Dairy Farmer September 3 2018

September 2018

Teamwork a winning formula

South Taranaki farmers at the top of their game

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Pasture renewal& cropping

Thinking outside the box Advocating for dairy All breeds add value

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DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Inside September 2018 Editor

SONITA CHANDAR 06 374 5544 / 027 446 6221 sonita.chandar@globalhq.co.nz

General Manager

WARREN MCDONALD warren.mcdonald@globalhq.co.nz

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027 480 2507

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COVER

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06 323 0735 / 027 739 4295 production@globalhq.co.nz adcopy@globalhq.co.nz September 2018

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Pasture renewal& cropping

Taranaki’s Share Farmers of the Year Hollie Wham and Owen Clegg.

16 18 19

Rare birth

Cow 493 is one in two million after giving birth to triplets.

Celebration

Anchor marks five year of sales in China.

Say cheese

Cream cheese production begins at Fonterra Darfield site.

ON FARM STORY Teamwork a winning formula

South Taranaki farmers at the top of their game

Thinking outside the box Advocating for dairy All breeds add value

01-16 DF 03-09.indd 1

www.farmersweekly.co.nz ISSN 2624-0939 (Print) ISSN 2624-0947 (Online) 4

NEWS

27/08/18 3:46 PM

8 20

Strength in teamwork

South Taranaki farmers Owen Clegg and Hollie Wham are at the top of their game.

Business success

Hard work pays off for Waikato Dairy Business of the Year winners Chris and Jude Stacey.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

20

THEME

42

Pasture renewal and cropping

SPECIAL FEATURE

50

8 FARMING CHAMPIONS

17 32

Fast Five Racheal Lind

Dairy champion Robin Murphy

Better bulls better calves

REGULAR FEATURES

7 35 38 48

At the grassroots Farmer opinion – Mel Poulton.

International news Science Research

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Milk chilling made simple Wairio Dairy Farmer Mike Adams just added a second GEA aquaCHILL unit to his dairy business because he knows the snap chilling system is simple to run, totally reliable and highly energy efficient.

Plus, he’ll be compliant with cooling regulations for years to come.

Mike’s been an aquaCHILL user for the past five years and he’s a happy customer. “aquaCHILL reliably chills our milk every day” says Mike.

“Even in mid-summer, I’m confident that the milk goes into the vat at less than 5°C. Even if the tanker pulls up during milking, our milk is ready to go.”

Mike believes it’s highly likely that cooling regulations will keep getting tougher.

“We used to have a big refrigeration unit and relied on cold water to bring the milk temps down. It certainly wouldn’t comply with the current milk cooling regulations.

“With aquaCHILL, I know we’re well ahead in terms of compliancy and prepared for the future.”

GEA’s aquaCHILL chiller is a clever and simple cooling system, designed to run in tandem with existing vat refrigeration, although in most cases the vat refrigeration units are only required to maintain the temperature below 6°C

6

It also boasts some unique energy saving features. The chiller only runs during the milking periods, this means no additional power is required between milkings to offset the losses from systems using thermal storage.

The aquaCHILL units use a refrigerant that has a high energy efficient rating and are also fitted with a heat recovery unit for preheating the water before it enters the hot water cylinders. It also includes 2 devices that help lower the overall current draw of the unit, which reducers the power consumption and monthly power costs.

Mike agrees that aquaCHILL units are cost-effective to run.

“Because milk enters the vat at less than 5°C, the refrigeration unit doesn’t have to work to cool the milk, it simply maintains the temperature” he says.

“The heat recovery is a bonus and we use this hot water in the plant wash.

“Both of these features save us on power.”

Mike adds that the chillers are extremely low maintenance. “We’ve done nothing to our first aquaCHILL in the five to six years that it’s been on farm and it’s still going great.”

He notes that the support he gets from GEA Service Partner Nind Dairy Services (who install and maintain GEA equipment) has been consistently good.

Mike’s new aquaCHILL has been installed in a brand-new shed, along with a new GEA rotary platform. However, the ‘plug and play’ solution can be retrofitted to work with any system, existing or new.

It’s a simple case of diverting the milk line to the Plinth mounted PHE and running power to the chiller from the switchboard.

In an ideal situation, the chiller is installed and running between milkings.

For more information on GEA’s aquaCHILL unit, contact us on 0800 GEA FARM or talk to your local GEA service partner. bit.ly/GEAdealer.

KEY POINTS: • Herd size: 2,100 cows • Farm size: 730ha milking platform, with additional run-off • Shed set-up: 2 x GEA rotary platforms

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

AT THE GRASSROOTS

Pie in the sky Farmers such as Mel Poulton struggle day in day out with poor digital connectivity and want service providers to up their game.

N

EW technology, providing innovative solutions to the challenges and demands we all face today, is exciting.

We want to embrace it, adopt and adapt this technology to our needs.

To do so, both internet and cell phone infrastructure and services are required.

The promoters of such digital technology, irrespective of sector application, have yet to address the first elephant in the room.

Mobile digital technology is not going to deliver the results many promote if we do not have the right integrated infrastructure in place across the landscape.

Secondly, the assumption by many who design services, contracts and digital technology that we all have access to mobile digital connectivity is simply not true.

Many rural people, including some dairy farmers, would be happy if they could simply be able to receive the bank code sent by text message to complete their online banking transaction or be able to make and receive cell phone calls, as that is the way society expects to operate now – having such a basic service would be significant and we need better than that.

The reality is that all the talk of digital technology providing solutions for many of us in rural NZ is pie-in-the-sky, idealistic dreaming while we continue the implementation of poorly designed infrastructure that does not deliver what society needs to function.

We don’t want to be delivered partial solutions that limit us and make us second class citizens in our own homeland.

The impact from the lack of effective and efficient telecommunications infrastructure is creating huge disadvantages for provincial economic growth and putting enormous pressure on rural community health and wellbeing.

A new approach needs to be implemented.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

This new approach needs to be driven from the ground up, supported from the top down and enabled by everyone in between.

There are three components to this new approach: • The need for a rural lens through which we understand the problems and the needs of telecommunication infrastructure and services in rural NZ. • The urban-centric lens that has been applied from central goverment policysetting through to the implementation of RBI2 is an approach that is: • Narrow in its policy setting and scope; • Does not consider a systems design for all digital connectivity, for all of society across the landscape; • Has a high weighting on population density – a significant disadvantage to our rural people and the businesses that serve them; • A partial solution at best and; • An inefficient and ineffective spend of taxpayer dollars.

We must use a rural lens to understand a rural systems context of telecommunications infrastructure, services and solutions.

Develop a rural-centric framework to enable the Government to make the right strategic infrastructure decisions for rural NZ. This requires: • A shift away from population density KPIs; • A move to understanding and measuring how mobile digital infrastructure enables economic growth and development attributed to GDP and GNP, will aid improvements in the social health and wellbeing of our people, their families, local communities and towns and empowers our people to innovate, create and initiate new solutions, business and employment.

The need to truly collaborate to design a co-ordinated and integrated network across the landscape of rural NZ. We are talking about actually working together, with respect for each other and the skills, knowledge and expertise

Mel Poulton is a sheep and beef farmer from Tararua. we all bring to the table.

We accept that this is particularly difficult for government agencies, corporates and business trying to deliver under previous government policy settings and contracts.

However, where there is a will, there is a way.

When it comes to rural NZ the approach must have the big picture in mind and start with the needs of endusers both now and in the future.

We must build capacity in the system to cope with the exponential growth in demand that will come as people understand how they can use that infrastructure.

The current approach is a cop-out to rural NZ because the complexity of the problem is considered by some to be all too hard and expensive.

This approach will not deliver what rural NZ and society need.

In effect, the implementation of the current policy setting will be an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars.

We implore the Government and the whole telecommunications industry to work together with rural NZ people to apply a rural lens through which to understand the rural connectivity issues, develop a rural-centric framework for strategic decision-making and design an effective rural telecommunications infrastructure and service across the landscape.

We want to embrace, adopt and adapt technology.

To do so across all industries, sectors and society in rural NZ we must have the appropriate telecommunications infrastructure. n 7

ON FARM STORY

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Hollie Wham and Owen Clegg are the 2018 Taranaki Share Farmers of the Year winners.

DAIRY

Photos: RossFARMER Nolly

September 2018

Take the credit A young South Taranaki couple are better farmers than they thought they were – Sonita Chandar reports.

S

OUTH Taranaki farmers Owen Clegg, 26, and Hollie Wham, 25, are a young couple who, despite achieving great things in the industry, give themselves little

credit.

Earlier this year they won the 2018 Taranaki Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year title. They also won the Honda Farm Safety and Health Award, Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award and the Westpac Business Performance Award.

They said entering the awards enabled them to learn about themselves and how much they actually know.

“We don’t give ourselves enough credit or rate ourselves highly enough,” Hollie said.

“But through the awards process and judging I realised I knew a lot more than I thought I did.”

They also realised they are functioning

as a team and business as good as if not better than they expected.

“The awards made us open our eyes and really look at our business. As a result we came to understand how and why we were doing things and confirmed we are on the right track,” Owen said.

“Even in areas where we weren’t strong or believed we weren’t the judges pulled out the facts and figures and showed us what we had achieved and to see it like that was an eye-opener.”

Hollie has not only learnt a lot about their business but also herself and Owen.

“I learnt Owen can’t create a poster board to save himself and presentation is not his forte.

“But one thing we do know is that we work well as a team.”

The couple believe their strength lies in their team approach to business.

“We work together well, regardless of the task. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, when to lend a hand and when to step back,” Owen said.

“We make a good team both outside on the farm and inside doing accounts.”

Hollie agrees and said they always know what the other is doing and have learnt not to interfere – too much.

“Sometimes it is a matter of stepping back, shutting up and having confidence and trust in each other.”

They previously entered the awards in 2015 as lower-order sharemilkers to get a feel for where they were heading.

“I have always aspired to one day win the title but it was unexpected,” Hollie said.

“I still can’t believe that we are in the same league as the other winners and that people are coming to us for advice now.

“But now that I am confident in what

Continued page 10

FARM FACTS

Hollie and Sam head off to get the herd in for afternoon milking.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

n Owner: Murray and Edna Saxton n 50:50 sharemilkers: Owen Clegg and Hollie Wham n Location: Manutahi, South Taranaki n Farm size: 70ha, 56ha effective, 8ha runoff n Cows: 180 Friesian/Friesian-cross n Production: 2017-2018 69,500kg MS n Target: 2018-2019 80,000kg MS n Farm work expenses: $2.10/kg MS

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ON FARM STORY

Hollie and Owen with one of their friendly cows that always demands a scratch and a pat.

we are doing and what we actually know I am happy to pass on what I have learnt.”

Learning plays a big part in all their decision making. They don’t do anything new unless they know exactly why and can learn from it.

“We won’t change because someone else tells us to or someone else is doing it unless we actually understand why we should do it.”

Considering neither comes from a farming family they are well on their way to achieving their future goals of farm ownership or equity partnership.

They both grew up in Hawera and attended the same school and despite

being in the same English class didn’t know each other.

Owen’s dad was a sales representative who would often visit farmers with him in tow. A visit to Craig and Deanne Hockly’s farm was the start of his farming journey.

“We pulled up in the ute and Craig said something along the lines of ‘okay boyo, you can get out and come and help feed the calves’,” Owen said.

“I had no choice but to do as I was told.”

That led to weekend and holiday work and he hasn’t looked back.

“Craig and Deanne have been fantastic ever since and are now our business

mentors and always available to lend their support and provide advice.”

When he was offered a full-time job his dad encouraged him to enter the industry.

His mum, however, was a bit reluctant about him leaving school at 16 to go dairy farming.

Hollie tells another story of how Owen knew from an even earlier age he wanted to be a farmer.

“He has known since he was little.

“Owen had toy tractors and would line them up along their hallway. His sisters used to come along with their Barbie dolls in their cars and buy crops and things from his farm set-up.”

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DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

The awards made us open our eyes and really look at our business.

Owen Clegg

He spent three years with the Hocklys as a farm assistant learning the ropes then moved to an assistant manager’s job on a neighbouring farm before going lowerorder sharemilking.

It was around that time he met Hollie through squash. She was studying extramurally at Massey University doing a business studies degree majoring in management.

She has since also completed three stages of the PrimaryITO diploma. Owen has completed all levels up to the diploma stage.

“When I met Owen and moved to the farm I continued studying full-time and relief milked,” she said.

“I had milked a few times before that but I was scared stiff of the cows and was sure they were going to kick or poop on me.

“But you are not a farmer until you have been pooped on.”

She enjoyed a week of not being pooped on but that changed when she bought a bright pink beanie and wore it in the shed.

“Every time I wore it I got covered so I threw it out,” she said.

In 2016 they moved to the farm where they are 50:50 sharemilking after the Hocklys encouraged them to step up from lower-order.

Owen and Hollie head off to shift the break fence on the oat crop.

“They told us to bite the bullet and go for it, to chase our goals and that a step up to 50:50 was a step in the right direction, so we did.” Owen said.

The couple are in their third season herd-owning sharemilking on Murray and Edna Saxton’s 56ha Manutahi property near Patea, milking 180 cows.

They looked at 10 herds in their search for the perfect one before they settled on a mob from Waikato.

“They were exactly what we wanted,” Hollie said.

“When we walked into the paddock with the farm owners the girls came up to us wanting pats and scratches between the ears so we knew they were perfect.”

Now they have too many pet cows that demand their attention.

“They are always wanting a scratch or

Continued page 12

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Forty replacement calves are kept and reared for the farm each year. Hollie fills the feeder with warm milk for the calves’ breakfast.

a pat and are super friendly but also quite shy,” Hollie said.

“They will snub visitors to the farm and if they see a camera they turn away. The previous owners came to see the herd and the cows ignored them but came to us so they went away happy, knowing the girls had come to a good home.”

And because they like to challenge themselves the couple have taken on a second sharemilking job on a 180-cow farm nearby.

They employ a relief milker on the Saxton farm and the other has a part-time staff member. With the addition of the second farm Hollie and Owen run a farm each but still work as a team.

“We weren’t looking for another farm but when the opportunity was offered we decided to jump in,” Hollie said.

“It is pretty tiring calving on both farms and it has been a struggle some days to get out of bed when the alarm has gone off at 4.30am – especially when it is cold, wet and miserable but it’s working out well.”

Last season, the herd produced 69,500 kilograms of milksolids and the season before that 73,000kg MS with farm working expenses of $1.59/kg.

“We had a drought last season which sent the FWE soaring,” Owen said.

“We had a wet spring then it was like someone turned a tap off and it dried 12

up in November. We didn’t receive any significant rainfall until autumn.”

By November they had used all their feed reserves and by December the herd was on 16-hour milkings.

Now that I am confident in what we are doing and what we actually know I am happy to pass on what I have learnt.

Hollie Wham

Pastures recovered well enough with the autumn rain so they had plenty of feed going into this winter and made silage.

They run a system 3 and this year will grow 2.5ha maize at home on effluent paddocks and 3.5ha at the run-off. They are aiming for a yield 100-120 tonnes of maize.

“We normally buy 100t in yearly but the aim is to grow it at home. We are aiming

to grow more, an extra 20t, to reduce our palm kernel usage due to the FEI grading. It will be a lot cheaper to grow it ourselves. The run-off will also still provide silage and hay for the milking platform.”

They also keep palm kernel on hand in case it is needed in summer to help keep condition on the herd.

“In our first season we used 10t of palm kernel because of the great grass growth we had but last season we fed about 80t because of the drought,” Owen said.

They plant 3ha of turnips on the milking platform, which gives them a yield of 15-20t and this season they have a paddock of green feed oats, which has helped conserve pasture feed.

About 60 cows are wintered on the run-off to build up feed reserves on the platform.

“We keep pasture where it is needed,” Owen said.

“We like to start the season with a cover of 2700kg/DM.” Pasture is measured weekly for most of the year so they can lock up paddocks early for silage if needed.

Calving begins on July 5 and they rear 40 replacement calves for the farm.

Excess heifer calves are kept and reared for themselves and they pay all costs for those animals.

Hollie insisted on investing in a calf DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

ON FARM STORY milk warmer and said the investment has been well worth it.

“The calves drink like crazy and it makes training a lot easier too.”

After three weeks calves are given access to pasture so they can nibble and run around.

Target weaning is 100kg for the oldest and 120kg for younger ones. Calves are sent out grazing on December 1 and return home on May 1 in-calf and averaging 480kg.

They also rear 10 early bull calves, which are sold at 100kg.

They do pre-mating heats throughout September and all cows are Metrichecked and cured if needed. If a cow hasn’t cycled by the start of mating she is given a CDIR. “CDIRS are used strategically on noncycling cows. We CDIRed 40 cows last year in total to help with our condensing. This number should reduce each year,” Owen said.

