Monday, 22 November 2021

Week ending 22-11-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

On Monday we cut and baled 8 hectares (39 bales), which dropped cover down to 2188 kg DM/ha with PGR 73 kg DM/ha/day for the week.

Cows are still going into paddocks over 2800 kg DM/ha in an effort to offer them as much as possible but they are consistently eating between 18.5–20 kg DM/ha/day depending what paddock they are in.

The milking herd grazed 5.9 ha/day with last week on a 22-day rotation. 

We had our second herd test on Sunday night and Monday morning, with cows producing an average of 1.7 kg MS/day with SCC at 69,000. Our first-calvers averaged 1.36 kg MS/cow/day.

We had challenges this week with Coliform grades that required a few days of pulling the plant apart, scrubbing the milk line, cleaning blocked jetters and heavy duty alkaline washes.  We are now back to excellence quality milk but our Te Tihi goal took a hit, dropping to 94%.

We are weaning the last of the 92 AB calves with their last supper on Wednesday.  We still have four late beefy calves on farm fattening on milk.

Average weight of the mob was 136 kg (range 109-179 kg).  They have gained 1 kg LW/day (range 0.63-1.53 kg LW/day) since the last weigh on 20^th October. All calves are at or above ideal liveweight. These calves have been given their final drench of Arrest C before they start on chicory this week after its 21-day weed spray withhold period.

The chicory paddocks have portable troughs plumbed in and three wire fences set up in them so that we can run a 25-day rotation topped up with the remaining meal/PK, hay and then silage as needed later on.

The chicory paddocks are now 7.5 weeks old and have reached the 7-leaf stage making them strong enough for grazing.  This year we will plate weekly with a range of covers on Tuesday from 2000-3200 kg DM/ha using the formula: RPM height x 86 +235.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

We have started to wet the yard prior to the cows entering before milking, allowing time for it to evaporate and remove the heat from the concrete. We are trying not to use the sprinklers on the herd until the end of mating to prevent the tail paint coming off.

We have 12 cows on OAD due to lower BCS.

Water trough treatment includes Magnesium Chloride and Zinc, Copper, Cobalt and Selenium and bloat oil.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Thanks to everyone getting their DairyBase figures in, we now know that the top 20% of farmers in the Waikato based on Operating Profit made $4820/ha compared with Owl Farm at $3482/ha and the Waikato average of $2997/ha.  While FWE were similar at $4.62/kg MS (compared with Owl Farm at $4.60), the top 20% produced an average of 1519 kg MS/ha (Owl Farm 1237 kgMS/ha) with a stocking rate of 3.4 cows/ha (Owl farm 2.8 cows/ha) and $7.71/kg MS in milk sales (compared with Owl Farm at $7.47/kg MS).  Our goal is to achieve top 20% profit WHILE achieving in the other areas of the wagon wheel KPIs.

ENVIRONMENT

Nothing to report this week.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

We have our first off-farm visit to a discussion group planned next week followed by a team lunch. This involves getting our vaccination certificates sorted so that we can continue to access education outside of the farm.

COMMUNITY

Nothing to report

PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:

• Side dressing of N for chicory crops
• Early PD for cows due to calve in the first 6 weeks
• Weighing herd 7^th December for effective culling decisions

Cheers from Jo + Tom

Monday, 15 November 2021

Week ending 15-11-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Cover increased to 2296 kg DM/ha with 75 kg DM/ha daily growth rate. Cows are still being offered 20 kg DM with a target pre-graze cover of 2800-2900 kg DM/ha but are leaving variable residuals based on weather and paddock selection.  The cows are grazing 6 ha/day (including the area that the 64 weaned calves are now grazing) which is a 22-day rotation.

Milk production continues decline on a similar pattern to last season but tracking a week later. Milk quality excellence is at 97%.

In another 5 weeks we will transition to 3-n-2 milking frequency and start grazing turnips.

With almost 19.8 ha of paddocks previously cut for silage sitting at 2200-2400 kg DM we are selecting paddocks in the middle and top end of the wedge (shown in red), approximately 8.5ha to be cut for silage.  While we will trade off yield in some paddocks it allows the cows to graze the silage regrowth paddocks quicker.  With recent wet weather there is slight lag on getting silage contractors so we expect to cut in 7-10 days.

With 599 mm of rain season to date we have had 177mm more than last year.   This has been favourable for good crop establishment with canopy closure of turnips now after weed and insect spray.  After checking the efficacy of the weed spray, we can sit back and watch them grow - just keeping one eye on insect pressure weekly.

Wednesday marks week 8 of mating.  Return Interval analysis from MINDA shows that our portion of short (13%) and long (14%) returns are within the target range.  Non-Return Rate is sitting at 51% compared to 50% last season.  This provides feedback to the team that heat detection is working well and encourages them to keep up the good work for another 4½ weeks.

 ANIMAL WELL-BEING

MgO dusting has finished with cows receiving increased MgCl through the Dosatron.  We are increasing from 1.5 bags to 2 bags/day as cows increase water intake, and continue to add aniseed flavouring to maintain palatability at higher concentrations. This will deliver 16 g magnesium/cow/day.

