New Farm Dairies 2018 by Sun Media

A special supplement by

Spring 2018 Sun Media Ltd 07 578 0030

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Dairies of the future

Landcorp Endeavour pgs 6-9

The Southern Dairy Hub pgs 20-25

Maui Milk pgs 42-45

Fairleigh Farm pgs 62-63

Taumanu Lands Trust pgs 100-101

NEW FARM DAIRIES

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Coast & Country

New Farm Dairies is brought to you by...

New Farm Dairies is New Zealand’s most comprehensive guide for farmers planning a new farm dairy construction. It showcases a range of the newest farm dairies in the country, offering farmers a vital, in-depth reference for their own dairy projects. We distribute more than 30,500 copies of the FREE publication to all dairy farmers throughout New Zealand, reaching all corners of the country’s vast dairying industry.

No.1 The Strand PO Box 240 Tauranga 3140 phone 07 578 0030 fax 07 571 1116 email lois@thesun.co.nz

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The future of dairying Today there is so much more to dairying than just lifting milk production. Dairy farmers, more than ever before, are taking a holistic approach to looking after their animals, their staff, their land, the environment and the future of their properties. Many are doing this by building a new dairy shed, renovating an outdated model – or simply adding valuable new facilities, such as a cow barn with an internal nutrient containment system, for example. This is New Farm Dairies’ 13th edition – offering a comprehensive study of 35 individual new farm dairy developments, while telling each property owner’s unique story and celebrating their tenacity in making such an investment in New Zealand’s dairying future. Hence our 112-page comprehensive guide tackles how to build new, small to large renovations, key facilities – such as calf sheds – and everything in between. A range of experts with the most up-to-date information, products and services – from earthworks, building construction, milking plants, to refrigeration, electrical needs right through to feed systems, equipment and storage facilities, animal housing – rounding out to staff accommodation – also feature. And with the detection of Mycoplasma Bovis in NZ animal health has become a key consideration in farm investments. There’s new technology, which can link into farm systems already ulitised. Everything is about

measuring, monitoring and managing. So ‘telling’ signs of cow health and production can be spotted and remedied in the dairy shed earlier than before. More apps can be linked to cellphones to sound alerts for anything that moves or feeds energy or information to any area of the farm, saving time and decreasing demands on staff. Keeping the environment in good health is vital too. There’s innovative ways to store and apply effluent, refrigeration options to keep ahead of new milk cooling rules, and water systems that deliver sustainability and cost-savings Retaining staff – via comfortable and safe workplaces – has prompted new ideas in dairy buildings and accommodation. Think dairies with sound-proofed children’s rooms, showers in bathrooms and slip-proof steps that are aesthetically pleasing too. Kiwi ingenuity, and future-proofing also feature. One farmer says his build was about understanding animal health and production; another says a new shed has given their operation better production and cow health. But the most-stated thing interviewees say is they did their research first – so enjoy this go-to resource. Thank you to this year’s contributors for welcoming us onto your farms – you have inspired us. Those wanting to feature in next year’s edition – please call our advertising consultant Lois Natta on 027 281 7427. She can help with all your advertising needs. But be quick – space fills fast. Claire and Brian Rogers, Publishers.

NEW FARM DAIRIES

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Working smarter not harder New Zealand’s primary industries are forecast to inject more than 42 billion export dollars into our economy this year, says Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor.

“This is $4.5 billion more than last year and is a good sign that the primary sectors as a whole are in good nick, despite some tough times,” says Damien. “It’s also testament to the importance of the primary sectors – not only are they the engine of NZ’s economy, they bring jobs and security for tens of thousands of people, and support rural communities up and down the country.” Launching the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Situation and Outlook report for June 2018 at the 50th Fieldays, Damien says the successful year has been led by value growth in our three largest sectors – dairy, meat and forestry – which have all posted double-digit growth during the year. Dairy sector export revenue was to increase by 13.6 per cent in the year ending June 2018 to $16.6 billion, with higher butter and whole milk powder prices offsetting slightly lower production volume, according to the SOPI report. Damien says the report also high-

lights the importance of moving up the value chain with infant formula exports expected to reach $1.2billion, up 53 per cent on the previous year. “This growth has been all the more impressive when you consider the many challenges that agribusinesses have faced over the year, including the fight against Mycoplasma Bovis, which has highlighted the urgent need to strengthen our biosecurity systems. “The weather has also been a challenge – a wet spring, followed by drought conditions in the summer, broken by two significant cyclones in February.” And while Damien says there is plenty of opportunity for NZ exports to continue to grow, to do so we need to get closer to our consumers and work smarter, not harder. “The Government is committed to productivity growth for a futureproofed primary sector and that means we want to get more from what we do now, not just do more. “The vision, energy and innovation that has always characterised our primary industries will hold us in good stead as we rise to this challenge.” Meanwhile, Damien says the recently-established Primary Sector Council – developing a sector-wide vision – has a significant role to play “in driving more sustainability in farming practice”.

Minister for Agriculture Damien O’Connor says for NZ exports to continue to grow, we need to get closer to our consumers and work smarter, not harder.

Page 3 FARM

DISTRICT

Cross Roads Farm Landcorp Endeavour Grangelands Jacambra Trust Normandy Land Co Birds Meadow The Southern Dairy Hub Best Ag TC Dairies Rosedale Dairies Teesdale Arnold Landcorp Bounty Maui Milk Rowe Family Trust D&D Dairies Landcorp Tasman Schouten Snowfed Dairies Fairleigh Farm Dairy Holdings Our Dairy Farm Smit Dairies Sunnybrae Rivers Backhouse BLJ Farms Hahn Kovo Farms Doyles Greenhills Trust Allen Hifarm Holdings

Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Southland Southland Southland Southland Southland Central Plateau Central Plateau Central Plateau Tararua Wairarapa Horowhenua Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Waitaki Waitaki Waitaki Otago Hauraki Hauraki King Country Taranaki Taranaki Taranaki Taranaki Manawatu Eastern BOP

Taumanu Lands Trust

Farmers Market

PAGE 4-5 6-9 10-11 12-14 16-17 18-19 20-25 26-27 28-29 30-31 32-33 34-37 38-41 42-45 46-49 50-51 52-55 58-59 60-61 62-63 64-65 66-67 68-71 72-73 74-75 76-79 80-81 82-85 86-87 88-89 90-93 94-95 96-99 100-101 102-111

CROSS ROAD FARMS

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Coast & Country

Not just a

Pretty face

Gibson Construction’s Blair Atkinson and James Cullen with farm owner Philip Dench.

The exterior of the shed is notable, with Waikatocoloured roller doors.

Anne Boswell

Just outside of Te Awamutu, a brand new, bright blue dairy shed stands resplendent, perched on a hill. Philip Dench’s Te Awamutu dairy shed is a brilliant blue building on the horizon. Waikato-themed roller doors red, black and yellow pay homage to a proudly Waikato family who have farmed this land for several generations. Farm owners Philip and Sharon Dench have built this farming business to what it is today, but now they want to stand back a little. The 214ha farm – which is made up of half Sharon’s family farm, and half her and Philip’s own land purchases – had grown to milking 680-740 cows through a 50-aside herringbone shed. If Philip was going to step back from his hands-on role, some drastic infrastructure changes were needed. “There were too many staff members required to run the herringbone,” Philip says. “The ability to run a one-man operation was the desired result when it came to designing a new shed.” The new shed, a 54-bail Orbit rotary, was chosen as an ideal option for a single operator. “I wanted shed operation to be streamlined and ‘idiotproof’, so it would be easier to get relief milkers; they wouldn’t need to be taught the ins and outs of the particular

infrastructure, which includes a 60-bail rotary cowshed, efﬂuent pond, 97m x 38m feed pad and a 53m x 58m silage pad. Director Blair Atkinson says the timber-framed cowshed, measuring 24m x 24m, is clad in iron cladding inside and out, with large windows and a higher than normal roof height for improved airﬂow.

shed,” Philip says. “We’re not quite at the one-man operation stage yet, but we’ll get there. I haven’t milked since November, so that’s a good start.” The Denchs employ three full-time staff. The farm’s effluent system also needed a major overhaul, so plenty of research and design went into not only meeting council requirements, but future-proofing as well. The new dairy shed was built in a different location from the old shed, to enable a gravity-fed effluent option.

A touch of Waikato The exterior of the shed is significant to the Waikato region, incorporating Waikato-coloured roller doors. Additional rooms complete the interior, including an office with suspended ceiling, and three storerooms including a wet storeroom with concrete floor, toilet, and shower. The animal health area was designed specifically for the owner’s requirements and includes a Race Works Wrangler, with removable bars and rubber matting for cow comfort and safety, installed at the end of the AI race for ease of use. Inside the dairy, a Waikato Milking Systems 54-bail Orbit rotary provides farm staff with a clean, fast and efficient milking environment.

A more comfortable shed The first movement of dirt on the new build was made on January 4, 2016. “I was clear with the contractors that I needed the shed to be finished by July 20, 2017 – and it was only a few days overdue in the end,” Philip says. “All the contractors were good, and I’m definitely pleased with the results. I’m really rapt with the shed.” Gibson Construction was contracted to build Philip’s farm

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CROSS ROAD FARMS

Page 5

Cross Road Farms Tag IT business development manager Blake Lattin with the HALO Efﬂuent Management system.

A Race Works Wrangler, with extra removable bars and rubber matting for cow comfort and safety. The timber-framed shed has trim clad iron cladding inside and out, with large windows and a higher than normal roof height for improved airﬂow.

Waikato Milking System’s Gary Feeney, Philip Dench and Qubik TMC’s Jason Hare. The system includes SmartECR electronic cup removers which trigger an automated sequence of events during milking – an ideal feature for single-operator dairies. A Vortex ﬂow sensor and shut-off valve works alongside the SmartECRs to determine when milking has ended, removing cups automatically and comfortably. The cup removers are integrated with the bail gates, holding cows on the platform until they have ﬁnished milking. Waikato Milking Systems regional sales manager Gary Feeney says the SmartD-TECT mastitis detection is a boon for animal welfare, automatically testing each quarter during milking and alerting the operator to sub-clinical cases of mastitis. “Phil wanted a dairy which provided the optimum environment for his staff and animals, and this does all of that and more.”

The savings The milking system is powered by a 15kw blower vacuum system with the latest SmartDRIVE variable speed drive technology which delivers up to 46 per cent power savings. Qubik TMC, a milking system specialist which also offers a diverse range of farm services, was instrumental in the smooth installation of Philip’s milking, efﬂuent, shed water, and precooling systems. “We brought the existing refrigeration up from the old shed, but we’ve added the new Glacier Plus glycol snap-chilling system

that allows farm staff to put milk in the vat under four degrees celcius,” Qubik general manager Jason Hare says. The system also includes a built-in heat recovery system, able to produce hot water up to 60 degrees Celcius at ﬁve litres per minute. Moa Milking and Pumping installed the shed’s 54-bail Orbit rotary platform, designed for a clean, fast milking environment, excellent cow ﬂow on and off the platform and easily accessible milking equipment. The platform, which integrates seamlessly with Waikato Milking Systems, took around 380 hours to install.

Effluent efficiency at every step In the yard, Technipharm supplied a standard Dungbuster. Technipharm managing director Harmen Heesen says they are finding a lot of farm environmental plans now specify Dungbuster as the preferred choice for water savings. “There is obviously no point turning clean water into effluent, but second to that, a Dungbuster saves a lot of labour,” he says. “We’ve calculated this to be equal to someone standing at a hose, ‘wasting water’, for up to three weeks a year. Using a Dungbuster, you cut the water waste and pump cost, and save massively on labour so staff can instead be more productive engaged in tasks that ‘make the bus go faster’.” The 50m x 50m x 5m effluent pond was designed specifically

for the farm’s requirements by Qubik Otorohanga branch manager and company director Kyle Osborne. The effluent pond liner, with a total volume of 8166m³, is constructed from a high quality HDPE geomembrane. A 30m x 5m weeping wall, holding approximately six months of effluent in each side, separates solids, and effluent is irrigated to pasture. A greenwater pump also goes to the Dungbuster and floodwash fill.

Measure, monitor and manage Tag IT Technologies, specialists in innovative farming solutions, installed a HALO Efﬂuent Management system and Milk Monitoring System on the Denchs’ farm. Tag IT business development manager Blake Lattin says HALO allows farmers to measure, monitor and manage farm systems from anywhere, monitoring conditions such as storage pond level, application amounts, and pump and stirrer status. HALO’s capabilities means Philip has complete peace of mind that the monitoring system will forewarn him before a major problem occurs. “Farmers can rest easy that an alert will be sent to their mobile phone or computer should any preset condition exceed a limit, or fault occur,” Blake says. “Additionally, all data is saved and stored for future reporting.”

Qubik are proud suppliers of Phillip and Sharon Dench’s new dairy shed for milking machines, effluent management, water reticulation, refrigeration and milk pre-cooling.

Page 6

Built to Helen Wilson

LANDCORP ENDEAVOUR

Last

Coast & Country

The dairy shed under construction. Builder Shanan White with Endeavour Farms owners Adam and Irene Deane.

When Adam and Irene Deane decided to build a new dairy on their Waikato farm, Endeavour Farm in Elstow, it didn’t have to be the ﬂashiest or the shiniest, just uncomplicated and within budget. “Our mission was to build a quality dairy that would last us the rest of our lives. That’s why we chose the contractors we did. They were recommended and had a long history in the dairy shed industry,” says Adam. Adam and Irene bought their original ﬂat dairy farm in 2005 and 10 years later bought more land to increase the area to 320 hectares, 275 hectares effective. Originally milking 650 cows, they have increased that to 1000 and employ two full-time workers. They also have three

PAN E L LEADING MANUFACTURERS OF INSULATED PANELS

full-time four-legged workers. “One of the dogs goes and gets the cows from the paddock, one moves them up the yard, and one puts them away after milking. They don’t always get it right but they save us a lot of time. We were milking the cows in four herds in a 34-aside herringbone, which was okay but we were spending 11 hours a day in the shed with two of us milking for the last three years and it was hard,” says Irene.

They started to make plans for a new dairy in 2015 and ﬁnally started building a 72-bail rotary in August 2017 to be completed for the 2018 season. Shanan White, director of Don Chapman Waikato Ltd, is the licensee for Chapman Dairy Ltd in the Waikato area and is based at Morrinsville. He is a qualiﬁed builder and has been doing contract work for Chapman Builders since 2006, mainly dairies.

Making savings

Shopping

The Deanes made the decision to cut labour costs in half, cut out the ﬁxed costs associated with running two separate units and, as a result, were able to pay off huge debt. This enabled them to re-borrow to build their dream dairy.

Shanan took Adam and Irene to look at other Chapman dairies so they could get a feel for the different options available and see how the dairy would look on the site they had chosen.

LANDCORP ENDEAVOUR

PH 07 578 0030

Page 7

Allan Oliver, owner of Piako Rural Services, with a set of Read Industrial cups.

The platform entry exit area.

Read cup removers.

Landcorp Endeavour insulated panelling from

“There was a layer of peat on the site above good sand so we had to take off the peat, and build back up with additional sand to get a stable base for the dairy. There are now no worries about it sinking. I also helped them choose a central site for easy cow ﬂow. They wanted a three-way junction at the exit and entry so they could have their cows in three different herds,” says Shanan. One of the features of a Chapman Dairy is the higher roof with a ridge vent which allows light in and helps with airﬂow to keep the dairy cooler in summer. The dairy walls are constructed with

Insulation Panel & Door. It is ideal for dairy sheds as it is easy to keep clean. The shiny surface stops muck sticking to it and can be easily hosed off. Being insulated also means it cuts down the noise of the milking parlour.

40 years’ experience Don Chapman from Morrinsville has been designing and building dairy parlours for more than 40 years and with more than 500 parlours to date, his work can be seen dotted on the landscape throughout New Zealand. He now has licensed builders around New Zealand who use his plans to build rotary

and herringbone dairy sheds. His dairy parlour plans are always evolving to ﬁt in with the farmer’s requirements and changing Looking in to the milking parlour from the yard. compliance regulations. “It’s always a pleasure designing and installDon Chapman Waikato also designed and ing a milking system for clients like the built the large 500m3 concrete triple wedge Deanes. They are big picture farmers who efﬂuent storage units adjacent to the dairy are passionate about all aspects of farming shed. and wanted a milking system they would still

Years of trust Farmers have trusted Read milking systems for generations. Being in business for 96 years, the Read family has been listening to four generations of clients. Read understands what clients are looking for in a milking system.

be milking in 40 years’ time, so this is what we’ve given them,” says Philip Read, sales manager for Read Industrial Ltd. “The Read system we installed for the Deanes is a 72-bail rotary that’s reliable, robust and practical to use.” Read milking systems are simple to understand and mechanical.

For a more efficient farm dairy Specialising in farm dairy design and construction

Authorised licensee

www.chapmandairy.com

Page 8

LANDCORP ENDEAVOUR Read Industrial cluster.

Coast & Country

The sign says it all.

Triple wedge efﬂuent bins.

“We knew Read offered the simplest, most efﬁcient system. Their slide pulsators are easy on the cows and easy to maintain as there are no electronics to cause concern. We ﬂew down to Canterbury to look at the Read Industrial factory and decided to include their cup removers and wash gland which keeps spinning while washing,” says Adam.

ﬁrst time that we have installed a complete Read milking system,” says Allan Oliver, owner of Piako Rural Services. The company also sells and install water pumps and provides farmers with a full back-up service.

A first

The Deanes decided on a Donald Engineering rotary platform for their dairy. “From our research, they are the best. It was a good price and has nylon rollers, with one roller per every one-and-a-half bail. The weight is spread evenly so there is less wear and tear.” Donald Engineering is located in Edendale in the South Island and often works in conjunction with Read Industrial. Laser Electrical from Morrinsville completed the electrical

This was the ﬁrst complete Read Industrial milking plant to be ﬁtted in the North Island by Piako Rural Services from Te Aroha. “We have installed Read pulsators in other milking machines for 25 years so knew the quality of them, and from my experience with them, they are certainly easy to use. This was the

Rotary way to go

wiring. “Staying with the concept, this was a simple, uncomplicated and effective dairy to wire up the milking plant, pumps and backing gate,” says Ray Adams, senior electrician at Laser Electrical. Leask Engineering has been in business at Tatanui near Morrinsville since 1958 and specialises in dairy shed yards. “We can design them to fit in with the farmer’s requirements and often find the design changes along the way. We make sure the pipework in the yards is rounded to stop any injury to the cows,” says owner David Leask. When New Farm Dairies visited Endeavour Farm in July Adam and Irene were a couple of weeks away from their first milking in the new dairy. The cows had started calving and they were still using the old dairy shed.

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ENDEAVOUR

Page 9

IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU! YOUR FARM, YOUR FUTURE.

Greg and Carolyn Alexander’s farm, at the base of Mount Taranaki, gets a yearly rainfall of 3193mm. When it came to upgrading their effluent system, typical storage calculations were 1.1 million Litres for their 325 cow farm! When Greg and Carolyn discovered Presco and the Prosump, the Prosump’s deep vertical walls and dished floor immediately reduced that requirement by 156,000 litres. At Presco, we believe in doing something once and doing it right. Intent on the very best solution, we designed the Prosump cover! The cover installed on the Alexander’s Prosump reduced original storage requirements by 27% which meant pumping 1,025,000 Litres less per annum that would otherwise have been extra rainfall captured.

S UP E

R Q UA L Y IT

For us at Presco, it’s all about you, your farm and your future. We provide tailored solutions to meet your specific needs be it a cover in high rainfall areas or 3.6m extra deep Prosump walls to reduce the footprint and fit your Prosump into a tight spot. If you are in a difficult spot or just looking for a storage solution that will last you a lifetime, search the Prosump online, or call us on 0800 77 37 26.

INVEST FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Visit www.prescoinfrastructure.co.nz or call us on 0800 773 726 to book your FREE onsite consultation.

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Precast panel construction sumps from 58,000 to 8,000,000 litre plus.

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Systems designed to comply with both Dairy Company and Regional Council requirements and the FDE code of practice.

Page 10

GRANGELANDS

Coast & Country

New dairy a

Real timesaver Helen Wilson

Grangelands Contented cows waiting to be milked.

Chap and Ashleigh Zwiers sharemilk for Ashleigh’s father, Jach Scheres, on a 140 hectare farm at Tapapa in South Waikato. The farm was bought in June 2016 and had an “old decrepit 20-aside herringbone” dairy shed. It was taking three hours to milk 300 cows. Since buying the farm Chap, has increased the fertility by better farming practice and by using a feed pad. Because of this he has been able to increase the herd size. “This farm is one of six that the family own and along with the dairy farm we lease another 80 hectares. We have split herd calving with 430 cows being milked for winter milk and another 80 calving for spring milking,” says Chap.

“We were going to build a 30-aside herringbone but it wouldn’t fit on the site we had chosen. We wanted to make use of the original effluent pond and the feed pad so changed the plans to a rotary,” says Chap. Morrinsville builder Grant McMillan was recommended by DeLaval which was using Grangelands as a test dairy for its innovative new rotary milking machine system. “I took Jack Scheres, the owner of the dairy farm, to look at a couple of other rotaries that we had built so he could make sure he was happy with the concept. Once we had the go ahead we had 12 weeks to complete the dairy shed. “DeLaval wanted it finished before the Fieldays as they were showcasing it there for the first time, so from the start of construction to cows on the platform was 12 weeks and one day,” says Grant.

Much easier

Light and quick

This is their ﬁrst full winter milk season since buying the property and the 50-bail rotary dairy shed has helped make the job a lot easier.

The dairy is constructed from poly panel supplied by Insulation Panel & Doors. Grant uses this product because it is light, quick and easy to use, easy to keep clean and is insulated.

Builder Grant McMillan and sharemilker Chap Zwiers. “Chap changed the exit area and the vet bay slightly to suit his requirements. We built the 15 metre round concrete yard, which holds 500 cows, adjacent to the feed pad so the cows come straight off the feed pad and into the yard. We had to dig down about three metres to get stable land as there is a lot of pumice in this area,” says Grant.

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Page 11 The new dairy shed.

The cows leaving the feed pad to be milked. DeLaval cluster.

DeLaval chiller and ﬂat-bottomed milk silo.

The new dairy shed was just one of the buildings that Grant McMillan Construction built. “We also built a new house, a seven-bay pole shed for food storage and two large silage bunkers. We also renovated an older house which was relocated from another farm. I had four full-time staff working here for quite a long time. They are an awesome family to work for, and we still remain in contact which is a sign of a job well done,” says Grant.

Pilot programme The DeLaval milking plant is an all-new design that was launched at the Fieldays. The company chose to work with Grangelands to install the DeLaval Rotary E100 as part of its pilot programme before the commercial release. The new system has been of high interest and a large number of farmers have visited Grangelands to see the plant in action. “We have found the DeLaval milking plant a real timesaver, with reduced labour costs and shorter milking time. The new platform is a lot more comfortable for the cows. We have found

the new bail design means cows can more comfortably turn their heads when exiting, which also increases the efﬁciency” says Chap. The DeLaval Rotary E100 has automatic cup removers with milk meters, an on-deck teat spray system, an automatic wash system and a full herd management system. The DeLaval IDD (Interactive Digital Display) unit is the heart of the system and used for everything from automatic drafting to viewing individual cows.

Easy info access “I can set up which cows I want drafted out from my computer, iPad or iPhone. The cows have a neck band and the DeLaval IDD unit reads it as the cow passes through and is then drafted into the appropriate pen to be checked later,” says Chap. “Grangelands Farms has always installed a Wrangler in our dairy sheds for checking cow hooves. The straps hold the cow secure and comfortable and the farmer is not going to get a

kick. It’s easier on the back too,” says Chap. The new dairy shed has totally improved Chap’s life. It has reduced labour costs as one person can operate the dairy shed, with the afternoon milking taking one and a half hours and the morning milking two hours. “I now have more free time to do other farm work or spend time with my family,” says Chap.

Page 12

New shed

JACAMBRA TRUST

Coast & Country

Labour of love Anne Boswell

Broomﬁeld Construction was the team behind the design and build of Alfons’ new dairy shed.

A wet winter and tight timeframe hasn’t dulled the enthusiasm of Waikato farmers Alfons and Heather Te Brake when they stand inside their new farm dairy. “All of the contractors did a great job,” Alfons says. “We’re more than happy with the way the shed looks; we love its openness.” The 200ha effective farm at Arohena, milking 665 cows, was previously run as three mobs milked through two sheds – a 36-aside herringbone on the site of the new shed, and a 21-aside herringbone across the road. Streamlining the working day and solving ongoing relief staff issues were the main catalysts in the decision to build a new,

centralised shed. “With two sheds I couldn’t really take any time off as it required ﬁnding relief staff that could run two sheds simultaneously,” says Alfons. “I needed the new shed to have singleoperator capability. The reasonable level of plant automation we chose has seen a drop of half-to-three-quarters of a labour unit as a result.” Deconstruction of the old cowshed began on March 28, 2017 – the beginning of a busy time for the farm. “At that time of year, we were milking two once-a-day mobs through the 21-aside, as well as a herd on twice a day,” Alfons says. The cowshed was up and running on August 28, 2017, to the great relief of Alfons and his team.

Jacambra farm owner Alfons Te Brake. “Milking 500 cows on a 21-aside was becoming a bit of a drag,” he laughs. “We had to stop work on the feedpad, as the farm staff and I were doing a lot of the prep work ourselves; we had to prioritise calving, and getting the shed ﬁnished. “I’m really looking forward to using the feedpad next year.”

Roof over milk vats In the interests of making the milking environment quiet and calm, Alfons requested a roof over the milk vats, a variation on standard plans. “It looks better, and dulls the noise from the vat so the shed is quieter,” he says. To take future feed requirements into consideration, the covered feedpad was built at a larger size of 108mx23m.

“We only feed maize silage and palm kernel at the moment, but no doubt that will evolve over time,” Alfons says. After the old cowshed was deconstructed Gary Saywell Contractors undertook all the earthmoving onsite, preparing sites for the feed pad, dairy shed and efﬂuent pond. Alfons was particularly impressed with Gary, who went above and beyond what was expected of him. “Gary did a very high quality job – and it was a big job.” Broomfield Construction was contracted to design and build the Te Brakes’ new dairy shed. Builder Rob Broomfield is highly regarded by Alfons, who was impressed with the level of professionalism Rob brought to the build. “Rob is very particular in his work, which resulted in a great job.”

PUT YOUR FEET UP

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JACAMBRA TRUST

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Page 13

Moa Milking’s clever team was behind the design and build of Alfons’ Orbit rotary platform.

Jacambra Trust Pumpn installed a powerful Sp Stirrer in the effluent pond, the 45-degree angle of which reaches to the pond floor to draw the fluid and crusting from the surface.

Bruce Cameron at Specialised Coatings manufactured the interior shed paint, which was applied by Roger Farley of Modern Coatings. “We applied a hardwearing Acraflex paint coating to the interior of Alfons’ dairy shed,” Roger says. “The five-coat process resulted in an easy-to-clean, hygienic coating with a decorative finish, and a 10-year warranty.”

Clean, fast milking Moa Milking’s clever team was behind the design and build of the Te Brakes’ Orbit rotary platform. Known for its strength and engineering integrity, the Orbit’s clever design provides operators with a clean, fast milking environment and excellent cow ﬂow on

and off the platform. A 2.7m-wide deck offers excellent protection of milking and electronic equipment. Moa Milking director Nathan Hitchcock says the platform took around seven hours per bail to install. When the Te Brakes chose a Waikato Milking Systems 54-bail orbit concrete rotary platform, they knew they were getting a milking system that would streamline the business to the next level. With SmartECR electronic cup removers, a fully-automated sequence of events takes place to accurately identify end of milking and ensure minimal vacuum drop during milking. The intelligent software in the SmartECRs allows Alfons to customise the settings for his herd and milking routine. BailMates have also been integrated into the

Farm owner Alfons Te Brake, Qubik’s Jason Hare and Andrew McAllister, and Waikato Milking System’s Gary Feeney.

automation, working intelligently with the SmartECRs to raise the BailGate Straps when the cup removers have been activated, allowing the cows to exit the platform. The system includes high-level mastitis identification technology, with the SmartD-TECT mastitis alert system automatically testing each quarter during milking and alerting Alfons of any potential mastitis cases. Also integrated into the system is SmartSPRAY, an in-bail automatic teat spray system automatically triggered by the SmartECR once the cow has finished milking. Maximising spray success by spraying while the teat orifice is still open, this system is ideal for single operator rotary dairies. Milking machine specialists Qubik TMC installed the Te Brakes’ milking plant.

“It took us 10 days on the ground to ﬁt the machine,” Qubik general manager Jason Hare says. “We had a big team and late nights, but we knew it was a bit of a pressure job, so we did what was required.”

Saving on hot water Qubik also installed the pre-cooling and refrigeration systems, including a chilled water system that allows milk to circulate through a double-bank plate cooler and enter the vat at between seven-nine degrees, easily meeting the new milk cooling regulations. The chilled water system also includes a built-in hot water heat recovery system, allowing Alfons to save up to 50 per cent on hot water heating bills. A DX refrigeration unit helps maintain the milk temperature in the vat thereafter.

Qubik are proud suppliers of Alfons and Heather Te Brake’s new dairy shed for milking machines and milk pre-cooling.

Page 14

JACAMBRA TRUST

Coast & Country

Protrack Vantage helps to enable full animal identification and drafting coupled with MINDA integration. Te Awamutu-based electrical company Phase Electrical wired the Te Brakes’ shed, covered feed pad and effluent system. Yard and farm dairy steel supply and installation specialists Leask Engineering was the company behind most of the steelwork in Jacambra Farm’s new shed. Leask Engineering design and construction manager Rom Stellingwerf says in addition to supplying and installing Alfons’ backing gates, Leask also supplied and installed water glands of Leask’s own design and manufacture. When fitted to the yard centre post, the glands supply water to the backing gates, with full operator control from inside the shed. Leask also supplied and installed the steelwork for the animal handling area to the side of the shed, including an AI/vet race with easy access to the loading ramp, and an additional folddown AI platform inside the shed.

Cow comfort and safety Alfons had a Race Wrangler, with a braked back leg winch and economy front foot support, installed in the AI race for cow comfort and safety. The Te Brakes chose to install Protrack Vantage, the premier offering from LIC Automation’s suite enabling full animal identiﬁcation and drafting coupled with MINDA integration. The seamless integration of Vantage into MINDA provides

Alfons requested a roof over the milk vats for a quieter, calmer milking environment. individual and herd management functionality, including the recording of animal and seasonal events such as calvings, heat and health treatments – all from the shed. With audio alerts and visual alerts from the 19-inch screens at cups-on and cups-off, withholding or treatment cows are easily identiﬁed.

Water efficiency A win-win situation is the best way to describe the water reticulation system that pump, effluent and irrigation specialists Pumpn installed at Jacambra Farm. “The ability of the system to floodwash the feedpad with effluent is unique; reusing the recycling wash behind cows on the round yard means less fresh water used, and less effluent to deal with,” says Pumpn managing director Shane Phillips. The yard wash pump employs a Grundfos variable speed drive, allowing the pump to start and stop slowly to avoid water hammer and reduce power costs. The effluent system is also remarkable, and includes a vertical passive separation screen: in essence, a vibrating weeping wall, allowing effluent to move easily through the slots and into containment, decreasing labour intensity and capturing higher

Race Wrangler, with a braked back leg winch and economy front foot support, installed in the AI race. quality effluent. Pumpn also installed a powerful Sp Stirrer of its own design and manufacture, the 45-degree angle of which reaches to the pond floor to draw the fluid and crusting from the surface. In the effluent pond, Viking Containment installed 2300m² of Agrishield HDPE geomembrane liner using dual track fusion welding, a method allowing each seam to be pressure-tested. A Texshield nonwoven geotextile was utilised beneath the liner for protection, with Geoflow strip venting to allow gas extraction if required. To maximise the pond storage capacity to 4.5 million litres the side slope gradient was constructed to 1.5 Horizontal to 1 Vertical (1.5H:1V). For the steepened slopes, a Geoladder was installed to enable safe access and/or emergency escape in and out of the pond.

