Dairy Farmer July 2019

Spring Calving July 2019

Thinking outside the square Greenhouse gases reduction will cost Dairy Business of the Year winners

A ray of light Golden Bay farmer no longer in a fog of depression

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DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

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JULY 2019 Editor

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

Publisher

DEAN WILLIAMSON dean.williamson@globalhq.co.nz

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Contributors HUGH STRINGLEMAN hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz

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ALAN WILLIAMS alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz

03 359 3511

NEAL WALLACE neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

03 474 9240

LUKE CHIVERS luke.chivers@globalhq.co.nz

027 569 8907

ROSS NOLLY ross_nolly@yahoo.co.nz

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TIM FULTON

027 087 16027

timfulton050@gmail.com

Sales

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Spring Calving July 2019

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COVER Golden Bay farmers Wayne and Tyler Langford are making the most of life after living under a cloud of depression.

Photo: Tim Cuff

Thinking outside the square Greenhouse gases reduction will cost Dairy Business of the Year winners

A ray of light

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Golden Bay farmer no longer in a fog of depression

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

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DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Contents NEWS 4 Dairy Business of the Year Top businesses named 18 Looking ahead Diversification a smart move

ON FARM STORY

8 Making the most of life Golden Bay farmers Wayne and Tyler Langford live life to the full

20 Not the norm Waikato farmers Bill and Michelle Burgess like to do things a bit differently

FARMING CHAMPIONS 30 Dairy champion George Moss 39 Fast Five – Detroit Ririnui

THEME

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51 Spring calving

REGULAR FEATURES 17 Guest opinion – John Stephenson 37 Industry Good 41 International news

GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of advertising revenue to the Rural Support Trust. Need help now? You can talk to someone who understands the pressures of farming by phoning your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

44 At the Grassroots 46 Technology 48 Research

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2019 DBOY AWARDS

The best of the best SONITA CHANDAR

A

NORTHLAND farm that has previously been a runner-up to the Supreme award in the Dairy Business of the Year has gone one better to take out the top spot at this year’s awards.

Okaihau Pastoral in the Bay of Islands is the Supreme Award winner for 2019.

Judges also named two farms as joint runners-up – Richard and Nadine McCullough from Karapiro in Waikato and Brent and Rebecca Miller, and Andrew and Rachele Morris from Ashburton in Canterbury.

Okaihau, a 367-hectare property milking 1150-1200 cows and producing about 646,000 kilograms of milksolids, is an equity partnership with 17 shareholders. It was named the Best Northland Farm Performance for the third time as well as the High Input Farm with Best Financial Performance.

Judges Danny Donaghy from Massey University and Michael Lawrence, director of Naylor Lawrence and Associates, said the awards evening was about celebrating the cream of the dairy industry.

“The dairy industry is always facing challenges from multiple directions.

Payout, climate, banking pressure, regulations, compliance and disease have all existed to varying degrees and continue to be part of the landscape that the industry operates in.”

They said what defines the industry and its participants is their capacity to cope with those challenges and come out on top.

Judges said to be the supreme winner in a year with such strong competition required some very strong metrics.

“Okaihau had the highest kilograms of milksolids per cow production to achieve 538kg MS and a cost of production of $4.01/kg MS. Their return on capital of 11.3% was 30% greater than the farm with the second highest return.

“In our view Okaihau were thoroughly deserving winners of the 2019 Dairy Business of the Year Supreme Award.”

They also said the eight finalists in the high input category were of a very 6

Northland farm Okaihau Pastoral Ltd is the 2019 Dairy Business of the Year Supreme Award winner. Saff and shareholders from Okaihau at the awards evening held in Queenstown last month. high calibre so the winner had to be able to achieve a very strong financial performance with tight cost control.

Okaihau stood out because of its costs and production per cow.

Headlands farm consultant and Okaihau independent director Paul Martin said the win is reassuring for the shareholders, most of whom do not live in Northland or visit the farm often.

“The board does report back and sends shareholders data and information often but to win an independently judged award is recognition for them that their investment is working.

“We have some excellent systems in place right from the farm managers and their team to the board and this is proof that we are taking the business in the right direction.”

Benchmarking the farm and business against other top farmers from around the country is a valuable tool in fine-tuning and tweaking the system.

“Having the information and the opportunity to meet and talk with the other finalists is really beneficial as we can take those learnings and apply them where possible to our business model.”

Key to the success is the team and how effectively they work together, he said.

“Everyone knows what their role is and performs it to the best of their ability and they respect and support each other.”

The 2019 awards used data from the 2017-18 dairying season and Martin

said the farm and business performed particularly well that year but has shown consistent performance over a number of seasons.

“We haven’t really changed too much in the farm system from the last time we won but we did take the feedback and learning on board, particularly around the environmental aspects.

“Changes around this have been made and we are constantly trying to improve so it was pleasing to see that our overall environmental score was higher this time and we were in the top four of this year’s finalists for environmental performance.”

Judges said it was unusual for the competition to have runners-up but the metrics were such they could not be separated.

Both McCullough Farm Partnership and River Terrace Dairy were finalists in the People Performance and Environment categories.

Both achieved a cost of production below $4 and, based on previous years, judges believed either runner-up could have been the supreme winner so are both deserving of the award.

McCullough Farm Partnership, which was also a finalist last year, won the Best Waikato Farm Performance and the Lowest Environmental Impact awards.

Judges said it was the strong performance around people and the environment that won it the regional award.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

WINNERS Okaihau Pastoral Holdings Supreme Winner Best Northland Farm Performance High Input with Best Financials River Terrace Dairy – Brent and Rebecca Millar and Andrew and Rachele Morris Runner-up Best Canterbury Farm Performance Business Resilience Best People Leadership McCullough Farm Partnership – Richard and Nadine McCullough Runner-up Best Waikato Farm Performance Lowest Environmental Impact Hopkins Farming Group, Waihora, Shawn Southee Best Lower North Island Farm Performance Hanze Farms – Scott and Larissa Anderson Best Central Plateau/BOP Farm Performance Theland Tahi Farm Group – Plateau Low Input with Best Financials Theland Tahi Farm Group – Pineview Medium Input with Best Financials

Richard McCullough said the main difference from the last year’s competition was the winter milk premium.

“The winter milk premium for this year’s awards data was a lot better than the previously,” McCullough said.

“Winning gives us reassurance that we are on the right track and what we are doing is working. It is great to have all our hard work recognised.”

McCullough said they reason they enter DBOY is to build several years of data and use that information to make improvements to the business.

“I believe that in this day and age you have to been in the top 25% to ensure that you can pay the bills and remain viable.

“There are a lot of challenges with rules

The competition was so close that judges named two dairy businesses as runner-up to the Supreme Award. Richard and Nadine McCullough from McCullough Farm Partnership Ltd from Waikato and Rebecca and Brent Miller, from River Terrace Dairy Ltd from Canterbury. and regulations, the milk price can be volatile so the pressure is on to be at the top of your game.”

River Terrace Dairy also won the Best Canterbury Farm Performance, Business Resilience and Best People Leadership awards.

As winner of the Business Resilience Award, it achieved a cost of production of $3.84/kg MS. Judges said running a tight ship with good cost control ensured the win in that category.

Operating expenses were contained at 45% of gross revenue and River Terrace had a very good pasture harvest of 15.5 tonnes DM/ha with pasture being 78% of all consumed feed. It achieved 495kg MS a cow.

“The People Performance Awards show they have been able to achieve their financial results while caring for their people,” judges said.

As first time entrants the Millers said they were thrilled to even make it through to the finals but were blown away with their win.

“This is recognition for us and our team

which is important as it is about them and the time, care and effort they put in,” Rebecca said.

Having the right team was key to their success.

“When you have the right people, everything else goes right. All the little things done right make up the big picture and make everything work.”

The success was also down to making timely decisions by being proactive rather than reactive.

Brent said they entered DBOY because they wanted a platform to see how they compare to other farms and farmers.

“The competition has shown us how we are tracking,” he said.

“We are always crunching numbers and this allowed us to see exactly what the drivers are behind those numbers and give us a clearer picture of where we are and what we need to be doing.”

All 2019 winners will hold regional optimisation days on their farms later this year. These days highlight how the winning farmers have made resilient and profitable systems. n

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ON FARM STORY

Tyler and Wayne Langford bought the farm at Takaka in 2015 but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for them.

Photos: Tim Cuff 8

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

It’s not weak to speak Farmers are by nature independent, optimistic, proud, resilient and strong. But the perfect storm of terrible weather, prolonged market weakness, global trade wars and more is driving some farmers to breaking point. Luke Chivers spoke to a dairying couple whose change in perspective has transformed their farm, their family and their community.

I

T WAS a warm, sunny afternoon in Takaka in Golden Bay. As daylight beamed through a window only to hit the back of a curtain Wayne Langford found himself bedridden in a cool, dark room. He had been flat on his back every afternoon for more than a week to escape his constant mental anguish.

But this day was different.

“I had like an out-of-body experience.

“It was as though I was hovering above myself looking down and saying ‘what the hell are you doing in bed?’”

It was 2pm on March 18, 2017.

It was his 34th birthday.

“I couldn’t help but think I should be out and about celebrating with people, not stuck indoors.”

Most people who knew Wayne knew this about him: He was in his early to mid 30s, married to Tyler and the father of three boys. He was a sixth-generation dairy farmer who owned and ran his Golden Bay farm. He was a Fonterra supplier was the Federated Farmers1 Dairy Farmerand Ad_86mm x 210mm +5mm copy.pdf dairy vice-chairman.

On the surface things seemed good.

But underneath Wayne was suffering from depression, an illness he refused to name or discuss because he was worried he would be labelled weak.

It’s a characteristic of the stigma around mental health that has long been prevalent in New Zealand, particularly in rural areas, but that is, thankfully, on the decline.

Wayne grew up on a dairy farm at Kotinga, 5km southwest of the small rural township of Takaka at the northern end of the South Island in the mid 1990s.

“Though I didn’t always think I’d end up in the primary sector,” he admits.

“Initially, I considered teaching and sports coaching but that didn’t last very long.”

In 2001, aged 18, Wayne left the family farm and moved to Canterbury to study for a farm management diploma at Lincoln University.

During that time Wayne started dating Tyler, a fellow student.

“I was handing out pieces of my heart on Valentine’s 20/05/2019 11:41 Day during O-week and she just couldn’t resist,” Wayne says.

FARM FACTS n Owners: Wayne and Tyler Langford n Location: Takaka, Golden Bay n Farm size: 100ha, 93ha effective n Cows: 250 cows including Jersey, Friesian and crossbred n Production: 2018-19: 70,000kg MS n Target: 2019-20: 87,500kg MS

“It was literally pieces of paper in the shape of a heart.”

Tyler grew up in the big smoke of Invercargill.

“When I tell people I grew up in the city, they ask which city?

“To me it was a city. I had never set foot on a farm until I met Wayne. I didn’t have any farming connections and even though Invercargill is surrounded by

Continued page 10

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ON FARM STORY

Wayne grew up on the family dairy farm but Tyler grew up in Invercargill with no farming connections.

farms, that’s not what my friends were affiliated with.”

Anyone who knows the Langfords will know it’s not usual for them to stay away from the farm for long. Dairying is in their blood.

So it wasn’t a surprise that in 2003, shortly after graduating from university, Tyler and Wayne had tied the knot and found themselves moving to Bainham, bordering the northwest Nelson Conservation Park to run a recently bought 150-hectare family farm with his brother.

About every two years the wider

A1/A2 Genetics (Gene Testing)

Langford family either bought or leased new dairy farms, which Wayne and Tyler ran.

“I was the family gypsy,” Wayne says.

“We moved around a lot to take the new farms on, got them going and then would move onto another family property.”

But after 10 years of relocating they decided to go out on their own.

In 2015 the couple settled a property at Kotinga, 7km southwest of Takaka, milking 250 cows once-a-day.

“It’s been interesting and exciting,” Wayne says.

“We had a couple of low payout years,

we had a really poor production season and then last year we had a drought so it’s been a challenge. We’ve definitely learnt a lot.”

Their property, Go Ahead, is 100ha (93ha effective), which Wayne describes as two-thirds flat, one-third rolling inland country that is typically summer dry for about four to six weeks a year.

The herd is primarily made up of Friesian dairy cows with some crossbred and Jersey in the mix.

Wayne’s family background was always going to secure the existence of Jerseys on the property, he says.

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DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

He slowly slipped away from us into darkness.

Tyler Langford

“We’ve always had Jerseys as a family.

“When we bought this farm it came with black and white cows. Now we’ve got a third Friesian, a third crossbred and a third Jersey. Hopefully, at some stage we’ll get back to an entirely Jersey herd.”

Takaka’s wet soils and the Langfords’ once-a-day milking is an ideal fit for Jerseys.

“We’ve done alright with the Friesians to be fair.

“We’ve been selling beef while the beef prices have been quite high so they haven’t been all that bad.”

Last season they achieved production of 70,000kg MS, which was 20% down on budget because of drought. Their target production for this season is 87,500kg MS on a mostly grass diet with a small amount of hay and no bought-in feed.

They recently swapped out turnips for lucerne as feed and this season will be their first year with a full 30-day rotation of the crop.

“Typically, we’ve been big fans of turnips but moved away from them in recent years and now we’re into feeding our cows lucerne,” Tyler says.

Wayne sank into deep depression for nine months but didn’t seek help because he was worried it would be seen a sign of weakness.

“We’re looking forward to that – it should be good.

“Particularly, going through the drought last year, lucerne helped us to get through that. Not only did it give us some extra balage in spring but it also gave the cows a green feed during the drought as well.”

They winter 100 cows off-farm on a property near Nelson and while their calves stay on-farm their R2s are off for a year from April. The herd returns home before calving begins on August 7.

“It’s a tight calving spread with our once-a-day system,” Tyler says.

“We only do 12 days of AI during mating by using the Y-Wait programme where you bring the week-two cows into

week one and the week-three cows into week two.”

It appears to be working as they have averaged 23% replacements for the past couple of years, which is better than the industry average, and they are on track to better that again.

In the meantime, they have gone to the effort of buying easy-calve bulls from sheep and beef farmers Richard and William Morrison in Manawatu.

“It’s had a massive impact on our farming operation because not only do we have high-value, whiteface calves to sell in the spring but we also have less than 1% calving problems,” Tyler says.

Continued page 12

The Langfords milk 250 cows and are targeting 87,500kg MS this season.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

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When Wayne sank into a deep depression Tyler wasn’t sure what to do but stood by her man and life is good for the couple now.

“Plus we’ve reduced our bobby calf numbers from about 60% to 16% in the past two years so it’s good not having to put so many calves on the truck.

“We certainly don’t like to create more work for ourselves than what’s necessary,” Wayne says.

They face enough challenges as it is.

The downturn of the Global Dairy Trade in 2016 when returns to dairy farmers fell to a discouraging $3.90 payout meant life on the farm was tough.

It is a time many dairy farmers won’t forget quickly.

“We had a few reserves to get through it but it was a hard couple of years,” Tyler says.

“We had a $3.90 year and then we went into a $4.80 year then we had one of the wettest seasons our region has ever seen and then we had the drought.

“So, for the four years we’ve owned this farm it’s been a bit of a rough run.

“Our bank manager has kept saying to us, if you can farm your way through this year then I’m sure you can next year.”

They are quite open about their farm debt.

“We’re in the mid-$30s per kilogram of milksolids,” Wayne says.

“It drives performance. Throughout our farming career our goal has been to achieve $4000 profit per hectare on a 12

$6 payout and that’s what we drive our business around.”

That figure is in the upper quartile of production in the Golden Bay area.

“Our bank always said they lent us the money, not the farm. They lent based on our financial literacy rather than the farm numbers,” he says.

“That’s how, as a young family, we’ve been able to buy our own land. Most of the banks didn’t want to touch us but, thankfully, one did and we got a run.”

Wayne and Tyler have three boys, Lewis, 12, Gordie, 11, and Alfie, 10.

“They love it on the farm,” Tyler says.

“They all really appreciate how lucky they are to have the farm as their backyard.

“In fact, Gordie has got his own 10ha block up the road which he’s just started leasing and he’s running some bulls on it.”

Tyler says she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to bring them up in the city.

“The farm is incredible in the way it teaches kids life lessons without you actually having to parent, as lazy as that sounds.

“Our boys have learnt things like learning to do jobs that sometimes you don’t want to do or that everything is quicker and easier if we work together as a team and they’ve learned the value of hard work, not to mention things as

That was when I realised that real strength is actually about being able to admit when things aren’t great.

