Dairy Exporter October 2022

Succession: Encouraging daughters

Mastitis: Taking the green route

Dutch farmers: Record prices, Widespread gripes

MILKING IT

Milking other mammals

FROM THE GROUND

Protect your herd and the next generation

Use Bovilis BVD for 12 months of proven foetal protection1. The longest coverage available.

Exposure to BVD could mean your unborn calves become Persistently Infected (PI’s) - spreading BVD amongst your herd. It is estimated that up to 40% of dairy herds are actively infected with the BVD virus at any given time. The convenience of the longest coverage available along with flexible dosing intervals2 means you can protect this season’s calves no matter when they are conceived.

Avoid an outbreak. Ask your vet about vaccinating with Bovilis BVD or visit bovilis.co.nz

SPECIAL REPORT:

Milking It

44 Camels: Over the hump for milk

47 Home on the buffalo range

50 Deer: Hinds in control

53 Venison, velvet and now milk

56 A future in sheep milking

60 Stars in the flock -

Low-methane-emitting sheep

64 Lambs galore

DAIRY DIARY

October 14-15 - AgFest returns to the West Coast at the Greymouth Aerodrome. To find out more visit www.agfest.co.nz

October 17 – Voting for the DairyNZ board of directors’ election closes. To find out more go to www.dairynz.co.nz/ about-us/how-we-operate/dairynzdirectors-election

October 19 – Surviving Against Overwhelming Odds is a Dairy Women of New Zealand webinar about overcoming adversity with tips to achieve it. Turia Pitt shares her story at 12.30pm. To register go to register.gotowebinar.com/ register/2420825962627878413

October 19 – A Pasture Summit Field Day in Southland is being held on Daniel and Emily Woolsey’s Gorge Road farm. Hosted by farmers for farmers, with input from dairy

To find out more and to enter visit www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz

October 26 – A Wearable Cow Tech field day is being held in North Taranaki. Farmers using various tech products will talk about their experiences and answer questions. The field day looks at the practicalities of adapting your system to the technology and how to get the most out of it. It runs between 10am to 12.30pm at Lepperton. More? visit www.dairynz. co.nz/events/taranaki/wearable-cowtech-field-day-north-taranak/

November 1 – Growing Great Heifers is a SMASH-run field day being held near Cambridge. The day visits a grazier to discuss how to produce well-grown heifers that hit liveweight targets, plus building and maintaining good owner-grazier relationships. The day runs between 10.30am and 1.00pm. More? visit www.smallerherds.co.nz/

November 15-17 – The NZ Grassland Association’s annual conference takes place in Invercargill in conjunction with both the Agronomy Society and the NZ Society of Animal Production. A highlight of the conference is a tour to the Southern Dairy Hub. For more information and to register, visit www.grassland.org.nz

November 17 – Owl Farm is holding a focus day where it will present seasonal results to date. For more information about the Waikato demonstration farm, go to owlfarm.nz

November 18 – The supreme winner of the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards will be presented in Wellington. More? go to ruralwomennz.nz/nzi-ruralwomen-nz-business-awards-2022

November 24 – The National Sustainability Showcase brings together the regional winners from the 2022

Staying strong onfarm portrays an innovative programme run by Reporoa dairy farmer and cancer survivor Sarah Martelli, who helps other women find their balance and build strength and wellbeing to be the best they can be.

Strong Woman is an online community for women to work on their fitness with a workout to do at home, find quick and easy healthy recipes, goal planners and to connect with other women on the same journey.

Her philosophy is to help women create healthy, sustainable habits around moving and feeding their bodies and their families.

If women can prioritise their own health and fitness, they can inspire their partners, their children and their community around them, Sarah says (p82).

She is an inspirational woman creating a moment of lift for many women.

MILKING IT

In this issue we take a look at the regenerative agri journey some NZ farmers are already on, and that the government has signalled they want others to join in on, in our Special Report.

You can milk anything with nipples! That famous line from Meet the Parents shows my age, but it’s one often bantered about in our household (along with numerous Step Brothers refrains, I cringe to say - that’s what comes from living with hubbie and my three sons.)

The regen debate has divided the farming community in a big way - many scientists are affronted that NZ would need regenerative methods from overseas countries with highly degraded soils - would that then infer that our conventional methods were degenerative?

(p42). We also cover the Heald family of Norsewood (p52) who have transitioned to organics, OAD philosophies and are enjoying the less intensive more resilient system they have moved to,

There is more research to be done in the system context, says MPI’s chief scientist John figure out what will and won’t work, but he farmers to engage and learn more, and to regenerative as a verb - saying all farmers be more regenerative, more resilient, lowering and building carbon storage.

If you are interested in getting into farm getting out but retaining an interest, read Moss’ innovative idea for a speed-dating weekend potential partners (p11). We think it could

And I guess it’s true. My sister has even milked a possum (and what incredibly long teats they have tucked away in their pouches and down their joey’s throat).

An Australian study identified platypus milk as one very high in nutrients, but probably low in volume.

We were super proud to win five awards in Wellington at the annual Guild of Agricultural Journalists and Communicators Awards last month.

They say the methods won't work, and that research has already shown that, and also our farmers are already following regenerative practices. Others say that the methods are not prescribed and each farmer can take out of it what they want. It has been called a social movement rather than a science and the claimed benefits of improved soil and stock health and building soil carbon through diverse species, use of biological fertilisers and laxer and less frequent grazing practices along with less nitrogen is something that resounds emotionally with many.

So you can milk any female with teats, but more importantly, what can you milk and sell the nutrients, and add high amounts of value?

That premise was where we started for this Special Report - Milking it.

Obviously we haven’t covered absolutely everything (apologies to the goat dairy farmers out there, we will get to you next time.)

Our intrepid Cantabrian Anne Lee even went to a camel dairy in Australia to file a story, and she found it fascinating - the milk sells for $20/ litre and has exciting nutrient benefits (pg44).

Our southern correspondent Karen Trebilcock got excited about the possibilities for deer milk, while sheep milking is becoming much more common, and comes with definite environmental advantages, both in nitrates leached and greenhouse gases emitted.

Delwyn Dickey from Northland learned all about large, horned water buffalo to investigate the harvesting of milk and manufacture of buffalo mozzarella - retailing for three times the price of dairy mozzarella (pg47).

Our team goes above and beyond and are passionate about what they do.

We have taken a snapshot of thinking by scientists in MPI and DairyNZ (p46) and portrayed what farmers using the practices are finding, including ongoing coverage of the comparative trial work by Align Group in Canterbury

Anne Lee won the runner up to the MPI-sponsored Rongo Award (the big one!) for excellence in agri journalism for her series on contract milking, Karen Trebilcock won the Alliance Group Red Meat Sector award for a couple of dairy beef stories, and I was lucky enough to take out the DairyNZ-sponsored Dairy Industry award, for a piece I wrote on the ‘keeping it local’ ethos of Cartwheel Creamery and the Crams from Taranaki and their work establishing a monitored wetland under Project Interceptor.

One of our freelancers, Alan Gibson from Tauranga picked up the Federated Farmers photography award for a lovely picture of DIA Waikato Sharemilker award winners Brian Basi and Rachel Bunnik from the Cream of the Crop issue in April.

For Country-Wide magazine, our regular Marlborough freelance writer Jo Grigg picked up the Beef + Lamb NZ hard news award for her entry of two articles on He Waka Eke Noa and onfarm sequestration. And this week, both of our designers Jo Hannam and Emily Rees found out they are finalists in the Best Cover Award for the Magazine Publishers Awards.

A shout is in order!

Sneak peek

JULY 2021 ISSUE

In the next issue: Noember 2022

• Special Report: Farming/business investment – if you are starting out or bowing out.

• Wildlife onfarm

• Developing your people

• Ahuwhenua winners

• Sheep milking conference coverage

• Managing N, P and poo loss

• Global Dairywhat’s happening in the UK

• Coverage of the Pasture Summit regional field days

Winners: Anne Lee, Canterbury, Jackie Harrigan, Editor, Feilding, Karen Trebilcock, Otago.

ONLINE

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 www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

PODCAST: FROM THE GROUND UP

Young Country is pleased to announce that episode three of From the Ground Up is now live on all of your favourite podcast providers.

Episode 5: Edward Eaton and Wilbur Morrison talk all things Buzz Club. The 24-year-olds went from experimenting with different flavour profiles, brewing in their garage on the weekends, to launching a range of premium sparkling mead naturally brewed from native New Zealand honey.

Episode 4: Brad Lake from The Brothers Green talks about harnessing the potential of hemp with a range of value-added products, and they believe the crop could have the potential to tackle some of the environmental and agricultural issues faced by farmers in this carbon era.

Episode 3: The Mangamaire Sunflower Field, established by farmer, photographer and mum, turned sunflower entrepreneur extraordinaire, Abbe Hoare, is turning heads for all the right reasons.

Episode 2: Amanda King founder of By The Horns. They say you should never work with children or animals, but By the Horns photographer Amanda King has carved out a niche for herself doing exactly that.

Episode 1: Delwyn Tuanui from The Chatham Island Food Co about how he chased his dreams from the ground up.

We love highlighting positive stories of young agri-innovators chasing their dreams Listen to From the Ground Up: nzfarmlife.co.nz/podcasts-2 or scan QR code

NZ Dairy Exporter is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740, Toll free 0800 224 782, www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

Editor Jackie Harrigan P: 06 280 3165, M: 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Deputy Editor Sheryl Haitana M: 021 239 1633 sheryl.haitana@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Sub-editor:

Andy Maciver, P: 06 280 3166 andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Reporters

Anne Hardie, P: 027 540 3635 verbatim@xtra.co.nz

Anne Lee, P: 021 413 346 anne.lee@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Karen Trebilcock, P: 021 146 4512 ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz

Delwyn Dickey, P: 022 572 5270 delwyn.d@xtra.co.nz

Phil Edmonds phil.edmonds@gmail.com

Elaine Fisher, P: 021 061 0847 elainefisher@xtra.co.nz

Claire Ashton P: 021 263 0956 claireashton7@gmail.com

Design and production:

Lead designer: Jo Hannam P: 06 280 3168 jo.hannam@nzfarmlife.co.nz

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Tony Leggett, International P: 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

ASB RURAL INSIGHTS

- Succession Series Podcast

Welcome to the ASB Rural Insights - Succession Series podcast, where we’re talking about farm ownership transition from all sides. Thanks to the ASB Rural team for partnering NZ Farm Life Media on this four-part series. Each week Angus Kebbell will be profiling farming families, talking to experts from the advisory sector and investigating new opportunities for farmers thinking about diversifying their farming business.

To listen:

https://nzfarmlife.co.nz/podcasts-2/

CONNECT WITH US ONLINE:

www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

NZ Dairy Exporter @DairyExporterNZ

NZ Dairy Exporter @nzdairyexporter

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Angus Kebbell, South Island, Lower North Island, Livestock P: 022 052 3268 angus.kebbell@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz

P: 0800 2AG SUB (224 782)

Printing & Distribution:

Printers: Blue Star, Petone

Single issue purchases: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop

ISSN 2230-2697 (Print)

ISSN 2230-3057 (Online)

The bobby CONUNDRUM

With calving almost over, Jess Lea and husband Cam are grappling with the issue of bobby calves on the Opotiki farms where they are sharemilkers.

With 20 cows left to calve, there’s a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a busy last couple of months and with it all starting to slow down we can take a minute to breathe.

Unlike previous years, it has been busy, but calving two farms and nearly 600 cows in comparison to the 300 when we first started sharemilking, has made life a little more hectic than usual. This season, unlike previous seasons, we have been sending more calves on the bobby truck, unfortunately we were also short on replacements due to faulty semen which was out of our control.

Dare I say it, in previous seasons we supplied the local pet food collector and the money received from the company was donated to a local charity. This made calf rearing for myself a simpler job, and allowed us to have plenty of calf milk to get us through the majority of the rearing, before having to dip into the main milk vat.

With our first herd being predominantly Jersey, we have smaller calves and within our location buyers are scarce, the ones who do buy calves usually already have farms that supply them.

With our first herd being predominantly Jersey, we have smaller calves and within our location buyers are scarce, the ones who do buy calves usually already have farms that supply them. We tried tailing with breeds such as Angus. The first year we were able to sell all the Angus calves but the next year the buyer only wanted bulls and then none the third year. We also managed to sell the odd few Jersey bulls, but never secured a yearly buyer.

The herd next door on our other sharemilking job is also Jersey-based but there are breeds such as Ayrshire in the mix. The cows are a bit bigger in stature so we were able to get a few white faces out of them last season which we were able to sell. We also calved some Belgium Blue calves this season only doing about 30. Unfortunately one came out at 51kg and double-muscled, required the cow needing a caesarian which has made us reluctant to try again.

Thinking forward for next season, we have decided to turn our new herd into more Friesian-based, with the aim of having a more saleable calf at four days old. We are aware that for the foreseeable future our country is going to continue to have a surplus of calves born every year.

We have seen others successfully manage to send no bobby calves and have been able to make a niche market for their calves or they have reduced milking cow numbers to accommodate finishing these calves as two-year-olds. As others like us move to create more saleable calves, it does flood the calf market, and we’re seeing diminishing prices affecting others who have previously been able to easily sell their calves.

It has also created congestion for a lot of people being able to book and manage bobby collections, with some people holding on to calves for more than a week during the peak of calving. Unfortunately, there is not an industry-wide solution, everyone needs to find their own solution. It also makes us rethink the breeding of our main herd. We love the fact that our herd has remained on this farm and stayed Jersey for 80 years, but the smaller Jerseys cost us more in time and milk than they are worth on the truck.

With changes to our industry it will be interesting to see how in the near future we will all be impacted and what solutions we as an industry will look at.

MILKING PLATFORM BAY OF PLENTY

The bobbies have to go.

paperwork NEVER MIND THE

Compliance. To this dairy farmer, the word ‘compliance’ results in a bit of a groan, a roll of the eyes, and the feeling of the weight of endless, repetitive paperwork. It’s not that I don’t want our farm to be compliant, it’s just that it seems such a slog to prove it.

I belong to a small portion of the population who don’t mind office work, but I am yet to meet someone who became a dairy farmer because they love paperwork.

Our system of recording compliance information has morphed over the years, from waiting until the end of the season to translate scraps of paper and what we remembered happening over the year, to online recording as close to the event as possible.

There is certainly no shortage of recording tools, yet the lack of interaction between them and the need to enter data into several different places is incredibly frustrating, as is the headache of converting the metrics between them; dry weight, wet weight, kgs, tonnes, bales, %N. We prefer to tailor our mix of fertiliser for the needs of the farm, but it is tempting to start tailoring our mix of fertiliser to the options in the drop-down list to make reporting easier.

When I think about what I do in terms of other administration for the farm, that has changed a lot over the last few years. I saw those changes as exciting steps, even though it took time to learn new methods. So why is compliance so difficult? I believe some of it is to do with the word itself.

According to the Collins Pocket English Dictionary, compliance is a noun, meaning:

1. Complying with a request, demand, etc.

2. A tendency to give in to others

A thesaurus search on ‘compliance’ in Microsoft Word returns:

• Obedience

• Agreement

• Passivity

• Observance

With regards to farming, compliance feels very much like the negative aspects of the definition of the word – obedience, submission, passivity, conformity.

• Conformity

• Fulfilment

• Defiance

• Accordance

• Submission

With regards to farming, compliance feels very much like the negative aspects of the definition of the word –obedience, submission, passivity, conformity. We feel we are being told what to do and must give in and obey. On top of that, what defines compliance and how we show it can seem an ever-changing goal.

What if we see compliance through the other definitions –observance, fulfilment, accordance, agreement?

Farmers are observant. They see what is happening with the weather, grass growth, animal health, etc. and adapt to get the best possible outcome. Farmers make management decisions in accordance with the latest industry recommendations and feel a sense of fulfilment as they near or reach best practice targets (such as hitting the guideline six-week in-calf rate).

When it comes to compliance requirements, at least we get a fair bit of notice before changes take place (certainly more notice than we get for a weather event), and we also get a fair bit of help to guide us through the changes. I just wish the recording tools were more compatible.

I will try to think of the positive definitions of compliance. A good start will be the sense of fulfilment that comes from the additional milk payment made for meeting compliance standards.

Anne-Marie Wells tries to extract herself from the bog of compliance paperwork.

Pitter patter OF FALLING RAIN

Listening to the rhythmic pitter patter of rain on the roof is quite soulfully soothing from the vantage point of a warm bed and cosy blanket cocoon.

Ironically, it doesn’t quite have that same comforting effect when the drops gather cacophonous momentum, hitting with knife-like sharpness on taught, smarting cheeks before trickling frigidly down the front of an already sodden raincoat, the rest of the body trying to get the farm jobs done.

That was yesterday, a hearty 50mm drop in our annual bucket. Today, the rain has been blown away quite literally, by 60kmh gusts of polar-laced easterly wind careering straight over the Southern Alps. Overnight this bluster aggressively tugged at our roof and swayed the windows, the penetrating squeals sending me to the wardrobe to sleep, the blockade of clothes muffling the potential bedlam happening outside. In daylight with the wind still shrieking and our bodies buffeted, this recount of closet cloistering brought the relief of laughter to the team. The milk tanker driver however, did not see the satirical humour in the obstacle course of randomly landed pallets and feed bins

not want surprise visitors to arrive at the door. The piles of unfolded washing (strategically hidden) and dishes “drip drying” (isn’t there research supporting tea towels to be unhygienic?!) certainly do not support that sense of order that is being constructed onfarm. Prioritise is the theme of these weeks.

In the 15 years since converting to dairy farming, I’ve never quite found a sense of kinship with the very beginning of calving. I find the initial period to be gnarly and uncomfortably stilted as the mind reboots itself to the seasonal procedures and the body readjusts to the pace of the physical jobs. Even the best-documented standard operating procedure seems several dimensions short of the reality of re-executing the actual task in the exact moment when it is needed.

Predictably and despite a winter service plan, the beginning inevitably has the occasional unexpected breakdown as equipment and machinery restart for the season, usually on the busiest day of calving and involving the most essential piece of machinery needed that day. Gnarly is nowhere near descriptive enough when that happens. This year there really hasn’t been the time to loiter in that initial period of apprehension. The intensity of the beginning of calving has taken us somewhat by surprise and there has been no gentle start.

that challenged his entry to the milk silo. I was just greatly relieved that these haphazard objects were blown and flown in place before anyone was about. Tomorrow it is forecast to be still and frosty. It is likely that the concrete milk tanker stand will be transformed to an ice rink for any unsuspecting team member striding off to tackle the next job on their list. Best I race off and find the hazard marker cone.

It is August and it is calving; a typically tempestuous mix. It is always a busy few weeks peppered with what I like to think is managed madness rather than disorganised mayhem. That said, it is the time of year when I would

The plus side of this is I am quietly confident that we may have achieved a level of respectability in our progress towards achieving that coveted condensed calving pattern. And while there have been a couple of notable breakdowns, I have been reminded of the immense value of having a “village” behind us; part of which are those essential service people who absolutely understand the need to urgently get us back up and running. At the centre of our farm community and the bit that keeps me going in those first weeks is a fabulous team of staff who despite high winds, driving rain and some frenzied days, turn up to work and over and above the physical tasks, they give support, comradery and humour to make those gnarly first weeks more than a bit less difficult. Thanks Team.

• First published in Country-Wide magazine, September 2022

Amid the blasts of winter weather, it was calving time for the team, writes Gaye Coates.

The intensity of the beginning of calving has taken us somewhat by surprise and there has been no gentle start.

Gimme shelter: New arrivals on the Coates farm.

bump in the night THINGS THAT GO

Mark Chamberlain and his family got a call from night visitors who relieved his family of thousands of dollars worth of stuff. He’s not amused.

The last thing I expected at 5AM on a Sunday, mid spring, just as I was about to start adding to this mis-mothered nation’s GDP, was to find my cowshed office and workshop “deconstructed”. Well, that’s what a metrosexual hipster might call it. Normal folk might say we’d been ransacked. The fuel tanks certainly didn’t miss out on the fun of being pillaged, with the diesel tank suffering the indignation of its spout lying exposed and flaccid on the ground, for everyone to see. Spent. Every drop taken. It sucks, really sucks. The only bonus being that my messy workshop was left perhaps tidier – because it was far emptier. You name it, it was gone. Luckily only one motorbike was taken, but the rest were lined up on the tanker track awaiting their boarding call and mystery destination. A near-full freezer was also relieved of its contents and, in what could be best described as a burglar’s middle finger to us, all that was left were a couple of packets of casserole steak. They obviously hadn’t managed to steal a slow cooker. Special thanks go to the community for the casserole recipes that came flooding in.

Tens of thousands of dollars worth of property taken, some valuable, some not, but ultimately all replaceable.

Strangely, or perhaps suspiciously, our once “valued” staff member also vanished into the night like a robber’s dog, not to work another hour in our employment. Make of that what you will.

So, there you are. Everything gone at what was peak calving. I expected, and got, a tough two weeks, mostly on my own before replacement staff could be found. Mrs Chamberlain helped as valiantly as she could, milking mornings before getting scrubbed up for a day’s teaching and rushing back after school, when she could, to milk and to cheer me with her sunny smile.

Funnily enough, at his interview, our new recruit made the comment that he would treat our gear as if it were his own. Hmm . . . so did the last guy. As farmers we are used to getting fleeced. Usually, it comes in the form of a faceless

bureaucrat from local or national government, not a group of ball-bags that go bump in the night. Perhaps this is an indirect result of crazy monetary policy and lack of vision from the Wellington Kremlin. If so, it will only get worse as inflation, interest rates and the cost of living really start to bite. Farmers largely operate on trust and unspoken rules, and we have huge financial investment in stock and plant. As the impending financial storm brews on the horizon, unfortunately we could increasingly become soft targets for emboldened scoundrels who have no boundaries or regard for our boundary fences.

Strangely, or perhaps suspiciously, our once “valued” staff member also vanished into the night like a robber’s dog, not to work another hour in our employment.

We have obviously taken steps to protect not only our yard but also our home where our family should feel safe. I recall as a child Mum and Dad taking us on holiday and leaving the farm and house unlocked for about 10 days, an era that is long gone – one in which standards were more than just a fencing product.

Putting all jokes aside, what we didn’t expect was the outpouring of support from the community. Offers of help from friends, neighbours, and reps – turning up to help as only country folk can. A big thanks to all: whether it was driving the tractor, sorting cows and calves, or turning up to help milk (for which Mrs Chamberlain was especially grateful). Even the phone calls to see how we were going may not have seemed like much, but were an immeasurable support at the time.

I am sure you understand what I mean when I say that I hope I don’t have to return the favour. Thank you, thank you. PS. Long live the King.

• First published in Country-Wide Sheep, October 2022

YOUTH

During the Government’s mid-term break this year MP-appointed youth representatives slipped into their parliamentary chairs for the annual youth parliament. But getting a feel for the debating chamber was only part of it – at least for some.

A Primary Production Select Committee was formed of 10 youth MPs, many representing MPs in rural electorates, or those with rural interests. As the Committee proper does from time to time, the youth version was tasked with holding an inquiry, on this occasion into ‘Improving and ensuring the sustainability in the primary sector’. Some of the issues raised were no different to those concerning all ages. But the stand-in MPs who contributed made it apparent what the focus needs to be now to ensure farming in New Zealand remains viable for them and generations to come.

The inquiry topic was appropriate on many counts.

• First, it embodied what the Government is trying to adhere to through its ‘Fit for Better World’ programme of work through to 2030 and a youth temperature check would no doubt have been a useful review on its focus.

• Second it was suitably broad to allow a discussion that incorporated views from all youth parliamentarians.

• Third, it rang the bells of what young people, particularly those connected to the sector are primarily concerned about – making sure there will be attractive jobs and careers and lifestyles for them to pursue.

