WHILE some farmers make hay while the sun shines, for Chris Nixon at Bete Bolong it is a case of making silage. And his reason is the weather.
"Every time I make silage it rains, so planning to cut hay is hopeless," Mr Nixon said, on his dryland dairy farm in the Orbost district.
"It's too humid and the ground's too moist around here to grow good quality hay. We produce better silage and can achieve better feed-out rates without hay."
Orbost is in coastal southeast Victoria, only 41 metres above sea level, with an average mean year-round temperature of 22°Celsius, average annual rainfall of 846 millimetres, falling 94 days per year and an average humidity of 94 per cent.
Chris and Helen Nixon farm on 1012 hectares, of which 324ha is for the dairy and the remainder to breed beef.
The dairy country utilises 142ha of creek flats with a peat crust and a high water table - this can often be a problem, denying the use of heavy machinery in these paddocks.
The remaining hill country is sand over clay profile.
The predominantly Friesian herd is milked twice daily, drying off from June 10 to calve heifers from July 7 and cows from July 25.
The production average per cow is 7000-7500 litres of milk per year, with 520-540 kilograms milk solids. The cows are fed about 2.2 tonnes per cow per annum of grain.
However, while the grain portion is high in comparison to his neighbours (normally 1.5-2kg/cow/year), it is truly supplementary feeding as Mr Nixon's focus is on pasture and silage to deliver good animal health outcomes and milk production.
He keeps his cows in condition score 4.5-5 and he also expects to push his milking herd to more than 500 in the next year, based on silage production.
Part of his learning included three years as a focus farm, some years ago now, that alerted him to the need to renovate his pastures to get the most out of his production system and look at his grazing regime.
"We were a host farm for three years for Walking Through the Seasons and they helped me learn about three leaf growth," Mr Nixon said.
"We used to roar around the farm in 17 days and never have any feed.
"In a good season, like autumn this year, we work on a 34-day rotation.
"Spring is normally 17 days and in a dry season we get out to 60 days."
They have now been using the three-leaf grazing principle and actively rotational grazing for eight years.
- Full story in the Stock & Land September 11 edition
