Spring 2011
A special supplement by
Sun Media Ltd 07 578 0030
Showcasing new dairy sheds throughout New Zealand
South bound The cream of the nation’s milking innovations
Susan and Philip Ingram and Darin Wallace.
Page 2
Table of Contents
NEW FARM DAIRIES
FARM
DISTRICT
PAGE
Little Ben
Canterbury
4-7
Beckinson Holdings
Canterbury
8-11
Vant Klooster
Canterbury
12-13
Van Leeuwen
Canterbury
14-17
Wavell Dairies
Canterbury
18-21
Oxhill
Canterbury
22-23
Butler
Canterbury
24-25
Taniwha Trust
Waikato
26-29
Fisher
Waikato
30-33
Adare
Waikato
34-37
Moeraki Farm
Waikato
38-41
Burnett
Waikato
42-45
Chamberlain
Central Plateau
46-49
Hanser
Taranaki
50-51
Harvie
Taranaki
52-55
Le Lievre
Eastern BOP
58-59
Clement
Southland
60-61
Overgaauw
Southland
62-63
Megaw
Southland
64-69
South Coast Dairies
Southland
70-71
Krieger
Southland
72-73
Westholm Dairies
Southland
74-75
Brown
Hawkes Bay
76-77
Sanderry
Manawatu
78-81
Ratana Dairylands
Manawatu
82-83
Ingram
Manawatu
84-89
Seafield Dairy
Manawatu
90-93
Woodleigh
Wairarapa
94-95
Preston Farms
Northland
96-97
Clear Ridge Station
Northland
98-99
Cabolima Farm
Northland
100-103
Te Kainga Farms Ltd
South Auckland
104-105
WINNER
Service Excellence Award
Coast & Country
Farm dairy growth nationwide Your NEW FARM DAIRIES publication goes nationwide with this edition – the first to open the gates to farms on the Mainland.
We’ve packed the Red Bands and the camera and trudged north to south, to bring you a fine selection of new dairy sheds from across New Zealand. You’ll be amazed at the technological advances that are apparent in just a year. We were! Again with this sixth edition of NEW FARM DAIRIES we’ve milked the best new ideas and skimmed the cream of dairy developments to feature the best of milking excellence available in 2011. When the best of home-grown Kiwi ingenuity is teamed with world-leading technology – the result is excellence in dairy innovation. It’s all here in this latest edition of NFD brought to you by the team at Coast & Country, the rural publishing sector of Sun Media Ltd. Planning and building a New Farm Dairy is a highly specialised field. New Zealand leads the world
in innovation and technology, a process of constantly-evolving improvement and performance. Every time we walk into a new milking plant we discover fascinating advances, ranging from the technologically brilliant to the downright ‘so-simple-it’s-stupid’ ideas that change the life of the dairy farmer and their families, for the better. Share the articles that interested you with friends and family by viewing this publication at www.sunlive.co.nz
Take a walk through the sheds on these pages, an essential guide for anyone considering upgrading their milking plant, planning a new shed, farm conversions or amalgamation. There’s a tale to tell in every one, brimming with clever Kiwi thinking and the latest and greatest equipment advances. The dairy installations featured in this edition tell a story of incredible commitment – to the land, industry, the science, family, lifestyle and best business practice. The common
New Farm Dairies is brought to you by... Coast & Country is delivered free to more than 31,500 rural mailboxes, covering all Bay of Plenty and Waikato rural areas. This annual NEW FARM DAIRIES is circulated to all dairy farmers nationwide, covering 30,000 properties.
thread – a drive for efficiency, improvement, animal welfare, sustainable environmental practice and profit. That strive for excellence and a balance of healthy family life, is the hallmark of good modern dairy farming in New Zealand. The team at Coast & Country thanks the many owners, suppliers, builders and contractors who have so willingly thrown open their gates, told your stories and assisted with the production of this latest edition of NEW FARM DAIRIES. We appreciate being made so welcome on so many of your amazing properties. A special thanks to our dedicated team of rural specialists who have worked so hard all year to bring your stories and pictures to these pages. As usual we are well advanced with preparation for the next nationwide edition of NEW FARM DAIRIES and as usual, spaces are filling fast. To be featured in NFD 2012 call us early to avoid disappointment. Sun Media 07 578 0030 or Lois McKinley at 027 2817427 Publishers Brian & Claire Rogers
No.1 The Strand PO Box 240 Tauranga 3140
phone 07 578 0030 fax 07 571 1116 email ads@thesun.co.nz The region’s independent, locally owned rural publication.
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NEW FARM DAIRIES
Page 3
New Farm Dairies goes nationwide For the first time, in this the seventh edition of New Farm Dairies, we have expanded nationwide to report on new cowsheds in the South Island. So welcome to all you Southland, Otago and Canterbury dairy farmers. We hope you find this publication as useful as your North Island counterparts do. Herds and sheds have got bigger and technology has offered new gadgetry every year, so that things which were considered ‘the last word’ when we began, are now considered essential by most farmers in their planning. But just how useful are farmers finding some of the technology which the providers are pressing them to have? We weren’t the only ones wondering about this. DairyNZ has been conducting research for the last year to find out just how helpful the new technology is proving for farmers with larger herds. We asked DairyNZ what they had found out.
In 1962, herringbone sheds were gaining popularity while rotary sheds were hardly off the ground. By 1986 the proportion of herringbones had climbed to more than 80 per cent of sheds and rotaries had made it to around 10 per cent. At that time there were still 10 per cent of sheds classed as ‘other; probably still walk-through models. By 2010, herringbones had dropped back to 74 per cent of sheds, as rotaries were now milking 25 per cent of all herds and 40 per cent of all cows. If you are milking a lot of cows, rotaries appear to present many advantages – not least because they can be run by fewer staff. A crossover point appears to be about the 500 cow mark, when herringbones either need to be impossibly long or take staff most of their working day to milk. DairyNZ surveyed 80 farms, sited from the Far North to Southland, milking a total of 60,000 cows, with data collected in September/October 2010 and February/March 2011. The farm dairies were all rotaries and had to be equipped as a minimum with EID recogni-
tion, automatic cup removers, milk meters and data recording. Pretty well all of these farms also had automated yard and plant washing, teat spraying, in-shed feeding and backing gates. Fifty percent or fewer had mastitis detection, weighers and heat detection equipment in the shed. Farm dairies are the workplace where staff spend most of their work time. Therefore it wasn’t altogether surprising that automated drafting, cup removers, in-shed feeding and automated washing systems were considered the most beneficial and successful technology so far. They’ve got it right for the people, perhaps less so for the cows, who also spend many hours getting to and from and standing in these new sheds. The research also looked at the speeds the rotary
platforms were being run at, relating this to the number of bails and differentials for peak and late lactation, as well as how many cuppers were working at any time. It seemed about 54 bails and 250 cows milked per hour scored best at present. Dairy bridge areas are now mostly being designed to allow one on and 2.5 or three off to give best cow flow. Overall, auto-drafting and cup removers had produced the most benefits for labour, while, although shed size could make a difference, how it was operated had the greatest impact, with a need to take into account cow milking duration, operator performance and fatigue. There is probably a need for more farmer and staff education on how to really use the data that milk meters are producing. By Sue Edmonds
LITTLE BEN LTD
Page 4
Coast & Country
Three generations of farming When irrigation became available Richard Gloag and Merv McCabe converted 450ha of Richard’s 2700ha high country run, Buscot Station near Omarama, into a dairy farm. By Graeme Dobson
Richard still runs sheep and beef, together with some dairy grazing on the remaining 2250ha, but the flat land is now all an irrigated dairy unit. The station has been in Richard’s family for three generations, so he knows the land pretty well, but this is a big change for him. He was only running a few hundred beef cattle on the flat beforehand, but now, under irrigation, it is capable of milking more than 1000 Friesiancross cows. This year they’re only milking 900, but plan to milk 1200 next year and up to 1400 the following year. There’s been a number of dry stock dairy conversions in the area since irrigation became available – the first going in near Twizel in about 2000. They’re all big – up to 3000 cows per unit with 4400 cows on three neighbouring farms alone. It takes more than one tanker to service each
farm, meaning most tankers only need make one or two stops. Probably just as well because the milk has to go all the way to Timaru. When they brought the dairy herd onto the farm, Richard and Merv engaged a lower order sharemilker who employs three staff for the dairy so Richard could carry on running the original dry stock operation and leave the dairying to his sharemilker. The cows are milked as three herds – two of 400 and one of 100 cows – one milker brings the cows in,
one puts the cups on, while the third worker is checking the system. “The milkers swap around and do one herd each,” says Richard. “Then someone does the next herd so no one is standing around for three hours just putting cups on. There’s no stops. There’s three access lanes, so when you’re dealing with three mobs, one can be going as the next is coming in, so you might have one minute swapping herds.” Omarama is pretty high for dairy country – in a bad winter they can have snow on the ground for up to six weeks at a time – so most of the cows are sent to over-winter on Merv’s property lower down. Dairy sheds are new territory for Richard and
Merv. Having new conversions on neighbouring properties was a boon then when they were looking for someone to build their shed. “We kept the plant the same. There’s only a few dairy farms in the area, so people coming to service can do everything while they’re here.” Like Richard, Merv was born and bred in the highlands and has been a contractor in the area for 30-something years, doing horticultural bailing and earthworks. So for him, the dairy venture is something of a novelty. It was a bonus that he could take
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Something of a novelty care of all the earthworks for the conversion and the new shed. As a part of the conversion, they had to drill a hole through a nearby hill to access the water from the Benmore scheme, giving them highly efficient gravity-fed irrigation and an almost unlimited supply of water. Richard and Merv went to Lindsay – the South Island sales manager for Waikato Milking Systems – to install the same system as they’d seen in their neighbour’s shed. This included top of the line cup removers, together
Lindsay Giles with the Waikato Milking Systems’s central gland in the middle of the pit.
with the new ‘Smart Spray’ teat spray system. The Smart Spray differs from other designs as it sprays onto the teats immediately after the cups come off, no matter where on the platform this happens, giving a very effective kill of any bugs that may have been transferred with the cups. The milking platform which Waikato installed in this shed is concrete, on steel rollers on a steel beam; efficient, but heavy. Waikato’s ongoing research and development has been looking at reducing the weight and the next generation of Waikato platforms will be a composite material rather than concrete, reducing
the weight of a 54 bail platform by 23 tonne. MilkHub computers to go with the milking system were supplied and installed by Radian Technology. This is really up-to-the-minute technology and includes Autodraft, automated feed system and walk-over weigh scales. Inside the shed, the MilkHub incorporates sensors that can measure almost everything, including monitoring each cow for mastitis. “We’re looking not only at clinical mastitis, but sub-clinical as well. “It’s normally pretty hard to pick up those symptoms – even the vets don’t always get them,” says Roy Wood
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from Radian Technology. “This shed is going to tell us what the mastitis levels are, the production levels of each cow, the cleanliness of the plant, any breakdowns in the plant such as air leaks – it makes it very, very simple for the farmer to operate and the herd manager can access information instantly from anywhere in the world. “So long as there is access to a computer the manager can draft a cow, check on milk production, plant cleanliness or see how fast the platforms going round.”
LITTLE BEN LTD
Page 6
Coast & Country
Ease of automatic drafting Outside the shed, there’s a MilkHub drafting gate that allows the milker to select a cow for drafting at ‘cups on’ and she is automatically placed in a side yard as she leaves. Waiting for the cows in the side yards, there’s a Wrangler hoof trimming system. The Wrangler immobilises the animal in a press and once the animal is secured, a system of slings and ropes attached to a ratchet system is used to lift and restrain each leg. All pretty simple, but very effective – and certainly beats getting kicked trying to sort out hoof problems. A MilkHub walkover scales, built into the Autodraft gate, keeps a running record of each cow’s condition. The scales are linked to the automated feed system and enable it to calculate and deliver individual amounts of food to the bail according to each cow’s needs. It can even detect if the cow is putting the feed into milk production or meat and adjust its diet accordingly. A slightly less technical, but very important level, the milk has to be cooled and kept that way. For this, Richard and Merv got Murray Hollings from Dairycool Ltd to supply all the refrigeration to the shed. The unit Murray supplied included a Mahana Blue Heat Recovery Unit, which uses the heat lost from the cooling milk to heat water for the shed, giving a good supply of hot water at about 60 degrees.
plastic tanks. Promax designs and manufactures a range of heavy duty plastic products. Its tanks give the long lasting strength that comes from a UV stabilised one-piece corrugated construction, have a 20-year guarantee and they look good into the bargain. Richard and Merv are true high
After many years experience in supplying Canterbury dairy farms with refrigeration, Murray branched out on his own in 2004 and established Dairycool in Ashburton. His aim was to provide local farmers with independent products and a high standard of service. He is now the main provider of dairy farm technology in the Canterbury area and by October will have supplied 48 per cent of dairy farms in Canterbury. He keeps up to date; he is now importing the futuristic Glycol milk snap chilling system. Water is a big issue in this part of the world; so when it came to water storage, Richard and Merv went for the best, with Promax Plastics engineered
country men – they’re both men of few words – so Richard’s summing up of the shed means a lot more than his simple; “It’s a great shed”.
High country men Merv McCabe and Richard Gloag are on a steep learning curve with their new venture into dairy.
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Page 8
BECKINSON HOLDINGS
A tale of two farms
Coast & Country
and a rather inconvenient cut
The underpass installed by Ashburton PreStress Concrete makes it easy for the cows to get from one side of the farm to the other.
The Wilkinson family originally arrived on to their Rangitata farm in Canterbury in 1989, when it was a dry stock and cropping operation twice the size it is now. By Graeme Dobson
It has since been divided and is run as two separate farms. Tim’s half was converted to dairy in 2000, but it wasn’t until 2010 they built a new milking shed on it. Tim opted for a 54 bail rotary and employed four full-time staff to manage the farm and take turns milking the 900 Friesians and crossbred Jerseys. With the new shed, milking takes about three hours in the mornings and slightly
less in the afternoons. When they started planning the new shed the Wilkinson’s hit a snag – they had a well-used sealed rural road cutting right through their farm and no matter where they sited the shed, the cows would need to cross the road regularly to get to and from the shed. With 900 cows needing to cross at one time, it was not going to be practical or popular to be constantly blocking the road. They looked around for an answer and found Craig from Ashburton Pre-stress Concrete. APS is a locally-based company that manufactures a range of pre-cast concrete products to meet all the farmers’ needs; from troughs, bin panels and holding tanks, through to bridges and underpasses. An underpass to
avoid all contact between their cows and passing traffic was exactly what the Wilkinson’s needed; so Craig designed one to suit their needs and built it for them.
