19 minute read
A successful journey Eketahuna brothers are top sharemilkers
from Dairy Farmer NZ March 2022
by AgriHQ
Sharemilking brothers from Eketahuna, Sumit Kamboj and Manoj Kumar were named as the 2021 Share Farmers of the Year and created history by becoming the first siblings to win the national title.
A successful journey
Sharemilking siblings say happy cows are the key to happy farmers.
Jumping into the dairy industry feet first, two brothers from India created history when they became the first siblings to win the National Share Farmers of the Year award.
When brothers Manoj Kumar and Sumit Kamboj first embarked on their dairying careers here in New Zealand, they had no idea where it would lead them or how fast their careers would take off.
In 2021 they created history by winning the NZ Share Farmer of the Year award, the first pair of siblings to win the national title. The pair demonstrated strengths in leadership, health and farm safety, business and community engagement, all things that drive their business.
Born and raised on a small farm in the village of Rudrapur in Uttarakhand in northern India, the brothers formed a love of the land from an early age. The family have lived and worked on the same land for three generations.
“The whole family was involved in the farm, we only had about 10 cows and did a little bit of cropping, but it was a family affair. Our brother Pramod and the family run the farm now,” Sumit says.
When they first came to NZ, dairying wasn’t really on their radar but they always knew they wanted to work in the agricultural space, just as they had done growing up. Having heard much about NZ agriculture at home, they chose the land of the long white cloud to do their tertiary studies.
While Manoj studied horticulture and Sumit studied business, the pair worked on kiwifruit orchards in Bay of Plenty and were keen to see where their careers would take them. Dairy farms surrounded the orchards and the pair spent many a smoko watching the farmers at work.
“Dairying here is completely different to back home. The scale, the practices, everything. We were really interested. When I finished studying, I decided to see what jobs were in the dairy sector,” Manoj says.
He soon spotted an advert for a farm assistant role in the Tararua on a farm owned by Andrew and Monika Arbuthnott and applied. He was hired and within six months was promoted to manager. The plan was always for them to work together, so Sumit joined Manoj a short time later and ever since, their careers have been on accelerator mode.
Today they work two sharemilking jobs. One for the Arbuthnotts called Chessfield, which Manoj runs and another for Geoff Arends and Ester Romp called Kakariki, which Sumit runs.
In fact, the brothers admit they may not have had the spectacular career
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FARM FACTS
• Farm owners: Andrew and
FARM FACTS
• Farm owners:
Geoff Arends and Ester Romp - Kakariki • Sharemilkers: Manoj Kumar and Sumit Kamboj • Location: Pahiatua, Tararua • Farm size: 164ha • Herd size: 460 KiwiCross • Production: 415kg MS per cow • Farm working expenses: $2.16
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The brothers worked hard early in their careers and at one stage were running four farms. They are now at the point where they can enjoy family life. Sumit and Manoj with his wife Sunita Rani and daughter Avni holding their trophy.
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they’ve had in the industry had it not been for the Arbuthnotts.
“The dairy industry awards were one of the main ways we networked when we first started in the industry, and I think perhaps winning the Sharemilker of the Year award helped us get this new job,” Sumit says.
Their entry into the Dairy Industry Awards this year was fairly last-minute. Still, they won over judges at all stages with their impressive presentation, which included drone footage of their family farm in India and nearby village, creating the link between their roots and where they are now.
Share Farmer head judge Jacqui Groves says the brothers impressed the judging panel with the amazing relationships they’d built in the industry and their community.
They have been working on the Arbuthnott farm since the start of their dairying careers in 2012. Chessfield, is an 112ha property situated between Pahiatua and Eketahuna. It is home to rolling country, summer-safe and what the brothers classify as “a fairly easygoing farm”. The System 4-5 farm peak
milks 290 KiwiCross cows and dabbles in some winter milking with 60-odd cows.
Kakariki farm is slightly larger and is a System 2, peak milking 460 on 164ha. Located just a ‘hop, skip and a jump’ away from each other, the farms are relatively similar in terms of land contour, rainfall and general management and have both undergone some changes in the time the brothers have been on them.
