New Farm Dairies 2019

A special supplement by

Spring 2019 Sun Media Ltd 07 578 0030

Showc asing 3 3 of New Zealan d’s newes t dairy farm develo pment s in the co untry.

Hauraki Plains dairy farmer Conall Buchanan didn’t have too much diffi difficulty choosing a milking plant for his new dairy. He’s had Waikato Milking Systems plants in the past and his local Wiakato Milking Systems dealer is his brother, Warick Buchanan, who owns Paeroa Farm Services. Keep reading on page 108 to find out why and how Conall took on his dairy development project, like 32 fellow farmers across the country who also feature in this issue.

Investing in the future

Dairy Patch pgs 26-27

Dinnington pgs 28-31

Kybush Surf Trust pgs 54-55

Hay Farming pgs 66-69

Deegan Dairies pgs 76-77

NEW FARM DAIRIES

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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

BRIAN ROGERS

CLAIRE ROGERS

Director/Editor

Managing Director

LOIS NATTA NFD Coordinator/Advertising Sales 027 281 7427

MERLE FOSTER

KERRI WHEELER

Sub Editor

Graphic Designer Page Layout Coordinator

Coast & Country

Bettering the way we farm Building a new dairy shed is no longer a move only associated with lifting milk production.

Dairy farmers are aiming to operate more holistically – they’re taking a long hard look at their total farm system to reassess what’s working, what’s not, and how this impacts on their animals, their staff, their land, the environment and the future of their properties.

Yes, the push for change is coming from outside – but it’s also coming from within.

And whether a new build, full or partial renovation – it represents a very significant investment in time and capital by those farmers who take on the challenge.

And it’s part of their ongoing improvements to operate in a way that leaves a lighter footprint.

Never before have we seen so much change – but never before have we witnessed so much opportunity with new equipment and expertise on offer to better the way we farm.

As a result, this 14th edition of New Farm Dairies offers a comprehensive study of 33 individual new farm dairy developments, telling each property owner’s unique story and celebrating their tenacity and clever management to make such an investment.

But more importantly it gives those thinking of building new or upgrading current facilities the chance to hear from a range of agricultural experts with the most up-to-date information, products and services.

Everything from earthworks, building construction, milking plants, to refrigeration, electrical needs right through to feed systems, equipment and storage facilities, animal housing, to staff accommodation

feature in this comprehensive guide.

Plus, the technology just keeps getting better. You can measure, monitor and manage nearly all aspects of a new dairy from the comfort of your home, office or the other side of the world in real time.

There’s new and innovative ways to store and apply effluent, refrigeration options to keep ahead of new milk cooling regulations, and water systems – hot and cold – that deliver effi efficiency and cost-savings. Plus there’s hands-free robotic milking systems to consider.

But overall, animal health, comfort and production is at the forefront of new equipment and facilities available.

Another key consideration is health, safety and retainment of staff. So there’s large staffrooms, sound-proofed children’s rooms, showers in bathrooms and slipproof steps. The surrounds of new dairies are often landscaped, offering a pleasant work environment.

Some farmers have come up with their own no.8 wire solutions in new sheds, while others have looked abroad and brought home ideas to build bespoke.

And, again this year, nearly every farmer we interviewed had read New Farm Dairies – they’d used it as part of their research into crafting their new facility. Their biggest piece of advice? Research, research, research!

So enjoy reading this edition, which is all about investing in the future. And thank you to this year’s contributors for welcoming us onto your farms and sharing your stories – you’re about to inspire many others about to go down the dairy-building journey.

To those wanting to feature in next year’s edition – get in touch with our advertising consultant Lois Natta on 07 3728861. She’s project-managed NFD for more than a decade, and can help with all advertising needs. But be quick – space fills fast.

Claire and Brian Rogers, Publishers

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equipment, and on farm automation services.

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NEW FARM DAIRIES

Do more with less More than ever before, New Zealand dairy farmers are being asked to take an intensive look at how they farm stock and deliver milk, to see how they can strive to leave a lighter footprint on the environment.

And globally, consumers want to know where their produce comes from, how it is created, what’s in it, and if the process of production was kind on our land, our rivers – our planet.

As a result, ‘sustainability’ has become a catchphrase in New Zealand agriculture, and the term ‘climate change’ is circling, with authorities worldwide wanting to encourage food producers to make and deliver products in a cleaner manner.

At NZ’s inaugural Primary Industries Summit in Wellington in July, Ken Ash, director for trade and agriculture for the OECD, told delegates nations must start now to address the impacts of climate change. “Start today. If it takes five years or 10 to 30 years to get done that is not so urgent, but it’s urgent to begin now.”

And according to the latest Federated Farmers’ latest Farm Confidence Survey, climate change policy and the Emissions Trading Scheme has topped the list of Kiwi farmers’ biggest concerns for the first time since 2010.

Back on-farm, the dairy shed, or parlour as some call it, is a core component of every dairying operation – renovating

it or designing a new replacement can help turn a farm’s environmental footprint around.

Yes there are other factors outside of the dairy parlour to work on, but a new turnkey dairy construction can ensure a farming operation uses less power, less water and less labour daily – and use effluent more efficiently and sustainably.

As one rural contractor told New Farm Dairies this year: “Modern milkings systems offer more information, more automation, more functions and more technology than we’ve seen before”.

And this opens the door to changing the way we farm – to meet our global consumer’s demands, but also help to meet the demands of our planet. Plus such tools can improve per-cow milk production, decrease health issues – and help farmers do more with less.

Such features of a new dairy don’t stop at the yard gate either. Apps and wireless systems enable farmers to access herd management, effluent information and dairy shed software on mobile phones, smart devices in the back paddock to around the other side of the globe.

Today’s possibilities are endless. So for those considering or planning a dairy shed renovation or new build, read on.

Think of yourself as a food producer, take on-board the demands of your consumers and learn how to develop a farming system that delivers financially as well Merle Foster as environmentally.

Page 3 FARM

DISTRICT

Omanawa Farms Paton Axtens Te Awa Farms Landcorp Discovery Dairy Patch Dinnington Rouse Kahurangi Farm Dwyer Farms P&D Waites Trust Hu Farms MK Cumpstone

Central Plateau Central Plateau Central Plateau Central Plateau Central Plateau Southland Southland Northland Northland Taranaki Taranaki Taranaki King Country BOP BOP Eastern BOP Hawkes Bay Manawatu Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury Waitaki Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Waikato Hauraki

Riripeti Timi Waata Lands Trust

McNaughton Brothers Kybush Surf Trust Ruahini Range Views Galaxy Dairies Riverbank Farm Hay Farming Tanks Road Dairy Longland Dairies Deegan Dairies Glenwillow Meyer Family Trust Shaw Farms Spring Sheep Waipiri Farms Simpson Farms Oak Farming Singh Farms Ballard Buchanan Farmers Market

PAGE 4–9 10–11 12–15 16–19 20–25 26–27 28–31 32–35 36–37 38–41 42–43 44–45 46–49 50–51 52–53 54–55 58–59 60–61 62–65 66–69 70–73 74–75 76–77 78–79 80–83 84–87 88–91 92–97 98–101 102–103 104–105 106–107 108–109 110–111

OMANAWA FARMS

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Forest Lois Natta

to farm

As I drove deeper into the Mamaku forest, I was thinking: ‘Crikey, is this for real? Surely I must be heading the wrong way. There can’t possibly be a dairy farm in the middle of a forest’. But there was – and not just one farm either.

It was a lengthy drive on forestry roads to reach my destination, so I wished I hadn’t washed the car after all, but hey you live and learn.

Lachlan McKenzie has been farming for about 40 years.

He has an Ag Science degree, and had worked for the nowdefunct Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as a farm advisor in Taranaki prior to becoming a dairy farmer. So farming was clearly in his blood.

Omanawa Farms, which is a three-way partnership, has owned a large 1200ha forestry block for 12 years. Only 60ha of this block in the midst of the forest was developed and used for

The Fristram German-designed milk pumps from Waikato Milking System with the receiving cans.

young stock from the first dairy.

A further 170ha was developed last year as trees were harvested, along with all the infrastructure to form the dairy farm. A further 58ha being developed this year gives a total 288ha effective milking platform.

Lachlan’s home farm is 26km away, through forestry tracks and coming out on State highway 36 then on to Kaharoa.

His home farm and the two Omanawa farms are all once-

Coast & Country

This 50-aside herringbone shed is immaculate.

a-day milking, which works well for them and the staff. The farm milks 650 mixed breed cows with the aim of reaching 750 next year.

The forest-to-farm conversion work commenced at Christmas 2017. “This was just a muddy hole full of tree stumps when we started,” says Lachlan. A lot of earthworks were done to remove stumps and clear paddock space so it was suitable for grassing and further down the line, grazing.

OMANAWA FARMS

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The pit walls are lined with an easy to clean poly panel.

Page 5

One of the tip trailers from Titan trailers.

The yard is equipped with a loading race constructed

by Lowe Construction.

The house that John Stevens built is a stunner in every way.

Omanawa Farms Lachlan says the Omanawa farm staff did a great job of the grassing, fencing and water supplies. There is still a certain amount of debris that needs finishing off, but it’s good enough to be grazed.

Geology Mark Carlyle, who is owner-operator of Carlyle Drilling Ltd based in Te Puke, drilled and cased the bore to 198m. To break through to the water they had to pass through a variety of ground geology, which is fascinating in itself. Brown silts, purple rhyolites, fractured brown rhyolites, pink and brown rhyolites, brown rhyolites, ash rhyolites sands, purple fractured rhyolites, soft and firmer light brown rhyolites were all the different types of geology that was passed through to reach the water.

Who knew there was so much interesting stuff under our soil?

Maybe I should have paid more attention in school?

Carlyle Drilling Ltd has a range of rigs suitable for any terrain and geology type – but for Omanawa Farms they used their GD1400 rig, which is suitable for medium to large farm and

irrigation water wells.

The GD1400 has proven itself time and again to be up for any challenge it comes across. It is a large-capacity rig with a good performance record, particularly through solid rock.

The bore that was installed pumps 29,000L per hour, and is used for both domestic and stock water on-farm.

Rotorua Farm & Industrial Pumping Ltd supplied and installed the bore hole pump to 123.5m depth and associated pipework into the storage reservoirs.

They also supplied and installed the stock water pumps and associated equipment, cowshed washdown pump and the washdown pipework in the yard and bail area and pipework into the dairy.

Clean milking characteristics Lachlan decided to use Qubik Putaruru as his main point of call for his Waikato Milking Systems install. “I chose them because of their serviceability, reliability and workability,” says Lachlan.

“They are great to deal with and if there is an issue that we are unable to fix ourselves, Qubik is here in 30 minutes.”

Qubik Putaruru branch manager Andrew Linehan and staff member Chris Maughan say they installed a standard 50-bail Waikato Milking Systems herringbone, consisting of the standard Waikato Supa4 design with 320 claws, standard SmartPULS pulsators and a Fristram German-designed centrifugal milk pump.

The Supa4 is known for its clean milking characteristics and is fitted with a single 100mm milk-line draining into a receiver mounted at the entry end of the pit. The milk-line ensures cluster vacuum is maintained at an optimum level at all times and totally eliminates milk-line flooding. The 320 claws are robust but lightweight; also, the bowls have a five-year warranty and allow for faster milking and is one of the most popular and ergonomic claws on the market.

The SmartPULS system maintains a high rate of milk flow from the teat within each pulsation cycle and has been designed to reduce mastitis issues in the herd.

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OMANAWA FARMS

Page 6

Qubik Putaruru staff member Chris Maughan and branch manager Andrew Linehan enjoying a joke.

The milk room is fitted with a 7000L double bank stainless steel end plate cooler which won’t rust, plus a standard maxi filter.

The plate cooler is fitted with galvanised floor mount brackets and clip-on plate gaskets, which allow for ease of replacement.

Touch of class The shed was built by Lowe Construction from Matamata. It is a lovely streamlined shed with plenty of room in the pit, and the bails have an attractive smooth concrete edging down the length of the pit, which adds a touch of class. The poly panellined pit walls make for ease of cleaning – as do the walls on the side of the shed. The laneway down one side is undercover and leads to the milk room, supply room, toilet and office/staff room. The supply room has been fitted with a roller door to the tanker track, which allows for easier access when larger items need to be stored.

The walls of all the rooms are lined with poly panel, which Lachlan says are fully insulated “and keeps the rooms warm in winter and cool in summer”.

Farm partnership co-owner Lachlan McKenzie and Numedic Ltd’s Cathryn Reid in discussion.

Lowe Construction also fabricated the stone trap, which is located below and to the side of the shed in the paddock, leading to the Ecobag. The stone trap filters out all unnecessary solids, letting it settle in the stone trap, and in turn only the watery leftovers enter the Ecobag.

Fascinating Lachlan invested in the Ecobag effluent storage system to contain all nitrogen and to enhance nitrogen re-use and capture. And because this area experiences high rainfalls an open pond system would just collect more rain. Additionally, methane is also contained – thus not posing a risk to further global warming. The Ecobag was supplied and installed by TechniPharm in Rotorua.

The Ecobag really has to be seen to fully understand its use. While I’ve seen adverts and read articles, I didn’t fully understand until I saw it and heard what the farmer had to say about it. What a brilliant invention this is – it most definitely is functional in a way that open ponds lack.

Qubik are proud to have supplied and installed the milking machine for Omanawa Farms.

Coast & Country

Numedic Ltd’s Cathryn Reid with the stationary irrigator on a sled.

The irrigation hydrants are located at various sites on the farm.

The system is located next to the dairy, where there is very little, if any, smell – and no crusting to worry about either.

The Ecobag has underground pipes at the exit point going to the hydrants, which are then connected to sled irrigators for irrigating. The bladder fits snuggly inside a 3m deep hole and can reach a height of 4m when full.

As rainwater is unable to enter the bladder, a drainage system runs around the outer edge of it and rain water dispenses into the drain and exits elsewhere.

Stationary but effective Lachlan uses a Numedic tractor-mounted PTO 200E effluent pump to supply two Numedic stationary irrigators on sleds at the same time.

“The irrigators have application rates starting from 5mm per hour. This is very efficient with two going at the same time and a significant volume can be pumped on a daily basis,” says Cathryn Reid from Numedic Ltd.

OMANAWA FARMS

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Page 7

The exits are fitted with Ezi-flo pit gates.

A Bloemen Engineering backing gate all the way from Taranaki.

The length of the bails has a neat concrete edging to them.

The large rectangle yard equipped with a Bloemen Engineering backing gate.

It also allows an irrigator to be turned off and moved without turning the tractor and pump off. This system can pump close to one million litres in less than two weeks.

A turbo timer has been fitted to the tractor so it can be set to ‘turn off ’ if staff plan to be away doing other jobs. The stationary irrigators on sleds are constructed with a sturdy galvanised frame with a high quality Sime cannon gun. An adjustable riser pipe ensures the canon is always vertical. The hoses connected to both sleds are connected to a tee tap on the hydrants, which are sited at various locations on the farm that allow effluent irrigation to a large area of the farm. Lachlan has been dealing with Numedic for more than 22 years and has a lot of faith in their products.

Lachlan has always been one for problem solving and searching for farm efficiencies. With this in mind, Kevin Smith, who owns KJ Smith Engineering, was rather chuffed that Lachlan chose to use his company’s Product And Prototype

Development Flex-connection farm hydrant system for his farm developments.

Inspiration for the ‘Flex connection farm hydrant’ came from a conversation with a farmer who had the misfortune of having had irrigation hydrants run into by fertiliser trucks.

Visabile hydrants The hydrants had been difficult to see and hadn’t been forgiving when collided with as there was damage to the underground pipework – plus maybe a little damage to the trucks – as a result of each altercation. This was a situation that could have been avoided, or at least the damage minimised, if the hydrants had been more visible and had a degree of physical flexibility. Kevin made these two factors prime considerations for a farm hydrant system they’d been assessing. He added further attributes, such as long radius inlet and outlet bends for optimum fluid flow, a long radius

flexible connection hose for optimum fluid flow and resistance to vehicle attack, an optional yellow spherical marker (ball) that fits over the hose – about 1m from the ground – for hydrant visibility, ultra heavy hose clamps for the flex hose and underground PE pipe work. The very flexible design allows for multiples of outlet bends – or inlet bends if needed – that tailor to each farm situation, and good old camlock couplings for connecting the inlet to the outlet up-stands.

“With modular design, in-house bend and clamp manufacture, and the use of quality NZ-sourced hose and couplings, the price of the hydrant system remains on par with other farm effluent hydrants on the market,” says Kevin.

Energy saving Laser Electrical Putaruru was commissioned to do the full electrical installation on the new herringbone shed including submersible pump and underground mains.

OMANAWA FARMS

Page 8

The new shed looks stunning.

Agricultural Horticultural Landscaping Nurseries Vineyards Agricultural Horticultural The vet area is under roof cover.

The Ecobag system is a fully sectional effluent storage system.

Landscaping

The High Runner is user-friendly and speCentral metering was installed so the two cially made for the NZ dairy market. farm cottages are supplied from the one energy A patented feature of the design is it is revenue meter, which saves on on-going daily uniquely self-aligning, which reduces wear charges over three connections. and tear, enhancing the life of the system The shed is a basic manual operation but has and reducing gate breakdowns. The gate is been futureproofed so an automated plant and low maintenance and runs smoothly without vat wash can be added easily, says Laser Electrijamming. cal Putaruru director Chris.

At the other end of the pit in the drafting “Lachlan was a pleasure to work with on area, there is a loading ramp sited to the side of the cowshed as he knew exactly what he the yard to keep things easy for transportation. wanted but was open to suggestion with Laser Electrical futureproofing the new shed Trailers installation,” says Chris McKillop.

The large rectangle yard was completed by Lachlan purchased two single-axle tip trailers Tirau Welders, which also took care of all from Titan Trailers Ltd in Rotorua. Lachlan steelwork, trusses, herringbone, AB race, and says they get so much use from carting fence drafting areas. The large rectangle yard looks posts from farm to farm – “and as they have amazing and is completed with a Michael tipping capabilities, the women on the farm Bloemen Engineering innovative High Runner love them as they are easy to load and unload Roading Lawncare Maintenance backing gate. the ATVs”.

Nurseries

Vineyards

The trailers are fully-welded and hot dip galvanised and fitted with galvanised tread flooring, which gives them a longer-lasting quality than the standard wooden flooring.

The trailers were manufactured on-site at Titan Trailers’ yard in Rotorua.

Happy home

tural

22 CONFIGURATIONS

Roading

Lawncare

Landscaping Maintenance Nurseries Vineyards

rds

Horticultural

Building Construction Landscaping Landscaping

Nurseries Vineyards

Nurseries Vineyards

Roading

Landscaping

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Landscaping

Building

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17

Events services 10 MODELS Horticultural 22 CONFIGURATIONS Bee keeping 170 ATTACHMENTS Landscaping Agricultural

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The answer for increased productivity and lower labour costs

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Construction

22 CONFIGURATIONS22 CONFIGURATIONS

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double garage has a separate and fully enclosed workshop built to the back of it, which keeps tools and equipment safe and locked away.

Plenty of natural light flows through the houses, and they have a concreted entertainment area out the back of the houses. Staff are very happy with the accommodation and in turn treat it with the love and respect it deserves.

Lachlan and his staff alike are very happy with their new shed.

“Given that the herd has been brought in from various different locations and have been milked in numerous different types of sheds, they have all adapted well to milking in the new shed, and cow-flow is brilliant in the new herringbone,” says Lachlan.

The farm staffs happiness with their new workplace shows in the cleanliness of the shed and surrounds. It was spotless! It really goes to show how much pride they take.

22 CONFIGUR

Horticultural Agricultural

ping Landscaping

ies

22 CO

22 CONFIGURATIONS 10Horticultural MODELS Agricultural

Keeping staff happy and content is a biggie for Lachlan, hence the need for top-of-therange housing for the people that manage and work the farm.

John Stevens Homes Ltd from Rotorua has constructed two beautiful three-bedroom homes with a light clinker brick exterior. The layout of the buildings is brilliant for dairy farmers – with each having a covered in porchway between the house and the double garage, which allows wet weather gear and dirty clothing to be removed and stored prior to entering the house. The

ODELS Agricultural

ural

Coast & Country

Maintenance

Lawncare

Equestrian Maintenance

Landscaping

The prod

Building

170 ATTACHMENTS 22 CONFIGURATIONS

Construction Landscaping

Building

Construction

The answer for increased Roading Lawncare productivity and lower labour costs

Maintenance

Tree surgeons

170 ATTACHMENTS 170 Tree ATTACHMENTS surgeons Construction Landscaping Building

Events services

10 MODELS

Bee keeping

The answer for increased productivity and lower labour costs

Equestrian

170 ATTAC

The answer for increased Events services productivity and lower labour costs

Bee keeping Equestrian

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OMANAWA FARMS

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Page 9 TH1864M 15/07/19

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PATON FARMS

Page 10

Functional

spaceship

Coast & Country Stu Paton with a photograph of his father’s original farm back when it was two paddocks and two troughs in 1978.

Stu says his father paid around $54,000 for the farm back then.

Cayla Euinton

Paton Farms

The Paton farm at Murupara from the outside – what appears to be a standard farm building is shiny and high-tech on the inside.

From the outside, Stu and Alison Paton’s new milking shed at Murupara looks like a standard farm building – but inside, it’s like stepping into a spaceship.

Everything is stainless steel and gleaming and at the centre of it all is the control panel – the ‘cockpit’.

The new 60-bail rotary dairy is absolutely perfect for Stu and Alison and their 750-cow herd. But the flashy and the futuristic is juxtaposed against the farming family history.

“This was my father’s original farm back in the 1960s,” says Stu. Now, Stu owns the farm and a few surrounding it, combining four-and-a-half farms into one operation.

With that large a farm and that many cows comes a lot of work, but Stu and Alison have had the right people working on their milking shed. Now, it’s an easy two-man operation.

“It means we can keep everything going. Milking could be done by one person but there’s enough work for here for at least two people,” says Stu. “We could use it single-handedly if we wanted

Authorised Grundfos dealer

to, or for the odd day if we had to.”

And thanks to the teams at DeLaval, ABC Milking, Built Wright Construction, Modern Coatings and Chapman Dairies, the Paton’s new milking shed is perfect.

for the ‘humans’,” laughs Ben. It’s all about user-comfort and practicality with Built Wright Construction, says Ben, as well as what the farmer wants and needs in their shed.

User comfort

Viewing area

Chapman Dairies designed the overall shed. With more than 50 years’ experience, Chapman Dairies owner Don Chapman and the team know what they’re doing when it comes to dairy shed design.

“Chapman Dairies have a range of dairy plans – both rotary and herringbone, and ones suitable for small animals, too, such as sheep or goats,” says Don. “The Patons were wanting a rotary shed and from our concept plans we adapted something to suit their particular needs. They’ve ended up with a very nicely appointed shed,” says Don. Ben Wright and the team at Built Wright Construction worked with Chapman Dairies to get the best design for the Patons. And Built Wright Construction turned that design into a reality.

“The Paton’s shed is a standard Chapman Dairies design – the Chapman Dairies design affords easy cow flow and easy milking

“The stepped-up viewing area was specified by Stu and we made it work – it was tight, trying to fit a raised viewing area and a walkway while still allowing enough space for the pump guys but we did it.

“Stu and Alison wanted to have that height so they can look in and watch what’s going on. It means if they’re not putting the cups on and off themselves, they can still keep an eye on the cows.”

And of course, it’s important to have a space to get away for a minute if need-be.

“We made sure there was plenty of room in their smoko – it’s designed to keep out the ‘shit splatter’ and keep that room wellprotected,” says Ben. And thanks to Modern Coatings, Stu and Alison’s new shed is easy to clean up.

GRUNDFOS ®

PATON FARMS

PH 07 578 0030

Page 11

Cow entry to the Paton’s milking ‘spaceship’ – ready for the next lot of cows.

DeLaval’s Shaun Killalea helps Alison Paton learn the ropes in the ‘cockpit’.

ABC Milking’s Alan Van Den Heuvel, Built Wright Construction’s Ben Wright, farmers Alison and Stu Paton and DeLaval’s Shaun Killalea.

The walls have been painted with Acraflex, making it simple to keep the shed looking as high-tech as it is.

Modern Coatings is located in Waiuku and specialise in dairy wall coatings, Acraflex fleck coating, industrial coatings for floors, walls and steel and interior and exterior residential painting.

Owner-director Roger Farley has applied coatings to cowsheds for more than 17 years.

Do more with less And when it comes to the technology utilised in the shed, there’s plenty. DeLaval and authorised DeLaval dealer, ABC Milking Solutions, worked together on the installation.

The DeLaval Rotary E100 was conceptualised and delivered in DeLaval’s very own global

design and engineering office based in Hamilton.

“The DeLaval Rotary E-Series have been created to help our farmers do more, with less,” says DeLaval’s sales manager Shaun Killalea. “This one isn’t just a 60-bail rotary, it’s a full system with more information, more automation, more functions and more technology than we’ve seen before.”

“Our team installed it,” says ABC Milking Solutions’ Alan Van Den Heuvel, and they’ve really enjoyed working with the new technology.

“In terms of what’s in this modern milking system, it features DelPro herd management, automatic cup removers, ICAR milk meters with mastitis detection, automated weighing and three-way drafting,” says Shaun.

“The farm will also use the new DelPro ‘Companion’ app, which means they can use the herd management software on their mobile.

It frees up the way farmers do things, making

them more efficient,” says Shaun.

It’s a lot of gear to work with, but thankfully the team at ABC Milking has plenty of experience in installations. “We specialise in milking, water and effluent systems,” says Alan. “Between the team, we’ve got more than 50-plus years’ experience.”

‘Cockpit’ DeLaval had plenty of goodies for Stu and Alison, which makes milking their large herd even easier.

This high-tech shed is largely automated and systems connected – with features such as the DeLaval FastLane, ComfortBail and Cockpit.

“The ‘Cockpit’ is where one person can safely and comfortably operate everything from a central point on a 24-inch touchscreen. This makes it simple for the farmer to interact with the shed,” says Shaun.

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ABC Milking’s Alan Van Den Heuvel with some of the DeLaval equipment his team installed. is a priority for both Shaun and Alan.

There’s a close-knit bond between these farmers and the people that helped make their dream a reality.

As we all stand under the milking platform, Shaun, Alan, Stu, Alison and Ben all reminisce about the process of bringing this ultra-modern milking shed to life.

For example, Shaun came out for the first milking, took photographs and put together a little video for Stu and Alison. Alan also came out for the first three milkings to help the couple out.

“The first milking wasn’t as daunting as we were expecting, it was fantastic,” says Alison.

“We had a good man in the yard,” she says, speaking of Alan.

From humble family beginnings comes this high-tech spaceship of a milking shed in Murupara, and it’s thanks to the team who helped pull it together.

AXTENS

Page 12

Coast & Country

Rugby

to dairying Lois Natta

Gibson Construction’s Andrew Smith and James Cullen, Arc Engineering’s Matt Nash, farmer Steve Axtens, Camco Dairy Services’ Dave Goddard, and Steve’s son AJ. Left: Donning the staffroom wall is a feature from the olden days, for Steve’s dad’s dairy shed.

Axtens The side entry to the dairy shed.

Steve Axtens is a name a lot of our readers will be familiar with. Having a long history in rugby, Steve’s played for New Zealand in the NZ Divisional Team tour of Canada and Fiji in 1995, he played for Counties Manukau from 1990-1992, the Bay of Plenty from 1992-1997, and captained the BOP team from 1995-1996. He also makes a great cup of coffee.

Steve travelled overseas in 1985 where he stayed for a few years, then upon his return to

NZ purchased his first herd in Paparimu in 1988 where he sharemilked.

A second herd was bought, along with a move to Reporoa in June 1992 with his wife Luana and two young sons, when they purchased this farm from Steve’s dad John.

Their eldest child AJ now manages this farm.

Old and new An older 38-bail rotary shed was used to milk his 470-cow herd for 27 long years. “For the last 10 years 520-540 cows have been milked through the old 38-bail rotary and a decision really had to be made to upgrade to a bigger more updated shed, especially as we’re planning on stepping up the herd numbers to 600 in the

next year,” says Steve.

Steve had been dealing with Dave Goddard, owner of Camco Dairy Services in Reporoa for the last 15 or so years since Dave purchased the business.

And Steve says he didn’t have to do much research as far as the milking system was concerned – he already knew Waikato Milking Systems was good.

Steve says Gibson Construction had been recommended to him by a neighbour, so he contacted James Cullen, who is the Taupo branch manager and shareholder, and together they went and viewed a few of Gibson’s sheds.

Steve really liked what he saw, particularly the

design and layout – so he committed to his new shed build with Gibson Construction.

On time and budget Andrew Smyth from Gibson Construction was foreman and project manager for this build. “He did a first class, top job,” says Steve.

“He finished on time and on budget.”

After the site preparation had been done the build began in earnest. The portals and framework were done, followed by the wall panels.

The 4-5 tonne concrete wall panels were all poured on another farm site, and transported to Steve’s farm where they were then lifted into place by a crane.

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All the yard work was completed by Arc Engineering along with the Arc Engineering’s centre gland which is fully waterproof.

Page 13

The Moa Milking platform is lovely and clean.

The Ice Force ice bank system.

The PPP Industries meal silos were relocated from the old shed.

Once the panels were in they were joined with a silicone joiner, and overlaid with colour steel sheets. “We find the colour steel is easier to keep clean and doesn’t yellow like the poly panels,” says James.

“With Steve’s build we decided to have weekly meetings with all the contractors, this meant we all knew what was happening and when it was happening,” says James.

“It made such a huge difference with progress of the build that we now do it with all of our builds.”

The clear plastic down the centre of the roof allows plenty of natural light as well as being vented to let heat escape on hot days.

Plenty of room The 50-bail rotary shed is large and roomy. It has plenty of natural light, is birdproof, and vented sliding doors allow heat to escape. All drains in the shed are stainless steel. “The flashing had

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to all be manually notched – which is a huge job,” says James.

There is the usual selection of rooms sited around the outer perimeter of the shed, including a pump room fitted with a vented window to allow heat to disperse, large staffroom, toilet, electrical room, milkwash area, and a vet corner.

The two large vented sliding doors open up to the milk vat area, where a large Dairy Technology Services vat is housed, plus the colostrum vat. James says the project was “the perfect build”.

Brand of choice Waikato Milking Systems was the brand of choice for the milking system. It was a no-brainer, says Steve, who wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The 50-bail orbit concrete rotary has been fitted with Waikato 320 claws,” says Dave from Camco Dairy Services. “We installed a BP400 blower pump with Waikato SmartDRIVE, which is

Arc Engineering’s air-operated drafting unit. robust and low maintenance.”

The SmartDRIVE uses digital sensors, meaning the milking system vacuum is continually monitored and the vacuum pump speed is adjusted according to airflow demand. Improving milking and udder health is brought about by the stable vacuum setup.

Along with the milking plant install, Camco Dairy Services was contracted for the full water reticulation of this shed.

The Sema washdown water pump controller not only looks great, but it is robust, cost effective and waterproof with an IP rating of 66. All functions are able to be adjusted while the pump is running and the pump will deliver the correct amount of water required for the job at hand. Designed for New Zealand power conditions, a surge suppression and low voltage ride-through have been incorporated into the design.

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AXTENS

Page 14

Coast & Country

Arc Engineering’s Matt Nash shows the wireless remote for his drafting unit.

Camco Dairy Services’ Dave Goddard explaining how the Sema washdown water pump controller works.

The old dairy shed.

Looking back towards the new shed with the Reporoa hills in the background.

The Waikato automated platform, which was installed by Moa Milking, has been futureproofed with the cup remover brackets and leg spreaders for teat spraying. The Orbit concrete rotary platform is known for its strength and integrity and the design of which provides milkers with a clean and fast milking environment.

Machinery is fully protected due to the large deck on the platform. Having a deck that has been designed to slope outwards also aides in cows exiting the platform a lot easier along with effluent draining off to the outer side of the platform.

Moa Milking also installed the feed bins – ensuring the feed system was fully established was one thing Steve wanted sorted from day one.

Tough and durable Contracted to Gibson Construction – Matt Nash, owner of Arc Engineering in Taupo, has come up with lots of new nifty things for the dairy shed. You should check out his website for the full list I reckon.

The yard work, as always, looked magnificent and included

Matt’s backing gate fitted out with an electrical centre gland. The centre gland supplies electricity to the backing gate, which allows it to do continual full rotations of 360 degrees without reversing.

Also a new addition to Matt’s inventory is the air-operated manual drafting system. “This has been manufactured to work in with a Protrack replacement when the farmer wishes to automate his drafting system,” says Matt. His air-operated drafting system is operated by a hand-held remote and is budget-friendly, for an initial start-up drafting system.

