Dairy Farmer August 2022 by AgriHQ

AUGUST 2022 | $8.95

Treasuring the land Iwi-owned farms are a taonga for their people

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Switch to dairy pays off ➜ Top farm manager ➜ Health and beauty on the farm ➜ Challenges and opportunities in dairy

CONTENTS NEWS August 2022 | $8.95 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.

Milk Monitor Milk production down 4.1% across all of last season

Dairy challenges The dairy sector is set to face even more challenges

ON FARM STORY 8

Forever farming Iwi-owned farm is productive and sustainable for the future

20 Cows trump computers Dairy Industry Awards Farm Manager of the Year

FARMING CHAMPIONS 7

Guest column – Kylie Cronin

28 Women in agribusiness – Eden Ritchie

FEATURES 46 Spring calving 54 Mental health and wellbeing

REGULAR FEATURES 32 Research 38 Animal health

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COVER STORY Iwi-owned farms are a taonga for their people

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GUEST COLUMN

Getting your farm forecast right By Kylie Cronin

With ongoing uncertainty and increasing costs, it is vital farmers have a plan in place for the year ahead.

ith winter well under way, it’s beginning to look like the bad weather has set in for the long haul. Not only is grain hard to come by, we’ve seen prices for all kinds of feed rising by over 50% in some cases. With the conflict in Ukraine still ongoing, there’s little relief in sight. Meanwhile, some dairy farmers are facing $70,000 to $100,000 in additional costs per 100,000 kilograms of milksolids this year. That’s why it’s never been more important to have a plan for the year ahead. Milk price uncertainty The 2021-22 forecast Farmgate Milk Price of $9.60 has been revised back to $9.30, while rising costs have eaten into profits over the past six months. There’s still confusion over exactly where milk prices are going to go. Fonterra has come out of the gate with a $9 midpoint, while NZX Futures are forecasting $10 and higher. On the other side of the fence, the banks are heading back towards the $8 ranges. Who’s right? If you follow the “history always goes in cycles” theory, we should be over the hill and potentially prices will start drifting backwards, but the market continues to suggest otherwise. If you’re uneasy about what could be on the other side of that hill, and want some

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

certainty, it might be time to consider hedging tools like Fixed Milk Price and Milk Futures. Planning for cost increases We haven’t seen the full impact of inflation yet because expenses have only been increasing significantly over the past six months. While the latest milk payout is good, costs are expected to increase to anywhere from 70c-$1/kg of production. If your farm does 100,000kg MS that’s $70,000-$100,000 of additional costs. That’s going to hurt. That’s why it’s important to come to grips with your financial position now, when it’s not quite as busy on the farm. We all know costs are increasing. Fuel prices have risen by over 37% in the last 12 months. That means if you’ve copied over last year’s vehicle expenses as a base for FY23, you’ll almost certainly have underbudgeted. You may also have received an email lately from your fertiliser company with their updated pricing. Consider if you can substitute products, or be more selective in your applications. Another possibility is soil mapping to make fertiliser applications more targeted, with less wastage. Start your forecast by considering everything from break-even milk prices to pasture and feed requirements, then once you have your baseline, work to

create a financial plan and establish goals for the year ahead. Make sure you assess every couple of months, so if you’re not tracking where you want to be, you can change tack before it’s too late. Tax and interest rates With farm profits rising in the last couple of years, your tax obligations have likely increased as well. With the change in provisional tax interest rules, you may need to allow for additional provisional tax payments so you aren’t caught short. Likewise, consider when your interest rates roll off. An increased interest rate of 2% might double your interest bill. This has the potential to unravel your business, so work with an advisor to make some tweaks to your debt repayment timing, debt structuring and budget to reduce your risk margin before your next meeting with the bank. With other headwinds such as labour shortages, wage and accommodation pressures (especially as workers will be less likely to travel while fuel costs are high), planning ahead for 2023 is essential. As every farmer knows, a bit of hard work preparing the pasture can see you in clover later – or at least, on much firmer ground. n

Who am I?

Kylie Cronin is a rural advisor at Baker Tilly Staples Rodway in Taranaki.

ON FARM Iwi-owned Pouarua Farms chief executive Jenna Smith says the land is a taonga for its people and will never be sold. Photos: Stephen Barker

Forever farming Kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga of the land guides iwi to ensure they follow best practice for their asset and people.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

By Gerald Piddock

Land once taken from them is now back in the hands of iwi who are looking after it for future generations while making it more productive and sustainable.

ouarua Farms takes a longterm outlook when it comes to managing the land. For the five iwi who own the Hauraki Plains’ largest dairy platform, that means making decisions that will sustain the land and create an intergenerational asset. The farms are a taonga for their iwi and will never be sold, says chief executive Jenna Smith. “The outlook’s further than five or 10 years. We’re looking 50 to 100 years and it’s about sustaining the land, being productive and keep it returning to the people for generations to come,” says Smith. The farms, totalling 2,100ha, are jointly owned by Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Tara Tokanui and Te Patukirikiri. The farms lie within the Māori land blocks known as Ngarua, Waitakaruru and Puhangateuru and are named after the two sticks that were once used as location markers for these blocks. The Waitangi Tribunal confirmed that the iwi of Hauraki suffered raupatu by the Crown and were marginalised in their own rohe, being among the most landless of iwi in the nation. Pouarua Farms were returned to the five iwi in 2013 in the largest on-account Treaty settlement ever made by the Crown. The iwi used the money from the

settlement to purchase the farms from the Crown. “They had to buy their own land back,” Smith says. Prior to that, the farms were run by Landcorp and from 2013-2019 were run in a sharemilking arrangement with the Crown SOE. For the past three years, the farms have been run by their iwi owners, overseen by a board with iwi elected members. That board is chaired by Paul Majurey, and its other directors include Tainui Group Holdings chair Hinerangi Raumati, John McEnteer, and Rick Braddock. When Smith came into the chief executive role in April 2019, she set about leading the ownership transition. She began by examining the land’s capability and deciding what was the best use of that land and how the income could be strengthened, given that it is a cashflow business, she says. Above all, the goal is to create food from the land – and that does not necessarily mean dairy farming. “A lot of it started with looking at best practice for the land and what was working and we tied that into income diversifications to create a more resilient business.” That has resulted in a section of the land being converted to a blueberry plantation, using beehives to supply

Continued page 10

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FARM FACTS • Pouarua Farms • Location: Hauraki Plains • 10 farms in total: Eight dairy farms and one drystock farm and a blueberry orchard • Farm size: 2,100ha in total (1,775ha in dairy and the balance in drystock or the orchard) • Cows: 4,700 dairy cows with 4,400 calving this spring, 200-400 beef cattle farmed as trade cattle, 500 dairy-Wagyu calves reared and sold at weaning or finished. • Production 2021-2022: 1.62 million kilograms of milksolids across eight farms. • Production target 2022-2023: 1.65mkg MS. • Staff numbers: 40 fulltime staff.

The 4,700-cow herd across eight farms produced 1.62 million kilograms of milksolids last season and the target for this season is 1.65mkg MS.

Comvita with Mānuka honey and using Wagyu genetics to breed dairy beef from their herd which are not being mated for replacements. These calves are then sold to Firstlight for their beef. Part of another dairy farm was also

converted to a beef finishing farm that buys in young cattle to finish at 18 months to two years of age. The blueberry orchard is the most recent diversification, with the plants put in the ground in the winter of 2021 and

the first harvest planned for the end of this year. Smith says about 85% of that crop will be exported. “We have to look at whether we can do dairying sustainably but also if it’s financially viable. Some of our dairy farms are propping up our other dairy farms and long term I would say that while we possibly won’t reduce cow numbers further, we will look for efficiencies in reducing the amount of separate farms, and what area they are farmed on.” The farms required extensive infrastructure development when the iwi bought the farms and have undergone extensive redevelopment. Nine new Kliptank effluent systems have been installed over the past three years at an approximate cost of $3 million, along with low application hard hose irrigators to spread the effluent out. The systems are all GPS monitored and equipped with fail-safe technology letting the farmers know where the effluent is being applied and alerting them if there is a mechanical fault. Smith says the Kliptank system is used because the farms all sit on peat soils

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The farms, totalling 2,100ha, are jointly owned by Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Tara Tokanui and Te Patukirikiri, and milk 4,700 cows.

that carry a risk of leaching nutrients. Having the tanks above the soil stopped the effluent from potentially leaching into the soil from the ponds. The tanks can also be disassembled if required. Staff housing was also improved and all 29 houses meet the Government’s Healthy Home standard. The housing is monitored by an external housing manager, meaning regular and timely inspections and maintenance.

A new 54-bail rotary dairy shed has been installed on the largest of the farms, Farm A. The modern new shed uses Protrack, is fully automated and sits on a carbon composite platform rather than a traditional steel platform. Its lighter weight means reduced wear and tear on the platform’s rollers and reduces the necessary load on the base, reducing the cost. The rest of the farms have had lowerscale upgrades with automation and

Pouarua Farms are run by their iwi owners, overseen by a board with iwi-elected members. Chief executive Jenna Smith and operations manager Stuart Telfer oversee the farms.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

other new technology retrofitted into the shed to modernise them. The 4,700 cow herd was also fitted with Allflex collars for heat detection and for monitoring animal health. Another of the farms was reconfigured from a 500ha farm milking 1,400 cows through one shed to two separate farms with the second farm converted to the drystock block, and the herd numbers reduced to 850. The reduction is part of an overall herd reduction from 5,100-5,200 to 4,700 cows. Smith says having such large numbers was inefficient and not reaching the farms’ productive potential. “We felt that with the seasonal pressures and climatic pressures the land wasn’t supporting itself so we saw that as an opportunity to create that drystock block.” The higher stocking rate under its previous owners required a more intensive system, requiring high feed inputs to ensure the cows were properly fed. It also had a cost structure that did not support the production that was coming off the farm, she says. The intensity was reduced from a System 3-4 to closer to a System 2, shifting closer to a System 3 during the droughts. The farms are pasture based with no brought-in feed such as palm kernel or other brought-in concentrates. The farms grow 50ha of maize for silage and grain for their own use and a further 120ha of maize sold on the market.

Continued page 12

the farms more resilient to the summer droughts, Smith says. While the bulk of the farms calve in spring, Pouarua Farms does have one farm operating a split calving system because it supplies nearby Green Valley Dairies with milk, which in turn supplies Lewis Road Creamery. The supply agreement required milk all year round. That farm has an A2 herd and the necessary soils and infrastructure to be able to properly feed the cows all year round.

“We have thousands of shareholders and we want to be able to prove to them that we are operating in a best practice model and that it’s independently assessed and verified by somebody else.” Jenna Smith

Pouarua Farms employs 40 full-time staff across all of it properties. Chief executive Jenna Smith with Farm A staff, Iloi Balawa, operations manager Stuart Telfer, farm manager Cama Tikoitoga and Steven Tukerangi on farm bike.

Both, along with grass silage, are used to supplement the cows’ diet over the season’s shoulders. All up, the changes have led to a 35% increase in production per hectare across the farms. “And that’s despite three significant years of dry,” she says. The farms have also introduced a summer cropping programme with turnips direct drilled for multiple maturity dates to spread out the feed availability over the season from November to January. Behind the early-maturing turnips, sorghum is also drilled to provide the cows with a cheap feed alternative, keeping the herd fed until mid-February and March.

This also ensures the land is not sitting fallow over the summer months, which can be detrimental to peat soil structures. By that stage, the maize crop is usually ready for harvest and a local contractor cuts it for silage. The farms have also undergone a comprehensive re-grassing programme at about 700ha a year across the farms. This is a shift away from perennial ryegrass to Italian hybrid varieties, providing good bulk feed for the farm in winter and spring with the surplus cut for silage or baleage. They now assume at least four months of dry weather with low to no growth over summer, and while the changes are still a work in progress, they should make

Pouarua Farms has a forever planting plan that was established when the iwi purchased the property. Over that time, 7,500 plants per year have been put in the ground, creating gardens used to grow medicinal plants for traditional Māori medicine as well as flaxes for weaving. The farms’ drains, raceways and other main thoroughfares have been planted with riparians to improve water quality and sediment loss. The cropping process has also changed from full cultivation to using no tillage or direct drill. Behind the blueberry orchard is 20ha of land that in the past was peat mined. This has been allowed to regenerate into native vegetation in the hope it could be turned into a carbon sink. All of these actions along with the reduction in stocking rates have seen Pouarua Farms’ nitrogen footprint fall by 11% across all farms. “We’re ahead of our game in knowing all of our numbers and have certainly put ourselves in a good position to be responsive if we need to be,” Smith says. The business switched suppliers from Open Country Dairy to Synlait on June 1 last year. Within a few months, all of the farms were certified at a gold-plus level with Synlait’s Lead with Pride scheme. “We were pretty happy with that result.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

Watching the herd come in for milking are staff member Dion Wehi, CEO Jenna Smith, operations manager Stuart Telfer and Farm F manager Josh le Gros.

It shows that we’re already operating at a high level with the changes we had made in the previous year.” Smith says they switched to Synlait because it better aligned with Pouarua Farms’ values. “We have thousands of shareholders and we want to be able to prove to them that we are operating in a best practice model and that it’s independently assessed and verified by somebody else. OCD doesn’t yet have that ‘inside the gate’ approach.” When the iwi took over, managers were appointed to each of the farms with staff allocated to each. There is a robust operating procedure for each of the farms, which the managers then enact. That procedure includes bottom lines, such as not operating the farm on anything less favourable than a 6-2 roster, meaning the manager can operate however they wish within that framework, but it will not be less than that. Operations manager Stuart Telfer also meets and talks with the managers frequently to catch up on farm business. The farms are all run as separate entities with their own budgets and plans and there is little integration of resources. This encourages the managers to take ownership of their farm. For the spring calving farms, a typical season has about 30% of the herd (all of the in-calf heifers and early calving cows) grazing off at Wairakei Estate in South Waikato. This reduces the stocking burden on

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

Farm manager Cama Tikoitoga changes the milk liners in the shed on Farm A while discussing operations with chief executive Jenna Smith.

the milking platform with the older cattle wintering on an all-grass system. Sexed semen is used on the cows they wish to breed replacements from with the rest being mated to Wagyu or other dairy beef genetics. Those heifers and cows return for calving, which starts in late July. Part-time calf rearers are employed yearly to look after the calves and while each farm has its own rearing facilities, these rearers might work through two to three of the farms at a time.

