Teacher-turned-dairy farmer Russell Moyle had a baptism of fire when he decided to pursue his lifelong dream to milk cows.
The former physical education teacher grew up on a wheat and sheep property in Victoria’s Mallee region.
Once some family connections to dairying were discovered, he felt this explained his long-held hankering for a vocation in dairy.
Russell then convinced his wife, Cherie, that it was a good idea to buy a small property in Gippsland, where he combined his teaching career with relief milking, raising heifers for export and — finally — building his own small dairy.
He stocked the property with some chopper cows he bought, and used their milk to raise heifer calves he had also bought in.
Then, Russell decided he was deadly serious about dairy farming.
When he retired early from teaching, Russell rolled his superannuation into a self-managed fund that helped he and Cherie secure 70ha at Glenormiston, near Warrnambool back on the other side of the state, in south-west Victoria.
He resonated with a low-cost production system, based on seasonal calving, and cantered around New Zealand’s LIC (Livestock Improvement Incorporation) crossbred cows.
But the first year seriously tested his resolve. Russell had no idea about lead feeding cows — to prepare them for calving — nor the season ahead.
Calving nightmare
Russell had bought older cows that had fallen outside of the calving patterns on their former owners’ farms — and he had no calving dates, which further complicated his mission.
“All I knew in the first year was they’d been pregnancy tested in-calf to an AI bull, but that’s all,” Russell said.
“Because they were older cows and therefore higher producing, I subsequently had a lot of milk fever, ketosis, retained membranes and dirty cows when they calved. So, I learned pretty quickly how to deal with all that.
“It was a steep learning curve, and after the vet’s first visit I told him he had better teach me how to find a jugular vein, or I was going to go broke.”
After that first season, Russell made some telling changes, one of which was to introduce a lead feed to his close-to-calving cows.
He used traditional lead feed initially, but after two years felt the response hadn’t been conclusive enough for him.
He switched to Australian Probiotic Solutions’ lead feed called Super Start, saying it was fractionally more expensive but fed for a shorter time. And the results have been significant.
Lead feed statistics telling
In 2020 on the traditional lead feed, Russell calved in 103 cows.
He assisted 20 (19 per cent), had 10 with milk fever (9.7 per cent), one confirmed case of ketosis (one per cent) and 12 dirty cows (12 per cent).
In 2021 on APS’s BioPro SuperStart, he had eight assisted calvings (including four sets of twins — seven per cent — and said “assisting” was more about watching them), one cow went down with milk fever (0.9 per cent), he had no ketosis, and three cows were dirty (2.3 per cent).
“That was a much-improved result,” Russell said.
“The BioPro SuperStart in my opinion is an exceptional lead feed.
“It’s very easy to keep figures on that, because the results are black and white. Either a cow goes down with milk fever or she doesn’t.
“I feel there has been a dramatic improvement in my herd’s health at calving.
“What I observed on the probiotics is that the cows are full of energy. They literally lie down, calve, and stand straight back up. I saw that time after time.
“I’d often go out in the morning and the calf would be there, and up drinking. In the past I’d instead find a downer cow that I had to deal with before I did anything else.”
Russell said the investment had been worth it.
“In terms of the savings of not having to treat downer cows or call the vet, that is significant because that soon becomes very expensive. And, you can have mastitis issues to go along with that.
“The other thing is the value of your time. I’m a one-person operation, so if I’m treating cows I’m falling behind with other jobs.
“In my opinion, the Super Start sets your cows up for the whole season. They are coming in ready to milk, they’re not coming in just trying to survive.”
In other management changes, Russell now doesn’t fully milk cows out in the first 24 hours post-calving to ease the calcium drawdown on their systems.
“I’m really comfortable doing that now and I do think that has had an impact on the herd post-calving, too.”
BioPro added to in-shed feeding
Russell then began considering the potential benefits of extending his probiotic use to include an in-feed direct-fed microbial, BioPro, for the milking herd all season.
The BioPro probiotics (including trace minerals) are made from a unique combination of 11 powerful biological compounds, five selected strains of probiotic bacteria and a specific strain of active live dry yeast — Saccharomyces cerevisiae — which stimulates cellulose-digesting bacteria, thus improving fibre digestibility and rumen development.
The probiotic bacteria are micro-encapsulated, to reach the lower gastrointestinal tract for improved immune function and the competitive exclusion of pathogens.
Finally, a blend of five digestive enzymes in BioPro supports feed breakdown, allowing more surface area for microbes to work on.
“I normally feed 700 to 800kg of grain, but it was a very wet and cold year last season, so I did feed a bit more,” Russell said.
“It’s harder to judge the impact of the BioPro, because the impact is more subtle, but the first thing I did notice was that there was no undigested material in their faeces — particularly grain — and the starches from the silage.
“We’ve had two friendly seasons, but the cows are looking fantastic.
“The other thing I noticed straight away since introducing the BioPro, was that when I let the cows out on the grass while I’m cleaning up at the dairy after milking, is by the time I go down to feed them their silage they’re already all sitting down chewing their cud.
“That cud chewing was very noticeable — I’d say 70 to 80 per cent of them.
“They tell me when cows are chewing their cud, they are making their most milk, so I’m really happy about that.”
Six-week in-calf rate improves
The South-West Dairy Ltd supplier says another early positive is his joining percentages.
Russell dries off mid-March and starts calving May 1. He AIs for six weeks and uses a bull for six weeks.
“I’ve had an absolutely fantastic AI joining this year, which I hadn’t had in the past.
“Because I have an older herd, fertility can be more of a challenge. Last year, out of 101 cows we had 47 that got in-calf to AI at six weeks [46 per cent]. This year, out of 116 cows I had 72 in-calf at six weeks [62 per cent ].
“It’s still too many empty, but on a rundown of those problem cows, 37 per cent were 2008-10 born, 15 per cent were cows that had had issues in the past — three of them I had carried over, and they have done it again — and there was one who had cycled a dozen times.
“There was another 15 per cent that calved really late, in early August, and I start joining on August 1.”
In line with Russell’s commitment to low-cost farming, last season his herd averaged 494kg of milk solids, feeding one tonne of grain per cow. He’s on track this year to average 500kg MS on 800kg of grain per cow.
“If they are doing their own bodyweight in milk solids for the year, I think you’ve done pretty well, when you’re a grass feeder and a seasonal farmer.”
Continuing to monitor
Russell said he would continue to monitor his probiotic decision.
“If you are going to change something, you kind of have to keep track of it.
“My feeling is that the lead feed is an absolutely thumbs up, because the cows just don’t have calving problems and they hit the dairy running.
“The BioPro is harder to gauge, but while milk prices are good, I’ll keep using it and see whether my fertility rates continue to improve over time.”