Vet platform A vet platform drops down from the vet area to connect with the rotary platform, making AI and vet work a breeze. Custom-built from steel and alloy tread plate, the platform not only looks great but is also light enough to lift from closed to open position and back again, thus keeping it out of the way when not required. The platform is tough, durable and easy to keep clean.

An ice bank refrigeration system was installed by Taupo Refrigeration and Air Conditioning.

The Ice Force ice bank system uses stainless steel coils arranged inside a purpose-built tank for snap chilling the milk.

This dairy refrigeration system has been designed and built locally in Taupo to meet both Ministry for Primary Industries, cooling regulations and the individual farmer’s requirements.

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.

The ice bank comes in one size only, it’s the amount of coils inside that alters according to the requirements of each particular shed. Constructed of solid concrete the tank is made to last the distance, and can also be buried if required. The system also generates hot water for the shed while it is manufacturing the ice shards, creating a huge cost saving for the farmer.

Two PPP Industries feed silos were brought over from the old shed, says Steve. “There was no point replacing them as they were in great condition.”

All in all this is a great looking shed, it is fully functional, pleasing to the eye and has a great team working there.

PH 07 578 0030

AXTENS

Page 15

0800 862 010

Page 16

TE AWA FARMS

No-brainer build Lois Natta

The Hughson’s new shed looks fabulous.

McLarens Contracting from Tirohanga did all the site preparation and tanker track work.

Farmer Brent Hughson, TRAC’s James Manuel, Brent’s father and farm co-owner Peter Hughson, Camco Dairy Services’ Dave Goddard, Gibson Construction’s James Cullen and Waikato Milking Systems’ Alan Moulder.

Peter Hughson and his wife June farmed at Tirohanga for 16 years prior to purchasing their original dairy farm in Tutukau Rd out of Taupo back in 1977.

They later purchased 60ha across the road – then when the neighbouring farm came up for sale next door they purchased that with the idea of their sons having full involvement in later years.

It didn’t quite work out that way as younger

son Wayne moved on and now manages his father-in-law’s farm near Tirau.

Peter and June’s daughter lives in New Plymouth and has absolutely no interest in farming – so that left eldest son Brent, who now coowns and project-manages both farms and fills in with milking duties when staff have time off.

When this new farm was purchased five years ago all the cows were being milked in the one shed on the home farm. This meant a 1.5 hour walk for the cows. While they didn’t have a lot of hoof problems, the long walk did affect production so the decision to build a new dairy shed on the new farm was

a no-brainer. Two herds of cows now reside between both farms, which have been bred entirely from the Hughsons own breeding stock and selective AB semen.

Road trip When Peter and Brent decided to invest in a new dairy, they took a few road trips to look at new sheds. From those they picked out all the features they wanted in their own shed and a design was made that suited both Peter and Brent and the working of their farm.

Starting with a selection of older cows

from the original farm, Peter and Brent are justifiably proud of the fact they now have one of the top five per cent herds in New Zealand, due to their high genetics breeding programme.

The work began in earnest starting with site preparation and tanker track, which were constructed by Tony McLaren of McLarens Contracting from Tirohanga.

Tony says there was a huge knob of hill that needed to be removed where the shed and tanker area was. “The soil was moved from one side of the site to the other, and later used to construct the lengthy tanker track.”

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

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TE AWA FARMS

The Viking Containment pond liner, and Gibson Construction’s effluent bunker.

Page 17

The Ezi-flo pit gates are synonymous with herringbone sheds.

Te Awa Farms Camco Dairy Services’ Dave Goddard inspects the milk filter. His company installed the Waikato Milking Systems Supa4 milking system.

Top of the range The Gibson Construction dairy shed is a top-of-the-range 40-bail herringbone. Roofing is constructed of Colorsteele with two strips of clearlite plastic down the length of the shed to allow plenty of light. Brent and Peter just love it, saying the Clearlite is one of their favourite things with the new build. They also love the external pump room, which keeps the noise out of the shed.

13m round yard complete the build.

Extended roofing over the animal handling area gives added protection for vets and workers in bad weather. Vats and chiller units are located on the side of the buildings towards the tanker track on a large concrete area.

“It was a difficult build with our wet winter,” says James. “But we were still able to manage a 16-week turnaround.”

Phase Electrical from Te Awamutu was chosen to do the electrical work on Peter’s shed. They do a lot of dairy sheds for Gibsons.’

Easy flow Cow bails are exited by the ever-popular Ezi-flo pit gates, designed by Waikato Dairy Builders. The Ezi-flo pit gates are fully

galvanised with fewer moving parts and they open high above the breast rail allowing cows to swing their head under the gates to exit.

They also require less height than other gates from the concrete to the roof for fitting. The gates were pre-assembled at the factory, which allowed for easier installation on-site.

The installation of the Waikato Milking Systems Supa4 milking system was accomplished by Camco Dairy Services from Reporoa.

Camco Dairy Services owner Dave Goddard says the shed has been fitted out with Waikato Milking Systems’ ULTIMATE electronic cup removers, a blower vacuum pump with variable speed drive and smartWASH programmable automated wash system for the milking machine.

 Dairy Shed installations and upgrades  Service and parts for all types of milking machines  Drench pumps, teat spray systems, hoses and supplies  Machine Testing  Effluent and Irrigation Supplies  Pumps & Water fittings – Galvanised, P VC and Alkathene  R ubberware  Stainless Steel manufacture and repair  Trenching

Proud to be involved with the Hughsons new dairy shed

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Phone 07 333 7304 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 www.camcodairyservices.co.nz

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Tony did all site preparation work, plus site preparation for the calf shed, effluent pond excavation, tanker track construction and constructed a couple of extra races.

The extra concrete provided with the shed has allowed more height in certain areas as well as a larger and more cleaner-looking concrete area on the side of the shed, which improves the overall appearance.

Gibson Construction’s Taupo branch manager James Cullen says Andrew Smythe from was the foreman on this job.

Andrew’s team did all the preparation work for the pit construction, installed roof supports, constructed the shed, vat plinths and effluent bunkers for this project.

The shed and attached buildings are all timber-framed with interior Colorsteele cladding. This shed has all its exterior buildings to the side of the shed via a covered walkway. A luxurious kitchen and office room, toilet, milk room, exterior pump room, storage room and

The Waikato Milking Systems plant.

TE AWA FARMS

Page 18

Bustercover’s Bill King pulls the lever to dispense feed into the bins.

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what they wanted for both plant and water, The smartWASH system features an easywhich makes his guys job a whole lot easier. to-use touchscreen, which allows a farmer to Lawry Bidgood from Taupo Refrigeration adjust their wash procedures according to their & Air Conditioning – known as TRAC – needs. SILO’S Brent loves the smartWASH, saying he 2T-45T HERRINGBONE IN-SHED FEEDING designed the Ice Force Dairy Ice Bank. The can bugger off and do other things, then when premium ice bank system uses stainless steel he comes back all the wash is done. coils arranged inside a purpose-built tank for The Supa4 was designed and engineered snap chilling milk. to meet the needs and expectations of modern milking and the demands of today’s Ice shards farmers. And the blower vacuum pump is low maintenance, environmentally-friendly and Currently selling across the board, TRAC’s quiet to operate.

James Manuel says you can capitalise on Inside the milk room the double-bank plate available power to build the ice shards to precooler is connected through the exterior cool the milk. wall to the ice bank that sits outside on the The ice banks themselves are all one size, concrete pad. constructed of thick concrete. The coils that fit Dave says it was a pleasure to carry out the inside the tank will vary according to the size of install atROTARY Te AwaIN-SHED as PeterFEEDING and Brent knew exactly the shed and its & particular requirements.

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Coast & Country

Bustercover’s Talya Raumati standing next to the silo with the site glass above.

The addition of two lines of Clearlite roofing adds a lot of light to the Hughson’s new dairy shed.

“Each system in engineered specifically for each farm dependant on power, primary cooling and water availability with each sheds requirements.”

The ice bank creates large shards of ice, which chills water down prior to going through the plate cooler, putting milk into the vat at temperatures that achieve Ministry for Primary Industries’ regulations easily. The water is then sent back into the ice bank to be re-used. The system is also generating hot water for the shed while it manufacturing ice, creating a huge saving in power usage.

The exit race has been fitted with a Protrack drafting system from LIC Automation. The drafter detects a cow’s RFID as she passes through the drafting gate sensor, saving the farmer time and hassle of not having to interrupt milking to manually draft. The mobile app makes it easy to use from a farmer’s

perspective, says Brent. For example, he was in a paddock one day and spotted a cow that was lame so he punched her number into the app, and later that day when he looked up from milking she’d been successfully drafted.

Needless to say, the Hughsons love their LIC Automation drafting system.

Preventing ponding At the time of my visit a Hi-Tech shore-based irrigation system had just been delivered for install a month later.

Waikato Milking Systems’ project manager Alan Moulder says the system included a pond stirrer and a shore-based close couple centrifugal effluent pump, which would be hooked up to a Cobra travelling raingun that will have a PSI of 50 to 60.

PH 07 578 0030

TE AWA FARMS

Page 19 Gibson Construction’s James Cullen entering the external pump room.

TRAC’s James Manuel opening the Ice Force dairy ice bank.

Waikato Milking Systems’ ULTIMATE electronic cup removers.

Cobra irrigators have a wider spread than other travelling irrigators, and are able to be used stationary or mobile. The Cobra Travelling Raingun allows application depths as low as 1mm and application rates down to 4.2mm per hour, preventing ponding. The install of this was to be done by Camco Dairy Systems in 2019.

The effluent pond is lined with a 35m by 35m by 4m Enviroline HDPE liner. Steepness of the walls is 1m down and 1.5m out, which is approximately a 45 degree angle.

The welded double seams provide greater containment security and the HDPE lining is chemical-resistant, maintenance-free and has all the welds fully tested prior to install.

Inside the ice bank panels are making ice shards so it is all ready for milking.

Looking into the new dairy shed at Te Awa Farms, Taupo.

Enviroline, which is based in Cambridge, is proud of their quality workmanship and are happy to work with the contractor of choice for the farmer.

Timber strength The five-bay pole barn was supplied and constructed by Aztech Farm Buildings. The structure is made from durable timber poles, which are strong and hardy and able to take knocks from the farm machinery.

The Colorsteele cladding means the sheds are rust-free. Plus, Aztech’s bird-proofing solutions minimises bird perching in the roof structure, reducing bird mess on machinery and equipment.

During calving this structure is used for calfrearing but when not in use for calves, it houses equipment and machinery items.

Bustercover from Matamata installed the state-of-the-art feeding system in the shed.

Some of the equipment came from the old shed, but you wouldn’t know it as it all looks pristine. Stainless steel feed bins stretch the length of the herringbone on both sides and are so easy to keep clean that they still look brand new. The stainless steel feed bins have no rivets, instead the seams are welded together. Feed dispensers are allocated at one dispenser per cow and can be manually adjusted to allocate feed amounts to each cow as she enters the shed, minimising wastage.

The two 16 tonne silos sit to the side of the shed, and have a 90ml PVC line and 1.5hp single phase motor. A site glass part way up the cone of the silos gives the farmer advance warning when there is 3 tonne of meal remaining. The site glass will show clear due to the meal level dropping below it, which enables the farmer to book more feed for delivery.

Rapt The Hughsons are rapt with their new shed, and are pleased with the way in which all the contractors worked in together to get the job done despite all the rain. They have a shed to be proud of – and one that their workers are happy to look after and keep clean.

Page 20

LANDCORP DISCOVERY

Synonymously

elegant

Coast & Country

Lois Natta

Looking towards the new dairy shed.

Looking up towards the new shed from down in the tanker track.

It was a gorgeous day to visit Landcorp Discovery. Located in Taupo, the land, which is owned by Wairakei Estate and leased by Landcorp, was originally forest land. And this meant a massive clean-up job once the pines were logged.

The clean-up began in earnest to make the latest Landcorp conversion, which they called Discovery. Landcorp is synonymous for their elegant entryways, with bricked walls and a selection of trees. An exceptionally wide tanker track is dotted with trees and brand new housing for the workers. Their attention to detail is paramount.

Lesson well learnt As is the nature with forest-to-farm conversions, it can leave pasture land lacking in topsoil and nutrients, which farm manager Casper Meyer is on track to bring into line. “The farm initially started with 750 cows, but due to fertility issues we have reduced numbers to 700,” says Casper.

“We currently have a stocking rate of 2.3 but would prefer a rate of 2.1 to 2.2, which would suit the farm better.

“I have never been on a new conversion farm before, so I was unsure of what to expect.”

Casper says the build-up of topsoil depends on the stocking rate and fertility. “Given that I’m an ex-dairy farmer I should have known this already so was suitably ashamed to be taught this on my visit.

“The roots are very shallow at present; as the topsoil develops, the root structure improves, but this will take a while. The asset is the topsoil.

The more topsoil you grow, the richer the farm.”

Practice makes perfect Gibson Construction from Taupo has built a stunning dairy shed, fully bird-proofed with steel mesh breathers at the top of the roof, plus all the necessary rooms such as storage room, toilet, office, washdown corner, and vet area sited around the outside of the platform area.

Gibson Construction’s general manager James Cullen says out of all the Landcorp sheds they’ve built, this one would be the most refined, with the design having only undergone minor changes during all other shed builds.

Qubik are proud to have supplied and installed the water reticulation, refrigeration and pre-cooling system for Landcorp Discovery.

The entry to Landcorp Discovery is elegant in every way.

Landcorp Discovery

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LANDCORP DISCOVERY

Page 21

Qubik’s refrigeration system.

James Cullen from Gibson Construction and Davieth Verheij from Agfirst with the impressive effluent bunkers and weeping wall system in the background.

Davieth Verheij from Agfirst Engineering Waikato checking on the effluent pump system.

High performance paint Dairy Wall Coatings owner Greg Fulton worked in around Gibson Construction, coating all the blockwork and concrete panels with the Acraflex Dairy Wall Coating System

that keeps the parlour easy to clean and up to food safety standards. Getting a smooth and top quality finish is quite labour-intensive, starting with cleaning and filling the concrete so there is a smooth and stable surface to work with, followed by applying a high adhesion epoxy sealer that needs to soak into all the concrete. Multiple coats of paint are then applied until there are no remaining holes.

Once all coats of paint are on, the fleck coat is applied. The importance of the fleck coat is basically to camouflage joins and misdemeanours common in old sheds, to create visual continuity for the eye, and

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At the rear of the calf shed is yet another race to assist with heading calves in the right direction to get them outdoors. The design was exceptionally well thought-out and implemented. An outdoor area contains a Corohawk calf shed to give calves some shade and shelter when first introduced to the big outdoors.

D

Coloursteel roofing and side panels are part of the construction of the shed. The interior of the shed was nice and cool, given the significantly hot day I visited. The shed has a nice roomy milking area with rubber matting pads, making it comfortable for milkers.

The eight-bay calf shed has been incredibly well designed, with a closed-off bay at one end and the opposite end having a small ramp and platform for loading bobby calves onto the truck.

Bobby calves are kept in the end pen closest to the ramp with a sliding door that exits into a race to push bobbies up to a truck.

The Race Wrangler is worth its weight in gold.

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also for distinctive branding that is easily recognisable by the fleck.

Greg says once all of this is done he follows up with a clear acrylic glaze, which is acid and alkali resistant. “It also gains UV protection from the paint and doesn’t tend to yellow like some other clear coats used in the industry,” says Greg.

Future-proofing Discovery has installed a 54-bail GEA standard design plant. The system has no automation; it is just the standard design, says GEA Farm Technologies’ aftermarket and service solutions manager Grant Coburn.

LANDCORP DISCOVERY

Page 22

Coast & Country

Farm manager Casper Meyer getting prepared for calf drenching.

The 54-bail GEA milking platform.

Cluster ports come out through the deck rather than dropping at the bridge and picking them up again at cups-on.

“Standard in sheds right now is the G2 bail, which is an integral component of the 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 controller are also included.”

Things such as Variable Speed Drive vacuum pump, milk purge, VSD milk pumps to enhance efficient cooling are all part of the functionality of the plant, and the system is future-proofed for further

automation should it be required at any time in future.

Design and installation of the refrigeration, pre-cooling and shed water system was accomplished by Qubik TMC and Qubik Putaruru.

Innovative design Jason Hare, manager of Qubik TMC in Te Awamutu, says they had to come up with an innovative design for the primary milk cooling system to deal with the primary cooling water temperature. A 60kw water chiller was installed and connected to a 25,000L concrete manicon tank.

“The chilled water unit has heat recovery

The PPP Industries’ feed silos are equipped with an exterior ladder. incorporated, producing hot water into the hot water cylinders at 60 degrees Celsius, allowing savings of up to 50 per cent on hot water heating bills.”

Once the milk is in the vat, the standard direct expansion unit on each vat will maintain the milk temperature.

The dairy shed water system was all installed by Qubik Putaruru using PE pipe (polythene pipe), which was fitted underground for the dairy’s water reticulation and was all fusion welded.

The multi-stage washdown system is efficient on power, and gives good volume and steady pressure when required. All washdown points had stainless risers and

stainless valves installed.

All hoses are fitted with the well-known Hansen range of high quality tap fittings.

Smart feed system Inside the shed there is a very smart feed system, installed by PPP Industries. This system is controlled via a PPP control system that recognises and does not supply empty stalls, or if an individual animal is going around for a double lap. There are two 27m3 feed silos, a 60-degree cone and bag-out chute with a standard 350 auger line into the shed. Stainless steel trays come with two drains complete with bolt-on, hot-dipped anti-robbing bail dividers and underneath tray supports.

LANDCORP DISCOVERY

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Page 23

The effluent pond is lined with a Viking liner and equipped with gas vents.

The Weta irrigator.

Landcorp always provides excellent housing for their workers. Penny Homes of Taupo constructed two for this project.

The new shed is equipped with LIC Automation’s Protrack drafter in the exit race.

Taking the human error factor out of drafting the wrong cows, and allowing the milker to continue milking, is a huge advantage while the drafter does all the work. The mobile app is also a huge time-saver, as it allows you to select the cows you want to draft the next day and enter into the app for automatic drafting.

Custom-designed system Agfirst Engineering Waikato’s director Davieth Verheij visited the farm to check the lay of the land, plus farm requirements, and from that he designed an effluent system

specifically for the Discovery farm. Gibson Contractors subcontracted to Agfirst to construct the effluent bunkers and weeping wall system as designed by Davieth.

AgFirst Engineering completed the stock water supply/reticulation and full farm dairy effluent system for the project. A key challenge for this farm was to keep dairy shed water use to an absolute minimum, says Davieth.

“The most efficient means to achieve this was to recycle effluent for automated yard washing.” AgFirst Engineering was the principal contractor for this project, which involved the design and build of a weeping wall solids separation system, green water

Gibson Construction’s eight-bay calf shed with bobby calf access to the side is incredibly well set-up. deferred irrigation pond, low rate effluent irrigation system and green water recycling yardwash system.

No pumps or motors Davieth was involved from the very start of the project. “Where possible it was essential to achieve gravity from the dairy shed through the solids separation system and into the pond.

“This way there were no pumps or motors all the way to the storage pond. The farmer had peace of mind that they can go away for weeks on end and know the effluent will flow naturally to the pond without any risk.”

By engaging AgFirst early, Davieth was able

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to set out the entire site from the pond back to the dairy. All the levels worked backwards from the pond site to ensure the optimum result was achieved.

The precast concrete weeping wall system has a total solids storage capacity of 756m3, which is 12 months’ worth of solids storage.

From here liquids drain to a 2000m3 storage pond. Effluent is then either recycled for dairy shed washdown or pumped over 74ha via a 110mm hydrant line and AgFirst low rate Weta travelling irrigator. The Weta irrigator is driven by an 11kw Mono pump achieving 30,000L/hr at uniform applications depths between 3mm-13mm depending on the irrigator speed setting.

LANDCORP DISCOVERY

Page 24

Coast & Country

The Read Industrial hand primer clears gas from the lines.

The addition of a Corohawk calf pen makes the transition to paddock a bit easier on calves.

RX Plastics has 12 tanks on this new conversion.

The Weta irrigator is Landcorp’s effluent irrigator of choice with 10 Weta irrigators now operating across Wairakei Estate.

The Weta irrigator can achieve the lowest application depths and highest volumes over any other irrigator on the market, says Davieth, making it the obvious choice for Landcorp. The other key benefit is its hydraulic drive system. This is highly favourable over the common mechanically-driven irrigators that require higher maintenance.

Eliminate risk Doug Spain from Viking Containment says the pond was lined by his company with a 1.5mm HDPE pond liner complete with geotextile underlay, gas ventilation system and safety egress ladders.

Pond dimensions were 31m by 31m with a 4m depth and a slope gradient of 2H:1V. The liner area was 1400m2 with a storage capacity of 1700m3.

Viking pride themselves on providing a quality effluent pond liner that will last the distance. Design and installation are critical elements for successful containment of dairy effluent ponds and a minor breach of the liner system can have disastrous effects, therefore installing a high quality liner is vital, says Doug.

“Effluent leakage generates methane gas, which collects

beneath the liner forming large pockets, or bubbles known as ‘whales’, that lead to ultimate failure of the liner system. But with a Viking pond liner all risk is eliminated with the use of methane gas vents.”

The animal handling area in the outside yard has been fitted with a Race Wrangler, a popular choice for animal handling set-ups. Installed with a sling to hold the cow comfortably while trimming hooves, it really does make a tough job very easy. Casper says he and the vets just love it.

Sited throughout the farm are 12 RX Plastics MAX 30,000L water tanks. Three are situated at the cowshed for holding all the shed water. A further seven tanks are sited behind the calf sheds and used for water storage.

Casper says due to water restrictions from the stream in which they obtain their water, they have to have a lot of storage on-farm for when their quota is up. There are a further two RXP tanks on the hill for ‘emergency only’ in case of power cuts. Casper says Landcorp specifically requested RXP tanks, as the corporation prefers these tanks over other manufacturers’ products.

Blue Grass Contracting Ltd from Matamata have been the

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The Protrack drafter notes the cows’ numbers as each one passes through.

Looking towards the new shed in the distance from the well-designed tanker track. preferred harvesting contractor for Rangitaiki Station for several years.

Rangitaiki station supplies the grass silage supplement to support the other Landcorp dairy farms in the region. This means Blue Grass Contracting Ltd is frequently delivering the supplements to the Landcorp farms throughout their busy working days.

Practical farm housing Penny Homes constructed two three-bedroom homes for this project. The houses are constructed of brick with aluminium joinery and have an open plan layout. They are well designed for practical farming families. They have a double garage, and a wet area for gumboots and wet weather gear. As an ex dairy farmer myself I feel that that decent housing is a critical aspect of conversions today, it is imperative that the job is done right and good housing is provided for workers.

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LANDCORP DISCOVERY

“You can’t argue with data from CowScout. It’s been key to better efficiency and more days in milk.”

Brad Payne, Waikato, New Zealand

“We‘ve reduced milking time by nearly two hours a day since installing the iFLOW rotary.“ Mark Hutchins, Canterbury, New Zealand

Page 25

“With the iXPRESS, one person can comfortably milk 250 cows.“ Graeme Edwards, Northland, New Zealand

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DAIRY PATCH

Page 26

Remote milking system

Peter Hopper, 16, with father Ivan Hopper, sibling Shaun Hopper, 13, and mother Denise Hopper in front of the family’s new robotic milking shed.

Invercargill farmers Denise and Ivan Hopper are over the moon with the DeLaval VMS robotic milking system they implemented in 2018.

“We’ve both been milking for 25 years or so and we were tired of getting up every morning to milk. We wanted more flexibility. We aren’t tied to the shed any more, and it’s great,” say the couple.

“Now we do things around the farm in our own time. We take our kids to sport. We see them off to school and head out in the weekends more often,” says Denise.

None of this would have been possible without what Denise and Ivan describe as “outstanding support” from the build team including project manager Ian McKenzie, GT Chamberlin Builders, Doug’s Engineer-

ing, Southland Electrical and Refrigeration, and DeLaval and their local dealer, Southland Farm Services.

“Everyone was brilliant at what they do and brought experience and expertise to both get the shed up and running, and make sure we were able to get the most out of the robotic milking system,” says Denise.

Shed retrofitted Five DeLaval VMS units now occupy what was the old 30-aside herringbone shed. The existing shed was centrally located on the 120ha effective farm, so a retrofit was the best option, says Denise.

The pit was gutted, concrete walls were retained and the building re-roofed. An office and electrical room were added within the existing footprint, and the yard was also extended, says Grant Chamberlin of GT

Coast & Country

Josephine Reader

The new dairy features five DeLaval VMS™ robotic milking units.

Chamberlin Builders. “The quality finish means the old and new parts of the building blend seamlessly.”

The most difficult part of the build was making the five robotic milkers fit in the space available – local engineer Doug McDonald, from Doug’s Engineering, married the DeLaval specs with space available and designed the milking parlour so each robotic milker had the required clearance and space.

Yard design in a remote milking system is critical, with multiple cow lanes and exit gates required to support the four-way grazing system used by the Hoppers. As it turned out, only 300m or so of lanes needed to be changed because the existing layout was well-suited to the new system, says Denise.

From an electrical perspective, a remote milking operation requires additional features including an interrupted power supply, says

Cows leaving the DeLaval VMS™ robotic milking units.

Southland Electrical and Refrigeration general manager Jeremy Irwin.

“The system is designed so that there is instantaneous, automatic switchover. Cows will never get trapped in a robotic milker due to loss of power,” says Jeremy.

“Chilling is also a little different for a remote milking system, and the milk pre-chilling caters for variations in milk volume, which can be low or high, depending on how many remote milkers are in use at any one time,” says Jeremy. DeLaval supplied the energyefficient snap chiller with heat recovery, which Jeremy says took only half a day to install.

More in control Initial concerns that they would lose touch with the cows haven’t eventuated, says Denise, who believes they are more in control of their herd than ever.

DAIRY PATCH

PH 07 578 0030

Denise Hopper checks the DelPro dashboard.

At back: Southland Farm Services’ Mark McMillan, Southland Electrical and Refrigeration’s Jeremy Irwin, Grant Chamberlin of GT Chamberlin Builders, Southland Farm Services’ Richard Smith, Doug McDonald of Doug’s Engineering.

At front: Shaun Hopper, 13, sibling Peter Hopper, 16, and parents Denise and Ivan Hopper.

“It was a bit hard to get our heads around it at first. We thought that we wouldn’t see the cows as much and that it would be harder to pick up lameness, mastitis, cows losing condition, but this just hasn’t been the case.”

Denise reckons they see the cows just as often as before – just not in the shed – and she and Ivan are working smarter not harder when it comes to managing cow health and farm performance.

From the DelPro herd management system dashboard, which Denise uses daily, is how she accesses a range of information about cow or milking system performance including individual cow milk yield data, animal activity patterns, reproductive performance, feed intake, robotic milker utilisation, any alerts that affect the performance of the milking robots, cow health alerts, and more.

Neither Ivan or Denise describe themselves as computer-savvy, but both say the robotic milking system has been very easy to get to grips with. DeLaval provided a week-long training

session in Hamilton and this is supplemented by a four-year support package from local agent Southland Farm Services.

Ivan reckons it’s not worth scrimping on the maintenance to try to save a few bucks. The package from Southland Farm Services includes scheduled maintenance for the robotic milkers and 24/7 assistance and advice.

Southland Farm Services’ operations manager Mark McMillan recommends regular scheduled maintenance to keep things running properly.

“The advantage for us is that the support package means we have a known cost each month,” says Denise. “Also we know that support is available when we need it. Though, to date, the call-outs have just been for teething problems, nothing major.”

Cameras save time Cameras located strategically around the yard and entrance not only provide peace-of-mind security, but have other practical benefits as well, says Denise.

Page 27

GT Chamberlin Builders modified the existing shed building and yard to accommodate the DeLaval VMS robotic milking units.

Farmer Ivan Hopper making adjustments to the grazing programme.

Dairy Patch

The cameras, supplied and installed

by Invercargill-based ACI Ltd, include motion detection and infrared technology that allows the Hoppers to visually check cows in the yard or robotic milkers from the comfort of their living room or smartphone, says John Webb of ACI. The direction of the camera aimed at the calving pad, is able to be changed remotely by Denise and Ivan to give them a better view of what’s going on.

Denise says the cameras are a real time and energy-saver. “It means we don’t necessarily have to get into our overalls and go down the shed at 2am if something alerts. We just check the camera first, and go if we need to. We can keep an eye on a calving cow without leaving the house.”

The cows themselves got used the robotic milkers very quickly, and after three or four milkings seemed to get the idea, says Denise.

The herd is much happier, more docile, and this has been reflected in farm performance

for the 2018/2019 season, with the Hoppers on target to produce 148,000kgMS, have been grade-free since implementing remote milking, and cow health is better than ever, with improved Body Condition Scores.

High-performing team The Hoppers speak highly of the team approach to managing the build and change to their farming system. The build was hassle-free from their perspective and the multi-discipline approach to overseeing the project worked well for them.

“We really couldn’t have done it without these guys. It was very much a team approach,” says Denise.

The tradespeople and specialists are equally appreciative of the Hoppers. “They were great to work for. Little things like providing smoko for the team was really appreciated,” says builder Grant Chamberlin.

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DINNINGTON

Page 28

Robots deliver

Coast & Country

Josephine Reader

Dinnington

Alan Dinnington and Bruce Dinnington with local Lely representative Reese Hegarty.

Local Lely representative Reese Hegarty, checking data on one of the Lely A4 Astronauts.

Bruce Dinnington peak milks 350 cows on the 520 acre Southland property.

More milk with less effort is among the many benefits of a change in farming system at the Dinnington dairy farm in Dacre, Southland.

The farm’s already high-producing herd has moved from an average of 580kgMS per cow to around 700kgMS per cow under the new system, which includes six Lely A4 Astronaut robotic milking machines, and a free-stall barn where cows are housed all winter.

No more alarm clock As well as the significant increase in production and improvements in cow health, Bruce is reaping the benefits of a more balanced

lifestyle where he’s no longer tied to the shed.

“I don’t have an alarm clock anymore, and get up around 6am or 7am. Not milking completely changes my day. I spend my time doing jobs better, and I enjoy doing them more as well,” says Bruce.

The change in farming system was the result of a few years’ deliberation during which time Bruce and father Alan Dinnington, visited and researched barn and milking options.

Bruce had been using Lely automated calf feeders since about 2013, and that was the catalyst for considering a Lely Astronaut robotic system.

“We’d done quite a bit of work with the local Lely guys and they were brilliant. We’ve found them easy to work with. Their back-up is

NATION WIDE

excellent, and nothing is ever a problem.

“Lely has been doing robot milking systems worldwide for more than 25 years, and the gear is proven,” adds Bruce.

Robotic milking While investment in the robotic milking system required more capital outlay than other options they considered, a reduction in staff and increase in production made up for this, says Bruce. “The barn has enabled us to milk longer at the shoulders of the season and lactation days have increased from 275 to 305.”

The Lely A4 Astronauts have been outstanding in terms of reliability and uptime, and Bruce would recommend them to anyone considering robotic milking.

Local Lely agent JJ Limited’s dairy development manager Reese Hegarty says they carry an extremely wide range of components in their service vans, and are on-site within a couple of hours of an issue being reported, if need be.

“So far that hasn’t really been needed at Bruce’s though, with most issues being able to be resolved over the phone.”

The Lely Astronaut robots’ management program provides extensive real-time information on milk yield, fat and protein, milking behaviour – such as missing milkings – changes in weight, and a vast range of other key performance and health indicators. “With real-time data available at the touch of a button, the Lely system delivers a lot of insight with no extra work,” says Reese.

DINNINGTON

PH 07 578 0030

Advanced Dairy Barns designed and built the Dinnington’s free-stall barn.

Bruce, who doesn’t describe himself as technology-savvy, says the Lely system is very easy to use.

Benefits from change Increased production isn’t the only positive effect of robotic milking and the change in farming system. Bruce says more efficient capture and use of effluent has enabled fertiliser savings and there’s been less pasture damage from pugging because the herd is wintered in the barn, and nutrient leaching has been minimised.

“I got what I expected in terms of the new system, and better. The cows are so contented and quiet. It’s taken all the stress out of their environment,” says Bruce.

“Cow health indicators are positive. Lameness is non-existent now, and our fertility and conception rates are up.”

The free-stall barn was designed from the ground up to Bruce’s specifications to suit his

Nind Dairy Services’ Alister Pearce, Tristan Whittaker and Logan Barnett with the barn’s water system.

herd feeding requirements as well as access to the milking robots, says Winton-based, Advanced Dairy Barns co-director Justin Short.

The barn that took around six months to construct features fully hot-dip galvanised structural steel and wider-than-usual 1200mm stalls, which allow the cows plenty of room to enter freely, lie down comfortably and get up naturally. This combined with top quality latex beds ensures adequate cow resting time.

package for the Dinnington barn, taking care of design and consents, yard concrete work, fitted all the cow bedding, bails, cow brushes and water troughs. In addition they designed and built the calving shed and calf rearing shed.

