Dairy Exporter November-December 2023

NEW ZEALAND

LEARN, GROW, EXCEL

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023

The

veal

deal $14.50 incl GST

Pearl Veal takes young dairy beef to NZ’s top restaurants

Special Report

Dairy+beef integration: Solving the bobby calf problem

Cows of Instagram

Step Change project: Reducing GHGs, growing profits

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 1

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Ask your vet for Lepto 4-Way™ | Lepto.co.nz Restricted Veterinary Medicine. Available only under a veterinary authorisation.

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All rights reserved. Virbac New Zealand Limited, 26-30 Maui Street, Pukete, Hamilton 3200.

2

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

CONTENTS

Milking platforms 12

Anieka Templer is searching for the sun in Northern Southland

13

Anne-Marie Wells, in South Otago, is part of a cost check exercise

14

On the West Coast, Richard Reynolds takes advice from his Minister of Enjoyment

15

Penelope Drysdale checks the eDNA of her Norsewood farm’s river water

16

Happy, healthy calves mean a happy Jess Lea in the Bay of Plenty

Features 18

Waikato’s Singh family are saving peat with a barn

26

Making the case for independent financial advice in a squeeze

29

Data driving decisions

30

Highlighting hazards with drought forecast tool

32

Powering up with agrivoltaic electricity generation systems

38

Mootels show promise on the wet Coast

42

Success with cover from the rain on the Coast

47

Programme helps Canterbury farmers meet N loss targets

COVER PHOTO Photographer Kelly Shakespeare was excited to shoot this Pearl Veal rib eye chop for our cover, she was pretty stoked to help eat it too!

18 SAVING

PEAT WITH A BARN

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 3

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CALL 0800 337 747 or email us at sales@towandfert.co.nz NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

SPECIAL REPORT #1

Solving Bobbies 50

Natural rearing makes Pearl Veal

53

Taste test: BBQ veal ribeye chop

54

Putting on the veal, with a beef twist

58

Breeding beef in the dairy

60

Keeping the finisher in mind

64

Picking proven beef sires on the dairy farm

70

Purposeful lives for calves

73

Demonstrating value to beef and dairy sectors

74

Bonuses of halving calving

76

A scientist linking the data on dairy beef

50 NATURAL REARING MAKES PEARL VEAL

SPECIAL REPORT #2

Farm System Analysis 82

Farming in the sweet sport

86

Pasture management is where it starts

90

Going green while staying in the black

94

APPLYING SCIENCE TO SUCKLING

Regulars 94

Research Wrap: Calves with mum

99

Soil nitrogen to reduce maize growing costs

101

Market View: Season resurgence

102 Global Dairy: Dutch farmers fasten their seat belts 104 Profile: Chloe Payne spreads cow magic 109 Vet Voice: Nuisance of biting flies

104 COWS OF

INSTAGRAM

111

Solutions: New Leptospirosis protection

112

Solutions: Data and insights farmers can afford

114

50 years ago in Dairy Exporter

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 5

OF

DAIRY DIARY November 14-16 – The New Zealand Grassland Association is holding its annual conference in Rotorua. The key focus will be land use change in the region, including the challenge of farming with changing environmental regulation and realising the potential of Maori land. To register go to www. grassland.org.nz November 15 – DairyNZ is holding a wearables field day in Kerikeri where a panel of farmers will discuss the different wearables they are using. The discussion will include the decision-making process of adopting wearables, issues addressed when installing the technology, whether the technology achieved what it stated and the unintended consequences.

The field day will be held at Suzanne Brocx property on Waiare Road, Okaihau, between 10.30am and 12.30pm. More? Contact Stephen Ball on 027 807 9686.

November 16 – A first aid on farms course is being run by Dairy Women’s Network in Hawera. The course has been designed by Practical Training Solutions in consultation with farmers and covers the most likely first aid emergencies on farms. To find out more and to register go to www.dwn.co.nz/events/first-aid-onfarms-course-taranaki/. Other dates/ locations: November 17, Dannevirke; November 28, Whakatane.

November 16 – Owl Farm in Waikato is hosting a focus day to provide a seasonal update and discuss other topics. More? visit www.owlfarm.nz November 16 – Tactics for Tight Times is a DairyNZ event being held in Greytown. It looks at managing higher costs, higher interest rates and a lower milk price by analysing what costs can be cut, what other farmers are doing and running through different scenarios. The event will be held at Otto Visser’s property on Papawai Rd between 11am and 1pm.

More? Contact Brianna Hull on 021 244 3428.

November 21 – A MilkSmart workshop is being held at the Pihama Hall in Taranaki. It includes benchmarking milking performance, the principles of maximum milking time and how to simplify milking routine. The workshop runs between 10am and 2pm. To register visit www.dairynz.co.nz/events/ details/3dd08d8a-4d19-ee11-8f6c000d3a7945a7. Other dates/locations: November 22, Stratford; December 5, Galatea; December 6, Reporoa; December 13, Waipu; December 14, Whangarei.

November 22 – The Pasture Summit Spring Event in Waikato is being held on Brett and Emily Bradshaw’s farm at Te Aroha. The event is hosted by

farmers for farmers, with input from dairy sector specialists sharing ideas and developments on achieving profitable food production from grass.

For more information go to www. pasturesummit.co.nz November 23-25 – Rural Women New Zealand holds its annual conference in Christchurch this year and includes the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards.

To find out more and to register go to https://ruralwomennz.nz/nationalconference/ November 28 – The Pasture Summit Spring Event in Canterbury is being held on the Graylings’ farm near Ashburton. More? Go to www. pasturesummit.co.nz November 28 - DairyNZ is holding a wearables field day at Brad Roberts’ property on Riponui Road in Riponui, Northland. It will run between 10.30am and 12.30pm. More? Contact Stephen Ball on 027 807 9686.

December 5 – A DairyNZ workshop with tips and tricks for being the best candidate for the job is being run in Culverden.

More? Contact Ross Bishop on 0275 631 785. Other dates/locations: December 5, Dunsandel; December 6, Oxford; December 7, Ashburton.

For more information contact Alex Perrott on 027 379 8069.

HOW DID YOUR REFRIGERATION PERFORM LAST SUMMER? If you’re worried your farm refrigeration or precooling isn’t going to last another season, talk to us.

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6

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

EDITOR’S NOTE

Dairy Exporter’s generational shift PUBLISHER’S NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTE

S

O

ixty years before I was born, Dairy Exporter was launched.

In 2025, the legacy guide to dairy farming in New Zealand will turn 100 years old. We are proud to have been passed the baton to hold for such a significant milestone for the dairy industry.

This generational shift is my farming friends moving further into their family businesses, and our industry leadership looking Photo: Danielle Hardy younger and more diverse. There is no denying it is on the shoulders of giants that we are standing today; giants who in their own late 30s leaned into the challenge.

For my family, it was the creation of a stone fruit industry that my great-uncle helped build after World War II in the 1950s; a deer industry in the 1970s in which my stepfather was flying; a Merino industry in the 1980s in which my uncle was building value chains. It was also the age that Tony Leggett and Dean Williamson took over the custodianship of New Zealand Dairy Exporter.

It is the inspiring innovation of the dairy industry that has existed over that century and continues today in this issue where our Deputy and Features Editors, Anne Lee and Sheryl Haitana, dive into the value-add opportunities of veal for a part of our farming system that has been disregarded for years.

It is the tangible, practical solutions-led journalism our farmers, who are the backbone of our industry past, present and future - look forward to. I just love and look forward to continuing presenting everything from overcoming drench resistance to financial modelling software under the talented eye of our Group Editor, Jackie Harrigan.

As the rural media industry’s kindest man, Tony Leggett, signs off, he is effectively handing over the baton, entrusting my business partner Lucinda (Diack) and me, as the new generation at Dairy Exporter, with an oath of commitment to your farming journey. As those before us have done, we will be alongside you with trusted ideas and inspiration so we can continue to farm together into the headwinds.

SARAH PERRIAM-LAMPP sarah@countrywidemedia.co.nz

ur tenacious team of journalists love nothing more than to get their teeth into a good challenge. The challenge this issue is around “What to do with a problem like Bobby?”

Although some markets for bobby calves are high value, the processing of several million non-replacement calves each season is seen as huge wastage. And now with perceived animal welfare risks to Kiwi dairy product reputation the time has come to drive bobby calves out of the system.

In the special report our team have uncovered many great moves in the right direction - veal products, ‘Miti’ meat protein bars, new beef breeds, use of more AI and sexed semen to produce higher-value crossbred calves, use of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test to identify the higher-performing beef sires, contract rearing and systems using a mixture of all the above.

Finding higher value homes for the first 80% of nonreplacement calves is easy, it’s the last 20% of smaller, later, less wellbred calves that is harder, Mark Leslie from Pamu pointed out.

It’s a big intractable problem, but one where planning, collaboration and a suite of great new products is starting to shift the dial.

Tucking into a beautifully cooked veal ribeye chop at the Odeon restaurant in Christchurch was a great way to research the issue. You can have a go at cooking the same recipe on page 53 and look out for Pearl Veal around the country, starring a top restaurant near you. Read about Alan’s Pearl Veal plans - and think about how you could extract more value from non-replacement calves. It starts with breeding, as geneticists Rebecca Hickson and Bob Thomson point out. (pg64 and pg60).

Down in Ikamatua, we found rising star of Instagram Chloe Payne and her Cowsofnewzealand account. Her 237,000 followers love her cow and calf photos, including the pic of Barbie the Fleckvieh-Friesian calf who almost broke the internet with 2.4 million likes. (Move over the other Khloe, we love Barbie’s eyelashes way better! pg104).

Read about great people doing cool stuff - our mag is full of them!

JACKIE HARRIGAN

jackie@countrywidemedia.co.nz 027 359 7781

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 7

Social New Zealand Dairy Exporter’s online presence is an added dimension to your magazine. Through digital media, we share a selection of stories and photographs from the magazine. Here we share a selection of just some of what you can enjoy. Read more at dairyexporter.co.nz

Taranaki dairy farmer Kane Brisco of Farm Fit NZ, who is featured in our Oct/Nov issue of Country-Wide Magazine, shows us some simple exercises and some practical tips to support mental health.

Features Editor Sheryl Haitana 021 239 1633 sheryl@countrywidemedia.co.nz Sub-editor Andy Maciver 027 725 5035 andy@countrywidemedia.co.nz

Watch the video here: www.facebook.com/CountryWideNZ/ videos/1389644485230713

Reporters Anne Hardie 027 540 3635 verbatim@xtra.co.nz Karen Trebilcock 021 146 4512 ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz

NICOLE MASTERS LIVE Nicole Masters joined Sarah Perriam Lampp for a live Q&A on country-wide. co.nz as part of our In Residence series.

Sharing insights from the last 20 years of coaching farmers and ranchers around the world in the ways of biological and regenerative farming, Nicole’s video is a must-watch for anyone interested in soil health and resilience.

For those who missed the live session, you can now watch the whole video online via our website: Country-wide.co.nz/nicolemasters-soil-resilience-tour-comes-tonew-zealand Nicole’s upcoming tour is selling out fast, so don’t delay getting your tickets!

@nzdairyexporter

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Are you missing heats? Did you know that our robotic milking system can help in detecting cows on heat sooner?

The system detects cows on heat by their increased movement and decreased rumination. Cows selected for mating are waiting for you in the yard.

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Continue doing what you do best

You’ve already made great genetic gains. You’ve improved your milk production, built a better herd, and are on track for further improvements.

Now’s the time to keep up the good work.

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Continue driving your genetic gains with superior genetics. Continue knowing you’re making the right selections with GeneMark® testing and keep your data accurate with MINDA® herd records. Continue herd and animal health testing to support your on-farm decisions, and eliminate surprises.

And we’ll continue supporting you every step of the way.

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BOUNDARIES

KING OF THE BLUES, KING OF THE WORLD A soft blue cheese lovingly produced by a Norwegian dairy farm has been adjudged the world’s best cheese from a total of over 4500 entries at the World Cheese Awards. Maren and Ole Gangstadt made the winning Nidelven Bla cheese, along with 52 tonnes of 13 cheese varieties each year with milk from the 40 Norwegian Red cows on their family’s 152ha dairy farm.

Left: Maren’s soft blue cheese is matured for typically up to nine months.

Below: Ole and Maren Gangstadt of Gangstadt Gardsysteri with their winning cheese and trophy.

Big Feed is back The Big Feed rural telethon is back for a second year and the ultimate goal is for no one to go hungry.

Hosted by farmer-led charity, Meat The Need, last year’s event raised 1.2 million meals for foodbanks across the country.

Meat The Need facilitates donations of livestock and milk from farmers, as well as cash, to turn into meals and distribute to more than 110 food banks across the country.

The telethon aims to raise as many meals as possible to distribute to families in need, and to bring rural and urban communities together.

Co-founder Wayne Langford said this year’s telethon is extremely important and the ultimate goal is for no one to go hungry.

“The cost-of-living crisis is placing huge pressure on people, families and food banks throughout New Zealand and the demand for Meat the Need services has increased massively,” he said.

Donations for The Big Feed can be made on the day by farmers pledging their livestock (sheep, beef and deer) or milk through the Meat The Need website.

Cash donations can be made through the website, an 0800 number or a text number to make a $3 donation. 100% of all donations will be turned into mince and milk and donated to food banks.

WHAT? The Big Feed telethon WHEN? Thursday, December 14, running for about 14 hours from 6am.

WHERE? The telethon will be live streamed from the hub at Lincoln University and distributed through Meat the Need’s website and YouTube channel.

JOKE

One bloke to another: “I am taking Viagra for my sunburn. I know it won’t cure it , but it’s keeping the sheets off my legs!”

Cynthia Collier grant established Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) has announced the establishment of a new grant of $5000 to assist projects and initiatives that support rural communities.

The Cynthia Collier Grant will be awarded annually for the next three years with the first grant being awarded in mid-2024. Applications for the 2024 grant will open by the end of November 2023 and close on April 30, 2024.

Cynthia Collier lived on Wakarua Station near Taihape and was a passionate supporter of her community and the work of RWNZ. This month marks her birthday and this year marks the 10th anniversary of her passing.

“Mum would love to know that she was being remembered through the continued work of people like her to build community connection and support,” Cynthia’s daughter, Jo Romanes said.

The grant will support projects and activities that focus on children, the elderly, community or conservation projects or counselling and education initiatives.

More? ruralwomennz.nz/our-funds-and-grants/

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 11

NORTHERN SOUTHLAND

Left: Still smiling: Team shot. Above: Storm damage - tree down. The kayak came out after the flood.

Where’s the sun?

Not satisfied with a dull, wet spring, the weather gods delivered more than 100mm of rain in 24 hours, Anieka Templer writes.

WE ENDED THE SEASON ON A high, smashing our farm production record by 10,000kg milksolids.

The cows dried off well and the daily frosts and sunny days made shifting cows a breeze.

It was at the end of June when Nick clearly had way too much time to think and decided it would be quite nice to look into putting collars on the cows to make life easier onfarm at mating.

Being fully self-contained over three farms with more than 400 hectares to run he felt his time could be better spent elsewhere. After checking out the market we decided to go with Allflex as it fitted best with our system and the in-shed technology we already had. At the end of July the collars arrived along with our first calves and the rain. To say August and September have been challenging is an understatement.

From the last week of July to the last two days of August it rained every single day. Our planned start of calving being August 4 meant we did most of the calving in rain and mud.

We are on our eleventh season on 12

this farm and have never seen it as wet as it was this calving. We have plans for these kind of events (sacrifice paddocks and small calving pad). Although these did work for a short period, with no sun in sight we had to move on to other things like rolling straw and hay out heavily in sacrifice paddocks for the cows to have somewhere dry to calve.

share of the rain and gave us 104.5mm in 24 hours which caused flooding over most of our farm.

Luckily no major damage was done and a week later the Northern Southland winds arrived at 170km/h taking out the power and several trees on the farm. Our staff compared our weather to monsoon season in the Philippines but colder.

On a positive note we got 206 replacement heifer calves, well above our needed number, somehow we are on par for production compared to last season, our SCC is the lowest it’s ever been, the farm is looking great with minimal damage to good pastures, the cows are in good condition, our whole team is still smiling and the collars

We were picking calves up several times a day with a tractor and carry tray as we couldn’t get a motorbike and trailer into the paddocks without getting stuck.

We were picking calves up several times a day with a tractor and carry tray as we couldn’t get a motorbike and trailer into the paddocks without getting stuck. But we survived and so did the cows and calves.

At the start of September the sun came out briefly for 10 days which helped get grass growth going, but then the weather reverted to cold, rain and wind and on September 22 the weather gods thought we still hadn’t had our

have helped so much with rumination and transition over calving and now pre mating heats.

We are all looking forward to seeing how they will go over mating which is now only three weeks away and already is looking positive with good numbers of cows on daily.

It’s been a testing calving, but I can’t wait to do it all over again next season - hopefully with a bit more sun!

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

MILKING PLATFORM

SOUTH OTAGO

But,

what does it cost?

A group of 15 farms across the country are focusing on lower ‘per-unit’ cost of production with a view to helping identify where farmers may minimise impacts of lower payouts, Anne-Marie Wells writes.

I’VE ALWAYS LIKED HOW farmers are happy to share their knowledge and am impressed by the amount of information freely available to support people at all stages in the industry. Understandably, this knowledge sharing does not usually extend to finances, even though this is a key criterion for a successful business.

At discussion groups, we share details on areas including production, grass, supplements, submission rates, and fertiliser, but we never talk about how much it costs us.

It’s easy to come away disheartened by a lower number of milksolids per cow, but how justified is that without comparing the full picture? Farms have different goals and drivers – for some, breeding is the top priority, for others it may be lifestyle. Once these business drivers are understood, we are more likely to compare against our true business peers. In our equity partnership, our business goal is sustainable production – achieving consistent production in a financially, environmentally, and healthy way. We won’t chase production at any cost, and we will sacrifice some profit over environmental choices which, let’s face it, never save you money!

DairyNZ has been trying to

We will be expecting to get full value for money from our higher insurance premiums as we look to replace a shed blown away in recent high winds!

The topical question from DairyNZ is what to focus on with a forecast drop in payout and increasing cost of production.

encourage farmers to share their goals and finances.

As a starter, one of our recent discussion groups compared our costs with another, similar local farm.

The results were interesting and highlighted to us areas we wanted to look into. For example, our insurance premiums were much higher, and this year at renewal time, we checked we are getting value for money, and that’s not been something on our radar before. Moving on a step, we are now part of the DairyNZ Budget Case Studies. Currently there are 15 farms across the country who focus on lower ‘per-unit’ cost of production and have provided in-depth budgets, with a view to helping other farmers identify where they may find financial opportunities to minimise impacts of lower payouts.

As well as information on current budgets, there are details on management decisions regarding strategy and finance, farm policy and infrastructure, environmental, feed,

herd, and people, health and safety.

The topical question from DairyNZ is what to focus on with a forecast drop in payout and increasing cost of production.

In our view, keeping your budget up to date, knowing your numbers, and regular communication with the bank is important. Being able to see possible pinch points ahead of time allows you to contact the bank about it, rather than them coming to you, and in our experience, this is viewed more favourably.

We have also seen how quickly things can change, so we aren’t planning to make any drastic changes, but taking advantage of offers such as deferred payments can help ease out the troughs and peaks in cash flow.

While the payout and cost of production are not always on our side, one thing is certain – we will be expecting to get full value for money from our higher insurance premiums as we look to replace a shed that was blown away in recent high winds!

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 13

PUNAKAIKI

Yes, Minister Workaholic Richard Reynolds takes advice from his Minister of Enjoyment.

LAST YEAR I MET SOME HIGH flying business person’s Minister of Enjoyment. It is his job to organise and book leisure outings, usually involving mountain biking.

This very successful person is, probably like most dairy farmers, a bit of a workaholic and as such can always find more work to do. So if it is good enough for him, it is good enough for me, and I have got my own Minister of Enjoyment. Unlike a ministerial position in Parliament there are no baubles of office and no three-yearly election cycle. This is an appointment for life and Christina, my partner, has been honoured with this job.

As a bit of a workaholic I will freely admit that if I have spare time I will just go find something to do, farming, fixing things or building something.

This ability to fill in my day working is a bit unfair on my children, Chris and my body.

So I have delegated what I am not good at to my Minister of Enjoyment.

Chris tells me when I am going off farm and what I am going to do. This takes a bit of a leap of faith but also solves a lot of arguments.

When I am told I am working too hard or not spending enough time with my family I can say, that’s not my fault it is the ministry’s fault, problem solved. If I am told I have to go to a dance competition, off I go. As

14

the Minister of Enjoyment is also the Minister of Finance there is no fiscal wastage and I feel my tax dollars are well spent.

We also have weekly meetings.

At first it seemed strange to take minutes. The minutes have solved a few arguments about what was said and agreed on - usually my memory was wrong. As Chris works Monday and Tuesday, meetings are held on Wednesday covering family commitments which seem to get more as the kids get older, onfarm activities and farm financing.

This gives me as the main farmer the ability to keep Chris fully informed, but also to bounce ideas around. It is always good to have a sounding board. At the end of the meetings we end up with to-do lists and look at what we crossed off from last week’s list. The busier we are, the more value

When I am told I am working too hard or not spending enough time with my family I can say, that’s not my fault it is the ministry’s fault, problem solved. we get from the meetings. I would like to say that my life is a picture of a harmonious work/life balance with immaculate planning and clear communication.

It is not, but when we keep sort of on-plan and I support the Minister to do the ministerial job and we try and have some organised planning time, my life is better and the farm runs a bit smoother.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

MILKING PLATFORM

NORSEWOOD

A holistic approach

to monitoring water quality Checking the eDNA of water in the river crossing through their farm has had a positive impact, Penelope Drysdale writes.

OUR FARM VISION IS TO regenerate a thriving ecosystem, but we never actually thought through how we were going to monitor the success of it.

We have been doing everything we can to achieve diversity, but we never actually knew how diverse our ecosystem was. Then we came across a very cool company called Wilder Lab testing the environmental DNA or the tiny traces of genetic material in skin, hair, slime, faeces from animals across the tree of life, from a water sample to determine the health of the ecosystem.

I started thinking about how we could use this technology to access the health of our waterways and also what impacts we are having on the water quality as it flows through the dairy farm. We saw this adventure as an opportunity to work with our partners at AgResearch, Taiao Ora Contracting and local Hapu as we have already achieved so much working together to restore and enhance the Manawatu River running through the farm.

We test five sites along the river right up into the bush, but at Te Miro our main focus is on the three sites on the farm. We are testing as the water enters the property, in the middle and as it leaves the farm. The results from the eDNA have blown us away by the diversity and health of our waterways.

As well as the eDNA we test the conventional water quality measures (e-coli, turbidity, nitrates, phosphates) at the same time to see if we notice any correlation between the results.

The Drysdale children Joe and Billie helping out taking water samples for eDNA testing in the Upper Manawatu River.

We are testing as the water enters the property, in the middle and as it leaves the farm. The results from the eDNA have blown us away by the diversity and health of our waterways.

The eDNA results provide a TICI score, which ranks the health of the ecosystem based on the presence of certain species. If there are lots of things present which can survive in a highly polluted environment then the score will be low, if there are lots of species that only can tolerate pristine conditions the score will be high.

We are able to gauge the levels of pests in and around our waterways as well as identify the presence of more precious species which may need more protection. We are able to try to create an environment from these results which will enhance biodiversity.

We have found the eDNA to be a really neat way of measuring the health of our waterways rather than just using measures of e-coli., nitrates and phosphates. However, testing these conventional measures alongside the eDNA has been very useful and has allowed us to make onfarm decisions about retirement of marginal land.

Following intensive grazing of marginal areas alongside the river, there were spikes in the e-coli levels in the water leaving the farm. Normally in the river there is less e-coli leaving the farm than is coming in, but after certain grazing events we noticed the levels leaving the farm were lifting.

Interestingly, this wasn’t impacting the eDNA TICI scores and the levels were dropping back in time. But it did make us think about the production value of those areas and the negative impact on water quality. This allowed us to make well-informed decisions on retiring this land into what will be native plantings, knowing we will have a direct positive impact on the quality of the water.

Embracing this new and exciting technology and through financial support from Our land and Water to undertake this intensive level of testing, we have been able to monitor the success of our farm vision and make good decisions onfarm that we know will have a positive impact without impacting the productivity or profit of our farming operation.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Our Land and Water for supporting this project as we continue on our journey of regenerating a thriving ecosystem here at Te Miro Farm. Lastly, I would encourage everyone to take a deeper look at the ecosystems in their farm waterways, you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 15

BAY OF PLENTY

Keeping staff morale over calving Happy, healthy calves have made for a happy Jess Lea, the calf-rearer.

ANOTHER CALVING DONE FOR the year and once again we got through it even though calving down 600 cows between two farms can feel like it drags on.

Some days are always harder and more challenging than others and I find the weather always plays a big part in how your day will turn out.

Fortunately, in the usually sunny Bay of Plenty we had quite a dry winter which was a complete contrast to last year’s calving. It was notably chillier with a few good frosts, but in comparison it wasn’t cold and wet like we had the previous season.

The calves have thrived better and happy, healthy calves have made for a happy calf rearer (which is me). It also makes for content staff when they are not out in the pouring rain chasing cows and calves.

Although the weather is out of our control, as employers we find there are few things we can do to boost staff morale as calving will always be the busiest and the most tiring time of the season.

Both my husband and I are hands-on between both the neighbouring farms we 50/50 sharemilk. I rear all the replacement calves plus a few beefies we rear to weaning for a buyer. My husband oversees the farms and covers weekends off. While our staff milk he’s usually out collecting cows and calves, dusting the paddocks or feeding out.

Generally we try to make calving not too stressful for the staff with their main focus being milk quality.

During calving we host Monday morning breakfasts which is a good way to check in with everyone, we all sit down for a hot breakfast and then we have our “Toolbox meeting” which

Although the weather is out of our control, as employers we find there are few things we can do to boost staff morale as calving will always be the busiest and the most tiring time of the season.

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can be found on the DairyNZ website as a Health and Safety meeting.

It’s a great way to see how everyone is feeling and what jobs for the week ahead we need to focus on, or if there is something happening on the farm we all need to be aware of, for example stock trucks or contractors coming on to the farm.

It is also a good way to assess our staff and make sure they are not feeling burnt out, if they need a rest, we give them a sleep in or an extra day off to recuperate.

We also have asked for their suggestions for an end of calving activity which gives everyone something to look forward to. So far bungy jumping has been suggested, I think I would sit that one out and happily observe!

Along with staff breakfasts we also do a mid-calving and end-of-calving dinner and just doing small things - for example boxes of snacks at the cowsheds like chocolates - are just some ways we try to keep morale up.

Hubby, the kids and I also tend to raid the snack boxes too when we’re having a tough day, sometimes it can be a chocolate boost of sugar to get you through and before we know it calving has once again come to an end as we jump in to mating.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Pasture & Forage News

November/December 2023

What does grazing at the right leaf stage really look like?

Theories are all well and good. But there’s nothing like seeing a theory in action to fully appreciate how it can improve things in real life. And if it comes with data to back it up, so much the better.

Case in point? Grazing pasture at the right leaf stage for optimal yield, quality and persistence.

This theory is nearly 25 years old now, and has become a founding principle of New Zealand pasture management.

So why would we set up an on-going leaf stage trial with three different ryegrasses here at Barenbrug HQ; mow, monitor and measure it year-round, and record all the data? Several reasons!

Better than words As far as we know, no-one else has done this in the field for specific cultivars. And we want to demonstrate exactly what happens when you graze (or mow) a tetraploid perennial, a diploid perennial and a tetraploid hybrid at 2, 3, or 4 leaves all season.

More importantly, this trial shows the often striking difference between these three grazing times better than we could ever explain in words!

We share it with visiting farmers and retailers, and the one thing they always say is how interesting it is to compare the results side by side.

To date trial data aligns with expectation. Metabolisable energy for the 4 leaf ‘grazing’ is lowest. Dry matter yield is lowest for 2 leaves. Daughter tiller numbers – a key to pasture longevity – are lowest at 4 leaves.

That’s not all We’re also recording crude protein, water soluble carbohydrates and neutral detergent fibre at every mowing.

The trial will continue until Christmas, giving us 15 months of data to share with our farmers once it’s all been collated. Meantime, we’ve started a second similar trial using new perennial ryegrasses still under development.