Perhaps predictably, given that young people by definition hold a naturally long-term view, the published findings from the inquiry in August revealed an undivided commitment to addressing climate change challenges including adhering to emissions targets, as well as transitioning NZ’s production systems to ones based on regenerative agriculture. In summary, the Youth Primary Production Select Committee recommended:

• Ensuring primary producers have the resources to transition to meet the Climate Change Commission’s 2050 targets

• Committing to greater sustainable production targets

• Committing to emissions targets that reasonably achieve outcomes in light of the climate crisis

• Developing a strategy to transition to regenerative agriculture and accelerate investment in this area

• Promoting the importance of education for primary producers and consumers who are purchasing products produced within the primary sector.

Youth

on what’s right for consumers is right for farmers

The final recommendation, which made specific reference to consumers, was a theme throughout the published report. As much as the committee was concerned with the implications for producers from NZ transitioning to a sustainable model of production, it equally viewed the future through the eyes of consumers. In some ways, this reflected a more holistic vision than we’re accustomed to hearing from those longer-established industry participants. Among the initiatives considered for improving the sustainability of farming was implementing a consumer-focused ‘sustainability rating system’. It considered the possibility of introducing MPIadministered sustainability rating stickers (similar to the Health Star Rating system) on consumer goods. It was argued via submissions to the Inquiry that such a rating system would empower consumers to make positive environmental choices. The committee recognised the frustration consumers have in distinguishing between genuinely sustainable

products, and those that have been ‘green washed’. While it ultimately decided not to recommend such a system given the sense of administrative difficulty, the committee nonetheless saw merit in the concepts’ use in marketing NZ-produced food to consumers that justified its high value, over and above that produced less sustainably, elsewhere.

A similar ‘consumer lens’ was paid to the idea that a framework for regenerative agriculture should be pursued, with more investment given to its

‘IF YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOT SEEING FARMING AS COOL, OR A GOOD INDUSTRY TO GO INTO, BECAUSE IT IS BEING VILIFIED IN SOME CASES, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO GO INTO THAT SITUATION?’

Rebecca

Hufflett (representing ACT MP Chris Baillie).

focused

development. The group of youth MPs understood regenerative farming strategies are at early stages and more research is needed to support farms to adopt those proposed. It noted that education on the benefits will be critical to its uptake, and that it needs to be targeted at shifting consumer spending habits towards more sustainable products. It noted that “consumers play a leading role in the direction of the market”, and if producers are to take on sustainable methods they must be able to rely on a market sufficiently educated to appreciate those efforts.

Rural-urban divide and disinformation

Beyond the formal report, a number of youth MPs that presided over the inquiry subsequently briefed the parliamentary Primary Production Select Committee on its findings in September. Chairperson of the Youth Committee, Thomas Hayward (representing National MP David Bennett) summarised the recommendations, but also raised several other primary sector-related issues that were of significant concern to the group of youth MPs that were outside the terms of the inquiry.

One of those was the damaging effect on young people of the rural-urban divide. Thomas noted “whether we like it or not, there is a rural-urban divide, and youth, especially those in the farming sector are feeling the effects of that.”Young people were conscious of the negative side of farming being portrayed through the media, and that the implications were tied into the Inquiry.

“If you want a sustainable sector, you need a sustainable workforce. And if young people are not seeing farming as cool, or a good industry to go into, because it is being vilified in some cases,

Rebecca Hufflett (representing ACT MP

by young people to filter through various viewpoints that exacerbated the divide.

She told the committee she’d been alarmed at the number of urban youth she had heard say they would never eat fish again after watching the Netflix Seaspiracy documentary film which examined fishing practices carried out in other parts of the world, and not at all aligned with measures used in NZ such as the quota management system.

She reiterated the importance of young people having analytical skills that gave them the ability to think carefully about the information we receive and how legitimate it is. In response to a question from Taranaki-based Labour list MP Angela Roberts, Rebecca agreed scientific and statistical literacy taught in schools was critical to determining credible information.

Sector responsive, Government responsive?

Issues raised within and beyond the youth parliamentary inquiry are not unfamiliar to those within the primary sector who are closely connected with young people. NZ Young Farmers chief executive Lynda Coppersmith says the rural-urban divide and disinformation are key concerns for the organisation when it comes to advocating for the wellbeing of its members.

The myths that lead people to adopt negative associations with farming are detrimental to wellbeing. It’s not just limited to agriculture. Those involved in seafood are often accused of overfishing and forestry workers challenged over carbon farming. Ultimately it is detrimental to the prospects of young people wanting to follow their passions and taking up careers in the primary sector.

As was evident from those who spoke at the Select Committee, young people are passionate about what they do and believe in. Coppersmith says we can’t afford to destroy that passion because these are the people who are going to come up with the solutions to the challenges NZ’s primary industries are facing. There should be no surprise about the youth MPs’ focus on sustainability, she says. “They want farming to be

something that is around in 200 years, and are understandably passionate about how we make that happen.”

In terms of the Government, there is also alignment. With its Fit for a Better World primary sector roadmap stretching to 2030, it is by its nature focused on the longer term.

The youth parliamentarians were informed by the initial thinking done by MPI on regenerative agriculture, and the Government has been responsive to recognising the value in understanding how NZ can better communicate its sustainability credentials through a deeper understanding of how our production systems can be defined as regenerative.

Since the youth parliament inquiry took place Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced a $26.1 million programme to undertake a comprehensive study of pastoral farming, with the findings intended to enable farmers to make informed decisions on the financial and environmental benefits of adopting regenerative farming practices.

In terms of the concerns specific to young people, the Government also recently committed $1.6m over five years to support agricultural and horticultural science teachers in secondary schools, with the intention of further boosting the attractiveness of jobs in the sector. O’Connor noted that educated, enthusiastic people are our competitive advantage. The hope is that the number of schools teaching ag and hort science (currently 126) grows, especially in urban areas. While not specifically identified, it might also be hoped that even in a modest way, the presence of these subjects infiltrating the learning programmes in city schools contributes to an easing of the rural-urban divide.

NZ Young Farmers chief executive Lynda Coppersmith.

Record prices, widespread gripes

Dutch farmers have taken to street protests as government policy indicates a likely 30% cut in milk production. Sjoerd Hofstee reports.

The milk price for farmers in the Netherlands has reached an alltime record high at more than €60 (NZ$101) per 100kg. That’s the only bright spot for Dutch farmers as new policy from the national government means 30% less milk may be produced by 2030.

Worldwide, there is debate about measures dairy farming should take to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

In the Netherlands, however, there is another problem - harmful nitrogen compounds.

In the 1990s, the European Union asked all its member states to designate vulnerable natural areas. The Netherlands complied neatly.

The big difference with most other European countries is that it is small in area, many people live there and it is even more crowded by livestock.

It has been recognised for some time that nitrogen compounds cause damage to nature reserves. On the one hand there are exhaust gases from industry and traffic and on the other ammonia from livestock farming, especially dairy farming.

Three years ago, the highest Dutch court rejected the Dutch policy of protecting nature areas.

Since then, the government and the

agricultural sector have been engaged in a fierce battle.

This battle reached a new dramatic turn in June when the Dutch government announced an additional tightening of the policy.

Ammonia emissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030. This will mean dairy production will decrease by about 30%.

Farmers openly question various models and calculations behind the legislation, with demonstrations outside government buildings. But it doesn’t seem to help them much.

In the coming months it will become clear whether 2030 may be postponed to 2035 and whether technical innovations, such as innovative barn systems, will reduce some of the pain. But a substantial reduction of the Dutch dairy herd and milk production seems unavoidable.

Dutch farmers have taken to the streets in the summer of 2022 to protest against government nitrogen policies.

Right: Drought took a toll on crops like this maize across Europe, exacerbating the soaring price of feed as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Scorched earth: Cracks in the soil where maize is grown.

Fewer cows per hectare

As if that were not enough, the Netherlands will lose its exemption to the EU manure-policy as of 2026. Like parts of Germany, Denmark and Ireland, the Netherlands has enjoyed a position for years whereby instead of 170kg of nitrogen from animal manure, 250kg may be applied per hectare. In practice, that means 2.5 cows per hectare instead of a maximum of 1.7.

ZuivelNL, the dairy industry trade association, calculated this measure will cost an average dairy farm more than €25,000 a year. These costs are in extra manure disposal and purchase of extra fertiliser. More fertiliser will be purchased to maintain grass production.

It is logical that the trade association for dairy companies should sound the alarm, because the drastic reduction also affects them.

Dairy company FrieslandCampina has in the past collected more than 10 billion kg of milk annually, but it is already struggling to stay at 9 billion kg. They will close more factories in the coming years and still have to compete on the world market with players such as Fonterra with a smaller milk pool.

High yields, high costs

But the milk price is higher than ever, isn’t it? Milk prices are high throughout Europe, but the Netherlands is at the top so most dairy farms are making good profits. Last year, the average profit was calculated at €32,000. It is estimated that this year it

will double. While dairy farmers might be expected to try to produce more milk to capitalise on the price, a phosphate quota focus sets limits.

For each additional cow that is milked, expensive rights of about €8000 per cow must also be bought.

At least as important, to dairy farmers all over Europe, are the extremely high costs for feed. With the war in Ukraine, much less grain and corn is available on the world market from Ukraine and Russia and prices are high.

The second reason is the drought in recent months has seriously affected the grain harvests across Europe.

In addition, costs for energy, fuel and fertilisers have increased enormously,

especially as a result of the war in Ukraine.

More than a year ago, Dutch farmers paid about €20/100kg for basic fertiliser. At the beginning of this year, the price rose to above €100/100kg. This has now fallen to about €70/100kg.

Due to the drought, many dairy farmers across Europe have been unable to build up stocks of feed for the winter that will soon start.

It symbolises the hectic times for Dutch dairy farmers. The high milk price makes up for a lot, but the concerns about the near future are greater than ever.

Below:

Photos: Niels de Vries & Landpixel.

‘WITH THE WAR IN UKRAINE, MUCH LESS GRAIN AND CORN IS AVAILABLE ON THE WORLD MARKET FROM UKRAINE AND RUSSIA AND PRICES ARE HIGH’

• Sjoerd Hofstee is a dairy journalist at Persbureau Langs de melkweg, Netherlands.

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Stutters in the world market

premium, and cheese prices continue to be supported. But one month’s results aren’t a perfect indicator.

Supply and demand” remains a key fixture of tracking any market, a classical approach to understanding how and why a market has shifted, why prices are where they are and how the market is likely to operate.

This year has been a very interesting case of this for the dairy market, however – not as simple as the inversion of the two market forces.

In early 2022, dairy demand during the first quarter was strong, with China managing to import its largest volume of dairy products during the tariff-free window in January. Most was whole milk powder (WMP), with a good chunk of skim milk powder (SMP) involved too. At the same time, prices were tracking significantly higher, pushing WMP prices through US$4000/tonne for most of Q1.

Fast forward to the second quarter, and the global situation had flipped. China was backing out of the market in a hurry, and the rest of the world was unable, and unwilling, to take up the slack.

During Q2, milk supplies globally started to stutter too. European Union production figures continued their trend of declines, with input costs, weather and uncertainty affecting farmers’ ability to push milk production growth along. Likewise, United States farmers were starting to buckle in the face of market pressures. Subsequently, even with both demand and supply easing, prices eased as we traversed through the end of the first half of 2022, with WMP prices roughly 13% lighter at the end of June than the peak achieved in March.

The key note of Q2, and the first half of the third quarter was the “wait and see” approach the market adopted.

To put this into perspective, overall

import figures from key import regions over the last six months are tracking roughly 60,000t behind the same period last year by the end of July, with China’s overall dairy imports falling about 150,000t. Regions like the Middle East, Africa and the EU tried to make the most of the situation, increasing imports compared to the same period last year. Even so, a net 60,000t reduction is a serious chunk of product missing out of

As we finish off 2022, the market is still in the holding pattern, but, we do know that milk supply globally is driving more market sentiment than normal. All three major dairy producers, NZ, EU and the US, are looking at printing negative figures. Expect to see big market shifts when DCANZ data shows how far behind NZ milk production is on the year before at each month moving towards Christmas.

So, global milk supply will likely continue to ease, helping to deliver some support to prices. Going the next level up, into the processed products, less WMP is expected out of all processors in NZ this season, with a greater proportion of milk processed into SMP and milk fats, and other consumer goods – think casein or UHT cream. The commodity market is incredibly different this season compared to the last two; SMP and milk fats will continue to be the hot products, with WMP taking a backseat.

the global trade books.

For New Zealand exports the variation was a little bigger. NZ WMP exports to China from January through August in 2021 made up 46% of our total WMP exports, whereas the same period in 2022, China was only 32% of our WMP exports, with total WMP exports declining 18% YoY. Demand in the market is now only registered as “slightly-firm”.

Looking at the end of Q3, the entire dairy market is still in this odd pattern of demand and supply both falling, keeping prices somewhat supported. September’s Global Dairy Trade events seem to show prices are turning higher; WMP prices increased, milk fats tracked a little higher, SMP managed to retain most of its

On the demand side, there is net confusion in the dairy market. Inflation should be hitting consumers, but it doesn’t seem to be having the expected impact yet. Exchange rate fluctuations should be inhibiting dairy buyers , but that hasn’t happened yet either. There is likely more upside from the US$yet, which means more pain for dairy buyers, but it isn’t having an impact.

Dairy might be able to weather the expected global recession, provided consumption continues to grow on a trend similar to that seen over the last 15 years. Our minimum expectations are that demand should remain firm enough for the rest of the season to keep dairy prices in a good spot - there are still upside expectations. The entire global dairy market is watching China, and when the market sees China return, expect to see prices surge.

Stuart Davison.

Despite world milk supplies stuttering, inflation pressures all around and market confusion, prices are holding firm, Stuart Davison writes.

Open letter

challenges He Waka proposals

An open letter by 100 signatories claims a quarter of New Zealand’s sheep, beef and deer farmers will be driven out of business by He Waka Eke Noa greenhouse gas reduction proposals, Elaine Fisher writes.

Primary sector climate action partnership He Waka Eke Noa’s proposed framework to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions could drive one-in-four sheep, beef and deer farms out of business, while benefiting the dairy sector, one of 100 signatories to an open letter, Waka Adrift, released in August claims.

“We have had great support to our letter and now we have raised the issues, we are working to put forward solutions,” Rick Burke says. He farms sheep, beef and dairy grazers in the foothills of the Kaimai Ranges and says it’s not too late for He Waka to make changes.

“The Government will announce its final decision in July next year but before that there will be a submission process. We would rather get changes ahead of submissions and work together to land something which will incentivise all farmers to go faster to reduce emissions, improve biodiversity and water quality.

“The current pricing arrangements do the exact opposite. There is no incentive for lowenvironmental impact sheep, beef and deer farmers to invest further in future proofing their farms. Many will be crippled by being disproportionately priced for their emissions when in fact many farms, since 1990, have stabilised or reduced their emissions. This needs to be recognised in the pricing framework. Farmers feel bewildered and helpless which is why we are standing up for them.”

The letter Rick co-signed is from “a group of concerned sheep and beef farmers” who claim DairyNZ and Fonterra submitted “in support of a 10% biogenic methane target, knowing full well that it would be sheep, beef and deer farmers paying the ultimate price – the destruction of their sector”.

The letter asked why neither the ETS or He Waka price biogenic methane as a short-lived gas and why they have used the GWP100 (Global Warming Potential 100) formula to assess warming as opposed to the more recent GWP* (Global Warming Potential*) formula as pricing mechanism for agriculture.

“The group believes New Zealand, as an agricultural nation, could have been a world leader if He Waka had taken this approach, and looked through the GWP* lens at a sector level, to identify who was doing the warming.

“This would have provided a totally different insight into how methane should be priced. They also believe B+LNZ and the Meat Industry Association made a mistake not enforcing He Waka take this approach,” Rick says.

Dairy Exporter asked for responses to the letter’s main points from He Waka Eke Noa, Federated Farmers, Beef + Lamb, DairyNZ and Fonterra. All responded, some in more detail than can be accommodated in this article.

B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor said the figures referenced in the open letter are based on an incorrect representation of B+LNZ modelling.

“The modelling shows what could happen at a methane price of 35c/kg in 2030. B+LNZ released this modelling to reinforce our advice in the He Waka proposal for a cautious approach to pricing.

“We pushed for a number of provisions including a maximum starting price for methane of 11c/kg that would be held for three years, targeted levy relief and a recommendations report that clearly stated a price of 35c/kg of methane would have significant implications for sheep and beef farmers.

“If B+LNZ and its partners fail to convince the Government that the He Waka alternative is credible, the sector will pay the price of being included in the ETS, as the legislation is already in place.

“We would lose the split gas methane target, effectively facing a net zero target for methane, and the methane price would be linked to the soaring carbon price.

“B+LNZ is also urging the Government to review the unfairly high methane reduction targets in legislation; currently a 10% reduction by 2030 and a reduction of between 24-47% by 2050.

“The target for carbon dioxide is net zero (or no additional warming) by 2050. Based on the latest science, an equivalent target for methane to contribute no additional warming would be a 10% reduction by 2050.

“Our strong position is that the Government should report annually on warming as well as emissions and to ensure the legislated review of these targets in 2024 uses the latest science – that means using appropriate metrics such as GWP*.”

Fonterra general manager of global climate policy Andrew Kempson said the co-op supported He Waka’s recommended approach as an alternative to pricing agricultural emissions through the Emissions Trading Scheme.

“Our submission on the Zero-Carbon Act (2019) included our support of a 10% methane reduction target by 2030 alongside proposing this target be subject to reviews in line with the development of the first three emissions budgets.

“We continue to support this, however we disagree with the claims that this was made ‘knowing full well that it would be sheep, beef and deer farmers paying the ultimate price – the destruction of their sector’.”

DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel said He Waka is a credible solution with crosssector support, which can continue to make improvements over time. The He Waka system has built-in incentives to reduce emissions, will recognise planting onfarm, and any money generated will be recycled back into the sector.

“In 2019, our sector won a hard-fought

‘There is no incentive for low-environmental impact sheep, beef and deer farmers to invest further in future proofing their farms.’

Federated Farmers national president Andrew Hoggard.

Beef +Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor.

Rick Burke.

science-based decision with Government for a split gas approach in the Climate Change Response Amendment Act 2019, recognising biogenic methane only needs to reduce and stabilise, not go to net-zero like long-lived gases. That was a massive breakthrough, and we continue to build on that.

“DairyNZ’s support of the 10% biogenic methane target was on the basis it would be reviewed in 2024 and 2029. That is still the expectation. DairyNZ and B+LNZ are calling on the Government to give farmers a fairer deal by using the latest and best science when setting methane targets. We believe both the 2030 and 2050 methane targets need to be reviewed – and they will be in 2024 and 2029.”

He Waka Eke Noa programme office director Kelly Forster said He Waka partners and the recommendations report acknowledged that there needs to be careful balancing of the levy settings to ensure New Zealand farmers and growers remain productive, profitable and competitive.

“Pricing on weight and setting the price in relation to trajectory toward targets, among other factors, reflects the fact that methane is a short-lived gas and in line with GWP*

“We modelled a range of prices, and at the highest methane prices, it did show significant impacts on sheep, beef and deer farmers and their viability.

“However, it is important to note the prices modelled are not the prices that are recommended under He Waka. The reason the modelling was included was to show the impact at higher prices in 2030 and demonstrate those prices do not align with the He Waka objectives and should not be used. All partners agree the consequences of some of the higher prices modelled are unacceptable for the sector.

“He Waka pricing does align with the science of GWP*. He Waka’s pricing recommendations are that methane is priced to the extent necessary to see it reduced and stabilised.

“GWP* is useful for informing targets at the national and agriculture sector level. Farmers do not have 20 years of historical data for a set parcel of land - it is therefore not practically possible to use a GWP* approach to calculate emissions/warming at the individual farm level.

“However, we are interested in exploring how we could incorporate GWP*, or a warming approach, at the farm level in the future.”

Federated Farmers national president Andrew Hoggard said the He Waka price shouldn’t be higher than what is modelled. “In theory it could be lower than the modelled price, but my concern would be that the committee could find it all too hard and just default to those prices. So, it’s a scenario to be rightly concerned by.

“Fonterra and DairyNZ did submit on those numbers. I was involved in those discussions and argued against them, but I’m not sure their reasons were as Machiavellian as suggested, (in the open letter). In my view it was a flawed attempt at appeasing Government on the 2030 target and hoping for a concession on the 2050 target which never happened.

“Federated Farmers stuck with what we felt were solid scientific principles around what would cause no additional warming and that was 3% by 2030 and 10% by 2050.

“GWP* is a high-level way of showing the warming impact of methane more accurately than GWP100. But if you try to use it at a farm level it will create issues of grandparenting and locking people into current land use.

“So, my view is let’s leave it as a high-level principle for the targets, but at the farm level the focus should be on getting each farm more efficient, so farming better and not less.

“The challenge will be finding a baseline on how we compare farms that is acceptable across farmers. It should be a baseline that compares sheep farmers with sheep farmers and dairy farmers with dairy farmers. Basically, that’s why we ended up with a flat levy in He Waka as the marginal pricing challenge couldn’t be agreed on.”

Andrew was in India attending the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit when approached for comments on the open latter.

“The Indians talked about how they want to produce 43% of world milk, up from their current 23%. They have a GHG footprint per kg of milk that is 10 times NZ’s footprint.

“If they don’t improve it as they grow, one has to question whether any of what we do in NZ matters a damn thing with regards to global warming,” Andrew wrote.

He Waka Eke Noa programme office director Kelly Forster.

DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel.

Extracting protein from grass

Grass has a dual purpose in a system developed by a Danish company.

By Anne Cote.

Farmers are continuously looking for ways to manage the balance between providing nutritious animal feed while exercising environmental responsibility.

The entrepreneurs at Danish company BioRefine say their plan to extract protein from organic green grass could be the answer farmers are seeking.

When it comes to monogastric animals, pigs and chickens for example, supplying them with high protein feed can be expensive. Ruminants like cows, goats or sheep are able to extract protein from field grasses through their two-stage digestive systems.

Monogastric animals can’t do that and require protein-enhanced feed. That’s where BioRefine, a subsidiary of Danish Agro along with partners DLG and DLF, comes into the picture. They are focused on extracting green protein from organic grass to produce high protein feed additives for monogastric animals and, eventually, for people.

It seems like the logical thing to do because the Danish landscape was scoured clean by glaciers in the last ice age and is ideal for growing grass.

Growing and harvesting grass instead of grain as a protein source is ecologically beneficial, according to a BioRefine release, and because the Danish government implemented a new carbon tax in June, 2022, it is also timely. Grass increases carbon sequestration by one tonne per hectare annually over grain crops and also reduces the amount of nitrogen leaching into sensitive water sources by 70 to 80% more than grain crops.

for protein as a feed ingredient becomes significant.

The process is simple for farmers.

They buy and plant the grass seed on their own land. When it’s time to harvest they notify BioRefine. BioRefine sends a truck out to pick up the grass and take it back to the plant where it is processed within eight hours of harvesting. Any delay in processing means the grass loses nutrients. Farmers are paid according to a previously negotiated contract. BioRefine indicates the contract price is comparable to what the farmer could expect from a grain crop. Harvesting can take place up to seven times per year.

“Both protein quantity and quality are dependent on conditions that do not heat or dehydrate the grass,” according to BioRefine.

The company also says extraction processes that once removed 50% of the crude protein from the grass now remove 90% leaving behind an almost pure pulp which they hope can be used in manufacturing to produce packaging and textiles.

The last of the leftovers, brown juice, is sent to BioRefine’s biodigester and used for heat at the plant.

But BioRefine’s ambitions don’t stop there.

Multiply that by BioRefine’s goal of producing 7000 tonnes of organic green protein annually from 3000 hectares at its first plant in Varde, Denmark, and the climate efficiency of growing grass

“We also have a strong focus on developing green protein that can also be used as an ingredient in food. It is our ambition to refine a quarter of the protein for human nutrition,” BioRefine managing director Vagn Hundebøll says.