Barn steelwork was completed by Winton Engineering, which is Advanced Dairy Barns’ sister company.

Free-stall barn

The Lely Astronaut milking system is housed in the barn, and the barn is abutted with a new purpose-built office, storeroom, and amenities space built by Paul Warren Builders. “The amenities building is clad in maintenance-free, easy-to-clean polypanel, which is also quick to erect,” says Paul.

While building the new amenities block only took a few weeks to construct, Paul and his team were on-site for several months as they also completed concrete work in the

“Advanced Dairy Barns bring 15 years of experience and 25 new shed builds to the design of each free-stall barn we build, and we know what works,” says Justin.

A high-pitch roof provides superior ventilation to prevent cows overheating and ensures odours and gas don’t become trapped in the barn.

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New amenities block

Page 29

Advanced Dairy Barns designed and built the barn, with the polypanel amenities block constructed by Paul Warren Builders.

Cameras in the barn enable Bruce Dinnington to keep an eye on herd when he’s not in the dairy. robot area of the barn.

There isn’t much in the new barn that Nind Dairy Services didn’t have a hand in, undertaking the electrical fitout, and installing barn plumbing and barn water. They also took care of the effluent pumping system, installation of the PPP Industries grain feed system and GEA refrigeration system.

“We’ve always done Bruce’s work, and our work on the new dairy and barn was just a continuation of that. We provided a one-stop shop for a lot of the dairy’s services, and that made it easier for Bruce because he had to deal with just one supplier,” says Nind Dairy Services effluent and plumbing design and salesperson Tristan Whitaker.

“The electrical design calls for continuous power supply to the robot milking system, and a good lighting plan is also important in a barn system,” says Nind Dairy Services electrical foreman Alister Pearce.

Page 30

DINNINGTON

Coast & Country

Alan and son Bruce Dinnington with Aspect Environmental Lining’s Craig McMillan in front of the effluent storage pond.

The Lely A4 Astronaut hybrid arm moves efficiently to swiftly and accurately attach the cup to the teat.

Southland farmer Bruce Dinnington, father Alan Dinnington, Paul Warren Builders’ Paul Warren, Advanced Dairy Barns’ Justin Short, Clark Seed and Feed’s Brian McDonagh, Aspect Environmental Lining’s Craig McMillan, Nind Dairy Services’ Alister Pearce and Tristan Whittaker, Lely representative Reese Hegarty and Nind Dairy Services’ Logan Barnett.

“Barn lighting is designed to mimic natural light, and uses energy-efficient LED lights to keep power costs down,” says Alister.

And eight cameras positioned in the barn make it easy for Bruce and his team to keep an eye on the herd.

Glycol unit The GEA AquaCHILL glycol unit, also installed by Nind, chills milk to below six degrees Celcius on demand. “The same unit also services the milk silo as well, and because the prechilling is so effective, there is very little demand for vat chilling,” says Alister.

Heat is also recovered before the condenser and produces up to 350L of hot water per hour as a by-product of the milk chilling process, making the GEA aquaCHILL an efficient milk chilling option.

The unit is largely self-contained, and consequently is relatively quick to install and can be

moved to another farm if needed.

A PPP Industries feed system, including 16t silo, serves the 350-cow herd. Local servicing is provided by Nind Dairy Services.

And Clarks Seed and Feed stock feed consultant Brian McDonagh advises Bruce on feed options, which are fed via the robotic milking system or in the feed lane of the barn.

“Pre-calving, anionic salts are included in the herd’s diet because it helps reduce the incidence of milk fever, and also helps prepare their digestive system to take grains without risk of acidosis,” says Brian.

Clark Seed and Feed manufacture their own feed at their Invercargill base, and can mix to suit customer requirements, says Bruce.

Wheat DDG pellets and molasses are fed in-shed, with between 2kg-4kg fed to each cow daily depending on production. Minerals like magnesium are manufactured into the blend, eliminating the need for a mineral hopper on the

PPP Industries grain feed system.

“Another special blend includes the addition of granular vegetable fat for energy to the grain pellets,” says Bruce.

And BB Cunninghame applied a specialised paint coating to the barn’s feed lane to protect concrete and provide an easy-to-clean, hygienic surface.

Efficient effluent A scraper periodically moves down the lane and pushes effluent down drains from the barn to a sump, and is then pumped to the 3.8 million litre storage pond.

“Bruce opted for a 1.5mm HDPE pond liner from Aspect Environmental Lining, which includes a geotextile underlay to protect the liner against damage from stones and other matter,” says Aspect Environmental Lining’s South Island director Craig McMillan. “HDPE is durable, tough and UV-resistant, and is well

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Clark Seed and Feed’s Brian McDonagh and Bruce Dinnington.

suited to dairy effluent containment. The liner is extremely robust and comes with a 20-year guarantee. We subject the liner’s dual track welds to pressure testing to prove there are no leaks,” says Craig.

Gas evacuations system comes as standard, and the liner took only four days to install.

The large pond was excavated by Noel McIntyre Drainage, which also completed all earthworks for the new barn, including raising up the building platform a few metres to facilitate gravity feed of the effluent to the sump.

“No job is too big or too small when it comes to ponds. We have the knowledge and knowhow to build solid well-constructed ponds and have been building them all over Southland for years,” says owner Noel McIntyre.

Bruce peak milks 350 cows on the 520 acre property, and the pond liner was 3000m2.

“The new system is far superior to the old 50-bail rotary that used to service the farm and it has futureproofed our business.”

PH 07 578 0030

DINNINGTON

Page 31

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ROUSE

Page 32

Gull-shape design

Coast & Country

Merle Foster

Mark Rouse designed his new feed pad and cowshed to sit at a gull-shape angle, so all effluent runs to the middle of the yard between both buildings and goes down a long horizontal grate, sending it to the weeping wall.

Julie and Mark Rouse with their new 54-bail rotary dairy in the background.

Photo: Aerial Vision: Advanced Imagery.

Mark Rouse of Northland’s Maromako Valley assured me I wouldn’t get lost finding his new dairy.

He was right. Over a hill on gravel road, south of Kawakawa, down below was a large new shed and feed pad positioned in a v-angle of gull wings.

The project is the result of a 25-year farming journey for Mark and wife Julie. And while futureproofing the farm, a new shed should offer the hard-working couple a chance to slow down in coming years. Mark and Julie milk their own cows and rear their own calves. The couple say the project’s cost is massive but it’s much-needed. They work 15-hour days. “Five hours milking in the old shed is just a nightmare.”

Mark, a former boiler-maker/welder, and Julie, a fomer clerical worker, began sharemilking on the family farm 25 years ago when Mark’s parents needed a sharemilker.

They’d bought and leveraged 64ha to buy 165 cows. Once the herd was paid off they bought 180-odd ha of the farm at market

value – of that 140ha is a dairy platform. Since then they’ve acquired several pieces of land nearby. Today, the home farm is 350ha in total with a 280ha dairy platform and the run-off 350ha, with 250ha in grass. The new 54-bail one-man operation will milk 600 cows at peak.

“Our old shed is basically stuffed,” says Julie. “It doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope with the numbers, the effluent was nearing non-compliance. So it was either build new and get bigger – or get out of dairying.”

Whole-site earthworks The site was a blank canvas in February 2018 when Shaun Leathwick began a huge earthworks operation to ready it for a new dairy shed, yard, feed pad, silage bunker, effluent pond and dams. “The hillside still had fences up,” says Shaun, who runs John Leathwick Ltd with father John.

Firstly, mucking out gullies, old dams and drains had to be done. Once ticked off by council, they began the feed pad site, then the shed site. “For the shed there was a lot of moving earth,

cutting off high knobs and filling gullies to form the tanker access and main building platform,” says Shaun.

They formed new races connecting the new shed while letting Mark and Julie continue milking at the old one. They built a 100m wide dam and 80m by 50m by 5m effluent pond. It’s predicted up to 35,000m3 of earth has been moved by two Cat D6 Bulldozers, two excavators, a 30 ton Moxy dumper and a 7 ton compaction roller. John says the main goal was to do a good job by giving the best practical solution for Mark. “Mark’s been good to deal with and we’ve tried to give him the best advice from our experience,” says John.

Shed-build heroes Barfoote Construction took on the build after another builder couldn’t. “We started late-May 2018 and spent nine months there, with three-four staff present,” says Barfoote site manager John Hansen. The 22m by 20m shed has a 45m long rectangular yard, with a 29m by 70m covered feed pad at the end. Mark says it will take 350 cows at a time.

ROUSE

PH 07 578 0030

Page 33

The new covered feed pad, built by Barfoote Construction, is 29m wide by 70m long.

Shaun Leathwick and father John, of John Leathwick Ltd, take shelter under the feed pad while the rain stops their work schedule for the day.

Rouse

The new 54-bail Waikato Milking Systems rotary dairy newly-installed before use.

John Hansen’s team completed the shed first, built the yard, then the three-bay silage bunker, feed pad, then a Barfoote-design onebay weeping wall system. “We supplied our concrete panels for the silage bunker and feed pad. It was designed for timber rails but Mark wanted something more robust.”

Mark designed the feed pad and cowshed to sit at a gull-shape angle, so all effluent runs to the middle of the yard between both buildings and goes down a long horizontal grate, sending it to the weeping wall. “Very few in the country have managed this design, but the hill layout made it possible here.”

John Hansen says farmers planning a new shed must get the layout right. “The shed’s position in relation to the farm and cow flow has to be right. Otherwise, you can incur big expenses to get it right.”

He reckons Mark has an once-in-a-lifetime

shed. “Both him and Julie were amazing people to work for. There was a lot of consultation and it went really well.” The Rouses are very happy with Barfoote. “They’ve gone the extra mile for us.”

Waikato all the way Mark knew it was best to install the same brand of platform and milking plant because they’d match up and are made to work together. “Some farmers have installed different brands, and many have had trouble.” So they went Waikato Milking Systems all the way.

Julie thought about sticking to a herringbone “but with this rotary, I can milk on my own – piece of cake”.

Waikato Milking Systems’ Northland sales manager Gary Feeney says the shed has a 54-bail Orbit concrete platform, Waikato

Race Wrangler $4,489 + GST

from

The massive earthworks project, by John Leathwick Ltd, was still being completed around the new dairy in early-March 2019.

Milking Systems milking plant, with SmartECR automatic cup removers, a SmartWASH automatic wash system, and SmartSPRAY automatic teat spray system.

“Positioned in every bail and activated by a signal from an electronic cup remover, SmartSPRAY ensures complete teat coverage, no matter what position the cow stands in the bail or the animal’s size.”

The milking plant is run by a Fristam 2.2KW Milk Pump, SmartDRIVE milk pump controller, Waikato Milking Systems milk recovery system, a BP400 Blower type vacuum system, a15KW SmartDRIVE vacuum control, and 12 track Orbitor centre gland. SmartPULS pulsation with filtered air offers a low-cost, effective way to enhance longevity of the pulsation system by protecting pulsators from dust and other airborne contamination.

The Waikato Milking Systems 320 Clusters

A DTS Polar wrap is fitted to the 16,000L vat to help insulate milk and keep it at an even temperature.

have standard WMS shells and Quadrant Large Bore Liners. “The claw comes with a five-year warranty and large bore milk inlets and outlets improve milk flow while promoting a stable milking environment.”

The SmartWASH system enables the Rouses to meet all current hygiene standards and regulations, and can be changed to suit their needs at the touch of a button.

Moa Milking, which installs most Waikato Milking Systems rotary platforms in the North Island, really impressed the Rouse’s with their quality workmanship. And Northland Farm Services installed the milking plant.

“Mark and Julie have been clients for more than 20 years, with us previously upgrading the old shed with new components as required and maintaining it,” says director Grant Shaw.

Page 34

ROUSE

Coast & Country

DTS supplied a TT100 13hp ice bank for precooling milk.

The two JCB Power generators – one for the milking shed and one for refrigeration, supplied by Pace Power & Air, sit under a heavy-duty cover.

The Waikato Milking Systems’ cups gleam before their first use in the Rouse’s new dairy.

Kevin Trumper from Kevin Trumper Electrical wired everything up. “I installed all wiring and ducting for the milking plant, backing gate, lighting, main cables to the transformer pole, control wiring for two generators, underground supply to effluent and water pumps, and made and installed a switchboard.

“The interesting thing was that three-phase power is only supplied by two generators. This required supply and connection of two 100amp three-phase changeover switches, which was a challenge.”

Kevin, who’d never worked for Mark before, says he was proud to be part of the project.

Arthur says the beauty of ice banks is they work while farmers aren’t milking. “They build ice during the day/night between milkings so when you start milking, ice cold water flows through the Plate Heat Exchanger. This water flows back through the ice bank, and chills back down; melting the ice by end of milking.”

Kensington Refrigeration installs all DTS (Tru Test) refrigeration equipment in Northland. Director and refrigeration specialist Justin Storey spent three days installing the Patton Pak and TT100 ice bank at Mark’s farm. “We install and service equipment on 200 dairy farms each season – this was a pretty standard installation job for us.” Kensington Refrigeration is celebrating 50 years in business this year.

Loyal refrigeration partners

Power on demand

DTS (formerly Tru Test) Northland territory manager Arthur Harrison says Mark and Julie had a long relationship with his predecessor Shane Storey for years.

“To chill milk in Mark’s 16,000L vat we supplied a 13hp Patton Pak unit. To meet Ministry for Primary Industries’ new regulations we supplied a TT100 13hp ice bank for precooling.

The ice bank pre-chills milk to close to four degrees Celsius before it goes into the vat, then the Patton Pak maintains milk temperature around five degrees Celsius.”

With power cuts and a huge cost to install transformers and power lines, the Rouses opted to install generators for most of the dairy’s energy needs. “We bought two generators and installed two-phase power to run the stirrer on the vat and small amounts we need during the day.”

Pace Power & Air division manager Mitchell Day says one JCB Power G65QS 65kVA diesel generator powers the milking shed, another powers refrigeration. When vat milk temperature climbs above a threshold, it activates a switch and turns on

The Rouse’s new Wrangler Race Works is newly installed at the shed and shines in the rain.

All effluent comes to the middle and goes down a drain, pictured, and off the concrete.

this generator to power refrigeration. “A JCB generator is an excellent insurance policy because it ensures refrigeration is always kept on to keep milk chilled, preventing dumping of product and money down the drain,” says Mitchell.

“By running from two generators, the Rouses have guaranteed power when they need it, no ongoing fixed line charges and no capital expenditure on infrastructure they won’t own.”

Mitchell says the generators’ JCB Livelink telematics enables users to remotely monitor them via smartphone app or desktop and receive email and text message alerts. Mark reckons the generators will cost about the same to run as a power equivalent.

The Rouses purchased a Wrangler Race Works with rubber matting. The Wrangler’s Waverley Klein Ovink says their standard Race Wrangler has an upgraded headbail, leg winch and front foot support. “The rubber matting reduces cows dancing when being constrained.” Waverly says farmers should order ahead to ensure Wranglers can be installed when yarding and concrete goes in.

The Rouses really did their research before designing their dairy. “We visited hundreds of sheds and read past New Farm Dairies,” says Mark. “The main thing we worked hard to get right is cow flow.” The Rouses are in their third year of mentor programme Extension 350 to aid improving farm operations.

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ROUSE

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Page 35

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KAHURANGI FARM

Page 36

Coast & Country

Compact at Pakotai

Merle Foster

Kahurangi Farm owner Graeme Edwards in his new 26-aside herringbone cowshed at the farm at Pakotai, Northland.

Graeme Edwards is really happy with how his new 26-aside herringbone, with a GEA milking plant, is running.

It was all go on March 8 at Graeme Edwards’ Kahurangi Farm near Pakotai in Northland.

Builders were constructing a bridge over the Opouteke River on-farm; trucks were delivering supplies. A stock truck was picking up cull cows.

And New Farm Dairies arrived. But Graeme was happy to see me, saying I was welcome anytime as long as I kept bringing rain!

Graeme has farmed this property since the early-1980s. He began with 100 cows and built the first cowshed in 1982 – a 16-aside herringbone. He and his wife have added parcels of land over the years. “In 1995 we doubled the size of the property and extended the old shed to 22-aside. Another 8ha was added in 2012.”

Today the farm is 127ha effective and about

Kahurangi Farm The farm’s old shed, which served Graeme well until the property needed future-proofing.

240ha gross, with bush and 40ha pines – and is cut in half by Opouteke River, which is where problems arose. The main cow race linking each half of the farm crossed the river, contrary to Fonterra terms of supply although permitted by regional council. And the old effluent system would have likely become problematic on expiry of resource consents.

Fully compliant So the new build was to futureproof the farm. “We decided to build a shed that would be compliant, because who knows what will happen in future? I’m not getting younger and I wouldn’t want to leave the family with an awkward predicament,” says Graeme.

Barfoote had built Graeme’s two sheds on nearby properties – so again he called director Trevor Barfoote. This time for a 26-aside her-

ringbone. “This is one-man farm so And Trevor says the Barfoote bridge this had to operate as one-man shed.” saves cows walking long distances. “It makes the farm a square operation.”

Trevor visited and made recommendations on shed location to optimise farm operation and minimise building costs. set-up A robust andStandard spacious crush, offering superior comfort for the animal.

Barfoote is known to design sheds by look- support and The old shed had a mixture of milking plants designed to provide a safe and ing at the lay of a farm to select the best cow Specially – but Graeme’s otherwhen shed nearby has a GEA functional facility for the farmer flow with minimum earthworks. “We workedhoof care is necessary.

Easy andwith safe tothe use.same plant brand plant.

“We’ve kept on site plans plus supporting infrastructure as this helps with servicing of gear and spares.” such as placement of the weeping wall, effluent GEAcare areacrush, sales manager Paul Convery says Cattle hoof pond, raceway layouts and tanker track,” says Graeme chose an iXPRESS4 Milking System.

Ekochute.

Trevor. And a Barfoote shed was sized to fit theType-L “Thefrom standard set-up has iNTELSTART that A robust and spacious crush, offering superior once-a-day operation. The concrete-panel shedFeatures also operates the cooler pump to switch on include support and comfort for the animal. has an office, milkroom, a roller door to the Specially only whento the milk pump designed provide a safe and is running, to save Self catching head-bail functional facility for the‘off farmer when tanker track, a low roof covering the bails and pit, Full walk-thru head-bail water.

When ’ is pushed it automatically care ishand necessary.

Easy andhandles safe to use.

Self-locking winches folding holding pens and a handling facility. “It’s a veryhoof empties thewith can and air purges the system.

Fully hot-dip galvanised compact shed, which suits their needs.”

“When Gas-spring anti-kick ‘wash’ back bar is pressed it activates iNTELJET, with ‘W’bar rear leg support Graeme says the tilt-slab construction means which collects water in its holding tank and Cattle hoof care crush, Unique front leg fixation system the milk line.” “it’s going to be there for forever”. pushes it down Type-L from Ekochute.

2x 16cm wide belly bands Checker plate welded floor, topped withinclude non-slip rubber mat Features 2x lead-in rear gates Self catching head-bail Full walk-thru head-bail All these features come on a Self-locking hand winches with folding handles Fully hot-dip galvanised as standard baroffering superior AGas-spring robust andanti-kick spaciousback crush, Why pay more? with ‘W’bar rear leg support support and comfort for the animal.

Specially designed to provide a safe and Unique front leg fixation system Other options upon request functional facility forbands the farmer when 2x 16cm wide belly Trailer kitis(NZ road legal with Wof and hoof care necessary.

Easy and safe toRego) use.

Checker plate welded floor, Several Electric winches topped with non-slip rubber mat Head-bail insert for smaller cows 2x lead-in rearcare gates crush, Cattle hoof

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All thesefrom features come on a

New Zealand Dealership Features include as Ekochute standard Self catchingRogers head-bail Stuart Full walk-thru head-bail Why pay more?

Self-locking hand winches with folding handles T: 0212788278 Other options upon request Fully hot-dip galvanised

E:Trailer waikatohooftimming@gmail.com Gas-spring backlegal bar with Wof and Rego) kitanti-kick (NZ road with ‘W’bar rear leg support

Several Electric winches Unique front leg fixation system Head-bail insert for smaller cows 2x 16cm wide belly bands Checker plate welded floor, topped with non-slip rubber mat 2x lead-in rear gates

New Zealand All these features Dealership come on a Stuart Rogers Ekochute as standard

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KAHURANGI FARM

PH 07 578 0030

The new bridge across the river, which runs through the middle of the farm, is also being constructed by Barfoote Construction.

Page 37

The new shed’s Protrack Drafting System means less hopping in and out of the pit for the sharemilker.

The old tanker track is no longer needed.

The iNTELFLOW controller ensures the milk pump keeps to a steady flow throughout milking. “This helps with cooling as milk moves through this area of the plant slower.”

And the plant is futureproofed. “If Graeme sticks with GEA gear, anything else will just bolt in.”

Paul says the bigger GEA Classic 300 cluster and GEA’s best milking liner are definitely contributing to fast milking out of cows.

“There’s no flooding of claws, and if he changes liners every 2500 milkings cows will be milked out evenly, quickly and efficiently.”

Graeme says the shed has knocked 30 minutes off milking.

Plant install Kawakawa Engineering, Northland’s GEA agent, installed the plant. Dairy division engineer Garry Wilson says three staff began the job in July 2018 and it took eight weeks.

“The only real curveball was the shed ran

The Ezi-flo pit gates are a great feature to have.

downhill from the yard so we had to be careful with positioning the receiver can. We set it to allow for operator head room and clearance of pendulum gates. Graeme also requested all plant plus water plumbing be enclosed in one room, which was relatively small in size, so resulted in a compact set-up.

Drafting essential “Graeme was a pleasure to deal with – any complicated aspects of the install were readily discussed and resolved.”

Graeme’s local supplier for pit gates went out of business – so Barfoote Construction installed Waikato Dairy Builders’ Ezi-flo pit gates in the new shed.

Ezi-flo Pitgates are being used worldwide.

They open high above the breast rail, allowing cows to swing their head under the gates to exit. And because they’re made up of two gates, the exit is cut off quickly providing

efficient drafting. The gates also require less height than other gates from the concrete to the roof for fitting. To operate a practical oneman shed efficiently, Graeme says you need an automatic drafting system.

He chose LIC Protrack Draft for his new herringbone shed. “As you get older your bones don’t like climbing up and down concrete steps as much as they used to,” says Graeme.

“So having this Protrack Draft system means it saves our sharemilker, Mark, a lot of hopping up and down in the cowshed.”

The three-way drafting gate takes the hassle out of drafting – Mark can draft cows from the pit, the yard or the paddock using his Protrack Draft software on a smartphone.

The Protrack Draft gate works by using an electronic reader and antenna to identify an animal as she walks into the draft gate. The system then checks to see if the identified animal is to be drafted.

If so, the gate will guide her in the desired

Graeme Edwards is trialing growing bananas at his farm – and has a few plants right next to the new cowshed. direction by moving both the left and right side of the gate; then the gate returns to its normal position before the next animal comes through.

Bananas FIL’s Northland area sales manager Brian Salvigny says if correctly set-up from the start, plant washing should be plain sailing. “I set up a wash plan to an operation’s requirements and set water and detergent rates.” Graeme has been a FIL customer for more than 10 years. “His new shed is using Quantum Red acid because of its low foam in a high turbulence wash system. This is a phosphoric acid which handles the Northland water well.” Graeme also uses a FIL automatic teat spray product in his new shed.

The gravity-fed, land-based effluent system gives more leeway for winter milking – and feeds Graeme’s new venture: Growing bananas.

His test crop is beside the greenwater pond.

Watch this space!

Page 38

D WYER FARMS

One-person

one-person milking usually,” says Tim. A milking plant that’s labour-efficient, easy-to-use and low-maintenance was at the top of Tim’s wish-list when he was researching options for his new dairy shed.

One of the things he liked about Waikato Milking Systems, which eventually got the nod to supply the rotary dairy, was that their plant stands the test of time. Tim had overseen a shed build on another property about 12 years ago, and liked the fact the plant and platform design was similar to his last shed build.

milking Josephine Reader

The efficient building footprint attracted Tim Dwyer to the Fabish and Jackson-designed octagonal dairy shed.

“This shed was compact and most easily fit the space available and allowed us to utilise the existing tanker track and feed pad without any expensive reconfiguration,” says Tim. “The building design is efficient. It’s the same distance from wall to platform the whole way around; and, with no corners, it’s very easy to keep clean too.”

Tim is in his third season on the 145ha effective Hawera property in South Taranaki.

And when he and wife Carley purchased the farm a few years ago, the plan was always to replace the 30-bail herringbone with a more efficient rotary shed.

Currently milking 390 cows, Tim has plans to move to a bigger herd over time, and the shed has been built with this growth in mind.

The efficient building footprint is what attracted Tim Dwyer to the Fabish and Jackson-designed octagonal dairy shed.

Dwyer Farms

Future changes “Waikato Milking Systems seem to make incremental changes to improve performance and productivity, which I think is great. If design changes too much, it can make the plant – or parts of it – obsolete, forcing expensive changes, which is not what I was looking for.”

Labour-saving devices are integrated throughout the shed, which has a 50-bail Waikato Milking System Orbit platform at its centre.

SmartECR automated cup removers are one of the biggest time-savers. Vacuum starts automatically, and a flow sensor activates the shut-off valve before cups come off, meaning very little vacuum drop. Waikato Milking Systems’ Taranaki area sales manager Brian Luff says farmers can be concerned that cows won’t be milked out properly using an automated system “but with SmartECR milking routine parameters can be adjusted by the farmer to suit the herd and conditions”.

Goodbye

Wish-list “I really wanted a one-person shed, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” says Tim. “It’s me, a full-time staff member, and an assistant during the busy spring calving period.”

“It takes about one-hour-and-a-quarter to milk, and even in spring we still only have

Coast & Country

Chris Perrett Electrical’s Chris Perrett, farm owner Tim Dwyer, Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff, and LIC’s Richard Weir.

Manual teat spraying is gone thanks to the implementation of Waikato Milking Systems’ in-bail automatic teat spray solution, SmartSPRAY. Spraying is triggered by the SmartECR automatic cup removers, which means spraying doesn’t occur if cups are simply kicked off.

PH 07 578 0030 A SmartDRIVE controls the milk and vacuum pump. Pump speed changes to ensure that milk is pumped at the right speed to optimise efficiency of the primary plate cooler, and then pump speed ramps up for washdown for quick and efficient plant cleaning, says Brian.

And the Orbit 2.7m wide deck platform provides protection for plant and platform running gear and makes maintenance easier.

The experienced Moa Milking and Pumping team, which is Waikato Milking Systems’ authorised installation partner, got an unexpected hand with the plant and platform install when a team from one of Waikato Milking Systems’ agents in Argentina, who happened to be in New Zealand at the time, joined the build to get some hands-on experience with an on-farm installation.

D WYER FARMS

Page 39

LIC’s Richard Weir with the LIC Protrack Vantage, which includes automated drafting

The steelwork in the yard was completed by Michael Bloemen Engineering.

In-shed feeding A PPP Industries in-shed feed system is another big time and labour-saver, according to Tim. “We have a feed pad, but that is more labour-intensive than in-shed feeding. We tend to only use that now at the start and end of the season or during bad weather in winter.”

PPP Industries’ Nick Morison says the feed system control unit automatically misses empty bails and cows doing a double-lap on the platform.

“The 16-tonne silo is served by a 350 auger line, which moves feed from the silo into the stainless steel feed bins inside the shed. The bins are designed to minimise feed wastage: high backs stop cows pushing feed over the back edge.”

Inclusion of LIC CellSense in the new dairy means Tim no longer does herd testing.

Tim supplies Open Country, which offers a financial incentive for milk

Bail dividers in the PPP Industries in-shed feed system prevent cows from devouring more than their share.

with a low Somatic Cell Count. So Tim opted for LIC Automation CellSense, which offers real-time data about which cows might be susceptible to mastitis.

The system integrates with the Protrack Vantage system, which includes in-bail identification in his rotary shed, so within a couple of minutes of cups going on the milker gets an audio and onscreen alert if SCC is outside set parameters, and the cow is automatically drafted for checking.

The CellSense technology can be fitted to every bail, but in Tim’s shed it’s fitted to every fourth bail, says LIC Automation solution manager Richard Weir. “This saves on upfront investment, and still gives data on every cow in the herd about every four milkings.”

Meanwhile, Protrack Vantage offers many benefits and simplifies essential tasks like SCC testing, pregnancy testing and artificial breeding, and changes made in MINDA are automatically synchronised with Protrack.

While Tim isn’t using this feature currently, Protrack also offers the ability to implement a customised feeding plan.

“It’s all about getting better data on how the herd is performing so that farmers can make more informed decisions,” says Richard.

Electrical design

PPP Industries supplied the labour-saving in-shed feed system.

Lots of windows and doors provide good airflow and natural light.

Experienced rural electrical specialists, Chris Perrett Electrical Solutions, oversaw the electrical fit-out. Owner Chris Perrett had been doing work for Tim’s family for 20 years before starting his own business seven years ago.

While the electrical design for each shed is different, Chris says some elements of each job are the same – like building the switchboards at their South Taranaki workshop before being installed on-site.

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D WYER FARMS

“In the case of Tim’s shed, we organised a new transformer and mains power to the new shed location as well as all of the normal fit-out work.”

Chris says good electrical design is important because it’s much more cost-effective to allow for things like a generator changeover switch, or the future addition of another Protrack console into the design at the outset, rather than retrofitting them in later.

Matting protection Tim was keen to install matting in the entry and exit to the platform to keep the animals on sure footing, and Wanganuibased Burgess Matting supplied the heavy-duty, high-density rubber matting.

Jack Burgess of Burgess Matting says the rubber incorporates 1-ply nylon, which stops movement and stretching that can occur as the rubber expands and contracts.

The Burgess matting is also manufactured in a roll rather than tiles, “which means fewer joins,” says Jack.

“The product is anchored in situ, and then sealed with a silicon sealer around the edges, which maintains the rubber and stops moisture getting under the matting.”

As well as providing a surface to reduce any hoof damage when the cows are changing direction to leave the race, it is also a safe walking surface. The matting also protects against concrete deterioration in the high-traffic bridge area.

An underpass provides easy access for maintenance in the Fabish and Jacksondesigned dairy shed.

Left: Burgess Matting’s Jack Burgess says the hammerblow finish provides good grip for the herd.

Circular yard design The circular yard, which Tim wanted because it offers more drafting area behind the gate, is served by a backing gate designed by local firm Michael Bloemen Engineering.

The gate is fitted with a rubber scraper and nozzles that send out jets of water as the gate moves around. “It’s a simple, but effective set-up,” says Tim. “The nozzles and scraper do the trick. We hardly ever

South Taranaki farmer Tim Dwyer using Protrack in his new shed.

Within two minutes of cupping, LIC CellSense provides real-time data on Somatic Cell Count.

Coast & Country need to hose the yard.”

The team from Michael Bloemen Engineering also completed all the steelwork in the yard.

The economical octagonal shaped parlour is designed by Fabish and Jackson around the shape and size of the rotary platform. A perforated mesh door and windows on all sides of the building ensure good airflow and plenty of light in the interior of the shed.

Fabish and Jackson general manager Paul Askew says while each Octalock dairy shed starts from a standard design, each one is tailored to what the farmer wants and to the characteristics of the building site. “Farmer input is important to the design,” says Paul.

And while the Octalock dairy building has an economical building footprint compared to a traditional square or rectangular building, it does not scrimp on space – the dairy shed includes an all-purpose room with a viewing window at the cups-on side of the shed, a milk room, vet room, office and storage room.

Looks good and performs Fabish and Jackson recommend specialised paint coating, Acraflex. Applied by Surfatex, the dairy shed’s walls are all painted using the hi-build system, which includes seven separate layers. In new shed builds, the coating is guaranteed for 10 years, but typically lasts much longer, says Jeffery Glynn from Surfatex.

“Acraflex coating protects concrete walls from deterioration because the paint coating is impervious to harsh shed chemicals and minerals that are present in water,” says Jeffery.

The two-person team from Surfatex team, who have around 25 years’ collective experience with Acraflex application, took around six days to complete the Dwyer shed.

Everything from the building footprint to the milking plant has been chosen for its efficiency, simplicity or ability to save time.

The shed is so well executed and designed, that even in the busy spring period, only one person is needed to milk, which is exactly how Tim planned it.

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P&D WAITES TRUST

The Fabish and Jackson-designed dairy at Auroa Road, with black guttering and dark colour, has attracted many positive comments.

Better for staff

The second shed built at Skeet Road features a unique black exterior.

Josephine Reader

Building one shed is enough for most people, but not for South Taranaki farmers Phil and Diane Waite, who built two dairy sheds on two properties in 2018.

The builds, which are the largely the same design and undertaken by the same contractors, were completed almost concurrently – with earthworks on their 50-bail Skeet Road shed completed during the construction phase of the Auroa Road shed, which is also a 50-bail rotary.