PH 07 578 0030

ALPINE BUILDINGS

Page 15

NORMANDY LAND COMPANY

Page 16

Coast & Country

The Aztech Feed pad shelters stand majestically on the horizon.

Looking towards dairying’s future

Aztech’s Simon Clare, owner Joyce Wheadon, Archway Group’s Matt Hodgson and sharemilker PJ Williams.

Andrew Campbell

Joyce Wheadon’s new covered stand-off pad, constructed by Aztech Buildings over feed-pads by Archway Group, was originally intended for winter standing to prevent the pasture from pugging up on wet days. “It took only a couple of days after the shed’s completion in October 2017 for the cows to realise there was shade available,” says Joyce. “They happily bring themselves home to stand in the shed on hot days. We will probably use it as much in the summer time as winter months.”

Go shopping first They were advised by Aztech before beginning the project to view existing sheds located around the district to see how they worked, says Joyce. Aztech Buildings designed and built the structure speciﬁc to Normandy Lands farm requirements. It is 78m long 29m wide to

ensure adequate space and feed access for the whole herd. The building features a central ventilation space, which ensures necessary air movement for both animal welfare and structural durability through the release of passive air and ammonia. Another key feature of the Aztech Buildings design is the rafter to purlin connection that eliminates bird-perch opportunities in the roof line. “It is totally bird-proof,” says sharemilker PJ Williams. “It’s going to be a clean-looking shed, one of the reasons we went with Aztech. If you look, there are no birds nesting. We are absolutely rapt over that.”

All elements covered Of the many economic beneﬁts in covering a feed-pad/standoff pad like this is the ability to bring the herd in out of the elements for feed and/or rest – after all, happy cows produce more milk. Simon Clare from Aztech Buildings says in a heat-stress situation, the industry has a rule of thumb called the ‘Triple One.’ If

you can reduce a cow’s core temperature by one degree for one hour, that’s up to one litre of extra milk. “The interesting part of a facility like this is that clients will consider building a facility to meet one particular requirement, such as pasture management in winter, and the many other benefits are almost discovered by accident,” says Simon. “Farmers may build for environmental purposes initially, then they start to see the returns they are getting by bringing the cows in out of the heat and the returns are equally, if not more, tangible.” During one of the summer cyclones, PJ opened the shed gates up in the middle of the night and all the cows made their way in under the shelter half an hour later. By milking time the torrential rain had passed and the herd had returned to the paddock. The floor has been surfaced with rubber matting to provide comfortable standing for the cows. A floodwash system of green waste water is used every time the shed is vacated. Rainwater from the roof is stored for clean wash-downs.

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NORMANDY LAND COMPANY

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Page 17

The Weeping Wall with the shed behind on the high ground. The 28.34m-diameter Presco sump.

Rainwater is collected off the shed roof.

The ﬂoodwash used to sluice the shed.

Normandy Land Co “The shed was built to improve conditions for the 350 Jersey herd, to minimise pasture damage during the winter months, and future conservation of the environment,” says Joyce. The Wheadon farm is 101ha, east of Waharoa, and has about 1100mm of rain a year. Rainwater from the shed roof is collected in the nearby duck pond for re-use.

Weeping the benefits The two 25,000L floodwash tanks gravity feed into the Archway Group Weeping Wall, which is designed to passively separate the solids. Each Weeping Wall bunker is sized to store six months’ of effluent solid. The Weeping Wall has an internal 30,000L sump which pumps up to the Presco pond nearby. The liquid is then available for mixing with water from the nearby duck pond for the shed flush. The duck pond is kept topped up with the rainwater from the shed roof. The effluent is then applied to pasture, and with the solids removed, the nozzle sizes on the irrigator can be reduced, having more control over pasture application. The solids are removed from the Weeping Wall bunker with

Looking towards the top of the shed with the rubber to the right and the feed trough to the left. Archway Group water troughs at the lower end of the bay. Bird-proof rooﬁng, nowhere to nest or perch. Note the gap in the roof.

a digger, allowing each bunker to have at least six months of drying time and spread on the paddocks or under new maize. The simplicity of the system and low operating costs make it cost-effective. “It is so fantastic having a client like Joyce who genuinely wants to do it properly, and she can see what it is that the consumer wants to see,” says Matt Hodgson from the Archway Group. “At the end of the day Joyce has got a system that will be there for a long time and its ongoing running costs will be a lot less than what she could have compromised with.”

Collaborative affair The Archway Group designed the site and all the infrastructure layout – the shed fall, the 12m turning bays at either end, the feed lanes and feed walls, the TriBlock Silage Bunker, the Weeping Wall efﬂuent system and the ﬂoodwash. “We bring an overall infrastructure plan together, shoot the heights and the falls and that’s why we like to get involved at the start. Having the initial plan means we can bring all the best people/companies together, all collaborate, and have the best outcome for the client.

“

“There is a lot that has taken place with falls, piping, drainage and earthworks under all that amazing-looking infrastructure that makes it all work as part of a system,” says Matt. The Presco Pro Sump has a 2046cm capacity and is 28.34m in diameter. There is a three-metre depth about the circumference. The three-metre wall panels are installed and the dished floor is poured in situ. There is a 4.8m depth at the centre. Jimmy Neal Electrical ran power to the pumps from a submain from the cow shed. “There’s a pump-on-a-float control in the weeping wall system, so when that gets high enough it pumps to the massive holding tank,” says Jimmy. There’s also a pump in the duck pond that can pump into the effluent tank, and a pump in the effluent tank that can pump back to the green water tanks for the floodwash, or irrigate to the paddocks. “We’ve run big enough cable so that they can add to it at any point. There’s a lot of control cables that may not be used for five to 10 years.” He’s also put in power for the planned robot feed sweepers and a charging dock.

Matt from Archway was able to bring us an infrastructure plan that had solutions to many of the problems we hadn’t even yet thought of.” Gavin Hadden, Morrinsville

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BIRDS MEADOW

Page 18

Coast & Country An exterior view of the Birds Meadow shed.

Rebuild

Birds Meadow

for 21st Century

The Birds Meadow shed from the yard.

Andrew Campbell

When Paul and Denise Balvert decided to replace the Birds Meadow dairy they went local. Situated on State Highway 27 near Tirau, it was a local builder, a local sparky and Qubik TMC at Putaruru who installed the Waikato Milking Systems plant. “The contractors all come from this area. They’ve all worked with everybody before, which helped to make everything ﬂow along,” says Denise. “At the end of the day we are just very fortunate to have such wonderful contractors working in with us. Absolute pleasure to be involved with them. It was a really good build.” They got it done. The ﬁrst calf dropped on the same day as the completion shout. The previous shed dated back to the 1960s, says Denise. The old shed was demolished. But before the rebuild began on the site, the services had to be located. “We had to get the mains cable located before we did any major works,” says Wayne Bullot from Putaruru Electrical.

“That was interesting to see how and where all that ran. All sorts of strange things happened back in the 1960s.” It was the same with the water supply, says Denise. “I think back in the day you just did it. If you needed a bit more water, put in another hose. If you wanted more power you just ran something over the roof.” “It was a pleasant experience building a smaller dairy shed for a change. They are not so common nowadays and this 22-aside herringbone was great to build. I am usually building large 54-bail rotaries,” says Paul Lowe, owner of Matamata company Lowe Construction.

Design by Paul The herringbone was one of Paul’s designs, constructed of polystyrene paneling on the outside and plastic block in the pit area. It has been designed for good cow ﬂow and the Balverts have noticed that the cows enter and exit without any problems. “Paul and Denise Balvert were easy to work with and the highlight of the day was 3pm when Denise would bring us all

lollipops. It really kept us sweet,” says Paul. The power demand for the new shed meant bringing the power supply up to date. “Because of the voltage drop on the lines we had to get the 11kv lines upgraded and a transformer upgrade too,” says Wayne. They set up new temporary services for the building crew and returned when the machinery was installed to connect it all up and test it. The electrician also installed a new circuit board and breakers with RCD protection, bringing the shed up to modern-day spec. The new shed is a 20-aside herringbone, replacing a 10-aside. It takes about an hour to milk the herd of 165 Jersey and jersey cross cows. With the old shed the sharemilker spent a lot more time in the milking shed. “It wasn’t helping the cows I think, standing in the yard all that time,” says Denise. “We’ve got much better production and cow health. And we have got the vet run – it’s a dream.” The new milking plant is a Waikato Milking Systems Supa4 installed by Qubik TMC.

Slurry Bugs will eat your pond crust. And now, farmers don’t have to kill them! Good bacteria that eat pond crust and sludge?

A new sanitiser that kills pathgoens, not good microbes!

The immediate cause of your pond crust is pathogenic bacteria in the effluent. These bacteria separate the effluent fibres and the send them to the surface to form the crust.

Most farmers use Chlorine to clean their sheds. The problem is, when Chlorine is washed into the effluent pond, it kills the good bacteria that are eating the crust.

How do you counter these bad bugs? With good bugs. That’s what Slurry Bugs are – helpful bacteria that eat the pond crust. Literally.

Now there’s a new Chlorine-free sanitiser that kills pathogens but leaves the good guys alone! It’s called DX50.

Not only do Slurry Bugs remove the crust, they transform the effluent nutrients into organic forms that are easily used by plants. In other words, they liquefy your pond and turn it into an effective, spreadable fertiliser. To fix your pond without expensive machinery, use Slurry Bugs. Go to www.slurrybugs.co.nz to find out more.

DX50TM is Chlorine Dioxide, an eco-friendly chemical engineered to be highly selective in its bacteria killing. DX50 kills 2.46 times better than Chlorine and kills a wider range of pathogens. But it doesn’t harm the good bacteria that eat your pond crust. To read more, go to www.fowardfarming.co.nz

BIRDS MEADOW

PH 07 578 0030

Waikato Milking Systems stamp is all over the Supa4.

The 20kw DX unit keeps the tank temperature steady.

Detail of the steps into the pit, showing the plastic pit liner that is a feature of the Birds Meadow dairy. The plate cooler with 20mm stainless steel end plates.

The blower vacuum pump. The Supa4 design calls for a single 100mm milk-pipe draining into a receiver at one end of the pit. It is impossible to ﬂood a 100mm system and with modern milk pumping systems milking is both fast and uninterrupted. The unique mounting system for a Supa4 accommodates a wide range of Waikato Milking Systems accessories including Swing Arms and Swingdown cluster washers. A Hurricane wash system is now standard on all Supa4s. Qubik did all the stainless steel which included the Waikato smart pulsators, says Chris Maughan from Qubik TMC Putaruru. They installed standard 320 Waikato claws. “They hold 320ml of milk in them which makes it easier, faster milking-out time,” says Chris. “The other feature is not standard: the German-made Fristam milk pump. They’re very reliable and basically maintenance-free.”

Thinking enviromentally The plant includes a blower vacuum pump which is environmentally-friendly with no oil or water used. “It’s got a Waikato SmartDRIVE on it with power-saving. It doesn’t take a lot of power and it’s also very quiet. It just uses the

Page 19

vacuum as it needs it on variable speed drive,” says Chris. The cooler is double banked with 20mm stainless steel end plates, so it doesn’t rust. The underground piping is polyethylene, fusion-welded, and all pressure-tested with water before the concrete is poured, says Chris. The washdown pumps are Bianco series two, which are a very good performing pump and value for money, says Chris. All the hot water pipes are stainless steel. “Pretty much anything that’s got hot water under pressure has to be stainless,” says Chris.

No wastage The milk recovery system blows compressed air through the milk line after they have ﬁnished milking. The process recovers up to 80 per cent of the milk still in the lines. “Push a plug of air through, that will push all the milk through to the vat. It’s a product that really pays for itself,” says Chris. The stainless steel wash risers are purely for looks. The glycol cooling system is a 20kw unit which is ideal for the smaller shed. “That there will get milk into the vat at ﬁve degrees Celsius, four

The 320ml Waikato claws.

Qubik did all the stainless steel piping.

minutes after leaving the cow at 32 degrees Celsius. It’s now almost a requirement,” says Chris, referring to the change in regulations last year requiring milk to enter the vat at 10 degrees Celsius. The hot water from the heat exchanger, ﬁve litres a minute at 55-60 degrees Celsius, is run back to the hot water cylinders.

More improvements “Glycol takes care of cooling, the DX unit maintains the temp of that milk until it is collected. In this case it does very little work, just maintaining it to ﬁve degrees,” says Chris. “Sometimes the old one would be running all day still trying to keep it down.” The steel work is by Tirau Welders. Dairy sheds are regular winter work for the company. “It’s a basic design we have used with the builder for some time. It’s just a matter of following our plan, with good cow ﬂow being important. We’ve been building cow sheds for years,” says Russell Tye of Tirau Welders. All the trusses and the centre gates are pre-fabricated, and the pipe is pre-rolled. But other than that it was made on-site to suit. “It’s great to work with good clients and a good builder to produce a nice shed,” says Russell.

Qubik are proud suppliers of Paul and Denise Balvert’s new dairy shed for milking machines, water reticulation, refrigeration and milk pre-cooling.

THE SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Page 20

Coast & Country

Searching

for the best outcomes

Sue Miller

The Southern Dairy Hub An aerial view of some of the Hub while under pasture development. The new dairy shed complex sits central to all operations.

The Southern Dairy Hub is an exciting venture using research and innovative systems and practices to help Southland farmers achieve growth and improve their bottom line. Believed to be the largest research-based dairy hub in the Southern Hemisphere, and possibly the world, it is in its second year of operation. Business manager Guy Michaels is assisted by Shane Grifﬁn as farm manager who leads four other farm staff. DairyNZ has research technicians based on farm led by Nicole S. Hammond, whilst AgResearch have science teams that visit the farm as required for the different programmes running. The research farm is in Wallacetown, about 25km north of Invercargill, and is central to what has been a rapidly expanding

dairy industry in Southland. The property is 352 hectares of prime dairy land, 32ha of which is used as young stock support and 42ha being planted in a winter crop each year, either kale or fodder beet. It aims to be a fully self-supporting dairy farm, with all cows wintered on the farm, and all young stock grazed there too. And while it is a research farm, it is based on a commercial model.

Fundamental aim A fundamental aim of the Hub is to develop and test new options for dairying in the southern South Island. Information will be sought from farmers so farmer-led and local issues can be researched in local soils and in local conditions.

It was officially opened at a function in July 2017 and attended by about 200 Southland farmers and supporters, many of whom had invested more than 1 million in the project through the Southern Dairy Development Trust. Principal shareholders are Dairy NZ and AgResearch which each invested $5 million. At the opening, DairyNZ CEO Tim Mackle said his organisation was investing in the Hub to help dairy farmers and communities identify the best options for profitable, competitive and sustainable dairy – fixing real challenges with real solutions. An objective of the Hub is to pass its findings on to all dairy farmers, and consequently it has already hosted a number of field days, updating progress on research projects and for networking. It also reports on topical issues the farm is facing.

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THE SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Page 21

One of the Hub’s herds dining out on luxurious beet.

The new rotary ready for business.

Jeremy Irwin tries out the new herringbone inspection pit for size.

Southland Farm Service’s Jeremy Dawson and Jeremy Irwin with part of the DeLaval control system.

Dawn breaks over one of the herds as it moves through the yard. To enable accurate comparisons on various trials, the dairy herd is divided into four distinct groups with coloured tags – pink, green, blue and yellow – and each herd is allocated a separate farmlet corresponding to their herd tag.

Easy tracking The farmlets have paddocks allocated so all the cows walk the same distance to the shed, and have separate lanes so the cows don’t get mixed. One of the research projects being led by DairyNZ compares winter feeding regimes, including fodder beet or kale, and tracks the effects on milk production, body score conditions, feeding approaches, and different levels of fertilser inputs. During year 1, the Hub milked 640 cows, and is wintering 780 cows for the 2018/2019 season. They are predominantly a Friesian cross-bred herd, and it is intended that all replacement stock will come from within the business. When the decision was made to go ahead with the Hub, the planning team searched the area for a large-scale conversion property, with soil type, contours and aspects that typiﬁed

southern farming challenges. Eventually two adjoining farms were purchased, 269.6ha and 79.01ha, to provide a total farm of 348.61ha. The total cost of the land was $11.67 million. The technology provided to SDH is an integral part of the business model required to provide a platform for the required research that has to be run on a commercial large-scale dairy farm model.

Greater detail Business manager Guy Michaels said the DeLaval cowshed, DelPro system and other technology allows the Southern Dairy Hub to manage and monitor the herd in greater detail than a normal commercial operation might. Daily production and health information is monitored with the option of checking against seven-day averages for changes with the herd weighed as it leaves the shed after each milking, also with multi-draft options either for normal farm requirements or for research requirements. In-shed feeding can be controlled either on a farmlet basis, or on an individual feed

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basis per cow, plus with feed bins that don’t allow cows in the next bail to eat more than their share. “In order for any research results to be written up and shared locally and internationally, attention to detail must be adhered to,” says Guy. “We rely on accurate systems for data collection and management. The technology mentioned is part of the system that provides this requirement, and is backed up by a farm team and savvy research partners that record the detail researchers find interesting. They are all working to deliver long-term information that will benefit not just the southern region, but all dairy farmers in New Zealand.” Initially Southern Dairy Hub put the design and build of their rotary cow shed and research area out for tender. Within this were specific requirements. Southland Farm Services’ Jeremy Dawson says one of these requirements was an ICAR-approved milk meter. Other crucial requirements were weighing and ID accuracy, a good herd management package with heat detection, and a lightweight platform system.

THE SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Page 22

Coast & Country

The Hub’s tanks.

The inspection pit in the centre of the new rotary. DairyNZ senior scientist Dr Dawn Dalley addressing farmers during a recent ﬁeld day at the Hub.

The shed set up for the regular herd testing by DairyNZ. Jeremy says Southland Farm Services, along with DeLaval, are proud to say they were able to meet these requirements using a 60-bail rotary shed featuring DeLaval’s Superdeck composite material with 18mm laser cut rubber matting on top. This combination gives an extremely strong, yet lightweight and quiet platform. Other key features of the SDH milking plant include: MM27 blood and conductivity milk meters which meet the ICAR-approved requirement, in-bail ID, MPC580 automatic cup removers, C200 auto plant wash, two IDD touch screens, on-deck automatic teat spraying, three-way auto drafting, and walk-over weighing and activity metering. This is all controlled by the DeLaval Delpro herd management system which provides critical information for research purposes.

Gas hot water Other unique features of this shed is the use of a Longveld gas hot water system for the heating of plant and vat wash water. This unit, combined with the DeLaval Compact Water Chiller

CWC30 snap chill heat recovery set-up, is a very efﬁcient way to heat water versus traditional electric systems. All this has combined to make a high-end one-person milking shed. The platform, a DeLaval PR1500 pipe bail, features a 60-bail rotary with an underpass enabling staff and researchers to walk into the centre of the platform for herd testing and sample collection. The milking platform has a leg spreader at each station that forces the cows to stand with their legs apart, Guy says. The leg spreader contains four angled sprays, which automatically deploy a disinfectant teat spray when the cups come off. Due to the research applications, there is a lot of gear around the Hub’s shed not normally found in a modern milking operation, but standard features include gas hot water heating, automatic wash, milk meters, interactive IDD touchscreens, and Delpro herd management. Southland Farm Services Electrical and Refrigeration handled the complete wiring installation. Jeremy says this was a longer, much more involved install given the amount of extra

instrumentation required, as well as the construction of a laboratory. “It was a very technical, high-end job.” The yard capacity is 700 cows and the variable speed of the platform means the shed should be putting though 400 cows an hour on a nine-minute round, or 450 on an eightminute round.

Herringbone covered too There is also an adjacent 16-aside herringbone pit for other types of research, such as recording animal behaviour. For example, pedometers can be attached to animals to record distances walked, idle time, and lying time. There is also extensive yarding, large enough to keep the four research herds separate, and sophisticated recording and monitoring equipment. The site for the shed was selected because it is in a central location, minimising walking distances and ensuring all four trial herds are similar distances from the shed.

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THE SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Dungbuster

The herringbone inspection pit under construction. Part of the control gear on the new DeLaval. The total cost of the dairy shed, power and ﬁbre technology was $2,727,880, and farm buildings (including a farm manager’s house, staff accommodation and silage bunkers) were more than $1 million. The total cost of the development, including land, was just over $17,800,000.

Dungbusting The Dungbuster is a major cost-saver on any dairy farm. Installed at the Hub by DeLaval, in partnership with supplier TechniPharm, it is a set of very cleverly designed bars mounted under the backing gate and connected with a yard hose to the washing down system. The bars have a special patented pattern of jets, which are placed in such a way that they very effectively spray water on the concrete to remove all dung. The bars are also ﬁtted with dual scraper blades and wipe the yards just about spot clean. It can be set up to operate between milkings, separating two mobs in the yard. TechniPharm says the system will save up to $9 a day from the farm budget by saving 50 per cent of the water used in a normal washdown, and up to 40 per cent of the electricity used for pumps. Normal washdown is at least $10 a day. There’s also the matter of saving an hour’s labour each day. As the company likes to say: “Dungbuster farmers are eating breakfast while others washdown”.

Page 23

farmers are eating

The foundation of the new rotary being prepared.

breakfast while others washdown

TechniPharm also supplied the Dairy Supreme animal handling system that can be used for a variety of purposes, from hoof trimming, medication, calving, AI, ear tagging and anything where conﬁnement of an animal is required. It has a separate ‘vet’ area inside and all the framework is round to avoid injury to either animal or handler. It has individual leg support and belly support for ‘the patient’. The Hub chose to have its unit integrated permanently into the shed to ensure safe and easy handling of animals at all times. The system can be easily customised to suit individual requirements with gates either side, options on the concertina headball, parallel squeeze, vet safety slots, anti-skid mats, and choice of mobile unit or stationary. Aspect Environmental Lining Ltd was engaged to supply and install the geomembrane liners into the efﬂuent holding facilities. This comprised of 3600m2 of 1.5mm HDPE in the holding pond and 2200m2 of GCL in the sludge beds.

The build The building project began with excavation and ground work by Central Southland Excavation and was finished off with the application of the speciflised finish, Acraflex. BB Cunninghame Ltd applied the special soft finish ‘paint’ which is both acid and

Mixed age cows showing their colour-coded ear tags that define which mob and farmlet they belong to. alkali reisistant and doesn’t need high pressure hose-cleaning. The next phase of development at the Hub will be an agribusiness centre to provide facilities for training, education and farmer events, as well as office spaces. This will enable the Hub to meet another of its objectives – to provide a central point for the local community to meet and share information on dairying. Not everything at the Hub was the newest and latest equipment. Stephen Gill of Gill Repairs was involved at the outset, bringing old tractors up to speed and renovating the silage wagon. “They’ve got newer gear now, but we still have an involvement with any minor repairs required,” he says. The houses Jennian Homes built for the dairy Hub project were a great project. The manager’s house is a 220m2 home including three bedrooms and an office and heated with a heat pump and a free-standing fire. All windows are double-glazed and the walls and ceiling arecall well-insulated. It features brick cladding for low maintenance and a great Colorsteel long run roof. The workers’ house provides accommodation for two single people, with two bedrooms and two ensuite bathrooms straight off the bedrooms. It also features a great communal area with a lovely new kitchen. It also features brick cladding and plenty of storage in a lock-up room off the carport.

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THE SOUTHERN DAIRY HUB

Coast & Country

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BEST AG

Page 26

Coast & Country

One-person

milking a reality Sue Millar & Josephine Reader

Shining bright in the winter sun, Graham Best’s new dairy.

Son Josh (now farm manager) and father Graham Best at the shed.

A turnkey build led by Waikato Milking Systems has delivered Graham and Avril Best a new shed that is outﬁtted with labour-saving technology and only needs a single milker. In 2014, they purchased their 230ha (220 effective) farm from Solid Energy which was divesting property around Mataura and Gore. There were two herringbone sheds at either end of the property, which used to be three separate farms and they were in the wrong place and the wrong size for the Bests’ 550-cow herd. So they, along with their son Josh Best who is the farm manager, set about identifying what they needed from a new shed. They visited other farms and investigated options from different milking plant suppliers. They looked at optimal herd size – now and in the future – considered different shed layouts, different technology, and at the end of that process, knew what they wanted. Research completed, they decided on a 54-bail Orbit rotary, with a turnkey installation led by Waikato Milking Systems.

The new 54 bail rotary ready for action.

“The best thing about our new shed is that it’s the right size for our herd, and it’s centrally located. We’ve halved milking time and the longest walk to the shed, which used to be 3km,” says Graham.

Complete build On turnkey builds, Waikato works with experienced and trusted local suppliers to deliver a fully complete shed. Builder Paul Warren designed and built the Bests’ new dairy, and Cowley Electrical Dairy and Pumps completed the electrical ﬁtout, installed the milking plant and designed and installed the dairy’s efﬂuent management system. With Waikato Milking Systems SmartECR automated cup removers, and automatic teat spraying via the SmartSPRAY in-bail units, milkers do the cupping and the shed takes care of the rest. The programmable, automated SmartWASH system cycles through pre-programmed acid, alkali or sanitiser washes, which can be easily adjusted via the touch-screen as needed, and again keeps milker involvement to a minimum.

“One of the main things we were looking for was a shed that one person could milk in, and we also wanted plant that we could add more functionality to as we needed,” says Graham. Area sales manager for Waikato Milking Systems, Darrin Mills, says the beauty of the Waikato milking plant is that farmers can buy what they want, when they want it, and adding new devices to the system down the track is simple.

Shed usability important The Bests were milking in the new shed just before Christmas 2017. Builder Paul Warren says the Bests’ shed is pretty much the standard for today, but significantly different to the standard 10 years ago. “Usability is the big word now, meaning ease of cow flow, incorporated vet and AI tables and generally much better flow though the yard and shed. Developing technology has driven a lot of the changes.” Functional Acraflex specialised paint coating applied to internal concrete walls is one of many features that improve usability in the Best dairy. Applied by local licensed applicator, BB Cunninghame Ltd, Acraflex is applied in seven layers and provides protection against shed chemicals deteriorating the concrete surface. It is very easy to keep clean.

Automated drafting Labour-saving automated drafting was a must-have for the Bests, and they went with Protrack Draft.

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Page 27

Nind’s Andy Nesbitt with LIC Automation’s Protrack Draft system installed on Graham Best’s new dairy.

Best Ag

Farm manager Josh has found the three-way drafting system easy to use and says the ability to do drafts in real-time from either the screen in the shed or his phone is really handy. Milking happens and drafting is taken care of and it’s one of the best things about the new shed Graham reckons. “It’s basically like having another set of hands. Once you’ve input the drafts, it pretty much takes care of itself.” Protrack Draft also offers the ability to effectively manage animal movements on farm using the ‘animals to be drafted’, ‘drafted animals’, and ‘missing animals’ reports, says Natalie Wilson from LIC Automation. “These give you insight into your animal movements and help you plan and manage these. If animals are missing, you will know about it as soon as milking is ﬁnished so you are able to act immediately.”

Buddy Controllers Phil Finnie.

Sophisticated management The new dairy’s effluent management was designed around utilising the existing weeping wall effluent processing, which was built less than 10 years ago, says Ken Humphries from Cowley Electrical Dairy and Pumps. A new 30,000L sump was constructed and from there effluent is either pumped to the farm’s new travelling rain gun irrigator, or it moves to the weeping wall to separate liquids from solids. Effluent discharge from both the irrigation line and rain gun irrigation is monitored by several buddy units, supplied by Buddy Controllers. The controllers provide a failsafe monitoring system and allow the Bests to demonstrate compliance with their resource consent. A new Gator Buddy was added to the existing Pod Buddy monitoring system that the Bests

Farm Manager Joshua Best, Farm Owner Graham Best, Cowley Electrical Dairy and Pumps, Ken Humphries and Phil Shields. already had on the current pond, says Phil Finne of Buddy Controllers. “We supplied a complete Efﬂuent Buddy control panel which incorporates the motor and stirrer starters as well as pressure and level controls and added the Gator Buddy monitoring to this. “We altered the Pod Buddy system to allow valves to go in for the green water recycling back to the yard or out to the pods, as well as a level sensor in the pond.” Josh and Graham can access data from the Buddy Controllers through the Buddy Data system from a phone, tablet or the cowshed ofﬁce.

Peace-of-mind Tru Test Vat Manager gives the Bests’ conﬁdence that their milk cooling meets regulations says Braiden Paterson, Tru Test area sales manager. Vat Manager monitors milk inlet temperatures

in the 30,000L silo, which allows evaluation of pre-chilling performance. Vat Manager also logs milk temperature at the start, during and end of milking and cooling and vat volume data can be viewed via the online portal using a smartphone or other internet-capable device. Milk temperature alerts are delivered to the Bests via text message. Vat Manager continues to monitor temperatures for up to 24 hours even when the power is off, which enables Graham or Josh to make an informed decision about whether dumping milk is necessary if there is a prolonged power outage. “This is the ﬁrst shed we’ve built. We’ve learned a few lessons along the way, and despite the fact that I’d do a few things differently knowing what I know now, it was basically a good process and we’re delighted with the shed,” says Graham.

TC DAIRIES

Page 28

Coast & Country

On the way to

ownership

T C Dairies

Sue Miller and Helen Wilson

Kathy and Dale Turnock. The yard gate keeps the mob moving through the shed.

Dale Turnock and his wife Kathy worked as contract milkers for nine years on a Centre Bush farm about 40 minutes north of Invercargill. Owners Russell and Carol MacPherson then offered them the opportunity to purchase their run-off at Tussock Creek, 15 minutes north of Invercargill, under an equity partnership. It was too good an opportunity for the Turnocks to turn down, and they jumped at the offer. They now own 47 per cent of the farm, with the previous owner (and now good friend) holding a 53 per cent share. They were delighted when the offer of an equity partnership came and, after due diligence was carried out for the bank, contracts were exchanged.

100 per cent With good farming practice and support, Dale and Kathy hope that in 10 years their equity will increase to one hundred per cent, making them outright owners. Dale had been farming for a number of years, initially on a beef and sheep farm where he met Kathy. They travelled to the

UK to visit Kathy’s family, who also comes from a beef and sheep farm in South Wales. When they returned to New Zealand, they made the move to dairying in 2000. Dale describes himself as “ just the boy” on the dairy farm in those days. Since then, the Turnocks have progressively worked their way up the ladder. They moved up to a position as herd manager on a dairy farm in Gore, then a two-year stint as farm manager, and the next step was contract milking for two years. Through farming, Dale met up with Centre Bush farmer Russell Macpherson and they started with him as contract milkers nine years ago, milking 430 cows. As part of the process, they had to build a new dairy shed on the farm. They chose a shed built by Milne Building Contractors from Invercargill. The 60 bail build has a nice light and roomy area that houses the rotary platform with ease as well as the assortment of rooms which compete the structure. The walls are made from Poly panelling which are brilliant for ease of cleaning. They decided on the features they wanted, researched options, and decided to go with a DeLaval 50-bail rotary shed. Dale was

The new rotary in action. comfortable working with DeLaval equipment in the past and had very positive experiences with them on the design and build of the dairy shed. Dale and Kathy had a very good idea of what they were wanting in a new dairy shed and their past experience milking in many dairy sheds meant they knew what worked well and what didn’t.