Over the past two seasons they have put in a lot of work to condense calving from 14 weeks to eight-and-a-half weeks.

Continued page 15

Hollie Wham and Owen Clegg have been underrating themselves and their abilities but that changed when they won the Taranaki Share Farmer of the Year.

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September 2018

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ON FARM STORY

Owen and Hollie run a farm each but continue working together as a team on both to ensure neither is too late home, such as feeding the calves on the Saxton farm.

“We felt that 14 weeks was just too long and so began using short gestation semen, which has worked well,” Owen said.

Mating starts on October 1 and last season they decided to do all AB as buying or leasing bulls for the two or three weeks they would be used didn’t make sense financially.

They do six weeks of AB with Friesian and during that time the bottom 10% of the herd based on BW receives short gestation Hereford semen. That is followed by two weeks of short gestation Hereford and they finish one-and-a-half of short gestation crossbreed.

This coming mating the top 10% of BW cows will receive selected semen, larger cows will be inseminated with Jersey and low BW cows with Hereford.

“We are trying to increase the BW of the herd, which is about 78 and PW is 87 at the moment,” Owen said.

“When we have a better understanding or have learnt more about genetics then we will look at mixing things up a bit with which cow gets what.”

Their six-week in-calf rate is 76% and their empty rate 15% but that includes DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

a number of cull cows that were not put forward for mating.

“When looking at cull cows we don’t take into account her age,” Hollie said.

“Our top producer is an 11-year-old.

She gives us a replacement heifer every year in the first week of calving so we make our decisions based on production, confirmation or undesirable traits.”

Repeat offenders for mastitis are also on the hit list along with empties.

Looking ahead they hope to expand their business and the addition of the second farm is the beginning of that goal.

Eventually, they want to look at an equity partnership or farm ownership of a 250-cow farm and to continue to improve their business efficiency.

“We know our goal is a massive one but we try to work hard and smarter each day to get us one step closer,” Owen said.

“We have a strong determination and drive to achieve our goals because we know the end result will be very satisfying.”

Playing squash and golf gives the couple time away from the farm and an opportunity to relax.

“We are both members of the local

Young Farmers club and enjoy attending touch rugby games or events,” Hollie said.

With the coast right on their back doorstep Hollie enjoys whitebaiting and fishing but the thought of fish guts makes Owen squeamish.

“It’s funny, Owen can happily calve a cow and not worry about all the yucky stuff but when it comes to fish guts he can’t stand it,” Hollie said.

“We are like Yin and Yang and I guess that is why we make such a great team.” n

>> Video link: https://vimeo.com/286962210/7202de5609 15

NEWS

One… two… but wait there’s more SONITA CHANDAR

N

GATEA farmers Karl Hunt and Gina Robinson are quite used to multiple births as they have two sets of twins in their family.

But when one of their cows gave birth to triplets last month, they got the shock of their lives.

On the afternoon of August 13, Hunt noticed cow 493 calving, he put her in a fresh grass paddock and left her to get on with the job.

“When I checked her later on, she was still trying to calve so brought her in to the yard so she would be safe for the night,” Hunt said.

“I thought I would give her a quick check and when I put my arm in, I felt a lot more legs than there should have been and realised she was having twins.”

He rang his partner Gina Robinson and asked if the children wanted to come and see twins being born but they were busy.

“I wandered down to the shed to help out but by the time I got there, Karl had already calved the twins,” Robinson said.

Cow 493 was quite happily cleaning her calves – one brown and one black - so they left her to it and went to the calf pens to check on a calf number.

“When we returned to the yard a short time later, we noticed another head and legs coming out realised she was having triplets,” Robinson said.

“At first it was a shock and then there was a bit of excitement. I don’t know anyone else that has had triplet calves,” Robinson said.

“You hear of twins but triplet calves are quite rare.”

Hunt said “we got three for the price of one”.

Robinson said they had no idea she was carrying triplets. All three are naturally mated Angus Friesian cross heifer calves.

“Looking at her in the paddock, she looked like the rest of the pregnant cows.

There was no way you would have looked at her and thought she was carrying twins 16

Cow 493 with her triplet heifer calves born on August 13.

let alone triplets,” she said.

Robinson said it was a good thing Cow 493 was brought into the yard to calve otherwise there would have been utter confusion in the paddock.

“Because two of the calves are orange and one black, we would have had no idea that they had come from one cow,” Robinson said “We would have looked at them and thought twins and then we would have spent hours trying to find the mother of the black one.”

Records show this is Cow 493’s first multiple birth. The calves were a reasonable size at birth, standing within a short time and are vigorous feeders.

“They are pretty feisty. As soon as I put the feeder in the pen, they came running to drink.”

The farm owner has gifted the calves to the family. They spent the first few days in the pens and when the couple realised just how feisty and keen feeders they were, they decided to give them back to their mum.

“We have put her in a paddock on her own with her calves and she has taken them back with no problems and is feeding them all,” Robinson said.

“Cow 493 will be having a nice holiday with her calves until they are weaned and

then she will return to the herd.”

Robinson had initially named them after Donald Duck’s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie but their children have since renamed them Kourtney, Kim and Khloe after the Kardashian sisters.

The couple who are contract milkers on a 200-cow farm at Kaihere near Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains, have two sets of twin daughters, Amber and Bella, 10, Paige and Braye, 3 and son Ollie, 9.

“We are a pretty fertile bunch, there must be something in the water,” Robinson says.

Robinson’s grandmother had fraternal twins and as is the popular belief, the gene skipped a generation and went to her.

“Two sets of twins keep us pretty busy but it is a fun happy busy,” she said.

“Now we have another multiple birth on the farm which makes it even more fun.”

Massey University associate professor in production animal health Richard Laven, told Stuff that the chances of a calving live triplets was “about one in two million”.

He said the chances of a cow carrying triplets was about one in 500,000 but from there it was about a one in four chance that all three would be born alive. n DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

FAST FIVE 1. What motivates or drives you?

I have always worked in the dairy industry and the innovation and technology going forward is exciting, especially for a small country like New Zealand whose footprint on the global scene is comparatively small compared to some of the bigger countries. Being a female in this industry is challenging but with the right attitude and drive you can make it happen.

I love working with animals as I have grown up rurally.

2. What philosophy do you live by?

Hard work will get you where you want to be. If you want something go and get it.

3. What annoys you most about farming and what do you enjoy the most and why?

The gap between town and country bugs me. Often farming is only seen from the outside, across the fence. As an industry we need to have more transparency so those who aren’t on the ground at the grassroots can really see what is going on. Often the negatives are blown way off course and farming gets a bad rap.

4. How do you see the state of the industry and future of dairying?

Moving forward NZ needs to be competitive and ahead of the pack because of the geographical nature of this country in comparison to some of the bigger dairying nations and in this industry we need to work smarter not harder.

5. What are some of the biggest challenges you are facing this coming season?

Going into management for a company I have had to learn that it’s not just what goes on in the milking shed or in the paddock. It’s the behind the scenes stuff that keeps things ticking too. Going from a smaller scale owner-operator dairy unit to a larger scale company farm has been a challenge but I love a good challenge and having a great crew who are just as driven and focused as me is awesome. Also, the support network of LandCorp Farming is great.

Rachael Lind Rachael grew up on a sheep farm in the Marlborough Sounds but after leaving school went to work on a dairy farm before heading to university.

She fell in love with dairying and never left.

Since then she has completed a number of PrimaryITO courses and was top cadet in years one, two and four.

She is now the farm manager at Landcorp Pamu Bassets Farm milking 1060 cows and manages four staff.

Married to Murray, they have two children, Ayla, 8, and

Brayden, 22 months.

She enjoys gardening and growing her own produce to make preserves for the pantry and is keen on the great outdoors.

Rachael has completed the Outward Bound leadership course and said “It was an amazing experience that taught me a lot about myself and really pushed me to test me abilities.”

Eventually she wants to own a dairy farm and said it is a great lifestyle to bring up a family. n

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Celebrating five years of Anchor in China

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ONTERRA’S consumer business, led by Anchor, has marked five years of being sold in China.

“It’s great to be here in New Zealand celebrating a significant milestone for Anchor in China and for the whole Fonterra family,” Christina Zhu, president of Fonterra Greater China, said “We’ve come a long way since the first Anchor UHT milk bottle hit the shelf in a central Shanghai store in 2013.

We’ve come a long way since the first Anchor UHT milk bottle hit the shelf in a central Shanghai store in 2013.

“At the time we had only one product sold in only one store.

“Now we have 47 products sold in 13,000 stores nationwide. And that’s just 45% of our sales. The other 55% is online.

“Over those five years we’ve sold the equivalent of nearly one billion glasses

Christina Zhu, president of Fonterra Greater China and Fonterra interim chief executive Miles Hurrell kick off celebrations with cake.

of milk in China and I’m proud to say Anchor is now the No 1 imported milk brand in China.”

As well as having a leading consumer brand Fonterra is also the category leader in both the food service and ingredient markets in China.

“One in four litres of milk we collect ends up in China. This is why China is such an important export market for Fonterra,” Zhu said.

Anchor milestones include: • Expanded Anchor portfolio from one product to 47; • Grown from one store in Shanghai to 13,000 nationwide; • 55% of sales are now made online; • No 1 of 64 imported milk brands; • Strong year-on-year growth over 40% and; • Almost one billion glasses of milk sold in China. n

Visit microlenefarm.co.nz or call 021 873 421 for more information

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NEWS

Darfield plant opens

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ONTERRA’S new cream cheese plant in Canterbury has started production and is set to make up to 24,000 tonnes a year of cream cheese for China.

China’s changing demographics have driven a surge in popularity for western foods, Fonterra global food service marketing general manager Susan Cassidy said.

The 20kg blocks of cream cheese from Darfield will meet growing demand for bakery goods like cheesecakes and cheese tarts.

Growth in China’s middle class, rapid urbanisation and changing consumer tastes have contributed to explosive growth in the number of consumers wanting New Zealand dairy.

“People in China want natural dairy products they can trust in their baked

goods. That’s great for Fonterra and NZ,” Cassidy said.

Global operations chief operating officer Robert Spurway said the new plant is an important part of the co-op’s strategy to keep up the momentum in producing more value-added products for its consumer and food service business.

Our focus is on creating the highest return from each of those litres.

“Today, one in four litres of milk from NZ is sold to China – that’s the equivalent of 3.4 billion litres a year.

“Our focus is on creating the highest return from each of those litres.

Massey University research has shown MidPro™ increases Milk Solids by close to 9% and Milk Yield by close to 6.5% over control.

“The new plant will enable us to convert more milk to high-value cream cheese, which is in popular demand.

“We’re really proud of our technology, which alters the firmness and consistency of cream cheese according to customer preference.

“It’s a technology first and a huge competitive advantage,” Spurway says.

Darfield’s acting site operations manager Shane Taylor said the 30 new employees hired to operate the cream cheese plant have been looking forward to the site opening for the last six months.

“Most of the team have learnt everything from scratch. They’ve gone from classroom to practice to real-life commissioning of the site.

“If the plant was a ship they would have been the crew preparing for its maiden voyage and a long life on the ocean,” Taylor said. n

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www.cargill.co.nz September 2018

19

ON FARM STORY

Waikato farmers Richard Stacey and son Chis and wife Jude Stacey are the 2018 Waikato Dairy Business of the Year. Pictured Chris, Stella, 2, Jude and Tom, 4, in front.

Photos: Fritha Tagg 20

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Hard worK and brain power A family that works as a tight-knit team are the Waikato’s top dairy business – Fritha Tagg reports.

H

ARD work and the ability to think outside the box is part of farm life for Jude and Chris Stacey.

The couple and their two young children, Tom, 4, and Stella, 2, operate a dairy farm in rolling to steep country at Korakonui, 25km south east of Te Awamutu.

This year they are the supreme award runners-up in the Dairy Business of the Year competition. They also won Best Waikato Farm Performance and the award for the finalist with the lowest environmental impact.

Chris is passionate about the competition and how it has helped them.

“We have entered a couple of times to benchmark where we are. The best part of the competition is what you get back – the feedback from judges, the sharing of ideas with other like-minded farmers.

“All finalists are open, professional and humble, no BS. It is just open and honest.

FARM FACTS n Owners: Riddings Farm, Chris and Jude Stacey and Richard Stacey n Location: Te Awamutu, Waikato n Farm size: 240ha, 155ha milking platform, 40ha native bush, 45ha young stock block n Cows: 430 crossbred n Production: 2016-2017 174,000kg MS, 2017-18 173,000kg MS n Target: 2018-2019 185,000kg MS

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

It’s a great tool for a farmer to move forward. I recommend anyone enter. All financial data is put through Red Sky and analysed and all HR and farm functions are examined.

“We entered this year to see how we were performing after modifying our cropping programme.” Chris said.

“We have tried a few systems with the aim of growing cheaper feed. We are able to produce all our own forages.”

Chris has a background in farming and was brought up on the small family dairy farm in nearby Cambridge.

His parents, Richard and his mother Ann who died three years ago, decided they should move to a bigger, more challenging property after Chris got his degree.

“We knew he was a farmer in the making,” Richard said.

“Because this farm is new to both of us we need to work together, which, I believe, we do well. Right from the start I have respected his opinion and been happy to let him take full responsibility for the day-to-day operation.

“My responsibility nowadays is primarily on the financial side of the business, which I enjoy.

“I now live in Te Awamutu but try to get out to assist with milking once a week and catch-up with what’s happening on the farm. This is as long as I am not in Queenstown visiting my daughter Sarah and her family.

“Although this award is an acknowledgment of our efforts it is also a stimulus to continue making every post a winning post.

“Therefore, I know Chris and Jude will be keen to continue working very hard in all aspects of the business. I’m certainly very proud of the conscientious way they work and make use of all the very latest technology,” Richard said.

From high school Chris spent a year on his uncle’s farm then went to Lincoln for an ag commerce degree majoring in farm management. In 2005 he and his parents bought the farm at Korakonui. It had just been converted from sheep and beef and though it was well laid-out the dairy aspect of the farm had not been pushed.

It is beautiful country, very dry stock oriented. The farm has a 155ha milking platform with 430 cows. The steeper 40ha is used for young stock and beef animals.

The property also has 40ha of fenced off, protected, native bush with potential for tourist ventures.

The farm is self-contained with replacements remaining on-farm.

With a young family the couple split the farm work. Jude is on deck at 3am to feed calves then they swap roles at 5am for Chris to do the milking along with their two employees.

“It is hard work now – during calving – but with the kids it is just better to know they are in the house, safe and warm and we can concentrate on getting the work done. Chris and I don’t see much of each other at this time of year but it works.”

Jude has a passion for experimenting with different beef breeds. Last season they used a small number of Wagyu and Belted Galloway straws. This season has included Wagyu and Speckled Park for the tail end of the herd. Jude jokes with

Continued page 22 21

ON FARM STORY

The Stacey farm is self-contained and all stock is reared on the farm. From left Jude, Stella, Tom on his motorbike and Chris with some of this season’s calves.

Chris about how they will end up with a Speckled Park herd of dairy cows.

In previous years they sold bull calves, surplus rearers and the different calves to lifestyle block owners but with Mycoplasma bovis they have restricted the number of buyers.

“My gut feeling is what people are keen on this year is to keep contact to a minimum,” Jude said.

When they arrived on the property they had big Friesian cows.

Chris said “They were just too big for the hills so we started crossbreeding them with Jersey to develop a crossbred cow 22

that was strong, medium sized and could cope well with the hills.”

They rear 80 replacement calves each year. The calves are grazed on the dairy platform from weaning till the following winter then move to the steeper land.

They run two milking herds. First herd is 330 mixed-age strong cows. The second herd is 100 cows made up of heifers and any older or weaker cows.

The 350-cow feed pad, next to the cowshed, is used to feed both herds before afternoon milking.

In September EZIheat patches are put

on all cows and the EZIheat camera is used to record all pre-mating heats. The cows have patches applied to their rumps.

If a patch is missing or activated the cow will be drafted and the heat recorded in MINDA. About September 25 they look at any young cows that have calved at least a month earlier that haven’t had a recorded heat and then strategically treat them after the vet has palpated them. After three weeks of AB, any other young noncyclers are treated.

Continued page 24 DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

How CowScout™ works ID tag signal

CowScout™

the tool to rule them all GEA’s CowScout™ collars are a popular and affordable option for monitoring cows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Antenna

Antenna cable

Receiver

Processing unit Ethernet cable

PC

There are two main benefits: accurate heat detection enables automated identification of cows at optimal insemination time, while health monitoring flags cows with reduced eating times or by a decrease in either eating or rumination times depending on the installation option.

