NZ Dairy Exporter - April 2020 - Cream of the Crop Edition

Learn, grow, excel

op r c e h t of

APRIL 2020

$12 incl GST

Dairy Industry Awards regional winners 2020

$12

Good Boss

Reducing DCT

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Calm the Farm 1

WE’VE GOT DAIRYNZ: SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE FOR THE DAIRY SECTOR providing a voice on your behalf educating the next generation telling your stories to the public positioning dairy as a career of choice supporting local communities

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

YOUR BACK

In May, you will be asked to vote on whether you want to continue the levy on milksolids, enabling DairyNZ to continue industry good activities.

Your vote is an important one for the whole industry.

For more information about how we support the dairy sector and everything else your levy covers, visit dairynz.co.nz/vote Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

YOUR LEVY, YOUR FUTURE 3

CONTENTS

GOALS FIRMLY FIXED 38

ONLINE 10

Dairy Exporter’s online presence

MILKING PLATFORM 11

The Verhoek family are on the move to Waikato

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Niall McKenzie marks a quarter century with cows

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Alex Lond is still working from home

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Mark Chamberlain recalls a visit to a war cemetery on the other side of the world.

UPFRONT 15

Calm the Farm – Funding transition

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Market View – Market reels from Covid-19 effect

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Global Dairy – Demand surges with Covid-19

2020 NZ DAIRY crop of the INDUSTRY AWARDS 27

BUILDING TEAM CULTURE 36

Executive Chair Michael Woodward reports

Northland 28

Trainee: Poutama Toto

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Dairy manager: Sheena Waru

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Share farmer: Charlie and Emma Adair

Auckland/Hauraki 35

Trainee: Crystal Scown

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Dairy manager: Daniel Colgan

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Share farmer: Brendan and Tessa Hopson

Waikato

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43

Trainee: Grace Gibberd

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Dairy manager: Daisy Higgs

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Share farmer: Sarah and Aidan Stevenson

BALANCE ON THE GLORY TRAIL 54 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Bay of Plenty 51 Trainee: Jacob Maxwell 52 Dairy manager: Andre Meier 54 Share farmer: Adam and Maria Barkla Central Plateau 59 Trainee: Emily Cooper 60 Dairy manager: Chance Church 62 Share farmer: David Noble and Katy Jones Manawatu 67 Trainee: David Reesby 68 Dairy manager: Paul Mercer 70 Share farmer: Maegan and Terry Legg

‘I LOVED THE LIFESTYLE’ 60

Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa 75 Trainee: Tom Quinn 76 Dairy manager: Stephen Smyllie 78 Share farmer: Rose and Nick Bertram Taranaki 85 Trainee: Sam Dodd 86 Dairy manager: Branden Darlow 88 Share farmer: Simon and Natasha Wilkes West Coast/Top of the South 91 Trainee: Alexis Wells 92 Dairy manager: Krishna Dhakal 94 Share farmer: Noel and Louise Rockell Canterbury/North Otago 99 Trainee: Lucy Morgan 100 Dairy manager: Stephen Overend 102 Share farmer: Ralph and Fleur Tompsett Southland/Otago 108 Trainee: Nikayla Dodd 110 Dairy manager: Eugene de le Harpe 112 Share farmer: Sam and Karen Bennett

DAIRY NZ

SEEKING GENETIC IMPROVEMENT 46

115 117

Rewards of being a good boss Why your levy matters

RESEARCH WRAP: 120 Hybrid systems in focus at Southern Hub 121 Benefits of probiotics

COLUMNS 119 CO DIARY: Tararua project explores plantain benefits 122 VET VOICE: Dry cow therapy: It’s time to change 124 DAIRY 101: Seeking perfection

DAIRY SOLUTIONS 126 Antimicrobial resistance is in our cows 128 App to help farmers manage weeds 129 Farmers urged to keep moving forward

PROGRESSING BY DEGREES 44 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

OUR STORY 130 Counting down to NZ Dairy Exporter’s centenary

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Digital

DAIRY DIARY ^

APRIL April 6-30 – Supporting you and your team to thrive is now a free online webinar. Participants can log in and join the session, ask questions and share learnings. The webinar, run by Dairy Women’s Network and DairyNZ, is aimed at helping participants understand why a culture of wellbeing is important; being familiar with their own values and what motivates them; understand the well-being bank account model, and how to optimise team performance. More? visit www.dwn.co.nz/ espresso_events/supporting-you-and-your-team-to-thrive/

MAY DairyNZ events – Zoom has been used for discussion groups and if farmers have questions they can send them to info@dairynz.co.nz.

Otherwise visit its Covid-19 webpage for info, resources and online connection opportunities as they are developed.

New Zealand Young Farmers – Zoom has been identified for virtual meetings for New Zealand Young Farmers’ clubs around the country. It also encourages members to explore Skype meetings, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger, depending on how many people are involved in a meeting.

May 1 – Dairy Women’s Network’s Taupo coffee catch ups will be held over Zoom call for the next few months. A time to connect with others, from 10am through to 12pm. More? visit www.dwn.co.nz/ espresso_events/taupocoffee-catch-ups/ May 11-15 – How to be a Bloody Good Boss will be delivered as an online webinar. The session is put together by Dairy Women’sNetwork, DairyNZ, PaySauce and Primary ITO to cover the entire recruitment process.

Participants will be able to log in to join the team to cover the five pillars of recruitment – what skills are needed on farm, how to recruit, interviewing, contracts and O-week to introduce new employees to the farm and its

systems. The session is suited to anyone working with a team on farm.

It is a free event. More? visit www. dwn.co.nz/espresso_events/howto-be-a-bloody-good-boss/

^May 20 – Owl Farm’s May focus day will likely be streamed online via YouTube as it was for the March focus day.

Details and updates on the Cambridge-based demonstration farm can be found at www.owlfarm.co.nz.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Editor’s note

AG TO THE RESCUE

S

ome points in history provide a step change – when a big event causes a monumental shift in thinking, action and public perception. World War II saw women come out of the home and work in factories and on farms – and they never really went back to the same extent.

When Covid-19 struck on a pandemic level the world also changed – many people went home and worked, pollution dropped over night and air travel contracted hugely and technology was taken up en masse. I wonder if this time will be one of those step-changes.

Will we all go back to the office? Will tourism ever return on such a scale? Things will change.

With the world turning into a place where the international tourism tap is choked off for the next year or 18 months until a Covid-19 vaccine is developed and spread worldwide, the agriculture and horticulture industries will once more be the powerhouse of the New Zealand economy.

While it’s easy to crow about how essential we are, it’s much more gracious and empathetic to just get on with doing the job, having sympathy for those who have lost jobs and businesses– and thinking about how best to attract and retain many of the out-of-work hospo and tourism workers.

DairyNZ’s Jane Muir says many highly capable New Zealanders will be needing and wanting jobs and dairy has opportunities for them. The ‘Good Boss’ programme helps farmers tell the dairy story to better attract people and will help employers keep them to create better farming businesses. (P115).

The tap of potential migrant workers might also be turned off if the borders are shut to any threat of Covid-19 infection. It’s heartening to see how many career-changers and overseas imports are rising to the top of the industry through the Dairy Industry Awards.

Many of today’s winning dairy trainees, dairy managers and share farmers have come from other industries and other countries and are making their way through the progression pathway that the NZ dairy industry is famous for.

Sneakpeek

City-born, career-changers and those from other cultures change the dynamic onfarm – they question the status quo, challenge practices, inject new skills and often introduce new technologies. And importantly, they are enthusiastic about the industry and the opportunities it offers and maybe more open to the changes that are happening in the sector.

As the world changes and demands a cleaner environment, more care and attention to water and nutrient use, mitigations to greenhouse gases and more action reducing climate change maybe the fresh and international thinking of our more multinational workforce will help us make the changes needed.

Congratulations to all the winners in the Dairy Industry Awards – if you didn’t get to publicly celebrate your win, this Cream of the Crop issue highlights your skills and talents to every dairy farmer in the country.

Stick to the rules to keep everyone safe from the virus.

Smoothing milk price risk

NEXT ISSUE: MAY 2020

NZ Dairy Exporter

Meeting some of the industry’s potential farmers is always a highlight – with John and Dean Wilkes of Taranaki.

@YoungDairyED

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Update on environmental changes

@DairyExporterNZ

Farming with Covid-19, embracing new technologies, lockdown learnings

@nzdairyexporter

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND

ONLINE New Zealand Dairy Exporter’s online presence is an added dimension to your magazine. Through digital media, we share a selection of stories and photographs from the magazine. Here we share a selection of just some of what you can enjoy.

Read more at www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

PODCASTS:

Sheryl Haitana talks to CRV’s Jon Lee and NZAEL’s Brian Wickham about the new genetic evaluation system for dairy cattle and what the changes mean for farmers. www.crv4all.co.nz/podcast/

Send us your calming videos from out on the farm!

While most people around the country are stuck inside at home during the Covid-19 lockdown, we’re going to post daily Meadowtation videos to soothe your cabin fever.

To anyone who works onfarm, take a video of the soothing sights and sounds on your farm, post it and tag @DairyexporterNZ and we’ll share it to our page.

Make sure to share these videos with all your urban friends and family too. #meadowtations #farmbubble #inourbubble www.facebook.com/DairyexporterNZ

CONNECT WITH US ONLINE: www

www.nzfarmlife.co.nz NZ Dairy Exporter

@nzdairyexporter

@DairyExporterNZ

NZ Dairy Exporter

Sign up to our monthly e-newsletter at www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

Karen Trebilcock, P: 03 489 8083 ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz Andrew Swallow, P: 021 745 183 andrew@falveyfarm.co.nz Chris Neill, P: 027 249 1186 waipuvian@gmail.com

Sheryl Haitana, deputy editor of NZ Dairy Exporter, sat down with Karen Nimmo Psychology to talk about mental health, therapy and how farmers can build resilience to get through the hard times. Karen also has a new book out - ‘Busy as f*ck’ is about “surviving and thriving in our complex, confusing, busy as f*ck world, with tools and tips to arm you for life as it is now.” soundcloud.com/user-951516558/ am-i-fun-to-live-with-karen-nimmo

Social Media: Charlie Pearson, P: 06 280 3169 Partnerships Managers: Janine Aish Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty P: 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz

2020/2021 Fonterra forecast price

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Average $7.24/kg MS

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7.35

7

$/kg MS

7.50

7.30 6.98

7.20

6

6

5

5

4

4

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Reporters Anne Hardie, P: 027 540 3635 verbatim@xtra.co.nz

Anne Lee interviews Emma Higgins, author of Rabobank's dairy land values report Afloat but Drifting Backwards. https://nzfarmlife.co.nz/ listen-afloat-but-driftingbackwards-dairy-landvalues-emma-higgins/

2019/2020 Fonterra forecast price

7.15

Lead sub-editor: Andy Maciver, P: 06 280 3166

Anne Lee, P: 021 413 346 anne.lee@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Phil Edmonds E: phil.edmonds@gmail.com Design and Production: Jo Hannam jo.hannam@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Average $6.36/kg MS

6.45

6.50 6.13

Emily Rees emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Tony Leggett Lower North Island P: 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz David Paterson South Island P: 027 289 2326 david.paterson@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz P: 0800 2AG SUB (224 782)

MILK PAYOUT TRACKER:

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Dairy Exporter Editor Jackie Harrigan P: 06 280 3165, M: 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Deputy editor Sheryl Brown, P: 021 239 1633 sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz

For all Dairy Banter Podcasts visit www.nzfarmlife.co.nz/tag/dairy-banter

MEADOWTATION

NZ Dairy Exporter is published

by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740, Toll free 0800 224 782, www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

Printing & Distribution: Printers: Ovato New Zealand Single issue purchases: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop ISSN 2230-2697 (Print) ISSN 2230-3057 (Online)

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

MILKING PLATFORM WAIRARAPA

Left: 2020 duck shooting season preparation at Pauri Lake, with the recent addition of a 100-metre walkway through a swampy planted wetland.

New season, new farm, new home The Verhoek family are on the move from Wairarapa to the Waikato – all amid the Covid-19 shutdown.

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ur last column, we were ‘taking stock’ and scrolling through the job vacancy lists. We have since sorted our 2020 season and secured a 50/50 sharemilking contract in the heart of New Zealand’s dairy capital – the Waikato. So, we are looking forward to a new season, a new farm and a new home.

Our transition from farm manager on a 900-cow system 5, split-calving operation in the Wairarapa, to a 740-cow, system 5, spring-calving 50/50 sharemilking position in the Waikato is a big leap. Especially, going from employee to employer.

There is plenty to organise for our new position; buying of stock and machinery, sorting grazing for young stock, feed inventories, budgets, finding the right team, rosters, packing, moving, cleaning, searching for a new kindy… and so the list goes on.

It seems our rostered days off are filled with travel to and from the Waikato, staff interviews, and meetings with bank managers, insurance brokers, and consultants. Although excited about the next step, the emotions are mixed. We are sad to be saying goodbye to the Wairarapa as it has a great community and been very good to us.

While we are working through the transition of one intensive operation and into another, the world is shutting down around us with Covid-19.

The upheaval of this virus is progressing faster than we know how to prepare.

So, we are unsure of the extent of its impact and what it means for the future.

At present, we are following advice and guidance from Federated Farmers and ensuring we are heeding our obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act. We are also determined to finish our

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

current role at Willow Park on a high note and make sure the boots we leave are big ones to fill. It is important to us that there is a good handover to the next person/ team. We want everything in good order for our replacement, and that it remains business as usual for our current farm owners.

On our current farm front, autumn calving is all but finished. We hardly know what rain looks like in the Wairarapa with a long time between drinks. Despite most of the milking platform under irrigation, full water restrictions have meant that pasture covers are under massive pressure with near zero growth.

Like many others, we have struggled to get cull cows off farm. We are digging serious holes into our winter feed stores to ensure our girls are well fed and can continue to be milked twice-a-day. The girls are currently producing well, doing 1.5kg milksolids (MS), although somatic cell counts are climbing slowly.

Next on the agenda for the coming months will be further drying off and culling decisions, managing feed stores and contracting feeds, and getting things in order for our eventual departure.

With the work-front under a semblance of control, on the personal front, organisation for the upcoming duck shooting season is also taken very seriously. The maimai (duck shooting stand) working bee has recently been and everything is looking in top shape for this upcoming season. Surprisingly, even with the lack of rain, there seem to be plenty of birds on the pond.

The latest addition this season has been the construction of a 100-metre walkway through a swampy, planted wetland; something that can be enjoyed all year round. Considering all the chaos, the maimai aka ‘The Hilton’ is looking more and more like the perfect isolation retreat!

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MILKING PLATFORM NORTHLAND

Don’t be a prick, be an inspirational good fella.

Do a lamb skull, Niall.

Niall takes a dip.

Niall at his 21st with his friend Mark Bowen.

A quarter century with cows Niall McKenzie is celebrating 25 years of ROMFC (Rock on Milking Friesian Cows).

T

wenty-five years ago after the Northland Field Days, I left school and embarked on my journey as a dairy farmer.

I did all my Primary ITO training. I joined Young Farmers – tried to balance my time with my town mates. It hasn’t been plain sailing. I wouldn’t change any decision or action I have done in the past – it makes me who I have become.

Advice I have been giving along the way: (disagree or agree, both are effective).

If you want to make a profit – Don’t follow Dairy NZ. If you want to go farming you need a year’s supply of hay, silage and cash.

The bank is not your friend, they are a salesperson.

Surround yourself with quality friends (when the shit hits the fan they are there).

You don’t ever want to be the test pilot.

Let someone else have all the crashes and bashes.

Profitability not production.

Breed, weed and feed. Breed your herd.

Get rid of your weeds. Feed your animals well.

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You don’t have to do what your mentor suggests.

The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence.

Big is not necessarily GOOD. A cow bought for more than $2000 can die just as well as a $750 cow you have reared yourself.

How good are you… Have you got your farm yet?

Avoid overdrafts as much as possible, once you get in them it’s hard to get out.

Don’t ever owe a stock company money.

Avoid third-tier lending.

Don’t outbid yourself at an auction.

Farm owners are not your friends, but you need to have a great relationship with them.

Work hard, play hard.

You have lasted 14 years without a ute, what makes you think you deserve one now?

Feed your animals before you feed yourself.

Talk to others – apart from you Niall McKenzie, you can just be quiet.

FIG JAM (F.. I’m good just ask me!!)

You can do it.

Twenty-five best things about living in Northland: 1. It’s such a great place – everyone wants to be here in summertime (our beaches).

2. Very little free draining soils (nitrate leaching not a major issue).

3. It is always warm enough to have a beer.

4. We can grow grass all year round.

5. No winter cropping needed.

6. The people are great, friendly, do anything for you and they love talking shit.

7. It’s where I was bought up surrounded by my mates and family.

8. I have lived away from Northland for six years and after coming home you really appreciate it.

9. Great fishing – I have been told.

10. Farming is the backbone to Northland’s economy.

11. The connections with your friends is not diminished from the length of time you have seen them. The people you grow up with become your family.

12. Fantastic holidays and breaks in Northland to see the sights (i.e: road trip to Cape Reinga or Tane Mahuta.)

13. Memories from young to old (i.e: Mangawhai Tavern or Danger Danger).

14. The great sporting facilities and schools we have.

15. If you can farm in Northland you can farm anywhere (due to the dry summers and wet winters.)

16. Low property values compared to rest of the country.

17. Going to your local shop and seeing at least four people you know.

18. Where I met my wife (at Mangawhai Tavern.)

19. Kikuyu?

20. Split calving.

21. Few frosts.

22. First dairy farm in New Zealand at Waimate North – Mission Station.

23. The Kaipara Harbour, one of the largest harbours in the world, is in our backyard.

24. The last two NZ share farmers of the year came from Northland.

Nialator Out.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

MILKING PLATFORM BAY OF PLENTY

Left: The team from Reporoa Young Farmers at the Perrin Ag charity quiz night, from left: Luke Holmes, Sarah Greenwood, Laura Pulman, Katrina Stead, Alex Lond and Cody Hendra.

Working from home as usual A combination of international virus effects and staff holidays left Alex Lond almost single-handed on her Reporoa farm.

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ust when you start to think you’re through the worst of it: the clouds have started to roll in on those summer days and for the first time in eight weeks your rain gauge reads 15mm three nights in a row (a small squeak of excitement escapes me as I write this), the world throws a curve ball.

I’m promising now that this article will not be filled with the C word that overwhelms every news bulletin in the country, as I’m sure you’re all sick to death of hearing about it, but it would be silly not to address the change that Covid-19 is having throughout the country.

For me personally and the farm, it means two members of staff in compulsory self-isolation for 14 days after they went on holiday to Australia at the beginning of March. This was an unprecedented bombshell as I now try to get everything done with my one remaining staff member, feeding out three times a day for two herds as well as the extra work March

requires – re-grassing, culling decisions, herd testing, covering our 760-tonne freshly cut maize bunker (on possibly the windiest day of 2020 so far).

Fortunately for me the farm owners are very present and able to assist, but I’m sure this is not the case for many others.

Still, life goes on, and watching the situation worsen in Europe reminds me how lucky we are to be in the farming industry, where ‘working from home’ and ‘restricting interaction with the public’ is all part of our daily lives already.

It does make me sad that almost all of

the DairyNZ events and discussion groups have been cancelled, but this is no doubt a temporary precaution and just means there will be even more to talk about once things return to normal.

I was fortunate enough to still attend a couple of community events this month, the first one being my local Dairy Industry Awards dinner where I was in the running for manager of the year.

I came runner up, and received two merit awards for my feed management and livestock management, which was for me a greater achievement than second place as I pride myself on my focus on cow health and knowing exactly what I want them to be eating day to day, as the paddocks turn greener but growth rates continue to be slow. The second event I attended was the local Perrin Ag charity quiz night last week, raising money for the new St John’s Ambulance depot in Rotorua.

The event was a success and it was lovely to see so many friendly faces still out and about, raising money for charity and catching up with farmers and consultants from the area. Here my team was less successful, coming second to last (at one point we were gunning for last place), but I was still so glad we were fortunate enough to attend before stricter rules were enforced.

I hope farmers continue to support each other as tougher times loom and that we can all recognise and appreciate what a privilege it is to be working in a job that means we cannot simply just stop with the rest of the world; we must carry on, providing the essential foods for our communities to help get them through these tough hours of uncertainty.

All covered up the maize bunker.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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MILKING PLATFORM SOUTH OTAGO

Left: Monuments and memorials to the fallen who travelled that great distance, and who never returned.

Lest we forget With Anzac Day imminent, Mark Chamberlain recalls a visit to a war cemetery on the other side of the world.

I

’ve decided that autumn is my favourite time of year. For now. All pressure (true or imagined) seems to have disappeared for a while. The busyness of the summer holidays and the broken routine has been replaced with an almost ‘set and forget’ approach on the farm.

The cows are humming along nicely, and the season is heading for a very solid result. Along with Autumn comes Anzac Day and local communities will be out in force cleaning memorials and cenotaphs.

Anzac Day, for my wife and me, makes us think of our visit to Passchendaele a couple of winters ago.

Passchendaele is a small, rural Belgian village not dissimilar to Gore or Winton.

Another similarity shared by these places, despite being some 19,000km apart, is that New Zealanders are buried in both soils.

Although Gallipoli is often remembered for the horrific loss of Kiwi life, it is this remote, rural, Belgian battlefield that is 14

the home of New Zealand’s blackest day.

Blackest day, darkest hour; call it what you like. Some 2500 casualties occurred in just 45 minutes. Going by NZ’s population today, that would equate to 12,000 casualties – a shocking context.

As we drove through farmland that could have passed for Southland, we came across a NZ flag proudly flying in the wind at a crossroads, marking the battlefield.

We were suddenly reminded how far from home we were. This was summed up best by the words on the New Zealand monument a little further along the road, “From the uttermost ends of the earth.”

Both sides incurred over 850,000 casualties in three months. Bloody horrific.

Near our farm, like many NZ rural communities, we have many monuments and memorials to the fallen who travelled that great distance, and who never returned.

It seems, at times, that in our busy lives, it is only in the run-up to Anzac

day that we remember them. The lives lost, or damaged, had an immeasurable effect on rural communities. Thankfully, there has been a renewed sense of pride across NZ when remembering our returned servicemen and women. And, hopefully, a continued gratitude for the freedoms that they helped preserve.

Every district has a story and the Waikaka Valley has a beauty. A couple of farms away, Flight Sergeant Chalky White, who could best be described as robust, left his family and farm and went to fly Spitfires – fighting the Germans. He was shot down over occupied France in 1943, was captured by the Germans and within an hour, had escaped.

He made his way south to the Pyrenees – which he proceeded to climb wearing ropesoled sandals. Upon reaching Spain, he made his way to the British Consulate in Barcelona where he was promptly arrested on suspicion of being a spy. He finally made it to England and, in time, returned to his farming life.

These are the stories that must be remembered – in a day and age where ‘celebrity’ status is too easily given in an instant gratification, social media-fuelled society.

The sacrifice and hardships faced by those who left, those who were left behind and those who never made it home to their farms; should never be taken for granted. As Ange and I walked through the rows and rows of beautifully kept graves at Tyne Cot Cemetery, we were both proud and saddened to see so many Silver Ferns among the 12,000 graves, so far from their homes.

Servicemen returning to their farms, often with hidden scars, still soldiered on with a stiff upper lip. Perhaps it was this attitude that was the origin of farmers being over-represented in harrowing mental health statistics today. May we all see this Anzac Day as a timely reminder not only to keep living, but to get living.

Lest we forget.

• First published in Country-Wide magazine, April 2020.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

INSIGHT

UPFRONT ENVIRONMENT

New Zealand’s pastoral farmers are already well-aligned with both the philosophy and the practices of regenerative agriculture.

Funding a farm transition Investor advocates of regenerative agriculture are linking with environmental entrepreneurs. But is it the right direction? Phil Edmonds reports.

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he relentless demand for farmers to adopt more sustainable environmental practices is showing no sign of letting up.

Last month Greenpeace had another day in the media sun when it dumped filth and slime over Ravensdown offices in Christchurch, protesting its unchecked dedication to polluting New Zealand with synthetic fertiliser.

As we know however, it’s an easy thing to demand change, but another to assist it. And for those willing farmers, funding options for environmental initiatives have been shrinking rather than expanding.

Last year the Reserve Bank proposal to increase bank capital ratios, together with trading banks taking their own steps to reduce their exposure to dairy effectively reduced avenues for new farm borrowing.

This further weakened the prospect

of farmers’ ability to implement new sustainable infrastructure and methods.

But now there could be a new way of obtaining capital needed to modify farm systems.

Toha Foundry, an investment platform established to link investors with environmental entrepreneurs, was launched at the end of last year. In March this year its first initiative, Calm the Farm was born, which is designed to connect farmers with advisers and ‘impact investors’ keen to accelerate New Zealand farming’s shift to regenerative agriculture.

Toha Foundry’s purpose is to simplify and speed up access to investment for those wanting to make tangible changes. At its launch, co-founder Nathalie Whitaker (who previously set up

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Givealittle.co.nz) said there was an urgent need to “unblock capital, at a mass scale, to fund grassroots action”.

The platform was kicked off with seed capital provided by Movac (NZ venture capital tech investor) and supported by Sir Stephen Tindall’s investment arm K1W1, and has more than $1billion to invest over the coming two years to causes that will shift NZ’s emissions profile.

With the Calm the Farm initiative, willing farmers have first dibs on the war chest.

So how does it work for those taken by the environmental benefits of regenerative agriculture, keen on altering their farm system and looking for some financial assistance to do so?

In the first instance farmers can register their interest with Calm the Farm and 15

Above: Professor Shaun Hendy of University of Auckland.

Right: Greenpeace activists’ slime attack.

indicate the support and finance they will need to transition from the use of synthetic fertilisers and chemicals to regenerative practices. The Calm the Farm team then matches those requests with advisers and investors wanting to back NZ’s transition to more climate-friendly farming.

However, it’s not quite as simple as farmers saying ‘here’s my bank account number, now fill my boots’.

The emergence of these novel kinds of funding mechanisms isn’t just about supporting farmers who want to do the right thing, but about providing investors with tangible evidence that their money is making a difference. What Calm the Farm offers investors is that confidence through science and data.

Indeed, the concept has measurement at its core.

Farmers and their advisers use Calm the Farm to create tailored data-driven farm management plans that map the results of their shift to regenerative agriculture (regen ag). Reporting against the regen ag farm management plan builds a data asset that captures the full value of the farm transition.

Professor of Physics at Auckland University Shaun Hendy is one of the three founders of the Toha investment platform, along with Nathalie Whitaker and data analytics firm Takiwa Ltd chief executive 16

Mike Taitoko. Hendy says providing data and measurement is critical to attract investors.

“A lot of the time when you are doing impact investment you are working in the dark. You sell the concept up front and the fanfare around the completion of a venture takes place when you cut the ribbon.

What we are trying to do is change that by monitoring the impact and reporting back to investors.”

So who is stumping up the cash?

Hendy says this type of investing has been started by philanthropists – those who might be putting their money into predator-free projects for example, or wetland restoration. But interest is emerging from other corporates who might want some biodiversity on their balance sheet.

“You’re already see corporates in that space, but typically there has been a lack of accountability. What Toha will give people is the ability to see the provenance, where their funding is deployed, and how it is progressing. At the moment, reporting for such investment is fairly opaque. We think there will be an increasing range of investors who are interested in it.”

Co-founder Whitaker was initially upbeat on the potential source of funds when Calm the Farm was launched, pointing to family investors, equity investors and banks. She also mentioned

there had been queries from government, businesses and charities. More broadly, she noted there was no shortage of global capital looking to invest in impact initiatives. Whitaker said investors have just been waiting for instruments to help capital to flow to initiatives that show they are achieving the most impact.

There’s no doubting the enthusiasm and ambition evident, but given the novelty of the Calm the Farm model, what chance is there of it being both extensively funded, and equally significantly, being adopted at a meaningful level by farmers in NZ? If we are looking for precedence, there are examples overseas where similar platforms have experienced success.

United States-based rePlant Capital was recently established to create financial products for identical purposes as Toha.

In January this year it dedicated $84 million of its impact investing fund to a partnership with Danone North America farmers for conversion to regenerative or organic farming practices. rePlant Capital says it is committed to integrating capital into food companies operating from ‘soil to shelf’ in order to reverse the effects of climate change.

Nevertheless, and perhaps unsurprisingly, caution about the level of likely interest has been expressed by those closely connected to conventional NZ farming systems.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

‘A lot of the time when you are doing impact investment you are working in the dark. You sell the concept up front and the fanfare around the completion of a venture takes place when you cut the ribbon. What we are trying to do is change that by monitoring the impact and reporting back to investors.’

Before contemplating the merits of regen ag, Federated Farmers national vice president Andrew Hoggard says “as always, farmers’ willingness to change their systems will be ultimately driven by consumer demand. If consumers are willing to put their money behind something… if you do x, y, and z, and promise to pay you ‘so much’, then farmers will assess the merits of doing so accordingly. They’ll work out how much it is going to cost, and then make a decision about potential premiums at the end of the line.”

But Hoggard says “Adding value can sometimes mean adding cost. We want to be adding value that exceeds that cost.

Some of the things we have pushed have been based on adding value, but have created only marginal impact, if any to the farmer.”

As for the likelihood of more farmers embracing regen ag, there is some underlying scepticism to overcome, particularly given the open interpretation of what it means to different consumers.

Hoggard says “examples of regen ag overseas suggest farmers are talking about introducing practices like rotational grazing that have always been common practice in New Zealand. However, those contemplating regenerative farming in New Zealand are taking it to another level.

“What is needed is a clear definition of what regen ag actually is. And then put some standards around it. At the moment, anyone can call themselves regenerative and it is up to someone else to prove they are not.”

The inconsistent belief in what regen ag actually means is shared by Ravensdown general manager for innovation and

strategy Mike Manning. He says awareness of regen ag has emerged overseas with valid concerns that soils which are continuously cropped have seen organic matter decrease to the point where it is causing depletion.

“In New Zealand however, most of our soils are in permanent pasture grazed by cattle and sheep. Under a system of rotational grazing and permanent pasture, we have seen organic matter in those soils increase to the point where they are at levels at the envy of many in the world.”

This is further endorsed by DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Dr Bruce Thorrold.

“New Zealand’s pastoral farmers are already well-aligned with both the philosophy and the practises of regenerative ag.

“DairyNZ has researched a wide range of farm systems and their economic and environmental impacts, including low input, biological and organic systems. All these systems follow the same biological and physical science – the challenge for the promoters of specific regenerative ag practises is to produce the evidence that their practises deliver the results, in a New Zealand context.

“Right now, our view is that many of the claims made, particularly about soil carbon, are based on research on depleted cropping or rangeland soils and are not relevant to most of the well-developed pasture soils in New Zealand.”

In its initial publicity, Calm the Farm founders suggested farmers had expressed a desire to get their ‘social licence’ back, implying that current farming practices were not adapting to the need to act fast enough on climate change and freshwater

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Above: Mike Manning, Ravensdown.

issues, and this would be a driver for change.

Manning acknowledges we need to be more conscious of those issues.

“Some time ago we had an attitude that if we owned the farm, we owned the land, then within reason we could do what we wanted within the farm boundary.

“Now we have to be more considerate of a range of stakeholders, be more public, more transparent and more open to engagement. If we become more transparent, and better at communicating what we do, particularly compared to practices overseas then I don’t think our social licence is lost.”

Thorrold suggests the industry’s social licence continues to be supported by its drive towards sustainable farming practices over more than 20 years.

“Sustainable farming is a key driver for the majority of dairy farmers, who are

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Above: Bruce Thorrold.

increasingly adopting the latest farm system tools and options to support their goals and beliefs.”

For their part, Calm the Farm has provided a definition of regenerative agriculture, referring to it as a “system of farm management practices that works together to rebuild the soil and pasture health of farms. It is achieved through practices such as longer grazing rotations, reducing or eliminating the application of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and planting a diverse range of grasses on pastures.”

The ‘open to interpretation’ nature of this does tend to support the concerns raised, but at the same time, if the science and data being provided by Calm the Farm to the investors in any given project meets their expectations, then the definition is perhaps not that important. What is most important in the funding model is evidence of positive environmental impact.

Beyond the specific appeal of the concept to investors, and to farmers looking for support to ‘do the right thing’, Calm the Farm also acknowledge there are wider economic benefits to be had, with supply chain opportunities from adopting climate and water-friendly techniques.

‘What is needed is a clear definition of what regen ag actually is. And then put some standards around it. At the moment, anyone can call themselves regenerative and it is up to someone else to prove they are not.’

This essentially furthers Hoggard’s point, that there needs to be evidence of economic benefits to provoke interest in regen ag.

This has already been recognised by Beef & Lamb NZ, which in March announced it was undertaking a global study into regenerative agriculture, driven by its farmers wanting to understand how NZ could lead in this space. With the study, Beef & Lamb NZ has the goal of obtaining a global consumer perspective to understand what potential there is for NZ meat exports to extract more value.

It is also central to the forward-thinking Primary Sector Council, which in its vision backs NZ’s agriculture, food and fibres sector to be a world-leader in modern regenerative production systems.

But is regen ag the right barrow for our industry to be pushing?

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Hoggard cautions that we need to be sure that the regen ag story matches the attributes at the top of premium consumers’ minds. His observations from travelling overseas is that it all seems to be about grass-fed. For example, US consumers automatically assume that if it is grass-fed, it is automatically good. With grass-fed you get a free pass and no one looks at anything else.

Arguably there are other avenues farmers could collectively invest more heavily in to obtain higher returns than regen ag, including hormone-free and further animal welfare initiatives.

For Manning, advancing the concept of sustainable intensification resonates more, which utilities new technology around nutrients. “We can be smarter with our nutrients by putting more into diagnostics accuracy in terms of locations and matching plant requirements.”

Toha founder Shaun Hendy acknowledges farmers’ motivations might be partly based on realising premium prices that are not available to farmers operating conventional farming systems, but that is not going to be the only factor.

“It won’t necessarily be everyone’s cup of tea. For the science to work best we need people to take different approaches with different motivations. We will learn the most with people doing different things.

But certainly we think it will be important to push the environmental benefits that will be achieved and to tie that to product stories.”

Hendy adds that Beef & Lamb NZ have obviously recognised consumer sentiment exists among overseas consumers for product from certain farming systems.

