The season across Gippsland has been good for irrigators and those with surplus pasture. But gale winds and lack of rainfall in some districts has seen the season tighten.
Sarah O’Brien, who farms at Dennison and is chair of GippsDairy, suggests farmers contact Agriculture Victoria and ask for the expertise of staff in developing water plans and budgets.
Sarah and her husband Mike O’Brien did just that this season, and it is helping drive their decision making.
Sarah and Mike, Wilco Droppert at Clydebank, and Fiona and Simon Mitchell from Cowwarr, are among those farmers who will reduce herd numbers for the summer.
Many farmers are preparing to sow a summer crop. Tom McMillan of Bundalaguah, Peter Jennings of Buffalo and Fiona and Simon Mitchell of Cowwarr are among those who are sowing summer grazing crops.
Tom and Ian McMillan
Tom and Ian McMillan have a flood-irrigated dairy farm at Bundalaguah.
“We will be keeping a close eye on our water allocation,” Tom said.
“Rain has been meagre, and we’ve had a lot of wind and a few hot days.”
The seasonal conditions have meant very little hay and silage have been harvested so far. There are other factors reducing the amount of available surplus pasture.
“We’re also growing a lot more young stock, so feeding a lot more cattle than usual,” Tom said.
He expects to buy in some silage, and has sown 25ha of millet as a potential summer grazing crop.
Simon Finger and Vaughan Campbell
Simon Finger and Vaughan Campbell are both from Yannathan and both are dryland dairy farmers.
Simon said he and Lauren had experienced “a really good season for harvest and good growth for spring. We harvested enough fodder for a dry summer and autumn.”
He expects to start feeding out in mid-November. “Put it this way, the first roll is on the tractor today,” Simon said.
The couple will maintain their milking numbers.
Vaughan said he expected to start feeding the milking herd by the end of November.
A good spring followed an “awesome winter”, he said. “It didn’t rain in winter for the first time in five years, so there was no damage to the paddocks.”
Production is about seven per cent up on last season.
Vaughan said pasture growth in winter stayed in front of the milking herd.
He harvested a lot of silage early — 600 rolls and one stack made this year, plus 200 rolls left over from the previous season. “We’ll be right for fodder reserves but will probably use it all,” he said.
Fiona and Simon Mitchell
Fiona and Simon Mitchell operate an irrigated dairy farm at Cowwarr.
Simon described the season as “really bad”.
“We had 12mm of rain in October and November. It’s probably the worst season we’ve had in 20 years and it’s the driest spring I’ve seen. The evaporation rate has been higher than normal because of the amount of wind we’ve had.”
Simon said his plan has been to utilise what grass he has and sow a summer crop in December to utilise summer irrigation and release grazing pressure off the rye-grass paddocks.
“I’ve only just started irrigating now to ensure I can get through the rest of the season.”
Simon said harvest was “negligible”.
“I got 18 rolls of hay, compared with 250 rolls of silage in a normal season. Those paddocks were eaten out in winter, so we cut them for hay for the milkers.”
He also intends to dry off the heifers early and get rid of chopper cows as the season heads into summer.
Peter Neaves
Peter Neaves of Newry is about to start his second irrigation for this season. The Macalister Irrigation District season is August to May.
He harvested some rolled silage and is assessing how much pasture is ahead of his milking herd.
Sarah and Mike O’Brien
Sarah and Mike O’Brien drew up a water plan for their irrigated dairy farm at Dennison, to assess how much water they have and budget for the fodder on hand.
“It’s been a fantastic season up until now,” Sarah said.
“It’s now become tight and consequently we’re feeding out. We’ve tried to set up our farm from the past four good years.”
Mike said grading of some paddocks and two floods this year had put pressure on their pasture and fodder stores. On the good side, with the capital works now completed, they had effectively doubled their irrigation potential by efficiencies that almost halved their irrigation needs.
“We’ve reduced irrigation from 0.7 Ml/ha to 0.5 Ml/ha,” Mike said.
“We’re looking at the water budget to assess if we put a crop in, will we lock up paddocks, and when we’ll sell cows. We’re preg testing soon, and that’s an opportunity to offload cows.”
Mike and Sarah have already sold 40 cows this season. They’re also aware there is competition from other districts for fodder, that is affecting supply and price.
“We recommend using Agriculture Victoria’s people to develop a water budget and plan. It helps us with making decisions,” Sarah said.
David Llewellyn and Rohan Bingley
David Llewellyn of Nambrok said he was having a good season, and because he milks 800 cows, he already buys in all the fodder he needs through the year.
Rohan Bingley of Goon Nure has a mix of dryland and irrigated country.
He said the dry country was showing the effects of strong wind and lack of rainfall but he would, as usual, dry off his cows on December 14.
He made two cuts of silage in August and September.
Wilco Droppert
Wilco Droppert is on a mix of dryland and irrigation country at Clydebank. He has increased the chopper cows he is selling, in light of the season.
“Normally I sell three cows a week. I’ve increased that now to 10 cows. I don’t want to be feeding next spring’s silage now,” Wilco said. “Our conserved feed is lower than expected, and rainfall is down.”
He plans on doing a hard cull of the herd while cow prices are still reasonable. “I’ve never regretted selling cows early,” Wilco said.
Francis Gannon
Francis Gannon from Tinamba said he and his son, Tom, were waiting to hear about the spill entitlement from Glenmaggie Weir, which would help drive their decision making.
Irrigation has been more efficient and effective since installing six centre pivots on the property.
“It’s been an excellent season so far,” Francis said. “Compared with previous droughts, we now have better application of water and lush feed with the good pasture varieties available.”
They have plenty of fodder on hand. “We cut silage almost year round, to clean a paddock up,” Francis said. “It brings back better milking pasture for the cows.”
James Clyne
James Clyne from Newry started harvesting late in the season, but has put 450 tonnes of silage in storage and cut 590 wrapped silage rolls from 20 ha of irrigated oats.
Peter Young
Peter Young from Buffalo is having a very good season.
“This is the first year I haven’t been farming in mud through winter and early spring,” he said.
“I got into spring with good ground cover. Production is up 25 per cent up on last year. I’m feeding about 2kg in the bail, and I’ve got fully fed cows and fat cows.”
Peter has harvested 160 bales silage so far and says he has got still more to cut.
“I held off a little bit for some rain to get the height in it before I baled it,” he said.
“I got 17mm of rain in early November and I’m putting liquid fertiliser on now [in mid-November]. If we get the rain that’s forecast for end of November, that’ll take us into Christmas. And the crops will do really well. It’s looking like a ripper of a season.”
Peter will soon be sowing a crop of millet, sorghum and rape for summer grazing.