Despite it being an obviously busy time, Phil is full of praise for the contractors who worked on the builds. “Everyone from the builders to the sparkies worked hard to get the job done,” says Phil.

“When the sheds were done, I realised I had

Coast & Country

The Auroa Road Fabish and Jackson-designed dairy shed has a view of Mount Taranaki.

worked with some great people. The secret to the job was being able to walk towards them knowing that they didn’t mind seeing you.

We finished up with every contractor being approachable, which was a success for the shed and for us.”

Phil and son Jared helped out with building or excavation tasks; staff on the Auroa Road farm, Rob and Sharon Gay, also helped out as needed. And Phil reckons being at the build sites regularly helped things go smoothly because questions were dealt with quickly – and a few beers for the tradies on hot days didn’t hurt either, he jokes.

are happy, so are we. We have treated our staff well in the past and wanted that to carry on so that they stay in the industry,” says Phil.

Both sheds feature a 50-bail rotary with a Waikato Milking Systems’ plant including automated cup removers and other labour-saving tools so only one person is needed to milk.

“With farmers under pressure from payout, weather, effluent rules and forced spending on a lot of areas, we targeted making the milking side of things easier,” says Phil.

“Now our staff can keep the farm to a high standard and have a life with free time and hobbies without impacting on us too much.”

Happy staff

Eye-catching design

The Auroa Road shed, where Sharon and Rob work, was designed with the idea of attracting and retaining good staff, says Phil. “If our staff

The Auroa Road shed building – a Fabish and Jackson designed-Octalock shed featuring black aluminium joinery with tinted glass, black

guttering and forest green walls – is unique and has a striking appearance which has attracted many positive comments, says Phil.

Son Jared chose the all-black colour scheme of the Skeet Road shed.

The previous Auroa Road shed, where staff Rob and Sharyn Gay are based, had neither a toilet nor an area for children – the new shed has both. There is also a dedicated vet room, and milk, pump and storage rooms.

Acraflex, paint coating covers the walls in both sheds, and is one of the things that make the sheds so easy to clean. The paint is applied in seven individual layers, including a special sealant that melds all the paint layers together in a coating up to is 10mm thick and impervious to acid, calcium and other harsh shed conditions, says Jeffery Glynn from Surfatex.

P&D WAITES TRUST

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Matting in each bail of the Waikato Milking Systems’ Centrus platform in the Auroa Road shed makes the standing surface more comfortable.

Staff member Sharon Gay milking the 380-cow herd in the Auroa Road shed.

Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff with farm owner Phil Waite and staff member Rob Gay in the Auroa Road shed.

Out in the yard, local engineer Michael Bloemen and his team worked on the yard design with Phil and the builders. Michael Bloemen Engineering did all the steelwork in the circular yard as well as supplied the backing gate, which is fitted with a TechniPharm dungbuster that saves water and time and makes yard cleaning a breeze, says Rob.

Automated drafting The Waites also opted for the Protrack Vector for their automated drafting solution at both sheds. On the Auroa Road property, Rob and wife Sharon either enter drafts from their smartphones or from the shed computer.

Rob says the Protrack automated drafting has made Artificial Breeding much easier than in the previous herringbone shed where the gate had to be manually opened and shut for every

P&D Waites Trust

single cow, which was both a nuisance for milkers and unsettling for the cows.

“The new rotary and Protrack have turned AB from a hassle to almost boring because it’s so easy,” says Phil.

Aside from drafting, Protrack Vector provides in-shed integration with MINDALive for all animal health event recording. Protrack Vector can also be easily integrated with EZ Heat for automated heat detection and Body Condition Scoring.

Electricians sometimes get a bad rap for slowing a build process down as they are the last to do their work, says Phil. But that wasn’t the case with Sinclair Electrical, which completed the electrical fitout for both sheds.

“When the plant and platform guys had finished their work at Auroa Road, a big team of sparkies –about 13 guys – turned up and

DAIRY WALL COATING SYSTEMS HARDWEARING AND DURABLE Acraflex Dairy Wall Coating Systems save hours in cleaning, seal against bacterial build up and create a bright, hygienic working environment.

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The Orbiter gland in the Auroa Road shed is the main centre swivel used to transport milk, vacuum and power.

Right: The LIC Protrack automated drafting system installed at both sheds.

worked long hours for three days. They pulled out all the stops to get the job done,” says Phil.

Heart of shed Waikato Milking System’s top-of-the-line Centrus platform is at the heart of both sheds.

The platform and plant were installed by Moa Milking and Pumping. Featuring 50 bails, each with rubber matting, and a smooth easy-care surface, the platform is extremely strong and lightweight compared to a traditional concrete platform, says Waikato Milking Systems’ Taranaki area sales manager Brian Luff.

“The wear and tear on platform running gear is greatly reduced with a Centrus because the deck sections are formed in a multi-layered laminated process. The result is a deck that’s about 75 per cent lighter and far more durable than concrete or steel alternatives,” says Brian.

Teat-spraying is now taken care of by the automatic SmartSPRAY bullet built into the platform deck. And SmartECR automatic cup removers make this a truly one-person shed.

“I’ll get the cows up while Sharon milks or the other way round,” says Rob. “And after the cows are up, I can easily disappear to get other jobs done.”

The bolt-together, modular style of the deck means that installation of the platform went smoothly for Moa Milking and Pumping, which is Waikato Milking Systems’ North Island authorised installation partner.

Moa Milking and Pumping owner Nathan Hitchcock says the bails come in single units, which means the rotary can be configured to any size the farmer wants.

Rob loves the SmartWASH plant cleaning system, which is easy to operate. “You just press the button and go.”

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HU FARMS

Positive impact

Coast & Country Craig Allen of FIL talks animal health and hygiene to farm owner Kylie Rupapera with daughter Kyrah, 4.

Josephine Reader

Hu Farms

Windows and a mesh door on the Fabish and Jackson Octalock shed ensures the interior is light and airy.

The work-life balance that so many farmers find elusive is now a reality for Kylie and Fabian Rupapera thanks to their new dairy shed.

When they purchased the South Taranaki property in mid2017 it was run-down and the couple was spending around seven hours a day milking.

With their new 50-bail rotary shed, commissioned in October 2018, only one person is needed in the shed outside spring and mating. And Kylie and Fabian take turns milking, with Fabian usually doing the mornings, and Kylie the afternoons.

“We’ve gone from not having any real time off in years to being able to spend more time with our kids, which has been great,” says Kylie.

Like most children that grow up on a farm the Rupapera kids – Javarhn, 12, Tae, 10, and Kyrah, 4 – are regulars at the shed.

The new Fabish and Jackson designed Octalock shed building

includes a carpeted family room along with all the other amenities expected in a modern shed – a toilet, separate space for vets with sliding window access to the vet platform, pump room and milk room.

Kylie’s original idea was to have a 60-bail size shed building with a 50-bail rotary in it to provide more room around the outside of the platform. They decided this wasn’t necessary because there is more than 2m clearance between the platform and side walls in a standard 50-bail size building, and this along with all the windows makes the shed feel very spacious, says Kylie.

Automated garage door An optional extra Kylie reckons is well worth the investment is the automated roller garage door that closes across the bridge.

“Just press the button and the door comes down. It keeps the shed clean and we never get birds in here”.

The shed is full of simple features that make things easier – like

the metal hooks on the wall that keep the hose off the ground, the covered outdoor vet area that provides protection from rain and sun when treating animals, or the low-pressure water jet that keeps the cups clean during milking.

“There’s nothing worse than picking up cups covered in poo,” says Kylie. “It’s very handy and saves time washing cups manually.”

Herd testing is done on the outside of the platform and because they only need to go in the middle once in a while for maintenance, it was decided adding an underpass wasn’t worth the extra cost, says Kylie.

All of the dairy shed’s concrete walls are painted with hard wearing Acraflex coating applied by Surfatex. Acid and alkali resistant, the specialised paint coating comes with a 10-year guarantee.

Kylie says it is really easy to keep clean. “The kids hose the walls down before we start milking, and cow muck washes off pretty easily.”

HU FARMS

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A carpeted family room was included in the shed design to provide a space for the youngest members of the Rupapera family.

A covered animal treatment area is one of the favourite features of the new shed and yard.

Animal health Around two-thirds of the 189ha property is swampy, which means that teat and udder care are particularly important, especially during winter months when the farm becomes very boggy.

Iodoshield Active teat conditioner includes quality skincare

ingredients like aloe vera, allantoin and Manuka honey and is well suited to the challenging spring conditions on this farm, says Craig Allen from FIL, which supplies animal health and hygiene solutions to the Rupaperas.

“They use Iodoshield Active and active teat conditioner at a ratio of 1:6 at the start of the season and move to 1:9 later.

The iodine-based solution has benefits over other options,” says Craig.

When delivered through the SmartSPRAY on-deck system, treatment is optimised because the spray is applied when the teat is still open, and it uses less spray as well, says Craig.

As part of the service, Craig regularly checks calibration of the automated chemical dosage for the SmartWASH system, and uses a camera to check for build-up through the milk lines.

“Although as the shed is still very new this hasn’t really been needed yet.” Quantum Red, Quantum Excel and C3 alkali are the Rupapera’s preferred plant cleaning solutions.

Kylie can’t speak highly enough of the positive impact the new shed has had on family life. “It’s saved us time, it’s more efficient, better for the animals and less stressful for us.

“If you’re thinking about building a new shed, just do it,” Kylie says.

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The Rupaperas chose a Waikato Milking Systems plant for their new 50-bail rotary dairy shed.

“We wanted a simple plant that was New Zealand-made. My parents have two sheds with Waikato Milking Systems gear, and we knew the technology and it was reliable,” says Kylie.

They opted for a range of labour-saving devices – SmartECR automated cup removers, SmartWASH automatic plant wash system and SmartSPRAY on-deck teat spray system and bail retention straps – which mean that only one person is needed to milk their 400-cow herd.

“Our ultimate goal was a one-person shed that was simple, and that was easy for a relief milker to come in and get going – and that’s exactly what we got,” says Kylie.

An in-shed feed system including two 16 tonne metal silos

is another great labour-saver, says Kylie. A very competitive quote from Moa Milking and Pumping meant it was an easy decision to give them the nod for the supply and install of the system, she says.

Moa Milking and Pumping, which is the local authorised Waikato Milking Systems installation partner, also installed the Orbit rotary platform and all of the milking plant.

The job was fairly standard and went smoothly for the experienced team from Moa Milking and Pumping, who typically install half a dozen or more sheds each year.

The new, more central shed site required extensive earthworks and hundreds of tonnes of fill were removed from the hillside to make way for the new shed.

Fabish and Jackson designed the yard – which slopes down to the effluent storage pond – to Kylie and Fabian’s requirements, and local engineers Buckthought Engineering built the yard and designed and installed the backing gate.

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NZ-made plant

Waikato Milking Systems Taranaki area sales manager Brian Luff and farmer Kylie Rupapera in front of the Waikato Milking Systems plant in the new 50-bail rotary.

The Waikato Milking Systems C20 Claw is light-weight and made to last.

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Paul Askew from Fabish and Jackson worked with Kylie and Fabian on design and also project-managed the build, which started in March 2018.

“Every design we do is specific to the individual needs of that farmer. We also take care to futureproof the design.

“In this case, one of the things we did was make provision for a herd management system, so one can be added in the future without any major alterations,” says Paul.

Handy hook keeps hose off the floor.

Acraflex Dairy Wall Coating Systems save hours in cleaning, seal against bacterial build up and create a bright, hygienic working environment.

Congratulations to KYLIE & FABIAN RUPAPERA on an outstanding looking shed.

10 YEAR GUARANTEE ON ALL NEW SHED APPLICATIONS

P: 027 459 1161 | E: info@surfatex.co.nz

Page 46

MK CUMPSTONE LTD

Coast & Country

Everything just Works!

MK Cumpstone Ltd

Cayla Euinton

It’s a dairy farm that started as an eight-bail walkthrough cowshed, and now they’ve jumped up to a 40-aside herringbone.

like to keep things around here.” A sentiment Carl echoes. “There’s no bells and whistles, everything just works.”

Michael Cumpstone says his farm in Otorohanga is constantly progressing and growing. The upgrade came out of necessity, says Michael, after two old dairy sheds were coming to the end of their lives.

The new shed achieves exactly what Michael and stepson Carl Watkins wanted – improved cowflow, reduced milking time and more efficient use of staff time.

“It’s just a good shed,” says Michael. “It’s nice and simple and that’s how we

Dairy design solutions

DAIRY TECH DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND AUTOMATION SYSTEMS

It was all started by the team at Robert Walters Contracting, who began the process off on the right foot – or rather, the right piece of dirt.

The ‘Robert’ himself in Robert Walters Contracting says they did the groundwork and some racework on the Cumpstone farm and his experience with Michael was fantastic. “My only comment to that is it was bloody brilliant working with people who knew what they wanted. Just brilliant.”

www.dairytech.co.nz

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MK CUMPSTONE LTD

Page 47

And it wasn’t an easy job, says Robert. “It rained and rained while we were trying to work on this shed.

“It took us 12 weeks including digging the raceways to get the whole thing done. And that’s being here for one hour some days because we were rained off.”

But they got it done in record time – the first scoop took place in early-May 2018 and the herd moved in on August 10 last year.

Dairy Tech had a big job ahead of them, building the shed, but Michael says he’s very pleased with the final outcome. “I am very happy, it’s really good and they were really good to work with.”

Dairy Tech specialise in providing dairy design solutions that adapt to new milking technologies and farm management standards.

Easy cow flow The Cumpstone shed is a 40-aside herringbone shed with a round yard, which makes it easier to clean once the cows are back in the paddock. The exit yard at the other end of the shed is designed for easy cow flow back into the paddock.

There is a concrete pump room, which separates the technical aspects from the cows, making it easy to check on all the bells and whistles at once.

The concrete floor and walls means spills and leaks aren’t a problem for the farmer. A storage area with a roller door makes it convenient to unload products and store equipment from the elements.

Overhead lights in the milking area make milking in the dark easier and power sockets in the roof stop cables being tripped over.

Michael says he has full confidence in Peter and the team at Dairy Tech – enough so that he’s called them back time and again.

Recycling water The team at Pumpn worked hard to make sure the Cumpstone farm’s water was functioning seamlessly and efficiently.

They installed a greenwash recycle pump that sucks out of a 30,000L tank. “That will save 15,000L-20,000L of water per day,” says Pumpn water technician Matthew Salle.

The new effluent pond – on the same site as the old pond – was constructed by R & L Drainage.

Left: Qubik’s Nick Heffer and Jason Hare in the new 40-aside herringbone at the Cumpstone farm.

A Waikato Milking Systems BP400 blower vacuum pump.

For all your Drainage, Excavation & Transporting Requirements

Qubik are proud to have supplied and installed the milking machine, refrigeration and pre-cooling system for Michael and Katrina Cumpstone.

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MK CUMPSTONE LTD

Coast & Country “We also did the yard sprinklers, the yardwash and the water for the cooler,” says Matthew.

“We supplied and installed the two 25,000L yardwash tanks and the cooler pump and manufactured the stainless steel manifold and plumbed the hot water cylinders as well.

“We also did the stone trap and diverter for the rainwater and the effluent system as well. We installed a submersible boom, which has a 3kw Grundfos pump at the end of it to fill the greenwash tank. That floating boom and pump takes just the top off the water and not the thick stuff at the bottom,” says Matthew.

“That’s the one thing I would advise to anyone, if they’re going to do a new cowshed: put the yard greenwash in,” says Michael.

Because of their efforts, water pumps effortlessly around the Cumpstone farm.

New pond

The team that put it all together: Michael Cumpstone, Pumpn’s Matthew Salle, Robert Walters Contracting’s Robert Walters, Qubik’s Nick Heffer, farmer Carl Watkins, farm hand Ra Hongara and Qubik’s Jason Hare.

The team at R & L Drainage specialise in farm drainage and siteworks and thanks to them, the Cumpstone farm has a great effluent pond.

“It was a pleasure to work with the Cumpstones to design and construct their new effluent pond,” says R & L Drainage’s Ross Pevreal.

“The only suitable area that the new pond could go was where the existing pond already was, so we decommissioned the old pond using muck spreaders, contoured the area and then dug out for the new pond.

“After constructing the pond we worked with Pumpn and Dairy Tech to install the weeping wall system,” says Ross.

“Yeah they were bloody good to work with, he’s got some good ideas that fella,” says Michael.

The effluent pond is 28m by 28m, is 5m deep and Michael says it will hold 3,920,000L at full capacity.

Milking machine experts

Pumpn’s Matthew Salle with the Pumpn yardwash system.

Qubik’s Jason Hare with the Waikato Milking Systems milk filter and nearby plate cooler.

Qubik had a lot to do on the Cumpstone farm. They are milking machine experts and an authorised Waikato Milking Systems dealer, making it easy for farmers to get the whole package from one business.

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MK CUMPSTONE LTD

With more than 30 years’ hands-on experience and knowledge, the team at Qubik offer farmers the complete package with milking systems, effluent management, refrigeration and water reticulation.

“We installed the Waikato Milking Systems Supa4 milking machine and did the chilled water system, as well as the direct expansion unit on the vat,” says Qubik general manager Jason Hare.

Jason says the Cumpstones are now using the latest in Waikato Milking Systems gear, with the hurricane Supa4 wash, G2 jetter system and variable speed blower vacuum pump.

Qubik’s Nick Heffer with the refrigeration unit.

Reduced heating bill On the Cumpstone farm, this also included a 7000L double-bank plate cooler which, combined with the 30kw of cooling chilled water system, gives a milk entry temperature into the vat at around eight degrees Celsius all whilst putting hot water into the dairy cylinders at 55 degrees Celsius, says Jason.

“That combined with the new dx unit easily complies with new milk cooling regulations.”

And this helps reduce the heating bill a good chunk, says Qubik’s Nick Heffer.

“The chilled water is going through the second side of the plate cooler at about seven degrees Celsius, and that’s helping pull the milk from – on average – 20 degrees Celsius to that eight degrees Celsius, depending on production of flow,” says Nick.

The yardwash system installed

by Pumpn.

Local community And all of these contractors have a hand in supporting the local community, says Michael.

“Everyone here sponsors local events – including Maihiihi School, the Kio Kio rugby club and Otorohanga doctors.” So for these contractors, it’s more than building a dairy farm – it’s about building up the community as well.

Robert Walters, of Robert Walters Contracting, did groundwork and some racework on the Cumpstone farm for the new dairy.

Farmer Carl Watkins in his new workplace.

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RIRIPETI TIMI WAATA LANDS TRUST

Coast & Country

BIG herringbone Steve Edwards

The shed was designed by Chapman Dairy and built by Don Chapman Waikato.

The yard base was raised using pumice from the farm’s own pit.

A new dairy shed in the Bay of Plenty proves that combining two into one can work. The Riripeti Timi Waata Lands Trust at Pukehina has combined its two blocks into a single property, boasting a central dairy shed.

Morrinsville-based Don Chapman Waikato built the 50-aside herringbone shed on Pukehina Beach Rod, which came on-stream for the 2018/2019 season.

Trust board chair Jock Horne says it was a simple business decision to develop a single operation milking 620 cows on a 260ha property.

Previously divided into two adjoining blocks with separate herds and milking operations, Jock says both cowsheds needed to be upgraded.

Options were spending “$200,000-plus” on each of the two existing cowsheds or around $1.5 million on an up-to-date single option.

Also coming into the equation was a 25ha run-off across the road from the original second property.

Jock says in the previous operation this had been used by the dairy herd, but there had been issues with the herd crossing a state highway.

“We couldn’t have an underpass because of the high water table.” The small block is now used chiefly for kiwifruit and grazing purposes.

Amalgamation So a decision was made by the board two years ago to amalgamate the main properties and build a single dairy shed. “It’s in the centre of the farm, so made sense to build it here,” says Jock.

Riripeti Timi Waata Lands Trust Ownership of the land goes back generations in Jock’s whanau, with a seven-strong family trust formed to oversee the operation in 1982.

Once the amalgamation decision was made, the two existing cowsheds were demolished.

Jock says the single site selected for the new shed has better vehicle access, and also utilises existing electricity, water supplies and effluent systems.

To accommodate the new shed, significant earthworks were undertaken to build up the base of the footprint required. Jock says the farm’s onsite pumice pit came in handy for this.

Four days prior to the building project getting underway, the builder and all associated subcontractors met on-site to go over the project.

Thanks to Don Chapman Waikato, Jock says

Quintin and Debi Watts have been sharemilkers on the property for 10 years.

there were no issues or problems with the building project. “We are happy with the result,” says Jock.

Use the old Previously, 50/50 sharemilkers Quintin and Debi Watts used a 35-year-old cowshed on the block that now hosts the central milking operation. They “toyed” with the idea of a new rotary shed before settling on the herringbone.

The pit was dug first for the new dairy, followed by piping, wiring and building construction.

Fitting out of plant and machinery saw the shed ready for use by the end of July 2018.

Quintin and Debi say they’re certainly enjoying their new workplace, which includes a view over Pukehina Beach, while the cows didn’t take long to get used to their new milking environment.

Since 1976

We Wire It All - Dairy Sheds - Workshops - Implement Sheds - Water Pumps - Houses - New/Alterations Lig - Lighting

Contact Shayne on: 027 210 4118 / (07) 573 8065 shayne@withefordelectrical.co.nz

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RIRIPETI TIMI WAATA LANDS TRUST

The chiller unit was supplied by DeLaval and installed by Dobsons Electrical.

Riripeti Timi Waata Lands Trust chair Jock Horne.

King Farm Services’ director Steve King and staff member Jason Makela in the pit.

The trust, which meets every three months to review it operations, employs Quintin and Debi plus two farmhands on the Pukehina Beach Rd property.

Getting it together Morrinsville-based Chapman Dairy was given the design brief for the Pukehina shed, which director Don Chapman calls “one of the bigger” herringbone operations he’s been involved in.

“It’s about as big as a herringbone gets these days,” says Don. Design work, including required acceptance drawings for the associated local authority, was completed during about a month and then passed on to the builders.

The 50-bail herringbone shed was built by Morrinsville-based Don Chapman Waikato, a licensee of Chapman Dairy.

Three staff worked on the project, which director Shanan White says had a “reasonably tight timeframe” during the dry season.

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“The shed is a standard design with a vet race to the side and a 15m round yard,” says Shanan. “It comes with a milk room, store room, toilet and smoko room all constructed from insulated polypanel. The pump room is a separate entity, which houses all of the farm water pumps and machinery pumps.”

DeLaval supplied a 50-unit milking system with automatic cluster removers. With the vacuum system being one of the key components of any milking shed, it was a no-brainer to include a DeLaval LVP that is built on lobe pump technology. The DeLaval LVP range helps protect the environment because no oil is needed for sealing or lubrication.

No buttons The shed has been fitted with DeLaval MC31 clusters, which have been designed and engineered to deliver optimal performance from milking for small to mid-sized dairy operations.

The shed has also been fitted with DeLaval automatic cup removers with Comfort Start,

Three staff milk in the 50-aside herringbone shed with a DeLaval milking system. which means the farmer doesn’t have to push buttons or flick a switch, they just pick the cluster up and there is vacuum at the claw and the pulsator starts.

The plant includes a 100L receiver and a centrifugal milk pump with variable speed milk drive. This keeps an even milk flow through the 8000L double-bank plate heat exchanger.

The DeLaval plant was installed by King Farm Services from Edgecumbe. Owner Steve King explained the virtues of the cooling system. “The shed is fitted with a DeLaval CWC60 compact water chiller, which provides optimal protection for milk quality.

“The CWC60 is a robust system designed for non-stop cooling and long life. It has a built-in heat recovery system and has the fastest cooling rate of any cooling system,” says Steve. “As well as having a precise temperature control, it also has an economical and energy efficient scroll.”

Stainless steel piping was used throughout because of its longevity on-site, tapping into the farm’s existing bore water supply.

Underground piping was laid early in the project, with King Farm Services also the last contractors to leave the site at the end of the project.

King Farm Services also installed two 30,000L holding tanks and two 500L hot water cylinders.

Refrigeration Te Puke-based Dobsons Refrigeration & Electrical wired up the milk cooling system as well as completing all electrical work on this project.

During the start of the building stage, Dobsons installed the required refrigeration pipework and electrical conduits within the foundations of the milk vat stand area ready for the concrete to be poured, which once poured encases those services.

Once the concrete had been set and the milk vat put in place, they connected up the refrigeration condensing unit and the milk vat to the pre-installed refrigeration pipework and ran the required control cables from the controller stand to both the milk vat and condensing unit.

MCNAUGHTON BROTHERS

Page 52

Coast & Country

Keeping it

simple

McNaughton Brothers

Steve Edwards

Entry to the new herringbone.

It’s a family affair on the McNaughton farm in the Bay of Plenty. Brothers Gary and Geoff McNaughton have been in partnership for 30 years, starting out 50/50 sharemilking on their parents’ nearby Pongakawa property.

They then leased a neighbouring farm and bought a herd. Gary says the lease ran out and the 90ha property went up for sale, with the brothers completing purchase on June 1, 2005.

Gary and Geoff then acquired an adjacent block, also 90ha, last year. The original property had a 25-aside herringbone milking 470 cows, with the latter addition handling a similar number in a 30-bail rotary.

The decision to build one dairy shed to cater for the entire holding was “always going to happen,” says Gary.

So they built a 44-aside herringbone, milking

A cow’s eye view of their new milking environment on the Pongakawa farm.

470 cows this season. The shed has been constructed to milk up to 600 cows.

Gary says they didn’t want the new shed to be too automated. ‘Keep it simple’ is the brothers’ motto. This means no automatic cup removers and no automatic wash systems.

Gary says it is simply a grassroots milking system with grass production on an uncomplicated milking platform.

The McNaughton brothers modeled the shed on the one used on the ‘home farm’ of their parents – a 44-aside herringbone, milking 550 cows on 140ha, with a similar size and shaped yard and dairy shed. “Cows can be moved around between farms,” says Gary.

New site The site for the new shed – on marine sand – was previously a paddock, which needed to be built-up to base the facility. Pumice was used from the farm’s own pit, about a “month or

Farm manager Mark Fairburn and Gary McNaughton in the pit.

two” before construction, says Gary.

The new site also allowed for easy race development, connecting with the rest of the farm.

A site meeting was held in May 2018, with ground compaction undertaken in September 2018, sitework the following month and water lines undergrounded in November 2018.

Gary says the project was completed without any major issues, with a “run through” held in January.

Milking time cut The cows adapted pretty quickly to their new environment. Three staff are employed on the property, with milking time cut by one-third thanks to the new shed.

Alan Moulder, a project manager with Waikato Milking Systems, says he worked closely with Innes Richardson of Milking & Water Systems Ltd on the McNaughton brothers’ dairy.

Innes says he was very pleased to be the

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chosen contractor to install the Waikato Milking Systems’ plant and to design the water systems for Geoff and Gary’s new Pongakawa farm dairy.

No automation Innes says the owners just wanted to get “back to basics”, with no automation wanted in the new milking systems and that it was a very “straightforward and traditional style milking set-up”.

Innes’ team and the McNaughtons were involved in a site meeting in May 2018, with underground work for water lines undertaken in November and the plant and pit areas completed in December/January.

As there were two existing milking plants on the property with Waikato Milking Systems equipment in them, some of these parts were transferred to the new installation, such as pulsators, clusters and jetters.

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MCNAUGHTON BROTHERS

Effluent is easily removed from the yard.

Left: Milking & Water Systems Ltd’s Innes Richardson and Waikato Milking Systems’ Alan Moulder in the pit at the McNaughton brothers’ shed.

Innes says the water system for the dairy recycles all water used for milk cooling, to used again for washdown water and stock supply.

As power supply was limited for the dairy, all motors used in the system above 2.2kw are controlled with Sema variable speed drives, such as the vacuum pump, milk-pump, washdown pump and farm pump.

Plant specifics The plant consists of a Waikato Supa4 Milking System with 320i claws with standard shells. It has Waikato SmartPULS i pulsators, a Waikato double-bank plate cooler, a Super Maxi top load milk filter a BP400 vacuum pump with a 15kw motor, and a milk recovery system with two 400L hot water cylinders that are filled via a heat recovery system installed on the refrigeration system. An “industrial-size” compressor is installed for milk recovery. This

recovers 145-plus litres of milk into the bulk silo at the end of milking.

Te Puke-based Dobsons Refrigeration & Electrical has had a long-standing relationship with the McNaughton brothers across their farms.

Operations manager Matt Armstrong says this new shed posed a few challenges: the ground type; distance from power; and the need to meet the new upcoming chilling requirements.

Matt says the shed design and layout was very similar to a shed they worked on a few years ago. “Why change a good thing?”

Dobsons fitted the shed out with new LED lighting for all areas and put sensors on lights that service rooms and steps etc.

“The pump shed has its own control board for ease of servicing and isolation when working on pumps.

“The main switchboard was fitted with a changeover switch to enable the running of the

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Milking & Water Systems Ltd’s Innes Richardson with the hot water cylinders he installed.

Left: Waikato Milking Systems’ Alan Moulder with the chiller unit his company provided. shed on a generator if required,” says Matt.

Dobsons wired up the chiller unit for the main vat including all new controls required.

This unit is also piped into a new ice bank, which has controls so if the vat requires cooling the chiller will cool the vat. And if the ice bank needs cooling then the unit will run on the ice bank. “By doing this we reduced the need to have two chiller units,” says Matt. At the end of milking the milk temperature is between five-six degrees Celsius and the unit hasn’t run on the vat.

Simple but adaptable Don Chapman, from Morrinsville-based Chapman Dairy, says the design he developed for the McNaughton brothers was “quite simple, but adaptable”. “I just had to make sure the basics were right,” says Don. “Cow flow is important…and that it is a nice place to work.”

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Don says there are good design elements incorporated into the shed to handle whatever is required by the operator. “The key was that the design was versatile and cost-effective and included long-span roofing requiring a minimum of framing.

“The design allows for the incorporation of walk spaces and feed bins if desired by the farm owner in future.” And due to the nature of the soil, Don says the structure is very light.

The McNaughton brothers’ project was “pretty standard” for an operation of that type, says Don Chapman Waikato director Shanan White.

The dairy has a storage room, milk and pump room, toilet and office down the side of the shed. “Constructed of insulated panel, it eliminates noise from the pump room and provides sound-proofing,” says Shanan. The McNaughton brothers are pleased with the end result.

KYBUSH SURF TRUST

Page 54

Coast & Country

Spoiled Cayla Euinton

cows

Kybush Surf Trust’s milking shed in the foreground and the new covered feed pad in the background and the new green effluent system.

The cows of Kybush Surf Trust in Opotiki are spoiled. They live on a well-run farm, and farmer Shane Armstrong has recently installed a new covered feed pad just for them.

Shane says his cows are treated to the covered feed pad when it’s wet, windy or just a bit too hot. “It’s working really well,” says Shane. “We put the cows in here in the heat, and they don’t leave until night-time, even with the gates open and no feed in here.

“They’re just very happy in here. When it starts getting a bit wet – which is does around here – we’ll be using it all the time.”

Construction of the roofed feed pad began September 2017 and it was ready for use in January 2019.

The shed can house all of Shane’s 400-plus

cows and will help with Shane’s conversion towards an organic farm, thanks to the floodwash system.

“With the floodwash, we open the taps and it cleans the whole feeding pad. It’s all greenwash, so it’s recycled water that goes round and round.

“The effluent system filters out the greenwater and pumps it back up, and the solids are kept in a bunker for other uses. We’ve started a worm farm so we feed the solids to them.”

With feed walls running down the middle and along both sides, the shed means Shane’s cows can be protected from the elements and still enjoy a good feed.

A local first And with that many cows eating in one place comes a bit of a mess at the other end. But Shane has it sorted. As well as his new feeding shed, Shane also upgraded his effluent system.

Farmer Shane Armstrong in his new covered feed pad.

The new system – by Clean Green Effluent Company – is the first of its kind in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, says Shane, and has attracted attention from local farmers. “I had a busload turn up to have a look.”

He saw the system when on a trip to Invercargill and it caught his attention. “Shane had a small pond with an effluent pump that ran a travelling irrigator, all of which were basically non-compliant with the new regulations,” says Clean Green Effluent designer and general manager Lindsay Lewis.

“We stepped up and put a new, fullyautomated effluent system in that doesn’t require pondage.

“The patented weeping wall is designed for your herd size, and the distribution system is spec’d for your stock numbers,” says Lindsay.

Shane is stoked with his new system. “It’s all

automated so I don’t have to do much.

It’s a little bit different – there’s not much storage and it puts out at a really low application, so we can still put effluent on the ground.”

Kybush Surf Trust

Only the best The covered feed pad itself was put together

by Aztech Buildings and Archway Group – Aztech constructed the roofing, and Archway took care of everything under the roof.