Wayne Langford simple as the birds and the bees.

“They’ve also learned entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills. And they’ve been able to build a close relationship with their dad. I personally put that down to the farm.”

That upbringing has been paramount in recent years.

Two years ago Wayne was meeting the demands of the farm but his home life was an entirely different story.

“It was just all the signs of poor mental health, disrupted mentally, sometimes angry and sometimes very tired. I spent a lot of time in bed.”

He had tumbled into depression.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

ON FARM STORY As Wayne put it, his brain had cooked itself like a tractor engine.

As the weeks passed Wayne’s condition continued to escalate. He sank into a deep hole for about nine months.

“I still had a public-facing role with Federated Farmers so I had to make a real effort to kind of get up for that so that noone would see my weakness, that’s what I thought it was the time and so I’d do that and then come home and crash quite often and take a couple days to kind of get over that.”

Tyler says watching her husband struggle was borderline unbearable.

“At first I noticed little things.

“Wayne was always someone who took joy in everyday things – that vanished. He shut himself off from his friends and his boys.

“He struggled to make decisions that in the past he had made with ease. He also lost interest in the farm, which was something he had always loved.

“He slowly slipped away from us into darkness,” she says.

Having met at the age of 18 and married at 22 they knew each other well so Tyler knew something wasn’t right.

“We were always best friends and communication came naturally for us but he stopped talking to me and that was horrendous,” Tyler says.

“I felt like I had completely lost the person I married and I didn’t know what to do. What do you say to someone you love who is slipping away from you?

“Should I push him? Should I walk away? Should I let him deal with it in his own way? He’s such a typical don’t-talkabout-your-feelings Kiwi bloke.”

The couple battled on for nearly a year before the conversation that brought things to a head.

On that warm March afternoon in 2017

Wayne managed to pull himself out of bed, grabbing Tyler and their kids before jumping in the car and heading for the beach.

“On the way home that day I said to the kids and Tyler hey, let’s do this again.

“The next day I went to see my great aunt at the hospital and then from there on … it was all these different things.”

They decided that for the coming year they would do one thing each day to remind themselves why they are glad to be alive.

And, so, began the YOLO or you only live once project.

“To keep ourselves accountable we would post each day on social media,” Wayne says.

“I clearly remember in the beginning I was like ‘oh, I’m going to climb mountains, go bungy jumping’, all those

sort of big statement things but I quickly realised that’s not me, I’m not a mountain climbing type of guy.

“What really gives me joy is being with my family and friends, connecting and sharing with people in the community.

“So, while we did go skydiving for YOLO day 400, my favourite YOLO to date was actually day six when we had a bonfire on the beach and cooked pancakes with the kids.”

At first the couple told family and friends he was celebrating life but as time went on the couple revealed the mental health reason behind their project and despite Wayne’s concerns they received nothing but support.

“The reaction was incredible.

“I started getting messages from people

Continued page 14

Wayne works on the farm in between his YOLO speaking engagements and his role as dairy vice-chairman of Federated Farmers.

Where to get help:

Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254 Depression helpline 0800 111 757 Lifeline 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP) Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) Healthline 0800 611 116 Samaritans 0800 726 666 Industry-specific advice and support for depression in the rural community is available at depression.org.nz/rural In a life-threatening situation call 111.

The Langfords’ boys have learnt a lot of things growing up on the farm including the value of hard work and entrepreneurial and problem-solving skills. Tyler and Wayne with Lewis, Gordie and Alfie.

then sometimes things just start to build up and it’s easy to tip over the edge. We never wanted the YOLO farmer to be a brag post but rather something everyone can do.

“I definitely think we’ve helped to take off the taboo for people to talk about mental health but I still think we’re struggling with the support available.”

While he did not seek medical help he has since become a board member of Te Whare Mahana Trust at Takaka, which provides community mental health services in Golden Bay and realises he shouldn’t have been fearful of reaching out.

“I was fortunate that the right people turned up at the right time.

My local community has been a huge support.”

The couple have both learned a lot during their journey. Tyler says one of her biggest lessons was to just be there until the time was right.

“I think that morning of his birthday was just right for Wayne. He was ready to make changes. We started looking at life through a different lens.

“I thought the depression was a

I had never met before, telling me their own stories and struggles and that was really humbling.

“That was when I realised that real strength is actually about being able to admit when things aren’t great.”

Before they knew it the blog had reached the one-year mark but buoyed by its effect Wayne and his family decided to keep the project going.

Now Wayne’s page @YOLOFarmerNZ has 23,000 followers on Facebook while @YOLOFarmerGlobal, for farmers from around the world, has more than 100,000 followers.

#YOLOFarmer has been heralded as a call to view farming life through a different lens and challenge the statusquo for New Zealand’s rural community.

Posts are centred on the mental health pillars of gratitude, connection, pride in achievements, giving and learning.

Wayne has also been invited to speak at events including the Grow Agri Summit in Christchurch, the South Island Dairy Event in Invercargill and the upcoming ProteinTECH event in Auckland.

“Farmers, in particular, face a lot of stress,” he says.

“We are constantly managing different stresses at different times – there is pressure from all sides.

“Most of the time you can cope but

Wayne likes to be actively involved with the children and their activities so coaches his son Lewis’ rugby team.

As part of You Only Live Once the Langfords do one thing each day to remind them why they are glad to be alive. For their YOLO of the day Wayne, Alfie, Gordie and Lewis waded into a river to stand on a log.

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DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

ON FARM STORY

Wayne and Tyler met as students at Lincoln University and have been best friends ever since.

When Wayne sunk into depression he stopped talking to Tyler, which she found horrendous.

“I live in the moment more and realise massive beast, something we could never what’s really important. If I say no to tackle but through YOLO Wayne was able something my boys will remind me to to re-engage and slowly, bit by bit he YOLO. It’s also had a positive effect on my came back to us.” relationship.

For Wayne the project has highlighted “My wife put down her whole life to the importance of his family and loved HFS Dairy Farmer Ad - JULY - HlfPg 210mmWx156mmH-PRINT.pdf help pick1 up18/06/19 mine and11:34 that’sAMsomething I ones. will never forget.”

“It’s changed the way I parent. n

MORE:

To follow Wayne’s blog search #YOLOfarmer on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Video link: bit.ly/OFSlangford

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GUEST COLUMN

Dira disappointment Fonterra Shareholders’ councillor John Stevenson says the outcomes of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act have missed the mark.

Fonterra Shareholders’ councillor and Wairarapa farmer, John Stevenson, says submissions on Dira have been ignored.

A

LOT of farmers, myself included, are feeling frustrated after the Government announced the outcomes of its review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (Dira) last month.

A significant opportunity to be able to increase the value of the food we produce has been missed, and after 17 years of “restructuring” our dairy industry, the legislation still only applies to Fonterra and its shareholders. Submissions from farmers for changes to encourage greater fairness in our industry and support a strong NZ Inc that returns profits to the regions have not been listened to.

It is positive to see a recommendation to allow our co-op to protect our reputation and brand by not accepting non-compliant farmers as shareholders.

The majority of farmers invest considerable time, effort and expense to follow best practices and meet the many regulations required of them. Those who do not put at risk our hard-won reputation for world-class farming and milk production.

However, this change doesn’t go far enough to address the very real risks of over-capacity and inefficiencies that accompany open entry. Our co-op is committed to picking up milk from existing suppliers anywhere in the country. But in an environment where we are seeing a flattening NZ milk curve, we continue to see new factories being built, often in the middle of areas with a high density of farms, and our competitors can choose supply close to their factories. The inefficiencies and inequity of open entry disadvantage our co-op and its farmers, and will have knock-on effects that are not in the wider dairy industry’s best interests.

Equally frustrating is the requirement to supply export-focused competitors with raw milk. Farmers were vocal about their support for fair competition that

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

retains profits in NZ and creates a strong domestic market for NZ consumers.

However, access to regulated priced milk for export-focused processors should have been removed. It makes no economic sense to allow these foreignbacked companies to continue to take our milk, process it, use it to compete with Fonterra and other New Zealand-owned dairy businesses in export markets, and then send the profits offshore.

New Zealand needs a strong dairy co-operative if we want our industry to thrive and remain competitive on the world stage. Our transparent milk price calculation ensures the full value of our milk is paid to farmers. This is the envy of farmers worldwide. And it’s not just Fonterra farmers that benefit – our milk price provides a benchmark for other processors and helps ensure that their farmers receive a fair price for their milk. Without the price standard set by a strong co-op like Fonterra, farmers risk becoming price-takers, reduced to accepting what processors are prepared to pay. A strong Fonterra provides a safeguard for all NZ dairy farmers.

As part of the Dira review, farmers clearly asked for a fairer regime that requires all processors to publicise more about their milk price. It’s currently very difficult for non-Fonterra farmers to understand the actual milk price they will be paid by the processor they supply, adversely impacting their ability to make informed decisions on who to supply. I

cannot understand why this is not one of the review outcomes.

Proposed changes to the milk price regime are also a concern. Government having the right to nominate a member to the milk price panel is a step too far and creates a direct conflict with the existing independent oversight by the Commerce Commission. With dairy farmers nationwide relying on the Fonterra milk price, we cannot risk the objectivity of the milk price calculation being muddied with political interference.

Seventeen years on, Dira has done what it set out to do – create competition in the NZ dairy industry. Those of us who attended the public consultation meetings earlier this year heard loud and clear that Dira needs updating to reflect today’s world, give NZ-owned dairy companies a fair go on the international stage, and keep profits at home.

Farmers are passionate about what we do and invest heavily to produce worldclass product. But we need confidence that there will be a strong sustainable dairy industry for current and future farmers. We hope the decision-makers are thinking hard about what it would look like if the effort we farmers put in is no longer matched by reasonable and sustainable returns now and into the future. We have a great opportunity to further enhance the competitive advantage we have in the natural way we produce our milk, we just need some help in our corner to make that happen. n

17

MARKET OUTLOOK

New farming models coming STEPHEN BELL

O

UR immediate outlook is still clouded by international uncertainty.

Depending on which economic commentators you want to listen to things are going to improve or worsen of the next year, but not by a lot.

However, a year or so out we are in for a recession or a decent upswing, depending on whose predictions you want to put most faith in.

What we do know is that prices for most commodities have been good and rural economists generally expect a milk price exceeding $7 a kilogram of milksolids this season.

We know export earnings across the board have been good this last year and those overseas factors are not hurting us so far. In some cases they are helping.

And there has been an upswing in manufacturing involving primary products in New Zealand while most manufacturing statistics have softened.

So the primary sector is in a good position from the exports end but banks are still warning farmers to reduce debt and telling them borrowing more will not be as easy as it once was and will be at higher interest rates.

On top of that farmers face rising input costs and new environmental and compliance costs as well the need to improve farm biosecurity measures.

That lot might be enough for anyone in the way of changes and challenges but there’s more to come.

Are we starting to see the onset of major changes in the way we go about farming?

It seems so.

The stalling in the rural property market, particularly for dairy land and more particularly for second and third tier dairy properties, tells us the days of farmers buying land to provide an income while they wait to realise capital gains on the land are gone.

This might be difficult for some older farmers to swallow as they hope to sell up but the younger generation just isn’t willing to speculate on land prices going up. And even if they were the banks are unlikely to let them.

Our traditional way of doing things has

18

The next generation of farmers will have a completely different philosophy to their predecessors. been for a farmer to sell his land and hold a dispersal sale to clear that land then for the buyer to come in and do their own thing.

But greater restrictions on what can happen on the land and how it can happen are likely to restrict the options for buyers.

Therefore, rather than looking for a piece of dirt that can provide a comfortable living then be sold at a profit, young farmers these days will be looking at land as part of a business proposition.

They will have to look much further out than the farmgate when it comes to deciding what to produce and how to do it. They will be setting up a business to make profit, just like their predecessors, but they won’t be able to end their involvement when the truck takes their stock or wool down the road or the tanker carts their milk off to the factory.

They are now factoring in things like public perception and rapidly changing tastes as part of the equation.

And in doing that they are realising being a single product generator is a risky business. Image no one eating sheep meat and farmers having to rely solely on the wool cheque.

The smart move is diversification.

Simply put, spreading the risk isn’t a dumb idea.

We can see some of that happening already with farmers taking up Fonterra’s fixed milk price for part of their output.

They might not get the highest price but they will get a price they can live with.

So, how else can diversifying work?

While we might see a return to the past with some farmers doing more than one thing we are unlikely to see Old McDonald’s farm operations springing up where farmers do a little bit of everything.

But there is sense in a farm that might be primarily dairy also having a beef operation or some cropping or horticulture to support it.

There is also sense in farmers combining resources to either share costs or run a profitable second business. In other words run local co-ops like they do with irrigation schemes.

They might run their own contracting business rather than buying all their own machinery and as well as servicing their farms it could look for other work to improve the bottom line.

And they can jointly operate runoffs for grazing, providing they trust their partners in regard to biosecurity, or cropping units to provide supplementary feeds. The latter is already happening to some extent with equity partnerships.

And there will be long-range relationships where farmers want guarantees of what is happening to their food right through the supply chain to the overseas customers.

So, while we see older farmers now adapting their operations to meet new demands on them we have a new generation of farmers coming through who have a radically different approach and philosophy to the business of farming. n

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

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NEWS

Brexit threatens Irish boom TIM FULTON

B

ORDER chaos after Brexit could stifle a surge in the fortunes of Irish farmers.

A resumption of tight border controls between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland would be ridiculous for farmers with land on both sides, Enterprise Ireland senior regional development executive James Maloney said.

More than 30,000 milk lorries cross the border every day.

The state-controlled agency was at National Fieldays promoting Irish goods and services, particularly agri-tech products.

But Maloney had a beast of a worry back home with the possibility of tight border controls being reinstated after Brexit.

Irish farmers have farms on both sides of the border and milk routinely shuttles across it for processing and sale. The Irish dairy industry is going well but a Brexit border debacle would knock farmers’ confidence, Maloney said.

“It’s going to take a lot of careful thinking to plan this to work.”

Brexit uncertainty is bad news all-round because the United Kingdom is Ireland’s biggest trading partner and largest importer of cheddars.

Ireland might have to look beyond the UK for new markets and some Brexit complications might have to be resolved by a third party like the World Trade Organisation.

It is a beast of an issue and now largely a political matter, Maloney said.

Enterprise Ireland senior regional development executive James Maloney says Brexit could check Irish dairy farmers’ confidence.

Meantime, the republic’s dairy farmers are on a roll, expanding herds and averaging an income of ¤86,000 a year in 2017. The past year has been more challenging as farmgate prices stayed fairly static at 29-32 cents per litre.

Some farmers could fix their return for three years, giving them security even if they miss out on seasonal peaks.

Just under half of Ireland’s farmers now have more than 100 cows, up on a comparatively meagre 13% in 2005.

Three years ago the European Commission predicted Ireland would have the highest percentage growth in milk production in the EU until 2026, with growth of 41%.

About three-quarters of the European Union’s expected total milk supply increase over that time would occur in Germany, Ireland, the UK, France and the Netherlands.

Maloney said Ireland is adding off-farm

to cheese and butter and now supplies 10% of the world’s infant milk. Since 2006 the country has been under legislative pressure to improve water quality, curb nitrate use and cut stocking rates.

The industry operates under an environmental directive allowing no more than 170kg of organic nitrate a hectare and a maximum stocking rate of 2.5 cows a hectare.

Farmers also have to allow 16-22 weeks of storage for slurry.

Dairy conversions are continuing but in the past couple of years farmers were contracting out rearing of replacements to beef producers.

The new approach helps farmers maximise milk production on limited land area, fits environmental regulations and helps the beef industry.

The Irish industry has been working on getting it right over a number of years and now has an average fertility rate of about 92%. Most of the national herd is either British or Holstein Friesian or a cross and about a quarter Jersey.

Maloney was on his second visit to Fieldays.

He sensed Kiwi farmers were cautious spenders this time around, possibly because of bank-imposed financial pressure and increasing pressure to comply with environmental standards.

“This Fieldays seems quieter to me,” he said.

He noticed New Zealand paddocks were stripped bare by grazing in a way that would never be allowed in Ireland.

“We learnt lots from NZ but NZ might learn a lot from us into the next generation,” Maloney said. n

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ON FARM

Michelle, Sophie, Bill and Alex Burgess farm at Matamata where they milk 340 cows.