“But from a scientific point of view what we want to do is get at the science behind it. There is broad agreement that market opportunities exist but what we want to do is back it up with some hard science.”

Finally, back to the money, which is where all opportunities begin and end.

Hendy says Toha has started with the regen ag venture Calm the Farm but wants to see this model used in other ways.

He’s tasked with building Toha Science to develop a protocol for the next series of ventures. What comes next will have to work with Toha Science because we want to stay as close to the science as possible. “We want Calm the Farm to become as widely utilised as possible, but we’re also focused on what comes next.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PASTURE April 2020

Growing a great investment – care with new pastures creates on-going dividends

Winter crop checklist

Strong, healthy, resilient pastures don’t just happen on their own.

They need your help to get that way. But the good news is that if you look after newly sown pastures well, they will look after you in return.

Careful management in the coming months will protect and maximise your investment in paddock preparation, fertiliser, pasture seed, drilling, and of course your time.

Three things make a massive difference – early weed control, correct timing of the first grazing, and a light fertiliser dressing before winter.

Weeds should be your first priority.

Don’t just ‘check’ your newly-sown pastures from the ute or the quad.

Get right down close and have a good look to see what else is germinating alongside the grass and clover, otherwise you may be in for an unpleasant surprise later on.

Left uncontrolled at this stage, common broadleaf weeds like dock, chickweed, spurrey and storksbill can compromise the growth of your new pasture for the rest of its life.

Early spraying catches them while they are still small and easier to kill.

Just remember to read the herbicide label(s) to ensure your clover is old enough to tolerate it.

Equally important is giving those new pastures a light nip off – preferably with young stock – as soon as grass and clover seedlings pass the pluck test and conditions are right – not too dry, not waterlogged. One of the most common problems we see is leaving this first grazing too late.

In these situations, clover really suffers. Ryegrass is faster growing than clover, and left unchecked, will quickly shade out baby clover seedlings.

Nipping the tips of new pasture off lets sunlight reach into the base of the sward, where the clover is, and it also encourages ryegrass plants to tiller out.

Finally, a light dressing of N (e.g.

30 kg/ha) after the first grazing will keep young plants well fed over winter.

‘Give me some sunlight!’ Clover shaded by long grass.

For those of you with winter crop, April is a good time to review your 2020 winter feed plan, make sure everything is in order, and organise contingencies if you think you might need them.

Many crops have struggled this season, potentially affecting DM yields, with subsequent implications for feed budgets. If your beet or brassica plants don’t look as expected, it’s a good idea to accurately assess yields.

Don’t assume; test actual DM percentages, as these greatly affect the result. Test results will tell you how much feed you have available, and whether there is a shortfall that will need to be filled by supplement.

For fodder beet, core bulbs for DM testing, as this is both much easier and more accurate. DM percentages between bulbs are highly variable. Visit www. agriseeds.co.nz for more detail.

Transition planning remains critical.

Poor transition from pasture to crop causes animal health issues and stock losses that are preventable; if you need more advice on this, contact your vet, or review latest winter planning recommendations at www.dairynz.co.nz

Dairy Exporter | For www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020 further information freephone: 0800 449 955, email: mail@agriseeds.co.nz or visit: www.agriseeds.co.nz

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INSIGHT

UPFRONT MARKET VIEW

Market reels from Covid-19 effect Global pandemic has hit all world markets and dairy is no exception, NZX Agri analyst Amy Castleton reports.

D

airy commodity prices have continued to drop through March in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19.

Since the last column, the novel coronavirus is now officially a pandemic, governments – including New Zealand’s – have shut borders and restricted travel, and markets have plummeted.

Dairy hasn’t been an exception, though the NZ dairy industry is perhaps better placed than many to weather the storm.

Prices fell 1.2% at the March 3 Global Dairy Trade (GDT) event, and another 3.9% at the March 17 event. Milk powders have been hit hardest, with butter and anhydrous milkfat both seeing a small recovery this month.

At the time of writing, the NZX Dairy Derivatives market sees little change ahead, with prices mostly hovering around current levels or falling a little further over the next few months.

The falls at GDT, along with the deteriorating outlook on the derivatives market, has meant milk price forecasts have been drawn back. The NZX milk price forecast for 2019-20 is now $7/

US$/tonne

7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 Feb 18 WMP

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kg milksolids (MS), right at the bottom half of the financial year. This is a prudent of Fonterra’s range. For next season, the decision given the situation continues to milk price forecast is now $6.23/kg MS, a evolve and markets are still reacting. considerable change from another near $7/ Synlait’s revenue is up 19% compared kg MS forecast just a month or two ago. to the same period last financial year, but Fonterra and Synlait have both put net profit after tax is down 30%. out half year results recently as Synlait said this reflects higher well. depreciation and interest costs Fonterra reported a strong due to investment. Monthfinancial performance end shipment challenges for the first half of the also resulted in Synlait financial year. Normalised falling slightly below its net profit after tax was $293 guidance range. million in the six months to Furthermore, Synlait has January 31 versus $72m the maintained its 2019-20 milk year before. Normalised earnings price forecast at $7.25/kg MS, with Amy Castleton. before interest and tax were its next update to occur in late May. $584m, compared to $312m.

Total milk processed is up 8.5% Fonterra has maintained both its milk season to date – however this is due to the price and milk production forecasts. Its addition of milk supply for the Pokeno milk price forecast for the 2019-20 season plant. remains a range of $7-$7.60/kg MS, while Both companies have seen limited its milk production forecast is 1515 million impact from Covid-19 to date, though are kg MS, which would be a decline of 0.5% wary of potential falls in demand. on last season.

Market fundamentals remain supportive Fonterra has also chosen not to pay an of commodity prices, though they have interim dividend given the possible impact been overshadowed by the Covid-19 of Covid-19 on earnings in the second situation. NZ is still in drought, which ordinarily would be supportive of prices, particularly WMP. Dairy commodity prices Production from the United States and the European Union has been starting to accelerate in recent months, but the extra milk hasn’t seemed to be in excess of demand, yet.

Demand has been reasonably steady until the latest GDT event. While China was buying at that event, some other regions seemed to be sitting back to see how much further prices would fall before buying anything. The demand side of Aug 18 Feb 19 Aug 19 Feb 20 the market will continue to evolve as the SMP AMF Source NZX Covid-19 situation keeps unfolding.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

DAIRY COW MONITORING

“All I need to do is look at a computer once a day to make those mating decisions.

With these collars, it’s freed us up to actually get away during mating” Marcel Boschma, Pukio East Daries Ltd

www.allflex.global/nz Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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GLOBAL DAIRY UNITED KINGDOM

Dairy demand surges with Covid-19 Chris Gooderham, AHDB Dairy head of markets specialist, said. airy processors in the United “However, while cafes and restaurants Kingdom are working flat out to were suffering a huge fall in demand, ensure the flow of food to retail hospitals and schools, which account for a outlet shelves is uninterrupted big element of food service milk use, were during the recent surge in demand for still operating. the basic foods caused by the coronavirus “It’s more the impact on individual pandemic. processors. Cash flow will be a big issue for Normal consumer behavioural trends them,” Gooderham said. “It will be fairly have all gone off the scale as more people rocky for certain processors.” stockpile supplies and buy more perishable There would also be knock-on effects for foods such as milk, cheese, bread and eggs the spot market, as food service demands more frequently. change and spot volumes fluctuate.

The recent government advice to stay at There has been much recent speculation home and avoid public places is diverting about the track of spot milk prices, which foodservice and on-the-go consumption have fluctuated between 31p/litre and 25p/ back into the home, pushing up retail litre in the past couple of weeks. purchases.

“It’s difficult to tell if the downturn in It is reported that this is already spot prices is due to concerns on Covid19 happening with a surge in retail purchases or just the fact milk production has started of liquid milk and minced beef for to pick up after being flat from the turn of example, and a drop-off in the use of the year. coffee shops and restaurants.

“We would normally expect spot Processors supplying retail prices to reduce in March, as we markets are already witnessing start the run-up to the spring an uplift in demand and are peak,” Gooderham added. sourcing extra supplies to ensure Meanwhile across Europe, they can continue to operate following months of relative and have no logistical issues with price stability, settled values on getting product to stores.

Chris McCullough. European Union dairy futures They are also offering have shifted down as the impact temporary employment to those people of the virus continued to be felt across the who have lost their jobs in a bid to keep industry. up with demand and ensure produce gets According to AHDB, settled values on delivered. futures contracts provide a good indicator However, the processors know they need of how market participants expect prices to to be careful and prepare for the drop in move, based on current conditions. demand when the virus passes through to The latest drops will reflect the concerns ensure they are not left with produce they over the impacts of lower demand and cannot sell. rising product availability on dairy product Food service accounts for 10 to 15% prices. of the UK’s liquid milk sector, which in The forward milk price equivalent turn represents about 50% of UK milk (FMPE) value combines settled prices for consumption. butter and SMP futures contracts on the “The food service sector is struggling EEX exchange. Between October 2019 big time and it’s getting worse every day,” and February 2020, the FMPE remained

Words by: Chris McCullough

D

22

Above: People are stockpiling supplies and buying more perishable foods such as milk, cheese, bread and eggs more frequently.

in the region of €35 to €39 per 100kg for contracts expiring April through August.

As Covid-19 spread across Europe however, market sentiment shifted, and settled prices fell. In early March, before governments starting restricting social mobility, FMPE fell about 11% to about €34/100kg.

More recently, there was a further drop, with FMPE falling to around €30/100kg for contracts with April through June expiry dates.

BREXIT TRADE TALKS

Although Covid-19 has overshadowed most thoughts about Brexit British Prime Minister Boris Johnston has said he is still forging ahead with plans to draw up an exit trade deal with the EU. However, the latest talks set up to debate the deal have been put on hold given the fast moving severity of the pandemic and the fact that the European Commission’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, revealed he had tested positive for the virus.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

We'll be here for tomorrow's rising stars.

Boots and all.

The next generation is our future. Which is why LIC has been a proud sponsor of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards for over 16 years.

Watching these young stars rise, seeing them shine in their careers and farming businesses, is what drives us to improve every day.

We know that the better we can become, the more productive and prosperous their lives and the lives of our dairy community will be.

LIC_855_NZDE_B

Congratulations to all of the Regional Award Winners, keep up the great work and continue to push those boundaries so next year there are even bigger boots to fill.

There's always room for improvement Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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BACK UP.

GOOD CALL. At FMG, we know that more than 10% of our milk claims are as a result of power loss.

It’s this kind of specialised rural knowledge that allows us to pass on valuable advice to farmers to help manage risks. Like making sure you always have a back-up generator on a dairy farm. At the end of the day, if we can help you avoid loss, it reduces stress, lost production and downtime. So why not get in touch with FMG to see how we can help you make some good calls on your farm. Call us on 0800 366 466, or go to fmg.co.nz

We’re here for the good of the country.

FMG0915DNFP_B

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

CREAM OF THE CROP | NZ DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS 2020

p o r c e h of t 28 35 43 50 59 67 75 85 91 99 108

Northland regional winners Auckland/Hauraki regional winners Waikato regional winners Bay of Plenty regional winners Central Plateau regional winners Manawatu regional winners Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa regional winners Taranaki regional winners West Coast/Top of the South regional winners Canterbury/North Otago regional winners Southland/Otago regional winners

One thing that isn’t a pain in the arse to move.

We’ll have you powered up before the cows come home.

We power more than 11,000 farms and businesses just like yours, so we know you can’t afford to wait this Moving Day. And because we’ve got your back, we’ll throw in a $400 moving credit for your dairy shed.

Don’t have one? We’ll sweeten the deal for you too*.

Call our Agribusiness Team on 0800 496 444 or visit meridian.co.nz/movefarm *Terms and conditions apply. Visit meridian.co.nz/movefarm

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS | EXECUTIVE CHAIR’S INTRODUCTION

crop e h t f o

rises to the top

O

n behalf of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, I am proud to introduce our 2020 finalists in this always anticipated edition of ‘Cream of the Crop’.

The awards this year have fallen during a time of unrest and uncertainty for our nation, and it has been a nice distraction from the Covid-19 battle to be able to watch the last of our regional award ceremonies continue albeit it a little differently on Facebook.

Our winners have a focus on continuous improvement and on the future. Each of the regional winners in the Dairy Trainee, Dairy Manager and Share Farmer categories, along with their fellow entrants across the country, have taken the time and opportunity to learn, connect with others and grow both personally and professionally by taking part in the awards programme – well done to all of you for doing so.

Farmers have long been known for their can-do attitude, resilience and Number 8 wire approach. We get drawn into new technology, innovations or ways to improve what we do by seeing those early adopters implementing and championing these new ideas.

For the cream to rise to the top, our winners are out there engaging with new regional and national legislation and technology, they are evaluating what they are doing on farm and how they can be better.

The awards programme gives the dairy industry a

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

mechanism to promote and celebrate these people and showcase what is possible and how it can be done. For an industry I believe we need these leaders now more than ever.

As always, we are hugely indebted to our eleven National sponsors, numerous judges and hundreds of regional volunteers whose involvement and support enables us to deliver our awards programme each year.

Thank you to Westpac, DeLaval, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda Motorcycles, LIC, Meridian Energy and Ravensdown along with industry partners DairyNZ and Primary ITO. With the ongoing Covid-19 crisis we are still trying to understand what the 2020 national awards programme will look like. Our intention is to make sure we all get a chance to celebrate our 2020 regional winners at a national awards event and look forward to seeing many of you there.

Michael Woodward Executive Chair NZ Dairy Industry Awards

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NORTHLAND | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Poutama Toto holding his trophy and certificate with the farm in the background.

From the sea to shore WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS NEILL

T

he sea is never far away in Northland, but Pou Toto turned his back on it and commercial diving when he discovered his passion and future was in dairy farming.

A Hokianga boy raised in Kaikohe, his introduction to farming came while helping a mate cover a silage stack when he responded to a farmer looking for a relief milker. The experience was enough to encourage him to return to the Agriculture Academy at Northland College then head south to Telford where he completed his Certificate in Agriculture.

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Returning to Northland, he found casual work which progressed to a permanent position as farm assistant with Terence and Suzanne Brocx at Okaihau. They are hugely supportive of staff and have been guides, mentors and tutors for Pou as he learns and progresses.

As a member of the Northland College Farm Committee, Suzanne is very proud that an ex-pupil of the Agriculture Academy is the Northland Dairy Trainee of the Year for 2020. She has a clear understanding of how challenging it can be for some of the young people in Kaikohe to recognise how they can find satisfying careers, and yet the primary

sector in Northland is struggling to find the skilled people it needs.

While Pou was hesitant to enter the Dairy Industry Awards again for 2020 having previously been a regional finalist in 2018 and runner up dairy trainee in 2019. There is no doubt that he is delighted with the outcome and keen for other young people to recognise from his success that opportunities are available to them in dairying.

Pou has worked at Puketi Farms for three years and works across the companies two properties, the 171-hectare (effective) home farm with 450 cows and the 75ha (eff) Ohaewai farm with 200 cows. He

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

‘We were impressed with his ability to communicate his actions, whilst completing the tasks. Judges were very impressed with his skillset and his confidence.’ enjoys all aspects of his role, particularly working with stock.

His motivation to “do things right” comes from the team he works with, providing for his partner and son, and the pleasure of doing the job. Judges recognised Pou’s practical ability when awarding him the DairyNZ Practical Skills Award. They noted in his citation “Poutama demonstrated a sound understanding of all practical tasks. We were impressed with his ability to communicate his actions, whilst completing the tasks. Judges were very impressed with his skillset and his confidence.

Poutama, you have a very bright future in the dairy industry.”

Working toward developing the skill and confidence to progress to a farm manager role, Pou is continuing to study at Primary ITO. With pasture management completed he is now focusing on feeding cows, farm reports and feed budgeting with the support of his farm manager Abe Pomare, employers Suzanne and Terence plus the Primary ITO tutors. With their guidance he feels confident of achieving his goal of managing a farm in three or four years. While in no hurry to leave his current position, he recognises that he will need to step up to opportunities as they arise.

Runner-up in the Northland Dairy Trainee category was Reed Baker from Dargaville and Tipene Hape from Kaiwaka was third.

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Bryant Tractors 1983 Ltd Most Promising Entrant Award – Puoro Baker Bell-Booth Ltd Farming Knowledge Award – Carmen Guy Pacific Motor Group Community & Industry Involvement Award – Phoebe Simpson Northland Fieldays Communication & Engagement Award – Reed Baker

Drive efficiency with GEA CowScout GEA CowScout collars monitor cows 24 hours a day, providing accurate data on heat detection, eating and rumination.

Cambridge dairy farmer Brad Payne manages 800 cows on a 275ha pasturebased system with 3 staff. Every cow wears a CowScout collar and is automatically drafted when on heat or showing abnormal eating activity.

CowScout has enabled them to spend less time on Artifical Insemination, with much better results. They also treat cows for mastitis or metabolic disorders before they look sick, and 1 person milks morning and evening.

Want efficiency? Get in touch with GEA. gea.com/drive-dairy-efficiency

DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Poutama Toto

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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NORTHLAND | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Sheena Waru talking with contented cows.

Finding adventure in each day WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS NEILL

T

he announcement of Sheena Waru as the Northland Dairy Manager of the Year for 2020 totally surprised the first-time entrant who has been full-time dairying for three years.

Sheena is justifiably delighted to receive her awards, proving to herself and her children that she is capable of “being more than just a mum”. Proudly Maori and bound to whanau, Sheena hopes that through her success, other women will recognise they too can find rewarding opportunities in the dairy industry.

Sheena and husband William with their son and two daughters, were living onfarm when out of necessity her dairy career started. A traumatic injury to William saw her start relief milking for William’s employer, then advancing to herd manager of 280 cows as her ability to focus, learn and apply herself was recognised. Having to stand aside from this role for William to return to work was bittersweet. Yet, as this door closed, she opened another.

A relief milking job with Chris and Jane Mitchell restarted her dairy farming journey and as Sheena’s father affectionately described it, she had developed “mad cow disease”. Progress was 30

quick to a permanent role as farm assistant and then to assistant manager when Sheena and William became the managing couple of the 520-cow, split-calving herd.

Sheena’s progress has been greatly encouraged by Chris and his father Phil, with a return to education and skill development. Her inspiration to persevere with adult learning came with showing her son what can be achieved and that she wasn’t “past it”.

Sheena enjoys the freedom and space of working from home and outdoors, being a “Jill of all trades” and finding adventure in each day. The farm they now manage at Opuawhanga is 320 hectares in total with 195ha dairy platform and the balance in beef. The herd is split 320 spring and 200 autumn calving. Operating as system 4-5, supplement comes from palm kernel and home-grown maize with the primary source of feed being pasture.

With total production compromised by drought this year, farm production is expected to come in close to 220,000kg milksolids (MS). With 25ha taken out for maize and an expected yield of 20 tonnes/ha, the pastures are budgeted to deliver 11t/ ha eaten. Utilisation of supplement which is around 1.45t/cow/ year, is enhanced with the herd homes on the property that are also security against

the farm being flooded when there are significant rain events. A plus in winter when the herd is wintered on farm.

Pasture measuring to create management information is Sheena’s responsibility and is a key element to ensuring the optimum supply of low-cost feed. Chris and Phil are encouraging her to get a deeper understanding of the whole farm system which fits well with Sheena’s desire to learn and progress.

A high standard of cow feeding and management is reflected in the farm’s 80% six week in-calf rate and 6% empty rate with 10 weeks of mating. Young stock are grazed off farm and returned to calve at 500-550kg. This is a tidy, well run farm which this management team and farm owners work hard to achieve.

The Fonterra Dairy Management Award citation indicates that there is attention to detail in other aspects of the business.

“Sheena took a lot of pride in her shed and the policies she has put in place to ensure high quality milk is provided to Fonterra. The dairy shed was clean and well presented, and Sheena and the team obviously take a lot of pride in the farm appearance.” The farm operates with Sheena, William and a milk harvester utilising a simple 40-aside herringbone shed.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

195ha

Cows

520 cows split calving

Production

423kg MS/cow 1128kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

11t/ha

Milking supplement

1.45t/cow

Cows/labour unit

175

Farm Dairy

40-aside herringbone

Six-week in-calf rate

80%

Empty rate

6%

Weeks of mating

10 weeks

Wintering

Cows on farm, young stock off

Sheena has developed and written her personal vision and goals. With clarity of purpose and clear understanding of her values, she has recognised education and learning are essential to achieve what she wants from life.

Connecting with Karla Frost and Pip Howard has brought Primary ITO study to Sheena’s life. She has progressed to now studying toward Level 4 Apprenticeship.

From this, Sheena has discovered a passion for planning, then monitoring, recording and reporting progress. This was noted in the judges’ citation for the Whitelaw Weber Employee Engagement Award.

“We were very impressed with Sheena’s ability to put in place farm policy as well as health and safety procedures to ensure the team operated in an efficient and safe manner. Sheena demonstrated a great knowledge of what is required to make a farm run in an effective and efficient manner.”

Sheena is a quiet achiever who contributes to the community through Dairy Women’s Network and a support organisation for women with breast cancer. The less quiet part of their lives is membership of the Loud n Obnoxious Car Club – a collective of passionate V8 Holden owners who attend a lot of charity runs.

Sheena’s plan is to progress in the dairy industry. Friends have warned them off taking on sharemilking or contract milking because of the physical and financial pressures that could put her family and

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Craigs Investment Partners Most Promising Entrant Award – Sarah Powell Whitelaw Weber Employee Engagement Award – Sheena Waru Webb Ross McNab Kilpatrick Leadership Award – Jared Sione Lauaki GJ Gardner Homes Whangarei/Kaipara Feed Management Award – Fred Hohaia DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Sarah Powell Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Sheena Waru PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Jared Sione Lauaki Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Fred Hohaia

relationship at risk. While this may be reviewed in the context of the progression and networks that come with her Dairy Industry Awards success, her focus is on developing a career in operations management or farm supervision. The trade off to this would be moving on from direct contact with cows and hands on farming.

Wherever her path takes her, this impressive young woman will make a meaningful contribution to the dairy industry as it addresses the challenges of balancing profitability with environmental sustainability and farmer wellbeing.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Runner up in the Dairy Manager category was Wellsford farm manager Fred Hohaia.

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NORTHLAND | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Left: Charlie and Emma Adair with Northland Share Farmer of the Year trophies. Certificates are already hanging proudly on the wall.

Opportunity together WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS NEILL

C

harlie and Emma Adair, 2020 Northland Share Farmers of the Year, have developed a business progression plan that thrives on synergy. With philosopher Aristotle’s description “the whole is greater than the sum of the two parts” Charlie has the capacity for thinking and acting in the big picture and Emma the ability to manage process and detail.

Both are from England, now New Zealand residents and they have been together since 2010. While their strengths overlap, there is absolute trust and confidence in each other. Having clear, shared vision and goals allows them to focus on what they need to do to achieve success.

Crossing the world in 2015 to start in NZ, Charlie spent their first season as 2IC on a 600-cow farm and Emma relief 32

milked at Rerewhakaaitu. Wanting to manage a farm together, they have found opportunities in Northland that opened to their confidence, focus and drive.

Connecting with people who have encouraged and guided them plus recognising key elements to include in their business strategy has contributed to their rapid progression. This is complemented by the team they rely on to work in their business. The pace is nearfrenetic, yet they make time to look after themselves, family and staff.

Charlie and Emma are in their fourth season on this property west of Whangarei and have lifted cow numbers from 640 and production of 254,000kg milksolids (MS) when they stepped on to the property in 2016. With 13.5-week mating, changing to split calving was an easy solution to consolidate calving. Cows were milked through two herringbone sheds – 32 and 20 bail.

The core to their business today is a contract milking job with 840 Friesian cross cows on a 275-hectare platform on a farm owned by Dean and Anne-Maree Adams at Purua. Pasture and crop eaten is at 11.6 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha (pasture 66% and maize 12% of total diet) and bought in supplement at 4.1t DM/cow (11% palm kernel, 7% maize and 4% DDG of total diet). Annual nitrogen application of 135kg/ha contributes to the 405kg MS/ cow or 1236kg MS/ha production. The herd is full time on the platform, splitcalved and young stock are raised on a runoff owned by the Adams.

Split calving and the mating policy allow Charlie to claim 100% six-week in-calf rate, accepting that the empty rate is 9%.

Mating is 4.5 weeks for both spring and autumn calvers which leads to brief and very busy calving periods with up to 50 calves born a day.

With days in milk a key business driver, he is comfortable for cows to remain in the herd for an extended lactation.

Herd testing five times a year creates a steady flow of cows to be dried off while maintaining a minimum of 400 cows being milked.

The attention to detail to make this work is recognised in their LIC Recording and Productivity Award. The judges’ citation states “They showed great record keeping with the use of technology. They have a vision on what they want to achieve from a breeding point of view. Herd records were used well for culling and mating going forward.”

Facilities onfarm are new and have capacity for expansion up to 1000 cows in milk. The new 54-bail Waikato rotary is well appointed with; ACRs, auto teat spray in bail, walk over weighing and auto drafting, Minihub cow management and Smartwash.

These facilities allow one person to milk 320-400 cows an hour and apart from the peak time the shed is operated solo. The upgrade came from an early understanding with Dean that “if they were any good, he would build a new cowshed and if not, he would sell the farm”.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

275

Cows

840 Fr cross

Production per ha

405kg MS/cow 1236kg MS/ha

Emma and Charlie checking a drought affected pasture.

The new shed is a significant contributor to Charlie and Emma winning the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award.

The judges noted “The dairy was extremely well presented. Shed cleaning procedures were simple and clear to implement. They are well aware that they are producers of food and the impeccable shed hygiene reflects this.”

Alongside the cowshed is a new 600cow covered feed pad with flood wash plus an uncovered 400-cow feed pad.

In the current drought where pasture is contributing less than 2kg DM/cow/ day, it allows for good utilisation of supplementary feed.

Feed management is focused on maintaining average pasture cover at 2200kg DM/ha (drought conditions excepted), with supplement introduced as required to maintain this level of pasture cover. Weekly plating combined with “eyecrometer” are essential to make this system work.

Role definition allows them to maintain focus on this core business while developing their other enterprises.

Charlie’s livestock knowledge and Emma’s attention to detail come together for the herd breeding programme.

Matching cows to nominated sires and synchronising heifers requires good judgement and recording. The outcome being steady genetic improvement and well grown replacement heifers primarily from their spring calves.

As the scale and complexity of their business expands, Emma’s attention to

Pasture eaten (t DM/ha)

Pasture + crop 11.6t DM/ha

Milking supplement (t DM/cow)

4.1t DM/cow (maize, DDG, PKE)

Nitrogen (kg N/ha/year)

135

Cows/labour unit

280

Farm Dairy

54-bail Waikato rotary, 600-cow covered feedpad with floodwash, + 400-cow uncovered feedpad

Dairy Automation

ACR, auto in-bail teatspray, walk over weighing, drafting, MiHub cow management

Six-week in-calf rate

100%

Empty rate

9% across the year

Weekskeeping, of mating record accounts, health and 4.5 weeks spring, 4.5 weeks autumn Wintering

All wintered onfarm

Runoff leased or owned

110ha owned, + 50ha cropping block for 20/21

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Contract milking

Costs shared

100% labour, bikes, fuel, rubberware, dairy chemicals, 50% electricity

Gross farm income ($/kg MS)

$0.97/kg MS

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

$0.82/kg MS

Operating profit ($/ha)

$228/ha (operating profit margin 20%)

Farm working expenses ($/kg MS)

$0.50/kg MS

Animal health ($/cow)

Labour $0.30/kg MS, farm dairy $0.02/kg MS, electricity $0.05/kg MS

safety, compliance, pricing and ordering maintain the stable core to keep it running smoothly. Budgets and cashflows are worked on together with bimonthly reviews.

Emma manages the contract farm herd with a 2IC and farm assistant and casual labour joining the team during busy times. Charlie focuses on cow feeding and breeding, with a 2IC working alongside him in this and other parts of the business.

A mentor assists them specifically with staff management and participation in a recent DairyNZ People Management and Coaching programme keeps them focused

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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33

NORTHLAND | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

on looking after the people engaged in their business.

Staff training and induction comes from Emma or Charlie, depending on which part of the business the training is needed.

In awarding them the Honda Health, Farm Safety and Biosecurity Award, the judges’ citation states “They had a great H&S policy in place outlining clear and concise procedures. Staff are an important part of their business and are inducted well with ongoing training provided.”

Equity growth is a key element of the couple’s vision and goals. The citation with their Westpac Business Performance Award reads “Charlie and Emma had very strong financial goals. Their cash flow monitoring was exemplar and they looked beyond the farm gate to generate more income opportunities. They have set themselves some aggressive growth targets and look to be achieving them.”

Their goal of $40m equity at 45 years of age so they can then step back from their business requires considerable capacity for risk. They are ahead of their projected growth targets to achieve this goal with efficiency and profitability in their primary job the cornerstone of the cashflow required to build additional revenue streams and equity.

From a gross farm income at $0.97/kg MS, less operating expenses at $0.82/kg MS there is an operating profit of $228/ ha. Farm working expenses are tracking at $0.50/kg MS with the key elements being labour at $0.30/kg MS, electricity at $0.05/ kg MS and farm dairy at $0.02/kg MS. Their strong cash flow underpins the stock trading and farm leases.

It sounds like a dream run with everything going their way. In their first year onfarm, Charlie and Emma started buying cows and heifers and raising bull calves. In their second year, having reared 100 bull calves and bought 63 Friesian heifers plus two bulls they were placed under a Notice of Direction for Mycoplasma bovis.

Because they felt it the right thing to do, they voluntarily sent the 65 head to slaughter. All were found to be clear 34

William, Emma and Charlie Adair.

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Hamish and Ella Ferguson Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Charlie and Emma Adair Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Jared and Kelsi Dean Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award – Charlie and Emma Adair LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Charlie and Emma Adair Meridian Farm Environment Award – José Hamber and Kirby Wilson Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Hamish and Ella Ferguson Westpac Business Performance Award – Charlie and Emma Adair

of the disease. With the promise of compensation, they reinvested in dairy heifers and prepared them for export only to be stopped by a second NOD with these animals also going to slaughter, and again found clear of the disease.

While this was happening in 2018, they proceeded with leasing 131ha and stocking it with 400 head of trading cattle and reared 250 calves which were sold at 100kg liveweight. It was also the year their son William was born.

The following season saw the start of a 103ha lease to purchase plus 108ha lease to give them a 130ha platform milking 400 cows and 81 ha for calf rearing and trading. This 2019/20 season will see 1500 head of traded cattle from their combined livestock business. Looking to next season they will add another 167ha of lease land to milk 500 cows. The future offers 50:50 sharemilking for Dean and Anne-Maree

Runner up in Northland Share Farmer of the year were Hamish and Ella Ferguson from Okaihau and José Hamber and Kirby Wilson from Helensville. but both parties have enough going on at present, so this is on hold.

It’s relatively easy to see this couple achieving their goals of; being in the top 10% of industry leaders, excelling in environmental sustainability, accelerating equity, ensuring employees wellbeing and potential. It’s less easy to see balanced lifestyle but they annually lock in time off farm and away from the business. While Charlie continues without fear and Emma remains highly organised and calm, they will continue to achieve their aspirational goals and excel as Northland industry leaders.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

AUCKLAND/HAURAKI | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Crystal Scown: A fan of Jerseys.

Genuine Jersey girl WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER

C

rystal Scown is a “Jersey Girl” through and through and intends to build her dairying future on the breed.

“It’s hard to explain why I love Jerseys so much. I love their individual personalities. Some people say they are sulky, but I’ve never met a sulky Jersey. If you know your animals you know how they work,” the 2020 Auckland/Hauraki Dairy Trainee of the Year says.

Jerseys make economic sense too.

“They produce high-fat, high-protein milk which puts more money in the farmer’s pocket. They are lower in nitrogen production and their lighter weight means they are easier on the pasture too.”

The 20-year-old who works on her father Adam Johnson’s 64-hectare, 165-cow farm in Paeroa, grew up on the Netherton ballot property won and developed by

her great grandfather after World War II. Crystal’s father has been a big influence in her decision to pursue a career in the dairy industry and also her love for Jerseys.

She has been working in the industry full time for three seasons, and owns six mixed-age cows, two heifers and one bull calf, all Jerseys, which graze with her father’s herd.

“I love showing my animals,” Crystal says. She is on the Jersey NZ Youth Committee and last year was part of the Jersey NZ Youth Team which won the Holstein Youth Show in Australia.

Her role in the team was a judge and advisor to younger competitors. “It was a wonderful learning experience as we had to judge mixed age dairy cows of all different breeds. Each breed has its own positives and negatives and it is important to be able to recognise these.”

Selecting cows and bulls for breeding is something Crystal particularly enjoys, and

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

judging has helped develop an eye for a good animal. “Learning the strengths and weakness of an animal and those which the right bull might help change in the next generation is a challenge. It’s a long wait to see if you got it right but when you do it is very satisfying.”

A passion for animals and cows is what gets Crystal up in the morning. “They are my drive, my love and my passion for dairy farming begins with them. Seeing them happy makes me happy.”

Being in control of staff management in her current role was challenging to begin with, however Crystal has successfully completed leadership courses and sought assistance from Dairy Connect. She has also completed PrimaryITO Husbandry Level 3, Feeding Level 3, Milk Quality Level 1 and Taratahi Level 2.

“Within seven years I’d like to be 50/50 sharemilking a Jersey herd. I’m still not sure if I want to own my own farm.

I enjoy the challenge of moving and learning to work on a new property rather than staying in one place.”

Outside of work Crystal plays social netball, is vice-president of Hauraki Young Farmers and enjoys Thursday night pool games at the Ngatea Hotel. “It’s a lot of fun, but I’m not very good at pool.”

Question: What is your next career move?

Answer: “Next season I move to a 200-Jersey herd at Waihou as contract milker.”

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Auckland/Hauraki DIA Most Promising Entrant Award – Joseph Barrett Franklin Vets Farming Knowledge Award – Kendal Wilson BlackmanSpargo Rural Law Ltd Community & Industry Involvement Award – Rebekkah Hoskins Keeper Life Communication & Engagement Award – Rebekkah Hoskins DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Kendal Wilson

Second in the Auckland/Hauraki Dairy Trainee category was Rebekkah Hoskins from Huntly and Thames 2IC Regan Griffin was third.

35

AUCKLAND/HAURAKI | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Daniel Colgan with his trophy.

