Media Release
20 April 2007

High Performance Dairy Unit Keeps Watch on Demonstration Farm

Award-Winning Manager Committed to Benchmarking

One of the South Island’s top performing dairy farm managers says his recognition with two industry awards shows the benefits of benchmarking against a model farm and having comprehensive monitoring systems.

Shaun Back, a former manager of the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF), has just had a dream week in which he and his wife Joanne have won Canterbury/North Otago Farm Managers of the Year, and the LIC Dairy Farm Award in the Canterbury Ballance Environment Awards.

Back, who farms 1350 cows on 345 hectares near Cust, says the success reflects the consistent application of principles learned on the LUDF through 2005 and 2006, and a particular focus on pasture management.

“Our philosophy here is about understanding the resources we have available, and then ensuring we get the absolute best out of them,” says Back. “While the property is quite different to the one at Lincoln, the principles remain the same. We have a mix of three stony soils which are all free-draining and our water availability on the Waimakariri Scheme has some restrictions, so I don’t think we can ever beat the productivity at Lincoln, but we can get very close by improving our pasture quality and availability.

“In practice that means constant monitoring of key inputs and indicators, including fertiliser, water and effluent, and setting specific performance targets. It means we tend to graze pastures to low residuals and we are committed to a fairly extensive programme of pasture renewal.”

So far the Backs have renewed 80 hectares of pasture in their first season, using a mix of short and long rotation ryegrasses (Bealey, Sonic and Tabu). A key challenge is to counter the impact of grass grub which is fairly extensive across the property, converted from sheep farming six years ago.

Current production has increased to 1600 kilograms of milksolids per hectare, compared with a district average of around 1300, which is achieved with an average allocation of silage (around 450kgs/cow) but without the use of grain feeds or supplements.

“Our other key focus is on our environmental impacts. We’re using the nitrification inhibitor eco-n, run a nutrient budget, and have constant monitoring in place for effluent disposal and irrigation.”

Back says he is convinced of the value of benchmarking and will continue to compare his performance each week with Lincoln, via the SIDDC web site, www.siddc.org.nz.

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“We are regularly checking our pasture cover, at least once a week, against what is happening at Lincoln, and we also make good use of their weekly farm walk notes. It’s always interesting to see what’s happening with the (Lincoln) farm, because even though they’ve got better soils and pastures, and more reliable water, it provides us with a benchmark and keeps us focused on our own targets.”

Back says applying the principles developed on the Lincoln University property has also been a help with his on-farm management of a team of five permanent staff, two part-timers, and an operations manager.

About SIDDC

SIDDC is a partnership of six leadership organisations in the dairy sector, established in 2001. SIDDC works as an industry-funded partnership to promote sustainable development of the South Island dairy industry through collaborative research, education and training for farmers. Research programmes are principally centred around the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF). The partner organisations are Crop & Food Research Ltd, Dexcel Ltd, Lincoln University, Ravensdown, LIC and farmers, through the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) network.

ENDS