Photos: Peter Drury 22

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Thinking outside the square A Waikato couple are finding doing things a bit differently is paying off. Jenny Ling reports.

H

ARD work, a shared passion for science and technology and sheer grit and determination are helping a Waikato dairy farming couple create their dream property and life together.

Bill and Michelle Burgess milk 340 cows on 100ha of prime land in Te Poi, a small but thriving farming area 10km south of Matamata.

Here they milk and manage their elite herd of mostly Friesian and Friesian crosses and a small amount of Jerseys, while raising their two children, Alex, 3, and Sophie, 5.

But it’s the duo’s magic combination of dreaming big and “thinking outside the box” that’s setting them apart and helping them achieve the gains they seek.

They’ve been brave enough to experiment with new practices like moving to autumn calving and using advanced reproductive technology, while setting up social media forums and community initiatives like the online calf club, Calf Club NZ. All this – and a healthy dose of gratitude – is fulfilling a dairy farm dream for the couple.

“We both had this dream from the

beginning we wanted to own a dairy farm,” Bill says.

“We both enjoy the technical side of farming, it keeps it interesting on a dayto-day basis and gives us measures to challenge ourselves with.

“We’re able to have a successful business combined with an enjoyable family lifestyle all in one location.”

Michelle, 33 and Bill, 43, come from a long family history of dairy farming.

The daughter of dairy farmers, Michelle grew up in Te Awamutu. She is a third generation farmer. Her grandparents were farming in Holland before immigrating to New Zealand to try their hand at farming here in the 1950s.

Bill is a fourth generation farmer and is originally from the United States, where his family owned a small dairy farm in Massachusetts.

He was 29 when he came to New Zealand in 2004 to embark on studies in veterinary medicine at Massey University in Palmerston North.

It was during his first year that he met Michelle, who was studying agriculture at Massey with a DairyNZ scholarship.

As their friendship developed into romance, they decided they wanted to go farming. After hearing about Kiwis undertaking New Zealand-style

FARM FACTS n Owners: Bill and Michelle Burgess n Location: Matamata, Waikato n Farm size: 100ha dairy plus 40ha leased runoff n Cows: 340 cows Friesian and Friesian cross plus six Jerseys n Production: 195,000kg MS, 2000kg n Target: 200,000kg MS each year n Operating profit: $6874/ha

conversions in Missouri, they withdrew from full-time studies and moved there in 2005 to work for them and learn their methods.

A year later they married in the United States, where they stayed for three years before returning to go contract milking on a farm in Te Awamutu.

Bill says it was a combination of factors that eventually drew them back to New Zealand; they had no family nearby in

Continued page 24

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Bill and Michelle switched their herd to solely autumn calving because the conditions suited them better. Bill, Alex and Michelle with their herd.

Missouri and Michelle was missing the land of the long white cloud.

They had also decided they wanted their own farm and the best environment for that was in here in New Zealand.

After a year contract milking in Te Awamutu and having purchased 250 carry-over cows, the couple spotted an opportunity to tender for a leased dairy farm in Ruakura.

“We are pretty savvy with budgets so drew up our own forecasted financial performance,” Michelle says.

“We successfully tendered for a 120ha block and secured a loan approval from the bank. A week later Bill negotiated a neighbouring 80ha to be added to the lease to make the farm a total 200ha.”

They leased that farm for seven years before achieving their goal and buying their first farm in Te Poi in June 2016.

Having made the decision to live, work and raise their children in Waikato, they knew it would require dedication and aggressive saving. But through determination and hard work they gained bank approval to buy a farm of their own.

“We had a specific goal and we’re proud to have achieved that,” Bill says.

“Some people think you need financial backing but you need to control your 24

spending and think big, and also not give up.

“We kept looking for opportunities and taking advantage of opportunities when they were presented. It’s outside-the-box thinking, we weren’t afraid to push the limits.”

We always strive to run a very efficient and simple routine.

Michelle Burgess

Having finally secured their first farm, the hardworking couple set about upgrading it.

In the last three years they have built a new dairy shed, a concrete feed pad to hold up to 400 cows, a 4.5 million litre effluent pond and regrassed and refenced 20% of the farm.

They’re helped by herd manager Deon Steyn, who takes care of the milking and daily tasks, and relief milkers to cover his days off.

“We couldn’t do this without great staff, and Deon has supported us for four seasons now,” Michelle says.

“We always strive to run a very efficient and simple routine and try to adopt new techniques to reduce everyone’s workload.”

The farm is run on a high input System 5. Feed management is focused on maximising pasture quality and quantity, with about 50% of the total feed grown on farm and 50% of feed purchased.

During the 2017-18 season 12.4tDM/ha of home-grown feed was eaten, consisting of grass, maize and grass silage, while an additional 12tDM/ha of feed was imported. Most of the imported feed is PKE, dried distillers’ grain, soya hulls, and straw.

Bill is skilled at formulating cost effective balanced diets without a nutritionist. He aims to use low cost feed first then balance that with anything that’s lacking, for instance, integrating more protein in the winter.

“This depended on the grass situation at any time of the year, and decisions are based on stage of lactation and cost of feed,” he says.

The last two seasons the herd produced 195,000kg MS which aligns with the target of 200,000kg MS each year.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

ON FARM “We love fully feeding our cows and it’s exciting seeing just how much they can produce,” Michelle says.

“Our highest cow produced 913kg MS in 305 days. But we have to have a sustainable business first and foremost, so profitability is our driving factor.”

They work closely together to make decisions about the farm and the responsibilities are equally split.

Bill takes care of the feeding, animal health, production and farm development and keeps an eye on repairs and maintenance, while Michelle focuses on genetics, breeding, calf and heifer rearing, and the business admin.

Bill says the technical knowledge he learned while studying mechanical engineering in the US is now put to good use.

“In relation to our success we’re both an integral part,” he says.

“I like the technology behind it all.

I’m more strategic and a risk taker while Michelle takes a more calculated approach.

Continued page 26

Alex, Michelle and Bill check out the herd calving data to see how the autumn calvers are going.

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July 2019

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Alex, Bill Sophie and Michelle Burgess enjoy getting out and about on the farm and amongst the herd.

“The combination works well. I push the limits and Michelle is always reminding me that being careful has helped get us to where we are.”

Michelle’s area of expertise lies with genetics and breeding, particularly embryo transfer, an advanced reproductive technology which is both her hobby and passion.

Mating is done over a 10-week period starting on June 3 using all AI. High BW and good conformation dairy bulls are used in the first four weeks.

These are mostly Friesian bulls and some cross breed and Jersey bulls,

followed by six-weeks of short gestation Hereford bulls.

The yearlings are synchronised and inseminated to high BW with good conformation Jersey bulls for easy calving, then run with natural mating Jersey bulls that the couple have reared themselves.

“We are looking to improve udders while achieving a high producing, fertile, healthy cow, with low incidence of lameness and mastitis,” Michelle says.

Every cow is custom mated with Michelle picking a specific bull for each cow.

“With custom mating I’m aiming to

Michelle and Sophie with one of LIC bull Burgess Trickshot’s ET offspring. This friendly calf is Sophie’s pet.

26

achieve those goals, and I also focus on improving each cow’s weaknesses.”

“We get the top cows inspected and classified by the breed associations so their scores show up on their 3GP, and I use this information along with their breeding values for each trait.”

But it’s the embryo transfer work that will help them achieve their perfect cow.

Their best cows are flushed, embryos collected and frozen. Then, during mating, instead of using semen, Michelle works out the optimum days to implant the embryo into the recipient cow.

This practice is repeated throughout the year and has taken off since they started out in 2011.

The first cow they had flushed resulted in her son graduating to the LIC Premier Sires team where he has remained for the last three years.

Burgess Trickshot ET is now used nationwide and has sold over 200,000 straws.

“We also now have 15 other bulls in the AI industry” she says.

“I’ve been keen on genetics since I was a pre-schooler and always had that interest in the cows in my parent’s herd,” Michelle says.

“Mum and dad let me be involved in the breeding decisions and contract matings in their herd, and it just grew from there. We met some farmers including Stewart Anderson from the Arkan Stud who does a lot of embryo transfer work in New Zealand.

“He gave us a lot of insight into

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

ON FARM breeding and the benefits of embryo transfer and then Bill said ‘let’s buy a really good cow and give it a go’.”

Bovine embryo transfer specialist Nigel Juby of Ova-Achievers does their ET work.

With more than 15 years of MOET [Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer] experience, Juby is one of New Zealand’s busiest ET operators.

In 2012, they had four ET heifer calves and 35 in 2013. These girls are now in the herd producing calves of their own.

On average, the hold rate is 55 to 60% and the number of embryos varies. Some years they’ll implant 130 embryos, with less in other years. So far this year they’ve had eight cows flushed, producing 160 embryos.

From this they hope to get 90 calves born in 2020, of which they expect 50% will be heifers.

“It’s really an exponential improvement in genetic gain,” Michelle says.

“Once they started having their own natural pregnancies our genetic improvement has grown and improved.

“They’ll have essentially a genetically superior calf.

“Not only that, the breeding companies

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Bill and herd manager Deon Steyn in the cowshed during afternoon milking.

are interested in buying some of the bull calves, which is always an exciting achievement and also helps pay for the ET work.”

In 2015, they made the switch to solely autumn calving. This was due to

Continued page 28

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ON FARM several factors, including inconsistent weather.

“We didn’t mate our herd during that spring and mating was delayed until the following June so we could change the whole herd to autumn calving all in one go,” Michelle says.

“We kept them milking for 18 months in the transition and had our first autumn calving in 2017.”

Bill says the decision wasn’t made for financial gain but more for the fact they enjoy calving in the autumn.

There are less challenges involved in calving at this time, he says, because generally it’s dry and warm.

“It’s very pleasant weather to calve cows in the autumn, it’s good for our mentality and the cow’s health,” Bill says.

“We have to feed more through the winter, as we’re growing less grass but we receive a premium for winter milk to help offset feed costs.”

Michelle says calving in autumn also means less metabolic issues in the herd.

“The learning curve has been managing the winter feed and reducing pugging,” she says.

Autumn calving also allows them to have summers off to further develop and work the farm as the herd is dry. It is also when grass growth slows down.

“We’ve had so many droughts over the last decade, we feel like you can plan for the winter but in the summer, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Michelle says.

“Every February it’s hot and dry, and the cows don’t want to walk to the cowshed. There are flies annoying them and production would plummet, and we’d

The farm is a high input System 5 with 50% of feed grown on farm. Alex and Bill Burgess check out the pasture growth.

ask ourselves why are we milking in this weather?

“The heat caused a lot of stress on the cows. It’s just too hot and such a struggle with no grass at all.

“Now with autumn calving we have to deal with the feed in winter but there isn’t a heat issue. It’s not perfect but we enjoy it better.”

Calving begins on March 10 and runs for 10 weeks. They keep 28% replacements, which is higher than the average but it gives them the ability to cull aggressively when they need to or to help fast-track the genetic gain.

They are both involved in the farming

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community with Michelle serving on the farmer advisory panel for New Zealand Animal Evaluation Limited (NZAEL) which manages national breeding objectives.

She also established the Facebook page NZ Dairy Genetics Network, which now has more than 2000 members.

The outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis in 2017 sparked another important community project. With the infectious disease putting a halt to many calf club meetings, pet days and A&P shows around the country, Michelle and Real Experience marketing company owner Josh Herbes came up with the idea of

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Decisions are based on stage of lactation and cost of feed.

Bill Burgess

The 340-cow herd is mostly Friesian and Friesian cross and produced 195,000kg MS in the past two seasons.

an online calf club so kids could still participate in the tradition that is calf club.

The Calf Club NZ website was launched in July 2018, allowing children to register their calf, submit a photo, and an explanation of how they cared for it.

The nationwide event was designed to bring the dairy industry closer together, and involved a large number of judges, farmers, volunteers, supporters, sponsors and other professionals.

Within nine hours of starting the website there were 150 registrations, and with a push from social media this grew to more than 600.

Alex and Bill Burgess head off to do some tractor work.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

The success of the event means there are plans to hold another this year, most likely after calving in late September.

“I thought because of M. bovis we could have an informal calf competition for the genetics group,” Michelle says.

“Josh contacted me with a bold idea to open it up to everyone in the country and take it further.

“We don’t want to replace traditional calf clubs, it’s something kids can do if they can’t get there, which was an issue for 95% of schools last year.

“Since M. bovis is still an issue and we got a lot of great feedback we’ll run it again.”

Michelle says calf club was an important part of her childhood, and something she would like her children, along with others, to continue taking part in.

“I grew up with calf club when I was a kid, and it’s something special we want our own kids to do. I don’t want to see that part of our culture lost.”

Their hard work and farming smarts is paying off in more ways than one. Their business has generated a very high return on capital, well above the top 10%.

The main driver of the Burgess’ profitability is operating profit/ha, a result of very high milk production/ ha combined with a high milk price, while not letting costs increase disproportionately.

The couple were also finalists in the Dairy Business of the Year awards.

Michelle says their Nutrinza rep Rob Feist nominated them to enter DBOY. “We entered years ago but the thought hadn’t crossed our minds lately, so the nomination was good encouragement to give it a shot this year. We enjoy benchmarking our performance against successful businesses and setting new challenges for ourselves.”

Bill and Michelle say plans for the future include further developing the farm and having more leisure time for their family.

The whole family loves horses – in the US Bill ran a successful equine business for six years, training and selling show hunters.

They own a warmblood called Indy and the kids ride Sprinkles the Welsh pony so the plan is to get a few more.

“We both need to learn to switch off a bit more and make time to get off the farm,” Michelle says.

“Farming is not just our career, it’s our hobby, so it’s very easy to continue working on big projects. We are so lucky we’re in the position to take the kids with us while we work, they love helping and both have a natural interest in farming.” n 29

DAIRY CHAMPION

George Moss is involved with many organisations in the industry including the Rural Support Trust.

Meeting the gas challenge New legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will hit farmers in the pocket. Tim Fulton reports.

W

AIKATO farmer George Moss, who operates two dairy farms, believes running a small business can be just as difficult when meeting environmental targets as large scale farming.

Moss and wife Sharon operate two small dairy farms at Tokoroa in south Waikato. One is 72ha milking 180 Friesians and the other is 67ha milking 175 crossbreds. They also own an adjoining 40ha drystock block.

As one of 15 DairyNZ climate change ambassadors he is passionate about 30

helping farmers meet the challenge of farming profitably in this era of climate change and increasing nutrient restrictions.

“Having done two full effluent upgrades and reducing debt and now looking to manage greenhouse gases I fully appreciate the challenges of managing cashflows in times of variable milk prices, seasons and increased constraints,” he says.

DairyNZ is using one of the Moss properties to model options and understand the challenges to profitability of cutting greenhouse gas production.

It did a six-year comparison benchmarking their organic farm with

the conventional farm. Over many years they’ve participated in a number of DairyNZ and Massey University projects, tapping their own data plus DairyBase financial and physical benchmark figures.

The couple have simple farm routines, like regular pasture walks, to identify pasture surplus and deficits. They’re also fluent in the use of data. Their shared love of analysis has kept them focused on a relatively simple farming system and now on reducing environmental impact.

Collecting masses of data helps them pay attention to cow performance and pasture production, including pre and post-grazing targets.

One of the farms is an individual

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

benchmark farm in DairyBase, allowing farmers to look at it as a comparison.

Moss rated OverseerFM and Farmmax as good tools that had assisted them in decision-making along with DairyBase, which he describes as outstanding. Their general method is plan, plan, plan.

“We literally, in the 48 hours prior to the Government’s greenhouse gas announcement, were writing plans and having discussions around simplifying, efficiencies and setting self-imposed targets around nitrogen loss and greenhouse gases.

“And discussing how do we actually manage increasingly variable and volatile weather patterns, which are possibly more costly than the proposed greenhouse gas restrictions to 2030.

“We can meet the targets but it will come at a cost to profit.”

The GHG legislation was introduced to Parliament earlier this year and sets a target of reducing biological methane by 10% by 2030 and a provisional target of between 24% and 47% in gross reductions by 2050.

They have had ups and downs, successes and failures and invaluable learnings but conservative budgeting and aggressively chasing cash helps them to still grow, even in the bad years.

“If we’re not the most profitable farmer at a high milk price, it’s not going to put us out of business. There will be other farmers that are far more profitable on a per hectare basis than what we are but it’s the bad years that kill you, not the good years.”

“We manage for profitability in all years – good and bad.”