Building team culture WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

A

uckland/Hauraki dairy manager Daniel Colgan is working on a large-scale farm where giving responsibility to his staff is a key part of building team culture.

Daniel is 2IC for Carl van Hallemond’s 316-hectare Mercer property milking 930 cows.

The farm has five fulltime staff and is one of three farm units, with 17 staff working on the 1000ha.

“Everyone just gets on well and we help each other to always do our best. Because it’s so smoothly run, there are never issues, as everything is organised and discussed properly.”

Upskilling and giving staff members autonomy is an important component of the staff team working well together, he says.

“All staff are taught the skills needed to undertake jobs on the farm. A lot of it is about giving people responsibility.”

36

On his farm, each farm assistant is given a herd to be in charge of, so the staff are involved in that herd’s performance.

“It gives people more buy in and they have a sense of pride and ownership – that’s their bit of the farm. At the end of the day they can go home and know they’ve had an influence on the farm’s production.”

The staff across the three farm units like to catchup and get off-farm and go paintballing or to the driving range.

“There is a real mateship.”

Daniel won four Merit Awards at the awards night, including the PrimaryITO Power Play Award for Farm Technology.

The farms use a lot of communication technology such as WhatsApp and RTs to communicate with staff.

WhatsApp is a great way to share what’s going on and what everyone is doing onfarm, from rosters to who has shifted the irrigator.

“The RTs are great because they’re always around your neck, you don’t have to worry about pulling your phone out

and getting it muddy during calving and you can hear what is going on from everyone else.”

Daniel grew up on his parents’ dairy farm at Puni in Franklin. He was thinking about a plumbing trade during his last year of school, but his brother convinced him to give dairy farming a go.

After school, he went to Telford and studied a NZ Certificate in Agriculutre? For one year.

He worked on his parents’ farm for a season and then got a job as 2IC milking 300 cows at Maramarua before spending four seasons working for David Dean milking 600 cows at Mercer.

It is his third time lucky in the Dairy Industry Awards after he entered twice previously in the Dairy Trainee category.

“I’ve always had bosses who like to see their workers go in and do well,” he says.

“It’s such a good thing to put on your CV, employers look at you in a good light, that you’ve got an interest in dairy farming and have long-term goals.”

Daniel’s current manager Kyle Brennan

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

316 effective

Cows

960 crossbred

Production per cow, per ha

1433kg MS/ha, 471kg MS/cow

Milking supplement (t DM/cow)

Potatoes 1051t dry matter, onions 350t, carrots 70t, PKE 288t, soy 30t, grass silage 150t, maize 80t

Nitrogen (kg N/ha/year)

90-100kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

160

Farm Dairy

60-bail rotary

Six-week in-calf rate

68%

Empty rate

14.5%

Weeks of mating

12

Wintering

All wintered on

won the Auckland/Hauraki Dairy Manager competition last year so he also encouraged Daniel to enter the Dairy Manager category.

The Dairy Manager category has also made Daniel delve into areas of the farming business that are not usually part of his everyday responsibilities.

He had to find out more about the farm’s fertiliser use, nutrient budgets and the herd records.

“I had to ask my boss for the farm’s nutrient tests and records, so it’s given me a better knowledge across different fertilisers used, grass species, and even herd records. I never knew a lot about BW and PW, but I know more now.

“I’ve asked my boss more about why they make the decisions they make, some of those decisions I don’t normally do as a 2IC.” Daniel has completed PrimaryITO Certificate in Agriculture Level 4 and with the Primary ITO voucher he won through the competition he will do some Level 5 papers and broaden his knowledge further.

Daniel considers winning the awards as one of his biggest accomplishments.

“I worked exceptionally hard putting together the presentation and I learnt a lot through doing it.

“I’m also really proud I contributed to our farm having the best season on record and being 20% above the previous season.”

Daniel believes the awards process has helped him to become part of the dairy industry community.

“At the beginning of my dairy career, I struggled to maintain a life/work balance and work would take over. I’ve found that balance now and activities off-farm fit in well with my job.”

It’s also helped to build his confidence, from public speaking to increasing farm knowledge.

“I used to practice my presentation talking to myself, you feel like a bit of an idiot. But by the time you do it in front of the judges you’ve gotten over that.

“The process has definitely made be better at speaking in front of groups of people” Daniel has looked at a couple of manager roles, but is currently happy where he is for another season. His ultimate goal is farm ownership, and the plan is to buy a dairy farm with his parents as an equity partner.

“I’d like to be an equity owner of my own farm so I want to upskill in all areas of dairy farming to help me achieve this goal.

“Hopefully my parents and I can buy a 300-400 cow farm in the Waikato in the next few years.”

He has owned a house for seven years and is currently looking for a second house to buy to build his equity.

“Winning has given me confidence to go out to the next step,” he says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Above: Carrots form part of the farm’s supplementary feed.

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Nick Hoogeven & Associates Employee Engagement Award – Casey Meiklejohn Campbell Tyson Ltd Leadership Award – Daniel Colgan H R Fisken & Sons Feed Management Award – Daniel Colgan Delaval Livestock Management Award – Casey Meiklejohn Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Daniel Colgan PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Daniel Colgan Westpac Personal Planning & Financial Management Award – Casey Meiklejohn

37

AUCKLAND/HAURAKI | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Brendan and Tessa Hopson with toddler Toby.

Goals firmly fixed WORDS BY: SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

E

ntering the Dairy Industry Awards has shone the light on progression opportunities for equity farm owners Brendan and Tessa Hopson.

The couple, both 30, are 25% lowerorder sharemilkers and 20% equity partners in a 340-cow farm at Paeroa.

They are three years into their five-year contract with equity partners, Scott and Alicia Paterson and Stuart and Kaaren Davey. Going through the competition has encouraged Brendan and Tessa to do their figures on their options for what happens at the five-year mark, Brendan says.

“We have our business partnership, but we also have our own business goals as well, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two. This process showed us what was good for the equity partnership 38

long term, but also what is best for us.”

Brendan and Tessa both grew up on dairy farms in the Waikato, Tessa’s parents still farm 600 cows just around the corner at Paeroa, and Brendan’s parents have just sold their dairy farm at Tirau.

“Growing up on a dairy farm and going to school, I was much more interested in the practical side of things,” Brendan says.

“If it had been up to me I would have gone farming after I left school but I decided to get a trade.”

Brendan completed a building apprenticeship in Hamilton, where he met Tessa who was studying a Bachelor in Tourism Management at Waikato University.

They travelled and worked for the next five years overseas, lived in Western Australia for a year, then travelled around America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

When they got engaged and made the decision to move home in 2015, Brendan

had lined up a job through family friends on a dairy farm at Te Awamutu.

The System 5 high input, split calving operation milking 1000 cows was like chalk and cheese compared to his parent’s 150-cow all grass system.

“We stayed there for two and a half years, I did five calvings and five matings during that time. It was a great learning experience. It was good to see the other side of a grass-only system. We sit in the middle now with a System 3.”

Brendan and Tessa were looking at the next option to go sharemilking when they got the opportunity to buy into a farm as equity partners.

They had bought a rental house in Matamata seven years prior and sold that to raise the equity.

The partnership owns the land, machinery, cows and Fonterra shares and has a five year contract.

“After that we have a few options, which

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

includes buying more shares into the company or maybe going somewhere else 50/50 sharemilking,” Tessa says.

The business has come a long way in the last three seasons, improving infrastructure, and the farm has a lot of potential, Brendan says.

“When we started we didn’t have a map of any water lines, we had to start from scratch. We feel we’ve got the farm to a point where we can capitalise on the improvements.”

The herd was amalgamated from three different herds so they’ve also worked hard to reduce the calving spread.

They have decreased the initial calving spread from 14 weeks to 9.5 weeks, and their empty rate this season is 7%, with an 80% six-week in-calf rate.

One of their biggest focuses was to get the animal health to an even standard and ensuring their mineral levels are all where they should be.

Last season they decided to put the entire herd to Artificial Insemination (AI) in a move to reduce their exposure to Mycoplasma bovis.

SHEDS

Toby Hopson in the farm dairy.

YARDS

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

39

AUCKLAND/HAURAKI | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

108

Cows

335 Kiwicross

Production per cow per ha

135,000kg MS, 402kg MS/cow, 1250kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten (t DM/ha)

13.14

Milking supplement (t DM/cow)

Budgeted 805t DM. Actual 19/20 1015t DM

Nitrogen (kg N/ha/year)

155

Cows/labour unit

136

Farm Dairy

36-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

ACRs, Wetit teatsprayer, Jantec Drafting System

Six-week in-calf rate

80%

Empty rate

7%

Weeks of mating

11 weeks

Wintering

Onfarm

Runoff leased or owned

Stopbank 27ha, 7ha included in milking platform

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Lower-order sharemilkers 25%

Costs shared

Electricity, staff, shed chemicals, rubberware, vehicle fuel

Gross farm income ($/kg MS)

$1.77

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

$1.17

Operating profit ($/ha)

$0.60/kg MS, $750/ha

Farm working expenses ($/kg MS) $0.77 Animal health ($/cow)

Wages down about $13,000

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“We did the figures and we thought it would save us money, but in hindsight that wasn’t the case.”

Silent heats and non-cycling cows were harder to get in calf, Brendan says.

“We realised an all AI system on noncycling cows is not always the best option.

“We also bought in late calving heifers and our empty rate was 17% last year.”

Having high empty rates in a new business is costly and they set about making a new plan for this season.

They decided to spend less money on CIDRs and bought in bulls to go with the non-cycling cows.

“We used less intervention this year, about 4% of the herd got CIDRs. We went the more natural way and let the bulls do the work. We used pre-mating heats to identify non-cycling cows and they went with the bulls straight away. Once they were cycling they went back into the AB herd.”

They used Hereford bulls for easy identification for any cows who got in calf by bull.

They used AB for five weeks, followed by four weeks of bulls and then tailed off with two weeks of AB to short gestation Kiwicross, pulling their calving spread back to 9.5 weeks.

“This year we also had our own replacement heifers coming into the herd, so we had a lot more control over when to mate them and made sure there was ample bull power.”

Getting cows in calf early is about being proactive, not reactive, Brendan says.

“Next year we should be almost finished calving by September. Which has a flow on effect for the rest of the next season.”

They DNA gene mark all their herd and keep good records and won the LIC Recording & Productivity Award.

They won six Merit Awards in total, also picking up the DairyNZ Human Resources Award, Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award, Federated Farmers Leadership Award, Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award and the Westpac Business Performance Award.

Because of the progress they have made in the business over the last three years, the couple thought it was a good time to enter the Dairy Industry Awards for the first time.

“We wanted an opportunity to receive valuable feedback about our business and wanted to meet like-minded people on similar journeys,” Brendan says.

Being able to benchmark themselves against others in the region was an excellent opportunity to see how their business actually stacked up.

Through the process they were able to see the improvements they’ve made onfarm and what other potential was in their business, Tessa says.

“When you do the calculations and look at the figures you see how far you’ve come. From a business point of view it’s realistically shown us what we can do after these five years, as well as what we can do over the next two years.”

Winning the Auckland/Hauraki competition also gives them an advantage when employing other staff or looking for future employment or partnership opportunities in the future.

“We aim to be the employer of choice in the Hauraki,” Tessa says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award – Justine Fox and Stephen Martin LIC Recording & Productivity Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson Meridian Farm Environment Award – Justine Fox and Stephen Martin Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson Westpac Business Performance Award – Brendan and Tessa Hopson

“This competition helps you get a good name out there, that’s why this competition is great for young people. It’s something we would certainly look for if we were employing anyone else.”

They employ one full time staff member who has been with them for three season, and use relief staff. They have installed automatic cup removers this year to make their time onfarm more efficient.

Tessa is normally calf rearer. The couple have one son, Toby, 22 months, and are expecting another baby boy in July so they

iDairy iDairy

will hire someone to rear the calves this season.

“We love working outside and with animals and being able to involve our son Toby,” says Tessa.

The couple are always looking to improve themselves and their business, Brendan says.

“The big challenge of the beast of farming is there are so many variables.

You have to keep pushing and doing stuff like this to keep being motivated and to improve.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

WAIKATO | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Grace Gibberd. ‘I love that combination of science and practical work.’

It’s not all about the milk WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

G

race Gibberd works on an unusual dairy farm – where milk production is not the prime focus.

“Number one priority is research, followed by milk in the vat and I love that combination of science and practical work,” the 21-year-old 2020 Waikato Dairy Trainee of the Year says.

Her role as farm assistant on DairyNZ’s 115-hectare Scott Farm at Newstead, milking 360 cows is an ideal mix for her personality and qualifications as Grace holds a Bachelor of Science, majoring in agricultural science and minoring in animal science from Massey University.

“During my studies I worked as a farm assistant on dairy farms in Huntly and Ashburton for summer placement.”

She joined the team at Scott Farm in December 2018.

“I’m really grateful for my position on one of DairyNZ’s research farms. It’s a unique opportunity which has developed and taught me so much.”

Learning more about the practical side of farming alongside the chance to extend her scientific knowledge, was

the motivation for Grace to apply for a position at the research farm.

“I grew up near Hamilton on a lifestyle block with a house cow, some beefies and a few pet sheep. Having very little onfarm experience has meant a steep learning curve to get myself up to speed with practical skills. I’ve come a long way from where I started.”

DairyNZ’s larger-scale farming systems research trials are based at Scott Farm where the focus is on farm systems research, and this is done using farmlet and pasture plot trials.

“Lye Farm next door is more focused on animal research but there is a lot of cross-over between work on both farms.

However, research work does have an impact on the herd’s milk production from time to time.”

Thanks to her academic background Grace talks the same language as the scientists working on both farms and finds it stimulating and valuable to learn from them and be involved in their work.

She loves being outdoors and with the animals but also enjoys the “book work” including taking part in planning trials and recording outcomes.

Some of the pasture research has been challenging due to this summer’s drought.

“The weather has put some of our trials under pressure.”

Grace entered the dairy awards for the first time this year. “I wanted to challenge myself, put myself out there. Several of my friends had entered before and encouraged me to give it a go.”

Keen to stay at Scott Farm until at least the end of the year, Grace then wants to progress to a 2IC position and on up the career ladder to herd and farm management.

Outside of work Grace enjoys social sports including touch, netball and volleyball. As Scott Farm is so close to Hamilton, she has easy access to city life outside of working hours too.

Question: What do you love most about dairy farming?

Answer: “There’s a lot of things I love

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS:

about farming such as working outdoors doing physical work, working with animals and working on the planning and management strategy side too.”

Pioneer Most Promising Entrant Award – Jon Paul Jackson Castlegate James Farming Knowledge Award – Sophia Hunt Bluegrass Contracting Community & Industry Involvement Award – Austin McCabe I.S Dam Lining Ltd Communication & Engagement Award – Grace Gibberd DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Emma Rauhala

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Runner-up in the Dairy Trainee category was Leah Connolly from Otorohanga and third was Emma Rauhala from Newstead.

43

WAIKATO | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Left: Daisy Higgs with her trophies.

Progressing by degrees WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

H

aving an agricultural degree has helped Daisy Higgs accelerate her farming career with people more willing to hire her into an advanced role onfarm.

The 2020 Waikato Dairy Manager of the Year will take on her first sole manager role this June, milking 180 cows at Rotorangi.

The 24-year-old has worked for the last three and a half seasons as herd manager for Aaron and Sarah Price, who sharemilk 300 cows on Gavin and Maree Hadden’s farm at Morrinsville.

“Aaron hired me straight out of university, he went to Lincoln and wanted a graduate. The job was herd manager, I wasn’t ready for that, but he was happy to teach me.

“I’m happy I did the degree, I met some great friends and it was a great experience.

And if I went into farming at 16 with no qualifications I might have been stuck in a low position role for several years and be over farming by now, be burnt out.”

Daisy emigrated to New Zealand from England with her parents when she was 44

nine. They family moved to Taranaki and lived in a rural area where the neighbours were all dairy farmers.

Daisy got involved with calf club and her love of animals grew. When she went to Massey University she initially started a degree in animal science.

Agriculture seemed like an attractive choice with there being so many job opportunities with most of them offering a lot of outdoor work.

“After the first semester I started worrying about the jobs that I would be able to get. I saw how many opportunities there were in agriculture so I changed to a Bachelor of Agricultural and Animal Science.”

In the last year of university, Daisy applied for graduate roles, but didn’t get any that she wanted and didn’t feel ready to take on a farm consultancy role.

“I thought I should do an onfarm role and get some experience. Farmers don’t need a young face out of university telling them what to do.

“At university they teach you about different pastures, you learn the theory side being techniques such as the three leaf stage, energy reserves and feed budgets but

being able to put those skills into practice onfarm really gives you an in-depth understanding and more about the leaf stages, energy reserves – all those things you don’t get from uni.”

What seems like common knowledge now for a farmer is high level.

Daisy has continued to grow her farming knowledge, studying Level 4 and 5 through PrimaryITO and is completing her Diploma in Agriculture.

“The diploma has definitely given me skills my degree didn’t offer, such as learning how to do a budget, pay staff, GST returns, completing a proposal and putting these skills in to practice on your farm.

You do different things in the diploma (to a degree), there is more recording and budgeting, and it’s way more relevant when you’re doing an assessment on the farm you’re working on.”

Farm consultancy is still in the longterm plan, but Daisy is happy farming for at least the next 20 years.

Daisy and her partner Charlie Matthews, who has an Agricultural Commerce Degree from Massey and works for Power Farming, have done a budget to get them to sharemilking 300 cows on Charlie’s home farm in Taranaki in the next five years.

“We both want to end up back in Taranaki. If it doesn’t work going on to the family farm, we will be happy as long as we’re farming.”

The couple have based their budget on using their salaries to save the equity for sharemilking in the next five years, with the possibility of investing in property or young stock along the way.

“I looked at a few contract milking jobs for this season. But at this stage of my life I like having a secure salary and time off.”

She is looking forward to her managing role for Shaun and Steph Crofskey who farm a low-input system on rolling country.

“It’s the type of system I want to be running long-term and I will get to monitor individual cows more closely.

Shaun works off farm so won’t be as hands on, so I will have more responsibility.

“I am looking forward to enhancing my

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Daisy with her cows.

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

91ha

Cows

300

Production per ha

1105kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

13.2

Milking supplement

250t palm kernel, 130t maize, 10ha chicory

Nitrogen

Less than 200kgN (approx. 160kg N/ha)

Cows/labour unit

2

Farm Dairy

38-aside herringbone

Six-week in-calf rate

79%

Empty rate

7%

Weeks of mating

11 weeks

knowledge in low input systems, grass is the most efficient feed source.”

Daisy entered the Dairy Industry Awards last year and was runner up in the Dairy Manager category.

Aaron won the Waikato ShareMilker/ Equity Farmer of the Year in 2015 and encouraged her to enter.

“He didn’t push it, but he said it was a great way to learn more about the farm and set goals.”

This year Daisy knew what to expect, what the judges were looking for and felt she was better prepared.

“It’s a lot around evidence, so I was able to collect data during the season rather than trying to go back and look for it.

Every point you make needs to be backed up with evidence – this prepares you for sharemilking/ownership when it comes to filing, paying bills etc .”

Daisy also had more structured financial goals and was able to able to show she was progressing with a manager’s role lined up for next season. She won two merit awards, the Westpac Personal Planning & Financial Management Award and the FarmRight Leadership Award.

“I was really happy to win the Westpac award because doing a science degree I never took much interest in the numbers.

But I’ve learnt so much about how important it is to know the financial side of the business.”

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Baker Tilly Staples Rodway Waikato Most Promising Entrant Award – Alex Colquhoun Waikato Farmers Trust Encouragement Award – Gursimran Singh Jhalli Blackman Spargo Rural Law Ltd Employee Engagement Award – Aidan Drake FarmRight Leadership Award – Daisy Higgs

ADM Feed Management Award – Sam Guise DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Aidan Drake Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Aidan Drake Primary ITO Power Play Award – Sam Guise Westpac Personal Planning & Financial Management Award – Daisy Higgs

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

The leadership award reflected the work Daisy does off farm in the industry, including Dairy Women’s Network courses, discussion groups, and getting off farm to play sport.

“I think a lot of young people get put off farming because of the horror stories of calving and the hours worked. But during the quieter times of the season farming offers the flexibility to get off farm during the day to pop into town, go to the gym or get some extra training in.”

Farming has so much to teach the current and up in up-coming generation, Daisy says.

“It teaches us good work ethics, to celebrate the small successes as part of a long-term goal. There is nothing sweeter than watching the down cow get up.

It teaches us responsibility, to be selfless – no farmer ever has breakfast before the calves, the value of money.

“And the most important one for me – is fix a small problem before it becomes a big one. That really translates to every part of life whether it be that broken wire or figuring out how to make that budget balance.”

Runner-up in the Waikato Dairy Manager was Sam Guise, and Aidan Drake was third.

45

WAIKATO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Sarah and Aidan Stevenson with their trophies.

Seeking genetic improvement WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

T

he 2020 Waikato Share Farmers of the Year Aidan and Sarah Stevenson use genetic technology to improve their biggest asset.

Their cows.

Aidan and Sarah, both 31, have been milking on Sarah’s family farm for the last eight years, sharemilking for seven seasons. They bought the family herd which has been Genemark DNA parentage tested for 10 years. The 340-cow Friesian/ Friesian crossbred herd has 99% recorded ancestry and they are aiming to hit 100%.

Aidan and Sarah have also used embryo transfer (ET) technology for the last four years to multiply their best genetics.

Their investment in their cows has been rewarded by getting their first contract bull purchased by LIC in December 2017. The bull, Waimata SB Ransom, was marketed in the 2019 genomic Friesian bull team.

“We are humbled to have a bull in the bull team so quickly,” Sarah says.

“It was one of our goals, but we thought it would take 5-20 years.”

Some of it comes down to luck, but it’s also recognition of making good breeding decisions.

46

Their herd has always been in the top 10% for Breeding Worth (BW) but has dropped to the top 25% with the recent changes in animal evaluation. The current herd BW is 115 and PW is 134.

As Tatua suppliers, who pay more for protein than fat, they need to find a balance between breeding for BW and profit, Sarah says.

They mate the bottom 30% of their herd to beef and nominate everything else to a mixture of LIC genomic and sire proven bulls.

Investing in ET work has boosted their herd, but also elevated their empty rate this season after getting more embryos than anticipated.

They flushed three cows last year and got 12, 13, and 30 embryos, instead of the 3-5 per cow embryos one would typically expect.

“We ended up with 55 embryos which was a challenge to get them back into our cows,” Aidan says.

“We use natural heats, no CIDRs, embryos have a lower hold rate, and if a cow didn’t meet our recipient criteria she had to wait to cycle again before being mated, so it contributed to our high empty rate.”

They were happy with their 71% six-

week in-calf rate despite these challenges.

They invested in ear sensor tags two years ago, which are already earning their keep by helping Aidan identify cows on heat. It eliminates the issue of mental fatigue during mating, especially now they are doing 10 weeks of AI and no bulls are used on the main herd, he says.

The ear tags also measure temperature and activity so they can pick up any health issues earlier and as a result their cow mortality rates have dropped.

Rearing good young stock is another focus for them after having had a bad experience with graziers.

Now they keep all calves on the milking platform until May 1 and have reduced their herd numbers to make room.

“For us it’s important to nurture the calves and ensure they are reaching those target liveweights,” Sarah says.

They have found a great grazier 15km away who delivers their heifers back in good order.

“It’s very hard to find a good grazier for calves who ensures they reach target liveweights,” Aidan says.

“We’ve found a former dairy farmer who does a great job and our heifers are coming home over 500kgs.

“If they’re not grown well it puts you

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

100ha

Cows

340 Friesian/Friesian Cross

Production per ha

1320kg MS/ha 388kg MS/cow

Pasture eaten

14.8t DM/ha

Milking supplement

554kg/cow maize, 545kg/cow palm kernel

Nitrogen

190kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

170

Farm Dairy

24-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

Ear sensor tags

Six-week in-calf rate

71%

Empty rate

17% (average 10%)

Weeks of mating

10

on the backfoot, so that’s a real target for us to meet those liveweights.”

Aidan and Sarah first met when they were 15 through mutual friends in Morrinsville. Aidan lived in Morrinsville where his parents own an electrical business, while Sarah lived on her parents’ dairy farm.

After school, Aidan completed a building apprenticeship while Sarah studied a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Commercial Law at Victoria University of Wellington.

They started dating in Sarah’s second year and had a long-distance relationship, which suited Sarah who could concentrate on finishing her degree.

The couple then wanted to go dairy farming so moved on to the family farm as contract milkers for the first season and then bought the herd and went sharemilking.

Sarah’s father died when she was just 12, and as the eldest of the four siblings she helped her mother a lot with the farm business growing up, so it was nice to come home.

“When dad died, mum didn’t even know how many cows we milked. I became her right-hand man.”

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WAIKATO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

FINANCIAL FACTS Costs shared

50%

Gross farm income

$4.23/kg MS

Operating expenses

$3.02/kg MS

Operating profit

$948/ha

Farm working expenses

$2.20/kg MS

Animal health ($/cow) Breeding Wages

$89 $91 $155

The family’s farm consultant Wayne Berry has been with them since they started as contract milkers. He is an independent voice in a family business which is key to keeping things professional. For Aidan, Wayne has helped him tackle the challenges of going dairy farming with limited background.

“Wayne is my farming dad, not growing up on a dairy farm it’s been a steep learning curve. He’s always happy to take my calls.”

Aidan has also completed PrimaryITO Level 4 to help build his dairy knowledge.

Leaving building to go dairy farming has been a great decision for their young family. Aidan and Sarah have three children, Emily, 5, Jacob, 4, and Zac, 10 months.

“If Aidan was building now he would be leaving home at 6am and not get home until 6pm and wouldn’t see the kids,” Sarah says.

Instead of the Monday to Friday grind, there is always another day with farming and he can prioritise family, Aidan says.

Aidan and Sarah with children, Emily, 5, Jacob, 4, and Zac, 10 months.

“With farming I get to have breakfast and lunch with them most days and can go into school during the day to watch swimming sports or whatever is on.”

The couple entered the Dairy Industry Awards for the first time last year because they wanted to make sure they weren’t being complacent and were running the business the best they could.

“We wanted to push ourselves out of our comfort zone,” Sarah says.

“We wanted to seize the opportunity

to identify any of our weaknesses in our business.”

It was also a great networking opportunity to try and secure another sharemilking position or to lease land in the future.

Some of the feedback last year made them look at their recruitment strategy and focus more on the people they employed in their business.

“We’ve changed our recruitment process to get the right person,” Aidan says.

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MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Sarah and Aidan Stevenson Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Sarah and Aidan Stevenson Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Reuben and Deb Connolly

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Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award – Sarah and Aidan Stevenson LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Hayden and Kate MacPhail Meridian Farm Environment Award – Sarah and Aidan Stevenson Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Hayden and Kate MacPhail Westpac Business Performance Award – Sarah & Aidan Stevenson

“We have since hired our farm assistant Kevin Garaway who is really passionate about the dairy industry and who also wants to progress. Having good staff makes every day easier.”

Last year in their presentation to judges they didn’t personalise the people in their business enough and so to turn that around and win the DairyNZ Human Resources Award was a huge milestone for them, Sarah says.

The couple won five merit awards in total, also taking out the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award, Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award, Meridian Farm Environment Award and the Westpac Business Performance Award.

“One of our downfalls last year was that I was too focused on winning the Business Performance Award.

This year I shaved 10 minutes off that section in our presentation to make more time for other sections,” Sarah says.

They have a Farm Environmental Plan which they treat as a living document in their farm business.

“We refer to it all the time to improve the sustainability of our business.

We have documented hotspots on the farm and we have brought actions forward.”

Being on their family farm does make it easier to prioritise the environment.

“We are thinking more big picture. We are the guardians of this land on behalf of the whole family.”

One of the biggest takeaways from the competition has been to learn more about what each other does in the business, Sarah says.

Aidan does all the hands-on farming and farming decisions, while Sarah is the keeper of the financials and responsible for the HR side. Aidan has learnt more about the numbers and the paperwork, while Sarah has learnt Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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49

WAIKATO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Time for a top-up.

more about the onfarm drivers of the business decisions.

“Nitrogen conversion rates mean a lot more to me now. That learning has been invaluable.”

Sarah has been a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand since 2014 and has maintained her qualifications while having a family by

working two days a week for a Matamata firm, although she is currently on maternity leave.

“I enjoy working with farmers to understand their numbers, especially when they light up, when they get it.”

The couple are looking for a second sharemilking job or to lease land around them to expand their business.

“When the next opportunity comes along we are ready to take that next step.”

They bought a rental property in Mount Maunganui in 2016 which has already seen a capital value lift.

“Aidan’s skills in building means we can consider diversified investments outside of the dairy industry, such as housing,” says Sarah.

Even onfarm, Aidan’s building skills help to keep capital costs down as he can do a lot of building and framing work instead of paying contractors. Their ultimate goal will be farm ownership, whether it is the family farm or somewhere else.

“We would love to keep the farm in the family, we are putting a lot of thinking into how that would work for everyone.”

Runner-ups in the Waikato Share Farmer were Hayden and Kate MacPhail, and Kirsty Dallinger was third.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

BAY OF PLENTY | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Jacob Maxwell: switched from sheep and beef to a dairy career.

Herd ownership goals WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

T

he opportunities to more rapidly progress his career and herd ownership goals are among the reasons Jacob Maxwell left sheep and beef farming for dairying in 2019.

“I came back to dairying after about two and a half years because of the opportunities the industry offers for progression. I plan to own my own herd by my mid-30s and eventually own or lease a farm,” the 20-year-old who is 2020 Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the Year says.

Jacob grew up on his family’s 180-cow organic dairy farm at Taneatua, near Whakatane, and that’s where he worked for six months after leaving school halfway through year 13.

“I had already passed NCEA Level 3 and was happy with my decision to leave early.

I knew I didn’t want to go to university.

Ever since I can remember, I was going to be a farmer.”

Jacob took up a two-year cadetship on Waipaoa Station near Gisborne, then moved to its sister farm Te Hau Station for a further seven months. During his cadetship he completed Level 3 and 4 qualifications through EIT in Gisborne.

Jacob picked a pretty tough season to return to dairying with poor spring growth in 2019 and a summer drought in 2020.

“That was a double whammy.”

But it hasn’t shaken his resolve to stick with dairying. Jacob, who is herd manager for share milkers Thomas Blackett and Stacey Lepper on Bill Scott’s 470-cow, 210-hectare, hill country property at Pukehina, considers one of his biggest

DAIRY TRAINEE

successes this season was the good result from mating.

It was the first season of opting for an all AI option and also reducing the length of mating and the results were great.

“I was stoked with the result. This was the first year we had done all AI, and also the first mating I’ve ever been involved in and Thomas left it up to me to pick the cows.”

Managing the herd this season has been a challenge. “The farm is really dry, and the cows are not performing as well as they could but that’s to be expected. We have been feeding out silage and as much PK as we can without going out of grade.

With calving due to begin on July 7, the decision was made to dry the cows off in mid-March.”

Jacob was inspired to enter the awards after his brother-in-law Matt Barr and sister Genna Maxwell won the 2019 BOP share farmer title.

“The judging process was not as much of a shock as I thought it would be. The judges made me feel very comfortable and the feedback from the first round gave me things to work on for the next. I’d encourage other young farmers to give it a go.”

Jacob is also keen to promote dairying and lift its profile as a career.

“Farmers are business owners and running a business of this size requires a lot of know-how and intelligence. As staff we have big responsibilities.

“I love working outdoors and with animals and delving into the science behind improving production through feeding and genetics. My bosses are very supportive of me and I couldn’t have asked for a better start in the industry.”

Question: Why is farm ownership among your long-term goals?

Answer: “I have always wanted to own my own bit of land and do with it as I choose, and also would love my future family to grow up as I did.”

MERIT AWARDS: The Business Results Group Ltd Farming Knowledge Award – Jacob Maxwell King Farm Services Ltd Community & Industry Involvement Award – Dayna Rowe Bay of Plenty DIA Communication & Engagement Award – Dayna Rowe DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Jacob Maxwell

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Pongakawa farm assistant Dayna Rowe was the runner-up in the Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the year, and Nashi Floyd from Whakatane was placed third.

51

BAY OF PLENTY | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Winning dairy manager Andre Meier.

Strength in teamwork WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

A

ndre Meier is always aiming to improve both in professional and personal development and the Dairy Industry Awards is a perfect platform to do both.

The 2020 Bay of Plenty Dairy Manager of the Year manages an 800-cow Once-ADay (OAD) operation at Pongakawa for Ao Marama Farms, owned by Will and Anne Nettleingham.

Andre has entered the competition twice previously, he won a merit award for leadership in 2016, came third in 2017 and won two merit awards.

Entering again this season was his last opportunity to take out the Dairy Manager title before going contract milking.

“The Dairy Industry Awards are a great way to benchmark myself against others and get my name out there.

“I always like to push myself, if I can learn something about myself that is beneficial.”

This year he won three merit awards including the BlackmanSpargo Rural Law Ltd Leadership Award, Fonterra Dairy Management Award and the PrimaryITO Power Play Award for Team Management.

52

“The judges said team management was an area of strength and it was a credit to me that my staff wanted to stay with me on my new venture.”

One of Andre’s onfarm initiatives was to make short practical instructional videos for things like how to set up the farm dairy or how to wash the plant.

“It’s easier for someone to watch that than read instructions.”

Andre grew up on a lifestyle block at Te Puna in the Bay of Plenty and used to get work on neighbouring drystock farms growing up. He started relief milking on a dairy farm and got offered a job as farm assistant when he finished high school.

He moved up to be a herd manager of 180-cows and he was often running the operation solo with the manager also running a second farm.

Andre then went agricultural contracting for five years before driving his way back into the dairy industry seven years ago.

He started off managing Will and Ann’s 350-cow Allport farm at Pongakawa before moving up to the current operation of 800-cows. Andre identifies staff injuries during calving as both one of his biggest challenges and successes.

