Bumper milk flows create new pressures

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Waikato’s wave of spring milk is expected to peak this week, but the ongoing challenge for farmers battling grass jungles is to manage pasture so its quality and with it, milk flows, don’t sink like a stone.
 
The region’s smaller dairy companies are reporting milk collections 8-10 per cent above the same time last year, while industry heavyweight Fonterra and DairyNZ say milk production across the country tracked 5 per cent up in the four months to the end of September.
 
Regional milk collection figures are not available from Fonterra, but chairman John Wilson has said Waikato milk had been transported to the South Island for processing because of capacity pressure at plants.
 
Lichfield sharemilker Daniel Sneddon said he was 14 per cent ahead and well on target to reach his goal this season of 50,000 kilograms of milksolids.
 
His 143 hectare farm milks 137 cows in a 10-aside herringbone shed. Last season the herd milked 47,000kg.
 
Latest figures from Fonterra say it has collected 308 million kilograms of milksolids across the country to the end of last month.
 
But it said a spell of colder weather in the North Island last month had caused milk growth to ease to 3.5 per cent on a daily basis as the peak approaches.
 
DairyNZ said most regions were 5 to 5.5 per cent up on the same time last year, which was also a good spring.
 
Otago and Southland and Northland were having a slower start, up about 2 per cent.
 
Waikato Federated Farmers president James Houghton, a dairy farmer, said farmer talk around the region was that the season’s peak or flush would be one day this week.
 
«A few farmers who are normally challenged by spring have had a good spring, some are 20 per cent up. Most farms should be ahead.»
 
Houghton said if farmers were not careful now they would lose feed quality and milk production would drop quickly.
 
If there was too much grass left in paddocks, it would be of lower quality and offer less energy for cows.
 
«With maximum growth at the moment they need to ensure they manage pastures accordingly. Bad farmers are those who get their cows to peak for five to six days then drop off production.»
 
Production levels at this stage of the season had an impact on reproduction, he said.
 
«A lot of what we do now affects what happens later in the season.»
 
AgFirst consultant Phil Journeaux said «milk is still pouring out» but there were variations, with some farmers reporting a 2-3 per cent lift in production this spring and others 8-10 per cent.
 
Production on some farms was dropping back as the quality of feed started to decline.
 
High residual grass in paddocks caused it to go off quicker, Journeaux said.
 
«Keep control of pasture quality. If it means shutting up paddocks and/or topping, then do so.»
 
Lichfield sharemilker Sneddon said the large volume of grass created in the kind winter and spring brought home to him the value of good pasture management skills.
 
«We’re just not used to it. I’ve got four paddocks closed up for silage at the moment, which is unheard of. I normally don’t think about that until the end of October.»
 
Meanwhile, the country’s payout leader, Waikato’s Tatua dairy co- operative, believes at 720,000 litres collection a day, it probably will not see flows rise much higher, but chief executive Paul McGilvary expects the peak to carry on for some time yet.
 
To the end of September, collection was 8 per cent up on last year.
 
The country’s second biggest processor, Open Country Dairy, which has a processing site at Waharoa in the Waikato, said production was «very strongly ahead of expectations».
 
Source: Stuff

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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