Monday, 22 February 2021
Week ending 22-2-21 farm notes:
FARM PERFORMANCE
The rain was probably a week to early for us this year as the paddocks that still had a grazing in them (> 2000 kgDM/ha) have dropped 100-200 kgDM in cover while the grazed paddocks with green base grew in the mid 30’s. APC dropped to 1796 kgDM/ha with average PGR at 19 kgDM/ha/day. The big herd will start on Kale tomorrow and Tom has mown the first strip to allow access while the cows get used to the transition. We are going from 4kgDM turnip to 4-5kgDM of Kale which does not require re-transitioning but we expect a behavioural change lowering intake as they get used to eating sticks instead of balls!! The latest rain should not cause a spike in Nitrates but we will test anyway just to be safe.
We have lifted the grass silage allocation to 6kg and this week will reduce the PKE to the small mob only as we are on our last 20 tDM in our budget.
10 empty cows left the farm on Sunday. The highest BW empty cows that can be carried over will leave the week of 10th March for the sale yards. The remainder of the empty/culls will leave as soon as we can get them to the works (wait time is currently 3 weeks with Greenlea).
Meet with Kyle and Michaela to plan next years’ pasture re-grass plan.
More detail will be available at the March 18 Focus Day.
Calves have gone onto ryegrass for up to 10 days to give the Chicory a chance to recover and recommence a 25 day rotation. We considered spore counts (tested at 60,000) and ensured calves continued to receive Zinc in water trough, and last grazing from cows which was over 30 days to select paddocks.
ANIMAL WELLBEING
One cow was identified as having photosensitivity from the brassicas. She dropped in milk production and had redden skin. She has been removed from the crop and offered access to shade and high-quality feed. She will be given antihistamine.
We are planning our race maintenance for areas where we will have heavy traffic travelling to and from crops again next year. This is part of our 2 year capital race upgrade to minimise lameness.
BUSINESS HEALTH
Our cashflow updated to end of Jan can be found here http://www.owlfarm.nz/updated cashflow Jan 2021
Farm working Expenses to date is $554,910 which is $3.71/kgMS over 175,000kgMS target. This is 65% of our total budget. This reflects the shift from more brought in silage and less purchased PK and Chicory grown on lease land for calves.
We still have the following expenses which may come in below budget
$15k on a planting plan (hoping to get this cheaper)
$25k on race maintenance (will be spent but dependent on weather and timing of contractor movements)
$11k on zinc boluses (dependent on FE challenge if trough treatment is not suitable)
$18k on PK (dependant on pasture growth and silage available)
Our revised year end surplus (before tax and principal) after 6 months of $407k is significantly different from the budget approved in May 2020 of $211k. This reflects expenditure within $1k of budget but $198k of increased milk income, dividend and stock sales.
HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
Plans are in place to shift fences back another 1m along the drain outside turnip paddocks. We have Flax, Cabbage Tree, Karamu and Carex plants that have grown well during the summer and need to find homes to make way for the Trees for Survival seedlings that will arrive in October. The Flax and Carex will be planted along the drain in May and September this year. We have Bullrush and Carex that will go into the wetland once it’s wet enough to survive but not so wet that we get stuck!!! They are currently 30cm high.
QUALITY WORKPLACE
Up to an hour/day is being spent fixing the silage wagon so we are putting a business proposal together to look at a trade in. This involves analysing time and money spent repairing the existing the wagon along with risk management in case of continued break downs. Silage will continue to be a large part of our farm system we would look to find a wagon that would delivery up to 8kg/cow/day within 2 wagon loads to save time on farm. This would still fit current tractor size and races.
COMMUNITY
Cycleway progress is fast in this fine weather and Tom has done a great job managing grazing between losing access to paddocks. We hosted the Rural Delivery team on farm and are exciting to be showcasing our progress over the last 4 years. Watch out for the segment in May.
PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:
Cheers from Jo + Tom
Monday, 7 December 2020
Week ending 7-12-20 farm notes:
FARM PERFORMANCE
We have got through the week by offering the cows as much as they can eat while maintaining residuals. We offered 6.3 ha/day (or 155m2/cow) for the week, strip grazed a paddock that was initially shut for silage, and last night and today have offered PK to the young herd to top them up. This has had the impact we desired with PGR of 73 kg DM/ha lifting APC to 2266 kg DM/ha. This has filled the wedge and secured the 2 hay paddocks to remain out of the grazing rotation. Cows are being offered around 18-19 kg DM/day.
We have been taking our time during the weekly farm walks this month to Pasture Condition Score each paddock and assess the amount of clover and plantain in each paddock. Now is an ideal time as both clover and weeds are easier to see now that mowing has ceased.
ANIMAL WELLBEING
At our last Focus Day we reported on the mitigation strategies we use at Owl Farm to handle the heat. Owl Farm Focus Day Handout pg 32. Our weather station gives us both temperature and humidity data and then we can use the DairyNZ THI calculator to work out what mitigation strategies are needed. We have signed up to receive the DairyNZ “cool cows” newsletter which reports for the last week how many hours in the day cows feel uncomfortable or when milk production can be impacted. Monitoring cow breathing rates is the best indicator of how the cow is feeling about the heat (more than 40/min is an indicator that the heat is getting to the cows). At Owl Farm we use a mix of the following strategies to keep cows cool:
BUSINESS HEALTH
Nothing to report
HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
Students have spent the last of their valuable time releasing young trees and shrubs from the rampant spring growth. Our focus is now on ensuring any small natives are potted up and set for watering to survive over the summer period when we can start planting again in late autumn.
QUALITY WORKPLACE
Nothing to report
COMMUNITY
We have been lucky to host two primary school visits this year after they were cancelled during calving. Last week we had 60 new entrants on the farm helping Tom feed 100 kg calves, testing the milking machines, hosing down the yard, exploring different feed types and watching the tanker pick up the milk. They even managed to find a four-leaf clover! This was the first time for many that they had been on a farm and seen the calves and cows. This is always a great opportunity to connect with our community and for them to appreciate how much we care for the animals and the environment.
PLANNING FOR THE MONTH AHEAD:
Cheers Jo + Tom