INTERNATIONAL FARMER
INTERNATIONAL FARMER KARL NEUHOFER, STRASSWALCHEN (A) THE HAY- MAKER Anyone speaking with Karl Neuhofer soon learns that this farmer has a special passion for hay. And this doesn’t only apply to his own farm. Nationally, as chairman of the Austrian Haymilk Working Group (ARGE), he’s one of the most important instigators of the concept. Dairy farming profitability depends on many factors. One of them is achieving as much milk as possible from forage. The figure of 50 % is usually taken as guideline and minimum in the dairy cow diet. But is that acceptable? “I don’t really want to pinpoint a particular figure. But one thing is sure: it should be as high as possible. Based on our own farm, I’m going to lean right out of the window and say that our feed concept brings us 85 % forage proportion with hay and grass dry matter over the year”, explains Karl Neuhofer. This is certainly a statement that makes us want to know more about the business he runs on around 80 ha permanent pasture as a registered partnership (GesbR) with his wife Theresia, daughter Isabella and son-in-law Lukas Übertsberger. The farm is not typical for many regions of 14
Austria, however, in that it’s situated on gently sloping hillsides with good-sized fields that can be mowed and harvested with high performance machinery. Stocking is with around 100 Fleckvieh cows and followers totalling 150 head with annual milk production per cow at between 8,000 and 8,500 kg with approx. 4.11 % fat and 3.51 % protein. PERFORMANCE IS IMPORTANT An interesting point is that the farm is “bio” – converted by Karl Neuhofer to organic management and haymilk production a good 30 years ago. This system sees the cows out on grass from April to October. When housed, their forage is exclusively high-quality barn dried hay harvested on the farm. “All silage, whether from grass, maize or other forage components, is taboo: as stipulated in the ARGE haymilk regulations. Haymilk has a series of very positive characteristics. Because of its natural taste, it is much in demand by consumers for drinking. Above all, haymilk offers the ideal raw material for production of high-quality natural cheese. Completely rejected by the rules are supplementary additives, preservatives and any pronounced mechanical processing”, stresses the farmer. The only concentrates fed on the farm comprise cereal grain that the farmer buys from fellow organic farmers in the neighbourhood. “In that the price for organic grain is double that of conventionally grown ware, its proportion in rations is tightly controlled. Annual per cow average grain in the diet for our milk output is only about 1,000 kg, almost exclusively due to the extra quality of our hay”, he adds. Obviously, achieving this standard of forage isn’t left to chance. In fact, Karl Neuhofer fine-tunes the production using a multitude of large and small management adjustments, starting with pasture care over mowing, turning and tedding through to collection and finally drying. The ultimate aim: good hay quality, whereby the machinery clout to complete the harvest in a timely way is a golden thread running through the entire harvesting chain. A key function hereby is played by the farm’s own hay drying operation, featuring a combined drying system with Karl Neuhofer: a farmer from Strasswalchen and chairman of the Austrian Haymilk Working Group (ARGE). 15