That way, when they reach your farm, you’ll have more resources to help get the very best out of them in your system.

For more great commentary on pastures and management, visit our website and sign up today for Insight, a free monthly think piece on your most important source of feed and farm profitability.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 17 barenbrug.co.nz

FEATURE

Saving peat with a barn A barn housing 1000 Holstein Friesian cows won the 2023 Waikato Regional Supreme Award at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, for its commitment to productive genetic gain and precision effluent management. Sheryl Haitana visited the three siblings who are the fifth generation of the Singh family dairy farming in New Zealand.

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he 250-metres by 50m barn is the size of 2.5 rugby fields and easily stands out when driving to the Lawwal Holstein stud farm on the peat flats at Whitikahu. Housed underneath the roof are just shy of 1000 Northern American genetic Holstein Freisian cows who spend all winter and summer days in the barn.

It’s a clean, comfy and cool environment with individual padded beds, rubber matting on all walkways, a motorised scratcher in each pen, a motorised scraper constantly pushing effluent out of their way, robots moving the feed up every two hours and it’s just a short walk to the 50-bail rotary to get milked.

“They have everything they could ever want. If they let them outside, they typically run around like excited teenagers for a bit and then quickly head back indoors,” Anjena says.

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The barn is in contrast to the traditional New Zealand pastoral model, but for the Singh family the barn has created multiple benefits, from increased production, fewer animal health issues through to ticking environmental boxes.

Winning the Supreme Award at the Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards feels like a nod of approval.

“We don’t fit the mould, it’s hard to compare with other farms as we are a bit different, but we are out there everyday, we know what our system can do,” Arjun says.

“It was good to get recognition for what our system does for the environment.

“I think it’s the right direction (having the barn), with the way the seasons are going. If we had 1000 cows out on the peat it would have been a swamp out there this year.

“Peat also fries in the summer so it

From left; Amreeta, Anjena, Daljit and Arjun are focused on farming for the next generations.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

LAWWAL HOLSTEINS Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 19

KEY FACTS:

• Farm Owners: Karamjit, Mindho, Daljit, Anjena, Arjun, and Amreeta Singh • Location: Whitikahu, Waikato • Area: 250ha • Cows: 1000 Holstein Friesians • Production: 750kg MS/cow • TMR: 24kg DM/cow/day, made up of maize silage, grass silage, straw, soya, canola, corn gluten, palm kernel, minerals • Crops grown onfarm: 200ha maize, 1000t grass silage • 6-week in calf rate: 73% • Farm working expenses: Feed: $2.48/kg MS Staff: $ 0.65/kg MS R+M: $ 0.33/kg MS Animal Health: $ 0.18/kg MS Free-Stall Barn: $ 0.09/kg MS TOTAL: $3.73/kg MS 20

works well to be growing maize crops during that time to counteract that.”

Siblings Anj, 30, Arjun, 26, and Amreeta, 23, grew up working out on the family farm alongside their mum and dad, Aman and Daljit and their grandparents. The trio are the fifth generation to be dairy farming in the Waikato since their great great grandparents emigrated from India in 1912.

Aman, who built the free-stall barn in 2018, passed away from a heart attack suddenly three years ago and since then Anj, Arjun and Amreeta have stepped up to be directors and will soon be shareholders in the family company and collectively run the business alongside Daljit.

Arjun, 26, who has a agri commerce degree from Massey University, is the operations manager onfarm, overseeing the day-to-day business.

Anj, a registered psychologist does all the administration for the business as well as helping onfarm when needed, on top of starting her own business specialising in rural mental health. Amreeta has just finished her master’s degree in interior architecture and is working full time onfarm, also doing the marketing for Lawwal Holstein.

Daljit also still works on the farm as well as their grandad, Karamjit who runs the young stock, which graze on 50 hectares of the farm and come to the feed pad every day.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

“ The Holsteins Friesians are pushing 750kg MS/cow.

“It’s a very family run business.

We all grew up working on the farm,” Anj says.

“It’s a real privilege to be working with my siblings. We all have different strengths and when we all sit around the table, it all works so well.”

Impressive effluent management The family discussed entering the Ballance Farm Environment Awards with their farm adviser, Scott Freeman, last year.

Entering the awards took a lot of work, but they all saw the opportunity for a great learning experience to assess how the farm is performing and give them some framework to make

We don’t fit the mould, it’s hard to compare with other farms as we are a bit different, but we are out there everyday, we know what our system can do.

decisions on where they want to go with the farm.

Because their system doesn’t fit the typical Kiwi dairy farming operation, it’s hard to compare their performance against other farms, particularly environmental outcomes, so it was beneficial to go through this awards process, Arjun says.

In winning the Supreme award for Waikato, the judges commended their resilience and commitment to honour their legacy, and their passion for progressive dairy systems.

The judges noted the “rigorous attention to effluent management is impressive” and the “pursuit of high-quality genetics has delivered significant productivity gains”.

All effluent from the barn is captured, going through two screw press separators and into a solids bunker and the liquid into the 20 million litre lined pond.

The family recently bought an umbilical effluent injector system which is used to apply the effluent during the year. They apply effluent pre cultivation when they plant their 200ha of maize every spring.

It allows them to inject effluent into the soil bed during cultivation, so the fertiliser is next to the plants, minimising any runoff. They typically apply about 10mm depending on soil test results, Arjun says.

Soil tests are done annually before

cultivation to work out a nutrient management plan and to determine application of effluent, although they didn’t use any other fertiliser apart from effluent last year.

They apply 5mm of effluent after cutting the grass silage on the surface using a dribble bar.

They have flow meters in the pond and on the tractor to ensure they are applying the effluent accurately.

The effluent solids are applied to the paddocks before the annual grass seed is planted.

They trialled strip till last year in a few paddocks which didn’t go well as they had issues with machinery. They are hoping to bring more strip tilling practice and less cultivation in the future, Arjun says.

“Minimal tillage is what we are focused on now.”

They have been looking at species to plant on the peat around the drains to help with erosion and are putting a water tester in at four main exit points on the farm to measure outgoing water quality.

They are also looking at other crops that would suit their system. They grow about 70% of the cows’ diet on the farm and are hoping to grow more.

“Harvest was okay this year. We did have a lot of maize blown over so we were about 3-4 tonnes/ha behind our

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 21

normal 26t DM/ha average.” They trialled faba beans last year which yielded well, but were difficult to harvest as it was too wet.

They are closely watching research on methane inhibitors which would work well in their barn system, Arjun says.

The farm has tested their TMR with Alltech twice, which has shown cows producing 13 and 14g methane/kg DM eaten.

That’s significantly lower than the 21g methane produced per kg 22

DM eaten that Overseer works from.

It’s one example of how their system doesn’t always fit the NZ industry figures, he says.

“We are still working around our methane figures and working with Overseer to try and change that fixed number.”

Production gain through high-quality genetics The family’s legacy of breeding top genetic cows was also recognised by the judges as an environmental win.

Those genetics have shown their true value since the cows moved into the barn system, Arjun says.

“We were System 5 before the cows went in the barn and the cows were producing 500kg MS/cow, now they’re producing 750kg MS/cow.

“Bringing feed to the cows works, they aren’t spending any energy walking to the paddocks. So body condition is never an issue, conception rates have improved. We don’t have the metabolic problems like we used to. If we do have any NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

issues we know it’s something we’ve done, a human error.”

“The Holsteins seem to milk well for us and do it for a long time and they look good.”

Since moving the cows into the barn in 2018 they’ve also had no lameness issues and their animal health has improved.

Their average somatic count has halved and now averages 140,000.

Mastitis cases are much lower and they are looking to just use teat seal this year instead of any dry cow

therapy.One problem is the 650kg cows are getting too big for the farm dairy so they’ll have to address that in the future, Arjun says.

About 30-40% of the cows are doing an 18-month lactation because they are milking too well to be dried off after one lactation.

That suits the split-calving operation well, with a four-week mating in September and eight weeks in autumn.

The top 20-30% producing cows get mated with sexed semen, the

Above: From left; Siblings Amreeta, Arjun and Anjena have joined forces as the fifth Singh farming generation.

Far Left: Arjun and Daljit chat homegrown maize.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 23

From Left; Amreeta, Arjun and Anjena feel their farm is placed well to adopt to future environmental challenges.

Cow sales give back to community The Lawwal Holstein ‘The Legacy’ sale in 2022 raised $34,000 for the Rural Support Trust and the Heart Foundation. The family also ran a mini sale raising $10K for Cyclone Gabrielle relief fund.

“We are always thinking about what we can do next to give back, that’s just the way we were brought up,” Anj says.

Anj volunteers for Rural Support Trust as well as starting her own rural specialised psychology business.

“I’ve always wanted to work in rural mental health. It’s really important, and not just to me, all three of us find it important to support mental health in the farming community.”

It’s a specialised area to work in.

“The farming community has a real ‘she’ll be right’ attitude. I think people underestimate how difficult farming can be, how many different hats you have to wear on the same day, or in the same hour.”

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bottom 30-40% of the herd goes to beef semen and the middle get conventional Holstein Friesian bulls.

Lawwal’s breeding plan is to have a market for every calf that is born, so there are no bobby calves. They also do some embryo work, implanting about 200 embryos annually, some of which are imported from North America.

They genomic test all replacements so they know what calves they want to keep at six weeks old. Selecting the best genetics will help have the mostefficient animals in their herd to suit environmental requirements.

“We are very fussy about what bull goes to which cow. We believe genetics will help us in our farm system going forward,” Arjun says.

“We put a large emphasis on breeding for udders, legs and feet, functional type. We just have to watch with using overseas genetics where farmers are paid for litres, we still are paid for fat and protein.”

They buy semen from Semex, WWS and ST Genetics.

They buy North American Holstein genetics, and also buy overseas beef semen including Hereford and some Speckle Park.

The overseas beef genetics have the fastest growing rates, but still low birthweights, with easy calving, Arjun says.

They have contracts to sell all beef calves at four days old.

The cows calve outside, with the springers able to go in and out of the barn for about two weeks leading up to their due date and then are pushed outside to calve and then get a fresh pen in the barn when they go into the colostrum herd.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Every mob gets a specialised TMR, from the colostrum herd, the springers through to the highproducing milking herd and the younger herd. The cows have had the GEA CowScout collars on for one year now which are helping with conception rates and overall animal health, Arjun says.

milking and barn staff, one full time tractor driver, one allrounder who does tractor driving and maintenance as well as milking.

Farm manager David Maartens has been with the family for 16 years and has even built himself a house on the farm. They aim for an eight hour day for all staff, which is a really important component.

“If they’re working too long it’s not sustainable,” Arjun says.

They treat staff like family and make sure people feel comfortable to bring any issues or ideas to them, Anj says.

“Arjun is also around all day so they can talk to him. We try to be proactive, if we see something

People at the heart The family also won the Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards evening. People are a huge value to their business, Anj says and they were pleased the judges recognised their focus on staff wellbeing and relationships. They employ three

happening we deal with it straight away.”

The siblings are looking at ways to grow and improve the business, there are benefits to having the cows off the land, while young stock are still grazed outside - something to look at in the future.

“There are lots of ways to grow our business without getting more land,” Anj says.

Succession talks will be something they develop and grow, they say.

“It’s something on our radar but for now it’s just get in and do the work.”

To contact Anjena for mental health support visit ruralheightspsychology.com

To read more or find about any upcoming cow sales visit lawwalholsteins.com

Reduce antibiotic usage by 23% Within 24 hours, Mastatest identifies the bacteria in mastitis milk and the most effective drug to cure the infection “We are spending a lot less on antibiotics by identifying the bug and saving on milk withhold. You would struggle to find a better ROI than Mastatest, we will be using it to test every mastitis case going forward.”

Andrew Lord, Waikato Farmer

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 25 23% reduction is based on AgriHealth Technical Bulletin 10.3

AHMASTA-DEX-11.23

FEATURE

squeeze FACING THE

Despite recent market recoveries, many farmers could benefit from more independent scrutiny of their plans, Phil Edmonds writes.

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he past couple of months has seen short-term profitability prospects of New Zealand dairy farmers’ plunge.

Beyond the immediate angst, the price volatility driving this has once again elevated concerns of some farm businesses continuing to ‘wing it’.

At the end of August, after Fonterra had twice dropped its forecast farmgate milk price for the 2023-24 season in quick succession, some alarming commentary on the dairy sector’s ability to manage the projected price shock emerged.

None was more pointed than farm financial management company Figured’s data-modelling analysis. It suggested a large proportion of NZ dairy farms would be slipping into a problematic position where banks would define them to be ‘at risk’ – in other words generating negative profit and having insufficient interest cover to service debt.

Figured’s modelling of 1000 farms showed that if a milk price payout of $6.25kg milksolids (MS) is realised for the 2024 season, most farms (53%) would be in trouble.

No sooner had this stark potential dropped than elements of optimism emerged that the forecast downturn in prices was an overshoot.

At the beginning of September, Rabobank noted the “storm won’t last forever” and with lower global prices stemming supply growth, there is an increasing possibility that a demand resurgence could emerge before milk output can recover.

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This view seems to have gathered some weight with evidence in September trading events.

Successive GDT auctions realised price increases (albeit modest) to the extent that analysts have become willing to see upside rather than further downside risk to their price projections.

After the second rise, Westpac agri economist Nathan Penny said it was too early to say prices have turned a corner, but the risks are more balanced than they were in August.

ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby believes the market has most likely bottomed out.

“It might not be plain sailing from here.

There will be some bumps, but we should be on an upward trend.” Kilsby says an anticipated increase in demand from China is driving that cautious confidence. “There is some expectation that Chinese consumers will become more NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

PROFITABILITY

“

While the dairy sector has made substantial progress in reducing leverage following the 2015 industry downturn, farmers’ profits are being squeezed by rising input costs, a decline in the expected payout for the current season, and higher debt servicing costs.

Figured CEO Dave Dodds

Westpac agri economist Nathan Penny.

optimistic as job numbers increase, employment grows, and spending resumes. All this can happen quite quickly.”

However, even if this does play out, and the price downturn is relatively short-lived, the recent slump has highlighted vulnerabilities that have not been eliminated by lessons from the 2014-15 episode.

As was highlighted in the Figured modelling, it still only takes a reasonably modest adjustment to question the financial structure many dairy farms operate under.

“The evidence shows a lot of farms are ‘good’ farms when favourable circumstances exist, but when things tighten up, they become just marginal,” Figured CEO Dave Dodds says. “When you have $20/kg MS debt level; and lending rates at 8%, you’re paying $1.60 for interest. With a $6.75kg MS milk price you’ve only got around

$5.00 to play with and that’s just not enough.”

Indeed, DairyNZ Econ Tracker’s breakeven price for the 2023-24 season is $7.51kg MS, which illustrates the likely residual challenge for many.

Some of those farmers in the risky camp might point back to the analysis referenced above as some justification for sitting tight and riding it out. They might also point to the fact that the circumstances that predicated the 2014-15 downturn were more structurally challenging than those the sector is currently facing. And there is some truth to that.

The 2014-15 price fall was driven by a surge in global supply which took quite a bit of time to reign back. The current price decrease is due to a drop in demand, which hasn’t completely fallen away. As Kilsby noted, this can be resurrected quite quickly. Nevertheless, Dodds thinks there’s still work to do to see what happens to those farms carrying that level of debt with this productive capacity.

“The data is telling us that’s the part of the industry where farmers are going to have to do some work – if current prices stay around.” That work might involve farmers taking more soundings from independent financial advisers – as much as putting in more hours on the farm.

It’s arguably one lesson that hasn’t been learned – the value of investing in farm management advice to help create more resilient farm business operations. In most cases, farmers have continued to use their bank manager as their financial adviser, and by definition they’re not independent. Their

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 27

“

job is not to advise on whether to borrow or not, but to facilitate investment decisions.

Kilsby says many farmers could benefit from more independent scrutiny of their plans and avoid making assumptions that if ‘the bank will lend, then everything must be okay’.

Dodds adds that financial advisers play a small part in a farming operation, but they are super important to have around. He does think the financial advisory industry still has a way to go to help realising the value of their services, but they are becoming more effective, with more tools.

There will be some bumps, but we should be on an upward trend.

ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby.

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A salient example of how effective outside advisers are could be a factor in why there is so much dairy debt in Waikato and Taranaki relative to other regions. Based on DairyNZ analysis, these regions are showing up to be more problematic than Canterbury, where much of the sector’s growth has occurred, and with it, money spent. Average interest costs/ kg MS for 2023-24 in Waikato and Taranaki are forecast at $1.77 and $2.01 respectively.

In Canterbury they’re $1.57, lower than the national average ($1.66).

Kilsby suggests high debt levels in the traditional dairying regions is likely due

to farmers having paid too much for a neighbouring farm relative to its ability to generate adequate returns. Farmers may well have just paid what they’ve needed to pay. The contrast with the relatively more affordable financial structures in Canterbury is quite possibly due to the big spending having been based on more (independently) considered, and scrutinised business cases.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank hasn’t strayed from its concern with dairy debt – nearly 10 years after it became a significantly problematic concern. In its half-yearly Financial Stability Report published in May, the Bank said: “While the dairy sector has made substantial progress in reducing leverage following the 2015 industry downturn, farmers’ profits are being squeezed by rising input costs, a decline in the expected payout for the current season, and higher debt servicing costs.” This was well before the more recent series of price downgrades.

As ever, the Reserve Bank’s focus is on the ability of farmers to service debt. In May it acknowledged a growing concern for increasing debt servicing costs in the dairy sector, and the sharp rise they have taken since 2021.

“Narrowing margins from rising costs and falling international dairy prices have led to more requests from farmers for working capital and overdrafts to meet short-term cashflow needs.” This was published almost six months ago but remains acutely relevant. The next financial stability update is due on November 1, and it could be more pointed.

Figured’s Dodds says: “The next couple of months will be interesting. We’ll get signals on milk supply and interest rates. Our updated data will start to show how farmers are coping, and how their financial planning is changing.”

He anticipates farmers will be reducing repairs and maintenance spend and cutting imported feed. They’ll also be delaying capital projects.

At the moment, DairyNZ’s Econ Tracker is forecasting big year-on-year cuts to operational costs. For the average dairy farm, it expects the spend on fertiliser to drop from $165k to $122k. Similar proportional decreases are anticipated on feed purchases and repairs and maintenance.

It remains to be seen whether the impact of these cutbacks will be sufficient to stabilise the financial structure of the farms the Figured data is showing to be at risk. Either way though, riding the wave with white knuckles is likely to be a less and less attractive option.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

PARTNERSHIP SOLUTIONS

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FARMAX

Data driving decisions

R Todd White

‘There’s no doubt there is an artistry to their craft, but there’s also planning, measurement and decisions – decisions based on data.’

egardless of people’s attitudes to data, technology and science, the simple fact is that farming has changed. It will continue to change greatly, and data will drive that change, FarmIQ Systems head of product Dr Todd White says.

Food is always going to be in demand, and consumers are wanting more evidence (data) that the food they consume is good for them and the planet.

“I believe that science, data, modelling and software will be pivotal to meeting the challenges New Zealand faces in order to keep producing the best food in the world.”

Farming is often portrayed as simple and therefore assumed that the approach to it should be too. The evidence suggests otherwise, White says.

Not all farmers are the same – not just in the sense of the types of farming systems they operate, but in their debt levels, attitudes toward technology, size of farm, number of staff and stage of career.

Similarly, not all farms are the same – they differ in climate, soils, altitude, aspect and topography. Beyond the farm gate, things such as product prices, exchange rates, rules and regulations also continually change. All these things combine and interact in dynamic and unpredictable ways: being an effective farmer is complex and challenging.

“A lot of New Zealand farmers are exceptionally good at handling this complexity. Through experience and/ or gifted ability, they are world class at combining all these sources of information and making decisions that maximise the profitable conversion of pasture into meat, milk or fibre,” White says.

“There’s no doubt there is an artistry to their craft, but there’s also planning, measurement and decisions – decisions based on data.”

Today’s new farmers have much greater expectations of being able to make decisions based on data, just like any other industry or profession does. The drivers of these expectations are numerous: better work-life balance, health and safety considerations, the increasing cost of labour and the accelerating development and use of remote sensing, AI and robotics.

“Farmers don’t work on a business; they work in it. That’s what’s great about it. But farming practice has also been shaped and powered by science.”

Productivity and sustainability advances in agriculture haven’t occurred by accident, they have come from fundamentally understanding the chemistry, biology and physics of climatesoil-plant-animal systems, he says.

“The purpose of science is to unbiasedly test current understanding and challenge accepted norms and thinking.

Similarly, the purpose of the mathematical models derived from scientific understanding of these complex systems is not to replace the need for decisionmaking by farmers.”

Instead, the purpose of these models is to identify potential consequences of different management decisions before they are implemented.

Their purpose is to save time and expense by rapidly testing and comparing options, and to help refine the scale and timing of chosen management options, White says.

“They are there to complement a farmer or rural professional’s intuition and thinking, not to replace it. For example, the FARMAX technology does not replace the need for good stock management, but it does help inform farmers and consultants by identifying potential production, financial and environmental outcomes of the decisions they implement.”

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 29

Hazards highlighted

WITH DROUGHT FORECAST TOOL

A new drought forecasting tool will help farmers make timely decisions which could bring financial and emotional benefits.

Elaine Fisher reports.

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his summer’s weather is going to be dramatically different from that of the last few years and now is the time for primary producers to prepare for drought, NIWA analytical meteorologist and forecaster Tristan Meyers warns.

“For those regions still struggling with wet soil, it’s hard to imagine how dry it may become,” Tristan says. He was among the NIWA team which developed NIWA35, a new drought forecasting tool.

It has been developed in close collaboration with the Ministry for Primary Industries and those working on it at NIWA include Ben Noll, meteorologist, Neelesh Rampal, data scientist and Tristan who designed the website.

The NIWA35 tool is a freely and publicly available 35-day forecast, updated every 24 hours. By mid-September it was already predicting dry conditions for eastern parts

of both islands and into Auckland and Northland by mid-October.

The tool’s predictions are that this summer’s chance of meteorological drought will also heighten the fire risk.

“We have been collaborating with Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) looking at the increased fire risk due to gusty westerly winds and temperatures higher than normal.

“All the vegetation growth caused by the last few years of excessive rainfall means, as it dries out, there will be more fuel for fires. I think we will have an earlier, and greater than usual fire season with more strike days for fires.”

Tristan says the NIWA predictions take into account the effects of New Zealand’s weather of both the El Nino Southern Oscillation weather pattern which is developing in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) which this year is in

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Left: Tristan Meyers, NIWA analytical meteorologist and forecaster (centre) demonstrates the new drought forecasting tool NIWA35, to Green Party Co-leader James Shaw at Fieldays.

Right: NIWA35 drought forecasting dashboard.

a positive phase. This is the same as that which brought substantial and wide-spread drought to New Zealand in 2019 and 2020. When a positive IOD and El Niño occur together, their drying effect is typically enhanced.

“We are really proud of the NIWA35 tool. The whole purpose is to warn primary producers and anyone else who wants to know, of the potential for a meteorological drought.”

NIWA35 is updated each day with a fresh forecast after 35 days.

“As with any forecast it is guidance not gospel, but it will allow farmers, combined with the empirical knowledge of their own patch of land, to make informed decisions.

“The forecast will not be right 100% of the time, but NIWA35 is much more often right than it is wrong.

“We are used to seeing forecasts for one to seven days out, but the NIWA35 forecasts don’t have that granularity and instead show themes and trends. This tool will enable different types of decision making over, for instance, stock rotation or destocking instead of taking a wait-andsee approach as in the past.

reliable the tool will be. “The answer is that yes, you can trust the tool.

As forecasters we use it all the time.

Of course, the longer it goes out the less reliable it is, so the best thing is to check regularly and if you see the same thing over and over again, it’s an indication that that is more than likely to happen.”

NIWA35 has been developed using a blend of traditional weather forecasting and AI. “We have married a dynamic weather model based in the realms of physics which includes observations of daily sea temperature, weather patterns and observations from satellites with an AI model which looks at and learns from the history of significant weather events and identifies what weather patterns produced them. Its accuracy will

‘All the vegetation growth caused by the last few years of excessive rainfall means, as it dries out, there will be more fuel for fires.’

“Consulting the tool regularly and identifying trends will help farmers be less reactive to oncoming weather and help them make timely decisions which may bring financial and emotional benefits.”

Tristan says people often ask how

continue to improve, and the model develop over time.”

The backbone of NIWA35 was from a release of a new publicly available

weather model in 2020 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States.

“We have taken that model and modified it for New Zealand conditions. The model had seasonal and sub-seasonal pixels of 100km or 50km square. For New Zealand’s weather and rainfall, topography is everything and 100km is for instance, Wairarapa to Wellington which have totally different topography.

“We ramped up the resolution to 5km, training it on New Zealand weather patterns and observations, fine-tuning it for our neck of the woods.”

By last year the NIWA35 team had a trial version publicly available ahead of Fieldays.

“MPI was closely collaborating with us on the project, and we were keen to get it out there, motivated by the need not to get caught out by drought.”

NIWA35 will continue to evolve and the website welcomes comments from users about how easy it is to understand, how it works and how it can be improved.

Tristan says he and other meteorologists view extreme weather events with grim fascination. “We do understand that they have real impacts and that’s why we do what we do. To help people be prepared.”

To access the drought forecast dashboard go to: shiny.niwa.co.nz/drought-forecast

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 31

FORECASTING

FEATURE

FEATURE

Powering up Possibilities of introducing agrivoltaic electricity generation systems into New Zealand pastoral farming was subject of a recent study. By Delwyn Dickey.

S

olar farms have begun appearing in New Zealand’s rural areas over the past couple of years. So far, they have tended to be fairly small and tucked away.

But the number and size of these installations is set to increase substantially in the next few decades, as the country switches to more renewable energy, and will soon become an integral part of the rural landscape.

What opportunities are there for landowners to incorporate harvesting sunlight into their other farming operations, rather than leasing land to developers or selling up the farm. Is it viable to include solar in livestock farming - agrivoltaics?

Onfarm solar A recent study, led by agricultural consultant Anna Vaughan with Tambo, and with funding through 32

Our Land and Water - National Science Challenge’s Rural Professional Fund, looked into the difference an agrivoltaic solar system, which allows usual farming operations to continue under and around the panels would have on the costs and profit on dairy, sheep and beef farms in the Canterbury region.

An estimated 80% or 10 million hectares of New Zealand’s agricultural land - would be suitable for solar farming.

While the larger sites, which can cover several hundreds of hectares, will need to hook into substations along Transpower’s 110-220 kilovolt (kV) network, which sees large transmission towers snaking their way up the country, other farms will have access to 33 or 66kV lines which could accommodate a 20ha-plus size solar farm. But most farms would need to be connected to the local 11-kV distribution networks which would

limit their size to between 1-5ha.

This saw the project focused on these smaller, under 5kW, solar setups. Along with the loss of productive land Vaughan also had concerns over animal welfare as the climate continues to warm, and saw the solar panels as a possible way to provide shade for livestock.

Livestock heat stress is already a concern on Canterbury’s largely treeless plains, as well as seeing reductions in milk production in cows for about 45 days each year. Woolly ewes start to feel heat stress above 19C, and overseas observations of sheep running under photovoltaic panels has shown they choose to spend nearly 40% of their time in the shade.

Setting up The two most common solar system types in NZ installations are fixedtilt and tracking. These would be NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

FEATURE

“

The outcomes for the higherearning dairy farm were not so rosy with little benefit except possibly having access to power for the farm.

used in the modelling along with the now commonly used bi-facial panels capturing light on both sides.

Fixed-tilt sees rows of panels running east to west, fixed on a single pile and facing north.

They are cheaper and are good options for onfarm-only systems in the Canterbury region where the biggest consumers of electricity are irrigators which are only needed during the hotter months of the year.

Tracking systems see panels in rows running north to south. They are on a single mount which allows the panel to track the sun as it crosses the sky.

Somewhat more expensive, and likely needing more maintenance during their lifetime, they are also the most popular with developers as they are more efficient and produce more electricity, particularly during winter when electricity demand is highest.

Turning the energy coming in from the photovoltaic panels into a form

the local line can accept means an inverter is also needed. These will need to be replaced once during the 25-to30-year life span of the sites. A small site might only need one inverter while big sites can use more than 25.

State of play for solar There is a solid market with renewable energy growth for go-it-alone solar.

