Autumn Calving February 2020
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Kaikoura earthquake shakes up farming system Change at the helm of Veterinary Association Dealing with Mycoplasma bovis
Hooked on farming Dairy farming wasn’t in the plan for Matamata farmer
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February 2020 Editor
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Autumn Calving February 2020
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COVER Matamata farmer Ella Wharmby never planned to go farming. Photo Stephen Barker
Kaikoura earthquake shakes up farming system Change at the helm of Veterinary Association Dealing with Mycoplasma bovis
Hooked on farming Dairy farming wasn’t in the plan for Matamata farmer
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www.farmersweekly.co.nz ISSN 2624-0939 (Print) ISSN 2624-0947 (Online)
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DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Contents NEWS 17 Cash squeeze a threat Banks are giving farmers their biggest headaches as 2020 begins 18 The big dry Fire service and farmers keeping a close on the continuing dry conditions around the country
ON FARM STORY
8 City girl in the country Waikato farmer Ella Wharmby left the bright lights of the big city to go farming
22 Shaking things up Kaikoura farmers Wayne and Hannah Simpson change their system after big shake
FARMING CHAMPIONS
7 Guest column Jim van der Poel
34 Dairy champion Kevin Bryant
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SPECIAL REPORT 30 Mycoplasma bovis
THEME 54 Autumn calving
REGULAR FEATURES 40 At the Grassroots – Ross Nolly
GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of all advertising revenue in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer to farmer health and wellbeing initiatives. Thank you for your prompt payment.
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TO LOAD YOUR ENTRIES
GUEST COLUMN
Another big year for dairy DairyNZ chairman Jim van der Poel looks ahead to see what is in store for dairy farmers and what initiatives are under way for 2020.
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S WE head into another year there’s a sense the way we farm is evolving. We can already see 2020 will be another big year for dairy as we progress initiatives that will guide us into the future. Milk prices are good and that will help farmers improve their balance sheets and catch up on some maintenance. It is now prudent, more than ever, to control our cost of production and focus on productivity, particularly as we approach new industry objectives around freshwater and climate change. As a sector, these new objectives will be transformational for dairy – including He waka eke noa, our work to support better climate change outputs, and Essential Freshwater. Those initiatives will become part of how we farm in future and are part of a farm systems evolution. I believe our farmers have all the tools and information to rise to these challenges. He waka eke noa is a partnership between the farming sector, Government and Maori that puts in place a five-year plan to manage and reduce agricultural emissions. It includes a commitment all farmers will have a farm environment plan by 2025 so they know where their farm’s emissions are coming from and what they can do to manage them. He waka eke noa was introduced as an alternative to an initial Government proposal to move agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme through a levy at the processor level. In our view this partnership has a much better chance of achieving a better practical outcome for everyone. Our pasture-based dairy sector is one of the most emissions-efficient, high-quality and sustainable in the world. He waka eke noa is about ensuring we remain the world leaders in dairy production. We are committed to delivering He waka eke noa as we set common standards for on-farm reporting of greenhouse gases and work to include greenhouse gas emissions in farm environment plans. By
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
starting the process this year every farmer in the country will know their emissions number by 2022. At time of writing we are waiting to hear the outcome of the Essential Freshwater policy. The Government received close to 18,000 submissions – many from dairy farmers. The Essential Freshwater package came at an incredibly busy time last spring yet farmers put in the hard yards writing submissions and attending meetings. Thank you all for having your say. Firstly, it shows how engaged farmers are in protecting their waterways and, DairyNZ chairman Jim van der Poel says changes this year will be secondly, transformational for dairy. it shows we can best support farmers to meet our commitment to finding practical their environmental and greenhouse solutions that work for everyone. gas obligations while maintaining DairyNZ put together a submission profitability. on behalf of all dairy farmers to inform For some farmers it won’t mean too the process through evidence-based much change on-farm but for some it research and analysis. Our aim is to might mean quite a bit of change – and show water quality gains are achievable we’re here to support our farmers with while maintaining dairy’s significant that, step by step. contribution to the economy. Our DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum events Our analysis shows the Essential coming up in February and March are Freshwater proposal, as it stands, would a great opportunity to gain the latest cost $6 billion a year by 2050. We were information on all these issues. able to show water quality targets can still The events, in Northland, Waikato, be met without the potential disruption Taranaki, Canterbury and Southland, that is likely if the proposals are will share the latest on our policy and introduced in their proposed form. advocacy work, regional science under It is in everyone’s interests to get this way and practical ways to reduce our right. footprint. We will be working closely with the Finally, I look forward to another Government to support achieving an productive year for you all on the outcome that is right for everyone and farm. That is what we are about, after will continue to represent and support all – running efficient, effective and farmers through it. sustainable farms that create a good life There is also significant work going for our families. on at DairyNZ to understand how n
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Assistant manager Ella Wharmby hadn’t planned to go farming but once she got a taste of it she was hooked. She now works on a 680-cow farm at Matamata. Photos: Stephen Barker 8
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Walking a mile in her gumboots Matamata farmer Ella Wharmby feels more at home in the back paddocks with a knapsack on her back than shopping on the high street. But farming was not her first choice and she had a different career path in her sights – however fate had different ideas. She tells Cheyenne Nicholson how she found her calling in farming.
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S THE saying goes, you can’t fully understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. And if you swapped the shoes for gumboots, Waikato farmer Ella Wharmby could tell you a thing or two about that. Looking at her now, it is hard to believe that she had barely stepped foot on a farm before embarking on a career that would see her combine her passion for food, animals and the outdoors. “Having not come from a farming background I now realise how far removed we’ve become from the food chain,” Ella says. “It used to be that everyone had close ties to a farm but nowadays a lot of people have never stepped foot on one.” Born in the UK, Ella, 25, and her family moved to New Zealand when she was nine and settled in Waikato. A keen sportswoman, she admits to being one
of those people who had never been on a farm. Ella is the assistant manager on a 350ha farm milking 680 cows at Matamata. It is not where she expected to be when she left school. She attended Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, where students were encouraged to excel. In between schoolwork she juggled a mind-boggling number of extracurricular activities including basketball, hockey, swimming and horse riding. “I played a bunch of sports and from the age of 14 had my own horse, so I had to fit riding around sports practice and games as well as assignments. “I got good grades at school but found I didn’t like the way of learning that you [were] typically taught at school, it’s just the way my brain works. I’m a more hands-on learner for the most part.” With an interest in food, food production and global food security she was all set to study towards a degree in
FARM FACTS n Owners: Tracy and Wynn Brown n Assistant manager: Ella Wharmby n Location: Matamata, Waikato n Farm size: 350ha total n Cows: 680 peak split into two herds n Production: 2018-2019: 250,000kg MS n Target: 2019-2020: 260,000 kg MS
food technology at Massey University. “It’s funny because Massey held a breakfast in Hamilton for prospective agri-science students and I went along
Continued page 10
The farm is a System 3 with 13ha of maize grown for feeding from January, when it starts getting a bit dry. Ella takes the herd their breakfast. DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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Ella says she found it difficult to meet people when she first went farming but the local Young Farmers clubs were an invaluable resource and gave her the opportunity to meet new people and get the lay of the land.
not thinking it would be something I’d do but more to learn about the degree. “Then I got my grades back from NCEA and I hadn’t done as well as I had hoped in calculus and it got me thinking. I thought to myself, if I wasn’t happy with it and was struggling with it now, knowing it was an important subject for food technology, then I should look at other options and think about what I would actually enjoy doing.” So taking into account all the things she enjoyed - food, working with animals and working in the great outdoors – she researched opportunities in the farming sector. With minimal exposure to the sector she admits she hadn’t realised the variety of opportunities available. “There are so many pathways depending on what you’re into, from agronomists to consultants and even banking. I saw farming as a career that sort of married up all the things I enjoy doing. I saw it as a fairly secure pathway because people will always need to eat, therefore agriculture will always have its place.” Ella was thrown in the deep end come her first semester of her bachelor of agriscience degree at Massey. She came to realise that unlike her, most of her peers were off a farm. They were up with the play on farming terminology, jargon and had a robust understanding of the sector they were studying. “One of my first lectures at Massey they started talking about stock classes. I had no idea what they were talking about. “That first year I learnt so much and the entire degree gave me a really good understanding of the farming sector. If I had to learn that on the job it would have taken me years.” As part of the degree students had to find a job in the sector for the summer break and produce a report. While her
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DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Ella loves being outdoors and working with animals, so found dairy farming just the ticket.
classmates were able to leverage off their experience on their family farms she struggled to catch a break. She applied for 20 jobs through Careerhub, where farmers could advertise for job opportunities for students, only to be turned down by all of them. “Most people in the degree had farming backgrounds and experience but I had none, so probably wasn’t that appealing to employers. But I knew there had to be someone out there willing to give me a shot.” Not wanting to give up she spoke to a family friend who worked as a farm consultant. He emailed his clients introducing her and said she was on the lookout for summer employment. Waikato dairy farmers Louise and Tony Collingwood stepped up. Louise, who grew up in Wellington, came from a similar background to Ella and was willing to give her the foot in the door she needed. “They really looked after their cows and I clicked with their approach to things. I got really lucky to have my first job with them.” The experience she gained at the Collingwoods’ farm sparked a keen interest in the dairy sector. When her farm consultant friend got in touch to say a client was after a worker for eight-months, she saw it as the perfect
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
opportunity to consolidate her thinking and see if dairying was indeed the right path for her. “That was just as I was about to graduate. The owners were planning to sell the farm and were having a few issues with the employees, so just needed someone to keep things ticking over until the farm went up for sale.”
People will always need to eat, therefore agriculture will always have its place.
Jumping in Red Bands first she got more invaluable experience, learning the basics of dairying and gaining a better understanding of what’s involved at a practical level. Her plans to go travelling after her eight-month stint were put on hold when the farm’s veterinarian, Mark O’Callaghan, asked if they could pass on her details to other clients who were looking for workers.
“If I had to give one piece of advice to other people from town or the city wanting to get into farming, it would be to use your contacts,” she says. With a career in dairying set she went to work for Wynn and Tracy Brown and is in her fourth season on-farm, starting as a herd manager and working her way up. The Browns were the inaugural winners of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Responsible Dairying Award in 2018. Their goal is to run an economically and environmentally sustainable dairy farm business maximising production while minimising its footprint. Their farm is named “Tiroroa” which means “extensive view” or “view to the future”. “I really like their philosophy and the focus points on the farm,” she says. “I think for me, coming from a non-farming background, things like environmental sustainability and animal welfare are really important. That’s probably true for all consumers so to be working for people who are really passionate about that means I get to learn a lot and take that knowledge with me wherever I go next.” The System 3 farm consists of a 240ha milking platform, 90ha for drystock and 20ha of retired wetland and trees.
Continued page 12
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Finding a summer job on a farm proved difficult for Ella until a farm consultant stepped in.
Maize is grown on around 13.5ha of the farm with yields varying year-to-year. They usually start feeding in late January when the hills dry up as well as when the cows are dry to help them put on weight. “To keep on top of pasture quality we top paddocks to maintain good quality in spring and shut away paddocks and make bales with any excess. We tend to manage pasture quite carefully and do pasture walks every week. “At Christmas we change to 16-hour milkings to push the round out.” Heifers start calving around July 12 with the rest following close behind. Calves stay on farm to either be sold, kept as replacements or a small portion are bobbied. They aim for around 150 replacement heifers each year with the nicer bull calves sold on. Mating starts around October 10 and they do AI for four to five weeks, selecting from Friesian or Jersey sires depending on the cow colouring and conformation. Jersey bulls are used over the herd until Christmas. “We aim for small Friesian-type animals. Wynn intentionally selects smaller cows so over winter they don’t do as much damage to the hills so the grass comes back better.” “Wynn has been a fantastic teacher. He’s very proactive with all the staff, 12
teaching us how to do different jobs. We all have a range of skills from tractor work to spraying to the milking shed. He’s very patient and gives us plenty of opportunities to learn.” In her role Ella oversees two herd managers. She admits that being the boss can be challenging at times.
You have to look at things in a positive way. Otherwise things get old fast. “Having not been in the dairy sector for that long it’s been a massive learning curve having to manage people, particularly in this sort of environment. Everyone has different personalities, ways of doing things and ways of learning. But we have an excellent little team here.” To help her along the way and drive her personal development she has undertaken study through Primary ITO and Wintec, and recently completed the HR module of the ag business diploma through Wintec.
She also attended the Dairy Women’s Network Conference in 2019, which introduced her to inspirational woman from all walks of life. She came away with an overwhelming sense of positivity about the dairy sector. “One of the things I’ve learnt since stepping up to assistant manager is that it’s really important to self-reflect. To make a farm run well the team has to be efficient. If you as a leader can’t inspire them and get that efficiency by teaching them and creating a positive engaging environment, then you won’t get very far.” She adds, “I think you have to lead from the front and be willing to do every job you’re asking your staff to do. That’s partly why I wanted to do some more learning around the HR side of things. I felt that learning how to manage people and get the most out of them was an area that I could use some work on.” Farming is very much a lifestyle rather than just a job and often people young and old can find it an isolating lifestyle making rural communities all the more important. Luckily for her the Browns farm is a hop, skip and a jump away from the tourist town of Matamata, famous for being home to Hobbiton. “I’ll admit that I have found it quite hard sometimes to get to know and gel with other people in the community.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Ella and farm owner Wynn check out the quality of the maize silage. Everyone is really welcoming and friendly but I do sometimes still feel like a bit of an outsider. I’m not from here, and people often do a double-take when I say I work on a farm. “I have heard the lines ‘are you the farmer’s wife’ or ‘are you the calf rearer’ a few times. People think being a female in farming is a disadvantage as it can be quite a physical job and a lot of people ask how I manage that, being a little female. My immediate reaction is I use my brain. Not everything is about using brute strength.” She says local Young Farmers clubs were an invaluable resource when she first arrived and gave her a way to meet new people and get the lay of the land. Now a well-established member of the team (and not being mistaken for the calf rearer any more) she is starting to flourish in her career. You could be forgiven for thinking that networking and career progression opportunities are what motivates Ella, but she will be the first to tell you that’s not the case. It’s a love of cows.
Continued page 14
DAIRY COW MONITORING “All I need to do is look at a computer once a day to make those mating decisions. With these collars, it’s freed us up to actually get away during mating” Marcel Boschma, Pukio East Daries Ltd
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The herd is put on 16-hour milkings from Christmas on to lengthen the round. Ella in the milking shed during morning milking.
Being from the city Ella had never stepped foot on a farm and had to learn everything from scratch, including driving a tractor.
