Dairy News 29 March 2012

David Carter urges Fonterra farmers to vote “intelligently� on TAF Page 3

Bio-dairying visionaries Better use of land Page 57

Grand appearance Best ever Jeep Page 74

may 29, 2012 Issue 269 // www.dairynews.co.nz

persistence pays off Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year Enda and Sarah Hawe are third time lucky .

PAGES 17-18

National Fieldays preview. PAGES 37-52

THE SECRET TO HEALTHIER SPRINGERS IS ABOUT TO BE UNVEILED PRECAUTIONS :

r %P OPU BMMPX %PHT )PSTFT PS PUIFS FRVJOFT BDDFTT UP GFFET DPOUBJOJOH .POFOTJO *OHFTUJPO CZ %PHT BOE )PSTFT NBZ CF GBUBM r 'FFE UP DPXT XJUI ĂąCSF "MXBZT QSPWJEF DMFBO GSFTI XBUFS UP DPXT BE MJC r 3FNPWF GFFE JG DPOUBNJOBUFE CZ CJSE GPVMJOH $0/%*5*0/4 0' 4"-& Being used outside their control, this product is sold on the express condition that the producers have no warranty, expressed or implied and are not responsible for damage arising out of its use, whether in accordance with its directions or not.

NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. FOR ANIMAL TREATMENT ONLY SUITABLE FOR FEEDING TO CATTLE SPECIFICALLY COWS.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE

TOPCOW FORMULA RANGE OF FEEDS.

www.inghamfeeds.co.nz

'3&&1)0/&

TRACTA39346

INGHAM FEEDS AND NUTRITION Hamilton, Mount Maunganui, Wanganui, Australia.

COME AND TAKE A SNEAK PEEK AT FIELDAYS - SITE PC35 ÂŽ

Dairy News may 29, 2012

news // 3

Govt backs TAF vote SUDESH KISSUN AND PETER BURKE

DairyNZ Farmers Forum coverage.

PGS.9-11

Meeting China’s dairy appetite.

PG.32

Young genomically selected sires set for release. PG.67

THE GOVERNMENT is throwing its support behind TAF as Fonterra shareholders this week receive their voting papers for a final vote.

Primary Industries Minister David Carter wants the co-op shareholders to do their homework so they can vote “intelligently”. TAF comes up for a second and final vote on June 25 after the co-op board relented in the face of calls from shareholders.

Careful not to get involved in Fonterra’s “internal politics”, Carter points out his role as the Minister for Primary Industries is to get the TAF legislation passed by Parliament. It’s then up to Fonterra and its shareholders to use the provisions of the legislation, he says.

“As the Minister for Primary Industries, I fully support what Fonterra is trying to do,” he told Dairy News. “I see Fonterra has tremendous opportunities offshore, and the company will not be able to grasp [them] unless it stabilises its capital structure.”

Some aspects of TAF, particularly those related to the Fonterra Shareholders Fund, haven’t gone down well with shareholders. Federated Farmers Dairy section chairman Willy Leferink says he’s uncomfortable with the threshold of allowing investors to buy units in up to 25% co-op shares.

Last week the Fonterra board made another concession to worried shareholders. The size of the Fonterra Shareholders Fund threshold will drop below the proposed 25% via a special reso-

Primary Industries Minister David Carter and Feds Dairy chairman Willy Leferink... key players in the TAF debate.

lution that will be tabled at the special meeting.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden says the changes come after due diligence and listening to farmer concerns.

“We listened to farmers and gave them a final vote on TAF. I can’t remember any other time in the history of the co-op allowing a second vote on anything.”

Leferink is delighted with the board’s decision.

He says the proposed fund is causing “quite a bit of angst” among shareholders. “I’m glad the board is tightening thresholds because for some members it was unacceptable.”

Last week Fonterra chief executive Theo Spier-

ings reacted angrily to Leferink’s opinion piece on TAF in the New Zealand Herald (see page 6).

Carter says the public spat between Fonterra and Federated Farmers over TAF is not helping the situation. Discussions between the two organisations would best be kept out of the media spotlight, he says.

He believes there’s “quite a lot of mis­ information” being spread by people who are vehemently opposed to TAF. “Many of those people I suspect are the 10% of Fonterra shareholders who voted against the issue when it was last put to the vote and have taken this opportunity to continue their crusade.”

News �����������������������������������������������������3-26

Couper’s shock exit rattles TAF

Opinion ��������������������������������������������� 28-31

THE SHOCK resignation of Fonterra Sharehold-

Agribusiness ���������������������������� 32-36 fieldays preview ��������������������37-52 Management �������������������������������53-61 Animal Health ��������������������������63-67 Machinery & Products �������������������������������������� 68-73

ers Council chairman Simon Couper last week is not expected to derail the co-op’s TAF (trading among farmers) plan.

Couper stepped down “due to his lack of comfort with some aspects of the Trading Among Farmers proposal”, the council said.

Dairy News understands about 80% of the council members supported the introduction of TAF. However, Couper had reservations and quit.

Glass told Dairy News.

Sources say his resignation is a hiccup “Simon Couper has decided to stand up but will not derail TAF, which faces a final to that. I applaud him for that.” shareholder vote on June 25.

Glass says he will be keen to hear TAF critic and Ashburton farmer Eddie Couper’s explanation for resigning Glass says the resignation is “not an accoSimon Couper abruptly. lade for TAF”.

The council has endorsed deputy chairIt also shows the council is divided over man Ian Brown to take over. the share trading scheme, he says.

Brown said the council “overwhelmingly “The Fonterra board has been riding roughshod over the council for some time,” resolved to support the introduction of TAF”.

MAIZE FOR NEW ZEALAND

Don’t be surprised when you have peak performing cows – they have been eating the right maize silage.

www.pioneer.co.nz

0800 746 633

Pioneer® brand products are provided subject to the terms and conditions of purchasing, which are part of the labeling and purchase documents.

, Trademarks and service marks of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.

®, TM, SM

Dairy News May 29, 2012

4 // news

Listening got us to this good place henry van der heyden

AS KIDS we were always told we had

two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Eventually we processed this as ‘talk less, listen more’.

It’s not a bad piece of advice and one I’ve come to respect, especially during my time in the cooperative. That’s because experience has taught me that good decisions get made when we listen, and TAF is a case in point.

Right through the process it has been important and invaluable for us to listen to all the views and ideas from shareholders, weigh them up and incorporate them into the way ahead. I’ve no doubt the process has been better for it.

Shareholders will see the latest example for themselves when the TAF

voting papers go out, including a special resolution. The effect will be to tighten up conditions relating to the Fonterra Shareholders Fund which is a key part of the whole TAF package.

This comes out of all our discussions with farmers and the very careful and considered due diligence process for TAF. Due diligence is a legal term which basically means picking things apart, asking all the ‘what if ’ and ‘yes, but’ questions and not being satisfied until you’ve got the answers.

As we’ve gone through the process, we’ve folded in feedback from shareholders that the size of the Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund needs to be carefully managed. They’ve said if it’s too small it won’t function effectively, but if it’s too big the worry is that a big pool of external investors would potentially

have undue influence over the cooperative.

We’ve listened. That’s why the board indicated a $500m fund to launch (equating to about 8% of shares at the current share price) would be enough for the fund to function effectively. We felt the preferred size should be in the range of 7-12% of shares.

It’s clear shareholders want careful management of the fund’s size, particularly to ensure the non-negotiable position of 100% ownership and control of the co-op by farmers. We’ve reflected that in the special resolutions which will tighten up previously agreed thresholds relating to the size of the fund, just to be on the safe side. These thresholds will be locked into our constitution, subject to a 75% farmer shareholder vote.

For me, the special resolution dem-

onstrates the cooperative model at its best – one with two ears and one mouth which takes the time to stop, listen and think.

Ahead of the special meeting at the end of June we’re holding a round of farmer meetings. I’m a big believer in getting in front of farmer shareholders. There’s just no substitute for that opportunity for two-way discussion.

This whole give and take system is one of the strengths of the cooperative philosophy. This leads to consensus and a result we can all acknowledge is the best for the cooperative.

It’s not a one-way street. Shareholders want to listen as well as talk and are always looking for good information as they mull over decisions. We’re meeting that need, signalling to shareholders a qualified view that the first four

Lid sinking on shares fund FONTERRA IS proposing to reduce

the size of a fund that will issue share units to investors.

Under the original TAF proposal, the Fonterra Shareholders Fund could hold up to 25% of the co-op shares. Co-op shareholders are concerned that if approved the fund could grow to a quarter of Fonterra’s equity before further shareholder approval is needed.

In a move designed to appease critics, Fonterra’s board at the June 25 special vote will move a special motion

Farmer meetings FONTERRA DIRECTORS and management will meet farmers in another round of meetings next week.

Van der Heyden says farmers, who receive their voting papers and TAF information this week, can ask questions on the share trading scheme.

The meetings will also be attended by Fonterra Shareholders Council members. About 50 meetings have been planned around the country starting June 6.

tightening the thresholds of the fund.

The meeting will also vote on share-

holder support for TAF. Fonterra chairman Henry van der

KingSt11114_DN_A

Thankfully, our Farm Scene Investigators can – and they recommend Micromax.

Micromax is a concentrated blend of water-soluble micro-nutrients essential for maintaining healthy cows and production that’s healthier still.

Heyden refused to give details, saying the board is still discussing the issue with the Shareholders Council.

“All I can say is that thresholds will be below 25%,” he told Dairy News. Voting papers with the special resolution are being sent out to shareholders this week.

According to van der Heyden, during the ongoing due diligence process, every aspect of TAF was being stress tested and this would continue until implementation.

– Sudesh Kissun

Easily used in troughs and in-line dispensers, Micromax targets dairy cows’ micro-nutrient requirements and drives performance in early lactation.

Line up a healthy dose of Micromax by calling Altum on 0800 784 674 or visiting www.altum.co.nz

Henry van der Heyden

pre-conditions for the launch of TAF will be met. These conditions are that the TAF market will work, the fund will be in place, DIRA changes will have been passed and regulatory approval achieved. So far, subject mainly to the legislative changes and regulatory consents being secured, we are of the opinion these conditions are met.

A fifth pre-condition is majority support from the Shareholders Council.

We will be providing the council with a final report showing how the four preconditions have been met.

We have some important weeks ahead of us. Shareholders will be trying to work through payout forecasts which have taken some of the edge off farmer optimism and the market uncertainty that has seen dairy prices fall.

These conditions are a reminder – though not overly welcome – that volatility is always part of our industry.

While we consider long-term prospects remain good, ups and downs will need to be weathered. These ups and downs currently come with redemption risk – the risk of money washing in and out of Fonterra as farmers cash up or buy shares as production rises or falls.

We need to keep this in mind as we come to the final vote. After all, the whole point of the work to date is to address redemption risk and protect the future of the co-op. I think we can say as we come into the final vote that listening has been a huge part of the process.

Taking the time to do it, and to respond to what’s being said, is a real cooperative strength and long may it stay so. Whatever the final vote result, it’s important we have a unified co-op.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

news // 5

‘Be ready for ups and downs’ sudesh kissun

FARMERS ARE warned to be ready for ups and downs despite dairy’s medium term prospects looking up.

Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden believes there’s no question dairy demand in developing countries will remain strong. However, a spike in supply is affecting prices and economic woes in Europe and the strong

Kiwi currency are piling more pressure.

Fonterra this month announced a 30c/kgMS reduction in its 201112 milk payout. Van der Heyden admits farmers are disappointed the payout drop came nine days before the end of the season. “It’s quite late in the season and there is certainly some disappointment out there,” he told Dairy News.

He blames extra milk mainly for driving prices

CUSTOMER: LASTRITE FOOTWEAR REP ID: N67 a lower opening announce down. In New Zealand, the 2011-12 season which ends next week is recording a 10% jump in production. There is just a lot of milk around, says van der Heyden.

“I can’t ever remember our milk production up by 10% in one season,” he says. In Australia, milk production is up by 0.5 billion litres. Similarly, the EU and the US are producing more milk. The drop in global dairy prices has forced the co-op to

Payout drop ‘disappointing’ FORMER FONTERRA Shareholders Council chairman Simon Couper says the payout accounts for 90% of farmers’ incomes so they will be disappointed.

He says the decline seen in prices on the GDT platform has come into play in Fonterra’s setting of the milk price and the mirroring of the two shows the accuracy of Fonterra’s method.

“The calculation is a transparent and logical process; when the global price for dairy falls the

payout Fonterra farmers receive takes a hit.

“Like most other parts of the New Zealand economy Fonterra and its farmers are at the mercy of the global economy.”

Couper says farmers need to be prudent in their financial planning.

“Like most New Zealanders we’ve got to get on with it and hope things improve. The cows aren’t going to stop producing milk just because the price isn’t where we want it to be.”

Outlook still bright DAIRYNZ CHIEF executive Tim Mackle

says the long term outlook for dairy farming is still bright, but the immediate need is to manage through the short term with reduced income.

“We’ve always been consistent with our messages to farmers about the volatility of international milk prices, which ultimately affect their incomes, and for them to ensure they have a farming system as resilient as possible to fluctuating prices,” he says.

“For many farmers this can often mean being extremely focused on costs, particularly the costs of using additional supplementary feed for cows to boost milk production.”

There is a good understanding about why prices are falling, largely due to higher milk production internationally, and in New Zealand, and economic uncertainty in Europe.

“All farmers need to ensure they have a good budget in place.”

BUY ONE PART ICIPA TING DEAL ERS ONLY

Soaring global milk production is sending prices down.

forecast price for the 201213 season.

Van der Heyden says the new season opening forecast of $5.95-$6.05 – an opening forecast farmgate milk price of $5.50/ kgMS and a forecast net profit after tax in the range of 45-55c/share – is based on “information we have today”.

“Only time will tell if we’re right. There is no crystal ball and the fundamentals are around supply and demand.”

Van der Heyden says he sees no issues with demand as developing countries in Asia want

PROOF TIME LAST RUN: SIZE:

more dairy products. But what impact the EU economic volatility has on dairy prices remains to be seen.

He wants farmers to be cautious and budget conservatively. “The world is uncertain and there is a lot

30/03/2012 3:32:35 p.m.

04/19/12 10X4

of volatility.”

The updated forecast payout range for the 2011-12 season comprises a lower forecast farmgate milk price of $6.05/kgMS and a forecast net profit after tax range of $570720 million, equating to

8646

40-50c/share. The co-op in April announced a farmgate milk price forecast of $6.35/kgMS. However, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) trade weighted index declined 20.3% since that announcement.

NEW STYLE

NANCY

Smart and Casual • New style - Nancy pointy toe, can be made to order, limited colours available • Square and Round toe designs for Men and Women • Great selection of colours, plus your standard brown, black, red • All NZ leather • Flexible rubber sole/cleated or city • All boots fully repairable • Comfort and fitting to suit your individual foot shape

GUSSET JODPHUR

PAREE

JACKIE

Address: 48 John Street, Whangarei – Phone/Fax: 09 438 8907 Email: lastrite@xtra.co.nz | Web: www.lastrite.co.nz | Open: Weekdays 7.30am-5.00pm

See us at Mystery Creek site 017

GET ONE

FREE

*

For a limited time only, purchase a new Polaris Ranger Diesel, and get a free Outlaw 50!

(Value $2,995).

PLEASE READ ALL COPY CAREFULLY. CHECK SPELLING AND290 PHONE NUMBERS. 0800 440 www.polarisindustries.co.nz Once proof is approved APN Newspapers will not accept responsibility for incorrect copy or layout.

PRO

Dairy News May 29, 2012

6 // news

Tit-for-TAF exchange ANDREW SWALLOW

FONTERRA CHIEF

executive Theo Spierings has slammed a New Zealand Herald opinion piece

by Federated Farmers Dairy chair Willy Leferink on TAF (trading among farmers) and Fonterra’s future.

Spierings said the column, headed ‘Fonterra farmers’ tough decision – cooperative or shareholders fund?’ was “illinformed”, “inaccurate” and “irresponsible”.

“It’s disappointing to see Federated Farmers making such ill informed comments on an issue that is for our farmer shareholders to decide.

“Their inaccurate comments run completely counter to what the chairman and I are trying to achieve – give farmers all

the facts and a final vote on TAF so we can unify the cooperative.”

In the column, Leferink said TAF could be looked

Theo Spierings

on as being either the partial demutualisation of our largest cooperative company or the dilution of its share value.

Fonterra would get “at least” $500 million for “at least” 8% of its equity, but, if approved, the fund could grow to a quarter of Fonterra’s equity without further share-

holder approval.

“I’m not adverse to a shareholders’ fund but its potential size places it outside my comfort zone and my support,” he wrote.

Leferink also said he’d be relaxed if Fonterra spun off overseas farming operations into a separately branded and listed company as a way to raise capital while guaranteeing in-market milk for Fonterra.

Spierings’ response reiterated Fonterra’s argument that TAF isn’t about raising capital, but protecting it.

“Fortunately, most of our farmer shareholders understand that TAF is about protecting the co-op, not raising capital for growth. They know that we can’t run our business without permanent capital. They know they couldn’t run their own

businesses with money washing in and out....

“I’m confident our farmers would not want us to break off bits of Fon-

Willy Leferink

terra and sell it to raise capital; they will know that this completely misses the point of our need to secure a permanent, stable capital base.”

Leferink last week told Dairy News he stands by every word.

“I absolutely stand by every word I wrote because we needed to get

discussion going and boy, I think it’s worked,” he says.

“The risk was that we were sleepwalking our way through an important issue for the cooperative’s future. Certainly it has seen more information come to light and that’s good.

“While I’ve had five supportive emails to every negative one, most of the ugly comments relate to selling off the farms overseas not what I said about TAF. “I support Fonterra retaining a stake in those farms modelled I guess on what our Government is proposing for state assets here.

“I actually like Theo because you don’t have to second guess what a Dutchman thinks. That said, he’s probably learnt it’s better to play the ball and not the man.”

Payout drop a reality check – Feds FARMERS HAVE been urged to budget conservatively as Fonterra’s latest payout drop will reduce the country’s income by $500.

“When the last revision took place in March, we warned it might not be the final one before the end of the 2011-12 season,” says Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson. “Since then international dairy prices have fallen to levels last seen in August 2009.

“While this is due to increased global milk supply, it also coincides with major uncertainties over the direction of the world’s economy. We may be an island but economically we’re not.”

Leferink wants farmers to have two budgets prepared for their farms: one in the low $5/kgMS range, the other in the mid-to-upper $5 range.

“Any budget based upon $6/kgMS I wouldn’t recommend. The need to be conservative comes with $5.50/kgMS being Fonterra’s opening 2012-13 season milk price.

“Seeing a new season milk price of $5.50/kgMS will bring back unhappy memories of the 2008-9 season.

“The good news is farm finances are now much better prepared and a downward trend in global milk prices was well telegraphed.”

BUY ANY 4WD

&

*

17/05/2012 10:30:40 a.m.

PROUD SPONSORS OF:

*Stock crate optional extra

GET THIS BIG 6’ x 4’ KEA TRAILER FOR $200

E

D 30 JUN

Contact your local Honda Dealer on FREEPHONE 0508 466 326.

For more information visit our website www.honda-motorcycles.co.nz

*$200+GST. Offer available on any new 4WD Honda ATV. Stock crate available as optional extra with purchase. Cannot be substituted for cash or discount.

Kea trailer model K64SF 6’ x 4’. Must end 30 June 2012.

MUST EN

HONDA

TrailerATVruralnews_390x265.indd 1

The milking machine performs one task perfectly.

It dramatically increased the efficiency of dairy farms and changed the industry. We strive to do the same.

We’re an agribusiness bank. That means we provide rural loans and a global network of food and agribusiness knowledge for farmers like you. This exclusive focus enables us to help your business meet your ambitions and secure your long-term future. That’s why we have the most satisfied clients in the industry.

Rabobank. One focus.

RAB0570/39/R

Call 0800 722 622 or visit rabobank.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

dairynz farmers forum // 9

Effluent compliance up PAM TIPA

SIGNIFICANT EFFLUENT non compliance

has fallen from a national average of 27% to under 10%, DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle says.

“So the vast majority of farmers are taking this issue seriously,” he told the Farmers Forum.

“We are not there yet but there has been a lot of effort involved and a lot of investment gone in.”

The forage value index released on the morning of the forum was also going to have a lot of significance Mackle said.

These were two positive things he wanted to say before moving to the “hard nuts to crack” in the on-farm aspects of the dairy industry.

For fertility and repro-

duction the industry has a target of national average of 78% in calf by six weeks by 2015. “We haven’t a hope; at the moment we are about 63-65% so we are nowhere near where we need to be.”

He suggested farmers talked through their own fertility data with a DairyNZ adviser to see if there were opportunities, as it could markedly influence profitability.

He said DairyNZ is considering what research was needed into big questions that need answering. “We are working up a big programme and working with key partners.”

DairyNZ also had a target to drive a lot more milk productivity from the land farmers now work, Mackle said.

Target production of 1.75 t MS/ha was achieved

in the 1990s but that was by bringing in feed.

DairyNZ aimed to prove this could be achieved off the land but that was proving quite a challenge. So far they had got to about 1.6 t MS/ ha.

Mackle says labour will be a challenge for dairying as the economy picks up. Their research showed

about 150 diploma- or degree-qualified people were entering the industry each year. Modelling showed they need about 1000.

Dairy farmers were competing for staff in an Australasian job market.

“This could force big change in labour productivity; we are going to see a

transformation in substituting labour for technology,” he said.

Farmers needed to keep on demonstrating the dairy industry is a great place to work.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is how the dairy industry continues to grow sustainably and make a greater contribu-

About 600 people attended last week’s Farmers Forum in Hamilton.

tion not only on farm but to New Zealand.

The Government recently announced a national policy statement on water; regional councils

now needed to take that statement and incorporate it into plans by 2015.

Those plans will contain nutrient limits on water quality,” he says.

YOU WORRY ABOUT YOUR CURRENT HERD.

Number 8 warning THE NUMBER ‘8’ will be extremely important to New

Zealand as we face ongoing strife in Europe and global economic volatility, says ANZ-National Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie.

Number 8 is New Zealand’s ranking internationally for our natural resource endowment on a per capita basis, he told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum. Dairying is part of that resource.

New Zealanders talk of Australia as the lucky country but Australia was 13 on that ranking. All top seven countries ahead of us are oil intensive-exporting countries.

But New Zealand will have “grumpy growth” until it overcomes its legacy of two decades of overspending, its current account deficit now being 4% of GDP. Bagrie says as the European election results have shown, society will get tired of austerity measures quickly.

If you have a weak balance sheet you can “rip GDP for a revenue gathering lever”.

“The first thing you do is look for the stuff you have that is world class. Dairying is of strategic importance. And this [number 8] is going to be hugely relevant for New Zealand over the coming years.”

He did not believe policy makers had fully grasped this yet but “as society gets increasingly tired of the austerity stuff you are going to see greater attention directed towards the revenue gathering opportunities”.

He said New Zealand had a clash between legacy versus opportunities. “Globally and locally since the 2008 global financial crisis we have been cleaning up pieces and trying to unlock the future.” Since the GFC private sector debt had gone down but public sector debt “gone nuts”” and there was more debt in the global financial system than in 2008.

Giving a rundown on Europe, Bagrie said he foresaw ongoing problems. Greece was a sideshow; the bigger economies of Spain, Italy and France were more worrying. Europe lacked true strategic leadership and was now tending towards extremist politics.

He believed there may be a circuit breaker boosting commodity prices but it would only be short term. The US was also heavily debt ridden, but was not in the spotlight at the moment because it had some growth. Bagrie said to have a competitive edge you had to find a difference such as brand relationships, nature of the product, etc.

LET TEATSEAL LOOK AFTER YOUR FUTURE ONE. As with everything else on the farm, managing mastitis works best if you get in there early. And with a trusted product like Teatseal, you can give yourself an easier season down the line.

Using Teatseal in heifers results in: - An 84% reduction in Strep. uberis infections at calving.

- A 68% reduction in clinical mastitis in the first two weeks of lactation.

Meaning you have less of the cost and frustration of heifer mastitis at your busiest time of the year.

Ask your vet about Teatsealing heifers.

Visit teatseal.co.nz to see real results from New Zealand farms.

A division of Pfizer New Zealand Limited. Level 3, Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand. Tel: 0800 650 277, Fax: 0800 628 629.

TEATSEAL is a registered trademark of Pfizer Inc. or it’s subsidiaries. ACVM Registration No. A7294. Available only under veterinary authorisation.

PFI7996H

We've been around since your dad's dad used to warm his feet in cow pats.

In 1905, a group of farmers came together believing they could give all kiwis a better deal. Now over 100 years later, we’re still 100% NZ owned and the country’s largest mutual insurer.

And we plan to keep it that way.

Ask around about us, or call for some advice on 0800 366 466.

FMG0200

That’s what works out here.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

dairynz farmers forum // 11

DIRA changes will lift efficiency – Carter PAM TIPA

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT and

climate change in the medium term and the proposed changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) in the short term are the two biggest challenges to dairying.

That is what Minister for Primary Industries David Carter last week told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum at Mystery Creek.

“The changes to DIRA are about ensuring the New Zealand dairy industry is efficient and well placed to take advantage of future opportunities,” he says.

Although the decision would be made by Fonterra shareholders, Carter said he firmly believed TAF (trading among farmers) would give Fonterra more stability and agility to respond to opportunities in emerging markets.

China in the last three years had become New Zealand’s largest market for farm and food products.

Its economy is expected to grow at least another 30% in the next decade and it is Fonterra’s strategy to be part of this growth by developing its own production in China. ‘”DIRA will also provide great confidence and transparency around the farmgate milk price. This price has influence on farmers’ decisions and on setting a platform for competition and contestability in New Zealand. Because of its predominant position, Fonterra’s farmgate milk price becomes the de facto New Zealand farmgate milk price.”

Answering questions, Carter said the Government had a commitment to pass DIRA through Parliament as quickly as possible in June. The Raw Milk Regulations would

Minister for Primary Industries David Carter addresses the DairyNZ Farmers Forum last week.

follow and it was recognised there had been many submissions on making sure those taking milk from Fonterra adhered to the productive curve.

On the issue of environment Carter said the Government was working to modify the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

Labour continued to support bringing agriculture into the ETS in 2013; this would be economically challenging and could cripple our most important economic sector.

“To gouge $800 mil-

lion from our farmers just when the planets are finally aligned with all primary sectors showing better long-term prospects would collect approximately $33,000 from every genuine sheep and dairy farmer in New Zealand.”

He says National proposed delaying agriculture’s introduction into the ETS by using regulation rather than another legislative change.

Another important issue was market access.

New Zealand must con-

tinue to negotiate better market access and protect current market access.

New Zealand and China wanted to double trade between the two countries by $20 billion over next three years, he said.

“We are expanding relationships with Chile, and are in talks with eight trans-Pacific partnerships including the US. We are also negotiating with India, South Korea, Russia, Belarus, Pakistan and plan to begin negotiating soon with Taiwan.”

‘Silly’ farming put-down forgotten A ‘SILLY’ remark by a former Prime Minister (David Lange), that agriculture was a sunset industry, had put young people off taking up the agricultural sciences, Minister for Primary Industries David Carter says.

He said the remark had had a perva-

sive effect for 20 years on New Zealand that had taken a long time to turn around.

“There wasn’t a lot of interest in an industry if there wasn’t a future out there,” he told the Farmers Forum.

Carter said over the last year or so we

have seen an upturn in people enrolling in ag-science courses.

“Significantly, it’s because you guys as an industry are feeling more confident about your future and confident about saying to young people ‘there is a longterm career path’.”

