Survival options for West Coast dairy farmers

Press, 25 July 1986, Page 14

Survival options for West Coast dairy farmers

Many West Coast dairy farmers might consider dropping supplementary feed and going on to milking once a day, or three times in two days as strategies to combat the greatly reduced butterfat returns, according to a Dairy Board adviser. Mr Mike Wheadon, speaking at the annual West Coast Farmers’ Conference, in Greymouth, said a typical Coast dairy farm spent $BOOO annually on vehicle costs.

This was 40c a kilogram milkfat on a production of 20,000 kgs annually.

“Much of this cost comes in harvesting and handling surplus dry matter and feeding it out as supplements,” he said. “But would your production drop by 4000 kgs if no supplements were harvested?” he challenged farmers. A sharemilker on a 50/ 50 contract could afford to drop by 8000 kgs or 40 per cent before a loss would result from a minimal or no supplementation policy. Mr Wheadon suggested closing off surplus pastures during the spring and summer to maintain adequate grazing pressure on the remainder of the farm.

The closed-off area could be gradually returned to the milking round from say February onwards. And this standing hay could help in extending the rotation in preparation for the allgrass wintering programme.

The milking season might have to be shortened if such a strategy was adopted, but the general manager of the Westland Dairy Co., Mr Gordon Blomfield, had said earlier that his factory might open late and close early as a strategy to help reduce national over-pro-duction. Mr Wheadon said much of the remaining machinery and vehicle costs might be incurred in the practice of topping. But topping could be minimised by closing the grazing management right up. He suggested farmers examine very critically any vehicle trips they made and consdier whether they could get along without their utilities or farm bikes.

“Most dairy farms are

flat and less than one mile in length, so maybe pushbikes could become popular again."

Mr Wheadon said lower prices might make farmers examine their milking frequencies, particularly later in the season and where offfarm employment could be secured.

When comparing alternative strategies with twice a day milkings over the whole season (530 milkings) he found that skipping one milking a week reduced the seasonal production by an estimated 1.3 per cent; twice daily milking to March (180 days) and then once-daily for 85 days reduced production by 3.6 per cent; three milkings in two days (389 milkings) reduced produc-

tion by 7 per cent and once-daily for the whole season dropped output by 22 per cent.

The loss for each ommitted milking for 100 cows at 2.25 a kg butterfat was calculated at $5.40 on the first regime, $9 on the second, $14.20 on the third and $31.50 on the fourth, the once-daily milking for a whole season.

That suggested a farmer with 100 cows could drop down to oncedaily milking if it enabled him to work off-farm and earn more than $31.50 a day, said Mr Wheadon.

Farmers and their wives were finding jobs off the farms, which didn’t say much for the abilities of the unemployed or spoke well for the abilities of farmers.

He also suggested that many Coast dairy farms had phosphate levels with fairly large safety margins and could resort to a potash and sulphur mixture for a period. He suggested investigating reactive . rock phosphates as an alternative to superphosphate which could reduce the purchase and cartage costs of fertiliser considerably.

“There is no survival kit that can be recommended for widespread use.

“It is probably a most appropriate time to reiterate the importance of adopting some of the tried and proven practices that have been adopted by top farmers and research centres in the past with considerable success,” he said.