Dairy Exporter November 2021 by NZ Farmlife Media

November 2021

Learn, grow, excel

SPECIAL REPORT:

Relying on ryegrass

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WHAT’S THE BUZZ ON THE FARM Wilbur Morrison takes Buzz Club mead to the world

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Making the most of a Treaty settlement

CONTENTS MILKING PLATFORM 10 Spring has sprung, goal setting has begun for the Rankins 11 At a wet Punakaiki, risk is real for the Reynolds family 12 Hamish Hammond transitions to once-a-day milking 13 Mark Chamberlain detects change with a difference

UPFRONT 14

Phil Edmonds reckons it’s time for banks to go back to the land

18 Global Dairy: US Cheesemakers on the march 20 Market View: Milk price silly season continues

BUSINESS

Our transition to once-a-day milking

22 Making the most of a Treaty settlement 25 For peat’s sake: The rise and fall 28 Former brewers have a devotion to soft sheep cheese

Banking on the land

30 Dispensers get farm fresh milk close to customers

SYSTEMS 34 A step change to profitability in Taranaki 38 Realising the ownership goal 41 Saving on summer nitrogen 42 Strong growth in sheep dairy 44 Why do more on emissions?

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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SPECIAL REPORT

RELYING ON RYE

Working on the NZ pasture workhorse

Call of the land

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SPECIAL REPORT: PASTURE

77 MINDA: Sharing the technology

46 Keeping faith in ryegrass

78 Vet Voice: Do you really need that drench?

49 US tests of NZ-developed ryegrass 52 Treating the pasture right at Canvastown

YOUNG COUNTRY

54 Trevor Ellett: A ryegrass pioneer 56 Endophytes key to ryegrass success

80 Former Lincoln student making a buzz from honey

58 Lipids: Catching them in the rye

82 Kieran McCahon hears the call of the land

60 Collaborating on forages 62 Winning with tetraploids

ENVIRONMENT 64 System in-line to cut methane 67 Soil Carbon: The promise in biochar 68 Tools for timing effluent application 72 Soil carbon: Blame it on the worms

RESEARCH WRAP 84 LUDF: Cows approve of milking blend

DAIRY 101 86 Keep the water flowing

SOLUTIONS

STOCK

89 Want to save time milking?

74 Mastitis: Somatic cell counts - How low can you go?

OUR STORY

76 Wagyu: Calf contracts come with semen straws

90 The Dairy Exporter in November 1971

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

DAIRY DIARY Please check websites to see if events are going ahead at changing Covid Alert Levels. November 16 – Northland’s Extension 350 Project is holding a public field day at McDermott’s and Gillespie’s farm at Arapohue. It is one of 10 field days being held around the region. The long-term farmer-to-farmer programme addresses a healthy bottom line with a healthy environment and a supportive community. Field days are a chance for farmers involved in the programme to talk about their goals and plan for achieving them. The field day runs between 10.30am and 1pm. Visit www. dairynz.co.nz/events/northland/e350-publicfield-day-mcdermotts-and-gillespies or contact Hamish Matthews on 021 242 5719. The next field day is on December 8 at McGinty’s farm near Kaikohe. November 18 – Tiller Talk is being held in Manawatu. Visit www.dairynz.co.nz/events/ lower-north-island/tiller-talk-manawatunovember-1 for venue when confirmed. Contact Gray Beagley on 021 286 4346 if interested in joining the group. November 18 – Dairy Women’s Network runs a Make Time for your People workshop in Balclutha. It looks at building strong relationships between employers and employees, as well as increasing knowledge about employment contracts and rosters, salary packages and accommodation

requirements. More? Visit www.dwn.co.nz/ events/make-time-for-your-people-otago and to register. November 23 – Women’s Network runs its Challenge of Change workshop in Kaitaia. It looks at building resilience and managing yourself in stressful situations. Psychology master trainer, Cynthia Johnson, teaches four proven steps to help achieve that. More? and to register visit www.dwn.co.nz/ events/the-challenge-of-change-far-north. November 23 – Smaller Herds of New Zealand (SMASH) is holding Streamline Your Business with Lean in Te Aroha. Lean is aimed at making continuous improvements in your operation, regardless of whether you are a one-man band or have a team. The system was developed to cut waste and streamline systems to free up time, save money and reduce the workload. Dairy farmer and Lean consultant, Jana Hocken, is running the event between 10.15 and 1pm. More? and to register visit www. smallerherds.co.nz/smash-events/seminarstreamline-your-business-with-lean-waikatoeast-23rd-november. November 24 – SMASH holds the Streamline Your Business with Lean event in Te Awamutu. More? Visit www.smallerherds. co.nz/smash-events/seminar-streamlineyour-business-with-lean-waikato-west-24thnovember. December 1 – Align Farms is holding a field day at Westerfield in Canterbury on its regenerative farming trial. Two of Align’s five

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dairy farms, plus a support block, are being transitioned to a regenerative system. The first two seasons the dairy farms will be 50% regenerative and 50% traditional for the comparison. For more information about the trial and preliminary results, visit alignfarms. co.nz/regenerative-farming/about. The field day runs from 10am to 12.30pm, followed by a BBQ lunch and optional farm walk. RSVP to environment@alignfarms.co.nz for catering and Covid purposes or contact Clare Buchannan on 027 527 4430. December 1 – Entries close for the 2022 Dairy Industry Awards including the New Zealand Share Farmer of the Year, New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and New Zealand Trainee of the Year. To enter visit www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz. December 2 – A Good Yarn workshop is being held at Taieri in South Otago between 11am and 2.30pm. The workshop is aimed at helping participants recognise and respond appropriately to friends, family, farming colleagues or customers suffering from stress or mental illness. Find out more at www.dairynz.co.nz/events/southlandsouthotago/taieri-goodyarn-workshop and register by contacting ronda.ridsdale@ dairynz.co.nz or 0212427285. December 10 – Nominations open for the Fonterra Responsible Dairying Award and close on March 31, 2022. More? and to make a nomination visit www. dairyindustryawards.co.nz.

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STRONGER TOGETHER

Editor’s note

taying strong onfarm portrays an innovative programme run by Reporoa dairy farmer and cancer survivor Sarah Martelli, who helps other women find their balance and build strength and wellbeing to be the best they can be. Strong Woman is an online community for women ews from thewith COP26 meeting to in do Glasgow that to work on their fitness a workout at home, the United States and European Union have find quick and easy healthy recipes, goal planners and to encouraged an alliance of countries including New connect with other women on the same journey. Zealand to pledge to reduce methane emissions Her philosophy is to help women create healthy, by 30% by 2030 is likely to worry farmers, maybe more than sustainable habits around moving and the other nine things worrying them thatfeeding they aretheir asking bodies and their families. the Government to help them with in their View from the If women can prioritise their own health and fitness, Cowshed. theyBut canthe inspire their from partners, their children anddespite their latest word the Government is that taking the pledge, are Sarah not planning any more cuts to community aroundthey them, says (p82). farming other than thosewoman laid out creating in the current Zero Carbon She is an inspirational a moment of reducewomen. emissions by 10% by 2030 and by 24-47% by liftAct fortomany 2050. In this issue we take a look at the regenerative agri That is good news to the director of NZ Agricultural journey some NZ farmers are already on, and that the Greenhouse Gas Research Centre Dr Harry Clark who says the government has signalled they want others to join in on, bulk of our methane emissions come from agriculture and inwe ourdon’t Special haveReport. enough technologies to meet a target like that The regen debatecow hasnumbers, divided the farming community without dropping whereas the US can reduce inmethane a big way many scientists are affronted that NZ would emissions by checking and eliminating methane losses from oil andmethods gas pipelines, sites and coal with mines. need regenerative fromlandfill overseas countries Agriculture is at the-top of our methane hit list andour under highly degraded soils would that then infer that the Paris agreement, food production is of vital importance, conventional methods were degenerative? and needs to be protected from threats related toresearch climate They say the methods won't work, and that change mitigation actions. has already shown that, and also our farmers are already One piece of good news is the Ecopond breakthrough made following regenerative practices. Others say that the by Ravensdown and Lincoln University to eliminate almost methods are not emitted prescribed and each farmer can take all the methane by effluent ponds - equating to a 5% out of it what they want. It has been social reduction in methane emissions acrosscalled a farm.a(Pg 64). movement ratherreport than on a science and the claimed benefits In our Special developments and enhancements of to improved soil and stock health and building soil ryegrass, AgResearch’s high metabolisable energy ryegrass, currently in field trials inspecies, the US, use is reported to be able to carbon through diverse of biological fertilisers reduce methane of gas production by 10-15% - butwith we and laxerthe and less frequent grazing practices along need regulatory approval tothat use it in NZ due to the genetic less nitrogen is something resounds emotionally modification nature of the development. (pg49) with many. We have taken a snapshot of thinking by scientists in MPI and DairyNZ (p46) and portrayed what farmers using the practices are finding, including ongoing coverage of the comparative trial work by Align Group in Canterbury

Taking the pledge

WINNER ANNOUNCED:

Dairy Exporter | Congratulations www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | Dairy June 2021 to our NZ Exporter September subscribers prize draw winner: RICHARD A, FROM GORE who has won a DATAMARS JR5000 WEIGH SCALE INDICATOR VALUED AT $ 1899.

Higher lipid grasses are also being bred by conventional techniques at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and (p42). We also cover the Heald family of Norsewood Rural Sciences in Wales, in conjunction with NZ breeders. (p52) who have transitioned to organics, OAD and regen (pg58) philosophies and are enjoying the less intensive and And read about what you get when you cross a perennial more resilient they havefescue moved to,North alongAfrica? with ryegrass with asystem drought-tolerant from improved profitability. ...Festulolium. (pg58) Sounds like a lolly! Hopefully the cows There is more research to be done in the NZ farm will think the same. system context, says chief scientist John Roche, to Down at the LUDF, MPI’s Lincoln University Dairy Farm, the cows are loving the new regime - 10 milkings in seven days, figure out what willmilking and won’t work, but he encourages so it’s TAD on Monday, Wednesday and OAD on farmers to engage and learn more,and andFriday to embrace the weekendsasand Tuesday and Thursday. The teamwork took atolittle regenerative a verb - saying all farmers could longer for the new regime to bed in but they are enjoying it be more regenerative, more resilient, lowering carbon loss now (pg 84). Are you going to give it a go? and building carbon storage.

If you are interested in getting into farm ownership or getting out but retaining an interest, read about George Moss’ innovative idea for a speed-dating weekend for potential partners (p11). We think it could be a winner! NZ Dairy Exporter @YoungDairyED

NZ Dairy Exporter

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Sneak peek JULY 2021 ISSUE

• Special Report: Farming/business investment portfolio – if you are starting out or bowing out. • Wildlife onfarm • Ahuwhenua winners • Sheep milking conference coverage

In the next issue: December 2021

WINNER!

This Weigh Scale Indicator has the capability to record information against electronic ID (EID) and visual tags, so you can easily capture and analyse individual animal performance and history. For more product information, visit www.livestock.tru-test.com

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

•

Special report: Relax, kick back and read all about

Mindfulness - coping with stress, how to look after yourself and your staff, in these Covid times.

•

Tunapahore B2A Incorporation in the eastern Bay of Plenty

•

How a constructed wetland is the hope for cleaning up

were finalists in the Ahuwhenua Awards for 2021. Lake Horowhenua.

NEW ZEALAND NEW ZEALAND

ONLINE

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

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

Andrew Barlass and family are committed to ryegrass on their two Canterbury diary properties - he is trying out alternative forage mixes as well, but says that ryegass is the kingpin and the other species will be grazed in a way that is not at the expense of the ryegrass. Story page 46 Take a look at our story: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fLfhOACjd-U Factum Agri is dedicated to New Zealand’s primary industry, working with the Rural Support Trust. Each week Angus Kebbell talks with farmers, industry professionals and policy makers to hear their stories and expert opinions on matters relevant to both our rural and urban communities.

Sinead Lehy Interview with Sinead Lehy, principal agricultural science adviser at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. Emma Taylor Interview with Emma Taylor, general manager of Vineyard Plants in the Hawke’s Bay about viticulture. The company supplies vines, predominantly sauvignon blanc, to the New Zealand wine industry. Fiona Bush Interview with North Canterbury sheep and beef farmer, Fiona Bush. Fiona is giving her perspective on MPI’s Primary Industry Advisory Services available to the rural sector as well as the key issues farmers face today such as the environment and the rural/urban divide. Find these episodes and more at: buzzsprout.com/956197 8

Deputy Editor Sheryl Haitana M: 021 239 1633 sheryl.haitana@nzfarmlife.co.nz

REGEN VS. CONVENTIONAL FERTILISER We are tracking the comparative trials at Align Farms in Canterbury, this month taking a look at the fertiliser programmes. www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zoenATHDmyk Story page 38

Sub-editor: Andy Maciver, P: 06 280 3166 andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz Reporters Anne Hardie, P: 027 540 3635 verbatim@xtra.co.nz Anne Lee, P: 021 413 346 anne.lee@nzfarmlife.co.nz

MAATUA HOU

Karen Trebilcock, P: 03 489 8083 ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz Delwyn Dickey, P: 022 572 5270 delwyn.d@xtra.co.nz

Maatua Hou. A bobby calf rearing venture with a twist - four young couples have set up an equity partnership, bought a 34ha block and created a venture where the farmers supplying the calves also pay. The farmers are guaranteed to get their money back when the calf is sold along with a share in any profit. Could this be a way to help reduce bobbies? Is there another way we could be rearing beef in this country?

Phil Edmonds phil.edmonds@gmail.com Elaine Fisher, P: 021 061 0847 elainefisher@xtra.co.nz Design and production: Lead designer: Jo Hannam P: 06 280 3168 jo.hannam@nzfarmlife.co.nz Emily Rees emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Take a look at our story: ww.youtube.com/ watch?v=yLxdY5mkH8Y

MILK PAYOUT TRACKER:

Average $8.36/kg MS

2021/2022 Fonterra forecast price 9

8.75 8

$/kg MS

BARLASS STORY METHVEN

Editor Jackie Harrigan P: 06 280 3165, M: 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

8.20

8.30

8.49

8.50

8.90 Mid 8.40

8.50

7.90

7.80

Partnerships Managers: Janine Aish Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty P: 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz Tony Leggett, International P: 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz Angus Kebbell, South Island, Lower North Island, Livestock P: 022 052 3268 angus.kebbell@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz P: 0800 2AG SUB (224 782)

6 5 4

Fonterra forecast

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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MILKING PLATFORM TARANAKI

Spring has sprung - GOAL-SETTING HAS BEGUN! Despite the rain, the family are settling into life on the new farms, writes Trish Rankin.

t’s been a long, wet winter and calving season here in Taranaki. Balance date for grass growth was two or three weeks later than usual which put some feed pinch on many farms. Heading into mating this was a challenge trying to ensure cows were happy and on a rising plane of nutrition. Sunshine was really lacking during September and October but hopefully the weather is going into November more settled. The kids and I have been exploring the new farm(s) we are on, finding some beautiful pockets of streams, views of Taranaki Maunga and enjoying seeing the beautiful Jersey calves (and their Gumboot Friday and IHC calf buddies) flit around the paddocks. One exciting thing happening in Taranaki, is the development of Taranaki Catchment Communities which has been the establishment of 14 farmer-led, farmer-driven groups working on a range of goals from understanding water policy, looking at agri-tech, developing recreation areas alongside farms and - one of particular interest to me - reducing farm waste to landfill and the opportunities around this for improvement.

Many people may find setting a small goal is much more manageable than trying to do it all at once. In 2019, I completed a Kellogg Rural project on waste (found here https://ruralleaders.co.nz/what-a-waste-mystory-trish-rankin-2/) and from that has stemmed a small but growing role for me where I can engage with groups of farmers with the aim of setting one new goal for farm waste management a month which will result in 12 better actions a year. Many people may find setting a small goal is much more manageable than trying to do it all at once. Some great 10

Boys and the Maunga.

Calves feeding.

ways to start improving a farm waste system include buying balage recycling bags to be able to store baleage wrap in and then phoning Plasback to collect them when they are full. It is a great idea to have these bags located where the balage is opened so they can be put straight into the bag reducing any possible dirt contamination. Plasback has an app where you can put the order in for collection and the service has been constantly improving over the last 24 months. Another goal could be having a recycling system set up on farms at the dairy shed for farm waste which means that all recyclable items like cardboard packaging can be separated out from landfill waste. Realising that on most farms there isn’t a curbside pick up, getting the recycling to the nearest recycling station can be seen as a challenge, but it is just about developing a habit. For example, when you have filled a container, put it in the back of the car, and when going to town drop it in. Or roster staff on ‘Farm Day Friday’ where you might do lots of farm tidy-up jobs and one person on the team has this responsibility. The opportunities to improve our waste behaviour on farms are there and this is an area farmers can manage to improve without requiring legislation or regulation to drive a behaviour. If anyone would like any further ideas feel free to get in touch or I have a website that will keep having information added to it www.porohita.com Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

MILKING PLATFORM PUNAKAIKI

RISK IS REAL The scene of the crime.

A wetter and colder than normal spring has put the brakes on production for the Reynolds family on their farm near Punakaiki on the West Coast. And then there is the risk of DIY. Richard Reynolds tells the story.

he last two months have really brought home the ‘risk is real’ mantra. This has started onfarm with what was looking like an excellent start to the season turning into a real turd. We are used to, but not lovers of, wet weather but the cold and wet together have caused some major problems with production in the district being dramatically down, in the order of 10%. Following the floods of Canterbury and Buller there has been no silage available so everyone not set up for grain feeding has had to use palm kernel. This has resulted in some transport problems around trucking companies’ ability to deliver fertiliser and feed on time. The trucks have been prioritising feed over fertiliser which is fair but with limited fine days to put on fertiliser this has resulted in fertiliser going out late and an increased use of helicopters for spreading. Weather risk in farming has always been real but with the increased push for production when weather risk meets another form of risk like supply chain, transport or financial, big problems can accrue. Cost inflation is hitting home with letters arriving from mechanics, trucking companies and fertiliser suppliers informing us prices are going up. For most of us, there would have been little surprise the inflation rate came out as high as it did. We have also been re-fixing some borrowings and looking at old interest rates starting with a three and new ones starting with a five - that is another cost to absorb. This is the first time interest rates have risen in seven years. For some people, rising interest will be a new phenomenon. As a mum, dad and one-worker farm we have always been aware of the potential we have around labour risk and this year this has shown up, not through the more common problem of not being able to get labour but through my desire to build a cheap glasshouse. Richard and Tavis During one weekend over calving show off their digital I had designed a devious glasshouse dexterity! Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

using an old gate and some reinforcing mesh. Working with the kids and Chris to install the creation of beauty I managed to cut three bones and tendons in the back of my hand. I instantly knew that this was quite major and had wrapped my hand in my shirt.

This is the first time interest rates have risen in seven years. For some people, rising interest will be a new phenomenon. Luckily the family was there and Chris’s nursing skills and both kids’ St John skills came into play. Chris wanted to look at my hand, I didn’t want to show her, Iris rang an ambulance and Tavis, on my instructions, made me some warm sugar water as I may have been a bit shocked. The sugar water was amazing at fixing me up. After seeing my hand Chris was a bit shocked too, not from a fear of blood which there was very little of but because of the fact that I was off to Christchurch and definitely would not be milking for a long time, now it looks like three months. Luckily this happened during lockdown and I had no wait at Greymouth hospital and after driving to Christchurch waited about 15 minutes to be seen. I had surgery the next morning. The surgeon commented on the quality of my tendons and that I had made a nice straight cut, good to see that I didn’t stuff everything up. I spent three days in a ward by myself and after six weeks am working on making a fist. Healthwise I have got away with a moment’s inattention very lightly and it looks like I will be 90% back to normal. Onfarm we were lucky that Chris could step in and that Kerry stepped up to cover more hours. We also managed to find a part-timer with good experience to help out. That side could not have gone better. I am struggling with feeling a little useless about the farm but I am very grateful for the outcomes. This year’s payout will reward me for the risks I am taking in my business and I hope that that carries on because risk is real. 11

MILKING PLATFORM WAIRARAPA

Our transition to ONCE-A-DAY MILKING In the midst of a wet and miserable spring, Hamish Hammond found the earlier decision to move to once-a-day milking proved itself.

his season has started with a few challenges in the Wairarapa and it is a usual culprit - the weather! It has been dreary to say the least. It is difficult farming in the conditions we have had. Mastitis and lameness rates are higher, cows have less condition, paddocks are damaged, and people stressed out. When thinking about our recent situation one thing that comes to mind that has made life simpler for us was milking once-a-day (OAD), something we have been doing since 2018. In this article I will go over a snapshot of our OAD journey and hopefully identify some tips for farmers willing to try it. Our first step on the move to full-season OAD started in March 2018. This initial late season foray was done to help us identify cows that would absolutely not be suitable for full-season OAD which was planned for the subsequent year. Cows with poor udders and somatic cell-count (SCC) issues were the target group, and these were subsequently culled with confidence that we had identified the New life on the farm, George lowest hanging fruit. This Hammond, six weeks old, is initial change from twice-asheltering in place out of the bad weather! day (TAD) to OAD milking brought with it a rise in bulk SCC by ~100k. This came down over the course of a week and returned to a normal pattern until drying off. The next step, the big one, was to start OAD from the beginning of the season and never switch back. Some observations of the first season were: 1. The transition seemed quite easy for the cows but more challenging for us humans. 2. Bulk SCC wasn’t an obvious issue compared to TAD, although we got more mastitis cases early in the season compared to TAD. 12

Oh the weather - sleet and hail that looked like snow - the Wairarapa has copped some good southerly weather this spring.

3. There was a production drop overall in that first season – for us it ended 9% down with 365kg milksolids (MS)/ cow from 400kg MS on TAD. 4. We tried to feed our cows the same as TAD, the difference was production didn’t peak as high but didn’t drop as quickly, and, most importantly, we didn’t have to worry about cow condition, the cows just didn’t lose weight like a TAD cow. 5. Fewer lame cows. 6. No mating intervention and a better (lower) empty rate. 7. Happy cows and happy people.

The next step, the big one, was to start OAD from the beginning of the season and never switch back. Now, after three great seasons we feel we have hit somewhat of a sweet spot in our farm system. We have three staff, milking 600 cows producing ~420kg MS/cow (we hit this level of production in the second year of fullseason OAD). We rear all our own replacements and run a 60-hectare beef finishing operation on the side. Staff enjoy working fewer total hours and can finish work by three in the afternoon, once we are through the busy spring period. Overall, our farm system is more sustainable and resilient than when we were TAD milking. What advice would I give for those considering a change in their milking frequency, especially going full-season OAD? Focus on udders, and cull heavily on weak udder support during the transition phase. Feed your cows like a TAD cow and capture more days in milk (a high six-week-incalf rate will come with the transition, be prepared for the extra work this creates at calving). And lastly, get the whole team on board, and you will all reap the benefits. Good luck. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

MILKING PLATFORM GORE

CHANGE with a difference Mark Chamberlain seeks a translation for one of his cooperative’s box-ticking exercises.

have to say, academic greatness is not what I am remembered for at my old school. Former teachers remember me, I’m sure, for other deeds. But I learnt quickly to think for myself and to question things. Recently, I have had tonnes of thinking time. Sitting on a tractor going in ever diminishing circles and milking endless rows of cows. And it has only now occurred to me that our farmer cooperatives must be employing people that actually agree with Green Party views and Labour policies. It is a hard to prove theory but is surely a mathematical probability. Is it possible that these employees not only support these views but that they are enacting them? Making a change from within? Fonterra has introduced a new compliance tool called the ‘Cooperative Difference’ – no one in Auckland could see the oxymoron? Really? Without getting too deep in the weeds, Fonterra will take 10c per kg of milksolids off suppliers and depending on how many boxes we can tick correctly and, if you are a good boy/ girl/other; they will return none, some, or all of it.

Without getting too deep in the weeds, Fonterra will take 10c per kg of milksolids off suppliers and depending on how many boxes we can tick correctly and, if you are a good boy/girl/other; they will return none, some, or all of it. Sound straightforward? What is interesting is that there are levels of achievement labelled in a language I do not understand. I have asked that perhaps Fonterra can put an English translation beside these names as well, so that we can actually learn what they are trying to communicate. My lovely wife sometimes believes my adjectives could be ‘argumentative’ and ‘belligerent’, but I am certainly not ignorant. Stop licking your double-scooped wokey-pokey ice-creams and concentrate on meaningful messaging, rather than tokenistic virtue signaling. They have also gone hard at high-input feed systems and their nitrogen surpluses per hectare. These farms, in their own small way, have helped Fonterra become what it is today – providing consistent milk all season as opposed to a bell-shaped curve. They have asked these farmers to reduce their nitrogen surplus more or less overnight, so they can qualify for the Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Questions at the coalface: Fonterra’s Clandeboye plant.