14
“I just love working with animals. We have a few really friendly cows that love a good scratch and honestly if you’ve had a day where things haven’t quite gone to plan, go out and sit in a paddock with them, it’s the best therapy,” she says. Cow scratches aside she says for her that the best aspect of dairy farming is seeing the fruits of her labour. Be it in the form of two out of three grade-free seasons, heifers coming through the shed for the first time that she picked up as new-born calves, through to seeing pasture management choices coming right. “This sounds a bit cliched but there’s not really any jobs on farm I don’t like. I enjoy them all for different reasons, even weed spraying on the hills. You get a workout in (no gym memberships needed here) and in the coming weeks or months you get to see clean paddocks.” Her optimism and enthusiasm for farming never wanes. Still, she’s aware of the impact farming can have on everyone, not just owners and sharemilkers. “You have to look at things in a positive way. Otherwise things get old fast. The dairy sector comes with so many pressures and stressors, it’s easy to get caught up in all of that. You really do have to look after your physical and mental health,” she says. “I think one of the hardest parts about farming for me is that it can be hard to keep in touch with people. A lot of my
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
friends don’t always understand that because I wake up so early, I can’t go out or be up chatting till 10pm. But mostly everyone’s been really supportive and understanding and I do make a real effort to catch up with people and get offfarm whenever I can. I think that’s really important.” Away from the farm she can be found out on the hiking trails, with a book in her hand, or indulging in her love of all things food and cooking. During her teenage years she was a regular on the equestrian eventing circuit. She has represented Waikato in the New Zealand Pony Clubs Association eventing championships, gaining multiple placings and wins at training level in one-day events. Up until this year she was managing to fit in riding where she could but ultimately came to the decision she wasn’t able to invest the time in her horse that it needed. With four-years working for the Browns under her belt she has had the perfect start to her career in the dairy sector and arguably, the world is her oyster. She says she’s not sure what the future holds. While
farm ownership isn’t completely off the cards it’s not in her line of sight just yet. For now she has her sights on managing multiple farms.
Farming is one of those careers that you can never really understand until you’re there in the moment. “I’d love to work for a company or business that have multiple farms so the next step is a farm manager role, which I’m working towards. Next season I’ll take on some more responsibilities and keep looking at ways I can improve and learn. “The great thing about my degree and farming in general is that I could turn my hand to other careers outside the farmgate. Farming isn’t just milking cows,
there are a range of options, from sales reps to bankers and consultants. There’s something for everyone.” She is candid about the challenges she’s come across getting into the dairy sector coming from an urban background and says if you’re a hard worker and have any sort of passion for animals and the outdoors, then farming could be your ticket. “It’s an amazing sector. There are people out there willing to give you the chance you need. You just need to keep a positive attitude and prove your worth. There are so many opportunities for you to grab. “Farming is one of those careers that you can never really understand until you’re there in the moment, living that life and making those decisions. You see all these negative things on social media and the news but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. “People should experience a day on a farm. It will them a whole new perspective.” n Video link: bit.ly/OFSwharmby
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MILK MONITOR
Cash squeeze a big threat Each month the milk monitor Stephen Bell delves into the dairy industry and gives us the lowdown on the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.
W
HILE this season’s milk price is on the up and up it’s not all plain sailing and worry-free work
for dairy farmers. The biggest threat to their existence this year comes not from environmental extremists getting their way but from the men in suits controlling the cashflow. They’ve suddenly got a dose of the jitters after repeated warnings, going back several years, from the Reserve Bank about its concerns over the level of rural debt, particularly money borrowed by dairy farmers. The signs were clear to the banks and to farmers the banks weren’t going to put up with it indefinitely. What brought matters to a head was the Reserve Bank’s move to make the mostly Australian-owned trading banks double the cash reserve they hold to balance the ride if the journey goes off the straight and narrow and veers into rocky ground. Those banks and their Australian masters, who are also on the naughty chair at home, aren’t keen on that so their solution is to get tough with the farmers and require them to pay off more principal as well as interest so they can limit the amount of cash reserves they have to hold. They’ve made statements about not selling off, or selling out, their farmer customers as other lenders start to circle. Those lenders want to buy debt, at a discount of course, from the banks. They then have various ways of getting their money back and if they buy the debt at a discount they don’t have to get all of what’s owed to make a profit. That means forcing a sale of a farm for less than it owes on paper, isn’t necessarily a loss-making job for them. It leaves less, if anything for the farmer, but all the guys in suits are happy. And they generally charge higher interest, and make greater margins, than the trading banks because they consider they are taking a bigger risk. But with their high interest and get in and out quick
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Will a lack of interest from trading banks leave dairy farmers at the mercy of moneylenders?
philosophy dealing with them is also a risk for farmers and, therefore, the dairy industry. There is talk of other, local parties getting together to offer finance packages to farmers the trading banks don’t want but so far nothing concrete is visible. That raises questions about the banking system. Do we need a rural bank set up to specifically guarantee the future of our agricultural export sector? Or could the Government push Kiwibank into becoming the saviour of the rural sector? It would probably need a push because it has so far shown no desire to be a major player in the rural lending business. Or will the dairy companies come to the rescue? Remember, they have a vested interest in farmers’ survival. They need the milk. In fact, the world needs the milk. Australia’s dairy industry is chaotic, American farmers are being left without milk buyers as big companies get into trouble and who knows what might happen in Britain and Europe. And commentators are predicting steadily rising prices on global commodity markets as demand continues to expand while supply fails to keep up. Those steadily rising prices also present something for Fonterra to ponder. As part of its reset the next item on the agenda is its capital structure. Fonterra seems more sensitive to a high farmgate milk price than other
companies, even though it sets the industry standard. It has now to consider how it will set itself up for a future in which its suppliers are being squeezed by forces outside their and its control when it is also trying to stem the outward flow of its share of the nation’s milk production. It needs the milk but is in no position to put the hard word on farmers who have already made it clear they don’t want even a cent of their milk money going into putting the co-op on a stronger footing. That leaves the part of Fonterra that buys milk from the part of Fonterra that collects the milk paying a price that going by past results is too high. Will this strengthen the case for setting up New Zealand Milk Products as a separate, wholly or partly owned subsidiary of the co-op. It might work if the co-op and company have separate boards and management so they are independent but that’s another can of worms – not the least of which is people fearing a loss of empire and the removal of their ability to rob Peter to pay Paul. However, in that respect it might resolve the issue of attracting investors. Shareholders can remain in the co-op and they can be limited to farmer-suppliers while share market investors could be sold shares in the company. That way farmers would continue to get their milk price, and maybe a dividend, from the coop while the company could simply pay a dividend to all its shareholders, including the co-op. n
17
NEWS
It’s tinder dry SONITA CHANDAR
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S TEMPERATURES soar and paddocks start to frizzle farmers in Northland are destocking and buying in feed while firefighters are nervously standing by waiting for the sirens to go. “You could say we are pretty much on edge and on constant standby,” Northland deputy principal fire officer Wayne Martin says. “Whenever we are called to an event we pretty much throw everything we have got at it to make sure we don’t end up with an Australia-type incident, especially if we have to travel a fair distance to get there. We will send the helicopter out as well to reduce the risk of it spreading and to contain the loss of acreage.” There has been a total fire ban in Northland for about a month and though there have been a few incidents they have managed to bring them under control fairly quickly. A scrub fire near Cape Reinga recently burnt through 4ha of native bush. Several fire crews and helicopters attended the blaze that closed access to tourist spots. Martin said they also attended a few incidents before that as well as two over the Auckland anniversary weekend. “One of the problems we are having at the moment is people dumping their rubbish and setting fire to it so they don’t get caught dumping. “There have been at least four incidents. It is difficult to catch them as they are doing it at night. “There haven’t been any incidents with the farming community, they’ve been good but we are aware they will be wanting to burn off paddocks to get their autumn pasture in.” Martin says high temperatures have dried everything out but Northland has escaped the winds. “We are lucky that we haven’t had any big winds because then it will get really dry and turn to dust. “The region is tinder dry as we’ve had below-average rainfall throughout winter. Kaipara, which is a catchment area for 500-600 kilometres, traditionally floods and that didn’t even happen.” 18
Rural firefighters are on edge and constantly standing by. When a fire occurs they throw everything they have at it to avoid an Australian-type incident.
“There is a concern that dam levels are getting down and this does affect what we have to work with. If they’re too low we can’t get the helicopter to dip the bucket in enough to fill it so we are keeping an eye on that.” NIWA soil moisture deficit maps show levels are significantly below historical averages across the upper North Island, parts of Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, the North Island’s east coast, Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago. Federated Farmers Northland dairy chairman Matt Long says districts around Northland are all affected to varying degrees. “Our farm is brown and the grass is not growing. “We have destocked recently because the past few seasons have not been particularly favourable and we have borrowed money to buy feed.” Long milks once a day at Matapouri near Whangarei. The farm has been in the family more than 50 years. Having farmed in the area for so long he is well prepared for times like this but says it is the driest he has seen it more than 20 years. “You would have to go back to the 1970s or 1980s to find a season as dry as this. “The farm soils are greywacke so there
aren’t any stock water issues in our area, however, some areas are likely to face issues and towns such as Kaitaia and Kaikohe are running low.” With no significant rain in the forecast Northland needs more than just a shower or two. “Our best hope is a cyclone – not one that will cause any damage but will deliver a decent amount of rain to get things moving again.” Long says farmers in the region are shifting to 16-hour milkings or OAD and others are quitting stock and those who hope to get their stock away are facing delays. “I have been told there is a queue for getting stock processed at the works. There is a two-week wait for stock to get into the works and some farmers are having to look further afield at some of the smaller processors as an alternative. “Prices have dropped about 50 cents/ kg or more but that is on the back of high prices at the peak when the Chinese were paying crazy high prices and then suddenly stopped. n
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To keep track of the fire danger and weather conditions in your area visit fireweather.niwa.co.nz
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
NEWS
Kiwi takes CRV reins
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The New Zealand dairy industry has earned itself a reputation on the world stage as a food producer and a leader in the field and now Angus Haslett is set to lead one of the world’s biggest dairy genetics companies, CRV Ambreed.
RV Ambreed managing director Angus Haslett has been appointed chief executive officer of CRV Ambreed’s global artificial breeding business, making him the company’s first international chief executive. He previously managed the United States operation and the Oceania business unit. Kiwi born and bred, Haslett succeeds Roald van Noort, who has led CRV for more than 12 years and who will step down as chief executive and chairman of CRV’s executive board in May. Haslett is due to relocate from NZ to the Netherlands in the first half of 2020. He joined CRV in 2009 as managing director of the Oceania business unit and most recently managed the US operation. He has worked closely on developing Oceania’s strategy, including several acquisitions that have seen CRV establish itself at the forefront of innovation in herd improvement. Haslett says globally the dairy industry is going through an incredibly dynamic and challenging time of change. “There is a need to continue to feed the world but do so in way that is sustainable. “With genetics we can help with both,” he says. “I am excited about the opportunities these challenges present for CRV and proud to be leading our company into an era that can realise these opportunities for our farmers.” He says NZ is still highly relevant on the international stage. “We use a farming system that comes with its own challenges around efficiency and sustainability but, importantly, one that has earned us a global reputation for producing high-quality food. “Our country has an important role to play when it comes to feeding the world, particularly with our dairy products, and with that there is an opportunity for us to work together more collaboratively, both in NZ and internationally.
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New Zealand-born Angus Haslett has been appointed the chief executive of global artificial breeding company CRV Ambreed.
There is a need to continue to feed the world but do so in way that is sustainable. With genetics we can help with both. “We don’t need to tackle these challenges on our own but rather pool our knowledge and resources together. I am looking forward to the opportunities my new role will present to make this happen.”
A CRV spokesman said van Noort’s contribution has been significant. He has led the company through an era of unprecedented change in cattle genetics and positioned CRV as one of the leading and most admired herd improvement and bovine data companies in the world. His work in the Netherlands and Flanders has created a sound position for CRV’s shareholders to manage the changing world of dairy farming while his work internationally has created an important and strong platform from which the company can grow. Van Noort said “I am proud that my successor comes from within the CRV ranks and over the last decade Angus has proven to be one of the great new leaders of our industry.” Van Noort will remain available to CRV until September 1 to facilitate a smooth transition. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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ON FARM
Wayne and Hannah Simpson are in their sixth season 50:50 sharemilking on an 80ha farm at Kaikoura.
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DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Shake-up improves farm lifestyle An earthquake shook the ground and the world of many Kaikoura farmers but it also jolted one couple into permanent once-a-day milking. Tim Fulton reports.
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AIKOURA dairy farmers Wayne and Hannah Simpson are used to living on the edge, jammed in with others on a thin plain between mountains and a peninsula. But the magnitude 7.8 earthquake of November 2016 turned the place into an island. Dairy farmers around Kaikoura lost milk collection for weeks. Roads were badly damaged, making them impassable, and 22 dairy farms had to discard vats of milk for 21 days. They were forced to dump up to 200,000 litres of milk a day as the blocked inland road prevented tankers from picking it up and cows being transported out. The Simpsons are in their sixth season 50:50 sharemilking 80ha owned by Hannah’s parents and though they were affected by the earthquake count themselves as some of the lucky ones to escape with little damage. “All things considered we were lucky to escape the quake relatively lightly with just a few broken water troughs, tanks and pipes and minor home damage,” Wayne says.
“We were lucky because we had a diesel generator on-farm already and our cow shed wasn’t that badly damaged at all so we were able to keep milking a few hours after the earthquake.” But because their milk couldn’t be collected they switched to once-a-day milking immediately after the quake. They saw no point milking cows twice a day when it all had to be tipped down the drain or onto paddocks. Milk collection resumed after three weeks but they stuck to OAD for the rest of the season, figuring the herd wouldn’t recover to twice-a-day levels after such a long layoff. OAD ended up opening their eyes to a more flexible work and family lifestyle. Two other farmers used his shed for milking, one just for a day till he sorted his shed out but another did about four days, walking cows to and from a farm five kilometres away. The farmers milked their cows separately over the day, managing without water to wash the plant or the concrete. “The reason they came to milk in our shed was because they had no power but their sheds were pretty much intact and
FARM FACTS n Owners: DDB Dairy Enterprise n Sharemilkers: Wayne and Hannah Simpson n Location: Inland Road, Kaikoura n Farm size: 114ha. Milking platform 80ha n Cows: 320 Jersey-cross n Production: 2018-19 110,300kg MS n Target: 2019-20 110,300kg MS
sustained only minor damage,” Wayne says. “The milk would just run on the concrete and that was it. We couldn’t hose down or anything.” He struggles to explain precisely how they kept the place going but manages to make it sound like just another job. “I milked our cows and put them in the paddock and then, on that first day, another guy came and milked his cows and took them home. And then, once they
Continued page 24
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The Simpson family, from left, George, 16, Hannah, Henry, 6, Wayne, Kyle, 16, Samantha, 18, and William, 14, find plenty of opportunities to spend time together by milking once a day.
were all done, a third guy came down.” Life was definitely different for a while, he says. “I guess you go into a bit of survival mode. You do what you have to do. The school was shut down so there was no schooling for a few weeks so the main thing was to just feed the cows and get water to them because we had no power for the water pump.” But the quake did provide for the farm in one way, creating a temporary spring for the stock. “There was a creek that would normally flow when you’ve got a lot of rain in the winter. Well, with the shaking of the ground it started flowing down there so we were able to put the cows in there to drink some water.” A neighbour also started his irrigation line to pump water over the fence till Simpson’s power and pipes were back in service. “So everyone helped each other out.” The spring that welled up in those mixed up days after the quake stopped running after a couple of months but, thinking back, he is grateful for every bit of help they had from people and nature alike.