‘Dairy prices will come back’ THE DROP in dairy prices globally is an “overreaction” to exceptionally strong supply, says Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings. He believes prices will come back stronger than analysts are saying.

Many producers in Europe and the US will not be able sustain production with the present returns, he told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Hamilton.

Referring to the drop in forecast farmgate price from $6.35 to $6.05 for this season and down to $5.50 for next season, he said he very much regretted this announcement coming so late in the season.

“We have seen a drop of 20% in the GDT over the last few events,” he says. “I think this is an overreaction by the world. People are seeing how good the supply signs are at the moment and that is why commodity prices have come down about 20%.

“Our forecast is 5%, that is why we are seeing the current payout drop from $6.35 to $6.05.

“Demand is still very very strong all over the world, but supply has been exceptionally strong.”

Spierings said New Zealand production alone was up 10% and in his 25 years in the industry he had never seen all continents having such favourable conditions all at the same time.

He said information from Europe yesterday showed some prices were under cost.

“A lot of people around the world cannot cope with these price levels.

“People will start drying cows, supply will come down in the US and Europe because they can’t afford it. That’s when we will see a reset of the market. That is why we are more optimistic going forward than the analysts.

“I don’t see a lot of inventory build-up around the world, I don’t see governments in US and Europe acting [to intervene] like they did before, so inventory levels are under control. If supply comes down and demand is still strong that’s good news. And in my opinion prices will come back faster than the analysts are saying.

Spierings says the New Zealand dairy industry is the best place to deal with global volatility.

“We don’t have to amend our system drastically if the market moves up and down. In Europe and the US people have to change their model or dry cows and stop milking.

“We are well placed but we are living in a volatile world and this volatility we are seeing at the moment.

But I think it will recover pretty fast.”

lInE 7 aQua-DaIry JackEt

swannDrI 3/4 slEEvE oIlskIn JackEt

cantErBury ugly JErsEy

> 100% wind and waterproof. > Aqua-Dairy fabric provides some chemical resistance for fabric durability in dairy farming.

> 100% waxed cotton outer / 100% brushed cotton lining > Back tool pocket.

> Loop neck with rubber safety button.

Sizes: XS - 4XL

199

$

Sizes: S-3XL Colour: Brown, Black

129

$

Colour: Assorted Men’s Women’s Sizes: XS-XL Sizes: 8-18

MEN’S

80

$

PRICES THAT WORK

WOMEN’S

80

$

PRICES THAT WORK

Esk MID/HIgH MuckBoots By swannDrI Esk Mid picturEd. Kids’ Sizes: 6-16

> Light-weight, flex-foam bootie. Ideal for around the cow shed or general farm use.

Sizes: 4-13

KIDS’

70

$

PRICES THAT WORK

MID

166

$

PRICES THAT WORK

HIGH

177

$

PRICES THAT WORK

All offers and prices are valid from 1/5/2012-31/7/2012 or while stocks last. Prices include GST and are subject to change. Some styles, colours and sizes may not be available in all stores but may be ordered on request where available.

B&LIC9859_r

This year’s KiwiCross teams are incredibly good. And at the front of these teams is one very special bull — Checkpoint.

With a BW of $333 he is truly a once in a lifetime bull.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

news // 13

Farm turnover up but recovery short-lived andrew swallow

LATEST REAL Estate Institute of

New Zealand figures show more farms sold in the three months to the end of April than in any period since August 2008.

But commentators say turnover is slowing again as buyers heed falling commodity markets and values remain well short of August 2008, when dairy farm prices peaked just as product prices started to plummet and the global financial crisis hit.

The median sales price then for a dairy farm was a record $4.65m. While REINZ no longer reports whole farm median sales values, taking the average size of the 20 dairy farms sold in April this year (118.4ha) and multiplying it by the average price per hectare achieved ($30,207) gives a value of $3.78m.

REINZ rural market spokesman Brian Peacocke confirmed to Dairy News prices now are well back on those highs.

Recent deals in Waikato, including

Fonterra shares, were typically $50,000 to $55,000/ha, with an occasional deal done at $60,000/ha plus, whereas at the market’s peak in 2008 the range was $70,000-80,000/ha.

Values elsewhere are similarly back, though in Canterbury less so, he notes.

“Canterbury values have held quite strong all the way through probably because there’s a shortage of good property [coming to market] and people are prepared to pay for top quality properties where you can control the water input so production is no longer a variable.”

The slump in turnover in April was more than would be expected from seasonality, with signs of a greater slowdown clearly visible as confidence from the good season is replaced by a distinct note of caution, he says.

“Within the rural market, there is acknowledgement that income levels are likely to be down in the forthcoming season. As a result, land purchase decisions are being carefully assessed before commitments are entered into.”

Last week’s cuts to payout forecasts

POLARIS VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

by Fonterra had been well signalled, so the anticipation of that was probably already a factor in the slowdown being seen.

While low interest rates and a weaker New Zealand dollar – making farms cheaper for overseas investors – in theory are positives, neither are likely to outweigh the current commodity outlook in the short term, he adds. “In the broad scheme of things, overseas purchases are not huge at this stage.”

In the three months to April 443 farms of all types sold, compared to 290 in the corresponding period last year, a 52.8% increase. Median price/ha was $18,617, up 3.8% on the three months to April 2011, though back 7.2% on the three months ended March 2012.

Dairy farms averaged $33,132/ha in the three months to the end of April, but the average for April alone was $30,207/ha, with average production of 790kgMS/ha, suggesting there were some low output, low value/ha farms among the 20 sold. In 2011 the average for the 52 farms sold in the three months to end of April was $30,879/ha.

KG 122/555 INDEPENDENT REAR SUSPENSION

ON-DEMAND TRUE ALL-WHEEL DRIVE

TOP PAYLOAD / CARRYING

Co-op’s new dream team THE FINAL appointment to Fonterra’s new 12-member management team was announced last week, with Chris Caldwell appointed managing director people, culture and services.

Caldwell joined Fonterra in 2008 and is currently general manager finance. He will report directly to chief executive Theo Spierings All the appointments have been from within the cooperative. The other appointees are: chief financial officer Jonathan Mason, managing director group optimisation and supply chain Ian Palliser, group general manager strategy Maury Leyland, group general manager mergers Chris Caldwell and acquisitions Paul Campbell, managing director cooperative affairs Todd Muller, managing director New Zealand milk Gary Romano, managing director Australia New Zealand John Doumani, managing director ASEAN/Middle East/North Africa Mark Wilson, managing director China/India Kelvin Wickham, managing director Latin America Alex Turnbull, and managing director Fonterra nutrition Sarah Kennedy.

The new organisation structure will take full effect on August 1, the start of the co-op’s financial year

DISC BRAKES FRONT AND REAR

SEALED FRONT STORAGE

FIELDAYS SPECIAL FROM JUNE 1ST

0800 440 290 www.polarisindustries.co.nz

Dairy News May 29, 2012

14 // news

Water report moots more farmer input PETER BURKE

FARMERS WILL have

a greater say in the setting of environmental standards at both a national and local level if the latest report by the Land and Water Forum (LAWF) is accepted by the Government.

The LAWF report on fresh water management is now with the ministers for primary industries and the environment for them to consider. LAWF involves all the major stakeholders in fresh water management, such as farmers, horticulturalists, power generators, iwi, environmental groups and local government, working together to try and resolve

some contentious issues.

Chairman Alastair Bisley says it’s a small miracle 55 stakeholders including Fonterra, DairyNZ and Federated Farmers and others have agreed on a range of recommendations on how to manage fresh water better.

LAWF wants national and regional guidelines to better manage fresh water.

“We’ve said rivers ‘need to be alive’ so are suggesting a series of national bottom lines relating to water quality which would work across the different types of waterways to ensure the rivers’ ‘mana’ is respected and that human health would not be endangered. Then we are saying local communities need to have input into

their local catchments.”

The report suggests changing the way decisions are made. Bisley says the present system, whereby regional councils write a plan and consult, is limited because so many unresolved issues end up in the Environment Court.

LAWF proposes a ‘collaborative’ approach with community input from groups, including farmers and their organisations, involved in developing plans and guidelines right at the start of the process.

LAWF is suggesting that in setting national ‘bottom lines’ or guidelines, the collaborative approach would also apply. This would mean while government policy makers would be involved

LAWF chairman Alastair Bisely says stakeholders, including the dairy industry, have agreed on recommendations to better manage fresh water.

in the process, they would not have the absolute power they have had in the past.

“We think that by empowering farmers to be a part of the decisionmaking process, we are suggesting something better than before that will draw on their knowledge and expertise as well others.”

Carter praises LAWF PRIMARY INDUSTRIES Minister David Carter has praised the LAWF report as having made good progress on an issue divisive for too long. The report signals a need for greater direction on fresh water management issues from central government, with the details to be worked

out within each river catchment to meet the national needs.

“At this stage the Government has accepted the general thrust of the LAWF report. In the meantime LAWF has been charged with a further piece of work over some tricky decisions on the allocation of water

resources.”

The LAWF report is detailed and challenging and will take months of MPI and MfE time to produce recommendations for ministers to consider, Carter says. Some are likely to be linked to reform of local government and the RMA.

Set your cowS up for A heAlthy lActAtion

Moving from the dry period to lactation can be a time of metabolic stress as the demand for key nutrients can outstrip supply.

A production-enhancing molasses block, Crystalyx Dry Cow is designed to balance pasture mineral deficiencies and build up nutrient reserves before calving. This promotes good health and performance in dairy cows. In particular Crystalyx Dry Cow helps maintain optimum blood magnesium levels and reduces the risk of milk fever.

Lick to turn pasture into production.

Available from Altum. Call 0800 784 674 or visit www.altum.co.nz KingSt11322_DN_A

If you’re not

, ” e m m a r g o r p “with the ot making the then you’re n profit you should be.

It is not just another calf rearing product!

T

he Freshstart® Calf Development Program is based on natural products developed and produced in New Zealand by a 100% New Zealand owned business.

This is why we are confident we have the winning formula when it comes to correctly preparing calves for New Zealand’s all grass farming conditions.

Many farmers who have already taken advantage of the Freshstart® programme claim bigger and better replacements entering the herd with subsequent better production. It is the balanced combination of specially prepared moist HNF Fiber®

(for healthy lean muscle growth) and Captured Grain® (for the development of the important volatile fatty acids) which build an advanced full stomach system that functions efficiently and productively.

Stage One

Stage Two

To find out how to rear healthier replacements that will go on to become top contributors towards the profit of your business call your local Fiber Fresh Area Consultant.

We have an expert team of 15 dedicated Area Consultants around the country. They are not only there to help you but they can also tailor the programme to suit your requirements, problem solve if need be and ensure you are getting the best results.

Get with the programme!

0800Phone54free5to545 local speak to your tant ul ns o C a Are

We will be at the

Mystery Creek Fieldays® Hamilton 13-16th June.

Our site is in the Pavilion: PD36 Come and have a coffee and while you’re there, fill out an entry form to win a

©ICON 0055 FIB

$5000 Home Entertainment package!

www.fiber-fresh.com

BETTLE9858

This season a Premier Sires insemination is the same price as it was in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz dairy awards // 17

Third time lucky ANDREW SWALLOW

A TRIFECTA of firsts fell at Auckland’s Sky City earlier this month when the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year winner was announced.

“It’s the first time a lower order sharemilker has won; the first time an Irishman has won, and the first time all three categories have gone to one region,” explains Enda Hawe, who, with wife Sarah, landed the 2012 SEFOTY title.

It was also the MidCanterbury couple’s third shot at the competition, but to say third time lucky – or luck of the Irish, come to that – wouldn’t be appropriate.

Without increasing inputs, they lifted production 200kgMS/ ha and 60kgMS/cow to 1800kgMS/ha and 460kgMS/cow in their first season (2009-10) on the 370ha (eff) farm they run for farm owners Richard, Jan, Ben and Shannon Johnson.

In the seasons since they’ve fine-tuned their skills in areas other than outright production, such that this year they won four of eleven merit awards at regional level, and two of nine available at the nationals, though not in the same categories.

Enda believes winning the Westpac Business Performance Award at national level was the key to taking the overall title.

“The financial section – that’s the area [former accountant] Sarah puts all the work into.”

He’s also quick to say their other national merit award, the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene Award, “really goes to the staff.”

They employ six fulltime, plus a calf rearer: three Argentinians, two New Zealanders, one Brazilian and one Philipino.

“We’ve had all different nationalities but we all speak the same language here and that’s looking after the cows.”

Migrants are here for a reason, focussed, and usually pretty skilled, he adds.

“If we can’t teach them something we send them off-farm to someone who can.”

Staff are also involved in, and kept posted on, farm performance. “We tell everything but the financials. They need to know why they’re milking the cows.”

Besides staff, Hawe says “a lot of people have done a lot to help us get where we are,” notably their rural professionals – accountant, banker, vet – and the farm owners.

Building strong relationships with such people is “what makes the team” and entering the awards has helped.

“It was one of the reasons we entered three years ago: to meet more people and to benchmark ourselves against the best.

You get a free audit of your business every time the [awards] judges walk through the door. There’s no doubt it helped us raise the bar, just entering.”

Every possible farm performance indicator is measured, logged and,

where possible, compared with benchmarks such as Dairybase or Lincoln University Dairy Farm. The LIC Recording and Productivity Award was one of the merits they collected at regional level.

They also won the Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award at regional level, recognising, among other things, their personal investment (remember, they’re lower order sharemilkers) of $6000 in an automated effluent irrigator monitoring system.

“We’re milking cows here 10 hours a day, five of them are in the dark. That monitoring system’s our extra pair of eyes.”

Its GPS tracking plus effluent tests means they know exactly where, and how much, nutrient is applied as effluent, so fertiliser can be adjusted accordingly. Effluent applications range 2-7mm, well below the farm’s consent limit of 24mm.

Their philosophy on production is top performance comes from a pasture and cow focus, and they say pasture harvested and the herd’s six-week incalf rate are two of their most important production KPI’s (key performance indicators).

“We’re harvesting 17t of drymatter/ year [of pasture] and our six-week incalf rate was 80.5% this year, with 3.4% empties at 14 weeks.”

Short gestation sires are chosen for the last ten days of AI to keep the calving pattern tight.

Despite long walks to the shed owing to farm

Enda and Sarah Hawe.

shape, lame rates do not exceed 1%, which Hawe attributes to black feet and staff management.

“They’re not our cows but we treat them like they are.” to page 18

Fairbrother now has two brands...

HOOPER CULTIVATION & KINGHITTER

Fairbrother Industries will now be manufacturing the Hooper cultivation range www.kinghitter.com Ph 0800 476 868

Dairy News May 29, 2012

18 // nz dairy awards Long farm: Despite round trips of up to 4km to the shed, lameness rates are under 1% on the winning farm.

Winners strike gold at third attempt from page 17

With a move to a 50/50 sharemilking job on June 1, they now have their own herd of 700 crossbreds.

“We want our herd to be in the top 5% for BW and PW within the next five to 10 years.”

The farm they’re going to is newly converted to dairy so there’s potential to increase cow numbers and production.

“The growth potential’s huge.”

But while they’d “like to think” they might be in

a position to take the next step to their 10-year goal of owning a 500-cow farm in Canterbury at the end of their first three year contract, in practice it will probably take a bit longer than that, they say.

Their budgeted breakeven on the new farm is $4.80/kgMS in their first season, rising to $5.40/ kgMS in their second.

“That’s because we’ll be carrying a lot of young stock.”

If the current down-

turn in commodity prices continues, that youngstock strategy can be reassessed if need be.

“The odd [price] scare keeps the industry honest and your business should be able to perform regardless of the payout. You should be able to ride that volatility wave.”

Budgeting for, and monitoring, your costs is the key, he adds.

“If you deviate from budget it’s got to be taken from somewhere else.”

Big news back home SINCE WINNING the SEFOTY title, Hawe has had interviews with three radio stations and a newspaper from his native Ireland, much to the delight of his parents, he says.

“They were out here at Christmas and saw the effort we [make] to get the results so [winning the award] has been a good ‘thank you’ to them.”

His parents milk 30 cows near Kilkenny, in Ireland’s southeast. Since neither of his two brothers are in farming, they’re waiting on him to come home and take over, he adds.

But while he and Sarah, a New Zealander, include in their personal goals visits to Ireland with their two young daughters every second year, his parents will “probably have to keep waiting” for their permanent return.

“If something’s handed down to you I don’t think you always appreciate it as much as if you’ve worked for it.”

Fourteen years after coming here fresh from doing an agricultural degree at Dublin University, he’s a strong advocate for, and example of, the dairy career path New Zealand offers. “You can start at whatever level and make it to the top.”

DOLOMITE NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call... 0800 436 566

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz dairy awards // 19

Quiet achiever wins PAM TIPA

“IT’S DEFINITELY

the people around you who make you who you are.”

That’s what 2012 Dairy Trainee of the Year Nathan Christian told the industry awards dinner at Sky City in Auckland this month on accepting his $7499 prize package.

The 22-year-old Cantabrian did not know at that stage that the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year, Enda and Sarah Hawe, shared the same bosses as him – Ben and Shannon Johnson at the Ashburton 1000-cow farm Westerfield.

Nor did he know that Canterbury was to hit the trifecta with the Farm Manager of the Year title won by Mick O’Connor from the 840-

cow Dairy Holdings Ltd farm in Rakaia.

Christian says the awards have been an “amazing journey” and the week in Auckland with the other contestants had been “fun and memorable”.

“I am sure all the trainees will go away further motivated and make some changes,” he says.

Head judge Don Seath says Christian is an outstanding young man who is determined to achieve dairy farm ownership.

“I would have a high level of confidence in the fact he will achieve the goals he has set himself…. He is a mature balanced person who works hard and manages to achieve activities off the farm as well.”

Christian, BComm (Agr), Lincoln University, and has competed in the Coast to Coast mul-

‘Mentors make the difference’ MAN OF few words Mick

Nathan Christian

tisport event. He aims to own a farm by 2020.

Seath told the dinner attended by 670 people the judges were particularly impressed with the finalists again this year.

They were well-rounded young people with a good life-work balance, a passion for dairy farming and a well defined career paths.

Interestingly, the trainees don’t necessarily see themselves as farm owners, however they still see an exciting career path in dairying, Christian says.

O’Connor told the 2012 Dairy Industry Awards dinner that this was his first time in Auckland and “pretty good”.

Not surprising given the Cantabrian was called to the stage three times, the final call picking up the Farm Manager of the Year title worth $26,920 in prizes. He also took out two merit awards, the RD1 Farm Management Award and the Westpac Financial Planning and Management Award.

O’Connor who is contract milking on a 840 Dairy Holdings property in Dunsandel paid tribute to his fiance Kirsten on more than one occasion.

“We make a great team,”

Mick O’Connor and fiance Kirsten.

he says.

Head judge Leo van den Beuken says O’Connor is a standout on-farm performer.

“Mick is making the

best use of the tools available to him to get the required results for all aspects of his farm, including his pasture management, record keeping of

livestock, and health and safety.”

He and Kirsten plan to go into a 400-cow 50% sharemilking position in about four years.

IMAGINE LEAVING FIELDAYS WITH MORE THAN JUST A STOCK STICK

®

TRACTA39209

Now imagine leaving national Fieldays® with a vision of how your dairy might look in the future.

Intelligent milking systems that grow with you, taking productivity and quality to new levels.

COME AND SEE US AT NATIONAL FIELDAYS®, SITE D6 & D8 AND START IMAGINING MORE. www.delaval.co.nz

Dairy News May 29, 2012

20 // news

Rate hike irks farmers

in brief RWNZ award A WOMAN whose hobby grew to a thriving business in animal equipment has won Rural Women New Zealand’s top award for enterprise.

Rose Voice, of The Real Dog Equipment Co Ltd, was the supreme winner of the Enterprising Rural Women Award 2012 announced last week at the opening of the Rural Women NZ national conference in Hawera.

“The Real Dog Equipment Company is an example of what can be achieved when you have a passion and are willing to follow your dreams,” says RWNZ national president Liz Evans.

Innovative Design Improves Efficiency Ezi-flo pit gates completely clear exit ways and cannot be touched by cows leaving the milking area.

The fully galvanised gates are available in kitset for speedy installation

0800 226974

2 C OW S H E D

Ph Jim 07-850 5971 Mob. 0274 936 693 Ph Chris 07-849 3630 Mob. 0274 936 692 P.O. Box 10 188, Te Rapa, Hamilton www.dairybuilders.co.nz

ezi-flo

PITGATES

Chris Murdoch Specialising in Rural Real Estate throughout Canterbury Local knowledge Over 19 years experience Tens of $millions of rural property SOLD If you need a confidential chat about the current rural property market, call me today.

027 434 2545

chris@propertybrokers.co.nz

Hastings McLeod Limited

PAM TIPA

FAR NORTH dairy farmers facing rate hikes up to 110% will this week vent their anger at a public meeting in Okaihau, north of Kaikohe.

Meeting organiser Murray Jamieson’s rates will jump from $23,000 to $40,000 in the next financial year under the proposal. Jamieson milks 1100 cows on 447ha near Okaihau and Lake Omapere north of Kaikohe.

He claims the 280 dairy farmers in the council region, along with 700 forestry ratepayers, are being unfairly targeted in a planned new differential rate aimed at making heavy transport users pay a greater share of roading costs.

Jamieson will chair the protest meeting on Tuesday at the Okaihau Town Hall starting at 11am.

He says the council plans the new differential rate because it believes dairy farming and forestry are damaging the roads.

“We’ve done some research; there are only nine Fonterra tankers that operate in the district with an average 2.6 loads of milk/day/year; and 22% of the dairy farmers actually live on state highways maintained by Transport New Zealand and road user charges.

“Just one quarry alone puts three times as much weight on the road per year as all the logging and all the dairy farmers together, yet their rates are not changing.”

Jamieson says the council claims it has public support because the majority of urban properties, and other types of farms, are getting a decrease.

“The farm right next door to us is drystock and

Protest meeting organiser and dairy farmer Murray Jamieson with his wife Vicky on their 1100-cow farm near Okaihau.

his rates are going down.”

Jamieson says rates are meant to be on land value – yet the next-door neighbour’s rates are $44/ha and his are $168/ha. “Even the drystock farmer thinks it is unfair and is supporting us.”

Also speaking at the meeting will be drystock farmer and transport operator Ken Rintoul who will not be affected by the

rate increase – in fact he expects a 20% increase.

But he believes the council has got it wrong and could use this as a mandate to come down harder on others in future.

In a submission he says the new rate equates to $32 per tanker load for dairy farmers (and $39 for foresters). He asks why this rate is not being applied to all other sec-

tors such as commercial, industrial and lifestylers using heavy vehicles.

Placemakers Kerikeri has 10 truck movements per day and Countdown Kerikeri has five trucks a day, he says.

Jamieson says he is not opposed to a rate increase by councils as this supports the community, but he points out it should be fair across all sectors.

‘Dairy industry tuned into NAIT’ PETER BURKE

DAIRY FARMERS can’t be

faulted in their response to NAIT, says its stakeholder engagement manager Dan Schofield.

Speaking to Dairy News at a roadshow meeting at Levin, Schofield noted dairy farmers are well on in understanding NAIT. “They’ve been tagging for two or three years. There are over six million tags out there now, [most] sold into the dairy industry.”

Partly this is due to dairy indus-

try information providers, such as DairyNZ, and farm suppliers, engaging with farmers.

“They are used to good record keeping and do a lot of stuff on existing software packages… such as genetics and breeding worth….

So NAIT is really no biggie for them in that respect, and are doing it voluntarily.”

Schofield acknowledges the temperament of dairy animals farmers handle day by day is much different from those handled by beef farmers.

“The guy on a beef farm who

only gets his animals in once or twice a year can have problems. But wild bulls are always going to be a challenge for dairy and beef farmers alike.”

Attendance at the Levin meeting mirrored that of other roadshows, with about 60 farmers and several farm service providers attending. The Levin meeting was for farmers in Manawatu and Horowhenua. “There have been bigger crowds, with 200 attending in Hastings and 150 in Dannevirke,” Schofield says.

He says despite all the publicity

on NAIT, people still ask him if they actually have to tag their animals.

People also ask how to deal with “wild or dangerous” cattle.

Farmers need to be informed about the applicators needed to attach NAIT tags; best to contact a rural supplies outlet, Schofield says.

“We are finding up to a third of those attending a NAIT meeting have a NAIT number. We do recommend people go on line, or ring the 0800 number because everyone has to get a NAIT number,” he says.

Licensed under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008

324 East Street Ashburton

NEW Innovative Milk Liners DairyFlo Milk Liners are manufactured from TPE - Thermoplastic Elastomer, an engineered soft plastic.

The grade of TPE used has outstanding material properties, they include:

Working displays National Fieldays Hydroflow site

F38-42

* It will not absorb milk fats or milk proteins * Milk fat and protein residues can be completely washed away * Exceptionally smooth surface * Outstanding mechanical strength * Very Long Lasting * 100% Recyclable

PUTTING OUR BULLS ON THE LINE

GENOMIC PROOF BEFORE PROGENY TEST

DAUGHTER PROOF AFTER PROGENY TEST

HOLSTEIN -FRIESIAN

JERSEY

KIWICROSS

™ All values are calculated using 2011 Economic Values

12/05/2012 DAUGHTER DATA

16/07/2011 GENOMIC DATA

M O N I TO R T E A M S — S E L E CT E D F R O M T H E A G E C L A S S T H AT H AV E T H E I R F I R S T D A U G H T E R S I N M I L K T H I S S E A S O N .

BETTLE9837B

The 2011 DNA Proven Teams will not receive progeny tests until 2014. This makes it hard to show how accurate their BWs are. To solve this we’ve used our latest genomic selection technology to calculate the BWs of three teams that have had their first progeny tests this season. From the progeny test results above you can see just how accurate genomic evaluation is. For all the details see www.lic.co.nz.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

22 // news

Wanted: robotic farmer PAM TIPA

DELAVAL IS seeking the right New Zealand farm for a partnership to install the country’s first automatic milking rotary (AMR).

The world’s first commercial AMR installation is at Gala, a dairy farm run by the Dornauf family in northern Tasmania. The company is looking for a second farm in Australia to install an AMR. A DeLaval systems expert based in New Zealand, Ron Mulder, told the Dairy News at the open day that they had had a number of conversations in New Zealand but hadn’t

Kendra Kerrisk has been studying automatic milking systems for a decade.

WANTED YOUR OLD THUMPER

2000 REWARD

$

POST DRIVERS

Is your old postdriver running out of puff…about to give in to the constant pounding of your current fencing needs?

FencerCombo side mounted model

found the right farm yet.

“We wouldn’t take the first guy with a chequebook. We need to understand and work with them in terms of what their expectations are and what our expectations are. We can destroy what we are trying to achieve in systems by setting up on the wrong farm.”

The AMR at Gala – the first rotary installation on a farm rather than in a research environment – is a 24-unit internal herringbone rotary platform.

The three-generation Dornauf family have been fully automated milking since February this year. Milking tasks are performed by five robots: two for udder preparation, two for cup attachment and one for teat disinfection.

Cows wear electronic collars recognised by the robots, smart gates, automatic feeders and the herd management software Delpro, enabling the Dornaufs to manage many farm operations from the computer. The cows are brought to the dairy in batches, but the Dornaufs aim to start voluntary milking this year, whereby the cows come by themselves.

An expert with Australian organisation FutureDairy, Dr Kendra Kerrisk, told Dairy News Australia and New Zealand are at the same stage of adoption of automatic milking systems (AMS) but are well behind globally. There are about 20,000 of the ‘box-type’ installations worldwide.