Water leaks are a constant challenge during the summer, and part of the morning routine is to check the Halo dashboard before you fetch the cows. It zeros out at midnight so should show around 500L used before the cows wake up.  If it is higher than this a water leak hunt will become the job for the day, starting with yesterday’s paddocks grazed.

Cows are drinking between 60L (on wet days) and up to 110L/day.  Last week with 24°C days, cows increased water intake by approximately 25L/cow. This highlights the importance of water availability as temperature and humidity increase.  We look out for increases in breathing rates. Less than 7 breaths in 10 seconds is normal. Any more than that and cows are dealing with excess heat. We have not needed to use sprinklers yet.  See DairyNZ to prepare your farm with management strategies https://www.dairynz.co.nz/animal/cow-health/heat-stress/

Quick reaction from the team noticing mastitis clots on the sock and then stripping the herd allows early identification of mastitic cows, which has reduced potential spread and maintained our low mastitis rates this season: 16 cows treated season to date (compared to 37 cows in 2020-21).

However, lameness cases have increased over the last 6 weeks during mating with 50 cows drafted out season to date and 8 requiring antibiotic treatment.  Part of this increase in drafted cows is a lower tolerance for any sign of lameness. We are refocusing our efforts on removing stones from the yard, hosing the underpass, drafting early and picking up feet, and resting cows in the hospital mob.  We have set up the GoPro again to explore animal behaviour in the yard and are working through our planned $20k of race maintenance.

With multiple users on our farm tracks we are seeing exposed stones on areas where we had implemented a short-term fix 18 months ago. You can watch us share our journey dealing with lameness https://youtu.be/2xGv1qcU8ZM

BUSINESS HEALTH

The top 20% Operating Profit benchmark is now available in DairyBase for the North Island and a top 50% for the Waikato region.  We encourage you to get your results onto DairyBase as only a few more farms are needed before we can generate a Waikato top 20%.  Having other farms to compare against allows us to continually learn and improve our financial performance as we create a sustainable future.

ENVIRONMENT

Students have been busy planting up the 1000 native seedlings from Trees for Survival.  These spend the summer in the Ag/Hort shade house with the sprinkler set up on a daily timer ready for planting out in the winter.

Monday, 8 November 2021

Week ending 8-11-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Another good growing period following rain this week.  So far this season we have had 564 mm of rain vs 416 mm last season.  PGR was 82 kg DM/ha/day with APC stable at 2167 kg DM/ha.

All paddocks have received their spring fertiliser (320 kg/ha SurePhos with 50 kg/ha SustaiN) to keep them growing strong.

Cocksfoot has bolted this round and we are dealing with seed heads while still having ryegrass at a tidy 3-leaf stage ideal for grazing. Pre-mowing was required for one day only this week.  We have used cropping and silage making to keep APC within our target of 2000-2400 kg DM/ha. Farmax budgeting shows that we expect to take another cut of approximately 10 ha silage by the end of the month and then 4-5 ha for hay.

With all grass paddocks returned from silage we were on a 21-day rotation with a pre-graze target at 2800-2900 kg DM/ha.  While we are still offering the cows 20 kg DM/day in the hope that their intake won’t be restricted, they appear to be dropping down to around 18-19 kg DM/day now.  Milk production continues to decline as pasture quality reduces and temperatures increase. Cows produced an average of 1.84 kg MS/day for the week. SCC is 89,000 and we have supplied 122 days of excellence quality milk (98%).

Greg Zuren of PGG Wrightson Seeds visited to help us plan our spray programme.  The chicory paddocks got sprayed on Friday with Valdo and Sequence for weeds.

The turnips and kale both got sprayed today with Sparta (insecticide), SeQuence (grass weeds) and Prestige (this is the first year we’ve included a spray for nightshade).

Because our brassica crops are close together, once we spray the turnips we spray the kale as well, because the insects will tend to move on to the nearest source of feed.

We are grateful for our relationship with Spraylink which means that they are aware of our annual spray plan and are able to get on farm quickly when the need arises.

Tom also applied a side dressing of 150 kg N/ha for both the turnips and kale.

We can now enjoy watching these crops grow and are just monitoring for a second insect spray up until the 5^th December for the turnips.

The chicory will receive a nitrogen application after its first grazing.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

The remaining 59 unweaned calves were weighed on the 4^th November, averaging 108 kg.  We weaned all of the calves over 105 kg (with the average weight being 114 kg) leaving 28 still on milk at an average weight of 95 kg.  Each group has a progressively higher weaning weight target to help them catch up with the earlier-weaned calves. We had 14 bags of milk left to last them 12 more days before weaning, drenching then onto chicory.

Cows had individual BCS carried out on the 3^rd November.  Herd average was 4.5 with 2-year-olds at 4.6 and 3-year-olds our lightest group at 4.4.  This is 0.1 BCS drop from the 24^th September – a pleasing result during mating.  Last season the herd dropped from 4.9 to 4.5 during a similar timeframe.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week.

ENVIRONMENT

Monday, 1 November 2021

Week ending 1-11-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

With 19.8 hectares cut for silage this week, cover has dropped down to 2182 kg DM/ha with a whopping growth rate of 96 kg DM/ha/day. We received a welcome 42 mm of rain this week (almost reaching field capacity on Friday) and plants have responded well. With all grass paddocks officially back into the rotation we return to 131.8 ha grazing platform and a stocking rate of 3.1 cows/ha.

