High Production, All-Grass Dairying At Winchester

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 6

High Production, All-Grass Dairying At Winchester

The highly productive, all-grass dairy farm of Mr John Pemberton, at Winchester, provided an excellent foundation for the recent field day held on the property by the New Zealand Milk Board. As well as his intensive grassland management, Mr Pemberton has lifted his butterfat production per cow to well above 4001 b and to preserve his winter pastures he uses a self-feeding loafing barn.

On 80 acres devoted entirely to grassland farming, a production of 53,000 gallons has been achieved over the last 12 months. This is at the very high level of 560 gallons per acre and approximately 1000 gallons per cow as about 53 cows calved into the herd each year. Mr H. Mclntosh, consulting officer to the Dairy Board discussed farm lay-out and sub-division. Mr Pemberton sub-divided his farm in such a way that he had access to every paddock without going through another paddock. Water was available in every paddock and the access races had been formed by spoil taken from the open drains necessary on this heavy wet soil. Mr Mclntosh advocated a mixture containing a low ryegrass seeding and 3 or 4 lbs of timothy, the new grassland cocksfoot and 25 or 301bs of prairie grass

together with white clover. Trials being carried out by the Dairy Board indicated that cows preferred white clover to red and timothy and cocksfoot to ryegrass. Mr A Cameron, farm advisory officer, Department of Agriculture at Timaru, emphasised that ryegrass seedings mtist be kept low. 3 to 51bs to the acre, if satisfactory establishments of timothy and cocksfoot were to be made. Some discussion on prairie grass took place and it appeared that there had been little success as yet in South Canterbury with prairie grass. Herd Change About five years ago Mr Pemberton changed from Shorthorns to Friesians and since that time has had some 50 per cent, of the herd calving •to the A.B. service. Since he started farming in 1953 he has tested his herd and the average on group herd tests has been 3301bs butterfat, 350, 380 and this year the results will be between 410 and 420. Mr Pemberton outlined his experience with feeding sheds. In his early years of farming he had tried a grazing system and his pastures suffered considerable damage through winter pugging. Some years ago he moved to an orthodox feeding shed with a tie-up system. His inclinations had. always been towards allgrass farming and silage making rather than hay making. He tried this for a season or two, feeding the wet silage in drums but he found both the feeding and cleaning out a laborious system.

The outcome of some study of both British and American experience was his present system which has been in operation for two seasons, although last season was the first winter in which he has been fully organised.

Under this system he uses a loafing barn which has space for 45 cows on the basis of 30 square feet per cow. This is one-third of the total area, the remaining two-thirds being a concrete yard attached to the barn.

Part of this concrete yard is set up for self-feeding silage by means of a concrete wall down one side and a wooden wall on the other. When winter feeding gets under way the wooden wall is dismantled and the cows are allowed free access to the silage. About one-quarter to onethird will feed at a time and after a period will lie down in the loafing bam. Under this system there is no bullying and no hurry and every cows gets a turn to eat its fill and lie down in turn.

About 300 or 400 bales of hay are used in a winter and placed in racks round the edge of the loafing barn when needed, particularly during a period of very bad weather. Saved Grass Under normal conditions the cows are electric fenced on to autumn-saved grass and consume about one half to two-thirds of an acre per day. Practically the whole 80 acres is available in this way and is sufficient to last right through the winter. Care is observed to obtain a pasture six or seven inches long, of good quality and growing reasonably freely. In this way there is little or no frostburn and no rotting at the base.

The cows get a good feed of silage after the morning milking and go on to the grass quietly, feed for threequarters of an hour or so and then lie down. There is no tramping and rushing about as happens when the farmer goes in with a trailer load of hay or fodder beet. Bedding The floor of the loafing barn is puddled clay and the bedding has given some trouble because of fouling of the cow's udders and undue waste of time washing down in the milking shed. This has been almost completely solved by ■ using plenty of dry sawdust and a little old Jiay or straw. Six inches of Sawdust is applied to start the winter and a few bales of old hay. Halfway through the week two or three bales of fresh straw is added and at the end of the week additional sawdust. This gives 3 or 4 feet at the end of the winter which is forked out at some convenient time using a front-end loader. At the present moment Mr Pemberton is giving this away to his gardening friends but he is concerned about the loss of fertility and is hoping to work out some system of transferring it back to his pastures by means of a manure spreader. Mr C. Harris of the N.Z. Milk Board gave a review of feeding sheds,- their design, their cost and the ultimate benefit. The key to wise expenditure was the wetness

•of the pastures over the winter, he said. Where this was severe the expenditure was clearly justified.

Mr John Scott, livestock information officer of the Department of Agriculture, Wellington, described the necessity for care, kindliness and regularity in milking techniques. He quoted Dr. Phillips’s 30 second stimulus experiment, giving a 30 per cent, and 701 b butterfat per head increase using identical twins.

He emphasised the need for a,milking technique and quoted the latest Ruakura experiments on high stocking rates versus medium stocking rates which gave an increase from 716 gallons per acre to 1000 gallons per acre. Although Mr Pemberton was doing,an excellent job he could, if he so desired, raise output considerably by heavy stocking. Mr Scott suggested a 3001bs of butterfat per cow level rather than the 4001bs being achieved by Mr Pemberton.

Summing up the field day, Mr H. E. Garrett, reader in farm management at Lincoln College. emphasised the value of proper subdivision at the rate of 10 cows to the acre by providing 10 acre paddocks for 100 cows; the benefit of access to every paddock individually from raceways; and the provision of water in every paddock. On breeding. Mr Garrett said Mr Pemberton was using the right breed—the high-testing strain .Friesian. He was breeding his replacements the right way by nominated A.B. service, using a herd improver with type and docility, such as Ruaview Ideal 4-54. "Mr Pemberton would say ‘all-grass’ is the policy. We are not so sure at the college and we have a 12 to 14 year rotation growing a high yielding crop of fodder beet which is a big factor in our wintering," Mr Garrett said. Where summer moisture was assured pasture mixtures should contain grasslands cocksfoot or preferably timothy as a main ingredient, together with a light seeding of no more than 51b of ryegrass and the usual "indispensable” white clover. Autumn-saved pasture was a major key to high winter production. It should be closed moderately late to give six to seven inches of growth. Worthwhile Feeding sheds were worthwhile on farms which lay wet over the winter. The loafing barn and concrete yard was probably the best and self-feeding of silage looked very promising. Drysawdust for bedding appeared the answer and the dung would be ideal on the old pasture to be ploughed for a crop of fodder beet. Milking should be regular and kindly and teat stimulation paid dividends, he said. Heavy stocking would comp later. In the meantime farmers could concentrate on passing the 500 gallons per acre and 1000 gallons per cow standards, Mr Garrett said.