The 320-cow herd produced 110,300kg MS last season and is on track to produce the same this season. Production on once-a-day milking is only slightly below the 24 peak production several years ago on twice-a-day.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
He recalls how a few days after Fonterra’s tankers stopped coming he and Hannah went out looking for leaking pipes. “It was about seven o’clock at night and four guys turned up. They were Fonterra people and they were amazing. They had an electrician and a plumber and an engineer and all that. “They were just going around all the farms, fixing what they could fix.” Looking back on those extraordinary days he says “It was disheartening to have tip the milk out and was a big relief to see the tanker come down the road after 21 days.” Fonterra’s Farm Source and emergency response teams went into the area to help with farm work and relief milking but three or four farmers lost milking sheds in the quake, some springs and wells on the Kaikoura Plain dried up and parts of other farms became boggy. In fact, after the quake it was so wet across parts of the Kaikoura Plain that council and industry groups like DairyNZ and Fonterra started turning to Southland and Waikato for advice. One Kaikoura farm owner reported 60% of his property was too wet to farm and has been working with Canterbury Regional Council on an acceptable way to spread consented effluent. They are grateful for the flexible attitude that local authorities had at the time, including advice from DairyNZ. “We had to get rid of the milk somehow and it was going into the effluent pond and sprayed back on to the paddocks. They came and told us to do what you’re not meant to do and just hammer one paddock with it.”
DAIRY FARMER
Continued page 26 February 2020
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After the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016 some neighbouring farmers had no power so milked through Wayne Simpson’s shed with the use of a generator.
Knowing that tipping milk straight onto grass would kill it he picked a single paddock as a sacrifice. Even the usual rules about stock in waterways were relaxed so the cows could have a drink. “That was quite good, knowing that you could just do little things you’re not normally meant to do, just to get by.” The silver lining to come from the experience is their switch to OAD. At the time they were milking 280 cows and also milked 40 cows from another Kaikoura farmer who couldn’t milk because of quake damage. By the next season they had enough young stock of their own for a 320-cow herd on a permanent OAD regime. Wayne has noticed several benefits in milking OAD including reduced lameness
and a general increase in cow health and condition. “Lameness in the herd is pretty much eliminated. We get only one or two whereas before we could get several. “We have also found the herd is getting in-calf easier and our shed costs have been reduced substantially so that helps boost our income.” And OAD works well for his family life so he would never go back to twice-a-day milking. Living by the sea the family bought a boat after going to OAD, knowing they would have time to use it. Even a trip to Christchurch is no longer a logistical hassle. “We thought this is working and it’s a better lifestyle too.
“You can get off the farm in the afternoon and not worry about coming back. You’re not looking at your watch every five minutes to see if it’s milking time.” The family has even taken up fishing – something they didn’t do before the earthquake. “We can now have a bit more time off the farm as well as doing all the other things that need doing such as maintenance. “When we can and if the conditions are good I’ll go out with the kids and do a spot of fishing. We usually catch a few blue cod without going too far out.” Wayne grew up at Karamea on the northern tip of the West Coast where his parents were sharemilking. The family
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February 2020
The 80ha farm at Kaikoura is near the coast and with milking once a day the family bought a boat and regularly takes to the water to go fishing.
moved to Golden Bay where he finished his schooling and went straight into dairying. “I never wanted to do anything else. Farming is in the blood so it was what I wanted to do.” Wayne moved to Kaikoura in 2008 to go contract milking when he met Hannah who came from a non-farming background and grew up in Bath, England. She left school and trained as a primary school teacher in London and is now the principal at a local school. They met at a social event in 2009. At the time she was teaching at an International School in Jakarta and was in New Zealand visiting her sister in Kaikoura. Hannah moved to NZ in 2010 and they married in 2011. Between them they have five children: Samantha, 18, George, 16, Kyle, 16, William, 14, and Henry, 6. Hannah’s parents bought the farm in 2014 and Wayne and Hannah moved there the same year to sharemilk. For the Simpsons OAD is a permanent switch. Together they’re enjoying the relative freedom of milking-free afternoons though Hannah is busy during term time at school. They employ one worker and milk through a 36-a-side herringbone shed, staffed by two people most of the time except for some weekends when it’s normally sole charge. Milking generally runs through till the
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
middle of May, followed by a dry-off on the home farm for the rest of the month then wintering on local lease blocks. But last year was different. “We actually sent half the herd up to Ward (southern Marlborough) for grazing for about a month. “We kept the other half on the home
farm and after a month they all went to the runoff block across the road.” The new policy was simply a case of making things work, he says. “We were leasing two blocks of land which gave us enough to winter all our
Continued page 28
The Simpsons employ one worker but some weekends are sole charge so Wayne takes his trusty dog for company.
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Wayne Simpson says it was disheartening to have to tip the milk out when the tankers couldn’t get through for three weeks.
cows but we lost one of them after it got sold.” Last season the System 2 farm produced 1375kg MS/ha on OAD – only just under a peak of 1400kg MS/ha in the three years before the quake. They are on track to do the same production this season. Wayne doesn’t have a grazing plan for this winter but he expects he’ll need to either send stock away again or buy more feed. Pasture is a mix of ryegrass and clover plus some silage and the farm is irrigated by individual sprinklers moved daily over 70ha of the property. Most paddocks have three irrigators though some larger paddocks have five. “It depends on the season of course but we do find in drier years the non-irrigated parts of the farm do get very dry.” He does farm walks occasionally and measures pasture by eye and says the OAD herd does a good job of keeping pasture quality high. “The herd is always fully fed but on OAD they can be pushed a wee bit harder than if they were milking twice-a-day. “We aim to feed paddocks at about 2500kg DM and leave residuals of about 1500kg DM 28
It was about seven o’clock at night and four guys turned up. They were Fonterra people and they were amazing. Wayne Simpson
They also grow silage, 12ha of kale and brassica each year on the neighbouring 40ha lease block for wintering cows. Calving starts on August 1 and generally goes for nine weeks. Springing cows are checked several times a day and they bring calves in once a day. They rear about 80 replacements or basically all AI heifer calves born and sell about 20-30 Hereford calves as four-dayolds. Calves are fed milk and meal but at
times they use milk powder rather than taking milk from the vat. “It actually works out cheaper to use the milk powder,” he says. Calves are weaned at 90kg and remain on-farm till winter and are then sent to a neighbour’s block for grazing for three months before shifting to the run-off where they remain till they return as incalf heifers. Having found their Jersey and crossbred cows are better once-a-day milkers than the Friesians they are now using only crossbred or Jersey AI semen. Mating begins on October 16 for the heifers and October 23 for the herd. They do four weeks of AI using crossbred and Jersey semen followed by two weeks of AI with short-gestation Hereford semen and a final few weeks of bull mating. “We do four weeks of AI with the Jersey and the crossbred and then two weeks with the Hereford and then we put some Jersey bulls out for six weeks as well but we pretty much cull all the last ones in the last three weeks.” That final few weeks of calving is really just a safety net for cows failing to get in calf though the farm’s in-calf rate is a very respectable 96%.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
School holidays are always a good time for Samantha, William, Kyle, Henry and George to get out and about on the farm.
They have been using the short gestation AI Herefords for the past three years. It brings calving forward a week earlier than the crossbreds and Jerseys and provides the added benefit of being able to sell four-day-old beef calves. Wayne doesn’t chase any particular genetics, opting to use LIC’s Bull of the Day. It’s a good, cost-effective option and seems to work, he says. But the farm is starting to breed its own bulls meaning no more bull leasing from next season onward. The policy is partly an attempt to minimising the risk of Mycoplasma bovis, he says. With business back to normal they are getting on with the job while enjoying the change of pace. As well as getting out on the water Wayne is a keen rugby player for the Kaikoura Crays social team (Golden Oldies). In November last year the team visited Fiji where they played several games. “After the final game we took our boots along with some rugby balls and some other bits and pieces that we had brought with us and donated them to a local school.” Hannah is kept busy with her job, running the household and helping out occasionally on the farm, which she finds relaxing. The 2016 earthquake shook things up enough to keep them on their toes for now but looking ahead they eventually want to step up to farm ownership. In the meantime they are planning on planting some trees around all waterways, which are already fenced. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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SPECIAL REPORT
Respect helps bovis process The 1100-cow herd on the Gregans’ farm was found to be free of Mycoplasma bovis after 30 animals had been slaughtered. Photos: Tony Benny
Farmers dealing with the threat of Mycoplasma bovis have a support group to help them navigate the process. Tony Benny reports.
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HEN the Primary Industries Ministry told South Canterbury farmers John and Cara Gregan they might have animals infected with Mycoplasma bovis on their farm they acted fast to minimise the fallout and they have advice for others who find themselves in the same boat. “We knew the longer we took to find these animals, for them to be tested, the longer we were going to be in the response and that could be expensive because we were under movement restriction,” Cara, who also works in the DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb compensation assistance team, says. The Gregans’ farm in the Hunter area on a property that’s been in John’s family for more than 100 years and today they milk about 1100 cows on 360ha. Originally John followed in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps and was a passionate sheep farmer but 10 years ago he converted to dairy. “We were leasing two neighbouring farms and running this farm and at the time we were running 7500 ewes. The owner of one of the farms wanted to sell so we bought it but the only way we could make it work was by converting it to dairying,” John says. For three years he continued to run 30
sheep on the home farm, which was a BLNZ monitor farm, while dairy farming on the new property but then decided it too should be converted. Meanwhile, Cara who had put her banking career on the back burner while their three children grew up, was looking at returning to work outside the farm. “I did the Agri-Women’s Development Trust Escalator governance and leadership programme and was helping the Rural Support Trust. Then Mycoplasma bovis came along and it just evolved to become my full time work,” she says. As farmers and officials worked to understand the disease few had even heard of, the demand for help from the trust quickly increased. “What became really obvious was that one of their biggest stresses for affected farmers was compensation and understanding it,’ she says. “Being a banker trained in doing facts and figures I started working on helping them prepare their claims.” As a result the team was set up to help farmers prepare compensation claims and has since helped more than 800 farmers. The team is now 10 strong and dedicated to helping farmers work through their compensation for losses incurred because of MPI exercising its power to restrict stock movement or order animals to be destroyed.
We realised the people who were coming to confirm the animals and do the census and ultimately cull the animals were just doing a job so we were as co-operative as possible. We didn’t put up any barriers.
“Our team is one of the success stories of the response I believe. We’ve got some really great people who’ve been farmers or who are farming and have the technical expertise. We’re all very fair and reasonable, that’s the line, and it has to be fair and reasonable on both sides. “To do a really good job we knew we needed to be nimble, for example a phone conversation and email rather than me
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
driving two hours to see someone to pick up information. I could have had their claim done in that time so it’s being efficient in the use of resources.” While Cara was helping other farmers with their compensation claims she and John found themselves affected directly by the M bovis response, as they discovered there were animals of interest on their own farm. “We had two years previously bought in R2 in-calf heifers from a farm who had bought them from a farm that became a restricted place. All the animals that left that property or came on to it were traced so casing and tracing rung and said ‘you’ve got animals of interest’,” Cara recalls. “We thought we need to front foot this. We need to understand the animals because all we get is EID tags and birth IDs. They don’t tell you where they’ve come from or anything.” The Gregans used the tag numbers, along with their Nait and Minda records to quickly identify the suspect animals and drafted them off and marked them while they waited to hear from MPI what the next move would be. “We drafted them off because I knew from my work in response that some farmers’ time in the response is delayed because they hadn’t found the animals. “So the longer you take to find the animals, to get them sent as trace animals and tested, the longer you’re going to be in the response. “It was all about reducing our time under notice that was the whole outcome we wanted.” The 30 cows identified were killed and tested, revealing they were not infected but the Gregans accept the process was necessary. And a subsequent census and blood tests showing their herd was clear of M bovis was a welcome bonus. “The thing you have to remember is if
South Canterbury farmers John and Cara Gregan acted fast when their herd was deemed to be of interest in the search for Mycoplasma bovis infected animals after they bought heifers.
they had tested positive, as New Zealand dairy farmers our herd would have been replaced and our loss of production would have been replaced. If we’d had to sell down cows because we had a drought or whatever the cost would have been on us.” John says they made a point of treating everybody involved with respect and accepting the situation they were in. “We realised the people who were coming to confirm the animals and do the census and ultimately cull the animals were just doing a job so we were as cooperative as possible. We didn’t put up any barriers.” “Farmers need to understand that MPI and everyone involved are all there doing a job and they have the best intentions and want a positive outcome for you,” Cara says.
Her advice to farmers in a similar position is to be proactive and set up a robust system to cope with all the information flooding in. “I bought a folder with dividers to file all the paperwork. I had a book where I took a note of all the conversations with people and phone calls because after a while it just blurs. I scanned all the files that John had so I could easily access information as I needed it, which just took that stress away. “For us it was about shoring up the team, making sure everybody understood. We had a lot of meetings with our staff and got them to work with us when we did the census, tidying up tags, identifying cows so they were very much part of the process because we felt the more knowledge and understanding of the process, the less the fear.” n
The 360ha farm at Hunter was originally sheep and beef but converted to dairying 10 years ago.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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SPECIAL REPORT
FAP works to help farmers Canterbury farmer Tineka Johnstone is helping to streamline the region’s Mycoplasma bovis response.
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Five Canterbury women are providing a link for farmers under active surveillance for Mycoplasma bovis. Tim Fulton reports.
VERY call to the Farmer Assistance Programme (FAP) is different, Banks Peninsula beef farmer and event manager Tineka Johnstone, says. Johnstone and four other Canterbury farmers are helping to streamline part of the region’s Mycoplasma bovis response. The group has Primary Industries Ministry funding to help farmers under active surveillance for the disease. A 12-week pilot started in Mid Canterbury and it’s now in North Canterbury too. FAP members Johnstone, Jodie Loos, Emma Bedford, Monica Mattushek and Katie Flett report to Federated Farmers, which has the contract for the part-time work. Johnstone calls herself a kitchenwindow farmer but has been through active surveillance on a former lease block that husband Tony managed in Methven from their base in Wainui, Banks Peninsula. The couple had a three-week wait for test results to come back from
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AsureQuality. The testers were efficient and the property went clear after a pretty seamless process, Johnstone said. But surveillance can be daunting. MPI sends farmers under surveillance a 32page document but the language can be formidable and FAP’s first job is often to explain it, Johnstone said.
