Lifestyle, animal health and business decisions led a dairy farming couple at Lardner to swap from twice-a-day to once-a-day milking.
Rob and Jenni Marshall have tried various business models during their dairy career.
They have employed apprentices and farm workers, they have worked as sole operators and used relief milkers and contractors, and they utilise a farm business consultant. They have employed an agistment manager for the day-by-day responsibilities of raising heifers to point-of-calving.
A contractor comes in to harvest the silage, because harvesting always coincides with calving and joining.
The management program is focused on utilising assets, relying on a pasture-based system, and reducing inputs and costs.
Lardner is a historically reliable heavy rainfall district, with 1000 mm of annual average rainfall. In most seasons, the district is well set up for dryland dairy farming.
The 121 ha Marshall dairy farm is on rolling land, with natural springs in some paddocks and a creek running through the flat country (although not available for irrigation).
The herd is milked in a 20-a-side herringbone dairy.
Calving begins in late July and, with a joining period that incorporates three weeks of artificial insemination followed by mop-up bulls, goes through into September.
Rob and Jenni quickly transitioned to once-a-day milking in August 2019. Rob said milk production was at least the same as twice-a-day milking, with a better lifestyle for the couple.
“We like milking and farming, but we wanted to make things easier for Jenni and myself,” he said.
“It takes the pressure off constantly having to be on the farm, and gives us a bit more time for ourselves at the end of the day.
“We were tied to the farm 24/7, and milking once a day gives us free time.”
He said morning milking took 20 per cent longer, to ensure the cow was properly milked out.
“Last year we milked an extra 30 cows and maintained the farm’s production the same as twice a day. This year, we would be level pegging with last year.
“We sold a portion (66) of the herd off as freshly-calved cows at the end of October.
“We will chopper out another 40 as the herd comes off their peak.
“We’re back to 60 ha with just the home farm. We look to have 270 cows being milked at our peak numbers, back to about 230 pre-Christmas.”
They joined 70 heifers this year, and next year expect to sell the later-calving and about-to-calve cows and heifers.
“If we can pick up another agistment opportunity, we’ll calve them down and then cull the herd; otherwise we’ll have to sell them as point-of-calvers,” Rob said.
Herd health and raised cell count
Transitioning the herd to once-a-day milking was relatively easy. The lease on the outblock expired, so the Marshalls were looking to reduce milking herd numbers to make room to raise self-replacement heifers on the farm.
“As the freshly-calved cows came into the herd, we started milking them OAD,” Rob said.
“We did talk to other OAD farmers in 2018, and we were a bit dubious about some of their stories about cell count.”
Cell count rose in a few milkers, which he attributes to buying in a dozen cows in-milk.
“They probably had mastitis when they arrived, and I think that’s what affected the herd.”
Cell count rose to over the 250,000 mark.
“I suppose our biggest problem was not putting enough teat spray on, before the cows left the dairy,” Rob said.
“The field staff did some testing and identified it wasn’t environmental.
“Then they took the milking with us and identified I was a little slack with applying the teat spray to the front quarters. Once we realised it was operator error, we remedied that.”
The Marshalls also altered their three-strikes policy to ‘two-strikes and you’re out’. Subsequently, they haven’t had a mastitis problem in 2020.
“We were in a happy position where a lease expired and we were reducing our numbers anyway, so that enabled us to cull those cows that persisted with mastitis,” Rob said.
“Overall, cell count is better. We’re milking 272 at the moment and 10 are dried-out.
“Our herd health has been very good. It has to be the best I’ve ever had it — a combination of OAD and a very good autumn.”
Grazing for production
In late spring and over summer, the focus is on giving the herd the maximum opportunity to graze. To support this, they have six paddocks of Chico variety chicory, in its second year of growth.
Rob moves the cows onto fresh pasture or a chicory crop in the late afternoon, to encourage the herd to graze as much grass as possible.
“I think it does make a difference,” he said.
“They settle down in the afternoon but if you move them they have another feed, and about two hours later they settle down for the night.”
Fodder production extended over last summer, for a total harvest pre- and post-Christmas of 150 rolls of silage from the home farm and 500 rolls from the agistment property.
They also harvested 85 rolls of hay off the farm, and bought-in their usual 80 tonne of barley hay, purchased for the calving period. Another 80 tonne of vetch is on order.
Now totally reliant on the farm for grazing and harvest, rather than the agistment block, Rob has increased and been a bit more vigilant about fertiliser application.
“We can push a little bit harder across the farm. We can apply more fertiliser.
“We got more benefit from concentrating fertiliser application on the lease block, when we had it.
“On the farm, there were corners we didn’t really concentrate on before, but all of the farm now needs to produce grass efficiently and effectively.”
He contracts a fertiliser company to broadcast three days ahead and four days behind the cows.
“At a rate of 150 kg of pasture booster which breaks down to giving us 80 kg urea.
“We’re probably playing around with more potassium and phosphorous than previously we would have used.”
He is working with an agronomist to help measure performance — grass growth, grazing pressure and bounce back post-grazing. Most of the paddocks are 2.4 ha.
“At this time of the year, the herd is consuming 3.2 kg/cow/day pasture, with 3 kg of barley grain/cow/day at milking.”
Feed intake is about trying to balance the cows’ diet and increase performance and improve condition, particularly around the joining period (just completed).
“We AI joined 252 cows in 22 days, without synchronising or PG, all natural,” Rob said.
“On the back of an exceptionally good autumn, our cows were in excellent condition, and that was an excellent outcome for us.
“The grain prices this year have also been favourable to making money out of feeding more grain.”