The Wagyu calves are reared separately in a purpose-built facility. A portion of those calves are sold at weaning while the rest are reared and finished on the farm. Genetics-wise, they aim to slowly breed the herd away from being Friesian to having more of a Jersey dominance, reducing the cow’s size and its load on the soil. Pasture growth has been good

Continued page 14

Stuart Telfer and Jenna Smith inspect the plants in the blueberry orchard, which is the most recent diversification.

through winter and spring over the past few seasons, allowing them to cut for silage and take full advantage of that pasture surplus. “There’s a real concentration on fully fed animals of an all-grass diet that’s high quality. It’s why we went to baleage so we could take out small areas of surpluses so it wasn’t affecting quality and getting it back into the rotation quicker.” At peak the cows are milking 2.1-2.2kg MS/cow/day. Mating then starts and the introduction of collars that automatically detect when a cow is in heat has been a valuable aid, she says. For now, Smith says they are looking to fine-tune their farms, continually look to improve while keeping a close eye on their limitations, especially as the farms come under increasing climatic pressures. “We need to work out what that means for our business long term as there are external pressures coming and we have to make sure we are playing our part.” That meant taking part in those conversations and maintaining dialogue with local and central Government to remain informed of regulatory changes that may occur. “I feel incredibly comfortable staring into that stuff. It doesn’t bother me because I know we are operating in line with best practice because our kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga of the land guides us. It’s something Māori have done for years and now we just need to report on the practices.”

Pouarua Farms was also a finalist in the Ahuwhenua Trophy last year, which Smith says was a “full-on” experience. She says they always had the intention of entering the contest when the iwi bought the farms. The competition alternates between dairy sheep and beef and horticulture every year and last year it was dairy’s turn.

“We want to see more tangata or mana whenua on the farms, that’s the vision. We had a workforce of approximately 20% Māori about 18 months ago, we’re now at 41%. That’s a strong tie to the shareholders, through employment.” Jenna Smith The former chair, the late Hon John Luxton, urged his fellow directors to have a go when it came up as a topic of discussion at a board meeting. “It was an intensive process and a really good one at such a young stage in our journey in that full ownership. “We got to take stock of what we had done and have someone else come in and critique the bits we haven’t done quite so well and the bits we hadn’t thought about. To have that feedback at

such an early stage at two years into full ownership was really beneficial.” They have taken that feedback and are using it as part of their future strategy. “It’s given us that assurance that we’re heading in the right direction in terms of diversifying the land capabilities. It definitely cemented a few thoughts for us and gave us the confidence that we were up there with some pretty good organisations.” Smith says the board members, as iwi-elected limited directors, look at the business through a commercial lens as well as being landowners. “They are incredibly supportive of me and give me autonomy to run the business how I see fit. We’ve turned it into a profitable business that is returning record profits, which in turn returns to their shareholders.” The most noticeable way that it has returned to its iwi is through employment, she says. “We want to see more tangata or mana whenua on the farms, that’s the vision. We had a workforce of approximately 20% Māori about 18 months ago, we’re now at 41%. That’s a strong tie to the shareholders, through employment.” Pouarua Farms also looks at how it can help the local iwi in other ways, whether it be meat from livestock, sweetcorn in the maize paddock, or firewood from fallen trees to keep homes warm in winter. “We don’t pretend to be perfect, but we have the best intentions and that goes a long way. We’re still working out what ‘forever’ looks like, but when you know it’s

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

The blueberry plants were put in the ground in the winter of 2021 and the first harvest is planned for the end of this year. About 85% of the harvest will be exported.

forever it’s pretty easy to take your time and work it out.” Smith says the synergy was not always there when trying to be productive,

profitable and align with their values. “But it’s funny, when you take profit off the table as your first and only thought and start looking at some of those

other measures of what good looks like in terms of looking after the land and looking after the people, the profit comes naturally.” n

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MILK MONITOR

Looking for that spring in our step By Gerald Piddock

Each month the Milk Monitor delves into the dairy industry and gives us the low-down on the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between.

t seems like an age since the wave of high dairy prices on the GDT. March 1 was the last serious rise, at 5.1%. Since then, eight out of the nine previous auctions were negative, apart from a small 1.5% lift on June 22. No one seems to be panicking, though, probably because it was coming off such a massive high and a correction was inevitable. NZX dairy insights manager Stu Davison says extra volumes and expectations of market pressures on consumers created a market that expected – almost needed – prices to fall significantly lower. Since that March 1 auction, overall prices have fallen 23% and whole milk powder prices, 25%, according to Westpac’s Dairy Update. It had expected a 4% fall in WMP prices, and the futures market pointed to a fall of about 6% prior to the auction. It highlighted a weakening in global dairy demand and a softening of the Chinese economy as the reasons for the fall. But the latter is expected to be temporary as the country lifts its covid restrictions. This bullish outlook has seen ASB retain its $9.25/kg milk solids forecast. ASB has kept its $10/kg MS forecast due to tight global milk supply. It too is taking the price slide in its stride, saying in its Commodities Weekly publication that it is not stressing too much about auction-to-auction swings in pricing, instead waiting to see what happens in spring. While prices are under pressure, last season followed a similar trajectory with buyers cautiously on hold over the winter before normal service resumed when it became clear global production was still stuck in a rut, it said. “That’s no guarantee the same will happen this season, but it’s a good reason to be focusing on the market fundamentals at this point in the season, and not only the fortnightly auction moves.” Fonterra too appears to be taking a

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

Production was down 4.1% across all of last season in New Zealand and down 6.5% in May.

long-term view, lifting its new season opening price on June 23 by 50 cents to a mid-point range of $9.50/kg milk solids. Likewise, Synlait matched that forecast on July 6. Fonterra has retained a wide forecast range of $8.75-$10.25/kg MS, giving it a good buffer if the slide in values continues, forcing a correction. Chief executive Miles Hurrell said at the time it reflected the high level of uncertainty that came from operating in a globally traded volatile market. Global supply looks like it will remain tight as high input costs continue to keep a lid on production in the northern hemisphere. According to ASB, EU milk collections over May are weak, reflecting the ongoing energy crisis, drought, rising input costs and other unfavourable onfarm economic headwinds. “The poor first half of the year in the EU means there is 325k tonnes less milk floating about from the world’s largest exporter,” it said. Similarly, in New Zealand production was down 4.1% across all of last season and down 6.5% in May. In Australia production was down -5.9% over the past three months. The one glaring concern is the ongoing impact of input prices on squeezing farmers’ margins. This was hit home in agricultural consultancy company

AgFirst’s annual financial survey of 25 dairy farms in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions. It forecast a break-even payout of $8.44/kg MS. This is the payout farmers require to meet basic on-farm expenditure and it’s not too far away from the low end of Fonterra’s forecast range. Feed and fertiliser costs led the way on these input hikes, up 19% and 30% respectively. It was, the survey said, a major concern because it continues to reflect ongoing on-farm cost inflation, which has run at twice the level of the consumer price index over the past five years. The increase in expense is also starting to impact confidence, something which is highlighted in Rabobank’s latest quarterly rural confidence survey. It shows that farmer confidence is at its lowest level since the start of the covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. It’s not all bad heading into spring. One small positive for farmers in the dairy stronghold of Waikato is that the recent rain over the past month looks to have gone a long way to replenish soils and water tables after the drought. A good, early spring would really help set these farmers up for the season with supplementary feed supply and prices tight and high. The subsequent production would also provide a good indicator for the market fundamentals for the season ahead. n

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES SUMMIT

By the horns By Gerald Piddock

That’s how the dairy industry should tackle the many challenges facing it, says a panel of dairy sector leaders.

he dairy industry should concern itself with what it can and cannot control and look to keep improving itself if it is to meet the challenge alternative milk is setting, says a dairy industry leader. If it does this, it will stay ahead, Miraka chief executive Karl Gradon told farmers and industry leaders at the Primary Industries Summit. “We need to worry about what the dairy industry is able to do and continue to raise the bar about dairying in New Zealand,” said Gradon. “Dairy nutrition is extremely important in many countries around the world and [we’ll succeed] if we do those things simply – and keep a watching brief – but remember what we are good at.” Gradon was one of four dairy industry leaders taking part in a panel discussion looking at challenges and opportunities the sector is facing. DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said alternatives will

develop with technology and perhaps may one day match dairy’s nutritional value. “But in the meantime, we have got to be able to articulate its values and research what we have got.” Synthetic milk could create dairy ingredient components, he said, but he is still doubtful it could match the fats, vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids that come from a dairy product. “Half of the world’s calcium comes from dairy.” Federated Farmers vicepresident Wayne Langford said he believes alternative milks will be seen as lowervalue products compared to what is produced on farm. Asked about the industry shifting from volume to more value-added products, Gradon said that with peak cow numbers being passed in New Zealand, the industry has to re-hone its thoughts and consider how it can add value to all of the industry’s exports. “Format and product

DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle (left) and Miraka chief executive Karl Gradon outline the challenges the dairy industry faces during a panel discussion at the Primary Industries of New Zealand Summit in Auckland. Photo: Jay Creaghan of Manic Photography

type are going be essential to get right. Today we’re largely geared towards whole powder drys – including ourselves.”

While the milk product format is critical, it also has to resonate with the market they are in, which makes trade agreements critical

too, he said. “You can’t do one without the other.” Mackle said it is a myth that milk powders are a commodity and that has to be debunked in the eyes of the public. There is not going to be any more growth coming from cow numbers. It has to come from value, he said. “And one of the key aspects to unlocking that value is trade.” The signing of the free trade agreement with the European Union and its lack of access for the dairy industry came as no surprise to Langford, and he did not blame EU farmers for their reaction. “It’s a pretty unsettled world at the moment,” he said.

“The EU free trade agreement has opened the door and we can get some product in and if our product is as good as we say it is, then hopefully we can get a bit more as well.” Wayne Langford “Still, it’s opened the door and we can get some product in and if our product is as good as we say it is, then hopefully we can get a bit more as well.” Gradon said after living in Latin America, Europe and Asia prior to becoming Miraka chief executive, these are exciting markets. Nutritionally, dairy is going to set the benchmark and there are wonderful opportunities. “I think we should be doubling down on them and supporting the Government and getting alongside them to make them a reality.” Asked about the tighter

The notion that New Zealand produces milk powder as a commodity is a myth, says DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle.

regulations the industry is facing, Pouarua Farms chief executive Jenna Smith said these throw up challenges as well as opportunities to remain competitive. But what works for one farmer may not work for another. “You really have to sit back and re-examine what your business’s constraints are with the regulatory controls that are coming.” Langford said it frustrates him when regulation is poor – as is the case with the proposed changes to the dairy cow animal welfare code. “It should never have come out in the form that it has. It’s going to take so much work to get it to a place where it is better. If we had worked together earlier we could have achieved a better result.” Mackle said there is a growing sense of unease among the industry at the pace and scale of regulation. “It’s got to be about fixing a problem and that’s our philosophy at DairyNZ. What are we trying to solve? I think that’s the real struggle for farmers, when they can’t see the link between the problem being solved and what they have been asked to do.” The industry has problems it needs to fix, Mackle said, but he is concerned about dogma being introduced that is not science or evidence based. The panel was also asked about bobby calves and the

challenges the issue poses around animal welfare. Smith said doing nothing is not an option and farmers should consider reducing their numbers of bobbies either by using beef genetics or sexed semen. “Start slowly because it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier to jump from a lower starting point than it will be from a big edge.”

Langford said bobby calf numbers currently sit at about 1.8 million nationwide. Even if that is reduced to 1 million, it is still a sizable number of calves that have to be dealt with. There is also value in that calf, and it should not be seen as a byproduct. “What can we do in this space to take a little of that heat off?” Langford asked. n

Notice of Election - DairyNZ Board of Directors - DairyNZ Directors Remuneration Invitation for 2022 candidate nominations – three positions available In October, an election will take place for two farmer-elected directors for the Board of DairyNZ Incorporated and a second election for one member of DairyNZ’s Directors’ Remuneration Committee. Current levy-paying dairy farmers are invited to nominate candidates to fill these three positions. All farmers paying a levy on milksolids to DairyNZ are eligible to stand for election. An information pack outlining desired criteria and nomination requirements for the position can be obtained from the Returning Officer. Nominations must be received by the Returning Officer by 12 noon on Monday 5 September 2022. Elections If more than the required nominations are received, an election will be carried out by internet voting using the STV (single transferable vote) voting method. Votes will be weighted by annual milksolids production. Voting credentials will be emailed to all registered DairyNZ levy payers on 19 September 2022, with voting closing at 12 noon on Monday, 17 October 2022. The DairyNZ Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 18 October 2022. Election results will be announced at the meeting. For further details contact the Returning Officer below. Anthony Morton Returning Officer – DairyNZ Incorporated

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

0800 666 935 iro@electionz.com

ON FARM

Jaspal Singh, the manager of a 220ha farm in the Waitaki Valley, South Canterbury, and his wife Ruby on the farm.

