NZ Dairy Exporter 2018 by NZ Farmlife Media

Learn, grow, excel

Better breeding AUGUST 2018

Designing future farms

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Designing future farm AUGUST 2018

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| August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

CONTENTS

ONLINE 10

Dairy Exporter’s online presence

SOUTHERN STARS 26

FROM COW TO CONE 33

MILKING PLATFORM 11

Niall McKenzie reflects on life’s highs and lows

Beware the disruptors, James Davidson says

Charlie McCaig finds opportunity in a crisis

Martin Orange lands his dream job

NOTEBOOK 15

Opportunities around and off the farm

UPFRONT 16

Refreshing the Workplace Action Plan for a living wage

Searing drought brings crisis to northern hemisphere dairy farmers

Susan Kilsby: NZ farmers doing relatively well

BUSINESS 26

DBOY: Southern stars to the fore

Appleby Farms: Cow-to-cone ice cream

Behaviour change: Nudge strategies brainstormed at SIDE

Maori agriculture: The farms of Atihau-Whanganui

CO Diary: Attracting quality staff

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

SYSTEMS 42

Designing future farms

Calving: Keeping transition simple

More top tips for calving

A place for fodder beet

Fodder beet: Managing the inputs

Hooked on the beet

SPECIAL REPORT | BETTER BREEDING DOING THE RIGHT THING BY THE LAND 78 SPECIAL REPORT

Hitting the sweet spot on the West Coast

Parking the bulls

Avoiding the risks

Genetics to meet the new rules

Expert Eye: The dairy beef opportunity

Farmers demand biosecurity assurances

Sponsored content: Health and efficiency tops

ENVIRONMENT 78

Ballance Award winners: Doing the right thing

Hawke’s Bay farmers face Plan Change 6

Companion or production animal wellbeing

STOCK 86

Succession: Moving with the times

Extension 350: Focus on triple bottom line

Leading the way in animal care

Vet Voice: Managing failure of passive transfer

YOUNG COUNTRY 60 Hitting the sweet spot

72 Genetics to meet new rules

65 Parking the bulls

73 The dairy-beef opportunity

67 Avoiding the risks

74 Asking bull questions

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Designing productive landscapes

100 A picture paints a thousand words

COLUMNS 24

Market view

CO Diary

Expert Eye

Vet Voice

Dairy 101: Soil bugs: The life below the grass

Research wrap: Palm kernel alternatives

102

Farm Gear: Tim McVeagh has some Fieldays finds for farmers

DAIRY SOLUTIONS 108 Homeopathy on the farm 109 Effluent Expo: Managing your farm’s effluent

A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS 100 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

110 112

DIRECTORY PROPERTY 5

DAIRY DIARY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY FONTERRA FARM SOURCE

NZFARMSOURCE.CO.NZ/STORE | 0800 731 266

SEPTEMBER September 19 – An Owl Farm focus day will provide updates on seasonal performance, research on the farm and plans for the farm’s future. For details about the Waikato demonstration farm visit www.owlfarm.nz

farming safety as well as board relationships, robust processes, good decision making and key elements of the operations of a board. The cost of the course for non-members is $1080 including GST. More? and to register visit www.iod.org.nz/rural

September 25 – A Rural Governance Essentials course is being run in Christchurch by the Institute of Directors to provide insight into the benefits a board can bring to agribusiness. It also looks at the fundamental responsibilities of a board and individual directors in a distinctly rural context. The course covers

September 28 – Entries close for the Agri-Women’s Development Trust 2019 Escalator programme which is aimed at leadership and governance. For information about the programme and the information pack, visit www.awdt.org.nz/programmes/escalator/

OCTOBER October 1 – District finals for the 2019 FMG Young Farmer of the Year Contest kick off around the country. Twenty-two district finals are held between October and December, followed by regional finals and then the grand final in July. Up to 300 contestants battle for the top spot each year through a range of practical, theoretical and technical farming challenges. More? visit www. fmgyoungfarmercontest.co.nz

knowledge, as well as developing shared solutions. More? visit www.idfwds2018. com

October 2-6 – The World Dairy Expo in Madison, United States, focuses on the newest dairy technologies and innovations. attracting more than 65,000 visitors from around the world. More? visit www.worlddairyexpo.com

October 20 – Entries open for the 2019 Dairy Industry Awards, including the New Zealand Share Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year. Entries close on November 30. More? and details about how to enter, visit www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz

October 11 – The Lincoln University Dairy Farm’s spring focus day is held on the farm between 10.15am and 1pm. Focus days provide an opportunity to review how the farm has performed and focus on challenges as well as opportunities in the coming months. More? visit www.siddc.org.nz October 15-19 – This year’s IDF World Dairy Summit in South Korea explores emerging issues and key aspects of the dairy industry. The summit offers an interactive platform for participants to exchange cutting-edge technologies and

October 17-19 – The New Zealand Royal A and P Show will be held in Hawke’s Bay, bringing together competitors from around the country. More? and to enter, visit www.showgroundsgb.co.nz

October 23-November 13 – Regional optimisation days are being held on the Dairy Business of the Year winners’ farms throughout New Zealand. The events are aimed at highlighting how award-winning farmers have obtained a resilient and profitable system. Dates/locations: October 23, Taranaki; October 25, Manawatu; October 30, Central Plateau; November 1, Waikato; November 6, Canterbury; November 8, West Coast; November 13, Southland. More? visit www.dboy.co.nz

ONE SOURCE FOR REARING STRONG HEALTHY CALVES. Every input counts towards the end result. From calf rearing gear to calf milk replacer and meal, we have you covered. When you need to ensure the best start for your calves, we are your one source for trusted advice, expert services and great value supplies.

Talk to us today.

NZFARMSOURCE.CO.NZ/STORE

0800 731 266

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Editor’s note

Sheryl in the Nethe rlands with a grand cham pion cow.

SEEING THE FUTURE

ur Waikato reporter Sheryl Brown has seen the future. Nope she doesn’t own a crystal ball or profess to have a third eye, but she has just returned from a trip to the Netherlands and while visiting various dairy farms and research establishments, she says she has had a glimpse of how dairy farming could change in New Zealand. Farmers are facing similar issues all over the world, and Dutch dairy farmers are seeing heightened consumer awareness about how they are faming – from the way products are produced to animal welfare and environmental issues. In the environmental space the farmers are facing farming with phosphate restrictions and Sheryl says farming under limits is changing the way they farm. “There is also a lot of talk also about the Paris Accord and methane limits.” Sheryl will be bringing us more insights on her trip next month. Better breeding is the special report for this month, and we profile changing trends in genetics along with farmers who are doing a great job on breeding their cows and talk about the biosecurity awareness needed for dealing with service bulls. (P52) In a story of inspiring profitability, Kate Robinson looks at the national winning Dairy Business of the Year team at MOBH Dairy in Gore, an equity partnership which achieved 7.9% return on capital and 46.3% operating profit margin on an 81% pasture operation. Read about it on P26 if you want that kind of profitability in your operation. Sign up to the Pasture Summit, held in late November in both North and South Islands to put a renewed focus on pasture-based profitability. Dairy Exporter subscribers can receive a 10% rebate off registration. The producers of Appleby Farm’s ice cream of Nelson decided they wanted diversification and their own ice cream brand in their future – to add value to their A2 milk. Read about their award-winning ice creams – and their innovative flavours like Brown-Eyed girl and Tangled Passion – selling from the coolest venues like their own retro Airstream caravan and the Air NZ international lounge scooping freezer. P33. On another futuristic note, Tim McVeagh covers off the latest innovations at the Fieldays 2018 in this issue’s Farm Gear, P102. The future of Fonterra no longer includes board chairman, John Wilson, who announced this week he is standing down due to health issues. It’s a big complex business and no matter how you feel history will judge his tenure as chair, you have to acknowledge the time and effort he has put into the job. And look out in the October issue for an invitation and official guide to attend the Effluent Expo at Mystery Creek in November. The perfect place to get your shit sorted.

Sneak Peek - Next Issue: • Special report: Hitting the stocking rate sweet spot • The stocking rate that’s right for your farm, the most profitable and environmentally sustainable. • European correspondent: Sheryl Brown will have insights into how farmers in the Netherlands are tackling new phosphate limits and how consumer demands are changing their farming systems. • Crop and forage special: The power of plantain: Coverage of the Plantain Project for N reduction being rolled out on a catchmentwide basis in the Horizons regional council area.

Jackie

NZ Dairy Exporter

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

@YoungDairyED

@DairyExporterNZ

Life after PKE — Optimum milk quality doesn’t have to cost you more. A PKE squeeze is on its way. Initially, PKE was introduced into the dairy food chain to help stock though difficult weather events – droughts leading up to mating and severe cold snaps during calving season. It did a great job. Soon PKE became readily available and reasonably affordable. It wasn’t long before this ‘sometimes’ stock feed became part of the standard fare. Now Synlait is offering a ‘no PKE’ incentive 1. Fonterra’s ‘Fat Evaluation Index (FEI) Grading System’ comes into force from this September 2. (That’s a heads-up on whether milk fat composition from your takings will be suitable for value-add dairy products). Is this too much intervention beyond the farm gate? Or is this a simple case of ‘what goes in, must come out’?

palm kernel debate – high PKE in, results in a different and unpopular product out. To keep up production of high quality milk, PKE feed needs to be cut.

What to do? PKE has been a high-energy, low-cost feed for long enough for us to get comfortable. The impending change may cause concern around money and cow condition. There’s good news! Reducing or indeed eliminating PKE does not need to be painful. Alternate feed stocks do not need to mean financial setback for operating budgets. Feed systems such as Tru-Test Dairy Automation Feed Control can support good supplementary feed management and make good financial sense.

What’s the big deal? Many supplementary feeding systems incorporate PKE and we now see its unintended impact. Scientists can trace a change in our milk quality to PKE. Milk with markedly different fatty acid profiles can be found lining our supermarket shelves. As a base ingredient for processing, milk from high PKE feed is more difficult to work with 3, 4. Basically, no matter what side of the fence you take on the ethical

Find out more at tru-test.com

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Dairy Automation Feed Control Dairy Automation Feed Control is one of Tru-Test’s automation modules. The New Zealand designed system for Rotary sheds has been on the market for over 6 years . Used alongside In-bail ID (Identification), Feed Control is proven to help farmers manage supplementary feeds with an excellent return on investment.

Benefits of Feed Control Tru-Test’s Dairy Automation Feed Control is a versatile and responsive software system. It works alongside third-party in-bail feed hardware and it can control up to four heads for liquid, grain or pellets. This Feed Control system ensures farmers get the best return for each dollar spent on supplementary feed in the shed. It eliminates blanket feeding, reduces overfeeding and skips ‘go around twice’ cows. Farmers are able to dictate feed regimes for individual cows or groups of cows. Feed rules can be based on a number of useful criteria such as condition scores, post-calving or pre-mating status. And rules can be adjusted quickly and easily to respond to a sudden change in cow health or weather conditions. Using the Feed Control module, expensive feeds can be directed to cows which will benefit the most. For example, preference can be given to cows getting light leading up to AB, first calvers, or cows which have had calving issues in the past. Equally, good use of Feed Control can help extend the milking season. Farmers can provide extra feed to high performers towards the end of lactation to maximise their return on investment.

Return on investment The In-bail ID and Feed Control module is designed to ensure you get the best return for each dollar spent on supplementary feed in the shed. You feed only the cows you need to feed for the best production, milk quality and animal health. This system helps prevent wastage of expensive feeds and allows farmers to feed only when there is a tangible return on investment. It’s a smart move and a move toward more sustainable farming. And for farmers using a full sensor solution with walk over weighing, there is a ‘Milk Efficiency Report’ that provides further guidance on cows that convert feed to milk versus cows that covert feed to weight.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

For Geoff Batchelor from Opunake, investing in Tru-Test’s In-bail EID & Feed Control module has allowed him to closely and effectively manage his feed inputs.

“It was always in the back of my mind to be able to feed to production. We’ve always had in-bail feeding but were just doing it blindly and blanket feeding. With the information the Tru-Test system’s gathering on each cow, we’re making more efficient use of our expensive feed along with our grass, whether it’s abundant or tight. We’re also able to better allocate to get the production from the cows putting it in the vat”. If you want an affordable supplementary feed management system for optimal milk production, high quality milk and cows in great condition, talk to Tru-Test Dairy Solutions. Our on-platform controller manages the delivery of supplementary feed for the best possible return on investment. Footnotes 1 Synlait Press Release 28 June 2018 ‘Synlait Commits to a Sustainable Future with Bold Targets’ (Synlait premiums include an annual incentive of $0.08 kgMS for certified dairy farmers who choose to produce milk that is 100% palm kernel expeller (PKE) free.) 2 Fonterra Press Release 2 December 2017, ‘Co-operative confirms final details of new grading system and gives farmers time to adjust’ www.fonterra.com/nz/en/our-stories/media/fat-evaluation-indexgrading-system-to-begin-september-2018.html 3 Noted, 4 April 2017, ‘The true price of palm oil’ Jonathan Underhill https://www.noted.co.nz/money/business/the-true-price-of-palm-oil/ 4 NZ Herald, 2 October, 2010, ‘The fat of the land’, Chris Barton https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article. cfm?cid=1&objectid=10677503

How are you tracking? Let’s talk. 0800 TRUTEST (878 8378)9

NEW ZEALAND

Learn, grow, excel

ONLINE New Zealand Dairy Exporter’s online presence is an added dimension to your magazine. Through digital media, we share a selection of stories and photographs from the magazine. Here we share a selection of just some of what you can enjoy. WINNING HAND Winner of our Dairy Exporter Winter Essentials competition for followers of our Facebook page and their calving or calf rearing tips was Amy Gemmell, pictured with Flynn, 10 and Ronan and Hadley, 7, and the prize pack. For more top tips for calf rearers, see P48.

MEET OUR TEAM:

AVOIDING THE RISKS Check out Jeremy Duckmanton’s tips for ensuring success picking cycling cows. See Dairy Exporter Facebook page.

Connect with us online: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz NZ Dairy Exporter @DairyExporterNZ NZ Dairy Exporter Sign up to our monthly newsletter www.nzfarmlife.co.nz/e-newsletter

Dairy Exporter Editor Jackie Harrigan P: 06 280 3165, M: 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Deputy editor Sheryl Brown, P: 021 239 1633 sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz Lead sub-editor: Andy Maciver, P: 06 280 3166 Reporters Glenys Christian, P: 027 434 7803 glenys.christian@nzx.com Anne Hardie, P: 027 540 3635 verbatim@xtra.co.nz

Jo Hannam Senior Designer

COW TO CONE A pair of Nelson dairy farms are adding value to their milk with prize-winning ice cream that’s set for export. See Dairy Exporter YouTube channel.

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

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

‘My role at NZ Farm Life Media is to design NZ Dairy Exporter and Country-Wide magazines and deliver them to our printer on deadline. ‘I’ve always enjoyed design and graduated from UCOL with a Degree in Design. I started off working for a small Wairarapa newspaper designing advertising, then moved on to working for a local printer, doing everything from designing logos and brochures to printing them. ‘In 2010 I started designing the Dairy Exporter magazine, then my role moved to designing Country-Wide magazine and now I do both. ‘While I don’t have a background in farming I Jo with sons Blake and have learnt Nathan on hoilday in a lot along Christchurch. the way from photoshoping mud off sheep and the difference between Hereford and Friesian cows! ‘When I’m not working, I’m kept on my toes with my four and five-year-old sons, who both have completely different personalities and interests!’

Karen Trebilcock, P: 03 489 8083 ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz Kate Robinson, P: 021 358531 kate.robinson@farmside.co.nz Senior designer: Joanne Hannam Junior designer: Cassandra Cleland Partnerships Managers: Janine Aish Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty P: 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz Tony Leggett Lower North Island P: 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz David Paterson South Island, P: 027 289 2326 david.paterson@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz P: 0800 2AG SUB (224 782) Printing & Distribution: Printers: PMP, New Zealand Distributors: Gordon & Gotch (NZ) ISSN 2230-2697 (Print) ISSN 2230-3057 (Online)

Email: jo.hannam@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

MILKING PLATFORM NORTHLAND

Thank you very much with some empathy

Life’s swings and roundabouts can see people go through hard times. Niall McKenzie learnt the value of empathy as a young man.

hen I was 16 years old I joined our local Young Farmers Club. The year was 1995. We had a lot of fun doing activities. Most of them would be deemed not to be safe anymore and, yes, we all survived. The best thing I liked about this community group was that that we all had work in the elements that make up farming and this brought comradeship by peers. I made true friends for life. They are my preferred family to go to for advice, they are my brothers from another mother. They taught me the importance of empathy as a young adult. That when people are going through hard times you need to take time and see things through their eyes, to try to understand their feelings and emotions – this is empathy. Compassion is taking it to the next step and going a step further to help with the problem and taking action while helping them mentally and physically on their issue. The reason I decided to write about this is we are encouraged now to talk about mental wellbeing and we need to take it a step further. What might be a problem for someone in our rural communities, could well end up becoming the black dog in someone’s

Niall and Delwyn with their nephews, Morgan, Emerson and Elliot.

depression. This requires a touch of optimism. There are positives for showing these traits. Just like giving donations to charity, it makes your world feel a lot more real. It puts things into the right perspective. For example, not getting to your milksolids target of 2.2 per cow at peak doesn’t really matter. We all get tied up in our little worlds, I know I do. We all have had the pendulum of life swinging from positive to negatives. I believe this makes the highs better and we need to celebrate the successes. One of the biggest low points in my farming career was when the Thompsons lost their farms (not their real names), six years ago. This was a slow-moving train wreck – we all could see what was happening and that there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. The Thompsons are awesome. I had only known them for one week and got invited to their wedding. This was in 1996 which unfortunately for them meant they never got rid of me. In saying that, when Delwyn and I were working overseas they visited us twice. They had worked up from 50:50 sharemilking on a small herd to a large sharemilking job and an equity partnership. After that they bought their first farm

We all have had the pendulum of life swinging from positive to negatives. I believe this makes the highs better and we need to celebrate the successes.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

and expanded it to also have a runoff. Along this journey they stayed fantastic and lovely people. Back then they were doing everything the bank said they could do. After a while the bank didn’t support them anymore, which made their life a misery. They became reclusive. A lot of their friends stopped talking to them. I think this happened because they didn’t know what to do and how to help. Now, after time has passed, I think this occurred as they didn’t want to be associated with something so negative in the industry and I wonder if they thought somehow this would bring them and their business down. On a recent visit to the Thompsons, Mrs Thompson opened up about the time they lost their farms. She felt her close friends let her down. I said my thoughts on our generation was that we were pretty useless with compassion and empathy. He husband yelled out “but we couldn’t get rid of that bloody Niall. He was around all the time”. I said that’s because I don’t have filters like everyone else. We all laughed. Thanks very much for true friends. 11

MILKING PLATFORM MANAWATU

Beware the disruptors

James and Chloe Davidson’s family is about to grow.

Synthetic meats are set to disrupt a centuries-old supply chain, James Davidson writes. Farmers can ill afford to sit back and hope to be the caviar of meat products while Silicon Valley takes over.

f you had to make a choice, which would you rather do – give up your car or give up eating meat? Before you say neither, remember that its 2018, you already say no to plastic bags at the check-out because that’s what Beyoncé does and you don’t eat meat on Mondays because Richard Branson said so. You want to make a difference to the environment, but you still want to make it to the movie theatre on time. So the car stays and the meat goes, a simple choice to see the environment better off, or so you think. Like it or not, synthetic meats and plantbased proteins are here to stay, disrupting a supply chain that has worked for centuries. We all know the scenario above is becoming more mainstream as consumer behaviour changes. We’ve always had a choice in what we buy, but we are only just beginning to understand the statement that choice can make. We live in such a connected world, where the ability to get what we want when we want it is a reality. The branding and marketing of real meat products has to change to remain competitive, or we risk becoming a sunset industry. These synthetic meat companies are 12

The leader of the pack in training.

backed by billionaires who know the power of marketing and aren’t afraid to pump in the cash to get their product on popular influencers’ newsfeeds. As farmers we know how good our meat is, but the world produces too much of it for us to sit back and hope to be the caviar of meat products while Silicon Valley moves in and takes over. We only have to look at film company Kodak, who watched the digital camera

overturn 100 years of successful business into bankruptcy. Life on the farm has rolled along nicely since my last article in the autumn. A pretty generous autumn and winter has left the farm well set up for calving, with cows in good condition and plenty of grass about. The Central Plains Water Scheme is nearing completion, with a September 1 start time. It was great to see our milk factory Synlait come out last month with its new lead with pride best practice incentives and with palm kernel hot on the agenda it was logical to see an incentive-based payment for removing it from your business rather than a negative grading system. Our little side project of bottling milk is ticking along nicely, we have leased some land and the mobile milking setup is ready to roll. We are just working on the processing set up and it will be good to go. With 1300 cows to calve down this spring I can see it going on the back burner for a few months over calving which was to be expected. In family news, Angus is very excited to announce that he is going to have a little sister arriving in the middle of mating this year! With an expected due date of November 1 it will put a bit of pressure on us but we love a good challenge. We can’t wait to meet our little girl and hope that the remainder of the pregnancy is a little less eventful.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

MILKING PLATFORM COASTAL TARANAKI

Opportunity in a crisis

The first milk of the new season is going in the vat at equity partner Charlie McCaig’s Opunake farm.

once heard an old saying that New Zealand is a country that consists of three main areas: the North Island, the South Island, and Taranaki. Jokes about banjos aside, sometimes Taranaki’s geographical isolation from the rest of the country is of benefit though, particularly when it comes to biosecurity. Thankfully Taranaki has, so far, been spared from Mycoplasma bovis although there are a still a couple of farms of concern on MPI’s map of properties under legal notices. Another old saying goes “a crisis is an opportunity”. That’s how we’ve been trying to view the problems being caused by the M bovis outbreak – specifically an opportunity to get a handle on biosecurity for our herd and farm. During a long drive to a birthday party at

Castlepoint, we mulled over what we could do to minimise the risk to our business and developed a biosecurity policy. We are in a fortunate position of having a runoff that is attached to the dairy platform so we don’t need to send any animals away for grazing. The only stock we bring on to the farm are breeding bulls and a small number of empty cows for a hold-over herd. Selling the hold-over herd each year provides excellent additional income. They do a great job maintaining pasture quality for us during late spring/early summer, so much so that there would be a cost to the system by not having them. I support MPI in the decision to attempt to eradicate the disease in NZ but I think farmers are going to have a bad taste in their mouths about this for a few years yet and buyers quite rightly should be asking a lot of questions of stock vendors. So, with that in mind and a desire to keep the hold-over herd as a viable part of our business we decided to close our herd. The main change that the new approach to biosecurity policy has brought about is that this year we are going to rear a line of bull calves to use as service bulls. This will put a bit of extra pressure on the calf rearing