User-friendly DeLaval took on board their thoughts and ideas, and Dale and Kathy have ended up with a very user-friendly 50-bail rotary that incorporates milk metering, platform ID, automatic cup removers and plant wash system, auto-drafting and walk-over weighing There is also an on-deck DeLaval teat spraying system and two IDD touch screen units with one at cups on and another at the fold-down vet platform. The touchscreen provides full interaction with the platform and shows live information from each cow, such as quantity of milk or any health issues as she is being milked. The cow can then be drafted out if they require further attention. a iN &

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qua lity paSturE SEED

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TC DAIRIES

Page 29

The GJ Gardner Southland home under construction.

The massive efﬂuent settlement tank.

The new rotary ready for action. “All this, combined with the Delpro herd management system linking the whole dairy shed together, makes it a simple-to-use, quality high-spec shed that TC Dairies and we are proud of,” says Dale. BB Cunninghame Ltd has the licence for Acraﬂex, which is an epoxy resin ideal for covering the concrete walls in the dairy shed. The coating looks good and is easy to keep clean. Just a quick wash down with the high pressure hose gets all the muck off. It can applied in commercial buildings, swimming pools and dwellings.

Two million litres The Kliptank effluent tank – 2m high and 37m in diameter – holds two million litres of liquid. It was installed onsite, complete with a DeLaval stirring system which works well to prevent crusting. The capacity of the tank also makes effluent management more efficient. Kliptank tanks can be sited anywhere on the farm provided there is a flat base. They are aesthetically pleasing as there is no uncovered hole in the ground. The couple also have a brand new four-bedroom home on the farm, close to the new dairy shed. A lot of fencing was

The new rotary with the blue teat sprays.

added, drains dug, hydrants for the irrigator installed in every paddock, and new lanes laid around the farm for easy access to the dairy shed. The farm is 178 hectares, all dairy apart from four hectares of fodder beet. The opportunity later came up to purchase some additional farmland near by as a run-off. The couple are wintering a herd of more than 520 Friesian/ Friesian cross cows. Dale believes that is a good-sized herd for the farm and doesn’t plan to increase the numbers by very much. This year the cows will start calving in August. Dale is supplying milk to MyMilk, a Fonterra initiative set up for farmers who are ﬁrst-time dairy farm owners. They don’t have to buy Fonterra shares for up to ﬁve seasons, although they can at any time. It’s a great way to move into dairy farm ownership without the added share purchase costs, says Dale.

All the modcons The Turnocks wanted a modern house with features that would accommodate their farming requirements, such as a covered area for gumboots and wet weather gear. They chose a GJ Gardner Southland home.

This house is a brilliant example of a modern-style country home. Clad in Firth 10 series architectural brick with features of Linea weatherboard, it is visually appealing and low maintenance. The skillion ceiling throughout the main living area has an instant presence, and a Yunca Xander wood burner and two Daikin heat pumps mean Southland winters are not an issue. There is a family-sized kitchen and walk-in pantry, with acrylic stone benchtops. The most obvious feature in the kitchen is the custom-made glass splashback which was created by a friend of the family. The main bathroom features an Englefield spa bath and creative use of wallpaper in the hallway and bedrooms adds personality to each room. Since New Farm Dairies visited the Turnocks had a house fire in another house on the farm and had to replace the dwelling. They had no hesitation in getting GJ Gardner Southland to build the replacement. “We had such good service from them first time round that we didn’t consider anyone else,” says Dale. By grasping opportunities as they come along, taking risks and working hard to achieve their goals, this couple are well on their way to farm ownership and a brand new, efficient dairy shed will help them get there.

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Page 30

125 years

ROSEDALE DAIRIES

of farming

The new 64-bail rotary in operation.

Sue Miller

The English family is synonomous with farming in the Dipton area, having worked the land for more than 125 years. In fact, their local road is named after them. Louis English is the ﬁfth generation of his family to farm there, and he hopes that one of his three children, Harriet, 5, Robert, 3, and Angus, 2, will decide to follow the family tradition. If one does, that will make six generations farming on the same land, a rare occurance in New Zealand. No pressure there kids! The family has been farming in Dipton since 1895, when Louis’ great, great grandfather arrived there from Ireland via the goldﬁelds. They started a beef, sheep and cropping farm, and the following generations of family continued farming successfully until 1995 when his father made the bold decision to convert to dairying. He built a herringbone shed, built up his herd, and at that stage was the only dairy farm in the Dipton area. Several years ago Louis and his wife Angela bought the adjoining farm and set up an equity partnership with his father. The 40-bail shed was too small and in the wrong place for the new combined farm, and so they decided the time had come for a

new, modern dairy shed. His father’s farm was 347 effective hectares and Louis added another 193ha. The stock are wintered over off-farm and the old dairy shed has now been mothballed. Louis is drying 550 cows over winter, largely in an on-farm winter barn, and grows kale on the farm for winter feed. He plans to increase the stock numbers to around 980 by next season, continuing with predominantly Friesan or Friesan/ Jersey cross.

The new list He carefully drew up his list of speciﬁcations for a new dairy shed and invited tenders from three suppliers. He made his decision on which company to go with and the new 64-bail rotary shed was completed and handed over in time for this milking season. Based on his observations and his previous positive experience with the same brand, Louis selected a GEA shed, to be constructed under a turnkey arrangement with Nind Dairy Services. “We looked at the longevity of the machinery, liked the simplicity of the design and this, combined with the positive relationship with Nind, made it the right choice,” says Louis. GEA and Nind Dairy Systems have worked with the wider

Coast & Country

Louis and Angela English with their children Angus, Robert and Harriet. English family often in the past, so Louis understood the platform technology and chose to go for 64-bail iFLOW platform, which has the beneﬁt of nylon roller and twin beam technology.

Washing during rotation The seven-port wash gland means the plant can be washed while the platform rotates – a great timesaver. Another advance is iCORE milking point management, this intelligent control unit integrates functions of individual automation components, to centralise them into one simple system. iCORE offers centralised programming of the automatic cluster remover to personalise milking settings for optimal milking performance. the software to personalise milking settings to ensure cows are milked to the level required. The bail retention component enables any cows that have an abnormal milking, such as a cluster kick-off, to be presented back to the operator under alert for assesment. An aquaCHILL milk cooling system was installed to meet the new maximum milk temperature regulations. The unit’s power efﬁciency and ability to heat water also mean running cost beneﬁts.

ROSEDALE DAIRIES

PH 07 578 0030

Page 31

Nind Dairy Services’ Logan Barnett, Andy Nisbett, Tristan Whitaker and Nind Dairy Services Nigel McClymont.

Rosedale Dairies Nind Dairy Services’ Logan Barnett and plate cooler with two milk filterers. The iPUD 2000 installed is the GEA in-bail teat spray system that ensures cow teats are sprayed at the optimum time after the cups are removed. The adjustable dose rate gives flexibility to use less spray at different times of the year. Nind designed and installed the effluent system to incorporate GEA flush valves controlled via the Nind-designed Floodwash controller complete with colour touchscreen display, EYS separation system and multi-direction effluent irrigation system. Pre-programmed with automatic wet-down of yard prior to milking and one touch sequencing of valves to provide a full clean of yard postmilking, the flood wash system utilises green water from the effluent separation process. The solids are removed and the liquid water is then used to fill the flood water tank. It keeps the yard clean and minimal hosing with fresh water is required. Meaning reduced

fresh water use. And the multi-stage stock water pump provides reliable supply of dosed water via the solu-dose nutrient injection system, also installed by Nind.

Smart feed system A very smart feed system inside the shed, installed by Nind Dairy Services, has a PPP control system that recognises and does not supply empty stalls, and if an individual animal is going around for a double lap. Supplying the feed buckets is a large silo – 57m3 with a 60-degree cone and bag out chute – with a standard 350 auger line into the shed. Stainless steel trays come with two drains plus, complete with bolt-on hot-dipped anti-robbing bail dividers and underneath tray supports. All the yard welding was done by Dipton Engineering, a local farm engineering company for who the milking shed has become a

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Rosedale’s contract milker, Jeff Orr with Nind Dairy Services’ Nigel McClymont and Tristan Whitaker.

familiar environment. The shed has its own 3600L septic tank installed by Ian Goodman Plumbing, which handles the toilet and hand basin for staff – this goes through a biofilter and tiled effluent field. The specialised Acraflex dairy shed finish was applied by BB Cunninghame Ltd. The pliable but durable ‘paint’ is easy on man and animal while being acid and alkali resistant. It was designed to meet the modern dairy environment and can be cleaned without the use of high pressure hosing. All the excavation work around the site was done by Central Southland Excavation.

Kiwi ingenuity A couple of smart pieces of Kiwi engineeering round out the new complex. LIC Automation’s portable Protrack Draft system can be run off an app on a phone or

Nind Dairy Services’ Andy Nisbett, with LIC Automation’s Protrack Draft system.

tablet. It can be programmed to automatically draft pre-programmed animals using their ear tags as recognition as they walk through the assembly, and there is also a remote control function for instant drafting. Simple reports can be generated. The backing gate was installed by Winton Engineering. Louis also incorporated The Wrangler into his shed. The mobile unit features a collection of belly and leg straps that safely isolate the cow off the ground, making hoof inspection and some other vet checks safe for both farmer and animal. It comes in a variety of styles and add-ons developed over the past two decades, making custom-design possible. It can also be used for births. Louis says the new dairy shed is a massive step forward from productivity, stafﬁng needs, ease of use, and efﬁciency perspectives. He is delighted with it!

TEESDALE

Page 32

Switch

Coast & Country

to Dairy

Sue Miller and Helen Wilson

The herdhomes that provide protection from the worst of Southland weather.

Jeff Mann graduated with an accountancy/ economics degree from Otago University and got a job in an accountant’s ofﬁce. However, he soon realised that an inside job was not for him, and he eventually made the switch to farming, a decision he has never regretted.

his parents’ dairy farm in Southland. One of the first things to consider was the availability of water for irrigation. As soon as he located a bore that would provide adequate water for his projected needs, particularly in drought or semi-drought conditions, he made the decision to go ahead. He lodged an application for approval for a dairy conversion with Southland District Council and Environment Southland. It wasn’t a fast process. That was the start of a lot of research and decision-making. He was looking for a 54-bail rotary dairy shed, an effluent system that would meet stringent environmental requirements, an effluent pond, and a herd home for wintering dairy cows over, or for use during unpleasant, unseasonal weather. He visited a number of dairy sheds, looked at different makes and what they could each do, and decided on the best location for it.

He worked on a variety of different types of farms over a number of years, and about eight years ago bought a sheep and beef farm in an equity partnership in Waipounamu, north of Invercargill. The farm is 216 hectares and worked well as a livestock farm.

Make a decision

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Four years ago he started investigating the possibility of converting the farm to dairy. The payouts for dairying were good at the time, the land was suitable for conversion, and over the years he had some experience of dairy farming, including working on

and more...

Efﬁciency

Production

Jeff decided on Winton builders Baz Janssen Building and Engineers to build the new dairy shed. Baz and his team have a lot of experience of designing and building dairy sheds. It was a good decision as the result has been outstanding. Ground work started in March 2017 so they were able to start milking for the 2017-2018 season.

Requirements meet Jeff decided on a Read milking machine and a DairyBuild South dairy shed which he felt met his requirements. Farmers have trusted Read Milking Systems for generations. Being in business for 96 years, the Read family have been listening to four generations of clients. Read Milking Systems are simple to understand and easy to operate, making Jeff’s decision to go with Read an easy one.

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TEESDALE

Page 33

Teesdale

The rotary in action. Note how the teat spraying ﬂoor panels force the cows to stand with their legs far enough apart for optimum spray coverage. A single user can operate the rotary dairy system twice daily with only minimal servicing requirements. The system comes with Read slide pulsators which are easy on the cows and easy to maintain as there are no electronics. “The Read Milking System we supplied for Teesdale farm is a 54-bail rotary, ensuring a reliable, robust and practical system,” says Philip Read, sales manager for Read Industrial Ltd.

The installation The Read Milking System was installed by Shane Simpson and his team at DairyTech South, providing a seamless project delivery and successful outcome. DairyTech South, in conjunction with DairyBuild South, project-managed the whole installation. Shane says the company was very happy and proud to be involved in this build for Teesdale.

Jeff Mann with his constant companion, Milo, a Swedish Vallhund, renowned as cow dogs in their homeland.

Waipounamu Contracting operations manager Jason Hawker on site at Teesdale.

The epoxy resin covering is acid and alkali-resistant and easy to keep clean. It also has a ‘soft’ feel to the ﬁnish, making it easy on the animals.

The milk storage area with its insulating cover. The small vat is for calf milk, not collection. “Jeff Mann and his team were great to work with and we are also delighted with the turnkey package we provided.” The 54-bail rotary is a robust and strong plant that will give many years of trouble-free milking, as it is supplied and installed by a group of experts that specialise in their own fields. The complete package was specifically chosen for its high quality and excellent performance. Shane says farmers appreciate the reliability and ruggedness inherent in all Read Industrial milking systems. All sheds get a real work-over from cows over the years so a lot of farmers today are opting for the Acraflex finish, as applied on this shed by BB Cunninghame Ltd.

Winter time Dwayne Stevenson Builders from Invercargill built the wintering barn. “Every farmer has a special request to assist him on how he thinks he will manage the barn. It may be drains running in the pits, steel pipes to slide gates on, or even a sump in the pits to have the pump below floor level.” “I chose a Herd Home as the wintering barn because of flexibility of feeding. The feed is easily available to the cows. Also the cows look cleaner than some barn systems and it was a third of the price compared to other wintering barns. I also like the idea of spreading the dry effluent (humus) on parts of the farm to get results from,” says Jeff. The Herd Home is big enough to hold 400 cows, the size of Jeff’s herd, and will limit pugging during the season’s shoulders. Using the Herd Home means the season will be extended and there will be less damage to the pasture.

Take control of the seasons

See the new and improved design. More loafing space, increased effluent storage and a stronger roof. Ask the farmer why they picked HerdHomes® shelters and see for yourself how it is working out. Make your own mind up.

Contact us about an on farm visit in your area www.herdhomes.co.nz 0800 HERDHOMES (0800 437 346) NZ Patent Numbers: 521150, 544190, 550635, 545042. Further patents pending. International Patent Numbers: 2003267874, 03748807.9. Further patents pending

Page 34

Taking over

ARNOLD

Coast & Country

from the old guard Lois Natta

The new dairy shed is well sheltered.

Lisa and Mario Arnold are thrilled with their new shed.

Mario and Lisa Arnold are fourth season owners on this 90-hectare Broadlands dairy farm. Prior to their purchase, the farm had been one of the original ballot farms owned by the same family for 60 years. Joan, the only remaining family member from the original family, decided to sell the farm after her husband passed away. For Joan it wasn’t about the money; it was about selling to a young couple who were purchasing their ﬁrst farm. She decided on a suitable couple by way of interviewing them all to ﬁnd out about them,

Looking at the new shed from the tanker track

their family and their community spirit, and the couple chosen were Mario and Lisa. One of the conditions of sale was that Joan would be able to live out her remaining years in her own home on the farm. At 93 years of age, and despite being blind, she leads a very happy and content life. The farm is one of the oldest in the valley and was started as a sheep unit due to the raw pumice and scrub on the farm. For the past four years the Arnolds’ have been milking in the original 14-aside herringbone shed built by Joan’s husband 60 years ago. Fonterra advised that they would no longer

Gibson Construction’s James Cullen and Edward Amouta are proud of their highquality work.

take milk from the shed, hence the decision to build a new shed came about.

Ease of access Mario says he looked at another Gibson Construction shed locally and really liked the design and layout so opted to go for one of their sheds for the new build. The shed is a standard herringbone design, which has been clad inside and out with Colorsteel. Gibsons constructed the shed, erected the portals and rooﬁng, erected the kitset implement shed, installed the stone trap, and constructed the loading race. The shed has an undercover vet race to one side

of the bails, while the interconnecting store room and plant room are neatly tucked to the other side of the shed, incorporating an undercover walkway to access them. The store room is accessible via a door as well as a big roller door for ease of access in unloading big items. The high ceilings give a sense of spaciousness to this build. The shed is light and airy and has great air ﬂow for the hot summers in Taupo. The well-designed yard allows the cows to enter from the exit area and move down the side of the shed to the back of the yard.

Authorised Dealers

Phone 07 333 7304 For further information, contact Dave Camco Dairy Services Ltd 222 Reporoa Road, Reporoa dave@camco351.co.nz www.waikatomilking.co.nz

For further information, contact Dave Camco Dairy Services Ltd 222 Reporoa Road, Reporoa dave@camco351.co.nz www.waikatomilking.co.nz

Phone: 07 362 8433

ARNOLD

PH 07 578 0030

Arnold

Page 35

The Arnolds’ new shed is stunning. PPP’s new feed bins are a valuable asset to this shed.

Gibsons also organised all the drainage for the shed and all the way down to the 5m x 5m stone trap. The effluent from the shed makes its way down to the stone trap where the solids are filtered out by the weeping wall and sent to the solids bunker, allowing the watery effluent to makes its way into the pond. James Cullen is the manager for the Taupo branch and says that his guys were on the job from the foundations right to the finish, which is a huge benefit. The brick and block work in the yard and dairy were done by All Brick Services from Te Awamutu. Owner Darryl Kirk contracts

to Gibsons for quite a few sheds. All of the block work in the pit and dairy walls has been coated with Acraﬂex paintwork for ease of cleaning.

No more bucketing feed Lisa says in the old shed they used to bucket PK into the old-style meal feeders by hand for the morning and night milkings, so the new PPP feed system is outstanding and has made the whole job so easy. Having the feed bins in the shed also helped the cows transition easier into the new shed for their ﬁrst milkings. The Arnolds installed a standard HB in-shed feed system with the ability to feed as low as

Alan Moulder from Waikato Milking Systems and Hi-Tech Irrigation, Dave Goddard from Camco Dairy services, Mario Arnold, Edward Amouta and James Cullen from Gibson Construction. half a kilogramme to 4kg per drop with one dispenser per cow. There are continuous stainless steel feed trays fitted down each side of the shed with the trays being fitted in such a way the breast rail can still be moved in or out. The main delivery system from the silo into the shed is a model 300 auger coupled to a 1.5kw Nord drive unit. The 16-tonne silo is fitted with silo ladder safety guards and a sight glass to view the feed level in the silo. The silo has an automated PKE vibrator fitted and, with its own control box, the system automatically turns itself off when the silo is empty.

Before the auger lines enter into the shed an in-line mineral system has been ﬁtted, allowing the farmer to add in a wide range of minerals to automatically combine minerals in with the feed. The system has the capability to go as low as 20g/kg of feed.

Time freed up “Milking used to take two-and-threequarters of an hour in the old shed,” says Mario “In the new shed it only takes one-anda-half hours on my own, so it has freed up so much time. We can even get a relief milker now,” he jokes. “In the old shed we couldn’t get a relief milker; now they are all putting their hands up to milk for us.”

ARNOLD

Page 36

Coast & Country

So when doing this design we made sure it would suit our heights

The new shed is well set out with excellent tanker track in place.

TRAC’s refrigeration system.

In the old shed the Arnolds had to stoop down to milk the cows as the previous owners were shorter and had the pit designed for themselves. “So when doing this design we made sure it would suit our heights,” says Lisa. A Waikato Milking Systems design was chosen for the new shed, with Camco Dairy Services doing the installation for the job. A standard 24-herringbone Supa 4 system was installed by Dave Goddard and his team at Camco. The system has a BP200 blower vacuum pump with a variable speed smart drive, a variable speed milk pump drive and 320 claws. The Supa 4 offers operational simplicity for a faster, cleaner milking, coupled with a hurricane wash system for an effective clean-up. The 320 claw offers an unsurpassed milk

Mario Arnold and Dave Goddard of Camco Dairy Services next to the Waikato Milking Systems receiving cans. extraction capacity and is a lightweight and ergonomic claw. Camco also did the water reticulation in the shed. The shed is exited by a couple of Ezi-ﬂo pit gates, and the pit is also equipped with a manual drafting handle that makes drafting a breeze and enables a one-person milking.

Force to be reckoned with The all-important refrigeration side of things was contracted to Taupo Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Ltd. The owner of TRAC and Ice Force Dairy Ice Banks NZ, Lawry Bidgood, says his Taupo company designed, built and installed the stainless steel ice bank which has milk in the vat

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at six degrees Celsius or less. Also installed was a matching vat refrigeration unit to maintain temperatures to achieve Ministry for Primary Industries rules. Ice Force is the company’s premium ice bank system using stainless steel coils arranged inside a purpose-built tank for snap-chilling milk. This dairy refrigeration system has been designed and built locally in Taupo to meet the requirements of both Ministry for Primary Industries cooling regulations and the individual farmer. The main advantage of Ice Force is the ability to capitalise on available power to build the ice for pre-cooling, with the additional beneﬁt of the refrigeration load being greatly reduced.

PH 07 578 0030

ARNOLD

Page 37

The Hi-Tech efﬂuent stirrer in action. Alan Moulder starting up the Hi-Tech efﬂuent stirrer.

The Hi-Tech Cobra pivot irrigator in action. The Hi-Tech efﬂuent stirrer out of the pond. Mario says in the previous shed the old chiller units never used to cool the milk down in time. With TRAC’s system everything is chilled down by the time he has ﬁnished washing up.

Must-have effluent system The old effluent system had no storage which meant irrigation had to be done regardless of weather conditions. The farm was far from compliant, which was a major factor in installing a new effluent system. Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions, an accredited effluent design company, was engaged to design a fully-compliant effluent system. Matching an irrigator to the permeable soils of the area was a key concern. The Hi-Tech

King Cobra travelling rain gun with its low application rate keeps the nutrients in the root zone to minimise leaching and maximise nutrient uptake by the plants. A 70m spread width results in less irrigator shifts and an auto-stop function at the end of the run helps prevent non-compliance. A Progressive Cavity 7.5kw pump pumps from a lined pond and is controlled by a Hi-Tech Pump Controller. This innovative controller incorporates a variable speed drive for consistent pressure and provides a range of fail-safes including loss of prime, over pressure, pipe burst and can result in power savings of up to 50 per cent. Solids build-up in lined ponds can be a signiﬁcant problem. Hi-Tech has solved this with a new shore-mounted pond stirrer. Its cutting-edge design gets huge stirring effort

The Viking pond liner has fitted vents in case of a methene build-up. for modest power consumption. From a health and safety and maintenance point of view, keeping all the equipment shoremounted and nothing floating on pontoons is important. Camco, an accredited Hi-Tech dealer, took care of the install and customer training. Camco has its own trenching machine and staff dedicated to the effluent side of the business. The team performed all the field work, pipework and hydrant install for the effluent system.

Total reassurance The efﬂuent pond is lined with a Viking Geoshield High Density Polyethylene - known as HDPE geomembrane. The

membrane has high resistance to chemicals, is UV-resistant, and has a low permeability, making it a cost-effective choice to use. Viking ensured all seams were welded to provide total reassurance in the product. The design and installation of this liner has provided significant elements for the effective containment of the effluent pond. The liner is also fitted with vents in the event there may be a methane gas build-up.

‘Everything’ The Arnolds say that apart from getting home early and now being able to get a relief milker when required, they like “everything” about their new shed. They also love having a backing gate that works – in the old shed Lisa was the backing gate.

Page 38

LANDCORP BOUNTY

Coast & Country

Successful operation Lois Natta

Jamie Johnson is the manager on the Landcorp Bounty Farm.

Landcorp Bounty is the 14th forest-to-farm conversion for Landcorp. Wairakei Estate owns 25,000 hectares of land that Landcorp has a long-term lease on. At present the Bounty farm is milking 1130 cows with the plan of eventually milking 1600 cows. Looking back towards the new shed.

Solutions for farm technology Landcorp Bounty contracted Mainland Engineering of Taupo to install a 54-bail GEA standard design plant. Instead of dropping the cluster at the bridge and picking them up again at cups-on, the platform has the cluster ports coming out through the deck. The system has no automation; it is just the standard design, says Grant Coburn, aftermarket and service solutions manager for GEA Farm Technologies. The G2 bail, which is standard in sheds right now, is an integral component of this system. The platform is run on a heavy-duty double beam with nylon rollers and a concrete deck. Four-inch milk lines with stainless steel pulsator lines and iNTELSTART plant control-

ler are also included. Things such as variable speed vacuum pump drive, milk purge, and variable speed drive milk pumps to enhance efﬁcient cooling are all part of the functionality of the plant. The system is being future-proofed for further automation should it be required at any time in the future.

Large-scale macro water system The Landcorp Bounty dairy farm water supply is part of a large-scale macro water system that has been designed and implemented by AgFirst Engineering Ltd. The system supplies multiple operational dairy and dairy support farms on the estate. The water is supplied to the Bounty farm into cow sheds and stock water storage. The stock water is then pumped from this storage by a booster pump station, into the in-ﬁeld reticulation system. The stock water reticulation system has been split into a low and high pressure system due to the elevation variation across the farm.

FF RY E LUEN AI

’WOF’ RA

belts, with the other remaining paddocks having trees planted in them. Like all the Landcorp conversions, this one is well-laid out, incredibly tidy and a pleasure to visit.

Jamie Johnson has been with Landcorp for four seasons now on two of their other farms. This season he has been asked to manage the Bounty farm, which he was eager to do. Five staff members work with Jamie to help run this successful operation, along with Jamie’s wife Casey and mother Jackie who do all the calf-rearing. Jamie’s team is rearing 231 replacements this year and next year, when they upgrade to milking 1360 cows, they will rear 300 replacements. With all the conversions comes a substantial amount of riparian planting to put planting back into the farms after the forestry has been removed. There are lots of pockets of planting around the shed and all over the farm. Bounty is still in the developmental stage, with 510ha currently cleared and a further 800ha still to be cleared. There will be a lot of autumn sowing once the remainder of the clearing has taken place. Every second paddock currently has shelter-

N T O F FI TN

LANDCORP BOUNTY

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Page 39

Landcorp Bounty Craig Lowry is the national sales manager for LIC Automation.

The Landcorp Bounty team, from left, Seph Pirini, Jamie Johnson, Reece Goodley, Tom Vallance.

Davieth Verheih checking the pressure set points for the Weta irrigator.

Looking from the yard down to the effluent pond. This enables Agfirst to better match pipe requirements to the elevation and also offers power efficiency savings long-term, by running part of the farm at a lower operating pressure. Storage tanks are utilised within the in-field reticulation system at high elevation points to ensure redundancy within the system should a pump breakdown or a power outage occur. AgFirst Engineering Ltd is a leader in water reticulation system design and implementation which ensures that, with a large-scale system such as this, key considerations are taken into account. Even though Bounty is the last farm on the macro mainline, it gets sufficient water supply at peak demand periods when it is needed most.

Effluent management Davieth Verheij from AgFirst Engineering Waikato Ltd designed and installed the effluent system at Wairakei Estate for Landcorp Bounty – the 14th project the company has accomplished for Landcorp over the last four years. The effluent flows through an AgFirst-designed vortex sand trap and solids storage system prior to arriving at the 4700m3 liquid effluent storage pond. The pond is lined with HDPE by

Viking containment, complete with geotextile underlay, gas ventilation and leak detection system. The pond is agitated by 2x4 kW submersible pond stirring system generating a massive 4,000,000L per hour flow rate. The effluent irrigation area on this farm was very challenging. The effluent block is 120ha with the ability to extend up to 324ha. The height variation is 90m through the block and this, combined with the effluent volume from up to 2200 cows, meant a high-capacity, highpressure pump and pipeline system was necessary. “We had a Mono pump purpose-built for the duty in the UK. The pump is the largest known in the New Zealand effluent market with flows up to 40,000L/hr and pressure up to 14 bar (206 PSI),” says Davieth. Landcorp’s irrigator of choice is the Weta Irrigator developed by Davieth from AgFirst Engineering. Landcorp now has nine Weta Irrigators operating on its farms. The revolutionary Weta Irrigator turbine is driven by the effluent flow and hydraulic drive system. It’s the first travelling irrigator in the world to maintain its selected travel speed no matter where it is operating on the farm. The Weta Irrigator offers the least pressure loss, the lowest application intensity and is very low

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maintenance. It ticks all the boxes for Landcorp. Davieth is impressed that the pond is always empty. Jamie and the team at Landcorp Bounty really know how to manage their new system!

Specifically designed The installation and design of the refrigeration, pre-cooling and shed water system was completed by Qubik TMC and Qubik Putaruru. The primary cooling water was initially quite warm, up to 24 degrees Celsius meaning Qubik had to come up with an innovative design to pre-cool the milk and spread the loading throughout the day. A three-stage cooling system was duly installed. One plate cooler does the primary cooling and secondary cooling. Using the water on-farm and a chilled water system initially sees the milk enter the second plate cooler on average of 10-12 degrees Celsius, while the second plate cooler utilises a small glycol unit which has the milk enter the vat below ﬁve degrees Celsius. A heat recovery unit will have water into the hot water cylinders at 60 degrees Celsius, which makes for a far more efﬁcient set-up than cold water going direct into the cylinders and being heated.

Qubik are proud suppliers of Landcorp Bounty’s new milk pre-cooling system and water reticulation.

LANDCORP BOUNTY

Page 40

Coast & Country

The calves are comfortably housed in the shed built by Gibson Construction.

The Protrack drafter.

The wash room.

“We had to custom-make the system to comply with a large milk volume and high primary water temperature,” says Jason Hare, director of Qubik. Once the milk is in the vat, the standard expansion unit on each vat will maintain the milk temperature.” The install of all the dairy shed water system was accomplished by Qubik Putaruru. “The product used was a PE pipe (polythene pipe) that was ﬁtted underground because the dairy shed water reticulation was all fusion-welded,” says Mark Craig, branch manager of Qubik Putaruru and a director of Qubik. The wash-down is run on a multi-stage system which is efﬁcient on power and gives good volume and steady pressure when needed. Due to vat and shed size, two 800L hot water cylinders were installed, as well as three 25,000L water tanks.

Well thought-out design Gibson Construction put together a purpose-built 54-bail rotary shed for Landcorp.

The purpose built shed.

The design was a Landcorp design, initiated from the very first shed they built but with modifications and improvements put in place. The original sheds used to have a viewing platform which Landcorp decided wasn’t necessary, and was really only for looks. Another improvement was joining the office and staffroom together and utilising the one bigger space for both, which Jamie finds works very well. The shed also has the usual array of rooms such as the pump room, storage room, chemical room and toilet. The plant cleaning area is located in the back corner of the shed with a wall for division. The walls are constructed from reinforced concrete tilt panel followed by timber framing lined with slimclad cladding to wet areas. Gib board lines the dry rooms such as the staffroom and toilet. The walls to the “noisy room containing pumps” are insulated with noise reduction batts and pink batts to the staff/office and toilet areas. Having conventional timber frame allows services to be run

REE FELLERS BIG OR SMALL - WE DO IT ALL

within the walls, hidden from sight and leaving a clean ﬁnish. This also allows for more services to be run overhead, with easy access to these services by just unscrewing the cladding sheets for maintenance or to retro-ﬁt other services. This also allows for less of these services to be run underground and beneath the concrete.

