James Dillon is in a 50:50 share farming arrangement with Michael Malone, at Ruby, in South Gippsland.
Mr Dillon brings labour, the milking herd and machinery to the agreement, and Mr Malone provides the land and infrastructure. All feed and contractor costs are 50:50.
Mr Dillon moved to South Gippsland from Waaia, in northern Victoria, after milking for some years on an irrigated dairy farm he owned in partnership.
He sold his interest in the farm in July this year.
“We owned a fair bit of water but unless you had consistent good seasons, it was a battle to make a living,” he said.
“From my experience share farming for nine years in West Gippsland, I wanted to come back to the region.”
Mr Dillon has a long history of working in diverse environments in the dairy industry — he has milked cows at Katherine in the Northern Territory, on King Island in Tasmania, in West Gippsland and northern Victoria.
It was previous experience milking and managing herds in Gippsland that saw him move to Ruby, frustrated with trying to buy irrigation at ever-increasing prices in northern Victoria. He was after a more kind climate and reliable rainfall.
In the past couple of seasons Mr Dillon’s business plans have benefited from the reliable rainfall of South Gippsland. The Ruby district has an annual rainfall of one metre and it rains pretty much every week. On the other side of the coin, Mr Dillon has also experienced managing black beetle and cockchafer infestations on a substantial part of the milking platform.
He milks a herd of 300 cows — a mix of Holsteins, Ayreshires, Aussie Reds, Jerseys and cross-breds — off a 154 ha milking platform of steep hilly country. The farm is 182 ha and an out-block near Inverloch is used to raise heifers from 12 months old to point-of-calving.
The split-calving herd is joined using artificial insemination followed by dairy and beef mop-up bulls. All heifers are synchronised before AI. Mr Dillon uses age as an indicator for when the heifers are ready to be joined. He has only had to sell two heifers that didn’t get in-calf.
“Joining is done to fit with the calving pattern,” he said.
“Autumn-drop calves become autumn-calving heifers; spring-drop calves become spring-calving heifers.”
The heifer calves from AI are retained. The progeny of mop-up bulls are sold as week-old calves, as are the bull calves that result from the AI joining.
Mr Dillon uses production figures to decide if empty cows are carried through and get a second chance to join, or are sold.
“Split calving means I can carry over cows that are good producers,” he said.
For the past 10 years Mr Dillon has used Speckle Park bulls as mop-ups.
“Heifers get one AI, followed by mop-up with Speckle Park bulls,” he said.
“I chose the Speckle Park 10 years ago for heifers and still use them for the resale value of the calves.”
Production averages 7000 litres/cow/year, with 4.3 per cent fat and 3.4 per cent protein. Although Mr Dillon originally thought he’d milk Holstein cows, he likes the mixed breed status of his herd. He has also spent most of his life showing Ayreshires at International Dairy Week.
“Everything in the herd is here because of its production. The Jerseys are here because they pay their way.
“I added in the Aussie Red as a first cross, and the crossbred cows outperform the Holsteins, whereas the pure Aussie Red don’t. Jerseys keep getting in calf and their production is pretty good, so they stay here.
“The Ayreshires are in the herd because I enjoy showing cows, and have since I was a kid.”
Infested pasture
Normally 20 ha of country is resowed every year. A contractor spreads fertiliser in March/early April to boost pasture before winter grazing and drive spring growth to meet the needs of two-thirds of the herd being fresh-in-milk.
From late September to November, hay and silage is harvested.
“We made 600 rolls of silage in my first year, and 900 last year, with 60-odd rolls of hay,” Mr Dillon said.
“This year I’m carrying over 600 rolls of silage — each year I’ve carried over 300 rolls because the summers have been good.”
James sowed turnips as a forage crop in his first season.
“It helps in the cultivation of these paddocks, and I sow perennial rye-grass following the turnips,” he said.
“I’m looking to sow again this year for summer foraging.
“It’s taken a fair bit of work in the paddocks in the last two years to create the system that I like to work with.”
The black beetle and cockchafer infestations over summer limited the number of paddocks in the rotation and required 60 ha of damaged pasture to be resowed this year, in late autumn.
Both beetles can be a problem in high rainfall zones, such as parts of Gippsland. Pupae can be an additional problem, living in the soil and eating the roots of grasses.
“The first indication something was wrong was the flocks of birds in the paddocks,” Mr Dillon said.
“I went to investigate. I found the beetles were needling away in the soil. They really destroyed the pastures.
“I had to spray out and resow 60 ha of what’s normally productive pasture.
“I’ll just have to keep an eye on it and hope the beetles don’t recur.”
At the other end of winter, pasture recovery is looking good, and a drier-than-normal winter reduced pugging in the paddocks.
“The season has been good. Pasture growth is where I want it to be at this time of year (late July),” Mr Dillon said.
“I calved 20 heifers in autumn and 42 heifers calved down in winter.”