There is interest in FAP going nationwide but that has not been confirmed. Many farmers also want official contacts and advice on next steps, like what to do if they are moving onto a Notice of Direction (NOD). A farmer will be contacted by a member of the FAP team who will ring them or meet with them if required to provide clarity over the testing process, provide
them with factual information to make decisions and talk through the next steps. FAP also helps farmers with the National Animal Identification Tracing programme (NAIT), liaising with MPI at regional and national levels and problemsolving if issues arise during the testing process. It recommends farmers going to NOD status opt for a handover to Rural Support Trust services. FAP helps with that process too and encourages farmers to talk to share any concerns and to attend M bovis information meetings and other support networks. The FAP pilot started in Mid Canterbury because the area had most of the farmers on active surveillance. FAP is now taking only one or two calls or week on active surveillance around Ashburton District but it is clear North Canterbury farmers also need support, Johnstone said. Going north also made sense because FAP’s MPI contacts in Mid Canterbury work there too. There is interest in FAP going nationwide but that has not been confirmed, she said. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
DAIRY CHAMPION
New Veterinary Association chief executive Kevin Bryant is keen to drive the association to be the best it can be.
Vets key to farm success New Veterinary Association chief executive Kevin Bryant is a fresh face to the veterinary sector but is no stranger to agriculture. Samantha Tennent reports.
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EVIN Bryant is keen to drive the Veterinary Association to be the best it can be. He has a vision for it and its members businesses to be the first port of call when people need help with anything related to animal health and wellbeing, especially before problems occur. Bryant enjoys helping organisations through change and establishing the new normal and wants to help veterinary practices be as successful as they can, with high morale and good retention across the profession. He wants to see great support for wellbeing in the profession and for vets to feel rewarded for the important work they do. “Hopefully, the experience I bring from my career so far will help grow the
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capability of the people in NZVA and our members so they can achieve more than they think they can at present.” Engagement between veterinarians and their clients, many being farmers, is a key initiative he is focused on. “There are some farmers who don’t engage or engage at a very limited extent with their local veterinarian and we are strongly advocating that farmers have an enduring relationship with them. “There’s three main reasons we are keen to see these relationships develop further, with animal health and welfare being number one, but also product stewardship and biosecurity are critical to the future of animal agriculture.” The association believes having an annual planning session with a vet is important for optimising animal health and welfare. It strongly believes the connection
with high-quality animal care leads to increased production and reduced costs because happy, healthy animals perform better and are less likely to get sick. “A veterinarian can help a farmer understand and achieve their requirements for animal care, which allows New Zealand to optimise animal welfare and to continue supplying high-quality products to increasingly discerning markets that care about the origin of the products they use and consume. “There’s an overlap to biosecurity related issues here too.” He recognises there are some good examples across the sector encouraging proactive engagement, such as the Cooperative Difference with Fonterra, Lead with Pride with Synlait and Te Ara Miraka with Miraka. The association strongly supports such initiatives.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
And when farmers are proactive in preventing problems there is a reduced need for antibiotics and other drugs, which flows onto the second element, product stewardship. One of the biggest threats to animal and human health is anti-microbial resistance. The World Health Organisation ranks resistance in its top 10 threats to global health and farmers can help by reducing anti-microbial use in livestock, specifically antibiotics and drenches. “We aren’t suggesting they shouldn’t use them when required as these products are an essential part of an animal health and welfare management plan. “But if we don’t show the world that we are using antimicrobials responsibly there is the risk of access to meds, which could affect pricing premiums. “And in turn it may force an increase in regulation on some of these products, which is the last thing farmers want and the last thing veterinarians want.” An example is dry cow therapy. Most cows do not need antibiotics because they do not have mastitis at dry off. Farmers can work with their vet to formulate a plan to select which cows will get dry cow therapy and which will receive an internal teat sealant. “We call this prudent use of antibiotics. It’s an area vets can really help farmers.” The third focus area is biosecurity, which the other priorities closely relate to. “One example we are looking at is how the resistance to drench products is developing faster than new products are being created,” he says. “Some farms in NZ are running out of effective products to use.”
Kevin Bryant and his wife Joss, at the Guiness brewery in Ireland, are working through a bucket list of countries and have explored Europe and parts of America and Canada.
Vets want to help farmers understand biosecurity risks and the decisions they make about buying stock. “Animal movements between farms spread resistance and we encourage farmers to ask some key questions about biosecurity before bringing new stock on-farm. “We want to work with farmers in a proactive, pre-emptive manner rather
than wait for a disaster to happen.” Vets want less of a transactional relationship with farmers and more of a support relationship. The association is a membership organisation that supports its members. Vets are responsible for looking after animals and animal health and wellbeing.
Continued page 36
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Kevin Bryant is new to the veterinary sector but has worked in agriculture in the past. He took up his role as Veterinary Association chief executive in September.
There are some farmers who don’t engage or engage at a very limited extent with their local veterinarian and we are strongly advocating that farmers have an enduring relationship with them. The association’s job is to support them to be as successful as they can in that space. “We operate at a number of levels. We advocate on behalf of our members and sometimes that’s going to be on animal health issues back to government agencies. “We facilitate education within the profession around good practice and set standards to assist them and support our members for their professional development.” Members have told the association to focus on supporting employers and 36
business owners as well as vets. They also want it to advocate and help people understand animal welfare issues from a science perspective and look after issues that drive it. There are some big challenges around wellbeing among members, along with workforce related challenges like recruitment and retention. Vets want the association to support all those components. Bryant grew up in Wellington and graduated from Victoria University with a marketing degree. He met his wife Joss in a student pub in Wellington and they have a son, two daughters and three grandchildren. After graduating he went to work in the automotive industry but a role with the Dairy Board lured him into the agricultural sector. He spent 15 years with the Dairy Board and for part of it he worked internationally where he marketed consumer dairy products. “I found myself believing my own rhetoric, when appointing and training distributors, around how fantastic our farmers are and what an awesome job they do with pasture-based farming. “When I came back to NZ I decided I wanted to ensure I worked in or near the dairy industry because I believed so passionately about it and I could see what it does for our economy.” He headed straight across to Agriculture ITO where he spent a decade with the organisation and was the founding chief executive of the Primary
ITO, which merged training organisations from several diverse primary industry sectors to create NZ’s largest industry training organisation. It is also where he got first-hand experience of dairy farming after some of his colleagues, who were farmers, challenged him to milk cows. “They didn’t think the city boy would step up or be able to hack it so I took up the challenge. Some days I went to work in my overalls between milkings. I called it bringing the country to town.” It was only for a week on a 250-cow farm near Wellington but he thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “It certainly helped me put in perspective what a day in the life of a dairy farmer is like. It also helped me overcome a fear I had of large animals.” He then did a stint on his own consulting but says “It was interesting work but I missed contributing and it was pretty lonely with only the dog or cat to talk to in my home office.” He then went to work at Corrections, leading a programme that brought together industry organisations and companies to create work opportunities in prisons to help prisoners develop vocational skills and connect them with job opportunities on their release. He is driven by being able to contribute and make a difference. He likes to help others so when the role with association came up he saw it as a great opportunity. The association has also been through a period of significant constitutional change aimed at increasing connectivity with members. “I’m enjoying helping the organisation refocus. We want to get it humming in the areas members have said are important.” All while maintaining his own healthy work-life balance with his grandkids, kids, travel, mountain biking and rugby. Away from the office he is a keen mountain biker and tries to get out as often as he can on the great trails around Wellington. Occasionally he and some friends will trek to other parts of the country for a ride. The family are avid travellers and he and Joss are working through a bucket list of countries and have explored Europe as well as parts of America and Canada. As a born and bred Wellingtonian he is a loyal Hurricanes fan and watches all local games live and swears he will support them through thick and thin. He also follows the All Blacks and says if Ireland and Wales host a Rugby World Cup he and Joss will be there with bells on. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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Farmstrong ambassador Sam Whitelock says catching up with friends such as Waiau, south Canterbury farmer Duncan Rutherford over a coffee or a BBQ is a great way to stay connected with others.
Catch up with your mates
S 38
CHEDULING time to regularly catch up with mates is an important part of managing pressure and workload over summer, Farmstrong ambassador
Sam Whitelock says. “Connecting with your mates is a massive part of keeping well, whether you’re farming or playing rugby. “Sharing the ups and downs in life helps you keep things in perspective and
recharges your batteries,” Whitelock says. “Surround yourself with a network of people you can reach out to. “It can be as simple as having a conversation in the pub or over the fence. Whether it’s hunting, fishing, playing
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
FARMSTRONG
sport or just having a barbie, make sure you catch up with your mates this summer.” You can stay connected by: • Having a coffee with a mate; • Finding out what’s happening locally in your area and joining in; • Being a good mate. If you notice someone has dropped off the radar, give them a ring or, better still, drop in for a cuppa; • Hosting a barbecue to get to know neighbours or people new to the area; • Being a good listener. You don’t need to have the answers, just listening can make an enormous difference to someone who is feeling under the pump or; • Checking on your neighbour, offering to lend a hand or look after the place if they need a short break. Here’s what other farmers do to stay connected. Contract milker Tangaroa Walker says “When I’m struggling I ring my mates and have a yarn. “That’ll lead to us going diving that week and then I get out into the water and all of a sudden the little dramas that I had on farm that were really getting to me are bugger all. “Some people get onto these farms that are way out in the middle of nowhere and they’re isolated so the big thing would be either join a sports team or have a hobby like diving or hunting. Find an outlet that helps you meet like-minded people.” Contract milker and agribusiness student Cheyenne Wilson made cooking Sunday roasts for staff and neighbours part of the way she manages.
“For me it’s natural. It’s what we’ve always done as a family, looking after people and having visitors around. You feed them. It’s natural as Maori, it’s the manaakitanga values we have been raised with to look after the people that you have in your farming business and your team. And let’s face it, everyone loves food. “I think one of the Farmstrong messages that resonates with me at the moment is not just that we need to look after ourselves better but we also need to look after the people around us.” Canterbury dairy farmer Duncan Rutherford schedules regular catch-ups with mates and encourages staff to do the same. “I was playing rugby up until this year so that was a way of getting out the house and socialising. That stuff’s important because it also gives you a chance to check how others are doing. “If you see people struggling – mates who aren’t quite themselves or not engaging – you can help them out if they’re busy or ring them more often to check they’re going okay. “We always have drinks on a Friday night and encourage people to get off farm and play sport. “We don’t see it as downtime. “We encourage these guys to get out there and have other interests. Being a good boss is just about treating people as you’d want to be treated yourself.” East Coast Rural Support Trust coordinator Sarah Donaldson lives on a farm and is a clinical psychologist specialising in rural health and wellbeing. She says staying connected is a vital part of managing the challenges of farming. “Connecting up with others and having some rest and recovery time are the two real biggies when we’re feeling
a bit crunched up. When you’re busy it’s all about micro-breaks, taking the little opportunities within your day or week to do the things that will keep you chugging along. “It could be a family picnic on the farm or a social game of tennis. It’s about being smart. If it’s a rainy day and you’re limited with what you can do, go into town to your local pub or cafe for an hour to chew the fat. It just releases the valve a bit.” Cambridge dairy farmer Marc Gascoigne likes to leap on the bike at the Te Awamutu Cycling Club to catch up with mates. “Cycling’s a big part of my socialising. “I’m getting the exercise, I’m connecting with people meeting up for rides and I’m serving others because I’m president of the club. When you’re giving to others like that it makes you feel a hell of a lot better yourself. “You’re often isolated on a farm so if something’s gnawing away at you and you’re working by yourself all day it can fester in your head. The more socialising and talking to people you can do the better. “I’ve also got two or three farming mates that I keep in regular contact with. It’s vital to keep those connections up and have a regular yarn, especially if you’re going through a tough period. “When you’re busy, often the last thing you feel like doing is socialising with people but that’s when it’s really important to take up those invitations and get out there. Don’t just sit at home and stew. You’ll come back to your own farm with fresh eyes.” n
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To find out what else could work for you, check out our farmer-to-farmer videos, stories and tips at www.farmstrong.co.nz
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February 2020
See website for video demonsration
39
AT THE GRASSROOTS
One rat will do it Dairy Farmer contributor Ross Nolly lives on a lifestyle block in Taranaki and was unfortunate to contract leptospirosis. He relates his unpleasant experience and warns farmers to look after themselves and not ignore any illness.
S Taranaki lifestyle block owner and Dairy Farmer contributor Ross Nolly with his kune kune pig Bella was unfortunate to be infected with leptospirosis and was so sick he could barely walk. He warns farmers not to ignore the signs.
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but, being a typical male, I just wrote it off as a bit of flu. She’ll be right. Eventually, it got to the stage where I couldn’t walk more than about 15 metres without needing to sit down. But still thought I’d come right. That was until about 10pm one night when I gave myself a (mental) uppercut and decided it wasn’t coming right and rang the Ministry of Health’s free Healthline. After listening to my symptoms they said to go to emergency department as soon as possible. After I was admitted the staff rallied around trying to figure out what was wrong. My blood pressure had fallen to dangerously low levels and rather than risk sending me to ICU they kept me in the ED until the following morning. After three-days in ICU on intravenous antibiotics, oxygen and other assorted goodies I was allowed to go the general ward. But the diagnosis proved elusive. The doctors thought it might be leptospirosis or lepto as it is commonly called but couldn’t be sure. Lepto is sneaky and hard to diagnose. The final confirmation that it was indeed lepto and a strain caught from rats didn’t come until my last day in hospital, on the sixth day. During that time I’d lost 9kg and it had severely damaged my liver. That sort of weight loss made me think, in glass half full mode, that I could have stumbled on a new weight loss programme. But somehow I think my Rat-Induced Lepto Weight Loss System might have been a pretty hard sell. Like many people I later talked to I’d always thought lepto was like a mild dose of the flu. I didn’t realise it is potentially fatal. The final shock was when the doctors told me that if I had left going to hospital another two hours I probably wouldn’t have made it. That really makes you sit up and take notice. I’d planned to go to sleep that night and visit the doctor the following morning. If I’d done that I probably wouldn’t have woken up. Life can change in the blink of an eye and rest on a decision taken or not taken. Luckily, I fully recovered but wasn’t able to work for about three months. Leptospirosis remains the most common occupational infectious disease in New Zealand. It’s frequently caught by people exposed to the urine of infected animals. Usually, the infection enters through cuts and cracks in the skin or through the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose or mouth.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Ross Nolly says animals, feed and rats go hand in hand and advises farmers to use traps and bait stations, especially around feed.
