The Southern Dairy Hub is a 349-hectare working farm, situated just out of Invercargill. It is the largest farm of its type in New Zealand and its research has received international recognition.
It has become an exemplar of how local dairy farmers, research institutions, and the wider sector can collaborate to improve the productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability of the dairy industry.
The Southern Dairy Hub was established in 2017 with investment from Southern dairy farmers, AgResearch and DairyNZ. It moved to its current site a year later. The farm milks 740 fr-crossbred cows, divided into four farmlets that allow the team to trial the performance of different crops, feeding approaches, and farm systems, and assess the impacts on animals, people, environment and profitability. All information is shared with local farmers through its website, social media, newsletters, weekly HubWatch updates, sector publications, and field days held three times a year.
It’s a complex operation but it has major benefits for local farmers, says Andrea Dixon, who took up the mantle of General Manager in July this year.
“There are a lot of issues out there for Southland farmers to contend with and they see a lot of value in what we do," Amanda says.
"We get their input into research including details about the challenges they are facing, particularly over the next 10 years – which is a really long time in the farming world. Essentially, we can do the research for them, and then they’re able to implement what works for their farms, without having to go through the process, cost or timeframe with a trial,” she says.
“We run four dairy research herds including one that is used as a benchmark herd. This means our farm is split into four farmlets, which have paddocks scattered around the farm. Our team has to negotiate the cows going back to the same paddocks and the baleage that is cut on those paddocks has to stay with the herd. We’ve got a great team that coordinates what needs to be done. It’s a complex operation.”
Two DairyNZ technicians work alongside the six-farm staff to implement the research and record the data. All cows are fitted with Allflex collars and the Hub uses a range of on-farm technology systems including farm management system MINDA and the DeLaval DelPro™ Farm Management Platform.
Over the past five years the Hub has completed more than 20 research projects looking at a range of issues including winter crop choices on environmental loss, animal performance and farm profitability, pasture development, nutrient loss to water studies, milk molecule phenotyping and land scanning.
Fonterra has been involved in several of these research projects.
The focus of the research is on the Southern dairy environment but many of the findings are applicable to other regions.
“While our strategy is providing research answers for the challenges facing the Southern dairy farmer, it’s certainly relevant to other New Zealand farmers as well. Our four-year farm system comparison looking at kale versus fodder beet is one project that other regions have taken note of,” Andrea says.
“We’re about to start a new trial around the grass, baleage and infrastructure systems. We will also look closely at fodder beet, which we’ve found in our research is a challenge to feed but does have some environmental benefits. Our research projects are ongoing and we’re open to new opportunities.”
Stay updated with Southern Dairy Hub news and events by signing up to its e-newsletter at www.southerndairyhub.co.nz.