Past, present and future

“Alistair is a worthy winner as he demonstrates a strong commitment to natural resource management, motivated by building on a family legacy to pass on the farm to the next generation in a better condition,” the judges said.

Alistair initially didn’t think they were worthy of the honour.

“It’s just the way we farm,” he said.

“We like new technologies to be profitable and sustainable. A lot of the credit for the reward should go to my parents and grandparents and now we have four kids, we want the opportunity here for them if they want to take it on.”

Alistair’s grandparents Phil and Muriel settled the farm at Larpent, which was continued by his parents Phillip and Kate.

Today Alistair and his wife Caitlin, both Dookie Agricultural College graduates, are on a business partnership agreement and working through a succession plan as they transition to buying the farm.

There are a few statues and images of sheep – along with a small flock – reflecting Caitlin’s heritage from Deniliquin – but the farm has always been dairy-based and usually milks 700 to 800 Holsteins, depending on the season.

This season has been very dry, so numbers will be down to 750.

“We’re fully reliant on town water at the moment,” Alistair said.

“We haven’t had an autumn break; all our dams are empty and we’re TMR feeding in the paddock.”

The farm usually receives 850mm average rainfall, but is well below that at the moment, with the driest year since 1967.

“We’re three quarters of the way through calving and usually calve to green grass, but we’re not this year,” Alistair said.

“We’re feeling the pressure, especially with a lower milk price going forward, but we’ve got an excellent network of suppliers that support our operation to help us manage through tougher years.”

Part of their success in the NRM award stems from their desire to be prepared for tough times.

“We’re forward-thinking farmers and invest in infrastructure to make us more sustainable going forward and to be prepared for the worst possible seasons,” Alistair said.

“When the milk price has been good, we’ve invested in the infrastructure.”

They have also changed things on the land, including introducing maize three years ago and cutting a lot of grass silage.

The maize has been helpful.

“At the moment, we’d be lost without it and wouldn’t have our fodder reserve,” Alistair said.

“We’ve got about 500 tonne of maize in storage that we’ll start feeding out.”

They have perennial rye-grasses as a base and bring in Italians as needed, and use pumped effluent to grow the maize, adopting minimum tillage methods and direct seeding, backed by a lot of soil testing.

The farm has a high stocking rate, about 2.4 cows per hectare, but that will be partly addressed by an underpass to be installed this year bringing an outpaddock into the milking platform, adding about 80 hectares to the existing 250.

Another priority addressed in recent years was the dairy, with a new 64-bale rotary replacing the former 33-year-old, 40-bale facility.

“The old dairy was too time consuming. We’ve cut about three hours off the milking time daily, which has been beneficial for the staff, and allows more family time.”

The farm has six full-time staff, plus Alistair, and Phillip, who remains active.

Calving starts at the end of April, with heifers first in line, with breeding priorities centred on high production and strong feet to cope with walks up to 2.3km from the dairy.

“We like big-bodied Holstein cows, and we have a high feed intake to keep production up,” Alistair said.

They are producing about 650kg/MS/cow and just on six million litres annually.

Although initially unsure of their credentials for the award, Alistair can see the environmental benefits in their farming practices.

“For example, we’ve done a lot of drainage work to turn some of our wettest paddocks into some of our driest paddocks.

“In years gone by, we’d have water running off paddocks, now we can graze them without causing damage.”

To cope with the water situation, Alistair has installed four solar pumps for transferring water from different locations, mostly back to the dairy for stock.

The dairy doesn’t have solar power, but recycled effluent is used for yard washing and rain or town water for washing the plant.

A new plate cooler heat exchange cools the milk to go into the vat at 4℃, leading to a big energy saving.

The new dairy has cut milking sessions by three hours a day, leading to another energy saving.

“At the moment we finish milking when it’s dark, so solar panels wouldn’t help,” Alistair said.

“We’re always looking for new technology, but we want it to be proven and to work for us.”

He was quoted $350,000 for panels and battery, but couldn’t justify the expense at more than 10 times the current annual power bill.

Instead, they have invested in other things around the farm to get a quicker return on investment, including a fourth effluent pond for a total of 14 Ml of effluent storage.

Planting trees has been a long-term activity.

“We aim to have a tree line on every fence for shade and shelter, which is good for the environment, but also good for the cows in winter and summer,” Alistair said.

About 60 per cent of the farm is covered, with most of the areas remaining on blocks purchased over the past five years for young stock and dry cows.

Next on the agenda are more underground pipes to get effluent water further away from the milking platform, and 15-20 hectares of drainage improvements per year, increasing and improving the milking platform.

Alistair said a good network of advisors and friends in all types of agriculture had helped them achieve their goals.

While a bit overwhelmed by the award, he admits it’s good for the industry to showcase good practice.