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

staff so extra work has gone into setting up the facilities and equipment to be as easy as possible to use. There’s also some extra fencing work to do to make sure there’s an air gap between our stock and our neighbours’ although again we’re quite fortunate to have most of our boundaries as rivers and roads. My heart goes out to farmers having herds culled as a result of M bovis. I can’t imagine anything more depressing than watching your life’s work roll out of the farm gate on a truck to the freezing works. Hopefully all unaffected NZ dairy farmers are trying to see this crisis as an opportunity and are taking the time to work through the same thought process for their own businesses. There does appear to be a bit of a ‘business as usual’ attitude to people buying and selling calves in Taranaki at the moment though and I worry that the cracks in the control system will be the lifestyle blocks that rear a few beefies each year but are very unlikely to even be aware of their NAIT obligations, let alone comply with them. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, calving is just about to begin in Te Kiri. Everyone here is ready to go, our first milk is going in the vat tomorrow morning and after last seasons’ floods, droughts and cyclones, we’ve all got our fingers crossed for a much smoother run this year. 13

MILKING PLATFORM MANAWATU

Landing the dream job Marty Orange has gone back to his old high school, now working with students teaching them about farming.

ix months ago I was lucky enough to land my dream job managing Feilding High School’s two farms. But was I giving up the dream to live the dream? For the previous two years I had been working for the Primary ITO, driving a nice car and visiting farmers all around the lower North Island drinking coffee in nice little country coffee shops (in between working obviously). I wasn’t looking for a new job and anyone who knows me knows I love to talk so selling training was a good fit. And any friends on Snapchat with me will say, it was a good job that I loved. But I missed being on the land, working outside and for some strange reason I really enjoy working with teenagers, both things I have done in a previous life. I grew up a town boy, born in Auckland, but much to my mum’s disgust I went dairy farming at the end of 7th form at Feilding High School. I loved it and had a big 10-year plan of owning my own farm, but plans change. An opportunity with Agriculture New Zealand allowed a change in career and my passions for young 14

people and agricultural training were ignited. I was running a pre-employment course for 16-19-year-olds, most of whom had been kicked out of school and much like me, wanted to be outside and doing something with their hands. So here I am 10 years of marriage and three kids later running a 60-cow dairy unit and an 85-hectare sheep and beef farm. I can hear the scoffs. Sixty cows, how hard can that be? Well to make you choke on your coffee, those 60 cows are milked through a DeLaval VMS Robot! Don’t worry, my mates give me enough grief as it is but it’s not as easy as it might sound. I am well-used to milking cows, but along with those 60 cows we milk on 16 hectares, we have a sheep and beef operation lambing just under 400 ewes a year and areplanning to finish 1000 lambs as well as 300 students studying agriculture that come through the farm. All of this is new to me, and so is the robot. The robot takes a lot of getting used to. In fact, I am still getting my head around the term voluntary milking system. I would come to work and be standing at

the office looking out over the farm and see cows walking down three different races, in three different paddocks and have a heart attack with my brain wanting me to run out and shut whatever gate had been left open. The cows graze in three different areas every day and are free to come and go as they please. Does that make it easier and add to the “dream” job? Well yes and no. I am no longer tied to the cow shed but learning to manage grazing took some time. Not to mention the 24-hour booty calls from my “second wife”. Although the cows effectively milk themselves you are tied to the robot and even my kids now say “oh, what does the robot want now” when an app on my phone lets me know what is happening when I am not around. Getting the grazing right is the biggest thing, if the cows leave a bit much behind I can’t just put them back in there for an hour tomorrow and on the other hand if I give them too much they won’t traffic and the robot sits idle. It’s a fine art, but one I am slowly mastering. The 2017-18 season we finished 22% ahead of production on the previous, so I am looking forward to building on that. Am I living the dream? I don’t really know what “the dream” is. At the moment, I am making it up as I go along and loving every minute.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

NOTEBOOK FARM CHAT

M BOVIS UPDATE To enrol in a weekly M bovis update from MPI. Email: MBovis2017_Liaison@mpi.govt.nz and ask to be sent updates.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPS With the arrival of August, it’s time for farmers to pit their operations against the rest for 2019 Ballance Farm Environment Awards. Entrants are judged on their sustainable profitability, environmental awareness, good business practices, social and community responsibility.

RESEARCH GRANT The National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee has launched the Aotearoa New Zealand Three Rs Awards, including a $50,000 research grant. The grant will provide funding for research specifically targeted at developing ways to replace, reduce, or refine the use of animals in research, testing, and teaching. Applications close October 5. 2018. www.bit.ly/2A7BB73

www.nzfeatrust.org.nz/enter-awards

Julie McDonald (Zanda’s wife), Waikato’s Spring Sheep Milk business manager and 2018 winner Thomas Macdonald, Richard Rains (chairman Zanda McDonald Award).

2019 ZANDA AWARD NOW OPEN The search is on for talented young agrileaders from New Zealand and Australia to apply for the 2019 Zanda McDonald Award. The award is regarded as one of Australasia’s most prestigious badges of honour for young leaders within the primary industry, and comes with a prize package of over $50,000. Entries close on Friday, August 24, 2018. www.pppgroup.org

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INSIGHT

UPFRONT STAFFING

A living wage onfarm The dairy industry is refreshing its Workplace Action Plan to ensure staff are attracted to life on the farm, Bob Edlin reports.

airy industry leaders are seeking feedback on ideas for attracting people to work on dairy farms. Among the ideas is that workers with level three Primary ITO qualifications would get a living wage or better. “We are having discussions about the living wage,” Dairy NZ’s Strategy and Investment Portfolio Manager, Jenny Jago, confirmed to Dairy Exporter. The discussions are part of a review of the dairy industry’s Workplace Action Plan aimed at helping the sector meet Commitment 5 of the Dairy Tomorrow Strategy. This commitment aims “to build great workplaces for New Zealand’s most talented workforce”.

The Workplace Action Plan, introduced in October 2015, “did head off regulation and it was ahead of its time,” Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Chris Lewis said.

‘We are looking at what we can do to make it better, to make it easier for farmers to employ staff and to make it relevant for future employers and employees.’ It had been approved by the previous government and was launched by former Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, Lewis said. But the Government had no

SETTING THE LIVING WAGE The living wage has emerged as a response to the growing poverty and inequality that continues to hold back so many Kiwi workers, their families and our economy. The concept is simple – it’s the hourly wage a worker needs to pay for the necessities of life and participate as an active citizen in the community. It reflects the basic expenses of workers and their families such as food, transport, housing and childcare, and is calculated independently each year by the New Zealand Family Centre Social Policy Unit. The living wage rate is voluntary. For 2018 it has been calculated to be $20.55 an hour, $4.05 more than the minimum wage set by the Government.

input into its content; it was an industry initiative. Federated Farmers is working with DairyNZ on refreshing the plan. “We are looking at what we can do to make it better, to make it easier for farmers to employ staff and to make it relevant for future employers and employees,” Lewis said. The living wage seemed to be widely accepted among many businesses in towns, he said. For farmers to be competitive and employ the best people, they had to market their job opportunities to show how their pay packages compared with what staff could get in town. Housing shortages in the towns gave farm employers an advantage if they could provide a house. “When you factor those things in, while discussing the living wage, a lot of employers are probably exceeding it,” Lewis said. Addressing Federated Farmers Dairy on the ideas being considered, Lewis said the working group set up by DairyNZ had done some basic sums around a living wage for the dairy industry and “is just putting the idea out” for discussion. Among the questions being addressed is to whom a living wage should apply on dairy farms.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

It is being ruled out – say – for an 18-year-old who starts working on a farm. Rather, it should apply to a farm assistant with two years’ service and a level three Primary ITO qualification who works an average 50 hours a week. Including the housing component would make an annual pay package worth about $53,000-$55,000. This introduces the idea of a Total Value Package. “The question is to establish if farmers are happy with these criteria or not,” Lewis said. He is keen to get feedback on whether this idea is on the right track. One regional representative among his audience agreed the concept must be considered in the context of what the industry must do to attract more people. “The living wage raises the bar and sets a higher standard,” he said. “In terms of working towards this bigger picture, it’s probably the way to go.” But workers had to better understand the accommodation side of their working arrangements. Someone paid $50,000 a year wages with a house worth $300 a week was actually on $65,000. Asked if the Government would force the industry’s hand and impose rates through industrial relations legislation, Lewis said Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees Galloway – before the election – had hinted at following the Australian example and having industry award wages introduced here.

Jenny Jago, DairyNZ. 18

FOLLOWING THE RULES

Chris Lewis on his farm.

Federated Farmers encourages employers to take market rents into account when they negotiate wage packages to satisfy IRD rules. An employer would be under-taxing for PAYE purposes if a market value was not put on the rental for a farm house. “So the employer will be paying in the end – trust me,” Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Chris Lewis advises. “They will catch up with you.” Moreover, a new surveillance system will take effect from April 1 next year. Employees would have to be paid every fortnight and the paper work would have to be done to ensure PAYE, too, is paid straight away. Lewis advised employers to adopt an electronic payment system to ensure the automatic payment of wages and PAYE. Paper-based systems would be hard to operate under the new requirements.

The industry could be ahead of its time, depending on how it refreshed the Workplace Action Plan, “or we will be behind the time and get regulated”. Federation president Katie Milne said the industry had to be ambitious in its strategy to attract staff. By paying the living wage, farmers would be leveraging off a brand that had been created in NZ and would show they were “among the elite of businesses”. She saw no point in creating another concept like a competitive wage or a fair wage. “We may as well leverage off the actual brand and raise ourselves to that level to make us attractive to invite all New Zealanders to join our industry,” she said. Lewis agreed, saying most people with two years’ experience and level three Primary ITO qualifications probably would be getting the equivalent of the living wage, anyway. “If we went to it tomorrow, I don’t think too many people in this room would be raising wages,” he said. “If you look at the data from the latest Feds remuneration survey, we are pretty much there already.” But he re-emphasised the need for employers to get market valuations for rent (see sidebar). “If you are getting just $50 a week rent, who are you doing a favour to?” he asked. “When IRD or MBIE do an inspection, it’s you who are going to be paying the fine, not the employee.”

Incorporating the market rent for a farm house at $300 a week, for example, made the difference between a $60,000-a-year package and $45,000 one when trying to attract staff. “And if an employee or potential employee says $300 is too much to pay for the house, they still have the option to work for you but rent a house down the road.” The challenge is about marketing farming jobs as an attractive proposition for many New Zealanders, Lewis later told Dairy Exporter. “We have to look at what we do in a different way and put a value on everything. “A lot of farmers are adopting modern rosters for their workers and concentrating on the hours worked, too. “We need to position ourselves as great employers who pay well and offer good opportunities, whether it is around families and housing, or meat and milk, or – for young people – a career opportunity.” Employees are an important consideration in the review of the Workplace Action Plan. “The Dairy Women’s Network is involved too,” Lewis said. “And we talk with farm staff to find if we are in tune with them as well, through young farmers clubs, migrant community organisations – Filipinos – and so on. “We are determined to make sure it is not a one-side document.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

PASTURE August 2018

501 Chicory makes the new grade with fat-free summer feed

Captain cool season plantain

Here’s another great reason to sow 501 Chicory for your summer feed: it will help prevent Fat Evaluation Index (FEI) penalties. Fonterra’s new FEI Grading System comes into effect from 1 September 2018. The index is designed to rate the suitability of milk fat composition for processing into various products. Research has shown a strong link between amounts of PK E fed and FEI grading. W hen high levels of PK E are fed, milk fat often becomes difficult to process and meet quality requirements for certain products. According to DairyNZ, a good rule-of-thumb is to feed less than 3 kg DM/cow/day to avoid grading penalties. Farmers who have relied on high levels of PK E to get through dry summer conditions in previous years will now need to consider other options. There are several of these, but

(provided the crop is grown well), home grown feed remains the most cost effective, with the added benefit of accelerating your annual pasture renewal programme. If you do decide to grow your own summer feed this season, one of the best options is 501 Chicory which will have no negative effect on FEI grades, and works out at around half the price of PK E. 501 Chicory is a high protein, high energy crop with a deep taproot giving it excellent drought tolerance. It’s better quality summer feed than either PK E or run-out pasture, and you don’t have to feed it out mechanically. It’s also very useful for disrupting insect pest and weed cycles, especially black beetle and yellow bristle grass.

High protein, high energy, fat-free summer feed. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

We’re delighted to announce limited stocks of Captain cool season plantain (CSP) are available for sowing this spring. Captain CSP is the newest pasture cultivar from Barenbrug Agriseeds, and comes after years of breeding, plant selection and rigorous trial work by our New Zealand R&D team. This new plantain was developed with a particular focus on cool season growth, to provide more feed when it is most needed on farm, and to enhance the nitrogen-leaching mitigation capabilities that winter growth brings. Captain CSP is the best yielding commercial plantain in our trials over the cool seasons of autumn, winter and early spring. It is also a top-ranking variety in overall DM yield, boasting excellent summer DM production. To find out more, visit www. agriseeds.co.nz

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WORLD SCENE EU DROUGHT

Crisis scenario for EU dairy Summer 2018 in the northern hemisphere has seen record temperatures and a searing drought in much of Europe. Chris McCullough reports from Northern Ireland.

uropean farmers are suffering one of the worst droughts for decades. With temperatures exceeding 30C and no rain for more than a month, livestock, crops and grass are suffering. Pasture-based dairy farmers are certainly being hit hard as grass growth is limited and silos proving hard to fill with low yields on the silage fields. Alexander Anton, secretary general of the European Dairy Association, says the drought has the making of a ‘crisis scenario’. “The drought in parts of Europe is a problem for the pasture-land based systems in these regions today, but, at an EU level, it will make our lives even more complicated in 2019 when we will see feed supply becoming an issue due to the reduced feed production during this summer. “If you add to this picture further potential turbulences on the world’s protein trade side, you basically have all the ingredients for a crisis scenario,” he said.

The combines are in the fields earlier than normal, but that is not such a good sign considering yields are well below normal and in some cases less than half what they should be. Nordic countries including Sweden, Finland and Norway have experienced high temperatures with crop yields almost disappearing daily. Even further west, the normally lush green fields of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have wilted to brown with water levels so low the governments were forced to ban the use of hose pipes for a few weeks. Lithuania and Latvia declared states of emergency as other countries battled wildfires in forests, grassland and arable crops. Reports of farm machinery going up in smoke during harvest has also been widely reported. Arable crop yields have been hit the hardest with latest estimates suggesting a drop from 6.5% in Germany and Poland ranging to 15-20% in Sweden and Lithuania. Lennart Nilsson, co-chair of the Swedish Farmers Association, said it was the worst

drought he had ever experienced. “This is really serious. Most of south-west Sweden hasn’t had rain since the first days of May. A very early harvest has started but yields seem to be the lowest for 25 years, 50% lower, or more in some cases, and it is causing severe losses.” Farmers in the Netherlands where agriculture is intense are also suffering from weeks of high temperatures destroying crops. Dairy farmer Sicco Hylkema who farms near Westhem in the Friesland province right beside a lake said there was no point in irrigating. “The ground is so hard right now any water we spray on to the grass will simply run off into the dykes. It would be a huge waste of money on diesel to irrigate the lands.” Vegetable farmers in the Netherlands are continuing to irrigate in order to salvage any yield to help pay the bills. “We just cannot let the crops go to waste,” vegetable farmer Thijs Geerse, who runs an organic farm in the Zeewolde region, said. “We are around five metres under sea level here and usually have a moist two-metre deep soil but even that is cracking up right now.” “This is the most severe drought we’ve had in 50 or 60 years,” Niels Lindberg Madsen, head of European Union policy at the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, said.” Yields are very low simply because there has been no rain, generally speaking, for a couple of months.” The European Drought Observatory (EDO) has described the drought as “an extensive and severe anomaly” affecting Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, the Baltics, the Netherlands and northern Germany. A spokeswoman for the EU’s Joint Research Centre, which oversees the EDO, said farmers should prepare to adapt to a warmer climate with “diversification or change of crop types and varieties, but also a more efficient use of water.” Some countries have asked the European Commission for assistance with the drought-related problems. As a response, the commission decided to temporarily exempt eight countries, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal, from an EU environmental requirement aimed at promoting biodiversity, which obliges farmers to leave part of their land fallow. This means farmers in those countries can use this non-producing land to grow food for their livestock until the drought ends.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Helping grow the country 21

INSIGHT

UPFRONT CALF CLUB Words by: Glenys Christian

Calf club online

t’s not too late to get involved in all the fun of calf club this year with registrations for an online competition closing on

August 20. The Mycoplasma bovis outbreak meant Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) advice was that calf clubs shouldn’t be held around the country this year due to the risk of the disease being passed from one animal to another. But a Waikato-based initiative quickly swung into action to make sure that kids – and their calves – didn’t miss out. Joshua Herbes from Real Experience, a digital marketing company, and Te Poi dairy farmer, Michelle Burgess, got together

to work out how competitions could still be held. They made contact through the Facebook group New Zealand Dairy Genetics Michelle had set up, agreeing that many important skills and ethics were taught through participation in calf clubs and this experience shouldn’t be denied to children this year because of M bovis. Michelle knows well how important calf club is. She and her husband Bill, who met at Massey University, own a 100-hectare dairy farm milking 340 high breeding worth Friesian, crossbred, and Jersey cows. Their two children Sophie, 4, and Alex, 2, love helping with the calves, following Michelle’s passion when she was growing up on a dairy farm in Roto-o-rangi.

“Calving and mating were my favourite times of the year and I couldn’t wait to get home to see who’d calved and go and help,” she says. Developing a special rapport with her calf club calves through hours of training and leading saw her receive many first places and champion awards. “So I know how it might feel this year for kids who can’t participate in calf club,” she says. The answer was to provide an online, independent solution so no one would miss out. Josh worked out quickly that he could donate and build a website to get the message out that a competition could still

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

be held without the calves being in the same place at the same time. “Within nine hours of it going live there were 200 names registered,” he says. “The average registration was for two or three names but some were for 20.” Since then he and Michelle, who was thrilled with the response, have been busy meeting with sponsors, building the website content and working out details of judging and prize-giving. Late in July there were more than 400 registrations and a number of schools had expressed their interest in getting involved. All that’s required to register is to go on the website and give an email address then a full registration form will be sent with one for each child wanting to enter a calf. There’s no cost and the calf categories are dairy and beef including dairy-beef animals. For their handlers there’s three classes for pre-school, primary and intermediate and high school age groups. Once registrations close off the processing phase will begin with all entries loaded on to the website. Then the first round of judging online will take place before formal judging, which it’s hoped will take place in the school holidays allowing judges to visit children and calves which make the finals on their home farms. There will be champions named after that in each of the categories with

prizes, ribbons and certificates presented. As well there will be an overall people’s choice award from online voting. There will also be spot prizes of jackets, calf covers and calf feed. “We still have offers coming in,” Josh says. “We’re really thrilled and it’s been very busy trying to keep the lights on as well. But it shows the strength of the rural community.” Plenty of publicity has come their way through television appearances as well as in other media. But Josh is adamant the plan was only ever to be a bridge for the time regular calf clubs aren’t able to be held. He grew up on a dairy farm as a young child, then lived on sheep and beef properties in the lower North Island before attending Waikato University to complete a computer graphic design degree. He then worked as a contractor for 18 months before setting up Real Experience. “Calf club is the calf day,” he says.

“We wouldn’t want to replace it. It all comes down to people and if Mycoplasma bovis continues and there’s a demand next year we’ll do it. We just want calf club to survive.” More? www.realexperience.nz/calf-club-nz

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Farmgate milk prices – NZ farmers doing relatively well

INSIGHT

UPFRONT MARKET VIEW

With New Zealand dairy production geared to exports, farmers here are benefitting from better prices than their contemporaries elsewhere. Susan Kilsby, NZX Head of Dairy Data & Insight reports. ecent movements in farmgate milk prices have been favourable for New Zealand dairy farmers relative to farmers in other major dairy exporting regions. Milk prices in Europe and the United States have been trending down in recent months whereas prices in NZ and Australia are stable to firm. NZ farmers are benefitting from their exposure to global markets. Being exposed

has its advantages when markets are strong but is a disadvantage when the global market for dairy commodities is depressed. Global markets are sitting in neutral territory. Being highly exposed means NZ farmers face more volatility than farmers elsewhere. The milk supply in Europe and the US has steadily grown recent years in response to good returns at the farm level. Now many processors in these markets are

finding they have more milk than they require and therefore the price they are paying has fallen. The dynamics of these massive domestic markets have a greater bearing on the prices European and US farmers are paid, than what happens in the international markets. NZ on the other hand is virtually fully exposed to the international markets as 4.7 million people only consume a tiny portion of the milk produced here.

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The farmgate milk price methodology is based on the price of five commodities.

Australia sits between NZ and Europe in terms of the portion of milk used for domestic purposes. About 40% of milk produced in Australia is exported as dairy commodities. Australia must also move milk internally as only the states of Victoria and Tasmania produce a lot more milk than they consume. In NZ the methodology used by Fonterra to set its farmgate milk price uses the prices dairy commodities sell for on Global Dairy Trade and through other sales channels. Therefore the milk price Fonterra pays its suppliers is fully determined by the international market.

The farmgate milk price methodology is based on the price of five commodities being: whole milk powder (WMP), skim milk powder (SMP), butter milk powder (BMP), anhydrous milkfat (AMF), and butter. Cheese is not included in the milk price methodology, but there have been suggestions that it should be. The price of cheese is relatively low compared with other product streams. Alternative product streams such as WMP, or a combination of SMP and either butter or AMF are performing better. Cheese markets are under pressure as any additional milk produced in Europe and the US is generally directed into cheese production. Processing capacity is more often than not what determines which product is manufactured. Cheese plants are prevalent in Europe and the US with this being the main use of for milk aside from that consumed as liquid. Australia also makes a lot of cheese. Some of this cheese is used domestically and some is exported. The relatively low cheese prices is one reason why Fonterra’s milk price forecast for the 2018-19 season is lower in Australia than in NZ. Fonterra’s opening milk price for its Australian suppliers is AU$5.85/kg milksolid (MS). This equates to about NZ$6.25/kg MS. So a little lower than the $7/kg MS Fonterra initially forecast for its NZ suppliers. The way milk prices are set in Australia is also a lot less regulated than it is in NZ. Farmers who supply Fonterra Australia are not members of the co-operative in the way they are in NZ. In Australia Fonterra acts more in the way a non-co-operative company would. Its milk price is determined by supply and demand factors such as the procurement pressure it faces from competing companies.