The aspirational target for this country of reaching 100% renewable electricity generation is 2030, but the amount needed to be fully renewable will keep increasing as the transport sector and more industry looks to electrify. Add to this high energy use companies establishing themselves here to take advantage of our existing renewable credentials, that target will keep moving upward.

This includes “hyperscale” data centres which have been on the increase including around the Auckland area, and which together

can use as much power as 200,000 homes when operating at peak.

There’s likely to be a 70% increase in electricity demand across the country by 2050, says Alan Brent, Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems at Wellington’s Victoria University.

With solar a much quicker option for increasing renewable generation by 2030 compared to wind, along with an increased push for more renewable electricity globally, this is seeing much more interest in NZ from overseas solar developers.

Many landowners have already been approached by commercial developers to either sell or lease their land. Smaller farms are either leased or bought with leasing the preferred option for the big solar projects which are often on dairy farms.

Leasing is usually for a minimum of 25 to 30 years. With 14 large-scale developments and about 200 smaller ones already in the pipeline, plenty

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 33

of farmers have clearly found the financial rewards of sharing their land with rows of photovoltaic panels attractive.

Dual land use When solar energy was in its infancy 40 years ago there wasn’t much consideration about what happened to the land under the panels. The sites were small and spraying or mowing was used to keep vegetation down.

But as the numbers and size of solar farms increased, particularly in the last decade, concerns were raised by farmers and environmentalists about the sites becoming ecological wastelands and farmland falling out of production.

This has seen dual use looked at more seriously and the rise of solar graziers - farmers whose whole business model involves running sheep under the panels of solar farms.

More common in the United States and Canada, these can be viable stand-alone businesses and have enabled a group, many who don’t have the capital to buy farmland, to get into a farming business. Leasing the land under solar farms can also be a stepping stone into farm ownership.

Sheep are a good option under panels as a standard commercial solar farm design doesn’t need to be altered to accommodate them.

The panels offer shade and shelter while keeping the grass under control.

They don’t damage the low structures by rubbing on them, as cattle might, or climb on them as goats would, or roost on them as chickens likely would with resulting excrement issues on the panels.

Even so, the setup can’t be fully incorporated into farm systems with rows too close for farm machinery, and panels set too low to the ground for most horticultural production.

And while running sheep might tick the box as a form of dual land use it’s thought just half of the solar farms 34

“

There will be developers who don’t want to be seen as the new forestry kids on the block, and will want to work with rural communities and farmers. consented nationally are looking at them under the panels.

With our high land values and pastoral farming systems, our land is more valuable for food production than in many countries.

“NZ is different to other parts of the world,” Brent says. “We are not like the Australian outback with a huge expanse of land - a good solar resource. We’re going to have to think about this here and I think this is starting to happen now in the industry.”

Developments will incorporate about 40,000ha in the coming decades, Alan reckons – equivalent to about 2% of the land used for dairy.

Highly productive land There have also been moves in recent years from government to protect high-quality agricultural and horticultural land, particularly with the National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land - brought in last year.

This sees regional councils mapping high-quality agricultural/horticultural land in their regions with stricter rules about land use and subdivision.

It is intended to stop the loss of high-quality food production land to residential builds in food basket areas, as has happened to market gardens around Bombay and Pukekohe, south NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

CASE STUDIES:

Above: Allowing for tractor movements sees six metres between the panels for sheep.

A 1300ha sheep and beef farm in the Hurunui area was modelled. The farm wintered 7500 stock units. Given flat land is more economic to develop for solar than sloped and the farm was mostly hilly, a 5.8ha paddock on the 300ha of flats with a northerly aspect was the focus.

Both fixed-tilt and tracking systems were modelled separately on the land although costs were similar. The panel heights were standard while the rows were wider apart to allow tractor movement and more room than usual at the ends to allow a tractor to turn easily.

A 235ha dairy farm on the plains milking 860 cows was also modelled. A 2ha area on the edge of an irrigated paddock, and used to grow supplementary feed was the focus. While solar installations could be designed so irrigators can still move through them this would raise issues with warranties and insurance, and was not considered in this study.

While the rows were also wider apart for the movement of farm equipment and more room than usual at the ends to allow a tractor to turn easily, the panels had to be lifted to 2.5m above the ground to allow cows under them which exposed the panels to higher winds. This saw a more expensive double-pile structure recommended for the fixed-tilt system.

Costings All of the costs for the build for both farms would be borrowed.

For the sheep and beef farm, consent and grid connection cost about $625,000, and design and build between $4.3 million and $6.3m to generate about 2.2 to 2.5MW of power for the grid.

For the dairy farm consent and grid connection costs were about $350,000 to

$390,000, with design and build between $2.1m and $2.9m for around 1MW of power generation.

Outcomes The outcomes for the sheep and beef farm were very good.

After debt servicing and depreciation, net income increased by $420,484, with a 30% reduction in stocking rates on the solar site.

There were also significant increases for return on assets and equity.

Going it alone and running sheep under the panels could be an attractive financial option for sheep and beef farmers. A standard commercial design instead of the agrivoltaics version, with closer rows, looks even more attractive. The outcomes for the higherearning dairy farm were not so rosy with little benefit except possibly having access to power for the farm. The solar site was not usually included in the grazing feed budget and more supplementary feed would also now need to be bought in. Along with the interest rate not being covered by increased income this helped to see the net profit drop by $64,400. The return on asset and on equity also dropped.

But going it alone for sheep farmers, or for dairy farmers with suitable land not included in the dairy platform, wouldn’t be for the fainthearted. While a few of the Canterbury farmers among those interviewed for the research said they could be up for the challenge with more information on costings, most didn’t feel confident enough.

Closer collaboration with developers through leasing and partnerships had more appeal and was also seen as a more likely way for agrivoltaic design systems to increase in the future.

of Auckland. Regional councils have two or three years to finalise the soil maps and there is a process where landowners can comment on whether or not they think their classifications are valid. Not surprisingly, with high value alluvial soils the NPS Highly Productive Land covers a significant part of the Canterbury Plains and the Ashburton district.

There had already been a lot of consideration given to resource consent affecting agricultural land before this, says Ian Hyde, Ashburton District Council district planning manager.

Consents for onfarm solar looking mostly at powering irrigation and not hooking into the grid are cropping up more often now on the plains and are straightforward, he says.

Most of the grid-connected solar developments consented and in the pipeline in the district intend to continue agriculture under them, including Genesis Energy’s 97ha development consented in Lauriston in early 2022, along with a smaller 35ha solar farm at Mayfield around the same time - running sheep under their panels.

But the productive land policy has been a sticking point for some solar consenting.

A solar proposal on a 258ha dairy farm on highly productive land in the

Fixed tilt arrays are less expensive options.

36

“

The outcomes for the higher-earning dairy farm were not so rosy with little benefit except possibly having access to power for the farm.

Selwyn District was initially turned down even though they planned to run sheep underneath.

The consent was being sought for an indefinite term, but the environmental effects, and particularly on the potential of the loss of highly productive land had only been considered by the applicant for the length of the lease – 35 years.

The emphasis on protecting productive land is likely to see local councils giving more weight to dual land use and potentially agrivoltaic design on solar sites – including on pastoral land which may not come under the highly productive classification.

As it stands, use of an agrivoltaic design is something that would be negotiated between the farmer and developer.

While developers may be open to installing this design the numbers need to stack up for them too, says Chris Service with solar developer

Infratec. Some of the smaller site developers have been open to raising panel heights to allow young cattle as well as sheep to graze under them, and others including Infratec have agreed to increased row spacings for tractors on some sites.

While anything is possible, says Service, higher installation costs and less long-term energy output will make it harder for developers to say yes for smaller projects, rather than for big solar farms.

Even so, there will be developers who don’t want to be seen as the new forestry kids on the block, he says, and will want to work with rural communities and farmers.

His advice is to shop around to get the right developer for what you want.

Resource consenting When it comes to solar the good news is renewable energy generation has been seen as a good thing by government since a National Policy Statement covering it in 2011. This guidance filters down to local council levels, even though regional and district councils still have to take it into account.

The bad news is the consenting process is still expensive – as seen in the costings for the modelled farms. It is also often time consuming.

When applying for resource consent for solar, a detailed description of the activities is needed, says Law professor Catherine Irons at Victoria University.

This includes the site and how it aligns with the Resource Management Act, and all the other relevant planning documents. Even with a change of government any changes in relation to NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

the RMA are going to be slow and take years to come into effect, she says.

All the environmental effects need to be assessed and usually need expert input by lawyers and planners, landscape architects, ecologists, cultural advisers, and engineers in particular, she says. All need to be paid for. Meaningful consultation with all affected parties is needed with increasing emphasis on iwi and hapu in the area, particularly in regards to land that may have been taken in the past. Doing this well, as well as getting all the information needed at the start, can make the consenting process much smoother and help see a limited notification granted - the preferred option.

If adverse effects are seen as less than minor this often means just going to neighbours or other limited affected people, where you can get their consent in advance. By getting it in writing, you then often won’t have to have any notification.

If adverse effects are considered more than minor, however, full public notification will be needed where anyone can submit on it. If they should also appeal the decision, it can further delay your process. If an independent panel is called for, you’ll also be liable to pay for them.

Unfortunately, if the solar site is the first in an area it is likely to be scrutinised more by council staff, with public notification more likely, Irons says.

Service agrees, citing two projects he was involved with that were approved.

They were the same size, same design but in different regions. One was designated a permitted activity, while the other went to full public notification, he says.

The first big solar farm in the Wairarapa on a 235ha site with more than 300,000 panels hit this issue.

Even with planned plantings around the outside for screening it was seen as

introducing a new land use, with more than minor effects for landscape, visual and rural character, with the consent publicly notified.

“If there were 10 others in the neighbourhood it probably wouldn’t have been notified at all,” Irons says.

Going it alone Financing may see a trip to the bank where Green Loans may be available.

For those considering the challenge, top of the list is proximity to local lines or the national power network.

This will dictate how large any solar site will be. There is likely to be a bottleneck getting access for new installations on to lines in some areas.

While Transpower is upgrading its national network there are likely to be more issues on the lower-voltage lines run by local providers.

While a 50kW onfarm setup might be fine for the farm, economy of scale would likely see a 2ha site as the smallest grid-connected installation a developer would look at, Service says.

A handy indicator for farmers Selling into the electricity market would see farmers needing to secure a contract, which are available, and making them responsible for the performance of the solar farm.

Whoever owns the system also gains access to renewable energy certificates (RECs) that come with this.

These certificates are a type of carbon offsetting and can be purchased by other businesses. Along with financial benefits these could also be useful to farmers for compliance issues in the future, Service says.

RECs can also be negotiated in a lease with a developer, but again more likely to be on the table with a bigger site.

Land doesn’t have to be flat for a solar farm - it’s just more efficient and cost-effective. This gives farmers the chance to look at slopes developers

Tracker arrays are more expensive but are more efficient, especially in winter

might not be interested in. While a slope up to 10 to 15 degrees may be possible, a few degrees is much better.

Sites can also be sited on flood plains, although inverters would need to be placed above flooding levels.

Making the most from solar farms may mean leasing, selling or developing your own. But harvesting the sun in rural areas is here to stay.

For full report: ourlandandwater.nz/outputs/integrating-solar-livestock-report

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 37

FEATURE

Mootels

PASS EARLY TESTS A study of three recently installed composting mootels on West Coast dairy farms showed generally positive results in the high-rainfall region. By Anne Hardie.

C

omposting mootels come with a hefty price tag and are still a work in progress, but a recent study on the West Coast shows they can halve nitrogen losses across the farm, significantly reduce metabolic issues and death rates, as well as remove a lot of stress.

Nine months is not long, but it was long enough to work out the three farms analysed needed between 11% and 16% increase in production to cover the investment and two achieved that in their first season. The third is expected to reach its target in future seasons.

The nine-month study was funded

by Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund to analyse design, capital costs and the process of converting to a mootel (barn) system.

The study initially analysed two dairy farms with recently built mootels, then added a third farm that had just added a mootel into its system.

Two of the farms have steel-roof 38

structures and milk 800 cows and 540 cows at the peak of the season, while the third has a plastic roof for a 370-cow herd. Between the three farms, the mootel area ranges from 6.5 metres per cow to 9.3m/cow.

Annual rainfall between the three varies between 2.3m and 3.2m and that was one of the driving factors for farmers in a bid to move away from intensive winter grazing and build resilience against stricter environmental regulations.

The alternative for one farmer was the substantial challenge of managing runoff from their non-roofed standoff pad in their high rainfall. A mootel was also their solution to circumvent issues such as soil compaction from intensive winter grazing, which impacted on animal health and pasture rejuvenation. It meant cutting down on the labour-intensive task of managing breaks during winter and working inside with the cows instead.

Robb Macbeth from Peak Agricultural Consultants was part of

the project team and says there is still much to be learnt about composting mootels because every season is different and no two farms are the same.

The project team is now seeking more funding to continue the study and gather more knowledge because more farmers are building composting mootels on the Coast and elsewhere.

Though the study focused on the West Coast, he says the information is applicable to other regions with higher rainfall.

Establishment costs varied dramatically between the three farms, depending on the structure itself, whether new equipment was needed and whether there was a system change. Between the three, it varied between $3200 per cow and $4000 per cow, though the study’s team pointed out that recent inflation means farmers considering investing in mootels should consider a range of $3500 to $6000 per cow. On the plus side, Robb says some good kitsets are NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

COWBARNS

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The first thing the farmers tell us is enhanced ability to monitor cows closely during high-risk periods.

being brought in from China which may enable builders to keep costs down.

Although the study covered the establishment costs, the financial reports were not available in time for its nine-month timeline and Robb says that needs to be covered in further studies. Apart from the unique characteristics of each farm and system, financial trajectories will be influenced by a range of factors, from fluctuating interest rates and variable bedding material costs, to asset depreciation.

Once farmers had made that initial and substantial investment, they reported happier cows and happier staff. They could care for the cows better during those pressure periods of calving, high-rainfall events and summer heat stress.

Death rates in the herds were reduced, with one farm achieving less than 1% deaths, largely due to fewer metabolic issues and calving problems.

“The first thing the farmers tell us

Still much to be learnt about composting mootels.

is enhanced ability to monitor cows closely during high-risk periods. They have more ability to transition the cows out of the dry state through that springer period when you’re about to calve and that colostrum-risk period.

The other one is the capability to provide precise nutrition including accurate mineral supplementation.”

Two farms had mixer wagons where they could add the right amount of minerals into the feed for the cows and one of those had no downer cows at all through the 2021-2022 spring.

“One farmer used to have 50 to 60

cows they would treat for metabolic issues which is relatively normal and the season we studied they had four cows.”

On the downside, there was the risk of E.coli mastitis in the mootels, with experience varying across the farms in the study and Robb says it will be essential to include it in research, alongside other health indicators.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 39

Environment the winner The environment was shown to be a big winner in the study, especially when it came to nitrogen and phosphorus losses. On the three farms, using Overseer modelling, nitrogen losses were reduced by 18%, 43.5% and 52%. The lowest figure was due to the mootel being used less.

One significant factor leading to the reduction in nutrient loss was simply fewer urine patches in the soil. At the same time, all three farms applied less nitrogen fertiliser because they had decreased winter crops and had more efficient use of their supplementary feed in the mootels.

The OverseerFM model could not assess nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions as it lacks the capability to simulate the aerobic composting process inside each mootel, but in its report, the project team says the potential N2O emissions from the composting process would likely be offset by the

“

One farmer used to have 50 to 60 cows they would treat for metabolic issues which is relatively normal and the season we studied they had four cows. observed reductions in nitrogen in the natural nitrogen cycle.

Phosphorus losses were reduced by 20-30% and because it was only a short study, the team hypothesized the mootels in winter would lessen soil compaction and reduce contaminant runoff. Less winter crops should lead to reduced fertiliser use and its associated risks.

Predictably, feed utilisation improved with the mootels and the result was “extremely high” which meant the farmers could get more condition on the cows for the same amount of feed. The study did not have a baseline for cow condition, so

40

Robb says condition gains could not be measured.

One of the farms pretty much continued with their usual farming system and simply added the mootel into the system and tweaked the wintering system slightly. It added no more supplementary feed. Another also carried on with their existing system and carried supplements made on the support block to the mootel instead of paddocks. On that farm, wet silage brought too much moisture into the mootel and those farmers are now considering introducing palm kernel or grain into the system to replace the silage.

Robb says system creep is one of the dangers of composting mootels and similar systems and farmers need to be wary of additional costs becoming part of the cost structure.

“You build a barn, so you put a bit more feed in, have to buy a bit more gear and your entire cost structure sneaks up and you find yourself running a more costly system without necessarily making any more profit.

And possibly even less profit.”

Managing compost Compost is at the heart of the system and farmers continue to work out the best way to manage it in the mootels.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Robb says the building design, the area per cow and tilling all influence the compost – to name a few points.

Ideally, compost needs to be kept at a temperature in the high 50s or 60s (celsius) at 15-30cm depth, he says, as it then evaporates moisture which can become one of the evils of composting when there is too much.

None of the mootels in the study reached optimal temperatures, but the farmers were generally happy with how they were working.

One has more wind flowing through it which helps dry the compost out, while another has a lower stocking rate, the cows are inside less and so the compost tends to have lower moisture levels.

Feed areas in particular are a problem on the compost because there is a higher concentration of urine and dung which makes the compost in those strips wetter, colder, less friable and resistant to their best tillage efforts.

In response, the farmers added more woodchip to those areas, increased tilling and tilled deeper, even swapped compost from the feed area with other areas in the mootel. They have contemplated replacing feed areas with concrete, but that brings the

risk of cows slipping and managing effluent from the concrete area. In the end, there is still work to be done to get it right. Woodchip will probably need to be replaced every two years, though Robb says that also will vary.

Farmers on all three farms were still learning and experimenting around optimum tilling regimes to maximise compost performance and Robb says it is one of the biggest challenges with composting mootels. The main aim of tilling is to aerate the compost pack and help moisture evaporate and it varied considerably on the case study farms, depending on barn usage. It could be as infrequent as every 10 days when mootels were not in use, increasing to daily tilling in winter when the cows were inside 24/7.

Farmers regularly topped up the woodchip which then breaks down and absorbs nitrogen. Once the compost needs to be replaced, most farmers intend to distribute it around the farm and one has a muck spreader that will be used for the job.

Once the farmers begin to spread the compost on the farm, it will begin to replace some of the fertiliser, with one farmer expecting it to save a round of nitrogen.

The next question is replacing the

The environment turned out a big winner in the composting mootel study.

woodchip and Robb acknowledges there are concerns about sourcing it in the future. It is not a problem yet, he says, but there is a risk as more composting barns are built and large-scale industries use woodchip as biomass to replace fossil fuels.

Alongside the mootel itself, two of the farmers in the study talked about the essential equipment required to manage the composting mootel system and skilled staff for operating machinery. A mixer wagon has been an integral part of their system and a subsoiler pivotal for the tilling process. A dedicated tractor is needed for the mixer wagon so other farm operations continue unhindered and a telescopic handler is recommended for loading the mixer wagon.

Staff now need to know more about feed optimisation, mixing ratios and determining composting tilling frequencies and there is a need for more-comprehensive training in those areas.

While the project produced results, Robb says it also highlighted the need for more research on composting mootels, especially in a high-rainfall environment. They are a costly investment and he says “don’t expect it to add a whole lot of money to your land value”, or necessarily make more money.

“They’re costly and most people will have to borrow a whole lot of money. There’s no guarantee you will make more production so it won’t necessarily make any more money.

In fact, there’s a good chance it won’t. It also won’t fix existing farm inefficiencies – a mootel could make that worse.

“There’s still a lot to be learnt. You don’t just put one of those up and everything works magic.”

Despite the caution, all of the farmers in the project spoke of their immense pride in their composting mootels which tick all the boxes for animal care, wellbeing of their staff and environmental responsibility.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 41

FEATURE

Hannah and Thomas Oats with their two children, Ellie, 10, and Charlie, 8.

Cover O N T H E Coast Introduction of composting mootels to a Reefton farm has improved cow health and happiness, the environment, and extended milking with less feed wastage.

By Anne Hardie.

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T

he Oats family use their composting mootels on the West Coast with the same dynamic approach they use throughout their farming business.

Seasons are rarely predictable and can throw some real curve balls when you least expect them, so having the flexibility to change course can make a real difference in their high-rainfall climate.

Their goal is to lengthen the production curve each season to achieve consistent results and though it is still early days, the mootels are already making that more achievable.

This is Thomas and Hannah’s second season as 50:50 sharemilkers for Thomas’ parents, Tegal and Wendy, on the 169-hectare (effective) farm just south of Reefton.

They milk 370 crossbred cows at 2.2 cows per ha on a farm that has a mix of

soils spilling over terraced country.

Ninety-six ha is humped and hollowed land or flipped soils on the heavier ground, while a further 28ha sits on peat and 45ha is free-draining river silt.

It works out a good mix, with the peat surviving summer well and Thomas says it is beautiful soil but has an iron pan layer underneath which means it relies on evaporation in a rainfall that averages two metres a year. In a wet winter it can be tricky to manage to avoid pasture damage.

Hence the composting mootels.

Thomas says the wintering barns suit the farm and they have been a natural progression for farming on the West Coast, while acknowledging every farm is different. The couple were contract milkers for six years on the farm, before heading further down the Coast to Kowhitirangi for four years sharemilking and then returning last year.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

“When we were contract milking here and walking between feed pads to crops, I thought it would be so nice to have them inside and feed in situ,” Thomas says.

The role of the mootels is to complement the farming system and Thomas says little has changed apart from feeding and calving the cows inside. They have not bought machinery to feed the cows inside the mootels and have spent little extra once the mootels were completed.

It cost about $1 million to complete the two mootels which are Smart Shelters with woven plastic roofs.

About $250,000 of that was spent on site preparation, while about $100,000 was poured into concrete.

The chosen site was on humped and hollowed land beside the dairy and beneath that lay glacial deposits of gravel. They removed the surface down to the gravel and then built it back up for the mootels. Once mootels were completed, about 3000 cubic metres of woodchip was added.

The mootels total 3240 square metres and are designed for 400 cows with 200 in each, which equates to

Tilling aerates the compost down to 500mm.

MOOTELS

“

When we were contract milking here and walking between feed pads to crops, I thought it would be so nice to have them inside and feed in situ..

about 8m2 per cow, though they are running them closer to 10m2. They chose plastic roofs on price, but also like the extra light inside and though they come with a 12-year warranty, Thomas says they are generally lasting up to 18-or-so years on other farms.

Inside, the woodchip is 900mm deep in the centre of the mootels and between the combined mootels equals 1000 tonnes of logs. Thomas says that is a small amount in the world of woodchip when questions are raised about future availability.

The two mootels were still being completed when Hannah and Thomas came back to the farm last year, so cows did not go in until June 28, 2022. Already, they are convinced the mootels are a good addition to the farm and complement the existing system.

That farm system is pretty simple and aimed at fully feeding the cows or “efficient cow centric” as Thomas says. In the past the farm had 5ha of winter crop that was generally swede and 5ha of turnips for summer. They will continue with summer crops, depending on the season. That is part of their dynamic farming approach; to have flexibility in their system.

Above: Calving in the mootels makes life easier.

Enjoying a good scratch. The compost is turned regularly with the ripper on the back of the tractor.

The Oats are still learning about compost bestpractice.

Running a lower stocking rate helps that flexibility.Part of their keepingit-simple approach is retaining every paddock perpetually in grass.

“I don’t see the reason for resowing paddocks if we’re looking after them properly,” Thomas says. “There is grass on this farm that is 20 years old and they’ve got to a good equilibrium where the soil structure is there and everything works.” On top of pasture, the herd is generally fed 2kg of meal per cow per day throughout the season and sometimes 3kg at mating or depending on the weather, so ends

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 43

“

If we think they need to be inside, we put them in. If it’s wet weather, we don’t want them hanging around in the paddock.

Hannah and Thomas Oats with their two children, Ellie, 10, and Charlie, 8, plus the dogs Bonny and Leo.

up averaging about 2.5kg. Meal is made up of 50% DDG, 25% palm kernel and 25% soya hull pellets. It is a feed mix and ratio that works on the farm, with no chance of acidosis, is palatable for the cows, while minerals can easily be added in when needed.

They also make about 400 tonnes drymatter (DM) of pit silage each year, about 240t DM from the milking platform and 160t DM off Tegal and Wendy’s support block. Last year they also purchased 130t DM of maize grown on contract on the Coast which was fed out through autumn and winter and they are doing that again this year. The mootels now give them the ability to feed it to the cows without wastage.

A concrete apron runs on the outside of the mootels to feed the cows and 400mm-high boards have been added on the outside of the feed strip to create a trough area to hold feed. That saves them the job of pushing feed back toward the cows when they flick it out on to the gravel beyond. With the benefit of hindsight, Thomas says another 600mm of concrete width would have 44

been good to run the inside tractor wheel to make it a bit easier to pick up dropped feed. They also lowered the bar the cows reach under to feed as it was too high for the crossbred cows.

If they were pushing for a feed when they first went into the mootels, the occasional cow would get under it and outside. Because of the mix of soils over the farm and high rainfall, they need to be flexible about their choice of paddocks to send the cows each day which means they do not follow a set plan for grazing. The beauty of the mootels is they now have that option in the mix and that is also based on flexibility rather than a set plan.

“In summer the cows went inside from mid-January through to early March from midday to about 3pm, depending on the day. From mid to late April they went in for their silage depending on the weather. If it was going to be wet at night they went in at night and if it was fine we fed them after milking and they went to the paddock.

“It’s about being dynamic and you need to be dynamic when you’re farming here. It’s a symptom of the

farm and we farm with the sheds like that too. If we think they need to be inside, we put them in. If it’s wet weather, we don’t want them hanging around in the paddock. It’s having that flexibility and I think we’ll always tweak it.”

“Every season is going to be different,” Hannah says. “We don’t have a set plan.”

Production was up last season from previous average of 168,000kg milksolids (MS) to 186,000kg MS, despite a dry spell between December and March which led to an estimated loss of 5000kg MS. This season they achieved 505kg MS per cow, up from 470 to 480kg. They followed their usual milking regime which is twice-aday milking through to January, when they switch to 3in2 and then down to once-a-day from about April 20.

Their season begins on August 16 to match the growth curve and the herd calves quickly without intervention.

At between 11 and 14 days the herd hits its calving mid-point and Hannah says that is pretty consistent.

They mate for 11 weeks, but more cows calve earlier. It helps that NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Hannah is an artificial insemination technician and she says their earlycalving rate revolves around watching cows throughout the day and then inseminating cycling cows in the afternoon. As Thomas says, missing a couple of cycling cows each day equates to about 11% of the herd over three weeks, so it’s worth monitoring them through the day and it is an advantage being able to AI the cows themselves.

Their later start to calving just makes sense to them and Thomas says a delay of 10 days to two weeks makes a massive difference to how the rest of the season plays out. The grass growth is beginning to take off and the cows calve, recover and get on with the season.

“The real figure is calves on the ground and consistent every year.

Any intervention at mating I see as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.”

Hannah says one of their goals is to have their cows as fat as possible and she points out it is never the fatter heifers that are not in calf. The mootels are a good addition in the system to guarantee the ability to put weight on the cows through winter and they can do it without having to transition them on to crop to achieve that. This is the second season they

have calved on the compost and it has gone well. No more checking paddocks on wet nights for cows calving. They were worried there might be more mastitis in the herd if they were calving on the compost, but it has not been an issue at all this season.

Last year they did have 12 cows with E. coli mastitis, possibly because the woodchip was not hot enough to kill nasty bacteria. Also, as the woodchip was new, the feed lanes were more compacted and preferable for the cows to lie on. That meant they tended to lie on the dirtiest woodchip. This year the woodchip has composted more throughout the mootels, so it is warmer and firmer over the entire area and the cows choose anywhere to lie down. After the E.coli mastitis, they have opted to use mid-acting dry-cow therapy and teat seal the entire herd without further problems. Plus, they flipped all the compost with the tractor bucket in winter to keep up aeration. Compost is the biggest learning curve for them.

They till it every day when the cows go in the barn to aerate it down to 500mm and they plan to try a chisel plough to mix the compost more and see how that goes. Taking a scoop of compost out with the tractor bucket

Cows make the most of the tractor in the mootel for a scratch.

shows the compost is still reasonably fresh woodchip at the bottom. Steam rises from the overturned composting chip which is part of the critical heating process for good composting.