GRASS INCREASES CARBON SEQUESTRATION BY ONE TONNE PER HECTARE ANNUALLY OVER GRAIN CROPS.

BUSINESS PROTEIN FROM GRASS

Left: Loading freshly cut grass crop into BioRefine extraction equipment. Below: Egg carton manufactured from grass pulp (lower left). Brown juice shown in lower right is what is sent to the biodigester when protein extraction is done.

look like princesses.

“Such attitudes are often really ingrained in family values. You often parent the way you were brought up. It is about stepping away (from those attitudes) to take your daughter on to the farm, allow her to tinker with things, to try to fix things. Don’t take the job off her but allow her to make mistakes – just be patient.”

As part of her scholarship, Katrina travelled extensively overseas interviewing women who had successfully taken on family farming businesses, including one in Germany who was the first daughter in her family’s seven generations to take on the family farm. While each woman’s story was different, there were similarities in their pathways to farm succession, including their strong involvement in and love of farming from a very young age.

Encouraging daughters to farm

Asking girls if they want to become farmers is a critical step towards encouraging daughter succession in a farming business, believes Katrina Sasse, farmer and an “inspired farm daughter” from Morawa near Geraldton in Western Australia.

“Asking your daughters when they are very young and continuing to ask throughout childhood to teenage years; ‘do you want to farm?’ is critical because they may not otherwise think it is possible to work in agriculture,” Katrina said during a Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Farm Business Update North Livestream in August.

Katrina advised parents to research what jobs women were doing in agriculture and what career options were available, but most of all to encourage their daughters’ interest in farming.

In 2017 Katrina was awarded a Nuffield Australia scholarship with which she travelled globally to investigate strategies to encourage young women, particularly farmers’ daughters, to play an integral role in the continuity of the family farm business.

While describing now as probably the best time ever for women to be accepted and involved in agriculture, Katrina said gender biases remained. Comments including ‘boys are born farmers, girls like pretty pink things and a woman’s focus is on raising children’ were still common but the biases were often unconscious.

“It starts at such a young age when sons are given tractors, toy trucks and Lego and told they will be farmers one day and girls are given pretty pink toys and told they

“These women were always involved in the farm and allowed to see the possibilities. They were not pigeonholed into jobs but allowed to do the same chores as their brothers. Most worked on the farms before and after school, working with cows in the paddock, working on tractors or combines and did not lose connection with the farm when they took on higher education.”

In fact, many of those stories reflected Katrina’s own pathway to succession farm ownership on her family’s farm.

She grew up on the traditional wheat and sheep farm which later transitioned to solely grain growing. With her two older sisters, Katrina helped out on the farm before undertaking tertiary studies in Perth followed by three years working in Melbourne in corporate agri-business banking, eventually returning to the family farm to take part in its succession plan. Years away from the farm, gaining a higher education and wider life experience was something many of the women Katrina interviewed also had in common and it is to those experiences she attributed much of the women’s success in their farming roles. She encouraged parents keen to see their daughter take on the family farming business to encourage them to take on tertiary education, preferably but not necessarily, related to farming, and to spend three to five years working in another business or career before returning home to the farm.

This brought a wider world view,

Now is probably the best time ever for women to be accepted and involved in agriculture, Elaine Fisher writes.

Katrina Sasse.

developed valuable knowledge and skills and helped women grow the confidence they needed to take on the family business.

Supporting daughters to be actively involved in the farming business while raising a young family was also vital.

“Family time is so crucially important when children are young so reduce the pressure (on daughters).”

Ways of supporting daughters with young families included grandparents helping with childcare, employing nannies or au pairs and ensuring staff were available to step in if mothers were unavailable at any time.

“It takes time to take over a large business so have a good plan in place and allow five to 10 years to get there.”

Many of the women in Katrina’s study were involved in farm succession alongside their brothers and most families had found ways to make that work.

“Lots of brothers and sisters were working successfully together. I know this does not work for every family and it can be a challenge.

“Often daughters working with brothers

had separate roles and were not working in the same branch of the business, but they came together for council meetings and to decide on operations and budgeting. It’s another big stereotype that women and men can’t work together.”

Daughters and sons often saw the same farm in a different way and that diversity of thought was an asset to the business.

It was important that the long-term agreement to buy into or out of the farming business be laid out, establishing how daughters would take over the farm structure and who in the family was buying in or out. Setting the time frame for daughters to take on more responsibility and liability was also vital.

Katrina said it was important that those plans were reflected in the parents’ wills and that plans were in place to minimise the tax burden. Having guidance in succession planning from experienced accountants and farm advisers who understood the variety of different needs of women through their farming career, and the changing landscape of agriculture was also vital, she said.

Katrina suggested women keen for a future in farming should seek mentoring and coaching from other women in the industry.

Proudly telling the stories of women’s successes in farming was also vital, as was calling out gender biases when they encountered it.

“That may not be easy, but it will help the future generations of women farmers. Small successes will take us all the way to the future.

“Agriculture needs all hands on deck right now, so why not encourage and involve all those who are passionate about it?”

GRDC Farm Business Update North Livestreams are topic specific, interactive, interview style discussions that address key farm business management improvements common to grain growing businesses across Australia. GRDC is responsible for planning, investing in and overseeing research, development and extension (RD&E) for grains under the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.

‘IT STARTS AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE WHEN SONS ARE GIVEN TRACTORS, TOY TRUCKS AND LEGO AND TOLD THEY WILL BE FARMERS ONE DAY AND GIRLS ARE GIVEN PRETTY PINK TOYS AND TOLD THEY LOOK LIKE PRINCESSES.’

WHERE WE GO, OTHERS FOLLOW

New Zealand farmers have earned the right to be recognised as true world leaders in agricultural innovation. It’s a reputation built by generations of forward-thinkers –where we go, others follow.

I live in the Waikato, a powerhouse of agricultural innovation. Less than 10km from where I sit, Bill Gallagher and Dr Doug Phillips revolutionised rotational grazing with their development of the electric fence; Ron Sharpe revolutionised milking productivity when he created the first herringbone milking shed; Dr Pat Shannon revolutionised our breeding industry with his world-leading work in artificial insemination; and Dr Arnold Bryant and Kevin Macdonald put it all together to create the most efficient dairy production system in the world.

These are but a few of the many innovators that have made NZ farming the unbeaten world leader in producing nutritious, healthy foods.

And now we need to do it again. We have to reduce our production of methane and nitrous oxide. I mentioned in a recent opinion article that beating methane is not easy – after all, we’re battling more than 50 million years of evolution. To my disappointment, some took this as a suggestion we couldn’t do it and we should just give up. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the historical scheme of things, agriculture

is a relatively young profession – we’ve only been farming for 10,000-12,000 years. Yet our grains, fruits, vegetables, and animals are hugely different today to when our ancestors yarded the first pig or sheep or scratched the ground to plant seeds.

My father harvested wheat with a thresher, a magnificent innovation in its day, but a far cry from a combine harvester. What we take for granted today did not exist a short time ago.

So, although ruminant animals have evolved to produce methane, they do not need to or, at the very least, do not need to produce as much.

We’ve bred low- and high-methane-emitting sheep – proof that methane production can be lowered. Preliminary analyses show this can also be done for dairy, beef and deer – a 10% reduction in methane with very little cost.

We’ve trialled inhibitors: chemical or natural additives that reduce methane. And we are experimenting with other types of inhibitors and even the possibility of a vaccine. Work also continues to lower the production of nitrous oxide from the urine patch.

The country is backing us to win, with almost $380 million over four years in Budget 2022 to accelerate efforts to lower agricultural emissions. A new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions is being set

The best way to predict the future is to create it! So, let’s do that, John Roche writes.

up to help get new tools and technology to reduce on-farm emissions to farmers more quickly. That is expected to include a new public private partnership and discussions are well advanced. Specialist climate-focused extension services will build on existing support available, to help producers adapt on-farm practices and adopt new technology.

We think emerging technologies have some exciting potential. However, we need to make sure that any use of inhibitors is managed well, so that potential risks to food safety, plant and animal health, and trade are minimised. The sector recognises the importance of putting in place the right rules to allow this to happen.

We’ve taken the first important step toward a new regulatory regime for inhibitors – from July 18 some inhibitors have been recognised as agricultural compounds and manufacturers have two years to transition into the new rules.

We are working through a process to ensure all relevant inhibitors are included in the new regulatory regime. These changes, along with the significant investments in research and development, will stand us in good stead as we face the challenges to come.

In future, food will fall into three categories:

• commodity food - bargain price, stock-standard, run-ofthe-mill, ‘cheap’

• molecular food – food grown through industrial fermentation or cell culture systems

• ‘Modern Regenerative Food’ – high value, nutritious food, ethically produced with a sustainable environmental footprint.

The first is a race to the bottom of price. In the second, we hold no competitive advantage, and, again, it will be commoditised. But, with innovation in our farming system to reduce our environmental footprint, NZ agriculture could be the definition of the third.

Of course, the stakes are high but with our history of innovation and with the building blocks already in place, we are well-placed to continue leading the field. I’m not saying this is easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it already. But in the words of Henry Ford: “I am looking for a lot of people who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done”.

TOP TIPS on taking care of your team

Supporting a farm’s workforce has huge benefits, writes Guy Michaels.

Iwas pleased to see a Southland dairy farming couple recognised at the Primary Industries Good Employer Awards recently.

Annalize and Stefan du Plessis are 50:50 sharemilkers on a property milking 700 cows and contract milk 600 cows on another local farm.

The du Plessis’ do lots of good things to create a great workplace, including being flexible about working hours and leave.

Annalize and Stefan ensure their team have plenty of time off during quieter periods. Staff also have input into when they work, as they’re part of developing the roster.

Farm teams are now recovering from calving, with some having worked particularly hard due to staff shortages. Taking time off is important for us all to stay well – mentally and physically – especially after stressful periods.

Annalize and Stefan also say it’s important to have good systems and routines in place to reduce inefficiency. This includes having the right machinery and equipment so jobs can be done

• Dr John Roche is the Chief Science Adviser at the Ministry for Primary Industries. coutinued pg30

faster, helping create a good work environment with greater flexibility for staff.

Another option to keep working hours manageable for a lot of farms is flexible milking.

DairyNZ research indicates that shifting from twice-a-day milking to ‘three-in-two’ reduces labour time and improves body condition score (BCS), reproduction and lameness.

It does result in a small decrease in milk production.

Three-in-two milking can also be a good option if you’re down a staff member, or want to improve cow BCS in summer or autumn. I’ve also seen some farms use flexible milking to provide staff with time off over Christmas and New Year.

Supporting a great workplace can also involve some simple gestures.

Annalize and Stefan recognise staff birthdays with a day off, a present and a cake, and even warm meals.

The du Plessis’ have an open-door policy and encourage their team to come and chat to them about any concerns.

They also work hard to help new staff settle in, encouraging them to join a local sports club or get involved in community activities like Young Farmers.

With calving now behind us, now is a great time to catch up with your farm team to find out how they’re feeling, and ask if there’s anything more you can do to continue supporting them.

• Guy Michaels is DairyNZ Southland/South Otago regional leader.

TOP tips

to help farm staff feel valued

DairyNZ research shows that farm staff value:

• regular one-on-one catch-ups and team meetings

• being able to share their views and ideas

• rosters that provide enough time off to avoid burnout, especially at busy times

• health, safety and wellbeing being a priority

• being regularly told they are doing a good job

• having warm and comfortable accommodation

• having a clear set of expectations

• competitive pay

• opportunities for upskilling or training.

More?

visit www.dairynz.co.nz/people

Annalize and Stefan du Plessis with their farm team family: Back from left Stefan Burger, Arun Aravind, Zander Ferreira, Kara Toimata, Armand Fourie, Stefan du Plessis, Carlo School. Front from left - Zackery Ferreira, Lee Louw, Annalize du Plessis. Absent from photo: Jancke Burger.

wet and dry extremes Farming for the

Reducing cow numbers has helped a West Coast couple cope with changing weather patterns. By

Anne Hardie.

Dan and Kate King always thought they would need a 200-cow farm to be viable, but they have been able to reduce their herd to 155 at peak milking while increasing per-cow production to take the pressure off the environment, cows and people.

It is part of their solution to adapting to wetter springs, prolonged dry summers and the unpredictability of the weather which are the new normal on their 73-hectare effective dairy farm just north of Reefton on the West Coast. In early February this year, more than 200mm of rain was dumped on the farm in a 24-hour period. Then March was particularly dry and they were irrigating a month later than usual. Such is the fickleness of the climate now.

The Kings made that much-sought-after step into farm ownership in 2014 on the eve of Westland Milk Products’ $4.95/kg milksolids (MS) payout. A severe drought gripped the region in their first summer and their cows survived on 100% supplements for six weeks. But they survived.

Being naturally prudent, working with conservative budgets and selling their cows at the peak of the market to buy the farm meant they weren’t mortgaged to the hilt and they were reasonably comfortable financially. To the point they bought a pivot going into their second year to irrigate 27ha and ensure they would have some grass during the next drought. They barely used the pivot for two years, though they have since had four seasons where it has just about paid for itself.

Drier summers have followed wetter springs and the Kings realised they needed to farm for the extremes. When they bought the farm it was 66ha and they were peak-milking 210 cows at 3.2 cows/ha. Since buying the farm they bought a 15ha block around the house and then last year they sold the house and 7.7ha so they could build a new house on the farm. This year they wintered 160 cows, which gives them 155 Friesian-cross cows for peak milking. Adding young stock up to nine months of age on a 4ha block gives them a stocking rate of 2.4 cows per hectare on 73ha.

With fewer cows, they are now focusing on increasing

production per cow which will also dilute costs. This season they are budgeting on a total production of 75,000kg milksolids (MS) which is 484kg MS/cow and 1,014kg MS/ha. Their three-year average is 467kg MS/cow and 1,031kg MS/ ha.

On the other side of the budget, costs keep climbing for farmers, but farm working expenses (FWE) in Dan and Kate’s 2022-23 budget is only 8% higher than it was two years ago. A recent analysis by consultants AgFirst showed FWE across the industry had risen by 36%. Last year they budgeted on FWE of $4.45/kg MS and costs across the industry soared, so the actual figure was $4.70/kg MS. This season they are budgeting on $4.81/kg MS which will work out at $2329 per cow and $4,877/ha.

Higher payouts have offset increasing expenses and last season they were well ahead of their budgeted operating profit of $2517/ha with an actual $3187/ha. This season’s budgeted operating profit is $2754/ha.

Dan and Kate say higher cow numbers would result in higher FWE and in a good year without extreme weather events would also produce a higher profit. But they want their business and farm system to have more resilience and fewer cows is part of their plan to achieve that goal.

“When we had higher stocking rates, you only needed a bit of a drought or wet spells and the wheels fell off,” Kate says. “By dropping cow numbers you may miss a bit of production when conditions are good, but you have a bit more resilience in your farm system.”

Dan says lower cow numbers enable them to carry higher pasture covers. During wet spells the cows squash some of that grass beneath them which helps to reduce soil damage. Climate change and weather extremes that may inflict on dairy farms means cows will need to be fully fed so they are content and not trashing the ground, with shelter such as trees for protection, Kate says. She does not discount the possibility of dropping cow numbers even further, while ensuring they have plenty of balage in the system to keep cows fully fed.

In the past they have liberally used palm kernel. Last season (2021-22) they doubled their use of palm kernel in their budget due to a lack of works space for culls going into

Left: Dan and Kate milk fewer cows to meet the challenges of the changing climate.

winter, a wet winter and spring and higher forecast milk prices. They brought 371 tonnes of palm kernel on to the farm which worked out as a profitable decision due to the final payout and pasture challenges through summer and early autumn.

This season they had 40t left over and contracted a further 100t which was fed out through winter. They have replaced some of the palm kernel on their budget with hay to reduce costs. At about $100 a large bale, they can buy in a lot of hay compared with palm kernel which had risen to $505/t landed.

The hay was fed to the springers on grass to fill them up and keep them contented. The milking herd will still average 2kg palm kernel per cow per day unless they are mowing in front of the herd and don’t need it, or feed is tight and they will feed up to 4kg if needed. On top of imported supplements, they make 180-or-so bales of balage from genuine surplus which is set aside for the milking herd. When grass growth rates are really high, they carry out pasture monitoring every four to five days. Surplus is managed by taking regular, light cuts of balage. The main focus is to feed more grass into the cows.

“If we have enough grass, we’ll try to feed them just grass and mow in front so we can offer them 22kg pasture per cow per day,” Dan says. “We’ve done it before sporadically and we generally have to top through spring anyway because you can’t control it without taking a big hit on production. So we’ll try and be proactive and mow in front and try to keep it in better quality.”

They plan to begin pre-grazing mowing early, before pasture quality deteriorates. Regular feed budgeting is carried out throughout the year with the spring rotation planner used when appropriate. Pasture cover is then assessed every seven days using a C-Dax pasture meter and that data is used to update the feed budget. That information is then used to manage supplementary

Above: Tiny pittosporums are destined to provide shelter for an emergency stand-off area. Below: Sam and Lizzie enjoying pasture time and the focus has moved to per cow production.

feeding levels, harvesting and cropping decisions. Cows are milked twice-a-day from the beginning of the season and transition to 3-in-2 milkings when they average 1.8kg MS/cow/day, then once-a-day at about 1.5kg MS/cow. That way they can adapt to whatever the season throws at them.

Wet springs have made fertiliser applications challenging and Dan says they plan to be more proactive so they can pounce when weather and ground conditions enable them to spread. The changing climate has reduced the opportunities to get fertiliser on through spring. He says they need to be on their toes to grab those opportunities because it is too easy to miss them.

In the pasture itself, they are searching for the right mix for their system but have not found it yet. They trialed bought mixes but found many include annuals that then leave the pasture sparse, or sunflowers which the cows find unpalatable. Last year was wet and that highlighted the need to have the right weather conditions when sowing to avoid weeds grabbing an opportunity to take off. Last year nightshade was a problem and they could not spray a diverse pasture mix without wiping out some of the species. When they sowed their 6ha winter swede crop with 50% swede and 50% of a diverse pasture mix that was designed to grow with a winter crop, they felt short changed. They weighed some of the resulting crop and worked out they grew about 10t of swede and about 1t of the diverse mix and that left them thinking they might as well have stuck with just swedes. They had added the diverse mix with a kale crop as well and Kate says they could not justify spending the extra money on the diverse mix if it did not pull its weight in the crop.

“We believe in diversity, but we need to design our own mix,” she says.

One of the reasons for trialing diverse pasture mixes with both their winter and summer crops is to reduce cultivation and spraying to achieve best environmental practice, but it is definitely a work in progress. When they tried direct drilling for their diverse-mix winter crop, the results showed they grew 11t/ha. This season’s winter swede crop was a full

cultivation HT swede that was precision planted and resulted in 20t/ha.

Planting shelter around the farm has become another priority on the farm, with animal welfare in mind. Alongside the yard into the dairy they planted pittosporums four years ago to provide some shelter for the cows as they wait for milking and those trees are already doing their job.

Part of the lane has been enlarged as an emergency standoff area during wet weather and they have planted pittosporums along its length that they have grown themselves. That is because they found it hard to find trees to buy – and it is cheaper.

Around the boundary of the farm and alongside every paddock they have begun planting Balsam poplars and Italian alders to help moderate the wind speed during cold, wet weather and also provide shade during the heat of summer. They chose those two varieties for their deep rooting systems which will help them survive droughts and stop them competing with grass. During winter they double fenced the boundary and planted Balsam poplars every 15m.

Health and safety is taken seriously onfarm. Noone visits without being inducted, signing in and confirming an induction process has been followed. Posters and protocols are displayed on the outside of the dairy, with contacts so visitors can contact Kate or Dan at any time. If they have not seen visitors leave the farm, the visitor – usually a contractor or relief milker – has to text or phone them to say they have left the property. Kate says it is essential that visitors let farmers know when they leave in case they have an accident or medical emergency at the back of a farm where they may lay for hours before anyone finds them. The sign-in book and a chemical information sheet is kept in a letterbox beside the dairy. That way, emergency services know what chemicals they may be tackling if there is a fire. Kate says they picked up many of their ideas off their peers and continuing to network is one of their methods of learning new farming and business ideas. They will be open to all ideas about balancing their budget in a changing environment and working out the best stocking rate for the extreme weather periods.

FARM FACTS

Owners: Dan and Kate King

Location:

Reefton, West Coast

Area: 73ha

Herd: 155 crossbred cows at peak, 2.4 cows/ha

Budgeted

production: 75,000kg MS; 484kg MS/cow

Budgeted FWE: $4.81/kg MS, $2,329/cow and $4,877/ha

Budgeted

operating profit: $2.72/kg MS, $1,315/cow and $2,754/ha

Below: The Reefton farm has been getting wetter springs and prolonged dry summers.

FINANCIAL RESILIENCE KEY

Dan and Kate King had been a couple just over a year when they took up a 23% lower-order sharemilking contract with their newly combined goals firmly set on farm ownership.

Dan had grown up on a family dairy farm in South Westland where he learnt early on about business. As a school kid, he bought his pet calves, paid for the meal, leased the adult cow to his parents and he would own its calves.

“Seeing the way animals could multiply got me interested in farming,” he says. “But Mum and Dad tried to talk me out of it because they had been through all the challenges dairy farming can throw at you.”

Undeterred, he left school to work in the dairy industry and one of his bosses allowed him to graze 50 weaned calves he had bought as part of his contract. In return for free grazing, his boss milked them through their first year in milk. That same boss then bought a 200-cow farm and Dan was offered a manager’s position. As an

incentive, Dan was able to swap the in-calf heifers for a 5% share in the farm. Kate, on the other hand, grew up in town and after failing maths at school two years in a row, headed to Telford at 17 because she had always loved being on the farms of family friends. Dan was at Telford a year earlier for a Diploma in Rural Business. Unknowingly, they followed each other around the South Island through their careers. In between, Kate – the girl who had failed school maths - headed to Lincoln University and completed a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture).

Kate was working on the West Coast when she met Dan who was still managing the farm near Gore. A year later they took up an offer of a lower-order share milking role on a 500-cow farm on the Coast. At the end of the three-year contract the farm owner bought a neighbouring farm, giving Kate and Dan the opportunity to sign up a three-year 50:50 sharemilking contract on the increased herd of 870 cows. That first year they owned 150 cows and leased the remaining cows. Through $6, $7 and $8 payouts over three years, they were able to pay off considerable debt and buy all of the leased cows.

“We had good timing and the cashflow was extremely good for us,” Dan says.

Eventually they owned about 800 cows and sold 500 fully recorded cows to buy the 66ha farm near Reefton which has increased to 73ha.

“We thought going from 870 cows to 200 cows would be a walk in the park,” Kate laughs. Their eldest child, Sam, was two and Kate was pregnant with their daughter, Lizzie, when they accepted they needed a relief milker to help them out. When Lizzie was three and payout dropped to $3.80, it went back to just the two of them on the farm.

They now have one casual employee who works six mornings a week through August and September and then every second weekend through the season. For the past three years they have not carried an overdraft and rather than use higher payouts to pay off more of their loan, they have chosen to build a cash buffer. If things get tough, Kate says they can always get an overdraft then, rather than rely on it now.

Kate and Dan now milk 155 cows.

Top left: Sign-in book and chemical information is kept in a letterbox by the dairy.

Top right: Lizzie with a pet calf. Above: King Farms.

The case for supplements

Dairy Nutrition and Management Solutions consultant Howard de Klerk is worried some advice may cause farmers to back off from buying expensive supplements this season. He’s urging them to think again.

With grain reaching $600/tonne and palm kernel $400/t, farmers shouldn’t cut back production to save on feed costs as the lost income could be greater than the savings.