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Southern stars

A Southland equity partnership has taken out the 2018 Dairy Business of the Year Award with a 7.9% return on capital, $3.25/kg milksolids cost of production and an operating profit margin of 46.3%. Kate Robinson reports.

BUSINESS DBOY 2018

Henry Jr Pinlac and Arman Buhan with equity manager Jodie Heaps on the Gore MOBH farm. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

KEY FARM FACTS 2016/17 SEASON -- Empty rate 10%.

• Milk Location: Gore, Southland • Equity Partners: Tim Montgomerie, Kevin Hall, Mark Turnwald and Jodie Heaps (manager) • Area: 265.3ha effective

-- CIDRs • Animal health: Teat sealed heifers. Dry cow therapy. • Supplements/Crops: -- Palm kernel 30t, Fodder beet – dairy farm 5ha, run-off 20ha

• Staff: 4 FTEs • Herd: 680 crossbred

-- Molasses 5T via inshed feeders.

• Production: -- 2016/17 330,480kg MS

-- Feed pad.

-- 2017/18 – 315,343 kg MS

• Dairy: 50-bale rotary, ACRs, teat spray

-- 2018/19 Target – 335,000kg MS

• Run-off: 134ha, 8km from dairy farm where herd is wintered and young stock reared

• Average SCC: 207,000 • Breeding: -- 4 weeks AI. Bull duration, cows 7 weeks, heifers 7.5 weeks.

• Lease land: 80ha, 20% of milking platform, adjacent to dairy farm

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

ourteen years ago, Tim Montgomerie and Kevin Hall invested in a dairy farm in Southland. Today, the farm business is a successful equity partnership of four and has won the 2018 Dairy Business of the Year (DBOY) title. MOBH Farm is an equity partnership between founding partners Tim and Kevin, who met when Kevin was managing Tim’s farm in Cambridge before MOBH was established. They were later joined by Tim’s school mate Mark Turnwald, and equity manager, Jodie Heaps. The business milks 680 cows on 265 hectares just out of Gore. MOBH Farm was the overall supreme winner at the DBOY awards evening in New Plymouth in June, as well as taking home two category awards – Best Southland Farm Performance Award and Medium Input Farm with Best Financial Performance. Together, the four partners bring to the business a diverse range of expertise and breadth of skills, combined with the scale to run one of the most successful and profitable dairying operations in the country. Mark is a former banker with great financial management skills and dairying experience. Kevin managed MOBH Farm for 10 years after owning a bread run in Auckland. He brings to the table hands-on farming experience, as well as sound business nous. Ex-freezing worker Jodie is the farm’s manager on the ground in Southland. At 31, he is the youngest of the partners, but has great local knowledge and contacts, coupled with solid farming experience. Tim’s focus is more strategic and analytical, with a passion for turning grass into milk. Tim has been dairy farming for 30 years and today is sharemilking two farms near Cambridge. He says the most satisfying thing about the business is that it has enabled two partners from non-farming backgrounds to realise their dream of farm ownership. “Farm ownership is becoming increasingly difficult to attain,” he says. “An equity partnership structure is a way for younger dairy farmers to get some skin in the game as well as providing a succession plan option for farm owners looking to step back.” MOBH Farm equity manager Jodie Heaps worked for three seasons on the farm for Tim and Kevin before they offered him the opportunity to buy into the business and manage the farm. “At the time, it was an opportunity for me to grow my farming career and equity at the same time,” he says. “Farm ownership is difficult to achieve these days. The equity partnership with MOBH Farm just happened to be the opportunity that came my way, as opposed to contract milking. I have learnt from all the partners in some way or other over the years.” 27

SEE SUCCESS IN CIDR TREATMENTS With calving now in full swing it’s time to start thinking ahead to mating. Planning ahead is essential for a successful mating period so we need to start preparing now.

and other factors that impact fertility. However, those changes need to be made well in advance of mating start date, and some of those factors are difficult to control every year.

One way to tighten calving patterns and get more days in milk is to treat non-cyclers with a CIDR® programme. Treating these cows early provides the best return on investment compared to waiting for them to start cycling on their own, often many weeks later. By tail painting your herd 35 days before mating and recording heats, you can have a very good idea of the number of non-cycling cows in your herd before mating starts. A large scale Waikato trial of reproductive treatments for anoestrus cows has proven the economics of using CIDR® Cattle Inserts to improve herd reproductive performance at the start of the mating period. The trial involved 2,222 non-cycling cows in the Waikato, from 12 herds averaging 510 head that were due to begin mating in early October. Non-cyclers treated with a CIDR® program had significantly higher first service conception rates than untreated non-cyclers and non-cyclers treated with the OvSynch program. CIDR® treatment of non-cyclers has a positive return on investment, and the nett profit increases with higher milk price payouts.

When you need to treat non-cyclers, evidence shows that CIDR® treatment of non-cyclers before the planned start of mating is the most cost effective option. CIDR® treatment buys you 10-16 days extra milk for next season, improves calving spread and is cost effective even in a low pay-out year. Talk to your vet early about planning your repro programme for this season. For more information download the CIDR® Return on Investment Calculator from the App Store or Google Play to see what this means for your farm.

This is mainly because a CIDR® program advances the conception date of non-cyclers by 10-16 days, meaning they calve earlier next season, delivering a benefit between $80-$128/cow before treatment and feed costs. Non-cyclers are best prevented by proactive management of body condition, feed, calving spread

28 New Zealand Limited. Tel: 0800 ZOETIS (963 847). CIDR is a registered trademark of InterAg. ACVM No. A4559. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018 Zoetis

Importance of good governance As the partnership has grown, Mark Turnwald says the need for governance has become even more important. “Recording, monitoring and decision making needs to be robust and documented,” he says. “We have an annual shareholders’ meeting in March each year to review and update our policy documents. “We look at the season ending and come up with a physical plan for the season ahead, which includes target production, staffing, breeding, fertiliser, cropping, and any capital spending required onfarm. Our financial budget then supports that plan. “Even though Jodie runs the business day to day, we’ve got pretty tight guidelines around spending. It’s not about controlling Jodie, but rather ensuring we have the right processes in place for any decision making and ensuring it’s evidence based.” MOBH Farm uses Figured and Xero software for budgeting, forecasting and tracking livestock, cropping and production. This enables Mark to keep all the equity partners up-todate, including the farm’s bank manager and accountant in Hamilton. The partnership also has a documented exit strategy to protect the business and its investors. “The structure of our business enables us to change our shareholding at any stage,” Mark says. “If a partner wanted to sell his share in the business we have a 1, 2, 3 process set up with the shares first being offered to the other shareholders on a prorata basis.”

DBOY 2018 KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS – MOBH FARM • Milk production

486 kg MS/cow

• KgMS per ha

1247MS/ha

• Return on Capital

7.9%

• Operating Profit Margin

46.3%

• Operating Profit per ha

$4,050

• Cost of Production per kg MS

$3.25

• Operating Expenses per kgMS

$3.77

• Pasture Harvested

12.30t DM/ha

• Pasture as % of feed

81.8%

• Core per cow costs

$746

• Labour efficiency

175 cows/FTE

• Environmental Score

10/15

• HR score

7.6/15

Learning from the competition DBOY provides farmers the opportunity to undertake a high-level analysis of the KPIs within their business that drive profitability, resilience and sustainability, while benchmarking themselves against counterparts. This year’s DBOY analysis was based on farm data from the 2016-17 season. MOBH Farm produced 1247kg milksolids (MS)/ha with cost of production at $3.25/kg MS. The payout for Fonterra suppliers at that time was $6.12/kg MS compared to $3.90/kg MS the previous season. The judges said the farm’s focus on cost control was evident in its below-average core cost per cow of $746, with core pasture cost of $231/tonne of drymatter (DM) even better

‘An equity partnership structure is a way for younger dairy farmers to get some skin in the game as well as providing a succession plan option for farm owners looking to step back.’

than the top 10% in Southland. They said this meant MOBH Farm was maintaining its cows and pasture without excessive expense, which was driving profitability. They also said this low cost of production coupled with a high operating profit margin of 46.3% meant the farm business is low risk. The judges said this enables good profitability across a range of payouts and provides a buffer for unusual climatic conditions, enhancing resilience. Kevin says that like most farming business, MOBH Farm was jolted by the payout slump and they had to be ruthless about cutting costs. “We looked at the whole business to find areas where we could save money, such as fertiliser, where we did soil testing and more strategic placement. We did four weeks of AI instead of five and deferred $30K of race maintenance. “We sacrificed expenses, but not at the cost of production. Everyone was on the same playing field, but our production was there.

Mixing of skills and talents: Dairy farmer Tim Montgomerie and former banker Mark Turnwald are equity partners in the winning Dairy Business of the Year farm, along with bread-run owner turned dairy farmer Kevin Hall and ex-freezing-worker turned equity manager on the Gore farm, Jodie Heaps.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

“Through those tough times you have to have confidence in what you’re doing, focus on your costs and not let your farm working expenses get out of hand. “Our focus on cost control has continued and we have been able to maintain that discipline through subsequent seasons, which is why our results have been so good.”

Jodie Heaps and the C-DAX tow behind – measuring the grass each week helps in their aim to focus on growing and harvesting as much pasture as possible.

Highest ROC and biological efficiency MOBH Farm’s return on capital (ROC) was 7.9% – the highest of the DBOY finalists by 1.4%. ROC is the single biggest measure of business performance. DBOY judges said this result was excellent primarily as a result of tight cost control extracting maximum profit from a reasonable income per hectare. Tim says when people talk about ROC in dairying they often don’t recognise the value of land. “As land has become more expensive, it’s eroded that percentage return on capital,” he says. “ROC drives your inherent decision and desire to retain your investment, but for us it’s not just about the 7.9%. We’re happy with what we’re doing, we’re good at it and it’s yielding a return we’re comfortable with.” Despite performing well in most areas, MOBH Farm’s equity position is comparatively low compared to the Southland average. The judges said this indicates a lack of solvency and vulnerability to fluctuations in land price, milk payout, interest rates and farm performance. “We’ll definitely be looking at improving our equity position in the business and repaying as much debt as we can so we can make the most of any future opportunities that arise,” Tim says. MOBH Farm’s milk production per cow was the highest of all the DBOY finalists at 486kg MS. The judges said this figure is very high especially given there weren’t any concentrates used. They said this makes the biological efficiency of MOBH Farm high and helps mitigate its environmental impact. “When we started in Southland, we learnt pretty quickly that per cow production was more important than in the Waikato because of wintering costs,” Tim says. “You’ve got that fixed cost of carrying your cows that you haven’t got in other dairying regions. “Per cow production shouldn’t be 30

underestimated given the system we operate. However, we don’t strive for it per se. We look at the total production we’re targeting and make sure we have enough cows to achieve that production. We’ve also made improvements in our breeding going from a Holstein herd to crossbred.”

Days-in-milk correlation Tim says there is a strong correlation between days in milk and the bottom line. “Our herd lactation is longer than the Southland average. We work hard to support the start and end of the season to get a few more days in milk and that’s where that extra production per cow comes from. She’s not making much money if she isn’t going through that shed.” MOBH Farm has always been focused on growing and harvesting as much pasture as possible. In 2016/17, pasture made up almost 82% of total feed, with 12.3t DM/ ha harvested. “Growing pasture is all about getting your residuals and fertiliser right and we pride ourselves on attention to detail in this area,” Tim says. “Being flexible at

management level day-to-day is crucial. Jodie is skilled at reading the situation and changing his paddock choice or break size depending on the weather.” Jodie and his team use a C-Dax towbehind to measure pasture growth and residuals each week. It takes about two hours to complete the whole farm, which is set up so that all the back gates have bungies they can drive straight under. “Our pasture harvested is pretty respectable for Southland, but there is definitely scope to grow and harvest more,” Tim says. “Essentially it’s free as we own the land – it’s an overhead that is fixed. That’s why the correlation between pasture harvested and profitability is so close.” MOBH Farm also grows fodder beet on the dairy farm to use as a transitional tool. Tim acknowledges it is a relatively risky crop for dairy cows in terms of toxicity. “We reduce that risk by using it at the end of the season to transition our herd and retain a portion of it for our springer cows on their return. “Our philosophy is to feed the most of your cheapest feed first, which is nitrogengrown pasture. It’s important to know the unit cost of every feed type so you can make informed decisions.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

MITIGATING M BOVIS MOBH Farm bought its 134ha run-off block about four years ago and it is proving to be a valuable asset, especially when it comes to mitigating the threat of Mycoplasma bovis. “With our run-off only 8km from the dairy farm, we are completely self-contained,” Tim says. “We grow winter crops like fodder beet, and cows are wintered there in mobs of 100. We also use it for rearing all our young stock. “While with M bovis it’s turned out to be a huge biosecurity advantage, it has always enabled us to insulate ourselves from variances in feed costs, wintering costs, and grazing quality variability. We also have the option of bringing supplement back to the dairy platform. “Having our own run-off gives us flexibility too, such as in 2016/17 when we decided to bring all our replacements back to the dairy farm to save topping and help with pasture control.” MOBH Farm also leases an adjacent 80ha block of land, which accounts for 30% of its milking platform. Tim says the cost of leasing the land is less than the cost of land they own. “The lease block certainly enhances our financial performance because we generate a stronger cashflow from it. Our unit cost of feed in cents per kilogram of drymatter is a lot less than our own farm.” Jodie leads a team of three staff onfarm and says staff retention on MOBH Farm has always been good.

“We’re lucky because of our location on State Highway 1 about five minutes from Gore,” he says. “We were running a 12-2 roster, but feedback from our team saw us move to 7:1 and 4:2 roster. We also have to remember that we’re competing with other industries for staff, so we need to make it as attractive as possible for young people coming in to dairying. “Our set-up enables us to offer our staff opportunities to progress and we encourage that as much as we can. We also don’t mind them leaving if they’re progressing. But if they’re leaving to go to the same role on another farm then we have to ask ourselves some tough questions.” When it comes to the environment, MOBH Farm had all its waterways fenced by 2009. The partners were also proud to have the farm’s 10year consent renewed by Environment Southland recently. The terms of the consent include increasing the farm’s effluent application area to target more appropriate soil types. This was the third time MOBH Farm has entered the DBOY competition. Tim says the benchmarking has been invaluable and they now have a comprehensive set of data that can be analysed and modelled to make sure they are hitting the “sweet spot”. “Retrospectively, having won this award, we can’t be too far from that sweet spot,” he says. “However, we will still be reviewing our system, looking at opportunities, and fine tuning and consolidating our operation.”

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Andrew Gray at Appleby Farms’ facility where the cow-to-cone story is depicted through images.

BUSINESS BRANDING

From cow to cone A pair of Nelson dairy farms are adding value to their milk with prize-winning ice cream that’s set for export. Anne Hardie reports.

ost dairy farmers put their milk in the vat and the most exciting product they hear about is infant milk powder, but for a couple of Nelson dairy farmers, the outcome for their milk is dense ice cream with flavours such as Brown-Eyed Girl and Tangled

Passion. Nelsonians got to taste Appleby Farms’ ice cream this past summer before it was launched nationwide and as a first timer in the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards it literally scooped the premium vanilla category and earned itself a gold medal. At the heart of the fledgling business are two Nelson dairy farms producing fresh A2 protein milk that is then processed in a facility designed with the capability to export product next year. It’s about adding value to their product in an innovative way and using their cow-to-cone story to set them apart from the rest. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

‘Setting up our own brands is a way of telling our story better and not getting lost in a commodity product.’ 33

Julian and Cathy Raine’s farm on the edge of the expanding suburbia that runs between Nelson and Richmond have already been adding value to their milk through their brand Oakland’s Milk which sells fresh pasteurised milk through vending machines, home deliveries, cafes, a few outlets and a couple of boutique cheese makers. That was followed by Aunt Jean’s Dairy which is their supermarket brand to sell the milk in glass bottles outside the Nelson region. Now they’ve become part of Appleby Farms as another means of telling their story and adding value to their milk. A few kilometres away on the Waimea Plains in an area known as Appleby, Murray and Sarah King’s 54 hectare farm is surrounded by apples, vineyards and market gardens. It’s valuable land – some of the best in the region – and expanding the dairy operation here is not an option. These days, the farm makes up 10% of their dairy operation, with the bulk of their cows farmed in Canterbury. But Nelson is home base, has that critical ingredient, sunshine, their kids are fourth generation on the farm and it’s close to the airport for when Murray puts on his other hat as chairman of Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC). Venturing into a product such as ice cream is a way to generate better returns from their milk and enable them to continue dairy farming at Appleby into the future. The Raines and Kings began tossing ideas around a few years ago to come up with a way to add value to their milk instead of being totally reliant on commodity pricing. Then a food technologist they both worked with, Kristy Giles, suggested ice cream. Eight years with Tip Top ice cream production gave Kristy the hands-on experience to turn their milk into ice

cream and with the help of a local management consultant, Andrew (Rew) Gray, a business was born that included all four parties. Images on the processing facility at Stoke tells the story behind the Appleby brand; grass growing, cows grazing and the character Bedford farm truck taking the milk to the state-of-the-art facility to produce premium ice cream. “I think we’re the only ice cream manufacturer in New Zealand that can truly put hand on heart and say we grow the grass, nurture our herds, take our own milk to our own factory and convert it with our own recipes to our own ice cream. We call that ice cream with integrity,” Rew says.

“Consumers want to know where their food is coming from these days which is why the pasture to plate movement around the world is pretty huge these days.” Pasture to plate – or cows to cone as the Appleby team call it – is based on the idea that food is best when fresh and encourages people to swap over-processed, modified foods for local, natural produce that has nutritional, economic and environmental benefits. Appleby Farms’ ice cream is aimed at the niche premium market and that’s a growth area, expanding at about 10% a year, Rew says. Growth also means increasing competition and Rew says it’s necessary to push their product hard in terms of promotion.

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Murray King’s A2 herd at Appleby is part of the cow-tocone story.

Because it’s a premium ice cream chosen for special occasions and a bit of indulgence – $11.95 for 850ml – they’ve put a bit of fun into the flavours as well because they decided the names should sound as delicious as the ice cream. Besides their Bedford Vanilla Bean, they have Brown-Eyed Girl, Doubleshot Ipanema, Bad Boys and Berries and Tangled Passion. Boysenberries are sourced locally – from the Waimea Plains, the same as the milk – while the chocolate brownies in Brown-Eyed Girl are manufactured in Nelson and coffee beans come from the local supplier of Ipanema Brazil beans. At the ice cream awards in May where their vanilla was named the best in NZ, four of their flavours were awarded medals. They introduced their ice cream to Nelsonians over summer, scooping it into cones from their silver retro Airstream caravan beside the beach and numerous events such as the one-day cricket international game, fairs, half marathons – you name it and the caravan was there. “I’ve done a lot of supermarket tastings

myself and what consumers love to hear is that you’re involved right back at the grass roots. They love the cow-to-cone integrity.” Then AirNZ put a scooping freezer in its premium international lounge, followed by the domestic lounge, plus an article in its Kia Ora in-flight magazine, which gave them a captive market sitting in a seat for a period of time to see their brand and learn about their ice cream. Rew acknowledges that was a pretty handy promotion for a new business fresh out of the blocks. It’s the only A2 ice cream available in NZ which adds another dimension for marketing their brand, with both herds solely A2 cows now. Raines selected for A2 genetics years ago because, Julian says, it made common sense to produce milk that could be drunk by more people and it’s proved worthwhile with their fresh milk sales. “People have been able to drink milk again since drinking our milk. They’ve come back to milk again which I think is wonderful.” Branding, adding value and working closely with customers is nothing new for the Raines; they grow kiwifruit which is sold through NZ’s biggest consumer food brand, Zespri, that has become a global leader of the fruit. They also grow

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

apples which are marketed through three different exporters, depending on variety and including their joint venture with Freshco. Every single export apple has to meet customers’ expectations for taste and visual appeal and if not, well it’s not exported. Boysenberries grown on the Waimea Plains are sold through a co-operative and their hops are sold through New Zealand Hops to craft breweries in the main that seek them for their range of aromas and sprayfree production. The tiny NZ hop industry decided a decade ago to transform its crop from a commodity product to higher-value varieties for the craft beer market. Adding value to their milk seems like a natural progression for the Raines. “Setting up our own brands is a way of telling our story better and not getting lost in a commodity product,” he says. “We’ve been on the same piece of land for 175 years and we think what we’re practising and what our forebears practised is pretty sustainable and will be for future generations. “Each brand has a story and it allows us to tell a story. There has been a series of Aunt Jeans in the family for a number of generations so it has history and family values. With Appleby Farms, we all identify with Appleby here. It is uniquely Nelson A premium product with a price to match.

BUSTING CALF FEEDING MYTHS Dr. Bas Schouten is regarded as one of New Zealand’s leading calf-rearing specialists, so his considered opinion carries immense weight within the calf rearing community. He clears up some of the myths about calf feeding: MYTH: Bucket feeding calves causes lower growth rate, diarrhoea and affects digestion of milk. FACT:

Over the last 50 years, worldwide research has not proven any difference to growth, digestion or diarrhoea between bucket and teat feeding systems. (Source: Davis & Drackley)

MYTH: The amount of saliva a calf produces is due to the teats used on the calf feeder. FACT:

MYTH: Nutritional scours are caused by teat quality on the calf feeder. FACT:

MYTH: There are differences in calves reared with fast feeding and slower feeding teats. FACT:

There is no credible, independent clinical trial data to support the indication of any differences between fast and slow teat feeding.

MYTH: The speed calves feed at causes nutritional scours. FACT:

Nutritional scours are caused by low immunity, feeding cold milk, contaminated milk, environmental factors and over-feeding. (Source: Roy, Davis & Drackley)

The amount of saliva is influenced by physiological factors, such as seeing the milk feeder and the calf-rearer, as well as the smell of the milk.

Nutritional scours arise because of an overflow of undigested casein proteins from the calf’s abomasum into the small intestine, not the digestion of lactose in the milk. Digestion of lactose occurs naturally in the calf’s small intestine. (Source: Woodford et al; Tomkins & Jaster 1991)

MYTH: The presence and volume of Ecoli in a calf’s small intestine is enhanced by raw, undigested milk entering the small intestine too quickly. FACT:

Ecoli is a bacteria caused by environmental (faecal) contamination and is not related to the type of calf teat used.

Peach Teats are just like the real thing. At Skellerup, we take our responsibility to our customers very seriously. We have done for over 100 years. We know how connected you are to your calves during the rearing process. So when we recommend Skellerup Peach Teats, you can trust that we stand by our products 100% and that they’re perfectly fit for the purpose intended. You have our word.