Cooperative Difference (and hence get some of their money back) yet Fonterra has promised the government that they will stop burning coal within the next generation… or thereabouts. We are repeatedly told that our customers are demanding this from us. The confusion really sets in when I read that New Zealand is importing two million tonnes of coal, some of which, ironically, must generate power for dairy sheds and even more confusingly, that our biggest customer is the world’s biggest polluter, with questionable human rights violations. Are we to believe that these ‘customers’ are so paranoid about what the farmers are doing at the coalface (excuse the pun) yet will happily turn a blind eye to other hypocrisies? I find that hard to believe. It may seem I’ve gone a bit hard at them, but I am very proud to supply Fonterra. Nobody should retreat from healthy and robust debate as it keeps us all honest, and engaged. You see, it is as if Fonterra is not only singing off the same hymn sheet as the Government but that James Offshore is playing the organ while comrade Cindy conducts. I say this of course without a shred of evidence but as my wife tells me, timing is everything. Because it appears that all of this started happening when Fonterra finally got traction around the softening of the DIRA regulations, something that was nigh on impossible during nine years of a perceived farmer-friendly National Government… but achieved within just three years of a slightly slippery socialist one. What did Labour ask for in return? I certainly would have asked for something if I were them. My neighbour thinks I am cynical, maybe so - but as an old salty sea dog once told me, there are no coincidences in Wellington. • First published in Country-Wide November 2021. 13

INSIGHT

UPFRONT A2 MILK

Banking

ON THE LAND Despite some compelling arguments in defence of banks’ being overly watchful with agri lending, there are now some factors that should encourage banks to have lending conversations with farmers. By Phil Edmonds.

s 2021 draws to a close the prospects for farming couldn’t be rosier. But they also couldn’t be gloomier. That’s an interpretation of sentiment in the sector if on one hand you consider export markets signalling a near future of elevated farmgate prices, with ongoing contraction of bank lending to the agri sector on the other. The latter is potentially denying farmers the opportunity to capitalise on unprecedented levels of market support, and likely to be the cause for at least some of the gloom. Having farmers and banks able to better understand how they can succeed together might start to reduce those contrasting attitudes. The discrepancy between the existence of positive export market conditions and falling confidence among farmers is not new. But the contradiction was especially present in the findings of the Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey published at the end of September, where farmers were more embittered despite commodity prices rising with little sign of downside risk. Indeed, in October both ANZ and Westpac upgraded their 2021-22 farmgate milk price forecasts to $8.20kg and $8.50kg milksolids (MS) respectively and farmgate prices for lambs exceeded $9kg with further firming predicted. Some of the pessimism expressed through these surveys can be attributed to short-term disenchantment with the Government. But the component that specifically considers investment intentions is a more telling 14

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

One-in-four farmers noted that their lending conditions had changed in the past six months, with more experiencing tougher conditions than easier.

assessment of where longer-term confidence sits. In the recent Rabobank survey sheep and beef farmers were found to have some increasing appetite for investing (possibly due to a sense of having new land-use options with the rising demand for carbon farming), but dairy farmers (where the majority of the rural sector lending is concentrated, and where revenue growth appears to be more secure), a dwindling appetite. Is it the farming sectors’ weak appetite

to invest, or the appetite of banks with the means to fund capital spending that is causing this sub-optimal situation? Farmers’ faith in their banks has been waning. The most-recently published Federated Farmers’ Banking Survey found the proportion of farmers satisfied with their banks has continued to fall, part of a steady trend of eroding satisfaction over the past five years. One-in-four farmers noted that their lending conditions had changed in the past six months, with more

experiencing tougher conditions than easier. This was further evidenced in the ANZ Business Outlook survey for August which showed that despite a small drop, the majority of farmers (65%) still expect it to become more difficult to obtain credit. That doesn’t square with improved economy-wide lending conditions (until very recently, interest rates at record lows) and more importantly, noises from the top suggesting there are some reasons for banks to become

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ANZ agricultural economist Susan Kilsby.

more optimistic in managing their agri portfolios. In its last six-monthly Financial Stability Report, the Reserve Bank noted strong commodity prices are supporting ongoing debt consolidation and risk deleveraging in the dairy industry. “While dairy’s share of banks’ agricultural sector lending remains considerable, it has declined from 69% to 63% in recent years… the number of dairy farmers identified by banks as being stressed or potentially stressed has continued to decline.” This trend was evidenced when Westpac identified its stressed exposures as part of its 2021 financial result presentation. It noted the proportion of its agri portfolio considered to be impaired had fallen from 0.48% in September 2020 to 0.29% in March 2021. Westpac concluded its overall dairy portfolio remained sound with risk profiles improving. At the same time however, Westpac also reported a fall in its agri assets as a proportion of its total tangible capital. This is not only a Westpac phenomenon. Last month KPMG’s quarterly report on banking performance in New Zealand found agricultural lending had further declined as a proportion of all lending – down from over 14% two years ago to 12.5% in June 2021. In its sector lending summary for September, the Reserve Bank reported total agricultural lending fell $57 million for the month, and the annual growth rate for lending to farmers was -1.3%. This suggests that even though agri lending is becoming less risky, banks are still nervous and possibly looking to consolidate their positions even further. Why is that? First off, banks might argue that their hands are effectively still tied. With the new Reserve Bank capital retention rules which will be progressively implemented from next year, incentives to focus competitive efforts on the housing market are unchanged. Housing is considered a safer (less risky) investment and therefore requires less capital to be held by banks. Arguably, there may now be less motivation to lend to the productive sectors of the economy such as farms. There’s still a sense that in some areas there are no obvious gains to be made by increasing lending to those who are already

indebted, particularly without the ‘old normal’ of ever-increasing land prices. Those latter elements of uncertainty are underpinning banks’ caution. But perhaps more than that, banks are trying to work out what a lower-risk primary sector looks like in the future. Much of this relates to how new environmental rules will shape individual farm viability. So far banks have not wanted or felt able to go out and assess farms for likely compliance without definitive criteria. Some rules around nutrient regulations are known, and some are still being developed. The measurement and accounting for greenhouse gases (GHGs) is still to come. Some processors have decided how they will financially incentivise farmers for meeting environmental and other standards, while others are considering it. The likes of Fonterra coming out with a set of rules around what suppliers need to do in order to obtain a premium on their payout would almost certainly give banks an easier means to assess what a viable operation looks like.

So far banks have not wanted or felt able to go out and assess farms for likely compliance without definitive criteria. Some rules around nutrient regulations are known, and some are still being developed.

ANZ agricultural economist Susan Kilsby says “As these kinds of programmes evolve, whether it be local government regulation or processing company rules, it will become much clearer for banks to know which farmers are going to earn a bit more, but also be less likely to come up against regulatory problems and become noncompliant. Bank confidence would then likely rise, with a better handle on what the potential looks like for individual farm businesses.” Elsewhere, some have pointed to signs of a

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

rejuvenated rural property market as a cause for banks to take a more optimistic view of the sector. This seems unlikely, at least in the short term. Having been burned in the era of over-reliance on capital gain to assure debt repayment, banks would want to see a booming market, rather than an incubating one.

“There are those who recognise that running a great farming business is much different than what it used to be where ‘big bang’ capital gain was made.

The RIENZ farm sales report for the three months to September identified volatility rather than momentum as the key take out. Sales were down against the same period in 2020 but the median price per hectare was up 22%. REINZ Rural Spokesman Brian Peacocke noted the dairy category recorded 31 sales for the 2021 September quarter, up from 11 last year. “The numbers in themselves are not too dramatic. Nevertheless, it does signal an emerging degree of support for the dairy industry.” Equally, though, this uplift could also be simply down to farmers who had wanted to exit over the past few years now doing so with more buyers creating a bit of competition. Despite some compelling arguments in defence of banks’ being overly watchful, there are now some factors that should, and will be encouraging banks to have lending conversations with farmers they may not have been proactively seeking in recent years. NZ AgriBrokers director Andrew Laming says “Aside from better profitability and results in the sector, we have a feature we haven’t seen for decades where ongoing debt repayments are outpacing new loans

being written. This means that banks are seeking more loans to ensure they don’t lose any further ground on their agri portfolios, affecting their own cash earnings.” This development suggests banks have been too cautious for their own good. Laming also says farmers’ balance sheets are about to turn a corner as well. “They’ve been hit hard with land values down around 10-15% from their peak. But over the last three years farmers have repaid a lot of debt and this will start to repair a lot of previously unbankable positions.” It won’t be enough to have paid down debt to bring the banks back to the table though – not least for all the reasons identified above. Andrew Laming suggests times have changed, with two different groups of farmers emerging, one bankable, and one less so. “There are those who recognise that running a great farming business is much different than what it used to be where ‘big bang’ capital gain was made. This group of farmers have strategies and forward planning for all eventualities, great people and advice around them, continuous operational improvement, an environmental enhancement mindset and significant retained earnings to cope with volatility. The other group doesn’t have these attributes.” The first group will now have the confidence of banks, and better still, will potentially be in a position to negotiate across suitors – based on their greater ability to capture the export market price gains identified earlier. Those who have less certainty about their own business operation and are unable to show they fully understand the risks will struggle to sway the banks out of their retrenched thinking. Does this now mean there is only a partial and defined number of farmers able to fuel growth with bank debt? Not necessarily, Laming says. None of the attributes identified in the winners list are unobtainable. “It doesn’t have to be hard for farmers, as long as they have the right advice alongside them. Banking is as much subjective (judgement and narrative) as it is objective (numbers) and understanding what is important to a bank can go a long way.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

NZ AgriBrokers director Andrew Laming.

GLOBAL DAIRY UNITED STATES/CANADA

Cheese please: Words by: Anne Cote

ver the past decade the Canadian dairy industry has posted a significant trade imbalance, according to data from Agriculture Canada for 2020. Despite this grim news, the data from Agriculture Canada also indicates Canada’s dairy exports went up by 16.8% between 2019 and 2020. But the imbalance persists as import values rose by 6.68% over the same period with the result that import values remain at a level almost double the value of exports. The last two trade agreements signed by the Canadian government won’t help narrow this gap, especially in the cheese market. The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), signed on October 30, 2016, in Belgium, allows Europe to export an additional 18,500 tonnes of cheese into Canada tariff-free. This is an addition to the previously negotiated tariff free quantity of 13,471t which was already making its way into the Canadian market from the EU. Most of this generous increase, 16,000t, falls into the “fine cheese” category causing Canadian fine cheese makers considerable concern as they vie for shelf space in supermarkets and boutique shops. But Canadian cheesemakers have even more tariff-free competition to worry about. On July 1, 2020 the Canada United-States, Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) came into effect and it gives United States cheesemakers the ability to ship 12,500 tonnes more by year six of the agreement and then grow by 1% for an additional 13 years. In October 2021, US dairy producers reported strong growth in dairy export markets with an 18% increase in cheese exports into the global marketplace led by strong demand by Mexico and Latin America; but it’s important to note that the US is one of Canada’s major competitors for cheese on its supermarket shelves. USDEC notes “cheese markets tend to decline seasonally in the back half of the year” but this year the 12% decline in cheese exports the US usually experiences during this period hasn’t happened. And, because global demand for cheese has risen by 6% this year compared to 18

US cheesemakers are ready to meet the challenges of filling the global need for cheese.

In October. 2021 US dairy producers reported strong growth in dairy export markets with an 18% increase in cheese exports.

historic gains of only 3%, the organisation expects US cheese will remain in high demand in global markets. There are two reasons for the optimistic outlook the USDEC is reporting. The first is that US pricing is highly competitive making cheese more attractive to buyers around the globe. The second is the availability of products. For example, over the past several years the state of Wisconsin, a major cheese producing region, has been pushing for better trade deals to help them sell excess cheese produced there. But at this year’s Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin panelists were all smiles as they praised the ever-increasing demand for domestic dairy products as well as an expanding global market. With world demand expanding, US cheesemakers are ready to meet the challenges of filling the global need for cheese whether it’s in Canada, the EU, New Zealand, Latin America or Mexico, countries where consumers are already familiar with their products.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Pasture & Forage News

November 2021

Get the best from the best Top-class grass is a fantastic investment for your farm system.

Lead from the front, with 4front One of New Zealand’s newest perennial ryegrasses is also unbeaten for total dry matter yield with strong year three data showing good persistence, latest industry data shows. 4front, our high performing new tetraploid, has shot straight to the top of the just released National Forage Variety Trial (NFVT) results for perennial ryegrass. This is a great result for our plant breeders, and a big thumbs up to their hard work. It’s independent validation that says our R&D team are at the top of their game. We’ve been excited about 4front for years as it has progressed through our programme. Farmers have given it a great welcome since we brought it to market in July; we knew we had a champion and now the independent NFVT data has reinforced its tremendous yield ability. 4front has been bred to help farmers stay ahead of fast-changing social and market expectations. Palatable, dense and high yielding, 4front grazes well; encourages cows to eat more for higher per head production, and equally important, can improve environmental outcomes. Tetraploid ryegrasses can grow more

DM/ha than diploids because you can run higher covers before grazing, and they’re still very palatable. Higher pre-grazing covers mean a longer grazing round, more time for the plant to respond to N fertiliser, and a proportionately higher N response. Grazing management is easier, too! Grazing later also has the benefit of giving cows a better balanced diet with less N. As ryegrass regrows after grazing, the crude protein (CP) or N content of the plant drops. Lactating cows in spring need around 18% CP in their diet, so a pasture with 22% protein at that time supplies 4% too much. This excess protein, excreted as urine and dung, is what causes problems with N loading of soils. Grazing 0.5 leaf/tiller later may reduce CP by 1.5%, dropping excess protein by over 30%.

So it’s worth sowing them as well as you possibly can. You wouldn’t invest in a high end tractor and let someone operate it with no experience; sowing quality pasture no different. It needs to be done right for the seed to perform to its full potential. Whether it’s 4front, Shogun, Maxsyn, Trojan, Forge, Governor AR37 or Tabu+, Barenbrug cultivars are among the very best in their class. One of the most important things is to make sure you know what caused your previous existing pasture to run out in the first place, and to rectify that issue before drilling new seed. Pasture renewal is like a chain made up of several links – soil fertility; pasture cultivar; sowing technique, depth and timing; soil compaction and drainage; drought, pests, weeds and management. If just one of those links is broken, you won’t get the results you hope for, even if the others are intact. We’ve made a handy checklist for best practice sowing so you don’t have to remember every step in the process. It’s on our website www.barenbrug.co.nz . Happy spring sowing!

To learn more about how 4front can help change the way you farm, either on its own or mixed with Maxsyn, download your free copy of The 4front System from our website today.

facebook.com/BarenbrugNZ barenbrug.co.nz 0800 955 Dairy Exporter | 449 www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

@BarenbrugNZ

INSIGHT

UPFRONT MARKET VIEW

Milk price silly season continues Words by: Stuart Davison

he 2021-22 New Zealand dairy season started very quietly while the global market sat on their hands, unsure which way things would head after peak Northern hemisphere milk production months. This created a very muted market, with the market bearish on prices. There were five negative GDT auctions from June onwards; but in the world of dairy, it doesn’t take much news to create a fluster. This fluster really took off when the global dairy market realised that milk production would not be supported in the short term by high milk prices. Globally, buyers in overseas markets had a very strong belief that a high forecast farmgate milk price in NZ would create a mad rush to increase milk production at any cost, as has been seen in the past. However, as we keep lamenting to these same buyers, it’s not really that simple at this time of the year. Weather has the biggest call on what will positive figure and jump to the conclusion happen to milk production, something that grass will grow, there is enough that observers of NZ’s production moisture, creating a muted market, as milk system don’t easily understand. Our production struggles through wet and key production trait, pasture based milk cold spring conditions, as we’ve seen this production, also creates a black hole of year. However, when the truth is printed knowledge for those outside of by DCANZ, that the high soil moisture our systems. figure has negatively impacted milk A real knowledge gap production due to lower pasture is created, as the world production and efficacy of pasture watches one aspect of harvest, these same buyers react our weather and tries to sharply. paint it across the entire This creates what we have seen season. The perfect example over the last two months. Shock and Stuart Davison. awe at a negative milk production of this is soil moisture. High soil moisture is a dream in growth figure for August 2021, and summer, what more could you want! So it the expectation of both September and becomes a positive measure. However, that October delivering a negative number same measure in winter is a curse. No one also. All of this results in dairy commodity in their right mind likes mud, especially prices being pushed higher as the potential not when you want to grow grass in the sparsity of production becomes apparent. place that the mud has appeared. So a An unintended consequence of this positive soil moisture figure in winter is mad flip in buyers’ mentality, is milk price a negative, most of the time. However, forecasts leaping around like crazy. We’ve often international dairy buyers see this seen milk price forecasts lowered during

Weather has the biggest call on what will happen to milk production, something that observers of NZ’s production system don’t easily understand.

early spring, before exploding following the recent GDT events. Our own NZX farm gate milk price forecasts have followed the same trajectory, however, we remain firm in the belief that it’s too early to count all the chickens and are very cautionary when we make these forecast figures public. As a farmer, this sort of posturing of inflated milk price forecasts doesn’t help with budgeting and doesn’t help with the mindset if things move the other way. As we’ve seen at the start of this season, the global dairy industry is a fast-moving game, and our local industry is fully exposed to this game. So, don’t count your chickens just yet, there is a lot of the season ahead of us all. If we look back to soil moisture as a key indicator of production, it looks like milk production through late spring and summer will be better than last season; what effect will that have on commodity prices, do you think? • Stuart Davison is an NZX Dairy Analyst.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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BUSINESS AHUWHENUA TROPHY

Making the most of a

Treaty settlement Ahuwhenua Trophy finalists Pouarua Farms are farming a large block of peat soil in Hauraki Plains using minimal cultivation techniques, investing in carbon sinks, retiring poor-performing land and diversifying land use to best look after their whenua (land) - which they’ve only recently got back. Sheryl Haitana reports.

auraki iwi who went through years of Treaty of Waitangi negotiations to eventually buy back their own land, are now balancing social, cultural and economic prosperity for their people while caring for and restoring their whenua. Five iwi, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Tara Tokanui and Te Patukirikiri, were compensated in 2013 with the largest on-account Treaty Settlement ever made by the Crown. They collectively acquired Pouarua Farms in 2013 - some 2200 hectares on the Hauraki Plains, comprising 10 farms – nine dairy units and one drystock unit. The farms were initially in a 50:50 sharemilking agreement with Landcorp, but have been fully operated by the iwi owners since 2019. Pouarua Farms chief executive Jenna Smith came onboard at the transition and has helped steer the farms toward higher profitability, while improving the environmental footprint in the last few seasons. They hit record profit last year while managing to lower both their nitrogen loss and greenhouse gas numbers. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Left: Pouarua Farms were proud to be a finalist after only recently taking back full ownership of their land. Top: Visitors at the Pouarua Farms field day. Below: Pouarua Farms have nine dairy units on the peat soils of Hauraki Plains.

One of their dairy farms, Farm A, which Pouarua entered in the Ahuwhenua Trophy, recorded an 18% increase in per cow milk production to 390kg milksolids (MS)/cow in the 19/20 season and a 20% increase in per hectare production to 1034kg MS despite a significant drought. Farm A has a nitrogen surplus of 106kg/ ha and is emitting 9128kg CO2e/ha. “We dropped our stocking rates significantly and focused on the basics. We have had a reasonable growth phase and we are fine tuning our operations now,” Jenna says. Jenna’s job involves ensuring peak performance, while also looking at new ventures for the iwi land and hitting targets that meet Pouarua’s strategy, which vary from profitability to connecting with their community. She has been involved with investment farming for years and was excited to work for an iwi company where there was an intergenerational view of the land.

FARM FACTS: • Owners: Pouarua Farms (Owned by Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Tara Tokanui and Te Patukirikiri) • Location: Ngatea, Hauraki Plains • Area: 2200ha (1775ha milking platform) • Cows: 4600 • Production: 1.65mkg MS

“I really like iwis’ long-term take on farming, it’s still profit focused, but there are equal values on doing what is right for the land and the people. “It’s refreshing to have other drivers than profit.”

Planting on peat Pouarua Farms embodies the practice of ‘Kaitiakitanga toku whenua: to return the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

land, once lost, to our iwi and to care for the land, forever!’. Farming on peat is a concern and will be a challenge , but one they feel confident to meet, Jenna says. “We have challenging soils and carbon emissions are probably one of our biggest challenges. We are not ever waiting for regulations to come to us, we are trying to get ahead and look after the whenua. “We are looking at other options, and by doing what the land is capable of, rather than trying to make the land capable of something it’s not.” Pouarua Farms has just planted a 9ha canopy blueberry orchard, the largest canopy orchard in the North Island, which they intend to grow to 20ha within the next two years. This year they also put some of the dairy platform into food-grade grain, which meets another of the iwi’s strategies to feed people, through suitable use of the land. They retired 25ha on one of the dairy farms to a carbon sink. The area was converted about 15 years ago, but never performed up to standard, so it made sense to revert the land to native species, Jenna says. They are looking for other areas on their dairy platforms which will be suitable to retire and are working closely with Maanaki Landcare and Waikato Regional Council on peat soil trials (Read more on page 25). Cultivation techniques are another key focus with cropping a regular practice across the milking platforms. Pouarua grow turnips in summer, which are direct-drilled in and then they direct drill sorghum to provide cover. “If we get a dry summer the turnips could be finished by late January/early February and may not be back in grass until late April.” The sorghum sown behind the turnips makes sure the land is not bare for too long to minimise carbon loss. It also supplies an extra 4-5 tonnes of feed, Jenna says. This season they have planted a couple of paddocks with up to nine species to do an informal trial of regenerative planting to see how that stacks up. A forever planting plan also sees about 7500 plants (Harakeke (flax) and other native species) planted annually across the entire platform. Riparian planting of the 23

Left: Pouarua Farms director John McEnteer and chief executive Jenna Smith.

POUARUA FARM A: 2019

2020

Area:

215ha

Peak cows:

540

581

Production:

186,622kgMS

224,518kg MS

572kg/cow

611kg/cow

Nitrogen:

172kg/ha

160kg/ha

Pasture eaten:

10.4tDM/ha

11.4tDM/ha

6-week in calf rate:

80%

75%

Supplement:

drains is the main priority. They’ve just completed their first fiveyear planting plan which had 53,000 plants go in the ground. They work with the council to make sure they are hitting the hot spots first, Jenna says. Specific species are planted in cultural gardens to utilise in weaving, medicines, food (honey), bird habitat, water quality, soil conservation and landscape improvement. “That is one thing peat is good for is growing Harakeke. The weavers love it, they can come and harvest their Harakeke that they need. We’re identifying different areas now, so we will have different areas where they harvest Harakeke for kete bags, and another corner for art, as they have different textiles.”

POUARUA FARM A: FINANCIAL 2019

2020

Farm working expenses:

$5.08/kg Ms

$4.24/kg M

Gross farm revenue

$7,508/ha

$8,068/ha

Operating expenses:

$4,466/ha $5.14/kg MS

$4,435/ha $4.25/kg MS

Operating profit::

$3,042/ha $3.51/kg MS

$3,633/ha $3.48/kg MS

Connecting the people to the land Entering the Ahuwhenua Trophy and hearing the stories from the other finalists, highlighted how closely other iwi were connected with their community. “Because this land has only just been returned, and we have a large community to touch base with, it’s highlighted to me how much work we have to do there.” During Covid-l9 lockdowns last year the farms started supplying food to the Manaaki Hub to go out to vulnerable whanau. Their summer cropping this year will include sweetcorn and sunflowers to be included in the kai packs. “With Covid there are about 7500 meals going out a week. We want to put in at least four or five proteins so that people can see a direct benefit from having their land.” Eight of the dairy farms supply Synlait, with one now supplying Lewis Road Creamery with A2 Jersey milk, another product iwi can identify directly to their land. Another way to connect with their community is Pouarua Farms has increased Maori employed onfarm from 21% to 42% this year. With Covid and immigration changes, they lost 12 migrant workers, but were able to employ local people into those roles. “We’ve employed 10 of those roles straight from the iwi - they’re all new to the industry, first-time farmers. “They’ve all been able to come out and get jobs and connect with their land. So that’s been an awesome achievement this year.” Pouarua Farms focuses on staff training and in recognition that the training is required by others, the farm is opened up to enable other farmers and staff to attend shared field days. There is also a strong relationship with the local college. Project 24

FARM A (Finalist in the Ahuwhenua Trophy) • Area: 215ha • Cows: 580 cows • Production: 223,000kg MS • Farm dairy: 54-bail rotary, in-shed feeding, Protrack, auto drafting, ACRs • System: DairyNZ System 2 • Operating profit: $3.50/kgMS • Farm working expenses: $4.25/kgMS • Supplementary fed: 611kg/cow • Pasture eaten: 11.4 t DM/ha • Nitrogen: 160kg/ha

Papatūānuku educates secondary school students in practical farming methods on peat land, while at the same time they are gaining NZQA qualifications. Students are able to access the farm for this training and to carry out science experiments. Being named a finalist in the Ahuwhenua Trophy competition was a huge achievement, considering how young the company still is, Jenna says. “We are still so young in our journey, It was a really good chance to stop and be proud, we are up there amongst some of the best in the country.” Entering the Ahuwhenua competition and holding up the trophy - whether it’s for dairy, horticulture, or drystock, is definitely on the plan going forward. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

DAIRY & CALF

SHELTERS

BUSINESS PEAT SOILS

FF O NDEDS A ST SH

For peat’s sake: The rise and fall

NG I ER DS T IN E W SH

Words by: Sheryl Haitana

and use and drainage management of drained peat soils in the future will need to balance productivity with finding solutions to minimise or stop peat subsidence and carbon loss, Waikato Regional Council (WRC) soil scientist Justin Wyatt says. The Waikato region has 89,000 hectares of peat soils, with about 80% drained for productive land uses, which is about 40% of New Zealand’s peatland resource. Drainage has allowed peat soils to contribute to the regional economy, but this results in subsidence and oxidation of the peat and ultimately the loss of the peat resource. Oxidation contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through carbon loss. Subsidence can also adversely affect adjacent infrastructure, such as roads, provision of services and impact on land drainage. WRC has started a monitoring programme in the region to better understand peat subsidence under different land uses and drainage management. “In time, this work will improve our

WRC soil scientist Justin Wyatt says farmers should engage with research about how peat soils will be managed in the future.

understanding of how existing peat soil management influences subsidence rates and will also provide information on how future changes in land management and other factors, such as climate change, might impact peat subsidence.” WRC did its first round of data collection over about 11,000ha of peatland in April this year collecting ground surface elevation data from a helicopter using a method called lidar. This work will be repeated in five years, and when combined the two sets of elevation data will be used to calculate peat subsidence during that period.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

LF ERS A C LT E SH

www.redpath.co.nz Free Ph 0508 733 72825 sales@redpath.co.nz

Above: Visitors to the Pouarua Farms learnt how they are managing their peat soils retiring blocks as a carbon sink, planting 9ha of blueberries and changing cropping practices. Left: “One thing that peat is good for is growing harakeke”. A variety of species of the flax is being planted for use in weaving and medicines, as part of Pouarua’s forever planting plan.