“We monitor the amount of pasture harvested on our clients’ farms annually and the past season showed Southland harvested 2t drymatter (DM)/ha less pasture than the year before and Canterbury was down more than 1.5t DM/ha despite irrigation.”

The variation was significant and if less pasture was again available in a season, more supplements were required to produce the same amount of milk but farmers this year would be questioning whether it was viable at current prices.

However, the maths showed it still was.

“It’s widely accepted in New Zealand a cow requires 80 megajoules of metabolisable energy to produce 1kg milksolids (MS) once her maintenance requirements have been met,” he said.

“A kilogram of grain contains 13 MJ ME so doing the maths it shows a theoretical maximum of 162g MS per kg of grain. For palm kernel this is about 140g response.”

Records for more than a decade of the company’s clients, spanning thousands of lactations, show their cows use on average 10kg DM to produce 1kg MS during lactation.

“This is a response rate of 100g MS for 1kg DM which includes all feed in the diet including pasture, silage, palm kernel and grain.

“So, if the milk price for 1kg MS is more than 10 times the cost of the supplement per kg DM, it will be financially viable to buy in the supplement.

“We’ve probably got a $9-plus payout now which is still more than 10 times the cost of a kilogram of grain at 60c. Grain would have to be approaching $900/t for it not to be worthwhile.”

Some overseas studies had led scientists to advise farmers there were 50% hidden costs when feeding supplements such as grain, which meant if grain cost $600/t it actually cost $900/t including the hidden costs.

“But this is simply not true. The data did show that the costs increased on a per hectare basis but so did the milk production per ha which offset the so-called hidden costs on a per MS basis.

“Increased feeding will increase milk solids which is likely to cause a rise in some costs like wages especially contract milking costs, repairs and maintenance, and electricity.

Just because the price of supplements, among other inputs, is soaring doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be used, a farm consultant urges. Karen Trebilcock reports.

Below: Howard de Klerk.

“However, interest, rates and fertiliser are per hectare costs. If you increase your milk production, these overhead costs won’t change but they will be diluted on a per MS basis.

“Animal health, breeding, wintering and rearing are per cow costs and again, the higher the production per cow the more these costs are diluted on a per MS basis.

“Overall profit is determined not only by profit per MS but also by the number of MS produced.

“It is a balance or trade-off between cost per MS and number of milk solids produced which determines the overall profit of the farm. Marginal analysis shows that if the extra MS produced adds to the overall profitability, production should be maintained and not cut back.”

He said financial modelling of clients’ data this year showed cutting back on supplements would reduce profitability.

“At current prices, the profitability ranking of high to low input systems did not change, even if the payout fell below $7.00.

“Farmers with typical debt and interest costs, will make less profit on a low production grass only system – significantly less.”

He said increasing cow performance was not only good for the balance sheet but also for the environment.

“Recent New Zealand data, peer reviewed and

published in scientific papers, clearly shows that having fewer, higher performing, more efficient cows are better for the environment than lots of low producing cows.

“Management practices like once-a-day (or three-intwo or ten-in-seven milking) reduces the production per cow and is therefore worse for the environment. The environmental cost per MS gets higher with lower production per cow.

“Efficiency is hard to beat – both financially and environmentally.”

As a country, cow numbers can be reduced, if production per cow is improved to maintain overall production.

“The environmental impact is not only determined by cow efficiency, but also by how the cows are managed.

“A 500kg cow eating 5000kg DM per lactation, a mix of 4250kg pasture, grain and palm kernel, consumes about 186kg of nitrogen per season.

“But about 38kg of that nitrogen ends up in the milk if she’s producing 500kg MS. If the cow excreted most of the remainder, it would be 148kg N per lactation.

“With a stocking rate of 3.3 cows/ha that’s 488kg N/ ha or 48.8kg N/ha per month for the ten months of lactation.

“For that hectare to grow 14T DM containing 25% protein, the pasture needs to ‘suck up’ 560kg N per ha –which is the amount of N in 14T of pasture.

“If the farmer applied another 75kg N per ha in the form of urea, that pasture would theoretically absorb all the N applied by the cows and fertiliser. Obviously, it is not that simple, but this is just an illustration of the amount of N involved.”

He said using the same methodology, dry cows wintered on a fodder beet paddock could potentially excrete 720kg N (1565kg urea equivalent) per ha or 360kg N/month/ha.

“That’s based on 33 cows/ha and a 75day average dry period, with a the 500kg cow offered 10kg fodder beet and 4kg balage per day and a 25-ton fodder beet yield. “This is potentially 7.5 times more N/ha/month than during lactation and at a time when nothing is growing.”

The simple N flow calculation was far from perfect as not all the remaining N was excreted in dung or urine as the cows were also growing an unborn calf, but it did show the scale of N loading during the winter far exceeded the lactation period, he said.

“Tinkering with lactating cow numbers will not fix this problem because that is not where the problem is.

“We need to address the elephant in the room, and deal with the winter N loading

and the most obvious solution to this problem is a contained effluent system.

“A lot of work has been done to reduce the impact of the N excreted in winter, like catch crops and other mitigation practices, but it does not reduce the actual amount of N.”

About a third of the company’s clients already had barns or some sort of housing system which collected effluent, and more clients were investigating the option.

“Cow housing is not cheap, but banks are willing to finance housed systems, with some offering environmental loans with lower interest rates. Recent calculations show some systems have a payback time of about eight years.”

Housed cows in winter required up to 40% less feed with less N excreted. The stored effluent could be used as a source of nutrients to grow silage for the winter feed when soil conditions were favourable.

“Recycling nutrients from paddock to barn and back to paddock is not only financially clever, but also environmentally sustainable.

“If the dairy industry addresses the real issues, there is no reason why New Zealand cannot offer a bright sustainable future for dairy farmers and allow them to continue to play a vital role in the economy.”

‘IF THE MILK PRICE FOR 1KG MILKSOLIDS IS MORE THAN 10 TIMES THE COST OF THE SUPPLEMENT PER KG DRYMATTER, IT WILL BE FINANCIALLY VIABLE TO BUY IN THE SUPPLEMENT.’

‘We need to address the elephant in the room, and deal with the winter N loading.’

Never mind the flowers

Tests to find suitable pasture species mixes on a Waikato farm have produced some unexpected results.

By Delwyn Dickey.

The bright and colourful flowers that follow the sun may lift your spirits, but sunflowers in forage crop mixes add little food value to summer pastures.

That was one of the takeaways from recent trials looking at different seed mixes for more resilient summer forage crops.

And while the trial was aimed at feed for dry stock cattle on hill country farms it also had relevance for northern dairy farmers who are experiencing similar problems with feed shortages in summer more often.

“The focus was on designing a mix that had different characteristics that we thought would be important for what we wanted to achieve,” AgResearch Senior Scientist Dr Katherine Tozer says.

“High energy in mid to late summer, good root systems that could explore different parts of soil profile for water and nutrients, and at least one species in the mix that would be rapid to establish and provide really good ground cover to help reduce summer grass weed emergence and establishment.”

Feed pinches in the heat of summer are becoming more common in northern Waikato and up through Northland. Farmers being able to grow their own highquality feed from resilient forage crops rather than relying on imported supplements, deferred grazing, or single-graze brassica crops could help make farm systems more robust as climate variability increases.

Home-grown forage should also help provide more food security when issues crop up in the global supply chain as seen recently with high import costs of palm kernel in relation to Covid 19, and high fertiliser prices connected to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A summer crop should provide more nutrition than pasture, which may be poor quality at that time of year. While monoculture brassica crops provide good quality feed they don’t provide as much ground cover as pasture, which increases the risk of phosphorus and nitrogen leaching into waterways, as well as sediment in runoff.

Having variety should also counter some of the metabolic issues that can show up in cattle when only feeding on mono-culture crops.

Run by AgFirst consultant and farmer Phil Weir and AgResearch scientists including Katherine, and Tracy Dale, and with funding from Our Land and Water National Science Challenge, the trial was established on Phil’s finishing property at Te Pahu in the Waikato.

With less of an appetite for bobby calves in the dairy industry the study has now taken on an added dimension for Phil.

“There are going to be more young dairy cross stock grown on in the future,” he says.

Phil is now keen to find relatively easy summer crops that will help take young animals of around 100kg through to 200kg liveweight.

Phil ran dairy calves on the multispecies crops in the trial, with heifers on the monocrops.

While there are many different aspects of what a successful crop could look like, for Katherine, this study was fairly narrow - focusing on the agronomics of the mixes. This covered herbage production, metabolisable energy (ME), weed incursion and production costs.

Kicking off in September 2021, a range of simple four species mixtures along with a couple of hyperdiverse mixtures containing more than 10 species, was compared with a brassica monoculture.

Above: One problem with the mixes was the oats seeded too early compared to the brassica.

Ideally, they also wanted to see reduced chemical use or no spraying at all.

Rape – a brassica - was the monoculture crop and was also used in the simpler mixes along with a cereal - oats, plantain for ground cover and red clover.

By the time the trial came to an end there had been some surprising results and some lessons learned.

The red clover seed had thrown a small spanner in the works when it failed to germinate. This saw the four-seed mixes performing as three-seed mixes.

While the spring rains got the crop up and running as expected, it turned out to be a very dry summer with little further rain. This may have been behind the plantain failing to contribute drymatter through summer but taking off in late February for a second grazing.

The 21-species mix wasn’t popular with Phil or Katherine.

“A lot didn’t establish and didn’t perform,” Katherine says. “There was also a high proportion of yield from sunflowersbut they’re poor in terms of feed value. Overall in feed value it’s quite limited.”

While cattle will eat the leaves they will sometimes avoid sunflower stalks if there is other feed available, she says.

“The cost of producing metabolised energy with the 21-species mix was more expensive than the rape monoculture because the cost of the seed is so expensive. Even with no weed or pest control, it was still more expensive because of the seed costs.”

The oats proved to be a star performer for suppressing weeds but went to seed well before the rest of the forage, and was in poor condition by the time the stock were put on in mid-January. Both Tozer and Weir agree Triticale might be a better cereal option in the future instead.

There were other surprises.

“Rape is usually grown as a monoculture,” Katherine

Above: Farmer Phil Weir and agronomics scientist Katherine Tozer found the trial promising but more research is needed.

Right: Neither Katherine or Phil were happy that a high proportion of yield came from sunflowers which cows often won’t eat.

Right: The sunflower performed poorly in terms of feed value.

Below: Katherine Tozer: More trials on different farms are now needed.

‘THE COST OF PRODUCING METABOLISED ENERGY WITH THE 21-SPECIES MIX WAS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THE RAPE MONOCULTURE BECAUSE THE COST OF THE SEED IS SO EXPENSIVE..’

advised. “In the monoculture trials versus the mixed crops we found rape in the mixture was quite susceptible to being out-competed by the other species and producing a small plant. So, we had to keep a high proportion of it in the mix, to ensure it contributed a biologically significant amount of energy to the mix,” she says.

The oats were also star performers when it came to sowing rates. In one mix they found they could drop back the recommended monoculture sowing rate to about 30% or less, before its contribution to the total yield started dropping off.

“It was very interesting,” Katherine says.

A reduction in the ability to control pest grasses using chemicals was one of the biggest issues for Phil. Having grasses in the mixes meant he wasn’t able to control the rise of other summer grasses that acted as pest weeds, suppressing wanted species.

A positive of having the cover crops in the ground meant when they were grazed off in autumn and when the time came to bring the paddocks back into the grazing round, Phil didn’t need to spray out as he would with a monoculture crop, and simply drilled in Italian ryegrass. This saw the ground continuously covered.

In hindsight Phil reckons they should have used kale instead of the rape, as kale is more flexible with when it can be grazed.

If he were doing another summer crop this

Rather than bringing in supplementary feed during long hot summers multi-species pasture could be a promising alternative.

spring, Phil reckons he would sow a kale crop. “Keep it clean using chemicals and then just before canopy closure spread fertilizer with chicory seed in it.”

Key findings:

• Simple mixtures provided a viable alternative to a brassica monoculture based on energy yield and energy costs. The most promising option was a simple rape-dominant mixture which contained rape, plantain and a cereal. It had a high energy yield, low weed abundance and a low metabolisable energy cost.

• Hyper-diverse mixtures did not provide energy yield or energy cost advantages when compared to a simple mixture.

• Plantain contributed little to total drymatter in mid-summer but provided forage at the end of February for a second grazing.

• The cereal established rapidly and reduced weed ingress in the rape-dominant mixture harvested in mid-summer.

• A diverse mix may have lower weed ingress, but herbicide options are also limited.

Katherine emphasises that while the results are interesting, this was one summer trial on one farm. More research on more farms over several years is needed, she says.

• Also involved with the project are Agricom New Zealand, PGG Wrightson Seeds, and Farmlands Co-operative Society.

Phil Weir: The various mixes saw differing amounts of weed incursion reducing spraying options.

Dr Katherine Tozer: The mixes combined crop, cereal and pasture species for high energy in mid-to-late summer.

Milking it

- Milking other mammals

44 Over the hump for milk

47 Home on the buffalo range

50 Hinds in control

53 Venison, velvet, and now milk

56 A future in sheep milking

60 Stars in the flock - lowmethane-emitting sheep

64 Lambs galore

Over the hump for milk

Camels rounded up from Australia’s outback feral herds are providing a novel source of alternative milk.

Irrigation not that reliable? Hot dry summers becoming a problem?

Here’s an alternative, but you might need a few modifications to the dairy.

How about milking camels? Yes, it’s a thing – in Australia anyway.

Camel milking is a growing industry across the Tasman with the low fat, bright, white milk retailing about $20/litre.

Paul Martin is the chief executive and founder of Summer Land

What started out as an interest in how to use feral camels in a regenerative farming system has snowballed into a farming operation and development of a sector that now offers high-value cheeses, milk, gelato, a skincare range, milk powder and …. vodka.

Yes, camel vodka, made from the whey by-product of cheese making.

But that’s not all, Paul says they’ve aged some of the distilled alcohol in barrels and camel whiskey is likely to be added to their diverse range of products. While that’s a novel product, research at universities in Melbourne and Queensland into the health properties of camel milk is also coming up with exciting results and supporting the value of more traditional camel dairy products, he says. The milk is better tolerated by those unable to drink cows’ milk, particularly those with gut and skin issues, Paul says.

Compared with cows’ milk, camel milk has:-

• low levels of lactose and LDL cholesterol

Camels, Australia’s largest camel dairy farming operation just 45 minutes southwest of Brisbane, inland from the Gold Coast in the Scenic Rim area.

It’s one of an increasing number of camel dairies dotted all over the country.

• only A2 casein

• no beta-lactoglobulin

• is naturally homogenised

• 10 times more iron

• three times more vitamin C

• up to 10 times more highly valued lactoferrin.

Most recently it’s been found to have properties that provide insulin-like effects.

“It’s a product that’s really got the scientists excited,” Paul says.

Camels have almost become the Australian version of the possum in New Zealand for those living in the outback.

They were imported as a means of outback transport in the 1800s, but were turned loose with the advent of road transport.

Numbers of the hardy, humped, 400-600kg creatures have exploded to more than a million and they wreak havoc with ecosystems and outback station fences.

Instead of culling, Paul saw value in harnessing the animals’ hardiness and says there’s huge untapped potential in the high-value milk.

He brings in camels from the bush and has set up a “holding farm” in Northern Queensland where he can then bring in pregnant females for the dairy operation.

Currently at Harrisville, not far from Brisbane, they’re about to set up a larger milking operation on the other side of the Great Dividing Range.

Camel milking has been carried out for centuries in the Middle East but it’s still been a “bit of a learning curve” for Paul and his team.

The milk may be rich in beneficial components but there’s a lot less of it compared with the daily volumes from cows.

“The most we’ve seen is 14 litres

from one camel milked twice-aday, but we’re generally looking at 5-8l/day/camel on twice-a-day and anywhere between 1.5-4l/camel/day on once-a-day (OAD).”

At Summer Land Camels they run about 400 camels and milk about 90 year-round OAD to balance production with product volumes and to enable a quick lift in production as new products and markets are developed.

It takes four years for a female camel to become sexually mature, which is why bringing in pregnant females from the feral population makes sense.

“We do have a breeding programme running alongside that and we have our own heifers in our milking herd now but for the foreseeable future we’ll be largely using the feral females.”

Camels are named similarly to cattle – female adults are cows, males are bulls, young are calves. Females are grouped together in similar calving date groups and the calves remain on their mums for the duration of the cows’ lactation which can be anywhere from one to two years.

Calf weaning and cow lactation length are tied together – the cows tend to dry up once the calves stop feeding.

Top-bottom: The farm has a tourism aspect too – visitors can feed the camels and enjoy a slow-paced camel ride as well as sample the milk products. Camels in parlour. Camel calves are kept with their mums throughout the lactation.

‘We have groups of cows who are lactating and groups of cows who are gestating – it’s not like the dairy sector where you can milk pregnant cows.’

Lactating camels have high oxytocin levels and they won’t get in-calf until they’re no longer milking.

“So, we have groups of cows who are lactating and groups of cows who are gestating – it’s not like the dairy sector where you can milk pregnant cows.”

Camels are pregnant for 12 to 14 months and, at Summer Land Camels, they aren’t milked until the calves are about four to six weeks old.

The process of training them for the milking parlour starts before they calve, in a smaller unit near the main 10-bail dairy.

“We get them used to being handled, used to the noise,” cameleer Ben Ryan says.

When the calves are about four weeks old, they too start to be trained, ready for the overnight separation from mum so she can be milked.

“We draft them off for a couple of hours through the day to get used to being away from mum although they can always see each other,” he says.

Contrary to popular belief camels aren’t typically bad-tempered although, when it comes to the males, all but the bulls used for mating are castrated.

“They’re actually very affectionate and gentle – like big Labradors, they want to get a scratch and be close to you,” he says.

Once they’re ready to start being milked the calves are separated from their mums in the afternoon but can see them at all times.

The cows are milked about 6.30am with lots of attention paid to stimulating let down.

They’re then reunited with their calves.

Calves are fed calf muesli, hay and start drinking water from day one.

Cows are fed pellets in the dairy and eat about 2.5-3% of their body weight per day in silages made from a variety of crops grown on the 344-hectare farm as well as grazed pasture.

Paul says there’s been no real research done on increasing milk production through feeding and typically camels will transfer any excess feed to fat reserves in their hump.

Body condition scoring a camel can be done at a glance – the bigger the hump the bigger the fat reserves.

While they’re ruminants their rumens are adapted to pull as much water out of feed as they can and they’re well suited to breaking down lignin and woody material.

“They’re browsers rather than grazers and in their natural state they seek out a wide variety of plants.”

Summer Land Camels can have 1000 visitors a week with a homestead café and shop selling the full range of camel products, from the popular Persian feta cheese – which is also exported to the United States - to flavoured milk drinks, camelccinos, the skin care products and even camel meats.

Camel rides and farm tours are extremely popular with young and old.

As well as the whiskey, products may soon also include infant formula because of its high nutritional value and ability to be tolerated by those with dairy allergies.

“There’s a lot of potential with these animals. We’re discovering new benefits from their milk all the time and they’re well adapted to face climate change.”

More? www.summerlandcamels.com.au

Paul Martin – bringing camels in from the wild .

Home on the buffalo range

Phil Armstrong may have grown up on a dairy farm at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty, but he disliked the lifestyle so much he went commercial fishing as soon as he left school, staying in the industry for 17 years.

His father would be laughing to see him in the milking shed now, he reckons.

That his son is milking water buffalo rather than regular cows would also likely have raised even more chuckles from his Dad.

School taught him how to learn, Phil says, and that was as much as he needed. From starting in the fish factory to working his way up to getting a skipper’s ticket for a commercial boat.

Then he met Annie Wills.

Having been involved with the fishing industry so long - including being away at sea for up to 10 weeks at a time, Phil saw a change would be needed.

“Fishing and family are like oil and water and the two don’t mix very

well,” he says. He liked the idea he could one day build Annie a house, so Phil turned his hand to building instead.

Annie had also taken a meandering life path after starting at Massey University looking to be a vet. While she didn’t come from a farming background – her father Chris is an engineer and mother Pam worked in the jewellery trade – Annie decided agriculture was more fun and did an agricultural degree instead.

Adventure called and initially Annie headed overseas to Germany as an au pair. But then found herself driving safari trucks and hosting guests for a safari company in Botswana before visa issues saw her back in New Zealand, where she met Phil.

But which direction the two should head in together was uncertain. For a couple of years, they ran a foaling station where they took on about 20 horses each year from a stud and foaled them over a three-month season. Then they’d go on holiday.

While in Italy, on one sojourn,

It got Annie thinking. Mediterranean river buffalo were well-suited to the hot, dry Italian climate and could do well in north Auckland and Northland’s warming climate too.

They looked into it and were surprised to find, in spite of the animals being good doers including on poor quality pasture, and being well suited to the northern climate there weren’t many in the country.

In 2008 Phil and Annie imported 17 in-calf water buffalo cows, and two bulls, from Australia and started making cheese.

Water buffalo are big animals with impressive horns. Annie and Phil breed them for a quiet temperament and cull troublemakers. Because they are quite

Developing a water buffalo dairy operation is a novel business choice for a Northland couple. Report and photographs by Delwyn Dickey.

hierarchical Phil doesn’t recommend an individual herd bigger than 40 animals.

The couple also won’t cut the horns off even though it means the animals can’t be processed for meat.

“The horns are part of the way the animals have adapted to hot weather,” Phil says. “Blood is pumped through the horns to help keep them cool.”

The animals are long-lived and will produce milk for 20 years. Unlike dairy cows which can produce between 25 and 40 litres of milk a day, buffalo only produce eight litres from their once-a-day milking.

But the milk is much higher in fat, with higher protein, lactose, vitamins, and minerals compared to cow’s milk. The higher milksolids help make it particularly attractive for butter, cream, yoghurt, cheese, and ice-cream.

Managing the buffalo is similar to dairy cattle says Phil but there are some differences. Electric fences work very well for the animals and there are only 2 wire electric fences around the farm. All the trees are hot-wired off as the animals

like to rub against them and will damage them, he says.

Because they love water so much, all the troughs are partially hot-wired off to stop the buffalo climbing into them and in wet weather the animals will also dig wallows in low-lying parts of the paddocks and lie in the mud. This sometimes sees Phil hosing them down before he’ll let them in the milking shed. A standoff pad is also used in wet winter weather and supplementary feed or balage fed, plus about 10 to 15kg/day/animal of spent grain from a local brewery.

Phil built a walk-through milking shed which works well for the herd size. All of the animals have names and milking time is very low stress with the animals walking into stalls when they’re ready.

Milking is once a day, every day, which makes getting off the farm difficult at the moment, although a retired neighbour has just started doing some relief milking. The couple share all the farm duties.

With the operation taking up less than three hours in the morning Phil is able to keep working in his building

business, while Annie homeschools their two children as well as cheese making and working on the entrepreneur side of the business. She has recently come up with a soap recipe but this is still at the experimental stage.

Cheese making is done at Annie’s parents’ place, an hour south at Dairy Flat, with the milk transported there every second day.

Pam and Chris will soon be moving in with Annie, Phil, and their two sons, on the Whangaripo Valley farm, the pair helping Phil to build a larger house for them all in his spare time.

This move will also see an expanded cheese making facility – at present a repurposed shipping container.

The milking herd has expanded over the years with about 30 animals at Whangaripo with youngsters on a separate property in Dairy Flat. They also sell milking cows on to other farms. They were originally able to sell the meat for a time with the animals sent to a small abattoir in Ruakura, but this was eventually sold. Now they are only

The horns are part of the way the animals have adapted to hot weather.’