“We went into this with our eyes wide open and didn’t know how the compost was really going to work,” Thomas says. “If you got it wrong, we thought we would have to start again. But you can rectify just about anything in my opinion. But you do have to be diligent.”

On the environmental side, nitrogen loss has been reduced by 18% on the farm due to fewer urine patches on the paddocks. That is a lot less than two other farms in the composting mootel study because Hannah and Thomas’ barns are used less and they only began using them in late June. But it is significant. On a per hectare basis, the nitrogen loss was reduced from 60kgN/ha before the mootels were added, to 49kgN/ha.

Samples taken from the compost in May this year assessed it as future fertiliser as it will eventually be distributed on the farm. The total value of the compost was just over $32,000 or $92/ha that included nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur. Thomas says that figure has probably doubled since the samples were taken due to more use.

Meanwhile, the family say the capital expenditure on the mootels will not necessarily add that figure to the value to their farm. In fact, it probably won’t. But Thomas says it might improve saleability immensely and is definitely making it easier to farm.

“It’s not all financial; it changes the outlook someone has of their farm business.”

“It would be hard to go back to farming without a barn on the Coast,” Hannah adds. “We weren’t doing this for the production – we had no production targets attached to it. We feel it is a natural progression - it’s about cow health and happiness, the environment, milking longer and less feed wastage.”

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 45

Managing your farm business this summer

Planning ahead is key to getting through tight times and a drier than normal summer. We have a range of tools and resources, all backed by science and research that can help you prepare, manage, and monitor your farm efficiently and affordably this season.

Our top summer tools and resources

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Feed Budget Calculator

Smart water use

Summer Management Plan

EconTracker

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Programme helps Canterbury farmers meet N loss targets A programme covering the Selwyn/ Hinds districts of Canterbury has helped farmers meet nitrogen loss targets, writes Virginia Serra, DairyNZ senior manager, solutions and development.

D

airyNZ’s Selwyn Hinds - Meeting a Sustainable Future programme has come to an end, but farmers remain committed to reducing nitrogen (N) loss and we continue to support that.

Reducing N loss from farm systems can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water quality, and help farms operate more efficiently. This leads to financial benefits and supports farmers to meet regulated requirements for national limit-setting.

However, there are significant challenges for farmers, as they navigate rising costs and a reduced milk price. With farmers focused on reducing costs, it is a tricky balance to meet regulatory requirements while remaining viable. DairyNZ continues to support farmers through these challenges.

The Selwyn Hinds programme, which started in 2018, aimed to support farmers in their work to meet Environment Canterbury and central government N loss reduction regulations while optimising profit and resilience. The programme trialled options for reducing N loss with 40

partner farms, sharing its results with other local farmers through field days and events.

Farmers in the Hinds catchment are on track to meet the progressive N loss reduction target set by Environment Canterbury, with the first milestone being 15% in 2025.

In Selwyn, dairy farmers needed to achieve a 30% reduction by 2022.

Anecdotal information shows they have achieved this (to be confirmed through audits across all farms in the catchment).

In central Canterbury, many farmers have been using a range of strategies to reduce N loss. For example, Phill and Jos Everest, with their son Paul and his partner Sarah, have made many onfarm changes to meet N loss regulations. These include: • Reducing nitrogen fertiliser by 35% – ahead of national and regional regulatory requirements.

• Installing a variable rate irrigation system on one pivot irrigator, which allows water to be applied in different amounts across a paddock, reducing drainage and nutrient losses.

• Developing an annual N application plan to identify monthly

application rates needed to meet the new targets.

• 22km of planting along drains and fence lines to improve water quality and provide shelter for their animals.

• Adding plantain and chicory to their pasture mix, which helps reduce N loss.

The significant reductions in nitrate leaching measured from Ecotain plantain pastures in the Plantain Potency and Practice programme have led Canterbury, Bay of Plenty, Southland and Horizons regional councils to recognise Ecotain as a mitigation option for reducing nitrate leaching. This has given farmers a tool for meeting nutrient limits at a lower cost.

Thanks to their onfarm changes, Phill, Jos, Paul and Sarah have already met their 2030 target to reduce N losses by 25%.

Other dairy farmers across the Selwyn and Hinds catchments are improving effluent and irrigation management, reducing fertiliser use and increasing their focus on overall efficiency of farm systems, which helps prevent nitrogen being lost into groundwater.

The amount of change in both catchments is encouraging.

The Selwyn and Hinds programme was an extension of previous DairyNZ-led N loss farm systems research, such as Pastoral 21 and Forage for Reduce N leaching, and several of the options identified by science were implemented by many of the partner farms.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 47

ENVIRONMENT

FEATURE

Environmental science DairyNZ has a team of environmental scientists whose research helps inform all its water quality work.

By investing in environmental research and development to improve waterways, effluent, wetland management, nutrients, land and water conservation, we are growing our understanding of natural resource management in New Zealand – and better supporting dairy farmers in their environmental improvement work.

DairyNZ is also working with farmers across other NZ catchments to reduce environmental footprint and improve water quality – catchment work is widely recognised as the way forward in improving the environment, as it achieves better results than a national one-size-fits-all approach.

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Sustainable Catchments programme The Sustainable Catchments programme launched in May 2023, for example, sees local farmers, DairyNZ and iwi working together to help improve the health of the Pokaiwhenua (Waikato) catchment.

Further work is underway in the Waimea (Southland) catchment, and across South Canterbury.

This three-year programme involves trialling practical tools and interventions onfarm, such as constructed wetlands, to increase understanding of ways to improve water quality.

The three catchments are priorities for restoration because monitoring shows they have higher nitrogen

concentrations and lower ecosystem health scores than desired by communities. DairyNZ works closely with and supports local landowners and catchment groups, which already have water quality improvement initiatives underway.

Changing regulations Further change is coming for Canterbury farmers, with a new integrated plan for Canterbury to be notified by Environment Canterbury by 2024 under the Essential Freshwater package. It will introduce new rules and regulations for freshwater, coastal areas and regional policy statements. It is not yet known how these new regulations will impact dairy farming.

To read more about the work being done by farmers in Selwyn and Hinds dairynz.co.nz/research/regional-projects/selwyn-hinds-canterbury-profitability

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

SPECIAL REPORT

DAIRY + BEEF INTEGRATION

Solving the bobby calf problem

Working together, innovating and thinking beyond old boundaries – we’ve talked to those coming up with answers to the vexed issue of dealing with non-replacement calves.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 49

S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

NATURAL REARING MAKES PEARL VEAL

the real deal

THE AIM OF A PASTURERAISED VEAL SYSTEM IS TO GIVE CALVES GREAT LIVES AND KEEP REARING AS CLOSE TO NATURE AS POSSIBLE, ANNE LEE WRITES. PHOTOS: KELLY SHAKESPEARE

A

lan McDermott spends as much time with chefs and the end users of his Pearl Veal products as he does with the farmers rearing the animals.

Developing the markets and educating chefs, talking to them on what cuts or dishes will work in the menus they’re aiming to create, visiting them in their kitchens and letting them try it for themselves is a big part of getting others to see what a gem of a product pastureraised veal is.

Veal has had a bad rap in the past due largely to the connotations from overseas systems of milk-fed, young animals, reared indoors.

Alan’s very aware of that and has focused on creating an animal-centric story where, rather than young calves becoming a by-product of producing

Chef Jack Burgess showing his BBQ veal rib eye chop to Pearl Veal supplier Alan McDermott.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Jack has been cooking with the Pearl Veal for over a year and values its delicious taste and tenderness.

Plating up the veal chop - by cutting the meat off the bone and slicing up. At around 500gm, the serving would be a shared plate dish.

It’s a very honest, open story and it’s one about giving these young animals a chance to flourish and have a good life.

milk, their status and value is elevated so they are retained and reared on.

“It’s a very honest, open story and it’s one about giving these young animals a chance to flourish and have a good life.”

Instead of a four-day-old calf heading for the bobby truck, they’re reared on contract by the dairy farmer until they’re weaned at 100kg liveweight.

They’re then sent to a contracted beef finisher to be grown on until they’re 280–340kg liveweight, typically by 10 -12 months old.

In some cases, the dairy farmer is also the contracted finisher.

This season, the company’s third, there are 18 farms, mostly in the South Island, contracted to rear calves.

Currently the animals are coming exclusively from dairy farmers supplying Synlait, with the company’s farm assurance programme, Lead with Pride, and its stringent auditing, providing Alan with a place to start when it comes to securing the rearing contracts.

Alan says the aim is to give calves great lives and keep the rearing system as close to nature as possible.

“We want the ingredients list to be as short as possible when it comes to rearing these animals, so it’s whole milk and pasture.

“They get pasture hay - and water of course - but there’s no calf muesli or meal with the additives that can go with them.”

That means no coccidiostats, usually blended with the calf meal, which act as an antimicrobial to protect young animals from disease.

Some overseas markets don’t allow antibiotics and coccidiostats can fall into that category.

Instead, the focus is on ensuring high passive immunity by good colostrum management – getting plenty of gold, first milking colostrum that’s high in natural immunoglobulins into calves within hours of their birth.

“Our farmers are all testing calves to make sure that passive immunity is where it needs to be.”

Calves get access to grass and move outdoors full time as soon as possible which also helps reduce disease challenge.

They must have good shelter too.

“We like them to be at the 100– 115kg mark before they move on to be grown out by the finisher because at that point, they’re more robust and ready to move and have been set up really well to make the best possible transfer.”

Alan says the European beef breeds, used over dairy cows, are providing

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

We are proud of our progress but there is much more to do.

great growth rates and quality product.

Charolais and Belgian Blue are among a range of good performers and while a cow with a strong Friesian genotype will also help with growth rates, he has plenty of Jersey cross calves contracted too.

Getting animals to the target weights within the year means they’re afforded first-class treatment, lush pastures, close checks on animal health and plenty of gentle handling.

At close to a year old the animals

are larger but still young enough to produce an exceptional, tender, quality product.

It’s still lighter in colour than beef, but has the blush of pastureraised meat rather than the pallid colouration of the very traditional, milk-only veal from very young animals.

Testing shows the veal from the 10–12-month animals is significantly lower in fat than beef and has a milder flavour, Alan says.

Developing the full supply chain has taken time and effort to ensure the procurement, processing and delivery results in a top-quality experience for the consumer.

The veal is aged for three weeks and then frozen.

It’s not just about the traditional prime cuts either.

Making use of the whole animal is important and Alan says the tenderness and high quality of the pasture-raised veal means restaurant quality dishes can be produced from every cut – from the trim to rump, topside, ribeye, short ribs, chuck and blade.

As well as being sold to restaurants throughout New Zealand, Pearl Veal will be available at select retail outlets soon and Alan is launching an online shop out of his Instagram account in time for Christmas ordering.

It’s also exported to Japan with other overseas markets in the pipeline too.

In late October the Pearl Veal product won the Silver Fern Farms Market Leader Award for 2023 at the Beef + Lamb NZ Awards, which Alan said was a wonderful experience and honour.

“We are proud of our progress but there is much more to do.”

Bringing the meat to room temperature before cooking, and resting after cooking enhances the taste and tenderness of the veal.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

BBQ VEAL RIBEYE CHOP WITH HOUSE MUSTARD AND SPICED JUS FROM JACK BURGESS, ODEON R E S T A U R A N T, C H R I S T C H U R C H

Jack has been using Pearl Veal for over a year and says he loves the product, produced by Pearl Pastures. The meat is young beef, out of Synlait dairy herds, reared with a very natural diet and grown to around 300kg before its first birthday.

Chefs at some of NZ’s top restaurants have been introduced to the product, and say that it is so easy to cook, tastes delicious, is very tender and lean, and so very healthy.

SPICE MIX

30g black peppercorns 40g coriander seed 5g fennel seed 50g Aleppo pepper 40g smoked paprika 10g garlic powder 10g bonito flakes Toast peppercorns, coriander and fennel. Blitz with rest in spice grinder/ food processor.

Blend to a paste in food processor. Then rub generously on a veal chop, at least 500g. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

MARINADE

JUS

150g brown sugar 150g neutral oil ½ onion, grated 5 cloves garlic, finely grated 12g ginger, finely grated 16g black peppercorns 40g spice mix (as above) 1.5 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 80g lemon Juice 12g flaky sea salt

1L brown chicken stock 2 cinnamon stick 2 star anise 10g black peppercorns 4 bay leaves 2 shallots, large dice Add into the pot, bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by one third. Turn off heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes.

Strain then bring the stock back to a boil and thicken with a corn starch slurry.

Remove veal chop from the fridge and brush off any excess marinade. Allow to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes. Grill over charcoal and then rest and allow to cook to medium rare, internal temperature of 56-58C. Remove the meat from the bone and slice.

Place the bone slightly off centre on the plate and fan the meat out beside it. Serve with a spoon of Dijon mustard and dress with the jus. Finish with olive oil, flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper.

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O

the veal PUTTING ON

A MID-CANTERBURY DAIRY FARM, WITH CONNECTIONS TO SYNLAIT, IS TACKLING THE BOBBY CALF ISSUE WITH A BEEF TWIST. ANNE LEE REPORTS.

ver the last four years there’s been a concerted effort into cutting bobby calf numbers on MidCanterbury dairy farm Tullba, a move that’s giving the enterprise a distinct, high quality beef flavour.

Athol New is the chief executive of the 615ha operation near Mayfield.

It’s an equity partnership between Athol and his wife Jane, Juliet Maclean – one of Synlait’s three founders and Michael Falconer.

Athol says that thanks to the purchase of a 250ha support block, Tullba is able to rear a significant proportion of the calves from its 1350cow dairy farm right through to a finished beef product.

“The aim is to get to nil bobbies and we’ve made pretty good progress with that,” he says.

About 200 calves from heifers that didn’t get in calf to the artificial insemination (AI) programme and were naturally mated are the only animals now that fit the classic bobby tag. Pearl Veal contracts have been part of the solution allowing Athol to find an earlier finishing market for select animals.

About 50-60 will make it right through to the finished Veal liveweight requirement of 280kg -320kg within 10 months to a year.

“We can’t use antibiotics on them, so any that need an antibiotic treatment are kept on for longer and go into another market.”

He selects larger birthweight calves for the veal contract with the Hereford-cross calves, out of the wellgrown, Friesian cows, typically a good size.

All calves are reared at the dairy farm, close to the milk source.

Antibiotic milk isn’t used for any

Left: Athol New – more than 80% there on reducing bobby numbers. Right: Growing with love.

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

calves – something the farm made a policy on well before the veal contracts.

Athol says the first year they reared the veal calves they pushed to get them to 8litres/day but at that level he didn’t feel they were keen enough on the grass.

The fact they weren’t getting meal either made him concerned they weren’t going to hit target weaning weights fast enough so he’s since changed to a system where he builds up to a slightly lower peak in milk offering.

It means that by 60-70kg liveweight they are topping up on high quality pasture and they’re better prepared for weaning.

“We probably did see them take a bit more of a check at weaning when we were going for the higher milk allowance, given they are just getting hay and grass and no meal, probably because their rumens weren’t quite

there. “But now they are eating more grass by the time they get to weaning weight so that growth check isn’t there.”

At 10-12 weeks old they’re at 100kg or more.

Like the other R1’s on the support block, the Pearl Veal animals are rotationally grazed behind a wire on ryegrass, white clover and plantain pastures.

“We manage the grazing here just the same as we do the dairy farm – similar round speed, similar management,” he says.

Because the calves are handled daily from birth and continue to be shifted daily on the support block, they have calm temperaments making shifting and working with them easier.

The only difference here is that they’re in smaller mobs, so there’s more fences to be set up and moves to make, he says.

“The veal calves are more of a

The veal calves are more of a challenge because there’s no antibiotics... challenge because there’s no antibiotics. You have to have somewhere else for them to go if you need to use antibiotics.

“But the veal contracts give us an option because they’re only here for a year and we can’t keep everything through to the second autumn.”

The Pearl Veal animals can be fed forage crops, apart from cereals, so a summer brassica would be fine if required.

For Athol, irrigation means pasture

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 55

is the mainstay of the diet for most of the year topped up with pasture silage apart from through the winter, when fodder beet is used to give good growth rates.

About 45ha of the support block is in fodder beet with two thirds of the dairy herd and all replacements wintered on the crop as well as the young beef animals.

That includes about 150 R1 Friesian bulls reared through to about 18 months and 550 – 600 kg liveweight, along with 400 R1 Wagyu contracted animals reared through to 15-20 months.

They start leaving the property from December with liveweights ranging from 350kg through to 450-500kg by 20 months.

Another 90 Hereford cross R1’s are

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also reared through to 18 months ideally.

“If you have to carry anything through that second winter, that’s where the numbers – in terms of returns – really start to fall off a cliff,’ Athol says.

Based on the returns they can get, the veal calves are bringing in a profit of 30c/kg drymatter (DM) fed and the Wagyu 35 – 37c/kg DM while dairying sits more around the 80c/kg DM mark.

They’re rearing 400 First Light Wagyu this season and have used 800 -1000 straws in the past over cows.

Tullba’s cows are fitted with Allflex collars which are used to help identify cycling cows and manage mating with the assistance of Protrack automatic drafting at the 64-bail rotary farm dairy and yard.

It means that apart from follow up bulls for heifers all mating is through AI. In the recent past they’ve mated the top 10 cows for breeding worth (BW) each day to sexed semen and Friesian until they have enough replacements followed by beef breeds and then short gestation.

This mating though, they’ve simplified the system with the top 50% of the herd in terms of BW going to Friesian Forward Pack bulls until they have enough replacements - around three to four weeks into mating. The remaining 50% of the herd on BW is going to Wagyu and once they’ve estimated they have enough replacements all cow will be getting a Wagyu straw.

If required they’d look at short gestation to shorten any tail in next year’s calving pattern.

Any veal calves next season would come from the Friesian line up.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Left: Sticking around and taking it easy. Above: Support block manager Maria Alvarez – plenty of TLC for non-replacement calves.

“We’re aiming for that bigger F12 animal that can produce well from a dairy point of view but it’s also good for using to create a fast-growing beef cross calf.”

Cows are producing 500-515kg milksolids (MS)/cow and the farm is carrying a stocking rate of 3.7cows/ha.

About 500kg/cow of barley, wheat, soy and canola is fed in the farm dairy with a strong response to the added protein found in the early spring as pastures are coming out of the winter showing a level of nitrogen deficiency.

Opting to rear beef cross calves was the main driver behind the purchase of the support block as a way to reduce risk.

“We needed somewhere to hold them, otherwise we’re at the whim of the market.”

The issue of where reared calves will stand if dairy farmers across the sector transition away from bobbies is a complex one.

Will it mean more support blocks required, a shift away from traditional beef breeding or a change in the mix on drystock farms currently running beef?

Buying additional land to rear calves on may not be as straight forward either.

Changing land use can now come with added complications.

Canterbury’s regional rules attach nutrient loss limitations to land and new rules associated with the Essential Fresh Water policy also put restrictions on intensification of land use.

For Tullba the ability to use the support block to rear beef cross animals as well as act as a support block for the dairy farm meant land use consents were required and some reallocation of nutrients from the dairy farm area.

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 57

“We were able to transfer some nutrient allocation from the dairy farm and because it (the support block) is 51% beef, it’s classed as beef not dairy support which means it’s (deemed) to have lower nitrogen losses.”

The push at Tullba to be at the forefront of best practice and use the latest science backed innovations has seen it become one of the partner farms within the DairyNZ led Selwyn Hinds, Meeting a Sustainable Future project, that aims to cut nutrient losses and emissions.

It’s also a partner farm in the Plantain studies being led by DairyNZ. On the dairy farm plantain currently makes up 16% of the pastures.

Although it makes up about 50% of the sward in the first year after pasture renewal, the plant population begins to dwindle as time goes on.

To keep the plantain percentage up, seed is being broadcast each year with fertiliser.

It’s alternated each year between being broadcast with urea and superphosphate.

That gives a better spread because urea and superphosphate are applied over two different spread widths.

Athol says they’re averaging about 170kg N/ha of urea.

The issue for farmers is having an eye across the range of issues – be they environmental, financial, people focused or animal centric as well as consumer perceptions and customer demands.

It’s got to be whole system thinking and changes have to be backed with sound evidence, he says.

“That’s the way we look at.”

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The Stabiliser breed is proving successful, with easy identification of the calves with the silver colouring.

Breeding beef

IN THE DAIRY

BY SHERYL HAITANA

P

amu is making economically positive strides towards its goal to utilise surplus calves from its dairy farms by rearing more dairy beef animals.

Pamu is increasing its use of beef semen across its dairy herds, leveraging its Focus Genetics breeding programmes.

It is now rearing more than 50% of its calves born on the dairy farms, with a target to get to 75% in the next three years, and 100% by 2030.

“It gets harder the more we go through. We can see some really good economics up to rearing 75%-80%

of calves, but the last 20% could be more challenging,” Pamu chief executive Mark Leslie admits.

Those smaller and later-born calves that have to be carried through a second winter are harder to find solutions for.

“It’s a complex challenge to go from where we have been.”

The solutions aren’t all there today across the supply chain and it’s going to require more integration within the industry, he says.

Pamu has an important role in the industry as it has the ability to push ahead on some of the

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

We can see some really good economics up to rearing 75%-80% of calves, but the last 20% could be more challenging.

Mark Leslie, Pamu chief executive.

bigger challenges the New Zealand agriculture industry is facing and share the results.

“We know these changes are going to keep coming at us, it’s what our consumers and customers want, what society wants.

“For me it’s taking a chance - to say dairy beef is one of those challenges and we can push forward and support the industry.

“There is a lot of learnings in here, we don’t always get it right. Some of what we are doing now, we won’t be doing in a couple of years time.

We will progressively work our way through it and share our results along the way.”

Pamu is trialling different options and recording results on breeding and rearing dairy beef animals, which will hopefully offer results to both the dairy and beef industry.

Pamu has the advantage of having the dairy farms and livestock farms under the same umbrella to track animal performance across its life.

“But the learnings around the right genetics, large-scale rearing, the feeding of the 100-200kg bull through the first summer, those learnings are applicable for all dairy and livestock farms.”

Pamu has been reducing beef

breeding cow, ewe and hind numbers to accommodate the growing numbers of dairy beef in the system.

“We believe we can be profitable in doing it but it does have that knockon effect to other animal stock classes - breeding ewes, breeding cows and hinds.”

Pamu is finding the dairy beef animals are as profitable, if not more profitable than the stock classes they’re replacing.

“Unfortunately for the beef cow in this context she’s rearing 0.85 of a calf a year, that’s your return for that year, whereas if she’s being replaced with the finishing of two dairy beef animals, yes there are more rearing costs, but your revenue has increased.”

The economics of rearing the final 20% - the smaller and late calves will be difficult as finishers will have to factor in the cost of a second winter to get them to ideal processing weights.

However, there might be some opportunities with processors to take younger animals into new markets, Mark says.

Environmentally, the dairy beef animals are also stacking up against the traditional beef cow.

“Assuming the same amount of grass is going through a rumen, the total emissions are similar. But from

an intensity perspective, the kilograms of liveweight that you’ve produced by the end of the year has increased, you’re 20% plus more efficient.”

That’s a positive result, but there is more work to do and that’s where lowmethane genetics will provide more opportunities, Mark says.

Using the right genetics will play a big role in reaching these goals in the future.

“You have to start by getting the right genetics onfarm to ensure the calf that comes out of there is a viable calf for a livestock operation. We’ve spent a lot of time with our breeding company Focus Genetics getting those right genetics.

“We are trialling a number of different genetics, and we will continue to do that and the genetics will continue to evolve.”

Focus Genetics has the Stabiliser breed which is proving successful, with easy identification of the calves with the silver colouring.

“We are getting some really good calves out of it.”

Pamu is still largely using bulls, but will be moving toward more artificial insemination across its largely Friesian and Friesian crossbred herds, Mark says.

Some of the heat detection and wearables technology and semen technology is going to aid the industry in meeting these goals, he believes.

Rearing dairy beef heifer calves through to breed a beef calf themselves is also proving an efficient solution for Pamu and a number of the farms have been increasing the number of these heifers in their system.

The growth rate from the beef calves born out of the dairy beef offspring is phenomenal, Mark says.

“The once-bred heifer is proving a good fit into our overall mix of animal classes onfarm.”

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

Keep the finisher in mind

DAIRY FARMERS WISHING TO PHASE OUT BOBBY CALVES WILL NEED TO RAISE ANIMALS THAT WILL COMPETE WITH OTHER LAND USES. SHERYL HAITANA REPORTS.

F

armers may need to collaborate effectively in order to drive more value from each calf born on dairy farms, Focus Genetics’ Rebecca Hickson says.

Rebecca, the scientist running Pamu’s beef breeding programme, says the dairy industry is in a position where if they want to phase out bobby calves, they need to produce a calf that is more attractive to the beef market.

That involves thinking beyond just an easy birthing calf who is born on time, to thinking about the person who has to make money from finishing those animals.

As part of Pamu’s dairy-beef breeding programme, Focus Genetics is going to start measuring more traits from artificially reared dairy beef calves which require different characteristics to beef calves reared 60

on their mothers. Traits that are important for dairy terminal sires in an artificial rearing system are quite different to stud herds producing the bulls in a cow-calf system.

“We are looking at how we can essentially collect data from next year on our dairy beef calves, so we can understand the artificial rearing performance.

“We need calves that will compete with other land uses if we want to make more space for finishing dairyorigin calves.”

Something that came out of the B+LNZ Genetics Dairy Beef Progeny Test (DPBT) is that the beef calf 200day weight estimated breeding value (EBV) didn’t predict the 200-day weight in an artificially reared calf, Rebecca says.

“It makes sense when you think about it, the 200kg weight EBV is

when you wean a six month old calf off its mum.

“When you put that same calf into a dairy beef system, one of the first things is we wean to a fixed weight at a young age.”

Those weaned calves are then going into poor-quality pasture over summer while not drinking off their mum.

“We are asking them to perform in a different environment.”

Another result of note from the DBPT was a two week difference in age at weaning from different bulls.

“If we could have more progeny from the bulls whose calves are weaned two weeks earlier that would be great because time on milk is the most expensive part of artificial rearing. “That’s a trait we are not picking up in our traditional beef system.”

Another factor they want to try and NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Left: The ideal is a calf is born easily, it then jumps up, hops on a feeder and grows well”

difference by the time they reached 600 days.

All of those calves born were perfectly acceptable for the dairy farmer and all within the bracket for a calf rearer to happily to take them, but there was a 60kg variation for the farmer finishing them.

“All of those calves the dairy farmer would have been happy with, but the impact on the finisher was really significant.”

MATING TO SUIT THE FINISHER

We need calves that will compete with other land uses if we want to make more space for finishing dairyorigin calves.

measure from bulls is the drinking ability of different calves, Rebecca says.

“The ideal is a calf is born easily, it then jumps up, hops on a feeder and grows well.”

Sometimes people talk about ‘stupid calves’ and it is a significant cost in labour if it takes twice as long to teach all those calves to feed.

“It’s easy to quantify that that actually matters, it’s much harder to measure it. There is a human element to it. We are still thinking about how we do that.”

The other big piece of the puzzle is growth rate. When farmers are considering returns through marbling, and the other various premiums, at current prices, it still comes down to more weight on the hook.

In the DBPT calves born within a 2-3kg birth weight bracket, had a 60kg

The rearing cost of dairy beef animals and the impact of growth rate on the farmers finishing these dairy beef animals is a big part of creating more demand for these calves. If dairy farmers want to see an expanding dairy-beef finishing sector, they need to factor these things in when doing their mating plans and choosing bulls, Rebecca says.

The biggest cost issue is the laterborn calves who need to be carried over a second winter.

There is a big bunch of dairy beef calves born in week seven, eight and nine of mating that could be finished before the second winter, Rebecca says.

“If we could put some really high power growth bulls in via semen at that stage that’s going to up the odds of getting them off before the second winter.”

Pamu is looking into using automatic heat technology on their dairy farms so they can do more artificial insemination (AI) for beef semen.

“We are thinking about how we can structure our mating plans to get more early born beef calves and get the right calves at the right time.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 61

If we can come up with ways of getting a beef calf where we previously had a pretty unrearable calf, at a similar cost, that’s good.