“Some of our monitoring transects include mineral, non-peat soils to help check the data we are collecting on peat soils. Monitoring locations were selected to ensure surveying covers a representative mix of land uses, peat type, peat depth and drainage types.” WRC is also continuously monitoring peat surface elevation and water table depth at 11 sites on different land uses on drained peat across the region, including Pouarua Farms. “While the long-term trend is one of peat subsidence, changes in soil moisture mean that peat surface levels go up and down seasonally, so this monitoring will enable us to time future lidar flights to ensure that ground surface level is at a similar point in the seasonal oscillation cycle. “It will also help us understand whether there is a difference in subsidence rates among land uses and better understand water table dynamics in drained peat soil.” While the problem of subsidence has 26

been known for a long time, the loss of soil carbon is now receiving much more attention, Justin says. “The reality is as long as peat soils are drained they are going to be losing carbon, this contributes significantly to our regional greenhouse gas emissions. However, drained peat soils are now incredibly productive, so it’s a challenge about how those soils are managed in the future. “Those soils are a significant contributor to our regional economy. It’s quite a wicked problem.” Future work funded through the Council’s Long-Term Plan (LTP) will look at, the risks of ongoing peat subsidence and carbon loss to the region, what options there are for improving current land uses and drainage management to reduce subsidence and carbon loss, and investigating potential for land use change on peat soils. “Through existing and planned work, we want to understand the risks of peat subsidence and carbon loss to our community and what we can do about it. Our community farm on drained peatlands, and the Council is involved too through drainage management, so we

are all impacted by how we manage these soils,” Justin says. In the longer-term, NZ will need to think about, and explore all options for the management of these soils. Overseas researchers are investigating; ways to mitigate subsidence and carbon loss, transformational land uses such as paludiculture (the practice of wet agriculture), and the retirement of drained peatlands.

‘This work will improve our understanding of how existing peat soil management influences subsidence rates and will also provide information on how future changes in land management and other factors, such as climate change, might impact peat subsidence.’ It’s important that we learn from overseas research but also do our own and understand what is appropriate for our region, because our peatlands are unique, Justin says. For dairy farmers, WRC currently has the good practice guide ‘For Peats Sake’, this is available on the website, but they hope to update that guide as new information becomes available. They also

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

hope to release a recently completed report that reviewed international research on mitigating peat subsidence and carbon loss from drained peatlands. As an example, the report identified that activities such as reducing cultivation, and where practical decreasing the depth to the water table are likely to reduce subsidence and carbon loss. For dairy farmers who are in the process of doing farm environment plans, it’s difficult for those on peat soils to know what the best solutions are if they want to offset soil emissions. “A farm that has pockets of peat, these could be retired if that’s appropriate; however, for a farm that is entirely on peat, the options are limited as the emissions from the soil are across the whole farm. You could investigate retiring areas that are poorly drained and low producing or adjacent to existing wetlands. “More research is needed, as it is not as simply just retiring land, especially in the short term, because raising the water table in some catchments will be challenging, and poor water table management might

Work is ongoing for farmers and the Waikato Regional Council to understand the risks of peat subsidence and carbon loss.

lead to other greenhouse gases such as methane being produced.” The key for farmers for now is being aware of peat subsidence and carbon loss, practicing good management, and engaging in research, he says. “It’s really important farmers and drainage managers are aware of peat

subsidence and carbon loss, and that they contribute to research too.” * WRC has been supported by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, the University of Waikato and the University of Canterbury, and these organisations are involved in their own peat soils related programmes also.

NEW LISTING

Boundary lines are indicative only

Galatea 1035 Troutbeck Road

Turnkey investment with strong bottom line Bayleys are privileged to bring this business opportunity to the market, comprising a portfolio of three dairy properties with a total of 503ha (more or less) of flat fertile land producing 745,000 kilograms of milk solids from an average of 1,750 cows. Two of the three dairies are autumn calving and taking advantage of the winter milk premium. The properties have excellent infrastructure, including three herringbone dairies. In addition, partial irrigation of the milking platform reduces climatic challenges in the advent of dry weather, coupled together with a proven feed management plan, further reducing the variability in production. The business is well positioned to continue generating a strong bottom line and is being offered as a turnkey package.

Price by Negotiation View by appointment Phil Badger 027 357 5704 phil.badger@bayleys.co.nz SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED REAA 2008

bayleys.co.nz/2450775

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

BUSINESS SHEEP CHEESE

Left: Dave Barrett produces cheeses from both sheep and cows’ milk.

Devotion to soft cheese After establishing a leading craft beer operation, Dave and Sue Barrett went into the sheep cheese business. Anne Hardie reports.

t took six years for Dave and Sue Barrett’s sheep milk cheese business to break even, but persistence has led to national awards and singer, Lorde, has been singing the praises of their soft cheese called Devotion. It’s been a battle, Dave acknowledges, educating the New Zealand public about sheep cheese and many assume it is from goats and grapple with the idea of cheese from sheep – even though it has been around for centuries overseas. Due to that, they also create cheeses and dairy products from cows’ milk which are easily marketed and make up 75% of the business. When the couple bought a former sheep milking dairy at Neudorf near Nelson, they were planning to use it to expand their existing business manufacturing vegan products. Then the owner of the sheep that had supplied the former dairy with milk convinced them to make sheep cheeses and they veered from vegan to dairy. As it happened, Dave has cheesemaking in his blood. His father was a cheesemaker 28

in Denmark and it is his middle name, Thorvald, that became the brand for the sheep milk cheese, while Little River is the brand for the cows’ milk cheese. But Dave had no such cheesemaking skills himself and the dairy had no equipment from the previous business. Brand new equipment imported from Sweden was installed – “a massive gamble” - and the business relies on a team of 13 people including a French cheesemaker to create today’s range. Dave and Sue have an extensive background in building successful brands, but sheep’s milk cheese has been the greatest challenge. They previously teamed up with a craft beer brewer - before the success of craft beer – to establish a Kiwi bar within the community. The result was the Sprig & Fern brand which they used to create several bars around the Top of the South and then licensed around the country. By the time they sold their share of the business, there were about 13 Sprig & Fern pubs.

Today they also own the Kahurangi Estate Winery which buys grapes from various growers, uses winemakers to make the wine and then markets the end product. Along the way they owned Soyworks which manufactured vegan foods. So they went into cheesemaking with varied business experience under their belts and Dave says they had money to put into the business which proved essential. “If we’d gone in with no money, we wouldn’t be here. We lost plenty. But I knew there was a market for sheep milk products. It’s how you are going to get to the market though – getting customers to try it and buy it.” At the same time, he says it is the unique characteristics of sheep’s milk that makes it marketable and it is higher in protein, calcium and minerals than other milk. Several companies around the country make hard sheep cheese, but Dave and Sue concentrate mainly on soft cheeses which gives them a different product to market. Initially they bought milk from the owner of the flock that had supplied the dairy in the past and still farmed beside it. But a couple of droughts in a row on the Moutere hills and the cost of feeding the flock to compensate for the lack of feed, plus lower milk production, proved just too hard for the flock’s owner and the business. Today the business buys its sheep’s milk from Canterbury which is brought up in a tanker each week. At the same time they changed their sheep milk supply, they added cow’s milk products to the business because it was easier to source the milk and sell the products. They needed a point of difference with their cow’s milk, though, and that’s why they buy A2 fresh milk from Oakland’s Milk in Nelson. The dairy runs a six-day-a-week operation, with two days dedicated to sheep milk products and four days to cows’ milk products. The combined operation processes about 8000 litres a week and they are now in expansion mode and planning to double that volume. From the sheep’s milk they produce yoghurt as well as their range of soft

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

cheeses including camembert, feta, blue, washed rind, plus a hard cheese called curado. Devotion that appealed to Lorde’s taste buds is a semi-soft, washed rind French-style cheese. From cows’ milk they create yoghurt, kefir, cream cheese, sour cream, camembert, brie, two blues, washed rind and Swiss alpine. “Cheese and dairy products are two different products and you’re probably better to do one or the other. Doing both is fraught with complications. But we started doing both and have developed markets so we keep with them.”

gate, that is completely different to being a standalone business paying staff and giving a return on investment. And find a market before you start. “But I’m the last person to say don’t have a crack. Double your knowledge and double your money to what you think you will need because you will always spend a lot more than you think you will need.” Though it took the six years for their business to break even, he says a lot of businesses starting from scratch face that challenge. “The nature of business is you plough

‘If we’d gone in with no money, we wouldn’t be here. We lost plenty. But I knew there was a market for sheep milk products. It’s how you are going to get to the market though – getting customers to try it and buy it.’ Much of their product is sold through their retail outlet, The Junction, which is akin to the old-fashioned community grocer that stocks staples such as fresh milk, bread, eggs and local produce. The building was a former dairy factory producing cheese and butter and is part of a busy hub expanding on the edge of Richmond. They set up shop three years ago and it provides the ideal base to attract the busy foot traffic to their products. For farmers contemplating a sheep milk business, Dave advises some serious thought about how you visualise the end result. “If you want a few hundred sheep to make a bit of cheese on the side at the

FONTERRA 2022

Dairy Exporter |

Above: Cheesemaker Francis Bigot at work in the dairy. Below: Another stage of the cheesemaking process.

your heart and soul into it and even when it’s looking dire, you have to keep going.” Interestingly, he thinks Covid-19 has probably helped business because people have got behind smaller local businesses. Plus, many imported brands are not on the shelves and customers look at alternatives. Going forward, he thinks there will probably be more opportunities for local products because freight costs to get product from overseas is so high and unlikely to come down in a hurry – if at all. Eventually, they want to step into the export market with the milk products, but Dave says he is a big believer in getting their backyard sorted first.

N O M I N AT I O N S NOW OPEN If you know a woman who goes above and beyond on-farm or outside the gate, and who is passionate about adding value to the industry, we want to know about her.

Nominate before March 2022 at dwn.co.nz/fonterra-dairy-woman-of-the-year www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

BUSINESS FARM-FRESH MILK

Getting close to the customer Words by: Anne Hardie

or about $250,000, dairy farmers can set up a pasteurised milk business to run alongside their existing farm operation and add another income stream. Richard Houston is in the business of setting farmers up to sell pasteurised milk, usually as a sideline to their supply milk operation and all processed within the confines of a 20ft container. His parents began selling milk to the public a decade ago and today he sells Italian dispensers that can be set up on the farm or in town to sell raw or pasteurised milk. In the past his family ran Village Milk in Golden Bay where they sold raw milk at the farm gate to the public without a problem for 10 years. Despite a devout group of customers who drove out to the farm to collect milk, government rules wouldn’t allow them to have a dispenser in town to grow the business sufficiently and they closed shop earlier this year. It’s why today he says farmers wanting to sell raw milk need to be close to a sizable population where they are handy to customers who don’t need to drive far out to the farm. Whereas pasteurised milk can be transported to dispensers in the community and that makes it easily accessible to grow the business. MPI has 25 registered farm dairy operators on its website for processing Regulated Control Scheme (RCS) raw milk for the purpose of sale. It is an industry that has struggled to make much headway since the Government introduced the scheme in 2015 and Richard says it appears to be designed to be as restrictive as possible to constrain growth. It is still achievable to produce raw milk for sale with those rules – which is why there are 25 operators around the country doing it – but he says it comes down to attention to detail and that isn’t for everyone. It’s all about hygiene above and beyond the usual farm dairy practices. Raw milk is the ultimate way to sell milk, he says, because it is an incredible product with good bacteria, amino acids and simply a good food. For those not game

Left: Dispensers enable customers to fill their own bottles.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

‘It’s adding another business that operates beyond the current business and the next generation may be more interested in marketing, branding and social media.’ Richard Houston of Village Vending.

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enough to take it on though, or distant from a sizable population, pasteurised milk is an easier option to sell fresh milk to a growing market. It is a fraction of the milk from the same herd supplying the dairy company, diverted to a facility to pasteurise it instead of the vat, but with extra care along the way. Through his business, Village Vending, he sets farmers up with a 20ft container as the processing facility, complete with a boot exchange area leading to the equipment for pasteurisation and dispensing. Two DF Italia dispensers are set up at suitable locations for customers to fill their own bottles of milk or can be used for other products such as frozen ice cream. Dispensers can also be installed in trailers so it can be transported to markets or events to sell milk. Like other processed foods, there’s protocol to follow that includes testing the product as well as annual audits, but he says it is achievable. Once processed, the milk sells for about $3 a litre – or slightly less if competing with other fresh milk brands. He says unlike the fluctuations of milk payouts, it adds a stable income source to the farm business. An increasing number of farmers are supplying milk to local customers and Houston says it is being driven by customers themselves who are replacing

plastic bottles with glass and want to know the source of their food. Farmers get more for the milk they are selling to local customers so there’s the financial appeal, but also another business venture that often appeals to the younger generation on a family farm. “It’s adding another business that operates beyond the current business and the next generation may be more interested in marketing, branding and social media.” Establishing a brand is the first step in selling milk, he says. The product speaks for itself and needs little promotion and farmers don’t need major advertising when they are targeting the local community. Sponsoring the kids’ sports clothing to promote the brand and getting out there on social media such as Facebook or Instagram attracts more customers. “It comes back to the fact that people want to spread the word about good food.” It is helped along by the increasing demand for buying local, buying fresh and reducing the amount of plastic around food. “My goal would be to see milk produced locally by local people. You might be milking in the afternoon, pasteurise it and deliver it in the morning. It is less than 48 hours old and in your fridge, in your house and in a glass bottle that you refill.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SYSTEMS EFFICIENCY

Stepchange to profitability Weaning the farm off bought-in nitrogen has improved profitability and set up a Taranaki operation for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. By Jackie Harrigan.

aranaki dairy farmers Chris and Kathy Prankerd admit they started the Stepchange project when they were DairyNZ Monitor farmers for three years back in 2011. They have been changing and improving their farm systems ever since. The Tariki couple have farmed the central Taranaki property on the flanks of Mount Taranaki for the past 40 years and while they say the monitor farm process made it hard to be in the spotlight, it certainly helped improve their herd reproductive performance and farm profitability. The monitor farm programme, with weekly visits (“that kept us accountable”) and crowds of local farmers (“that made me practice public speaking”) was a trial but Chris and Kathy appreciated what they learned and lifted their profitability. “We installed a weighing system once we realised how hard it was to guess accurately 34

the weight of our replacement heifers and how off the mark our guesses were. “Measuring and monitoring the young stock led to better-grown heifers with better reproduction rates and a huge lift in milk production.

‘We used to chuck on the nitrogen to fill the gaps, now we only apply 15-20 units of nitrogen each time.’ “We also realised that our big Friesian cows were too big, causing a high empty rate, so we bought in crossbred heifers to change the breed.” Measuring and monitoring pasture production also led to a similar increase

Other goals for Chris and Kathy: • Keep the farm in the family • Have a focus on BW in their breeding and replacements to increase herd value • Get out of the milking shed • Finish riparian planting this season in pasture utilisation and adding in-shed feeding a few years later further helped to ensure the cows were fully fed in the highrainfall environment. A governance course in 2014/15 gave the pair confidence and more tools. After Chris being in the cow shed every day for more than 40 years (having started when he was just 12 years old milking for his dad) they employed manager Noel Kilpatrick. Noel was a relative newcomer to the industry, and relished the challenge of

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Farm facts and policies Farm area • 99 effective milking hectares • 30 ha support block Dairy Farm Production • 2019/20 season – 265 peak cows milked • 116,000 kg MS (1,171 kg MS/ha) • 12.1 t DM/ha pasture and crop eaten System and imported supplement • System 3 – 80-89% of total feed is home grown • 136 t DM contracted this season for in-shed feed

Left: Fiona and Noel Kilpatrick (contract milkers), Chris and Kathy Prankerd (farm owners) on the Prankerd’s Tariki property - with the sun and Mount Taranaki both visible - not a common sight in spring 2021. Above: Strategies arising from being a DairyNZ Monitor farm have helped Chris and Kathy improve reproduction rates on their farm.

learning as much as he could when he left a supermarket career and embraced farm life. Importantly he and his wife Fiona being on the farm allowed Chris and Kathy to get away from the farm, to catch up with their five children (three of them farming) and indulge their love of outdoor pursuits like tramping and cycling. Noel and Fiona have taken on the contract milking job this season and allowed Chris and Kathy to take a further step back.

Reducing nitrogen Two years ago a new effluent system was added to the operation, allowing small applications through a rain gun over 26 hectares. Whole-farm paddock-level soil testing has identified where the fertiliser spend is best invested. “We used to chuck on the nitrogen to fill the gaps, now we only apply 15-20 units of nitrogen each time. “We dilute the N by growing more grass, using small amounts and then growing more grass and utilising it effectively.” In the high-rainfall environment potash is needed as it disappears from the soils quickly, Chris says. They now know nitrogen fertiliser is not needed in the effluent area if effluent has been applied in the latest round.

Increasing production has reduced purchased N surplus from 114kg N/ha down to 96kg N/ha with a target of 89 for the 20/21 season. This level puts them within the A quadrant in the Stepchange programme, with operating profit above $3500/ha and purchased N surplus below 120kg N/ ha/year.

Rejigging reproduction Chris and Kathy have focused on improving reproduction rates, ever since the Monitor Farm project identified that their young stock were not performing to expectations. “We bought weigh scales and spent a good few years weighing heifers and growing them out better to reach targets,” Chris says. The couple realised their cows were too big so they bought replacement heifers to start changing the breed to Kiwicross and now have cows averaging 480-500kg producing an average of 460kg milksolids (MS)/year. “We have also bred for PW for the last five years.” BW is now 121/49 and PW sits at 144/42. Drying-off no later than May 20 has helped them preserve body condition in the herd, as has the strategy of moving to 16-hour milking in January and February and going once-a-day on April

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Wintering • 190 cows are grazed at the support block for 42 days • Cows are wintered on grass and silage Young Stock • Target to rear 55-60 replacements each season • All R1 & R2 heifer replacements wintered on dairy farm • R1s return to support block before calving Effluent Management • New effluent system in 2019 • 1st pond used as sand trap, irrigate out of 2nd pond with travelling irrigator over 26ha • Previously discharge to water Nutrient Management • Shifted from using RPR fertilizer to soluble phosphorus. • About 30t urea used each season (140kg N/ha) • Use coated urea in the summer • No nitrogen applied to paddock if effluent has been spread that round • July to September – Urea applied following cows • October to April – 50/50 mix of urea/ potash applied following cows • 60t lime applied per year (600kg/ha) Cropping/Re-grassing • 3.6 ha of turnips grown each year and used for re-grassing • Achieved 15t DM/ha yield last season Infrastructure • Effluent: New effluent system at the end of 2019, now on dual consent. Using established ponds but installing land application system • Standoff facilities: Extended the yard and increased the holding paddock to stand off herd in wet weather • In-shed feeding system: Added to cow shed 2016/17, saving need to drench cows at each milking. 35

Investment in a new effluent system, with a pond with aerator and rain gun has helped the Prankerds reuse effluent nutrients and reduce purchased nitrogen surplus from 114kg N/ha down to 96kg/ha, with a target of 89kg N/ha for this season.

TABLE 2. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS KPIs

10 years ago

6 years ago

2 seasons ago

Target

2011/12

2014/15

2018/19

2020/21

Milking area (ha)

Run off eff area (ha)

Milksolids (kg MS)

76,343

109,713

112,756

114,000

Peak cows milked

235

255

262

253

Stocking rate (cows/ha)

2.6

Nitrogen applied (kg N/ha)

150

159

146

140

Milksolids (kg MS/ha)

849

1105

1128

1151

Milksolids (kg MS/cow)

321

429

426

460

Milksolids/cow as % of Lwt

64%

89%

90%

93%

Pasture/crop eaten (t DM/ha)

11.45

11.7

12.5

11.8

Imp supplement fed (t DM/ha)

0.8

1.2

1.1

1.3

Dry cow grazing eaten (t DM/ha)

0.5

0.8

0.6

0.8

Total feed eaten/ha (t DM/ha)

12.8

13.7

14.2

13.9

Six-week in calf rate

73%

77%

78%

Replacement rate

21%

20%

18%

23%

Enteric methane (tCO2 eq/ha)

6.91

7.4

7.67

7.51

Purchased N surplus

114

112

3.27

4.03

Gross farm revenue ($/kg MS)

6.52

7.15

6.8

Operating expenses ($/kg MS)

4.16

4.1

4.52

Operating profit ($/kg MS)

2.36

3.05

2.28

Farm Details

Physical KPIs

Reproduction KPIs

Length of mating (weeks) Environmental KPIs

Effluent area (ha)

GHG elephant in the room

Financial KPIs Farm working expenses ($/kg MS)

“We don’t lose too much production but we can keep condition on the cows, especially if it gets dry.” Shortening the length of the mating from 12 weeks to 8.5 weeks has increased profitability by lifting six-week-in-calf rate (from 73% to 78% in 2018/19) and getting more milk in the vat earlier in the season, Chris says. He also admits to weaning himself off his old habit of keeping hold-over cows on the runoff and using them again the following year. “I used to keep all my empty young cows on the runoff, it gives them another chance… but I have realised that we were building on the infertility - we would hold them over, might get another calf and then they were empty again - it was a bad habit that wasn’t helping our reproduction.” The Prankerds usually rear about 20% replacement heifers, but if heifer numbers were a bit short there was always the temptation to hold over some empty heifers to boost numbers but didn’t help the fertility of the herd.

With a GHG emissions profile of 7.67 tonnes CO2-e/ha, Chris and Kathy are already sitting in the A quadrant for Operating Profit vs. Methane Emissions. So in terms of challenges and reducing GHG by 10% by 2030 Chris says the options are slim. “The cheapest things for us to do would be to pull out the meal feeders in the dairy shed, because it is the most expensive

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

TABLE 3. CHANGES ON PRANKERD’S FARM, EFFECTS ON PROFIT, NUTRIENT LOSS AND GHG EMISSIONS feed. But the inshed feeding system has been invaluable to get minerals into the cows as well as for when the grass growth slows.” Putting zinc through the feeding system means each cow gets enough to cover facial eczema risk, Chris says. “We are trying to feed 2kg a day but if grass growth slows we can dial it up to 5kg meal - we can ensure the cows are on a rising plane of nutrition leading up to mating which has really helped our repro results.” The only other real option will be to drop cow numbers, he says. Planning to calve 275 cows and milk 265 peak cows next season, Chris says that equates to the 2.65 cows/ha stocking rate they have been working towards. Because winter is wet (and annual rainfall averages 3000mm at Tariki) the Prankerds move 190 cows down the road to their support block to winter, further down the mountain with lower rainfall and free-draining soils. “We need to capture the advantage of having 190 cows off the farm for six weeks by having enough mouths to take care of the spring flush so we are not embarrassed with grass!” So while the evolution to higher efficiency has been a journey the family have embraced, they will be well-placed to make educated steps to bringing GHG emissions down. “We know our numbers and we know where we sit, we will see how it plays out and make decisions then.”

Change action over past 10 years Effluent system

Impact on profit

Impact on GHG

N loss to water

P loss to water

Compliance

E-coli to water

Skipping a round of urea on eff paddocks after eff applications Soluble phosphorus fertiliser Decrease empty and replacement rate Growing heifers to target weights Moved from Friesian to Xbred, reducing cow size Focus on breeding for BW Shortened mating length Stopped keeping hold over cows Complete farm walks Using coated urea products Riparian planting completed Fenced off drains Added in-shed feeding and more supplement Applied for Farm environment Plan (FEP)

Compliance Compliance

Compliance

Drymatter intake (DMI) drives methane production. Reducing feed reduces methane emissions. Options for reducing drymatter intake: • Less purchased supplement • Less nitrogen boosted pasture and crop, providing total DMI reduces • Reducing maintenance by producing the same amount of milk from fewer cows • Fewer heifer replacements • Eliminating the ‘hold over’ practice • Improve feed quality = 1 MJME n per kg DM reduces energy requirements 5%.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SYSTEMS OWNERSHIP

Michael and Cheryl Shearer with their family of five kids.

