Dairy Exporter February 2017

Learn, grow, excel

FEBRUARY 2017

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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CONTENTS

FROM SYDNEY TO DOLLY’S DAIRY 36

Special Report

MILKING PLATFORM

SPECIAL REPORT

RENEW MORE PASTURE

10 Charlie McCaig crunches the numbers 11 James Davidson makes every drop count

UPFRONT 12 Expenses rise adds to debt 14 New bobby calf regulations announced 16 Flavour finds favour for scientist Skelte Anema 18 Organics are part of Steven Carden’s future for Landcorp 20 Susan Kilsby looks into the future of world milk prices 22 Practical help needed to formulate Healthy Rivers policy 23 Whole milk powder still the export king

BUSINESS 24 Training the Facebook generation 27 Secrets to farm careers revealed 30 Employers line up for dairy academy graduates 32 Soil scientists focus on cutting nitrogen loss 36 Raw milk: From Sydney to Dolly’s Milk

SYSTEMS

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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38 Pressing on with new grass in Northland 40 Gavin Ushher finds forages to suit the north 46 CO Diary: Heifers to the fore for Wairarapa farmers

ENVIRONMENT 48 Grow your own riparian plants

SPECIAL REPORT | PASTURE RENEWAL 52 Green, green grass of Camden 56 Grass into Gold: Susan and Mark Dyer see benefits of monitoring 58 Stylish Blade to raise dairy awareness 60 Will Ben McDougall find the silver bullet in prairie grass?

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TRAINING THE FACEBOOK GENERATION 24

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

62 Expert Eye: How much pasture should you renew?

64 Cool, wet season means a late start for re-sown pastures 66 Condition scoring a key to renewal

YOUNG COUNTRY 68 Michael Rope offers a sweet appeal for the north 71 Emma Bell finds a future with seeds

ON THE PATH TO CONTRACT MILKING 31

DAIRY 101 76 Fixing those water troughs

COLUMNS 20 Market View: The future of world milk prices 45 Vet Voice: Neil Chesterton sorts the herd pecking order 72 Farm gear: Tim McVeagh checks water supplies 74 Research: Doug Dibley puts the focus on home-grown feed 78 Solutions 79 Property

GROW-YOUR-OWN RIPARIAN PLANTS 48

SWEETENING APPEAL OF THE NORTH 68 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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DAIRY DIARY

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FEBRUARY February 16-May 25 – Succession planning and getting the next generation into farming and farm ownership will be discussed at nationwide workshops organised by Dairy Women’s Network through a partner module. Dates/locations in North Island: Rahotu, February 16; Pukekohe, February 23; Pahiatua, March 7; Paengaroa, April 12; Otorohanga, May 17; Atiamuri, May 18; Whangarei, May 18; Gordontown, May 25. South Island: Gore, March 16; Balclutha, March 30; Invercargill, April 11; Greymouth, May 2. For further information and to register visit www.dwn.co.nz/events.

February 22 – A facial eczema and once-a-day field day is being held at Rob Simpson’s farm near Whakatane. The field day will run between 10am and 2pm. Details will be available at www.dairynzevents.co.nz.

February 23-May 3 – A Dairy Women’s Network-organised workshop, Farm Accounting in the Cloud gives practical guidance

MARCH March 2-4 – Tickets for the Northland Field Days can be purchased online at www.northlandfielddays.co.nz.

March 7 – The BNZ Northland Dairy Development Trust Conference will be held at the ASB Lounge in Whangarei. The project was developed to secure quality dairy research relevant to Northland, with details about the trials at www.nddt.nz. For more information about the conference contact the event organiser, Abbey Cameron on 021 1644 443.

March 8 – Owl Farm, a demonstration farm at St Peter’s School in Cambridge hosts a focus day between 10.15am and 1pm. This is the first farm focus day of 2017 and third for the current season. Topics will include future farm development, the farm system to optimise sustainable profits and the recently completed Constructed Treatment Wetland to discuss the benefits of these ecosystems. For details about Owl Farm visit www.owlfarm.nz.

on managing farm finances using cloud accounting software. Dates/ locations in North Island: Te Kauwhata, February 23; South Waikato, March 15; Whakatane, March 16; Otorohanga, March 21; Feilding, March 28; Taranaki, March 29; Taupo, April 11. South Island: Otautau, March 7; Ashburton, March 21; Oamaru, April 12; Balclutha, April 13; Selwyn district, May 3. For further information and to register, visit www.dwn.co.nz/events.

February 24 – The 2017 Ballance Farm Environment Awards begin, with regional winners heading to the National Sustainability Showcase held in Invercargill on May 31. The awards begin in Bay of Plenty February 24, followed by East Coast, March 1; Horizons, March 16; Northland, March 22; Waikato, March 23; Auckland, March 29; Canterbury, March 30; Southland, April 6; Otago, April 7; Greater Wellington, April 11; Taranaki, April 12. For further information on the awards or to enter, visit www.nzfeatrust.org.

March 13-14 – The 2017 Sheep Milk NZ Conference in Palmerston North is part of the New Zealand AgriFood Investment Week (NZ Ag Invest). Visit www.nzaginvest.co.nz.

March 14-15 – Central Districts Field Days are held at Manfeild Park in Feilding. Visit www.cdfielddays.co.nz.

March 14-15 – The New Zealand Future Farms Conference will be held at the Palmerston North Convention Centre and features the hottest topics and biggest challenges facing farmers today. Visit www. nzaginvest.co.nz for more details.

March 16 – A Governance and Succession Planning masterclass follows the New Zealand Future Farms Conference and is aimed at offering participants alternative options to ensure a governance function adds value, not cost, to farming businesses. To find out more and to register, visit www.conferenz.co.nz/events/4th-new-zealandfuture-farms-conference/workshops.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 16/11/2016 10:33:26 p.m.2017

EDITORIAL

Pasture renewal – the gift that keeps on giving

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t’s not easy being a cover girl (or guy).

Our thanks to the leg model who agreed to stand in a lush Canterbury paddock in his Red Bands to show off the lushness of the new pasture for our February cover.

He will remain nameless as we don’t want him to be further hounded by the paparazzi but the image backs up the concept – pasture renewal is not just a cost, it’s an investment, the dividends are handsome and the payback period short.

In our pasture renewal special report we have some great testimonials on the value of investing in new pastures.

Joy and Deverel Thomas say after renewal their best paddocks grew twice as much pasture as their poor ones and they lifted their once-a-day milk production 6% above their previous twice-a-day season production record. (pg 57).

Additional pasture production on Susan and Mark Dyer’s Te Aroha farm equated to an extra $37,500 for themselves and their farm owners last season.

According to our Expert Eye report (p 62), two thirds of paddocks on New Zealand dairy farms are not performing

to their potential – and one third are seriously underperforming.

Pasture can be renewed for 10c/kg drymatter (DM) and is self-replacing whereas imported feeds start at 35c/kg DM. We even show an easy way to start ranking your paddocks to work out which should be first for renewal (p66).

Farm training is in a state of flux with the demise of Agriculture NZ’s training schemes and the problems Telford is having but there are still great things happening in the sector.

The Dairy Academy in the central North Island is turning out skilled-up and soughtafter students and down south the Canterbury Farm Capability Society are focusing on pastoral

care and tailored quality training for each of the individual trainees. And in a case of if you can’t beat them, join them, Lisa Hicks is using a closed Facebook group to post daily messages, videos and pictures to communicate with and educate the diverse group of students and employees on her Ohakune farm (p24).

As the payout recovers and Fonterra loans are repaid, farmers will once again be inching towards profitability and wondering where to make investments that bring in a good return.

Pasture renewal would have to be one of the best returns around at present, so start measuring and monitoring pastures to find which are run out and plan to lift your rate of pasture renewal.

It’s a growing trend.

Jackie

SNEAK PREVIEW

NEXT ISSUE SPECIAL REPORT: EFFLUENT Making the most of green gold Earl Wright’s environmental initiatives in the Kaipara Shedding light on NPK in fertiliser

NEW ZEALAND

Learn, grow, excel

NZ Dairy Exporter is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740, Toll free 0800 85 25 80, www.nzfarmlife.co.nz Dairy Exporter/Young Country editor Jackie Harrigan, ph 06 280 3165, M 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Lead sub-editor: Andy Maciver, ph 06 280 3166 Reporters Hugh Stringleman ph 09 432 8594; Glenys Christian

ph 027 434 7803; Sheryl Brown ph 021 239 1633; Cheyenne Stein 06 323 1660; Anne Hardie 027 540 3635; Anne Lee 021 413 346; Karen Trebilcock 03 489 8083; Designer: Joanne Hannam Account Managers: Warren McDonald, National Advertising Manager, Ph 06 323 0143 John McMaster, Auckland/Northland, ph 09 3756 007 Janine Gray, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, ph 027 474 6094 Donna Hirst, Lower North Island, ph 06 323 0739 Nigel Ramsden, Livestock, ph 06 323 0761

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Shirley Howard, real estate/international, ph 06 323 0760 Debbie Brown, classifieds/employment, ph 06 323 0765 David Paterson, South Island, ph 03 382 6143 Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz ph 0800 2AG SUB (224 782) ISSN 2230-2697 (Print) ISSN 2230-3057 (Online)

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Word in your ear Don’t put off your milk cooling until 2018 if you can sort today Graham Brocklehurst and his wife Vicki have been successfully farming their 100 ha effective dairy farm at Waitakamaru, Hauraki Plains for 39 years.

A family run farm, today the herd management is ably handled by son Sean and partner Erin.

Graham is still very much hands on with farm developments.

This includes getting ahead of the game when it comes to changes to farming regulations.

“Fonterra has been issuing notes on their tickets saying in 2018 this would be a grade etc. I don’t want to have dumped or graded milk”, says Graham.

“I also saw there was a risk to waiting in that every second farmer in New Zealand could then be wanting to get sorted at the same time.”

“I wanted to get it out of the way and to have simplicity and peace of mind.

I also wanted to have it in for at least one summer to make sure it works through the hottest months.”

He couldn’t be happier with the result.

The process was simple and concrete.

He shopped around and looked at different suppliers but stayed with Tru-Test as they offer a maintenance plan which for Graham is a must.

3087TTDA01

“Knowing you can call someone knowledgeable when you need help is very attractive for me”.

“Tru-Test also offered hard data to back up their suggested solution. Dave Gray, our local rep came and did a milk cooling assessment and put temperature gauges on all the pipes. He gave me the results in a report, pointing out what he thought

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Weighing & EID

Tru-Test Milk Cooling rep, Dave Gray installing data loggers for a Milk Cooling Assessment.

was the best thing for our shed”.

Graham was surprised. “I thought I might have to pay for a bigger refrigeration unit.

He had a number of systems on offer and could have sold me a bigger one but a 6hp Ice Bank was the best solution for us.”

Now by the time milking is finished the temperature is 5°C in the tank and then 4°C whenever the tanker shows up on their every second day pick up.

“I wanted to get it out of the way and to have simplicity and peace of mind. I also wanted to have it in for at least one summer to make sure it works through the hottest months.”

As part of upgrading, Graham thought he would have to change his old refrigeration unit as it was only a 4hp.

It also worked like hell on a hot day to get down under 7°C and ran all the time.

With the new 6hp ice bank his old 4hp

Dairy Automation

refrigeration unit now only works half an hour to an hour a day, saving on electricity.

The new ice bank uses more but he expects there are still overall savings.

“We’re not ever going to have to worry about our milk getting above 10°C at end of milking.”

“We had a power outage the other day where the refrigeration stopped. Milk was still at 8°C which showed me we could get away without refrigeration. Before if this happened, the milk would be 20°C.” “It’s been easier and better than I thought it would be. I never realized it would put the milk in the vat so cold!”

He’s also future proofed with “a man’s system doing a boy’s job”.

This means if his son decides he wants to milk another 50 cows, which they have the land for, the new cooling system can handle this.

His advice is simple. “If you don’t have to wait, don’t.”

“I’m getting too old to be worrying.

Sure it’s expensive but it’s a one off cost.

Mind you if I hadn’t I would have a new race horse instead.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Milk Cooling & Tanks

Dairy automation integral to split calving Winter milk premium, ability to extend cash flow, reduce costs and tighten calving patterns, split calving is becoming an attractive herd management option for a growing number of New Zealand dairy farmers. Dairy automation is helping many to manage the associated complexities.

Tirau’s Shane and Sarah Goldsmith are one set of farmers.

Shane and Sarah purchased their current 240 ha, 730 herd farm 7 months ago, stepping up from a 250-head operation.

They introduced automation to their previous farm with an automatic drafting gate. As a one-man operation, this was a significant time saver for Shane.

After his experience with the auto drafting gate he wanted automation for his new farm and shopped around.

“Tru-Test was able to offer us a complete modular system at a competitive price, and with an outstanding support service.

Our vat monitoring is with them too which means largely only one company to deal with regarding our shed operation.”

The full system meant he was well set up for monitoring and managing all aspects of his herd entering the unknown of a new farm and stock.

Keeping labour costs down from the start by running one herd outside of mating and calving, automation also lets him manage the complexities of multiple categories of cows.

He singles out the auto feeder and drafter as the most useful aspects of the system for him followed closely by the somatic cell counts detection for managing mastitis. The walk over weighing is also important as it enables him to track the

The Goldsmith family (left to right) Shane Goldsmith, Sasha, Tahlia, Madison, Sarah and Aidan.

weights of each cow and quickly know who is getting light or heavy, and why.

In-bail automatic feeding enables Shane to target feed each cow based on its weight and age.

“Say I can see that 3 cows are losing weight. As well as in-shed, I can also programme though my phone for them to get extra feed. I don’t have to be on site to see and do this.”

“Tru-Test was able to offer us a complete modular system at a competitive price, and with an outstanding support service” “It’s critical in managing the health of my herd and bottom line”.

He is now looking forward to the benefits of changing to split calving.

After managing the complexities of multiple mobs in a single herd, he is not phased by those that come with this method of milking.

Seeing the data come up on the in-shed display or accessing it through the computer or phone makes the management of each cow based on its needs so easy,

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

www.tru-test.com

whether its feed, treatment, breeding or culling based. With an eye to split calving it’ll be “which are my spring cows versus my winter”.

“The in-shed display will tell me whose who and we will draft for drying off. I will also be able to easily track pregnancy and culling across both periods. I will be able to target feed the pregnant cows more and those that don’t fall pregnant for the spring calving will get another go for winter. I can easily manage this all through the system”, he explains.

For Shane, split calving will enable him to not only take advantage of the premium offered mid-May – mid-July.

“It will also allow me to tighten up my calving pattern so I pretty much don’t have calving after 20 September.”

“Then there’s the possible cost saving by not herd testing in the future.”

He is adamant he wouldn’t farm without automation now.

“Whatever you can dream up you can do.”

Shane’s looking forward to learning the system’s full capacity to free up even more time for the beach or fishing.

How are you tracking?

Let’s talk.

0800 878 837

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MILKING PLATFORM │ TAKING STOCK The new bridge being built to improve downstream water quality.

Crunching the numbers Charlie McCaig

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large part of our focus since our last column was preparing for our December board meeting, thinking about our five-year plan and beginning the review, plan, implement business analysis cycle.

With six months on the farm behind us we can take stock of winter, calving and mating and take advantage of unexpected situations to make some structural changes in the way we run our business.

Continuous improvement as positive feedback from review occurs across the board here, with from a practical point of view paddock renovation being the most obvious example. The farm owners have carried out ongoing drainage and pasture improvement for more than 20 years. Also, being intrinsically involved in the farm has meant the owners’ systems and strategies have been frequently and actively reviewed and they are always striving for the perfect system for farming on this land.

As part of our review and planning we’ve carried out preliminary investigations around once-a-day milking as a possibility for improving the future profitability and sustainability of the business, we’re looking long and hard at our cropping programme to make sure both the sharemilking partnership and the farm owners get good outcomes. We’ve also begun to reduce the reliance on key people – us – in certain areas of the farm operations to reduce our risk exposure.

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Handing over critical roles to our team is bittersweet but definitely necessary when farming on a larger scale.

From a finance perspective we were able to revisit our budgets which were largely based on our partner’s historical figures plus a few known costs, and with $4.25/kg milksolids (MS) as the opening forecast milk price. The increasing milk price forecast was the largest unforeseen disparity that’s crept in, lucky us.

Unfortunately, this was paired with the worst spring production we’ve experienced in our careers but things are looking a lot better than they were six months ago and we’ve been able to reconfigure our capital expenditure programme to bring some purchases forward which will create increased efficiencies onfarm with better equipment in use.

The unexpected departure of our dry stock manager has allowed us to revisit our staffing structure. The dry stock manager position was, in retrospect, a hangover from previous management structures which kept a firm boundary between the dry stock area (yearlings, heifers, bulls and holdovers) and the adjoining dairy platform. Replacing that position with a herd manager to work across the entire property is more in keeping with the holistic approach we now take

Crunching the numbers as part of business analysis.

to managing the property as a single enterprise. This also gives our whole team the opportunity to manage young stock and bulls, necessary skills to have for our progressive staff looking to the future.

Continuous improvement in the environmental impact aspect of the farm is certainly not on the backburner. Riparian planting projects continue and our farm owners have carried out almost 20km of fencing and planting since 1990 – before their first riparian management plan issued

by Taranaki Regional Council in 1996.

Plans for arguably the most exciting project onfarm; installation of a new bridge to replace an existing low-level crossing have just come to fruition. As well as riparian planting, this bridge will improve downstream water quality and is another example of the large sums of money and resources being spent by farmers on reducing the environmental impact of their operations.

Continuous improvement with regards to environmental impact does not seem to be acceptable for some of our urban counterparts, who would rather see quick fix solutions rather than incremental gains over time. Continuous improvement however is being achieved as technology improves across all aspects of modern society.

Is urban society scrutinising the

Riparian planting projects continue and our farm owners have carried out almost 20km of fencing and planting since 1990 – before their first riparian management plan issued

by Taranaki Regional Council in 1996. discharges coming from their own day-today activities? Their discharges come as a by-product of consuming whereas ours come as a by-product of producing. This fact often seems to be forgotten. However, instead of getting too fired up about the disparity we need to focus on what we can control.

So, back to the big picture stuff, in summary we’ve gone through each part of the business and taken the approach of “what would we do differently next time” and then tried to find a way to implement the answer.

No part of the business is spared the spotlight including our personal health and wellbeing. Charlie’s expanding waistline was identified as an area of concern and as such a rigorous programme of reduced intakes and increased output has been implemented. We’ll report back on the results of that.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

MILKING PLATFORM │ COMMUNITY

Making every drop count James Davidson What an eventful few months it has been for dairy farmers and the wider farming industry. With an ever-changing modern world and an active social media platform, the misinformed are provided with a platform to express their daft logic and lack of common sense.

It’s hard enough out on the farm every day without the media creating a negative public perception about our industry.

While we always aim to demonstrate the highest and best practices, like any industry, there are always bad lemons in the mix.

As farmers, we can’t hide from the fact that intensification of agriculture has definitely changed our country in both positive and negative ways, but it is important that the wider population appreciates how hard we work to ensure they have food on their tables every night.

With the rural/urban divide continuing to stretch, we are pushing away our biggest consumers. As contract milkers on an intensive dairy farm, improving the divide seems a daunting task. We are paid on production so every extra litre of milk out the gate is an extra dollar in our back pocket.

Very little ties us to the end consumer – our UHT milk could end up in an ISIS coffee for all we know, but hey we got our dollar. It is this attitude which does little to win over those trying to bring us down. I would love to wake tomorrow and milk my 10 cows, before trotting off to the local farmers’ market and skipping all the way home with my pockets lined with shillings.

The saying dreams are free is a reality in this instance, adding value to liquid milk takes large amounts of capital and balls. While I’m no hippy, we know our dream of bottling our own milk for now is restrained by the shillings that line our pockets.

The misinformed also have an opinion about how farmers use water. Farm irrigation is now blamed for destroying

the environment as well as being The vet pregnancy the reason for testing. Early prelow river levels.

Christmas scanning We love farming results were back 4%. and the lifestyle it provides but rely heavily on the input from irrigation to make this farm tick.

To have someone tell you the asset you most-heavily rely on is destroying the one thing you want to protect, is tough to stomach.

For those with fleeting groundwater supplies, the wet spring that carried well into December has been welcomed by many here in Canterbury. We are pumping about 50% of our maximum water allocation due to two wells drying up.

For too long Canterbury’s groundwater has been over-allocated to a point where it is being exhausted on the back of three dry summers. Schemes like Central Plains Water should have been given the green light years ago. Both ECAN and the Government appear to be letting farmers take the brunt of the negative media attention and it’s time someone took responsibility for not seeing this situation unfold earlier.

Accepting some responsibility and enforcing a concrete plan to fix it would go some way to restoring farmers’ faith in these establishments.

You could harvest water from the

Angus Davidson is now three months old, putting on lots of weight and sleeping well at night.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

ocean, take the salt out, pump it 300 meters back up the Canterbury plains and environmentalists would still complain.

That is always going to happen in the modern world. As farmers, we need the support to lead from the front and highlight the positives our industry offers.

With all the funding and levies collected from NZ agriculture it would be beneficial to see more spent on promoting the industry and positively influencing public perception.

For now, we soldier on towards dry off as scanning picks up across Canterbury – six-week in-calf results are filtering in. We scan pre-Christmas to simplify our shortgestation programme, our three-week incalf rate was back about 4% on that time last year so our final scan in February will be interesting.

We steered away from rearing dairy heifers this season which was a missed opportunity with weaned heifers reaching $700 plus. Buying them weaned was out of the question at that price. We hope to do well on our R2 heifers we bought as calves last year and managed to average $430 for the beef calves we reared. The beef price is still holding up cull cow prices, which doesn’t leave much margin in carryover cows. If we manage to see a lift in payout to above $7 there will likely be a massive shortage of milking stock as farmers try to take advantage of the higher prices.

After two tamer columns, some feedback led me to be a little more opinionated with this one. Feel free to get in touch if you have any feedback or thoughts, otherwise track us down on Twitter – @ JamesDavidsonNZ On the family front, Angus Davidson is now three months old and he’s an absolute champ, putting on lots of weight, sleeping well at night, smiling and giggling lots. We’re loving having him in our lives and can’t wait for him to be running around on the farm in his Swanndri and Red Bands.

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UPFRONT │ FINANCIALS

Expenses rise adds to debt Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee

Matthew Newman, DairyNZ Economist.

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his season’s slump in milk production looks set to force farm working expenses up to be close to $4 kg MS. It will also add close to $1 to average farm debt on the same basis pushing breakeven milk price up to nearly $6/kg MS. DairyNZ economist Matthew Newman says it looks likely this season’s milk production will be 4 to 5% down from the 1.862 billion kg MS produced last season and that’s having an impact on data feeding into DairyNZ’s latest farm economic survey.

The production fall – mainly caused by climatic woes – will limit financial surpluses farmers might have hoped for from rising milk prices.

Newman says the effect of the production drop alone will lift farm working expenses (FWE) by 20c/kg MS. Last season’s FWE look like they’ll come in at around $3.60 to $3.65/kg MS so the drop in production by itself will push that to $3.80/kg MS this season, he says.

But farmers have also lifted spending slightly in real terms this season in the expectation of improving milk returns.

All up Newman expects FWE will be somewhere above $3.90/kg MS and likely very close to $4/kg MS.

The $40b of farm debt cited by the Reserve Bank will also be spread across fewer kilograms of milksolids taking it from $21.50/kg MS to $22.50/kg MS. Newman says debt servicing of about $1.45/kg MS added to higher FWE combined with taxation costs and drawings would push break even to more than $5.50/kg MS figure.

While the 2015-16 season economic forecast had not been finalised feed, fertiliser and repairs and maintenance were all down considerably on the previous year.

Fertiliser had taken a big hit with $460/ ha spent compared with $521/ha in 201415 and $607/ha spent in the record payout season of 2013-14.

In some cases farmers didn’t even meet maintenance requirements in 2015-16 and Newman expects the dip in fertiliser spending would correct

Payback time Interest payments are expected to be deducted from Fonterra farmers’ milk cheques from June as conditions of the Fonterra supporter loan come into play.

The loan is interest free until 31 May 2017. Interest may be charged after 31 May 2017 at Fonterra’s cost of borrowing up to a maximum of the published wholesale inter-bank rate plus 0.5% per annum.

About 76% of Fonterra’s shareholders accessed the support loan with farmers able to draw up to 50c/kg milksolids (MS) on milk supplied from June 1 to December 31 2016.

It’s estimated that farmers drew 36c/ kg MS. The capital repayments are not required until the total advance rate $6/kg MS so while the forecast farm gate milk price for the current season sits at $6/kg MS no repayments are yet required because forecast total advance rates for 2016-17 don’t reach that level.

Fonterra’s February paid March advance rate is $4.81/kg MS including a capacity adjustment of 51c/kg MS. Providing the forecast does not increase it’s unlikely that loan repayments will be required until next season. somewhat this season. Wages had remained relatively unchanged sitting about 60-61c/kg MS while feed costs dropped last season to 75-80c/kg MS – down from 95c/kg MS in 2014-15.

Feed costs though were likely to be up this season due to difficult spring and early summer conditions.

Looking to the future Cheyenne Stein cheyenne.stein@nzfarmlife.co.nz @CheyStein2 With the United States presidential election shaking things up, it’s timely to look at other political themes that may have an impact on the dairy industry.

Con Williams, ANZ Bank rural economist says key macro events he will be looking at over the next 18 months include trade relationship between China and the US, European Commission policy action, China’s food safety regulations and industry reform and other geopolitical activity.

Trade disputes between the US and China could have a range of implications from general trade recession through to improved opportunities and less competition for a range of New Zealand products into China and the broader Asian 12

region due to reduced US access, Williams says.

“Take dairy as an example. NZ’s current market access to the US isn’t overly great and won’t improve with the TPPA being scrapped. But if the US was locked out of Asian markets this could improve export opportunities for NZ products where we already have a strong foothold.”

However this relies on the big assumption that those economies continue to perform well with reduced trade opportunities with the US. EC actions on a number of fronts in 2016 were critical in reducing milk surpluses from the region, improving the international price recovery over the second half of 2016. The EC now faces the dilemma of having to try to sell its stockpile of milk without negatively impacting on the commercial market.

“There are plenty of options but it really

depends on how far already-stretched budgets extend.”

The downward swing in costs such as fertiliser, energy and feed helped Con Williams, ANZ Rural economist. reduce cash costs when the milk price was low. There is a risk this is reversed with the swing back up in global commodity prices. If this occurs too quickly cash profitability will remain elusive even with the lift in farm-gate returns Williams says.

As always, farmers should focus on what they can directly control with operational performance through productivity and cost efficiency initiatives the number one priority.

“The same principles still apply even with a better price situation to maximise margins and profitability.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

13

UPFRONT │ ANIMAL WELFARE

Farmers and processors will need to work together to ensure bobby calves are slaughtered within 24 hours of their last feed.

New bobby calf regulations Chris Leach

Farmers have had to familiarise themselves with new regulations around the care and handling of young calves over the past eight months.

Seven new regulations were announced

by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy last year, three of which come into effect this year. With autumn calving just around the corner it’s important for farmers to understand these new requirements.

Most of the new regulations are not really new. They are existing minimum

standards transformed into enforceable regulations and for most farmers who are already doing a good job, will mean no or minimal change to existing practices.

So, what regulations are new?

From February 1, meat processors are responsible for ensuring bobby calves are slaughtered within 24 hours of their last feed.

