Renewable energy and how it could be used on farm was the focus of a field day at Sale, Vic, in February.
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The day culminated in a tour of the farm where a strategic focus has encompassed wind, solar and water into standard daily practice.
The takeaway for dairy farmers was that farming system changes can be small or large but should depend on financial returns and the farmers' appetite for risk.
Wilco Droppert and Sandra Jefford, of Wilandra Farms, at Clydebank, near Sale, have been developing their dairy farm to utilise solar and wind energy. On the farm tour, participants were able to view and hear how wind and solar energy are used to irrigate pasture, markedly reducing the annual cost of grid power.
But most of the day was given over to a number of presentations funded by sponsors - Dairy Australia, Rabobank, GippsDairy, Flow Smart, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority, Farmers for Climate Action, AEI, AgVet Energy, ArcoFlex Automation and Wilandra Farms - and reinforced by the opportunity to see the wind turbines and solar panels on the farm, creating energy and irrigating pasture.
Mr Droppert and Ms Jefford milk about 380 cows in an accredited organic farming system.
The cost of irrigation during drought led the couple to look for alternatives to paying for grid power, balancing on and off peak power needs, and regularly getting out of bed during the night to check on the pump and pivot.
They shared some of their journey to using renewable energy and their plans to achieve a microgrid on their farm.
"In 2018, we had an irrigation energy audit of our farm completed by Rob Welke (Water Pumping Institute)," Ms Jefford said.
"His report gave us an enormous amount of information, with recommendations for making our irrigation system more efficient.
"One of the key changes Rob recommended related to a bore where a pump was the wrong size and the pipeline from the bore was too narrow. We implemented his recommendations immediately."
These recommendations included installing a submersible pump with a greater flow capacity in the dam, new pipe to the dam and replacing diesel pumps at the dam with electric ones - and an additional new second submersible pump at the dam.
Irrigation needs have changed
Previously they irrigated directly from the Avon River. They now pump from the Avon River into their dam and irrigate from the dam.
With more water able to be shifted from the dam onto paddocks during the day, using solar energy, night irrigating became a thing of the past.
When the solar power falls below a threshold, wind turbine energy powers irrigation.
With annual energy savings, they have been able to invest in additional pivots, pumps, bores and dams to irrigate more pasture. The entire irrigation system is managed automatically and remotely, and matches operations to available energy.
Steve Soutar, of AEI in Morwell, developed an energy action plan for Wilandra Farms, which attracted a grant through the Agriculture Energy Investment Plan. The Agriculture Energy Initiative Plan, a Victorian government program, supports on-farm businesses to improve energy efficiency, manage energy costs, improve energy reliability and support own-generation capacity.
Completing an on-farm energy action plan with an accredited independent energy assessment means farmers can tap into a range of assistance, including government funded grants up to $250,000 (excluding GST) - on a co-contribution basis.
Mr Droppert and Ms Jefford also spoke to their banker, Rabobank, about their plans to invest in renewable energy infrastructure and their vision for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their farm business.
Rabobank's head of sustainable business development Lachlan Monsbourgh told field day attendees the renewable energy goals of Wilandra Farms challenged the bank to identify how it was going to support its customers who owned agribusinesses and were proactive about investing in methods that reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Monsbourgh said in the corporate sector, food processing and retailing companies were focused on protecting the reputation of their brands and this focus encompassed their suppliers - especially how farmers were producing the raw product.
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"The themes their customers focus on are animal welfare and health, environment and biodiversity, quality of the product, and - although it hasn't really impacted in Australia yet - human rights," Mr Monsbourgh said.
In the banking sector, loans were now able to be linked to sustainability goals, including on-farm action that mitigated climate risk. Mr Monsbourgh said that within Rabobank's customer base, 51 per cent of clients have some form of solar power on their farms.
"Sustainability-linked loans incentivise clients to make changes to their businesses and on-farm practices," Mr Monsbourgh said.
Ms Jefford said by focusing on what they could change on the farm, they had reduced energy input costs, initially with some simple changes, then made a dramatic difference with some major infrastructure investment.
"Irrigation cost us $80,000 in the 2021 season. In the 2022 season, irrigation cost us $1200," Ms Jefford said.
"The huge decrease was due to implementing energy efficient measures, the rainfall and the use of renewable energy."
AgVet Energy director and engineer Gabriel Hakim said the energy efficient measures included some easy changes that any dairy farmer could apply on the farm.
Mr Hakim's suggestions were focused on behaviour change and included reducing the temperature of the hot water service from 90 to 50 degrees Celsius, insulating hot and cold sources in the dairy, and stopping leaks.
He recommended understanding the power output of devices and, when possible, upgrading to more energy efficient equipment.
"Solutions don't have to be complex," Mr Hakim said.
"Changing the milking machine wash program can add up to potential annual savings of $1500-$2200.
"But the first step is to identify where you waste energy and how you can increase energy efficiency, then continue to monitor, fine-tune, then repeat those scenarios."
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Jeanette Severs
I research and write articles across a broad range of topics for an agricultural and rural readership. My hours of work are part-time - generally Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
I research and write articles across a broad range of topics for an agricultural and rural readership. My hours of work are part-time - generally Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
