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"OUR SEARCH FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Australians know community well-being and our environment matter but have difficulty according them equal status with economic growth. The problem, of course, is that what we might call a sustainability approach that integrates economic, social and environmental factors is complex and challenging.
At Clover Hill Dairies we believe the way forward is to simplify the challenge and focus on sustainable thinking
Far too much energy has been wasted debating climate change – is it or isn’t happening.
What we do know is less than 7% of Australia’s land is suitable for food production and farmers producing this food are finding the resources to do so will only get scarcer and more expensive.
On our farm we aim to be as efficient as we can with the way we use our resources and there are considerable benefits from doing this
Our climate change strategy is to
• have an efficient system so we can adapt and minimise our footprint
• use less resources and use them smarter so we can minimise the impact on our business of Climate Change legislation and any costs associated with that legislation
THE FARM
The size of our farm has essentially capped the number of cows we can milk but this has not stopped us increasing milk production.
In 2005 we moved to milking 3 x daily and this increased milk production by 25%
We found milking Holstein cattle is the best option under this scenario. They have the capacity to give the highest milk volumes and highest yields of milk solids and the broadest genetic diversity.
The dairy industry has been through tough times and we are not yet where we want to be What we have done is focus on improving profitability and environmental assets with the quickest turn around time and best return on investment and this has been helped significantly by Federal and State Government environmental stewardship funding.
As we go forward we can start to look at other options that have longer term benefits.
HEALTHY LANDSCAPES AND CLEAN WATER
Our business focus is partnership between our cows and the landscape
• Trees – We have undertaken extensive tree plantings and established shelterbelts to provide both protection and shade for the cows and the indigenous animals
• Troughs – We have installed off stream gravity fed water troughs in all paddocks when means we can fence of our waterways. This has resulted in improved water quality for our cows and the wider catchment and less riparian erosion – and of course gravity fed water means we can significantly reduce our stationery energy use
• Laneways – We have invested in well built laneways to provide for cow comfort. This has the added benefit of improving downstream and on farm water quality as faster cow flow means more nutrients stay on the paddocks and less is deposited in the laneways
• Pasture – Optimising pasture cover is good for the cows and milk production and its good for water quality as good pasture cover means less nutrient runoff in high rainfall events
• Soil Health and Fertiliser Use - We measure what goes in and what goes out – this means we can reduce unnecessary fertiliser use and reduce green house gas emissions and costs
PASTURE
We farm in that small pocket of Australia where traditional climate variability is much greater than that predicted by climate change modelling.
So for us climate change will certainly have positives. It is predicted that there will be a slight increase in temperature with little impact on average rainfall which means we can grow more pasture with less feed gaps.
• Our key management strategy is to grow as much pasture as we can and this allows us to have a high stocking rate. We currently run 4 to 5 cows/ hectare. One of the greatest on farm challenges is the inefficiencies from wasting grass and by having a high stocking rate we can utilises the grass when it is available
• We are trialling water and nutrient efficient grasses. Pastures that use less fertiliser and grow better on the moisture shoulders mean we can reduce costs and emissions
• We grow drought tolerant pasture species with potential for rapid recovery after drought
• We are also putting in place alternative feeding infrastructure to maintain the herd when the rainfall is scarce
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES WITH NEW PASTURE SPECIES!
Traditional coastal dairy pastures are heavily based on grasses such as annual ryegrass in winter and spring and kikuyu or paspalum in summer and autumn. These species are both well adapted to the local environment and climate and capable of responding quickly to rain when it falls. However, these species do have limitations. Growth of annual ryegrasses is limited to between the months of late April and early December in most years, while the summer grasses go dormant in the cooler months.
This has made a year-round perennial grass species very challenging to find and grow in our region for 3 reasons.
Firstly early attempts with perennial rye species met with poor results due to attacks by pasture pests, hot dry summers, poor grazing management and summer grass weed invasion. Some of the fescues looked promising but their slow establishment and inability to compete with summer grass weeds basically made them impractical in coastal environments.
The second limitation of grass based pastures is the shallow root systems they have, meaning that if rainfall is not regular, growth can be severely limited as they are unable to access the deeper moisture that may accumulate in many of the low land soils following the heavier rainfall events we get in the Illawarra.
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