Two years ago his herd manager Lindsay Williams shattered his ankle one week out from calving, another staff member had

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Bay of Plenty DIA Encouragement Award – Simon Hose Bay of Plenty DIA Employee Engagement Award – Simon Hose BlackmanSpargo Rural Law Ltd Leadership Award – Andre Meier Pioneer Brand Products Feed Management Award – Hayden Purvis DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Hayden Purvis Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Andre Meier PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Andre Meier Westpac Personal Planning & Financial Management Award – Hayden Purvis

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

250ha

Cows

800 Once-A-Day Freisian crossbreds

Production

900kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

14.3t/ha DM

Milking supplement

690t maize silage, 220t palm kernel, 220t grass silage

Cows/labour unit

320

Farm Dairy

Two 36-aside herringbones

Dairy Automation

One dairy has ACRs and Protrack

Six-week in-calf rate

77%

Empty rate

8%

Weeks of mating

10.5 weeks

Wintering

350 sent to runoff

Runoff leased or owned

Maize grown on 110ha runoff and small block (75ha) leased

a bike accident and two other staff left suddenly.

At the time he was managing the Pongakawa bush farm and overseeing the Allport farm with Lindsay running it.

The owners helped out by running the Allport farm and Andre and semi-retired farmer Steve Dobbs calved 800 cows on the Pongakawa bush road platform.

“Two of us continued to calve down 800 cows, we got through it and then were rewarded with the news we had the top mating results for our area. We had 86% six-week in-calf rate and a 7% empty rate.”

They went on OAD in August and have continued to milk OAD after seeing the benefits, with this season been the first full

year of OAD milking.

“We have seen an improvement in animal health, mating and staff morale,” he says.

“Our farm systems are clear to staff and therefore efficient, meaning staff can work independently.”

OAD also suits the farm, which is rolling to steep with some ‘tiger country’ out the back. Andre set the farm’s record production of 255,000kg milksolids (MS) while milking twice a day, and believes the farm is capable of achieving 240,000 on OAD. “We have suffered two droughts since going OAD though so it’s hard to compare.”

Andre is Chair of Te Puke Young Farmers but will have to step down this year after turning 30. Young Farmers is a great opportunity to get off-farm, socialise and network, he says.

“It’s fun and social as well as educational.

“We have ‘Farm Yarns’ events where we visit a member’s farm once a month. It’s a good opportunity for the young farmers who haven’t been on many farms to check out other systems.”

Being a part of the club and taking on the Chair role has also improved Andre’s confidence with public speaking.

“Having to run meetings has pushed me outside my comfort zone, which probably helped with my presentation to the judges.

I still get nervous though.”

Andre’s is going contract milking with his partner Natalie Cameron next season, on Natalie’s family farm. Natalie is 2IC on the adjoining 300ha drystock block which the couple will continue to run along with the 420-cow milking platform. Lindsay is going with Andre as his 2IC. Natalie’s parents Bruce and Gill Cameron have made a succession plan for the couple, which Andre is grateful for.

“We know where we are going, it’s awesome. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The couple hope to progress to sharemilking and invest in a farm by 2028.

“We would like to build a good foundation and grow our business to achieve our long-term goal of farm ownership.”

Left: Andre with his herd manager Lindsay Williams.

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Proud sponsors of the Dairy Industry Awards 2020

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53

BAY OF PLENTY | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Galatea share farmers Adam and Maria Barkla and daughters, Olivia, 7 and Victoria, 4.

Balance on the glory trail WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

A

rgentinian Maria Barkla told the NZ Dairy Exporter she entered the Dairy Industry Awards for the glory. Her Kiwi husband Adam shook his head and tells her she can’t say that.

The 2020 Bay of Plenty Share Farmers of the Year are different, they come from two different cultures. But it’s their differences that make them a great team.

Each other’s strengths balance the other’s weaknesses, Maria says.

“I’m a stresser and a control freak, but Adam is a calm person.”

Adam’s Nana always told him ‘it’s easy to be a farmer, but to be a good farmer you need to manage stress well’.

His relaxed attitude is not great for doing a thorough detailed budget or stock records, however, whereas Maria is a 54

stickler for detail and keeps them on track.

The couple are managing 1720 cows on three milking platforms in Galatea for Adam’s uncle and aunty, Robin and Claire Barkla.

The couple met in Auckland while Maria was in New Zealand on a working holiday visa and Adam was studying National Diploma in Civil Engineering. When they welcomed their first daughter, Olivia, just over a year later, they decided they wanted a rural upbringing for their children and moved back to the Bay of Plenty.

Adam got a job working for Robin and Claire’s contract milker and started studying PrimaryITO Level 4.

He moved up to 2IC and applied for a farm manager’s role and got offered three but his uncle Robin wanted him to stay on the family farm.

That’s when the couple stepped up to contract milking 450 cows in 2015. The following season Robin and Claire bought

a neighbouring farm so their cow numbers went up to 1000, and a third farm in 2018 which brought cow numbers up to 1800.

“It was bloody hard going from 2IC to contract milking, we were learning it all as we went,” Adam says.

“We haven’t been gifted this opportunity or any money to get into it, we’ve had to work hard to get here.”

Being able to work for Robin and Claire has helped the couple think of the big picture, he says.

“They don’t think month to month or season to season. They tell us we’ve got to look five and 10 years out about where you want to be.”

The couple have made a longterm succession budget for the next 25 years to be able to buy into the farms by 2025 and to buy Robin and Claire out by 2040.

Their plan is based on an average payout in an average season. They are dabbling in

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

stock and shares to build their equity along the way.

“You’ve got to have discipline to put away money in the good years,” Maria says.

Olivia starts high school in four years and the couple want to move to Robin’s other farm at Onepu, which is closer to the schools at Edgecumbe and Whakatane.

They have two daughters, Olivia, 7 and Victoria, 4.

Maria is not hands-on in the farming operation, instead she is chief book keeper, doing all the financial work, health and safety, human resources including rosters, etc.

“My perception before I went farming was farmers are dumb. But I realised how much it takes to be a farmer, to understand the science, the financials – the amount of knowledge you need as a farmer is huge.”

They employ nine staff and Adam works onfarm to cover all annual leave.

Otherwise his average day is managing the three operations which are DairyNZ System 4.

“One of our greatest strengths is our scale. It allows us to work on our business rather than in it,” he says.

“For a farmer who is milking 250 cows on their own, getting up at 4.30am every day, they can be too tired or stressed to think past their day-to-day job.”

They have a manager on one of the platforms and another manager runs the other two milking platforms.

“Our staff are everything to us. There is no way we could do everything we do without them,” Maria says.

They have learnt a huge amount about

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MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Adam and Maria Barkla Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Mike and Sabrina Mear Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Adam and Maria Barkla Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award – Adam and Maria Barkla LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Kelly Hughes and Nick Overdevest Meridian Farm Environment Award – Adam and Maria Barkla Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Adam and Maria Barkla Westpac Business Performance Award – Adam and Maria Barkla

employing staff over the last five years including how to put good systems in place and achieve high staff retention.

“We aim for our staff to stay with us to progress. Our standard operating procedures are about keeping it short and clear. Time is money so you need to have it straight to the point.”

Farmers have to learn to trust their staff and that is sometimes allowing them to

The FARMit team are proud to be a sponsor of the 2020 NZ Dairy Industry Awards. A great opportunity for entrants to learn and grow, along with encouraging best practice within the Dairy Farming industry.

The team at FARMit are proud to be a sponsor of the 2020 NZ Dairy Industry Awards.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

VVEETTOORRAA WWI S I SHHEESS TTOO CCOONNGGRRAT ATUULLAT ATEE

Adam Adamand andMaria MariaBarkla Barkla Winners Winnersofofthe the2020 2020Bay BayofofPlenty Plenty Share ShareFarmer Farmerofofthe theyear year

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Proud to be supporting Dairy Industry Awards

Situated on Main Street, Edgecumbe

make mistakes so they can learn from them, Adam says.

“I don’t get angry with staff. If your staff are doing something wrong then 98% of the time it’s your fault. It’s something you haven’t taught them, or they are tired.”

They use a Facebook group to keep in contact with all staff, including rosters and ticking jobs off.

“We never assume anything. Everyone

55

BAY OF PLENTY | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Left: ‘We aim for our staff to stay with us to progress.’

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

490ha (177ha + 177ha + 136ha)

Cows

1720 (Crossbreed)

Production per cow per ha

600,000kg MS, 350kg MS/cow, 1224kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

11.5t DM/ha

Milking supplement

1.1t DM/ha

Nitrogen

99 kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

181

Farm Dairy

40-aside, 36-aside, 34-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

Nothing

Six-week in-calf rate

68%

Empty rate

9.5%

Weeks of mating

11

Wintering

Wintered off, all grass

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Contract milking 3 farms (2 farms split calving and 1 irrigated)

Gross farm income

$1.13kg MS

Operating expenses

$1.05kg MS

Operating profit

$106/ha

Farm working expenses

$0.94/kg MS

Animal health

Wages $0.74/kg MS

56

can see what each person is doing and see what’s going on. If you have good communication your staff will stay with you,” Maria says.

She also believes that if there is a problem, it is best to address it straight away before it festers.

“I am a straightforward person. I will ask you if something is wrong. I’m really open and I share what’s going on in my life with our staff so they are happy to share their life with us.”

Farmers employing staff need to think about what the stress points are for their employees, Maria says.

For example, if their bills go up $50 it might not seem a big deal to you, but it can be to them. They might stop eating and get sick.

“It might not seem like a big deal to us, but it’s a big deal to them.”

The couple won six out of the eight merit awards at the regional finals evening, including the DairyNZ Human Resources Award, Federated Farmers Leadership Award and Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award, which confirms to them the work they put into treating their staff well and putting good procedures in place.

Because the couple threw themselves into the deep end going contract milking, they have been thankful of all the support in the community and the industry.

The help is there if you need it, you just have to ask for help, Maria says.

“We got WorkSafe out and asked them to assess our farm and point out anything we are doing wrong. That’s what they are there for.”

Westpac has also been fantastic at giving them financial advice to negotiate their contracts and put them on a plan for their future of farm ownership.

Adam and Maria first entered the Dairy Industry Awards four years ago when they started out contract milking.

“It was worth entering because it taught us to develop all of our systems and know the criteria, which helps you in your business,” Maria says.

They wanted to enter again this season to acknowledge how far they have come and to benchmark themselves against their peers.

When working for family, it can be

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

hard to get credit because the normal job performance reviews might not occur.

Having that independent feedback is beneficial, Maria says.

“It’s also good for our staff to see if we are doing a good job. It gives us more credibility as an employer,” she says.

Adam is passionate about changing people’s perception of dairy farming as a career.

“Farming should be up there with being a doctor or lawyer. You can make more money, there is no roof to where you can go with building assets and land.”

Part of winning the Dairy Industry Awards should be going around talking to schools about the career opportunities in dairy, he says.

Runner-up in the Bay of Plenty Share Farmer of the Year category was Dylan Riddell. Third place went to Nick Overdevest and Kelly Hughes.

Standing out from the herd.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

CENTRAL PLATEAU | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Emily Cooper with her cows.

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Stretton & Co Ltd Most Promising Entrant Award – Rhys Prentice T H Enterprises LTD Farming Knowledge Award – Georgia Cairns Perrin Ag Consultants Ltd Community & Industry Involvement Awards – Shannon Wood Rotorua Lakes Council Communication and Engagement Award – Shivpreet Arora DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Ben Purua

A thirst for farm know-how WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

E

mily Cooper’s thirst for farming knowledge means one of her favourite things to do is chat with older farmers at the Tirohanga Settlers Hall on a Friday night.

“They have so much knowledge they are willing to share, and we have such good conversations,” the 23-year-old 2020 Central Plateau Dairy Trainee of the Year says.

“There’s a great community here and every second Friday the hall opens for everyone to catch up.”

Further developing and improving her farming knowledge was also the reason she entered the dairy awards. “It was a way to contribute to my goals and ensure I’m on the right track, as I can use this experience in self-reflection as a tool for goal-setting.”

Emily is 2IC for Hayden and Narelle Hilhorst, milking 671 cows on their 262-hectare Atiamuri Farm. “I love working on this farm but am very excited to be going to the South Island with Hayden and Narelle to a 850-cow farm where I will be 2IC. We will have irrigation and a rotary shed. It’s such a wonderful opportunity but I will miss this farm and the community.”

Dairying wasn’t on Emily’s career list when she began studying at Massey University majoring in finance. “During the holidays, because I needed the coin, I began relief milking and calf-rearing for Mum and Dad and enjoyed it so much I decided to cross credit papers and do a Bachelor of Agri-commerce.”

Now her goals are to progress to contract milking and farm ownership.

“I know that means a lot of hard work and saving but what is life for if not to give it your all and work hard to achieve your goals?”

Tirohanga Valley and the farm Emily works on did not suffer as badly from the dry summer as other areas. “We have been pretty dry but Hayden my boss and farm consultant Mark Johnston have taught me so much about pasture management in these conditions.

“With a combination of Hayden and myself we had a good in-calf rate especially considering it was my first-time picking cows and the farm is reaching its production targets. In March we are still milking twice a day and the girls are looking good. We’ve fed out silage and 25 mm of rain in early-March helped green things up again.”

An unexpected challenge for Emily

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

has been to her communication skills.

“I thought I could communicate with anyone.” But working with staff for whom English is not their first language required Emily to re-think how she relayed important information.

“I have learnt to explain and adapt a different approach in my communication skills to ensure jobs are done onfarm in a safe and efficient manner.”

Drawing pictures, marking a map with an X for where cows have to go, modelling tasks and keeping calm all came into play.

“The phone is a blessing, using Google to translate, but 12 months on I think all of our communications skills have improved dramatically.”

Question: What do you enjoy outside of farming?

Answer: “I enjoy walking and tramping and completed the Spirited Women – All Women’s Adventure Race in the South Island this year.”

Second in the Dairy Trainee category was Georgia Cairns, an assist dairy production manager at Reporoa and third was Shivpreet Arora, also from Reporoa.

59

CENTRAL PLATEAU | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Chance Church.

‘I loved the lifestyle’ WORDS BY SHERYL HAITANA PHOTOS BY EMMA MCCARTHY

N

ot passing judgement and giving people opportunities within the dairy industry can turn a person’s life around.

It’s something Chance Church knows first-hand and something he is passionate about replicating.

The winner of the Central Plateau Dairy Manager of the Year is managing a 1250cow farm for Richard Maxwell north of Taupo.

He won four Merit Awards on the finals night, including the Vetora BOP Employee Engagement Award and the Primary ITO Power Play Award for Team Management.

He has five fulltime staff and employs two casual workers during the busy time of the season. The team is a huge part of running a large farm, setting up good systems and building up a great team is essential to a successful operation, he says.

“The strength of Chance, is that no matter what a person looks like, their age, their background, Chance doesn’t judge them,” Racheal says.

Chance likes to employ local people 60

with no experience who are keen and eager to work.

Chance and his wife Racheal see it as their role to encourage their staff to grow and progress in their own lives.

“I tell everyone to get a good person to work for, who wants to pull you up, not keep you back. A good employer to set you up and on a good path.”

Chance and Racheal get their staff to think about their future and help them with contacts to start thinking about equity growth.

Weekly meetings cover everything from health and safety to what’s going on at home. When you have five staff, you have five families and five different households to factor in.

“We think it’s important to know if there are issues at home, because we are all living on the farm together,” Racheal says.

When it comes to running the farming operation, staff are given respect, trust and autonomy.

“As a man, it’s better that you’re not feeling like a boy and getting told what to do all the time. I didn’t like being micromanaged. Their skills develop quicker if you give them that leeway.”

There is a fine line between giving them that leeway and letting them do what they want, but all staff can offer suggestions on farm systems.

“The key is to let everyone speak, leave the manager’s badge at the door – everyone gets an opinion.

“All the mistakes I’ve seen from past managers I wouldn’t do – that’s why I build a great culture with my staff.”

Chance and his wife Racheal, both 32, grew up in Wanganui and have five children together, Jade, 16, Cash, 12, Trey, 10, Wolf, 7, and Vada, 3.

They grew up together, started their family young and have been through their share of ups and downs, but have come out stronger on the other side.

Chance grew up working on drystock farms and always knew he would be happy to go farming, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that he truly realised the progression opportunities within the dairy industry.

After school he worked doing a bit of everything and ended up working as a farm assistant on a dairy farm.

“I loved the lifestyle, getting up and going to work and being able to go hunting and fishing.”

It’s such a great industry to get into and progress, he says.

“I’m lucky I met my wife and we have supported each other and we found a better way of life.”

He got a job as 3IC on a Landcorp farm at Reporoa and quickly progressed to 2IC the following season.

His manager Anthony and Danelle Kiff, runners up in the Central Plateau Dairy Manager of the Year in 2019 and third in Share Farmer category for 2020, have been great inspiration, he says.

“I learnt that if I knuckled down I would be able to get a manager’s role.”

He set about doing some Primary ITO courses and Landcorp offered a lot of great leadership skill building.

“It was a huge team full of knowledge.

All the farms got together every quarter and all the 2ICs got together regularly.”

Chance entered the Dairy Industry Awards in 2017 as a 2IC and “failed miserably”. But it was also the motivation that made him want to improve and enter again when he had more experience.

It was out of his comfort zone to enter

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

the competition, and it wasn’t easy to compete against competition of such high calibre and experience.

“I liked that the feedback was blunt and honest, it fired me up. It’s good to show you where you are and where you need to be.”

Two years later he got the job working for Richard and has been there for three seasons.

Racheal is chief calf-rearer and business manager, doing all personal business and financials.

In the last two years Chance and Racheal have bought six rental properties, one in Wanganui, and five in Tokoroa which they have renovated.

With a current equity of $400,000 they are continuing to build it through further property investment.

The couple aim to go sharemilking in 2021-22. Their long-term goal is to own a dairy farm near the coast and to continue to give their children a good foundation.

“My goal for them is to not have it as difficult as we had it. We’re not going to give it to them, we will teach them to work smarter and start early,” Chance says.

Chance also won the Fonterra Dairy Management Award and the Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award.

Chance and Racheal, with sons Wolf, 7, and Vada, 3.

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Vetora Bop Employee Engagement Award – Chance Church I.S. Dam Lining Ltd Leadership Award – Ashley Morgan Castlegate James NZ Feed Management Award – Alexandra Lond Delaval Livestock Management Award – Alexandra Lond Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Chance Church PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Chance Church Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Chance Church

Runner-up in the Central Plateau Dairy Manager was Alexandra Lond, and Ashley Morgan was third.

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

378ha

Cows

1250

Production per ha per cow

957kg MS/ha 293kg MS/cow

Milking supplement

1100kg/cow Palm Kernel

Cows/labour unit

200

Farm Dairy

70-bail rotary

Six-week in-calf rate

71%

19 White Street, Rotorua – Phone 07 348 3628

Empty rate

6%

Weeks of mating

11 weeks, 5 weeks AB, 6 weeks bulls

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Runoff leased or owned

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CENTRAL PLATEAU | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Trophy winners.

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E

ver since watching a television advert about Anchor butter made with Jersey cows that lived on grass all year round, the then six-year-old David Noble wanted to farm brown cows in New Zealand. Wherever that was.

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62

be outside all the time that was where all the Jersey cows were.”

After university a visit to NZ confirmed it. David moved in 2012 from Halifax, England, met veterinarian Katy Jones and this year the couple have won the Central Plateau Share Farmer of the Year.

David, 34, and Katy, 32, are sharemilking 275 cows for Andrew and Hazel Kusabs’ at Horohoro, south of Rotorua. The rolling farm has a lot of trees and riparian plantings and bordered by the Mangakara and Pokaitu streams.

Katy works off-farm fulltime but also rears calves and the couple discuss all onfarm decisions together, from animal health to pasture management.

“I really enjoy farming. I get to put my learnings into practice. It also makes me a better vet, when you understand the value of stock and understand the financial and emotional implications.”

David grew up on a small landholding in West Yorkshire, but used to visit family farms. Farming always appealed to him and he has always liked cows.

After school he studied a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and travelled to NZ on a holiday where he worked on a dairy

farm for a friend.

“I enjoyed it that much and saw that much opportunity I knew if I wanted to farm by myself NZ was the place to come.”

He had accepted a job as a livestock buyer back home and went back to the job, telling himself he would work for 18 months and see if he was still as passionate about NZ. “I lasted 16 months. I hopped on a plane and I haven’t been back.”

Katy grew up at Bucklands Beach in Auckland and studied for a Bachelor in Veterinary Science at Massey University in Palmerston North.

Her first job was in Te Aroha, where she met David. The couple were offered a sharemilking job three months after they started dating.

“I went from managing on a $8.40 payout to sharemilking with virtually no money. We survived for the first two years,” David says.

The job was sharemilking 160 cows at Tirau and they bought the crossbred herd that was on the farm.

They have culled sensibly and bought good lines of Jersey heifers to boost their herd Breeding Worth (BW).

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

FINANCIAL FACTS

Jersey cows tuck in to turnips.

Sharemilking

50%

Farm working expenses

$2.35/kg MS

Animal health ($/cow)

$0.11

“The herd is 72% Jersey now, we have a few black cows through other people’s breeding choices. But we will turn them all brown,” David says.

They are trying to breed a bigger Jersey cow and cull on body condition, Katy says.

“We breed for good udders, longevity and fertility.”

They nominate all cows for the first three and a half weeks then put out Jersey bulls. The couple also artificially bred (AB) their heifers for the first time last season.

Those choices are more expensive, but their herd is their only asset and they see it as an investment not a cost, David says.

The couple had a 68% conception rate for their 3.5 weeks of AB and a 79% sixweek in-calf rate, but had no cows get in calf during the last two weeks with the bulls, which pushed their empty rate up to 11% this year.

“That’s the highest empty rate we’ve had, something happened in those last two weeks. But it means we will have a really tight calving, just eight weeks, and it sets us up to have a good mating this year,” Katy says.

They will also DNA-test their whole herd this year to give help make better breeding, culling and rearing decisions in the future.

“The average mis-mothering figure is 25%. You’re paying for Minda whether it’s right or wrong information, if it’s not right

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

120ha, 95ha effective

Cows

270. Bought herd with 66 BW, herd BW is now 144 in top 8% of LIC recorded herds.

Production per ha per cow

1128kg MS/ha, 397kg MS/cow

Pasture eaten

11.9t DM

Milking supplement

900kg DM/cow/year including winter grazing

Nitrogen

126kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

135

Farm Dairy

20-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

Nil

Six-week in-calf rate

79%

Empty rate

11%

Weeks of mating

10

Wintering

100 cows wintered off for 7 weeks at external grazier, fed grass and silage

Runoff leased or owned

No, calves grazed off from December

Proud to support Central Plateau Dairy Industry Awards Andrew Cook - 027 490 9417 Clint - Operations Manager 027 284 9875 Office 07 333 1506 info@atcook.co.nz • www.atcook.co.nz

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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63

CENTRAL PLATEAU | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

you can’t use those figures,” David says.

With environment regulation coming, milking and breeding the most efficient cows is only going to become more vital, so having accurate herd records is paramount, he says.

Both passionate about breeding Jersey cows, they have started their own stud, ‘No Bull Jerseys’.

A highlight for the couple was to have a Jersey bull calf picked up by CRV Ambreed last year which is in the sire proving scheme (Noble Carrick Charnock).

This was the first time the couple have entered the Dairy Industry Awards. It was an opportunity to take time out to look at their business rather than just working in it, Katy says.

“We also wanted to do it to meet likeminded farmers that are trying to progress, you get to rub shoulders with positive people.”

The process takes a lot of hours and Katy’s employers, Vetora in Rotorua, have been hugely supportive and allowed her to take time off for the competition.

Their farm assistant Rhys Prentice has worked for the couple for two seasons.

Having such a reliable staff member made it easier to take the time out to enter the Dairy Industry Awards themselves, Katy says.

“We knew it was a good time to do it before Rhys moves go a bigger job next season.”

Rhys won the Stretton and Co Most Promising Award in the Dairy Trainee category this year.

The couple put their presentation together without getting any external

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Anthony & Danelle Kiff Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Gerard & Marcelle Van Der Mark Federated Farmers Leadership Awards – Anthony and Danelle Kiff Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award – Anthony and Danelle Kiff LIC Recording and Productivity Award – David Noble & Katy Jones Meridian Farm Environment Award – Maurice Bryant Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – David Noble & Katy Jones Westpac Business Performance Award – Maurice Bryant

advice or opinions, other than their accountant Craig Taylor from Candy Gillespie.

“We wanted to present what we did rather than just ticking boxes,” David says.

“We got feedback from the first round which helped us prepare for the second round.”

Their farm owners Andrew and Hazel have also been extremely helpful.

The couple won two merit awards, the LIC Recording and Productivity Award and the Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award.

David manages residuals closely and will pre-mow if necessary. He is aware of pre-mowing research which has been done but feels that the situation in which it was tested is quite different to the situation in which he is using it and would be keen to see more research done.

“When you’re not in Disneyland under a pivot irrigator, grass is trying to go to seed five months of the year it is important

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“Grow as much grass as you can and use it.”

They use LIC Space which has worked well, but it’s important to be out onfarm looking at residuals, David says.

“It’s important to be out physically measuring grass, counting tillers on the ryegrass.”

The DairyNZ System 4 farm has an indairy feeding system and they winter 100 cows off-farm. Only a small amount of grass silage is made onfarm, with the farm owners preferring to buy in feed. They will make a little bit of grass silage onfarm if they have to in order to maintain quality.

They grew 6ha of turnips this year, with Rape, which has given the turnips some shade and helped them last longer, David says.

David is working with the farm owner to

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put in a variety of new pastures to cater to individual paddocks.

All farms are variable with some paddocks more exposed that dry out quicker, wetter paddocks, steeper paddocks etc, and different cultivators work in certain paddocks better than others, he says.

Looking ahead the couple are more focused on who they work for rather than pushing up in cow numbers.

“We get on really well with our farm owners. It’s more important to us to have a good relationship. That makes it easy to just enjoy farming,” David says.

“We are not trying to take over the world, as long as we’re progressing and having a good work/life balance.”

They will continue to improve their herd and look at other investment opportunities if they stay where they are.

Katy enjoys getting off-farm to ski and tramp, David likes his garden, and also

Central Plateau Share Farmers David Noble and Katy Jones, Jersey fans.

going around a lot of stock clearing sales in his spare time.

The couple were both members of Young Farmers and are now members of Jersey NZ and try and attend a lot of discussion groups and other events around the area.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Runner up in the Central Plateau Share Farmer of the Year competition was Maurice Bryant.

Third place was Anthony and Danelle Kiff.

65

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demo CALL 0800 337 747 or email at dairy@towandfarm.co.nz Dairy Exporterus | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

MANAWATU | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Early starter in the dairy WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER

D

avid Reesby’s future career was probably sealed the day he pulled on his first tiny gumboots and overalls.

“Mum says once she got me into my Red Bands and overalls, she couldn’t get me out of them,” the 19-year-old 2020 Manawatu Dairy Trainee of the Year says.

“I was already involved on the farm while at school and the day I left, was fulltime. There was never any doubt that this was what I wanted to do,” David says, who is 2IC on the 180-hectare Foxton farm owned TRD, GD and SJ Reesby,.

He credits his grandfather Don and parents Sandra and Gareth Reesby with fostering his love of farming.

“They are great role models. Granddad is still very much involved and most mornings beats me to the shed. He’s a hard worker and loves milking.” The farm’s 420 Friesian cows are milked through a 36-aside herringbone shed.

David would like to progress through the industry and become a contract milker with a long-term goal of herd ownership and sharemilking, and an ultimate goal of land ownership. He is studying for Level 4 dairy qualifications through Primary ITO at

David Reesby Manawatu Dairy Trainee 2020

Feilding. This is his second season working fulltime on the farm and it’s been a dry one.

“We have K-line irrigation, using bore water so got through the summer okay, still milking twice a day and keeping milk production up. It’s a system 3 to 4 farm.

We locked up about 30ha on the dairy platform to make silage which we have fed out.”

This was the first time David had entered the awards.

“I entered to challenge myself and develop more personal skills. I was pretty pleased to win the I.S Dam Lining Ltd Communication and Engagement Award in particular as public speaking is not something I find easy and really have to push myself to do.

“I would like to thank the DIA organisers, and sponsors and all the other

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Manawatu DIA Most Promising Entrant Award – Josh Wilkinson

entrants and place-getters for the hard work they all put into the awards. I’ve met some great people within the industry and made new friends.”

Outside of farming, David enjoys smallbore rifle shooting.

“It’s a precision sport and you have to have a good eye for detail. It’s also a good stress release and a chance to get off farm.”

However, in April, getting off farm wasn’t possible due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

David learned of his success in the dairy awards via a Facebook video, but as they were in his quarantine “bubble” David was able to watch the video with his parents.

“I think they were pretty chuffed with the result.”

Question: What’s it like having three generations of your family working together?

Answer: “They are happy to share their knowledge but also open to listening to my ideas. I have key responsibilities on the farm as we all do. We have regular shed meetings to discuss planning. I’m taking on more responsibilities as I progress and learn.”

Castlegate James NZ Ltd Farming Knowledge Award – Isabella Archer Massey University’s School of Agriculture and Environment award and the School of Veterinary Sciences Community and Industry Involvement Award – David Reesby I.S Dam Lining Ltd Communication and Engagement Award – David Reesby DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – David Reesby

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Isabella Archer from Bulls placed second in the Dairy Trainee category and Dominic Semmens from Palmerston North was third.

67

MANAWATU | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Seeking out the facts WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN

P

aul Mercer understands the value of making fact-based decisions and loves delving into the detail of dairy farming to make farm systems and businesses run more profitably.

The winner of the Manawatu Dairy Manager of the year for 2020, Paul has recently embarked on an extra-mural Bachelor of Agricultural Commerce at Massey University with the five-year plan of becoming a farm consultant.

The 27-year-old has been dairy manager for Robert Ervine and Colleen Sheldon on their 147 hectare, 370-cow property near Palmerston North for the past two seasons and his methodical and fact-based approach to problems has seen some great advances for the business.

His philosophy for dairy farming is to always have well-fed cows and to feed them at the peak of what they can eat so that there is no BCS loss throughout the season – with no associated negative effects on animal health and production.

Entering the Dairy Business of the Year competition for the past few years has enabled Robert, Colleen and Paul to review all their animal and business metrics and benchmark against others.

Paul Mercer values fact-based decision making.

Now the team are setting about resolving some of the issues they identified.

“When we benchmarked our animal health bill we realised we were having an issue with high levels of metabolic problems – milk fever and ketosis levels were high and that was causing poor in-calf rates in the herd – the incidence was very noticeable in my first season as manager – so we needed to sort it out,” Paul said.

In winning the DeLaval Livestock Management Award Paul outlined how he was able to investigate the issue and based on research and consultation with vets, recommended a transition diet to Robert and Colleen, along with an economic cost/benefit analysis to back up his recommendation.

The DCAD diet recommended by the vet was fed to all cows three weeks before calving (based on pregnancy diagnosis cows were drafted out three weeks before

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Naylor Lawrence and Associates Most Promising Entrant Award – Nicholas Reid Fitzherbert Rowe Lawyers Employee Engagement Award – Josh Millard Totally Vets Ltd Leadership Award – Paul Mercer Hopkins Farming Group Feed Management Award – Paul Mercer DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Paul Mercer Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Shane True PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Josh Millard Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Shane True

68

calving and fed separately) along with the colostrum herd also being targeted for the mineral-rich diet. During calving the incidence of milk fever and ketosis halved and the not-in-calf rate dropped from 18% to 12% while boosting the six-week in-calf rate from 62% to 69%.

The effect was less metabolic cows and lower expenses, higher peak production, better breeding outcomes, less replacement costs, higher production across the season and very happy owners and manager.

‘There were other initiatives we employed like using Flash mates and staff training around picking cycling cows, but it really showed the power of making decisions based on facts and data.”

His farm owners are also very datadriven, Paul says, “If I go to them and say I have identified a problem, I have researched a solution and done a cost benefit analysis, they are very keen to go through it and come up with the solution and help me to put it in place.”

That’s what I love about farming – the ability to help people identify problems and develop solutions that are fact-based – that’s the kind of higher-level stuff I love.”

Paul says that’s why the challenge of becoming a farm advisor suits him better than milking cows for the rest of his career.

“Farmers don’t just have to be good at the grass and cows stuff, they need to be good business managers, because the margins are getting very slim and the costs keep going up – eventually I want to help

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform

147ha

Cows

362

Production

165,000kg MS, 1122kg MS/ha, 450kg MS/cow

Pasture eaten

14t

Milking supplement

150t grass silage grown on farm platform, 132t maize grown on platform and used, 185t PKE used/brought in

Nitrogen

140kg/N/ha

Cows/labour unit

144

Farm Dairy

33-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

Auto cup removers

Six-week in-calf rate

69%

Empty rate

12%

Weeks of mating

10

Wintering

R2’s are off farm everything else is on farm

farmers develop those strategies and skills.”

Paul has started regular weighing of the replacement heifer calves on the Ervine’s farm, so that he can pull heifers out of the mob if their growth rate drops and feed them extra.

“Once again it’s just having the information and being able to make a difference.”

The farm straddles the stopbank along the Manawatu river and the 50% of pastures on the river side (on leasehold land) are prone to flooding at least once each year, with consequences for the pastures.

Undersowing the flood-prone paddocks with Tabu short rotation ryegrass fills in the gaps and tops up pasture production between pasture renewal.

“The flood-prone land does need to be renewed more often, but that’s expensive and stitching in some Tabu can give the pastures a boost in the meantime.”

Paul has moved the contractor on from direct drilling in new pastures where the plants come up in rows (he thinks the plants were a bit sparse) to roller drilling which given them a much denser sward.

“When you roller it in it the seed seems to find its own space and it works really well in our silt loams, sowing is expensive when you are coming out of a chicory crop because you need to establish a seed bed, but we have been getting great results from the technique,” he says.

Embarking on a five-year upskilling programme will entail three papers each year for three or four years followed by

Paul and Laura Mercer with baby Charlotte.

a year’s full-time study to complete the degree, Paul says, which will not be easy for a man who is involved in facilitating discussion groups, Fitzherbert Young Farmers club and has a busy farm and family life with wife Laura and baby Charlotte. But it’s programme that will lead to a great near-farm career suited to his personality type, he says.

“Every decision I make is fact-based and I really want to help other farmers with problem solving and business growth.”

Shane True from Palmerston North placed second in the Dairy Manager category and Joshua Millard from Foxton was third.

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69

MANAWATU | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Winning award in pyjamas WORDS BY KAREN TREBILCOCK

T

erry and Maegan Legg were sitting on the couch at home in their pyjamas when they were announced as the winners of the 2020 Manawatu Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmers of the Year.

Not the usual attire for the awards but then they were watching via video link on Facebook, as were all the other entrants that night due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

“To be perfectly honest we didn’t expect to win,” Maegan said.