OPPORTUNITIES WITH FIRST CROSS Farmers have opportunities to work collaboratively within a changing system, Rebecca says.

Jersey farmers for example could use sexed Friesian semen over their cows to breed F8J8 replacement heifers for other farmers with crossbred herds which turn out better dairy beef calves than the Jerseys.

“I think there is a cool opportunity for people with Jersey herds. I think the ideal system for them is using Friesian sexed semen to produce firstcross heifers. The first-cross cow is a really productive cow, we love the F8J8 cow, but it’s hard to produce in an ongoing fashion.

“If you had an ongoing source of first-cross heifers that were essentially the non-replacement calves from a Jersey herd, I think that would be an amazing system.

“It requires farmers to trust each other. Thinking ‘I’m going to let the future of my herd rest with this Jersey farmer and I’m going to put all my cows to beef’.

“It’s a very different model to how we’ve always operated.

But this is going to require doing things differently.”

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“I think semen will get us a long way there in making better calves for finishing.”

Sexed beef semen will also become a more popular option as the conception rate improves, she believes.

There is also scope to consider specialised systems to rear those later-born calves through their first summer, Rebecca says.

If those calves are fed better during that first summer it increases their chances of being finished before a second winter.

“You have to do your sums on what that feed in that first summer will cost you - but to me it’s a no brainer.

On feed efficiency, methane, cost - it makes so much sense to put that feed in that first summer. In exchange, you don’t have to feed them in their second winter.

“It’s not going to work for every calf, but there are some who you can turn from a two-winter to a one-winter animal with a bit more high-quality feed in their first summer.”

A good dairy beef operation can achieve 1kg/day average gain over a 12-month period, which means calves have to reach 235-240kg before their first winter, if they’re to have a realistic chance of getting them off before their second winter, Rebecca says. This is one of the reasons finishers prefer cow-reared beef weaners.

Finishing farms have years of experience taking big robust 230+kg beef calves in autumn, and systems are set up to do this. It’s a big change to be taking on 100kg calves in December, which are not big or robust.

Those calves going on to finishing

Rebecca Hickson - farmers need to rethink their breeding decisions to breed valuable dairy beef calves.

blocks are also competing for summer feed with fattening lambs.

“At Pamu we are looking at a stage 2 rearing farm. If we can take them through that first summer on a different platform, where they are the priority animal fed high-quality feed, it requires less change for those finishing farms, they then still get those robust animals in autumn.”

MAKING MORE FROM THE FOUR-DAY CALF MARKET One challenge going forward is every farm will have a similar formula and thus as more dairy beef calves flood the market, how do farmers gain the best value.

“The four-day-old dairy beef calves are not a high-priced product, and are never going to be because of the supply-demand situation we have in New Zealand. If we can come up with ways of getting a beef calf where we previously had a pretty unrearable calf, at a similar cost, that’s good.”

One of the sticking points to gaining better value at the four-dayold calf markets is the huge number NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

GRAPH 1: BIRTH WEIGHT VS 600-DAY WEIGHT B+LNZ This figure shows mean 600-day weight versus mean birthweight for sires in the 2016-2020 cohorts of the B+LNZ Genetics DBPT. The red area is a 3kg birthweight range between 37–40kg and the 600-day weight of progeny from these sires ranged 401–469kg.

Source: B+LNZ, LIC

490

600-day weight (kg)

470 450 430 410 390 370 350

32

34

36

38

40

42

44

46

Birth weight (kg)

of dairy beef calves born from unregistered bulls. Currently rearers or finishers are left with selecting calves on what they look like in the pen, without any data on the potential growth rate.

“When you go to a four-day calf market, there is a huge variation on what is paid for. Most of that comes down to the buyer’s expectation of growth. It’s pretty crude based on what colour they are and how big they are. Those buyers don’t have the bull sire information so they’re guessing.”

That makes it hard to build trust and if a rearer buys a line of dairy beef calves that don’t grow, it puts them off buying again.

Farmers wanting low birthweight bulls don’t spend more on a low birthweight/high growth bull, because the buyers will look at the smaller calves in the pen and pay accordingly without having that bull information to take into account.

“We need to join all those dots, so if you use a moderate birthweight/high growth rate bull you’re going to make more (from the calves) than if you buy a moderate birthweight/low growth rate bull.”

The dairy beef indexes that exist are all heavily weighted so that the calf has to be born all right, so they mask the differences in how the calf is going to perform.

“I think there should be a separate index for trading the four-day-old calf, measuring what the rearing potential is of that calf.”

As farmers use more beef semen from registered bulls, that bull information will become more easily available to buyers. Having contracts with finishers directly is also a way to factor in a better return on investment on better bulls, Rebecca says.

Because of Pamu’s closed system they have the ‘buyer’ lined up and in the past it didn’t matter so much

if the calves were licorice allsorts, he says.

But that formula is changing. At the Renown Farm where they do the Dairy Beef Progeny Testing, the mating plan is sexed semen for replacements and beef semen for all non-replacement matings. The non-replacement calves now stand as better dairy beef options to rear. “I went around some of our dairy farms poking my nose into the calf pens. At some farms they had the heifer replacement calves, then pens of dairy crossbred bull calves and a smattering of beef calves.

“At Renown, they had the dairy replacement calves, then in the other pens they were all really good beef calves - I wanted to rear every single one. This is a system where every calf is here for a reason beyond wanting the mum to make milk.”

No one breed is the right breed to use for dairy beef, it always comes down to using the best bulls or the best team of bulls, Rebecca says.

“With any breed, I could find you a good bull, I could also find you a terrible bull.

“Jumping on a breed bandwagon is a recipe for inappropriate bulls of that breed being used.

“When we plot for the DBPT by breed, and if we draw a circle around the good values, we find bulls from lots of different breeds in that circle.”

Focus Genetics is producing a dairy terminal sire, a Stabiliser, which is a composite. “Essentially we are trying to bring in good bulls, not being confined to a breed.

“The Stabiliser has been a good performer overall, and we are finding top performers within that for AI. It’s doing what we expect in our Pamu herds in terms of calving ease, and growth and carcase performance. If we can get some of those artificial rearing traits into our programme we will make this even better.”

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

proven beef sires WHY DAIRY FARMERS SHOULD PICK

USING PROVEN BEEF SIRES OVER DAIRY COWS ADDS VALUE TO SURPLUS CALVES, AGFIRST AGRIBUSINESS CONSULTANT BOB THOMSON WRITES.

U

ntil recently, beef sire selection has largely been based on estimations and guesswork but that has now changed with the advent of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test Scheme, introduced in 2015.

Over the last eight years, 180 beef sires have been entered into the scheme by beef breeders who have selected their bulls based on their belief they will rank above others.

Each bull is mated to a representative group of mixed-age Kiwi-cross dairy cows by artificial insemination (AI) under the supervision of Massey University geneticists who are also responsible for independently processing and reporting the results.

The value of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test has not been well promoted and therefore dairy and beef farmers can be forgiven for not having heard about it.

While the scheme contains rich veins of valuable genetic information there remains the challenge as to how to better connect dairy farmers with beef farmers as the value of calves is often lost at the saleyards.

From a dairy farmer's perspective, the value of a beef sire is determined by easy calving, the effect of the beef

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sire on gestation length, the length of time the offspring take to reach weaning, and how attractive the offspring are to potential purchasers.

The price of the beef sire is also a major consideration and consequently, beef sire performance is often compromised with ‘cheap and cheerful’ purchases which in turn devalues their progeny.

Without a doubt, there will be a requirement to rear surplus dairy calves beyond a week of age and many are now of the strong view that a ‘useful life’ will extend across the animal’s first summer and winter to at least a year of age.

The value of the beef-sired dairy calf will therefore need to afford the beef farmer a fast-growing finishing animal with proof of performance.

The best of the beef sires, as identified and proven within the Dairy Beef Progeny Test, provide the best value propositions by far.

There is no guesswork, and the scheme provides a continuous improvement model whereby each year up to 20 new sires are introduced for testing.

No other programme provides the necessary detail, especially in relation to dairy farmer requirements around calving ease, gestation length, and

days (cost) to reach weaning weight.

The scheme also provides growth and carcase information essential for the beef finisher.

There are a couple of snags, and one is related to the fact that the best beef bulls are in a straw, just the same as the best dairy sires are also in a straw.

Historically the challenges of manual heat detection have been a ‘showstopper’ but that has now changed, and the solution is with electronic ‘wearables’, and the associated hardware.

One of the major advantages of the technology is its ability to take the hard slog out of extending AI. It takes away the onus for manual heat detection, reduces the fatigue factor and frees more experienced people in the team.

The second snag is with the beef finisher who much prefers to buy a 200kg weaner in autumn rather than a 100kg weaner in spring.

There are solutions but each of these requires more investment in labour and additional supplementary feeds.

Given that surplus dairy calves are the dairy farmer's problem, there is the possibility that the dairy farmer takes on this responsibility by rearing the calves themselves.

A quick Farmax dairy modelling exercise indicated the dairy herd would need to be reduced by 15% to accommodate the calves and so the NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Keeping an eye on rankings on the Dairy Beef Progeny Test.

purchase of a specialty calf-rearing block may be a better alternative.

Whatever decision, beef finishers have a strong preference for the bigger and older autumn weaner.

Also, when breeding high genetic merit beef-sired dairy calves a strong link through to beef finishers who know and appreciate the positive and profitable difference is needed.

HOW TO FIND THE BEST BEEF SIRES FOR GENERATING VALUABLE DAIRY BEEF CALVES 1. Beef sires that are not performancerecorded should not be purchased and Group Breedplan is the recognised performance recording scheme in NZ. Herds recorded on Group Breedplan are genetically linked within each breed and therefore once you’ve found a high-

performance herd you can select sires for purpose with confidence.

2. Some beef breeds have Group Breedplan-generated Dairy Beef Indexes, others have Terminal Sire Indexes, and these are very useful guides. Unfortunately, with Group Breedplan, there is no multi-breed analysis so you cannot compare one breed against another.

3. The Dairy Beef Progeny Test provides the best information for between-breed comparisons and details for this scheme can be found under ‘10 Fast Facts about the Dairy Beef Progeny Test’.

4. While the Dairy Beef Progeny Test has identified the top beef sires, there is a real challenge with trying to track them down. LIC has listed some of these sires in their catalogue, but other semen companies do not appear to have

listed or detailed any of these proven beef sires. It is strongly suggested that you challenge your semen provider to supply you with your beef sire of choice as identified through the DBPT. 5. If all else fails, then directly contact the breeders of the top DBPT sires.

6. Be wary of the ‘sales talk’ about beef sires in semen catalogues.

You must have hardcore data from recognised performance and/or progeny test programmes.

7. Farmers should challenge their semen companies to have their beef sires' progeny tested through the Dairy Beef Progeny Test coupled with easy identification within their sale catalogues. This would make top sires easy to find plus remove the guesswork which currently besets beef sire selection.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 65

FAST FACTS ABOUT THE DAIRY BEEF PROGENY TEST

10 HOT TIPS FOR TOP DAIRY BEEF PRODUCTION FROM SURPLUS DAIRY CALVES 1.

• Independent management, data processing, and reporting by Massey University.

• More than 180 beef sires from 16 different breeds have been progeny tested since 2015.

• Up to 20 new sires are introduced each year for testing, and reference sires provide genetic links between years.

• The progeny test dairy herd is described as ‘Kiwi Cross’ and all cows, sires and their progeny are DNA verified for parentage and breed.

• The progeny of all sires are farmed under commercial conditions in a common environment.

• The top five sires, across multiple traits, are different breeds indicating that no one breed is best.

• All sires reported are proven easy calvers over mixed-age dairy cows. Sires have also been identified that are safe and suitable for heifer mating.

• Beef sires have been identified that have short gestation lengths, easy calving, less days feeding their calves up

to weaning, and perform in the top 20% for carcase production – these sires are often referred to as genetic ‘curve benders’ and are only discovered through progeny testing.

2.

• The range in progeny performance between sires (difference in brackets): • Gestation Length from 275 to 289 days (14 days) • Days to weaning from 72 to 95 (23 days) • Yearling weight (400 days) from 255 to 311kg (56kg) • Two-year-old weight (600 days) from 378 to 460kg (82kg) • Carcase weight from 249 to 305kg (56kg) • Dressing percentage from 48 to 52% (4%) The progeny performance differences are actual, not breeding value estimates, and therefore are not subject to mid-parent value calculations.

The relative differences shown between sires will be very close to what happens in your herd.

For example, when calculating gestation length (GL), and assuming an average of 282 days, then the best beef bull with 275 days GL would contribute (282–275) = seven days earlier calving.

3.

4.

5.

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Take the time to fully understand what constitutes a valuable beefsired calf from your dairy herd.

Look up https://beeflambnz.com/ knowledge-hub/PDF/value-dairybeef-progeny-test-farm-systemsmodelling-review.pdf and consider the opportunities.

Understand that most dairy and beef farmers do not know about the value of high genetic merit beef sires and therefore you will need to be proactive in promoting the advantages.

Develop a marketing plan for your beef-sired calves by: • Promoting the value proposition to the purchasers of your calves • Establish a business connection with beef finisher(s) who will likely purchase to specification and greatly appreciate the value afforded with high genetic merit calves.

• Consider that you may need to link through to the beef finisher via a professional calf rearer who will rear the calves to 100kg liveweight.

• Remember that beef finishers will prefer to buy dairy beef weaners in the autumn at ~200kg liveweight and not in the spring at 100kg liveweight.

Can you help with that?

Accept the fact that the best beef sires, that are proven, are only available via AI and ranked through the Dairy Beef Progeny Test (DBPT). These beef sires will reliably generate the most valuable dairy beef calves.

Appreciate that electronic heat detection will reduce the stress of manual heat detection and will likely make whole herd AI a reality for you.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

6.

7.

8.

9.

Prepare a mating plan and determine which dairy cows/ heifers will be mated to which AI beef sire. The DBPT has identified beef sires that can be matched to heifers and mixed-age cows.

Select beef sire proven through the DBPT that contribute value to both your dairy herd and the beef finisher. (Look up blnzgenetics. com/progeny-tests/beef-progenytests).

Understand that high-content Friesian cows/heifers are preferable because they contribute higher growth rates to their dairy beef calves. As you look to the future you may consider revising the breed makeup of your dairy cows.

Understand that there is a very limited land area on which to finish the two million surplus dairy calves in NZ, your calves will

be competing with others, and you will have the responsibility of arranging how they will be marketed so that the calves are reared to at least one-year of age.

10. Accept that your dairy beef calves will not necessarily make a premium and satisfy yourself that you are creating a long-term solution for your surplus dairy calves.

FAST FACTS ABOUT DAIRY BEEF PRODUCTION IN NZ 1.

2.

Cattle of dairy origin currently account for 50% of all beeffinishing cattle and 69% of all cattle processed in NZ. In 2022 there were 4.7 million dairy cows and 1.1 million beef breeding cows. The expansion of production forestry and carbon

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

farming is placing downward pressure on available pastoral land which has been considered as traditional beef breeding land.

Currently there are ~2-million surplus dairy calves that are processed before 10-days of age and it is widely considered that these calves will need to be reared to at least one-year of age by 2030 due to customer demands.

In 2022 Kiwi-Cross cows made up ~59%, Holstein Friesian 25%, and Jersey ~8% of all dairy cows.

High-content Friesian cows are considered the best dams for beef production because of their superior contribution to the growth rate of their progeny.

Beef quality from dairy-beef cattle is not inferior to beef from traditional beef cattle as proven in science and practice. Practical examples are evident through Meat Company programs that reward beef quality, and these further prove that no one breed has an advantage.

For beef farmers, finishing cattle of dairy origin has an advantage over traditional beef because the breeding component of GHG emissions is accounted for in the dairy herd and not the beef herd.

The Dairy Beef Progeny Test is the only beef progeny test program in NZ that provides specific and proven information to dairy farmers about the value of beef bulls. For example, gestation length and number of days on feed to reach weaning weight.

Dairy-beef finishing cattle from the top beef sires versus average beef sires have been shown to produce ~$200 more per hectare, largely through their progeny’s superior growth.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 67

b. Carcase weight b.and Carcase marbling weight (sires andofmarbling progeny(sires born of 2020 progeny or earlier). born 2020 or earlier).

TABLE 1. EXAMPLE FROM THE 2023 DBPT REPORT FROM WHICH YOU CAN SELECT YOUR BEEF SIRES

The top 20 Sires for carcaseweight

Table 7. Top 20 bulls Table for carcase 7. Topweight 20 bulls (that for carcase have had weight at least (that 10 progeny have hadprocessed). at least 10 progeny processed).

Name

Sire Name Breed

Herdbook Breed number

Gestation Herdbook number Birth length weight (days) (kg)

Gestation Weaning length Age (days) (days)

200-day Birth weight weight (kg) (kg)

Weaning 400-day weight Age (days) (kg)

200-day 600-day weight weight (kg) (kg)

hu Gerry 140506 Kakahu Gerry Charolais 140506 001140506E Charolais ngton New Standard Rissington New Standard Simmental 0049AU0158 Simmental 58 AU158

001140506E 282.6 39.8

282.6 74.9

39.8 182

74.9 311

182 459

311 79.7

459 301.8

0049AU0158 278.9 39.6

278.9 80.1

39.6 178

80.1 301

178 451

301 79.4

451 300.3

s Stabilizer 165287Focus Stabilizer Stabilizer165287 N/A

N/A 282.2

Carcase Rib fat weight Depth (kg) (mm)

MSA marbling score

Rib fat Depth (mm)

79.7 297

301.8 5.2

297

5.2

79.4 281

300.3 4.6

281

4.6

37.2

282.2 85.3

37.2 178

85.3 301

178 441

301 77.2

441 297.1

77.2 340

297.1 5.9

340

5.9

hwood Doubtless Beechwood Hereford Doubtless 0051140527 Hereford

0051140527 280.3 37.9

280.3 84.1

37.9 170

84.1 280

170 433

280

433 295.4

293

295.4 7.3

293

7.3

and E121

LeaflandSimmental E121

1614AE0121 Simmental

1614AE0121 282.6 39.2

282.6 75.9

39.2 175

75.9 290

175 444

290 78.6

444 295.2

78.6 303

295.2 4.3

303

4.3

h Oaks H41

Storth Oaks Angus H41

19507012H41 Angus

19507012H41 279.9 40.7

279.9 80.2

40.7 172

80.2 285

172 434

285

434 294.4

314

294.4 5.0

314

5.0

side Crumpy C4

GlensideSimmental Crumpy C4

1312AC0004 Simmental

1312AC0004 280.5 37.4

280.5 78.3

37.4 176

78.3 294

176 437

294 79.0

437 291.4

79.0 325

291.4 4.6

325

4.6

s 171293

Focus 171293 Angus

NZE194730171293 Angus

NZE194730171293 280.6 38.9

280.6 79.4

38.9 171

79.4 285

171 425

285 77.0

425 290.4

77.0 365

290.4 5.1

365

5.1

h Oaks M33

Storth Oaks Angus M33

NZE1950716M33 Angus

NZE1950716M33 279.9 36.7

279.9 77.7

36.7 176

77.7 292

176 430

292 78.2

430 290.3

78.2 336

290.3 5.0

336

5.0

hills Awesome X117 LimehillsHereford Awesome X1170677020117 Hereford

0677020117 287.1 45.6

287.1 77.1

45.6 179

77.1 290

179 442

290

442 290.2

186

290.2 2.4

186

2.4

ui Briton 2044

Koanui Briton Hereford 2044

0216122044 Hereford

0216122044 284.6 37.8

284.6 79.0

37.8 172

79.0 287

172 432

287 76.2

432 289.6

76.2 297

289.6 6.7

297

6.7

i

Jipidji Normande

FR5350920122 Normande

FR5350920122 278.7 38.0

278.7 82.9

38.0 168

82.9 284

168 427

284 75.1

427 288.2

75.1 301

288.2 4.2

301

4.2

s 173075

Focus 173075 Angus

194990173075 Angus

194990173075 278.1 36.8

278.1 82.1

36.8 172

82.1 294

172 434

294 77.6

434 288.1

77.6 344

288.1 5.4

344

5.4

ariki 110637

MatarikiHereford 110637

0281110637 Hereford

0281110637 283.4 39.6

283.4 78.7

39.6 169

78.7 287

169 436

287 77.3

436 287.8

77.3 331

287.8 5.2

331

5.2

va PP

Increva PP Fleckvieh

10/171930 Fleckvieh

10/171930 288.4

41.6

288.4 75.8

41.6 166

75.8 279

166 422

279 76.2

422 287.5

76.2 298

287.5 3.9

298

3.9

taff Big Red E8

FlagstaffHereford Big Red E8

0759090008 Hereford

0759090008 283.7 41.3

283.7 83.0

41.3 169

83.0 284

169 436

284

436 287.4

263

287.4 5.9

263

5.9

ui Unanimous 0408Koanui Unanimous Hereford 04080216100408 Hereford

0216100408 283.8 40.2

283.8 79.0

40.2 174

79.0 291

174 437

291

437 287.3

245

287.3 4.3

245

4.3

field Ed

1671AE0001 284.1 40.0

284.1 83.3

40.0 179

83.3 295

179 437

295 79.4

437 287.3

79.4 309

287.3 5.3

309

5.3

wood Black SamboAschwood 501 South Black Devon Sambo RVA15501 501 South PZKDevon

RVA15501 279.3 PZK37.2

279.3 83.5

37.2 167

83.5 278

167 425

278 76.9

425 286.5

76.9 331

286.5 5.4

331

5.4

ui Rocket 0219

0216000219 283.7 38.4

283.7 81.7

38.4 173

81.7 284

173 427

284 75.8

427 286.4

75.8 280

286.4 5.9

280

5.9

JanefieldSimmental Ed Koanui Rocket Hereford 0219

Stabilizer

400-day 600-day Carcase MSA Ultrasound* Ultrasound* weight 2 weight weight marbling EMA (cm ) EMA (cm2) (kg) (kg)(kg) score

1671AE0001 Simmental 0216000219 Hereford

*Bulls used at Limestone *Bulls Downs used only at do Limestone not haveDowns ultrasound only do records not have on their ultrasound progeny. records on their progeny.

POINTS OF INTEREST • Gestation length varied by 10 days for these top carcaseweight 20 sires. The overall DBPT average for Gestation Length is 281.2 days.

• Birth weight varies by 8.9 kilograms with an overall DBPT average of 37.9 kilograms.

• There were no difficult births associated

FACTS ABOUT BEEF QUALITY • Quality can broadly be described as ‘fit for purpose’ and different markets require different beef quality attributes.

• Consumer taste panels indicate that marbling (intramuscular fat) with better scores for overall liking and tenderness but a threshold of approximately 5% is required for intramuscular fat to have an influence.

68

with these sires when mated over mixedage Kiwi-cross dairy cows.

• Days to reach weaning weight varied by 10 days with an overall DBPT average of 84.1 days.

• Carcaseweight is arguably the most important beef trait for beef finishers as that is predominantly what they’re paid for. The average carcaseweight of

• Some breeds like Wagyu have been selected for their ability to have marbled meat however, differences in marbling between beef and dairy breeds are not often observed.

• An extensive review of beef quality (NZ Journal of Agricultural Research 2016) showed that dairy beef is not inferior to beef from traditional British beef breeds in terms of beef quality.

• Research shows that the expression of marbling is manifested at the

all DBPT bulls tested to date is 277.4 12 kilograms.

• Note that nine different breeds are represented in the top 20 sires for carcaseweight.

• Full details for the DBPT can be found at https://www.blnzgenetics.com/ progeny-tests/beef-progeny-tests.

highest levels when cattle are approaching 2-years of age and older when their growth rate slows down. However, low levels of marbling may be expressed in younger animals on high allowances of high metabolizable energycontaining feed.

• Although marbling is a consumer preference the vast majority of NZ beef is not highly marbled, and so other beef traits are important too.

• Tenderness is probably the most NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

12

important beef attribute, and this can be partly determined by animal age at slaughter, and pre- and postslaughter management.

• Younger animals are generally more tender as the collagen within their muscles is more heat soluble with cooking which reduces the toughness contribution of naturally occurring muscle connective tissue.

• The pH of beef post-slaughter has a major effect on beef tenderness.

With levels of pH under 5.8 beef will be tender however when pH is between 5.8 and 6.2 this has been associated with greater toughness.

Over pH 6.2 results in dark-cutting beef with poor shelf life. The level of pH is largely determined by the amount of glycogen that has been stored in the muscle’s pre-slaughter.

Animals that are well-fed and

Tenderness is probably the most important beef attribute, and this can be partly determined by animal age at slaughter, and preand post-slaughter management.

I IS

not stressed will likely have high glycogen levels and therefore will achieve a muscle pH associated with desirable meat quality characteristics.

• Beef leanness is a desirable beef quality trait for some markets, and these have historically been associated with the hamburger trade, designated as manufacturing beef. Bull beef, in particular, is a key contributor to the manufacturing beef trade.

• Young lean tender beef may provide an avenue to accommodate surplus dairy-origin calves on existing pastoral land. Such cattle could be in a one-winter production system, allowing 50% more cattle to be finished compared to a two-winter system thereby assisting with the uptake of surplus dairy calves.

T TIME TO

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 69

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

PurposefulFORlives CALVES CALVING EASE AND THE ANIMAL’S VALUE THROUGH THE CHAIN TO END MARKET ARE MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS IN THE DRIVE TO REDUCE BOBBY CALF NUMBERS FOR WAIKATO’S OWL FARM. LOUISE HANLON REPORTS.

D

airy farmers are under increased pressure to identify alternative strategies for managing surplus calves.

Solutions to meet multiple requirements include: producing a marketable product that provides a viable financial return, having a minimal impact on their main source of income - milk production - and acceptability to local and international markets.

Attendees at Owl Farm’s recent

Focus Farm day in September learned about their drive to reduce bobby numbers and the reasoning behind the ongoing evolution in their approach.

“Calves are a product of the industry and we need to add value to them,” Owl Farm Demonstration Manager Jo Sheridan says.

“Like all aspects of Owl Farm’s continuous improvement journey we explore an avenue, then we analyse the data, see how successful it has been, and identify where the next opportunity is for us.”

The Focus Farm day participants identified a number of key considerations when selecting a breeding policy for non-replacement calves.

Dam calving ease was of primary importance; they suggested it should make up 50% of the selection decision, followed by the marketability of the calf, and gestation length. They also suggested a range of other more minor considerations, such as calf temperament and resilience.

LIC (Livestock Improvement

FIGURE 1. CALF FATE ON OWL FARM, ACTUAL 2018-23, PREDICTED 2024-25 350

350

300

300

250

250

200

200

150

150

100

100

50

50

0

70

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

AB heifer replacements

AB heifer replacements sold first 80 days

Beef

Beef Wagyu/Angus

Bobbied

Linear (bobbied)

2023

2024 Target

2025 Target

0

Died

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Corporation) was also present at the day and agreed that calving ease was of primary importance, but they also emphasised the importance of considering an animal’s value throughout the whole chain to the end market, while achieving maximum value out of low production cows. They noted the challenge of balancing dairy farmer versus beef farmer requirements.

Beef farmers require an animal that is a good converter of resources into carcase weight. With this in mind, they suggested including carcase weight and the feed-to-gain ratio into breeding considerations.

Owl Farm started on the path of creating purposeful lives for all calves and reducing bobby calf numbers with the introduction of sexed and Wagyu semen in 2018 (see Figure 1). They have also used all AB since 2018. There were multiple drivers for this change; however, a key factor was removing the risk to staff and to the many farm visitors.

Sexed semen was used on the highest BW cows to produce a higher proportion of heifer calves; Owl Farm

has a goal of being in the top 5% BW nationally and they have achieved this goal as the herd is in the top 3%.

They selected Wagyu semen as there was a good market for the calves. They locked in profitable contracts with the calves going on to a rearer at 13 days old.

The combination of these strategies increased the purposeful lives of their calves from 34% in 2018 to 70% in 2021. However, since then they have reconsidered their policy.

“The initial contract for the Wagyus returned us $220 per calf, but they

have become less profitable with contract returns falling to $150 per calf,” Jo says.

“Wagyus did provide the benefits of being easy to calve and rear, but their colour made them hard to distinguish from the crossbred dairy calves. Also, they had a longer gestation (by six days) and this impacted on the herd’s calving pattern.”

