By Lorraine Clarke

We all know that bad habits are hard to break, but Grant and Kim Archer of Mountain Vale Dairy, Bracknell, are creating a good habit of breaking records.

Active Dairies Pty Ltd has just won their fourth ANZ Tasmanian Dairy Business Award, making them the most successful dairy business in the history of the awards.

The award is based on financial performance, management of the farm team, pasture growth and utilisation, cows and the environment.

Grant explained, ‘We’ve always been keen on benchmarking. This is a competition where you benchmark against other farmers and against yourself, to see whether you are improving. The pleasing part is that each time we have won, it has been on a different farm. Some are wetter, they have various climates and soil types, some have irrigation and so on. So we seem to be able to adapt to different environments.’

Since moving to Mountain Vale in 2013, the Archers have bought additional blocks to increase the farm to 546 ha, and expanded their herd to 1,200 cows. They have created roadways, water storage, drilled a bore, built a bridge across the Liffey River, a new 60-stand rotary milking shed, and a purpose-designed calf shed.

Soil testing, fertiliser, pasture renovation, irrigation and drainage are key to the Archers’ success. They regularly apply fertiliser, and nitrogen when the grass is growing.

Paddocks targeted for pasture renewal are ploughed and sown to fodder turnips in spring for feed in summer before new grass is sown in autumn. They measure the pasture offered to the cows, and have found that renovated pastures often produce an extra 1 tonne dry matter per hectare per year.

‘We have renovated about 60% of the farm so far, and it is providing big benefits,’ said Grant.

They have made a big investment in drainage on the Bracknell property, to manage excess water and divert runoff into storage dams for the drier times. Only 22% of the farm is irrigated at present and, as their water rights from the Liffey River are turned off early in dry summers, they try to utilise all available water to maximise pasture growth.

Currently the young and older cows are kept in separate herds. A third central pivot irrigation system is being installed, so three herds will be run on their own blocks next season.

In autumn, cows are milked 3 times in 2 days, which is more productive than once per day. They still receive 3 kg of grain daily to maintain production and body condition. The herd is a 3-way cross of Friesian, Jersey and Swedish red breeds for optimum milk solids and adaptation to the environment below the Great Western Tiers.

‘It’s nice to be on a farm that’s so picturesque,’ said Grant, admiring his contented cows against the backdrop of mountains and trees. They will convert some of their bush to pasture in the future, but retain a large area of timbered land.

‘We have 13 year old cows in the herd. As long as they get in calf, continue milking and don’t get mastitis, they’re welcome to stay. We don’t herd test. We produce around 465–470 kg of milk solids per cow per year, with 35,000 litres per day at peak season.’

The dairy employs six fulltime staff, some of whom have worked for Active Dairies for up to 11 years, moving with them from farm to farm. ‘We realise how important our staff are to us, so we try to look after them really well,’ Grant said.