Environmental, Duncan and Anne Marie Wells (Otago)
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Duncan and Anne-Marie manage a 210 ha farm near Taieri, supplying milk to Fonterra. They winter most of their cows off-farm. The page provides information on their milking infrastructure, cow numbers, soil type, and feed supplements. Different scenarios were modelled for their farm including wintering cows in barns, varying feed systems, growing oats, and increasing the percentage of plantain in pasture.
Duncan and Anne-Marie are equity managers of a 210 ha flat farm near Taieri. They supply milk to Fonterra.
Planned start of calving is 5 August with the majority of cows being wintered off-farm. Approximately 100 kg N/ha has typically been applied to pasture and about 300 kg DM/cow of in-shed supplement is offered.
Farm profile (2019-20)
Milking platform effective area:
217ha
Support block effective area:
Nil, utilise grazier
Operational structure:
Equity managers
Infrastructure:
54-bale rotary with in-shed feeding
Cows wintered:
695
Planned start of calving:
5 August
Stocking rate:
3.1 cows/ha
Production:
1,414 kg MS/ha; 456 kg MS/cow
Soil type:
84% Gley poorly drained, 16% Recent, well-drained
Annual rainfall:
719mm
Feed supplements:
701 kg DM/cow: barley, turnips, pasture silage
Fertiliser inputs:
107kg N/ha; 24kg P/ha
Purchased N surplus:
41kg N/ha (Overseer FM v6.4.0)
Predicted N leaching:
9kg N/ha (Overseer FM v6.4.0)
He Waka Eke Noa GHG reporting:
11,590 kg CO2e/ha (OverseerFM v6.4.0)
DairyNZ system:
4
Wintering system:
Fodder beet with baleage or brassica with baleage by graziers
Changes relative to the 2019-20 base farm system
| Scenario | Purchased N-surplus (Kg N/ha) | N leaching loss (Kg N/ha) | P loss (Kg P/ha) | Methane (Kg CO2e/ha) | N2O kg/ha (kg CO2e/ha) | HWEN GHG reporting (kg CO2e/ha) | Operating profit ($/effective MP ha) |
| All cows wintered in a barn:
Fodder beet fed to cows in barn over winter (7 kg DM/cow fodder beet, 4 kg DM/cow baleage), barn used for 4 h/day Apr-May, 24 h/day in June-mid-Aug, stocking rate decreased by 4%, 2.3 ha of transitional fodder beet grown on the milking platform. Nitrogen fertiliser reduced to account for additional effluent N. Pregnant R2s wintered in barn from June.
|
-50% ↓ | -40% ↓ | -5% ↓ | -1% ↓ | +2% ↑ | -1% ↓ | -42% ↓ |
| 400 cows wintered in a barn
As above, but some cows and all R2s grazed off on fodder beet.
|
-57% ↓ | -30% ↓ | -4% ↓ | -1% ↓ | +2% ↑ | -1% ↓ | -25% ↓ |
| Winter half cows on milking platform fodder beet
15 ha (10 kg DM/cow fodder beet, 4 kg DM/cow baleage and straw), the rest of the cows and R2s grazed off farm on fodder beet. Stocking rate decreased by 8%, increase per cow production to 100% liveweight, import additional straw for wintering.
|
-16% ↓ | -12% ↓ | -4% ↓ | +1% ↑ | +1% ↑ | +1% ↑ | -2% ↓ |
| Winter all cows on milking platform fodder beet
26.7 ha (10 kg DM/cow fodder beet, 4 kg DM/cow baleage and straw), R2s return in June. Additional grain imported to compensate for land taken out for cropping. Import additional straw and pasture silage for wintering. Same production per cow as in the base system.
|
+11% ↑ | -11% ↓ | -1% ↓ | +9% ↑ | +4% ↑ | +8% ↑ | -10% ↓ |
| Grow oats on milking platform for oat milk
16 ha of milking platform sown into oats in October for “milk”, harvested in April assumed grain yield of 6.8 t DM/ha and straw yield of 5 t DM/ha. Stocking rate reduced by 5% to account for land taken out of platform. Oat straw used in winter, excess sold.
|
-16% ↓ | +34% ↑ | -3% ↓ | -1% ↓ | +3% ↑ | -0.5% ↓ | -7% ↓ |
| 10% Plantain:
farm stitched with plantain to target 10% of the sward; same pasture production; a third of the farm re-stitched annually.
|
0% | -5% ↓ | 0% | 0% | -2% ↓ | -0.3% ↓ | -2% ↓ |
| 20% Plantain:
farm stitched with plantain to target 20% of the sward; same pasture production; a third of the farm re-stitched annually.
|
0% | -10% ↓ | 0% | 0% | -3% ↓ | -1% ↓ | -2% ↓ |
| 30% Plantain:
farm stitched with plantain to target 30% of the sward; same pasture production; a third of the farm re-stitched annually.
|
0% | -15% ↓ | 0% | 0% | -5% ↓ | -1% ↓ | -2% ↓ |
| Increase pasture production with N fertiliser:
increase N fertiliser to 190 kg N/ha and reduce reliance on imported barley.
|
+156% ↑ | +14% ↑ | +1% ↑ | +1% ↑ | +17% ↑ | +5% ↑ | +3% ↑ |
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