Dry tactics for tight times

To compound the problem, decision making on 25 per cent of Gippsland dairy farms is affected by the business status — these farms produce milk under share or lease farm arrangements.

In the Macalister Irrigation District, low rainfall has been coupled with a lack of forecast about irrigation water out of the Southern Rural Water (SRW) system.

Dryland and irrigation farmers attended workshops at Riverslea and Hedley in early December.

Matt Harms, from On Farm Consulting, presented a range of strategies that farmers can implement.

Matt said for irrigators, a lot of decision making was hedged around how much of their irrigation entitlement was guaranteed by SRW beyond December 15.

For dryland dairy farmers, decision making was already being severely affected by lack of rain, or low rainfall.

Managing pastures by continuing to apply nitrogen and making the most of dew, rainfall when it falls or irrigation when it is available, included looking after good paddocks and dropping poor paddocks out of the rotation.

“Keep pastures managed as best as possible,” Matt said.

“If you normally top them, keep topping them.

“Keep putting nitrogen on at that 1-1.5 kg/ha, but I wouldn’t be going over 1.5 and I wouldn’t be going under 1.0.

“If you’re limited on irrigation water, drop areas that are going to have the least response to moisture. That is, poor pasture species or areas with soil that uses a lot of water.”

Matt also recommended dropping paddocks out of the rotation if they are a distance from the dairy.

This means the cows don’t walk long distances, and consequently will not want as much feed.

It also means, less labour is needed to move the herd over that distance and to feed the herd.

“And if you have water to put on paddocks, put it on your best pasture and grow a surplus, then harvest silage off it before you send the cows in to graze,” Matt said.

“The longer the tough season lasts, the more likely you’ll need to buy fodder.

“If you can get some silage off a true surplus now, that will reduce the amount of fodder you need to buy later.

“With recent rain, there’s probably two or three paddocks that are surplus to requirements right now and if pasture is getting away in them, that should enable them to be cut for silage.”

Matt recommended comparing how much it costs to harvest your own surplus pasture as silage, or using a contractor, or buying fodder.

“Demand for fodder will peak in February,” he said.

“Act as early as possible rather than delay decision making.

“If you know the farm is going to run out of water, compare the cost of buying more irrigation water — if that’s available — to buying fodder.

“Usually, it’s cheaper to buy temporary water.

“But it needs to go onto well watered good grass that’s going to keep those paddocks going along, and keep them watered. To me that’s a pretty good investment.

“When it rains, those are the paddocks that will respond fastest.”

Irrigation budgeting

Benn Thexton, from Gormandale, said in the previous drought, he had a strong cull cow policy, coupled with a flexible irrigation budget.

“We kept pushing the start date for irrigation later and eventually took it into March, past St Patrick’s Day,” he said.

“The dew point exists after St Patrick’s Day, so we were able to sow into moisture, then irrigate, then rely on dew to keep growth going.”

Efficient watering was also important. That included ensuring the nozzles on sprinklers were clean and clear, to optimise watering efficiently.

“And you can short-water paddocks, making efficient use of water, rather than over-watering them until they get boggy,” Matt said.

He said individual planning could factor in sowing late autumn and winter feed, with the option of grazing it in autumn, or cropping it for winter.

But Matt’s advice came with a warning.

“Remember this time last year when the meteorologists’ predictions cost a lot of people a lot of money,” he said.

James Clyne recently purchased temporary water at an SRW auction for customers. He said it would be enough to see him through the season.

“I bought 200 megalitres, investing $30,000, as an insurance policy for irrigating after March 1, 2025,” James said.

While James bought early, bids rose to $350/Ml before settling downwards.

There are a few more auctions of temporary water to be held between December and February, by Southern Rural Water.

Culling the herd

Matt Harms asked workshop attendees to classify their cull cows as passenger cows, and quantify the cost of keeping them against the opportunity cost of selling them.

He recommended knowing the herd well enough to be able to pick cows to sell.

That might include the lowest producers in the herd, and definitely included the empty cows.

“Empty cows are true passengers,” Matt said.

“So are low volume producing long lactation empty cows.”

Mike O’Brien of Dennison was due to pregnancy test the herd, and said he was already planning to put the empty cows on the truck.

Matt recommended the next level to consider selling were those cows early in calf, and those that showed up in the herd records as repeat event cows.

“They might be a high cc or another issue,” he said.

Matt recommended comparing the cost of buying and feeding fodder and growing grass against the opportunity cost of selling a cow.

“Is it worth feeding her through January and February when she’s only producing 16 or so litres of milk?” he said.

He also recommended feed tests to identify moisture levels in feed.

“Grain is usually 10 per cent moisture, but silage bales can be 50 per cent moisture,” Matt said.