26 minute read
Effluent
from Dairy Farmer NZ March 2022
by AgriHQ
Forage bananas tick most boxes
By Hugh Stringleman
A Northland trial of growing bananas as a forage crop and use of green water, has shown better than expected results.
The use of bananas on dairy farms has shown strong potential as a new forage system and for taking up nutrients from effluent water discharge, especially potassium.
AgResearch has reported on the first 18 months of a trial of bananas on a Northland dairy farm, funded by the Our Land and Water Science Challenge.
The research team said no major red flags were identified in this short investigation.
More work is now needed on the understanding of nutrient cycling, including estimates of nitrogen loss and the grazing and harvesting strategies.
Most importantly, will cattle eat banana leaves and stems as a regular summer forage supplement to mitigate drought?
New Zealand cows do seem to like fruit and leaves of banana plants, as reports from overseas indicated they would.
Graeme and Carol Edwards have a 125ha effective farm at Opouteke, near Pakotai in mid-Northland, running 250 high BW cows on once-a-day (OAD) milking, System 2.
In late 2018, a small banana plot of 70 stems was planted alongside the effluent storage pond, which had been recently upgraded with a weeping wall.
The Misi Luki variety banana stems, now being grown around the north for their fruit, were irrigated by the pond green water with a drip delivery over the summer months.
Graeme and Carol’s son Paul Edwards, a dairy scientist, alerted AgResearch to the trial plot and suggested that measurements and basic management for forage be undertaken.
Graeme says the possibility of replacing or supplementing turnips with a nutritious green feed would address the drier and warmer summers.
It would also require less cultivation, lower soil carbon losses and reduce the risks of effluent irrigation.
Potentially just 4% of the farm planted in bananas could use all the green water, optimise effluent storage and avoid unconsented discharges and provide a large supplementary fodder source.
Grant Rennie, from AgResearch Ruakura, says banana plants grow quickly at the peak of summer and are relatively deep-rooted and drought tolerant.
The funded research measured the rate of growth and the quality of the existing plot, tested whether leaves and stems are nutritionally appropriate as cattle feed and if the plants can take up nutrients from green water.
The dry matter percentages of petioles and leaves and of stems, were measured at an average of 16.3% for petioles and leaves, with a standard deviation of 5%, and 8.3% for stems, deviation 1.3%.
Two groups of 15 plants were measured in a cutting trial, to see if cutting out large central stems would result in increased growth in the remaining stems.
They may also send up new stems and increase total growth in the plot.
The total number of stems in the cut group was similar to the uncut group, suggesting the cut plants only replaced the cut stems.
Cut stems that had not yet begun their reproductive cycle also regrew quickly from the centre between September and January.
Researcher Grant Rennie shows his cutting and nutritional trial of bananas as a fodder crop.
Future longevity of plants under cutting and/or grazing needs further investigation but the regrowth potential is 10 tonnes-plus of dry matter when planted at 1600 stems a hectare.
Tropical plantations of bananas in Queensland have annual fruit harvests of 30 tonnes or more, so there is room for more growth and production in subtropical Northland.
Samples were taken and tested for feed quality, which show banana plants are low in protein, much like maize or fodder beet, low in fibre and high in water soluble carbohydrate.
The weighted average metabolisable energy was estimated at 10.4 megajoules per kilogram of dry matter.
The digestibility at 64% is similar to various silages and the non-dietary fibre is encouragingly low.
Graeme says cows were happy eating the leaves but struggled with the stems, which may have to be cut into chunks to assist the cows.
Soil samples at four depths were taken to see how minerals were moving through the soil profile after a season of green water application.
Potassium was 20 at the surface level, reducing to 2 at the 30 to 45cm depth.
Total nitrogen began at 0.49% near the surface and fell to 0.20% at depth.
“Without being able to estimate a mineral mass balance (amount applied less amount taken up in plants) these results give some confidence that there is nothing unusual occurring”, the AgResearch report said.