We are still offering the cows 20 kg DM/ha/day, but with reducing ME (average 11.7) and increasing NDF (43% DM) the cows are starting to leave higher residuals.  We are returning cows back to paddocks and shifting them between milkings to help clean up.  We also pre-graze mow paddocks that didn’t achieve residual targets on previous grazings (approximately one-quarter of paddocks)

Monday, 25 October 2021

Week ending 25-10-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Average Pasture Cover has dropped slightly again this week with daily demand greater than current pasture growth rates of 65 kg DM/ha/day. At 2287 kg DM/ha we are still comfortably within our target range of 2000-2400 kg DM/ha.  Our shut-up silage paddocks have moved to the high end of the wedge between 3100-3600 kg DM/ha with only another 1.4 ha added this week to the current 13 ha. Our rotation length on the remaining area in grazing is 22 days.

Ideally silage should be made 35-40 days after last grazing.  In reality our paddocks were last grazed between 14-30 days ago by calves or a lax milker grazing.  Our priority with silage is as a tool to improve the quality of feed remaining for the milking herd. These paddocks are due to be cut next week.

Encouragingly, daily milk production has lifted again back up to 2 kgMS/cow/day.  We have produced 500 kg MS/ha to date with the aim of achieving 850 kg MS by the 31^st December (70% of our season’s total production goal). Last year this was achieved on the 10^th January.  This ensures we continue to aim for a tight early calving to make the most of spring pasture production and reduce the risk of summer weather variances. We require 5.2 kg MS/ha/day to the end of the year or 1.8 kg MS/cow/day for the remaining 408 cows. It’s a lofty goal!!!!

Spring fertiliser is due to go on with 25 units of N. We will apply over half the farm next week then the remainder including the harvested silage blocks next.

Crop monitoring continues.  Paddock 13 which has a lot more shade trees has had a second broadcast of slug bait, and all other brassica crops have had slug bait re-applied around the outside perimeter.

Since the crops were sown they have received 54mm of rain; but in the last 7 days we’ve only had 1.6 mm. We have found early signs of leaf miner and spring tail damage.  The damage at the moment is not critical so we will try and hold off for more rain and continued seed germination for plants to reach the critical 3-4 leaf stage.  This allows us to combine an insecticide with the grass weed spray (SeQuence) to reduce the amount of passes through the crop and spraying costs at $42/ha for the contractor.

Chicory crops have not required any more slug bait yet, however they will require Valdo/SeQuence herbicide to control wireweed and grasses.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Monday, 18 October 2021

Week ending 18-10-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

This week Average Pasture Cover (APC) dropped to 2301 kg DM/ha as daily demand was greater than the Pasture Growth Rate (PGR) of 65 kg DM/ha/day. We are on a 23-day rotation grazing 5.7 ha/day. Just over 13ha (10%) of the grazeable area is earmarked for silage (shown as red on the feed wedge).

Although we have received 506 mm of rain season to date (STD) compared with 343 mm STD last year, our soil moisture levels are fairly similar as this time last year throughout the profile. This means that periods without rainfall will create stressed plants quicker than normal, which usually causes them to go to seed and lose feed quality.

Cows are being offered as much pasture as they can eat while endeavouring to leave tidy residuals: approximately 20 kg DM/cow/day. We use occasional pre-graze mowing only to tidy up paddocks that have had multiple wet weather grazing in an effort to reset the residual for the next 6 weeks.

Our very dense new pastures are being grazed prior to 2-leaf stage in order to prevent canopy closure and ensure plantain and clover survive, along with daughter tillers.

Cows have just dropped below 2 kg MS in their 15^th week of lactation.  Cows are producing less than this time last season but our lactation profile is similar to the 2019 season. In the 2020 season the cows calved 0.7 BCS higher and dropped below 2 kg MS at the end of October. However, with low variable pasture growth rates we were feeding 2-4 kg PK/cow/day last year.

Mating continues to go well, with all cows mated getting red tailpaint and a fresh Heat Patch Plus applied. Cows still to be mated have blue tailpaint. We budget on 2.7 inseminations per cow and the same number of heat patches. 95.4% of the herd has been mated after 27 days. We have 14 late calvers that haven’t cycled yet, and five cows that we recorded as having a pre-mating heat that have not yet been mated.

All 182 sexed semen straws have been used, plus 152 Forward Pack and 153 Wagyu so far. All Wagyu mating starts tomorrow for two weeks, and Short Gestation Length Dairy Kiwi Cross starts 3^rd November. Only 64 days of mating to go!

Continued slug monitoring shows less than one slug found under carpet, and only rare occurrence of slug damage at the outer perimeters. We have not added our second slug bait yet. Our PGG Wrightson Seeds agronomist Greg will be out this week to have a closer look at pest pressure to advise on spraying and further baiting.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Calves are being weighed this week to identify those ready for weaning.  They are still on 4 L/calf/day milk replacer fed OAD, eating 2 kg meal/PK.  We are working through our 2^nd tonne of milk replacer.

Cows are receiving Copper, Cobalt, Selenium, Iodine and Zinc through the dosatron, along with bloat oil. So far there have been minimal signs of bloat in the herd.