“We didn’t even tell many of our friends to watch.”

Their kids – six-year-old Conrad and four-year-old Jackson – were both asleep in bed and didn’t find out until the next day.

“Although we were making a fair amount of noise when we won. It’s amazing they didn’t wake up.”

The couple, Terry (35) and Maegan (31) are both from dairying families but Maegan worked as a public servant for StudyLink and Terry as an engineer until Conrad was born in 2013. It was then that they decided their fast-paced city life needed to slow down.

They had met at a Young Farmer’s Ball in Opiki although neither was farming at the time. However, all their friends in the district were so they had both gone along.

Now they are passionate about the dairy industry after starting contract milking in the 2017/2018 season.

They rented out their house, used savings to buy the two motorbikes and the other equipment they needed and instantly loved it.

“We didn’t have farm debt back then.

Now, this year going sharemilking, we have plenty of debt.”

70

Terry and Maegan Legg are the 2020 Manawatu Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmers of the Year.

They started the 50:50 position in June last year milking 320 cows on a 128-hectare Shannon property owned by Spall Farms Ltd, a second-generation dairying family.

To finance the herd they sold their house and took on the three-year contract which they hope will continue for many years after that.

“We’re really close to both of our families living here and we haven’t had to change schools for Conrad so it really suits us.”

Having the kids home with the lockdown has been fun, they said, and

both are getting plenty of time outside on their new motorbikes which they got for Christmas.

“It was probably one of the best presents we could have got them with what’s happened.

“They’re still not tall enough to milk.”

The farm is a DairyNZ system three with palm kernel, maize and grass silage used to extend the lactation at the beginning and at the end.

The 128ha milking platform has another 22ha of non-effective area and they hope

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Quentin and Stephanie Bruntlett Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – James Dillon Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Maegan and Terry Legg Honda Farm Safety and Health Award – Maegan and Terry Legg LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Maegan and Terry Legg Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award – Quentin and Stephanie Bruntlett Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Quentin and Stephanie Bruntlett Westpac Business Performance Award – Renae Flett

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

128

Cows

320 Fresian/FresianCross

Production

938kg MS/ha, 375kg MS/cow

Pasture eaten

9.5t DM/ha

Milking supplement

1.6t DM/ha

Nitrogen

86kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

160

Farm Dairy

24-aside herringbone

Six-week in-calf rate

55%

Empty rate

17%

Weeks of mating

10

Wintering

175 cows wintered off from 1 June for 6 weeks, Remaining cows fed with balage made on milking platform during spring

to start growing the maize themselves for silage this coming season.

“I’m passionate about utilising the grass grown onfarm as this is his best and cheapest form of feed for us,” Terry said.

Half the herd is wintered off, and the young stock go to a grazier at Christmas returning in time for calving.

Building the BW of the herd is one of their aims. It’s a LIC sire proving herd with AI for six weeks and then bulls for another four weeks.

The couple managed to buy a Friesian, Friesian/crossbred herd locally to go sharemilking, topping up the numbers with in-calf heifers from another farm.

“We were lucky we could source the cows from just two farms.

There was a dairy farmer finishing up so his herd was for sale. It was just good timing for us.”

They say the strength of their farming business lies in their passion for the dairy industry.

“When we started in 2017 we just felt straight away that we had found our place. That this was us,” Maegan said.

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Herd owning 50%

Gross farm income ($/kg MS)

$3.11

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

$2.10

Above: Terry and Maegan Legg with their two children – sixyear-old Conrad and four-year-old Jackson.

Operating profit ($/ha) $1049/ha Farm working expenses ($/kg MS)

$2.00

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MANAWATU | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

The 128ha Shannon property owned by Spall Farms Ltd which Terry and Maegan 50:50 sharemilk.

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The two years contract milking gave them the knowledge and the confidence to give sharemilking a go.

Although dairy farm ownership was once their goal, they now want to instead lease a farm.

“We definitely want to keep dairying and we want to own our own land, but probably just not a dairy farm.

“That’s something the competition has made us really think about. When we started contract milking we had the goal to go sharemilking and we went as hard and as a fast as we could to get it but we didn’t have a goal after that.

“Now we want to reduce our debt and build equity so we can purchase land,” Maegan said.

“We love the life we live and want to continue to grow great kids, great cows and great grass.”

Onfarm they play to their strengths with Maegan’s experience as a public servant helping her with payroll, GST, farm budgets and planning while Terry is hands-on outside.

“We try not to cross over into what each other does too much and finds that works really well.”

“Plus I’m not a morning person,” Maegan said. “A 4am start is definitely not my thing. Terry is the morning person.”

With them sharemilking is 2IC Cole Gibson (28) from the Waikato and he and Terry make a good team with two needed Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

in the 24-aside herring bone dairy during calving and mating.

“The rest of the year it is easy to milk with just one person.”

Their small team has meant they haven’t needed to register with MPI for the Covid-19 lockdown but they are still making sure they all stay healthy.

The couple have plans to encourage Cole to enter in the manager’s awards next year.

“What we have learned through the industry awards would have taken us years and years to learn if we hadn’t entered.”

“It has really helped us so we are keen to see him experience it as well.”

Maegan and Terry also won the Federated Farmers leadership award, the Honda farm safety, health and biosecurity award and the LIC recording and productivity award.

Second in the competition was Renae Flett who was also the winner in 2016 of the dairy manager category. The 33-year-old contract milks for Brian and Geoff Hill and their Hill Bros Ltd 70ha, 180-cow Palmerston North property. Third place went to Quentin and Stephanie Bruntlett who contract milk for John and Janine Bartlett on their 220ha, 600-cow property in Kiwitea.

Six-year-old Conrad and four-year-old Jackson enjoy being out on the farm.

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HAWKE’S BAY/WAIRARAPA | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Left: Tom Quinn is a senior farm assistant on Selwyn and Jenny McLachlan’s 210ha, 920-cow farm at Masterton.

Winning within the lockdown WORDS BY ELAINE FISHER

C

ovid-19 has curbed Tom Quinn’s athletic pursuits, brought changes to the way he works and meant he learned of his win in the 2020 Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Dairy Industry awards via a Facebook presentation, but all that aside, he’s grateful to be at home in New Zealand.

“My partner Molly Creagh and I travelled extensively through Asia for the best part of a year in 2017-18 and had a wonderful time. But now with the worldwide pandemic, I would hate to be isolated in some of the places we visited,” said the 24-year-old winner in the Hawke’s Bay/ Wairarapa Dairy Trainee award.

“It was a pity not to have the usual awards celebrations when everyone can get together, but it (the Covid-19 lock down) is what it is, and we all have to do our bit.”

First-time entrant Tom is thrilled with his win. “I have only been in the industry for 12 months. It is very encouraging to achieve this success so early in my career.”

Tom, a senior farm assistant on Selwyn and Jenny McLachlan’s 210-hecxtare, 920-cow farm at Masterton, saw the awards as an opportunity to benchmark himself against others at a similar level.

“It is a good opportunity to meet likeminded farmers and rural professionals and to learn new skills.”

Tom does have family history on his side.

“I am a fourth-generation dairy farmer.

My great grand parents bought the family farm south of Carterton and began with 12 Jersey cows. Some years ago my parents converted the property to beef and cropping.”

Tom attended Rathkeale College before studying for a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln University. “I initially wanted to study soil science but found I really loved farm management and pushed that theme throughout my four-year degree.

“When I graduated, I sought advice from mentor Chris Lewis of BakerAg and was impressed at the opportunities the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

dairy industry offers to grow my own business with a clear pathway towards farm ownership. I have a passion for seeing livestock grow, develop and reach their potential and really enjoy the variety of tasks that dairy farming offers.”

Tom enjoys athletics and has competed nationally and internationally in the hammer throw. In 2014 he won the Oceania Under 20 men’s championship at a meet in Rarotonga.

“I’m not so active competitively now but help the local athletic club when I can.”

The nation-wide lock down, aimed to slow the spread of Covid-19 virus has brought changes to Tom’s workplace.

“We are even more strict about hygiene standards and have changed work practices to keep people apart. We try to arrange for one person to do the same job, such as tractor driving, over a couple of days, then thoroughly clean the machine before the next person takes over.”

Question: What is your immediate goal within the industry?

Answer: “Farm ownership is the ultimate goal, but I want to continue to upskill myself, particularly in precision agriculture which will help lift production while reducing costs.”

Runner up in the Dairy Trainee category was Brett France and Rutger (Roger) Visser was third.

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Hawkes Bay/Wairarapa DIA Most Promising Entrant – Jacob Stolte TFM Tractors Farming Knowledge Award – James Vallance T.H. Enterprises Ltd Community & Industry Involvement Award – Tom Quinn McFall Fuel Ltd Communication and Engagement Award – James Vallance DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Brett France

75

HAWKE’S BAY/WAIRARAPA | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa DIA Most Promising Entrant Award – Aled Ellis Irrigation Services Employee Engagement Award – Stephen Smyllie Moore Markhams Ltd Leadership Award – Stephen Smyllie Vet Services Feed Management Award – Stephen Smyllie DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Stephen Smyllie Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Leon McDonald Primary ITO Power Play Award – Stephen Smyllie Westpac Financial Management & Planning Award – Stephen Smyllie

On track at Kahutara WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN

F

ocus, focus, focus was the mantra of Stephen Smyllie’s life and career progression until the point where he was announced Hawke’s Bay/ Wairarapa dairy manager of the year for 2020.

Stephen is production manager/2IC on the Pamu Farms of New Zealand (formerly Landcorp) 322-hectare, 840-cow Kahutara Wingpoint property and he cleaned up the award winning six merit awards on the night.

He has been very strategic in building his knowledge base and career direction, from relief milking for farmers neighbouring his Hauraki Plains lifestyle block home, to top ag student at Hauraki Plains College in his last year and school classes on the college’s trust farm, straight to Lincoln’s Dip Ag and back to the Waikato where he started working as a farm assistant for Pamu.

“I loved that Pamu had such a good career pathway and a clear progression and that there are opportunities in both farm management and also business management.”

After a year of working Stephen could see that getting the Lincoln Dip Farm Management would help him fast track 76

that career so it was back to Canterbury for him.

“They even sent me off with a no-stringsattached $2000 scholarship to help with my student loan which was great.”

Back in the North Island he worked to follow the progression pathway – farm assistant to 3IC then 2IC on a 1300-cow 500ha Waikato Pamu farm, while being the youngest in a team of seven.

When the farm was passed back to iwi Stephen opted not to stay but transferred to the South Wairarapa Wingpoint unit to experience a new area, new system and new team.

“I was passionate about growing my career with Pamu, with the long-term goal of being a business manager, overseeing a cluster of farms.”

Stephen is full of praise for the new Wingpoint farm manager Hayden Donald who has gone above and beyond to support and transfer knowledge to him.

As production manager with responsibility and focus on cows and grass, Stephen says the Wingpoint farm has a challenging environment with very dry summers and wet winters.

“The farm backs on to the DOC wetland reserve called Boggy Pond, so improved drainage and improved pasture performance are the keys to success.”

“It’s a huge team effort on a big farm like this – and as well as making sure the stock are well fed and have enough time on pasture, the feed pad and crops, I also need to look after the staff and ensure they have enough time to rest.”

“We have a saying ‘teamwork makes the dreamwork’.”

“My personal values include having respect for people, their families and for the animals we have here. Animal welfare is at the heart of the business,” Stephen said.

For the land Stephen says they are trying to be as efficient and environmentally friendly as possible – trying to do more with less.

“We have reduced cow numbers from 900 down to 830 and with the same amount of feed and improved drainage and management we are 40,000kg MS ahead.

“Even when we reviewed the target in light of a dry January we revised the target down but are still aiming for 326,000kg MS for the season, which will equate to 392kg MS/cow.”

And now with the Covid-19 lockdown Stephen says going to once-a-day milking will minimise time spent around the cow shed for the team.

The farm is part of the Baker Ag Dairy Systems Management benchmarking group which is a great way to learn from other farmers, Stephen says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

“I have found it very helpful – we have really open discussion on what each other is doing and how they are getting to their goals.”

Stephen himself is very goal-focused and at 23 is continually trying to learn and improve.

He is studying for his Diploma of Agri Business Management through Wintec and Primary ITO by distance learning through the Zoom platform, spending two hours a day once a week with the other 12 students on the course.

“It’s a great way to have class time if you are isolated like I am.”

He lives with his partner, dairy farm assistant Sophie Stills and along with playing lots of golf, Stephen says they enjoy getting out on adventures and going to the South Wairarapa Young Farmers Club activities.

He’s already smashing his five-year goals by making the DIA finals and winning the regional title, but has lots left on the pad to strive for.

“Of course, I would love to win the national title,” he laughed “So I will be pushing hard for that.”

On the farm he hopes to take the farm to being in the top five of all dairy units within Pamu and career-wise he is striving to be in a business manager position by 35, overseeing a cluster of farms.

“I love setting the bar high and then pushing myself hard to achieve all my goals.

“I am constantly planning, monitoring and reviewing – you never know what’s coming – it’s important to keep reviewing our performance – both personally and on the farm.”

To win the Primary ITO Power Play award Stephen reviewed the personality types of his farm team using the DOPE structure – identifying doves, owls, peacocks and eagles. The whole team sat down together and spent time understanding the process and the results and developing more effective ways of working with each other.

“It was really interesting and helpful to me, especially as a young person, and good to learn different ways of communicating.”

Runner up was Leon McDonald from Woodville and third was Aled Ellis from Pahiatua.

Stephen Smyllie, Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa dairy manager of the year.

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

322ha effective. 352ha total

Cows

840 Kiwicross milked peak

Production

388kg MS/cow, 1012kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

10t DM/ha pasture, 5.9t DM/ha supplement, 2.3t DM/ha off farm grazing

Milking supplement

Barley grain, grass silage, maize silage, DDG

Nitrogen

128kgN/ha

Cows/labour unit

138

Farm Dairy

70-bail rotary

Six-week in-calf rate

78%

Empty rate

11.8

Weeks of mating

11

Wintering

1su/ha

Runoff leased or owned

Owned 156ha total. 96ha effective

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HAWKE’S BAY/WAIRARAPA | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

‘We got way more interest in the position and I think it shows a more serious and longterm commitment by a farmer because you are undertaking to train and support an apprentice for a number of years.’

Rose and Nick Bertram dressed up for the Dairy Awards (Rose in her new dress). Rocking the glam look paid off - they won the Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Share Farmer of the year.

A passionate ‘grass and cows’ farmer WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN

N

ick and Rose Bertram have had such a dry summer they have had to dry off the cows on their Woodville farm a full eight weeks early, in the first week of April.

“This is the earliest I have ever had to dry-off but we have been really smashed by the drought this summer.”

The couple were named Hawke’s Bay/ Wairarapa Share Farmers of the Year for 2020, in the same week as he made one of the hardest management decisions of his 78

career, but with no supplement left and very little grass growth, it’s a decision he said he had to make for the good of his cows and their production for the 20/21 season.

“I am really production and profitdriven, but I have to look after the cows – I know I’ll thank myself for this decision next spring.”

Nick is a passionate ‘grass and cows’ farmer – with strengths in pasture management, breeding and feeding, talents that won them the LIC Recording & Productivity Award and the Ravensdown

Pasture Performance Award among others.

Nick and Rose, aged 33 and 27, have been 50:50 sharemilking for Barry and Carol McNeil for the past three seasons on their 150-hectare, 440-cow Woodville property.

They arrived with 100 cows and 50 heifers of their own and when they had put the rest of the Kiwicross herd together the BW averaged 40. It’s now sitting at 80 and the first of their homebred heifers are about the enter the herd with an average BW of 160 and the R1s are averaging 190.

“We have made that genetic progress by only keeping replacements from the top 2/3 of the herd and using AI over our heifers too.”

Nick is passionate about selecting and nominating a bull team to use over his best cows, saying that he choses bulls he likes with the best fertility, capacity, milk production and longevity (good feet and udders).

“I want a herd of 450 crossbred cows producing their own liveweight in milksolids year-on-year for eight lactations – that’s my ideal,” he said.

“It’s early days for our programme, but I breed the top 2/3 of the herd to the nominated team and this year I have 105 heifers – 80 to enter the herd and 25 to sell – so the fertility is there.”

The first three weeks of AB the nominated semen is used, then week 3-6 all cows get Wagyu semen and weeks 6-12 everything gets short gestation crossbred semen and all AI is done in 12 weeks.

“I want to breed fertile cows so we use

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

no bulls and no intervention – we have a tight calving with a 75% six-week in-calf rate – last year using the short gestation semen only 38 cows were due in the last six weeks of calving and only one cow in the last three weeks.”

The bottom third of cows are inseminated with Wagyu semen and calves are contract reared to 90kg and sold to First Light Beef.

The Wagyu calves are worth more than the surplus heifer calves and putting 120 cows to the Wagyu is a great boost to the stock income, Nick says.

“As sharemilkers we get to keep 100% of that income so we want to maximise it.”

Nick and Rose have bought a small block for their young stock and are building calf sheds there this year to rear the Wagyu calves. The plan is to build their own home on the small farm the following year and in seven years be in a position to buy a 400-cow farm of their own.

“We will reassess at that stage whether we want to buy our own farm or continue sharemilking – but I will definitely be dairy farming until all the children leave home,” he laughed.

Nick and Rose, an early childhood teacher who hails from the Australian wheat belt, have five children. Nick has a 12 year old daughter and the pair have four boys who are 9, 4, 2 and 1.

Part of an incredibly busy household, Rose works as an early childhood coordinator for local Tararua Education provider REAP, and runs a Mainly Music preschool programme, plays the tenor horn in the Dannevirke Brass Band and

The four boys: Leroy, Ruben, Taj and Julian.

is studying for a Diploma of Agribusiness management.

Thankfully, they have an au pair from Germany who helps out with the children.

Nick is a Wairarapa boy, Taratahieducated and well-travelled, working on farms in the United Kingdom, United States and numerous Wairarapa dairy farms over the years. He volunteers in the local fire brigade and represents sharemilkers for Tararua Federated Farmers and on the Federated Farmers National Executive.

He is enthusiastic about the Federated Farmers dairy apprenticeship scheme and says recruiting his latest team member as an apprentice was a much more positive and successful way to employ a young

person into their business.

“We got way more interest in the position and I think it shows a more serious and long-term commitment by a farmer because you are undertaking to train and support an apprentice for a number of years. We also reimburse for courses our team pass and with a 10 on 3 off roster the team get seven earlies and three sleep-ins.

“This it’s the first season we have employed two team members and it gives us all more time off and has meant we can rear more calves and be more profitable.”

Pasture management has always been a strong focus for Nick, who is proud of his zero-topping record.

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Herd owning

Gross farm income (milk sales plus stock income)

$3.68/kg MS last season

Operating expenses

$2.73/kg MS last season

Operating profit

$0.95/ha

Farm working expenses

$2.15/kg MS

Animal health

All stock expenses incl. health, breeding = $248/cow

All feed/grazing/wintering expenses

$0.68/kg/ms

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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HAWKE’S BAY/WAIRARAPA | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

“I don’t even own a topper – I refuse to buy one!”

Instead he says his cows are trained to eat pasture down to the correct residual and if they don’t eat it they know they are going to go back after the afternoon milking to finish the job.

“They go back in the evening until the residual is met and then are shifted into the new paddock – production usually lifts because they eat more and get shifted more often.”

“If we do it after the morning milking they complain but in the evening they are quite happy to go back in – we don’t lock them in but just open the gate and let them move onto the fresh paddock when the job is done. The sugar levels have had time to go back up by the evening and the cows have more time overnight to finish eating out the paddock.”

He is very happy with the 14.5 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha he is growing on the non-irrigated pastures and has a target to grow 15.5t DM/ha/year.

Whole farm soil testing has helped as a strategy to grow more grass, applying variable rates and different kinds of fertiliser is made possible by knowing exactly where the need is, particularly with lime placement.

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Eddie and Janine Bosch Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Eddie and Janine Bosch Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Nicholas & Rosemarie Bertram Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award – Nicholas & Rosemarie Bertram LIC Recording & Productivity Award – Nicholas & Rosemarie Bertram Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award – Nicholas & Rosemarie Bertram Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Nicholas & Rosemarie Bertram Westpac Business Performance Award – Eddie and Janine Bosch

Nick and Rose Bertram.

Cropping has not been an option on the farm because of a buttercup problem in pastures and the absence of a spraying option that can kill buttercup but not

other forage plants like plantain.

“This area is usually autumn safe but we have had two dry autumns in a row so we are going to try a chicory and fodder beet cropping programme – the plantain is not feasible as its too susceptible to buttercup spray.”

Each year 10% of the farm’s pasture is renewed through a grass-to-grass programme using Bealey (now known as Viscount) and Nick also does some direct drilling of an annual hybrid into the sward to give it a boost, particularly if a new paddock is looking a bit thin.

“As I do my farm walks I am always assessing what the sward looks like and

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

150 ha

Cows

440 kiwi cross

Production

1200MS/ha 409MS/cow

Pasture eaten

Target to grow 15t/ha and eat 13t/ha

Milking supplement

500kg/cow PKE bought in, 120ton silage made on runoff and imported to milking platform

Nitrogen

120kg/n/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

150 cows/labour unit

Farm Dairy

37-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

Waikato ACR’s, Protrac Auto Drafter, WETIT Auto teat sprayer

Six-week in-calf rate

75

Empty rate

11

Weeks of mating

12

Wintering

Grass n Hay, 350 cows get 40 days wintered at runoff, rest stay on milking platform.

Runoff leased or owned

Owned by Dairy Farm Owners

80

Nick is a volunteer with the local fire brigade.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

planning what needs to be done.”

The couple have enjoyed working with their farm owners to implement their Tiaki farm environment plan, saying the McNeils encourage them to develop the farm as if it is their own and support them with the budget to do so.

Tiaki has helped them identify areas of work and to prioritise the actions and

spending, seeing two riparian areas fenced off and planted last year with 500 plants and a further 500 to be planted this year, Rose said.

Work has included widening waterways, creating nutrient traps and working on the most sensitive areas first has been informed by the experts helping them develop the plan.

Runners-up in the Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Share Farmer category were Eddie and Janine Bosch from Featherston and third were John and Aimee Hull also from Featherston.

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The secret life of earthworms

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ertco’s CloverZone® programme identifies chemical, biological and physical factors that limit clover growth and nitrogen fixation to enable targeted strategies which improve overall pasture composition, quality and productivity.

One of the key components of this testing regime is the Visual Soil Assessment (VSA) developed originally by Graham Shepherd and used

by Fertco with Graham’s endorsement. As part of the VSA sampling criteria earthworms are counted and identified because they are the bioengineers of our soils.

82

Earthworms are great indicators of microbial health of the soil and can vastly improve farm productivity. A well fertilised and managed dairy farm soil in the Waikato will have about six million worms per hectare which weigh on average 0.8 grams (live) assuming the mix of species is dominated by A. Caliginosa and L. Rubellus for a total mass around 4.8 tonnes.

Many sites of new customers where the Fertco field team have sampled as part of the VSA hold considerably lower earthworm populations than this, indicating there is scope to improve numbers and potentially increase species diversity.

About 190 species of earthworms are in New Zealand soils, of which only nine or so are useful in grazed pasture farming; all of the useful species developed in Europe and made their way to NZ as passengers in ships’ ballast and around the roots of imported trees.

The New Zealand Grasslands paper ‘Do I have the required soil bioengineers’ investigates the distribution of numbers and species from a site in the Central North Island in spring 2009.

“Earthworm species beneficial to pastures are not indigenous to Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

mineral soil layer. They are generally large earthworms that feed on decaying litter on the soil surface.”

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Figure 1. Epigeic, Endogeic and Anecic earthworm species examples in New Zealand.

Figure 1. Epigeic, Endogeic and Anecic earthworm species examples in New Zealand.

New Zealand and because there has been no systematic release of air and penetration of water. This helps maintain soil bacteria in the earthworms, their distribution is patchy.

The findings from an on farm desirable aerobic process, form.

“Earthworm dispersal and spread through the soil is often an active relating to their survey in the Central North Island in spring 2009, reinforces this with Earthworm numbers are directly related to pasture production and search for food. However, the high rates of spread at the first site suggested that earthworms only 14% of paddocks sampled containing species from all three good farm management practices, particularly minimising or ideally had beenfunctional “transported” site inpugging eroded soil, on the earthworm groups. passively beyond the initial introduction completely avoiding of wet soils. feet by birds or by (surface-acting) agricultural Aporrectodea machinery.

At a of fieldstock, site, where both endogeic Earthworms respire through their moist skin by diffusion so a (A.) caliginosa and anecic (deep-burrowing) A. longa had been pugged soil seals off the soil surface limiting oxygen movement into introduced 26 manager and 20 years respectively, populations thethe soil and canwas kill large numbers of earthworms The farm atearlier, the time recallshealthy that after 3-4 years grass greener and more overnight. of both species were observed.

Part of the CloverZone® programme focuses on soil structure and vigorous in the areas where the earthworm introductions had occurred. This reflects the if evidence of pugging is present then a programme to rectify this will A strong case can be made for introducing epigeic and endogeic behaviour of theearthworms endogeic speciesusing thatproven live in the topsoil, burrowLeaving laterally and mixsoil thewillsoil, be advised. a badly pugged severely reduce pasture (both surface active) to pasture consuming the thatch of dead plant matter (the significant pasture production problem production immediately after the event andthat will impact production for technologies. Evidence is mounting of the benefits of introducing up to three anecic earthwormsby to pastoral soils.” earthworm introduction trials) was resolved the original andyears. improving soil porosity and Remediating pugged soils need not be expensive and it is often the “Three functional earthworm groups are categorised largely by fertility.” case that spending a season’s fertiliser budget on doing so is a better species burrowing behaviour. Epigeic earthworms live in the top soil placed spend. and litter layer on the soil surface where they feed on dung and plant The combination of species that burrow shallow and laterally with those burrow more the healthy growth At Fertco we work withthat farmers to encourage litter. ® deeply and live in permanent burrows provide a rough lattice structure of holes in the soil programme with a view of clover in the sward using our CloverZone “Endogeic earthworms build complex lateral burrow systems toward fixing atmospheric nitrogen the rhizobia through layers of the upper mineral soil and and rarely come to the whichallallow greater flux of air penetration of water.

This helps maintain soilviabacteria in bacteria in clover root nodules rather than completely relying on synthetic mineral N surface.

Anecic earthworms build deep permanent, vertical burrows the desirable aerobic form. such as urea. that extend from an opening at the soil surface down through the This is a holistic and practical programme that can be followed mineral soil layer. They are generally large earthworms that feed on Earthworm are directly related to pasture production andbygood farm management and monitored farmers themselves in order to minimise fertiliser decaying litter onnumbers the soil surface.” practices, particularly minimising or ideally completely avoiding pugging of wet soils. applications and maximise sustainable productivity and profitability.

“Earthworm dispersal and spread through the soil is often an overarching is tooff minimise nitrogen use or active process, relating to their search for food.

However, theby highdiffusionWhile Earthworms respire through their moist skin so athepugged soilgoal seals the soil requirement, strategic applications of “less leaky” rates of spread at the first site suggested that earthworms had been surface limiting oxygen movement into the soil and can kill large numbers of earthworms nitrogen products like Fertco’s 44 Magnum can alleviate shortfalls of pasture in winter “transported” passively beyond the initial introduction site in eroded overnight. Part of the CloverZoneâ programme focuses on soil structure and if evidence of and spring which improve production and management options and soil, on the feet of stock, by birds or by agricultural machinery. pugging is present then programme to rectify this willdirectly be advised. badly pugged benefit theLeaving earthwormapopulation.

The farm manager at the time a recalls that after three or four years soil willwasseverely reduce pasturein production immediately after the event and impact play in the Understanding the key rolewill that earthworms the grass greener and more vigorous the areas where the CloverZone® programme is just one aspect that once better earthworm introductions had occurred. This reflects the behaviour of understood can be managed for overall improvement and reduction the endogeic species that live in the topsoil, burrow laterally and mix of nutrient loss. the soil, consuming the thatch of dead plant matter (the significant pasture production problem that was resolved by the original If the idea of working together with a sustainable earthworm introduction trials) and improving soil porosity and fertility.” programme appeals to your sense of ethical and The combination of species that burrow shallow and laterally with profitable farming, then give the Fertco team a call now those that burrow more deeply and live in permanent burrows provide on 0800 337 826 or look us up at www.fertco.co.nz a rough lattice structure of holes in the soil which allow greater flux of Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

TARANAKI | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Left: Taranaki’s 2020 Dairy Trainee award winner Sam Dodd.

“Farming completely changed my life” WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN PHOTOS BY ROSS NOLLY

O

ut of the tragedy of losing his mum, came a change of life for Taranaki dairy farmer Sam Dodd, in a whole new, and now, winning direction.

After dreaming of and starting training to become a paramedic, the Tauranga city boy quit varsity and moved home to be closer to family.

“I was a huge mumma’s boy and I really lost my way – I tried a couple of trades because I am a really practical person, but nothing clicked with me – until I did some milking for my uncle on the family farm.”

He had never milked before and admits now he was quite scared of cows and wasn’t used to getting his hands dirty.

“But I found I absolutely loved being on the farm and milking.

“Farming completely changed my life.”

He was offered a job in Taranaki and realised he loved working with purpose, getting up early and getting stuck into the work.

“Even when it was raining – I thrived on being busy.”

While he wanted to stay near friends,

he thought the move was a good chance to write his own history and says he has learned lots of life skills in his job as a farm assistant for the first year and then two years as 2IC on a coastal Taranaki farm.

“All the life skills like paying bills, budgeting and looking after myself were good for me – and also the huge amount of knowledge I have soaked up about dairy farming.”

After three years in the industry the 23-year-old is the 2020 Taranaki dairy trainee of the year and he credits his farm owners, Michael and Viv Joyce and their son Nathan for helping him prepare by putting him through training and involving him in discussion groups and consultations with vets, reps and other farmers.

“They have been fantastic mentors and are so good at answering my questions – I probably drive them mad asking about everything, but they are great at including me.

‘I always get introduced to the vets or the reps and encouraged to be part of the conversation.”

Once he saw the opportunities for progression he started networking and getting stuck in to learning.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

“The Joyces have multiple farms they have built up and are amazing role models.

“Nathan is always telling me ‘you are a smart guy – you can do this too’. They have a massive invested interest in helping me progress and learn and have been hugely supportive.”

Sam suffered from an inguinal hernia at calving time that required surgery and seven weeks’ bed rest and is hugely appreciative of the Joyces’ support at that time.

A competitive sportsman in the past, playing New Zealand volleyball after retiring from rep rugby with a “soft head”, he also enjoys long boarding and plays golf at Manaia most nights of the week with friend and 2019 dairy trainee winner Marshall Jane. The workout gives him some exercise, competition and time to learn from his friend before they go home to a shared crockpot of food.

Plans to travel to Europe in 2020 with his girlfriend, schoolteacher Emily Nash have been sunk by Covid19 so Sam is planning to bring forward his plan to relocate to the Waikato and keep growing his dairying career.

He has been very goal-driven since working in Taranaki including his longterm ambition to go back to the family farm, one day hoping to sharemilk there and carry on the family tradition.

Runner-up in the Taranaki Dairy Trainee award was Meek Cawili from Eltham and Kate Thomson was third.

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: Taranaki DIA Most Promising Entrant Award – Logan Stevenson I.S Dam Lining Ltd Farming Knowledge Award – Calum Black Primo Wireless Community and Industry Involvement Award – Meek Cawili Taranaki DIA Communication and Engagement Award – Sam Dodd DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Sam Dodd

85

TARANAKI | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Planning to raise the feed conversion efficiency of these girls to 100%.

Milking it after chance encounter WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN PHOTOS BY ROSS NOLLY

A

chance encounter with a farmer whose motorbike had broken down led motorbike mechanic Branden Darlow to embrace a career in the dairy industry.

South African-born Branden, a keen motocross rider and mechanic helped out a farmer who was pushing his brokendown bike and was asked: could he milk cows? The encounter led to learning to relief milk, which he did for six months and later to a farm assistant job at Faull Farms in northern Taranaki for the now 24-year-old who has just won the Taranaki DIA Dairy Manager of the Year award.

“I don’t really think I chose farming, I believe farming chose me,” Branden said.

“So many of the cows are pets – they like a good scratch!”

86

“First of all, I have a real passion for animals and love for the outdoors and nature and I also love challenging myself constantly and the great opportunity to grow that I found in this industry.”

That first boss and his wife, Tony and Loie Penwarden, were 50:50 sharemilkers for the Faull family on their 1200-cow farm and have been huge supporters and mentors to Branden and his partner Carina, a Costa Rican agronomy graduate who was also working on Faull Farm.

After four years on the Tikorangi unit, where the staff was large and varied and had a great ‘family vibe’ and where Branden learnt lots from the Penwardens and the next sharemilkers James and Melisa Barbour, Branden and Carina moved to a manager’s position on the flanks of Mt Taranaki.

Branden had risen working as herd manager and had been working his way through Primary ITO Level 3 and 4, which he has almost finished, so was ready for a step up.

The young couple were looking for an opportunity and were offered a one-year contract as manager and farm assistant and now plan ideally to move to a contract milking job.

In their jobs Branden and Carina say they are 100% orientated towards the health of the animals, not only to ensure

they have the 5 freedoms, but also going a little further, always thinking about the cows and taking the very best care of them.

“We have so many pet cows and we love happy cows.”

They have philosophies around milking their colostrum cows on OAD for the first four days of lactation, that they learnt from James Barbour saying this lets the cow recover from the birth and have learned a lot from their current employer about excellent routines around calf rearing to ensure the calves get the best colostrum and opportunities for maximum growth.

Branden says the biggest challenges have been learning how to handle his time, and ensuring he has a good work-life balance.

Growing up at Port Elizabeth, on the South African eastern south coast, Branden has always loved the sea and now with a small boat he and Carina love to go fishing and waterskiing.

Branden won the Fonterra Dairy Management Award and says he is very focused on the cows in any dairy industry job he holds.

He says he works towards increasing feed conversion efficiency of all herds through strategies of maximizing days in milk through compacting the calving,

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Right: Branden and Carina both say New Zealand has been very good for them and they are planning to build a sharemilking business in the dairy industry.

reducing mastitis and increasing the availability and quality of the forage through any dry summers.

A cropping programme will increase forage mass and also gives a good opportunity to regrass with new grasses and increased clovers, he says.