Cows trump computers Stint on Southland dairy farm convinces new-minted IT graduate to switch careers – and win

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

By Tony Benny

A South Canterbury farmer who decided to ditch a career in IT and go dairy farming has risen to the challenge to become a top farmer.

n immigrant from India who came to New Zealand to study IT dipped his toe into dairy farming to get a feel for it – but a stint on a dairy farm in Southland convinced him his future lay with cows, not computers, and earlier this year he was named Dairy Manager of the Year at the Dairy Industry Awards. Jaspal Singh is the manager on an 800-cow herd on a 220ha farm at Ikawai in the Waitaki Valley, South Canterbury, for sharemilkers Troy and Donna Yaxley. It is not where he expected to end up when he first arrived to study. Jaspal grew up in Punjab in the north of India, in the village of Sathiala in the district of Amritsar. His parents had a small farm where they grew wheat and rice and had a few buffaloes and two cows that were milked for home use. “When I was a child in India I liked to go with my dad and grandfather and help them on the farm,” recalls Singh. But he decided his future lay in computers, so he studied information

technology in India and then travelled to Auckland to further his studies. At the end of that course, one of his classmates told him about a dairy assistant’s job going on a 1000-cow farm in Mossburn, near Lumsden in northern Southland, so he decided to give it go. It was nothing like the small-scale dairying he remembered from home. “I started my job and after working there for a couple of weeks, I really started liking it,” says Jaspal. “After working for another couple of months, I loved it, so I decided I’m going to go for this job and this is my career. I loved the animals and land so much. “There are so many cows instead of just a few house-cows like in India. It was snowing in Mossburn when I arrived and we were feeding cows. I liked it,” he laughs. “My friends who studied IT with me, a few of them have IT jobs but I found that we should do what we love. I have a love for the animals and land and when I started working, I really enjoyed

Earlier this year Jaspal Singh was named Dairy Manager of the Year. The awards ceremony was livestreamed so his family in India could watch.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

FARM FACTS • Farm owners: Mark and Carmen Hurst • Sharemilkers: Troy and Donna Yaxley • Manager: Jaspal Singh • Location: Ikawai, Waitaki Valley, South Canterbury • Farm size: 220ha • Herd size: 800 Kiwi-cross • Production 2021-22: 383,000kg MS • Production target 2022-23: 390,000kg MS

that even though I didn’t know what a standard and a reel looked like, we’d never even seen that in India, but I had a positive attitude and I wanted to go for that and I did.” Jaspal not only loved the animals and the land, he also saw the opportunities offered by dairy farming in New Zealand. With the help of Primary ITO, he learnt from scratch, completing levels one to four. “That way I know the big picture as well as the little things and I’m having hands-on experience as well. The main thing is supportive employers, they let me do things and I did my best.” He stayed on the Mossburn farm for two years. In 2016 he returned home to marry Ruby, the girlfriend he left behind in Sathiala when he came to New Zealand in 2014. The newlyweds settled in Mossburn and Ruby initially found work in cafes but, like Jaspal, she was more interested in dairy farming. “For three months, every single day, I’m going with Jas and looking at what they are doing. My dad is a farmer back in India, we have a few cows we hand-

Continued page 22

Jaspal Singh originally came to New Zealand from India to study IT but after finishing his studies decided to try his hand at dairying and loved it so much he stayed.

milk and some land,” Ruby says. “Whenever I did something on the bike she’d want to come and when I milked the cows, she stood by me. Ruby’s an awesome calf-rearer too and helps with all the jobs,” Jaspal says. The couple, who became New Zealand residents this year, now have a threeyear-old son, Ryan. When their employer in Mossburn moved to a new sharemilking job near Kurow in the Waitaki Valley, they moved with them and then, looking to progress, Jaspal took a 2IC’s job in Maheno, south of Oamaru. A year and a half later he was given the opportunity to step up to a manager’s role on Mark and Carmen Hurst’s 220ha, 800-cow property at Ikawai, near Waimate, working for the Yaxleys. “I came here for an interview in July 2019 because Troy and Donna were looking for a farm manager because they have another farm to look after. They gave me a chance to prove myself as 2IC and after six months I became farm manager and have been manager here since then,” says Jaspal. The farm was converted from sheep 10 years ago. It’s irrigated by two centre pivots and some K-line, fed by water from the Morven Glenavy Irrigation scheme that takes it supply from the nearby Waitaki River. The milking shed is a 54-bail rotary shed with automatic cup removers and auto teat sprayers. The 60ha runoff is adjacent to the milking platform. Last season the 800-cow herd

produced 383,000kg of milk solids, which was about 2% down from the previous season, something he attributes to his decision to milk cows once a day for the first few weeks after calving to improve their body condition. “It helped the cows recover and get in calf,” he says. He also culled 40 cows that had high cell counts and mastitis in January. Per cow production last season was 479kg MS, down from 487kg MS the year before. The cows are fed mainly grass on the platform with some silage, made on the

runoff, plus grain in the shed, which he says is used more to help with grazing management than to boost production. The herd is wintered on the runoff where they’re fed fodder beet. If the weather turns wet and there’s danger of mud in the crop paddock, the herd is moved to drier ground and the beet is lifted by loader and delivered to the cows by trailer. He is aware of the environmental challenges facing dairy farming and that’s why his winter-grazing plan includes the provision to move the herd in wet weather. “I really agree with those steps DairyNZ is taking to protect our waterways from the cow dung and fertiliser and things, and we’re already taking steps to reduce that. I think every farmer is taking steps and they are serious about that.” The farm has no waterways, for which Jaspal is grateful. “I think that is a benefit for us but if we did, I think riparian planting is good, as well as keeping out stock so they don’t affect the waterways because that will affect fish life and drinking water.” “We have light and stony soil on the farm, which is challenging during wet weather to spread fertiliser and effluent, but we have a strong environmental plan to avoid that risk and a good marking system of CSA [critical source areas],” he says. Until a couple of seasons ago the herd was straight Friesian but now Kiwi-cross semen is being used. “Kiwi-cross has different benefits, they can efficiently turn grass into milk and

Last season the 800-cow herd produced 383,000kg of milksolids, which was about 2% down from the previous one, probably due to once-a-day milking for a few weeks after calving.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

“I found that we should do what we love. I have a love for the animals and land, and when I started working I really enjoyed that even though I didn’t know what a standard and a reel looked like, we’d never even seen that in India.” Jaspal Singh

Jaspal sets up a break fence on the runoff where the animals are wintered on fodder beet. This season there was not a lot of leaf, but the bulbs had fantastic growth.

suffer less lameness and mastitis,” he says. Mastitis has been a focus since he became manager and he’s overseen a reduction, from 32% of the herd getting infected during the season to 11%. He says that’s down to “a lot of little things”, attention to detail, starting with end-ofseason culling. “We select most of the cows who get mastitis and high SCC all the time and are treated more than two or three times but they’re not getting cured. We give them dry cow therapy but they’re coming in again and again the next season with the same problem, so I cull them.” The other key time is after calving and he takes his mastitis control to a higher level than is practised on many farms, adding rapid mastitis tests (RMT) for all cows to the customary stripping procedure. Previously four days after calving cows would go into the milking herd if stripping didn’t reveal any signs of mastitis.

Continued page 24

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Jaspal, son Ryan and wife Ruby Singh happily call NZ home but hope to visit India soon so Ryan can meet the family.

“We used to just strip the cows and if we see any mastitis, then we treat her. If we don’t see anything, it’s good. Four days later she can go into the milking herd. “But we decided to RMT test every single cow. We put all quarters’ milk into the solution and even milk that looks clear, when we put it on it becomes yellowish and sticky and then we say, ‘This is not good milk’.” He understands why most farmers don’t do an RMT test under the pressure of 30 or 40 cows calving daily, and accepts it does take time but he believes the results are worth it. They show up infections that would otherwise be missed. “If she’s sub-clinical, we send a sample to the vet and he tells us how to treat her. It’s kind of prevention. If she’d had clear milk and we’d let her go and she’s cupped, and then we use the same cup on another cow, the infection could spread and we end up with a lot of mastitis.” Another simple change has also helped. Previously the cows entered and left the shed on the same muddy track,

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“From the moment we entered the farm gate to the time we left, we witnessed an immaculately presented farm and a polished and professional presentation, which highlighted Jaspal’s knowledge and sense of responsibility for the farm’s management and performance.” Gray Beagley something he identified as a mastitis risk. “When the cow comes in her teats are closed but when she goes out her teats are open because she milked out, and all the shit goes into her udder.” Adding a mud-free exit lane solved that issue and the entry lane became less muddy too because the cows only walked on it once per milking and that delivered a bonus result with a reduction in lameness. The farm’s 800-cow herd is gradually becoming more of a Kiwi-cross herd and every effort is being made to improve its breeding and production worth using sexed semen and a CIDR programme that precedes the start of mating on October 26. The countdown to the CIDR

Jaspal Singh and his team – including Nathan Cooper, a Kiwi who is new to farming, and fellow migrant Inderjit Singh – get together several times a day to discuss farm jobs.

programme starts 45 days before mating with tail-painting, and cows that are revealed as non-cycling are selected for the intervention 10 days before mating starts. This is followed by two more programmes at two-week intervals. He has tweaked the CIDR programme by being more stringent about which cows are selected for inclusion than was the practice in the past. “If a cow got mastitis or she was older and she wasn’t coming on heat, she was selected for the programme but in the end she was going to be culled anyway because we needed space or she had mastitis or a high cell count, but this time

Staff members Inderjit Singh, Jaspal Singh, and Nathan Cooper discuss feeding the herd.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

I left those cows out,” he says “I say we can’t waste CIDRs on them. That way I saved 41 cows from the season before but still got a six-weekin-calf of 76%. Last season was 75%, a small improvement but it was an improvement.” Ironically more than half of the rejected 41 cows did come on heat and get in-calf when they were with the bull. Sexed semen will be used at mating for the first time on the farm to speed up genetic improvement in the herd. Jaspal says it didn’t make sense to use the best available semen with the highest performing cows but only have a 50/50 chance of getting heifer calves as a result. “It could be our best cow with good BW and good PW and if she has a bull calf, we’ve lost those genetic opportunities. This way we want to grab that opportunity and I’m going to select those cows and give them that semen so we can have the best heifer calves. “That will help us in case the pressure over GHG emissions means we can have fewer cows. If we had 20 fewer cows and we know we have higher breeding worth, we’re already taking steps and even if we reduce 20 or 30 cows, our production won’t be affected.” Mating will run for four weeks of AI and six weeks of bulls. Calving is due to start on July 26. In May, Jaspal was named New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and was described by the judges as “an

Continued page 26

The farm was converted from sheep 10 years ago. It’s irrigated by two centre pivots and some K-line, fed by water from the Morven Glenavy Irrigation scheme.

immigrant who is professional, detailed, and diligent and possesses a desire to succeed with a dedication to growth”. “From the moment we entered the farm gate to the time we left, we witnessed an immaculately presented farm and a polished and professional presentation, which highlighted Jaspal’s knowledge and sense of responsibility for the farm’s management and performance,” dairy manager head judge Gray Beagley from DairyNZ says. Jaspal is proud of the award, but he is quick to credit Ruby for helping him perfect his presentation, especially after

he failed to make the top five of the regional competition last year. “Ruby was with me helping. When I talked about different things like pasture or livestock, there’s a lot of proof we have to give them. It’s like selling yourself. I can speak all day about dairy farming but we both put it together and presented it to them. We did a lot of practice.” As well as winning the top gong, he picked up the livestock management merit award, the dairy management merit award and the environmental and sustainability merit award. “It was a huge honour for me and I

feel rewarded. That night was amazing and we couldn’t even sleep that night because we were so excited and very happy.” Award interview judge Rosemarie Costar noted that Jaspal is committed to his family, with strong values. “He and his wife Ruby’s relationship is a strength of his business.” The award ceremony was streamed live on Facebook so Jaspal and Ruby’s family and friends in India, where they haven’t been since 2016, shared their excitement when the winner was announced.

The 220ha farm in Ikawai, Waitaki Valley, is owned by Mark and Carmen Hurst. It is run by sharemilkers Troy and Donna Yaxley, who employ Jaspal Singh as the manager.

“My dad passed away about 10 years ago so only Mum is there but she is very proud and if Dad were here he’d be so proud too,” he says. “Some of our friends and family, they’re like, ‘Your son, he did a good job’, and his mum, she’s very proud,” Ruby adds.

They hope to visit India in January or February so their son Ryan can meet his grandparents and other family but they now regard New Zealand as home and love the cold winters and hot summers of the Waitaki Valley. And they have a plan to keep climbing the ladder to farm ownership.

In 2016 Jaspal returned home to marry Ruby, the girlfriend he left behind in Sathiala when he came to NZ. Ruby initially found work in cafes but, like Jaspal, she was more interested in dairy farming.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

“I really want to be a sharemilker,” he says. He has had a few job offers since he won the award but there is also an opportunity where he works to take over from sharemilkers the Yaxleys when they retire. “If everything’s good I’ll be sharemilking here. Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities. “We’ll start variable order sharemilking and when we are more financially strong, then we will be 50/50, we will buy the cows and get half the milk cheque and all the other things and that will take us to farm ownership. “Our plan is in 10 years’ time we will have our own farm if we go step by step.” Dairy farming has been good to Jaspal and Ruby Singh and given them opportunities they’d have been unlikely to get at home. “They’re committed to the industry and to encouraging others to climb the career ladder, including a Kiwi couple who’ve just joined the staff, their first experience of dairy farming. “When people ask what I would tell anyone wanting to go dairying, I say ‘Go for it’ It’s a healthy lifestyle I would say, there are good breaks, you get your own house and at the moment dairy farmers are paying well.” n

WOMEN IN AGRIBUSINESS

Best of both worlds By Cheyenne Nicholson

A Culverden farmer who enjoys the feeling of being feminine and pampered has a beauty business set among cows and paddocks.

hen a Culverden dairy farmer was first starting her farming career, she was met with many challenges as she worked her way up the ladder. From paying off debt, navigating motherhood and the sometimes volatile dairy industry – she’s done it all. Now, she’s gearing up for her next challenge – starting a business from scratch. Eden Ritchie and her husband Salem are contract milkers on a 950-cow farm at Rotherham and on the side, she runs a beauty salon from her home while juggling study, the farm, family and clients. Growing up, her life wasn’t always easy. Family life was difficult at times and she bounced from school to school as the family moved around, experiencing a mix of town and farm along the way. It was a challenging time for a young Eden who had to figure out the path she wanted to take. “There were a lot of family conflicts, from my parents’ divorce to extended family issues. When I was younger I thought university might have been my path, but I quickly deduced that the classroom environment just didn’t work for me. I didn’t have a lot of stability in my life, and at 17 years old farming to me seemed like the epitome of stability and security,” Eden says. In 2014 she left her high school job as a checkout operator at New World Ngaruawahia to move to Dargaville to try dairy farming. She started calf rearing before shifting into relief milking and farm assistant work. To help educate herself further, she completed a year-long agricultural course through NorthTec. In hindsight, she says that Primary ITO might have been a better fit and had a broader offering, but at the time, she was just keen to soak up everything she could about the industry. And that she did. Come 2016 she started a position as a farm assistant on the 500-cow farm in Dargaville. In her

Life is busy for Eden Ritchie who contract milks on a 950-cow farm at Culverden, as well as running a home-based beauty salon.