“There doesn’t seem to be any unexpected accumulation of nitrogen or potassium but it warrants further investigation, particularly under harvesting or grazing where significant amounts of nutrients will be removed from the site.”
Two minor matters were flagged for more investigation – damage to the growing corn by toppling the plant during grazing and some pest damage at the base, probably by pūkekos. n
Green water from the effluent system is pumped to a trickle system for the bananas.
Northland dairy farmer Graeme Edwards has a small banana plot nourished by effluent water.
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When engine-driven pumps are best
By Michael Prestidge
Choosing the right pump for your effluent management is an important decision. After all, the pump plays a key role in the whole operation. If you’re wanting a mobile option, or you don’t have electricity running to the pond/ storage, then it narrows your choice to PTO or engine-driven pumps – so when are engine-driven pumps best? And what should you look for in an engine driven pump? PTO vs engine-driven
Both PTO and engine-driven pumps can be great mobile options for managing your effluent. Engine-driven pumps are most efficient for contractors and farmers who use them often and pump large volumes. Here’s why: • Having a dedicated engine is a good idea when it’s being used frequently, so it doesn’t tie up the tractor • There will be less transmission wear • There will be less depreciation on your tractor • The pump can be moved from farm-tofarm towing it with a ute • Engine-driven pumps can be automated, so you can monitor them while getting on with other jobs.
If you only have one or two farms and are not pumping large volumes, a PTO pump is likely to be more economical.
What to look for in an engine-driven pump
Make sure you’re getting an effluent pump designed to handle thicker slurries.
There are a lot of engine-driven pumps which are only designed for water. These transfer pumps have large engines with large inlet and outlet pipes, so it’s easy to think these would handle effluent.
However, transfer pumps are designed to shift large volumes of water over a short distance, where effluent pumps need to handle thicker slurries and solids travelling over a longer distance.
Bigger is not always better
Don’t judge a pump by its horsepower. Like the point above, not all engine-driven pumps are designed for the same purpose. Just because a pump has a high horsepower, it doesn’t mean it will do the job better.
The effectiveness and efficiency of the pump will come from the pump design coupled with how it integrates with your effluent system.
For best results, match it with your pipes and irrigator
The pump is just one component of an effluent system, so it stands to reason the pump can’t perform at its best if the pipes and irrigator don’t match.
In fact, attaching a powerful pump to pipes that are too small to handle the volume and pressure being pumped through can have catastrophic consequences. No one wants a burst pipe, and it’s just a waste of energy for the pump.
Self-priming options
A pump that self-primes will make the job a lot easier, so we’d recommend looking for engine-driven pumps with self-priming options.
Engine driven pumps are the most efficient for pumping large volumes of effluent.
Covered body
You’ll want to make sure the body of the engine is covered and lockable. Not only is it good to protect the engine from unnecessary damage, but it keeps the user safe and your asset secure.
Automation
There are often automation options available for engine-driven pumps. These allow you to control and monitor the pump from an app on your phone.
While this functionality might not be to everyone’s taste, it can be very useful for contractors – allowing you to monitor the pump running remotely while you get on with other jobs, or for operators wanting to work remotely while looking after staff.
A more simplified option is a remotecontrol diverter. This can work on PTO or engine-driven pumps allowing the operator to remotely switch valves via an app.
Soundproofing
Some engine pumps have options for soundproof enclosures. This can be a useful option when needing to operate close to neighbouring properties where noise could be an issue. n
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Michael Prestidge is a Nevada Effluent management specialist
Get ‘em low now
By Logan Bowler
Farmers should be starting to empty effluent ponds now to ensure they are easier to manage during autumn and winter.
Leaving the task of emptying your effluent ponds until later in the season is not the smartest of decisions for a few reasons.