Branden is very keen on record keeping and uses his farm maps and MINDA Land and Feed to record fertiliser applications, grazing and individual cow records.

He is also focused on the importance of timely grazing, especially when the pastures are growing fast and on making sure the cows are well fed in the times of pasture deficit.

Three years ago the couple began building equity by rearing beef calves.

They have managed to raise 150 each season on milk powder and have two lease blocks in North Taranaki to graze the calves on. They sell 75 of the calves at 100kg (which pays for all the expenditure), sell a further 15-20 R1s (paying for the leases) and farm the other 50 through to around two years old before selling into the works.

They are both ambitious in their goals and alongside interests of keeping fit and water sports they enjoy attending personal development and leadership seminars.

Aiming to move to a 400-cow 50:50 sharemilking job in the next five years they plan to save hard each year to add cash to equity from their business to buy the herd and make the next step up.

“New Zealand and the dairy industry have been really good to us and we appreciate all the support and knowledge that all our employers have generously given us in the past five years.”

“We would like to be successful in the dairy industry and give back to others and have a life of service to help people around us.”

Second in the Dairy Manager category was Leroy Hunt from Hawera and third was Diego Raul Gomez Salinas from Hawera.

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Taranaki DIA Encouragement Award – Manpreet Singh BakerTilly Staples Rodway Employee Engagement Award – Diego Raul Gomez Salinas SHARE Leadership Award – Leroy Hunt Bayleys Real Estate Taranaki Feed Management Award – Leroy Hunt DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Leroy Hunt Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Branden Darlow PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Branden Darlow Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Diego Raul Gomez Salinas

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

87

TARANAKI | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Winning Taranaki share farmers Simon and Natasha Wilkes and their toddlers Dean and John.

Heritage on the family farm WORDS BY JACKIE HARRIGAN PHOTOS BY ROSS NOLLY

S

imon and Natasha Wilkes are extremely proud of the heritage of their fourth-generation Jersey herd they bought under their sharemilking agreement and are committed to making the most of the fantastic opportunity.

The Taranaki sharefarmers of the year for 2020 are sharemilking for Natasha’s family on their 84-hectare coastal Taranaki property just out of Hawera.

They often climb the hill at the back of the farm, and visit Grandad’s rock, poised with an amazing 360-degree panoramic view of the beach settlement of Ohawe, up and down the coast and around to Mt Taranaki in the distance to the north.

Grandad’s rock has a plaque commemorating the life of Natasha’s grandfather Harry Bourke who settled the land for the family and established the 88

Jersey herd which performs in the top 1% of the national herd index.

“We would love to pick up the mantle of Harry’s lifework, and of my parents who followed him,” Natasha said.

The 29 and 30-year-old couple are running 320 peak-milked Jersey cows in their Landseair herd, (Harry coined the moniker on account of the link between the land, the sea and the air) with an average of BW197 and PW206 and recorded ancestry of 95%, with a top cow reaching the heady heights of PW588.

A couple of the bulls have been in the LIC bull team and several cows are under contract.

Simon and Natasha returned to the family farm, now owned by Natasha’s parents Morris and Debbie Bourke, in June 2018, their first sharemilking job after working their way up through the industry in Otago, Manawatu, and Taranaki.

Simon first picked up the cups in the

Bourkes’ dairy shed as a summer job while he was at Otago University where he met Natasha.

He says that summer he found a passion for the industry and from there he took up a dairy farming position. Natasha finished a masters of dietetics through Otago and worked for four years as a dietitian in the Manawatu – rising to a managerial position with responsibility for 40 foodservice staff.

She commuted from Hawera to Whanganui Hospital until halfway through their first sharemilking season, when pregnant with their twin boys, she left her job and was able to focus on the farm business.

The couple have implemented a number of initiatives on the farm, with plans to lift production from 1357kg milksolids (MS)/ha to 1571kg MS/ha on the summer dry coastal farm.

They call the cows their Golden Girls – a well-deserved name for a herd of cows

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

84ha

Cows

320 purebred Jersey

Production

356kg MS/cow, 1357kg MS/ha

Milking supplement

Silage maize hay from runoff, 60t PKE

Nitrogen

180kg N/ha/yr

Cows/labour unit

160

Farm Dairy

30-aside herringbone

Dairy Automation

No automation

Six-week in-calf rate

72%, 2018/19: 62%

Empty rate

11.5% in 2019/20, 14.5% in 2018/19

Weeks of mating

10 weeks in 2019, 13 weeks in 2018

Wintering

40 latest calving cows to runoff.

All other cows wintered on

Runoff leased or owned Owned by farm owners

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

50:50

Costs shared

All costs shared as per standard Federated Farmers contract

Gross farm income

$3.60/kg MS

Operating expenses

$2.50/kg MS

Operating profit

$1.10/kg MS

Farm working expenses

$1.80/kg MS

who are already producing at 99% feed conversion efficiency, in 2018/19 averaging 373kg MS/cow from an average liveweight of 375kg. Simon and Natasha think it’s possible to increase efficiency to 110% kg MS/kg liveweight.

Compacting the calving to realise more days in milk has started, with the pair managing to decrease the 13-week mating period

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to 10 weeks this season and reining in the empty rate from 14.5 down to 11.5%. The plan is all AI for the main herd and reducing the AI period by one week each year until it is down to seven weeks. The cows received daughter-proven Jersey bull of the day semen from the LIC team and the bottom 15% of producers were mated with Kiwi X semen, and then “spit out a little black calf that we don’t what to keep”, Simon said. The contracted cows were mated to nominated sires and all cows finished off with three weeks of the Angus bulls.

Reproduction is a major focus so they don’t cut costs here, Natasha said.

This year we will use the new LIC short gestation Angus semen from LIC for the bottom 25% and everything else will get the daughter-proven Premier sire team.”

“We have also been looking at the sexed semen and thinking about using some of that for our top 25%.”

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89

TARANAKI | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

The DIA judging has made them think about how they could maximise the value of the cows in their high genetic performance herd.

“As the judges said – ‘your bottom cows are like someone else’s top cows – someone will want to buy them – it’s a waste to be culling them’ – so we are thinking about the best way of selling our surplus heifers and bull calves, leasing out heifers or working to increase cow numbers.”

Each calf that comes into the shed has its mum identified and looked up on a list at the calf shed – the mothers are examined for several traits – PW, BW, breed, age, expected calving date and matched up so we know definitely that that is the mother – and then the couple DNA test some of the calves for ancestry – because “if you keep them then you want to be sure of the parentage”.

As part of the move to enclose the herd to shore up biosecurity, the couple use 10 of their best bull calves over the R1 heifers and will bobby all the heifer calves from this cross.

Dry off was May 22 last year for a July 5 calving date and after lots of research Simon and Natasha went to OAD in early February.

“The herd has always been full season TAD but we wanted the cows to hold their condition going into the winter and the cows are much happier on the pasture in the afternoon chilling out – they were not keen to be milked in the hot, dry conditions.” Simon said.

“By Christmas we have captured 2/3 of our annual production anyway, of course we want the rest but it’s important to look after the cow condition in the dry late summer period.”

The move has worked well, they say, with a drop in kg MS/day which then recovered and a similar reaction with somatic cell count a small spike followed by recovery.

With a more compact calving and higher early spring feed demand, Simon has been working with their local Agriseeds rep and Farmsource to establish a sward to meet the demand. They have decided on a Governor AR37 ryegrass for earlier spring production along with red and white clover and cocksfoot to boost summer growth and improve the persistence of the sward.

A chicory crop to supplement pasture 90

Visiting Grandad’s rock.

in the summer dry has proven a winner, with 12ha established also providing the grass renewal opportunity. Simon plans to renew the old pastures over the whole farm in seven years.

A rethink of the roster and staffing conditions have made life much easier (or as easy as 320 cows and twin toddlers could ever be!)

Simon had been working every day with a 12/2 roster and one other staff member but he and Natasha decided it made them too vulnerable to ill health and staff loss.

“When our staff member had a car crash, my mother-in-law had to come and stay so that I could help milk – in between breastfeeding the twins – then we realised we were too vulnerable,” Natasha said.

They have since reset the roster to 5/2 and recruited another staff member.

Natasha’s work experience managing a large team and the processes around that have proven valuable and now with two team members Simon is able to get a weekend off with Natasha and their two busy toddlers Dean and John.

“Now we don’t usually have to pay relief milkers if someone is sick – we can cover it within the team, and it’s great to have two members who know the farm.”

“We know it’s hard to keep good staff, and expensive to recruit new staff, we realised it’s the quality of the person you are looking for to fit in with your team, not the skill they possess – because skills can be taught. So we had a fairly rigorous interviewing system.”

They now have an older more experienced ex-sharemilking staff member Kevin Behrent and a young keen careerchanger Roy Thomas who is brand new to milking cows but has reared calves and is keen to learn and build a career in the sector.

The couple are much happier now they can get off farm, play some sport (Simon plays premier division soccer, summer soccer and touch, and chairs both the Taranaki district and his local South Taranaki Young Farmers Club) and Natasha attends a mum squad fitness group and rural mums farming group along with child development playgroup with the boys.

It’s a busy life but one they are embracing to the full, loving their Golden girls, the coastal paradise and their sharemilking opportunity. Grandad would be proud.

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Simon and Natasha Wilkes Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Philip and Pia Rockell Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Josh and Carly Corrigan Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award – Josh and Carly Corrigan LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Simon and Natasha Wilkes Meridian Farm Environment Award – Philip and Pia Rockell Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Josh and Carly Corrigan Westpac Business Performance Award – Simon and Natasha Wilkes

Runner up in the category were Philip and Pia Rockell from New Plymouth and Josh and Carly Corrigan were third.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

WEST COAST/TOP OF THE SOUTH | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

‘I want to work with animals’

Alexis Wells with her trophy at the presentation.

‘The plan is to move up to 2IC when the opportunity becomes available and then up through the ranks.

Eventually I’ll look at lower-order sharemilking.’

WORDS BY ANNE HARDIE

L

ifestyle is the key attraction in the dairy industry for Alexis Wells who won the West Coast-Top of the South Dairy Trainee of the Year award.

The 21-year-old grew up on the family dairy farm near Reefton, a tiny West Coast town that has changed little through the decades, and now she is working on Pamu Farms of New Zealand’s 307-hectare farm south of the town. The farm milks 670 cows and Alexis has between 10 and 15 cows she would class as favourites which is all part of the appeal of the job.

“I always knew I wanted to work with animals. But if you’re too nice to your favourites they won’t walk for you!

“I think once you get used to the herd, it’s easy to build your stockmanship.”

Working with animals and the challenges of dairying were ingrained

at an early age on the family farm. Back at school, holidays and weekends were usually spent on the farm, and she always knew she wanted to work with animals. Yet she worked in the local supermarket when she first left school. It wasn’t long however before a casual relief milking job got her back on to a dairy farm and that led to a fulltime farm assistant job with Pamu Farms of New Zealand.

Now she is assistant production manager in a four-person team on the farm and building knowledge through experience as well as Primary ITO courses.

Pamu Farms of New Zealand has encouraged staff to study through Primary ITO and the staff have the benefit of the rest of the team learning from a tutor

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS:

once a fortnight and studying together.

She is now working on level 5, production management, and has a clear view of the pathway she wants to follow, with the dream of owning her own farm down the track.

“The plan is to move up to 2IC when the opportunity becomes available and then up through the ranks. Eventually I’ll look at lower-order sharemilking.”

It’s the third time Alexis has entered the awards and perseverance paid off to achieve her goal of winning the region’s trainee award. Her ultimate goal would be winning this year’s Dairy Trainee 2020 and she says it would have been great if the national awards ceremony could have taken place in Auckland. Next year, or maybe the year after, she says she will be entering the awards again, but she will be competing for the farm manager award.

Alexis won three of the five merit awards and won $6050 in prizes.

Greenfield Motors Most Promising Entrant Award – Samantha Olney Dairy Holdings Limited Farming Knowledge Award – Alexis Wells Aotea Electric Westland Ltd Community & Industry Involvement Award – Alexis Wells Zealan Wireless Internet Communication & Engagement Award – Alexis Wells DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Dallas Bradley

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Runner up Dairy Trainee was Nelson 2IC Dallas Bradley and third was herd manager Stephanie Gray from Takaka.

91

WEST COAST/TOP OF THE SOUTH | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Krishna and his team: Daniel Todd, Tim Maxwell, David Pearson.

From mega-farm to Dobson WORDS BY ANNE HARDIE

F

rom milking a few buffaloes in Nepal to working in the world’s largest dairy farm of 20,000 cows in Saudi Arabia, Krishna Dhakal has experienced the extremes of dairy farming.

Now he is the 2020 West Coast-Top of the South Dairy Manager of the Year, managing a Pamu Farms of New Zealand property and milking 800 cows in a typical NZ grass-based system.

The 39-year-old was born in Nepal and grew up with its traditional farming methods where animals were hand milked and fields ploughed by buffaloes.

“We kept a few buffaloes for home use that were hand-milked and a couple of bulls for ploughing rice fields and many other farming activities.”

Then an opportunity arose with Almarai in Saudi Arabia, where he joined 400 staff of more than 10 nationalities to run the 20,000-cow farm in the desert. Seventyfour herringbones in six different dairies were set up to milk cows every six hours to produce on average, 40 litres per cow.

“Everything was constantly running 24 hours, such as the canteen, animal health, feeding, milking, breeding and general 92

Krishna and his daughters Prakriti and Krystal.

maintenance. This was a completely different way of milking.”

Krishna began as a general worker and progressed to a lead milker position, working in the large-scale dairy unit for six years, until his next opportunity came along which led him to NZ and a farm assistant job in Canterbury before heading to Southland.

He arrived with his wife, Basundhari and the first of their two daughters, Prakriti – his second daughter, Krystal, was born here. If dairying in Saudi Arabia was in

stark contrast to Nepal, working on a dairy farm in NZ posed an even bigger challenge.

“Being once again introduced to another completely different way of farming shocked me. My operating skills in areas such as motor bikes, cars, tractors and other heavy machinery, and also the cold weather of the Southland was a difficult adjustment. Another struggle was the language barrier, along with the Kiwi slang. But I think I’ve improved well through the years, though still a little way to go.”

That was 2008 and he has worked on various dairy farms since then, often with owners and managers who became mentors and supported him with both money and time. Along the way he worked hard to achieve Primary ITO levels 1-5 and is now studying toward the NZ Diploma in Agribusiness Management. Looking for more opportunities led him to Pamu’s Blairs Dairy Unit at Dobson on the West Coast which spreads over 449 hectares, with about 435ha effective that has been humped and hollowed. For the first five years he was 2IC on the farm and this season he was promoted to farm manager.

“It has been a major achievement and also a big challenge for me to manage

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

382

Cows

770

Production

706kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

10t/ha

Milking supplement

Barley and silage plus other 20%

Nitrogen

170kg/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

4 fulltime, 1 calf rearer, plus casual

Farm Dairy

60-bail Waikato

Dairy Automation

Auto cup remover, auto teat sprayer

Six-week in-calf rate

68%

Empty rate

9%

Weeks of mating

12 (6+6)

Wintering

650 cows on farm and 150 grazed out

this farm. It is the newest humped and hollowed conversion farm on the West Coast. In saying that, it is also the hardest farm to manage especially with production cost, low ability of pasture harvest per hectare and topsoil structure which has poor water-holding capacity. That becomes a challenge in the main six weeks of summer.”

The farm has a milking platform of 382ha and a production target of 270,000kg milksolids (MS) each year of A2 milk. By comparison with the huge dairy complex of Saudi Arabia, the Dobson farm is small-scale, milking the cows twice a day throughout the season in a 60-bail rotary dairy.

Production has been assisted with about

Rachel Lind from Cape Foulwind was the runner up in the Dairy Manager category and Luke Chisnall from Reefton placed third.

250 tonnes of barley added into the system to counter the challenges of climate and soil. Anything between two and five metres of rain lands on the farm in a year, though he says they can end up wishing for rain in the middle of summer when gravel soils dry out. Summer incurs large feed costs and as supplements are hauled over the alps from Canterbury, production costs keep rising.

Minimising daily production costs and maximising production is one of the key challenges on the farm, he says, which is why he is particularly proud of reducing the cost of production by $0.40 per MS in the past year.

With six years’ experience on the farm, he says he has the farm’s history, activity,

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS:  SealesWinslow Most Promising Entrant – Ashleigh Hoebergen  Silver Fern Farms Employee Engagement Award – Krishna Dhakal  Cuffs Chartered Accountant and Business Advisors Leadership Award – Rachael Lind  PGG Wrightson – Livestock and Real Estate Feed Management Award – Krishna Dhakal  DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Rachael Lind  Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Krishna Dhakal  PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Luke Chisnall  Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Krishna Dhakal

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

culture, weaknesses and strengths strongly imprinted on his mind. That gives him confidence in every step he takes to run a profitable business.

Creating a healthy and happy working environment is a focus for Pamu Farms and Krishna. It has led to a roster of six days on, two off, during calving and mating, with the aim of keeping everyone’s hours at no more than 95 a fortnight. The rest of the year is six-on and three-off and Krishna says it creates a safer environment for staff.

Krishna attributes his strengths in the role of farm manager to the experiences he has gained throughout his life and especially the years he has spent on the Dobson farm.

“The main forms of assistance when learning about managing the farm for me has been going to discussion groups, past experiences with people from different backgrounds, guidance from my leadership team including the farm advisor, the wide range of community including neighbouring farms and the strong and the awesome farm team I have by my side.”

Krishna’s goals are very clear cut. He plans to continue management positions with Pamu for the next five years, preferably on a larger operation at some stage. Longer term, he aims at contract milking at least 500 cows by 2026 and sharemilking at least 300 cows by 2030.

93

WEST COAST/TOP OF THE SOUTH | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Noel and Louise Rockell with their trophy.

Cowculating their way to the top WORDS BY ANNE HARDIE

T

he winners of this year’s West Coast-Top of the South Share Farmer of the Year competition are the techno whizzes behind the pasture management app, Cowculate.

Noel and Louise Rockell are in their third season as contract milkers on a Dairy Holdings’ farm at Maruia where they milk 1050 crossbred cows at the peak of the season. Today they have the handy app to calculate – or more aptly, Cowculate – pasture demand and total feed demand by creating multiple herd groups with different feeding scenarios.

Several years ago while working on largeherd Mid-Canterbury farms, there was always the challenge of producing figures 94

on paper to work out pasture and feed demand. Noel decided there had to be an app to do the job and when he discovered there was no app, he decided to create one.

“There was absolutely nothing and I’m a bit technology minded, so I thought I’d do it myself.”

He downloaded the app development software from Apple in the United States and had a go. The first couple of attempts were deleted, but he stuck with it and taught himself Objective-C coding.

“It took about two years to thrash out something that worked that we could use in our own business. A lot of managers now have it and it has been quite beneficial. But if I had to do it again I probably wouldn’t!”

Initially it was designed as an Apple

app and after its success they then made it available for Android devices by subcontracting it to a company in India for java coding.

The Rockells get 80% of both Apple and Android app sales and the app is in the top 10% of most uploaded business apps. Noel sums it up as a good app for keeping track of rotation lengths and feeding rates.

“Some people can rattle off figures, but maths isn’t my strong point. Today’s managers need to know information straight away and it just allows me to put this information in and then it crunches the numbers in a few seconds.”

Apart from feeding rates, the app also calculates rotation length, per cow feeding and winter cropping measurements.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

All vital information on the Maruia farm where Noel and Louise are just completing their third season. It’s a wet, cool, mountain climate where grass growth slows in May and balance date isn’t until October 10 to 15.

“We follow the spring rotation plan quite closely because you can get a situation like this spring where it stayed wet and cold to the end of November.

So you don’t want to eat everything you have.”

Maruia is a tiny settlement in a deep valley squashed between mountains, inland from the rest of the West Coast, which is a different world from where the couple began their dairy journey. Noel gained a degree in Applied Science at Massey University, majoring in agriculture and he met English-born Louise in Northland where they began their dairying career on a family farm.

“Louise was on holiday visiting friends. I met her in a pub in downtown Whangarei and invited her back to the farm and she never left. She moved in after two weeks and we married 12 months later – I met her parents for the first time the week before the wedding.”

Three kids came along, Matthew who is now 16, Ryan 15, and Rachel 12. After 12 years of droughts and floods, plus the global financial crisis, they headed south to Canterbury where they spent four years managing 900 to 1800-cow dairy farms before taking their next step to contract milking with Dairy Holdings.

“They have a unique employment contract where you can progress through to 50:50 sharemilkers by putting lease cows in the herd and we thought it was an opportunity to progress.”

The farm covers 450 effective hectares including 50ha of slightly under-developed hill country that is sprayed and then seeded by helicopter with a crop of swede for cows to graze through winter. They have assigned this area for winter swedes for the past three years so that underdeveloped country can be worked up, fertilised and reseeded back into betterperforming pastures.

Swede performs well in the wet and cooler climate that is typical of the Maruia Valley and it enables them to winter 100% of their stock. The wet, variable climate has led them to be proactive in their management decisions to minimise the effects of large rainfall events that lead

to pugging damage and nutrient runoff.

Online weather charts are monitored closely so they can better predict the weather.

From the base of the hills, the rest of the farm is made up of river flats and terrace country where they run a system two operation through the season that is predominantly pasture based. The herd begins the season on twice-a-day milking and when the feed pinch comes in, they switch to three-in-two milkings.

“You have to have a pretty good handle on pasture utilisation and we do that by being proactive on observation and we measure weekly. We talk to the staff and train them up with pre and post grazing residuals.”

Their focus on pasture won them the Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

and they also won the Meridian Farm Environment Award, the Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity Award and the DairyNZ Human Resources Award.

They employ 3.5 fulltime staff, usually Filipinos, and their 2IC, Dennis Azcarraga, has been with them for six years now on three different dairy farms.

“It’s difficult to find Kiwis, especially where we are - three hours from Christchurch and two hours to Nelson and Greymouth. We’d much rather have someone with no dairy experience but is keen to give 110% and has enthusiasm to learn. Their integrity is awesome and it works well for us because Dennis has quite a lot of experience and they all look up to him.”

The health and safety regime for their staff which won that award, follows the

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

450ha

Cows

1050 cows

Production

291kg MS/cow, 840kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

11t DM/ha

Milking supplement

2t DM/cow

Nitrogen

170kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

300

Farm Dairy

70-bail rotary cowshed

Dairy Automation

None (No ACR’s, no auto drafting, no bells or whistles)

Six-week in-calf rate

72%

Empty rate

10%

Weeks of mating

6 weeks AI – 3 weeks bull

Wintering

100% grazed on farm over winter on swedes.

80 hectares grown on farm per year

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Contract Milking $1.79kg MS

Costs shared

20% of all brought in feed/supplements, 20% of Nitrogen, 20% of freight, 100% of spray application costs (incl winter crops)

Gross farm income

$2.37kg MS

Operating expenses

$2.13kg MS

Operating profit

$323/ha

Farm working expenses

$1.56/kg MS

95

WEST COAST/TOP OF THE SOUTH | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

‘Some people can rattle off figures, but maths isn’t my strong point.

Today’s managers need to know information straight away and it just allows me to put this information in and then it crunches the numbers in a few seconds.’

Dairy Holdings programme which has been set up on its large-scale dairy farms.

“They provide the systems and it’s up to you to implement them and go for it. The big thing is the sign-in register, the hazard board and weekly meetings. The Hazard app is good too for any hazards on farm or near misses that can be recorded on the app and a text message is sent out to staff.

“And we acknowledge the mental health side because with dairy farming, you work where you live and you live where you work. You can’t go home in the weekend and switch off; you’re there all the time.

“We encourage them to talk and communicate and let us know. We’re a team and a team needs to pull together, so it’s about keeping the communication channels open.”

Located so far from major civilisation means the same ingenuity used to create the Cowculate app, is needed for all those

farm jobs that usually requires a phone call for outside skills.

“If something breaks down it can cost more to bring someone out to the farm than actually do the job. You find number eight wire comes in quite handy for a lot of things.”

The community plays a big part in the success of the business because it would be a hard battle by themselves in the “middle of nowhere”.

“While we are extremely isolated, everyone in the community pulls together

and helps out. Maruia is truly what New Zealand used to be like. Every three months or so there’s a local dinner at the community hall.

“We wouldn’t be able to achieve what we’ve done without the support of friends and family and neighbours.”

As good as it is, it’s time to move on and grab the next opportunity as they aim toward their long-term goals. This time it is a 900-cow farm near Westport where they will be contract milking. Beyond that, farm ownership is top of the list with

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

a 200ha to 300ha farm, or alternatively, a large-scale sharemilking business or equity partnership. They have investments off farm as well so they can take up opportunities if they arise.

This is the first time the Rockells have entered the awards as it is the first time they have had willing farm owners who have encouraged sharemilkers, contract milkers and managers to enter.

“Farm owners need to promote the dairy industry and the great things we do rather than feeling they need to hide it away.

Especially now considering the impact of Covid19 on the tourism industry. It’s agriculture and the dairy industry that’s going to keep the New Zealand economy going over the short term and we need to celebrate the farmers and what we do through events such as the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards.”

When they are not taking care of business, the Rockells are tending their 25 beehives on the farm and harvesting honey which they sell locally.

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Noel and Louise Rockell Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Mark Ring and Sarah Hope Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Brian and Hannah Dineen Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award – Noel and Louise Rockell LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Andrew Wiffen and Kate Lambert Meridian Farm Environment Award – Noel and Louise Rockell Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Noel and Louise Rockell Westpac Business Performance Award – Andrew Wiffen and Kate Lambert

Question: What has helped you the most in dairying to get you to where you are today?

Answer: Hard work, perseverance, determination and stubbornness. Louise and I have experienced so many challenges over the years – droughts, floods, recessions – it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.

Runners-up in the West Coast/Top of the South Share Farmer category were Hokitika sharemilkers Andrew Wiffen and Kate Lambert and third place went to Mark Ring and Sarah Hope from the Rai Valley.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

CANTERBURY / NORTH OTAGO | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: TH Enterprises Ltd Most Promising Entrant Award – Alfonso Almonacid Rural Tenancy Inspections Farming Knowledge Award – Lucy Morgan Craigmore Community and Industry Involvement Award – Lucy Morgan Dairy Holdings Ltd Communication and Engagement Award – Breigh Sample DairyNZ Practical Skills Award – Breigh Sample

Left: Lucy Morgan grew up on a 400-cow farm in England.

Fair exchange from Shropshire WORDS BY ANNE LEE

L

ucy Morgan came to New Zealand as a 16-year-old on an exchange through Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre and totally fell in love with the grass-based farming systems and the lifestyle.

She says she got to experience a range of farming operations, farm types and locations and enjoyed every part of it.

In fact she loved it so much she went home to Shropshire, finished school and then promptly returned, working for 18-months on a dairy farm in Glenavy, South Canterbury.

She then stepped up to herd manager on an 800-cow, 216-hectare farm owned

by Phillip and Becky Wilson near Oamaru and has this year been named Canterbury/ North Otago Dairy Trainee of the Year.

She’s one of a team of four on the Oamaru operation and as herd manager her roles include feeding cows and animal health as well as supporting the manager, her partner, Ollie Porter.

The pair are now planning to take the next step on the progression ladder and go contract milking in June 2021.

Lucy grew up on her family’s 400-cow farm back in England and says farming is in her blood with her family having been farmers for generations.

‘We all have strengths and weaknesses but as a team together we’re all complimentary to each other so are strong overall.’

Along with NZ’s farming system and lifestyle Lucy was drawn to this country by the unique progression pathways here which means her dreams of owning a farm could more realistically become a reality.

Lucy says their farm owners Phillip and Becky have been hugely supportive and Phillip dedicates a lot of time to working

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

with team members and training.

“He comes on farm and works with us when we need extra help and he’s great training us when we need assistance with any aspects of the job.

“We all have strengths and weaknesses but as a team together we’re all complimentary to each other so are strong overall.”

Covid-19 had meant changes to how they operate day-to-day and extra work in disinfecting the farm dairy each milking but generally it was all best-practice hygiene actions.

It may also mean some adjustments to farm plans could be necessary later in the season so the team is keeping a watchful eye on the situation so they can put alternative plans into action.

“I was really disappointed not to get to go to the dinner for the awards night because it’s a fantastic opportunity to network and meet other people in the industry but hopefully we’ll get to do something like that when this is all over,” she says.

Runner up for the award was 24-yearold Rangiora 2IC Prabhdeep Singh, who works for Pamu Farms of New Zealand (formerly Landcorp) on their 567ha, 1010-cow farm. Third place getter was 25-year-old herd manager Cameron Bennison who works for Chad Steetskamp on his 250ha, 850cow Westerfield property.

99

CANTERBURY / NORTH OTAGO | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Stephen and Kate Overend with Molly.

Success in the south WORDS BY ANNE LEE

T

he decision to head south from Waikato and take up a job dairying was a lifechanging one for Stephen Overend.

The 36-year-old is this year’s Canterbury/North Otago Farm Manager of the Year and says having grown up on a small dairy farm near Morrinsville he decided to move to Canterbury at the suggestion of a friend also moving to the region for work.

He took up a job for Peter and Adele King as a farm assistant and hasn’t looked back since.

“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he says.

Spurred on by his friend, farmer and tech entrepreneur Ryan Higgs, who pushed Stephen to back himself, he applied for and got a job at Purata TheLand Farming Group as a 2IC on the company’s 266-hectare Colosseum Farm at Te Pirita.

A few months later he met Kate, now his wife and the couple have a 2½ year old daughter Molly.

100

Just two years in as 2IC and he was able to step in to the farm manager role when his boss moved onto another farm within the farming group.

“Things have really fallen into place.

“I was blown away to win this and I’ve got to say I have a phenomenal team, they’re such an asset and without the support of the team I just couldn’t do what I do here,” he says.

Stephen’s enthusiasm for farming and for his people is immediately obvious.

“The farm is the team and the team is the farm,” he says.

Fostering engagement is a strong focus and achieved through good, positive communication via various methods so everyone is always in the loop.

“It’s about giving everyone the knowledge and skills so everyone has everything they need when they need it to be able to do their job,” he says.

He’s an avid supporter and user of Lean management tools which Purata dubs InSynch.

“It’s always evolving so we’re always looking at how to do things better, but by using the systems and processes we’ve come up with we can keep things simple and pretty much stress free.

“We have really good standard operating procedures (SOP’s) and a lot of visual aids so people can see what good looks like.”

He uses online technologies such as Google Sheets and everyone onfarm has access to them. They can see rosters, feed planners which paddocks cows are going to, how much pasture they need to be allocated and any supplement.

“So anyone can jump on their phone and know what’s going on with just about anything, anytime.”

They use WhatsApp to communicate as well as radios and use Trello to keep lists for anything needing to be bought and restocked. Training folders are kept online to ensure people get the skills they need.

“I’m a visual person so having all of those things easily accessible and written down that way makes everything more efficient.”

He’s always looking for improvements and says if something goes wrong onfarm it’s really a learning opportunity but also a signal to him that a process isn’t quite right or people haven’t had the right

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Vetlife Most Promising Entrant – Teresa Goes Alexanders Chartered Accountants Employee Engagement Award – Stephen Overend MorrisonAgri Leadership Award – Michael Boston FarmRight Feed Management Award – Stephen Overend Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Tessa Goes DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Salem Christian PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Stephen Overend Westpac Financial Management & Planning Award – Salem Christian

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

training. Coaching and training are top priorities so everyone has the skills and resources to do all the jobs on the farm.

It’s a win/win for everyone in that people are challenged and engaged and all jobs get done well no matter who is on deck.

“It’s so important to understand people’s goals too and help them achieve them. If people aren’t learning they’ll go somewhere else.”

Stephen walks that talk. He’s studying a Diploma in Financial Planning Agribusiness Management and holds PrimaryITO Level 3 and 4 in Team Management and Effluent Management.

Colosseum had been a dedicated heifer farm but this season moved away from that policy.

“We peak milked about 1000 heifers every year until this season and I’d gotten used to that as normal so this season has seemed like a breeze.”

They dropped cow numbers to keep a similar comparative stocking rate and this season peak milked 920 cows although based on the amount of silage they made, Stephen says they’ll review that and may lift cow numbers slightly.

“We’re really focused on profit and keeping costs down below that magic $4/ kg milksolids (MS) mark – which we’ll do.

“We’ve aiming to be self sufficient with no bought-in feed apart from 50 tonnes of straw used at dryoff and for dry cows in spring. Otherwise it’s just the silage we make during surpluses over the season.”

It’s fed through early spring before balance date and then in autumn to lengthen the round. The farm is walked twice, sometimes three times a week to assess pasture covers– once by Stephen and sometimes twice by the 2IC. “It’s something the whole team needs to understand and everyone knows what a 1500kg drymatter (DM) residual looks like.

“We do a lot of work training with a platemeter and a golf ball so they can see what 1500kg DM/ha looks like in the paddock.

“People don’t always get it (residuals) exactly right but I see it as an opportunity to learn and talk about why that happened.”

They have hectare markers on fences so the team can more easily calculate break sizes and know where to put fences up.

“It saves time, helps them learn and makes things more efficient and easier.”

Stephen says the farm is laid out well with the 50-bail rotary farm dairy in the centre and one centre pivot also located in the middle of the farm. It covers 130ha with 50ha of long line sprinklers irrigating most of the remaining area. The effluent pipe is slung under the centre pivot so that whole pivot irrigated area can receive effluent allowing for a reduction in nitrogen use there.

The farm has a no bull policy for mating over its 11-week period and does five weeks artificial insemination using

Premier Sires (AI), followed by a week with short gestation length Hereford and then crossbreed. They’ve been using heat detection software for the last two matings and while it worked well in the first season combined with observation, mating results went backwards this season.

Looking to the future Stephen’s focused on building skills and experience in the near term.

“I really love what I do, I am passionate about it. Farm management is a great career.

“I’m also really grateful to the sponsors of the awards and the merit awards and the support they give the industry. It was amazing to win the title and the prizes have been a huge bonus.”

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

266ha

Cows

920 peak milk

Production

400kg MS/cow

Pasture eaten

15t DM/ha

Milking supplement

0 – just 53kg DM/cow straw for dryoff and dry cows in spring

Nitrogen

196kg N/ha

Cows/labour unit

186

Farm Dairy

50-bail rotary

Dairy Automation

Protrack

Six-week in-calf rate

73% (2018/19) 69% (2019/20)

Empty rate

10% (2018/19) 15% (2019/20)

Weeks of mating

11

Wintering

All cows wintered off on Kale Salem Christian was runner-up in the Dairy Manager category and Hororata farm manager Tessa Goes was placed third.