To achieve this, processors will be required to work with both the farmers and transporters to monitor when the calves were last fed on farm, pick-up and transport time. To allow farmers to manage on-farm routines, this time will remain the same for the duration of the season.

Meat processors have indicated they intend to make changes to bobby calf supply contracts. It’s important that farmers read their bobby calf agreement/s to ensure they understand their obligations.

To enable the processor to meet their requirements, it is expected farmers will need to complete a declaration for each consignment of calves.

The processor may also require farmers to commit to feeding calves within an agreed timeframe ahead of a scheduled pick-up time, for the duration of the season.

The Primary Industries Ministry (MPI) has agreed that in the event of transport

From February 1, meat processors are responsible for ensuring bobby calves are slaughtered within 24 hours of their last feed.

being delayed and requirements to feed within two hours of the pick-up time not being met, the responsibility remains with the processor to comply with the regulation, not the farmer.

The regulation will apply to all processors, however it is likely each will have different requirements and can offer different pick-up options.

If farmers have any questions or concerns regarding their bobby calf supply contract and ability to meet processor requirements, they should contact their processor.

Once an agreement is made with the 14

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Raised calf loading facility with roof.

processor it is important that anyone responsible for bobby calf selection and preparation for transport is aware of these requirements.

Regulations are also changing around the loading and unloading of bobby calves. From August 1, calves awaiting collection by transporter must have access to shelter that is clean, dry, suitably ventilated and provides protection from the weather. They must also be able to walk safely on and off the truck. It is the farmer’s responsibility to provide the loading facility and the transporter’s responsibility to use it.

There are a number of options to

consider. Existing structures could be adapted, a ready-made solution purchased, or a new facility built.

Farmers could do the work themselves or pay a contractor. Whatever approach is taken, farmers must do their research to ensure the facilities work, as what works well on another farm may not necessarily be the best for their situation.

Talking to their transporter will ensure proposed changes are fit-for-purpose and accessible.

Some key factors to consider include, making sure the track to the loading facility is no less than four metres wide, clear of any overhead obstructions

New regulations for calves From February 1: Calves must be slaughtered within 24 hours of their last feed.

From August 1: Calves must have access to shelter that is clean, dry, suitably ventilated and which provides protection from adverse weather, including extremes of heat and cold. This applies before and during transportation for sale or slaughter.

From August 1: Calves must be able to safely walk on and off transportation using loading and unloading facilities when being transported for sale or slaughter.

For more information on calf holding and loading facilities that meet the new regulations visit dairynz.co.nz/loadingfacilities For more information on the new bobby calf regulations visit mpi.govt.nz/calves. and easy for the truck to reverse up to.

It is a requirement under the farmer’s dairy company supply agreement that their loading facilities must not be on or adjacent to the roadside, as it is hazardous to truck drivers, staff and other road-users.

• Chris Leach, DairyNZ animal husbandry and welfare team leader

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15

UPFRONT │ RESEARCH

Familiar flavours preferred Bob Edlin bob.edlin@xtra.co.nz Dr Skelte Anema sounded more like a marketing man than a scientist when discussing the importance of introducing young customers in overseas markets to New Zealand milk.

Grain-fed American and European milk tastes different from grass-fed NZ milk, the principal research scientist at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre said.

Customers also tend to prefer flavours they have become familiar with.

When Anema first went to Singapore (where his wife comes from) most of the milk available was reconstituted and reconstituted milk tastes different from fresh milk.

“People get used to the flavours of the milk they are brought up on and how it is presented to them,” he said.

Getting customers used to NZ flavours, therefore, is important for enhancing marketing opportunities.

Anema, who has worked in the NZ dairy industry since 1990, last year was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand – a rare distinction for scientists outside of universities and crown research institutes.

His primary interest is in how milk proteins change during processing and how interactions can be manipulated to make a thin yoghurt thicker, for example, or to make cream whip better.

Several years ago, he recalled, infant formula could be made only at a certain stage of the milking season. Product made outside of that period was prone to be rejected.

He and his colleagues found some key aspects of the process needed to be better controlled. Their advice enabled manufacturing to be extended through the whole season.

He cites this as “a really clear example of a commercial impact, worth hundreds of millions of dollars”.

The son of a couple who emigrated from the Netherlands, Anema was born and raised in Rotorua. His passion for chemistry led him to Waikato University where his PhD studies focused on inorganic chemistry and the crystal structures of molecules After he completed his doctorate he and his wife travelled overseas for several months. On their return he was given a job at what then was the Dairy Research Institute.

The person who employed him told him “he was taking a bit of a punt” because

16

Dr Skelte Anema, principal research scientist at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre, Palmerston North Anema had no background in food, dairy or biochemistry. But his CV encouragingly showed he had received a prestigious fellowship from a German university.

He quickly learned about the variability in every sample of milk. Whereas pure chemicals always do the same thing when mixed, “every time you do something with milk it is a little bit different”.

Whereas pure chemicals always do the same thing when mixed, ‘every time you do something with milk it is a little bit different’.

It’s this variability and the way the chemistry can be manipulated that makes milk research so interesting for Anema.

He expects the industry to increasingly put more effort into value-added products, moving away from commodities like dried milk powder and exporting moreexpensive products such as fresh and longlife liquid milk and cream.

Three decades ago it made economic sense to export milk powder to developing countries. Much of the industry’s research accordingly was focused on making reconstituted milk products from milk powder.

Many of those countries have become wealthier and want fresh foods and fresh milk. They are willing to pay a premium for liquid milk and cream products, he said.

The research focus therefore has turned to making liquid UHT milk products for export to markets such as China.

One objective is to increase the shelf life of milk.

Chemical reactions in milk happen at different rates, depending on temperature and time, and processes are being developed to safely treat milk at higher temperatures in shorter times.

Ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk was developed by raising the temperature and treating the milk for shorter times than for pasteurised or sterilised milk. Each affects the taste differently.

Further raising the temperatures for even shorter times is expected to produce something closer to fresh milk flavours.

Anema has done research on goats’ milk. He studied wallaby milk, too, while seconded to the Riddet Institute for two years, to understand how it differs from cows’ milk (but “we didn’t get to taste it – we were only working with a small amount”).

Anema was “chuffed” by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

But should farmers similarly be delighted?

It was not enough simply to have papers published, he said.

The impact of his research on the dairy industry was important, too, and many people apply his work to understand how to use milk to make different products, improve dairy ingredients in products or to solve industry problems.

“We always say we have some of the best scientists in the world working in the dairy industry, in that we know the most about milk,” he said.

“This fellowship reinforces that view.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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17

UPFRONT │ BRANDED PRODUCTS

Carden looks to organics for Landcorp Andrew Swallow Sweeping changes are afoot at Landcorp: mass commodity production is out; branded marketing in. Organics is even on the table.

The state-owned enterprise’s chief executive Steven Carden, pictured, was a keynote speaker at the combined conference of the New Zealand and Australian Soil Science Societies (NZASSS) shortly before Christmas.

Striding the stage in chinos, jersey, T-shirt and Vans (designer sneakers) his delivery epitomised the future he envisages for the country’s biggest farmer.

“Ongoing intensification of land is not able to be sustained any longer. Our business model has to change,” he told delegates.

Challenges ahead Elements of Landcorp chief executive Steve Carden’s presentation to the NZASSS conference were echoed by fellow keynote speaker Julian Cribb in his Age of Food talk a couple of days later.

Cribb, an Australian who’s presented to several major New Zealand agri-business conferences recently (see Country-Wide June 2016), highlighted the extreme challenges climate change and global population growth present to mankind’s future and said cities that recycle everything and grow much of their own food are part of the solution.

Aquaculture and algae will also be key, for food and fuel, while farmers in environmentally sensitive areas should be paid to retire land and restore nature.

“Agriculture can continue but it will continue on a basis where the consumer pays for the ecological and environmental cost of producing the food. That’s part of the educative process that’s got to happen.

“Food is too cheap today. That’s why the human jaw bone is destroying the planet,” Cribb, a science journalist turned novelist and public speaker, said.

18

Powerful opposing forces are at play globally: rapidly rising population and protein demand, largely in the east, versus the wealthy, generally west, wanting to get back to nature with simple, pure, authentic food experiences.

“They want to cut people out of supply chains, get closer to producers,” Carden said, who pointed to My Food Bag (see www.myfoodbag.co.nz) as a NZ example of the trend, or United States equivalent Blue Apron (see www.blueapron.com).

Another trend on his radar is the shift from animals to plants for protein, for dietary and environmental reasons.

There are now more than 70 non-dairy “milk” products; China aims to halve per capita meat consumption; plant-made “meats” such as the Impossible Burger are booming.

“They’re not after the vegetarians and the vegans; they’re actually after the meat lovers,” Carden noted.

Land, water, and soil used producing an Impossible Burger is a fraction of that used conventionally and they will become “much, much more economic to produce” than traditional patties.

Meanwhile, business people and celebrities including James Cameron and Peter Jackson are investing millions into ventures persuading people to switch to plant-origin proteins.

“Meat consumption and dairy consumption may not be at the levels we anticipated historically. That is a harsh reality that I am facing leading Landcorp as I look at the future and where food production and food consumption is going to go,” Carden said.

To profit in such a global environment farms need to be either super low-cost, which will increasingly mean plantonly production, or ethically exemplary livestock farmers branding and marketing healthy product to achieve premium prices. At present most NZ farms, many of Landcorp’s included, sit in a low-profit trough between those extremes.

Carden’s strategy is to move Landcorp to the premium end with a range of authentic pasture-based products, backed by a compelling story, targeted at highend consumers. He aims to minimise environmental, animal welfare, and health and safety risk; use technology to be “world-best”; make unique products; connect to consumers with brands and marketing.

“We’ve even started to convert a

couple of our farms to organics. There is a sustained and discernible premium for organic produce and as producers of food and a business we would be crazy not to go after those premiums.”

Acknowledging organic farming is an anathema to scientists, Carden said if consumers are prepared to pay double because they perceive organic milk formula is better for their baby and closer to nature, then the consumer is right.

Initially it would be dairy, but organic meat may follow if sustainable premiums can be secured.

Other moves include developing umbrella brand Pamu – the Maori verb to farm – to enhance value for all Landcorp product, banning palm kernel because it no longer fits Landcorp’s values, sheep milking and exploring opportunities for products that meet health needs.

“This is where New Zealand farming needs to go. We cannot be broad-based production any longer, producing commodities. We have to be niche, around farm systems that are truly differentiated.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

PASTURE February 2017

Understanding the six rules of profitable pasture renewal

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If growing your own high quality feed for 10c/kg DM sounds too good to be true, think again – it’s actually much more achievable than some might believe.

And the same goes for earning an ROI of 50%-plus on money invested in pasture renewal.

To help farmers achieve these results, Agriseeds has just printed a new booklet called Every Seed Counts which is now available for autumn sowing.

“The numbers don’t lie: well executed pasture renewal is highly profitable. In fact few if any other farm investments can match these returns,” says pasture systems agronomist Will Henson.

The secret lies in the process of renewal itself, particularly six key steps which create the links of a successful chain between an under-performing pasture on one hand, and a top performing one on the other.

Every Seed Counts explains these steps and shows how to execute them on-farm this autumn.

“Recent low milk prices have shown just how important pasture is, both in underpinning farm profitability and also in building resilience into farm systems,” Will says.

Lack of cashf low has constrained pasture renewal on many farms during the past two years in particular, and this threatens to erode farmers’ productive base as well as their profitability and resilience.

New pasture is essential to get farms back growing to their potential and like any investment the question is: how do you ensure you achieve the full benefit?

“Pasture renewal is a complex process, which is why we describe it as a chain, and it is only as strong as the weakest link of that chain,” Will says.

“Our goal with writing the booklet is to make it as easy as possible for farmers to build a strong chain for their new grass from start to finish.

“When you invest thousands of dollars you want to make it work, to achieve the big returns that are on offer.

Address the six areas in the booklet and you are a long way along the road to success.”

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Fill out the simple order form and we’ll send you your own free copy of Every Seed Counts to help organise and prepare your autumn pasture renewal programme for the most profitable outcome.

While you’re at the website, you can also take advantage of our other digital resources, including videos, images and management advice as well as contact details for members of the Agriseeds technical team in your region.

Order your free copy at www.agriseeds.co.nz

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

For further information freephone: 0800 449 955, email: mail@agriseeds.co.nz or visit: www.agriseeds.co.nz

19

MARKET VIEW │ MILK PRICE

Price stable but what about next season?

Susan Kilsby

T

he outlook for the current dairy season looks pretty stable with both limited upside and downside potential for prices.

Reduced milk supply in both New Zealand and Australia will be supportive to dairy commodity prices for the remainder of the season. This is especially the case for products for which the global markets rely on supply from the southern hemisphere – such as whole milk powder and anhydrous milkfat.

The reduction in supply will keep market offerings relatively tight which means it is unlikely we will see prices fall considerably in the next six months.

But there is also limited potential for prices to move significantly higher. By the second quarter of 2017 milk supply in the northern hemisphere will reach its seasonal peak and total output from both the United States and European Union is growing. Stocks of skim milk powder (SMP) held in government-funded storage programmes in Europe are still at incredibly high levels and there is also plenty of stock in the US. There is now a desire to release the stocks held by the European Commission back to the market – but only at a pace that won’t disrupt the market. This means if prices rise more stocks will be released which will effectively limit the ability of prices to rise considerably.

While these SMP stocks don’t compete directly with WMP the prices are still linked. When returns from WMP are considerably greater than SMP – as seen in the later part of 2016 –we typically see

20

processors directing more milk into WMP. Some buyers will also combine SMP with a fat source (dairy or non-dairy) and use this instead of WMP. Therefore large variations in the prices of these two commodities don’t usually persist for any longer than six months.

So the milk price for the 2016-17 season looks relatively stable – but what about next season?

The one thing we know for sure is that the dairy markets will continue to be volatile. The global dairy industry provides a lot of surprises for market participants at all levels of the supply chain. One reason it is difficult to accurately predict prices is the large variation in milk supply from the southern hemisphere due to pasture-based farming systems being so exposed to the weather.

Farmers in Europe are now attuned to market signals and no longer blindly expanding production because they can.

Adverse conditions – soils too dry or too wet – can have a considerable impact on milk supply. This is particularly the case during periods of low milk prices as the margins simply are not there for farmers to protect themselves from adverse weather by using additional supplementary feed.

Another attribute of the dairy industry that causes prolonged price cycles is that you can’t turn milk supply on or off overnight. So you don’t see an immediate reaction to any movement in price. Farmgate milk prices may drop but this doesn’t mean production will fall immediately. Likewise any lift in production – aside from that gained by

plugging in more feed – must be well forward-planned. Expanding a dairy operation involves time – time to develop more land for dairying, and/or time to breed additional stock.

Looking specifically at next season we expect to see some recovery in milk supply in both NZ and Australia – assuming normal weather conditions. Production is expected to keep growing in the US at a steady annual rate of about 2%.

In Europe milk supply is expected to lift again but growth rates this year are expected to be under1% – considerably more subdued than they were in the lead up to and following the removal of the milk quotas. Farmers in Europe are now attuned to market signals and no longer blindly expanding production because they can.

On the demand side of the equation growth is expected which should occur at a similar rate or slightly quicker than any expansion in supply. This means markets should be relatively balanced with some potential for higher returns.

Early in 2017 the NZX Dairy Derivatives market had the milk price for the 2017-18 season priced at $6.40/kg milksolids – 10c above the 2016-17 milk price futures contract. Market participants will no doubt have weighed all the potential outcomes when considering the price they are willing to trade at.

Farmers and milk processors are using milk price futures to help provide some certainty in a very uncertain world.

Whether certainty is beneficial to your business really depends on the risk profile of your business. Does your business thrive on taking risks or are you and your business risk adverse? Knowing your businesses risk profile will help determine if futures and/or options would be helpful to your business.

To learn more about milk price futures and options please go to farmersweekly. co.nz/milk-price-derivatives or contact a broker.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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21

UPFRONT │ HEALTHY RIVERS

Waikato plan needs farmer input Sheryl Brown sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz @sherylbrownnz Waikato dairy farmers need to help the industry provide practical solutions to some of the daunting requirements in the Healthy Rivers Plan Change, Waikato Federated Farmers president Chris Lewis says.

Farmers still have time to write a submission regarding the proposed plan change, with submissions closing on March 8.

Dairy farmers need to get involved so they can help shape the rules and regulations for the future and come up with practical and economical solutions to the problems, he said.

“We need every farmer to lend a hand and write a few words down. Farming is about supporting each other to get a better outcome.”

Writing a submission was not just about pointing out the negatives, but providing positive feedback and solutions to the issues.

The industry’s mindset to the environment had changed significantly during the last few years and farmers were very aware of how important it was to put in policy such as Healthy Rivers plan change.

‘Farmers now talk about the environment work they’ve done and what they’re planning on doing.

That’s a win in itself. They have an environmental conscience about what they do and how they can do it better.’

“Farmers now talk about the environment work they’ve done and what they’re planning on doing. That’s a win in itself. They have an environmental conscience about what they do and how they can do it better.”

Farmers were passionate about improving their practices and the environment and many had gone above and beyond existing regulations.

The industry’s significant movement and investment in effluent management, riparian planting and nutrient loss mitigation was something other industries could learn from.

22

Chris Lewis on his farm with riparian planting in the background. Farmers need to write a few words down, he says.

“Dairy farmers have to offer advice and assistance to other sectors in areas we are probably leaders in.”

Many dairy farmers were ahead of some of the regulations that would be required under the new plan, but there would still be cost involved for many farmers and/or a change of strategy.

Waikato farmers could look at their provincial peers for encouragement and ideas, Lewis said.

The Healthy Rivers plan proposes restrictions around the cultivation and grazing off of winter forage crops on slopes of more than 15 degrees. Paddocks alongside water bodies should have no cultivation within five metres of the water body bed, including drains.

Waikato farmers could look to Canterbury where the industry was coming up with new ideas and solutions in that space, he said.

There were also concerns from Waikato farmers that the plan change could introduce more cost to their business and reduce profitability while also impacting on flexibility of land use and ultimately decrease land values.

The plan change proposed a property nitrogen reference point by modelling nutrient losses from properties, with farmers required to remain under that number.

The plan also proposed stringent rules on land use, including restrictions on land-use change. Land-use change would require a consent, which would not be granted if there would be an increase in nutrient losses.

The same fears were held by farmers in the Horizons catchment, but it hadn’t

stopped people buying land in that area and it hadn’t caused a big drop in land values, Lewis said.

Farmers were doing more due diligence when purchasing land, however, looking at nutrient-leaching figures, past stocking capacity and supplement use.

Under the plan farmers would be required to provide a farm environment plan to council either through a resource consent or an industry scheme.

Farmers would also have to provide Waikato Regional Council with annual stock numbers, fertiliser used and supplements purchased.

Many farmers were providing a lot of that information already.

The biggest challenge would be for dairy farmers operating above the 75th percentile for their nitrogen leaching, Lewis said.

“There will be concerns around systems running close to the knife edge.”

For Lewis, he has already put strategies in place to meet increasing environmental regulations, including changing his wintering options and a five-year-plan for a new lined pond along with diverting and capturing other runoff.

His biggest cost under the plan change would be to fence off the waterways on their runoff.

“That’s going to cost me more than on my dairy farm. I’ve put a process in place to fence off a little bit each year as we can afford to do it.”

Waikato Federated Farmers will be running submission workshops in February for farmers. For more details or to read more about Healthy Rivers visit www.fedfarm.org.nz

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

UPFRONT │ MILK PRODUCTS

Prevents Prevents Facial Facial Eczema Eczema The PETA The PETA Zinc Dispenser nser Zinc Dispenser nser

Whole milk powder still king Fonterra, which accounts for the great bulk of New Zealand’s dairy exports, says its strategy to shift more milk into higher value products is succeeding.

Ministry for Primary Industries forecasters, however, expect whole milk powder exports to account for a growing portion of NZ’s total export income over the next five years.

June-year forecasts in the latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries, stretching through to the end of the 2020/21 season, show total export revenue of $13.3 billion in 2015/16 rising to $20.65bn.

Whole milk powder exports are forecast to account for 38% of this revenue ($7.9b), up from 35% of the total ($4.6b) in 2016.

Butter, AMF and cream generated $2.4b of NZ’s dairy exports last year (18% of the total). This is forecast to rise to $4.3b (21% of the total) while skim milk and butter milk powder, which generated $1.3b last year (10% of the total) is forecast to rise to $2.3b (11%).

While infant formula is forecast to rise from $685million to $900m, on the other hand, this would decline from 5% of total export revenue to 4%.

Other dairy exports are expected to increase in dollar terms but account for smaller portions of total export receipts over the next five years: Casein and protein products – $1.8b in 2016 (14% of total receipts) increase to $2.2b (10%).

Cheese – $1.7b (13% of total receipts) rising to $2.2b (10%).

Other dairy products – $716m (5% of total exports) rising to $900m (4%).

The ministry forecasters expect the national dairy herd to continue to grow,

increasing from 4.97m cows and heifers in calf or in milk in 2016 to 5.21m in 2021.

Production of milk solids accordingly is forecast to increase by 11.7% over the next five years to 2080m kg and volumes of dairy exports will lift 12.3% to 3.63m tonnes.

In the shorter term, however, the production of milk solids is forecast to decline 1.7% to 1830m kg this June year, resulting in total export volumes dropping 1% to 3.3m tonnes.

Dairy prices are expected to continue to recover over the remainder of the 2016/17 season as global supply and demand rebalance and rising dairy prices are expected to more than offset the effects of this production shrinkage. Export receipts of $13.7b are forecast during the year, up 3%.

When Fonterra announced its financial results in December, chairman John Wilson said the company was moving more milk into higher-returning consumer and foodservice products while securing sustainable ingredients margins over the GlobalDairyTrade benchmarks, especially through speciality ingredients and service offerings.

Fonterra’s plans to divert more milk into value-added products, leaving less available for lower-value powder manufacturing, come into the ministry’s reckoning.

This changing product mix is illustrated in NZ’s exports to China.

In the June 2014 year, 83% of the country’s dairy exports to China were milk powders. This has fallen to 65% in the June 2016 year as exports of other dairy products such as liquid milk and ice cream have increased.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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BUSINESS │ TRAINING

The Atihau Whanganui dairy farm team at Ohakune: Alvin Dalagan, Andrew Hicks-Small, Shinya Yoshizaki, Lisa Hicks and Clark Dultra.

Training the Facebook generation Jackie Harrigan Jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

M

any parents and employers are pulling their hair out at the amount of time their youngsters or young employees spend on Facebook, but it doesn’t worry Ohakune contract milker Lisa Hicks.

With a diverse bunch of nationalities among the young people employed, training and doing work experience on her 690-cow dairy farm, she has embraced the Facebook phenomenon and harnessed it as an easy way of informing and interacting with her son and their staff.

Lisa and her son Andrew are half way through their third season contract milking on the Atihau Whanganui Incorporation-owned farm on the edge of the Waimarino town at the foot of Mt Ruapehu. Her husband Graeme Sorenson is taking a break from dairy, enjoying a role at the nearby Waiouru military camp indulging his love of guns and armaments, but provides a valuable sounding board as Lisa runs the operation.

Moving from a small contract milking job down country at Rongotea, the shift to Ohakune was a big change, but a great

24

The closed Facebook page for the AWHI dairy staff and students works really well for Lisa to keep staff up to date.

FARM FACTS chance for them to add scale to their operation and experience. At 590 metres above sea level the town has a cool, wet climate, particularly in winter, influenced by the rather large “fridge” as the locals refer to Mt Ruapehu, sitting behind the farm.

Due to a very wet spring Lisa said the farm is a month behind but the operation is targeting 240,000kg milksolids (MS) this season.

Advantages of being owned by the large local AWHI with seven sheep and beef

Farm owners: Atihau Whanganui Incorporation (AWHI) Ohakune dairy farm Contract milkers: Lisa Hicks and Graeme Sorenson 326 eff ha, 690 peak milked cows, target 240,000kg MS Calving date: MA cows August 10, heifers July 27 In-shed feeding: 2kg barley, 2kg crushed grain/cow/day 25ha turnips, 8ha wheat and 20ha barley (off farm), 19ha grass to grass renovation.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

stations in the area and a support block and lamb finishing operation include the ability to walk all the cows to their nearby AWHI winter grazing block and bank feed for the late July, early August calving.

The farm is long and narrow, with a 2km walk from the dairy to the back of the property and plenty of time for idling along after cows on a bike scrolling through Facebook.

The partnership employees Andrew Hicks-Small along with two full-time workers Alvin Dalagan and Clark Dultra, and Japanese animal science student Shinya Yoshizaki.

Alvin and Clark were experienced in milking and aspects of dairy farming when they arrived from Saudi Arabia where they had been working on large indoor units, but needed to learn more about grassbased dairy production.

Shinya was not familiar with NZ dairy farming but has been keen and quick to learn, Lisa said.

A number of local workers have filled in and worked as relief milkers and Lisa hopes the new Atihau training facility will encourage more shareholders into the industry.

Lisa herself has completed Primary ITO training, even with a learning disability which made reading and writing difficult. She imported a literacy aid, Echo Smartpens, to enable her to study and managed to complete the Diploma of Agribusiness management.

As far as her staff goes, she believes simple repeatable systems and clear instructions with photos, pictures and labels are the key to training and managing the diverse team.

Because many of them are communicating in their second language, visual instructions are more meaningful than written ones. Those who have trouble interpreting the photo can use one of the Smartpens to touch to a special dot added to the picture and hear a soundtrack of the

Shinya Yoshizaki (pictured above centre), a 21-year-old Japanese student studying animal and dairy husbandry at Miyazaki University, came to AWHI and Lisa through word of mouth from three Japanese students with dairy farm backgrounds she hosted last season for a two-month farmstay. Shinya, who is on a scholarship for him to travel and work in New Zealand and learn about dairy farming, is helping Lisa document the processes around the AWHI farm dairy into Japanese.

instructions.

The walls of the equipment cupboards in the plant room inside the 44-aside herringbone dairy are covered in pictures and instructions of all the milking, cleaning, setup and other processes used around the shed.

The instructions are in Filipino and English and Shinya is translating them into Japanese for the benefit of the exchange students who come every March from a vet school in Japan to work a placement and get exposed to practical farming.

Lisa plans to learn Maori and translate all of the procedures and processes into a fourth language.

Massey vet students are welcomed to the farm to work placements for 10 days one year over summer followed by 10 days another year at calving.

Lisa also hosts two Gateway students from local high school Ruapehu College, who do practical work one day each week and earn credits through the NCEA framework.

One of her Gateway students transferred into full-time work in the dairy industry

Lisa and Andrew’s struggles with dyslexia during their own training have meant Lisa has been an outside-the-square thinker in training and helping her staff to learn – using much more visual learning techniques.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

last season and many end up with relief milking jobs either for the Hicks or on other local properties.

She also offers the local primary school a farm day opportunity, in conjunction with training provider Land Based Training (LBT) for children to come and learn skills for the dairy industry.

Students from the LBT Palmerston North course come and work at the farm for two-week stints to fulfil their practical requirements.

The Ohakune farm is well-placed on the edge of town to enable employees and work placement students to walk into

Formal training Lisa encourages her staff to undertake formal training but is not keen to pay for year-long training courses if staff are transient or not permanent residents.

She has completed the Primary ITO Diploma level training, Andrew to Level 4. The Filipino workers are encouraged to attend DairyNZ training courses and other district or regional council free training opportunities.