Realising the ownership goal A partnership with his parents means Marlborough dairy farmer Michael Shearer is on target to farm ownership. By Anne Hardie.

t 29 with five young kids on the go and a wealth of dairy experience stacked up, Michael Shearer and his wife Cheryl now have a 50:50 equity partnership in their first farm, a sharemilking contract on a farm nearby and are in the throes of buying a support block. The equity partnership is with Michael’s parents on a 62-hectare dairy farm they bought near Canvastown, while a few kilometres down the road they are in a 50:50 equity partnership in a sharemilking contract with a friend who has been his best mate since he was 10 years old. 38

If his non-dairying parents had not been keen on the equity partnership as a step toward farm ownership, Michael says they would have sought investors to achieve the same result because they were keen to realise their goal but needed more capital. “We definitely needed that outside equity to get ahead as quickly as we have – I’m pretty impatient.” The partnership bought the farm five years ago for $35,000/ ha and carries a debt today around $20/kg milksolids (MS). Michael and Cheryl have their 50% share of that debt, plus the debt covering 50% of the costs to set up for the sharemilking contract down the road. Their goal now is to buy out his parents’ share of the partnership in five years or so, with income from the sharemilking contract making that more achievable. They may have more debt nowadays, but their dairy business is simpler than ever. They milk once a day (OAD), have few inputs, no crops and the platemeter that was once Michael’s pride and joy only gets an outing in winter when the cows are on rations. Best of all, Michael is enjoying being his own boss and being accountable just to himself for the most part, while consulting with his parents on the big spends. Coming from non-dairy careers means they can offer a fresh approach to the business which Michael sees as a positive in their partnership. For day-today management, Michael needs no staff and Cheryl manages Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

‘Even managing a farm, you know it always had ramifications on the owners and you always wondered what they thought about your decisions’ the calves in spring around the kids which includes 18-month-old twins and homeschooling. “Even managing a farm, you know it always had ramifications on the owners and you always wondered what they thought about your decisions. Whereas when you own a place it only affects you, so it’s far more relaxing. You are less accountable to someone else and I don’t mind being accountable to myself. It makes the decision-making easier.” In a sharemilking contract, Michael says there is always some tension because some decisions benefit only one party, whereas all partners benefit from decisions in an equity partnership. He never intended a career in dairying and initially got a job on a 1000-cow herd near Nelson as a way of funding training for a pilot’s licence. That short-term job changed his career path and at 19 he won the West Coast Top of the South dairy trainee title. Two years later he won the Taranaki Farm Manager of the Year, before returning to Tasman for a 50:50 sharemilking contract. Their 400-cow herd was in the Teapot Valley when the massive wild fire of 2019 forced them to evacuate their home and walk their cows to a nearby hop farm where they could milk their stressed herd in a disused dairy. They continued to milk the cows there for a few weeks with just donated supplementary feed keeping them going, returning home after the fire was finally quenched to miraculously milk to the end of the season. It didn’t dent their ambitions though and five years ago they took up a sharemilking contract on the Canvastown farm with the knowledge they would buy it in a 50:50 equity partnership with

The herd has been bred from a Jersey stud and still has some J16 cows.

Chloe Shearer checking on the pasture.

Michael’s parents, Geoff and Rosalie. His parents also live on the farm, though both have had their own careers with no involvement in dairying and are happy to leave the day-to-day management decisions to Michael and Cheryl. Down the road, his mate William Marshall manages the day-to-day management of the 375-cow herd they brought from Teapot Valley – which they originally brought down from Taranaki as a mixed-age crossbred herd to form the basis for their first sharemilking venture. The partnership pays a manager’s salary to William and an administration wage to Michael who says the setup works on the trust in their relationship.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Checking out the bike.

Typical of the majority of farms around Canvastown and the Rai Valley, the farm they bought with his parents is a mix of flats rising to rolling hills and then steeper slopes bordering the forestry above. It’s a steep catchment with a two-metres-plus annual rainfall that brings a lot of water down the hills, but it disappears fast down the slopes and into the Pelorus River on the other side of the state highway. They bought the 200-cow Jersey-cross herd with the farm and have dropped cow numbers to 168, with the aim of settling around 175 which should be a good fit with the farm’s pasture harvest of about 12 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha per year. This year they battled an excessively wet 39

spring, plus a few cows that didn’t calve, so numbers are a little below where they plan to be. The herd harks back to a Jersey stud and some J16 cows still remain in the herd. The aim now is to put more Jersey genes back into the herd to chase the J12 F4-type cow and lift the percentage of cows producing 90% or more of their liveweight. “It’s surprising how many of the herd are producing over 100% of their bodyweight on once-a-day and without sticking a lot of feed in.” Genetics is his new passion and he says OAD provides more potential for faster genetic gain because it enables better incalf rates and improved conception rates. “You can see the difference between your top cows and the bottom cows. It’s massive and once-a-day gives you more time to focus on those things. It’s quite addictive. There’s always something to chase and the big ones for us on once-a-day is the udder and udder support. We want a lower volume but higher milksolids percentage and I like a nice capacious cow – short and wide. “The more they study fertility, the more effect they find it has down the track. The more cows in calf, the more choice you have.” On OAD, calving is quick which is good to get it done, but it does mean feed is tight. The first calf was August 4 and the last arrived September 20. That was the result of eight weeks of mating entirely with artificial insemination (AI) and the last two weeks using semen from shortgestation dairy bulls. During their three matings on the farm, the six-week in-calf rate has been between 76% and 81%, while the end result has been about 10% empty. No intervention is used through mating and Michael says results are due to OAD milking through the season. When Michael and Cheryl took up a sharemilking contract on the farm before purchasing it, they were still sharemilking at Teapot Valley, so had a contract milker on the Canvastown farm who milked twice a day (TAD) until Christmas. But after that, OAD ticked all the boxes for them. It is a lifestyle that suits their sizeable young family, plus it means they don’t need to hire staff and it gives Michael 40

A twin buggy caters for the twins on the farm walks.

the time to tutor level three and four for Primary ITO which is something he enjoys. Importantly, they are counting on OAD being just as profitable as TAD most years. “We could probably make $10,000 to $20,000 more depending on payout, but is it worth it for the extra effort?” Cups are on at 7am and milking is done and dusted by 8.30, leaving him the rest of the day for other jobs and tutoring some days. Production has been about 67,000kg milksolids (MS) depending on cow numbers, averaging 370kg MS/cow on grass plus 24t of palm kernel bought in for that early spring period. Cows get through winter on saved grass and grass supplements but Michael says they don’t need to put on weight because they head into winter with sufficient condition to calve. Half of the herd stays home through winter and the climate enables the farm to grow about 20kg DM/ day through the colder months. Young stock and the other half of the herd have been wintering on a 40ha leased block until the purchase of their own block and it has produced 100t of grass silage and 100 large bales of hay. Making supplements on a support block

isn’t cheap and Michael says those costs are often underestimated. He estimates the cost of the lease, fertiliser, making the supplements and wastage – which is often overlooked – adds up to more than 30c/kg DM. Silage in their pit costs about 25c/kg DM, but that’s without wastage which he says is at least 10%, plus feeding out costs. Costs across the farm system have climbed this past year including fertiliser, labour and bought-in feed which he attributes to the effect of Covid-19 globally and a good milk payout. A couple of years ago a payout higher than $6/kg MS was a good year, whereas he says most farmers need $7/kg MS now to make a decent profit, depending on the debt and cost structure of the business. Though supplements might be higher costs than they first appear, Michael says crops aren’t on the menu due to his philosophy of keeping things simple. He views crops as a lot of work for little gain. “You grow no more feed. All you are doing is shifting feed and it is more effort. Instead, we go on a slightly slower round at the end of the season and dry off one to two weeks earlier.” It all comes back to keeping it simple.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SYSTEMS DAIRYNZ

Saving on summer nitrogen Words by: Virginia Serra

ertiliser is one of the biggest operating expenses onfarm, and the response to nitrogen (N) fertiliser in summer can be low and unprofitable on some farms. With the new cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in place this season, reducing applications over summer is a strategy many farmers are considering. In summer, soil mineralisation rates are high and clover is growing. If soils already have enough N, applying more may not result in additional growth or be economic. As part of DairyNZ’s work with partner farms in Selwyn and Hinds, some farmers have significantly reduced N applications over January and February, with little impact on pasture consumption. This has required careful planning but resulted in farmers saving money on fertiliser, while maintaining production levels. Not every farm is in a position to make these changes, but it’s Virginia Serra. worthwhile considering if it’s right for your farm. Clover cover is one factor that will affect whether you can reduce N applications – clover fixes N in the soil, providing an alternative N source to fertiliser. Established pastures with good clover cover could receive less N, whereas new pastures or areas with less clover cover will benefit more from continuing N applications.

White clover.

In addition, check your soils have good pH levels and adequate levels of potassium, phosphorus and other key minerals. A deficiency in any key mineral can limit pasture growth. A clover health profile is also recommended to check if clover will flourish over summer. Spreading effluent on paddocks is an alternative source of N to fertiliser and can allow you to reduce applications.

benefit from it – like areas with high clover content or which receive effluent. Deciding on reduced N applications is something best discussed with a trusted advisor. Some partner farms found the changes didn’t work for them, as it affected milk production, so plan your approach and talk through the issues with an advisor, to consider if it suits your farm.

Spreading effluent on paddocks is an alternative source of N to fertiliser and can allow you to reduce applications.

You’ll also need to consider if you want to apply N to boost pasture growth for feed in future months. With some good forward planning, a number of partner farms in Canterbury have reduced N applications to 15-20kg a month in January and February. Many have applied other nutrients through fertilisers, so that they can apply N at low levels. Some farmers skip N applications in January and February on areas which don’t

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

They can also help consider local issues, such as rainfall and weather conditions, which affect N response. If changes this summer can’t be made, you may want to focus on improving your clover cover for next summer to give you the option to make future changes. More? On managing N fertiliser use online at www.dairynz.co.nz/N-use. • Virginia Serra is DairyNZ project leader – Selwyn Hinds. 41

SYSTEMS SHEEP MILK

Strong growth in sheep dairy Words by: Lynda Gray

he sheep milking industry has jumped the hump from fringe to full-on over the last couple of years. “We’re going through a strong growth phase and there are interesting things set to happen,” Craig Prichard, SheepMilkNZ says. Over the past two years the number of farms has doubled to 36, milking an estimated 20,000 ewes. Milk flow over the same period has more than tripled to 5.3 million litres, reflecting the continual development of milking genetics, feeding and management. The 2021-22 season kicked off with 13 new conversions established by either Spring Sheep Milk Co or Maui Milk, the two big players in the industry. Spring Sheep is a joint venture between marketing and investment company SLC and Pamu. Maui Milk is a 60/40 joint venture between Super Organic Milk Co, a Chinese investment and marketing company, and Maori trust Waituhi Kuratau. The industry is predominantly based in the greater Waikato region, although some farms are being developed further south which has led Spring Sheep Co to expand its collection run into Wairarapa. In the South Island, Canterbury is the main growth hub. There are five sheepdairying farmers but another five are making the switch for the 2022 season. Most sheep dairies are seasonal producers, milking for 210-250 days, although there are now year-round operations supplying milk for yoghurt and cheese makers. “That’s a significant step in the development of the industry,” Prichard says. 42

Left: Milking time at a Spring Sheep farm.

Processing capacity is growing. Spring Sheep and Maui process all milk at the Food Waikato drier facility near Hamilton. Capacity doubled in time for the start of the new season with installation of a new drier. Canterbury sheep dairy owners and entrepreneurs Matt and Tracey Jones are progressing plans for a milk drier plant in Ashburton. The average farm gate price is about $2.75-$3.00/litre ($15kg/milksolids), the variation dependent on the market supplied and transport costs, if deducted. At an overview presented at this year’s sheep milking industry conference in May, Prichard said returns to date from sheep milk conversions across the Waikato were encouraging, despite the hefty costs of establishing sheep milking sheds and infrastructure. Based on the Maui farmgate figure of $17kg/MS, sheep dairy farmers milking 600-1000 ewes, averaging 300 litres per animal, could expect an operating profit of about $8000/hectare by the fourth or fifth year of operation. That compared to the average dairy cow operating profit across the Waikato of about $2000/ha. The sheep milking story will get better, Prichard says, with big developments expected by year-end. “It’s a good story. The industry has moved to a new level, and we’ve had some great farmers join the crew.”

Sweet spot for milking flocks A flock of about 600 to 1500 milking ewes and hoggets is the ideal size for a smaller scale Waikato-based owner-operator on highly productive Waikato country. “There’s an optimal size or sweet spot just as there is for cow dairying. If you get to the point where you don’t recognise the

animals as individuals, you’re probably losing attention to detail and the benefits of economies of scale,” Maui Milk’s breeding and genetics manager Peter Gatley says. “I think we’ve learned from the very early days of the industry that bigger isn’t necessarily better and that many of the larger-scale operations bit off more than they could handle.” Maui’s eight new-season suppliers are all starting off with flocks within the 500 to 900 ewe and hogget range. They’ll increase flock size and also fine-tune feeding and management to maximise the genetic potential of Maui’s specially bred Southern Cross ewes. Gatley, formerly of dairy-owned genetics company LIC, says improved sheep milking genetics has been critical in growing the production and efficiency of Maui. “We started with a tiny pool of East Friesian genetics… if we’d stuck with that it would have been like driving with a handbrake on.” Maui imported French genetics and crossbred those with the best New Zealand milking genetics to produce the Southern Cross sheep. At the outset, seasonal per ewe production of 150 litres was regarded as good but that had steadily increased, and 300 litres was now regarded as an attainable figure. “That’s a good and realistic target for an across-mob average and beyond that to 350 litres. There are significant production gains to be made before it flattens off.” He says the industry needs to keep focused on free-range and pastoral-based production, rather than the intensive barnbased systems of overseas producers. • First published in Country-wide October 2021.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

For more info watch our Salmonella webinar

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SALVEXIN®+B NEW ZEALAND’S ONLY SALMONELLA VACCINE FOR SHEEP AND CATTLE AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ACVM No: A7886. Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd. Ph: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz NZ-SAL-210400004 Intervet International B.V. All Rights Reserved. *Salvexin+B should be used in conjunction Dairy ©2020 Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021 with other management practices to help control the risk of Salmonella. 1. Surveillance. Vols 41-47, No. 3, September 2014-2020

SYSTEMS EMISSIONS

We’re the lowest emissions dairy in the world. Why do more? Words by: Jim van der Poel, DairyNZ chairman

anaging our dairy sector’s impacts inevitably attracts a range of views. Should we do more, less or stay the same? We produce the lowest emissions dairy products in the world, so why do more? When it comes to change and regulation, there’s certainly no perfect fit for all, especially with such diverse farm systems and farmers. Ultimately though, we are all challenged by new rules and what they should or shouldn’t be. Our dairy product is the most efficiently produced in the world – we have plenty to be proud of. New Zealand’s agricultural emissions have stabilised and alwaysimproving farm practices means we are 25% more emissions efficient at producing dairy than we were in 1990. But, like all high performers, we must continue to evolve. The bar gets ever higher due to increasing competition and evolving consumer and community demands. We are the best place in the world to be dairy farming and DairyNZ research has shown it. We want consumers to have the world’s most sustainable milk. Industry bodies pushed hard for the split gas approach (managing methane separately from other gases) under the Zero Carbon Act. This was the culmination of many, many years of advocacy. That saw the Government listen. The split-gas approach is a science-based target that recognises biogenic methane has a different warming impact to carbon dioxide – its shorter lifespan means net zero is unnecessary. Initially, we were faced with a target of net zero for all gases. That was unachievable, not science-based and would 44

Jim van der Poel, Chairman, DairyNZ

have severely impacted farming’s viability. NZ, and our sector, is still under considerable pressure from other countries and sectors to pursue a net zero target for all gases. This is something we strongly reject, especially compared to carbon emitters. Our advantage is NZ’s unbundling of short and long-lived gases. This helps define their contribution to warming and the tracking of emissions against temperature over time. The objective is to limit global warming. Reducing then stabilising methane emissions contributes to that. The 2030 target to reduce biogenic methane by 10% will be incredibly challenging.

The 2050 target to reduce methane 2447% below 2017 levels is not supported by DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ and Federated Farmers, as in our view they are not science-based targets. This target will also be reviewed by the Climate Change Commission during fiveyearly reviews. Meanwhile we support farmers to make initial reductions toward the 2030 target and we continue to challenge government over the 2050 target. We are also advocating regular reviews based on any science, economic or other developments. We are pushing for investment into R&D because, while farm practice changes help, we also need new technologies. The internationally accepted metric is Global Warming Potential (GWP100) which measures warming over a 100-year span. However, momentum is growing around GWP* which better reflects the warming impact of methane over a longer time span. On the farm, He Waka Eke Noa will help us. This partnership between the primary sector, Government and Māori will support farmers and growers to measure, manage and reduce emissions. Its design will recognise sequestration, recognise methane’s target and get funds back into the sector to support change. In the next few months we will present options to farmers on He Waka Eke Noa and seek feedback. Strong international and domestic pressure remains. We also need to maintain our international brand’s credibility and competitive edge. While we continue to push for regular reviews, we also need the Government to deliver a credible emissions reduction plan for New Zealand – and solid investment in tools and solutions to back up the targets.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

KEEPING FAITH IN RYEGRASS

US TESTS FOR NZDEVELOPED RYEGRASS

TREATING THE PASTURE RIGHT AT CANVASTOWN

TREVOR ELLETT: A RYEGRASS PIONEER

ENDOPHYTES KEY TO RYEGRASS SUCCESS

LIPIDS: CATCHING THEM IN THE RYE

COLLABORATING ON FORAGES

WINNING WITH TETRAPLOIDS

SPECIAL REPORT

RELYING ON RYE Working on the NZ pasture workhorse Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Keeping faith in ryegrass Words by: Anne Lee

yegrass is at the very heart of grazing management and pasture renewal decisions on Dalkeith and Kowhai farms near Methven. It’s the kingpin, the hero of the pasturebased system and although other species have been introduced, their management must fit in with ryegrass rather than compromise its quality. The two are owned by the Barlass family (David and Julie and Sarah and Andrew) and farmed by father and son team David and Andrew. Dalkeith has been in the family since Andrew’s grandfather bought it in the 1940s. It was one of Canterbury’s early conversions with David making the switch to dairy in 1997. Kowhai was bought and converted in 2012 but has a long history in dairy reputedly being New Zealand’s largest dairy farm in around 1910 mikling 500 cows. While the farming business is intergenerational so too is the management to a degree. James and Anita Fleming are variable order sharemilkers on Dalkeith where James’ father Graham was long-time 50/50 sharemilker and a partner in the Kowhai farm. Alan and Lee Harkness are variable order sharemilkers on Kowhai. Prior to this Alan had been Graham’s 2IC. Andrew and Sarah returned to Canterbury and the farms in 2017 having decided the country life was a great environment to bring up their young family. They’d worked in Sydney and New Zealand - Andrew as a fund manager for

Andrew Barlass: ‘It’s Dad’s quote, but we always grow the same amount of grass, we just never know when it will come.’

Deutsche Bank and Sarah as a lawyer. While Sarah is now working from home in Canterbury for a law firm in Sydney, Andrew has exchanged his business suits for work boots and overalls. The farms are both fully self-contained with the stocking rate set at about 3.1 cows/ha on the dairy platform area of each. The boundary with support land on each farm isn’t hard and fast with area used for wintering going back into grass as part of the pasture renewal programme. Land comes in and out of the milking platform to the support block each year so while the number of hectares remains about the same, where exactly those hectares are can change. Andrew says having control over how young stock are reared, cows wintered and when supplement is made helps manage risk and costs to the business. “We don’t have irrigation here and being

closer to the foothills it’s a shorter growing season than further out on the plains. “We’re more exposed to seasonal climatic variation and although we get enough rainfall, without irrigation our pasture growth curve isn’t as consistent as it is on the plains. “It’s Dad’s quote, but we always grow the same amount of grass in a year, we just never know when it will come.” Andrew says. Typically, there will be a flush of growth in October with a dry, hot period in January but that can vary significantly in some seasons. So instead of having a higher stocking rate and filling the feed deficits with bought-in feed they hold the stocking rate slightly lower and make supplement when the surplus comes, shifting that into the deficits. “We have our own equipment and can make individually wrapped bales so we

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

‘We don’t have irrigation here and being closer to the foothills it’s a shorter growing season than further out on the plains.’ aren’t waiting on a contractor and we don’t have a minimum area. “If there’s 4ha at the end of a paddock the team wants taken out so they can move on with the cows, we can do that. “It’s about maximising the ME (metabolisable energy) of the pasture whether cows are eating it or we’re putting it into baleage. “We use our equipment to do that. We’ve got the ability to be nimble.” David is still actively involved on the farm with everyone having their niche. “I’m very aware of letting Al and James get on with their business – the livestock side of the operation, milking the cows, managing them and managing their staff. “In addition to the overall strategic direction and the big picture, I’m focused on making sure Al and James have everything they need, that the water’s there, fences are there and that they’ve got good pastures, good fertility. “I also look after all the young stock, manage the supplementary feed, cultivation and getting winter feed and new pastures in the ground.” At the time Andrew returned to the farm all paddock soil testing was being promoted and while the average Olsen P levels were adequate, greater testing identified the unders

and overs. The aim is to get Olsen P’s up to 35. He’s also had a big focus on pH with the aim to lift it to 6.2-6.4 to help clovers flourish. He’s been working with Canaan Ahu from Agrownomics for soil fertility advice and says that as well as the usual suspects of nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur and potassium they’ve also been applying micronutrients such as molybdenum, boron, cobalt and manganese. “We’re using more mixes rather than just straight superphosphate, using things like serpentine super and ammonium sulphate.” Andrew also started sowing more diverse pastures – initially using a perennial mix with more than 20 species. “We quickly realised a number of those weren’t going to persist and we worked with Cates (Grain and Seed) in Ashburton to come up with a simpler mix of about 12 species and cultivars but again we found some just didn’t persist so we’ve narrowed it down even further. “The issue was some species just won’t stand-up under our rotational grazing pressure. “They haven’t had the breeding and selection to support rotational grazing and need much longer rounds and we’re just not prepared to do that because we’ll lose the quality in the ryegrass. “It’s the mainstay of the system. It’s been

Make time for your people

Build strong team relationships between employers and employees Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Farm facts Dalkeith • Owners: Barlass family • Variable order sharemilkers: James and Anita Fleming • Total area:360ha including 32ha lease • Milking platform: 210ha • Cows: 675 cows • Production: 290,000kg MS, 1380kg MS/ha • Support: Fully selfcontained • Farm dairy: 40-aside herringbone Kowhai • Owners: Barlass family • Variable order sharemilkers: Alan and Lee Harkness • Total area: 390 effective including 28ha lease • Milking platform: 250ha • Cows: 750 cows • Production: 335,000kg MS, 1,340kg MS/ha • Support: fully selfcontained • Farm dairy: 40-aside herringbone

Left: Andrew Barlass says that ryerass is at the heart of the system on Dalkeith and Kowhai farms.

studied for more than 40 years and in New Zealand we’ve developed an amazing system that works so well, it’s honed for ryegrass. “People around the world want to emulate it but that’s hard to do because of our unique situation. “We’ve developed a whole ecosystem around it – our animal genetics, pasture genetics, grazing rules and farm system.” Andrew describes his farming philosophy using a Venn diagram analogy adopting the aspects of organic farming, regenerative farming and conventional farming that make sense in his environment. Minimum tillage and reducing chemical inputs for instance. “But we’re not going to stop putting fertiliser inputs in altogether. We’re taking meat and milk away so we’ve got to be depleting nutrients in the soil, but we can be mindful of the type of fertilisers we’re using.