Last season on Chessfield, the herd produced a record 150,000 kilograms of milksolids, about 530kg solids per cow. Compared to the previous seasons 124,000kg MS, the increase is huge, but the brothers put that down to a very good grass-growing summer and few hiccups on-farm. The Kakariki farm had a great production year, averaging 415kg MS per cow.
Chessfield, in particular, has seen a lot of developments – most notable full pasture renovation. With grass that was decades-old in some places and a widespread buttercup issue, grass quality and quantity were stunted and negatively impacted the farm’s efficiency and production.
“When we first arrived, it was all old grass. The maximum production was about 10 tonnes per ha. We started regrassing 8-10ha each year, and now there is no grass on the farm older than 10 years old. Last season’s production was about 15 tonnes per ha, but we did have an amazing summer,” Sumit says.
The entire farm is now in predominantly tetraploid permanent pasture to provide high-quality and highly palatable feed.
Summer turnips are used as part of the regrassing programme, which has been scaled back to 4-5ha annually.
They have been experimenting with plantain to help combat the drier periods in the year but have yet to decide if it’s the best option for their farms.
“You have to keep on top of weeds with plantain and have to manage it carefully. Both farms are fairly summersafe anyway, but it will be interesting to see how it performs,” Sumit says.
Weekly pasture walks are essential in creating a grazing plan that will optimise cow nutrition, production and pasture utilisation across both farms. During late spring to early summer, they aim for a 2800 pre-grazing residual and 1500 postgraze and alter this depending on how the season is going.
“On Chessfield we have a covered feedpad large enough for the whole herd, which we utilise in the wet to reduce pugging. When you get pugging, grass doesn’t grow as well, and it’s an open invitation for weeds to pop through come spring, which we are keen to avoid after doing so much work on getting clean pastures,” Manoj says.
The brothers joke that more than once, they’ve woken in the middle of the night to pouring rain and rushed out to shift the cows onto the feedpad. While they say it might seem silly to many, it gives them peace of mind that their cows are happy and their pastures remain intact.
They have strict rules on both farms around weeds, spot-spraying or grubbing where needed and no flowering weeds from February onwards. Fertiliser is
A covered feed pad on Chessfield is large enough for the whole herd and is utilised during wet weather to reduce pugging.
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The brothers work two sharemilking jobs near Eketahuna. One for Andrew and Monika Arbuthnott called Chessfield, which Manoj runs and another for Geoff Arends and Ester Romp called Kakariki, which Sumit runs.
Supplement is matched to feed requirements to ensure cows are fully fed at all times of year to maintain good body condition scores while ensuring pasture growth and quality are optimal. Sumit and Manoj head off to feed out to the herd. applied twice a year, with soil tests done every second year, determining the type and amount of fertiliser required.
Supplement is matched to feed requirements to ensure cows are fully fed at all times of year to maintain good body condition scores while ensuring pasture growth and quality are optimal.
“We meet regularly with the Arbuthnotts and Arends to determine what supplementary feed we need and get that ordered ahead of time. We mainly use palm kernel with some added minerals and utilise maize and grass silage, which is grown on the run-off block,” Sumit says.
The brothers take extreme pride in their cows. Over the years, they have worked on breeding quality mediumframed KiwiCross cows that can handle the sloping terrain, heavy soils and are efficient producers.
Calving begins on July 22 (Chessfield) and July 28 (Kakariki) and 25% are kept as replacements, with a focus on high PW and BW genetics with crossbred calves sold on to the beef market. A handful are donated to community charities and causes for fundraising like Gumboot Friday.
They do all their own calf rearing and their family from India normally comes out to visit and help during the calving season, but due to covid they haven’t been able to see their family in two years.
“They love to come out and spend time here on the farms. It’s helpful to have extra sets of hands as well, and it takes us back to our childhood really, just on a biggerscale,” he says.