Find out more at skellerup.co.nz/peachteats 36

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Appleby Farms served up scoops of icecream through summer from its retro airstream caravan.

and it’s about our sense of place and who we are and why we stay here. It’s a place that all the shareholders are passionate about, so keeping the region in the brand was important. We don’t want to get to a certain size and shift to Auckland or Canterbury; we want to stay here.” Oakland’s Milk and now Appleby Farms has brought them into close contact with their customers, either through the dairy where hundreds of people – teachers, parents and kids – have watched the cows milked and asked questions. Customers learn about dairy farming and the business can respond to their feedback. Their customers didn’t want palm kernel used for their milk, so the farm no longer uses it. After media reports on Mycoplasma bovis, Julian had about 50 phone calls from people who didn’t understand the disease and wanted reassurance about the milk they were drinking. “It gave us an opportunity to talk about what we do. For instance, we rear our calves because we’re fortunate that we have enough land that we can rear them all. People have lost that inter-relationship with farmers and that’s what we’re trying to bring back. “We need to get established in the New Zealand market first and get our systems sorted, but we think we’ve got something pretty special and our eyes are firmly on the export market.” Out on the plains, about half of the milk from Kings’ A2 herd is now processed into ice cream which means winter milking has returned to the farm. Ten years ago they were split calving and winter milking for town milk supply and now they’re milking 60 cows through winter. Fortunately,

Nelson has a kind winter climate and Murray says it’s actually easier to produce pasture in winter than in summer when they face irrigation restrictions. Water shortage has long been a focus for production on the plains and Murray chairs Waimea Irrigators which has pushed for a large-scale community dam to sustain existing production, let alone grow it. At the same time it is aimed at enhancing urban water reliability and improving environmental wellbeing. To achieve their side of the funding equation, the Kings and numerous other landowners oversubscribed when they bought shares in the company, because without a dam, there just isn’t going to be enough water. Ironically, Murray says an irrigation dam will likely lift land prices on the plains beyond economic dairying as that land becomes even more sought-after for higher-value horticulture crops. That’s just another reason for adding value to their milk. Processing their own milk means considerably more regulations and recording, with more emphasis on what the customer wants, such as no palm kernel in the diet and a more diverse pasture for quality milk including chicory and plantain. Establishing an A2 herd ticks another box for customers and was easily achieved due to whole herd DNA parentage testing. “The average dairy farmer forgets how easy it is to put the milk into the silo and forget it. You’re so far removed from the market that you don’t really understand

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

the market. Which is a mistake. “There’s a lot more regulations and you have to be more thorough when you’re closer to the end consumer. You have to be authentic and walk the walk (such as sustainability). It’s all about being authentic.” To back the company’s commitment to sustainability, it is in the process of setting up a charitable trust where it will contribute 10% of its annual profits that will be distributed by a board of independent directors to various sustainability projects. Between marketing its local story, having a good product and proving they are authentic, the company aims to create another iconic brand, up there with others produced in the region such as Pics Peanut Butter and New Zealand King Salmon. “We are effectively the food and beverage capital of New Zealand,” Murray says. “You can leverage off the success of others, particularly in the domestic market.” So far, the processing facility has 10 staff working a single shift and because the plant was built with the capacity to export, Rew says it is just idling. But not for long, with plans to begin exporting early next year and markets yet to be decided. China may be one destination as it is the biggest consumer of ice cream due to its population and the speed it has westernised. Whereas here in NZ we eat the most per capita of the creamy milk product, which makes it a good home base for making ice cream.

Check out: Cow to cone video on our Dairy Exporter Facebook page.

Nudge theory in action at the Fieldays – making it easy for punters to make good choices.

BUSINESS BEHAVIOUR CHANGE Words by: Jackie Harrigan

Give it a nudge hile it’s a common saying in Kiwi-land, ‘giving something a nudge’ is a recognised tactic by regulators and policy-makers to encourage desired behaviour or a change in behaviour. A nudge makes it easier for people to make a different choice, without reducing their options or impacting them financially. A bit like the nudge parents give their children, encouraging healthy eating by having fruit out on the bench, but the biscuits in a high cupboard. The key things about nudges is they are small, subtle, easy and cheap, University of Waikato Graeme Doole said at the South Island Dairy Event. He thinks they could be used to good effect in the dairy industry. Economists divide decisions into fast and slow categories, Doole says. Slow decisions are the ones we really think about, often involving more expensive and important items – like buying a new tractor or type of supplement. Too many slow decisions and it’s easy to get overloaded. Fast decisions are more automatic and instinctive, drawing from experience and things in the vicinity. Nudges can work well here. “By small changes to the context of the decision, people can be nudged to make choices that are more favourable for themselves or others,” Doole says. Like providing a recycling bin closer to the farm dairy or tractor shed than the rubbish bin – making it easier for farm

staff to recycle rather than bin recyclable plastics. Or providing a tool shadow board with outlined tool shapes – closer than the bench where they might be dumped – making it easier for staff to hang tools in the correct place than dump them. So what kind of nudges could work in the dairy sector to encourage behaviour change? Doole asks. • Providing user-friendly information: fact sheets, websites, publications (like this one). • Persuading farmers to change to appeal to better financial outcomes – demonstrating lowered stocking rate could mean less supplement bought in and higher profitability. Or persuading a behaviour from an emotional stance – stream fencing improves water quality, better for kai gathering and summer swimming in waterways. • Adaptation or establishment of social norms – is a new social norm being established around treatment of cows, one that will see more staff, neighbours or bystanders challenge bad treatment of stock without feed, shelter or those being maltreated? • Providing benchmarks and comparing performance among peers, like the Dairy Business of the Year optimisation days, helping to inform and stimulate positive change. • Changing default choices so that people must make an effort to opt out can lead to behaviour change – it’s easier to go along with the simple reset choice than opt out.

OTHER NUDGE STRATEGIES BRAINSTORMED AT THE SIDE CONFERENCE INCLUDED: • highlighting positive news stories, • using social media to highlight normal practice on farm, • development of farm certification programmes that denote farms using good practice • public display of farm certification, where appropriate • smaller, more-focused local farmer groups to help motivate action and broaden information about options – like Catchment care groups • informal competitions that stimulate higher adoption of good practice options – maybe within farm or corporate-farm teams. • Onfarm, opportunities to nudge staff into good behaviour are huge: • use of apps that make it easy for staff to meet health and safety requirements, eg: reporting hazards • placement of rubbish/recycling bins • use of technology to measure more metrics, eg: a tow-behind pasture meter, makes it easier and encourages staff to do it more regularly. • hanging the quad bike helmet with the keys, or on the handlebars – making the wearing decision easy.

FANCY A NUDGE ON YOUR FARM? What are some nudges that work on your farm? How do you encourage a change of behaviour? How do you embed it so that the changes are habit forming? Post your favourite nudges on our Dairy Exporter Facebook page.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

BUSINESS MAORI AGRICULTURE

Collective below the mountain The farms of Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation sprawl over 40,000 hectares near Ohakune. Tim Fulton reports on how it operates its enterprises for the benefit of its 9000 shareholders with care for the land.

eartbeat and credibility is the key to successful Maori farming, sector leader Mavis Mullins says. The chair of the 42,000-hectare Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation (AWHI) was asked ‘What is Maori farming?’. The operation Mullins governs was created early in the 20th century to keep Maori farm interests under collective ownership. As chair, Mullins has oversight of “100,000 acres (40,000ha) of beautiful breeding and finishing land classes.” Up to 10,000ha of that land between Whanganui and Tongariro national parks is closed to development under a type of covenant or kawenata with Nga Whenue Rahui, comparable to QE2 Trust agreements. The entire property sprawls from Ohakune towards Whanganui, running sheep, beef and dairy while growing pine trees and producing honey. Atihau-Whanganui is a corporate but also an iwi, hapu and whanau enterprise, Mullins says. “You’ve got to be a corporate but if you haven’t got a heartbeat you’re buggered.” The incorporation runs 650 dairy cows on 400ha at Ohakune, where it has just replaced a contract milker with a

farm manager and four junior milkers. All the cows and heifers are grazed off on an adjacent finishing farm. Chief executive Andrew Betjeman says as a corporate farm it has the sort of environmental focus you’d expect from a dairy unit, like water testing on a stream through the property. The milking platform is a “business-asusual dairy farm”.

‘You’ve got to be a corporate but if you haven’t got a heartbeat you’re buggered.’ Away from home the incorporation has a dairy investment at Flock House, near Bulls, in Manawatu. AgResearch sold Flock House farm to Nga Waiariki-Ngati Apa for an undisclosed sum in 2014. The farm was bought by Te Runanga o Ngati Apa in partnership with Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation and Waitatapia Station, owned by Hew and Roger Dalrymple who live next door. The farm milks about 1000 cows and supplies Open Country. Betjeman gives a firm ‘no’ to the idea of more dairy farming within the

incorporation’s boundaries, though Mullins is prepared to toy with the idea. There are some gentle micro-climates up the Whanganui River, she says, before adding “we’re still investigating what that land best leans itself toward”. The entire Atihau-Whanganui business employs about 45 staff, operating under a one-farm policy for breeding, finishing and dairy. Mullins, the chair of Taratahi agricultural training centre, says staffing is always based on best person for the job but the incorporation does “bear a responsibility to see how we can fill capability within our own community,” she says. To look after whakapapa, the beef business trains newcomers onfarm. Atihau-Whanganui leases out 9500ha and increasingly talks about “corridors of conservation” between its developed farms, creating habitat for kiwi and other birds. The biodiversity drive includes fencing to keep livestock out of sensitive areas. Mullins says it is about questioning the best land use for all parts of the property. “I like to say, look at what the land is telling us.” Mullins says land intensification, supported by science and a drive for capital gain, does not always fit a Maori worldview. The incorporation has about 9000 shareholders and turnover of about $20 million a year. Last year it reported a surplus of about $2.4m before depreciation, of which about $360,000 was donated to the Te Ati Hau Trust. A further $650,000 was distributed through dividends and the remainder re-invested into the farms.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Attracting quality staff Increasing the awareness of school leavers to dairying as a career is part of the Find a Farmer programme for DairyNZ consulting officers, Bay of Plenty consulting officer Jordyn Crouch writes. hose in the dairy sector can see the range of opportunities there are for motivated young people to progress quickly, get paid well, gain skills and training while working, and live an awesome lifestyle. But is this enough for school leavers weighing up career options? DairyNZ is engaging with primary and secondary schools to increase the awareness and understanding of dairy farming and promote dairy as a rewarding career path. Last year, we interacted with 187 secondary schools and helped 8700 children visit a farm through the Find a Farmer programme. We connect with school students and teachers through career expos, scholarship programmes, and

field days, to name a few. I recently had the opportunity to interact with Year 10, 11 and 12 students. They were challenged to come up with innovative solutions using drones, nanotechnology, satellites, and microchips to keep cows cool. Some of the dairy sector’s best and brightest are profiled on DairyNZ’s new careers website godairy.co.nz. The website features the different pathways within the dairy sector and provides case studies on people in dairy farming, agri business and agri science, providing advice to others who may be suited to a career in dairy. Bulls dairy farmer Stuart Taylor believes offering flexible roles is the key not only to attract talented young people to a career onfarm, but also retain them.

BUSINESS CO DIARY

“We have to offer them what other industries can’t,” Stu says. He believes offering flexible working conditions, training opportunities, and a great culture where staff are valued, coupled with fair pay, goes a long way in attracting, and retaining, the right people. This approach has worked well with his own team of 30 employees. For example, one of his employees works part-time every week he has his children, and full-time when he doesn’t. A part-time employee is rostered on to make up the difference in hours. He finds paying an hourly-wage rather than salary also makes a difference. “It allows employers to be flexible with how they employ people.” For more information on recruiting quality staff, or how to a better employer, visit dairynz.co.nz/people/employer

Lincoln University

FARM MANUALS Lincoln University is New Zealand’s specialist land-based University. Lincoln draws its students from throughout New Zealand and over 60 countries around the world.

For more information: see us at Mystery Creek or visit aginfo.lincoln.ac.nz

Since the 1960s, the Farm Technical and Financial Manuals have been assisting University students, farmers, agribusiness firms and consultants to make informed, confident decisions.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

LIN2438 MAR 2018

The Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce aims to be the leading provider of agribusiness education and research in Australasia.

SYSTEMS SUSTAINABILITY

Designing future farms An initiative at Lincoln University focuses on a rethink of agricultural systems. Anne Lee reports.

incoln University is embarking on a large-scale, multi-faceted initiative likely to rattle the cages of conventional agricultural

thinking. Designing Future Productive Landscapes is the initiative through the Lincoln University Research Centre of Excellence which is set to challenge the way we view New Zealand’s farming systems, the landscapes they sit in and their interconnections with water and the ecosystem as well as animal and human health. Lincoln professor of livestock production, Pablo Gregorini, is leading the initiative that’s looking at how NZ landscapes – with a strong emphasis on future agro-ecosystems – can be redesigned so they are more sustainably integral and regenerative, more inter-connected, more bio-diverse and more resilient. 42

“Society is looking at agriculture with a critical eye – governments, scientists and millennials around the world are asking for alternatives, for a different kind of agriculture. “So we are looking to think, re-think, conceptualise and define that because in the not-too-distant future they will be demanding it and it is better to be in the driving seat,” Gregorini says. Agriculture has been successful at continually driving productivity and improving plant and animal performance, but the singular focus approach has often been to the detriment of the environment, animals and even human health, he says. “For instance, we now expect our animals to exist on what’s pretty much a monotonous, monoculture diet. We know that dietary monotony has problems in terms of excess nitrogen for instance, but what are other downsides for animal

productivity and wellbeing and the environment? “Dietary monotony can lead to reduced nutrient use efficiency, increasing the risk to the environment. “At farm and landscape scale monotony creates fragility, in other words impairing resilience capacity. “At an animal level, one of the things we’ll be looking at is the benefits of diversity in what we’re growing for our animals to graze. We’ll be designing multifunctional ‘foodscapes and menus’… not only for them, but also for us… “In a more extensive grazing system, on hill country, we will look at what effects diversity has on the animal and vice versa. “We want multifunctional animals that can not only provide us wealth and food, but also provide ecosystem services so we’ll be working on strategic animal design for future landscapes.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Professors Pablo Gregorini, left and Fred Provenza – the world is looking for more regenerative, sustainable agricultural systems.

Above: Wendy McWilliam – alternatives to productivist systems sought.

‘At an animal level, one of the things we’ll be looking at is the benefits of diversity in what we’re growing for our animals to graze. We’ll be designing multifunctional ‘foodscapes and menus’… not only for them, but also for us…’

The economics of future agro-ecosystems and practices will play a key role too. “There’s no point in designing systems that no one’s going to use because they’re not profitable,” Gregorini says. The future designed agricultural landscapes may not be confined to farm boundaries or food production with an integrated, interconnected focus linking farmscapes and farming activities a lot more closely within landscapes. “We have to think, re-think and look at this in a whole different way. It is a paradigm change.” The university setting is the ideal place for futurist thinking to flourish and a blue skies kind of thinking, he says. Maori values and cultural traditions could hold answers to ecosystems redesign too and the programme will aim to draw on those values, so the Mauri or life force of the land is enhanced. Scientists and researchers from across the soils, plants, animals, environmental, social, computer and landscape disciplines will be joined by researchers and an army of students ranging from undergraduate

honours students, masters and doctorate students. Their research will range from studying effects at the microscopic level in the rumen to animal behaviour at landscape scale; from virtual reality approaches to visualise farm ecosystems of the future to ecological influences and effects on land, aqua, health and thoughtscapes.

Take a look on pages 96 to 98 in our Young Country section of this issue for more details on some of the current research.

Showing the solid science A world-leading researcher into the linkages between animal behaviour, grazing management, ecology, physiology and nutrition of both animals and humans, as well as landscape health has prasied the work. Utah State University Emeritus Professor Dr Fred Provenza, last month spoke at the New Zealand Society of Animal Production (NZSAP) conference about “nutritional wisdom” and the “flavour feedback relationship” and points to research that shows animals will seek out plants and

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Left: Professor Pablo Gregorini – designing multifunctional ‘foodscapes and menus’ to benefit animals and humans.

feeds that provide them with what they need. “It takes a bit of building the background here, showing people the solid science behind these ideas, so it doesn’t sound goofy,” he says. But trials have shown that animals drenched with anthelmentics, for instance, won’t seek out plants that act as a natural weapon against worm burdens even when those plants are available. “If they’re not dewormed they’ll seek those plants out, they’ll self-medicate. “What we’ve done over time is to get in the way of that feedback, that linkage and replace a lot of the natural solutions with inputs we’ve developed. “We got rid of the diversity and in some ways we shot ourselves in the foot because then we used inputs dependent on fossil fuels, extra feeds and fertiliser. We used antibiotics and anthelmentics when diversity was doing a lot of that for us,” Provenza says. In 1978, it’s estimated it took six barrels of oil to produce enough food for one person for a year, now it takes twice that, Gregorini says. “One of the criticisms of academics and researchers in agriculture has been that they’re always looking at increasing production – but what we’ve been interested in with our studies over the years is also profitability and these more integrated, biodiverse systems can mean a cut in costs,” Provenza says. 43

Check out Fred Provenza and his Slice of Life videos on YouTube.

As for the argument that the paybacks in a United States-style, intensive indoors or feedlot situation may be more dramatic and obvious than NZ systems where animals are already intensively and extensively grazed, Gregorini reiterates the need for system changes here to stack up economically. He admits, in some cases, there could be a temporary drop in production but says there could be a corresponding reduction in input costs. There was also the potential to create greater value for outputs if those could be differentiated in the market based on an integral sustainability factor. Dr Wendy McWilliam, a senior lecturer in landscape ecology from Lincoln’s School of Landscape Architecture is working in Gregorini’s team on the initiative. She highlighted the potential for products from a redesigned system to be valued more highly by the market when she outlined farm systems design methodologies at the NZSAP conference. McWilliam says highly intensive, “productivist” farm systems have been recognised as creating unhealthy landscapes in terms of biodiversity, environmental health, socio-cultural and economic outcomes. The answer to that has been research and investment into ways to lift the efficiency of input use such as reducing fertiliser use or timing applications to limit leaching potential. Precision technology, using organic inputs, the use of genetically modified organisms (in overseas situations), promotion of good management practices – they are all methods employed to address the shortcomings of the productivist system. “But these continue to look like 44

intensive systems,” she says. They have strong support from funders and regulators and farmers are willing to take them on board but McWilliam says many argue they don’t go far enough and that mitigation and clean-up costs are not reflected in the price of products. They don’t make for farm resiliency – economically, socially or environmentally, she says. One of the alternative answers being investigated through the Lincoln initiative is to increase functional biodiversity, create more heterogeneous and multifunctional farm and landscape systems by design, matching the biophysical capabilities of the land. That doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily look like organic or low-input systems of today. In some cases, those systems had swung too far in one direction and just weren’t economically viable enough. “They may have to move in the other direction.” The redesigned future landscapes and agroecosystems would more likely encompass a whole range of hybrids using both hi-tech and traditional farming methods, embracing Matauranga vision. McWilliams argues the redesigned

systems, with economic resilience and enhanced positive animal welfare and environmental and cultural benefits, could significantly uphold the licence to farm – something she says is under threat. “Society is not wanting to support these productivist farm systems any more. What will happen is those systems will be increasingly regulated and farmers will lose the right to make decisions – and they’re not going to like that.” While globally it’s “hot stuff” among researchers there’s not a lot of policy or funding support for it yet. Lincoln’s backing of the initiative is therefore somewhat ground-breaking. Multidisciplinary teams will conceptualise, create, test, implement and assess, alternatives, using the university’s farms to showcase future alternative systems to help encourage other farmers to adopt them. “These systems aren’t going to be implemented tomorrow, that will happen incrementally.” Part of the implementation will look at how to facilitate change so that it is palatable to farmers. “So they can bite off small bits of it through time in order to transition,” she says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

SYSTEMS CALVING

TRANSITION: Keep it simple

Restricting feed as cows approach calving helps mobilise the animals’ body fat. Glenys Christian reports.

ransition cows don’t need a complicated diet and feeding them can be simple, DairyNZ researcher, Jane Kay told the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) field day at the end of May. She stressed to farmers attending the benefit of slightly restricting cows’ feed as they approached calving to around 90% of their requirements. “The animal starts to mobilise a bit of body tissue,” she said. “It uses that fat so the liver is all primed up and ready to deal with the situation post-calving.” If this didn’t happen fatty acids were not mobilised, she said. “It’s like training for a marathon rather than walking to the beer fridge.” Fat cells released the hormone, leptin, telling the cow it had enough energy and didn’t need to go out and get more. The feed restriction worked exactly the same in a pasture-only situation or where cows were fed a total mixed ration (TMR) with blood calcium levels increasing on the day of calving and the day after, reducing the risk of milk fever. Kay said magnesium was the most important mineral in the prevention of milk fever and cows needed a daily supply for one month before calving as well as four months after giving birth. The recommendation was 20 grams down the

used in the making a kitty litter which absorbs iron and holds ammonia. Results showed higher calcium levels and lower magnesium and phosphorus levels with a cost of around $30 a cow. “Watch this space,” she said.

‘It’s like training for a marathon rather than walking to the beer fridge.’

Jane Kay – slight restriction of feed brings results.

throat with research carried out at Number 2 Dairy at Ruakura Research Station in the 1980s showing a huge impact on milk fever. Calcium levels needed to be kept as low as possible before calving then cows should be supplemented after birth as there was a 400% increase in demand. Kay detailed trial work carried out by Dr John Roche, when he was DairyNZ’s principal scientist, animal science, feeding a grade of zeolite, a spongy clay substance before calving, which sits in the rumen. A different grade of zeolite is

SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION CHECKLIST • Ensure cows are on track to achieve body condition score (BCS) targets at calving. • Feed cows appropriately before calving. • Supplement all cows with magnesium before and after calving. • Maintain low calcium before calving and supplement all colostrum cows with calcium. • Avoid feeds high in phosphorus such as palm kernel and supplement if feeds are low in phosphorus. • Avoid grazing pastures high in potassium. • Understand dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) in a grazing system.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

DairyNZ was delving deeper with further research planned looking at the effect on cows fed fodder beet where they could already be receiving less phosphorus. After calving cows could be fed 100g of lime flour and those at risk 300g but there was no real benefit in supplementing cows throughout milking. Kay said a high level of phosphorus could increase the risk of milk fever as well as a lower level. Fodder beet was very low in phosphorus but it was hard to work out how to get the extra levels required into cows. A high level of potassium could also contribute to milk fever. Kay said a negative dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) decreased the blood pH and calcium absorption from the cow’s diet increased. But trial work had shown a threshold below which urinary calcium concentration increased with a decline in blood calcium. It was very difficult to manage DCAD in a pasture-based system as it was high due to the high potassium content of grass and varied with every mouthful. Straw could be used to reduce cows’ energy intake before calving as it provided little nutritional value. But it didn’t lead to improved rumen development or an increase in the feed intake capacity of a cow after calving. 47

SYSTEMS CALVING TIPS

Have an Antahi Innovations feeder on hand because they’re the best thing since sliced bread.

