Wet Wet Wet

Just a quick post. It's been a wet February and it looks to be a cold AND wet March. Every break is back fenced with cows grazing 3-4 hours during the day then stood on silage and grazed on a smaller area at night. The idea being, sending them out full, to the night break, encourages less time standing and trampling, and more time lying down. 

Hardcore grazing (don't worry we brought them back in after a couple of hours!)

Despite all this calving is coming to an end. 75% of the herd have calved with only one vet callout to a backwards breach calf. I expect another 10% in the next fortnight, with the final 15% strung out until the end of April. If we hit target numbers for the season before then, there may be scope to sell all the April calvers and have a break before service starts. It's nice to have dreams!

Staff are in good spirits with all our replacement heifer calves now on once a day feeding. Any calf born from now onwards will be sold at 10 days old.

R2s happy on baleage and grass

As you can see above, this year our R2s are wintered on grass and bales. We've seen our friends do this for years and always wanted to give it a go. It turns out to be the perfect year to start, as the ground has been so wet that without the bales, they would have struggled to utilise the heavy deferred grass covers.

I hope you're all coping with the weather and still managing to keep grazing!

Things come full circle

Just a quick post to mark the start of grazing 2016. 

Cows back fenced onto the break.

Cows have been out day and night since 27th Jan. The weather has been very mixed. One minute bright and dry, the next torrential rain and 20mph+ winds. Teat condition had been a concern so I've doubled the amount applied by the auto teat sprayers. Most breaks require a back fence to avoid treading the same area twice.

The good news is that our heifer synchrony has worked well. 68% of those submitted have calved to the single service. What's pleasing to see is that our second calvers are now "second to calve" as they were front loaded into our block last year and were the first submitted when mating started. Hopefully they can stay in this "virtuous circle" this year!

Here are some farm facts as of today 11/2/16:

Avg cover: 2500
Planned start of calving: 7/2 (1/2 Heifers)
Percentage calved: 36%

And here are the final KPIs from last year:

Grass grown TDM: 15
Kg MS/Cow: 481
Kg MS/Ha: 1588
Kg Conc/Cow: 980
Avg Cows/Ha: 3.6
MT rate@12 weeks: 7%
InCalf@6 weeks AI: 83%

All in all a good year for us and a great grass growing year.

Until next time, keep grazing!

Lessons from New Zealand

Season's greetings to everyone reading this. I hope 2015 was a good year for you and that 2016 proves a prosperous one.

I haven't blogged for a while now, I've been enjoying time with my family and thought it best to wait until I felt a bit more "inspired" by a particular topic. So without further digression here's a blog all about my recent trip to New Zealand.

If you'd rather not read the "travelogue" then just skip to the bullet points!

It seems like a long time since I first read about NZ and grass based dairying. When I came home from university, my wife was living and working away whilst qualifying as a teacher, this left me with a lot of time to learn about the farming business my parents were then running. A typical evening would consists of finishing milking, showering, eating, then simply sitting and reading articles, journals and magazines on kiwi dairying. It fascinated me that there could be such a well researched and clearly defined system for operating a dairy farm, and yet its practices were adopted by only a minority of UK farmers. I knew one day I would have to visit NZ and see for myself.

Last November I set off for three weeks on the Positive Farmers NZ tour. This is a biennial tour run by Mike Murphy. The program looked appealing, starting in the north and working our way down to the south of NZ, taking in all the major dairying regions.

It was a well organised tour, with some important and very clear messages imparted to the group. In fact a lot of the value of the trip was gained in the interaction of the group on the bus with Mike orchestrating and guiding debate. These moments, where we were each encouraged to give our own take and engage in debate with each other, will stand as some of the most enjoyable and memorable of the tour. Topics from goal setting to our own individual farm issues were opened up to the group with really interesting discussion.

I'll confess straight away that the first week was a shock to the system. Now, as you may have guessed, I love cows and farming, but I do endeavour to have "other interests" and not become a "farming bore" as I'm regularly accused! So the idea of two farm visits a day, with not much respite in between, wore thin quicker than I had hoped. Not to mention it took me a good four days just to recover from the jet lag!