Left: Annie Wills and Phil Armstrong farm water buffalo in the beautiful Whangaripo Valley. Above: Buffalo produce about eight litres of milk each day.

able to sell the meat for pet food. Not having access to smaller abattoirs closer to home or being able to sell home-kill meat is a classic problem for many specialist breeders, Phil says, with the big processors not guaranteeing they can return meat from an individual farm, and most meat going overseas. They have gifted some surplus animals to be slaughtered and used as meat for the big cats at the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary – formally Zion Wildlife Gardens near Whangarei. But with limited options, other carcases have ended up in landfill. They had looked at a portable abattoir in the past and Phil reckons it may be time to have another look at this.

Whangaripo Valley is long and picturesque, connecting the rural town of Wellsford with the sweeping white sands of Pakiri Beach - the northern entrance to the Hauraki Gulf, on Auckland’s doorstep. It still feels isolated.

The Matakana market

Their main market is very close, however, just 15 kilometres away - over the hill, at the Matakana Farmers’ Market.

While Matakana village is still relatively quiet during the week there is a big influx of mainly Auckland city day-trippers, during the weekends. The farmers’ market on a Saturday morning is a big drawcard and the place is usually packed. Locals have learned to shop early and leave before the city crowds turn up after 8.30am.

The market also has a reputation as a foodie destination and attracts chefs from the city restaurants. This has seen the restaurant trade their second biggest market after the farmers market. Over the years the range of products they produce has expanded and now, along with an expansive list of specialty cheeses, includes yoghurt and ice-cream.

The business has been doing so well, with them selling everything they make. A few years ago the couple had to decide if they wanted to expand. But in the end that would have meant selling the small farm - which they love, and buying a bigger farm with more infrastructure and more debt.

Annie finds the view that buffalo farming is not a serious farming proposition and only suited to lifestylers

annoying as it has been successful for them financially, and has enabled them to remain mortgage-free including while building their new home.

It is only their desire to stay living where they are, and keep production at a smaller, more manageable scale, that has stopped them from seriously scaling it up, she says.

With their sons Marin, now 16, and Malo, 13, they want to be able to step back in a couple of years’ time and travel with them. Keep the farm but perhaps sell the cheese-making business and take a year off, sailing home from the Mediterranean, Annie says.

• While dairy cattle produce by far the largest amount of milk globally at 84%, buffalo produce the second largest quantity. Buffalo milk production exceeds 75 million metric tons per year and is increasing steadily at about 3% per year. Dairy milk has an average fat content of 4% and protein content of 3.5%, while buffalo milk has average fat content of about 8% with protein content between 4% and 4.5%.

Left: His Dad would be chuckling at seeing him in a milking shed again Phil reckons. Right: Pam and Chris selling yoghurt to a regular customer at the Matakana Farmers Market.

Hinds in control

While dairy farmers are in full swing with calving and milking, Peter McIntyre, his wife Sharon and son Chris are still taking it easy with the planned start of fawning not until November 10.

Although it’s not really them doing the planning because the milking herd of 120 deer on the eastern Southland farm are always very much in control.

“Mating is triggered by daylight hours and if it’s too cold or there is not enough feed, not that it happens on our farm, the hind can hold its baby for up to a month before giving birth,” Sharon said.

Fawning of the mixed aged hinds is usually over in two and a half weeks and last year they had 90 fawns after the first nine days to hand rear.

This year daughter Rhiannon is due home from her dive job on the Great Barrier Reef to help feed the fawns.

“They’re different to sheep or cows. With them, the young initiate feeding but for the first two weeks it’s the hinds, so you really have to make the fawns feed,” Peter said.

“At the start they won’t come running when you pour the milk into the calfeteria.”

Milking is twice-a-day until about New Year and then it’s once-a-day until drying off sometime between late February and April. Production is usually between 8000 and 12,000 litres a season depending on how long they milk for.

The milk is frozen onfarm in 10 or 20 litre bladders and trucked to Palmerston North where Pāmu take over, spray drying and packaging it into milk powder ready for reconstitution, pharmaceuticals or beauty products with South Korea the main market.

Pāmu has its own deer milking farm at Aratiatia in the North Island’s central plateau and milk from the two farms won the best dairy ingredient category for its Doe Nutrition food supplement and was highly commended in the best functional dairy category at the World Dairy Innovation Awards in Laval, France, in June. The McIntyres are happy to leave the processing and marketing of the product to Pāmu as they have enough to think about onfarm.

They were introduced to deer milking in 2014 by John and Mary Falconer who were then milking elk (Wapiti) in the Maniototo backed by Queenstown entrepreneur Graeme Shaw.

Deer milk from a farm in Southland is part of an international awardwinning tie-up with Pāmu. Story and Photos by Karen Trebilcock.

Some of their plant came from them and the rest they’ve figured out through trial and, they say, a lot of error.

“The kids were keen so we decided to try it but we spent hours and hours talking, trying to solve problems when we started,” Sharon said.

A tunnel house built for the fawns proved too hot and skylights were built into the dairy and the ceilings raised as it worked better than the traditional dark rooms used for handling deer.

The high solids content of the milk made cleaning the plant problematic until Thomas Hazlett from Ecolab designed a cleaning routine for them.

The milking season coincides nicely with university holidays and it’s usually Lincoln or Massey agriculture students and trainee vets doing the work.

“The vet students really like it because there are not a lot of vets who are used to handling deer,” Sharon said.

Peak milk is about two to three litres a day with 20% solids, half and half fat and protein at the start of the season with

28% solids later. Going on once-a-day and drying off is also dictated by the deer.

“We have milked through rutting with a really quiet stag that just stayed in the paddock but it’s unusual,” Chris said.

“When the days get hot they sit around and they don’t eat so there’s no point milking them in the afternoon.

“You can’t make them eat.”

With their udders small and away from the ground, they don’t get mastitis but somatic cells can be a problem usually due to lameness, with any deer treated with antibiotics dried off.

Milking, in rows of 10, takes two and half hours to three, including washing up, and although it could be more automated Peter said the milkers enjoy the handson experience and they try to make it a positive experience for the hinds.

Cups on is about 6.30am but the deer sometimes must be woken up first and then it can take half an hour to get them from the paddock to the dairy with some wanting to follow and others taking their time and lots wanting pats along the way.

Once in the dairy, one person will be putting them in the stalls while the other starts cupping.

The amount of milk each hind gives is recorded against her tag number with all the milk traceable.

And although a deer has four teats just like a cow, they only use one cup.

“It just works best we’ve found,” Peter said.

Fawns are taken off early and the first eight milkings are colostrum and then it’s into the vat.

The fawns are hand-reared first using a bottle, with feeds four times a day, transitioning to calfeterias. When the colostrum runs out it’s lamb milk powder. No fawns are euthanised with the males kept for velvet.

“We wouldn’t do it if we had to euthanise anything. This is not just about making money. It’s about the animals too,” Peter said.

But the hand-reared fawns can become too friendly on the farm.

“When you’re thistle-spraying or doing

‘They’re different to sheep or cows. With them, the young initiate feeding but for the first two weeks it’s the hinds, so you really have to make the fawns feed.’

Chris McIntyre hand-feeds some of the family’s milking hinds.

a job they’ll find you and follow you right through the paddock,” Peter said.

The fifth generation on what was a traditional sheep and beef farm, Peter once worked in forestry and used to hunt.

“I was always interested in deer and then we got approached in the mid-70s to start farming them. You needed a licence back then to do it.

“We used to buy one or two animals at a time. Some of them we paid more than $5000 for.”

Although never involved in live capture, they did buy a Wapiti stag from Fiordland but now their bloodlines are pure English reds with the liveweight of mature hinds between 120kg and 150kg.

On their 320-hectare farm at Benio, they run 500 reds, mostly stags for velveting, including the 120 milking hinds.

There are also 1000 fallow deer grown for meat but also sent to hunting blocks for mostly American trophy hunters. While Covid has put a halt to that part of the business, velvet has been booming due to its health benefits.

Velvet makes up about 70% of the McIntyres’ business with meat 20% and the deer milk 10%.

They have used AI in the past but now do only natural matings, buying in stags for their velvet potential.

Deer live long enough to go through menopause at about 15 years and most of their hinds in the milking herd are 12 years or younger.

The replacement rate is about a third

with the best milkers kept each year.

“They’re very smart, a lot smarter than people think,” Peter said.

“On some of the gates we have to put two latches and always have them tight otherwise they figure out pretty quickly how to open them.”

The odd wandering wild animal causes problems but are quickly dealt with before they cause trouble.

The hinds are fed “a handful” of deer nuts while milking but otherwise it’s just pasture in the summer and fodder beet or kale in the winter but they don’t get a new paddock after each milking.

“They won’t graze, they browse. They’ll eat all the chicory in a paddock and then all the plantain and then the grass. It makes it really hard to manage.

“And when you’re topping, if they’re in the paddock, you have to be careful because they won’t move out of the way if they’re lying down.”

Wallow holes are filled in as quickly as they appear and all the waterways on the farm leave via wetlands – fenced off from the deer in case they want to wallow in them as well.

Wallowing not only causes environmental problems but also results in ear tags needing to be constantly washed in the dairy.

“We’ve spent a huge amount on shade and shelter on the farm for the deer,” Peter said.

“We do it because we love the animals. They all have their own personalities.”

Chris (left), Peter and Sharon McIntyre at home with some of the high-end products their deer milk is made into.

Venison, velvet, and now milk

When an entrepreneur approached Canterbury deer farmers Graham Carr and Mark Faulks nearly eight years ago to ask them if they’d ever considered milking the aloof, highly strung animals the pair thought it was a good joke.

But it started them thinking and then thinking some more.

With a bit of determination and plenty of innovation they’ve developed a deer-milking venture called Deer Milking New Zealand with more than 300 hinds now happy to stand in a purposebuilt, 12-a-side herringbone dairy, once-a-day (OAD) to be milked.

Rebecca Davidson is the company’s commercial manager.

She’s a specialist in marketing and commercial business and has worked in her field for more than 18 years.

She’s also Graham Carr’s stepdaughter and is every bit as passionate about the farming business as those working with the land and animals.

“It’s been amazing to see this whole new farming venture unfold and we’re very excited about where it’s heading,” she says.

Graham Carr is well known in the deer industry with Peel Forest Estate a renowned large-scale producer of world-class velvet, venison and trophy animals.

Mark Faulks joined Graham’s business in 2003 as a farm manager of Lincoln Hills and soon became an equity partner in the property.

It’s now a specialist breeding unit, home to about 2000 hinds with stags brought in from Peel Forest Estate during the roar.

In the mid-2000s they also converted a nearby deer finishing block to dairy with Mark managing the conversion process as well as the deer unit.

It meant learning new skills which, at that stage, he wouldn’t have dreamed would become useful to working with fleet-footed hinds.

But that’s exactly what happened when, in 2015 the thoughts about deer milking became a reality and they began converting a deer shed into a deer dairy.

Simon Wakefield came on board near the outset of the milking venture, initially as a tractor driver,

A long-established deer farming operation has branched out with a successful deer milking operation. Anne Lee reports.

but helped out in the dairy and quickly showed his talent for handling the animals.

He’s now head milker and manages the dairy deer.

Originally from Ireland, where he grew up on a 20.15ha, 23-cow dairy farm, his occupation surely raises eyebrows at the local pub back home.

The original dairy plant installed at the farm was for milking goats and had two cups per cluster.

They’ve stuck with that set up, despite deer having four teats, and milk the front two quarters first.

“They have small udders and you wouldn’t get four cups on at once anyway – but the cup system suits them because milking them is very different to a cow.”

Spending the time to get good let down and then ensuring each quarter is fully milked out has proven important to maintaining milk production and a healthy udder.

In eight years, they’ve only had one case of mastitis and somatic cell counts are extremely low at about 8000cells/ml, Simon says.

Early on it was apparent not every deer was suited to being milked.

They started out with a small group working with them and removing any hinds that didn’t have the right temperament for being handled.

A grumpy hind doesn’t just lash out with her hooves, she’ll bite too, so unlike cows you have to watch both ends of the animal.

The dairy is set up to be as user friendly to the deer as possible with dim lighting and plenty of padding in the bails set up in a herringbone fashion.

A gate secures each animal in their bail and holds them firmly in place along the length of their body on each side.

The gates are padded protecting the strong yet fragile animals.

They can’t see the milking pit, the clusters, machinery or the milkers because of a thick rubber wall.

A round hole is cut in the rubber wall allowing the milker to pass the cups through to the udder.

The wall protects the milker but also the deer keeping noise down and activity out of sight.

Once they had a group of animals that could be milked the focus turned to yield.

“We had a massive variation – some hinds would give 200ml and some could produce 1.5litres in a milking,” Simon says.

They’ve found it’s often the smaller animals that produce the best yields and thanks to the years of recording carried out on Peel Forest Estate they are starting to identify lines of animals best suited for milking.

That could result in a specialist Red Deer line of milking deer and yet another string in the bow to Peel Forest Estate’s already impressive genetics.

The herd now averages 1l/hind/day over a three-month lactation – from February 1 to May 1.

Hinds fawn in mid to late November and milking begins about six weeks after fawning.

Offspring from many of the original hinds have now entered the herd and milking is a calm, gentle experience.

Like cows, the hinds have a hierarchy and their favourite sides of the dairy to come into.

“You can’t be in a rush, things have to be done at their pace, quietly,” Simon says. During lactation hinds are fed about 20% more than commercial breeding hinds and need high quality pasture.

Some pasture silage is fed during the shoulders of the season but no supplements are fed in the dairy because the animals are too alert to focus on feeding while there.

Deer milk is more concentrated than cows’ milk with a 25% milksolids (MS) content.

Half of that is fat and while that makes for an amazing, creamy product it does mean a few modifications had to be made to the milking plant and extra effort goes into plant washdown, Simon says.

Far left: Simon Wakefield –head deer milker, calmly and quietly is how you milk deer. Left: Deer and milkers are separated by a thick rubber wall.

Concentrated goodness

Discovering the nutritional composition of the milk has led to some exciting finds and is opening the way for world first product developments, Rebecca says.

Research with Callaghan Innovation has revealed just what concentrated goodness deer milk is with a big range of omega fatty acids and other bioactive lipids including phospholipids and gangliosides believed to play a role in brain development and immune response.

It has a higher percentage of protein than sheep and goats’ milk with two to three times more protein than cows’ milk.

Levels of lactoferrin are up to nine times greater than cows’ milk throughout the season. Rebecca says researchers found high levels of other vitamins and nutrients too. Initially the deer milk was used for niche cheese making because of its high fat content and a lot of effort went into developing a risk management plan (RMP) necessary before animal products can be sold to the public.

It was processed and sold by Talbot Forest Cheese as Gouda and Havarti for some time but Rebecca says other products were also explored such as yoghurt, icecream, capsules, tablets, skincare and a fermented milk drink known as kefir.

“We laugh sometimes because we’d thought milking the deer would be the hard part but processing it has taken a lot of ingenuity and system development.

“With quite a bit of effort we’ve been able to get the milk to powder, via freeze drying or spray drying.

“The high fat content makes drying it difficult using standard milk drying processes.

“We’ve decided that we’re focusing our efforts now on developing nutraceutical products so we can make best use of the nutrients and bioactives in it.

“We’ve done a lot of field studies with people and animals and we’ve found it has success in supporting immune systems and with anti- inflammatory issues as well as great results in the musculoskeletal systems of both animals and humans, due to the high protein nature of the milk.”

Last year they were approached by a Korean company interested in using the milk for pets.

“We’ve trademarked the Nutrideer brand and we’ve developed a bespoke freeze-dried powder product that’s used as a sprinkle to go on pet food.”

Rebecca says the wider Asian market is very familiar with deer products with nearly all parts of the deer used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries.

They are now developing a range of high-end pet supplements that will have the deer milk powder as the hero ingredient but may also contain other New Zealand natural ingredients including the possibility of deer velvet. But it’s not just pets – they’re also looking to develop a range of supplements for people too.

That’s where they’re heading next but the longer-term potential seems boundless given the rich array of components in, what not that long ago would have seemed an unlikely source of milk.

Raising the standard of hoof care.

Gain knowledge and practical skills.

Lameness is now amongst the top three health issues on-farm and it is costing New Zealand dairy farmers millions of dollars every year.

Advanced hoof care management course

ASHBURTON: 5 - 9th December 2022

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This is an intensive 5-day course that covers both the theory and the practice of hoof care and hoof trimming techniques led by our director Fred Hoekstra, who is NZ’s only fully qualified hoof care instructor. Held at DHI headquarters and on local host farms. Register today at dhi.ac.nz

‘It’s been amazing to see this whole new farming venture unfold and we’re very excited about where it’s heading.’

Graham Carr has been a pioneer in the deer industry.

A future in sheep milking

The dairy sheep sector is gaining momentum in Canterbury with an ultra high temperature (UHT) milk processing plant being installed at Kirwee, near Christchurch, and a powder drier planned for completion by early 2024.

Sheep Milk New Zealand is a company set up by Matt and Tracey Jones and they’re keen to see a lot more farmers join them in a venture they say has masses of potential and could solve a few issues for their dairy farming cousins.

Matt worked within the dairy sector in Canterbury for several years, setting up agricultural training and staffing businesses.

He thinks there are synergies for the dairy and sheep milking sectors with opportunities for dairy farmers wanting to lower their environmental footprint or diversify their businesses.

Six Canterbury sheep milking farms are already supplying the company with milk that’s used to make traditional dairy products such as cheeses and drinking milk which sells for $4.95 per

450ml bottle. The dairy food products are sold under the Jones Family Farm brand. Skin care products are also produced from the milk and sold under the Sabelle brand.

Farmers supplying the company must commit to a minimum pick up of 600 litres a day (300-600 sheep at 1-2litres/ sheep) with the company’s tanker doing the rounds to pick up the milk and deliver it to Kirwee.

The powder spray drier will be set up in Ashburton and will be of a similar size to the drier at Food Innovation Network’s site at Waikato, capable of processing 440kg of milk powder an hour.

Matt says it will open the way for infant formula production and allow sheep milk to become a high-quality, premium ingredient in a range of products.

It will also be available to others on a toll processing basis and Matt says there’s interest from other milk sectors including specialist bovine milks.

The UHT plant at Kirwee will allow a range of milk products to be produced

A daughter’s dairy allergies swayed a Canterbury farming couple to invest in milking sheep. Anne Lee reports.

with a longer shelf life which will make exporting products possible.

Matt and Tracey have been quietly developing their sheep milking venture for about 10 years.

Their interest was sparked by a need to find dairy alternatives for their daughter and along the way they found sheep milk was better for others in the family too –gentler on the gut and helped with skin irritation.

The milk is A2, high in fat, readily digested and naturally more homogenised.

In 2011 they bought part of an East Friesian stud and in 2019, buoyed by growing interest in sheep milk products from others, began commercially milking their flock.

They’re now milking 600 ewes on their 48-hectare home block at Kirwee through a 12-a-side herringbone dairy.

The East Friesian has been bred for its milking ability and widely used for generations but they can struggle in NZ conditions.

Matt says they are bringing in other breeds with the aim of creating an animal that is highly suited to the South Island

environment, particularly with feet problems.

“They need to be able to handle -10C right through to temperatures that can approach 40C here in Canterbury.”

Matt and Tracey have been crossing the East Friesians with Manech tête rousse – a hardy breed from the Pyrenees and French Basque country and have also been using the Laucane which has good udder and teat conformation.

The East Friesian and Laucane aren’t known for their strong feet but the inclusion of the hardy Manech tête rousse genetics should improve that.

The sheep are run through a foot bath on the way out of the dairy and into the covered feeding area to help manage foot issues such as footrot.

Lambs stay with their mothers for four days and are then removed to a purposebuilt rearing shed where they’re trained on to automatic lamb milk feeders.

They’re fed ad lib milk on the automatic feeders along with lamb muesli and silage and are weaned at 15kg at about four weeks.

They’re lambing in spring and autumn to help maintain a flow of milk throughout the year.

Ewes are on a relatively high input diet and are fed 2kg drymatter (DM)/ewe/day) of a mixed ration of lucerne silage, maize, peas, grains and other nutrients including fish oils.

It’s mixed in a silage wagon and fed on to a conveyor belt that runs at sheep dining-height into the middle of the

covered feeding shed. Once the first lot of feed reaches the end of the conveyor belt in the middle of the shed, it’s shut off allowing the ewes good access to a fresh “table” of high energy milking feed.

They get an estimated 2kg DM/ewe/day of fresh pasture while out grazing but have access to the feeding shed so they can get out of the heat of the day or shelter from colder weather.

They also get 1kg DM/ewe/day of grain in the dairy with partitioned feed bins filled and then lowered to sheep feeding height as each new row comes in to be milked.

Each animal has an electronic identification (EID) tag and the herringbone dairy is set up with EID readers and milk meters so each ewe’s production is monitored.

“That’s been key to our breeding programme because we’ve been able to identify the ewes that are our highest producers,” Matt says.

Elite animals in Europe can produce up to 180kg MS/ewe or 1000 litres in a lactation.

A survey of 16 NZ sheep farmers carried out two years ago found ewes were averaging 220l each, he says.

“So, there’s a lot of potential for the industry here,” he says.

Their animals are averaging 80kg MS/ewe or 400l/ewe over 280 days.

Better producers in the flock milk 4l/day.

Matt says they’ve done a lot of learning through experience and have set up pretty

‘They know the drill and they’re actually not flighty like a hill country sheep. They’ve been bred for this over hundreds of years and they’re keen to get in for milking each day.’

Left: Matt and Tracey Jones. Above: Milking time, sheep milking.

comprehensive support systems for farmers wanting to become suppliers.

They have a handbook on sheep milking with best practice guidelines, kitset sheds and systems, costings and financial analysis carried out by the Agribusiness Group as well as connections and networks where advice is shared between farmers.

They’ve set up a flock testing programme to help with breed development and there are a range of educational training events.

As a rough estimate returns from milk could be up to $9300/ha.

That’s based on:-

• 65kg MS/ewe or 350l

• Average stocking rate of 12 stock units (SU)/ha (1 sheep = 1.3-1.5SU)

Costs include typical farm costs of feed, labour and fertiliser with the additional cost of shearing.

Farmer suppliers have a supply agreement just as they would have for a dairy farm supplying a processor. It includes their responsibilities and minimum standards.

Farms are audited and have shed inspections in the same way dairy farms do.

If farmers are producing their own products for sale such as cheese or fresh milk they are required to have a risk management plan (RMP) but farms supplying a processor such as Sheep Milk NZ can operate under the company’s RMP.

Effluent from the farm dairy and other areas has to be collected and managed in the same way as dairy cow effluent, although there’s a lot less of it.

A sheep urine patch has significantly less volume and a lower nitrogen content than that of a dairy cow and that’s piqued the interest of a number of dairy farmers, Matt says.

A sheep, though, isn’t a cow and the idea of rounding up a mob of sheep twice a day may seem daunting especially for those more used to a slower-paced cow.

“They know the drill and they’re actually not flighty like a hill country sheep. They’ve been bred for this over hundreds of years and they’re keen to get in for milking each day,” Matt says.

A specialised sheep milking course is being run for the second year through Matt and Tracey’s business Agri Training company, which runs a wide range of NZQA certified programmes.

Matt says “students” in the sheep milking course are aged from 18-50-year-olds with varying levels of experience in farming.

There are a lot of synergies between sheep milking and traditional dairy farming and a lot of potential benefits for existing dairy farmers, Matt says. “We’re definitely keen to see them join us.”

Table 2. Comparing different retail milks

Table 1. Milk component comparison.

Checking out her future product, an East Friesian cross lamb.

Stars in the flock

- low-methane-emitting sheep

Researchers have discovered a genetic link to sheep with high or low levels of methane emissions.

Delwyn Dickey reports.

In the future farmers may be able to tell if their sheep or cow is a low methane emitter simply by testing its milk or taking a biopsy.

That’s the hope of AgResearch senior scientist Suzanne Rowe.

Over the last 10 years or so Suzanne and her team with funding by the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC) and the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRc), have been researching low- and high-methaneemitting sheep.

Within every flock they tested they found some sheep naturally emitted lower levels of methane when they belched, and others that produced higher methane levels.