Feed gold colostrum warm to every calf within 12 hours of birth (2-2.5 litres or 10% of the calf’s body weight), and use for the first two weeks, minimum.

Not all colostrum is created equal, do your research.

I keep old towels in the calf shed to dry calves when they come in wet or dirty. Old duvets to warm up shivering, mud-covered calves.

Always bring a sense of humour to the calf pens. On some of the toughest days a little bit of laughter can make it so much better. Sometimes we forget how unique each calf’s personality is.

Don’t over-crowd pens as that creates a messy and dirty pen, which creates bugs, which creates sick calves. Sick calves make calving 100 times harder on you and your calves. So clean pens and minimise your calf limit in each pen if possible to ensure good hygiene and no sick babies to look after which equals less work for you and happy babies.

Make time off the farm if you can even if it’s just a trip to town or to the neighbours for a drink.

Steam-clean calf sheds ready for fresh bark and steam-clean all calf feeding gear once a day (this is not only great for keeping bugs away but also quick and easy clean up for the team at the end of a busy day)

Limit access to calf pens for hygiene reasons – have foot baths etc. for those that do have access to the pens. Have a thorough standard operating procedure in the calf shed for everyone to follow to ensure consistency in feeding and hygiene. Regularly clean feeders, troughs, buckets etc. Have everyone entering and exiting the calf shed, spray their boots with disinfectant (crucial with Mycoplasma bovis virus). Also, use disinfectant on high-use areas (latches, gates, feeders) daily. 48

Winner! Winner of the winter essentials prize pack: Amy Gemmell with her tips: • Four Cs Colostrum, Cleanliness, Care (preferably by the same person so problems are noticed quickly) and Comfort (as warm as possible, clean, dry and draught-free). • Bucket of warm water handy to put those frozen fingies in on frosty mornings. • Have loads of freezer meals ready and if you are really lucky hire a cleaner Runner up prize winners: Angela Deans, Amanda Lee, Gail Rickard, Charlotte Mongomery, Belinda Karl Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Allister McCahon among the fodder beet.

SYSTEMS FODDER BEET

A place for beet orthland dairy farmer Allister McCahon believes fodder beet has a place on some of the region’s dairy farms. “Where utilisation is not a problem it offers very high feed values at important times of the year,” he says. “It’s all about the right soil type and the crop being ‘fit for purpose’. What are you trying to mitigate and what are you trying to achieve? There’s no sense mitigating one set of risks by introducing another.” He winter milked on his farm near Te Kopuru, south of Dargaville for 20 years. “One of the larger risks was calving into a drought,” he says. “You could be calving on to Weetbix and that’s not conducive to good milk production. And it also coincided with autumn kikuyu management which is one of our busiest times of the year.” With many Northland farmers mulching kikuyu-dominant pastures in the autumn, taking them back to very low covers, good pasture growth is needed to rebuild pastures before the spring. “Maize alone doesn’t have enough

protein to fully feed autumn calved cows,” he says. “So in 2012 we started growing fodder beet as a potential fit for autumn-calving cows. It could be grazed in situ and it was a high quality feed.” He grew from four to eight hectares of the crop for the next five years. “Paddock selection all comes back to yield potential and feed utilisation,” he says. He chose paddocks which had the lowest risk of erosion due to break-feeding the crop which meant a lot of cows on a small area. “If you’re going to grow fodder beet on a clay soil, harvesting may be a better option.” he says.

Fodder beet can be grazed from 220 days after planting, but will grow for from 350 to 400 days after sowing in some areas of Northland, meaning that if it is planted in the spring it can still be accumulating drymatter (DM) in the following OctoberNovember. “And in Northland we have the option of sowing it in autumn,” he says. Farmax modelling had shown that using fodder beet on10% of a Northland dairy farm could be a very productive farm system. “But it wouldn’t mitigate drought so to go to 10% you’d be replacing one set of risks with another when a lot of farmers grow chicory or maize on 10% of their farms with no problems.” Around 10 years ago he made the decision to move from 60% of his herd calving in autumn to 30%. Then the next

‘You need 80,000 plants a hectare and if you don’t get that you’re on the back foot to start with. There’s a lot of margin for error when playing with very small numbers of seed.’

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Good pasture growth is needed to rebuild pastures before the spring.

FODDER BEET TIPS Allister McCahon’s tips for successfully growing fodder beet are: • Seek good advice. • Form a plan and follow it as it’s not a crop with which you can take shortcuts. • Get the sowing rate right. • Weed control is critical. • It’s not a gross feeder and likes potassium more than phosphate.

step was to all spring calving for his 1000cow herd, starting on June 10, which better suited facilities on his farm and lessened the need to grow fodder beet. But for other Northland farmers it continued to provide a valuable strategic option for extending lactation, or improving cow condition. “However, it is potentially in the ground growing for a long time and needs to produce superior yields to warrant this,” he says. “This can then provide its own set of challenges when grazing large volumes on small areas.” He believes that with climate change potentially affecting pastures, and farming systems Northland farmers may need to be prepared to consider other options. “Fodder beet is a Mediterranean plant so has the potential to be part of a diversified feed strategy,” he says. He’s taken the lead in looking at some of the options for Northland in a project focused on diversified feed options which is in its third year. While plot and farm trials have been carried out he said farmers now want to know if the results are repeatable.

“Persistence is a question we would like to address, but is beyond a three-year study.” With beet, plant population and weed control are key, he says. “You need 80,000 plants a hectare and if you don’t get that you’re on the back foot to start with. There’s a lot of margin for error when playing with very small numbers of seed.” Fodder beet has potential production of more than 25 tonnes DM/ha, so in this respect he says it’s similar to maize, but for a different purpose. But he cautions those yields won’t be the result on every soil. “The key is can you manage the risks and cropping isn’t without risks,” he says. “It is unlikely that there will be a silver bullet solution. Whether we like it or not, one outcome of climate change is the anticipated spread of C4 grasses such as kikuyu.” As C4 grasses are not winter active it is managing the transition from temperate grass to C4 and back to temperate that is both crucial and challenging, with many farmers, particularly those on hill country, struggling to achieve this in a timely manner.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

And there are other more recent factors which may also have a considerable effect. “With the advent of Mycoplasma bovis farmers may not be able or want to move stock around as much as previously,” he says. And drought conditions during the present European summer mean palm kernel prices are likely to rise. However he’s adamant there’s good reason to keep reviewing prospects for fodder beet, with its yields justifying another look at it. It can also be grown with a later sown crop of tick beans and oats which can add production of another 10t DM/ha. This starts to align with results from DairyNZ’s Scott Farm research reported on at the Grasslands Conference in 2009 by Elena Minnee which showed potential annual yields of forage crops of up to 45t DM/ha in Northland and Waikato. He’d like to see a literature review carried out to look at what might happen in Northland with climate change over the next 20 years which he says would encourage the region’s farmers to look forward. A Ministry for Primary Industries report on climate change adaptation in 2014 said new technologies could change the way dairy systems functioned under climate variability and change. Pasture technologies could lift potential pasture yields from 20t DM/ha per year, to 25t DM/ha and increasing the rooting depth of plants could mitigate moderate to severe water shortages with pasture technologies reducing the effects of environmental stressors on plants. And a National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Science report in 2016 said as mean temperatures and drought occurrence increases, Northland farmers are more likely to increase their usage and dependence on existing subtropical plant species and introduce new commercial species that are heat and drought tolerant. Kikuyu is likely to become the most prevalent forage grass in the area because it can spread quickly and is heat and drought-tolerant. More work with a regional focus is now required to prepare for what situation might lie ahead for Northland dairy farmers, he says. “What will it look like, where are the gaps and how do we fill them? “We need to look at it on a holistic level because there some learnings which are likely to be positive and some not so much. People think about normal but it’s going to be different.” 51

Preparation key when

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Another tool in the tool box

The staff on the Hucksteps’ dairy farm. (L-R); Heavenly Kieft, Jayden Norgate, Erin Norgate, Sue and Rowan Huckstep and Rusty the dog.

“My hobby has become a career,” Sue says, and as well as producing some bulls for their own use, the family keep some crossbred Galloway calves for meat for the family. “We grow them out and share them around the family – the meat is amazing with great marbling.” Empty rates in the Friesian herd usually sit at about 12%, although this year were up to 15% due to the tough conditions last season when a very wet winter and spring turned overnight into a summer drought. The past few seasons the family have sold their Friesian bull calves and all the beefie Friesian Hereford cross calves to calf rearers and are planning to use Jersey bulls over their heifers. “While we would like to eliminate bobby calves from our business we are nervous about the possibility of losing heifers to calving difficulties with beef bulls.” Sue and Rowan are all hands-on-deck during calving and mating but are relieved from milking duties for the rest of season when Rowan enjoys carrying on the development work with his digger and Sue has her Galloway stud to farm. During spring Sue loves getting into the calf shed and Rowan works with Jayden and Erin and their worker, Heavenly Kieft. Three years ago they built an award-winning home, surrounded by huge rocks Rowan recovered from the farm, and with a stunning pool and outdoor area and bedrooms and living area all with amazing views of the mountain. The extensive garaging also houses Rowan’s vehicles to support his 4-wheel driving interest, a hobby that has seen them travel the country and rise to becoming number 4 on the national event circuit. The couple are also involved in the local Lions club, and great believers in a better life for all, they can see synergies with moving their cow selection to embrace some of the better life efficiency and health traits too.

Sue’s hobby.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

The CRV Ambreed Better life Health and Better Life Efficiency indices have been developed to help breed herds that will be more efficient and healthy, CRV Ambreed product manager BU Oceania Peter van Elzakker, pictured, says. Farmers don’t have to sacrifice efficiency for health or vice versa. Farmers can focus on both equally or choose to focus on one, he says. “You have options, we like that we can give farmers another tool in their tool box to create the herd they love to milk.” Performance records taken from InSight herd data showed cows in the top 25% for both indexes were lasting longer, he says. “We see really significant differences between the top 25% and the bottom 25%, what that shows is that if you breed using these indexes you can improve herd performance.” Health does not have one definition and the health index will continue to be developed with other traits in the future to meet farmer demand, he says. During the “Better Cows tours” conducted across the country in March and April, Elzakker said farmers highlighted FE tolerance, low N and lameness as traits of increasing importance. Based on this feedback these traits are a priority for inclusion in the Better Life Health and Efficiency indices in future.

Rowan’s baby – and look at that tidy garage!

ENVIRONMENT ONFARM Sandra and Rod McKinnon in one of their wetlands. Sandra says she’s ‘a bit of a sucker for toi toi.’

Doing the right thing by the land Sandra and Rod McKinnon are supreme winners of Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards for 2018. Glenys Christian reports.

lthough Rod and Sandra McKinnon didn’t have much spare cash when they bought their first 44-hectare dairy farm out of Matamata 25 years ago some was quickly earmarked for planting trees. “The house was a wreck and the farm a bit the same,” Rod says. “There was a lot of work needed. But we started planting trees even though we had a limited budget and time.” He still knows all those trees and exactly when and where he planted them says Sandra. They’d started contract milking at Putaruru before 50:50 sharemilking at Tirau for three years. They moved back to Putaruru for another sharemilking position for two years before their first farm purchase. Sandra, now assistant principal at Cambridge School, had started working there so it made an easier commute for her. “We love the Hinuera area so the location was important to us,” she says. “But we knew the farm was run down and we weren’t stupid to that.” They milked 120 cows through a small 17-bail rotary to begin with. Two years later they bought a further 25ha block which had been subdivided 78

off the original farm some years before, allowing them to expand their herd to 160 cows. “There were feral goats running around and drainage was needed,” Rod said. “I’d be less inclined to tackle that workload now.” But after development it allowed them to expand the herd to 160 cows. In 2005 they bought a 92ha block directly over the road which had very few sheep and beef on it and no trees. Some of the land was sold off but the rest was able to be accessed by the McKinnons’ herd after an underpass was put in. A 32-bail second-hand rotary was bought from Opotiki and went in on the new block. “It was what we could afford,” Rod says. An in-dairy feeding system was added and more recently Protrack went in. They started developing ponds and planting exotics as well as caring for the Mangawhea Stream, a tributary of the

Piako River, which runs through their farm. While they bought another 33ha last year, they made a conscious decision not to increase cow numbers to a great extent. They’ve already earmarked 4ha of sidlings and wetlands to be retired from grazing. “We want to reduce our footprint but increase production per cow,” Rod says. “We’ve still got to make money.” And with the new block their young stock can be grazed on the back hills where they have less impact on the soil. In 2015 they retired 25ha to develop wetlands under a Waikato Regional Council plan. Rod had been working on this area for a few years but then approached Fonterra’s local sustainability manager, Sam Cashel, who brought the council’s catchment management officer, Warren Coffey, out to the farm to see it. “I think he was pleasantly shocked,” Rod says.

‘People usually think of councils as big, bad dogs. But they’ve been very helpful. For us, the environment and the council it’s a win, win, win.’

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

“At the end of that meeting we were drawing up maps.” Now into their third year of planting the McKinnons have received funding for fencing around the area along with planting advice. “People usually think of councils as big, bad dogs,” Rod says. “But they’ve been very helpful. For us, the environment and the council it’s a win, win, win.” They estimate they’ve planted upwards of 10,000 trees so far all over their farm at total project costs of $125,000. “That’s increased because we’ve allocated new areas,” Rod says. “But we’re more ruthless now about where we put up fences.” As well as having a great relationship with Tauranga company, New Zealand Native Flora, which supplies and plants for them, they’ve set up their own nursery onfarm, which Sandra runs. She rears about 8000 seedlings each year, admitting she’s “a bit of a sucker for toi toi”. But there are plenty of cabbage trees, manuka, carexes and flax as well. “I haven’t got too fancy,” she says. “If I had time I would do more but I’m certainly more regimented in what I do.” She says it’s not that hard to work out what to do, like planting grasses close to the riverbanks then trees further away, with information from Fonterra and the council. “Our first priority was to get the riverbanks planted so we wanted to focus on that.” Next they moved on to wetlands which she says was hard work, especially when some areas they planted flooded shortly afterwards causing banks to collapse and the job had to be redone. One thing they did realise early on was that they’d fenced too near to streams for flood events, so

those had to come out and be placed further from the banks. 2015 was also the year that they wrote their own Farm Environment Plan where they included wetlands, ponds and more tree planting for shade and erosion control. “It had been 25 years in the making, doing the right thing by the land,” Rod says. “We just formalised it.” There was still plenty to be done when it came to pest control, getting rid of feral goats, reducing possum numbers and making a start on clearing blackberry and barberry. They attended open days on other award-winning properties and received encouragement with what they were doing. “A lot of it is about being able to justify what you’re doing,” he says. In the past when he’d lost an animal in a swamp he’d made sure to fence that area off as a priority. Then his attention moved on to making sure fertiliser wasn’t wastefully spread in wet areas. They soil test regularly and current nitrogen leaching is assessed at 25kg/ha/year, which they would like to reduce even further. “Prioritisation for planting depends on what money you’ve got available,” he says. “It has to be both environmentally and financially sustainable.” Often top of the list are areas that they see more often and they can appreciate more once they’re planted. “I like things to look aesthetically pleasing,” he says. “There’s that feeling of coming up the road and thinking, ‘That looks nice’.” His care and attention to detail is well proved when he mentions that he mows around his effluent pond from which effluent is spread over 30ha. Sam Cashel was called on too when it came to working out the best effluent system for the farm.

FARM FACTS The feedpad accommodates 400 cows. Covering it is in the long-term plan for animal health reasons.

• Farm: Oakstone Hinuera Limited • Location: Matamata • Area: 194 hectares (150ha effective) • Herd: 375 Friesian cows, Breeding Worth 86, Production Worth 105, recorded ancestry 96 • Production: 167,600kg milksolids (MS) 2017/2018, target 2018/19 174,000kg • Supplements: Dairy NZ System 3, 300 tonnes of maize silage and 180t of palm kernel • Dairy: 32-bail rotary with in-dairy feeding system and Protrack.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Storage calculations showed 2.7 million litres capacity would give 90-days storage with effluent spread over 30ha by two travelling irrigators. “But I make sure I keep it as low as possible in summer and autumn,” Rod says. New pumps and stirrers were added and Yardmaster Halo electronic monitoring installed, with him helping to prove and extend the mobile phone application for the innovation developed by TagIT Technologies and Matamata company, Reid and Harrison over the last four years. There’s GPS monitoring on one of the irrigators and pond levels as well as geo-fencing of drains, streams and wetlands, all monitored by the Halo system so there’s no risk of effluent entering the waterways. “It’s a great failsafe option,” he says. If there’s a burst pipe the pump will automatically shut down and a txt alert is sent to his phone to let him know what’s happening. Its collected data tells the story on the farm mapping tool of exactly where the irrigator’s been over the last 12 months. “And with nutrient monitoring we can map exactly what nutrients are going on the land.” A strong relationship built with Reid and Harrison has seen many farmers come on to the property to look at the way the system works. “They’ve brought Chileans, Irish and farmers from the United Kingdom here to see it, and that’s helped us with further developing it,” Rod says. The farm’s water usage is monitored through water meters with water coming from two bores and reticulated to troughs in every paddock so there’s no need for the herd to find another water source. Recycled water is used to wash down their uncovered feedpad which can hold up to 400 cows.

Sandra raises about 8000 native seedlings each year for planting out around the farm.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

The McKinnons at the Yardmaster Halo electronic monitoring installation.

“We grow 14ha of maize on the farm and felt we were wasting it feeding it in the paddocks,” Rod says. The land where the crop is grown is too far from the dairy for cows to walk from and has been cropped for the last 15 years. Covering the feedpad is in their future plans for stock health reasons. As well as feeding 300 tonnes of maize silage every year they used 180t of palm kernel last season, which previously had only been used as part of a feed blend fed through their in-dairy feeding system used strategically in spring and summer. It will also be used to get more minerals and trace elements into the herd along with their two Dosatrons. Milk production has increased by 50kg of milksolids (MS) per cow per year over the last four seasons. “It’s not so much that we’re feeding more but we’re using our feed better,”

Rod and Sandra at their 2.7-million-litre effluent pond which gives 90 days’ storage.

he says. Chicory and some turnips have been grown until a move into more maize as part of a pasture renovation plan last season. Their herd was crossbred but over the years they’ve moved more towards Friesians with the crossbreds now making up only about 20%. Rod has carried out AI himself for the last 20 years using LIC semen. “I’m quite selective on breeding policy,” he says. “The key is to milk fewer but better cows.” After six weeks AI Hereford bulls go out. There’s a 90% three-week submission rate giving an empty rate of around 8%. Their 80 replacements annually, selected from about 100 calves reared, go off to a grazier at Maungatautiri. Herd testing is regularly carried out four times a year, allowing effective culling so their best cows remain in the herd. They employed two full-time staff, both of whom lived onfarm, but this season have taken on a contract milker. “It’s all about freeing up Rod from the dairy so he has more time for planting and more wetland establishment,” Sandra says. He’s a founding member of the Piako River Catchment Forum and their farm has been used as a case study for the Fonterra Tiaki Sustainable dairy programme. “I’m really proud as a dairy farmer of what we’ve done,” he says. “Sometimes you have the feeling that you’re the kicking ball of society. It’s a hard row to hoe being a dairy farmer today. But there are so many doing such good things. It’s the 10% at the bottom who need to be forced to pick up their game to the level of the other 90%.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Sandra said there needs to be education, support and encouragement and sometimes farmers are not promoting what they’re already doing to a wider audience. “The awards are a big step in that.” Rod’s plan now is to focus on the environmental side of the farm. “We believe in what we’re doing and we’re leading by example. As you get older and wiser you’re more conscious of what you’re leaving behind,” he says. “In a long, hot summer having more trees for shade is great for the cows.” And then there’s the ongoing maintenance of what’s already been planted. “Releasing trees is a huge job – it can be bigger than planting,” he says. “And you need a strong maintenance plan.” Blackberry is still one of their worst pest plant problems along with convolvulus. “We were probably planting plants in the beginning which were not strong and well-grown enough, but now we do and we’re sure they’ll survive,” he says. “There’s nothing better than seeing and hearing a tui in a flax bush.” The McKinnons have two adult children, Laura, 21, a police officer in Auckland and Lachlan, 20, who’s completing a Bachelor of Management majoring in agriculture at Waikato University. As well the supreme award the couple also won the DairyNZ Sustainability and Stewardship Award, the Miraka Farm Stewardship Award, the WaterForce Integrated management Award and the Waikato Regional Council Water Protection Award. 81

The Tukituki River is known to have a build-up of slime over the summer months.

ENVIRONMENT RIVERS

Hawke’s Bay farmers face Plan Change 6 Words by: Tim McVeagh awke’s Bay Regional Council, like all New Zealand regional councils must have plans for all catchments by 2025. The Tukituki Catchment Plan was the first undertaken by HBRC, and will affect the 42 dairy farms in the catchment. Changes are made to the Regional Resource Management Plan as required, to deal with specific catchments or issues. The Tukituki River Plan Change 6 became operative in October 2015 to manage specific water quality issues in the catchment. The Tukituki River is known to have a build-up of slime over the summer months. High nitrogen and phosphorus levels and warm temperatures contribute to an increased slime growth in some parts of the river. This may result in an increase of cyanobacteria algae, which can turn toxic and cause health problems. Within the Tukituki catchment there are

priority sub catchments that have water quality issues including phosphorus and nitrogen, and most of the dairy farms are in these priority sub catchments.