“I’ve always enjoyed beauty and the feeling of being feminine and pampered. It’s a nice switch from the feeling of masculinity that I feel on-farm.” third season on the farm and largely on a whim, she decided to enter the Dairy Industry Awards for Northland in the dairy trainee category. “I entered to benchmark myself against others in the industry and keep trying to hone my skills. My confidence is something I lacked at the time, so I didn’t think I’d have a chance of placing, let alone winning,” she says. In the first time in the history of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, women took out the top three spots

for the dairy trainee category, with Eden grabbing top spot. It was a huge achievement so early on in her career and was the ticket to meeting her now husband. “For the National Awards programme we did a tour in Southland/Otago, and I sat next to a guy on the minibus everywhere we went on the study tour, and now we’re married and have two children.” Salem lived in Canterbury at the time. The two spent many hours messaging and hopping on flights to visit each other before she landed a job in Ashburton as a dairy assistant on an 800-cow farm. The job was a great step up for her and a chance for her to expand her farming knowledge. “I had wanted to leave Northland for a while and get a chance to experience different farm systems. The farm I worked on was for the Rylib Group, who were amazing to work for,” she says.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

The move down to the South Island was costly, though. She brought down her car and clothes, a $5000 student loan, a $12,000 car loan, a $3000 personal loan and $2000 credit card debt. Add to that needing to set up a new house, her debt began to mount up. “I would have loved to have done more seasons working for Rylib and get that debt paid down, but I got pregnant pretty soon after moving down,” she says. Parental leave payments helped keep things afloat and come 2019, with threemonth-old Cullen in tow, she got a job milk harvesting on an 800-cow farm. Milking twice-a-day on a six-on, two-off roster, Cullen was set up in his portacot in the office while she milked. “My focus when I first moved down was paying as much of my debts as possible. By the time Cullen was born I still had around $10,000 worth of debt, so I had to prioritise my money when setting up a new house and for a new baby,” she says. Not long after Cullen arrived, she fell pregnant with her second child, Lily, who arrived in 2020. With the arrival of a second child, she was nervous about her freedom and ability to work with two kids

Eden met husband Salem while on a study tour for the Dairy Industry Awards national programme. Several months later she moved south and they are now married and have two children. Salem with Cullen and Eden with Lily.

in tow instead of just one. “I really struggled with the thought of being completely financially dependent on Salem. I wanted to save for a tummy tuck as I was conscious about my postpartum body. I had caesareans with both kids, and my body struggled with recovery after both with infections, and

I was left with a lot of excess skin that I wanted rid of,” she says. Like many people who work the land, the idea of sitting at home with two babies wasn’t a stimulating thought for her, so she decided to put an ad up on

Continued page 30

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FarmSource to see what was out there. She landed a job milking 1000 cows twice-a-day and like her brother before her, Lily was set up in a portacot in the kitchen area with a baby monitor while she milked. “Cullen had started preschool by this time, which was great timing. So every day I’d pack up Lily and we’d go milking, while Salem would sort out Cullen until I got home. It was a juggle, but we managed. Through this job I had managed to finally clear all my debt and was able to start saving a large proportion of my pay,” she says. The couple saved over $12,000 in six months, which put them in a position where they could start comfortably looking for their next opportunity – contract milking. Today, they are contract milking 950 cows on a farm in Rotherham. The high-input farm is home to Holstein Friesians and milks twice-aday year-round with winter milk. “Being young and fresh into contract milking, this has been an amazing job so far. We have three staff, one being my brother. There’s a lot to love about the farm. Our main goal this year is to beat last season’s production and have a smooth season ahead,” she says. With her feet firmly under the desk on-farm, Eden has been working on becoming more involved in the dairy industry. She recently started the process of becoming a volunteer for Dairy

The home-based salon is run out of the sleepout on the Ritchie’s farm, but the goal is to grow and expand into a commercial building in the city, complete with employees and a wider service offering, within the next two years.

“There’s a lot to love about the farm. Our main goal this year is to beat last season’s production and have a smooth season ahead.” Women’s Network. While she’s excited about its opportunities, she admits she’s also a bit nervous. “After being super reclusive for the last few years while we focused on babies and paying off debt, I’ve become more of an introvert and can be quite shy, but I’m really wanting to start to meet new people. It’s a big effort for me,” she says. Helping with her goal of meeting new people and of wanting to become even more financially secure by having multiple business ventures, she launched her own business, Lashes and Beauty by Eden, which offers lash extensions, brows and waxing. “I’ve always enjoyed beauty and the feeling of being feminine and pampered. It’s a nice switch from the feeling of masculinity that I feel on-farm. I wanted to be immersed in beauty and feel like a fabulous woman on the inside and outside and feel more confident,” she says. Initially she thought she would have

to invest in a year’s full-time study to pursue her passion for beauty, meaning full-time childcare, petrol and everything else. After some searching, she found some shorter module courses that cover specific areas of study within beauty, which suited her and enabled her to juggle study with farm work and start her business based on those skills. “It was difficult in some respects whether or not to pursue outside interests like my beauty business. Our long-term goal is farm ownership, so sometimes it feels like I shouldn’t be pursuing my business and focusing on the farm business. But I’ve spent years wanting to do it, but I kept holding myself back from it, so I figured there’s no reason I can’t do both,” she says. The home-based salon is run out of their sleepout but she hopes to grow her business and expand into a commercial building in the city, complete with employees and a wider service offering, within the next two years. “The ultimate goal is to build my business into a reputable brand and provide clients with a one-stop pampering spot. Right now, I’m in that early stage of growing a client base and getting my head around marketing myself. I’m reasonably confident that with time that will come. Consistency and upskilling often should provide good compound growth,” she says. Social media and good word of mouth

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

will play a key role in achieving the growth needed to warrant renting a commercial space and grow from a sole operator to an employer. Writing down her goals and creating plans to reach them have played a key role in how she’s run the business so far. She’s also utilised tools from the dairy industry like the smart planning wheel from DairyNZ and sought help and advice from other sources. “I’ve reached out to the regional business partners for support as soon as I decided this was something I wanted to pursue. They’ve been a good help with opening my eyes to the opportunities available to small business owners in terms of training and mentor networks,” she says. Over the course of the last eight years she has created (and still creating) a stable, happy life for herself and her family with the dairy industry playing a huge role. While often times it’s been a juggle, having solid routines has helped her manage it all, as has ensuring she has time for herself. “Having time alone is critical for me. I’m very much an introvert and tend to feel

overwhelmed at times with motherhood, marriage and all the rest, so that alone time and having a routine are what keep me going,” she says. She’s proven that you don’t have to be raised on a dairy farm to be successful in the industry and that motherhood

Salem with Lily and Cullen check out the herd. He has been a great support helping with the children whenever needed.

PLAN FOR THE SEASON AHEAD WITH CERTAINTY There are few things in farming that are certain. But a great, reliable price for your farm supplies is now one thing you can be certain of. We’ve worked with our suppliers and leading brands to introduce the Farm Source Certainty Guarantee. It means you can be certain that our everyday low pricing won’t increase on a wide range of products and supplies until October. Which means you can budget with certainty. It’s another way we’re working to strengthen your bottom line.

nzfarmsource.co.nz/certainty

needn’t hold you back from your goals. She’s excited for this next chapter of her journey and encourages other women in the industry to follow their own passions. “Think about what you’d do if you had all the money in the world and do that. Do what makes you happy,” she says. n

RESEARCH

Wins for Massey scientists

iddet Institute scientists from Massey’s Manawatū campus have won half of the top prizes in an inaugural International Dairy Federation award. Riddet Institute postdoctoral fellow Dr Debashree Roy came second equal, and research officer Dr Nick Smith was third in the International Dairy Federation (IDF) Professor Pavel Jelen Early Career Scientist Prize. Winners of the prizes were announced this week and will receive their prizes at the upcoming IDF World Dairy Summit, to be held in India in September. Roy was second equal for her entry titled “Composition, structure, and dynamic digestion behaviour of milk from different species”. Her entry focused on her research about how milk composition and structure impact the release of nutrients at various stages of gastric digestion of different mammalian milks such as cow, goat, and sheep milks. “Milk is a uniquely designed nutritious food by nature and there is still so much to discover and learn from it,” Roy says. She says her research answered some important scientific questions about the digestion mechanisms of milk from different mammalian species during coagulation in the stomach, and how that influences the rates of delivery of proteins and fats during digestion in the body. Nutritional information discovered about the different milks can also help consumers find products tailored to their needs. “The results obtained have important consequences for developing bioinspired dairy products with improved digestion characteristics, for controlling the release of nutrients, and to meet the special dietary needs of consumers of all age groups.” Smith is a Riddet Institute research officer working on the Sustainable Nutrition Initiative. His entry, “Understanding dairy’s contribution to a sustainable food system”, used a data science and modelling approach to unpick the quantity of food nutrients that come from dairy in our current food system. Smith has been involved in the development of the DELTA Model, a global food system mass balance capable of calculating the nutrition available globally from the food system today, and

Dr Debashree Roy

“The contribution dairy makes to calcium intakes is significant, with dairy supplying 49% of global food calcium while also making large contributions to vitamins B2 and B12.” Dr Nick Smith

under various future scenarios. Smith says the DELTA Model can be used to identify the contribution of individual foods and food groups to nutrient availability. “This can then be contextualised against the nutrient requirements of the global population, to establish the role of milk production in a sustainable food system from a nutrition perspective.” He says the contribution dairy made to calcium intakes was significant, with dairy supplying 49% of global food calcium while also making large contributions to vitamins B2 and B12, and indispensable amino acids. “The nutrients provided by milk are currently of major importance to global nutrition. Any change to this

Dr Nick Smith

status, either increasing or decreasing this contribution, must take the full nutritional consequences of this change into account, alongside the other considerations of sustainability.” The IDF Professor Pavel Jelen Early Career Scientist Prize was created to acknowledge the work of scientists and/ or technologists in the dairy science and technology field and aimed at acknowledging early-career scientists, including graduate and postgraduate students, who are less than three years since graduation from their highest degree attained. The prize honours Professor Pavel (Paul) Jelen, a Czech-born scientist and educator who has spent his career based in Canada and the United States, practising dairy science and technology in his research pursuits, and encouraging, mentoring, and educating students and early-career scientists and technologists. The award’s judging panel chair, Geoffrey Smithers, says the inaugural prize attracted high-quality applications, with rigorous science and technology components as well as outstanding levels of presentation. Awardees were carefully selected by a panel of judges with expertise across a broad range of disciplines related to dairy science and technology, and drawn from several IDF standing committees. n

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

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What will yours be? NZAGBIZ.CO.NZ

RESEARCH Lincoln University is set to receive a further $60 million in Government funding to complete their new science facility.

$60m cash boost for Lincoln By Tony Benny

Lincoln University’s new state-of-art science facility has been given a funding boost to ensure its completion.

hange is set to continue at Lincoln University with the announcement of $60 million of government funding to complete a flagship science facility, to be completed in the middle of next year. Work on the new facility on the north east corner of the campus began with a ground-breaking ceremony last year and the recently announced funding will allow completion of the project which will feature state-of-the-art teaching, research and collaboration spaces complemented by multi-use adjustable workstations and social zones, all set within a biodiverse park-like environment. In July last year, the university opened a new agricultural sciences building and the two new facilities are part of Lincoln’s wider campus development programme that started in 2020 with the launch of a new student hub and new outdoor social space featuring native plantings and a cultural heritage-inspired paved pathway.

In line with the university’s sustainable infrastructure goals, the new building will have a minimal environmental impact, incorporating roof and wallmounted solar arrays, a ground-sourced heating/cooling system and a rainwaterfed toilet flushing system in the design. The university’s sustainability strategy has two goals: to be sector leaders in education, research and demonstration of sustainability; and for the university to become carbon neutral by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050. The building programme is in line with those goals. “We’re putting PV (photovoltaic) panels on many of the roofs and we have plans for a large solar farm associated with the university to greatly increase our own supply of renewable energy,” Lincoln’s vice chancellor Grant Edwards says. There are also plans to use space better with the right-sizing of Lincoln’s building programme, removal of poor and aged facilities and installation of lower energyusing LED lighting.

“We have major building going on, which presents an opportunity to demolish old buildings but also to look at opportunities around water retention solutions for water and biodiversity on campus.” Grant Edwards “We have major building going on, which presents an opportunity to demolish old buildings but also to look at opportunities around water retention solutions for water and biodiversity on campus,” he says. Lincoln’s chief operating officer Susie Roulston says the Tertiary Education Committee’s approval of the funding

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

signalled the Government’s confidence in Lincoln and its support for the university’s increasingly important role as a provider of world-ranked land-based education and research. “Our new flagship science facility forms part of a suite of infrastructure assets that will ultimately deliver a spatially optimised campus, with students at its heart, where the university can provide its world-leading teaching and research within an ecosystem of social wellbeing and environmental sustainability,” Roulston says. “The challenges facing today’s food and fibre producers are manifold and profound, and we are proud to deliver this new facility where we can further advance our commitment to equip future generations with the skills and knowledge to shape a better future.” Additional construction work will see the creation of a new AgResearch building on land the CRI has acquired from the university. This building will face the new Lincoln science building and the cafe area will be accessible by the two buildings, encouraging students and scientists to collaborate.

In line with the University’s sustainable infrastructure goals, solar panels will be fitted to the roof and walls of the new building to minimise the environmental impact.

When the two new buildings are complete, they will replace the multistorey Burns Building that opened

in 1976 but which was damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes and will eventually be demolished.

Have you done your daily checks? Paddocks

Animals

Weather

Let’s winter well for a better future dairynz.co.nz/wintering

RESEARCH

Machines that monitor for mastitis By Ross Nolly

Lincoln University computer scientists have been part of modelling a way to better detect and manage a disease that costs New Zealand dairy farmers $180 million a year.

astitis in dairy cattle is the sector’s most common disease, and by DairyNZ’s estimate costs the New Zealand dairy industry $180 million a year. An inflammation in a cow’s udder caused by bacteria, mastitis severely affects dairy cattle and causes a huge decrease in milk production. The total mastitis cost to dairying also includes a drop in milk quality, expensive cattle treatment costs and other costs. Lincoln University’s Professor Sandhya Samarasinghe, head of the Complex Systems, Big Data and Informatics Initiative, and Professor Don Kulasiri, head of Centre for Advanced Computational Solutions, are co-authors of a study conducted with data from a commercial robotic dairy farm, which designed and built a computational model to help efficient and accurate detection of mastitis in dairy cattle herds. The milking robots have sensors that measure particular milk features, and deep neural network (DNN) methodology was used to build, train and validate a classification model using data for some of these features. Neural networks are computational models that attempt to mimic the complex ways our brains process information. They use layers of computational neurons to relate input variables such as milking features to an output variable such as disease state. A DNN is a neural network that has three or more layers, and is capable of finding hidden patterns and subtle nuances in data. The research data was obtained from a large robotic dairy farm in New Zealand. De Laval in the US obtained access to the robotic farm. This commercial Voluntary Milking System (VMS) dairy farm

A computational model has been designed and built for robotic milking systems to help efficient and accurate detection of mastitis in dairy cattle herds as part of a large research project.

provided data collected from 24 DeLaval robots, milking about 1,900 cows in a single 13,000sqm barn for one year. During that period, the total number of recorded milking instances was more than 1.1 million. Neural networks mastitis detection models presented in previous studies were built using data collected from research dairy farms (conventional or robotic), using small herds (100-400 cows). “This particular study has been going for three years and is a continuation of a 10-year research project. We wanted to improve the methodology. We’re now learning more and getting better models,” says Samarasinghe. “It’s difficult to get a large data set of all the information we need. However, the recent research has data from over one million milking records. It’s the first

time we’ve used DNN, which is the main difference to previous work. “We tested a number of possibilities to discover a way to solve the problem of early mastitis detection. We approached it from a cow physiology perspective and used this knowledge to inform the DNN. A cow’s milk production reduces when it has mastitis. So we used that change as an indicator.” The research also used milk electrical conductivity as an indicator. Milk conductivity is the ability of milk to conduct electrical current and is measured in S/m3 (Siemens per cubic metre). As the disease progresses, the bloodmilk barrier is broken and blood enters milk, thereby increasing its ionic content, which increases milk conductivity. Many current robotic systems measure

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

that milk, and this can take some time to obtain a diagnosis. Monitoring the yield and conductivity is a far simpler method. “Some current robotic milking machines have algorithms that attempt to detect mastitis, but their predictions are not very refined or advanced, and produce many false positives. Our DNN model extracts data from the sensor readings to provide a reliable early diagnosis of mastitis, immediately as the cow is being milked. “If we can identify the problem early we can promptly treat the affected cows,” says Samarasinghe. The system can detect the sick cow and quickly alert the farmer for an early intervention. The system can also keep track of that ailing cow in the future. Those models are directly applicable to other robotic milking farms. Robotic milking system capabilities are becoming more advanced. Samarasinghe is sure that farms with similar systems that have the ability to obtain these measurements will be able to utilise the models. Conventional dairy farms can also use this model if they can collect the required measurements of conductivity and milk

“Attempting to predict a biological event can be plagued with variability and uncertainty … we came up with the idea to look at each cow and understand the disease from the behaviour of individual cows, rather than as a group.” Prof Sandhya Samarasinghe electrical conductivity. The easily available measurements of milk yield and electrical conductivity are widely applicable to those systems. The team didn’t measure the somatic cell count. SCC is a good mastitis indicator but it’s not always reliable because the SCC will also increase if a cow has other diseases. To assess SCC reliably, a process must be performed on

Mastitis in dairy cattle is the sector’s most common disease. DairyNZ has estimated the cost of mastitis across the New Zealand dairy industry to be $180 million per year.

