TMR feed system increases Altmann dairy turnover

Always knowing their cost of production has the Altmann family kicking financial goals on their Murray Bridge dairy farm. See how they do it.

Jake Altmann on his dairy farm in Murray Bridge, South Australia. Pictures: Supplied

Nothing is left to chance on the Altmann family farm in the Murraylands region of South Australia, and for good reason.

David and Karen Altmann, and son Jake, 29, operate a highly intensive, zero grazing dairy operation milking 500 cows, three times a day. They produce 6.2 million litres of milk a year.

Justifiably, risk management is high on their agenda.

The three-tiered dairy, beef and cropping business run over an aggregation of 1200 hectares from Murray Bridge and Cooke Plains to Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills, is based around a high capital risk, high reward Total Mix Ration feed management system, integrated on the Murray Bridge farm 20 years ago.

Cows are housed in barns and fed a TMR, delivering increased climate and environmental controls, improved herd health and milk quality, and higher milk production.

The nature and structure of the TMR system allows the Altmanns to be fully across every aspect of their farm management year round with few surprises.

STABILITY AND GROWTH

Since implementing the TMR feeding system, the Altmanns have increased milk production from an average 33 litres a cow to 38 to 40 litres, predominantly through cow comfort but also genetic gains.

Jake said the popularity of TMR systems was growing in Australia with the lure of business growth opportunities, ease of management with structured budgets and forecast plans, and having a stable cost of production – all benefits the Altmanns can vouch for.

“It works great – we wouldn’t farm any other way,” Jake said.

“The cows are healthier, happier, the condition on the cows is better than when we were on a pasture based system, we are not wasting feed, they are not in the elements, have fans and sprinklers to cool them down in summer, and in winter they can curl up in the barn and be warm and don’t have to walk through mud.”

Cows are fed a Total Mix Ration on the Altmann family farm at Murray Bridge, SA.

The Altmanns original set-up was an undercover feed pad before a compost barn was built. They now have two sheds, each 170 metres long and adjoining so the tractor and mixer wagon can drive down the middle – a cow-free zone. The compost shed is next door where cows can lay down.

“If we were to build the same set-up again now, it would probably cost in the vicinity of $4 to $5 million,” Jake said.

NICHE SUPPLIER PREMIUMS

The business supports seven full time staff as well as seven casuals to help with relief milking.

The three daily milkings, which began when milk production increased through more efficient use of fodder, are scheduled at 3am, 12pm and 7pm and each takes three hours in the 44-unit rotary dairy, which has auto cup removers, teat scrubber and an auto teat sprayer.

Installed five years ago, the teat scrubber not only cleans the teats but provides better milk stimulation and let-down and has helped halve mastitis levels.

“In our experience doing three milkings a day you can get a minimum of 15 per cent increase in milk production and the udders don’t get as full so there is also less chance of getting mastitis,” Jake said.

Bulk milk cell counts are excellent, averaging between 80,000 and 110,000. Butterfat sits at 4 per cent and protein averages 3.2kg per cow.

The Altmanns currently supply three niche markets in SA and did supply Bestons, until its recent demise.

The Altmanns have a 44-unit rotary dairy with auto cup removers and auto teat sprayer.

IN THEIR DNA

The Holstein-Friesian herd wears SCR collars providing valuable information for animal health, rumination and mating.

David enjoys the breeding side of the business and their Blackwood Park stud herd is fully registered, having won many awards over the years in the show ring.

Conformation of cows has always been important and the Altmanns are now making the most of genomic testing.

With year-round calving, selecting quality females with good udders and strength in their frame, feet and legs is prioritised.

“For us, the mammary, it has to be good, we have a high producing herd,” Jake said.

“Each cow does about 12,100 litres per lactation.”

Artificial insemination and sexed semen is used and every calf is genomics tested.

“Every time a calf drops on the ground we test how good it will be by its DNA and before it is 12 weeks old, I will know how good that calf will be when it comes into milking,” Jake said.

“We spend a lot on genetics and trying to get the best and most efficient cows we can. With genomics we can grow our herd a lot quicker.”

Part of their management practise is to use three rounds of sexed semen first before beef.

Following his participation in a Dairy Australia tour, Raising the Roof, Jake came home with a mission to design and build a new calf facility to replace their outdated system.

The Altmanns now raise every calf born on the farm – 170 replacement heifers, 170 Wagyu calves and 170 steers each year.

“The average lactation in the herd is five, with over 80 cows achieving 100,000 litres in their lifetime,” Jake said.

The Altmanns are making the most of genetic testing.

QUALITY FEED IMPACT

A full time cropping manager Brett Newman looks after the Altmann’s fodder production program, delivering 50 per cent of their cereal and grain requirements each year.

They produce winter crops of wheat, lupins, cereal and vetch hay as well as dryland lucerne, used for grazing young stock.