He says farming is now significantly different to when they started out – more production used to mean more profit, an

almost perfect correlation.

“This is no longer the case.

“The correlation between production and profit is poor so now it’s about how to keep costs low and margins high.

“If we make any changes, is that going to increase or reduce our environmental footprint whether it be gases or water quality?”

Whatever the management policy, make it a considered one based on data not emotion, he tells farmers at industry workshops.

By keeping them small and cashstrong, potentially they are very attractive options to the next generation.

“Continual awareness is the key and time is your greatest ally.”

As an analytical farmer he has a keen eye for risk. As a climate change ambassador he sees the physical impacts of climate change as a greater threat to pastoral farming than the 2030 targets the Government wants to introduce, as evidenced by this autumn’s green drought.

“Adapting to climatic change itself may prove to be a bigger challenge than the Government’s 10% methane emissions reduction by 2030.”

The Mosses have a reputation for

farming on their own terms, grappling with a complicated and ever-changing world to make their operation simpler and stronger.

They farm single-mindedly, not selfishly.

He grew up on a drystock farm, one of three boys of George senior and Sue. In the late 1970s George senior told his sons there was no future in sheep and beef because it didn’t have the cooperative structure of dairy. He suggested if they wanted to continue farming and get their own properties the dairy industry was the way forward.

He went 50:50 sharemilking 81 Jersey cows on 33ha for a sympathetic and capable Waikato farm owner, the late Jim Munns.

The scale of his first farm might seem laughable now but it was enough for him at the time.

He spent the first year living in a caravan then did a year of contract milking. During that time he met Sharon and they went 50:50 sharemilking.

He’s forever grateful to Munns and also Ken Bartlett, then a Dairy Board extension officer, who taught him the value of pasture and who over the years helped them to add tens of thousands of dollars to their businesses.

They were careful equity-builders from the start, just like they are now. Cash profit has always been the focus of their businesses.

“We actually did it a little bit different.

“We peaked at 290 cows. When we sold half the cows to go into farm ownership we were at 240-odd cows. We tended to always run cash-strong businesses.”

He bristles at the idea he has answers

Continued page 32

Waikato farmer George Moss is one of 15 DairyNZ climate change ambassadors helping farmers meet the challenge of farming profitably in this era of climate change.

for everyday farming – and even more so at journalistic tags like Dairy Champion – but nonetheless he and Sharon do plenty to make the industry better through DairyNZ and Fonterra networks and wider as a mainstay for community groups like Rural Support Trust.

As a keen industry participant he was an inaugural Landcorp director in the late 1980s, has chaired the Fonterra farms advisory board, was a member of the Upper Waikato Catchment Committee and was on the Dairy Group and Fonterra Shareholders Council and was a dairy rep on the Collaborative Stakeholder Group for plan change one in Waikato.

He has also chaired the South Waikato Economic Development Trust and 32

led the Dairy Push Project that added $100,000-plus to the operating profit of participating farmers over three years.

He was part of a team that created the initial Dairy Group Shareholder Council and led the farmer-owned Great Milk Company in the early 2000s that tried to secure NZ Dairy Foods for Waikato and Bay of Plenty farmers.

Nearly 20 years ago he ventured views in a vigorous NZ Dairy Group debate about the value of producer and investor shares. He continues to argue dairying can make itself more attractive through dry share equity in the consumer business.

Options like A and B shares for valueadded businesses still appeal to him so

when a cash-hungry Fonterra announced the sale of Tip Top some shareholders called him immediately for an opinion.

Moss says businesses like Tip Top would be stronger if they had outside investment, particularly brands and companies run offshore. As an investor in offshore multinational consumer businesses he says “I feel few farmers appreciate the capital required to compete successfully.

“Our capital structure was not appropriate for the previous offshore milk pool strategy.

“There is definitely merit in the old A and B-type scenario. I don’t think a lot of our strategic decisions have been necessarily wrong but I don’t think we’ve had the capital structure to actually support that.

“I support the direction of the current rethink in Fonterra but the reality is the capital structure is in urgent need of evolution.”

The existing set-up leaves Fonterra vulnerable, caught between farmers who tend to think about cash now and investors wanting the gain down the track. Trouble is, some value-added investments use a lot of cash and will only pay a dividend in the long term.

“There’s a dichotomy of goals.”

The Mosses are more assured about their own farming structure and relaxed about intangible factors like whether 22-year-old son Daniel, who has a Defence Force career, might consider farming.

By keeping the farms separate they expect to find it easier to sell down the track, whether it’s family or others.

“By keeping them small and cashstrong, potentially they are very attractive options to the next generation.”

Looking at the farms purely as an investment Moss sees them as cashgenerating enterprises.

“The capital values will go up and go down – and at the moment they’re going down – but if business is generating cash it’s got flexibility.”

If he has a message to a younger generation of farmers it’s that smaller farms do have a future but need to be at the top of their game for profitability to offset the lack of scale.

In a roundabout way they ended up buying a second small farm precisely because others dismissed the opportunity.

“I actually approached some of the young farmers in the area and said you should have a go at that farm, you should

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

DAIRY CHAMPION

Collecting masses of data helps George Moss with cow performance and pasture production.

buy it. They said it’s too small. They couldn’t see the possibilities that were in it.”

The farm dishes up challenges, like the comparatively pint-sized grazing area and old equipment, but it works and it works very well.

“Small farms need to be run well because if you’re small and you’re inefficient, then yes, you’ve got a problem.”

Scale can cover some of that inefficiency but that’s not to say smaller farmers can’t thrive.

“If you look at our numbers in DairyBase, they generate a very good return, year in, year out, even after allowing a proper return on people’s effort and labour.”

Moss believes that as the industry comes out of this period of uncertainty and focuses on customer and wider

public expectations there will be some serious profit made from the grass-fed, nutrient-dense meat and milk products.

In the meantime he continues a lifelong education.

He has just completed an intermediate, advanced nutrient management course plus the greenhouse gas course at Massey.

He previously completed a business studies degree, majoring in agribusiness, by correspondence. n

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being a long-term to with wool t. the next three of investmen investment in forward for a base price “Ongoing five years has animal $20/kg clean. genetics, leading more than practices and on, one of husbandry VF Corporati Annette Scott new supply largest apparel, obalhq.co.nz adoption of the world’s annette.scott@gl be required. accessories models will footwear and ing d to is incentivis “VF is committe NZM, companies, NCREASED grow demand industry to working alongside NZ’s sheep international putting community, is the shearing more fine wool. for fine wool growers,” reach on, which breeders and VF Corporati Kiwi wool within The $2 including a Conneen said. owns labels of becoming dent enough Timberland, “We’re confi North Face, ed billion industry. Merino of wool to and NZ-found in the future n Smartwool New Zealand has productio r, e executive incentivis brand Icebreake Company chief said if the incentives ge through long-term developed John Brakenrid provide wool as part of its contracts and le for farmers we can. half NZ’s crossbred lue sustainab where to higher-va support commitment hard to clip shifts into the “VF is working solutions. in and Stephen Bell Luke Chivers those commodity prices will fine wool contractswill be as leader be the global continue to stay up unless we coeconomic upside supply and Merino wool of environment ordinate and collaborate our sales N A global high as $2b. partner nal the preferred Increased internatio We’re efforts. characterised by increasing fine wool growers.” wool demand for “And farmers must still work uncertainty the primary enough The long-term to NZM profit for sheep confident could spell hard to make sure they get a good sectors are continuing to wool giving future of contracts offered the farmers with as profit.” deliver, Agriculture Minister run in the ise wine a real growers, such kiwifruit and Despite economic and political Damien O’Connor says. rst, 10-year wool to incentiv in terms of through industry-fiwith for their money Icebreake uncertainty affecting world Joined by 100r farmers and production said. contract for exports, he markets, New Zealand’s returns contracts industry leaders at the National in wool coupled with meat long term There is a future NZ, he merino have remained solid and though Fieldays O’Connor launched and for Silere, NZM’s and and Outlook for farmers owned there is continuing risk it is offset the latest Situation contracts. brand jointly Alliance, said. to some extent by the weak report for Primary Industries news operated with sheep “Which is great dollar.

(SOPI) produced by MPI. producers n make fine-wool table across the sector for fine wool profinews “This export performance by “It’s great g Tom Connee considerin farming more othershowing and and farmers NZ’s primary sector producers withgrazing headline figures Corporation into it.”

VF than dairy ing systems, transition is all the more impressive continued growth.”

CHALLENGING: Primary industry export revenue is expected to jump by more than 7% this year to $45.6 billion, Agriculture for sheep farming both have risen by exports Global demand considering the weakening global Agricultural Minister Damien O’Connor told industry leaders at the National Fieldays when he attended with Prime Minister Jacinda and the based on analysis . natural fibre economic environment and $7.5 billion in the last two years Ardern. expect ’s ethical NZM and AbacusBio “Today we demand Merino Company the high degree of uncertainty but returns are expected to soften is increased products in “The ZQ Merino more of our wool brand of contracts in ce and creating tensions across his year before growing again, pendulum for and value design, performan swinging the global economic growth to sustain growth in dairy export international markets,” MPI O’Connorour said. and social has exceeded environmental believe wool’s favour. expectations, rising protectionist director-general Ray Smith Export returns for primary We are moving into revenue despite constraints on g more we expectations. crest of impact and “We are connectin ility sentiment and uncertainty caused milk production growth,” Smith said. produce in the year to June 30 are on the growers with VF has the responsib challenging economic “We’re and more wool contracts

by Brexit, United States-China said.

However, given the uncertain expected todoubling be $45.7b. ity to lead and are wave a supply opportun t and environments trade straight“NZ’s current run of export New Zealand andand long-term investmen trade tensions and outbreaks of international backdrop The report also predicts a slight VF global down on our seeing supply the North Island handler has won a by example,” k have won the right and we are in dog istime being kicked aroundEasterbroo African swine fever. success over the past two years and despite strong fall in theofcoming year before and material a female her dog Grit up seasons and export in adoption to procurement Photo: Heather of Waikari It is the first being soaked practices But the bigger concern for dent Tom has occurred despite a rising performance the downside returns start climbing again, toSTEPH Tweed and Northland. risks like a football. in vice-presi genetics hip be can supply advance. demand NZ is their potential impact on sense of uncertainty in global to champions the forecast reach $48.5b in 2023. wool huntaway hip. are heightened ensure this Conneen said. champions “Today a crossbred$3 NZ wool,” consumer demand in Britain, markets. the next few years.

“Horticulture has continued nationalover on’s about supplied from VF Corporati fleece fetches said.

Merino America and China.

“This is in part because the Production and returns are to be the star performer with its ge with whereas ip Damien O’Connor Brakenrid partnersh clean a kilogram 22 “We are moving into products we trade in haven’t been focus on the customer resulting in expected to fall slightly in the obvious choice Smartwool has been an Agriculture Minister currently a directly affected so are and in part challenging economic next year before resuming its success,” O’Connor said. going micron contract environments and trade is being because the NZ dollar has fallen moderate momentum in the “The meat sector is solid and is kicked around like a football,” over the past two years. medium term in meat, dairy and likely to continue that way given O’Connor said.

“However, these issues do continue supporting export horticulture. the challenges in China with their “Our sector shouldn’t assume provide an increasingly uncertain returns. day. With 14 Sustained Chinese and pork production. on sale appealing“Strength anything and will need to backdrop to the otherwise in prices supported southeast Asian demand is “We’re also seeing aquaculture bulls look more fall of the hammer, covering FMG is making positive outlook.” by an increasingjust proportion of supporting strong prices and the grow which is a real positive. insurer, lly insured from remaining 12 months for leading rural Continued page 5 The clouds include slowing higher-value products the weak dollar is expected be automatica “But farmers can’t assume buy bullsis expected fortothe As the country’s this chance to Bull Cover, they’ll keep that cover going on your So don’t miss days free Exclusive And you can of $50,000. a better deal and infertility. up to the value buyer, you’ll be looking for their transit or price, for bulls attractive offer. breeder a purchase mighty the this you’re about 6.5% of Because whether to find out more covered by FMG. Call us on 0800 366 466 to our specific and is subject fmg.co.nz bulls this season. and services at

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G WEEK BEGINNIN JUNE 17, 2019

MARKET REPORT POWDER WHOLE MILK AGO VS. MONTH (US$/TONNE)

3100

LAMB

to record low Lamb kill slumps lift beef prices US imported forecasts milk production US has lowered nearly finished harvest season Maize grain

Key Points

for beef Upside expected demand grows China’s beef repeating last Lamb prices years levels tumbles UK sheep flock

LIVESTOCK OUTLOOK NZ DOLLAR

7.60

5.43

(US/$)

BULL -MAY lamb kill Lowest

MAY STEER - High

Currently ($/KG) trending below the 2011-2012 season

estimates by high ($/KG)at record low than previous statistics NZ. lights 5.20 The latest slaughterseason to and Lamb that, there may still the In saying to come to May 18 show at 14.7 million of lambs yet promise of date tally stands 856,000hd, or be plenty season. The is is also is a out this lambs which last year. This winter premiums to kill, good 5.5% behind enticing people season to date US french rack likely to be record low, to maximise of year. hold on to lambs for this time 12.0 through the margins.

Looking back the saleyards, the last time 11.0 Looking at AgriHQ database, volume was there has been kill we can see that 10.0 of store a comparable 2011-2012 season a good throughput the past 6 seen was in the 9.0 lambs were recently. Over when 14.9 million point in the lambs store lambs 8.0 by this weeks, 236,600hd via AgriHQ slaughtered been sold 2011-2012 season 7.0 in NZ. season. The total of 18.9M have saleyards a from 6.0 ended with If this monitored to 193,400hd processed.

Compare this or the head lambs Jun-18 5.0 the 2011-2012 time last season Dec-17 Jun-17 season follows end the season the same of the low-producing 1 trend, we would lower than last 189,500hd season.

2011-2012 1 million lambs 200,000hd higher year. This is

5.50

of

LIVESTOCK INSIGHT

0.66

7.45

($/KG)

throughput store lambs through saleyards

NZD:USD

LAMB - MAY ( $/KG CW 18KG)

MAY M COW -

low slumps to record Beef

NORTH ISLAND JUNE 14, 2019

0.659

1

4.00

BEEF

improve rally market in second US grinding record low Lamb kill at Winter at Dannevirke Large yarding

Beef prices

5.60

5.35

NZD:USD

0.66

2.34

7.80

Thank you for subscribing to the AgriHQ market reports

Ewe fair

US$/LB

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in lower fertility

soil or

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Key Points

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Thank you for watching On Farm Story If you haven’t yet seen On Farm Story, then do it now! These videos capture the hearts and minds of people everywhere and are now shown in schools around New Zealand and on social media around the world. They tell the New Zealand food story one farmer at a time.

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Dairy Farmer is the nation’s favourite dairy community magazine. It reaches 100% of dairy farmers by being free in every letterbox on every dairy farm every month.

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1

Thank you for watching Farmers Voice Wiggy meets some real country characters in his travels up and down the country, when commentating at rural events and hosting country functions. Every month he interviews one of them on the Farmers Voice sponsored by PGG Wrightson Livestock.

year old …

Thank you to the Rural Support Trust You look after our readers by listening to them and giving help and advice when needed. We’ve made supporting the RST a significant part of our business purpose, donating more than $55,000 in the last 12 months.

If you need to talk with someone else who understands how tough it can be in farming, call your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Thank you to all the teachers who teach agriculture You’re inspiring the next generation of food producers, marketers, scientists, researchers, service providers and primary sector entrepreneurs. Our goal is to keep increasing the flow of relevant video and other content to help you do your job.

Thank you to all the organisations who also make it their purpose to support farming people and farming excellence.

Agri-Womens Development Trust, Rural Women, Rural Leaders (Nuffield and Kellogg), Dairy Business of the Year Awards, NZ Dairy Industry Awards, Central Districts Field Days, NZ Ewe Hogget Competition, NZ Rural Sculpture Awards, International Horticultural Immersion Programme, Horticulture Agriculture Teachers Association, Primary Industries Summit, Calf Club NZ, The Rural Innovation Lab, Marketing to the Rural Sector, Golden Shears and more. We love working with you all!

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INDUSTRY GOOD

Look after yourself at calving Maitland Manning

Dairynz wellbeing project leader

DairyNZ wellbeing project leader Maitland Manning says maintaining good health is essential during calving.

C

ALVING can be one of the most challenging times of the year.

It’s wet and cold and farmers can be sleepdeprived as they look after their cows day and night.

