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In 10: How to teach pasture decisions across a farm team? · Talking Dairy

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Kiora and welcome to Talking in 10.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Mark Williams.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Good pasture decisions don't sit just with one person, especially in spring when growth takes off and people are busy and there's plenty of other jobs competing for people's attention.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking about how to pass on that know-how knowledge onto your team.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: We'll cover what your people need to understand, how to build their confidence, how to make sure everybody knows what the grazing plan is and when it needs to change.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Joining me as a special guest, I've got Mick O'Connor from Dairy Holdings Limited.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Kioda Mick, thanks for coming on.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: All good.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Matt.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just to start, Mick, what does the Dairy Holdings farm systems look like?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Who's in your team and who's involved in making the day-to-day pasture management decisions if you want to use dairy holdings as a whole or individual farms as the example?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yep.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I um oversee 10 farms run by contract milkers or shear milkers.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: So there's 10 of them I sort of liaise with and work through the pasture plans with them as well.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: And a bit of your background?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so been dairy farming for 20 years, 10 years as a farm supervisor with dairy holdings.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Went through the managing contract milking, shear milking, and now in an equity partnership in Burnham.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: You've had a bit of success in your background as a farmer?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I've been all right.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Current team size that you're overseeing?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's 10 farms, probably have an average of four to five staff on each of those properties.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: So we mainly liaise with the contract milker or shear milker, but we do catch up with farm teams as well, just around plans for what's coming up.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that's sort of, I suppose, distributed from the contract milker to shear milker around grazing plans and things like that.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the key person who you are working with when it comes to pasture, like measuring, doing the feed widgets, allocating feed?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, generally it's the operator on farm, but sometimes myself as well.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, obviously, you have a range of skill sets within our farm teams.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: So some of the farm teams I'll actually go out and do the farm walk with them, just so we get that sort of visibility around and verification really, and a bit of training for them as well.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: So they have the confidence to go out and do their farm walks, but then also believe that information that they have for them as well.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And what have you found over those 200 years and especially those last 10 years as a supervisor?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of the most important pasture management fundamental that you need that key person to know.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably just around the understanding the round length that we need to be on at certain times of the year, and also at those peak growth times, that top part of the wedge can be grown at anywhere between 70 to 100.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: So just making sure that we get those pre-grazing residuals before we have to wait for a farm walk.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, yeah, if we do our farm walk weekly, but we need to check in on those pre-grazing covers before we get to them, and then making sure our residual.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So residual is a really important one to make sure that we're hitting consistently.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: At the other end, picking the paddock, what would be a key indicator you're looking for there with your farm teams?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Generally, depending on the type of season, but peak growth, we're looking at leaf stage and then pre-graze covers as well.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: So we sort of have a set target of sort of anywhere around 29 to 3,000.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then once we start getting over those covers, we'll skip over them and make into supplement or either try and time our regrassing as well, that we can get that in and our peak growth as well.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: So in your role overseeing 10 farms, I'm sure there's new people that come into the system and they've got a varied background.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: In your experience, what's the best way you've found to teach somebody the fundamentals that you need them to be confident with?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Generally, it's just going out onto the farm with them and when they do their you know partial scoring, and we'll we'll score some paddocks together.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we have both have confidence that that's accurate.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: But the main one's probably just sort of first of all, it's just showing them what we want to achieve and and the farm team as well.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: So um you can't be there all the time.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: So just making sure the farm team is really clear around what a 1500 residual is, and you know, what when a paddock is getting to three ton, what does that look like and what are our decisions that we need to make?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Have you got any recent examples of somebody who's made a like grasped it really well and made some big improvements in your team?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I've got a an operator who was probably overscoring some pasture covers.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I spent the next sort of month every week.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'd do the farm walk with them just so that they could have confidence in their numbers.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I've had a guy who was probably one to two hundred kilos out, and then now with me doing those farm walks with him, he's really confident and being really accurate.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: So just a lot of backing up and helping them identify what is a good and not so good result, and just helping them get a bit of uh repetition builds improvement.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's a busy time of year, especially through that carving period, and and farm walks are just so important.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: So with the farm team, it's just making sure that we have good systems in place so it allows time that we can do the really important jobs as well, that they don't sort of slip, and making sure that we don't pass it on to someone without maybe the experience that they require to do the farmwalk partial.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so building a little bit on that, what is the key information you find each farm team needs to make sure all of them follow the same grazing plan and it's communicated across everybody that needs to be involved?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, accuracy is really important.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: So making sure that the pasture cover data we catch is accurate.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then obviously, then cow numbers, what we're trying to feed.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, especially through carving, you have you know, dry mob, a springer mob, some carved, freshly carved cows, some of the carved a bit longer.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So just having all that, generally it's always on the whiteboard and it's that's set out for the week.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: So each person knows what area we need to allocate through carving.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I follow the spring rotation planner, and then from that we just allocate the feed, so we're on a set round, and then if the pasture cover doesn't match where we need to be, then there'll be feed bought in.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or obviously, if there's too much, which we've had on a couple of farms, we've actually had to cut silage this year as well.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: So just being really clear around what is required, following our spring rotation planner, and then making those good decisions with good information.
