autumn calving has brought that we didn’t even think of. The way we manage pasture has changed. We can now graze grass at the optimum time rather than saving it up. Before autumn calving, we did a lot more summer cropping with chicory, but it put pressure on the system and put holes in the feed wedge by having to take paddocks out of rotation for cropping. Now we’re a lot more flexible and less pressured,” he says. Previously, during summer, they would have to sit on a 30-day round and couldn’t fully feed the cows without a lot of supplements. Now they can push the rounds out to 40-45 days because they don’t have that pressure of a full milking herd. It’s helped with pasture survivability and been a really positive spin-off for the farm and cows. The change has meant his designated calving paddocks have changed. Under a spring calving system, he would save the drier land for calving, which also happened to be his best-producing winter and spring land. “Now we are able to calve on the wetter
land, which means I can utilise the better paddocks. While I haven’t measured it properly, it seems to allow us to grow more feed,” he says. The key to the success of the switch has been in the existing infrastructure. A 300-cow feedpad and large effluent storage capacity meant that milking over the winter was logistically and environmentally doable for them.
“I wouldn’t recommend doing autumn calving without that infrastructure in place.” Person’s Name “I wouldn’t recommend doing autumn calving without that infrastructure in place. The biggest thing was knowing we had the effluent storage capacity to cope with winter milking. The last thing I wanted to do was create adverse
Northland farmer Andrew Booth switched his farming system to autumn calving four years and ago and says it is the best thing he has done.
environmental effects, so that was something I was very mindful of when we first made the decision,” he says. With a small winter milk contract, financially, they get a bit more for their milk, but he says that was never a driving factor for the change. It’s always been about finding a way of working the farm that suited the land and the cows. Angus bulls are being used over the heifers to enable them to sell calves into the beef market and has found a buyer to take all their black AB bulls, a relationship he hopes will continue in future years. A few years into autumn calving, they are thinking about implementing a OAD policy from December 1. With the bulk of the season’s production already in the bag by then, change to any loss of production should be minimal. It gives him and his team flexibility over the holiday period, it also takes the pressure off the cows through the heat of the summer. Booth could talk about the pros of autumn calving for his farm till the cows come home – it’s been a brilliant fit for the farm and the cows – and while his transition was slightly unconventional, it worked in his favour. While the lameness issues from cows walking to shed in winter is an issue that weighs on him a bit, he has plans to revamp the laneways to make it easier on the cows and says that full-season OAD isn’t off the cards either. “There haven’t been a lot of drawbacks to it for us. We have increased farm production with the same inputs and 40 less cows as we did in a spring calving system and have had all these added benefits. The infrastructure piece of the puzzle is huge though, and something I think farmers really need to think about before making the switch,” he says. n
AGRICULTURE IS OUR CULTURE It’s the Pu lse of the nation Join our growing community of #agripreneurs. Follow Pulse on instagram.com/pulseagri Instagram
The official newsletter of the agripreneur.community