Since contracting lepto I’ve been continually surprised by the number of people I’ve talked to who have had a brush with it. Another person contracted it after accidentally nicking a wild pig’s bladder when gutting it. The infected urine got into his system through a cut on his hand. He often ends up in hospital after suffering relapses. I’ve been very fortunate to have had no relapses and now my stamina is back to its old levels and my liver fully recovered. Recently a good friend of mine felt very ill and learning from my experience quickly went to the ED. He was admitted to hospital with lepto but, fortunately, because of his prompt action, was out in three days. For me the lessons from my experience are don’t ever underestimate how dangerous lepto can be and how easy it is to catch it. If you feel ill don’t go into she’ll-be-right mode because there’s a good chance it won’t be right. Animal feed and rodents on farms tend to go hand in hand. I have rat traps and bait stations throughout the property, especially around my chook pens. Be extra conscious about washing your hands if you are anywhere near where rodents hang out. I’ve got so pedantic I recommend using latex gloves when handling rat traps and disposing of rats in the traps. Having hand sanitiser in your backpack and using it when checking your farm traps is not a silly idea either. But just take care and never think you’re ten-foot tall and bullet-proof because it takes only one measly rat to shoot that theory down in flames. n
YOU CAN GET INFECTED FROM: • Farming • Hunting • Gardening • Walking barefoot in paddocks or gardens • Touching sick animals • Eating or drinking contaminated food or water • Smoking without washing your hands after animal contact • Cleaning out sheds where rats, mice or hedgehogs live • Working in forests • Playing in rivers or lakes or wading in flood waters
HOW SERIOUS IS IT? • Lepto can vary from a mild illness to a severe one and can be fatal. - Leptospirosis usually starts with flulike symptoms. - Symptoms usually start within 5-14 days but can appear as soon as two days or up to 30 days after contact with the leptospires. Symptoms include: • Stomach pain • Fever • Red eyes • Chills • Cough • Headache • Vomiting • Sore muscles • Rash • Nausea • Diarrhoea • Jaundice (yellowish skin and eyes) • Bleeding in the mucus membranes and under the skin, including bleeding in the lungs
41
INDUSTRY GOOD
Get cows fit for transport Leo Pekar
DairyNZ Consulting Officer – Southland
W
E’RE quickly approaching the time of year when cows are transported off farms. Travel can be a stressful experience for animals but it is possible to minimise it by carefully selecting and preparing cull cows. You’ll know that cows should be fit, healthy, strong and able to bear weight on all four legs before they travel. If you’re not sure an animal is fit for transport it’s best to check with a vet, who can either provide a certificate or discuss options. Working with your transport company and communicating with it in advance about your requirements makes a big difference. Let your transporter know in advance if you have any cattle with vet certificates or horned cattle so they can be penned in a way that minimises the risk of injury to themselves or other cattle. You can reduce the risk of back rub occurring by requesting single deck trucks or by letting your transporter know you have tall cattle so they can arrange to load them on the bottom deck, which has a little more headroom. Moving stock off green feed between four and 12 hours before they are transported helps reduce effluent buildup in trucks and stops cows from slipping on the truck. If you can, move them onto a grazedout paddock or stand-off pad rather than concrete. Provide your cows with dry feed, silage, hay or straw and water during this time. 42
Transporting stock is stressful so careful handling is needed.
Talk to your transporter about how far your animals are going. They might not always go to the closest processing plant and it can take several hours to fill a truck at multiple farms. Even if you’re only a couple of hours from your nearest processor consider preparing cows for a much longer journey and time off food. Transport causes a significant drop in blood magnesium levels as standing on a moving truck is hard work on the muscles, which need magnesium to work, so all cattle travel better with extra magnesium beforehand. Lactating cows also need calcium. Most cull cows are still milking and while they are still making milk they are putting calcium into their udders but not getting any more to replace it. Vets recommend 12 to 20 grams of magnesium should be provided to cows on the day
with DairyNZ they will leave. Lactating cows also need 100g of lime flour calcium supplement, ideally as an oral drench. If you are there when the truck arrives you can quickly resolve any issues of miscommunication. They are still your cows so ensure they are loaded with minimal stress. Rushed cows take longer to load and longer loads stress everyone out. We all want the same thing for our cows – a comfortable journey with minimal stress so they have the best chance in arriving in good condition. Taking care to select and prepare cows for transport is a great way to make that happen. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
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INNOVATIONS
Alex Stewart established WombatNET to deliver broadband to rural households with the help of the Rural Innovation Lab.
Making connections
N
The big telcos weren’t interested in a teenager’s ideas to deliver broadband to rural areas but Whanganui youngster Alex Stewart wasn’t taking no for an answer. Samantha Tennent reports.
OT many 15-year-olds juggle a business and schoolwork but Alex Stewart is bucking the trend and making an impact. The teenager from Whanganui had a vision to deliver better rural broadband coverage to rural areas despite plenty of scepticism about his age. He was 14 at the time but did not give up. A trip to Turakina Beach revealed the struggles many communities face trying to gain connectivity. “There are around 350 residents out there and they all struggle with cell signal,” Stewart says. “There was one internet service provider that basically had a monopoly in the area and was charging high rates. Residents had got in touch with the larger telcos asking if they could put a cell tower in near the area but were told they needed to come up with $250,000 towards it.” That is when he realised there was 44
a problem across New Zealand. While researching connectivity he uncovered the extent of the problem and found farmers have it worst. “A lot of what farmers do is cloud or online based.” Something as basic as a broadband connection urban communities almost take for granted can severely limit their productivity when it is not working well. “They’re trying to run businesses and they require the internet to do it.” He has family farming around Whanganui and Rangitikei and an uncle connected him with local farmers to speak to. “Every single farmer I spoke to wasn’t happy with the state of the broadband that was available to their farm. “That’s when I realised it’s quite a major issue and considering agriculture is the backbone of NZ’s economy I questioned why their productivity should be limited.” Wanting to understand the problem he continued his research and discovered
internet service providers are not using their technology to its full potential. Looking at how their models worked and what options there were he approached several technology companies to see if they would be interested in his ideas but nobody took the 14-year-old seriously. “I knew it could be done so I thought why not just go ahead and do it.” It took a bit to convince his parents but he got them on board and he started the company WombatNET, initially to deliver ultra-fast broadband to Turakina Beach. “That was before I realised how widespread the issue was and farmers needed help because they were being limited the most.” When the Rural Innovation Lab called for applications he put his project forward and was selected. The lab connected him with large numbers of farmers. He found they all had the same issues with connectivity. After identifying areas that needed help
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Every single farmer I spoke to wasn’t happy with the state of the broadband that was available to their farm. Alex Stewart
the most he set about improving their connectivity. Since then several networks have been established across Manawatu and Wellington. “The results are better than we expected.” He has found a way to uniquely design his wireless network. “In layman’s terms we find the closest area that has fibre, get a data centre grade
fibre optic cable installed to a property in that area and then we beam from there up to a hill or tower, which then sends the signal to households. “We can also hook into schools because every school in NZ has fibre infrastructure in place.” The network is not designed to connect a large number of customers to one connection – about 100 can be connected to ensure everyone gets a larger slice of the connection they are accessing. But Stewart is confident he can design more powerful networks for larger communities or in areas that have been left without a reliable broadband network. Since the network is wireless rather than through cables it is relatively cheap to build but delivers nearly fibre-speed internet. Plans cost $59 to $99 with varying speeds and they all offer unlimited data. The set-up costs are assessed case by case and depend on how many people want to connect. The network is guaranteed so if anything was to happen to the business the connection would still be serviced
giving long-term confidence to customers. Alex spends his days managing the business and overseeing the networks and installations while being home schooled. “What we’re doing has the potential to change people’s lives and I really value that.” Funds are limiting the network expansion. Eventually, he hopes to provide coverage across the lower North Island and parts of the South Island. “Farmers desperately need good internet and unfortunately there isn’t anything in the works to give them anything faster. The Government’s Rural Broadband Initiative finished in 2018, before I started the business. “I don’t think it’s good, everyone else is moving forward.” When there is a network build he hires staff to help with the installations but Stewart is the only one working in the business full time. His dad is an engineer and helps design transmitters and find parts and his mum does the finances. Stewart has some other ideas brewing to continue to help the rural community. n
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February 2020
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45
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Grass grows Cornish farm business
D
EVELOPING a lowcost, grass-based system has brought two key benefits for a Cornish family on course to quadruple cow numbers in six years. Not only does the grass-based system ensure profitability when milk prices are low, it also helps in the marketing of the farm’s main diversification – Callestick Farm Cornish ice cream. Even during the drought feed costs rose to only 5.67p/litre when buying in clamp silage and extra concentrate to keep the cows milking. Callestick Farm has 345 Jersey-Friesian cows milked once a day in a 25 swingover
Milfos parlour. It has 360ha, of which 28ha is rented. The milk is 4.5% fat and 3.8% protein produced on a 120ha grazing platform at a 3.03/ha stocking rate with 170ha silaging and grazing for followers and beef. Spring and winter barley is grown on 70ha. Up to 30% of milk is used at home for Callestick Farm Cornish ice cream with the rest going to an Arla manufacturing contract. “The dairy must stand on its own feet and can’t be supported by the ice cream business,” says Sam Parker, who oversees the management of the farm. “The farm gets paid the same Arla price for milk going to ice cream, which keeps it efficient.
“The system also sits well with the image of our ice cream being natural, coming from grass-fed cows and having no additives. “All the cows are grazing outside.” Sam’s mother, Angela, first made ice cream in 1989 in the farmhouse kitchen when Sam and his brother Ben were young boys and their father, Sebastian, was running the farm. Since then, Callestick Farm Cornish ice cream has had a meteoric rise from being a cottage industry to now producing up to 7200 litres a day and selling across Britain and as far afield as China. Last year the farm employed a sales director to work in the limited company
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Moving to a grass-based system has allowed Sam Parker’s English dairy farm to quadruple cow numbers in six years.
alongside Sam as agricultural director and Ben as operations director. The previous system milked 80 cows year-round on a total mixed ration system yielding 8500-9000 litres, which wasn’t producing enough milk to dilute the costs involved. The Parkers aim to be milking about 400 cows by 2021. Calving is nine weeks from February 10. Last year he Parkers bought 72ha of land off their neighbours and rented a further 28ha, mainly for youngstock The new site, Polvenna Farm, boasts a loose-housed yard for wintering cattle, a collection yard, milking parlour and slurry pit. In six months the Parkers built on a piece of land at Polvenna that had been levelled by tipping commercial earth and rubble waste. Apart from the parlour installation and the cow stalls, the Parkers did much of the work themselves as Ben is an engineer and competent welder. Two swing-shovel diggers, a bulldozer and a dumper truck were bought for groundworks, which will be sold on once the work is complete. Steel and concrete for a milking parlour, collecting yard, loose-housed sheds, AI race and handling system and farm office were installed. Land is still being levelled to extend the collecting yard and offer more loose housing for wintering and calving. Commercial waste soil and hard core is
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Angela Parker’s ice cream business started as a cottage industry and now churns out 7200 litres a day.
being dumped on the site to build up levels. Meanwhile, the old parlour and cubicle shed have been converted into a calfrearing unit. While buildings were being developed cows were wintered on a kale/rape hybrid and bale silage direct drilled into old leys after being sprayed off.
The dairy must stand on its own feet and can’t be supported by the ice cream business.
Sam Parker
Callestick Farm
The next project is to complete a dirty water pumping system to take collecting yard slurry and parlour washings to hydrants in pastures through pipes. A network of slurry pipes was trenched in alongside the water pipes when the drinking water was installed for the paddock grazing system. The aim is to collect muck and slurry in a reception pit at the back of the
collecting yard and separate solids and liquid via an electric pump and separator system, which pumps the liquid through a six-inch pipe to an above-ground slurry tower. From the tower, 63mm pipes will take the liquid to hydrants in pastures, where they will be spread with a rain gun. Solids will be stacked and spread on arable land or reseeds. Milk from grazed grass was 54% in the drought and is on target to lift above 80% this year. Continuing to reseed pasture with cut and graze leys will bolster grassland production to hopefully 15-16t DM/ha. The 345 dairy cows plus all followers and beef-cross calves are finished on barley ration, are managed by just two full-time staff and one seasonal worker for three months at calving and breeding time. Once-a-day milking means milking time can be adjusted according to workload. At calving it takes place at noon and is slowly brought forward to 6am once calves are weaned. Operating a nine-week calving block simplifies labour. Last year’s tough drought meant 557kg of concentrate was used but this year the target is 200kg a cow. With vet and medicine costs at 1.53p/litre Sam is keen to lower that to below 1p/litre now the herd can be closed and sustain itself with its own replacements. n
47
RESEARCH
Neil Butler from Progressive Processors with workshop supervisor Murray Larsen, checking the quality of fresh BioChar.
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BioChar offers many benefits
VERSEAS research indicates BioChar could mitigate climate change through storing carbon, improve animal health and give multiple other benefits. Now the Ministry for Primary Industries is investing with Parengarenga Incorporation to turn local forestry waste wood into BioChar and test it in Northland soils. MPI has contributed $100,000 through its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme to an 11-month project to identify a BioChar product best suited to Far North soil and report back on its level of effectiveness. BioChar is a form of organic matter charred under controlled, hightemperature conditions of 400C to 450C. It can be blended with natural organic matter and added to pasture. Parengarenga Incorporation’s project 48
leader Jon Brough says the project was prompted by concern about the high level of sawdust waste in the Northland forestry industry, combined with the challenging sandy soils of the region. “While the sawdust of pinus radiata on its own can’t be applied to soil we knew from overseas research that if it’s turned to BioChar it has potential to hold the pH and soil nutrients way better than before.” The concept of BioChar goes back hundreds of years – for example, Aztecs discovered their crops grew better in areas where they had flung the ashes from their fire pits. The Northland project pasture trials, in varying soil types across Parengarenga Station, will involve spreading groundup BioChar on test strips of pasture and comparing them with control sites to observe differences in the soil over time. Adding BioChar to soil is expected to increase pasture growth, enrich topsoil and help store carbon.
Combined with a tailored drainage programme it might also reduce and filter sediment run-off to waterways. “After a couple of days in the rain BioChar still feels dry but is three times the weight. It returns extra carbon to the soil, holding back the moisture so that the nutrients are more available to the soil.” While not in the scope of the MPI research, Parengarenga researchers are also interested in the potential benefits of BioChar for animal health. They are doing a 90-day trial feeding a BioChar supplement to a mob of heifers and comparing the results with a control herd. Preliminary results show the number of worm eggs in cattle faeces plummeting from an average of 130 a sample to zero after just 30 days of being fed a daily diet of BioChar. “Cattle with worms can suffer from diarrhoea, emaciation, weight loss and/or blood loss. “Feeding cattle BioChar could reduce
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
The use of BioChar to improve soils is receiving a lot of attention. Steve Penno
the cost of animal health significantly and also tick the ecological box.” Australian and American research indicates BioChar can act as a catalyst to increase weight gain. The researchers will be weighing the cattle at the end of the 90 days to see if the BioChar-fed cows have gained more weight than the control group. “If this stacks up and we see heavier stock we’d see considerable economic payback in year one.” The process of creating BioChar could have another side benefit – power generation. “Our carboniser machine is a baby – it
BioChar is a form of organic matter that can be blended with natural organic matter and added to pasture.
just makes charcoal – but the next size up can trap and bottle all the gases that come from the pyrolysis of wood and turn this into electricity. “Getting people thinking differently about farming methods could have multiple benefits for New Zealand.” MPI investment programmes director
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Steve Penno says the concept behind this project is simple but could have widereaching impacts if successful. “The use of BioChar to improve soils is receiving a lot of attention. “This project will provide valuable insights on its effects when used in NZ soils.” n
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TECHNOLOGY
This year will be very different from last year for the agritech sector, Agritech New Zealand head Peter Wren-Hilton says.