“But the challenge here is to make automatic milking work in pasture-based systems,” says Kerrisk who has worked with AMS for a decade including New Zealand’s ‘greenfield’ project. She leads the FutureDairy project which has run in collaboration with DeLaval on developing AMR. A prototype of the robotic rotary has run in Camden, NSW, since 2009.

“The interest is there and we are just starting to move into commercialisation,” she says.

Mulder says the New Zealand pilot installation, which could be in the North or South Island, will not necessarily follow the Dornauf model, for instance the feed pad may be optional.

Mulder, as with all DeLaval representatives at the Tasmanian open day, will not be drawn on cost. He says it will cost more than a conventional rotary but the price will depend on the individual farm requirements. He expects farmers to move to AMS technology as they replace old sheds.

“If farmers do make the decision to go into AMR or AMS they must have the knowledge to make it work on farm as well.”

It is not a matter of getting away from the farm but “eliminating the $10-an-hour job and focusing on the $100-an-hour job”. This included analysis of extensive data produced from the automated systems, including statistics from each udder quarter.

He believes tertiary institutions will need to offer more data modules in their agricultural courses to keep up with the new technology.

Mulder says the rotary system is for herds greater than 300. On the Tasmanian farm they are aiming for 600 “then obviously we need to push the boundaries from that,” he says.

However with pasture-based systems, research is continuing on how far cows are prepared to walk voluntarily.

• AMR Australian launch: pages 58-59

Then now’s the time to throw in the towel because Fieldmaster are offering you $2000 + GST minimum trade-in for your ‘Old Thumper’ (conditions apply) when you upgrade to the Forté or Fencercombo model postdriver – a real heavyweight champion!

Contact us now to learn the run of the ropes on the ‘Old Thumper’ promotion – Offer is only valid till 11th June 2012 (so waiting till the Fieldays will be a real blow!)

Freephone 0800 500 275

www.fieldmaster.co.nz

DeLaval is looking for a New Zealand farm to install the country’s first AMR.

NIS3691R\TBWA

THIS FIELDAYS, WE’RE MOVING STOCK.

NAVARA ST-X 450 4WD

$49,995

*

FROM

SAVE $7,500

NEW MODEL NAVARA RX 4WD

$41,995

FROM

*

SAVE $7,495

*Plus on road costs. Offers only available between 1st May - 30th June 2012 while stocks last.

NAVARA ST-X 2WD

$ 39,995

FROM

*

SAVE $5,995

nissan.co.nz

Dairy News May 29, 2012

24 // world

Co-op sheds jobs to save money Arla Foods says it needs to cut costs to keep up with international competitors.

DANISH CO-OP dairy processor Arla Foods is shedding 250 jobs in a restructure to remain globally competitive.

It is also cutting procurement costs and market research and analysis spending to save NZ$111m (500 m Kroner).

Arla is selling more but must cut annual costs to keep up with international competitors, says chief executive Peder Tuborgh. “Our turnover is growing, and

that growth will continue.

“We have a responsibility towards all our co-op owners and other dairy farmers, who invest their milk and their money in Arla, to make sure our turnover grows [much] faster than our costs.

“Our international competitors are able to turn ideas into action quicker than before so Arla needs a more simple and structured way of working,” Arla will shed 250 admin jobs globally by late 2012, and will internally restructure 150 admin jobs. Management will keep looking to make administration even more efficient as the growth continues. And it will look for potential for “similar efficiency measures in the production chain.”

Arla says it aims to lead in the consolidation of the European dairy industry, attracting and retaining raw milk in adequate volumes. A prerequisite for this is to pay a competitive milk price to its co-op owners, says Tuborgh.

“It’s a long time since Arla has had the opportunity to exploit the synergies that always arise when two large companies – each with their integrated production and administration – join forces. Even the most recent mergers with Swedish Milko and German Hansa have not been large enough to trigger radical efficiency measures throughout the company. [We must] ensure Arla stays competitive by reducing costs and complexity....”

The co-op will offer support and career counselling to all affected employees.

“I know this is bad news for colleagues who may lose their jobs, and it is certainly no reflection on their performance. Each activity they have been responsible for makes sense when viewed separately, but we can’t afford everything,” says Tuborgh.

Arla employees worldwide were briefed earlier this month about the changes.

UK farmers mount consumer blitz UK FARMERS want consumers to know the impor-

tance of farming to the economy, and they want them to buy British food, says the National Farmers Union.

The union says in a recent report that farming is leading in increasing its gross value-added (GVA), and providing the foundation stone for Britain’s food and drink industry.

The sector put $176 billion into the UK economy last year and helped keep about 3.5 million people in work.

Farming’s GVA totals $18 billion and food and drink has become the UK’s fourth largest exporting sector, the union says.

President Peter Kendall, who launched the report last week, says while this good news story hasn’t yet hit the headlines, all that is set to change as the NFU launches its new campaign to talk to the British public about what farming delivers for Britain.

At the heart is a simple message: be proud to buy British food and remember farming’s immensely powerful role in securing the nation’s future, he says.

“I don’t want to dwell on the past; today is about celebrating all that farmers and growers deliver to this country and its people every day.

“But I do want to acknowledge what a tremendous turnaround we have seen, certainly in the past ten years.

The NFU has re-stated and, over time, re-established the case for our productive farming industry. No-one now seriously doubts the need for this country to have an efficient, productive, environmentally-conscious British farming sector, or the value that it, and we as farmers and growers, can deliver on all fronts.

“As this report details, farming is now expected to deliver and not just on fresh, quality, affordable food but also in providing cleaner, green energy and exciting and dynamic careers for our young people.”

NOW COPPER IS THIS EASY TO DEPOSIT Autumn is here and it is time to ensure your stock have adequate Copper levels.

Fast and effective Copper supplementation.

Demands for Copper increase during late pregnancy and lactation, right when the spring pasture Copper levels are at their lowest.

Ensure growth rates, production and reproduction performance are optimum.

Talk to your vet about CopperMax™ on your farm to ensure adequate copper levels and boost your herds performance and productivity.

Easy to use injectable formulation.

Tested and proven in NZ conditions.

™

CHELATED COPPER EDTA INJECTION

ONLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR VET CopperMax™ is a Restricted Veterinary Medicine (RVM). Only available under veterinary authority.

Bayer New Zealand Limited 3 Argus Place, Hillcrest, Auckland.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

26 // world

Oz farmers brace for lower payout AUSTRALIAN DAIRY

farmers have been told to expect a lower farmgate mik price in the new season.

Dairy Australia says analysis of current commodity price and exchange rate settings indicate an opening price for 201213 between A$4.05 and A$4.40/kgMS compared to the 2011-12 opening price of A$4.75 to A$4.80/kgMS. The closing price for the current season is expected to range between A$5.30 and A$5.40/kgMS, while next season is forecast to close between A$4.50 and $4.90/kgMS. In the 2012 Situation and Outlook Report, Dairy Australia managing director Ian Halliday says while

“Our figures suggest the majority of those in an expansion phase are large farmers – a good sign for future production.” – Joanne Bills the opening price would be lower, farmers in southern exporting regions are in a good position with strong competition for supply to continue.

“Manufacturers are keen to keep the throughput up as much as they can so we can expect them to open with as high prices as possible to retain supply,” Halliday says.

National milk production has also bounced back, increasing from 9.1 billion L last season to almost 9.5 billion L this

season. Dairy Australia manager strategy and knowledge Joanne Bills says this is the first year of large growth in a decade driven by export-focused regions.

“We’ve seen some regional variation in production this season with extra volume generated in southeast Australia where the season has been largely favourable with good rainfall and low feed prices.”

Northern Victoria leads the way with 14% growth

until March. Despite some areas of flooding, most farmers in the region enjoyed consistent rainfall, strong irrigation allocations and abundant home-grown feed.

Tasmania has also stepped up its output 10% on the same time last year thanks to good conditions.

Production in Queensland, central and northern NSW and Western Australia supplying the domestic drinking milk market has been static or in decline.

“Continued aggressive retail competition, disruptions caused by changes in private label supply contracts and uncertainty on processor milk requirements have undermined

TM

Retail competition is undermining farmer confidence in Australia.

farmer confidence and stifled production growth,” says Bills.

Nationally farmers remain fairly positive about the future of the industry, with 66% per cent of those surveyed in this year’s National Dairy Farmer Survey indicating their optimism. This is a little down on last year’s 69%. The main reason for the positivity is the feeling demand will continue for dairy. However, milk price remains the single

greatest challenge and the reason farmers feel negative about the future of their industry. Increasing fuel and electricity costs have also caused concern for those surveyed, rather than feed costs, which have previously concerned them.

There was a lot of regional variation in confidence in dairying regions: 91% of Tasmanian farmers were confident, while in Queensland just 43% of farmers were positive. The

regional variation strongly reflects the different pricing and growth signals farmers are facing from the markets they service.

Of those 1002 farmers surveyed nationally, 48% describe their business as running “steady”, while 22% are in an expansion phase.

“Our figures suggest the majority of those in an expansion phase are large farmers – a good sign for future milk production,” says Bills.

B&LIC9864B

The thing about dairying is that to be great at it, you need to be a bit of a control freak. Stock, pasture, staff, milking, animal health, feed, culling, breeding — none of it just happens — you make it happen.

MINDA is a whole-farm information and management solution that puts you in total control of your farm’s operation. From which animals are the most productive to feed planning; from calving to herd testing; from EID to health treatments; MINDA pulls it all together with easy to use reports and a range of management tools to give you the control you need.

THE BEST FARM MANAGEMENT TOOL ON THE PLANET

Puts you in control

Dairy News May 29, 2012

28 // opinion OPINION Ruminating

EDITORIAL

Will TAF vote bring unity?

milking it...

Trading among framers

DO THE accountants know something about TAF (trading among farmers) that we don’t?

At the 2012 Primary Sector Conference in Auckland last week, the accountants had two sessions on TAF. The colourful programme brochure said ‘Trading Amongst Framers – the nuts and bolts’.

For some Fonterra shareholders TAF is nothing but a frame-up. Journalists were not allowed into the Fonterra sessions.

Moo-hem in the city

AUCKLAND CITY saw its first running of the cows this month. Forty cows stampeded through Britomart, Auckland, at rush hour on a Monday morning – New Zealand’s first running of the cows. This total ‘moo-hem’ was part of a supermarket’s promotion of dairy products.

Commenting on the stampede, Foodstuffs New Zealand managing director Steve Anderson says, “Celebrating the Kiwi cow allows us to reduce the prices on everyday basket items, such as milk and cheese.”

Cows in lavalavas

NEW ZEALAND cows could soon be grazing in the Solomon Islands.

The tiny Pacific nation is negotiating with Australia and New Zealand to import more cows.

Late last year the island Government imported cows from Vanuatu, now in quarantine at the Tenavatu farm.

The agriculture ministry hopes to revive the cattle industry by importing high-quality cows.

Head Office: Top Floor, 29 Northcroft St, Takapuna, Auckland 0622 Phone 09-307 0399. Fax 09-307 0122 Postal Address: Published by: Printed by: Contacts: Advertising material: Rural News on-line: Subscriptions:

PO Box 3855, Shortland St, Auckland 1140 Rural News Group PMP Print Editorial: sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz davef@ruralnews.co.nz www.ruralnews.co.nz subsrndn@ruralnews.co.nz

ABC audited circulation 27,332 as at 31.12.2011

ISSN 1175-463X

Vegan message spurned

THE ANIMAL rights group PETA tried to place a billboard in Hanford, California, stating ‘Real Milk Comes from Real Sick Cows’ and urging people to ‘Go Vegan’, but the nation’s biggest billboard company told the group ‘no’.

After a dead dairy cow from Tulare County (heart of dairying country) was found last month with mad cow disease, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it would advertise on a billboard near Baker Commodities, the Hanford plant where the animal was first taken for processing.

But Lamar Advertising wouldn’t accept it their message, PETA spokeswoman Alicia Woempner said.

“We got more or less a generic response, ‘Unfortunately, I cannot accept this ad content,’ “ she said.

PETA has since advertised on television.

TAF (trading among farmers) comes to a head with a make it or break it vote on June 25.

The Fonterra board is determined to get the share trading scheme off the ground later this year.

The co-op’s management is embarking on a strategy refresh as if TAF’s been approved. But shareholders are demanding more information especially on aspects of TAF which they feel will compromise 100% ownership and control.

This makes for an interesting week in dairy regions.

Voting papers will in the next few days arrive in the mailboxes of 10,500 Fonterra shareholders.

Those papers will contain, among other things, the due diligence committee’s report. And they will spell out board resolutions on TAF. The board is putting a special motion, reducing the size of the proposed Fonterra Shareholders Fund. But of greater interest to shareholders will be the motion to approve TAF. Chairman Henry van der Heyden last week remained coy on whether the board will seek a simple majority to pass TAF or a 75% approval from shareholders.

There is no doubt TAF will be passed by Fonterra shareholders. But all eyes will be on the `no’ vote.

In June 2010, 89.9% supported TAF. It’s hard to see that level of support repeated on June 25.

The bitter public debate over the past 24 months has fractured the shareholder base.

Some farmers who supported the scheme in 2010 now have serious reservations.

The second vote is touted by the co-op as the final decision. Interestingly, Theo Spierings last week told the DairyNZ Farmers Forum that shareholder unity was bigger than TAF. Unfortunately, next month’s vote shows no signs of being a unity vote.

It will divide Fonterra’s shareholder base into two camps; one for TAF, the other against.

Let’s hope that on June 26, New Zealand doesn’t wake up to find the Fonterra’s hardworking shareholder base fractured beyond repair.

Publisher: Managing Editor: Editor: Reporters:

Brian Hight ...................... Ph 09-307 0399 Adam Fricker .................. Ph 09-913 9632 Sudesh Kissun ................ Ph 09-913 9627 Neil Keating .................... Ph 09-913 9628 Tony Hopkinson ............. Ph 07-579 1010 Peter Burke....................... Ph 06-362 6319 Andrew Swallow ............ Ph 021-745 183 Pamela Tipa...................... Ph 09-913 9630 Subscriptions: Fiona Siketi ...................... Ph 09-913 9626 Production: Dave Ferguson ............... Ph 09-913 9633 Becky Williams ................ Ph 09-913 9634 Website Producer: James Anderson ............ Ph 09-913 9621

Dairy News is published by Rural News Group Limited. All editorial copy and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions or comments expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of the staff, management or directors of Rural News Group Limited.

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER: Ted Darley ........................... Ph 07-839 4958, 021-832 505 ted@ruralnews.co.nz AUCKLAND: Tracy Fairey ........................... Ph 09 913 9637, 021 963 166 tracyf@ruralnews.co.nz TAURANGA: Tony Hopkinson ................ Ph 07-579 1010, 021-949 226 hoppy1@clear.net.nz WELLINGTON: Mark Macfarlane ............... Ph 04-234 6239, 021-453 914 markm@ruralnews.co.nz SOUTH ISLAND: Kaye Sutherland ..............Ph 03-337 3828, 021-221 1994 kayes@ruralnews.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

opinion // 29

‘Fonterra governance ONLINE POLL has failed TAF’ WHEN FARMERS

voted to investigate the possibility of a TAF (trading among farmers) market in 2010, the vote was underpinned by the conviction held by farmer members that the cooperative’s capital structure ownership and control are non-negotiable. What was never investigated by the governance team within Fonterra developing the TAF model was the principle behind this conviction. The principle is that ownership and control allow members to work collectively towards a common good – a way in which all Fonterra members will thrive now and in the future.

The final model of TAF is of a share-trading market that promotes individual rights and encourages consumer-like behaviour.

It is not clear how this model supports the principle of enhancing the collective unity of the cooperative or the

common good. The final TAF model supports the conviction but confounds the principle. This is why there is increasing uncertainty recently from the general shareholding on the validity of TAF as a capital structure model that is well served for a strong cooperative.

The TAF model itself is clever and in my opinion does exactly what has been asked of it. However, what has been asked is inconsistent with normal, modern cooperative governance practices.

The TAF model was developed to reduce redemption risk for the cooperative. In 2008/9 the cooperative suffered heavily from redemption and the governors saw this as a market failure, rather than the constitutional failure it was. The current governors of Fonterra view their role as being neutral in matters of the common good, allowing individual members the freedoms to pursue their own interests

through the cooperative.

As a result, they see themselves as fixers of market failures, with a marketmimicking style of governance. This is where the real risk of demutualisation lies.

Demutualisation will happen when the TAF market fails or falters in the future. Using this market-mimicking style of governance, our leaders will look to fix the problem with a larger, deeper, more liquid market. We know this for sure as this is how the issue of redemption has been dealt with, how the decision for the second vote was arrived at, and is behaviour that is consistent with current internal board policies based on the spurious science of cost/benefit analysis.

Governors using market-mimicking governance struggle with working through the sometimes emotive and controversial opinions and convictions to page 31

Should Fonterra abandon TAF (trading among farmers)? ● Yes ● No

Caroline Gilbert

Have your say at: www.dairynews.co.nz

Automated Dairy Feed Systems Farmers invest in your farm with a PPP feed system; • Improved production • Improved animal health • Less on farm feed labour required • Peace of mind – you can feed your cows in wet springs and winters and dry summers

NZ’s first feed system manufactured by us in 1967

Nationwide installers and after sales backup – 7 days a week Feed Systems

Tel: 0800 901 902 • sales@pppindustries.co.nz • www.pppindustries.co.nz

It’s not often a bull as good as Checkpoint comes along.

Maybe once in a lifetime. That’s what makes him a freak.

With a BW of $333 he really is that good.

B&LIC0007C

be will f 2 1 20 ears o 50 y iness bus

Be ready for NAIT by 1 July The National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme becomes mandatory for beef and dairy farmers, including lifestylers, on 1 July.

Come 1 July, if you are in charge of cattle but have not got a NAIT number, you will not be able to move stock off-farm.

You can still be ready before 1 July if you: • Get a NAIT number • Tag your animals • Register your animals with NAIT Once you’ve done this you’ll be able to meet the requirement to record movements of cattle in the NAIT system from 1 July onwards.

Deer join the NAIT scheme on 1 March next year. Deer farmers can also get ready and are encouraged to check what they need to do on the NAIT website www.nait.co.nz.

Get a NAIT number

Every person in charge of cattle and deer at a given location must register with NAIT and get a NAIT number.

A NAIT number is in addition to an Animal Health Board (AHB) number or dairy participant code.

The quickest way to get a NAIT number is via the NAIT website at www.nait.co.nz. It’s a straightforward process and takes less than 10 minutes.

Remember, any properties within 20km of each other where the same person is in charge of animals can be registered under the same NAIT number.

Also, have your AHB herd number or dairy participant code handy, as doing so will mean you can electronically view the tag numbers associated with your NAIT number in the NAIT system. This will make it easier to register animals and to record animal movements from 1 July.

Purpose of NAIT scheme

The scheme will provide lifetime traceability of individual cattle and deer, enhancing New Zealand’s ability to respond more quickly if there’s a food safety event or a biosecurity threat such as a disease outbreak. In a situation like this NAIT’s capacity to provide a rapid containment response would enable trade to resume more quickly with less economic impact for farmers and New Zealand.

How the NAIT scheme works

KingSt10786_DN_ADVB

The NAIT scheme is about who is responsible for stock on a day-today basis rather than who owns the animals. The NAIT scheme will link individual animals to the person responsible for them, and their current location.

This is done via the radio frequency identification device (RFID) ear tag in

Tag your cattle and deer

Newborn animals must be tagged with NAIT-approved tags within 180 days of birth or before their first movement off-farm.

There is a three-year grace period for existing stock to be tagged with NAITapproved tags unless they are being moved off-farm.

From 1 July 2012 tag all newborn calves with a birth tag. Use a traka tag for all existing animals to make them compliant to move.

The mandatory requirement for an official Animal Health Board bar-coded secondary tag ceases from 1 July 2012, but you should not remove these tags from existing animals.

You still need to use your AHB herd number or dairy participant code when ordering NAIT tags from your usual rural supplier.

Tagging exemptions

There are two main exemptions for tagging animals.

1. Calves less than 30 days old and going directly to a meat processor do not require NAIT tags as they are considered a low biosecurity risk and are not included in the NAIT scheme. For these calves continue to use the direct-to-slaughter tags currently issued by meat processing companies.

2. Animals which are considered by a farmer to be impractical to tag are also exempt from NAIT tagging requirements. This exemption only applies if the animal is tagged with an official AHB bar-coded primary tag and is being transported directly to a meat processor. For 2012/13 these animals will incur a levy of $13 per head (excluding GST) which will be deducted by the meat processor.

each animal’s ear and a central database which links each tagged animal to information about the person registered as responsible for it, and the location where the animal is kept.

NAIT tags can be purchased from your local rural supplies company.

Recording each time an animal moves from one location to another, and/or when the person responsible for it changes is how the NAIT scheme maintains lifetime traceability of animals. It’s necessary for this information to be kept up to date so the NAIT system can quickly provide details of where individual animals are and who is responsible for them.

Benefits of RFID technology

The RFID technology used by the NAIT system is an enabler for on-farm benefits for farmers who make a further investment in RFID systems in

Registering animals

From 1 July animals need to be registered with NAIT within one week of being tagged. Animals born after 1 July 2012 should be tagged within 180 days of birth. The registration process links animals to tags in the NAIT system so they can be traced.

If you’ve got a NAIT number you can register animals online now at www.nait.co.nz.

Recording cattle movements from 1 July

NAIT legislation requires that when animals are sent to a location which has a different NAIT number linked to it, or the person in charge of the animals changes, this needs to be recorded in the NAIT system. For example, when an animal is bought, sold, sent for grazing or sent to a meat processor or saleyard.

Animal movements to NAIT-accredited meat processors and saleyards will be recorded for you. For information about NAITaccredited organisations which can carry out some or all of your NAIT obligations, including animal movement recording, go to www.nait.co.nz. When an animal is received from a NAIT-accredited saleyard a movement still needs to be recorded.

Getting help

NAIT-accredited information providers will be able to handle many of your NAIT obligations for you. For a list of accredited information providers visit the NAIT website www.nait.co.nz.

addition to NAIT-approved RFID tags.

Potential benefits include: • automated drafting of animals that meet pre-defined conditions • accurate recording of production details about individual animals so it can be used to support management decisions, for example: regularly weighing animals to sell at optimum individual weight tracking treatments recording breeding information measuring milk production {{

{{ {{ {{

This additional investment is not mandatory under the NAIT scheme, but can potentially have significant benefits. High performance HDX tags will be more suitable for these onfarm activities.

www.nait.co.nz | info@nait.co.nz | 0800 624 843

The quickest way to get a NAIT number is via the NAIT website at www.nait.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

opinion // 31

‘Fonterra governance has failed TAF’ from page 29

that come from encouraging democratic dialogue within a diverse shareholder base. In an attempt to remove the subjective nature of these emotions, governors strive to reach decisions from a more scientific basis and use cost/ benefit analysis to this end.

Cost/benefit analysis involves weighting the benefit of implementing a new policy or project against the costs of implementing it or not, and a decision is made based on the results. The problem with this kind of analysis is in assigning value to those things we struggle to value in the first place – things such as goodwill, solidarity, succession, loyalty and sustainability. How these things are valued will alter the results of cost/benefit analysis and renders it insufficient as a complete instrument for governance. This is why modern governance methods that include member

consultation and engagement yield far more consistent and enduring results. This is because it allows governors to arrive at a multi-dimensional understanding of member expectations based on the three strands of just governance: welfare, rights and virtues.

It will be premature for members to enable TAF to proceed without stronger constitutional safeguards enhancing democratic self-rule and the collective common good of the cooperative.

TAF, although a clever concept, has not demonstrated how it strengthens or even supports the cooperative and the collective nature of the business for reasons beyond permanency of capital. Members are becoming increasingly aware that TAF, without a stronger constitutional foundation, will critically and irreversibly weaken the collective strength of the cooperative nature of the business, despite offering increased finan-

cial strength to the capital structure in the short term.

Our governors have failed to recognise that the right of individuals should not come before

the common good; rather the right should be a consequence of the good. It is unfortunate that the cooperative has failed to demonstrate the qualities of leadership required

to circumvent this politically delicate situation earlier. This painful situation must now be borne by the whole cooperative, putting members in a difficult predicament on which they

are yet to have genuine dialogue.

• Caroline Gilbert is a

See us at the Field ays Site D69

• PENDULUM® DAIRY GATES • ENTRY GATES • CAM ACTION CATTLE HEADLOCK GATES • BACKING GATES • YARD WASH • WATER BOOMS • DAIRY SHED PIPEWORK KITSETS • ZIGZAG RAILS MADE TO ORDER • BREAST RAIL COMPONENTS • CURVED PIPE RAILINGS • POSTS • GALVANISED PIPE SALES PHONE 07 889 7769 EMAIL DAVID@LEASK.CO.NZ

CHECKPOINT – BW $333 It’s not often a bull as good as Checkpoint comes along.

Maybe once in a lifetime. That’s what makes him a machine.

With a BW of $333 he really is that good.

B&LIC0007D

Fonterra shareholder and NZ Co-op Association associate member.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

32 // agribusiness

Meeting China’s dairy appetite

Male trustee for DWN

A NEWLY opened Fonterra innovation centre in Shanghai will develop dairy products and ingredients for the China market.

Speaking last week at a launch ceremony, chief executive Theo Spierings said innovation underpins the cooperative’s entire global strategy and is critical to the integrated milk business being built in China.

“Demand for dairy nutrition is expected to double by 2020 and the way people consume dairy will change. The opening of the state-of-theart Shanghai Innovation Centre will help us build

NEAL SHAW from Ashburton, and Leonie Ward from Wellington, have been appointed independent trustees on the board of Dairy Women’s Network (DWN).

Shaw is the first man to join the board since the network was established in 1998. He is chief executive of Ashburton Trading Society (ATS), chairman of WaterMetrics NZ Ltd and a director of ATS Fuel.

Ward, an associate chartered accountant, is manager of animal welfare sector support with Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) in Wellington.

DWN chair Michelle Wilson says the two new trustees swell the board Neal Shaw from eight to 10 to better serve 3000plus members. They will join next month.

“DWN has become the premier forum for women in the New Zealand dairy industry and it is increasingly seen as an influential group in the industry and New Zealand agriLeonie Ward business,” says Wilson.

“It’s critical that our board represents all parts of New Zealand and all sizes of farms, and that it brings a range of business, commercial and agribusiness experience to the network’s operation.”

Shaw says he is honoured to be joining DWN. “In my role at ATS, we recognise the value of women in the dairy industry partnership that exists today.

“It is no secret men and women think differently, but I believe this is a strength in business and in life. My personal view is the ability to be an effective director is not about gender and in fact many male-dominated boards could probably learn from this.

“The fact the network has placed its faith in my ability to add value shows foresight and innovation.”

Ward says she has had the opportunity to interact with the DWN through her role at MPI and has been impressed by the passion, commitment and vibrancy of this group.

“The network has experienced rapid growth in recent times and I am thrilled to be part of it.”

and grow beyond our current product and ingredient offerings and better meet the needs of local Chinese consumers and customers.

“China is a significant priority in Fonterra’s global strategy and our innovation centre will help us develop unique products and formats that suit the needs of the local population.”

Particular focus will be on leveraging Fonterra’s dairy protein R&D capability in New Zealand.

“As incomes rise across China, people are looking for nutrition that supports the health of their families, particularly young chil-

DOLOMITE NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser

Fonterra advisory chef Teoh Joo Cheong, right, shows Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings, centre, and Fonterra China president Philip Turner, left, the new pastry and baking equipment in the Shanghai innovation centre.

dren, and dairy is one of the most nutritious foods there is,” Spierings says.