On Chessfield, they rear around 200 calves each season. Calves are reared inshed until they are three-weeks-old when they are moved out to the paddock and fed twice-a-day. At Kakariki farm calves are
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reared in-shed until weaning at 90kg, as there are lots of sheds on farm, they can easily rear them inside for longer.
Once calves are weaned, they stay onfarm until February before going off to graze at the run-off block until it’s time for them to be put up for mating and join the milking herd.
Mating starts October 15 on Chessfield and October 20 on Kakariki and consists of a nine-week programme. Four weeks AB for replacements, one week of AB with whitefaced or Speckle Park genetics followed by three weeks of natural mating. Short gestation semen is used in the last week to tighten up the tail end of calving.
“We want an efficient cow that suits the farm. So we want them to have good udder conformation and be good converters of pasture to milk. We want them to milk out well and be able to hold their own throughout the year,” Manoj says.
Over the years, they’ve improved their six-week in-calf rate from the mid 70% to 78-80%, which they largely attribute to the whole farm regrassing and their focus on having fully fed cows year-round.
“The cows really are the key to everything. Happy cows, happy farmers,” Sumit says.
The past few years they have dabbled in some A2/A2 genetics to give them some more options with their herd and get a piece of that market. It’s not proven to be the winner they had hoped, so they’ve gone back to basics.
“We knew at some stage we may want or have to sell our herd and the demand for good A2/A2 animals was for a bit looking quite good. Unless you’re fully into it though, it doesn’t seem to be a place where we could gain any value,” he says.
What has added value to their herd has been the purchase of cheap cows with minimal or no records. While good on the conformation front, the cows they purchased were largely unrecorded animals that required DNA testing. The brothers took a punt and bought them.
“As sharemilkers, your biggest asset is your cows. When you buy top-end cows, you can’t add more value to them. There’s also no guarantee that they will be good producers. We’ve seen that many times. By buying cheaper cows and investing a bit in DNA testing, we’ve been able to add value to them,” Manoj says.
“With any cow, regardless of what’s on paper, if you feed her right, look after her right, if she’s got four legs and a good udder, she will produce well. You don’t always need the best numbers to have the best cows,” Sumit adds.
The DNA testing process was a little time-consuming, but most cows are now fully recorded and some have proven to be their top producers.
On the animal health front, they take a proactive approach. Blood tests are taken annually to analyse mineral requirements, which are fed via their feed and through dosatrons to ensure the best possible uptake. All team members on both farms are fully educated and up to speed with recognising metabolic issues and kits are kept on all farm vehicles during calving time.
“We don’t have a high incidence of calving issues. We have eyes on them regularly and can act quickly. Our biggest issue tends to be lameness from walking to and from the shed as it can be a long walk,” Sumit says.
To combat this, there are strict stockmanship rules on the farm. Cows are to walk at their own pace and are given plenty of time to make the trek from the furthest away paddocks to the shed. In recent years they have started putting rubber matting on the tracks to cushion the walk, which they’ve had a lot of success with. They have also been investigating upgrades to the laneways at Chessfield to provide a long-term solution for the issue.
“Aside from that, water tends to be our biggest challenge, on Chessfield in particular. While we get good rainfall and are summer-safe, the water comes from the neighbour’s property through a spring. In summer, when it gets really dry, we have to pump out of the river or the dam, but we usually make it work,” Manoj says.
Calving begins on July 22 (Chessfield) and July 28 (Kakariki) and 25% are kept as replacements with a focus on high PW and BW genetics. A handful are donated to community charities and causes for fundraising like Gumboot Friday.
As well as sharemilking, the brothers have built up a property portfolio and are eyeing farm ownership. Sumit and Manoj, with his daughter Avni, check out the herd.
While neither farm has or needs irrigation, one of the other big farm developments has been the effluent system on Chessfield. Effluent goes from the sump to a hill via a pump and then is gravity-fed out to the farm via a subsoil drainage system. When they first arrived, only 12-15ha of the farm could be accessed. This has grown to 58ha through the investment of the farm owners to extend the gravity feed system.