Firstly, it is taking a risk that you need to take note of soil conditions becoming unsuitable for effluent application, secondly, dry soil conditions over the summer months will be impacting on pasture growth and the effluent in the ponds will be well-received by the pasture, and thirdly the nutrients in the effluent will have the opportunity of being well-utilised by pasture before conditions get wet and cold.
As with most things on-farm, good management is extremely important and the same applies to your effluent pond to ensure you always have adequate storage available when you need it most – it’s a task that requires constant attention.
Regardless of the time of year, we should always be taking advantage of good soil conditions to lower our FDE ponds. As an example, we had 192mm of rain in December 2021 on our dairy farm at Marton. If we had not focused on lowering our ponds as soon spring conditions allowed, we would have been struggling to cope.
Now is a good time to be pumping your effluent pond down as often as possible, while the warm weather ensures soil conditions are dry enough to mitigate the risk of run-off or leaching into waterways. The added bonus with irrigating your effluent this time of year is that it will help with pasture growth and reduce the amount of fertiliser you need to apply.
Aim to irrigate whenever weather and soil conditions are suitable to get your levels down before autumn and winter. If you haven’t started this job yet, then now’s the time to be thinking about it. I recommend making this a priority over the remainder of summer before wet weather limits your opportunity to do so. After all, we never know what autumn has in store for us. If it’s a wet one and you haven’t kept on top of emptying your effluent pond, you’ll be on the back foot heading into winter, risking the need to irrigate in less than favourable conditions.
Let’s look at the numbers
It seems to be commonplace that farmers think they have lots of time for this task, so what’s the rush? The rush is early autumn and winter rains can make the job quite difficult. The example below tries to put this into perspective.
A farmer with a 400-cow farm, with average effluent pump rates, would need about 30 days to empty a two millionlitre effluent pond (40m x 35m). However, this doesn’t include effluent continuing to be generated in the milking shed. If we factor that in, that’s another 1.2 million litres on the average farm, which when added to the 30 days now becomes 42 days of pumping.
Build in rainfall of 100mm over the 42 days preventing irrigation and adding another 0.25 million litres to the effluent pond and we’re up to 48 days. That’s seven weeks we need available to be safe. You can see how the situation can quickly escalate.
If that farmer left it until early March to start emptying their effluent pond, the process would take until mid/late April – and that’s only if they had the right weather conditions. If they waited until the beginning of April, the chances of getting their effluent pond empty before late autumn rains hit is extremely remote.
So, make emptying your pond a priority this summer so you’re prepared for whatever winter throws at you. n
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Logan Bowler is the owner of Agblution Solutions Ltd offering common sense, independent advice on effluent systems.
Irrigation at your fingertips
By Ross Nolly and Sonita Chandar
Effective effluent management is a sophisticated task that requires a well-designed system and processes in place that ensure effluent is collected and stored correctly.
Meeting environmental rules and regulations can be a major issue for dairy farmers, but many are now finding peace of mind with their effluent monitoring systems – even if they are on the other side of the world.
Matamata farmer Ryan Wilson has a HALO Farm Effluent Monitoring System installed on his dairy farm, which he can control from his cellphone at any time of the day or night.
“HALO is monitoring our milk, effluent and water. It measures how much effluent we’re putting on and where we’re putting it on. It’s also got movement sensors, so it knows if the irrigator has stopped moving,” Wilson says.
“I can turn the irrigator off and on from my phone from anywhere in the world, which is handy.
“We’ve had good labour savings because staff don’t have to go back to the cowshed to turn it off and on. They’re able to operate it from their phone, check to see if the irrigator is operating correctly and get on with the rest of their jobs.”
Another Waikato farmer, Rod McKinnon, who uses the system, says he has complete peace of mind that his effluent system was working as it should, even if he is away from the farm.
Several years ago, he and wife Sandra were holidaying in Egypt and while walking around the great pyramids, he pulled out his phone and was rewarded with a dirty look from Sandra.
After all, they hadn’t travelled thousands of miles from home for him to look at his screen.
