Better winter weather and positive returns

Outlook
with Bill Webb
Bill Webb Feed Solutions

 The weather has definitely been milder compared to other years. The rainfall for June to date has been 64ml compared to a total of 225.5 for June last year, with 999.7ml in the last 12 months compared to 1051ml in the year prior.

Usually it’s hard to grow grass in June because you’re contending with frosts but it’s growing both in front and behind the cows at the moment, which is good news for the farmers.

It’s still important to avoid pugging and other winter grazing concerns by planning ahead and keeping an eye of the forecast, so you’re working well away from waterways on rainy days.

Getting covered

Farmers in Canterbury got hit very hard with the extreme weather down there. It’s a timely reminder to check your insurance policies, as it’s about the time of year they are due for renewal.

I encourage farmers to talk to the relevant people to make sure they have Business Interruption (BI) insurance, as well as their standard loss insurance.

This is not for the stuff you can see out the window, but damage that causes financial losses when you can’t run the business. It can be a lifesaver when you have to replace $10,000 worth of ruined feed due to unexpected weather events or can’t get stock to the processors due to lack of feed and crops. If you can’t milk the cows due to no power, it will cover generator hire.

Keep an eye on the nitrates from your new grasses while everything is growing frantically in the cloudy conditions. New grasses, crops like brassicas, and winter annuals can be high in nitrates, so it pays to be mindful of that.

Nitrate levels have been good so far but that’s not to say that they won’t rise in the overcast conditions. You need sunshine to lower nitrate levels, and we won’t get a lot of that if the tropical fronts we’ve been getting keep coming.

In the green

It’s still looking like the payout will have an eight in front of it even though GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has dropped back a bit.

Organic milk prices have dropped from its record high of $10.26kgMS, but they’re still confident it will be around the $9 mark for next season. Kiwifruit and forestry are both up, and even thought the schedule doesn’t look that great, beef and lamb are up on this time last year.

So everything's looking strong at this stage, we just hope it stays that way.

Now’s a good time to talk to your consultant and plan how you can take advantage of the higher payout before the horse has bolted.

This can include investing in more high quality feed to increase production. But be careful what you buy – unless it's high-end good quality milking feed you're wasting your money, because then the cows won’t produce on it.

Poor quality feed is just a filler, whereas good feed allows you to increase milk production without spending money on additional stock and the workload and infrastructure that comes with it.

Also be wary of spending too much on expensive feed – you can’t just pour a bunch of meal in through the shed and expect the cows to perform. You need to mix it with top quality forage but grass must be fully utilised first before supplementing

We still have plenty of high energy, milking-quality silage bales available and we'll be making more of them. It’s high-energy feed that keeps milking cows milking, not just maintaining them.

Good quality feed keeps the whole farm ticking along and improves production and profit.

0 Comments

There are no comments on this blog.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to make a comment. Login Now
Opinion Poll

We're not running a poll right now. Check back soon!