Cows are still receiving MgCl (5g Mag/cow) via the dosatron and night paddocks get dusted with 50 g/cow MgO (13-15g Mag/cow) ahead of the cows.

Unfortunately we had our first death of the season this week, a cow suspected with Theileria. This has highlighted the need to be vigilant with cows, using the F.A.N.I card for diagnosis. Theileria is a disease caused by a blood-borne parasite that only affects cattle, and is primarily caused by ticks. https://www.dairynz.co.nz/animal/cow-health/theileria/

We have already identified half a dozen cows to check out and will be reducing their milking frequency and walking distances. We are in discussion with our vet on treatment plans for further suspect cows.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week.

ENVIRONMENT

We have invested $12,600 on effluent extension to another 20 ha of the farm. This now gives us 42% of the farm available for effluent irrigation (loading less than 43 kg N/ha via effluent). We have used Halo monitoring of effluent for the last three years, which gives us GPS positioning, and mobile phone alerts along with pump cut-outs when the irrigator stops moving. 

We are grateful to Karapiro School who kindly donated 280 plants from their Trees for Survival programme.  We have found homes for them alongside a drain near the cycleway where the students can see them in the new year when the cycleway opens.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

The team have been busy tidying the sheds and farm dairy – cleaning out calf sheds, hosing down the underpass, water-blasting the dairy etc. Together they worked 134 hours this week, with total hours worked/person/week averaging 50.2 since 1^st June.

COMMUNITY

We have been spending more time during the school holidays and lockdown to develop the content for the new Owl Farm website.  With better access to information and a focus on the wagon wheel KPI approach, we are looking to offer greater access to knowledge for the farming community, students and the wider public. Watch this space…..!

PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:

• Spring fertiliser due on next week
• Weaning calves as they reach liveweight targets

 Cheers from Jo + Tom

Monday, 11 October 2021

Week ending 11-10-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Pasture Growth Rate (PGR) continues to climb this week to 79 kg DM/ha/day.  Average Pasture Cover (APC) increased to 2344 kg DM/ha. At Owl Farm we aim to keep APC between 2000-2400 kg DM/ha to maximise pasture production. Early identification and timely silage making is required to maintain quality feed for the milking cows.  With current growth rates we only require 109 ha to feed the milking herd. This is equivalent to removing 22.6 ha of the area for silage and has the effect of increasing stocking rate to 3.76 cow/ha and lifting pre-graze cover to 3200 kg DM/ha, grazing 4.95 ha/day which maintains a 22-day rotation on the grazing area. With paddocks being previously well grazed we can still offer quality feed at this pre-graze cover during October. This allows us to identify suitable paddocks that will be ready to cut for silage in approximately two weeks. Paddocks that had a wet weather grazing or poor residuals, paddocks with good contour and accessibility for machinery, paddocks that are mature and well established (> 1 year old), are currently around 2100-2500 kg DM/ha cover in the bottom half of our feed wedge.

Milk production is slowly declining from its peak of 2.27 kg MS/cow in early September to 2.06 kg MS/cow/day a month later.  We have had more than 10 weeks of production at over 2 kg MS/cow/day with 98% excellence quality and SCC sitting around 60-80,000. Milk production is 1% ahead season to date, and 1.8% ahead month to date.

Cows are being offered 20 kg DM/cow/day (pasture) with no other supplements.

Cows in the hospital mob or waiting for insemination have access to PK in the paddocks close to the shed.

Brassica crops are germinating and each crop paddock has a slug monitoring station using carpet squares and crushed Weetbix for bait. These paddocks are being checked twice a week. We are finding around one slug under the carpet per eight paddocks checked at the moment, with no visible slug damage. This indicates the initial slug bait (5 kg/ha) broadcast at sowing is working and we expect to need more bait again next week, approximately two weeks after sowing.

Mating continues to go well, with 91% of all cows submitted for mating after three weeks. Industry target is 90%, and last season we achieved 88%.

With Tom having a well-deserved break this week off farm the team are well supported to continue identifying cows to be mated.  We budget $5k annually for heat detection aids and fresh tail paint. We use LIC’s Heat Patch Plus which cost $2.80 each, are self-adhesive and allow the dye to bleed to the edge of the patch over time to indicate the length of time a cow has been on heat. Investing in Protrack for accurate drafting means that the team have the facilities and skills to select cows while bringing them in to the yard and at cups-on using the tail paint mirror.  Our policy of “if in doubt draft her out” buys time to observe, look at data and make a decision on whether to mate a cow each day.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Calves are shifted every two days into a fresh paddock. Daily each mob gets 80 kg Feed Grower 20% and 20 kg PKE (offering around 2 kg meal/calf/day).  Old meal is cleaned out and recycled to the hospital mob to ensure calves have fresh meal every day. Maintaining a clean calfeteria every day is also important for optimum calf health.

Our 90 rising 2-year-olds out grazing weighed 327 kg (range 282-382 kg) on 11^th October.  This is 21 kg above target weight with only three animals now underweight compared with eight in September.  These heifers gained an average 0.9 kg lwt/day since 3^rd September and require liveweight gains of 0.56 kg/day to reach target weight at calving.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week.