New Technology
The farm conversion required a lot of adjustments, both large and small and a lot of new technology. Probably the most important technology went into the fit-out of the new milking shed. For this they went to GEA Farm Technologies South Island area manager Stuart Pegg to install a WestfaliaSurge Milking System. GEA Farm Technologies has been in the business of designing and building milking systems since 1926, making them the second oldest milking machine company in the world.
The Wilkinson’s have installed about 90 per cent of the automation WestfaliaSurge has, including mastitis detection, milk meters, automatic cup removers, individual feed control and automatic plant wash. The only automation they haven’t installed at this stage is heat detection and weighing.
Plugging in applications
“We installed a ‘plug and play’ that can be used to build a basic system up to a high tech one by simply plugging in new applications. It all goes through one box that can be used to add in any new innovations as they come along,” says Stuart. “One of the features of this system is a ‘kick-off ’ control that allows the milker to keep a cow on the platform
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so she can be milked out if she has kicked the cups off.” The milk meters and mastitis detection units mounted under the platform have accuracy guaranteed by international certification. “There’s an organisation called ICAR – the International Certification of Accuracy and Repeatability – that has to hold its performance to plus or minus two per cent and this system is certified ICAR approved,” says Stuart. The control of the whole shed and the records for every aspect of each cow can be done through ‘Dairy Plan’, WestfaliaSurge’s herd management program. Dairy Plan can be accessed from anywhere in the world and can directly link to the national database.
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BECKINSON HOLDINGS
Page 9
Taking hold of the market
“We had an example of one farmer with one of our autodrafts who drafted cows on his farm in Southland while he was on holiday in England,” says Stuart. After the milking is done, the milk needs to be chilled and maintained at exactly the right temperature; so the Wilkinson’s called in Murray Hollings from Dairycool Ltd to supply and install reliable refrigeration. The unit Murray supplied included a Mahana Blue Heat Recovery unit that uses the heat lost from the cooling
milk to heat the water for the shed, giving a good supply of hot water (about 60 degrees) for washing down. The Mahana Blue unit has become very popular with farmers and there are now more than 1000 of them on farms throughout the country. After many years of experience working for other companies supplying Canterbury dairy farms with refrigeration, Murray branched out on his own in 2004 and established Dairycool in Ashburton. His aim was to provide farmers with independent products and a high standard of service. He is now the main provider of dairy farm technology in the area and by October is aiming to have his equipment on 500 farms in
Stuart, Adam, Ryan and Becky are proud to show off their new shed.
Canterbury – that’s 48 per cent of the market. Murray keeps abreast of latest developments in his field so that he can give his customers the best possible service. For instance, he is now importing the futuristic Glycol milk snap freezing system. Outside the shed there’s two grain silos and a mill. At each milking, all the cows get fed a ration of wheat grain ranging from 2kg per day at the start of the season down to 300gm per day in February. The grain is crushed before being delivered to the feed trough at the head of the bail; an operation that needs a complex and reliable set of equipment, including silos, roller mills and augers – all supplied and installed by Trevor from local firm Rakaia Engineering. The operation starts when augers carry the grain along pipes from the 20 tonne silo where it’s stored, to a roller-mill crusher and then into a second silo. From there, it is delivered to the cow so she can eat while she’s being milked. The sequence of the operation is important to ensure that nothing blocks up. First, the auger that takes the grain from the mill to the crushed grain silo is started to ensure it’s clear, then the mill starts up and finally the auger that brings the whole grain to the mill. When the crushed grain silo is full, the whole auger and mill system automatically shuts down, but in the reverse sequence to the start up to ensure there’s nothing to block up when it restarts. Overall the conversion is very smooth and very efficient.
The grain silos and grinding mill outside the shed – installed by Rakaia Engineering – supply the cows with meal while they’re being milked.
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BECKINSON HOLDINGS
Coast & Country
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Page 11
Page 12
VAN’T KLOOSTER FARMS
Made for milking cows
Coast & Country
The back roller door can be raised for added ventilation.
A seamlessly comfortable integration of the slightly old and the very new has created a nice functional new milking shed for Gert Van’t Klooster.
011-81
Gert is a dairy man to the core – he says he was ‘born under the cows’. So 16 years ago, the opportunity to develop his own dairy unit drew Gert and his family to a 230ha Waimate property where he now milks 1050 cows. Gert was familiar with the benefits of managing cows indoors during wet periods, so three years ago he commissioned Harmen Heesen of Cowhouse Ltd to design and project manage a Freestall CowHouse and Chris Broadhead Construction from Timaru to build it for him. “It’s not the cold that is the problem – it’s the wet that does the damage,” says Gert. “And the feed saving is amazing; we don’t waste food in the wet conditions. Even if you just have 10mm of rain it’s amazing, the wastage incurred by in-paddock feeding.” When Gert decided to invest in a new 70 bail rotary he engaged Cowhouse Ltd consultants Harmen Heesen (construction and
Ask for
design) and Martin Treadway (dairy management systems) to project manage it for him. In consultation with Gert, Harmen and Martin designed the shed and set goals and timelines for its construction, before putting it out to tender. Cow House Construction, Chris Broadhead Construction’s subsidiary for the agricultural sector, won the tender in a competitive process. “This dairy certainly provided some interesting challenges,” says Chris. “There was no leeway on time extensions because Gert milks all year round. It had to be completed by July 1 and then we had 12 hours to swap from the old to the new dairy.” Two of the important design stipulations were good natural lighting and ventilation; so the shed is oriented to keep the severe weather out, while allowing maximum air flow. In cold weather, sliding doors close off the front, just leaving space for the cows to come and go from the bails. On hot days, the
front doors are opened and a roller door can be raised at the back to allow the breezes to blow right through. Good natural lighting was provided by making every second roof panel clear plastic. Duncan Engineering from Temuka was contracted to do all the steel work. Manager Gary Duncan says they have been in the structural steel business for 28 years so have the experience to offer a complete service to the farmer. The yards, designed by Harmen and Gert for maximum efficiency, are large and complex, but posed no problems for Gary. Gert was happy with the Waikato Milking System he’d had installed in his old dairy, so he opted for the same in the new one. Understandable, as Waikato Milking Systems has been in the business longer than anyone else in the country and has massive experience with dairy technology – not just in New Zealand, but also from around the world. As New Zealand AFIMILK agents, Waikato Milking Systems installed an Israeli-developed and manufactured AFIMILK milking system in Gert’s old shed seven years ago. He was one of the first in New Zealand to have one so they were happy to put one in the new shed.
Martin Treadway from Cowhouse Ltd and farm owner Gert Van’t Klooster.
Don Welsh from Otago Pumps.
VAN’T KLOOSTER FARMS
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Page 13
Valuable management tool all cabling in ducting under the floors – there is no wall tag-on cabling anywhere – including extra to allow for future developments. Altogether, there was about three weeks work in wiring the shed, but it kept Ryan on the job throughout the whole building process, from before the concrete was poured, through to the shed’s commissioning. There is a degree of integration between the old and the new; Jason reinstalled some of Gert’s old equipment It might be state of the art, but the cow is and the new shed is not overly impressed. wired back through the old main switchThe AFIMILK system employs an ankle tag to board which can be Ryan Mountney, identify each cow and records vital production hooked to a generator AFIMILK identifies each cow manager for Plunket data, including; SCC, fat, protein, urea/blood for emergencies. through an ‘ankle bracelet’. Electrical Oamaru – a division and lactose heat detection and milk volume North Otago Pump of Plunket Electrical 2005 Ltd – to name a few, which becomes a very valuable Services Ltd is Waikato Milking System’s North wired up the shed, including the water pumps management tool Otago and far South Canterbury dealers, so it and all the heavy equipment like the backing for a high producwas up to them to install the milking system. gate and vacuum pumps. The shed was a bit ing herd. This required a considerable amount of time of a challenge at times, says Jason “We feed to commitment from the North Otago Pump’s from Plunket Electrical. production and Waikato Systems technician Don Welsh. “This shed has all the “I spent the best part of a year on this shed,” bells and whistles, so says Don. we had to allow for a lot more cabling. “We put in everything that makes it milk “The way that we did except for the steel work. I wired up the platthings had to evolve form and mounted most of the gear on it. Jason to accommodate all from Plunket Electrical installed all the 230 volt the new features.” work and I did all low voltage equipment, such This included as the boxes under the platform that all go back wiring the hub and to the AFIMILK system.” the 70 power supply Together with Geoff Belt, Don also installed Gert Van’t Klooster checks the all the stock and washdown water pumps; their data from the AFIMILK system. boxes on the platform and putting job description is as varied as the products they the AFIMILK data is vital to do that, so no feed goes to waste,” says Gert. The data collected is all recorded and stored on the central computer for further analysis, where it can be converted to a financial picture to show how well feed is converted to milk and highlight which cows are not pulling their weight.
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install and the range of skills they offer. Out in the yards, Martin Treadway supplied Gert with a Technipharm Dungbuster automatic yard washing system and had Duncan Engineering install it. Technipharm are a Rotorua company that has been around for many years and has proved very successful – they currently boast a client base in excess of 30,000 farmers around the country. “We either build the whole thing new or retrofit to original gates,” says Martin. The Dungbuster works on a series of highpressure water jets attached to the bottom of the backing gate, which efficiently cleans the yard while saving time, labour and money. So in the end, Gert’s new shed is a mix of the very new and innovative, integrated seamlessly with a bit of the old and reliable to give a functional and comfortable workplace which Gert is very proud of. Barry Compton from North Otago Pastoral in Oamaru provides all the grain and seed to Van’t Klooster’s farm. By Graeme Dobson
The yards, built by Duncan Engineering are designed by Gert and Harmen for maximum efficiency.
VAN LEEUWEN
Page 14
Coast & Country
Robots clean and happy The robots are like a good farmer; they remember every little intimate detail of all their cows and give them all individual attention – except they do it for thousands of them. By Graeme Dobson
Aad and Wilma Van Leeuwen came to Canterbury in 1993 to convert a 285ha dry stock property into a dairy farm, then a few years ago they decided to start moving away from pasture and into cow houses. Now they have two 500-cow capacity indoor freestall barns; one that’s currently milking 400 Jerseys and another with 300 Friesians – all milked by state-of-the-art robots. The cows spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 10 months of the year inside. Only when they dry off do they go outside for two months to calve, then they come back inside and join the herd. Insemination and calving occurs four times a year so milking can be continuous. Ultimately, Aad is aiming to have 500 milking in each cow-house and 120 outside calving at any one time. This cow house farming set-up doesn’t fit the sceptical perception of ‘factory production’. The massive building is divided into two pens by an access aisle down the middle. It is wide enough for a tractor, has open sides for maximum ventilation and –
apart from a few fluoro lights for the night time – has all natural lighting. The accommodation looks comfortable by cow standards at least, although in a cold Canterbury winter it’d look pretty good by anyone’s standards. The cows are free to move around to access any one of the raised sleeping stalls that run down the middle of the pens, get a drink, have a massage from one of the mechanised back-scratchers, eat or visit one of the robotic milking machine stations. There’s always a worker on duty to scrape down the sleeping stalls and make sure everything is clean and running properly. Automatic scrapers travel slowly, 0.25km/h, but continuously down
the concrete platforms on either side of the sleeping stalls to remove dung and deposit it into a pit where it’s held before being taken out and spread on Aad’s fodder crops once a month; including grass and lucerne silage and maize silage. Aad grows his own fodder without using artificial fertiliser. The fodder is mixed with a few other ingredients by the manager and placed in rows down each side of the central aisle. The cows just have to poke their heads through the bars to eat as much as they like, when they like. As they eat, the cows naturally push the feed away so periodically a robot moves down the aisle and sweeps it all back. This robot, along with the robotic milkers, was supplied by Ashburton-
Kevin Peterson from Plunket Electrical and Paul Tocker from Lely Centre Ashburton are pretty proud of their ‘robots’.