“We’re using diverse species too – it sits well with me that our animals will benefit from diversity rather than just eating one thing day in day out but we’re not going to graze those species in such a way that it’s at the expense of ryegrass. “What we want are the species that can add diversity for the cows but also work alongside ryegrass, that persist under the three-leaf grazing principle. “The ryegrass plant is putting out it’s solar panels (leaves) and if we went in at 2.5 leaves, we’d be grazing at the steepest part of the growth curve, we’d be losing out on a portion of the high-quality drymatter that’s available up until that growth curve just starts to flatten out at the three-leaf stage. “If you go in later than that three-leaf stage though, past those 3200kg DM/ha covers, or long grazing intervals, the older leaves start to die off and we get a drop in quality.” Based on working with the ryegrass, Andrew now includes prairie grass, timothy, red clover, white clover, some Persian clover because of its first season yield, chicory and plantain. “They’re stepping up especially when we get those hotter, drier periods.” At the heart of the mix though is ryegrass – not one but five cultivars. Three are cultivars of Germinal’s highsugar Aber grasses – AberGain, a tetraploid which is scoring very highly on the Forage Value Index (FVI), AberGreen, a diploid and AberMagic, also a diploid. David was among the early adopters of the Aber grasses, favouring the high-sugar benefits and the persistence in the dryland environment where hot, dry summers can be tough. Barenbrug’s Maxsyn and Governor are also part of the mix – both diploids and both scoring very highly all round in the FVI including for persistence. The Barenbrug grasses have added to the shoulder season drymatter yields with the Aber grasses producing their greatest

drymatter during the warmer main part of the growing season. “During the real heat the clovers come into their own and we’re starting to see very good clover populations which can be attributed to a focus on soil fertility targeting legumes.” All of the ryegrasses used are fine-leaved and densely tillered which suits the environment, Andrew says. Including the tetraploid in the mixes for the dairy platform is an idea he took from the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) and it’s proven very successful in terms of cows eagerly grazing down to residuals. In paddocks that are solely in the support area he’s stuck with diploids. “We find the youngstock are more restless and give it a harder time by running around whereas the cows come into the paddock and just get on with grazing.” While the system and pastures are performing well there are always improvements that can be made, Andrew says. “I’m sure we’ll tweak the mix as we go. There’s always something to learn.” In his previous career there was plenty of analysis and learning and he’s brought that back to the farm. “I don’t really have any preconceived notions and I havent been taught a particular way of doing things but I respect the years of science and experience that underpin our farming systems. “I guess I’ll question practices though – so I can get a better understanding and I’m not locked into a specific way of doing things. “It’s good to be curious, to be open and be prepared to try something different as long as you’re analysing what effect that’s having.” Take a look at the video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fLfhOACjd-U

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

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Words by: Elaine Fisher ield trials of a genetically modified High Metabolisable Energy (HME) ryegrass, underway in the United States since 2017, will help determine its value proposition for New Zealand and what the next steps should be, AgResearch principal scientist Dr Greg Bryan says. “Regulations in New Zealand do allow for approved growing and animal nutrition trials outside of containment, however it was agreed by the parties investing in the research that the best path was to conduct these trials to date in the United States where there are less regulatory hurdles and 30 years of GM crop production.” Regulatory approval has not been sought in NZ as yet, given the field trial work continues overseas to prove the trait

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for increased lipids can be successfully translated from the lab to the field. “An important next step in the overseas research will be to feed the ryegrass to the animals in nutrition trials to help determine the value for New Zealand,” Greg says. “Results from these animal nutrition trials will be used to inform regulators in their consideration of any application for field trials in New Zealand. Further publication of research results in peerreviewed scientific journals will also be needed to support any application.” The research began in 2001, initially with the goal to increase the amount of energy in ryegrass available to livestock, by increasing the lipid (fat) content in the leaves. “For about the first seven years the development of the genetic technology to

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New state-of-the-art glasshouse facilities on AgResearch Grasslands campus in Palmerston North are home to on-going ryegrass and forage research.

achieve higher lipid content was lab-based, and once proven, it was introduced to ryegrass and first planted in containment in New Zealand in 2013.” This was followed by the US field trials. The modification to the ryegrass means a greater amount of metabolisable energy per kilogram available to the animal, without any reduction in plant growth or detriment to milk fat, he says. “The increased energy is in the form of fat (lipids), which has a high energy density compared to carbohydrate (sugars) and protein, and this is achieved without any adverse effects on plant growth.” Research in NZ continues in new stateof-the-art glasshouse facilities on the Grasslands campus in Palmerston North. The glasshouses, designed to precise performance specifications and biosecurity standards, are used to research novel ryegrass, clover, endophytes and many other forage-related species. Along with other modified glasshouses, these new glasshouses are in use and contain a mix of genetically modified grasses; and GM endophytes, which are part of separate research. Greg says the HME ryegrass project is complex long-term research. “We are working on a species with challenging genetics. It takes several years to breed the HME trait into elite ryegrass varieties currently used by farmers, and very importantly, to test performance every step of the way.” The changes in plant lipids and energy achieved in HME ryegrass have not been

achieved to date using traditional plant breeding techniques. “The modification also provides an encapsulation to protect the lipid from degradation in the plant, which cannot be achieved through conventional breeding.” The size of any potential benefits is still to be determined from the field trials and ongoing research. The research findings to date do suggest the HME ryegrass could be one of the tools to assist in meeting NZ’s targets for reducing methane emissions from agriculture. A study reported in The Journal of Dairy Science titled: In vitro gas production and rumen fermentation profile of fresh and ensiled genetically modified high– metabolizable energy ryegrass says in part: “Incubation of both fresh and ensiled HME ryegrass in rumen fluid resulted in: (1) a greater percentage of valuable unsaturated fatty acids compared with the control; (2) a significant reduction of butyrate; and (3) a 10 to 15% decrease in the methane proportion of the total gas production. We conclude that ensiling could be a convenient option for preserving HME as a locally produced highvalue supplementary feed; however, largescale application needs to be investigated.” The full report can be found at: https:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0022030220300151#! While yet to be determined through field trials overseas and considered as part of any approved trials in NZ, Greg says the expectation is that the management required for HME rygrass will be similar to

AgResearch’s Dr Luke Cooney (left) with a US colleague at the HME ryegrass field trials in the US.

that of conventional ryegrass. The HME ryegrass research has been funded by both government and industry partners, including DairyNZ and seed companies, with a joint governance approach to how the project is carried out and any applications for field trials or release. The parties involved in the research are now looking at what the next steps for the project will look like, including what form the animal nutrition trial will take and where it will happen. The HME technology is being tested in elite ryegrass material provided by the seed companies invested in the research, which could be used as future cultivars. The technology is also applicable to many crops such as soybean and corn, and this is being separately commercialised by the company ZeaKal, which has connections to AgResearch.

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SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Treating the pasture

right at Canvastown

Six-year-old Isabella tempts a cow closer.

Words by: Anne Hardie

ichael Shearer has always been a pasture fanatic, keen to try the latest generation of grasses because theoretically they should be genetically superior to what he has been growing. He and his wife Cheryl are in an equity partnership with his parents on the 62-hectare dairy farm near Canvastown in Marlborough where they milk about 175 cows once-a-day. Michael was part of Agriseed’s Grass to Gold programme several years ago when he was a sharemilker wanting to learn more about

pasture management and he continues to trial new varieties to find out what suits his farming system best. Since they moved on to the farm they have been annually regrassing between 10% and 25% of the pasture, initially with the tetraploid hybrid ryegrass, Shogun, to get things going and now mixes more targeted to suit their needs. In autumn he direct-drilled a mix of the diploid perennial ryegrass, Maxsyn, with the tetraploid perennial, Base, to combine the palatability of the tetraploid with the tougher-growing characteristics of the diploid. He bought them separately and mixed

them himself at a rate of 15kg/ha of the diploid and 10kg/ha of the tetraploid with 4kg/ha of white clover. He would like to add red clover as well, but it doesn’t suit their style of grazing on the dairy platform so it only gets added on silage paddocks on the support block. Maxsyn’s strength is its summer growth due to strong tillering through the season that helps it persist. That suits the Canvastown farm that has K-line irrigation on the flats at the bottom of the farm but then rises up rolling hills to steeper paddocks edging the forestry higher up. Though the farm gets an annual rainfall of two metres or more, it can also get prolonged summer dry periods. He is a big fan of Base which he considers the best-growing tetraploid as it has the highest tiller density, making it slightly tougher for a tetraploid. Despite that, after three seasons on the Canvastown farm he is beginning to question whether tetraploids suit his style of farming. He doesn’t top pasture and instead takes the residuals down to between 1400 and 1600kg drymatter (DM)/ ha. “Sometimes the residuals get a bit low for the tetraploids and at wetter times of the year it gets a bit trampled and doesn’t handle that so well – just less plants per square metre.” It’s a matter of finding out what grasses best suit their farm and farming style, he says. Hence he is still trialling the latest tetraploids to see if there is one that works well in their system. In another paddock he has sown a similar mix this spring

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‘Sometimes the residuals get a bit low for the tetraploids and at wetter times of the year it gets a bit trampled and doesn’t handle that so well – just less plants per square metre.’ The aim is to put more Jersey genes back into the Jersey-cross herd.

of Maxsyn and 4front which is a new tetraploid that is also high yielding with more tillers. That mix replaces the diploid Italian ryegrass, Tabu, which was a shortterm pasture direct drilled in the 2020 spring into a paddock of oats that hadn’t worked out well. The oats had been a trial for winter and he ran the harrows over the paddock lightly before sowing Tabu. Michael usually opts for autumn sowing because there’s fewer bugs and weeds which means less competition for the pasture to get established. This spring he was sowing Forge as a medium-term tetraploid hybrid ryegrass which is aimed at producing a high yield year-round and should have 15-36% more drymatter per year than other hybrids. He’s trialling that to replace Shogun which struggled in his farm system in a 50:50 Italian perennial mix. Forge is derived from a 25% short term species and 75% perennial which he hopes will make it last longer in his farming system. It will be direct-drilled into two paddocks to replace Tabu that needs to be replaced after a wet spring. Seed selection is only one part of the pasture equation though. These days, Michael uses NZ Fertiliser which adds micronutrients to the traditional nutrients. Cheryl’s parents had used it on their sheep and beef farm in the past with good

results and this is the second year they have applied it to the Canvastown dairy farm. Michael says there was a noticeable difference last year and he found he could drop the nitrogen applications and the pasture still stayed a healthy green. He applies nitrogen separately in liquid form and last year he put on 130kg N/ha. “Pretty much all our nitrogen is in liquid form so you get a quicker response because it’s already broken down. In the studies there does seem to be less leaching, but it is also lighter applications.” The first couple of years on the farm he applied 220kg N/ha and says it didn’t grow any more grass. They do feed fewer mouths now though and the herd is tidier, so it’s not a direct comparison. All up, the farm grows about 12 tonnes DM/ha per year and he would like to get it to 14t with the right mix of grasses, fertiliser and management. Pasture species is just a part of that equation. “They’re like a race horse – if you want them to perform well, you have to treat them right.” A few years ago, Michael was a happy man when he went walking with his platemeter to measure pasture, but experience has replaced the platemeter and now he uses it just once in winter when the herd is on rations.

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“In winter you need to be a bit more accurate and it’s mainly to check I have my eye in. Once you know your farm and your cows you don’t need the platemeter. And through the season the cows or the vat will tell you if you haven’t got it right.” Drying off with the right pasture cover and calving at the right pasture cover are the critical times for hitting pasture cover targets and then the focus turns to getting the round lengths right through spring. “I like a long round length and so it’s never below 25 days. Even at the quickest growth, it still takes seven to eight days for each leaf to grow on a ryegrass plant and it grows three leaves. You don’t want to go past that, but you don’t want to go too early because it grows the most at the three-leaf stage. And I never struggle for quality. “Another reason for longer round length is it gives you more options. If you’re on a 18-20-day round, you can be in trouble within three to four days, especially in our climate where it can vary so quickly. A longer round length takes out those humps and hollows.” He sits on a 25-30-day round from mid-September to the end of March – the longest possible without compromising quality.

SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Trevor Ellett: A ryegrass pioneer Words by: Anne Lee

Accuracy. No Less.

sers of modern varieties of ryegrass descended from Grasslands Nui and Ellet ryegrass can thank Trevor Ellett’s tenacity and passion for improving pasture. His work also, somewhat unwittingly, led to the understanding that endophytes play a huge role in ryegrass persistence. The Mangere farmer and former Massey College graduate and lecturer was a pioneer in ryegrass development doggedly seeking persistence he saw as lacking in the grasses coming out of the government-sponsored breeding programmes of the day.

Trevor died in 2006 at the age of 95 and was a recipient of the coveted NZ Grassland Trust Ray Brougham Trophy for his contribution to dairying and for his development of Mangere ryegrass which was first commercialised as Ellett and Grassland Nui ryegrasses. The farm at Mangere was one of two owned by Trevor and it was when he returned to the farm after the Second World War and lecturing at the then Massey College that he was dismayed to find the latest government-bred, certified ryegrasses did not survive past one season once sown in his paddocks. Like many farmers of the day, he had strong ryegrass pastures of local “ecotypes”

and he collected the seed from his bestperforming paddock, sowing that instead. Through his connections with DSIR Grasslands director Lionel Corkill, a nursery of the latest and best Trevor Ellett. ryegrass breeding lines was sown on Trevor’s farm. On the same day, and unbeknown to the scientists, Trevor also sowed his own ecotype, which he named Mangere ryegrass, in an area beside the nursery. His grass survived the summer but the

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new varieties did not and as a result some of his plants were taken from the farm in 1962 to become part of breeding trials which eventually led to the development of Grasslands Nui in 1973. When the Nui didn’t persist well either on Trevor’s farm, he became even more frustrated and contacted Arthur Yates and Co in Canterbury, now Barenbrug, who agreed to take on the Mangere ryegrass and sell the seed in the mid 1970s. It was renamed and certified as Ellett ryegrass in the 1980s. The seed was harvested and sold directly to farmers and in doing so the endophyte remained viable whereas seed from the governmentbred varieties that hadn’t persisted had been stored for longer periods at ambient temperatures, killing the endophyte. Barenbrug marketing manager Graham Kerr says it was in comparing Ellett ryegrass with others that entomologists at Ruakura,

Like many farmers of the day, he had strong ryegrass pastures of local “ecotypes” and he collected the seed from his best-performing paddock, sowing that instead. in collaboration with Arthur Yates’ agronomist, discovered the connection between endophyte and insect control. He says up until 2006 there had been about 20 ryegrass cultivars which contained at least 25% of the genetics from Trevor’s Mangere farm including Yatsyn, Verdette, Dobson and Bronsyn. All of the royalties Trevor was to receive for seed sales he asked to be paid into a charitable trust now called the T.R. Ellett Agricultural Research Trust to further education and research for the

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benefit of the agricultural industry in New Zealand. The trust financially supports about four or five projects each year including post graduate study and research. Graham says Trevor was an innovator and pioneer who had a profound impact on ryegrass breeding and development in New Zealand. He avidly attended Grassland Association annual conferences and remained strongly connected to the ryegrass breeding research and industry.

SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Endophytes key to ryegrass success Words by: Sheryl Haitana

or large parts of New Zealand, ryegrass is still indisputably hard to beat, PGG Wrightson Seeds chief scientific officer Dr Alan Stewart says. Perennial ryegrass is the major grass species used in dairy farms across most regions of NZ. It is rapid to establish, very grazing tolerant, mixes well with white clover and produces large quantities of palatable feed. However, it is not perfect and factors such as droughts, pests and climatic extremes can limit its persistence. This is particularly apparent in northern regions. The increase in the stocking rate in the dairy industry over the last 20-30 years and the amount of herbage consumed by animals has put added pressure on pastures and impacted persistence. It has limited seed drop and recruitment of new plants into the pasture. Plant breeders have continued to make gains in yield, but also focus on quality, persistence, disease resistance and pest tolerance through endophytes. Perennial ryegrass requires endophytes in order to resist pest effects over large parts of the country as without endophyte, ryegrass can struggle to persist. Incorporating endophytes into ryegrass adds further complexity to breeding programmes. “We are continuing to develop new endophytes to have them capable of combating particular pests,” Alan says. New technologies carried out by AgResearch like gene editing are likely to provide improved endophyte strains for the future.

Breeding research on ryegrasses.

Breeding pasture plant cultivars in NZ involves breeding many types with specific roles on farms. These include a range of perennial ryegrasses, diploids and tetraploids, with earlier or later flowering behaviour. In addition farmers require hybrid ryegrasses, Italian ryegrasses and annual ryegrasses. Then we also have to produce the clovers and herbs for these mixtures as well as chicory, plantain and the numerous forage brassica systems that get used in NZ farming systems. Breeding other species for drought and heat tolerance is crucial with options like tall fescue, cocksfoot and lucerne providing important roles. It would be a lot easier if all the investment could be in one type of ryegrass, but farmers require a diversity of pastures for their farm systems around NZ, Alan says. About $40 million/year is invested in the plant breeding industry

across all species. Few cultivars are developed in less than 10 years and each cultivar costs more than $1m before it reaches the market. To improve persistence, breeders select plants and endophytes under the most stressful conditions of drought, grazing and insect pressure, across different soils around NZ with a particular focus on northern regions. Breeders evaluate performance over many years and under varying grazing conditions. Parent plants for cultivars need to be proven over four or five years before they are selected for future breeding programmes. Genomic selection is starting to be applied by PGG Wrightson Seeds in both ryegrass and clover breeding in NZ, which could accelerate selection, but it takes time to get the systems working, to get scale and experience, Alan says. “I’m confident that it will be used more and more as time goes by. But it’s

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‘We are fortunate that the pastoral industry recognises the value in new plant genetics and that farmers are prepared to invest to capture the advancement made through plant breeding.’ not an instant solution. It also requires investment.” Investment in plant breeding programmes and new technology like gene editing and genomic selection is significant, Alan says. “We are fortunate that the pastoral industry recognises the value in new plant genetics and that farmers are prepared to invest to capture the advancement made through plant breeding.” Where do we need to go? Plant breeding in the future has the potential to help reduce the environmental footprint for NZ farmers, through addressing methane as well as nitrate and other issues caused by climate change, Alan says. Unlike overseas farmers who will be able to add methane inhibitors to feed rations, NZ has unique grass-based systems and thus the solutions are more complex. The plant breeding industry has the potential to breed forages which can have a positive impact on reducing methane emissions, however, Alan says. These advances along with advances in dairy cow breeding and onfarm management solutions have the potential

to be part of an environmental solution. “It’s very challenging for us because it’s the ruminant that produces methane, but we do know forages vary. “We might not Dr Alan Stewart. ever have the magic solution, but we should have an improvement that’s helpful for the environment, and we can provide part of the solution.” The plant breeding industry has made good inroads on meeting nitrate issues through forages like Ecotain® environmental plantain, and it could also play a similar part in reducing methane. “Research on nitrate leaching with forages is probably more advanced than methane research. But we also know that methane can be reduced by condensed tannins in clover.” The additional task of selecting pastures for reduced methane emissions would add to the complexity for plant breeders in NZ.

“If we started breeding for reduced methane emissions then maybe we would have to accept less yield improvement in new cultivars. But if we can produce a variety that had a 10% real gain environmentally and we had to make a sacrifice of some yield gains, the industry is likely to accept it.” To make this a reality, scientists would have to find the genetic variation in the plants. The Forage Value Index is a tool that is available to the industry and this could measure the variation between cultivars for critical environmental traits. “If the FVI could measure the varieties that are here today and show there is variation then the FVI would have a place in driving improvements.” The development of genetically modified cultivars by AgResearch, of white clovers with condensed tannins, and of the high lipid perennial ryegrass, offers potential solutions for the future. Developing cultivars with traits to assist with our environmental problems is the newest, hardest and most complex issue facing the dairy industry, the plant breeding industry and the farmer, Alan says. “Clearly the animal and farming system as well as the pasture are crucial elements in the solution. It is an equally big problem for all of us. Everyone is making an honest effort to improve their systems or develop products to solve these crucial environmental issues.”

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SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Lipids: Catching them in the rye

Words by: Anne Lee yegrass may have a role to play in the future in curbing methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and in creating greater tolerance to a changing climate. Germinal New Zealand general manager Sarah Gard says ryegrass underpins our whole pastoral system and as the climate changes and farmers’ needs change our pastures will have to adapt too. But that doesn’t mean ryegrass will be on the outer - on the contrary it could hold some of the solutions. Breeding for ryegrass with higher lipid (fat) content is underway as is the crossing of perennial ryegrass with more droughttolerant fescue to create a new perennial festulolium. Both research programmes are being carried out by the Germinal Horizon team of breeders and scientists at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in Wales. Sarah says Germinal’s point of difference has been its Aber High Sugar Grasses which are proven to have a higher water soluble carbohydrate content. That can also help environmentally by

providing rumen bugs with more energy so they can make greater use of the protein in ryegrass. While Sarah warns that although selecting for higher lipids is going on within the IBERS breeding programme it could be some time before there are any major, concrete results. Standard ryegrass has between 2-4% lipid content and the aim is to increase that to 4-6%.

levels in pastures. Work at IBERS though suggests that increasing the lipid content of grass reduces methane emissions from ruminant livestock by changing rumen fermentation patterns and breaking down protein more efficiently, Sarah says. The Germinal Horizon team at IBERS believes there is potential for increased animal productivity, a decrease in GHG

Slowing down gives rumen microbes more time to make use of the proteins leading to greater nitrogen use efficiency. Work by the New Zealand Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGGRC) has reported that higher dietary lipid concentrations in cattle can reduce methane emissions by up to five percent for each one percent increase in lipid content. Much of the work to date has been on manipulating cattle diets using supplements and there’s still work to be done on testing the effects of lifting lipid

emissions, particularly methane, benefits in animal health and fertility and benefits for meat quality and healthy eating. Sarah says the breeding of higher lipid grass at IBERS is done using conventional plant breeding techniques. Those conventional breeding techniques have also been used to breed the festulolium AberRoot by crossing a high sugar perennial ryegrass with a fescue from North Africa.

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Sara Gard – ryegrass part of the solution.

One of the aims of festulolium breeding programmes is to breed a grass with the digestibility and quality of High Sugar Ryegrass (Lolium. perenne) with the greater rooting mass and depth and improved survivability of fescue – particularly in terms of drought and heat tolerance. Sarah says initial data from IBERS shows that AberRoot has characteristics which slow down proteolysis – the breakdown of protein – in the rumen. The slowing down gives rumen microbes more time to make use of the proteins leading to greater nitrogen use efficiency. Sarah says Germinal will trial the AberRoot cultivar in NZ in the near future to make sure it performs well under NZ conditions. It has the potential to be more resilient

than conventional perennial ryegrass but extensive trial work is necessary under our conditions to check this. Some of that trial work will be carried out on Germinal’s new research and innovation station near Lincoln in Canterbury. The company has previously been running trials and carrying out breeding studies on land to the West of Christchurch but having its own, larger scale property will allow more work to be done. Germinal has bought a specialist Haldrup plot forage harvester from Germany which can measure drymatter yields as it harvests the forage. It will also have near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) technology onboard so pasture composition can be tested immediately. The first trials will be sown at the new site in autumn and Sarah says they’ll be continuing their work on the high sugar ryegrass varieties looking at further enhancing the persistence characteristics the high sugar grasses are known for.

Phosphorus efficient clovers They will also be carrying out trials on clovers where breeding aims to increase phosphorus efficiency. Clovers are high users of phosphorus as it’s a key element in the production DNA within the root nodules. The trials will include further developments on AberLasting, Germinal’s

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Caucasian clover crossed with a white clover, that gives increased drought tolerance as well as cold tolerance. Red clovers will also be trialled with the aim of improving persistence while maintaining or enhancing the polyphenol oxidase compounds which are naturally protective of lipids. The higher levels of polyphenol oxidase in the red clover help slow down the breakdown of protein so rumen bacteria can make more use of it and less nitrogen is excreted. Sarah is a Lincoln University agricultural science honours degree graduate and has been actively involved in wider industry plant breeding trials. Germinal is a member of the New Zealand Plant Breeders Research Association (NZPBRA) and Sarah has been working on the committee running the nutritive value trials as part of the National Forage Variety Trials (NFVT). Previous nutritive value trials showed Germinal grasses AberGreen and AberMagic topped the year one results in terms of metabolisable energy (ME) and water soluble carbohydrates. Ryegrass can definitely be part of the solution when it comes to meeting environmental challenges, Sarah says. It’s through sound plant breeding that the characteristics which help solve those challenges can be enhanced without impacting on the fantastic productivity and profitability benefits ryegrass gives, she says.

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SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Collaborating on forages Left: Matt Deighton with agronomist Richard Moate (L) at Cropmark Seeds cultivar evaluation site hosted by Fonterra suppliers Tony & Sue Reynolds near Burnham.

collaboration between a Canterbury seed company and a local farmer is paying dividends for both. Cropmark Seeds, a Canterbury-based seed breeding company is working closely with Burnham-based dairy farmers Tony and Sue Reynolds to evaluate lines of forage grasses it has developed within its plant breeding programme. Cropmark breed and supply a full portfolio of forage grasses, clovers, herbs, brassicas and novel endophytes for dairy farming systems from their base in Selwyn. The company is the country’s only fully NZ-owned forage grass and crop seed company - all its competitors are overseasowned. As part of its R&D programme, it runs a network of large-scale onfarm cultivar evaluation trials across multiple dairy farms in Canterbury, the Waikato and Victoria, Australia each overseen by a regional trials

agronomist. In these trials, cultivars are evaluated under both simulated grazing (cut) and herd grazing in irrigated and rainfed environments. Cropmark’s technical manager Dr Matt Deighton oversees all trialing activities conducted by the company. “Factors such as seasonal drymatter yield, metabolisable energy, digestibility, grazing preference, disease and insect pest tolerance, animal safety and persistence are all measured,” Matt says. “We want to ensure that our forages perform consistently across the country. To begin with, new cultivars must excel within managed trials, but it’s equally important that they demonstrate robust performance under commercial conditions, and that’s where our relationships with our host farmers comes to the fore.” “The Cropmark breeding programme produces hundreds of nucleus seed lines each year, all of which enter first-stage

productivity trials within replicated ‘mini swards’. To increase trial throughput, Cropmark have recently imported a Gianni Ferrari forage harvester from Italy, enabling a single operator to maintain the yield measurement rotation - speed is key with over 1500 ‘mini swards’ to maintain.” Being able to work onfarm with cooperative farmers is essential for the company, and that is where Tony and Sue Reynolds come in. The company runs a series of trials each year on their property, and this enables screening of varieties based on their onfarm performance. Tony and Sue milk a crossbred herd of 380 cows under irrigation on the outskirts of Burnham. After many years of farm management, they decided to develop their own farm and in 2018 converted their dry-stock property. Hosting Cropmark’s onfarm trials enables them to keep up with the latest in forage development and they value being able to view the performance of a range of varieties under their environment and management practices. “With a stocking rate of 4.75 cows/ha we have a real focus on maintaining high quality pastures and our home-grown feed supply,” Tony says. “This season we’re on track to produce 2500kg milksolids (MS)/ha, so supporting Cropmark to develop new highperformance forages and getting them into our system quickly is a win-win for us.”