Cambridge Dairy Farmer Brad Payne has used CowScout™ for the past three years.

He bought into the technology primarily as an automated heat detection tool, but it has become so much more than that.

CowScout™ automatically determines cows on heat at their optimal insemination time. Brad, who is also an AB technician, receives a notification and simply turns up to do the insemination.

“CowScout™ gives us better insight into optimal insemination times” he observes. “I’m realising that we may have been inseminating the cows too early in the past.

“Also, when we used tail paint, I would only inseminate in the mornings.

However, CowScout™ indicated the

optimal time for 80% of the herd was in the afternoon during the first year. In the following season, the optimal time was in the morning.”

Another major benefit for Brad is that they’re spending a lot less time on AB (they don’t use bulls) and still seeing good results. He’s aiming for 4% empties with 9 weeks AB. He adds that CowScout™ provides him with a cost-effective solution to picking up sick cows.

In the past, he relied on GEA’s iNTELSENSE (inline sensor technology) which he had installed on every fourth bale in the rotary shed, checking the milk for high cell count and thereby alerting staff to the possibility of mastitis in a cow - but only getting these results every four milkings.

“With CowScout™, we can afford to collar every cow and pick up mastitis and metabolic disorders before the cows go down sick” Brad explains. “This is because CowScout™ tells us how much each cow is eating.

“Those cows not eating as much as they should are drafted out automatically,

Internet connection

Mobile device or Cell phone

enabling us to check and treat them a day or two earlier than we might have done before.

Brad concludes that with CowScout™ he’s no longer working blind. “You can’t get the information that CowScout™ provides by simply looking at the cows.”

GEA Herd Management Solutions Manager Jan Winke confirms that CowScout™ is highly accurate and, therefore, a reliable herd management tool.

She adds that, with no ongoing costs, the technology is very affordable.

CowScout™ software is regularly updated at no extra cost to users. The most recent update provides a more user-friendly interface, giving farmers control over how data is presented.

For more information on GEA’s CowScout, contact us on 0800 GEA FARM or talk to your local GEA service partner. bit.ly/GEAdealer.

ON FARM STORY

Cow 119 is a favourite of the Stacey family and was a special guest at Chris and Jude’s wedding. From left Tom, Jude, Stella sitting on Cow 119 and Chris Stacey.

Proven Product. Best Spread.

RIDDINGS FARM KPIs • Total cows effective area: 440 cows, 137.4ha • Milk prod per cow: 395kg MS/cow, 1264 MS/ha • Return on capital: 5.1% • Operating profit margin: 32.6% • Operating profit per ha: $2968 • Cost of production per kg MS: $4.17 • Operating expenses per kg MS: $4.86 • Pasture harvest DM/ha: 10.7t • Pasture % of feed: 58% • Core per cow costs: $634 • Labour efficiency cows/FTE: 133 • Environ score out of 15: 11 • HR score out of 15: 7.6

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Jude has a passion for experimenting with different beef breeds. Pictured Jude and Stella with a new Speckled Park calf.

Mating starts on October 1 with AB for seven weeks. They are now using nominated Friesian straws to add strength and capacity because recent replacements had begun to get too weak and fine.

The poorest performing 20% of cows are AB to Hereford straws. The herds are tailed off with Hereford and Jersey bulls.

They early pregnancy detection scan the cows on December 20 to date all early pregnancies and to identify recheck cows.

That gives them the option to cull some

of the cows early if needed. A final scan is done late February.

They dry off according to expected calving date and cow condition but aim to milk most until the last week of May to maximise the cows’ days in milk.

Dairy Business award judges said a strength of the Staceys’ farm business is their ability to grow their own crops.

“With the majority of the contour being rolling to steep, typically it dries out early in summer. So we grow a significant

Continued page 27 25

ON FARM STORY

Tom, 4, and Stella, 2, are hands-on out on the farm. Pictured Tom and Stella check out what the herd is having for breakfast.

amount of crop to fill the feed deficit,” Chris said.

“Where contour allows, we grow 18ha of maize for silage annually, 9ha fodder beet and 4.5ha of turnips.”

Nearly 110ha of the milking area receives effluent. That means most of the time they are growing crops on effluent land so fertiliser inputs for the crops are reduced.

All crop cultivation, drilling, spraying, fertilising and crop husbandry is done

by Chris with contractors used to plant the maize and fodder beet with precision drills.

They start feeding turnips early in January for about a month then slowly transition the cows to the fodder beet.

“We use a beet-lifting bucket on the DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Farming is hard work but offers a great lifestyle and awesome environment to share with the kids.

Jude Stacey

tractor and the entire beets are loaded into the feed-out wagon and fed to the cows in the paddock. We try to lift and feed as much of the beet this way to minimise nutrient leaching.”

Depending on the season the beet should last until early May when they start feeding maize until balance date.

“We try to conserve some in the pits in case we really need additional feed in the summer,” he said.

They have tried chicory and larger areas of turnips for summer feed but found the yield potential isn’t great for the large area of ground taken out.

“We found fodder beet is a great source of cheap dry matter. It gives us high yield/ ha which means we can grow it for about 7-8c/kg DM.” Chris has a good working relationship with agronomist Brian Cornish, who helps in crop monitoring and husbandry decisions.

Continued page 28 27

ON FARM STORY

Tom, 4, likes to head out with dad Chris every chance he gets to work on the farm.

Their Headlands consultant Chris Pyke visits every six to eight weeks. Using the farm modelling programme UDDER, they test different strategies to optimise farm and business performance.

“Our main philosophy in terms of feed is to fully feed the cows all year using the most cost-effective feeds we can. I contract 12 months worth of palm kernel requirement at a time, usually around June.

“I like to lock in the cost for budgeting purposes and it is usually the cheapest time to contract.”

Chris said they have struggled with pasture persistence so this autumn they regrassed with Festalolium.

“We are expecting a three-year pasture life, which is what we are getting with perennial ryegrass. But we should get more production, less cost and better weed control. On poorer performing existing pastures in steeper paddocks we undersow with plantain and Italian ryegrass.”

Where possible the crop paddocks stay in crop for two or three seasons.

Following the first crop they direct drill either annual ryegrass or oats, which are quick to establish, high yielding and 28

absorb excess nitrogen left in the soil after fodder beet. The crops are then harvested for silage.

The couple is looking at growing their business through sharemilking or leasing another property or alternate investment or farm-linked projects such as building a retreat near the native bush.

They have tried rental property investment and decided it is not the right route for them and they are in the process of making decisions on what other investment might be a better match.

“Our place is beautiful. It would be a shame to not use it for something like weddings or a lodge near the bush area.

“I love cooking so catering for shortstay guests might work well but we are only in the early stages of trying to find something which will work for us,” Jude said.

“While the business is of high priority we try to keep focused on the bigger picture and live a balanced life” “I like to keep it interesting,” Chris said, “Trying different breeds may be the answer. That’s why we could be milking Speckled Park next year,” Jude said.

“Chris is an educated risk-taker, a calculated risk-taker,” she said.

He said the early days on the farm were not easy.

“It felt like an uphill battle but once the dairy conversion was embedded and more animals purchased we could see that the property would work well as a dairy farm.

“We have a great team,” Chris said.

“Awareness and open communication about each other’s goals and aspirations, knowing our strengths and weaknesses all play a part.”

Chris is in charge of overall strategic business direction and plan implementation. Richard is predominantly responsible for bill payments, accounting, GST and payroll matters and is also a great sounding board for Chris.

Jude is also involved in business decision-making, calf rearer, supply buyer and helps with general farm duties.

She is kept very busy with Tom and Stella.

“We love being able to bring the kids up on a farm. Farming is hard work but offers a great lifestyle and awesome environment to share with the kids.” n DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

NEWS

Get ready for Calf Club SONITA CHANDAR

H

UNDREDS of school children have registered for the online Calf Club and organisers are confident more than 1000 children around the country will eventually take part.

Josh Herbes of Own Real Experience and Waikato dairy farmer Michelle Burgess, who run the site, say the response has been fantastic.

“We have had an amazing amount of support from sponsors and people have come forward to help with various things.

“Without this support we wouldn’t be able to get this initiative off the ground so it is fantastic to see the industry come together to ensure this iconic event does not disappear.”

The site was launched in July as a way to continue the tradition of calf club, which is designed to encourage children to take an active interest in the welfare and presentation of a calf.

Registrations are open on the Calf Club NZ website where systems and processes have been fine tuned to make it easy for children to upload their entries.

“We have decided to make this a regional competition so that children and their calves can compete locally rather than against someone at the other end of the country,” Herbes said.

“Calving in the South Island is also a little bit later than in the North so it puts everyone on level playing field.”

Calves lucky enough to be selected will be pampered and smothered with attention over coming weeks as training begins.

A regional competition will be easier to manage for judging. Twenty people have already volunteered to serve as judges.

The voting system will go live on September 24 and the top 10 entrants will be visited on farm where they will be able to show off just how well they have trained their calves.

With calving now well under way, children will be selecting and training a

calf to put its best hoof forward for judges.

Those calves lucky enough to be selected will be pampered and smothered with attention over coming weeks as children rear and train their four-legged friends to lead.

All that training will culminate in a day of grooming, tail brushing and scrubbing hooves with those judged the best winning the top awards. n

Susan Thornley, Kevin Old, Hollie Wham, and John Wood.

Winners of our Dairy Farmer calf cover competition.

We can’t wait to see photos of your calves protected from the elements this season!

farmersweekly.co.nz

2460DF

Thank you for supporting Dairy Farmer.

NEWS

Calf Club calves in herds are usually easily identified because they are often the quietest and friendliest in the herd.

Tips for training your calf The team at Dairy Farmer is proud to be the official media partner of Calf Club NZ and support this grassroots programme. With the help of sponsors LIC we have come up with some tips on how to care for and train your calf in preparation for the big day.

Caring for Your Calf Your calf will need a pen or a wellfenced paddock with shelter to protect it from cold wind and rain, especially when it is very young. For the first few days as you become friends it will help if this is a small area so wherever you are in the pen, you are close to the calf, it can hear your voice and will soon begin to trust you.

If your calf is housed in a pen make sure its bedding is always clean – rake any soiling out of the bed regularly so your calf has a nice, clean, dry place to rest.

30

Feeding Right from the start your calf will need feeding twice a day – in the morning before you leave for school and the afternoon when you get home.

Calves need lots of milk. You will need a special feeder bottle to feed your calf.

To avoid your calf getting scours make sure everything it eats and drinks out of is spotlessly clean.

Feeding your calf is the important first step to getting it to trust you – and that’s the beginning of your friendship.

Calves need to learn three things on the lead – walk alongside you, turn when required and to stop.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Your calf will need good-quality, fresh, long grass and clean water in a low trough it can easily reach.

Training Calves need to learn three things on the lead – walk alongside you, turn when required and to stop.

Once you can put a halter on your calf you can begin to teach it to lead. Start with a few minutes training each day.

Training time should be fun for you and the calf. Decide what you want to achieve, do it and after each session praise and pat your calf.

You want your calf to walk on your right and for its head/shoulder to be alongside you.

Hold the rope with your right hand close to the halter with the rest of the rope in your left hand so you and your calf don’t trip on it. Never wrap the rope around your hand – that is dangerous and could mean you are dragged if the calf gets a fright and tries to run away from you.

Once your calf happily walks alongside you, start teaching it to turn.

Remember, you are on the outside of the calf when it turns so you need to push its head towards the new direction as you begin to make the turn.

The turns need to be very big at the start as your calf won’t be used to this new movement and you don’t want it to become unbalanced and trip and lose confidence in you.

Stop your calf by gently pulling on the lead. Don’t do this suddenly because you will give your calf a fright. Let it know you’re going to stop by giving gentle tugs on the rope then a long pull fixing your

Wash your calf on a warm day and with plenty of sunlight and not within three days of judging.

Calves need to learn three things on the lead – walk alongside you, turn when required and to stop.

feet on the ground and leaning back a bit.

Stand still for a minute or more then start walking again.

Vary the routine when you walk your calf – at first go in straight lines and, when you turn, make sure the calf is on the inside of the turn.

Walk past different things that might distract it so by the time judging comes along your calf is used to all sorts of sights and sounds.

If you are a lucky enough to be selected as a finalist a judge will visit you at home so you and your calf can be judged.

You will need to give your calf one last good wash before the big day. Calves should not be washed within three days of judging so your calf’s coat has its natural oils on the day.

Wash your calf on a warm day with plenty of sunlight so its coat dries before the day becomes dark and colder.

Keep training the calf every day and keep it covered all the time so its coat is as shiny as possible on the day.

On the day, have all of your equipment clean and ready.

You will need: • A grooming brush and a soft cloth for polishing around nose, eyes and general coat before you present your calf.

• Clean halter and lead rope.

• Some meal and a feeding container so you can give your calf some reward after a good effort.

Remember, you are on display as well as your calf so be sure you are also dressed neat and tidy and enjoy yourself because the judges will be looking for signs that you are comfortable with and care for your calf.

Give your calf lots of hugs and pats for a job well done.

And remember, while the calf goes back to being a member of a mob of calves it will still remember you – many farmers can point out the Calf Club calves in their herds today because they are often the quietest and friendliest in the herd. And that’s a nice thought, knowing you have trained such an animal.

Good luck. n

MORE:

For further information or to register your calf go to www.calfclubnz.co.nz And for more tips on how to train your calf go to www.lic.co.nz/about/calf-club/ DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

31

DAIRY CHAMPION

No ‘I’ in Murphy – Robin gives back A career in dairying and the irrigation sector is only a start for Robin Murphy. The South Canterbury farmer gives heart and soul to his community. Tim Fulton reports.

O

N SUNDAYS Robin and May Murphy used to travel the back tracks of Waimate District looking for seal and shingle in need of

repair.

Murphy was a local councillor so they

32

figured they had to do their bit.

He reckons he got to know 95% of the roads.

“May and I would go for a drive and pick up some new roads so you knew what was going on.”

He was determined during his two terms on the South Canterbury council

that rural interests would get a fair shake, right down to funding community halls like the one in hometown Glenavy.

As a dairy farmer he also wanted to show the industry contributing to the country.

“In the district plan there was a bit of a backlash against dairying.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

In 2017 New Year South Canterbury farmer Robin Murphy was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to land and water management.

“When I was on the council I was lucky there were six new ones on at the same time and we were quite rural-based so we were able to get quite a lot of things done.”

As part of the council’s economic development group Murphy tried to ensure farming was recognised for its power to share wealth.

“Prior to that everyone was just trying to knock dairying around because it seemed to be successful. My argument was everybody should be successful.”

He’s a driving force in a welter of irrigation projects, committees and boards including chairman of the innovative Morven Glenavy Ikawai (MGI) irrigation company for the past 20 years.

Water storage and reticulation has consumed most of Murphy’s working life: rallying funds, stoking enthusiasm and providing governance.

At age 18 Murphy started doing cream DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

supply on a farm at Seadown, near Timaru, and in 1975 moved to Middle Rd, Ikawai, beside the Waitaki River.

These days Ikawai and neighbouring Glenavy are swathed in lush, irrigated dairy farms but in the 1970s it was mainly sheep and beef country. Most dairy farmers toiled away on town supply, making the most of boggy paddocks and the state-owned irrigation schemes of the day.

The Murphys had to prove themselves.

When the couple took over 60ha at Ikawai they applied for a loan from the Rural Bank.

“The officer backed us and his boss said ‘Oh, you made a mistake there’.”

The Murphys converted the farm to tanker supply for Cloverlea Co-op and doubled production in the first year.

Murphy was soon a Cloverlea director, helping it secure more supply.

“I think that first year we shifted to Ikawai there were only four farms supplying Cloverlea and then the following year we got the Waimate town milk supply on board and we had another shareholder come in. It just grew from there.”

By the early 1980s dairying was expanding rapidly around on both sides Waitaki River. The Murphys moved to Glenavy with son Bruce on June 7, 1984.

He is precise about the date because it coincided with the momentous Lange Labour government coming to power.

The Murphys and a young staff member knuckled down and built a cow shed. By August 15 that year they were milking their 370 cows.

At Ikawai the farm’s irrigation came from the government-owned, Public Works Department-built Redcliffs scheme, built in the 1930s and one of the first of its kind in New Zealand. At Glenavy farmers drew on state-controlled water from the Morven Glenavy project, built about a decade before.

In 1989, a group of farmers including Murphy as a founding director bought Morven Glenavy and Redcliffs (Ikawai) from the Crown, creating bedrock for today’s Morven-Glenavy-Ikawai (MGI), incorporating Waihao Downs Irrigation.

By the time Murphy became MGI chairman in 1998 the scheme was ticking over nicely.