“People are also becoming busier, which means they’re often looking for dairy products to eat onthe-go or use to make quick, easy, nutritious meals.”

Fonterra China presi-

dent Phillip Turner says the centre will allow Fonterra to work more closely with major customers and the food service industry.

“The centre will [run] product training courses for major customers primarily focused on the Anchor dairy product line. Fonterra advisory

chefs will help deepen customers’ technical knowledge and develop recipes.”

The centre will employ local staff, who will be trained in product formulation, product production, operating procedures and food safety systems.

For a delivered price call... 0800 436 566

Dairy effluent solutions!

Fieldays Site D31

The Irrigator everyone wants!

0800 686 334 www.numedic.co.nz MANUFACTURE AND DESIGN

AGENTS NATIONWIDE, EXPORTING WORLDWIDE

New Zealand Manufacturers & suppliers of: • Evenspread low application travelling irrigators • Strongest, most durable pumps available • Efficient & robust pond stirrers • Pontoons & Hydrants • Stationary irrigators

Dairy News may 29, 2012

agribusiness // 33

New feedmill for dairy regions ANIMAL NUTRITION

specialist SealesWinslow is to build a new feedmill in Wanganui for startup for the 2013-14 dairy season.

SealesWinslow bought the Inghams feed mill and grain storage complex on Kelvin Street, Wanganui, and will redevelop the site and install modern milling equipment.

Newly appointed chief executive Graeme Smith says this will allow the company to better serve its dairy, sheep and beef farmer customers.

“It is pleasing to invest in animal nutrition in the heart of three high growth dairying regions covering Taranaki, Wanganui and Manawatu,” says Smith.

SealesWinslow was formed last year when Ballance Agri-Nutrients bought a 51% shareholding in Seales Ltd, Morrinsville, and Winslow Feeds and Nutrition, Ashburton.

Ballance Agri-Nutrients chief executive Larry Bilodeau says the step supports Ballance’s aim to create a nationwide business providing more

Fertiliser Quality Council chair Neil Barton and Professor Jacqueline Rowarth at the DVD launch.

Fertiliser DVD ‘to correct deception’ PAM TIPA

DAIRY FARMERS are given a bad SealesWinslow chief executive Graeme Smith.

ways for shareholders to achieve best business performance.

print,” says Bilodeau.

Improving animal nutrition is vital to driving

“We’ll be buying thousand of tonnes of grain from farmers in the area, which means more money is injected into the local economy.”

“We are offering a whole farm nutrient management approach from pasture through to supplements which will improve productivity and animal fertility, health and welfare while reducing agriculture’s environmental foot-

productivity in pastoral farming, SealesWinslow says; on-farm feed efficiency is the key.

SealesWinslow says it buys key ingredients mostly from local suppliers, so “the development of the Wanganui complex

will be great news for the region’s arable sector,” says Smith.

“We’ll be buying thousands of tonnes of grain from farmers in the area, which means more money is injected into the local economy.”

Former SealesWinslow managing director Ross Hyland has been appointed project manager for the feedmill upgrade.

SealesWinslow has factories at Morrinsville and Ashburton, and a distribution site at Tauranga.

image by people driven by the “politics of envy” and misinformation, says Taranaki MP Shane Ardern.

“I think dairy farmers get a bad image because there’s a number of people who see how much income there is in the industry now,” Ardern said at a webcast to launch a new education DVD on the use of fertiliser on New Zealand farms.

Waikato University agribusiness professor Jacqueline Rowarth told Dairy News the DVD will be used in schools and tertiary institutions to provide facts and figures for subjects from physics to economics. She says many young people think visually these days and that’s where a DVD format comes into its own.

The DVD ‘New Zealand Needs Fertiliser and Plants Need Food’ was launched last week in a webcast presentation at Waikato University.

Fertiliser Quality Council chairman Neil Barton says listening to some politicians and environmental crusaders “we would be forgiven for getting the impression farmers pick a fertiliser programme out of thin air, put it on literally with a shovel then dump a bit in the local creek or river for good measure”.

He says at least 95% of fertiliser applied in New Zealand is Fertmark certified; getting this certificate takes considerable effort and is independently audited.

Most fertiliser is then spread by a Spreadmark accredited operator and getting that accreditation is a major commitment. He suggested councils should insist a spreader be Spreadmark accredited.

Rowarth quotes DairyNZ as saying that, for each kgMS we produce, we must return 0.7kg or 20% potassium fertiliser to the soil.

“If we don’t we are actually mining our soils with disastrous consequences,” she says.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

34 // agribusiness

Prized effluent ponds DAIRYNZ HOPES its

Winning pond from the South Island: From left: Murray Thomas, Ben Thomas, Dave Howard and farm worker James Bawden.

prize pond competition will help lift effluent compliance results.

The prize pond chief judge – development project manager for effluent Dr Theresa Wilson – says it has raised awareness among farmers of effluent pond levels.

“This competition

shows us... farmers are looking at their ponds in a new light: they see a full pond that lacks storage capacity as a risk, and they are seeing well-managed low ponds with great deal of pride.”

DairyNZ ran the competition to encourage people managing farm effluent systems to keep

Looking for greener pastures?

Start by meeting the ASB Rural team at Mystery Creek.

If you’re looking for the team that will roll up its sleeves and work hard for you then call in to our marquee at Fieldays for a chat, and experience ASB Rural for yourself.

You might discover that the grass really is greener.

Visit the ASB Rural Marquee, site J36 at the New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays, 13-16 June or call 0800 787 252.

ASB Bank Limited.

as much effluent storage as possible free in the approach to winter. The contest threw up examples of well-managed and constructed ponds, with many farmers getting into the fun spirit of the competition.

“We had entries that demonstrated how proud farmers are of how they manage their ponds.” And the farmers dressed up in the spirit of the awards too.

“The Prize Pond entries from farmers nationwide showed many effective ponds at low levels, and judges from the effluent team were pushed to select a winner.

“We’re thrilled to be able to put on barbecues for the winners and their farm teams to celebrate their awards with our Prize Pond supporter, farming commentator and former All-Black Richard Loe.” Effluent storage ponds in Canterbury and Taranaki won DairyNZ prize pond awards.

Canterbury farm owners Murray and Shirley Thomas and sharemilkers Dave and Pip Howard have

a 30-day holding pond irrigating 160ha under a central pivot system.

Howard, who farms near Ashburton, says keeping pond levels low is a nobrainer.

“It’s pretty simple; if we keep some room in our pond and it’s not too full, we have options on how we manage the farm. If we have no capacity, we have no options. Otherwise it’s a bit of an effort to keep on top of it, therefore we just make it part of how we manage the farm.”

The Taranaki prize pond is owned by Ken Sole and managed by sharemilker Dan Merritt. Sole is glad they entered.

“We’re pleased that our low pond, and how we manage it, have been recognised,” says Sole.

Two entries won ‘highly commended’.

The ‘outstanding spirit’ award was given to Zane and Mel Scott, Southland for the sheer exuberance they displayed over having a low pond.

Also highly commended was Mikaeyla Hall, Outram in Otago for a photo of the best pond makeover.

Ken Sole’s award-winning storage pond on his Taranaki farm.

Flowmetering causing you a headache?

Consider Ultrasonic Clamp-on meters as your rst solution PROSOL PCS Ultrasonic owmeters are simple to install, reliable and suit standard council metering requirements. The transducers mount to the outside of the pipe, and will suit most pipe materials 15mm to 3m diameter. Onsite display, datalogging or telemetry options available. Transducers can be mounted up to 100m from display.

Call now for more information for a 1 week obligation free trial 09 414 1028 www.prosol.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

agribusiness // 35

Uni’s new chair in human nutrition Fonterra’s nutrition stratA NEW chair in human nutrition at Auckland Uni- egies.

“Dairy clearly plays versity is backed by Fonan important role in a terra as part of its $40 million investment in the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP).

Professor Sally Poppitt will also sit within the Riddet Institute, New Zealand’s Centre of Research Excellence for food science and technology.

Her appointment follows the appointment of food scientist Dr Peter Munro, as the new Fonterra chair in food material science at Sally Poppitt Massey University and healthy, balanced diet; part of the Riddet Instileading-edge science tute. to further optimise the The two professors health benefits of milk is will be supported by PhD, a key priority of the PGP post-doctoral researchers programme,” Poppit says. and academic staff develFonterra’s part in the oping Fonterra’s capability seven year, $72 million in food structure design PGP announced in August for dairy materials.

2010 sees the co-op joinEarly projects will ing with MPI, DairyNZ and include involvement with others in $170 million of Massey University, AuckR&D to drive new value in land University, Canterthe dairy industry. bury University and the Fonterra’s general University of Queensland. manager dairy primary Poppitt says the PGP gives opportunity to inno- growth partnership Arie Geursen says the new vate in dairy science to chair will support Fonunderpin and develop

terra’s recent strategy refresh, with emphasis on nutrition for mothers and babies, and the mobility of seniors.

“Professor Sally Poppitt has had longstanding involvement in dairy nutrition for health and wellness, collaborating directly with Fonterra and within the LactoPharma research consortium investigating the role of dairy foods and ingredients in adult health,” Geursen says.

“Sally is ideally placed to... assist the Primary Growth Partnership in its goals to support the long-term transformation of the New Zealand dairy industry,” he says.

Prior to her appointment to the new chair, beginning May 3, Poppitt was associate professor in nutrition at the University of Auckland, lecturing and researching in the department of medicine and the faculty of science.

Poppitt is also the founder and director of the university’s human nutrition unit, researching prevention and treatment of conditions arising from poor nutrition.

Mitchell tops agri awards ROTORUA SHAREMILKER Shaun

Mitchell is Agriculture ITO’s 2012 trainee of the year. He also won the excellence in agribusiness management award at AgITO’s annual Wairarapa AgriAwards this month.

About 90 trainees, employers and families attended the event that recognised graduating trainees, top achievers and employers from the region.

This year 85 students completed qualifications ranging from entry level general farm skills certificates to national diplomas in agribusiness (level 5 qualification), says Wairarapa AgITO course coordinator Glen Hart.

“It’s fantastic that farmers in the Wairarapa recognise the need to keep learning. Our industry needs people willing to

upskill and continually improve on-farm practices. Agriculture is a sophisticated business and any advantage you can gain is worth the effort,” he says.

“It’s been particularly pleasing to see the level of support farmers give to their employees as they work to achieve these qualifications. I am sure they are proud to have these quality members of staff on their team.”

Industry feedback suggests qualifications are becoming a valuable commodity across the agricultural industry.

“Employers are taking more notice of qualifications during the employment process. Trainees are finding qualifications are helping them stand out from the crowd, particularly those looking for entry level positions,” says Hart.

cream of the crop ■■

New to farming, Tim Garrick.

■■

Best practical skills, Kurt Simmonds.

■■

Excellence in agribusiness management, Shaun Mitchell, Pahiatua.

■■

Outstanding dairy trainee, Ryan Medlin.

■■

Employer/farmer trainer, Clarence and Elise Stolte.

■■

Outstanding sheep and beef trainee, Matt Watson.

■■

Overall trainee of the year, Shaun Mitchell, Pahiatua.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

36 // agribusiness

Succession planning – chance or choice IN RECENT months I’ve been doing

Bringing family members into a farming operation does not offer the luxury of choice.

WIN A LED Lenser H7 ONLINE

WIN a LED Lenser H7 Headlamp, for outstanding brightness and range.

Comes with a 5 year warranty.

VISIT WWW.DAIRYNEWS.CO.NZ TO ENTER Congratulations to the last winner Nigel Dixon, Good luck this week!

more work with a number of families grappling with the challenges of succession planning.

A common challenge in these projects has been managing the delicate balance between giving family members responsibilities that enable them to express their talents and expertise while ensuring the senior generation can gain confidence in those abilities and meet their objectives to delegate. Obviously this needs to be achieved in a way that enables personal relationships to flourish and ensure new entrants can continue to grow their professional and investment pathways.

Successful integration of family to a business requires commitment by all parties to prove that professional and personal relationships can function effectively before there is any significant handover of authority or sharing of ownership. Family members joining the operation must also realise they need to ‘win’ the opportunity to participate in its future.

Developing strategies in this area can be complex. There are a number of contributing factors.

First, it is vital that business owners recognise that decisions to involve adult family in the business do not offer the luxury of choice available when appointing external applicants to a farming operation. Bringing them into the business involves a significant element of ‘chance’ as to whether a family member can deliver expectations and maintain positive family relationships. Because of this reduced flexibility such decisions can be more

about finding the right roles for the people rather than the right people for the roles.

Offsetting this is the reassurance that in most cases the values and disciplines that have been modelled by parents as they worked to develop their farming businesses have been well and truly caught by their children.

A second key factor is that the focus, skills and attitudes that contributed to success in the development phase of a farming operation are unlikely to be the same as those needed to take it to the next level. Success in the early years comes from commitment to physical endeavour with the owners focused on a do-it-yourself culture. Transition to larger and more complex businesses requires second-generation managers to apply more sophisticated business skills, greater technical understanding and higher level people management expertise.

Sadly, I see too many parents who still believe future viability depends on those joining the business repeating what worked for them in their early years. They don’t always appreciate the new skill sets that will be required for a quite different future.

There can be a tendency to look for family joining the business to demonstrate brawn rather than brain which can be frustrating for both sides of the relationship.

Effective management of this aspect of succession is always enhanced by input from independent professionals to ensure robust assessment of the capabilities of all participants. This role should add value as mentor to grow skills and challenge

new entrants to best-practice management and maintain the highest professional standards for everyone involved.

Parents need to recognise there are limits to how much they can contribute to their adult family members’ skill development and ability to deliver negative feedback without compromising personal relationships. Independent professionals will help ensure hard issues can be addressed more objectively and promote accountability.

Choosing the right time to offer family members their chance to join the business is critical. If this happens too early there is a risk the family member will not have matured sufficiently to proactively choose their preferred career pathway. If it is left too late, the stakes around success or failure become much higher.

Test driving relationships with more mature family members who have already developed significant personal relationships, family commitments and financial aspirations can make it more difficult to walk away if things don’t work out.

Finally, parents’ expectations of the involvement of their family’s partners need to be realistic. In my view, the old way of a successful farmer relying on the day-to-day physical support of his spouse no longer applies.

Bringing family into the business is definitely not without risk. It requires the retiring generation to have confidence in the good work they have done raising their family. Accomplished successfully it also offers the whole family the chance to enjoy the fruits of that work and expand the platform for everyone’s future.

• Kerry Ryan is a Tauranga based agribusiness consultant available for faceto-face or online for advice and ideas.

You can contact him at www.kerryryan.co.nz

Dairy News May 29, 2012

1

See the all NEW 5400 & 7600 Ranges from

See The Line Up From

AgBrand Products

“The Stockfeeder Experts”

SEE US AT SITES C65,L1,L3,L5,L7

2

3

A

SEE US AT SITE C70

B

4

SEE US AT SITE A49

C

SEE US AT SITES C66, C68, D67

5

D

E

F

6

G

1

SEE US AT SITE A53

46

13-16 June 2012

SEE US AT SITE L11

45

2

EQUIDAYS EQUINE AREA

SEE US AT SITE D69

DOG TRIALS AREA

3 8

43

AgriSea Arch

4

5 11

A Street

46

B Street

L Road

42 SEE US AT SITE J28

3 C Street

J Road

40

24 DuPont Lane

SEE US AT SITES D83,D85

45

40

D Street

41

6

SERVICE ALLEY

39

D Street

26 PREMIER FEATURE

35 34 29 31

E Street

E Street

16

33 FUNCTION FUNCTION CENTRE CENTRE

BUSINESS & INTERNATIONAL VISITOR CENTRE

0

Hamilton Party Hire Restaurant

EXHIBITOR ONLY

GATE 0

7

M18A M18 M Bridge

LOGGING SKILLS AREA

for Effluent Ponds and Irrigation Dams

BAR BAR

E Street

34

TP1

Lake

K Road

39

43

27 MYSTERY CREEK PAVILION

42

LOADING DOCK

C Street

D69

EXCAVATOR AREA

K Road

SEE US AT SITES I1, I3

6

4

5 I Road

41

F Street

SEE US AT SITE PE28

1

TRACTOR PULL AREA

PEDESTRIAN

GATE 1

37

F Street

The University of Waikato Arch

8

G Street

G 106

38

SEE US AT SITE G119

30

36

15

G Street

1 32

G 109

37

H Street

K Road

38

28

44 J Road

Pond Liners

2

River Lane

L Road

L24

SEE US AT SITE J9

SEE US AT SITE D63

F

Livestock Alley

44

Plan your trip to Fieldays visit www.fieldays.co.nz

H Street

9

SEE US AT SITES F64, F66, F68

2

Disabled Parking

36

COURIER

Certified Builders Courier Hut

EXHIBITOR

GATE 2

DISABLED PARKING

SEE US AT SITE G93

35

10

SEE US AT SITES PB13,PC14

34

SEE US AT SITES F90, PB19, PB21, PC20, PC22 SEE US AT SITE PB14

www.fieldays.co.nz 33

32

SEE US AT SITE G73, G75

31

SEE US AT SITES PB23-27, PB29, PB31, PB33

30

SEE US AT SITE G77

This site map can also be viewed at ww

Dairy News may 29, 2012

SEE US AT THE GALLAGHER BLD

H

7

SEE US AT SITES A55,57,59,61

I

SEE US AT SITES M61, M63, B41

8

J

K

9

L

See the all NEW 700, 800 & 900 Ranges from

SEE US AT SITE C13

M

10

N SEE US AT SITE A51

Key Archways Missing Persons ANZ cash-out facility Rural Living Area

Covered Sites Premier Feature Fieldays HQ Exhibition Info Centres Tiered Seating Toilets Parents Room Food Sites Coffee Stand

WAIKATO RIVER

11

12 SEE US AT SITE D31

Rural Living outdoor area site numbers all begin with R followed by the number as indicated on the site map.

13 SEE US AT SITE C32

Services Building

FENCING AREA

14

First Aid

SEE US AT SITE C35

M Road

Bank

Parents Room

BOAT JETTY

Police

15

The Event Shop DEMONSTRATION AREA LAM

B BO

9

SEE US AT SITE M2

NIN

G

B Street

7 GATE 7

M Road

16

HELIPAD

PEDESTRIAN

10

SEE US AT SITE PC40

14

N Road

12

GALLAGHER BUILDING

VILLAGE GREEN

M Road

F43

THE N STATIO

97

107 106 105

101 100 99 98

Rimu Street

83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91

79 80 81 82

RIM U RIMU MAR MARQUEEE

104 103 102

23

SEE US AT SITE G12

4 96 95

PEDESTRIAN

GATE 4

18

94 93

92

83A

SEE US AT SITES E12,E14,E16,E18

113

115

117 116

E30

EE THTH LOEE LO DIS BLBELDEIS

111 112

114

18

F Street

19

FFCC1166

SEE US AT SITE E11

G Street

20

Lake

F Street

22

23

25

Fonterra Arch

24

60 61 62 63 64 65

77 78 75 76

22

4 122 123 12

20

F48

109 108

121 120 119 118

M15

72

19

Link Road

M13

73 74

21

28 27 26 25

LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE MARQUEE MARQUEE

17

20

Kauri Street

31 30 29

42 43 44 45 46

PLACEMAKERS KIWI’S BEST

Inno vatio n Lan e

M16

AG ART WEAR

34 33 32

48 49 50 51 52 53 59 58 57 56 55 54

N Road

Bank Road

TANK

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

10

71 70 69 68 67 66

E Street

E34 E32

9

0 11

FIELDAYS HQ

8

Kauri Street

Rimu Street

SERVICES BUILDING

M Road

STAGE

7

40 39 38 37 36 35 FC17

5

N18

EXHIBITION BUILDING

ANZ BUILDING

6

4

ANZ Arch

D Street

PUMP HOUSE

7

O Road

3

FIELDAYS INNOVATION CENTRE

Totara Road

13

1

C Street

2

Gallagher Arch

21

SEE US AT SITE F36

17

21 VINTAGE TRACTOR DISPLAY

Heritage Village

SEE US AT SITES F6, G5,G7

3

H Street LOADING DOCK

PEDESTRIAN

GATE 3

22 SEE US AT SITES F18, F20

23

strategic partners

28

27

Yardmaster Pumps SEE US AT SITE F16

F_P12_V5_NoR

29

Reid & Harrison (1980) Ltd

24 26

SEE US AT SITES PD17,PD19,PD21

25

SEE US AT SITES PB23-27, PB29, PB31, PB33

SEE US AT SITES F74, F76

SEE US AT SITES PD24, PD26

ww.dairynews.co.nz

SEE US AT SITE PE36

SEE US AT SITES F30, G29

Dairy News May 29, 2012

40 // nz national fieldays Mystery Creek, Hamilton, 13-16 June 2012

Fieldays chief on ‘big learning curve’ SUDESH KISSUN

TWO WEEKS out from his first National Fieldays as chief executive, Jon Calder is a confident man.

Exhibitor sites have been sold out since January. Online ticket sales are progressing well. An impressive list of events and competitions – some now underway – is locked in.

However, Calder is not prepared to bet on the weather. “But people have always flocked to the Fieldays even though it has rained,” he adds quickly.

Calder, on the job four months, describes the time as “a big learning curve”.

“I’ve been a fresh pair of eyes, asking a lot of

questions and challenging some of the things we’ve been doing,’ he told Dairy News.

Sponsored by ANZ and the University of Waikato, the National Fieldays will run at the Mystery Creek Events Centre from June 13-16. This year’s theme is ‘The Changing Face of Farming’. About 900 exhibitors will this year be on the 1400 sites on offer at Mystery Creek. Organisers are targeting 120,000 visitors during the four days.

Calder is confident Fieldays’ visitors will find plenty to see and enjoy next month. “We’re making sure there is something for everyone.”

A highlight of the Fieldays is its innovation centre. While no bigger

than previously, it will boast a new design layout.

Event manager Vanessa Richmond says the innovation centre has as “interesting entrant list”.

The event will also feature long-standing competitions – tractor pulling, fencing, excavation and forestry skills.

One event growing in popularity is the Ag Art Wear wearable arts competition in which designers make creative and unique garments from rural products.

Richmond says the event has grown over the years and this year a night show has been organised in Hamilton to show off the entries.

While the Fieldays are yet to kick off, one competition sponsored by the

National Fieldays Society is drawing to a close. The No.8 Wire National Art Award began 12 months ago, challenging artists to create 3-D artwork mostly using 8-gauge wire as the sculpting medium. Richmond, who has seen some of the entries, says the competition has again produced incredible, complex and unique designs.

Entries will be displayed at the Fieldays. The competition is organised by Waikato Museum and ArtsPost Galleries.

National Fieldays also promotes community involvement. This year, small rural towns around Hamilton are again taking part in the Big Little Town competition.

Each year, Fieldays invites local retailers to

Jon Calder is looking forward to his first Fieldays as chief executive.

participate in a retail arts competition, dressing their store windows to reflect the event.

Richmond says working with local visitor information centres and business associations, it challenges retailers to design and create an interesting and unique window display to

• • • •

Powerful cleaning action Adjustable spray pattern Non-slip rubber grip Impact resistant head

(Just 55.46L/min at 300kpa) Use with min. 3hp pump. 5hp for best performance

Leading Innovation and Value in Dairy

www.dairybestpractice.co.nz

showcase their stock, their staff creativity and their Big Little Town spirit.

This year there is also something for householders to look forward to. The Letterbox Challenge is an opportunity to design and build an unusual and unique letterbox that reflects “our families, our

heritage and our connection to our country”.

The competition is open to residents of Cambridge, Hamilton, Huntly, Matamata, Morrinsville, Ngaruawahia, Otorohanga, Pirongia, Putaruru, Raglan, Taumarunui, Te Aroha, Te Awamutu, Tirau, Tokoroa and Waitomo.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz national fieldays // 41

Diet feeder, muck spreader on display ABBEY DIET feeders on Farmgard’s site will include

a new 22m3 ‘flagship’ vertical-mixing model, with a selfsteering tandem axle, from the Irish manufacturer.

And it will show Abbey’s AP 900 Multi spreader for solid effluent, muck with straw, etc.

Also on site will be Abbey slurry tankers, Berti mulchers and mowers, Celli power harrows, rotary hoes and spikes rotors, Overum ploughs, Farmgard grader blades, RZ Discs and more.

The Abbey 22m3 feeder has a 20mm base plate, Hardox steel tub and 15mm auger flighting, making it a “serious mixer,” Farmgard says.

Power consumption is said to be low, and the mix consistent (96%), because of the mixer’s gradual auger flighting and precision-rolled tub.

Its mixing auger chops and mixes and the machine will handle all animal feed ingredients. Roots can be chopped and mixed with other ingredients in one operation and incorporated with big-bale hay, straw and silage.

Stock weighing, reading in one package STOCK WEIGHING and recording – along with NAIT compliance – are dealt with in a ‘one solution’ package new at Fieldays from Tru-Test Group.

The EziWeigh7 weigh scale and XRS EID stick reader achieve two objectives, the company says.

First, they help farmers correlate the weight of young stock to their life-time performance.

Second, they simplify and raise livestock management effectiveness “in an environment where recording for performance and compliance is becoming the norm”.

Sales and marketing manager Verne Atmore says farmers are no longer asking, “Should I or shouldn’t I be making management decisions using this sort of technology?”.

Instead they’re asking “Which sort of system will best meet my decision-making needs?”

Says Atmore, “There’s increasing evidence that monitoring growth rates in young stock to target weights improves the chances of heifers getting in calf and optimising milk production in later life.”

And there are some well-publicised practical requirements as a result of NAIT. “For example dairy farmers selling bull calves to calf rearers or moving heifers off-farm for grazing will need to meet NAIT requirements for farm-to-farm movements from July 1. This system will remove headaches and make this whole process a lot simpler.”

Tru-Test says its approach to the design of this gear resembles that of mobile phone manufacturers – “a goal to achieve the intuitiveness, ergonomics, reliability and battery life people expect from a modern mobile phone.”

In the EziWeigh7 Tru-Test offers three new features: ■■ Bluetooth wireless interface for the XRS EID stick reader.

■■ More storage capacity: 100 sessions, 15,000 records.

■■ Calculation and display of daily weight gain since an animal’s previous weighing.

The system is said to be the world’s fastest, most accurate, live animal weighing, even with the liveliest animals.

The weight display is the largest available, and visible in bright daylight. LED backlighting gives visibility in failing light or dark sheds.

Tel. 0800 2MEASURE

The AP 900 Multi spreader has even flow of material without clogging. It suits spreading broiler manure, mushroom compost, farmyard manure and semi-solids.

Design and operating features include: reversible gearbox, rugged construction, overshot discharge rotor and access hatch/stone trap Tel. 09 275 5555

New Abbey diet feeder.

Electronic Tag Reader Sale Comply with NAIT the easy way.

1035.00

$

2199.00

$

SAVE $109.00

SAVE $503.00

HAND HELD TAG READER HR1

PANEL TAG READER R Series Controller with 600mm Panel

2255.00

$

HAND HELD TAG READER HR3

PANEL TAG READER R Series Controller with 1300mm Panel

2605.00

$

SAVE $160.00

PANEL TAG READER BR Series Controller with 600mm Panel

4255.00

$

SAVE $420.00

SAVE $270.00

PANEL TAG READER BR Controller with 1300mm Panel

4605.00

$

SAVE $530.00

www.gallagher.co Available from your local Gallagher stockist. Offer on for a limited time only, while stocks last. All prices include GST. Savings based on Gallagher RRP’s.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

42 // nz national fieldays

Growing ryegrass knowledge AgResearch scientist Dr Jim Crush checks out grass being grown for his Fieldays display.