What’s in store? Agritech New Zealand executive director Peter Wren-Hilton looks at what will drive agritech for farmers in the coming year.
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Agritech New Zealand boss Peter Wren-Hilton believes the impact and reality of climate change will be a key theme for the primary sector. 50
S WE look into our crystal ball one thing is certain, 2020 will be very different to 2019. We have, of course, 2019 to thank for that. It was the year when major foundations were put in place for the scaling and growth of the country’s agritech sector. Some of the key milestones for Agritech NZ included the vote taken at the Precision Agriculture Association annual meeting in November to disestablish itself and join Agritech NZ in the Tech Alliance while Agritech NZ’s executive council approved the move in December meaning the country now has a very significant industry body representing both the demand and supply sides of the agritech coin. The Cabinet decision in December to support the recommendations in the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan white paper provides a major opportunity
for a wide range of Government levers to be pulled to address some of the key challenges and opportunities the sector faces. By working together industry and the Government now have a powerful framework to build on. It will be a major focus for Agritech NZ through the year. The increasing depth of global capital being attracted into emerging NZ agritech companies shows interest in our sector is growing exponentially as offshore partners get a better understanding of our core capabilities and strengths. Further major offshore delegations in 2020 are designed to increase this level of global connectivity. The launch of the Australia NZ Agritech Council in September was designed to position the trans-Tasman region as being a key agritech hub in the global market. Expect more news at next month’s evokeAG conference in Melbourne
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
when more than 100 Kiwi delegates are expected to attend. It’s hard not to think about the plight of Australian farmers and growers in the ongoing bush fires tragedy. It has brought the impact and reality of climate change into sharp focus. I believe this is going to be a key theme for NZ’s own primary sector producers through 2020 and beyond. There are a number of emerging global mega themes – climate change, more extreme weather, the environmental impact of agricultural production and the licence to operate are some of the most
significant. I believe they will be some of the key drivers in terms of agritech innovation and development in NZ this year. Perhaps some of the most important opportunities for supporting the wider farmer and grower community by the country’s agritech sector are to be found in the provisions of the Zero Carbon Act, passed by Parliament in 2019. They set out the impact of an emissions pricing scheme designed to make NZ carbon neutral by 2050. In supporting legislation, the Emissions Trading Reform Bill, the primary sector is still set to pay for emissions but not until 2025. The sector will work with the Government to come up with its own on-farm pricing scheme, aiming to reduce emissions in the meantime. A review in 2022 will develop the alternative pricing scheme, assess the sector’s progress in reducing emissions and consider the barriers it faces. Significantly, if the review finds there isn’t enough progress the Government can put the agriculture sector into the Emissions Trading Scheme at processor level earlier than 2025. From my perspective, that provides two key opportunities for NZ’s wider agritech ecosystem to collaborate. And, here, I am looking at four key stakeholder groups: industry, research, producers and Government. The first is to support our primary sector producers by developing the key technologies necessary to reduce emissions and so meet the major targets set out in the legislation. Our farmers and growers have seen enough of the regulation, the media commentary and the negative bile from naysayers. It’s time to come up with the investment and innovation necessary
Our farmers and growers have seen enough of the regulation, the media commentary and the negative bile from naysayers.
for our key producers, to help them address the issues they and the rest of the community, urban dwellers included, face around cleaning up our waterways and any other negative environmental impact. The second, and perhaps much more significant opportunity, is for NZ to take a global thought leadership position around climate change and the environmental impact of agricultural production to rapidly scale our major agritech businesses on the international stage. This has to be a core sector goal. It meets the demand and supply side metric. Farmers and growers worldwide need the technology. Our researchers and commercial companies can deliver it. Over the next 12 months Agritech NZ will be working with the Government’s Agritech Industry Transformation Plan taskforce to accelerate some of these opportunities. They meet both urgent domestic and global needs. In 2019 Agritech NZ helped develop the emerging multi-stakeholder platform. Over the next 12 months we have the opportunity to assist, execute and deliver. Welcome to 2020. n
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TECHNOLOGY
DNA spells new breeding tools TIM FULTON
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AIRY is making the most of DNA sequencing technologies to revolutionise diagnostic testing to improve the health and welfare of the national herd. The industry’s latest DNA sequencing work is funded by a $25 million, sevenyear programme called Resilient Dairy: Innovative Breeding for a Sustainable Future. LIC will invest just over $11m in the programme while the Ministry for Primary Industries will invest about $10m and DairyNZ $4m. One of the biggest research areas is Milkomics – the use of DNA sequencing to examine bulk milk and herd test samples to directly identify bacterial, viral or fungal infections, LIC chief scientist Richard Spelman says. LIC is using its capability in genomic science and diagnostics to create new breeding tools and tests. A single test can identify underlying and as-yet unknown pathogens as well as known animal health risks. The results will also be used to generate new dairy health and welfare breeding values. It is now possible to examine up to 1000 animals through a single sampling round and look at thousands of samples a week. A line of sequencing runs into tens of thousands of samples. If a sequencing run costs $40,000 and can uniquely identify 1000 samples in one go the cost falls to about $40 a sample, Spelman said. To give an idea of the complexity of DNA sequencing and how far the technology has come LIC earlier this year estimated if the work was done manually it would take someone typing 60 words a minute eight hours a day for 50 years to type the bovine genome. The entire DNA sequence would fill 200, one-thousand-page telephone directories. What was once a massively costly exercise – US$50m when the first 52
Technology makes it possible to examine up to 1000 animals through a single sampling round. bovine reference genome was sequenced in 2006 – now costs NZ$1200 a genome. Through the Resilient Dairy programme work will be done to automate analysis of the terabytes of dairy animal sequence data. Dairy customers expect a high level of accurate information at individual and herd levels. The benefits of faster, more comprehensive genetic and animal health testing should ripple through the industry, Spelman said. New Zealand Animal Evaluation (NZAEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of DairyNZ, has estimated genetic merit improvements have been worth $300m profit a year to the dairy sector. That figure is likely to increase with improvements in genetic gain. MPI’s investment programmes director Steve Penno says it is investing to deliver long-term gains in a number of areas including sustainable production, milk quality and animal wellbeing while reducing environmental impacts. DairyNZ investment will go into rebuilding its national evaluation system for dairy cattle to incorporate genomic information to facilitate faster
LIC chief scientist Richard Spelman says the dairy industry will benefit from faster and more comprehensive genetic and animal health testing.
rates of genetic gain, he said. The programme was launched by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor at last year’s National Fieldays. n
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
TECHNOLOGY
Time to enter SONITA CHANDAR
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INNING the 2019 Dairy Business of the Year (DBOY) Supreme award was not just a win for Okaihau Pastoral Ltd (OPL) but also a coup for Northland and one they are very proud of. “The win shows we can produce results as good as the best in New Zealand,” says Headlands agribusiness consultant Paul Martin. A Bay of Islands equity partnership with 17 shareholders, OPL was also named as the Best Northland Farm Performance for the third time, as well as the High Input Farm with Best Financial Performance. Martin says the key to the success of OPL is the team and how effectively they work together. “Everyone knows what their role is and
performs it to the best of their ability and they respect and support each other. Now in its 13th year, the DBOY event held across all dairy regions of New Zealand provides a unique opportunity for farmers to obtain a comprehensive farm performance assessment and report of their dairy enterprise’s financial, human resources and environmental management performance (triple bottom line). Regional optimisation days highlight how award-winning farmers have obtained a resilient and profitable system. “These field day events are a great day out and an excellent opportunity to hear and learn from some of New Zealand’s most resilient, sustainable and innovative dairy farmers,” DBOY managing director Warren Morritt says. Entries for this year’s event close March 31. To find out how you can have your farm business analysed visit www.dboy.co.nz, call 0800 73 55 88 or email team@dboy.co.nz for details.
Entries for this year’s Dairy Business of the Year are now open. Paul Martin and Joe Foster from last year’s supreme award winners Okaihau Pastoral Ltd in Northland.
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AUTUMN CALVING
Farming fits the lifestyle Autumn calving is relatively new in Taranaki but one couple made the switch immediately when they bought their first farm. Ross Nolly reports.
When Jaiden and Hannah Drought bought their first farm in Taranaki the first thing they did was switch to autumn calving. Photos: Ross Nolly 54
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
Having good staff allows the Droughts to spend time with their children and be flexible with time off. Full-time staff member Brenda Wilson, Hannah Drought and Ted, farm assistant Tim Turner holding Vinnie, Jaiden, Johnny and Max.
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WITCHING to autumn calving wasn’t about making more money for Taranaki farmers Jaiden and Hannah Drought. It was solely so they could enjoy long summer days with their children. The couple who milk 360 cows on their 105ha effective farm at Riverlea near Kaponga say the pros of autumn calving far outweigh the downsides. They switched to autumn milking so they could have downtime for their kids during fine weather when the herd is dry in February. “Our motivation to switch wasn’t money,” Jaiden says. “It was more to do with being able to spend time with our children during the summer when the weather is at its best.”
The Droughts run a System 4-5 farm and need to source their feed at the lowest possible price because that’s where their margin lies.
They say from a farming point of view there are big advantages. Calving occurs during settled, warm weather and the calves usually go outside after a week in the calf shed. “We undertake farm maintenance during summer when the cows are dry and the paddocks are firm. It’s much easier to get around without chopping the paddocks up and contending with the wet, cold, winter weather,” Jaiden says. They decided if they were going to autumn calve they might as well begin again because they couldn’t afford to take a production hit. They are about to start their fourth year of winter milking. The first year they spring calved and sold those cows and bought an autumncalving herd. “Generally, there are two ways to go into autumn calving. You can either sell
your existing herd and buy another or milk your cows through an extended lactation. We decided there was no real reason to milk through,” Jaiden says. “In total we calved 900 cows in spring and autumn on 105ha that first year. The spring herd left on January 20 and we started calving the new autumn herd on February 15.” As a result they went through a full calving twice and say it was a hellish year. They were fond of their herd but because there were no real ties to it such as years of breeding, selling and starting again was a relatively easy choice. If there had been 50 years of family breeding history behind the herd then they might have looked at things differently. “It probably set us up to do stock
Continued page 56
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production is not jeopardised. “We need food so other sectors need to do better. “This is a breath of someone to finally fresh air for HE red meat industry say Rankin says while that.” hopes to ramp up its reports have been previous Taste Pure Nature scathing of farming, this one brand campaign is less so. on “I felt like this the back of report has helped international climate the latest us turn a corner, that change report. affected by climate farmers are change but we The Intergovernme also really need them.” on Climate Change ntal Panel The report found (IPCC) report global food is being welcomed systems account by New for a quarter of Zealand farming greenhouse gas leaders as an emissions and endorsement of agricultural emissions our low impact of nitrous systems and the oxide and methane are importance of increasing. maintaining food But land also has production. a role as a The IPCC says carbon sink, absorbing land on which 30% of the we rely for food, planet’s greenhouse water, gas emissions health and wellbeing energy, between 2008 and 2017. is already under pressure Crop production and climate is being change will exacerbate affected by higher temperatures, that through desertification changing rain patterns degradation potentially and land frequency of extreme and greater affecting events. food security. The report warns consumption The report’s advocacy patterns, land management and balanced diet including of a population growth will determine animal protein sourced the planet’s future from resilient, in a changing sustainable, low climate. greenhouse systems is an endorsement gas “Pathways with higher demand for NZ, for food, Beef + Lamb chief feed, and water, insight officer more ON-FARM training Jeremy Baker says. resource-inten courses have an sive consumption important role to “This is the NZ She said there should and production play red and more limited always future, Feilding High in agriculture’s be an opportunity production system. meat technological improvements Reesby said the to role that form Meaghan Reesby School student training because do practical of training plays “It is definitely in agriculture yields, says. trained in increasing the not saying that The year 13 pupil result a better understanding staff have skills of people in in we all need to higher risks from of how their agriculture should become vegetarian agri-commerce at plans study water scarcity workplaces, such not be overlooked Massey University or vegan.” in drylands, land as farms, function, and any future next year but said degradation and which is good for changes in how not everyone employers and It is an opportunity food insecurity.” training course are interested in agriculture employees. delivered needs to ramp wants to go up promotion to remember that. Report contributor to university. of the Taste Pure Feilding High School The daughter of Associate Himatangi dairy Nature brand, Professor Anita Some people prefer can build their practicalpupils farmers, Meaghan’s to tell Wreford, of farming global meat eaters 40 million on approach, whether a more handsLincoln University’s experience while on the family farm, brother works about NZ’s lowthat is through at school by Agribusiness complementing a cadetship or beginning carbon footprint, and Economic taking courses offered what he learns at he says. Research Unit, work with building their knowledge a job and Gateway, a programme through DairyNZ climate says it shows the practical courses, through change importance of for young while her sister courses offered people in their last ambassador Trish also is also full time not implementing by workplace year of school Rankin is contradictory training providers that allows them fitting her Massey on the farm, heartened the policies. such as Primary to complete report says some course ITO. work training made up around that. sectors need to “The report is of theory and reduce their highly practical unit standards. emissions faster for NZ as we grapple relevant to ensure food MORE: trade-offs involved with the greenhouse gas P3 emissions, with reducing adapting to the change, managing impacts of climate the areas we value and maintaining supporting our communities and and societies in this process. Neal Wallace
neal.wallace@glo balhq.co.nz
Governme nt ag industry isn’t fooling
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As well as their crops the Droughts feed maize and silage, palm kernel, dried distiller’s grain and soya meal on the feed pad. Jaiden loads up the feed for the herd. trading in which we sell our young stock. We’ve worked out the cost of bringing a heifer in. By the time you rear, graze and get her to the size we want it’s cheaper to buy grown, proven cows,” Jaiden says. “We sell our calves as weaners and have found that buying in carryover cows is better in terms of production. “But you do have to be careful not to increase the average age of your herd. “There’s sometimes a bit of a stigma about buying carryover cows but you can’t shy away from the fact they’ll have a decent calf and produce a lot in their first lactation.” There is a risk trying to sell and buy stock at that time of year but as 40-50 cows are replaced at a time they feel that they will be able to source that number of cows. “We’ve sometimes sold in-calf heifers for around $1800 and then purchased carryover in-calf cows for $1300. So there’s a $500 profit margin straight away plus a calf and a saving on the cost of grazing. Again, they are older cows so we need to bear this in mind,” Jaiden says. “It could be different in spring but in autumn there’s an abundance of empty spring cows that farmers have carried over to get in-calf for autumn. We often buy from beef farmers who’ve used them to clean up behind their beef cattle or sheep.” They try to buy in late October but every year is different and can go one of two ways. If there doesn’t appear to be a lot of stock on the market they buy early but if there appears to be plenty they wait and buy later. “When we sell our weaner calves we don’t have as much competition from 56
This year the Droughts put collars on the cows but they weren’t quite ready at the time of mating so decided to use beef bulls over the entire herd.
spring calves. It’s not so much about achieving better prices, rather it’s easier to move them when the market isn’t flooded,” Hannah says. Autumn dairy calves mostly go to autumn calving farms and beef farmers favour autumn beef calves because they take them through one less winter.