But he wasn’t checking for messages or alerts on social media. He was in fact checking on how things were running back home on the farm.
“It was hot, dry and the pyramids were absolutely amazing,” McKinnon says.
“But back home I could see it was really wet and with just a couple of clicks of a button, I could see where the irrigator was and see exactly what was happening with the effluent system.”
He says he had complete peace of mind that nothing was going to go wrong – the spreader was not going to stop and pond in one place, or go crazy and dump an excessive amount of effluent on the paddock.
“I knew 100% that if anyone visited from the regional council, I could give them complete assurance of what was pumped and exactly where on any given day and down to the hour and know it was correct,” he says.
McKinnon says HALO monitoring gives them the ability to know what is going on, where it is going and how much.
“It doesn’t matter where in the world I am, I can still keep an eye on the entire operation through my cellphone,” he says.
“Parts of our farm are geo-fenced and monitored through HALO, which means the irrigator cannot operate on certain parts of the farm.”
An accurate and reliable effluent control and mapping system is important to protect farm waterways. Farmers can geo-fence low-lying areas or waterways to ensure they remain compliant.
Geo-fencing is a geographical boundary around the area where a travelling irrigator is allowed to operate. If the irrigator deviates outside the designated area, the system automatically shuts it down.
HALO Systems managing director HALO Systems managing director Josh White says most farm effluent systems are unique and the system is customisable to each farm’s individual requirements.
Waikato farmer Rod McKinnon says the HALO system gives him peace of mind his effluent system is working as it should.
Josh White says the effluent system incorporated with their geo-fencing and nitrogen mapping allows farmers to determine their paddock N loadings.
“We can GPS map the farm but if it’s already been mapped, the farmer can give us that shapefile, show us the designated area and we load it into our system. If they haven’t, we can work with them on that too,” White says.
“With GPS on an irrigator you can identify exactly where they are and how much effluent they have spread over a certain date range.”
If an incident occurs, such as ponding, a broken travelling irrigator or a split hose, the system stops, which prevents the farmer from being in breach of their consent.
A farmer’s need for an effluent control system is driven by compliance. Most farm effluent systems are unique and the system is customisable to each farm’s individual requirements.
“The command and control system not only monitors the effluent system, it has the ability to turn it off. It can be programmed to make decisions based on certain events that may occur. It’s fully scalable and not a “one-size-fits-all solution,” White says.
“It’s simple to use depending on the amount of control needed. You can have settings that turn on the travelling irrigator pump, or you can delve right down into it to view the graphs and other data.”
The system can provide labour savings because the system can be turned on or off from the irrigator. This is especially important if the effluent system does multiple runs a day.
The ability to track the amount of effluent that has been applied to a pasture and the annual grass yield results, enable farmers to determine the amount applied to the pasture and reduce fertiliser use.
“Farmers send their effluent samples off for testing and forward the results to us so we can do the calculations. Farmers often find that they can apply less effluent to a pasture, which enables them to spread it across other paddocks and save even more on fertiliser,” he says.
The system is fully expandable. If a farmer buys the neighbouring farm, installs a feedpad or increases the size of their herd it usually increases the amount of effluent.
When farmers install effluent management and control systems they often find that they can expand their irrigation platforms after discovering that they were applying more effluent than needed to some paddocks. Often they only need to add trace minerals to balance nutrients. “We’re working on the AI of the machine learning space. We’re a long way down the path of predictive analytics, which will enable us to make smarter decisions about when system failures may occur. For example, preempting pump failure because we’ve shown that its performance is dropping,” he explains.
“We have the data coming in and are and are looking at ways to package it and give it back to our farmers with more insights into what we predict may happen. Because you can guarantee when things break down, it’s on a Sunday afternoon or when you’re on holiday.” n
HALO monitoring systems can be operated via smartphone from anywhere in the world. A HALO above ground effluent storage tank.