ENVIRONMENT

We have taken the time before crops were drilled to empty slurry onto some paddocks.  It’s been important during the wet September/October period to ensure that the underpass sump has been working to contain effluent washed down and the high volume of rain going through it. A well-drained underpass also helps reduce issues with lameness.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Great news on the new 2021 Resident Visa that the government announced recently.  This provides a pathway for LaArni to secure her and her family’s future in NZ after four years of commitment to both Owl Farm and the dairy industry in NZ.

As a school/demo farm it has been our priority to ensure a safe workplace for visitors to the farm.  This also includes keeping up with government advice around COVID best practice management. As a team we have provided support and flexibility to allow team members to get vaccinated, given them time to make appointments and provided light duties afterwards to ensure a speedy recovery and return to work. A staggered approach worked best for our team as we are close to vaccination centres.

We have discussed what the process would be on farm if a team member did contract COVID and how the team would cover the workload. DairyNZ has some business continuity resources and an informative webinar available on their website. https://www.dairynz.co.nz/business/adverse-events/coronavirus-covid-19-information/supporting-your-team-on-farm-during-covid-19/

COMMUNITY

Tonight we join the DairyNZ Wednesday night live session on youngstock management to share our journey on monitoring and managing replacement heifers. Join the link below from 7-8pm.

Monday, 4 October 2021

Week ending 4-10-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Average Pasture Cover reduced to 2285 kg DM/ha with the removal of 9.75 ha of silage from the farm.  The grazeable area for the next 7 months is now 132 ha, pushing stocking rate up to 3.1 cows/ha.  Daily demand, including the 5 yearlings and 100 calves in the paddocks, is now 65.5 kg DM/ha/day.   Cows are being offered >20 kg DM/day aiming for a pre-graze cover of 2900 kg DM/ha.  With so many cows bulling, (average of 23 a day) they are struggling to clean out paddocks, so we have been putting them back in before moving onto a fresh break. This has slowed the round down to 25 days.

With over 88 paddocks on the farm, ranging from 4.49 ha to 0.83 ha, collecting and processing weekly farmwalk data is essential to make timely decisions.  We use small amounts of PK to support paddock allocation for the hospital mob and the young herd. We are looking forward to technology that will help us manage pastures more efficiently in 2022.

Using the DairyNZ calculation (in FarmFact 1-38), feed demand 65.5 kg DM/ha/day ÷ by PGR 70 kg DM/ha/day x grazeable area estimates we only need 123.5 ha to feed all the stock. So we have over 8 ha of surplus in our current wedge and aim to build that to 20 ha to make it worth ensiling pit silage instead of doing bales.  The herd has been producing over 2 kg MS/cow/day for more than 9 weeks now, and SCC continues to hold below 100,000 which is approximately 40-60,000 lower than this time last season. We have had no new mastitis cows for 4 weeks.

We have purchased 100 t DM grass from Fonterra at 20c/kg DM + 16-18c/kg DM to ensile.  This is made up of 40 t DM to replace PK to meet FEI targets, 40 t DM to cover runoff silage which is now growing chicory for calves, and 20 t DM for the calves at home.

We still budget to make another 157 t DM of silage and 5 ha of hay off the milking platform.

Pasture samples taken 29^th September showed average ME of 11.94 MJME/kg DM, DM of 13.5%, Protein of 23.1% DM. While both the ME and DM have dropped from our September pasture samples the cows are content and milk production remains constant over 2.1 kg MS/cow/day.

Over the weekend we were grateful to have a team of contractors on farm, including Greg Muller from G&H Agri using his cross slot drill, Kaipaki Contracting, Finch Contracting, Wally Sinton Re-grass Contracting, and Malcolm from Spraylink.  Big thanks to the tyre-throwing team of Kelli, Phoebe and Sophie who helped Tom and LaArni throw tyres into the night – they truly earned their pizza.

We now have in the ground 2 ha of Cleancrop Toto turnip and 2.8 ha of Cleancrop bulb turnip, 7.1 ha of Cleancrop kale and 7.1 ha of chicory (dairy support land).

The brassica seeds were treated with Ultrastrike for protection against insects and diseases.  CropZeal DAP Boron Boost went down the spout @ 250kg/ha together with slugbait broadcast. Telar was sprayed immediately afterwards to provide effective weed control right from the start.

Mating continues to go well with 80% of all cows submitted in two weeks.  This includes PG and CIDR cows.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Cases of lameness have eased off after the wet period with only one new case this week, bringing our total to 25 cows season to date or 6% of the herd.

We have 92 replacement heifers, 3 bulls for charity and 5 beefies now out on pasture. Calves are eating a blend of calf meal and PK to reduce the cost of calf feed and nearly all calves are on 100% milk replacer.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week.

ENVIRONMENT

LaArni has started using a trough cover for the effluent paddocks to prevent effluent contaminating drinking troughs.  23 kg N/ha was applied to another 65 ha of the farm as part of our N strategy to produce grass silage to feed in the late summer and August period. We have used 56 kg N/ha season to date.  This year we are recording via spreadsheet each paddock’s N application via fertiliser and effluent to keep a running total for reporting due 31 July 2022 to council.  This information is also valuable for accurate Overseer data loading.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Cropping and silage-making throw a spanner in the works for our average hours worked this week, with the team completing 220 hours between them. The bulk of it fell on the senior team members. We are grateful for the flexibility needed to completed the work with delays in weather and contractor schedules changing work routines. Taking afternoons off during the week to catch up on rest, house and family commitments is essential to keep balance.

