NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

| 49 nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » David Cole Northland farmer finds recipe for soil health N orthland dairy farmer David Cole will tell you there is no better sight than a green paddock full of black and white cows. On his family’s Te Maire farm, which traces its history back 105 years, those green paddocks may also contain bright yellow sunflowers, peas winding themselves up stems of sorghum or faba beans drilled directly into sandy paddocks and buckwheat added to release phosphate tied up in the soil. “I’m a big fan of the idea that different plants can do different things to your soil without having to get into a tractor and burn diesel,” says David. He has been “dipping his toes” in regenerative farming practices over the last two seasons on the family’s 220 hectare farm and 40 hectare run-off. While the farm is not fully regenerative, he is now an advocate of what regenerative practices can do for farming soils. “We experimented last year with a paddock that we call the duck pond, for obvious reasons. We had tried everything with it. I had done a lot of reading on sunflowers and millet and their ability to break up tight soil, so we planted that mix in the paddock and the results were amazing.” The sunflowers and millet broke up the soil and it is now one of the best paddocks on their farm. The crop they cut from the paddock was mixed with molasses and a bit of baleage for their Holstein Friesian herd, which thrived on the high protein mix. “The product that we took off to feed the cows was incredible. If you were growing that you would never grow maize to feed to your cows again,” says David. David and Karen average 400kg/MS per cow from their Autumn calving herd and David says it was the hot dry Northland summers they have experienced in recent years that made them realise the yield they were getting from their maize was too low and it was proving too expensive. “I started doing a lot of reading and the regen- erative approach seemed to make a lot of sense.” Now they make up to 1,000 bales of baleage both from traditional pasture and from paddocks ‘Last year a challenging year’ • from page 48 the cows.” Owen concedes they possibly haven’t culled as much as they should have each season in their second herd which has resulted in a higher percentage of older cows. Depending on the result this season, he may consider milking the affected cows once-a-day next season to reduce the pressure on them. The empty rate highlights that milk production should not come at the cost of reproduction and of the life span of a cow, Owen says. Along with the empty rate, Owen and Hollie had to contend with drought last season. “Last year was a challenging year, it was dry late and for a long period of time. We were dry February, March and a bit through April whereas normally for us we are dry February and we start getting our autumn rains in March.” Because of this, they instituted a ten-and-seven milking regime which involves milking twice-a- day Monday, Wednesday and Friday and once-a- day every other day, resulting in ten milkings a week instead of fourteen. In addition to being a drought management tool, the benefit compared to 16 hour milking was that “this way we had a routine”, Owen says. “Every day was the same. It worked well.” “I had done a lot of reading on sunflowers and millet and their ability to break up tight soil, so we planted that mix in the paddock and the results were amazing.” they are regenerating using their newfound crops. This season they added peas to their regenerat- ing paddocks to increase nitrogen in the ground and Sorghum because the peas yield better with something to climb. Buckwheat was added to release acids into the soil and free up phosphate to also help with growing better crops. “It’s not a fully regenerative system because the cows aren’t feeding directly off it. We cut the crop then let the paddock go back to grass once the other plants have done their job to restore and rejuvenate the soils.” David says the resulting hay and baleage yield a high protein crop however which his cows abso- lutely love. “Protein is very expensive to bring in. In the past we have brought DDG meal, but we’ve found the sunflowers can replace that and we’re hoping by adding the faba beans and the peas into the hay, we’ll eventually be free of having to bring any protein in the farm gate,” says David. The couple are milking 200 cows this season, sightly lower than their normal 225. David says they have been fully Autumn calving since 1990, when they realised the Northland weather didn’t work for their operation. They dry off on December 24 and the cows are out for about eight weeks. “We calve in March now. It’s a bit counterintuitive because it’s very dry up here around that time, but it gets us into mating well before the shortest day of the year and we find our cows get in-calf easier if it’s before the shortest day.” – Holstein Friesian New Zealand Photos: Northland farmer David Cole has been ‘dipping his toes’ in regenerative farming practices over the last two seasons David and son Thomas with the 1956 F100 Ford Pickup David rebuilt from scratch. – Photos: Holstein Friesian NZ • General Engineering and Fabrication • Cowsheds and Rotary platforms • Certified Welding • Stainless Steel & Aluminium • Site work • Mechanical and Maintenance fitting • Machining service • All work carried out by qualified tradesmen Deon Lawrence Mobile 027 551 1742 After Hours 06 273 4299. Email dslengltd@gmail.com 989 South Road, RD 12, Hawera 4672.