Andrew Balfour bought his first 65-hectare farm in 1992. Over the years, he has grown the business by buying neighbouring farms and is now milking 800 cows on a 275ha farm, along with owning a 330-cow farm that is share-milked.
Performance on this farm is pretty good. Andrew is farming on sandy soils in Gippsland, in the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia.
His herd is a mix of Jersey crossbred and black and white cows. He has always been using LIC breeding and is achieving good empty rates of 5% after 10 weeks of breeding with no inductions. This is much better than the Australian average.
The herd produce 450kg MS/cow from about 1t of meal per cow but this can vary depending on the weather and the seasons.
Andrew is a big fan of summer crops, he puts these in to give cows access to green leafy material during the summer dry. His summer crop of choice is chicory, like most farmers in Gippsland.
Chicory on Andrew Balfour's farm in Australia.
The chicory is planted in late spring and grazed four times during the summer. Andrew says he can get a yield of about 10tDM/ha from the chicory.
Because the droughts are so severe, a lot of the perennial ryegrass dies off so it has to be resown at half seed rate every autumn. Andrew has a direct drill for this job.
There are two full-time employees and two part-time employees on the farm. Facilities on the farm are excellent with a 50-bail Westfalia rotary, two new tractors and a stand-off pad for calving.
Calf and machinery sheds on the Balfour farm.
Andrew is currently receiving a milk price of $5.45/kgMS (€3.38/kgMS) from Saputo, who took over the Murray Goulbourne dairy co-op.
“I tend not to worry too much about milk price because we can’t control it. It’s better to worry about what we can control, such as costs or making sure cows are eating good quality pasture.” Andrew says.
During the summer droughts, the cows are fed 4 or 5kg of meal in the parlour, silage in the yard and however much grass they can get in the paddock. About 400kg N/ha is spread every year.
Read more
Australia: dairy farming in Gippsland
New Zealand: meet share-milker Mark Sing
Andrew Balfour bought his first 65-hectare farm in 1992. Over the years, he has grown the business by buying neighbouring farms and is now milking 800 cows on a 275ha farm, along with owning a 330-cow farm that is share-milked.
Performance on this farm is pretty good. Andrew is farming on sandy soils in Gippsland, in the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia.
His herd is a mix of Jersey crossbred and black and white cows. He has always been using LIC breeding and is achieving good empty rates of 5% after 10 weeks of breeding with no inductions. This is much better than the Australian average.
The herd produce 450kg MS/cow from about 1t of meal per cow but this can vary depending on the weather and the seasons.
Andrew is a big fan of summer crops, he puts these in to give cows access to green leafy material during the summer dry. His summer crop of choice is chicory, like most farmers in Gippsland.
Chicory on Andrew Balfour's farm in Australia.
The chicory is planted in late spring and grazed four times during the summer. Andrew says he can get a yield of about 10tDM/ha from the chicory.
Because the droughts are so severe, a lot of the perennial ryegrass dies off so it has to be resown at half seed rate every autumn. Andrew has a direct drill for this job.
There are two full-time employees and two part-time employees on the farm. Facilities on the farm are excellent with a 50-bail Westfalia rotary, two new tractors and a stand-off pad for calving.
Calf and machinery sheds on the Balfour farm.
Andrew is currently receiving a milk price of $5.45/kgMS (€3.38/kgMS) from Saputo, who took over the Murray Goulbourne dairy co-op.
“I tend not to worry too much about milk price because we can’t control it. It’s better to worry about what we can control, such as costs or making sure cows are eating good quality pasture.” Andrew says.
During the summer droughts, the cows are fed 4 or 5kg of meal in the parlour, silage in the yard and however much grass they can get in the paddock. About 400kg N/ha is spread every year.
Read more
Australia: dairy farming in Gippsland
New Zealand: meet share-milker Mark Sing
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