When formulating alternative options they considered the unique characteristics of the farm: their high BW cows calve early which gives them a one to two week advantage in

TABLE 1. OWL FARM BREEDING POLICY 2023 Cows (planned start of mating September 25, mating finishes December 10)

Mating period

Number of calves

Fate

Sexed semen

Sept 25 to Oct 19

80

Replacement heifers – keep 65, sell 15

Performance beef - Charolais

Sept 25 to Oct 24 (alongside sexed semen) + five days marking calves

60

Marked calves - sell early into premium market four days old

Performance beef – Profit Maker, Angus, Charolais (LIC No Choice Pack) (see breed characteristics in Table 2)

Oct 25 to Nov 26

100 (in total)

Sale options include: • four days old • three weeks old – fed OAD on CMR • 100kg weaned • Keep to grow through first summer

Short gestation Angus

Nov 27 to Dec 3

Sell

Short gestation Kiwicross

Dec 4 to Dec 10

Bobby

Heifers Natural mating to Jersey this year – next year Angus or other genomically evaluated bull.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 71

TABLE 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS SELECTED BY OWL FARM FOR CALF PURPOSEFUL LIFE POLICY. Charolais

Angus

Profit Maker®

Calving ease

Calving ease – low birth weights

Crossbred animal which includes Angus, Red Angus, Simmental, Gelbvieh, and South Devon. Results in solid coloured black or red animal with hybrid vigour

Great colour marking - easy to identify

Short gestation

Good calf growth to weaning

Add muscle and conformation to dairy beef carcase

Good carcase quality with fine marbling and high growth rates

Better growth rates than purebred Angus

High growth rates

Polled

Better feed efficiency than purebred counterparts

Good temperament

Polled

LIC’s are homozygous polled * Information source: LIC.

the market; there is the possibility of growing calves well onfarm on their chicory crop (proven in previous years with their replacement heifers). They also need to consider their exposure to the public i.e. onfarm visitors, and proximity to urban centres; opportunities for student learning; and their demonstration farm status, where their experiences are shared with others in the industry.

Rearing surplus high BW heifer replacements is no longer a sustainable option. The cost of rearing these calves was equivalent to the return they could achieve ($250/calf).

Additionally, there has been a decline in demand for these calves as the number of farmers using sexed semen has increased and the national herd

number is now static. At this point they have decided they will trial the following policy this season (see Table 1).

Their aim is to create a premium, trusted product and sell most of their calves on contract to local growers or lifestylers, with any unsold calves going onto the open market, but there is an option to run some calves on their chicory crop and measure the results of this.

There will be costs associated with managing local sales themselves and carrying calves for longer, including buying a transport trailer (about $10,000-$12,000). They will need to consider the impact of the changes on the calf rearing facility and staff, due to the additional calf numbers and

extended duration of rearing.

Jo notes that they will continue to evaluate their purposeful lives policy to ensure it best matches their goals and community expectations.

“W‘hen analysing this season’s strategy we will monitor factors like calving ease, marketability, and sustainability. In the future, we may grow calves for longer onfarm.

However, any option should not impact on the primary purpose of our current system - turning grass into milk.

“Every farmer has a unique advantage, they need to look at what it is. Is it their cows, the people around them, the land they have access to?

They need to find their own personal journey forward.”

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72 ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. © Copyright BASF 2023 ® Registered trademark of BASF. 214621.1023

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Demonstrating value TO BEEF AND DAIRY SECTORS

DAIRY BEEF ANIMALS HAVE TO BE THE MOST EFFICIENT ANIMALS POSSIBLE AND GENETICS IS A KEY FACTOR. BY SHERYL HAITANA.

L

IC’s beef semen sales are increasing 10% a year with the genetics company working toward gathering stronger data around the performance of those beef bulls over dairy cows to showcase the value to the red meat sector.

LIC wants to provide beef bulls who have strong data that add solutions to dairy farmers as well as giving farmers a valuable product to sell to finishers and processors, LIC’s beef genetics product lead Paul Charteris says.

“We want to be more targeted in the bulls we provide that have solutions across to finishers and processors.”

The foremost solution is helping dairy farmers produce a saleable calf.

LIC has a responsibility to provide bulls with the traits to meet farmers’ needs and to articulate what the value proposition is of those bulls.

“Dairy farmers need to know more traits about the beef bulls they are using to produce the most valuable beef calf as possible.

“We need to be communicating what the value is to the rearer and the finisher.”

It’s quite easy to articulate the value of a bull to a dairy farmer that is not going to increase the gestation length. But it’s also about articulating the value of the beef traits of those dairy beef animals which are going

to be important after they are born, like growth rate, carcase weight and net feed intake. The B+LNZ Genetics Dairy Beef Progeny Test which is cofunded by LIC will add more detail on these traits which will help a dairy farmer market a more valuable product to a finisher, Paul says.

Dairy farmers need to know more traits about the beef bulls they are using to produce the most valuable beef calf as possible.

“The Dairy Beef Progeny Test is providing an outstanding data set on how beef bulls perform when mated over predominantly crossbred NZ dairy cows.”

Knowing more around how these bulls are performing over dairy cows is an enormous part of the equation.

These dairy beef animals have to be the most efficient animals possible.

The more they can grow per unit of feed intake not only improves profitability and utilisation of pasture

Paul Charteris, LIC beef genetics product lead.

for the farmer, but also reduces a farm’s emissions profile, he says.

“If we can genetically provide animals via the dairy sector into the beef industry that helps reduce the emissions intensity for the beef industry then that’s a good thing.”

LIC’s BeefPrint index, which assigns beef bulls a score based on their estimated methane and nitrogen efficiency, is an example of LIC’s commitment to providing more solutions across the dairy and beef industries.

“It’s step one of a marathon providing information like BeefPrint.

There is a whole lot more we can do.”

There are capital costs involved in gathering more data on traits on dairy beef cattle which LIC is here for, Paul says.

LIC is continuing to talk to beef processors to ask how they can add value, and ensure there is a market for these dairy beef animals.

“Whatever the issue is we are willing to pull the levers hard, whatever levers we can grab at at our end of the chain and work with the likes of processors further down the chain to help make change happen.

“We are really serious about the beef genetics we use over dairy cows, we want the best genetic merit bulls, to partner with top NZ breeders and make sure their breeding programmes are aligned with what our dairy farmers are wanting.”

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 73

Bonuses of HALVING CALVING

CALVING HALF A HERD IN ALTERNATE YEARS COULD REDUCE WORKLOADS ONFARM, ANNE LEE REPORTS.

M

ore than halving the number of nonreplacement calves each year could be an added bonus in an extended lactation project currently being run by DairyNZ. The project is taking a close look at calving cows once every two years with each half of the herd calving in alternate years.

It’s part of the larger Frontier Farms project that’s looking to the challenges that could be coming from 2030 and beyond with the aim of heading them off and finding solutions.

74

DairyNZ science lead and Frontier Farms project lead Paul Edwards says while the extended lactation project has been driven from the point of view of flattening peak workloads and labour pressure, one of the consequences is fewer calves each year.

“That in itself could help farmers in terms of the infrastructure capacity issues they might be facing now with their sheds and rearing facilities if they are rearing more non-replacement calves. “If they want to rear more beef cross animals, then calving half the herd each year might allow that to

happen,” Paul says.

DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Bruce Thorrold says the Frontier Farms project involves farmers in identifying the challenges and the solutions.

“There will be a range of outcomes from this kind of study that farmers will find their own way of using.

That’s the benefit of the feedback loop this co-design type of project brings.”

The 24-month calving system with alternate calving years for each half of the herd was modelled and suggested the system could achieve similar levels of profit to 12-month calving intervals.

However, a lot of assumptions were made in the modelling with adequate winter pasture growth being one.

The farmlet study will help better quantify the numbers going into the model.

“We’ve set up the study at Scott Farm to have a control group – 42 spring calving cows on 15ha that were mated again in October so they calve again next year in spring.

“Then we have a 30ha farmlet with NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

If they want to rear more beef cross animals, then calving half the herd each year might allow that to happen.

Paul Edwards, DairyNZ science lead and Frontier Farms project lead.

43 cows that calved this spring which won’t be mated and won’t be dried off in May. They will be milked through the winter and will be mated next October.

“There’s another group of 41 cows on that 30ha farmlet who were carryovers from last season, so didn’t get in calf, but milked last season and then on through the winter.

“They’re still being milked and will be mated this October.”

Calving half the herd on alternative years may mean being able to cut the number of non-replacement calves back by more than 50% each year given the proportion of replacement calves reared could be higher to maintain the age structure of the herd, Paul says.

Because they’re only being mated every second year and calving every second year the age structure of the extended lactation herd would end up with more older cows faster than in a typical annual spring calving herd if the replacement rate remains the same.

Reproductive performance will be one of the key metrics recorded with the expectation that a longer interval

between calving and mating could see improvements in three-week submission and conception rates.

That could also have consequences in replacement rates as there’s more opportunity to cull on production and performance and there's an increased push to further lift genetic gain.

Paul says the research team’s measurements include milk production, supplement use, pasture growth, pasture harvested and reproductive performance.

Financial analysis will also be carried out.

“The farmlet study will let us quantify the unders and overs you’ll get with this kind of system – potentially more feed cost to get lactating cows through winter, less milk production over that extended period of lactation but potentially better reproductive performance and less cost around calving and the traditional peak workload periods.”

It will also give a better understanding of the practical implications in terms of staffing requirements and pasture management running two herds with different feed demand profiles.

You will find a link to the latest data on the project such as current milk production from each herd on this page: www.dairynz.co.nz/research/science-projects/frontier-farms/

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S P E C I A L R E P O R T S O LV I N G B O B B I E S

Linking the data

A SCIENTIST WITH AN AGRICULTURAL BACKGROUND BELIEVES HE HAS AN ANSWER TO THE GLUT OF BOBBY CALVES. BY ASHLEY SMYTH.

T

Daniel Carson: meat is a nutrient-dense health food.

76

wo million non-replacement calves are killed at four days of age in New Zealand each year - a solution needs to be found to that.

Kakanui man Daniel Carson has a solution, and it’s miti.

Daniel grew up in Southland, studied at Otago University, and worked in sales, and business development for technology companies, before taking up the opportunity to stop travelling for work, start a family and help farm a 20-hectare piece of land. So that’s what he did.

“We started with Friesian bulls, or four-day old calves, and we were all about management through measurement.

“So, because of my technology background, I just measured everything, and quickly read a lot of material… By the time my farming career at that point came to an end, we were farming over 2000ha and wintering 7000 stock units, and I really wanted to do something positive for an industry I was passionate about.”

In 2020, when the country went into lockdown with the Covid-19 pandemic, he pitched to the Government, who had put out a call out for suggestions around “Projects of National Significance”.

“I said that we needed to make NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Fieldays attendees were offered samples, and surveys on what would be the best size and shape for the Miti bars.

a system of software and sensors to capture environmental and agricultural data, ultimately at scale, that would then allow us to use machine learning, and AI (artificial intelligence) to export our agricultural IP (intellectual property), to the world. And essentially be able to offer our know-how to countries, and create opportunities for smaller and remote Maori landholdings, through automation, that type of carry on,” he said.

“They came back saying, ‘that sounds good, we encourage you to keep going, but it’s not going to be our project of national significance’.

Which, you know, I expected.”

It is an idea he still believes in, but couldn’t afford to follow through on - he lacked the connections and the finances - and so on to the next idea.

The next concept is a value-add food product using a source he has experience with and is passionate about - dairy beef - mixed with another passion, science and data.

“I’d raised a whole lot of bulls in my previous occupation, and understood, essentially, all the data for

I’d raised a whole lot of bulls in my previous occupation, and understood, essentially, all the data for those animals is recorded from birth through to death. those animals is recorded from birth through to death. They’re regularly weighed, and they grow very fast their feed conversion efficiency is awesome, and it’s a major issue for the dairy industry.

“I just looked at it from, I suppose, a different perspective from what everyone else is doing, and from what they are traditionally used for, which is manufacturing (minced) beef - and thought well, why don’t we make a new product that doesn’t exist from it,

that represents New Zealand, and what I see as the best for New Zealand and the future of New Zealand.”

For a long time he had wondered why the country did not produce its own version of a dried meat product, such as a beef jerky or biltong.

“I thought well, why don’t I do that - and why don’t I incorporate a whole lot of other ingredients unique to New Zealand.”

The easiest way he saw was to start with a manufacturing beef base, which allows other ingredients to be mixed in.

Minced beef also means the end product is easier to chew, making it more viable for a wider group of consumers - such as children and the elderly.

“I looked at what exists currently, and I’ve always believed that meat was a nutrient-dense health food. I thought that there was a whole lot of science coming to support that, and I was like, ‘well, how do we enhance that story, and not essentially take away from it, by filling it with salt preservatives, like other dried meat products are’.”

One prerequisite was the product needed to have shelf-life, so it wasn’t a “price taker”.

Friends at Staveley, who own Southern Alps Honey in Canterbury, harvest honeydew from the black beech forests. Daniel’s research revealed honey has been used as a natural preservative for thousands of years, and so he investigated that option further.

“It’s got some unique properties, so I decided to use that as our natural preservative, but also as a prebiotic and all the natural health benefits that go with it.”

And from there, he started networking.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 77

Right: Daniel measures out some nori seaweed, and horopito for his next batch of Miti samples at the Food Innovation Network in Auckland, for Hamilton’s Fieldays in June. Photo: Ashley Smyth.

Opposite page: Dan Carson and food technologist Lily Liu manning the stand at Fieldays, giving out samples.

“The first thing I did - and it was really beneficial, there was a Food, Fibre and Agritech Challenge, which is actually running again this year.“You go through a series of courses around setting up a business, and you’re assigned a mentor and that was really good, but it also made me realise that the flavour of the day was plant-based meats, it was technology, it wasn’t meat foods.”

After that, he applied for funding with the Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AgMardt) to see if he could get the shelf-life ultimately, and how the honey would mix with the beef.

Success with that application gave Daniel the confidence to engage with AgResearch for help around meat processing issues.

POST-FIELDAYS WORK-ONS Miti inventor Daniel Carson has a few work-ons to bring the flavoured, ground beef, dried and smoked bar with high protein, low fat and carb and a great shelf life, selling the unique flavours of Aotearoa New Zealand at a low carbon emissions pricepoint to market. He’s up for the task.

Off the back of a very successful fieldays, where Dan was able to talk to farmers, processors and potential consumers, he has a long list of work to do.

Turns out farmers are very

78

encouraging - they totally “get the concept and would really support a supply chain that minimises the bobby problem and maximises the revenue from the resource”. Especially dairy farmers, who are most affected by the imminent bobby calf issues.

Farmers of 2-year-old bull beef are well over the big testosterone-charged boys, challenging to farm without wrecking troughs and infrastructure and requiring two winters to maximise their potential as a ground beef product.

Beef farmers might be harder to

convince, Daniel says, but the lure of a great cashflow on a quick 9-10 month finishing, $8/kg carcase weight animal that is landed in spring, grown with the grass growth curve to 120-150kg on the hooks and quit before winter for an average of $1000/head will break down barriers to die-hard beef weaner producers when they have to start paying for methane emissions on their beef cow herd.

“It’s a model much like seasonal lamb, grow it when you have the then quit before before winter, and do it all

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

It is currently inefficient to process the 12-month animal, as all the processing companies he has spoken to indicate the costs involved are similar to those for a full-sized animal.

“So there was no issue at farm level.

There was no issue with supply of these animals. The issue was with the meat processors - they ultimately want to charge you the same amount

for half the amount of beef, which ends up making the raw material very expensive.”

AgResearch suggested Daniel apply for funding via the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) with their support.

“I did that, and was fortunate to be given enough funding to take this through to commercialisation trials.”

again next season.” Processors need more work and talk - to convince them that animals that are too big for the sheep chain and too small for the beef chain (but interestingly, suit a venison chain, Daniel says) should be processed at 150kg CWT, broken down for whole carcase ground beef and processed in a NZ facility to maximise the flavour potential of the Aotearoa bush botanicals and be sold as a low carbon highly nutritive snack with a long shelf life.

Forget about the current expensive beef chain model of boning out muscle

groups, grinding all the beef and processing in-country will provide more jobs and a potential replacement for the current 4-day-old bobby calf model.

And when he has lined all those ducks up, Daniel needs to find or develop a processing facility that can scale up to process ground, cooked, flavoured and smoked beef from 2 million young beef animals.

Additionally, he needs to build a story and create a demand for this new young beef product, taking care to avoid the veal label.

But first, he invites farmers to support

SEEKING FLAVOUR While production trials had already begun, the initial samples were very dry, and lacking in flavour. After some trial and error he came across a food technologist who supercharged the process and since then, a number of different samples have been produced, containing ingredients such as the native bush spices horopito and kawakawa, seaweed, and kanuka and manuka smoke, in an effort to perfect the recipe.

Daniel is particularly keen to incorporate “functional, medicinal” native plants, which provide extra health benefits, but also make the product even more uniquely NZ. “So we’ve been able to incorporate a lot of what I think are future foods - easily sustainable, and also naturepositive ingredients - to make this a true, high-protein, nutrient-dense meat snack.”

Daniel settled on a prototype, and had 6000 samples to share when he launched at June’s National Fieldays in the Prototype Innovation category.

“It’s not perfect - there’s a lot of science that goes into getting the process right.

“From a drying/shelf-life/bacterial

the journey to a meaty Miti snack by reaching out to him and supporting a Pledge Me campaign to carry on the good work.

“The environmental, sustainability and health credentials of the product are way ahead of many other beef products and have the potential to lower GHG emissions from Kiwi farms.

If we are transparent about where the young beef is coming from, we can guarantee their great life and emissions profile while maximising value in what has been a byproduct of the dairy industry.”

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 79

YOUNG DAIRY-BEEF SUPPLY CONTRACT With calving well underway we are looking for Expressions of interest in our 2024 Young Dairy-Beef Supply contract!

Miti wants to build a value chain for the worlds most sustainable and carbon efficient beef for use in our sustainable nutrition beef bar and we are looking for interest and feedback on our supply conditions.

We are offering $8kg CW for supply in June 2024 limited to 1000 animals.

Young Beef Supply Programme - Specification Requirements: • Autumn and Spring Born 2023 • 100% Friesian/Holstein Bull • 260-340kg LW = 125-175kg CW • NZFAP PLUS Certified Supply Chain • Grass fed only post 100kg LW • ABF & HGP Free • M Grade • Monthly weighing required with growth data supplied.

• Minimum supply volume of 25.

More information: miti.nz

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Because it’s going to be the farmers - and especially the dairy farmers they currently supply 51% of all beef sold out of New Zealand. perspective, when you’re not using preservatives, or nitrates, or a whole lot of salt - there’s a reason why people don’t go down that track by default - it is very difficult.”

The perfect shape for the snack is still undecided, with the correct equipment to deal with the meat mixture hard to come by. People who sampled the product were surveyed, among other things, for their opinions on what size and shape they would prefer to consume.

FARMER SUPPORT CRUCIAL So far, Daniel has garnered industry support from the likes of Dairy NZ, the Meat Industry Association, Ngai Tahu, Rural Innovation Lab, as well as AgResearch and MPI, but he said crucial to the success of this idea, is the support of the farmers.

“Because it’s going to be the farmers - and especially the dairy farmers they currently supply 51% of all beef sold out of New Zealand.”

They have a lot of power to influence what happens long term and if other companies started creating similar products out of the same stock class, it would be a “win, win, win”.

“So for example, if McDonald’s was to start purchasing 12-months-of-age manufacturing beef - they already buy a whole lot of bull beef that we used to rear - their ESG (environment, social, governance) goals become achievable way more easily, because dairy cattle raised for beef have significantly lower emissions per kilogram of product they produce.

“Farmers on the ground don’t have to change a whole lot of the way they manage things. We take a whole lot of

wintering out of our farming systems, which means a whole lot less nitrate to groundwater issues, and it’s a lot easier management for farmers as well.”

Daniel spoke on the issue of nonreplacement calves at last year’s South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) held in Oamaru, and shared his idea. The reception from that, and the resulting connection with Dairy NZ gave him encouragement to keep going.

He was also hopeful a manufacturing facility could be established in Oamaru in the future, and saw other opportunities in the Waitaki, albeit a bit further off-shore.

“At the moment we’re having to use imported seaweed in our product because there is no food grade seaweed being produced in New Zealand, which is crazy.

“It’s a massive opportunity - that in itself, for areas like the Waitaki and further afield, and we’ve been working with Cawthron Institute in order to get some trial work off the ground with that as well.”

NZ already has a good reputation internationally, and miti builds on that, Daniel said.

He encourages people to look further into combinations of ingredients unique to NZ. “Because that’s a competitive advantage we’ve got. We’ll find out how those products are received, but I think it just sort of plays into the future trends of what consumers are demanding now in their foods, from a transparency, traceability, environmental sustainability, and health perspective.”

Credit: Ashley Smyth, Waitaki App. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 81

SPECIAL REPORT: FARM SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Farming in the sweet spot Not done enough is done to define the sweet spot in dairy farming. While the term is used readily, farmers do not know what it looks like.

Chris Lewis writes.

W

hen dairy farmers face tighter times, they look at the farm system and ask, “is this the sweet spot?”

As a farm consultant I am constantly engaged to diagnose if the farm is performing at its optimum. And the clients open to change will say, “If it isn’t then tell me what I need to do!”

Here is the challenge. As an industry we have not done enough to define the sweet spot. We use the term readily, but do not know what it looks like. Let’s address what the sweet spot looks like?

At BakerAg we source a huge amount of onfarm data, and gain insights into those farms which 82

consistently deliver top economic returns. The ability to do this year-in year-out, payout up, payout down, good season, bad season is the trait of a farm in the sweet spot.

This is what we see in those farms.

• Consistent upper quartile financial performance • Resilience to fluctuating milk price • Good feed conversion efficiency • Low livestock wastage • Low staff turnover.

As I expand on these traits keep in mind that to do this level of analysis you need good data. For farmers reading this and self-evaluating, if the on-farm information is patchy or insufficient your data capture process will need to be fixed first.

CONSISTENT FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE A switched-on farmer will have benchmarked their financial performance. Tools like Dairybase or the Farmax Dairy System Monitoring service are perfect for this. Some accountants and most farm advisers will also have tools or services to enable peer review of farm performance.

If you are not consistently in the top 25% then there is work to be done.

BakerAg uses the Farmax DSM service to capture and report farm performance. Each year we analyse the group of farms we service. A favourite analytical tool developed out of this service is a graph that shows where each farm is spending its money.

This is broken down into two simple categories. The costs directly related to the supply of feed. Which include supplements made onfarm, brought in feed, forage crops, grazing, support land lease and nitrogen.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

Then there are the non-feed costs.

Which is everything else including wages, animal health, breeding, shed, electricity, repairs and maintenance (R&M), vehicle, administration etc.

Each farm is then graphed for its feed cost per kg of milksolids (MS) and nonfeed cost per kgMS, (see figure one).

With this graph we can identify four quadrants which are framed up by the average for feed cost per kgMS and the average non-feed cost per kgMS. If we start at the Sweet Spot, the bottom left quadrant. Farms in this space have a low-cost structure for both feed and non-feed costs. The large green dots are the top five for operating profit in BakerAg DSM YE2023. Like past years we see most of the top five farms in or near this

quadrant. Very often the same farms fill this quadrant season to season.

This quadrant is where farm costs are in synch with the farm production.

When a business gets into this space it has created a farm system that can and should be replicated year to year. Once in this space be very careful about making any policy changes. The farm system is right and should serve you well in good and bad times.

In the bottom right corner these farms have a low non-feed cost, great.

But they do have a high feed cost per kgMS. There is a high probability that the high feed cost relative to milk production will be a limiting factor for operating profit. Farms in this quadrant should look at feed sourcing costs and/or the efficiency of feed

FIGURE 1: FEED COST VERSUS NON-FEED COST

TROUBLED ZONE

SWEET SPOT

FEED COST FOCUS

Non-feed cost $ per kg MS

NON-FEED FOCUS

Feed cost $ per kg MS Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 83

SPECIAL REPORT: FARM SYSTEM ANALYSIS

MILKSOLID V EBIT 2021-2022 FIGURE 2: Milksolids production versus EBIT, YE22

FIGURE 3: Milksolids production versus EBIT, YE23

10,800

8900 7900 6900

6800

$ EBIT/ha

$ EBIT/ha

8800

4800

times. This doesn’t mean higher milk production per hectare is wrong. But farms doing this on the back of a high proportion of brought in feed need to be aware of the risk should milk price drop and input costs remain high.

5900 4900 3900 2900

2800

1900

800

-100

900 500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Milksolids kg MS/ha

conversion into milk. (see later) Farms in the top left quadrant have a low feed cost. Again, that’s great.

These farms do have a high non-feed cost, and this is likely to be limiting their operating profit. Farmers with a business in this quadrant most often need to look at their operational costs for animal health, breeding, R&M, vehicles, insurance and administration.

Then there is the top right quadrant.

Farms in this space have got a cost structure totally out of sync with production. It would be nice if these farms could simply produce more milksolids to dilute their costs, but this is often a lot easier said than done.

For farms in the top right it is a return to the drawing board. Looking at “why” costs and production are not in sync and consideration of a total redesign of the farm system.

MILK PRICE RESILIENCE As farmers are producing commodities and international commodity prices always fluctuate, a farm in the sweet spot can cope with a drop in milk production, remain in the upper quartile for financial returns and continue to perform well when better times return.

84

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Milksolids kg MS/ha

For example, the BakerAg Farmax DSM data was analysed for the last two seasons comparing milk production and operating profit or earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

In periods of strong returns relative to input cost, increased production typically gives an increased trading result. In this situation the theory of increased production diluting fixed cost can work.

In tougher times the rules change.

Figures two and three demonstrate what happens when you shift from strong returns to tighter economic times.

In the 2021/22 season, there was a strong relationship, R² = 0.781, between productivity and EBIT. For largely the same client base in 2022/23 that relationship weakened considerably to R² = 0.0095.

In the 2021/22 season a good milk price relative to cost meant higher productivity drove up net operating returns. For this same set of farmers in tighter economic times (2022/23), higher productivity did not mean higher EBIT. What we found here was that the farms performing well financially in good times with medium production, remained good financially in tighter

GOOD FEED CONVERSION The sweet spot is where feed is well used. Wastage or supplements not turned accurately into milk will undermine profit. In this case DSM Farmax participants have a very good measure of pasture grown, off-farm grazing and supplements used. If this is compared against operating profit we can identify sweet spot traits. (See figure four) Farms in the top left-hand quadrant have very good feed conversion and very good operating profit. This is the sweet spot and suggests good operational management, good farm system design and good financial management.

In the top right quadrant, the EBIT is good but the feed conversion is poor. These farms probably have good fiscal management, but their low hanging fruit is in farm operations and either using less feed for the same result or improving how feed is used to get a better physical result.

In the bottom left quadrant, the feed efficiency is good. So, the farm operationally is doing its thing.

However, the operating profit is not good. These farms need to look at their cost structure first. If this is acceptable then it could be the farm system design that needs a tweak.

The bottom right quadrant is the area of concern. Feed conversion efficiency is poor and operating profit NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

FIGURE 4: FEED CONVERSION EFFICIENCY VS $ EBIT PER HA 9000 8000 7000 GOOD FEED CONVERSION HIGH EBIT

$ EBIT/HA

6000

POOR FEED CONVERSION HIGH EBIT

5000 4000 3000 2000 1000

POOR FEED CONVERSION LOW EBIT

GOOD FEED CONVERSION LOW EBIT

0 -1000 14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Feed conversion efficiency kg DM per kg MS

is poor. These two things could be totally connected. In which case the farm must improve its feed conversion to increase profitability. It is possible that the conversion efficiency and operating profit are unrelated issues in which case the farmer must address these profit-limiting factors separately.

LOW LIVESTOCK WASTAGE There are often clear signals that all is not well in a farm system when you see high wastage. This will typically look like high empty rates, high losses, cows culled prematurely in the season, a proportionately high replacement rate, failure to cull for age and production.

A healthy farm system in the sweet spot has good general animal health and good reproductive performance.

A farm spending large amounts of money to try and fix a problem in this space is not in the sweet spot.

Fixing high livestock wastage

requires good information and honesty. Being able to accept you have a problem when the data confronts you. When this is happening, farmers are fixing the cause rather than putting a band aid over the symptom.

