For Fleurieu Peninsula dairy farmers, Michael and Jodie Connor, a strategic change to their feed regimen through the installation of a low cost feedpad system has reduced wastage, saved a labour unit and improved their pasture management.

Michael and Jodie own Nangkita Dairies at Mount Compass consisting of three properties. Two, totalling 300 hectares, are owned and they lease a further 130 hectares for calving cows and as a calf-rearing property.

It’s a family affair. Their four children go to school, but also work around the farm. Fourteen year old Jake is ‘on the payroll’, and does a milking every now and then. Brad, 8, feeds the calves.

There are 700-800 cows in milk at any one time on the 250 ha home farm. The herd is predominantly Friesians, with some cross- breds. They calve all year round. “We don’t carry any dry cows on the home farm, only milking cows,” explains Mike Connor. “The dry cows go off to the ‘nursery farm’, about 6 kms away, where they can get better attention.”

Unsustainable feed program

The Connor’s had been using a cable type feed pad but 18 months ago it became apparent that a better solution was required. They were still paddock feeding for most of the year and the farm was heavily stocked. “We were putting out 40 bales a day and it was taking 50 hours a week – it was just unsustainable,” Mike said.

He contacted Terry Allan from Waste-Not Stockfeeders about the idea of using round hay feeders in the paddocks, thinking this might solve the problem. “Terry convinced me instead that the dairy pad was the way to go. In the process he did himself out of a few dollars, because this system cost about $20,000 to put in. I would have needed about $50,000 worth of round feeders.”

Their "Fair Go" Dairy Feed Pad takes 120 cows per side. Both sides are made up of 17 panels, each with 12 individual feeding ‘hoops’. The actual size of the feedpad is smaller than most people would expect for these herd numbers.

Sustainable benefits

Individual feeding spaces, between steel arches, act as a voluntary head bail, so that uneaten feed falls back into the feeder. Importantly, bossing and bullying are largely eliminated. Each animal gets its fair ration, and trampling or soiling of feed is eliminated. “Our idea had been to put panels on the original cable pad and buy round feeders for the paddocks, but Terry was adamant that feeding the cows for 25 minutes on one of his Fair Go feedpads straight after milking was the way to go. He was right – the results have been great!”

Mike has found the biggest benefits are reduced wastage and less paddock damage. Because the property is fairly hilly the cows were always fed on the small flats. They then tended to camp there all the time. The feed pad has eliminated that damage.

Important principals to consider

Mike Connor says that there are some important principles that farmers need to think about with the dairy feed pad system.
“Firstly, you need to set up the pad as close to the milking shed as possible. And make sure the feed stocks are close to the pad - this saves time and double handling. When we started, the feed was further away, but we’ve made some changes to the truck access to improve this.

“Access time to the feed is also fairly critical - Terry says 25 minutes is long enough, and from our experience, I agree with him. It seems ideal. “You need to have plenty of water available as the cows come off the feed pad. We have four troughs, each with a 3” supply line.

“Also, cow access from the feed pad back to the paddocks is important. Ours always come off the same way, and that’s at the opposite end from where they come on after milking. They go straight through – in one end and out the other.”

During the drought, the Connors have been feeding the cows 11 kgs of cereal grains, lupins and pellets per day in the bail. Going straight onto fibre at the feed pad after each milking is a real plus.

“Big slugs of grain like that aren’t comfortable. If they ate that much and then stood in the laneway for 60 minutes,” says Mike, “we wouldn’t be able to get away with it.

“The access for heifers is like chalk and cheese when you compare it with paddock feeding. There’s no bullying at the feedpad. We milk the heifers last, and leave them on the pad for a little longer than the others. Heifers need a bit more, so there’s no problem doing this. They have done better over time.”

Reduction in feed but sustained production

The reduced hay wastage has been a huge factor at Nangkita Dairies. Mike claims a saving of 2 kg of hay per cow, per day compared with previous periods when no paddock feed was available and the cows were getting only grain and hay.

“We kept the feed pad filled all the time, and found we were using two kgs less per head, and milk production stayed the same. It takes us about 8 hours per week to fill the feed pad, so we’ve saved one labour unit.

“We reckon the feed pad would pay for itself over one year."

“We’ve set a production target of 8000 litres. We managed 7500 last year, and I reckon we wouldn’t have reached that profitably without this system. It’s very flexible; we buy in all our hay, and can use any type of bale – small squares, large squares or round. At the moment I think grain is cheaper than hay, so the feed pad gives us the flexibility to give them a fairly large amount during milking. Up to 10kgs is comfortable, but we are managing up to the 11 with the feed pad.

“The biggest plus is the flexibility to match their intake to the grass we have available. We can vary their feed pad intake to match the grass, by adjusting the quality of the hay. “Our cows consume 5 kgs of cereal hay in their two sessions of 25 minutes, or 7 kg of low NDF hay. The quality controls the intake.

“Feeding just part of the herd is also an option, depending on the paddock. It’s just like a feed out wagon in that way. Or if we need to, we can change it to once a day at the feed pad. “Another advantage is weed control. I am now confident in feeding out weedier hay because the seed stays around the pad. There is much less likelihood of contaminating our pastures.” Mike says that there are some limiting factors with the feed pad system: “You can really only use one type of hay, otherwise the cows are fighting over the better bits.

“This system doesn’t fully feed the cows on its own – we’re feeding just about the maximum grain in the bail but they still need to get 2 – 4 kg more of some other pasture dry matter apart from feeding in the dairy and on the pad.

And you need to make sure that the cows only spend the right amount of time at the feed pad, as Terry suggested. When we had cows there for 40 minutes, they started to lie down in their manure, and that created mastitis problems. And they need to get a drink by then, too.”

Electronic cow control

Each Fair Go feed pad is designed to handle a certain number of cows – otherwise overcrowding can become an issue. The Connor’s are setting up cow counters at the entry to the pad. Mike says this will make it easier to control batch numbers.

Automatic gates working on a timer system release the cows from the feed pad. Electronic ID collars enable automatic drafting on or off the pad as they leave the dairy. These systems improve efficiency but aren’t essential.

“The pad is also useful for herd health management - things like AI’ing or pregnancy testing. The area around the pad is a handy place to put cows afterwards.”

Mike admits that the pad is not cleaned as often as it should be - it’s done about every six weeks with a buck rake-type attachment on a front- end loader.

“The crook parts of bales with thistles and dirt in them settle after a while, and you get a build- up of unpalatable hay. This means the new hay sits too high, so we have to lift the matted stuff out from the sides.

“In the winter months we get a manure build- up on the pad. We haven’t concreted the base. So we just push a square bale along it once a week to scrape it up. By the end of winter we need some dry days to scrape it clean with our excavator.”

Michael Connor has been impressed with the savings in labour and machinery costs by not having to feed out hay in the paddocks. Importantly the damage to the pastures caused by trampling during feeding is also minimised.

The Waste-Not Stockfeeders Fair-Go system, which works well for any size of dairy operation, allows operators to maintain pasture as the focus on the farm, and ensures that animals are getting a fair ration and a controlled amount of fibre.