35 minute read
Life as a solo farmer
from Dairy Farmer December 2020
by AgriHQ
Maryanne Dudli leases an 84ha farm at Auroa, Taranaki, where she milks 175 Friesian and Friesian-cross cows on her own. Photos: Ross Nolly
A South Taranaki farmer’s journey from sharemilker to going it on her own
By Ross Nolly
A Taranaki farmer is doing it alone and although life can get hectic at times, every day she pulls on her gumboots and happily heads off to milk her cows.
Farming is hard work. But when you farm alone, there is no one to help when the work pressure mounts, and every decision falls squarely on your shoulders.
Maryanne Dudli milks 175 cows on an 84-hectare leased farm at Auroa, in South Taranaki. She runs the farm on her own and takes pride in running an efficient farm, and owning a high production herd.
Dudli grew up on the family dairy farm and has been absolutely passionate about cows as far back as she can remember.
“My poor father couldn’t leave the house without me following him,” Dudli says. “Even in my preschool days he would get up at 4.30am, and as soon as
I heard him, I’d rush outside and get on the tractor with him.
“He made me a little box to sit in and
I’d fall asleep in it. I’d then sit in the pit in the cowshed and pat the cows as they walked past. It was always where I felt most comfortable.”
She has always loved the interaction and feel of the animals, and would always hurry out onto the farm as soon as she arrived home from school.
She appreciated the animal health side of farming, and initially dreamed of becoming a vet. As a teenager she undertook work experience with a local vet, however, she didn’t venture down that path because even though she loved helping animals, she always wanted to go home to her own animals.
“I did reasonably well at school and many people told me that I shouldn’t be ‘just’ a farmer,” she says.
“I was a very quiet, studious kid and did what I was told. So I went to university, even though I didn’t want to leave home – or the farm.
“I studied Applied Science, majoring in Animal Science. It would’ve entailed eight years of study and culminated in a doctorate, which sounded lovely.
“I got to uni and the first six months of three-hour science lab sessions just about finished me.”
University life wasn’t a good fit for her and although she has always believed
A firm believer in employing a professional hoof trimmer to regularly attend to her cow’s feet rather than doing it herself, Maryanne helps Jeremy Connolly of Orahiri Hoof Care trimming her cow’s feet. FARM FACTS • Lease: Maryanne Dudli • Location: Auroa, Taranaki • Farm size: 84ha • Cows: 175 Friesian and Friesiancross cows, F12 J4 • Production: 2019-2020: 636kg
MS per cow, 109,300kg • Production target: 2020-2021: 109,300kg MS
that you can never stop learning, the university format never felt right.
“Things are different now. If something similar to the Primary ITO system had been around then it would’ve probably been a compromise I could’ve accepted. It’s awesome to see that pathway opened up,” she says.
Her family farm was in the process of being sold, so she left university and returned home to help. She was at a loose end and just wanted to get away.
She left for a two-year overseas break that stretched out to six years. Three of those years were spent working on an Oregon dairy farm, which opened her eyes to different dairy farming systems.
“The Oregon farm was a reasonably high input operation with a total mix ration going in. The cows were housed but with some grazing too. Those cows achieved phenomenal production,” she says.
“I came back to New Zealand a different person. Travel was very good for me and brought me out of my shell.
“I began work as a District Manager for LIC in the north Waikato and then for Semex as an area manager in Taranaki.”
She spent four years in a 50:50 partnership before going out on her own.
“He made me a little box to sit in and I’d fall asleep in it. I’d then sit in the pit in the cowshed and pat the cows as they walked past. It was always where I felt most comfortable.” Maryanne Dudli
Nine years ago she took on a 50:50 job, completing two seasons before the farm was put up for sale. Even though she was offered a third year on the farm, she was told that if she could find another farm Maryanne grew up on the family dairy farm and has been absolutely passionate about cows as
far back as she can remember. the owners would sell their farm.
“I was then offered a 50:50 job milking 160 cows at Ohangai, which was exactly what I wanted,” she says.
“I wasn’t at the point of taking on staff, I just wanted to do it by myself. I love the simplicity and it suits me.”
When you farm on your own everything falls on your shoulders, which is a positive and a negative. Dudli is the sort of person that likes to be able to make decisive decisions. But there are times when it can become stressful.