“When we bought the scheme we had quite a lot of debt to the Crown.”

The new owners quickly paid off that debt and expanded the irrigation network. In private hands MGI started

I think that first year we shifted to Ikawai there were only four farms supplying Cloverlea and then the following year we got the Waimate town milk supply on board and we had another shareholder come in. It just grew from there. with a combined 11,000ha of developed irrigation. Water flows for piped pivot irrigation and a bald comparison of hectares doesn’t fully explain the metamorphosis to 2018. MGI now has 163 shareholders, some of whom are among the biggest-producing dairy farmers in the country.

Murphy says virtually all the schemes were built with capacity to expand over years and decades to come. Farmers today considering whether to invest in Hunter Downs can make a similar sort of investment in the community, he said.

“Our forefathers made those decisions to put those schemes there and I believe that the generation that’s there now, whether they like it or not, it’s up to them to put something in place.”

Finance Minister Roger Douglas was soon dispensing his radical prescription to unshackle state control of the economy. By 1986 interest rates steepled to about 20% and farm subsidies were virtually history. The Murphys survived but he’s sure New Zealand lost a sense of “we:” in the process.

“I don’t altogether disagree with what Roger Douglas did but it was bloody tough.

“He collapsed provincial NZ. He should have collapsed the cities at the same time and we’d all have been better off, instead

Continued page 34 33

DAIRY CHAMPION of taking money off the country.”

Murphy has done his best to re-inflate rural NZ, serving on local domain and hall committees and bigger bodies like the Lower Waitaki-South Canterbury coastal zone committee, a major part of environmental planning in the region.

He has served on numerous farming and local body groups, including the Bovis Action Group helping South Canterbury and North Otago farmers take ownership of the response to Mycoplasma bovis.

In the 2017 New Year Honours he was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for his contribution to land and water management.

His family business, Murphy Farms, runs 5100 cows on 2150ha and employs four lower-order sharemilkers, two dairy managers and a runoff manager.

Irrigation has been essential for the business and many others like it, droughtproofing, keeping production consistent and giving certainty of income.

Thanks partly to water Murphy Farms’ annual production varies by no more than 1-2%.

“And I think of all the years we’ve been farming here there’s only one year that we haven’t increased production. If you’re a grassland farmer you need water.”

In Canterbury every decade brings an 18-month to two-year drought.

“This decade we haven’t had it and somewhere along the line you’re going to have a real dry period. I think people have got to assess the cost of that lost income versus being able to put that irrigation scheme in.”

Murphy looks forward to growing more grass in future as border dyke irrigation continues to be replaced by spray systems.

The more that farmers can match their irrigation requirements with soil moisture levels the better they will be.

Personally, it’s satisfying for him to have son Bruce and daughter-in-law Lesa as business partners. It feels like the succession planning he and May started with Bruce in 2000 is paying off.

In 1989 a group of farmers including Robin Murphy as a founding director bought Morven Glenavy and Redcliffs (Ikawai) from the Crown.

“I’m probably pretty fortunate that I’ve been able to take a helicopter view of a lot of things. I’ve had very good support from May and my family. And on the other hand I don’t work a 40-hour week. A lot of that other work was done on the weekend or at night.”

He gives only a hint of slowing down his farming and community commitments but says whenever he does step away from a commitment he’s sure to make it a clean break.

“When I went off the zone committee I told them that when I retired they won’t see me for a period of time and they haven’t.”

His approach to retirement is “I’m gone. Don’t worry, I won’t be annoying anybody.”

Likewise, a general manager appointed three years ago has picked up some of Murphy’s institutional knowledge and kept gathering data to keep the company in good shape. n

Murphy Farms runs 5100 cows on 2150ha and employs four lower-order 34

sharemilkers, two dairy managers and a runoff manager.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UK cheese exports rise

M

ORE than 93,000 tonnes of cheese was exported by Britain in the first half of 2018, up about 18% on this

time last year.

Though exports of regional-named cheeses were down 6%, cheddar and other cheeses were up 19% and 18% respectively.

Increased exports to the European Union continue to be the main growth driver.

Exports to Ireland, Denmark and Germany did drop a little between the first and second quarters of the year but are still notably higher than a year earlier.

Exports to Spain have been growing since April-June 2017 and had a particular uplift in the second quarter of 2018, up 56% on the first quarter and 160% higher than the second quarter of last year.

Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board lead dairy analyst Chris Gooderham said it is mainly mozzarella driving the increase in Spain and called the growth in home-produced cheddar and mozzarella encouraging.

Increased exports to the European Union continue to be the main growth driver.

Mozzarella consumption has been growing for many years and Britain’s largest mozzarella producers, Glanbia and Dairy Partners, are both based in Wales,

processing about 400m litres of milk/year into that cheese.

“Milk volumes would have been up when these cheeses were made so it may be some is driven by excess stocks,” he said.

“However, from what we hear, cheese stocks are low in the UK, which suggests this is profitable business that has been chased and won.”

Exports to non-EU destinations continue to grow, though not as quickly as those to the EU. “But Brexit continues to be a risk to the continual growth in our exports in the future.”

Exports in the first half of 2018 were worth £320m, up 12% on the same period in 2017, but down 2% on the second half of 2017.

That is mainly due to a drop in average prices. n UK Farmers Weekly

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35

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

U

Sounds familiar

SING more than 12 tonnes of DM/ha of grass in a simple system that requires only 1.25 labour units is helping Irish springblock calver David Kerr see a 29% return on capital.

Critical to the success of the Kerr family farm at Ross, Portlaoise, is a philosophy of basing the farm on grass, people and cows.

As the herd has grown, from 70 cows in 2007 to 150 cows last year, the Kerrs have called on contractors to rear heifers and do tractor work, meaning the farm uses only 20 labour hours a cow a year.

That has let Kerr operate efficiently as one full-time farmer to manage grassland as best he can, controlling fixed costs, with machinery depreciation at 0.66p/ litre, and running a herd that produces 79% of its 835,000 litres from forage.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been a bull on the farm for 60 years with the Kerrs opting for AI and placing a strong focus on high-index bulls. That has resulted in the herd being in the top 1% of the national Economic Breeding Index, with a herd EBI of 169.

Grassland management and fertility is maximising grass use (14t DM/ha/year total) by matching the lactation curve with the grass growth curve.

The farm is using a 5% reseeding policy and some pasture dates back to 1979.

An eye on the future and possible quota abolition meant Kerr was certain he had to expand his herd.

“I focus on the important things to manage the grass and the cows here on the farm, which for my farming system is getting cows served, in calf and getting grass residuals right. Contractors can be trusted to do the rest.”

The farm makes £26,000 more in net profit than four years ago.

High milksolids mean a price of 36p/ litre has been achieved but even if the farm was faced with a 25p/litre milk price it would be capable of leaving a healthy margin.

“We set ourselves the target of making an extra €30,000 and we have pretty much achieved that.

“This has been mainly through technical performance. The herd is

36

Irish farmer David Kerr is basing his farm system on pasture and is developing a Holstein-Friesian-Jersey cross herd.

more mature and averaged 100kg more milksolids in 2017 than four years ago.”

Since 2007, the Kerrs have increased milksolid yield/ha by a factor of 2.6 and milksolids a cow a year by 35% to 500kg last year from just 570kg of parlour cake.

Being able to sell 15-20 high-EBI heifers each year has also helped boost net profit and drystock, 25 sheep and 60 yearling heifers, were ceased.

However, one area of improvement is fertiliser cost, which at 3.9p/litre is a little high, Kerr said.

“We try to grow as much grass as possible and we have had to correct phosphate and potash levels. But, even with the fertiliser costs, quality grass is still the cheapest feed and lime at £20/t is the cheapest fertiliser.”

Historically, the Kerr family ran a British Friesian herd then used Holstein as an outcross when the Irish index switched to the more fertility- and componentsfocused EBI in 2002.

More recently, the Kerrs’ AI technician has started breeding a Holstein-FriesianJersey cross, propelling the herd into the top 1% in the country with an EBI of 169.

These robust cows are rated for fertility and milk protein and give the Kerrs

an 80-90% six-week in-calf rate and milk constituents worth 5p/litre above Glanbia’s base price.

“I think the cows are good on their feet too.

“We don’t have much issue with lameness and it’s even less with the Jersey cross-breeding we’ve been doing because the black hooves are strong and hardwearing.

“We don’t hurry the cows either. We always walk with them. We don’t believe in quad bikes and sticks.”

Cows are wintered on a concrete pad in cow kennels with a neck rail at a cost of £450 a cow, plus slurry storage.

Once-a-day milking is practised for two weeks, giving Kerr time to train heifers to walk through the parlour.

He has been measuring grass for 21 years and achieves grassland production of 16t DM/ha on his better fields.

Just two silage cuts are taken, with quality silage being essential.

“This talk of dry cow silage is nonsense.

“I think you should make the best silage you can,” he said.

Last year the herd ate 570kg of concentrates, 1t of silage DM and 3.5t of grazed grass DM. Fields are sown with one diploid, one tetraploid and a clover.

All varieties are from the Irish Recommended List – the pasture profit index from Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority.

Covers are controlled by going out early for two-and-a-half to three hours a day early in the season and grazing covers to a residual of 13,000kg DM/ha and 4cm.

That is at the lower limit of Teagasc’s recommendations of 13,000kg-15,000kg DM/ha and 4-4.5cm.

“We do a lot of on/off grazing here but with a lot of the farm being quite heavy we can’t have them out for more than three hours,” Kerr said.

The Kerrs sell all bull calves to a dairybeef finisher at about 10 days old for £17.50 a head and have all heifers reared and served on a farm 40 miles away before they return home in-calf.

All slurry and manure spreading is done by contractors as is silage and cultivation work, which leaves a total power and labour costs of less than 4p/litre. n UK Farmers Weekly DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

INDUSTRY GOOD

Improving in-calf rates

Samantha Tennent DairyNZ developer

W

HILE we’re in the thick of calving it’s hard to believe mating season is just around the corner.

I know for many of you improving sixweek in-calf rates is always high on the agenda and I can understand why.

All the farmers I’ve talked to with a high six-week in-calf rate say it makes their life easier, the job more enjoyable and not to mention the farm more profitable.

The average six-week in-calf rate on Kiwi farms is about 65%. That’s a wee way off the sector target of 78%.

It’s a challenge but some farmers are already hitting it.

So what are they doing differently? The journalist in me wanted to find out.

I contacted a former colleague at Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) and asked to talk to a farmer with an improved in-calf rate.

She put me in touch with Hawke’s Bay dairy farmer Mike Sales, who dramatically improved the in-calf rate at the previous 650-cow farm he managed with his wife Angela in Rotorua.

The pair are now equity managers for a 1200-cow farm at Patoka.

Over the span of four years the Sales and their team managed to improve the in-calf rate from 52% to an impressive DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

78% just by making small changes. What an amazing effort. I asked him how.

One key area Sales focused on was ensuring cows hit optimum body condition scores (BCS) pre-calving. He aimed for a BCS of 5 for cows and 5.5 for heifers.

BCS targets are extremely important because if cows are too light or too heavy they won’t come into heat.

“Your BCS target is your lifeline. It’s psychological for the cow. If she’s at the right weight she knows she’s ready to be in-calf,” he said.

“After calving we try to hit 4.5 BCS. In the lead-up to mating we’ll increase the protein percentage in the feed supplement in the shed to give them more energy and help them reach their BCS target.”

Sales also focused on training his staff to ensure they all know what signs to look for to tell if a cow is on heat.

He believes it’s important the whole team is trained in this area, not just senior staff, because improving in-calf rates is a team effort.

Record keeping is equally as important.

“After three weeks of recording during pre-mating we have a list of those that didn’t cycle. We can then analyse why

Communication is also vital so the team understands what you’re trying to achieve. and decide what treatment option we will take.

“It always pays to record what’s going on on-farm. It’s an additional workload but once you do it regularly it becomes a habit and it pays off.”

Communication is also vital so the team understands what you’re trying to achieve.

Finally, Sales encouraged farmers with low in-calf rates to remain optimistic.

“It’s a long-term process. Consistency is key,” he said.

I know there’s no one-size-fits-all approach but I hope some of Mike’s advice helps you this mating season. n

MORE:

Visit dairynz.co.nz/reproduction

Tail painting is a good way to track cows in heat and identify non-cycling cows early.

37

SCIENCE

Scientists to help in M Bovis fight

A

SCIENCE advisory group formed to strengthen efforts to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis met for the first time on July 31.

Members of the newly-formed M bovis Strategic Science Advisory Group will provide high-level strategic scientific advice to the M bovis Governance Group.

Science continues to be critical to the M bovis response and the advisory group will be a valuable resource to enable science activities to be scaled up and expanded, Biosecurity New Zealand head and Governance Group chairman Roger Smith said.

“The advisory group will ensure we have ongoing access to some of the best minds and knowledge relating to M bovis, which will bolster the eradication effort.”

The advisory group involves a range of relevant experts from NZ and abroad.

They will contribute their expertise on a range of science matters, including identifying any critical knowledge gaps and ways to address them, including considering emerging technologies and ideas that might help prioritisation of M bovis research efforts.

They will also co-ordinate science initiatives relating to M bovis learning

from other research programmes in NZ and internationally and provide assurance M bovis eradication research efforts remain fit for purpose.

“The members of the advisory group understand this is an unsettling time for many farmers and are moving quickly.”

At their second meeting they started the development of detailed work to shape the long-term science strategy.

Advisory Group chairman and Ministry for Primary Industries departmental science adviser John Roche said “The group has already identified some key priorities for immediate work and will hold a workshop in September to get wider input into developing the broader science plan.

“Scientific research is a vital part of our efforts to eradicate M bovis.” Smith said.

The Advisory Group members are: Roche, Melbourne University vet Professor Glenn Browning, Massey University agribusiness Professor Hamish Gow, Massey University infectious disease expert Professor Nigel French, AgResearch immunologist Axel Heiser, Maori Authorities Federation agribusiness consultant William McMillan, North Canterbury Vets director Trish McIntosh, British M bovis consultant Roger Ayling, Australian Commonwealth Scientific and

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ departmental science adviser Dr John Roche is the chairman of the newly formed advisory group.

Industrial Research Organisation scientist Cameron Stewart, AgResearch resource economist James Turner, Auckland University mathematician Shaun Hendy, Business, Innovation and Employment Ministry science general manager Prue Williams and MPI diagnostics and surveillance director Veronica Herrera. n

Mycoplasma bovis eradication decision

Scientific research is a vital part of the effort to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis.

38

ON May 28 2018, it was announced that the Government, along with the dairy and beef industries, agreed that an attempt will be made to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis. This means we’re trying to completely get rid of Mycoplasma bovis from New Zealand’s dairy and beef herds. Science is a key part of this. The Government is investing $30 million over two years in scientific research to support the fight against Mycoplasma bovis.

DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, and

Beef+Lamb New Zealand support MPI’s decisions. They also recognise that this is a difficult time for the farmers involved.

The industry organisations believe that the measures are necessary to protect all New Zealand cattle farms from the disease. New Zealand is one of the few countries where Mycoplasma bovis is not found naturally. Because of this, the industry groups support measures to keep it that way. n

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Dairy Farmer’s lively and engaging monthly debate that enables you to voice your views on topics chosen by the Dairy Farmer team with monthly prizes kindly donated by businesses supporting the agricultural industry.

Have your say on subjects that might be hard to talk about, that push the agricultural industry forward or just have a break from the seriousness of everyday farm life with fun and interesting topics.

Two entries are required for the debate from opposing views so grab your friend, partner, neighbour or a staff member and get talking.

October Debate:

Bathurst 2018

Ford holden Where does your loyalty lie?

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Each entry is to be a maximum of 235 words and emailed to sonita.chandar@globalhq.co.nz with your contact details.

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DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

39

SCIENCE

How science helps farmers reduce gas emissions

T

DR JIM SALINGER

HE dairy sector last year announced the Dairy Action for Climate Change plan to demonstrate dairy is trying to play its part in helping New Zealand meet its climate change commitments.

The initiative was timely.

The Labour-led government elected last year or last September intends enacting zero-carbon legislation that sets a new 2050 target to reduce emissions and set five-yearly emissions budgets to help reach the target.

By mid-July about 16,000 people and organisations had expressed their views on a discussion paper that invited feedback on the proposed 2050 carbonneutral bill.

The Government plans to introduce the bill in October, subject it to select committee scrutiny until March next year then enact the legislation to take effect next April.

Scientists, meanwhile, have been looking for ways to help farmers reduce greenhouse gas emissions from methane and nitrous oxide and develop mitigation options.

An AgResearch team, for example, has been working with public and industry funding on a methane vaccine that would allow farmers to vaccinate animals to inhibit methanogens in the rumen.