Farm Environment Management Plans: Plan Change 6 means landowners in the Tukituki catchment with properties greater than 10 hectares were required to complete a Farm Environment Management Plan (FEMP) by May 30, 2018. FEMPs look at risks to the environment from the farming operation, and plans how those risks are to be managed. Farmers with less than 4ha, and those with lowintensity farms of 4 to 10ha do not need a FEMP. Farmers who did not have a FEMP by May 31 this year are now required to apply for a resource consent, and will still have to complete a FEMP. FEMPs must be reviewed every three years from 2018. A FEMP outlines environmental risks for a property and what is being lost from the property affecting water quality. It then

comes up with an action plan to deal with these. For the Tukituki catchment, a big part of this has been the phosphorus management, and identifying critical source areas. Generally a small area of the farm is losing most of the phosphorus. FEMPs are generally carried out by a farm plan provider. HBRC have accredited specific providers who are competent in this area, giving farmers confidence that the plan provided will meet all requirements. HBRC have also been working with DairyNZ and Fonterra, who provide an industry programme. Many farmers have completed their DairyNZ Sustainable Milk Plans, though the plans provided through this may need further work by a consultant for specific farms. Most farmers in the Tukituki catchment have got their plans done. “Dairy is actually in a fairly good position compared with other enterprises in some ways, because Fonterra and the

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dairy industry have been those limits, or apply for a proactive in fencing consent which will include off waterways, having a plan as to how they will nutrient budgets, and reduce their N leaching down providing stock crossings to their allocated limits,” over waterways,” HBRC Powell says. team leader of catchment At this stage, HBRC are management Brendan building up a picture of where Powell says. dairy is at with respect to N “That’s just become Brendan Powell, Hawke’s Bay leaching. It is expected that it an expected condition of Regional Council. will be dairy farms and some supply for Fonterra. By others that will be affected by 2020, flatter parts of the catchment the N leaching limit. need to have stock excluded from “We know there are some dairy waterways, and dairy farmers are well farms which are under those limits. on to that.” These are farms with lower stocking rates, with less bought-in supplements, Nutrient budgets: and replacements also grazed on A further Plan Change 6 requirement the farm so the whole farm is not a is to have nutrient budgets done each milking platform”. While reducing cow year, and dairy farmers are already numbers will be one way of reducing N doing that. leaching, each farm must be considered “The main issue for dairy farmers is on a case-by-case basis. that there are nitrogen leaching limits “What farmers really need to do is to for each property, which are based on make sure their nutrient budget is as land use capability allocations, similar well done and as accurate as possible. to that of Horizons’ One Plan. So we This means they will have a good have been stressing that dairy farmers idea of where they are starting from should know where they are at in terms and where they are heading in the next of nitrogen leaching. couple of years with respect to getting By 2020 they must comply with to those N limits”.

Maximise production by ensuring your herd are getting a high quality Partial Mix Ration (PMR).

FONTERRA’S VIEW: Fonterra’s area manager, Hawke’s Bay, Tony Haslett warns there will be significant implications for some of the farmers in the Tukituki catchment however. “The first of June 2020 has significant implications for many of the 41 Fonterra farmers within the Tukituki PC6 catchment. Six farms will face the reality of irrigation bans for an average of 35 days in an average rainfall summer, as a result of the changes to the minimum flow requirements for surface water takes within the plan. This will dramatically reduce pasture and crop production over the summer for the affected farmers. “The plan’s nitrogen loss parameters, while achievable by many farms, are particularly problematic for the 16 farms west of State Highway 50. Due to higher rainfall and freedraining soils these farms are heavily penalised for nitrogen loss under the current Overseer model. There is real uncertainty amongst these farmers concerning their business futures under PC6,” Haslett says.

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NT E D W IN NO NG RSVERY018 I K E I 2 TA RD DELING O SPR 83

ENVIRONMENT ECOLOGICALLY SPEAKING

Companion or production? Cats, dogs and horses tend to get treated differently to cows, sheep, pigs and deer. Alison Dewes asks if this is acceptable?

regnant mother or production mother? I often ask myself what is the real difference between a companion animal and a production animal? In veterinary science we partition animals into two groups – companion animals and production animals. However, all are important to us. Our companion animals are typically our pets, cats, dogs and horses while production animals are our pigs, sheep, chickens, cows and deer. Yet, we treat the two classes quite differently. Have you ever thought about this discrepancy? We show both groups empathy. We all get disturbed by cases of animal maltreatment and ask how this can happen. Do we accept things we shouldn’t? Or are our cows just an economic unit inside a farm systems model? Do our models account properly for wastage, loss, and inefficiencies due to

0508 SPEAKUP At Pamu we care about animal, human and environmental wellbeing. That is why we have a confidential phone line, for people to ring in safely about their concerns 0508 SPEAKUP (0508 7732587). The best approach is where a Commissioner for Animal Wellbeing is established, and there is a safe whistle blowing line, for people to call, and let them know when they see things are not right. That way, everyone involved in the “animal and farmer care supply chain” (stock agents, vets, staff, federated farmers, BLNZ, DINZ, DNZ, processors etc) can shoulder the responsibility safely, and know that the right people or animals are going to get the support they need, when they need it.

a lack of “provision” of basic needs that are required by the Animal Welfare Act 1999? What makes us treat one class of animal differently to another, when they all sense pain and stress, and have the right to food, water, shelter, to be able to express normal behaviours and have veterinary needs met? In fact, while in our care, we should be “providing adequately” for them. New Zealand has entered the next revolution of agriculture, and our customers want to know that their food has come from animals who have had a good life. Our consumers want to know that animals are free from “unnecessary and unreasonable pain and distress”: and that our farmers have been good stewards – of environment, animals and people. NZ agriculture is being called on to move from volume to values, so what does this really mean for production animals? My view is that when we focus on getting it right for our animals, the environmental and human and business health will benefit and I am certain our farming image will improve. Could this be at the heart of real change required in our systems? When I drive past cows on winter crop without shelter in winter, nor a dry place to lie, I ask myself if it is okay to have our pregnant mothers – cows, ewes, hinds – standing in mud 24/7 on a diet that doesn’t suit them in late pregnancy? Forced into a situation with wet and softening feet, ill-prepared for the long walks after calving and with a rumen that is poorly prepared for the needs of a demanding lactation, I am sure this is not right. Cows won’t lie down in mud until they are completely exhausted and have no choice. I don’t believe we would do this to our companion animals. For cows, the most vulnerable period is that coming

PROS AND CONS OF WINTER FEED CROP More feed in winter Cheap out of season feed

Blanket antibiotics to prevent mastitis

Cows exhausted before they sit down in mud

Wet feet for 7 weeks predisposes lameness after calving

Poor diet late pregnancy – risky/health issues

High risk of sediment and pathogen overland flow

N loss risk 3X that of pasture Direct discharge pathogens and nutrients through mole and tile drains

Mud limits precision ag and is difficult for people and machinery

Herbicide tolerant swedes, fodder beet dietary issues

up to calving, during calving, and for the 10 weeks or so after. We get most of our animal health problems during that time, and most of our losses, dietary inefficiencies, subsequent wastage, and veterinary costs occur then too. Treating all our animals well – especially the reproducing females, during their most vulnerable time, is important. It is part of our story, and it is the “right thing to do”. Just like the bobby calf challenge, I would expect more might follow, so can we be honest and place our hand on our heart and say that our cows have a life worth living? Looking at a herd of heavily pregnant cows on a winter crop on an exposed hillside, can we honestly say we meet the provisions that consumers expect of us?

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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STOCK ONFARM Photos by: Malcolm Pullman

Moving with the times Northland’s Phillips family have farmed the length of the North Island and now see their oldest son making progress towards succession. Glenys Christian reports.

oug and Glenys Phillips have more than enough dairy farming experience having developed 16 different properties throughout most of the North Island. But they want their older son, Kent, 31, who has just started 39% sharemilking on their 146-hectare Northland farm, to benefit from input from other farmers and consultants. So they were quick to sign up as one of the dairy farms taking part in DairyNZ’s Extension 350 programme. “It’s a great opportunity for him to take a big step forward,” Doug said. “We’d recommend it to anyone who wants to grow their business.” As a mentor himself on a local farm he’s well aware of the positive impact brought about by discussing ideas with a wide

audience before putting them in place. And with a DairyNZ analysis carried out of every onfarm move planned there’s nothing left to chance. Doug left school at 15, progressed to lower-order sharemilking and bought his first herd in Taranaki at 30. Two years later he moved to Rerewhakaiitu, near Rotorua, to another 50:50 sharemilking position before he and Glenys came to Northland. They sharemilked for seven years for the Pouto Topu A Trust, the same property where the 2018 Sharemilkers of the Year, Dan and Gina Duncan, are now sharemilking. While there they bought a farm at Mahuta, further north on the peninsula, and put a sharemilker on. After buying two neighbouring farms and leasing another, they ran a total of 500 split-calving cows

and then moved there themselves to complete the development. Their next move was to the Wairarapa – “for the green grass and the water,” Glenys says. There they bought and sold five farms and runoffs in the Eketahuna/Mount Bruce area, developing each while milking 200 cows and rearing 200 calves. Kent, who always intended to go farming, attended Taratahi Training Institute in Masterton in 2004 then worked as farmhand, assistant and manager on the farms as they developed them. Between farms he went to Taranaki as a herd manager on a farm milking 330 cows, then returned to the Wairarapa to a 450ha farm milking 500 cows and also running 700 head of drystock. Coming into the job mid-season he

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

The Phillips buy in empty cows as replacements and are milking from 18-22-hour intervals.

KEY FACTS • Location: Arapohue, southeast of Dargaville, Northland • Owners: Doug and Glenys Phillips • 39% sharemilker: Kent Phillips • Area: 146 hectares (ha) • Herd: 300 cows milking at peak, split-calving, transitioning to full autumn calving, Breeding Worth (BW) 50/39 Production Worth (PW) 63/58 recorded ancestry, 81% • Production: 2016/17, 69, 860kg milksolids (MS), 2017/18, 69,194kg MS, target for 2018/19, 75,000kg MS • Dairy: 24-aside herringbone with no new technology • Supplements: DairyNZ System 3 with up to 250 bales of baleage bought in, looking at feeding up to 50 tonnes of palm kernel as part of spring-to-autumn calving transition, 2ha of chicory and 6ha of oats and Tama ryegrass planted this autumn.

ARAPOHUE, NEAR DARGAVILLE, NORTHLAND

worked there for two and a half years then spent a season on one of the family’s 200cow farms before moving to Northland where his parents had moved the previous season. They’d bought a 200-cow Ruawai farm along with the existing herd, producing 322 kilograms of milksolids (MS) per cow with an empty rate of 3% and just one lame cow. An Arapohue farm which caught their eye came on to the market as a mortgagee sale. Doug and Glenys moved on to that, repeating the pattern of spending 12 months developing and getting the farm in order, moving Kent up to manage the Ruawai farm. They then sold the Ruawai farm as a going concern in June 2016 and Kent progressing to 39% sharemilking on the Arapohue farm. The herd they put together for their new farm, from cows purchased locally,

balked at the approach to the dairy which they needed to negotiate in single file because of the state of the races. The concrete feedpad which hadn’t been used in some time was repaired with feeding bins reinstated. They also constructed a weeping wall with the concrete pad to be extended in the future. A lot of fencing on the farm also had to be renewed. “There were 1.2-ha paddocks for 300 cows which were too small,” Doug says. Instead of the original 75 when they arrived they now have just 52. A new effluent system was required so a 120-day storage pond went in together with a pontoon pump and stirrer. The effluent area increased from 6ha to the present 22ha with the aid of two Stringray cannons, which can deal with the hillier contour of the farm and there were also issues with power and water to fix.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

“We were just bringing everything up to a level where it was workable,” Glenys says. The 24-aside herringbone dairy, which had been recently built, was the exception. “It’s built to be very easy to work in, and to clean,” Kent says. The Jersey-based herd was made up of 220 cows calving from July 23 and 85 carryover cows. But the decision was quickly made to transition to a full autumn-calving herd, starting on March 1, with the last of the spring-calvers on the farm this year. “It costs just as much to feed a cow during the summer dry,” Doug says. “But you are getting a premium for the milk you’re producing in the winter.” In much of Northland farmers can grow more grass in winter, Kent says. The accessible areas of the milking platform are mulched annually and oversown with Tama annual ryegrass which they find can stand the prevailing southwesterly wind and competes well with the kikuyu. There’s another factor which comes into play, which is the split soil types on the farm with heavy limestone clay in the front and a lighter volcanic clay at the back. “In the wet you can double your boot size just walking through the paddock in the limestone area,” Glenys says. They have been block soil testing, finding Olsen P levels which ranged from 17 to 55, but are now getting to the stage 87

where they are close to being able to test at a paddock level. They used 600kg/ha of Super10 as an initial fertility booster and now their annual fertiliser is as per recommendations but put on a blanket application of 50kg/ha of urea by helicopter in June and August. “We used a bit more this year with 100kg/ha of Phased N applied in June and 70kg/ha of nitrogen going on in August,” Kent says. Another 30kg/ha will be applied little-and-often behind the milking herd. Since being on the farm they’ve put in 3000 native plants on riparian strips, including manuka, flax, koromiko and cabbage trees all supplied free by Te Arai Nurseries under a scheme being taken up by more and more Northland and Auckland farmers. More than 100 poplar poles are to go in on slip-prone areas on the farm. This continues their work which saw more than 20,000 plants go in on their three Eketahuna farms with Kent receiving a Dairy Manager of the Year environmental award for work on one farm in 2015. The Phillips believe they’re on track to simplify their farming system, bringing it back from DairyNZ System 3 to nearer a System 2 they were running on their Ruawai farm. “We have grown 6ha of turnips as part of a regrassing programme,” Doug says. “And there was chicory here when we arrived.” This year they have grown 2ha of chicory and replaced the 6ha of turnips with oats undersown with Tama which is being rotationally grazed through the winter with 10-15 tonnes of drymatter(DM)/ha being produced. “As the oats die out you’ll still have the Tama ryegrass until it gets dry,” he says. “And the chicory will slowly work its way back into permanent pasture.” With three to four grazings a year he believes this makes a good summer feed. 88

Above: Signing up to the Extension 350 programme in Northland has given Kent Phillips the opportunity to benefit from input from other farmers and consultants. Right: Planting poplar poles.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Kent jokes that he’s introduced kale from the Wairarapa after having good success with the crop there and on the Northland properties in the past two seasons. “You have a risk of it dying in the summer but it can grow two metres tall, and averages 18-20t DM/ha. We plan to sow it this year as summer feed and will use an aerial application system,” he says. “That’s generally known as spray and pray.” They don’t deliberately shut up paddocks to conserve feed and will usually buy in 250 or so big bales of baleage. This year they’ve needed to rely on 50t of palm kernel to get them through a feed pinch.

Don’t let them all go down

‘In the wet you can double your boot size just walking through the paddock in the limestone area.’ “We had 50 cows too many,” Doug says. “We were in a hole and we needed the feed to get out of it. Once we destock a bit we’ll come down to the DairyNZ System 2 operation.” “We’ve found the limitations of the farm by doing what we’ve done.” That’s involved introducing the 18-hour milking regime which they started when they were at Poutu and began from day one on both their Ruawai and Arapohue farms. “There’s a lot less walking for the cows,” Kent says. “There’s little loss of production and a lower cost of power in the dairy. You’re doing 200 less milkings a year so you don’t lose.” They milk on a three-day cycle with the first milking at 4pm and the second at 10am the next day. Then there’s a 22-hour day with milkings at 4am and 10pm. Kent is helped in the dairy by a full-time worker who lives on the farm as well as a casual milker who lives nearby. The Phillips have a practice of buying in empty cows as replacements and find Jerseys are the most affordable. “It depends what’s on the market, but our economic base is important to us,” Glenys says. At about $600 each they believe it is far more beneficial than rearing their own calves through to replacement age. With the arrival of Mycoplasma bovis they are keen to stick to buying the cows they need every year close to home. While they average around 30 a year this season they only required 22 with a small surplus of animals. “There are plenty out there,” Doug says. Their concentration is on high genetic worth younger cows with some pedigree animals already in the herd. They use CRV Ambreed Angus semen for six weeks of AI then the same length of time with Angus bulls. About 90 of the beef calves are reared to 100kg then go off the property to be grown on with the surplus sold at four days old. The Phillips now plan on reducing cow numbers to nearer 250 as they move to all autumn-calving. “We are looking to lift per-cow production to 340kg MS/ cow and lowering the off farm supplements required creating a lower-pressure system,” Kent says. The goal is to lift production to the targeted 75,000kg MS Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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this season, 80,000kg next season then 85,000kg MS in 2020/21. “Now we are in Extension 350 we’ve really got our focus points,” Doug says. Their involvement in the programme, which began in Northland two years ago, began with a call from AgFirst farm consultant, Tafi Manjala, who was previously the DairyNZ consulting officer based in Whangarei. Glenys says she and Doug discussed the idea first to involve Kent. “Then we pulled him in.” “It’s great for young farmers and it’s much better for Kent to be involved,” Doug says. He believes it’s important to get more young people involved in interaction onfarm rather than gaining information from their computer or smartphones. Kent now sends through a fortnightly report together with his normal monthly report, of what’s happening on the farm. Extension 350 consultants and mentors visit once a month to discuss aspects of farm management with all three of them. “I enjoy talking about what we’re doing and seeing what everyone’s got to bring to the table,” Kent says. “It’s all different pieces of the puzzle.” Attending the regular six-weekly meetings of the Ruawai discussion group he belongs to has been difficult because of their 18-hour milking schedule. “But I try to get along to as many open days as I can.”

Doug, who was on the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) committee for seven years a decade ago is all for sharing as much farmer experience as possible. With the demise of 39% sharemilking agreements he says many young people are losing a pathway to move up in the dairy industry. “If I hadn’t been a sharemilker I wouldn’t be where I am today. “People are going to come here and look and see that 39% sharemilking is still working well. The objective is to increase profitability rather than productivity. And the joy of it is the sounding board you have as well as all that access to knowledge.” Glenys appreciates the support Kent receives through the programme but cautions that anyone is only going to get as much out as they’re prepared to put in. “He’s the new generation, he understands new technology,” she says. “He focuses on what we could do and we’re the ones who say, ‘Yes, we can afford to do it’ or ‘No,we can’t.” There’s a succession plan already in place for Kent which involves staying at 39% sharemilking for this season and next then moving to 50:50 for five more years. After that he will have the opportunity to buy equity in the farm. Attending a DairyNZ Mark and Measure course as part of signing up for Extension 350, confirmed for Doug and Glenys that they were on the right course.

“With Kent running the farm we’re free to come and go,” Glenys says. “We’re able to step back and he can take the reins. He can get on with running the farm on a daily basis.” Other children, Desiree together with husband Stephen, are lower-order sharemilking in Taranaki, and Amanda with husband Bruce, are ironically managing Doug and Glenys’ old farm at Mahuta. Younger son, Jack, 19, is studying civil plant operation in Greymouth and is not focused on a career in dairying at this stage. With confidence in Kent and Extension 350, Doug and Glenys are now moving out of the split-level house they’ve shared for the last year. “There’s a big difference not being here,” Glenys says. “We’re not sitting upstairs, but we’re at the end of the phone.” Their immediate plan is to build a house at Gracefarm, which is a farm park at Te Hana, north of Wellsford developed by long-term friends, Ray and Pam Hollis. Ray was their farm consultant employed by the Pouto Topu A Trust during their time there. “We bought the section eight years ago in preparation for retirement,” Doug says. There are 12 house lots on the 96ha site which are individually owned. And while they are building their new house they will also be managing the 42ha working farm which they have leased and stocked with 120 head of young stock they’ve bred on their Arapohue farm.

Doug and Glenys Phillips spent 12 months developing their Arapohue farm their son Kent is now 39% sharemilker on.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Focus on triple bottom line orthland’s Extension 350 programme will likely return tens of millions of dollars to the region over the next 10 years, chair Ken Hames says. “When farmers make money they buy more,” he says. “They get additional labour in and that flows through the community.” Extension 350 is part of the Government’s Regional Growth Programme aiming to increase jobs, income and investment in regional New Zealand. The farmer-led mentoring and extension programme designed to lift profitability, environmental sustainability and wellbeing on Northland farms was launched in 2016. It’s designed to help both dairy and sheep and beef farmers across the region share knowledge and gain access to specialist advice. With its focus very much onfarm and for farmers it’s the first programme of its kind in NZ. “It’s all about farmers learning from farmers,” Hames, a sheep and beef farmer with dairy equity partnerships, says. The idea came from the success of Alister and Lyn Candy’s dairy farm at Okaihau which was used as a pilot to transfer knowledge to other farmers in areas such as monitoring the weights of young stock. The opportunity was seen for Northland farmers to take advantage of that model on a larger scale, by fostering collaboration and deepening capacity and capability. Already there’s been high-level interest in possible implementation in other areas of the country, Hames says. A total of 10 clusters will be involved in the project, seven dairy and three sheep and beef groups. Each cluster has five target farms along with seven associate farms, giving the 350-farmer total to be involved over the five years it will run. Farmers will volunteer to join, be shoulder-tapped and reached through advertisements. The project recognises that for farming

STOCK EXTENSION 350

The plan is for 350 farmers to be involved in Extension 350 over five years. Luke Beehre, Extension 350 project manager.

businesses to be truly successful and resilient, there needs to be a focus not just on profit but on a true triple bottom line, so a real emphasis is placed on environmental sustainability and farmer wellbeing. Hames said the importance put on each plank varies for each property. “For some farmers it’s all about profitability, but if they already have that they have choices and can focus on sustainability or farmer wellbeing.” Target farmers within the clusters work one-on-one with a consultant who provides facilitation, advice and direction. Target and mentor farmers then interact and influence a surrounding group of associate farmers. They are invited to learn alongside each target farmer after six months so the knowledge gained spreads in a ripple effect. Hames says special relationships have quickly developed between the mentors and target farm owners rewarding efforts to match personalities as well as the farmers’ geographic backgrounds.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Two dairy clusters were also established north of Whangarei and south of the city in the Bream Bay area with each having five target farms. Four more clusters have been set up from the start of June this year, with one to come. Three more dairy clusters are set to be put in place next year in the Bay of Islands, in the Dargaville Pouto Peninsula area and in southern Northland. A variety of measures are used to chart farm performance from their baselines using whole-farm assessments, budgets, DairyBase accounts and Farmax analysis. Target farmers attend DairyNZ Mark and Measure courses to prepare them for some of the changes which may be recommended to their farming operations. Their consultant will visit the property about 20 times a year, with more gatherings at the start of the programme to rapidly build their understanding of the property. Establishing Farm Environment Plans in the first year of target farms’ involvement to ensure environmental sustainability is a focus for participants. And when it comes to farmer wellbeing workshops, cluster discussion groups and project field days will all aim to equip farmers with tools to work through difficult areas of their business and personal lives. 91