“I often wonder whether I’ve made right decisions and if not, I tend to kick myself a wee bit. I have wonderful friends who are hugely supportive and give me tremendous guidance, but I tend to be quite independent,” she says.
“I feel that because I made the decision to farm on my own, they shouldn’t have me continually telling them my farming problems. I should be able to deal with them myself. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me.”
She feels that farmers often need to take a step back and look at what they’ve achieved rather than always looking at what needs to be done. It’s an aspect she is focusing on but it’s not something that comes naturally to her or most farmers.
“Farm work never stops. You look out the window and there always seems to be something that needs to be dealt with. That’s part and parcel of living and working in the same environment. It’s not a 9-5 job where you can just switch off,” she says.
This is her third season on this farm milking 175 Friesian and Friesian-cross cows. The breed mix is F12 J4, which is what she has been aiming for.
The herd is run in two mobs, the second of which is two rows and consists mostly of older cows that fare better in the second herd.
“They’re good cows that have worked hard for me for 10 years and I need to make their lives a bit easier and try to get a couple more calves out of them. There’s always a cow that needs special care or is recovering from an issue and just needs some time to come right,” she says.
Each day she carefully considers her
work plan and strives to be as efficient as possible when completing tasks and their location on the farm. She often completes jobs while waiting for the cows to walk to the cowshed. She keeps chipping away at her jobs to get on top of them because she finds that it’s the little jobs that come back to bite you.
When the farm is exceptionally busy during calving, it’s tempting to leave things until the next day but she finds that if she does so, then she usually ends up playing catch-up and the problem snowballs.
“I feel better if I feel organised. If something needs doing I can’t just say ‘I’ve done enough, I’m going home,’ have tea and go to bed. It’s frustrating at times as I’m the sort of person that keeps going until it’s done. My mind doesn’t relax until it’s done,” she says.
Last season the herd produced 636kg milksolids per cow, 109,300kg MS, and is tracking to achieve the same this season.
“If the payout is a touch lower, I’ll make some decisions in the second half of the season depending on the weather,” she says.
“If it’s not economic to push for that sort of production, I won’t.”
The herd is twice-a-day, but she may look at 16-hour milking in late summer/ autumn, depending on the payout and climate. The herd doesn’t perform on once-a-day (OAD) at the end of the season.
“I like cows that persist in production. My cows peak at 2.85kgs MS, which is a relatively high initial, but by the end of April they’re still at 2kgs MS. So OAD is not really an option,” she says.
Her cows are fed well, as she feels that if she’s wintering and calving a cow through the hardest part of the season, Some cows in the herd have genetics that goes back to Maryanne’s grandparents’ herd, so she is meticulous about keeping the herd records.
HFS - Dairy Farmer Dec 2020 - 210x86mm 5mm bleed - PRINT.pdf 1 17/11/20 12:25 AM Continued page 24 Maryanne installs a new filter sock and sets up the shed for afternoon milking.
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Only 30 replacement calves are needed so most of the herd is put to a Hereford bull and some Speckle Park. The calves are initially ad-lib fed stored colostrum then vat milk and weaned based on age and maturity. Maryanne feeds the calves.
then she wants to gain maximum production without pushing her too hard.
“It also comes down to the sort of cow you have and personal preferences. The more you push for production, the more you open yourself up to other issues. It’s an interesting balancing act,” she says.
The farm runs a System 4 and most of the hay used is bought in due to the increasingly frequent dry summers. She likes to have plenty of hay on hand for winter and makes as much silage as possible – 20ha is presently shut up.
She won’t cut her cows back to make silage, but will buy it if needed. Maize silage was bought in for the first time in March – a last minute decision due to the weather becoming very dry.
“There wasn’t a great deal of feed around and the silage that was available was costing around $150 per bale. When you buy wrapped silage you’re never sure of the quality because you’re scrounging whatever is available,” she says.
“I’d thought about drying-off, but it was mentioned that I should look at buying maize silage. It worked out cheaper than the silage I’d been looking at. Friends loaned me a tractor and feedout wagon so I could feed it. I may even go with the maize silage each year.”
The in-shed feed consists of 35-40% PK, 20% DDG, soy hull, tapioca and at the moment, some high-starch wheat pellets. The feed is designed to balance the grass and the mix will change throughout the year to provide a balanced diet.