“Our soil isn’t great – we have a lot of limestone – but we also get good yields considering our area,” Jake said, adding they had changed some of the cropping practises over the years.

“We have been spreading manure over cropping land for 20 years which has helped increase the organic matter,” he said.

“We also work closely with an agronomist who helps map out the weed control program.”

The SOA is applied at 100kg/ha during seeding and urea at the two-to-three leaf growth stage of plants.

Yields average 3.5 tonnes/ha to 4 tonnes/ha for cereal hay and silage crops, 2 tonnes/ha for vetch and 2.5 tonnes/ha for wheat.

They buy high quality hay from growers in Pinnaroo, Naracoorte, Keith and mid-north region of South Australia, spreading their geographical risk for seasonal impacts.

“The better quality hay, the better quality milk you make,” Jake said.

“This year we went from old to new-season hay – that’s the only change we made – and production increased to 40 litres per cow.

“Butterfat dropped so we’ll change that mix but it shows how much quality feed can impact milk.”

NUTRITION IS KEY

Being a non pasture based system, everything the Altmanns grow is cut and fed to cows in the barns as part of their TMR diet.

No grain is fed to cows in the dairy.

Everything the cows need nutritionally is fed via the mixer wagon, which contains a tightly formulated ration mix, prepared on site, and consisting of hay, lucerne, silage, grain and bi-products such as potato, citrus pulp, brewers grain, millrun, and cotton seed.

Each dairy cow eats about 55kg wet a day.

Each dairy cow eats about 55kg wet a day, meaning the Altmanns feed out 32 tonnes of feed a day to the herd. They use an average of 1200 tonnes of cereal hay and 900 tonnes of wheat each year.

“We don’t have to worry so much about the seasonal changes, that is the luxury of the barns, we have the same components and produce the same amount of milk year round,” Jake said.

“Everything is budgeted. I can tell you how much we will spend on feed this year and how much they will milk. Everything is very structured, very easy to budget and everyone always comments how quiet and healthy our cows are.”

CONSISTENCY IN ROUTINE

A nutritionist formulates the mix and assesses it monthly. Mineral pellets are provided as required.

“With the collars we can identify sick cows 24 hours before a human eye can tell they are getting sick,” Jake said.

“Fantastic technology.”

Collars can identify animal health changes by how often a cow lifts when eating, and by monitoring sitting and standing times.

Compost bedding is turned over twice a day to aerate and ensure harmful bugs are eliminated. During the cleaning period, cows are let out into the paddock.

“It’s a full-on system milking three times a day but everything is done routinely. It is important to us to manage the facilities properly such as scarifying the barns twice a day, giving new feed and washing the alleyways, you get pretty consistent results,” Jake said.

An effluent management strategy separating liquids from solid manure, delivers recycled water for flood washing and fertiliser for crops. This reduces urea input and increases sustainability.

All water, accessed via a 360 megalitre water license from the Murray River, is filtered to ensure longevity of plant and equipment but predominantly for herd health.

Jake estimated filtered water helped increase milk quantity by about half a litre per cow.

Cows are milked three times a day.

INCREASING TURNOVER

The Altmann’s cost of production has increased dramatically over the past three to four years by about $3 per cow.

“Farmers cannot afford for the milk price to drop,” Jake said.

“The industry went through an unsustainable period when we were virtually in survival mode.

“In recent years, milk prices have increased which has seen us spend more on capital improvements around the farm but these were required for us to remain sustainable long term.”

The Altmanns diversified how they made profit by raising all young stock and selling more beef animals.

The original family farm at Balhannah is used to run a Speckle Park beef stud called Ewyn Beef, targeting high-end beef markets. It is in partnership with Vaughn Johnstone and David Kerber.

The Altmanns currently only use a portion of their Murray River water allocation and plan to install pivot irrigation in the future to grow corn or more cereal crops.

“For the last three to four years we have been making improvements on farm,” Jake said.

“That’s all come to a halt with one of the worst droughts in the Murraylands history, lower milk prices and the local milk factory going into liquidation with suppliers losing large sums of money. It’s very disappointing.”

“Because of the drought conditions, we’ve had to buy a lot of feed – we’ll end up spending close to $250,000 more this year on feed.

“We probably feel it more in our system. TMR is high risk, high reward. In bad years, we earn less, good years, we earn more.”

Jake, an electrician who returned to the family farm eight years ago to begin succession planning, won the SA Dairy Farmers 2024 Young Farmer of the Year award, and the family also won the SA Dairy Farmers 2023 Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year award.

Jake has plans for expansion and is currently looking into robotic dairies to potentially replace their ageing rotary.

Increasing sustainability is also high on their agenda. They already use solar power, pumps are variable speed to ensure economy and they are looking into methane digesters to catch and divert it into energy.

“The next five years will be an interesting time for the dairy industry but I think the people who stay will reap the rewards,” Jake said.