By breeding low emitters with low emitters, and high emitters with high emitters, they were able to show this trait is hereditary and can be bred for. It is also cumulative, meaning each successive generation produces less methane compared to the previous generation, or more methane depending on the line. And this change is

permanent. The difference between the high-emitting sheep line and low-emitting line is about 10 to 12%.

A bonus is the animals in the lowemitting line are generally healthier with greater fleece weights, increased growth, lean yield and greater parasite resistance.

So what’s happening inside the sheep that emit less methane?

“As part of the fermentation process of gut microbes breaking down plant cell fibres hydrogen is produced,” Suzanne explains. “This combines with oxygen in the rumen, to form methane, which is then belched out by the sheep.

“The low-methane animal eats less than high-methane animals at each meal. But eats more meals during the day – she has a smaller rumen but has more advanced papillae which are denser and longer.” (Papillae are finger-like projections that protrude from the interior of the rumen wall to increase the surface area of the rumen for greater nutrient absorption).

“She also has more wool – so something in the gut is giving her the energy to grow more wool.

“She is basically housing a different microbial community. That community

is changing the ratio of the energy source to the animal, changing the fermentation, changing the amount of propionate that’s given to the animal and what that’s doing is consuming hydrogen – so getting less hydrogen, and so less methane. At the same time less acetate and butyrate, so getting less fat on the animal – a leaner, more muscular animal, she’s more profitable but quite different.”

But you can’t spot the high and lowemitters just by looking for them in a flock – you need to measure them, she says.

Dairy sheep breeds weren’t used in the research, but Suzanne says the outcomes would still be the same as it was a fundamental change in the energy supply coming from the gut.

Milk from low-emitting sheep

Sheep milk already has plenty going for it when compared to cow’s milk. It has higher levels of carbohydrates, minerals and certain vitamins. It also has higher levels of protein and twice the fat content of cow or goat milk. The protein in sheep milk is also more readily digested compared with cow milk making it easier

for babies, toddlers and the elderly to digest, and it is a better source of essential amino acids than cows’ milk.

The changes in milk, brought about by breeding for low-methane emissions, are also positive, Suzanne says.

“The same amount of fat is being produced by high and low-methane animals in regards to their milk, but the profile of that milk is slightly different.”

While it’s uncertain what effect that will have on quality or processing for cheeses, these changes are still within normal ranges, Suzanne says, so they should be minimal.

As far as producing milk for human consumption, the changes are positive.

“There is less saturated fat in the milk and more polyunsaturated fat, so inflammation [during digestion] is lower, and more polyunsaturated fat in the milk is good for spreadable butter. If we were using milk to make hard cheese, which we don’t really do in New Zealand, there might be a slightly lower yield,” she says.

“The same with meat – we’re seeing less saturated fat in animal products from breeding for low methane.”

While that’s a positive for health,

Being able to test for low methane without the use of accumulation chambers would be a game changer.

Left: Senior scientist Suzane Rowe: Finding the signature for low methane sheep across other livestock could bring global changes. Above: An hour in portable accumulation chambers detected low or high methane-emitting sheep.

Suzanne reckons these changes can also be seen as a signature to help identify lowemitting animals, and act as a screening tool.

“Most dairy animals in flocks and herds have some form of herd test at some point, so if we can include some form of screening test in that herd test that looks for a low-methane signature, that would really help us select the animals that would be most appropriate for breeding going forward. That signature would be the same across all rumen milk producers –sheep goats, cattle, and buffalo,” she says.

The group is measuring 5000 animals a year.

“We could be saving around 4.5 million tonnes of CO2e by 2040, by implementing this across breeders’ flocks and saving .5% per year across the national flock. This won’t impact production. Costs about $1.72 per tonne of CO2e mitigated with good returns. So a low-cost, simple, straight forward, easily marketed way to reduce methane at the farm gate.”

As the dairy industry looks to reduce its carbon footprint, and with 65% of the country’s methane emissions coming from cattle digestion compared to 27% from sheep, detecting and lowering cows’ methane emissions will have a much bigger impact on our footprint.

With news in the last few weeks that researchers have now also been able to identify low methane emitters among young breeding bulls, there is the real possibility this technology could lead to methane reduction in all NZ livestock species. But it’s too early to break out the champagne.

While things are looking positive and indicate that breeding is a credible strategy to help mitigate greenhouse gases from livestock, Suzanne says it is also one of the most modest strategies.

This is particularly pertinent when considering the targets set by the Paris agreement, one of the first of which, is to reduce global greenhouse gases by 30% by 2030.

Tasked with a 50% reduction by 2050 it’s unlikely we’ll get there by breeding alone, she says.

The technology has global implications if scientists see this signature around the world. One of the uncertainties for the technology is to do with our pastural grazing systems, as much of the milk and meat globally, especially in the United States, comes from animals raised in feedlots and feed grains and other high energy feeds, rather than on pasture.

“If we do see this signature across ruminants globally that gives us confidence it will work that it’s not going to disappear if we feed the animal a different diet.

“We don’t know what will happen if animals are grain-fed for instance, and would give us confidence this isn’t just something we might see in a small population on one single feed.”

Regardless, other mitigations will also be needed for NZ to achieve its commitments.

“There are feed additives, feeding strategies, vaccines, many more things not implemented yet but in testing. We want to know how they combine in a system.

“Combine low-methane animals with different feeding, different additives, the vaccine when it becomes available and demonstrating what happens when we combine these technologies.”

So while it may not be time to break out the bubbly just yet, perhaps move it into the fridge, rather than leaving it in the cellar.

Low-methane selection is now available to sheep breeders and could also be available in dairy soon.

‘The same amount of fat is being produced by high and low-methane animals in regards to their milk, but the profile of that milk is slightly different.’

Lambs galore

Raising a flock of sheep milk lambs is a compressed operation compared to calving. Story by Karen Trebilcock.

Maui Sheep Milk chief executive Greg Hamill is learning patience. The former LIC genetics business and strategy manager is spending two days a week out of the office this spring on the shores of Lake Taupo teaching pens of lambs to feed.

“I thought calves could be sulky, but lambs!”

With 1350 ewes lambing this spring at Waikino Station, which will equate to a peak milking flock of 1250, and a 160% lambing, that’s a lot of lambs.

“A cow will calve plus or minus 10 days from its AI date but with a sheep it’s plus or minus three days.

“And we have a 70% holding rate to AI so one day there will be nothing to do and the next there are hundreds of lambs to look after,” he says.

Planned start of lambing this year was August 22 and 1000 lambs were born in the first seven days.

“It was all hands on deck. You’re kneedeep in pens full of lambs.”

All the AI ewes are lambed inside to aid survival and for the first two to three days lambs are kept on their mothers.

“We want them to get a good amount of colostrum.

“Then we take them off in the afternoon, leave them overnight and bottle-feed them three times a day for the first day, in pens of 20 to 30, to teach the lambs to feed. Then it’s training them on a calfeteria.”

The milk fed is a mix from the vat and lamb milk powder.

Ewe lambs are kept inside on automatic feeders and transitioned on to a lucerne and pasture silage mix to maximise weight gain. Weaning is at 18kg liveweight.

“We have to get them up to 70% of mature liveweight (which is 75kg) to go to AI in April as hoggets.

Maui Sheep Milk chief executive Greg Hamill.

“But because they lamb at one year old, instead of as two-year-olds like a cow, the rate of genetic gain is much faster.

“Our breeding is still in its infancy, but it’s improving fast.”

The sheep are a composite, registered with the New Zealand Sheep Breeders Association as Southern Cross, and are a mixture of Lacaune, East Friesian and Awassi with a Coopworth base.

“To start with we couldn’t import semen into New Zealand as MPI had no protocol, so we used some East Friesian embryos that had been stored frozen from the 1990s.”

From 2015 they were crossed with Coopworths and Awassi (a Middle Eastern milking breed brought into NZ in the 1990s) until the import protocol was developed which allowed new bloodlines of East Friesian into the country as well as the prized Lacaune semen in 2017.

Lacaune are from the south of France and are part of the only large-scale sheep dairy genetic programme in the world.

Although new milking bloodlines are imported each year, the original hardiness of the Coopworth genetics also play a part with the milking sheep run mostly outside on pasture.

Although ewe lambs usually stay inside until weaning, ram lambs are outside, not needed for mating until they’re two years old.

“They have a bit more time to grow. We’re really pushing the ewe lambs to make sure they’re ready to get in lamb.”

All the lambs which are part of the genetic programme are raised to either stay onfarm or go to one of the many Maui Milk suppliers.

Rams are used for semen production or natural mating with one ram run per 100 ewes.

“We need about 30% to 35% ewe replacements so it’s a little higher than with cows.”

Lambs not required, including those from natural matings, are given away to local farmers at a few days old at a ratio of five lambs with a bag of milk powder.

“We recognise the economics aren’t great for raising lambs, and they will grow a little slower than a lamb that’s been bred for meat quality, so that’s why we include the bag of milk powder.

“The last thing we want to do is have to euthanise them.”

Unlike cows, the ewes are giving birth to singles, twins, triplets and even quads. And it’s usual for the multiple births to have smaller liveweights needing more feeding to reach weaning.

“Ewes which have multiple births produce more milk, and as an industry that’s what we’re after.

“However, as a genetics company we also recognise the complexities multiple births have on our suppliers’ farming operations.

“But those smaller lambs, they’re fighters. They’ll learn to feed off a bottle usually a lot quicker, and at a calfeteria

they’ll fight for their space amongst the bigger ones.”

The best of the ewes are artificially inseminated using laparoscopic technology that is done after the animals are dried off.

“Fundamentally, the breeding programme is the same as with cows. We breed from the best and get rid of the worst, but we’re putting a different emphasis on traits than we do with cows.

“Obviously milk production and good udders, but also somatic cells. When one of the milking sheep gets mastitis we have to dry it off as we can’t use any antibiotics on the milking animals.

“Also feet. Sheep have a lot of foot problems especially with the wet, soft ground in the Waikato.”

Because they’re sheep, they have to be shorn with shearing twice a year, a cost to the business with the wool worth less than the expense of shearing.

“Herd testing” is eight times a lactation so Greg has plenty of information to work with. He’s enjoying the challenge of having a commercially producing flock but also one targeting huge genetic gain.

“I think sheep milking can only increase in New Zealand. Certainly, if looking at greenhouse gases, they’re a lot better option than cows and the nutrient quality of sheep milk is vastly different to cows or goat milk.

“We’re getting a lot of enquiries, from dairy farmers as well as sheep and beef. Farmers with 60 to 70 hectares can certainly have a viable business milking sheep.”

‘To start with we couldn’t import semen into New Zealand as MPI had no protocol, so we used some East Friesian embryos that had been stored frozen from the 1990s.’

Left: Waikino Station, on the shore of Lake Taupo, is the home of Maui Sheep Milk. Above: Southern Cross sheep are a mixture of Lacaune, East Friesian and Awassi with a Coopworth base.

NEIGHBOURHOOD help

Floods deluged a top of the South community in August, but affected farmers tended to decline help. By

Anne Hardie.

Farmers in the Rai Valley and surrounding areas were overwhelmed in the aftermath of the August deluge, combined with calving and dumping milk, and yet many still declined help initially.

It is a pretty typical response from rural New Zealand and they are more likely to suggest someone else is in greater need rather than accept help themselves.

Aubrey Tai is Marlborough District Council’s Te Horiere/Pelorus Catchment Restoration Project co-ordinator and once the flooding subsided was able to use the project’s funding to help with urgent fencing along waterways. He was supplied a list of contacts and when he contacted those people, 95% said their neighbours were in more need of help.

“Rural communities are pretty stubborn and won’t ask for help,” he says. “Everyone thinks someone else is worse off and there’s some pride involved in there about needing help. The older generation tends to think they can handle it themselves. But as these

weather events become more extreme, maybe people will accept help easier.”

Semi-retired Rai Valley dairy farmer Brent Morrison says people often don’t want to be a burden and think they are going to cope.

“I had a forestry guy offering fencing to farmers and he said they were often saying they were okay, so I told him to just turn up. Then they took his help.”

Neighbours were often the first to offer farmers help and after that first exhausting week, Aubrey’s portable hangi supplied meals for a group of neighbours in the Ronga Valley which flows down to Rai Valley. One of the local farmers wanted to thank neighbours for their help in the wake of the flood and it became a bigger event by inviting the neighbourhood along for a get-together and a meal they didn’t need to prepare themselves. It prompted a second hangi in the neighbouring Opouri Valley a couple of weeks later and Aubrey says gatherings allow people to get together. It also provides a meal during an exhausting period when they don’t have to cook or

ENVIRONMENT FLOOD RECOVERY

do the dishes at the end of a long day. It is often hard to know who needs help, he says. In the Rai area there are three different valley systems as well as the town and each have their own communities and knowledge of who needs help and that is typical of much of rural NZ. Those communities in future can work on putting together information about their community so they can swiftly communicate their needs to agencies on issues such as roading and communication.

From the other side, he says agencies and contractors brought in to work on roads and clean up need to better understand the needs of the community and be aware of the stress on people.

“You have locals trying to clear a road and the first person they meet is telling them they are going to be prosecuted. Every organisation these days needs some sort of briefing before deploying staff out into the field. If they come into contact with landowners in super-stressful times, they need to be sensitive.”

Brent has been at the receiving end of accusations when trying to do emergency

work to get to stock. This time the family farm where his son milks 400 cows got off lightly compared with others in the region, though like all the other farms, they had to dump milk for eight days. Their neighbouring dairy farm had just four paddocks above the floodwaters and were in the middle of calving. While further toward Nelson, an entire dairy farm was flooded and the herd had to be transported elsewhere.

The Morrisons’ river flats are regularly flooded, though the severity of the August event gouged out big areas of riverbank and has made the river flats very vulnerable for future flooding. When the full force of the river breaches the banks and flows over paddocks, it begins to dig holes in the ground that are big enough to bury a tractor. The lower paddocks have had two-wire fences until now, but bigger, more frequent floods means they will likely drop to just one wire in the hope floodwater and debris will flow through.

In the first days after the flooding, Brent had to get to another block of land in the hills where they run 75 rising two-year-old

‘EVERYONE THINKS SOMEONE ELSE IS WORSE OFF AND THERE’S SOME PRIDE INVOLVED IN THERE ABOUT NEEDING HELP. THE OLDER GENERATION TENDS TO THINK THEY CAN HANDLE IT THEMSELVES.’

Left: Diggers have been busy. Right: Rai Valley farmer, Brent Morrison, beside a gouged-out area of riverbank.

steers. Many dairy farmers in the region have similar blocks in the hill country as runoffs. Farmers had plenty of warning about the heavy rain, so Brent left a tractor and feed trailer at the block before it began. Roads were blocked by slips during the rain and they had to find an alternative route to the block which took them through 15km of forestry.

“The first day it took us four hours of chainsawing to get to the property. Every day we went there we had to cut through more trees that had fallen and we needed two people and two vehicles each time in case you got stuck.”

Another block had the water pipe buried under a tonne of gravel and neighbours helped them get a temporary pipe in place within the first couple of days.

Chris Faulls is the Top of the South Rural Support Trust adverse events coordinator and part of the Rural Advisory Group that advocates for rural communities when extreme events happen. It took a well-oiled community response to overcome the many obstacles facing farmers around the

Rai Valley. A critical role was influencing the decision-makers that minor roads were important and needed to be cleared, which sometimes meant raising animal welfare issues as the reason for getting it done.

“Fonterra pushed really hard to get roads open and when the road damage is so widespread, farmers were doing selfhelp to get Fonterra to them.”

He gives full credit to the Marlborough District Council for allowing much of the work to be done by locals clearing a path for not just milk tankers, but food and medications to get through.

Once the roads could be negotiated, they could get in to ensure everyone was all right.

“On day two you have tears and a bit of anger and a bit of numbness. Then all of a sudden, the community was helping them and their mood lifted.”

Making sure no-one falls through the cracks is one of the group’s roles and Chris says that meant knocking on doors as well as asking neighbours because farmers tend to know about their neighbours. It

is important, he says, to have the right people knocking on doors as some farmers don’t want just anyone rocking up their driveway to ask questions.

“We’ve had people in the past say they don’t like a whole lot of people coming up their driveways, especially in orange vests. We have farmers go in Red Bands to have a chat and work out what is needed.”

Communication was a problem as it is in much of rural NZ when extreme events occur. Many areas still have copper wire for communication which has not been upgraded because cell phone towers have been erected. During the August event, Chris says those systems were not working in many areas and often residents were reliant on a big player in their neighbourhood who had generation capacity and ability to communicate beyond their valley.

“It makes it harder to know how people are getting on and it delays things by days. You hear about people needing help and it’s not the same as dealing with them directly.”

Volunteers from the Nelson Trout Fishing Club and Nelson Marlborough Fish & Game after the flood.

Civil Defence is at the heart of the emergency response, but Chris says it doesn’t have the reach it once had and it assumes communication is better than it actually is in many rural areas. It still takes community knowledge to reach everyone and it can take time for support to get there.

Weeks after the event, Brent says farmers are continuing to clear slips and silt on their properties and volunteers are still around. Volunteers are welcome with open arms, but if they don’t have experience, he says they need someone with the time and management skills to supervise them.

Farmers don’t usually have time to supervise volunteers. He says that was one of the great things about the Fonterra Emergency Response team that went to farms with the necessary skills to tackle the repair work. Many of the locals on lifestyle blocks had skills also, such as fencing, and rolled up to farms ready to tackle jobs by themselves.

Chris says there is always a danger of flooding a hotspot with help and overlooking surrounding areas. In this case, Rai Valley was severely affected, but other areas around the region, like the nearby North Bank were also hit hard and did not get the same response.

As help diminishes and farmers carry on by themselves, some will continue to struggle, he says. Six months down the track, someone may just snap under the pressure. He encourages neighbours and families to be mindful of the stress affecting individuals and that it doesn’t necessarily dissipate after the emergency response goes home.

Minimising consent delays for REMEDIAL WORK

Remedial river works are going to become an increasing issue for farmers facing bigger floods more often when they can’t use diggers to rectify breaches along rivers and streams without a resource consent and that takes time.

Brent Morrison’s family has milked cows on their Rai Valley farm for nearly 100 years and are used to floods across the river flats, but the rain events are getting more intense and causing greater damage.

In a typical year, the farm’s annual rainfall is about two metres – last year it was 3m.

In the August flood, three days of rain delivered 700mm on to one of their blocks, while the top of the nearby Opouri Valley recorded 1.4m. All that water headed down streams and rivers into the Rai River which then flowed into the Pelorus, capturing more water as it headed to Havelock. Along the way, it bounced between the sides of the valleys and blew out chunks of riverbank to career across paddocks as it took the easiest route to the sea.

More floods will follow and the banks of the rivers and streams have gaps blown out that will allow the floodwaters easy access across farmland. Brent says farmers have the ability and often the machinery to do a lot of the necessary work to protect their properties, but under the Resource Management Act they cannot take machinery such as diggers within 8m of waterways without a resource consent.

Each landowner needs a resource consent to carry out any remedial work and time is of the essence when they don’t know when

the next heavy rain event hits. Marlborough District Council has acknowledged the dilemma and has been working on a solution. It has been working with landowners to provide a mechanism to determine if works that landowners are wanting to undertake are necessary to minimise further impacts on property and the environment.

Aubrey Tai is the council’s Te Hoiere/Pelorus Catchment coordinator and says there needs to be a simplified and workable solution for landowners.

“If a slip occurs and blocks a waterway, most of them need to be dealt with fairly quickly to prevent further issues like increased bank erosion, land loss, etc. We are trying to develop a clear and practical process that can help expedite urgent work like this.”

But it is not a simple process and the council has been working through the legal issues of working with the Resource Management Act (RMA). Landowners will still need to get the go ahead from the council and there will be the usual rules to follow when they carry out the work. But Aubrey says it will enable landowners to get on with essential work created from the heavy rain event.

The RMA already has emergency provisions that cover urgent works to protect life and property during times of emergency, but there can be a lack of clarity about what is considered urgent work. Aubrey says the council is trying to make the process easier for landowners to know what they can do and get on with the job.

THE INFORMATION Collaring

GET THEM CYCLING

“What we know is that by getting cows on to a rising plane of nutrition we can get more energy into them and they’re going to be more likely to cycle, more likely to have higher conception rates and more likely to hold (stay in-calf).”

Farmers can do that three ways:

1. Either by increasing their energy inputs – by increasing feed offered, running heifers in a separate herd to reduce competition when grazing and/or targeting higher quality pasture.

2. Decreasing energy output by once-a-day (OAD) milking for affected groups, OAD for late calvers until they have cycled or two weeks after they have been mated.

3. Maximise their health, metri-check, optimise minerals, drench, monitor/ reduce mastitis and lameness.

Ryan says they consistently see significant improvements with six-week in-calf rate when late calvers are put on OAD until they’ve cycled or until after they’ve been mated and big drops in empty rates.

Data from cow collars combined with other production and cow feeding data is providing new insights so that farmers can act before mating and boost their herds’ mating performance.

Waimate Veterinary Centre vet Ryan Luckman told farmers at Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) focus day in September there had been a high number of early adopters of collar technology in his district.

Interrogation of clients’ Allflex data, combining it with other known information such as milk protein percentage and energy balance information had shown striking correlations with conception rate records.

Pre-mating heat detection by the collars had enabled vets at the practice to develop reproduction reports for farmers that could be delivered four weeks before mating, giving farmers a heads up if they were on track or needed to take action to improve in-calf rates.

The reports, (Table 1), break out three groups of animals – heifers, the engine room and the herd, showing what percentage of each group had shown premating heats up to that four weeks

Ryan Luckman – interrogating the data to boost herd mating performance.

before mating point. The engine room cows are all three to seven-year-old cows that have calved at least eight weeks prior to planned start of mating. Heifers are important because they set the future reproductive performance of the herd but the engine room cows set the current season’s ceiling.

The herd is the whole group – if the heifers and engine room cows’ are right on track but the whole herd report is low it shows there are too many late calving cows.

Data from herds using the Allflex collars within the practice is used to form the benchmark information in the reports.

To create the four, 25 percentile, benchmark groups – coloured green to red, they used clients’ data from the previous year, showing what the top 25% achieved right down to the bottom 25%.

The value of the reports is they come out four weeks before mating so there is still time to act, he says.

“You really can salvage them and get them back into line – you just have to work out whether the sacrifice in milk for that extended period makes it worthwhile.”

TRACKING MILK PROTEIN AND PUSHING UP ENERGY INTAKES

Tracking protein is probably one of the biggest indicators and a very accessible way to monitor energy balance (Table 2).

“We want to see that “Nike tick” so the protein percentage comes back up.

“The herds we see that have that perfect tick, those are the ones hitting the 60% conception rates because they are really getting that rising plane of nutrition going into mating.”

To achieve that some farmers are moving a portion of their autumn supplement into the premating spring period and lifting total energy intake.

While that could help, managing pasture well in the first round and hitting target residuals to ensure top-quality pasture in the second round is key, he says.

“We have to go back to those key messages around grass quality and grass utilisation – it’s what we’re seeing with the collar data too.”

Cow collar heat detection of whether they are on track or need to take action to improve in-calf rates. By Anne Lee.

Veterinarian

There is still time to act now!

He had looked at weekly conception rates and then looked at rumination rates, milk protein percentage and production and says he got good at pinpointing when conception rates would drop.

It often correlated with a drop in milk production, protein percentages flattened off or dropped and rumination suddenly jumped. When he calculated the energy balance for the herd based on feed input and quality along with milk production, maintenance and walking demands it was clear the rumination, milk protein and production metrics together were also an indicator cows were going into negative energy balance right at the planned start of mating. On higher stocking rate farms, he said some farmers had got into the habit of carrying a higher average pasture cover as a buffer but the quality of the pasture was suffering and was showing up in rumination rates. That’s where care must be taken when using rumination data with other factors taken into consideration so you understand what is driving the numbers, he says.