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Avatar NEA

One perennial ryegrass cultivar that has consistently excelled within Cropmark’s trials is Avatar NEA, a new high performing tetraploid containing the NEA endophyte. Matt describes Avatar as a very late heading and persistent tetraploid ryegrass producing high metabolizable energy (ME) yields per hectare, a winning combination for milk producers and key selection criterion for Cropmark. Avatar NEA combines three high value traits that drive its overall performance and value: 1. Plant persistence by withstanding increasing environmental pressures to maintain high plant populations within grazed swards; 2. Improved Nutritive Value and palatability to promote higher consumption per cow, increase daily energy intake, improve sward utilization and assist maintaining residuals, and 3. Seasonally weighted ME yield with an emphasis on increased yield during winter, summer and autumn when feed is needed most, whilst maintaining spring pasture quality. Matt says Avatar NEA excels across all three of these traits and is highly ranked in the NZPBRA National Forage Variety Trials (NFVT) for its drymatter yield alone. In fact, Avatar NEA has earned the highest NFVT rank of all perennial ryegrasses, of any ploidy, for high value winter yield for all NZ. Avatar NEA has repeated its competitive dry matter yield in the most recent Upper South Island NFVT trial completed this year. (Table 1). Tony and Sue were among the first in the country to sow Avatar NEA as it became commercially available. Their first paddock was an under-sown year-old chicory crop, Avatar was a vigorous establisher so was chosen again to renew their older diploid pastures. Tony, who sees value in multi-species pastures on his Burnham soils, says he’s

TABLE 1. TETRAPLOID CULTIVARS HIGHLIGHTED WITHIN THE 2018-2021 UPPER SOUTH ISLAND NFVT TRIAL P218BUR PERENNIAL RYEGRASS SEASONAL AND TOTAL YIELD (KGDM/HA), MEAN OF 3 YEARS Entry

Winter

Early Spring

Late Spring

Summer

Autumn

Mean Year

Reason AR37

985 b

2587 a

4229 bd

4078 a

2949 a

14622 a

Avatar NEA

1092 a

2405 bc

4211 be

4049 a

2769 ac

14472 ab

SF Hustle AR1

962 bc

2609 a

4252 bc

3829 ac

2597 bf

14098 ac

Legion AR37

858 dg

2360 bd

3956 ef

3961 ab

2972 a

13965 ad

Platform AR37

849 dg

2348 bd

4170 be

3799 ac

2796 ab

13790 ae

Bronsyn SE

870 cg

2572 a

4207 be

3703 ac

2717 ae

13763 ae

Sequel SE

882 bf

2285 cd

4181 be

3740 ac

2631 be

13725 ae

One50 AR1

939 bd

2334 bd

4090 ce

3712 ac

2741 ac

13709 ae

AberMagic AR1

826 eg

2394 bc

4408 ab

3626 bd

2760 ac

13675 be

Evans Edge

863 cg

2355 bd

4447 ab

3782 ac

2481 cf

13652 be

Raider NEA2

924 be

2348 bd

3973 de

3800 ac

2730 ad

13582 be

Base AR37

977 b

2363 bd

4064 ce

3790 ac

2621 be

13549 be

One50 AR37

847 dg

2201 d

4120 ce

3957 ab

2619 be

13425 cf

Evans Happe

809 fg

2327 cd

4578 a

3632 bd

2434 ef

13380 cf

SF Moxie AR1

846 dg

2497 ab

4041 ce

3474 cd

2702 ae

13220 cf

AberGain AR1

766 g

2209 d

4440 ab

3679 ad

2494 cf

13131 df

Tyson NEA4

866 cg

2647 a

4057 ce

3441 cd

2326 f

12978 ef

One50 WE

938 bd

2317 cd

3680 f

3283 d

2468 df

12499 f

Trial Mean

909

2396

4103

3762

2680

13587

Significance

***

LSD (5%)

103

169

276

410

282

932

CV (%)

8.0

5.0

4.8

7.7

7.4

4.9

Means that differ by more than the Least Significant Difference (LSD, 5%) differ significantly (P < 0.05) as denoted by differing letters. CV = coefficient of variation. Note: this trial included a total of 31 varieties, on which the statistical analysis was conducted; however, 13 non-commercial lines have been removed from this presentation as requested by the NZPBRA.

also impressed with a multi-species dairy mix of Avatar NEA, Reaper red clover, Mantra white clover, Chico chicory and Oracle plantain. He’s been particularly pleased with the winter feed accumulation of Avatar in his rye-clover paddocks too. “That’s helped us carry higher covers

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

through spring until day. “The strong winter activity and palatability of Avatar has been obvious in our system, even as covers get away in spring, being a very late heading tetraploid, the cows achieve residuals and keep the quality up without topping.”

SPECIAL REPORT

RYEGRASS

Winning with tetraploids Words by: Anne Lee

etraploids will become an increasingly important tool in farmers’ pasture-based toolbox for improving productivity and reducing environmental impact, Barenbrug marketing manager Graham Kerr says. The ability of tetraploid ryegrass to maintain quality at higher covers as the plant hits its third leaf means a win:win for the plant and the animal. At the three leaf point the ryegrass plant has replenished its carbohydrate reserves so if it’s grazed at that point, it has the energy needed to rebuild itself and grow its solar panels or leaves back again. At the three-leaf point water soluble carbohydrates (WSC) have also been replenished and will be sitting at a higher ratio to protein levels. That’s important because WSC supplies the energy rumen bacteria need to break down and use the protein in the grass which means less nitrogen is likely to be excreted by the cow. That ratio of WSC to protein is further enhanced by the reduction in crude protein as the plant moves from first to second and then on to third leaf stage. “Lactating cows in spring need about 18% crude protein in their diet so a pasture with 22% protein supplies 4% too much. “Grazing at a three-leaf stage instead of 2.5 leaves can reduce crude protein by about 1.5% - it might not sound like much but that results in a 30% or more drop in excess protein.”

Graham says that for the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) a shift to grazing slightly higher covers, and grazing at the third leaf stage while still hitting residuals added about 1.2 tonnes drymatter (DM) to annual yields for no cost. “Alternatively, you could grow the same amount of drymatter for 100kg nitrogen (N) fertiliser/ha/year less based on a growth response of 12kg drymatter (DM)/kg N. “That’s significant given the nitrogen reductions farmers must make under new regulations,” he says. Being able to graze at higher covers and maintain quality means a longer grazing round and more time for the ryegrass to respond to nitrogen fertiliser applications. The grazing round at LUDF lengthened by four days from October to May because pre-grazing target covers lifted by 300kg DM/ha. That additional time meant an improvement in nitrogen response of 30%. It also meant the number of times paddocks were grazed dropped by an average of 1.7 grazings. Cows can increase intakes when grazing on tetraploid pastures because the base of the plant stays softer than a diploid at the same higher cover. Graham says cows take about 25,000 bites a day so they work hard for their feed. The softer stems make it easier for the cow to get down to residuals. Even when the tetraploid is sown with a diploid most of the tetraploid effect is maintained with cows able to more easily graze to residuals when covers are higher. The diploids help protect the tetraploids

Graeme Kerr, marketing manager, Barenbrug.

from overgrazing and make the pasture more robust, improving persistence. All but one of LUDF’s paddocks has been either tetraploid ryegrass or a combination of tetraploid and diploid which has been a key factor in the success of its system change reducing cow numbers, cutting back on bought-in feed and lowering nitrogen fertiliser use without having a big impact on profit. It’s enabled the farm to lighten its environmental footprint significantly including nitrogen loss and its greenhouse

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

TABLE 1. LUDF SYSTEM CHANGE OUTCOMES

‘Grazing at a threeleaf stage instead of 2.5 leaves can reduce crude protein by about 1.5% - it might not sound like much but that results in a 30% or more drop in

gas (GHG) emissions even though reductions in nitrogen loss due to the improved ratio of crude protein to WSC thanks to grazing at a three-leaf stage haven’t been taken into account yet. Graham says environmental benefits can come from the wide range of ryegrass types available to farmers. “That’s one of the remarkable things about the plant – the range of attributes that come from perennials, Italians, hybrids, tetraploids, diploids and then the cultivars within them.

LUDF

2011-13

2014-17

Change

Overseer Estimates

N loss

45kg N/ha

29kg N/ha

↓ 40%

GHG

63,400 CO₂-e/ha/yr

51,800 CO₂-e/ha/yr

↓ 22%

Systems Changes

N fertiliser

345 N/ha

175 N/ha

↓ 50%

Cows

630

555

↓ 12%

MS/cow

474

500

↑ 5%

kg MS/ha

1870kg MS/ha

1781kg MS/ha

↓ 5%

Pasture facts

Extra growth from higher cover

1.2 DM/ha

Pre-graze cover

3200 -3300kg DM/ha

3500-3600kg DM/ha

Residual

1600-1700kg DM/ha

Purchased supplement

1.5t DM/ha

0.9t DM/ha

↓ 40%

Days grazing

22-23 days

26-27 days

↓ 1.7 grazings/yr

N efficiency

16kg DM/kg N

21kg DM/kgN

↑ 30%

“The cool season growth we can get from hybrids and Italians that not only gives farmers yield at times when changes in climate are seeing farmers adapt their dairy systems it also means they can do an amazing job at reducing nitrogen loss.” Breeding hybrids back with an Italian or

a perennial is now giving a continuum in terms of seasonal growth profile, he says. “We simply don’t have anything to beat ryegrass for yield of high quality, high ME (metabolisable energy) feed, ease of establishment, ease of management and how forgiving it is.”

For high impact pasture growth.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

ENVIRONMENT METHANE

System in-line to cut methane Adapting systems used to provide clean drinking water almost eliminates methane from dairy effluent. Anne Lee reports.

areful science and a pinch of good fortune have resulted in one of the biggest breakthroughs to date for New Zealand dairy farmers searching for ways to cut methane emissions. Lincoln University scientists, working with Ravensdown on effluent technology which clarifies effluent, have found the same drinking water treatment additive it uses almost eliminates methane emissions from effluent ponds. It’s resulted in a new system that allows the additive to be mixed “in-line” as the effluent flows to the effluent pond. Methane emissions from effluent ponds make up about 4-5% of a dairy farm’s total methane emissions. The ability to cut that out almost altogether is significant given most other practical, ready to go options result in a drop in milk production. It’s also significant in terms of helping farmers get to the looming target set by the Government of cutting biogenic methane emissions by 10% from 2017 levels by 2030. Lincoln University emeritus professor Keith Cameron and Lincoln University professor Hong Di had been carrying out further studies into the ClearTech effluent system they helped develop when they made the methane reduction discovery. That system uses an additive, iron sulphate, commonly used in treating drinking water to improve water quality. The scientists were checking for any unintended consequences of using the additive, looking for any negative outcomes. Instead, they found a major positive and have been working to understand the 64

After the discovery that methane emissions dropped by about 95% and some further testing, the decision was made to scale up the experimental design. Lincoln University emeritus professor Keith Cameron and Lincoln University professor Hong Di.

greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits and what’s behind them further. A peer-reviewed paper was published in the Journal of Soils and Sediments earlier this year. It detailed the experiments carried out at Lincoln University and the results that showed methane emissions could be reduced by 99.9% when iron sulphate was mixed with the effluent. Initially the studies collecting gases from treated effluent were carried out in small experimental-sized columns. After the discovery that methane emissions dropped by about 95% and some further testing, the decision was made to scale up the experimental design. That meant the installation of 100,000 litre tanks at the Lincoln University Dairy Research Farm (LURDF). Keith says there was some nervousness given scaling up biological system experiments can see a drop in efficacy.

“It’s often called going into the ‘valley of death’,” Di says. But in this case the reverse happened and the reductions were even greater at up to 99.9% less methane emitted. They also found the effect on methane reductions continued for two months after the last dose of iron sulphate, boding well for New Zealand dairy farming systems where seasonal dry-off means no effluent is added to the pond over winter months. Based on their research and in conjunction with the scientists, Ravensdown has developed a new system, EcoPond which enables the iron sulphate additive to be mixed with effluent “in-line” as it flows from the farm dairy and yard to the effluent pond. The EcoPond system differs from ClearTech in that it doesn’t include a clarification tank where the effluent is mixed with the additive to allow the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

The addition of iron sulphate at a farm-scale level cuts methane emissions from effluent. ONFARM TRIAL #1 Total CH4 gas

Total amount CH4 emitted (kg CO2-e/ha)

more solid portion of effluent to settle out leaving clarified water which can then be recycled and used in dairy yard wash down. Because the EcoPond system mixes with the effluent in-line it can be readily retrofitted into most existing effluent systems. Cutting out the water clarification part of the effluent treatment process also means the system will be much cheaper with fewer tanks, less ground-work and plumbing. ClearTech product manager Carl Ahlfeld says the EcoPond system will likely have a capital cost of about a third to half the price of the clarification system. It will use similar technology to monitor the process of mixing the iron sulphate with the effluent to ensure the right dosage is maintained to accommodate variations in effluent pond sizes and effluent volumes as well as seasonal weather variations and effluent characteristics. A storage tank will be included to contain the iron sulphate and its volumes will be monitored automatically and coordinated with deliveries so the additive never runs out. On top of the capital cost farmers will have an annual cost for the additive which, based on current pricing for the ClearTech system could be about $8000 for a 550-cow farm milking twice-a-day for 270-days. At carbon prices of $65/tonne carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e) the cost of the additive is likely to be more than buying

ONFARM TRIAL #2 Total CH4 gas

30,000 25,000

99.5%

99.9%

reduction

20,000 15,000 10,000 5000 0

Treated

FDE

Treatment

Treated

FDE

Treatment

carbon credits. It’s worth noting though that it is unclear how farming emissions will be treated in an emissions trading scheme. It’s also fair to note that buying carbon credits to offset emissions isn’t going to help the planet. Keith says the ClearTech system gives farmers the same methane reductions as the EcoPond. Di and Keith’s large-scale study at the LURDF found that along with the reductions in methane emissions, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the effluent were halved and hydrogen sulphide

Carl Ahlfeld says the system can be retrofitted into existing systems.

Lincoln University emeritus professor Keith Cameron, and the ClearTech system during trials at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

emissions were also reduced. There was a small increase in nitrous oxide emissions but it was very small at less than 3% of the total CO₂-e GHG emissions. To put the methane emissions reductions in perspective in terms of potential reductions, nationally Di and Keith’s paper points out that based on Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) data from 2014 more than 9700 dairy farms have effluent ponds and the average pond volume is 1745 cubic metres with average storage at 86 days. If the iron sulphate treatment system was installed to treat each of those ponds 65

and, at a conservative estimate of a 90% reduction in methane emissions, the total methane reduction would be 622,890t CO₂-e. That’s more than $40.4 million worth of carbon at the current $65/t CO₂-e NZ price. The system has been installed at the LURDF to treat the farm’s effluent and allow further studies with another commercial-scale system being installed on a Canterbury dairy farm. The system is expected to be commercially available to farmers next year.

How it works – the science The iron sulphate added to the effluent works in two ways to reduce the production of emission in effluent ponds. It boosts the growth of other naturally occurring bacteria – iron-reducing bacteria and sulphate-reducing bacteria - in the effluent pond and both of these naturally outcompete and inhibit the methanogens responsible for producing methane. It also keeps the redox potential (a measure of the effluent pond’s aeration or oxygen status) at a level where the methanogenesis reaction can’t occur. There’s some complex chemistry involved in understanding how the iron sulphate stops the breakdown of organic matter before the methanogenesis step of

Biological process of anaerobic digestion

that breakdown but it’s using nature’s own processes. Under normal anaerobic conditions in an effluent pond the first step of anaerobic digestion is hydrolysis where complex organic matter including carbohydrates, proteins and fats are broken down into soluble organic molecules such as sugars,

Complex organic matter

Carbohydrates, proteins, fats

Addition of iron sulphate to fresh effluent increases the activity of ‘iron reducing bacteria’ & ‘sulphate reducing bacteria’ which inhibit the growth of methanogens

Hydrolysis

Soluble organic molecules

Sugar, amino acids, fatty acids

Acidogenesis Volatile fatty acids This stops the methanogens from producing methane.

Acetic acids

Acetogenesis

Methanogenesis

CH4 + CO2

H2 , CO2

amino acids and fatty acids. The next step is acidogenesis where the soluble organic molecules are broken down to volatile fatty acids. The third step is acetogenesis where the volatile fatty acids are broken down into acetic acids, hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide. When the iron sulphate has been added at the correct dosage the next stage of anaerobic digestion – methanogenesis doesn’t occur. That’s because the methanogens that carry out that reaction are inhibited by the other reducing bacteria and the sulphide produced from iron sulphate. The redox potential, described as Eh and measured in millivolts (mV) is maintained in the effluent at a level that’s higher than where methanogenesis occurs. Keith says the “in-line” mixing of the iron sulphate with the effluent still gives the other benefits they’d found with the in-tank system of ClearTech in that Escherichia coli (E. coli) numbers are dramatically reduced, ammonia emissions are cut and phosphorus leaching losses on free-draining soils where the treated effluent is applied will be cut by about 90%.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

ENVIRONMENT SOIL CARBON

Promise in biochar Words by: Karen Trebilcock

Z Landcare Trust hopes to hold field days throughout New Zealand soon on incorporating biochar into NZ pastoral

systems. Biochar is any material from renewable sources high in carbon which has been heated at high temperatures without oxygen so the carbon is mostly in a stable state when it is buried. It can be made from wood from production forests, orchards or the building industry or from straw and even animal manure.

as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. “And although biochar is not covered by the government’s Emissions Trading Scheme, if carbon prices rose high enough and it was included, then the cost of making biochar could be mostly covered.” As well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, biochar is also good for the soil as it is porous. “It retains moisture and nutrients in the soil and stops them leaching into waterways and also contains small amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well, depending on the source.” Massey University has built its own

‘It retains moisture and nutrients in the soil and stops them leaching into waterways and also contains small amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as well, depending on the source.’

Massey University research director Jim Jones says it is an alternative way to reduce waste from many industries including horticulture and farming and about five million tonnes of biomass produced every year in NZ could be made into biochar. If left to rot, the organic matter is broken down and released into the atmosphere

biomass kiln and found reducing gas emissions during the process was vital or any benefit was lost. No one yet knows what effect biochar could have on NZ’s soil carbon levels. “Our soil carbon levels are about 100 tonnes of carbon per hectare and we suspect adding biochar will increase these levels but we don’t know. We need long-

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Massey University research director Jim Jones.

term studies to find out. “For carbon to be considered sequestered it has to be stable in the ground for more than 100 years. “The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has established if biochar is made at 600C or more then after 100 years about 89% of it will still be there because it has been turned into a stable form. “If the biochar is made at between 350 and 450C then only about 65% will be sequestered.” Massey University trials has shown about half of the carbon of the biomass could be captured after the carbon used to make it such as from transporting the biomass was subtracted. “The cost of production depends on the scale but it is about $400/t to make. “We need it to be included as a recognised carbon sink then it looks a lot more economically possible.” 67

TOOLS FOR TIMING EFFLUENT APPLICATION While some councils make the information available, others have the background, the infrastructure and the systems in place to take the guesswork for farmers out of deciding when to spread effluent. Anne Hardie reports. 68

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

ENVIRONMENT EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT

ABOVE: The revised and updated web-based Dairy Effluent Storage Calculator (DESC) helps farmers to calculate how big their pond needs to be.

ain, soil deficit and the rate of transpiration are all part of the equation when farmers are deciding whether they can spread effluent, but it’s often guesswork. Yet councils around the country have that information across their region and dairy effluent consultant Logan Bowler says there’s an opportunity to make it more readily available to farmers as another tool in their decision making. Environment Southland already has that information online and farmers can view 19 locations that are monitored for aspects such as soil moisture, with different colours used for each site to show whether the soil is safe to irrigate, or not – or somewhere in between. Other councils could do the same, Logan says, and though it might not have 100% accuracy for every farm, it would be considerably better than guesswork. “It’s way better than what we have now, which is absolutely nothing. Farmers have to try and make a decision around whether to irrigate without a lot of understanding of the drivers behind that decision.” Farmers who irrigate through the dry and especially those with soil probes probably have a better understanding, but he suspects the majority of farmers don’t have tools to measure the soil water deficit or a good understanding of the calculation required to find out if they can irrigate effluent or not onto the soil and how much they can irrigate. “It’s relatively simple, but you need to know the science behind it. What is the soil deficit and what is the evapotranspiration (ET) today and how much rain have I had? That’s all part of the equation.” Logan says the evapotranspiration remains reasonably consistent with day lengths – the more daylight you have, the more hours in a day for grass to be doing photosynthesis and growing which is drying the soil out. For example, as long as it isn’t raining, October this year will have the same ET as October last year because the daylight hours are the same. Rainfall isn’t consistent, but ET is. He says farmers shouldn’t need to try and do those calculations, though, when councils have the equipment and are measuring those factors and could add more sites to provide information which would benefit farmers and also the environment. “They have the background, the infrastructure

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Dairy effluent consultant Logan Bowler.

and the systems in place. What I don’t want to see is 10 farmers down a road all having to pay for soil monitoring equipment when in my opinion, district wide (measurement) is good enough as an indicator. “It comes back to Joe Bloggs farmer having to decide whether today is a good irrigation day, or not.” When farmers aren’t spreading dairy effluent, they are storing it and calculating just how much storage is needed can be done with a lot more accuracy using the improved Dairy Effluent Storage Calculator (DESC). The former Massey University version was more than a decade old and written in code no longer used for software, so DairyNZ took up the task of rewriting it and making it web-based so it can be accessed wherever there is access to the internet. Logan helped DairyNZ develop the now-released online version and continues with activities for greater refinement of the tool. He also milks 250 cows on a dairy farm in Manawatu and runs his own dairy effluent business, Agblution Solutions, which gives him a practical background for the multiple factors needed on each farm for the calculations. He says the upgraded model better reflects the science, especially on low-risk soils. Now there’s the ability to enter multiple irrigation depths and associated pump rates. The end result is it reduces storage requirements on low-risk soils at application depths less than 10mm and increases it at application depths greater than 10mm. Multiple dates or periods can now be selected 69

Logan Bowler: councils have information that could help farmers decide if its an effluent irrigation day.

for milking days, stormwater diversions such as the yard or feedpad, and also nonirrigation days. Many default values have been removed forcing those using the DESC to calculate or estimate inputs making the result farmspecific. Bladders are now an option under storage options. Plus, the files can be shared online or assigned to another user and company logos can be added to reports. Logan points out the importance of entering accurate information into the calculator to achieve an accurate result and recommends final calculations should be done by a qualified person such as dairy effluent warrant of fitness assessors or accredited effluent system designers. Much of the dairy effluent work in the industry has focused on infrastructure, but there’s still a lot of work to do around effluent management. Things can go wrong even with the most sophisticated system and good 70

management. That’s when it’s good to know when it happens as soon as possible, or better still, before it happens. One of the companies supplying the technology to do that is Halo Systems which has a monitoring and control system designed to shut down the pump and send out an alert message when there’s a problem with the flow or pressure in the effluent line or pump, or any movement. Sales marketing manager Blake Lattin describes it as an interface with the company’s hardware that has already been installed on farms. Several hundred farmers have added the technology which varies in cost between $4,000 and beyond $20,000 to purchase, depending on what it is set up to do. Then a monthly fee of $60. “We try to help them prevent what they don’t want to happen.” If there is a high flow and low pressure, or vice versa, something is wrong. Too much pressure may indicate a blockage and cause a pipe to burst or permanent equipment damage.

A sudden drop in pressure may mean a pipe has burst. Either way, the system shuts the pump down and sends out an alert to the farmer. Likewise, if the irrigator stops moving unexpectedly. It was created five years ago and Lattin says they continue to add to its functionality. The latest addition measures nitrogen levels in the effluent being irrigated on to pasture. And geofencing provides an electronic barrier to stop the system irrigating wet or other sensitive areas in a paddock. If the neighbour’s house is on the paddock boundary or there’s a stream through the paddock, geofencing can place a protective barrier around those areas so they don’t get effluent near them. Through the GPS in irrigators, the system records where effluent has been spread and how much has been spread which ensures farmers are compliant and also has that history as proof. The monitoring system collects data outside the dairy such as weather and

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

soil moisture, and Lattin says as more data is collected, farmers want more features added. He says every farm and every effluent system is different, so a monitoring system needs to be robust but also flexible. A Golden Bay dairy effluent contractor, Alan Williams who runs Dairy Solutions, is an advocate for low-maintenance systems where there is less to maintain and less potential for things to go wrong. The way to achieve that, he says, is by using the smallest number of moving components possible in an effluent system and where possible, using gravity. That way, if something does go wrong, the effluent can still flow to the pond or tank and be spread. He realises that is not an option on all farms. Though many farmers have upgraded their dairy effluent systems in recent years, he says there are still many waiting to see what systems work well

‘Farmers have to try and make a decision around whether to irrigate without a lot of understanding of the drivers behind that decision.’ and which ones are high maintenance, before making a decision and spending the money. In the meantime, he has seen more farmers choose bladders for storing their effluent because they are cheaper and don’t need resource consent. They provide another storage choice in high-rainfall areas like Golden Bay where rainfall can quickly fill a storage facility. Plus there’s the option of selling it down the track if circumstances change or farmers are waiting on environmental rules and more research before deciding on a long-term effluent solution. Logan is not so sure about bladders though. Small bladders can be cost-

efficient, but he wonders about the longterm effect of effluent in them. Will they fill up with solids over time when you don’t have the option of stirring the effluent as you do in a pond or tank? Plus, he says, the lack of oxygen in a bladder creates an anaerobic process which won’t help the odour when irrigated on to paddocks. Williams expects more farmers to use direct drilling as a method of effluent disposal, especially in higher rainfall areas. He also expects more farmer interest in turning effluent methane into electricity to power the dairy, which is being done on a Southland dairy farm, though it’s still early days. .