Yet it’s also a positive time.

The season has begun, there is the arrival of new calves (your future herd) and milk is beginning to flow.

During these busy calving times your wellbeing can take a hit.

We all talk about wellbeing but what is it?

My name is Maitland Manning and I’m DairyNZ’s farm wellbeing project leader.

I describe wellbeing as living in a way that is good for you and others and having the ability to respond to challenges.

When it comes to understanding wellbeing I can speak from personal experience.

Not long ago my own wellbeing was challenged when stresses became too much.

The Christchurch earthquakes, my newborn had health issues and a busy

HELP YOURSELF AND OTHERS Worried someone is depressed?

Encourage them to talk to their health practitioner or local GP. Contacts: Need to talk? Text or free call 1737 anytime Rural Support Trust, 0800 787 254 Depression helpline, 0800 111 757 Visit dairynz.co.nz/wellbeing

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

job wore away at my wellbeing until my unaddressed stress levels developed into anxiety, which began to affect my ability to support my family.

Luckily, I reached out for help and learned what to do to maintain my wellbeing.

I now keep in regular contact with friends and family, exercise regularly and get out into nature to take a break from work and other responsibilities.

One of my roles at DairyNZ is to share tips on wellbeing with farmers.

In my conversations with farmers they’ve told me sustaining wellbeing over calving is essential and have shared some simple tips I would like to share with you today.

PLAN FOR CALVING Having a plan is key. A good wellbeing plan can include: • A pre-calving checklist • A well-stocked calving kit • A freezer full of slow-cooker meals • A team agreement on who is doing what and when.

TALK Regular team meetings can be difficult during calving. Catch up with everyone every few days. Ask how they’re getting

with DairyNZ on and whether they need anything from you or let them know if you need more support yourself.

EAT Nutrition is important. One farmer prestocks the freezer with homemade frozen dinners and provides muesli bars and fruit in the staffroom, which doesn’t cost much yet adds a real boost to energy and enthusiasm.

SLEEP Sleep deprivation has a negative impact on our ability to concentrate, make decisions and communicate clearly.

TAKE BREAKS An eight-hour day during calving isn’t realistic. Try to keep everyone’s day under 12 hours and roster everyone time off farm once a fortnight to do something non-farming related. n

MORE:

For more tips on communicating and managing employees during the busy calving season visit dairynz.co.nz/people.

37

Thank you to all our farmers who took the time to enter our robotic milking vs traditional milking discussion. Congratulations to student Riley Kennedy from Canterbury and Waikato accountant Paul Duynhoven who have each won a $250 voucher from CRV Ambreed.

ROBOTIC MILKING V TRADITIONAL MILKING Riley Kennedy – traditional milking

Paul Duynhoven – milking robots

The robotic milking system has a long way to go in New Zealand before we step back and let it take over our sheds because the average robot at $250,000 milks only 70 cows with the average herd size in the North Island being 340 cows, which would mean five robots are needed at a cost of more than $1 million.

The potential for robotics in the dairying space is significant. There are aspects of farming such as animal health that robots have the potential ability to pick up a lot quicker than a human who might have many things on their mind. Robots have the ability through sensors to pick up any changes in the cow condition or temperature as well as analyse milk immediately.

In the South Island the average herd size is 620 cows, which means a farmer would need about nine robots at over $2m. The second reason robotic milking systems have a long way to go is there is a lot of on-farm development that has to happen, like a complete new farm layout, gate systems and yard design. I don’t believe it is a viable option for NZ farmers yet, especially when you take into consideration the expense.

Traditional milking means farmers do not lose that personal contact with their herd and, especially, their friendly cows. Also, there is the employment aspect in which traditional milking creates more jobs for people.

That might mean animal health treatments are started a lot earlier and milk quality is maintained.

Robots can also rule out human error such as putting penicillin milk in the vat. With the cost of technology falling over time robotic milking might become economically viable for more farmers. Removing the human element out of milking might mean there is less stress on the animals.

Leaving the robots to milk allows people to spend more time doing other tasks on-farm meaning they give more attention to those jobs and achieve more in the day. For some people this might also lead to a greater work-life balance.

THE DESTINATION FOR RURAL REAL ESTATE 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/realestate

FAST FIVE The Dairy Farmer team is always out and about looking for dairy industry workers going about their business. Keep an eye out, you just never know when one of our team may tap you on the shoulder.

This month we catch up with farm hand Detroit Ririnui.

1. What do you enjoy the most about farming and why? Worst thing?

On my current farm I love the work environment. We can laugh about things and give each other stick but most of all we all have each others’ backs. I like the variety of jobs on-farm and the fact there is something new to learn every day. The worst thing is the early morning starts. I don’t like getting up early.

2. What attracted you to farming?

I’m not going to lie but I was attracted to farming because riding motorbikes every day appealed. Then I heard what you could earn and how you could progress, which grabbed my attention.

3. What philosophy do you live by?

I’ve never really lived by any philosophy. I have had people in my life that weren’t good role models so didn’t want to be like them. If I was to choose then work hard, play hard.

4. Future goals?

My goal is to work my way up through the industry one step at a time. First as 2IC then managing and contract milking and then we will see how things go.

5. If you weren’t farming what would you be doing? What would be your dream to do or dream job to do?

My dream job originally was to be an All Black but I realised I wasn’t that committed to rugby. Farming was my next choice. I have some experience as a carpenter and was steel fixing for a while. I have also done a stint in Australia as a barista and my family owns a kiwifruit business where I was the supervisor for a few years.

Detroit Ririnui DETROIT grew up in Welcome Bay in Tauranga where his family are in the kiwifruit industry but it wasn’t something he enjoyed very much. However, growing up in a rural environment instilled a love of the land so after a few years of working in the family business he made the decision to switch to dairying and says it was something he had always wanted to try.

He asked a relative if he knew of any dairy farm work and he told him he would give him a job in Invercargill. He made the move south where he is a farm hand on a 350-cow farm about a year ago and says he loves it.

Though they do get frosts in Tauranga they are not as severe

and he had never seen frozen puddles until he moved south.

He says they are a novelty and is always sending his family photos of the icy conditions.

He has enrolled in Primary ITO courses, recently completed the milk quality course and is studying level 3 animal husbandry.

His daily routine is work, eat, sleep and repeat so if he is not working and can get away from the farm he flies home to see his family who are his greatest motivation. He says they raised him to strive to do the best he can so he works hard to be the best at what he does.

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INTERNATIONAL

Tests on potty training dairy cattle to defecate in dedicated areas are being done on New Zealand pastoral farms.

Toilet train your cows

S

CIENTISTS are conditioning dairy cattle to defecate in small, contained areas through reward-based trials to cut nitrogen losses and improve cow welfare.

Referred to as potty training, the research has gathered momentum over the past four years and has been championed as being able to bring both animal welfare and environmental benefits.

Trials have taken place on pasture and in sheds and, if successful, could bring the following benefits: • Reduced ammonia emissions; • Less nitrogen loss and leaching; • Improved cow welfare and hygiene; • Bespoke building design for cow comfort rather than manure management; • Increased ability for cows to express natural behaviour and; • Reduced labour and manure management costs.

Early trial work on housed calves was done at the University of British Columbia and published in 2015.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Major cowshed design changes could be possible in the future through potty training techniques, according to Dr Alison Vaughan, who worked at the university during the trials and is now science office at the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

A dairy calf can be trained to urinate for a reward in 15 minutes.

Vaughan discovered a dairy calf can be trained to urinate for a reward in 15 minutes.

A pioneer in the field, Vaughan told a TED Talks audience in 2017 an average cow produces about 15 litres of urine and 30kg of faeces every day.

“Because of this, barns are often designed to make removing manure easier to keep cows out of manure but some of these designs and structures can compromise cow comfort and restrict behavioural freedom,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan is collaborating with researchers at AgResearch, who this year have done a six-week trial on eight Jersey cattle in a grass-based system.

Remote-controlled feeding stations in paddocks were used to train animals to defecate at feeding stations by rewarding them with feed.

Data from the trial has now been collected and will be published later this year.

Dr Luke Cooley of AgResearch said “If cattle can be potty-trained we could improve hygiene in dairy sheds and give farmers greater control over effluent application on pasture.

“This would be a significant environmental benefit, reducing nitrogen loss on farms.” n UK Farmers Weekly 41

INTERNATIONAL

Business expanding despite tough times World Milk Day passed on June 1 in New Zealand with barely a murmur but in Australia it sparked an outcry. Tim Fulton reports.

Q

Ross Topper of Maleny Dairies estimates 90% of Queensland dairy farms have disappeared over the past 30 years but is bucking that trend by growing his dairy factory.

UEENSLAND’S dairy industry has shrunk so much it can no longer produce enough milk to meet local demand.

World Milk Day

highlighted desperate

conditions, Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation vicepresident Matthew Trace said.

In response to farmer protests and consumer criticism over $1 milk price specials, some of Australia’s supermarketowned private labels have pledged 10c a litre payments increase to their suppliers.

Trace said the end of $1/L milk was a win for the industry, showing farmers would no longer accept retailers setting a minimum recommended retail (RRP) price for fresh milk.

However, despite the better deal, drought and comparatively poor prices compared to other land uses continue to force many Queensland and New South Wales farmers to sell up.

About two thirds of Queensland is now drought declared and forecasters are offering little hope of significant rain in coming months. Meanwhile, like in other barren parts of the country, the state’s farmers continue to struggle with the

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price of feed and arguments over access to irrigation are more heated than ever.

Trace said while Australian dairy farmers had done well to force the new retail payment terms, only about 30% of most farms’ milk going to private labels (Coles/Woolworths/Aldi and IGA home brands) received the 10-cent price increase. This meant farmers on average received only about three cents more per litre across their full volume.

The 10c lift needed to be applied to all milk, Trace said.

“All processors need to utilise the opportunity that the end of $1/L milk provides them. They have to have the guts to increase the RRP for branded milk and pass that full increase back to their farmers.

“That way they will be able to secure their milk supplies by ensuring that dairy in Queensland is profitable.”

Sunshine Coast-based Maleny Dairies is a rare case of an expanding Queensland dairy company.

Owner Ross Topper grew up on a dairy farm in the hinterland district of Maleny and started a factory in the area after the deregulation of the Australian industry in 2000.

He estimated that in the past 30 years, nine out of every 10 Queensland dairy farms had disappeared. Maleny Dairies, owned by Ross and wife Sally, was bucking that trend. Turning over $20m annually, the company picks up milk from 12 farms in the surrounding Sunshine Coast hinterland and pays an average of 70c/litre compared to 58c in comparable supply areas.

Maleny Dairies farm and factory tour guide Kirsden Smith has a simple way of proving the company’s cream set as thick as promised - tip it upside down.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

The Joseph family from southern Indian work in the medical profession but would love to own a farm one day. Chinnu, Jilumole with daughter Jessica and Lijo feed a calf on Maleny Dairies.

“We’re growing, we’re moving ahead.

The more milk we sell, we can go and take on another farm. We’ve got a lineup of farmers who want to supply us,” Topper said.

Attracting supply wasn’t complicated, he said. “We’re not competing. Our milk’s dearer and we’re paying more to our farmers.”

By pricing higher and paying more, Maleny Dairies could afford to ride out retail discounting.

“Farmers are lining up to supply us, so we don’t have to compete against anyone – they’re turning up – and selling milk, the shops stock it and we’re one of the dearest on the shelves. Everyone’s under-cutting us, but it doesn’t matter, we still sell the milk. They can play their dollar milk over here, but we’re selling it for $1.50, or $2.50.”

Maleny Dairies processes 200,000 litres a week and employs about 50 people, making it Maleny district’s biggest employer. Every year about 30,000 tourists visit the factory and family-owned farm surrounding it. The factory was built in a prime position on a main road with tourists in mind, Topper said.

“We sell a story with our milk. You can come to the farm and see the cows in the paddock, you see where they get milked and you see where the tanker picks it up and comes to the factory. And you get to see the milk going in the bottles … You look at any other food industry, where can you see it from start to finish?”

Topper attended a recent consultation meeting for the National Dairy Plan, a joint initiative by processors, farmers and

sector groups aimed at lifting the industry out of the doldrums.

Queensland’s fresh milk market would only recover if processors were prepared to pay more and it was pointless criticising big supermarket groups like Coles and Woolworths, he said.

“Coles could only sell it for a dollar if the processors sold it to them for a dollar.

So you can’t blame Coles and Woolies. If the processors sold it to them for $2, then it would have to be $2.”

The onus was on processors, he said.

“The whole idea is for our farmers to get more for their raw milk. If the farmers get a better price, they’re going to give better milk. There’s no such thing as cheap as quality.”

Topper’s brother Keith and wife Sonya milk about 200 North Americanbred Guernseys through a 15-a-side herringbone dairy beside the factory.

Maleny Dairies milk has high levels of golden-coloured beta carotene and is also high in Omega 3 and beta-casein A2 protein. The milk is also processed without “standardizer” treatments or permeate, creating an appealing story for cafe customers and grocery chains alike.

The company could take 50,000 litres a week more of Guernsey milk if Keith and Sonya were able to supply it but that would mean buying another farm in the area. Unfortunately, the flip side of operating on the Sunshine Coast was the price of land.

“You cannot afford to buy a block of dirt for a farm here. Once this area’s shut down, it’s just too expensive to come back,” Topper said. n

43

AT THE GRASSROOTS

Reporting Mycoplasma bovis ...

A mistake not to be repeated South Canterbury farmers Sarel and Mary Potgieter were sharemilkers on the Tainui farm at Morven where Mycoplasma bovis was discovered. They were promised compensation but folded their business before they saw a cent. They moved to Australia after losing everything. Mary shares their story.

I

N MAY 2017 it was time to dry off 400 cows due to calve at the end of July.

We had converted the 1700cow farm from once-a-year calving to four times a year.

That year was especially exciting because the 2017-18 season would be the first year the conversion would show its full potential.

Our average production was 60,000kg milksolids a month and all through the season we were flying through.

We aimed to be debt-free by the 201819 season – the first time we would not owe anything since going sharemilking 10 years earlier.

But in June 2017 the rain arrived and so did the floods. The water was so high the K-Lines were drifting over the fencelines in the paddocks. We quickly brought in the dry cows to give them some shelter as well as inject them with needed vitamins.

To my surprise the animals were bagging up, which was too soon. Did we get the calving dates wrong? I tested one cow udder and to my surprise really thick butter-like milk came out and her udder felt like rubber. The poor girl was clearly in pain when I touched her.

Of the 400 cows, 169 looked this way. I immediately started treating them with Marbocyl and anti-inflammatory. A lot of questions went through our minds. Did the staff of 6.5 and we not do a proper job when we dried them off? We gave them five days of treatments but there was no change and their udders got worse.

We were baffled and immediately took samples to the vet, which came back as normal. We told the vets that normal result was impossible so more tests were done. About 16 animals started

44

Mary and Sarel Potgieter were sharemilkers on the Canterbury farm where Mycoplasma bovis was discovered. They lost everything and ended up moving to Australia. getting arthritis in their front legs. Our vet Merlyn was baffled at all this so liquid samples were taken of the joint. By July it was confirmed they had contracted Mycoplasma bovis.

We asked what is M bovis? How did we get it? Is it another form of mastitis? By July 20 the Ministry of Primary Industries stepped in and put us into lock-down.

And still we did not realise why all this fuss.

Sarel spoke to previous employers in England and a professor from Australia.

That’s when panic set in.

When MPI officers started visiting us every day for a week, asking us the same questions over and over, only then did we realise what was happening.

For the first time in 20 years of marriage to Sarel I saw him cry uncontrollably.

Only then did it hit me how serious it was.

Sarel prides himself in animal health and care and everything I knew I learned from him.

When we were told no movements were allowed from the farm, in or out, no culling in any form, only then did Sarel and I start fighting back.

Animals were suffering and nothing we gave them could ease their pain. We were not allowed to even shoot them.

We were the guinea pigs and I think MPI did not realise what they were asking from us.

A daily head count of the animals on-

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

M bovis and MPI have ruined our lives, our whole livelihood, our business.

Mary Potgeiter

farm started immediately. We had to do what MPI said otherwise we risked going to jail or copping a hefty fine.

Cows started calving prematurely, calves were nearly full term but tiny. They had to be euthanased but only after MPI had sent vets to examine them.

August came and went and thank goodness there were no more new cases.

