Irrigation and automation a winning combination

The MID irrigation season extends from August 15 to May 15, and the farm benefits from a swamp that is normally filled in May, and an additional 130ML bore.

Comprehensive automation has been implemented across 92 per cent of the farm’s irrigation infrastructure.

Five centre pivots irrigate paddocks, using a variable rate irrigation technology that is managed using smartphones (see separate story). One of the centre pivots irrigates using the bore.

This irrigated 400 hectare dairy farm at Newry, in Victoria, is owned by James and Erin Clyne. They milk about 1000 cows, using a 50-unit rotary dairy.

Consistent milk production is maintained throughout the year since James implemented a four-times yearly calving system, to improve labour unit management.

The split-calving composite herd is bred by joining all heifers to Jersey semen, and all heifer progeny is kept. Joining is by fixed time AI, with two opportunities.

Calving is kept to five weeks, and occurs four times a year.

Enough sexed semen is used among the milking herd to breed replacements, and the remainder are joined to beef. Calves not kept for replacements are ideally sold by 10 days old.

“We milk crossbreds, Holsteins, stud Jerseys, a little bit of everything,” James said.

James is realising a long-standing dream by sourcing stud Jersey cows from families that were sold by the Clyne family in past generations.

“We found their genetics and we’ve bought them into the herd,” he said.

“It’s fun, and now I’m starting up the Holstein stud side of things too.”

But he is doing it with a business perspective.

“None of them are pets. They’re all commercial cows and they’ve all got to carry their weight or they’re gone,” James said.

The rotary dairy platform includes automatic cup removers and yield-sense and cell-sense monitors. These monitors provide yield in litres, fat and protein percentages, and cell count on each cow’s production.

“I use the data as a rolling 10-day average to feed the cows,” James said.

Soils are a mix of river alluvial and deep loam profiles, laying over clay. The country has an historic issue with bloating, so James excludes clover from the pasture mix. Because prairie grass is endemic to the area, peak spring grazing is on a 15-day rotation to maximise milk production and control pasture growth.

“I work with the prairie grass and oversow with ryegrass to bulk it out,” James said.

He underscored his knowledge about growing pasture for grazing and to harvest fodder, by completing Dairy Australia’s Feeding Pastures for Profit course twice, several years apart. He monitors paddocks daily for grazing, irrigating and spraying.

“I use the principles of that course to manage pastures and I use data to help with decision making,” James said.

“I gather electronic data daily and I assess all paddocks visually to see if I agree with the electronic data.”

In 2023-24, about 15 per cent of the farm’s productivity was impacted by irrigation pipeline construction as part of infrastructure development in the MID by Southern Rural Water.

This was compounded in 2024 by a flood that damaged pastures. The farm was also under pressure because James and Erin offered to stock their neighbour’s heifers alongside their own.

“My neighbour’s farm was completely underwater, so we helped them out, but that did impact the heifer block,” James said.

“We were feedlotting about 400 heifers at one point. I spent about $700,000 on feed alone. There was a truck showing up all the time with feed.

“The weather was cold so we didn’t get the yield on the grass that we needed after the flood.

“Everything stacked up.

“But with heifers you’ve got no choice — you’ve got to keep going. There was nowhere to sell export or excess heifers.

“I could have sold some cows to free up that grass, but it was a $10 milk solids year, so I’m not just going to do that.

“The numbers still stacked up to feedlot the heifers and keep putting the milk into the vat.

“It’s probably cost neutral, but it still means keep doing it.”

The irrigation season is August 15 to May 15 each year, and allocation depends on catchment runoff into Lake Glenmaggie.

A 1250ML irrigation licence is utilised through five centre pivots, fixed sprays and flood irrigation.

The pivots have all been connected to an automated variable rate irrigation system that James manages with his phone.

“We bought all the pivots. The VRI system on one of the pivots was co-funded, as part of a trial, and we’ve bought the VRI add-ons for the other pivots. It was a no-brainer investment,” James said.

About 300ha of the farm is irrigated by the centre pivots — an eight span, two five spans and two four spans.

“You still need somewhere for trees to go,” James said.

“I wanted to put a sixth pivot in, but then I realised I wouldn’t be able to calve my cows down without trees for shelter.”

About eight per cent of the farm’s grazing country is still dryland.

James harvests corn crops into multiple silage bunkers and grows standing crop every summer. He harvests pasture, oaten and lucerne silage into bunkers, and as stacks and wrapped.

“I would love to have tonnes of fodder left over every year,” James said.

“That comes from those three years of drought — scrounging for everything we had and never having anything left.

“The pipeline construction definitely worked into my stockpile, but I’ve built it back up again.

“I need about 900 tonnes in the bunker to get through each year.

“A thousand tonnes sitting around is a lot, but it’s hard to find when you need it and you don’t have it.

“During summer I shut down a lot of stuff and just run the pivots on 300ha of pasture and crop.

“If I use 200-and-something megalitres for each irrigation, I’ve only got six waterings for the whole farm.”

In 2024, James had completed two irrigations within a month of season opening, and in October the farm was flooded.

He purchased an additional 200ML of temporary water shares in November to help him through the summer.

This year, regular rainfall in spring has been an advantage for MID dairy farmers.