More than 20 people attended a DairyNZ field day at Murray Creek dairy farm, between Lumsden and Mossburn, on December 6.
Murray Creek variable order sharemilker Jason Herrick hosted the group on the farm, owned by a Taranaki-based syndicate of more than 150 shareholders.
At the field day, the dairy farmers were asked to rate their season so far out of 10.
A consensus gave it a grade of five because of variable weather impacting grass growth.
Many dairy farmers in the district shared stories of their farms getting "smashed" by rain. Some got about 220mm in the five weeks up until the end of November, which was much more than usual.
One farmer recalled their farm flooding when more than 30mm of rain fell in 20 minutes this season.
Northern Southland was getting hit by rain when farmers in Eastern and Southern Southland were "crying for rain", a farmer said.
"I’d happily give them half of our rain."
"Absolutely," a farmer agreed "but it is what it is and it’s causing stress in the grass right now — it’s throwing up seed head."
Another farmer said they had been mowing paddocks after it had been grazed, aiming for a higher quality grass to grow but the pasture still went to seed.
"It is under pressure."
Mr Herrick said the grass growth on Murray Creek was good in winter and it rained in August and the weather dried up and grass growth was "phenomenal’ from late August to October.
Consequently, much less supplementary feed was used than what was budgeted for.
"We had baleage left at the end of calving."
Mr Herrick said soil temperatures were measured on the farm daily and the fluctuations had been "absolutely phenomenal" in the past month.
He planted 4.5ha of summer turnips this season to prepare for a forecast drier than normal December.
Dry conditions had made it challenging to grow pasture on areas of the farm without irrigation last summer, he said.
Two farmers told stories of how they no longer planted summer turnips because the crop performed poorly when it was needed and flourished when it was not needed.
Cows could be hard to convince to move away from grazing pasture to a summer turnip crop, a farmer said.
Some farmers avoided planting crops, instead using supplementary feed, such as palm kernel.
Mr Herrick said more than 60% of Murray Creek was irrigated.
If it was dry, cows could be sustained in the irrigated paddocks to a rate of 4.2 cows per hectare.
The farm was on target to produce 420,000kg of milksolids if the condition of the cows could be maintained.
Now, 925 cows were milked at the peak of the season.
About 13 years ago, 1300 cows were milked, producing 310,000kg of milksolids.
"This place has come a long way since it was established."
His usual stocking rate was 2.5 cows per hectare and there was room to make more production gains from introducing new genetics.
Mr Herrick said the biggest success story on the farm was managing of the use of a freshwater resource, drawn from the North Range aquifer.
Three farms draw water from the aquifer.
A water users group was formed seven years ago in response to the freshwater resource diminishing and on path to being "sucked dry".
The group set parameters for when to irrigate and the water take from the aquifer dropped by 25%.
Since launching the group, the well had returned to being artesian.
"It’s been quite a success story," Mr Herrick said.
Murray Creek had four different soil types — a mix of light and heavy — which did not suit wintering cows.
Cows were wintered off farm, which prompted a decision to build four wintering barns on the farm.
"Wintering regulations are getting a lot tougher and winter grazing is going to be a lot harder to find," he said.
The reasons for building a barn were to secure winter feed and to be able to calve inside during a wet spring.
"This can be very hard country to calve on — cows can quickly go up to their knees, hocks, then bellies, if we get enough rain."
Another reason for building the barns was "public perception".
The main reason on choosing composting-type barns was because "calving cows on to concrete doesn’t sit well with me".
Milking the cows in a composting barn was better than other types of barns.
A composting barn was warmer than other types of barns and provided the cows more opportunity to stay fit by walking in the composting material, compared to walking on other barn surfaces, such as concrete.
The initial plan was to have the barn ready for winter next year but it had struck some delays "with councils and planning".
Now the plan was for building to start this month and the barns to be finished by calving next year or winter 2024.
The estimated cost of building the barns to winter 1000 cows was about $3.5 million.
The accountants estimated the business would get "pay back on the barns" in seven years.
He had travelled across New Zealand to research the right winter barn for the farm.
"I’ve been all over the place looking at wintering barns."
Southern farmers were reporting a prevalence of moth larvae cutworm in crops and grass.
"It’s more than I’ve ever seen."
The black worm was so prevalent a farmer had mistaken the pest for rabbit droppings.
She was weighing a turnip paddock in Te Anau in autumn and it was "riddled" with cutworm.
Cutworm was a big issue because it could quickly destroy a crop, she said.
The moths liked laying eggs on the "trash" of previous crops, such as kale stems.
"It’s been a challenging season all round," Mrs McMillin said.
Shawn.mcavinue@alliedpress.co.nz