The farm has a 10-week calving period with 85-90% calving in the first six weeks, including the incoming heifers. This timeframe suits her as it’s more than enough work to be done at one time for one person.
“You want your herd calving quickly, but you also want the feed coming along nicely,” she says.
“Your workload must be at a level where at the end of that six-week period you’re still mentally functional enough to be making correct management decisions. If you’ve absolutely shattered yourself you’re probably not going to be in a state to make those decisions.”
The calves are initially ad-lib fed stored colostrum, then vat milk and weaned based on age and maturity.
“Some may say that it’s inefficient and not cost effective to ad-lib feed vat milk to calves. But it results in good calves and is a simple way to feed them. I give them the milk first thing in the morning and take it away at night,” she says.
“Mixing milk powder is timeconsuming when you’re on your own. If you grow good calves you send off good yearlings to graze.
“On May 1 good two-year olds come home that fit into your herd, get in calf again and produce well.”
Downed cows are one of the most morale sapping occurrences on a farm. She checks her cows as often as “I don’t think of myself as a female farmer, farming isn’t really a gender thing anymore. Females are commonplace in the dairy industry, and have been for quite some time.” Maryanne Dudli
possible during calving season through to midnight. Fixing a problem early is better than facing a bigger problem in the morning when the cows need to be milked and calves fed.
She only needs 30 replacement calves, so 40% of her herd go to Hereford (and some Speckle Park) bulls. This results in some very good cows going to beef bulls. The surplus calves are easy to sell and helps reduce the number of bobby calves.
In the past she was a pedigree Holstein breeder, starting her stud as a 12-year-old with help from a local breeder. She still has descendants of those cows in her herd.
She was also a qualified TOP (Traits Other Than Production) inspector and classifier with NZ Animal Evaluation and is a firm believer in the importance of cow structure. She didn’t recertify due to the difficulty getting away from the farm.
“I used to be a cattle judge, but have stopped in recent years for the same reason; when you’re farming on your own, especially in a 50:50 position, your focus has to be primarily on the farm,” she says.
In her mind she has an image of what a good cow should look like and doesn’t care what colour it is as long as it has good structure, width and a balanced body. She doesn’t want extremes, she wants a cow that will have longevity in her herd.
“I have quite a low replacement rate and only rear about 30 heifer calves a year. I don’t like turning over cows. I like cows that will last up to 12 or 14 years in my herd and I want offspring from those cows,” she says.
“If you’re an index-based farmer then potentially some of those cows will have lower figures due to their older genetics, but I’m not looking at that. I’m looking at the fact that the cow has lasted in my herd for a number of years and has proven to suit my system.”
It doesn’t just come down to cost, she also seeks efficiency as she doesn’t want to be turning over her herd every few years. Some cows in the herd have genetics that go back to her grandparents’ herd. She has an attachment to them and they have proven that they suit her system.
“Herd longevity saves me time and money. I want as few heifers to break-in as possible,” she says.
“Breaking them in is just part of the job, but why break-in 50 when I can break-in 30? That’s especially important in a solo farming operation.
“I’ve had to learn that there is only me here to do the work. I have finite energy and there are only so many hours in the day. I have to determine how to get the most out of what I do.”
Bull selection is crucial but it’s what she is passionate about, so it’s not an onerous process. This season the herd had a 95% in-calf rate and 100% of the two-year olds got in-calf again for their second lactation.
AI is used over the entire herd for the first six weeks of mating. During that period, approximately 40% are mated to Hereford or Speckle Park. During the second three-week period she is quite strict because those calves will be born a little later. Only the cows that she would
Because she works on her own, Maryanne plans her day carefully and often does jobs while waiting for the herd to walk to the shed.
be thrilled to get a heifer calf from go to a dairy bull, everything else goes to beef.
“I may be a little old fashioned but there are some cows that each year seem to come on when the bulls go in at the end of mating. Short gestation is a wonderful tool at the end of mating,” she says.
She has found her beef calves are more saleable if they’re born between August 20 and September 10, after that they become more difficult to sell. Jersey bulls are used over the heifers for calving ease.
“The late calves can become quite Maryanne’s number one priority is breeding for capacity, but the problem with that big, which is hard on the cows. Those is only 12 cows can fit in each side of the 20-a-side herringbone and milking takes calves can go overdue, especially with four hours from cups-on to the finish of wash-down. Herefords. I want those cows to calve with no issues,” she says.
