Naroaka Enterprises
1188 Coalville Road
Narracan,
Victoria 3824
Australia.
Phone 0356348262 International Ph+61356348262
The Benefit of using the Automatic Pasture Reader
The Automatic Pasture Reader enables pastures to be accurately measured to enable accurate pasture allocation and therefore minimise substitution or surpluses that can be harvested
The rational for development
If a rain fed pasture system could grow 10 tonne DM/ha and 60 to 70 per cent was consumed, then a 1 tonne increase in consumption would raise pasture utilisation to between 70 to 80 per cent.
On that equation, it meant for a 220 cow, 100 hectare dairy farm, this 1 tonne DM/ha increase at 20 cents\kg\DM could equate to $20,000 in savings per year in supplements.
However, it became apparent that the original goal of a $20,000 saving ($200/ha) for an average dairy farm was in fact underestimated.
Extra benefits discovered
During the development stages of the APR road testing by two dairy farmers on a continuous basis proved that the components used were suitable for farm use over the 4 seasons of the year. 10 proto types were hand built and used successfully by farmers and researchers over both dryland and irrigated pastures. It soon became evident that they could in fact provide more benefits than originally anticipated.
Only point 1 and 2 (below) were required for a $200/ha saving, but the other benefits came as an extra bonus:
1.Less supplements required for the same production;
2.More production with similar supplements;
3.Increased pasture quality on offer;
4.More silage being conserved (and at a higher ME - up to 12.4 ME);
5. The better quality silage meant cheaper cereal type hay could be supplemented with it when the silage was fed back. This was also at the higher milk price time of the season, so extra profit was gained from that as well.
6. Feeding by “numbers” became the norm – this meant it did not matter who was rostered on to work because pasture and feeding management was consistent.
Milk solids and daily milk amounts also became predictable (or levelled out), which one milk factory picked up on, and it would appear that there are also many efficiencies to be gained by milk processors.