Western Victorian dairy farming family secrets to selecting right pasture

The Conheady family is using all three methods to identify varieties that do well on their country in western Victoria at Noorat, Garvoc and Mortlake.

Edward and Geraldine Conheady and their four sons, with their families, operate four dairy farms and a few growing out paddocks.

Matrix is one of the ryegrass varieties they have consistently identified they can rely upon across all their farms.

Edward and Geraldine Conheady live on one of the dairy farms at Noorat, in a 50:50 share-farm arrangement with son William and his wife, Laura, milking 370 cows in a 26-a-side herringbone.

The dairy was updated about three years ago.

William and Laura also own another dairy farm at Noorat, milking 140-50 cows in a 44-bale rotary.

Son Joseph and his wife, Anna, run their dairy farm at Garvoc, milking 640 cows in a 50-unit rotary.

Next door is Dominic, another son, with his wife, Kylie, milking 400-plus cows in a newly built 60-unit rotary dairy.

Son Seamus, along with a full-time worker, is responsible for growing out dairy heifers to point-of-calving and a mix of dairy, dairy-beef and beef steers to sell to feedlots, abattoirs and through the saleyards.

The heifers and steers are turned off as calves to graze on four properties - two at Mortlake and two at Noorat.

"When the heifer calves are weaned, they go to country at Mortlake, and that enables the boys to use their farms as complete milking platforms," Edward Conheady said.

"All our heifers participate in a fixed time artificial insemination program.

"They go into the program for a July joining, for mid-April calving.

"When they're on the point of calving, those heifers are returned to the appropriate farms they came from, as springers."

The heifers and cow herds all start calving mid-April to make the most of the autumn break in south-west Victoria.

Seamus said the 910 hectares of out-paddocks have gradually been resown into perennials.

"We were having a problem with ryegrass staggers," he said.

So the family looked at the varieties on the market to identify permanent ryegrass that would reduce or eliminate this risk.

They settled on a mix of Base AR37 and Matrix with clovers and Legion AR37 with Matrix and clovers.

"The first year we sowed an annual ryegrass," said Seamus, who has completed Dairy Australia's Feeding Pastures for Profit course.

"Then we resowed into perennials.

"Base ryegrass has been a game-changer for us.

"On the dairy country, it's been very palatable for the cows and bounces back after grazing.

"We've noticed with the newer varieties, we get good growth and more tonnage - for grazing, silage and hay - off those pastures."

He manages up to 2000 head of cattle at any one time - growing out the heifers to joining weights and point-of-calving, and growing out and finishing steers to weights up to 600kg.

Seamus said the family collectively, with multiple farms in multiple areas, was able to gauge what worked among themselves and their neighbours.

Joseph said: "I look over my fence to see what my neighbours are doing that works.

"There's a lot of farmers in this district who know what they're doing and they do it well."

They sow some of the newer phalaris on their dry country and cocksfoot and newer fescue varieties for their wetter country.

Edward said it was important to farm for the type of country and climate - and to use soil tests to identify what fertiliser and lime mixes should be applied.

"We've found success in putting in the pasture that suits the country we're farming on," he said.

"The boys use 300-400 acres as a trial plot to sow newer varieties with those that we know work. That way, if the season doesn't suit the new varieties, you'll still get pasture growing.

"We measure persistence.

"On our dry country, some of the newer phalaris is quite good for bulk feed that lasts a long time.

"We use finer leaf fescues on our wet country.

"A lot of the early fescues were a bitter weed.

"A lot of newer ones persist and stand up to heavy grazing on wet soils.

"On the real wet country, big herds of cows destroy a lot of ryegrass.

"Cocksfoot and fescues have a denser root structure and persist in our country.

"And then you can sow an annual ryegrass into that.

"But you'll find when those better-rooted plants have established, the ryegrass doesn't persist.

"We've been getting good results for the fescue and cocksfoot."

Edward said mixing 2.5kg/ha of balansa clover into fertiliser application in late March also generated a good response.

"You get a power of feed making silage with it in the mix," he said.

Across the farms, 14,000-15,000 tonnes of silage is used in a year, plus hay.

Edward said when the season had given them a shortfall in fodder, they had share-harvested bulk hay from growers in the Lake Bolac, Vic, district.

Edward has consulted with agronomists like Peter Notman to learn about what varieties work under grazing pressure.

That includes visiting a nearby trial site managed by Notman Pasture Seeds and questioning the validity of results.

"Forget the waffle about what your pastures are doing on a yearly basis, we want to measure its performance over 15 and 20 years, under grazing pressure, weather and soil type," Edward said.

Since 2019, Peter Notman - who is also a dairy farmer - has been running a pasture trial site at Purnim, in south-west Victoria, specifically for evaluating pasture and forage crops under local conditions.

Varieties include forage sorghums, chicory, legumes and deep-rooted fescues.

The trial plot is regularly intensively grazed by dairy heifers.

"We're using this to assess new plant technologies and we're working with seed companies to evaluate new seed treatments and new species and what works in the growing conditions at Purnim," Mr Notman said.

Forage sorghums are being evaluated for vigour under colder southern Victorian growing conditions.

Chicory, not traditionally grown in south-west Victoria, is being evaluated for its suitability for grazing and as fodder.

Two varieties of deep-rooted fescues sown with legumes are being evaluated for long-term suitability under grazing pressure.

"We're focusing on long-term persistence of plants," Mr Notman said.

"Farmers leave perennial pastures in for a lot longer than the three years that many seed companies measure today.

"As a farmer myself I want to see how these varieties are persisting and performing beyond five years, and we'll keep grazing them intensively.

"We'll measure their productivity and perennial persistence.

"Edward Conheady, at one of our open days, said he wanted to see how these trial plots were going after 15 and 20 years.

"Like many farmers, we're trying to help other farmers enhance profitability and keep at the forefront of the new pasture and forage crop technologies that are being released."