SYSTEMS OAD MILKING
Once-a-day stigma a “thing of the past” Zealand’s point of difference is having the lowest unit cost of production in pasture. uarter of a century ago, “That pasture first mentality needs to getting finance from the bank stay. It’s not pasture only – it’s pasture first. when you milked the cows It’s around how we grow and harvest it just once-a-day was a battle. and as much as possible because it is our DairyNZ’s South Island leader lowest unit cost of production. It’s our Tony Finch remembers being point of difference on a world scale.” on the banking side of one However, the industry needs of those discussions back to tell its story better because then, when finance focused NZ’s dairy farmers are the most on total milksolids and sustainable in the world and OAD milking wasn’t yet an he said they need to get that accepted practice. message out to the public and Times have changed and their consumers. Tony Finch. the stigma surrounding OAD Finch said the industry needed to is a thing of the past, he told sit back and reflect on how far it had the OAD Milking Conference in Nelson. come, because it had delivered the Instead, it now ticks the boxes for the environment, staffing, public perception and business profitability. “The system fits nicely with what people want to see,” he said. “The bottom line didn’t change and (was) sometimes lifted. My argument is: why would you spend more time doing your stuff if you could do it in a different way and do it easier for the largest voluntary investment in the same result?” environment - in excess of $1 billion While it ticks the boxes, he said it was and farmers shouldn’t lose sight of that part of a wider industry that still has a way achievement. to go to understand its consumers instead “We are environmentalists at its peak.” of focusing on how much milk goes in the Many dairy farmers have been feeling vat each day. down and out; “kicked in the guts”, but Overseas customers want ethical, reliable they needed to feel proud about who production of nutritious milk and New they were and what they produced. That
Words by: Anne Hardie
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has led to DairyNZ’s campaign, Rise and Shine, which is aimed at encouraging pride within dairy farmers of their achievements. It’s also about telling the NZ dairy story better for farmers wellbeing as well as getting that story to the public and consumers overseas. Farmers in Aotearoa are the world’s leading efficiency producers of milk in a carbon footprint – the best at it in the world – and he said they should be proud of it. They lead the world in animal care, with animals roaming outdoors, produce good ethical milk and are the highest producer of value nutrition while having the lowest footprint that comes with that. And they
. . . “Why would you spend more time doing your stuff if you could do it in a different way and do it easier for the same result?”
“making milking easier and faster”
deliver $20 billion into the NZ economy. “We’re very good at what we do. We are innovators like you can’t believe. We’re efficient in what we do and we can’t lose track that our people matter. The wellbeing aspect of our farmers is being challenged more so now than ever before and we need to feel proud of what we do.”
See our website or phone for more info.
for circular and s te ga g in ck ba e iv ct fe ef ut bo A rectangular dairy yards
K. H. McConnel Ltd. Hamilton, New Zealand 40 40
www.mcconnel.co.nz
Phone: +64 7 849 2122 Fax: +64 7 849 2128 Email: sales@mcconnel.co.nz
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