Leading the way in animal care

STOCK ANIMAL WELFARE

The dairy sector has a commitment to lead the world in animal welfare, DairyNZ developer animal care and biosecurity Katherine DeWitt writes. ’ve seen first-hand onfarm how many farmers pride themselves on taking good care of their animals. That is reinforced by the dairy sector’s commitment to animal care set out in the Dairy Tomorrow strategy. The goal? To be world leading in animal care. It’s a commitment I believe many farmers are working hard towards and something that attracted me to move from the United States to be a part of the New Zealand dairy sector. I’ve been impressed by the number of you who Katherine DeWitt. have made changes to improve animal welfare onfarm, even before regulations came into place. Take tail shortening, for example. From this October, removing the last two-three vertebrae of a cow’s tail will be prohibited. A vet will still be allowed to shorten or dock a tail under local anaesthetic, if it is damaged or diseased. We know from our interactions with farmers that most of you have already stopped shortening tails a long time ago, which is great as it is painful for the cow, and extensive research shows it does not improve udder hygiene, or reduce mastitis and somatic cell count. Good hygiene, stockmanship and vaccination programmes have been found to be a much more effective option. A cow’s tail provides a range of benefits, including allowing her to swat away flies and communicate intentions and moods to herd mates and handlers. Trimming a cow’s tail hair, or switch, is allowed under the new regulations. This is a good option to help maintain udder health and keep cows’ udders and milkers’ faces clean, while still allowing cows to deter flies. Tails can be trimmed using hand shears, scissors or electric trimmers. It’s up to you and what works best for your farm system and team. For more information on tail trimming visit www.dairynz.co.nz/tailmanagement, or to find out more about the new tail shortening regulations visit www.mpi.govt.nz

The Dairy Tomorrow vision

One of the six commitments and goals in the sector strategy is: New Zealand dairying will be world-leading in onfarm animal care. This means the sector will: • Develop and implement a framework that ensures every animal is valued and treated with care and respect. • By 2023, achieve all farmers implementing and reporting under the framework. • To find out more about the strategy, visit www.dairytomorrow.co.nz

FARMER’S TALE ON TAILS Telford farm manager John Thornley has never shortened tails during his 17 years in dairy farming. Instead, he has always preferred tail trimming. “A cow uses their tail to express their personality. I truly think they’re a lot happier when they have their tails, and to me that’s part of what being a dairy farmer is all about.” He and his team trim tails three to four times a year. “We trim them after they calve as we find this is also another good indicator of which cows have already calved. It’s kind of like giving the cow a fresh start to the milking season,” John says. “Then we do them mid-season, and before drying off in preparation for winter.” He finds this works well in preventing dags forming on the cow’s tail. “Quite often in wet weather dags can build up and cause infections and dirty the milking cups if their tails aren’t trimmed. “It’s not an arduous task. If you trim every second cow coming through the milking shed, you get it over and done in a couple of days for an average-sized herd,” he says. “We generally do it over three days in the morning when the rotary is going a bit slower, and tend to do every second or third cow.” John and his team use a battery-powered tail trimmer. He finds this quicker and easier than other methods. “I’ve used shears in the past, but found between sharpening them and the risk they pose to junior staff (because they can be a bit tricky to use), that investing in an electric trimmer was a better option.” Depending on your budget, you should be able to pick up an electric trimmer for anywhere between $350 to $1000, he says. But keep in mind, you get what you pay for. “It’s like anything – if you buy good gear it will last longer. And if you keep them well-oiled and clean you shouldn’t have any problems.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Managing failure of passive transfer

STOCK VET VOICE

Getting it right when calves are first born has life-long benefits, veterinarian Katie Mason writes. earing good calves starts at birth. But what does this mean exactly and how can we rear the best possible calves? Calves are born with no immunity and depend on receiving immunity (antibodies) from colostrum. First, a good feed of high-antibody colostrum within the first six-12 hours of life is paramount to prevent failure of passive transfer (FPT). FPT is when antibodies from the colostrum fail to pass across the calf’s intestine and into the bloodstream. Calves with FPT are significantly more likely to suffer disease and death. They are also more likely to grow poorly, produce less milk and be less fertile when they reach the herd as first-lactation heifers. Antibodies pass through the newborn calf’s intestine, but the intestine becomes less able to absorb antibodies within hours of birth. By the time the calf is 24 hours old, it is unable to absorb antibodies from colostrum. A newly calved cow produces colostrum high in antibodies, but with time, the antibody levels decline in the cow’s udder. Similarly, antibody levels will decline if colostrum is stored for prolonged periods before it is fed to calves. Growing healthy calves is a balance between immunity and environmental challenge. If they have received enough high-quality colostrum early enough, they are more likely to resist the high environmental challenge of viruses, bacteria and parasites many calf sheds in NZ present. The highest risk period is within the first two weeks of a calf’s life, after which time calves will begin to make their own antibodies to fight disease. The best way to ensure calves are equipped to deal with the challenge of disease is to make sure your colostrum management is as good as it can possibly be.

Ask yourself: • Are you feeding first milking colostrum ONLY to your newborn calves to maximise the antibody concentration of the colostrum? • Are you collecting colostrum from your cows as quickly as possible after calving to maximise the antibody concentration of the colostrum? • Are you feeding the colostrum to the calves as quickly as possible after birth to maximise the amount they absorb? • Are your calves receiving enough colostrum? Typically, calves only receive two litres in the first 12 hours of life, but calves need to ingest 10-15% of their bodyweight in the first six-12 hours of life. • Are you storing colostrum appropriately (refrigeration and preservatives are important) to prevent antibody concentration decline and bacterial spoilage? • Is your colostrum stored in a lidded drum and stirred before feeding? • Are you testing your pooled colostrum with a Brix refractometer to assess colostrum quality? • Are you vaccinating your herd to boost specific antibodies to prevent calf scours? • Are you excluding cows (for example sick or mastitis cows) which may not be producing the best quality colostrum from the pool that you feed to your newborn calves? Where pooled colostrum quality (as measured by the Brix refractometer) is low; many farmers are also testing individual cow colostrum. The best colostrum is selected for newborn calves. Remember, there is huge variation between cows and farms in antibody levels and antibody level cannot be determined by the colour or look of the colostrum. In the worst case scenario, FPT may lead

to calves not being able to fight disease and they will become sick, most often with calf scours. This can be difficult to control as many causes of calf scour are highly contagious. • Discuss with your vet the most appropriate treatment for individual calves. • Fluid replacement is paramount in keeping sick calves alive and antibiotics are rarely indicated. • Establish whether your colostrum management protocol is working. Newborn calves can be blood sampled by your vet to assess FPT. • If FPT is suspected, establish whether your calves are getting enough, highquality colostrum at the right time. • Invest in an inexpensive Brix refractometer to measure individual cow colostrum quality on farm. The same device can be used to measure calf blood antibody levels, ask your vet how to use it. • Try to establish the cause of the scours by taking faecal samples from the most recently scouring calves- take six-eight samples if you can and send them to the lab. • Check your environmental management is as good as it can be – for example, minimise movement of animals around and between sheds, use an approved disinfectant and replenish bedding frequently. The repercussions of calf scour outbreaks are far reaching. Not only will you have more sick and dying calves in the short term, but you may also have issues with reduced growth rates, poor fertility and poor first lactation yields.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

RESEARCH

Designing productive

landscapes

Students from a range of countries are studying at Lincoln University as part of its Designing Future Productive Landscapes programme. Anne Lee reports.

incoln University’s initiative Designing Future Productive Landscapes is drawing on the talent of the generation most likely to be around when the designs become a reality. Nine of the university’s students ranging from undergraduate honours students to PhD researchers are working on studies as diverse as looking at rumen microbes and wide-open hill country grazing. They’re likely to be joined by another eight doctoral students and four post-doctoral researchers. Each will help build a picture of what future farming landscapes could look like, with systems designed to improve sustainability and be more regenerative, inter-connected, bio-diverse and resilient. The initiative is led by the university’s Professor of Livestock Production Pablo Gregorini. He’s buoyed by the enthusiasm and talent of the nine who are already part of the initiative and are from New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and the United States.

Cristian Moreno

is a truly international student, having completed his bachelor’s degree in Argentina and his master’s in Germany he’s embarking on his doctorate here in NZ. His studies will look at hill country cattle behaviour and how they move and utilise different areas of hill paddocks and the different pasture species growing there. Some animals will naturally graze areas or species others don’t and Cristian wants to find out if first there’s any genetic means of selecting specific animals that can perform better on hill country and then find strategies that enhance their positive grazing behaviours. He’ll use GPS collars to record animal movement and identify the animals of interest. The next steps then could be to use information from Matt’s studies to see if there’s a way to influence diet selection and behaviour of offspring through maternal diets.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Matt Beck,

originally from Arkansas, completed his degree in animal science at Oklahoma State University. He was drawn to NZ and Lincoln for his PhD studies by the reputation of both in grazing management. His research here centred on the effects plant compounds may have on animal health and production as well as how they may affect diet selection of the future calves and lambs when pregnant cows and ewes ingest the compounds. The study is funded by Callaghan Innovation Fund and Agrisea with the Agrisea seaweed-based animal health tonic product used in the trials with terrestrial plant species added to the product.

He’s looking at how the secondary compounds in the land-based plants could affect a number of health and production indices. Cows at Lincoln’s Research Dairy Farm have been drenched daily with the mixes. “We’ll be looking at nutraceutical, prophylactic, pharmaceutical and therapeutic effects,” Matt says. Overseas studies have found a mother’s diet in pregnancy can influence diet selection in offspring and Matt’s considering how he could test that hypothesis within his study too. If it’s possible then diet manipulation could be used as a way of foetal programming to better-enable animals to make use of a more diverse diet in a grazing situation. That could all help in designing future farm systems where more biodiverse diets can also create more sustainable environmental outcomes along with better animal health and production outcomes.

Brandon Dalton

Anita Fleming’s

studies have shown feeding fodder beet to early lactation cows isn’t likely to improve milk solids production, but it is likely to increase the saturated fatty acid content of the milk. Anita is a Lincoln University Bachelor of Science graduate, majoring in animal science, who is now working on her PhD. Her studies into fodder beet and effects on milk production and fatty acid composition when its fed during early lactation have just been published in the NZ Society of Animal Production Proceedings. The studies into fodder beet are part of the Designing Future Productive Landscapes because not only is the crop already widely used by farmers for wintering, farmers have also been quick to find ways to use it on the milking platform – either grown and grazed there or lifted and fed to milking cows. It’s been shown to reduce nitrate leaching potential because of its low protein content and could be particularly useful if bulbs are brought onto the platform to replace other supplements. However, little published work is available on the effects of feeding it to lactating cows, particularly through spring. Anita is now building on her findings and carrying out further studies to understand what is going on in the rumen of cows fed fodder beet during lactation. She’s also carrying out modelling to see what feeding fodder beet as a supplement during spring and autumn does to the overall risk to profitability of the farm system. She’ll look specifically at variability of yields and risks of animal health concerns such as acidosis.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

completed his masters degree at Washington State University, in the US, and has been in NZ for the last three and a half years. He’s the grazing and forage planning manager at the 27,114-hectare, Lees Valley Station. He’s worked for Grasslands LLC, the company that manages the station, for the past eight years. Grasslands LLC is the property management arm of the (Allan) Savory Institute which promotes the use of holistic management – taking the people, land, animals and economics into account in management decisions to optimise the outcome. Brandon’s doctorate will look at cattle grazing behaviour and use GPS collars to track animals – some shifted every week or so and some set stocked on blocks for two to three months. “We’ll look at how they use the hill differently, what happens when we join the two mobs – so how their behaviour might change over time,” Brandon says. Grazing management on the property has been focused on using different grazing patterns that could lead to good animal performance but also regenerative outcomes for the landscape. “There’s a whole variety of factors that go into that – the recovery time of the pasture, utilisation levels, grazing patterns and selectivity.” The station has about 4000ha of flats which includes a large area of native grasslands. Brandon will present some of the data the Lees Valley Station team has collected over the past four years and what they’ve learned to date at the Grassland Association conference later this year. Their aim is to graze regeneratively, which means that while they’re targeting solid animal performance they’re also trying to enhance things like soil organic carbon, species diversity and water quality.

Konagh Garrett

has just completed her masters degree at Waikato University and is about to embark on her doctoral studies at Lincoln. Her masters research used the Mindy computer cow model to look at strategic feeding management on the effects of nitrogen and methane outputs as well as production in dairy cows. Mindy is a complex model, developed by Gregorini and others, which is a capable of simulating a vast array of processes within the animal so that, for instance, the effects of different feeds and timing of

those feeds can be assessed on production and other animal outputs. Konagh’s study looked at altering pasture allowances and the time of day the pasture was allocated on milk production and nitrogen and methane outputs. She also looked at the effects of using different supplements – maize grain, maize silage or barley grain – and the effects of offering them at different times of the day. Her PhD study at Lincoln will look at dietary diversity and how that effects both animal welfare and comfort indices as well as production. She’ll look at different plant secondary compounds, the number of feeds offered, types of herbages and offering different feeds and amounts at different times of the day. The hypothesis is that there could be feed conversion and overall animal welfare and productivity benefits of feeding cows, sheep and deer a diverse diet so they’re not just eating the same narrow feed option day after day after day.

Charissa Thomas

is a research technician at Lincoln’s Ashley Dene and has been managing a farm systems trial looking at the effects of stocking rate, nitrogen fertiliser input and pasture species on milk production, body condition score and liveweight. Charissa has a Bachelor of Science majoring in animal science and agricultural biochemistry from Lincoln and is about to start on a masters. The study she’s been managing at Ashley Dene has involved three farm systems: • A high stocking rate – five cows/ha, 300kg nitrogen fertiliser/ha/ year with cows grazing perennial ryegrass and white clover pastures, supplemented with lucerne and maize silages. • A low stocking rate 3.5 cows/ha, 150kg N/ha/year fertiliser with cows grazing perennial ryegrass and white clover pastures. • A low stocking rate 3.5 cows/ha, 150kg N/ha/year fertiliser with cows grazing perennial ryegrass, white clover and 30-35% plantain pastures as well as all plantain pastures.

Oscar Beattie

is using three different computer models as part of his Bachelor of Agricultural Science honours project this year to look at the feasibility of dryland dairy farming in Canterbury. He’s basing some of his inputs for the modelling on a dryland farmlet systems trial being carried out at Ashely Dene and adding in historical climate data. It’s an autumn calving system grazing Lucerne just after calving and when cows dry off and Italian ryegrass through the winter milking season. Maize silage is being used as the supplement.

James Eastman

is completing an honours project using the Mindy computer model as part of the last year of his Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree at Lincoln. James is looking at how varying the cow’s diet by adding chicory, plantain and tall fescue into a perennial white clover pasture can affect cow productivity and overall cow wellbeing. The Mindy model incorporates information from scientific studies on what animals prefer to eat. That information comes from studies carried out by Utah State University Emeritus Professor Dr Fred Provenza and University of Leeds Emeritus Professor Dr Michael Forbes. James will vary the percentages of different pasture species from paddock to paddock in the cow’s grazing rotation to see what Mindy reveals.

He’s using Linear programming, Farmax and the DairyNZ Whole Farm Model to assess how the system would have performed through specific years using the Lincoln climate data for those years. He’s looking at production, profitability and environmental outputs and will also be assessing how durable or resilient the system is given repeated years of specific climatic conditions. Oscar will use an optimiser tool within the Whole Farm Model programme to find out what the input variables would be for a specific output – for instance what the stocking rate and nitrogen fertiliser regime would be to optimise environmental outputs. While he says the options for variables are endless creating exciting opportunities to test numerous scenarios Oscar only has till the end of this year to complete his honours degree. The information will be useful to assess ways environmental impacts could be managed under a completely different system for the typically low rainfall Canterbury region. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

IT’S NOT IF, BUT WHEN

For decades, Kiwis have trusted Cat® to generate their power when all else fails. Designed and manufactured to the most exacting standards, Cat generators from Gough Power Systems are made to work first time, every time. That means, when the unforeseen occurs, you’ve got the backup you need to keep working, and keep safe. Cat generators are backed by a nationwide network of Gough branches and dealer experts located from one end of the country to the other, ready to back-up your back-up. If you ever need it. For more information, visit www.catpower.co.nz or contact the sales team.

CONTACT GOUGHS FOR MORE DETAILS | Branches nationwide from Whangarei to Invercargill | 0800 CAT POWER Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Gemma and Terry Adams with Maddie, 5 and Brock, 2.

COMMUNICATION Words by Jackie Harrigan

A picture paints a thousand words “If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.” Albert Einstein’s quote is one of Gemma Adams’ favourites, along with “if you want me to understand something, draw me a picture,” a mantra she used early on in her farming career with husband Terry on their South Taranaki sharemilking job. Gemma, in her early 30s now, describes herself as a visual learner – something she didn’t understand at school when she wondered why she always struggled with reading and writing in English classes. She wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until later in her life and then it all dropped into place. “I managed reading, but still miss out small words and I used to dodge reading out loud at school – it was a struggle.” Where she did excel however was in the arts subjects and made that her career with a graphic design degree from UCOL Wanganui before working for two years in a design studio in Taranaki. When she and Terry went to a large sharemilking job and she joined him working on the Hawera farm, however, it became difficult for her to follow a long series of verbal instructions, and Gemma started to think there must be a better way. “Terry would give me a list of what to do verbally – shift the calves here, put up a break there, take the effluent sprayer to somewhere else – and I couldn’t remember all the words and figure it all out.” That’s when she coined the phrase – “draw me a picture” and became aware that she learns things and relates to everything in pictures. 100

Using her graphic design skills it made sense to design a board to put in the cowshed with a detailed map of the farm on it that could be drawn on and to use that to understand the jobs for the day. “Now Terry won’t give me any jobs until I am in front of the board. “Especially if it’s in spring or the heat of summer, or if I am hungry – seeing it on the board just makes it so much easier.” The next step was to make boards up for friends and family, who appreciated how much easier it is for staff to understand the workings of a farm is they can see the map and picture what needs to be done. “We call them vizlink boards – they are a way of visually

Vizlink boards: Staff check a map of the farm. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

‘No one goes to work to brass off their boss, but some workers need extra resources to ensure they are able to get the instructions correct and follow through – especially when they are learning.’

linking all the jobs that need doing in the different areas of the farm.” “It’s all just evolved – I didn’t plan to build a business this way, but in my gut it felt like the best way of communicating with people. “If I struggled, I thought there must be lots of other farm staff out there with the same challenges. “Being a townie, I was wanting to do my best and be successful on the farm, and this simple but effective resource helped so much, it’s given me the drive to build my business and help other farmers and their staff.” Terry and Gemma have been on their South Taranaki farm, sharemilking 500 cows for the Hickman family, for eight years now, with two staff members, growing to three in the spring. They have also invested with family in a 400-cow Pahiatua farm, run for them by a contract milker. Gemma and Terry have two children, Maddie, 5 and Brock, 2 and Gemma waited until they were old enough to start her company Vizlink 18 months ago. She works out of a cabin in the garden on the farm and has two contract designers and customer service consultant Pauline Corbett in the team. They are positive about the uptake of the tools in the industry. Most farmers have a whiteboard in their cowshed, Gemma says, some with a farm map on it, but the magic lies in how the map can be overlaid with useful information and graphics to make a complete picture of the farm and make it easy to record farm management information. “When a farmer comes with his farm map, we can design the vizlink boards off that or can use a drone or GPS map to add more detail in.” “Then we overlay things like races, water lines and troughs, effluent lines and areas, colour-coded grazing blocks – whatever the farmer wants – and we can add other lists and panels and areas for information and interactions.” Gemma loves working with farmers and business people and finding out what issues they need to solve and coming up with a solution. “There is so much potential for the products – I really feel like I am helping people – I am like an open book, I love to pick up snippets of information and share it with others. “No one goes to work to brass off their boss, but some workers need extra resources to ensure they are able to get the instructions correct and follow through – especially when they are learning.” The whiteboards can also be turned into maps and pads for use out on the farm – the image of the whiteboard on a pad can be printed onto a farm map for carrying around along with extra lists written on the side, and that page discarded at the end of the day. Gemma says she uses the maps and pads when out on the farm for recording things and remembering instructions. “When we first got to this farm we had a huge lameness issue, it Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

was hard to remember where the cows were coming from and which claw it was and where the problems came from – I made pads and maps to record and monitor the problems and solutions, and we have overcome it.” The resources are also handy for setting up staff to go solo while the boss has a weekend off, Gemma says. The cost structure includes a mapping-per-hectare cost and depends on the size of the vizlink board, how many paddocks and other panels are included, along with pads and maps. While the map can be imported into an app, there are limitations to the scale and readability on an app, Gemma says. Customised magnets can also be designed and added in. Eighteen months in, Gemma has a business mentor, a Facebook presence and website and is thrilled with the way the business is building and says the Vizlink products have resonated with other industries as well. She has had jobs with sheep and beef farmers, a market gardener with multi-crops and garden beds and a power company mapping their lines and boxes. “There are lots of applications for the resources. Anyone who wants to create a visual picture of their processes can find an application,” Gemma says. She is particularly passionate about helping young people in the sector, many of whom are visual learners like herself. “We all work blimmin’ hard. If my vizlink boards and pads can help practically, then that’s what drives me.”

Visualise it

Types of information recorded on vizlink • board and pads

• Taps

• Farm map • Water lines, farm tanks and troughs

• Naming and numbering paddocks

• Raceways

• Sheds and silage pits

• Drains

• Feed rotations

• Health and safety incident record

• Job lists

• H&S no-go areas

• Supplements where and when

• Switches for power

• Grazing plans

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FARM GEAR INNOVATIONS

Fieldays finds for farmers

National Fieldays always delivers a range of innovative products for the dairy farmer, and this year was no exception. Tim McVeagh reports on some that deserve a second look.

llflex Sense Time: Sense Time allows heat detection and cow health to be monitored remotely, on an individual cow or herd level. Ear tags or neck collars detect activity and

rumination. An algorithm assesses each cow’s heat and health status. Farm staff are alerted by phone, smart device, or the Sense Time panel to cows in heat or in need of a health assessment. Some drafting systems allow drafting of alerted cows. Sense Time and the eSense ear tag were innovation award winners at the 2017 World Dairy Expo. Distribution is through Farmlands and Centre for Dairy Excellence.

C-Dax Robotic Pasture Meter Farmers who have taken an interest in the pasture measuring prototype robot at last year’s Fieldays can now see the updated prototype in action. Developed in conjunction with Massey University, it uses the proven C-Dax technology to measure pasture; with advanced sensor technology and cameras to navigate a pre-set course covering the farm. With four-wheel-drive powered by two electric motors, it will slip under fences and we’re told will negotiate hillsides. Batteries are recharged while the robot is docked in the C-Dax Smart Box. Data will be up-loaded automatically into HawkEye farm management software. More: www.c-dax.co.nz/files/brochures/cdaxjuneflyer.pdf

Circadian Group Bovine Light Mask This Irish company has based its light mask on the phenomenon of housed cows in Europe producing an extra 10% more milk when then their barns have lights on for 16 to 18 hours a day. Trials on pasture-based cows fitted with light masks in Ireland have indicated that while there is little benefit for first calvers, older cows have shown a 9% increase in daily production. The masks have a single blue light, (blue light having a positive effect on health and the immune system), which is turned on for a few hours each day to extend “daylight length”. The light does not shine directly into the cow’s eye and does not affect vision. While the mask is not yet on the market, European farmers can expect to pay about 102

Circadian light masks were originally designed for horses. Fitting this bovine version to Irish dairy cows resulted in a 9% production increase.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Below: Gallagher claims the S400 is the highest capacity integrated solar energizer available, and with 4 Joules of stored energy will power up to 16ha.