based Lely Centre Ashburton, the Canterbury dealers agency for Lely NZ, who in turn are a branch of Lely International in Holland. Manager Paul Tocker says they have installed 20 robots so far and are looking at another eight to 10 next year
and probably a further 25-40 in ongoing years. “They’re getting a lot of interest,” says Paul. “The future of robot milkers is looking pretty positive.” Automatic back and side brushes keep the Christian Pearse-Danker from Lely NZ says Lely has cows in good condition (and pretty happy). been in business since 1948. shed and standing in a yard – instead They were the first to start playing she either stays warm and dry in a with robots in 1990 and had their cow-house or gets to wander unhinfirst prototype in a shed in Holdered over large parts of a farm. It’s land in 1992. Lely has remained the stress free for the cows so production market leader and today is repregoes up.” sented in more than 60 countries. The robots and the associated Lely has robotic milking for both electrics were set up by Kevin indoor freestall barns and pasture. Peterson from Oamaru firm Plunket “The principle is the same,” says Electrical, who is contracted to install Christian. and maintain all Lely robotics in “The cow doesn’t have hours of Canterbury. down-time walking to and from a
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VAN LEEUWEN
Page 15
Milking the system
cows who try to ‘milk’ the system. water system for washing the silos. According “We had cows that were going into to Jeff, it was a pretty straight forward job the robots a hundred times a day,” says and didn’t present any problems. This was not Aad. the first shed where North Otago Pumps and To do this work, Kevin first had to undertake “They’re like small kids; they know Plunket Electrical have worked together on an Lely courses to become certified – he was one of there are lollies in there and they just installation. It seems their job descriptions are the first and had to do his training in Australia. want to get at them. But they’ve got to as varied as the products they install and the There are now training programmes offered in be ready to milk. They have to have five range of skills they offer. New Zealand. So how does it all work? To begin with, each or six litres and if they haven’t got that Jeff from North Otago Pump Services Ltd cow has a necklace around her neck with a the robot doesn’t give them their lollies worked with Kevin during the installation to put weight to hold it in place. On the necklace and pushes them out. Then they walk in all the plumbing and associated pumps for the is an information box that identifies her and round and come in again. Eventually washdown in the cow-house. He also put in the contains a wealth of information for the they get bored.” water system for cooling the robots and the hot robots; including a pedometer that the robot uses to identify cows ready for mating by measuring Once on, the cups are kept in position as the activity and comparCHRISTCHURCH arm follows the cow’s movements. ing it to the milk BASED DESIGN AND “There are computer control units in the temperature and robot called MQC2 and T4C,” says Paul. the cow’s Each robot MANUFACTURE OF “They determine if the cow has enough milk dates. has a data to require milking then separates the milk, NEW ZEALAND’S display so looks at the colour, fat content, volume – basiAad can keep TOUGHEST RURAL cally it can measure everything to do with the an eye on milk quality – and checks for mastitis.” WORKWEAR things. “Ten per cent of the herd has a ‘rumination SINCE 1992. unit’ included in the tag that measures how often the cow ruminates,” says Aad. “We can see from this if the cows are getting the right balance to their feed. This means no bloat, no grass staggers, none of the diseases you normally get and it greatly reduces mastiGear that wears tis.” in , not out That little box is all New Zealand technology, ! developed for Lely. The cows wander into robot’s Supertrousers bail to WKthe Canvas get milked whenever they like – on average two and half to three times a day – and get rewarded with meal concentrate or ‘lollies’ as VISITthere OURare FACTORY SHOWROOM/SHOP AT 90 FITZGERALD AVENUE. Aad calls it. Of course, always some Ph: 03 3749268 Freephone: 0800 122682 Fax: 03 3658884 Email: cactus@cactusclimbing.co.nz
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VAN LEEUWEN
Page 16
Coast & Country
Happy cows equals happy farmer
From left: Kevin Peterson of Plunket Electrical, Paul Tocker from Lely Centre Ashburton and farmer Aad Van Leeuwen. The most popular time for getting milked seems to be about 10-12pm, followed by a quiet time around 4am. The rest of the time it’s steady. If a cow is ready to milk, the computer remembers the cow’s teat configuration from her last three milkings, checks the teat location
with a laser, then uses the laser to guide the cups on. Scales in the robot’s floor record her weight and also detect weight shifts so the robot arm with the cups can move with her. The cup comes off each quarter when it finishes – good for mastitis – and when all four are finished the
cups retract to be cleaned and sterilised at 160 degrees. The gate opens and the cow goes on her way. The milk goes into a holding jar until the cow is finished, then the robot makes a decision on the milk’s suitability, based on what parameters the farm manager has programmed into it and it either sends the milk to the vat, to the calves or dumps it. The system monitors itself for problems or faults, logs them and phones whoever is on duty. It also coordinates all the cleaning to ensure all the robots have not decided to have a wash at the same time. Cleanliness is of paramount importance; so in addition to several mini cleans, three time a day, each robot shuts up shop and goes through a major cleaning cycle and an attendant comes around periodically
The cows just need to poke their heads through the bars to get a feed anytime.
to clean anything that’s been missed. If there’s a power cut, each robot has a battery to maintain its data for the minute or until the back-up generator kicks in. The cost of all this sounds prohibitive – all up, each robot costs about a quarter of a million to install and set up with tags etcetera and $5 to $6000 a year to run, excluding power and water. This includes a planned maintenance programme of seven services every 21 months. This program goes on for the length of the robot’s life – about 20 years. If the farmer wants to get a new model in that time, Lely has a tradein scheme where they take back the old models, recondition them and sell them elsewhere, like any other
piece of machinery. “But as far as costs go, although the initial setup cost is high – about $4.5 million by the time you’ve done all this – the budget is actually below that of the average New Zealand dairy farm,” says Aad. “You’re under $5 break even, not many people can do that in this country.” So at the end of the day the cows seem happy, the farmer’s happy and even the bank manager should be happy.
By Graeme Dobson
The view from outside the front doors.
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WAVELL DAIRIES
Page 18
Coast & Country
Dairying stacked up Like many others moving into Canterbury, Steve and Sharon Schmack bought a beef and sheep farm and immediately began to convert it into a dairy unit. By Graeme Dobson
Actually, that’s not quite accurate – they bought into the 223ha Mayfield property owned by their parents and converted it while they were still working on a nearby property. They had a lot of work to do with clearing stones and trees, re-fencing, putting in new raceways, new irrigation and, of course, new buildings. “Stress levels were a bit high for a while,” says Sharon. But it all worked out well in the end and was “the best move we’ve ever made”. Both Steve and Sharon had been brought up on the land, but Steve went into banking and
Sharon to work for Air New Zealand. Then in 1998 the lure of the land, being their own boss and an attraction to the lifestyle, saw them leave the town and go farming in the Waikato. “We wanted the independence you get with farming,” says Steve, “and from inside the bank I could see how well dairying stacked up”. They sharemilked for a couple of years while they weighed their options and it wasn’t long before they looked south and saw the advantages Canterbury offered. “The price of land was a lot cheaper,” says Steve. “And you can get economy of scale. Canterbury’s set up for – well the sky’s the limit. We were looking for 900 cows.” Canterbury is too dry for dairy without constant irrigation, so they draw irrigation water from the Barrhill Chertsey Irrigation Scheme, channelled at 80 litres per second and that’s not cheap. Then there’s the farm’s massive pivot irri-
gation system, which cost between $200,000 and $300,000 to set up. “Profit wise, you’re still making more money because you’re doing more milk solids,” says Steve. “You’ve got to be doing 1450 to 1500 per hectare. If you’re not doing that then you won’t be making money. The profit may not be as high as in the Waikato per hectare or per cow, but we’ve got an economy of scale that we couldn’t achieve there.” Reliance on irrigation also takes one major variable out of the equation – the weather. Despite being in a low rainfall area, it’s only on the rare occasion when the irrigation channels run low that they experience drought conditions, then they top up with grain to
keep producing. This means an even and very predictable season which starts around August 1 and goes through to May 31 with a variation in production of less than five per cent. To get the level of production they need, Steve and Sharon have a herd of 750 FriesianJersey crosses, going up to 800 next year. They’ve found them to be robust enough to handle Canterbury conditions and still get the high milksolids. To milk that number of cows efficiently, they needed the best shed they could get; so they opted for a 54 bail rotary. They chose to pay the extra for the rotary shed because it’s “simple, easy and quick”.
Steve (left) and Sharon with Paul Maynard from Rakaia Engineering.
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WAVELL DAIRIES
Page 19
Ease of stock management
“With rotaries you’ve got ease of stock management and the cows are a lot more relaxed,” says Steve. “Cows don’t like touching each other, especially when they’re wet. In a rotary, they just flow on. “Very quiet, very relaxed, less manure in the shed, which is an obvious sign that the cows aren’t nervous. It’s easy to draft them because they’re coming off one at a time.” So having decided on a rotary, they checked out the features they wanted in the new shed and looked for a contractor to build it. The right contractor was especially important for Steve and Sharon because they could not be on-site on a regular basis. They needed to have someone they could trust to oversee the entire operation for them. Paul Maynard from Rakaia Engineering had the track record they were looking for. Paul designed the shed from scratch, working with Steve to position it on the farm for maximum efficiency, orienting it to make the most of the breezes when they’re needed and keep out the extremes. “We place a lot of emphasis on working with the customer to tailor-make the shed to suit their needs,” says Paul. “It’s not about what we want to build, it’s about what the customer will be happy to work in and be proud of. “So we worked closely with Steve in the design process to make sure the shed is orientated correctly – that takes into account his farm, his lane-ways and the prevailing winds. The orientation is quite critical for farmers. A lot of new
need to walk 600 metres at the most. “The shed design and build presented no problems,” says Paul. “That comes down to the fact that we had good customers to work with, who knew what they wanted.”
The Dairycool Milk Silo control system. The shed has a very neat, clean and functional appearance. guys don’t realise this and after they’ve built their shed they get this wind come thrashing through it.” On the day of NFD’s visit, a strong, hot north-westerly wind howled around the shed – but not through it. As Steve says, “imagine trying to milk if this wind was howling through the shed, it’d be a nightmare”. Apparently in this part of the world the southerlies and southwesterlies in the winter can be pretty brutal, so the design takes them into account too. “The shed was designed for the cows, to minimise travel time to and from the paddock and make the shed as comfortable for them as The hot water for the shed is supplied from twin cylinders which maintain the water temperature from the possible.” Mahana Blue heat recovery units. They sited the shed so the cows
Paul says they’re putting in a lot of rotaries now, especially with the big herds, which are becoming commonplace. Shortage of staff adds to the demand for rotaries – they need only one milker, no matter how large the herd. Designing and building a good shed comes with Rakaia Engineering’s 35 years of offering the farming community a wide range of products, from rotary platforms to grain feed trolleys and in-dairy feeding systems. The in-dairy feeding system provides grain to the cows as they’re being milked – along with a regulated dose of feed grade molasses. The molasses is supplied by Agrifeeds, a Mount Maunganui-based company which supplies high grade, high energy liquid stock food to the South Island’s burgeoning dairy industry, out of the ports at Timaru and Bluff. Molasses is about 60 per cent sugar so it’s easily and quickly digested and takes up little room in the rumen. Agrifeeds territory manager Rex Turnball says Agrifeeds molasses can be supplied as a straight energy food or with additives such as magnesium or rumensin – a product that improves digestion, while lessening gas production, which reduces the risk of bloat and helps the atmosphere. The final test of the shed is it went through the Christchurch earthquakes “without a hitch,” says Steve. They had it checked over for any structure damage immediately after the September earthquake and it was “all good”.
Page 20
WAVELL DAIRIES
Coast & Country
Leaving the options open
Inside the shed, Steve opted for the tried and trusted Waikato Milking System. “We looked at several systems, but in the end we went with Waikato because of their experience and the fact that they are based in Ashburton,” says Steve. So with Paul Morrison from Waikato Milking System’s Ashburton branch on board, working closely with Paul Maynard and Steve and Sharon, the shed’s fit-out went smoothly. The Waikato Milking System is well established and well respected both in New Zealand and overseas, but they don’t rest on their laurels and are continually developing new innovations. Paul says a few of those innovations were included in this shed, for example, it is only the second shed
where he’s installed a new teat sprayer. It’s different from other teat spray designs which have a fixed spray location – it sprays the teats from between the cow’s legs five seconds after the cups come off – no matter where she is. This gives a very effective kill of any bugs which may have been transferred with the cups. The teat spray is mounted in a rounded pad and sits in the middle rear of the stall, designed to encourage the cow to stand with her legs apart and make sure the spray gets where it is needed. Steve and Sharon haven’t opted for all the bells and whistles just yet, so the shed is not fully automated; although they have left their options open and can add in more features as they continue to develop. For now, he has what
w/r bath 2 200 x 3 750
ldy 1 800 x 3 300
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family 5 000 x 4 150
entry 3 600 x 1 900
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Paul Morrison from Waikato Milking Systems.
Steve calls “the bare minimum”. This includes an automatic drafting system. “When you’ve got no one taking cups off and only one person in the shed, you definitely need automatic drafting. So the milker can punch in a cow’s number while they’re putting cups on and cups on. All the refrigeration necessary for milk the machine is waiting for her when she comes production was supplied and installed by Murray off,” says Steve. Hollings from Dairycool Ltd in Ashburton. He opted to install a Livestock Improvement Murray knows the area and the local farmer’s Corporation’s Protrack Drafting System. LIC is refrigeration needs very well. Back in 2004, he a New Zealand dairy farmer cooperative that’s saw that these needs weren’t being met properly been in business since 1909. Today, it provides and so he took the experience he’d accumulated herd improvement from many years with other companies and services around established Dairycool. He went into the busithe world, includness with the aim of providing local ing the Protrack farmers with independent products Drafting System, and a high standard of service – he is which can be used now the main provider of dairy farm as a computerised refrigeration technology in Canternerve centre for bury. the shed. Each The unit which Murray supplied cow has a chip Steve and Sharon with, included a in her ear which Mahana Blue Heat Recovery unit. is read as she enters the bail and again when The Waikato Milking she passes through the drafting gate on Systems is a one touch control to switch from her way out. So all milk to wash. Steve needs to do is put the number into the computer and the cow is automatically redirected into a holding yard as she leaves. In the future, he can opt to use the Protrack system to measure and record a large amount of data, including individual milk yield, animal weight, heat and indications of mastitis. Even the feed in the troughs in each bail is controlled by the Protrack system – in fact the whole shed can be run through a touch screen located at Steve shows off the shed’s controls at ‘cups on’.
WAVELL DAIRIES
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Page 21
Comfortable for the cows and milkers It uses the heat lost from the cooling milk to heat the water for the shed, giving a good supply of hot water, around 60 degrees, for washing down.
Popular with farmers
The Mahana Blue unit has become very popular with farmers and there are now well over 1000 of them on farms in New Zealand. Today, Murray has grown to the point where he expects to have installed equipment in 500 farms in Canterbury alone – that’s about 48 per cent of the market. He keeps up with technology so he can offer the best possible product to his customers, for
The completed milking shed.
example, he now imports and installs futuristic glycol milk snap-chilling systems. A finishing touch to the shed was the laying of Numat Industries’ Agri-Mat rubber matting in the area where the cows leave the bails to cushion the cow’s hooves and protects them from splitting.
Reduced lameness
Steve says the Agri-Mat has drastically reduced the incidence of hoof splitting. Numat say it reduces lameness by up to 70 per cent, which represents a considerable saving – a recent survey found a lame cow can cost a farmer up to $1264. Agri-Mat is a non-abrasive, non-slip, non-porous, easy clean and hard wearing rubber matting that works by softening the area where the cows turn in a confined space. This is normally concrete
which has no give, so when the cow twists, all the stress is transferred to the hooves which are not really designed for hard surfaces. The softer rubber absorbs much of the stress and takes the strain off the hoof.
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owned family business which supplies a range of premium quality rubber products and provides the bench mark in a globally competitive market. So in the end, Steve and Sharon have a shed that’s efficient, comfortable for the cows and milkers and easy to work. In short, they have a shed they can be proud of. By Graeme Dobson
Numat provides specialised matting to the agricultural, automotive and industrial sectors, as well as providing safety matting for school and community playgrounds. Numat Industries is a New Zealand-
Paul Morrison from Waikato Milking Systems, farm owners Steve and Sharon Schmack and Paul Maynard from Rakaia Engineering.
