126 | nzdairy Ballance Farm Environment Awards » Windale Dairy Every four days, Ben’s out walking the farm with a rising plate meter, checking grass levels paddock by paddock. Kim Bowden North Canterbury dairy farmer Ben Croft did not have rows of native plantings or fencedoff wetlands to show judges on the Culverden farm he manages. Instead, the sustainability story that earned him the DairyNZ Sustainability and Stewardship Award at the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards was less obvious. Ben’s focus has been soil health, efficient cows and tighter nutrient use. He’s cut cows numbers from 950 to 875 on the 259ha property at Windvale Dairy while lifting production by 38,000 kilograms of milksolids, growing an extra three tonnes of grass per hectare and cutting costs by $1.20 per kilogram of milksolids. Ben’s the first to admit the shift wasn’t a timid one. “To put it in layman’s terms, it takes big balls,” he says of the decision to cut cow numbers. Still, he is keen to stress it was a planned move, not a punt. After years of feeling he’d been “milking too many cows at a pretty average cost structure,” he worked with consultant Noelle Fox to model different herd sizes and feed systems, then chose a middle path that allowed him to rebuild if it didn’t stack up. Away from the spreadsheets, there’s work to do in the paddock. Every four days, Ben’s out walking the farm with a rising plate meter, checking grass levels paddock by paddock. “Everyone thinks I’m bonkers, but I actually do it manually, with the plate meter,” he says. Those extra three or so hours a week give him enough lead time to adjust feed requirements where necessary. He backs that up with wholefarm soil testing every second year and no generic “dumps” of fertiliser – instead, fertliser brews are designed by Agrownomics. Blends of four or five ingredients are put on with a fineparticle truck that crushes the fertiliser and applies it with water, helping nutrients stick to the leaf, break down faster and move into the soil with the use of pivot irrigation, so “you don’t need as much of it”. Soil health, efficient cows & tight nutrient use “There is little to no wasted nutrient going out through the soil profile. The grass and crops use all of it,” he says. After making the big shift to fewer cows, Ben’s focus is now on chasing “one-percent lifts”. The latest step is DNA testing the entire herd to better match calves to their parents and identify which cows are performing best “We have some cows that are bred fantastically well, but are just producing okay,” Ben says. He says other cows with less impressive breeding records were producing “really, really well”, suggesting there could be mismatches between calves and their recorded parents during busy calving periods. DNA testing will help confirm parentage and allow more targeted breeding decisions. “We’re not trying to get rid of the poorer cow, because she still has a place in the herd, but she just doesn’t produce as good a progeny,” he says. “The plan is to breed better cows to better semen, better bulls.” The farm is also increasingly favouring crossbreeding after analysing how efficiently different Proud to be carting Windale Dairy North Canterbury - Phone: 03 314 8979 The preferred milking systems partner for Dairy Farmers Ph 0800 577 583 | www.morrisonagri.co.nz Proud to support Windale Dairy Milking Machines Rotary Platforms Engineering Pumping & Plumbing Chemical cows convert feed into milksolids. Ben says Friesian cows on the farm convert one kilogram of feed into approximately 90 grams of milksolids, while the farm’s crossbred FriesianJersey cows convert the same amount into approximately 110 grams. “What we’ve discovered is our crossbred cows, although smaller, are more efficient,” he says. “We’re severely crossbreeding everything now.” Ben and his wife Wendy have spent 11 seasons on the property, first as equity managers and now under a contract manager arrangement for owners George and Susie Gould. For all your Ag & Silage Requirements Ph Johnny Miller 027 446 1318 or Steve Carr 027 538 4848 North Canterbury Ag & Silage
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