Right: The farm is the team and the team is the farm – from left Ludibert Navarro, Atul Mehan, Stephen Overend, Gursewak Brar and Sunil Kumar.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

101

CANTERBURY / NORTH OTAGO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Growing with the team WORDS BY ANNE LEE

J

ust five years into their sharemilking equity partnership Ralph and Fleur Tompsett are already keeping the great New Zealand progression cycle rolling, finding ways to help their farm team grow alongside them.

The Hinds couple are this year’s Canterbury/North Otago Sharefarmers of the Year and have a passion for building up and bringing people along with them, having had similar opportunities from Ralph’s early employers now the couple’s business partners Ben and Mary-Anne Stock.

“One of the things I was really fortunate to enjoy was being able to buy livestock and lease them back and grow equity.

That was part of our growth to get here.

“We’ve just tried to take that torch from the Stocks and propagate that through to our team, understanding that they are the future sharemilkers as well,” Ralph says.

They’ve been able to help a team member buy 30-bull calves from them so he could go on to rear them.

Another has grazed heifers with the couple’s youngstock, been able to grow his own equity and is now able to move onto a contract milking position next season.

“It can be challenging – very challenging in fact sometimes to find those win/win situations but it’s also so gratifying and exciting seeing people grow alongside us,” he says.

Ralph is originally from south Wales.

“I grew up on a small farm with 60 dairy cows and a few hundred sheep and farming wasn’t my first choice.

“I did a computer science degree but after three years decided that wasn’t the life-long career for me after all and so headed off travelling.”

102

Fleur and Ralph Tompsett: ‘We had great advice from a number of more experienced farmers.’

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Herd owning

Gross farm income

$3.56/kg MS

Operating expenses

$2.58/kg MS

Operating profit

$1699/ha

Farm working expenses

$2.26/kg MS

New Zealand was on the itinerary and a month-long job for sharemilkers Ben and Mary-Anne Stock on the farm he and Fleur currently work and live on ended up lasting a year before he returned home and continued his new-found passion for dairying. In 2011 he returned and again went back to working for the Stocks and it was at a Hinds Young Farmers Club that the couple met.

Fleur, originally from a Canterbury sheep and mixed cropping farm, has bachelor’s degrees in both law and arts

and, having worked in Wellington for ACC, headed off overseas for her OE and spent 3½ years working on luxury superyachts.

When she returned home to Canterbury she was asked to look after the bar one night at the Hinds Young Farmers event, and the rest they say is history – with the couple marrying last year.

Fleur worked in Christchurch for 18-months and then the Ashburton District Council but now works for ANZ in the agri-banking team.

The pair began, what they describe as, their 50/50 equity partnership in a 50/50 sharemilking position in 2015 when their business partnership took over the Stock’s sharemilking job on the 297-hectare farm owned by Craig and Susan and Karyn and Grant Fleming.

Before they took on the venture the pair carried out “a lot of sensitivity analysis” – not knowing a major nose dive in the payout lay ahead.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area

297ha

Cows

1130 cows

Production

456kg MS/cow (2018/19)

Pasture eaten

15.5t DM/ha

Milking supplement

800kg DM/cow

Nitrogen

230kg N/ha

Cows/labour unit

202

Farm Dairy

54-bail rotary

Dairy Automation

Retro-fitted ACR’s, auto drafting, health recording

Six-week in-calf rate

71% (2018/19), 76% (2019/2020)

Empty rate

11%

Weeks of mating

11

Wintering

Wintered off on kale, fodder beet, grass

Runoff leased or owned Owned by farm owner

Environmental goals are high on the priority list.

“We went down to $4/kg milksolids (MS), actually thinking that’s never going to happen – then it went to $3.90/kg MS. “But we had great advice from a number of more experienced farmers and while it was very hard at the time, we’re proud of ourselves that we go through it,” Fleur says.

“I remember someone saying we’d have the sharpest pencil around at the end of it all,’ Ralph says.

The sharemilking venture structure meant as well as their share of payout, they had income from the management salary the partnership pays Ralph and lease income from cows they lease into the partnership.

Combined with Fleur’s off-farm income, the payments “helped smooth

N Z

“

We’ve made a conscious effort to source Genetics and expertise that will improve udders, capacity and especially longevity.

This has also had a great impact on both production and health traits and a consequence of these decisions is that we have reduced our environmental impact and improved our farm profitability by milking less cows but maintaining the same – John Van Vliet production.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

600 COWS, 520 MS

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CANTERBURY / NORTH OTAGO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Social distancing but keeping the team spirit up - from left: James Smith, Tes Paewai, Graeme Oates and Ralph Tompsett.

out the wrinkles through the downturn,” Ralph says.

Ben and Mary-Anne too have been fantastic support.

“They know our business and the farming operation inside and out – because this was their sharemilking job before us.”

They remain in close touch with the operation with bills coming first to Ralph and Fleur for coding before being sent to Mary-Anne for checking and then payment.

Ben, too, will step in and lend a hand if needed and is a great sounding board.

The level of financial scrutiny by both couples maintains a high level of financial discipline and focus on profitability.

Ralph and Fleur are evidence and data driven and look to science and well backed up factual information to inform their management practices.

“Driving up pasture eaten has been a

goal with the main focus on measuring and assessing how we’re performing.

We’ve had some success with that lifting it from sub 14t drymatter (DM)/ha to 15.5tDM/ha,” Ralph says.

They’d seen the DairyBase analysis DairyNZ had done that showed that for every extra tonne of DM eaten operating profit lifted by an average of $300.

Ralph says they’ve worked on better pasture management and feeding after calving to help drive intakes and strong demand and they’ve also focused on quality over quantity when it comes to pre-graze covers.

“We’re making sure we go into covers at the three-leaf stage and controlling those higher covers so the cows are really getting top quality feed every time.”

A concerted effort on tightening the calving spread, using short gestation length semen, intensive heat detection – both pre-mating and throughout the 11-

week artificial insemination (AI) mating period has helped bring mean calving data forward by four days this season.

That’s helped with pasture management too, aligning demand more closely with supply of high-quality spring pasture.

More cows calving early also means more days in milk.

Their six-week in-calf rate has historically sat around 67% but lifted to 71% last year and hit 76% this past mating.

They’re close to hitting their empty rate goal of 10% too with this year’s at 11%.

Historically the herd’s production has averaged about 420kg MS/cow but last year it lifted to 456kg MS/cow and this season they’re on track for 495-500kg MS/ cow.

The extra production has come with about 200kg DM/cow of additional supplement that includes both wheat and palm kernel.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

CANTERBURY / NORTH OTAGO | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

“We’re very aware though that extra production needs to be profitable production,” Fleur says.

Environmental goals are high on the priority list too and nitrogen use has been reduced by 50 units/ha with a slightly longer round length reducing the number of nitrogen applications throughout the season. The farm is located on heavier soils and pasture quality and soil compaction and pugging are managed through wet periods through a combination of standing cows off for short periods on the yard and on/off grazing.

Cows are wintered off in three groups based on body condition score and required weight gain by planned start of calving.

Cows are wintered on grass, fodder beet and kale on a 35ha adjacent support block owned by the Flemings.

They’re also arable farmers and heifers and youngstock are grazed on ex-ryegrass seed paddocks.

Ralph says their short-term goals are to continue to deliver on the targets the business has set for the farm owners, their business partners and themselves when it comes to both productivity and profitability. Their goals always include their own team too and it’s just as important for them to keep looking at how they can support them and help them spot opportunities.

They work a seven on two off, seven on two off and then seven on three off roster which the team are big supporters of.

They’re a bit of United Nations with team members from New Zealand, South Africa, Wales and Argentina.

Having a happy, well looked after team is a win/win with bonuses in onfarm productivity and efficiency.

Their core team members have been with them for three years and the couple say their success in the Dairy Industry Awards has been in no small way contributed to by their whole team.

Proper celebrations though will have to wait until the end of lockdown. Hearing the results by video was “pretty surreal – but we had a lot of support from our wider team in their individual trenches.

“It was hilarious to hear whooping and hollering from across the paddock when we were announced the winners.”

Question: What are your goals?

Answer: “One of our guiding principles is to dream big. To achieve something, you have to imagine it first.

“We want to own a farm within five to 10 years but we’re open minded about what that might look like so we can be open to any opportunity.”

Short-term goals are to continue to deliver on the targets the business has set for the farm owners.

Runner-up share farmers were Tania Riddington and Tim Murdoch from Culverden, and Jason and Miranda Armstrong from Darfield were third.

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ Human Resources Award – Ben and Allie King Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award – Jason and Miranda Armstrong Federated Farmers Leadership Award – Ben and Allie King Honda Farm Safety, Health & Biosecurity Award – Ben and Allie King LIC Recording and Productivity Award – Tania Riddington and Tim Murdoch Meridian Farm Environment Award – James and Charlotte Emmett Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award – Tania Riddington and Tim Murdoch Westpac Business Performance Award – Ralph and Fleur Tompsett

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

107

OTAGO/SOUTHLAND | DAIRY TRAINEE OF THE YEAR

Every day is different WORDS BY KAREN TREBILCOCK

T

he 2020 Otago/Southland Dairy Trainee of the Year has only worked full time on a dairy farm since June 2019.

Nikayla Dodd, 24, studied vet nursing and to be a vet technician at SIT in Invercargill and then went on to work at Combined Veterinary Services in Gore.

At the same time she was relief milking in the weekends for Andrew and Catherine McGregor on their 160-hectare Gore property which has 420 cows.

“I loved my weekends so much. On Mondays I just wanted to be back on the farm so when Andrew offered me a fulltime job as a farm assistant last year I took it.”

At the end of March she watched the awards online with her partner Shaun Goble, a sharemilker at Tisbury, who had helped coach her through the competition.

108

“I was super shocked when my name was called out. We were both pretty excited.”

It was a busy few weeks for Nikayla. As well as going into lockdown with the rest of the country because of Covid-19, she started a new job as 2IC at Dacre milking 560 cows for Brayden and Nicole Kyle.

“It’s a bigger farm with more cows and more opportunities for me to grow.

“Every day is different. I really love that.

Today we were putting out balage on the crop paddocks for wintering and tomorrow there will be milking and the next day something different.

“And I love being able to work outside.

There are a lot of people shut inside at the moment with the lockdown so I think I’m pretty lucky.”

Nikayla’s parents have a sheep and beef farm near Gore and she grew up “being dad’s sidekick” on the farm.

With some more experience she hopes to

Top: 2020 Otago/Southland Dairy Trainee winner Nikayla Dodd.

Above: Pats for the cow.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

‘I love being able to work outside. There are a lot of people shut inside at the moment with the lockdown so I think I’m pretty lucky.’ become a farm manager and then step up to contract or sharemilking in a few years.

She has enrolled in a level 3 dairying paper with Primary ITO which is to start soon.

“I suppose I’ll still be able to do it with the lockdown.”

She’s hoping the national awards, now delayed, won’t be in the middle of calving in the south.

“We didn’t get to dress up for the regional awards, we missed out on that, so hopefully the national awards won’t be too close to calving and I’ll be able to go.”

Question: Why did you want to work on a dairy farm?

Answer: Every day is different. I really love that.

DAIRY TRAINEE

MERIT AWARDS: DairyNZ practical skills award – Nikayla Dodd MilkMap farming knowledge award – Josh Cochrane AWS most promising entrant award – Nicole Barber Advance Agriculture communication and engagement award – Nicole Coulter Agricentre South community and industry involvement award – Krishan Ranui and Dick Karetai

Runner-up was 19-year-old Woodlands Farm Assistant Jakeb Lawson who works on Eoin and Jayne McKenzie’s 300ha, 700-cow farm. Third place went to 22-yearold 2IC Josh Cochrane who works for Roddy MacInnes on his 140ha, 520-cow farm in Winton.

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OTAGO/SOUTHLAND | DAIRY MANAGER OF THE YEAR

Left: Winner of the Southland/Otago region manager’s competition Eugene de la Harpe of Dipton West.

Above: Eugene’s two girls 11-year-old Hanre (left) and six-year-old Mia help feed the calves last spring.

Adrenalin rush via video link WORDS BY KAREN TREBILCOCK

S

outh African Eugene de la Harpe first came to New Zealand six years ago on a family holiday to visit his parents-in-law, also from South Africa, who were sharemilking.

“We set foot in Queenstown off the plane and it was so clean and so safe and we all loved it straight away.

“We have two daughters and we knew we could not offer them this life in South Africa.”

With a dairy farming background, the civil engineer could apply for a work visa here and he hasn’t looked back.

The 36-year-old won the managers’ competition in the Southland/Otago region of the Dairy Industry Awards announced via video link on the region’s Facebook page on March 28.

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After four years working for other dairy farmers, he is finishing his first season as farm manager for Robert O’Callaghan on a 200-hectare, 600-cow Dipton West property and can soon apply for NZ citizenship.

“I have to have five years working here to meet the criteria which will be the end of this season,” he said.

Although he is now single, his daughters are loving life here and doing well at school.

“They still speak Afrikaans as well as English.”

He said watching the video link announcing his win didn’t have “the adrenaline rush” it would have had if the awards had gone ahead as normal and he’d had his staff and employer with him.

“It was still a great experience and I have met heaps of people through the

awards with a passion for dairy farming.”

Eugene believes in feeding cows well and the farm budget includes 835kg per cow of palm kernel and dried distillers grain (DDG).

“We are still grass farmers but we pump in the palm kernel and DDG when we need to such as in the second round after they have cleaned up the winter grass still on the farm in that first round.

“Feeding is the most important thing to me. If you feed your cows well then their cow condition is good, their production is good, the animal health is good.

They cycle better, calving is better – it’s everything.”

His six-week in-calf rate of 79% and an empty rate of just 6% proves it.

“If you feed cows correctly then you save money on everything else. A fat cow is a happy cow.”

Although he knows most dairy farm managers in NZ go on to become contract and sharemilkers moving from farm to farm, he is happy to stay put and stay a manager.

“I’ve looked at the numbers and being a manager works well.

“Some contract milkers are really battling in Southland this year, especially with the floods earlier.

“Being on a family orientated farm is important to me and staying with people who I know and know me.”

The farm owner is allowing him to

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

DAIRY MANAGER

MERIT AWARDS: Landpro Most Promising Entrant – Cole Henwood Shand Thomson Encouragement Award – Kayleigh Cleary McIntyre Dick and Partners Employee Engagement Award – Gonzalo Bascur FMG Leadership Award – Carol Booth Vetsouth Feed Management Award – Eugene de la Harpe DeLaval Livestock Management Award – Carol Booth Fonterra Dairy Management Award – Eugene de la Harpe PrimaryITO Power Play Award – Eugene de la Harpe

Above: The herd on the Dipton West farm in Southland.

raise his own calves which one day will be milked in the herd, enabling him to build an asset of his own within the farm system.

“He’s going to lease them back from me and that way I can build my own herd.”

Eugene has two staff which means he can continue as normal under the government’s Covid-19 Alert Level 4 rules but he has had to let his relief milkers go.

Employing teenage relief milkers, still at high school, to show them what dairying is like, is something he has enjoyed this season.

“Especially the ones from sheep farms.

When they leave I ask them whether they want to go work with their fathers or work on dairy farms and they have all said they want to now work on dairy farms.”

With only manual drafting and no cup removers, he keeps his milking procedures simple and said anyone could walk into his dairy, follow the instructions on the wall and milk the cows.

“And I like the dairy kept clean. When you wake up in the morning and walk into the dairy and it’s dirty it’s not a good way to start the day.

“I like positive people and that’s one way we do it.

“I want the farm to be people friendly – keep it clean and keep it practical.”

It has also kept the farm, so far, grade free for the season.

Although his training is as a civil

Westpac Personal Planning and Financial Management Award – Gonzalo Bascur

PHYSICAL FARM DATA Milking platform area (ha)

200.86ha

Cows

596 cows

Production

300,000kg MS, 1494kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

11.5t

Milking supplement

PKE/DDG 835kg/cow/year

Nitrogen

200kg N/ha

Cows/labour unit

200

Farm Dairy

40-aside Herringbone with inshed feeding

Dairy Automation

Waikato shed

Six-week in-calf rate

79%

Empty rate

6%

Weeks of mating

12

Wintering

75 days

Runoff lease or owned

Owned by Moorabool farm

engineer, another sought-after skill for immigrants to NZ, he does not want to go back to it.

“It was something I did in South Africa because, growing up in the Free State, farming was impossible to do. But I always wanted to somehow go back to farming.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Runners-up in the Dairy Manager category went to Gonzalo Bascur from Invercargill, third place was Carol Booth from Tapanui.

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111

OTAGO/SOUTHLAND | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

Sam and Karen Bennett with their daughter Alexia.

Facebook to the rescue WORDS BY KAREN TREBILCOCK

A

shaky internet connection did not deter Sam and Karen Bennett trying to have a Facebook party with their families when the 2020 Southland-Otago Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year was announced online during the Covid-19 level four lockdown.

“That’s all our internet could manage – just our families and a couple of friends,” Karen said.

Although the award ceremony was cancelled and the announcement then postponed a week in the south, it did mean Karen’s parents had travelled from Nelson to be there and managed to spend a week of quality time with the couple’s 14-month-old daughter Alexia before they had to rush home.

“She’s just starting to walk and she’s into everything, so it was great for them to be here.”

Sam’s dad is nearby on the family dairy farm at Brydone, which Sam and Karen have contract milked for the past four years.

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This season the couple, both 31, also started contracting milk 630 cows on Andrew and Jenny Calder’s 223-hectare farm in Wyndham.

“We applied to MPI just in case with the lockdown to keep going because we are right on the five-person limit,” Karen said.

“It’s all good.”

“We’ve delegated everyone jobs so they all stay safe,” Sam said. “We’ve got one guy only using the tractor and the two guys milking at the Calder’s live on their own together so that works well.”

The two men are Nepalese and met while milking in the Middle East for six months before coming to New Zealand to work for Sam and Karen.

“They’re great, they work really well together and living together means they can keep in their bubble milking too,” Karen said.

The Bennetts believe in bringing people through the ranks of the dairy industry and their 2IC on Sam’s dad’s farm is now manager there and the person who was 2IC on the Calder farm before they took it on has stayed.

“He’s been great. He knew the farm back

to front and he’s taught us so much,” Sam said.

Covid-19 is not the only emergency they’ve had to deal with this year. At the beginning of February 100ha, almost half of the Calder farm, went under water in the Southland floods.

“We knew it was going to go under, our catchment is huge and we knew it was raining heavily around Garston and Waikaia, in the headwaters, so we had a few days’ notice,” Sam said.

“The farm is in terraces down to the Mataura River and the bottom terrace was already pretty well eaten and we sent the cows down there to eat the rest.

“We also made balage down there and got it off before it flooded.”

The water stayed for a couple of days but with little silt left behind, and the covers short, they have not had to regrass except for about 8ha which was under water for four days.

“We’ve had to re-fence everything though. All 100ha. The Farmy Army was amazing. We had 15 guys here one day helping.”

The flood was bigger than either of them

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

has ever seen in the area but Karen is no stranger to rain having grown up on a Whataroa dairy farm on the West Coast.

“We never got any flooding from the river but it would rain a lot.

“But the next day would be sunny and we’d be making balage within the same week – the water just disappears.”

She studied at Lincoln University, graduating with a Bachelor of Science majoring in animal science. At the same time she trained as an AI technician with LIC and did a run between Whataroa, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers.

“The timing was perfect because I’d go home after exams at the end of the year and start.”

Meanwhile Sam was growing up on a sheep and beef farm in Western Southland and doing a building apprenticeship.

After finishing, he picked up a handpiece and spent three years travelling and shearing overseas.

They met through mutual friends.

“We were talking about what we both wanted to do and I had always had a passion for dairy farming and Sam was coming home to get into the dairy industry, so we already had a lot in common,” Karen said.

“He took on a 2IC role for two years before taking on the contract milking job at his dad’s dairy farm.”

She has also worked as the Southland rep for the company Fertiliser New Zealand for the past nine years. As well as contract milking two farms, the couple are landlords with three rentals in Invercargill and one in Te Anau.

They see the investment in housing, instead of cows, as a way of diversifying their business.

“If something goes wrong with dairying then there are the houses and if something goes wrong with the houses then there are the cows,” Karen said.

They said they were lucky to invest before house prices shot up.

Sam Bennett and 14-month-old Alexia walk the cows in for afternoon milking.

FINANCIAL FACTS Sharemilking

Contract milking. 7.5% milk cheque + fixed expenses

Costs shared

Dairy shed expenses, electricity, wages, motorbike

Gross farm income

$1.20kg MS

Operating expenses

$0.76/kg MS

Operating profit

$543/ha

Farm working expenses $0.75/kg MS

PHYSICAL FARM DATA

SGT DAN

Milking platform area

223ha

Cows

630

Production

280,000kg MS, 444kg MS/cow, 1255kg MS/ha

Pasture eaten

15.5t DM/ha

Milking supplement

0.4t DM/cow/year

Nitrogen

160kg N/ha/year

Cows/labour unit

158 cow/FTE

Farm Dairy

Rotary shed (54-bail)

Dairy Automation

ACRs, Auto-drafting, GEA cow scout collars

Six-week in-calf rate

75%

Empty rate

10%

Weeks of mating

11 weeks

Gorton Street, GORE Phone: 208 3965

Wintering

All cows wintered off. Kale and balage for Heifers. Silage whole crop for cows

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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113

OTAGO/SOUTHLAND | SHARE FARMER OF THE YEAR

SHARE FARMER

MERIT AWARDS: Ecolab farm dairy hygiene award and the Westpac business performance award – Karen and Sam Bennett LIC recording and productivity award and the Ravensdown pasture performance award – Cameron and Cassandra Spencer The Wyndham herd has CowScout collars.

Meridian Farm environment award and the Honda farm safety, health and biosecurity award – Craig McGregor and Olivia Gorton DairyNZ human resources award – Miguel Ortiz and Maka Morales Federated Farmers leadership award – Matt and Sarah McKenzie

“We haven’t got all of our eggs in one basket. We’re spreading the risk.”

They hope to go sharemilking in three or four years’ time with minimal debt.

“We could probably do it now but the debt would be huge and we just don’t want that sort of risk,” Karen said.

However, the dropping of the price of dairy land in the south has made them think twice, Sam said.

“We’ve had a few conversations about it but we’re just going to keep ticking away at it slowly and keep doing what we’re doing,” Karen said.

Stepping up and taking on the new contract milking role has also made them step up when it comes to technology.

All of the Calders’ cows have Cow Scout collars and there are milk meters in the dairy.

“We can see the ruminating times, activity times and non-activity times.

There is so much more information that we’re getting about the herd,” Sam said.

“You’ll be sitting on the couch and all of a sudden you’ll get a health alert on your phone and you can go and see what’s happening,” Karen said.

“Especially at calving. The collars are recording how many times a cow is standing up then lying down so you know if there is a problem and we’re also getting information about milk fever cases and ketosis,” Sam said.

“It’s like having an extra set of eyes. The cows are getting the best attention – from us, our staff and with the technology. It’s the ultimate.”

The Calders’ herd is a LIC sire proving herd and they hope to use the collars next season to eliminate bulls from their mating plan and are keen users of short gestation semen. The six-week in-calf rate is 75% and the empty rate 10% but they want to get that down to about 8%.

“It was at 14% when we took it over.

We’ve got my dad’s farm at around 8% so that’s the aim here too,” Sam said.

They’re proud of their zero-waste systems with nothing buried on farm and their emphasis on native tree planting.

“We’ve got an oxbow in the middle of the Calders’ farm which we’ve fenced off and plan to enhance it by planting

more natives and making it into a wildlife habitat.

“We’re really excited to see how that develops.”

Something they’re also proud of is record milk production on Sam’s dad’s farm.

It’s a 145ha milking platform with 445 cows and the most it has done is 176,000kg milksolids (MS) a year.

“We did 200,000kg MS in our second season so we really smashed it. We reached our goal of a kilogram of milk solids per kilogram of liveweight.”

Both dairies have in-shed feeding and, with no crop on farm to go home to in the spring after wintering off, the budget is for 400kg per cow of a 50:50 barley wheat mix.

“We really need it in spring when the cows come home, as well as when there are deficits through the season,” Sam said.

With the winter off, the couple were planning a trip to Europe to visit family with their daughter in a couple of months.

“Maybe next year,” Karen said.

Question: Are you hoping to go sharemilking?

Answer: In three or four years’ time – we could probably do it now but the debt would be huge and we just don’t want that sort of risk.

Runners-up in the competition were Cameron and Cassandra Spencer.

The first-time entrants are 50:50 sharemilkers for New Zealand Rural Property Trust on a 141ha, 420-cow property in Otautau.

The floods in early February destroyed 100ha of fencing.

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Third was Craig McGregor and Olivia Gorton who contract milk on Jamie McConachie, Jared Collie, Jerry Excel and Paddy Thornton’s 245ha farm at Drummond, where they milk 860 cows.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

DAIRY NZ EMPLOYMENT

Jane Muir – people turn up to work expecting a good boss. If they don’t, they don’t stay.

Rewards of being a good boss Words by: Anne Lee

H

aving a good boss can be a lifechanging experience for some people and being a good boss can mean reaping rewards well beyond the paddock gate, DairyNZ people team leader Jane Muir says.

Helping farmers lift their game when it comes to being an employer is the aim of the comprehensive “Good Boss” campaign recently launched by DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, New Zealand Young Farmers and the Dairy Women’s Network.

Even though Covid-19 will likely see huge changes to the face of the farming workforce with uncertainty over when or if new immigrant staff can come into the country and a predicted climb in the numbers of Kiwis unemployed, having a sector of good bosses remains vital to the long-term health and resilience of the industry.

Having good bosses who create happy,

thriving workplaces means more highly capable people will consider dairying when they look for new employment and the more people applying for jobs, the more contestable the recruitment programme.

Greater choice will mean having people employed onfarm who will solve more problems, people who find more opportunities for the farm business, and people who help make the business more successful overall, Jane says.

But just as having a good employment experience can help draw more people into the sector through word of mouth and social media sharing the opposite will still be true.

“When someone has a bad experience, they’ll still talk to their friends about it and those stories will spread quickly.

“The experience people have on our farms is in our control, it’s in our circle of influence,” Jane says.

“People turn up to a job expecting to get a good boss – if they don’t, they

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

don’t stay. For some people a good boss is lifechanging – you can’t underestimate that.”

The Good Boss campaign has four major objectives and tools and resources will be rolled out to support each of those objectives, she says.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1. Farmers know what makes a good boss.

2. Farmers can assess their performance against good farming employment practice - including health, safety, wellbeing and tenancy.

3. Farmers can access tools, resources and farmer leaders to make positive change to become better bosses.

4. Employees are supported to understand their rights and also their responsibilities on farm.

As part of showing farmers what a good boss is in reality DairyNZ has asked farmers around the country how they define it and provide real life examples of experiences 115

and those definitions in action.

Videos sent in as part of a competition and employee and employer experiences will be used in the campaign over coming months.

“It’s very easy for the words to roll off the tongue when someone’s asked to define a good boss but it’s better to be able to show what a good boss would do in a particular situation, why they would do it and how they would do it and that’s what we want to share – taking those examples from farms and sharing with other farmers.

“That way farmers will lead other farmers – farm employees can tell farm employers what they want and need in a good boss and farm employers can think back to a good boss they may have had – what made them special.

“With those pictures in mind and examples it will hopefully be easier for farmers to put those practices in place on their farms.”

To help meet objective two, farmers can use an online assessment tool to see how they measure up as a boss.

Called Workplace-360 it can be found on DairyNZ’s website.

“It’s something I’d recommend doing annually as a way to recalibrate yourself and double check you’ve got all the bases covered.”

It can be categorised as being three sections.

“The first is about minimum standards and checking you are meeting compliance requirements.

FARM ENVIRONMENT PLANS A total design with comprehensive report to comply with all “Healthy Waterways” legislation and more.

Every farm needs one, email for the best solutions

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Above: Workplace-360 is a new self-assessment tool for farmers as bosses.

“The second is to see if you’re a good boss and the third is taking it a step further to ask about things that would make you a great boss.”

To help with objective three of having tools and resources to make positive change, a Good Boss Toolkit is soon to be launched.

It too has three main sections – recruitment, managing people and growing people.

Health, safety and wellbeing will be

“New Zealand Dairy Careers is committed to retaining and developing people within the dairy industry.”

woven throughout the toolkit as they encompass every stage.

Jane says much of the work has already been done on building the toolkit and it’s about to be piloted by farmers around the country to get feedback before it’s offered to all farmers.

DairyNZ has also been working with Federated Farmers on a levy funded support service to support employees so they know what their rights are as well as their responsibilities onfarm.

Employees sometimes didn’t know what their rights were and didn’t know where to go to find out what must be met legally in terms of wages, hours and conditions.

If they’re supported and can access accurate, timely advice more issues can be resolved and the wider reputation of the industry can be better protected.

The service is expected to be rolled out over coming months.

Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis says having productive, rewarding safe and enjoyable work places helps attract and retain motivated and capable people in the industry.

“The ultimate measure of success for our Good Boss campaign is that employees recommend working on their current farm to a friend – because they have a good, maybe even great, boss,” he says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

DAIRY NZ OPEN LETTER TO FARMERS

Why your DairyNZ levy matters Words by: Jim van der Poel, DairyNZ Board chair

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airy is our nation’s biggest export earner and underpins New Zealand’s economic and social wellbeing. All sectors face challenges in the current climate, but we are increasingly seeing wider recognition of our how important our contribution will be to help NZ get through this.

As we look to the future, we see a range of changes over the next decade. I believe that continuing our milksolids levy is vital to enable dairy farmers and our sector to keep thriving and innovating in a rapidly changing world.

The levy has been part of NZ dairy farming for 17 years – and has enabled DairyNZ to fund research and development to support farmers through a raft of changes over that time.

The levy enables DairyNZ to deliver a broad range of industry-good activities.

For every $1 dairy farmers invest, the Government and other organisations

co-invest a further $1.80. And the return on that investment is even better: an independent economic evaluation of DairyNZ’s key investments showed at least $15 of value for each $1 paid through the levy. This $15 includes improvements in productivity and cost avoidance by working with Government and others to put in place better policies.

Our policy and advocacy teams have successfully engaged with Government to limit costs to farmers and achieve some significant wins, such as the agreement to keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme. This will save farmers over $5 billion during the next 30 years and is also the right thing to do.

Through farmer education programmes, DairyNZ is also involved in reducing injuries and deaths on farms, while the Tb programme has minimised trade constraints and the costs of managing affected herds and cull cows.

As both a dairy farmer and DairyNZ’s chair – I’m able to see the full extent of DairyNZ’s activities. The organisation has

Y IT AL ES U C Q RI ST P BE EST B

On the farm, Jim van der Poel.

skilled scientists, policy teams and other specialists who work for your benefit and are extremely committed to delivering for farmers. We are also working increasingly closely with other sector and industry organisations to take a sector view on big issues.

WHY DO I BELIEVE IN THE LEVY?

Being part of DairyNZ is a rewarding experience – working for the future of dairy, supporting the wider sector and helping build great communities across rural NZ. I believe in an organisation which exists to work exclusively for dairy farmers.

Not many sectors have an industry-good organisation like ours. DairyNZ has helped us achieve huge success so far, and it’s a real strength for our future.

The levy supports farmers in a range

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A 14 to 1 return on investment.

of ways – whether it’s providing expert advice through the recent Southland floods; researching how plantain can reduce nitrate leaching; or advocating for practical, science-based solutions to improve water quality.

DairyNZ maximises every levy dollar, reinvesting it into research and the development of better farm systems, environmental management, animal care and workplaces; as well as biosecurity, public perception and education programmes, to name a few.

While you focus on producing milk and looking after your land, animals and people, you can be confident we’re working tirelessly to support your future.

RETURN ON LEVY INVESTMENT

It comes with our culture.

In 2012 MPI funded a four and a half year study* to test the effectiveness of BioBrew’s CalfBrew® probiotic supplement on calves.

Early results showed that the use of the fresh, intact probiotic increased the rate of calf growth by up to 10%. As adults, the treated calves produced significantly more milk solids and were also less likely to die and more likely to remain in the herd.

Ultimately, the benefits associated with CalfBrew® equated to a 14 to 1 return on investment, showing that use of a fresh probiotic on calves has both short-term and long-term benefits for both stock and farmers.

BioBrew’s CalfBrew® is a fresh, live and active probiotic and the finest microbial tool available. It is designed to bring your calves, lambs, and kids through their first year in optimum condition at a truly affordable price.

Visit biobrew.net.nz to view our wide range of live probiotic products.

As I mentioned, an analysis on your levy investment showed that the return is $15 for every $1. That value is derived partly from costs which have been avoided or reduced by farmers as a result of DairyNZ’s advocacy work.

DairyNZ investments are aligned to the Dairy Tomorrow strategy so the analysis was split by strategy themes – environment, genetic gain, plants, systems, biosecurity, animal care, workforce and communities.

The analysis showed that every priority area delivered industry benefits well above the money invested.

For example, between 2015-2019, $35.9 million was invested into environmental projects. The biggest benefits for DairyNZ investment are in policy wins in environmental advocacy and mitigation, such as in the Rotorua and Selwyn Te Waihora regions, and on the Zero Carbon Bill. From a $35m investment, the analysis suggests DairyNZ delivered a net present value (NPV) of $9.9b from environmental advocacy which resulted in reduced costs for NZ’s dairy sector.

A second key area is in genetic gain of the national dairy herd. DairyNZ invested $43.1m into animal projects between 2015-2019 and the analysis looked at $17.5m invested into NZAEL, the core database, genomics and genetics. From the $43m investment, the analysis suggests a Net Present Value of $445m for the NZ dairy sector (or 22 times the levy investment).

NZAEL’s work improving cow genetics has boosted the productivity of the average cow by $9.70 – or $4015 per year for the average 414-cow herd.

An analysis of our forages investment shows a Net Present Value of $33.8m for the dairy sector from DairyNZ’s investment (or 2.5 times the levy investment).

It is important to remember that these assessments were made independently.

DairyNZ represents dairy farmers across many platforms – from research, development and extension, through to advocacy and helping grow vibrant communities. As we face increased uncertainty, along with public scrutiny and ongoing political pressures, I believe having a sector body focused solely on working for dairy farmers will continue to pay dividends.

