Introducing Andrew and Nicky Watt of Cloverdale Holdings, Ashburton

Andrew and Nicky Watt have been Operations Managers at large scale Cloverdale Holdings for over 6 years, and farm over 2,800 cows with two 80 bail dairies and 16 staff. They are a great team and run a very professional farming operation. However several years ago, Nicky and Andrew found that the cost of managing animal health problems was rising to unsustainable levels and having a significant impact on their profitability.

Animal health problems dragging down profitability

They were using close to 300 kilograms of nitrogen (650kg urea) per hectare annually and the cows were experiencing significant health problems as a result including serious grass staggers and other metabolic problems. Nicky and Andrew had used a range of methods to try and reduce the effect these problems were having on farm performance but they were still struggling to get on top of things.

Andrew: "Ryegrass staggers on Ferrimans in the 07/08 season was very bad despite trying nutrimol in the water supply, using good pasture management practices to reduce seed head development, and using higher amounts of N to encourage the pasture to remain vegetative. When things were at their worst, the whole herd was effected and we had 10-15 cows going down in the yard and needing to be hip lifted out once milking was over. These cows had to be left alone to calm down, worst cases were dried off and cows with damaged hips put down. This was a very stressful time for the staff and of course the cows. We estimated that the loss of production and cows (not including extra animal health costs) to be around $500,000 or $180/cow.”

Band-aid solutions to their animal health problems were helping in the short term but the expense of treatment and the associated reduction in productivity of the cows was affecting the overall profitability of the farm.

What Nicky and Andrew were finding was that magnesium levels in cows were low, despite having satisfactory levels in the soil and using magnesium supplements in the water troughs. What was needed was a farm performance programme that prevented these health problems in the first place by providing the nutrients that high production animals require through better quality pasture.

Abron programme introduced with the aim of improving farm profitability

In search of answers on how to address the staggers issue Nicky attended an Abron seminar on soil and plant nutrition with the aim of fixing the issue at its source. Nicky and Andrew started on an Abron fertiliser program in October 2008 and began applying a basic Abron Soil Corrective blend that included applications of calcium, salt, trace elements and quality humic and fulvic acids as well as a spring fertiliser application.

On half the property urea was used with humic acid granules and the other half followed a foliar nitrogen regime. Within this, Nicky kept six control paddocks where she took pasture cuts and leaf analysis comparing the straight urea application to the treatment of urea and humic acid granules as well as the foliar application of nitrogen and minerals.

The results speak for themselves and with guidance from the share holders, Nicky and Andrew have decided to move the whole farm to foliar nitrogen as the result of the performance benefits. The change in fertiliser programme has resulted in increased fertiliser efficiency, improvements in clover content in pastures, improved soil structural properties and most importantly improved animal health.

The key for this programme was making more minerals in the soil available to the plant. Some farms have plenty of minerals in the soil, but because the minerals are not in the correct proportions and the microbial population isn’t strong, those minerals are not readily available to the plant. Promoting soil microbe health and balancing minerals improved their availability and increased the plant’s ability to utilise soil minerals for better pasture production and quality.

Adding quality humic acid granules provided an energy source for the soil micro-organisms and improved the soil’s ability to retain applied nutrients and make them available to plants for increased dry matter production. By improving the balance in the soil, Nicky and Andrew saw improved mineral balance, reduction of excess nitrates and the production of more complete proteins from within the plant.

Improvements made across the board

Since the Abron programme was adopted in October 2008, there has been a significant reduction in cases of cows suffering from staggers or magnesium imbalances to just a handful of cows within the 2800 strong herd. Animal health costs have dropped 20%, nitrogen use has been cut in half from 300 kg/ha to 140 kg/ha, pasture harvested has lifted 10 percent, supplement use has fallen 13 percent and milk production/ha has also gone up by 8%.

Before the Abron programme, clover was 15% of the pasture cover but now makes up 30-50% of the sward and is big leafed and grows as tall as the ryegrass. The most significant change in pasture tissue analysis would be the higher energy in the pasture increasing from 11.8-12.0 MJME previously to 12.5-12.7 MJME. Breeding costs dropped from $169/ha to $105/ha while water holding capacity (WHC) of the stony Lismore soils has increased between 18 and 24 percent.

On the Abron managed half of one monitored paddock, pasture growth response was 180kg DM/unit N whereas the conventionally managed area response was just 65kg DM/unit N. Another paddock showed 125kg DM/unit N under Abron management compared with 45kg under conventional management. The pasture roots at Cloverdale now grow deeper and more dense while soil tests indicate an increase in soil carbon which has resulted in the improved water holding capacity being noted on the lighter soils.

In terms of nitrogen losses from the farming system, it is estimated that the Ferrimans side of Cloverdale is leaching 21kgN/ha/year while Maronan is leaching 27kg – considerably lower than the 30-50kg cited as average for New Zealand.

Summarising the great results

Andrew’s response to the changes he’s seen on the farm is enthusiastic, saying “These changes have all added to overall farm profitability”. Nicky agrees, commenting that the grass is “…motoring and the cow condition has never been better.” Everyone is happy, including the farm’s owners, employees and of course the animals. Since embarking on the Abron programme, operating profit has jumped 25 percent. A great result!

These changes have all been achieved as a result of a greater focus on pasture management and improving the soil in terms of microbial, mineral and physical health, as well as the shift to the biological approach. This has had flow on effects of greater quantities of healthier, more nutrient rich pasture and of course the animals have quickly shown the benefits of having a better diet through improved health and production.

All of these results show the effectiveness of the Watt’s adoption of the Abron programme, however the real benefit of the programme is shown on the bottom line. Cloverdale Holdings is the largest farm out of the 12 farm Spectrum Group and have typically ranked around 7th out of 12 in terms of profitability, however since implementing an Abron programme they are now number 2. The animals are happier and the farm has reduced its environmental impact by reducing nitrogen inputs and as a result of reducing costs and growing more grass, the Watts are now also making more money.  And at the end of the day, that should always be the goal of any farm performance programme.

	Before Abron (average 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 seasons)	With Abron (average 2009-2010 to the present)	% improvement
Pasture harvested	15.25 Tonnes/ha	16.69 Tonnes/ha	9.44%
Supplement costs/cow	$449	$390	-13.1%
Total MS Production	1,096,050kg	1,183,642kg	8%
Cost per kg/MS	$4.06	$3.61	-11%
Nitrogen applied	273 units/ha	140 units/ha	-48.7%
Profit Per/Ha (EBIT)	$4,425/ha	$5,507/ha	24.46%
Animal health costs	$252,223 per year	$194,545 per year	-22%

* Performance data above has been based lined at a $7 milk solid payout for all years. Supplement cost per Tonne and farm working expenses are also base lined the same rate for all years. This is done to show how the engine room of the business is performing over time.

Below is a video interview produced by Fonterra highlighting the financial and environmental sustainability the Watts have achieved on their farm.