Case Studies

Diary Case Study

 

This case study is based on a 196 hectare diary and beef property in East Gippsland north of the town of Welshpool and around five kilometers from the coast.

The property is farmed by Gary Allott and his family and runs a herd of 200 Friesians and Jersey/ Friesian crosses for milk. Gary also runs 100-150 Angus steers for beef on his steeper country.

 

Production is 60,000 kgs of milk solids per year from  120 hectares. Per cow is 300kgs milk solids with no bail feeding, and milking  once-a-day. Once –a-day milking has reduced the stress in the herd and on the farmer as well.

 

Gary says, “I’ve moved completely away from chemical sprays altogether. We’ve added  red clover to our pasture mix for its deep rooting and run a pasture rotation over 30 days.  One of the aims is to grow more grass all year round. We have good grass colour even in winter.  We have also experienced no bloat problems with clover feed.  

Our silage and hay paddocks have cut well through a tough spring (2008). Yield per hectare was 14-15 5x4 round bales. We have had more green feed using Excel-Crop right through summer and even into February and March. The liquid fish fertiliser has been excellent in improving the quality of our pastures,’

 

We cut all our own feed and we definitely have better quality grass. High input farms using nitrogen can’t grow clover. When summer comes they often rely on ryegrass and coarse grain feed. It all comes back to making the best use of your soil and not all farms would suit what we do. One of the benefits we have already noticed is the increase in our dung beetle and worm populations. 

 

Where we once ran 6.5 hectares per 24 hours milking twice a day we now run 3.4 hectares per 24 hours milking once a day. Overall we don’t look at gross farm income, we work on nett figures. What’s left in our pockets.  When we went to once-a-day milking our costs went down. My partner’s family who also use Excel-Crop fish has also reduced costs.

We think part of this is how we manage the properties and also the effectiveness of the fish fertiliser in producing higher quality feed and reducing on-farm costs.

 

In general since introducing Excel-Crop we have found our cattle have been a lot healthier and conception rates have improved. In our herd of 200 there were always 20-30 that had trouble with getting in calf. Now after three years of using fish fertiliser on the property our animal husbandry costs are right down and I can’t recall the last time we had to have the vet in. 

Excel-Crop is an inexpensive product compared to the alternatives and we can afford to spray it out at 25 litres a hectare which is much above the rate required but has boosted our results.  I put 250 litres of fish into my 2000 litre tank and spray it out three times a year if possible. Always at least once or twice. The jet blaster stirs the product and the single tank does 10 hectares each journey. I try to spray in calm weather.

 

Overall we are very happy with the use of Excel-Crop liquid fish fertiliser and the benefits are apparent across the farm.

 

Gary Allott is happy to discuss his farming with Excel-Crop customers please contact us and we will put you in touch.