“If rumination rates suddenly drop, for example, and you have 2000 litres extra in the vat, the herd may have gone onto high-quality pasture.

“If rumination drops and production drops you might have underfed them – or something else is at play.

There is still time to act now!

Young cows set the future reproductive ceiling of your herd. Critical to get them right in their first year.

These 3-7YO cows calved at least 8 weeks prior to PSM, are your key performers. Act now at aherd level if this group is low.

If the herd is low (and heifers and engine room on track) then look at options around managing late calvers.

NOTE: The ‘Heifers’ and ‘Herd’ groups contain ALL animals in the Allflex system, including 33 (8%) cows/ heifers still to calve. This season 74% of heifers calved at least 8 weeks prior to PSM.

Monitoring Protein Levels

“If rumination rates go up and your production goes down it’s likely that pasture quality has dropped and fibre levels in the grass have gone up.” So rather than sticking doggedly

Table 2. Getting that “Nike tick” in milk protein percentage

Mastitis: Taking the green route

With only a short list of mastitis-inducing bacteria to deal with, New Zealand dairy farmers can reach for antimicrobials falling under the ‘green’ classification. Veterinarian Lisa Whitfield reports.

Asignificant knowledge shift is happening on farms around New Zealand, in part due to new systems and technology allowing farmers to rapidly identify which bacteria are causing mastitis cases and which are resulting in high cell count cows on farms. The rapid turnaround of results able to be achieved by these systems means a new standard of care for the individual cow has become achievable. As soon as you know which bacteria you are dealing with, you can have a high level of confidence in how best to manage the affected cow.

This is an achievement farmers should be proud to be part of. It is very clear that there is a large farming community out there wanting to do the right thing – not only by improving the outcome and performance of their cows but also by being responsible guardians of antimicrobials.

For those who are using these culture systems routinely – how do you apply the new knowledge that you have available? Have you been able to adjust your onfarm approach to mastitis management to reflect best practices in antibiotic use? After having collected a milk sample for culturing, what do you do next when managing a new mastitis case in the herd?

We are very lucky here in NZ that we have a short list of mastitis-causing bacteria to deal with. The environmental bacteria - Strep uberis - dominates as the most common cause of clinical mastitis. Staph aureus and E.coli are two other commonly encountered pathogens causing clinical cases. Aside from these three, the other bacteria are relatively infrequently encountered.

In contrast, when it comes to what is available to treat mastitis cases, there is an inexplicably large number of products available, most of which are hard to justify having on the shelf.

When we apply the traffic light system for responsible antimicrobial use to mastitis treatments, antimicrobials falling under the ‘green’ classification should be what you are reaching for first when you choose to treat a mastitis case. So how do the ‘green’ classified antimicrobials stack up in their effectiveness against our most common mastitis causing pathogens?

Strep uberis: ‘Green’ classified antimicrobials are highly effective against Strep uberis, in most cases showing over 95% efficacy. As a first-line therapy, you can be confident that these antimicrobials will do the job.

• Clots in the milk will often take up to six days to clear up regardless of the duration of treatment – this doesn’t mean the treatment isn’t working.

• If you see a clear improvement in clinical signs over the first three days of treatment, then extended therapy is probably unnecessary.

Staph aureus: 70% of Staph aureus isolates show sensitivity to ‘green’ classified antimicrobials. In most cases, these antimicrobials are a good first-line therapy, but there are a few other things to think about once you know you are dealing with Staph aureus.

• Understanding the antimicrobial sensitivity of Staph aureus isolates on your farm is key to whether you need a second-choice antimicrobial on hand.

• Consider how long the cow has likely had the infection for – chronic infections are a poor choice for antimicrobial

Green-light mastitis antimicrobials are suitable as first-line therapy for most new cases. They contain either: Procaine penicillin or Penethamate hydriodide.

therapy. For cows with very new infections, it is possible to achieve good cure rates.

• Other management strategies to consider include making the cow into a threetitter, or in some cases consider culling the cow.

E. coli: 99% of strains of E.coli are resistant to ‘green’ classified antimicrobials, however E.coli is also resistant to most other mastitis antimicrobial treatments as well. When you are dealing with a case of E.coli mastitis it is important to understand:

1. The cow’s own immune system is very effective at responding to E.coli infection – so in most cases, antimicrobial treatment is actually unnecessary.

2. Anti-inflammatories play an important role in E.coli mastitis – they help the cow by reducing high fevers and dampening down the strong inflammatory response generated by the dying bacteria. This means she is more likely to want to eat.

3. Oral Fluid-therapy – which can be readily done on-farm with the right training and equipment – is critical to support the sick E.coli cow while she is unable to hydrate herself. Having rapid access to knowing which bacteria you are dealing with when treating mastitis is a game-changer. A number of systems now allow you to get results back in 24 hours or less, rather than having to wait for days and getting results back after the cow has already finished her treatment course. When it comes to choosing a treatment for a new mastitis case, you can have confidence that a ‘green’ classified antimicrobial is a really good place to start.

• Lisa Whitfield isa Manawatu-based production animal veterinarian.

Lisa Whitfield

LEARNING

WITH THE BANK

Words and story by: Karen

Trebilcock

Tessa Kelly never thought she’d be working for a bank.

The 23-year-old loves milking cows and was happy to leave Lincoln in 2019 to work on dairy farms, working as hard as she could to gain skills and funds. But in July she started in a permanent role with Rabobank in Gore as an agribusiness analyst.

“It’s different at every bank, but at Rabobank an analyst works under an agri manager,” Tessa said.

“Mine has about 40 clients all in Southland. As the analyst I do the credit writing and ensure all the maintenance is taking place to keep facilities up to date and matching client needs.

“A lot of the work is reviewing clients to make sure they’re on track with their goals, that everyone’s expectations are lining up.”

The farms include the usual Southland mix but it’s dairy that is Tessa’s passion.

“Knowing what is happening on sheep and beef farms and arable is really good as it keeps you connected but here it’s a very dairy-focused book which is easier for me because it’s what I know.”

As soon as Tessa got her driver’s licence she was relief milking and after university did a six-month stint in Tasmania milking cows before coming home to work as a 2IC on a dairy farm near Balfour.

She still milks at the weekends.

“I’m the daughter of workaholics.”

Growing up, her parents ran a calf rearing operation on a small block near Tapanui. Her father was also a crutching contractor.

“He used to get me to ring farmers for my school holiday job and that taught me so much. Being able to pick up the phone and talk to people.”

She tried to leave school several times to go farming but her parents stopped her. Her teachers at Blue Mountain College pushed her towards university and at Lincoln she met a group of friends who had DairyNZ scholarships.

At the end of her first year she applied for one as well and finished the last two years of her BCom Ag degree with her fees paid.

“Susan Stokes, who ran the scholarship, she was always encouraging me to go dairying after university and I was saying back I’m spending all this time, all this money to be here, I’m not going farming.

“And then, after three years of university, of being in my head all the time, I couldn’t wait to get back to it.”

But during her first calving at Balfour she got a message from Rabobank.

“It was on LinkedIn and I thought it was a scam at first but I rang them back and they wanted me to interview for their graduate programme.”

They had found her through the scholarship website and the offer came with a starting salary of more than her 2IC job.

“And I was struggling with farming. There is so much information, so many skills you need to step up to be a farm manager.

“The manager I was working under, he just seemed to have this natural confidence. It’s a crazy industry to work in. You have to know so much.”

She had also found she liked her sleep.

The graduate programme was made up of three six-month rotations starting in Hamilton, then Gore and Christchurch.

“It’s a great way to see the country. You unpack your suitcase and you get into it.”

Now, with the graduate programme finished she has a permanent position in the Gore office although there are lots of options to progress into different roles.

“I do really enjoy dealing with farm businesses, the contact with people, but I also really enjoy research and Rabobank has a global outlook.

“We look at things like protein markets, food chains and risk. When the war started in the Ukraine there was a memo very quickly about the impact on our portfolios.

“It’s not a biased perspective. We’re being informative and keeping our clients up to date.”

And she’s enjoying being back in Southland although her boyfriend, from Waikoikoi, is currently working on a header in Uzbekistan.

“I’ve seen a lot of change since I started at the bank. We have a sustainability team and that is just growing all the time and we’re employing people from different backgrounds such as from Fonterra and Farmlands.”

Rabobank’s focus is on future proofing farm businesses, and Tessa is mostly working with large family farms.

“I’m seeing how important it is for farmers to have the right people onboard such as good farm consultants, lawyers and accountants. In the small towns we’re seeing some very specialised professionals for farmers, which is great.”

She said farmers should see the bank as their business partner.

“We want to see businesses grow and we’ll assess their risks and conduct a thorough analysis of their business to make sure that the risks are manageable.

“We work closely with clients so we can

really understand their operations as we want to see them achieve their goals.”

She said young people wanting to get into farming should get used to putting proposals forward to their bank.

“Every time you do that you learn something more and you build a rapport. Also find a mentor, someone who you respect and who is willing to spend time with you. And use them.

“But be kind to yourself. Everyone’s situation is so different, their ability to access capital is so different so just because one person did it one way that doesn’t mean it works for everyone.”

She worries also about farmers who are struggling with the current farming environment.

“With the changes around environmental regulations being pitched at the same time as record inflation and supply chain issues, there is a lot of stress on farmers right now.

“When you’re preoccupied watching your bottom line being pushed up it’s hard to make your best decisions and think creatively about your business.

“But we’re the best farmers in the world, we’ve proven that, and when times get tough we get through and we stay farming.”

She’s watching farming getting bigger in Southland with equity partnerships and corporates more common.

“It’s a very changing space at the moment. It’s amazing to be part of, but I think it’s getting harder to get into farming if you’re not part of a farm succession. We still see people get in with equity partnerships. It’s definitely more about your network now.

“It’s important for farmers to realise that their financial decisions now can affect so many generations of their family to come.”

Her own parents have recently bought their first commercial farm – a sheep and beef operation at Kaka Point in Otago.

“They’ve finally made it and they love it. But it took them a good 20 years to go from a first farm at Tapanui to this farm.

“They have worked so hard for it. We just want them to enjoy a good retirement afterwards.”

Meanwhile, Tessa is busily saving for her first house.

“Now it’s a 20% deposit you have to have, I’ve got to just keep saving.”

Tessa is passionate about dairying and started relief milking as soon as she got her driver’s licence.

‘KNOWING WHAT IS HAPPENING ON SHEEP AND BEEF FARMS AND ARABLE IS REALLY GOOD AS IT KEEPS YOU CONNECTED BUT HERE IT’S A VERY DAIRYFOCUSED BOOK WHICH IS EASIER FOR ME BECAUSE IT’S WHAT I KNOW.’

SWIMMING

towards the land

Blake Gunn’s career is all about the land and what grows on it, but it was the aquatic world which, one way or another, led to his current role as award-winning forage systems specialist for Agricom.

Blake, the winner of the Farmax Emerging Rural Professional of the Year for 2022, has also enjoyed a successful swimming career, winning a silver medal at the 2016 Oceania Swimming Championships in Suva, Fiji.

It was his love of swimming which influenced Blake’s decision, after leaving Marton’s Rangitikei College, to attend Massey University so he could continue to train with the Kiwi West Aquatics Club in Palmerston North.

“Throughout high school it was up at 4.20am for the 40-minute drive to Palmerston North to train for a couple of hours, then back to school, then swimming again in the afternoon. Going to uni at Massey cut travelling down to 10 minutes each way,” Blake says.

While swimming was his passion, Blake’s older sister Jardine suggested he needed to think long term and study for a meaningful degree which would ensure his future after swimming.

“Thanks to that advice, I studied for a Bachelor of Agricultural Science majoring in agriculture.”

When he graduated in 2015, Blake continued competitive swimming and

spent the summer driving tractors making hay and silage before joining Agricom in April 2016.

“Agricom was awesome in supporting me to continue swimming, by offering part time hours which meant I could still train for 20 hours a week. Never in a million years would I have thought I could find an employer who would support me to continue swimming alongside my career.”

That support paid off when, as part of the New Zealand team, Blake won silver in Fiji.

“That was a highlight of my swimming career. Then I got glandular fever which stopped my swimming in its tracks. I was so lucky to have a cool job I loved, and I went full time with Agricom in January 2017.”

A career in agriculture was probably always on the cards for Blake, who was born in Northland where his mum Denise was a teacher and his dad Gordon a police officer. “We also had a small avocado orchard at Houhora which was my first introduction to the rural scene.”

While Blake was at primary school the family moved south to Marton where his parents bought a dairy farm, furthering Blake’s interest in agriculture.

His first role with Agricom was as lower North Island extension agronomist but he now has the title of forage systems specialist. This role involves providing

support to Agricom regional territory managers and helping them keep up to date with the latest research.

Blake also works closely with the company’s clients including agricultural retail companies, as well as rural professionals, from fertiliser specialists to regional councils, and catchment groups to industry organisations. Agricom researches, develops and markets a wide range of proprietary pasture and forage crop seeds to the agricultural industry. Its core business is described as: “investing in the research and development of forage options and in the advancement of endophyte technology to increase the profits returned back to farmers”.

An aspect of his role which Blake particularly enjoys is working with farmers in on-farm trials to compare different forage cultivars under a wide range of environments around New Zealand.

“I like to conduct trials across climate conditions and soil types to see how different cultivars perform under different farming systems.”

This included, in one case, growing forage crops within 300 metres of the ocean at Opunake in Taranaki. “There’s no point in conducting trials in an environment where you have control over everything as that doesn’t happen in the real world.

A leading young swimmer needed to find a meaningful career out of the water and now has his feet firmly on the ground. By Elaine Fisher.

“We have some really good trial farmers who are passionate about trialing and happy to have up to 26 different rye grasses growing in a single paddock and keep detailed records of how they perform. We try to get animal interaction with the cultivars as well.”

Agricom has a team of plant breeders and Blake benefits from working with them to understand what plants are in the pipeline and the benefits they could offer farmers. Bringing a new variety to commercial release takes around 12 years and many plants in the breeding trials don’t make it through the process. While agriculture is eager for forage crops which could help reduce the impacts of livestock farming on the environment, including N leaching, Blake says there are solutions among the plants already on the market. These include Agricom’s Ecotain plantain which Lincoln University lysimeter studies have shown to reduce N leaching from the urine patch by up to 89% depending on sward blend. Agricom describes Ecotain as a “natural, environmentally friendly forage solution and the only product currently proven to reduce nitrate leaching as modelled by Overseer”.

Blake believes research into existing forage crops, including Ecotain, may demonstrate some plants have a different impact on the digestive

systems of livestock, and may reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It would be great to think we already have tools in our toolbox to address some of our environmental issues.”

Continuous improvements within agronomy and agriculture, plus working closely with farmers, is what gets Blake out of bed every morning.

“The available land for farming is decreasing and we must make the most of what we have got without degrading the environment. What spins my wheels is adding value to a farmer’s business by helping convert science to the real world as smoothly and quickly as possible so they can enjoy the benefits.”

To that end Blake will use the funds he won through the Farmax Emerging Rural Professional of the Year award towards increasing his knowledge of agronomy. That may include utilising Agricom’s global network to view some international forage systems first hand or to attend an international grasslands congress where topical scientific papers are published.

“Agricom is part of a global company DLF seeds; this allows us to have contact points across numerous countries which vary a lot in climate and pastoral challenges,” Blake says.

“It would be great to spend some time with the international team. A lot

of the germplasm used within ryegrass cultivars in New Zealand have heritage leading back to areas of northwest Spain, so perhaps there’s some learnings to be had over there.”

NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management (NZIPIM) chief executive Jo Finer says: “Once again, we’ve been thrilled to partner with Farmax to recognise young talent in our sector and support their professional development. Blake is a very deserving winner, and we see him as a great ambassador for rural professionals and our industry. We wish him well with his career.”

Farmax chief executive Gavin McEwen says the number of entrants in the award was hugely positive for the industry, as it “means there are more incredible young people fueling New Zealand’s agricultural sector and more being recognised for their hard work as well”.

“Young people bring vitality, courage and new perspectives in the face of challenging times for our industry, and without them we simply wouldn’t be able to flourish.

“Congrats to Blake – a very impressive young professional – and to all the nominees who made it hard for the judges to choose just one winner.”

Blake’s win was announced during the NZIPIM national conference awards dinner in Hamilton in August.

Left: Subjecting new forage varieties to the toughest growing conditions to find the best ones for farmers is what Blake Gunn especially enjoys doing. Above: Blake Gunn (left) who won silver in the men’s individual medley at the 2016 Oceania Swimming Championships with fellow kiwi and gold medallist Andrew Trembath and bronze medallist Brandon Schuster of Samoa.

ANCIENT BREW FOR MODERN TIMES

By

Tapping into the potential of native New Zealand honeys, lifelong mates Edward Eaton and Wilbur Morrison are creating a buzz with their Buzz Club mead.

The 24-year-olds went from experimenting with different flavour profiles, brewing in their garage on the weekends, to launching a range of premium sparkling mead naturally brewed from native New Zealand honey.

Mead is the world’s oldest alcohol, with origins dating back to 7000BC, and the friends have modernised it for today’s market, fermenting native honey to create a sparkling, carbonated low-alcohol canned product. Wilbur’s background as a beekeeper and his fascination with bees coupled with Edward’s knowledge in the design and marketing space give the duo a complementary skill set. The idea of brewing mead came from Wilbur’s experience selling honey and low returns for most varieties, with the exception of manuka. He wanted to diversify and find ways to use and showcase the other honey varieties.

“I was producing a range of native New Zealand honeys and for the manuka, like everyone else in the market at the time, was making an awesome margin whereas on other native honeys everyone in the market was losing money and that, to me, made no sense.”

He started exploring other value chains

for his honey and stumbled across mead. He had a vision and shoulder tapped his mate Edward at a party one night.

They started brewing together in 2020, and the rest is history. Nine months of experimenting slowly developed into a commercial enterprise.

“We both have very different views and that’s why it works because we’re always challenging each other’s views. It took time to adjust but I don’t think we’d be here today without diverse views on how things should go,” Wilbur explains.

From the homebrewing phase they then worked with a local brewery to scale things up and put a commercial brew on. In December 2020 they put the product into about 15 stores around Christchurch, from high-end supermarkets to liquor stores.

“We learned heaps, saw who was buying it, where it was selling well, what was good about it, what wasn’t good about it.

“We were eager to get things on the market, we were in a rush, we were young and just wanted a result tomorrow. What we learned over time is take a few months and that will pay off. At the same time, it helped, you’ve got to get out there and make those mistakes to realise how you’ve got to do things.”

Undeterred, they knew they had a good product, but they just needed to take the learnings and reposition a little.

SCAN TO HEAR PODCAST

To hear more about Buzz Club and Edward and Wilbur’s story of how homebrewing mead turned into a commercial enterprise, head over and listen to the latest episode of the From the Ground Up podcast.

Mead is showing the way for the honey industry to diversify its products that aren’t based around manuka.

Rebecca Greaves.

Buzz Club brews premium sparkling mead using native NZ honeys.

The focus is now on supermarkets, particularly after seeing the impact of Covid on hospitality venues, as a more reliable stream of sales. They are in New World and high-end supermarkets like Farro and Moore Wilsons, as well as selling online.

This summer the aim is to continue to grow their supermarket presence and they have opened a pop-up bar based in Riverside markets, as well as growing their hospitality accounts. Down the track they hope to explore export markets.

Their recipes and flavour combinations involved plenty of trial and error, with inspiration taken from international markets. They landed on a core range of three meads, Kamahi Blossom and Lemon, Rata Blossom and Feijoa, and Pohutukawa Blossom and Strawberry.

They focus on matching the honey with complementary fruit flavours. They recently added two seasonal releases, Hopped Buzz, which has a native Kamahi base, and Simply Mead, unfruited and unspiced, just native honey.

“Buzz Club was born out of trying to drive a future for a diverse range of native New Zealand honeys. We often say that we’re brewing the future for native New Zealand honeys and that was the inspiration with our core range of products having each native honey on the label and being at the forefront of the flavour profile.

“Trying to show our customers there are other honeys out there that deserve a seat at the table. Share the stories of the keepers producing them and the locations they’re coming from.”

To hear more about Buzz Club and Edward and Wilbur’s story of how homebrewing mead turned into a commercial enterprise, head over and listen to the latest episode of the From the Ground Up podcast.

What is the value of training your staff?

There are a few good reasons to train your team:

• Create a positive brand for your business, especially in a tight labour market. Why not set yourself apart from your competitors?

• A skilled team means more time for you to focus on the strategic priorities of your business (and to have more time for yourself and your family).

• The team can instantly apply their learning to the job and produce quality work – helping to grow a successful, sustainable business.

• Build trust between yourself and your staff.

• The skills your staff learn are relevant to your business as all qualifications are developed for industry, by industry.

• Your staff are working at a recognised industry standard.

Edward Eaton and Wilbur Morrison are lifelong mates who co-founded Buzz Club.

“The guys bring a lot of new skills to the business and we can improve the farm performance overall.”

“ The learning that they get from the regular courses and classes is very valuable to our business, and then they can use that theory to put into practical use on the farm.”

Primary ITO encourages you to visit primaryito.ac.nz/valueoftraining to check out the videos of these teams (and more) sharing their on-job training experience and to get in touch.

John Arenas, PAMU Mayfield Manager

just take our word for it. Check out what some of our employers had to tell us about the value of training.

But don’t

SPREADING THE WORD

Dairy Trust Taranaki is showing the region’s dairy farmers the result of research work on its four farms. Jackie Harrigan reports.

With a new general manager and new research programmes, Dairy Trust Taranaki is set to carry on taking on some of the big hairy issues in the dairy industry to guide farm system decisions.

After many years’ stellar service, operations manager Debbie McCallum has taken a step back from managing the trust’s day-to-day activities across the province’s four research farms.

Jason Rolfe has taken on the new general manager role and is excited at the results

from finishing research programmes and the potential for new directions in research. Rolfe comes from 11 years working at FMG and the 2017 Nuffield scholar programme where he spent a year studying the development of an online sales strategy for New Zealand, investigating how NZ agrifood producers can leverage mobile technology to add more value.

Jason grew up in Taranaki on an Inglewood dairy farm and studied B Comm Agri in rural valuation and farm management through Lincoln University.

Acknowledging that the province has a

fantastic resource in four distinct research facilities Rolfe says the onus is on the trust to show they are top farmers testing research at a commercial scale, and that one of his KPIs is to increase awareness of the work being undertaken and to work with partners to increase extension and tech transfer from the research farms to commercial farmers’ operations.

“We have been accused of having the best hidden treasure in the country - so the plan is to work with other research facilities and funders to ensure the best research and widest dissemination of the knowledge.”

• 213 eff ha

• Adjacent to Gibson farm

• 600 cows, 204ha milking platform

• Target 245,000kg MS

• Recent research covered transitions to autumn calving

Following a three-year research programme into transitions to autumn calving, Jason Rolfe said the farm is transitioning back to spring calving and undertaking a 10-year research programme into becoming a zero emissions farm.

The programme started on June 1, 2022, and will be a practical demonstration programme over 10 years - taking the first five years to become C neutral and becoming carbon positive after that.

“We have done the baseline modelling

• Coastal south Taranaki

• 110 eff ha

• 72x1ha paddocks

• Annual rainfall 1100mm

• 100m asl

• Hawera, alongside the Whareroa Fonterra site

• Suited for farmlet comparisons with 72x1ha paddocks and infrastructure to support multiple herds.

Gibson farm has recently finished the second year of a three-year Step Change programme trial - comparing a current farm system (3.1 cows/ha, 190kg N, up to 700kg DM/cow imported feed) with a Future Farm system (2.15 cows/ha, 75kgN/ ha, up to 300kg DM/cow imported feed) to investigate GHG emissions and profit.