“We do all the design for everything that happens under the roof, including all of the concrete works and the floodwash system,” says Amanda Hodgson, co-owner with husband Matt of Archway Group.

KYBUSH SURF TRUST

PH 07 578 0030

Farmer Shane Armstrong checking his new effluent system.

Aztech Buildings’ Simon Clare and Shane Armstrong in the new feed pad.

Archway Group work closely with farmers to ensure smooth systems for their farm. “There’s a lot of detail that goes into something like this to make sure it works properly; feed faces, square metres per cow, and fall on the pad, for example,” says Amanda.

“We do as much as we can before we get on-site so we can minimise site time and weather interruptions, which ends up saving the farmer time and they can get on and use it quicker.” says Amanda. “We laid 500m3 of concrete and 300m of feed walls and feed rails – we thrive on making our systems better and more efficient,” says Amanda.

“We looked at lots, and we decided first off all we wanted the Archway Group feed-barn,” says Shane.

“They gave us a price and they stuck to it, which was good.”

Shane’s shed has a 75m pad under the roof structure, and feed walls, as well as turning aprons at either end, and two 25,000L concrete floodwash tanks.

“The feed pad is designed to make sure that, when you let the floodwash go, it’s got full

coverage,” says Amanda. “This means it gets a good washing and you shouldn’t have to go back and do it by hand.”

“With all of our farmers, we try to think about how they can de-risk themselves from things like weather, compliance, and labour by keeping things simple,” says Amanda.

Smooth process And because Aztech Buildings and Archway Group have a history of success, Shane says the process was a smooth one. “Archway Group works a lot with Aztech, so this isn’t the first one like this that they’ve done together,” says Shane. “We saw some others like this and decided this was exactly what we wanted.”

The single roof structure by Aztech Buildings is separated with a ventilation gap, specifically designed to encourage airflow. Shane says this gap helps keep his cows cool in summer.

The roof structure was custom-designed

ANIMAL HOUSING SPECIALISTS Advice | Design | Build Driving animal housing best practice since 2005.

“

The new effluent system by Clean Green Effluent Company.

The new covered feed pad, constructed by Aztech Buildings and Archway Group. and built by Aztech Buildings to fit Kybush Surf Trust’s needs. Each side of the shed is 72m long by 12m wide.

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.

“We know it works well with the ventilation and they had that all sussed, the gap in the middle keeps the air flowing, keeps it really cool in there,” says Shane.

Aztech Buildings’ sales consultant Simon Clare says the ventilation will prove profitable for Shane in the coming years.

“The benefits of the summer housing are what give the tangible paybacks,” says Simon.

“It gives Shane an extra management tool for the whole facility.”

And Shane says Aztech Buildings was able to provide him with long-lasting solutions.

“We looked at plastic options but decided we

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wanted something that was going to last, and something we weren’t going to need to replace parts on in 10 years’ time,” says Shane.

Blending in “We also wanted the shed to blend it as much as possible,” says Shane. And when it came to digging out the ground in order for the shed to blend, Waiotahi Contractors was ready to help.

“We did the bulk earthworks,” says Waiotahi contracts manager Anthony Rudkin.

“We did the earthworks for the covered feed pad and the new effluent treatment system, and we assisted with the install for that too.”

Shane says he’s very pleased with their work.

“Waiotahi sent Wayne to dig out these hills,” says Shane. “They were brilliant.”

Anthony says the Armstrongs have been a long-standing client. “We’ve had a good relationship with them for many, many years – generations even.”

And so, the cows at Kybush Surf Trust have it good – very good in fact – and they’ll be looking forward to eating under-cover more in coming winters.

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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Page 55

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NEW FARM DAIRIES

Coast & Country

PH 07 578 0030

NEW FARM DAIRIES

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Page 58

RUAHINE RANGE VIEWS

Coast & Country

Complete farm

makeover

Josephine Reader

Ruahine Range Views Mark Johnston and son Blake, 12, on the farm at Dannevirke which milks 325 cows.

Gavin Hewitt from Morris and Bayley Ltd, and Mark Johnston of the upgraded dairy building.

An updated 40-aside herringbone shed is at the heart of an extensive farm makeover, which has included replacing kilometres of fencing, new culverts, shelterbelt and riparian planting that will see more than 12,000 trees planted in four years, and a new effluent management system.

Mark Johnston and wife Becky own a 307ha beef and sheep block in Ruaroa near Dannevirke and wanted to move into dairy farming, but weren’t keen to move to another area.

“We love the district, so just waited for the right property to come up,” says Mark.

As it eventuated, though, they ended up with two farms to go with their sheep and beef block, after placing successful bids on two properties, expecting to just get one.

That was two years ago, and early on they decided to close down one shed and increase the milking platform from 115ha to 130ha.

Above-ground storage An outdated effluent management system that needed to be replaced to be compliant was the impetus the Johnstons needed to consolidate their farming operation. So they decided to upgrade the bigger of the farm’s two existing sheds – a 24-aside herringbone – to 40 bails.

Mark opted for an above-ground 1.2 million litre Kliptank, manufactured from high-density polypropylene, for effluent storage for the new enlarged shed. It took only two days to erect on-site.

While well-suited to farms where excavation is impractical, the fact that the Kliptank was relocatable was attractive to Mark – and because the tank is seen from the shed, he wanted it to look good as well.

Blackley Construction designed the underpass that connects different parts of the farm.

Kliptank sales manager Chris Dingle says the circular shape means it’s easier to stir, and the Klipjet aerator stirring system means that there are no floating, moving or electrical parts inside the tank, so maintenance is both easy and safe.

“The system stirs up the sludge, introduces oxygen, which helps reduce odour and creates a slurry that is consistent and easily pumped to the farm’s two travelling irrigators,” says Chris.

Mark was keen to capture as much water as possible to assist with irrigation during dry summer months so opted for no lid on the Kliptank.

Shed rebuild Morris and Bailey Ltd was in charge of the dairy shed rebuild and gutted the building from the roof down. Little remains of the old dairy except 24 of the original feed bins.

Despite pulling out all of the stops to get the new dairy ready in time for the start of the 2018 season, weather and building consent

delays meant calving was underway before the shed was complete, says Gavin Hewitt of Morris and Bailey Ltd. “We worked with Mark and the engineers to build the shed to meet his needs. The low level of the original pit provided some challenges to get the fall right, but we got it sorted. Mark now has a great looking, modern dairy,” says Gavin.

On this build, Morris and Bayley Ltd’s focus was the shed rebuild, says Gavin. The new part of the shed features a huge storage area with roller doors. The interior walls of both the shed and service areas are grey, and feature black metal sliding doors.

The exit was also fitted out with Ezi-flo pit gates, which are a breeze to operate from the pit area.

The yard was widened and the pit extended, and the new part of the shed building blends with the old. The entire building was rewired, and original amenities were upgraded to include a toilet and shower.

PH 07 578 0030

RUAHINE RANGE VIEWS

Page 59

Mark Johnston and his son Blake, 12, with Chris Dingle from Kliptank.

Individual feed bins feature on the PPP in-shed feed system.

Troy Fairley from Dannevirke Dairy Services; Brian Luff fromWaikato Milking Systems; and Mark Johnston with son Blake, 12.

The shed’s new, large stonetrap was built to Mark’s design and poured in situ by Morris and Bayley Ltd. The 4m wide mouth of the stonetrap makes it really easy to get in with the tractor bucket to clean it out, says Mark. “And it only needs to be done once every few months because the trap is so big.”

Free of clutter A Waikato Milking Systems plant, including swingarm automatic cup removers and swingdown jetters, feature in the new dairy.

“The pit is clear of unnecessary clutter, which I really like. There’s is plenty of room to move around, and nothing to bang your head on either,” says Mark.

Waikato Milking Systems Taranaki area sales manager Brian Luff says the swingarm system

Waikato Milking Systems swingarm system provides superior alignment. is set at the optimal angle to provide superior alignment, which is easier on both milker and cows.

“Better alignment improves udder health and means less hassle for the milker,” says Brian.

One of the best features on the automatic cup removers, says Brian, is that Mark can adjust the settings at any point throughout the season to ensure cows are not over or undermilked.

“The system is completely customisable to what the farmer’s preferences,” says Brian.

One main contractor Dannevirke Dairy Supplies provided a onestop shop for Mark with the dairy shed upgrade.

As well as installing the Waikato Milking Systems milking plant, DDS also took care of shed water and plumbing and electrical fitout.

DDS also worked with Kliptank to design

and install the effluent pump system. “It makes it much easier on the farmer to have one point of contact for everything inside the shed,” says Troy Fairley of DDS. “It means less contractors to deal with and reduces the risk of breakdowns in communication.”

High-producing herd The herd, which is expected to produce 475485 kgMS per cow this season, benefits from the 80ha of baleage grown on-farm as well as the dairy blend that Mark’s currently feeding through the PPP Industries in-shed system.

Three separate pulls operate the 40 individual feed bins, making it easier for the milker and also allows part rows to be fed without wastage.

Dairy Technology Services supplied the vat refrigeration unit. Within 25 minutes, milk is down to 4.5-5 degrees Celsius, says Mark.

Another DTS unit was relocated from the old shed and services the plate cooler.

Blackley Construction designed and built the underpass that connects the main part of the farm with the 80ha milkable runoff and the additional 15ha used in summer. The retaining wall and concrete approaches were designed by Mark and built by Morris and Bayley Ltd. Mark highly recommends Morris and Bayley Ltd, which organised all the necessary consents and made the underpass build process go smoothly.

Mark is extremely happy with his new dairy shed, and reckons he got the set-up just right.

With plans to add a multi-bay implement shed, continue work on improving farm infrastructure, as well as enter the farm environment awards, it is clear there is much more to come for Ruahine Range Views Farms.

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GALAXY DAIRIES

Page 60

Coast & Country

Old history,

new start Josephine Reader

Old tanker numbers that adorn the office wall pay homage the 100-year-old history of the Galaxy Dairies operation.

George and Kayla are the fifth generation of the Whitelock family to farm the 346ha effective Linton property, which is owned by George’s parents, Braeden and Caroline. The 2020 season will be their second leasing and running the family farm.

Galaxy Dairies gets its name from the Galaxy brand of cheese, manufactured in the area in the 1930s and 1940s, and still seen in supermarkets today, although the brand is now owned by Fonterra. Farms originally supplying milk to manufacture Galaxy cheese are now part of the Galaxy Dairies property. George’s family have been farming in the area since 1917.

The operation has grown substantially since then, and at peak 1100 cows are milked through the new 80-bail rotary, which replaced three other smaller dairy sheds on the property.

Goodmans created the building platform by extracting river gravels, carting, placing it and compacting the new site and 12 months after groundworks started, the new dairy was ready to go.

The 100-year history of Galaxy Dairies is recognised on the shed office wall.

Galaxy Dairies

Functional dairy A striking red and white dairy built by Roaches Concrete greets visitors. The front façade looks more like a warehouse than a dairy shed, which is constructed from low maintenance concrete and freezer panels.

At the shed entrance, high white walls conceal the

vats, and red roller doors open to provide vat access and entry to multiple storage areas. Refrigeration and a large generator are housed under a covered area at the side of the shed.

When deciding what functionality they needed in their new dairy, the Whitelocks focused on investing in features that provided essential services.

The shed was built in the same style as a dairy the family built 10 years ago, so there was no need to reinvent the wheel, says George.

“We chose brands that we knew, that had a good reputation, and people that were good to deal with,” says George, of the suppliers they used to outfit the new shed.

Left: George Whitelock, Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff, Blackley Construction’s James Christensen, and Bromley Dairy & Pumps’ Steve Bromley.

At the heart of the new dairy is a concrete milking platform supplied by Manawatu firm JE Valentine, which have been manufacturing rotary platforms for more than 25 years.

The platform is grooved, providing a non-slip standing surface for cows, and is compatible with all brands of milking plant, including Waikato Milking Systems, which was selected to supply the new dairy’s milking plant.

NZ-made plant The shed is fitted with Waikato Milking Systems’ SmartPULS digital pulsation system. “Each pulsator services two clusters, making this a cost-effective solution for large

George Whitelock in front of the new dairy shed.

dairies like the Whitelocks,” says Waikato Milking Systems’ Taranaki area sales manager Brian Luff.

The Waikato 320 claw comes with an unconditional five-year guarantee on the bowl. It is sturdy and is easy to handle because it’s light and designed to fit nicely in the hand, says Brian.

The large bore milk inlets and outlets improve milk flow and promote stable vacuum, he says.

“It was a cost decision not to include automatic cup removers,” says George, but the shed has been designed so additional features can be easily added in future.

Bromley Dairy & Pumps, which is Waikato Milking Systems’ local agent, oversaw the milking plant installation and also installed the shed water and effluent pumping system.

GALAXY DAIRIES

PH 07 578 0030

Dairy Technology Services’ Tim Rix with the refrigeration set-up at Galaxy Dairies.

George Whitelock, Waikato Milking Systems’ Brian Luff (bent down); and Bromley Dairy & Pumps’ Steve Bromley examining the receiving can.

Page 61

Waikato Milking Systems’ 320 Claw is ergonomically designed.

JE Valentine Engineering designed and supplied the rotary platform.

Left: Old dairy numbers adorn the shed office walls.

“We designed it so water to the feedpad is able to be isolated from the shed water if needed,” says Bromley Dairy & Pumps director and working manager Steve Bromley.

“We customise the design of everything to suit the farmer’s requirements,” says Steve. “Braeden wanted to be able to hose under the hot water heaters, so we designed the platform to accommodate that. Every installation is different.”

Shed effluent is moved to a holding tank before being pumped to an existing storage pond located at the old shed, or to either of the farm’s two travelling irrigators, which service 80ha of the property.

The massive new stone trap, designed and built by the shed builder, is emptied twice-a-year. It takes three days to empty and spread the slurry, says George.

Farm drainage Blackley Construction has been working with the Whitelock family for many years installing drainage, water and effluent pipes.

In 2015 Blackley Construction was approached by the family to GPS-map a new block earmarked for development and inclusion into the Galaxy Dairies Farm.

“Our brief was to develop a farm plan with due consideration given to land drainage,” says Blackley Construction’s rural contract manager James Christensen.

From this survey Blackley Construction’s team designed a comprehensive drainage system that included a central large open drain. The position of this drain allowed Blackley Construction to develop the farm layout including race placement, paddock size and shape, water trough and effluent line placement and most importantly the farm drainage system, says James.

“We maintain a comprehensive database of all infrastructure installed underground on this property, which are all GPSmapped as they are built.”

Easy-to-clean Inside the dairy building it is spacious and light. The bottom portion of the walls are concrete and painted with specialised dairy wall coating, Acraflex. The upper part of the walls are polypanel, which provides superior insulation keeping the dairy warm in winter and cool in summer.

Manawatu-based Surfatex applied the specialised Acraflex paint coating on the concrete part of the walls in seven separate

A robust and spacious crush, offering superior support and comfort for the animal.

Specially designed to provide a safe and functional facility for the farmer when hoof care is necessary. Easy and safe to use.

Cattle hoof care crush,

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A robust and spacious crush, offering superior

Features include support and comfort for the animal.

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layers. The final layer – a special sealant – melds the paint coats together, protecting the dairy’s concrete wall surfaces from corrosive shed chemicals, says Jeffery Glynn of Surfatex.

Efficient milk chilling is critical for any dairy operation, but more so for large dairies like the Whitelocks because the cost of getting it wrong can be significant, says Tim Rix, of Dairy Technology Services, who got the nod to supply the new dairy’s refrigeration system.

Dairy Technology Services’ Vat Manager protects milk in the farm’s two 25,000L vats. A flashing LED and audible buzzer alert George to any issues like loss of mains power, if milk is taking too long too cool, or goes below minimum temperature – so that action can be taken immediately.

“Vat Manager logs 30 days of data and allows pre-cooling performance to be monitored, and reports demonstrate compliance with Ministry for Primary Industry milk cooling regulations,” says Tim. The 20hp Patten Pak water chiller unit includes heat recovery, which provides a cost-effective source of hot water for the shed.

The new dairy shed sets up the next generation of Whitelocks to farm the property that’s been in their family for more than 100 years.

RIVERBANK FARM

Page 62

MaxT milking delivers

Coast & Country

Riverbank Farm

Josephine Reader

Calder Stewart’s Donald Sutton, contract milker Fraser Hutchinson and Morrison Agri’s AJ Wessels in the new dairy.

Calder Stewart designed and built the Riverbank Farm dairy shed.

Phillip Everest was initially sceptical about implementing a maximum milking time – known as MaxT – strategy in his new 60-bail rotary shed.

But, two seasons on, he’s very glad he went with it.

Fraser Hutchinson, who has been working on the Riverbank Farm property at Hinds, Canterbury, for 11 years with the last few years as contract milker, convinced Phillip and Andy Macfarlane of the benefits of the MaxT approach. The Everest and Macfarlane families, along with Andy’s brother John Macfarlane, are partners in the farm.

The proof is in the results, Fraser reckons. Before implementing MaxT, the average production per cow was around 495kgMS and now it’s about 502kgMS, so concerns about a negative impact on production are unfounded, says Fraser.

“As farmers we learn that cows have to be milked out. It’s

drummed into us. But it’s not necessary. We’ve got such good results with MaxT milking here that I’ve implemented it on my own property as well.”

It’s resulted in a significant reduction in milking time. In the old shed, there was an average of 180 returns per milking – now there’s none.

“We milk 800 cows in about the same time it used to take us to milk 400 cows through the old 44-bail rotary. Throughput is around 350 cows per hour, and in the afternoon is around 420 cows.”

One-person milking Only one person is needed to milk the 780-cow peak milking herd, thanks to the labour-saving Waikato Milking Systems plant.

One of Fraser’s favourite features is the automated SmartWASH system for the silos. “No one likes washing the vat. But the main motivation was consistency and cleanliness.”

The platform can move around while the plant’s being washed, which is helpful when it comes to AB and getting on with things, says Fraser.

“There’s no downtime. We don’t have to wait for the wash to finish before we can use the platform. Just press the button and the wash starts. No waiting, and you can go off and do other jobs.”

SmartECR automatic cup removers mean no one is required on the cups-off side of the shed, and teat spraying is also automated via SmartSPRAY bullets in each bail that deliver teat spray as soon as cups are removed. SmartD-TECT udder health detection technology is also part of the system, which allows a single person to milk in 3.5 hours, says Fraser.

Traditional bail restraints are not necessary with a MaxT approach, but that does mean cows flagged by SmartD-TECT can’t be checked immediately, and are instead checked the following milking.

RIVERBANK FARM

PH 07 578 0030

The dairy building is spacious and light.

Page 63

An extra wide exit contributes to excellent cowflow.

Protrack automated drafting takes the hard work out of drafting cows.

We trust the system 100 per

Left: Contract milker Fraser Hutchinson with Morrison Agri’s AJ Wessels in discussion.

cent, says Fraser.

Left: A portable vet platform frees up space.

Waikato Centrus rotary platform, which was fitted with Rotary Position System technology.

RPS is the critical element in a MaxT milking system because it provides a fixed point take-off, and ensures there are never any returns, says Mark.

“It also avoids the need to make regular adjustments to the maximum milking time settings on the SmartCONTROL because cups are always removed before the cow makes it to the exit.”

Understanding average milk yield per cow is the key to making a MaxT system work – the idea is to estimate when about 80 per cent of cows have completed milking and to set the maximum milking time threshold to remove clusters from the remaining 20 per cent even if they haven’t yet finished milking.

Fraser says the herd has adjusted to the approach over time, with slow milkers getting faster and high-producing cows often finishing in advance of the MaxT setting.

He uses DairyNZ’s MaxT milking efficiency guidelines to help set the maximum milking time threshold based on identified milk yield. “The threshold is adjusted periodically to suit time

“The sensitivity can be adjusted to suit and the onset of mastitis can be identified up to four days before visual signs are evident,” says Waikato Milking Systems area sales manager Mark Craig.

No bailgates This is the first shed Morrison Agri had installed without traditional bailgates, so experts from Waikato Milking Systems joined the team to support the installation.

AJ Wessels from Morrison Agri, the Waikato Milking Systems authorised local dealer, says the milking plant installation went smoothly and at about-10 hours-per-bail, compared to 30-hours-per-bail for a system with bailgates.

“Phillip used the savings from not installing the bailgate system to install Smart D-TECT. This means, in return he got a mastitis detection system and shorter milking hours. Not a bad investment,” says AJ. In business for more than 14 years, and with more than 100 dairy shed installations under their collective belts, the team at Morrison Agri also looked after installation of the 60-bail

of the season, and it can also vary for afternoon and morning milkings,” says Fraser.

Another efficiency measure in the new dairy is the LIC Automation Protrack Heat system, which uses heat patches and a heat detection camera positioned above the rotary platform.

“We trust the system 100 per cent,” says Fraser. “It drafts a lot of cows, and you still have to check and select which ones to put through to mating, but it really takes a lot of hassle out of the process.”

Take a photo The camera takes a picture of each cow and identifies activated, missing and non-activated heat patches and automatically drafts out flagged cows.

After milking, reports are available with previous heat information for the drafted animals, which supports decision-making about whether to put a cow up for AB. The farm’s six-week in-calf rate is 78 per cent, proving the effectiveness of the system, says Fraser.

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Page 64

RIVERBANK FARM

Coast & Country

The farm’s effluent storage ponds use Viking Containment pond liners.

The spacious Calder Stewart-designed dairy provides plenty of room between platform and walls.

The new dairy has outstanding cow flow compared to the old 44-bail rotary, says Fraser.

Three separate lanes and a wide exit were designed into the yard, allowing cows to come and go at the same time. The extra lane has been worth its weight in gold, says Fraser.

“The 28-year-old shed, which the new dairy replaced, while state-of-the-art at the time, was well past its best and an upgrade was needed,” says Phillip. So nationwide agribusiness construction company Calder Stewart got the nod to build the new dairy off the back of a very competitive quote.

Standing design Calder Stewart construction regional manager Donald Sutton says the building design is largely the same as another shed they built for the Everest family a few years ago.

“The biggest challenge with this build was keeping the old shed going while the new build

was underway because plumbing, stock water and other services needed to be at both sheds concurrently,” says Donald.

The Calder Stewart-designed shed provides a lot of room between the platform and building, and nobody ever regrets doing this, says Donald.

“It makes for a much nicer working environment, and we always recommend it. Adding the extra space doesn’t add as much cost as you think. People are often surprised by that,” says Donald.

Dairy specialists Young Electrical completed the electrical fitout for the new dairy, including pumping and relocating the grain crusher system to the new dairy.

They were under pressure to set up vat refrigeration, Protrack and other critical services, which were transferred from the old shed to the new, between milkings.

“They did a bloody good job,” says Fraser.

“Everything was done in a single day, and it was a big job. They did great work.”

Take the guesswork out of heat detection

Contract milker Fraser Hutchinson with Calder Stewart’s Donald Sutton in the yard.

Stuart Tarbotton Contractors completed the shed earthworks, and raised the building platform a couple of metres to avoid the high water table and facilitate gravity feed to the weeping wall separation to the effluent storage pond.

Work took about four months and coincided with a very wet July, which provided challenging working conditions.

As well as preparing the building platform, the team from Stuart Tarbotton also completed the new tanker track, cow lanes and fill for the pivot ruts.

Water performance No changes were needed to the farm’s effluent 2339m3 storage, which had been upgraded a couple of years before the new shed was built.

Effluent is gravity fed via a weeping wall system to one of two lined ponds, which are 100m or so from the new dairy.

Phillip opted for Viking pond liners, which use dual track welded seams to maintain liner integrity. The seams are pressure-tested, which

will pick up even a pin prick size hole.

Effluent is pumped from storage to the farm’s three pivot irrigators. Rainer Irrigation has been working with the Everests and Macfarlanes since 2000, and designed and built the farm’s irrigation system, which as well as pivots includes guns, roto rainers and k-lines.

The system was designed to cut down on labour and make the best use of available water, which comes from the Mayfield Hinds Irrigation Scheme, says Rainer Irrigation manager Gavin Briggs.

“As the farm has evolved, so has the irrigation system. Pivots have really improved this farm from a water performance view,” says Gavin.

Investment in the new dairy shed has supported Riverbank Farm to get the best out of its herd, its staff and the land. Performance has been maintained or improved across key indicators like milk yield, six-week in-calf rate, milking time and Somatic Cell Count – what better return could you ask for?

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Page 65

Page 66

Opening up Josephine Reader

HAY FARMING

Coast & Country

potential

Grieve Construction designed and built the new dairy at the mid-Canterbury Pomona Farming property.

Farm owner Geoff Hay and sharemilkers Vanessa and Mark Shefford love their new dairy.

Hay Farming When Mark and Vanessa Shefford joined Geoff and Guang-Zhan Hay as sharemilkers in 2014, a new dairy shed was part of the 10-year plan for the 210ha effective midCanterbury Pomona Farming property.

A successful irrigation programme, which initially saw the run-off irrigated in the first year of their contract, and a further 250ha irrigated during the next two years, meant the shed build plans were brought forward.

Better pasture growth and utilisation enabled a 33 per cent increase in herd size within five years to 840 cows in 2018, and

Sharemilker Mark Shefford sent regular construction progress updates of the new build, including this drone shot, to Christchurch-based farm owner Geoff Hay. increasing herd numbers meant the existing 40-aside herringbone dairy was no longer suitable.

The accuracy and control provided by the pivot irrigation system has environmental benefits, as well as the obvious production benefits, says Geoff.

“The system promotes efficient water usage. We aren’t over or under watering. We’re getting the benefits of effluent and minimising leaching potential.”

Growing better grass Alongside the irrigation, which supports better growing conditions, Mark works with agronomy specialist Matthew Paton at North Otago Pastoral Services to maximise grass and crop growth.

The farm has a variety of soil types: wet, dry, stony and heavy in parts, says Matthew, so a mix of grass species is used to suit the different conditions.

Visits every 10-14 days ensures that Matthew keeps on top of progress during the growing cycle.

“The pivot irrigation has made massive improvements in dry matter yield and persistence, and we’ve moved from finding grass types that work, to maintaining what works well.”

Proven shed design After Geoff and Mark visited a nearby dairy shed built by Ashburton builders, Grieve Construction, it was decided to move forward with a similar design.

The original plan was going to utilise the yard of the old herringbone, but this was eventually overturned in favour of a completely new build – sited more centrally on the farm.

Experienced dairy shed builders, Grieve Construction, designed and built the 60-bail rotary dairy, which features a spacious office, built-in vet platform, underpass, storage and pump rooms and ablutions area.

HAY FARMING

PH 07 578 0030

Brosnan Refrigeration’s Blair Brosnan with the Varicool 22 milk silo refrigeration his business installed and services.

Page 67

Karl Thompson Fencing and Spraying’s Karl Thompson and his team have re-fenced around three-quarters of the property in the last three years.

Sharemilker Mark Shefford and Waitaki Dairy Solutions’ Brett Duncan in the new dairy.

The Grieve Construction-designed dairy is spacious and light.

Geoff opted for a coloured finish on the polypanel, which is used for all interior and exterior walls. The panel has excellent thermal properties, keeping the shed interior a comfortable temperature in summer and winter, and is quick to erect and easy to clean.

Construction began in the winter of 2018 and the first milking in the new dairy was in September.

After a full season in the new dairy, Mark confirms it works well, and not only is it easy to keep clean on the inside, no hosing down is needed either. The yard is simply scraped clean by chains on the bottom of the backing gate as it moves around, reducing cleaning time significantly.

Local electrician Plunket Electrical, which has worked on the property for the last 10 years or so including electrical maintenance at the old

shed, and electrical installation on the farm’s extensive irrigation system, completed the new dairy’s electrical fitout.

Mark says Plunket did a great job on the build, which included getting power to the greenfields site, and was a continuation of their existing work on the property.

Cutting cow walks The new centrally located dairy drastically reduced the longest walk to the shed, which is now just under half a kilometre, compared to 2.2km previously. Reworking the cow lanes around the new building has added further efficiency, reducing the total length of lanes from around 7km to 2km.

Karl Thompson Fencing and Spraying managed the re-fencing of new lanes, as well as fencing paddocks to suit new lanes. Owner

Karl Thompson reckons they’ve re-fenced about three-quarters of the farm in the last three years.

“With the right tools to do difficult fencing jobs in tight corners, on hills and across ditches, we can manage most jobs,” says Karl, who designed the fencing on the farm to include wide gateways for better machinery access and stock flow.

Karl and his team are also responsible for the farm’s crop spraying programme, and spray to the agronomist’s recommendations.

Local servicing important The availability of excellent local servicing through Waitaki Dairy Solutions, the area’s GEA Milfos installation partner, was the deciding factor in going with GEA milking plant in the new 60-bail rotary dairy. “GEA gear is great

and has an excellent reputation.

“We’re glad we went with them and Waitaki Dairy Solutions,” says Mark.

By far the best feature of the new dairy shed, from Mark’s perspective, is needing just a single person to milk. And the dairy is packed with labour-saving devices – automatic cup removal, teat spraying, plant wash and silo wash – to make one-person milking of the 840-cow herd a reality.

They also use a maximum milking time approach – it takes three hours, including clean-up, to milk.

“The GEA milking plant is designed in a modular fashion, so that additional functionality like a herd management system can easily be added in the future if desired,” says Waitaki Dairy Solutions owner Brett Duncan.

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HAY FARMING

Page 68

Coast & Country

Left: Sharemilker Mark Shefford at work in the well-equipped new dairy, which includes an office.

The GEA milking plant, installed and serviced by Waitaki Dairy Solutions.

LIC Automation’s Body Condition Scoring system is a must-have for sharemilker Mark Shefford.

North Otago Pastoral Services’ Matthew Paton checks out pasture in front of the new dairy.

“The iCORE automatic cup removers are designed to be retracted gently to avoid teat damage and include a range of customisable features like a letdown timer – which allows the cow to let her milk down before the sensor takes over control of the milking – ensures Mark can milk the cows the way he wants to,” says Brett.

Bringing consistency The intelWASH for the milking plant and silo is not only a labour-saver, it also brings consistency. Chemical dosage is fully automated, mitigating against human error in the wash programme, and is also safer for staff who no longer need to manually handle chemicals. The system is fully customisable, and will cycle through the preset wash programme.

The GEA platform double-beam design is hydraulically driven, which means a quieter operation. “Heavy duty nylon rollers means there’s no steel on steel and there are no bearings, creating less wear and tear. And an automated lubrication system makes maintenance easy,” says Brett. “Plus it really only requires an annual service to keep the platform performing at its best.”

Units mounted in each bail provide hassle-free, automated teat spraying. Three spray nozzles ensure excellent teat coverage,

without wastage, and spray rate can be easily adjusted to suit changing teat conditions.

The variable speed iNTELFLOW milk pump enables efficient milk cooling performance by providing a consistent flow of milk to prechilling. Brett says the Fristram milk pump maximises milk quality because it uses larger paddles to churn milk, resulting in a more gentle processing as it moves milk from the receiving can to the silo.

Brett and his team were onsite for the first few milkings after commissioning to make minor adjustments and ensure everything was working as anticipated, and Waitaki’s 24/7 service means they’re available whenever they’re needed to resolve any issues.

Automatic BCS Another feature of the new shed that Mark wouldn’t be without is the LIC Automation Body Condition Score system.

A camera takes pictures as the cow moves through the booth after milking and generates an automated BCS, so accurate daily information about changes in condition are available at all times, says LIC Automation head of sales and product Jason Quertier. “Simply walking dry cows through the booth means that accurate information about body condition is

available in the off-season as well.”

Any animals that don’t meet the set thresholds can be automatically drafted for checking, and BCS data also provides the basis for automated preferential feeding, says Jason.

Consistent BCS information provides actionable insight into cow health that Mark uses to understand reproductive performance and support dry-off and feeding decisions. LIC Automation’s Protrack, an automated drafting system, also features in the new dairy.

Efficient refrigeration A Varicool snapchill refrigeration unit sold and serviced by Brosnan Refrigeration services the milk silo. Milk is chilled to six degrees Celsius and up to 500L of hot water per hour can generated through the heat recovery feature.

The Varicool 22 unit is designed for between 600-1000 cows, so there’s room for growth without a need to upgrade the unit.

Mark says farm performance has been trending upwards for the last five years, and the new labour-efficient dairy shed with modern amenities is at the heart of operation.

Built with the future in mind, the dairy has been built to meet the evolving needs of a high-performing modern, farming operation, and will hold the Hays and their sharemilkers in good stead for many years to come.

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HAY FARMING

Page 69

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Page 70

Everything is Penny Clark-Hall

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Coast & Country

Tanks Road Dairy Dairycool sales manager Lee Gilbert with Tanks Road Dairy manager Kevin Hall.

Left: Tanks Road Dairy manager Kevin Hall.

Tanks Road Dairy in Mayfield, mid-Canterbury, was bought in February 2018 – and what was originally a deer farm, with internal sheep and beef fencing, had the bones of a dairy farm.

