| 105 nzdairy ON FARM » Dairy Holdings • to page 106 Focus on pasture and cow fertility key Sue Russell Mick O’Connor is one of South Island-based business Dairy Holdings Ltd’s, farm supervisors. He’s part of a team of seven who support and engage with individual dairy farmers within the network, to ensure goals set are attained whenever possible. “I’m most concerned with things like the operational part of running a dairy farm, such as feed management, health and safety, environmental management and meeting budget targets,” Mick explains. His particular network of dairy farms are around the Rakaia district and while each farm works to very similar systems applying to pasture and herd management, having an overview of a group of farms, enable Mick to see where slight variations occur. “Dairy Holdings Ltd’s policy is to farm simply, focussing on getting the best from our pasture and to shift animal management practices around this. We are a low input system, where resources and technologies are invested in soil and pasture quality. If we get those systems working well, then the rest tends to fall in place.” Key, Mick says, to the success of Dairy Holdings Ltd’s environmental plans, including its strategic approach to reducing GHG emissions from its farms, is that it has approached pasture quality as central to gaining efficiencies. This has partly been done by embracing the CropX smart technologies to inform farmers as to optimum levels of moisture that need to be applied, in real time. “We’ve also tracked under the Governments prescribed synthetic nitrogen fertiliser applications levels of 190kg per hectare per year for some time now, so when the regulations came in from July 2021, it didn’t require major adjustments to our farm. Each year we’ve managed to create similar milk production levels with less and less nitrogen.” Sensors probe the soil at 20cm and 40cm and provide data on moisture and temperature. Mick says its on the shoulder of the seasons where the most potential irrigation efficiencies come into play. New irrigation at Luporini Grazing Block. “The probes allow the data to be gathered that point to the water holding capacity on any given paddock. It’s tuning irrigation to that capacity that brings about efficiencies in water-use.” Overseeing multiple farms Mick can quickly refer to his computer to see how each farm is performing. The sensors are very easy to install and can Property Brokers Ltd Licensed REAA 2008 PB067035 Experts in the South Island dairy market Talk to the team today 0800 367 5263 or visit pb.co.nz
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