Making It Happen

Out of the Drought and………..

Making It Happen.

By Alison Dewes
Dairy Consultant/Manager Australia

What an amazing feeling having grass again as we breathe a sigh of relief after one of the “longest hauls” on record. Most of us have had a heap of confidence knocked out of us and have been left scratching our heads as to where to go next. I wear three hats most of the time – a farmer’s hat, a tech transfer hat and occasionally a vet’s hat. This year the farmer’s hat was not too comfortable at all.

The fact is though that we have survived it, come out the other side, and the going from here has only got to get better.

We’ve learnt to

• Focus on growing more – better quality feed
• To look at our herds in a new light
• To focus on continuing to raise revenue but be more mindful of the profits and margins generated from different activities.
• Best of all – we’ve learnt to ask more questions about ourselves and our businesses are doing and where we are going in the medium to longer term.
• Maybe we have learnt to discuss more openly both in groups and as individuals about our situation and our progress.

These are all good things and they can empower us to be more successful as we move on.

The facts are-

We are still here

We are in one of the greatest sustainable dairying regions in Australia

There is still opportunity here and this attracts younger investors

There are good success stories in the local area – and it is good to hear them.

The reality is - that a lot of us have still got debt and we need to forge on.

 So as we more openly discuss with others in the industry about our direction, our plans and our lifestyle goals- we still find that we still have room for improvement in some of our less efficient areas.

We do know that the average pasture harvested in the region on dairy farms was in the range of 4-5 T DM/Ha. We also know that in a lot of cases the better industry performers are harvesting in the line of  7-9 T/DM/ha ( dryland figures)

For the average business here that could transfer around $40-60000 through to the bottom line through improved management in this particular area over time.

Bill Fulkerson’s recent work reinforces this very concept. By more careful allocation of pasture to the grazing herd the benefits were- increased energy in the subsequent regrowth and certainly less wastage in the grazing process.

We also know that we must keep revenue coming into businesses. This means continuing to try to raise the amount of saleable product from our operations- that is whatever you like to call it- (Milk solids/ Litres or Protein per Ha)

As Barry Smith of Mepunga recently quoted- “we need to be keeping our output rising ahead of the rate of inflation” to maintain the same level of profit from year to year.

So I suppose at the end of the day if we want to survive in this business we will need to strive for nothing less than the best in a range of areas.

Continue to make well informed, timely decisions especially in the following areas-

• Best grass varieties & fertiliser plans to continue to keep it growing –missing no opportunities.
• Cropping strategies & using best practise
• Improving efficiency of operations especially in the herd management and milk harvesting areas so that lifestyle goals are maintained or achieved and that the labour force is happy and retained.
• Achieving simple systems with a sound, efficient, healthy herd, and well grown young stock.
• Continuing to ask questions, seek knowledge and learn, and have good support networks in place.

Unfortunately the above does not always mean that we can cut costs- we need to keep spending and improving to continue generating revenue.

None of the basic principles have really changed in this game- except for the forces and subsequent pressure on us to perform now at a higher level with our finger a lot closer to the pulse.

Remember- we are in charge of our own destiny, and it is up to us to Make it Happen..