GLOBAL DAIRY AUSTRALIA
South West Victorian dairy farmers Con and Michelle Glennen.
Season shines as Victorian dairy farmers cut costs Rains have brought a big turnaround for many Australian farmers, with exceptional spring growth. Simone Smith reports.
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t was an overcast day in October. Rain was due at Con and Michelle Glennen’s dairy farm within days. Normally, silage preparation would be in full swing. Walking through the paddock towards the milkers, it’s clear the herd will be grazing these paddocks for at least another month. “I can’t remember a season this good in my lifetime,” Con said. “I’ve been on this farm since 1992 and farming longer than that. I can’t remember it being this good.” “We had a really good summer, good autumn start, and we are wet now and it is the start of spring. We went through
winter with heaps of feed, we’ve had a great run.” This stark improvement in seasonal conditions isn’t unique to Victoria’s south-west region and in some areas the turnaround has been more profound. Throughout Victoria, which last season produced 63% of the nation’s milk, dairy farmers are making the most of the spring flush and conserving feed to help buffer drier seasons. In some cases, especially in Gippsland – the eastern region of Victoria – some paddocks of ryegrass were going to head with their roots and stems submerged in water.
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2020
Rethink cups on If you could cut cupping times by 1-2 seconds per cow, how much time would you save during milking? For Waikato dairy farmer Dries Verrycken who’s milking 500 cows, he can now save around 16 minutes at cups-on alone thanks to the new iCR+ with EasyStart simple lift or pull vacuum activation. That’s over 30 minutes a day and over 3.5 hours a week in this 50-bail iFLOW rotary. Meaning his cows can be back out to pasture quicker, and he can get on with other jobs. Time to rethink how you put the cups on? We can help. gea.com/new-zealand Driving dairy efficiencies? We can help.
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