One problem for me, was just how similar the farms we were taken to were. They were largely System 1 or 2 farms with little to no imported supplement fed and cows wintered on deferred grazing. This is the ultimate simple system with minimal infrastructure. So apart from the cows and grass there really wasn't much to see. It was explained that this in itself was a problem for kiwi farmers. It is simply too easy to be a dairy farmer in NZ. Climate, banks, genetics, land availability; all their ducks line up neatly in a row for them. Boredom was a big fear for them, and is partly responsible for the intensification of systems they have experienced in the last 10 years.

Whilst it was clear that these "simple system" farmers were fantastic businessmen who, in staying true to their system and not following the crowd, had reaped huge financial reward, some of what I encountered was simply "not cool".

A typical narrative was one of a young sharemilker starting out with a small herd and really valuing each one. But as their numbers expanded and they moved to multi-unit management, cows just became numbers. They became so fixated by their "nil-supplement" system that when a drought occurred, or a spring deficit the only options they had were to cull hard, "chop their heads off", or "mine body condition", another term for this was "controlled starvation". A lot was made of the resilience of their cows to lose condition and still get in calf. Cows which over conditioned themselves were callously referred to as "fat bitches". To me this goes against everything I believe about the care of cows. I have always been taught that it is a privilege to rear and milk livestock and that we have a duty of care towards every animal. This isn't to say that every farmer on this system felt the same, but attitude towards cows with certain individuals was nothing short of disturbing.

Deforestation for dairying

Another aspect which surprised me was the sheer prevalence of dairying in NZ. We drove up to the North Island town of Taupo. Along the way we saw miles and miles of deforestation. Then as the trees were cleared the ground was being cultivated and sown to ryegrass for dairying. Until recently any woodland which was removed had to be replanted somewhere else. A change in this law now means that NZ's forestry is declining at an alarming rate. This seems particularly perverse when you consider that tourism is such a vital part of NZ's economy. Marketed and traded heavily on their unique natural beauty, bit by bit this is being eroded to plant more European ryegrass species, to milk more cows.

Now I don't want to end on a negative. The above stands as my own thoughts and reaction to a very unique trip, and should by no means be taken as an indictment of the entire country or dairy industry. In fact none of the farms we visited could be described as representing the average in any way. A lot of the language I have quoted, was in all likelihood an exaggeration on behalf of a few individuals and not, if pressed, their true feelings.

I did take home a lot from the trip, as I've tried to summarise below. I met some really great people, especially our host family in Taranki, and saw some absolutely jaw dropping scenery and natural beauty. There's no doubt I'll return to NZ one day with my family in tow and hopefully explore more of its unique landscapes.

Key Take Home Messages:

• Simple systems provide more free time to asses opportunities and grow.
• Simple systems are, by their very nature, more repeatable in both establishment and outcomes.
• Having clearly defined goals and values allow you to make smarter decisions. If you are in business with someone else it is important that these goals are delineated from the outset and aligned.
• "Free Time" is as equally valid a goal as "Free Cash", though the two may not be mutually exclusive.
• Debt levels should be set according to the capabilities of the operator and their personal approach to risk. "Back yourself" was a common phrase. If you run a cash rich business, you can service debt, if you can service debt you can grow your business.

Autumnal Grazing

Cows off to graze on a brisk morning.

Today's post will be about autumn grazing management.

Things are going well at Tre Abbot. Autumn has been very kind so far. From a poor start, with a cold and miserable August, it has soon turned out to be a fantastic period for grass and cows. Where we had budgeted growth in the 40s, instead we've had almost a fortnight growing at 60+kgDM/Ha/Day. Along with this the weather has stayed dry, allowing for very clean residuals.

Just to emphasise the point, and to prove I don't just take pictures of cows and grass, here's my 6 months old in the garden.

Mari enjoying the warm weather!