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OXHILL LTD
Page 22
Coast & Country
Rolling out the conversions
This is the first season Andrew Griffith (Griff) and his wife Wendy have milked cows on their new 146ha conversion in Ashburton. By Graeme Dobson
The farm is on gently rolling country – unusual for this part of the world – with good soil, fully irrigated by two roto-rainers. The conversion involved remodelling the whole farm, including putting in new raceways, fencing and troughs. Griff and Wendy have been dairy farming for many years so knew exactly what they wanted; which made planning and organising quite simple. And they didn’t stop there – they have just leased 100ha next door and are adding 250 cows to the 540 they are already milking. With irrigation, reseeding, re-fencing and new troughs, it’ll be ready for next season when they take over the lease in June. Andrew Morgan from Morgan fencing did all the original fencing for Griff, so when Griff brought him back for the conversion he just needed to fence the new tracks and around the shed. Andrew has been fencing in the area for 14 years. He manages five men in two gangs and with all the dairy conversions he has more work than he can poke a post at. Once all the paddocks were set out, Ashburton Pre-stress Concrete supplied the 60 or so water troughs which were needed. APS is a locally based company which supplies a range of precast concrete products to meet all the farmer’s needs, from troughs and bin panels, through to bridges and underpasses – and some very innovative ones such as pivot irrigator bridges.
When deciding on the new farm buildings – the most important being, of course, the milking shed – Griff didn’t hesitate on what type of shed to put in. “We’ve had a rotary previously, so it would have taken a fair bit of persuasion not to go with the same.” Ashburton Contracting Ltd was contracted to do all the top quality concrete for the shed and have been in the business for 16 years, servicing the needs of Canterbury’s builders and civil contractors out of its Ashburton base with a modern fleet and about 90 staff. They operate a NZ Ready Mixed Concrete Association certified concrete plant which can provide a wide range of customers with whatever they need. With the building up and all the
From left: Roy Wood from Radian Technologies, farm owner Andrew Griffiths and Lindsay Giles from Waikato Milking Systems.
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concreting done, Griff opted for a Waikato Milking Systems plant and MilkHub from Radian Technologies for the shed’s computing needs. Waikato Milking Systems South Island manager Lindsay Giles says Griff’s shed is a reasonably standard plant with some new options included, such as top-of-the-line cup removers and the ‘Smart Spray’ teat spray system.
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OXHILL LTD
Page 23
Deceptively simple yet effective now the main provider of such as health records, dairy farm technology in mastitis detection, milk Canterbury. yield and quality and In a small shed set heat detection. For in a side yard is a now, however, Griff is Wilco and Waverly happy to just have the Wrangler Hoof TrimMilkHub Autodraft, ming system. The which allows him to Wrangler immobilises select a cow at cups on the animal in a press, and have her automatiwhere any one of the legs cally drafted out as she leaves. If he’s using the gate at times other Waikato Milking System can be easily raised with slings than at milking he can also use the units are compact and tidy. and a ratchet and secured firmly with straps to allow the hoof to Autodraft to draft manually with a be worked on easily and safely. Like the shed, it hand-held remote gate control. all looks deceptively simple, but very effective At the moment, it’s just the Autodraft which and with all the changes and expansion, Griff shows on the screen, but during the next few The MilkHub screen above ‘cups on’ and Wendy are looking forward to the new years Griff is going to get many more of gives a graphic display of the platform season. MilkHub’s features – although By Graeme Dobson and readings for each cow. he thinks that a program to show equipment malfunctions could be a waste of money with a Waikato system. One of the few subcontractors Griff organised himself was Murray Hollings from Dairycool Ltd to supply all the refrigeration for the shed. The unit Murray supplied included a Mahana Blue Heat Recovery unit, which uses the heat lost from the cooling milk to heat the water for the shed, giving a good supply of hot water at about 60 degrees for washing down. After many years of experience in supplying Canterbury dairy farms with refrigeration, Murray branched out on his own in 2004 and established Dairycool in Ashburton. His aim was to provide farmers with independent The cows are pretty relaxed about the whole thing. The milking system at work. The plate with the teat spray in it products and a high standard of service. He is encourages the cows to adopt the best stance for ease of milking.
The teat sprayers differ from other designs because they spray onto the teats immediately after the cups come off, no matter where on the platform it happens, giving a very effective kill of any bugs which may have been transferred with the cup. “Teat condition is as good as I’ve ever had,” says Griff. “We don’t have sore, damaged or grazed teats and our cell count reflects that at about 80-90,000.” Roy Wood from Radian Technologies installed a MilkHub system to begin computerising the shed. The big screen above the cups on station is set up to display all manner of data
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BUTLER
Page 24
Coast & Country
Converting for benefits of dairy Graham Butler looked long and hard at different sheds and concluded a new herringbone was the most cost-effective solution for his new dairy conversion. Graham’s 560ha farm is on flat land near the coast just North of Oamaru. He bought it as a beef, sheep and “a wee bit of cropping” operation
when he moved up from Southland about 11 years ago, but when he saw the benefits of dairy he began converting some of the property. This year, he brought on board experienced dairyman Chris Eden as farm manager. In their first season they’re milking a mixed herd of 523 cows – about 75 per cent Jerseys – off 155ha effective dairy land. When the conversion is complete next year, they are planning to expand the herd to 560. Graham opted for a 44 a-side herringbone as being the most costeffective solution for him, then
Farm owner Graham Butler (left), Rod Gardner, Milfos Area Sales Manager for Canterbury (centre) and Farm manager Chris Eden.
called in Chris Barclay, Milfos South Island manager for Canterbury, to help him design a shed to suit his needs – all part of the Milfos service. Milfos is a family owned business, which knows about service. Based in Hamilton in the North Island, they’ve been in North Otago for a good 12 years and have a range of dealers throughout the South Island. Graham and Chris settled on a central location for the shed so the furthest the cows have to walk is about one kilometre, not a hard walk
when it’s over very flat land. Then Chris fitted it out with a Milfos milking system. Rod Gardner has since taken over as Milfos area sales manager for Canterbury and it fell to him to show off the shed. “This is a MILFOS i XPRESS 4 herring bone milking system with a variable speed on the vacuum pump that makes the working environment a lot quieter, as well as lowering power consumption considerably,” says Rod, while wandering down the bails. Graham, Chris and a farm worker share the milking roster, with two of them in the shed at any one time. Milkings take between two, to two and a half hours, after which they plug the cups into the swing down ‘Jetter Line’. The ‘Jetter Line’ is a Milfos system cleaning innovation which simply completes the circuit so water, chemicals and detergents can flow through the entire milking system. The ‘Jetter Line’ sits above the milker’s head, out of the way during milking, then it’s lowered for easy use when milking is finished for cleaning. “This shed has an automatic wash system which is one button, push and forget,” says Rod. “The wash has 14 variables that can be programmed in – you can programme Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning and so on for the week and each of the separate washes can be programmed with different wash temperatures and chemicals.” Rod brought in contractors
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Duncan Engineering from Temuka to install the Milfos plant. Duncan Engineering does all Milfos’ plant installation from Rangitata, down to Oamaru and is the Milfos’ platform builders, for both herringbones and rotaries in the Canterbury region. Duncan has been in the general engineering business for “years and years”, making a range of products from trailers upwards. With the upsurge
in dairy conversions in the area, Duncan Engineering saw a good opportunity for its skills and is currently building a strong presence in the dairy industry. Calect Electrical, a firm from nearby Kurow, installed all the heavy wiring in the shed apart from the Milfos board – Milfos do its own wiring for its Intelpower, Intelgen and Intelflow boxes.
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BUTLER
Page 25
Options for automation
The cows have settled comfortably into new conversion.
The new herringbone with the MILFOS i XPRESS 4 milking system.
Calects specialise in industrial wiring, including milking sheds and other farm buildings and has built up a good reputation for reliability – so good it has had to increase staff numbers to about 10 electricians to cope with the work load. About a third of Graham’s farm is under water dyke (flood) irrigation and the rest is a mix of a moveable ‘big gun’ and K-lines. The shed effluent is sprayed onto the paddocks using an Irripod system. The Irripods are slightly bigger than the K-lines and have wider nozzles to handle the dirty water. They’re mounted on 50mm alkathene pipes, with sprinklers 40 metres apart. Graham has 16 Irripods on two lines of eight, a set up that covers 50ha at a time and is easily shifted every day. “We use the Irripods specifically for effluent and it’s all green water that’s pumped through them,” says Chris. “The effluent is handled with a two pond system. The first pond’s a settling pond, from there it goes to a secondary pond that we pump out of to the Irripods. We only need to pump for about five days a week.” The shed is not fully automated at this stage, but Graham has the option to computerise it as much as he likes later on with any of the wide range of Milfos programs available. For now, he is happy just with a Livestock Improvement Corporation Protrack Drafting System. LIC is a New Zealand dairy farmer owned cooperative that’s been in business for more than a century, since 1909 to be exact; and which today
provides herd improvement services around the world. Its state of the art auto-drafting gate is a robust and reliable automated drafting system which takes the labour out of stock drafting. All the milker needs to do is put the number of any cow into the consol and she is drafted automatically as she leaves the shed. After milking she’s waiting in a side yard. Chris is happy enough not to be too automated – he likes that the teats are all washed by hand after the cups come off and there is no computerised mastitis detection systems. “It’s down to how well the manager knows his herd; how well the cows do,” – and under Chris’s management, the cell count is mostly well below 100,000. “This herd came from about four different herds that’d probably been in rotary sheds, so it took a while for the cows to get used to each other and get used to a herringbone shed,” says Chris. “But it flows well now that the cows have got used to it. It’s a good shed.”
K-line irrigation is used along with water dyke irrigation.
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TANIWHA TRUST
Page 26
Moving for the powers that be Ian and Pamela Storey built their new dairy shed because they found themselves in the path of Transpower’s plans. By Ken Usmar
The old shed was right underneath a proposed new power line so they had to move everything. Ian says they were lucky to have about five years warning – which gave them a lot of time to at least plan in their heads how things might be done. “We had to move about 500 metres and everything had to go. We had to build new ponds, wells, barns and an underpass. “We put the underpass in ourselves, which meant a lot of extra pressure from taking on that liability. It’s a bit strange when you’re digging up a perfectly good road and you know you’ve got to put it back exactly how it was. “It saved us money and fortunately we were on a clay structure – if it was peat I don’t know if I’d have done it.” The extra work the Storeys did on their shed helped keep costs down, but it impacted on their business – leaving them little down time between getting the shed finished and beginning calving. “The shed was finished in plenty of time,” says Ian, “but we had been flat out for six months and we could have done with a break at that stage.” Pamela says the unique aspect of this job was it being a dairy conversion on an existing dairy farm. “We had to replicate our entire infrastructure, but we were able to use it as an opportunity to future proof it as
much as we could at the same time.” The Storeys have 112 effective hectares and they are milking 330 cows through the new shed. Ian says a 30 a-side herringbone would have been adequate for their immediate needs, but they both agreed they would hate to find in five years time they had not got it right. “It was a one-shot deal,” says Pamela. “We needed to get it right first time.” Don Chapman built a low Ian says the amount of uncertainty maintenance shed for the Storeys. in dairy farming last year meant added pressure for them to bring the job in on budget. “But that was actually quite good because that sort of pressure makes you very diligent. It was an added challenge, but a good one.” Pamela says another thing that helped them come in on budget and on time, was the number of years to plan every aspect of the job. “So by the time we were actually signing contracts and things, we were pretty clear on what we wanted. Farmer Ian Storey and builder Don “We’re really happy with how it Chapman admire the new rotary. ended up we can’t really think of anything we’d change. It’s nice when you’ve got a big project with that many components and you get it to the end on budget and you are happy with all the elements. That’s a good place to be. Ian says the experience they gained from building a herringbone shed five years earlier had taught them how much easier the build was when you could have a good visual concept of what was going to get built. Animal handling area with fold Building on a reputation down platform; adjacent to AI bails. Ian Storey says working with Don Chapman Builders Ltd means working
with a really professional organisation. He commends his builder on his excellent communication. “They are very well organised and I’d say communications is one of their best features because it takes a lot of the stress out of the job for somebody like me.” Ian says the experience Don Chapman brought to the job was also extremely reassuring for him and Pamela. “You might have some idea that seems to make sense, but he’s got that experience to know if it’s going to work and he’s got good communications with the guys who are actually working on the shed. “He keeps you well informed about what’s going on and when they need the next part of the puzzle from you. As a farmer, when you build a cowshed it’s probably the only one you’ll build in 30 years; so you don’t get that opportunity to get experience at doing it. “So having key contractors keeping you well informed about what’s going on and how everybody’s got it together is really important.” Ian chose a Chapman Dairy design that Don Chapman had built before, which has really good provision for animal handling areas. It is a shed that is very light and airy and very low maintenance, but it needs a particular site for it to work best and Don says Ian has the ideal site for it. “It has all the usual features we put into our sheds, such as the light gallery through the ridge and Coloursteel poly panelling walls that are very easy to
Coast & Country
clean.” There is a separate office, a pump room, an electrical room and a place to keep the wash chemicals and a toilet. The animal handling area has a fold down platform to access cows on the rotary and immediately adjacent is a head bail and an AI bail and drugs storage. “So everything for the vet is in the one place that is under cover and light and airy,” says Don.
All’s weld that ends weld
Leask Engineering did all the steel work at the Storey shed, which included the backing gate and the handling area which has two sweep gates at the end, plus the AI and vet race. High railing and drop rails flank the way down to the vet race and because the yard is a bit larger in diameter than normal, the backing gates are heavier. Rom Stellingwerf from Leask’s says they also installed the approach race and the drafting area. “The AI platform is completely free of random graffiti so you can tell Ian does the painting himself. “Ian is particularly happy with the way the yard works and the good cow flow he is getting through it and he is enjoying having everything in the right place. “A whole year – everything still looks nice and tidy and straight and everything works well.” Nothing random about drafting selection. Ian’s view is that from a functional perspective, the most important thing is putting the cups on the cows and the milk in the vat.
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TANIWHA TRUST
Filling an important role “Protrack was the drafting system which exceeded my expectations. “I had always thought 330 cows was probably not enough cows to justify using it, but we use it on a daily basis for both drafting and animal recording. It is so valuable having that confidence that you’ve got accurate information that’s being recorded and which you can actually use at other times to make management decisions. We use it right through the year. “There’s more to it than just drafting a cow; it’s how you can utilise that information to your benefit and with the animal recording of course you can put the animals’ health records into the system.” Ian says Tim Broughton was one of the key contractors on the build. “He spent a lot of time here and was involved with all the major infrastructure of this build. “We had to build an underpass and we were using the fill that was coming out of that to build up the site for the cowshed and all the races.” Tim was also involved in the pond design – so was one of the major contributors along with the plant and shed contractors and the electrician. “It was particularly helpful to have his practical perspective on how things were going to work elevation wise and the use of fill from one project into another,” says Ian. Wattle contracting brought in all the metal for the underpass, but what impressed Ian and Pamela most was the attitude they brought to the job.
