A succession plan was the catalyst for Daniel and Chelsie Hales to transition from conventional farming to being accredited as an organic dairy farm. JEANETTE SEVERS reports.
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Daniel Hales returned home to the family farm at Lance Creek in South Gippsland, Victoria, in 2012 and began succession conversations with his parents, Paul and Carolyn.
Proud of the family’s 138-year history with the farm, Paul and Carolyn were conversant with succession planning from their own experiences with Paul’s parents, Joseph and Joyce.
“They transferred the farm’s ownership to us in 1994. It gave us independence and the opportunity to manage it as our own business,” Carolyn said.
Daniel and his wife, Chelsie, now milk 130 cows once a day in a 12-a-side herringbone dairy, off 214 hectares. The herd contains Jersey, Ayrshire, Friesian and crossbred cows.
They transitioned from twice-a-day milking and split calving to the current system.
“Twice-a-day milking and split calving was too much stress on the cows and people,” Daniel said.
“I worked out the milk cheque was paying for the fertiliser contract.
“As the succession transition evolved, we recognised the system was broken.
“We needed to change our system. We also recognised there was no risk in trying something else.”
The changes encompassed thinking about animal welfare, herd health and fertility, pasture management and fodder conservation, weather and climate, soil health and people.
“We used to calve in January and February and milk twice-a-day into winter,” Daniel said.
“We began by modifying to once-a-day milking during winter.
“It was better on the cows and on the pasture. It was also more cost-efficient to milk once-a-day than pay someone for the second milking.”
Daniel began learning about soil biology and built multiple worm farms in 1000-litre IBC tanks, while he researched the pathway to organic accreditation.
Pumpkins grown on the property, hay, manure, along with any waste — silage and vegetable scraps from the kitchen — are recycled through the four IBC tanks. The worm castings and liquid are diluted 1:100 and used to fertilise the farm’s paddocks.
Now the milk cheque easily covers the overheads of fuel, electricity and general maintenance.
“Self-sufficiency is a requirement of our organic accreditation,” Daniel said.
“The farm is now a closed production system, recycling what it produces.
“The stocking rate means the paddocks are well rested, so we have groundcover all year, the soil is rested — and we’re seeing increased soil microbiology, and regenerating a mixed pasture species.”
Daniel said the herd health had improved and he had no cow mortalities in the past two years.
He now uses short, wide bulls and chooses dairy bulls for the milking herd, prioritising the top 25 production cows to breed replacements.
“I only AI from 25 dairy semen straws each year. We use these straws for joining the best cows to breed self-replacements,” he said.
It’s part of the objective to breed the best production cows and herd bulls. Apart from these 25 cows from the herd, all the heifers are joined to Ayrshire bulls at 18 to 20-months-old. The resultant heifer calves are kept and raised.
The rest of the milking herd is joined using Angus bulls, that go into the herd on April 17, for joined cows to begin calving on January 24.
In 2021, Daniel sold 75 Angus-dairy calves at one week old, to a regular buyer. In 2022, he kept some heifers from the seasonal drop and intends to grow them out and join them to Angus bulls again, before selling them.
“We start drying off at the end of November,” Daniel said.
Calves spend their first 24 hours on the cow, and colostrum is collected for five days.
“The small calves are fed three times daily. The larger calves are fed twice daily,” Daniel said.
“After their own colostrum is finished, the calves receive apple cider in milk for seven days.”
Weaning occurs at 16 to 20 weeks old.
Milk production now averages 12 to 15 litres/cow/day.
All fodder is grown on the property. Along with pasture hay and silage, a mixed species summer crop of sorghum, turnip, clover, rye-grass, tillage radish and pea, is grown for the cows to strip graze. No grain is purchased off site.
Daniel feeds the herd a mix of organic accredited seaweed and apple cider vinegar with their own-grown garlic and a locally supplied mineral mix, while in the dairy as an ad lib lick.
Last year, Daniel and Chelsie also purchased Prom Country Cheese, in Moyarra, to process a portion of their organic milk as cheese and other dairy food. This move continues their ideology of a closed loop business.
“I like to know we’re in control of the supply chain, from soil health, to growing grass, to packaging the cheese product,” Daniel said.
“I think at the moment we’ve got a good balance with the farm production and value adding through the cheese business.”
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