“It’s been really valuable to have so much of the farm able to be spread with effluent. It’s had benefits for the quality and growth rate of our pastures. Our farm owners on both farms have been great at supporting us with developments like this,” Sumit says.
In fact, the Arbuthnotts have been supportive all-round. They started out as farm assistants, then in 2016 took on 50:50 sharemilking on Chessfield farm, as well as two contract milking roles on the Arbuthnot’s other farms. They juggled those roles for two years before they took on the sharemilking role for Geoff Arends and Ester Romp on a 460-cow farm, bringing them up to four farms. Manoj looked after the contract milking farms and they hired a manager for Chessfield.
While the idea of running four farms for many people is highly daunting, the brothers were encouraged by their business goals and relied heavily on good planning and bookkeeping to keep everything ticking over.
“We knew early on in our careers that we were prepared to make some sacrifices to get ahead. For those years, we didn’t have much work-life balance, but we are gradually getting to a point now where we are better at that,” Manoj says.
While arguments are inevitable, after so long of working together and with the same values and goals for themselves and their families, there’s nothing they can’t work out.
“Three of the farms were in the same area so it made life easier. Staff was a great strength to our business and they all understood the operation very well and knew what we were working towards,” he says.
“We are really grateful to both farm owners. They both have done so much for us and are very supportive in whatever we want to do on-farm; we’ve been lucky, but we’ve also worked hard for it. The respect flows both ways.”
Keen learners themselves, the brothers have instilled that same keenness in their staff and are focused on helping them with training and study opportunities. They employ three staff across the two farms who work on a 12-on-2-off roster, with a maximum of 50 hours a week. Two of their staff are cousins who came over from India to work.
“It can be hard to find good staff. In previous years we always had people coming to us looking for jobs, now it’s the other way around. Covid has played a big role in this, so we are lucky with our little team,” Sumit says.
They pay for staff to do Primary ITO training courses. Every few years, they hire an independent contractor to come out on-farm to do intensive training sessions for machinery use and maintenance as part of their health and safety plan.
“It’s important to us that we give our staff those opportunities. That’s how you learn. We also like to do what we can to encourage work-life balance, even though we aren’t always very good at it,” Sumit says.
Community is another cornerstone of their business. When they first came to the Tararua district, the brothers say they were welcomed with open arms and instantly felt at home and take every opportunity they can to give back.
“We do what we can with volunteering and donating to local charities. We’ve tried to help as many people as we can with finding jobs during covid as well,” Manoj says.
While it might seem like a lot of extra work to take on, the brothers are aware of how different their induction to NZ could have been without the support of others along the way.
Their vision is to be ultimate farmers. Producing high-quality food that is valued and satisfying to produce. Their mission is to surround themselves with the right people. Educate themselves and the next generation and be active in their communities. The pair are far from riskaverse. They’ve taken some big chances throughout their careers but are smart when it comes to their investments on and off-farm.
If juggling multiple farms wasn’t enough, the brothers are also avid property investors and have a portfolio of land and houses in the Manawatū and Tararua regions. The goal here is to diversify their income streams and not put all their eggs in the dairy industry basket.
Farm ownership is the next goal for the brothers and they aren’t far away from achieving it either. They have taken up a sharemilking opportunity on a 2000cow farm owned by Richard and Chrisse Wright in Mt Sommer in the South Island next season to get them that bit closer. It will be the first time they will just be working on one farm in a long time, but they are excited about the change.
“We are at a point now where we want to relax a bit. We both have young families now, and right now, because we have two farms, we each have to be on-farm a lot of the time. The farm we are moving to means we’ll hopefully get some more time off to spend with our families,” Manoj says.
They will be entering into this next chapter of their careers with the full support of their two farm owners, but will be sad to leave behind the community they’ve been part of for the last decade.
“We owe a lot to everyone who’s been involved in our lives and careers in New Zealand so far. We’re excited for the challenges of next season and hope that we can show that farm ownership is still achievable in today’s climate.” n The herd comes in for afternoon milking on Chessfield.
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