Pasture tech helps improve production

Buying into a farm is a major milestone for any farmer, and the farm must be run as efficiently as possible to ensure all owners see returns quickly.

Liam Bunnik has been working on his family’s farm in the Waikato since 2014 and has learned a lot in that time about how to make the farm efficient using technology and pasture management. Him and his wife recently bought into the farm and are refining their approach to get the best return on investment.

“My parents bought the farm in 1988. It was pretty rundown with poor races and water supply. Over the years, they bought some neighbouring farms and invested in infrastructure, building a 70-bail dairy shed and feed pad. I came back to work on the farm in 2014 after graduating from university with an agriscience degree and working a couple of seasons in Southland. It’s been great to be able to buy into the farm and have another generation farming. We’re milking 760 cows this season,” Liam says.

“My dad has always been interested in being as efficient as possible, and I certainly pushed this a bit harder when I returned to the farm. We just try to do everything as best as possible for the grass and for the cows here. And then that flows through to the bank, obviously. We use a bit more technology now, which allows us to be a bit ahead of the curve.” 

Maintaining pasture quality is a constant challenge, particularly in the extreme heat that Waikato has experienced over the last few summers. Gillian says adapting their pasture management practices has been crucial.

“We pushed the round out to 60 days and added a bit more supplement on the feed pad so the cows didn’t nail the paddocks completely and overgraze what grass was there. The key thing for us was making sure the pasture was looked after, so when the rain did arrive, it could come away again,” Liam says.

Being flexible and adopting different pasture management technologies has helped Liam and Gillian maintain quality and stay ahead of the curve. 

“I like that you can feed so much information into software – like PastureIO. You can record all your grazing in it. It may not give you a satellite reading every day, but, because you’re feeding all that information to it, it can sort of predict what your covers are going to be. It really helps in the busy times of the year when you struggle to get farm walks done regularly. Not having to go and walk a paddock is a big time saver,” Liam says.

While Gillian admits that no technology is perfect, it has certainly helped improve the farm’s pasture management system overall.

“All our staff are trained in the technology we use, including some pretty basic area calculators on our phones. All our staff can check the paddocks, see how much grass is in there, and calculate how much feed we need to give the cows, and then they can work out the area cows need to get the right amount of feed,” she says.

“We’ve put the same amount of supplementary feed in for the last five years or so, but every year we’re increasing production,” says Waikato farmer Liam Bunnik.

Most importantly, the efficiencies have made an impact on production and the farm’s bottom line.

“It has made us far more consistent. By focusing more intensively on homegrown feed and making incremental changes, we’re seeing results. We’ve put the same amount of supplementary feed in for the last five years or so, but every year we’re increasing production. The goal is just to always do that little bit better; always just looking to be that little bit more efficient in whatever we do, whether that’s being able to grow more grass or breed the cows better and get more milk out of them. It’s a whole farm focus,” Liam says.