A smaller herd allows her the luxury of Some crossbred bulls are used on “I do a lot of business texting while daily handpicking the bulls for each cow. some good, old cows that she feels using milking to be as efficient as possible. She uses four or five Friesian (AI) bulls. a Friesian bull may be a bit too hard on When the cows hit their peak it takes a
“A tall, lanky cow needs capacity. So them. reasonable amount of time for them to I’ll use a bull with capacity over her to The herd is milked through a 20-a-side empty out.” try and create a balanced animal. A big, herringbone, but only about 12 of her She loves her animals, the outdoors, milky Friesian sometimes needs more capacious cows can fit in each side. the land and the freedom. She sets her components so I’ll use a cross over her,” “Breeding for capacity is my number day and schedule, and has the freedom she says. one goal but capacious cows don’t to make her own decisions. Farm
“I want volume, but I also want squash up, so milking takes four hours ownership has always been her end components. A lot of thought goes into it from cups-on to the finish of wash-down. goal and she relishes the thought of the during milking. But it’s what I enjoy and I love milking and I love my cows, but it’s stability it would provide. it enthuses me.” a long time in the shed,” she says. “You put a lot into a farm and you want to be there long-term to grow and develop it. I’d like a farm a bit larger than this one where it would be economic to employ an assistant and either milk some more cows or be able to keep my heifers home,” she says. “I don’t think of myself as a female farmer, farming isn’t really a gender thing anymore. Females are commonplace in the dairy industry, and have been for quite some time.” She hopes there will be a future for smaller farms within the industry as an important step on the journey towards farm ownership. “Cows are amazing animals, and what they do for us is incredible. I don’t like sending cows to the works. I have cows here that will never leave the farm,” she says. “Cows have always been a relaxation for me. They give me a lot of peace. Whenever I’ve been stressed, I’ve always The farm is a System 4 and as much silage as possible is made. About 20ha was gone out to the cows. It’s still my happy harvested in early November. place.” n
A voice at the global table
By Gerald Piddock
While most New Zealanders sleep, the Federated Farmers president is working round the clock to ensure Kiwi farmers have a voice on the international stage.
Andrew Hoggard has gone from representing just Kiwi farmers to farmers across the globe after being elected to the board of the International Dairy Federation (IDF).
The Federated Farmers president is the IDF board’s sole farmer representative on which it develops robust, science and evidence-based international standards for dairy products.
It also uses its global network to expand industry and undertakes research on issues important to the sector.
All the different groups involved in all the things in getting milk from a cow to a dairy product was represented in the organisation, Hoggard says.
It will mean the Manawatu dairy farmer has to get up in the early hours of the morning to attend online meetings with his mostly northern hemisphere colleagues.
“It’s not like I was doing anything at midnight apart from sleeping,” he jokes.
“In terms of an organisation it covers everything from farming through to the product ending up in the consumers’ hands.”
Hoggard is not new to the IDF, having served on the animal health, farm management and environment standing committees, and has just finished his second two-year stint on the IDF’s scientific programme coordination committee.
This is the body that decides which scores of potential work streams – covering everything from research to nutrition, processing, marketing and more – should be the priority for IDF resources.
The standard-setting takes up much of the IDF’s work.
The work is vital because it lays the groundwork for future trade negotiations between countries.
“When you work through and think that we are very reliant on trade and without standards, trade doesn’t work very well,” he says.
“It’s about laying the framework for where trade can occur. The arguments are over things other than science.”
Once established, groups such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) can then use the standards as a guideline if trade disputes between countries arise.
“The simplest way to put it is that a lot of these standards are about enabling trade globally and without these, it would be pretty hard to do trade,” he says.
“While a lot of it seems technical to the average farmer, when we export 95% of what we produce, actually having these robust standards across the globe is vitally important to us.”
He says the discussions and decisions around the board table are collaborative largely because trade issues are parked at the door.
“At the start of every meeting they read out an anti-trust statement, so we’re not allowed to talk about trade and dividing up markets between us,” he says.
“It’s not the sorts of things that promote competition. It’s about everyone collaborating on stuff that’s for the greater good.”
The main organisations the IDF works closely with are the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which is part of the United Nations (UN).
Hoggard says he’ll be pushing the same principle he’s used to argue on behalf of farmers across the sectors in New Zealand: that policies, regulations and proposals need to pass the SPA test: is it sensible, it is practical, is it affordable?