Right: Farmote’s “Motes” are permanently located in paddocks to collect atmospheric, soil, and pasture data, which is uploaded to a mobile-friendly web site.

€50 with a production increase worth about €190 over eight months. Trial work in New Zealand is intended to assess their potential for pasture-based winter milkers. More: www.equilume.com

Farmote Pasture Monitoring System “Motes” automatically upload data to a mobile-friendly web site via a LoRaWAN radio network provided by Spark. A “Mote” is a solar-powered pole which contains sensors for atmospheric, pasture, and soil monitoring, and is permanently positioned in paddocks wherever monitoring is appropriate. They are about a metre high and springmounted to their base to prevent damage or disturbance by stock. Sunlight, temperature, and relative humidity are recorded. Atmospheric pressure is also recorded so that in future pasture growth can be predicted using the DairyNZ forecasting model. The pasture profile is measured around the mote over a radius of two metres, using infrared laser light. Soil temperature and moisture are measured at depths of 10 and 30cm. The system is not yet on the market, with validation work at Lincoln University on-going as well as farm trials. Farmote Systems’ claim that collecting data daily provides better trend monitoring is valid. But, at a cost of $750 each, positioning of devices to give representative data of the paddock or soil type will be critical. “Interference by inquisitive stock affecting readings has not been an issue

in trials to date. We haven’t seen any wear patterns around the devices,” Richard Barton of Farmote Systems said. More: www.farmote.com

Gallagher TWR-5 Touch Screen Weigh Scale and Reader With on-board EID reader, this is the top of the Gallagher TW weigh scale range, and allows simultaneous and automatic animal ID and weighing. The indicator is connected to the antenna panel and to any of Gallagher’s load bars, with the indicator’s battery also powering the antenna. There is no need to match the scale and EID reader. Once the scale sees a weight, the reader is activated, the EID is recorded, and the reader is turned off until another weight is seen. This patented function provides significant power savings. Like the other Gallagher TW scales, up to nine traits can be recorded for each animal weighed, and drafting can be based on weight, weight gain, EID, or recorded traits. The product manual can be viewed on screen. More: am.gallagher.com/nz/ product/23919/twr-5-weigh-scale-26-reader

Gallagher S200 and S400 Energizers With an output energy of 3 Joules, and 4 Joules of stored energy, Gallagher claim the S400 is the highest capacity integrated solar energiser available. The S400 will power up to 16 hectares, while the S200 will power up to 8ha. The batteries and solar panel come as an integrated package, and at 11-12kg

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

they weigh less than half that of farmerassembled systems. The solar panel is divided into two sections so charging continues if part of the panel is obscured by grass or dirt. 360-degree mounting is achieved on a waratah post or alternatively the energisers are mounted to a wooden post. Their main application will be small or remote blocks, or for multiwire large scale strip grazing of crops where strong power is essential. More: am.gallagher.com/nz/ product/22159/s400-portable-solar-fenceenergizer am.gallagher.com/nz/product/22155/s200portable-solar-fence-energizer

Gallagher Dashboard Fence App With this app electric fences can be monitored remotely, and faults or problems alerted on a smart phone or other mobile device. Live voltage and current at the energiser, and at remote monitoring points are displayed. The fence can be turned on or off from the phone, and alerts are triggered by pre-set alarm levels. The app is compatible with all Gallagher Series mains and mains/battery energisers.

GEA Automatic Teat Spray Mixer This draws teat spray and emollient from their drums and mixes it into a readyto-use solution in a third drum. The adjustable mixing rate is on the basis of volume as measured by electronic probes, rather than viscosity, which for products like glycerine can be affected by temperature. Sufficient teat spray for a full milking is held in the ready-to-use drum. A probe in this drum alerts the staff to a low level of teat spray. GEA have the Auto Teat Spray Mixer in production now. 103

GEA Cluster Rinse

Skellerup Multifit Liners

A block-and-bleed valve fitted to each cluster blocks the long milk tube to the cluster after each cow is milked, and then allows peracetic acid to be pumped through the cluster to waste. This is followed up with a potable water rinse and then a compressed air purge. GEA claim contact time is sufficient to deal to any pathogens in the cluster while traveling under the rotary bridge. The system is undergoing field trials, and has provisional MPI approval. It is expected to be on the market later this year.

Skellerup’s new range of multi-fit Reflex, and VacPlus Square milking liners, available now, can be fitted to the common range of claw milk inlet nipples, with outside diameters of 10, 12 or 13-14mm. So liner selection is simplified. And liners being hard to fit, or easily pulled off claws, is reduced. A splined bumper section at the tail reduces damage by cows’ hooves. “We have been working on these products since 2011, and we have cut our liner range from 14 options to nine. These liners will be compatible with about 90% of New Zealand milking plant configurations,” Perry Davis, Skellerup NZ National Manager, says.

Read Mobile Sheep Milker Read Industrial have followed up their smaller units with a 20 bail portable sheep milker. Based on a galvanised roadregistered trailer, the unit is all-inclusive except the milk tank and generator, which are mounted on the tow vehicle. The unit has its own cooler unit, hot CIP system, entry and exit ramps, and effluent tank. The effluent is mixed with plant wash water to be sprayed on to paddocks. The on-board feeding system helps entice the ewes on to the trailer. Advantages include use in multiples sites, owning a saleable asset rather than bricks and mortar, and reduced mustering time by bringing the dairy to the ewes. More: www.readindustrial. co.nz/2018/06/25/portable-milking-systems

More: www.skellerup.co.nz

Waikato Milking Systems’ Milking Point Control and Navigate Dairy Management System Waikato Milking Systems Milking Point Control automatically controls milking actions and the recording of milking events. The range of options is tailored to each

More: www.waikatomilking.com

Other stuff of interest Among the other new items of interest for dairy farmers were the Halter fenceless farming system and the Zeddy Dry 1250 feeder. These have been covered in this column in the June and July issues respectively. See www.halter.co.nz and www.zeddy.com.

SHEDS

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dairy and the farmers’ requirements, and is modular so can be expanded. The ‘communication hub’ for each bail can be connected to devices such as automatic cup removers, milk meters, yield indicators, pulsators, and bail retention straps. The intelligent bail communication hubs feed the milking data into the Navigate Dairy Management System. The modular nature of this means a range of options can be retrofitted such as feed management, weigh and automatic drafting. The system’s optional heat and health collars detect oestrous, along with monitoring of activity levels to give an insight to the health status of each cow. As milking is taking place, the range of optional components collects and analyses data alerting the operator to any actions which need to be taken. Farmers are able to generate a range of customised reports providing them with real time insights to the health, fertility and production status of the herd and feed costs per cow.

YARDS

BRIDGES

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

The life below the grass

DAIRY 101 SOIL BUGS

Earthworms, slugs, snails, insect larvae and nematodes are just some of the multitude of life forms found in and around our soils. Karen Trebilcock reports.

ver wondered what’s going on below your gumboots? We all know there are worms and bugs and good soil grows good grass but besides all that, what else is down there and is any of it important for us to know about? There is actually more life, in tonnes per hectare, and definitely in variety of species, below our pastures than above them. And most of it is too small to see without a microscope. And it’s very important, not just for growing our grass but recycling nutrients and making sure the nitrogen, carbon and phosphorus cycles work which keeps all life, including ourselves, well, alive. Although we and probably most of that stuff down there have lived in blissful ignorance of each other for millions of years, science is starting to figure out just how everything interacts. All of us know about earthworms but did you know we have native and introduced earthworms in New Zealand? Megascolecidae is found in tussock land and native forests while Lumbricidae, from Europe, lives in our pasture. Some of the deep soil-dwelling native

Megascolecidae can be more than 25cm in length and the largest, Spenceriella gigantea from North Auckland, can reach 1.3 metres. When forest or tussock is cleared, Megascolecidae disappear and Lumbricidae move in, increasing in numbers as soil fertility improves. Lumbricidae lives close to the soil surface and eats dung and dead plant material. The more dung and dead plant material there is the more it thrives. It’s thought Lumbricidae hitched a lift to NZ in the 1800s in ships’ ballast and in the soil around trees and shrubs brought here. As bush was cleared around our ports and put into grazing it soon spread quite happily tolerating us ploughing, drilling and working paddocks around it. Megascolecidae doesn’t like to be disturbed so it left quickly for the remaining native bush and now only the deep dwelling species (there are 173 species of Megascolecidae compared with four commonly found species of Lumbricidae) still live in our pasture. Earthworms are our underground workforce, speeding up the breakdown of dead matter including dung.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Their burrowing increases drainage and aeration and they mix the humus into the deeper mineral soils. As dirt passes through their bodies they enrich it with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other essential plant nutrients. And they’re big eaters. It’s thought the amount of dirt that passes through Lumbricidae worms can be as much as 100 tonnes per hectare per year. However, they need a bit of looking after. They breathe and lose moisture by diffusion through their surface and so need moist habitats. Too moist, though, is not good and you will often find worms wriggling around on tracks and on the top of grass after heavy rain if your drainage is not good. As with worms, you can divide slugs and snails into native (which feed on fungi, dead leaves and algae, worms and other slugs) and introduced which love almost all things green and growing. We have to thank the humble introduced slug for a host of other introduced species that are their predators – rats, wild pigs, hedgehogs, stoats, possums, thrushes and blackbirds, most of which we would also 105

There is more diversity of life in our soils than above it.

Lumbricidae, a hitchhiker from Europe.

rather not have onfarm. So far, 30 species of introduced slugs and snails have been identified in NZ. The commonly encountered ones are the grey field slug Deroceras reticulatum, the yellow cellar slug Lumacus flavus, and the garden snail, Cantareus aspersus. Slugs and snails are often extremely tiny so can be hard to see in pasture but be assured they are there, ready especially for when you want to regrass or sow crops. They like it moist so under balage is a common meeting place. Using slug pellets when sowing seed is almost always recommended otherwise your crop might not come up. The slimy little munchers will have absconded back into the soil by the time you stand there, scratching your head, wondering why your maize/fodder beet/ swedes/grass hasn’t struck. Besides the slimy things, a lot of insects have part of their lifecycles in soil. One of the more problematic ones for farmers is Wiseana cervinata and Wiseana copularis – also known as porina. You may have seen porina moths fly around on summer nights. They only survive for a few days laying up to 3000 eggs on your grass before calling it quits. The eggs hatch in 10 to 21 days (if not stood on or eaten by a cow first) and the caterpillars burrow into the ground coming up each night to harvest grass, cutting it at the base and hauling it back into their burrow to eat. As they move further from their burrow entrance to find grass they destroy more and more of your pasture and you will usually notice porina damage in early

winter, just when you need your pasture the most. There are chemicals that control porina but the bug is also susceptible to a number of diseases which keep them in check naturally. Farmers will usually only notice porina damage when there has been a “disruption event” such as cultivation, droughts and flooding which have limited the population for a year and so also the natural diseases. Two to three years later the population explodes and then the following year the diseases take control again. Also in our soils are nematodes. There is a huge variety of these and some of them are quite happy to stay in your soils while others prefer to be in the gut of your cows (roundworms) or infecting insect pests such as porina caterpillars. And now we come to the truly weird. In pasture soils there can be as much as 45 tonnes or more, per hectare, of bacteria, archeaea (similar to bacteria but not) and fungi. These soil microbes decompose dead plants and other dead things, fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and are also involved in every other step of the nitrogen cycle as well as take on a full and meaningful role in the carbon and phosphorus cycles. They also mobilise nutrients from insoluble minerals and make them available to plants. The amount and type of soil microbes are affected by pH, temperature, moisture, oxygen and the availability of decomposing dead things with most growing optimally over only a narrow range of these conditions.

Earthworms are our underground workforce, speeding up the breakdown of dead matter including dung.

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But, with so many types (the number of species of bacteria per gram of soil is estimated to be somewhere between 2000 and 18,000), they are always there – some just like to hang out where it’s hot, others where it’s cold, and others in the inbetween. In fact, there are very few places on Earth where you can’t find bacteria. And if NASA’s Curiosity Rover currently trucking around Mars discovers some it will make a lot of scientists very excited with most saying “I told you so”. Back in NZ, soil microbes are usually found in the greatest numbers near the soil’s surface and they especially like to take up residence in the soil’s macropores (the holes in soil formed by plant roots, worms and other insects) which are usually lined with organic matter. The more organic matter in soil, the more the amount and the diversity of microbes usually found munching away at it. And they can do it aerobically (with oxygen) or anaerobically (without oxygen). Fungi make up the biggest mass of soil microbes and so do the most work decomposing things. Soil microbes can also munch bad stuff such as oil and dioxins, cleaning up soil so it can grow plants again. Because there are so many of these soil microbes, scientists are still figuring out a lot about them including how to best look after the ones that are good for growing grass and clovers. There’s also a lot science going on because of their role in the carbon and nitrogen cycles and how they affect greenhouse gasses. When scientists crack it, it could change farming completely. Until then, maybe just tread a little lighter on your soils remembering just how much life is down there.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

Palm kernel

alternatives under trial

RESEARCH WRAP

NORTHLAND

The introduction of a Fat Evaluation Index (FEI) by Fonterra this season is likely to restrict palm kernel feeding, and farmers are considering either cutting palm kernel out of their systems or feeding more expensive supplements during times of high demand. new three year trial by beet). This farmlet struggled and had the The new trial looks at the profitability Northland Dairy Development lowest profit in all three years, highlighting of these strategies under another three Trust is testing different the cost of taking area out to grow crops farmlet comparison. The trial is being approaches to supplement use on the milking platform. funded by Sustainable Farming Fund, in a variable climate. Table 1 shows the milk solids production DairyNZ and Hine Rangi Trust. It follows the recently completed and operating profit for each of the The 84-hectare farm has been randomly Imported Feed Trial at the Northland farmlets. split again into three 28ha farmlets of Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) in These results similar Table 2 Grass Only PKE PKE Plus Dargaville. This trial looked at how farmers confirmed soils and Farm Only Farm Farm could reduce their reliance on imported that strategic pastures. Area 28ha 28ha 28ha feed by comparing two farmlets using inputs of palm The pasture Cows to calve 77 88 88 only home-grown feed (grass-only farmlet kernel can be only farm and cropping farmlet) with a third farmlet very profitable has 2.7 Stocking Rate 2.7 3.1 3.1 (cows/ha) importing palm kernel to fill feed deficits when there is a cows/ha and (PKE farmlet). significant feed can only PKE plus other Production and profit were measured on deficit. However, Purchased feed pasture Nil PKE only supplements each of the 28ha farmlets and during the when times are silage made Feed subject to first two seasons the pasture-only farmlet good the simple on farm. prices matched the PKE farmlet for profit despite grass only farm The palm lower production. However the wet spring system can be kernelof the third year had a huge impact and just as profitable as higher-stocked systems only farm has 3.1 cows/ha and can feed the pasture only farmlet finished the that use palm kernel. Strict decision rules palm kernel to fill deficits as long as FEI is season with significantly lower production were followed for the feeding of palm acceptable. The Palm kernel-plus farm also and profit then the PKE farmlet. kernel which led to very high responses has 3.1 cows/ha but can purchase other The cropping farmlet had 20-25% of the to supplement averaging 122g MS/kg supplements to add to the palm kernel if farm in crops (maize, turnips and fodder drymatter (DM). FEI levels are limiting. (Table 2) The pasture-only and palm kernel-only farms will test other options and impacts Table 1 Kg MS/ha Operating Profit $/ha of managing feed supply shortages such 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 as OAD milking, early culling, drying off Grass Only Farm 870 965 893 787 2761 2449 etc. The palm kernel-plus farm will provide Cropping Farm 1049 1053 887 433 2300 1833 a comparison of using other imported supplements such as soya hulls to fill PKE Farm 1028 1118 1258 733 2887 3128 feed gaps. The system trial allows all costs to be captured and the extra labour and capital requirements of each system will be included in the analysis. For more details on both trials or to follow the fortnightly trial updates go to www.nddt.nz or follow NDDT on Facebook.

The advent of Fonterraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fat Evaluation Index had focused a trial of different supplements. Kim Robinson of Northland Dairy Development Trust reports.

Kim Robinson is the NDDT Coordinator and a consultant with AgFirst Whangarei. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

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What’s

NEW? SOLUTIONS ANIMAL HEALTH

HOMEOPATHY ON THE FARM

Homeopathic Farm Support founder Tineke Verkade.

omeopathic Farm Support began in 1997 in response to repeated requests from farmers for quality homeopathic products and professional information, education, guidelines and support in the safe and effective use of homeopathy. Founder Tineke Verkade is now a well-recognised business woman in the New Zealand livestock and dairy farming communities. In November 2009, HFS won the Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) Enterprise Award and was the Supreme Winner of the Enterprising Rural Women Award 2010. Many conventional farmers also now use homeopathy for animal health in their

farming operation. More than a quarter of Fonterra’s dairy farmers and a significant number of sheep and beef producers use homeopathy (exclusively or along with conventional medications) due to the success they have experienced improving and maintaining the health of their

animals and the productivity of their farm. HFS has a Natural Teat Conditioner that is a complete teat spray to be used after every milking and promotes suppleness with no cracks. Farmers say “the best teat spray ever”. The Herbal Digestive Drench is a product from HFS which is a natural health tonic and nutritive to support a healthy faecal egg count and to maintain a healthy animal. All HFS products are BioGro and MPI certified. Tineke has written a number of books for farmers including Homeopathic Handbook for Dairy Farming, Homeopathy for Horses and Homeopathy at Home. More? www.farmsupport.co.nz

RUMENOX EMPHASIS SHIFTS TO KETOSIS

or drenching or dosing through a dosatron, Rumenox is a convenient way of keeping bloat and ketosis at bay in the dairy

herd. The active ingredient in rumenox is ionaphore, a rumen modifier which improves rumen fermentation and efficient digestion of feed, producing more energy with a positive effect on milk production and cow condition. While Rumenox was developed over many years for bloat prevention, the emphasis has shifted to ketosis reduction and allowing cows to use the extra energy that the rumen modifier produces, Glenmark Vet director Derek Moore says. “A major use is for prevention of ketosis – when the cow is mobilising bodyfat because she hasn’t enough energy in her diet, 108

Rumenox is remarkable in its ability to extract more energy out of the feed,” he says. “NZ data shows a 30% reduction in ketosis from using this product – overseas data has shown 40% reduction.” Rumenox is one of the most researched animal health technologies in the world – with 2000 research papers published, he says. When a cow has run out of energy she mobilises body fat faster than the liver can can metabolise it resulting in ketosis. She goes off her feed and may become listless or even agitated. A cow-side blood test called Energy Watch is available from veterinarians that can measure the amount of ketones present. Early treatment for ketosis is the best plan, Moore says. Prevention of ketonic state is an even better plan – and results in much better milk

Derek Moore, director, Glenmark Vet.

production, improved cow condition and corresponding higher rates of the cows getting back into calf. The product comes in a convenient granular form, making it easy to pour and measure into a dosatron unit, at a rate of 1gram per cow per day, and is compatible with all other products used through the system. The product can also be orally drenched and is available from veterinarians. More? www.glenmarkvet.com

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

What’s

NEW? SOLUTIONS CALCIUM

MANAGING YOUR FARM’S EFFLUENT

F Jennie Macky and James Kinston on their Te Awamutu farm.

TREATMENT GETS THE THUMBS UP

chance offer in the middle of calving last spring led to new and better management of metabolic cows for Te Awamutu large herd equity partners Jennie Macky and James Kinston. Now they are converted to the first and only dairy treatment of its type in the New Zealand market, not least because it’s easier and safer to administer than oral drenches. The Transition Calcium Bolus contains calcium chloride, calcium propionate and calcium carbonate, plus Vitamin D. It is formulated to provide both immediate and sustained release calcium to newly calved cows. An experienced dairy vet, Macky is no stranger to metabolic disorders in cows. But that doesn’t automatically make transition cow management any easier or more successful, she says. In 2014, for example, “we had phosphorus deficiency like you’ve never seen it before. We lost 36 cows in a matter of three weeks and had to put 90 cows on once-a-day after calving. It was a nightmare spring for us.” Thankfully, subsequent metabolic issues in the herd have been more typical and less complicated for Jennie and James, but even so, they remain a seasonal challenge. Their usual treatment for down cows is two bags of injectable calcium in the paddock, followed by a home-made oral mineral drench when they’ve recovered enough to get to the dairy. Last August, a little over half way through calving the herd, Jennie called into Vetora Te Awamutu for supplies and was offered a box of Transition to try instead of oral treatment. “We’d never seen them before, but we’re always keen to give anything a go so I brought them home and started using them. The staff liked using them, because they were easier and safer to dose, and we liked them, because you can’t drown a cow with one of those.” “It helped prevent milk fever when they were in the colostrum mob, and it felt good to know we’d given them 44 grams of calcium with a 12-hour release to More? transitionbolus.com keep them going.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | August 2018

armers should be able to find all the answers on effluent management equipment and systems design at the first national Effluent Expo in late November. Organising committee head Amanda Hodgson says the event is on November 27 and 28 at Mystery Creek Events Centre, site of the National Fieldays. The Expo offers topical issue seminars and an exhibition area filled with equipment and advice on more than 70 indoor and outdoor sites. “The support from (effluent management) companies and the industry has been tremendous so far. We’ve got over 50 sites booked now and we’re confident the event will draw more than 70 in total,” she says. The NZ Dairy Exporter magazine is right behind the Expo and is producing the Official Expo Guide which will be delivered to every dairy farm letterbox in the country with the October issue of the magazine. Other sponsors are Archway Group, DairyNZ, Fonterra (FarmSource), Waikato Regional Council, and Yardmaster. The Expo is free for farmers to attend and runs from 9am to 4pm each day. Seminars are voluntary to attend and run on both days, covering topics such as storage options, using the Dairy Effluent Storage Calculator, system options and costs. Farmers are also welcome to attend the ticket-only dinner and entertainment event planned for the first day from 4.30pm. Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor will attend on the first day, November 27, from around 3pm and has agreed to stay on for the evening function to meet with farmers and exhibitors. A selection of food trucks and coffee carts will be operating during the Expo for exhibitors and farmers. Visit effluentexpo.co.nz for more details on the seminars, getting to the event, and the dinner/entertainment event on the first evening.

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