COMMUNITY

Nothing to report this week.

PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:

• Slug and pest monitoring
• Weigh calves
• Make more silage

Cheers from Jo + Tom

Monday, 27 September 2021

Week ending 27-9-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

PGR of 61 kg DM/ha/day this week and a lift in cover to 2350 kg DM/ha including our silage paddocks.  APC is 2234 kgDM/ha without silage paddocks.

We averaged 19 kg DM/cow/day pasture offered plus 1.5 kg PK/cow/day for the week.  The cows are holding at 2.1 kg MS/cow/day.  Milk production is 2.9% ahead month to date and 0.7% ahead season to date. We have supplied 98% days of excellence from 83 days of production.

Pre-graze targets are back up to 2800-2900 kg DM/ha/day and PK won’t be needed this week.  Cows weren’t eating what was being offered by the end of last week anyway. FEI peaked at 7.6 at the end of this week which was enough to trigger an alert even with cows eating such low levels of PKE.

Third and last metri-check completed, with four cows treated.  25 cows in total this season (6% of the herd).

Mating started on the 22^nd September and we have inseminated 181 cows after 7 days (25 cows/day).  We require an average of 17 cows/day to meet 90% 3-week submission rate.

We budget $2153 for repro intervention and this year we have spent approximately $1900 on CIDRs for 28 cows (6.8%) that had calved more than 42 days and not had a pre-mating heat, and a PG shot for 100 cows that had a cycle in the week prior to mating. Six years ago we were CIDRing up to 140 cows.  Last year we CIDRed 27 cows with no PG used. CIDRs went in on the 23 September and cows will be mated 30^th September - 1^st October.

For the PG cows the first 60 that cycled 5-7 days prior to PSM received a PG shot on the 22^nd September.  The remaining 40 cows that cycled 1-4 days prior to PSM received a PG shot on the 27^th September.  This has the effect of mating these 100 cows in the first two weeks of mating. We don’t use sexed semen on these cows and still have enough cows coming up to fill our daily quota of 8 sexed semen straws/day on high BW cows.

All heifers have been mated and are now running with bulls.

Crop paddocks were sprayed with Glyphosate on 19^th September, and annual paddocks will be cut on Thursday and ensiled on Friday. The remaining paddocks have all been grazed.  We tried pre-mowing some of the sprayed paddocks to see if the grazing resulted in a cleaner paddock but found up to 8 slugs/m² under the clumps left behind. That’s up to 80,000 slugs munching away at our new crop seedlings!!  With slug numbers reported to be higher this year we happily spend $70/ha on slug bait by applying 5 kg/ha after final graze and 5 kg/ha at sowing.  For some paddocks we will apply up to 20 kg/ha of bait depending on monitoring data (the sack or log in the paddock that we check under).

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

So far this season we have had 24 lame cows, and 11 cows treated for mastitis. With zero deaths and eight cows treated with milk fever, one RFM and 25 cows with metritis, we consider the cows to be in good health. We recorded our lowest ever SCC pick up of 60,000 yesterday - a testament to the hard work the team is putting into our <150,000 SCC target for the season.

Whole herd BCS was carried out on the 24^th September with an average BCS of 4.6, down from 4.8 at the beginning of the month.  Seven cows are below BCS 4; we have checked these out.  Five cows are being milked OAD at the moment (all in the small herd). Heifers average BCS 4.8.

Cows continue to receive selenium, cobalt, copper, zinc, iodine and magnesium chloride in the Dosatron, and magnesium oxide via paddock dusting.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week

ENVIRONMENT

Year 8 St Peter’s Students helped us plant out over 1000 plants from the school’s Trees for Survival programme.  Using a handy Makita hole borer and having the plants laid out ahead of the students made for a very effective two hours of planting. We have been lucky to receive a donation of 280 plants from Karapiro school that we will plant up along another drain where they will be able to see them when the cycleway opens at the beginning of next year.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Mental Health Awareness week is about taking time to korero. Farming can get hectic but Tom and I have a weekly routine of clearing our diaries every Tuesday between 10-2pm to carry out the farm walk and process the data for the week.  It’s during this time that we chat about our aspirations for the farm but also for ourselves and our families.  We try to solve the problems of the world and also provide a listening ear to each other’s frustrations.  It’s a time to be present and listen, every now and then I miss a piece of data but I can always get it later.  Taking care of our mental health can’t wait.

COMMUNITY

The last of our Wednesday weekly catch-ups is about our experience of using the Healthy Hoof process to manage the high rates of lameness (34% of the herd) we experienced in the 2019/20 season. By implementing a few significant changes this was reduced to 15% in 2020/21.

Monday, 20 September 2021

Week ending 20-9-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

After 2 wet weeks and delayed growth rates we were pleased to see that APC lifted to 2248 kgDM/ha with a growth rate of 66 kgDM/ha/day. Our APC includes 8.2ha of annuals that are over 3000kgDM/ha that are due to be ensiled before going into crop. Removing these silage paddocks to show the grazeable pasture on farm drops our APC to 2128 kgDM/ha.