Lincoln University Professor Sandhya Samarasinghe, head of the Complex Systems, Big Data and Informatics Initiative, says early detection is essential so affected cows can be treated promptly.

yield in each milking. Some dairy farms have installed devices to measure some of these milk parameters. “The biggest problem for any model that is attempting to predict a biological event is that it can be plagued with variability and uncertainty. To counter this we came up with the idea to look at each cow and understand the disease from the behaviour of individual cows, rather than as a group. “We gathered a huge amount of knowledge from the study of individual cows, and that helped improve our model. We plan to refine a disease spectrum that we have mapped and follow individual cows throughout that spectrum. This can allow not only early diagnosis and intervention, but also management of mastitis in the herd.” n

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Feeding cows should be managed carefully so that they are fed according to their body condition scores to mitigate the risks of disease and illnesses.

Keep mating energy levels up By Samantha Tennent & Mat O’Sullivan

reater than 1.0 body condition score (BCS) loss in early lactation will significantly impact the health, production and reproduction of a cow. And if too many cows within the herd lose large amounts of condition there can be substantial collective impacts. A negative energy balance (NEB) is when the energy demands for lactation, maintenance and activity are not met by dietary intake and the cow is forced to mobilise its fat and muscle to provide energy to meet the deficit. All cows enter into a state of NEB for six to eight weeks after they have calved and some condition loss is inevitable. But before mating starts, cows need to have stopped losing condition and be in a state of positive energy balance. So how can you minimise condition losses and support the herd before mating starts? Use the transition period From three weeks pre-calving until about three weeks post-calving cows are facing many physiological challenges and careful management will help set them up for optimal performance. It is important to identify any at-risk animals and manage them accordingly. Cows that are below BCS are at direct risk of infectious disease, such as metritis and mastitis, and cows that are above are more at risk of metabolic diseases, such as milk fever and ketosis, which weaken the immune system, also putting them at risk of metritis and mastitis. So it is good practice to allocate feed according to BCS. Cows at or above target BCS should be fed 90% of their daily energy requirements for two to

three weeks before calving. And cows that are below target BCS should be fed 100% of their daily energy requirements. After calving the aim is to reduce their BCS loss and the biggest driver in this period is the nutritional management as a springer and the management of how energy is spent relative to intake. Typically, it takes around 10-20 days postcalving for a cow’s appetite to return to optimal – this is the period of steepest condition loss. Greater losses than 1.0 BCS indicate poor feeding from six weeks post-calving, ill health or a cow that was greater than BCS 5.5 at calving. To manipulate energy expenditure during this period strategies like once-a-day milking for several weeks with adequate feed can support a positive energy balance situation. But cows that are milked twice daily can still have good outcomes if strategies like identifying thinner cows and separating them from the main herd and/or preferentially feeding them are employed. This removes the competition from the older, more dominant cows and improves energy status and BCS. Using these kinds of strategies will increase the potential for a more successful mating result. Get ready for mating After the post-calving BCS loss, cows should begin to gain BCS, which is affected by their genetics and nutrition. Early calving cows should be gaining BCS before planned start of mating but research does show cows that are producing high levels of milk production gain less BCS than lower yielding cows during milking.

If cows are offered poor-quality pasture in the lead up to mating it may impact their voluntary intakes due to the high neutral detergent fibre (NDF) content. If this is a problem there will be high residuals, but low energy intakes and condition loss. Managing pasture quality and strategic use of supplements in the pre-mate/mating period is crucial to ensure energy intakes are at or exceeding maintenance and milk energy demands. If cow BCS and pasture residuals are on target adding supplements to the diet will not improve reproduction. But if supplements are needed, ensure they are good-quality and free from spoilage. The decision on supplement type should be based on the cost/benefit of the predicted milksolids response as research suggests there is no reproductive benefit of feeding high-starch supplements, such as grains, compared with high-fibre feeds, for example PKE or pasture silage. But the majority of outcomes are relative to BCS at calving and productivity losses can be mitigated by achieving targets, BCS 5.0 for mixed age cows and 5.5 for first and second calvers. So whether or not the cows hit them this season there is a great opportunity to improve for next season.

Find out more about BCS on the WelFarm website welfarm.co.nz

Who am I?

Samantha Tennent is the general manager WelFarm Ltd and Mat O’Sullivan is the InCalf trainer and co-director at the Veterinary Centre Oamaru.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

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To learn more about Michelle’s story, visit performanceready.co.nz

ANIMAL HEALTH

Know the bug, know the drug By Anne Boswell

A new diagnostic tool has been developed to help farmers identify which bacteria are causing mastitis in their cattle, allowing for more focused and efficient treatment

New Zealand veterinarian with extensive mastitis consultation experience says a test that pinpoints the specific bacteria present in a mastitis case can help reduce antibiotic use by almost a quarter and improve mastitis cure rates dramatically. AgriHealth Technical and CPD manager, Dr Steve Cranefield discussed the new diagnostic tool, Mastatest, during a mastitis webinar he hosted in July on behalf of AgriHealth NZ Ltd. Farmers tend to use the mastitis treatment “that worked” – which often involves a process of trial and error – but Mastatest can establish which bacterium caused the mastitis, and the most suitable antibiotic and dosage required to kill it quickly.

Farmers are able to test a clinical or subclinical case of mastitis. To perform the test, a milk sample is taken from the unwell cow and placed in a cartridge and into the Mastatest lapbox. Cartridges contain three types of antibiotics. The bacteria are incubated and a photo taken every hour over 24 hours. The bacteria present are identified by a colour change in the wells, and the test also indicated which antibiotic, and at what strength, would kill the bacteria the fastest. “It is a tool against antimicrobial resistance, and helps us use drugs sensibly,” Cranefield says. “Using the right drug at the right strength will increase effective treatment and reduce re-treatment and culling. If you know the bug and know the drug,

you will have better cure rates.” As some bacteria do not require the use of antibiotics, farmers will find the process leads to significantly less antibiotic use overall, and to only treating when treatment is needed. Because the test takes 24 hours to confirm the bacteria and the appropriate treatment, Cranefield suggests farmers mark the cow, administer pain relief, sample and test, separate, treat, record and evaluate. As long as she has pain relief, leaving her for 24 hours while you collect more information is acceptable. Cranefield says there are also plenty of steps farmers can take to help prevent mastitis in the first place. Mastitis is caused by bacteria entering the teat canal and udders, so on the most fundamental level managing mastitis

Managing HiSCC cows

Managing clinical mastitis 2. GIVE PAIN RELIEF

1. MARK

1. SELECT RMT POSITIVE COWS OR HIGH SCC COWS AT HERD TEST

KetoMax (for 3 days)

3. SAMPLE & TEST

4. SEPARATE

Take milk sample, identify bug, wait 24 hours and treat based on result

rapid on-farm test

5. TREAT

6. RECORD

2. SAMPLE & TEST

3. MANAGE

Take a milk sample and wait 24 hours for the result

Implement management options using guidelines below as agreed with your vet

rapid on-farm test 7. EVALUATE

Staph. aureus

Strep. uberis / Strep. dysgalactiae / Strep. species / CNS / Other Gram +ve / Unspecified E. Coli / Unspecified Gram -ve

Probable Serratia / Klebsiella

No growth Mixed infection (two bacteria)

If cow is sick, start with antibiotic treatment and KetoMax for pain relief and to reduce inflammation

If new infection, treat cows with an extended course of antibiotic ranked number 1 (lowest MIC) Check records for repeat high SCC or clinical mastitis cases. Seek vet advice; options include dry off quarter, antibiotic DCT or culling (at end of season)

Treat with intramammary antibiotic ranked number 1 (lowest MIC)

MIC most commonly ≥ 4 indicating antibiotics are likely ineffective. Continue with KetoMax and milk cow at least twice a day. Discuss options with your vet

Antibiotics are ineffective, continue with KetoMax. Culling the cow should not be based on a single test result, please contact your vet

No treatment - strip quarter twice daily and monitor. If udder is painful or swollen continue with KetoMax

HiSCC in early lactation cows Staph. aureus Low BMSCC (<150,000)

High BMSCC (>150,000)

CNS / Gram +ve Low or High BMSCC

Coliform / Gram -ve

If new infection; RMT test and treat infected quarter(s) with extended antibiotic treatment (discuss with your vet). If long-term infection; RMT test and dry off infected quarters or milk last

Leave untreated but monitor. If mastitis turns clinical then re-test infected quarter(s) using Mastatest clinical cartridge and treat based on recommendation

Leave untreated and monitor quarter(s) (If >10% Gram -ve discuss with your vet)

Low or High BMSCC

Leave untreated and monitor quarter(s) (If >20% no growth send sample to lab to check for yeast/ fungi etc. Discuss with your vet)

HiSCC Cartridge

HiSCC in late lactation or at dry off Dry cow antibiotic therapy (DCAT) will cure around 60-75% of S. aureus infected cows. All cows with S. aureus should be given the benefit of DCAT, however the cure rate is lower for long term infections. Cows that have high SCC through one lactation and have persistently high SCC in the following lactation after receiving DCAT may be chronically infected with S. aureus

Staph. aureus

Culling. Create a preferential culling list based on clinical mastitis history, somatic cell count, DCAT history, age, production and other diseases. Culling may be appropriate for cows with: • ISCC >300-500,000 at 3 or more seasonal herd tests • ISCC >300- 500,000 in the previous lactation, treated with DCAT at the end of that lactation but strong RMT positive or ISCC >300-500,000 at the first herd test in the current lactation or • 2 or more cases of clinical mastitis over the season All other cows may be treated with DCAT +/- ITS (internal teatsealant) as recommended by your vet

Low or High BMSCC

No growth Discuss options with your vet

Treatment uneconomic. Options include: • RMT test and dry off infected quarters (but take care not to re-cup these quarters for the rest of the lactation) or • Milk these cows last to reduce spread to other cows then manage as appropriate at dry-off

Clinical Cartridge

If ISCC >120,000 (heifers) or 150,000 (cows) at any herd test or clinical mastitis over the season - treat with DCAT +/- ITS. If ISCCC <120,000 (heifers) or 150,000 (cows) and no clinical mastitis over season - treat ITS as recommended by your vet

CNS / Other Gram +ve/ Coliform / Gram -ve / No growth

ISCC antibiotic required required to tokill kill90% 90%of ofthe thebacteria) bacteria) NB: NB:There Thereisisminimal minimalresearch researchon onmanaging managingsubclinical subclinicalmastitis mastitisininNew NewZealand Zealanddairy dairycows cowsso sothe therecommendations recommendationsabove aboveare arebased basedon onfirst firstprinciples. principles.AllAlldecisions decisionsshould shouldbebediscussed discussedwith withyour yourvet. vet. ISCC==Individual Individualcow cowsomatic somatic cell cell count count result at herd test BMSCC = Bulk milk somatic cell count CNS = Coagulase-negative Staphylococci MIC = Minimum inhibitory concentration (the amount of antibiotic

Evidence based vet medicines

Evidence based vet medicines 0800 821 421

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www.agrihealth.co.nz www.agrihealth.co.nz AH-MMTreatments.2022 AH-MMTreatments-Vetent_03.2022

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

“When making culling decisions, use information such as the cow’s age, production, whether they’re empty or not and their SCC history – don’t cull on a first test. It should be a last resort.” means preventing bacteria getting on or in the teat canal. There are a number of ways to do this. Bacteria come from two sources: the environment, and other cows. An analysis of 22,612 mastitis cases in New Zealand found that Streptococcus uberis, found in cow dung, is the most common bacterium – and right throughout the year, not just in spring. This has implications for how farmers approach treating mastitis seasonally. Coliform bacteria – most commonly E coli – are found in about 30% of mastitis cases. They live in faeces and water

and may be prevalent on feedpads and in herd homes. They are resistant to antibiotics and can be treated with pain relief and by milking frequently. When it comes to the cow-to-cow spreading of bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus is the most common bacterium. But while it is a risk, it can be minimised with good milking practices. The study showed that 85% of herds have it, but only 0.5% have it at dry-off. Staph aureus is mostly subclinical, presenting as high somatic cell count (SCC). “It is worth noting that although it spreads from cow to cow via infected milk in the liners, it is actually not that contagious,” says Cranefield. “The rate of spread is very low: in a farming operation that consistently teatsprayed, 10,000 quarters would have to be milked before a new quarter became infected.” The second most common cow-to-cow bacterium is CNS (coagulase-negative staph), of which there are 25 strains in NZ that live on teat skin. It is controlled well by teat spray and is mostly subclinical. When it comes to preventing mastitis, Cranefield says colostrum cows are the

most important on the farm from a mastitis point of view. He suggests that farmers wash their teats with a low-pressure hose if they are dirty; use teat spray before and after milking to kill bacteria and improve teat condition; check for mastitis every milking; and RMT test cows before they go into the milking herd. For the milking herd, he suggests teat scoring, and taking care of skin condition and teat ends. Dry skin harbours bacteria as it has lost its fatty acid layer. Looking at milking efficiency on the Milksmart app could also help to optimise milking duration and reduce over-milking. Cranefield says ending milking earlier does not, contrary to belief, increase mastitis or decrease production. Another option is to harvest milk more quickly with a faster pulsation ratio. He emphasises that culling a cow is a last resort. “When making culling decisions, use information such as the cow’s age, production, whether they’re empty or not and their SCC history – don’t cull on a first test. It should be a last resort.” n

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Feeding to fuel mating season

Animals should be in peak condition at mating time to achieve the best possible results for reproductive success.