Lisa and Graeme were involved in establishing and convening a local DairyNZ discussion group for the eight Ohakune dairy farming operations because the area is quite isolated.

Lisa is also a convenor for the Manawatu Dairy Womens Network (DWN) and has accessed training through the organisation. She is enjoying attending a Waikato University Community and Enterprise Leadership Foundation (CELF) course, awarded for winning the DWN Dairy Community Leadership Award. The course runs for 16 days in two-day oncampus modules and Lisa says it helped her define her purpose “to educate the world about the dairy industry”.

She has also completed the Level 5 Certificate in Adult Learning through UCOL.

25

Ohakune in summer with lush pastures and happy cows and milkers.

Welcoming Working with employees from other nations: 1. Respect each others’ culture and each other as people 2. Take time to explain things: “I am better explaining things with pictures rather than words – I tend to mix words up and transpose figures – it’s easier and much clearer to show them a picture.”

3. Make sure they understand what you are asking.

“Don’t be afraid to ask them to explain the concept or instructions back to you so you make sure they have understood.”

4. Work on building a good team. “People are everything – we can’t do it all without them.”

town and shop or socialise.

One of the local hairdressers became interested in relief milking and Lisa offered her the chance to work a morning milking when needed before hairdressing for the day. She earned enough over the course of a year for a trip to Las Vegas.

International sign language is the major form of communication during the working day, Lisa says, with lots of gesticulation and hand-waving.

“It works pretty well when you are in front of them – but it’s no good down the phone to get the meaning across.”

The Facebook closed group takes the visual guide one step further as using a programme like Skitch Lisa can add arrows and instructions to images and screen shots as well as using videos to show how things work.

Daily instructions are sent out via the Facebook group and Lisa encourages them all to reply to confirm they received the message.

“Yes mam, we understand”, is the usual reply from Alvin, Clark and Shinya.

Facebook also allows her to track who

With the Old Coach Road cycle trail going right past her Ohakune farm, Lisa says they farm very much in the public eye and she would love to add a tourist dimension to the operation.

has viewed the post.

A picture of something to be fixed or a job to be done is much quicker than ringing someone and telling them in sentences, she says. For example, when she is telling someone the weeds to spray, she can add photograghs of which plants are weeds and which are not – to prevent

costly mistakes.

“I also do lots of following up to ensure the job has been done – and it’s really easy for them to post a pic if they have finished the task – then I know it’s been completed.”

The 50 members in the group receive messages numerous times a day and can use it to run queries by Lisa as well.

“I often screenshot the Fonterra records to give them an idea of how we are producing.”

Another handy trick is to upload a link to a video or article that might have appeared on the DairyNZ website or on another Youtube video.

Lisa has been posting to the Facebook page for more than a year and says it’s a good way to build knowledge and team spirit.

“We have lots of jokes at each other’s expense – things people have done and mucked up and pictures are a good way of having a laugh.

“They call me Campmother, when they are not referring to me as mam.”

Young Farmers snowboarding division Andrew Hicks-Small , with Lisa’s encouragement, has driven the establishment of a Ruapehu Young Farmers Club. At 23, he is the chairman and is heartened by the turnout to the first few meetings, with 26 arriving for the first one.

Meeting at The Rocks café, the club plans to organise social, competitive and sporting activities (with a winter emphasis on snowboarding) to encourage other young farming types to network together. They are planning to invite the local TeenAg club along and build their membership from the other dairy, sheep and beef farmers and service company employees in the area.

Lisa has signed up Andrew and the rest of her staff to Young Farmers saying it provides a good social and networking opportunity. She might also be looking for a way to expand his interests and limit time spent on his other passion – the World of Warcraft game where he co-moderates a guild of 650 gamers among the huge worldwide community of gamers playing the game.

26

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

BUSINESS │ TRAINING

SECRETS TO FARM CAREERS Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee Pastoral care and tailored, quality training are the top of the list for a Canterbury farm employers group looking to support and retain staff.

The group, which includes more than 20 members, is known as the Canterbury Farm Capability Society (CFCS).

It’s chairman is Mark Cressey, award-winning sharemilker for Rakaia Incorporation’s Tahu a Tao dairy farm near Dorie – winners of the 2016 Ahuwhenua Trophy.

For some young people there can be a lot going on, particularly if it’s their first job and first move away from home.

Mark says CFCS was set up so farmer employers, who could prove they had good policies, good procedures and good attitudes to training and supporting staff, could differentiate themselves from others.

“We want to be employers of choice,” he says.

The farmers are independently audited to ensure they meet or in most cases

From left (sitting) Kintore’s Wainui farm manager Maurice Groot, Kintore general manager Nick Hoogeveen and dairy assistants on Kintore farms, Victoria Braner and Amy Charman – training is tailored to meet different learning styles. exceed industry standards and legal requirements.

“One of the most important aspects of this is making sure staff, especially young staff or overseas staff are well-supported onfarm.

“It’s a big step for a school leaver or young person coming to work onfarm, taking care of themselves, budgeting, living away from family,” he says.

While farmer employers have a responsibility and obligation themselves to look out for the wellbeing of all their

staff, the group wanted to go a step further and bring in a third party to act as an independent ear, mentor and pastoral carer.

Kintore farms general manager Nick Hoogeveen is vice chairman of CFCS and says having that third party person allows staff to get around any awkwardness of talking about personal issues with their employer.

For some young people there can be a lot going on, particularly if it’s their first job and first move away from home.

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They might not feel comfortable sharing some things with the people they also have to work with or for.

CFCS has contracted NZ Dairy Careers, headed by Matt Jones to carry out the audits with employers and to provide the pastoral care service to staff.

NZ Dairy Careers candidate manager Wendy Hewitt – a former Bay of Plenty sharemilker of the year with husband Terry – carries out the pastoral care role, visiting staff members, helping with budgeting, setting personal goals and making sure some the basics are going well right down to eating properly.

Separate to that NZ Dairy Careers also carries out the training for staff, tailoring training plans to individuals to ensure they have the practical and theoretical skills and knowledge for their position.

The contract for training is between the staff member and NZ Dairy Careers directly. The staff member pays fees for their course just as they would at a polytechnic or training institute.

“It’s that way around because when people have a bit of skin in the game they’re more likely to make an effort and really be engaged with it,” Matt says.

He started out as a farm cadet and says the training programme and pastoral care hark back to those days in the way they involve the staff member, employer and training provider.

“We’re not about ticking boxes.

“The training plans we have are specifically tailored for each person based on the level of skill they have and where they need to be for their role,” Matt says.

There’s a mix of onfarm learning, classroom-based learning, written work and options for Primary ITO courses but

there are also a variety of approaches and tools that can be used so that people’s different learning styles are catered for.

Matt says they’ve just about completed an app that will host trainees’ individual training plans and modules.

“They’ll be able to go on that app and refer back to what they learned to help refresh their memories when they’re out on the job. Say for instance they have to tie off a strainer post or they’re doing something else with fencing.

“It might be something they don’t do very often and although they’ve learnt it and done it in their training they might want to check they’re doing it right six months down the track when they have to do it at work again.

“It’s all there on the app.”

Some people will naturally like to learn by reading and writing but others are experiential learners – gaining skills and proficiency by doing.

Having the opportunity to carry out the

Mark Cressey and Brix Milag worked together last season. Brix is no longer with the Cresseys as he is progessing in the industry and has moved on from assistant herd manager to a herd manager’s role.

28

skill themselves is important but watching someone else do it on video can also be an important and effective means of teaching experiential learners.

The company’s training and development manager Gemma Bell has a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with honours and professional graduate certificate in education.

‘The aim was to create an employers’ group with independently accredited standards that supports farmers. At the same time we wanted to link that to a training and pastoral care programme that also supports staff and helps them develop and progress so they stay in the industry and ideally with us as a farmer group.’

She was a lecturer at an agricultural college in England and has worked with members of the CFCS and engaged with other industry experts in developing the training courses for trainees.

Each aspect of the working day – whether it be milking, managing pastures or animal health, for instance – is detailed in the training programme with trainees reviewed quarterly as to how they are going with their learning.

Every six months they also meet with the farmer and training provider to go through a performance review and monitor progress.

“We want to see where they’re at, make sure it’s where they want to be and where the farmer and trainers want them to be

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

and then we look at what they need to work on still,” Matt says.

It won’t just be a matter of completing a module. We want to be able to say they’ve passed it and give an indication of how well they’ve passed it so farmers can see what it is they are excelling in and what they need more help in, he says.

While most of the training is about specific on-the-job skills and learning the theory so they understand why things are done a particular way, some of the early training and pastoral care aspects are more holistic.

Helping them to be confident, making sure they take responsibility even knowing things such as looking someone in the eye when they shake their hand – they’re all things that make up a well rounded, responsible person the farmer can have confidence in, Matt says.

‘The training plans we have are specifically tailored for each person based on the level of skill they have and where they need to be for their role.’

Mark says one thing farmers can get annoyed about when they take on new staff is that they say they’re competent in a particular aspect of the job and have had training in it.

“They can show you they have a qualification to a certain level and can even show you they’ve done a particular course but when it comes down to it they really don’t have the

From left, Canterbury Farm Capability Society chairman Mark Cressey and Matt Jones (standing) and Trina Moore from NZ Dairy Careers – pastoral care and tailored training a key part of supporting and staff.

experience they say they have.

“That can be because someone else – even another farmer and previous employer – has ticked that off as done.

“In the end that does no one any good because you get people who can’t do the job expected of them and that’s frustrating for the employer and puts stress on the staff member,” he says.

For that reason achieving a standard in training modules is assessed not just as a pass but shows how well they’ve done.

As part of CFCS members’ audits they must also show how they justify someone is scored as competent or proficient at a task.

Mark says the CFCS and NZ Dairy Careers alliance has undergone modifications since it first began 18 months ago with Matt taking on NZ Dairy Careers late last year.

It had been run in conjunction with Grow Mid-Canterbury, but when it’s

funding from the Ashburton District Council was withdrawn last year that organisation folded.

Mark says the original concept of CFCS holding the employment contracts with staff and taking on legal responsibilities of the employer rather than the individual farmer members hadn’t sat well with the farmers and may have opened up CFCS board members to undue risks.

“Our original vision is still very much there and I think what we have now will really get this all working very well.

“The aim was to create an employers’ group with independently accredited standards that supports farmers. At the same time we wanted to link that to a training and pastoral care programme that also supports staff and helps them develop and progress so they stay in the industry and ideally with us as a farmer group.”

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BUSINESS │ DAIRY ACADEMY

All students had to complete farm reports and budgets for a contract milker, sharemilker and a farm owner, based on a dairy farm’s actual figures.

Fast track to management Sheryl Brown sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz @sherylbrownnz

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Dairy Exporter version

Employers are lining up to hire graduates of the Central North Island Dairy Academy, making it an appealing option for students wanting to advance to management roles in the dairy industry.

The academy, a joint venture between Shanghai Pengxin and Landcorp and run by Taratahi, is a mid-level development programme designed for people who have goals to become a farm manager within five years.

A growing number of potential employers are seeking graduates from the second intake this year, programme manager Dave Horner says.

There is a lot of interest for this year’s intake as well as the students from last year if they want to move on to other jobs.

The students last year were excellent, he says. They not only studied together, they lived together and supported each other through the course.

“A lot of people have told me the course is exactly what the industry needs, but these students are what the industry needs.”

Being able to tutor the students one-on-one five days a week made a big difference, he says. Another bonus was being able to take them out onfarm to the Landcorp or Shanghai Pengxin operations to see any practical demonstrations of the theory they were learning.

The students also worked on the farms in the weekend to gain more experience.

They were in the classroom Monday to Thursday and then on Friday did a lot of field trips to other farms, factories, business and rural merchants.

It gave the students an understanding of the support in the industry and a range of the businesses involved in farming, he says.

They also worked with lawyers, accountants and other professionals to learn about the legality and regulations of the industry, such as rising issues around health and safety and animal welfare.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

They had an 80% graduation pass rate last year, but Dave is hoping the two students will do a successful re-sit.

All students passed the first semester and gained their AB certificate, milk quality and effluent qualifications.

They all had to complete farm reports and budgets for a contract milker, sharemilker and a farm owner, based on a dairy farm’s actual figures.

All of last year’s graduates found jobs at lower management level, including herd managers, pasture managers and assistant managers. One student will step up into a manager’s role later this year when the current manager leaves.

“They’ve all done well.”

It is not a prerequisite for students to be employed by the sponsors. One student is working for Landcorp, one is working for Shanghai Pengxin and the rest have gone to other operations across the country.

This year they’ve had 20 students apply for the 10 positions, so the course is more on the radar in the industry already. They were still recruiting students in January last year, Dave says.

One student is working for Landcorp, one is working for Shanghai Pengxin and the rest have gone to other operations across the country.

The 32-week fully-funded programme is at no cost to the 10 students accepted.

They are housed on nearby Landcorp or Shanghai Pengxin farms, where they are encouraged to gain casual employment during study holidays.

The programme combines theory, practical training and onfarm experience as part of completing the Diploma in Agriculture. The Dairy Academy programme has been designed in consultation with industry stakeholders to ensure graduates not only achieve the required outcomes of the Massey University Diploma in Agriculture programme but also develop leadership and analytical skills above and beyond the graduate skill base.

Students must pass four papers in the first semester to continue with the remaining four papers in semester two and one during the summer school period.

In addition to the Massey University Diploma in Agriculture units, the programme also includes other relevant quality programmes, including rural leadership, dairy effluent, artificial insemination, Growsafe and milk quality.

A scholarship of $10,000 is awarded annually by Shanghai Pengxin each year.

Casey Meiklejohn – the dairy academy course has fast tracked her dairy career.

On the path to contract milking Herd manager Casey Meiklejohn says the Central North Island Dairy Academy course has helped her jumpstart her career by several years.

It would have taken years to be able to gain that knowledge working fulltime onfarm and trying to do courses part-time, she says.

“I definitely feel I’ve fast-tracked my career.”

The course has given her the skills and knowledge to understanding farming at all levels, from management decisions through to financial budgeting and the legality involved in farming.

“Having that knowledge, even in my role now, it helps me see why things are done.”

That background will hopefully help her into a management or contract milker position within the next couple of years, she says.

The 22-year-old was born and raised on a lifestyle block on the Bombay Hills and always had a love for animals. After secondary school she studied a diploma in homeopathy and started doing some relief milking on the side.

She loved it straight away and managed to secure a fulltime job for two years at Taupiri in the Waikato.

The 270-cow job was working alongside

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

the sharemilker. Casey did several Primary ITO courses during that time and entered the Waikato Dairy Industry Awards last year.

She came third in the dairy trainee competition as well as picking up the farming knowledge award.

She knew she needed more knowledge and experience and when she saw the dairy academy advertised she thought it was too good to be true.

“It was the best thing to do. I have no regrets. I would recommend anyone interesting in dairy farming to do it.”

It was a great experience being able to study the large-scale Landcorp and Shanghai Pengxin operations, she says.

“The fact that the classroom was in the middle of the farm was good.”

Stepping up to her first management role this year was a bit daunting at first as she started during the busy period of mating.

“It was a bit hairy. I didn’t know the farm yet.”

However, she is now comfortable running the farm and other staff when her sharemilker is away.

Looking to the future she wants to gain more experience working on farms and get her practical skills caught up with her theory.

31

BUSINESS │ SOIL SCIENCE

Soil scientists focus on nutrient loss reduction Scores of soil scientists from both sides of the Tasman gathered in Queenstown before Christmas to present more than 200 papers and nearly 100 posters relaying the latest research, while thought-provoking keynote addresses from the likes of Landcorp’s Steve Carden and Australian agri-food commentator Julian Cribb opened each day. Andrew Swallow reports.

A growing body of data shows exactly how much nutrient losses from dairying can be cut by various management practices, judging by a plethora of papers on the topic at the recent conference of the New Zealand and Australian Soil Science Societies (NZASSS).

One of the biggest reductions relayed was a forages for reduced nitrate leaching trial at Lincoln University’s Dairy Research Farm where simulated grazing and urine application on lysimeters planted with an Italian ryegrass, plantain and white clover mix, or perennial ryegrass with white clover, saw 45% less nitrogen lost under the plantain/Italian mix thanks to its greater winter activity.

When lower urinary nitrogen content of cows grazing the mix was included – the equivalent of 508kg nitrogen (N)/ha in a urine patch compared to 700kg N/ha in urine from cows on traditional ryegrass/ clover mixes – the reduction was 67%.

Presenting the data, Roshean Woods said there was little difference in drymatter yield between the forages, though secondyear data from the trial was still being analysed.

Losses under lucerne, due to its lack of winter activity, were nearly double those under perennial ryegrass/white clover, but it was noted in discussion that lucerne roots would, once established, extend well below the 70cm depth of the lysimeters used in the trial. As such they should be able to retrieve nitrogen from greater

Almost 100 posters were on display covering research in soil science on either side of the Tasman Sea. depth and create a greater soil moisture deficit so the soil would take longer to wet and reach leaching point in winter, a point supported by deep lysimeter work under cut-and-carry lucerne near Taupo that was presented later in the session. (see panel).

AgResearch’s Ross Monaghan and Massey’s Khadija Malik and Jay Howes presented data showing how housing or stand-off periods could cut nitrate leaching.

Work at Massey, 2008-2013, had already demonstrated year-round durationcontrolled grazing (DCG) could cut nitrate leaching 54%, Howes said, but most losses

Lucerne little different Landcare Research’s Jackie Aislabie presented nitrate loss results from 1.5-metre-deep lysimeters in the Taupo catchment to the NZASSS conference (see main story).

Under cut-and-carry lucerne, losses were found to be little different to under ryegrass/ clover managed in the same way, other than an initial spike due to cultivation which lucerne’s slower establishment didn’t mop up as effectively.

The work had resulted in Waikato Regional Council cutting the figure it allocated for losses from cut-and-carry lucerne in the catchment from 19kg N/ha/year to 5kg N/ha. “So cut-and-carry lucerne’s now some use in this [nutrient capped] catchment,” Aislabie said.

32

occurred in late autumn/early winter so he and colleagues investigated how just three months of duration control could cut losses.

In the first two years – last winter’s data is still being analysed – 39% and 17% reductions in N loss from three months’ DCG was recorded, an average reduction of 29% for a 20% reduction in grazing time.

“This 29% is very similar to results presented by Ross Monaghan from his trial [at Telford] down in the bottom of the South Island,” Howes said.

Meanwhile AgResearch’s Emma Bagley presented research investigating how size and shape of urine patches influenced nitrate leaching, suggesting the protocol used in Overseer possibly overestimated losses. While she found size of urine patch did matter, shape – in Bagley’s work a square versus a rectangle – didn’t.

“There’s a strong industry interest in extending the trial to look at sheep urine patches to look at what the drivers are for lower nitrogen losses under sheep grazing,” she noted.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Overseer outputs misinterpreted by many

Bagley’s work wasn’t the only research presented that could lead to refinements in Overseer in due course, her AgResearch colleague Diana Selbie explaining how she’d found net immobilisation of nitrogen in urine patches for 40-50 days after their creation on volcanic Waikato soils that had been under dairy pasture for eight or 13 years.

That finding supported Overseer’s current assumption that 20-30% of urine nitrogen is immobilised by soil, but for a similar soil that had been under dairy pasture for 25 years, there was no immobilisation due to a low carbon-tonitrogen ratio, suggesting Overseer would underestimate losses on such soil.

“There are more questions around this than answers. It appears [these soils] behave quite differently,” she told the conference.

Several other papers looked at how losses following winter grazing of forage crops could be mopped up, such as work with oats or Italian ryegrass sown after kale, presented by Lincoln University’s Peter Carey. Oats reduced nitrate leaching 25% more than Italian ryegrass, but the difference was largely due to better cool season establishment and growth reducing drainage compared to Italian ryegrass.

“This is the other part of the equation,” he said, highlighting the two-fold benefit of oats: increasing nitrogen recovery and reducing drainage at a critical time.

Abstracts online The abstracts of all NZASSS conference speakers’ papers, excluding the keynotes, are available free online at www.nzasssconf.co.nz listed in order of speaker first name. While most don’t relay results of the work, they do provide the background to the trials, the headline results of some of which we’ve highlighted for you here.

happening that reduce the leachate or run-off nutrient load beyond the 60cm soil profile which Overseer models.

“With nitrogen Overseer only models what leaves the root zone,” Massey University’s Lucy Burkitt said during one of the discussion sessions.

“We know we’re getting nitrate attenuation in the sub-surface soil environment.”

Denitrification of that nitrate into nitrous gases in the subsoil was one probable reason why only about half of what was leached from the root zone of Massey’s Tuapaka hill farm reached the stream, she said.

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Roshean Woods’ research showed losses under lucerne, due to its lack of winter activity, were nearly double those under perennial ryegrass/white clover.

The figures Overseer generates for nutrient losses should not be read as the level of nutrients entering lakes and rivers, research relayed at the recent conference of the New Zealand and Australian Soil Science Societies (NZASSS) shows.

However, as some delegates and presenters noted, unfortunately this is often the way the numbers the nutrient management model produces are interpreted in mainstream media and even by some regional council staff.

Much of the disparity isn’t because of Overseer’s limitations, which are well documented and gradually being addressed, but because there are processes

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33

Phosphate loss was more complex, but again, levels recorded in streams did not equate to losses from the root zone.

“Perhaps we’re seeing some in stream processing of P,” she said.

Massey colleague Ahmed Elwan, who had presented data showing nitrate and phosphate loads in the Manawatu River were significantly lower than those predicted by Overseer, added to the discussion, saying previous work showed 30 to 75% of nitrate lost from the root zone never reached rivers.

However, predicting how much of that leached nitrogen would attenuate was complex and land use, soil type, and underlying rock all needed to be taken into account, something a model Massey has developed but as yet not published, could do, he said.

Ranvir Singh, a co-author on Burkitt’s paper, later echoed the importance of Lincoln PhD student Roshean Woods pours cow urine on to lysimeters as part of her forages for reduced nitrate leaching trial.

catchments so that high nutrient loss land uses might be targeted where soil type and rock combinations provide high nutrient attenuation, and avoided where attenuation is low.

“It’s very, very important we understand these catchments to gain the productivity and reduce the environmental (impact),” he said.

For example, in Rangitikei, land is strongly reducing (denitrifying) so there would be minimal environmental gain from reducing nitrogen loss from farms there, he said.

“Could we map our whole country into different nitrogen-use classes? There’s an example of this being done in Denmark.”

Management of water use and water courses might also be tweaked to enhance attenuation processes and reduce nutrient levels reaching environmentally sensitive areas, he said.

Attenuation admission As an agricultural graduate of the last century, Dairy Exporter’s reporter at NZASSS, Andrew Swallow, admitted he had to check his understanding of one of the conference buzz-words – attenuation. This is what he found in his trusty Concise Oxford: Attenuate: make thin; reduce in force, value or virulence; reduce amplitude, or, as an adjective: slender, rarefied, tapering gradually. After the excesses of Christmas, nitrogen’s probably not the only thing some of us are keen to attenuate.

understanding nutrient behaviour across

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35

BUSINESS │ RAW MILK

Margaret developed the Dolly’s Milk logo, saying who wouldn’t want to drink milk from a cow called Dolly?

o t y e n d y S om Fr Dolly’s dairy Jackie Harrigan Jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Getting into the dairy and milking cows is not many couples’ ideal retirement project.

Most couples are looking to escape the grind of daily milking, but Margaret and Peter Dalziel are not your average couple.

After a banking city lifestyle and 11 years in Sydney they were ready to escape the rat race and go rural. So they traded Sydney-side for Stratford and the Opera House’s gracious curves for a drop-dead gorgeous view of Mount Taranaki.

Shifting to and farming their Taranaki drystock farm would have been a culture shock but they wanted an added challenge so researched, built and opened a small raw milk production and vending operation.

Dolly’s Milk opened in October 2013, milking 20 much-loved and individually named cows through the purpose-built 14-aside herringbone shed.

While Peter worked his way through 36

the Primary Industries Ministry (MPI) regulations and building project, Margaret named the venture after the well-endowed country music star Dolly Parton and set about marketing the fresh-daily raw milk in the local Taranaki area.

Three years on, they are as happy as cows in milk – they say milking is a breeze

with only 20 cows and no tanker pickup.

“We can milk at 6.30am or we can milk at 9.30 – we don’t have a tanker deadline.”

All of the milk goes fresh into the vending machine at the sales kiosk attached to the cowshed. Any not sold the next day is fed to calves or the neighbour’s pigs.

It’s all about fresh milk and while MPI’s latest regulations about tracking milk sales and providing a health warning have been a step too far in the Dalziels’ minds, they have the mechanics of it down pat since starting out with a robust risk management programme set up when they began trading.

The couple estimates compliance to the raw milk regulations with testing, audits and shed inspections costs them around $10,000 each year.

“That is the cost of all the compliance and keeping rafts of records –it’s the cost of being in business.”

The milk vending machine is a Milkbot machine sourced in the Czech Republic and all of the customers use a Dolly card with an electronic chip has an electronic chip which allows the machine to capture the transaction.

“The machine keeps a daily record of who has purchased and how much and we have their contact details if we ever need them. It also allows us to incentivise their purchases by offering a $2.20/litre rate for cardholders and $2.50/l for cash customers.”

And the Dalziels can market to them because they know all their details and know most of their faces.

“Dolly’s Milk has really helped us to settle into a new area – we meet heaps of people from all over,” Peter says.

The new raw milk regulations require testing of samples three times a month for milk quality and pathogens. The Dalziels have always washed each cow’s udder and dried them with paper towels as well as stripping some milk out for daily before the cups go on. They perform a daily SCC test on the milk and paddle test if required to identify any cows/quarters with raised counts.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Dolly’s days While the farm is not certified organic, the Dalziels say they farm with organic principles, not using any sprays or palm kernel or chemical fertilisers but treating the cows conventionally if they get sick and need it.

Peter grew up in Turakina, working on farms in his school holidays and despite a career in banking always wanted to come back to farming. Margaret grew up on a dairy farm at Ohingaiti and also loved the lifestyle, saying her boarding school at Wanganui was full of farm girls who grew up on raw milk – “and none of them were ever sick – or overweight either”.

“We have always wanted to retire to a piece of land and to keep active,” Peter says.

“It gives us a purpose and we just love the cows,” Margaret adds.

They searched the Rangitikei for a piece of land 13 years ago before finding the block just out of Stratford, a subdivided former dairy farm, which they leased out for 10 years as a dairy grazing block.

Peter says while there is always something that needs doing on any farm, the work on Dolly’s farm only takes 2.5-3 hours a day, including milking the cows (longer in winter when he is feeding out). Running a low-input system, he has concentrated on getting the pastures into shape over the past three years, using break feeding year round, judicious harrowing and subdivision of paddocks.

“I set up four breaks at a time and move the cows through and the paddocks regenerate much quicker.”

Balage is made with surplus pasture and fed out in the winter. The block runs 45-50 cattle, with the 20 cows, young stock, dry cows and 10 heifers to be mated as two-year-olds. The herd is crossbred, and the Dalziels always use an A2 bull so they will eventually have all A2 milk. They have taken the advice of their CRV Ambreed consultant to use purebred semen, so alternate between Friesian and Jersey bulls as it is important to maintain the 5-5.5% fat level in the milk.

“Pure Jersey milk would be too yellow but pure Friesian would be too white and thin and lack the cream and the customers would notice that,” Peter says.

