating with a coffee from the comfort of home had also saved a lot of running around and proven to be a great time saver.

DAIRY NEWS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2020

12 // GIPPSLAND REGION

June reminders

Rye-grass leaf appearance rate

14-20 days per leaf on irrigated and non-irrigated pastures.

Pastures and feeding

Area of farm to graze today

1/30th to 1/60th of grazing area in 24 hours.

Recommended pre-grazing decisions

Graze pasture with current growth rates and soil moisture conditions in mind.

Recommended post-grazing decision

4–6cm of residual pasture between the clumps is ideal.

Average daily pasture growth rate

15 to 25kg DM/ha/day depending on soil moisture, nitrogen use, soil temperature and sunlight hours.

Seasonal management tasks

Consider fodder on hand and declining growth rates to determine feed gap through winter.

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Use nitrogen and pasture management to make sure you have enough pasture in front of your cows to feed them well through July and August or create a wedge of pasture for calving cows.

If soils have a history of low levels of available sulphur it may be worth including some sulphur with nitrogen applications in cold soil conditions.

Now that most broad-leafed weeds, like capeweed and erodium, have struck, control them with appropriate herbicides before they grow too large.

If your farm has very wet soils, consider using on-off grazing and standoff areas such as feed pads and dairy yards to reduce the impact of pugging to pastures.

If conditions are dry, look to create a feed budget and determine if more fodder needs to be bought in.

Protect pasture residuals by not overgrazing. This will cause pasture regrowth and persistence to be significantly reduced.

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Cow health ■

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Drying cows off is an important part of animal health and needs to be planned and completed well to ensure a successful lactation in the following season. For more information refer to the Dairy Australia website www.dairyaustralia.com.au and search ‘mastitis’.

Calculate the cost of supplementary feed over income to determine when a cow should be dried off. Keep in mind, there are

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additional costs other than feed, however supplementary feeds are a high percentage of this cost. If a cow is not producing enough to continue milking, consider what feed is available for dry cows that will not cause dramatic loss in body condition.

Plan your transition diet for springing cows.

The aim is to ensure the cow’s energy and protein requirements are met and introduce grain to the diet if it is required.

A properly formulated lead feed ration or the use of anionic salts in the water troughs should be considered to assist in prevention of milk fever. Even a low level of milk fever in the herd has many flow-on effects including calf losses during calving, retained foetal membrane and calving paralysis. Learn more at www.dairyaustralia.com.au in the feeding and nutrition section.

Keep in mind your calving paddocks would be best if they are sheltered and on a welldrained soil type. Change the paddock when it becomes muddy or dirty with manure to avoid mastitis.

Removing cows with chronic mastitis infections reduces the bacterial challenge to other unaffected cows and helps to protect the herd. Refer to your local vet for specific advice or the Dairy Australia website www.dairyaustralia.com.au for more information; look under ‘animal management’.

Monitor the dairy herd for lameness and treat promptly. For more information about treatment and prevention of lameness visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au and look under

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Aim to grow as much pasture as possible while keeping costs under control. The use of nitrogen and gibberellic acid can increase DM yield, and when combined with good grazing management can increase available pasture to cows. However, these inputs come at a cost and their effectiveness varies depending on seasonal conditions.

If you have not sprayed your broadleaf weeds, do so at the first opportunity; this allows denser, better producing pasture for the rest of the year.

If you are highly stocked, you will need a bigger wedge of pasture for calving cows.

Too much pasture in early spring may result in lower quality pastures with limited silage cutting options if it becomes too wet.

Prevent nitrate poisoning when grazing rye-grass pastures, particularly those containing capeweed or marshmallow, by avoiding grazing within 21 days of nitrogen application and by including other lownitrate feeds such as silage or grain in the diet while grazing these pastures.

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Calves/heifers ■

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Calf losses are very expensive. Having a good, planned system for calf rearing is very important.