“An emerging opportunity for the IDF is the UN food systems dialogue. It’s a focus of non-governmental organisations
Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard will be representing Kiwi farmers on the International Dairy Federation (IDF) board. Andrew has been milking on the family farm since 1998.
(NGOs) and other bodies and individuals all around the world, not just in NZ, to try and describe what a sustainable food system looks like,” he says.
“This dialogue is the opportunity to move beyond the sometimes emotive views gaining traction on how we should farm, and what we should produce, to ensure it is grounded in science, is practical and rational in terms of the global challenge to ensure nutritionally adequate diets, while also maintaining sufficient food production for future generations.
“My aim is to make sure the farmer voice and knowledge base is heard loud and clear among the other voices.”
The IDF has also done a lot of work looking at dairy nutrition, which has been prompted by the emergence of plantbased dairy alternatives and its claims around having a lower greenhouse gases footprint.
He says that work broke down the protein of these plant-based products and compared them to milk. It found that cow dairy had a better emissions footprint than some plant-based milks.
“The amount of nutrients it’s providing is far greater, so the actual footprint per gram is much better,” he says
The organisation has also looked at the impact on the industry these alternative milks have when they leverage their products off cow’s milk in the retail space.
IDF research also showed that claims by plant-based milk companies that using the term milk or meat was done so on a generic basis and had no
Continued page 30
As well as serving as president of the Feds, Andrew also looks after various portfolios, including climate change, local government, firearms, science and innovation, and several others.
influence on consumers was not the case.
“There’s a vast amount of people … that showed that actually they did think this was real milk flavoured with almonds and for all the claims made that consumers understand, they didn’t understand,” he says.
“That’s why they want to keep using the descriptions of our products so they can basically get a free ride on our brand.”
There had also been discussions looking at the effect diseases such as bovine viral diarrhoea and Johne’s have on animal emissions. Initial work shows those emissions are reduced if those diseases are eliminated.
This was an example of an aspect where the IDF role complemented his position at Federated Farmers, and where some of the discussions added knowledge and value to NZ farmers.
“What I find with a lot of these things that I go to, is that there are little threads that tie everything together and useful titbits from one that I can apply to another that helps it all come together in terms of providing good outcomes to farmers,” he says.
Kiwi dairy farmers bring a lot of expertise to the IDF because NZ has a lot of good, knowledgeable people in the industry thanks to agriculture being so important to the economy.
It was also generally a very
Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard, past president Katie Milne and chief executive Terry Copeland at 2020 AGM held earlier this year when Andrew was voted to the top job.
collaborative sector with groups such as Massey and Lincoln universities, and AgResearch working together.
Retired Fonterra research technologist Keith Johnston, for example, has won two IDF prizes for excellence.
NZ also has a history of being appointed to positions on the IDF with Fonterra chief science and technology officer Jeremy Hill being the group’s former president.
Apart from a handful of staff, the IDF positions are largely voluntary and are secondary to the participant’s main job, which in his case is a dairy farmer and Federated Farmers president.
Andrew and wife Audra have two daughters aged 11 and nine.
He never expected to end up running the farm, nor did he think he would be in a national Federated Farmers role.
Instead, he thought he would be sitting behind a desk analysing policies or managing a bank.
Leaving school, he enrolled at Massey University where he studied economics. His brother Chad and sister Kimberly both completed agricultural degrees. Ironically, Chad ended up as a bank manager and Kimberly a policy manager, which made for some interesting debates around the dinner table.
After graduating in 1996, he went to Canada where he spent a year farming in the snow.
Returning home, he went 50:50 sharemilking on the family farm at Kaitoke.
In 1998, the family moved to Manawatu after buying the 300ha farm at Kiwitea farm north of Fielding.
He spent several years 50:50 sharemilking on the property, initially milking 440 cows. During this time the family bought the block across the road and increased the herd to 560 cows.
In 2008, the farming operation was expanded and the structure changed to a company. In that same year, he was the runner-up in the Manawatu Sharemilker of the Year.
At the time, his family had four different companies owning several different blocks of land. A decision was made to put in an underpass and merge the companies into one.
He joined Young Farmers early on and went on to become the district and regional chair. In 2003, he got into the grand final of the Young Farmer of the Year competition.
