SmartFarm’s Dairy Innovation Day
Katrina Brandon
AROUND 100 farmers recently flocked to the Ellinbank SmartFarm to participate in the 2024 Dairy Innovation Day.
The Gardiner Foundation, Agriculture Victoria, and Dairy Australia collaborated to create the day’s event, which examined research done throughout the year.
First, farmers gathered and listened to speakers Gardiner Foundation Chief Executive and Victorian Daily Innovation Agreement Chairman, Allan Cameron; VDIA General Manager, Claire Hill; Head of Agriculture Victoria Research, Dr Simone Warner, and senior researcher, Sharon Erins.
Mr Cameron talked about the collaboration between Agriculture Victoria, Dairy Australia, and the Gardiner Foundation to make agriculture programs possible, such as the DairyFeedbase and DairyBio and the efforts they have made as the Victorian Dairy Innovation Agreement. DairyFeedbase represents a total investment of $42.5 million over five years until 2028, and DairyBio represents a total investment of $50 million until 2026.
The focus of the Open Day was on the research feedback. VDIA investors are trying to reduce research outputs collected on the farm over the next five years, leading to meaningful improvement in dairy farming productivity and profitability.
After the chat, groups went to separate areas to discuss the research. The first was maximising cow performance. The projects involved in the day were part of the DairyFeedbase program.
Within the Cow Performance session, Dr Marlie Wright, one of the researchers at the Ellinbank Smart Farm, discussed how farmers can allocate resources to improve milk production. The project, ‘Smart Feeding,’ was completed over six years. The Smart Feeding research project looked at two mitigation strategies.
Within the Cow Performance project, cows that are last to milk spend more time off pasture. The more time cows spend off pasture, the less milk they make. The research suggests that farmers reserve pasture for the later milking cows so they can maintain production.
An average milking can take two-to-three hours. Even at the Ellinbank Smart Farm, Dr Wright said the milk was reduced by five to six litres no matter the time of the year. For every hour the cows were waiting off pasture, the milk yield was reduced by 1.9 kilograms.
During the use of collars, the cows did have enough time to graze between the first and last cows. After seeing the data collected from the collars, the researchers looked at pasture characteristics. They found that by the time those last cows made it back to the paddock, 65 per cent of the available pasture was removed, so they didn’t have that pasture to graze.
The cows went to the same paddock in the control group, and the pasture was depleted when they returned. In the reserving pasture group, the researchers allocated pasture to all the cows that arrived later. They could see the decline they had seen previously in the other research in the control group.
They also saw a 0.6-litre increase in milk yield, which, when scaled over an average herd size in Gippsland, which is about 300 cows, came out to 180 litres extra per day for no extra feed supplied. When the project team looked at average milk prices, it was an additional $126 per day.
Further along, the topic of conversation was the first 100 days, targeting early lactation in cows and examining the impact of nutritional strategies.
The First 100 Days Project Researcher, Dr Christie Ho, said: “The aim of our work here was to test if fresh cow feeding strategies that have been used successfully in total mixed ration (TMR) systems might also work in the fresh pasture systems here and to look at options that we might have.”
Options such as silage were replaced with high-quality, lower-fibre legume hay. It made a big difference, more than 20 kilograms from the cows. A significant difference in feed intake was shown when the legume hay was based on a maize-based supplement. Cows were eating nearly 20 kilos of hay in nine days and over 24 by 19 days, improving even further. This improvement also translated to milk production, where two litres per cow was increased daily in the first 21 days. That effect persisted over the carry-over period in the next 22-70 days when the cows received a standard diet.
Dr Ho also noted that grain mixes that included canola meal were superior to the ones that didn’t; they were superior in dry matter intake, which was higher. There was a significant milk advantage in the first 100 days.
She said: “The wheat-barley and canola meal was the most profitable at $1.36 per cow daily. We also found that our best strategy for milk production and economic performance was the maise grain mixed with canola meal in the fresh period in the first 21 days, followed by a wheat-barley and canola meal in the early lactation period, and that was compared with just feeding wheat out in the same period.”
The average profit reached $170 per cow across the lactation.
Dr Ho also mentioned that if a farmer starts with wheat, just stick with grain, as there didn’t seem to be any difference. She also said the project data that follows from the first 100 days of work is improving the lifetime production project, which aims to improve the productive life of a cow in a herd in a pasture-based system.
After the First 100 Days discussion, Dr Marlie mentioned that they were focusing on a new project to develop a more dynamic model to calculate intake multiple times daily. The project’s primary focus is to eliminate the guesswork when feeding cows.
The second session, Being Climate Prepared with Dr Leah Marett, Graeme Nicoll, Dr Richard Williams, and Elissa Mc Namara, had attendees walking away with a better understanding of what measures can be applied on farms to understand and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Dr Marett, a senior research scientist in the dairy production sciences at Agriculture Victoria, led the research.
Within the project, Dr Marett found a decline in milk production and nutritional value in feed during hot weather events between 24 and 40 degrees. Dr Marett suggested dietary options to include forages with lower fibre concentration, supplements with higher energy concentration, and supplements with higher energy concentration should be considered to help maintain milk production during periods of hot weather.
They also found that cows that were offered fresh chicory under hot environmental conditions produced more milk than cows that were offered pasture silage. The lower fibre concentration in chicory compared to pasture silage appears to reduce the heat load of cows under heat stress conditions. Using chicory on a portion of the farm in summer provides an extra option for farmers with grazing dairy herds to mitigate production loss from heat stress.
Some options for keeping cows cool include providing shade, sprinklers, and fans and adjusting milking times to help mitigate the effects of heat stress. Simple changes, such as supplementing the diet with an additive such as betaine, can reduce some of the negative impacts of hot weather. Supplementing a cow’s diet with betaine can result in lower body temperature, which helps maintain feed intake and support milk yield during hot periods. Like other supplements, betaine is generally fed as part of the concentrate mix on farms.
The final session, Enhancing Pasture Productivity, included Dr Elizabeth Morse-McNabb, Dr Anna Thomson, Grant Williams, and Dr Kevin Smith. The Resilient Forages and DairySoils projects were discussed in this session. These research projects aim to address pasture production issues and climate impact by examining multi-species swards.
Over the next five years, the projects aim to determine which multi-species sward will provide similar or improved nutritional value compared to traditional forage systems. The projects will also increase the understanding of how multi-species pastures can assist in reducing methane gas emissions, decrease the reliance on nitrogen fertiliser, and improve pasture persistence.
Ellinbank farmer Grant Williams, shared his experiences diversifying his pastures over many years of utilising multi-species and the opportunities for use on various soil types across his farm.
The other exciting news from the Dairy Innovation Open Day was the launch of the PastureSmarts App. This new app-based technology enables farmers to optimise the productivity of their pastures remotely. The app was developed as part of the first stage of the DairyFeedbase program.
The PastureSmarts App offers simple day-to-day management options, allowing pastures to be grazed and conserved more effectively.
Further information about the programs can be found at: dairyfeedbase.com.au