Prevent disease by ensuring that all calves receive good quality colostrum. Use a Brix refractometer to test colostrum quality — target a reading >22.

Disinfect calf pens on a regular basis,

including rails and bedding.

Ensure calves have a good supply of good quality, clean water, fibre and pellets.

Develop an easy-to-follow and affordable program that works for heifer rearing including dehorning, vaccinations, drenching and feeding for well developed, healthy heifers that will stay in the herd for a long time. Refer to Rearing Healthy Calves for more information or talk to your vet.

Cows ■

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Deaths of cows or losses in production are very costly and can be avoided.

Normally freshly calved heifers and young cows are susceptible to acidosis, particularly where feeding high levels of starch-based grains. To successfully manage this, make sure the diet is well balanced for crude protein and NDF and that you have the grain well buffered and have offered enough effective fibre in the diet.

Freshly calved cows are susceptible to milk fever, which may show up sub-clinically as retained foetal membrane or paralysis at calving. To manage this, plan your transition feeding to minimise the risk of metabolic disorders in fresh or calving cows; have a plan for action when cows present with difficult calvings or a metabolic disorder; ensure newly calved cows are getting enough calcium and magnesium in their diet. For more information go to www.dairyaustralia.com.au Make sure your calving area is clean

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Replacement heifers/calves

July reminders Pastures and grazing

Financial

‘dairy animal welfare’, ‘cow welfare’ and ‘reducing lameness’.

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Feeding calves and young stock to reach target growth rates is important for future production and longevity in the milking herd.

Calf rearing plans are important and should be made to ensure the highest possible rate of survival and healthy growth. For more information on calf rearing refer to www.dairyaustralia.com.au Young stock should be regularly monitored to ensure growth targets will be met. This may mean the young stock need to be fed supplements at certain times of the season.

For more information visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au

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Rye-grass leaf appearance rate

15 to 20 days per leaf.

Area of farm to graze today

1/45th to 1/60th of grazing area in 24 hours.

Average daily pasture growth rate

10 to 25 kg DM/ha/day.

Recommended pre-grazing decisions for all stock

Aim for two- to three-leaf pastures to graze, prior to canopy closure.

Recommended post-grazing decision for milkers and young stock

To maximise pasture production, try not to graze pastures lower than 4cm to 6cm between clumps.

Seasonal management tasks

Be flexible with pasture area allocation.

Consider options such as on/off grazing and standoff areas which aim to minimise treading damage while accessing available pasture.

enough for cows to calve without excessive contamination of teats, to avoid mastitis problems.

If poor track surfaces are causing lameness and foot problems, consider adding sawdust, wood chips, even hay (e.g. at the lead in/ lead out from the dairy shed). The use of foot mats on the walk into the dairy in conjunction with copper sulphate can be an effective solution to foot soreness in cows.

Dairy shed and machinery ■

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If using staff, plan rosters to ensure you can get through the spring calving and harvest without them being too exhausted to pay attention to detail. Ensure you are across your legal requirements as an employer or employee; visit www.thepeopleindairy. com.au

When the cows are dry or you have a reduced number of milkers, take the opportunity to carry out your annual shed maintenance tasks, e.g. check milking machine function and replace rubber-ware.

Carry out preventative maintenance on fixed and mobile plant.

Business

People ■

Budgets need to be monitored in order to be effective. Review costs and income for this year and understand what affected the budget this year.

Complete an annual budget for the 202021 year based off this year’s costs and next year's expected opening prices.

Once you have an opening milk price, predict your spring income over feed cost margins and milk price grain price ratios to have some targets to follow.

Keep track of cost of feeds into diet, and what cashflow is available to purchase fodder going forwards.

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If you have not done it yet, do an annual budget to plan likely income and expenditure for the 2020–21 year.

Understand your system and the physical things on the farm you need to do very well to get the best financial results. Consider writing an annual farm plan and, if needed, book in a meeting with your accountant or a trusted adviser.