A LACK of rain and feed for livestock has meant it has been a harder start to the year than usual for Dairy Tasmania's focus farm.
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Limberlost, a farm in the Tamar Valley, is the only Tasmanian farm representative in the Dairy Australia Focus Farm project.
Dairy Australia established the network of focus farms across the country to help support farmer decision-making.
The tracking of real decisions on the farm under real conditions provides visibility and insight into the impact of those decisions on the bottom line.
The focus farms are being tracked over a two-year period.
Focus farms also allow for consideration and discussion among farmers about the factors impacting decisions at any one time, including seasonal and market pressures.
Limberlost is the farm of Peter and Jo Jones and is located at Kayena in the Tamar Valley.
They have 695 cows and 170 heifers.
"Having dry cows does not change the fact they still need feed," Mr and Mrs Jones said in a statement about their January so far on the farm.
The dry conditions have dramatically altered how they would normally manage this period of the season.
All dry stock are using 20 hectares of the farm.
Mr and Mrs Jones described their farm as being "virtually dry land at the moment" and said they were trying to preserve as much irrigation water as possible.
They are only irrigating 1/6th of the area under the large pivot and 1/3rd of the area under the smaller half circle pivot.
One saving grace for the Jones' family is that they still have a reasonable amount of silage still on hand.
"As cows begin to calve at the end of this month the feed budget will be revisited to ensure that they are not underfed," they said.
"Over the next week to 10 days lead feeding will commence with calving due to start on the 5th of February."
Things have been a bit slower on the farm because of the dry cows and Mr and Mrs Jones have been doing dry season jobs such as replacing all shed rubberware.
They have also been able to give their full-time employees some time off and they themselves have been spending more time with family.
For more information on the Focus Farm project go to www.dairytas.com.au and click on the Focus Farm Project link. The farm can also be followed on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TasFocusFarm or Twitter, search for #tasfocusfarm.