With the internal sheep and beef fencing already providing a central laneway, irrigation and stock water and the main lanes already done, Tanks Road Dairy was off to a good start.

Well-known dairy farmer Allan Pye, who owns six farms – two are equity farms – already, is the proud new owner of Tanks Road. After taking ownership on February 20, 2018, he started to convert straight away before bringing in Kevin Hall, Tanks Road manager, four months later on June 1, 2018. Kevin Hall says arriving to have the irrigation, stock water and main lanes already done, was bliss.

A IN &

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“It was basically a dairy farm without a cowshed on it,” says Kevin Hall. “Allan had done most of the organising, so we got on with helping out doing the lanes and project managing the milking shed.”

Land development “In terms of the conversion and development, we’ve put in more fencing to make the paddocks smaller. We also had to sow a lot of fodder beet and do a lot of re-grassing to work out the lucerne. It is a slow process but we have got a great team helping us achieve our goals.”

The dairy farm milks 850 cows on 300 hectares, with 286ha effective, which has four irrigation pivots. The new dairy shed is a 60-bail standard rotary concrete Orbit platform.

Kevin Hall says he’s worked on conversions before, and from his experience this project was seamless, finishing on time,

which is something you don’t hear often.

He puts this down to having a project manager who is prepared, looking ahead and takes a ‘step by step’ approach.

“Because I’ve already done a dairy conversion before, I knew how to navigate the stresses of converting. The last shed we did was late and I think the difference is in how you project manage.”

Foundation prep The start of a project is always about getting your foundations right and Tarbotton Contractors, which have operated in the district for 28 years, was the right team for the job. They did all of the earthworks for the dairy shed build-up, as well as building cow lanes into the shed, the tanker track, two effluent ponds and the staff houses.

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PH 07 578 0030 “Tarbotton Contractors were efficient and easy to work,” says Kevin Hall. “Nothing was a problem for their team and they had great technology, which seemed to speed things up.”

Getting the site prepared took Tarbotton Contractors three months, with six staff coming and going from the site. For the dairy shed foundation build up, they used a GPS excavator for optimum accuracy.

“The GPS excavator surveys and calculates the levels itself and also measures how deep to dig for the effluent ponds,” says Tarbotton Contractors owner Stuart Tarbotton.

Compaction is key “The laneways and tanker track involved digging up and forming, shaping with a grader, levelling with water and a compaction roller, then capping with lime.”

“We constructed the track in layers. The foundation, or base layer, provides the structural support for the surface layer – if it

TANKS ROAD DAIRY is weak, the surface layer may break up and collapse,” says Stuart.

“The surface layer has two functions: to provide a comfortable surface for cows to walk on and to shed water to protect the structural integrity of the track. If water can penetrate into the base layer it may lose its strength resulting in potholes.

“Compaction is key and has to be done thoroughly and mechanically, using vibrating rollers. Loose, open layers have much less strength than well-consolidated ones.”

Because efficiency gains are one of the main priorities in dairy farming today, a rotary milking system was preferred. The main benefit of the rotary milking system is it can milk large herds in a labour-efficient manner.

Tried and true With Orbit platforms being very popular in Canterbury, it was an obvious choice for Allan to choose Waikato Milking Systems.

The 60-bail rotary milks 850 cows at Mayfield.

They are a proud New Zealand brand that’s been proven and tested on dairy farms around the world.

“We are popular,” says Waikato Milking Systems’ South Island sales manager Mark Craig. “Because our systems have been designed in conjunction with farmers over many years. We are always making improvements off their feedback, so the product is tried and true.”

Streamlinging When the Tanks Road Dairy owners chose the Waikato Milking Systems’ 60-bail Orbit Concrete rotary platform, they knew they were getting a milking system that would streamline their business to the next level.

“With the SmartECR electronic cup removers, a fully automated sequence of events takes place to accurately identify the

Page 71 end milking and ensure minimal vacuum drop during milking,” says Mark.

“The intelligent software in the SmartCONTROL allows the operator to customise the setting and milking routine.”

Morrison Agri customer services manager Robert Morris is part of the clever team behind the install of Tanks Road Dairy’s Orbit Concrete Rotary platform. They are Waikato Milking Systems authorised rotary platform installation dealer for the South Island, and also provide a follow-up maintenance service.

Tanks Road Dairy postconversion.

Page 72

TANKS ROAD DAIRY

Coast & Country

Waikato Milking Systems Mark Craig and Morrison Agri customer services manager Robert Morris with the SmartSPRAY system.

Tanks Road Dairy manager Kevin Hall catching up with Morrison Agri’s Robert Morris and Waikato Milking Systems’ Mark Craig.

“The platform took around seven hours per bail to install,” says Robert. “We also installed BailMates, which are integrated into the automation. They work intelligently with the SmartECRs to raise the BailGate Straps when the cup removers have been activated. This allows the cows to exit the platform.”

Also integrated into the system is SmartSPRAY, an in-bail automatic teat spray system triggered by the SmartECR once the cow has finished milking.

“Maximising spray success by spraying while the teat orifice is still open is ideal for single operator rotary dairies,” says Mark.

The plant includes an environmentallyfriendly blower vacuum pump, which uses no oil or water. It also has a Waikato SmartDRIVE on it that saves power and is also very quiet, only using the vacuum as it needs it on a variable speed drive.

Kevin Hall says it is simple and efficient.

“Everything is easy. I think it comes down to the simplicity of the equipment. Less parts means less goes wrong. Also, the automation means you need less manpower to drive it.

“The great thing is you can just keep adding to it, which means you don’t have to invest an enormous amount up-front.”

Fine art Once the shed was up, Young Electrical brought their six-man team in to wire and power it up. Kevin Hall says he always uses Young Electrical because of their reliability.

“Young Electrical specialise in dairy conversions and shed maintenance,” says Kevin Hall. “They are able to get in there and get the job done pretty efficiently, which is why I always use them.”

Wiring the shed involved connecting up all

the plant, milking machines, water heating, platform, bail gates, effluent system, water pumps, general lighting and power outlets and the meal feeder and grain crusher.

Young Electrical co-owner Brent Kershaw says it takes about an accumulated week with six staff to wire up a shed, depending on the rest of the team involved.

And while it varies from shed to shed, the job is usually completed during a month.

“We’ve got it down to a fine art now,” says Brent. “But we’re always trying to do better than the last job and get more efficient. It takes a couple of weeks to power up a new shed, but it does depend on how the rest of the contractors are doing. In our peak we have wired up 30 sheds in a year.”

Milk cooling affects milk quality. Meaning, the quicker the milk is cooled after milking, the better the quality when it is collected from the farm. Thus, the milk cooling system is an important decision and Dairycool was the

preferred choice for Tanks Road Dairy.

Due to the new milk cooling regulations coming into effect, Dairycool sales manager Lee Gilbert says they suggested putting in their Dynamic Water Chilling System coupled with a silo refrigeration unit/Mahana Blue heat recovery system.

Milk cooling compliance Raw milk grows bacteria rapidly above seven degrees Celsius – so meeting the new milk cooling standards, which came into effect for all farms on June 1, 2018, requires milk to be cooled to 10 degrees Celsius or below within four hours of commencement of milking; and for it to be cooled to six degrees Celsius or below within six hours from the commencement of milking, or two hours from the completion of milking. It also needs to be held at or below six degrees Celsius without freezing until collection or the next milking; and must not exceed 10 degrees Celsius during subsequent milkings.

TANKS ROAD DAIRY

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Page 73

Water for cleaning the shed is heated by the Direct Expansion Refrigeration.

The milk’s cool enough for staff to drink.

“This specific dynamic water chilling unit is a closed circuit chilling system that removes about nine degrees Celsius off the primary milk temperature,” says Lee. “Kevin Hall is delivering the milk into the vats at about eight degrees Celsius currently, and given one of the new regulations requires the blended milk temperature not exceeding 10 degrees Celsius, so this ensures full and comfortable compliance.”

“It really does come down to what is best – suited for the farmer when recommending cooling systems and more often than not, it’s a ‘horses for courses’ approach,” says Lee.

Energy savings What suited Kevin Hall in addition to the cooling system was the energy savings that come with the Mahana Blue Heat Recovery System.

Kevin Hall’s Nutridose mineral dispenser system came already put together, all you need to do is screw it to the wall.

Lee says with the standard silo refrigeration unit hooked into the Mahana Blue, it delivers 85 degree Celsius water, at 200L per hour, into the hot water cylinders at one-fifth of the cost of heating the water via cylinders – “a massive power saving of about $3500 to $4000 per year on your power bill,” says Lee. “The technology is not new, having been around for 12 years, but it is the most reliable and reputable heat recovery system available still.”

Mineral dispensers Nutridose NZ, which has been making mineral dispensers for dairy farms for more than 20 years now, supplied the Nutridose Mineral Inline Dispensing System.

Nutridose NZ owner Kevin McWhirter says the system supplies all the essential minerals and nutrients to the cows via the water troughs

Left: The SmartSPRAY, an in-bail automatic teat spray system is triggered by the SmartECR, once the cow has finished milking. out in the paddocks. “The system is fully automated so when the cows start drinking, it starts the water and mineral flow.

“The dosing system itself comes completely mounted on a board. It is one complete unit, with everything you need – all you need to do is screw the system into the wall and then the plumber connects the water.

“It is an extremely reliable system and we offer on-farm servicing so you don’t need to take it apart and send it away. The product has been around long enough to prove its reliability,” says Kevin McWhirter.

With good maintenance, Kevin McWhirter says you can get 15-plus years out of the pump, which is the main feature, before it needs reconditioning. A simple procedure that will give you another 15 years, and so the cycle continues.

Kevin McWhirter adds a RPZ Back Flow

Preventer can also be supplied, which will stop nutrients back-flowing into the potable water supply.

Right on time With the conversion finished on time, Kevin Hall says his team is really enjoying their new shed and laneways. “They’re loving the new shed. It’s great to have all the bells and whistles and mod-cons as it makes us more efficient and keeps everyone happy in their work,” says Kevin Hall.

And Allan has brought another 70ha at the end of the farm, which Tanks Road Dairy took over on April 1. That was set to bring the milking herd up to 1130 cows in the next year.

In the meantime, Kevin Hall and his staff are just happy to have a new shed to work in.

Page 74

LONGLAND DAIRIES

80-bail

upgrade

Coast & Country

Longland Dairies Penny Clark-Hall

Longland Dairies shareholder and manager Martin Furrer is all smiles with his new shed.

Longland Dairies’ upgraded shed has a new 80-bail Orbit rotary platform, which helps milk the 1300-cow herd much faster.

Building a new dairy shed for Longland Dairies meant their team could reduce milking 1300 cows in nine hours to five-and-a-half hours.

Hinds in Mid Canterbury is home for Longland Dairies where shareholder and manager Martin Furrer says the upgrade from the 50-bail Orbit platform, from Waikato Milking Systems, to an 80-bail was key.

“The 50 was taking too long. The new platform is driven by electric motors, which can do a round in 8.5 minutes if need be – so you can get through cows a lot quicker. We can now do 480-500 cows per hour, depending on the skills of the milking person, where the old shed could only do 250 cows in an hour,” says Martin.

“People lose concentration when it takes too long, so the speed has created a better flow. We’ve nearly halved the milking time – now milking three-and-a-half-hours in the morning and just over two hours in the afternoon. That’s comfortable for us, we’re not rushing them through.”

The upgrade was also about making it sustainable for the owners of Longland Dairies. That meant time efficiencies to keep their staff and cows happy and focused, but also

efficiencies in energy and water use.

Waikato Milking Systems was the right choice to help them achieve their goals.

Morrison Agri customer services manager Robert Morris was a part of the clever team behind the install of the Orbit concrete rotary platform. His company is the Waikato Milking Systems authorised rotary platform installation dealer for the South Island, and they also provide a follow-up maintenance service.

“The shed took around seven hours per bail to install,” says Robert. “We also installed BailMates, which are integrated into the automation. They work intelligently with the SmartECRs to raise the BailGate Straps when the cup removers have been activated. This allows the cows to exit the platform.”

mentally friendly. It uses no oil or water and with the Waikato SmartDRIVE, it saves on power. It’s also very quiet, using the vacuum as it needs it on a variable speed drive,” says Mark.

Martin says the great thing about the Waikato Milking System is you can just keep adding to it. “It’s simple and user-friendly.”

While it was a bit of a rush to get everything done on time, the specialised experience of the team, such as Young Electrical, got them there on time.

Young Electrical co-owner Brent Kershaw says wiring the shed involved wiring up all the plant, milking machines, water heating, platform, gates, effluent system, water pumps, general lighting and power outlets, and the meal feeder and grain crusher.

Fully automated

Customised

Waikato Milking Systems’ South Island Sales manager Mark Craig says the electronic cup removers – or SmartECRs – are fully automated “so they can accurately identify the end of milking and ensure minimal vacuum drop during milking”.

“The intelligent software – called SmartCONTROL – allows the operator to customise the setting for their milking routine.

“The plant includes a blower vacuum pump, which is environ-

Martin says he customised the shed with items such as an animal health facility, a double loading ramp, and a floodwash system.

“We’ve got a square yard, which gives us a large exit facility that works well for when we need to hold cows back when we need to,” says Martin.

“The three lanes give us more holding facilities on the exit side and helps logistically, so we can keep the three herds separate.”

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LONGLAND DAIRIES

Page 75

Left: Dairycool Ltd’s closed circuit system keeps the milk below 10 degrees Celsius while utilising energy efficiently.

The operator console for the shed includes start/stop, speed control, platform reverse and emergency stop.

Upgrading from 50 bails to 80 bails has been key to halving the milking time at Longland Dairies.

Automated drafting along with heat detection was the automation product of choice for this new shed. Protrack Vantage provides full identification and allows for animal event recording into MINDA, along with voice and visual alerts as the animal enters the platform. The stress has been taken out of mating with a Protrack Heat camera to pick on-heat animals.

The camera looks for an activated – or missing – heat patch and drafts the animal, with the final decision regarding insemination sitting with the farmer.

Martin says the drafting system is much more user-friendly, for drafting for AI, lame and calving cows. “It helps with secure handling and efficiency, as we can separate them out on the spot.

“We really enjoy the automation, it’s a very good tool. It automises the drafting, and controls the individual feeding for the animals, which makes everything easier and more efficient.”

Re-routing water Longtime contractors and suppliers for Longland Dairies, Rainer Irrigation, was brought in to install all the stock water and plumbing in the shed.

Rainer Irrigation owner and manager Gavin Briggs says the new configuration required re-routing all the water from the old

Martin Furrer’s Nutridose system delivers nutrients to all water troughs on the farm automatically.

Right: LIC’s high-tech and userfriendly Protrack drafting system.

shed to supply the new shed.

“Our job is to enhance what the farmer has got. Once everything was done, we set up the old system as a back-up.

Everything was utilised so it wasn’t wasted.”

Martin says Rainer Irrigation appeals because they are a farming, family-operated company.

“They know exactly what farmers do and need. They come at it from a different angle, designing on behalf of the farmer.”

Dairycool Ltd was also used previously to help with refrigeration needs at the old shed, and was chosen for this upgrade for their reliability, service and expertise.

Dairycool sales manager Lee Gilbert says the new cooling regulations coming into effect require – more often than not – highly efficient dynamic cooling systems.

“This large closed circuit chilling system is capable of removing up to 12 degrees Celsius off the primary milk temperature, delivering the milk into the vat between six-seven degrees Celsius on straight water – and colder if antifreeze, such as glycol, was added.

“Given the new shed is an 80-bail rotary, a large system was required to deliver these temperatures. These highly efficient ‘plug and play’ systems are a fully enclosed unit with buffer

tank, circulation pump, heat exchanger and refrigeration system and only run during milking, keeping running costs down to a minimum.”

Easy mineral system The site was prepared by BR Jones Contracting which Martin has used many times before. “They’ve done some big projects for us in the past. They always get the job done and are good to deal with.”

The ultimate in efficiency, the new shed uses the Nutridose mineral system and stirrer, which automatically injects minerals into the water. The mineral stirrer keeps the minerals agitated/ suspended, until the dosing system sucks it up and dispenses it into the waterline, to stop the minerals from blocking.

“We can adjust the levels to tailor the doses to each paddock, which is fantastic,” says Martin. “The system comes fully mounted ready to install and is fully automated so when the cows start drinking, it starts the water flow. It couldn’t get any easier than that.”

Being able to customise the build worked well for Longland Dairies and the team is now milking faster because of it.

DEEGAN DAIRIES

Page 76

Thinking

Coast & Country

Deegan Dairies

outside the box Penny Clark-Hall

Farm owner Geoff Baker, with Tony Boyce and Bev Castle of Tony Boyce Builders.

Deegan Dairies’ customised wintering barn.

The project’s masterminds: Tony Boyce and Bev Castle of Tony Boyce Builders.

Not keen on the current wintering barn systems being used in New Zealand, which are better suited to non-pastoral farming, Geoff Baker did something different.

He embarked on a five-year reconnaissance resulting in a bespoke wintering-barn-system in Lismore, mid-Canterbury.

Without adding to his workload, Geoff wanted to get more out of his current system sustainably.

Some would say it was a tall order for someone milking 1400 dairy cows, with a severe dislike for machinery and complicated equipment.

“The upgrade for me was about utilising our cows better without the environmental fallout that comes with milking in the winter.

“The loafing barn has allowed us to do that sustainably,” says Geoff.

Timber barn While the concept of wintering barns is not new in NZ, the concept of how Geoff is using it is. Constructed entirely from timber, the barn was approximately one-third cheaper than the steel equivalent.

“Most people’s barns feed the cows using feed mixers. I didn’t want to overinvest in equipment that would tempt me to under-utilise our pastoral system, so I opted for a self-fed silage system that would require minimal machinery, and subsequent costs of fixing it,” says Geoff.

“While it freed up more of my time and allowed us to utilise our pasture more, it meant

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we needed to also invest in a connecting alleyway along the side of the barn to be able to feed straight out of the silage pad.

“This proved very difficult due to the angles we needed for the drainage,” says Geoff.

Knitting the wintering barn, silage bunkers, sand trap and sump all together was builder Tony Boyce and Bev Castle, of Tony Boyce Builders, who designed and drew the plans for the entire project to suit Geoff ’s requirements.

Think creatively Geoff has used them many times in the past due to their ability to think creatively, which was paramount to the project.

“This job was quite complicated,” says Geoff.

“Because the levels were all running at different

directions and angles Tony and Bev had to come up with several different solutions and completely reconfigure the design to get it right.”

Tony and Bev say the project was their biggest and most complicated yet.

“It was really exciting for us to do something different and equally as challenging.

“We had to angle the ramp off the silage pad on a diagonal so all the drainage would come back on the right angle.

“I don’t know how many concepts we did to get it right – but it’s so awesome to see it finished and have a prototype of the concept.”

Geoff says Tony and Bev’s open-minded approach and ability to come up with untraditional solutions is why he uses them for all his farm projects and why he had confidence that they’d deliver what he wanted.

DEEGAN DAIRIES

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Page 77

The sand drying bay helps keep costs down by recovering and recycling 85 per cent of the sand with no spray drift.

The GEA effluent system allows recycled green-water to wash down the barn.

The cow’s comfort is paramount to Geoff, which is why he uses sand for the cow bails instead of rubber matting. Another first for New Zealand. It also suits Geoff ’s desire to not spend his time replacing and/or fixing equipment that comes with the alternative.

Sand-filled bails Matt Rice from GEA Farm Technologies says the sand is a great fit for Geoff ’s farm model.

“Sand is pretty much the Rolls-Royce of cow comfort because it allows the cows to adjust to the barn better.”

GEA FT installed the flush-pump-system and cow bails with some tweaks to fit Geoff ’s low-maintenance style. The sand and effluent is flood-washed into a sand-lane for drying, with a sloped screen to clean the sand trap instead of scrapers.

“We came up with the solution to recycle the green-water for washdown and to run these using our flush valves, which are air operated,” says Matthew.

“This meant Geoff wouldn’t have to be there to run them manually because they’re controlled by a flush controller that opens the trap doors using air pressure.

“We also came up with a way to recover the sand for Geoff so it wasn’t a huge expense for him. Our pump is designed to deliver

The Rolls Royce of cow comfort is sand beds which they prefer over rubber. high volume and low pressure – at 7000L a minute – which is key to this particular system, because it allows up to 85 per cent of the sand to be recovered with no spray drift,” says Matthew.

Geoff chose his regular contractors for the project, Stockers Dairy Solutions, Young Electrical and BR Jones Contracting, because of their reliability and efficiency.

Stockers, which installed the effluent-system, plumbing and cow bails, has always been a great company to deal with, says Geoff.

“Stockers Dairy Solutions stick to what they say they are going to do and are trustworthy. We use them a lot because of that.”

Stockers Dairy Solutions plumbing manager Jason Muir says the project was a challenge due to the scale and tight timeframe but they were pleased with the results.

Time sensitive Young Electrical wired-up the entire shed. Director Greg Copland says that for them their extensive experience and specialisation in dairy sheds and barns enabled them to be pretty quick and efficient in what was a time-sensitive project.

BR Jones Contracting did all of the earthworks for the wintering barn and the 40,000m3 effluent pond system. Owner Brent Jones says once they grasped the concept of what Geoff was trying to achieve it was a very rewarding project to be involved with.

“We work with Geoff a lot. He’s very hands-on and we loved watching his ideas come together. I think the end result superseded everyone’s expectations.”

Very happy “I’m very happy with the final product,” says Geoff. “The reality is, it’s a fairly new concept for New Zealand. It took four trips to the United Kingdom to get the level of detail and information I was after, which has paid off.

“My choice to use sand-bedding instead of rubber matting for the cow bails and flood-wash instead of scrapers is a prime example – and I’m convinced the cows are happier for it.”

And what about the objective to get more from his cows sustainably?

Geoff has gone from milking 200-300 in the winter to 550, dropping down his spring calving accordingly. This is all without increasing his environmental footprint.

For those considering embarking on their own wintering barn build, Geoff has a few pearls of wisdom to offer.

“Don’t be sold expensive ideas that might not suit your system. You need to be clear on what you want. Otherwise, you could be unnecessarily spending money on equipment and maintenance.”

Page 78

Raw milk

GLENWILLOW FARM

Coast & Country

Glenwillow Farm

Josephine Reader

Real Milk Timaru raw milk vending machine.

Andrea and Stu Weir on the family farm near Timaru.

The Weirs have taken advantage of Glenwillow Farm’s location on the outskirts of Timaru to set up a raw milk supply business, Real Milk Timaru, alongside the dairy farm operation.

The 100ha farm, which has been in Stu’s family since the 1940s, peak milks 200 cows and 160 for winter supply, with a further 15 cows making up the raw milk herd.

Both the raw milk herd and the Fonterra supply herds are milked through the same dairy, and the new building, designed and built by Alan Johns Building, includes a viewing window accessible from the road – so that raw milk buyers can see the cows being milked.

Raw milk is dispensed from a vending machine in a purposebuilt retail space at the front of the new dairy, and a chilled truck makes deliveries several times a week to local homes and businesses.

“Milk in its raw form is a great thing. We started doing this because we are so close to town and people kept coming and asking us for milk out of the vat,” says Stu. The raw milk operation, which is now in its sixth season, makes up 10 per cent of Glenwillow Farm’s revenue.

A third revenue stream adds to the diverse Glenwillow Farm operation, with Stu partnering with local farmer friends to operate a contracting business during summer, which specialises in silage.

State-of-the-art parlour Glenwillow Farm has the first DeLaval parallel parlour 2100 in the South Island. As the name ‘parallel parlour’ suggests, the set-up differs from a traditional herringbone because there are clusters on each side of the pit.

The system is geared towards throughput and efficiency, says DeLaval business manager Rowan Galloway, which is what attracted Andrea and Stu to the unique milking system.

“The rapid exit gates make transition between rows much

quicker, and they are driven by compressed air that minimises noise in the shed and ensures a nice quiet environment for the cows,” says Rowan.

The parlour’s unique indexing system positions the cows for better alignment. Head bails come down, ensuring each cow is sectioned in its own space, says DeLaval technical specialist Adrian Garner.

Clean shed “Cost-wise the system requires less capital outlay than an equivalent sized rotary, and has quicker throughput than a traditional herringbone,” says Adrian.

The milkers at Glenwillow can throw away their peaked caps, because there is no danger of getting pooed on in the new dairy.

Cows’ bums rest on a butt-pan that runs the length of the pit and captures virtually all of the effluent, which is gravity fed to the nearby pond.

“The P2100 is an extremely clean dairy shed, and when we went and looked at a couple of sheds in the North Island, this is one of the things that attracted us to this system,” says Stu. “It also saves on labour because we now need just one person in the shed.”

PH 07 578 0030

Alan Johns Earthmoving completed site earthworks.

GLENWILLOW FARM

Aitkins Plumbing’s Pete Johnson watches on as Daniel Johnson lays the effluent drainage.

Alan Johns, of Alan Johns Building, designed and built the new dairy using concrete tilt panel.

The DeLaval P2100 parallel dairy parlour under construction.

While the Weirs haven’t opted for full automation at this stage, they have included automatic cluster removers and the C200 automated plant wash system.

Additional functionality can easily be added in future as needed, says Rowan.

Stu and Andrea expect to move from two people taking 2.5 hours to milk, to a single person taking just 1.5 hours.

“We don’t have any full-time staff. We have assistant milkers, and this system is going to allow us to adjust the rosters and be more efficient,” says Stu. The P2100 offers a great set-up for the milker too, says Rowan. There is a wide pit, plenty of lighting and automated cleaning of the cow area with the deck-flush water function. ‘Comfort start’ initiates vacuum as the

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cluster is lifted.

“The milking system itself is a low line, which enables lower vacuum levels than traditional systems, which plays a part in cow comfort,” says Rowan. The system is driven by a DeLaval Lobe Vacuum Pump and also utilises variable speed drives for both vacuum and milk pumping to keep power consumption at a minimum.

The new dairy doesn’t feature a feedpad or in-shed feed system, as the Weirs have an existing feedbarn.

Proven contractors The P2100 DeLaval parallel parlour replaces a dated 40-year-old 16-aside herringbone dairy that was past its use-by date, according to Stu. Key contractors on the build are all people that have a long association with the Weirs and their property.

Pete Johnson from Aitkin’s Plumbing reckons

Page 79

his family has been doing work for the Weirs for 40 years or so – first for Stu’s Dad Bill, and later for Stu and Andrea – and builder Alan Johns has been undertaking building jobs and maintenance around the property for years.

Alan Johns Building designed and built the new dairy building, which is constructed from concrete tilt panel. As a building material, tilt panel is extremely robust, quick to erect because no foundations are required – “just a footing and pad,” says Alan.

Attention to detail The internal concrete wall surfaces have been kelly floated to provide a smooth, hard surface which is then sealed to provide a longwearing surface that provides protection against common dairy chemicals and effluent.

A 72m2 amenities block including a new raw milk retail shop, office and toilet is attached to the milking parlour.

“Alan has got fantastic attention to detail, and he thinks outside the square. His concrete work is faultless,” says Stu. Aitkin’s Plumbing – one of several contractors involved with the construction of the new dairy – has been on-site at various stages of the build, laying conduit firstly for effluent drainage and later for shed water.

The farm’s prechilling and silo refrigeration system was upgraded a few years ago to accommodate the stringent milk chilling requirements for raw milk sales, so the existing snapchill and DX expansion units were re-installed at the new dairy by Canterbury refrigeration specialists Dairycool.

The snapchill unit is very efficient, says Lee Gilbert of Dairycool, and only runs during milking, providing electricity and cost savings.

The Weirs can’t wait to get started in their state-of-the-art new dairy that will serve the farm for many, many years to come.

MEYER FAMILY TRUST

Page 80

Coast & Country

Unusual dairy Helen Wilson

Ben and Fieke Meyer came to New Zealand from The Netherlands in 1984 and set about looking for a piece of land with a shed that could be converted to a cheese factory and some land for a dairy farm.

“We went and looked at Hawke’s Bay because it was warm and sunny, but we couldn’t see any dairy cows so we decided on the Waikato and we bought this 2ha block with a house and a suitable shed at Hautapu to the northwest of Cambridge. And we bought milk to make our Gouda cheese.”

However, in 1989 the price of the milk doubled from one day to the other which wasn’t sustainable any more.

“In 1990 we bought a dairy farm at Koromatua to the west of Hamilton. We wanted a farm that provided enough milk to make cheese and close to our shop in Hamilton,” says Ben.

Career change In The Netherlands, Ben was an electronics engineer and Fieke was a teacher but they wanted to become cheesemakers. They started on the family dairy farm in Brabant in 1976 and sold the business to Ben’s brother in 1984 before emigrating to New Zealand.

“When we bought the farm it was 100ha and had a 26-aside herringbone dairy, which was adequate for the number of cows then. We were making cheese from our own milk and the surplus went to Waikato Dairy Company,” says Ben. “Since 1990 we’ve had the opportunities to buy some adjoining land and increase the herd steadily. In the end we were milking 416 cows and had land for close to 500 cows.” says Ben.

Milking 416 cows in the existing herringbone was not ideal and in consultation with their sharemilker, son-inlaw Bert van den Bogaard, they decided to increase the herd and efficiency – and a new dairy was the answer.

Wait a year “We started looking at dairy shed designs in 2017 and after looking at several other dairy sheds we decided on a Chapman Dairy Ltd design. It is a well-known and trusted brand and other dairy farmers we spoke to were pleased with their Don Chapman designs,” says Ben. He and Fieke were anxious to get their new dairy shed off the ground and after consultation with Shanan White, who is the director of Don Chapman Waikato Ltd and the licensee for Chapman Dairy Ltd, they decided to wait a year and make sure everything was ready to start.

“The new dairy shed had to be built where the existing dairy shed was because it had to be close to the cheese factory. There was a time constraint as it had to all be completed while the cows had dried off. We all agreed that waiting a year was the right decision,” says Shanan.

The cows were dried off in late-March 2018 and the dairy shed was up and running at the beginning of July 2018.

Ben decided against a rotary as he considered them costly, high maintenance and one would not fit on the existing site. “A rotary is better suited for one person to milk, but there is not time to have a good look at the cows during milking to check for health problems. I am a cow person,” says Ben. Instead they built a 26 doubleup, with automatic cup removers, which means there is a total of 52 sets of cups – so if needed one person can milk and it saves time.

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Fieke and Ben Meyer with their rows of Dutch Gouda cheese.

Stirring the milk for cheese making at the Meyer’s cheese factory.

PH 07 578 0030

The Meyer family’s new dairy shed at Hautapu from above.

MEYER FAMILY TRUST

Meyer Family Trust

“Although the new dairy shed was based on a Chapman Dairy Ltd design Ben made lots of changes, which we were happy to go along with. He knew a 40-aside herringbone would not fit in the space available, because of the existing cheese factory and we had to look at an alternative,” says Shanan.

“There was also a steep bank to take into account. Along with Ben we came up with a 26 double-up herringbone.

Two old diaries Don Chapman, who has more than 30 years’ dairy building experience, came and had a look at the site and along with Ben approved the design that Shanan had submitted. The dairy shed is made from refrigeration panels for easy cleaning and noise reduction. The round yard allows for excellent cow flow and the wider pit allows the milker easy access to the cups and cows on both sides of the pit. “We had about 10 weeks from start to finish to complete the project and I’m pleased to say

The Qubik team is refrigeration manager Andrew McAllister, operations manager Jeremy Collett, and co-owner and effluent design consultant Kyle Osborne.

we came in on time,” says Shanan.

“We got a bit of a surprise when we started to excavate the site for the new dairy shed. First of all, we had to demolish the old existing shed and as we got into the job found out there were two more old dairies underneath the original one.

“One was a walk-through and the other an early herringbone.

We didn’t find any treasures but the excavation took a bit longer than first thought,” says Dave Daysh of DW Earthmoving from Hamilton, who was helped out by his son Shane.

After disposing of the old dairy sheds the site had to be built up with compacted clay, levelled, then dressed off with GAP7 metal ready for building to commence.

Dave also excavated the ground for the new calf sheds and dug out the effluent storage ponds.

“As well, I had to form some new raceways because the old ones didn’t line up with the new dairy shed. My next job here is to do some drainage work and widen the farm entranceway at the roadside so it’s easier to navigate,” says Dave.

Page 81

Dave Daysh of DW Earthmoving and one of the raceways he put in.

All of the electrical work for the new dairy shed was completed by Liam Carter, a qualified electrician and owner of Phase Electrical from Te Awamutu.

“We had a Waikato Milking Systems plant in our old dairy shed and were very pleased with it so decided to stick with what we knew,” says Ben.

Unusual shed “Qubik from Te Awamutu installed the plant, we had dealt with them in the past and found them very approachable and helpful, as this was an unusual dairy shed,” says Ben. Qubik is the Waikato Milking Systems authorised dealer for Te Awamutu, Otorohanga and Putaruru and services the south Waikato area.

