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Somewhereville, Earth | the ole man produces milk and collects about 37 New Zealand Cents (0.37 NZ dollars)............per litre of milk (3.78 litres per US gallon).......
as a rough figure, cow to the acre seems to be a manageable stocking rate here, as a guess the cow eats 17kg drymatter ( ithink) a day on av .........probably supplement 5 kg DM as a guess
grows about 9000kg DM per acre per year on flat........but half the farm is hill.......thats around 5500kg DM a year as a guess
i think he spends about 60000 NZD on brought in or baled feed, that does not consider the opportunity cost of taking silage off productive paddocks that could be milked off.......out of the 'milking' platform to produce sillage..........small run off blocks (30acres tops) he has allows him to grow alfalfa for balage........yeilding up to 7 cuts a year, and the plant physically burning out in 5 years due to high production
its a sustainable system, i have seen the farm brown like you get over there ,and like at the moment, i have seen cows standing in a foot of mud in places, standing cows off on feed pad only letting them on the pastures for small periods of time to stop pugging and compaction..........rain fall is about 42 inches as a guess, doesn't snow there, .......mud is no fun, harbours environmental mastisis......and causes feet issues
we push the production on the hills hard, they are his down fall, hard to manage, dry off fast, subterrainian clover is well established on them but takes good husbandry to make sure its not over grazed
fert and seed have been flown on before, round bales rolling down hills is a good way to get cows into the top of hill blocks, 4wd tractors are a must, dad owns his own 360 excavator, and him and i both can swap war stories of sliding off places you should have never been in the first place......
its a small farm, you wanna see how to really farm cows, get in a aeroplane and come down, there are units milking 6000 cows on grass here | |
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OLD Tractors
