As a dairy farmer, I really like visiting good grass farms. Over the years, I have been fortunate to have visited farms doing a good job of growing and using grass in a wide range of sites in Ireland, England, Wales, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and the US.

Recently, I visited a farm in the state of Bahia in Brazil. It may just be the best one yet.

The figures are so dramatic I need to state them early to really grab attention. Forty four tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare per year; 10 Kiwi cross-bred cows per hectare for the full year, no cutting or topping; no winter housing; 560 cows for three workers.

If I hadn’t visited this farm, I would be looking for a catch. If we add in the fact that the location is in the tropics, 14° south of the equator in rural Brazil, it is even more astounding. Of course it is irrigated with centre pivots but by any criteria this is a truly fantastic dairy farming operation.

The man behind this and in front of all this is Simon Wallace. Simon is a New Zealander who some years ago started out on a quest to expand and grow the family dairy operation in NZ, but decided that he would not be limited by country boundaries or conventional thinking.

He spent a couple of years examining options in many other parts of the world and finally hit on this location. Simon is backed by his family and some private investors but only a true pioneer with extraordinary vision could make this bold move to Jaborandi in the state of Bahia, Brazil.

Today, the farm has nine centre pivots working, four 56ha pivots with 560 cows on each on Simon’s farm and two other milking pivots, one 75ha and the other a 90ha pivot on an adjoining leased-out units. Both stocked accordingly at 10 cows/ha and run on a lease basis to a fellow New Zealander, Roger Douglas. The other pivots are for heifers and calves. A small amount of locally grown corn is fed as the grass is high in protein and so needs only straight maize.

Leasing out to like-minded people and investors who buy into the holistic nature of this total concept is likely to be the route to growing this business. A very important component of that buy-in is a very strong commitment to nature and the environment.

It is planned to greatly exceed the national policy of having 20% of all farms having native wooded areas. It is in fact more like only 20% of the land owned that will end up being developed.

The grass is a tropical hybrid that is propagated by rhizomes. Unlike our perennial ryegrasses which only have three active leaves at any one time, this grass has many leaves and, while it is a sterile plant, ie does not go to seed, it does develop a strong stem to support the mass of leaves. It is a great crop when well managed.

The aspect that really struck me was how next week’s/months feed can effectively be “dialled up”. When you are guaranteed the temperature and the “rain” from the pivot, you just need to get the fertiliser on in the right quantity and the feed is there.

Of course, it does take good management and Simon is a great manager, not only of cows and grass, but also of people.

Staff support

One of the aspects of this farming operation is how well the farm staff are trained and supported. Each pivot is managed as a unit with three workers on each. Houses are built around the perimeter of the pivots for the workers and their families.

Schools and a recreation centre are also provided.

Young stock management and all building and fencing work are also done by own staff. Simon finds that the Brazilians are natural stock men and are ready and eager to learn. I was particularly struck by how docile the animals were and impressed with how good heat detection was in both cows and heifers.

Looking at the entire operation today, you see a well-developed model, true to the best principles of using the resources at your disposal to best effect.

It’s when you look back at the time sequence of this project that the enormity of what has been achieved really hits home.

Fifteen years ago, this was bush or scrub land. Roads were made, many kilometres long, power lines were installed, land was cleared, water pumps installed and irrigators erected.

Grass plants were sown by hand as this is a non-seeding species (four men planting a hectare a day).

All fences were erected, and all building work was done by the farm building crew, including milking parlours, houses for all, schools and cattle-handling yards. And then they built a milk processing factory.

Leitissimo Dairy

Initially, the milk was being trucked many hundreds of kilometres to be processed but when a critical volume was reached the second element of the business plan kicked in and a state-of-the-art UHT plant was installed.

This is a very impressive plant with the most up-to-date UHT technology employed to treat the milk ensuring a six-month shelf life at ambient temperature.

No big cold store, no refrigerated trucks and milk being transported vast distances to market. More products are being added to the product portfolio but drinking milk will be the core of the business in this milk-deficient market.

All told, this is one of the most impressive businesses that I’ve visited anywhere. When you add in the location and the fact that it is a dairy farming operation, the admiration only grows.

I’m not advocating moving to Brazil at this stage in my life but if a few likeminded young people wanted adventure, challenges and reward, it is worth a visit at least.

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