LOW STAFF TURNOVER Dairy industry specialists and nonfarming human resource experts have generated some very good information that tells the same story. High staff turnover equals an unhealthy work environment and a significant negative impact on economic performance.

Staff turnover typically costs the business 1.5x the salary of the team member that leaves. This is not just the cost of recruitment, but lost productivity ahead of the resignation, downtime during recruitment, cost of recruiting the new team member, training and stress/impact on the employer and other employees.

From experience, the writer has seen high turnover driven by a huge number of factors.

In the context of the “sweet spot”, it is the farm that minimises stress to animal and team members that is more likely to have consistent performance.

Less stress, better relationships from a farm that is performing in an optimal manner go together.

Neither farm design nor HR skills of the boss will generate excellence on their own.

In review, the sweet spot is where farmers largely want to be. The industry talks to this but has possibly been slow to 24 define what it looks like.

It would be good to see a researcher pick up the ball and run with this. From the experience and information available to the writer we have a number of farmers who actually perform well and don’t even realise they are in the sweet spot. But when we run the ruler over them these five traits invariably become the marker.

• Operating profit consistently in the upper quartile.

• Farm expenditure is in sync with the farm production.

• The feed system is efficient with low wastage.

• Livestock metrics for health and reproduction are upper quartile.

• The people in the business are not stressed and enjoy what they are doing.

As a closing comment, if you are in the sweet spot remember: “If isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it”. Get into the right quadrant and stay there.

• Chris Lewis is BakerAg Senior Dairy Consultant

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 85

SPECIAL REPORT: FARM SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Pasture management is where it starts The long-held, fundamental tenet of getting the stocking rate and calving date right is confirmed with the data analysis, Anne Lee reports.

TABLE 1. 15-YEAR DAIRYBASE ANALYSIS PHYSICAL AND FINANCIAL KPI’S – TOP 25% PERFORMERS BASED ON ROA AND REMAINING 75%

Top 25% by RoA

Remaining 75%

Dairy gross farm revenue ($/kg MS)

8.48

8.40

Farm working expenses ($/kg MS)

4.40

5.03

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

5.25

6.23

Operating profit ($/kg MS)

3.21

2.09

Operating profit ($/ha)

3750

2152

Operating profit margin (%)

38

25

Operating return on assets (%)

7.30

3.60

Asset value ($/ha)

45,342

53,561

Milksolids (kgMS/cow)

400

375

Milksolids (kgMS/ha)

1151

1058

Grazing (kg DM/ha)

986

959

Imported feed (kg DM/ha)

1758

1701

Nitrogen applied (kg N/ha)

148

130

Pasture and crop harvested (t DM/ha)

12.80

11.80

Stocking rate (cows/ha)

3.00

2.80

86

A

nalysis of the last 15 years of DairyBase data confirms just how important it is to get pasture management right with an extra $350 of operating profit generated for every extra tonne of pasture and crop eaten per hectare.

DairyNZ business specialist Paul Bird says the analysis drew on thousands of data points and looked at the information at the national and regional levels.

While managing pasture well encompasses a range of practices, the long-held, fundamental tenet of getting the stocking rate and calving date right is absolutely confirmed with the data analysis, he says.

“By far the bulk of people’s profit comes from pasture.

“Getting stocking rate and calving date right so that feed demand and supply are set at the right level is at the heart of profitable dairying because it’s at the heart of good pasture utilisation and good pasture management – it’s where it starts.

“Our analysis shows just how important pasture eaten is - more pasture eaten equals more profit with pasture and crop eaten accounting for 22% of the difference in operating profit per hectare.”

The DairyNZ team, which also included Josiah Cleland, Felix Rodriguez-Firpo and Mark Neal, assessed farm financial data across the NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

15 KPIS 1. Operating return on assets 2. Pasture and crop harvested (drymatter (DM)/ha) 3. Stocking rate 4. Milksolids (kg MS/cow) 5. Imported feed (Kg DM/ha) 6. Grazing (KgDM/ha) 7. Nitrogen applied (KG N/ha) 8. Milksolids (Kg MS/ha) 9. Farm working expenses ($/kgMS) 10. Operating expenses ($/kg MS) 11. Dairy gross farm revenue ($/kg MS) 12. Operating profit ($/ha) 13. Operating profit (4/kgMS) 14. Operating profit margin (%) 15. Asset value ($/ha)

15-year period ranking farms on the operating return on dairy assets (RoA).

They assessed 15 KPIs such as farm working expenses, operating profit, production, the amount of imported feed and pasture and crop harvested for each farm reporting back the results for both the top 25% of farmers in terms of RoA and the other 75%.

In terms of feed utilisation farms in the top 25% of performers in terms of RoA consumed 1t drymatter (DM)/ha/ year more than the other 75% with a total annual pasture and crop eaten figure of 12.8t kg DM/ha/year.

When the team went on to analyse the relationship between pasture and crop eaten with profit they found a strong linear correlation.

The more home-grown feed eaten the greater the profit.

For every tonne of home-grown feed consumed operating profit went up $350/ha/year.

Paul says they’ve pooled the data for each of 15 seasons to give the longrun average but they’ve also looked at it based on a high, medium and low payout scenario, according to actual payouts over that period adjusted for inflation.

In a high milk price season, the returns in terms of profit were even

greater for every tonne of pasture and crop eaten.

In those years we’re looking at $500/ ha more of operating profit for every tonne of home-grown feed consumed, Paul says.

“The temptation can be to take the eye off the ball when it comes to pasture management in these high payout years and shift the focus to imported supplements and maximising milk production.

“But if the discipline around pasture eaten per hectare drops there’s a lot to lose in those high payout years.

“Potentially we see farmers take a double hit on profit because in those high payout years they tend to bring in more feed with the idea of increasing milk production.

“But if they’re not utilising pasture well there’s lots of cheap feed getting wasted that costs in foregone profit plus there are higher costs thanks to expensive bought-in feed.”

In a low milk price season, the return per kg DM of pasture and crop eaten is lower at $230/kg DM eaten but that doesn’t mean it’s less important.

“In those years it’s additional profit that’s sorely needed.

“So, it’s absolutely important every

TABLE 2. KPI’S FOR 15-YEAR AVERAGE, HIGH AND LOW MILK PRICE SCENARIOS

15-year average

Top third milk price seasons

Bottom third milk price seasons

Top 25%

Rest 75%

Top 25%

Rest 75%

Top 25%

Rest 75%

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

5.25

6.23

5.51

6.45

5.04

6.13

Operating profit ($/ha)

3750

2152

4620

2978

2602

1159

Operating return on assets (%)

7.3

3.6

9.0

4.9

5.3

1.9

Milksolids (kg MS/cow)

400

375

383

357

399

381

Milksolids (kg MS/ha)

1151

1058

1104

1008

1141

1077

Imported feed (kg DM/ha)

1758

1701

1748

1450

1586

1780

Pasture and crop harvested (t/ha)

12.8

11.8

12.9

11.6

12.9

11.9

Stocking rate (cows/ha)

3.0

2.8

3.0

2.9

2.9

2.9

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 87

SPECIAL REPORT: FARM SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Operating profit vs pasture and crop eaten 15-year average

“Our analysis shows just how important pasture eaten is - more pasture eaten equals more profit with pasture and crop eaten accounting for 22% of the difference in operating profit per hectare.”

Operating profit vs pasture and crop eaten higher payout years

year, no matter the situation and no matter the milk price.”

The team found no correlation between the amount of imported feed and operating profit which shows that just because you bring in more feed there’s no guarantee it will be converted into profit.

It also shows that using more supplement doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make less profit either.

“The important factor is utilising pasture well first,” Paul says.

The potential negative impacts on profit from increasing supplement use stem from the fact that for every extra dollar spent on supplements per hectare, the analysis found total operating expenses per hectare go up by $1.85.

“So it’s not a simple one-for-one cost impact.

“As well as the cost of the supplement other expenses are incurred – expenses such as labour, depreciation and repairs and maintenance for instance.”

It’s a similar ratio for the top 25% of performers based on RoA as it is for the other 75% and carries through the payout scenarios – the top third payout seasons and that bottom third where payout was lower.

Paul says it’s unlikely that within one season where a farm business is purchasing progressively more supplements per hectare that the farm business will experience the full $1.85 88

Operating profit vs pasture and crop eaten lower payout years

Operating expenses vs total supplement expenses

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

OTHER KEY BUSINESS PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES – TOP 25% ON ROA VS REST The top 25% of farm businesses produced an operating RoA of 7.3%, which is at or above the cost of borrowing.

The remaining 75% achieved 3.6% RoA – significantly below interest rates.

“Without capital gain it’s not sustainable in the medium term for a business to operate with an RoA below the cost of borrowing,” Paul says.

The top 25% of farm business produced milk for $1/kg milksolids (MS) less than the others at $5.25/kg MS versus $6.23/kg MS. Top performers’ operating profit is $1600/ha higher which equates to an extra $296,000/year for a typical 185ha farm.

The top performers’ operating profit margin is 13% higher than the rest and gives them the ability to maintain profitability when milk price drops or climate has an impact on production and costs.

times supplement cost increase.“Over time, though, these costs tend to creep into a business such as more expensive feeding systems, machinery, labour and new buildings.”

The analysis shows farm businesses are purchasing about 1.7–1.75t/ha of bought-in feed per year.

It’s similar no matter where those businesses are ranked in terms of RoA. “What’s interesting is that 1.7t DM/ ha is a much smaller number than the 11.8-12.8tDM/ha of pasture and crop eaten – yet there’s a lot of energy and focus put on supplements.

“The number that deserves the most attention is the bigger one – it’s the number that has the most influence over the success of the farm business.

“Focusing on that is where the big gains are going to come from. It’s the story we have to get right.”

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 89

SPECIAL REPORT: FARM SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Going green while staying in the black The thought of reducing the stocking rate by 19% while cutting both nitrogen use in half and slashing imported feed would strike fear in the hearts of most dairy farmers.

But the Step Change project at Dairy Trust Taranaki (DTT) Gibson farm has proven the strategy can improve profitability by 15% while reducing overall GHG by 18% and methane by 15%. By Jackie Harrigan.

A

fter three years of the Step Change trial at Dairy Trust Taranaki (DTT) Gibson farm at Whareroa, final reporting shows the programme was able to achieve 2030 emissions reduction targets each season with varying impacts on profit and GHG emissions. Lower payouts and high input costs are favouring the future farmlet.

The Current herd is run with a stocking rate (SR) of 3.1 cows/hectare across the 54ha block, applying up to 190kg nitrogen (N)/ha and importing up to 700kg drymatter (DM) supplementary feed /cow, whereas the

Future farmlet runs at 2.5 cows/ha, applies no more than 75kg N and used up to 300kg DM/cow of supplements.

To offset some of the reduced N inputs and further help with the reduction of N-loss, the Future farm was undersown with clover and plantain (sowing a third of the farm each year with 8kg/ha plantain and 2kg/ha clover). This was then topped up annually with 2kg/ha of both plantain and white clover.

The challenge with the reduced stocking rate is to manage the quality of pastures and harvest any surplus as supplement.

Under the Step Change trial, measurements were taken for milk production, liveweight, BCS, animal health, mating and calving information, pasture and crop production, supplements, pasture botanical analysis and GHG emissions modelling in Overseer.

Milk production across the two regimes was similar, with the Current farm producing 1211kg MS/ha and 408 per cow. The Future farm did 1095kg MS/ha, a higher per cow production at 432kg MS/cow and a higher kgMS as a percentage of liveweight (87% compared with 80%).

CURRENT HERD 54 HA 3.1 cows/ha

190kgsN/ha

Up to 700kgDM/cow

75kgsN/ha

Up to 300kgDM/cow

FUTURE HERD 54 HA 2.5 cows/ha

90

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

OPTIMAL STOCKING RATE

Add to that was a longer lactation with 20 more days in milk.

Despite a difference in N applied of 141kg N/ha for the Current farm and only 70kg N/ha for the Future farm, the block grew similar amounts of pasture Jason Rolfe, general manager (17.5 tonnes DM/ha for Dairy Trust Taranaki Current farm c.f. 16.6t DM/ ha for the Future farm).

Imported feed was 1.8t DM/ha for the Current farm compared with only 0.4t DM/ha for the Future farm and utilisation rates were 79% for the Current farm and 78% for the Future farm.

The reduced cost of labour (fewer cows), fertiliser (less N) and less imported feed and similar levels of production meant the Future farm made a 14.8% higher EFS/ha (EBITA) at $4125 EFS/ha for the future farm and $3592/ha for the Current farm (at milksolids income of $8.3/kg MS).

Stock sales for the Future farm at $83,610 and $1532/ha were higher than the Current farm at $52,952 and $970/ha, adding to profitability.

Mating regimes The mating programmes for both scenarios varied in that the Future herd started mating on October 1, duration 10 weeks, all AB. The first three weeks were with sexed semen to the top 60% of the cows for BW, Friesian Forward Pack for the remaining cows and six weeks of SG Hereford. The Current herd had a mating start date of October 10, duration 10 weeks, all AB. First six weeks Friesian forward pack, bottom 10% to short gestation (SG) Hereford, followed by four weeks SG Hereford.

Wagyu was used in the first two years of the mating plan and then the trial was changed for the final year as not all farmers had access to the Wagyu contracts so the team thought for Step Change 2.0 it would make sense to go off the shelf.

It did have an impact reducing the $600 extra stock income but also had an impact on costs as the farm team had to rear the Wagyus a lot longer than the Herefords to satisfy the contract.

RESULTS YEAR 3

PRODUCTION

CURRENT

FUTURE

kgMS/ha

1211

1095

kgMS/cow

408

432

Days in milk

274

295

Average kgMS/cow/day

1.49

1.46

MATING PROGRAMME Current herd: Start 10th Oct, duration 10 weeks, all AB. First 6 weeks Friesian forward pack, kgLWT (Dec) 509 501 bottom 10% to short gestation (SG) Hereford, followed by 4 weeks SG Hereford.

FuturekgMS herd: Start 1st Oct, duration 9 weeks, all AB. First 3 weeks sexed top 60% as % liveweight 80 semen to the87 of cows for BW, Friesian forward pack for the remaining cows, followed by 6 weeks of SG Hereford.

Comparative stocking rate (kgLWT/tDM) 79 74

CURRENT VS FUTURE CALF FATE 2022-2023

Currents

Futures

0%

20%

40%

Replacements

Sold

60% Wagyu

80% Bobbied

100%

Died

THREE YEAR SUMMARY CURRENT MINUS FUTURE FEED

CURRENT

KgN/ha

141

Pasture grown (tDM/ha)

17.5

CURRENT Cows/ha MINUS FUTURE 2.97 N-input (kg/ha)

FUTURE

YEAR2.53 1 -91

70 16.6

YEAR 2

YEAR 3

-87

-71

4.6

12.7

N-response (kgDM/kgN) from extra input Imported feed (tDM/ha)

1.8

15.4

Pasture grown (tDM/ha) Total feed offered (tDM/ha)

19.3

-1.4 17

-0.4

-0.9

-211 13.2

-156

-116

-2

+14.8

feed eaten (tDM/ha) 15.3 MilkEstimated production (kgMS/ha) Utilisation (%)

Operating profit/ha (%)

79

-12

0.4

78

Total GHG (%)

-13

-15

-13

N-loss (%)

-22

-24

-14

6

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 91

FEED AT CURRENT VS FUTURE FARM

In a scenario where the stock breeding decisions were the same for each herd and so lacked the extra Wagyu stock sales, the stock sales income number for the Future farm was lower, $608/ha for the Current farm and $455/ha for the Future farm, reducing the profit for the Future farm to $2878/ha EBITA and $2668 for the Current farm, a resulting +7.9% in profitability for the Future farm.

Emissions reduction The greenhouse gas and emission modelling done with Overseer shows total GHG CO2-e dropping 18.9% from 694.6t CO2-e/yr to 563.6t CO2-e/yr and methane dropping 13% from 458t CO2-e/yr to 398.6t CO2-e/yr.

This reduction brings the farm well within the methane target reductions

SUPPLEMENT FED 2022-2023 895

800

kg DM/cow

700

336

619

600 500

94

400

152

336

200

122 312

100 0

160

152 130

204

38 122

Current Total Current Imported Future Toal Future Imported Supplement Supplement Supplement Supplement

Silage

92

364 38

300

Hay

Crop

CURRENT

FUTURE

Cows/ha

2.97

2.53

KgN/ha

141

70

Pasture grown (tDM/ha)

17.5

16.6

Imported feed (tDM/ha)

1.8

0.4

Total feed offered (tDM/ha)

19.3

17

Estimated feed eaten (tDM/ha)

15.3

13.2

Utilisation (%) 79 78

79

78

of 10% by 2030. Total N-Loss (Kg) is also reduced by 15.3% from 2119kg to 1794kg or 35 to 30 on a kg/ha basis.

The N-surplus dropped from 189kg/ ha to 144kg/ha and NCE (nitrogen conversion efficiency grew from 35 to 39%. The really good news story, DTT general manager Jason Rolfe says, is that the Step Change trial shows a reduction in emissions intensity/kg MS as well as total emissions.“ A stocking rate reduction doesn’t actually reduce intensity much unless you are able to capture increased milk production,” he said.

“We managed to do that by getting more days in milk, by shifting the feed wedge forward and matching calving date to suit that we captured 20 days of added lactation.”

Reducing the N helped profitability, especially as on-farm costs had

increased so much, and reduced imported feed reduced pure gas emissions. While the reduced N was expected to see an increase in clover in the sward, that didn’t really happen, Jason said, so approval of extending the study for the next three years will allow more data collection, making sure the long-term profitability of the future farmlet stacks up. Added in-depth clover/N trials will track performance at different rates of clover oversown at different types and rates of N application to understand the optimum N fert for best clover response. Suction cups installed 60-80cm underground will regularly sample drainage water to measure N leaching and allow comparisons against the modelled Overseer results for emissions.

GREENHOUSE GAS AND N-LOSS ANALYSIS

1000 900

FEED

GREENHOUSE GASES (GHG)

CURRENT

FUTURE

DIFFERENCE

Total GHG (t CO2-Eq/Yr)

694.6

563.6

-18.9%

Total GHG/Ha (t CO2-Eq/Ha)

12.74

10.34

-18.9%

Methane (t CO2-Eq/Yr)

458

398.6

-13.0%

Methane/Ha (t CO2-Eq/Ha)

8.40

7.31

-13.0%

Nitrous Oxide (t CO2-eq/yr)

143.7

117.07

-18.1%

Nitrous Oxide/ha (t CO2-eq/ha)

2.64

2.16

-18.1%

Carbon Dioxide (t CO2-eq/yr)

92.9

47.9

49.1%

Carbon Dioxide/ha (t CO2-eq/ha)

1.70

0.87

49.1%

Meal/PKE

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 93

Keeping calves with mum is part of a larger study.

K APPLYING SCIENCE TO SUCKLING Keeping calves with mum until weaning is part of a study of alternative rearing systems. By Anne Lee.

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eeping dairy calves with their mums until weaning conjures up idyllic, chocolate box images for some but for commercial dairy farmers the concept is more likely to throw up numerous logistical challenges.

How do you manage milking, what happens to cow milk yields and what effect does the system have on cows and calves when that inevitable separation day comes?

A study at Lincoln University’s Ashley Dene Research and Development Station is looking at a suckling calf rearing system, where cows and calves are kept together until weaning.

It’s part of a larger study investigating short and long-term effects of different milk allocations with two other groups of calves reared more conventionally, separated from their mothers soon after birth and then fed either a standard 6 litres/day of milk or a high allocation of 9 to 12 litres/day.

Dr Racheal Bryant is leading the study and says initially the interest was on comparing the high and standard milk offerings because NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

WHAT THEY’VE DONE SO FAR

Milk yield 2023 Milk yields at the farm dairy rose as calves took less. All were weaned by September 26.

30

Milk yield (litres/cow/d)

25 20

2021 SPRING

15

Suckling group

10 5 Control 0 2 Aug

9 Aug

16 Aug

23 Aug

30 Aug

overseas research had found heifer calves reared on the higher allocations were more likely to have faster growth rates and go on to produce more milk once they joined the milking herd.

Not a lot of work has been done to date on this in New Zealand pasturebased systems.

Racheal says by comparing the suckling cow milk yields with similar cows in a conventional system at the research dairy farm, her team is able to estimate how much milk the suckling calves are consuming each day.

It turns out they’re likely to be drinking a lot more than their artificially reared peers who struggle to consistently drink 9 litres/calf/day, and could be averaging 12l/calf/day.

Racheal says they decided to include a suckling group in their study to gather some hard data on the practice given the increasing pressure conventional farm systems are coming under from some groups.

“Consumers are taking more and more interest in how their food is produced and their perceptions are having a real influence on farm production systems – just look at the

6 Sep

13 Sep

20 Sep

Suckling 27 Sep

4 Oct

egg industry in New Zealand and the effect moving away from caged eggs has had on egg supply and price.

“We wanted to build our knowledge on just what the effects might be on calf growth rates and their subsequent performance in the herd – do they reach weaning weights earlier and what effects does all of that have on their own milk yields once they enter the herd.”

Developing a better understanding of how to manage cows and calves together till weaning and looking at the productivity effects of such a system is important because it not only gives farmers a heads up on what to expect, it also allows scientifically backed facts to be brought into a very emotive issue.

To gather the data, Racheal and her team have looked at the three groups of calves over three seasons – this is the third season.

Each year they’ve tweaked the systems slightly – adding more milk to the high milk allowance group and changing the way calves and cows are managed over the time they’re together in the

• 15 cows and heifer calves • Full contact for six weeks then separated on September 27 at about six weeks old.

• From six weeks to 10 weeks old reared artificially on calfateria. Calves were >60kg so it was a two-person job to teach them to feed.

• Cows milked once-a-day (OAD) for six weeks with calves able to come to the farm dairy.

• Cows milked twice-a-day (TAD) from when calves separated at six weeks.

• Calves have access to meal, silage and pasture from birth.

• Calves have access to a moveable shelter.

Artificial rearing

• 30 heifer calves separated soon after birth, fed colostrum and reared on automatic feeder with either 6l/calf/day or 8l/calf/day (high allocation) of whole milk on automatic feeders (15 calves per group).

• Access to meal and silage from birth and pasture from two weeks old.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 95

RESEARCH WRAP

COW/CALF SEPARATION

Right: Research technician Paige Beckett and scientist Dr Racheal Bryant – automatic feeders managed the allowances.

suckling group. The calves in the artificially reared groups were on automatic feeders with a maximum daily intake set depending on which group they were in.

The feeders recorded when the calves drank and how much. If they reached their allocation for the day the machine prevented them from getting any more until the next period starts.

All cows were herd tested regularly to compare milk composition and milk quality as well as udder health so that comparisons could be made between cows with suckling calves and the dams of the artificially reared calves.

Blood tests were taken from calves to look at passive immunity transfer to see if there were any differences between the artificial rearing system and the suckling system.

All the calves in the artificial rearing system received first milk gold colostrum within 24 hours of birth but there was no intervention in the suckling system except that only cows with calves observed as bonded and suckling soon after birth were included in the study group.

What they’ve found Results from this final year are still being collated but are showing similar trends to previous years.

In the first two years it was apparent that the suckling calves had higher growth rates, weaned earlier on average and at weaning

were consistently heavier than calves reared artificially.

“They were at least 10kg heavier from six weeks on.

“It would probably mean the difference between weaning at 10 weeks compared with 12 weeks if we’d been weaning on weight rather than time.

“In the first year we had a lot of the suckling calves close to 80kg by six weeks,” she says.

The suckling calves maintained their weight advantage after weaning with growth rates becoming similar between the different groups.

However, the suckling calves and high milk allocation calves dropped in growth

‘It takes them a few days to get used to the process and you’ll get some that are always more difficult than the others.’

2022 SPRING

96

Suckling group

Artificial rearing

• 12 cows and heifer calves • Full contact for six weeks then night separation where they can see and touch but not feed, until 10 weeks old.

• Weaned at 10 weeks, October 10.

• Cows milked OAD when with calves.

• Cows milked TAD from six weeks when calves separated at night.

• Calves have access to meal, silage and pasture from birth.

• 24 calves separated at birth fed colostrum and reared on automatic feeder.

• High allowance group allowance increased to 9l/calf/ day with control allowance remaining at 6l/calf/day (12 calves per group).

• Access to meal and silage from birth and pasture from two weeks old.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

‘Consumers are taking more and more interest in how their food is produced and their perceptions are having a real influence on farm production systems.’

rate compared to the control calves during the transition off milk.

This was expected based on previous research showing that higher milk feeding results in lower solid feed intake and slower rumen development, she says.

Racheal says the calves on the higher milk allocation in the artificial system didn’t do as well as they’d expected in terms of growth rates which was likely due to the fact they didn’t drink that full allocation, instead consuming about 7 litres/calf/day on average.

This year the control calves consumed 5.8 litres/day and the high allocation calves averaged 9.1 litres/day.

This has resulted in average growth rates of 0.68, 0.90 and 1.07kg/calf/day for

Live weight gain calves 2023 Suckling calves grew faster while they were with their mothers.

100 90 80

Live weight (kg)

70 60 50 40 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Control 2 Aug

9 Aug

16 Aug

23 Aug

30 Aug

6 Sep

13 Sep

Suckling 20 Sep

2023 SPRING Suckling group

• 15 cows and heifer calves • Partial separation for the first six weeks, with calves separated from mothers at 8.30am with mothers given fresh pasture break.

• Cows milked OAD about 3pm and returned to calves.

• From six weeks, calves fed OAD from their mother an hour before the afternoon milking • Cows milked TAD from six weeks • Calves have access to meal, silage and pasture from birth.

27 Sep

High milk 4 Oct

the control, high allocation and suckling calves in their first six weeks.

“We think the suckling calves averaged up to 12 litres/calf/day, based on their growth rates of over 1kg gain/day and energy requirements to meet that growth.

“Suckling alters the milk let down and milk composition of the dams so it’s not a straightforward comparison with the milk yield of control cows to estimate calf milk intake” Racheal says.

In both of the first two seasons, while suckling their calves, the cows have produced about 10-12 litres of milk per day less at the farm dairy than the cows whose calves were removed and artificially reared.

Once their calves were removed, at six weeks in the first season and 10 weeks in the second season, the difference in milk yield between cows disappeared.

Milk harvested at milking in the farm dairy from the suckling cows had lower fat content than the other cows, but there was no significant difference in protein levels.

Although there were inconsistent results when it came to mastitis and milk quality effects, it was apparent that towards the end of the suckling period cows had more teat end damage.

“Colostrum intake for transfer of passive immunity was variable and although there were no statistical differences between groups for passive immunity, several calves failed transfer of passive immunity, particularly in the first year.

Artificial rearing

• 30 calves separated at birth, fed colostrum and reared on automatic feeder.

• High allowance group allowance increased to ad lib (max of 12l/ calf/day) with control allowance remaining at 6l/calf/day (15 calves per group).

• Both groups on 80-day milk feeding plan on automatic feeder.

• Access to meal and silage from birth and pasture from two weeks old.

• All calves were weighed weekly from six weeks old and transitioned off milk if body weight greater than 76 kg with target minimum weaning weight of 80 kg.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 97

Right: Dr Racheal Bryant, left and Paige Beckett – calf study revealing on likely calf intakes, growth rates and cow milk yields.

“Cows and calves appeared to have bonded, but that didn’t mean that calves had suckled sufficient colostrum within the necessary 8-12 hour window to absorb IgG (immunoglobulin).”

The suckling calves drank a lot more milk and Racheal says nutritional scouring was evident although health wise this didn’t seem to be affecting the calves adversely.

Thanks to mums’ grooming, calf hygiene in the suckling group is taken care of. They had access to calf muesli and hay in the movable shelter in the paddock. Racheal says betahydroxybutyrate (BHB) levels in blood tests can be an indicator of rumen development and while the suckling calves’ dung might have indicated otherwise, the tests showed they had similar or better blood BHB levels than the artificially reared calves.

All the calves are being carried through as replacements and calves from the first year have just entered milking herds at the research farm.

“We’re following those animals through to look at their reproductive performance as well as their milk production and animal health,” Racheal says.

Practicalities and distress levels You’ll hear them before you see them.

The cows in the suckling group come bellowing into the paddock as they’re reunited with their calves and will do the same as they leave their calves.

Paige Beckett is the research technician managing the day-to-day activities of the study.