On Sunday we roundup sprayed 12ha of the farm plus the support area for calves on Chicory. Non annual crop paddocks will be grazed by the cows before direct drilling.  The aim is to clean these paddocks out before drilling to reduce slug pressure on germinating seedlings. Planting date for all crops is planned for 1^st October.

With lower pre-graze covers this week we filled the gap with 3.5kgDM PK.  This lifted our FEI from 4.8 with no PK to 6 (which is still well within the threshold of 9).  Total feed offered dropped to 19.5kgDM/cow/day but residuals and cow behaviour showed us that cows were content. Cows have started leaving the PK preferring pastures and as our pre-graze covers increase to 2700-2900 kgDM/ha we are reducing the PK offered down to 1kgDM/cow/day for this week. Still targeting minimum 20 kgDM/cow/day offered. We have enough PK in our bin but have been warned of up to 9 day waits on PK deliveries. Our cows require intakes of 18.7 kgDM high quality feed to meet energy output and more to be gaining BCS.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

We have had 69 mm of rain so far in September more than all of September last year. September is the highest rainfall month of the year with average rainfall of 131mm. This has caused a spate of lameness with 10 cows drafted out to rest or treat this week – bringing our season to date total to 26 cows.

We had 130 non-cyclers on 15^th Sept.  Out of these 52 were late calving cows (calved less than 42 days)

As at the 22^nd September we still have 38 cows on our watch list still to cycle that have calved more than 42 days. CIDRs are due to go in 23^rd September on a select group of these cows.

Heifers have been synchronised and mated on the 20^th and 21^st for the two mobs out grazing.  Cows have all had fresh tailpaint with green indicating cycled cow, blue indicating calved less than 42 days from PSM and yellow a non-cycling cow.  Cows start mating 22^nd Sept which is a 1^st July PSC.

Cows are still receiving MgCl (5g Mag/cow), Zinc and bloat oil via the dosatron and paddocks get dusted with MgO (13-15g Mag/cow) ahead of the cows.

Colostrum milk has all been used and replacement heifers are on 80% formula/20% vat milk mix. They are being rotated around the farm 2 days per paddock and the second mob of calves have just ventured outside.

BUSINESS HEALTH

After the first 3 months of the season we have spent $210,464 and produced 25,252 kgMS.

LIC dividend received earlier than budget, and increases in payout since budget was approved in March, show an increase of $68,023 income season to date. Timing of expenses including purchasing all Mg at the start of the season (which provided very valuable due to shipping delays), fertiliser timing relative to budget and increase in product price, and the decision to use milk replacement powder instead of milk from the vat have all increased expenses season to date by $30,093. Surplus is tracking $36,501 ahead of budget season to date. Our full actual to budget cashflow can be found https://www.owlfarm.nz/financials/farmbudgets

ENVIRONMENT

Farm Insights report from Fonterra shows Purchased N surplus reduced to 110kgN/ha compared to 133 kgN/ha in 2019/20 and 169 kgN/ha in 2018/19.

The GHG emissions showed that the BM group in the Waikato along with us increased in 2020/21 compared with 2019/20 as a result of a good production season. We are still tracking lower per hectare than other farms producing more than 1200kgMS/ha.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Nothing to report

COMMUNITY

Monday, 13 September 2021

Week ending 13-9-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

A static pasture growth rate of 44kgDM/ha/day resulted in a drop of APC to 2120 kgDM/ha.  Current demand on pasture alone is 58kgDM/day. We have 2 paddocks left that meet our pre-graze target of 2780-2880 kgDM/ha. Calculated as 2.84 cows/ha x 20.5 kgDM/cow intake x 22 day rotation + 1500-1600kgDM/ha residual = 2780-2880kgDM/ha pre graze target.

Our next longest paddocks are 2600kgDM/ha.  Options include do nothing and reduce intake while cows continue to mobilise BCS, offer more area per day and speed up the round, reduce demand through early culls, or use supplements to fill the gap.

We have 11ha allocated for cropping due to be sprayed out on Sunday which will increase our stocking rate to 3.08 cows/ha.  We have 3 paddocks of annuals that are over 3200kgDM/ha that will be ensiled after spraying rather than pushing the cows to graze them.  This will ensure that we get a cleaner paddock prior to sowing in the hope that it will reduce the slug pressure that we face for early crop survival.

With cows at peak production and mating due to start next Wednesday we made the decision to offer 2-3kgDM PK/cow depending on paddock size and while maintaining residuals. This will be reassessed after next week’s farm walk.

We do not want to go any faster as we are currently grazing the paddocks at 2.5 leaf stage and by going into these paddocks earlier we are trading of potential growth.  We aim to generate around 55ha of grass silage through the spring at Owl Farm so need to manage pasture to maximise yield and quality. We have applied an average of 46kgN/ha over the last 6 weeks over 2 applications so there are only a few paddocks still to get there second application of N. We then move into strategic use of N based on soil test results to support silage making.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Calving finished last week and mating starts next week on Wednesday 22^nd.  We will be using pre-mating heats along with calving date, BCS, general health to determine alongside our vets which cows will benefit from CIDR use.