So at this time of year the grazing is simplified using an autumn rotation planner. Basically in this, our final round, we aim to graze 60% of the farm in October and 40% in November. Knowing the farm has little to no winter growth, and that we have a very high spring demand, we will aim to finish grazing with a cover of 2200kgDM/Ha. Grazing management has become offering the cows the same allocation every day, and supplementing the difference. Along with the rotation planner we use an autumn budget so we know how much grass should be on the farm each week until drying off.

Autumn Budget

As you can see, despite a poor start, growth has been exceptional and leaves us just ahead of budget going into this week. Both the autumn rotation planner and the budget are very simple tools that we have used for over ten years now. Not trying to reinvent the wheel, and sticking to tried and tested grazing management has led to very consistent and replicable results.

R1s happy on the break.

On a personal note, in the past couple of months I've taken on work as a grazing consultant. So far I've really enjoyed the experience working with some interesting and varied clients. Being put on the spot and challenged to provide advice has really helped firm my own values around resilient grass based systems and the positive effects grazing can have for man and beast alike! My current plans are to keep it to two visits a week.

Until next time, keep grazing!

Results Day: Scanning 2015

Just a quick blog post today to update you all on what's been happening on farm.

At this time of year we look to build farm cover by extending the grazing round. We build up a bank of grass to keep us grazing until drying off at the end of November. Unfortunately, temperatures have been below average, as has rainfall. This has meant feeding silage a month earlier than planned. But in the last fortnight we finally had significant rain, and covers are now back on target.

Getting ready to scan some heifers!

The other news this month are our scanning results. This year, cows were mated for 12 weeks, 6 weeks of AI and 6 weeks of stock bulls. Heifers all had a single fixed timed AI then ran with Jersey bulls for 12 weeks.

As our favourite vet, "Kiwi" Kate Burnby, was only in the area for a few days, we decided to bite the bullet and scan all 370 cows and 140 heifers in one day. We started in the morning scanning on the vet platform as the cows are milked on the rotary parlour. Kate is so fast at this that the whole process barely added half an hour to our milking time!

The great news was that for the third season in a row only 7% of our cows were empty. With 83% in calf to the 6 week AI.

After some toast and a mug of tea, we set off to the runoff block to scan the R2s. We've never scanned R2s before, but given our surplus of stock we thought it would at least give us the option to sell some. Despite my reservations that these were a smaller group of heifers than the year before, we only found 5% empty (7 heifers), with 84% in the first 6 weeks. We won't know how well they have held to the AI, but Kate seemed confident that a lot of them would be early calving.

We're obviously really pleased with all the results and are now faced with many options for next season. Here are just a few:

1. Keep everything and milk more cows

2. Sell surplus heifers

3. Sell surplus cows

4. Clean out herd with more voluntary culling

Whilst I'm considering all of these, I'd rather not winter any stock I don't intend to keep and milk myself next season. But at the end of the day it's great to have a choice.

Before I sign off  just a quick thanks  to Clawdd Offa for letting us borrow Sue for the day! She was a massive help and it's fair to say we couldn't have managed without her. And of course thanks to Kate for a professional and efficient scanning.

Until next time,

Keep grazing!

Cutting Costs

So here it is. A simple graph illustrating milk price volatility in the last ten years. Dairy farmers worldwide will be acutely aware of where we are today. Everyone has a slightly different story of how we've ended up in this mess, from the Russian ban on EU imports, to Chinese over purchasing. I'm not going to wade in on the causalities, only to say they are many, complex and often interlinked. Instead I've chosen to focus on what I can control: my own cost of production.

The biggest advantage of a seasonal calving, grass based system, is the low cost per KG of milk which can be achieved. With grazed grass the cheapest feed available, matching cow demand to grass growth helps to not only insulate us from the volatility of purchased feed costs, but also to avoid the "hidden" costs of wastage, substitution and depreciation. From these core values of grass utilisation and production costs, I sat down today and wrote out the key areas in which I could cut costs next season.

Are you carrying surplus animals?