She says shifting cows to separate

98

them during the day can take effort to start with as cows want to return to the paddock.

“It takes them a few days to get used to the process and you’ll get some that are always more difficult than the others.

“Generally, though they do get used to it, although we’ve had to make sure they were far enough away they couldn’t see their calves – especially last year when we separated them at nights.

“It’s the cows that are more upset – the calves very quickly are pretty unperturbed.”

The research area where the calves remain has a calf-proof lane and boundary fence along the side the cows go out and calves are happy to graze, lie down in the grass or sit in the shelter.

When the cows return, it’s the cows who do the calling and the calves wander amongst them to find mum and get a drink.

Paige says there haven’t been any incidences of calves being hurt by the

cows or cows getting overly aggressive, but her extensive experience in animal handling means she’s always alert to the possibility. Separating the calves at six weeks and rearing them through till 10 weeks had its challenges for people and animals. Cows were upset at being separated, some bellowing for their calves for a couple of days.

The calves coped a lot better but were big and difficult to train onto a calf feeder at that age.

Health and safety in handling cows and calves or training older calves would be a factor to consider.

Letting mum do the feeding right through to weaning is definitely preferable, she says.

But separating them for periods – either day or night – and extending that separation period closer to weaning may help with the cow distress. This season, adopting a partial contact system, where the cows and calves are separated every day, will be monitored to see if there is less of an impact on milk yield and separation distress.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

SOIL NITROGEN TO REDUCE MAIZE GROWING COSTS

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gronomic tools and year. While production practices are available for costs for maize silage have maize growers facing the increased on average by headwinds of increasing costs $51/ha a year over the of production, extreme weather last 26 years, since the events and environmental 2019-2020 season this rise David Densley. considerations, Foundation has jumped to $270/ha/ for Arable Research senior maize annum. researcher David Densley says.

Total maize silage growing costs While nitrogen fertiliser prices are predicted to be about $3438/ha, have eased from the peaks of the last slightly down on last year. two years, these are still a significant Farmers can save money in contributor to the cost of maize nitrogen (N) costs as well as make production, says Densley, who led a environmental gains by making better series of FAR winter maize workshops use of plant-available N naturally throughout the North Island and in present in the soil, Densley says.

Canterbury.

Rather than applying a standard For the 2023/24 maize production amount of nitrogen fertiliser, growers season, the projected total fertiliser are encouraged to measure how cost is forecast to reduce by almost much N is in the soil (using a MinN $390/hectare compared to last season. test), as well as what might become Fertiliser costs are projected to fall available during the growing season to 43% of the total cost of production, (Potentially Available N) and take compared with 51% in 2022/23, this into account when determining using information from the Pioneer crop N fertiliser requirements. As well Maize for Silage catalogue. Nitrogen as reducing the risk of N leaching, is expected to make up 40% of the N fertiliser is the main source of total fertiliser budget in the 2023-24 greenhouse gas emissions from a season, down from 47% the previous maize crop which government plans

“making milking easier and faster”

to tax. “A lot of people are soil testing, but most people aren’t using this information to determine their N fertiliser application rates.

“Our research suggests that even after long-term maize production there can be a significant amount of mineral N in the soil available to the maize plant.

“Measuring mineral N ahead of side dressing provides the opportunity to reduce input costs without compromising yield.”

As soil mineral N levels are variable across a field, consideration should be given to where samples are collected, he says.

The amount of N which becomes available during the growing season can be significant, so it is also worth measuring for potentially mineralisable N. In terms of agricultural emissions, benchmarking of 20 maize systems showed average annual GHG were 2 tonne CO2e/ha for grain. Silage is higher at 3.5t CO2e because of the influence livestock have on emissions within the production system.

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Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 99

RESEARCH WRAP

MAIZE

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

While the end of August figures were not looking flash for dairy, the September and October results are now hinting at recovery. NZ exports are a good example, where September numbers showed a recovery for WMP, SMP, infant formula and cheese versus August exports. Caution is urged considering the evolving geopolitical, climate and weather conditions. ● Rosalind Crickett is an NZX Dairy Analyst

New Zealand Exports by product (000’ mt)

DAIRY SEASON SHOWING RESURGENCE After August’s fall has come the recovery of the dairy market. By Rosalind Crickett.

T Rosalind Crickett is an NZX Dairy Analyst.

he past couple of months have been interesting for dairy on both a production and trade front.

Global Dairy Trade (GDT) events through September and October are hinting at signs of a recovering dairy commodity market, with consecutive increases across all auctions the past couple of months.

This is up from the disastrous run through July-August, with August results breaching the lowest price since November 2018. The resurgence of GDT prices saw Fonterra increase its farmgate milk price forecast 50 cents in October to a range of $6.50-$8.00kg milksolids (MS), following no forecast change in September. So, what have been the key drivers for this perceived change of direction?

In terms of production, recent United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) data showed an overall decrease in milk production across August and September.

From a tonnage perspective, NZ milk production was down in September year-on-year by 0.4% with 2,497,000 tonnes – an overall decrease of 1.0% for the season to date. On a global front, Australia and Europe saw increases in August by 1.5% and 0.6% respectively. China and the US both saw declines in August, with Chinese raw milk production down 1.7% month-on-month with an overall YoY decrease of 1.0% and the US down slightly at 0.03%.

On the demand side, the Chinese economy is showing signs of renewed vigour, with increased consumer spending and government stimulus efforts fueling a 4.9% expansion in real GDP and a 1.3% growth for the quarter.

With the increase of prices, there has been a notable increase in production costs for farmers, with DairyNZ also increasing their forecasted breakeven cost 27c from an initial $7.51 in

August, to $7.78/kg MS in late September for the 2023/2024 season. DairyNZ head of economics Mark Storey noted it had been revised due to updated pricing information, tax changes, milk price and dividend payment announcements.

“Outside the breakeven milk price, we have seen farm expense forecasts increase, impacting overall costs, while revenue expectations have shifted with high dividend payouts, accompanied by decreasing milk price expectations for the 2023/24 season,” he said.

The wetter start to the season had also seen an increase in the use of feed supplements across the country, due to reduced grass growth.

Unsurprisingly, this has also resulted in an increase in the volume of milksolids across September, up 1.3% with a 0.4% improvement in the season-todate figure from last year. It is understood more palm kernel has been used in the past month thus there have been higher fat percentages in milk production.

While the improved commodity prices will provide some respite for farmers and key dairy industry participants, the much-anticipated El Niño weather pattern is very much front of mind – with the effects being varied across the country so far. Recently, the North Island has seen low rainfall and increased temperatures, while pasture condition and milk production in the South Island remains strong.

While the end of August figures were not looking flash for dairy, the September and October results are now hinting at recovery. NZ exports are a good example, where September numbers showed a recovery for WMP, SMP, infant formula and cheese versus August exports. Caution is urged considering the evolving geopolitical, climate and weather conditions.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 101

MARKET VIEW

participants, the much-anticipated El Niño weather pattern is very much front of mind – with the effects being varied across the country so far. Recently, the North Island has seen low rainfall and increased temperatures, while pasture condition and milk production in the South Island remains strong.

DU TCH FA R M E R S FA S T E N T H E I R S E AT B E LT S

After a few great years of production and earnings, Dutch dairy farmers are deep in the manure. By Sjoerd Hofstee.

D

utch dairy farming has been suffering from a nitrogen crisis for more than four years. However, in the last two years something made that burden much more bearable: high milk prices and therefore high incomes.

Those two great years are now over. Tax assessments, rising interest rates and sky-high manure disposal costs are causing margins to evaporate rapidly. The lean years have arrived. Since May 2019 Dutch dairy farming has faced a nitrogen crisis. According to the applicable

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standards, protected nature reserves suffer too much from emissions from livestock farming, traffic and industry.

The last two sectors are still largely spared by the government or are allowed to reduce emissions through innovations. However, livestock farming must also shrink.

A buy-back scheme has now been introduced for livestock farmers who want to stop voluntarily, but few sign up for this. Not so much because the offer is not financially good enough, but because it entails

too much uncertainty. Every livestock farmer who signs up for the purchase scheme is not allowed to run a comparable farm again within the entire European Union.

Stoppers therefore sign for their own professional ban. This crisis has the entire sector in a bind.

New permits are hardly issued at all. Nevertheless, sentiment among Dutch dairy farmers has been quite good lately. High milk prices resulted in good incomes. How different is this in the autumn of 2023? While the milk price in January was still

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

around €60 ($NZ105) per 100kg of milk, it is now only €40/100kg.

Historically high, but the decline is still significant. The costs for contract work, external labour and, for example, accountants, have risen sharply. In addition, due to recently tightened legislation,

will stop farming within five years.

They cannot find places to dispose of their manure surplus or they lack money for that.

It has been clear for some time that banks really cannot or do not want to help every dairy farmer. The banks have also

is the best strategy. And that is already happening. The number of dairy cattle in the Netherlands is about 10% lower than two years ago. However, this does not apply to the volume of milk, which is less than 2% lower. In practice, it appears many farmers are able to

Ever y livestock farmer who signs up for the purchase scheme is not allowed to run a comparable farm again within the entire European Union.

Dutch dairy farmers have to dispose of more and more manure at increasingly higher costs.

All this means the cost price is close to €45/100kg of milk on average, accountants note. They warn dairy farmers to pay close attention to their liquidity.

Some are even sharper in their wording. They expect between 30 and 50% of Dutch dairy farmers

become increasingly ‘cruel’ in their attitude. There have been several examples recently where banks have unceremoniously accelerated their loan repayment demands. In other words: they pull the plug. And not just at farms that are clearly in a weaker position. For many dairy farmers, this may well mean a slight reduction in the number of cows

increase the average production when they reduce cow numbers.

Given the higher cost price, this will be necessary for those who stay in the business in the Netherlands.

The country is still seen by many as a guide in the dairy industry, but where the pressure is mercilessly high for large numbers of farmers.

Farmers have to pay the manure truck increasingly large amounts of money to deal with their manure.

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GLOBAL DAIRY

NETHERLANDS

PROFILE

Cow magic West Coast dairy herd manager Chloe Payne has scored a huge following in the social media world with her Instagram pictures of her cows. By Anne Hardie.

J

ust like her namesake, Barbie the calf is downright gorgeous and already a worldwide phenomenon after her photo on Instagram attracted 2.4 million likes.

The Fleckvieh-Friesian calf is just one of the latest photos and reels posted on Chloe Payne’s cowsofnewzealand Instagram account that now has 237,000 followers and climbing.

It’s a surprise even to Chloe, who began posting photos of her favourite cows and calves in 2016 because she adored her animals and wanted to share photos of them.

“After a year I had 1000 followers and I was pretty happy with that many people. One of my cows, Popcorn, loved eating doughnuts and bread and quite a few of her photos went viral.

Then in 2021 I had a photo of two cows and a rainbow that went viral and that reached 50,000 followers.”

The rise and rise of her Instagram photos continues and Barbie is just the latest to be a big hit. All from the paddocks of an Ikamatua dairy farm where Chloe is the herd manager.

Ikamatua is a tiny West Coast settlement with an unmanned petrol station and a pub, but it is a central hub for 26-year-old Chloe who spent the previous four seasons as a herd manager at the remote northern tip of the Coast near Karamea.

Her priority when shifting jobs to a new farm is the ability to take her cows with her, including her favourite, Brown Sugar, a retired nine-year-old Jersey who has featured regularly

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REELS

TAGGED

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PROFILE

POSTS

‘She would climb out of her paddock and come to the house to look for me and she has always been protective of me.’

Above: Chloe the photographer.

Right: The latest additions to Chloe’s herd.

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on Instagram and also features in a sizeable tattoo on Chloe’s thigh. This is Brown Sugar’s fourth dairy farm, though the first as a retired dairy cow and Chloe is not going anywhere without her.

“We automatically bonded when she was a two-year-old. She would climb out of her paddock and come to the house to look for me and she has always been protective of me. She will beat up the cows that even look at me.”

Hence, many of her photos and videos have featured cuddles in the paddock with Brown Sugar, often lying down with her head in Chloe’s lap.

It is that relationship with her cows that appeals to her followers, with many of the photos capturing cows reaching toward the camera, often with an exploring tongue.

Cows have been special to her as long as she can remember, despite an ongoing allergy to their hair and saliva that requires her to take antihistamines every day. Her parents bought their first dairy farm further south on the Coast at Hari Hari when she was eight and Chloe as well as two of her sisters went on to forge careers in the industry.

From dairy assistant and relief milking for two

years, she stepped up to 2IC on the Karamea farm before venturing over the Tasman to work on a cattle station. Her herd of 12 at the time stayed on the Karamea farm and Chloe was sent regular updates and videos. But she missed dairy farming too much and took on a job on a New South Wales dairy farm where she worked mainly as a tractor driver. Then it was back to New Zealand this year to begin the season as herd manager on the Ikamatua farm.

Whenever she moved jobs, her growing number of pet cows moved as well. This season’s calves have increased her herd to 25 and the cows are grazed with the farm’s herd on a lease arrangement.

“I mainly just get them as calves and they become friendly. I don’t have them because they’re high producing, though my cows are always among the highest producers in the herd despite this. It wouldn’t worry me if they weren’t though. And I keep anything that comes from Brown Sugar, so I have two of her daughters, three granddaughters and a great granddaughter.

“The aim is to look for a job where I can take my cows, especially Brown Sugar because she’s retired. I’m going to have to do something NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

because I can’t end up with 10 retired cows that I take with me to jobs. I’m going to need my own land or find somewhere for my own cows because they’re my friends and I could never send them to slaughter.”

Likewise, bull calves from her growing herd head to her parents’ farm so they do not end up on the bobby truck.

Her next goal is to find a job managing a small farm, though she is also contemplating building her social media hobby into a fully fledged business. Down the track, her dream of owning a block of land for her retired pet cows would enable her social media followers to meet the animals they bond with online.

“I get questions every single day from people asking if they can visit my cows, so it would be awesome to be able to do that one day.”

Her photography really kicked off after she entered the workforce and was able to buy a decent camera. From then on, she began taking photos of the cows as she spent time with them in the paddock.

“I don’t think I’m that talented, but because I have a relationship with my cows I can get good photos.”

A mix of breeds lends itself to photography.

Among her pets, Brown Sugar is Jersey, while Marshmallow is an Ayrshire cow and Blossom is a Montbeliarde that looks like a Hereford, while one of the newbies in her herd is the now-famous Barbie with her Fleckvieh-Friesian genetics.

The Ikamatua farm is owned by the Carey family who milk a 530 ‘liquorice-allsorts’ herd as they experiment with a range of different breeds including Montbeliarde, Fleckvieh and Viking Red. “It’s more about creating a cow that is hardier, healthier and looks after itself a bit more, rather than purely BW (breeding worth) and production.

“It does help for photography. If I posted photos of black and brown cows all the time it wouldn’t work as well.”

She takes the odd photo during the day if she has time, but the bulk are taken in the softer evening light as the days get longer.

“No matter what the cow is doing, the sky makes the difference. Big grey clouds or soft sunsets.”

Many of her Instagram followers live in the United States and are surprised cows can live outside in big, open paddocks. Now and again she takes videos of what she is doing on the farm and posts them as stories that are available for 24 hours or puts videos of the cows and calves on Tiktok

at Tiktok: chloeandhercows. Like Marshmallow bucking up to her for a biscuit treat, a newborn Carrot Cake being licked by her mum, Gingerbread and then an amalgamation of videos through the life of Gingerbread, daughter of Brown Sugar, after she passed away this spring.

“They see what happens on the farm and get to see that cows here are not just a number. Not everyone like me puts a name tag in the cows’ ears, but most farmers I have met care about their cows.”

Her photos of pet cows with names, getting up close and personal with the camera are making their way on to celebrity Instagram accounts as well, including one she has seen on Khloe Kardashian’s.

The popularity of her cows has got to the stage where she has had to turn off all notifications because of the sheer number of comments, likes and messages. Around the world, she has followers using her photos as screensavers on their phones or backgrounds for their computer screens.

As part of her hobby growing toward a business, fans of her cows can pay a fee to access her Close Friends Stories with content that is not shared with everyone. Then there are calendars, stickers and hoodies with a photo of their favourite cow.

“Some choose their prettiest cow and some have been following since I started it in 2016 and watching some of the cows grow, so they choose on personalities.”

Even some of her other pets get involved with the cows, including her red collie, Luna, and one of her three cats, a rather large five-month-old kitten with a pushed-in face called Frank who tries to smooch against the cows’ legs in the paddock and licks the calves in the shed.

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 107

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

VET’S VOICE

ARE BITING FLIES A NUISANCE ON YOUR FARM? There’s a fly that hangs around cows at milking and it’s irritating to both humans and bovines, writes vet Lisa Whitfield.

N Lisa Whitfield is a Production Animal Veterinarian in the Manawatu

uisance biting flies are an annual headache on farms over summer and autumn months. Irritable cows, reduced feed intake reducing milk production, heat stress, and paddocks damaged from mobbing stock are just a few of the issues which result from a booming biting fly population.

In addition, they cause elevated levels of frustration in people when milkings become disturbed by cows kicking and flies which readily bite people too.

The offending fly is Stomoxys calcitrans – also known as the stable fly.

This little pest is similar in appearance and size to the common house fly,

Stomoxys calcitrans, the biting fly, is characterised by four black stripes on its back, and a central grey stripe which is wider than those on either side.

The flies preferentially settle on the legs, udder and lower abdomen to feed, and orientate themselves with their head pointing up the leg.

but has mouthparts adapted to pierce through skin so it can feed on blood. The common housefly, Musca domestica, has mouthparts which gently sponge up its meals from surfaces.

When you look closely at the udder of a cow which is being bothered by biting flies, you will notice blood spots, which gives a good indication of how deep their bite goes – no wonder cows hate them so much.

Adult biting flies live for ~20-25 days.

Egg-laying can occur as soon as four days after emergence, and the time from egg laying to adult fly emergence is about 19 days. The flies feed on blood within 24 hours of emergence, and in large numbers have been known to cause anemia (low level of red blood cells) in livestock. Each fly consumes ~12µL of blood per meal, and will feed up to twice a day.

Eggs are laid in areas with rotting organic matter. On the dairy farm, think about areas such as the edge of silage pits, waste feed and bedding piles and areas with a build-up of old manure. Rotting silage can support the development of up to 2000 flies per square metre.

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The spread of skin infections such as ringworm and dermatophilosus (rain scald) can occur more readily where biting flies are a problem.

We are lucky here in New Zealand that we do not have the more serious diseases which can be transmitted by these flies overseas. Quantification of the full economic impact of biting flies under NZ’s pasture-based dairy system has not been done.

Peak fly numbers coincide with the tail end of lactation, drought season, facial eczema season, and rising bulk tank cell counts, making financial impact evaluation more difficult. Visible benefits such as less kicking and irritation from cows during milking, relaxed grazing behaviour in the paddock and better working conditions for staff are hard to put a price on, however.

Nuisance fly control is best achieved when management measures are put in place early in the season. By starting early you can knock out the establishing generations which exponentially multiply as the season progresses.

In practice this means starting with control measures before Christmas. Once a fly population is well established it is harder to knock it back due to the sheer numbers involved, and treatments may appear less effective as a result. Consider that if each female fly produces on average just 16 living female flies per generation, after five generations a single female will have generated a further one million living female flies.

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THE SPREAD OF SKIN INFECTIONS SUCH AS R I N G W O R M A N D D E R M AT O P H I L O S U S ( R A I N S C A L D ) C A N O C C U R M O R E R E A D I LY W H E R E BITING FLIES ARE A PROBLEM. If we can kill flies in the first or second generation, we will have a significant impact on total numbers which develop by the end of the season.

Management measures should include spraying with insecticides around fly breeding grounds, topical treatments applied regularly to stock, and fly traps around the shed.

Stock treatment is most readily achieved with synthetic pyrethrin pour-ons or spray. This method is cheap on a per-cow basis and will rapidly provide a return on investment if cows are able to be kept comfortable and maintain their feed intake.

With treatments lasting up to 30 days per application, and at about $2.20 per animal – the return is achieved by maintaining just 0.25 of a milksolid over the treatment period. Just be aware of the significant withholding period of 28 days on these products – make sure you know who your cull cows are and when they are likely to be leaving the farm.

Mobbing of cattle can occur from as few as one fly per animal. Mobbing damages pasture, reduces feed intake and can exacerbates heat stress in cattle.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

SOLUTIONS

LEPTOSPIROSIS

Protecting against a new strain of leptospirosis LEPTOSPIROSIS (LEPTO) IS a zoonotic disease caused by bacteria that is spread from animals to humans. Lepto is contracted most commonly though exposure to the urine of infected animals, either through direct contact or via contaminated water.

It is especially prevalent on dairy farms due to close contact with cattle, and symptoms in humans can often be serious enough to cause hospitalisation.

In recent years, cases of lepto have been seen in farmers and staff working on vaccinated dairy farms, leading to the discovery of a new strain of lepto called Pacifica.

Virbac technical services manager Matt Wells says, “The discovery of this new strain has significant health implications for anyone working closely with dairy cows, including farmers and their staff.” Recent research suggests that Pacifica could be present in up to three quarters of dairy herds in New Zealand.

A new vaccine, Lepto 4-Way™, has been developed to provide protection

against the new Pacifica strain as well as the existing Hardjo, Pomona and Copenhageni strains, previously covered by vaccines. It is currently the only registered cattle vaccine in New Zealand that protects against Pacifica.

Virbac is working closely with individual veterinary practices to raise awareness of the specific risk posed by Pacifica, as well as the importance of overall disease prevention on-farm.

Wells says, “We’re conscious of making sure when we’re talking about leptospirosis, we talk about addressing all the risks. Vaccination is critical, and the new vaccine is an important step towards mitigating disease in humans, but many other preventative factors need to be considered as well.”

MORE? Ask your vet for Lepto 4-Way™. The most advanced protection against lepto for farmers, farm workers and their families.

For more information about prevention of leptospirosis on your farm visit www.lepto.co.nz

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50 years ago in the Dairy Exporter

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 1973 As NZ Dairy Exporter counts down to its centenary in 2025, we look back at the issues of earlier decades.

NOVEMBER Be Wary Farmers should be wary of employing too much labour. It can lead to inefficient man-management.

Linton dairy farmer John Hopkins links this warning with the suggestions of a 40-hour week for farm labour.

“In some circumstances,” he says, “the 40-hour week could do farmers good. It could make them use their labour more efficiently. What is done now in 40-50 hours would have to be done in 40.”

The 40-hour week or other changes in the labour situation could force farmers to re-examine the way they do things or even why they do them.

Inside the AB service It’s 4am and semen collection is starting. Newstead and Awahuri are swinging easily into the daily routine of the spring mating season.

Within eight hours 90,000 doses of newly collected semen will have been prepared and dispatched to collection points throughout New Zealand.

By tomorrow night, about 98% of the liquid semen inseminations will have been made in cows from Northland to the south of the South Island. Planes, railcars, buses, courier services and van and car drivers will have been involved in distributing it.

All are essential links in a service developed and streamlined in the 20 years since the Dairy Board established its first AB centre, Newstead, near Hamilton.The service is used by nearly 13,000 dairy 114

farmers and an increasing number of beef producers. The Friesian is the most popular breed but semen is available over a wide range of breeds.

Family basis of NZ farming appeals to Chinese Exchanges between the New Zealand dairy industry and China could be developed at a technical level during the next few years.

This is the belief of the assistant general manager of the Dairy Board, Mr C. Patrick, after visiting China as a member of the New Zealand trade mission.He found considerable interest in the family basis of New Zealand farming and the co-operative nature of the dairy industry here.

He was able to explain and discuss the role of the Dairy Board as the major supplier of manufactured dairy products to the world.

The mission, led by the Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Walding, comprised a good representation of the New Zealand economy at a senior commercial level. The primary industries, pastoral and livestock, and forestry products were strongly represented.

Mr Patrick thought that this composition tended to fit in well with the Chinese philosophy, expressed by Chairman Mao as viewing a country’s economy with agriculture as the base.

Joint research looks at dairy processing by computer Control systems using computers or increased automation are being studied for spray dryers and

Our cover this month contrasts the snorting power of a sleek six-horse team from a fading era with the cool efficiency of the modern tractor.

evaporators in a joint project with deep implications for the dairy industry.

The aim is to improve automatic control systems so that milk powder can be made economically and consistently to continually narrowing quality specifications.

Thorough trial work is concerned with spray-dried milk powder, the director of the Dairy Research Institute, Dr W. A. McGillivray, says it will have “wide ramifications” for all dried products. The Dairy Board has allocated $60,000 toward the cost of the work, which is scheduled for completion by mid-1976.

The project involves the combined efforts of the DRI, the Physics and Engineering Laboratory of the DSIR, the Dairy Board’s computer centre, IBM New Zealand Ltd., and Massey University’s industrial management and engineering department.

Pressure To Produce More Food New Zealand is likely to come under increasing pressure to produce as much food as she can to help meet the rising world demand, suggests the director of the Grasslands division of the DSIR, Dr R. W. Brougham. And he adds: “I believe NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | Dairy Exporter

we have a responsibility to provide this food if we can.”

Dr Brougham has linked these thoughts with the suggestion that New Zealand farmers could produce more than at present if they were given the right economic climate and financial incentives.

The gap between research findings and production from the farm was still too great, he said, and indicated that stocking rates of 1½ to two cows per acre were readily within the compass of many farmers.

DECEMBER Marketing Outlook “Never Brighter” Says Mr Murphy From a marketing point of view, the future of the New Zealand dairy industry has never been brighter.

This opinion was given by the general manager of the NZ Dairy Board, Mr S. T. Murphy, in a recent address in Hamilton.

“Our total situation is one of

shortage. This season’s production of virtually every class of product is already heavily committed,” said Mr Murphy. Mr Murphy said that in much of the milk-producing world – in Japan, Australia, the United States, Canada, Latin America “and unhappily to some extent almost in New Zealand” – there are common factors contributing to static or declining dairy industries.

He listed these as: • A disclination among young men and women to accept a life committed to milking cows seven days a week • The general disappearance of the family farm • Competing demands upon the use of agricultural land – mainly for beef and grains • Labour problems • The increasing exacting technical problems of dairy farming and manufacture, including problems of pollution control.

Three companies to merge in Taranaki Three central Taranaki dairy companies – Taranaki, Midhirst and Ngaire – are to amalgamate and establish a spray milk products plant at Midhirst for increased product diversification.

Do cows need to be tested for protein?

Who brought the calf along for a holiday too? A dairy farmer hoping to “get away from it all” for a short break might have mixed feelings about this symbol of his working life invading a holiday retreat. The scene, with pohutukawas bursting into summer colour, is at Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula.

The substantially higher payout received by dairy farmers during the past two seasons and predicted of the current season is due primarily to one factor – the much greater returns dairy companies are receiving for protein products such as casein and skim milk powder. Some farmers already are being paid for their milk on a fat plus protein basis and it is only a matter of time before this system of payment becomes universal. Does this mean that cows should be tested for protein and bulls selected on the protein production of their daughters as well as on milk and fat production?

Ministry’s French bulls in dairy board AB team Semen from 29 exotic bulls imported from France by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will be available through the Dairy Board’s artificial breeding service next year.

The Board is leasing the bulls on a royalty basis per insemination. Deep frozen semen from the bulls will be available to farmers using the Board’s nominated AB service. The breeds and numbers of bulls are: • 10 Blond ’d Aquitane, • 9 Limousin • 4 Maine Anjou, • 6 Pie Rouge (French Simmental) The bulls arrived in March 1972 as part of the Ministry’s long-range programme for evaluating the potential of exotic breeds under New Zealand conditions.

Christmas rain As well as the usual Christmas greetings and wishes this year, I am earnestly wishing for RAIN. Heavy rain, enough to fill our near-empty water tank to overflowing.

And what is more, I am wishing that similar heavy rains will come each month, right through until next winter. I feel sorry for campers and the like, when their long-planned holiday break is turned into a disaster by wet weather. But women whose households depend solely on rainwater for water supply will sympathise with me.

When you must ration every drop used and make do with as little water as possible every day, when you dread that ominous coughing in the pipes that heralds frantic cries of “Mum! There’s no water coming from the taps!” when you KNOW this is a sunny dry district with low summer rainfall – then a certain amount of mental anguish is added to your Christmas rush.

Thanks to the Hocken Library, Dunedin

Dairy Exporter | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 115

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