Getting Down and Dirty on the dairy farm with

Emma & Jet

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW

Emma and Jet

• My name is Emma I am 16. As part of my HSC I am doing a dairy traineeship at Clover Hill Dairies

• My name is Jet. I am also doing a dairy traineeship with Alan and Leesa Swan at Hillview Dairy

Hi I’m

Emma

Hi I’m Jet

What are Emma and Jet going to

talk about today?

They are going to tell everyone how the farmer fertilises the

pastures and looks after the environment so we

have plenty of lush green grass to eat to help us

produce lots of high quality milk

Lets start at the beginning

• Cows eat a lot of grass per day - over a wheelbarrow load - which means they produce a lot of manure.

100kgs grass per day

Since the cows use the same laneways to get to the dairy each day

and stand in the yards waiting to get milked, a lot of manure collects on the same parts of the farm.

Cows help move nutrients around the farm. When they graze they pick up the nutrients in the grass in one paddock and spread them to the next paddock they graze after milking.

Link

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/soils/improvement/plant-nutrients

Adapted from How Now

Aussie Cow booklet –

Dairy Australia

• Wise use of this manure is a good thing as it contains lots of goodness and nutrients that the cow hasn’t had time to digest.

Just think our manure feeds the soil

The soil feeds the grass and the grass feeds us

Amazing !!!!!!!

• This goodness includes organic matter which helps build soil carbon and keep moisture in the soil.

• Manure also contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, nutrients or foods which help plants grow.

This is a map of our farm showing the

levels of soil carbon in our paddocks

Red = very highpink = high

High soil carbon is a good thing isn't it??

Learn all about it herewww.csiro.au/resources/soil-carbon

Read more: www.amazingcarbon.com/PDF/JONES-Carbon&Catchments(Nov06).pdf

You grow lots and lots of yummy

short sweet grass

Look what happens when

you spread fertiliser

and short sweet grass mean we can

produce lots of milk and less methane!!!

Wise farmers recycle the manure and urine collected in

holding ponds around the dairy. This waste is used to irrigate and fertilise (feed)

pastures helping them grow.

Emma hosing out On our farm we recycle 50% of the water we

use to produce our milk.

What sorts of fertilisers are there??

To help the grass grow lush and sweet the farmer also

purchases and spreads inorganic and organic

fertiliser.

The first one you have already seen and the other one is

poultry manure

Organic fertiliser is derived from animal or vegetable matter.

We use two types of organic fertiliser

at Clover Hill

Dairies

Look at our fluffy chooks

They are called Silkies

Our silkies produce lots of manure

Truckloads in fact which we recycle and spread over

our farm

We use a contractor to spread our poultry manure and lime.

His name is Dave.Here he is looking at the

nutrient map with Michael the farmer

Hi I’m Dave

Hi I’m Michael

How should we use fertiliser wisely

Fertiliser is very expensive. To use it in a cost effective and

environmentally sensitive way wise farmers test soil nutrient levels and

only apply fertiliser to the paddocks that need more nutrients.

No guess work on this farm!

Nutrient maps

very high

high

adequate

low

very low

Nutrient Management Plan

A nutrient management plan is a set of conservation practices designed to use fertilizer and/or manure effectively while protecting against the potential adverse impacts of manure, erosion and organic by-products on water quality.

To create the plan we:• Soil test• Manure test• Practice erosion control • Manage soil for pH • Time fertilizer/manure application. Link is www.asris.csiro.au/themes/nutrient.html

What Goes in vs. What Goes Out

Nutrient budgeting is used by all good farmers.• The process involves balancing nutrients coming

into the farming system with those leaving.• The aim is to prevent pollution events and save

costs by precisely matching the nutrient requirements of the crop with application of organic and inorganic fertilizers.

Links1. www.ew.govt.nz/environmental-information/Land-and-soil/Managing-Land-and-Soil/Managing-farm-nutrients/2. www.sardi.sa.gov.au/__data/.../fact_sheet_1404_nutrient_budgeting.doc

Mmh this organic fertiliser may be

good for the environment but it’s

a bit on the nose.

Don’t worry you wont even notice in

a couple of days and the grass will be all green and

lush.

Is soil pH important??The pH of soil or more precisely the pH of the soil

solution is very important because soil solution carries in it nutrients such as Nitrogen (N),

Potassium (K), and Phosphorus (P) that plants need in specific amounts to grow, thrive,

and fight off diseases.

Coastal soils tend to be acidic and farmers spread Calcium hydroxide (lime) to raise the

soil pHLink http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/soil_pH/plant_pH.htm

This is the pH map of our farm pink = very good almost neutral

Green = acidic but still very good for growing pasture

Blue = acidic and needs attention Yellow = far too acidic and needs a

lot of attention

Hi .Dave back again

loading the truck up with lime.

