THE Tindall family last season cracked an average 590 kilograms of milk solids per cow on their dairy farm even though they farm in the low rainfall area of Muntham, west of Coleraine.
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That feat is one of the reasons why the Tindalls are one of the two finalists in this year’s Sungold Field Days’ Rural Achiever Awards.
Lachlan Tindall, 32, said the farm had implemented “a lot of little changes” ’to enable its 650 medium-framed mainly European breed cows to reach that healthy production figure.
He said the farm, which involves his parents John and Glenys, achieved the feat with the help of a consultant nutritionist and agronomist.
Mr Tindall said the farm’s average annual rainfall of 600 millimetres was not enough to grow annual ryegrass but was achieving good results with phalaris that “grew right through the year while it is raining.”
The farm had also worked hard to improve the quality of its own silage, on which it was heavily reliant post calving.
Its silage was a mixture of phalaris, cereal and annual ryegrass, with the latter planted as part of paddock renovation programs.
The improvement in the cows’ nutrition had only lifted their production, it had also improved their conception rates.
“We are getting a six week in calf rate of 75 per cent. We only calve in autumn,” Mr Tindall said.
Mr Tindall and his wife Nicole, who have two boys, farm 445 hectares plus a 364ha outpaddock that carries replacement stock,