Andrew Murphy: Young dairy farmer masters water efficiency at Kyabram
Kyabram’s Andrew Murphy reveals how water efficiency measures have boosted profits for his 585-cow dairy operation.
Young dairy farmer Andrew Murphy knows how to make the most of his assets.
His strategy to maximise use of water, feed and land may sound simple, but it has paid off handsomely by allowing the Murphy family to expand their herd, boost milk production, improve quantity and quality of fodder and remain resilient through both droughts and floods.
The 32-year-old runs a milking herd of 585 Holsteins at Kyabram with his parents Kevin and Jan, producing 380,000kg of milk solids annually.
When he started working in the operation in 2008, after finishing year 12, his family was milking 400 cows.
Since stepping into a share farming arrangement with his parents in 2012, Andrew has steadily taken on more responsibility for decisions, and has been a driving force behind expansion and innovation over the past eight years.
The enterprise runs across a total of 345ha, including a 70ha grazing platform and 200ha of out-blocks that Andrew has bought over the past decade.
Investing in additional acreage to grow feed is just one of Andrew’s smart moves that have helped the Murphys expand cow numbers by almost 50 per cent, increase production by up to three litres a cow per day and improve yields in their corn crop dramatically.
The largest gains have come from squeezing the most value out of every drop of water used on the farm.
“Probably our biggest contributor (to sustainability and profitability) is trying to be efficient with our water use,” Andrew said.
EVERY DROP COUNTS
The enterprise is run on a pasture mixed rotation, with 250ha of flood irrigation, 42ha under pivot irrigation and about 50ha of dryland crops.
The family grows winter cereals including wheat and vetch predominantly for silage, summer crops including corn and millet, and annual pastures for grazing.
Water security is crucial for the Murphys, who own 600 megalitres of entitlements, and also use groundwater, grey town water and the temporary market to make up their average annual needs of 1300 megalitres a year.
Andrew said when the region was hit by drought from about 2017 and water security was front-of-mind, his family doubled down on efficiency measures.
He discovered the value of using soil moisture probes to optimise pivot irrigation over their corn crop through a three-year trial, as part of the Smarter Irrigation for Profit phase two program.
“We started growing corn in 2015, but probably went a bit bigger scale in 2018 when water started getting tight and we wanted to stretch our water as far as we could,” Andrew said.
“I found with corn you can grow a lot of dry matter on a small area in a five-month period.”
The trial, which started in 2020, introduced probes to measure subsoil moisture a metre under the surface. The information then could dictate when to irrigate, and how much water to apply, for maximum returns.
Andrew said their water use on the corn crop increased by one megalitre, but they grew about six tonnes more corn to the hectare.
Moisture meters are now integral to their management system.
FEED EFFICIENCY
Another major project has been the installation of automatic three-way drafting gates in the dairy that work in conjunction with the herd’s electronic ID tags.
To implement the system in their existing 48-unit rotary dairy cost about $50,000 back in 2016, and Andrew said it had more than paid for itself in milk production increases.
“It basically means that we can target cows with their grain intake, based on production,”
Andrew said. “We can feed more grain to cows that produce more milk.
“The amount of grain we fed stayed the same, but it has meant we could target those production cows, and lower production cows don’t get over fed.”
In a system where feed accounts for half of all costs, maximising the amount of milk produced from dry matter is core to maintaining profitability. Half the herd’s diet is grass. The other half is silage and grain, with 80 per cent of silage grown on farm.
As a direct result of the new auto-draft system, production has lifted by two to three litres per cow per day.
Plus, the herd has fewer health issues.
Automatic drafting has also helped save labour for Andrew and his team of three full-time workers plus casuals, who manage twice-a-day milking.
In the current tight labour market, he said every little timesaving improvement was a bonus.
Andrew has also spearheaded expansion of the dairy yards to accommodate 650 cows, and experimented with ways to minimise costly nitrogen fertiliser applications.
Last year, he trialled a mixed-species forage crop to boost soil nitrogen naturally, but the plant species didn’t thrive under their farm’s surface irrigation system.
A more profitable use of funds was investment in a new spreader with computerised weight scales, which ensures the right amount of nitrogen is applied at the right time.
DROUGHT TO FLOOD
The Murphys have spent the past decade finetuning the operation to run smoothly in dry times, ensuring they have at least two years of feed on farm in case of future droughts.
So, the extraordinary floods of last year tested Andrew.
“Last spring was the first time I can remember that we hadn’t irrigated in spring,” he said.
“It was nice not having to irrigate, but it has definitely impacted our milk production significantly, and the quality of feed – silage and hay – that we were able to harvest.”
With their crops inundated and the herd affected by the unseasonably wet weather, they had to use the best of their feed reserves to carry the cows through.
Andrew said the stress of the wet, cold weather on the herd was now evident in output, with milk production down 5 per cent year on year.
“The cows also didn’t peak as high last spring, because they did it a little tough,” he said.
“The wet brings a totally different challenge. I think our business performs better in a dry or average year … especially with our access to water.”
Another major challenge of the past year has been the national labour shortage, which has been particularly acute in rural communities.
“I definitely think the labour factor was a driving factor of some negativity,” he said.
“You can have the best milk price in the world, but if you can’t enjoy it it’s no use.
“Staffing has been a real issue. But I think the borders being open is starting to correct itself.”
GROWTH MINDSET
While Andrew says his family doesn’t do anything “special” in their operation, his motivation for continual improvement and willingness to jump at any professional development opportunity has put the operation in good stead.
He has been the recipient of a Young Farmers Upskill and Invest scholarship, taken part in the Fodder for the Future program and also shares what he has learnt, recently hosting an open day for the Young Dairy Network and speaking at irrigation industry events.
His family is in their second season supplying Coles, and he has just signed a three-year contract.
“I wasn’t too excited about signing a long-term contract, but it was hard to say no,” He said. “Going through a (two-year) succession plan, it gives me ability to borrow money to pay out siblings.”
He said controlling cost of production and sticking with his long-term business plan, regardless of farmgate price or seasonal fluctuations, had been central to the operation’s ongoing success.
“We don’t differ too far from what we’ve been doing,” he said
“If you get a really high milk price, it’s important not to be sucked in to spending more.”
Despite the past year’s challenges, he sees a bright future in dairy.
“There is definitely positivity at the moment. The local town is doing quite well, especially since Covid, there is more appreciation for country life.”
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