AGRESEARCH’S ROLE in the changes

taking place in farming is the theme for the SOE’s site at National Fieldays.

Its scientists continuing work with ryegrass will feature prominently.

“Continuing to improve our understanding of ryegrass and other forages is critical to AgResearch’s role of enhancing the value, productivity and profitability of New Zealand’s pastoral sector,” says research director Warren McNabb.

Another key display will be the story of the ‘hidden half’. Science team leader germoplasm Dr Jim Crush says the history of forage plant breeding has been based on

above ground research.

Roots deliver nutrients to the plants and AgResearch

scientists are interested in improving nutrient efficiency. “By doing so, less

nitrogen and phosphorus is lost to waterways and that helps protect water

quality. Deeper rooted plants have better access to subsoil moisture and better drought tolerance.

“The take home message is that roots are vitally important, but often not considered.

If we are to develop totally sustainable pasture systems we need an improved root function.

“AgResearch is screening plant germplasm for traits that contribute to improved root function and starting to move into development of new ryegrass breeding lines that express these traits. Some of this underpinning research will develop new plant germplasm so that our pastures can become more productive, profit-

able and sustainable.”

Also featuring on the stand is Farmax computer software used by sheep-and-beef and dairy industries. AgResearch scientists originally developed the technology and the organisation retains a share in the business.

Farmers visiting the

AgResearch stand will be able to get a supply vs demand graph for grass growth over the year on their farm, and model the change in responses with a change of inputs (eg increasing/lowering stocking rate/supplements/fertiliser). www.agresearch.co.nz

‘Big brother’ spreader’s first outing METALFORM IS about to impress again, with the

new large Tow and Fert prototype having its first outing at National Fieldays.

Metalform says it has for several years worked hard to unveil the ‘big brother’ of the Tow and Fert Multi 800. Now with ‘breakthrough’ technology this unit will cover up to 40ha/load. It will cater for larger farms and contractors needing to cover greater areas without refilling. The Tow and Fert’s multiple-role ability means the operator can save money in fertiliser product, application costs, timely application of animal health trace elements, application of herbicides (thistle, dock spray etc) while simultaneously applying lime, urea etc.

The concept of liquid fertiliser and liquid suspended fine particle fertiliser in folia applications is gaining awareness and popularity, the company says.

The Tow and Fert Multi 800 machine has success stories from 100 % of its customers so far. “The next generation of fertiliser mixing and application is going to be even more impressive again.”

See us at Site F9 National Fieldays

Tel. 0508 747 040 www.towandfarm.com

REDUCE EFFLUENT BY 50% Cover your feed pad or standoff with a roof designed

by HerdHomes® and experience the following:    

Reduction in effluent volume of greater than 50% due to exclusion of rain and wash down water Simple system with no moving parts or machinery to break down Drier, lighter, warmer environment than a solid roof promoting better animal health Less risk of N leaching with effluent

Talk with us at Mystery Creek—site PD 35 in the pavilion M + 64 21 706 848 P + 64 7 857 0528 www.herdhomes.co.nz

NZ Patent Numbers: 521150, 544190, 550635, 545042.

Further patents pending. International Patent Numbers: 2003267874, 03748807.9. Further patents pending

More brisk Mystery Creek mornings, more conversations through frosted breath, more capacity for yield, more innovations, more networking, more ‘wouldn’t miss it for the world’.

If you want a more agri-minded bank, come to the bank that is a Strategic Partner of Fieldays®.

Talk to us today or visit us at Mystery Creek 13 June – 16 June.

anz.co.nz ANZ National Bank Limited

ANZ0191DN

Dairy News May 29, 2012

44 // nz national fieldays

Meet the best bull in the world THE BEST bull in the

world will be on display at National Fieldays, says LIC. Although not ‘in the flesh’, Howies Checkpoint will be a key feature of the site. Marketing manager Blair Hoad says the site naturally fits the overall theme of Fieldays – ‘The changing face of farming’.

“LIC is dedicated to moving with the times and leading the way through the changing face of farming with innovative solutions for our farmers that

make their job easier and make their operation more productive, profitable and sustainable.

“With members and customers throughout New Zealand, LIC’s products and services help them to extract the full potential from their animals and land, and the National Fieldays is a great opportunity for us to pull them all together and put them on display.

“We’re encouraging all our members and customers to come see us

Improved Hot Post helps control stock IMPROVEMENTS TO the Strainrite (Robertson Engi-

Howies Checkpoint

and learn about how LIC can help them to farm smarter and easier.”

Hoad says staff who live and breathe the products every day are looking forward to meeting with farmers, providing live demonstrations and talking about the product they live and breathe every day.

LIC directors, customer relationship managers (CRMS) and Shareholder Council members are also attending.

Also on show on the LIC site: ■■ New tools in MINDA including land and feed, milk and young stock weights.

■■ New reproductive

■■

■■

■■

■■

solutions.

New NAIT functionality in Minda.

New Protrack drafter system with remote draft scheduling.

FarmWise consultancy.

GeneMark DNA parentage and BVD testing.

www.lic.co.nz

neering) Hot Post give even better control of livestock, says general manager Brian Collins.

“We’re continuously looking for opportunities to improve products and processes.” And requests from the field needed to be incorporated into the Hot Post design.

Hence the new (2012) model.

Collins says feedback from farmers indicates stock get used to standard pigtail posts not causing any discomfort when touched. Some cattle have learnt to push standard pigtails over to get to fresh grazing.

And cattle are known to have knocked the standards over while choosing dry patches to lie down on alongside break-fence lines, apparently touching conventional pigtail standards with no ill effects. Then they get up, knock down the standard pigtail posts and, presto – easy access to fresh pasture.

Not any more, says Strainrite.

The Hot Post shaft (galvanised spring steel) becomes electrified when installed with electric fence tape or polywire. The shaft is insulated from the ground by the insulated foot component.

The new version’s features include better injection moulding, a foot that makes easier work of placing the post in hard ground, and a wedge shape to stop it from working its way out of the soil in windy conditions.

Users will notice “far superior” insulation performance on the new Hot Post, Collins says, ideal for the high energy outputs of larger energisers.

www.strainrite.co.nz

Strainrite says feedback from farmers has helped in design of the fencepost.

WORLD WIDE SIRES NEW ZEALAND,

invite you to visit us at Mystery Creek Fieldays - Site PC11 - Main Pavilion.

Visit our team of friendly faces and take the opportunity to chat with our staff about the strong sire line-up we have to offer you this season.

Have a look at our new website for up to date information on the bulls we are marketing plus several more that are not listed in our current catalogue.

There will be a hot cup of coffee waiting for you.

Fill in the entry form on site to enter our draw for $250 of free product.

WORLD WIDE SIRES – New Zealand | www.wwsiresnz.co.nz | Email wwsiresnz@clear.net.nz | Free Phone 0800 60 70 70

MIT2497

If you’re quick, you can catch the best Triton we’ve ever built - the Limited Edition Triton Charger X 4WD. For a closer look at the features and exceptional enhancements inside and out, or to book a test drive, visit www.mmnz.co.nz. To see it in the flesh, come and see us at Fieldays or contact your Mitsubishi Dealer now on 0800 54 53 52. *Offer available at participating Mitsubishi Motors dealers until 31 July 2012 or while stocks last. Colour choice and availability is limited. Offer not available to Major Fleet, Lease, Rental or Government purchasers. Advertised price applies to manual model, is GST exclusive and excludes On Road Costs consisting of up to $950 which covers WOF, Registration, 1,000kms Road User Charges where applicable and a full tank of fuel. Auto option available, talk to your Mitsubishi Motors dealer for details.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

46 // nz national fieldays

Gentler handling lifts milk production A CORKILL Dairy Sys-

tems lobe pump installed early February already has a Norsewood, Hawke’s Bay, dairy farm noting a 6% increase in milk solids, says the supplier’s New Zealand sales manager, Vern Coxhead.

The farmer, Hamish Galloway, says the principle of a lobe milk pump “makes a lot of sense in that it pushes the milk around but does not force it; it handles the milk gently.” He reckons the increase will return the farm $110,000 annually, soon paying for the pump and installation.

“It is a no-brainer, getting a return like that for the investment.”

Hamish and his Irish wife Michelle, with his parents, are part of Galloway Enterprises which

owns a 380ha (eff) farm with a winter milk contract. Rainfall is 1400mm and the area is prone to summer dries. “We catch a lot of rain before the Takapau Plains.”

The milking platform is 250ha with the balance used for support, growing 40ha of maize, harvesting 500 large round hay bales and running young stock.

They milk 680 cows in spring and 220 for the winter contract. The dairy shed is a 50-bail rotary believed one of the first built in the district in 1991. It has automatic cup removers.

Adjacent to the shed is a feeding platform that can hold 900 head. There they feed the maize silage, 40t of corn starch, 200t of sweet malt and other ‘waste’ products including

‘Ernie’ in action.

Hamish Galloway

barley malt, broll and confectionary rejects.

“The family dog helps himself to any confectionary that drops on the ground.”

The farm has adopted the Outgrow biological programme for three years, a substantial benefit, Galloway says. Their soils retain a lot of phosphate and have been difficult to farm.

Part of the programme is introducing diverse species into their pastures,

including chicory, plantain, lucerne and red and white clovers. They run for most of the season a 30-40 day round on the high producing grasses. The farm averages 300,000kgMS equating to 470kgMS/cow.

The farm is centrally raced with the furthest paddock a 3km walk Somatic cell count formerly averaged 220,000 but is now down to 150,000.

Tel; Corkill 06 761 7531 National Fieldays G119

Milk Bar delivery MILK BAR has been hard at work designing a new concept in milk delivery for calf rearers.

The Milk Bar milk cart 125L – Ernie as it’s affectionately called – is an insulated milk cart ensuring milk is delivered at the right temperature to calves no matter the outside temperature.

The milk cart fits through a standard doorway for access to all calf sheds.

Safety is notable: an automatic brake applies as soon as the handle is released.

With a convenient sight glass and large diameter steel rimmed wheels the milk cart is easy to use and clean.

Mixing milk is a key function: the mixing speed does not damage or sep-

arate the fat particles in the milk, as can the use of a centrifugal water pump to mix or pump milk. If fat particles are damaged this may reduce the energy available to calves.

The cart has a power whisk that runs off a low-speed drill which quickly mixes a full load of milk powder with an action thorough but gentle.

A 12V diaphram pump is also available for pumping the milk into feeders instead of filling buckets from the base tap of the cart.

The Milk Bar milk cart is now selling in Northern Hemisphere markets. It will be on display at National Fieldays.

Tel. 0800 104 119.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz national fieldays // 47

Orange spotlight on NAIT, fences GALLAGHER PLANS

to offer help to farmers needing to comply with the NAIT regulations kicking in on July 1, says key account manager Mathew Macfie.

Farmers have the new regime much in mind, he says, and they will see a wide range of EID and weigh scale products that meet NAIT standards.

Practical information sessions and training on the site will help ensure customers walk away confident in their use of the Gallagher weighing technology and EID. Says Macfie, “To ensure farmers are comfortable using the new technology we’re offering interactive displays to demonstrate how the technology works.

[We’re aiming for] customer compliance and to ensure they’re competent and confident with the technology.”

Gallagher i Series electric fence system.

Gallagher will launch new NAIT-compliant software for tag reading equipment, to simplify, as much as possible, the collection and reporting of EID data.

“Users will find this software user-friendly.”

New on site, as a preview, will be an electronic tag reading product Macfie says will “take portable tag reading to a whole new level”. Due for release later this year.

He says the Fieldays

theme ‘Changing Face of Farming’ is a good fit because “technology is already changing how farmers do things on the farm by making it easier to collect information invaluable for farm management decisions”.

Gear on display will include two new power fence products – the i Series fence energiser systems and multi-strand electric tape gate. Avail-

able in three models (M1200i, M1800i and M2800i), the i Series energisers ensure fences are constantly monitored for best performance.

Macfie says in a worldfirst, the i Series technology enables farmers to monitor up to six separate ‘zones’ of their fencing

system.

Each model comes with an energiser controller that enables the user to monitor the condition of the fence and performance of the energiser.

This controller can be used to turn the energiser on or off, set alarm thresholds and make adjustments to the target output voltage.

The ability to locate the controller away from the energiser is a major bonus, and the energisers come with a range of features that “have to be seen to be believed,” Macfie says.

Optional features include a module enabling fence performance to be monitored and controlled from anywhere with cell-

phone coverage. If a serious problem with a fence is detected, this notifies the farmer immediately via a text message to his mobile phone.

The Gallagher multistrand electric tape gate is an all-in-one permanent electrified tape gate practical for gateways of any width.

Easy to use and quick to assemble, it comes with mounting hardware and 12.5mm tape.

Two variations: 2-strand, 8m for cattle; and 4-strand, 6m for sheep. Both gates come with extra clips allowing the gates to hold 40mm tape.

Tape length can be adjusted to fit the gateway. www.gallagher.co.nz

Multi-strand electric tape gate.

Site F16 s y a ld ie F t a s u See

t See us a k Cree Mystery e DVD. fre for your f knife o Free ho and sharpen ls. a great de

Do you know how to treat this cow?

Join us at Mystery Creek to find out how Come and visit us at Mystery Creek Fieldays, Hamilton 13-16 June 2012, SITE G90.

Grab yourself a FREE Hoofcare DVD and learn the proper way to treat lame cows.

While you are at it, bring along your hoof knives for a free sharpen. We have new products we are launching as well – with sizzling hot intro deals.

We look forward to seeing you there!

www.yardmaster-pumps.com

SEE YOU AT MYSTERY CREEK SITE G90 Qualified hoof trimmer Fred Hoekstra

“I look forward to personally meeting you at our live demonstration”

HOOF TRIMMING SERVICES, EQUIPMENT & TRAINING

0800 833 463 www.veehof.co.nz

“High quality product, great customer support...” - J Keay - Bulls Effluent_Pump_Ad_August_(RN)_p.indd 1

26/08/11 11:22 AM

Dairy News May 29, 2012

48 // nz national fieldays

Air-seeding drill takes wings SPREADING ITS wings 12 months ago, Duncan Ag, Timaru, at National Fieldays launched its Duncan Enviro DD30 air-seeding drill aimed at markets in New Zealand, Australia,

Duncan Enviro DD30 drill

Save Power and Lower SCC Count!

South Africa, UK, Japan and USA. Says business development manager Jeremy Scott, “It’s been so successful, and internationally we believe the Duncan

My Se ste e u Si ry s a te C t G1 ree 19 k

“Maree and I would like to let you know how pleased we are with our Varivac. Not only does it save power, but as you promised it dramatically reduced our SCC. Prior to installing the Varivac we were grading at every pickup for SCC (the kind of stress parents of young children can do without in spring). I have enclosed a copy of our Fonterra SCC graph clearly showing the day the Varivac was fitted. We now average 130,000 SCC and life is good.

We would not hesitate to recommend Varivac to anyone else in our situation.

The farm had serious Somatic Cell Count figures and mastitis problems. We installed a Varivac vacuum control system and the problems are now gone.

Quite simply it works.

brand has set the bar at a whole new level of mechanical reliability... with its one-pass operation and economical advances in our seeding drills.”

The Enviro DD is a 23-run unit that sows out to 2.87m Features include 550L boxes with wide-opening lids, proven drive system (Duncan Mk4 Renovator) and the disc springmount assembly proven in the maker’s Trash Boss range, says product development manager Richard Jamieson.

It has a leading scalloped disc followed by a plain disc which opens the seeding slot.

Says Jamieson, “The disc assembly bearings and disc angle come from the Duncan Enviro 3000e.

Disc spacing is 125mm – the popular spacing used on the Duncan 24 and 28 run Mk4 Renovators and Duncan Enviro 3000e drills.”

A press wheel for soil and seed compaction is an

option and the transport wheels control sowing depth. The discs fore and aft of the transport wheels provide the contouring.

The company trialled the unit in Australia and foresaw New Zealand application. “It’s a drill that takes farmers into the disc arena in a cost effective way.”

South Australia farmer Jared Boshier is quoted as saying his DD30 – the first landed in Australia – “takes the sowing task to a new level of satisfaction”.

He says another attribute of the DD30 is easy calibrating and and spot-on performance.

Duncan Ag general manager Craig McIsaac says the company needed a disc drill for tough conditions where stones or excessive trash would be a problem.

“We have our tripledisc drills but we needed a disc drill with a simpler mechanism and lower cost. That’s how the DD30 came about.” www.duncanag.co.nz

Steven Robb, Dairy Farmer, Morrinsville, NZ

Best wishes and thanks again”

Hamish & Maree Tong 06 272 6349

We have had many years of high SSC. In fact, since putting in a new milking plant 10 years ago and no one being able to fix the problem and having culled heavily because of this we didn’t know where to turn next.

We saw the article on Varivac and decided to give it a go. Well, we are delighted with the results. Proof is in the graph taken off Fence-post.

Our SSC compared with the company average. Coupled with the added power savings we couldn’t be more pleased. Thanks Varivac

(Last pick-up dried off.)

Varivac installed here!

Gil and Jill Hall, Dannevirke, Hawkes Bay, NZ

USE OUR FINANCE OPTION FOR A CASH FLOW POSITIVE RESULT!

THE BIGGEST advantage of the Lely Splendino

‘Specialists in Dairy Automation Solutions’ For FREE advice and no-obligation quote,

Mower soaks little power

www.corkillsystems.co.nz

Phone Vern on 0274 460 165 or 0800 10 7006 or email: info@corkillsystems.co.nz

550P trailed mowers is their lower power demand.

“With bigger mounted mowers, a lot of the power is used just to carry the mowers let alone operate them,” says North Island area manager Andrew Saes.

Many contractors and farmers have lower-powered tractors for operating rakes and tedders, and those tractors suit the Lely mowers. The maker suggests a minimum of 90hp depending on contours.

Working width is 5.5m, leaving a swathe 4.9m wide. The mower can work left or right of the tractor. A choice of four height adjustments gets the ideal mowing height.

Tel. 021 392 472 www.lely.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz national fieldays // 49 SIP Silvercut mower.

Take a ‘sip’ and start mowing LITTLE-KNOWN SIP mowers and rakes

a couple of years ago grabbed the attention of Webbline sales manager Glen Malcolm during his visit to Agritechnica, Germany.

So impressed was he, that the company got distributor rights here and has gained confidence in the product ever since.

Hay and silage bar mowers are among the highest-maintenance machines on any farm, Malcolm insists.

“I don’t think many farmers or contractors would dispute that. We hear the horror stories of collisions with foreign objects during mowing or topping, and the everpresent issue of wrapping live fence strand and old balage wrap around the mowing module, damaging the bearings.

‘Mowers get a tough life, resulting in high maintenance bills and ongoing repairs.”

Webbline says it saw in SIP “high quality and robust design, and heard positive feedback from dealers in Europe.”

SIP for years made components for other companies, then saw opportunity to produce their own finished product, with some of the heaviest running gear available.

All SIP mowers have double-raced bearings and extra protection systems on their cutter bars, with heavier and harder grade steel than many other mowers available, Malcolm says.

Webbline’s Fieldays site will show the gear, including a cutaway of a mower bar. “We will have a cross section of most models available, including our triple mower combination.”

Tel. 0800 932 254 www.webbline.co.nz

Time for hoof check END OF season is a good time for hoof trimming maintenance. Hoof trimming does not stop laminitis but it does help to minimise the effects of laminitis, says Veehof.

Trimming the cows at this time of the year means they will have well-shaped feet by the time they calf, and so suffer less from calving-induced laminitis.

Remember that if the weight is distributed evenly over the claw then it is less likely for the outer claw to pack up due to the combination of overload and being sick.

It is a bit like having a trailer with two old tyres. When you load such a trailer, but put the entire load on one side of the trailer, then the tyre on the loaded side is much more likely

to burst than the tyre on the other side. If you spread the load evenly over both tyres then you are less likely to end up with a flat tyre. It may still happen but it is less likely.

In the same way, if you spread the weight of the cow over the two claws, rather than letting the outer claw do most of the work, you are less likely to end up with a lame cow. The reason the outer claw usually does most of the work is because it tends to grow bigger than the inner claw.

This is why cows usually go lame on the outer claw.

If you trim the outer claw back to the same height as the inner claw then you are spreading the weight evenly over

It takes a skilled hoof trimmer to get the balance right.

the two claws. It sounds like a simple and easy process, but it actually takes a skilled hoof trimmer to get the balance right.

Successful hoof trimming requires professional training and correct equipment.

Veehof uses a specif-

ically designed WOPA crush that protects the animal and the person doing the trimming, appropriate knives, the best claw and bonding products, and protective safety gear.

Tel. 0800 833 463 www.veehof.co.nz

MEGAFLOW TROUGH VALVE CONVERSION PACK Features

Our reputation is spreading

TRAVELLING IRRIGATORS

• No fancy packaging • Discounted prices • Free shipping • Bulk packed

- 3 models to suit your farm - Low application

at See us 6 Site F3 20mm, 25mm, and 32mm inlet sizes

Greenback Spider

Spider Deluxe

Enquire at your local Farm Supply Store

Available in packs of 50 or 25 CO

N

D

IT

IO

N

S

A

P

P LY

Visit Jobe Valves at the Fieldays: Site PC14

NEW Dealers Nationwide

Jobe Valves Ltd. PO Box 17, Matamata Spider DJ (Deluxe Junior)

www.williamsirrigation.co.nz | 0800 4 EFFLUENT

P: 07 880 9090 F: 0800 456 237 E: info@jobe.co.nz

www.jobevalves.com

Dairy News May 29, 2012

50 // nz national fieldays CRV Ambreed’s Insight-Web forwards information directly to NAIT.

An insight into NAIT CRV AMBREED’S new web-based herd recording program Insight-Web is notable for its ability to forward relevant information directly to NAIT, says the company, an accredited NAIT information provider.

This means farmers using Insight-Web can meet their NAIT obli-

gations without double entering data.

The company says it offers a convenient ‘portal’ for farmers’ entry to the NAIT scheme on July 1.

The process it offers: ■■ Register for a NAIT number through www. nait.co.nz or phone 0800 624 843. Alternatively visit CRV

■■

■■

■■

Ambreed or NAIT at National Fieldays for help to register.

Select CRV Ambreed as NAIT information provider.

Ensure all animals are listed in CRV InsightWeb, Insight-Paper or MISTRO Farm 5.

EID tag animals moving off-farm and assign the EID numbers to records.

Record all movements with CRV Ambreed within 48hours of the movement occurring.

Says the company, “With [at least] 30% of CRV herd recording clients choosing to use CRV Insight-Web it is clear [the program is easy to use] to keep on top of NAIT obligations,” says product manager Angela Ryan.

■■

www.crv4all.co.nz

visit us @ at National Fieldays®

site C32

www.towandfarm.com

fine particle and liquid suspended

Tow and Fert

slurry mixer and applicator

- Mix and apply animal health products - Mix and apply fine particle fertiliser - Mix and apply dissolved fertiliser - Mix and apply soil conditioners - Up to 20 metre swath - Fully remote control spray and boom operation - On-board weigh scales for accurate filling/operation No deposit, lease-to-own, up to 60 months terms*

Have Flexibility

The Tow and Fert offers flexibility in your busy schedule to apply products you know and want, in a timely and effective manner. Don’t wait until you have 60 hectares to spray and call in an aerial sprayer - the Tow and Fert allows you to mix and apply any product at any time.

Be In Control

Like being in control? If you like the concept behind slurry, dissolved or bio fertilisers but want to know how many kg/ha of nutrient you are getting on your pastures and want to guarantee timely applications then call to organise a no-obligation demonstration of the Tow and Fert, then you can make your own mind up!

Save Money

The Tow and Fert’s multi role ability means you will be saving money in fertiliser, application costs, timely application of animal health trace elements, application of herbicides (thistle, dock spray etc) while simultaneously applying lime, urea etc.

Visit us at the National Fieldays® to see the prototype of the NEW Tow and Fert 4000!

Proudly manufactured by: Metalform (Dannevirke) Ltd, Easton Street, Dannevirke 4930, New Zealand Ph: 06 374 7043 | Fax: 06 374 9316 | Email: info@towandfarm.com | Web: www.towandfarm.com

What is the best way to feed calves?

WHEN IT comes to calf feeding equipment, open trough and ‘closed’ manifold systems both have their plusses, says Stallion Plastics, Palmerston North. The company makes both types.

General manager Grant Allen says though it comes down to preference, he believes manifold feeders are superior.

“The real benefit of the manifold feeder is there’s no chance of the milk being contaminated. The teats don’t get clogged and calves receive better quality milk, more efficiently. Overseas it’s the standard system.”

Allen says Stallion has addressed farmers’ biggest gripe with enclosed feeding systems – that they’re hard to clean.

“Our MG range of manifold feeders features an easy ‘click-and-clean’ system that quickly and effectively washes out the tank and manifolds.”

The feeders are self-levelling so the milk doesn’t pool at one end on uneven ground. They also have a calibrated floating level indicator to show milk volume. Available in two sizes, 500L and 800L tanks, the Stallion range includes 26 to 80 teat options and a choice of single or dual axle.

For those still wedded to open trough feeding, Allen says Stallion’s range is focused on ease of use. “Our feeders have large troughs easily filled with the two filling taps.”

These models also come in two sizes: 500L and 800L – and single or dual axle options.

Stallion Plastic products are rotationally moulded from high-density polyethylene – durable, tough and rigid, and with high chemical and water resistance, and maximum UV radiation protection. “The polyethylene is also 100 percent recyclable” says Allen. www.stallion.co.nz

Dairy News may 29, 2012

nz national fieldays // 51

Fieldays feedback brings new feed pad kit FEEDOUT GEAR specialist Robertson Manufacturing has developed a new feed pad kit for its Comby range of machines.

The company says feedback at last year’s National Fieldays was “taken back to the round table”.

“And we have come up with this new option available on new machines or it can be fitted to any Comby range machine post 2001.”

This option replaces the tray below the elevator and eliminates the possibility of any spillage on feed pads by extending the elevator in underneath the cross floor.

The company also announces a new Mega Comby in its range.

Designed as “the best of the best”, it has “massive 20m3 plus capacity and is capable of the biggest jobs.”

“It comes with the feed pad kit and tilting elevator as standard and it is load cell-ready, so if you don’t choose the option of load cells now, you can fit them later with ease.

“The new Mega – in common with all our Comby range – is a versatile multi feeder capable of feeding round and square bales (straw or silage), pit silage and maize. It also has optional grain feeder and causmag spreader.

The range of machines is said to feed almost anything and is the “perfect multi-feeder with a size and options to suit any farmer’s needs.” www.robfarm.co.nz

New feed pad kit for Comby machines.

Twin-rotor rake meets demands of big farm POTTINGER EXTRA

heavy-duty twin-rotor swather rake meet the demands of high hectares and challenging conditions so often experienced in New Zealand, distributor Origin Agroup says.

With the new TOP 852 and 972 C s-line, Pottinger has developed a double windrower with central swath placement that offers the contractor 7.75-8.55m working width on the 852 model and 9.09.8m working width on the 972 model.

“Both models feature plenty of space for the swath. They have a rotor lifting system with the axle inside the arc of the rotor (steered axle), providing a real ‘jet effect’ for a ground clearance of about 600mm.

“This means about 30% higher clearance than any other equipment currently available on the market,” says Origin.

The rotors are lifted upwards at an angle to the rear to guarantee sufficient swath clearance at the headland. This enables harvesting machinery in the next pass to achieve higher performance because the swaths are intact and can be picked up more efficiently.

Best forage quality is achieved via perfect ground hugging provided by a PTO shaft with a pivot angle of +/- 5 degrees and the maker’s proven Pottinger Multitast ground hugging front wheel.

