Peter Neaves and Kate Mirams are dairy farmers on a farm abutting the small town of Newry, in the Macalister Irrigation District, Victoria.
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About 135 hectares of their property is for the dairy farm, with 110 ha grazed as the dairy platform.
The balance of the property is given over to vegetation reserves, a lagoon, waterways and creek.
Peter and Kate also have a 59 ha outblock, which they took on recently, for raising replacement heifers.
“We irrigate about 206 ha across the two farms,” Peter said.
About 24 ha is irrigated with a K-line system, and the majority of the farm is graded into bays for flood irrigation. The home farm is flat.
Peter said the flat land created a problem, because without fall, it was difficult to get irrigation water to extend to the bottom of the bays.
“We’re in the process of developing that irrigation through a new pipe and riser system,” he said.
“But we’ll keep the flood system, because I like the idea that essentially I’m using gravity to water my paddocks.
“There’s no fuel cost, no burning fossil fuels or anything to deliver water to the paddock.”
The couple is investing in a turkey nest dam to be able to hold water so they can irrigate offline.
Recent government investment in modernisation of the irrigation infrastructure in the Newry-Tinamba district saw open channels on multiple farms changed to a pipe system, decreasing leakage and evaporation.
It also improved gravity flow of water from Lake Glenmaggie throughout the system.
It has provided more security for how Peter and Kate farm on their dairy properties.
The irrigation system extends from August 15 to May 15.
“The modernisation of the irrigation system has guaranteed supply, so if I order 12 megalitres, I’ll get 12 Ml,” Peter said.
“Before modernisation, there was no guarantee you were getting what you ordered — if I ordered 12 Ml I’d get eight. It would take a good hour for water to get on the bay, and there’d be leaks and evaporation [along the channels].”
Peter and Kate also favour a combination of flood and pipe and riser irrigation, because the lay of their land, with many old trees among the vegetation, prevents the use of a pivot.
“We’re looking now at our water use efficiency, monitoring how much water is going to each bay, and how much we can spread the waterings out,” Peter said.
They have soil moisture probes scattered across the farm.
“They’ll help us get a pretty accurate picture of what water is soaking in, and we can measure how much water is leaving the farm in run-off,” Peter said.
The effluent pond is also shandied and waters about 20 ha of land.
Peter said taking on the outblock meant he and Kate increased the herd size in the past year, by milking through cows that were empty but didn’t dry off, and, in particular, keeping more heifers.
They were also able to increase milking numbers because the irrigation modernisation project brought 10 ha more of their country into production.
In spring last year, Peter and Kate were milking 322 head, after spring calving.
The herd is milked twice a day in a 15-double-up herringbone dairy, with stall gates.
“Production is pretty consistent year-on-year,” Peter said.
“In 2024, we were able to take on 10 more heifers than previous years,” Peter said.
“We brought more of our heifers into the milking herd and didn’t calve down as many cows.”
The milking herd is a mix of crossbred-Holstein cows, and joining is through artificial insemination over six weeks, followed by bulls for three weeks. The herd is spring calving.
Peter and Kate have used beef over their dairy heifers in the recent past, and have returned to using dairy semen for all joinings.
“We’re currently using Jersey bulls,” Peter said.
“With the semen for AI, we’ve got a mix of Holstein, Jersey and Red breeds.
“The semen is about 70 per cent Holstein.
“The second round of AI is done with short gestation semen.”
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