Other traits he looks for in the AB bull are milk production level, somatic cell count and OAD.

They are strong supporters of MPI tightening the regulations and disappointed some suppliers are flouting the rules with buying clubs and refusing to comply with the new regulations.

Of their main pool of customers, 85% come from nearby Stratford and Eltham within a 15km radius of the farm, with

Peter and Margaret love their retirement project, the cows, the customers and the lifestyle. the rest scattered around further away settlements. Daily sales are tracking 150 litres a day and with a year-round calving policy, more fresh cows will enter the herd in March.

“Some cows produce 18-20l per day after calving but the average across the herd is more like 10l,” Peter says.

The economic level of production and sales for their operation is around 150170l/day, he says.

“That was the one thing that we didn’t know before we started – whether enough people would come to purchase the milk.”

Margaret put a lot of effort into marketing the venture, mainly through talking to groups about the concept. The Dolly’s Milk website, Facebook page and a story from the Dolly cows in the local Stratford Press each month keep the name in front of potential clients.

“All of the cows have names, and we write the column from their perspective,” she says.

Selling free-range eggs and organic veges from the stall has broadened the reach and the Dalziels also offer accommodation in two self-contained units on their property.

Their relief milker/relief farmer Scott Shaw grows the vegetables and allows the Dalziels to get away from the 365-day operation to visit family and friends. Their grandchildren from Auckland love to come and stay and help out on the farm.

Interactions they have had with people coming to buy their milk has been a highlight of the venture, says Margaret.

“We have met so many people from different walks of life and an unexpected joy has been how they tell us of health problems they are sure have cleared up from drinking the Dolly’s Milk.”

Eczema, asthma, allergies, psoriasis and dermatitis – all of these have been eased by drinking raw milk, according to their clients.

“Some people are on a cocktail of drugs and have been able to cut them back while drinking our milk.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

While they are careful not to make claims on the efficacy of the milk, they are thrilled by the anecdotes their clients relay to them.

“One dad had a two-year-old who wouldn’t sleep through the night – even after three bottles of formula – but the child has been sleeping through the night with just one bottle of Dolly’s milk.”

They are pleased more formal research is being done at Massey University on the effect of raw milk on children with allergies and are looking forward to reading the results.

They say their customers buy the milk with roughly three motivations, saying first and foremost they can taste the difference between raw and pasteurised milk and prefer the Dolly’s raw milk. They even get a group of farmers who stop and buy their milk when their own cows are dried off through the winter.

The second group of customers enjoy seeing the shed and the cows and love that they can trust the farmers who provide it for them. The third group believe the milk gives them health benefits.

Peter and Margaret have researched the raw milk product and feel there are benefits in not pasteurising the milk to retain the good bacteria in milk to aid gut health.

“Lactose intolerant people can also often handle raw milk when they are intolerant to the pasteurised product.”

Peter and Margaret have both joined the Raw Milk Producers Association and are agents for the MilkBot vending machine. Peter has also been elected to the local district council and chairs the local business association.

More Dolly Kevin and Cindy Death milk 30 cows through a similar Dolly’s Milk operation at Bell Block, on the outskirts of New Plymouth. While the businesses are not franchised, they operate the same system and machine.

37

SYSTEMS │ PASTURE RENEWAL Jan and Graham Beatty on their Tangiteroria farm

Pressing on with new grass Glenys Christian glenys.christian@nzx.com A major flood three years ago took out 45% of the milking platform pasture on Ambie and Jan Beatty’s Northland farm.

But this hasn’t stopped them and son, Graham, who manages the Tangiteroria property, from continuing on with an ambitious pasture renewal system to deal with what was “solid kikuyu” and get more feed into their 400-cow herd resulting in more milk production.

“It’s a juggling act,” Graham says.

“But we’ll stick to what we’re doing at the moment because it’s working.”

The day Dairy Exporter called Ambie was away truck driving to help a friend out, but Jan explained how the farm’s flats flood and can be under water for several days.

“But we farm accordingly,” she says.

“An average winter flood isn’t an issue.

It’s more of a pain because it stops you getting things done. But a summer flood is different. If it’s flooding in Hikurangi and Mungakahai we know it’s going to flood here.”

She came to the property which was farmed by Ambie’s father and grandfather before him 34 years ago when they ran milking Shorthorns.

“But semen was hard to get and Friesians gave better production when we upped cow numbers to 120,” she says.

They now use CRV Ambreed genetics aiming for a medium-sized cow with good conformation and low somatic cell counts.

“We’ve got the mix right now,” she says.

“We played the numbers game for a lot of years and kept cows which we shouldn’t have.”

But now with more options with the larger predominantly Friesian herd which contains some Ayrshires and Jerseys as well as a cross of the two breeds they’ve learned their lesson and cull up to 50 cows every year. They also dropped cow numbers back by 20 for this season based on the low payout expected as well as to make management easier. Production was cut to 115,000kg milksolids (MS) after the flood but last season hit 138,000kg MS after they divided their herd into two mobs. This season with fewer cows they’re still hoping to get to 130,000kg MS. Their now 400 hectare farm can be seen as two separate properties, divided by the main road from Whangarei through to Dargaville. On one side are the flats running down to the Wairoa River, where their twice-a-day herd of 220 cows grazes.

And on the other there’s hill country

FARM FACTS Location: Tangiteroria, Northland Owners: Ambie and Jan Beatty Manager: Graham Beatty Area: 250ha dairy platform with 150ha drystock block, 60ha runoff and 45ha lease block Herd: 400 predominantly Friesian cows Production: 2015/16, 138,000kg milksolids plus calf milk, target for present season, 130,000kg MS running 20 fewer cows Supplements: 130 tonnes palm kernel, 10ha maize silage, 100 big round bales and 70 medium squares of hay Summer crops: 3ha of turnips, 5ha of chicory Dairy: 44-bail rotary with Protrack, automatic cup removers and teat spraying.

38

The Beattys aim for good conformation, low somatic cell count and medium size in their herd.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

where they graze their 180 once-a-day herd which can have to walk as far as two kilometres to their dairy, but with mainly limestone races there are no lameness issues. The group contains most of their heifers and Jerseys “and anything that needs looking after” with a Battlatch on their night paddock allowing them to come down and on to the feedpad before milking.

They run a DairyNZ System 3 operation feeding a mix of palm kernel and maize silage from a mixer wagon on their feedpad close to the 44-bail rotary dairy.

It replaced a 26-aside herringbone, which had been extended a number of times.

“It was like a sauna in there,” Graham says, who completed a diesel mechanic’s apprenticeship in Whangarei before returning home to the farm five years ago.

They employ one full-time staff member as well as a casual for relief milking.

They feed 130 tonnes of palm kernel along with maize silage they make from 10ha on the farm, recently increased from 8ha.

“As the herd’s grown we’ve grown extra,” he says.

And pasture renewal has become an even more important part of making sure they’re getting maximum performance from the paddocks on their flats particularly after flood damage and pugging or if older species have run out.

“If they’re not performing you may as well be doing something else.”

They mulch around 20ha of the kikuyudominant pastures in the winter and direct drill annuals such as Nicola and Vigor, sourced from Northland Seed and Supplies.

They’ll start grazing the herd on the new pasture in August or sometimes earlier if possible and hope the feed will last through to Christmas if there’s adequate rainfall.

“Some of those paddocks we’ll put into maize or chicory or just let the annuals peter out so other grasses can come through,” Graham says.

If there’s a large amount of kikuyu to deal with he’ll spray it out in the autumn, plant an annual and spray that out once it’s been grazed in spring. The paddock will then go into a crop and back into permanent pasture. At present he’s using Trojan, which works well with a mix with two types of white clover. On the hills, where some paddocks are 100% kikuyu, he’ll mulch then use cocksfoot.

They still grow 3ha of Marco tetraploid turnips as a summer crop on their hill country which usually do well. Turnips also used to be grown on the flats, but five years ago they switched to chicory because of its ability to be grazed repeatedly..

“It’s made a big difference having goodquality pasture over the last two or three years,” Graham says.

“We’ve spent a long time getting

Jan and Graham Beatty with the last break of chicory in the background.

Water usage monitoring The Beattys have recently signed up for a Northland Regional Council trial looking at reducing water usage in their dairy.

This has seen water meters fitted for the past year to quantify water used and a number of changes will be made to see what effect they have. These will involve backing gates and variations in hose pressure and nozzle size.

The farm has a three-pond effluent system, put in when their new dairy was built.

Travelling irrigators spread effluent on to 14ha of nearby land which is used to grow maize then is put into new pasture.

Graham says he was keen when the trial work was first suggested to put his hand up to give the monitoring a go.

“It’s good to work with the council because we should be on the same side,” he says.

“They’re not dogmatic. They’re switched on to what we’re doing and they’re looking at it from all angles.”

Pasture renewal can be disrupted when the northern Wairoa River floods which can see floodwaters get right up to where Graham’s standing.

the farm to the place we are at so now we’ve concentrating on squeezing more production out.”

They apply around $70,000 worth of fertiliser every year with a 15% serpentine super, lime and elemental sulphur mix going on their flats along with small amounts of urea being applied behind the cows during the spring. The hills get regular dressings of lime and super.

Hay is fed out in paddock on the flats depending on the weather during winter.

They usually make 100 big round bales and 70 medium squares to see them through.

Jan rears 300 calves a year, brought in straight from the paddock to an old woolshed where they’re tagged. Its yards are handy for when bobbies, which are run separately, have to be loaded to leave the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

property. New sawdust is put in the shed every year and every second or third year flooring in the area where pens are placed is completely dug out, while the rest of the surface in the shed has its top layer taken off.

She’s careful to segregate any calves that might look sick, “as soon as they blink”.

The remaining calves are put into groups of 10 to a pen, then combined to form groups of 30.

They stay in the same groupings when they’re moved outside to feed by Ambie on the calfeteria with a 50/50 mix of milk powder and milk.

On their 60ha runoff they run 25 rising two-year-old steers, 100 replacement yearlings, 100 rising two-year-old replacements and 63 beef steer calves. On another nearby 45ha block they’ve leased for the past four years they graze 23 Jersey bull calves which will become service bulls, 90 Angus-cross calves and 60 beef heifer calves. Most of their hay is also made on these two blocks, taking more pressure off the home farm.

The Beattys have fenced several bush areas of up to 4ha to rejuvenate and long ago fenced all the waterways on their dairy platform.

“There are just a few little bits we’re finishing off on the beef area which were in the too-hard basket due to trees and the winding creek,” Graham says.

39

SYSTEMS │ FORAGE

The farm is also running a trial on reducing reliance on bought-in feed which is showing the benefits of taking a grass-first approach.

Finding forages for the north Glenys Christian glenys.christian@nzx.com Northland dairy farmers may soon have much greater choice in the forages they can grow backed up by results from plot, paddock-scale and whole-farm trials throughout the region.

The diversified forage production project which began last July aims to provide physical and financial results from the demonstration of a range of forages grown on different sites.

Plot trials are being used to grow and evaluate a range of annual and perennial legumes at Dargaville, Te Kopuru, Hikurangi, Kerikeri and Awanui, where all sites had the same legume species sown at the same rate between April 20 and May 19. Up to 80 plots have been sown with annuals commonly used in other parts of the country as well as some Northland farmers haven’t seen before. By spring last year Berseem, Persian and Balansa clovers were all looking very good.

Paddock-scale sowings are also being used for some of the most-promising species where some of the annual clovers have been sown with companion species. Four farms were drilled in April 2016 between Kawakawa and north of Awanui with pasture growth and other measurements collected since June.

The third part of the project is moving the use of diversified forages on to a whole-farm basis. Five farms are all growing substantial areas of non-perennial ryegrass with, for example, half the farm in tall fescue or growing a substantial area of lucerne.

At the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) field day in early December,

40

Northland Dairy Development Trust trustee and local farmer, Allister McCahon, said farmers needed to look at other opportunities to grow protein on their farms if they were not going to buy in palm kernel. The farm is also running a trial on reducing reliance on bought-in feed which is showing the benefits of taking a grass-first approach.

Previous research has shown yields of up to 19 tonnes a hectare could be achieved

Previous research has shown yields of up to 19 tonnes a hectare could be achieved from introducing key annual legumes into farmers’ pasture mix.

from introducing key annual legumes into farmers’ pasture mix. While research had been carried out in Northland back in the 1970s more work had recently been carried out on the East Coast which farmers could look to.

Relish red clover, as well as some of the new white clovers, was looking good but new work from Australia had shown some annual legumes’ yields could be very soil-specific, diversified forage production project consultant, Gavin Ushher said.

Ushher took farmers through results so far of the plot trials on the property which aim to establish, monitor and look at the performance of some new clovers such as Karariki, Legacy and Mainstay white clover as well as Relish red clover. Some other

perennial legumes such as Lotus major and minor, strawberry clover, Aberlasting kura hybrid, Permatas talish clover, lucerne and sulla were also sown.

Annual clovers were included in the trial because they grew more rapidly and earlier than any other clovers, he said.

Research in Kaitaia 40 years ago showed a range of annual clovers produced eight to 10t of drymatter/hectare from when they were sown in early April until they were harvested between October 20 and 26.

Research in Marlborough from 2011 to 2012 showed clovers sown on March 26 at a very high seeding rate produced very high yields. Across six annual clovers the average yield was 15.1t DM/ha with the highest yield 19.5t DM. In contrast perennial white clover produced 11.3t DM/ha and red clover 12.4t DM/ha over the same period.

Forage quality sampling on October 12 showed in comparison with white clover’s 12.3% DM level Berseem was a highest at 11.7%, then Persian at 11.45 and Balansa at 10.35%. Metabolisable energy (ME) was 11.3 for white clover, 11.8 for Balansa, 11.6 for Persian and 11.2 for Berseem.

Crude protein and acid detergent fibre all came in lower than white clover. Both Berseem and Balansa showed a crude protein level of 24.4% compared with clover’s 25.8%. Persian lagged well behind at 20.1%. The closest to white clover’s acid detergent fibre level of 25.5% was Balansa at 25.1%. Persian was 24.8% and Berseem came in at 24.4%.

Laboratory results showed typical germination levels of 85% with a range from 58-98%. But there was very low germination of only 2-3% for three seed lines used in the plot trials which

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Pasture mass at Kerkeri site kg DM/ha Sept 1

Daily growth rate from sowing

kg DM/ha Oct 16

Daily growth rate between cuts

Balansa clover – Viper

1952

17

7136

115

Persian clover – Lusa

2057

18

3992

43

Berseem clover

2624

22

6181

79

Berseem clover – Meteor

3327

28

10591

161

explained their failure. The NARF plots used for the trial had extremely good base fertility with a pH of 6.5, but the plots weren’t suitable for lucerne due to their heavy clay soils. Where it had been sown it was a struggle to now see it but the growth on the top of the annual clovers was “extremely impressive”.

“Given the right conditions we can grow them all right,” he said.

Arrowleaf Arrotas was not able to tolerate wet soils and while Balansa had flowered in October and died down in December it had looked as good as Berseem.

“The next challenge is how they fit into the whole-paddock situation.”

In the paddock-scale sowings four farms sowed a range of ryegrass and clover species last autumn with a focus on annual clovers sown with companion species. A comparison of yields showed 64kg DM/ ha/day was grown between June 18 and October 21 in a paddock on a property north of Awanui where 69% of pasture composition was Italian rye sown at 5kg/ha and 23% Berseem clover sown at 19kg/ha. This gave a yield of 8021kg DM/h. On the same property there was 52kg DM/ha/day growth recorded from a paddock where grasses made up half the composition of the pasture, 24% Berseem clover and 13% Persian, for a yield of 6496kg DM/ha.

On another property perennial ryegrass was sown at 15kg/ha making up half of the pasture and Berseem and Persian clovers, both sown at 15kg/ha, made up 23% and 14% respectively. A growth rate of 41kg DM/ha/day was recorded from April 12 to October 21 with a total of 7894kg DM/ha produced. When perennial ryegrass was increased to 65% of the pasture, Persian clover was lifted to 15% and Berseem reduced to 8%, growth dropped to 29kg DM/ha/day, giving a total of 5583kg DM/ ha On another property only Persian and Berseem clovers were used, sown at a rate of 14kg/ha. They were monitored between June 10 and October 28 showing Persian produced 22kg DM/ha/day and a total of 3105kg DM/ha while Berseem had higher growth levels at 28kg DM/ha/day to reach a total of 3987kg DM/ha.

Ushher said some features of the trial results so far were the finding that high plant populations of annual and perennial clovers were needed in August so there

were sufficient plants to drive high legume growth from then until December. It was important to use high-quality seed and to achieve high field germination it was necessary to get rid of kikuyu trash.

“Addition of companion species to these annuals isn’t easy,” he said.

There was a major danger of companion species out-competing the clovers during June and July when most annual clover growth was slow. He also warned farmers about the risk of pugging the annuals.

It was suspected that the annuals, and perhaps perennials, needed a slow grazing round of 50-60 days through July and August and 35-45 days in September and October. Potassium was a critical element for maximising legume growth and could be more important for annual legumes than perennials.

As part of the trial Faba beans are also being grown in the far north at two sites,

one at Awanui and one further north.

It was estimated the first crop sown on May 10 had a growth rate of 67kg DM/ ha/day up until September 22, giving a paddock average of 9040kg DM/ha. But the northern crop was more variable with yields of 10,000kg DM/ha in the front of the field where there were drier conditions, decreasing to 6-7t DM/ha at the back where there were wetter conditions. This has indicated that while Faba beans have the potential for large yields they need very good soil conditions to achieve this.

The same paddock had a yield heading towards 15t DM/ha last year until there was a major fungus problem in late October and November.

Samples tested in late August showed a DM level of 10.2% in top material and 11.6% at the bottom of the plants.

Megajoules of metabolisable energy (MJME)/kg DM were 12.8 and 11 respectively with the expectation that the second level would drop off rapidly late in spring. In late November 2015 bottom stalk material was measured at 5.3 MJME. The top material showed a crude protein level of 28.4 compared with 15.3 at the bottom of the plant and sugar levels were 11.6% compared with 5.1.

Funding for the trial has come mainly from the Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Farming Fund.

Gavin Ushher shows the contrasting growth rates of, from left to right, Persian clover, which was slow to start, Arrowleaf Arrotas and Berseem.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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VET’S VOICE │ DE-STRESSING YOUR COWS Tight squeeze.

Pecking order in the herd Neil Chesterton

I

once knew a farmer who had a name for a particular cow – she called her Danger Woman and this described her to a tee. I sometimes think that if we knew the “names” cows might have for each other we would have a lot less angst when dealing with them.

In the previous two articles I talked about the cow as an animal of prey and how they recognise people.

Cows also recognise other cows. They feel they need to stay together to keep themselves safe. I have seen even injured animals leap quite high fences just to get back to herd safety. To cause a cow distress, separate it from its group.

Cow society is well defined – there is most definitely a Queen Victoria as well as a Cruella de Vil and some little slave girls and everything in between – in every herd – and everyone knows their place and who is who.

It is obvious that usually a cow knows her own calf and the calf recognises mum.

It is not so well known that cows recognise all their herd mates, even in herd of 250 or more.

On a dairy farm we are usually dealing with herds of cows and not with cows as individuals. We could look at a herd of cows as a loosely organised army – there are sergeants and NCO’s, privates, corporals and even generals. There are marching orders and mess orders. The sergeant has her eye on all her troops and they obey or suffer.

This means the cows on your farm make

almost as many decisions as you do – they decide who eats which bit of grass, who will be milked first, how fast they will walk along the track and so on. If we try to make their decisions for them they get upset, confused and stubborn.

When cows gather from the paddock they come to the gate as a group – no one wants to get left behind. They walk along the track in a fairly set marching order at the speed set by the sergeants who are spread out among the whole herd keeping order.

Contrary to what we used to think, dominant cows don’t always go first, they usually push some lowerdominance cows in front of them and others follow – that way if there is danger the other cow cops it. It’s the rule of nature.

Higher-dominance cows don’t all stay together – they keep apart with their own little group of lower ones to boss.

Contrary to what we used to think, dominant cows don’t always go first, they usually push some lower-dominance cows in front of them and others follow – that way if there is danger the other cow cops it. It’s the rule of nature. At intervals she might say “all right girls, time for a quick rest” and everyone stops – even

the ones in front – no need to walk if the boss is stopped – then after some seconds she decides to move on, or another cow reminds her that it is time and off the whole group moves.

We need to allow this “push-pull” to go on to get the cows home – no amount of pushing by us from behind will speed them up. It only does damage by compacting the rear group.

When the groups arrive at the shed (or feed pad) it is time to reshuffle, orders change and quite a bit of social bullying takes place. This can be a big stress to the lower-ordered cows.

You can watch all this going on every day on your farm. But if we make some of the common mistakes that cut across their orders it can result in chaos and anxiety to the cows and to us it looks like poor cow flow.

One common mistake is to not allow enough space in milking yards either by closing the gates on too many cows or by moving the backing gate too early.

To keep cows moving in their own order allow plenty of room (1.3 metres squared for Jersey breeds and up to 1.8m for larger breeds) and start milking as soon as they arrive. Don’t move the backing gate until at least two rows or rotations have been milked and try to avoid going out and pushing cows into the bails in the wrong order.

If you allow cows to make their own choices – with a little bit of incentive such as a new paddock of grass to go to or feed in the bails – all will go with orderliness and “decorum”. There will be more milk and less mess to clean up.

Fighting cows.

Neil Chesterton is an Inglewood vet. You can access some of this information at Neil’s website: www.lamecow.co.nz Here you can also find information on seminars for your farm staff, training resources and e-learning courses you can take.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

45

CO DIARY │ HEIFERS

Heifers top of mind Scott Cameron Are young stock top of mind on your farm? That’s a question posed to Wairarapa farmers over the past few months at a series of events.

A few years ago DairyNZ initiated a heifer grazing project, in collaboration with dairy farmers, graziers, grazing companies, vets, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and LIC. Farmers were asked to identify obstacles to raising good heifers.

One of the top reasons farmers gave was the gap in relationships between parties.

Reasons ranged from farm systems to not having an agreed contract and having different expectations, like who was responsible for supplying supplement in a feed shortage.

The group consensus was stock need to come on to the grazing block at target liveweight.

In the initial stages, the project followed the progress of focus farms nationwide.

We’ve adapted that approach in the Wairarapa and instead of following the progress of one focus farm, events are hosted on several farms, to see a range of approaches from both dairy farmers and graziers.

The field days provide a platform for both stock owners and graziers to discuss

Setting clear expectations around start and finish weights with the grazier are important.

current and regional issues, to look at the whole cycle from calf rearing to the heifers returning to the milking platform while providing practical tools and information.

At the end of last year, we visited Allendale Dairy, owned by Bob and Jenny Toswill and managed by Bart Gysbertsen.

Allendale Farm is a 400-hectare unit carrying 427 heifers and 200 weaner calves, 108 carry-over cows and 138 bulls.

A focal point of the day was the liveweight targets Bart is achieving and the additional effort he will go to, especially with the animals that are not at target weights when they arrive.

Tips for dairy farmers who graze heifers off-farm 1. Weight-for-age target for this time of year is 30% of mature liveweight at six months.

2. North Island farmers should check spore counts where heifers are grazing and have a plan to administer zinc for facial eczema. Last year high spore counts were present through to May. 3. Set clear expectations. Communicate what the expected weights are for the end of the grazing term. National data shows heifers are most likely to miss their targets as R2 heifers with little to no growth from March to May. Review current feed situation to ensure liveweight targets pre-calving (90% mature liveweight) are met.

4. Weighing is the only objective way to assess that heifers are growing well and on target.

5. Animal health plans should be tailored to the farm the heifer is being grazed on.

Parasite pressure and mineral deficiencies are unique to each farm.

46

This led to a discussion around two questions. Should the grazier still take underweight heifers on? Does the dairy farmer expect the animals to come back at target liveweight?

The group consensus was stock need to come on to the grazing block at target liveweight. Target liveweight for a threemonth-old animal is 20% of mature liveweight, or 95kg for an average Kiwi Cross cow.

This is one of the questions that must be answered before an agreement is made between a grazier and dairy farmer. The most important part of any relationship is to be clear with expectations and communicate what the expected weights are for the end of the grazing term.

Weighing stock and using liveweights is the best measure for heifer performance.

A group of heifers that are below target liveweight will have a lower six-week in-calf rate, a higher not-in-calf rate and lower milk production.

Allendale Farm will host another event on May 9 where farmers can see the progress of the young stock.

• For more information visit dairynz.co.nz/ events or dairynz.co.nz/heifers.

• Scott Cameron, DairyNZ consulting officer, Lower North Island.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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UPFRONT │ NATIVE PLANTS Lisa and Pippa, 3, check out a homegrown hebe in Lisa’s propagation shed

Grow-your-own riparian plants Jackie Harrigan Jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

A

cheeky entry into the 2014 Ballance Farm Environment Awards switched Paul and Lisa Charmley on to what they could be doing to enhance and protect the environment on their 300-cow Dannevirke dairy farm.

While they managed to win the Hills Laboratories Soil Management Award for their soil management, they say the big win for them was the fantastic feedback and suggestions they received from judges.

“They suggested planting our fencedoff riparian areas, retiring some areas and other things to really lift our environmental performance,” Lisa says.

Paul is a fourth-generation farmer on the block at Te Rehunga, close to the Ruahine Ranges. When the couple bought 80 hectares and leased a further 36ha of their 106ha effective farm in 2013 from a family partnership they were fired up with ideas and enthusiasm.

“We bought on a high market too, so we were pretty motivated by the high debt level,” Paul says.

After the BFEA judging, Lisa launched into buying and planting riparian natives along the seven kilometres of fenced off waterways, with varying success.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing and we lost some because we had planted the bare-rooted plants in wet spots.”

Then her mum suggested lots of the natives could be grown from seed and cuttings so Lisa started down that track – within a year she had 600 plants growing in her back garden.

A real enthusiast who throws herself into projects – but with a keen eye on the bottom line – she now has a dedicated propagation area and potting sheds with

48

FARM FACTS

1500 potted native plants happily growing under a new timer-controlled watering system that Paul installed for her for Christmas.

Growing a wide variety of natives, she has learnt which are best-suited for wet and dry areas and which take easily from cuttings or grow successfully from seed.

She taps any resource she can – friends with bush blocks for seed, help from her mum, cuttings from friends’ stock bushes and empty pots from people in Dannevirke who have been collecting them in their sheds for years.

Having reached the stage where she could no longer hide her potting mix buying habit in the family budget, Lisa says she has gone commercial and found a supplier of bulk native plant potting mix from Napier to keep feeding her habit – at much less cost.

Repotting plants into bigger pots as they grow is a big commitment but she estimates riparian planting will be completed in five years by growing the plants herself, at a cost of only 60 cents a plant.

Paul is gearing up to get this year’s crop

Paul and Lisa Charmley, Te Rehunga, Dannevirke 106 ha eff, 300 Kiwicross cows, 121,316kg MS, 405kg MS/cow System 2, 4.5ha summer turnips, 400 tonnes silage, 40 bales balage

of plants planted in autumn, using farm workers Jay Singh and Andrew Campbell to help plant and also release last year’s plants from the encroaching grass.

The Charmleys have also constructed a bridge over the largest stream on the property for total stock exclusion and fenced off a stand of totara to regenerate ferns and native trees along with another small retired block around the cow shed.

“It has been so heartening to see the bugs and bees and frogs and birdlife coming back,” Lisa says.