HAVE YOUR SAY

*296 calves on three farms were included in the study

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funded by MPI Sustainable Farming Fund and DairyNZ and undertaken by the Clutha Agriculture Development Board.

Funding was for two projects, the trial in 2012 and the follow-up in 2016.

I encourage all levy-paying dairy farmers to vote when you receive your pack in the post this month. Voting requires just one tick – yes or no.

This is your levy, your vote and your future.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

BUSINESS CO DIARY

Tararua project explores plantain benefits University, AgResearch, and Agricom, and the onfarm experience of Tararua dairy fter joining DairyNZ in January farmers. as consulting officer based In the first year we have monitored in the Lower North Island, plantain on eight farms. Plantain is being I’ve enjoyed the opportunity used in different ways on each farm. Some to get to know local farmers and better farms have adopted it as part of a pasture understand the issues faced in the region. mix and others have sown pure plantain In March, a drought was declared in my crops. local region – Manawatu-Wanganui, and The project builds on the findings similar conditions are affecting a number from DairyNZ’s Forages for Reduced of other areas.

Nitrate Leaching (FRNL) programme Growing up on a Wairarapa dairy farm, I which established that New Zealand bred know that these conditions can be stressful plantain cultivars reduce soil nitrogen for farmers. DairyNZ is working with a concentration under cow urine patches. number of other organisations to help In the programme, plantain was estimated support a drought response. If you need to reduce nitrogen leaching by up to assistance, please get in touch with 30%, depending on the proportion of your local consulting officer, and plantain in cows’ diets and on soil we can offer our advice or put types. you in contact with another Please check our website organisation who can help.

- dairynz.co.nz/tararua - for One of the major projects I information and updates on am involved in is the Tararua our project. We’re planning Plantain Rollout Project. This to host some farmer events in was commissioned in 2018 and the future to share knowledge is funded by DairyNZ’s levy and Andrew Hull. from the project with you and our the Ministry of Primary Industry’s website will let you know when Sustainable Farming Fund. events are happening.

Recognising the environmental benefits Over time, we would like to involve of plantain, Tararua dairy farmers initiated even more farms in the plantain project, this project to encourage more farmers and ultimately extend it wider than the to include plantain in their farm system.

120 Tararua farms currently involved.

DairyNZ is co-ordinating this project and we are drawing on the expertise • Andrew Hull is DairyNZ Consulting officer of scientists from DairyNZ, Massey for Manawatu-Wanganui.

Words by: Andrew Hull

A

“making milking easier and faster”

The project builds on the findings from DairyNZ’s Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching (FRNL) programme which established that New Zealand bred plantain cultivars reduce soil nitrogen concentration under cow urine patches.

Plantain.

See our website or phone for more info.

for circular and s te ga g in ck ba e iv ct fe ef ut bo A rectangular dairy yards

K. H. McConnel Ltd. Hamilton, New Zealand

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RESEARCH WRAP SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Hybrid systems in focus Words and photos by: Karen Trebilcock

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he Southern Dairy Hub is seeking out new research topics as it nears the end of its threeyear trial into kale vs fodder beet wintering.

Those at the Southland/South Otago DairyNZ Farmer’s Forum in early March at the hub were given survey forms to fill out listing possible topics and asked to rank them by general manager of farm operations Louise Cook.

Included were alternative pasture/forage species, once-a-day and 17-hour milking systems, regenerative farming and “onfarm diversification such as oat milk, forestry and miscanthus”.

Already in the mix is off-paddock infrastructure which DairyNZ senior scientist Dawn Dalley said had been “parked” during the building of the hub in 2017.

Now DairyNZ wanted to show leadership, she said, seeking out an innovative hybrid farming system that could work in a pasture-based system on heavy soils.

The system had to increase cow comfort, health and performance, reduce the impact on the environment and needed to be economically also successful for farmers.

Wintering in the south was put in the international spotlight last year leading to the Government forming the Winter

Fodder beet growing in January at the Southern Dairy Hub for wintering.

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Grazing Taskforce which has led to a further Wintering Action Group which met for the first time in late February.

DariyNZ staff have already travelled to North America and Ireland to investigate possible systems and infrastructure for the hub as well as collating information already available from New Zealand research.

Scientists, engineers, industry rural professionals and farmers have met to develop initial designs and it was hoped the new system would see its first winter at the research farm in 2022, she said.

“They were asked to put aside what they already know and really think outside the square.”

Dalley said the Hub did not want to have “system creep” with the off-paddock system.

“They are a high cost to build and for farmers to see a return on their investment usually the stocking rate goes up and more supplement is fed.

“We are looking at using it for just the 80 to 90 days of wintering so we can compare it with the very best of on-paddock winter cropping systems.”

Dalley also summarised the current fodder beet vs kale wintering trial on the farm which also incorporates low nitrogen use.

With the farm divided equally in every way possible into four – low nitrogen inputs kale and fodder beet (50kg/ha N) and standard nitrogen inputs kale and fodder beet (200kg/ha N) – the figures from last season show low input systems returned the least profit.

The standard nitrogen plus kale showed a profit of $159,760 marginally beating standard nitrogen plus fodder beet which was $146,152.

In comparison, low-input kale was $126,827 and low-input fodder beet was $103,429.

Dalley said the biggest impact on profit was milk production and the herd grazing the low nitrogen input pastures and wintered on fodder beet failed to peak while those wintered on fodder beet and given standard input nitrogen

Southern Dairy Hub general manager of farm operations Louise Cook talks at the Southland/ South Otago DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum in March.

pastures calved earlier and had higher milk solids per cow in the first three weeks of lactation.

However, pasture walks showed clover content was increasing this season in the lower input systems and she said that in some paddocks it was now difficult to see the ryegrass because of the clover.

“This is why these trials have to be at least three years, because there are biological processes taking place and we have to allow for them to have an effect.”

As the trial neared its end, the scientists were looking forward to seeing the lactation results from the 2018 born calves.

The calves from the fodder beet herds were wintered on fodder beet last year and will be again this year before entering the milking herd this spring.

At birth they were on average 9% smaller and lighter than the calves from the kale herds.

Last spring bull bobby calves from the hub were CT scanned at Massey University to investigate their bone density with the results still to be released.

“We’re looking at the cumulative effects of crop feeding on performance.

“Fodder beet has mineral and protein imbalances plus high soluble sugars compared with pasture and kale feeding and we want to see what effect this has on dairy cows.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

RESEARCH WRAP PROBIOTICS

The history of silage started with a Norwegian researcher in the 1920s working out by putting hydrochloric acid with grass it got the pH down and made the feed last longer. It was in the 1950s when the acid got replaced with these inoculant products using bacteria.

“An agricultural scientist won a Nobel prize for silage, because it suddenly made all this feed available over winter. That’s amazing.”

At Lincoln, they have been looking at the best way probiotics can be formulated and kept alive so they can be given to animals, such as a freeze-dried capsule or a liquid live fermentation products.

“A probiotic is not just the bacteria, it’s the compounds they make. The advantage of the fresh probiotic is it’s already got it there, it’s rearing to go. Whereas the freeze to different situations. They aren’t just a dried has to get up to speed.” small range of arrows in their quiver.”

The use of probiotics by farmers is This is one of the attractive things about becoming more common and accepted. probiotics, that if the bacteria find what it But the industry is unregulated, with no is producing isn’t working, it is losing the legal definition of probiotic. war, it can switch to producing something Craig advises farmers to stay away from else. products that state they have ‘fragments “It’s not then surprising that if we of probiotics’ because the bacteria and the introduce probiotics into an animal’s diet compounds they produce are probably it’s going to provide some benefit.” dead. He also suggests avoiding products All bacteria including based on spore-forming probiotic bacteria produce their (bacillus) microbes as these own antibiotics and similar tend to cease activity and compounds and are where form a spore when the scientists think they might find going gets tough in the gut, new antibiotics to use. an option not available to “That’s where we know we will non-spore-former probiotic find new antibiotics most likely. microbes like lactobacilli.

Above: Craig Bunt says But there is always the risk that “Products that have live farmers should check whatever we find we overuse and the labels on probiotic bacteria, that have a labelled use in a way nature doesn’t.” number of bacteria, stating products.

Probiotic bacteria in our guts how much in the capsule or are essential for us to survive. It is the same bottle now, are the products I have more for cows and they are essential to support faith in.” the complicated microbial population that Craig has been working with company breaks down their feed, he says.

BioBrew for the last 10 years to study their “Ruminants don’t eat grass, they probiotics. CalfBrew is a fresh probiotic process grass. If they don’t have the right product from BioBrew, developed through population in the rumen, they can’t Callaghan Innovation-funded research at process the grass and eat the bacterial Lincoln University. products that come off that.”

One study using CalfBrew on the short Just a small amount of probiotic bacteria and longterm effects of using a probiotic can be significant in a cow’s rumen. on calves has shown an increase in calf An example of probiotic bacteria all growth by up to 10%. farmers can relate to is silage inoculant, which is a lactic acid producing bacteria • Read more about this study and that break down the plant material.

CalfBrew in our next issue.

The benefits of probiotics Words by: Sheryl Haitana

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here is an old story of farmers, who, if they were bringing new stock on to their property, would take the cud out of their cows and put it in the mouth of the new animals to help them adjust to their new environment.

This is an example of a beneficial use of sharing bacteria between animals, Lincoln University Professor of Animal Science Craig Bunt says.

The World Health Organization defines probiotics as “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host”.

These microbes perform a number of helpful functions, including the production of beneficial compounds such as organic acids that help modify the gut to protect it against inflammation and help fight off other bacteria.

Scientists only know a fraction of the bacteria that exist, and for every bacterial species there are multiple strains that can change what they’re doing.

“You can have a bacteria that produces this wonderfully beneficial compound that’s great for our gut, but it might suddenly stop doing it, or it might produce something else.

“Science is looking at these more and more and realising how complicated it is. Science is often looking for the magic bullet, but probiotic bacteria are little bioreactor powerhouses that can respond

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

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VET VOICE

Dry cow therapy – it’s time to change

Lisa Whitfield

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ack in 2016 the New Zealand Veterinary Association released its’ position statement which included the following direction: “By 2020, DCT (Dry Cow Therapy) will only be used in the treatment of existing intramammary infections.”

If you have looked at the calendar recently you will realise that 2020 is here.

So how does this affect you?

Traditionally antibiotic dry cow therapy has had two functions.

1. To prevent a cow acquiring a new intramammary infection over the dry period 2. To treat intramammary infections which are present at the time of drying off.

From now on, the preventative function of antibiotic dry cow therapy is no longer a valid reason to use it, and dry cow antibiotics should only be used for the treatment of infections which are already present at drying off.

We have access to good internal teat sealant products which outperform antibiotic dry cow therapy in the field of preventing new intramammary infections over the dry period, and all cows are candidates to receive an internal teat sealant at drying off.

For you, the dairy farmer, this means that to justify to your vet that a cow needs to receive dry cow therapy, you should have evidence provided to prove that she needs it.

Taking this to the extreme, as has been done in other countries, this may one day mean that a bacterial culture performed on the milk from each cow has to be done to show which individual cows have an infection requiring treatment. This approach would currently be considered the gold standard for appropriate use of dry cow antibiotics.

We have access to good internal teat sealant products which outperform antibiotic dry cow therapy.

At this stage the approach in NZ has been a few steps below this.

In NZ, it is acceptable for a cow to have a high cell count in order to prove that she has infection which needs treating.

This means that either a recent herd test result or a rapid mastitis test (RMT) result is acceptable evidence of infection.

All cows are candidates to receive an internal teat sealant at drying off.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Using culture to identify which cows should receive dry cow therapy is the gold standard for appropriate use of antibiotics. The red arrow indicates a cow which should receive dry cow therapy. All of the other samples only need an internal teat sealant at drying off.

As the season rapidly draws to a close, have you thought about the implications of this for your herd?

Do you have this evidence available to you?

There is no excuse for anyone not to have this information. A herd test performed within the last 80 days prior to drying off means that for a May 30 dry off date, any herd test Times are changing, and it is performed after March 10 is important that you keep up to date with the latest information. going to be useful to make Guideline and Technote 14 from drying off decisions. If you DairyNZ has been updated – have haven’t organised a late herd you taken a look? Scan the QR code test, you can go through your to be taken directly to DairyNZs Drying Off Strategy page. herd with an RMT paddle and still get good information for making drying off decisions.

Whole herd antibiotic dry cow therapy is only rarely justifiable.

There are many examples of herds which use very low rates of antibiotic dry cow therapy (>10% of cows) and also have low seasonal bulk tank SCC and low clinical mastitis cases. Antibiotics are only one tool in the kit for fixing mastitis problems and should not be relied on as a sole means of managing mastitis problems.

• Lisa Whitfield – Production Animal Veterinarian

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DAIRY 101 THE PERFECT COW

The perfect cow?

Seeking perfection Story and photos by: Karen Trebilcock

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e know we are not perfect, but we do wish our cows were. So what, in a cow, is perfection?

Or in other words, what are we trying to breed?

Holstein, Friesian (yes, they are now recognised in New Zealand as two separate breeds), Jersey, Ayrshire or a cross of two or more of them for some hybrid vigour?

Big and tall or smaller? Do we need better feet or are we more interested in a nice udder?

Or how about a cow that doesn’t kick the cups off at every milking, and gets in calf every year, and has low somatic cells and – well, it’s a bit of a list isn’t it?

To make it easy for NZ farmers we have the New Zealand Animal Evaluation (NZAEL) breeding worth known to everyone as BWs. BWs incorporate eight traits that are identified at the moment as having a measurable economic value to NZ famers – it ranks cows and bulls on their ability to breed profitable and efficient replacement dairy heifers.

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The eight traits are milk fat and protein produced, milk volume, liveweight, fertility, somatic cell count, residual survival and body condition score.

Obviously, some of these traits are plus and others are negative – the more potential for milk fat and protein production the higher the BW score but high milk volume, high liveweight and high somatic cell counts lower it.

Each trait is financial, ranked on the influence of it on the economic value of the cow and these amounts change as the influence of them on farmers change.

The big one in the past few years is the increase in the weighting of milk fat.

So if your perfect cow is all about production and economics (smaller cows eat less) then you don’t need to look any further than BW. However, there are also TOPs. Pronounced T – O – P, it stands for traits other than production and it is these you will see listed among bull lists on web pages and in those nice glossy catalogues.

TOPs include farmer-scored management traits (adaptability to milking, temperament, milking speed

and overall opinion) and inspectorscored conformation traits (stature, rump angle, rump width, udder support, teat placement and a whole heap more.)

While much of the BW information comes from herd testing, TOPs comes from people who look at individual cows.

TOP inspectors evaluate daughters from sire proving schemes when they start lactating and this information, along with that from the farmers milking them, is fed into NZAEL for the bulls’ rankings.

Some of the TOPs might sound strange but they all have a purpose.

For example, rump angle is the angle from the middle of the hip to the top of the pin bone. A flat to slightly sloping angle (low pins) is what is desirable because cows with it calve easier.

The rump width is the distance between the posterior point of the pin bones in relation to the size of the cow and is a good indicator of the width of a cow throughout her body.

And the wider the cow, the more space she has to stick that 18kg drymatter (DM) of grass she should be eating each day.

Some bulls, though, are selected on the genes and are known as “genomic

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Will you be the future bull for me?

As we are continually breeding better animals, obviously the young ones are going to be better than their dads, uncles and definitely better than their great, great grandads so genomic bulls to be used for breeding tend to have the highest BWs.

selected” or “InSires” instead of “daughterproven” bulls.

The bulls, as calves, have had their DNA profile examined to come up with their genomic BW (gBW).

As we are continually breeding better animals, obviously the young ones are going to be better than their dads, uncles and definitely better than their great, great grandads so genomic bulls to be used for breeding tend to have the highest BWs. So it all sounds too easy doesn’t it? I’m not too happy with the teat placement of this cow so I’ll mate it with semen from a bull with really good figures for that trait.

Or I’m going to target fertility because I’m having problems getting my cows in calf.

Well, sorry, this is where nature gets involved. Just because you have brown hair, and your partner has brown hair, that doesn’t mean all of you kids will have brown hair.

It’s called phenotype variation. So, although your cow may have some really good genes for milk production, she will also have some not so good ones. She may pass on the good ones to her offspring or she may pass on the dud ones.

And then there’s this thing called heritability. Heritability tells us how much of the difference is due to genetics, as opposed to management or the environment.

The heritability of protein production is 31%, and in the thirties are milk fat, milk volume and liveweight.

That means about a third of a cow’s production is because of its genetics and two thirds because of how well she is fed and cared for. Somatic cell counts is down

at 15% and fertility is a very low 9%.

In fact, coat colour (an extremely important trait for the economic NZ dairy cow) has the highest heritability.

There is a nice mathematical equation that explains it all: genetic gain in a herd is the result of selection intensity multiplied by heritability multiplied by phenotype variation multiplied by accuracy of selection. And all of that is divided by the generation interval.

In other words, the quickest way to increase your BW, or a trait that you want, is too use the sires with the highest proven genetics that you are wanting, identify the cows in your herd that have the desired traits and only keep calves from them and have excellent records so that you know that you are only keeping those calves.

Mating your heifers with the semen from your chosen bulls will tighten up the generation interval.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

But, and it’s a big but, don’t go chasing fertility or rump angles to the detriment of milk production.

Milk production, the main thing that puts money into your bank account, should always come first – a bull should sire high-producing cows which also, fantastically, have great feet to make sure she can walk to the dairy every day.

Also check that those bulls are proven, either by genomics or by daughters milking.

And that is thousands of daughters milking in NZ – don’t pick some gorgeous looking bull with only five daughters which all live in a barn on one farm in Wisconsin.

The more data coming in from lots of cows milking across a multitude of farm systems and environments about a sire then the better the reliability. Don’t ever forget that.

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SOLUTIONS What’s NEW? ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Antimicrobial resistance is in our cows Words by: Phil Stewart

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very year, 700,000 people die from drug-resistant diseases and if nothing is done that toll could rise to 10 million by the middle of the century.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global issue. Dr Siouxsie Wiles, head of the University of Auckland’s Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab, told dairy vets at a workshop hosted by MSD Animal Health in Whanganui, that while the high use of antimicrobials in human medicine was an issue, vets and farmers also have a role in reducing usage.

Drug-resistant pathogens can now be easily found in the environment, including in Auckland’s sewage. Because antibiotics have not been used wisely, surgeries are becoming more hazardous thanks to the risk of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, she said.

Bacteria deploy various tricks to defeat antimicrobial drugs, including developing

their own enzymes to break down the drug, or simply pumping the drug out. These newly evolved genetic traits can spread frighteningly fast – not just within the same species of bacteria. Wiles said AMR that develops in bacteria living on a plant, for example, could eventually end up in a different bacterium that infected humans.

The NZ Veterinary Association’s aspirational goal that by 2030 antibiotics would no longer be needed to keep animals healthy was admirable, she said.

Consumer pressure might eventually drive down use of the drugs in agriculture, she noted, adding a plea for better surveillance and monitoring of antibiotic use in New Zealand.

Joining Wiles at the workshop was Cognosco managing director and vet, Dr Scott McDougall.

He said AMR can be seen in dairy herds and even organic cows aren’t exempt. A recent study in 26 Waikato herds showed some AMR was present in herds regardless of their history of antimicrobial dry cow

Surgeries are becoming more hazardous thanks to the risk of multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

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Above: Antibiotic warning: Drs Siouxsie Wiles and Scott McDougal.

therapy (DCT) usage.

The work, supported by MSD Animal Health, looked at three groups of herds: organic herds, those given penicillin-type (ampicillin/cloxacillin) DCT and those given a cephalonium DCT. AMR was found, to some extent, in all the types of mastitis bugs isolated from the milk samples.

While there was an association between the history of dry cow therapy usage and the presence of AMR, it wasn’t clear cut and there was large variation between herds, he said. That was especially so with organic herds. There were eight in the study and they’d had no DCT for anywhere between seven and 19 years. The persistence of resistant bacteria in the mammary glands of these herds could be a legacy of historic antimicrobial use or other environmental factors such as importation of resistant bacteria through purchasing stock.

The large variation between herds in the amount of AMR suggests there is more to it than just the herds’ history of DCT usage.

Other factors, such as the age of cows, farm biosecurity and transmission of AMR genes via environmental bacteria could also be playing a part.

The good news is that although AMR is present, conventional treatment with antimicrobials will still effectively treat most mastitis infections. McDougall said presence of AMR in a herd does affect which clinical mastitis treatment should be used during lactation, but it’s a lesssignificant consideration when choosing dry cow therapy.

Vet Peter Aitken of Totally Vets’ Awapuni clinic, Palmerston North, has successfully

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Dry off... stay on top of what’s down under.

Peter Aitken: pinpointing the problem.

used Cognosco’s dairy antibiogram test to pinpoint an AMR problem in a large Manawatu dairy herd.

“I was concerned because clinical mastitis cases during the lactation weren’t responding so well to treatment.

Rather than just changing treatments I advised the owner to take a step back and use some science to find out what was going on.”

The Dairy Antibiogram accurately measures the sensitivity of two common mastitis pathogens found in milk samples from the herd to a range of antibiotics. In this herd, mastitis pathogens were beginning to show evidence of resistance to the tylosin-based antibiotic used.

The bacteria were most susceptible to the penicillinbased antibiotic, so they moved to using a clinical mastitis treatment with this active ingredient. The response to the treatment change has been positive.

“The tylosin they’d been using was a macrolide, which gets a red light (a last-resort antibiotic) in the Veterinary Association’s traffic light system for antibiotics. The penicillin-based treatment gets a green light (a first line therapy antibiotic).”

He also reviewed the effectiveness of the dry cow therapy used in the herd and suggested a move away from the ampicillin/cloxacillin treatment that was being used.

“At the upcoming drying off we’re moving to a shortacting first-generation cephalosporin.”

Amanda Kilby, a vet at MSD Animal Health, noted that it’s important for farmers to discuss with their vets what the best option for DCT is on their farm, preferably with some milk sample results from the season to refer to.

A few different options of short-acting treatments are available. In addition to the more common ampicillin/ cloxacillin short-acting products, there is a firstgeneration cephalosporin dry cow therapy that has a long and solid track record overseas and shows excellent cure rates for the major mastitis pathogens in NZ. “It also has the shortest withholding period for any dry cow therapy used in New Zealand.”

To learn more about prudent antibiotic use on your farm, visit dairynz.co.nz/antibiotics or talk to your local veterinarian.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Drying off is the single most important event of the year for managing mastitis in your herd. What you do now by way of dry off management can dramatically affect herd health and milk quality next season.

To assist with this, check out TOP FARMERS KNOW-HOW... where there's access to videos, fact sheets and more, all free to help farmers be at the top of their game.

It's part of an investment from MSD Animal Health and comes as another layer of service to our robust technical team deployed nationally.

SHARING KNOW-HOW WORTH KNOWING

www.TopFarmers.co.nz AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd. Phone: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz NZ/BOV/0319/0004 ©2019 Intervet International B.V. All Rights Reserved.

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SOLUTIONS What’s NEW? WEED ANALYSIS APP

App to help farmers manage weeds

F

armers can now measure and, Bourdot said the feedback from farmers as a result, better manage weeds had so far been very positive. on their property with the help “The catalyst for developing the app of a phone app developed by came from a Sustainable Farming Fund AgResearch. weed management project that I am The ‘Grassland Cover Estimator App’ involved in led by Golden Bay dairy provides an estimate of the percentage of a farmer, Corrigan Sowman. paddock occupied by a weed. This enables “We’ve been comparing different the productivity lost due to the management tactics for giant weed to be calculated and used buttercup in on-farm field in a cost-benefit analysis for a experiments with a view to proposed control operation. developing a decision support The App was launched in system for management of this February and AgResearch weed.

Principal Scientist Graeme “It’s a simple-to-use Bourdot said it will have broad but powerful, enabling appeal among a wide variety measurement of the cover of AgResearch Principal of users working directly or any component of a natural Scientist Graeme Bourdot indirectly in the pastoral grassland or sown pasture sector, including farmers, including any weed, desirable regional council biosecurity officers, rural pasture plant, diseased plants, bare ground professionals, farm advisors, scientists and etc. students.

“The app keeps track of ‘present’ and “The app has already been downloaded ‘absent’ observations made by the user and by 45 users across New Zealand, China, uses this data in a method known as ‘StepUnited Kingdom, France, Germany, United point Analysis’ to calculate the percentage States and Canada.” of the paddock that is covered by the

Weed-infested crop.

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Above: Weed analysis by app.

weed or other component of interest. The app also enables the data to be exported for more detailed analysis including, for example, mapping of the cover estimates for the paddocks on a farm.”

The precision and accuracy of the cover estimates generated by the app are the subject of an ongoing collaboration between AgResearch and Professor Joe Neal, a weed science extension specialist at North Carolina State University. The results from this study, involving data collection in pastures and simulation modelling, will inform sampling protocols for using the app and will be published in an international weed science journal.

Bourdot said there’s already been significant interest from other external stakeholders in NZ to further develop and expand the capabilities of the app. The app is available, free to use, on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

SOLUTIONS What’s NEW? TRAINING

Farmers urged to ‘keep moving forward’

S

itting in a classroom or completing assignments can send shivers down many farmers’ spines, particularly if they didn’t enjoy school as a youngster.

But a growing number of New Zealand farmers are putting their fears aside and studying with Primary ITO as well as encouraging their staff to enrol.

Taranaki contract milker Briar Yarrall strongly believes the more you know, the better, and recently completed a Diploma in Agribusiness Management to improve her financial and business planning skills. While she’s a natural academic, her husband, Marcus, suffers from severe dyslexia and has needed extra support to complete various Primary ITO qualifications over the years.

“He really struggles with reading and writing but all the courses he’s done he’s really enjoyed. Our training adviser has been terrific. They ask him a question and instead of him having to write it down, he speaks the answer and his ‘smart pen’ records it.”

The pair have always encouraged their

staff to enrol with Primary ITO as well.

“We’ve always said the more our staff know, the less pressure is on us to know everything and be there all the time.”

Briar acknowledges that many farmers didn’t enjoy their schooling years but once enrolled, almost everyone enjoys the confidence boost that study can provide.

“We’ve had staff say ‘I’m too dumb, I can’t do it. I can’t read or write’ who have then come back from class and said, ‘actually I’ve learnt something today and this is really interesting.’

“It opens up a new conversation and gets them to look past just getting up at 5am and milking the cows and going home.

They have a bit of skin in the game and I think that’s really important. It’s about just getting people moving forward,” Briar says.

“We’ve had really good luck with longevity of staff but by the same token, study is setting them up to be able to move on and move forward. Getting good people into the industry and keeping them is a big issue and I think study is a great way to tackle that problem.”

In addition to her Level 5 Agribusiness

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Above: Briar Yarrall: ‘Getting good people into the industry and keeping them is a big issue.’

Diploma, Briar and Marcus have both completed Level 3 and Level 4 certificates in Dairy as well as an Effluent Management course and several Milk Quality papers.

Briar grew up on a sheep and beef farm and says study has helped her to plug gaps in her knowledge when it comes to dairy farming.

“I knew when a paddock was ready to be grazed by cows by eye but I didn’t understand what drymatter was. I also knew from doing it what milk fever was but I’m quite an academic person. I like having the background of what something is and how it works, and I like studying.

I knew Primary ITO qualifications were something that I would get a lot out of and I’d definitely encourage other people to give them a go.”

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OUR STORY 50 YEARS AGO IN NZ DAIRY EXPORTER

50 years ago – April 1970 As NZ Dairy Exporter counts down to its centenary in 2025, we look back at the issues of earlier decades. 50 Years Ago – April 1970.

ACCESS VITAL

The Dairy Board and its marketing teams are assiduously cultivating new markets and the expansion of existing ones in an endeavour to sell our increasing dairy production.

But without enlarged access to the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom – with particular reference to if and when Britain joins the EEC on which we have the assurance of the United Kingdom that our position will be safeguarded – one can see that our production should be controlled to what we can sell in the world markets at reasonable prices.

SOY MEATS STILL NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STEAK

Recent technological developments permit increasing use of vegetable protein from soybeans, cottonseed and peanuts as substitutes for meat and poultry.

The greatest share of the action in extending or replacing meat with vegetable protein centres on soybeans.

Soy flour, grits and concentrates serve as binders or meat extenders in hamburger, hot dogs, sausage and other finely ground meat products.

However, U.S. Federal regulations restrict meatlike ingredients to 3.5% in a product.

Soy isolates achieved through fibrillation or “spinning” have a fibrous texture that can be moulded and coloured to simulate natural meat consistency, appearance and taste and can pass for beef, chicken, pork, ham or turkey.

NITROGENOUS FERTILISER

I think I’ve already made the point in these columns that I consider that nitrogenous fertiliser could well play an important part in building up a big reserve of grass to be used during the winter months in lieu of hay and silage that has had to be fed during the last two months.

To some extent one must be lucky with the weather to get the best results from a topdressing programme involving nitrogen.

On the other hand it’s possible to minimise the chances of a poor response by being aware of certain basic facts.

I think that the most important of these is that adequate nitrogen is only one of the factors necessary for good grass growth.

Certain species become dormant (or almost so) as soon as temperatures drop in the autumn.

Paddocks in which the level of other plant nutrients is suspect are not good bets for nitrogen unless the deficiencies are corrected.

Again, a plant that has taken a thrashing, whether it be because of drought conditions or because of management, is in no shape to take advantage of an application of nitrogenous fertiliser.

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Above: Three of New Zealand Dairy Board’s “Expo 70” girls undergoing training in the operation of a soft ice cream machine. With its two shops in Osaka, the Board is making a bold bid to introduce the increasingly affluent Japanese people to the world’s best dairy foods. Commencing with this issue, the “Exporter” covers will be in full colour – another step in the progressive policy of New Zealand’s foremost dairy farming magazine.

CHICKEN CASSEROLE

1 chicken 1 tin cream of chicken soup ½ cup flour 1 tin pineapple chunks Salt and pepper Skin the chicken and cut into pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and roll in flour. Brown well in fat or butter in frying pan.

Combine soup and pineapple, pour into casserole and add the chicken pieces. Cook slowly for 2 hours at 350 degrees.

R.T. Thanks to the Hocken Library, Dunedin.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

April

DairyNZ consulting officers Upper North Island – Head: Sharon Morrell 027 492 2907 Northland Regional Leader

Tareen Ellis

027 499 9021

Far North

Amy Weston

027 807 9686

Lower Northland

Hamish Matthews

021 242 5719

Whangarei West

Ryan Baxter

021 809 569

Regional Leader

Wilma Foster

027 246 2147

South Auckland

Mike Bramley

027 486 4344

Hauraki Plains/Coromandel

Jaimee Morgan

021 245 8055

Te Aroha/Waihi

Euan Lock

027 293 4401

Cambridge

Lizzy Moore

021 242 2127

Hamilton

Ashley Smith

027 364 9296

Huntly/Tatuanui

Brigitte Ravera

027 288 1244

Matamata/Kereone

Frank Portegys

027 807 9685

Pirongia

Steve Canton

027 475 0918

Otorohanga/King Country

Denise Knop

027 513 7201

Arapuni

Kirsty Dickens

027 483 2205

Regional Leader

Andrew Reid

027 292 3682

Central Plateau

Colin Grainger-Allen

021 225 8345

packs this month. If you are a farmer who

South Waikato/Rotorua South

Angela Clarke

027 276 2675

pays a levy on milksolids, don’t forget to

Eastern Bay of Plenty

Andrew Reid

027 292 3682

Central Bay of Plenty

Kevin McKinley

027 288 8238

Events DairyNZ levy vote 2020 Dairy farmers will receive their levy vote

Waikato

VOTING IS NOW O

Bay of Plenty

PEN

17 APRI L - 30 MAY 20 20

have your say before May 30.

YOUR LEVY , YOUR FUTURE

Lower North Island – Head: Rob Brazendale 021 683 139 Taranaki Regional Leader

Mark Laurence

027 704 5562

South Taranaki

Nathan Clough

021 246 5663

Central Taranaki

Emma Hawley

021 276 5832

Coastal Taranaki

Caroline Benson

027 210 2137

In response to Covid-19, instead of face-to-face events DairyNZ

North Taranaki

Ian Burmeister

027 593 4122

is increasing other ways of keeping farmers connected and

Lower North Island

supported. Visit dairynz.co.nz or contact your local consulting

Horowhenua/Coastal and Southern Manawatu

Kate Stewart

027 702 3760

Wairarapa/Tararua

Rob Brazendale

021 683 139

Eketahuna

Andrew Hull

027 298 7260

Hawke's Bay

Gray Beagley

021 286 4346

Northern Manawatu/Wanganui/Woodville

Rob Brazendale

021 683 139

Central Manawatu/Rangitikei

Charlotte Grayling

027 355 3764

Events

officer for more information.

Rural people helping rural people

South Island – Head: Tony Finch 027 706 6183

With all that is going on right now, you might be keen for a chat with

Top of South Island/West Coast

someone who understands and can offer guidance.

Nelson/Marlborough

Mark Shadwick

021 287 7057

West Coast

Angela Leslie

021 277 2894

Rural Support Trusts are here for rural people and farming families across

Canterbury/North Otago

New Zealand. Phone 0800 787 254 or visit rural-support.org.nz.

Regional Leader

Ross Bishop

027 563 1785

North Canterbury

Amy Chamberlain

027 243 0943

Central Canterbury

Ross Bishop

027 563 1785

Mid Canterbury

Stuart Moorhouse

027 513 7200

South Canterbury

Heather Donaldson

027 593 4124

North Otago

Alana Hall

027 290 5988

Regional Leader

Ollie Knowles

027 226 4420

West Otago/Gore

Ollie Knowles

027 226 4420

and would like to talk to someone with experience, sign up today and

South Otago

Guy Michaels

021 302 034

we’ll connect you with a support farmer.

Central/Northern Southland

Nicole E Hammond

021 240 8529

Eastern Southland

Nathan Nelson

021 225 6931

Western/Central Southland

Leo Pekar

027 211 1389

Dairy Connect Are you a dairy farmer seeking information about a specific dairying topic?

Southland/South Otago

If you’re thinking of trying something new on-farm, or facing challenges

Visit dairynz.co.nz/dairyconnect.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020

Z

0800 4 DairyNZ (0800 4 324 7969) I dairynz.co.nz WITH DAIR

YN

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2020