Crops for Cows

As a technical dairy assistant, Kevin Watts helps to grow the pastures that provide feed the 320 dairy cows raised on the C.B. Alexander Agriculture College.

The college is located at Tocal, just outside Maitland in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and is run by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. It covers 5,000 acres and is a commercially run property, with 105 full-time students.

Kevin Watts says that the aim is to provide dairy cows with the most economical feed that they can, so eight months of the year sees the dairy cows grazing on pastures grown across the property. For four months during this eight-month period, the cows feed from a feed pad, which contains grass silage and hay harvested and conserved from months previous.