“This Waikato Milking Systems plant is a little bit different to what we normally install but it was what Ben and Fieke wanted,” says Jeremy Collett, who is operation manager for Qubik, Te Awamutu.

Qubik are proud to have supplied and installed the new milking system, water reticulation, effluent system, refrigeration and pre-cooling system for Ben and Fieke Meyer.

MEYER FAMILY TRUST

Page 82

Builder Shanan Whyte with farm owners Fieke and Ben Meyer.

Liam Carter, owner of Phase Electrical, at the switchboard.

Rows of mature Dutch Gouda cheese.

Left: The effluent pond.

“It is a 26 double-up herringbone, which means there are 52 sets of cups, which cuts down on milking time and one person can operate the dairy shed. The plant has ULTIMATE Electronic Cup Removers, which helps milk out the cows completely. It has SmartPULS pulsators and the vacuum pump is a Waikato Milking Systems BP 400 blower with variable speed drive. It ramps up and down as needed for air consumption which saves power,” says Jeremy.

Keep it cool The refrigeration in the new dairy shed was also installed by Qubik, Te Awamutu. “There is a 30kW chilled dual water unit, which chills the temperature of the milk to under eight degrees Celsius before it gets to the vats and a 10hp chiller that cools both vats below six degrees Celsius as required by Fonterra,” says Andrew McAllister, refrigeration manager for Qubik, Te Awamutu.

The Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions Close Couple pump was another component of the new dairy shed installed by Qubik,

Coast & Country

Te Awamutu. “This is an 18.5kW shore-based, close-coupled effluent pump that can be maintained from the shore, which is a lot safer than in the effluent pond.”

Qubik co-owner Kyle Osborne says this one has a special valve level with the base of the pond. “It opens from the top to irrigate straight from the pond. It’s the first time we’ve done this and could possibly adopt it for other dairy sheds,” says Kyle.

FIL has created a cleaning routine for the milking plant, for the Meyers, to make sure there is no chance of a grade.

They can customise a cleaning routine to suit individual dairy farmer’s requirements.

Making cheese Although Ben and Fieke do not actively take part in the milking process, leaving that to their son-in-law, they did play a big part in the design.

“I’m a ‘think outside the square’ type of person, so it was encouraging when all the contractors were happy to take my requests on board and make them work,” says Ben.

The Waikato Milking Systems clusters in the new shed.

“It was a difficult space, a tight timeframe and an unconventional double-up herringbone, but it all came together and our son-in-law sharemilker, Bert, is very happy with it,” says Ben. Fieke and Ben have a cheese factory adjacent to the dairy shed, where a portion of the milk goes to make Dutch Gouda cheese, with or without cumin.

“In 1985 I opened the Dutch Gouda Cheese Shop in Hillcrest.

It was very popular and we had many customers. I sold it in 1996 and we still supply them with cheese as well as their cheese shops in Rototuna and Tauranga, under the name of Meyer Gouda Cheese,” says Fieke.

During the peak milk season there are seven people working in the factory, producing 500kg of cheese a day. Staff numbers are reduced in winter when there is no milk.

“We can slow down the maturing process of the cheese by storing it at a cooler temperature so we have an even supply of cheese throughout the year,” says Fieke.

The cheese factory is managed by one of their sons, and another son is the cheesemaker, so this farming couple and their extended family are really making full use of their land, animals and human resources.

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MEYER FAMILY TRUST

Page 83

SHAW FARMS

Page 84

Coast & Country

Milking in

1 hour

Steve Edwards

Don Chapman from Morrinsville-based Chapman Dairy and Shanan White from Don Chapman Waikato worked together on the layout and design for the new dairy shed and yard.

Shaw Farms

Another chapter has been written in the rich history of a renowned Jersey stud. The Paterangi Jerseys’ herd at Ohaupo, near Te Awamutu, dates back 110 years.

Acclaimed as Australasia’s oldest Jersey herd, it was pioneered by the great-grandparents of current contract milker and equity partner Wayne Shaw.

With “no LIC”, Wayne says the family started off with 50 acres, then 100 acres and 200 acres before taking over 59ha in June 2018 to give them a holding of almost 140ha on both sides of Meadway Rd. The new 50-bail rotary, capable of putting through 700 cows, is milking 510 this season.

Wayne says they previously milked 460 cows out of a 26-aside herringbone shed built in the 1970s.

When the latest block was bought in June 2018, a decision was made to build a new dairy shed to cater for a larger herd. “The old shed

was red-lining,” says Wayne.

After 50 years of service, the last milking took place in the old shed on July 4. Wayne says it was full of precious memories, but he was excited to finally milk in the new complex.

Location, location, location Just 250m from the old shed, the new facility offers a safe gateway off a busy road, is central to the entire property and close to an existing feed pad.

A site examination on what was previously a paddock was undertaken in November 2018.

Among the first items on the agenda were a new tanker track and electricity transformer.

With two full-time staff employed, the new rotary features automatic cup removers, along

The yard component of the hightech drafting system.

Wayne Shaw outside the new dairy shed at Ohaupo.

with automatic wash and spray systems. “Putting the cups on is the only thing not done automatically,” says Wayne.

DeLaval technology provides Somatic Cell Count and milk volume testing, plus an autodraft gate identifies cows via electronic eartags.

Electronic information goes to a computer in the spacious shed office – complete with a pillar decked out in Waikato rugby colours – as well as a phone application used by staff and is monitored “live” online by DeLaval staff in Sweden.

Wayne says the goal is to milk the whole herd in an hour. “The cows are showing a sense of calmness – and there is good cow flow,” says Wayne.

To assist in design selection, Wayne visited other rotary sheds in the Waikato. He says the high-tech operation has proved to be user-friendly. “Staff are loving playing with the buttons.”

Natural upkeep A hallmark of the shed site – and the property in general – is also the owners nurturing of the natural environment. Planting of English and native trees goes back to the 1950s and 1960s, with a number of QEII titles covering areas of forest and wetlands. Part of the Shaw family property is also protected as a “significant natural area” by Waipa District Council in its District Plan.

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SHAW FARMS

Page 85

The 50-bail rotary milking platform.

The shed office, decked out in Waikato colours.

Hot water cylinders in the plant room.

The shed site is “incredibly green,” says Wayne, with just two trees removed in the project. Native plants now dot the shed’s surrounds and tanker track, with lawn laid in the middle of the tanker loop. Wayne says aesthetics were also taken into account when choosing a light and clean colour scheme for the shed.

One thing that hasn’t changed on the property however is the strength of the Paterangi Jerseys’ brand. Via LIC, Wayne says they use the best bulls available, producing strong, resilient cows.

Cheese brand The next step is the farm producing its own cheese brand. Wayne says discussions are ongoing with other parties to try and make this a reality.

The Shaw family recently restarted the Paterangi Dairy Company, a highly regarded cheese-maker which operated up until World War II. They will use up to 20 per cent of their milk supply for cheese and other products.

The remaining 80 per cent will continue to be supplied to Fonterra.

The new rotary cowshed was completed in July. Wayne says the herd adapted quickly to their new milking environment.

“We are extremely happy with our new shed.

After one week the cows had learnt to be rotary girls.

“We also had an 8.8 per cent milk yield gain, most likely resulting from super cow comfort and some new technology,” says Wayne. “We thought it would be four-five per cent.”

Wayne is also happy to report no mastitis has been detected. “Best of all our overalls are spotless at end of milking…happy cows, more milk and no poo.”

Two staff have spring milking time down to one-hour-and-15-minutes from three-and-ahalf hours.

Wayne says the cows are naturally playing “follow the leader” onto the milking platform.

“They know where to go.”

Staff are also loving the new technology and milking environment, says Wayne.

Cow comfort And he’s been pleasantly surprised by the way cows have taken to the cushioned waiting area – with resin used in the concrete – before entering the milking platform.

“They are fighting to get on,” says Wayne.

“The biggest problem is getting them to wait their turn.”

The DeLaval bail design has proved a winner in allowing easy entry and exit. “It’s relaxed and super-comfortable for the cows,” says Wayne.

“The platform and gear is in line with what cows love.”

The shed is also proving easy to clean, with an auto wash system water blasting the bails. The yard is serviced by a Dungbuster automatic washing system, which Wayne says reduces water use. “Our goal is for the shed to not look like it has had cows milked in it.”

Landscaping around the shed is looking “real sharp,” says Wayne. Planting was completed in August, with the centre of the tanker loop seeded at the same time.

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SHAW FARMS

Page 86

The chiller and vat unit at the dairy at Shaw Farms at Ohaupo.

The Shaw family chose a DeLaval milking plant for their new rotary dairy.

Building of the cowshed, yard, holding pens and effluent traps was all undertaken by Don Chapman Waikato. Director Shanan White says three-four staff were on-site at the Shaw farm for 24 weeks.

Proven concept The design of the Shaw shed was based on a “proven concept,” says Don Chapman from Morrinsville-based Chapman Dairy.

Don says he worked with Shanan White from Don Chapman Waikato on the layout and design for the dairy shed and yard.

“We put the whole thing together.”

Don says a “well-worked brief ” helped immensely in his part of the project. He says although Chapman Dairy has a wide range of standard dairy design concepts, the company never tries to impose a standard plan on a farm owner.

“All owners have different requirements, and we like to put together a bespoke design based on the owner’s requirements and our knowledge of what works,” says Don. “This way we can cater for all needs.”

When it comes to the technology used in the Shaw shed, there is plenty on offer. DeLaval and authorised DeLaval dealer Pratt Milking Ltd worked together on the installation. “The DeLaval Rotary E-Series has been created to help our farmers do more, with less, focusing on efficiency and throughput,”

says DeLaval’s sales manager Shaun Killalea.

“The Shaw’s shed is not just a 50-bail rotary, it is a full system utilising new automation tools including snap chilling and a heat recovery system.

“It features DelPro herd management, automatic cup removers, ICAR milk meters with mastitis detection, Body Condition Scoring and three-way drafting,” says Shaun.

Remote control “The farm will also use the new DelPro ‘Companion’ app, which means they can use the herd management software remotely – they can do it all on their mobile. It frees up the way farmers do things making them more efficient,” says Shaun.

This high-tech shed is largely automated and systems connected – with key features such as the DeLaval FastLane, ComfortBail and Cockpit.

Shaun says the DeLaval ‘Cockpit’ is a key feature. The place where one person can safely and comfortably operate everything from a central point on a 24-inch touchscreen. “This makes it simple for the farmer to interact with the shed,” says Shaun.

Initial siteworks at the Shaw property were carried out by Gilbert Earthworks. Based at nearby Pirongia, owner-operator Mark Gilbert says he worked with shed builder Shanan White

Coast & Country

Initial siteworks at the Shaw property were carried out by Gilbert Earthworks. from Don Chapman Waikato Ltd. The shed base was “cut to fill”, with not a great deal of fill required. Mark also brought metal in for the new tanker track.

What they wanted The work was undertaken, mostly by himself in OctoberNovember 2018. Mark had carried out previous farm drainage work for the Shaw family.

For Pratt Milking Ltd, this was their first rotary with DeLaval.

Director Zakk Pratt says the project was a two-month fit-out with four staff on the job.

Te Awamutu-based, PML was responsible for the sale and install of the “highly specked” DeLaval system that includes delpro, auto drafting, body score camera, milk meters and ondeck teat spray, auto plant-wash and vat-wash, snap chilling and heat recovery.

PML’s Heath Lunjevich ran the machine installation side of the job, while colleague Josh Ferguson ran the water installation part of the job. PML supplied and installed the in-shed water system using quality Grundfos pumps and stainless steel water lines.

PML director Zakk Pratt says the main focus for his team “was to give our long-time friends, Ray and Marion Shaw, and son Wayne, exactly what they wanted and more”.

PH 07 578 0030

SHAW FARMS

Page 87

“IT’S A VITAL COG”

“PROGRESSIVE”

“PIONEERS” “DEDICATED” “ WE ALL BENEFIT FROM THIS INDUSTRY ”

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SPRING SHEEP

Page 88

Coast & Country

Designed

for sheep

Spring Sheep’s Monovale milking sheep farm.

Spring Sheep Milk Co’s Monavale Farm near Cambridge in the Waikato is one of three sheep milking farms the company has.

Spring Sheep Co is a joint venture owned

by Pamu – formerly Landcorp – and SLC group, a marketing company that specialises in taking the very best New Zealand products to consumers all over the world.

Before the 50ha farm became available to Spring Sheep on August 1, 2017, it was an arable farm.

“The land was perfect for a sheep dairy farm – flat, good pasture production and close to

Helen Wilson

The ewes enjoying their feed in the barn.

a town,” says Spring Sheep business manager Thomas Macdonald.

Just like a bovine dairy farm, this property is seasonal with the sheep lambing in the spring and at peak milking time there are 850 sheep being milked. The breed is East Friesian from Europe, bred especially for their milk production and having on average a 245-day lactation.

Farm-raised stock The ewes’ lambing rate is 180 per cent and all young stock are raised on-farm. The ram lambs are kept and grown on for meat production and the females as replacement dairy stock.

Although a milking breed, the sheep do

Professional Farm Services’ Dave and Lynda McMillan and DeLaval’s Shaun Killalea in the pit.

produce wool and are shorn twice-a-year.

“The wool is of medium micron and not that valuable but they still have to be shorn,” says Thomas.

Milking shed construction The ewes are housed for three months, before and after lambing. They are then rotationally grazed, let out on to pasture for 12 hours during daylight and housed for 12 hours at night. In summer they are fed inside in the shade away from hot sun and graze during the evening. There are two full-time staff on the farm.

Gibson Construction from Taupo had built the sheep milking shed for Spring Sheep in

Reporoa and was contracted to build the one at Monavale. “With experience from the other sheep milking shed, we designed the milking parlour and the yards and worked with Gibson Construction to build it,” says Thomas.

A horizontal vat is included in the building with sliding doors to keep the exterior neat and uncluttered. There is also an office and bathroom. The yards have lower, solid sides to accommodate the sheep but are high enough so they don’t jump out.

The DeLaval P300SG milking plant and water system was installed by Professional Farm Services, the longstanding DeLaval dealers based in Cambridge, owned and operated by Dave and Lynda McMillan.

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SPRING SHEEP

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Page 89

Spring Sheep The DeLaval vacuum pump.

All-aspect management “The DeLaval Delpro system manages every aspect of the ewe’s milk production, reproduction cycle and any health issues from the time she is born to when she leaves the flock,” says DeLaval’s capital sales manager for Waikato and Bay of Plenty, Shaun Killalea.

Delpro can pre-programme feed requirements for each ewe and enables accurate drafting to a separate pen after milking, as required.

The new milking system is a rapid exit, 24-bail double-up, low-line, which means there are 24 sets of cups on each side of the pit area and a total of 48 sheep being

milked at any given time.

The milking area is equipped with DeLaval P300SG rapid exit stalling. Once finished, using compressed air, the bails lift up and the sheep all exit at the same time allowing the next lot of sheep to quickly enter. This feature helps reduce milking time compared with traditional swing-over systems. The plant is equipped with Automatic Cluster Removers – known as ACRs – which can be set to activate based on time, milk flow or a combination of the two.

“The vacuum and pulsation systems are both set to specific requirements for sheep milking with the vacuum being lower than normal traditional swing-over systems due to the lowline milkline, which helps aid in prevention of animal health issues,” says Dave McMillan.

“The milk pump has been adapted for sheep

and is gentler on the milk, ensuring that milk composition and quality is not compromised.”

The milk is stored at two degrees Celsius in a horizontal vat at a low agitation rate, which ensures the quality and taste of the milk is optimised.

Feed activation The feed system has been installed by PPP Industries and is a double auger line feed system.

Tuakau-based PPP Industries Ltd general manager Nick Morison says the difference between this model of feed system and their standard model, is a secondary auger running under the dispensers. “This secondary auger is run off a timer and allows for very low feed drops. As standard, 60g of feed is dispensed

FF RY E LUEN AI

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AR

T

’WOF’ RA

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The DeLaval installation includes the Delpro system, which is an industry-leading software programme for flock management.

The sheep milking shed built by Gibson Construction.

D

Back row: AgFirst Engineering Waikato’s Davieth Verheij, Monovale farm 2IC Scott Davis and DeLaval’s Shaun Killalea.

Front row: Spring Sheep’s business manager Thomas Macdonald, and Professional Farm Services’ Dave and Lynda McMillan.

N T O F FI TN

E

per second but with a VSD installed at this farm the rate is as low as 20g per second.

“This allows only the smallest amount of feed to be fed to attract the sheep in the parlour for milking,” says Nick.

Feed activation from the dispenser to the feed tray is automated and requires no pull handles – activation can be totally automated when the exit bail lifts up or activation can be just the pressing of a button.

A standard feed system has pull handles to release the feed.

Nick says the dispensers are kept full automatically all the time via the main auger running from the silo. “If you’re milking two flocks of sheep and the feed requirement is different, via our control box you just change the screen over from Flock 1 to Flock 2,” says Nick.

Page 90

SPRING SHEEP

AgFirst Waikato Engineering’s Davieth Verheij in front of the above-ground effluent bladder.

The feed is stored in a standard 27m3 17tonne silo. Also, on the sheep farm are two additional feed silos set up with 100mm discharge augers to convey feed into a mobile mixer wagon.

All the electrical work for the new dairy shed and any other farm work, was completed by Liam Carter, qualified electrician and owner of Phase Electrical from Te Awamutu.

Although there’s not as much effluent produced with sheep, it still has to be disposed of in an approved manner.

Effluent and irrigation Davieth Verheij, director of AgFirst Waikato Engineering, designed and installed the effluent and irrigation system for Spring Sheep.

“The washing down is easier, the nutrient

loading is about 50 per cent less making the storage volume smaller. And the irrigation system is designed to cover 25ha of land application, about half the farm,” says Davieth.

It is a deferred irrigation system that stores the effluent in a 200,000L bladder above-ground so there is no open effluent pond. The sandy soil and high water table at Monavale suited an above-ground bladder. The effluent can only be applied when moisture of the soil is at the correct level to prevent nutrient leaching.

“The progressive cavity irrigation pump can handle large soft solids and removes the risk of blockages such as sheep wool. The effluent is then spread by a low rate rain-gun, applying approximately seven millilitres of fluid per hour,” says Davieth.

AgFirst Waikato Engineering can design and build effluent and irrigation systems from

Coast & Country

Large solid walled yards.

The PPP Industries feed hoppers.

The DeLaval horizontal vat.

DeLaval sheep clusters.

start to finish for dairy cow farms, goat farms and now sheep farms.

Thomas also had a ewe housing barn installed on-farm. “We chose Aztech Buildings to build the ewe housing barn as they’re an industry leader for small ruminant housing and could deliver the project under tight guidelines,” says Thomas.

The barn is 84m long with a depth of 50m with 14 bays at 6m. The height is 5.18m to 7.28m with a 15 degree pitch gable roof.

‘Four seasons’ barn Aztech Buildings’ sales consultant Hamish Prestige says the real challenge for Aztech to overcome in dairy sheep barn design is the need for a ‘four seasons’ barn.

“We have to ensure temperature reduction

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“We didn’t just design the barn for the sheep, we also had the staff in mind. Using our experience across the many barns we’ve built in the past, we know what helps with workflow and efficiencies. We also know no-one wants to work in a dingy, smelly environment,” says Hamish.

The barn is birdproof to stop the spread of disease and reduce feed loss to hungry birds.

The 850 milking ewes are kept in two flocks and are milked twice-a-day. It takes two people two-and-a-half hours to milk.

All sheep milk produced is turned into high value powders and tablets and exported under Spring Sheep’s own brand. There is a growing worldwide demand for sheep milk.

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SPRING SHEEP

Page 91

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WAIPIRI FARMS

Page 92

Showcase shed

Coast & Country

Helen Wilson

Waipiri Farms

Waipiri fa rm David Fu owner llerton.

A view of the massive dairy shed from the yard.

David and Pip Fullerton’s 300ha dairy farm named ‘Waipiri’, at Ngahinapouri, southwest of Hamilton, has been in the family since 1903. Large majestic oak trees lining the driveway are testament to that.

have several income streams,” says David.

As well as selling to local markets, the Fullertons send live heifer and bull exports to China, the Middle East, Vietnam and Central and South America, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland.

They also supply semen and embryos to these countries.

In the distance, Mount Pirongia creates a perfect backdrop to the lush Waikato countryside. Back then it was a sheep and cropping farm. The farm is very productive and comprises of 80 per cent flat land and 20 per cent of gentle rolling hill, which makes a nice balance.

It is also the home of Waipiri Holsteins and David takes a keen interest in each cow and its pedigree.

“We supply the market with a variety of different options for farmers. We breed and supply top quality Holstein service bulls to dairy farmers and two-year-old bulls for the meat market. I play the market and have a cross-section of cows from potential show cows to brood cows. It suits every farmer’s budget and I

Each cow’s lineage Although the new dairy shed is fitted with the latest computer software to record each cow’s production and pedigree, David knows just about every cow’s lineage back to its grandparents just by looking at them.

“I like the cows to be well built with a big frame and that is why I have imported Holsteins from North America and Europe. The New Zealand-bred Holsteins tend to be slightly smaller in stature and tend not to produce quite as much milk,” says David.

With the size of the cows in mind, when David and Pip decided to replace their 36-bail rotary dairy, which was built in

1991, they went large.

The old rotary had served its purpose after 27 years and it was time to upgrade as there is a lot of new technology available that could make milking and general farm management a lot more efficient and productive.

“It was taking too long to milk in the old rotary; and to attract good staff you really have to have an efficient, easy-to-operate dairy shed,” says David.

Big building Te Awamutu company Gibson Construction had the task of building the new dairy shed. Gibson Construction site manager Mikey Broadley says David wanted the building to be physically big enough to house a 60-bail rotary platform.

“He installed a 54-bail equivalent size platform with 50-bails to accommodate his large-framed Holsteins. It has allowed for more space between the platform and the internal walls, for better maneuverability,” says Mikey.

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WAIPIRI FARMS

The entrance to the dairy shed with the silo supplied by Corohawk and the stunning brickwork by Jeff Glover Bricklaying.

The bigger building enables the European milk silo to be housed under cover and gives extra cover where the cows enter to step on to the platform. “The dairy shed is positioned to optimise the scenery for the milker,” says Gibson Construction managing director James Cullen.

The larger building allows for extra office space and a large staffroom, which David makes available for agricultural groups to hold meetings.

The outside of the building is Titania Trimlad coloursteel over autumn blend rustic brick with black mortar, modelled on a European dairy shed. The cost is a bit more than painting but is aesthetically pleasing and low maintenance. The walls are all insulated and the windows double-glazed for winter warmth. In summer the large doorways on the side of the building can be opened up to let a breeze through.

The outside of the dairy shed has been further enhanced with

Page 93

Milking time in the new 50-bail rotary at Waipiri farm at Ngahinapouri.

Vertical lift backing gate designed, manufactured and supplied by Edwards Engineering Services Ltd. the addition of brick veneer around the bottom third of the walls. “This is the first time we’ve used brick veneer on a dairy shed,” says Jeff Glover of Jeff Glover Brick and Block Layers from Te Awamutu.

“It adds to the European look and bricks don’t hold as much water so they won’t go green with moisture like grey concrete blocks. It looks a lot smarter and cleaner,” says Jeff.

Oversized underpass There is an oversized underpass, and instead of going through the pit wall it goes underneath into the centre of the pit at a depth of 3.5m, where the usual depth is 2.5m.

Mikey says the new dairy shed is a working showroom for DeLaval, which will be bringing observers through during milking. “So the building had to be large enough to accommodate them and ensure they are not knocked over by

moving machinery. We also had to adhere to strict Occupational Health & Safety requirements.”

This has been the biggest dairy shed the Gibson Construction team has built.

Gibson Construction built the extensive concrete feed pad, effluent tank, 48m by 12m weeping wall and stone trap and installed the floodwash.

David had installed DeLaval milking plants in other dairy sheds and was always pleased with the product. “I saw no reason to change and when asked, I agreed to become part of the DeLaval prototype. The location of the farm was close to the airport so the head office of DeLaval could easily transport visitors to the farm so they can see how the dairy shed works,” says David.

He chose McGregors Farm Services, the DeLaval dealer for Matamata and Morrinsville, to undertake the installation.

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WAIPIRI FARMS

Page 94

Coast & Country

The new 50-bail rotary dairy shed at Waipiri farm from above.

Left: Farm owner David Fullerton checking production on the computer.

Dairy Wall Coatings’ Greg Fulton, McGregor Farm Services’ Daniel Peake, farm owner David Fullerton and DeLaval’s Chris Watkins and Geoff Berlyn.

McGregors Farm Services’ owner Daniel Peake says he’s done a lot of work for David during the last 20 years. “I started off as an apprentice electrician and making changes to milking plant installations, and worked for various companies until I bought McGregors Farm Services in 2017.

“David has supported me throughout my career and it was a real thrill to be part of this unique dairy shed,” says Daniel.

Technology As David has expressed, one of the key elements and drivers for the new parlour was technology, which in turn creates both efficiencies and productivity. At the heart of the new dairy, there was no other choice than the DeLaval Rotary E300 solution. With the new

E300, everything was built on the foundation of exceeding the needs of the four farmer challenges: animal welfare, worker efficiency, food safety, and farm profitability.

The platform itself is the latest generation alloy super deck – the first in the world, which weighs some 500kg/bail lighter than the traditional concrete equivalent. Its angled bails, which work in unison with the patented entry and exit-bridge, are a proven global design second to none for throughput.

The DeLaval milking system itself is built upon DelPro – Farm Management. This intuitive and robust system links the milking point controllers (cup removers), milk/blood/ conductivity meters, feed system, activity monitoring, automatic weighing, sort gates and Body Condition Scoring camera. “In

terms of options, the Fullerton’s were smart and essentially ticked every box. Continuity of brand, performance and service was extremely important to them,” says Daniel.

The farm also has three special additional items. Firstly the Teat Spray Robot, taking the traditional consumption of 35ml-45ml/spray to eight-12ml/spray, with optimal accuracy. The insulated DXCEM – bulk milk tank, with its horizontal format and chiller pads on the base, creating vast cooling efficiency gains. And lastly the DeLaval InService All-Inclusive – or ISAI – service and consumable agreement, allowing the Fullerton’s to sleep easy, knowing the system is always performing as it should. “All in all, it’s been a pleasure to be involved in such an amazing project,” says Daniel.

“We think they’ve created something special

here along with the support of DeLaval New Zealand and we look forward to supporting David and Pip for years to come.”

Who knew that cows could be treated to a bovine pedicure to ensure their hooves stay healthy and prevent them from becoming lame?

Hoof care Stuart Rogers, owner of Hoof-it, or Waikato Hoof Trimming at Ohaupo, does just that.

“I’ve been helping the Fullertons with their herd’s hoof care during the last few years. The emphasis is toward maintenance of the cow’s hooves and helping to prevent more serious problems.

“If the hooves are well cared for, kept trimmed and balanced, the cows are less likely to become lame and get infections, reducing production and causing costly vet bills.

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Page 95

Left: The cups-on area in the 50-bail DeLaval rotary.

The pit area.

Right: David Fullerton’s bigframed Waipiri Holstein cows wait in the yard to be milked in the farm’s new dairy shed that caters to their size.

The DeLaval rotary milking platform.

“A regular maintenance programme is more desirable than waiting until the hoof is infected,” says Stuart.

If the hoof claw grows bigger on one side, the cow can become unbalanced and that leads to lameness, so trimming is an important part of animal health. The cow will then re-grow a healthy hoof.

Stuart trained in the UK, completing a hoof trimming course through the Hoof Trimmers Association. He’s just imported a new hydraulic-driven portable crush from the Netherlands, which sits in front of the vet race and makes the job safer and easier on the animal and the operator. He covers the greater Waikato area.

Feed installation Although all the gear for the feed system in Fullerton’s new dairy shed was supplied by DeLaval, Corohawk from Ngahinapouri was employed to install it.

“We installed the augers, feed lines, the large DeLaval feed

head and the hopper and supplied the silos used for storage,” says Corohawk managing director Chris Hawkings.

There are two silos, which holds 16 tonnes and 53 tonnes of feed, which is enough feed for the herd and delivery times.

“It was an awkward site to install the silos as the old rotary dairy shed was still there and in the way,” says Chris.

“We supplied a wheeled auger that could reach and fill both silos until the old shed is removed.”

The large DeLaval feed head above the platform that dispenses the feed into the bins took two days to install. “As the platform was in the way, we had to get in scaffolding to meet health and safety requirements because of the number of technicians required to work on the feed head. With the help of the DeLaval technicians we managed to get it installed and it is now working well,” says Chris.

Corohawk can install meal feeding systems into both rotary and herringbone dairy sheds for cows, goats and sheep, covering both the North Island and South Island.

Dairy farmers have to adhere to a very strict hygiene

standard in their dairy sheds and part of this is that all vertical walls need to be painted with a special coating that comes up to this standard.

Wall coating Acraflex Dairy Wall Coatings’ South Waikato agent Greg Fulton says a dairy shed is a commercial area and classed as a food processing plant. “And as such the coating used needs to repel any bugs and any organic matter can be easily removed by a high pressure hose,” says Greg.

The coating will last between 10 and 30 years, depending on how well it is looked after. “I saw one dairy shed recently that had been coated 27 years ago and was still looking like new.

They just wash it down with sodium hydrochloride now and again to keep it looking like new,” says Greg.

Acraflex coatings can be applied to new or existing dairy sheds and extensions to dairy sheds – and can also be applied to the outside of buildings.

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Page 96

Coast & Country

The large staffroom can be available for agricultural groups to hold meetings.

The undercover vat stand.

A DeLaval cow scratcher placed in the yard.

The DeLaval milking plant in the new dairy.

Edwards Engineering Services Ltd in Te Awamutu designed, manufactured and supplied the backing gate for David and Pip’s new dairy shed.

Edwards Engineering Services Ltd owner Brian Edwards says conventional backing gates tip backwards to let the second herd into the yard, and bumps into the cows standing close to it.

“Our design has a vertical lift so it doesn’t matter how close the cows are standing to it,” says Brian.

The vertical lift gate has been a success and can be fitted to any rectangle dairy shed yard – herringbone or rotary.

McMillan Electrical Solutions Ltd from Morrinsville designed, engineered and commissioned all aspects of the electrical system, starting with the new mains cables through to the lighting design process and writing the programmable logic controllers for the effluent system and other parts of the shed.

The size of the shed and the long distance to motors and pumps made the job challenging but rewarding once done.

There were two full-time qualified electricians on the project with part-time help from another three staff when needed.

McMillan Electrical Solutions Ltd’s Steve McMillan says

they worked closely with McGregor’s Farm Services, Power Chill NZ Ltd, DeLaval and Gibson construction, to make sure all of the automation and systems came together at the commissioning stage.

“We were very pleased with the end product and would like to thank David and Pip for the opportunity to work with them to complete this project,” says Steve.

Refrigeration first Power Chill NZ Ltd is also pleased to have been involved in the installation of the refrigeration equipment at the Fullerton farm. Company director Robin McGregor is happy with how the installation proceeded, saying his company has been heavily involved in the farm refrigeration industry in the greater Waikato area for the last 15 years. “This was a first in terms of hooking up one of the new DeLaval horizontal vat systems. A few modifications to allow for NZ conditions has led to a system working exceptionally well and delivering temperature well

within the compliance range required.”

Unfortunately, the old rotary was too old so very little could be salvaged to be used in the new dairy. David says the new dairy has proved to be the right decision, and with yearround milking it is used to the maximum.

The cows are kept in two herds and drafted depending on where they are in the cycle of drying off, calving or full flush of milk.

David and Pip’s son manages the dairy farm with two other full-time workers and two part-time workers, and a younger son comes home at times to help out.

“The new dairy shed has worked out well. The way it is designed, I can sit in the office and see what’s happening – that’s where I like to be these days,” says David.

It is an open type of farm and the Fullertons have always welcomed visitors and are happy to share their knowledge. With the first-of-a-kind DeLaval milking plant, we think there will be a lot more visitors.

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Page 97

SIMPSON FARMS

Page 98

All under Steve Edwards

Coast & Country

one roof An outside view of the dairy built by Don Chapman Waikato and designed by Chapman Dairy.

Simpson Farms

Mike Simpson is justifiably proud of the new dairy complex.

You know you’re on to a pretty special dairy shed story when you conduct the interview in the on-site office.

The well-appointed amenity, with its computer system, obligatory tea-coffeemaking facilities and large windows overlooking the shed, was a fitting setting for Mike Simpson to tell me how this extraordinary operation came about at Rangiriri in North Waikato.

The term ‘large-scale’ doesn’t do justice to the new dairy, just across the Waikato River on Glen Murray Rd. Everything about it is big – 1200 cows milked on 640ha in a 64-bail rotary, plus what’s claimed to be the largest feed pad in the Waikato.