We sell our calves as weaners and have found that buying in carryover cows is better in terms of production. Jaiden Drought
Hannah hates the thought of bobby calves and one of the couple’s first stipulations when they bought the farm was that they wouldn’t have any. “We are proud of our no bobby calf status with all calves reared, achieved by using beef over our herd at mating time,” Hannah says. Mating runs for 10 weeks, which includes four weeks of AI, five-weeks of Hereford bulls and a week of shortgestation bulls to tighten up the tail end so calving runs for nine weeks. They use high BW bulls for saleability. “This year we put collars on the cows but they weren’t quite ready at the time of
mating so we decided to use beef bulls for the entire herd for this calving. It’s making us a little nervous,” Jaiden says. “When we had half the herd put to Friesian bulls we had the opportunity to sell Friesian bulls, a keeper line and the Herefords, whereas this year we’ll have 350 Herefords to sell.” The high beef schedule has proved to be a challenge this year as farmers hold onto their cattle for longer to gain a higher price for them. Grass growth will dictate when buyers will start looking. “We try to get our empties in calf for spring to sell as spring cows. We don’t carry over any for ourselves. We don’t have the grazing and don’t want to do split calving. We want to stay with autumn calving because otherwise we wouldn’t get a break,” Jaiden says. “The cows are dry for 45 days from February 1 and start calving on March 15. Carryover cows that we buy in arrive in the first week of February so they are on-farm for about six-weeks before they calve.” One downside of winter milking is the need to buy expensive protein. Though they get a premium for their winter milk they feel they might not be that much better off financially because of the high feed costs, the cost of mixing and feeding it out on the feed pad. They run a System 4-5 farm and need to buy their feed at the lowest possible price because that’s where their margin lies. As well as their crops, they feed maize and grass silage, palm kernel, dried distiller’s grain and soya meal. “If we had to feed out in the paddock during winter I believe there would be 50% wastage, possibly more,” Jaiden says.
DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
AUTUMN CALVING “We don’t have in-shed feeding.” Jaiden is worried he would never turn it off, cows can be fed only a limited amount during milking and he is happy with the feed pad but mindful of the amount of time cows are on concrete. “Our stocking rate is 3.6 cows per hectare but if you take off our cropping area which is 25% of the milking platform it bumps it up. We must try and grow as much per hectare as possible and in Taranaki you’re not going to do much better than maize silage and grass although we do dabble in other crops.” They say it is easy to spend money to make milk but the operation must be as efficient as possible. This season they will produce 235,000kg MS but there are no heifers on the farm, which might slightly skew the figures. “The payout is pretty good at the moment but we would change our system if it was $5. We couldn’t go to a System 2, though, we’d just change the types of feed,” Hannah says. Jaiden feels autumn calving can be tough going and not for the faint-hearted. They have to contend with high rainfall because of their proximity to Mount Taranaki so the feed pad is essential. The farm has three effluent systems, holding ponds, a travelling irrigator and a tanker. “When you winter milk you have to cope with a lot of rain and effluent,” Jaiden says. “Most of the effluent is contained on the feed pad. We hold it all to spread
when the weather is better or for the crop paddocks.” The farm is in a drought-prone area and it can get pretty windy but those conditions usually hit at a time that is not so critical for them because at that time the herd is drying off. “You have to be careful that you don’t end up without any grass at the start of calving. “You’re on a total ration diet then and trying to feed cows 25kg and no grass. It’s not mission impossible, just expensive,” he says. “It’s not as simple as spring calving because you are on a decreasing pasture growth curve just when your feed requirements are going up. But the mid January pasture quality isn’t as critical. “Last year the herd produced 652kg milksolids per cow. It is a real juggling act with imported feed sitting at three tonnes of dry matter per cow. Bought-in feed cost us $1.80/kg MS and is our second biggest cost behind debt servicing so we need to be mindful that we are getting a return on that.” The employ one full time staff worker, one part-time and a nanny during calving. They feel they’re slightly overstaffed for the size of their farm but are prepared to do that to ensure their staff are happy and to give themselves time to be with their children. Winter milking suits Jaiden because he prefers working with machinery to milking. “If you didn’t like tractors and feeding out you wouldn’t winter milk. We couldn’t
Vinnie, Johnny and Max Drought in the maize. DAIRY FARMER
February 2020
afford to take the kids to Fiji in June as some families do but we get good stressfree family time over Christmas. During the nice weather we relax and do things with the kids,” Hannah says. Jaiden and Hannah both come from a rural banking background and say it showed them what type of farming operation suited the lifestyle they aimed to have. This is their fourth autumncalving season but they’re unsure whether farmers should go into it for financial reasons. They quickly learned the most profitable sized farms and the pros and cons of the different farm systems and the costs involved in raising calves and farming cows. “Our rural banking background allowed us to see the financial side of many different farming operations and to see what worked and what didn’t. We felt that the same financial skills applied whether we were running a coffee cart or a farm,” she says. “We could have just farmed by ourselves but we wanted staff so we could have time away with the kids. We could do it ourselves but we’d be low input and couldn’t get away for a break. “When we were banking we saw so many farmers who were tied down and working themselves so hard. “We love the lifestyle that our kids have. “They have a pretty free run of the farm. “With our debt level at $1.96/kg MS, like many farms our focus is on reducing debt and are continually looking for efficiencies to help achieve this.” n
Being autumn calving the Droughts’ 350 cows are dry for 45-days from February 1 and start calving on March 15. 57
AUTUMN CALVING
It’s as easy as A, B, C Autumn calving can be challenging but a Manawatu couple have found their simple pasture management system and robotic milkers make it easier. Cheyenne Nicholson reports. Greg and Amy Gemmell are 50-50 sharemilkers on the farm her parents Brian and Margaret Schnell bought 32 years ago at Bunnythorpe near Palmerston North. Photo: Cheyenne Nicholson
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HEN it comes to autumn calving and milking through the winter it is, as the Jackson Five sang, as easy as A, B, C for Manawatu farmers Greg and Amy Gemmell. The couple are herd-owning sharemilkers on Amy’s parents’ 94ha farm at Bunnythorpe near Palmerston North and they also run a 52ha dairy support unit. Four years ago they dived head first into the world of robotic milking. Their pasture management is simple, effective and makes conditions perfect for autumn calving. Their 191 Friesian cow herd is split calving with 90 to start calving in mid February with the rest in spring. This season about 15 two-a-half year heifers will calve in autumn and all autumn calvers have been mated to Ezicalve Hereford bulls they buy from Morrison Farming at Marton, meaning no bobby calves. “Because it’s really just us on the farm it’s easier from a management perspective to have the split calving,” Greg says. “Of course, there are other benefits like the winter milk premium from Fonterra and premium we get for our beef-cross autumn-born calves. We tend to get fairly mild autumns here in Manawatu so we might as well make use of them.” When Greg moved onto the farm in 2003 it was winter milking but milking 58
Greg and Amy run a split calving herd on the 94ha farm and say they are autumn-calving only because of their robotic milking system. year round was taking its toll so they cancelled their contract and went back to seasonal. But in 2016 after they had installed the robots and found them to be working well they switched back to autumn calving. Milking through winter means they have to keep a close eye on things, especially feed. Their year-round pasture management is based on the Lely ABC grazing system. Cows move between three paddocks in 24 hours, typically spending about eight hours in each paddock. They have access to the milking shed and are encouraged into the robots with a handful of meal,
averaging about 2kg a cow a day. They feed Denver Gold with minerals, choosing to stay away from palm kernel to keep costs down. “Paddock A they normally go hard and eat everything, paddock B they’ll eat a little and then C even less though not all cows will end up in all paddocks,” Greg says. “As autumn gets going we can cut out one block and go down to two. There’s a bit of management involved in giving them enough grass for the period they are in there but we also want to get them moving and coming up to the shed as well.”
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With our stocking rate we are never really under pressure and nor are the cows. We aren’t chasing big milksolids. Greg uses his eye-o-metre for assessing pasture cover but says, on the whole, it is a cow-led system. When there’s too much or not enough grass the cows let them know by either staying in the paddock too long or moving to the shed too soon. This year they made 400 rounds of hay and 252 balage bales over both properties. “We could have made more. It has been a great growing season,” he says. “As well as feeding out balage I get really good responses through autumn with hay. “We do drop numbers right back going into autumn and we have some irrigation that we can and do use if things are dry through the summer and early autumn.” The farm is Milson silt loam soil, which is quite a chewing gum clay and is unforgiving. In summer it looks like terracotta pots on the surface. To combat that they use regenerative farming practices to encourage deeper-rooting structures to tap into the more fertile soil below. “A few years ago we started moving this way for a number of reasons. What we read about regenerative farming made sense to us,” Amy says. “Healthier soils equal healthy animals and in turn healthy food for people. Improving the soil by no tilling, using
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In 2016 the Gemmells installed three Lely Astronaut plants at the beginning of the season with room allowed for a fourth in future. Each robot cost about $250,000. mixed pasture species and healthy root structures. “It is certainly trial and error but we have some really interesting conversations with people and are learning a lot.” The farm and support block are soil tested annually then get one autumn fertiliser application, putting on only what the soil tests show is needed. Using the Albrecht-Kinsey approach through Kiwi Fertiliser, calcium, potassium, boron and trace elements tend to be the main ones in the mix. “The tests are coming back now with good balances. We haven’t used any synthetic urea for a number of years. “We were asked to participate in a trial for Biozest (Biogro certified pasture spray) this year and we have seen positive results from that,” Greg says. “With our stocking rate we are never really under pressure and nor are the cows. We aren’t chasing big milksolids. “We’re just a family run operation
wanting to make a living and do the best for our cows and our land.” Last season the herd produced 83,200kg MS including winter milk production of 10,305kg MS. One of the most crucial things on a winter farm is having enough effluent storage capacity. With the robotic milking system cows spend little time in the shed so effluent collected is less than from a conventional milking shed. “We pump out the effluent in summer and don’t have the cows standing around on the concrete for hours waiting to be milked so they deposit most of it out in the paddock so we tick the boxes there. Lely have advised us that the cowshed water usage (hose down, robots and vat wash) is around 7l/cow/day compared with our old herringbone of approximately 40l/cow/day.” The Gemmells regularly host visitors who go to see the robots in action and take away information and inspiration for their own farms. n
In their first season transitioning to autumn calving Okaiawa farmers Andy and Lisa Tippett milked for 18 months straight. Photos: Ross Nolly
It’s about making choices
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One of the driving factors for taking on autumn calving and winter milking is a farmer’s desire to have more family time in warm summer weather. Ross Nolly catches up with a Taranaki family who made the switch.
WITCHING their herd for autumn calving was one of the hardest things Taranaki farmers Andy and Lisa Tippett have done and there were times when Andy was ready to throw it in. In the first season they milked the herd straight through the season without mating them. “We milked for 18 months straight, skipped mating in October and mated them from May to July,” Andy says. The biggest problem with milking the herd for 18 months was the summer dry. About seven or eight months after calving the Okaiawa dry spell kicked in. It’s the wind more than a lack of rain that does more damage but once rain came in late March he knew he would be fine because he could still achieve growth rates of 35-40kg/day over winter. “I probably said to Lisa ‘I quit, this is too hard, what the heck was I thinking about’ three times but she just said we can always switch back the following year. Somehow, that seemed to give me an out if need be and I persevered.” 60
Lisa says they went autumn calving because they had no desire to run a split calving system and have to be there 24/7, 365 days. “We’re not shy to try things. “We thought we’d give autumn calving a go and if we didn’t like it we’d just give it an extra 18 months and change back. We felt that autumn calving would fit in with the family and be less stressful,” Lisa says. They have been on their 160 hectare farm milking 400 cows for nine years and autumn calving for four years. They started out as part of the family company employed as lower order sharemilkers for two seasons before becoming 50-50 sharemilkers, which enabled them to build equity. They now own the farm with help provided by Lisa’s supportive parents, Dennis and Diane Bourke. They set up a business with Andy and Lisa on another property before th couple bought the Okaiawa farm. “Thanks to their generous help we were able to purchase this property and it’s something we don’t take lightly,” Andy says.
“The reality is that somewhere along the line someone needs to give you a break. We’re not landowners because we’ve done something special, it’s because we’re recipients of Lisa’s parents’ generosity.” Autumn calving allows them more time to spend with their five daughters, wider family and friends. It also lets them pay it forward to their local community. Lisa has a passion for taking in those who might need some help or respite. They recently completed building accommodation on the farm to be used for people in need of some time out or a retreat. They have also developed areas of wetland into lakes with a jetty, picnic tables and kayaks. “We feel like mum and dad helped give us the opportunity to own this farm so we want to pay it forward to the community. If you’ve been financially blessed its then about how you help others,” Lisa says. “We ran some school camps here in November. The kids learned camp cooking, kayaked on the lake, undertook team building exercises and just enjoyed being on the farm.”