MPI had made a decision to cull every single animal that came from this farm, Tainui. Bulk samples were taken from the vat. They showed negative or no reading, somatic cell count was on average 150,000, which was a relief.

Did that mean we had M bovis under control? Regardless, MPI again ordered us to cull.

Friends and farmers around us started treating us as if we had leprosy on our farm but Morven is a special place. We had neighbours who helped us cope, dried up our tears and fed us. Rural support spoke to us every day and Cara, our case manager, made the best brownies.

By the middle of November we had a permit to start loading the animals. But our stress and tears did not stop there.

We were told to load 40 animals a day so animals would go to the yard and wait … then wait some more only to find out that truck had been cancelled because the paperwork or the truck itself was not right.

No pregnant animals close to calving could be loaded so their udder would swell and look terrible. Calves were shot and throats slit in their pens and only 10 were allowed to be slaughtered each day. This carried on till the beginning of December. Being the guinea pigs our feelings were not taken into consideration.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Mary and Sarel Potgieter had to sell all their machinery below value to pay off debts. They have received only about a third of the compensation they are due.

M bovis and MPI have ruined our lives, our whole livelihood, our business.

With no cows to milk we had no income.

Our staff of six, some of who had been with us several years and had families of their own, had to be made redundant.

You ask what about compensation?

Well, we were told by co-operating, we would be no better or worse off.

But so far we have been worse off and had to borrow money from family, which we will pay back when we can.

We have had compensation – a third of what we should get.

At present we are trying to make MPI understand that animals come and go on the farms, when they are 100kg we send them off to the runoff. Once they are 18 months old and pregnant they come back to the farm.

And because we changed our system by calving four times a year, it meant we made sure there were always at least 1200 cows milking throughout the year.

MPI wants to base our compensation on previous year’s production even if we have it on paper that the milk production had gone up at least 83% from previous years, it still does not make sense to them.

So we are facing an on-going battle.

We had to sell all our machinery below

value just to be able to get rid of debts.

We moved to Australia and lived in a caravan while looking for work to pay off our debts.

We stayed in that small caravan, that was leaking, for at least a year.

My sister loaned us money for a proper caravan and we now we travel around Australia working and saving what we can doing contracting and tractor work and I clean houses as well.

Sarel refused to work in a milking shed and with animals. He is still like that more than a year on.

We were offered a lot of dairy jobs but we are not ready to go back to that just yet. I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and have to take antidepressants and sleeping pills.

We felt we had this dairy farm that was home to 2000 or so animals including calves under control but MPI listened to the so-called experts who had little knowledge of the disease rather than the farmers themselves.

So yes, we do feel let down and forgotten.

Would I do it over again?

Hell no.

I would not report it or let MPI anywhere near the farm. We managed to get it under control once and could do it again without MPI’s help. n

45

TECHNOLOGY

Fingerprinting food TIM FULTON

A

GRESEARCH is finding new uses for a machine that uncovers the unique fingerprint of food.

The Crown agency’s lab at Lincoln is using a mass spectrometer to quickly analyse the interaction of genes and the environment.

In a sign of technology advances in the field, work that previously took over an hour can now be done in seconds on samples of meat, milk, plants and wine.

It will open up new opportunities for food science and industry, AgResearch senior research scientist Dr Alastair Ross, who leads the metabolomics platform, says.

The technology is so accurate it can differentiate New Zealand, English and Welsh lamb using a measurement taking only few seconds.

It can also detect what feed, such as grain, grass or chicory, a carcase was reared on, an increasingly important issue driving consumer spending.

“This type of concept is heading toward a future where you could, for example, scan a glass of milk with your mobile device to not only find out where, when and how it was produced but also whether that milk fits your taste profile.

“We think this will be a major

opportunity for the NZ food sector where worldwide supply chains are coming under increasing scrutiny and consumers are increasingly engaged in what they eat.”

Food marketers can use AgResearch’s REIMS (Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometer) machine to provide quality assurance and potentially be incorporated into blockchains to give chemical and digital traceability to prevent food fraud.

Generating robust data on provenance and quality could save NZ millions of dollars through early detection of quality problems and prevention of false labelling, Ross said.

“We’re also finding that we can link the fingerprint to other factors such as consumer liking so in the future it can be possible to ensure that NZ agricultural products are not only guaranteed in terms of provenance and quality but also will go to the market which best matches their desired flavour profile.

“Mass spectrometry has been around for decades but AgResearch was among the first in the world to use a REIMS specifically to look at food quality.”

Genetic improvements have already made a major difference to improved production and disease resistance in NZ agriculture.

“Now we want to enable selection

to be based on both genetics and environmental factors, to use a systems approach, to reach the next level of improvements in production, quality and sustainability.”

The REIMS vaporises products using an electronic surgical knife and measures resulting vapour using mass spectrometry techniques. The REIMS was expensive and had to be based in a laboratory but

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July 2019

AgResearch senior research scientist Dr Alastair Ross using the REIMS machine.

instruments using similar concepts are becoming more affordable and portable, Ross said.

At the current rate of progress the technology will one day become common in abattoirs, dairy processing plants and on farms.

We think this will be a major opportunity for the NZ food sector.

Dr Alastair Ross

“I’ve seen systems which have been designed for the US military and they’ve been designed for a lance corporal to be able to use in the field and detect if there have been explosives used in the area. So, basically, it’s suitcase-sized.”

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Most of AgResearch’s work with REIMS so far has been with meat, detecting differences in meat based on breed and location.

It is early days for dairy sampling but the lab has already found answers to common consumer questions like whether branded products are actually made of the same milk.

“We did a small scale test, which basically involved me going to the local New World and getting as many kinds of milk as possible.

“And you could see clearly that there are a number of differences.

“We could see some really interesting stuff around cream and UHT processing and we were able to work out that Pams and Meadowfresh are exactly the same.

“We could not differentiate and we got told later on that’s because it’s the same product.”

At a broader level AgResearch’s metabolomics platform plans to compare milk from different species.

“And just in a very small test we did, they’re a world apart.

“So, it helps you really drill down and from a scientist’s perspective it helps you really understand what’s the difference between bovine milk and ovine milk and goat milk as well.”

The REIMS was the first of its type to be used in the food industry in Australasia and if manufacturers want to contract AgResearch to run tests it will be open to discussions, Ross said.

“At the end of the day we’re looking at people to partner with us for more research-type projects, especially in the dairy space, seeing what it can and can’t do.”

After studies in NZ and Sweden Ross worked for several years at the Nestle Research Centre in Switzerland as a research scientist and project manager and at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, setting up a metabolomics lab focused on food and nutrition. n

MORE:

See the REIMS machine in action at https://vimeo.com/340251207/7367c5e18b 47

Genetic science worth billions Real genomic data on New Zealand dairy cows will allow for greater advancement of the dairy industry.

PAUL CHARTERIS

G

ENETIC gains in the dairy industry look set to contribute $3 billion to the national economy in the next decade.

And a funding boost from an unlikely source looks set to accelerate that even further.

The Quality Hotel Parnell sits atop a hill surrounded by cafes and boutique shops.

Culturally, it’s about as far removed from the bump and grind of dairy farming as you can possibly get in New Zealand.

But the hotel’s owner, the Norman Barry Foundation, has invested $250,000 to develop research capability in livestock genetics.

Almost without exception all of NZ’s dairy cows have been genetically selected to be profitable and well-suited for our farming systems and, primarily overseas, market demands.

Profit can be driven through a range of traits from a cow’s capacity to produce high levels of milksolids compared to her feed requirements, to meeting animal health needs, reducing environmental impact and through her ability to get in calf every year.

Annually, the value of genetic gain is about $11 a cow or $4600 a farm.

Collectively, farmers will benefit by about $3 billion over the next 10 years.

Foundation chairman John Smith says “The foundation trustees were searching

48

for investments that would have the greatest impact on NZ. On the advice of Sir Peter Gluckman the investment was made to support young scientists who would have the greatest economic benefit for NZ. Part of that recommendation was a grant to Massey University’s A L Rae Centre for Genetics and Breeding.

“We specifically directed that the money is to support livestock genetics researchers in their early careers by providing them with more than just a stipend.

“Many of these early-career scientists are fresh out of university with plenty of theoretical knowledge but limited practical experience.

“We don’t want to see them locked in a university on a low-income scholarship and expect them to transform such a hugely valuable NZ industry.

“That’s why the foundation supports a top-up to their scholarship funding to support field work, travel costs to attend conferences and funding to bring global experts to NZ as mentors.

“We see time and again that with a little bit of extra funding the opportunity

for practical experience and connection to an expert mentor these early career researchers can achieve amazing things.

Imagine the value they will bring to NZ over the next 10 years.”

After more than a decade in the United States Professor Dorian Garrick has returned home to take the scientific lead at the centre.

Something of a genetic outlier himself, Garrick is a recognised leader in animal genetics and his advice has been sought by governments and private industry worldwide. Garrick and a dozen doctorate students, postdocs and visiting scientists are based at the Ruakura Agricultural Campus in Hamilton.

“NZ is a great place to do this research because there can be a close link between discovery

Professor Dorian Garrick will lead research into cow genetics at the A L Rae Centre in Hamilton.

RESEARCH

We don’t want to see them locked in a university on a low-income scholarship and expect them to transform such a hugely valuable NZ industry John Smith

and implementation,” Garrick said.

The centre’s operations co-director Professor Hugh Blair said the funding is unique. It means Garrick has scientific licence to pursue research that will make the biggest difference for NZ. That includes research on beef cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, deer and forestry.

Chief among them is a chance to make a quantum leap in genetic improvement of dairy cattle.

The dairy industry has performance and pedigree information on close to 40 million cattle dating back to the 1950s when performance records were first collected in large numbers.

For the past 70 years selection based on performance and pedigree records have driven genetic gain. The key is to pick the genetic outliers quickly and use them at a young age to breed the next generation.

As part of DairyNZ, NZ Animal Evaluation is tasked with ensuring the national dairy genetic evaluation optimises genetic gain for the industry.

Each year it estimates the breeding

worth (BW) of about 300 young bulls that enter a sire-proving scheme. The bulls are evaluated on the merit of their pedigree information and their daughter’s milk production. The success of that scheme has been limited by basic biology, namely waiting for the bulls to be old enough to be mated and waiting again for their daughters to complete their first year’s milking. The resultant five-year lag is a hurdle to improve annual genetic gains.

At the end of those five years the best 25 bulls, now middle-aged, are selected for widespread use with artificial insemination enabling production of hundreds of thousands of daughters collectively earning millions of dollars for the industry.

A top bull might have hundreds of thousands of daughters and his influence on the sector’s profitability can be immense.

Understandably, there is keen competition by LIC and CRV Ambreed to identify and market semen from the top bulls. The first to identify the next bovine superstar can stand to make millions of dollars in sales.

Instead of waiting five years to select the most superior bulls it’s possible to take a blood sample from a young bull calf and directly test his DNA for variations in genes favourable for milk production. That dramatically shortens generation interval and speeds up the rate of genetic gain.

Both LIC and CRV Ambreed have invested tens of millions in their own genomic testing platforms to identify those bull calves, some of which are marketed for widespread use on the basis of their DNA tests without having gone through the sire proving scheme. A large part of the value of each company is in the intellectual property underlying those genomic tests.

Proven Product. Best Spread.

A problem that has dogged the NZ dairy improvement industry for the better part of a decade is how to make use of LIC and CRV Ambreed’s genomic tests to accelerate genetic gain for all dairy cattle while keeping the genomic information confidential to each company.

Garrick has shown the results of LIC and CRV Ambreed genomic data can be combined with the remaining industry records to boost genetic again and industry profitability by tens of millions of dollars.

This solution might also give dairy farmers greater confidence in selecting bulls evaluated from genomic data.

LIC chief scientist Richard Spelman says when applied to real data this advance allows the dairy industry to take advantage of the investment that has already been made in existing genomic information.

“Using this data helps keep NZ in step with some other countries that are already making widespread use of DNAbased results,” Spelman says.

Greater use of genomic data means faster genetic gains as well as letting the industry respond more quickly to anticipate future market demands.

The type of funding provided by the foundation is rare in NZ science.

With essentially the only stipulation being to get on with job and make a difference Garrick has been given scientific licence to tackle the big issues first and use whatever resources he sees fit.

This open-science approach is refreshing and is extremely attractive to those working in the industry. It has already attracted top-level science talent to NZ and has kick-started the training of the next generation of scientists to take up the kinds of challenges that have broad benefits. n

RESEARCH

Investing in the dairy herd

A

NEW $25.68 million innovation programme will drive improvements in the health and wellbeing of the national dairy herd and be a step-change in sustainable milk production.

The seven-year programme, called Resilient Dairy: Innovative Breeding for a Sustainable Future, was launched at Fieldays and is being led by farmerowned herd improvement co-operative Livestock Improvement Corporation with investment and support from the Ministry for Primary Industries and DairyNZ. It will invest in new disease management technologies and advances in genomic science to improve cow productivity and produce better cows with improved health, wellbeing, and environmental resilience.

Over the programme’s life LIC is investing $11.2m, MPI $10.3m and DairyNZ $4.2m.

“At the heart of the new programme is innovation that aims to deliver long-term economic, environmental and animal health benefits for New Zealand,” MPI’s investment programmes director Steve Penno said.

“For NZ to maintain its reputation as a world-leading producer of premium products we need to further increase the value of our products in a way that improves sustainability.

“MPI is investing in this new programme as it aims to deliver long-term gains in a number of areas, including sustainable production, milk quality and animal wellbeing while, importantly, reducing impacts on the environment.”

LIC, the largest supplier of artificial breeding services to NZ dairy farms, will leverage its existing capabilities in genomic science and diagnostics to develop innovative breeding tools and tests that support more sustainable milk production.

“We’re committed to providing farmers with the tools they need to improve 50

A new programme will benefit the health and wellbeing of the national dairy herd. their prosperity and productivity in a sustainable way with animal health, wellbeing and the environment at the forefront,” LIC chief scientist Richard Spelman said.

“This programme will strengthen our existing research and development work to keep our farmers and NZ leading the global pastoral dairy system,” Spelman said.

Investment from industry-good body DairyNZ will go into rebuilding its national evaluation system for dairy cattle to incorporate genomic information to facilitate faster rates of genetic gain.

“Resilient Dairy is our opportunity to get back in front of the world with genetic gain,” DairyNZ strategic investment leader Bruce Thorrold said.

“With new discoveries in genomic methods and data collection we are now in the position to jump ahead and incorporate genomic data into our animal evaluation system – enabling the whole sector to maximise genetic gain,” Thorrold said.

Spelman said the programme will address calls for resilience and sustainability on dairy farms, now and into the future.

Primary Industry Ministry investment programmes director Steve Penno says innovation is at the heart of the of the investment programme aiming to deliver long-term benefits to the dairy sector.

“Through the new Resilient Dairy: Innovative Breeding for a Sustainable Future programme, we’re investing now to help future-proof our dairy industry and deliver long-term benefits for NZ.” n

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

GET OUT OF THE CALFSHED 22 DAYS QUICKER Last spring, the majority of my customers got their calves to target weaning weight 22 days quicker than their neighbours, and they raised healthier calves.

On average, they reduced their total calf feed costs by $23 per calf in the process. Some of them reduced their feed budget in excess of $18,000.

Don’t waste another season raising your herdreplacements the old-fashioned way.

Call me, Stephen Bell-Booth, on 021 661 969 to discuss your situation.

SPRING CALVING

Nutrition programme producing results The Shaw family have been using the Queen of Calves nutrition programme for a number of years and have noticed a marked increase size and production when the heifers entered the herd. Samantha Tennent reports.

W

AIKATO dairy farmers know what the difference is between rearing good calves and exceptional calves thanks to Queen of Calves.

When Wayne Shaw stopped using a calf nutrition programme for a couple of years, he noticed such a difference between those reared on the product and those not, he knew he had to bring it back.

Wayne and his wife Kate, who are equity partners in New Zealand’s oldest registered Jersey Stud, Paterangi Jersey Stud south of Hamilton, have been using the Queen of Calves programme from Bell-Booth for the past 10 years.

Queen of Calves is a nutrition programme for calves that involves supplementing the daily milk with a scientifically balanced mix of plant extracts. The product generates faster lean skeletal growth in the calves’ first 10 weeks of life so that the animals can be mated at 11 to 12 months.

After the Shaws started using it, they stopped for a couple of seasons because they thought there was little or no benefit.

Although they had not measured or weighed the animals, visually, they could not see any difference at weaning.