Pottinger twin-rotor swather.

Despite the rotor diameter of 3.70m (with 13 tine arms) the transport height is below 4m, with-

out having to remove the tine arms.

The control system is said to offer plenty of

comfort: hydraulic rake height adjustment - individually or together - as well as an option for elec-

tro-hydraulic individual rotor lifting for working with just one rotor. www.originagroup.co.nz

PORTABLE TEAT SPRAYER ≈ Pre-Calving Spraying ≈

 Soft, supple, resilient teats in early  Accurate application of solution in

lactations

bad cow flow situations

 Precision & full coverage of unwell high risk cows teats  Can be

moved between shed & paddock

SQUARE DEAL. Turn your mountain of bales into square meals now. Square us up for it later.

Use your smart phone to scan the QR code or type squaredeal.co.nz into your browser to reveal our balefeeder square deals.

CALL THE TEAT SPRAYING EXPERTS NOW ASK ABOUT OUR PRODUCT RANGE

www.squaredeal.co.nz

Visit us at Fieldays - Mystery Creek Pavilion PD39 & PD41

NORTHERN 07 847 6923 CENTRAL 06 873 9154 SOUTHERN 03 434 0412

100% Satisfaction Money Back Guarantee* - 18 Month Warranty on WETiT made components

www.hustlerequipment.co.nz BAND11259-2

info@wetit.co.nz Dairy News 269

0800 4 WETiT (0800 4 93848)

*LESS UNRECOVERABLE COSTS

This system will provide better results than any other equipment on the market - We Guarantee it

www.wetit.co.nz

Dairy News May 29, 2012

52 // nz national fieldays

Special edition Triton THERE’S NO mystery about what will be the best value ute at the Mystery Creek National Agricultural Fieldays, says Mitsubishi.

They predict the latest special-edition sport-specification Triton ChargerX will be the value-formoney star .

The new double cab ChargerX is based on the popular GLX 4WD. However, Mitsubishi says it’s equipped to look and drive like a top-range GLS, yet priced at only $35,990 plus GST and on road costs for the manual transmission version.

Mitsubishi claims this is the best price seen in New Zealand for a sport specification ute equipped with electronic stability and traction control and a full set of airbags.

The one-tonne-payload ChargerX produces 407 Nm of torque from its 2.5L

Built to take on tough tasks MF 5450

MASSEY FERGUSON has added

Triton Charger X

turbo diesel. It has front, side and curtain airbags, ABS with electronic brake force distribution, and tows a 3.0 tonne braked trailer.

Its sport spec sets it apart. Chrome, silver and leather accents abound, there’s carpeting throughout, protected with ChargerX logo mats, bucket-type front seats,

sport side steps and alloys.

The four-speaker Bluetooth-integrated sound system has MP3 and USB inputs.

“While some businesses are riding high, many are not, and buyers are rightly demanding value when they need to [buy] a work vehicle”, says Mitsubishi’s head of sales and marketing strat-

egy Daniel Cook. “We’re excited that in ChargerX we can help customers get a sharp-looking, high-spec, high-performance vehicle into their business fleet – or their home garage – despite tightly-squeezed budgets”.

See the ChargerX, manual and auto, in Mitsubishi dealer showrooms from late May.

WE’RE TAKING A STAND

FOR ‘GOOD SORTS’

IN RURAL SCHOOLS

four entirely new 82-107hp models to its popular MF 5400 Series, reports Agco Australia.

“These tough, versatile workhorses are designed and built to handle the most challenging tasks,” the company says.

In particular, the new models suit drystock and dairying in the Nelson region, and commercial growers.

Design and operating features are “truly innovative”, providing the power, performance and economy operators in this sector require. They are not simply updates to existing models, stresses Shane Snijders, general marketing manager.

“These new MF 5400 tractors reinforce Massey Ferguson’s position in our most popular sector…. [They have] superb power-to-weight ratios, excellent visibility and novel features that make them ideal for loader work.

“We have [utilised] successful features – such as the Dyna-4 transmission – and re-engineered them to suit

precisely the specific customer requirements for this size and type of tractor.

This [ensures] manoeuvrability, stability, visibility and access linked to lively, agile performance in a yard, or on road or field.”

Features include: ■■ Latest Perkins 4.4L, 4-cylinder, 1104D-44T mechanical injection engine with high visibility bonnet and “no compromise cooling”.

■■ New transaxle specifically developed for these tractors, featuring optimised and flexible Dyna-4 transmission perfected for sub-110hp tractors.

■■ Unique front axle support housing.

■■ Optional 1.8t integrated front linkage system.

■■ New rear axle, designed for these tractors.

■■ Rear linkage optimised for tractor size with electronic linkage control.

■■ High performance front axle.

■■ Electro-hydraulic PTO speed selection with 540/540E/1000 speeds. www.agco.com.au

BUCKTONS Proven SLURRY SPREADERS The BEST in the BUSINESS Check out Delivery Times

HELP YOUR SCHOOL TO WIN

$3,000 ENTER AT www.stafi x.com

Know someone who works at your local rural school who is a ‘good sort’ and goes the extra mile? Tell us about these special people and win $3,000 for your local school.

We’ll select the five most deserving ‘good sorts’ and their school will win $3,000 to put towards an exciting project. Entries close 16 June 2012. Winners will be announced on Jamie McKay’s Farming Show on Radio Sport from 18 to 22 June.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Our reputation is built on quality of construction and componentry Low power requirements Unique one position control of filling pump site levels and shut off Fill from front or rear Automatic shut off of pressure/vacuum safety valves Visible sight glasses See us at 11 metre suction hose Internal baffles Mystery Corrosion protection paint on inside Creek Inspection/cleaning manhole Site C35 Hydraulically operated opening valve

Dealers throughout New Zealand

AVAILABLE FROM

For full terms and conditions visit www.stafi x.com

For more information Phone 07 533 1259 or 07 533 1417 Fax 07 533 1560 RD9 Te Puke or see your dealer

BE002

Dairy News may 29, 2012

management // 53

Technology makes the difference Otaki dairy farmer Tim Wilson is using simple technology to help produce more milk on his existing platform. Dairy News reporter Peter Burke went to see what he is doing to raise profitability.

TIM WILSON is the third-generation of his family, farming land on the seaward side of SH1 just south of Otaki, not far from the Otaki River.

This interesting farm has three different soil types: peat, sand and Hautere river soils, the latter stony country. The milking platform is 140ha; another 85ha grows maize, hay and baleage.

Wilson, his wife Cynthia and his parents own 115ha and lease the rest; some is Maori land and some is leased from a commercial grower. They run 300 cows and carry 75 replacement heifers. Cynthia looks after the calves.

Until now they have

milked through the winter but from next season they will do only seasonal milking.

Wilson wants to increase milk production and says in the last year they have done well.

Production is heading for 126,000kgMS this season, well up on last year’s 112,000kgMS. One way he’s doing this is by measuring his pasture and managing his feed better.

“The pasture meter has certainly helped. I know exactly what the growth rates are and it’s not easy because we have sandhills as well as 100ha of peat.

The pasture meter has enabled me to improve the quality of the pasture.”

Wilson has also invested in Protrack automatic drafting developed

by LIC, running it with LIC’s animal management software “It’s got a touch screen in the milking pit which is hooked up to the desktop PC in the office, and the desktop controls all the drafting.

“The beauty is anyone can draft a cow out. If a cow is lame I just plug it in and it’s drafted out. This system also communicates with LIC Minda software that receives and records all data and events about each animal – calving, health, vaccination, postcalving issues, mating, heats, etc. This enables me to keep good data on every

cow in the herd and provides top notch records.”

Wilson believes these systems will help improve conception rates for his cows via the concepts of DairyNZ’s InCalf scheme; the cows were recently body-condition scored using the DairyNZ Body Condition Score assessment; it all contributes to planning for next spring’s seasonal mating.

And it allows him to draft remotely – no going to the shed to do this task.

Wilson is now looking at new technology LIC is developing (Ezi Heat) that will use cameras to determine whether cows are on heat – a ‘bolt-on’ to Protrack. The cameras photograph a heat detector on the cows’ tails, comparing these with an image of a clean detector.

Any difference between the two results in the cow being drafted. While the technology hasn’t been

released, the trials indicate high accuracy and Wilson is interested in buying it. Protrack helps minimise the need for Wilson’s father to help.

Wilson is also doing practical work on-farm.

With much of the land in peat, he has been busy enlarging culverts for better winter drainage; floods occur most years.

But while the peat may present some problems in winter, it does ensure good grass growth during some dry summer months. He uses a helicopter to spread fertiliser, mainly to reduce damage to pastures, especially peat. It also gives

Tim Wilson is turning to technology to lift milk production.

good even coverage on the sand hills.

Wilson takes part in DairyNZ discussion groups and is full of praise for the local DairyNZ consultant, Abby Hull, who ensures all members participate. “She’s like a schoolteacher, making sure we all take part in the conversations.”

Wilson is doing an AgITO diploma in agribusiness management to build his knowledge of farming. He’s finished the national certificate of financial analysis and business planning, is now doing resource management, and is looking at

employment law.

Like his father Peter, Wilson is an Otaki boy who attended the popular rural Te Horo Primary School and Otaki College.

Tim and Cynthia’s boys John and Peter attend Te Horo school. Wilson, as well as making a reasonable living and providing daily challenges, likes the idea of having his boys around him at work. They play around the shed and frequently help out.

“During the school holidays they wanted to earn some money so they got up early in the morning and sprayed the cows’ teats,” he says.

Proven Designs, Proven Profits

Waikato Dairy Builders are specialists in the design and construction of herringbone dairy sheds.

A Waikato Dairy Builders shed is designed to maximise milking efficiency and provide better profitability.

• We have built hundreds of high producing sheds • Completed to your requirements and budget • Innovation, workmanship and experience LIC Minda software helps keep good data on stock.

Ph Jim 07-850 5971 Mob. 0274 936 693 Ph Chris 07-849 3630 Mob. 0274 936 692 P.O. Box 10 188, Te Rapa, Hamilton

www.dairybuilders.co.nz

WAIKATO DAIRY BUILDERS 0800 226974 2 C OW S H E D

Dairy News May 29, 2012

54 // management

Watch water quality over winter WINTER IS the most vulnerable time for the health of farm soils and stock, and the impact of farming on water quality. For example, there’s a greater risk of pastures becoming pugged from grazing and animal condition can drop due to the effects of wind, cold and wet conditions.

These sorts of problems can obviously hurt pasture growth and productivity. Also, any grazing practices which lead to higher livestock densities during winter can cause a localised accumulation of livestock waste more easily transported to surface water. Such run-off containing bacteria, nutrients and sediment is exacerbated by compaction of wet soils by cattle.

So now’s a good time to reflect on how good stock wintering practices can

help prevent problems or at least minimise them.

As a general rule, avoid feeding out supplementary feeds in areas where effluent run-off may reach any water body.

Feed pads and standoff pads are options for protecting soil physical structure and animal condition over winter periods.

A feed pad is a dedicated concrete platform where supplementary feeds are brought to the stock. It usually has water troughs and must include effluent collection.

In this wintering option, higher feed efficiency is achieved as the wastage is reduced to about 5% compared to about 20% or more when silage is fed in paddocks.

A stand-off pad is a dedicated, sealed loafing area for stock. These pads are constructed using a

“It is generally a good management practice under wet pasture conditions to keep cows on green feed for four-six hours and stand them off for up to 18-20 hours to avoid accumulation of effluent on wet soils.”

Bala Tikkisetty

softer, free-draining surface and utilise materials like wood chips over a sealed base. As stock can be withheld from pasture for longer periods of time, the area required per cow has to be bigger – say about 8m2.

Capture of effluent is an important aspect of stand-off pads. They should incorporate a properly sealed base area where effluent can be collected

for later use as free fertiliser. Pads should always be sited away from waterways.

Also, when looking to build feed and stand-off pads, get good information about the characteristics of the farm’s soils, as this helps identify the specific risks associated with them (and whether a pad is in fact necessary).

Another system gaining popularity is the herd home: a combination of a feeding platform, a standoff facility and an animal shelter. Sheltered feeding takes place over slatted concrete floors. As the cows stand on the reinforced slatted floors, their

effluent drops through the slats and into a concrete lined bunker below.

Some farmers use sacrifice paddocks, when the options listed above aren’t available.

These are paddocks on which production is sacrificed to protect other areas of the farm from stock damage when it is wet.

Lost production on sacrifice paddocks can be expected for several years, depending on how intensively they have been used and how much damage is caused to the soil.

Waikato Regional Council recommends against the use of sacrifice

paddocks because of the heightened risks involved, such as any discharge of effluent or sediment from them into waterways. While sacrifice paddocks themselves aren’t illegal, any unauthorised discharge from them to water is.

The other disadvantages of sacrifice paddocks also include the risk of soil structure damage and possible animal health problems such as lameness and mastitis.

If soil potassium levels become too great (potassium is excreted in urine) it can predispose the calving cow to metabolic problems.

The specifics of sacrifice paddocks aside, it is generally a good management practice under wet pasture conditions to keep cows on green feed for four-six hours and stand them off for up to 18-20 hours to avoid accumulation of effluent on wet soils.

Shelter is helpful in stand-off areas for reducing animal maintenance requirements, saving feed and reducing soil or paddock damage by cutting grazing time.

When it comes to stock health, having shelter in stand-off areas helps protect animals and reduces their maintenance requirements.

• Bala Tikkisetty is a sustainable agriculture coordinator at Waikato Regional Council. Contact him on 0800 800 401 or email bala.tikkisetty@ waikatoregion.govt.nz

T A E R G

experimentations A daring new approach to help save the takahe

Ways to suBsCriBe

Freephone: 0800 782 436 Online: www.nzgeographic.co.nz

ou t now may-june is s u e

Dairy News may 29, 2012

management // 55

Making money in the new season loose silage from the face daily. If you are buying in concentrates (e.g. grain or PKE) keep them dry to avoid the cost and risk associated with mould growth. Ensure feed-out

FONTERRA’S RECENT announcement

of a forecast payout range for 2012-13 of $5.95 - $6.05/ kgMS came as no surprise.

Global dairy prices have eased as supply outstrips demand. The high New Zealand dollar has further eroded returns to farmers.

As in every season, the key to 2012-13 profitability will be keeping production up, and costs down. Some key recommendations are: Utilise all your pasture first The primary focus of a pasture-based dairy farm must always be to maximise pasture harvested.

You have already paid to grow the grass – don’t waste it. Develop a pasture budget and update it regularly. Avoid pasture pugging which can result in substantial long-term pasture drymatter yield losses. Control pasture surpluses to ensure you maintain pasture quality.

Select supplementary feeds carefully The amount of energy in a supplement will determine the amount of milksolids the cow can produce from it. While it is important to buy supplements with a low cost per unit of energy (c/kgME) nutritional composition is also important. When cows are fed a starch or sugar-based supplement, more of the

milksolids they produce is protein and lactose. When cows are fed a fibre-based supplement, more of the additional milksolids is fat. Because milk protein is generally worth two to three times more than milk fat, supplement type has implications for the amount of revenue generated.

The table on this page estimates the expected change in milk price for the extra milksolids produced for a range of supplements, due to the changes in the proportion of milk fat and milk protein.

High quality grains such as maize contain high levels of starch and energy.

They will deliver more milksolids per kilogram of drymatter fed, and the milk will be worth more because it has a higher protein content. Watch for storage and feed-out losses.

Feed wasted is profit lost. If you are feeding silage, keep the face tight and ensure you remove

Expected change in % soluble sugar milk price for the extra and starch in milksolids produced2 feed Maize grain

management practices minimise wastage.

Table 1: Expected change in milk price for a range of supplements1.

68-72%

130%

Wheat grain

65-70%

125%

Barley grain

55-60%

120%

High quality maize silage

35%

110%

Average quality maize silage

30%

105%

Cereal silage

20%

100%

Grass silage

5%

95%

-

90%

PKE

Hedley, P. 2011. Making the most of supplements. Inside Dairy, September 2011 2 Rounded to the nearest 5% 1

to page 56

!

W O N N O E L A S s @ site G12 l a i c e ply :: p s s y a :: conditions ap ls a e d field lk u b :: giveaways

:: freight free ::

free

Agrissentials’ fertilisers can be applied at anytime.

Since these best on earth fertilisers are BioGro certified organic, non toxic, do not leach & they hold their ground now you don’t need to wait for the ideal weather.

Agrissentials whatever the weather

Select supplement feeds carefully next season.

There’s never been a better time to talk to us about our best on earth fertilisers for a better deal & better farming.

Visit site G12 @ National Fieldays or call 0800 THE KEY today

Dairy News May 29, 2012

56 // management

‘Don’t risk herd health’ GARETH GILLAT

DAIRY FARMERS

who milk longer to take advantage of the payout jeopardise the long-term reproductive performance of their herd despite a good-to-average season,

says DairyNZ senior scientist Dr Chris Burke.

He says six-week in-calf rates are on a par with last year at 64-65% (conditions are harder in Wairarapa and better in Taranaki and Northland).

But he warns farmers’ good work and the good

conditions throughout the season can be undone by failing to dry off early enough.

BayVet veterinarian Max Newport says though he doesn’t have the exact figures at hand he predicts empty rates to be 2-3% below last year.

Northland Veterinary Group vet Angus Campbell says empty rates are about 2% better than last year and he expects the average to be 12.8% this year.

But he has seen many farmers milk much longer than normal and thinks

some first-time Northland farmers might get a rude shock in winter.

“First-time farmers in Northland can be caught short by the cold, wet winters here. And we haven’t had a really bad winter for a while.”

Burke says most New

Zealand farmers have found it difficult to put condition on cows during winter, regardless of their location.

“Your reproductive performance drives the long-term profitability of your farm. Don’t jeopardise it chasing payout.”

Farmers are being urged to dry off early.

Making money in the new season from page 55

Don’t forget other costs When the payout softens, farmers tend to evaluate their supplementary feed budget. Some other major farm working expenses should also be scrutinised.

Table 2: Average cash farm working expenses ($/kgMS) for owner operators. (DairyNZ Economic Survey 2010-11)

Farm Working Expense

$/kgMS

Wages

0.60

Animal health and breeding

0.37

Supplementary feed

0.86

Grazing and run-off lease

0.43

Fertiliser, irrigation, regrassing, W&P

0.74

Maintenance and running

0.76

Overheads

0.30

Total

4.06

Be intentional about what you do, don’t just let it happen The DairyNZ Economic Farm survey data shows Systems 1, 4 and 5 generate a higher return on assets. This came as a surprise, but in a discussion with a colleague it dawned on us most farmers in systems 1, 4 and 5 are there because they choose to run this system. They didn’t just let it happen.

Setting budgets and monitoring farm financial and physical performance parameters throughout the season will help you to maximise returns. While the cows are dry take some time to plan.

• Ian Williams is a Pioneer forage specialist. Contact him at iwilliams@genetic.co.nz.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

management // 57

Bio-dairying visionaries put squeeze on squash GARETH GILLAT

ONE NORTHLAND

couple are banking on soil structures and sound strategies as the way to a financially and enviromentally successful medium-large scale dairy conversion.

Hal Harding and Penny Smart milk 800 cows biologically on 517ha (325ha milking platform) four minutes south of Dargaville.

Until 2008 the property was a kumara/squash and beef operation with up to 100ha in crops and 300 bulls. But, says Harding, they wanted to get into the dairy industry to use their land better.

“We saw it as an effective way of using the land we couldn’t crop and it appeared to be a stable industry,” says Harding.

They knew they wanted

to run the farm in an environmentally sustainable way and after talking to other biological dairy farmers decided to run their operation as a biological unit.

mented with a number of different types of fertiliser programmes before settling on regular applications of a mixture of liquid urea, molasses and trace elements and fertiliser to

“Getting good biological activity is the key to the farm’s success.”

“I know the vast majority of farmers are doing things for the health of their environment to some degree,” he says. “But as an island nation I can see an opportunity for New Zealand to offer high quality food at a premium to world markets through having integrity behind our clean green image, which biological farming would deliver.”

Deciding the system to use didn’t come easily though and they experi-

in brief Thomas to head AssureQuality ASUREQUALITY HAS appointed Michael Thomas chief executive officer, starting June 5.

He previously held general manager roles in PGG Wrightsons’ agri services, financial services and South American operations, responsible 1800 staff and $700 million annual revenue.

Before PGG Wrightson he spent 10 years in group general management positions in Australian agri services company Landmark, and parent company AWB (Australian Wheat Board).

He is said to have strong industry knowledge and involvement in the food and agricultural sectors in New Zealand and overseas.

get the soil nutrient balance right. This they mix on the farm at minimal cost and use the old cropping gear to apply it.

The calcium/magnesium ratio is vital to enhance the natural system, Smart says. “The liquid form of nitrogen is better utilised and less harmful to the soil life, which is the engine room of the farm.

“Getting good biological activity is the key to the farm’s success,” says Smart, “and we are excited by the results so far, and the future prospects.”

Repairing the soil structure has been the

couple’s first priority; the flats especially need work after growing kumara and squash for so many years.

To get a complete picture they tested the fertility and trace mineral content in 24 sites because the property is a combination of three different farms and multiple soil types.

Six more sites will be tested.

Pugging can be a problem, especially in winter, and the couple has two Herd Homes set up so they can get stock off the pastures in the winter and spring when the conditions can be wet.

“We are particularly careful about getting dry cows off the pasture as they tend to be in a smaller location behind a hot wire” says Harding. “They they spend the night in the Herd Homes with a feed, where it is warmer and drier.”

They use pasture diversity to help the soil structure and nutrients brought up from the subsoil are utilised by plants and ani-

mals. They undersow Italian rye grass and plantain on the hills and after maize cropping sow red clover, plantain and chickory on the flats. “We call it fruit salad because the cows milk on it so well,” Smart says.

An in-line dispenser at the shed ensures stock get all the minerals and elements they need. Smart says this plus the use of homeopathic medicines instead of antibiotics has helped keep animal health costs low.“The bank manager was surprised at how low the animal health costs were.”

Farm working expenses add up to about $3/kgMS, a figure they are happy with.

Estimated production this year is 340,000kgMS or 425kgMS/cow.

Smarts admit there is much room for improvement: they want to spend the next two-three years focusing on soil structure on the flats to improve profitability without the need for so many inputs.

They expect to increase

Pumps, Stirrers & Hydrants 0800 686 334 www.numedic.co.nz MANUFACTURE AND DESIGN

AGENTS NATIONWIDE, EXPORTING WORLDWIDE

Fieldays Site D31

Hal Harding and Penny Smart

useable feed grown on the farm by 2tDM/ha which will allow them to reduce supplement use.

Smart’s farm is one of six in the Intergrated Kaipara Habour Management Group, committed to restoring the Kaipara Harbour. One inititives is to plant two million trees along the harbour’s water-

ways within two years.

Tree planting has long been on their agenda for the property, showing aesthetic and performance benefits. “Trees provide shade and bring up nutrients from the subsoil,” says Harding. “It’s great to see the bird life – an indicator of enviroment health – improving,” he says.

Farm facts ■■ ■■ ■■

■■

Size: 517 ha (375ha effective).

Herd: 800 Jersey Friesian cross.

Calving: split calving 350 autumn, 450 spring. aville.

Location: 2.5km southwest of Darg

New Zealand Manufacturers & suppliers of: • Strongest, most durable pumps available • Efficient & robust pond stirrers • Pontoons & Hydrants • Evenspread low application travelling irrigators • Stationary irrigators

Dairy News May 29, 2012

58 // management

Robotic rotary redefines PAM TIPA

IF ROBOTIC rotary

milking is the future of large-herd Australasian pasture-based dairy farms, Nick Dornauf must surely be the future face of dairy farming.

University educated and technology savvy, the young farmer is relishing his part in “redefining the role of the dairy farmer”.

He manages, with partner Rebekah Tyler, the greenfield farm Gala near Deloraine in north-west Tasmania which has been

the pilot for DeLaval’s first commercial AMR (automatic milk rotary).

“Being involved with something cutting edge…

I go to bed at night and my mind races,” Dornauf told Dairy News. “I jump up out of bed in the morning inspired, as the

ground we are heading over hasn’t been trodden before, which makes it something special.”

Perhaps Dornauf inherited his entrepreneurial genes from his grandparents Ian and Jenny Dornauf who came dairy farming in the area in 1964

without previous experience.

Three generations of Dornaufs, including his parents Chris (who acts as an advisor at Gala) and Lyn, now own four other dairy farms locally.

The first cows were milked on Gala, the Dor-

naufs’ 220ha former drystock block, in August last year on the one-sided 15-unit herringbone, while

on the way, the last two being voluntary traffic and refining that system.”

AMR means Dornauf

Nick Dornauf

AVAILABLE FROM YOUR VET

the rotary was being built.

Dornauf was “delighted” when the 24-unit herringbone rotary first came into action in October , halving the milking time, even without robots at that stage.

Automation started on February 20 with the system using five robots – two for udder preparation, two for cup attachment and one for teat disinfection after milking. They now milk 250 New Zealand Friesians, 90% heifers and 10% mature cows, at Gala and aim to reach 550600 cows by 2015.

After three months, the Dornaufs already have all the cows settled into the voluntary milking routine with all attachments done by robots. They are about to start voluntary traffic to the rotary – currently the cows are bought up in batches.

“Already it is redefining my role,” says Dornauf. “I am not physically milking cows at 4am – I am doing other jobs…. still getting up early. It is a five-step process to voluntary and we are about three steps

can be more hands on with his herd. “You can go out and walk with the cows in the paddock. It’s a misconception you put a robot in, the job’s done and you walk away. It’s redefining your role as a dairy farmer.”

Interpreting the new levels of data available from automation will be a key to future success of the dairy farmer, he says.

“This dairy pulls out huge amounts of data every second. Our challenge as a farmer is to analyse and sort the data and make accurate decisions.

Information like that is allowing us to be more proactive rather than reactive farmers.”

With data on animal performance, milk yield, feed consumption and udder health, the biggest bonus with all AMS systems is getting these at per quarter level. Conventional rotaries with high levels of automation provide that data but only as a composite sample.

“We pick up on outliers outside our normal data range a lot quicker than Cows make their way back to paddock at Gala after coming through a smart gate system.

Bayer New Zealand Limited, 3 Argus Place, Hillcrest, Auckland 0627

Dairy News may 29, 2012

management // 59

Oz farmer’s role you would with composite samples. You pick up that one quarter is heightened straight away.”

Gala uses DelPro which is DeLaval’s herd management system. “Its role is to collect all that data we get bombarded with every day and put it into a form is easy to analyse and make decisions upon.

“I come to the dairy in

the morning and can read a main report that can tell me how things have gone on a previous milking. It really is an age of managing your dairy farm on what quality reports you can derive.”

Dornauf says using any AMS forces you to become a better pasture farmer.

Gala operates a threeway grazing principle.

For encouraging voluntary milking “the stimulus is the food running out in the paddock but also the grain we are offering at the dairy”.

Most other pasturebased automatic milking systems do not have more than 300 cows, but as Gala wants to expand to 600 cows, the walking distances increase.

Attracting young farmers AUTOMATIC MILKING and other technological advances need to be adopted to keep young people in farming in Australasia.

“We didn’t have the choices the young ones have now in a career path,” Australian dairy farmer and chair of FutureDairy chairwoman Shirley Harlock says.

“If we are going to feed the world from this part of the world we are going to need clever, educated farmers who will take this technology forward.”

FutureDairy is an Australian research programme which worked in collaboration with DeLaval to develop the Automatic Milking Rotary (AMR) demonstrated this month at an open day at the Gala farm in northern Tasmania.