“What really impressed me was when they arrived these guys were out of their trucks and on the compactors helping us at two o’clock in the morning and they didn’t have to do that,” says Ian. “They could have just gone home, but they got stuck in and made sure the job was finished.” Humes Pipeline Systems of Waikato also had a part to play in the Storey shed build. But theirs was not so much an involvement onsite, says Ian. “We purchased a lot of product from Humes. We put in a lot of the effluent pipework and water pipework ourselves. But we purchased a lot of product through Humes – more from the point of sourcing materials at a good price. “They were also very helpful in terms of the underpass; from helping with the design to obtaining consents.” New design for the workshop Paul Alderton from Kiwispan Cambridge says the Storeys made life easy because they knew what they wanted. “So we were able to sit down and design something cost-effective and durable for them. And they say they’ve been very happy with it and it’s worked out well – so it’s a success story.” Kiwispan built Ian and Pamela a calf shed/workshop combination. Paul says this differs from a standard Kiwispan Cambridge building, which is all steel. He describes what they gave Ian and Pamela as a hybrid. “We’ve got timber poles, steel portals and timber purlings so it’s a little bit more conducive to harsh conditions
Brendan Paul, Hutchinsons & Co.
Brendan Paul and Ian Storey.
like calving, cowshit, sawdust and so forth,” says Paul. “It’s a cost-effective solution for this sort of shed and our Kiwispan designs allow us to be totally flexible. This timber pole design is something we have engineered ourselves at our Waikato branch and it’s worked well. “It won’t suit every use; most farmers simply want a calf shed or a hay barn and this is not the best solution for that, but it is good where the building is also going to be used as a workshop.” Paul says the building was one of their prototype designs with the steel gable – so it was a little challenging for them to start with. “But we improved upon it here and there as we went along. It was only the second one we had built with that gable and they change as you go along because you learn how to do them more easily and you make little changes. “We pride ourselves on thinking outside the square and designing the most cost-effective durable building for our client’s needs. They just need to tell us what they want and we can start chucking some ideas around and we have a mechanical and steel engineer on the team, so we can design and build pretty much anything.” Making the right connections Clint Robinson of Laser Electrical was the site electrician. He says there were a few things Ian and Pamela wanted that weren’t really mainstream. “They are probably things I should look at implementing in other sheds
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that I’m doing,” says Clint.” “I think Ian’s pretty chuffed we’ve got a temperature display at cups on that gives him a vat temperature while he’s milking. It tells him what temperature the milk is going in at and it also means that if the chillers not working, he’ll be able to pick it up very quickly.” Clint says another handy feature in Ian’s shed is the timer he put on the washdown pump so a push of a button enables them to run the pump for a couple of hours. If forgotten, it will turn itself off when that time is reached. Clint says Ian and Pamela’s rotary has electric drives so the wash hose ends up in the right place every time and the effluent has variable speed control that offers the ability to push the effluent over to the Storey’s old block. “As you can imagine, much of our work was ‘pre-concrete’ – so we just have to make sure we’ve done all our homework and got everything in the right place,” says Clint. “It has been a real pleasure working with Pamela and Ian. We had only been on the scene with them for about six months prior to this shed. Ian first contacted me to do a job over at his old block and then afterwards asked me if I’d be interested in working on the new shed. “The relationship has just grown from there and now we also look after their block at Te Kauwhata.”
NGINEERING
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TANIWHA TRUST
Coast & Country
Putting everything in its place Ian had decided right from the start that he would choose George Hutchinson & Co to do the plant installation. He was already well aware of the Morrinsville company’s excellent reputation. “They did all the plumbing and the machine fitting,” says Ian. “We'd already had a relationship with Brendan Paul (of Hutchinsons) and knew they do good quality work.” In addition to installing the milking system, Hutchies also took care of the water reticulation system for the new shed. Brendan says the Waikato SmartPuls pulsation system and Smartwash system automatically washes the plant at the end of milking and turns itself off when finished – which is a huge time saver for Ian and his staff. “Water is supplied to the shed by a Grundfos variable speed dairyblaster pump, which alters speed to maintain the required water demand which means power savings for Ian as the pump soft starts and only runs as fast as it has to. “It was an absolute pleasure for us to work with Ian and Pamela again on this project as this is the second new shed that we have installed for them,” says Brendan.
Plant that can grow
Ian chose to go with a Waikato Milking Systems plant because he thinks it’s a straightforward, practical set-up and very reliable. “I was pleased when I was able to see sheds which had been built to
a similar design to the one we were planning. “I think that took quite a lot of stress out of it for us. When you can visualise what’s being built while the job is being done, it’s so much easier than trying to create something completely new.” Dave Cassells of Waikato Milking Systems says the new dairy for the Storeys has been set up to operate with one person if need be. The plant is simple to operate, efficient and robust. “The plant we supplied to Hutchinsons for this job was a 54 bail Orbit rotary and a Waikato Milking System. The Platform turns in an anticlockwise direction and has been provisioned for the installation of additional automation equipment should this ever be required.” Dave says BailGates have been installed to optimise cow control, while Smart electronic cup removers ensure the cups are removed after milking and operate the BailMate rams that control the BailGate function. A BP400 blower vacuum pump controlled by a SmartAir variable speed drive was put in to maintain constant vacuum and reduce power consumption by up to 47 percent. A similar SmartMilk pump controller ensures constant milk flow through the cooling system optimising the cooling effects of the water and protecting the quality of the milk. “Standard Waikato Milking Systems features found at the Storey shed
and in most new dairies we do have Waikato 320 claws, milk recovery, an autowash system and SmartPuls electronic pulsation.”
Keeping it clean
FIL chemical shed.
To keep their cows clean after milking, the Storeys had Wetit teat sprayers installed in the shed with the wave feature, which the cows straddle affording easy access for both cupping and washing. The walls of the pit are easy to clean thanks to an Acraflex acrylic coating system. Ian and Pamela have found it very durable and easy to clean. For their other shed hygiene needs Waikato Milking Systems installed an automatic wash chemical dispenser using FIL products to ensure
High railing and drop rails flank the way down the vet race.
the exact amount of chemicals are used each time for clean results without wastage. The Storeys’ yard is kept clean thanks to a Dungbuster from Technipharm which Ian is very pleased with. “It works very well and we’re very happy with it. From a practical perspective, we’ve got a 15 metre radius yard and it’s a big yard. I don’t think I’d want to wash that yard any other way.”
The finishing touch
Ian reckons what made the build really tick was what he called ‘those key people’ such as Chapmans, Hutchies and Broughtons – who each brought their practical experience from other jobs. “These are people whose advice I felt confident to follow and that was an important aspect of the job for me. Sometimes that just comes from having had time to build a relationship with your contractors. “We were also very lucky that Iain and Donna Wickham who work with us have been willing to take on the new shed and its changes. “There is always a bit of adjusting to a new system, new machinery to get your head around, computers to deal with and different operating systems to get used to. I think Iain and Donna’s willingness to be flexible and accommodating was a critical factor that led to such a positive outcome.” By Ken Usmar
PH 07 578 0030
TANIWHA TRUST
HE ASKED FOR IT Graham Barlow: Waikato. Herd size 350.
When Graham upgraded to a Protrack system in his herringbone shed, he knew he was getting an awesome piece of farm automation equipment. What he didn’t realise was that it was also the best piece of multisport equipment he’d ever bought. He reckons that the time he used to spend in the shed is far better spent clocking up the miles doing what he loves; training for, and competing in multisport events. And now, with the time he’s saved, he can do more of it than ever. You may not be as mad as Graham, but we’re sure you will be able to think of something to do with the time a Protrack system can save you.
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To find out more about how Protrack can help make your life easier, call 0508 Protrack or contact your LIC District Manager.
Page 29
FISHER
Page 30
Coast & Country
Robotic arm the latest new farm hand When dairy farmers talk about the perfect dairy farm, not having to get up to milk the cows in the morning is at the top of the wish list – alongside having the cows milk themselves. By Andrew Campbell
John Fisher’s done it. He’s got four robot milkers on his Cambridge farm that are always awake, ready to milk the cows when they turn up, anytime over 24 hours. The robot puts the cups on, and they come off when she’s milked out. The robot even has the option of giving her teats a wash and blow dry before the milking begins. The robot is a DeLaval VMS or voluntary milking system. It is currently one of the largest robot milking installation in New Zealand dairying, and
places Cambridge-based Professional Farm Services and associate companies at the front of the field. The key to the VMS system is the robotic arm that combines electrics, hydraulics, vacuum, water, infrared sensors, lasers and milk handling systems controlled by the software and switching package that is precise and gentle enough for cows to voluntarily walk into the bale to be milked – and have to be encouraged to leave.
Arm does all the work
The robot arm does all the work; washing the teats and using an optical camera and two lasers to see its way to placing the cups on. Instead of a cluster, the DeLaval cups are racked and picked out one by one by the arm and placed on the teat. The robot arm remembers the teat positions for the last three milkings for each cow. There are four optical milk meters monitoring milk yields, flow rates, time, conductivity and blood levels. An option for the system is an online cell counter, monitoring the somatic cell count of every cow at every milking. In the few months the system’s been operating, John’s cows are relaxed enough with the VMS
robots to resist moving on at the opening of the gate and the blast of air, instead staying on to finish the feed in the hopper before they move out. Feed amounts are also controllable. The new dairy was built over the summer and has been operating into the autumn. John’s looking forward to the first real test. “It’ll be doing 24 hours a day when we get into the full swing in spring,” says John. “It is a pretty efficient plant. It’s been proven, certainly putting the cups on robotically has been proven in Europe. There’s lots working in Europe, it’s just under pasturebased systems there is a bit of scepticism. But I’m confident it will work alright.” Cow access to the VMS robots is by way of three computer controlled smart selection gates in a race with a smallish assembly area under the shed. John’s had no difficulty training the cows to use the system, but they tend to be picky. A cow will decide on a robot and that’s it. She will wait until ‘her’ machine is free, regardless. “We’ll only be targeting milking every 16 hours, if you go out to 16 hours you don’t lose much production,” says John. “But they’ll get off a fresh paddock each day so they will be moving. “We’ve been going about three months now and they tend to spread out, the keener ones and the less keener ones.” It took about three weeks before about 80 per cent of them knew what they were doing. “They are smarter than people give them credit for. Mind you, there is a little bit of food in the robots as well to entice them in there. It was a palletised meal, but we’ve got dried silage going in there now, it’s a bit more tasty and it’s certainly drawing them in.”
Terry Storer, John Fisher, and Dave McMillan.
The entrance gate.
Dave McMillan from Professional Farm Services.
FISHER
PH 07 578 0030
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Pioneered pasture-based milking The eating habits vary from cow to cow. Some of them stay in the paddock until they run out of grass before they head for the dairy. The ones that get a taste for the milking feed get turned away by the gates if they return for milking within nine hours; set by John. The computer server can be reset to milk the cows three times a day if John wants to or once a day. “That’s where we get the huge flexibility; the farmer can treat the cows individually as to how many milkings per day that they do. Each cow is identified by a neck tag, so the system knows who she is, what she’s in for, and when she was last milked. The system is also able to divert the milk if there’s a hold on a cow for colostrum or antibiotics. The system also monitors each milking. If the cups get kicked or drop early, the robot will
replace them until 80 per cent of the previous back from having another go at the food in the stall. milking is achieved. The pasture-fed robot John’s got what he describes as a 1.5 man milking system caught John 80ha farm on the flat, just a few minutes out Fisher’s eye when it was of Cambridge on the Te Awamutu Road. being trialled by Dairy NZ at “I thought this would take out the full person and I could do the half person’s job – I Ruakura. When he started thinking think it is the future,” says John. about the future of the Cam“I just decided I wanted to do it. If I waited The business end another 10 years I probably wouldn’t do it. It’s bridge farm five years ago, he had of the robot arm. another look and the interest grew getting back to treating the cows as individufrom there. als – they flow in and out by themselves, the “I guess I have just been following it cows are very relaxed. and studied it for quite a while.” “They are even more relaxed now. We even learn the robotics. The Greenfield system pioneered the milked right through the winter and the cell “It has been more of a use of robot milking in conjunction with count has been very low for late lactation journey,” says commercial grass fed herds. The European dairies are cows.” manager Mark Bilsby. in barns. The four robots are installed in a 20x22m “John’s vision is he wants to When they realised John was serious about shed, designed and built by Ivan Billings and change the way he milks. the robot system, Cambridge DeLaval agents his son Elliott. I think it is more a lifestyle investProfessional Farm Services sent a couple of There’s no yard as such and no backing ment for John.” people to Sweden to gate. There is a holding area under cover with room for about 40 cows because there are never more than 40 waiting to be milked. Control is through the electronic gates activated by the cows’ neck tags. Each gate has a three-way option; straight ahead, left or right. John’s expecting the most The group shot. From left Dave McMillan, John Fisher, Paul Garland, Terry Storer, Dave Sutherland common route through the gates rear, Mark Bilsby Elliott and Ivan Billings, Jamie Haupapa, Talya Raumati, Gareth Purdie. will be the pathway turning them
CONTRACTING
FISHER
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Coast & Country
Technology learned in Sweden “When we found out John was thinking about this, we were approached by DeLaval in terms of what we needed to do. We sent two men to Sweden to learn about the technology; Dave McMillan went and Graham Baldwin the service manager. “It was really important that we learnt about the new technology,” says Mark. “Then it was how to put it together in a New Zealand grassland environment. There’s a difference between what happens in Europe and what happens here. It is utterly different. “The VMS systems have been available a decade in Europe, but what happens here is wildly different.” From the outset, Professional Farm Services wanted to do the robot shed as a turn-key operation says Mark. The company also incorporates Professional Pump Services and Professional
Electrical Services, plus they have a long working relationship with builder Ivan Billings and coatings man Dave Sutherland. Because it was new territory having the main contractors all on board at an early stage, it helped sort design issues and processes says Mark.
twin VMS in South Auckland to see for himself what was involved and how it all went together. DeLaval gave them a rough sketch for a site says Ivan, but the final design was arrived at through discussion with John Fisher on the plans filed with the council. The building itself is the easy part, a modest steel roofed shed with an office and pump room. Ivan’s not a fan of freezer panels, saying they tend to look tatty after a few years. The thinking part was sorting where all the lines and connections were to go says Ivan. As each milking station is a stand alone unit, everything is done by four. Four robots; four vacuum pumps; four feed augers; four milk lines; and four divert milk links and everything else by four; water, power, computer cables, augers. Working out how that all was going to go together had to be sorted first and then washdown and drainage added.