Trials done by AgResearch, DairyNZ, Lincoln and Massey Universities and others are finding feed solutions – forage rape, plantain or fodder beet – that can reduce emissions.

The best and most obvious option is to reduce stock numbers but that would be more attractive to farmers if they could increase performance per cow at the same time to maintain production.

Scientists are developing genetic technologies for reducing replacement rates and improving animal health and reproduction.

The Government is investing about $20 million a year in the research and 40

Scientists are working on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from methane and nitrous oxide including a cow vaccine.

development of ways to reduce biological emissions from agriculture.

The NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre is the co-ordination agency for the research.

A forum in Wellington on September 14, organised by the NZ Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science, will address the issues of agriculture and the Emissions Trading Scheme and look at how science can help farmers respond.

International business commentator Rod Oram will facilitate the forum Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor will explain how the Government plans to reduce emissions from agriculture and where the Government is going with its zero-carbon legislation.

Green Party MP Gareth Hughes and former Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy will set out their respective party policy thinking for agriculture and a Ministry for Primary Industries official will explain the ministry’s role in creating policy for dealing with agricultural greenhouse gases.

Industry speakers will include Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium general manager Mark Aspin, Landcorp innovation manager Paul McGill, Federated Farmers vice-president Andrew

Hoggard and Dr David Burger from DairyNZ. The forum will review, assess and discuss the choices available for politicians to debate as Parliament examines the new legislation and for farmers to implement to meet the challenge of the greenhouse gas emissions targets likely to be set for them.

It is a very important forum to develop critical thinking because the Government has signalled the role of agriculture in the ETS will be considered in the second half of 2019 after receiving advice from the Interim Climate Change Committee on whether and how agriculture should be brought into the ETS. The NZIAHS represents more than 500 members covering all aspects of the primary sector including research and teaching in the Crown research institutes, universities and private sector companies involved with the meat, wool, dairy, fertiliser and horticultural sectors and extension and management services. n Dr Jim Salinger is a climate change scientist.

MORE:

www.agscience.org.nz/event/agricultureand-the-ets-forum/ DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

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PASTURE RENEWAL & CROPPING

Kale and fodderbeet are grown on the farm but there are tentative plans to trial catch crops.

Photos: Brittany Pickett

Cropping at Dairy Hub BRITTANY PICKETT

C

ROP research on the Southern Dairy Hub will benefit dairy farmers throughout New Zealand.

After years of development the 348-hectare Southern Dairy Hub became operational last season with backing from southern farmers, DairyNZ and AgResearch.

The hub does research in the southern region’s climate and soil types but business manager Guy Michaels said the crop research will be invaluable to dairy farmers nationwide.

The hub winters its crossbred herd on kale and fodder beet to find the effects of each crop on the total farm system.

The property has 104 paddocks split into about 2.9ha each with about 44ha planted in crops each season.

The farm is further split into four farmlets with each having its own herd for research.

Two herds are wintered on fodder beet while the others are fed kale.

Michaels said the research into fodder beet will solve once and for all whether it is harmful to dairy farming systems.

There are theories it is negatively affecting cow performance and health.

“One of the drivers of having fodder 42

beet is that it’s been widely used in other areas before Southland and a number of early adopters of beet have moved away from it and no longer use it in their farming systems,” he said.

Farmers tend to be ahead of research in their farming practices so the research is trying to catch up to what farmers are learning on their farms and establish the exact effect of fodder beet.

The cows on the fodder beet will always be fodder beet cows.

When the hub brought in its stock, twothirds came from the North Island and had never been wintered on crop. Along with locally sourced cows about 700 cows were split evenly into the four herds by a statistician, mixing them by age, breeding weight, breed, live weight and calving date.

“The cows on the fodder beet will always be fodder beet cows. Their calves will always be wintered on fodder beet,” Michaels said.

Kale cows will also always be fed kale.

It is not a 50:50 split between the crops, with more kale planted this season because they had to plant crop according to herd requirements.

The stock are brought in for testing regularly with blood and milk tested, as well as cow measurements. Any animals that die on the hub are sent for an autopsy.

“The things that they are interested in are what effect, if any, has diet had on that animal? Is there a difference between a fodder beet cow and a kale cow?”

Michaels said there is extra interest in bone structure, with samples taken in every autopsy because fodder beet is low in phosphorus, which is not supplemented into any of the herds’ diets.

While there is a focus on the lifetime effect of crops on the farming system, youngstock have been singled out in a trial to see what effect wintering replacement heifers on crop has on the animals.

With the hub in only its second season, it is still early days for the winter crop study but the long-term results will help farmers make choices about what crops to use in their farm systems.

The hub has a focus on research but as a business there have to be considerations made to mitigate both business and environmental risk when it comes to winter crops.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

The hub has a top terrace with a quite heavy soil and a lower terrace with much heavier soils.

From next season they will begin wintering on the lower terrace as well as the top terrace. However, there has to be some risk management in place.

There is about 1.8km of stream running through the property on the lower terrace and the neighbouring Makarewa River poses a flood risk.

“If we have all our crop on the bottom then chances are we’ll get caught out.”

As a result there are three paddocks neighbouring the stream that are offlimits for cropping because their narrow and sloped topography has too much of a sediment run-off risk to be used, even with buffers.

The fenceline along the stream has been expanded to provide a greater buffer zone for future crops and there are plans for plantings along the stream to further minimise risk, Michaels said.

When paddocks are selected for cropping existing pasture is killed off with a double spray before any drainage issues are identified and fixed then work begins with a conventional cultivation

plough before crop seeds are sown.

In between the crops the paddocks are deep ripped as soon as the tractor can get in then the paddock is either resown in crop or pasture depending on where it is in the cycle.

Each paddock designated for cropping will be in crop for two seasons before being replanted in grass.

There are tentative plans to do research into catch crops.

Catch crops are grown in the space between growing main crops and are used as a tool to reduce sediment loss on paddocks.

Michaels said they are still working out the science of what will be possible in a southern climate and on southern soils, which are heavier and wetter than in other parts of the country.

“We can’t replicate stuff that’s successful where the soils are lighter and they can get onto them sooner.”

The hub’s reason for being is to replicate conditions on southern farms to find out what is and isn’t feasible in the area, he said.

“If the traditional use of catch crops won’t work because of our heavy soils,

Research is underway at the farm to determine the effects of fodderbeet on dairy farm systems.

soil damage and late season frosting then what can we change to try and get the same benefit from catch crop?” n

The Southern Dairy Hub milks 700 cows in four herds with two of the herds wintered on fodderbeet.

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September 2018

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43

PASTURE RENEWAL & CROPPING

Solving quake water TIM FULTON

T

HE Kaikoura earthquake has created a new kind of uplift – a research trial to fix farm drainage.

Farmers on the thin coastal strip surrounding Kaikoura township have grappled with a range of pasture and waterway headaches since the 7.8 November 2016 quake.

They have faced mounting problems with saturated or pugged soil, not counting compliance with industryagreed Good Management Practice for nutrient runoff and stream quality.

Environment Canterbury has offered affected farmers a grace period on the rollout of its rules but improvements are still expected because they are regionwide.

The Kaikoura Plains Recovery Project will share research findings with farmers around the country. A handout for the project said the work started with understanding the unknown and working with it.

Poor drainage might be caused by quake-related factors such as a perched water table, rising water, seepage, a spring or upthrust or surface water flow.

Drainage systems designed to

One of several new spring areas on-farm around Kaikoura.

overcome the problems will likely include a combination of open and subsurface drains combined with secondary drainage techniques such as mole ploughing, subsoil ripping and gravel slotting.

At the Kowleigh Farm trial site the aim is to reduce drainage problems caused by underground seepage and point-source water breakout.

In terms of the soil type, it is assumed part of the issue is water perching on the

Discussions on a farm earlier in 2018 regarding drainage, with AgResearch, DairyNZ, Ecan and AgFirst Engineering.

44

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

PASTURE RENEWAL & CROPPING

issues underlaying clay subsoil. The Kowleigh trial targets collection of seepage.

To do that, 315m of 160mm Nexus drainage pipe was installed 1.2m to 1.5m deep on a 1-1.9% grade. Trial managers found it was important to use a laser to maintain the correct trench bottom grades.

The trial team used a Nexus pipe rather than Novaflo to increase internal flow volume and velocity for self-cleaning of the pipe.

The system could also be installed on a shallower grade while maintaining similar self-cleaning velocity and it was found to be a more rigid pipe with less risk of collapse.

All excavated drains were backfilled to the surface with topsoil not gravel. The topsoil provided free-draining and friable backfill connected to the excavated trench wall and surface. It was also free, already on-site and effective.

At the Maghera Farm trial the site was surveyed to determine available fall for a gravity-fed drainage system. Digging an open drain 2m deep provided a close look at the soil profile, which consisted of 300mm of topsoil on top of clay.

It was agreed the wet soils were the result of a combination of historical and new earthquake-related point source or spring outlets where pressurised water in the subsoil breaks out into the soil surface.

Parts of the farm were affected by seepage, where the groundwater breaks onto the soil surface, and a perching water table, where surface water cannot infiltrate quickly enough through the underlaying clay.

The farm also showed the effects of a shallow, meandering watercourse through the paddock, overflowing into low-lying areas before discharging into an open drain.

The farm has implemented a two-stage drainage programme.

Stage one included the installation of a 2m deep open drain extending 190m from the Lukes Creek outlet. The open drain was dug 2m deep to maximise the potential for drain sidewall seepage and to intercept any subsurface groundwater flows.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Beginnings of the drainage demonstration site on an Inland Road farm.

That prevented overflow into the adjacent paddock and low-lying areas.

The second stage planned for this summer will consist of the installation of 150mm slotted PVC or 160mm Nexus drainage pipe.

The Kaikoura Plains Recovery Project will share research findings with farmers around the country.

It will allow drainage of spring outlets at a minimum of 1.2m and the installation of gravel with a geotextile overlay.

The open drain was dug using an excavator that, with the help of a laser, excavated the bottom to a grade of 0.51%.

Maintaining an open drain depth of 2m was important for future subsurface drainage outlets that could be as deep

as 1.5m and to maximise the open drain sidewall seepage. To reduce sediment issues in the receiving waterway, multiple hay bales were put in the base during construction.

The project is funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Earthquake Recovery Fund, supported by Kaikoura District Council, Environment Canterbury, iwi, Fonterra, farmers and DairyNZ. Farmers involved in the trials contributed 30% of the costs.

Things to remember: • It is important that drainage works are completed during the dry, summer or autumn months when ground water sources can be easily identified.

• Use a contractor who can cut to grade with laser equipment either installed on the excavator or set up alongside the job. That ensures appropriate trench grade for long-term success.

• Are there other types of trenching equipment available? n

MORE:

For further information on the Kaikoura Plains Recovery Project, contact project manager Jodie Hoggard on 027 551 5902 or jodie.hoggard@ecan.govt.nz 45

PASTURE RENEWAL & CROPPING

Make the most of your pasture

S

IMILAR to a high Breeding Worth cow, a high genetic merit ryegrass cultivar won’t fulfil its potential if it’s not managed properly.

The choice of plant species and cultivar plays a major role in maximising the life of pasture, the amount of feed available for cows and, ultimately, the amount of profit from every hectare of pasture So, why does pasture renewal matter?

Pasture renewal is important for increasing pasture productivity and longterm farm profitability.

Replacing poor-producing pasture is one of the simplest ways to invest on-farm for a significant and relatively predictable rate of return.

Pastures can grow indefinitely but, over time, factors such as drought, pests and pugging will cause pasture to deteriorate with these adverse effects: • Total dry matter production drops; • Desirable species decline; • Weeds increase and; • Feed value reduces.

• The benefits of pasture renewal are: • New pasture is significantly more productive; • Control over seasonality of production; • Higher metabolisable energy; • Access to new endophytes developed to solve regional problems, such as resistance to pests and diseases, and greater tolerance of drought; • Cows on new pasture graze more grass, resulting in more milksolids production and-or faster liveweight gains.

Identify poorest paddocks Poorest producing paddocks are the best ones to renew.

That’s because they have the greatest potential for improvement, as long as underlying negative factors such as drainage problems and pests are addressed.

Use grazing and yield records to identify your best and worst paddocks.

The more measures and assessments 46

you have for comparison, the better and easier it will be to make decisions.

Farmers without accurate records might want to use the Pasture Condition Score Tool.

Developed by a DairyNZ-led industry group, this tool outlines a plan for assessing and ranking paddocks based on the extent of damage from the likes of pests and pugging. Check it out at dairynz. co.nz/pasturetool.

Get establishment right If you want high quality pasture, you’ll need to spend time planning ahead and preparing soil before you start sowing.

There are several key steps to consider: 1. Seed bed preparation. A fine, firm, weed-free seedbed is ideal for plants to become established. Many farmers overlook the important step of rolling their seedbed to achieve consolidation before sowing. A consolidated seedbed conserves moisture and makes it possible to achieve the correct sowing depth, especially with a seed drill.

Without consolidation, you might end up with a soft seedbed where wheel tracks are pushed down and coulter depths vary, leading to uneven seed depth and establishment.

2. Seed sowing rate. You also need to decide how much seed to spread. There is no correct ryegrass seed sowing rate for New Zealand farms. The appropriate sowing rate will depend on your sowing method. Both a standard and lower perennial ryegrass sowing rate can work well but lower rates need to be very well managed.

3. First grazing. Pastures grow slowly until they are nipped off at first grazing, which accelerates both their growth rate and tillering. To decide if a pasture is ready for its first grazing make sure it passes the pluck test. This is where you check the plants are firmly rooted in the soil. If you can’t pluck them out by hand they’re ready for grazing.

through its yearling establishment phase.

Graze for the first time only when new seedlings cannot be pulled out by hand plucking. This is usually six to eight weeks after sowing.

Graze consistently to the same residual through the first winter and spring leaving 4.5cm to 5.5cm in height. This encourages growth and tillering of new ryegrass plants. n

Careful summer management Follow these tips for managing pasture

MORE: Visit dairynz.co.nz/ pasturerenewal DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

PASTURE RENEWAL & CROPPING

Boosting pasture

M

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Germinal sales manager Andrew Miller with farmer Gavin Nichol.

“I am convinced that Aber HSG is the way the pasture industry will have to go, especially as we focus on managing nitrogen and methane while still achieving the desired animal growth rates and milk production farmers need for their business to prosper.” n

WANTED

HERD OWNING SHAREMILKING POSITON Established contract milkers seeking a long term (5-10 year +) herd owning sharemilking opportunity for the 19/20 dairy season and beyond. Experience with large herds (1000 cows) and all irrigation types on flat to steep contour. Currently owning the following G3 DNA profiled animals:

420 mixed age cows BW110 PW130

258 R1 heifers BW144 PW143 (To be mated to AI in October)

100 x 2018 born heifer calves BW150 PW145

Able to be sold; if there is a requirement to purchase the existing herd

Approved finance to purchase further animals and machinery to the requirements of a 700-1100+ cow farm.

University educated, and having grown up on farms, after five years with our current employers we’re looking to partner with established farm owners.

Equity Partnership/Farm Lease/other opportunities considered.

Contact: Blake 021 278 8550 (evenings) or email blakeharvie@outlook.com

LK0093978©

ANAGING Otago’s environmental extremes, a region renowned for its low temperatures and drought conditions, is a significant challenge for sheep and beef farmer Gavin Nichol.

Nichol’s 2200-hectare property at Clarks Junction, 60km inland from Dunedin, is 500 metres above sea level. Temperatures rarely reach double figures in winter and long dry periods in summer culminate in an average yearly rainfall of about 500mm.

In an attempt to boost pasture production for his 6500 ewes and 300 cows Nichol has planted AberLasting white clover, bred by seed firm Germinal, which touts it as New Zealand’s first super clover.

It is NZ’s first successful cross of caucasian and white clovers.

It can withstand overnight temperatures of -20C, which would wipe out 70% of other white clover varieties.

In a recent drought tolerance experiment AberLasting maintained leaf water content for a week longer than traditional white clover when completely without water.

The results on Nichol’s property have been promising.

“The first time it was planted I was driving down the farm lane and saw that the original pasture mix was dried off on one side while the AberLasting paddocks were still white with clover on the other. And both were grazed at the same time,” Nichol said.

“Paddocks with AberLasting grew another two weeks into the dry.”

“Our research and development in NZ involves plot trials where we test our commercial varieties and new breeding lines against other commercial varieties,” Germinal general manager Sarah Gard said..

“I’m also running a plant-breeding programme where we are breeding new varieties for NZ in NZ.” Mid Canterbury sharemilkers Graham and Rosalie Fleming are on a 200ha property in the foothills not far from Mt Hutt ski field.

