22/02/2021

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 10^th 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.

1. We started with the budget of $22,800.
2. All the crop paddocks to go back into Legion PR + Savvy Cocksfoot or Platform PR with Quartz and Legacy white clover, Amigain red clover and Ecotain Environmental Plantain.
3. 50-75% of next years crop paddocks go into Winter Star annuals – this leaves room for crop paddock discretionary choice in case we have any damage from a wet winter.
4. Paddocks are ranked on last years yield, then filtered on clover and plantain content and pasture condition score.
5. The remainder of the budget is spent on Italians for paddocks to go into crop or new pasture within 2 years and grass to grass with Ryegrass, Clover and Plantain

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:

• Ordering seed
• Empty effluent pond
• Empties and culls leave the farm
• Weighing calves
• Preparing for Thursday March 18 Focus Day

Cheers from Jo + Tom