Low rate eﬄuent irriga�on made easy. Even nutrient applica�on with automated irrigator speed control and hydraulic winch system. Even spread from 50m – 100m ACCURATE | DURABLE | USER FRIENDLY | EFFICIENT

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

ENVIRONMENT SOIL CARBON

Blame it on the worms Words by: Karen Trebilcock

he more fertile your soil is, the more worms you have and other microorganisms living underground. And they all breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, in the case of worms, through their skin. And it’s because of this, the country’s 13 million hectares of pastoral farming which is continually building humus and soil through plant photosynthesis and the breakdown of animal dung is not necessarily building carbon, Landcare Research soil scientist Paul Mudge says. The researcher says popular belief is rich, fertile top soils with high amounts of organic matter are full of carbon but it isn’t always true. “The generally accepted definition or approach is soil carbon is quantified on material that will pass through a 2mm sieve. Large roots and worms will be excluded. Soil is generally air-dried and then sieved.” However, if soil organic matter such as worms and grass roots are included, which are more than 50% carbon, it would add less than 5% to soil carbon levels in New Zealand.

Landcare Research soil scientist Paul Mudge: land under irrigation in NZ is not building carbon but losing it.

And that goes for adding the life above the ground as well, such as cows. “Globally, New Zealand has good soil carbon levels because we have a temperate climate and good rainfall and wellmanaged perennial pastures.” So building soil carbon, by increasing soil organic matter, is a tough if not impossible task because on a percentage basis, it hardly measures against what we already have. Also, soil organic matter is often not considered carbon sequestration as the carbon is in flux. Even the worms will die, their bodies decompose and so release more carbon dioxide into the air.

“We know that if you take pastoral farming land and change it to horticulture you lose carbon, but then you don’t have animals emitting carbon dioxide above the ground.”

‘Globally, New Zealand has good soil carbon levels because we have a temperate climate and good rainfall and well-managed perennial pastures.’

“We’re doing a lot of work trying to identify ways to increase soil carbon but at this stage we don’t have any concrete evidence of how to do it by pastoral farming,” he says. Corporate and smaller farms are contacting him about how to measure carbon in their soils as they want to promote their produce as carbon neutral. “At the bare minimum you must measure to a depth of 30cm and then you’re looking at the percentage of carbon, or the concentration of carbon in the soil sample, and the total mass of carbon. “So far the available data shows we’re not losing it but we’re also not gaining it. It’s in a steady state.

“And if you plant trees the ground underneath the trees loses carbon but there is the huge carbon biomass above the ground.” Land under irrigation in NZ is not building carbon but losing it. “In Canterbury on what was dry, stony pastures carrying a few sheep and are now dairy farms with green grass and soil, there is actually less carbon there now. “Under irrigation, the roots of the pasture are shorter and because it’s warm and there is plentiful moisture there are a lot of worms and other soil organism activity and they’re all expiring carbon into the atmosphere. “Just because you have biomass that doesn’t mean you have carbon,” Paul says.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Otago Next Level Grazing coach Siobhan Griffin.

Lake Hawea Station in the South Island high country sequesters more carbon than it emits.

“High fertility and low fertility soils can have the same amount.” Otago Next Level Grazing coach Siobhan Griffin agrees, saying 10 years of ryegrass and white clover rotational grazing has done little to increase the soil organic matter on her dairy farm in the United States. “Once I shifted my management to enhance diversity in my dairy pastoral system and incorporated mob grazing, my soil organic matter went up steadily over 10 years and did not get to the point of levelling off. “My topsoil A horizon depth went from 300mm to 800mm. Exactly how much carbon was drawn down into the soil in scenarios like mine and how long it will stay there will take a lot of science but that will all come rapidly as a higher price gets put on carbon.” She is not surprised dairy farms under pivot irrigation in Canterbury are losing carbon. “High rates of urea fertiliser oxidise the carbon and short roots in pasture are not conducive to building a carbon sponge. Nor do they capture nitrates well so nitrous oxide leaks out into the air and nitrates leak down into the soil.” It was why regenerative grazing was such a win-win for the climate and for the environment. “It allows farmers to grow more pasture per unit of fertiliser and grow deeperrooted pasture to retain soil, moisture and nutrients so they don’t run rapidly into waterways.”

The first farm to show it sequesters more carbon than it emits is Lake Hawea Station in the South Island high country which sequesters annually 5131 tonnes of carbon from growing trees and emits 2538t. The 6505-hectare station runs Merinos and Angus cattle as well as a tourism business bringing people on to the farm. The station gained farm carbon certification in April this year from Toitu Envirocare which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, a government-owned Crown Research Institute. Toitu uses OverseerFM plus its own software to assess a farm’s carbon footprint which is verified by Asure Quality. Station owner Geoff Ross says NZ Merino was the catalyst for getting Toitu certification. “Carbon modelling of sequestration in this country only allows large vegetation — trees,” he says. “Whilst we would love to use soil, tussock and in fact wool itself, which is 50% carbon, as yet these do not qualify to be included into a carbon budget. “In my mind they should, however, be part of a farm’s net number. Soil is a great sequester of carbon, although building soil carbon is a little different to growing a tree. “A tree will sequester carbon for say 100 years. Building carbon into your soil will cap out at some point much earlier. You can’t keep adding carbon into soil forever as the byproduct of

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

high carbon and high organic matter soils is they also produce more.” As well as growing trees, Lake Hawea Station is also using regenerative farming practices and investigating ways to lessen methane from ruminants. “Healthy animals with clean bums are likely to be emitting less methane so understanding parasite loads is important. We have recently bought on the Techion Fecpak as a tool to help with this. “Multi species crops are also thought to create healthy rumens, and this is likely to create less methane. “Asparagopsis seaweed is being trialled in Australia with huge results. We would love to try it here.”

STOCK MASTITIS

Somatic cell counts – how low can you go

ike many farmers on smaller holdings Sandra and Les Wallace, and their son Brent are kept pretty busy, with their fingers in several pies, and multiple income strands. While their 79-hectare property at Towai, 75ha effective, half way between Whangarei and Paihia, is not really big enough to have a 50:50 sharemilker, their son Brent has taken up that role while running his own rural contracting business. Les helps to milk the 170-odd cows, and in exchange for his labour, he and Sandra get to raise all the calves. With several runoffs nearby Sandra finishes some calves for beef, some grow on as replacement animals, as well as growing crops and supplements. With a tractor of his own, Les also subcontracts to Brent and his business. Their daughter Ashleigh lives close by and works for Fonterra. As she is able to work from home this sees Sandra also looking after her grandchildren at times during the week. The Wallaces’ Friesian dairy herd may be smaller but they consistently have a low bulk milk somatic cell count (BMSCC). Over the 2020/2021 season it clocked in at an average of 94,858 cells/ ml. This shows their animals have few mastitis problems. The herd’s Somatic Cell Count remains well under their northern benchmark group average, only coming close toward the end of the season in April each year, and putting their farm in the top 25% of suppliers in the Northland region. This saw their practices in the spotlight

at the SMASH (Small Milk and Supply Herds) field day held on their property recently. There Steve Cranefield from vet medicine company AgriHealth highlighted their good SCC record, and gave insights into mastitis and ways farmers can improve their animals’ health, while reducing infection in the herd. Sandra puts their success down to several things including keeping up high hygiene standards and keeping water well away from the animals during milking. “Don’t clean their teats unless soiled with wet cow muck. Always dry cup and keep your hands clean and dry as much as possible,” she advises. Teat spraying is also important with every teat, every cow, every milking something of a mantra for them. For this they use an iodine-based teat spray which includes manuka honey. Good for general teat conditioning it also reduces the already low risk of spreading staph aureus – more on that later. The Wallaces also use both blanket dry cow treatment, and teat seal at dry-off. Teat sealing is considered good practice, as is using dry cow treatment on quarters that are known to be infected. However, with rising concerns globally over antimicrobial resistance, blanket dry cow treatment is no longer seen as acceptable by the New Zealand Veterinary Association. While not mandatory, Cranefield says resistance concerns are seeing a move away from blanket dry cow treatment and he encourages farmers to aim at keeping their SCC count low throughout

Working practices of the Wallace family on their Northland farm were the subject of a Small Milk and Supply Herds field day held on their property recently. Delwyn Dickey reports. Steve Cranefield talks somatic cell counts.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Left: Teat end damage is a high mastitis risk. Above Les and Sandra Wallace with agronomist Jen Corkran at their SMASH field day.

‘Don’t clean their teats unless soiled with wet cow muck. Always dry cup and keep your hands clean and dry as much as possible.’

the season to reduce the need for antibiotic dry cow treatment at dry-off. Being small means Sandra, Les and Brent know virtually all of the animals in their dairy herd individually and saw them opt out of the expense of herd testing for nearly 10 years. While perhaps not unreasonable given their small herd size, with the average herd size at 450 cows nationally this intimate knowledge of your herd isn’t usually possible, and sees Cranefield strongly recommending herd testing and good record keeping. For many farms culling is inclined to focus heavily on empty cows and one-off infections rather than animals with longterm mastitis infections. That the Wallaces’ cull cows with repeat infections, as they know their animals individually and note which ones have problems, is one of the

reasons they are successful despite not herd testing, he says. Catching and treating infections early so it can’t spread to other animals is important and sees another brownie point for the Wallaces in the form of checking for mastitis at calving time and not allowing infected cows in the shed with the rest of the herd. Other initiatives Cranefield recommends are weekly stripping to check for mastitis as well as cow side testing with Mastatest, and only treating if needed with the recommended antibiotic more likely to cure the infection. Farmers can be overly concerned about Staph aureus, Cranefield finds. While 85% of NZ herds have Staph aureus in them, on average only 0.5% of cows are infected with Staph aureus at dry off. Staph aureus is spread from cow to cow during milking but the rate of spread is actually very low as spraying every teat after milking, as the Wallaces do, will reduce the risk and put those concerns to bed.

MaxT for healthy teats Cranefield is a big advocate for MaxT (maximum milking time) for teat and udder health. The wear and tear of milking can take its toll on teat skin and lead to rough and cracked teat ends, increasing the risk of bacterial infection. In an effort to combat that, as well as making milking quicker next time, leaving some of the milk behind rather than fully milking out is recommended. This sees milk flowing at next milking right from

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

the word go, while the cows’ let-down mechanism kicks in.

Limiting milking time Fonterra recently installed meters on the milk vats which automatically measure milk flow and time. When the milk flow starts it turns on, when milk stops it turns off. Cows milked per hour is the number of cows divided by time. At 119 cows per hour the Wallaces are about average so could afford to have more cows going through as some herringbone sheds their size are pumping through nearly double that. Cranefield recommends for automated cup removers adjust the low-flow threshold to 0.4 kg/minute and set a fixed time endpoint (Download the MilkSmart app for MaxT times). For manual removal in a herringbone: Cups on immediately cows are at the front gate, cup change and teat spray as you go – don’t wait for slow milkers, and open the gate early while you’re changing the last cups. For manual removal in a rotary: No letting cows go round twice. Aim for a speed that sees them finished about threequarters of the way round so they can head off as soon as they reach the exit. In the European Union, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand milk with somatic cell counts above 400,000 isn’t considered fit for human consumption. Spare a thought for consumers in the United States where that limit sits at 750,000 or in Brazil at 1,000,000. 75

STOCK WAGYU CALVES

Calf contracts come with semen straws Words by: Karen Trebilcock

armers are showing they’re keen to mate their cows with CRV’s offering of Black Origin Wagyu semen. The genetics company is the only supplier of Black Origin Wagyu and with the straws come contracts for either five-to10-day-old calves or 100kg weaned calves. CRV product development manager Peter van Elzakker said it’s not too late for farmers to use Black Wagyu this season. “Many farmers order their dairy beef later after seeing how the season is going,” he said. “The introduction of Black Origin Wagyu this spring is a good opportunity for our people to have the conversation with farmers about their dairy beef options. Even if they don’t use any this spring there is always next autumn and spring.” Black Origin Wagyu will pay $180 for a five-to-10-day-old Wagyu-cross calf and $350 for a 100kg weaned calf plus $2/ kg liveweight over 100kg, whether they are heifers or bulls. Costs for debudding, castration and vaccination are covered by Black Origin Wagyu. Payment is 14 days after pickup on

NZ Wagyu director Arato Tsujino and Southland farmer Scotty Cochrane.

Black Origin Wagyu calves farmed in New Zealand.

invoice. Further contracts are available for farmers rearing the weaned calves to 400kg and 520kg liveweight. Only F12 or above cows can be mated for the contracts, NZ Wagyu director Arato Tsujino, who is behind Black Origin Wagyu, says. “We put a lot of emphasis on growing true Wagyu beef with true Japanese techniques in New Zealand.” In Japan it is sold under the name Black Jade Washu – translated as “Wagyu-ish”. “Wagyu means Japanese cattle so Japanese cattle don’t come from New Zealand or any other country,” he says. “It is a culturally significant name so everyone is unhappy that the name Wagyu is used outside of Japan,” he says. The company sells the beef to other countries and domestically to top restaurants as Black Origin Wagyu, New Zealand Wagyu and Shiwase Beef. From Kobe in Japan, Arato came to NZ in 2015 to grow the famed cattle, selling the first NZ carcases back to his homeland in 2018. The beef animals are finished on grain for between 200 and 600 days which gives it the Wagyu flavour, scent and marbling. Black Origin Wagyu originally sourced semen from Wagyu bulls in Australia but CRV would be supplying NZ full-blood semen for the dairy beef calf contracts. Wagyu semen and embryos cannot be exported from Japan. “The Japanese market doesn’t recognise any Wagyu from outside of Japan. Therefore it is irrelevant whether the animals are full blood or cross, it is always going to be an imported beef which positions at the bottom tier, however it is still premium beef compared to other imported beef.” Arato says.

Western Southland dairy farmer Scotty Cochrane has been using the semen over his Friesian herd and says he’d had no calving problems even with first calvers. Contrary to popular belief the Wagyu cross calves are just as easy to rear as other calves, he says. “They’re competitive just like anything else, they sulk just like anything else. “They do have a longer gestation period, about five days, and we just have to be aware of it and build it into the system. It’s not a big deal for me.” The calves are easy to identify once you know what you are looking for. “There is a distinctive difference in the shape of the head. They’re narrower in the polls, longer in the legs and bigger in the ears. They’re pretty distinctive. “After five to 10 days of feeding them they stick out like a sore toe.” Peter says using the Wagyu option would lower bobby numbers on farms. “We want farmers to mate their top cows with our frozen sexed dairy semen and then use the Wagyu option for the rest of their herd.” Although frozen sexed semen conception rates are lower than nonsexed frozen semen, he says the positives outweigh the negatives. “Assuming a 10% lower conception rate for sexed semen and only using sexed on 20% of the cows in the first three weeks of mating for a six-week mating period, it would result in a -1.13% conception rate overall. “However, it does result in more female replacements from your best cows and the option to put more cows to beef. “Being careful what cows you use the sexed semen on will further help mitigate the conception rate impact.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

STOCK MINDA

Sharing the technology Words by: Karen Trebilcock

riting cow numbers on pieces of paper will soon be a thing of the past on New Zealand dairy farms. Cow collars and other wearables are now passing cows’ heat information to MINDA with more events such as health alerts and pregnancy diagnosis set to follow in the next few months. LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says the company wants to maximise the value farmers get from investing in technology. “The goal is in the future that MINDA will connect with everything.” In mid-October LIC developed a new application in MINDA for heats detected by Afimilk, Datamars, Cow Manager and GEA CowScout cow wearables to be automatically uploaded. Allflex cow collars are already connected to MINDA through the Protrack drafting gate. “Some other drafting gates have work-arounds they use for the information to be shared between applications,” he says.

Either formal contracts and commercial agreements, such as with CRV, or data sharing between the different companies are used or will be. “Our approach is we want to work with everyone, so all farmers, whatever system they buy, can use it to enter information into MINDA.” The MINDA app is already well used on farms, he says, with more users of it than there are dairy farms. “It means there are a lot of farm staff who have it on their phones and are entering calving information and other events directly into MINDA as events happen.” Entering cow tag numbers from the yellow notebook at a later date is becoming a thing of the past. LIC is also looking at further connecting the Datamate, which AB technicians use to record matings onfarm, to MINDA so farmers would no longer have to write tag numbers in mating books. Instead a cow wearable will detect a heat, the cow will be drafted automatically without farmer intervention and the cow’s number will be in the Datamate ready for the technician.

Wayne McNee, LIC chief executive.

“The less people who have to read cow tags and write down numbers the better the information that is going into MINDA,” he says. But it is not just cows which are the focus but all farming activities with agreements sought from dairy, fertiliser and even finance companies for data sharing and use in LIC’s subsidiary Agrigate. “There is a lot of potential for information sharing that will make it easier for farmers in the future.”

Invercargill

Ascot Park Hotel, 5-6 April 2022 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

| November 2021

STOCK VET VOICE

Do you really need that drench?

Running the young stock through the yards each month or so and applying t a discussion group a while pour-on down the back for every heifer is ago, a conversation between common practice – but is it good practice? the attendees really opened Have you ever considered that this method my eyes to the variation in of parasite management might lead to farming practices when it comes to dairy significant problems for livestock farmers young stock rearing. in the future? From when a calf is born, until they Drench resistance is just as significant enter the milking herd, it seems a threat to your livelihood as antibiotic anything is possible when it resistance. comes to the combinations Stop and think – why do you of feed, minerals, drenches drench everything? What are you and vaccinations that trying to achieve? different people use. Also Drench is there for a very of note is the variability in specific purpose – to reduce recommendations made by production losses caused by internal professional farm advisers on parasites. Imagine a future where Lisa Whitfield these topics. Why? drenches don’t work any more. How One area which needs widespread do you treat animals for worms if the industry-led, unbiased discussion is drench doesn’t work? drenching regimens for dairy young stock. Dairy cattle are just as vulnerable as It seems a lot of people are taking the every other pastoral species when it easy way out when it comes to internal comes to the overuse of drenches and the parasite management in their heifers, development of drench resistance. drenching everything instead of finding In young stock which are growing well, out which heifers actually need a drench, it is not necessary to drench every animal and which don’t. every month.

Words by: Lisa Whitfield

The key is knowing your heifers are growing well – and it seems this is where the workload becomes too much for too many people. It is far easier just to drench them, than it is to take the extra time to find out whether they need that drench in the first place.

Improving management practices to reduce vulnerability to parasitism is far more beneficial overall to farming systems than relying on drenches. Weighing heifers gives you more information on their level of health. It is not just worms which make them lose weight or not grow well. Knowing that a mob is growing at 0.8kg per day, and finding a heifer which is only growing at

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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HYDRAULIC DOSING P

Uses in Dairy: MainMain Advantages: Pump It seems a lot of people are taking the easy way out when it comes to internal parasite management in their heifers, drenching everything instead of finding out which heifers actually need a drench, and which don’t.

0.2kg per day for example, gives you the opportunity to find out what is wrong with that individual – and a drench is probably on the cards for her too. What if she actually has pneumonia? Shouldn’t you treat her for that too? In that same mob – is an animal growing at 1kg per day showing production loss? Does she really need a drench? Leaving stock undrenched when they don’t need it is beneficial to stopping the development of drench resistance. On an individual basis, having worms present doesn’t cause a significant production loss. Leaving some worms in the system gives that animal the opportunity to strengthen their immune system response to keep worms in check themselves. And most importantly, it leaves worms in the production system which are not exposed to drench. Every time worms are exposed to drench, and particularly if they are exposed to drench which is not completely effective, it leaves the opportunity for drench tolerant worms to survive and reproduce. Over time, if ineffective drench exposure continues, the population of worms

becomes more tolerant to the drench. Even with combination drenches, if exposure is continuous and effectiveness is not 100%, eventually, drench resistance will develop. Physiological stressors, such as poor nutrition and adverse weather conditions, can leave animals vulnerable to parasitism because physiological stress impacts the ability of the immune system to function well. However, with most physiological stressors, we have some degree of control over their effect on our stock, and equally, physiological stressors do not affect all stock to the same degree. Our management practices - the grazing systems we employ, the quality of the food on offer and the type of drench we use, all contribute to the vulnerability of our stock to parasitism. Improving management practices to reduce vulnerability to parasitism is far more beneficial overall to farming systems than relying on drenches. If we continue to drench so many animals unnecessarily, one day, we will lose control over worms – then everything changes. • Lisa Whitfield is a Production Animal Veterinarian in the Manawatu.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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Wilbur Morrison – Buzzing about mead.

MAKING A BUZZ FROM HONEY A former Lincoln student is keeping an eye on plantain research while fostering an ancient brew. Anne Lee reports.

year on from finishing his Lincoln University honours degree Wilbur Morrison is keeping one eye on the buzz about plantain while running his own company producing the new alcoholic sensation, a twist on the ancient draft - mead. He and his business partner Edward Eaton launched their mead brand, Buzz Club last year in time for the summer and are now selling into more than 40 outlets including supermarkets, liquor stores and in restaurants. They’ve breathed new life into the ancient brew giving the honey-based liquor a sparkling fizz and a hint of fruity flavour. Working on product distribution plans, marketing concepts and packaging are a far cry from digging up columns of soil and pasture and measuring the effects of soil type and plantain on nitrogen leaching but 80

that’s where Wilbur was at when he and Edward kicked off the mead idea. His honours study revealed some surprising results and provoked his assertion that more research needs to be done on the full seasonal effect of plantain on limiting nitrogen leaching. His study looked at the effect of plantain on leaching losses during the cooler late autumn to early winter months from March 1 to May 30 by placing the lysimeters in the university’s Biotron where long-term weather conditions could be simulated. Instead of seeing an expected reduction in nitrogen leaching when plantain was present, he saw in increase in one of the lysimeters. Wilbur compared two common Canterbury soil types – a Templeton and a Balmoral. For each soil type there were three lysimeter treatments:

• Ryegrass/white clover only • Ryegrass/white clover with the application of nitrogen at a rate of 700kg nitrogen/ha to simulate a urine patch • Ryegrass/white clover with 22-31% plantain and the application of nitrogen at a rate of 700kg nitrogen/ha to simulate a urine patch. “The Balmoral is a lighter, leakier soil so I’d expected to see more leaching through it but there wasn’t a significant difference between the two Templeton treatments that received nitrogen – one with plantain and one without and the Balmoral 700 no plantain. “What really surprised me though was that the Balmoral plantain treatment leached significantly more nitrate than both the Templeton treatments. “The plantain didn’t reduce the nitrate leaching losses from either of the soil types. “Instead, the addition of plantain in the Balmoral soils significantly increased leaching losses between the Templeton and Balmoral treatments. “We thought we’d see a huge reduction in the Templeton 700(kg N/ha) with plantain

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

‘THERE REALLY NEEDS TO BE A HARDER LOOK TAKEN INTO HOW IT’S ACTING THROUGH THOSE COOLER PERIODS OF LATE AUTUMN AND WINTER SO THERE’S A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF ITS ABILITY TO MAKE NITROGEN LEACHING LOSS REDUCTIONS OVER A FULL SEASON.’ but we didn’t see that either – there wasn’t a significant difference.” That’s got Wilbur questioning if plantain’s effectiveness at cutting nitrogen leaching is purely a warm season characteristic. “There really needs to be a harder look taken into how it’s acting through those cooler periods of late autumn and winter so there’s a better understanding of its ability to make nitrogen leaching loss reductions over a full season. Wilbur’s research measured the volume of leachate as well as nitrate concentrations draining from the lysimeters throughout his study period and he noted that the lysimeters with plantain had more drainage liquid. He looked at other studies on plantain to try and understand what was going on there and found a study that measured a number of characteristics of 10 plants including plantain. That study found plantain had a higher evapotranspiration rate through the summer than ryegrass so had a higher water use but in the cooler months and over winter its evapotranspiration rates were lower.

It has lower water use over the cooler months so for the same rainfall it’s going to take up less water and you could surmise the drainage could therefore be higher, he says. Plantain also has a tap root and taproots can cause macropore flow where water can flow down around the root. “I think there has to be more research looking at the full season effect because the late autumn winter period is a crucial time for nitrate leaching.” In the short term though it’s not likely to be Wilbur carrying out wider studies – he’s busy expanding the mead business. A $22-million study to prove plantain’s effectiveness at reducing nitrate leaching, investigating regional effects and protecting the supply chain has kicked off this year and as part of that large-scale paddock-based leaching studies will be carried out. Wilbur says he’ll be keeping an eye on the results while he and Edward work on expanding their business. The mead idea developed while he was tending hives in the beekeeping business he was running while at Lincoln.

Losses (kg N ha)

Nitrate leaching losses from two different soil types with and without plantain from 1 March to May 30.