Lisa’s environmental work led to her being nominated to attend the Dairy Environmental Leaders Forum, setting up and working with a regional group and looking for outreach opportunities to further the message and work.

SIMPLE FARMING SYSTEM REFINED While Paul had always worked in the dairy industry after attending Taratahi and working locally then on his family farm,

Lisa’s native plant emporium: Hebes, pittosporums, lance wood, ribbon wood, coprosma robusta, ake ake, olearia, carex secta, tenax, mountain flax, cabbage trees, manuka.

Lisa advocates growing your own riparian plants, saying it’s easy and cheap.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Lisa’s tips 1. Just get started 2. Go to your local regional council for advice on what plants thrive in your region 3. Be proactive, ask for advice and free seeds, cuttings 4. Trial and error – some grow, some don’t 5. Get your local community involved 6. Involve your children – they are great helpers 7. Plant by the moon phases – it works.

Lisa came from a background of study and working in manufacturing of aluminium windows in Napier before marrying Paul and shifting to Dannevirke.

His practical knowledge combined with her strengths in processes and systems and their mutual love of budgeting and knowing the numbers driving their new business has formed a powerful and strongly analytical partnership. They also have a bent for technology.

After buying the farm in 2013 they looked at the strengths and weaknesses of the business from a lean management point of view and decided to borrow more money to improve infrastructure and upgrade facilities. The effluent system was due for an upgrade so they retired their old slurry tank, installing a pump and travelling rain gun which applies three times the effluent in an hour. The 17ha effluent area is now treated differently for soil sampling and fertiliser application.

They also invested in Protrack for the dairy and a dosatron unit and dung buster yard scraper – identifying that saving time would mean saving money in the long run and enable them to keep farm working expenses low by savings in labour.

“Keeping our FWE to $2.36/kg MS (last

Following the Ballance Farm awards and Dairy Environment Leaders Forum Lisa and Paul Charmley are stepping up the environmental work on their Dannevirke dairy farm.

season) has meant we weathered the storm of low payout years quite well,” Paul says.

Resiting their calf-rearing operation to a pole shed behind the cowshed with milk piped under the tanker track has been lifechanging and meant a huge time saving for the operation.

“We saved a couple of hours each day not having to cart buckets of milk to outlying haysheds and in springtime that time is really valuable.”

He also built a small sleepout for the children to play in and to act as a farm office next to the calf shed and shifted an old shipping container close by. Paul kitted out the container with all of the fencing and water tools so they are always on hand, easy to replace back where they belong and always easy to find – another lean management principle, saving time by being methodical and organising your equipment so you never need to search for it.

The infrastructure upgrades meant the Charmleys were able to save on staff in the low payout years and afford to take on another worker this season.

Investing in a CDAX tow-behind last

Gadget man

Paul and Reuben check out one of the first riparian trees planted on the Charmleys’ farm. Now they grow their own.

Paul has had great success spotting cycling cows with his DJI Phantom 3 drone, adding to a 78% six-week in-calf rate and 11% empty rate last mating.

Mating for nine weeks of AI, Paul says he was getting a little tired by the last three weeks and silent heat cows are harder to spot at that end of the season.

Sending his drone up for a 20-minute spotting run it’s easy from 100 metres to spot the dots of cows that are restless and tracking around the paddock after each other. Swooping closer he can capture their markings and number them – and spraying their numbers on their backs works well for any hard-to-identify cows.

Paul enjoys figuring out and flying the drone and is excited by its prospects for future use, saying he has used it to deliver ice creams to the worker’s house and is looking forward to being able to spotspray weeds and measure pasture mass with updated versions of drones.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

season has saved more time – with the unit connecting to the home computer by Bluetooth, the feed wedge can be updated as readings are taken, and all done in a morning.

While other bank managers and accountants might have shuddered at the outlay on improving infrastructure, Lisa and Paul managed to keep theirs onside by creating and presenting upto-date budgets and cost benefit analysis using their good friend and ally, CRS Cash Manager Rural.

“We didn’t do a detailed cost benefit analysis for each investment but with mental arithmetic we were able to get a pretty good idea of what each upgrade would do to our bottom line,” Lisa says.

Through the journey they didn’t waver from their low-input System 2 approach, saying they want to farm the low-impact way, like farming 20 years ago but refined with modern technology to make it more time-efficient and more fun.

The Charmleys weaned themselves off urea after an approach to Doug Edmeades company AgKnowledge gave them the confidence that they could do it.

“It’s a bit like coming off the sugar – but the clover has thickened up really well and has helped us hold on to the production through our dry summers,” Paul says.

Palm kernel doesn’t feature on the farm – they prefer to be grass focused and use their grass silage from the runoff and milking platform as supplement.

“It’s the old-fashioned way – saving the surplus to fill in the gaps.”

A result of higher clover content and bloat worries was a new grazing system Paul developed after break-feeding a few part-paddocks around the cow shed one day. He noticed how much better the cows utilised the pasture and it showed in the vat, so he did some research and introduced his “bit-by-bit” grazing system.

Basically the cows are break-fed chunks of the paddock throughout the day rather than getting the whole paddock.

“It works really well – the cows always have fresh feed to go on to, we do very little topping and we have had an increase of milksolids in the vat,” Paul says. “And there have been no cows lost to bloat.”

49

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T SPECIAL REPOR

RENEW MORE E R U T PAS 52 Green, green grass of Camden 56 Seeing the benefits of monitoring 57 ‘The cows ate more grass’ 58 Stylish Blade to raise dairy awareness 60 Finding the silver bullet 62 How much pasture should you renew?

64 Late start likely for re-sown pastures 66 Condition scoring a key to renewal Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

51

SPECIAL REPORT │ PASTURE RENEWAL

Farm managers Glenn Jones, Willsden; Paul Whittaker, Chiswick; and Robin Hornblow, Prairie, in a paddock re-sown in Tabu Italian ryegrass in this spring.

Green, green grass of Camden Renewal of the pasture of a Canterbury farming business’s four farms inside four years was conducted like a military operation. Anne Lee reports.

I

f there was a catch phrase for Camden Group’s massive pasture renewal programme it would have to be go early and go hard.

The family owned Canterbury farming business is in the fourth season of what’s become an epic tale of mega-grass proportions.

It’s a story of bold endeavour, battlelike planning, triumphs, financial hurdles as the milk price fell through the floor, a plot detour and even the odd defeat.

And while its final chapter hasn’t yet been written, the spoiler alert is that the initial plot was right all along and a happy ending is now in sight.

The story began back in early 2013 with a gutsy call to renew a third of the group’s milking platforms in just one season followed by similar rates of renewal over the next few seasons so that within close to four years the full 800 hectares would be in new permanent pasture.

The grand plan aimed at very quickly improving the amount of home-grown feed, to rid the group’s farms of a

52

significant proportion of the bought-in supplements that over time had crept into the system.

The increase in supplements, to almost a tonne of bought-in feed per cow, mirrored the slow creep of unproductive, matted, old grasses such as browntop and sweet vernal back into the sward.

Like most Canterbury dairy farms their history as dryland operations means the soils still play host to a rich seed bank of these old grasses.

Given any opportunity the sleeping old timers will stealthily awaken and invade.

Camden group general manager Leo Donkers says the renewal plan aimed to rapidly call a halt to these creeping invaders, quickly reversing the trend in supplement use and boosting the amount of high quality home-grown pasture harvested by cows.

One of the group’s farms, the 306ha Te Pirita property Willsden, is part of a benchmarking group with Lincoln University Dairy Farm.

Data collection, monitoring and analysis have always been part of

G oin g ea rly One of the keys to success in this large-scale renewal programme using short-term Italian ryegrass has been sowing it early.

As soon as the soil temperature hits 7-8C in mid-September it’s time to go in, Graham says.

“Italians and annuals will grow in temperatures 5C lower than perennials so 7-8C is ideal compared with perennials that really want temperatures to be up at 12C,” he says.

“We learned the lesson about going early in the first year because although the late-September-sown Italian was a little slower out of the blocks than the October-sown tranche, when we crunched the numbers the September-sown grew 0.5-0.7t DM/ha more than the October,” Graham says.

“It’s also important for us sowing three tranches that the first goes in early enough otherwise you end up getting into the worst time of the year from a feed point of view and you’re still re-pasturing,” Leo says.

One of the benefits of going early is that contractors are also more likely to be free at that time.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Camden’s DNA. Leo’s brother and partner in the business, John Donkers is also a farm consultant and operations manager Terry Kilday has a strong focus on recording and monitoring.

It’s the data, both physical and financial along with physical observation that fundamentally informs the team’s decision-making process.

Back in the 2012-13 season bought-in supplement on Willsden hit 3.3 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha or 974kg DM/ cow and, while those inputs had been growing, milk production had remained fairly constant at 450kg milksolids (MS)/ cow and 1500kg MS/ha.

At the same time pasture monitoring was telling them new grass paddocks sown the season before were outperforming older pastures by a country mile.

With greater winter and early spring activity those paddocks were on a 14-day round while the rest of the farm was still out at 25-days.

Paddock records showed a range in production from eight to 19t DM/ha/ year.

The team called in the experts and reviewed their data even more closely carrying out a detailed analysis of benefits and costs.

Armed with that information they decided it was time for serious action.

Agriseeds’ Graham Kerr says such a major renewal programme called for tactical planning well before spring.

The team dropped the stocking rate slightly and ensured they had extra supplement on hand.

The poorest-performing paddocks were selected, fertility checked and any drainage issues or other factors that could affect production dealt with.

The decision was made to do that first season’s renewal in four tranches starting in September with 41ha of a total of 90ha to be renewed sown in a shortterm Italian ryegrass and 49ha sown into permanent pasture.

Two hits The aim of going through a short-term Italian first was to give those old, invasive grasses two hits with the spray a year apart and at the same time bring some high-quality fast feed on to the platform.

In hindsight, given the extra pasture they grew in that first season they wouldn’t have been so conservative with stocking rate and supplement on hand.

The new paddocks averaged 2.4t DM/ ha/year more in the first milking season

One of the few older paddocks left and next off the block for renewal next season – the creeping invaders brown top and old pasture species dramatically lower pasture productivity.

Willsden farm manager Glenn Jones keeps a close eye on pre-grazing covers in a new perennial pasture drilled in early October 2016.

Esta b lishin g the p e r e n n i als Paddocks are sprayed with glyphosate 540 and left about 10 days to two weeks to ensure a good kill and to allow for some plant and root break down and soil to loosen off the roots.

They are ploughed and worked down with discs and harrows until a fine, firm seed bed is achieved.

They’re then sown with a conventional disc drill that’s been modified to also include a broadcast system.

The seed rate is split with 15kg/ha of diploid perennial ryegrass Trojan sown through the drill and 13kg/ha of tetraploid perennial ryegrass Viscount sown through the broadcast application along with 3kg of white clover.

The broadcast system sows the seed between the drill rows giving a dense cover across the paddocks, leaving no room for weed species.

The paddocks are heavy rolled and at first grazing or nip off, a broadleaf weed spray is applied along with 100kg/ha of urea. The next two dressings of urea are also at a rate of about 100kg/ha.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

53

Robin Hornblow, manager of one of Camden’s farms, Prairie, in a new paddock of short-term Italian ryegrass.

(which included the four-six weeks they were out of grazing) than the bottom quarter of the farm production wise which meant they more than halved their supplement use, dropping it to 478kg DM/cow while maintaining milk production.

From June 1 through to when the paddocks were sprayed out towards the end of October to go into permanent pasture they produced about 1.7t DM/ha more again than older paddocks.

Buoyed by the success and with data to help make paddock selection decisions they also took out another 56ha of older pastures, spraying them out and drilling the Italian ryegrass, Tabu.

Analysis at the end of the 2014-15 season saw big benefits in terms of production although the gains were a little dented by an exceptionally hot, dry summer with high night time temperatures.

Still analysis of the renewal programme published in the 2015 proceedings of the NZ Grassland Association showed a 198% return on investment within season of sowing thanks to extra production and higher quality feed that was easier to utilise. Then things went pear shaped.

The payout plummeted in winter 2015 and cashflow was at an all time low.

As it was on other farms, the slasher was taken to the budget. Although the long-term case stacked up the lack of cash coming in meant the renewal project had to take a major haircut.

“We came up with three choices – one to let the Tabu run its course for another season, two was to put it into perennial which was the normal practice but at a higher cost or three was to

Sp r ay dr illin g the Ita lia ns Paddocks are hard-grazed to a 1400-1500kg DM residual to open them up then left a week to freshen for spraying.

An important part of this process is pastures are short when they are sprayed, which allows the grass-killing glyphosate 540 to get into the sward and coat the fine-leaved, low-growing older grass species such as browntop.

“This is critical. Often people wait till there’s a cover of 2800-3000kgDM/ha and spray then graze. But when you have this much pasture the chemical doesn’t get down to these short, low-growing browntop-type species and killing these is a key goal.”

An insecticide such as Lorsban is applied with the glyphosate if there’s an insect risk.

The paddocks are sprayed and drilled on the same day with a disc drill used to direct drill the Tabu seed at a rate of 20kg/ha.

They’re then heavy-rolled straight away to close up the slots and get good soilto-seed contact.

Slugs are checked and generally haven’t been an issue, so slug bait is laid around the perimeter of the paddock to kill slugs migrating from surrounding paddocks.

At first grazing or nip off a broadleaf spray is applied along with a dressing of 100kg/ha of urea.

For early sowings in mid September this may be eight to nine weeks after sowing and for paddocks sown in October first nip off is usually at six weeks.

From there the paddocks are in the grazing round.

The next two applications of urea are also about 100kg/ha. undersow more Italian back into Italian.

“We just didn’t have the cash to go from Italian to perennial so we tried one and three and what we’ve found out from experience is that option one and three didn’t work.

“It was very disappointing – we ended up chasing our tail all season,” Leo says.

By leaving the Italian for another full season it went through a vernalisation process and the team were confronted with 42ha of pasture that by late November-December just wanted to run to seed no matter what.

“We ended up having to keep on topping. You’d mow them off and think they were right but they would just go back to seed,” he says.

So while they cut close to $50,000

“making milking easier and faster”

out of the budget by taking options one and three in theory, additional silage fed through December cost close to $40,000 if the feed cost was valued at 40c/kg DM. In reality it didn’t have an impact on cashflow as the silage was already on hand but it’s all part of the cost benefit analysis of the programme.

“We fed three times what we’d normally feed through December period – about 133kg DM/cow and 100kg DM/ cow of that we could confidently put down to the effect of carrying those Italians through,” Leo says.

On top of the seeding problem Terry says letting the Italians go through to another year – whether they were undersown or not – ended up putting them a year behind.

“That’s driven by the fact that the

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browntop and weed species came back in a number of paddocks so we really had to start all over again with them.

“I think the weed burden and those older grasses coming back in just meant the undersown Italian just couldn’t compete early on,” Terry says.

“This programme, using the Italians, it was all about getting rid of the browntop and old pasture species with the double spray while at the same time giving a lot of extra, fast, high-quality feed during the process.

“People sow these Italians in different circumstances and they can do well for two to even three years but in this situation it was about going into these old, run-out paddocks with two sprays in 14 months to get on top of the old grasses.

“To get around the cashflow problem corners needed to be cut – and this didn’t work,” Graham says.

Once they stopped seeding the existing Tabu gave very good autumn and winter growth so it wasn’t like they were no benefit, Leo says.

Camden’s comprehensive paddock records show that Italian ryegrass gave an average 1.7t DM/ha of additional feed after the first milking season (June 1 to October 31) and when this winter and early season growth is included for the second season, until it is sprayed out in October or November, the total additional feed is about 4.1 t DM/ha.

N umb e r s “Convincing the board we should get back into the programme this season really wasn’t a hard sell – the numbers speak for themselves,” he says.

On Willsden this spring they’re back into it with a vengeance and have resown 33ha in Italian and taken 13ha from Italian to perennial.

They’ve also sown 13ha in kale and fodder beet as they move to transitioning cows on and off winter feed on the platform.

“That’s like our annual in this programme. The paddock’s sprayed out for the fodder beet or kale and then it’s sprayed and worked up again to go back into perennial,” Terry says.

Counting the crop paddocks they’ll have 46ha to go out of Italian ryegrass or crop, into perennial next season.

But to allow flexibility, depending on conditions, what they might do is take some of that Italian back though Italian again by spraying it out and resowing it.

That’s because of the logistics of getting the perennial all sown in late October.

“Getting it into perennial is a longer job because of the way we cultivate paddocks and spend time getting the seedbed right. So you’ve got to have the weather on your side and contractors available at a time when you’re competing with fodder beet going in the ground,” Leo says.

Rather than put a paddock into perennial, spray-drilling it into Italian is a fast operation, much quicker to grazing,

Camden Group farm managers, from left, Glenn Jones from Willsden, Paul Whittaker from Chiswick and Prairie’s Robin Hornblow check the cover on a new paddock of short-term Italian ryegrass. They say the Italians are easy to manage through the first 13 months – cows love them and residuals are easy to hit even if the cover gets a little over target because quality remains right down to the base.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

and they know provides feed with much higher metabolisable energy (ME).

The team are already talking about what the renewal programme will look like once the last big tranche of new grass is sown.

Graham says there shouldn’t be a status quo renewal plan where a set percentage of the farm is taken out each year.

“It’s about selecting paddocks based on performance and for that you need good records. Camden’s got very good records so it should really be a matter of looking at those and doing the numbers on bringing up the under-performing paddocks.

“It could be that’s equivalent to 15% of the farm or it could be 5%.

“Too often the area to go through renewal is set by the budget. We do 10% because that’s what’s in the budget - with no reference to paddock and pasture performance.

I think what the team’s seen here is that, aside from extenuating circumstances when a massive payout crash means there’s a critical cashflow situation for instance, pasture performance has to be the driver so you can make good investment decisions.”

Vernali s at i o n and the s ee d battle Vernalisation occurs when a cold period, such as winter, is followed by increasing day length, such as in spring.

The period of cold triggers the plant to send up seed heads and reproduce itself as day length increases.

When ryegrass is sown in spring it doesn’t go through a cold period until the following winter so it doesn’t seed until the following summer.

That means 13-14 months of new, high-quality, easy-to-manage pasture.

If ryegrass is sown in autumn the seed-free period is much shorter although Italian ryegrass cultivars are more winter active than a standard perennial and gains can still be made in drymatter production over the winter and through early-season spring growth.

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SPECIAL REPORT │ GRASS INTO GOLD

Seeing the benefits | of monitoring Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee

The power of monitoring pastures and the benefits of recording and analysing the data really hit home for Waikato sharemilkers Mark and Susan Dyer last season.

The couple have been part of the Agriseeds Grass into Gold programme, which involved 12 farms across the country receiving free expert agronomic advice over two years and free seed with the focus very much on pasture management and good pasture renewal.

The successful programme has evolved into Tiller Talk and has been picked up

by DairyNZ. While Mark’s always diligently carried out pasture walks, the information was used mainly for pasture allocation and setting the grazing plan.

What they soon found though was how powerful that information could be in realising the potential of a farm in terms of home-grown feed.

Susan says it was pretty exciting to see that potential and what it could mean for both theirs and their farm owners’ bottom line.

To work it out realistically they broke the farm up into different blocks based on soil type and attributes – light sand, medium sand, the effluent block and heavier soils towards the back of the farm. They used their pasture records to assess the worst, average and bestproducing paddock in each block and multiplied the difference between best and worst by the area in the block.

Records from last season showed the farm had the potential to produce 125 tonnes of drymatter (DM).

Work done as part of DairyNZ’s Forage Value Index puts the value of an extra kg DM at 30c of additional operating profit.

Note that’s operating profit not just income and in the Dyers’ case the additional pasture production on the 86 hectare Te Aroha farm would equate to an extra $37,500 for them and their farm owners combined.

Farming with data and monitoring it daily comes naturally to Susan – it’s how she manages the farm business with a tight rein and can instantly assess the feed situation and what it 56

Susan and Mark Dyer – data is power.

means for milk production and cashflow.

“There are no surprises. Everything links into everything else so I always know where we’re at,” she says.

“We measure actuals against budgets all the time – I’m looking at the data every day.

“It’s informed farming, making decisions based on real information not just what you think is going on,” she says.

Susan uses FeedFlo feed budgeting software making the most of the forecasting and analysis tools.

She can run a few different scenarios through it and be prepared for numerous situations not just in terms of the effect on average farm cover but the impact different scenarios will have on milk production and importantly – because she links all the data to cash flow projections – the impact on profitability.

This season, despite the wet start, they’re on track to achieve farm working expenses of $1.75/kg MS including labour. Their pasture record data is some of the most powerful information they have and showed that at the beginning of January their new grass paddocks were growing 10-15kg DM/ha/day more than the average growth rate of the farm.

Their worst and best-performing paddocks were surprisingly located next to each other last season and Susan says you really couldn’t tell by just looking how stark the difference in production was.

But paddock records showed the best paddock grew 5t DM/ha/year more and had already had twice as many grazings as the worst paddock by March.

The data’s great for sharemilkers showing farm owners the value of

investing in pasture renewal and paddock renovation but Susan says their farm owners are right on board with what they’re doing and fully supportive of their pasture renewal programme.

They’re in just their second season on the farm and have already turned over almost 20% of the farm.

They’re using chicory as part of the renewal programme going from old permanent pastures, to annual ryegrass, to chicory and back to permanent pasture. They’ve sown 9ha in chicory this season – four paddocks were sown in October and one in November.

There’s no guessing when it comes to assessing yield because accurate information is needed to ensure the feed budget and weekly pasture allocations are spot on.

That means Susan will get out in the paddock and throw her metre hoop into the crop, cut the chicory to a post-gaze level and dry it in the microwave to get a drymatter measure.

Latest calculations put the crop at 14t DM/ha. A new 24-aside farm dairy is being built this season and a number of paddocks re-fenced, some so they run in a different direction and Susan says that’s meant one paddock that should have been next cab off the block for regrassing will have to wait till next season.

“But we have the data so we know which ones we really have to be targeting.”

Susan and Mark say they’ve definitely seen the benefit of being involved in Grass into Gold and the heavy focus on all things pasture so they’re excited to be continuing on with the expanded Tiller Talk programme.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

SPECIAL REPORT │ GRASS INTO GOLD

Reporoa farmers Joy and Deverall Thomas say a re-focus on pasture management and renewal has definitely boosted their 420-cow enterprise to the point they had record milk production last season from fewer cows.

‘The cows ate more grass’ Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee

Pasture renewal and close attention to pasture management have been a major factor in lifting the productivity of Joy and Deverel Thomas’ 136-hectare Reporoa dairy farm.

The once-a-day (OAD) milking farmers were part of Agriseeds’ Grass into Gold programme that’s now evolved into Tiller Talk and been taken up by DairyNZ as it aims to expand the programme further.

Joy says a real re-focus on pasture management and renewal has definitely boosted their 420-cow enterprise to the point they had record milk production last season from fewer cows.

They produced 1627kg milksolids (MS)/ha or 140,000kg MS, up 6% on their twice-a-day milking record of 132,000kg MS. While an improved six-week in-calf rate also helped she says pasture monitoring tells her the cows ate more grass last season with fewer grazings.

“We used to have an average 12-13 grazings per paddock but that dropped to 10-11 grazings.

“We got the cows grazing to a slightly lower residual and that slowed the round down a bit but also meant we grew more grass and it was better quality.”

Joy says she dropped residuals to a more consistent 1500kg drymatter (DM)/ ha compared with 1600-1700kg DM/ha

previously. New grass paddocks were easier to achieve residual targets on but it was important cows got down to the same level no matter how old the pasture to get good quality for the next grazing.

Joy says in the 2014-15 season they regrassed 10ha, selecting the worst paddocks on the farm based on paddock records.

‘I ’d ju s t abo ut g o ne off reg rassing altoget her but it doe s make a d ifference paying t hat bit extra and getting quality see d.’

That season their worst paddock grew seven tonnes DM/ha/year and the best 14t DM/ha but after renewing three paddocks the following season’s records showed the worst paddock was 8t DM/ ha and best 16t DM/ha.

It was important to address any underlying issues at the time of renewal and they dealt with drainage issues in three paddocks before they were resown.

While some paddocks just weren’t producing others weren’t being grazed well by cows because they were unpalatable, she says.

“We had some that were growing 11t

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

DM/ha but it was hard to get cows to graze them down. We’ve re-sown those and we’re getting 13t DM/ha off them now and it’s good, quality, palatable feed,” she says.

Last season they renewed 12ha and by late January this season Joy says the newer grass paddocks were standing out against older pastures on the farm.

“They’re greener and fresher and growing faster than the older paddocks,” she says.

The operation had once been three different farms and had just about as many paddocks as hectares.

Over time Joy and Deverel have refenced and had done some regrassing but hadn’t seen the results with lowerquality generic seed.

“I’d just about gone off regrassing altogether but it does make a difference paying that bit extra and getting quality seed,” she says.

Having Agriseeds agronomist Will Henson visit the farm as part of the Grass into Gold programme had also made a difference to the success they’d had lifting productivity, she believes.

“He gave us a bit of confidence we were doing the right thing and his advice was good. I think when you know someone’s going to be coming and checking in you also put a bit more attention to what you’re doing.”

Joy says they’ve always recorded and monitored their pasture covers and having that data helped with the discussions with Will.

They don’t go through an annual ryegrass or crop in their pasture-renewal programme going direct from old pasture to new perennial pasture.

Joy says they do their re-sowing in March but deal with any underlying paddock issues earlier.

Paddocks that had drainage issues rectified and had been resown grew 15t DM/ha last season.

To go direct from pasture to new pasture they use results from soil tests, carried out on every paddock, to ensure soil fertility is at the optimum levels then spray the paddock out to get a good kill.

It’s rotary hoed and power-harrowed to create a fine seed bed before sowing.

All-up the cost is about $1200/ha.

Joy says this season has been difficult with a wet spring being followed by dry conditions.

They were sitting at 3% behind last season’s record production by the end of January.

A couple of paddocks have some pugging damage from the wet spring and they’ll be next up for renewal.

Joy says they expect to do another 10-12ha of renewal this season as the rewards are definitely there.

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SPECIAL REPORT │ BRANDING

Blade of dairy awareness Move over that skinny stick figure everyone recognizes as the Pak’nSave stick man – there is a new, and far more stylish figure on the block.

DairyNZ are launching their own device – called the Blade – yes, that what it’s called, a device – a marketing symbol to build awareness and brand recognition.

Following the success and national recognition of the Pak’nSave stick man the dairy industry body developed the device to help build awareness of their programmes and provide a recognisable umbrella brand for all the different campaigns.

Engaging with more of their levy payers is a big push for the organisation, development manager for people and business, Tony Finch says.

“Over the last few years through the hardships of lower payouts we have been trying to engage with as many farmers as possible through our wellness and wellbeing campaign and the pasture focus campaigns and the courtesy call campaign, touching base with farmers one-on-one.”

“To be fair we have had varying levels of success, with up to 80-90% engagement in some areas, but others have been harder to engage with.

We are always looking for better reach,” he says.

“So we hope this concept will bring greater recognition to our farmers – they will eventually all recognise our

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After that the blade will be helping to put across messaging for all of DairyNZ’s seasonal campaigns – whether around people, finance or pastures.

As Finch says, engagement means different things to different farmers – some just turn up to a discussion group and others get help from the organisation to look deeply into their business around one issue or another.

‘The b lade of g rass signifie s o ur ind u s tr y ’s co mpetitive advantage – we are t he be s t at g rass-base d pro d uctio n.’