Simpson Farms dates back to 1964 when Mike’s grandfather bought a small block which his lawyer warned was “undesirable” swampy bushland.

Stand-off area However, he stuck to it, later acquiring a neighbour’s property. Mike’s parents continued the trend and bought the last 46ha three years ago.

Until recently, the property had two 44-aside herringbone sheds, milking half the herd each.

In June 2018, Mike says they started thinking about “doing something instead of doing two of everything”.

The key was a stand-off area to protect pasture and also enhance animal welfare. A threeyear construction plan was compacted into

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12 months, with the new operation up-andrunning for the start of this dairy season.

Six people were employed for milking, now two are required. However, Mike stresses cutting staff was “not a driver” in the project.

The site, formerly a paddock near one of the old cowsheds, covers 3ha. Three tractors and trailers were used during six weeks to cart fill from another part of the property to build up the new facility’s base.

This paved the way for the laying of 10,000m2 of concrete. Next to the dairy are three bunkers, each capable of holding 450 tonnes of feed.

Next came the giant feed pad, which Mike says not only protects pasture but prevents heat-stress in cattle. “So we have summer and winter safeguards, because in the past we just rolled with the punches with the weather.”

Views of the massive feedpad that can cater for the whole herd.

He’s “ecstatic” to make the transition from a grassed-based farming system. “It’s a real cool feeling.”

Diet difference The 6100m2 pad features 32m long beams, with feed and water troughs to cater for the whole herd in one sitting. It can hold up to 9kg of feed per cow, each with 750mm of “feed space”.

Mike says the cows easily adjusted to the concept. A nutritionist has advised him to expect a rise in seasonal production per cow from 380-550 kgMS. “Diet does make a difference,” says Mike.

PH 07 578 0030

SIMPSON FARMS

Page 99

The effl effluent washdown system on the feedpad, using recycled water, in action.

An aerial view of the Simpson Farms’ dairy complex. Photo courtesy of Archway Group. own room. Mike says it helped that a number of those who worked on the new shed were familiar with the property.

After working with Simpson Farms for 30 years, Te Kauwhata-based Andrews Electrical wasn’t over awed by the scale of the project when the owners called and said simply: “We’re doing a shed”.

Waiuku Refrigeration Service’s Mike and Dan Barnett in front Director Allan Andrews says good planning was key, of the chiller units they installed. with a site meeting involving all contractors held before Feed is brought to the pad from nearby bunkers in the evening and after physical work began. “We all knew our roles and the morning milkings. schedule,” says Allan. “The technology is advanced, but Mike says the herd receives half its diet on the pad. It is cleaned via a not unnecessarily complicated.” floodwash system using recycled water, stored in three 25,000L tanks.

On-site from May/June 2018, the “whole new system” Gravity-fed, the water flows down the pad at the push of a button, with involved considerable undergrounding of cables. A new material collected in large holding tanks at the bottom. The liquid is recycled 200kVA transformer was required, generating 120kw if in the operation, used twice-a-day, and solids are used later for fertiliser. required. The switchboard has its own room, shared with A similar system is used to clean the main yard, using 80 per cent recycled water pumps for the milking plant. water and the balance coming from nearby Waikato River.

Ducting – in sand beneath the cement – was used under the floor of the dairy, with kilometres of cables threaded Best bits through.

Allan’s team’s work included all power supplies and Mike says such technology was gleaned through visiting eight farms and “taking the best bits”. Somewhat incredibly, the cowshed can be manned by controls for the cup control panel, milking plant, chillers, milking platform, backing gate, effluent and water systems. one person, plus a yard-hand, with another on “farm duty”.

A new electricity transformer was required, with the switchboard requiring its Aztech Buildings worked with Archway Group and

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Chapman Dairy to design and build the two main structures specific to the Simpson Farm requirements.

A 55m long rectangular roof spans over the 850m2 Chapman Dairy yard and backing gate. Aztech Buildings’ sales consultant Simon Clare says the large feed pad cover is 96m long by 63m wide to ensure adequate space and feed access for 900 cows.

Air movement The flood-washed feed pad by Archway Group is split into three separate feed pads – for 300 cows each – and the building clearspans each feed pad with three 21m spans and features central ventilation. “This ensures necessary air movement for both animal welfare and structural durability through the release of passive air and ammonia.”

Simon says another key feature of the Aztech Buildings’ design is the rafter to purlin connection that eliminates bird-perch opportunities in the roof line.

Archway Group originally got asked to do the project as a two-three stage plan incorporating the old cowshed and using a 300-cow pad with the ability to add on and integrate into a new cowshed eventually.

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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Page 100

SIMPSON FARMS

Andrews Electrical’s Janse van Rensburg, Niel Burger and Allan Andrews in front of the switchboard room.

Amanda Hodgson, co-owner of the Te Pukebased company with her husband Matt, says they were asked back out a few months later to change the plan to include an all-new cowshed, undercover pad for 1000 cows and the effluent system. “Together we came up with what it looks like now.

“The most important thing we can stress is having a plan,” says Amanda. “Keep it current, customise and adapt it to the surroundings and the needs of the farm.”

Using gravity Amanda says standing off this number of cows for longer periods of time comes with complex calculations of solids produced, and that all flows on to the sizing of the infrastructure and how to deal with the solids. “It’s often underestimated the pressure solids put on a system.”

The system is designed to maximise the use of gravity, enable use of an effective floodwash and capture solids so the effluent application area can be increased.

Amanda says the Simpsons have decreased

The farm’s 1200 cows will all be milked in the new 64-bail rotary.

their labour needs by keeping the design simple.

LIC Automation came up with the goods for the shed’s high-tech drafting system. Product marketing manager Teresa Karl says the 1200cow KiwiCross herd can be milked by a single person in three hours, with the shed boasting automatic cup removers, teat sprayers, Protrack Rotary ID and Draft.

“A Protrack Rotary ID system identifies the cow as it enters the bail, and has a full alerting functionality including audio and visual alerts.”

It also allows Mike to easily update and record animal events, such as heats, health treatments and calvings.

“It is fully integrated with MINDA LIVE, so events entered will appear in the holding pen for approval,” says Teresa.

This product works hand-in-hand with the Protrack Draft system, used via iPhone and computer on Simpson Farms, which controls an automated three-way drafting gate. An electronic reader and antenna identifies an animal by number as she walks into the draft gate.

Waiuku Refrigeration Services took care of

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Coast & Country

A view from the office in the new dairy in North Waikato.

the dairy’s refrigeration needs. This included two new larger units to go with a smaller pair, also installed by WRS, in the old shed.

No glycol Water is used in pre-cooling milk through the new elements of the system, while existing chillers provide a secondary supply to the vat.

They also supply another vat for calf feeding and link to a hot water cylinder in the plant room.

Milk temperature is kept at between six and eight degrees Celsius. Equipment was delivered to the Rangiriri property in December. Two WRS staff were involved in the project, company director Mike Barnett and his son Dan. Mike says the refrigeration systems obviously comply with industry regulations, including the required temperature, while the use of water means there’s no risk of glycol contamination.

Glycol can be used as a coolant in dairy sheds, but is not recommended by WRS. “The units used on the Simpson farm are also more reliable,” says Mike.

Two existing chillers were modified to suit the

new milking system, but “nothing too radical”. As per industry requirements, the four refrigeration units are all on legs, are connected to nearby water tanks and can cater for any increased herd size in future. One of the large units works parttime during a regular milking season, but “comes in” as required during the “flush”.

The Simpson’s 64-bail rotary was “getting up there” with the biggest farm dairy projects tackled by Morrinsville-based Don Chapman Waikato. However, director Shanan White says the job ran smoothly with no major issues.

A team of three-four staff were on-site for about 20 weeks building the cowshed and yard.

Shanan says a rectangle yard – as opposed to a circular shape – was used to connect with the adjacent feed pad.

Siting and design work were undertaken by Morrinsville-based Chapman Dairy. “My part was how it all sat on the site and followed the land contour,” says director Don Chapman.

“I had to make the dairy entrance and exit all work, from the farm, feed pad and shed.”

Don says several days’ work was involved in developing overall concept plans and design for the dairy and yard on the Simpson property.

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SIMPSON FARMS

Page 101

The vats outside the new dairy.

Mike Simpson in his new rotary.

Water tanks feeding the shed.

Huntly-based Broughton Contracting had a few months’ work carting topsoil and sand on the Simpson property. “It was pretty large scale,” says director Tim Broughton.

Countless tractor-and-trailer-loads of material was moved, involving one-two staff. Tim says topsoil was taken off and sand added to the complex’s base before topsoil was put back.

Southern input Based north of Christchurch, Read Industrial undertook “complete” installation of plant and machinery in the shed. This included the milking system, cup removers, pulsators, vacuum pump, cooler filter and delivery line equipment.

The scale of the operation is “slightly above

Hot water cylinders in the plant room. average,” says director Phil Read, whose company has tackled a 100-bail rotary before.

Three staff came up from the South Island and worked on the Simpson property for a fortnight, returning for another two days for commissioning.

The Donald Rotary platform is from Donald Engineering. They make dairy platforms that are long-lasting and reliable. And Donald Engineering bails are suitable for most milking systems equipment.

Morrinsville-based Hutchies installed the water supply systems for the dairy and supplied pumps and tanks for effluent disposal.

Hutchies’ Grant Pedersen says two staff worked on-site in association with Archway

Construction, for about six weeks.

Water was sourced from an existing system in the old cowshed, with three 25,000L tanks used in the new complex. Three tanks of similar size were installed by Hutchies for the effluent washdown system servicing the feed pad.

Recycling system Grant says the recycling system used for effluent from the feedpad is becoming commonplace in farm dairies due to council and industry standards. Water filtration pumps were also installed by Hutchies along with a variablespeed water pump, which Grant says provides good pressure. “A transfer pump was installed for movement of material in holding tanks at the end of the feedpad to effluent ponds.”

FREE DEMO

Te Kauwhata-based Wattle Contracting carted material to build up the base for the dairy shed, feed pad and feed bunkers. Director Peter Green says two staff drove tractors and trailers for six-eight weeks, moving “several thousand metres of sand”.

Material was sourced from a site on-farm.

“There was quite a lot of work for us,” says Peter.

Hygiene and teat-care was the domain of GEA FIL. Area manager Mark Mohring says cleaning products are dispensed by chemical pumps through the milking system.

In tandem he conducted water, chemical and plant testing on-site. This testing looked at chemical cleaning efficiency, water use and heat monitoring. “And the teat-care solution, dispensed through an automatic washing system, includes a Manuka honey additive.”

On-site for 10 days, Mark ensured shed hygiene and teat-care fell under compliance standards set by the dairy industry and Fonterra.

OAK FARMING

Page 102

Happy

Coast & Country

goats Peter White

Frans Janssen and wife Penelope with a happy goat.

Staff enjoying their work.

When Frans Janssen arrived in New Zealand from Holland 11 years ago he dreamed of owning a substantial goat farm.

built by end of November.

Frans says coming from Europe, and with a European business partner, he looked at designs that would work.

“We wanted to keep the heat out in summer and consistent temperature in winter but also perfect air flow to keep the barns as ammoniafree as possible,” says Frans.

“We have high winds and high rain here so we wanted to keep the weather out. We needed to be able to close the barn off, have an insulated roof to keep the heat out and warmth in, insulated side panels that are nice and sturdy and will last for years.

“Another thing we used is clear lights in the kids’ barn, which is a product from France with five holes in it so we have a very slow air flow but no draught. It is very good for the goats

Goats have always been his passion. He had farmed dairy goats in Holland on a small scale, so was hoping for a chance to pursue his dream alongside his wife Penelope and son Bjorn.

The opportunity came in July 2018 to purchase the 103ha Elite Goat Milk Ltd property in the farming district of Manawaru, between Matamata and Te Aroha.

Immediately there was a major issue for his 1700 goats. Frans needed a kid-rearing barn, main housing barn for the adult goats and a new covered yard for the milking shed to be

Oak Farming

because it takes all the waste air out.”

Special skills Frans is grateful for the wonderful input from everyone involved in the project.

Hamilton-based Aztech Buildings brought a wealth of experience to ensuring the project was completed on time.

Aztech Buildings’ goat housing specialist Daniel Prestidge says they delivered the solution with a combination of clever design and product innovation.

“We are proud to be able to develop the pinnacle of best practice dairy goat housing in the barns. We had some pretty specific goat housing challenges to overcome, and I

Thirsty goats enjoy a drink. feel that our team of engineers and designers have done a fantastic job with this barn of the future,” says Daniel.

“An insulated roof coupled with a precisely calculated roof pitch and a well thought-out roof ridge ventilation system means Frans can trust that a consistent year-round temperature can be achieved.”

High-sided walls and roller doors avoided draughts while the roof overhang and roof pitch contribute to maintaining a balance between being well ventilated or draughty.

The bedding area and feed face have been carefully calculated to ensure industry best practice and to maintain goat comfort.

A dominant goat can severely impact condition and feed intake of a less dominant goat, so having carefully considered feed-facing space is a must.

ANIMAL HOUSING SPECIALISTS Advice | Design | Build Driving animal housing best practice since 2005.

0800 298 324 www.aztechbuildings.co.nz 2

It is e ffe c t iv e b e c a u s e o f a t w o p r o n g e d a p p r o a c h w it h P r o b io t ic

It is e ffe c t iv e b e c a u s e o f a t w o p r o n g e d a p p r o a c h w it h P r o b io t ic s ImmunoMax 5 cow pack

Gms

Price (ex GST)

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OAK FARMING

PH 07 578 0030

Page 103

The expansive new barns at Frans and Penelope Janssen’s goat farm at Manawaru are eye-catching.

The barn design at Frans and Penelope Janssen’s goat farm sets new industry standards.

Left: Kevin Wade Laser Drainage’s Klinton Wade with Manawaru farmers Frans and Penelope Janssen outside one of their goat farm’s new barns.

The uniquely designed milking barn at Frans and Penelope Janssen’s goat farm.

Corohawk, based in Ohaupo in Hamilton, designed and installed the conveyor feed systems.

Corohawk managing director Chris Hawkings says goats are testing the new systems in every way imaginable. They climb, they chew; they are inquisitive.

“The project has gone very well. It is a nice platform and a nice system to work on,” says Chris. “The electronics in it reads the goat and the bail rotary feeds it and also measures the second-time-round-goats coming through, so they don’t get double fed.

“So if the system is in reverse for five goats, it has to go forward five before it starts feeding again.”

Team game Removing the flooding risk at the property was the biggest challenge faced by Kevin Wade Laser Drainage and Ron Johnston Drainlayer.

Waikato-based drainlayer Ron Johnston says they had to solve how to stop the area around the new sheds from flooding.

“Previously, all the sheds used to flood as there were real limited stormwater systems off the sheds so we basically designed the whole system. It was a big job for us and a challenging one,” says Ron. “Frans put his faith in us to sort it out for him. We’ve stopped the flooding and that was the main priority.”

Kevin Wade owns a goat farm himself in the district so jumped at the chance to work on the project.

“We started from scratch there. We had to strip all the topsoil, then cart the sand in, build the site up,” says Kevin. “We used our laser levelling blade that automatically levelled it off to within 5ml for pre-concrete pouring. We carted in all the metal as well for the yards.”

Kevin’s son Klinton was involved from start to finish.

Klinton says working closely with other sub-contractors was crucial to getting the big project finished on time.

“We worked closely with Ron Johnston putting in stormwater drainage pipes out to the main drain,” says Klinton. “It was very important that we communicated closely together. It was a really good project to work on and it is good to be a local company doing good work for the local farmers around the district.”

Happy goats Frans says the success of the barns so far is shown in how well the goats have accepted their new home.

“There has not been a drop in production, which is a really big benefit. Most times when you move goats halfway through lactation, they

will drop production and it is very hard to get them back up.

“These goats liked it and settled straight away within a day, started eating properly and are happy as.”

The efficiency of working with goats is a key factor for him. “When we look at production and the size of the animal, it is amazing what they can produce.

“They are far more efficient than a cow. There is lots to do with feeding and genetics and total management. It is just amazing.”

The 1700 goats farmed are mostly Saanen, renowned for their milk yield and being extremely easy to handle; and Saanen crossed with Toggenburg and British Alpine breeds.

They produce 130kgMS per goat per 365 days lactation per year. The milk is processed at the Dairy Goat Co-operative NZ Ltd in Hamilton into powder and exported to 28 countries worldwide.

SINGH FARMS

Page 104

Coast & Country

Record-breaking

barn

A bird’s eye view of the fi finished project.

Peter White

Singh Farms

The impressive freestall barn at the Singh’s Gordonton farm.

Three generations of the Singh family has farmed 265 hectares in Gordonton, Waikato, since the 1980s.

It began with Karmjit, then son Aman, now joined by his 21-year-old son Arjun, who recently graduated from Massey University.

Last April a massive covered freestall barn was completed on the property, after eight months’ construction during, at times, difficult weather conditions.

It is the largest rural building in the Waikato at 9635m2 – and 245m long by 38.5m wide – with room for 1000 cows.

Aman was sold on the idea after he and 35 other farmers went to America with project managers Calder Stewart Construction three years ago.

“We dry out quite a lot here so it was how

we can feed the cows better and look after our animals and the environment at the same time?

That was the thinking behind it,” says Aman.

Cow comfort The sides are partially open with ventilation running down the full length of the impressive roof span to get what Aman calls the ‘chimney effect’.

The cows are able to choose their own bed and to come and go as they like. “Their sheets are changed twice daily,” laughs Aman.

The side rails ensure the cows lie in the correct direction so that when they do stand, 90 per cent of the effluent falls out into the central laneway where mechanical scrapers remove it to the effluent tanks next door.

The barn has an 18-degree pitched roof, central feed lanes that provide 500 linear metres of access, allowing every cow in the barn

to eat at any time. Feed is pushed up to the animals by a robotic feed pusher.

All stormwater is collected off the 11,000m2 roof area into a 30,000L storage bladder for further use on-farm.

Training takes time Aman says teaching the cows to get used to their new home is a priority. “It is up and running but not performing 100 per cent.

It will take a year or so, like anything new.

Training the cows is a big issue as it is a big change for the cows.

“About 600 of the 700 cows we have in there at the moment are new stock and have trained themselves really well. There is probably another 100 that are older and don’t really want to change their ways.

“In summer cows outside tend to drop with the heat on them and stop breeding but our

firing ahead. We have just started cows are fi calving again [in February].”

The key benefits of the new shed are increased production, pasture protection, control of feed levels and improved dairy herd health.

Aman says the motivation behind making the huge commitment to the project was they just could not keep going the way they were.

“We were just playing with the weather otherwise. This takes the drought out of play and gives our business a bit more security over things. Otherwise, we are just hoping it is going to rain or hoping it will dry out.

“That is no way to have a business run that way so we thought we’d think outside the square a bit. They are putting sheds up like this all over the world but it is something new for where we live.”

SINGH FARMS

PH 07 578 0030

Page 105

Grain and Foods Ltd’s Darren Miers with son Bailey, and farmers Aman Singh and Arjun Singh.

Happy cows in their cubicles in the new freestall barn.

The high tech effluent management system.

Livestock manager Arjun Singh, aged 21, is the newest generation to farm the family property at Gordonton.

Arjun, the livestock manager, says sustainability was the key with new regulations making it tighter and harder on farmers.

“We catch all the effluent into holding ponds with a system that separates solids and liquids and when it is dry, is spread across the farm. We control all our own effluent and just have more control around the whole farming system.”

Design and build Calder Stewart Construction oversaw the design-build project with the goal to produce a world class dairy barn system.

The major outcome has been an impressive lift in per-cow output of 10-15 per cent while reducing environmental impacts, nitrogen loading, and de-stocking on the land itself.

Calder Stewart Construction’s regional manager for Waikato, Kelvin O’Connell, says it was a complex journey as it is with a lot of projects.

“We probably started in 2014 when Arman

first made contact with us. It was about building a bond with the farmer and finding out what his wants and needs were for the benefit of future generations.

“Challenges were the peat soil ground conditions, getting the right location, making sure the barn was the right size and that the cow flow was what Aman wanted – and the cows were cared for well so they produced that lovely white gold.

“The effluent management and nitrate control has to be a complete package. The resource consent for that and the excavation was a major to get through.”

Equipment GEA Farm Technologies were the primary equipment suppliers for the barn and the effluent solid separation system.

“Within the barn that included the rubber alley matting, the cubicles including bedding

where the cows lie down and the effluent scrapers,” says GEA Farm Technologies’ effluent and barn solution specialist Matt Rice.

“This was run a bit differently where we supplied the equipment to Aman. He installed it, got stuck in himself and did it really well.

“We have some valuable comfort expertise at GEA and when it came to the design of the building, the dimensions inside are critical to ensure an optimum environment and good animal flow.

“So we worked closely with Calder Stewart Construction around the design of the building for optimum cow comfort which Aman really focussed on,” says Matt.

Team effort Grain and Foods Ltd director Darren Miers says terrible weather added challenges to the construction of the barn.

“They built the shed at a real difficult time

after a period of nearly seven months of nearly non-stop rain. It was nearly impossible to build anything. It took a lot of patience on everyone working together to bring it together.”

Grain and Foods Ltd helped grow the maize supplements to feed the cows once they went in the barn. “I think this is going to be an exceptional outcome for Aman and his family,” says Darren.

Jeff Rigter of Buzz Electrical in Te Aroha took care of all the electrical work, particularly the lighting, effluent system and power for the automatic feed systems.

“This project was definitely interesting. I hadn’t done a cow barn on such a large scale previously so it was daunting at the outset.

However, working in with multiple contractors installing their high tech automated systems turned out well,” says Jeff.

“It felt great to see the finished project and to have been part of Aman’s team that made it happen.”

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Page 106

BALLARD

Infrastructure upgrade

Coast & Country

Ballard

Peter White

Farm owner Graham Ballard and Aztech Buildings’ Hamish Prestidge under-cover on the feed pad.

The impressive new cover over the fed pad at Graeme Ballard’s farm at Gordonton, near Hamilton.

Graeme Ballard’s farm is located off the road bearing his surname.

It is a clear indication of the deepset tradition his family has in the beautiful Waikato district of Gordonton.

In 1911 his great grandfather purchased a farm on the main Gordonton Rd, about 25km from the town of Morrinsville.

Graeme’s grandfather then bought the block of land on what became Ballard Rd in 1930, with his father taking over the farm in 1966

and Graeme buying into the family business from the early-1980s.

“Our farm is an amalgamation of three smaller dairy farms. We have replaced smaller, outdated dairies and effluent systems with a larger more automated and centralised dairy shed, where we milk 800 cows,” says Graeme.

“The main source of feed for them is a clover/ rye grass pasture, but with our challenging peat soils there is always a need to renovate and renew these pastures.

“We have found that growing maize is a great way to do this as it provides consistent high yields and mixed with palm kernel and P8 – a liquid byproduct from the cheese making

industry – we can produce a high quality ration at a sustainable price to supplement cows during times of minimal pasture growth and feed deficient.”

New roof The installation of a roof above the established feed pad was successfully completed last year. It measures 92 metres by 18 metres.

The project is part of a three-year infrastructure upgrade, where the focus has been on compliance, containment, and control.

Graeme says using a covered feed pad is critical for the ability to feed out at all times of

the year with minimal wastage.

“Our feed pad only holds half of our herd. Generally, the cows are farmed in two separate herds and fed their ration prior to the afternoon milking in two separate shifts.

“The pad is used by two herds totalling 800 cows from around midday, where they will comfortably eat for about half an hour before they go to milking.”

Effluent filtering One of the greatest challenges has been dealing with the effluent generated from the pad, particularly during periods of significant rainfall.

BALLARD

PH 07 578 0030

The uncovered round milking yard at Graeme Ballard’s farm.

Graeme says as the shed and pad are built on flat land on the peat soil, all the effluent has to be mixed and pumped to either a travelling irrigator or a holding pond.

Archway Group did the full construction and install of the weeping wall system.

Archway Group owner Matt Hodgson located the weeping wall on a clay knob out of the peat, which also created the fall needed to eliminate pumping the liquids to the pond by a using a gravity feed.

“The biggest advantage is it minimises the amount of effluent by allowing us to control the amount of effluent we create on-site during high rainfall periods,” says Matt.

“The feed pad roof minimises the amount of effluent created by diverting and storing rainwater, and it stops pumps from being overwhelmed and breaches occurring during significant rainfall events.

Graeme says having a roof over a very large concrete area, where cows feed, stops that rainfall turning into a problem.” It only takes 25mm of rain and suddenly you have created

Archway Groups’ weeping wall system works a treat.

50,000 litres of effluent, which has to be pumped and dealt with.

“It is trying to be compliant 365 days a year.

When we get significant rainfall, because of the location of the shed and the lack of elevation, as it is all on flat land with a high water table, we have to pump everything from the pad.”

Recycling rainfall Providing shade for cattle in the hot summer months and ensuring none of the precious rainwater is wasted are other major benefits of the covered feed pad.

Graeme says the air temperature is a significantly five to six degrees Celsius lower under the roof.

“The other advantage is we are collecting that rainwater from the roof and we will be recycling that into the system. It will be recycled and used at our discretion rather than when nature makes it happen.

“While we are looking at probably bladders

ANIMAL HOUSING SPECIALISTS Advice | Design | Build Driving animal housing best practice since 2005.

“

Page 107

The effluent pond gives 100-plus days of storage during winter.

that hold up to 800,000 litres, it is a good reserve of water to have particularly if your bores are limited in the supply of clean, fresh water.

“At least we have captured that during periods of rainfall and can access it when things are a little bit drier,” says Graeme.

Aztech Buildings was the project designer, constructing the feed pad roof.

Sales consultant Hamish Prestidge says it was all about being flexible working around what was already there.

“The site has different levels and we had to make way for different accessways; there is a drain on the other side and an effluent sump.

“So it was important to get a design that was going to work for any particular situation.

“We had to drill through peat into running sand, which caused significant subsidence, due to the high water table, so each hole had to be sleeved as it was drilled. Contractors had to then pump out the water as they pumped in the concrete during the pole installation.

“It is the sort of project we love doing and what we focus on. A big part of what we do

More success The covered feed pad is not the only innovation to come from more than three years of development.

Other projects undertaken were upgrading the size of the effluent pond and lining it with a polyethylene liner. Graeme says it gives them 100-plus days of storage during winter.

“We also now filter our effluent through a passive weeping wall structure and recycle the green water through a gravity fed, floodwash system.

It is all about control and containment and ultimately best use of water. “Our goals have always been to leave this land in a more productive and environmentally sustainable manner for the next generation.”

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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is animal housing and covering existing feed pads.”

The high water table certainly added some challenges – Hamish says it was not an insurmountable task but added extra cost and time to complete the project.

BUCHANAN

Page 108

Coast & Country

Value for money Helen Wilson

Conall and Rowena Buchanan’s new rotary dairy shed on the Hauraki Plains.

Farm owner Conall Buchanan, his brother Paeroa Farm Services’ Warick Buchanan and contract milkers Jason and Kim Fox around the golden totara tree gifted to the Buchanans by the P3 Trust as thanks for being a monitor farm.

Hauraki Plains dairy farmers Conall and Rowena Buchanan have recently amalgamated two dairy farms into one, allowing easier management of the day-to-day running of the farm.

“One farm had a 26-bail rotary dairy and the other a 20-aside herringbone shed, which had already been upgraded once,” says Conall.

“Both had operational problems so we decided the best solution was a new dairy shed located in the middle of the farm.”

Including some lease land, they dairy on 213ha and in March were looking to milk 640 cows for this season.

“They are an efficient design, have good cow flow, no wasted areas and the cost was comparable to other designs. I consider his designs good value for money and the quoted cost came in finished cost,” says Conall. pretty close to the fi Another reason he chose a Chapman Dairy Ltd design was the quality of the builder, Shanan White, who is the licensee for Chapman Dairy Ltd in the Waikato area and is based at Morrinsville.

He is a qualifi qualified builder and has been doing contract work for Don Chapman Builders since 2006, mainly dairies. Shanan purchased Don Chapman Builders from Don Chapman in February 2014, taking over the existing premises in Morrinsville as well as all the staff, plant and tools.

“This rotary dairy was a standard Chapman Dairy design, constructed of refrigeration panels inside and outside, which is easy to keep clean, cuts down noise and keeps the dairy shed cool in the summer heat,” says Shanan.

Buchanan

Standout design Conall had been looking at dairy shed designs for the last 10 years and the standout design for him was dairy sheds designed

by Don Chapman, who has been designing dairy sheds for more than 30 years.

“The vent at the top of the roof lets in the light and increases the airflow. It is also bird-proofed,” says Shanan. The round circular yard has been designed to hold up to 700 cows and also creates good cow flow.

Made in NZ Choosing a milking machine was not too difficult for Conall either. “I’ve had Waikato Milking Systems milking plants in the past and have found them straightforward to use and most importantly they are made in New Zealand,” says Conall. He didn’t have far to find a WMS dealer as his brother, Warick Buchanan, owns Paeroa Farm Services. He bought the business from his parents nearly 14 years ago.

“Conall chose a modern, basic but modern, 54-bail Orbit concrete rotary platform with Smart ECRs, BailGate Straps cow retention and SmartSPRAY,” says Warick.

“The dairy shed uses well water so we installed an ultra violet purifying system. The water is pumped through a tube with UV light, which kills potential E.coli and other bacteria.

“Fonterra is tightening up on water purity compliance so it’s becoming more popular in new dairy sheds,” says Warick.

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PH 07 578 0030

BUCHANAN

The effluent pond capable of storing 2.5 million litres of effluent.

Paeroa Farm Services owner Warick Buchanan is a WMS dealer, so installed his brother Conall Buchanan’s new WMS plant in his new rotary shed.

Paeroa Farm Services also installed the effluent pump and stirrer up to Waikato Regional Council standards. “We all enjoyed working with the engineers and electricians who were involved with this project,” says Warick.

Waikato Milking Systems sales manager for Waikato and Northland, Gary Feeney, says Conall’s attention to detail and his idea of what he wanted in a milking plant is a credit to him and reflects in the finished product.

“By choosing the SmartECRs this gave Conall a fully automated sequence of events, accurately identifying the end of milking, ensuring minimum vacuum drop during milking and allowing the ability to fully customise the settings for his herd and milking routine.

“The integration of the SmartSPRAY into the automation ensures the seamless action of teat-spraying the cow, per bail while the teat canal is open. The bail gates are then activated, allowing the cow to exit the platform – this system is ideal for single operator rotary dairies,” says Gary.

Left: Looking into the pit area of the Buchanan’s new rotary shed.

During milking the platform wash and skirt wash eliminates the need for a comprehensive platform wash at the end of milking.

Efficient drafting LIC’s automatic solutions manager Tony Hutchison says Conall wanted an easy and efficient way of drafting out cows and decided on a Protrack drafting system by LIC Automation.

“We’re always improving our systems and Conall has the latest third generation Protrack system, which is connected to the LIC MINDA database at Newstead near Hamilton.

“Each cow has an EID tag, which identifies the cow and any issues it may have,” says Tony.

“The Protrack system can be accessed by our service desk via the internet and has the ability to diagnose any issues, which can be remedied straight away.”

The cows can be programmed to be drafted out after milking from the cups-on position or from the paddock using a smart device.

“It’s a very straightforward system and easy to use. It’s a convenient way to draft out the cows using a touchscreen or phone. It takes the time and hassle out of finding cows in the herd and is a lot safer for staff,” says Tony.

Williams Irrigation effluent system designer Brook Evans says Conall began conversations with his company early in the planning stages of his dairy shed.

“A few site investigations revealed a reasonably high water table in the area where we wanted to install the pond. We discussed the luxury of having all effluent gravity feeding directly into the storage pond, which led to raising the dairy shed site with suitable on-farm fill and installing the pond as low as practically possible while allowing groundwater to drain from beneath the liner,” says Brook.

The pond was sized to accommodate an unroofed feed pad, which was considered to be a potential option in the future. A high quality 1.5mm HDPE synthetic liner with geotextile underlay and gas venting systems

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LIC’s Tony Hutchison, with the Buchanan’s new Protrack drafting system.

The longer vet race.

was installed by AgruLine NZ. A shore-mounted pump and stirrer was installed to irrigate up to 45ha of varying soil types when ground conditions suit. A Williams GB Magnum travelling rain gun is utilised to provide low application depths during winter months, which is important for the heavier soil types. The more low risk soils can be irrigated accordingly with the five easy speed-change settings available.

Another reason for Conall to build a new dairy shed was to attract good staff, and he has that with his contract milkers Jason and Kim Fox.

Good staff “We’ve been here for one season and the dairy shed is brilliant to work in – it’s efficient and easy to use and it only takes one-hour-anda-half to milk more than 600 cows,” says Jason.

The cows are kept in two herds and Jason employs two full-time staff to help with milking and general farm work.

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