Good imagination
“We’re very pleased to have Ivan with us on this project. We’ve worked well with Ivan Billings on many jobs over the years, he’s got a good imagination, what we can do with something, how to make something work.” Ivan started investigating how to build a shed around a VMS milker before he knew he had the contract says Mark. At the time there were just two of the robots in New Zealand. Ivan visited the
Four of everything, including vacuum pumps.
Four robots
The shed has the four VMS robots in a row across one end with shallow pits between stations to allow easy access to inspection panels and touch screen controls without people having to bend over. The pits also assist with drainage. Because the machines are in operation 24/7, the robot shed doesn’t have the downtime a normal shed has when it can be thoroughly cleaned. Ivan’s also installed a few barrier walls to assist with traffic management. The all-day operation also required a different milk storage system. There are two vats, a smaller precooling vat that behaves in the system like a header vat. It means the tanker driver can discharge and clean the main vat while the robots continue milking. Centigrade from Matamata did the refrigeration.
One teat wash and four cups.
Builders Ivan and Elliott Billings.
Robot innards, there’s still four of everything because of the cups.
3 issue
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FISHER
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Information for the future
down and the augers replenish the header line ready for the next animal. The interior paint is by Dave Sutherland from Texture Coatings. It is a five-coat system of epoxies and urethanes supplied by Nuplex. It is resistant to wear and tear and even a certain amount of abuse says Dave. He does a nice light mix that reflects the light. “It’s good to get a bit of light in,” says Dave. “Most cowsheds don’t have enough. If you have a dark wall it just sucks up the light.” Dave’s been putting the coatings on dairy sheds in the Waikato for 30 years.
The entry side of the shed.
By Andrew Campbell
Paul Donderwinkel says they put in a fairly basic system that has the facility to be a stand alone system. “We did the installation with PFS and with some DeLaval equipment for pre-cooling, making some changes to their standard product to gain even more efficiency,” says Paul. “Basically what happens is glycol chills the milk down, we are putting the milk into the vat around about five or six degrees. And we just made a few adjustments to the control of that so the thing actually works even better. “DeLaval supplied all the equipment for pre cooling, we assisted with that and did the installation and then supplied and installed the refrigeration for the vat. “It’s pretty basic stuff. The idea was to keep it basic and not too complicated, however, it does have the ability, should there be failure in any of the other systems, to be a stand alone system. There was quite a lot to learn and everything was done four times over, but the information
Jamie Haupapa and Talya Raumati from Buster Cover Ltd installed the four auger feed system. is now there and can be used in the future says Paul. “We worked very closely with Craig, the electrician from PFS’s electrical arm on the controls, which was the key to the whole thing.” The ground was prepared by Paul Garland who started earlier last year, when he also put in new effluent ponds in anticipation of the new dairy. The ponds were lined with a metre of clay from a local quarry and compacted to 400mm for waterproofing. The fill used in the build and on the tanker
track is sand from the farm. It’s good enough for John to quip that he could make more money out of selling sand than milking cows. The feed services were provided by Buster Cover Ltd, which installed the feed system, the 16 tonne silo and augers. With only four milking stations and a silo close to the shed, it was more efficient to supply the VMS stations by four relatively short augers says Talya Raumati. Each milker has a feed tray, delivering a predeterminable amount as each cow enters the VMS station. The cow enters the stall, the feed drops
Centigrade installed the vat.
Page 34
ADARE
Coast & Country
Living up to expectations The Adare Company dairy farm is at Rukuhia on the southern outskirts of Hamilton city. By Helen Wilson
DeLaval milk clusters.
There was an expectation the city would grow in this direction and the productive dairy land would be swallowed up by residential sections. This has not happened yet and so when some extra lease land became available, the Peacocke family decided to build a new herringbone dairy. The old 36-bail rotary had ‘run out of its usefulness’. The family wanted to improve the farming systems and get more production out of the 250 ha farm. Farm manager Henri Pennings started on June 1 this year, taking over the day-to-day running of the dairy farm. Henri arrived from Holland 21 years ago and spent the first 12 years working on dairy farms, progressing to owning his own farm. “I decided on a career change, sold my farm and bought an automotive business; things didn’t work out so I sold the business and went back to what I enjoy most, which is working on the land. “Having a change was beneficial as it made me realise that dairy farming is the career for me,” says Henri. He spent two years contract milking on a farm at Taupiri before taking on this job. As well as Henri, there are two other full-time staff. “We will be calving 575 cows starting on July 22, which is an increase in cow numbers from 420 the previous year.” The new farm dairy was started in March and was finished by mid-May, which meant the new dairy got a trial run before the next season. “The dairy worked really well; it has good cow flow and the plant lived up to all expectations. The cows took a little while to settle down as they were used to a rotary dairy,” says Henri.
Don Chapman has been involved with building farm dairies for more than 40 years. His expertise when designing the right dairy for the right job, all within the farmer’s budget, is invaluable. Don’s farm dairies are now marketed under the brand name Chapman Dairy. A network of licensed builders is now established in strategic areas of New Zealand to construct dairy sheds to the same high standards Don sets in the Waikato. Adare Company chose a standard Don Chapman herringbone dairy design.
Farm manager Henri Pennings, DeLaval district sales manager Malcolm Kensington, Pump and Electrical Services owner Wayne Morris and Don Chapman of Chapman Dairy.
ADARE
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Making the most of the land The standard 40 bail zig-zag design has an adjustable head rail and pendulum gates. There is a rail in the pit for stepping up onto which enables easy identification of cows. The exit area is wide and allows unrestricted cow movement, while still providing positive pit-operated drafting to separate pens. On the open side of the pit area is a vet bail and AI bail. The enclosed area of the dairy has all the amenities such as an office, store room and toilet – to which the open double vat stand is attached. The
“It is one of the bigger herringbone designs; anything bigger usually goes to a rotary dairy,” says Don. It has a full side entry race which suited the farm layout. There is a full circle yard, with two backing gates to handle two herds of cows. One of the innovations is a central sump with replacement centre posts in the middle of the yard. Often there can be corrosion problems with centre posts, but with this one it is easy to unbolt it, take it out and replace it with another one.
walls are made from pre-finished poly panel, which is low maintenance and easy to keep clean. “This was a straight forward project with everyone working in together; it finished on time, works well and lived up to the client’s expectations,” says Don. For proven reliability, The Adare Company decided on a DeLaval 40 unit midline 2100 milking system – complete with 2x2 pulsation, swing arms, variable speed milk pump, variable speed Lobe vacuum pump,
Exit area of the dairy and vat stand.
The new dairy sits in the middle of the farm.
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milk sweep and Trombone wash system. Hamilton company Pump and Electrical Services Ltd is the DeLaval agent for the Waikato; owner Wayne Morris was on hand to make sure the total project installation ran smoothly. “This is a straight forward herringbone system. The Adare Company decided not to install automation at this point, but there is provision there if they decide to take that option in the future.”
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Page 36
Coast & Country
Beneficial to the environment Pump and Electrical Services Ltd also did the new dairy shed electrical work, along with the dairy shed water systems and farm water reticulation. Grundfos pumps were used for this project. “We also installed the effluent disposal system. This complies with Environment Waikato’s permitted activity and has taken into consideration the new Farm Dairy Effluent Code of Practice just released,” says Wayne.
“The system has stormwater diversion available, the effluent enters from the yards into a large stone wedge with drying bunker alongside for ease of wedge cleaning; the solids can be dried and stored then applied to the pasture when suitable.” The effluent is stored in a new 4500 cubic metre clay-lined effluent pond, which has a Reid & Harrison six drum pontoon with a Reid & Harrison’s stirrer and Yardmas-
ter pump mounted. The effluent discharges through effluent irrigation lines to hydrants, then onto the irrigator. When conditions allow, it’s then irrigated onto the pasture to maximise the nutrient value. Pump and Electrical Services Ltd has more than 20 years experience and provides solutions to many dairy farm requirements; offering qualified technicians for milking systems, registered master electricians,
pumping systems, filtration, water and effluent irrigation. The company is a member of the Milking and Pumping Trade Association NZ and Electrical Contractors Association NZ. One of the by-products of dairy farming is effluent; a Dungbuster automated yard washing system produced by Technipharm can save famers time and expense. It can reduce the amount of water used
by up to 40 per cent, which means much less water is pumped out of the ground. This system will also reduce the amount of effluent by up to 40 per cent, which has to be beneficial to the environment and the farmer.
The Dungbuster.
One of the two backing gates.
trenchless drainage .co.nz
ADARE
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Built on solid foundations
It saves time as there is no need for anyone to wash the yard down with a high pressure hose; it has been done by the Dungbuster during milking time. A well planned yard is essential for easy management of cows during milking, drafting, vet care and AI. All the galvanised rails were designed and constructed by Leask Engineering, which is based at Tatuanui near Morrinsville and has been around for 52 years.
The team’s expertise has recently taken them to Ireland to help with dairy constructions. Adare Company congratulates Leask Engineering on its standard of work. Providing the correct solutions around infrastructure for a project of any size often means that the rest of the structure will be built on a solid foundation. The infrastructure for Adare Farm was provided by Downer from Te Awamutu – formerly McFall Enterprises. “We were able to construct a solid building platform for the dairy due to the sandy nature of the soil, but because of this, the effluent pond
was quite a challenge and had to be lined with solid clay to stop any seepage,” says Guy Pilkington, manager for the Te Awamutu branch of Downer. The construction and extension into the neighbours was being done on an existing dairy farm and one of the other challenges was working around the daily movement of the cows, made particularly difficult with the weather being so wet.
“Being a new conversion, the raceways, tanker track and culverts all had to be upgraded. The sandy soil made this part of the job a lot easier and we were lucky to have a sandpit on the farm which cut out transportation time and costs,” says Guy. This is one of three dairy conversions the rural team at Te Awamutu has been involved with this year and they are very familiar with the dairy industry and recognise that raceways need to be designed for optimum cow flow. Downer is also well known for maintaining and constructing road
networks for local body authorities and NZTA. The company’s staff are also experienced in the installation and building of underpasses and bridges. The new 40 bail herringbone dairy is situated in the middle of the farm, with the old rotary being used for other farming purposes. By Helen Wilson
airy.
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The dairy and loading race.
MOERAKI FARM
Page 38
Coast & Country
No more room at the (old dairy) inn Owner of McLaren’s Rural Services; Tony McLaren and owner Graeme Davidson.
Graeme and Rebecca Davison decided to build a new rotary dairy shed in 2010 after they had reached the end of the line with their two existing sheds. By Ken Usmar
The farm had originally belonged to Graeme’s parents until he and Rebecca purchased it off them six years ago. They had added to it since, but as Graeme explains, their two older sheds were stretched to the limit with their cow numbers. “We are still running one of those sheds, so it was purely a stock pressure thing for us,” says Graeme. “Some extra land became available, so there was always going to be another cowshed somewhere along the line.” Currently the Davisons are calving 1300 cows on 400ha and milking 690 of those through the new shed. The remainder are still milked in the
older rotary. Graeme says Don Chapman was his immediate choice as a project manager. “He has a good track record and I was also impressed with the quality of the work he does,” says Graeme. “We looked at a few sheds and decided Don and his team were the way we wanted to go.” Weather wasn’t a problem, the build finished on time. Graeme says there was no question of him having to wait for any of the contractors. “If anything, they might have had to wait for me at times.” Geoff Booth from Don Chapman Builders Ltd says the project went very well for them. “We had a very good guy on the job. Paul Rasmussen is particularly efficient – he’s one of our top men and Paul and Luke work together and they are a very good team,” says Geoff. “There was a bit of an issue with soft soils to start with, but it was all easily overcome and the site was built up by a considerable amount. They took out peat and put in a good sand pad.”
Geoff says all the contractors worked really well together, but explains that when Don Chapman Builders builds a shed, they usually choose to work with people they have worked with before. “For example, Leask Engineering does nearly all the pipework for us, unless a farmer specifically asks for somebody else; we’ve worked with Silvester Electrical before; and we’ve worked with the roofer on previous jobs.” The steel work on the Moeraki shed is zinc coated rather than galvanised. “Zinc sprayed is more cost-effective for these sized steel members, plus it’s a nice finish and it works well,” says Geoff. One of the different features about the shed is a channel which the builders put in the yard. Geoff believes it is a much more effective way of draining and cleaning the yard.
0
72 Portside Drive, PO Box 4144, Mt Maunganui South, 3149, New Zealand Tel + 64 7 575 2162, Fax + 64 7 575 2161 FREEPHONE 0508 434 569 WWW.FIL.CO.NZ
For all of your dairy hygiene and animal health requirements call your local FIL Area Manager now!
FARM INNOVATION / HYGIENE / ANIMAL HEALTH / MARKERS / NUTRITION
Mark Mohring 0274 721 502 North Waikato / Hauraki / Morrinsville West
MAKING YOUR JOB EASIER
MOERAKI FARM
PH 07 578 0030
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A bit different from normal “It’s got our new centre post in it and a centre sump,” says Geoff. “What used to happen was the water going out to the middle to under the backing gates went underground and you can never have them completely trouble free. “Sometimes the rust goes through a pipe and you have to dig it up, but here the pipe runs in the channel drain and so, on the rare occasion you might have to service it, you can just lift the grate and get to it and it’s just a cleaner and tidier way of dealing with that centre post and the drainage to it.” Another good feature the shed has is a non-slip rubber mat on the platform where the cows exit. It is glued to the concrete and makes the cows less likely to slip. As the mat wears out the damaged portion will be able to be simply cut out and replaced. Quite a bit of bulk cartage was needed on the
The feed pad was installed by Leask Engineering.
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Moeraki project because the pad had to be built up by about four metres. Tauranga firm RMD Transport was called in for that part of the job and they removed all the peat that was taken out and brought in all the sand and clay needed for the build. Morrinsville’s Graham Silvester from Silvester Electrical was the project’s electrician. He says the job was a fairly standard installation for him. “As with most jobs these days, all the ducting for the plant was laid underneath the floor,” says Graham. “I guess the only thing a bit different from normal that I had to do was to put in a water filtration system and we also had to put in quite a long run of cable down to the effluent system. The job went without any hitches and Graeme and Rebecca were good to work for.”