Silos stand proud Standing proud and bold to the side of the yard are two 16-tonne PPP feed silos. They are ﬁtted with a sight glass to view feed level, as well as safety cages on the ladders. The feed system is controlled by a PPP PLC controller, with the auger line into the shed connected to both silos and powered by a three-phase 1.5kW drive unit. The system also has auto-miss sensors for empty bails and cows doing a double lap of the platform. Feed is dispensed into continuous stainless-steel trays, which are laser cut with absolute precision so they follow the breast rail around the platform. The trays have bail dividers to prevent cows robbing feed from one another, and the trays have a liftout section so access into the centre of the shed for maintenance is easily done.

Stewart Industries

EQUIPMENT HIRE & SALES // ENGINEERING REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE

ENGINEERING & DAIRY SYSTEMS

Office / After hours 07 377 2941 E office@mainlandeng.co.nz A 16 Miro S Office / After hours 07 377 2941 E office@mainlandeng.co.nz A 16 Miro Street Taupo

Greg Stewart

021 811 680 greg@stewartindustries.co.nz 38 Munro Road, RD7 Tauranga 3179

• Dairy shed milking plant and water systems • General engineering for the agricultural sector

ENGINEERING & DAIRY SYSTEMS • Feeding systems for herringbone and rotary sheds

Office / After hours 07 377 2941 E office@mainlandeng.co.nz A 16 Miro S

DEALERS OF: DEALERS OF:

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LANDCORP BOUNTY

Page 41

Mark Craig and Jason Hare from Qubik and Davieth Verheij from Agﬁrst Engineering in Waikato.

Looking down into the shed with the GEA platform and plant.

Next year Bounty farm will have 1360 milking cows. The feed tray supports and the bail dividers are all hot-dipped galvanised and are bolted onto the platform – there is no welding so this ensures the integrity of the platform is maintained.

Drafting capabilities The Bounty shed has installed a basic Protrack drafting system. This is an essential aid for drafting animals out post-milking. The drafter keyboard utilised at Bounty enables three-way drafting, ﬂexibility of when and where you create drafts (i.e. off their phone with the app), the ability to schedule drafts, remote instant drafting, and simple reporting such as missing and cows drafted. Craig Lowry, national sales manager for LIC Automation, says some of the advantages of having a Protrack drafting system are as a labour-saving device, enabling a bit of forward planning for some of the functions on the farm, and peace of mind to concentrate on milking without the worry of missing a cow for drafting. It is especially easy to do a quick draft via a cellphone.

“Entering cow numbers into the system can be done the night before and it is all set to go at morning milking,” says Craig. As a cow steps off the rotary platform and into the exit race, Protrack detects her electronic identification tag. At this point the cow is identified and drafted to enable a further action or activity with her, or simply returned to the paddock. Glancing at the Protrack monitor provides a real-time view of animals drafted and is much easier than trying to read the cows’ ear tags. Dairy Wall Coatings from Hamilton was the company contracted to paint all the blockwork. Greg manages the South Waikato agency for Acraflex NZ, based in Waiuku. Bounty’s milking parlour has been painted with the Acraflex Dairy Wall Coating System, which is an acid and alkali-resistant finish, making it easy to clean. No specialist gear needed – highpressure hose as usual. Acraflex meets the stringent standards that are in demand in the modern dairy farming environment and comes with a 10-year guarantee. Greg Fulton, who owns Dairy Wall Coatings,

says the acraﬂex coating is compliant, convenient, attractive and practical and has proven itself in hard-working environments throughout Australasia for more than 30 years.

Comfortably housed Penny Homes from Taupo has constructed ﬁve beautiful new brick homes for this farm. All of the houses are hi-spec and look beautiful. Good housing is such an important aspect of any dairy farm. In this day and age, farm workers do not want run-down houses that are cold and impractical. Landcorp is fastidious in providing top-notch housing for its workers. Penny Homes designs housing for Landcorp with speciﬁcs in mind especially for farmers, such as good design and layout, ample boot and wet weather storage area, good garaging and warm, inviting homes. The brick cladding provides a low-maintenance, cost-effective home, and the covered-in porches allow for boot and wet weather gear removal in comfort.

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MAUI MILK

Page 42

New

Coast & Country

milking ewes Elaine Fisher

Katy Day, manager of Waikino Station, with husband Jason and children, from left, Delta, Cody and Troy.

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Waikino Station on Lake Taupo’s western shore is the showcase for a new sheep milking venture.

The ﬁrst of a completely new breed of ewes are being milked at Waikino Station near Lake Taupo.

of Peter and internationally-renowned geneticist Jake Chardon. The breeding programme involved more than 2000 straws of French Lacaune semen and 450 UK East Friesian embryos, with backup by Awassi/East Friesian cross rams. They are the result of an innovative breeding programme to “Breeders have crossed East Friesian and Awassi breeds before,” produce a superior milking ewe, ideally suited to New Zealand’s says Peter. “But to my knowledge, no one has added Lacaune climate and farming conditions. genetics as well.” Peter Gatley, general manager of Maui Milk, says: “I believe The development of Waikino Station, home of the new milkthese ewes carry the ﬁrst dairy genes to be imported in a quarter ing complex, has been funded by the Maui Food Group Ltd - a of a century”. ROTARY The new breedIN-SHED will be FEEDING called Southern Cross and is theMOLASSES work AUTOMATIC &Shanghai-based marketing company. IN-LINE MINERAL DISPENSING

That company formed Maui Milk with joint venture partner Waituhi Kuratau Trust, which had pioneered sheep milking in the region in 2007.

Rotary platform The farm’s 64-bail GEA rotary platform is quite unique, as it has no physical bails, only headlocks and feed bins, says Grant Coburn of milking systems, robotics and dairy farming with GEA New Zealand.

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MAUI MILK

The other side of the feed belt.

Maui Milk GEA supplied six feed belts in the two barns. Grant has been heavily involved with Maui Milk for three years, including a 12-month stint with the install at Waikino Station. “In 2015 I travelled to France to meet genetics expert Jake Chardon and visited several GEA sheep milking operations in the Aveyron region in the south of France,” says Grant. “I believe this assured Peter Gatley and Jake Chardon that GEA a was very much in the sheep milking equipment market, and that the New Zealand ofﬁce was very committed to developing sheep milking equipment and support here. “Maui Milk worked with GEA to provide a solution tailored to their needs, and from that visit decided on the internal 64-bail rotary platform.” They also opted for rubber matt decking for comfort and quietness for the sheep. The platform can run continuously or with an electronic eye, so it only moves forward as each animal enters. “This is very good, especially when training new animals in the parlour,” says Grant.

Milking point management Cup removers and DairyPlan S21 software were also installed. iCORE, a New Zealand developed hardware milking point management system, was installed to relay information about milk yield and composition

Page 43

The new sheep dairy built by Barfoote Construction is a stunning sight.

for every animal to Dairyplan. Farm staff can also input all reproduction and health remedies into DairyPlan to give a total history for all animals. An adjustable height Ergo platform in the rotary pit was installed to ensure comfort and ergonomic efﬁciency for milkers putting cups on. An autowash for the milking plant and detergent supplied from FIL (GEA chemicals) is also part of the parlour system. Area manager Bede Murphy was involved with advising on the chemical programme to optimise cleaning the plant and milk silo. Snap chilling was added to have milk enter the vat at below four degrees Celsius, as milk is only picked up twice a week. Grant says GEA also supplied six feed belts in the two barns. “This allows 2000 sheep to be fed indoors in inclement weather or during very high temperatures,” says Grant. “They have meal feeders mounted above each belt so a feed-out wagon can pull up at the end of the conveyer. “A mix of meal and whatever other supplement is being fed can be added together. The belts also have headlock so animals can be shut out while feed is being loaded or locked in if there is a need to examine them.”

Refrigeration unit The on-farm dairy solutions company Tru-Test provided and installed the high-quality 5.5hp Patton Pak refrigeration unit for Maui Milk, along with the 16,000L milk vat and Polar Wrap

for vat insulation. Milk from the farm isn’t currently collected every day, so the refrigeration system and vat need to be of the highest standard to maintain the quality of the milk. Central Sparkies Electrical Contractors of Taumarunui wired and fitted the power supplies for the facilities at Waikino Station, including the milking parlour, lamb rearing shed, feed barns and implement sheds, says Glenn Mulgrew of CSL. “We ran cables for power points and LED lighting, feeders, water boiler, wash pumps and the milking plant,” says Glenn. “CSL also ran lines for diesel supply for a very big CAT generator which we supplied and wired it up for use as a back-up if the power fails.” The milking parlour at Waikino Station is more than a highly functional building – it’s also a work of art, says Trevor Barfoote, director of Barfoote Construction of Whangarei which designed and built the complex. “In its stunning location with native bush and Lake Taupo in the background, the building makes a statement,” says Trevor. Key to the Waikino Station building are the large arching concrete portals which define its shape and provide for a spacious, light and an open interior. The beams were pre-cast at the company’s Whangarei factory and trucked to the site where they were hoisted into place by crane. While the site presented no specific issues for construction, Trevor says extra engineering features, particularly for the foundations, were incorporated because it is in an earthquake zone.

MAUI MILK

Page 44

The Bustercover in-shed feed bins. Trevor says Barfoote Construction takes pride in designing and constructing rural buildings which are beautiful to look at, functional and pleasant to work in and intergenerational. “They will still look great in decades to come,” says Trevor.

Future-proofed system The farm’s effluent and irrigation systems, designed by HiTech Enviro Solutions, has been future-proofed to cope with the maximum number of milking sheep and to help protect the environment, says Sarah Hill, of business development with HiTech Enviro Solutions. It takes eight sheep to produce the same amount of effluent as one cow. “Because sheep effluent is different in volume and consistency to cows, we consulted research carried out by AgResearch in designing the system, taking particular care over the nitrogen and phosphorous content of the final effluent to be irrigated onto pasture” says Sarah. The pumps used in the effluent and irrigation systems have been designed to handle the sheep dung which also often includes some wool. Effluent from the pond is spread through a system of Cobra irrigators at a low rate, onto both hill country and flat pastures.

Coast & Country

Daniel Gorton, director of Reporoa Engineering. “We have matched the rate of irrigation to the soil type in different parts of the farm, and also designed the system so that effluent can be irrigated over the fence into a cropping paddock which may require more nutrients,” says Sarah. “This was a great project to be involved with, as was working with owners who did not want to do the minimum of what was required, but to meet best practice standards, taking into account the sensitive nature of the environment, and the need to protect the waters of Lake Taupo.” It was Modern Coatings which painted the entire dairy parlour. Owner operator Roger Farley says the area of the milking platform was painted with Acraflex fleck coating – a five-coat system which is long lasting, easy to clean and attractive to look at. “Acraflex also comes with a 10-year guarantee,” he says. Modern Coatings, which is based at Waiuku, also painted the staff facilities and offices within the complex using Resene paints.

of the sheep,” says Daniel. “This stops the gate being able to bulldoze the sheep and cause animal health issues further down the track. “The gate is also completely covered in plastic and ﬁtted with a wash system which works on the same principle as for cows.” Mainland Engineering and Dairy Systems are the GEA agents and installed the specialised milking and feed systems which feature in the high-tech dairy. “We’ve learnt a lot about milking sheep by being involved in this project,” says Daniel, who travelled with the GEA and Maui Milk team to visit several GEA sheep milking operations in southern France. “That was a great experience and helped with the understanding of exactly what is required for milking ewes.” Mainland Engineering also ﬁtted the feed conveyor belt system in the barns which adjoin the dairy.

Backing gate adapted

‘Flexible’ yards

Reporoa Engineering made changes to its conventional cow backing gate design for the sheep dairy facility, says Daniel Gorton, director of Reporoa Engineering. “We changed the breach sensor settings to suit the smaller size

ARC Engineering, Taupo, constructed and installed the yards which adjoin the milking parlour. Matt Nash says the yards are designed and installed to not only promote good sheep ﬂow, but also to be ﬂexible.

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Page 45

The two large animal shelters by Aztech Buildings.

The farm’s effluent and irrigation systems was designed by Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions. “Around two-thirds of the yards and gates can be removed and re-configured, either on-site or at another location,” says Matt. “Parts of the yards can also be removed to provide access for machinery to clean out the pens as required. “The yards are at 1m high to suit the size of the sheep and manufactured in galvanised steel box section, clad in aluminium for durability. “We also manufactured and installed a remote-control, handactivated drafting unit which enables staff to draft sheep as they exit the milking area.” Matt says this is the second large-scale sheep milking facility that Arc Engineering have set up, the first being for Spring Sheep Dairy.

Animal shelters Aztech Buildings constructed the two large animal shelters at Waikino Station. The footprint for each building is 70m x 27m, providing a total covered area of 3780m2, capable of housing 2000 ewes. “We had contact with Peter up to 12 months before building began, which was excellent because that meant we could work with other companies and planners involved to ensure we all got

New breed called Southern Cross.

Buster Cover supplied and installed the 16 tonne feed silos.

everything right,” says Aztech sales consultant Hamish Prestidge. “As with all Aztech Buildings, the engineer investigated the location, wind loading, topography and climatic conditions during the design stage of the project. “We take a personal approach to all projects, listening to what clients wish to achieve and working with them to meet those aims.” The two large barns, which are spacious, light and airy, won’t be used to house animals year round but to give protection from the elements, including winter rains and hot summer days when needed. They were ﬁrst used to lamb 2000 ewes in the autumn.

Feed systems Buster Cover of Matamata supplied and installed the feed systems for both the dairy parlour and the adjoining barns, says Bill King. “Two 16-tonne silos supply feed to the milking platform and a further two 16-tonne silos were installed alongside each of the large barns with auger systems to feed onto the conveyor belts inside,” says Bill. “We drew on our experience in manufacturing and installing fed systems for 90 per cent of this country’s milking goat dairy

farms when working on the Maui Milk project. “Buster Cover has a team of very experienced engineering and installation staff, so our customers can have conﬁdence that our silos and systems are ﬁt for purpose and safely installed.”

Agronomy advice Farmlands Taupo provided many aspects of service and products, including agronomy advice and seed for Waikino Station, says Jason Marriott, technical field officer for Farmlands Taupo. “We supplied advice and seed for 140ha of lucerne that first went through a crop of oats and annual rye grass,” says Jason. “We have about 23ha of plantain/clover on the hills that was put on by helicopter, plus approximately 30ha of permanent pasture and 30ha of sub clover/rye grass. “We have run trials with Rohan and Trojan grass species, which are suited to the conditions which can be experienced in Taupo’s Western Bays area.” Farmlands Taupo also supplied the materials for the extensive re-fencing carried out on the farm plus design and supply of a new stock water job on half the farm during its conversion to a dairy sheep milking unit.

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ROWE FAMILY TRUST

Page 46

New lease

Coast & Country Opaque polycarbonate sheeting is used as exterior and interior cladding.

on life Josephine Reader

A run-down farm has a new lease on life after heavy investment by Stewart and Elaine Rowe. Years of inattention had left the 97-hectare Woodville property in a bad way, and since taking ownership in 2012, the Rowes have invested heavily to get the property up to standard. A new race provides access to a previously unused 9ha of land, new fences have been erected and culverts installed to provide safer and more efﬁcient access around the farm, and a new dairy shed was completed in September 2017. The original 19-aside herringbone shed on the property was in such a state of disrepair when Stewart and Elaine bought the property that one of their ﬁrst acts as owners was to get a builder in to make urgent repairs to the dairy shed building. Within a week of settlement, they were also making repairs to the tanker track after Fonterra advised that pick-ups would be discontinued until remedial work was undertaken to get the track up to standard.

Difficult building conditions Building in one of the wettest winters in years provided real challenges for the team constructing the new dairy. Water was 200mm-300mm deep in places during the build, says Neil Macdonald from Macdonald Earthmoving, which forced him to complete building platform work in stages. Macdonald Earthmoving was initially supporting the work of another contractor and stepped up to complete the job when the original service provider was unavailable to ﬁnish. Neil was on-site on and off for two months before the building and site preparation work was complete.

The old dairy in the foreground and new 26-aside dairy.

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The Wrangler makes easy work of treating lame cows, says Craig Valler. The Rowes didn’t make things easy for themselves, because as well as building a new dairy on this property, they were also building a new dairy shed on another property they own at the same time. Elaine says in hindsight doing both sheds at the same time was a massive undertaking and isn’t something they are likely to repeat. It did however, provide good economies of scale and allowed Stewart to source products for both dairy sheds at the same time.

Family-friendly dairy The Woodville dairy shed was built to Stewart’s own design and it was important to the Rowes that it was both family-friendly and easy to milk in. Stewart’s design uses opaque polycarbonate sheeting for internal and exterior cladding. As well as being signiﬁcantly cheaper than traditional

cladding options, says Stewart, the material is virtually unbreakable and easy-to-clean. “Building inspectors loved the material,” says Stewart. After difficulty sourcing the polycarbonate sheets from New Zealand suppliers, Stewart imported the materials directly from China. He also sourced the dairy’s aluminium joinery from China at around one-third of the cost of New Zealand-manufactured product. The dairy includes an office, spacious milk room, shower and toilet and a fully enclosed children’s room, which is comfortable and carpeted for warmth. Both the walls and ceiling in the children’s room and office are fully insulated as well. A nib wall separates the milking parlour from the office and children’s room, which means that cows aren’t distracted as people move around. The farm’s 50/50 sharemilkers Craig and

Page 47

Farm owners Elaine and Stewart Rowe with 50/50 sharemilkers Craig and Jade Valler.

Snapchill sales manager Trev Maddox with Stewart Rowe.

A nib wall separates the milking parlour from office and other rooms. Jade Valler, who are in their second season with the Rowes, say it is great to work with owners who genuinely understand the needs of farming families. “They’ve created a shed that is safe for our young kids and one that we want to work in,” says Craig. As well as a modern GEA milking plant, the dairy is fitted with a host of extra conveniences – such as the waterproof speakers on the roof above the pit, and a children’s room fitted with a TV aerial – that make the shed great for milkers and their families, says Jade.

Efficient refrigeration A New Zealand-made 400 series Snapchill unit purchased in 2014 was one of the only things moved from the old shed to the new dairy. Snapchill units are entirely self-contained

and therefore very portable, says Trev Maddox of Snapchill. They are also cheap to run, he says, because they use off-peak power. The efﬁciency of Snapchill’s milk cooling before it enters the vat substantially reduces vat refrigeration running time, which is a further cost saving, says Trev. Analysis Snapchill commissioned on a farm that was changing out its refrigeration system recorded power savings of 121kW hours across hot water and vat refrigeration (recordings were taken before and after the installation of a Snapchill unit). This equates to savings of about $100 per week at current prices, says Trev. Typically, hot water is responsible for around 25 per cent of a shed’s electrical costs, so hot water produced as a by-product of the refrigeration process has a big impact on water heating costs.

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Page 48

ROWE FAMILY TRUST

Coast & Country

The dairy features a large yard.

Concrete in the pit is moulded for extra grip and safety. The Snapchill unit will produce between 3-5L of 82 degrees Celsius hot water per minute for every hour its running, says Trev. “It’s usually up around ﬁve litres, but you do get variances from site to site depending on water ﬂow to the heat exchanger,” he says. Because the milk is going into the vat so cool – around 5.5 degrees Celsius – a large vat refrigeration system was not needed, says Tim Rix of Tru Test. “A 6hp Real Cold unit was all that’s needed to be compliant here,” says Tim.

Milking is a breeze Stewart selected GEA milking plant, which was ﬁtted by local GEA installation and service partner, Angove Engineering. It now takes one person about one hour and a quarter to milk in the new 26-aside herringbone shed, says Stewart.

Angove Engineering installed the plant, completed steelwork in the yard, and did all the structural steelwork for the dairy building. They also installed the shed’s water and efﬂuent systems. Paul Angove says this offered a convenient single point of contact for Stewart for a lot of the work on the new dairy. Not only does milking take less time compared to the old shed, says Jade, it’s also a lot easier. Jade likes that the clusters are mounted on GEA iNTELARM swingarm system because it really opens up the pit area. The swingarm also provides superior cluster alignment, says GEA area sales manager Cameron Claridge. “It is designed to move left and right, which provides perfect cluster alignment every time, meaning cows are milked out efﬁciently while maintaining animal health,” says Cameron. Jade also enjoys the extra width in the

Automated dosing is a feature of the GEA iNTELWASH plant wash system. pit which means two people can milk comfortably together. “Craig and I can easily move past each other, which is a big improvement on the tiny pit in the old shed where we had to squeeze past one other.” The concrete ﬂoor of the pit has been moulded into a checker plate design for extra grip and safety. iNTELGEN provides centralised pulsation control, which means mode speeds are easily adjusted to suit. The rate and ratio of pulsation are fully adjustable with GEA equipment, so, for example, front and rear quarters can be set to differing ratios in order to optimise milking times, says Cameron. Paul says careful attention was paid to the height of the milkline in the pit during the plant install to keep vacuum at optimal levels. Getting this wrong can have a negative impact on plant performance, including increasing

Receiving cans are visible and mounted out of the way of the milker. vacuum requirements and power consumption. Milk is purged from the milk line into the vat by a slug of air before wash-down is started. This is a simple, yet great feature which easily pays for itself, says Cameron. Craig and Jade say the fully automated washdown is one of best features of the new shed. “It’s just one button to push and then we can walk away,” says Craig. Human error is eliminated with the iNTELWASH system, says Cameron. With 14 fully-adjustable wash programmes, a full week’s wash-down programme can be automatically executed without the need to select a single individual wash. This means that the correct wash is always carried out at the right time and with the right chemical dosage. “It’s one of the new truly automated washdown systems out there. All plant drains are automated, which means no taps to open or close at all,” says Cameron.

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ROWE FAMILY TRUST

Page 49

A vented door allows light and air into the pump room.

Cameron Claridge, GEA area sales manager; Paul Angove, Angove Engineering; Trev Maddox, Snapchill; Neil Macdonald, Macdonald Earthmoving; Stewart and Elaine Rowe; Jade and Craig Valler. The dairy has been built with an eye to the future, with the pit long enough to put in an additional 10 sets of cups if needed. GEA milking plant is modular in design and additional features can easily be added as time and budget allow, says Cameron.

Smooth electrical installation Stewart speaks highly of the responsiveness of Paul Finucane and the team from Kinetic Electrical Tararua. “Paul was brilliant. He looked carefully at what we needed and made recommendations about what we could do to save cost or make things future-proof,” says Stewart. “It’s my job to take as much hassle out of the electrical side of the build as possible,” says Paul. “It doesn’t start at the install – we organised mains power to the site, ordered the transformer and provided advice along the way. “The dairy was built to Stewart’s design, so we kept in close contact with him throughout the build to understand what he needed. Jobs like this always evolve, and it’s important to be

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available and stay in contact.” The main switchboard was located near the centre of the shed, providing shorter cable runs, and LED lighting was installed throughout the dairy, says Paul. Long running hours mean LED lights provide good power and cost savings over time, and shorter cable runs saved installation costs.

Large yard makes drafting easy Out in the yard, an extra-wide awning provides cover over the vet race, and there is plenty of yard space and pens for drafting, says Stewart, who jokes that he lost count of the number of gates in the yard. Craig and Jade both think the Wrangler Crush at the end of the vet race is great for treating lame cows. “It’s way better than using a head bail – easier, safer and basically less hassle,” says Craig. Stewart thinks they are great as well and ended up purchasing two units – one for here and another for their Taranaki property.

Tru Test area sales manager Tim Rix.

While the installation of the shed water system went to plan, the quality of water from the farm bore provided an unexpected challenge. While the quality of the water was acceptable for the existing dairy shed, Ministry for Primary Industries’ Code of Practice for the Design and Operation of Dairy Farm regulations require new shed builds to have water that is both free of E coli (absent in 100ml) and have a turbidity or cloudiness that does not exceed 5NTU. Upon testing, it turned out that neither treated rainwater, nor the existing farm bore water were up to the required standard. This means the Rowes are currently trucking water to the dairy’s two water storage tanks until a permanent resolution can be found. The new, modern dairy will not only help the Rowes and Vallers realise the full potential of this once run-down farm, it also provides a safe and appealing working environment for a farming family with young children.

D & D DAIRIES

Page 50

Coast & Country

Modern herringbone

makes milking quick and easy

An automated yard-wash system on the backing gate is a great labour-saver.

Josephine Reader

The dairy shed and yard are 81m from end to end. Greg and Trixie Duckett with children, Daniella, 10, Addison, 7 and Hunter, 3.

Bucking the current trend toward rotary dairy sheds, the Ducketts of Wairarapa opted for a herringbone to service their 300-cow herd. Greg and Trixie Duckett have been farming on their 82-hectare Featherston property in the Wairarapa for 12 years – the ﬁrst eight as 50/50 sharemilkers and the last four as owners. “When we purchased the property, we knew we’d have to do something about the shed which was at the stage of needing constant repair and it was really too small for the number of cows we’re milking,” says Trixie. The dated internal rotary was replaced with a new 30-aside herringbone and the Ducketts couldn’t be happier with their new dairy. One person can easily milk alone, and

milking time has reduced signiﬁcantly. Both Trixie and Greg agree that overall “it’s just nicer to milk in this shed. It’s quicker and easier too”.

Herringbone versus rotary While Greg would have preferred a rotary dairy shed, a herringbone was Trixie’s ﬁrst choice. “I like that you move around instead of standing in one place while milking. Also, there’s fewer moving parts so it’s safer for our kids who are often in the shed with us,” says Trixie. While rotary sheds are very efﬁcient for larger herds, says Cotter and Stevens’ DeLaval sales technician Mike Milburn, he believes farmers shouldn’t overlook modern herringbone dairy sheds for average to smaller herds. “A well-designed herringbone is just as

efﬁcient as a rotary and can be built for signiﬁcantly less investment than an equivalent rotary shed. The Ducketts are putting through 300 cows an hour. “A herringbone shed also allows you to get a second look at cows before letting them go,” says Mike. One of the best features of the new dairy, according to Greg, is the fully automated DeLaval C200 plant wash system. All we have to do is close the tap to the vat, press the start button and walk away, he says.

Swingarm system easy Cotter and Stevens, local DeLaval dealer, installed the plant which, as well as the automated plant wash, includes DeLaval MPC150 automatic cup removers complete with the DeLaval MidiLine Swingarm system. Milker and cow comfort, along with superior cluster alignment, are great beneﬁts of the

swingarm, says Mike Milburn. “The swingarm presents the cluster nicely to the operator and with comfort start means less fatigue for the milker. Cluster alignment is made easy because the swingarm moves to the left or right as needed for better placement.” Also, farmers don’t need to be worried about over or under-milking with this system, says Mike. “Because the swing arm enables excellent alignment of the cups with each udder, the clusters hang correctly which allows all quarters to be milked out evenly and faster. “There are different threshold settings, and the system is easily customised to the preferences of the farmer,” says Mike.

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Greg Duckett and Mike Milburn, Cotter and Stevens.

D & D Dairies The shed design houses pump equipment in a covered awning on the vat platform.

No more hand-held hosing Yard-washing is also efﬁcient in the new dairy, thanks to a series of high-pressure water jetters ﬁtted to the bottom of the backing gate. As the gate moves around the circular yard, water sloughs off muck and the need for hand-held hosing down is eliminated in the main yard. The Wrangler in the vet race is one of the few pieces of equipment that made it from the old shed to the new dairy and makes treating lame cows much easier, says farm 2IC Mike Barber. “Once the cow’s foot is up, it’s easy to treat,” says Mike. The Ducketts didn’t have a herd management system before and have installed Protrack Vector in the new dairy.

Protrack for herd management From LIC Automation, Protrack Vector provides automated three-way drafting combined with MINDA event recording and online reporting. As an automated herd management system, it records animal events like calving, heats, health treatments and dry-off – all from the shed.

The Duckett dairy is a 30-aside herringbone featuring DeLaval milking plant.

Protrack Vector offers three-way drafting.

Recording is really easy using the display screen in the pit, says Mike, and it’s great the way it works out things like withholding periods automatically. The Ducketts also use the mobile drafting app, which enables drafts to be recorded from anywhere on the farm using a smartphone. Protrack national sales manager Craig Lowry highlights that Protrack Vector can easily integrate with other automation products like EZ Heat and Body Condition Scoring.

Planning the new dairy The Ducketts looked at many sheds to better understand what was available before a visit to a new Pahiatua dairy convinced them that the right decision was a DeLaval Midiline in a precast concrete slab-style building. Cotter and Stevens played a big part in helping the couple through the decision-making process. “We wanted to know more about the quality of the milking plant, what lasted longer and what worked well,” says Trixie. “Cotter took us to see several sheds, talked over options with us, and advised on how we could save money without

Farm 2IC Mike Barber ﬁtting clusters to the jetters for wash-down.

compromising on quality.” “The shed building wasn’t the cheapest we looked at. But the finish is nice and it’s solid. We really like the look of it,” says Greg. The new 30-aside dairy is 81m from end-to-end and has been built with the future in mind. The pit is long enough for an extra 10 sets of cups, and the yard has been built to accommodate up to 600 cows. Greg says the cost difference of oversizing the yard now was much cheaper than needing to extend it in the future. Construction was interrupted by the February 2017 earthquake, which delayed the issue of building consents, so while concrete for the yard was poured in early-February, the first milking in the new dairy wasn’t until September 2017. A minor upgrade to the farm’s effluent management system was needed – wastewater from the shed is gravity fed to a new sump – before being moved to an existing storage pond or being pumped to the farm’s travelling irrigator. “From the time the cows enter the yard to the time they leave, milking is so simple now. We wouldn’t change a thing,” say Greg and Trixie.

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Organic growth Josephine Reader

Landscaping completes the new dairy.

Spending nine hours a day in the shed is a thing of the past for the Tasman Organics farm team, and manager Reece Bonnor couldn’t be happier. Two Landcorp-owned farms were amalgamated in 2016-2017 and the infrastructure in the 18-aside herringbone shed that serviced the larger property, while reasonably reliable, wasn’t well-suited to the bigger herd, says Reece. “It was originally 16-aside, but a couple of extra sets of cups had been retroﬁtted, and you literally had to stand on the steps to cup the last cows in the row,” Reece laughs. The ﬁrst year they milked 245 cows through the existing shed, and despite the dated infrastructure, Reece and his team still managed to exceed the 86,000kg/ms

production target by 10,600kg/ms. Now milking 310 cows, Reece and Tony Dowman, who oversees all the Landcorp-owned properties in the area, have set a production target of 115,000kg/ms for this season. Extending the existing shed was investigated, but it didn’t make sense economically, says Reece, so a new centrally-located shed was built.

Going organic The farm is part way through the threeyear process of becoming organic, which is expected to be complete by the end of the current season. It was a massive change, says Reece. “We’ve moved from being a system four farm to system one. “We grow maize and brassica on-farm, and

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Farm entrance at Tasman Organics.

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also plant 23 hectares of a plantain and red clover mix, which really proves its worth in summer. “Weed control is manual, and we’ve moved away from using antibiotics. “Our local vets have done some training in remedies suitable for organic farms, and we take more samples and do more blood tests than we used to, to help isolate bug type or missing minerals. That way we get the most appropriate treatment.”