By Chris Balemi

ating season is a crucial time for all farmers – and it’s no secret that animals in peak condition achieve the best results during this time. Ensuring that your herd is receiving the correct mix of nutrients to balance their diet is critical to their success, and maintaining a healthy rumen performance will be key to this. The health and efficiency of the rumen directly impacts how well a cow performs through the challenges of mating and reproduction. A cow with suboptimal rumen performance will be at much higher risk of being an empty cow at the end of the season. Management of nutrition across the whole season will ensure an effective reproductive performance, and the success of rumen function is the key

to each milestone a cow must achieve throughout this time. As well as nutrients that are absorbed directly across the ruminal wall, the large amounts of bacteria that are created during the process of rumination are a major nutrient source for ruminants. The bacteria is digested further down the gastrointestinal tract, supplying much of the all-important bypass protein requirements. Maintaining a stable rumen pH throughout lactation is important alongside a balanced diet in the lead up to mating season. This may require higher levels of quality fibre, rumen buffers, or a combination of both. Any lack of nutrition or imbalance in rumen pH during this period will potentially compromise the pregnancy. Improving the reproductive

Managing your herd’s nutrition throughout the mating season is a logical and effective way to help bolster reproductive success for your farm.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

“A cow with suboptimal rumen performance will be at much higher risk of being an empty cow at the end of the season.” performance of your cows will no doubt make a significant impact to the management of your farm, which means supplementation may be required. Agvance takes a holistic approach to animal nutrition. Reviewing both cattle and feed mineral concentrations, software is then used as an aid in calculating the correct supplementation required for your herd, meaning nutrition is customised to the herds needs. Though every farm is different and requires a slightly different plan for mating season, one thing remains the same across the board - the nutrition requirements of your cows. Getting this right and effectively managing your herd’s nutrition throughout the mating season is a logical and effective way to help bolster reproductive success for your farm. n

Who am I?

Chris Balemi is the managing director of Agvance Nutrition Limited.

FARMSTRONG

Going at it alone Kelly Morrison runs a small dairy farm in the Far North, milking 90 cows. She’s been on the property for eight years and has gone to great lengths to regenerate the land. What’s more remarkable is that she’s tackled every challenge alone.

hat do you enjoy about farming? I love cows. Cows are my babies.

What are your biggest challenges onfarm? Finding the time to get everything done and finding the money to do it. When I sold up and came here, the bottom dropped out of the market, so the cows I sold earned way less than I expected. I also needed to put in an effluent system when I arrived, which meant borrowing more. So, money’s been a constant pressure. Do you have a plan to ease the burden? Yes, I’m selling off a parcel of land for a new subdivision. Hopefully that will increase my equity, but like most farmers I don’t count my chickens until they’re fluffy and all laying eggs. That sounds stressful. What do you do to keep yourself well and keep going? I’m a bit of a loner, but I’ve slowly built a support network. I came up here by myself, so it’s taken time. You’ve been involved in Neighbourhood Support as well, haven’t you? Yes, I’m one of 24 houses that are part of it round here. We did a Christmas thing and we also did something at Easter. I went down and hung out with everyone and took photos. It’s great just to get more involved with your community, especially with the way the world is now. We need to know our neighbours better and be supporting each other. Neighbourhood Support is a great way to do that. Why do find time for these activities when you’re so busy? Even if you’re a farm owner, with no money, working alone like me, there’s still quite a bit that you can do to help other people. It’s a real feel-good thing too. You

Kelly Morrison farms in the far north on her own, so has to deal with the challenges and all that farming throws her way by herself. Kelly with one of the girls, Bucket.

get a lot out of it. For example, there were a couple of older ladies down the road that I’ve visited in the past and they really appreciated it because old people get lonely. But it’s a two-way street too. Both of these ladies were real hard cases, tough as. Both of their husbands had died when they were young. They had kids to raise and also had to take over running farms. Hearing stories like that helped put my own struggles into perspective. What I’m doing here

is nothing compared to that. I’m just continuing their tradition of women working hard and sticking at it. Head down, bum up. Workload must be a real issue when you work alone. I think it’s more of a mental thing. There is no back-up, so sometimes I just need to suck it up and do what I can. But as long as the cows are fed, watered and milked, I feel okay. Even if it takes ’til late at night sometimes. Over quiet periods

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August 2022

I also cook up a whole lot of dinners, put soup into containers and make sure the shed’s full of firewood to save time.

Under the pump?

Any other tips for people living and working alone? One thing I do when I’m really busy is make myself come home during the day and have a coffee break and look at the paper. Refresh physically and mentally. Then before I head back out, I turn the lights on, so that when I come home at night it doesn’t feel like I’m coming home to an empty place. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes coming home feel a lot different. What do you do to unwind? I’ve got my dogs and my cows. At the end of the day, I’ll grab a beer and go and have a drink with my ‘girls’. A moment like that reminds me of why I’m doing what I’m doing. What about hobbies? Cows are my job and hobby. I like milk and sometimes I make cheese. Before the pandemic I used to enjoy getting WWOOFers (people who visit your farm as part of Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms initiative) in. At the end of a day, we’d have cow cuddles and make cheese so they had a good experience. That was a great way for me to wind down and enjoy their company too. Hopefully that will be possible again soon. Is there a particular mindset that helps you keep going? One thing I love about working for myself is that if something goes wrong there’s no debate about whose fault it is. A lot of couples and work mates get caught up in the ‘you should’ve done this or that’ stuff, which can be incredibly stressful. Here it’s not an issue. I don’t need to waste time thinking about whose fault something is, I can just concentrate on fixing it. What about those days when nothing seems to go right?

Am I getting enough sleep? Am I talking to someone about what’s on my mind? Am I eating well and keeping physically active? Am I having down-time to recharge? Do I have a list of what is realistic to achieve each day?

To find out what works for you

VISIT

www.farmstrong.co.nz

Using these questions to lock in small changes can make a big difference.

“We need to know our neighbours better and be supporting each other.”

It’s vital when you live alone that you know you can connect with others if you need to. If I’m having an off day, there are people I can just ring up and say, ‘hey I need a hug’. For example, I lost a dog last year. He was stolen. I spent weeks driving around putting up posters. One night I was on the side of the road having a cry and the neighbours drove past, jumped out the car and gave me a big hug. You can’t put a value on that stuff. Do you celebrate your wins? That’s a good question, because when you work alone you can get blind to them. It’s easy to just drive around and see the jobs that still need doing. But work has to be more than just a to-do list. When I came here the land was dead. There were no worms. There were no pūkekos because there was nothing for them to eat. Now there are pūkekos, grey ducks and the other day the neighbours spotted a weka. I’ve also planted lots of trees and got 23 hectares of native bush

going. So, to me, the land is nearer to being back in balance. It’s not just bald paddocks. I guess my reward is that I feel at home here. I’ve put in the blood, sweat and tears and this is my home. What’s your main message about keeping well on-farm? The first couple of years I had a rule that I had to make progress every single day. But I soon learnt that sometimes that’s just not possible. Just like the land, the people on it need to be sustainable too. I haven’t got back-up here, so I’ve learnt I have to look after myself. How would you sum up your progress? It’s only a little farm, but when I came here there were no fences, no water and literally hectares of weeds as tall as a house. Here in Northland, most of my neighbours are Māori and really in tune with caring for the whenua. I love that idea of guardianship. That we all come from the land and there’s nothing we can do without it, so we must take good care of it. If that’s what defines my life – that I had this little bit of land and improved it, I think that’s a cool thing. I love the idea that when I leave here, this land is going to be in a much better state than when I came. n

Under the pump For tips and ideas,

visit farmstrong.co.nz

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

Sam Whitelock Farmstrong Ambassador

SPRING CALVING

Achieving full calf potential By Ross Nolly

Planning ahead and being prepared gives calves the best possible chance to ensure they achieve their potential.

ith many farmers now calving, attendees at the Dairy Women’s Network Calf Rearing Expo should be well placed to ensure they have a good calf rearing season. SealesWinslow nutrition and quality manager Natalie Hughes was one of the presenters at the expo and spoke about successful calf rearing, which she says starts before the calf is born. “It all starts before day one of the calf’s life. Planning and preparation before calving sets us up for a successful season. Knowing the “what and how” of our own calf system with the latest tips and tricks, takes some of the weight off when calves hit the ground,” Hughes says. Hughes feels that it’s all about what farmers do today and the impact they have on what’s coming into the herd later on. “Prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance,” she says. “If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. No matter what you do, you need some targets. They help draw the team together because they know exactly what they’re working on.”

SealesWinslow nutrition and quality manager Natalie Hughes was one of the presenters at the Dairy Women’s Network Calf Rearing Expos talking about successful calf rearing.

Calf rearing Not every farm has a purpose-built calf shed and Hughes began by looking at ways that farmers can effectively set up their calf shed. She believes that a purpose-built calf shed should be twice as deep as each bay’s width, so that the calves can hide in the back from any inclement weather. “The standard space requirement is 1.5-2.5m2 for each calf. Jersey calves will need a little less than 2.5m2. But if you have big Holstein genetics in your herd, then you’ll need more than 2.5m2 to allow them to run, play and interact,” she says. “We always run out of space at home and I assume other people have the same issue. But we still have to ensure that each calf has access to the available feed.” Hughes reminded the attendees that they needed solid, easily cleaned partitions between each pen to provide separation between the groups and prevent the transfer of disease. “There is a gold standard to what we want to achieve, and then there’s stuff that’s practical. What is practical is not always going to be science-backed, but realistically we’ve got to make what works for us in our systems,” she says. She illustrated the point with an image of a calf shed where the farmers had attached old real estate signs on the fences between the pens to provide 1.2-metre high, solid partitions for the time that the calves were in the shed.

Hughes also emphasised the need to break any winds and draughts from entering the shed. But she also reminded the attendees of the importance of having adequate ventilation to prevent ammonia build up. She showed an image of where a farmer had taken the practical approach and had placed a row of wrapped bales along the side that caught the prevailing wind as a practical and cheap solution to break the wind, but still provide adequate ventilation. To assess the quantity of ventilation Hughes recommends farmers get down to calf height. “You should be able to light a match and not have it blow out. Before it does burn out you should be able to tell where any draughts are coming from. Don’t use this method if straw is used as a bedding though,” she says. It’s important to ensure that calves have enough entertainment and behavioural stimulation. Items such as road cones, Swiss balls and pantyhose with a tennis ball inside hung from the roof are all things that can be used and work well. These entertainments give calves something to do, particularly when they’re transitioning between feed options such as twice-a-day feeding to once a day. These options are cheaper than a commercial calf brush. However, she has seen a calf shed where the head of a yard broom has been taped to a wall as a much cheaper DIY solution. Hughes told the crowd that studies

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August 2022

had shown that a calf shed utilising an all-in/all-out system was better for calves compared to continually moving them to the next pen in a “conveyer belt style system” until they left the shed. “Calves are born without any kind of immune system. The study showed that there is a 9% higher growth rate in an all-in/all-out system, with no extra feed or management. If you use the conveyor belt system, the later calves are going into pens that may have already had a number of mobs through them and potentially, a large number of pathogens,” she said. Bedding Calves need to be kept warm so they use less energy to keep warm and more energy to grow. AgResearch Ltd undertook a study to determine calf body temperature on the various typically used calf bedding options. Wood chips containing chipped rubber, (similar to what is typically used for horse arena floors), proved to be the warmest bedding. However, Hughes said

that this is why science is sometimes not practical. The chip containing rubber can’t be composted and therefore created a disposal problem. The researchers found that the wood-based bedding products were the next best option.

“If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. No matter what you do, you need some targets. They help draw the team together because they know exactly what they’re working on.” Natalie Hughes

“The optimal temperature for a calf is between 15 and 25degC. On a practical level, very few farmers will be calving in 15degC temperatures. But it demonstrates the importance of

ensuring that all attempts must be made to keep the calves as warm as possible so they can utilise as much feed as possible into growth,” she says. Navel When the calf is in-utero or inside the cow, the umbilical cord is the passageway for the calf’s nutrients. When the calf is born, the navel acts as a highway to the joints, lungs, kidneys and other organs. Keeping the navel clean and dry is important to reduce the risk of infection. “Any infections travel up the navel and the calf’s ability to fight them off is very low. You want the navel to be dry within 24 hours. You must ensure that it is clean of organic matter before it’s sprayed or dipped (in a cup),” she says. “The best gold standard scientific practice is to use a different cup for each calf to eliminate cross contamination. This is where there is a difference between ‘gold standard’ and what is actually practical on the farm. Complete coverage is the key whether you’re spraying or dipping.” n

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SPRING CALVING

Why is teat condition so critical?

aintaining good teat condition can be a battle in the first eight weeks of lactation when conditions are generally cold and wet. Focusing on teat condition during this time is critical to minimise teat damage and elevations in somatic cell count (SCC), says FIL National Sales Manager Colin May. Teat skin thickness changes when there are changes in the weather and temperature, making teats particularly susceptible to drying and cracking – especially during the dry period as the winter weather strikes. Add to this scenario the fact that a cow’s teat is stretched to a third longer under vacuum when being milked and you have the perfect storm: mastitis pathogens thriving on damaged teat skin. “The sooner emollient is applied to improve the outer skin and teat elasticity, the more comfortable the cow will be during milking. And it will be less likely that mastitis pathogens, such as coagulase-negative staph (CNS), will have the opportunity to thrive on damaged teat skin,” May says. “Until a few years ago, nobody in New Zealand was talking about the group of bacteria called CNS. Yet it is the most common mastitiscausing pathogen found in New Zealand dairy herds. “We have recently worked with farmers that have had a reasonably high SCC, but no cases of clinical mastitis. “CNS is part of the normal

condition of stressed skin. Allantoin is a natural and active moisturising agent that is widely used for its skin rejuvenation properties.

Teat in rest phase.

Teat stretched under vacuum.

skin flora, but they have the ability to colonise the teat canal. This prompts the cow’s immune system to counter this bacteria group – and in doing so it lifts overall SCC levels. “Healthy and supple teats will limit the opportunity for CNS to thrive in cracks, which is why it’s so important to focus on good teat condition.” The key to good teat condition is simple: use a good quality emollient, ensure you have the right emollient levels and achieve adequate teat spray coverage.

