School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses

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Subject: Victoria × Start date: 2000 × End date: 2020 × Type: Masters Research thesis × Author: Armstrong, Daniel ×

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    Water-use efficiency and profitability on irrigated dairy farms in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales
    Armstrong, Daniel ( 2001)
    Three studies were conducted to look at water use efficiency (WUE) and profitability on irrigated dairy farms in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales. The studies consisted of (i) a large survey of WUE on dairy farms, (ii) monitoring WUE on 20 farms over five seasons, and (iii) an economic evaluation of various development options for a case study farm. The factors associated with high WUE, and the potential for farms to improve WUE, were examined in the first two studies. The third study evaluated options for the case study farm that could result in higher WUE, increased profit, and meet the farm owners objectives. Water use efficiency was defined as the amount of milk (kg milk fat plus protein) produced from pasture per megalitre of water (irrigation plus effective rainfall). The survey of 170 randomly selected, irrigated, dairy farms in northern Victoria and nine in southern New South Wales found there was a large range in WUE (25 to 115 kg milk fat plus protein/MI), which indicated potential for many farms to substantially improve WUE. The high WUE farms, when compared with the low group, had higher estimated pasture consumption per ha and per ML, higher stocking rates, used higher rates of nitrogen fertiliser, had higher milk production per cow, and directed a higher proportion of energy consumed into milk production. The survey data also confirmed that irrigated dairy farm systems are complex and variable. Increases in WUE of over 15 kg milk fat + protein/ML were achieved on eight of the monitor farms over the last five years. However, an investment in improving WUE is often complex and is likely to impact on a number of areas of the farm business. For example, increasing WUE by increasing pasture utilisation may require an increase in stocking rate and herd size. An increase in herd size may make it necessary to replace some of the existing infrastructure, such as, the dairy, or employ more labour. The case study farm data indicates that in the past four seasons there was no simple, direct association between WUE and profitability. Economic analysis of some development options for the case study farm found that there were some options that were compatible with the objectives of the farm owners and were likely to result in both increased WUE, and increased profit. Efficient use of irrigation water is one of many factors that contribute to whole farm profit. Therefore, development options that have the potential to increase WUE also have potential to increase whole farm profit, and thus the development options investigated for irrigated dairy farms should always include options that have the potential to increase WUE. The approach of conducting an industry survey to identify areas of farm management where there may be potential to improve, and then looking at production and economic efficiency in past years on individual case study farms, provided a good base for evaluating development options and making farm management decisions. However, survey data and data from previous seasons appeared to be of limited value to farm managers unless they are used as a base to do some economic analysis of options for the future.