DairyNZ development manager for people and business, Tony Finch.

programmes with the overlying brand of the blade.

The symbol is widely recognisable, he says.

“The blade of grass signifies our industry’s competitive advantage – we are the best at grass-based production.

“The blade of grass is at the heart of New Zealand dairy farming.”

First campaign for 2017 for the engaging blade to spearhead is about resetting the farm system for the coming year and will roll out in autumn – whether that means taking another look at stock, pasture or business goals, Finch says.

“My own view is engagement is communication to a personal one-on-one level that adds value to their business or farming enterprise – and that level is nowhere as high as it should be.”

Having a device that works well in the digital space will hopefully push engagement for those young farmers who want to gather their information that way.

“Engagement is all about creating the right information at the right time and farmers will soon recognise the blade brand and understand that it offers something to help them on their farms and in their business.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

Make reducing your break-even milk price a priority this autumn In only two seasons the average dairy farm has managed to reduce their break-even milk price by more than $1.20 – with average savings of over $180,000 p/a.

A FRESH LOOK Do you wonder how you compare with some of our industry’s top operators? Or how they removed waste from their business to ensure long-term success?

TIME TO RESET Autumn is the perfect opportunity to take the time to really understand your business, and set up your farm and goals for the coming season.

So join us, and learn more from your peers by attending a DairyNZ Autumn Reset event or visit dairynz.co.nz/tactics for live case studies and practical tips.

Let’s take a fresh look DairyNZ.co.nz/tactics

SPECIAL REPORT │ PASTURE

Finding the silver bullet Ben McDougall is using a mixture of cropping and outsidethe-box alternatives to whip some life back into the pasture on his new property. He tells Cheyenne Stein about his quest to find the silver bullet solution to get the most pasture production out of his property.

After buying another farming block to add to the family farming business last year Ben McDougall found himself with a few challenges.

Ben’s family operate a sheep and beef unit and a dairy unit in Marton where he has been heavily involved over the past 10 years. When the family business bought their Kimbolton property, which is another joint sheep and beef and dairy unit, Ben saw the opportunity to step up and manage the entire property.

“It’s been a big change for me to come to the dairy side of things from mainly overseeing the sheep and beef side of the business. It’s a change that needed to happen; I needed to know more about the dairy side of business because it’s such a large portion of the overall business.”

But learning how to start up the plant in the dairy isn’t the only challenge he’s had to overcome. When he first arrived at the property, Ben saw it as a blank canvas to work with in terms of pastures.

“Pasture quality and production was really low and was proving to be a limiting factor to the production the cows were doing.”

Ben started with soil tests and found

60

soil fertility wasn’t too bad but pH was low which they rectified by applying two tonnes per hectare (ha) of lime. This meant their main problems were the weed infestation, soil compaction and a variety of different soil types to manage.

Wanting to get it right from the start he sought the advice of local Farmlands grain and seed agronomist Elton Mayo who helped Ben formulate a plan of Prairie grass might prove to be the silver bullet for the marginal land on the property.

F AR M F AC TS Owners: McDougall Family Location: Kimbolton, Manawatu Area: 315ha total farm, 140ha dairy platform Cows: 300 peak Production target: 110,000kg MS attack which involves a fair amount of experimentation to see what is going to work.

“The farmer before us had planted turnips so we were able to put those paddocks back into new grass straight away that first autumn so we put in a Shogun and clover mix and we dropped our stocking rate.”

That spring they got started on getting rid of the Californian thistle that was running rampant. He picked the worst paddocks and sprayed with Versatil and Round up. Thirty hectares of fodder beet was then planted and will be put back into grass in the spring.

Varying soil types across the property mean variety is key to making the best use of soil type to get the most pasture he can, particularly on the lighter country where persistence can be an issue.

“We have some really good silt soils, then some stonier soils. I’m really trying to pick the pastures or forages that are going to grow the most tonnage of feed on the different soil types, which

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

might mean I end up with a few different varieties.”

Lucerne grown as a grazing forage was considered for the lighter soils but after conversations with other farmers, Ben decided the animal health issues that can come from feeding lucerne if improperly managed were too risky. But Elton had another thrifty suggestion for Ben – prairie grass. Although not a commonly used pasture in dairying systems it is similar in growth habit and grazing management to tall fescue.

“I’m learning as I go with the prairie grass. The paddock we planted it in was an ex-oats paddock and that seemed to work well with getting rid of most of the weeds.”

So far, it’s proving to be palatable forage for the cows and they are on to their second grazing since it was planted in early November. Ben says he will classify it as a success once it gets a proper bout of dry weather.

“If it can persist and stay alive during the dry then it will be a success, if not then we will try something else. I see this as investing in the future.”

The prairie grass is very much trial and error but with a higher planting rate required, it can be an expensive error.

The new pastures planted when they first arrived at the property have been a saving grace while other paddocks are renewed.

“If we get it right and it works, then we have invested well.”

Although hopeful for the success of the prairie grass, Ben says he doesn’t know if it will be the silver bullet for that part of the farm but it’s a step above the old ryegrass paddocks it replaced.

Tall fescue is another option for the lighter country on the farm. Ben has seen firsthand on other farms how successful it is at withstanding high soil temperatures and says he is keen to do a trial paddock of this in the spring.

Ben also has a few paddocks of turnips which will be fed after the last round of chicory before the cattle go on to the Table 1: Per ha costs seed for new fodder beet this winter.

The turnip paddocks will then grass and crop provide a good base for regrassing NEW GRASSES but as yet, Ben isn’t sure what he will Atom Prarie grass mix sown at go for.

38kg/ha “I’m talking to lots of people to Atom prairie grass @32kg/ha $233.60 see what the best option will be. On Mainstay white clover @3kg $48.30 the heavier country anything grows and it’s quite free draining, but it’s on Relish red clover @ 3kg $48.30 this marginal lighter country that the Total cost per ha $330.20 biggest gains can be made if you get Shogun NEA2 Clover mix (Super strike it right.” treated) sown at 32 kg/ha The real saving grace for the last Shogun NEA2 @ 26kg/ha $353.60 year has been the new grass planted their first autumn along with the Mainstay white clover @ 3kg/ha $48.30 chicory paddocks. They are being Relish red clover @ 3kg/ha $48.30 used to help fill the gaps left by poor Total cost per ha $330.20 pasture production and their process of pasture renewal.

CROPPING “Although we don’t have a lot Barkan turnips (super strike treated) of data due to issues with our feed sown at 2.5kg/ha reader, there have been times where Cost per ha $76.50 the new grass has been growing at Chicory mix (Choice super strike treated) sown twice the rate of the older grasses.” at 13 kg/ha Chicory is used in the lighter soils Choice Chicory @ 7kg/ha $196.42 to take advantage of its large tap root with some effluent paddocks also Mainstay white clover @ 3kg/ha $48.30 planted with chicory.

Relish red clover @ 3kg/ha $48.30 “The chicory has been the glue that Total cost per ha $293.02 has held the system together while other pastures on the farm are being Fodder beet brought up to scratch. We have been Rivage Gaucho treated sown @ 80,000 seeds/ha able to keep our rotation short by Vermon Gaucho treated sown @ 80,000 seeds/ha using chicory and now we are using Total cost per ha $546.48 it to extend out our rotation. Without

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

chicory we wouldn’t be doing the production we are doing.”

Aside from experimenting with different pasture species and cropping, one of the biggest improvements in pasture quality has come from better pasture management. Many of the paddocks hadn’t been gr6azed properly but after a quick top and careful pasture management, the quality has improved and has been reflected in an increase in cow production, which is circulating at 1.7kg milksolids per cow per day.

“I have a bit more of an intense focus on the pasture now. I have always been pretty hot on pasture management when I was working on the other side of the business but it’s so imperative here.”

Ben’s farm manager measures pasture growth and utilises feed wedges to make decisions around grazing. Eventually, they will introduce the GPS system they have in Marton on to the Kimbolton farm.

“Every paddock in Marton has GPS and a monitor is attached to the bike that measures the grass as you drive along, that information automatically goes into a feed wedge programme back at the cow shed.”

About 62ha in total has been regrassed or cropped in the last year as part of Ben’s plan to completely re-grass the entire farm over the next three years.

“It’s a large investment for us to go through, but we do manage to cut costs by doing our own ground work.”

Although they try to keep the sheep and beef separate from the dairy business they are able to charge the dairy farm for the use of the tractors and other machinery that the sheep and beef business owns as an internal transaction.

Going forward, Ben says he will continue experimenting to see what’s going to work for the various areas of the farm with the help of some out-of-thebox thinking.

“We want to grow as much product per ha as we possibly can on the different soils, so we might end up with a liquorice allsorts type of farm.”

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SPECIAL REPORT │ EXPERT EYE Prepare a good seed bed that is firm, fine and level and choose the correct cultivar and seed mix for the farm system.

How much pasture should you renew?

Graham Kerr,

Pasture systems specialist, Agriseeds The Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust is saying we should have 10% of farm area renewed. Recent studies by AgResearch in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty and Canterbury said the economics of renewal are mixed. I know some dairy farmers undertaking 35% renewal, others doing none. So what is the answer?

After more than 30 years as an agronomist, including getting called in to troubleshoot problems around renewal (which is not ideal, but is the best way to learn what not to do) I believe there are three hard truths: There is an enormous amount of profit to be generated by growing and eating more pasture on New Zealand dairy farms. In fact the amount is so big most farmers don’t believe it till they start measuring things.

The amount of renewal any farm should do varies greatly depending not only on the level of a farm’s pasture performance (or underperformance) but also farm goals.

Smart renewal is through measuring paddock performance. It may sound a bit boring, but measuring allows you to both undertake the right amount of renewal, and then see if you have the success you expect (and if you don’t, don’t do the same thing again.)

In this article I flesh out these three areas in what I think is a fool-proof way you can make good investment decisions on the amount of renewal in your dairy business, and be confident you get returns.

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Enormous profits from renewal This may seem a rash statement, but the vast majority of dairy farms we analyse have a 100% difference in drymatter (DM) yield from the bestperforming paddocks to the worst.

This is like having cows that average 450k milksolids (MS), but finding some cows are doing 600kgMS and others 300. If you were treating them all the same you would be looking to cull the tail end which is exactly what want to do with pasture renewal – get rid of those significantly underperforming paddocks as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Renewal is about ‘culling’ poor paddocks.

While there often are several reasons some paddocks aren’t performing, you might be surprised how often we see paddocks in the top and bottom groups side by side on the same soil type. These are the low-hanging fruit for renewal.

They should be growing what the paddock beside them is, so let’s find out what’s wrong and fix them.

Based on what we have seen, I would guess two-thirds of paddocks on NZ dairy farms are not performing to their potential. One-third of paddocks are

seriously underperforming. This has not been helped by last year’s low payout which saw pasture renewal rates (understandably) fall. So there is enormous potential to produce more home-grown feed, improve profits, decrease costs and make our farming businesses more resilient – important in a time of increasingly volatile MS price.

Ideal amount of renewal varies between farms A good way to think of pasture renewal is like fertiliser, in that you have a “capital” requirement to build the nutrient, then you change to a “maintenance” level to keep things the same. Given the level of pasture underperformance, we need some serious “capital” investment in pasture renewal. The story of the Camden Group at Te Pirita in this magazine is an example of this – analysis showed the underperformance of their pastures and they wanted to address this quickly, so have been resowing more than 35% of their farm a year. This is the capital investment and once this is done they will drop down to a much lower maintenance level of pasture renewal.

These very high rates of renewal are achievable (if the individual farm warrants it) but need some innovative thinking in species, sowing techniques and supplements. How much renewal you undertake and how quickly also depend on how you can best utilise the extra feed. The main three ways are: reducing imported feed, grazing more cows, or; increasing MS/cow.

Replace imported feed Imported feed is expensive mainly as you feed it once, whereas pasture is selfreplacing. And it is simple to grow more pasture and feed less imported feed.

We believe you can provide extra pasture through renewal for 10c/kg DM if you follow the methods below, where imported feeds typically start around 35c/kg DM and goes up from there (remember to correct for DM% and cost of feeding).

This also lowers the risk in changes in cost and availability of imported feed.

More cows If you want to keep the same farm system, increasing the number of cows can be a simple way of capturing extra DM grown, with a typical Kiwi cow eating about 5-5.5 tonnes DM a year.

More MS per cow This requires some system change thinking, but it is an efficient way to

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use extra pasture by putting it into MS production (whereas running more cows means extra ME goes into both animal maintenance energy and MS).

The Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) is an example of this, where similar total MS has been produced from cows doing 520kg/MS rather than (six years ago) around 400kg MS/cow.

Cow numbers have dropped from 670 to around 555 and overall the feed conversion efficiency has improved by 15%.

In terms of pasture renewal a key part in the higher per-cow MS at the LUDF is the use of tetraploid-based pastures, for their higher ME and palatability.

While many farms have struggled to get straight tetraploid perennial ryegrass to persist well, tetraploid/diploid ryegrass mixtures (eg: Viscount/Trojan mix from Agriseeds, but other companies have cultivars too) has improved density and persistence while these pastures remain much more palatable than straight diploid ryegrass.

Can you increase you MS/cow by 20kg-30kg? This will require management changes, but the LUDF example has shown profitability can improve as well as reduce nitrogen leaching.

Pasture renewal is an investment like any other, in that it has a cost to which you need a suitable return on investment. If you are comfortable with your farm system and don’t need extra pasture, keep doing what you’re doing (I suspect people in this group aren’t reading this article however.)

Smart renewal is through measuring results The AgResearch study on renewal said results were highly variable. As the costs of renewal are the same whether we get a good or bad result, success comes down to the benefit. So how do the economics stack up? And how do we avoid a bad result?

The economics, To keep things simple and high level let’s just look at DM yield in Figure 2 as valued by the DairyNZ Forage Value Index (FVI). With a poor result of just an extra 1t DM/ha grown for three years you could lose $100/ha.

However if we get up to 3t DM/ha, which we have found achievable on many farms, the return starts looking very good, enough to make even accountants excited.

An extra 5t DM/ha yield we have only occasionally seen onfarm through renewal alone. This sort of level can be achieved through pasture renewal in tandem with development work (eg: drainage or capital fertiliser) but costs will be significantly higher than those in Figure 2.

It is useful to think of good pasture renewal like painting, it’s the preparation that makes it a good job. On the day of sowing all that work comes together.

The challenge is to put together a good plan for your pasture renewal programme, including how it best integrates with any cropping requirements. Figure 3 is a checklist of the steps in good renewal you need to tick off. And it’s often very useful to involve someone with experience such as your consultant, an agronomist or good reseller rep to help put all the steps in the plan together.

Steps in good pasture renewal. These steps are like links in a chain, the process is only as strong as its weakest link.

Figure 2: Extra grown (t DM/ha/year)

Poor result 1 t DM/ha extra for 3 years

Good result 3 t DM/ha extra for 5 years

Rare result 5 t DM/ha extra for 5 years

Extra growth

+3 tDM/ha

+15 tDM/ha

+25 tDM/ha

Value DM in operating profit¹

30c/kgDM

30c/kgDM

30c/kgDM

Extra operating profit

$900/ha

$4500/ha

$7500/ha

Less cost of renewal²

-$1000/ha

-$1000/ha

-$1000/ha

Net benefit

-$100/ha

$3500/ha

$6500/ha

¹ Value of kgDM from Forage Value Index Handbook (December 2015), Table 5 figures averaged. ² $1000/ha cost of renewal includes spraying Glyphosate ; Light disc & drill; Treated seed; Cambridge roll; Slug bait; Establishment fertiliser; Broadleaf herbicide.

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Checklist • Identify poor paddocks – can you raise performance by 3t DM/ha?

• Rectify reasons for poor performance.

• Soil test and correct soil fertility and pH. • Choose appropriate sowing date.

• If relying on a contractor, book them in early.

• Check for pests (eg: grass grub, slugs and ASW).

• Choose appropriate renewal method.

• Spray out paddock before cultivation or direct drilling.

• If cultivating, prepare a good seed bed (firm, fine and level).

• Choose correct cultivar and seed mix for the farm system.

• Pest control – use treated seed and insecticide if required.

• Choose correct sowing rate and technique.

• Check seed certificate for germination, purity and endophyte.

• Apply slug bait if needed.

• Control weeds in early establishment.

• Graze early to promote tillering, use pluck test to determine when pasture is ready for first grazing.

• Avoid pugging and over-grazing new pasture.

Final step. The last step is to monitor your results, as this feeds into future improved decisions. For example: If you renewed three paddocks and one had a significantly better increase in performance, why, and how can we repeat that again?

If the renewal hasn’t performed it’s time to get the experts in to understand why. There’s no use doing the same thing again.

Large benefits are to be made through greater and better renewal on most NZ dairy farms, but we must be sure we get the returns from it to make it worthwhile.

The challenge I put to you is to put a good plan together for your pasture renewal programme, including how you measure individual paddock performance – both to identify underperformers for renewal and to monitor the results from it.

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SPECIAL REPORT │ REGRASSING

Late start likely for re-sown pastures Karen Trebilcock ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz @KT_at_Exporter

With autumn now not far away, farmers with summer crops will be thinking of returning them to pasture before the season is over.

PGG Wrightson Seeds technical nutritionist and agronomist Wayne Nichol, of Mosgiel, said the wet and cold spring and early summer would mean summer crops would be fed off later than normal, so getting the paddocks back into grass would be late too, “which could cause some serious problems”.

“Probably the most important thing when re-grassing in the autumn is to make sure the new grass is eaten at about six to eight weeks after sowing but if that gets into late May cows may have already gone off the platform.

“Taking the top off at that crucial stage is so important. It lets the plants tiller up and promotes clover growth.

“If they don’t tiller up and we have a wet spring then there is more risk of treading damage and you’ll just make a mess of the paddock. All the work you’ve done will be undone.”

The test with new pasture to see if it was ready to eat or not was to give it “the pull test”, he said.

“If you pull at it and the ryegrass plant doesn’t come out of the ground then it’s ready. Get it eaten.

“Ideally with younger stock which aren’t so heavy but if all you have is cows then put the herd in there but for just a few hours.”

There was no fixed technique of putting summer turnips or chicory back into pasture.

“It’s having a look at what is left behind and seeing what needs to be done – what weeds are there, how much treading damage there is.

“With the weeds it’s probably a good idea to let them freshen up before you spray them so the spray can do its job.”

Making sure the right herbicide was

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PGG Wrightson Seeds technical nutritionist and agronomist Wayne Nichol looks at new pasture on the Taieri near Dunedin.

used was important as residuals could hamper pasture growth, especially clover, and the spray programme may need to be integrated with insecticides.

Nichol said getting expert advice was vital.

“Going from crop to pasture is a lot easier than going pasture to pasture as you have two attempts at getting rid of those old pasture species that you don’t want back.”

Compacted soils would need ploughing but otherwise it should be just a matter of working up the soil with discs or other cultivation equipment. If limited damage has occurred then direct drilling may be possible.

“You want a fine, moist soil bed that’s not too soft. Don’t overwork it as then it can get windblown and you don’t get the seed-soil contact that is required for good germination.”

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New pasture on the Taieri near Dunedin which has just had its first grazing by dairy cattle.

Making sure seed was sown at the correct depth was also important, Nichol said.

“Grass and clover seeds are small, they just need to be covered. Make sure you don’t sow them too deep and when direct drilling don’t have the spaces too wide as it just allows room for the weeds to grow.”

Insects were more of a concern with new pastures in the autumn than in the spring.

If yo u nee d to spray for wee d s do n’t cho ose t he wee d spray yo urself, get so m e technical help. If yo u cho ose t he wro ng spray it can really knock t he new pas ture aro und, e specially t he clo ver.

“In winter most of them will have died, especially in the south, but in the autumn they have had all summer to breed.”

Famers needed to watch for a range of insects but mostly black beetle, stem weevil, porina and grass grub. They should also be considering using slug bait at sowing for slugs and snails.

“Think about what endophyte you need as well within the ryegrass. In some regions AR1 endophyte will be fine but in the majority of cases AR37 is recommended because of the greater insect protection it has.

“And make sure the grass seed is treated with Superstrike. It takes four to six weeks for the endophyte to give the grass protection so the treatment will help prevent the seedlings being attacked and allow them to establish.”

Fertiliser and lime should be applied if soil tests showed they were needed but usually there was enough fertility left over from the summer crop.

“Probably an application of urea after the first grazing is what is common practice and some will add some base fertiliser at the time of sowing.”

When choosing what grass seed to use, thinking about its purpose and where on the farm it was going should guide farmers, he said.

“Don’t use a tetraploid ryegrass on paddocks you use for calving or where cows are going to be in for long periods of time. Tetraploids don’t like being overgrazed so put your diploids there.

“Some people like the whole farm in the same grass, with it all coming into seed head at the same time but others like a range of matrix of paddocks with different flowering times so have some mid-maturing and some late.

“It just depends on your pasture management and how you like to do things.”

Any of the ryegrasses in the top categories of the DairyNZ Forage Value Index could be considered for new pasture but there may be good reasons why others could be selected as well, Nichol said.

After germination, a check on weeds in the paddock should be done.

“If you need to spray for weeds don’t choose the weed spray yourself, get some technical help. If you choose the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

wrong spray it can really knock the new pasture around, especially the clover.”

Although many of the weeds will be annuals, Nichol said it was still important to spray.

“Any weed is taking moisture and fertility away from your pasture. It’s important to get them early when they are still young. Older weeds become tolerant of a lot of the weed sprays.”

There was nowhere to cut costs when re-grassing.

“You can’t skimp on the herbicide. You have to use insecticides if the insects are there. Do it properly and you will get the results.

“But make sure you choose the right paddock to re-grass. On most farms the good paddocks will grow twice the tonnage of drymatter compared with the worst paddocks and by re-grassing your worst paddocks that’s the way you will get the most return on the money you’ve spent.”

Farmers used plate metres to see where to put the cows next in the round, he said but they should also collate the figures on an annual basis to see how many tonnes of grass were being grown in which paddock.

“By doing that, you will find out which are your worst paddocks, the ones that need to be re-grassed.

“Also look at the grass that is left behind after each grazing and score the paddock.

“If it’s rubbish grass then the cows won’t want to eat it and they’ll leave it behind. Collect that information as well to make your decision.

“Choosing which paddock you use for crop and then to re-grass shouldn’t be just guesswork.”

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SPECIAL REPORT │ PASTURE RENEWAL Emma Bell and Kyle Gardyne – pasture scoring is key to identifying your worst paddocks.

Condition scoring a key to renewal February is the best time to get out and identify the worst-performing paddocks on your farm because you see them at their worst. Farmers can accurately select paddocks that need to be regrassed, undersowed and those that just need some TLC. Sheryl Brown spoke to PGG Wrightson Seeds agronomists about key steps in pasture renewal.

Pasture persistence is an ongoing challenge in the Waikato and Northland with harsh dry summer conditions and a high pest presence resulting in many farmers requiring summer crops and ultimately regrassing 10% of their farm every year.

Having a sound plan around that pasture renewal rotation, that is also flexible to consider seasonal impacts, is central to maintaining a consistent source of quality home-grown feed on farm and should be part of any farmer’s pasture management tool kit.

Farmers should be able to look forward and know what they want to achieve in the next six-18 months, PGG Wrightson Seeds Area Sales Agronomist Kyle Gardyne said.

However, they also need to be prepared to adjust that plan if paddocks are damaged by severe drought or a particularly wet winter.

For example, a large proportion of Hauraki farmers would have to do significant amount of undersowing this season after pugging damage last winter and spring, he said.

Every season farmers need to assess what condition their paddocks are in and identify any fertility, weed or pest problems that need to be addressed

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through their future regrassing programme.

Measuring drymatter in a paddock with a pasture meter was a great tool to measure growth, but it would not give an accurate reading of the quality of feed available, PGG Wrightson Seeds product specialist Emma Bell said.

Bell was facilitating the regrassing programme on Owl Farm, a Waikato demonstration farm at Cambridge, during the past two seasons. Owl Farm was a good example of how the results of the pasture metering onfarm gave a false indication of what the farm was actually growing, she said.

“So often those results were so flawed because they had such an intense weed burden that it was reading high production. But some of these paddocks were the worst in terms of weeds and hardly any desirable species.

Green can trick a lot of people, and it’s hard to identify all the species. It’s not always that desirable perennial ryegrass.”

Therefore pasture condition scoring was an excellent tool to overlay with a farm’s pasture records, she said.

Pasture condition scoring, a tool developed by Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust, DairyNZ and Beef+Lamb New Zealand, is a closer

analysis of the species of grass and clover growing, what weeds are present and how much damage has been done to a paddock.

It ranks paddocks from 1 to 5, 1 being a paddock that has been severely damaged and in urgent need of regrassing, to 5, being a paddock with a dense sward of desired grasses and clovers.

Accurately choosing the worstperforming paddocks was 101 of pasture renewal, Bell said.

It was best to do pasture scoring in February, when farmers could walk around a grazed paddock and easily see any pasture pulling, and presence of insects, summer grasses and weeds, she said.

Table 2: A selection of Owl Farm pasture scoring results versus the paddock’s pasture meter results Paddock

Measured kgDM/ha

Condition score

26

10055

2

28

10044

4

23

9959

3

34

9939

2

48

9614

4

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Selecting paddocks in spring for summer cropping was never ideal because paddocks look their best and it’s harder to identify issues.

When selecting paddocks for cropping and regrassing the ultimate goal was to grow more cost-effective feed.

The goal was the new crop or ryegrass would deliver a higher yield and better quality of feed which would ultimately drive down feed costs onfarm.

The economics of farmers’ cropping and regrassing programme had to be justified, Bell said.

After accurately identifying a farm’s worst-performing paddocks, farmers could work on a pasture renewal plan and give the best economic benefit for cost-effective home-grown feed.

PGG Wrightson Seeds Programmed Approach was about helping farmers forward plan to improve the supply of quality feed all year round with a planned cropping cycle.

Planting an annual followed by a summer crop was the most effective method to eradicate weed and pest infestations, Gardyne said.

Eliminating clover from the paddock for 12 months cut off the feed supply for Clover Root Weevil, while the summer crop eliminated Black Beetle’s feed supply. The programme also included three glyphosate sprays to eradicate weeds and summer grasses.

In that time frame, farmers could often double the amount of drymatter they got from a paddock than if they had left it in a poor-yielding pasture.

A winter annual crop and a summer crop would typically produce upwards of 16 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha combined, while a poor performing paddock might only grow 7 t DM/ha in that same 12 months.

Pasture scoring a farm was an opportunity to check how well new grass paddocks were performing, Gardyne said.

New grasses needed a lot of looking after for the first 12 months and it was always good to check how they had coped under the season’s pressures.

A new ryegrass will typically yield at least 12t DM/ha, but its performance will be based on how well it is established through good fertiliser, spray and planting techniques, and then how it is treated in its first few grazings.

In many cases it could get overgrazed or undergrazed, which could both be harmful to good establishment, Gardyne said.

Timing of the first grazing on new pasture was imperative to get right, generally six or seven weeks after planting.

The pull test was key. If cows grazed too early, the grass would pull, but if grazed too late it could compromise the tillering of the plants and result in open pastures with small under-developed grass plants heading into summer.

Some farmers were guilty of grazing too late because they’re worried about grass pulling.

“When it sits at a high cover for that autumn and winter period it actually decreases the number of tillers that each plant produces and that ultimately decreases persistence because you don’t get the thick dense sward you’re trying to achieve.”