It wasn’t until 2010 when those heifers that had been reared on the product entered the herd they saw that it had made a difference – and quite a decent one too.

“We reviewed their performance when the heifers came into production,” he says.

“It was a tough season and the herd was down 5% but the heifers were up 22% and that reversed the trend.”

They combed through their records and the only significant difference they could 52

Wayne and Kate Shaw are equity partners in the Paterangi Jersey Stud where they milk 510 cows. find was the use of Queen of Calves when they were young.

“That was the beginning of a change in farm policy that we now use. Every calf has been raised on Queen of Calves ever since.”

Shaw says of that first batch of heifers, 12 cows remain in the herd.

“They’re 12 years old now, and are starting to struggle with walking the greater distances but their production and reproduction are still great.”

His heifers averaged 442kg MS last season. The New Zealand average Jersey production last year was 254kg MS. A lot of care goes into the calves on their farm. They only collect calves in the morning but if it is a wet night, they take some warm colostrum when they check the herd and bottle feed any new calves.

They spray navels at night checks and continue to spray for three days after

Our heifers are always huge. They’re over 400kg by February so the growth is amazing. they calves are born to ensure they dry properly and stop any bugs causing problems.

From birth the calves are given X-factor probiotic from Bell-Booth and from day 19 they are fed Queen of Calves.

“You can see the transition instantly.

Their poo changes as the Queen of Calves

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

slows the milk process going through the stomach and the calves get more energy out of it.”

Shaw explains there is an epigenetic change too.

“Animals raised on Queen of Calves are used to getting all the nutrients they need. When they’re older they are more aggressive foragers than other cattle.”

He sees this in the young herd that they graze separately during the season.

“They really deck the paddocks like the mixed-aged cows. Our newest staff member couldn’t believe it when she saw the grazed paddocks.”

The 140ha stud milks about 510 cows and is in its third season split calving with an autumn herd of 185. Their monster heifers allowed them to try something radical when setting up their autumn herd.

“Our heifers are always huge. They’re over 400kg by February so the growth is amazing.”

In fact their heifers are so big that when the shed builders measured cows to determine bale size for the new rotary shed that was recently installed, they had to go with the crossbreed size bale.

Being a split calving system, they decided to try mating them early, get them to calve over winter and get on the payroll early.

After research and being advised not to try it, they synchronised and mated their heifers at the end of June to calve mid-April the following year. Ninety-five animals were mated and 77 held.

The remaining heifers joined the spring herd.

The programme generates faster lean skeletal growth in the calves’ first 10 weeks of life and allows them to be mated sooner.

He says that Queen of calves mothers give birth to bigger stronger offspring and produce better than others not raised on the product.

“They calve-down well and overall, have a better stature.”

He has found that their heifers are always 35-40 kilograms ahead of other Jersey mob and says he is stoked with the

The Shaw’s heifers averaged 442kg MS last season. The New Zealand average Jersey production last year was 254kg MS. DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

how the animals look, perform and the gains he is seeing.

Shaw says that the programme has also had an impact on their breeding results.

“Using Queen of Calves has contributed greatly to our reproductive success,” he says.

“Our results are outstanding and we can boast a 77% three-week in-calf rate and 92% six-week in-calf rate, well above the industry target of 78%. I am really proud of our mating results and the team’s efforts.”

They have specific breeding goals and focus on production, capacity and udders.

They value animals with good production and longevity.

The herd is individually sire matched and his father, Ray, DIY inseminates.

They use a mix of semen from different companies, depending which bulls meet their criteria.

He really is impressed with the product and highly recommends it to other farmers.

“I wouldn’t take it out of our system, even in the low payout, I knew it would’ve still been contributing to our bottom line.”

“I truly believe what we are doing can be achieved by anyone and other farmers should look into Queen of Calves.” n 53

SPRING CALVING

Calving kit saves Being well prepared for the calving season is helping a Manawatu farmer with efficiencies. Samantha Tennent reports.

W

HEN calving kicks off later this month Blair Kingsbeer is well prepared for it with his trusty

calving kit.

Kingsbeer and his business partner Grant Bell sharemilk on the 155ha Bell family farm at Aokautere on the outskirts of Palmerston North, where they will calve 500 cows this season.

The calving kit, which he keeps on his motorbike, is fully stocked with metabolic bags, starter drench, a spray can, neck tags for the calves, rope and gloves.

When he checks the herd at 9pm at night he puts the neck tags on the heifers and bulls are marked with blue dots.

“It goes everywhere with me.

“Always carrying the kit saves a lot of time having to traipse back to the shed to get whatever is needed,” he says.

“Having it right there at my fingertips makes everything so much easier and I am not scrambling to find things. It 54

also makes it easier when it comes to recording cow and calf information.”

They keep and rear every heifer calf born and decide later in the season if they will sell any.

“We still have 153 heifer calves from last season and we still haven’t decided how many or if we will sell them in the spring.

“We were only able to do that because the weather was favourable and enabled us to rear them at the runoff.”

They collect calves twice a day, spray their navels to help prevent health issues and take them to the sheds to feed.

“We get them in the shed and get colostrum in as soon as we can after the calf has been born. We give them two feeds of gold colostrum in the first 24 hours to give them the best possible start.”

Giving calves warm milk makes it easier to feed and train them and the calves appreciate having a warm feed in their bellies when it is cold.

They use a Brix refractometer to test the colostrum to ensure calves get the best

quality. When the colostrum runs out they use milk powder.

Calves have access to water, meal, hay and sodium bentonite from day one and are kept inside for 10-14 days, depending on the weather.

After three to four weeks the calves are moved to the support block where they have access to a big shed and large paddock with meal and hay. The calfeteria is taken down daily.

The six-bay calf sheds were built seven years ago and there are water troughs in all the pens. A pumping system allows milk to be pumped from the colostrum tank directly to the shed through pipes.

“It saves a lot of time not having to lug buckets around. And it saves the old back.”

Wood chips are used for bedding and are dug out at the end of calving. The sheds are left to dry out over summer.

The calf sheds are cleaned weekly with Virkon and the team takes biosecurity seriously.

Only the farm staff can enter the sheds

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

All heifer calves born are kept and reared as replacements. Abbie watches the calves have their breakfast.

time and the equipment used by the calf rearer remains on the farm. Sick calves are quarantined and managed in a separate pen.

Once the calves are moved outside they are fed twice a day but he might look at reducing that to once-a-day feeds depending on how they are tracking.

They have a keen interest in data and this year he has installed a set of scales in the calf sheds. Calves will be weighed when they arrive and at each drenching.

“They will be weighed at birth and then again at two weeks just so we can keep an eye on how they are growing.

“This will allow us to identify and manage a calf that is not doing as well or meeting targets.”

The farm is moving away from bobby calves and creating more income from beef calves.

Last season it reared whiteface bull calves that are being finished in Hawke’s Bay and will again rear 60-70 whiteface bulls to finishing at about 18 months.

Their heifers were mated to Herefords with a buyer already lined up to take them all.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Blair had never worked on a dairy farm until he went to work for Grant Bell.

Campbell, Emma, Abbie and Blair enjoy the change in lifestyle.

They will rear some more whiteface again this season and everything else will be sold.

He’s learnt a lot and has come a long way in a short time.

Kingsbeer entered the dairy industry in 2016 after working as a plumber and gas fitter and spending three years as a milking machine fitter before jumping ship.

“I met Grant when I was doing some fitting work on the effluent system and we got talking.

“I mentioned I had always wanted to go farming. Two weeks later I was working full-time on the farm as a farm assistant.”

Kingsbeer had never worked on a dairy farm before, let alone milked a cow so had to learn the ropes from scratch.

“You could say it was a baptism of fire but it went okay.

“It’s been a great change, a lot of hard work but definitely better for family life.

My wife Emma and our three children are all enjoying living on the farm and having me around more.”

The following season he and Bell formed Udder Bliss, the company they sharemilk for.

He manages the farm and works closely with Bell to make decisions. There are two full-time staff, a full-time calf-rearer and milk harvester and a number of student relief milkers from Massey University.

Kingsbeer has embraced the opportunities and is keen to build equity to take on more of the company.

Grant Bell and Blair Kingsbeer of Udder Bliss are the sharemilkers on the Bell family farm on the outskirts of Palmerston North.

“We are in the process of fine-tuning our management systems.

“I really appreciate having the opportunity to learn more about creating an efficient business and fine-tuning our calving operation to create a more efficient business.” n 55

SPRING CALVING

Giving calves the best start KATHERINE DEWITT

I

’VE seen first-hand the level of care farmers take to look after their calves and that they do everything they can to give them the best possible start to life.

With calving just around the corner, I know from talking to many of you that you’re beginning to review your systems to see what went well last year and what areas you can improve.

There are some huge wins from doing this. Planning and preparing with your team not only helps reduce stress levels, it ensures things run smoothly as everyone knows what’s expected and they’re able to hit the ground running when things start to get busy.

Colostrum, liquid gold When looking at what really helps give your calves the best start in life, I can’t speak highly enough about colostrum, or as some like to call it liquid gold.

Recent New Zealand studies have shown that two-thirds of calves are getting

Calves can only absorb antibodies within the first 24 hours of birth so should be fed as soon as possible.

56

the perfect liquid gold to start them out well. That does mean that about a third of calves don’t get enough good quality colostrum. This can be due to feeding too little, too late, too low a quality, and/or by bacteria contamination.

A quick rule to ensure calves are getting what they need from their colostrum, is using the three Qs – quality, quantity and quickness.

Quality Colostrum quality is measured by the amount of protective antibodies it contains. You can test the quality of your colostrum by using a small tool called a brix refractometer. High quality colostrum measures 22% or more on the brix.

It’s ideal if you can feed colostrum fresh, but if you need to keep it for an extended period (even if it’s just a few hours), it’s important to ensure the quality does not decrease. Colostrum should be stored in a lidded drum or vat and stirred regularly.

If possible, refrigerate your colostrum to preserve antibodies and prevent

DairyNZ animal care and biosecurity developer Katherine DeWitt says good planning and preparation for calving will help reduce stress.

with DairyNZ bacteria growth. If refrigeration or freezing isn’t possible, adding potassium sorbate is a good option.

Quickly Feed your calves as soon as you can as they can only absorb antibodies within the first 24 hours of birth. Remember, every hour counts when it comes to colostrum.

Quantity Calves should be fed 4-6 litres of colostrum within the first 12 hours after they’re born. However, a calf can only take about 1.5-2 litres of liquid into the abomasum (their fourth stomach), so it’s best to aim for two feeds within the first 12 hours of life.

To check if your calves are getting enough high-quality colostrum, you can get your vet to take blood samples for lab analysis from 12 healthy calves between one and seven days old. Doing this at the beginning and peak of calving will give you the best insight.

There is no better feeling than seeing your calves grow strong and healthy, and giving them the right quality and quantity of colostrum within the first 24 hours will do just that. It will also help your heifer replacements reach target weights more easily and see them go on to be the pride of your herd.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Feeding calves good quality colostrum helps gives them the best possible start.

World leading colostrum management: • Feed calves 4 litres (or more for heavier calves) of gold colostrum within the first 12 hours of life.

• Test the quality of colostrum from individual cows and only feed newborn

calves colostrum with brix readings over 22%.

• Store colostrum in a lidded drum or vat and stir regularly. Colostrum should be refrigerated (at 4°C) or preserved using a chemical preservative such as potassium sorbate. n

MORE:

For more information on caring for calves, visit dairynz.co.nz/calving Katherine DeWitt, is a DairyNZ animal care and biosecurity developer

SPRING CALVING

Take regular exercise every day to help you get fit for the busy calving season.

Preparing for calving Calving can be a very demanding time for farming women. Here are a few tips from Farmstrong on how to get through.

G

et in condition Check out Farmstrong’s Fit for Calving conditioning videos www.farmstrong. co.nz, which are specifically tailored to the needs of calf rearers.

The stretches and exercises work for women of all physical abilities and involve movements that will strengthen muscle groups you commonly use during the season, such as arm circles, calf raises, toe taps and shoulder shrugs. Everything you need for these exercises can be found around the farm – cans of food, cast iron pots and chairs.

So, if you’re lifting buckets, leaning over fences and picking up calves these exercises will definitely help you avoid unnecessary strains and injuries.

The idea is to start with five to 10 minutes of exercises a day then build up to about 30 minutes a day so your body 58

is ready to go. It’s going to take only 10 to 20 minutes out of your day to get your body moving again and fire up muscle groups that haven’t been used up for a little a while. It will make you feel good about yourself and about where your body needs to be when you’re lifting and pushing and pulling.

Put the right fuel in the tank Food is just like fuel for a vehicle so we need to make sure we have regular meals and snacks to give us the energy to keep going.

When we are busy, food planning and healthy options often take a back seat but that is the very time that they are the most important so we don’t get sick and so that we have adequate nutrients for a demanding time.

When you are tired or exhausted it can be really hard to be motivated to shop and cook healthy options but good food should be a priority at busy times to

Food is just like fuel for a vehicle so we need to make sure we have regular meals and snacks to give us the energy to keep going. ensure you’re getting a balanced mix of nutrients. Practical strategies help.

Cook once and eat twice – cook a double or triple batch of bolognaise, soup, casserole or curry and freeze the rest for tired times.

Make use of labour-saving equipment such as slow cookers that do most of

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

the work for you – pile everything into it in the morning and, hey presto, by dinner time you will have a hearty and nourishing meal.

Have some fast and easy options available for those days when you don’t have the energy, such as a nourishing smoothie, scrambled eggs, muesli with fruit and yoghurt or a meat, cheese and tomato toasted sandwich.

Eat small and often so you are regularly getting some fuel into your body to help with energy levels.

Include protein foods like meat, eggs, cheese, yoghurt, milk, nuts, legumes, fish or chicken at each meal to keep your blood-sugar levels constant, which will also help you keep going for longer.

Schedule mini breaks and manage your stress levels When people are under pressure the things that go out the window are often the factors that keep us well, things like catching up with friends, exercise and staying in touch with your community.

That’s often your off-farm stuff but can also be done on-farm, like taking the kids eeling or for a motorbike ride.

You also need to build in recovery and short breaks that will let you have some time out. No one can go hard out all day so building in short breaks during the day is important.

Often this can be as simple as taking that five to 10 minutes to step away from what you’re doing. Then, when you get back into things, you’re much fresher and making good decisions. When you’re busy

Food is fuel so make sure to have regular meals and snacks to give you the energy to keep going.

it can be hard to do that. The key to taking short breaks is to book it in the diary and stick to it.

Grabbing those mini breaks during the day definitely helps when dealing with physically and mentally demanding jobs.

It will make you more efficient. You’ won’t be as tired and it will allow you to be there for others too.

If you are struggling to cope with stress that’s when it’s good to talk to others about it.

Taking small breaks every day to exercise or catch up with friends will ensure you remain fresh.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Surround yourself with people who are upbeat, pragmatic and able to give you a different perspective. This can help you change the way you look at a situation.

Connections with family and friends, professionally and in your community are a big part of staying well.

Schedule some me-time Women often face different pressures to men but the effects are essentially the same where the demands can sometimes outweigh our ability to cope – they are just different demands.

The message overall is the same one as for guys who work long hours. To be sustainable and healthy for not only ourselves but others we either need fewer demands (reducing the load or saying no to some things) or to have enough down time for our bodies to relax and recharge.

Avoid viewing the things that keep you well as an indulgence or an extra but rather as the key to helping you cope on an ongoing basis with daily demands of calving.

Scheduling some me-time, time for yourself, is vital to make sure you are looking after yourself physically and mentally. Give yourself a little time each day to recharge your batteries. n

MORE:

See Farmstrong videos, stories and tips on www.farmstrong.co.nz 59

SPRING CALVING

The best of both worlds Two farming brothers from Patea, Kent and Tim Myers, have got their hands in two business pies. Ross Nolly reports.

G

ETTING up in the early hours to feed a mob of ravenous calves is not a job for everyone. Yet Patea brothers Kent and Tim Myers don’t mind it.

In fact the brothers, who have raised calves on parents Bernie and Megan Myers’ farm for the past three years, enjoy it so much that they do it every morning before heading to their fulltime jobs. Kent works as a stock agent for Progressive Livestock and Tim operates Tim Myers Farrier Services.

Both Kent and Tim say rather than staying in bed until they go to work, they may as well be out feeding calves. They work from mid-July to December rearing Friesian bull calves to be sold as 100kg weaners.