“Farmers decades ago must have had

some sort of commitment to the future… if you go back to herringbone technology, rotary dairy technology,” Harlock said at the open day.

“As farmers we have an obligation to ensure we have a technology that will be ready for the uptake for the next generation of farmers. If we don’t excite them to come home, if we don’t excite them to take the advances that are there, we are going to lose them to other industries and sadly probably to agriculture.

“If we are going to entice the next generation home they will need to become managers in technology rather than face the drudgery it is now and the difficulty we as owners and managers have in attracting good labour into our industry. “

Harlock says there is high awareness of robots, but the farming systems at Gala were unique. More research is needed on marrying automated milking with the pasture-based systems of Australia (and New Zealand).

She described AMR as a quantum leap in agriculture – comparable to the development of artificial breeding – with the ability to transform our farm systems and milk harvesting capabilities.

Harlock later told Dairy News a lot of rotaries and herringbones were coming to the end of their time, and farmers would look at automated systems as they replaced old dairies.

FutureDairy would support farmers through those decisions on what technology they required.

“The [automatic] dairy itself can milk cows,” says Dornauf. “The challenge is adapting that to a pasture based system whilst maintaining good pasture intake which is our key driver of profitability and making that work in a voluntary system. That is the bigger challenge of this project than the actual dairy itself.”

Automatic milking rotary at Gala.

amr system at gala ■■

■■

24-unit internal, herringbone rotary platform.

Five robots: two for udder preparation, two for cup attachment and one for teat disinfection after milking.

Robots use laser technology and a special camera to locate and attach the cups. rter ■■ Milk from each qua monitored. onic ID ■■ Cows wear electr

■■

Connect with the Next Generation.

Featuring Philmac’s unique Slide & Tighten® technology, 3G™ compression fittings make installation fast and easy as no pipe preparation is required and no force is needed to insert the pipe into the fitting.

See your local retail store

www.maclon.co.nz sales@maclon.co.nz

Distributed by:

Mineral Supplementatio n

Made Easy!

Convenient, waste free  access to essential minerals and vitamins Cattle Wintering Blocks  – for dry cows on winter crops and at grass Available in 50kg tubs  and 500kg blocks for large herds Made in New Zealand  for our conditions and requirements

For more information about quality calf feeds contact SealesWinslow on 0800

00 77 66

Dairy News may 29, 2012

management // 61

New venue, theme for SIDE andrew swallow

IN FOUR weeks [JUNE

25-27] the South Island Dairy Event, better known as SIDE, will be in full swing with a new venue and theme.

For the first time the event is being held in Dunedin, instead of Invercargill or Lincoln, with the theme ‘People, Perception, Pride’.

Organising committee chairman Brangka Munan says the three words kept cropping up in the committee’s discussions on key issues to cover.

“The industry can’t do without good people, and it owes itself to the people, pioneers, of the early days... We owe the people who have gone before, and the industry relies on good people to take it to the next era.”

‘Perception’ refers to addressing dairying’s image with an increasingly urban population ever more distant from the nation’s farming roots.

“There’s a generation of city people who have had little, if any, contact with rural folk and they rely on the media to understand what farmers are up to. If that’s all they see, there’s quite a bit of negative stuff.

“Big companies and individuals in the industry need to re-engage with urban New Zealanders because we’re actually much the same people...

Get the perception right, and it’s powerful. Get it

Dunedin a one-off?

OVERALL SIDE committee chairman David Holloway says though they have discussed making Dunedin a regular venue for SIDE on a three year rotation between Invercargill and Lincoln, for now this year’s event is “a one-off.”

“We’ll see how it goes this year at the new venue and it’s something we may consider in the future. Otago has a reasonable size dairy area now in the north and south so it may fit quite neatly.”

Snow damage to Stadium Southland a couple of months after the 2010 event there, and the replacement stadium still being in construction, prompted the break from SIDE’s usual turn-and-turn-about shuttle between Lincoln and Invercargill.

Last year’s event at Lincoln was a 630-strong sell-out.

wrong, and it’s hard to combat.”

The pride element ties in with perception: if all in the industry are proud, and justifiably so, of what they do, then it will help change the perception, says Munan.

“There was for a while a general feeling of being a little ashamed about environmental issues, but those, I believe, are largely behind us, except for the handful who will always struggle. There’s enough good stuff going on now for us to be proud of. We lead the world in pastoral dairy farming and we do so in an environmentally friendly way.”

The event’s format is unchanged, with workshops on practical issues dovetailed between keynote addresses by speakers such as trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill and Swazi clothing founder Davey Hughes.

Workshops cover the full spectrum of farm management issues, from grazing and calf rearing, to staffing, finances, career

progression and environmental aspects. Delegates get to chose two from five or six in each session, so there are hard choices.

Meanwhile, the conference within a conference, BusinessSIDE, returns, looking deeper into the

big picture issues such as the industry’s image, the global economy, marketing, and the ever thorny subject of succession and business structures.

Munan is “fairly confident” the diversity of the offering, and the new

The annual South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) is moving to Dunedin this year.

catchment area, will see registrations come close to the university venue capacity of 500.

“What we offer is a conference that caters for someone just starting out

in the industry, in their first pair of gumboots, through to someone who has multiple farms and other business interests.”

If anything, the recent downturn in commodity

prices provides even more reason to attend, he adds.

Early bird registration of $275 inc GST closes May 31. $300 thereafter.

BusinessSIDE is an extra $110. See www.side.org.nz

Firestone EPDM Geomembrane sustainable, future proof and environmentally friendly storage solutions.

• Widths available from 3m up to 15m, therefore fewer joins.

• Design assistance and volume calculations available.

• Material warranty from global company – Firestone Building Products.

• Nationwide Firestone trained installation contractors.

• Future proof – dependable performance, 50 year life expectancy even when exposed, 20 year Firestone material warranty.

• Over 120 million square metres installed worldwide.

• 30 years in the NZ lining business.

For your nearest installation contractor call

0800 109 093 or 021 280 7266 Email: vaughan@cosio.co.nz www.cosio.co.nz Authorised importer and distributor of Firestone Building Products

ELE-00329A-DN

Scours knocks the stuffing out of you, your calves and your income.

Dairy News may 29, 2012

animal health // 63

One shot per cow.

One less job.

One less worry.

Grant Clough

Booster gives quick revival from calving GRANT CLOUGH and partner

Tracey Jury always supplement their dairy cows with molasses but say that since adding Palamountains Revive supplement to the mix they have had a dramatic boost in cow health, condition and conception rates.

They farm at Te Kiri, 7km from Opunake, and are into their fifth year of farm ownership. They are “10 minutes from the sea and 10 minutes from the mountain,” on flat-to-rolling country with plenty of stones – some “rather large.”

The home farm is 130ha with an 83ha run-off 5km away. It runs the young calves from weaning and the whole herd when they are dry. They are walked back to the farm when they are close to calving.

“Our herd of 300 cows is a fruit salad: predominantly Jersey, with

some Ayrshires, Friesians, Milking Shorthorns and even 12 Friesian, Angus and Hereford cross-bred cows,” says Clough. They are milked through a 23-aside herringbone dairy shed.

The home farm is being re-fenced to give more even size to the paddocks. As part of the development they plant 4.6ha of turnips and last year as an experiment 6ha of an annual grass. They use fine particle application fertiliser, ground spread on the home property and aerially on the run-off.

They themselves harvest 500 round bales of hay and haylage. Ninety tonnes of PKE is fed in the spring in portable troughs and mineral based licks are also available. Minerals are also supplied through a dispenser during the spring.

“We have always supplied molasses to our milkers through an in-shed dispensing system where they get a

measured amount through 23 nozzles.”

At the start of this season they added Palamountains Revive to this dispensing system and immediately noticed an improvement with their stock. It contains omega 3, 5 and 6, multivitamins, electrolytes, biotins, antioxidant and is calcium and magnesium enriched. It can be fed through a dispenser or added in a liquid form to supplementary feeds such as hay and silage It was only fed to the calved cows from August until December.

“After adding it, the cow’s condition was improving within two weeks of calving and I had cows – even the younger ones – cycling after 3-4 weeks from calving and there was a lift in milk volumes.”

Clough says the droppings were a lot firmer instead of the usual looseness seen in the spring; to him that meant they were a lot healthier.

Vet school gets upgrade MASSEY UNIVERSITY will spend $75 million upgrading and expanding New Zealand’s only veterinary school, increasing its capacity to train vets by 180 students.

The investment will ensure Massey remains at the forefront of international veterinary scientific research and teaching and help meet the growing demand for veterinarians, university vice-chancellor Steve Maharey says.

“Veterinary, animal and biomedical sciences are central to what we do as a university and central to the sectors in which New Zealand is world leader,” Maharey says. “We want the quality of the facilities our students study in and our staff work in to match the quality of the qualifications we deliver.”

The project will be funded over nine years from the annual capital expenditure budget. It will be a big boost to the Manawatu campus – and to the local construction sector – on top of the $57 million project that started this year to relocate College of Education staff from the Hokowhitu site to Turitea and to restore and seismically strengthen heritage buildings.

Project leader and head of the Institute of Veterinary Animal and Biomedical Sciences Professor Frazer Allan says the project creates space for projected growth in numbers of postgraduate and undergraduate students. It includes expanding the vet tower to the north and extensive redevelopment of the veterinary hospital, pathology facilities and teaching and research spaces.

Talk to your vet about Rotavec Corona – the easy, one shot way to help your calves stand up to scours.

It will increase the capacity of the course from 100 students per year to 140. Providing the Government agrees to fund the additional domestic students, about 20 would be from New Zealand and 20 international.

“Our staff have been keen for this upgrade for some time and are excited about the opportunities it offers,” Allan says. “Each year we have a high standard of applications from many more people than we have space for.

We also expect there to be a growing shortage of vets in New Zealand over the next 20 years.”

The veterinary science programme is accredited with the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council.

ELE-00329B-DN

tony hopkinson

When scours hits, it can knock you flat. And it can strike anywhere. With Rotavec® Corona, one shot before calving helps protect your calves against rotavirus, coronavirus and E. coli.

One shot.

Healthy calves.

AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ACVM Registration No: A8132. ®Registered trademark.

Schering-Plough Animal Health Limited, 33 Whakatiki Street, Upper Hutt. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz Phone: 0800 800 543. ROT-161-2012

Dairy News May 29, 2012

64 // animal health Nigel and Paula Duncan.

Use palaMOUNTAINS Revive during transition to assist with your conception rate returns.

Focus on herd health, BCS lifts milk yield ATTENTION TO herd health and body

contains bio-available:

Omega 3, 6 & 9 Multivitamins Electrolytes Biotin Antioxidants Calcium & Magnesium Enriched

100%

36% increase

75% 50% 25%

se 13% increa n rate

in conceptio

n rate

34% increase

5% increase

in conceptio

in conception rate

in conception rate

70%

94%

2011

2012

Case Study 1 190 cows

69%

94%

2011

2012

Case Study 2 189 cows

78%

88%

2010

2011

Case Study 3 355 cows

Four field trials on 1054 cows using Revive showed between a 5-36% positive increase in herd results.

For more details call: 0800 848 276 or visit: www.palamountains.info

93.3%

98%

2010

2011

Case Study 4 320 cows

condition score has paid dividends for Winton sharemilkers Nigel and Paula Duncan, helping them build cow numbers rapidly and push their production boundaries within a low cost system.

In late 2011 they were half way through their third season on the Winton property that has seen some changes in management approach with ownership, and the couple milking 800 cows on 280ha (eff).

The 50:50 sharemilkers were originally running 3cows/ha with 730 cows. However the change in ownership, and addition of the neighbouring runoff to the milking platform is helping the farm achieve the goal of being more self sufficient for supplement and wintering purposes.

Previously wintering the herd had mixed results, and Duncan now appreciates being able to keep 600 cows on over winter, monitoring feed levels and optimising body condition score.

“It was often hard to get the wintered cows back with the condition on we wanted. You really only have 60 days to get any BCS on over winter; it is a short time and we want to make sure we can make the most of that window ourselves.”

Recent production figures suggest they have succeeded there. Improved BCS going into the 2011-12 season has Duncan expecting to achieve 470kgMS/cow this season.

The decision to winter more cows on also partly explains their decision to move to Rumensin Trough Treatment.

“We felt that anything that would help us utilise an extra 10% of feed, without having to grow it, is worth it, and very cost effective.”

The couple’s experience working for well regarded Taieri farmer Phillip Wilson – a long-time Rumensin user – meant they were aware of the benefits that could come from its use. Wilson distributes Rumensin in powdered form with supplement, and the combination of lime flour and Rumensin are key components to help his high producing herd maintain production without loss of energy or body condition.

“We were facing tight feed conditions going into spring a few years ago and opted to go for Rumensin from pre-mating

through to Christmas.” The double benefits were improved production over a difficult period, and bloat protection. The following winter they kept their skinny cows at home and gave them a Rumensin capsule.

The result was cows with BCS of 3.0 at drying off had lifted to a BCS of 5.5 and looked better than those that had been wintered off.

That season they decided to use Rumensin from calving through to Christmas, and production averaged 460kgMS/cow for the season. This was their first year on the property, with 300 heifers and 430 mixed age cows.

In the 2010 season, Duncan says their use of Rumensin again all season helped isolate them from the effect of a shocking spring period that hit all Southland hard.

They came through that with production of 462kgMS/cow, a 5% combined empty and death rate, and having used a relatively low 300kg/head of supplement.

The couple are now in their fifth season using Rumensin, having averaged 456kgMS/cow over the past four, and 1384kgMS/ha (eff).

Duncan believes the herd appears happier and more focussed on grass consumption. “Overall they appear to have a bigger rumen, and the desire to fill it, so it’s up to us to make sure the grass is there to meet that appetite. We pay 100% of the Rumensin cost, so it has to work, and we would not be using it if it didn’t.”

While the heifers are still wintered off, Duncan would not discount the possibility of using Rumensin pre-calving with them, to help them to a good start.

He emphasises their herd has been put together from a variety of mobs, and their impressive per head production is not attributable to years and years of pedigree breeding.

“We do take care with them, and have a pretty high vet bill but keeping our deaths and empties down has helped us build our cow numbers relatively quickly. The first year we only culled six cows.

“With production well up there our focus now is on our cost structure and keeping that under control.”

Dairy News may 29, 2012

feed/animal health // 65

Warning on local weed imports ANDREW SWALLOW

check WEED infestations on farms you are import-

ing stock or feed from or risk bringing potentially costly problems with them.

That’s the message from Agresearch scientist Graeme Bourdot following on-farm finds of giant buttercup in Golden Bay resistant to both herbicide groups registered for its control. The weed, already present in six of New Zealand’s 17 dairy regions, and climatically suited to grow nationwide, can cause substantial production losses.

Bourdot and colleagues calculate the impact on the 100ha Golden Bay farm’s bottom line to be $100,000.

“Losses are proportionate to the ground cover of the buttercup plus 25%. It’s more than just the area the buttercup occupies because the cows don’t graze up close to it because the smell of it repels them.”

Widespread resistance to phenoxy mode-of-action herbicides such as MCPA and MCPB was found in giant buttercup in the early 2000s, leaving ALS-inhibitor flumetsulem as the only herbicide option in such cases. Now, repeated use of that mode of action has seen the giant buttercup population on at least one farm develop resistance such that even a dose of five times the label rate only kills 90% of seedlings.

“We don’t know how widespread geographically the resistance to flumetsulam is, but where it’s been used repeatedly there could be resistance now. Once-per-season [use] is all that’s required [to select for resistance].”

The weed, in New Zealand for at least a century, is a big problem in Taranaki and Golden Bay, and is creeping down the South Island West Coast. It’s also present but less widespread in Waikato, Horowhenua and Wairarapa.

“One simple thing you can do is if you are buying stock, don’t buy them from a farm that’s infested. Or if you do have to buy in stock from an infested farm keep them on a run-off area for a couple of days so any seed has passed through their gut and you can monitor that area for buttercup.”

Hay is also a possible means of import. Well made silage should be safe, as the heat should destroy the weed’s seeds, but research is needed to be sure of this, he adds.

“The seed is not windblown so the only way it is going to be moved is by farmers and farm produce from infested regions.”

Industry-wide, Bourdot calculates the weed is already costing millions in lost revenue, and should it spread to all 17 dairying regions national dairy farm revenue loss caused could hit $328 million to $748 m per year.

Recent work by AgResearch technician Carolyn Lusk at Lincoln confirmed the flumetsulam resistance.

“The AgResearch work also gives a possible explanation for the persistence of the weed on dairy farms in Golden Bay and in other regions where farmers have relied on regular applications of this herbicide to control the buttercup,” says Boudot.

Buttercup resistant to herbicides have been found in New Zealand.

Call 0800 657 555 to find your local dealer or rural retailer.

Come see us at Fieldays. We’re in the main pavilion, site PB23.

in brief THE ANIMAL Health Board (AHB) and Greater Wellington Regional Council (GW) have joined forces to put nearly 30,000 hectares of the Rimutaka Range under possum control.

The pest control operation, now underway, will help primarily to protect cattle and deer herds from bovine tuberculosis (TB), and improve the health of native forest.

“In order to eradicate bovine TB from a possum population, numbers need to be kept extremely low – around one or two animals over 10 hectares,” says Southern North Island Programme Manager Alan Innes.

“Monitoring within the Rimutaka Range during 2011 has indicated that the possum numbers are up to five times the level required for effective TB control. It is vital to minimise the risk of TB-infected possums sustaining the disease in their own populations and passing it to farmed cattle and deer.”

DN98K0612

possum control

98% of Kiwi’s hate being woken up at 4.30am.

Not our guys.

Farming isn’t a 9 to 5 business.

That’s why our dealer network and service teams are available to you when needed. You can depend on us to care about your farm’s performance.

Your Farm, Your Life, Our World.

THE GEA FAMILY: WESTFALIASURGE / HOULE / FIL / NORBCO / ROYAL DEBOER

Dairy News May 29, 2012

66 // animal health

Take care transporting stock PREPARING STOCK

well for transport is a key skill for any farmer to master, whatever the reasons for their movement, says DairyNZ. Dried-off stock may be on the move to run-off

blocks or graziers, young stock could be returning to farms, or cull cows and surplus stock could be off to the saleyards or processors.

Regardless, three-four days before travel, ensure

stock are fit for transport.

Complete planning for the journey: for longhaul journeys the planning should start several weeks ahead of the journey and includes planning for drying cows off if lac-

tating. Also check with the transport company: confirm day and approximate time of collection, find out if they will be using multidecked trucks and if so, are there restrictions on the size of the animals, and do

they use trucks with effluent collection tanks?

If stock are classed as vulnerable there may be extra requirements, as detailed in the table below.

In the 12-24 hours before travel, allow stock

Lactating

In last 3 months of pregnancy

Likely to be travelling for more than 4 hours

Preparation: • Supplement with magnesium 3-4 days either side of transport • If using supplementary feed, introduce it gradually over several days prior to journey • Milk prior to being loaded • Apply sufficient disinfectant spray to fully cover all teats • If going to slaughter send to the closest processing facility

Preparation: • Supplement with magnesium 3-4 days either side of transport • Only transport cows that are not likely to give birth during the journey • If within 4 weeks of calving date, travel should be less than 2 hrs

Preparation: • Supplement with magnesium 3-4 days either side of transport • If using supplementary feed, introduce it gradually over several days prior to journey • Feed a moderately restricted diet for several days prior to journey

During journey: • If journey is longer than 12 hours water must be supplied • If journey is longer than 24 hours feed must be supplied • Milk at least once every 24 hours

During journey: • Maximum journey time of 8 hrs • Rest periods of 12 hours between every 8 hours of travel • Keep separate from other stock on truck • Transport on bottom deck, top deck only suitable if ramp slope is less than 20” (1:3)

During journey: • If journey is longer than 12 hours water must be supplied • If journey is longer than 24 hours feed must be supplied • Arrange feed etc to be at journey stages - cows must be conditioned to this feed prior to the journey

Cull cows

Unweaned calves

Preparation: • Organise for stock to be sent to closest processing facility • Cull cattle with BCS of less than 3 should be sent direct to processor (not to saleyards), they may be sent for remedial feeding

Preparation: • Bobby calves should be at least 4 days old • Feed at least half of the daily ration within 2 hours of transport • Fit to travel - strong enough to withstand travel, healthy and free of disease and disability, alert and moving freely, navel dry, able to bear weight evenly on all four limbs, hooves hard

During journey: • If journey is longer than 12 hours water must be supplied • If journey is longer than 24 hours feed must be supplied

During the journey: • Protect from adverse weather • Allow room for calves to lie down • Journey as short as possible

MEAL FEEDING SYSTEMS FEEDTECH ROLLER MILLS

Stock should be well prepared for transport.

access to water.

Decide when and where to stand stock off green feed; a grazed out paddock or stand-off pad are good options (concrete surfaces damage and bruise soles and may lead to lameness). Stand stock off green feed for at least four hours: length of time depends on class of livestock and duration of travel (see standing stock checklist).

Continue feeding silage, hay or straw during standing, especially prior to long-distance journeys.

It is important to continue magnesium supplementation for stock that need it (80-100g elemental magnesium/cow/day). Drench or feed as a slurry spread on hay or silage.

Confirm pick up times and staging arrangements with transport company, check condition of loading ramps and yards, and complete Animal Status Declarations and assemble any veterinary certificates required.

During loading and departure, double check if stock meet fit-for-transport requirements (check against guidelines ‘fit for transport’).

Ensure all stock have access to water prior to loading.

Help load stock to ensure they are loaded with minimum stress and maximum efficiency and inform graziers or new owners if supplementary feeds have been used.

in brief Calf feed bucks trend NEW ZEALAND dairy farmers are expected to be on average $42,000 worse-off this season with Fonterra’s news last week of a cut to its milk payout forecast because of softening global dairy prices.

But a New Zealand product succeeding in the US is bucking the overall downward trend, says its maker.

Queen of Calves, invented on a Manawatu family farm, has been

shown to raise milk production by 18%. Researchers have studied it at Auckland and Massey Universities.

Queen of Calves developer Stephen Bell-Booth says his family discovered the formula after feeding it to calves on their own farm.

It costs about $60/calf more than a traditional calf diet but farmers using it get on average at least $350 extra revenue per calf.

• Hecton offer a range of roller mills to suit all feeding systems.

• Fully automatic and manually operated roller mills are available in four sizes.

SEE US AT MYSTERY CREEK SITE L28•30•32

QUALITY THAT’S PROVEN

from 30 years of reliable service 3,000 farmers cannot be wrong CONVERSION KIT AVAILABLE

WE SUPPLY & INSTALL, SERVICE & MAINTAIN NEW & EXISTING MEAL & MOLASSES FEED SYSTEMS

MODEL 10 & 15 EFFLUENT MACHINES

GRAIN SILOS AND PENCIL AUGERS

HERRINGBONE MEAL & MOLASSES FEED SYSTEMS

ROTARY MEAL & MOLASSES FEED SYSTEMS

73 Preston Street, Invercargill Ph: 03 215 8558 | Email: hecton@xtra.co.nz

• Low pressure self travellers • Designed to apply effluent at rates down to 6.5mm • Fully hot dipped galvanised • Flexible travel speeds • Low running costs

Model 10 revamped to apply light application with larger tooth drum

Manufactured in NZ by...

10 ROBINSON ST, ASHBURTON Ph 03 307 9049 • Fax: 03 307 9047 email: rainer@ashburton.co.nz website: www.rainer.co.nz

Now NZ distributors for Trailco – full range of gun and hard hose irrigators

Dairy News may 29, 2012

breeding / animal health // 67

Sires make debut CRV AMBREED’S

inaugural 2012 HolsteinFriesian and Jersey InSire line-up of genomically selected young sires is launching next month.

The sires will be available to farmers for the first time on an individual bull basis.

Genomic selection, practised for some years, is a major development in artificial breeding, allowing sire analysts to look

vidually, complete with genomic BVs and indexes, in its 2012 sire catalogue.

Marketing manager Peter Berney says farmers must remember genomics does not make a bull better or worse. It simply reveals more about him.

“This added information means better estimates can be made of what a young sire will pass on to his daughters than from parent average alone. It

the young bull is better, worse or similar to these already known bulls. This reference population or ‘genomic base’ is made up of thousands of proven sires – the larger the reference population the greater the reliability in the comparisons.

This new genomic

information is then added to the parent average of the young bull to give an aggregate of the two – the Genomic Breeding Values (or gBVs). The addition of the genomic data increases the reliability of the BVs, from about 35% for parent average only, to 50-60%.

CRV Ambreed is launching a line-up of selected young sires.

“Genomics does not make a bull better or worse.” beyond ancestral information when selecting and marketing a bull.

CRV Ambreed says it chose to take a rigorous and conservative approach to using genomic technology when it first emerged.

The science needed time to develop, be tested, and proved reliable.

In 2008 the company’s first young sires were marketed using genomic information as a selection tool.

However CRV Ambreed chose not to publish individual genomic data on each bull, instead continuing to provide ancestral information only. These genomically selected bulls were also only available for purchase in ‘teams’ of young sires, where the ‘team’ aggregate genomic data was presented.

Four years later the company is presenting its InSire young sires indi-

can never be fully assured of what will happen until the bull is 99% proven – with actual daughters milking.”

Berney adds that, while the addition of genomic data raises a young sire’s reliability, it is still low in comparison to proven bulls, meaning the chance of some significant variations between genomic indexes and expressed figures can exist. So the company remains an advocate for the InSire ‘team’ approach or mixing with proven sires, though the full range of 2012 InSire bulls are available to be bought individually by farmers.

Berney says genomic selection allows analysts to look at sites on the DNA of a young bull and compare them against that of a reference population of proven bulls to see if

When you’re serious about We’re at National Fieldays. See us at site J47.

SHELTER

New Products!

✓ Clear air movement ✓ Even temperatures – no extremes ✓ Post, concrete block, or container mounted ✓ Robust construction ✓ Engineered design

Certified Design, Relocatable, Healthy Environment, NZ Made & Supported, Fully Installed or Kitset. ✓ 100% clear span ✓ Wide range of spans & lengths ✓ Fast install time ✓ Customisation available ✓ Excellent natural light conditions ✓ High wind & snow ratings

Contact us NOW for your free information pack: E: info@simpleshelter.co.nz Free: 0508 SHELTER (743 583) Web: www.simpleshelter.co.nz

A POWERFUL WEAPON IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CALF SCOURS ScourGuard 4(K) is New Zealand’s fi rst and only vaccine to aid in the prevention of calf scours caused by Rotavirus G6 and G10, E.coli and coronavirus. New Zealand research shows that G6 and G10 strains of Rotavirus are common and important causes of calf scours, and ScourGuard 4(K) offers truly broad-spectrum Rotavirus coverage against both strains. ScourGuard 4(K) works hard and fast, providing greatly enhanced colostrum antibodies for your valuable replacement calves when they need it most. And while it’s tough on scours, ScourGuard 4(K)’s formulation is gentle on your cows.

Ask your vet about ScourGuard 4(K) and put it to work on your farm today – www.scourguard.co.nz Pfizer Animal Health; a division of Pfizer New Zealand Limited. Level 3, Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand. Tel: 0800 650 277, Fax: 0800 628 629.

SCOURGUARD is a registered trade mark of Pfizer Inc. or its subsidiaries. ACVM Registration No. A10057. RVM; Available only under Veterinary Authorisation.

PFI8218DNA

Dairy News May 29, 2012

68 // machinery & products

New rat stopper goes a step further A NEW rat ‘stopper’ from Australian manufacturer Pest Free suits small businesses and large homes.

