The aims of the excursion were to discover the process involved with dairy farming, and how this interact with the environment for example impact that natural disasters have on the farm.
The year 9 geography school excursion was held at Mr McIntosh's dairy farm in Woodside Park, Berry. The McIntosh's farm is altogether 145 ha, they own 120ha and lease 25ha. . The predominant soils found on the farm are, Clay Loom in the hilly sections and Sandy Allurion the river flats. The grass that is grown from these soils is Summer Rye Grass, Kikuyu and clover. The average annual rainfall is 1200mL the rain comes primarily in Autumn unlike Nowra which has a different rainfall pattern to Berry. The farm has received more than average in the last Autumn and if continues it should be above annual rainfall average.
The main breed of cattle owned is Holstein Friesian they have 250 on the farm they also have two Jersey cows. The breeding techniques involved are naturally and by artificial insemination which involves getting a bulls semen and freezing it in liquid nitrogen Which can be stored for up to 20 years, then selling it. So many of the calf's are from top cows all over the world. The milking herd consists of 180 cattle and produces 2500L of milk a day whish is about 25L per cow. milk is sold from the farms at 36-37cents a liter in summer and 28cents a liter in winter.
The cattle are fed pastures, pellets and silage which provides them with protein energy and fibre, essential nutrition to reach maximum potential for milking. The new born calf's are fed 2L of milk a day as well as proteins and minerals. Additional feed such as hay and grain which is a substantial cost for the farm at the moment, hay is bought at $245 a ton which is expensive due to the drought which is effecting the hay farms in west NSW. If prices are to rise they will not be able to afford hay anymore. The price of grain has also increased from $250 to $270.The pastures are fertilized with nitrogen lime so that the soil has a good PH level. Irrigation is applied to the pastures each day on 15ha the farm utilizes damn water, it catches the solids which they also recycle like the water to prevent wastage.
The drought has had a detrimental affect on the farm economically, prices of hay increased consequently from the lack of rain in the west. If it gets much higher they will not be able to afford hay. Another repercussion is that the workers are busier because they can not afford to employ other workers. The drought has affected the cows milking performance because
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