Selecting the right seed was certainly essential to successful establishment and persistence.

Many Waikato farmers, for example, had been burnt from the fallout of the 2007/08 drought where pastures were hammered by black beetle. Planting grasses with endophytes had therefore largely become common practice, he said.

The protection of an endophyte was like gold for Waikato farmers, but as soon as there was pulling or pugging damage it still gave the opportunity for weeds and summer grasses to grow which farmers needed to watch out for.

“Endophyte works like a film of Glad Wrap. If you rip some holes other species will grow there.”

Timing of planting was another key factor to get right as part of a pasture renewal programme.

It’s tempting to keep a good chicory crop around for an extra round in autumn, but farmers are often limiting the yield off their new grass as a result, Bell said.

If farmers had a new paddock planted by mid-March they could graze it before June, but if it wasn’t planted until April, it is unlikely farmers would get get any decent grazings over winter.

It was better to plant an Italian ryegrass than a perennial if the paddock was planted late.

Italian ryegrasses had been revolutionised with two new species available in the market that included endophyte, she said.

Italian ryegrasses traditionally struggled to persist in Waikato pastures for longer than 12 months as they didn’t have any endophyte. However, PGG Wrighton Seeds variety Lush AR37 for example, undersowing with an Italian ryegrass could add another couple of years to a paddock before it had to be regrassed, she said.

Italians were a cheaper option as they were short-term solutions, however, they were quick to establish and could

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

grow competitively amongst a parent perennial.

It was the perfect option for farmers who had more than 10% of their farm that needed to be addressed, she said.

“We have a true Italian that is going to last in the upper North Island. It’s the perfect Band-Aid for a couple of years.”

There were also new clover species coming on to the market that farmers should keep any eye out for, she said.

Traditional clovers had been around for a long time and were starting to struggle to establish alongside the new genetic ryegrasses, but these new clover species were more competitive and could persist within the modern aggressive ryegrasses.

“The importance of clovers is huge – grasses tend to be the focus and we underestimate the importance of clovers.”

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OPPORTUNITIES Michael Rope – plenty of opportunities in Northland.

SWEETENING APPEAL OF THE NORTH Encouraging potential dairy farmers into an agricultural education has seen Northland sharemilker Michael Rope set up a university scholarship. Glenys Christian reports.

M

ichael Rope is well aware of the opportunities dairying in Northland presents. So much so that he has set up a scholarship for youngsters to attend Lincoln University and complete their practical requirements on his parents’ Te Kopuru farm.

“I had such a great time at university,” he says.

“You don’t realise how much fun you can have and what you can learn being away from your family.”

Keen to see other youngsters have to chance for a similar experience he set up the $3000 scholarship a few years ago. Two students have since taken it up, both from Whangarei, spending time working on the 400 hectare effective dairy platform which also has a 180ha support block eight kilometres away.

“Northland isn’t seen as a dairying region and people will often look at the Waikato or Canterbury for jobs,” Michael says.

But both he and his wife Jessica firmly believe there are lots of chances to fast track a dairying career in their region, with it just

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FARM FACTS

• Location: Te Kopuru, Northland • Area: 400ha effective • Farm owners: R P Rope • Lower-order sharemilkers: Michael and Jessica Rope • Production: 2015/16, 409,000kg MS, 2016/17 predicted, 400,000kg MS • Support block: 190ha • Herd: 1000 Friesian cross, Breeding Worth 64/43, Production Worth, 81/64 • Dairy: 60-bail rotary Supplements: 300 tonnes palm kernel, and 20-30ha of maize silage,150t grass silage both made off-farm. being a case of looking at all the options available.

Michael’s father, Ted, is the second generation of the family to farm locally with the family moving to this farm in the 1960s. They bought the neighbouring farm in 2001 and put in central 60-bail rotary

dairy, replacing two herringbones. They also built an adjacent feedpad, allowing them to increase numbers towards the 1000 cows they now milk.

Michael completed his Diploma of Farm Management at Lincoln later that decade after having “a whale of a time”. He worked on the large-scale Rakaia farm of John and Fiona McCarthy then moved to the Waikato as farm assistant then manager on Mike Davison’s 550-cow Te Awamutu farming operation.

“I was keeping my options open but the opportunities were too great on the family farm,” he says.

Before returning home he travelled overseas for a year, following the 2007 World Rugby Cup and spent three months in Chile working for a Chilean-New Zealand-owned farming operation.

He managed his parents’ farm for five months before he went lower-order sharemilking. Jessica trained as a primary school teacher and worked both in the Waikato and in Northland before the birth of their three children; Lachlan, three and a half, Florence, two and Jasmine, seven months.

Now she helps out with calf rearing and book

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keeping, with Michael’s mother, Pam, still very much involved.

There have been a number of changes since Michael has been on the farm which has seen the stocking rate lift from 2.5 to 2.8 cows per hectare.

The Friesian-cross herd is moving more towards a crossbred animal, with the Ropes using LIC Premier Sires. After 20 years of running a split-calving system they’re now moving to full autumn calving.

“We’ve thought about it for a couple of years,” Michael says.

Some reasons very much in its favour are simplicity of just one calving a year which it’s hoped will improve both staff retention and increase time off for the two families.

“Also, the winter milk contract is a nice cherry on top,” he says.

This season 300 spring-calving cows have been carried over but next season will be their first with full autumn calving.

There’s also been an increased emphasis on pasture management since Michael’s return to the farm and this has resulted in a move from a DairyNZ System 2 to System 3 as they’ve fed out more palm kernel on their feedpad.

“We would use 300 tonnes as a good average,” he says.

They also grow 20 to 30ha of maize each year, mainly on their support block. The area in this crop was dropped back due to the low milk price but is likely to be increased to the higher level in the future. Michael is particularly proud of a no-till crop which was looking good despite dry conditions in mid-January.

‘I HOPE THAT THE NORTHLAND REGION SEES THE BENEFITS THAT THIS RESEARCH WORK CAN HAVE ONFARM AND THE IMPROVEMENTS THAT CAN BE MADE BY USING THE INFORMATION THAT’S PROVIDED.’ No hay is made but around 350t of grass silage is put in the pit by contractors each year. It will be fed out along with the maize silage in autumn and winter through to August.

“Some summers we will use it but some we won’t,” he says.

“We’re very happy with the system because it’s quite robust.”

Around 100ha has been planted in annuals with Tabu working well. And there’s a regular pasture renewal programme of putting around 20ha of the better-quality paddocks which have been cropped back

into permanent pasture.

“We used to grow 15ha of sorghum but now we put in around 20ha of chicory,” he says.

“We were looking for a better-quality crop for our autumn-calving herd.”

While 12-15t of drymatter per hectare is produced Michael says it’s a case of seeing how the crop performs when it comes to decisions about the area planted in the future.

He takes the advice of consultant, Paul Martin, from Headlands in Whangarei who visits the farm 10 times a year.

“He’s out and about and seeing what works,” Michael says.

“It’s important to be self-critical and there’s always a discussion so we can work forward together.”

An N K S fertiliser mix goes on from April through to September with the frequent applications seeing a total of around 150kg of nitrogen per hectare used. There’s a 90ha effluent area from a three-pond system with a weeping wall which was put in six years ago. The Ropes also have a cart which allows them to spread solids elsewhere on the farm, effectively dealing with one of the ongoing challenges of autumn calving.

Priorities going forward are increasing production efficiencies as well as creating greater flexibility for Michael’s parents as they get older.

“And we want to keep whacking down debt.”

Last season production hit 409,000kg milksolids with them pushing carryover cows to keep milking for longer. The forecast

Michael and Jessica Rope with seven-month-old daughter, Jasmine, and pony, Tiger.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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‘IT’S IMPORTANT TO BE SELF-CRITICAL AND THERE’S ALWAYS A DISCUSSION SO WE CAN WORK FORWARD TOGETHER.’ for this season is 400,000kg, with hopes Northland’s dry summer conditions will be broken by more rain.

Michael’s also changed staff rosters for the four staff who all live on the farm, giving a more even work flow. A handyman is also employed who spends half his time on the property and the rest on another 470-cow property 10km south of Te Kopuru. The Ropes bought the farm in 2014 and have run it since then as a selfcontained unit.

“It just needed management,” Michael says.

A feedpad has been added to replicate the farming system they were already running, with a manager employed there along with two staff.

In 2012 Michael was placed second in the Northland Sharemilker/Equity farmer contest, winning $3500, as well as the Rockgas North Innovation Merit Award.

This was worth $13,500 and included a hot water system run on LPG, said to be 20% more energy efficient than electricity.

And for the last five years he’s been a committee member of the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) just north of Dargaville.

“It’s an extremely valuable resource,” he says.

“The committee members are all good farmers in their own right and that’s been a huge benefit to me as I’ve got to know them.

“The information coming through from the trials there is useful for application onfarm and it’s great to see the financials behind the research. It’s all recorded and done by the books so it’s the most credible information around. So there’s no argument because that’s what it is. It’s not wishy-washy.”

But he says it can sometimes be difficult to get across to all farmers that there’s credible information being produced, backed up with numbers.

“Northland is a strong family farming area and it can be challenging to get people’s buyin to new ideas,” he says.

“But I hope that the Northland region sees the benefits that this research work can 70

Michael’s particularly proud of this paddock of no-till maize which will be ready for harvesting in March.

have onfarm and the improvements that can be made by using the information that’s provided.”

He believes all farmers can get a lot out of looking at research results and thinking about the implications for their farming operation.

One possible future move which Michael thinks could be a good move would be getting NARF discussion groups moving around Northland to meet a greater number of dairy farmers.

When it comes to NARF’s bought-in feed trial, where last season the cropping farmlet produced most milk but the pasture-only farmlet showed the greatest profit, he says it will be interesting to see what this drier season will show.

“It will be interesting to see if pasture struggles.”

There could be other tweaks with no-till cropping possibly having advantages if the opposite occurs and the ground is too wet for conventional crop establishment.

“Northland is a land of extremes,” he says.

“It’s all or nothing so you have to have a system that copes.”

At present with three young children his ability to do as much as he’d like to with NARF is restricted mainly to attending monthly financial meetings.

“But I have intentions of doing more and I have committed to being the chair by 2020,”he says.

“But this depends on Sean Bradley who is currently doing an outstanding job.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

PRODUCT SPECIALIST Words by Sheryl Brown

Seeding the Future \ A t the start of her career, Emma Bell has already seen the huge opportunities and career paths available in the agricultural industry.

Now a product specialist for PGG Wrightson Seeds, the 26-year-old never anticipated this would be the role she would end up in, let alone love.

“If I’d seen a job like this when I was a student I don’t know what I would have thought of it.”

When she missed out on making it into the second phase of the vastly competitive veterinary science degree at Massey University, Emma cross-credited to complete a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in agriculture without any firm ideas of where she would end up working.

“I thought you either ended up banking or a fertiliser rep and I didn’t really want to do either of them.

“But there are so many opportunities from an agricultural science degree.”

After graduation, even with her degree under her arm, stepping into the work force and trying to land a first job was a daunting prospect, she says.

She spent a few months back on her parents’ sheep and beef farm at Rangiwaea, close to Taihape, before she saw a job as an analyst for NZX Agri in Feilding.

Although it was hard to pull herself away from the farm and working outside, for which she has a strong passion, the job ticked a lot of boxes.

“I was so lucky to get that opportunity to get a foot in the door.”

The role involved writing Farm Gate and sheep and beef reports through which she established great contacts and networks in

Emma Bell is product specialist for PGG Wrightson Seeds, monitoring NZ trials of new pasture species.

I’VE BEEN REALLY FORTUNATE IN TERMS OF MOVING AROUND JOBS AND HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY TO STEP UP.’

the industry in the 12 months she was there.

She also gained valuable experience writing reports, something she puts to use regularly in her current role.

“That’s a skill I don’t take for granted. I’m often writing reports on new trial data.”

After meeting PGG Wrightson livestock agent Sam Wright, she made the move north to the Waikato where she landed a job with PGG Wrightson Seeds as a forage agronomist looking after trials in the North Island.

Emma has been able to cover several roles and advance her career in the three years she has been with the PGG Wrightson Seeds team.

She moved into an area sales role to cover for a colleague for 12 months, which saw her covering from Te Awamutu to Kaitaia working with rural merchants.

“That was a challenge. I never thought I would have liked sales, but I treated it like a technical support role.

“I’ve been really fortunate in terms of moving around jobs and having the opportunity to step up.”

Her current role is a product specialist.

For young people a product specialist might not sound the most exciting job, but she is working with the latest in plant genetics and development and no two days are the same, she says.

Her responsibility is to champion the new products being trialled and released to the market. She co-ordinates the onfarm trials of the new products and visits those farmers weekly for updates. She is responsible for providing technical information, writing

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

reports and working with the marketing team to launch commercial products as well as upskilling staff and retailers on new products.

She often travels to Christchurch to meet with the research and development team including the plant breeders and in-house vet Charlotte Westwood, who gives a great crossover to the animal nutritional aspect of plant species.

Working with those people on a regular basis has been an amazing learning opportunity to upskill and further her own knowledge, she says.

With PGG Wrightsons Seeds working alongside as a partner to the Owl Farm Demonstration Farm in Cambridge has also been a fantastic opportunity, Emma says.

They have not only being able to do a pasture renewal project on a commercially operating farm, but it’s also developed her own skill set presenting at field days.

Field days usually have a good turnout of people and Emma sometimes has to cope with different opinions and plenty of questions from the audience.

“It’s definitely put me outside my comfort zone, but it gets easier every time. Sometimes it’s good to be chucked in the deep end.”

Emma and Sam both have a passion for sheep and beef and the end goal is definitely to move back to the country and own land one day. Emma usually has a life plan she likes to stick to, but she is currently embracing where the opportunities in the industry are taking her.

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Keeping water in the pipeline Tim McVeagh

Most farmers have experienced the frustration of matching fittings to existing water lines. An understanding of the background, terminology and current practices should help.

Polyethylene (PE) pipe has been used on farms for about 40 years and none of us would go back to galvanised pipe. The big change since has been from imperialdimensioned pipe to metric, driven by a swing from internal to compression, (external) fittings.

The old imperial pipe is connected by internal fittings, so the internal diameter (ID) is critical to the fitting size, and the nominal pipe sizes referred to were their ID. Newer PE pipes are classed as either low density polyethylene pipe, (LDPE) or metric pipe. The latest LDPE still uses internal fittings and so its nominal diameter is still based on its ID. Metric pipe uses compression fittings where the outside diameter (OD) is the relevant dimension, so the OD is quoted as the nominal pipe size. (Internal fittings cannot be used on metric pipe). This means the ID and OD of the latest LDPE pipe are larger than the ID and OD of the metric equivalent.

All New Zealand metric PE pipe conforms to international standards, so fittings are interchangeable between brands.

COMMON TERMS Some of the commonly used terms in the world of PE pipe are: Alkathene: This technically is LDPE, though many people refer incorrectly to any PE pipe as alkathene.

Compression fitting: These fit to the outside of the pipe. The seal is formed by compression of an O ring, and a grip ring 72

and nut ensure the pipe is held within the fitting.

Dimension nominal (DN) or nominal diameter: The size by which the pipe is known and may be the ID or OD as explained above.

Density: The density or “specific gravity” of the material in which the pipe is extruded. Higher density results in a higher pressure rating.

High performance polyethylene, (HPPE): PE pipe extruded in a PE100 material, with a pressure rating from 9 to 25 Bar. Low, medium, high density polyethylene, (LDPE, MDPE, HDPE): These pipes are grouped according to their pressure rating. There is some overlap in pressure rating between the groups and variation between manufacturers. Iplex categorise their PE pipes as either LD or metric pipe. RX Plastics refer to either LD, MD, or PE100 pipe. Marley’s LD pipes are Enduroflex and 950 Series, while their MD pipes are called Oasis.

HDPE is a term now limited to land-drainage pipe. There is very little HDPE around nowadays as it has been superseded. It was difficult to work with, being very stiff.

Medium density inside diameter, (MDID): This metric pipe is referred to by its ID so is another exception to the rules.

It does use compression fittings.

PE rating: An indication of the tensile strength of the material from which the pipe is extruded. PE100 polyethylenes are stronger than PE80s so can have a thinner wall section with the same pressure rating and so better flow characteristics. PE100

materials are harder than PE80 materials, so PE100 pipes are less flexible.

Polythene: This is an abbreviated form of polyethylene and is a misnomer, though may be found on some PE pipe manufacturers’ websites.

Pressure: Units quoted include psi, bar, atmospheres, and metres head.

Psi, (pounds per square inch), being an imperial term is best forgotten, but may provide a yardstick for some farmers and may be still on Compression many pressure gauges in fittings are service. 14.5psi = 1 Bar. for metric Bar: The pressure rating pipe, (upper marked on PE pipe as its fitting) and fit “pressure nominal”, (eg: PN10) around the so is more useful than psi. 1 outside of the pipe. Internal Bar = the average atmospheric fittings are for pressure at sea level. 1Bar is Low Density equivalent to 10 metres of pipe and fit head, so a pipe marked PN10 into the pipe is good for 100 metres head. (lower fitting).

Atmosphere: This is very There are close, (0.987) to the bar units. exceptions to this rule Kilopascal: This is however. a universal pressure measurement for positive and negative pressure, (vacuum). 100KPa = 1 bar; and 100KPa is equivalent to 10m of head.

Standard dimension ratio, (SDR): the ratio of OD to wall thickness as a measure of the pressure rating. This may be printed on the pipe.

Markings on metric pipe include the nominal size, (DN 32); Pressure Rating, (PN 8); Polyethylene grade, (PE80B); manufacturer’s coding; and conforming standard, (AS/NZS 4130).

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

PIPE AND FITTINGS Pipe: LDPE has a thicker wall section with a relatively smaller bore than metric pipe, so is hydraulically inefficient. It is moulded in a weaker material, so the thicker wall does not mean a stronger pipe. It is more expensive than metric pipe. It is only produced in NZ for the NZ market and sold principally to match all the fittings farmers have in their shed and existing pipes.

These steps will help determine what type and size of fitting should be used for any pipe: • Look at any markings on the pipe. It may be marked as LDPE, indicating that internal fittings should be used.

The diameter is marked as the DN, (the nominal size in mm). This is the ID for LD pipes and the OD for metric pipes.

While stripes on pipes are coded by manufacturers according to pressure rating, they are not standardised between manufacturers.

• Check the fittings on the pipe. A compression fitting means the pipe is most likely a metric one. An internal fitting suggests the pipe is most likely to be an LD pipe.

• LD pipes will have a thicker wall section than metric pipes.

• Measure the OD with a vernier or pair of callipers, ensuring roundness as much as possible. If necessary take measurements at 90 degrees and average them. The OD will give an indication of the pipe you have.

the pipe and they are regarded as more secure than internal fittings. Internal fittings can be more secure when the water system is under vacuum, for example in a house pump suction line.

BEST AND WORST PRACTICE, AND SOME TIPS Some of the common traps can be avoided, experts say.

Bury water lines to prolong pipe life.

This reduces the risk of damage by stock, machinery and UV exposure. Burying also means there is no reduction in maximum working pressure, which decreases as temperature increases. On a hot day, the surface temperature of a PE pipe may be 50C. The maximum working pressure for PN10 pipe moulded in PE80B MDPE drops from 100 to 43m head as temperature increases from 20C to 50C. Mark on a farm map water lines with fitting and size details as they are installed or discovered. This may save many hours in the long term.

Use an elbow instead of a tight bend in the pipe. A bend in the pipe reduces the bore size and stresses the pipe.

Avoid compression fitting failures by ensuring the pipe is pushed past the seal ring to the full depth of the socket.

Chamfering the cut end of the pipe will help to guide the pipe end past the seal ring.

Break pressure tanks can be a better option than replacing an inadequate water line and they also increase water storage.

OD, (mm)

Pipe size and type

OD, (mm)

Pipe size and type

17.1

15mm LD or 15mm MDID

44.2

40mm LD or 40mm MDID

20

20mm Metric

50

50mm Metric

25

20mm LD or 25mm Metric or 20mm MDID

50.25

45mm LD

32

25mm LD or 32mm Metric or 25mm MDID

57

50mm LD

37.8

32mm LD or 32mm MDID

60.4

50mm MDID

40

40mm Metric

63

63mm Metric

There are exceptions to the “internal fittings for LD/compression fittings for metric pipes” rule. A 25mm compression fitting will fit a 20mm LD pipe, and a 32mm compression fitting will fit a 25mm LD pipe.

Where ODs for LD and metric pipe are very close, the wall thickness indicates which it is, with LD having a much thicker wall than metric pipe.

• The Han-Tool from Hansen Products allows the user to determine whether an internal or compression fitting is compatible with the pipe of interest, and what size it needs, but must be applied to the end of a pipe.

• If practical, a section of the pipe can be taken into the shop to match fittings.

Fittings: Compression fittings do not restrict water flow, there’s no need to heat

Slip couplings are similar to normal compression couplings, but can slide along the pipe. They are useful for buried pipes, as the pipe’s rigidity means a long section of pipe must be unearthed to fit a normal coupling.

Do not shut off pipe flow for repairs by folding it over or flattening it. The PE can yield at the fold lines and fail under pressure.

The OD of a PE pipe will give a clue to the nominal size, and whether internal or compression fittings are appropriate. It can be measured with a calliper, first ensuring the pipe is not out of round. These two pipes are nominally 32mm despite the difference in diameter. Metric pipe on the left is measured by OD, while Low Density pipe is measured by the ID. LD pipe has a thicker wall section.

Do not over-tighten compression fitting nuts. The nut does not form the seal, but stops the pipe from coming back out of the fitting under pressure. This advice may vary with some fittings.

Tapping saddles are quicker and cheaper than tees as a means of teeing into a line.

Pipe cutters are cheap and give the clean square cut necessary for compression fittings. Advice from some manufacturers is to chamfer the end of the pipe. A chamfering tool is available from Plasson and RX Plastics.

RX Plastics’ air release/vacuum breaker prevents negative pressures in a water system and excessive pressure due to air in the system. Negative pressure can occur where valves are closed suddenly or a closed pipe is emptied and can damage PE pipe which is not designed to withstand vacuum.

In this case air is admitted to the pipe to reduce the vacuum. When pipes are filling, air can concentrate at the higher sections resulting in pressure losses. In this case, the air release valve opens to expel the air from the pipeline.

RX Plastics’ Unifit conversion kit connects metric 25 and 32mm metric PE pipe to pipes of various materials including lead, copper, galvanised steel or UPVC. Plasson’s reducing set is cheaper than a reducing coupling. It goes inside the socket, is easier to fit and produces a more secure joint than couplings.

Long couplings allow coupling pipes where some shrinkage has occurred when a coupling has been undone.

tim.mcv@gmail.com

Hansen’s Han-Tool effectively measures the ID and OD of any PE pipe, indicates the nominal size, and whether an internal or compression fitting is suitable.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

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RESEARCH WRAP │ OWL FARM

WinterStar II annual ryegrass being grazed, pre-graze covers slightly high due to high nitrates.

FOCUS ON HOME-GROWN FEED Doug Dibley

H

istorically New Zealand’s competitive advantage has been our ability to grow and harvest high-quality pasture at a low cost.

Nothing has changed. Owl farm is into its second season as a demonstration dairy farm and optimising home-grown feed remains the key focus.

For various reasons our performance during the 2015/2016 season was poor.

We had issues with staff, underweight heifers, non-cycling cows, eczema. I could go on. However one of our biggest issues was the quantity and quality of harvested home-grown feed grown. With only 11.5 tonnes drymatter (DM) of home-grown feed harvested per hectare our operating costs ($4.67kg milksolids) and percow performance (395kgMS/cow) were understandably disappointing.

Although this didn’t read well it did create the platform for change. PGG Wrightson Seeds as a farm partner has been instrumental in developing and supporting the farm through our pasture renovation policy. Through our farm management committee we collectively identified three closely related priorities: increase home grown feed, reduce reliance

74

on brought in feed and decrease our cost of production. In order to improve profitability we identified a reduction in purchased feed as key. To do that while maintaining stocking rate and production it was simple, we needed to harvest more home-grown feed.

Before looking forward it’s worth looking backwards. Historically there has been very little pasture renovation undertaken on this farm. Additionally, pastures and soils have been particularly vulnerable to dry summers and wet winters. This has resulted in a heavy burden of weeds and some pest damage.

Pasture renovation policy revolves around the incorporation of a summer cropping regime as it allows us to renew

8.2 8.1 8.0 7.9 7.8 7.7 7.6 7.5 7.4 7.3 7.2

Table 1: Tonnes DM/ha home grown feed harvested budget vs. actual

Budgeted

Actual

pastures annually. Although we essentially started this at the beginning of the 2015/2016 season with the introduction of a summer chicory crop, it wasn’t until this season that we had the data to ensure a more-measured approach could be taken in prioritising paddocks for renewed.

As a demonstration dairy farm we rely heavily on collecting and analysing data to validate decisions and inform future management.

We measure pasture covers weekly as well undertake a pasture condition scoring exercise bi-annually in winter and summer with the support of PGGW Seeds and Ballance.

As a demonstration dairy farm we rely heavily on collecting and analysing data to validate decisions and inform future management.

Using this information we can earmark the paddocks which require improvement.

This season we have increased from 8% of the milking platform to 10% of the milking platform with 15ha allocated for chicory.

Last season with a smaller area and therefore faster rotation we found we didn’t optimise the re-growth opportunity.

We also identified a diminishing performance of the crops through the back half of the rotation as weeds began outcompeting the chicory.

As a result average yields from last year’s chicory crops were less than desirable (8-10.5t DM/ha). This led to the incorporation of an annual ryegrass into the rotation in March before cropping the same paddocks for chicory in October.

This gave us two opportunities to spray out the paddocks and break down weeds while also allowing us to grow a modelled 3t DM/ha more feed over winter using an annual.

We follow a very structured process in measuring our pastures weekly. This allows us to build the feed wedge and grazing rotation as well as identify individual and average pasture covers and growth rates.

In February using MINDA’s Land and Feed we rank each paddock top to bottom in terms of measured pasture growth and subsequent grazing days. Last season we identified a 3.5t DM/ha gap between our best and poorest performing paddocks from June-January.

Our top paddock during this period had grown 10t DM/ha compared to our worst paddock having only grown 6.5t DM/

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

The table below outlines the importance of the pasture condition score. Many of our top growing paddocks had a low pasture condition score which still put them in the frame for renewal despite growth.

Re-growth of annuals, 24 hours after grazing with the new shoots very visible. ha, and interestingly the best performing paddock was first year pasture out of chicory.

Looking at pasture growth in isolation is however problematic in the sense our high presence of weeds isn’t factored in. Our pasture meter reads height only and has no bearing of species, in several situations paddocks which had good growth didn’t necessarily have good quality.

Many of our top growing paddocks had a low pasture condition score which still put them in the frame for renewal despite growth.

To ensure we can accurately prioritise paddocks for improvement we also undertake pasture condition scoring using the criteria developed through the

Paddock

Measured kgDM/ha

Condition score

26

10055

2

28

10044

4

23

9959

3

34

9939

2

48

9614

4

Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust. We then combine this information with the pasture growth data to identify relevant paddocks for renovation.

We undertake two pasture conditionscoring exercises a season, one in winter which works as a good benchmark for the success of the pasture renovation programme and one in summer which helps identify the worst paddocks in terms of pasture species present, weed burden and insect pressure, and ultimately in need of a facelift. Our initial winter test last season identified 55% of our paddocks as being a condition score three or less. Fast forward 12 months and this figure is now 41% with the graph showing a positive trend-line.

