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This season’s production got off to a slow start due to the inclement spring weather, but has now caught up with last season’s figures. They target 105,000kg milk solids and average 477kg MS per cow. The cows average 470 -500kg in bodyweight and they aim for them to produce their bodyweight in MS.

Being in such close proximity to the mountain means that the farm has both rocky paddocks and some quite wet areas. This makes pasture management a tricky balancing act during the wetter seasons. All of the swampy areas are fenced off.

The wet weather and ground conditions were the catalyst to build a feedpad in 2017.

“We once fed PKE from trolleys in the paddock, but we were making a lot of mess and often got the tractor stuck.

One day I looked at the farm on Google Earth and saw all of those bare spots and it didn’t look good,” Brad says.

“The pugging was losing us a lot of pasture too, so we decided to build the feedpad. It’s probably the best thing we’ve done here. The timing was perfect, because the following spring was incredibly wet; a real nightmare. We’d never had it that wet before.”

They initially used trolleys on the feedpad, and were surprised how much feed the cows spilt onto the concrete. They then realised just how much the cows had been wasting in the paddock when they flicked it out of the troughs and trod it into the ground.

A cow barn is next on the to-do list, but they’re still contemplating what type to build. They say a composting bedding home would be the best choice, and could be sited beside the feedpad.

The farm is subject to strong winds, so whatever home is chosen it must be able to withstand them. The farm does dry out at times, but generally it’s relatively summer safe.

“When we first came here we had to learn what areas were too wet to have the cows on at certain times of the year. But you don’t learn that until you’ve been here a year or two,” Brad says.

“The fertiliser trucks were always getting stuck and we often had to pull them out. So we began applying it ourselves with the tractor, so we could do it when the weather was suitable and avoid the wetter areas,” Penny says.

Only a couple of paddocks are cropped for silage, which amounts to 50-100 bales. A further 100 are made at the runoff. The bales from the runoff are either brought back to the farm to be fed out during summer or early spring, or they stay at the runoff to be fed to the stock there.

“We buy 100-120 hay bales to feed out over winter. We prefer to buy it because we’ve found that if we make hay up here it always tends to be later into summer, and it takes a long time for the grass to come back,” Brad says.

“At the moment we’re feeding maize silage daily on the feedpad after afternoon milking. We hold them until after milking to give them an equal chance at the feed. They get 7kg of maize silage each.”

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About 300t of supplement is fed through the in-shed feed system. It comprises 4.5kg per cow daily of mostly PKE. But over the past two years they’ve been adding 15% tapioca and 5% minerals to the mix.

They try to keep feed costs as low as possible, but over the past few years they’ve begun buying maize silage to feed during autumn.

The farm is split into 26 paddocks and 24-hour grazing is used for most of the season.

“We get down to 23-24 day rounds when we take paddocks out for silage. But we mostly stay on the same rotation until April 1 when we go out to a 40-day round, and on May 1 we use a 55-day round. We do grow some grass through winter, but nothing like they do down by the coast,” Brad says.

Their production per hectare was higher compared to most farms as their supplementary feed costs were much higher. But they’ve demonstrated that it works for them. They know that if they want to achieve their targets they need the 300t of in-shed feed and 100t of spring maize silage.

“We don’t do any cropping, so don’t need the machinery or have to spend time putting it in. Topping is another time-consuming job and expense. We used to top the farm, but now have the philosophy that we’re better off eating that grass. We just keep a few more cows and top up with supplements when needed,” Brad says.

If a drought does occur, the coastal farms tend to dry out about three weeks earlier, so Brad and Penny get a threeweek heads-up to get prepared. If there’s plenty of leftover silage they only buy enough hay to fill the gap.

“We don’t do any re-grassing, but do undersow areas that were pugged during winter. If a pasture is growing well we don’t see any need to re-grass it, which is another cost saving,” Brad says.

“It’s pretty difficult getting new pasture established up here and contractors aren’t keen to work in stony paddocks.”

Penny says, “A couple of years ago we had a severe drought, so we just bought extra feed. Instead of drying off, we continued milking and had our best season.

“We never made any money, but it paid for the feed that we would’ve needed anyway. You still have to feed your cows and set yourself up for the upcoming season.”

The herd on the feedpad in the early evening after afternoon milking. They are fed maize silage on the feedpad.

Milking is pretty easy when they both milk. The cows are usually in and out in 50 minutes and they’re finished milking in one and a half hours – an hour less than their previous farm. Two hours extra work per day for two people quickly adds up, and freeing those extra hours was equivalent to employing a part-time worker.

Calving begins on July 23. They calve 230 predominately Friesian crossbred cows, and milk 220.

“We’ve got a few bigger cows but they have trouble backing off the platform. We don’t really want big cows on our wet paddocks. The smaller cows are hardy too,” Brad says.

They keep 50 replacement heifers and rear 20-40 beef calves. The heifer calves go to the runoff in November and the beef calves in December. The beef calves provide diversification, help with cash flow, and utilise the runoff to its full potential.

New-born calves are collected daily and brought to a calf shed close to the cowshed. When they’re four days old they’re moved to a bigger shed with woodchip bedding.

The calves are fed colostrum twice daily and vat milk when the colostrum runs out. The calves aren’t given meal or hay until they’re three to four weeks old.

“We keep them in the shed until they’re bigger. They’re weaned when they’re around 100kg, and for the first ones that’s usually around the start of AI in October. But we can be still feeding beef calves right through until Christmas,” Penny says.

Mating begins on October 17 and comprises 4-5 weeks of AI before finishing off with bulls. Two teams of two bulls are used, one Angus and one yearling Jersey. The bulls are rotated

The every two days for five weeks. Jersey bulls are run with the heifers.

“We’ve used short-gestation bulls in the past, but over the last few years our in-calf rates have increased, so we don’t have many late cows,” Brad says.

“My son and I have a contest where we each pick our bulls and compare our choices. The last couple of years we’ve picked the same bulls.”

They prefer a Friesian-type, 450-470kg cow.

To be selected, their bulls must be more than 80% black, have good temperament, milking speed, good traits other than production, no negative traits and be easy calving. They’re always high BW bulls, but they don’t specifically seek out high BW and have never really focused on it.