“It’s formulated with active ingredients like mānuka honey, aloe vera and allantoin – all of which have unique properties to help nourish teats. It is also easy to mix and spray due to its viscosity. “If the viscosity of an emollient is too high it won’t mix well or atomise through the teat sprayers. Straight glycerine is very thick and isn’t easy to mix, and in drier conditions can be counterproductive by drawing moisture out of the teats.” Mānuka honey, also used in FIL teat spray and creams, is known for its antiinflammatory properties, which can help repair damaged skin. Aloe vera, which is commonly used for treating sunburn due to its antioxidants and mineral content, works to restore the

1. Use a good quality emollient FIL Technical manager Drew Chadwick says a good quality emollient, like FIL Active Teat Conditioner, works to actively restore teat health.

2. Ensure you have the right emollient levels in your use solution May notes that in the first 90 days of lactation, it’s critical to use a mix rate of 1:6 and add extra emollient to achieve the ideal 12%-15% concentration level. “It’s a fact that the majority of the teat sprays available in New Zealand will not be able to deliver these levels without adding additional emollient. “It can be confusing working out the emollient levels for a 1:6 mix rate. My advice to farmers is to read the label and follow this simple calculation: * Add the mixing rate, for example, 1 + 7 = 8. * Divide the emollient level stated on the label by the mix rate, for example, 40% divided by 8. * Equals 5% emollient level “It does become more complicated when you add additional emollient, but your teat spray supplier will be able to advise you on this,” May says. 3. Achieve adequate teat spray coverage Once you have your emollient levels sorted, check that teat spray is being properly applied, says May. Too often, teat spray application can let you down. “Many of the issues we see are a direct result of the poor application through

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

Teat skin protects the deep teat tissues from infections. When chapped or damaged, the skin produces cracks and crevices that harbour mastitis-causing pathogens.

all methods, including walkover or on-platform systems. “This is where our staff training and teat-spray mixing buckets come in handy. Although, we are noticing more and more large herds adopting automatic mixing systems, like the FIL Intelliblend. “Automatic teat spraying systems must be calibrated to ensure adequate coverage, while those using manual systems need to spray in a circular motion to cover all quarters properly.” n

“Teat skin thickness changes when there are changes in the weather and temperature, making teats particularly susceptible to drying and cracking.”

Sarah Smart, Hillbrook Dairies, North Otago.

Partnering withtofarmers like Sarah Smart like Sarah Smart to reduce clinical mastitis. clinical mastitis for seven years and were treating 20 percent of the herd annually. Not only was it was Hillbrook Dairies are on top of they mastitis with costing them in treatments and time, also had the constant risk of penicillin grades. more knowledge and better practice than

everFIL before. With and Farm Medix’s support, they were able to dig deep, find out which pathogens they were dealing with and implement a prevention The 645-cow dairy farm in Northplan. Otago had Today, Hillbrook Dairies are on top of mastitis experienced high numbers of clinicalwith mastitis more knowledge and better practice – and the for seven years and were treating 20 percent herd’s somatic cell count is the lowest it has ever of the herd annually. Not only was it was been.

costing them in treatments and time, they also

That’s what we call a good partnership. Ask us had the constant risk of penicillin grades. how we can help improve your farm’s profitability.

With FIL and Farm Medix’s support, they were able to Get digindeep, findyour outlocal which touch with areapathogens manager they were dealing withorand a on 0508 434 569 visit implement FIL.co.nz prevention plan. Today the herd’s somatic cell count is the lowest it has ever been. “We suddenly knew what we were dealing with,” says Sarah. “Knowledge is power.” That’s what we call a good partnership. Ask us how we can help improve your farm’s profitability, visit FIL.co.nz. The Intelliblend will automatically mix the teat spray, emollient and water at the correct ratios, and deliver it to the spray nozzle.

DAIRY FARMER

August 2022

SPRING CALVING

Close-up on colostrum By Samantha Tennent

Research team has had a birds-eye view of calving cows to see if their calves were actually drinking from mum in the paddock.

alves that do not receive adequate colostrum in the first 24 hours of life are susceptible to failure of passive transfer (FPT). This means they fail to absorb sufficient quantities of immunoglobulin from colostrum and are at greater susceptibility to disease and mortality. There have been assumptions about whether calves drink from their dams before they are collected, but nobody really knew either way. Research veterinarians Emma Cuttance and Winston Mason wanted to find out what really happens in the calving paddock. “We’ve assumed for years only about 50% of calves suckle from their dams,” Mason explains. “But nobody really knew for sure and we wanted to explore what was happening and how it related to the calf outcomes, as well as uncover what risk factors contribute to FPT.” They stationed teams in scissor lifts who observed eight farms during calving 24 hours a day across two years, for 12 days in the first year and eight in the second. The teams made observations about dams and calves as well as potential risk factors such as weather, break size and pasture cover. The farms went about their regular management but the calves had blood samples taken on day one before the farmer fed them colostrum, as well as on day three. “We were checking the blood for serum total protein as an indicator of the failure of passive transfer and we measured the colostrum quality that each of the calves had been individually fed using a Brix refractometer,” Mason says. “The farms all had different policies around collecting calves and feeding colostrum. Some picked up calves once a day, some picked them up more often. “But we found there was nothing specific that led to FPT. It was very farm specific.” They collected a large number of risk

Calves must receive adequate colostrum in the first 24 hours to achieve their potential.

factors and found the calves that took the longest to stand also took the longest to suckle. Calves born to older dams took longer to suckle. Interestingly, calves that were born on the farms that collected calves once a day suckled faster than calves that were removed more often. And calves that were born into colder temperatures took longer to suckle. “By the end of the study we wanted to find out whether they suckled or not made a difference to their FPT, but the results were spread. We had as low as 2.5%, which is the best I’ve ever seen, up

“We found if they took longer to stand they were more likely to have FPT regardless of what the farmer did to them. So what they were doing in the paddock was a very strong indicator.” Winston Mason

to around 31%, which is what we typically see across New Zealand,” Mason says. “But suckling was a very strong preventative for FPT. Calves that did not suckle in the paddock were almost three times more likely to have FPT. “And we found if they took longer to stand they were more likely to have FPT regardless of what the farmer did to them. So what they were doing in the paddock was a very strong indicator for what was happening towards their FPT status.” Cuttance and Mason also uncovered a linear relationship between colostrum quality and FPT: for every 1% increase in colostrum quality, the odds of FPT reduced by about 33%. “That’s a really important message for farmers. They shouldn’t lose their momentum if they’re not getting high Brix results because any improvement in quality will reduce the chances of FPT regardless of the baseline.” They found the combination of suckling in the paddock and getting fed good quality colostrum was better than one or the other.

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August 2022

“That’s another really important message: the management in the shed is still really important. Regardless whether the calf drank from mum, they will all benefit from being fed optimum-quality colostrum quickly after birth. “The three Qs of colostrum are still valid: quickly, quality and quantity, and we know about 25% of farms are actually measuring their colostrum with a Brix refractometer now, which is great news. “But there’s still a lot we don’t know. We still have high FPT rates across the country and we need to look at feeding success, but we don’t have an easy way to analyse, not unless we have a lot of people prepared to spend calving in a scissor lift,” Mason laughs. Their next chunk of work is trying to validate the pick-up test that can be done on day one for calves. Mason and Cuttance and others working in this space are aware of the pressures surrounding animal welfare. “If we are thrown into a situation where there is a requirement for calves to stay on the dam for a greater period of time, the reality is we are not ready.

Researchers stationed teams in scissor lifts who observed eight farms during calving 24 hours a day across two years for 12 days in the first year and eight in the second to monitor dam and calf behaviour.

“We need more information to find out why some calves are feeding very well and some are not, but a validated day one test will help us uncover that. “And we do need to be asking those questions because we are in a unique

position. There are more pasture-based systems developing and we could lead the approach to say this is going to benefit cow-calf behaviour, suckling, FPT, and calf welfare right the way through. “That’s a pretty exciting place to be.” n

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ROAD TO DAIRYING

Bringing life experience By Samantha Tennent

Continuing our Road to Dairying series, we catch up with a Manawatū farmer who has found his place in farming.

ack in 2020, when Winston Peters was in the news urging Kiwis to get home as soon as possible, Ben Hayes booked the first flight he could from Western Australia. He was thankful he did as he has friends who have only recently been reunited with their families. But it was the first time in his working life he had left a job without a new one to go to. “I’ve worked in a few different industries but I always had a new job lined up before I left the old one,” says Ben. “But I didn’t really have an option. When that first lockdown hit, I had to get home to my family.” He grew up in urban Auckland and after dabbling in the building industry after school he went into the Navy as a chef. He spent eight years in the Navy but his priorities changed once he and his wife Sherie had kids. It was hard to balance the lifestyle, especially needing to deploy at the drop of a hat. A conversation with a family friend at a BBQ led him to the PGG Wrightson livestock rep cadetship. He spent 18 months as a cadet and a further 18 months as a livestock rep, based in Taranaki. Although he enjoyed the role, a family member twisted his arm, convincing him to move to Western Australia to work on their avocado orchard. That didn’t work out as planned, so Sherie and the kids moved back to New Zealand while Hayes

Manawatū farmer Ben Hayes – with daughter Keira on the farm – has tried his hand at a few different careers but it wasn’t until he went dairy farming that he found one he really wanted.

worked on exploration drill rigs around rural Western Australia. But it was only 12 months later that the first lockdown hit and he came home, moving back to Taranaki. He helped a friend on his farm till he found a role with Fonterra in the local factory, but he

struggled being stuck inside all day and jumped at a role in the On Farm Assets team when it came up. “We were looking after anything the tanker touches, I liked it better than being in the factory but I still wasn’t settled,” Ben says. “But it wasn’t long till a

farm assistant role came up at one of the Fonterra Farms in Longburn in Manawatū so we decided to give it a crack and move the family down.” Starting in June last year and launching into the apprentice scheme, he has been absorbing as much as he can. He has completed

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August 2022

Ben Hayes works on a Fonterra farm at Longburn as a farm assistant and has been learning on the job as well as studying with Primary ITO.

Ben Hayes, treating a cow down with milk fever, enjoys being outdoors with the animals as well as the large variety of farm work.

Primary ITO level 3 and is working on his level 4 and has found the study really valuable to connect what they are doing on the farm with the reasoning behind it. He also credits his supportive manager, Lorraine Ferreira, and his 2IC Phil Read for helping to develop his farming knowledge. “I’m loving it, I can really see a future in the sector and Sherie and I are dead keen to own our own farm one day,” says Ben. But they have an alternative plan to the traditional farm ownership pathway, building their equity through property development. They own three houses already. “I grew up on a building site, my parents always had property projects on the go, so I know how to do a lot myself and know the value you can create.

requirements that prevent him from sharing it with his family. “It’s not the same lifestyle you have on general dairy farms, the kids can’t come out with me or anything so it’s like a normal job where Dad

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August 2022

“We’re planning to get our deposit together using the residential market and get ourselves into a position the bank is willing to lend to us on. I reckon that’s the key, having the backing from the bank.”

He looks forward to being able to work for himself one day but is hoping to work on a more generic farm soon too. The Longburn farm he is currently on has extensive health and safety

leaves for work and comes home at the end of the day. “I do look forward to being able to share the lifestyle with my family sometime in the future and I’m keen to work for myself eventually.”

They split calve 600 cows through a 50-bail rotary shed. There are six farm team members plus the manager who runs two dairy farms and the support block. Being involved in the sector has given Ben an appreciation for how much farmers are trying to juggle. “When you’re responsible for 600-plus animals, there’s a huge amount of care that goes into them. You need to make sure they’ve got everything before you can worry about yourself. “People outside of the sector don’t realise how much goes into it.” He is thoroughly loving it, though, and is pleased he made the jump. He is eager to learn as much as he can to put his family in a good position for future opportunities and eventually buy their own farm. n

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Retreat to reset By Samantha Tennent

A luxury resort in Waikato is giving rural women a safe haven where they can go to rest, recharge and gain the tools to make changes in their lives.

truggling with her physical appearance and the pressures of juggling work and personal life, Joelene Ranby had a snap moment when she knew something had to change. But she needed to find where to start. Nearly 10 years later she is helping hundreds of women every year learn how to make those changes through Resolution Retreats, a luxury health and wellness resort in Waikato for women. “When I was on my own journey it was slow going, I didn’t have the skills to change overnight so needed to learn the basics and adapt what would fit my lifestyle,” Ranby says. “But I focused on one thing at a time and chipped away at it, if I had tried to do everything at once I don’t think I would have succeeded, it’s just too hard to change that much that quick.” The retreat offers the space, support and tools for women to uncover what they are lacking or need to change in their own lives and how to go about it. It came off the back of her own journey when, realising the process could be faster and easier for others, she wanted to share her knowledge to help. “If something like this existed back when I was getting started it would have made a huge difference and that’s what we focus on now, inspiring people to make changes in their lives to help them feel better and give them some tools to reduce the pressures they’re facing,” says Ranby. During her journey, she was working as a financial accountant but she felt incomplete. She also began studying nutrition and started sharing what she was learning with others. This grew and as a hobby, she started holding weight-loss and health retreats, where she shared her knowledge of health and wellness. But the juggling of full-time work, study and the hobby mounted and she

Juggling work, personal life and her physical appearance, Joelene Ranby snapped and made some major life changes. She started Resolution Retreat to help others who find themselves struggling.

“Rural people lead very busy and sometimes isolated lifestyles and we think both types of retreats have a lot to offer for the rural community.” Joelene Ranby

made the call to leave employment and let her hobby take over. This was the birth of Resolution Retreats, which has proven to be a great success.

“I felt a lot of self-doubt at the time but it really has paid off. What we’re doing here and what we offer is really fulfilling, I love helping others find their light,” she says. The retreat offers a number of packages and women from all backgrounds come to get the space to reflect and uncover what they need to change in their lives and learn how the tools to make the changes. “The environment at the retreat takes those pressures away, allowing women to reflect on how they can make changes for themselves. “Although, for most people, those pressures they arrived with will still be

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there when they get back, so it’s about chipping away carefully, making small changes and focusing on one thing at a time.” Ranby explains the scale of pressure versus productivity or performance, how as pressure increases, performance increases, but only to a certain point and any further pressure once that point has been reached will reduce performance. “The point is different for everyone but once they go over that point they go into a state of overwhelm or what I term the O-zone,” she says. “And when people are in that space everything is hard and inefficient. “But to come out, the first thing they need to do is acknowledge they’re in that zone and then find ways to reduce the pressure and in the future, it’s recognising when they’re approaching the O-zone and reducing the pressure before tipping into it.” She explains the challenge is knowing what our personal signs are because everyone will respond differently to the O-zone. And we train ourselves to ignore the signs that we are there or that we are approaching it. So she recommends

Resolution Retreat is a luxury health and wellness resort in Waikato for women and offers a multitude of different packages to help women get the tools they need to make changes in their lives.

talking to family and friends, asking what signs they see. “Our friends and family are good at recognising if we’re becoming overwhelmed and they can be a good

checkpoint to help us see when we are approaching that space and to know what to look out for in the future.”

