Macalister Demonstration Farm

Dairy Research Farm demonstrating best management practice

 

Macalister Demonstration Farm

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MDF Fortnightly Update 531

December 29, 2020 by MDF

Monitoring inputs to optimise outputs

 

Calving is now completed at the MDF, milking 295 cows, with 4.2 cows per hectare. There were 291 cows at the same time last year.

The grazing allocation is set at 1/30th of the farm and the actual grazing rest-time is 30 days.

 

Paddock 19, soon to be grazed, is on 28 days rest, with 2.8 ryegrass leaves regrown, so has had an average 10 day leaf appearance rate since the previous grazing, typical for November.  Half the paddock, the slopier, drier half, is a mix of Ryegrass and Prairie Grass, the latter species un-topped, heavy with stems and seed heads, very poor quality and palatability, so unlikely to be grazed by the cows. The other half of the paddock is excellent leafy ryegrass.

 

The herd are consuming less grass/day than 10 days ago, and the Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF) level of their diet is 33%. To boost their peak, more barley could be fed in the dairy to reduce this NDF, and allow higher intake and higher milk production. Or perhaps wheat (which has a lower NDF and higher energy) rather than barley could be fed, although input cost of wheat is significantly higher than barley at the moment.

 

Tweaking the diet, especially reducing NDF, could help stabilise the production drop we can see in the table below. Total milk solids production per cow is down as is the protein level, while fat per cow is up. More fat, less protein, means a reduced milk solid price and usually a lower margin.

 

The dairy farm is an input-output system. The feed input quantity, quality, and price, and the milk output quantity, quality, and price, all have an effect on profit. The efficiency of input use, i.e. the quantity of output (milk) achieved from the quantity of input (feed), is very important also. The MDF report shows all these inputs and outputs, prices, and feed efficiency.

 

FEED MARGIN PERFORMANCE MDF TEN DAYS AGO MDF THIS TEN DAYS Units
Ten days to date: 10-Nov-20 20-Nov-20  
Milker graze area 68 71 Ha
Milkers 285 295 Head
Stocking rate 4.2 4.2 cows/ha
Average graze rest time 28 30 Days
Estm’d pasture consmp’n 54 50 kg DM/ha/day
Pasture consum’d per cow 12.9 11.9 kg DM/cow/day
Pasture growing spend $3.85 $3.85 $/ha/day
Estm’d pasture price $71 $78 $/T DM
Conc (incl additives)supp fed/cow 5.9 6.3 kg DM/cow/day
Conc (incl additives)supp avg price $353 $353 $/T DM
Hay/silage supp fed/cow 0.0 0.0 kg DM/cow/day
Hay/silage supp price     $/T DM
Feed Conversion Efficiency 114 112 kg MS/tonne DM
Total feed intake/cow 18.6 18.1 kg DM/cow/day
NDF Fibre in diet 33.6% 32.9% % NDF
Litres/cow 29.0 27.7 l/cow/day
Fat test 4.08% 4.14% %
Protein test 3.27% 3.25% %
Milk Solids per cow 2.13 2.04 kg/cow/day
Milk price (less levies)/kg MS $5.70 $5.69 $/kg MS
Milk price (less levies)/litre $0.42 $0.42 $ per litre
Milk income/cow $12.14 $11.62 $/cow/day
All feed cost/cow $2.99 $3.15 $/cow/day
Margin over all Feed/cow $9.15 $8.46 $/cow/day
MOAF /ha /day $38.36 $35.16 $/ha/day
Farm MOAF per DAY $2,608 $2,496 $/day

 

Filed Under: Fortnightly Updates

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The Macalister Demonstration Farm, formerly the Macalister Research Farm, is a farmer-owned co-operative established on April 13th 1960. A collaboration between dairy farmers of the MID and the Department of Agriculture at Maffra resulted in the … Read More

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