• Carry fewer surplus animals. This is probably the single biggest place I can save money. Scan cows early and cull/sell anything you don't intend to milk next season. Wintering is a big costs for an animal that you won't milk the next season. We would usually keep some late calvers and sell to them into the UK, year round calving, market. Unfortunately I don't think there will be a big market for these animals in a low milk price year.

• Use Stock Bulls on our bulling heifers. Despite our success with AI over the past two seasons, it is still a cost which can be saved from our cash flows. Any herd expansion plans will be put on hold in light of the milk price, so the cost of fewer AI bred replacements can be mitigated. This leads on to my second point...

• Less intervention in the main herd. For the past three seasons we have used CIDRs on all +42 day calved cows, which haven't cycled premating. Despite averaging a respectable 56% conception, the numbers we have to treat have fallen as the herd quality has improved. With a surplus of R1s, it is now time to "mine" this core fertility and trust we will get enough replacements without the 5-7% CIDR cows.

• Delay repairs and cut capital expenditure. In any other year I'd love to upgrade some of our tracks and purchase a better handling facility for our youngstock. But these will have to wait. We have invested a lot in recent years, upgrading everything from the parlour to water system. Now it's time to put the chequebook away and focus on making the most out of what we have.

• Reduce regrassing. Typically we would look to reseed 10% of the milking platform a year. However this could be reduced to 5% or less for the coming season. Apart from the immediate savings in seed and contracting, it would also act as insurance against inclement weather which would otherwise force us to purchase more feed.

Hopefully these suggestions have given you all some food for thought about your own on farm costs. Exceptionally low milk prices will call for a degree of short termism, which may not sit comfortably with our long term goals. But when the battle is right in front of us, the real victory will be if we're still around to farm the year after! 

Spreading the good word of Grazing!

Firstly, apologies for such a late blog post. I do try and update once a fortnight. But in my defence it's been a particularly busy month.

Mid summer is a great time to get off our own farms and get out of the daily bubble.

To start off, we've had a great trip to Pembrokeshire to see the in-laws, and to show our four month old daughter the beautiful beaches for the first time. Fortunately she slept most of the four hour journey there, and was in a good mood for the whole trip!

More recently I've been to Ireland, to visit Moorepark for their open day. With a fantastic turnout of over 14000 people, it's fair to say Irish farmers are positive about grassland farming!

Moorepark Open Day 2015

We began the day in groups listening to the first key speakers, outlining the core messages for the day. With the recent removal of EU milk quotas, sustainable expansion was the overriding theme. What struck me was the smaller scale of dairy farms in Ireland. I'd estimate the average "NZ system" grazing farm in the UK milks close to 300 cows. Whereas in Ireland, where the majority are block calving, the average was 60 cows. Expansion plans also seemed modest with one speaker describing the move from 60 to 80 cows in the future. Whilst these numbers are only the national averages, with many larger and even smaller herds, it emphasises a key difference of scale between UK and Irish units.

A typical information board from the day.

The day was really well organised, with a ridiculous amount of information on offer, covering pretty much every aspect of grassland dairying. It left us wondering why the UK couldn't produce similar research?

In truth the variation in farming systems makes the task of the levy funded research body in the UK a real headache. Ireland's advantage is that they only have to cater to a single grass based audience, whereas the UK has to appease everybody from total confinement operators, to extensive block calving. Fortunately for those of us in the latter camp, Ireland is only a ferry ride away!

Just before I sign off, in a previous post I said I'd share the success or failure of my direct drilled reseeds. Well here's the results ....

Drilled reseeds

Unfortunately the picture doesn't tell the whole story. After a month in the ground the seedlings had germinated and emerged on only about half the ground. We decided to redrill at an angle, which worked straight away. My guess is, there was too much of a compressed matt in the top few inches of soil, this smothered the seeds, and those that did come struggled to root in the hard ground. Only when this matt had rotted away enough was the ground ready for the second drilled seeds to establish. What would I do differently? Maybe try and break the ground and matt with a harrow before drilling. We live and learn in farming!