Page 40
MOERAKI FARM
Coast & Country
Showing their mettle
Rom Stellingwerf from Leask Engineering says the shed was pretty much a standard shed, but one of the more involved designs. “But there’s nothing really unusual that’s gone in here,” says Rom. “We just put in a few things to make Graeme’s job a little easier. For instance, in the holding yards we’ve got a race for AI and a vet area – nothing complicated – farmers don’t need to do a lot of vet work. But this one has easy access with a drop rail and sweeping gates to lead them into the AI race.” Rom says the design used makes for easy access and good cow flow. “We used one of our cam action vet headlocks – we’ve made about 800 of those now – they have an over-centre cam that adjusts for animal neck size. “The yard is standard size, but it has double backing gates so you can run two herds.”
The yard is also fitted with a water boom and the drafting gates have been set up so they operate from the platform. Leasks also put in the feed pad. “It’s all our normal well-built stuff and you can see after a year’s use, it’s all still looking really good. “Mind you, that’s also a testament to Graeme and his staff. You can see the place is nice and clean and obviously well looked after.”
The engine room
Morrinsville contractor McLaren’s Rural Services installed all the milking plant and put in all the water to the shed. Owner Tony McLaren says they installed Milfos plant for Graeme who likes the product because the entry level model he chose has the ability to ‘bolt on’ upgrades later if he wants to. The plant McLaren’s installed is an iFLOW 50 bail platform and iCONVEYER milking machine, iCR cup removers with cow restraints and cluster dropdown system. There is also a blower vacuum pump system with a power saving variable drive.
Making a clean sweep
McLaren’s Rural Services installed the milking plant.
Owner of McLaren’s Rural Services; Tony McLaren.
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Yard cleaning has been made much easier at the Moeraki shed by the installation of a Dungbuster. This was supplied by Technipharm of Rotorua and is an important addition to the shed, it not only saves Graeme time, it also uses 40 per cent less water to do the wash – which is something all farmers are keen to do. FIL provided the hygiene equipment for Graeme’s dairy shed. They put in a GEA washing chemical dispenser. To keep the walls around the pit clean and hygienic, Graeme had an Acraflex coating applied to them. This acrylic five-coat system makes washing down a very simple and quick process as very little sticks to this surface.
MOERAKI FARM
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Looking after the workers Pump & Pipeline Ltd of Morrinsville installed the effluent irrigation system. The yard has been designed to slope towards the effluent system so it is easy to clean and send the effluent down that way. They also put in the effluent systems for the cow shed and extended the effluent field for Graeme’s travelling irrigator. Newstead pump specialists Ross Pumps and Filtration Systems supplied and installed the pumps that are being used on the farm. Bell Booth Ltd installed the Dosatron 20000 inline dispenser for dispensing minerals into the cows’ water supply. This unit can deliver minerals, flavour enhancers or medication to the stock automatically. A container stored underneath the unit holds the concentrate which is then drawn through at the precise rate needed. The Dosatron mixes the precise amount of concentrate needed with water and it is so accurately
lettered that the mixture remains at a constant ratio, regardless of any increases in water flow, so it is not possible to overdose an animal. This device also saves time for Graeme by eliminating the need for manual drenching. Wetit installed their platform magic teat sprayer, which sprays from the edge of the platform. “We also do an in-race teat sprayer which is located in the exit race, but most farmers with rotaries go for this mode,” says Peter Cooke from Wetit Teat Sprayers. Peter believes the popularity of Wetit’s Teat Sprayers is due to how their products are extremely robust and reliable and that is because they are specialists in their field. “Unlike some companies, who do many things, our core business is teat sprayers and so all our research and development energies go into them. We are masters of one trade rather than a jack of many.” By Ken Usmar
The yard slopes down towards the effluent system making cleaning easier.
Milfos milking equipment was installed by McLaren’s Rural Services.
THREE BROTHERS
BURNETT
Page 42
New shed is attracting visitors Roly and Margaret Burnett’s dairy farm is milking 290 cows off 116 effective hectares quite close to the Waikato town of Huntly. By Ken Usmar
Roly and Margaret don’t actually milk the cows that go through their new 40 bail rotary shed each day; that is the role of sharemilkers Stuart and Helen Macdonald. Stuart and Helen began milking for the Burnetts the season prior to the build in the Burnetts’ old 14 a-side herringbone. They are very pleased with the new shed and Stuart says it has taken about an hour and a half off milking time for them. “It’s been good for our cows, too. They had been used to a rotary before we came here and so they adapted back very quickly to the new shed. But it's not just a time saver; it’s easier to work with too.”
“So that's what Don had to do and from our point of view, to know Don was there coordinating everything.” Roly chose not to go particularly high tech with their new shed because he says since he was not going to be milking in it he didn’t see
“We’ve had the dairy company come and use our farm to show people around from overseas and we had a training session to show their office staff from South Auckland what people do on a dairy farm.”
me to project manage this job and apart from it being a 40 bail, it’s the same plant as the first one I did.” Don says having the platform constructed in advance and off-site was one of the things that helped a great deal. He says it was built during the time they were going through all the consent procedures so it didn’t hold them up at all. Roly says he was very pleased with how Don brought the project in on time. “We wanted it up and running for the 2010 season and it was. It started as a four month project and then Don asked for a one month extension, but in the end it was finished in just four months and two weeks. He was always in control and he knew when to call in extra help for concrete laying and extra building bits and pieces.” All the steel work was done by Jackson Engineering of Te Kauwhata.
Sharemilkers Helen and Stuart Macdonald with owners Margaret and Roly Burnett.
Groundwork
Roly says before any of the groundwork had been started, he gathered all the proposed contractors onsite from the electrician to the digger operator and everyone else right through to the builder, Don Davidson. “They said afterwards it was the most constructive meeting they'd ever had because before the first sod was turned everybody knew everybody else and what they were going to do and what part they were going to play. I think that was a big factor in making the job run so smoothly.” Roly says before the build was commissioned, he and Margaret looked at a lot of cowsheds. “And I mean a lot – and we learned that it was essential to have one project manager and to make sure he actually stayed on-site.
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Coast & Country
Powering through the job
the point in getting too many extras. “We’ve automated the drafting, but I didn’t think we would really get the value out of putting too much technology in when we are operating with sharemilkers who change from time to time.” Because the farm is quite close to town, Roly has had considerable interest from people wanting to come and see what has been installed.
Built during down time
Builder Don Davidson really enjoyed the job, which he says was only his second rotary dairy shed build. “I had previously done additions to herringbones, but I hadn't done an entire one before. My previous rotary was a 60 bail and I did all the prep work for that, but Roly asked
The electrician was Clint Robinson of Laser Electrical. He says the calibre of the other contractors on the job made it easy for him to do his work. “Don and Aaron – the builders – are brilliant guys to work with and Andy the shed fitter from McLarens is always a pleasure to deal with – he’s really easy going and will go out of his way to help you.” Clint says the shed came together very quickly and he was in and out in just three weeks.
BruceMcDonald McDonald Bruce 0212706828 2706828 021 NeilClark Clark Neil 021724327 724327 021 Office:0909299 2996486 6486 Office: Hours:7.00am 7.00am- -5.00pm 5.00pm Hours: 2996483 F:F:09092996483 neil@bennettfertilisers.co.nz E:E:neil@bennettfertilisers.co.nz
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BURNETT
PH 07 578 0030
Page 43
A development to be proud of
The vet and AI fold-down platform. “Of course we had two months prior to the building actually being closed in when we did all the ducting and preparation work which is beneath the concrete. That made it a lot easier at the finish.” Clint found the Milfos milking system Roly chose easy to fit together because it is all modular.
Back up
“Milfos have a pretty good back-up service and information and in terms of the plant; the drive on the platform in this shed is hydraulic. In the shed, there’s just one valve
for forward and reverse so if there’s a power failure for whatever reason during milking, Roly can unhook it off the power pack and hook it onto the tractor to run the cows off the platform.” Another of the benefits Clint likes in the shed is the suction action of the pumps. It’s sensitive to changes in water pressure and should the water supply stop unexpectedly, it will turn the pumps off to prevent them running dry. “This is now pretty standard in all the sheds we do.” When putting in the cabling, Clint made sure he put in enough to ensure Roly could – if he wanted – add extras to his system. “That’s the key with things like this, sometimes the initial cost is a little bit more, but at the end of the day if Roly wants to upgrade his drafting system or put a couple of extra pumps in or valves or whatever, we’ve got the provision here to do it. He won’t have to go through the rigmarole of getting cabling back around the shed after it’s all been closed in.”
Easy installments The Milfos milking plant was installed by McLaren’s Milk and Water of Huntly. McLaren’s manager Andy Geissmann says it is a component-type system which can start at entry level and be built up to a full herd
management system later. He says this not only allows for future proofing of the shed should the owner wish to sell it later, but it is also future proofing the farmer against future regulatory requirements. “This system gives Roly automatic drafting, but we don’t know what the milk yield is off each cow, however, that could easily be added
A Milfos iConverter chiller ensures the milk is kept at optimum temperature. later. Likewise if he wanted individual feeding that could also be easily added or he could have a weigh station installed if he was particularly interested in the weight of his cows.” Andy also feels the meeting at the beginning of the job was particularly useful.
72 Portside Drive, PO Box 4144, Mt Maunganui South, 3149, New Zealand Tel + 64 7 575 2162, Fax + 64 7 575 2161 FREEPHONE 0508 434 569 WWW.FIL.CO.NZ
For all of your dairy hygiene and animal health requirements call your local FIL Area Manager now!
FARM INNOVATION / HYGIENE / ANIMAL HEALTH / MARKERS / NUTRITION
“That doesn’t very often happen. It’s only the second or third time I’ve come across it happening. It was good to have a blank canvas to start off with and for everyone to be able to come together and talk about the different options. How well the shed goes is always related to how well the people working on it work together.” Andy says Don Davidson did a great job ensuring all the sub-contractors worked well together. “Don cracked the whip a little bit a times, but he was very calm and organised and always gave us a good heads up on how things were progressing so we knew in plenty of time what was needed.”
Mark Mohring 0274 721 502 North Waikato / Hauraki / Morrinsville West
MAKING YOUR JOB EASIER
The engine room.
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BURNETT
Coast & Country
Getting the water right Roly initially had a small problem with the pulsators and the timing of the cups coming off, but he says the back-up service was amazing and it only took a quick phone call to Andy to put things right. “Once you start putting electronics in, it just takes a little more fine-tuning, says Andy. “Every shed is different and no two sheds are exactly the same – so you often have to come back a couple of times to get those settings right.” Andy believes in making the plant easy to operate, but not to the point where the operator doesn’t have to think. “Where there is less of a personal relationship with the farm, you might get people who are just going through the motions and if you put too much automation in and take all the thinking away they could make some big costly mistakes.” There are some security features built in, however. For example the plant cannot be washed down if the valve on the vat is in the wrong position. “I think it is good for the operators to have a certain routine that they have to go through. It gives them an opportunity to have a look around and make sure everything is alright.” Roly’s Milfos milking system comprises a 40 bail rotary featuring an iCOMPAC flat floor platform, iCONVEYER milking machine, iCR cup removers with cow restraints and cluster dropdown system. His milk quality is assured by an iCONVERTER chilling
system which snap chills the milk while maintaining the vat and providing him with ample hot water. Mark Mohring from FIL supplied the wash chemicals for the Burnetts’ shed. “We keep an eye on all of the sheds and then when the fitters have got to the time to start putting water through and they’re actu-
A 40 bail rotary was the Burnetts’ choice of shed.
ally testing, that’s when I come in to check volumes, temperatures and the water and establish which products are most suitable for the shed,” says Mark.
Planning and monitoring
“Then we just put a plan in place and monitor it. This shed has its own dispenser that the manufacturer supplied with the plant, but where that isn’t the case, we have a dispenser of our own we can put in.” Roly says Trev Savage of Trev’s Electrical & Pumps Ltd in Hamilton had one of the tougher jobs on the build. “Trev installed our filtration pump and we had a problem with water coming out of the creek. It varies with the time of the year, floods, storms etcetera and as a result, Trev probably had the biggest challenges to cope with of anyone.” Trev agrees: “As Roly said, we had surface water to deal with, which is a moving target – it's always changing because you can get rain. “So the plant that we've put in there is what we call a multi media filter. First it takes out the majority of sediment and larger particles and it then goes through a one micron filter which will remove any particles above one micron, which is basically just like a finer filtration. Finally it goes into a carbon filter.” Trev says they could have used chlorine, but after discussing the matter with Roly, they both decided that would not achieve what they wanted. “We were having issues achieving clarity in the water, but the most important thing and Fonterra was concerned about e-coli. There is no doubt the chlorine
would have sorted out the e-coli, but that wouldn’t have cleaned the water afterwards, so you would still have issues with colour sediment and taste. If sediment gets into the plant it can go right through the wash and get into the cylinders and causes issues there. So we opted to sterilise the e-coli with UV and achieve clarity through the carbon filter. In any case, Roly has spent over a million dollars on this shed and the last thing he would want is to have it all stained by horrible discoloured water.”
Cleaning up
Reid & Harrison of Matamata, manufacturers of the Yardmaster range of machinery, provided the equipment for dealing with the shed’s effluent. Director Bob Dalley says they manufacture the whole system for the farmer so all he needs is for someone to dig the trenching and put it all in. “Roly has one of the biggest ponds we have ever had to fit a pontoon to and he is pumping some of his effluent up to 1000m. So we supplied him with a 15hpYardmaster RH17 pump and a 10hp stirrer and made him a six drum pontoon. He is also using a travelling irrigator and we put about six hydrants on the main line for that.” Morrinsville company, Pump & Pipeline Ltd dug the trenches for Roly’s effluent system and installed it when it arrived on site. By Ken Usmar
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CHAMBERLIN
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A shed with a view
Wayne and Andrea Chamberlin selected an idyllic spot for a cowshed when they decided to convert their drystock farm earlier this year; the 54 bail rotary is nestled amongst the hills on their Marotiri property, overlooking Mt Titiraupenga and Mt Pureora. By Sheryl Brown
After 40 years drystock farming, Wayne and Andrea decided to convert. They wanted to keep their investment in land, but also have an opportunity to step back from farming themselves in a few years.