The new Pest Free Pro suits buildings up to 400m2 – double the area serviced by the familiar domestic model (200m2).

It plugs into a normal 230V power outlet, working silently and harmlessly to ‘train’ rats and mice to exit and stay away from buildings.

The technology is electromagnetic – a 50Hz pulse overlaid on the 1m-diameter field that naturally occurs around live power cables. The pulse switches on/off every 3 minutes so pests don’t get used to it.

The resulting stress upsets rodents’ reproduction and nutrition; they must either exit and drink (to excess) or stay and dehydrate.

Launched commercially in 1995 in Australia, it was proven effective during 2-year scientific trials (1996-97) at the

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

One pair of rats and their offspring can produce 15,000 rats yearly.

Rats eat enough grain annually to fill a freight train 3,000 miles long.

Rats can gnaw through metal, lead pipes, and cinder blocks.

A rat can squeeze through a hole no larger then a 50 cent piece.

Rats spread livestock and poultry diseases.

Rats can survive being flushed down a toilet.

It is estimated that there are upwards of 100 billion rats in the United States alone.

A rat’s teeth will grow from 4-6 inches per year.

Rats can produce 8-12 young as frequently as every three weeks.

A rat can swim one half mile and tread water for three days.

A rat can jump off a five-story building unhurt.

Delivering the goods SIDE-DELIVERY

University of New England, Armidale, NSW. Australian Federal Government funding helped to research, develop and initially export the products.

Now they are sold in 10 countries. At least 7000 operate in New Zealand.

Pest Free gained endorsement in 2007 as a “food safe and effective rodent deterrent process” from HACCP Aus-

tralian Pty Ltd under its Food Safety Accreditation System.

Commercial units (effective to 1000m2) operate on New Zealand dairy and pig farms, and in livestock feed mills, showgrounds, etc.

All models carry a 100%, 60 day money-back performance guarantee and a 2-year warranty on parts and labour. Price of the Pro model: $399.95 incl. GST and P+P. Tel. 09 833 1931 email: keating@orcon.net.nz

Automatic dipping & flushing…in Reduce Mastitis

feedout

lic tail board opening and tyre sizes.

Bucktons offer slurry tanks for spreading liquid on pasture, and muck spreaders 9-, 12- and 20m3 for heavier material.

A range of mulchers will be on display, hitched to Goldini tractors from Capital Tractors.

“Nothing really new but we are constantly upgrading and improving our range of proven gear,” says Eric Buckton, Buckton Engineering.

wagons will again feature on Buckton Engineering’s site at National Fieldays.

Weigh cells and hydraulic offsetting discharge chutes for trough dispensing are among the options available. On site will be 8m3 and 20m3 models. Buckton also makes 10-, 13- and 16m3 models.

The site will also have farm trailers with optional feed crates, hydrau-

seconds!

Save Money

Save Time

This is how it works

End of milking the process starts

Dip is applied to teats

Teat dipped and protected

Cleaning process commences

Cluster ready for next cow

As the vacuum is shut off, teat dip is injected into a manifold on the clawpiece.

Vacuum is released from the head of the liner as teat dip is applied to the teat.

Within seconds of milking being completed, teats are coated with dip.

After removal every liner is thoroughly rinsed and disinfected.

Teat cups are clean and ready for the next cow.

Find out more: visit ADFmilking.com or call 0800 233 645 Livestock Machinery & Equipment Award RABDF Dairy Event 2010

Dairy Innovator’s Award Australian Dairy Conference 2011

Equipment of the Year New Zealand National Fieldays 2011

Visit us at Mystery Creek National Fieldays - Main Pavilion site PE36

Dairy News may 29, 2012

machinery & products // 69

Diesel side-by-side ‘leads in capacity’ OFF-ROAD VEHICLE

maker Polaris has a new addition to its side-by-side (SxS) range.

It has unveiled the company’s first diesel powered Ranger. Since 1998 the US brand has aggressively expanded its SxS lineup now including vehicles in 6WD, 4WD, 2WD and 1WD modes.

The vehicles are 2, 3, 4 or 6 seaters and come in petrol 400cc/500cc/800cc, diesel 900cc and electric models.

The HD Ranger comes with self-leveling suspension, power steering and optional hydraulic bucket or grapple.

The diesel model is said to offer an industry-leading combination of towing, carrying and three-seat capacity. “Our research shows customers in heavy applications are demanding them, such as mining companies, the military and our core farming market” says Polaris managing director Peter Alexander.

Polaris Ranger diesel has a top speed of 56km/h and 90% of peak torque available at 1600rpm.

Power comes from a rubber-mounted 24hp 904cc Yanmar 3-cylinder engine.

Payload is 454kg in a

pallet-size tipping box; towing capacity is 907kg.

The transmission is fully sealed.

Says Alexander, “[What] distinguishes a Polaris is its ride quality. Ranger Diesel features long travel suspension (24.4cm front, 22.9cm rear) and 30.5cm of ground clearance.

The unique four-corner adjustable suspension system allows you to adjust to a soft setting for trail riding or stiffen the ride for heavy- duty work. Ranger Diesel also comes equipped with OnDemand True AWD with

Polaris Ranger diesel.

Turf Mode which automatically engages all four wheels when you need more forwards traction.”

Tel. 0800 440 290 www.polarisindustries. co.nz

Key features ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■

QUICKFEED FEEDOUT WAGONS

Seating for three. pacity 454kg rear cargo ca y.

907kg towing capacit 0rpm.

90% of torque at 160 pension with 23cm Independent rear sus

For mixing and feeding out at the same time Now available with

travel.

(WEIGHT SYSTEM) from The total solution for Precision Feed Management

Mobile mixer slashes costs TIRED OF carting buckets of milk around the paddocks feeding calves, Stallion Plastics general manager Grant Allen developed a solution that’s now taking off overseas, the company says.

Allen’s Stallion Mobile Mixer saves time and effort by allowing you to carry and mix colostrum, milk powder or any other calf supplements – where you need it.

The product came about after Allen, himself a dairy farmer, watched one of his farmhands hauling bucket after bucket of milk at feeding time. “I just thought this is pretty stupid. There must be a better way.”

R&D showed the better

way to be a mobile tanker/ mixer that Stallion now offers in two sizes: 450 and 800L. Built on a galvanised steel frame, the Mobile Mixer can mix and dispense up to 320L/minute.

Other features include a calibrated floating level indicator to show milk volume and a time saving click-and-clean system.

Allen says the mixer has proved its value whether feeding smaller numbers or up to 3000 calves. “In every case it cuts the feeding time by half. It really delivers on less time, less effort and less cost.”

The product is rotationally moulded from high-density polyethylene – durable, tough and rigid,

and with high chemical and water resistance and maximum UV radiation protection. “The polyethylene is also 100% recyclable” says Allen.

Stallion Plastics makes and sells feeding equipment for calves, lambs, chickens, pigs and horses.

Ditchers It also makes playground equipment, modular septic tanks, plumbing, drainage and electrical

components, various storage containers and automotive components. www. stallion.co.nz

0800 686 334 www.numedic.co.nz

AFTER

Schouten Machines www.schouten.co.nz info@schouten.co.nz

Ph: 03 208 8059 • Mob: 027 711 7270

Dairy Drenching Solutions!

New Zealand Manufacturers & suppliers of: • Unmetered drench systems • Metered drench systems • Teat spray systems

Fieldays Site D31

MANUFACTURE AND DESIGN AGENTS NATIONWIDE, EXPORTING WORLDWIDE

+

Use the Xcess Trough Valve with the Apex CamLock Kit to create a convenient water supply for....

BEFORE

A Trough Valve Convenient water supply

Connecting a portable trough for break feeding

Washing down or cleaning (nozzle not included)

Filling a spray tank

Working displays National Fieldays Hydroflow site

F38-42

Connecting to an irrigation pod or sprinkler system

Dairy News May 29, 2012

70 // machinery & products

New MF 5440, smaller but moves better IF YOU have two large

tractors and want to replace them both with one smaller one, what brand do you choose? For Morrinsville sharemilkers Russell and Margaretha Pinny the answer was a Massey Fergusson 5440.

The Pinnys took a break from the dairy industry and went contracting for a couple of years. Hence their two large tractors. Once they went back to the cows, they wanted something smaller and more agile.

The quality of the tractor was important but equally crucial was the level of service provided

by Glenn Greay, Waikato Tractors.

“It was the first time we’d dealt with Waikato Tractors, and it was awesome service,” says Pinny.

“Glenn is the only sales guy who has kept coming back to see how it’s going and to ask what we need.

If we do need anything he drops it in.”

Greay was also the only agent who went to their place and sat down and worked out what the Pinnys needed in a tractor. He sent a tractor out for a trial, so by the time Pinny bought his MF 5440 he knew it would do the job. He’d also ordered all the extras he needed factory-fitted, such as the spotlights for working at night.

“The beauty was we’d talked through all the details. It’s easier to get things added in the factory than when it comes out,” Pinny says.

The MF 5440 is 102hp and does the feeding out and general work on the Pinnys’ 50ha farm. He makes a lot of use of the front-end loader and he’s used it to do some grader work.

“I will also be using it to make hay and silage for myself and another farmer. I am looking forward to trying it out on the rake and mower.”

Pinny says the MF 5440 has a comfortable cab; even getting in is easy with its wide door. There’s a

Russell Pinny says his new MF 5440 with Dyna 4 transmission is great for front end loader work but handles grader and grass work as well.

seat for a passenger and plenty of room for the lunchbox.

“It’s easy to get hold of things. When you utilise the levers you’re not stretching. Everything is in the right place, like the front loader levers are where you expect them to be.”

That front loader has a new float system on

Introducing TracLINK

from TracMap, New Zealand’s leading GPS Guidance and Proof of Placement provider.

Key features are: • Making it much easier for you to place fertiliser and spray onto the correct paddocks

it. “Sometimes loaders bounce up and down when you’re going down a ramp, but they’ve added suspension and it’s smooth on the front axle.”

Being able to see your loader at all times is important and with the sloping bonnet Pinny can see what he’s doing as he hooks on implements.

There’s also good visibility behind and all around.

Pinny remarked how much clearance there was under the cab, making it easy to access. In fact with all maintenance there’s a sense of space. “It’s easy to get at the bonnet and radiators and filters, there’s so much room.”

Despite providing space where it is needed,

the MF 5440 is not the size of a tank.

“It’s the ideal weight and size for a farmer, and there’s enough traction and pull power but it’s not making ruts in the paddocks. It’s also agile and has a small turning radius.”

Pinny says a lot of thought has also gone into the hydraulics. His model has the standard 57L/min but it can work with raceways with a half-tonne grader on back and not bat an eye.

It provides more than enough fluid to run the log splitter, and extra big rams on the hydraulics also keep things smooth and stable.

The Pinny’s new trac-

tor has a Dyna-4 transmission, with 16 forward and 16 reverse gears.

“There’s no delay in getting into the next range and no gear stick to muck around with. It’s just a lever on the side of the steering wheel. I had a mate get in and say, ‘Where‘s the gear stick?’

“It has gears A, B, C, D then into the next range 1, 2, 3 or 4. You just clutch it and whip it through,” Pinny says.

He also likes the fact it is a stable tractor and he can trundle along at 43km/h on the road. He says it flicks out of fourwheel drive automatically as it got up to speed on the road, which is a handy feature on the farm.

• Provide your contractor important information easily such as rate of application, gates, hazards, no go zones • Provides instant product application history View your customers farms easily!

• Integrates with other farm management programmes such as FarmKeeper • It is also great for staff management, allocating tasks and ensuring they have been completed • Web based so access gained from anywhere!

• No need to purchase additional hardware or software applications • ABOVE ALL EASY TO USE

One step viewing of order status

MT800 TaNkER/MIxER A Mobile Mixer/Tanker built on a strong galvanized steel frame can carry and mix colostrum, milk powder or any other calf supplements that you want to feed out.

NEW FOR 2012!

Send jobs to your TracMap TM465c head unit wirelessly.

Simple process for your customers to place an order – saves time, eliminates errors.

Proof Productivity Performance

MADE EASY Phone: +64 3 489 2952

www.tracmap.com

Come and See us at the National Field Days in the Main Pavillion

Mix/despense 320 Litres Per Minute With Easy Use Despensor Gun

Powerful Honda Petrol Motor

avaILabLE aT

Simple Click and Clean System

Calibrated Floating Level Indicator

Dairy News may 29, 2012

machinery & products // 71

In-shed feeding lifts yield, body condition TONY HOPKINSON

WHEN LANCE and Karen Halcombe wanted to supplement their dairy cows feeding to fill holes in feed supply they chose a PPP Industries in-shed feeding system to supply PKE as well as blends of meal rations recommended by NRM Stockfeeds.

“We looked at several ways to achieve this and when we considered mobile troughs or feed pads with their costs and labour needs, the PPP system was the way to go,” says Lance.

The Halcombes farm at Pongakawa, south of Te Puke, in an area prone to summer dry spells. Their home farm is 150ha with 130ha (eff) as the milking platform. They lease an adjacent 125ha and part of this is their milking platform. The balance is used to run drystock as well as a small 100-head beef unit. Parts of both farms have steep sidlings.

They milk 430 cows (50% Jersey and 50% crossbred) and supply Fonterra.

They have used LIC crossbred bulls for ten years. The herd is milked through a 40-aside

herringbone dairy and the farm is having its best season ever.

Lance’s parents Mac and Anna live on the property and are on the farm “almost every day,” Anna in charge of calf rearing and Mac looking after the drystock and the beef unit.

Halcombes employ a herd manager, Kevin White, and an assistant, Josh Campbell.

“We have an-all grass system with some bought-in maize fed in the paddock with a silage wagon, but we are reducing this feed and increasing the supplement through the PPP feeders.”

Lance had been feeding PKE through portable troughs but with the contour of the farm this had problems, and they wanted to feed other supplements.

“We chose the PPP system as it was established and proven, the price was right and Nick Morison and his team were great to deal with.”

Each side of the shed has 40 dispensers filled by 75mm delivery lines augured from a nearby silo and was installed in September 2010. The feed is dropped into a stainless steel tray in front of each

pasture test decides feed NRM FEEDS used by the Halcombes are changed to compliment grass as it changes during the season,” says area sales manager for NRM, Jason Ward.

The company does a pasture test to determine what is needed in the feed supplied.

The details are put through the companies Diet Check Program which also includes information on the stock breed, live weight of the animals, production averages, fat/protein ratios and production levels.

From calving until the end of mating they fed Betta Cow Peak a mix that had PKE with rolled barley in a pellet form to improve the flow and contained minerals as well as starch.

“We can also add magnesium, zinc as well as Bovotec to restrict bloat when needed.”

In the summer the feed has higher levels of canola to reflect changing protein level in the grass.

The last word to Lance; “The PPP feed system is far better way to deliver PKE and meal to my cows, it has been fantastic and it has done everything I wanted it to do.”

Tel; PPP 0800 901 902 NRM 0800 800 380

cow, operated by the milker once the animals are in place. The tray can be hosed down if needed when cleaning the yard.

Benefits were immediate with an increase in cow condition scores and a lift

in production “The system is convenient and is not labour- or machineryintensive and I believe the cost of delivering feed to the cows is the lowest possible.”

Only three days notice is needed and the silo can be filled. www.pppindustries. co.nz

Lance Halcombe says the in-shed feeding system delivers top benefits.

Dairy News May 29, 2012

72 // machinery & products

Thumping good ride in SSV BERNARD LILBURN

JUST THROUGH my shed is the machine I consider the best side x side vehicle (SSV) I have tested: the Can Am Commander. Its engine braking, comfort, stability and power delivery exceed all other machines this reviewer has tested.

The suitably aggressive-looking Can Am Commander we tested during our annual Hunterville duckshooting weekend was the 1010cc 4-stroke 2-cylinder V-twin liquid-cooled Rotax powered model in budget form.

This machine impressed everyone who drove, rode or even just looked at it. One guy said he wanted to go and buy another farm so he could have one; another traded his existing SSV on the following Monday.

The Commander comes with either the 810 or 1010cc Rotax engine in

two stages of specification. The ‘poverty pack’ version we had is still well equipped, but came without flare guard extensions (a must-have), winch and half screen. The option list is long. The twin headlight setup looks cool and the lights give good penetration and spread.

The machine comes with three keys: we got two – grey and black.

Another key operates the ‘work’ mode, limiting speed to 50km/h with restricted engine power.

Torque is still available in spades from the CVT transmission.

The grey key is ‘normal’ and restricts power to 60% and 70km/h and the black key gives the ‘full Monty’ – all 92 horse power -- and more response if you push the ‘sport’ button on the dash.

I recommend the black key stays in the boss’s pocket.

A great safety feature is that if the seatbelt is not buckled up, the machine

defaults to “limp mode” which is the get you home feature if something goes awry and limits speed to about 20km/h.

We tried both keys, and the machine with the grey key performs comparably to most other 600/700cc offerings in this guise with still adequate performance and heaps of low down grunt. With the black key, it is just miles out in front, with stunning throttle response and performance.

This is helped by adjustable suspension, the machine giving a ride as good as anything else I have tried, though a load reduces ground clearance reduces, as on all independently sprung machines. That said, the tilting deck is big enough for a team of dogs (we had 6 on) and will carry 600kg between the clever upper and lower cargo boxes.

Two tailgates give access to deck and the boot, and the floor can be removed for a bigger

If you need to bale, we have the baler to suit your need.

Exceptional capacity, exceptional density!

Distributed by Tulloch Farm Machines Dealers nationwide Ph 0800 88 55 624 www.tulloch.co.nz

load area, this also helping lower the centre of gravity.

We shoot ducks high up in a big basin. It’s quite a climb to the lake along 6km of farm tracks. So this reviewer highly rates engine braking, especially for hill-country travel.

The Can Am Commander has the best system I have tried, and even in high range in the transmission setting it has awesome engine braking, letting the machine idle down a knobby little spur where I wouldn’t dare take other machines I’ve tried.

In low range the system works so well you have to apply throttle to keep things moving, even with a load and trailer. A

The Can Am Commander leads when it comes to comfort, stability and power.

grizzle is that the steering loads up when turning using power in AWD and when load transfers onto the front suspension, which is fitted with anti dive geometry. Power steering or a bigger steering wheel would help this.

Even a cold, wet morning was made more pleasant by comfortable, adjustable bucket seats.

The steering wheel is adjustable for height, and the pedal box is not offset, making for a comfortable driving position and easy getting in and out. Of course, I can be described as ‘vertically challenged’,

but the big guys also found the cockpit a good place to be.

The dash has rocker switches for the light dip switch (the lights are turned on using the key), AWD and sport function.

A soft-shifting gear selector chooses park, reverse, neutral, high and low.

The machine has no handbrake, which would be handy but, with the park feature, not essential. The passenger gets a decent glovebox and ‘hold-me-back’ handle for when things get hairy.

The ROPS frame is sturdy as is everything about the Commander.

■■

What’s good: awesome engine braking, performance, stability and comfort; clever deck setup.

■■

What’s not: no flares on test rig, heavy steering.

■■

Verdict: I want one.

MORE: http://www.brp.com/en-AU/ or http:// www.hewittsmotorcycles.co.nz/ (06) 374 7701

MG series Feeders

The MG feeders keep contamination from getting into the milk, meaning quality for calves. They are self-leveling and have a simple ‘click-andclean’ system so you can quickly wash out the tank and manifolds. With a variety of tank sizes and a range of 26 to 80 teats; it’s perfect for simplifying the whole feeding process on any sized farm!

available at

Dairy News may 29, 2012

machinery & products // 73

Metal jerrycan is making a comeback THE METAL jerrycan is making a comeback, says auto accessory seller Griffiths Equipment.

Plastic fuel cans had overshadowed metal, but now better designed metal cans, newer technology and safety concerns about older plastic fuel containers has put a spotlight back on metal.

Griffiths sells European-made Pro Quip – a “new take on the traditional cans that older motorist will probably be familiar with,” says sales manager Bruce Walker.

Plastic containers have a limited lifespan and should be replaced before they wear and leak, he says.

“These latest metal cans are inherently safer, stringently tested and they meet defence forces spec-

Jerries can, we couldn’t THE ‘JERRYCAN’ – designed in Germany during the 1930s for the military – was the envy of Allied troops during WWII. Kiwis’ petrol supplies were issued in flimsy 4-gallon cans that often leaked.

The Germans did better and their 20-gallon petrol container has gone down in history.

ing, which means they are also suitable for holding water. They are certified to Australia/NZ Standard 2906:2001.

Colour finishes include

red, orange, green blue, grey and brown. Sizes are 5, 10 and 20L and they fit standard recreational vehicle racks.

Griffiths offers ID tags

ready-printed with the name of the contents, e.g.

2-stroke, petrol, oil, diesel etc, or an unprinted clear label for writing on. The labels don’t fade.

The metal jerrycan is making a return.

ification. They’ve been dropped, subjected to fire and corrosion, and pass with flying colours.”

A special coating on the inside prevents rust-

MS1324

SEE US AT NATIONAL FIELDAYS® SITE C55-57 ID tags for contents

Serious about Fencing!

More electric fence options, it just gets easier!

Multi Wire Tread-In Posts * Unique angled clip prevents unintentional tape detachment * Unique foot wedge design provides superior holding performance * Heavy duty, UV resistant polymer

KUBOTA RTV RANGE OFFERS INCREASED SAFETY Kubota’s market leading RTV with a HST transmission gives you unmatched hill holding abilities to offer the ultimate in safety.

We cannot afford to compromise on safety and RTV provides you with the following features designed to ensure comfort and safety: • Hill holding HST transmission • Reliable wet brakes • Fully integrated rollover protection structure designed for optimal safety • Responsive power steering • Powerful Kubota engine Take one for a test drive today and you’ll be convinced!

Contact your local rural supplies merchant or phone 0800 266 258

Dairy News May 29, 2012

74 // motoring

‘Best ever’ Jeep has arrived The 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8.

IT IS touted as the best

Jeep vehicle ever built and it arrived in New Zealand this month.

Developed from all

new Jeep Grand Cherokee and customised by the advanced performance engineering of Chrysler Group LLC’s street and

racing technology (SRT) team, the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 is powerful, technologically advanced and high per-

OT60 NEW FOR 2012!

forming, says importer Sime Darby Automobiles.

It is powered by the allnew 6.4L Hemi V8 engine with fuel saver technology, producing 344kW and 624Nm of torque – a big improvement on the previous model, making it even quicker off the mark and in a straight-line, yet more fuel efficient.

Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 offers high performance sports car looks thanks to functional details such as sculpted hood with dual black heat extractors for added engine cooling, 1 inch body lowering plus a liftgate spoiler for reduced drag, body colour wheel flares, side sill cladding, and dualsport exhaust system with 4-inch exhaust tips, just to name a few.

New Nappa leather and suede seats, with sculpted bolsters and adjustable headrests, provide comfort for daily drives and ‘grip’ to keep the driver and passengers in place during spirited driving.

The embroidered SRT logos and contrast stitching accent the two front seats. Heated (front

and rear) and ventilated (front) seats [good for old farts] are standard.

Carbon fibre accents are integrated into the instrument panel and door trim panels and new bright, racing style brake and accelerator pedal pads add to the high-performance look inside the cabin.

With the new 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, engineers have improved handling even further, the company says.

“The best handling Jeep vehicle ever – capable of .90 g on the skid pad – features a new SRT-tuned, adaptive damping suspension managed by the new Jeep Selec-Track system that interacts with several different systems: stability control, adaptive damping, transmission shift strategy, transfer case torque proportioning, electronic limited slip differential performance, throttle control and cylinder de-activation to automatically tune the dynamics of the vehicle.”

Drivers can manually choose between five dynamic modes for specific driving conditions:

Sport: dry weather, onroad calibration. Performance based tuning that provides a rear wheel drive feel but with improved handling and acceleration over a two-wheel drive vehicle. The active suspension system will be in ‘semi firm’ mode, and a green flag will light up in the instrument cluster. The transmission will provide a more aggressive shifting pattern.

Snow: tuning set for additional stability in inclement weather. Use on and off road on loose traction surfaces such as snow. When in snow mode (depending on certain operating conditions), the transmission may use second gear (rather than first gear) during launches to minimise wheel slippage.

Auto: fully automatic full time four-wheel drive operation can be used on and off road. Balances traction with seamless steering feel to provide improved handling and acceleration over two wheel drive vehicles. The active suspension system will be in touring mode.

Track: track road calibration for use on high traction surfaces. Driveline is maximised for traction. Some binding may be felt on less forgiving surfaces. The electronic brake controls are set to partial off to limit traction control management of throttle and wheel spin. The transmission will be in sport mode and provide a more aggressive shifting pattern.

Tow: use this mode for towing. Vehicle suspension will go to firm mode and peak power will be limited in the engine controls. Trailer sway control is enabled in the ESC system.

The terrain switch will remain in this position through an ignition cycle until the customer cycles into another position.

Brakes are Brembo with fourwheel anti-lock brake system: red-painted, Brembo 6-piston (front) and 4-piston (rear) calipers, and vented rotors at all four corners measuring 381mm (front) and 350.52mm (rear).

Price: $106,990 plus on-road costs.

as safe as it gets

This is truly a 60 teat feeder with our teats spaced so 60 calves can fit in with ease, wider than the OT50 it comes with an 800 litre tank and tandem axle as standard. Simple self cleaning system the OT60 LT will save you time and money feeding calves.

availablE aT MEAT CUTTING BANDSAW Troat: 245mm MaxHeight: 218mm Table: 570x440mm T. Travel: 215mm Motor: 560W, 3/4Hp $749+GST

BSF300120

ALREADY A recipient of the 2011 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) ‘Top Safety Pick’ for the volume Grand Cherokee models, the 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 offers 45 safety and security features including: ■■ Active head restraints: deploy in the event of a rear collision.

■■

Active turn signals: turn signal flashes three times when stalk is depressed for one second to indicate

CONCRETE MIXER Bowl Capacity: 5cft Motor: 1/2Hp, 1Ph

a lane change.

■■

Adaptive cruise control (ACC): the system decreases the vehicle’s pre-set cruisecontrol speed when closing in on another vehicle in the same lane, or when another vehicle pulls into the same lane.

Pictures may differ from the actual product

$499+GST

DRILL PRESS Drilling Capacity: 20mm Table: 290x290mm Swing: 350mm Motor: 650W $399+GST

0508 243 872 sales@chevpac.co.nz

Restraints are designed to reduce injuries by minimising the gap between the head restraint and the passenger’s head.

DMC348436

www.chevpac.co.nz

CON154140

LATHE Swing over bed & X Slide: 300, 210mm Spindle Bore: 38mm $2499+GST Dist. Btw. Centres: 600mm Tailstock Taper: MT3 Motor: 1100W STAND NO: 3001 L--120502

SQUARE DEAL. Turn your mountain of bales into square meals now. Square us up for it later.

Use your smart phone to scan the QR code or type squaredeal.co.nz into your browser to reveal our balefeeder square deals.

www.squaredeal.co.nz

CHAINLESS 4000 2012 MODEL

SL350

2012 MODEL

SL450X

CHAINLESS 2000 2012 MODEL

SL700X

NEW MODEL

Call for participating dealers. Valid only while stocks last or until 31st May. TERMS AND CONDITIONS: 1. Offer excludes any options unless otherwise stated. SL350 included in finance square deal 2 only. Square deals must be purchased and delivered before 31st of May. Subject to stock availability. Available only at participating dealers. Subject to normal lending criteria. 2. Optional extras shown not included (guards, wide wheels and string box).

NORTHERN 07 847 6923 CENTRAL 06 873 9154 SOUTHERN 03 434 0412

www.hustlerequipment.co.nz BAND11259-1