South Gippsland dairy farmer Douglas Hanks completed the build on a new fertiliser shed in March, to enable him to rationalise his business expenses and improve pasture management.
It is another example of how this dairy farmer at Stony Creek value-adds to his business.
The 440-cow, split-calving herd is milked off a 217-hectare platform.
The 40-unit rotary dairy milks about 200 cows/hour, set up as a one-person shed.
Five days a week, the full-time farm manager, Matthew Vanboven, milks the cows. On the weekend, Douglas does the milking.
Part-time workers are Douglas’ son Josh, who feeds out and spreads fertiliser; and Douglas’ partner Twila Tedford, who works in the dairy and feeds the calves on the weekend.
“Matthew and I mostly do the farm work,” Douglas said.
“Josh also manages a bullock farm where we fatten 100 beef and Friesian steers every year.”
All heifers calved down are raised on the property for 12 months, then go across the road to another 113 ha dryland farm, where they are joined.
They run alongside young steers — before they are moved to the bullock farm — and a growing beef herd. The dairy heifers return to the home farm on point-of-calving.
The closed herd — 90 per cent Friesian, with 12 Jerseys — produces 7000 litres/cow, 560-580 kg MS/cow, on average, and is split-calving: 180 cows calve down in autumn, and 220 cows in late winter.
“We’ve pushed back from July 10 to the end of July for this year, to try and avoid pugging and birth issues in wet weather in winter,” Douglas said.
Douglas supplies milk to Australian Dairy Farmers Cooperative, on a contract that premiums protein.
Every year, Douglas spreads 300 tonnes of urea across the entire 407 ha undulating dryland dairy farm.
For 25 years, he has been pre-ordering fertiliser and storing it in a shed with a capacity of 50 tonne.
A year ago, Douglas decided it was time to upgrade to a much larger storage capacity. He began drawing diagrams of what he wanted, based on other, similar set-ups in the district.
“The new shed replaces the old one — the four-metre fixed roof wasn’t high enough anymore because fertiliser is delivered in B-double trucks these days, and the truck couldn’t tip into the shed,” Douglas said.
“The driver would have to tip the fertiliser out on a concrete apron and we’d have to use the bobcat to move it into the shed.”
The new shed, with two-metre high walls, has a roof that rolls away — this enables the delivery truck to tip directly into the shed.
The new system eliminates a lot of manual labour and double-handling — fertiliser can be delivered and deposited in the shed, without interrupting farm work.
The new shed has increased capacity; it is 15 m long, 5 m wide and 2 m high, and 80 tonne of fertiliser can be stored in it.
“We use a bobcat that fits under the shed roof to bring the fertiliser out to the spreader,” Douglas said.
“Fertiliser won’t go off because it’s under cover. And we can still spread fertiliser in light rain.
“I spread 300 tonne of urea over the whole farm each year.
“By pre-ordering and storing it at this quantity, I’ll be saving $35/tonne and able to use it when I need it. I’ll be buying fertiliser in January and filling the shed.”
With a fairly reliable rainfall pattern in South Gippsland, Douglas knows he should get a couple of inches of rain in March each year.
He then applies fertiliser regularly so long as there’s moisture in the ground — alternating urea, potash and NPKS applications, subject to soil test results.
“We’re spreading every three to four weeks behind the cows. We soil test every few years and then we change our applications according to the results.”
Douglas used local contractors for the build. The engineer responsible for designing the roof lives locally. Earthworks and concrete work — all the cement was poured on site — were done by local contractors. The roof was installed by local contractors.
“We had to use more fill and concrete, because we had to build up the floor,” Douglas said.
“Some of the foundations are down three metres and we put about two metres of fill in it to level and prepare the ground before laying the cement.
“The concrete floor is 6 inches. The shed cost about $20,000 more because of where it was placed.”