Telford Dairy Farm is part of the Telford Farm Training Institute. In 2012 the focus of the Telford Dairy Farm shifted from being a demonstration farm to being a research farm with the establishment of three farmlets in June 2012.

Farm Profile

Telford Dairy Research Project

The Telford Dairy Project is a five-year research project designed to provide Southland and South Otago dairy farmers with management practices that will optimise their farm production and reduce the farm’s environmental footprint.

It is investigating ways dairy farmers in the region can manage soils, animals and forage crops during the challenging shoulder and winter seasons.

The Telford Dairy Project is part of the Pastoral 21 programme and is collaboration between DairyNZ, AgResearch, Telford Farm Training Institute and NIWA.

Telford Dairy Project

Background

Southland and South Otago have good potential to produce more milk than at present, but growth needs to be sustainable.

The Telford Dairy Project is a five-year research project designed to provide Southland and South Otago dairy farmers with management practices that will optimise their farm production and reduce the farm’s environmental footprint.

The research project, part of the Pastoral 21 Next Generation Dairy Systems programme,  is investigating ways dairy farmers in the region can manage soils, animals and forage crops during the challenging shoulder and winter seasons.

The research project is a collaboration between DairyNZ, AgResearch, Telford Farm Training Institute, and NIWA.

Project objective

Investigate alternative dairy production systems, including wintering, to deliver proven, profitable, simple, adoption-ready systems that lift production and reduce nutrient loss.

Project Approach

Monitoring and experimentation at Telford Dairy Farm will define the productivity gains and environmental footprints of contrasting farmlet systems that will provide management options that meet the future needs of dairy farmers in the Southland/South Otago region.

Three farmlet systems were implemented in June 2012

1. A control farmlet typical of dairy farm systems in the region including forage crop wintering
2. Optimised crop wintering farmlet
   Traditional winter crop feeding but with higher feed allocation targets to achieve better animal performance, combined with more cereal silage and more annual ryegrass on the milking platform.  Lower rates of nitrogen fertiliser will be applied and calving is delayed by two weeks to reduce the amount of supplement used in spring. This farm system is also investigating different grazing strategies for crops on undulating land to protect the gullies and reduce the potential runoff and sediment loss.
3. Restricted shoulder and winter grazing farmlet:
   Cows wintered in a loose house barn (also used in the shoulders of the season) to reduce the amount of pasture damage during spring and autumn and to reduce the amount of urinary nitrogen deposited on pasture during autumn.

Outcomes / benefits

The project outcomes will be decision rules for alternative dairy production systems that achieve the goal of improving productivity while reducing the environmental footprint. The project aims to provide farmers with solutions that will allow them to future-proof their farming businesses.