Chairing Young Farmers meant he used to go along to the federation’s provincial meetings.
“From there, I just migrated across to roles in Feds when I hit the ripe old age of 31 and got booted out of young farmers for being too old. The rest is history,” he says. n
Rethink cups on
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That’s over 30 minutes a day and over 3.5 hours a week in this 50-bail iFLOW rotary. Meaning his cows can be back out to pasture quicker, and he can get on with other jobs.
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Farming with style
By Anne Boswell
A Taupo dairy farmer has her hands full with family, farming and a part-time job but that didn’t stop her from setting up a glamping business on the family farm.
In a lovingly restored building, nestled behind a stand of eucalypts on a farm in rural Taupo, a woman is multitasking furiously.
Emily Hilhorst is making a bed with luxury linens, stopping periodically to answer the odd text message, while recounting the story of how she and her husband Dylan became the owners of a glamping business, The Telephone
Exchange Glamping Huts, on their family dairy farm.
“We spied this derelict 1950s telephone exchange building on our neighbour’s farm, and we pinched it,” Emily laughs.
“We initially intended to turn it into a family room, but after staying at a glamp the idea was born to put it on the farm as accommodation for income.”
The couple spent a couple of years renovating the exchange as a bedroom and building a replica kitchen/bathroom hut to match the original building, chipping away at it at night after their children were asleep.
“It was an awesome project to work on together,” she says.
“The whole project combined Dylan’s building expertise with my creativity and interest in styling and interiors.
“It’s our own piece of paradise. I call it our first home.”
The Telephone Exchange Glamping
Huts is located on one of the two farms that Dylan’s family owns.
Emily worked in marketing and Dylan as a builder when they met in London, moving back to New Zealand to dairy farm in 2012.
They had their first child, Louie, eight, that year, followed by Gabe, five, and
Anabella, three.
They ran Wolfshaar Farm for six years milking 360 cows before moving onto the larger farm this season to milk 700 cows.
Emily says having at least one Emily Hilhorst thrives on her busy lifestyle as a mum, wife, dairy farmer, marketing specialist and managing the glamping business which she and her husband established on their dairy farm at Taupo.
alternative income stream while dairy farming has become increasingly important.
“The payout changes constantly, minimum wage has gone up, and so has the price of living,” she says.
“The dairy industry is just so uncertain with the current political climate that I feel it’s beneficial not to have all your eggs in the one basket.”
The glamp has proven to be a successful venture. It opened two years ago, and she has been astounded at its popularity, especially this year.
“It has been a great season so far,” she says.
“You wouldn’t believe we have just come out of a pandemic, the Exchange has been so busy.
“The occupancy rate is around 80%.”
Emily says she has met a lot of interesting people through the glamp, people with whom her path would not normally have crossed.
“We love having people stay on-farm. We are very social people and are always up for a chinwag,” she says.
“Every guest is different; some want the full farm and host experience, and some want a private romantic weekend.
“The most rewarding aspect is when people arrive from the city, wound up from work and traffic and by the time they leave they are so relaxed they just want to hang out and talk.”
On top of the demands of the glamp and working as a relief milker on-farm, Emily also works part-time for a real estate agent as a marketing specialist.
“It’s perfect for me,” she says.
“It’s only nine hours a week but I love going into an office, having the
Emily juggles her family life, the glamp, working on the dairy farm and her parttime job as a marketing specialist. The Hilhorst family – Louie, Gabe, Dylan, Anabella and Emily – outside their glamp.
opportunity to dress up a little and using the marketing skills in which I’m trained.
“It might sound busy now, but precovid was busier.
“I was also doing the farm’s accounts and working 20 hours a week, while trying to run the glamp and to be honest, it was too much.”
Despite admitting that some days she doesn’t know how she is going to get everything done, do the pros of a multifaceted and busy lifestyle outweigh the cons?
“Absolutely,” she laughs.
Because interestingly, it isn’t busy women that she worries about, in fact it’s the opposite.
– independent and professional women with varied business backgrounds, marry dairy farmers and move to remote areas, swapping their professional identities for the more traditional roles of wives and mothers – with varied results.
“It’s a definite change of pace, and it’s hard,” she says.
“For a large part of the year, particularly through calving and mating, women are essentially solo parents because their husbands are out on-farm at all hours of the day and night.