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AUTUMN CALVING With the transition fully completed they say there are plenty of advantages to autumn milking and it tends to take the highs and lows out of the farming system. Of all the benefits of autumn calving, drought-proofing is one of their top picks. Traditionally, summer has determined production and the success of the season. Summer doesn’t impact their production quite so much now. If it remains dry off the back of summer it might have some bearing at the start of calving but over the last four-years they’ve learned to negotiate that. In October about quarter of the farm is cropped for maize. They can afford to grow so much on the farm because by October the grass is growing at 100kg/day. As the season begins to wind down and growth drops off after Christmas they are beginning to dry off so the large area taken out for maize doesn’t have a big impact. “During the dry period we can move the cows at any time of the day. We’re always fine-tuning things. You soon know when something isn’t working and you just go back to how you were doing it before,” Lisa says. “With the feed pad and maize we’re ready for any extended dry period. If there was no grass we’d use something like dried distiller’s grain just to get them going. Once the rain arrives and the grass kicks in we dial those imports down. From then on it’s just maize and grass silage,” Andy says. “It’s a balancing act to get it right but the first year we fluked it. The second year we had plenty of grass but the cows didn’t fire on it yet I thought it was the perfect scenario. You can’t really defer summer feed as it doesn’t have the oomph of spring grass.” They were also concerned their dry cows wouldn’t be able to keep up with a large summer grass surplus if there was good summer rain. Maize is a big component of winter milking. They decided to grow more maize, which is a cost-effective crop, and feed it out over their premium months. “One of our winter milking goals was to do the same amount of production for the same cost structure as spring calving. We’re sitting at a $3.20-$3.50 and production has stayed pretty much in middle of the road to where a good spring would be,” Andy says. They now feed maize at the beginning of calving. If they need to boost protein they tweak the feed with some distiller’s
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February 2020
grain mixed with the maize. All maize is grown on-farm. Over the entire year the figures even out to a System 2 operation. “Last season we ran all 400 cows in one dry mob for the first time, which probably goes against all recommendations, but it worked brilliantly,” Andy says.
Last season we ran all 400 cows in one dry mob for the first time, which probably goes against all recommendations, but it worked brilliantly. Andy Gemmell
“We wanted to introduce the cows to maize prior to calving. It was dry so we decided that it would be easier to do the whole herd.” Once they start feeding maize they wind up 10 metres of the fence to allow the cows to walk through a channel to the feed pad. The calves are simply picked up as they walk past and put in the trailer.
“We don’t have to chase the cows and calves around the paddock, which eliminates any stress. And if you miss a calf you just get it later as it’s walking down the race with its mum.” Lisa says. The herd is dry from January 10 to the first week of March. Autumn calving begins in March to take advantage of Open Country Dairy’s winter milk premium paid from April to July. “To do that we can’t calve too early. That premium is worth targeting so we probably look like a System 5 for about three or four months. Once we get through the premiums and winter and spring kicks in we’re back to an all-grass system,” Andy says. The herd produces 1200 kilograms of milksolids a hectare off 135ha effective, which is about 425kg MS/cow. They feel they can’t achieve higher production unless they put more feed into the system year-round, which they don’t want to do. Another upside is the calf growth rates. They have found autumn calves grow better than spring calves and get to 130kg in the same time it takes spring calves to reach 100kg. “Buyers are prepared to pay a premium for them,” Lisa says. “We didn’t have any bobby calves last year and we averaged around $300 for autumn calves whereas the year before it was close to $400. Its big money compared to bobby calf prices. That
Continued page 62
The 400-cow herd is dry from January 10 to the first week of March. Autumn calving begins in March to take advantage of Open Country Dairy’s winter milk premium paid from April to July. 61
AUTUMN CALVING market stays strong and doesn’t drop off near the end like spring prices tend to do.” They prefer to be calving when the weather is fine and settled and like to include the kids. There is now no need to bundle them up and drag them out into the rain and mud. AI is used for the first five weeks of an 11-week mating using Friesian bulls from the Winter Bull Team. Low birthweight Hereford bulls are used over their heifers and the tail of the herd. Andy was initially nervous about putting the low birthweight Hereford bulls over the heifers but it has run smoothly with no interventions. In-calf rates sit around 85% but during the conversion year dropped to 78%, which is a general trend when converting. “The cows lose weight during the conversion year and you’re mating in June when it’s colder with less sunshine hours. The in-calf rate is now sitting at 85-88% whereas it was usually about 93% when spring calving,” Lisa says. “It’s not too bad though because you can re-mate the ones that don’t get in calf and sell them as spring calvers or in-milk cows during the spring flush.” Autumn calving takes the workload away in spring. It starts in February when the weather is more settled and there is less to do. When they spring calved their heavy workload started in July and went non-stop until Christmas. “Now, when we’re cropping that’s all we’re doing because nothing else is happening on the farm. With spring calving you’re still doing AB, feeding calves, putting crops in off the back of calving and if it’s been a good year maybe taking a crop of silage. It’s an incredibly busy time.” Andy says. “The extended daylight hours help
In October about 25% of the farm is cropped for maize, which is fed once calving starts.
because you can be out until 9pm at night if you wish. If you have things to do that didn’t get done through the day you’ve got time to do them. “They don’t seem so hard to do when it’s warm and light instead of dark, wet and cold and you’re wearing wet weather gear and a headlamp.” They also see autumn calving as a way to look out for the mental wellbeing of themselves, their family and staff. “You never get the young years with your children back. That’s is why autumn calving suits us and our family right down to the ground,” Lisa says. “You have to make it so the farming system doesn’t always come first, make it so family comes first. “Otherwise, there’s a strain on the relationships with each other and the kids too if they’re not seeing you often
and when they do you’re tried and stressed out. You must make farming fit so you’re not wasting those years. Anything unbalanced quickly falls over.” Andy feels if anyone is contemplating winter milking they should do it in the right region with the correct environmental conditions. The farm’s soil structure must be able to handle the wet months. “You can chase the carrot that’s dangled in front of you but there’s always a cost, whether it’s financial or detrimental to your family or your mental health. We want to run a balanced farm in all of its facets,” he says. “It’s not about saying autumn calving is better than spring calving or vice versa. “What you chose is more to do with what suits you, your time, farm, location and infrastructure.” n
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AUTUMN CALVING
Trial looks at autumn calving SONITA CHANDAR
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ITH autumn calving becoming popular along the coastal belt of Taranaki, Dairy Trust Taranaki (DTT) is running a trial to investigate its benefits on their 213 effective hectare Kavanagh Farm near Hawera. The trial is being overseen by operations manager Debbie McCallum, who says the autumn/spring calving trial was established in October 2017. The 604 mixed aged Friesian-cross cows were randomly allocated into two herds with 104 ha/farmlet to give a stocking rate of 2.9 cows/ha. The spring calving cows were mated from October 4 to December 20. Autumn calving cows weren’t mated in spring but instead from June 10 to August 27. The spring calving cows were dried off in early May according to a feed budget and body condition scores (BCS) with calving starting July 10. Autumn calving cows were milked through the winter of 2018 and were dried late January 2019 based on BCS, expected calving date and feed budget starting December 2018. The start of calving for the autumn herd was mid-March 2019 with dry off date January 27 2020. Year 1 and 2 were transition years from spring to autumn calving. The trial will track the herds for three lactations. The
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autumn herd has just completed its first lactation and the spring herd is halfway through its second. “Although Year 1 was targeted as a transition year, it was proposed to take detailed measurements on best practice for farmers and compare systems in the first season,” McCallum says. Measurements include milk production from four weekly herd tests plus vat measurements, pasture growth from calibrated weekly visual estimation of all paddocks (twice a week in winter), pre and post herbage mass measurements and estimated cow intakes, supplements harvested and fed, cow liveweights and BCS, animal health, cow fertility events and full financial analysis of both systems. McCallum says DairyNZ’s Taranaki Farmers’ Forum in Hawera on March 11 will update farmers on a project which looks at the effects of transitioning an entire herd from spring calving to autumn calving. “Masters student Jake Jarman, who is analysing the project’s data, will present the provisional results of the Kavanagh farm trial that compares a steady state spring-calving herd with a herd that has transitioned from spring-calving to autumn-calving. “Milk production, days-in-milk, six-week in-calf rate, liveweight, body condition score, pasture growth and supplementary feed use comparisons between the two farmlets will be presented. Jake works on the autumn calving project alongside DairyNZ senior scientist Dr Jane Kay.” n
How to make the switch CHRIS GLASSEY DairyNZ farm systems specialist THERE are three common approaches to transitioning to autumn calving we are aware of farmers taking. These are: 1. Selling the spring-calving herd and buying an autumn-calving herd 2. Gradually transitioning cows to autumn-calving over a number of seasons. In essence the farm is operated like a split-calving farm for a number of seasons 3. Complete a whole herd transition across two seasons For options 2 and 3, extended lactations occur. From a farm management perspective, achieving any of the three approaches above requires three main on-farm decisions to be made to initiate the change: 1. Decide to sell the current herd, and decide when to sell them and when to receive the new herd 2. For the replacement heifers decide either mate them earlier than normal or delay their mating 3. For the current milking herd decide either mate them earlier than normal or delay their mating Each farm is different and farmers are choosing to adopt different combinations of the six options above. There also needs to be careful financial planning and forecasting undertaken as the transition cost to autumn calving can be significant. These costs can include lost income and the potential extra cost of purchasing autumn calving cows. There also needs to be a detailed examination of the farm’s suitability to produce winter milk. This includes looking at issues like the local climatic conditions and soil suitability for winter milking.
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One last word …
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HE team at Dairy Farmer always enjoys hearing from readers and likes to hook them while they are young. We were sent this photo of one our big little fans by Jacinda from Otago who says they all enjoy reading the magazine. We just had to share it with everyone. This is two-year-old Sophie who, on this occasion, decided it was time to read her cows a story so stopped by their paddock with a copy of Dairy Farmer. Thanks Jacinda, these are the little things that make us smile and make our job even more worthwhile. Mother Nature is causing headaches for many farmers around the country. Hot and dry conditions have caused pasture growth to stall and paddocks frizzle away to dirt. The lack of rain has many farmers dipping into their supplementary feed reserves while others are destocking, putting their cows on once-a-day or 16-hour milkings. Throughout January NIWA soil moisture deficit maps have shown soil moisture levels significantly below historical averages across the upper North Island, parts of Waikato, Taranaki, Manawatu, the North Island’s East Coast, Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago. The driest soils across the North Island, when compared to normal for this time of the year, were found across much of Northland and northern Waikato while the wettest soils for this time of the year are in Wairoa District (Hawke’s Bay). In addition, the Drought Index shows the upper North Island has widespread extremely dry soils and some places in Northland, Auckland and northern Waikato have reached meteorological drought conditions. With no significant rain on the horizon the situation is likely to get worse. DairyNZ has put together some tips to help farmers keep cows comfortable in warm weather. Farmers can: Ensure ample water is available to cows both day and night by checking flow rates to water troughs are high. Lactating cows need 100 litres a day. Provide ample shade. Many farmers
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also use sprinklers and fans in dairy sheds to cool cows. Avoid giving high-fibre feed to cows during the daytime because it increases heat load. Change milking times to avoid the heat of the day. Moving to once-a-day milking or three milkings over two days is worth considering.
Let’s hope for some decent rain for those areas where people are struggling – and soon please Mother Nature.
Sonita
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February 2020
Dairy Diary February 2020 February 10-11 DairyNZ InCalf Foundations Hamilton The InCalf Foundations training course teaches participants how to use InCalf’s innovative resources and tools to help improve the reproductive performance of dairy herds. It is aimed at rural professionals and veterinarians but farmers with a keen interest in reproduction should also attend. Info at www. dairyevents.co.nz February 11-12 DairyNZ Biz Start event Temuka and Dunsandel Reach your goals faster with DairyNZ’s Biz Start. If you want to gain clarity on ways to progress in your career, be inspired to take the next step, gain confidence to achieve your goals and meet inspirational, positive, and supportive people then Biz Start is for you. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz February 11 SMASH Creating your Future Farm Karaka Join us for our visit to Brian, Cathy and David Yates, where we will find out why they installed AMS on their organic farm and what they have learned from their experience. Hear from Brian de la Rue about AMS, Sophia Clark from PGG Wrightson on autumn pasture and Murray Lane of Ballance Agri-Nutrients on how to build and maintain healthy soils to support vigorous pasture growth. Info at www.smallerherds.co.nz February 12-14 Southern Field Days 2020 Southern Field Days Waimumu Gore On show over three days is the latest in rural technology, equipment and ideas from around the world. Info at https://www.southernfielddays.co.nz/ February 13 SMASH Creating your Future Farm Pukehina Bay of Plenty Join us for our visit to Tim and Melanie Cummings’ farm, where they are looking for extra sidelines to add to their dairy farm and kiwifruit orchard. Hear from Laura Campbell, Rabobank, on how to diversify your business, Jane LacyHulbert, DairyNZ, on mastitis and drying off and Greg Hamill, LIC , who will discuss the breeding options you can consider for next season’s mating. Info at www.smallerherds.co.nz February 13 Lincoln University Lincoln University Dairy Demonstration Farm (LUDF) Focus Day LUDF Focus Days are aimed at dairy farmers (owners, managers and staff) and dairy industry professionals who are invited to come along and hear about what’s happening at LUDF. Season to-date performance and research and development updates Info at http://www.siddc.org.nz/lu-dairy-farm/ February 18-19 DairyNZ People Expo 2020 Southland and Canterbury/North Otago Are you a good boss? Want to take your farm team to the next level? You’ll be part of the discussion at three interactive workshops run by New Zealand experts and leading farmers. Walk away with practical advice and tips and tools that will immediately add value to your business and help to improve your working environment. Info at www.dairyevents.co.nz
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February 18 Dairy Women’s Network Getting my goals and financial performance aligned South Canterbury NZ CA Limited, Figured and Xero are proud to deliver this interactive workshop for members to see the importance of long-term thinking and how today will have an impact on what they will achieve in five years. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events February 20 SMASH Visit to Massey No.1 Palmerston North Jolanda Amoore, farm manager, will outline the research being conducted on Massey No.1, share insights on once a day milking and talk about its unique situation - bordering an urban area where there is extensive exposure to non-farming public scrutiny. Also hear from Gray Beagley, DairyNZ, on variable milking options and Lisa Whitfield, Massey University, on mastitis and drying off. Info at www.smallerherds.co.nz February 20 Dairy Women’s Network MINGO Night Selwyn Come along for an evening filled with laughter, fun, and entertainment. MINGO is a great combination of BINGO and Music. Like BINGO, but instead of numbers we play the song, you identify it and if it is on your card cross it off. Get a team of four together, dress up as your favourite artist or band. Info at www.dwn.co.nz/events Dairy Industry regional awards evening New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards various locations and dates throughout March The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards attracts farmers from across the country, working in all levels of the industry. The awards programme showcases and supports our passionate farmers of the future. Tickets on sale now. Info at https://www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz/ Young Farmer District regional finals February 2020 District contest and skills days are over and the top contestants from each district progress through to one of seven regional finals for the chance to compete at the national FMG Young Farmer of the Year contest. February 8 Waikato/Bay of Plenty; February 22 Taranaki/Manawatu; February 29 East Coast. DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum 2020 Farming the future with confidence What does the future hold for dairying? How can you best respond to what’s coming down the track? Find out at a Farmers’ Forum in your region. DairyNZ’s Farmers’ Forums are being held in Northland, Waikato, Taranaki, Canterbury and Southland. This is your opportunity to understand what is driving change in the dairy sector and how to respond, hear about the latest science happening in your and more. More info and to register at dairynz.co.nz/farmersforum
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