Local build expertise The dairy shed – designed and built by local ﬁrm Rural Building and Engineering – uses long-lasting concrete as the primary building material. “A concrete shed will well-outperform other

building materials in life expectancy and strength,” says builder Paul Roberts. All of the structural steel building components and pre-cast concrete slabs used for construction are fabricated in-house, says Paul, and this means fewer suppliers and less hassle for the farmer as well as a more streamlined build process. Moving the location of the office – which is carpeted and has a boots-off area – was one of the few modifications made to the shed design. For ease of cleaning, and to protect the concrete from corrosive shed chemicals and cow muck, all of the internal walls in the milking parlour, milk room, pump room and office are covered with specialised paint coating, Acraflex, which is applied by Manawatu-based Surfatex.

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LANDCORP TASMAN

Farm manager Reece Bonnor.

Tru-Test refrigeration includes a vat wrap. The hi-build coating is applied in seven layers and includes a sealer coat. The coating is guaranteed for 10 years on new sheds, but typically lasts much longer than that, according to Surfatex’s Frits van Echten. The painted surface also keeps the shed looking smart, and builder Paul Roberts includes the Acraﬂex paint ﬁnish on all Rural Building and Engineering shed builds because “it’s a great product that lasts really well”. The shed was designed and built to also consider Tasman Organics’ future needs, says Paul. The milking parlour itself includes provision for an in-shed feed system to be added, and services were laid in situ to allow features such as a herd management system to be easily added in the future.

In the new shed Investment was focused on delivering a functional, modern dairy shed that would stand the test of time, and GEA got the nod to supply the new dairy’s milking plant and design the efﬂuent processing system. The team from local GEA service partner, Farm Supplies Cen-

Page 53

A Tasman Tanks above-ground effluent storage tank was the best option for the boggy soil. Farm Supplies Central Brian Ebert with farm manager Reece Bonnor and Letitia Hamill. tral, managed the installation and were very busy on this job, says owner Brian Ebert. “We installed the milking plant and effluent pumping system. We also designed and installed the yard flood wash and shed water. There are 14 people on the team, and most of them were involved with this build at one point or another,” says Brian. Brian points out one of the handy features of the design of the iC330 claw used in the 30-aside shed. The iC330 clusters have an elbow in the claw tube which shuts off the vacuum when the cluster is resting in the milker’s hand, says Brian. As the milker lifts the cup up to apply to it to the teat, vacuum is restored – but only to that cup. “The elbow means that vacuum isn’t leaking as cups are being put on. It helps maintain the integrity of the vacuum and stops a lot of cup slip,” says Brian. GEA’s swingover iNTELARM allows the milker to easily align cups to each cow, improving throughput and milking efficiency. The swingdown jetter line keeps jetters out of the way until they are needed for wash down. The iNTELPUMP milk pump controller, with different settings for milking and wash, optimises vacuum to suit the conditions.

One of the great things about the GEA milking plant is that its modular, and additional functionality like automatic cup removers, or milk meters can be easily added at a later date if needed, says, GEA area sales manager Cameron Claridge.

Storage above ground The 154ha farm is adjacent to the Manawatu River and is served by an extensive sub-surface drainage network to make the swampy land usable for dairy farming. Soil condition and water table issues meant that a traditional storage pond wasn’t the best option, so a two million litre aboveground steel storage tank from Tasman Tanks was selected. “Our tanks are well-suited to sites where there is a high water table,” says Greg Lilly of Tasman Tanks. The Tasman Tanks installation team built the 2.7m high polypropylene-lined tank on site in about 10 days. Tasman’s steel tanks are relocatable, and are used widely in New Zealand and also sold in Australia, says Greg. The tank has a 33m footprint and required a solid foundation. Earthworks for the tank platform and other site works were led by Brent Coad from Graeme Bagrie Contracting.

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The 34m x 20m yard is served by a floodwash system. Acraflex paint, applied by Surfatex, provides an easy-clean surface on walls in the pit. The extremely wet weather conditions during the build provided a challenging environment for earthworks which started in September 2017. All fill was trucked in from a nearby quarry, and raising the building platform was the first job that Brent and his team tackled. Earthworks were largely complete by October and Brent returned again in January to realign the races to the new centrally-located shed. The team from Graeme Bagrie Contracting also assist with regular cleaning of the property’s sub-surface drainage system.

Low maintenance The same GEA Houle slope screen efﬂuent processing is used on all of the Landcorp farms in the area, including Tasman Organics. “A slope screen is a passive, low maintenance system and the screen has no mechanical parts. Once efﬂuent reaches the slope screen, gravity takes care of the rest,” says Matthew Rice of GEA.

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GEA supplied the milking plant, which was installed by local agent, Farm Supplies Central. Tru-Test Vat Manager sends an alert to Reece’s phone if milk cooling is outside set parameters.

A sediment trap removes heavy solids and effluent overflows to a reception pit before being pumped to the slope screen. Solids fall to a bunker below the slope screen, and green water is gravity-fed to the main storage tank. The system is well-suited to the site because it allows Reece to use an efficient low-application rain gun irrigator, which is well-suited to the farm’s high-risk soils, says Matthew. Very little fresh water is introduced into the system because green water is used to flood wash the 34m yard. The floodwash system is one of the shed’s best features, Reece says, because it saves 45 minutes of hosing down every milking. “A hose is available, but we hardly ever need to use it.” Brian Ebert points to the unique valve design as the reason the greenwash system cleans the yard so well.

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Often the risers are installed upright, he says, but the Farm Supplies Central design calls for the pipes beneath each valve to be installed at an angle. “This maximises the pressure and achieves better velocity, and more momentum on the water means a better clean,” says Brian.

Meeting new regulations Milk pick-up will move to once every two days once the farm’s organic certiﬁcation is complete. The dairy is ﬁtted with a TT50 6Hp icebank designed to build ice in between milkings. “Cooled water is then pumped through the plate cooler to assist with milk entry into the

vat between five to seven degrees. With the Patton Pack 13Hp refrigeration unit, this will see the farm comfortably within the new cooling regulation,” says Tru Test area sales manager Tim Rix. The 21,500L vat is protected by a Tru Test Vat Manager which monitors milk temperature. “If milk is not down to temperature within the set cooling time or any other monitored parameters are outside specifications, Reece is alerted via text or email. It offers peace of mind.” The vat is also insulated with an energy-efficient Tru-Test Polar Wrap, which prevents milk temperature rises due to solar gain. “A wrap is a sensible investment for sites where milk pick-up is every second day. A fitted Tru-Test Polar Wrap can result in up to 25 per cent savings on chiller running costs when milk pick-up is daily. Savings are more significant when milk is collected every second day,” says Tim.

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SCHOUTEN

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Coast & Country

The dairy shed is expected to be completed for the start of calving.

Working smarter not harder

Amy and Arjen Schouten with their children Stella, 4, and Jacob, 7.

Josephine Reader

A desire to work smarter, not harder led Arjen and Amy Schouten to invest in a new 170ha West Eyreton property to expand their existing dairy operation. Already milking 1400 cows on their nearby farm, they expect to have 600 cows on the new property. Total herd size will reduce to about 1700 once the new dairy shed is up and running, says Arjen. The couple believe two smaller farms will take some of the pressure away because it will be a lot easier to run two medium operations, rather than one large one. Previously run as a drystock farm, the Schoutens have had to build their latest dairy operation from the ground up, including a new 60-bail rotary dairy shed with DeLaval milking plant and new efﬂuent management system. They plan to calve the new herd at their existing farm and then move them to the new property. While the new shed is expected to be ready for calving, the ability to milk them through the existing shed takes the pressure off, says Arjen. “It gives us time to get things right here at the new farm. “We have such a good team working for us, and that has

made it easy for us to expand. It’s also providing an opportunity for everyone to step up. One of our existing team is going to manage this new farm, which is great.” In contrast to the often quick staff turnaround in the dairy industry, the Schoutens’ longest-serving team member has been with them for 13 years, and several others have been around for 10 years.

Getting the dairy right Arjen’s brother Peter built a new shed a couple of years ago, and Arjen and Amy used this as the starting point for their build and used the same builder, Rural Building Solutions. “We’ve built a shed that we would like to milk in,” says Amy. Eliminating concrete lips that could be trip hazards, and measuring the height of their staff so that platform height was optimised to suit the main milkers are among the things they’ve done to get this shed exactly how they want it. One of the great features of the shed is that it has a 50mm freezer panel roof as well as freezer panel walls, says RBS construction manager Allan Deane. This reduces condensation and keeps the shed cooler in hot Canterbury summers and warmer in the winter, says Allan.

RBS provided the Schoutens with a full-site layout service, siting everything from the dairy shed to planned feed bunkers, says RBS managing director Nigel Hodges. “I like to ask ‘what if?’, so that the layout and design meet not only the current, but also any future requirements. “It’s much better and a lot less costly to plan for the possible future addition of feed pads and bunkers and the like, rather than add them in later,” says Nigel.

Taking the guesswork out After dealing with local DeLaval agent, Canterbury Farm Services, for the shed on their other property, it was a natural progression for the Schoutens to go with DeLaval for the new shed too. They opted for automatic cup removers, automated drafting, body condition scoring system, milk meters and DelPro herd management. The DeLaval automated body condition scoring system uses a camera mounted in the drafting area to take multiple photos as the cow passes through, and the system selects the best image for analysis. Multiple algorithms cater for different animal breeds, says Michael Burnett of Canterbury Farm Services.

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Page 59

Rural Building Solutions Terry Dejager, cuts grooves into the yard to create a non-slip surface.

Aakland Chemicals, represented here by sales representative Brent Dulieu, has been supplying molasses and minerals to the Schoutens for more than 10 years.

Rural Building Solutions Allan Deane and managing director Nigel Hodges. “The system provides really useful trend data, which is based on consistent, daily body condition score information for each cow. It takes the guesswork out of visual and physical evaluation of body condition.”

Optimising in-shed feeding In-shed feeding is an important part of many modern dairy systems, and DelPro can analyse the effectiveness of the feed programme and adjust feed rations in response to milk yield or other parameters – all of which can be used to optimise feeding and keep feed costs down, says Michael. New Zealand-owned Aakland Chemicals has been supplying Bovamag (molasses and magnesium) and minerals to the Schoutens for more than 10 years, says sales representative Brent Dulieu. “We’re proud to be supplying the Schoutens. It’s been good to build up a relationship with them over the years. It helps us understand their needs and allows us to be proactive.”

Rural Building Solutions Allan Deane, working on the building site.

Schouten

Variable speed milk cooling Varicool refrigeration, supplied, installed and serviced by South Freeze, provides energy efficient milk cooling. Variable speed technology means that that Varicool is cheaper to operate than other options, says Matt Cammock of Southfreeze. “Running costs have been verified in a study by the Energy Efficiency

Specialised Coatings Acraﬂex solution protects shed walls from harsh dairy chemicals.

Conservation Authority and heat recovery is a standard option on the Varicool units, so cost savings come through this as well.” Varicool logs its energy usage and efﬁciency, which can be viewed on a smartphone. Once milk is in the vat, the thermal gain due to ambient temperature is logged by the unit, says Matt. “Using this data we can tell how much it is costing per day to keep milk at holding temperature, which can help the farmer decide on the potential beneﬁt of using a vat wrap.”

Floodwash recycles water A floodwash system using green water from the effluent management system will keep the large yard and feed pad clean. Flush valves are automated to release a small amount of water to pre-wet the yard before milking, and a 22kW pump turns at low speed to move water to the valves, which open left to right across the yard to create the best flow for floodwash, says Shaun Bovey of Canterbury Farm Services. Centre pivot irrigation led the Schoutens to decide on a screw press separation system which is well-suited to extracting the maximum amount of moisture from effluent and provides the solids-free water that is required by the pivots. With the new dairy shed including the latest labour and energy-saving devices, and overseen by a long-serving team, the Schoutens will no doubt find it easy to realise their dream of working smarter, not harder.

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SNOWFED

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Coast & Country

Smart investment

Peter Gilbert in the yard.

provides a smart shed Josephine Reader

Snowfed Peter Gilbert has replaced a 36-year-old shed with a modern, functional 54-bail rotary with the latest technology to boost production and productivity. “Milking was taking too long. I wanted to improve production and have less time in the shed,” says Peter. A single person can now milk the 600-cow herd, which was impossible in the old shed. Peter employed a dedicated project manager to oversee the build on his 165ha Ashburton property and he believes it was money well-spent. “He saved us more than he cost us. He shaved thousands off the build cost by securing better

deals with suppliers, and he was very knowledgeable about dairying, offering us good advice on the best way to do things. “Using a project manager was really great. I’d deﬁnitely do it again. He got all the quotes, made recommendations and basically took a lot of the stress and hassle out of the process for us,” says Peter.

Savvy investment There was a strict budget for the build and all investment decisions were carefully considered, says Peter. “Where it made sense to re-use components from the old shed, we did that, and we invested in new components where it would deliver the best return.” The existing DX refrigeration unit was relocated from the old shed by Dairycool’s sales representative Lee Gilbert says proactive servic-

ing of the unit twice a year helped optimise its performance and ensured it was a viable option to utilise at the new shed. “With the cost of refrigerant on the rise, and more awareness around cooling performance and efﬁciency, regular servicing is becoming increasingly important. It can identify possible leaks before large losses occur, which obviously helps keep costs down,” says Lee. The in-shed feed system features two new GSI silos and feed milling capacity relocated from the old shed. Hinds-based PMR Grain Systems, which has expanded into dairy feed systems in the past ﬁve years, supplied the new silos and managed relocation of the old ones. “We had a short turnaround time to relocate, and had to work with height restrictions because the central pivot goes across the shed

roof, but it was a pretty straightforward move,” says Steve Sowman of PMR Grain Systems.

GEA milking plant Peter invested in a GEA simple modular iFLOW milking system, which is low-maintenance and provides efficiency and flexibility for growing operations. The system includes automated iNTELWASH plant and vat wash system, iPUD in-bail teat spraying and automatic cluster removers. The ability to either use milk flow threshold, fixed time (MaxT) of even a fixed point take off allows the system to be adjusted to ensure peak milking efficiency throughout the season. Peter also opted to install automated drafting, milk metering and the DairyPlan herd management system.

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The Grieve Construction-designed and built shed viewed from the yard.

Mark Bennett, GEA; Richard Niell, Stocker Solutions; Mark Jones, GEA and Sven Wiig, GEA working on milk meter installation. “Our investment was focused on features that would improve productivity and allow one person to comfortably milk alone,” says Peter. iPUD in-bail teat spraying not only uses less teat spray than wand-based systems, it also improves treatment effectiveness, says Richard Neill of Stocker Solutions, local GEA agent. Dump and fill milk meter technology measures volume to a tolerance of plus or minus five per cent, says Mark Bennett, GEA research and development manager. Mark was on-site to oversee installation of meters as Snowfed Farm was the first to have milk meters installed with the latest iCORE milking point controllers. For convenience, there are two DairyPlan herd management screens and one is able to be moved up and down so it is easily usable from either the raised vet platform, or from the lower cups-off area. Mark says the DairyPlan smartphone app makes it easy to examine data, view reports or even organise drafts from anywhere, anytime.

iCORE milking point controllers integrate the automated components in the GEA milking plant.

DairyPlan offers farmers outstanding information, says Richard. “Anything that can be measured can be reported on.” Peter’s son Nick Gilbert will be taking the lead on getting the best out of the new herd management system. “Things like scaling feed to milk yield, or preferential feeding to individual cows or groups of cows manage themselves once set up in DairyPlan,” says Richard.

Effluent ponds sited to suit Sustainable Water was engaged to design the shed’s efﬂuent ponds, which were precisely placed so wheels from the pivot irrigation system would pass on either side of the ponds. “We sized the ponds using the dairy efﬂuent storage calculator and drew up ponds in CAD to assist with site layout,” says Chris Gibbs of Sustainable Water. Once ponds were shaped and prepared, Viking Containment supplied and installed the

GEA milking plant including automatic cup removers.

geotextile layer was installed, followed by a HDPE plastic liner which was welded together on-site.

Getting the dairy built Fill from the ponds was used to raise the building platform, which needed to be elevated so efﬂuent could be gravity fed from the shed to processing and storage. Stuart Tarbotton Contractors completed all the site earthworks and tanker track and Peter says they pulled out all the stops to get the job done. “One day I counted about 20 pieces of their equipment here. They weren’t all being used, but they had people here when we needed them. They were absolutely great to work with.” Earthworks began in September 2017 and building on the dairy started in late-October. Structural steel beams manufactured by local ﬁrm, North End Engineering, form the skel-

The DairyPlan screen moves up and down so it is accessible from the raised vet platform or at cups-on level. eton of the Grieve Construction-designed and built dairy shed. The milking parlour is designed for herd and milker comfort with wide aisles around the outside of the platform and plenty of storage. Pumping equipment is housed in a separate room and freezer panel walls provide excellent insulation, both minimising noise in the milking parlour and keeping the shed temperature comfortable in winter and summer. Young Electrical completed the electrical fitout. “This is our core business. We have years of experience doing this kind of work so are able to get things done quickly and efficiently,” says Brent Kershaw of Young Electrical. Everything from the electrical fit-out to the choice of milking plant and irrigation system was carefully considered. Smart investment on things that matter has resulted in a dairy that was delivered on a tight budget without compromising on the best in modern dairy automation.

1 No. bur

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FAIRLEIGH FARM

Page 62

Coast & Country

Twenty-year

dream Josephine Reader

Paulien and Willem, in their new 44-bail rotary shed with DeLaval milking plant.

The shed viewed from the end of the yard.

A new dairy farm is the realisation of a 20-year dream for Willem Breunisse and Paulien Van der Eijk. While they have owned their property just outside Shefﬁeld, Christchurch, for 20 years, lack of a sustainable water supply put a dampener on their plans for a dairy farm. Their patience has paid off because the Central Plains Irrigation Scheme they invested in 15 years ago is due for completion in late-2018, and that meant the time was right to convert their farm from drystock to dairy. Water is a precious — and expensive — commodity on their Canterbury plains property, so optimising water use was a priority.

Screw press separation The efﬂuent management system, installed by Canterbury Farm Services, features screw press separation.

Kiwi

New Zealand Made

Water and solids from the yard are gravity-fed to a reception pit, where a powerful Bauer 4kW submersible pump keeps solids in suspension. From there, a Bauer S655 screw press separator mounted about 4m above the solids bunker uses a weighted arm to apply pressure to a rotating auger, which squeezes liquid out of the efﬂuent. Solid matter drops to the bunker, and liquid is returned to a nearby holding pond before being pumped to the shed to ﬂood wash the yard and feed pad. The solids produced by the system are easily managed due to the low moisture level and will be spread as fertiliser every week or so. Shaun Bovey from Canterbury Farm Services says the good thing about a system like this is that it minimises water usage. “Basically the water gets recycled through the system. When you pay to get water, pay to clean it and pay to get rid of it,

Stands

& GRAPHICS

using water efﬁciently is really important.”

DeLaval E100 rotary system DeLaval technology was known to Willem and Paulien, who immigrated to New Zealand from Holland, so it was an easy choice for them to go with DeLaval milking plant for their 44-bail rotary shed. This is the ﬁrst dairy shed to have the latest DeLaval rotary E100 milking plant installed. This system is tailored to suit New Zealand dairying conditions, says Michael Burnett of Canterbury Farm Services, local DeLaval installation partner. “We don’t farm inside like they do in Europe. We also tend to have more cows so the plant needs to work longer hours to service the bigger herds.” One-person milking was something Willem and Paulien wanted out of their new dairy, and they were also keen to have good information about how their 390-cow herd was performing. Understanding animal health and production will be key areas of focus in the new shed.

FAIRLEIGH FARM

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Page 63

Fairleigh Farm

Canterbury Farm Services Michael Burnett, Rural Building Solutions’ Allan Deane and Nigel Hodges and Paulien and Willem.

Automatic cup removers and in-bail teat spray.

Varicool refrigeration system.

DeLaval DelPro herd management brings in information from the milk meters and the automatic weigh system that cows pass over as they exit the milking parlour, allowing Willem to understand weight changes and milk yield. Information from a third-party feed system is also available within DelPro. Training on DelPro helps farmers get the most out of their investment, says Michael. “We suggest that they initially focus on two or three information streams – like weight and yield for example – and get familiar with that functionality and associated reports and go from there.” While their farming operation will be grass-based, pelletised feed and molasses will be offered via the in-shed feed system as needed, says Paulien.

Energy-efficient refrigeration “Capital cost, energy consumption and component quality are all factors that need to be considered when looking at refrigeration options,” says Matt Cammock from Southfreeze. The Varicool unit, installed by Southfreeze, has lower energy running costs than a lot of alternative solutions, which has been veriﬁed by an Energy Efﬁciency

Conservation Authority study, says Matt. Varicool uses variable speed technology similar to that used for farm vacuum and milk pumps, avoiding the problem of drawing a lot of power during peak load at milking time, which can be expensive. “Varicool pre-cools the milk to between six-eight degrees Celsius and cools the vat as well, all from one box that sits outside the shed,” says Matt.

Builder offers full site Rural Building Solutions offered a full design service that extended beyond just the dairy shed building and included a full layout concept of where everything from tanker access, effluent ponds and cow lanes should go, says managing director Nigel Hodges. Willem liked the tidiness of the building and the quality of finish on the Rural Building Solutions-designed and built dairy sheds that he visited. This, together with the expertise Nigel could offer on other aspects of the build such as feed pad design, sealed the decision to progress with RBS. Freezer panel walls and skylights bathe the inside of the dairy parlour in natural light. The lower portion of the shed’s walls are finished with heavy duty Acraflex from Specialised

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Canterbury Farm Services Shaun Bovey installed the screw press effluent separation system. 390 cows are milked on the Christchurch property. Coatings, which includes a special sealant that keeps cow muck and shed chemicals from penetrating and deteriorating the concrete surface. Nigel says the base shed design was tailored to suit the building platform, features that Willem and Paulien wanted, and retention of an existing shelterbelt. Building efficiently – such as organising the work plan to utilise full loads of concrete, and putting the roof of the building on early so trades can get in to do their work – are a hallmark of how RBS does things, says Nigel. Preparing the building platform was a big job that required an estimated 10,000m3 of fill, says Alex Mason of Alex Mason Contracting. “The building platform needed to be raised by two metres to get the correct fall on the yard and feed pad for the floodwash system. As well as preparing the building platform, Alex and his team completed all site earthworks for the cow lanes, feed pad and yard. With all siteworks finished months ago and finishing touches underway in the new dairy shed, Willem and Paulien can’t wait to kick-start their dream that began 20 years ago. Roll on the 2019 season!

DAIRY HOLDINGS

Page 64

Coast & Country

Quality on a budget Josephine Reader

Water jetters on the bridge wash the cups as they pass by.

Water jets on the backing gate pre-wet the yard before milking.

Clear panels in the roof and back wall provide plenty of natural light.

Dairy Holdings Replacing a dated dairy shed that was in constant need of repair has improved conditions for both the herd and the farm’s sharemilkers at Dairy Holdings in Dunsandel. “Milking 1180 cows through the old shed was difﬁcult. The shed had to work too hard and it just couldn’t keep up,” says Kieran Stone of Dairy Holdings, which owns the 300ha Dunsandel property. Sharemilkers Mark and Amber Hutchins have been with Dairy Holdings for about 10 years and are in their ﬁfth season on this property. Mark says the new 54-bail rotary shed is a massive improvement on the old shed. “Everything works like it is supposed to. We only got seven or eight weeks of milking in

before we dried off, but it worked great, and I’m looking forward to this season.” Deciding on what to include in the new dairy was relatively easy, says Kieran. “We had researched and built a new shed on one of our other properties a couple of seasons ago, and we basically replicated that here.”

Simple-to-use plant GEA provided a competitive quote and got the nod to supply the 54-bail iFLOW milking system, which was installed by local agent Stocker Solutions. With ﬁve full-time staff, a plant is easy to operate and keep clean is vital so that everyone knows what they are doing, says Mark. “The GEA plant is simple to use and hasn’t been tricky to teach staff.

“The wash system has been great and our FIL area manager has been on-site going over the hygiene regime with everyone. It’s easy to get into bad habits with cleaning, but with the GEA plant and vat wash system it’s difﬁcult to do it badly.” As well as being simple to operate, the GEA iNTELWASH and iNTELPUMP provide different settings for wash and milk pumping, offering faster pumping to increase the agitation and quality of the wash. The variable speed iNTELPUMP vacuum and milk pumps have also had an immediate effect on electricity consumption, so that’s been good as well, says Mark. The iHDR heavy duty rams on the automatic

cup removers are tough engineered plastic and won’t dent like stainless rams. Cups are removed gently and with minimal cluster swing. Bail restraints weren’t part of the original install but will be added before calving starts this season, says Mark. Automatic cup removers mean only one person is needed in the shed and vacuum starts by pushing a button located on the platform skirt: “It can be nudged on with a hand or knee. Everything about this shed is just so easy,” says Mark.

Bullet-proof platform Stocker Solutions installed the milking plant and also managed installation of the shed water reticulation and efﬂuent pumping system.

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DAIRY HOLDINGS

GEA stainless steel cups are impact-resistant and easy to clean.

Dairycool’s Lee Gilbert, Dairy Holdings’ Kieran Stone and sharemilker Mark Hutchins. With milking, plumbing and effluent expertise under one roof, Stocker offers a single point of contact for major aspects of new shed builds, which makes things easy for the farmer, says Shane Stocker. Shane highlights the “bullet-proof” nylon roller system on the GEA platforms as one of its best features. “We’ve been installing these platforms for about 18 years and we haven’t had to return to any sites to replace nylon rollers. They perform extremely well.” Young Electrical was one of many contractors who did a great job on this build, according to Mark. “Young Electrical completed the electrical install for the new shed, and they were so quick that other subcontractors were commenting on their efficiency. We’ll definitely be using them again.”

1 No.

Dairy Holdings peak milk 1180 cows on this Dunsandel property.

Fantastic cow flow Mark had input into the design and layout of the milking parlour and made sure that a raised vet platform was included. He also had input into the yard layout to minimise dead area and optimise cow ﬂow. “Trucking out stock for winter is really easy now. I reckon we got it spot on. Even truck drivers talk about how great the yard layout is here. “Drafting is so easy now. I used to hate AI in the old shed, but I’m actually looking forward to it this season because what we’ve put in place works so well.” The dairy building itself features walls that are constructed from easy-to-clean freezer panel, and inside the shed there is a dedicated vet space, toilet, ofﬁce and pump room. Water heaters, plate cooler and other equipment are kept out of harm’s

Page 65

Farm worker Bob Asibal milks a couple of colostrum cows.

way behind a nib wall, and access to the rotary pit is via a ladder. The new shed is located more centrally and has shortened the herd’s longest walk by about half a kilometre.

Simple effluent system A new concrete-lined efﬂuent storage pond was part of the build, which was constructed by Dairy Holdings’ in-house team, with pumping equipment supplied and installed by Stocker Solutions. A sand trap captures solid matter and liquid is moved to the storage pond after solids have been separated out. A concrete pad is used to dry out solids, and liquid is pumped to the farm’s pivot irrigation system. Refrigeration is a combination of old and new, says Dairycool’s Lee Gilbert. A new direct expansion unit runs the smaller

of the dairy’s two milk silos, and two units relocated from the old shed service the 21,500L silo. “The relocated units were retroﬁtted with electronic valves which are a low capital tool to assist with meeting the new milk cooling regulations,” says Lee. “These valves help create more efﬁcient cooling and are if farms are very close to compliance, electronic expansion valves can help them get across the line.”

Better results Smart investment in tools and technology that will deliver better results has ensured Dairy Holdings now has a straightforward, hard-working dairy shed that will service the herd for many years to come. “We’ve got the best shed we could get for the money that’s been invested and we’re really happy, says Mark. “There’s nothing that I would do differently.” What better endorsement can you have than that?

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OUR DAIRY FARM LTD

Page 66

Hassle-free

Coast & Country

Dairy conversion

Our Dairy Farm

Josephine Reader

An angled exterior wall provides a clear line of sight to the drafting gate.

Raewyn and Jason Sanford owned their Oamaru property for three-and-a-half years before they converted the property to dairy, and they’ve milked one full season in the new shed. Waikato Milking Systems offered a turnkey service and project-managed the design and build of the new 40-bail rotary shed. “It’s all about timing,” says Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Darrin Mills. “Getting the sequencing right is important to bring the build in on time and on budget. We make sure

Jason Sanford in the yard. that conduit is laid before concrete, for example. We do a lot of these turnkey builds, and our experienced project managers can help avoid costly sequencing mistakes.” Having Waikato look after the build took the stress out of the process, says Raewyn.“It was great only having one person to deal with; one point of contact.”

Designed for convenience Freezer panel construction provides excellent insulation and offers a comfortable milking temperature in the shed. It’s also really easy to keep clean, says Raewyn.

LakeRotorua

The shed’s grey exterior helps it blend into surroundings. The shed building took shape rapidly, with the freezer panel installers taking less than a week to get the cladding up, says Jason. The shed building design includes an angled wall on the cupsoff side of the shed which provides a clear line of sight from the vet stand to the drafting gate, which is helpful for visually checking drafts. The roof includes sections of clear polycarbonate to let natural light into the shed, and while the Sanfords love their light, bright shed, Jason plans to cover over a portion of the skylight nearest to the cups-on area because the afternoon sun falls directly on the milker.

PH 07 578 0030

OUR DAIRY FARM LTD

Jason Sanford and Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Darrin Mills. The dairy design includes an ofﬁce with an external sliding door so you can enter and exit without going through the shed, and a roller door on the storage room provides convenient external access for loading large items. As well as a separate vet room on the cups-off side of the shed, a cupboard near the vet platform serves as a drug cabinet and provides handy access to animal remedies, tail paint and other equipment. A shelterbelt provides a windbreak on the eastern side of the shed, and the dairy was positioned facing north to limit the impact of prevailing wind on cows and milkers.

Labour-saving plant Jason liked Waikato Milking Systems plant because he knew the technology from previous sheds that he’d worked in. “Also, people I talked to said Waikato was the best, and their service here is great too.” Only one person is needed in the shed to milk their 450-cow herd, thanks to Waikato Milking Systems’ labour-saving technology, including SmartECR automatic cup removers. As soon as the SmartECR recognises that milking is complete, cups automatically retract which triggers teat spraying from SmartSPRAY bullets mounted in-bail. The BailGate retention strap remains in place so that the cow can be re-cupped if the SmartECR detects that cups were kicked off.

A Waikato Milking Systems 40-bail orbit rotary platform.

SmartCONTROL provides a centralised point of control for each Waikato Milking Systems solution in the dairy, and each product’s settings can be customised from the touch screen, where parameters such as milk flow, milking time and pre and post milking delay can be altered to suit farmer preference or the time of the season, says Darrin Mills. Additionally, SmartCONTROL alerts you to any alarm conditions of the individual products connected to the network. Waikato Milking Systems solutions are modular, says Darrin, which means the Sanfords can easily add other products as time and budget allow. The Sanfords reckon the three-port wash gland is a great investment, allowing them to wash the plant while the platform is moving. “We don’t have to wait for the plant wash to finish before we can start AI, which is handy. There’s no hose to hook up from wall to platform. This is much easier,” says Jason. Wiring up a modern dairy with a lot of automation is a big job and the electrical fit-out was completed by experienced rural electricians, Calect Electrical.

Convenience of automated drafting Automated drafting was a must-have, and the Sanfords opted for a system they can add to in the future. Currently, they control drafts through a convenient touchscreen in the cups-on side of the shed.