The results were very encouraging, Jason said, showing the less-intensive Future Farm operating profit only 2% lower than current farm for a 21% reduction of total GHG/ha/yr CO2e and a drop of 15% of methane.

Pasture utilisation dropped by 4% but Jason said the future herd had more supplement grown onfarm, less imported feed and less animal health issues - but he prefaced that by saying it was a difficult season and more data was needed before a trend could be drawn.

Plantain was oversown into the Future farm, and proved to be more drought resistant in dry periods.

Botanical analysis showed less clover than they would like, and also increased plantain, and this season the last third of the farm will be oversown.

“We will be trying for 20% of the sward to be plantain over the whole farmlet.”

Interestingly, Jason said the sensitivity analysis of profitability at $6-$10/ kg milksolids (MS) showed a reducing profit differential for the current farm at decreasing milk payout, ranging from $202/ ha more at $10/kg MS, through to $419/ha less than the Future Farm at $6/kg MS.

“The milk price needed for similar operating profit over the two systems is $8.70/kg MS,” Jason said.

“If the milk price slips below $8.70/kg MS then the less intensive Future Farm becomes more profitable by up to $419/ha at $6/kg MS.”

These figures were calculated before the recent inflationary pressures hit farm costs and based on one year of data, Jason said the trial is in its third year and the trust is planning to try to extend by a couple of years to collect more data.

• Read more: Future Farm trials lower carbon: Dairy Exporter July 2021.

and sampling the soil and are now looking at farm system changes and technologies to help us,” Jason said.

A breeding programme with LIC will make use of the low methane sires and Kowbucha probiotics will be used to reduce methane in the replacement calves.

While there have been lots of suggestions, Jason said it is important that any changes the farm makes are available for the majority of NZ farmers to access and implement.

A new aspect of the trial was inclusion of a social aspect to the trial.

The new trial funder stipulated that any changes made to the farm system in moving to C Zero would not have a negative impact on the farm team, and so Jason said they grabbed the opportunity

to include that as a key objective of the trials.

“We are trying to get to a 45-hour working week to make it more like a town job and will be introducing a 10-in-7 milking regime to lower milking hours and new rosters to make it easier on staff.”

Installing cow collars and the Halter technology was another aspect to increase data collection which Jason said will add to the environmental piece.

“Using Halter to track cow movements and Ravensdown technology to schedule and map fertiliser application means we can be much more targeted with fertiliser exclusion zones.”

• Read more: on the Transition to autumn calving research: Dairy Exporter Feb 2020 pg76.

DTT GIBSON FARM - WHAREROA RD, HAWERA

DTT KAVANAGH FARM, HAWERA

Jason Rolfe, Dairy Trust Taranaki general manager operations.

• Formerly Stratford Demonstration farm

• 51ha eff

• East of Stratford

• Annual rainfall 2000mm

• 300m asl

• 160-180 cows

• Target production: 70,000kg MS

• Research in 2017/18 and 2018/19 was farm-scale research into wintering/spring strategies with half the herd accessing a covered wood standoff area.

DTT Stratford is in the third year of a four-year trial investigating treating urine patches with nitrogen inhibitors using a Spikey machine. The Spikey machine is trailed behind a quadbike and treats urine patches

with a nitrification inhibitor. The trial is looking at reducing nitrate leaching and using that nitrogen to grow more grass.

The results are mixed so far, Jason said, as while the low-rate N application has grown more grass over the trial period, making more silage and the cows have managed more days in milk, they were not seeing an increase of milk in the vat.

“The main inhibitor we have been using is gibberellic acid, so now we are looking at some other options alongside Pasture Robotics, developers of the Spikey technology, who are seeing really good results at their other trial sites in Canterbury and Bay of Plenty,” Jason said.

DTT WAIMATE WEST

• 34ha eff, 120 cows

• 40 x 0.86ha paddocks

• North of Manaia

• Annual rainfall 1140mm

• 90m asl

• Recent research into eliminating reliance on imported feed and growing all supplements onfarm. Waimate West has started a seven-year diverse pasture mix trial, comparing two farmlets, one with conventional rye/clover based pastures and the other diverse multispecies pasture mix.

Initially 20% of the farmlet will be planted in the diverse pastures (as recommended for a regenerative farming system) with the whole farmlet to be gradually all resown over the length of the trial.

The trial objectives are to determine how well diverse pastures perform relative to profit and production from conventional pastures. Environmental themes are to determine whether diverse pastures lead to reduced N leaching and retain or increase soil carbon compared with ryegrass-based pastures.

Wellbeing and values are also being investigated to determine whether diverse pastures provide farmers and their communities with better outcomes with regards to how the production system is perceived by themselves, consumers and stakeholders.

Both farmlets have a stocking rate of 3.47 cows/ha, Jersey cows, autumn calving mated with Kiwicross and Speckle Park sires by AB. Trial measurements for all the above include milk production, pasture growth, cow liveweight and condition, fertiliser applications, pasture botanicals and soil biology and carbon measurements.

With Ministry for Primary Industries funding, the trial is a separate piece of work however the DTT is a research partner of recently launched Whenua Haumanu MPI project testing claims around regen agriculture.

The farm is also used by LandBased Training to run dairy training courses, with the hope to introduce a regen dairy farming training course in the future.

Grass samples.

It could only be Taranaki.

Preparing for the flood

August’s deluge in the Rai Valley has prompted locals to get organised for the next time. By Anne Hardie.

The next time an extreme event hits the Rai Valley area, the community wants a dwelling list, a couple of commercial ovens, a mobile chiller and a stack of takeaway containers for delivering meals. During the August flood when roads were washed out or covered in slips, (see story pg66) a team of volunteers cooked 150 meals a day at the local school and delivered them throughout the rural community for a week.

Tania Billingsley helped organise the team of volunteers and says the last meals were delivered on school plates which was a challenging exercise when taken by fourwheel drive over storm-ravaged roads.

The community cook-up was triggered by a request from the local fire chief who asked for volunteers to feed the community as some people were “knackered”. Farmers, exhausted with the usual long hours through calving, had flood damage and slips to repair, as well as being forced to dump milk and rear more bobby calves. While elderly residents and people living by themselves often had no contact with anyone.

Tania says there were women in the community desperate to help and cooking meals gave them the chance to do that. The Rai Valley Area School opened its home economics class and initially

volunteers brought food from their pantries to create meals for anyone who needed them.

“That first day we put food at the pub, not realising people weren’t going to leave their farms. So then we started delivery runs.”

They quickly learnt that many people would not put their hand up for a cooked meal or said they were all right. The local Farm Source manager advised the group to just turn up and put the meals on tables.

“People rang up and said thank you so much for just turning up and putting food on their table. Some were still in their cowshed at seven o’clock at night.

“For 50% of people the meals were time-saving and for 50% I think it was about feeling connected,” Tania says. “The delivery run became just as critical as the meal, I think. It was a really simple way of connecting. But we missed people too. It wasn’t until day three or four that we thought about some people.”

For Tania, a city girl who still commutes each week to Auckland for work, it was a revelation to discover there was no data, no map, nothing about dwellings in the region. The only way they knew that people were living somewhere was through the community remembering where there was a house with people living there.

Some of the older women in their group were going through old diaries just to find out where people might be living, Tania says. It was a big gap in the emergency response and she wants to see some form of dwelling list established before the next extreme event. It doesn’t need to breach privacy rules by including names, she says, but they need to know where people are living so they don’t fall through the cracks.

“We were literally going on local knowledge and it’s easy to miss people. We picked up people through the week.”

Meanwhile, along the road at Canvastown, the Te Hora Marae had also kicked into action to cook 150 meals a day for its community.

As the week went on, Tania says the Rai Valley team received more food supplies from the community and there was never a shortage of meat from farmers’ freezers. The team would send out a Facebook message to see if someone had 10kg of mince in their freezer to use for a meal. Locals with four-wheel drive vehicles managed to get to Blenheim to load up with food for the kitchen. While a call to Countdown resulted in its little delivery truck being driven through roadblocks to negotiate the battered road to Rai Valley.

Relying on four domestic ovens at the school was a challenge for 150 meals a day and that has prompted the community to seek funding for a couple of smaller commercial ovens as well as a mobile chiller that can be shifted to different sites if needed and run by a generator.

Solar power in the village is another essential so that if the national grid goes down, the community will still be able to charge cell phones and retain internet access through systems such as Starlink for communication. Next time, the community will have more food on hand to prepare meals from day one. Emergencyevent packs have already been put together in rodent-proof containers that will provide a meal a day for up to 300 people for three days. Tania says those packs will be checked and replaced annually and each meal only needs meat added which is easy to find from local farmers.

Left: Some of the kitchen team preparing meals for flood-hit Rai Valley residents.

Getting FARMFIT

Overcoming the fatigue of seasons like calving is all

close to driving his motorbike off a cliff due to fatigue.

Unsure how he was going to get through calving, instead of continuing down this rabbit hole, he told himself to get fit for farming.

An hour’s drive to a 1.5-2-hour boxing session in the evenings after work then the drive home was his first next step. He was absolutely buggered after work and the couch was calling but he knew something had to change. So Kane introduced FarmFit Bootcamps from January to Julypreparation to get fit for farming/calving.

He likens this to the All Blacks preparing for a test match, they do the preparation then the match is to test their fitness and skills.

The same goes for FarmFit - get fit and then test your fitness throughout calving. That way, you can focus on farming and cope both mentally and physically because you have done the preparation.

His response to people who tell him they are too busy is:

“You are not too busy for beers on a Friday night, or any other night for that matter.”

People need to be challenged as to where they are spending their time - it is all about priorities. If you are physically and mentally unfit your days are going to feel longer and less enjoyable so change your ‘why’.

Kane’s new book - Tools for the Top Paddock was initially all about helping others but he has found it healing, reinforcing the tips and tools he has learnt along the way.

Left: Kane Briscoe and his book Tools for the Top Paddock.

Kane has some great tips for the end of calving and how to reset before mating;

• Make use of this downtime to have a mental and physical break from the farm to relax and refresh. Go on a mini holiday, even for two days to completely unwind.

• Go back over your calving and find the wins you had - giving yourself confidence and taking some of that positive energy with you.

• Use this time to reinforce good eating and workout habits. He knows it is very easy to grab the not-so-good food and run.

So:

• Are you really too busy to work out and get fit for farming or is it in the too-hard basket?

• Are you grabbing food that is nourishing and fueling your body or are you taking the short, easy-at-the-time option and eating pies?

• Has calving been mentally and physically hard, brought you to tears at times even? If yes, how are you going to make changes to ensure it is more manageable next year?

• What do you do that gives you a mental and physical break?

• Do you go from work straight to the couch or is there a sport you used to love that you could get into again? Have you read Kane’s book yet? If not, do it!

Farming can be hard and breaking old habits is tough. But there is always another option and it is a matter of changing our mindset to see exercise as a tool to get fit for farming rather than a chore. Good luck getting FarmFit!

DAIRY 101 GRASS

We’re grass farmers

Farmers know there’s more to grass than being green and feeding cows. Story by Karen Trebilcock.

New Zealand is blessed (most of the time) with warmish temperatures and regular rainfall which means we’re great at growing grass.

We don’t have the deep soils of the continents so our arable crops aren’t as reliable but grass we can do in acres, or hectares.

So that’s why our dairy cows eating their 18kg drymatter (DM) of grass a day is plain sense, along with topping that up with grain because physically most cows just can’t fit any more grass with its high water content into their rumens.

So in a way we’re not dairy farmers, we’re grass farmers. Making sure that 18kg DM of grass is there in the paddock every day for our cows keeps our costs down and the milk flowing into the vat.

But grass doesn’t grow the same amount every day, especially now in spring. And some paddocks will grow faster than others and the number of cows eating the grass is changing as they calve and you’re also trying to take paddocks out of the round to make silage and it can all get very confusing very quickly.

Some farmers solve the problem by weekly pasture walks, using a plate metre or one of the many new ways of measuring grass. They can print out spreadsheets, compare grass growth from year to year, report the figures to the farm owner or the farm consultant and do lots of maths. Research shows over and again that the top tier of profitable grass-based farmers are those who measure pasture and plan rotations. Lots of top operators plug the figures into DairyNZ’s spring rotation planner which will give you a good steer on which paddocks to graze first, and later, which ones to drop out for supplement. Find it on the DairyNZ website, along with advice on pre and post grazing residuals to aim for to keep the grass growing at optimal rates.

Yes it takes a lot of time but its important to know what is on hand and how fast the paddocks are growing. Find out from your local demo farm what general rates of growth are for the region.

A pasture walk with a plate metre can take you or one of your staff many hours in the day available between milkings. If that is too long, consider investing in technology to help - a tow behind or a grass measuring service - but don’t underestimate the usefulness of doing the pasture walk with your staff so that they get engaged and understand the process - then they can help out.

Once you have this sorted and have a few seasons under your belt you can start trusting your gut, and your cow’s gut.

You know your farm. You’ve fixed the fences, you’ve sprayed the weeds, you’ve found the water pipes after you cut them in two with the cultivator so you know your grass. You know how much clover there is compared to grass, the other good things like plantain, and you know all the things that shouldn’t be in there like thistles. Look at the density of it – are there bare patches, can you see space between the individual plants?

Is there old pugging damage and if there is, what is growing in the pug marks?

How do the south and north faces on the hills compare?

How early in the season does it start going to seed and which are the first paddocks?

Grass grows grass as the more there is of it, the quicker it will grow. It’s because the greater the leaf area the more light that is captured which is what the plant needs for photosynthesis.

So grazing it too low will mean it’s slower to recover. How low is too low depends on the species of grass and the age of the pasture (younger grass tends to recover faster) so again measuring it won’t help.

It also means in the few days before it is ready to be eaten again is when it’s growing the fastest. Miss it out of the round for whatever reason and you’ll be making silage in the paddock the following week.

In autumn, when pasture is growing slower, check for dead matter. Ryegrass continually has three new green growing leaves on each tiller with the older leaves dying if they haven’t been eaten first.

That dead matter can shade lower growing clovers and plantain so keep a watch out for it. But don’t worry too much because it’s also the stuff that feeds the worms.

More importantly, make sure you know your farm soils.

You should know which paddocks pug easily in wet weather, which have the stony belts through them that you should feed off first when a dry spell is coming, and which gateways go underwater so when heavy rain is coming you get the cows out now before the flood.

It’s this soil that grows your grass.

Get a spade and dig a few holes and look at the structure, how far the grass roots go down, how many earthworms are there smiling back at you.

Soil tests are great to show your soil’s pH and Olsen P levels but they should never surprise you.

A soil that is too acidic for good grass growth will look too acidic. Species such as dandelion that like acidic soils will be thriving in it. Buttercup and docks will be growing in your soils that are too wet and if you have browntop, start putting more fertiliser on.

If your cattle yards are growing the greenest grass on your farm, it’s a sure sign you need nitrogen or at least some clover to fix it.

If your weeds are taking over, think about why and see what you can do about it.

And also know your weather.

At this time of year, days are getting longer. In the south that is happening in minutes per day and every minute of sunshine is making your grass grow more.

Every drop of rain is helping it to grow too, unless the wind is taking it away even faster or there is so much of it the grass is getting trampled into the mud before it can be eaten.

Look at weather forecasts and understand how the weather affects your grass growth.

And look at the paddock after the cows have eaten it. What did they leave behind? Was it evenly grazed and if not, why not?

Did they camp in one area or were they evenly spread in the paddock? Where is the most dung? It will also be where the most nitrogen patches from their urine will be.

Remember all of that and when you have a look at the paddock a week later, how has it affected the grass growth?

But don’t forget your cows. When they come in for milking do they look full? Are they putting the milk into vat like they should be?

Are they all sitting down a couple of hours after milking chewing their cud happily or are half of them still looking for grass and the rest just given up?

Is the southerly blowing the rain so hard they are stacked into a corner and are not going to eat at all?

Work out how much they must be eating by doing the math backwards – and use this to reinforce what you are learning from measuring the grass.

Because it is important to consider all sides of the equation - how much grass is being grown and eaten and how much milk is being made.

YOU KNOW YOUR FARM. YOU’VE FIXED THE FENCES, YOU’VE SPRAYED THE WEEDS, YOU’VE FOUND THE WATER PIPES AFTER YOU CUT THEM IN TWO WITH THE CULTIVATOR SO YOU KNOW YOUR GRASS.

New Zealand dairy farmers have led the way with efficiency gains across the farming system for decades. One area that has taken more time is in the world of fertiliser application. For a long time, solid fertiliser application was the only way to apply nutrients to grow more grass.

Today farmers are faced with numerous pressure points to change the way they look at fertiliser application leading to many looking at the foliar and fine particle methods as ways of reducing inputs and saving money.

Increased cost of staple fertilisers such as urea has led many to want to save money on fert, and environmental regulations have meant farmers have had to find a way to reduce inputs whether they like it or not.

Urea is a soluble fertiliser that is easily dissolved in a matter of minutes with the right equipment. Better still, application of urea as a liquid enables farmers to reduce the input of this nutrient immediately by up to 50% yet grow at least the same amount of grass, sometimes increasing drymatter growth.

Not only is nitrogen application as a liquid a huge benefit to the farming system, machines such as the Tow and Fert enable farmers to use Ultra Fine Particle (UFP) Products in the tank at the same time as applying liquid ‘N’. It means farmers can apply multiple products at the same time, apply specific brews for each season and each paddock’s needs, and still reduce their capital fert requirements by an additional 30%.

Tow and Fert have pioneered this method of fertiliser application making the range of Tow and Fert one of the most versatile machines on the farm. Once underway with a Tow and Fert you will likely find that you only use your tractor more often.

Realising the gains that can be made onfarm in the nutrient application space has many positive benefits for farmers across the farm.

More? Visit www.towandfert.co.nz

A chicory of Choice

Choice chicory is an excellent option as a summer crop to supplement milking cows when ryegrass growth rates are low and quality is poor. Choice is New Zealand-bred and proven as a fast-establishing, high-yielding, six-eight-month summer crop.

Planting date is key to get the most out of Choice chicory. Planting can start once soil temperatures reach 12C and rising, when soil is in good condition for planting. Trials in Waikato have shown planting on October 16 resulted in an extra grazing and stronger establishment compared with sowing on November 16. This means starting to graze by mid-December, when ryegrass quality is starting to drop due to seedhead production, which can therefore increase milk production.

Chicory should be sown into a firm, weed-free seedbed, no deeper than 5-10mm. Planting with DAP will dramatically help with speed of establishment. Controlling weeds early while they are small is also a crucial step to ensure good control and best success from the crop.

Choice takes about eight weeks to establish. It will be ready for its first graze at 20cm height once it has at least seven true leaves, with the target being 3000kg drymatter (DM)/ha, with post-grazing residuals at 5cm. Once the first grazing has been achieved, Choice should be on a 21-day rotation throughout the summer and autumn. Many farmers use the strategy of feeding chicory for two or three hours before afternoon milking, a great way to increase intakes in the heat of the afternoon.

To control chicory in the autumn before regrassing, spray the crop with glyphosate at 25cm cover, graze three days later, then immediately direct drill in perennial ryegrass. This will give the best result, ensuring the chicory doesn’t outcompete the new grass.

Machine versatility a key to farm efficiency

Choice chicory.

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50 years ago in the Dairy Exporter October

As NZ Dairy Exporter counts down to its centenary in 2025, we look back at the issues of earlier decades. 50 Years Ago – October 1972.

THE CLEAN-UP: EVERYONE’S CONCERN

Emotive cries and increasing pressures step up as more and more people look at the mess left by modern industry. They fear for the future. The dairy industry with its factory discharges and farm waste problems is one of the prime targets of those who demand a national clean-up.

In part, the charges against the industry are valid. It does pollute natural water resources and some individual sectors have been tardy in considering preventative measures. Control is not cheap but many dairy companies are spending vast sums on methods of preventing pollution and on cleaning up their discharges.

For example, one Taranaki dairy company established a dairy farm spray irrigation system at the cost of more than $200,000. Other Taranaki companies have spent up to $54,000 in capital costs to pipe their wastes to the sea. A trickling filter system to handle 300,000 gallons of dairy factory waste could cost $80,000. Money is going into research where scientists seek new processes to further utilise waste material.

$27 ½ M IS “FROZEN”

Nearly $27 ½ million of dairy income from last season has been frozen under the Government’s stabilisation regulations. Exemptions granted to dairy companies by the Dairy Industry Loans Council will release about $8 million of this during this season as companies incur approved capital expenditure.

EEC CHANGES WILL LIBERALISE DAIRY TRADE

Fundamental changes will occur in the EEC common agricultural policy during the 1970s. This forecast was made by the principal of the NZ Dairy Board’s

economics section, Mr H. S. Blackmore, in a recent address in Palmerston North. He said such a change in the price support system could lead to lower retail prices and liberalisation of international dairy trade. Under the present system of price support the EEC Commission fixes internal prices for dairy products, which are higher than those ruling on the international market.

This means that the Community consumer is subsidising the dairy farmer. Protective trade barriers isolate domestic agriculture from international competition. There was growing dissatisfaction in Europe, Mr Blackmore said, with this system of price support and an increasing body of opinion favoured its replacement with a system of direct income support.

PRESSURE DRENCHING

Matamata dairyfarmer Ian Diprose wanted to make in-the-shed drenching for bloat easier and quicker so he worked out a pressurised system charged by the exhaust gases of his milking machine motor.

The system is based on a 12-gallon pressure tank connected by pipe to the exhaust pipe of the shed motor. The outlet end of the exhaust pipe can be blocked by a hinged flap controlled by a cord from inside the shed. Plastic pipes lead from the tank to bloat guns on either side of the shed’s herringbone pit.

Mr Diprose puts four gallons of antibloat liquid into the pressure tank –sufficient for two milkings of his 252 cows. He starts the motor and then closes the exhaust flap for about three to five seconds. When the pressure is sufficient to force the bloat liquid out to the guns, the flow of gas into the tank is closed off and the outside flap on the exhaust pipe is opened. The milker can then dose the cows without having to keep putting on a knapsack drenching unit.

FEED COMPLEX GETS COWS OFF WET PADDOCKS

Silage bins and sawdust platforms are helping several Nelson dairy farmers beat the problem of winter pugging.

The winter complex is based on a lengthy silage bin flanked by concrete surrounds and an adjoining sawdust pad. Some farmers include their silage pit as part of the complex.

This means they can use machinery to load the bins and to clean the concrete surrounds with ease and speed.

Mr Peter Field, one of a family partnership with a total of 320 cows and heifers on a 240-acre town milk farm at Richmond, says it takes under an hour to scrape the concrete surrounds clean, stir the sawdust pad with a cultivator and load the silage bins. Mr John Bryant built his feeding arrangement in 1970.

It cost $1200 and he says the money was well spent.

Mr Bryant stresses the importance of having the bin at the right height and width for the “cows to eat in comfort and to deter them from clambering into the bin”.

Muck from his feeding complex is stockpiled before being spread by a muckspreader which is essential, over 2 ¼ acres of pasture once a week.

The feeding complex is built at the entrance to his milking shed and is used from May to September.

• Thanks to the Hocken Library, Dunedin.

This unspoilt mountain stream, sparkling between snow-covered banks, sets the theme for our examination of some of the problems of pollution. The scene is in the Cardrona Valley, near Wanaka, in Otago. (National Publicity Studio).

Check out our latest episode on tools for coping with farm stress

In this episode, Taranaki dairy farmer, Kane Brisco, shares his personal story and the practical tools he uses to operate at his best.

COMMITTED TO NEW ZEALAND. COMMITTED TO

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Season after season, brands like ECLIPSE®, E PRINEX®, MATRIX® and BIONIC ® have been trusted on farm to deliver exceptional health and production outcomes for farmers. Boehringer Ingelheim is the name behind these brands that continues to invest in NZ agriculture by developing and manufacturing these products right here in NZ, ensuring kiwi farmers maximise production - not just this season, but for many, many more to come.

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