The table below outlines the importance of the pasture condition score. Many of our top growing paddocks had a low pasture condition score which still put them in the frame for renewal despite growth.

Along with pasture renewal through summer cropping we have also had to undertake significant undersowing given it’s not feasible to take more than 10% of the milking platform out without having to supplement with brought-in feed. This season we identified around 60ha which were particularly weedy but otherwise not too bad. These were sprayed with a valdo/ baton mix and 32ha were then undersown in addition to the 15ha put into crop.

So far the results are speaking for themselves. Using Farmax we modelled the additional feed which we anticipated growing thanks to the investment.

This in turn reduced our modelled imported supplements by 35% and our cost of production by more than 20%.

Throughout this season we have updated

our modelled Farmax file with our actuals and tracking home-grown feed compared to what we had budgeted. Table 1 shows we are 7.5% ahead of what we had budgeted this season, which was 8% more than the 11.5t DM/ha harvested during the 2014/2015 season.

We are also currently tracking 22% down season to date on imported supplements with 40% less having been spent in this space. To date we are also on par on a per-cow production basis. Collectively this demonstrates we are on track to meet our objectives set at the beginning of this season.

We are due to complete our next pasture condition score which along with pasture growth data we will use to determine which paddocks need addressing next.

We also have budget for undersowing if required. Ultimately we want to be harvesting >15t DM/ha but as we know that won’t happen overnight. We will keep true to this structure for the next few seasons at least with the expectation that year on year both the quantity and quality of home-grown feed will continue to improve.

Doug Dibley, Demonstration manager of Owl Farm, St Peter’s school, Cambridge leads the first Research Wrap column with what is happening at the Owl farm Waikato Demonstration farm. Other research farms will be profiled in coming months.

% of paddocks in condition score category

Owl farm pasture condition score results 2015 & 2016 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

5

Aug-16

22%

Aug-15

1%

4 38% 5 = Best

40%

3 28%

2 13%

38%

21%

Condition score scale (5-1)

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

1 0% 1 = Poor

0%

The pasture 48 hours post-grazing.

75

DAIRY 101 │ FIXING WATER TROUGHS A ballcock valve unassembled showing the float, string, arm, split pin, valve, washer and housing.

Going with the flow Karen Trebilcock ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz @KT_at_Exporter Milking cows eating pasture need to drink up to 80 litres of water a day and more on hot days.

Limit the amount of water they have access to and it affects milk production, which is why it’s a good idea to always check the water trough before putting cows into the paddock and afterwards when you take them out.

Even in winter, when cows are not milking, they still need water, especially in frosty weather.

Water can be expensive and the electricity used to pump it, so check flow meters daily to see if you have a leak somewhere.

Keeping an eye on troughs, pumps and meters is a simple habit to get into, and to get your staff into. Making sure everyone knows how to fix the water system should be standard knowledge on your farm.

First, have a map at the dairy showing

where the all troughs, water pipes, taps and water sources are. Show the pipe diameters so if new fittings are needed the right sizes are bought.

If you are new to the farm, either as the landowner or manager of the cows, this information might not be on hand. If you can, ask the previous farmer before they leave or build a map as you figure it out.

If you don’t know where your water pipes are don’t worry, the contractor will usually find them when they plough the first paddock.

When getting the cows in for milking, check to see if water is spilling over the top of the trough. If this is happening it will be because there is a problem with the ballcock valve.

The ballcock valve is made up of a float (usually in the shape of a ball), possibly a string which connects the float to a bendable arm, or the arm is attached directly to the float and an intake valve either at the side or the bottom of the trough. The arm is attached to the intake valve with a split pin.

THE QUADBAR - PROVEN BEYOND DOUBT!

Things to carry on the motorbike/ute to fix a trough: • Adjustable pliers • Small bucket for bailing (and to hold everything in) • Spare ballcock arms • Spare floats • Spare strings • Spare split pins • Thread seal tape/hemp.

When the string is tight, which should be when the trough is full, the inlet valve is closed and no water enters the trough.

When an animal drinks from the trough the ball, floating on the surface, is lowered releasing the string so the valve is opened and water flows in.

If the ballcock valve is uncovered, or the cover has been broken, cattle will play with the float and possibly stand on the arm damaging the valve. However, it can be an easy quick fix if you have the right tools and spare parts with you.

Usually it is just the string that has broken between the float and the arm, or become detached. If you can’t find the float in the tough have a look around it as it may have gone over the edge and be in the grass somewhere.

To reattach the string you will need adjustable pliers and having spare strings to replace it if it is broken is also a good idea.

Some ballcock valves are installed above the waterline but if not, gumboots, a waterresistant watch and making sure your cell phone doesn’t fall out of your shirt pocket while doing the repair is essential.

If the string is fine, check the float is in the right position. Maybe the arm needs to be bent slightly so the water level is lower.

If the arm is broken it gets a bit more difficult and it might be a good idea to turn the water off if you are unsure about what you’re doing. When you release the split pin at the end of the arm to replace it with a new one the water pressure can

595

$

+ GST deliv ered

For the last five years we have surveyed owners of 479 QUADBIKES fitted with Quadbars.

There were: • 61 rollovers • 0 deaths • 5 injuries - NONE from the Quadbar itself We think the Quadbar has done just what it was designed to do - PREVENT farm injuries and death.

We could not be happier with the results and Worksafe NZ is fully aware of this survey.

Call Stuart Davidson - Owner of Quadbar NZ - Orewa 021 182 8115 • email:sales@quadbar.co.nz • www.quadbar.co.nz JH0084910©

76

An old-style trough without a cover but a hot wire from the nearby electric fence keeps the cows from playing with the float

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

A hi-flow ballcock valve protected by a concrete housing.

Note the bent arm so the right water level is achieved in the trough.

A hi-flow ballcock valve showing the seal and housing.

A concrete water trough with a cover. blow the valve up over your head and you can lose it in the paddock.

If it’s not the float, string or arm, it might be dirt under the valve seal. Take the arm off and check it. Check also for small stones blocking the valve.

If there is dirt under the seal or in the line maybe also check your water intakes and sediment traps – if sand and small stones are getting into your line then it may affect all your ballcock valves.

If the seal is old and worn you will need to replace the whole valve.

Water containing iron can also cause iron oxide to form around the O-ring in the valve. Using some grease will get it working again.

If water is not spilling over the top of the trough but there is a wet patch constantly around it, it could be because the intake pipe is leaking. Turn the water off and undo the fittings. Redoing the thread seal tape, or some people prefer to use hemp, can be a quick fix but if the fittings are broken they will have to be replaced. When you have done the job, turn the water back on and go back to make sure it’s still not leaking.

There could also be a hole or split in the trough. If the hole is small enough it can be repaired but it might be time to buy a new trough.

Make sure the footing of the trough is hard and flat. Constant treading damage from cows can break footings causing damage to the trough.

On the plus side, repairs to the ballcock usually need to be done in summer when

cows are fighting for water and this is when damage to the float and arm usually occur. It means the water is warm when you are working in it making the repair.

If you are unlucky enough to have to make a repair when the water is cold maybe turn the water off and bail out the trough before you start. However tough you think you are, your hands will still go numb in freezing water and you won’t be able to pull out fiddly split pins.

In winter, frost is the main reason for leaks as frozen water expands and can crack seals, pipes and fittings.

Damp areas in paddocks can be because a water line is leaking – start digging to see what the problem is.

If you are having lots of broken ballcocks have a good look at the design of your water system, especially if the stocking rate has increased since it was installed.

It’s not just about how big the water trough is, but also how fast it refills.

Volume and pressure are both important – if you have low water pressure you need more troughs per paddock or bigger troughs and bigger pipe widths. If cows are fighting for water they will cause damage.

A ring main system, where the water line is in a loop with both ends fed from the source, can help to increase water pressure.

Time how fast your trough refills and do the maths – if you have 300 cows in the paddock for 12 hours they will need a minimum of 12,000l (300 x 40l) which is 1000l/hour or about 20l/minute. If the flow rate into your trough is less you have

a problem. Water pipes are best run along tracks, away from fence lines (a replaced waratah will put a nice hole in a pipe). If they are above ground they are easier to fix but are prone to frost damage and mowers.

Service pumps regularly especially in early summer when cows are drinking more and try to avoid the inevitable failure on Christmas Day. Pumps working continuously because of water leaks can burn out. Some pumps are easy to hear when they are overworking but with a submersible pump listen instead for the solenoid clicking.

At the very least check the water in the trough is clean (you should be able to see the bottom of the trough).

Troughs, especially those at ground level, can become easy traps for hedgehogs and other small mammals and even birds.

Bail out the trough with a bucket and remove all debris. Leaving the trough empty for a few hours on a sunny day will help kill any algae present.

My best broken trough story is the one that was the easiest fix. We once, when getting the cows in, found a small Jersey heifer upside down in a water trough that had been made from an old bath. It was hot and she must have been pushed in by another cow.

A rope around her neck then tied to the motorbike and a gentle pull was all that was needed. She slipped out and walked to the dairy for milking just fine and the ballcock valve was unbroken. However the rest of the herd was very thirsty.

FARM NUTRITION SOLUTIONS 0800 SEAWEED Cows on a hot morning wanting water.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

77

DairySolutions The Quadbar is fitted to the quad bike towbar

Q

uadbar NZ owner Stuart Davidson says his company has surveyed the farmer owners of 479 quad bikes fitted with the hairpin-shaped rider protection device on their experiences.

The Australian-made Quadbar is designed to reduce the risk of injury caused by quad bike rollovers.

The company received a range of comments from New Zealand farmers.

“In my position of manager of a large sheep and beef property, we operate five quads with eight staff,” Simon said.

“We had had in excess of 30 rollovers in my time here and since fitting rollover protection have had no injuries from rollovers.

“Prior to fitting, we had a number of injuries, some of which were serious. Welldesigned and fitted rollover protection

The Quadbar is fitted to the quad bike towbar.

definitely saves people. I can’t understand why they are not recommended or why more people don’t fit them.”

Alastair said: “Our worker drove through closed gates, across a farm track at 5060km/h with a trailer on behind.

“The bike and trailer overturned. It looks like he fell off when the bar was holding the bike aloft. He was off work for two months with a cracked pelvis and torn ligaments, but without the Quadbar, it could have been a lot worse.”

“I have rolled a quad bike twice o n flat ground and if I hadn’t had a roll bar fitted, I wouldn’t be here now,” Yorke said. “Roll bars stop your body from being crushed and most deaths are caused by crushing.”

“The roll bar prevented the bike from rolling over, just on to its side and stopped rolling. No injury to rider and only superficial damage to the bike,” Ian said.

There have been no injuries from the Quadbar itself, Stuart said.

More? Call Stuart on 021 182 8115 or email: sales@quadbar.co.nz or see: www. quadbar.co.nz

Tractor sales weather dairy volatility Sales of tractors remain relatively buoyant, demonstrating a positive outlook in the primary industry, New Zealand Tractor and Machinery Association president, Mark HamiltonManns says.

The total number of tractor sales was 2381 to the end of September, on a par with 2012 (2389) demonstrating that overall primary industry was stable and weathering volatility in the global dairy markets.

Sales only declined slightly overall, by 6%, on the same period in 2015.

“Growth in horticulture and viticulture looks set to continue. Tractor sales in the Bay of Plenty have increased more than 50% in the last year with the continued success of the kiwifruit and avocado sectors. Sales in the Nelson region increased by 30% driven by the buoyant viticulture and horticulture segments,” Hamilton-Manns said.

While sales in the traditional dairy

segment (100–120hp tractors) had declined overall in the last year by 17.5%, dairy farmers were showing that they’re cautiously optimistic as many were still buying.

“Dairy farmers are focused on good value-for-money deals when buying tractors. They’re looking around for the best interest and maintenance deals, often delaying purchase for several months while they do,” Hamilton-Manns said.

SUPPLEMENTARY FEED Maxammon Maize and Maxammon Maize blends • Palm Kernel & blends Barley, Wheat, Maize & Soybean Meal (forward contracts available).

Custom made Dairy Mineral Pellets To join our Palm Kernel Pricing Text Service.

Please text your name and area to 027 214 9761 Palm Kernel Pricing Text Service

Intergrain NZ LTD 78

LK0085221©

Call Susanna at Intergrain NZ 0800 244 744

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

PROPERTY │ SOUTHLAND

All set up near Winton

A

256-hectare Southland dairy farm for sale with the option to buy a 160ha support block just 3km away gives buyers the option to run a self-contained operation that has location and top infrastructure in its favour.

The farm is 14km from Winton and 45km from Invercargill, where it flows over mostly flat land and some medium hill with lanes connecting the 61 paddocks to the centrally-located 50-bail rotary dairy with all the bells and whistles.

Not only does it have the automatic cup removers, in-bail teat spray and meal and molasses feed system, but also 13 bails with cellsense mastitis meters, in-line mineral dispenser, Protrack auto drafting and security cameras. The feed system has a grain crusher for the 70-tonne bulk silo, with a delivery silo alongside. In the calf-rearing shed, a Lely robotic calf feeding system with four stalls makes life easier.

Ian Russell from PGG Wrightson says it’s a genuine property farmed by genuine vendors who have been milking cows there for more than a decade and set it up to suit their needs.

It’s for sale at $10.5 million and has been run in conjunction with the 160ha support block nearby which is for sale at $3.5m.

“It is a farm that has options

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

because it can be a straight milking platform or it has sufficient size to be run as a self-contained unit,” Russell says.”It’s a well set-up dairy unit with excellent infrastructure, including four good family-sized homes.”

The main home is an attractive 1950s two-storied three-bedroom residence with a good mix of character and mod cons, along with a glazed tile roof, copper spouting and an asphalt tennis court.

Part of that infrastructure is a new above-ground Tasman effluent tank that holds three million litres, or 90-days’ storage, plus a separator. Effluent either goes directly on to pasture or through the tank to a travelling irrigator with a GPS-monitored system and underground hydrants.

Last season the farm milked 590 cows to produce 246,326kg milksolids (MS) and this season it is estimated to reach 275,000kg MS from 580 cows.

The property is consented for 750 cows, expiring 2022. In the past two seasons, 70t of meal and 60t of molasses has been bought in and each year about 160t DM of silage (net weight) is made on the support block and brought to the milking platform.

The farm can be viewed at www.pggwre.co.nz ID INV25015 and for further information contact Russell on 03 211 3125 or 027 478 6517.

79

PROPERTY │ SOUTHLAND

Sales lift with dairy recovery units in Central Southland sold in the $43,000 to $44,000 per hectare range excluding dairy company shares; a tidy small farm sold for $38,000 per hectare and less-developed dairy units sold between $25,000 and $28,000. Several support blocks between 40 and 60ha on good-quality land and without buildings sold between $30,000 and $32,000, while one with an older cottage fetched $39,000 per hectare.

Though prices have eased about 10% from their high of three years ago, Lucas says they seem to have stabilised and local farmers have been the main buyers.

Property Brokers Limited Licensed REAA 2008 Telephone 0800 FOR LAND “It’s been mainly farmers buying 100ha productivity reliability them or people who have lived or farmed locally. And there’s a good range of properties right across the board so there’s opportunities for sharemilkers to make their first purchase.

Cow prices have recovered to about $1800 to $1900 in Southland so their equity has LEESTON WEB ID AR53816 shown some level of $4,875,000 + GST (IF ANY)

Top dairy farms have been selling up to $44,000 a hectare in Southland, but the diversity of farms has also catered for buyers wanting to spend $25,000 a hectare for a less-developed farm.

Southern Wide Real Estate had a lift in rural sales, including dairy farms, toward the end of last year and branch manager Dallas Lucas expects the market to remain steady as confidence returns to the industry.

In recent sales, two good-quality dairy

RURAL

141 Drain Road A well established spray irrigated dairy unit in a popular location. Walk in and farm - the vendors have ticked all the boxes with regards to Environmental and Fonterra rules.

Strong soils, good wells with lower power costs and excellent pastures underpin production profitability.

2015/16 164,563 kgs ex 352 cows.

View By Appointment

Paul Cunneen

Mobile 0274 323 382 Office 03 307 9190

Gareth Cox

Mobile 021 250 9714 Office 03 929 0306

Michael Robb

Mobile 027 436 7106

www.propertybrokers.co.nz www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

recovery and there’s more endeavouring to buy their first farm.”

Now among the properties on offer are a 262ha dairy farm milking more than 660 cows for sale at $11.045 million; and a 148ha unit milking 540 cows for sale at $6.55m.

The 262ha unit combines well-balanced soils, “particularly good” improvements and a handy location, 20km from Riverton. Brett Lucas is marketing the predominantly flat farm which produced 278,650kg milksolids (MS) last season and is on track for 290,000kg from 660 cows at the peak. About 380 cows are wintered at home on fodder beet and up to 250 bales of balage are made on the farm to feed through winter.

This farm has a seven-year-old 60-bail rotary dairy with automatic cup removers, auto drafting and an in-shed meal/grain feeding system.

Between 130 and 140 tonnes of barley is bought in to feed through the shed, plus 100t of palm kernel that is fed in trailers

and 120t drymatter (DM) of pit silage to feed through spring and autumn.

Numerous farm buildings cater for large-scale dairying and consent for 900 cows means the farm could milk more cows.

Added to that are three good homes including a well-presented 1940s brick and roughcast four-bedroom homestead that has been refurbished and sits in a north-facing mature garden setting.

It is for sale at $11.045m and can be viewed at www. southernwide.co.nz ref SWI1763. For further information contact Lucas on 0274 351 361.

The 148ha dairy unit is a well-managed farm 24km from Invercargill at Dacre, where it combines quality silt soils, prime location and top improvements. John Hay is marketing the farm with its centralised infrastructure that includes a 50-bail rotary dairy with in-shed meal feeding plus automatic cup removers, then two Paragon wintering sheds with concrete feed pads and waste-not feeders that have consent for 650 cows.

Calving time is made easier due to the large 10-bay calfrearing shed with six Lely automatic calf feeding stations and the adjoining wintering sheds.

The farm flows over flat contour in a rectangular shape, with a high percentage of new pastures and phosphate levels ranging from 34 to 58, ensuring strong production potential.

Set in lovely established gardens is the three-bedroom homestead and nearby is the large post and rail horse arena, with a stable-loose box attached to the garage. This farm also has a three-bedroom brick and roughcast home.

Hay says it is a property that will impress purchasers looking for quality soils. Its asking price is $6.55 million and it can be viewed at www.southernwide.co.nz ref www. southernwide.co.nz ref SWI1760. For further information contact Hay on 0274 350 138.

FARM FOR SALE

GREAT FIRST FARM • Now is your chance to buy into the dairy industry and secure your future, or to expand your operation • This very well laid out 92ha property is mainly productive sand flats.

• Currently milking between 180 to 200 cows with production up to 87,000 kg/ms • Approximately half the farm is irrigated which helps with good rye grass and clover production and summer plantane that is growing well • Very good facilities including a brick four-bedroom family home, well located 20 aside herringbone dairy, and very good calf and machinery shedding • These sized properties offer a wide range of uses, and now is your chance to own this one, so call Les or Tim to inspect.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

JH0085519©

TENDER closes 2pm, 23 February 2017 (if not sold prior) VIEW by appointment CONTACT Les Cain 027 442 0582, Tim Kearins 027 449 5547

1261 KELLOW ROAD BAINESSE.

(Licensed under the REAA 2008)

CENTURY21.CO.NZ

SMARTER. BOLDER. FASTER. 81

PROPERTY │ CANTERBURY

Moving on from Lincoln After 30 years milking the cows, it’s time for a Canterbury farming couple to sell their low-cost dairy farm close to Christchurch which is milking 500 cows.

For sale at $6.64 million, the farm is just 10 minutes from Lincoln and 35 minutes from central Christchurch.

It sprawls over four blocks of flat contour adding up to 184 hectares and sources water from four bores at depths of 50-60 metres.

The farm has averaged 209,000kg milksolids (MS) for the past three seasons.

Last season the farm milked 475 cows and produced 208,932kg MS on the 160ha milking platform and that worked out at 440kg MS/cow and 1306kg MS/ha – with minimal supplements and low-cost irrigation.

Gareth Cox from Property Brokers says the traditionally run farm has strong soils with spray irrigation from shallow groundwater which makes it a reliable, low-cost irrigation system and coupled with low inputs, makes a low-cost operation.

“It’s a very sustainable farm and it’s a

low-cost proven performer. The vendor has milked cows for 30 years though and it’s time to move on.

“It’s a well-located, established farm and the key to the place is it has really reliable, low-cost water. Plus there’s scope for increased production.”

A 40-aside herringbone dairy with Read plant was built in 1993 and extended in 2009, with effluent now pumped into a 1.5 million litre Tasman tank before being pumped through a Bush effluent spreader.

A full range of farm support buildings include a calf-rearing shed for 120 calves, haybarns and implement sheds plus a workshop.

The main home with four bedrooms was built in 1913 and has been upgraded over the years, while a three-bedroom home on another block was built in the late 80s and the third home on yet another block of land has three bedrooms and is clad in brick.

To view the property visit www. propertybrokers.co.nz ID ROR52839. For more information, contact Cox on 021 250 9714.

Quality in the Mamaranui Valley At $3.725 million, a 258-hectare Dargaville dairy farm milking 530 cows is not only affordable, but also produces good, consistent results and has quality infrastructure in place.

Set in the picturesque Mamaranui Valley 15km north of Dargaville, Gumro Farms has been a family dairy unit for nearly four decades and its pastures are the result of good management and regular fertiliser applications. The retiring vendors are also willing to lease support blocks to a new owner and these total 113ha.

Catherine Stewart from Bayleys says the farm’s superior fertility, layout and infrastructure enables it to achieve good results, with scope for increased production. In the past few years 82

production has averaged 171,000kg milksolids.

The contour is flat to easy country and includes 60ha of flat, fertile land which is predominantly rye and clover, while the rear of the farm is mostly kikuyu with rye and clover.

A new dairy built in 2001 is a 40-aside

herringbone with a molasses in-shed system and nearby is a 30-bay wintering barn plus a calving pad. A good array of shedding is distributed around the farm, which was originally three separate farms before the family amalgamated them.

That means plenty of housing as well, including a spacious kauri four-bedroom homestead set in a private, established garden with a swimming pool. A second home was built in the 1970s and is splitlevel with three-bedrooms, while the third home is a tidy 1960s workers cottage with three bedrooms.

One of the farm’s advantages is its locality which puts it close to the popular Kai Iwi Lakes for swimming and water sports. Baylys Beach on the west coast is just 22km away and is renowned for its fishing and shellfish.

To view the farm visit www.bayleys. co.nz/1811957 and for more information contact Stewart on 0800 422 959 or 027 356 5031.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

February Events Take a fresh look …

This autumn, take the time to really understand your business, and set up your farm and goals to ensure long-term success. A series of events in the next few months will help you review your business and set a plan.

Visit dairynz.co.nz/tactics.

Discussion Groups Interested in farm systems, reproduction, progression, pasture management, budgeting, people management, or milking smarter? We hold a range of different discussion groups on specialist areas of interest as well as other topical field days and road shows around the country. Find out what’s on near you at dairynz.co.nz/events or phone your local consulting officer.

What dairy industry events are happening near you?

Now there is one place where you can find out what’s on near you! Explore upcoming dairy industry events in your area and keep up to date with the latest learning and networking opportunities. Visit Dairyevents.co.nz

Change of Address If you’ve shifted farm or changed your supply company, make sure you’ll still receive your copy of Inside Dairy – visit dairynz.co.nz/address and let us know your new details.

Mini Milksmart 2017 – coming to a farm near you!

DairyNZ is taking its Mini Milksmart events on the road in February as part of a nation-wide 26-event roadshow.

Focused on practical ways to save time and money through efficient milking, the events feature the top farmer-rated topics from previous Milksmart events, presented by some of New Zealand’s leading experts.

These events are designed for the whole farm team.

Registrations are essential – for more information visit dairynz.co.nz/milksmart.

Consulting Officers – Contact Details Northland Regional Leader

Chris Neill

027 499 9021

Far North

Graeme Peter

027 807 9686

Lower Northland

Mark Forsyth

021 242 5719

Whangarei West

Corey Thorn

027 886 0221

Regional Leader

Phil Irvine

027 483 9820

South Auckland

Jamie Haultain

027 486 4344

Hamilton North

Phil Irvine

027 483 9820

Matamata/Kereone

Brigitte Ravera

027 807 9685

Morrinsville/Paeroa

Phil Irvine

027 483 9820

Hauraki Plains/Coromandel

Annabelle Smart

021 242 2127

Regional Leader

Wade Bell

027 285 9273

Te Awamutu

Stephen Canton

027 475 0918

Otorohanga

Michael Booth

027 513 7201

South Waikato

Kirsty Dickins

027 483 2205

Regional Leader

Sharon Morrell

0274 922 907

Western Bay of Plenty

Colin Grainger-Allen

021 225 8345

Central Bay of Plenty

Kevin McKinley

027 288 8238

Central Plateau

Wilma Foster

021 246 2147

Whakatane

Sharon Morrell

0274 922 907

Regional Leader

Katrina Knowles

021 831 944

South Taranaki

Erin Hutchinson

021 246 5663

Central Taranaki

Sarah Payne

027 704 5562

Coastal Taranaki

Michelle Taylor

021 276 5832

North Taranaki

Lauren McEldowney

027 593 4122

Regional Leader

James Muwunganirwa

027 499 9020

Horowhenua/Wanganui/South Taranaki/Southern and Coastal Manawatu

Scott Cameron

027 702 3760

Wairarapa/Tararua

Abby Scott

021 244 3428

Hawkes Bay

Gray Beagley

021 286 4346

Central/Northern Manawatu/Rangitikei

Julie Morris

021 222 9023

North Waikato

South Waikato

Bay of Plenty

Taranaki

Lower North Island

Top of South Island/Westland Regional Leader

Wade Bell

027 285 9273

Nelson/Marlborough

Mark Shadwick

021 287 7057

West Coast

Ross Bishop

021 277 2894

Regional Leader

Virginia Serra

021 932 515

Hurunui

Virginia Serra

021 932 515

North Canterbury

Jo Back

021 246 2775

Mid Canterbury

Erin Christian

021 243 7337

Central Canterbury

Natalia Benquet

021 287 7059

South Canterbury

Stuart Moorhouse

027 513 7200

North Otago

Trevor Gee

021 227 6476

Regional Leader

Richard Kyte

021 246 3166

South/West Otago

Guy Michaels

021 615 051

North West/Central Southland

Nicole E Hammond

021 240 8529

North East/Eastern Southland

Liam Carey

027 474 3258

Western Southland

Richard Kyte

021 246 3166

Southern/Coastal Southland

Nathan Nelson

021 225 6931

Canterbury/North Otago

Southland/South Otago

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017

83

02033 LICGMCCCDE

Correct identification. Check.

Better genetic gain. Check.

Better returns. Cheque.

Approximately one in four* calves born are mis-mothered, mis-tagged or mis-recorded. And with it costing around $1,600 to rear a calf through to first lactation, that’s a lot of money and potential genetic gain on the line if you get it wrong. GeneMark® parentage testing helps you to accurately match calves to the correct dam and sire, so you can ensure you’re not just rearing the best calves but you’re also getting the best returns. Cheque. To find out more talk to your LIC rep or visit lic.co.nz/genemark 84 *Based

on five case studies conducted by LIC from 2010-2012

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | February 2017