M A P P IN G W IT H P R E CI S IO N M A P P IN G W IT H P R E CI S IO N

Survey Waitaki surveying planning engineering Survey Waitaki

M Asurveying P P 4.6 INhaG planning W IT H engineering P R E CI S IO N B9 C9 4.6 ha B9 4.6 ha C9 4.6 ha B8 4.6 ha C8 4.6 ha B8 4.6 ha C8 4.6 ha B7 4.6 ha C7 4.6 ha surveying planning engineering B7 4.6 ha 4.6 ha 'Proud to have provided surveyC7 support B9 4.6 ha C9 4.6 ha

Survey Waitaki

to Jason in this project' 'Proud to have provided survey support in this project' Contact: Leckie B8 to 4.6 Jason haCameron Cell: 021 496 780

4.6 ha

Contact: Cameron Leckie Web: www.surveywaitaki.co.nz B7496 4.6 ha Cell: 021 780 Web: www.surveywaitaki.co.nz

C7 4.6 ha

'Proud to have provided survey support to Jason in this project'

Contact: Cameron Leckie Cell: 021 496 780

Efﬂuent processing and storage was constructed as part of the conversion.

Page 67

Farm owner, Jason Sanford, inspecting a set of cups.

The no-hassle drafting is great, says Jason, and the system can grow as the farm grows, with the ability to add additional features like in-bail identiﬁcation and a comprehensive herd management system as budget allows. The Sanfords called on Survey Waitaki to undertake a GPS survey of the farm. A centre pivot system irrigates the property, and Jason wanted to map things out so that there were no impediments such as troughs or fence posts in the way of the tower wheels. “An accurate farm map is an important tool to add value and improve farm productivity,” says Cameron Leckie of Survey Waitaki. “We provided surveying services to Jason’s project, including accurate set-out of pivot irrigation, new fencing and stock water layout. This information leads to producing an accurate farm map, which we will be doing shortly,” says Cameron. As a planning tool, an accurate farm map is invaluable for supporting decisions around feed budgeting, paddock rotation, stocking rates and more. It also allows the accurate recording and tracking of fertiliser applications and can be used to demonstrate compliance, proof of placement, health and safety and more, says Cameron. The conversion from grazing to dairy has been a positive experience for the Sanfords, with a hassle-free build that has given them a dairy shed that not only meets their needs today, but also has the capacity to evolve as their farm does.

SMIT DAIRIES

Page 68

Coast & Country

Turnkey build

Eliminates hassle Josephine Reader

Smit Dairies

A beautiful view from the entrance to the Smit’s Oamaru property.

A turnkey shed, project-managed by Waikato Milking Systems, has delivered Steve and Tineke Smit a new dairy that allows them to milk their 600-cow herd in just under one-hour-and-three-quarters. “We took care of the irrigation side of things with our existing supplier, but Waikato did everything else. It was great,” says Steve. “Waikato provided a cost-competitive quote and my fatherin-law had built a shed with them a while ago and had a good experience. He was pleased with the quality of the workmanship so we went with Waikato Milking Systems too.”

Full project management service The Smits purchased a 120ha property near Steve’s parents’ farm, where they are contract milkers, in June 2017. “With 78ha of Steve’s parents’ property on the same side of the road as our farm, it made sense to incorporate that bit of land into our farm so that their cows no longer needed to cross the road. It also meant herd numbers could be reduced on their property so an old herringbone shed could be decommis-

Steve holding daughter, Mieke Smit, Tineke Smit and Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Darrin Mills. sioned,” says Tineke. Because the Smits’ new farm had been used as a run-off, a new centrally-located dairy shed was needed, and Waikato Milking Systems project-managed the build. With Waikato overseeing everything from obtaining resource consents and site works, to design and build of the shed and yard, as well as installation of the milking plant, it was a largely hassle-free build for the Smits. “We put all the pieces of the puzzle together for farmers on these turnkey builds,” says Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Darrin Mills. “Our experience eliminates grey areas, which can cost time and money. We oversee trades and everyone knows who is responsible for what. “It’s also so much simpler for the farmer to have one person to deal with for all the major parts of the build,” says Darrin.

The shed viewed from the tanker track.

The 54-bail Waikato Milking Systems Orbit rotary is at the centre of the new dairy, which also features SmartECR automatic cup removers, automated SmartSPRAY teat spraying, and energy efﬁcient SmartDRIVE variable speed vacuum and milk pump drives.

Efficient plant Most cows have their cups off by the time they are threequarters of their way around the platform, says Darrin, so wand-based teat spray solutions at the platform exit deliver treatment when the teat is already closed, limiting effectiveness. The SmartSPRAY bullet unit mounted in the bail not only uses less teat spray because of the efﬁcient delivery mechanism, but it also comprehensively covers front and rear, and left and right quarters while the teat is open, he says. Effective treatment is important all the time, but more so in winter when there’s plenty of mud around and it’s much easier for cows to pick up a mastitis-causing infection. The Smits are winter-milking 100 cows this season for the ﬁrst time, and capped has been under control. “The automatic cup removers and automated teat spraying are the biggest timesavers,” says Tineke.

SMIT DAIRIES

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Page 69

Steve Smit with Waikato Milking Systems plant.

Steve purchased a used Protrack Vector system from TradeMe.

The Smits have an in-shed feed system in the new dairy.

The underpass entrance is cleverly built into the vet platform, where concrete stairs provide safe and convenient access to the centre of the rotary for easy maintenance. A lined efﬂuent storage pond was also part of the new build. The Smits took advice from Fonterra specialists about pond size. “We took the size they gave us and doubled it. The pond gives us 60 days’ storage, which is what we need,” says Steve. Currently, efﬂuent is pumped to a travelling irrigator, but Steve plans to upgrade to centre pivot irrigation in the future so the system has been designed with this in mind.

Farm manager Daniel Withers likes the soft start feature on the cups. There are no buttons to press, and vacuum starts automatically when cups are removed from jetters. “You just grab them and go.” The Smits are also glad they opted for a three-port wash gland, which allows the plant to be washed while the platform is rotating. “We can also do AB while the plant is getting washed, which is really handy,” says Steve. Darrin says the three-port wash gland is something people often regret not investing in, and he recommends it on all new shed builds.

Smooth design and build

Convenient vet platform design The raised concrete vet platform is one of the Smits’ favourite parts of their new dairy. “It is very stable and comfortable to work on. It’s also big, so there’s plenty of room to move around safely,” says Tineke. “The vets like it too.” The shed has been designed for one person to milk alone, so some of the space on the cups-off side was used for the permanent vet platform, says Steve.

This is the second shed the Smits have built and Tineke’s parents had recently built a new dairy so they knew what they wanted, and what to expect from the build process. “We took everything we liked from Mum and Dad’s shed and used it here,” says Steve of the shed design, which utilises freezer panel cladding for walls. Acraﬂex, supplied by Specialised Coatings, is applied to the concrete blocks that form the lower section of shed walls. The coating is built up in seven separate layers and is guaranteed

Steve Smit says Waikato Milking Systems provided a competitive price on the plant.

for 10 years. The heavy-duty paint solution seals concrete against harsh shed chemicals and provides a surface from which cow muck is easily hosed off. Construction started at the end of July 2017 and there was a tight construction timeframe of only 11 weeks to make sure the shed was ready in time for calving. Plunket Electrical was one of many contractors to bring their expertise to the job to get the dairy completed in time for the first milking on October 11. Ben Peters, lead electrician on the job, says the install went smoothly and was fairly standard. As well as organising mains power to the new shed site, Plunket Electrical, which has been installing dairy and irrigation systems for more than 35 years, wired up the irrigation pumps and completed the electrical fitout in the dairy shed. The 17m round yard design got a few tweaks to suit what Steve was looking for. “We wanted lots of gates for drafting flexibility,” he says. “And twin entry points in the yard also give us flexibility and great cow flow.” Steve also made the bridge slightly longer and wider than the original plan to give cows extra room to turn and exit the platform.

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Page 70

Farm manager Daniel Withers making adjustments to the SmartDRIVE milk pump controller.

Coast & Country

Steve Smit with Waikato Milking Systems plant.

A cupboard near the vet platform keeps animal health items.

The efﬂuent pond provides 60 days of storage. Steve purchased a used Protrack Vector automated draft system from TradeMe. “It was a good score, and we got it for a great price,” says Steve. Vector provides basic automated drafting and is integrated with MINDA, says Lester Deighton from LIC Dairy Automation. The touchscreen at the cups-on side of the shed allows the milker to record health treatments, calvings, heats, pregnancy testing and other important details. Information recorded in Protrack automatically updates MINDA so the systems are always in sync. Vector draws on parameters set up in MINDA to automatically draft cows. Protrack Vantage – LIC’s premium dairy automation solution – which Steve plans to upgrade to in the future, adds in-bail

identiﬁcation to control drafts. With Vantage, drafts can be set up from the in-shed touchscreen or from a mobile app. Protrack Vantage also offers audio and on-screen visual alerts in the shed about everything that needs to happen that milking – cows needing treatment, withholding cows, those ready to go back into the main herd, and planned drafts.

Future proofing adVantage “We wanted to future-proof the shed as much as we could. We know we are going to upgrade to Vantage at some stage, so made sure the drafting gate was in the right place so we won’t have to rip up concrete unnecessarily,” says Steve. LIC Dairy Automation supports farmers with solutions that suit their needs and budget, says Lester, and the modular nature of LIC solutions means that upgrades are easy to manage.

As well as their property, the Smits are contract milkers on Steve’s parents’ nearby farm. A mobile Premier Wrangler is shared between the two properties and is an economic way to safely calve cows or provide hoof treatment without having to invest in a race wrangler for each shed. During calving it can be left in the paddock, which avoids the time and difﬁculty of walking a distressed the cow to the shed. While the Premium Wrangler comes with a wooden ﬂoor as standard, rubber matting is highly recommended to improve traction. While it is stationary in the paddock, wheels can be removed so that the Wrangler is stable and sits directly on the ground. A hassle-free turnkey build has been a positive experience for the Smits, who are very happy with their new dairy which is equipped with everything they need to boost production and productivity.

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SMIT DAIRIES

Page 71

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SUNNYBRAE

Page 72

Coast & Country

Canterbury conversion Josephine Reader

Sunnybrae The big yard caters for growth in herd size.

Surrounded by rolling hills and sheep stations, Bauke and Natalie De Jong’s Oamaru property is one of only a handful of dairy farms in the immediate area. The experienced farmers, who have been sharemilkers for 14 years, started out with 30 hectares and later added another 90ha. While they always planned a dairy farm, lack of water for irrigation meant that it was initially used for grazing while they worked as contract milkers or sharemilkers on other farms. When the North Otago Irrigation Company expanded its network in 2017, bringing a sustainable water supply to the couple’s Round Hill Road property, they converted to dairy. A 40-aside herringbone with GEA milking plant is the hub of their new dairy farm, and they expect to milk around 400 cows this season. “Our ﬁrst season was the hardest, but the

seasons after that have gotten easier, and the support of family, friends and the community has been great,” says Nadine.

Local service seals the deal The De Jongs considered quotes from two milking plant suppliers before deciding to go with GEA, who recommended a local builder and offered local service. “GEA was a good name, but what really sold us was that local service was available out of Oamaru,” says Bauke. Waitaki Dairy Solutions, Oamaru-based GEA agent, supplied and installed the milking plant, effluent pump system, refrigeration and shed water. Brett Duncan, owner of Waitaki Dairy Solutions, had a team on-site on and off for several weeks during the tight 12-week construction period which began in early-May 2017. In the first week of August the De Jongs milked their first cows through the new shed, and while things went relatively smoothly, they

did need to call Waitaki to iron out a minor issue. “We rung Brett at 5am on the morning of our first milking, and he came out straight away to help us. He’s been fantastic to work with.” The milking plant features GEA swing arm system, and the De Jongs increased the width of the zigzag bars by about 15mm to account for the size of their Holstein Friesian cross cows. “Cluster alignment is perfect every time and we get 40 cows in every row,” says Nadine. Nadine and Bauke also like the shed’s wide pit, which gives them plenty of room to work. GEA Classic 300 clusters have spoon-shaped connectors on the clawpiece for better placement regardless of teat position. This improves milk flow because the milk tube remains flexible, allowing the cluster to fit any udder shape without problems. An energy-efficient GEA variable speed iNTELPUMP milk pump includes a milk

purge valve that pushes milk left in the lines into the vat, which Brett estimates eliminates wastage of about 200-250L of milk each milking. To keep their new milking plant in top condition the De Jongs use FIL’s Quantum Red acid and Quantum XL alkali. FIL area sales manager Kirk Falconer, recommended Quantum Red because even though basic water tests indicated water condition was fine, water quality in the area is known to fluctuate. “Quantum Red is a pretty bulletproof acid, and it works well in all water conditions, so was the best choice here.” Calect Electrical, experienced rural electricians, completed the electrical fit-out for the dairy shed. The conversion from grazing to a dairy farm required extensive earthworks, and the De Jongs called in local firm Scott Simpson Contracting. They prepared the shed building platform, built 2.3km of races on the property and excavated the effluent ponds.

Hygiene & Supplies

“I believed Iodine would dry out teats.” “FIL broke it down, explaining why iodine would give us better protection. And the extra emollient in Active Teat Conditioner would give us healthier teats. So we agreed to trial it… The results were outstanding.” Get in touch with your GEA FIL Area Manager to experience results like Grant Boyde. Call 0508 434 569 today.

geadairyfarming.co.nz/teat-care

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SUNNYBRAE

Nadine and Bauke De Jong in their new dairy.

Bauke De Jong heading down the farm’s central race which was graded by Scott Simpson Contracting.

Waitaki Dairy Solutions also supplied and installed the energy-efﬁcient glycol GEA refrigeration. “The cooler unit on the vat only goes on for about half an hour, even on a 40 degree summer day,” says Brett. In comparison to a traditional direct expansion refrigeration unit, which can be running most of the day and night to keep milk at the right temperature, glycol units use much less electricity, he says.

Future-proof effluent system The effluent system has capacity beyond the De Jongs current needs and caters for the possible inclusion of a barn system. The GEA screwpress effluent processing system feeds green water to a two million litre storage pond. In August 2018, the De Jongs added the ability to draw the green water into their irrigation system, which adds further efficiency. Sunnybrae is just outside Oamaru and with summer temperatures regularly in the 30s and limited rainfall in warmer

A wide roof provides partial cover in the vet race. months, effective irrigation is an important factor impacting the farm’s proﬁtability. The De Jongs worked with Grafton Irrigation to design, supply and install their system, which includes a mix of central pivot and k-line irrigation. As well as considering water supply and capacity from the NOIC water scheme and application depth and rate, Julian Goodsir of Grafton Irrigation says the challenging terrain, which includes steep and rolling hills, was a big factor that impacted on the design of the system. “We undertook detailed topographical analysis via GPS to map the contours of the property. On farms with steeper slopes, this is critical. “Earthworks were required in some places to make the pivot system viable,” says Julian. This involved cutting contouring out the side of a hill to create a less steep gradient, and building ramps in other areas to allow the pivot irrigator to remain within its speciﬁcations.

• Plant & Platform Installation Dairy Shed Maintenance • Plant & Platform• Installation • Effluent Management • Dairy Shed Maintenance • Pump Repair & Maintenance • Effluent Management Stainless Steel Welding • Pump Repair & •Maintenance • Aluminium Trailers & Crates • Stainless Steel Welding • Dairy Yards & Repairs • Aluminium Trailers & Crates • Dairy Yards & Repairs We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Verbakel family for letting us be part of their project. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Verbakel family for letting us be part of their project. For more information please contact Waitaki Dairy Solutions

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Page 73

A GEA Houle pump moves efﬂuent from pit to screwpress.

Grafton Irrigation designed the irrigation to account for rolling contours on the De Jong property. Several iterations of the irrigation design were presented before Bauke and Nadine decided on one central pivot and k-lines for corners of the property that were inaccessible to the centre pivot. The entire 120ha property is served by the irrigation system. To account for the rolling hills, the Zimmatic centre pivot includes some additional design features, including three towers which have wider tyres to maximise traction on hills, explains Julian. “The spans were shorter to traverse the terrain better. A specialised swivel joint was incorporated to allow more climbing ability, twist and bend at the joint without compromising on performance. This was a major factor in substantially reducing the earthworks expenses.” The sprinklers closest to the tower wheels have a 180 degree sprinkler on a solid dropper. This minimises water spray onto the tower angles, wheels and wheel tracks. This means water doesn’t run off the tower frame and create tracks, which reduces the depth of wheel ruts over time, says Julian.

RIVERS

Page 74

Coast & Country

A dramatic backdrop to the Rivers’ new milking complex and equipment shed. Barfoote Construction was responsible for the exterior of the dairy, doing both the design and construction.

Rivers

rolling fields When Tim and Melanie Rivers ﬁrst purchased their farm near Alexandra in 2013, they looked out over their paddocks and saw thousands and thousands of rabbits – the paddocks were moving. It had previously been a sheep farm running around 1000 sheep – and a lot of rabbits.

yards, efﬂuent ponds, irrigator, milk vats, and silos. The farm surrounding the shed is 352 hectares, 340 of them effective, and it is all dairy or fodder beet. It was aways their intention to do a dairy conversion, and they started the process while waiting for their consent application for water from the local water scheme to be approved. In the process the rotary hoe used before seeding did an excellent job of eradicating the rabbits.

Now they look out over lush green pastures, no rabbits in sight; only dairy cows, green grass and rolling ﬁelds. And in the middle is their new dairy shed,

They also did their homework on the dairy shed designs and suppliers, efﬂuent options and other allied equipment and what best suited their needs.

Homework paid off

Melanie and Tim Rivers. Sue Miller

They identiﬁed that they wanted a 60-bail rotary shed, and settled on a GEA Farm Technologies system with a turnkey installation by Nind Dairy Services. The contract was signed and a 3D model was provided via drone for best placement of buildings and equipment such as irrigation pivots. Work got underway and they started milking in August last year. There was a fairly tight timeframe for the construction, with a snowy and wet winter to work through, but schedules were met. After a period of understanding what Tim wanted to achieve with his milking system, Nind Dairy Services came up with a speciﬁcation for a dairy shed that would suit his

needs now and into the future. The 60-bail Iﬂow platform was chosen due to its nylon roller and double beam technology, ensuring a reliable platform with longevity and low maintenance costs going forward.

Recovery system The milking system comes with a milk recovery system to ensure milk can be swept back to the vat between mobs or between the milk and wash cycle. The beneﬁt is reducing milk waste and risk of cross contamination. A variable speed drive on both the milk pump and vacuum system ensures minimal wear with lower maintenance costs and power savings.

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RIVERS

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Page 75

The herd works over the new pasture. A yard with a view – a nice outlook for the herd while they await their turn in the shed.

Work went on through the night.

The inside of the rotary set-up. The Nind team on the Rivers development: Lindsay Barnett, Andy Nesbit and Tristan Whittaker.

ns me

Tim chose to put a double-bank cooler in to future-proof himself if regulations changed and secondary cooling became necessary to be compliant. This has proven to be a very wise decision. As far as automation goes the machine is fitted with iCORE cup removers with alerts and configuration to ensure the cows are milked effectively and consistently. The cup removers are also fitted with alerts to ensure cows are retained with the in-bail retention system if there has been an abnormal milking. In this situation the cow will be presented back to the operator under an error to be checked.

Future automation ng turnkey The biggest feature is the cup remover has the oughout ability to build further automation on in the future. For example, a herd management drafting ral Otago. system which will have the ability to do tasks

such as measure yield and feed cows according to production. Lastly, the iPUD 2000 was installed which is the GEA in-bail teat spray system. This system ensures the teats are sprayed soon after the cups are removed from the cow to ensure effective treatment and efﬁcient cow throughput. It also provides optimum coverage as the cow is sprayed from directly below the teats, which has proven to have a high accuracy. The adjustable dose rate means there is the ability to use less or more teat spray in line with season demands. With the speciﬁcation chosen and Nind Dairy as GEA’s service partner, Tim is well-set for the future as far as getting a quality service and upgrading to future technologies. A very smart feed system inside the shed has a PPP control system that recognises and does

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Tim’s new efﬂuent pond. not supply empty stalls or where an individual animal is going around for a double lap. Supplying the feed buckets is a large silo – 57m3 with a 60-degree cone and bag out chute – with a standard 350 auger line into the shed. Stainless steel trays come with two drains plus, complete with bolt-on hot-dipped anti-robbing bale dividers and underneath tray supports. The exterior of the milking shed was designed and built by Barfoote Construction. “Building dairy sheds is what we do,” says Trevor Barfoote. The company has built more than 100 in recent times.

Turnaround The Rivers’ dairy shed took about 16 weeks to construct, including concreting of the exterior walls, internal framework, building of ofﬁces

and toilets, and the roof. With lots of windows and skylights, the shed is full of light. Placemakers Central Otago supplied a kitset for a large, open-bay pole shed, and Tim spent some time constructing it himself. The shed is used to store farm implements, various pieces of farm equipment, and one end is used to shelter the bobby calves. Placemakers’ Brent Stanley says the company has supplied more than 100 sheds, many of them as kitsets, but often built by the company. This shed was speciﬁcally designed to meet the Rivers’ requirements, local authority consent obtained, and the kitset parts collected together and delivered on the back of a truck, with instructions on how to assemble it. Once Tim completed the construction, Placemakers then arranged for the local council to come and approve it.

BACKHOUSE

Page 76

Coast & Country

Taking it

easy

Colin and Anne Backhouse have a 122-hectare farm near Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains. They bought the original farm in conjunction with Anne’s brother and his wife. They have since sold their half of the farm and Colin and Anne now farm the land on their own.

Backhouse

Helen Wilson

The new dairy shed viewed from the yard. milker who in turn employs one other full-time staff member. It was a 14-aside herringbone dairy shed which had to be extended into an 18-aside herringbone when the herd grew in size. “The farm was originally owned by the Waites and we are only the second owners. When we came on to the farm in 1973 there was a walk-through dairy shed, which soon became too difﬁcult to milk in. The foundations were not stable, and there was no fall for drainage so it soon became obsolete. That was when we decided to go modern and built one of the ﬁrst herringbone dairy sheds on the Hauraki Plains,” says Colin.

Increase size A few years ago Colin and Anne bought the neighbour’s 40-hectare property and once again the herd size was increased to 300 cows. The old herringbone dairy shed was struggling to cope so it was time to build a new efﬁcient dairy shed on a different site. The old herringbone dairy shed was built to cope with 200 cows and with 300 it meant having the cows in two herds and too much time was spent in the dairy shed. Colin employs a contract

Pick a site The site was chosen, and to help stabilise the ground, 16,000 tons of metal was carted in to pre-load the site. “There is just blue grey mud here, a bit similar to plasticine and not suitable for building on, so we had to truck in the metal,” says Colin. The metal used is not suitable for farm races as it is too hard on the cows’ feet. “It was not difﬁcult to decide on a builder. The one that stood out was Shanan White from Don Chapman Waikato Ltd. He has the licence to build Chapman Dairies, which has a reputation for good design and solid construction and has stood the test of time,” says Colin.

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BACKHOUSE

Page 77

DeLaval milking plant.

Ngatea Milking Machines owner Wayne Barker, DeLaval district sales manager Malcolm Kensington, Ngatea Milking Machines ﬁtter Luke Yeager and farm owner Colin Backhouse. The new dairy shed is a 30-aside herringbone with a vet race and dehorning bail. It is constructed of insulated paneling from Insulation Panel & Door which is easy to keep clean – all that is needed is a wash down with the high pressure hose and it looks like new – and the insulation cuts down the noise. It is a strong construction material, ideal for dairy sheds. There is a large circular yard to easily accommodate 300 cows. All Don Chapman Waikato Ltd dairy sheds have excellent cow ﬂow, cutting down milking time.

State-of-the-art “We had used DeLaval milking systems in our other dairy shed so saw no need to change as it had performed well

DeLaval vacuum pump.

The new dairy shed with DeLaval chiller unit. over the years and we have had good service from Ngatea/ Waiuku Milking Machines. We now have a state-of-the-art DeLaval milking system that makes the job so much easier,” says Colin. The DeLaval milking system is a 30-aside ML2100 MidiLine herringbone with automatic cup removers which can be managed by one milker. It has a comfort start which means the vacuum is turned on when the cluster is picked up to attach to the cow. “This is DeLaval’s latest milking system herringbone type and we are ﬁnding that more farmers are ﬁtting it and experiencing excellent results,” says Malcolm Kensington, district sales manager for DeLaval.

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The system is ﬁtted with swing arms which allows for better cluster alignment. This is also better for herd testing as the units are mounted at the end of the swing arm, giving more room to move up and down the pit.

Cleaning The DeLaval milking system has a wash trombone system. This unit sends a slug of wash water down the milk line which assists in cleaning the 100mm milk line. The system is ﬁtted with lobe vacuum pump with variable speed drive and double bank industrial plate cooler to help cool milk to the correct temperature to meet the new cooling standards.

BACKHOUSE

Page 78

Coast & Country

The PPP Industries stainless steel feeding tray.

Hosing down the milking area.

The DeLaval milking system was installed by Wayne Barker and his team at Ngatea/Waiuku Milking Machines and Pump Services Ltd. They also installed all the water reticulation around the dairy shed.

Automatic feeding The new dairy shed has a patented automatic feeding system, designed and installed by PPP Industries from Tuakau. “The beauty of the automatic feeding system is that it ensures each cow gets the right amount of feed and they are not pushing and shoving each other to get more. There are two stainless steel hoppers, one for each side of the shed,” says Colin.

DeLaval clusters swung up out of the way.

“These hoppers have one mineral and two feed compartments. I am just using one feed into my shed and have the mineral hopper to dispense our Causmag etc. As the hopper travels along it dispensers out feed and minerals and when it gets to the last cow it goes back to reﬁll, ready to do the next row of cows. It runs quicker than we can cup up so there are no delays.”

Future ease In the future Colin will be able to feed cows in groups, or individualised as the system is also equipped with an ear tag reader. Feed is delivered into the travelling hopper via auger

PPP Industries silo with installing engineer Peter John O’Connor and installer Tokowhiti Matena-Rapihana. lines attached to a 16-tonne silo. Colin has been milking cows for 59 years and is now taking it a bit easier. “I just supervise now. Anne and I both ran the farm together to do the milking and general farm work. We both love animals but the cows used to respond to Anne’s handling more than mine. I have enjoyed seeing the new dairy shed taking shape, from clearing the site to seeing the cows being milked in it. It will be doing a good job for many years to come,” says Colin. When New Farm Dairies visited in early August the cows had just started to calve and the new dairy shed was being used for the ﬁrst time.

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BACKHOUSE

Page 79

TIMES ARE CHANGING FOR IN SHED FEED SYSTEMS FOR HERRINGBONE SHEDS The PPP Smart Hopper is a game changer for HB in shed systems A feed system that can also ID your cows in the shed.

With the development of the new patented travelling feed hopper for HB sheds farmers finally have a tool that will offer them the advantages of a rotary shed. A unit that can feed out more than one type of feed with an inbuilt mineral dispenser. Quietly and with amazing precision it distributes individual recipes if linked to herd management software or easily adjusted recipes of different feed amounts and types between milkingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s if just blanket feeding in its simplest form. Feed more than one type of dairy ration at the same time (similar to rotary sheds) with the added advantage of an in built mineral dispenser.

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BLJ FARMS

Page 80

Coast & Country

Making Jesse

smile

Helen Wilson

Jesse O’Brien never intended to be a farmer but after ﬁve years as manager on his parent’s farm at Netherton on the Hauraki Plains, he has realised this where he wants to be. Before taking over the management of the farm he travelled in Australia and Europe for a year doing jobs such as truck driving and building. Jesse’s parents, Bevan and Louise O’Brien bought the original 41-hectare dairy farm in 1982 and for two years they milked 120 cows in a walk-through dairy shed. That was not ideal so they built a new 12-aside herringbone dairy shed and life improved considerably. The dairy farm expanded in 1999 with a further adjoining 35ha purchased, and in 2017, 74ha were added to the now 162ha of ﬂat, fertile dairy farm. “The 12-aside herringbone dairy shed was expanded into a 22-aside in 1999 as the herd size increased, and last year we expanded again to a 44-aside herringbone to accommodate our herd of 500 cows,” says Jesse. Jesse employs a full-time farm worker, Arie Schouten, who helps with milkings and general farm work and Jesse’s parents are the relief milkers.

Proven reliablity The O’Briens had always had DeLaval milking plants in the past and saw no reason to change as they had found DeLaval milking systems worked well. The plant installed here is a standard 44-unit ML2100 milking system with swing arms so the cups are swung out of the way when not in use. The swing arms are easily swung over to the other side to milk the cows in the other row. “When we built the extension we replaced the whole

2IC Arie Schouten, Jesse and Louise O’Brien and “Billie” the farm dog.

plant to be consistent. There is provision for cup removers to be installed in the future,” says Jesse. The renovated dairy has been ﬁtted with Eziﬂo pit gates that swing up high to make it safer for cows to exit the dairy shed. The extension of the dairy shed was built by Jason Magon, owner of Magon Construction from Paeroa. Jesse had used them before for other construction work on the farm and had experience of their high standard of workmanship. “The challenge of taking on a job like this at short notice was exciting as we had not worked on a dairy shed for a few years so jumped at the opportunity and got stuck in straight away. The foundation was relatively straightforward as we were extending straight off the existing pit and roof. As soon as the roof posts were set we started the roof framing so we could get some shelter from the weather.”

Smooth operation Once the roof was completed they moved on and got the yard extension started. With the help of Simon from Hill Engineering instructing Magon Construction where he wanted the bail and race posts, the job was completed without a hitch. The next part was the entry/exit yard, incorporating and setting up the base for the Protrack system and ensuring they were meeting Jesse’s requirements, and ensuring the most effective cow ﬂow. Once the yard concrete was poured the blocklayers laid the block base for the bail wall and did the nibs around the yards. The bail wall was clad with new Colorsteel to match the existing wall and the existing cladding inside was also replaced. “All in all we are stoked with how the cowshed turned out and are happy to have put a smile on Jesse’s face,” says Jason.

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Page 81

BLJ Farms

Simon and Sarah Hill, owners of Hill Engineering, 2IC Arie Schouten, Louise and Jesse O’Brien. Simon Hill with the Protrack system he installed.

PPP Industries feed silos.

Looking into the new dairy shed. Jesse says the LIC Automation Protrack system “works brilliantly”. “It makes life easier as I can load the tag numbers of the cows I want drafted out from my mobile phone, and when they are released from milking they are automatically drafted into the appropriate pens. It saves a lot of time and guess work.”

Identifcation check As the cows pass through the ‘reader’ they are identiﬁed and checked to see if they are to be drafted out. The Protrack drafting system can be used for mating and any animal health issues. There is provision for more automation at a later date. Jesse has installed a feed system designed and installed by PPP

PPP Industries feed droppers. Industries from Tuakau. There are 44 droppers, which dispenses the feed into the continuous stainless steel feed troughs on each side of the shed for each cow. The supplement feed is fed in by auger from the two large storage silos adjacent to the dairy shed. The amount for each cow can be calibrated from 500 grams to four kilograms depending on the time of year and how much supplementary feed each cow requires. “The PPP system dispenses the blended meal to each cow and I can also include minerals through the in-line mineral system,” says Jesse. Simon Hill, owner of Hill Engineering from Paeroa, enjoyed working on this job as he reckons it was worth doing just for the sausages that got cooked up on a regular basis to feed the workers. “Jesse and I had brainstorming sessions to come up with a

The 44-a-side herringbone dairy with DeLaval milking system. design to maximise cow ﬂow in the yards and the result has been excellent. The design changed as we went along but I am always happy to work in with the farmer,” says Simon.