There can be two feet of snow in winter and temperatures that regularly top 30 degrees in summer.

The farm was converted from sheep and cropping to dryland dairying 20 years ago and all pastures are now Germinal varieties.

“The difference has been huge. Cows just seem to like it,” Fleming said.

“We have tried other Forage Value Index (FVI) leading cultivars and find palatability to be an issue in later seasons.

“We produce 440kg to 450kg of milksolids per cow on a 270day season so forage quality and persistence are crucial in our system,” he said.

“When you consider our frost season is from May to early October and the summers can be blisteringly hot at times, the fact we have never had a failure speaks volumes for the quality of our pastures.”

Germinal’s Aber High Sugar Grasses (HSG) are performing well on NZ farms.

The point of difference lies in their environmental benefits and ability to recover between grazing, tolerate heavy traffic when wet underfoot and lift animal production.

Cows fed Aber HSG in an AgResearch trial produced 10% more autumn milksolids than cows eating standard ryegrass.

47

RESEARCH

Extra feed’s real cost

C

AN we reduce our reliance on imported feed?

That’s the question those involved in a three-year trial run by the Northland Dairy Development Trust set out to answer.

The results suggest hidden costs might outweigh production gains.

The trial at Northland Agricultural Research Farm near Dargaville aimed to determine whether we can reduce reliance on imported feed and still maintain profitability and sustainability with a volatile climate and milk price.

Completed this year, the trial compared three farmlets with different feed inputs – one with pasture only, one with crops grown on-farm and the other supplementing with palm kernel.

In the first two years of the study, when costs associated with supplementary feeding and cropping were considered, the pasture-only farm system had similar or better profitability than the system using palm kernel.

The palm kernel farm was more profitable in the third season, with a prolonged wet period during spring having a greater impact on the grass-only and crop farmlets.

The cropping farm had the lowest profit in all three seasons.

Having more than 20% of the farm in crops each year put significant feed pressure on the rest of the farm and led to the full costs of homegrown crops being captured. Wet winter and spring

THE NUMBERS Average of the three-year trial/year: • The pasture-only farmlet (2.6 cows/ha) generated an operating profit of $2006/ha and production of 909kg MS/ha.

• The cropping farmlet (2.8 cows/ha) generated an operating profit of $1554/ha and produced 996kg MS/ha.

• The palm kernel farmlet (2.8 cows/ha) and with 500kg DM palm kernel/cow produced $2281/ha operating profit and 1091kg MS/ha. The average response to palm kernel was 126g MS/kg DM with a range from 107g to 147g MS/kg palm kernel DM.

48

Farm manager Kate Reed and trustee Kerry Chestnut present trial updates at a Northland Agricultural Research Farm field day.

conditions also affected both crop production and pasture utilisation on the heavy clay soils.

Former DairyNZ principal scientist Dr John Roche, who supported the trial, said it highlighted the costs associated with increasing production by adding more feed into the system.

“The cost of the marginal milk produced by increasing stocking rate and bringing in extra feed is very high.

“That cost is dependent on the response to supplements but the data would indicate that the response to supplements has to be over 110 grams of milksolids per kilogram of supplement dry matter (g MS/ kg DM) and the milk price must be greater than $6.50/kg MS for that supplementary feed to produce profitable milk,” Roche said.

“That wasn’t properly understood before we did this experiment but we’ve been doing other work at the same time, reviewing farm systems experiments.

“The same conclusion would be drawn: that the cost of the marginal milk from increasing stocking rate and bringing in feed to produce more milksolids per hectare is very expensive.

“Over all three seasons the pasture-only farm was close to the palm kernel farm in profit.

“There are a lot of hidden costs associated with increasing production through putting more feed into the system. This project has allowed us to put some numbers on the less-tangible costs.”

Supplementary feed did offer a tactical advantage to the higher-stocked herd

during the exceptionally wet winter and spring of 2017, however, the results need to be viewed in context.

The Northland trial had an unusually high milksolids response, especially in the 2017-18 season. The palm kernel response at the Northland Agricultural Research Farm was 126g MS/kg palm kernel DM. In comparison, the average response in DairyBase is about 80g MS/kg supplement DM. “This year’s response was as high as we were going to get,” Roche said.

“We would very rarely see a response like we saw last year.

“Also, through good management and better summer growing conditions we limited the use of supplements to about 500kg DM palm kernel/cow and produced 1100kg MS/ha on the palm kernel farmlet during the trial.

“In comparison, over the preceding three years (before starting this experiment), the farm used more than one tonne of DM/cow of supplement to produce 1154kg MS/ha.”

The trial, largely funded by DairyNZ and MPI’s Sustainable Farming Fund, was set up by the trust.

The trust was formed in 2006 to give farmers quality dairy research relevant to Northland. The committee is largely made up of dairy farmers who have input into the research done on the Northland Agricultural Research Farm.

A new trial, building on the research from the imported feed trial, will provide information to help farmers manage their feed evaluation index (FEI) in a variable climate. n DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

RESEARCH

Game-changing grass

A

N IMPORTANT milestone has been reached in AgResearch’s development of a new generation grass that could prove a game-changer for agriculture.

With funding from the Government and industry partners, the genetically modified high metabolisable energy (HME) ryegrass has been shown in AgResearch’s laboratories to grow up to 50% faster than conventional ryegrass, to be able to store more energy for better animal growth, to be more resistant to drought and to produce up to 23% less methane, the largest single contributor to NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions, from livestock.

Modelling also predicts less nitrogen excreted into the environment by animals feeding on the ryegrass and, consequently, less nitrate leaching and lower emissions of another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.

Development of the HME ryegrass is now progressing in the midwest of the United States, where genetically modified organisms can be field tested outside the lab.

After a successful preliminary growing trial last year confirmed the conditions were suitable the full growing trial began in the US last month and will continue for five months, AgResearch principal scientist Dr Greg Bryan said.

“The preliminary trial was only two months but, we did see the increased photosynthesis that we saw with the plants in the greenhouses in NZ.” “In this full trial we will be measuring the photosynthesis, plant growth and the markers that lead to increased growth rates.

“While the growth has previously been studied in glasshouses in pots and as plants spaced out in the field this will be the first opportunity to assess the growth in a pasture-like situation where plants compete with each other.

“The five-month timeframe will allow us to determine if increased growth is consistent across the summer and autumn, and we will simulate grazing by cutting plants back every three to four weeks.

“Animal feeding trials are planned to take place in two years,

which we will need regulatory approvals for, and the information we get over the next two years will help us with our application for those feeding trials,” Bryan said.

Dr Bruce Thorrold of DairyNZ said the ryegrass is a science breakthrough and holds great potential for NZ farmers.

“HME ryegrass could help us achieve less nitrogen leaching and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as improving pasture quality and productivity.

“This research could be transformational in future and so it is important we explore all promising avenues which could help dairy farmers respond to the challenges we face.”

While NZ has not approved the release of genetically modified crops, Bryan said it is important the science keeps the options open and there is strong scientific evidence on any benefits or risks that policy makers can draw on.

“As the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification found it would be unwise to turn our backs on the potential advantages on offer.

“Modelling shows the HME ryegrass could boost farm revenues by as much as $900/ha while providing a tool for farmers to manage nitrogen run-off and greenhouse gas emissions.” n

Notice of Election - DairyNZ Board of Directors - DairyNZ Directors Remuneration Committee Invitation for 2018 candidate nominations – two positions available In October, two elections will take place for DairyNZ Incorporated – one election for one farmer-elected director for the Board of DairyNZ Incorporated and a second election for one member of the Directors Remuneration Committee.

Registered levy-paying dairy farmers are invited to nominate candidates to fill these two positions.

All farmers paying a levy on milksolids to DairyNZ are eligible to stand for either election. An information pack outlining desired criteria and nomination requirements for the positions can be obtained from the Returning Officer.

Nominations must be received by the Returning Officer by 12noon on Friday, 14 September 2018.

Elections If more candidates than the required nominations are received, elections will be carried out by postal and internet voting using the STV (single transferable vote) voting method. Votes will be weighted by annual milksolids production. Voter packs will be posted on 1 October 2018 to all registered DairyNZ levy payers, with voting closing at 12noon on Tuesday, 30 October 2018.

The DairyNZ Annual General Meeting will be held in Invercargill on Wednesday, 31 October 2018. Election results will be announced at the meeting.

For further details contact the Returning Officer as below.

AgResearch’s Dr Luke Cooney, left, using equipment that measures photosynthesis in the grass at the ryegrass trial site in the midwest of the United States.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Anthony Morton Returning Officer – DairyNZ Incorporated 0800 666 043 iro@electionz.com

1 Dairy Farmer

49

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Fat is back ROGER ELLISON

I

N THE 2009-10 season milk fat earned only a third of a farmer’s milk income.

Between 2010 and 2015 the five years before the surge in fat value, milk fat earned 38% of the farmer’s milk income.

Then came the revelation questioning the science of the 1950s and 60s that said animal fat is bad for us.

Today, Fonterra is paying almost parity.

Next season a kilo of fat will earn suppliers significantly more than a kilo of protein.

As they say, fat is back. It has been 3040 years since we last saw this.

Couple this with the fact dairy cows produce more kilograms of milk fat than milk protein in a season and the growing impact of fat on the milk income has become obvious.

9%

MORE MILK

18% FEED CONVERSION

EFFICIENCY

Next season it is projected the proportion of income from milk fat will be close to double what it was five years ago with a corresponding halving of the protein component.

Every farmer will benefit from this resurgence in milk-fat value, irrespective of cow breed or milk type because milk fat is such a large component of milksolids at 1.2 to 1.5 times the quantity of milk protein.

However, some farmers will benefit more than others depending on how far their herd’s milk constituents vary from the company average in terms of P:F ratio and milksolids percentage.

What this means is that this season, concentrated milk with a lower P:F ratio (more fat/kg MS) will pay $0.10/kg MS more than dilute milk with a high P:F ratio (less fat/kg MS).

Next season, at the same payout as this season and with the projected increase in

fat value relative to protein, the difference between these two types of milk will be about $0.18/kg MS. For the average New Zealand herd of 414 cows producing 380kg MS/cow the difference equates to $28,000.

The concentrated, low P:F ratio milk is typical of that produced by predominantly Jersey herds whereas the lower milksolids and high P:F ratio milk is typical of milk produced by predominantly Holstein-Friesian herds.

Indications from industry commentators are that this strong value for milk fat is likely to be long term.

Fat is no longer considered bad for our health and Fonterra’s food service division is experiencing unprecedented demand for fat-based products like cream, cream cheese and ice cream. n

MORE:

Roger Ellison is a veterinarian and dairy farmer.

For Roger’s full article see: http://www. jersey.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ FatIsBack.pdf

Fat is Back AND JERSEY FARMERS WILL BENEFIT THE MOST. • Greater efficiency, greater profit • More environmentally friendly • Most adaptable breed for once a day milking • 66% of Jerseys already carry the A2A2 gene • No1 in key breeding values of fertility, calving difficulty & shed temperament • Jersey bulls dominate the RAS list

TIME TO FIND OUT WHAT JERSEY NZ IS ALL ABOUT

WE HAVE 20x FREE 12 MONTH ASSOCIATE JERSEY NZ MEMBERSHIPS TO GIVE AWAY.

These memberships are strictly first in first served so call us now to claim your FREE 12 month associate membership

CODE: JNZDFM | Melissa Goodman p. 07 856 0731 T’s & C’s apply.

50

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Stellar year for Jersey PAM GOODIN

T

HE autumn sales season topped off a stellar year for Jersey New Zealand, celebrated at the annual conference in Whangarei in June.

More than 130 members and sponsors attended the opening night awards dinner where the success of Jersey breeders throughout NZ was celebrated.

One of the highlights of the evening included the welcoming address from Dr Shane Reti, MP for Whangarei, who surprised attendees with his own family Jersey story and was able to prove the Jersey is the ideal cow for Northland.

The Cyril Dermer Cup was presented to industry stalwart Julie Pirie in recognition of outstanding services to the breed and the association over the preceding 12 months.

This very popular winner regularly assists youth through the show season, serves on the Jersey NZ industry affairs and youth committees and is a Fonterra shareholder councillor.

Jersey bulls top the Ranking of Active Sires list published by DairyNZ. More recently, she has been named as chairwoman of the Donald Pearson Farm Trust, the farm bequeathed to NZ Young farmers as an educational farm.

Keynote speaker John Wilson, then still chairman of Fonterra, gave a brief overview of Fonterra’s projects and placement in the world markets and the impact on Jersey farmers.

Conference attendees were treated to a smorgasbord of speakers and topics.

They learnt about the application of genomics to dairy cattle improvement

by Dr Dorian Garrick, animal health

by Dr Joe McGrath and adding value DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Julie Pirie accepts her award from Jersey New Zealand president Alison Gibb.

to farming businesses by developing markets for Jersey milk and meat inspired

by John Vosper, Jersey Girl Organics, and Murray Jagger, both well respected and innovative Jersey farmers.

The annual meeting included a well-received synopsis of the year’s promotional activities and future plans.

The Jersey advantage booklet produced this year outlines the numerous benefits of the Jersey breed and over the next few months Jersey NZ will be working with rural professionals throughout the country to ensure industry knowledge on the breed is kept up to date.

• Jersey is the most sustainable of the common dairy breeds offering: • Greater efficiency, greater profit; • Higher rate of dry matter to milk; • Higher heat tolerance; • More environmentally friendly; • Lower gas emissions and lower nitrogen levels; • Most adaptable breed to once a day milking; • Higher percentage of A2A2 cows; • No 1 in key breeding values of fertility, calving difficulty and shed temperament and; • Jersey bulls top the Ranking of Active Sires list published by DairyNZ.

higher financial gain through the rise in the fat payment due to the composition of Jersey milk (www.jersey.org.nz).

The 25th Jersey Pride Sale held at Barge Park, Whangarei, was live-streamed for the first time with followers from around the world.

Top price of $19,000 was paid by Stewart and Kathryn Anderson of Otorohanga for Upland Park DG Beauty ET, a four-year-old cow sired by Arrieta NN Degree ET out of Upland Parks Jazzy Bea ET, VG2.

Described as the brightest star in the herd of vendor Andy Walford of Upland Park Jerseys, Matamata, Beauty was their highest BW cow (BW 215/50 and PW 321/71) out of their highest producing and PW cow Bea. The 13 lots averaged $6373.

Also in June at the Glen Koru Trust dispersal sale, Ngahinapouri, one of only two registered Jerseys in the sale sold for $24,000 to Cameron Coombes, also of Ngahinapouri. Camp Claim Trudy S3J (sire Lochreas FNF Acclaim; dam Te Aranga Goldie Trudy) is contracted to LIC and already has one bull awaiting proof.

This fantastic Jersey cow topped the predominantly crossbred sale of the second highest kiwicross herd in NZ. n

Most importantly, in today’s economic climate, Jersey farmers are experiencing

Pam Goodin is the general manager of Jesey NZ 51

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

The farm’s Hereford bulls are purchased from the Curtis family at Riverlee Herefords.

Photos: Anne Boswell/Supplied

Top conception rates

G

ANNE BOSWELL

ALATEA dairy farmers Michael Steiner and Kerrie Owen reckon the artificial insemination of cows doesn’t stand a chance against the Hereford bull when it comes to outstanding conception rates.

“When we started using Hereford bulls over our herds two years ago we really didn’t know if it would be better,” Steiner said.

“But it quickly became apparent that it was as we had an improved conception rate in the first three weeks. Even with no AI, conception rate was huge.”

The couple has recently sold a 54ha family farm at Galatea, on which they

lived and milked 160 cows.

They also have a sharemilking job milking 280 cows on 93ha down the road, managed by a contract milker.

They bought the 54ha farm in 2013, the year daughter Hayley was born. Steiner had been sharemilking there since 1997, after his parents bought the farm in 1996.

They have always used Hereford bulls but traditionally they also did three weeks of AI. “We couldn’t really ignore the results of the Hereford calf sales,” Steiner said.

“We always thought that going in without the dairy young stock mightn’t be more profitable but it would certainly be less hassle.”

The farm’s Hereford bulls, which Steiner has used over the whole herd for

the past two seasons, are bought from the Curtis family at Riverlee Herefords.

“We wanted premium-looking calves so we bought premium Hereford bulls,” he said.

“The bulls were relaxed after six weeks. There wasn’t much more for them to do.”

Using Hereford bulls saw the herd’s empty rate drop from 15% to about 9%.

“We had about 40-odd more cows in calf across the herd.

“We actually ended up with too many cows, going from 20 cows too few to 20 cows too many, as the conception rate was so large.

“So that made us quite confident for the coming season.

