Why taking shelter is good for business and cows on dairy farms

Milk production is up, pasture paddocks are saved from becoming wet season bogs, cows are protected from fierce summer temperatures or freezing winter nights, and the contented milkers are easier to manage.

Happier cows have also helped morale and stress levels among farm workers and dairy farming families.

"It's one of the best farm investments we've ever made - we've lifted our income and cut operating costs," said South West Victorian farmer, Simon Rea.

"We've also gone a long way in making life better for us and our cows."

The shelter option not only helped boost winter pasture productivity 10 per cent on Mr Rea and his wife Pep's 170 hectare property, it enabled them to grow their milking herd by 150 cows to 550.

They now generated an extra $1m a year in milk income (at farmgate milk solids prices of $10 a kilogram).

"It's like having an extra 60ha of paddock, for about a quarter of the cost of buying land at current prices," Mr Rea said.

He once dreaded the approaching wet winter months when temperatures of minus 4 degrees frequently accompanied freezing coastal winds and persistent rain on the family's second generation Glenwood Farm, at Panmure, near Warrnambool.

Now, however, his milkers opted to camp under cover at night, spending the worst of the winter sheltered under an 81 metre long, 49m wide plastic roofed structure, similar to a horticulture greenhouse.

Better still, their woodchip bedded night-time accommodation was just 30 metres from the dairy, rather than a long, cold and boggy morning walk from the bottom of a paddock.

Mr Rea was one of several farmers speaking at Dairy Australia's Raising the Roof 2024 event, discussing how they used big scale shelters to support their grazing-based enterprises as they dealt with challenging weather patterns.

The Reas explored their shelter options in New Zealand before spending $350,000 in 2015 erecting a structure made with 254 micron-thick plastic sheeting rated to withstand winds of 165 kilometres an hour.

Early this year they outlaid a further $230,000 on a 66m by 32m shelter to protect their yearling heifers in July and August, and to rear calves in autumn.

In unusually rainy periods, cows have stayed under cover for a fortnight if not being milked, and in 2022 the shelter was used nightly by the milking herd from late June until mid-October, with minimal day time grazing so saturated paddocks were protected from trampling hooves.

Although the cows were in close quarters sharing the same bedding, the Rea's milk somatic cell count numbers remained constant at less than 100,000 a millilitre - among the top 5pc of suppliers to their milk factory.

When the pasture paddocks finally dried out the farm produced a bumper silage crop.

Further north, near Echuca on the Murray River, Colin and Jodie Hay made a similar infrastructure decision after a wet 2016 winter and spring left significant damage to their grazing paddocks and laneways.

They built a 72m by 40m shed for their 400 head herd beside an existing feed pad and holding area so the cows would be more comfortable during the day between milkings in a covered loafing area.

The "entry level" shelter investment has given them the flexibility to feed their cows mixed rations and access to good pastures within reasonable walking distance of their dairy.

Although the Hays have rarely used the shelter during winter, preferring to graze their herd when possible, the covered area was seven to 10 degrees cooler when outside summer temperatures averaged around 30 degrees and frequently hit the 40s.

"Our cows are left to self govern. If the temperature gets above 28 they'll leave the shade of trees in the paddock and walk into the barn," Mrs Hay said.

"They really appreciate the loafing area - settling down just like they're slumping into a bean bag."

The $300,000 investment in the shelter, which now included a 100 kilowatt solar electricity roof array and solar water heater, had already paid for itself, and "really helped us negotiate the tumultuous Victorian dairy space of the past decade".

In north eastern Victoria fifth generation farmer, Stuart Crosthwaite and his wife Sarah, last year invested $1.8m in a shelter project over a concrete feed pad with adjoining loafing areas spanning a total 171m in length and 50m wide.

The Crosthwaites were prompted to do more to protect their herd after finding spring calving cows under performing because of summer heat stress and their winter pastures too vulnerable to grazing damage.

"We had to consider the climatic inadequacies we deal with - wet river flats in winter and the hot summer - and the impacts on fertility and milk production," Mr Crosthwaite said.

The 500-cow herd's daily milk production this summer climbed 3000 litres higher than 2023, while its bulk somatic cell count has stayed between 80,000 and 120,000/ml.

Milkers are now fed a partially mixed ration under cover during summer where sprinklers and fans keep them cool during the day, then graze in the cool of the afternoon after a 3.30pm milking.

In the past bringing the cows in from the paddock for milking had to be delayed until much later in summer, limiting the time they had to graze in the evening.