STOCK TECHNOLOGY
Collar-ing technology Technology makes its mark on the Coplands’ mid-Canterbury property where generations of the family have farmed for more than 140 years. Anne Lee reports.
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ou won’t find anyone up on the stand spotting heats on the Coplands’ 1500-cow Canterbury dairy farm and you won’t find just black and white cows in the huge barns either. While they may have more than 100 years of farming history in the area, the intergenerational 720-hectare Chertsey farm is anything but stuck in the ways of old. Technology is at the forefront, systems are challenged and new opportunities grabbed with both hands. James Copland settled land in the area in 64
1877 and at one stage owned 12,000 acres between Dunsandel and Rakaia. It’s hard to know what he’d make of cows walking around with collars that can accurately indicate heats and illness or milking parlours set up to automatically draft off the animals that need to be attended to or even robots that sweep feed up to animals housed in sheds the size of small villages. The huge black cattle fed secret diets from recipes devised in Japan would also surely have him reeling. All of that and more is going on at Chertsey where Neville and Marilyn with
sons Craig and Wayne are running an integrated dairy, Wagyu beef and cropping operation that also has some horticulture on the side for good measure. Neville took over from his father in 1987 and in 2008 the family converted to dairying from bull beef and cropping. Craig says they bought autumn calving cows as part of the herd and with the new 60-bail farm dairy finished in March decided to take on a winter milk contract to fast track some income. Although they had an 800-cow feedpad, two wet winters in a row saw them invest in a 5000 square metre Calder Stewart-built
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2020