Remote monitor and control your important farm infrastructure.
Keeping score
By Chris Balemi
As we move into a new season, you are no doubt at the point where you are checking your herd’s body condition scores (BCS), which contribute towards key decisions for your cows.
Body condition refers to the amount of subcutaneous body fat in the cow, otherwise known as energy reserve. By determining your cows’ BCS, you’re able to provide accurate feed requirements for the season ahead, regulate which cows to dry off, and gain insight into reproductive performance for the year ahead.
It is an important management tool for dairy cattle when it comes to maximising milk production and reproductive efficiency, while simultaneously reducing the incidence of metabolic and other peripartum diseases. The body condition score is evaluated on a range from one to five, with three and below considered under conditioned.
While the over-conditioning of cows (with a BCS of four and above) at the time of calving can often result in reduced feed intake and increased instances of peripartum issues, underconditioning cows (with a BCS of three or below) can result in lower peak milk and less milk for the entirety of their lactation.
Additionally as a rule of thumb, dairy cows should not lose more than one point from their BCS during early lactation, as this has been proven to reduce reproductive efficiency.
This April, farmers will be looking to dry off cows with a BCS of three-pointfive or lower, and plan for a strategic early dry off for light cows to ensure they can reach their calving targets.
The body condition scoring process is relatively straightforward. You can have a certified BCS assessor come to complete the process for you, however, it is also recommended that farmers are able to carry out BCS for themselves when needed. You can find resources online to test your BCS knowledge, as well as tips and tricks on how best to undertake body condition scoring amongst your herd.
To calibrate the difference in BCS of your cows, you will need to check approximately a dozen cows with a variety of body condition scores. This helps you to see and feel the difference between the cows prior to scoring out in the paddock. You will need to feel the amount of fat covering their various body points and record the difference between them. Depending on whether the cow has a full gut or not can conceal the visual of coverage, especially in places such as the ribs, so it is important to feel the amount of fat cover with your hands for a conclusive measurement.
For optimal results and to easily manage your herd, body condition scoring is recommended to be carried out three times per year. Here are some tips on what to look out for and how to calibrate a low to high body condition score. • Cow has prominent pin bones: their loin is sharp and ribs are sticking out • Cow visually looks conditioned: their pins well-fleshed and loin/ribs are not sharp • Cow has well-fleshed pins: has good covering over backbone and ribs.
Body condition score loss is mostly influenced by a cow’s genetics and their BCS at calving, as op-posed to their nutrition or milking frequency during this same period. Having said that, by strategically increasing a cow’s nutritional intake and reducing their milking frequency after calving can still have an effect on their BCS.
By managing these variables, you can help to adjust the point at which their BCS lowers, as well as the rate at which they then gain back units of their BCS after this point.
Most dairy cows are genetically inclined to produce milk at the cost of their own body reserves during the postcalving season.
A cow should ideally not lose more than one unit from their BCS from calving season through to mating season, with the goal to have the cows at a minimum body condition score of four units by the start of the planned mating season.
By strategically managing your cows’ BCS profile now, you will ensure their reproductive health is not at risk while their milk production is optimised. n
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One last word …
Things should be starting to get easier on the farm as we head towards the end of the season, but Mother Nature seems to have other ideas.
One farmer I spoke to in Taranaki reckons the early part of the season was good. Calving went well, good pasture growth and no extreme adverse weather.
I have been keeping an eye on growth rates in my region and let’s just say the grass was bolting away and crops that were sown in November and December were looking great and farmers were flat out making supplementary feed.
Then January arrived and with it, the hot dry weather, which saw many regions frizzle up and dry out. The grass stopped growing and those crops I had been watching stalled.
“We prayed and prayed for rain but it never came,” one farmer from Northland says.
They had to quit a large number of animals and all but dried off their herds.
“Our prayers were finally answered, but it was a bit extreme,” he says.
