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FOR E FUTURIA G R R S! U E N E R P
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Volume 24 I September 14, 2020 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz 1 Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz 2 Find and watch the OnFarm Story of John Foley “Farming’s about looking ahead” and read the accompanying article “More profit with lower impact”. 3 Where in NZ is Ruby and John Foley’s Farm? 4 How many cows do the Foley’s milk?
STRETCH YOURSELF: 1 An integral part of the Foley’s hybrid system on Gleniffer are “herd homes”, what are these and how do they work? 2 Gleniffer manages to produce 100,000kg MS from 133 cows compared to the NZ average of 100,000kg MS for 260 cows. How can they do this? (What are their management practices that make this viable?) 3 When are their main calving periods? 4 Around 80% of the farm's effluent is captured. What do they then do with this? 5 There are a number of technologies used on the farm including self opening gates to allow the cows to head back towards the herd homes and milking shed. What are some other pieces of technology that they are using?
ARE WE TALKING BULLOCKS?
1 VECALS______________________________ 2 LUBL________________________________ 3 RNTAEK ______________________________ 4 MNKLIGI______________________________
1 Go the AgriHQ market snapshot page
5 MNUAER _____________________________
2 What was the North Island steer price last week?
6 BTETRU ______________________________
3 How is this tracking compared to year-ago levels?
7 RHASIREY ____________________________ 8 RUNCH_______________________________ 9 RYEJSE ______________________________ 10 RTNNMAUI ____________________________ 11 IIFNREAS _____________________________ 12 SEHECE ______________________________ 13 IEREFH _______________________________ 14 CWO_ _______________________________ 15 ECARM ______________________________ 16 EIRNBERHNOG__________________________ Calves
Bull
Manure Butter Jersey
Tanker
Milking
Ayrshire Churn
Ruminant Friesian Cheese
Heifer Cow
Cream Herringbone
Farmers are always looking at ways to improve their productivity in a fashion that limits waste and maximises sustainability. In this vein, a number of farmers are currently sourcing sexed bull semen to try to reduce the amount of bobby calves within the industry. The semen increases the chance of producing heifer calves by 90% and therefore gives them an increased chance of being retained or used for domestic or export beef markets. There are also genetic gains that can be made through this process. You can read more in the article “Sexed semen demand surges among farmers” in this week's paper. Do you think that there are more things like this that we could be doing to mitigate some of the aspects of both dairy and other farming industries that are considered to be unsustainable or objectionable? What could we be doing? How would these things help us to promote a cleaner, kinder, more sustainable image for our industry in NZ? Send us your ideas to: agined@globalhq.co.nz
AUSTRALIAN BEEF EXPORTS
THOUSAND TONNES
BELOW ARE SOME SCRAMBLED WORDS THAT RELATE TO DAIRY FARMING, YOUR TASK IS TO UNSCRAMBLE THEM.
In your paper
STRETCH YOURSELF: This graph shows the volume of Australian beef exports compared to last year and the five-year average. Lower exports have been largely driven by less beef going to China due to various factors. Another driver is less cattle available for slaughter. The long drought forced farmers to offload more cattle than usual which has reduced the size of the Australian herd. Now that weather and feed levels have improved, farmers are holding on to cattle with around 730,000 less cattle being processed this year so far.
1 Australia is our main competitor for beef and lamb. Why do you think it is important for us to follow the Australian beef market? 2 July exports were below both last year and the five-year average. Generally speaking, do you think this is an advantage or disadvantage for exporters of NZ beef?
FILL YA BOOTS: 1 How would a typical farm in Queensland or the Northern Territory differ from one in NZ? 2 One common breed of beef cattle found in Australia is Brahman. Why would farmers choose this breed over something like an Angus or Hereford?
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