Zigzag for comfort The pipe work is designed for cow comfort so there are no injuries and they ﬂow from yard to milking area. He also constructed the ‘zigzag’ which gives a herringbone dairy shed its name. “Each zig has been designed and spaced so the cow stands there comfortably,” says Simon. With the larger, more efﬁcient dairy shed milking time has been cut back to two-and-half-hours, making life easier for the cows, the staff and the relief milkers.

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HAHN

Page 82

Coast & Country

It’s what

we do Lois Natta

From left, Claudia Odlin, Sonja Hahn, Sofus Hahn, Finn Hahn, Jason Hare and Dave Knight.

Sofus Hahn and his wife Jacqui own three farms in Te Kuiti, two of which are dairy farms and the third is a drystock beef ﬁnishing unit. They purchased their fourth farm three years ago, which was at the time a drystock unit.

The lovely airy shed.

Looking down the pit. The reason for converting to dairy is simply stated by Sofus: “It’s what we do.” Benneydale is a small town in the Waitomo district, with this farm being located 400m above sea level. The area is reasonably remote if you are a townie, but just another farm in the country if you are a farmer. Currently a small farming community, and the only town without a Maori name, Benneydale was once a thriving town with a

population of 2000. In 1931 coal was discovered, which resulted in a mine being built. Surrounded by pines and native bush, this farm was one of the last to be broken back in the 1970s. It was originally scrub and bush, and part of a larger unit back in its day, but 20 years ago was divided into a nice 300-hectare farm. Purchased by the Hahn family three years ago they run drystock on 100ha and dairy on

Qubik are proud suppliers of Sofus and Jacqui Hahn’s new dairy shed for milking machines, water reticulation and refrigeration.

the remaining 200ha. This long, narrow farm was restricted as far as getting reliable electricity to run a new dairy farm, so after much research it was decided to go for a generator-run farm so that no power was required whatsoever.

Total package The new Waikato Milking Systems plant was decided upon because of price and total

package. Sofus says he has found Qubik really good to work with. The 44-aside herringbone shed is a standard Waikato Supa4 system. The essential part of the work was done by the Otorohanga branch of Qubik, with workers from the Te Awamutu branch going to Benneydale when necessary. Qubik director Jason Hare says the shed was ﬁtted with the latest pull-down G2 jetter system.

HAHN

PH 07 578 0030

Page 83

Underneath the covered yard built by Dairy Tech. The cows have a foot bath to walk through as they enter the covered yard towards the milking area.

Hahn Manager Claudia Odlin accompanied by Sonja Hahn. The G2 cluster washers combine strength with flexibility to form an integral part of an efficient cleaning system. Designed to maintain excellent plant hygiene, G2 cluster washers are strong, robust and packed full of useful features such as their high performance construction. They have a non-return valve control on each nipple, and adjustable flow control valve for optimum flow adjustment. They are incredibly easy to use, and are suitable for any cluster-liner combination. The capability to place cups into each unit while the remainder are still milking is also an added advantage. A Fristam milking pump variable speed controller and the latest Waikato SmartPULS

The Gough cat generator runs the entire farm. pulsators are part of this package, as is the double bank plate cooler and blower vacuum pump system. SmartPULS is a digital pulsation system that opens and closes the liners consistently and dependably every milking, which delivers optimum milking performance. Qubik also installed a 10hp wash-down pump, two 915L hot water cylinders, the 12hp refrigeration unit with a double bank plate cooler and a 21,000L milk vat.

Stylish but simple As a result of the large rainfall in the Benneydale catchment, and extreme heat,

DAIRY TECH DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND AUTOMATION SYSTEMS

Sofus elected to install an undercover yard for his cows. Along with the dairy shed, calf shed, efﬂuent bunkers and yard work this elegant undercover yard was constructed by Dairy Tech in Otorohanga. The roof of the rectangle yard is a herringbone rafter design, which instantly catches the eye, and gives the covered yard an appearance of style and sophistication. As the cows enter the undercover yard they encounter a foot bath to give their hooves a hygienic soak. While there are no walled sides in the dairy shed itself, the plant room and storage area has a wall on one side, offering partial resistance to the weather conditions, with

the open sides giving good airﬂow during the hot summer months. The shed consists of the dairy, wash room, plant room and a room with a good solid bench, and housing for the deep-cell battery system. Sofus wanted to keep things simple but effective. While simple, it is very effective, not only in layout but also ease of use. The rooﬁng for both shed and yard is zinc, and walls of the buildings are concrete precast panels and exposed aggregate. The yard work was all constructed by Dairy Tech and consists of the rectangle covered yard, including an animal handling race along the side of the shed.

www.dairytech.co.nz

HAHN

Page 84

Andrew McAllister from Qubik.

Views towards back of the farm. The concrete in the yard is grooved to prevent cows slipping. The herringbone bails are exited via two classy Eziﬂo pit gates that are manufactured in Hamilton by Waikato Dairy Builders.

Off the grid As a result of the unstable power supply in the area, and the exorbitant cost of installing three-phase poles to the shed, Sofus found it would be more cost-effective to purchase a Caterpillar diesel generator from New Zealand dealer Gough Cat and operate the entire farm this way. David Knight from Action Electrical in Te Kuiti performed the electrical inverter side of the install. An inverter is set up in the shed

Coast & Country

Dairy Tech’s new build is impressive.

Dairy Tech’s efﬂuent bunkers. which runs the lights and refrigeration, plus the computer panel that tells the generator when to start cooling. When the generator is running it charges up the 16 deep-cell batteries that run the inverter. The generator runs the entire farm, from the milking shed to the water system for the farm troughs, and the deep well pump. After milking the generator keeps running until the milk has cooled to the correct temperature. The generator currently uses around 75 litres of diesel per day, so discussion is in the pipeline between Sofus, Action Electrical and Qubik to install a second refrigeration system in the hope of reducing the generator run time.

The inverter and panel.

The idea is by pre-cooling quicker, it will reduce generator run time. “The inverter has a constant power supply so that when the generator stops the inverter kicks in,” says David. For installers Action Electrical from Te Kuiti, this was their ﬁrst ever install for inverter and generator power to a dairy shed. David says it was the same amount of work as installing regular power supply.

Buying quality The generator is a Caterpillar DE110E2 supplied in June 2017. This unit was on display at the Gough exhibit at the 2017 National Fieldays at Mystery Creek. Being totally off the grid, the Hahns

Eighteen batteries waiting for their permanent cover. required a reliable single-source power generation system with the best back-up in the business, which Gough Power Systems wad able to provide. They were prepared to pay more for quality and did so by purchasing the Cat. The Cat genset provides the main source of power for the site during milkings, as well as charging capacity for the battery storage system. Farm manager Claudia Odlin loves milking in the new shed. Originating from the Rotorua area and farming in Reporoa, she’s had four years’ farming experience prior to moving to this farm.

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Page 85

KOVO FARMS

Page 86

Happy cows happy milkers Josephine Reader

After purchasing the Taranaki property in 2016, it became apparent that the existing shed wasn’t suitable, says Carl. Cows were regularly jumping over rails, ﬂow was awful and it took three hours to milk 300 cows, he says. Attempts to resolve stray electricity problems suspected as the cause of the problem weren’t successful, and this – along with other issues – brought forward rebuild plans. “Initially we thought we’d get ﬁve or six years out of the existing shed, but milking was just awful. I can’t believe the last people put up with it for so long,” says Shey.

Dairy design roomy and light Although the Kowalewskis had a good idea of what they wanted in a new shed, they only had three months to evaluate different shed building designs, milking plant and technology options if they wanted the new dairy to be up and running for the start of the 2017 season. The decision to go with a Don Chapman shed, built by local licensees, Quintin Oakes Builders, was made after a local farmer

showed Carl and Shey around his new shed and opened up his books. “He was really honest about cost. He shared what his shed cost, and we knew we could build one for the same amount,” says Shey. Carl liked the extra room on the cups-off side of the shed, which includes plenty of bench space and a vet platform. Shey liked the fact that the shed was really light and airy. Window or door openings on all four sides of the shed ensure plenty of air ﬂow and the freezer panel walls reﬂect the natural light.

Outstanding build team The new dairy was sited at a more central location on the 140-hectare farm, and construction started in February 2017. The build went reasonably smoothly with Carl and Shey praising the tradies involved with the build. “The lead builder took pride in his ﬁnishing off. He was awesome, and we’ve since used him on other jobs,” says Carl. Herbert Electrical also did a great job, according to Carl. “The head sparky, Danny, took the lead and got everyone together for site meetings in the morning. We did have some issues during the build, but Herbert sorted it. It didn’t matter

how busy they were, they just got the job done.” The Moa Milking and Pumping team who installed the milking plant, platform, shed water and efﬂuent management system were under the pump a bit at times during the build, but they always came through, says Carl. “They were awesome to deal with and were great communicators. They just got things sorted.”

More bang for your buck Tru-Test Dairy Solutions offered more features for the price than other solutions the Kowalewskis investigated, so the decision to go with Tru Test dairy automation and MiHub herd management was a no-brainer, says Carl. He initially thought the walk-over weighing was a luxury, but reports on cow weight within MiHub are now among those he uses most frequently. The ability to set up preferential feeding for particular groups of cows is also very useful, he says. Farm worker Sean Robinson says drafting out cows is really simple. Tim Rix of Tru Test says the drafting system has a quick and quiet drafting action so cows don’t balk at it. The danger of having to dump milk due to power outage, or milk not reaching the right temperature quickly enough, is virtually eliminated thanks to Tru Test Vat Manager, which sends an alert to Carl’s cellphone if anything is outside set parameters. M

A D E

N •

N E W

Kovo Farms

Milkers are a lot happier and so are the cows in the modern, comfortable shed on Carl and Shey Kowalewski’s Stratford farm.

•

A view of the Don Chapmandesigned shed from the yard.

Coast & Country

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KOVO FARMS

Page 87 Shey and Carl Kowalewski milk 300 cows on their Stratford farm.

HiTech Enviro Solutions advised the Kowalewskis on the design of their efﬂuent management system.

Quick and quiet drafting action is a feature of the automated draft system says Tim Rix, Tru Test Dairy Automation. Waikato Milking systems got the nod to supply the milking plant and Orbit platform for the new 40-bail rotary shed. “The Waikato plant was tidier, had fewer complicated components, and we also liked that the design allowed herd testing on the outside of the platform,” says Carl. The Kowalewskis opted for labour-saving devices such as SmartECR automatic cup removers and SmartSPRAY automatic teat spraying, which means they are no longer reliant on always having two people in the shed. When you consider that you can reduce staff numbers with a system like this, return on investment adds up quickly, says Brian Luff of Waikato Milking Systems. “Not only that, it frees people up to focus on other tasks – on or off the farm.” Initially sceptical about the square barrel quadrant liners recommended by Moa Milking and Pumping, Carl is glad they went with this option because they’ve had no cup slip problems at all.

Carl Kowalewski and Quintin Oakes, Quintin Oakes Builders, in the new dairy.

Quintin Oakes Builders constructed the shed to a Don Chapman design. FIL dairy hygiene solutions are helping the Kowalewskis keep their new milking plant in top condition. An automated dosage for plant wash is safer and eliminates human error in dosing. Craig keeps in contact with the Kowalewskis throughout the season to see how things are going and make suggestions to optimise usage, keep costs low, and get better results. A twiceyearly check of the milk lines with an infrared camera helps identify and prevent any problem areas, says Craig Allen, FIL areas sales manager. High somatic cell counts haven’t been an issue in the new shed, and this is due to a combination of factors, including less stress on the herd and the new dairy hygiene regime, says Carl.

Free-flowing feed Carl selected a non-metal silo for feed storage after seeing one at a neighbour’s property. They are better insulated and have less condensation, so result in less bridging, says Carl. It also has an outlet for loading feed into troughs, which is a lot less

hassle than buying and handling tonne bags. “While Carl didn’t buy his silo off us, they are such good solutions that we’ve since done a deal to become a local distributor,” says Nathan Hitchcock of Moa Milking and Pumping who installed the feed system.

Compliant effluent system A Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions-designed efﬂuent management system, including a new 32m square-lined storage pond, rounds out the Kowalewskis’ new dairy. Efﬂuent is pumped to an irrigator which services around 20ha. The fully compliant system takes advantage of cheap night power rates and is operated from a button in the shed. Overall, the Kowalewskis couldn’t be happier with their new dairy. “We don’t want to be milking forever,” says Carl. “This plant set-up and new shed will make it easy to attract and retain staff in the future when we decide to step back.”

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DOYLES

Page 88

Coast & Country

a winner Josephine Reader

Luke Doyle now milks his family’s 220-cow herd in half the time and does so in comfort thanks to the modern dairy built to replace the farm’s aging 12-aside herringbone shed.

The dairy shed is only a kilometre or so off the coast. Luke contract milks on parents John and Sue Doyle’s farm in the coastal Taranaki community of Pungarehu and the new dairy is on a greenﬁeld site in the middle of the property. Re-siting the shed to be more central on the oblong-shaped farm was important, says John, as the longest walk for the herd was around 2km. “The longest the cows walk to the shed is about half that now and we’ve had a big decrease in lameness,” says John. “The shed is also better situated should the opportunity arise to purchase any neighbouring properties.” One of the main things the Doyles wanted out of the upgrade was a dairy shed in which one person could milk, and they decided on plant from Waikato Milking Systems. The Doyles’ new dairy includes laboursaving and efﬁciency devices like SmartECR automated cup removers and SmartSPRAY

automated teat spray among others, which is what farmers are typically looking for when they upgrade says Brian Luff, regional sales manager for Waikato Milking Systems. The payback period for investing in modern dairy technology like this isn’t as long as people might think, says Brian.

Technology pays for itself “When you consider the salary saving from moving away from a two-person milking system to genuine one-person milking, the technology pays for itself relatively quickly,” says Brian. “Not only that, a modern dairy opens up the opportunity to have more time off. Attracting and retaining staff is also easier.” The Brian Hill Building-designed and built dairy shed is light and airy. Large doors on three sides let in plenty of air and together with clear panels in the roof ensure the

John Doyle, Sue Doyle and son Luke Doyle on the farm. interior of the shed is bathed in natural light. White freezer panel walls are easy to clean and reﬂect light. John liked the Brian Hill Building-designed shed for many reasons, including the use of timber on the roof and its freezer panel walls that are manufactured by Insulation Panel & Doors in Palmerston North, which John felt would stand up well to the salt spray at the site’s coastal location. A large awning over the shed entry protects cows and milkers from harsh weather conditions on the site, and storage in the dairy was maximised by moving the platform closer to the front of the building. The majority of building materials were supplied by Mitre 10 Mega New Plymouth.

“We’ve always been with Mitre 10,” says Jono Hill from Brian Hill Building. “If we need something they supply it, and if they haven’t got it in stock, they work hard to ﬁnd it.” Mitre 10 Mega New Plymouth trade manager Philip Rose says: “We understand the constraints of working to a deadline and work hard to be on top of things”.

Muck easily hosed off Manawatu-based Surfatex applied specialised paint coating, Acraﬂex, to the concrete brick parts of the internal shed walls. The coating is impervious to chemicals and muck is easily hosed off. Acraﬂex has become a standard feature of Brian Hill-built dairy sheds because of its longevity in harsh shed conditions.

DOYLES

PH 07 578 0030

Page 89

Tru Test Vat Manager provides peace of mind that milk cooling is operating as expected.

Mitre 10 Mega’s Les Nairn, Luke Doyle, Philip Rose, Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff, Moa Milking and Pumping’s Nathan Hitchcock and Brian Hill Building’s Corbin Mills and Jono Hill.

Luke Doyle at the panel that controls the Waikato Milking Systems’ 40-bail rotary platform.

Brian Hill Building designed and built the new dairy.

Doyle Luke, who is a trained welder, put his skills to use completing all the steelwork in the yard and designing and building a bespoke backing gate. He also fabricated the steelwork for the in-shed feed system, purchased from ThinkWater New Plymouth. A feed controller from Tru Test means Luke can roll out an individualised feed regime for particular cows or groups and in-bail electronic identiﬁcation ensures each cow only gets fed once, even if they go around the platform twice. As cows exit the dairy, the Tru Test walkover weighing system records cow weight. Automated drafting, which can be done via Luke’s smartphone or via the keypad in the shed, takes the hassle out of drafting cows. Luke can access the Tru Test MiHub herd management website from anywhere with an internet.

Waikato Milking Systems’ automated SmartWASH system is one of many labour-saving devices in the new dairy.

Moa Milking and Pumping Nathan Hitchcock, says installation of the platform typically takes seven hours per bail. “I’ve been learning as I go, and Tru Test have been pretty helpful when I’ve rung for assistance”.

Alerts sent to phone Tru Test also supplied the dairy’s refrigeration system including Vat Manager which alerts when monitored parameters, like whether the vat refrigeration is on or off or are outside set limits. The alert message appears on the display beside the vat and can also be sent to Luke’s cell phone and email. Nathan Hitchcock of Moa Milking and Pumping, Waikato Milking Systems’ North Island platform installation partner, says the install of the 2.7m Orbit concrete platform was a bit quicker than usual. Once installed, maintenance is minimal and the main task is keeping the platform rollers lubricated, says Nathan.

“Regular lubrication, together with an annual check-up, is really the best way to keep the platform performing at its best. While most farmers will have their milking plant serviced annually, they often overlook getting the platform serviced.” Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions designed the fully automated, easy-to-use effluent management system that services the new dairy. “When moving forward with a new effluent system, making sure the system is going to be compliant with regional council rules, as well as future-proofing the design for any likely changes to farm practices, like increasing herd size, are important,” says Samantha Bull, a dairy effluent consultant with Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions.

High-tech effluent control Effluent is collected off the yard and flows via a channel into a sand trap. From there effluent

moves into a 1457m3 lined storage pond. Effluent is kept in suspension with a surfacemounted horizontal 7.5kw stirrer, says Steve Bevan, of ThinkWater New Plymouth, who installed the system. A timer-controlled mono pump turns on and effluent moves down 90mm MD12 bar poly pipe to a travelling irrigator. “When the irrigator gets to the end of run, the auto stop valve operates and the flow switch turns off the system. “The flow switch can also sense a pressure drop like a drag line coming apart and switch the pump off, which is useful and failsafe,” says Steve. The ThinkWater team was busy on this job because, as the local Waikato Milking Systems partner, they also installed all the milking plant. The milking plant and water took around three months to install, and “the Doyle family where excellent to deal with throughout,” says Steve.

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THE GREENHILLS TRUST

Page 90

Coast & Country

Doing the job

properly Josephine Reader

First dairy shed in the world to install the Waikato Milking Systems Gen3 Centrus platform. A self-oiling unit keeps rollers performing at their best on the Waikato Milking Systems Gen3 Centrus platform.

Brian Hill Builders designed the dairy shed building and collaborated on the design of the yard with Andrew Wood from Coastal Welders and farm owner Bill Honeyﬁeld.

Bill Honeyﬁeld’s new dairy is a testament to his commitment to doing the job properly, and his unwillingness to settle for less than best. The new dairy features a ﬁrst-of-its-kind Waikato Milking Systems 50-bail Centrus composite platform, the innovative design of which was driven by Bill’s needs for his 170 effective hectare property at Okato, Taranaki.

State-of-the-art platform An upgrade to the 65-year-old shed and facilities became necessary when Bill purchased a neighbouring property on June 1, 2016, although the 12-aside herringbone on that farm has been retained for milking colostrum cows.

The Greenhills Trust

The Waikato Milking Systems Centrus platform was Bill’s first preference for the new dairy as he needed a lightweight option because of poor soil structure on his farm. With the Centrus weighing in at 75 per cent less than an equivalent concrete platform, it was the ideal solution. Bill identified that a 40-bail rotary was too small, and a 60-bail too large. He was adamant that a 50-bail rotary was the most cost-effective for his farm and was reluctant to invest in a larger platform. However, a 50-bail Centrus composite platform wasn’t among the size options offered by Waikato Milking Systems. At the time, it was available in either 40 or 60-bail configurations which were constructed in a

Tru Tests’ MiHub herd management system. series of sections each containing six bails. Bill challenged Waikato Milking Systems to come up with an answer. And answer they did, with a revolutionary new design that – for the first time in the world – enabled the Centrus platform to be manufactured in single bail configurations, enabling farmers to tailor the platform size to their needs. Waikato Milking Systems’ Taranaki sales manager Brian Luff says the breakthrough enabled Bill to size his platform to the site, the farm and the herd size. This was the first dairy shed in the world to get the third-generation Centrus platform and local installation partner, Moa Milking and Pumping, worked alongside Waikato Milking Systems’ engineers on the install.

Nathan Hitchcock of Moa Milking was impressed with the precision of the engineering and says the components ﬁt together perfectly, which is especially impressive given the signiﬁcant change in engineering that brought about the Gen3 platform. “For us, there’s less on-site work to be done as much of the work is done in the manufacturing phase. There is no steel substructure to build and the modular deck sections are easy to assemble,” says Nathan. As well as the innovative platform, the new dairy includes the latest Waikato Milking Systems milking plant, including SmartECR automatic cup removers, SmartPULS consistent digital pulsation, SmartSPRAY in-bail teat spray system, SmartDRIVE milk and vacuum pump controller, and SmartCONTROL.

THE GREENHILLS TRUST

PH 07 578 0030

Page 91

Technipharms’ Ecobag efﬂuent storage releases trapped methane that is causing the bag to bulge.

Floodwash residue empties to a nearby efﬂuent bunker.

Bill Honeyﬁeld operating the drain door on the GEA-designed efﬂuent bunker.

Bill also opted for the Waikato SmartWASH automatic plant and vat wash system. The advantage of this system, says Brian, is the vat and plant wash are controlled by two independent units, which minimises the risk of accidently doing a vat wash instead of a plant wash.

Large-scale build The amount of technology meant that the electrical installation was one of the biggest jobs ever undertaken by dairy shed specialists HEL Electrical. The HEL team of three or four electricians was on-site for the better part of seven months installing power to the new three-bay implement shed, calf shed, installing multiple submains to feed power to efﬂuent controls and pumps and, of course, wiring up the new dairy. The environmentally-sustainable measures Bill opted for are a real highlight of this dairy, says Callum Margetts, who project-managed the electrical install. “We commend Bill on his commitment to investing in an

energy-efﬁcient and environmentally-sustainable dairy that will stand the test of time.” Installation of farm and shed water was also a huge job for the Think Water New Plymouth team, led by James Cunniffe. “The scale of work required was massive, with eight liquid tanks that needed to be installed, let alone all the other work. This is one of the biggest sheds we’ve ever done. “We’ve got to pay tribute to Bill for a job well-done. He invested countless hours of work, especially groundworks to get the job ﬁnished on time,” says James, who jokes that he got up early a few times to try to beat Bill to the job site – but never with any success. While there are many features of the water installation that will save time, money or both, the customised DBEP washdown pump system is worth highlighting, says James, because it allows multiple hoses to be used at once without any pressure loss. Bill estimates that he invested an additional $300,000 to ensure the new dairy meets not only today’s regulations, but also any that might be imposed in the future.

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Bill Honeyﬁeld with Callum Margetts from HEL Electrical, Jono Hill from Brian Hill Builders, Andrew Wood from Coastal Welders, James Cunniffe from Think Water, Brian Luff from Waikato Milking Systems and Richard Koolen from Tru Test On Farm Solutions. “I could have built the efﬂuent management system for less. But it was worth doing properly to save water and make sure the system is compliant for years to come.

Unique effluent system Because of the farm’s challenging mountain soil structure, a conventional efﬂuent pond would have required extensive engineering, so, Bill opted for Technipharm enclosed ecobag efﬂuent storage that he had seen at Fieldays. A big advantage of the ecobag is unwanted rain water cannot enter the system. Nitrogen loss is minimised because the pond isn’t open to the air, and there is never any crusting either, says Harmen Heesen of Technipharm. “A covered system makes a lot of sense if the farm is in a high rainfall area, like Bill’s. An open pond needs to have a larger storage capacity to account for rainwater that enters and the ecobag eliminates this. It also captures greenhouse gases, which makes the system compliant in terms of any regulations that may come in the future,” says Harmen.

Page 92

THE GREENHILLS TRUST

Coast & Country

A new calf shed was one of several farm buildings constructed by Brian Hill Building during the upgrade.

The upper part of walls are constructed from freezer panel with the lower portion being cinder block covered in long-lasting and hard-wearing Acraflex paint coating. The European-designed bladder comes with internationally-recognised certification, is extremely robust and has a lifespan of 20 years or more. The effluent processing system is designed by GEA Farm Technologies. A push-button GEA flush system featuring two large air-operated flush valves uses greenwater to clean the feedpad. This can be operated manually or on a pre-set timer, says GEA effluent solutions manager Matthew Rice. Water and muck drains from the feedpad to the nearby solids traps, the size of which are carefully designed so that solids settle out efficiently, says Matthew. From there, the liquids drain to storage or are pumped back to a 31,000L greenwater tank at the top of the feedpad. Plant wash and water from the shed drains directly to the sump. Once every four or five weeks the solids

traps are cleaned out using a digger, says Bill, and effluent is pumped as required to two travelling rain gun irrigators. Hi Tech Enviro Solutions specified a mono progressive cavity pump capable of delivering effluent to the farm’s two irrigators simultaneously. The pump, installed by Think Water New Plymouth, delivers high volumes to the irrigation area and was specified to future-proof the system, says Samantha Bull from Hi Tech Enviro Solutions.

Tricky building conditions Very wet weather in the first half of 2017 made for very difficult building conditions, but the project was still finished on time. Bill pays tribute to Brian Hill Building for a job well-done in difficult conditions. “Brian has a reputation for doing a good

job. His sheds are neat and well-constructed. I could rely on him to get the job done, and to get it done efficiently. He is a really expert operator,” says Bill. The dairy shed itself is Brian Hill’s standard shed design with a few minor modifications, including a vet room that is at the same level as the yard and the addition of a shower to the dairy’s bathroom. All the walls are made of an insulated Long Panel which is a versatile building panel made from Expanded Polystyrene Sheet with a tongue and groove jointing system and roll formed along the edge. The insulated panel comprises of an outer skin of pre-painted Colorsteel with a core of CFC-free expanded polystyrene foam. Brian’s design calls for the shed roof to go on first, which was an important part of what kept this build on track in difficult weather. “Putting the roof on first means other trades can get in and start their work as early as possible, which limits weather-related holdups,” says Jono Hill, who was the building foreman for this project. A new implement shed and calf shed were also constructed as part of the build. The trade team at Mitre 10 Mega New Plymouth also played a part in ensuring the

Sharemilker Kelvin Purdy and farm owner Bill Honeyﬁeld. build was completed on time. As the primary supplier of building materials for the build, Jono’s team either collected materials from the New Plymouth depot as needed, or Mitre 10 Mega delivered materials to the site throughout the job, meaning the build team could focus on getting the build ﬁnished, says Philip Rose from Mitre 10 Mega New Plymouth.

Yard design collaboration Yard design was a large part of the build and was a collaboration between Bill, local engineering firm Coastal Welders and builder Jono Hill from Brian Hill Builders. A circular yard suited the site best, says Jono, but locating the flat circular yard directly adjacent to a rectangular, sloping feedpad presented challenges. Many hours of planning went into fine-tuning a yard design that optimised cow flow and worked for this site, says Andrew Wood from Coastal Welders.

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THE GREENHILLS TRUST

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I could rely on him to get the job done, and to get it done efﬁciently.

James Cunniffe from Think Water and Callum Margetts from HEL Electrical.

Callum Margetts, HEL Electrical, making adjustments in the switchbox. Sharemilker Kelvin Purdy says great cow ﬂow in the shed and yard is one of the best parts of the new dairy. The yard features a vet area, drafting race and two loading ramps one for bobby calves and one for cows. Andrew and his team completed the yard design as well as all of the steelwork in the yard. They also supplied the structural steel beams that form the skeleton of dairy shed. A Technipharm dual core dungbuster for scraping muck off the yard is ﬁtted to the solar-powered backing gate, providing the option of clean or greenwater wash. As well as large savings in water usage and time, the Dungbuster automated yard cleaning system is hygienic because it does not create vapour or splashes, which limits pathogen transfer to cows’ udders and teats, says Harmen.

Milking in the new dairy Kelvin couldn’t be happier with the new dairy. The shed is leaps and bounds ahead of others he has worked in, and he says the automated drafting is a real highlight. The new dairy is also a breeze to keep clean, with cow muck easily hosed off, says Kelvin. The freezer panel walls, and specialised paint coating on lower shed wall surfaces, as well as

Sharemilker Kelvin Purdy hosing down the yard.

water sprayer on the platform skirt keeps surfaces damp and makes hosing down in the shed a ﬁve to 10 minute job, says Kelvin. Builder Brian Hill recommends the seven-layer Acraﬂex wall coating on the concrete block wall surfaces, supplied by Specialised Coatings and applied by Palmerston North-based Surfatex, on all of his new shed builds because it’s so long-lasting and durable.

Refrigeration and herd management A supplier that took a deposit but failed to deliver any product forced Bill to look at other refrigeration options. And, as it turns out, this was a good thing. Nick Callingham from Tru Test Milk Cooling and Tanks came out the day he phoned, recalls Bill, and a 12hp refrigeration unit with heat recovery was installed without fuss a week or so later. While excavating on-site during the earthworks phase of the build, Bill discovered a sustainable supply of clean spring water, coming out of the ground at 10 degrees Celsius. Because his primary water supply was unusually cool, Bill saved almost $20,000 capital cost due to being able to opt for a less complex chiller. Tru Test also supplied the dairy’s herd management

system, MiHub. In addition to in-bail identification, the dairy includes top of the line 4-in-1 sensors which monitor conductivity, milk yield, plant milking and cleaning performance. The sensors connect wirelessly to the control hub and provide a variety of reports and alerts to save time in the shed and support decision-making, says Richard Koolen from Tru Test On-Farm Solutions. In-shed alerts for checking cows likely to have mastitis appear on the display screen and cows are automatically drafted for checking. Conductivity measurement is stored for every cow, every milking and trends can be viewed at Mihub online. Quality and completeness of the wash cycle, water ﬂow and temperature, and even alerts for cup slip are among the other things measured by the 4-in-1 sensors. The dairy also features walk-over weighing and three-way automated drafting, which can be controlled from a smartphone. Bill’s uncompromising approach to investing in quality solutions that will serve the farm for many years to come is the hallmark of this new dairy, and has ensured an outstanding work environment for current sharemilker Kelvin Purdy, and whoever comes after him.

ALLEN

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Next level

Coast & Country

Farming Josephine Reader

The Smart Shelter roof is selfsupporting and requires no pillars.

environmental conditions of the past two seasons, he says. Cow body condition has also improved signiﬁcantly, which Grant attributes in part to the optimal conditions in the Smart Shelter dairy housing. Grant says the dairy housing offers him, and farm manager Kerry Waters, much more ﬂexibility in their operations, with the milking herd typically spending days in the shelter and nights in the paddock. “How we manage changes with the season and weather. If it’s wet, they stay in the shelter longer, and when we have lots of grass they are outside more. When the soil was saturated we were able to keep the cows off those paddocks and that reduced pugging and extended the paddock rotation.”

Allen Farm owner Grant Allen and farm manager Kerry Waters and dog “Finn” in the Smart Shelter.