• 6:47
  unknown: Okay.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you alluded to what I wanted to pick your brains about next was as you come off that spring rotation plan, which a lot of farms have already done or are doing currently, depending on where you are.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: How do you transition and what are the key things that need to be done and how often so that they don't leave things too long or that the surpluses you were just talking about are captured in good time, good quality, and you're looking after the rest of the farm?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So first of all, just checking those pre-grazes, you know, as you come off your first round into your second round, checking those pre-grazes like we're sort of doing them every sort of four days.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't have to be a full farm walk, but you need to know those preges because they shift so quickly, like four days or a week is too long.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, and then not being afraid to step over a paddock, you know, straight away and having the confidence at this time of year that we're not going to dramatically drop off in a massive growth rate in Canterbury where we are, and that is reasonably going to be reasonably consistent.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: People get scared, you know, snow on the hills, you know, we had 20 mils of rain, but the grass is still firing.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: So look at that top end of the wedge.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Look how much those paddocks have gone from 25 to 3,000, how quickly they do that.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: So really monitoring that top end of the wedge.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, your residual is a is a guide, but it's sort of a rear view look at it.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: So you can catch it in those four days and you can step over.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't have to be a full paddock, you know, it might be the back half of paddock is a bit long, so step over that piece and then get into your pre-grading covers that you need to be hitting.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So a key sign that's really important for all team mean members to recognise during peak growth is what, and you were talking about how often, like more than you know, looking more than just once a week, but really the top end of the wedge is the key that you're trying to keep on top of.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and that's probably the senior part of your team is is looking at that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: But the first sign for your farm team is a residual.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, as soon as that residual starts shifting, everyone knows that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we've gone out, looked at what we want to hit, and then from that we can come back and say, look, that paddock's getting a bit too long, they can't hit residual.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: And that might be in the first break.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: So you just right, we need to be out of there.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: We've missed that one.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's communicated through to who in the team first, so that you're all on top of what needs to happen as a change in the grazing plan.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so they'll be communicated through to the farm operator, and then when we catch up for our weekly meeting, or you know, phone calls, sometimes phone calls, you know, hey, can you duck in today?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: Pasture covers lifted, so we'll make a decision then.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And just one final question.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: For you this week, if you could get one clear message across everybody in your team about spring pasture management, what would it be?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: Consistency of farm walks and then using that information, don't just put it away, use that information that you've got, really analyze what growth rates are doing at the top end of that wedge, and then make informed decisions with that information.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's about reinforcing that once the plants got past that two and a half leaf stage, you're getting that rapid acceleration of growth.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the the key part to watch out because that's what's going to trip you up first.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Trust your information and then make decisions on that.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry about, you know, oh, we had a bit of a frost this morning, I'm going to slow down to 30 days.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then just keep your foot down.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: And as long as you're monitoring regularly your pasture walks, then you've got good information to, you know, if we did get into a period of slower growth, we can always put some feed in.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: But at the moment, it's shaping up to be an absolute ripper.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks, Mick.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was really clear, concise, and really good messaging.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, no, thanks for jumping on and joining us today.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you sort of summed up that good pasture management becomes more consistent when the team understands the target, know why it matters, and they get the chance to sort of practice that decision, and you're helping them with that practicing the right decisions and getting them to sort of start one task and make the expected result really clear and what the outcome thereafter clear.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: So over time, that's kind of building your people to spot the change, act before pasture quality is is got away.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the message that I took away was pasture fundamentals haven't changed, and that looking at the consistency of how you achieve those day-to-day, week-to-week decisions by helping lead your people into a lot of observation, measuring, planning, and acting early is the key to the success of what you do.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think that's summed it up well.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Doing the basics well.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just that consistency piece, like it's none of it's difficult, but the little, little 1% is, then you start getting right and uh everything else sort of falls into place.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll attach some links and we'll add those in the episode description to some of the key tools, light spring rotation planner, and some of the other tools around spring pasture management.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time, R to Ba.
• 12:32
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• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: As always, if you have any feedback on this podcast or have some ideas for future topics or guests, please email us at talkingdairy at dairynz.co.nz.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on Talking Dairy.