Genomic testing boosts dairy breeding program, increases profit

Streamlining practices and embracing technology has helped create a better work life balance and operating surplus for the Moloney family.

Lex and Rachael Moloney have had their foot to the floor since returning to Lex’s family farm at Dixie in the state’s southwest dairy region seven years ago.

They have invested heavily in capital works and infrastructure, focused on improving pasture and herd health and managed to almost double cow numbers from 280 to 540 Friesian-Jersey, all while retaining milk quality to such an extent they won a coveted Milk Quality gold award in 2020.

Lex and Rachael Moloney with pony Casper on their Dixie farm. Pictures: Nicole Cleary

Lex said the period of rapid growth had already paid short-term dividends with higher production and they hoped the long-term benefits would now begin to filter through as they took their foot off the pedal for more work-life balance. Investing in good infrastructure was their means to achieving that.

“We’ve been in quite a rapid growth stage so over the next couple of years it will be more steady,” Lex said. “We just want to catch our breath actually and consolidate.”

CHANGE AND ADAPT

The Moloneys’ 430ha property was originally a sheep and beef grazing operation converted to dairy by Lex’s parents in 1995.

Lex initially ran the dairy for 10 years but sold the herd, leased the farm out and took a sabbatical for eight years when he travelled and worked off the farm before meeting Rachael.

The couple, who were living in Brisbane, made the natural progression back to the farm to raise their young family and encountered a few lean and difficult years as they restarted the herd from scratch during the Fonterra Murray Goulburn clawback period.

They formulated a plan to grow and improve the business by upgrading farm infrastructure including irrigation, improving paddock topography and pasture management, increasing their herd size and tweaking management practices, all with the help of farm advisers and consultants wherever possible for agronomy, breeding and nutritional advice and support.

Lex and Rachael with their dog Elsey.

Their main goal was to improve pastures via better drainage and cropping programs and steadily increase cow numbers, which they were initially able to achieve by buying rising two-year-old heifers at herd dispersals, and more recently through on-farm management changes to their breeding program.

FAST FORWARD

The Moloneys embraced technology advances to help improve their business introducing cow collars, sexed semen and genomic testing to help boost breeding efficiencies.

“With the use of sexed semen our replacement numbers have dramatically increased over the last couple of years,” Lex said, adding they were also able to avoid the hassle of bobby calves.

“It’s such a handy tool. It is definitely going to fast-forward our breeding program by quite a bit having a larger gene pool to select from for those replacement stock.”

Of the 320 calves reared this year, the Moloneys will conduct genetic tests on all but keep only 150 with the best quality genetic merits. The remainder will be grown out for nine months to 200kg liveweight for the Chinese export market or sold locally as an additional income stream, providing capital to make further farm infrastructure improvements and allowing the Moloneys to concentrate on feeding their high end heifers.

“This is only the second year we’ve used the genomics. It’s probably too early for us to see the real advantages until we start milking those progeny,” Lex said.

It’s been a tough road back for the Moloneys since the clawback, but they’ve seen a meteoric rise.

The testing, which costs about $50 per animal, involves an ear notch tissue sample that is sent away for genetic analysis before a report is produced ranking heifers against each other.

He aims to select moderate framed cattle with strong commercial and production traits as well as good temperament and survivability.

“There can be quite a variation within a large mob of heifers,” Lex said. “It allows us to choose the best and fast forward our breeding. It takes the guesswork out of the selection.”

PREVENTING THE WET

The Moloneys opt for an early autumn calving program to avoid calving in muddy paddocks. Located in a 750mm average rainfall zone, pugging in wet paddocks is an ongoing issue and significant drainage works have been undertaken in recent years to help alleviate the problem.

A farm topography map was created to implement a whole farm drainage plan with a couple of paddocks completed each year to improve pasture productivity.

The Moloneys are also in the process of building a 3600 metre square loafing barn, expected to be completed this year.

“The barn is designed to alleviate the pressure off the paddocks when it gets really wet,” Lex said, adding the barn was close to the dairy so would be useful for housing any sick cows overnight and could be used for calving.

“It is quite a large project but we do have confidence in the industry and this is definitely a long-term investment,” Lex said.

“It’s very difficult to quantify a lot of the potential benefits but the farm adviser and nutritionist we use were giving very positive feedback as to the advantages of incorporating it into our farm system and that gave us confidence to go forward with such a large project.”

WORKER RELIEF

The Moloneys are also considering creating on-farm accommodation to help with the labour shortage having found it difficult to get relief milkers.

Two years ago, they set about becoming an approved sponsor of international workers, which involved a lengthy process with Warrnambool City Council and the Department of Immigration.

“We have had one couple with us for 18 months and are looking at taking on another full time labour unit as well,” Rachael said.

“It’s not an easy process. It is very time consuming but definitely worth it. You have to become an approved sponsor. We had to use an immigration lawyer to help us. It’s not recommended to do it on your own.”

A secure workforce is essential for Lex and Rachael to continue operating the business at its current level while maintaining a good work-life balance.

Production levels currently sit at 8100 litres per cow per year with 600kg of milk solids per year. Cell counts average about 100,000.

The Moloneys have supplied Bulla for three years.

“Milk pricing is fantastic and projections for opening prices are looking promising,” Lex said.

“Our biggest concern is rising input costs, especially urea, fuel and labour. This year we will have to keep a handle on running costs to counteract it.”

Effluent irrigation infrastructure has been extended in recent years to reach more paddocks and the Moloney’s intend to maximise its use as an input saving measure.

“We aim to grow as much permanent pasture as we can. We have a rotational summer crop of turnips or rape, if the season permits we will grow maize under irrigation to feed back in the wetter months,” Lex said.

“We probably crop 10 per cent a year. As we get more land drained, it allows us to crop and get back into permanent pasture. That has been quite a big infrastructure spend on effluent management but it has given us the flexibility to irrigate more pasture, summer crops and maize.”

INPUT WARY

Monitoring input costs will be high on the Moloneys radar this year along with forward planning and feed budgeting to ensure an overall operating surplus.

Until now, due to their intentional period of rapid growth, the Moloneys have not set cost of production targets but rather focused on annual budgets and working on margins over feed costs, factoring in grass and concentrates.

Lex said now that their growth period had plateaued they intended to pay closer attention to their cost of production to ensure input costs did not blow out.

“We will be using contractors a little bit more to make sure jobs are getting done when they need to be done. Timing is quite critical. Timing that grass seed in the paddock, getting that silage off, or the fertiliser and spray applications done. Timing is key as is having good staff, good people and good help around you,” Lex said.

“Our business is changing slightly now in that we are starting to grow out a lot more livestock and taking advantage of export markets and potentially beef as well. I guess we have evolved a little bit from where we were seven or eight years ago to a slightly different, more options, more intensive farming system with some efficiency gains in there.

“But the aim over the next few years would be to strike a good work life balance, which I think having good infrastructure helps to be able to appease that and is one of the steps we are working towards achieving.”