Continued page 56

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Visitors to the resort can choose from a range of classes including a dance exercise class.

Are you facing burnout? Answer with what best describes you – yes/sometimes/never • You feel dread or anxiety about going to work. • You feel nothing is going right and cannot find hope that things will get better. • You are more easily irritated or more emotional than normal. • You are physically and/or mentally unable to do the things you normally can due to exhaustion. • You spend your days off with no plans because you are recovering from your days “on”. • You have trouble concentrating and are more forgetful than you used to be. • You feel you are making more mistakes than usual. • You find it difficult to break down and compartmentalise complex (or simple) problems. As a result, you get overwhelmed and find it difficult to achieve any progress. • You isolate yourself from the activities or people that used to bring you joy. • You turn to quick fixes to help you think clearly, relax or feel better. • You’re finding your sleep is disturbed by worry.

• You require more sleep to feel rested but may have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep. The signs of burnout are different for everyone but if you answered yes to three or more of the questions, consider getting help. The most important thing is to reduce the pressure you’re feeling. The Resilience Retreat team recommends the following as first steps: • Be honest with those around you, particularly those who rely on you. This will make them aware they need to back off a bit. • Remove yourself from the environment(s) that are contributing to pressure for at least three days stay with a friend, go camping, or go to a retreat. While away, switch off from any connections to the pressure (for example, log out of your work email app). • Find someone impartial to talk to. Counsellors have relevant training and can help you compartmentalise overwhelming problems or feelings so you can see a path forward.

Recognising that being in the O-zone is only the first step. Next the pressure needs to be reduced, but for many, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. And that is exactly why many women go to a retreat. “We have women come for a huge range of reasons, including health, needing a break, stress, sleep problems, or a combo of all of those. “Some want inspiration in the kitchen or to move their bodies, others are just lacking motivation, which is happening to a lot of people at the moment.” There is a team who work alongside Ranby and guests are offered a range of activities and workshops. It is a balanced approach, focusing on the elements of a “wheel of wellness”. “There are four elements we need to balance for wellness and those are nutrition, movement, sleep and happiness. “Our guests leave with ideas to support all of those areas but we encourage them to focus on one main area initially to keep their journey progressing. “Many find their number one is meal planning, being able to implement the good things they’ve learnt about nutrition by forward planning because it can be hard to make good nutrition decisions when you’re hungry. “And we find the second most common focus is having a happiness project, finding things people can do to give them joy and sparkle. “Sometimes people don’t actually know how to answer if you ask them what they do for fun because it’s been that long since they’ve thought about it or felt it.” Alongside Resolution Retreats, Ranby has also launched Resilience Retreats, which cater for men and women and could be a great opportunity for farming families and teams to learn some tools to support life and business management. “Rural people lead very busy and sometimes isolated lifestyles and we think both types of retreats have a lot to offer for the rural community.” But the biggest advice she can give anyone who struggling and feeling overwhelmed is to have a conversation with those around them about they are feeling. “Tell them you’re overwhelmed and that you need to reduce the pressure, but it’s ok not to have the answer on how to go about it yet, just get it out and recognise your feelings.” n

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MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Farmers take a seat By Cheyenne Nicholson

Growing up on a dairy farm and seeing farmers struggle with mental and physical wellbeing, a PhD student is working towards improving life on the farm.

aikato University Master’s student Cathleen SchriberHannah has seen first-hand farmers’ struggles with mental health. Now she’s on a mission to improve the state of rural mental health. Schriber-Hannah grew up on the family dairy farm in the Waikato, which her parents are now in the throes of converting to dry stock, an acknowledgment of their need to slow down a little as they get older. “They love farming, and for a long time I always thought I’d end up being a farmer too. Once I finished school I worked full time on the farm for a time. It soon became isolating for me, and I ventured into off-farm work.” Many moments in her life led her down the study path of psychology. She has dyslexia and received little support while at school. Instead, she had appointments an hour away in Hamilton with a psychologist. “It wasn’t easy working that three-hour minimum trip around the farm, and it just seems absurd now that we had to travel so far to get help,” says SchriberHannah. On the farm, she can clearly recall many times when her dad put his physical health on the back burner in favour of keeping the farm ticking over, including one incident where he was kicked in the face but went on to finish milking before seeking any form of help. “Farmers tend to be a bit like that, and their mental health is no different. I’ve watched my dad and other farmers suffer from depression and do nothing because the farm comes first. I think a big part of this is the availability and resources when it comes to mental health services.” While working at her local community centre, she recalls a clinical psychologist who operated out of the centre each week who would regularly have a full schedule, but often only a handful of patients would show up.

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Waikato University PhD student Cathleen SchriberHannah is researching rural health care.

“While it was great to see the attempt to provide mental health services in a rural area, I think sometimes it’s a big ask for people, farmers in particular, to come to such a public place to seek help. It speaks to the stigma that exists around mental health, especially in rural areas.” She was working as a dental assistant when news of a double suicide sent shock waves through her rural community, and it had a lasting impact on many people. “I’d experienced so many things that made me realise how much of an issue rural mental health is and how badly rural communities need better access to mental health support. So after working on a bunch of off-farm jobs in my 20s, I decided to enrol in university as a mature student in 2018 and I’m now working on my Master’s degree.” She hopes to delve deeper into the issue of rural mental health and embark on research that she hopes will help improve things. Her research is focused on farmers’ coping strategies when it comes to stress and how they wind down and destress. She acknowledges from personal experience that farmers aren’t always the best at making time to get off farm and engage in off-farm activities they enjoy, and says that she’s interested to learn if there’s something that could be done in this space to encourage and

facilitate more farmers to get involved in off-farm activities. “Again, it comes back to the availability of things, everything from the availability of mental health services to the availability of recreational things for farmers to get involved with locally. In town or the city it’s easy to pop to an event or whatever. In rural communities, those opportunities can be limited.” She has put together a questionnaire she’s putting out to all types of farmers to collate information in the hopes of being able to produce something at the end that will help farmers in this space. Long term, she wants to continue working on improving rural mental health by going on to complete a post-doctoral programme and eventually getting out into the community. “I’d love to act as a sort of roaming rural clinical psychologist and take that mental health support to the rural communities one day. For now, there’s a lot more research that can and needs to be done in this area to better understand the gaps in resources and what rural communities need to thrive.” n

If you would like to complete the questionnaire, check out her advertisement on page 62. Please follow the QR code to fill the survey or contact Cathleen by email: ces25@students.waikato.ac.nz for a link.

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING

Matt Chisholm was at the top of his game in television but walked away. Now he’s spreading the mental health message to farmers.

Unticking the box By Tony Benny

A popular television presenter suffering from depression and burnout chucked in his successful career. Now he’s encouraging farmers to get help.

att Chisholm thought he had it all but when his world was turned upside-down by a crippling bout of depression he realised he needed to make some fundamental changes if he was to be the man he and his family needed him to be. Now he’s sharing his experience, hoping to help country people look after their mental health, too. “I had everything I wanted in my life, I’d ticked all the boxes I wanted to tick but I’d never been so unhappy,” the TV presenter recalls. “On the face of it I might have looked like I had a fantastic life. I was one of five current affairs journalists

left on television, arguably, I was hosting TV2’s big budget reality show, I had a lovely house on Auckland’s North Shore, kids, lovely wife, I had everything I ever wanted, but I was driving myself into the ground and I didn’t do anything to look after myself.” Chisholm realised he couldn’t carry on as he was so he opted for a radical change, one that upended the lives of his wife and three children as well. “I resigned from TVNZ without having one hour of work lined up. I had no idea what I was going to do, that’s how radical it was, but probably one of the best moves I’ve made, I’d say,” says Matt. Nowadays the Chisholm

family lives on a 30ha block at Chatto Creek near Alexandra, where they run a few sheep and cattle. Matt still does some freelance television work but it’s his new job as inaugural ambassador for the Rural Support Trust that he’s more excited about. He kicked off the job with nationwide tour talking to rural communities about mental wellness and resilience, where he openly shares his own mental health struggles. Previously he’d always said no to public speaking but after posting a social media post about his experience, that changed. “It wasn’t really because I wanted to become some sort of poster boy for men’s mental health, I just wanted

to honour my mate [the late] Greg Boyd. “I was sort of burnt out and dealing with grief when I eventually left television full time but when I look back I was obviously depressed in other parts of my life and instead of just pushing it under the carpet, I decided to speak out.” The social media post got the attention of Taranaki Rural Support Trust chair Mike Green, who “about 150 years ago” had worked as a stock agent with Matt’s father. Green had followed Matt’s career and knew of his struggles. “He got in touch and said ‘We’re doing this big fundraising dinner, 320 people, it would be great

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if you told your story,’ and I said, ‘No, I won’t do it mate.’ But he was a very persistent, determined man and in the end I thought I’d better do it,” says Matt.

mental wellness is taken seriously. “I want people to be more proactive and to think about their mental health and for it to be a thing before they

“I don’t particularly like telling my story ... I’m very honest about the things I’ve got up to, whether it be booze or drugs or womanising or whatever I’ve used to try to deal with my depression and anxiety.” Matt Chisholm “I told my story for the first time in that venue in New Plymouth and it went down reasonably well. “It was kind of funny in places because that was my default setting, and it was very emotional and raw in other places because I’d never told my story before and it seemed to work.” It worked so well that Mike raised funds from businesses to pay for Matt to become an ambassador and travel rural New Zealand to get people talking about mental wellness. “I don’t particularly like telling my story. There’s only one or two skeletons left in my closet so I’m very honest about the things I’ve got up to, whether it be booze or drugs or womanising or whatever I’ve used to try to deal with my depression and anxiety. “I think most people can probably relate to some of it, whether that’s being a rugby-playing country boy or alcohol or mate-ship or whatever because there’s nothing really much different about me apart from the fact I’ve been on television.” Matt recognises mental health is already a serious issue in rural NZ and worries it will get worse as the country comes through the covid pandemic and faces a potentially serious economic recession. It’s vital, he says, that

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get in the shit like I did and like my mate Greg Boyd did. That’s my key thing: that this isn’t left-leaning, bed-wetting, tree-hugging mumbo jumbo, this is very real and it can bite anybody.” Looking back, he realises depression had always lurked in the shadows even as he threw himself into partying, as young men do. “There’s a lot of peer pressure and we all think we have to play these roles and it takes a lot of guts to turn your back on your mates and go, ‘This isn’t for me anymore.’ And I was one of the worst and I was particularly unhappy living that life as well – I was depressed.” Matt’s life-changing mental health crisis came in 2018 when he was juggling two high-pressure jobs and had a young family living in a small rental, having recently sold their house. “I kinda knew I was in a bit of trouble but I had all these deadlines I had to hit and then as I hit the last couple, something happened at work and I just snapped, I blew up, both barrels blazing. “I went home to my wife and she said I think you need to see the doctor and at that stage I was pretty desperate and for the first time in my life I said, ‘I think you might be right.’ I went to bed and I cried for a couple of days. I don’t have any qualms about talking about it.

“I put so much pressure on myself and I worked so bloody hard because I didn’t think I deserved to be in any of the positions that I was in, I didn’t allow myself to have much joy or fun or do anything for me, just trying to be a good TV host, a good journalist, a good father and husband and there was just no joy in it anymore.” Four years later Matt has more peace and loves his family’s life on the land. “I tell farmers to get off farm for their medicine, to look after themselves. For me, being on this little bit of land is actually my medicine. “If I’m at home, I make sure that an hour a day at least I come down here. I call it work and I’ve been feeding out this morning but some days it takes me two hours when I could probably do the job in half an hour. I walk around the place, the

Grahame Sydney-like hills, good-looking stock I’d like to think, and just listen to them munching away on their hay or whatever. “I’m looking for positivity, for what’s good in my world, with a whole lot of gratitude now, which seems to work a whole lot better for me.” Speaking of his ambassadorship role, Matt says, “I like the good work the Rural Support Trust does, largely behind the scenes. I want people to understand how the trust can help them in their communities, so more people can access their services when they need it most.” He says his key message to anyone struggling with such pressure is to ask for help. “Instead of having a conversation with yourself, go and talk to someone. Take that first step and life will change.” n

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New wintering regulations will apply to all farmers across New Zealand in 2023, so having a plan in place to avoid damage will help manage pasture and crops better during the wetter months.

Wintering for a smooth calving season Justin Kitto DairyNZ solutions and development lead advisor (wintering)

eeping up good winter grazing standards can help reduce stress for both animals and people on-farm, as many head into calving. Greg Mitchell farms in Hawke’s Bay and winters 1600 cows on his 520-hectare dairy farm. At this time of year Mitchell and his team are focused on ensuring they check the weather forecast, paddock and cow condition daily.

“Every farm is different but you can often find practical solutions which work well for your team and your animals.” Greg Mitchell 60

“Our team checks the cows every day to make sure they are in good condition, and are eating well,” Mitchell says. Daily checks help identify any issues so they can be managed and corrected before calving. In bad weather, the team can shift stock off crops to sheltered paddocks. Mitchell has also identified which paddocks have good shelter and are best for calving. While winter has so far been mild, a wet autumn has meant grazing needs to be managed carefully to avoid mud becoming a problem. To reduce trampling, the team stand cows off crops after feeding for a couple of hours and keep mob sizes small. Steeper paddocks aren’t used for winter cropping, and they graze any sloped paddocks from the top downwards to reduce mud. The cows graze on fodder beet, oats and grass. He and his team have planted oats as a catch crop after wintering to help utilise any available nitrogen for plant growth. Winter grazing hasn’t been a focus for some North Island farmers in previous years, but new wintering regulations will apply to all farmers across New

Zealand in 2023. All farms need to have a wintering plan and will need to plan ahead to assess whether they will need to apply for a consent. Mitchell says the first step to setting yourself up for winter is to start planning your approach well ahead of time. “Go and look around your farm to figure out which paddocks would be best for winter crops and for calving on. Every farm is different but you can often find practical solutions which work well for your team and your animals,” he says. He is already choosing his winter cropping paddocks for next winter and has started soil testing to assess nutrient levels in different paddocks. n

DairyNZ has a range of wintering resources online, including: • A Plan B template to help respond to adverse weather • A gumboot test to assess if ground is suitable for cows to lie on • A winter grazing checklist and a wintering plan template to help plan ahead for next winter. To access wintering resources, visit www.dairynz.co.nz/wintering

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Dairy Farmer August 2022

Articles inside

Industry good – DairyNZ

Spring calving

Milk Monitor Milk production down 4.1% across all of last season

Women in agribusiness – Eden Ritchie

Forever farming Iwi-owned farm is productive and sustainable for the future

Farmstrong

Mental health and wellbeing

Guest column – Kylie Cronin

Dairy challenges The dairy sector is set to face even more challenges