Bloat oil started through the dosatron this week.  As this is 2 weeks later than we would normally start we are also manually adding bloat oil to the troughs until the dostaron has caught up.  We continue to add MgCl to the dosatron and dust with MgO.

Calves are now on a 60/40 mix of milk replacer.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report this week.

ENVIRONMENT

We have engaged the services of Wildlands to develop an integrated planting and management plan (IPMP) for Owl Farm.  This can be viewed at https://www.owlfarm.nz/environment/farm-environment-plan

The objectives of the IPMP are to:

Prepare an integrated planting plan to guide the management of additional planting areas and previously planted areas within Owl Farm.

The IPMP will include planting for biodiversity, aesthetic, and shade/shelter outcomes.

Include site preparation, fencing, maintenance and monitoring requirements of planted areas.

Include planting schedules of appropriate species for each planting area.

Include a planting and management timeline and a calendar of activities for public events and student engagement.

Incorporate plants grown by students through the Trees for Survival programme and other farm education objectives.

Consider and be consistent with farm operations, the cycleway project, Waikato River restoration and any other farm or adjacent projects. Implementation of this IPMP will protect and enhance ecological features of the farm and help guide future planting and subsequent management.  With approximate cost per planting area we are able to include in our budget cycle the cost of plants and have data available for applying for funding.

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Setting up for our AI technician who will be visiting multiple farms has involved QR code for scanning at the shed, boot wash and masks for workspaces safety.

COMMUNITY

Monday, 6 September 2021

Week ending 6-9-21 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

Growth rate dropped to 44kgDM/ha/day and so did APC to 2182 kgDM/ha.  Wedge still looks OK but the gap at the end will start to be grazed within 2 weeks so we really need growth rates to step up now. Tom continues to follow behind the cows with our second round application of N.  We have used an average of 34.5 kgN/ha to date.

We will finish the last of our PK in the next few days with no more due on contract until December and no grass silage left. We are now grazing 6.6ha/day (including colostrum and springers) which is a 22-day rotation.  The training wheels are well and truly off!!! The key is to hold our rotation length pre-mating and ensure that the cows are cleaning up what is offered.  We still have a trigger in place if cows are consistently grazing below 1500 kgDM/ha.  This would indicate that cows are being underfeed and we have the option to purchase PK at spot prices if we can generate a good milksolids response from the supplement and achieve target residuals. With good cow condition and APC to maximise available growth we shouldn’t need this.

Cows are being offered 20.5 kgDM/day of pasture producing 2.25kgMS/cow. The silage finished last week and the PK was feed to the young herd twice for paddocks that were under target at grazing and offered ad-lib to the colostrum cows.

Milk quality has been great with 97% excellence and SCC of 106,000.

Pasture samples were taken and sent off to the lab for testing today. Our first herd test was carried out last night and this morning.

Unfortunately due to supply chain issues our Plantain only just turned up. It is a challenge now to sow it with fertiliser as planned, as some of the earmarked paddocks are not due for an application for another 3-4 weeks. This will be too late for successful establishment with such fast growing ryegrass swards. For these paddocks we will look to apply in Autumn or the following spring if we can safely store the seed.

Last year’s rainfall of 836 mm vs the drought the year prior of 752 mm means that although we have had average rainfall for winter of 317 mm our soil moisture levels are very similar to this time last year. 

Metservice predicts an average to dry September for us. This would indicate that we need to get our crops in the ground early (as planned) and closely monitor rainfall and soil moisture to predict if we will be able to make the required grass silage at home.

ANIMAL WELL-BEING

Heifer calves are still on 50/50 milk replacer mix.  At the moment this equals a 20kg bag which only takes 10 minutes to make up.  The most time consuming process is having to weigh out the milk powder as the quantities increase.  All wagyu calves have gone and we only have 7 cows left to calve.

Second group of cows have been metri-checked with 4 cows from 130 needing metri-cure. None of the previously treated cows needed re-treating.

Tail painted tonight as we enter the second week of pre-mating heats.

Heifers were weighed at grazing with the mob of 75 now at 292kg and the mob of 15 under-weight now 297 (gained 0.6 – 1.2kg/day on silage and PK at graziers).  Only 8 heifers out of the 90 are currently underweight at grazing. Sychrony will start on heifers 11^th September at both blocks with sexed semen used on the mob of 75 and the Forward Pack on the mob of 15.

Cows received their pre-mating BCS on the 1^st Sept.  Herd average was 4.8, heifers were 4.9 and 2 cows were below 4. We are happy with the result which is lower than last year (5.4 on the 17^th August 2020) but only 0.2 down from our July BCS average.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Nothing to report.

ENVIRONMENT

As part of our commitment to the Cooperative Difference we partake in a recycling scheme where all our silage and baleage wrap goes to the Plasback scheme. We purchase the recycling bags from FarmSource which the team fill up thoughout the season – this keeps the plastic cleaner and the farm tidier - and ring for a pick up through Slatterys from Matamata.  Each liner is $22.50 + GST and pick up is $50 + GST each.  More details can be found here: https://slatterycontracting.co.nz/services/silage-wrap-recycling/

QUALITY WORKPLACE

Team all vaccinated this week with a supply of masks when needed as students come back to school on Monday under L2 guidelines.

COMMUNITY