This is paddock 51 on our farm covered in

lime

• Lime leaves the pasture looking like snow has fallen.

• Rain soon washes it into the soil.

Oh my golly gosh I need to pay closer attention to the weather

reports.Look its snowing over there !!!!

We also use different types of inorganic

fertiliser on our farm to grow short sweet

grass.

Want to know more….

Both natural and man-made fertilisers are measured by the three MAJOR Nutrients that are in them. These are: -

• Nitrogen (N) - assists plants with leaf and stem growth.

• Phosphorus (P) known as PHOSPHATE -assists young plants and root crops to develop good root systems.

• Potassium (K) known as POTASH - assists plants to produce flowers and fruit.

On our farm we mostly spread urea

Want to know how they make fertiliserwww.slideshare.net/chalkie28/making-fertiliser

We put inorganic fertilisers on the paddock with a

spreader attached to the back of the tractor

This ensures even spreading

Nutrient mapsThis map shows

the levels of P on our farm

Which paddocks would you put

super phosphate on ??????

very high

high

adequate

low

very low

Helicopters Spreading Nutrients

• Sometimes on very large farms helicopters are used to spread the fertilisers.

• Helicopter pilots have to be very careful to keep well away from the rivers and stream so the fertiliser doesn't get into our waterways.

Nitrogen Escapes!!!!

• It is very important that farmers look after their waterways.

• When soil and nutrients fall into rivers, they become murky and it upsets the food balance for all the water-dwelling animals.

• Sometimes it encourages the growth of algae that can poison animals.

How does Nitrogen get into water ways

Source:

www.ew.govt.nz/environmental-information/Land-and-soil/Managing-Land-and-

Soil/Managing-farm-nutrients/Managing-farm-nitrogen/

I don’t like the look of that water .Do you ??????

It smells !!!!!!!!!www.toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/eutrophication.html

Hey don’t drink out of there Look how clean it is!!!

Lets make sure we help keep it that way for the

ducks.Lets go and find a trough to

drink out of.

Fertiliser Management Strategies

Its no laughing matter

Image www.usefilm.com

Laughing Gas – not so funny

• Nitrous oxide also known as laughing gas or happy gas is a major greenhouse gas and air pollutant.

• Over a 100 year period, it has 298 times more impact per unit weight than carbon dioxide.

• Nitrous oxide escapes into the air when nitrogen fertiliser is used. (See next slide)

Nitrogen Cycle

This is laughing Gas

(nitrous oxide)

Fertiliser – the aim of the game…

is to keep the nutrients on the pasture and out of the airways and waterways.

So its very important to: measure what goes in and what goes out

andonly apply what you need, where you

need it and not when rain is going to bucket down.

Fertiliser Formulations • Like all things driven by need, fertilisers are

being developed with protective coatings to reduce the amount of Nitrous Oxide escaping in the atmosphere. Fertiliser isn't

the only bad guy.Did you walk to

work today?

Healthy soils and clean waterways means happy

healthy cows

Visit our new Website

www.dairyyouthaustralia.com.au

Jet and Emma Farm Management Education Series K to 12

Links Milk It

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/dairy-farming-with-jet-and-emma-milk-it

Farm to Factory

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/dairy-farming-with-jet-and-emma-cups-on-cups-off

Grow Grass Grow

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/dairy-farming-with-jet-and-emma

Seeding Time

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/dairy-farming-with-jet-and-emma-seeding-time-1236604

How it all began – a Taste for Dairy

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/jet-and-emma-a-taste-for-dairy

Dairying for Climate Change.

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/dairy-farming-with-jet-and-emma-healthy-landscape-1641792

Circle of Life – Calf to Cow

www.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/circle-of-life-calf-to-cow

Cream of the Cropsee the 2009

Cream of the Crop finalists and learn more about farming

atwww.slideshare.net/LandLearnNSW/presentations

.

Visit our Website and Watch our videos

www.dairyyouthaustralia.com.au/jetandemma/index.html

Acknowledgements

1. Farm yard animal graphics have been created for the “Jet and Emma Get Down and Dirty on the Farm” series by students from Mt Terry Public School

2. Slides 49,50,52 & 53 have been taken from “Climate Change who Cares”

which can be found at www.dairyyouthaustralia.com.au/competition

The Jet and Emma Series is a Dairy Youth Australia inc initiative assisted by

Kiama Municipal Council through its Sustainable Living Grants Program.

Watch this

space we will be back

soon