They never know how many calves they will raise prior to the season. Clients contract them to grow a set number of calves, bought mostly from a select group of farmers. Having contracts in place takes the risk out of buying calves on the open market.

They also give their clients a choice of which farms they would prefer their calves to be bought from.

“We’re careful about where we pick up our calves, which protects us and our clients,” Kent says. “We don’t buy recklessly and never buy cheap animals in the hope of flicking them off later because you always end up paying for it in the end. It’s all about quality over quantity.”

“The number we raise fluctuates because it’s subject to our clients’ needs but we always raise about 300 each year.

That’s a workable number that fits in with our full-time jobs. We don’t really have a firm idea of the numbers until July,” Tim says.

Last season they raised the calves in their new purpose built 60-metre long Redpath calf shelter. Previously they had used the farm’s existing sheds. They buy the milk to feed the calves from their parents.

60

Brothers Tim and Kent Myers from Patea rear about 300 bull calves, as well as holding down full-time jobs off the farm.

Photos: Ross Nolly

Calves begin arriving from mid to late July but this too is customised for clients with specific time frames.

“Some of our Hawke’s Bay clients don’t want their calves until the late grass arrives in mid-November or December, so we buy later calves for them. Our earliest calves are for clients who want them by early October. We have about five dairy farms that calve early enough for that supply date,” Kent says.

In late June Kent rings their clients to gauge what they hope to pay for their calves and when they want to receive them. The brothers then work out their cost to buy, and a margin that is fair for everyone involved.

They aim for it to be a win/win situation for everyone. Kent and Tim receive a fair margin and their contract clients receive a fixed price for a given number of calves at their preferred weight. Some clients specify 110kg calves and will accordingly pay more.

“The farmers we buy calves from are good at their job and fair to deal with.

They realise that everyone needs to make a dollar. So they get paid accordingly and supply us with calves twice a week,” Tim says.

Good lines of communication are

essential and clients are kept updated on the calves’ progress.

“Even though Tim and I buy the calves, mum and dad are always there to offer advice. It’s great to have their experience to call on. If the slightest thing isn’t right we’re pretty quickly reminded of it – usually several times,” Kent says.

Calves arrive at a minimum of fourdays old and are fed colostrum for the first 36 hours before transitioning onto full milk.

After two weeks, mobs of calves that came in the same week are separated into weight groups and drinking strength categories. They say that if you take shortcuts in the first four weeks of an animal’s life, you often fight an uphill battle from then on.

Each mob is weighed fortnightly and any animal that is not doing as well as the others may be pulled back into a younger mob.

“Initially it may seem like a harder system to operate but at the end of the day it’s easier because we aren’t having calves go down, and don’t have to baby any to get them going properly. That TLC may seem time-consuming at the beginning, but it pays off at the end,” Kent says.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

“We start them on meal with OptiGuard and a bit of straw as soon as they arrive to encourage them to eat it and help build their rumen. We don’t compromise on milk or supplements. Sometimes it’s the bigger four-day old calves that are the slower ones and some of the smaller ones grow very fast.”

Weaning time depends on the weight and strength of each animal but it is usually 25-30 kilos more than their birthweight. They try to have their calves fully weaned onto meal and grass at around 80-85kgs. They feel that calves that put on their last 15-20kgs on meal and grass generally shift better.

“We have sheltered calf paddocks and depending on the weather try to get them out onto the fresh grass as soon as possible. They do better outside,” Kent says.

“Our calf shelter may seem overkill but if the weather becomes rough we have the facilities to hold them until it passes.

We have paddocks in front of the shed so we can let them out during the day and bring them back in after their afternoon feed.”

A key part of Kent and Tim’s rearing strategy, and a prerequisite for their new premises, was for it to have separate feed bays with concrete floors.

Feeding them outside in the bays allows the calves to be observed as they run to be fed. It’s much harder to spot calves with issues if they are milling around in their pens when feeding. The concrete floor means the area can be washed down easily.

“Because we always watch them as they come out to feed, any issues are quickly spotted. It gives us a chance to see how they move and being on concrete means that we can see their urine and manure.

This is especially important during their transition from colostrum onto whole milk,” Kent says.

Kent and Tim Myers give the calves large rubber balls to play with for exercise and stimulation.

Our calf shelter may seem overkill but if the weather becomes rough we have the facilities to hold them until it passes.

“We steam clean the feed bay after every feed. Having the feeding area separate from the pens is part of our internal biosecurity.

“We didn’t want to have just one cafeteria to feed them all so have four and wipe the teats down after each batch has finished feeding.”

In their first calf season they used two exiting sheds and seemed to be forever jumping over gates to get to cafeterias and were bucketing all of their milk. Now

Calf rearing has been made simpler with the addition of the purpose built 60-metre long Redpath calf shelter.

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

they pump warm milk directly from the calf vat to the cafeteria and take it straight to the calves.

“We were fortunate that mum and dad could help us out so we could set it up the way we wanted. It’s a multi-purpose shelter. It can house 320 calves in eight bays, has two feed bays and the internal dividers are removable so it could also be used as an overwintering cow barn,” Tim says.

They give the calves large rubber balls to play with. As well as providing them with stimulation, it gives them plenty of exercise.

“They love it and run rampant with them. They kick them around, head butt them and often knock them over the fences into the other pens,” Tim says.

“It’s great fun to watch.”

They say calf rearing can be enjoyable, especially if you genuinely care about the animals.

“Obviously there are plenty of people who do it solely for the income. But the numbers we’re doing is because we enjoy being on the farm with those animals,” Tim says.

“There is money to be made in it for us on top of our day-to-day jobs but it’s probably a gateway into something bigger for Kent and me in the future. I certainly hope to go farming full-time in the future” Tim says.

“There are many knowledgeable calf rearers who have been doing it for many years. We’re still learning, but have been fortunate to have mum and dad to guide us. We’re continually learning from our own experiences and from those around us who have been prepared to pass on their knowledge,” Kent says. n

61

SPRING CALVING

Transitioning well delivers results CHRIS BALEMI

T

HE transition cow mob has the potential to respond to a higher level of thought and

attention.

Making key decisions around feeding and supplementation of this mob can have a bigger impact on a dairy farm’s profitability than any other single set of management decisions made throughout the rest of the season.

A well-transitioned cow will normally produce more milk, have fewer disease issues and a better reproductive outcome than cows that don’t receive as much attention around this time.

Most experts agree the transition period begins 21 days before the day the cow gives birth and runs to 21 days of lactation. For any cow this is a period of vast metabolic change.

During this time their hormone levels are going through rapid developments as the body gets ready to mobilise many of the key minerals required, as well as preparing them to mobilise the vast amounts of energy required during birth and lactation. Transition is normally the single highest stress period a cow will experience each year.

A time not to do things by halves Both the periods before and after calving are equally important to ensure a cow will produce at her potential, 62

Good management during transitioning will ensure the cows will produce more milk, have fewer disease issues and better reproductive outcomes.

remain healthy and conceive again when mated.

In my experience farmers tend to either concentrate on the period leading up to calving or the period after – most commonly the period after calving gets most attention.

And this can create a problem.

In this article we will concentrate on the transitioning of cows only, rather than heifers (first calvers) where the focus need be only on ramping up the feed rate before calving.

Transitioning cows is a very different process. A cow that is not transitioned correctly leading up to calving is a cow that will calve with her metabolic processes operating well short of full potential.

She will be more exposed to both clinical and subclinical metabolic disease through either being calcium deficient or lacking the ability to mobilise sufficient calcium, ketosis, fatty liver disease or

possibly a combination of these problems.

Power up your cows When looking at the transition period before calving we need to be thinking about powering the cow’s metabolism up in anticipation of the stresses she will face at calving and in the weeks just after.

This requires taking a close look at the diet planned for those final three weeks before the expected calving date.

A good transition diet will ensure the cow receives at least minimum levels of calcium, phosphorous and sodium while magnesium and trace elements are also well maintained. The pre-calving diet should also be as low in potassium as possible. Our grass pastures are always very high in potassium while often being low in magnesium. They will also most likely be low in at least some of the trace elements during this period.

Correct supplementation

can be critically important at this time, especially if body storage levels of these required minerals are already low.

Know your DCAD Of even more importance over this period is the total Dietary Cation Anion Difference (DCAD) of the diet and its resulting effect on the pH of the blood as this balance will affect the body’s ability to release and use minerals more than any other single aspect of nutrition.

The total DCAD (anion level) that can be achieved in the diet is largely controlled by the level of total potassium in the diet. This, in turn, is directly associated with the quantity of pasture being fed versus low DCAD feeds such as maize silage, lowpotassium crops and grain based feeds.

Unfortunately, feeding grass silage or pasture hay is of little benefit to the DCAD because they will also be high in potassium. Depending on

DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

the herd’s specific feed plan a good anionic salt blend (negative DCAD) should seek to achieve a slight level of metabolic acidosis to lower both blood and urine pH. When this slight change in blood acidification occurs trials have consistently shown that the body is then capable of mobilising higher levels of key hormones related to calcium and phosphorous absorption, most notably parathyroid hormone and vitamin D. Anionic (negative DCAD) salts are relatively low-cost and when blended correctly are easily blended into silages and can be formulated to be palatable even at high rates of inclusion. Provided the salts are correctly formulated mineral intakes, even in excess of 350 grams, can be dosed without palatability issues.

These levels of dosage can achieve an immediate and major drop in the total DCAD levels of the diet. When dosed correctly these salts are an effective way of mitigating the majority of issues likely to be faced during transition and the early lactation period of transition.

Second half, new game plan As noted earlier, the period after calving is equally as important as the period before and should also be considered as the second key phase of the transition period.

If the body’s increased demand for calcium and phosphorous are not met after calving these same cows will still have some risk of suffering either clinical or, more commonly, sub-clinical metabolic disease, setting them up for other calciumrelated deficiency problems further on in lactation.

During this phase the approach to supplying these mineral salts changes from (anionic) negative DCAD forms to the alkaline salts farmers are more familiar with, such as magnesium

oxide and lime flour. As well as supplying calcium and magnesium these also help to buffer rumen acidity and drive appetite on the increased energy diets of early lactation.

The same factors apply to energy. A well-transitioned cow will be more like a finely tuned racing car when compared to other cows.

While she will be able to more efficiently use energy she will also require good-quality fuel and plenty of it. Fuel her up correctly and she will repay you with increased production and fewer health problems.

Transitioning well delivers results The simple process of correctly transitioning a cow throughout this entire period will ensure good blood calcium levels are maintained and a high rate of calcium mobilisation can be achieved throughout lactation.

Research has consistently shown cows with high blood levels of calcium during early lactation also have a higher neutrophil function (increased immunity).

Research has linked blood calcium levels with metritis, RFMs, displaced abomasums and poor reproductive performance, clearly showing the importance of achieving adequate blood calcium levels (>8,59 mg/dl) in dairy cows.

A good transition diet precalving needn’t cost much – on average pre-calving $5.50-$8 depending on the formulation. Post calving most farmers spend a reasonable amount anyway. That simply needs applying in a more planned way for better results. n

MORE:

For more information on transitioning talk to your vet or go to www.agvance.co.nz Chris Balemi is the managing director of Agvance Nutrition, one of the largest and broadest based mineral importers in NZ.

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Maria Montero from Reporoa, Waikato, captured this frozen spider web on her way to lock the cows in.

Dairy farmer and operation manager for Aerospread, Phillip Sadlier had an icicle surprise Warren Smith, took this stunning early morning photo at waiting for him at the cowshed in Longburn near Palmerston North.

Riversdale, Southland.

Jessy Trethewey has an amazing view for her commute to work in Dunsandel, Canterbury.

Dylan Simpson from the Rangitaiki Plain, Eastern Bay of Plenty, snapped this pic on his morning commute.

Jacinda Read from Henley on the Taieri Plain, Otago, had to wrap up to get the girls in for milking.

Dave Moodie is a contract milker and took this misty morning photo on a farm at Ohaupo, Waikato.

It was a frosty start for Angela Gray on the farm at Tauhei near Morrinsville, Waikato, on June 19.

One last word ‌

New Zealand farmers wake up to and work in some of the most scenic places in the country. Most have a view from their office that’s incredible and hard to beat. Thank you to all the farmers who sent in photos of their workplaces for us to share.

We hope you are all enjoying a well-deserved rest and are gearing up for the season ahead.

Like us: farmersweekly.co.nz 66

Follow us: @DairyFarmer15

Sonita

Read us anywhere: farmersweekly.co.nz DAIRY FARMER

July 2019

Dairy Diary

Proudly brought to you by Farmside

July 2019 Monday 1

July 2 DairyNZ

Tuesday 2

Wednesday Thursday 3 4

5

Saturday 6

July 10 Dairy Women’s Network

Pasture Plus, Taupo. Pasture driving profit.

Improve the pasture management skills of your farm team and get more milk in the vat this season. New discussion group for farm staff.

This is a back-to-basics group focused on core pasture skills ideal for managers, herd managers, 2ICs and farm assistants.

8 Five meetings a year 9 at key management 10 times on Taupo11 farms.

The group will be a hands-on practical in the paddock forum, two hours on a farm with lunch provided afterwards. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz July 3 DairyNZ North Taranaki high altitude.

15Come along to the16pre-calving catch-up 17at Inglewood Club.

18 Please RSVP (email or text) to Lauren for catering purposes.

Lunch will be catered at about $15 a person. Feel free to bring a neighbour or a client along too. Info at www. dairyevents.co.nz July 4 Dairy Women’s Network Health and wellness evening, Tararua.

Join us at our Ballance Agri-Nutrients health and wellness 22evening presented23by Charlotte Heald.24Plan and prepare for 25 spring feeling ahead of your game with more energy and less stress. Charlotte will share some tips and tricks for eating well and staying healthy when things get busy. Numbers strictly limited and RSVP essential. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/ events July 4-5 Dairy Masters

29Become a Dairy 30 Master, Canterbury31 and North Otago.

Two-day technical training workshop. Over two days you will learn to be a Dairy Master. You will experience a hands-on, technical training programme covering six topics including pasture management, herd management and profitable dairy cow feeding strategies. Places limited so book now 0800 662 667 | www.milkmap.nz

DAIRY FARMER

Friday

7

Coffee morning catch-ups, north Waikato regional event.

Join us for a coffee catch-up on the second Wednesday of each month. Feel free to join us whenever you can. Come and have some free time for yourself and connect with others. Not everyone milks cows so no matter what your role in the dairy industry come along and enjoy time with great company.

12Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events 13 14 Dairy Women’s Network Successful calf rearing, various dates and locations.

Join SealesWinslow’s nutrition and quality manager Natalie Hughes who will present on housing and pen set-up, the importance of colostrum and the calf’s requirements, evaluating different calf feeds and reviewing heifer growth targets19 and why they are important to the herd’s 20 21milk production. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events DairyNZ Calving Smart, various dates and locations.

Come to a Calving Smart event and prepare for the busiest time of the year. For those new to calving try our calving simulator cows Frieda and Jen with their calves Cardigan and Ferdinand. Calving training doesn’t get much more realistic 26Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz 27 28 than this.

FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand final Napier and Hastings July 4, technical day 1, Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds, 8am2.30pm. Opening ceremony and parade, Napier Sound Shell, 3pm. July 5, practical day, Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds, 8am-3pm. FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year prize-giving, Napier Municipal Theatre, 5pm-6.30pm. Speeches and sponsor function, Napier Municipal Theatre, 6.30pm-8.30pm.

July 6, technical day 2, Napier Boy’s High School, 8am2.30pm, Agmardt agri-business breakfast, Mission Estate Winery, 8.30am-10.30am. AGM, Mission Estate Winery, 11am-1pm. Quiz and awards evening show, Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre, 5.30pm-midnight.

We know rural because we are rural www.farmside.co.nz

July 2019

Sunday

67

Wairarapa Moana has increased their six week in-calf rate from 59% to 72%.

That’s building nicely.

For over five years LIC has worked as a team with Wairarapa Moana to improve herd records, in-calf rates and their bottom line.

A key question was how could they move from a six week in-calf rate of 59% and head towards the industry target of 78%? The Wairarapa team, vets and LIC worked seamlessly together to improve herd record keeping, heat detection, young stock management and body condition score at key times of the season. The result?

A 72% six week in-calf rate across 9 dairy farms. They also became self-sufficient in breeding replacements and even had surplus young stock to sell.

It’s a massive turn around, but there’s always room for improvement.

KingSt_855_DF_B

Learn more at lic.co.nz/alwaysimproving

There's always room for improvement