21/12/2020

Week ending 21-12-20 farm notes:

FARM PERFORMANCE

PGR has dropped off significantly this week as predicted to 40kgDM/ha/day.  As this is below our daily demand of 55kgDM/ha/day this has caused our APC to drop 2246kgDM/ha. We have made the decision to lengthen our round over the next week from 22 to 30 days using some longer paddocks, a change in milking frequency and PK to achieve this while maintaining allocation at 18kgDM/cow/day. This will suit the slower leaf emergent rate which we are seeing now of around 10-12 days.

Now that we have removed 10 high SC cows from the herd we will transition to 3 n 2 milking starting Wednesday.  We have changed our milking times via the Farmsource website and the cows will be milked as usual at 5am on Wednesday and given a big day break with shade (so they don’t need to be moved during the day).  They will then be milked at 6pm on Wednesday and then 11am the following day. If required the cows will come to the yard up to an hour before milking for sprinkler cooling.

This weeks grazing plan is 12kgDM/cow offered per milking made up of up to 9-10kgDM of pasture plus 2-3 kgDM PK offered mostly on the race to and from milking to manage FEI.

While we still have adequate green leafy pasture we can allocate 2.9ha per milking or 8.8ha per/2 days which gives us a 30 day rotation.

We aim for the crops in mid Jan to provide 4kgDM/cow/day with pasture (8-10kgDM) and pasture silage (4kgDM) with PK (2kgDM) making the shortfall if needed before we destock after final PD.  We have our PK on contract for Dec and Jan this year at $306/tDM.

The cup rubber liners were changed this week and will be changed again at the end of the season along with all rubberware.

Calves are receiving 1.5 kgDM/day grass silage and 1.5kg of PK/meal/day with 0.4ha every 2 days of Chicory. They are being shifted every second day along with a feed top up.  Today we started our second rotation on the crops with the first round taking 24 days. We will weigh the calves again early in the new year at the end of the second round and will be monitoring the time spent to carry out the tasks to rear the calves on crops.

ANIMAL WELLBEING

Early scan data has shown 3 week in-calf rate of 42% and 6 week in-calf rate of 65%.  This is compared with 51% and 74% average for the last 2 seasons all AI.  This was our third season all AI and the second season using sexed semen/Wagyu. We will do rechecks and final PD the first week of Feb to confirm final results.  We will be working with our vet and LIC Agri Manager to review the results and determine what changes need to be made for next season to improve on this.

BUSINESS HEALTH

Meet with Westpac Agri Manager to discuss how we have been tracking for the 1st six months of the season (to end of Nov).  We have spent 52% of our total budget to the end of November which includes grass silage purchased in spring instead of PK in summer. Early revisions on the feed and financial budget show that we are on track for FWE of $4.60/kgMS or less which includes wages for management. The feed budget shows that we only need to purchase another $20k PK for the season as we have approximately 220t of grass silage available to feed through summer and Autumn (630kg DM/cow) along with 11.5ha of crop that has already been accounted for. This has given us confidence to invest in planned race maintenance, riparian and shade/shelter planting and allocate surplus for increased debt repayment.

HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

200 m of effluent pipe was purchased (costing around $1900) to allow us to spread effluent on another 6ha (as we lost 10ha of our original area) total effluent area is now 48ha or 33% of the farm area. 

QUALITY WORKPLACE

At Owl Farm we use 3 n 2 milking to reduce stock movement and work during the heat of the day and to remove 3hr of work every 2 days from the working week in order to achieve our working week average of 45hr/wk/person for the year. We aim to transition after mating finishes and before we start feeding the crops.  Cows are producing consistently below 1.7kgMS and we have enough feed to continue allocating 18kgDM/day while we transition. This worked well last season from early Jan until early Feb when it got really dry and we went OAD.

We enjoyed having a team lunch on Friday to celebrate the 2020 season together and thank everyone for the work they have contributed and what we’ve achieved together. It’s been a busy and tiring year for everyone involved and it was a nice time to enjoy each other’s company and share more of our lives outside of Owl Farm and of course enjoy some nice food and a cold beer!

COMMUNITY

Nothing to report

PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:

• Weigh calves
• Get started on crops
• Settle on summer milking routines
• Time off farm

Merry Christmas from Jo + Tom