Walton Farm Cows

The 30,000 most productive New Zealand farms and the agricultural businesses that support them generate around $17 billion in export earnings a year – around 48% of the country's total exports. Because of the importance of industry, even small improvements in agricultural productivity have a huge effect on earnings. A 3% productivity increase would equate to $500 million in export revenue for New Zealand. But with New Zealand farmers already some of the most efficient, where will these productivity gains come from? Technology will definitely be a key.

Technological innovation has always played a critical role in the success of New Zealand's agriculture industry. Early innovations included the development of refrigerated shipping, the introduction of mechanical milking machines in the 1890s, and, more recently, the invention of the electric fence and the rotary milking platform.

Innovation

The approach is being demonstrated on the Waikato dairy farm of David and Raewyn Bennett. Preliminary results indicate the approach can dramatically and sustainably lift farm output and profitability by boosting production and lowering costs.

Output from the farm is well above the industry average of 824kg ms/ha, and currently exceeds 2,900kg ms/ha. Effective farm surplus is forecast to exceed $3,900/ha this year compared to the industry weighted average of $1,900/ha. Fertiliser application has been reduced by over 60% and discharges to surrounding watersheds are well within Waikato Regional Council environmental limits.

While much of the higher output and reduced environmental impacts of the operation must be credited to David and Raewyn's farming system and expertise, it's clear that technology is a key enabler.

The Walton Farm Integrated Farm Management project was initiated and is managed by Innovation Waikato with the support and facilitation of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. The project involves four main technology partners: Livestock Improvement, Gallagher Group, Agricom, and Telecom, as well as other technology companies and research organisations. The technologies being trialled include advanced systems for effluent treatment, animal identification, milk sensing and measurement, animal performance measurement, herd performance measurement, energy conservation, data collection and analysis, system monitoring and communications.

Background

Over the past decade or so, competition from other agriculture producers (often subsidised ones) has heated up considerably. This is particularly true in commodity markets, such as milk powder and frozen beef. New Zealand farmers have had to intensify operations to remain competitive. The dairy sector has intensified by increasing the number of stock units per hectare and boosting milk production. The number of dairy cows in the country increased 34% between 1994 and 2002; while the amount of land used for dairying increased 12%.

Functionality

At the Walton Farm a number of data gathering and recording technologies have been integrated to automatically identify animals, collect data, and process it into instantly accessible information. Each cow bears an ear tag containing a RFID (radio frequency identification) chip, which allows animals to be identified automatically by chip readers. Information gathered about an animal can be labelled with the animal's code and stored in a central computer.

Liveweight is a key piece of information needed to effectively manage livestock.

Agritech company Gallagher have installed its automatic DairyScale system on the farm. Positioned at the exit of the milking shed, the scales seamlessly integrate animal weighing into the milking process. Weighing cows helps monitor animal health and production. Potentially, by calculating average herd weight, the system would allow the Bennetts to adjust feed regimes to match grass growth with nutritional demand.

In the near future, electronic meters will record milk production from individual cows - an essential component of any breeding/genetic improvement program. At present, daily milk production from the herd is calculated and posted on the FencePost website.

Improvements

Because each animal is identified by a radio tag, some herd management processes can be automated. Animal records, housed in the Protrack software package, developed by the Livestock Improvement Corporation, can be checked prior to milking. Protrack can issue alerts for cows which need to be identified for any range of animal health or management needs-as programmed by the farmer. The software may be linked to a system of automated drafting gates, which, depending how they are programmed, can automatically separate animals from the rest of the herd.

On one occasion Protrack set off an audio alarm to warn David and Raewyn Bennett that a cow being treated with antibiotics had slipped unnoticed into the milking herd. If the technology hadn't alerted them to the interloper, it could have contaminated the 30,000 litre vat of milk and potentially the entire tanker load.

The key to integrating the different monitoring and management systems is communication. The farmhouse and cowshed at Walton Farm are connected to the Internet with Xtra wireless broadband, while an 802.11 Wi-fi network supplied by the Rural Link extends coverage across the farm. Broadband Internet access provides the farmers and their staff with access to databases held by Fonterra and Livestock Improvement. Similarly, Fonterra uses a remote monitoring service (RMS) track milk vat temperatures and levels, which will allow the company to better coordinate milk pick-ups. David and Raewyn can access the same milk vat data, even while they are away from the farm.

Environment

While intensification has lifted production in the dairy sector – milk solid production per hectare rose 34% between 1994 and 2002 – it is clear that this increase has come at some environmental cost. The use of nitrogen-based fertiliser to boost grass growth has increased dramatically: between 1996 and 2002, the use of nitrogenous urea fertiliser alone jumped 160%.

If applied excessively, nitrogen leaks into the wider environment. Nitrogen is highly mobile and easily enters streams and groundwater reservoirs, leading to the deterioration of groundwater quality and the eutrophication of fresh and coastal waters. It is a particularly insidious problem as there is a lag between the application of nutrients and their appearance in waterways.

The deterioration of Lake Taupo's water quality today is due to nitrogen applied to adjoining farmland up to 50 years ago. The other major contaminant produced by intensive dairying is faecal matter: a single cow produces as much sewage as 14 humans.

Comparisons

Northern Hemisphere dairying is largely based on the high input/high output "cut and carry" model. Feed is brought to the animals and their wastes are removed for disposal. While production per cow is often impressively high, it is achieved at very high cost – expensive machinery is required and it is labour and energy intensive. In New Zealand, dairying is based for the most part on a low input/high profit grass-based model. While a pure grass-based system can't match the high production per cow levels of the cut-and-carry agriculture, profitability is achieved through having lower input costs.

The system may be low input but it is definitely not low tech. It still costs money to grow grass and, as with any business, the successful farmer is the one that can manage different combinations of inputs to produce the best profit. Grass-roots technology helps improve the ratio of revenue to costs.

The basis of the New Zealand system is the pasture plants themselves. The development of specialised cultivars of perennial ryegrass, and superior, more nutritious strains of white clover, were breakthroughs which significantly boosted agricultural productivity in New Zealand. (So too was the development of a seed certification system, which provides a quality guarantee for seed buyers.) Subsequently, many specialised pasture cultivars have been developed for specific farming needs. Cultivars of ryegrass, for example, have been developed to cope with drought, hard grazing, and the treading of stock. Clovers and other forage legumes have been specifically bred for low fertility areas, acid soils, and pest and disease resistance.

Requirements

Results