Identifying the need for pasture renewal and valuing the contribution of renewal on a dairy farm - Telford Dairy, a case study

Abstract

How do we know which pastures to renew and do we increase profitability when we renew them? An inventory of pasture production of the Telford dairy farm was developed using paddock grazing records to estimate potential pasture production and variability from different soil types. Using the difference between low and high producing pastures as the potential for improvement, the change in pasture production with renewal was calculated and valued using several methods, from the simple conversion of extra dry matter into milk solids production through to whole farm systems optimisation using Farmax Dairy Pro. The cost of pasture renewal was highest when valued by the Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust model when the cost of lost grazing was estimated. The return for pasture renewal was lowest from Farmax Dairy Pro modelling when whole farm-integration was considered. At the average value of milk for the last 5 years, the payback period was between 2.5 and 3.1 years, depending on the model used. Keywords: analysis, modelling, pasture production records, pasture renewal, soil types.