Something farmers know intuitively – and Grant Allen can now prove – is that happy, contented cows produce more milk. A hybrid system that includes pasture grazing and free stall dairy housing is at the heart of Grant’s Waitara, Taranaki farming operation that sees each cow in his 400-strong herd produce 70 per cent more milk solids than the average cow in the region. Before the change in farming system, production was already very high at around 650kg/ms per cow compared with the Taranaki average of 369 kg/ms. Three seasons in, production is now sitting at around 670kg/ms per cow, and the goal is to move that to 700kg/ms per cow, says Grant. One of the most pleasing outcomes of the change in farming system is that production has increased, even in the challenging

All weather It’s not just in winter that the dairy housing comes into its own. Temperature in the Smart Shelter is typically ﬁve-six degrees Celsius lower than ambient and this has eliminated the heat stress some of the herd experienced in high summer temperatures, says Grant. Harvey Cottle from Smart Shelter says all components are manufactured in Auckland, and the best-of-breed fabric cladding membrane is imported from Canada.

The Smart Shelter is equipped with all the amenities a cow needs for comfort.

The polysoft matting and stalls for the shelter were supplied by Technipharm.

“Our dairy housing is quick to erect thanks to the bolttogether system. It offers lots of natural light and even temperatures due to excellent ventilation and the woven ripstop polyethylene fabric that reflects the radiant heat of the sun,” says Harvey. Inside the Smart Shelter, Technipharm was responsible for much of the fit-out, including stalls and soft loafing matting and lane-scraping system.

Changes to the farming system When Grant took over ownership of the farm from his parents in 2002/2003, production relied on grain feed. This was becoming increasingly expensive so he began looking at alternatives that would allow the farm to continue producing at the high level of previous seasons in a consistent and cost-effective way. Reducing feed losses due to pasture damage and in-paddock feeding was also an important driver for the project. Existing farm infrastructure was very good so a move away from a solely pasture-based system didn’t require an upgrade to all the facilities, says Harmen Heesen, a dairy consultant from Cowhouse Consulting, who advised Grant on the change to his farming system. Harmen cautions against putting in dairy housing thinking it will be some kind of cure-all, instead suggesting it should be considered as part of the overall farming system.

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The cow lane scraped down just before cows leave for milking.

Kerry cleans a set of cups as he milks. Woven polyethylene fabric cladding that reﬂects radiant heat. “Jumping into building dairy housing without understanding the system won’t deliver results. Each farm is different,” he says. Harmen completed a detailed assessment of farm operations and considered Grant’s plans for the future, analysed existing farm infrastructure, and worked alongside bankers and other advisers to determine the best solution that would deliver a suitable return on investment. “Our aim is to work with the farmer to establish a farm system that is easy to understand and operate, and futureproof. Grant and Kerry are an exceptional farm management team and the results to date show that,” says Harmen.

Feeding for production Animal nutrition is an integral part of any system and especially so here, says Grant. The on-demand feed philosophy ensures that the high-producing herd is fed at optimal levels for condition and production. “What works on this farm won’t necessarily work for my neighbour,” says Grant. “Every farm is different and you have to feed what suits your environment and cows.” As well as pasture, cows are fed mainly maize silage grown on-farm, and palletised feed, along with other protein meals that continue to be fed in-shed as a top-up, says Grant.

Claas Arion tractor supplied by Taranaki Claas Harvest Centre pulls a mixer wagon, for depositing feed in the shelter.

In 2010 Central Silo Systems upgraded the existing in-shed feed system (installed by another company) to add raw cereal milling capability and improve system reliability. A Skiold SK2500 discmill was installed and a Skiold 1500 unimix system was added to the existing silos for blending minerals and feed. “We offer local servicing, which was important, because Grant and Kerry needed better reliability,” says Sean Curry of Central Silo Systems. It is a testament to the quality of the fit-out of the 44-bail rotary dairy shed, built 11 years ago, that it needed no modification to accommodate the change to a hybrid farming system. Kerry and Grant use TruTest MiHub extensively to support their herd management decisions. One of the reports Kerry uses regularly examines cow production performance by age. Drafting cows into springer and other groups is a breeze with the automated drafting system, says Kerry, and the alert functionality is great as well he says. “Although Grant and I can usually tell, it’s easy to find cows that are trending towards mastitis with a quick look at MiHub,” says Kerry. Grant’s focus on investment where it delivers the best return

is also evident in the modern machinery used on the farm, including tractors, mixer wagon and spreader. A new Claas Arion 630C tractor with loader purchased in 2017 from Taranaki Claas Harvest Centre, along with two other Claas Arion tractors, are the workhorses of the farm. Grant and Kerry have had no problems to date, says Steve Roylance from Claas, but if they do, a 24-hour breakdown service means they will be back up and running quickly.

Improving effluent utilisation Another gain from the change in farming system is the ability to gather effluent more efficiently from the dairy housing. Grant uses a low-emission spreader which applies the slurry directly to the soil surface via a series of injectors. This application method limits soiling the grass with slurry, maximises available nitrogen and reduces ammonia emissions, says Grant. Grant expects the cost of bought-in fertiliser to reduce over time as he reaps the benefits of more effective effluent catchment from the dairy shed and shelter. Grant and Kerry are making excellent progress realising the value from the change in farming system, but as Grant says, finding the weakest link in the system and fixing it means there’s always more improvement to be made.

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HIFARM HOLDINGS

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Barfoote Construction designed and built the Higgins dairy.

Extensive concrete races feature at the Higgins dairy in Manawatu.

Hifarm Holdings

Quality

a priority

Josephine Reader

Low stone walls that flank the tanker entrance and a pin-entry gate hint at the very high standard of finish at the Higgins dairy just outside Ashurst in the Manawatu. The Higgins family has owned and operated a successful concrete business for more than 40 years and wanted an outstanding quality concrete dairy building to service their 850-cow herd. They didn’t need to look any further than Barfoote Construction, whose curved building design and concrete structure ticked all of the boxes. Extensive landscaping, including rock retention walls, spacious chip-sealed tanker track, half-round wooden fencing around the dairy, and contemporary shed design demonstrate the attention to detail and high-quality finish that was important to the Higgins.

Unique shed design Barfoote Construction site manager John Hansen says the curved concrete design of the dairy building is unique to Barfoote Construction.

“No-one else builds a shed like ours,” says John. Most of the concrete building components, such as the precast concrete wall slab, were manufactured on-site and the long, structural concrete beams were made off-site and delivered. While a dairy building like this typically takes around six months to construct, Barfoote also built the weeping wall efﬂuent catchment facility, the feed storage bunkers, the covered feedpad and all the yards, so the company was on-site for much longer, says John. “We understand that the owners are very proud of what they’ve achieved with this dairy, and we echo that. This is an outstanding example of what is possible. We use this as reference site to show potential clients.” John estimates around 2000m3 of concrete was used for the build, which is just about enough to ﬁll an Olympic-size swimming pool. Professional Concrete Services Palmerston North laid con-

Operations manager Bill Jamieson and contract milker Luke Cosgrove.

crete for the non-dairy parts of the facility, including a cow race near the shed, footpaths, tanker forecourt and stairs. “Our reputation for quality workmanship was important. Everything we did here had to be ﬁnished to a high standard,” says Wayne Vercoe of PCS.

Top-end functionality Bromley Dairy and Pumps installed Halo, a comprehensive monitoring system that oversees and reports on a variety of parameters, including milk temperature going into the vat, wash temperature, vacuum levels, whether the milk vat tap is open or closed, farm water usage, feed levels in silos and more. The system offers peace of mind because alerts are sent to nominated cellphones in real-time as soon as something goes outside set parameters, meaning action can be taken immediately, says Steve Bromley. The system also provides excellent data that can be used for demonstrating compliance.

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A Top Dog overhead gate manufactured by Dairy Tech Waikato brings cows forward in small groups. The Central Silo Systems feed mill processing plant with a Fabristar controller is the first of its kind installed in New Zealand. The system includes three SCAFCO storage silos – two 45-tonne silos for protein meals and one 175t silo for raw cereal – and a complete Skiold feed mill with two ready-feed 4.5t silos for processed feed. “The setup of the Skiold Fabristar S controller allows for fullyautomated milling, weighing and mixing of different, specified recipes and is done without manual input from the farmer,” says Sean Curry of Central Silo Systems. “It can be programmed to start at night to take advantage of lower power charges or when the system’s sensors identify that the ready feed silos are getting low. “With the feed mill and processing plant, feed cost per tonne is much lower compared to buying in commercially-mixed feed and gives greater flexibility to alter feed to suit on-farm conditions,” says Sean.

Move along Out in the yard, a Top Dog overhead gate by Dairy Tech Waikato moves cows into the shed for milking. Used in conjunction with a traditional backing gate, the fully automated

The Central Silo Systems in-shed feed system features Skiold milling capability as well as storage for raw cereal and protein.

The Wrangler is located inside the dairy building for convenient animal treatment

Top Dog gate brings small groups of cows forward, and then returns to bring up the next group, which improves cow flow into the shed. The vet race is inside the dairy building and allows for convenient animal treatment. At the end of the vet race is a Wrangler, which makes easy work of treating lame cows. Designed and made in New Zealand, the Wrangler is suitable for the Higgins’ mostly Friesian-cross herd, and heifers and young stock are also easily treated. Inside the dairy, internal walls look freshly painted which is a testament to the hard-wearing Acraflex coating applied to the shed’s internal concrete walls. The coating is applied in seven layers and includes a final coat that seals against bacteria and harsh shed chemicals. The vast surface area that required coating in the 32m x 22m shed meant Frits van Echten and the team from Surfatex applied the wall coating in stages. “We were flexible and fitted our work in to suit the building programme and keep the project moving. It was simply too large a space to do all at once,” says Frits. The attention to detail extends to the dairy’s service areas as well: stone countertops on benches in the kitchen and meeting areas are more like those seen in an upmarket kitchen than

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Acraﬂex wall coating applied by Frits van Echten’s team from Surfatex.

in a shed; parking areas outside the dairy are marked; concrete footpaths provide clearly marked access; extensive planting completes landscaping around the dairy; and there is a mural in the meeting room showcasing the family concrete business. Richard Lindsay Plumbing was one of many contractors involved with the project, completing domestic plumbing for the shed’s kitchen and toilet to the high standard that is evident in all work on this dairy.

Economical milk pre-chilling The Higgins chose New Zealand-designed and made Snapchill for pre-chilling and refrigeration. An 850 Snapchill unit was installed, future-proofing their operation and providing capacity for up to 1200 cows, says Trev Maddox of Snapchill. Milk enters the two 21,500L vats at around five degrees Celsius. Because milk is chilled so efficiently before it hits the vat, there is little change in vat temperature as new milk is added, which means less energy-intensive vat refrigeration is required, saving even more. “We supplied vat refrigeration here as well, and a smaller vat refrigeration unit was possible because of the efficient prechilling,” says Trev.

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Coast & Country

The Higgins’ dairy features LIC Protrack Vantage automated drafting Kev Purser of Master Grading Services laid rocks for the retaining wall as well as completing ground preparation for the yard and feedpad.

LIC Cellsense provides real-time data on whether a cow might be susceptible to mastitis. Snapchill is cheap to run because it doesn’t draw power during peak load at milking time and produces hot water as a byproduct of the milk cooling process. With water heating costs sitting at around 25 per cent of electricity costs in a typical dairy operation, this is a big cost-saving, says Trev.

Dairy benefits from data Farm operations manager Bill Jamieson says they wanted to install technology that would help them be more efﬁcient and make better decisions. “We now have access to data that allows us to monitor cow health, somatic cell count, feed usage, plant performance and much more. “It’s all about using the data to be more efﬁcient and improve production.” The Higgins family opted for LIC Automation’s Protrack Vantage fully-automated drafting system that integrates directly with MINDA herd management. “Protrack Vantage allows for the herd to be fully managed and recorded in the shed, including all seasonal events like calving,

A Waikato Milking Systems milking plant is at the heart of the dairy.

The Skiold Fabristar S feedmill processing system installed by Central Silo Systems is the ﬁrst of its kind in New Zealand.

mating and animal health events,” says LIC Automation national sales manager Craig Lowry. It also integrates with the in-shed feed system, ensuring the right animal gets the right feed every time, he says. Before the cow has ﬁnished going around the platform, results are available from LIC Cellsense milk sensors which identify whether a cow might be susceptible to mastitis and can be automatically drafted for checking. LIC Yieldsense meters measure fat, protein, lactose, milk solids, volume and conductivity, giving real-time data on production.

Labour-saving milking plant Contract milker Luke Cosgrove loves milking in the new dairy. He reckons everything is simple to operate, easy to keep clean, and the technology is easy to use. “The Higgins have set the bar high with this shed. It is a reﬂection of the high standards that are important to them in building not just a working, functioning shed, but one that is future-proofed and will perform at that high standard well into the future.”

Waikato Milking Systems milking plant is at the heart of the new dairy. Lower total cost of ownership is one of the reasons farmers typically choose Waikato Milking Systems, says Steve Bromley of Bromley Dairy and Pumps, who installed all the plant at the Higgins dairy. The components are all manufactured here in New Zealand, and that means service and maintenance are easy and typically less costly compared to overseas-manufactured solutions, he says. The easy pull-down and auto-start features on the clusters are a feature milkers love, says Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Brian Luff. “There is less fatigue on arms because vacuum starts as soon as the cups are picked up.” Automatically triggered by the SmartECR cup removers, teats are sprayed by the SmartSPRAY bullet units mounted in the bail as soon as cows have ﬁnished milking, maximising treatment effectiveness.

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Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff, Bromley Dairy and Pumps’ Steve Bromley and Surfatexs’ Frits van Echten. SmartWASH for both 21,500L vats and the milking plant allows milkers to focus on other activities as the system simply cycles through the pre-programmed acid, alkali or sanitiser wash cycles. While pre-programmed washes and automatically dosed chemicals eliminate human error, the system offers the best of both worlds because washes are easily adjusted via a touchscreen as needed, says Brian. SmartDRIVE systems control the milk and vacuum pumps. “Our research shows power savings of up to 47 per cent are possible on vacuum pump running costs because the vacuum pump speed adjusts dynamically based on airflow,” says Brian. The Higgins are the first in the Manawatu to install a Waikato Milking Systems Centrus composite rotary platform, which is 80 per cent lighter and five times stronger than a concrete deck. Taranaki’s Moa Milking and Pumping installed the 60-bail platform, which arrived on site in six-bail sections. “Tight tolerances mean a high level of precision is needed on all Centrus installs, including this one,” says Nathan Hitchcock, whose Taranaki-based team install and service all Waikato platforms in the lower North Island.

Future-proofed effluent Agricultural engineer James Christensen and civil engineer Richard Apthorp from Blackley Construction oversaw the design, consent and construction of the farm’s 11,500m3 lined efﬂuent storage pond. The pond is within 8m of a stop bank, requiring a special

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Richard Apthorp and James Christensen from Blackley Construction in front of the effluent storage pond. Brett Adams from Farmlands Palmerston North checking the quality of the feed they supply the Higgins’. resource consent, which added additional complexity and time to the project, says Richard. Despite completing earthworks for the pond in the middle of winter, the effluent storage pond was completed on time once the consent was issued. “It makes a real difference being able to offer full service from writing the consent right through to construction, says James. “In this case it meant the Higgins’ didn’t need to hire in any other service providers. We were able to do all that work for them.” From the storage pond, effluent is either pumped to the farm’s travelling irrigator, or to four green water storage tanks that floodwash the 100m feedpad. The size of the concrete footprint, including yards and feedpad, also meant that extensive stormwater diversion was needed. “We laid 500-600m of stormwater pipe and there are a dozen sumps located around the site to drain water away,” says James.

Earthworks a big job Earthworks were a massive part of the build. Master Grading Services started out preparing races on the property, but were soon called in to assist with the preparation work on the building site.

MGS owner Kev Purser, who worked in the roading industry for many years before starting MGS, did both the rough and ﬁnal grading to prepare the ground for the dairy’s yard and 100m-long feedpad. In addition, MGS also placed all the rocks for the dairy’s extensive landscaping, and various other jobs. The work was done in the middle of winter, says Kev, and at times there was water everywhere, which didn’t make things easy. Kev continued to work on the farm’s races when he wasn’t needed on the construction site, and trucked in metal that includes sandstone and clay for the races. “It’s the best rock for races. It can handle heavy trafﬁc and is easy for cows to walk on,” says Kev.

Rural supplies one-stop-shop The drive for efficient solutions sees Farmlands Palmerston North provide a one-stop shop for order and supply of the farm’s supplement feed and dairy chemicals, as well as other supplies. “Bill has a single point of contact at Farmlands for everything. We work with Bill to find answers to problems, or just get product delivered,” says Farmlands business manager Brett Adams. Farmlands’ on-staff nutrition specialists and agronomist are regular visitors to the farm and provide advice as needed. The Higgins didn’t settle for average with their new dairy. The high standard of finish is evident in every aspect of the build and their farming operation is now supported by a dairy that is superior in design, technology and performance.

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TAUMANU LANDS TRUST

Whanau relish role Taumanu Farm’s Phil Wright, AgFirst’s Mark Macintosh, and Taumanu Trust chair Sam Emery.

Kaitiakitanga – a Maori word meaning ‘guardianship’ – has never been more apt than for the whanau behind the Taumanu Lands Trust farm near Lake Rotoehu in the Bay of Plenty. The farm is governed by the trust and its appointed trustees/board – Sam Emery, Fred Whata, Eniz White and Wiremu Keepa – oversee the farm for the beneﬁt of the Maori shareholders, members of the Ngati Pikiao tribe, as well as three generations of Wright family – the sharemilkers who have run the day-to-day operation for 27 years.

Take the reins Phil Wright is the ‘overseer’ of the farm, having recently stood back for his daughter Samantha,

and her brother-in-law Caleb Hines, to take the reins as manager and 2IC respectively. “We operate as a company, reducing or increasing shares accordingly. We have such a good herd, 15th for BW in the country; we want to keep this working as a family. “We have a very solid, stable family, and a very strong relationship with the trust.” Sam says the family’s stability resonates with the culture of the trust. “We have a great team on the ground. It is important for us to model this to other trusts to demonstrate what they can achieve. “The team model is one that may help other Maori land trusts. We have taken on an owner’s daughter to train, and have committed to training others in the future. “The combined work of the trust team, Wright team and consultant have taken marginal land

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AgFirst’s Mark Macintosh, Taumanu Farm’s Phil Wright and Caleb Hines, and Taumanu Trust chair Sam Emery.

and turned it into proﬁtable land, plus taken on lease land and done the same.” To ensure the guardianship continues to serve future generations, the trust – with the help of AgFirst farm consultant Mark Macintosh and a team of contractors – built a large cow barn to help mitigate nitrogen leaching, enabling the business to grow while protecting Lake Rotoehu and the surrounding precious land from harm.

Farm consultant key driver With Lake Rotoehu lying at the northern end of the farm, the trust has always been aware of the need for particular attention to environmental issues. AgFirst agribusiness consultant Mark Macintosh has been the trust’s farm consultant since 1995, and with his guidance the trust applied

to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for a funding grant that would allow the stock to be off the pasture daily – one of the key methods they saw to reduce nitrogen leaching. From that, the barn concept was born. Under Mark’s direction they had already reduced stocking numbers on the ‘Waitangi’ lease block across the main highway from the main farm – from 720 to 570 cows, with increased production – and saw the feed pad as a further commitment to reducing leaching. The trust also retired 10ha to pine trees. “February to May is a critical N-loss time,” Mark says. “There is more N stored in the soil and ﬂushed out by winter rains. With the shed, cows can come off the pasture before that happens.” Today, the farm grazes off 85 per cent of the herd in winter.

Authorised Grundfos dealer

GRUNDFOS ®

TAUMANU LANDS TRUST

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The trust has a real desire to improve the lake.

Taumanu Lands Trust There is one entry to the stand-off pad. “The farm now operates at 30 per cent under the NDA, with the option to intensify to farm up to that level, and feel good about it,” Mark says. “This has mainly been achieved by cow housing in the barn.” Phil says the cow barn’s main return is its ability to be used as a management tool to avoid wastage, while mitigating nitrogen leaching. “It has given us real conﬁdence going forward,” he says. “The trust has a real desire to improve the lake.”

Containment system Archway Group Ltd designed and built an internal nutrient containment system that aligned with the trust’s vision for maximum mitigation of nitrogen leaching. Earthworks began on the project in November 2016 and the nutrient containment system was

Aztech Buildings’ Simon Clare. completed in an efficient four-week timeframe, incorporating a concrete internal structure lined with a full effluent pond liner, with a layer of sand underneath the wood chip surface. “The key benefit of the system is its enormous leaching mitigation capability,” says Archway Group director Matt Hodgson. “The wood chips soak up almost 100 per cent of the effluent, as long as it is tilled regularly to keep it aerated. We see further benefits when, after a season or two, the dirty wood chips are applied to pasture as a very slow-release form of nitrogen, which has very little likelihood of leaching. “We worked closely with the trust to integrate its key consideration, which was to keep the future of the farm business in its sights at all times.” Aztech Buildings designed the eye-catching shed, which at 5322m² is designed to generous European standards for 550-560 cows.

“

The pitch of the shed ensures minimal condensation, which is critical for reducing bacteria in the bedding. feeding, and gives staff the option to feed more Aztech Buildings sales consultant Simon PKE or maize silage in the future. Clare says the barn, which was completed in “The downside is more tractor work, but May 2017, is constructed with timber poles for there’s no more wastage,” Phil says. column durability, and steel. The clearlite roof There are several advantages to the feed pad, allows warming sun to penetrate in the winter, above and beyond the environmental beneﬁts, while moderating harsh summer sun and such as the ability to stand off three herds reducing heat stress. simultaneously. Making the bed “We can calve down cows while also feeding Bedding is chipped on-farm, and once placed in supplements, and the overnight capability is tremendous,” Phil says. the shed is cultivated every day using a rototiller. “Calving inside is incredible. Staff are under “The 9.5m apex has ventilation to ensure cover and out of the cold and rain, and the adequate airﬂow, while the roof pitch ensures springers are comfortable and calm so there is minimal condensation in the barn, critical for minimal calf death.” the composting process,” Simon says. Staff erect 30-40 gates down the length of the The 4.4m clearance allows machinery inside shed and graduate calves from one pen to the to replace bedding. next as they mature; cows can have their calves With the herd currently consuming 400t of with them at night and after two weeks calves PKE, supplement is stored inside the shed. go outside. Six feed walls and two feed lanes enable easy

Matt from Archway was able to bring us an infrastructure plan that had solutions to many of the problems we hadn’t even yet thought of.” Gavin Hadden, Morrinsville

Ru ral E ng ine e ring L td

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Coast & Country

A new dairy sanitiser that kills only pathogens, twice as effectively as chlorine, and in cold water?

DX50 is Chlorine Dioxide, an eco-friendly chemical engineered to be highly selective in its bacteria killing. TM

• A broad-spectrum sanitiser • Kills only pathogens - not good bacteria • Kills 2.46x better than toxic Chlorine • Kills a wider range of pathogens

DX50 is Eco-Friendly

• Effective ffective ffective with cold water

DX50 kills only pathogens

• Non-corrosive: no acidic residue

DX50 is extremely selective selective, killing only the bad microbes that cause disease.

• Effective ffective ff ective at breaking down dairy plant bio-films

Here’s how it works Pathogens are small and carry a low energy charge – 200MV. DX50 DX50/Chlorine Dioxide carries a voltage of 942MV. This superior voltage gives it an electrical strength that overpowers the weaker bacteria. When DX50 contacts bacteria, it seeks to give one of its four electrons to the micro-organism. Bad bacteria don’t want to make the exchange but are forced to receive the extra electron because of DX50’s superior electrical strength. This give-and-take process is called oxidation, and it is lethal to bad bacteria.

200MV Pathogens

• MPI approved for use in farm dairies Good bacteria are larger in size and carry a voltage of 1000+MV. This superior voltage gives the Good Guys enough strength to resist the electron exchange that DX50 seeks to enforce.

Because no electron exchange is possible, good 942MV Chlorine Dioxide bacteria swim happily in the DX50 wash. No harm done.

TO ORDER DX50

Zero Harmful Residues During trials, testing showed that DX50 produced zero residue in discarded rinse water (safe for waterways, effluent ffluent ponds and soil). ffl That’s why Chlorine Dioxide has an EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) rating of 9.1D – the lowest rating available.

For more information on DX50, or to find a DX50 stockist in your area, call Ross Wright: 027 246 2114

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FARMERS MARKET

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u Eco-friendly & approved v Kills better than chlorine w Costs less to use the target pathogen cell walls. Due to this mode of action, disease bearing organisms cannot build up resistance to the product.

2. DX50 kills 2.46x better than chlorine DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is Chlorine Dioxide in aqueous solution and is 2.46 times more effective at oxidising (killing) harmful bacteria than standard chlorine.

Why does DX50 kill pathogens more effectively? When oxidation occurs, the cell wall of the bacteria is dissolved, exposing the enzymes that lie beneath the surface. These enzymes control the biochemical reactions within that cell. When DX50 contacts these enzymes, it immediately deactivates them by breaking their chemical chains.

With the enzymes ruined, the pathogenic bacteria is instantly destroyed.

No resistance possible The triggering action for DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is the sugar-like substances that are an integral part of Chemical

Killing Power

DX50

High 2.46

Moderate 1.0

Chlorine

DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is not pH dependent and works most effectively in cold water. DX50 can also break down the protective bio-film surrounding a wide range of pathogens.

Parts Per Million

Killing Speed

Broad Spectrum: effective against all bacteria, E coli, virus, mould, fungi algae and spore formers

50 ppm

Minutes

Negligible at use concentration

2-11 pH

Less effective against fungi & spore formers. Ineffective against viruses.

12,000 ppm

Minutes to hours

High for most metals

6.8-7.3 pH

Microbial Range

Chlorine Dioxide

Very wide kill range

Dose

Corrosivity

Optimal Kill conditions

3. DX50 can cost 15-20% less DX50 kills 2.46 times more effectively than chlorine at 50ppm vs 12,000ppm of chlorine. That means far less product is required to achieve better results. When DX50 is used with Ultimate Liquid Caustic and Ultimate ULF Acid as a full cleaning system, farmers can save up to 15-20% on sanitising costs.

Plus Hot Water Savings! That 15-20% saving is magnified when you take into account that DX50 works best in COLD water. That’s 7 afternoon washes every week with zero heating bills.

RECOMMENDED/APPROVED PLANT CLEANING TIMETABLE AND PROCEDURE

DAY

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

A.M.

Hot Alkali

Hot Acid Detergent

Hot Alkali

Hot Acid Detergent

Hot Alkali

Hot Acid Detergent

A.M. rinse

Hot Acid Detergent

P.M.

DX50 Sanistiser (cold water)

A full chlorine-free cleaning system As stated, DX50 is eco-friendly in that it kills only pathogens, not the good bacteria. But what if you use a chlorine-based alkaline as part of your cleaning system? Does that undo the eco-friendly work done by DX50? Yes, it does. When any chlorine is washed into the effluent pond, it kills the good bacteria that are eating the crust and liquefying the effluent.

TO ORDER DX50

Hot Acid Detergent DX50 Sanistiser (cold water)

DX50 Sanistiser (cold water)

Hot Acid Detergent DX50 Sanistiser (cold water)

DX50 Sanistiser (cold water)

Here’s a chlorine-free answer DX50 Dairy Sanitiser has formed a partnership with CLARK Products Ltd to provide you with an ecofriendly Hot Alkali and Hot Acid Detergent By using DX50 with Ultimate Liquid Caustic and Ultimate ULF Acid, you’ll have a complete cleaning system that is eco-friendly and costs 15-20% less!

For more information on DX50, or to find a DX50 stockist in your area, call Ross Wright: 027 246 2114

Page 104

FARMERS MARKET

Coast & Country

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FARMERS MARKET

Nature does her part

when nurture happens first Caring for your crop at key times ensures its future takes care of itself. Exirel® uses clever chemistry to protect fodder brassicas from destructive pests like Diamond back moth, Leaf miner and Aphid at the key stages of growth. It’s gentle on key beneficial insects. And a healthier crop can lead to quality stock. So protect your crop with Exirel® and give Mother Nature the head start she needs.

FMC New Zealand Limited Phone: 0800 658 080 www.fmccrop.nz

Page 105

FARMERS MARKET

Page 106

3000 WB 3000 XL-WB 3250 WB 3250 XL-WB 3500 WB 3500 XL-WB CMA

ID Hard Hose 76mm x 328m 76mm x 424m 83mm x 297m 83mm x 381m 89mm x 282m 89mm x 350m 140mm x 800m

m3/hr 34 - 62 34 - 54 34 - 80 34 - 70 34 - 101 34 - 89 250 - 275

Hectares Per Set-Up 2.75 - 2.9 3.35 - 3.65 2.65 - 2.85 3.2 - 3.5 2.7 - 2.95 3.15 - 3.5 Continuous

6003 (3PK) 6005 6010

Soft Lay Flat Nitrile Hose 603.5m of 152mm 804.7m of 203mm or 1005.8m of 152mm 1426.5m of 203mm or 2011.6m of 152mm

Coast & Country

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Page 107

UPGRADING YOUR FARM?

DO IT ONCE, DO IT RIGHT.

Above: The BEL Group’s new 105 x 37m feedpad and supporting infrastructure in construction.

At Presco, we believe in doing something once and doing it right. So does the BEL Group. So when they upgraded their feed and effluent systems on their Springfield Hawkes Bay farm, there were no half measures and we were a natural fit.

S UP E

R Q UA L

Y IT

BEL Group’s new 105x37m feedpad, which stands 600 cows at one time and incorporates a 55x12m Maize bunker, 31x9.5m custom Sand Trap and 12x12m Solids bunker ensures their 900 cows are

INVEST FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Visit www.prescoinfrastructure.co.nz or call us on 0800 773 726 to book your FREE onsite consultation.

well looked after and their farm is running at peak efficiency with minimal labour input. If you are looking at upgrading your feed or effluent systems or infrastructure and want to do the job once and do it right, give us a call on 0800 77 37 26. www.prescoinfrastructure.co.nz

www.belgroup.co.nz

FARMERS MARKET

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Coast & Country

NAIT EID

as easy as 1-2-3 1

Read EID Tags

Connect to mobile phone app

2 3

Send to NAIT

HR5

Hand Held Reader

HR4

Hand Held Reader

Call 0800 731 500 or speak to your local Gallagher Territory Manager about making your NAIT transfers as easy as 1-2-3.

0800 731 500 www.gallagher.com

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FARMERS MARKET

0800 feedsystems

Coast & Country

FARMERS MARKET

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Happy cows produce more milk

FREE CONSULTATION TODAY!

0800 298 324 aztechbuildings.co.nz

Lifestyle Buildings

Rural Buildings

Commercial Buildings

Excellence in Every Build

Page 112

NEW FARM DAIRIES

Coast & Country

Frost Friendly Valve! Hansen Full Flow Ball Valves The Hansen Full Flow Ball Valve’s reputation for holding up in frosty weather is quite simply unsurpassed! The extraordinarily high quality design coupled with a host of practical features makes it the ultimate user experience. What’s more it’s the only NZ made Ball Valve with a 100% replacement warranty.

True Full Flow Bore 25mm Ball Valve = 25mm Bore

High Pressure Rated Full Flow Bore 16bar (235psi)

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for your local stockist visit

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