Temp0 - Templeton soil no additional nitrogen, Temp700 – Templeton soil with nitrogen added at 700kgN/ha to simulate cow urine TempPl700 – Templeton soil with nitrogen added, pasture includes plantain. Balm0 – Balmoral soil no nitrogen added Balm700 – Balmoral soil with nitrogen added at 700kgN/ha to simulate cow urine BalmPl700 – Balmoral soil with nitrogen added, pasture includes plantain. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

He had a go at brewing up a few batches with mates and through some trial and error created a drink worth pursuing. He and Edward, a long-time mate from school days and more recently a Canterbury University business marketing graduate, decided to go all in and turn the idea into a business getting help from a professional brewer to create what’s called a session mead. The ancient, more traditional meads are sticky, sweet and high alcohol but like session beer the session part of the mead refers to a lower-alcohol, lighter, more refreshing style of beverage. The Buzz Club session meads are from 4.8%-5.5% alcohol by volume, effervescent and while they have a distinct honey aspect to their “nose” and flavour they’re not very sweet. Wilbur says they’ve worked with the natural honey flavours that come from having hives positioned in areas dominated by either Pōhutukawa or Kamahi adding a hint of Hawke’s Bay lemons to the Kamahi honey brew and Northland strawberries to the Pōhutukawa honey session mead. Wilbur says using the native honeys to create different flavoured meads not only helps build a range of products, it’s supporting the honey industry and beekeepers by adding value to native honeys other than Mānuka. That’s helping maintain the diversity of honeys and the sustainability of the beekeeping sector. “Too many beekeepers with hives in the natives other than Mānuka are really struggling and some are walking away from their hives.” By showcasing the other natives the Buzz Club meads are highlighting the diversity of the New Zealand native forests and value in those native honeys, Wilbur says. Developing and now trying to grow the fledgling business in the global Covid-19 pandemic world has added a few challenges particularly in the ability to promote and sell the products at summer events. Lincoln University’s end of year garden party was set to be an opportunity so its cancellation was disappointing, he says. He’s hopeful there will be plenty of other festivals and large events that do get to go ahead as the country moves on with vaccinations and new plans to open up. In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do getting the product into more stockists and the pair have some big plans for 2022 – a plantain mead though is not on the cards. 81

CALL OF THE LAND While Kieran McCahon didn’t win the FMG Young Farmer of the year competition, he scored with the crowd taking out the People’s Choice award. By Delwyn Dickey.

he call of the land that you grew up on and family ties to that area can be pretty strong. After time spent setting himself up for a career in agricultural science and agribusiness management, testing himself as a finalist at the FMG Young Farmer of the year competition, and a couple of lockdowns, Kieran McCahon has decided the rugged landscape of Northland’s Pouto Peninsula is where his heart is. The family farm rolling down to the wild west coast has a hold on him he doesn’t want to break. It was a unique place to grow up, he says, a 750-hectare playground. With a beach that could have six-metre swells and then once a year be as flat as a lake. But in spite of the magic of the place Kieran was aware it was a tough place for his parents Allister and Maree to farm at times. “We were basically farming an ancient sandhill so was one of the first to get dry,” he says. Farm management practices often reflected that. They run 1000 cows on 400ha of the farm. They also ran dairy beef and raised their own bulls to go with the herd and sell a few store. “The beef offers the ability to destock in summer,” Kieran says. Heifers were milked once a day over 82

mating and again from December onwards, which was always a strategy to manage pasture. Managing pasture and concerns over persistence during the hotter months has also seen Dad Allister involved with Northland diversified forages group for many years. This has seen them move away from ryegrass pasture. While they undersow annual ryegrass on a lot of the farm, ryegrass is no longer the primary component of a sward. Cocksfoot and Persian clover now make up a much bigger portion of the mixes. Other farm environment work saw Allister and Maree take out the Environment Award in Kaipara District’s 2020 Citizen & Environmental Awards. Initially Kieran, the lad with the curious nature and analytical mind, decided civil engineering was for him. But an open day at the University of Auckland where he encountered a “three-way motorway” through the middle of the university and the realization he would be based in the city for the rest of his days if he took that path, had him reassessing his plans. With his older sister Nikita, having just started at Lincoln University he started looking at careers in agriculture outside of just being based on the farm. Armed with a DairyNZ undergraduate

scholarship, Kieran headed off to a future in agricultural science - his way to make a difference in the agricultural sector. A masters in management majoring in agribusiness, again with support from DairyNZ, at Waikato University followed, with his thesis done at the Northern Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) near Dargaville writing up a trial they’d been running on farm systems over the previous three years. With his masters under his belt Kieran settled in with DairyNZ’s Hamilton office. When the first Covid-19 lockdown came around, he was able to work from home in Hamilton. He started to think about his long-term future. The idea of doing a PhD in farm systems and the exciting directions this could lead – becoming a leading agricultural dairy farm systems scientist appealed to him. But he also began to feel the tug of his rugged Kaipara home. The farm and family ties pulled on him. Whatever he did he decided his future was in Northland. Though challenging at times, working from home during lockdown had shown Kieran he could still deliver in his role while working remotely. He asked to be transferred to DairyNZ’s Northland office and to work from the Pouto farm. In February he settled in for a spell. But it was far from a relaxed

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

‘WE WERE BASICALLY FARMING AN ANCIENT SANDHILL SO WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO GET DRY.’ Left: Family ties: The wild West coast on the Pouto Peninsula.

time as Kieran, having started out in the Young Farmers competition while living in Hamilton, won the regionals for the Waikato/ Bay of Plenty and went through to the finals. Having been in the regional competitions a couple of times before, he felt he’d already learnt a lot about himself. “I got a little bit flustered a couple of times and have a tendency of overthinking. This year with a lot more understanding of the contest, and of myself, managed to just come out on top of what was a pretty tight contest.” While the finals competition turned out to be even tougher, it was one of the highlights of his life he says. “It can be quite a cooking pot of pressure. There is a broad range of things that we get tested on. The modules are set up and designed to put you into experiences you haven’t necessarily had before. It tests you on how do you cope with something new. “It’s good to see how you react under pressure, when, at the end of the day it’s a contest and not life-or-death.” Though missing out on the top placings Kieran was the popular winner of the People’s Choice award giving him the unexpected opportunity to raise money for some charities he felt strongly about Farmstrong, Rural Support Trust and Will

Home for now: Kieran McCahon is weighing up his options.

to Live. Having gone into lockdown last year needing a haircut Kieran came out with a mullet. “I kept that mullet and decided to use the platform of Young Farmers to help raise funds for charity and got my grandfathers to cut my mullet off at the Grand Final.” On stage in July, to accept his award, to his surprise the organisers had put the live Give-a-Little page up behind him on screen. The amount pledged steadily rose from $400 to nearly $4000 by the end of the night. A couple of months later and Kieran had made the difficult decision to leave DairyNZ, though it may yet be temporary. What his future looks like now is still panning out. He’s been learning the ropes on his parents’ farm. “I have a lot to learn having come out of an academic background. I grew up onfarm,

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

but I’ve been away for a long time, so I’ve got a heck of a lot to learn onfarm. It’s about learning those skills.” His long-term sights are now set on farm ownership, but whether that’s a direct hands-on role or a more diverse ownership structure he’s uncertain. “For me it’s balancing having the hands-on role and actually putting things into practice for myself, but there’s also that long-term desire of contributing to the wider industry as a whole. Having some involvement off-farm in the future is still a goal,” he says. Either way, his own farm systems skills are likely to come in for more use. “Projections for Northland are it’s going to get drier so it’s a matter of building that risk contingency into farm systems - of having resilient systems.” More systems are moving toward autumn calving. “Mum and Dad did split calving for a long time but are June calving now, a compromise between spring and autumn calving. “If spring calving you don’t get the days in milk if you get dumped by a drought. But if you’re autumn calving into a drought you’ve got to buy high protein feed for cows in early lactation so that’s expensive.” And as he contemplates what his future will look like one thing holds strong – his future is about family and the land. What he grew up with he wants for his own children. 83

RESEARCH WRAP LUDF VARIABLE MILKING RESEARCH

Cows approve milking blend Research into variable milking schedules has found farmers were able to make savings by reducing the number of milkings and create better working environments for staff without causing a big drop in production. Anne Lee reports.

incoln University Dairy farm’s (LUDF) switch to a 10-in-seven milking regime already looks to be meeting with the cows’ approval if animal health and a boost to cow condition are anything to go by. The farm instigated the milking schedule this season with the aim of increasing wellbeing for people and improving animal health outcomes without denting profit. Instead of milking cows twice each day, every day of the week the new schedule is a blend of a three milkings in two days regime during weekdays and once-a-day milking on the weekends. It means cows are milked twice-a-day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and oncea-day on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Along with the new milking schedule, this season it’s establishing pure plantain pastures in some paddocks across the farm to see how the pure stands can be integrated into the grazing management

plan and what effect it has on the farm’s environmental impact, production and profit. The 10-in-seven milking schedule was implemented based on DairyNZ research into variable milking schedules that found farmers were able to make savings by reducing the number of milkings and create better working environments for staff without causing a big drop in production. A farmlet study, carried out by DairyNZ scientist Paul Bird looking at a three-in-two milking regime, found a 5% reduction in milksolids (MS) production when variable milking is introduced with most of the 5% reduction coming from a drop in protein (8% less protein) with a 3% drop in fat. LUDF’s Farmax modelling, using an anticipated 5% drop in milk production, is also assuming a number of savings due to fewer milkings, improved animal health and lower staff costs.

That’s resulted in a predicted drop in farm profit of just $17/ha. The risk to profit is in not making the modelled savings which included: • Motorbike repairs and maintenance and petrol costs decrease by 25%. • Electricity consumption drops by 13% due to 25% fewer milkings. The full 25% isn’t captured because some of the milkings are longer due to longer milking intervals and cows taking longer to milk out greater milk volumes. • A 25% cut in cleaning costs for plant and farm dairy. • Winter feed costs drop by $1.80/cow/ week because a 0.23 body condition score (BCS) lift is assumed by the end of the season based on farmlet study findings.

Milking times and milking intervals

MON

TUE

9.5 hours between 84

18 hours

THU

WED

21 hours

9 hours

18 hours

21 hours

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Left: The team are having no trouble hitting residuals on the new milking regime. Above: The LUDF10-in-7 milking regime is a win for animals and people so far, with a short settling in period.

• A $4.80/cow drop in animal health spending because of reduced lameness based on DairyNZ research. • A $19,500 drop in human resource costs including housing due to 0.33 full time equivalent drop in workload.

So how is it going? LUDF farm consultant Jeremy Savage from Macfarlane Rural Business says it was a tough start to the season for the LUDF team as it was for many farmers with a wet, cooler spring. Heifers came home two weeks early compounding the problem. The 556-cow farm has also been run with just two permanent staff with students employed as relief and casual staff. Jeremy says the cows settled into the milking routine quickly after the colostrum period. Colostrum cows were milked oncea-day at 1pm over the colostrum period as has been the practice over past years. At the start of calving the change to the new milking routine did cause some difficulties with workflow as everyone got used to the different milking times. Timing of calf feeding created a challenge to ensure warm colostrum was available when needed.

FRI

“We had to invest in a milk warmer and changed calf feeding to 10am every day,” Jeremy says. In the first two weeks of calving everyone struggled to get into a good routine on the day cows were milked oncea-day at 8.30am but by week three, work flow had settled into a good pattern, he says. “It was tough on people in those first couple of weeks – much harder for people to get used to the different system than it was for the cows.” The larger 21-hour milking gap on some days during the week created challenges with heifers at the start of the season as full udders saw cups slipping off on a regular basis while milking. That resolved and full udders are now helping bring cows to the yard. The team is now using a Batt latch on the paddock gate to let cows out for morning milking and cows are making their own way to the farm dairy. “There certainly aren’t any problems with cow flow. Cows are very keen to get on the platform and be milked. “Staff are half way through milking before they have to even think about hitting the button for the backing gate.”

SAT

SUN

AM PM

9 hours

21 hours

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

21 hours

Good cow flow is already showing up in healthier hooves. “Lameness has all but disappeared and we’re not seeing the white line issues we’ve seen in the past from cow pressures on the yard. “We’ve also put rubber down in the underpass because we were getting some issues there so that will be helping as well,” Jeremy says. Cell count hasn’t been an issue as a result of longer milking intervals but Jeremy says the team worked to resolve a staphylococcus problem in the herd in previous years through an identification and culling policy. Cow condition is already improving thanks to fewer trips to and from the dairy. “Body condition is at 4.6 and when we look at our historical data it’s been at 4.2 – 4.3 at this time of the year (early-mid October). “Paul’s data had suggested a 0.3 gain over the season and we’re already there so we’re pretty excited about what that could mean for this season’s mating.” The farm has struggled with reproductive performance in the past with a 17% empty rate last season from a 10.5 week mating period. This season the artificial breeding (AB) technician will carry out the AB at 11am each morning straight after milking on the once-a-day milking days. On the days cows are milked twice-aday cows will go out to the paddock after the first milking with cows to be mated in their own area and brought back in for mating at 11am. The new regime hasn’t caused any issues with managing pastures with the team hitting residuals daily. Milk production has been affected as expected although there has likely been a season effect too given the cooler, wetter conditions. Cows remained around 1.8kg MS/cow /day for longer than typical but once growth rates improved and silage was removed from the diet daily production lifted. Cows were averaging 2.03kg MS/cow/day by October 13.

20.5 hours to Monday 85

DAIRY 101 STOCK WATER

Keep the water flowing Story and photos by: Karen Trebilcock

n the late 1960s, thanks to research done by Campbell and Munford of Massey University, it was believed cows could drink enough water at the dairy before or after milking to satisfy their daily needs. To be fair to farmers, polyethylene pipe, which is the trademarked Alkathene pipe, just started to appear at the 1970s RD1 and Farmlands stores and if it was nearly impossible to run metal pipes over hills to water troughs in every paddock, no doubt the research made it easier to sleep at night. Cows also had mostly unimpeded access to creeks and rivers to drink from as there were no fenced-off buffer zones planted out in native trees. However, since then we’ve figured out that fencing off the waterways is good for the environment and clean water and lots of it which can be accessed 24 hours a day is essential for cow health and milk production. It’s in New Zealand’s Animal Code of Welfare for Dairy Cattle (page 11 if you’re looking) and the minimum standard is all dairy cattle must have access to a daily supply of drinking water sufficient for their needs that is not harmful to their health. The water delivery system must be reliable and maintained to meet daily demand and in the event of a water delivery system failure, remedial action must be taken to ensure that daily water requirements are met. Note this is for all dairy cattle, not just the milking herd. Under recommended best practice the code adds troughs should be cleaned and maintained regularly, water should be palatable, the quality monitored and the farm water supply should be able to meet peak demand of 14 litres/milking cow/hour at the trough. Take that Campbell and Munford. And it’s in early summer, when it starts to get hot 86

Above: Keep water in troughs clean and your cows will drink more.

and your herd numbers might have increased from last year, you will notice if your water supply is not good enough. Cows pushing and shoving around the water trough with their heads well in is a sure sign you need to do something and fast. This is not a to-do-job to put up on the white board in the milk room along with spraying weeds and filling potholes on the tanker track. And if you need some encouragement to fix the problem, it’s just not about animal health and welfare. You will notice it in the vat. And cows fighting for water will damage ballcocks and troughs meaning costly and time-consuming repairs. So have a look at your whole water system including the size of each paddock’s water trough and how fast it fills. Volume and pressure are both important – if you have low water pressure you need more troughs per paddock or bigger troughs and bigger pipe diameters. A ring main system, where the water line is in a loop with both ends fed from the source, can help to increase water pressure. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Left: A trough surrounded with cows who have their heads well in the trough is a sure sign there is not enough water supply.

Time how fast your trough refills and do the maths. A milking cow needs about 80 litres of water per day so if you have 300 cows in the paddock for 12 hours they will need a minimum of 12,000 litres (300 x 40 litres) which is 1000 litres/hour or about 20 litres/ minute. If your flow rate into your trough is less than this you have a problem. So check your cows in the midday heat to make sure they are getting enough water, check your water trough every time you take the cows out of a paddock to make sure it is working properly and if you have a patch in a paddock that always stays green it might just be where you have a water line leak so dig it up and fix it. It’s estimated even a hole in a water line the size of a nail will mean you’re losing 14,000 litres of water a day. If you are paying for water, electricity to pump the water and you’re adding minerals, that’s a lot of money going nowhere. And if you haven’t got enough water getting to your trough, fixing that one hole could solve the problem. Measure your trough water usage and record it. It won’t pick up the existing leaks but over time it will show you when new ones start. Have a farm map showing the farm’s waterlines, troughs, taps and isolation valves in the milk room where it’s easy for all farm staff, and contractors, to see. Include the pipe diameters on the map so if new fittings are needed the right ones are bought. And include in the four-wheeler kit an extra ballcock arm, string, thread seal tape and split pins so repairs can be made on the spot and train your staff how to do them. Check water troughs are clean (you should be able to see the bottom of the trough) and, if any are at ground level, lift them up as they can become easy traps for hedgehogs and other small mammals. There is not a lot worse when baling out a trough to find a bucket full of tiny bones. Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Cows pushing and shoving around the water trough with their heads well in is a sure sign you need to do something and fast.

Turn the water off to the trough, bail it out with a bucket and leaving it empty for a few hours on a sunny day and any algae present will be gone. Test your water for iron and salt. Cows don’t like the taste of too much of either and will drink less. Fixing the problem will increase milk production. And make sure you know where your water comes from and become involved in the scheme, provider or whatever it is. Government’s plans for Three Waters (drinking water, stormwater and wastewater) are still vague but may one day include your scheme. Who wants someone, in an office far away, deciding who gets what and how much you will have to pay for it? For most regional councils, taking stock water is a permitted activity and does not require a consent unless it has an adverse effect on the environment (affecting river flows/other bores). However, it always pays to check and council’s consent teams are usually helpful and should be your first call, before you get in a consultant. Knowing how much you are using for stock water will also help the process.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

SOLUTIONS What’s NEW? LEARNING

Skill set key to growing business

he New Zealand Diploma in Primary Industry Business Management, is the new name for the highly successful Agribusiness Diploma, reflecting that this qualification is relevant to all primary industry businesses – and that many farms also incorporate other ventures such as orchards, honey production, or tourism operations. Farm owners and managers increasingly need to navigate changing workplace rules, environmental regulations and a myriad of other things, as well as planning ahead for

success. These changing needs are part of why the diploma is a great way to gain extra skills, in a flexible way to fit in study around the other demands of life. The diploma is also covered by the Government’s “Trades Training and Apprenticeship Fund”, which means course fees are covered until the end of 2022. Learning through Primary ITO means people gain the skills specifically needed for their farming business, with the support of experts from Primary ITO

and the polytechnic in their own region. The diploma covers four topic areas: Strategic Planning, Financial Planning & Management, Human Resource Management, and Environment & Sustainability Management. It’s the practical application of learning that farmers find invaluable. Primary ITO is taking registrations for courses starting in February 2022. Find out more at www. primaryitodiploma.co.nz and see what people who have completed their diploma have to say.

Want to save time milking?

nsurprisingly on dairy farms between 40-50% of staffing hours are spent milking cows. However, a lot of this time is wasted due to inefficient routines. When the milking routine lacks structure then this will lead to inefficiencies. This results in longer than necessary milking times - costing time and money. That’s why Josh Wheeler from QCONZ developed the Milking by Time (MbT) device which has been designed to help farmers implement and maintain efficient milking routines. Josh realised the need for the MbT through his milking efficiency work with DairyNZ and their Milksmart programme. The opportunity for NZ farmers to improve milking efficiency was highlighted by the recent benchmarking work Josh was involved with. This showed 94% of rotaries and 85% of herringbones were achieving less than 80% of their potential efficiency. Fonterra farmers wanting to see their potential time savings from implementing an efficient milking routine can review their Milking Efficiency Insights Report distributed in October 2021. With the MbT farmers have been able to operate rotary and herringbone dairies consistently at 90-100% of their potential. A win-win for all - less time milking, better teat health, and less overmilking. To learn more about MbT and how easy it is to use, visit the website https://milkingbytime.co.nz/ . To watch some video clips of farmers using the MbT, go to the Milking by Time page on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/milkingbytime/ To talk to Josh directly, call him on (027) 431 0543 or email josh@qconz.co.nz Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

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OUR STORY 50 YEARS AGO IN NZ DAIRY EXPORTER

50 years ago in the Dairy Exporter November As NZ Dairy Exporter counts down to its centenary in 2025, we look back at the issues of earlier decades. 50 Years Ago – November 1971. SHED CONVERSION AT REASONABLE COST

It is easy to spend a lot of money on milking sheds, but for much less it is still possible to have a shed which is efficient and pleasant to work in. A Te Awamutu sharemilker, Mr Neil Tyre, recently converted an old, four-bail, doubled-up walk-through into an eight-aside, high-line herringbone for a total cost of $1700. The old shed was not up to the standard demanded by the Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Division. The timber was rotting and all the concrete had to be lifted. A water-driven backing gate is one of the features of the new shed. The water drove the gate and at the same time helped with the washing down of the yard.

CONSULTING OFFICER’S DAIRY – EFFLUENT DISPOSAL

Disposal of cowshed effluent is a problem constantly facing all dairyfarmers. The effort put into effluent disposal depends on the situation, but sometimes disposal comes down to the fact that effluent is removed from the cowshed and alleviates the problem there, but is placed on part of the farm and another problem is created. Or conversely, it is sometimes tipped into the local drain where it becomes a problem in public waterways and rivers. However, some farmers have quite sophisticated systems for effluent dispersal, varying from mechanical manure spreaders to quite effective spray irrigation systems. 90

PRICES PAID BY DAIRY FARMERS IN 1970-71 ROSE SHARPLY

The prices paid by dairyfarmers for goods and services in the year ended May 31, 1971 showed a greater increase than in any other year since the Dairy Board established its price index in 1949. Increased prices for supplementary feeds, particularly hay, due to the drought last summer was major factor in the rise. Car and tractor expenses were up by 28.8 per cent – the greatest increase – reflecting increases in the price of fuel and spare parts, insurance rates, mechanics’ wages and the imposition of a petrol tax. Indications are that a further sharp increase can be expected in 1971, as already further increases in wage rates, insurance rates, import costs and rate charges have been announced. In the 1971 Budget, the Government increased the subsidy on fertiliser by $2.50 a ton and increased the Fertiliser Transport Subsidy; both will be of assistance to dairyfarmers in holding costs.

CRIPPLING – FARMCHAIR THOUGHTS BY THE LAIRD

I feel deflated by the continuing deterioration of the socio-economic situation. I am well aware that brains much more agile than mine are trying to solve this problem, but the progress being made seems to me to be negligible. The effects of crippling costs are only too well known to those who are unable to pass them on.

Cover photo: New Zealand re-combined sweetened condensed milk being bought in Bridgetown, Barbados, one of several New Zealand products included in this colourful display in a retail grocery shop. The re-combining is done at the Pine Hill Dairy, in which the N.Z. Dairy Board is a shareholder.

I am no advocate of subsidy-supported industry. However, I can see the day fast approaching when, to ensure that we have an industry that can produce goods to earn us overseas exchange, those who have directly and indirectly been responsible for reducing farmer’s incomes to a level that makes it uneconomic for them to continue operations, will have to keep them in business by contributing through the Treasury to their income – probably by holding or reducing costs by way of subsidies.

GINGER BEER • • • •

4 cups sugar 24 cups cold water Juice of 3 lemons 1 level teaspoon citric acid • 4 level teaspoons ginger • Sultanas Stir the ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved. Strain through muslin and pour into bottles. Drop 3 sultanas into each bottle. Seal with cap top. The ginger beer is ready when the sultanas rise to the top – Buttercup. • Thanks to the Hocken Library, Dunedin.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

BRAIN

FOOD

Go to dairynz.co.nz/podcast or your favourite podcast platforms.

Nourish your brain with our fat-free, zero-carb, fact-packed podcast.

Check out Episode 13 - Is agriculture coming into the Emissions Trading Scheme? Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | November 2021

Talking dairy

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Dairy Exporter November 2021

Articles inside

Keep the water flowing

The Dairy Exporter in November 1971

Want to save time milking?

Former Lincoln student making a buzz from honey

Kieran McCahon hears the call of the land

LUDF: Cows approve of milking blend

Mastitis: Somatic cell counts - How low can you go?

Tools for timing effluent application

System in-line to cut methane

Soil carbon: Blame it on the worms

Wagyu: Calf contracts come with semen straws

Winning with tetraploids

Soil Carbon: The promise in biochar

MINDA: Sharing the technology

Collaborating on forages

Endophytes key to ryegrass success

Lipids: Catching them in the rye

Treating the pasture right at Canvastown

Trevor Ellett: A ryegrass pioneer

Why do more on emissions?

Strong growth in sheep dairy

US tests of NZ-developed ryegrass

Saving on summer nitrogen

Realising the ownership goal

Market View: Milk price silly season continues 12

Dispensers get farm fresh milk close to customers

Making the most of a Treaty settlement

Phil Edmonds reckons it’s time for banks to go back to the land

Mark Chamberlain detects change with a difference

Global Dairy: US Cheesemakers on the march

At a wet Punakaiki, risk is real for the Reynolds family

Hamish Hammond transitions to once-a-day milking