THE recent purchase of a self-propelled feed mixer has continued a history of innovation and smart management at Hilltop View dairy, Inman Valley.
Three years after investing in a concrete feedpad – reducing feed wastage by 20 per cent to 30pc – dairyfarmer Tristan Mulhern recently bought a Sitrex Virage 200 from Italy to replace the property's Jaylor mixing wagon.
Mr Mulhern said the feeding time of their 500 Holsteins had been cut in half and they had used less diesel because the Sitrex mixer didn’t require two tractors during the feeding process, unlike the Jaylor.
"The main reason we looked at a self-propelled mixing wagon was to achieve consistency with different people doing mixes," he said.
The inconsistency in feed mixes resulted in inconsistency in the amount of daily milk solids yielded from his cows.
The dairy, which calves year-round and employs four full-time workers, milks twice a day and yields 2.1 kilograms of milk solids a day.
This figure rose from 1.6kgMS/day a decade ago and Mr Mulhern said their ultimate aim was to "be above 700kg in milk solids for 12 months on our cows".
The cows are fed potatoes, pea silage, brewers grain, square bale silage and grain in the mix, which they are on for eight months a year.
Feed volumes are typed into the mixer’s computer before the product is picked up and fed into the hopper, which weighs the product and gives the operator a warning as the desired percentage of each feed nears.
Mr Mulhern said they had achieved an extra 0.5pc of protein percentage since the mixer purchase due to a steady starch level being given to the cows. Previously, some potatoes would make it through the mixing process whole and cows would sift through them.
"Their intake has gone up as well because we're fitting another 0.5kg of food in because we're getting the right cut," Mr Mulhern said.
With the dairy industry in a volatile state and many dairy farms struggling to break even, Mr Mulhern said they were constantly looking to improve and cut costs.
"We also lease land and try to conserve fodder off it to keep costs down," he said.
"You can't change your milk price. It is what it is but you can always look at what your variable costs are.
"Things are tight and you have to look at ways to make your business work. You have to keep things in your control."
While Hilltop View dairy is surviving by implementing innovative cost-saving measures and looking ahead – they are open to rotary robotics – Mr Mulhern said the local industry needed to change and move away from the two major supermarkets.