“I don’t think women are given enough credit for the different roles they have to fulfil, or the hardships they encounter.
“There is such a strong focus now She has witnessed her contemporaries
on men’s mental health in the farming community, which is great, but I think we need to stop and reflect on the lifestyles and responsibilities women are taking on and how that might affect them.
“It can be a two-way street for both men and women in the industry, and we need to really start mitigating against these struggles that lead to mental health problems.”
The Hilhorsts are passionate about supporting mental health in the farming sector, donating 10% of their profits from The Telephone Exchange to mental health charity FarmStrong. Emily says many of their urban friends simply don’t understand the hours a dairy farming
Rethink udder health
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Driving dairy efficiencies? We can help.
Emily Hilhorst says creating a glamp on their Taupo dairy farm allowed her creativity to flourish and wants to encourage dairy farming women to create their own opportunities for work and hobbies.
family puts into the land, and therefore their inability to socialise for many months of the year.
“So, it makes sense that they also don’t understand the nature of the role that many women experience as partners of farmers,” she says.
Emily has tackled her own feelings of isolation by creating projects and work opportunities for herself to keep her motivated.
“I can’t overstate the importance of keeping yourself mentally stimulated,” she says.
“Even if it’s just doing an agribusiness course. Farming is such a science, so I believe in investing as much into it as possible.
“I would suggest to women to find your passion and find a way to integrate that into your farming business, if at all possible.”
On the other side of the coin, she says there is a new generation of women coming through farming and taking on roles of responsibility on-farm, including Dylan’s parents’ farm manager Alexandra Lond.
“We are so proud to see females taking on traditionally masculine roles,” she says. “It’s just wonderful to see her thriving; I love seeing women become successful.”
Emily says although women are bound by the responsibility of children to a degree, they still enjoy feeling useful on-farm.
“Women’s roles have diversified so much in the last 20 years.”
She says organisations such as Dairy Women’s Network is a great support for women in dairy farming, offering them education, friendship and opportunities to socialise.
“I kind of wish they had the equivalent for men,” she says.
Suddenly, she stops short and asks, “Actually, what is the time?”
Her reply, upon being told that it is 2.45pm, is typical of parents everywhere, bracing themselves for their peace to be shattered.
“Crap,” she says and races off. n
Dairy industry making AMR progress
DairyNZ data indicating a reduction in dry-cow antibiotic therapy shows New Zealand is making progress in addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
AMR is considered a global threat to human and animal health.
It occurs when antimicrobial medicines, including antibiotics, become less effective at treating infections.
The data showed a decline in blanket dry-cow antibiotic therapy (DCAT) from 2015-2018 of just over 70% to about 49% and an increase in part-herd (selective)
DCAT of 25-45% over the same period.
DCAT involves the treatment of cows at the end of lactation with a long acting antibiotic preparation to prevent intramammary infection.
New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) chief veterinary officer Dr Helen
Beattie says the figures showed NZ is moving away from blanket use of DCAT, which is when every cow in a herd is treated with antibiotics, whether or not there is any indication of infection.
“Any use of antibiotics can contribute to increased antimicrobial resistance, which means farmers and veterinarians, and all of NZ, need to focus on infection prevention and control, so we can all reduce the need for antibiotic use.
“Considering the significant and growing threat of antibiotic resistance to human and animal health, it is encouraging to see we are making real progress when it comes to reducing antibiotic use in dairy cattle.”
Beattie says the NZVA provides guidance and advice for veterinarians and farmers who want to further reduce antibiotic use on-farm, while maintaining high standards of animal welfare.
These materials include prudent use guidelines that outline broad principles of appropriate antibiotic use and guidance on the appropriate use of specific antibiotics in different species.
“With the right advice, and by working together, veterinarians and their farmer clients can do our bit to use antibiotics only when needed and contribute to the national effort to take action on antimicrobial resistance.” Dr Helen Beattie
“With the right advice, and by working together, veterinarians and their farmer clients can do our bit to use antibiotics only when needed and contribute to the national effort to take action on AMR,” she says.
The NZVA has set a goal of antibiotics not being required to maintain animal health and welfare by the year 2030.
“We will need to maintain our momentum if we are to achieve this target,” she says. n
Data shows Kiwi farmers are moving away from the blanket use of dry-cow therapy.
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Driving dairy efficiencies? We can help.
