THE recent fall in milk price was more than double what the Moore family had expected.

But like most other dairy farmers, they have knuckled down to try and manage it as best they can.

"It makes you realise you can't be too flamboyant in good times," Damien Moore said.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Damien Moore
  • What: dairying
  • Where: Yarram, Victoria
  • Why: eyes on the prize
  • Report: FIONA ALLAN

While financially a loss in the upcoming year is almost inevitable, making it a calculated loss is the best most people can do.

"From a financial-year basis this year will look OK but it is where prices will open on July 1 that will make the difference," Damien said.

"If you knew it was only going to be for six months it could be managed but there are so many unknowns."

Damien farms with wife Maria in a partnership with his parents Pat and Norma at Yarram, in Gippsland, where they milk about 240 cows on 180ha.

The property totals 600ha, and the Moores also run 250 to 300 beef cows and calves and, if seasons permit, finish another few hundred calves too.

In the past 10 years, since Damien came back to the family farm, they have secured more land and increased the irrigation area - allowing them to double milker numbers.

"Because we have to support two families we have to farm more aggressively," he said.

"Our biggest worry now is the milk price drop because we were expecting a drop of 10 to 15 per cent in comparison to last year but the 30 per cent drop is more like $120,000 out on our estimate, so we expect to be down about $245,000 on the same milk production."

The Moores have a high stocking rate of 4.2 cows per hectare so will strategically cut back on grain to soften costs.

"We are constantly re-evaluating input costs and they have softened but you can't let everything slip away," Damien said.

"We just have to wear a calculated loss."

They will implement a more moderate feeding regime of supplements and focus more heavily on pastures.

"Irrigated pastures are still the cheapest form of feed and we are fine for water here," he said.

A significant amount of pasture renovation work has been done in the past few years to improve dryland and irrigated paddocks.

Crops of sorghum and winifred canola have proven to be successful if rain falls at the right time, producing high quantities of feed. Their extra dryland country provides the added benefit of hay and silage but the dry seasonal conditions have cut into that production.

"Normally we produce enough hay and silage from our dryland country to be self sufficient but last year was the only time we have had to buy it in," Damien said.

As part of their pasture renovation work, crops have been grown on a more consistent basis, producing good feed for cattle.

"We had a very dry 2008 but had a lot of rain in November and December so while the crop (canola, chicory and tonic plantain) looked poor to start with it finished up at eight tonne of dry matter per hectare," Damien said.

"Last year on the crop we finished cattle for Coles that gained 1.5kg per day."

Pastures are mostly ryegrass and clover and the Moores try to graze at the three-leaf stage while adding 45-50kg of nitrogen each month - even with high fertiliser prices.

"It has cost $1050 to spread in recent months but it has softened," he said.

"We work on a response of 10 to one, meaning for every kilogram of nitrogen we expect 10 tonne of dry matter per hectare response and we have been getting that."

They generally apply 550 units of nitrogen a year.

Production is in front of last year at 580kg milk solids and 1.8 tonnes of concentrates a cow.

Beef cattle help with cashflow in the business and are generally sold in autumn and early spring.

The Moores sell finished stock through the Leongatha saleyards but also sell direct to Coles and often background cattle for lotfeeders.

"We generally don't carry too many cattle until we get a good break in the season," Damien said.

Damien enjoys the farming mix of dairy and beef cattle and said he would like to milk even more cows.

"Our greatest restriction is the location of the dairy and our property is also divided by a main road," he said.

Building another dairy is not out of the question but it would be some distance down the track.

"For now we are concentrating on more pasture renovation and focusing on productivity and profitability," Damien said.