Managing production volume to drive profit
Production volume means tonnes of grain or fodder, kilograms of wool cut or number of livestock head produced per hectare. Farm businesses are generally comprised of a variety of enterprises. As the manager you have a critical role in analysing the profitability of various enterprise mixes that may suit your property and personal circumstances. Ensure synergies between the enterprises are captured.
Whilst the weather is a key, but unpredictable, driver of production volume there are some management strategies that assist producers to capture the maximum yield potential available in each particular season. These include:
Systems and management
- Good planning and preparation so that time critical tasks are met. For example, maintaining machinery in good condition to avoid delays and break-downs, quality labour contracted well in advance, critical spares kept in stock on farm, logistics management plans in place during peak periods.
- Have plans in place on what to do if the season outlook and prices change from what was budgeted. Review budgets regularly and adapt to the changes in prices and seasons. For example, if it is a poor season what option is most profitable for your business - fallow, trade sheep, drop a paddock out of crop, leave standing crop etc. If the prospects are for a highly favourable season then examine the feasibility of increasing the crop area, fertilising for a higher yield, increasing the stocking rate on pasture lands and/or maybe consider some crop grazing.
- Become effective users of decision support tools including Yield Prophet®, MyCrop, wheat yield constraint calculator, flower power, DPIRD’s climate and weather maps, lime calculator, supplementary feed budget calculators etcetera.
- Investigate the merits of crop grazing including an increased stocking rate, frost risk mitigation and reduced disease pressure.
- Investigate yield response levels and associated profitability of different rotations.
- Choose varieties and genetics that are most suited to the climatic conditions of your farm.
- Consider a ‘phased’ rotation approach for mixed farming to manage weeds, disease and nutrition for the cropping phase and generate high density pastures to allow higher stocking rates.
- Regularly monitor crops and livestock so that pests, diseases and weeds are detected early and can be treated early or pre-emptively.
- Analyse test results to identify and address any production constraints. For example, conduct soil tests for acidity and nutrient composition so lime and fertiliser can be applied to optimise yield response rates for both crop and pasture.
Cropping
- Summer weed management to conserve moisture, avoid allelopathic impact of weeds, limit seeding hold ups.
- Maintain low weed burdens and prevent weed seed set.
- Use variable rate management of inputs including lime, fertiliser and chemicals to achieve optimum yields on highest quality land and avoid over-applying inputs on less responsive land.
- Investigate the potential benefits of controlled traffic farming.
- Adjust your mix of crops and crop area to the seasonal prospects. This can help lessen costs in poor years but also lifts profits in the best years.
Livestock
- Benchmark your stocking rate and stock at the optimal stocking rate for the region. Analyse returns on a kg wool/ha or kg lamb/ha basis as well as on a per DSE basis.
- Analyse the profitability differences of various lambing dates. Would later lambing provide more food on offer (FOO) and allow higher stocking rates which may more than offset higher weaner feed costs?
- Preg-scan ewes to separate the multiple-lamb ewes and increase their supplementary feed to lift condition score and increase marking rates. Separation also avoids over feeding of single ewes, which can increase both feed bills and lamb mortality due to dystocia (difficult births).
- Maintain ewe condition from joining through to lambing to optimise lambing percentage, aiming to achieve the same condition score at lambing as at joining.
- Regularly monitor pasture utilisation to make nutrition decisions.
- Consider lupin flushing for ewes to increase ovulation rate of the ewes and potentially provide additional nutrition to the ewe to accommodate a potentially higher lambing percentage.
- Adopt good ram management by inspecting rams prior to joining, stocking at minimum 2% rams and consider using teasers if joining merinos prior to Christmas to stimulate ewes to cycle.
- Lick feeders.
- Reduce post birthing lamb losses to predators such as foxes.