“We normally carry a few carry-overs

craigmore

polled herefords YEARLING BULL SALE

Monday 10th September 2018, at 12.30pm Luncheon available

On A/C D.B & S.E Henderson At the stud property: 429 Rukuhia Road, RD 2, Ohaupo 93 Registered Well Grown Bulls All bulls SNP DNA tested to verify parentage and improve accuracy of EBVs

Craigmore Hereford bulls carry the Hereford Blue tag.

Lot 1: Craigmore Anzac 17231

52

Delivery can be delayed until 1st October 2018

For further information or inspection, please contact: Vendors: David 07 825 2677, 021 166 1389 or the selling agents: PGG Wrightson: Vaughan Larsen 027 801 4599, Cam Heggie 027 501 8182

DAIRY FARMER

LK0093836©

We have bulls that will suit beef and dairy farmers www.craigmoreherefords.co.nz

September 2018

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES but we ended up putting them on the truck or selling them.”

Calving was over in an incredible 16 days.

“With a July 10 calving we expected to be done around August 2. Instead, all cows were calved by July 26.

“It was an intense time but it meant the herd spent many more days in milk.”

We look at costs and profit as the ultimate rather than the solids we put in the vat.

Michael Steiner

The herd, mostly New Zealand-bred Friesians as well as Jerseys, had no calving difficulties.

Most of the calves went to the Reporoa sales at 10 days old with a small percentage sold at the farm gate or on the bobby truck later in the season when the prices dropped.

“We have reared the odd bull calf but last year, with the Hereford calves, we thought ‘just take the money’,” he said.

The early calving also translates to more milk in the vat.

“On the larger farm we’re supplying milk about 15 days earlier.

“We’ve seen a massive increase in milksolids despite the wet season.

“Last year we did 52,000kg MS here and 83,000kg MS at the bigger farm. We are currently 17% up on last season on the sharemilking job and we ended up

Michael Steiner and Kerrie Owen with daughter Hayley.

10% up here before we finished.

“That probably would have continued increasing too.”

Despite the increase in milksolids, the couple is focused on profitability over production.

The farm is entirely pasture-based with minimal feed bought in only if necessary.

“We look at costs and profit as the ultimate rather than the solids we put in the vat,” Steiner said.

“Milking 15 days earlier gives us options in a dry area.

“We plan on getting 80% of the milk in the vat by the end of the year. If we had stayed on this farm I’m pretty confident we would have achieved that.”

The couple are unsure where they will

buy their next farm but they will continue using Hereford bulls.

“We definitely plan on doing this again.

“Financially, we’re already ahead of where we thought we’d be.

“We thought it would take two years of not grazing heifers to make up the difference of buying them but we think we’re already there due to cows sold, no carry-overs and the money earned from whiteface calves.

“We’ve still got yearlings coming through too so there’s a three-year gap before we have to buy heifers again.

“It was always our intention to sell the farm and move somewhere a bit bigger.

We haven’t decided where yet but we’ll go wherever there’s a farm that suits us.” n

Ezicalve make the best and safest beef bulls for dairy heifer and cow mating

20th & 25th September

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

www.ezicalve.co.nz

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300 Ezicalve Bulls for sale

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53

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Hobby turns into passion

H

Willy Muir with Hukaroa Nikau, purchased at Beef Expo.

EREFORDS started out as an interest in 1997 for Willy Muir, a way of breeding his own Hereford bulls to complement his dairy herd.

Muir’s hobby, however, soon developed into a passion for Herefords and his early beginning of four Hereford heifers has grown into a herd of 150 breeding cows.

“I love the big, fat, easy care, extensively farmed beef cows.

“They are a contrast to the high-input, high-maintenance dairy cows but I enjoy the challenge of both.”

Dairy farming is at the core of Muir’s and wife Keely’s farming business and, with their three daughters, they live on their dairy farm at Otaua, in Waiuku, south of Auckland.

“Otaua is a flat and fertile area of land that lends itself well to dairying,” he said.

They milk 320 cows on 90 hectares with two full-time staff.

The farm operates with an intensive, split calving, system 4 model producing 1800kg to 2000kg milksolids per effective hectare.

The Muirs also lower-order sharemilk on a 300-cow, splitcalving farm on the Awhitu Peninsula, 15km from their home farm. It is managed by two employees and produces 1200kg MS/ ha effective.

Muir is proud all calves from both dairy units are reared. Heifer replacements, Friesian bulls, Friesian/Jersey bulls, whiteface bulls and heifers are all made efficient use of. They are then sold on the spring grass market, which is usually in early October, as yearlings or weaner calves.

A further 520 hectares are leased over five blocks of land to cater for the calf rearing, wintering of the home dairy herd, supplementary feed and the Hereford herd.

Once the surplus stock is sold the lease blocks provide ample supplementary feed for conservation, grazing of the replacement females and new calves over the summer.

“This system gives us confidence to get through dry summers

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54

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

for Herefords

2018 Spring Bull Sale Calendar NZ Farmers Livestock are proud to bring to you the following sales for the upcoming Spring Bull Season.

Manawatu 20 Sept

Riverton Hereford - Fordell 150 1yr, 30 2yr

2 Oct

Lower NI all breeds dairy bull - Rongotea

24 Sept

Tusons Hereford - Rongotea - 35 2yr

3 Downs Family Farms Sept - Pukengahu 130 PB Hfd & Ang 1&2yr

18 Sept

Washer & Co - Oakura 180 owner bred Jersey 1&2yr

6 Hurley Farms Trust Sept - Stratford 150 all-breeds 2&3yr

24 Sept

KV & SJ Collins & Family - Croyden Road 300 Hfds, Ang & Jsy 2&3 yr

10 Burmeister Partnership 27 Sept - Warea Sept 50 Ylg PB Jerseys

Washer & Co - Oakura 400 all-breeds 2&3yr

11 Fowler Farms Sept - Patea 300 all-breeds 1,2&3yr

28 Sept

Bexley Station - Awakino 48 Hfd & 14 Ang ylg

12 D&R + I&N Smith & Sept Families - Waverley -15th Annual Shadow Downs 70 polled 1&2yr

Oct 1

Hurstpier Hereford Stud - Tikorangi R & J Jupp Horizon Pedigree Hereford Stud M & N McLeod 60 1&2yr

14 WE & JJ Craig & Family Sept - Puketahi Farms - Pukengahu 300 all-breeds 2&3yr

Oct 4

PR & A George - Inglewood 40 2yr PB owner bred Hfd

10 Okupata Herefords Sept - Oparau 125 2yr Hfds

24 Sept

Ratanui Hereford - Cambridge 50 ylgs

12 Lynrich Jersey Sept 160 recorded ylgs - Cambridge

25 Sept

Rapu Hereford - Te Aroha 1&2yr Herefords

13 Graham Farms Sept - Huntly 20 Ang & 20 Jsy 2yr

26 Sept

Kauri Downs - Waihi 25 lbw ylgs

19 Waitawheta Angus Sept - Paeroa 32 ylgs

27 Sept

Kaha 20 2yr Speckle Park & Morrinsville all-breeds service bull

20 BullsEye Sept - Huntly 520 all-breeds 2&3yr

3 Oct Momona Herefords - Tirau. 65 ylgs

Taranaki The Muirs sell about 50 bulls per year at 2-year-old, 18-month and yearlings, mostly privately.

and wet winters with minimal feeding out and provides time efficiency.”

It also ensures no over-grazing on some of the fragile soils.

Muir’s parents own 300ha of the 520ha of leased land. That property is close to their Otaua farm and has been in the family for five generations.

“It is here that beef cows perform their key role of pasture management, cleaning up rank, mature pasture, which allows fresh growth for young stock. At the same time, the cows produce and grow a valuable calf,” Muir said.

Calving starts in June and goes to the end of September.

Muir finds that suits the varied calving patterns of the local dairy farmers, which is his target market for his bull sales.

“With Hereford-cross cattle being the number one beef breed in the district the key characteristics that our buyers are looking for are quiet temperament, calving ease and good markings.

“We sell around 50 bulls per year at 2-year-old, 18-month and yearlings.”

Muir does most of the sales privately with conditions that suit the buyers’ requirements. The Muirs have repeat customers with a few new ones each year.

The Muir family joined the South Auckland Hereford Club in 2007. At that stage they had grown to 60 cows, which were built up from a couple of bought lines and cows they had bred themselves.

In 2014 they bought the entire Westwyn stud, taking the number of cows to 120. Half of the purebred herd is now registered under the Otamatea prefix.

“The Westwyn herd was thick with Koanui bloodlines, complementing the high quality sires from Kairuru, Hukaroa and Craigmore studs that we use.”

Recently Muir also bought bulls from Kokonga and Grassmere studs.

He likes well-marked, moderate sized cows that convert second-class feed into milk and weight – cows that can wean a calf half their weight.

The Muirs feel the genetics they have been using are fulfilling their goals and they are always looking to improve.

Although the Herefords are not the core of the Muir family’s business they play a vital role in the enterprise. They intend to keep growing their numbers and increase the number of registered animals. n

17 H & J Megaw Sept - Waitara 150 all-breeds 2yr

Waikato

For more information, contact 0800 MYLIVESTOCK or visit mylivestock.co.nz

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Beef up dairy income

N

EW Zealand beef Shorthorn bulls are meeting the requirements of the modern beef industry.

They do it with better temperament, better growth and better meat quality.

All these traits are being recognised in the dairy beef industry as well, which provides 80% of NZ’s manufacturing beef and 50% of NZ’s prime beef.

Quality beef crossbreds such as those seen when using Shorthorns offer benefits throughout the supply chain from producer right through to consumer.

Dairy farmers are realising the huge gains that are to be made with tailing their dairy herds with beef Shorthorn bulls.

They are commanding premium prices as four-day-old calves, weaners, yearlings and prime stock to the works.

The management practice of using

Beef Shorthorn bulls are commanding premium prices for all ages. beef Shorthorns for dairy operations brings both animal welfare and economic benefits.

Calving is easier, calves are healthier and the resulting offspring from crossbreeding bring higher value in the marketplace.

Calf rearers benefit by having cattle

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with faster growth and a very desirable consumer product.

The demand for beef Shorthorn crossbred calves fom calf rearers by far exceeds supply. They say they prefer to rear only Shorthorn-cross calves if they are available.

Interestingly, the breed does not get the recognition it deserves with manufacturing plants and sale yards often mistakenly confusing the animals for exotic breeds such as Charolais and Belgian Blue, purely because of the colours of the animals.

The Shorthorns come in three predominant colours, red, roan and white.

To get the pastel blues and roans from dairy herds, which attract the biggest premiums, the best Shorthorn colours to use are white and soft roans.

The attractive blue-roan calves are always popular and command the best prices at sales throughout the north. n

Calving Ease EBVs +1.2 Av.

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YOUR MATING TOOLS

Registered Shorthorn breeding bulls Semen and bulls available

www.shorthorn.co.nz CONTACT: Russell Proffit p 07 877 8977 e rnmwproffit@xtra.co.nz | Fraser Fletcher p 03 204 2052 e fraserfletcher@gmail.com 56

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Meating the Future

A selection index will make it easier for dairy farmers to select Shorthorn bulls to put over their herd.

New Genetic Selection Index

M

ORE and more of New Zealand’s beef is now coming from the dairy sector through beef cross calves. Increasingly, traditional beef breeding land is being converted to dairying use.

This presents challenges for the Dairy Industry to use breeding animals that fit both dairy and beef purposes. Dairy farmers have always had to be careful with the type of bulls they use because of the varying genetic strains in any beef breed.

In response to this, the New Zealand Shorthorn Association, in conjunction with Meat & Wool NZ, has developed a Selection Index making it simpler to identify Shorthorn bulls ideally suitable for dairy mating.

The new Calving Ease-Dairy Index takes into account the two main Estimated Breeding Values (EBV’s) of Birthweight (BW) and Gestation length (GL). EBV’s predict an animal’s genetic merit, based on it and its relative’s performance information.

The Calving Ease-Dairy Index complements the Shorthorn Maternal Export Index the Association has already developed.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

How Does It Work?

The Calving Ease- Dairy index estimates the genetic differences between animals, in net profitability per cow joined, for a commercial dairy herd using Shorthorn bulls to breed steers and heifers for turning off at 20 months of age.

The index value reflects the short-term profit generated by a sire through the sale of his progeny and the longer-term profit generated by his daughters, in a self replacing cowherd (where applicable).

There is a strong emphasis on calving ease, while finishing steers at around 520kg live weight (280kg carcass weight) using a pasture-based production system.

New Zealand farmers have already found that Shorthorn/Friesian cross cattle generally have a good sized frame which allows them to reach good weights, and that Shorthorn cattle are always early maturing.

Well grown 15-16 month Shorthorn bulls are well capable of handling most dairy herds as long as they are treated with the consideration and stockmanship due to any young bull.

The Calving Ease-Dairy Index has indicated a large numbers of suitably indexed Purebred Shorthorn bulls are available within New Zealand. n

THE Australian Shorthorn Family invites you to the 2019 World Conference and Tour.

The Pre-Conference tour starts on September 23 with three nights in Adelaide, visiting Bayview, Bundaleer and Carlton Studs as well as a visit to Yalumba winery.

Travel to Mt Gambier via Belmore Stud. Spending two nights in Mt Gambier visiting Shepherd’s Noola Stud and the famous Blue Lakes at Mt Gambier.

Heading to Ballarat Victoria, visiting the Eloora and Rockgrove Studs. Following on to the Royal Melbourne Show. Shorthorn judging taking place Sunday September 29.

Visiting two dairy herds in the Gippsland district, followed by a visit to the world-famous Phillip Island Penguin Parade.

From Melbourne we travel to Griffith (NSW) viewing a restored heritage wool shed at the Tataila Stud near Echuca on the Murray River.

A visit to JBS feedlot where the Thousand Guineas Shorthorns are fed. Traveling on to Wagga Wagga via Spry’s Stud where the two day conference on October 3 and 4 2019 will be held at the Charles Sturt University. With ‘Meating the Future’ as our theme, excellent speakers and lively discussions and a visit to the University Veterinary School.

Following Wagga Wagga the post conference tour will feature the Shorthorn Youth Expo in Dubbo which includes their annual Heifer Show.

Other Studs are then visited on the way to Sydney via Coonabarabran and Tamworth.

The tour will conclude with a Sydney Harbour cruise and final dinner on Thursday October 10.

A further post conference tour will follow in Tasmania for four nights. n

57

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Murray Greys versatile MIKE PHILLIPS

T

Low birthweight and easy calving are attributes thrown off by Murray Grey bulls which make them an ideal breed to put over dairy herds. Pictured Mike Phillips with his three-and-ahalf year old bull Paradise Valley Highway Star.

HE Murray Grey was originally noticed for its ability to flesh well and finish as good as or better than the herd members from which it was

derived.

As the years passed and small herds of Murray Greys were established and steers sold to the fore, it was noticed their tenderness and eating qualities were also of superior quality.

While success came in the Australian carcase competitions, taste competitions and feed lot production of beef for Japan there has not been the same opportunity in New Zealand for this development because of the nature of the differing marketing strategies, where emphasis on quantity for the United States grinding beef market has taken precedence over quality.

Murray Greys have enjoyed some success in the few carcase competitions and the Steak of Origin competition to date.

While marbling of the meat by the inclusion of intra-muscular fat is desirable for the Asian trade it is not desired in the aim to produce lean beef.

However, taste has much to do with the fat component of a good steak and a balance between the two is perfection.

The main attributes of the Murray Grey in NZ are as a maternal dam breed, producing a female of excellent foraging

ability that can survive the extremes of seasonal change, can consistently produce a medium size calf that is quick to get up and seek its first feed, grow vigorously on a bountiful milk supply, wean at a good weight and finish for the beef market before its second winter as a 20-month-old.

Bulls for use over dairy heifers are also another outlet for which the breed can be used.

Low birthweight and easy calving are attributes desirable to the continued production of dairy heifers.

Along with these the calves are vigorous at birth, quick to stand and seek food and fast growing – all traits to reduce stress on the dairy operation and for the subsequent rearer of these crossbred calves.

Easygoing temperament in both the males and females of the breed is also an

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essential component on any cattle operation.

Recent DNA work done in Australia has identified economical traits. In Australia, two of the genes involved in tenderness and one for marbling have been identified and enable an animal to be assessed for its eating potential without actually killing it. DNA from tail hair follicles can be analysed.

In New Zealand work is being developed on the presence of the Calpain 1 gene for tenderness.

Murray Greys appear to have a high incidence of the Calpain 1 and Calpastatin genes throughout the breed and work is ongoing to identify and develop the tenderness attributes even more in the future. n Mike Phillips is the vice president of the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society.

Calving ease.

Polled calves.

Colour dominant.