The arrival of the ex tropical cyclone delivered the much-needed and prayedfor rain, but in the end it was just too much, especially after a weekend of heavy rain in some parts the weekend prior, which also delivered some relief to other areas, including my region, where the grass greened up and those crops looked lively again.
West Coast farmers copped it worse than other regions and experienced flooding twice in a week.
One farmer told me that a good chunk of their farm was under water and when the floodwaters finally receded it was a mess, with trees and branches strewn over the farm. He says it is still drying out.
The Taranaki farmer who also experienced flooding twice initially said he shouldn’t complain as it was desperately needed. Although, the following week was a bit different and when I caught up with him, he asked me, “Can I complain now?”
“This half of the season has turned to rubbish, but at least the payout is still looking really good, so that’s a bright spot,” he says.
And not only is the payout looking like it will be record payment, the Global Dairy Trade is also performing exceptionally well, with four rises in a row.
Hopefully, as we head towards the end of the season, they continue rising.
Thank you to Alesha Jane from Maolla Farms in Ōpunake, Taranaki, for sending in this month’s pic of her girls after the rain. She is hoping there will be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Sonita
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Dairy Diary
March 2022
March 2 and 8 – Dairy Women’s Network
The Challenge of Change webinar. Resilience can have a huge impact on your personal and professional lives. Join us to learn four proven steps for building resilience and managing yourself in stressful situations. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events
March 2 – DairyNZ
Let’s Talk: Farm, Plantain & Horizons Field Day, Pahiatua Join us on farm with hosts Troy Hughes and Murray Holdaway. Sharemilker Troy, milks 435 cows for the Holdaways. Key goals of the business include maintaining an e cient and profi table system by focusing on utilising available feed, while reducing the environmental footprint of the operation. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
March 7-10 – Dairy Women’s Network
How to Build a Bloody Good Business webinar series. Strong and resilient dairy farming businesses are more important now than ever before. We are facing signifi cant change, and making sure our business can survive these changes and come out thriving is critical. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events
March 9-10 – FARMAX
Farmax Conference, Hamilton. The Farmax Conference provides a platform for thought and discussion around advancing New Zealand’s pastoral system into the future. Info at http://www.conference2021.farmax.co.nz/
March 9 – DairyNZ
Jersey Breeders Discussion Group, Waikato. Join us on-farm and fi nd out how everyone’s calving went, discuss rotation lengths and talk about how everyone has managed through the covid-19 lockdown. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
March 15 – DairyNZ
Let’s Talk: Farm, Plantain and Horizons Field Day, Dannevirke. Join us on-farm with Thomas and Jennifer Read. We’ll discuss their journey from 50:50 sharemilking to multiple farm ownership. We’ll also cover the latest news and what’s happening in the Tararua Plantain Project and how and why plantain can be considered as a viable environmental mitigation tool in a productive pasture system. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
March 22, 23 and 24 – DairyNZ
Wearable Cow Tech Field Day, Taranaki. A fi eld day for farmers in Taranaki thinking about investing in wearable technology for their herd. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
March 22, 23 and 24 – DairyNZ
Ag Emissions Pricing Feedback Roadshow, various dates and locations We want to hear from you to make sure the Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership – He Waka Eke Noa is developing the best possible emissions pricing framework, before recommendations are taken to the Minister for Climate Change and Minister for Agriculture in April 2022. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
March – New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards
Regional awards dinner, various dates and locations. Join us to celebrate the best of each region’s share farmers, dairy managers and dairy trainees, with the winners of each category progressing to the national fi nals in May 2022. Info at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz/
Regional winner’s fi eldays to be held on-farm. This is an opportunity to hear the 2022 regional share farmer, dairy manager and dairy trainee of the year winners speak. Venue TBC after the winners were announced. Info at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz/
A note from the editor:
With New Zealand currently operating under the red setting in the covid-19 Protections Framework, many events have been cancelled or shifted online. Please check individual websites for any event changes and requirements.
