The northern Victorian dairy season is facing low water supplies in dams and low fodder reserves.
Seasonal planning workshops are being run in northern Victoria during September, courtesy of funding from Agriculture Victoria.
Farm adviser Tom Farran spoke to about 20 farmers at Rochester about the situation facing dairy farmers.
“Everything is reliant on what happens this spring and what flows into the dams over the next few months,” he said.
“Virtually no fodder is sitting in sheds in south-eastern Australia.”
Mr Farran talked about preparation for dealing with scenarios of a good year if spring happened, with good milk prices, or how it could be a tough one if the season failed and hay and water prices became expensive.
“Southern Victoria has had a tough 18 months or longer and they have been using up fodder reserves to try to get through,” he said.
“It’s almost the flip of what we saw in 2018 when fodder disappeared up north; this time it’s going south.”
Mr Farran has been using two different scenarios depending on what happens.
“The main decision today is whether to buy standing crops to make silage,” he said.
“At the moment there is a big difference between what growers will sell for compared to what people are prepared to pay.”
His advice was to maximise the home-grown feed.
If you have good quality pasture and crops, irrigation in September and October will still provide a good source of feed.
“That’s the number one thing to do in the short term,” he said.
“And if you have to purchase in feed, grain is probably the best source, having regard to the diet balance.”
Mr Farran suggested farmers think through a strategy for the year and be aware of the trigger points as they occurred.
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