Lifting productivity on the Taieri Plains

Doing the basics as well as possible is the key to good farming for a second generation family dairy business on the Taieri Plains.

That includes renovating extra paddocks into new pasture each year to improve their productivity. Allan and Stephanie Newall bought the farm 22 years ago. Their son Lyndon and his wife Tina started contract milking five years later, and are now 50/50 sharemilkers.

The home farm totals 138 ha eff leased and freehold. In 2006 the family added a 185 ha run off at Hindon.

Last year Lyndon and Tina milked 373 cows for a total 155,000 kg MS with a ‘trying spring’. This season they will milk the same number of cows with budgeted production of 158,000 kg. They’re helped by staff Glen and Serena Smith. Glen works full time; Serena lends a hand with milking and calving.

At this time of year extra hands are essential – the Newalls rear all their calves, so spring is fl at out. (They have regular buyers for 100 kg calves and any left over are sent up to Hindon to be grown out for beef). Good animal husbandry is a top priority. “A happy cow is a healthy cow, and the same goes for our calves,” Lyndon says. “Our stock are our bread and butter, and we try to take the best care of them that we can.”

Overall the farm is grass-driven, although for the first time the Newalls fed 120t palm kernel last season. This season they plan to cut back to about 90t.

Other inputs include grass silage cut off the home farm; 18 ha winter forage at Hindon, where the cows winter and replacements are grown out; and 20 – 30t of N a year.

There are also 4 ha summer turnips on the home farm, a practice which began to combat increasingly dry summers that slow grass growth dramatically in late January and February.

These turnip paddocks are sown into new pasture every spring, but recently the Newalls also began renovating an extra paddock grass to grass later in the season.

“We needed to speed up our renovation. We feel pasture is the limiting factor on the farm now, and we’re keen to get new species,” Lyndon says.

So what exactly are they looking for? “Something that comes away in early spring, hangs on into the dry over summer and preferably doesn’t get frost damaged through winter.”

Tetraploid ryegrass fits the bill 

It’s early days yet but so far Bealey tetraploid ryegrass, recommended by their CRT technical field officer Karl White and sown in spring/summer 2008, seems to fit the bill.

“It stays green all winter and keeps growing, which is important for us. Older pastures tend to shut down in winter. You can  definitely see the difference between the two in late winter and early spring,” Lyndon says.

As for its ability to hang on into the dry, Bealey sown grass to grass late 2008 had a very testing time in early 2009. “It was ready for grazing when it got hit by the dry. We didn’t end up grazing it till April in the end. To be honest I thought I was going to have to re-do it, but it has held in there.”

Whether through crop or grass to grass, he invests in good paddock preparation and cultivation. The same goes for management. He’s careful not to deck Bealey paddocks (or any other new grass for that matter) and avoids grazing young pastures when the weather is very wet.

“We’d rather get in early and give it a light nip than wait and wait for the weather to come right. Otherwise you end up with no choice but to graze when probably you shouldn’t; that’s one thing we’ve learned from experience!”

Published courtesy of CRT's AgLine magazine - October 2009