Easy to sell calves.

Easy to finish progeny.

PROFITABLE BEEF CATTLE!

For more information contact: MIKE PHILLIPS • M: 027 404 5943 or visit: www.murraygreys.co.nz 58

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

CRV STANDS FOR HEALTHY & EFFICIENT COWS BETTER LIFE HEALTH

BETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY

ü Udder Overall

ü Milk

ü Condition Score

ü Protein

ü Fertility

ü Fertility

ü Capacity

ü Fat

ü Calving Difficulty

ü Liveweight

ü Overall Opinion

ü Longevity

UNDERSTANDING THE INDEX % more healthy/efficient, than population average 1-4% = Improved performance 5-9% = Excellent performance 10%+ = Superior performance

ü SCC ü Longevity • Progeny will have lower rate of health incidents.

• Supports sustainable dairy farming.

• Cows that are easy to manage and produce with fewer health related issues.

• Cows with high longevity that produce lots of solids per kg of feed.

BETTER COWS | BETTER LIFE

Example: BETTER LIFE HEALTH BETTER LIFE EFFICIENCY

3% 10%

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BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Keeping semen rights ALAN WILLIAMS

T

E MANIA Stud is looking for sons of its sale-topping Australian sire to move the Angus breed forward.

Starting this year the stud is keeping a 50% interest in the semen of all the bulls it sells.

“This keeps us protected if one of the bulls comes through with brilliant traits and we can get that semen back to use through our dam line,” stock manager Will Wilding said.

The deal involves only semen sales.

There’s no income-share when buyers use the bulls for physical mating.

Semen from Te Mania Garth was brought from Australia and used to breed the top-priced rising two-year bull at the national sales in May and the top-price

lot at the stud’s on-farm sale in June.

Other sons were sold in the on-farm sale and retaining the semen interest in them as well increases the prospects of finding some that will step-up as sires at the Parnassus stud in North Canterbury.

“We’ll use a bit more from Garth but you’re always trying to find a son that is better,” Te Mania principal Tim Wilding said.

Commercial farmers are the bread-and butter customers Te Mania relies on but studs pay the best prices for bulls.

“All customers are important but we’d like to see more bulls going to commercial farmers,” he said.

“Studs buy in to improve their own herds and then it becomes very competitive so the semen interest reflects all the work we’ve put in.”

While the Australian-sired bulls have the honours Will Wilding also has

This keeps us protected if one of the bulls comes through with brilliant traits.

Will Wilding

high hopes for the first bull progeny of American sire Leupold. They’re coming up yearlings and looking really good, he said.

One of the Leupold bulls is among the 50 listed in the on-farm yearling sale in October and the others will go into the rising-two-year sale in June.

TE WHANGA ANGUS calving ease sires www.borthwick.co.nz

SALE DATE 2018 MONDAY 17 SEPT 10.00

58 stud, plus 21 commercial performance recorded yearlings,

Ring us for a catalogue Jason Coffey, Manager 691 Te Kopi Rd, RD4, Masterton P. 06 372 77 20 M. 0274 570 526

Why wouldn’t we use Te Whanga Angus, they offer extra value through higher growth rates and angus premiums, plus the calving ease, low birth weight and short gestation that we know is so reliable.

Stu Weatherstone 2800 dairy cow farmer, South Wairarapa

60

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Te Mania Matrix topped the National Bull Sale when it fetched $35,000.

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

“There’s a lot that can change in that three or four months. I think we need to be revamping the competition to get the best bulls there and that would be good for the confidence of the buyers and the credibility of the breed.”

All the same, if the nomination for this year’s sale had been February rather than November,Te Mania would probably still have had the $35,000 sale-topper as its choice.

Ahead of October’s yearling bull sale, Will Wilding says the beef sector is still showing good confidence. n

SUDELEY GENETICS

Approx 50 Angus Yearling bulls for Auction

(No outside trading or grazing cattle farmed)

October 11th, 2018, 1pm 546 Selwyn Lake Road, Irwell, Leeston Enquiries to your local Livestock Agent or Andrew and Anna Laing 027 253 5625

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At its latest record June on-farm sale Te Mania secured $47,000 for the top-price bull, as part of the $1.4 million gross return from the sale of 123 rising two-year bullsw, a few weeks after topping the national sale with a $35,000 price.

The income levels show the stud’s breeding programme is on track but is also very welcome given the extra feed costs the stud faced through the three years of drought across North Canterbury till autumn 2017, Tim Wilding said.

The $47,000 animal was also used for stud duties as a yearling, with his first calves due next month.

Te Mania Angus in Australia has a sister herd to the Te Mania line-up at Parnassus. It started many years ago with cattle from the NZ stud.

Will Wilding has been stock manager at Te Mania for four years and took over the stud breeding responsibilities from his father last year. The top-priced bulls were from his first breeding programme.

“I’ve been pretty lucky. It’s been a good market,” he says.

Tim Wilding said the early success was a triumph for the new manager.

So far there have not been a lot of changes to how the stud operates, especially on the genetics focused on marbling traits but Will Wilding said he is placing more value on preparation and presentation of the sale bulls. He will use semen from Garth for another couple of years.

Te Mania will have about 520 calves born this season. It has bred from rising two-year heifers for the last 50 years though a bigger number are born from mature cows.

This season most of the heifers have calved already. They are mated with specialist heifer-mating young bulls, bred for their lower birth weights.

Te Mania won’t know for several months how good this crop of calves will be but at least the heifer offspring have made a good start as none of the 100 or so heifers calved so far required human help with the births.

That easy-calving quality is always something bull buyers are looking for. Genome tests are done on calves in December but the scanning data to show their worth for stud potential isn’t done till they are about 400 days old.

Tim Wilding wants the national bull sales to allow more information for potential buyers on how bulls perform stud duties as yearlings.

Studs have to select their bulls in November for the May sale but Wilding has proposed that be put back to February.

61

BETTER BULLS BETTER CALVES

Mark and Melissa McKenzie are producing big numbers of Speckle Park cattle.

Sold on Speckle Park TIM FULTON

A

S A custodian of five generations of stud farming Mark McKenzie thinks Speckle Park will be the dairy industry’s preferred beef-cross in

the near future.

His family were captivated by Speckle Park when they visited the Canadian Western Agribition cattle show in 2006.

His Maungahina business near Masterton imported 280 Speckle Park embryos from Canada after three years in partnership with Waiorongomai Station near Featherston.

Maungahina expects to sell up to 20,000 straws into the dairy industry this season.

LIC has five Maungahina bulls for AI, the best genetics available from Maungahina from 11 years of breeding in New Zealand, McKenzie said.

As a former director of the breed society for Australia and New Zealand, Speckle Park International, McKenzie said Maungahina is never going to breed Speckle Parks gradually because big numbers are needed to get a variety of bloodlines.

“You could see where the market was heading.

62

“They’re high marbling, high-yielding cattle.

“They can marble as high as a Wagyu and are early maturing.

“I’ve seen them killing at 20-24 months at 300kg carcase weight.”

He recently heard of a Jersey-Speckle Park killing out at more than 320kg CW at 20 months, yielding 57%.

“The scotch on it was full of marble.”

McKenzie said he initially thought of Speckle Park for the beef industry but it soon became apparent they could also be a hit in dairy farming.

The breed is low to moderate birth weight. Putting a Speckle Park over a Jersey or a Friesian, for instance, gives a high chance the progeny will be coloured like a Speckle Park.

“They look good, they’re attractive but it’s what’s under the skin that counts. It’s the meat, it’s the marbling, it’s the yield.

“And dairy farmers love them because they stay on the teat.”

The calves have a strong instinct to get on their feet quickly at birth and drink from mum. Being a Canadian breed that trait might have been useful for warding off coyotes, McKenzie said.

Speckle Park is now in BreedPlan, where farmers can see EBVs and other figures.

McKenzie said bringing the breed into

the database meant a lot of recording of birthweights and scanning for marble traits.

Speckle Park International is working with Genomics, testing for a certain genes like colour, horn and marbling.

Maungahina is aiming for 150-200 head calving in the next two years.

“It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.”

The business is also running 280 Hereford cows and has been breeding Herefords for 111 years.

McKenzie has supplied Speckle Park to local butchers at times but couldn’t supply enough to meet customer demand.

A couple of other Speckle Park breeders are planning to process and retail the meat, he said.

Maungahina consists of three properties: the 600ha Maungahina home block 8km east of Masterton, the 50ha Papariki 3km east of the town and the 200ha Miki Miki block 18km to the northwest.

Across the farms the McKenzies breed and raise their Hereford and Speckle Park bulls for an annual private auction.

The family aims to treat stud stock as a commercial operator would so they need to be good producers, fertile, sound and durable, McKenzie said. n DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

– Maungahina –

MAHUTA

Annual Yearling Bull Sale

LK0093957©

Friday 21st September 2018

www.maungahina.co.nz • mark.maungahina@xtra.co.nz

Book now for our May 2019 feature

Better Bulls, Better Calves

Top 1% HPI Offering includes: 54 top Hereford bulls and 10 top Angus bulls Sale on the farm – 1 pm, 313 Maurice Rd, Glen Murray Open day Friday 31st August farmersweekly.co.nz

Contact: John Allen 027 440 7504 Kane Needham 027 839 3612

LK0094000©

Assist farmers to make the right purchasing decisions for their herd.

Limehills Starter 1078 – a heifer-mating bull

54th Annual Hereford Bull Sale Wednesday 26th September, 12noon

ON FARM - LUNCHEON PROVIDED 660 Ngaroma Rd, 26km off SH3, Sth East of Te Awamutu.

25 TOP YEARLING BULLS & 70 2-YEAR OLD BULLS Sound bulls with exceptional temperament.

Full EBV details in catalogue.

Selection of Short Gestation & Low Birth weights available.

Free delivery 80kms.

Celebrating 75 years of breeding quality Herefords

KELVIN & CYNTHIA PORT • P: 07 872 2628 M: 022 648 2417 • E: kcport@gmail.com ROBERT & MARIAN PORT • P: 07 872 2715 DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

63

Farm infrastructure includes a 16-aside herringbone shed and an upgraded effluent system.

The 76ha Manawatu farm is ideal as a first farm.

OCATED on the outskirts of Palmerston North with four titles, this 76ha dairy farm is an ideal first farm or addition to an existing dairy business.

It’s so close to town that it sits within the 50km area yet is mostly surrounded by farms ranging from dairy and dairy support to finishing and cropping.

Quality, free-draining Kairanga silt loam soils over gravel have been regularly

fertilised and the farm has a long history of traditional rye and clover pasture production.

In recent years there has been a policy to plant some summer crop and chicory.

Among the farm infrastructure is a good 16-aside herringbone dairy with a recently-upgraded effluent system.

Effluent from the new holding tank is spread to pasture via a travelling irrigator.

A good hay shed, plus another shed for machinery are part of the set-up.

DAIRY, CROPPING, BEEF?

64

MORE:

Contact Les Cain on 0274 420 582.

QUALITY DAIRY FARM

• Situated south of Whanganui is this 175ha farming opportunity.

• Features a 20 aside herringbone dairy and 300 cow yard with adjacent feed pad.

• The herd is split calving and milked all year round supplying Open Country.

• Exceptional bore water supplies water to stock troughs, dairy and houses.

• Large machinery shed, large silage bunker • There are two three bedroom family homes set in their own treed surrounds.

• Your chance to buy this farm with a flexible takeover date and take advantages of the coming season, current RV $3 mil • Vendors considering all offers. Call Les to inspect.

Sallan Realty

Two road frontages provide access to some appealing sites to build a dream home in the country but so close to the city.

Les Cain from Sallan Realty says the retiring vendors are keen to sell and the farm is ideal as that first farm or run as a heifer unit or fodder block for an existing dairy business.

Google ‘Sallan Realty’ Your Farm Sales Specialist

• Your opportunity to own this quality dairy farm in full production.

• Situated in Northern Horowhenua and very well laid out with central laneways, rotary dairy and 600 cow feed pad.

• 170 hectares in three titles with a great mix of Kairanga silt loam and Pukepuke sandy loam soils.

• This property contains three good family homes, they are all set in their own sections and are good farm homes.

• Our vendors are looking to retire and have priced this property to sell at $7.5 mil land and buildings.

• Call Les to inspect this property.

LK0093608©

L

Close to town

LES CAIN 0274 420 582

Licensed Agent REAA 2008

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

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wf

October’s themes

Udder health THE DESTINATION FOR RURAL REAL ESTATE

and effluent management

Land is the biggest asset to any farming business so it pays to stay up to date with the market.

Connect with the right audience at

farmersweekly.co.nz

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

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farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

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I

One last word …

T APPEARS many farmers started calving earlier than expected this season and some had all but finished by midAugust.

One of those I spoke to told me he was supposed to start at the end of July but by that date, already had 150 cows in.

Several vets have told me the same thing but said they couldn’t explain why. Perhaps it has something to do with the mild winter we have experienced in some parts of the country.

One farmer said he wasn’t going to complain about it and is grateful for the unexpected warm weather.

“We had days that have been like summer – really strange but good,” he said.

“Yep, it was super busy but it sure beats pulling calves out of the mud. And having the cows milking earlier means more money in our pocket so that should keep the bank and the missus happy, I might let her have a holiday this year.”

Our first issue of Dairy Farmer last month appears to have been well received judging by all the fantastic and positive feedback I have been receiving. Thank you for your emails and phone calls – it is a great feeling to know farmers and industry people value our publication and the work we are doing.

Last month through our social media sites, we encouraged people to sign up to the electronic direct mail list.

Those who did were entered into the draw to win one of our special calf covers.

Check out the winners list on page 29.

You can still sign up at any time so you can have Dairy Farmer delivered directly to your email inbox.

The team here at Dairy Farmer love giving away stuff so this month we kick off our Pull the Udder One competition.

What we are looking for is two entries from farmers who know each other – they could be a friend, neighbour, partner or staff member – to give us opposing views on the topic of the month.

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For the October competition we are starting off with something light and fun – Holden v Ford – where do you loyalties lie? Up for grabs are two Skellerup Red Band family prize packs.

So get busy and send me your entries. Check out page 39 for more details.

And don’t forget to get in touch if you want to air your opinion on anything

– this is an open platform to air your views or to highlight something good or bad in the industry.

Sonita Like us: farmersweekly.co.nz Follow us: @DairyFarmer15 Read us anywhere: farmersweekly.co.nz DAIRY FARMER

September 2018

Dairy Diary

Proudly brought to you by Farmside

September 2018 Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday 1

5 September DairyNZ Whakatane Mating and M. bovis Discussion Group Eastbay REAP Community Centre, 21 Payne Street, Whakatane.

11 September

3 DairyNZ Mihi/Reporoa 4 5 M. bovis Mating and

6

Discussion Group Reporoa Hall, Broadlands Road, Reporoa.

13 September DairyNZ Western Bays/ Mangakino Mating and 10M. bovis Discussion 11 Group. Tirohanga 12 Hall, 839 13 Tirohanga Road, Atiamuri.

14 September NZ Institute of Agricultural & Horticultural Science Inc “Agriculture and The Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) - How do we enable farmers to respond?”

17RSNZ Offices, Wellington 18 19 20

Sunday 2

Dairy Women’s Network post-calving get together, Longburn Farm Source Store, Manawatu. Register at DWN.co.nz Dairy Women’s Network Regional Group – Kaipara – Staying Sharp Ruawai Hall, 25 Ruawai Wharf Road.

Register 7 DWN.co.nz 8 9 Dairy Women’s Network Waipa – Social celebration and connection. Fahrenheit Restaurant – 13 Roche Street, Te Awamutu.

More info at www.dwn.co.nz/events 20 September 14

15

16

DairyNZ Lower North Is Once A Day Discussion Group.

25 September SMASH event - Tackling Two Troublesome Issues at Mac and Lynda Pacey’s place 74 Bainbridge Rd, 21 22 23 Rotorua.

18 September

27 September

DairyNZ Farm Smarter Skills Days - Central Taranaki.

War Memorial Hall, 55 Miranda Street, Stratford.

Sarah Payne 027 704 5562 registrations essential.

Taupiri/Orini Ladies Group at Jenna Zydenbos’s, 581 Te Hoe Road.

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19 September

25

26

2018 Owl Farm Focus Day Cambridge. Farmer Focus Day, Updates on seasonal performance, Research on the farm and Plans for the Farms Future.

27 September

28

29

30

Biz Start and Biz Grow Progression Group Launch, Southland /South Otago. Ronda Ridsdale 03 218 2274 or ronda.ridsdale@dairynz.co.nz. Registrations essential.

We know rural because we are rural www.farmside.co.nz

programme

If your herd fertility is going the wrong way 68

DAIRY FARMER

September 2018