Their son Tony and his wife Nic are milking between 450-500 crossbreds in the first season off 240ha – with a 49ha support block one kilometre up the road. The conversion and the process of building the new rotary was a challenging task says Andrea. “I was a little bit excited, but mostly terrified at undertaking it – to embark on this. “We looked at the option on several occasions during the years (to convert). “We had a good Perendale flock for 40 years and a great 40-year Murray Grey Stud – it wasn’t something we let go easily. It was a difficult decision. “But we physically didn’t want to carry on doing that. We wanted to keep our investment
The team who worked together to convert the drystock farm and build the new 54 bail rotary cowshed.
in the land though and our son had an interest to farm.” The first decision was selecting the right spot for the cowshed; which turned out to be about 200 metres off the centre of the farm. “The furthest paddock is just over one kilometre away,” says Wayne. However, a small hill stood in the way of the site: Enter McLaren Contracting. Tony McLaren has taken over his father’s business and does all contract work for Wayne and Andrea – who started up with his father and are one of McLaren Contracting’s oldest clients. Tony did the majority of the earthworks
Coast & Country
required for the conversion; including upgrading the races, putting in a tanker track and getting the site ready for the cowshed – mostly with his John Deere tractor and scoop. “Tony made the site for the shed – which involved quite a lot of earthworks; he did the races and the effluent pond and the tanker track,” says Wayne. “We’ve known the McLaren’s for more than 30 years. They always have worked hard; they turn up any time day or night,” says Andrea. “We can’t speak highly enough of them and their excellent service.” Wayne says it was remarkable watching Tony do all the races with his John Deere tractor.
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Catering for the conversion “He used the scoop; and he was so quick and skilful. “He’d drive along 200 metres, scoop it one way, turn around and come back; he could spin around within the width of the race. It was very quick.” Tony says his contracting work and earthworks keep them going all year round. “We do contracting, earthworks, silage, hay, cultivation – which all complement each other.” He says helping to convert the Chamberlin’s drystock farm to a functioning dairy operation was a great challenge.
“It took a good 30 hours to prepare the shed site. “With time you can do anything.” A Heavy Vehicle entrance way required for the conversion was constructed by HEB Construction Ltd based in Taupo. Contract manager Graeme Withington says Wayne approached them for a quote, which included dealing directly with Opus Consultants on NZTA specifications, consent to work on State Highways and approved traffic management plans. “I acted on Wayne’s behalf, filled out the paper work and communicated with Opus over NZTA standards and special conditions for the proposed entrance way. “I had to have pavement design
approved. Material and compaction testing and compliance to specifications were required – all part of the quality assurance requirements for the heavy vehicle rural entrance. “It was a Modified Diagram D design, which included twin 450mm culverts and wing walls – which are the big concrete aprons at both ends.” Wayne and Andrea say they hardly got to know Graeme as the project for them ran very smoothly. “They knew what was required to meet the standards of NZTA for creating a new entrance way on a state highway.” Helping with the conversion process was Farmlands in Taupo. Business manager John
Calkin says Farmlands supplied a lot of equipment to cater the farm for dairy cows. “Not so much directly tied to the shed, but to the development of the farm; concrete troughs we supplied 48 of those. “Culvert pipes, gates, alkathene, Nutrimol.” Wayne and Andrea say John was very obliging and nothing was too much trouble. Wayne says it was a steep learning curve when it came to the decisions on what shed to build and what to put in it. “Things have moved on and changed rapidly since I was milking cows. “I knew the basics, but certain people have been a
great help.” Andrea says there were a few key people who “have given a lot of themselves”. “We want to say thank you to those people who have gone the extra mile.” One of those people was Alan Moulder from Waikato Milking Systems. When the decision to convert was made, one of the first things they did was talk to Waikato Milking Systems – who came recommended. “Waikato has always been a good product,” says Wayne. “They’ve been extremely helpful, particularly Alan (Waikato Milking Systems technical project manager). “He comes with a lot of experienced and has been very patient with us.”
Waikato Milking Systems had to do alterations to their plant system to fit it with the Dairy Tech platform.
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Pointed in the right direction Throughout the process, Alan was good at pointing out what they needed and what they didn’t need says Wayne. “We made the decisions, but he was pointing us in the right direction. “In his own right – he has probably built more than 100 sheds, which gave us the confidence in him.” When looking at sheds, Wayne says his main drive was to keep labour down. “We wanted to keep it as a small family unit. We’ve keep it as automated as much as we can with cup removers to keep labour down – we hope it’s going to pay off.” Tony’s friend Bradley Pennington will be the only extra labour unit; working on the farm to support Tony and Nic in their new adventure. The new shed has got the Waikato Milking Systems Smart Range system installed, including the Smart teat spray system. “So moving forward we can just add to it,” says Alan.
“The Chamberlin’s are putting in SmartD-TECT – an early warning mastitis system – next year. It’s all set up to go, all the switches and wiring has been done.” Alan says the SmartD-TECT interfaces with LIC’s Protrack Vantage, offering a huge benefit as information can be sent between the two systems, drafting becomes an automatic process and data is stored for future use. It’s a Dairy Tech platform, however, so Waikato had to build a specifically designed milking system to fit. “We had to build it to fit – so it’s not just off the shelf. “The system can be custom-made to fit any platform or shed.” Wayne had seen the Dairy Tech shed design before and liked it.
Mainland Engineering
CHAMBERLIN
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Top of the range electrics Dairy Tech is a dairy design and construction company based at Otorohanga. “I liked this shed design, there is lots of natural light coming into it,” says Wayne. He says it all came as one package, which made life easy as they didn’t have to alter very much on the design. “The building process was interesting. “It is all pre-cast, they send it in a big truck with concrete walls, which took a couple of days to erect – and then they put the roof up in one day.” Director and designer Peter Gray says Dairy Tech pre-fabricate a lot in the shop and pre-cast panels before bringing it on-site. “That cuts down time on-site. “We can put the roof up in a day. We put in the walls and then the concrete and then use a hiab truck to lift the roof and weld it into place – we had it up in time for the rain.
Waikato Milking Systems technical project manager in Taupo, Alan Moulder.
“The vat stand was all pre-cast too.” Dairy Tech supplied the aluminium feed bins as well, which Peter says are proving very popular now.” “Because of the peaks in the seasons – it’s going to be good to be able to feed cows all year round,” says Wayne. Mainland Engineering installed the in-shed feed system, which connects directly with the aluminium feed bins. Daniel Gorton from Mainland Engineering says it is a basic rotary feed system, with a single line coming from the two 16-tonne silos. “They are both hooked into each other, with one line delivering into the shed. So you feed one silo at a time which gives them the capacity between loads.” Daniel says the AP System is imported out of the USA, but all the parts are stocked in New Zealand. “The PVC is UV resistant – so that gives them a good guarantee and the inside of the bends have a thicker wall, which makes them last longer too.” Daniel says Mainland Engineering, based in Taupo, do both rotary and herringbone feed systems as well as any other engineering requirements for dairy sheds “We’ve been in the dairy industry for about 10 years now; we specialise in the dairy industry, but do all manners of engineering.” When it came to doing the electrical work, Wayne and Andrea says they were amazed at how much work was required. “We have put in a lot of automation – Laser Electrical from Putaruru were brilliant. “They were very, very good – very efficient.” Andrea says she would recommend Laser Electrical for any electrical work because of their excellent knowledge and quality service. The electrical work is top of the range – any electrical faults show up on a screen for Tony or Nic to identify the problem before ringing a technician.
Daniel Gorton from Mainland Engineering says the two 16-tonne silos link to one direct line – and straight into the aluminium feed bins in the shed.
By Sheryl Brown
HiFLO PUMPS HiFLO PUMPS & IRRIGATION LTD
HiFLO PUMPS HiFLO PUMPS & IRRIGATION LTD
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HANSER
Coast & Country
More time for fishing “Last year I was out tramping and standing at the top of Mount Taranaki when I decided we should build a new dairy shed,” says Charmaine Hanser. Brian Hanser, Brent Crothers from Waikato Milking Systems and Charmaine Hanser.
Brian and Charmaine Hanser have a 97 acre dairy farm at Pukearuhe on the West Coast near Urenui, north of New Plymouth. “We are only two kilometres from the coast so building a new, more efficient dairy shed meant I could have more time to go fishing,” says Brian.
Third generation
Brian is the third generation Hanser to own this flat to rolling farm. “My grandad bought a larger farm here originally and later divided it in two for his son – my father – and daughter, who married into the Cocker family and ran the other farm. My parents used to have a four doubled-up walk through dairy shed and hand milked the cows.” Brian and Charmaine bought the farm from Brian’s parents in 1984, along with an 88 acre runoff, which is a short distance away. They also lease an adjoining 100 acres, which is used for dairy support and growing maize silage. The maize silage is fed out in the autumn through until calving finishes at the end of September. When Brian and Charmaine took over the farm, the walk through had been upgraded to an eight a-side herringbone and they were milking 100 cows. “We are not getting any younger and there
could come a time when we want to employ staff. The old dairy shed was suitable for us to milk in, but to attract good staff, a well designed efficient dairy shed is a necessity,” says Charmaine. Once the decision was made, Charmaine got in touch with local builders and suppliers and worked out what would be best for their requirements. She was assured that Brent Stewart Construction would be able to complete the project in the winter months when the cows were dried off. “I just wanted a simple dairy shed, which worked well, with no extras and has good cow flow. Brent was able to offer his advice and between the three of us I think we have come up with an ideal dairy shed that suits us.”
Best views
The old dairy was demolished and the new 20 bail herringbone was built on the same spot, facing out to the ranges. Probably one of the best views from a dairy shed in New Zealand. The existing tanker track and raceways have been utilised saving considerable cost. They now milk 150 cows in half the time and have doubled production. “We are proud to offer our clients a range of services and construction packages from design and building homes to new farm dairies,” says Brent Stewart. Brent Stewart Construction is able to assist with design, provide a fully scheduled fixed tender prior to construction.
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.................................................................................................................................................................................................... A 100% New Zealand owned and operated company waikatomilking.co.nz | P +64 7 849 8755
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HANSER
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Everything went to plan
They use only competitive and competent sub contractors and can project manage any construction through to procuring compliance under council regulations. Brent Stewart Construction’s commercial sector is involved in developing relationships with architects and engineers to comply with all contract conditions.
The entry way into the yard.
Well designed
“The Hansers chose a simple well designed farm dairy that suits their requirements. Our rural sector of the business can design more elaborate farm dairies, silage bunkers, fertiliser bins, practically anything for the grass roots of Taranaki.” The company has the skill range to undertake design and build, masonry work and drainage within the client’s requirements and budget. Brian and Charmaine decided on a 100mm Waikato Supa4 with SmartAIR for the vacuum pump and SmartPULS 2+2 pulsation. “The Supa4 installed on this farm was supplied in a standard format without too many complicated extras. It has adjustable flow cluster washers and a variable speed milk pump. A Supa4 is ideal for this size dairy shed and the number of cows they are milking. It is fast, efficient and simple to operate, if there is a problem anywhere in the system it can be easily located and quickly corrected,” says Brent Crothers, herd management specialist for Waikato Milking Systems. Moa Milking and Pumping are the Waikato Milking Systems agents for Stratford and Ingle-
Bolted gates.
wood. They also supply and fit water pumps, effluent pumps and wash down systems for herringbone and rotary dairy sheds. “Once the builder has finished we can offer farmers a total fit out package for all their dairy plant requirements, even feeding systems. It means they are only dealing with one company and not waiting on contractors to finish so the next stage can be started,” says Nathan Hitchcock, owner of Moa Milking and Pumping. Nathan has been the Waikato Milking Systems agent for six years, but has been involved with dairy shed installations for 15 years. They offer farmers a 24 hour, seven day service. “Nowadays we are usually fitting out large rotary dairy sheds and it was a real pleasure working on this job. Everything went to plan and Brian and Charmaine have got an easy to operate dairy that will last long into the future.” The question was asked if there would be a fourth generation Hanser on the property and the answer was, “We have five adult daughters and the youngest one is currently working on a dairy farm milking 600 cows in the South Island. So she would be the obvious one to take over from us,” says Brian. Now they have an easy to operate dairy shed that requires only one milker Brian has more time for fishing and Charmaine has more time for tramping and exploring the local hills and coastline or just sitting on the deck enjoying the panoramic views from their new solar powered house. By Helen Wilson
The pit of the new 20 bail herringbone.
Waiting for feed time.
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HARVIE
Everything under one roof
Coast & Country
By Lois McKinley
The Harvie’s new 50 bail rotary.
After the recent snowfall in the area, there was a definite chill in the air as I was Taranaki-bound to view the new dairy shed of Brendon and Anna Harvie at Manaia. Situated on the Waimate Plains, Brendon and Anna run this family owned farm, which is run as an equity partnership with Brendon’s parents Doug and Glenyss. Doug and Glenyss now reside in Tauranga after leaving the farming operation in 1998 and moving onto the liquor industry. “They have gone from milking cows to milking people,” says Brendon with a laugh. Brendon did an apprenticeship in block laying after leaving school, then he came back to the family farm where he 50/50 sharemilked for five years. After the third season, he and Anna went into equity partnership with Doug and Glenyss. When Brendon and Anna took over the farm they were running two separate dairy farms. The farm across the road was milking 180 cows through a 16 a-side herringbone and the farm on the side with the new shed was milking 220 cows through a 20 a-side. There are 420 Friesian and Friesian-cross
cows now being milked through the new 50 bail rotary shed. The decision to build a new shed was mainly so Brendon could have everything under the one roof and to halve the labour units. A much more efficient operation can be run under the one shed. Brendon can have his eyes, ears and hands on everything. Brendon Harvie, Andrew Robinson from GEA Farm TechnoloBrendon says he ran the same sysgies and Doug Fowell from Heritage Farm Buildings. tems, but he wasn’t there milking the cows. NZ, the building permit could be lodged and shed was a must, an After viewing several of the latest construction started. inexpensive sliding sheds of Heritage Farm Buildings, The exit race which holds the curtain with correct Brendan and Anna played an active role in Doug and Brendan Harvie decided on teat spray and weighbridge. the construction of the shed and spent many placement squeeze what design features would best suit hours being hands on, along with Doug and gaps was fitted along their needs. Glenyss from Tauranga, who helped to make the cow entry and exit area, and bird proof These included a fully automated flood wash final decisions on layout and the level of autoventilated grill roller doors were also installed, system that can be turned on and off at the mation to go into the shed. Also, job foreman allowing for a complete secure bird proof shed. shed console and washes not only the yard, Johnny Neil came up with many great suggesDoug Harvie and Doug Fowell came up with but all the pens and exit race areas as well. tions and was accommodating and a pleasure an original idea for stormwater diversion for This means there is no hose-down required at to work with. The project ran smoothly and the effluent system, which has been used to the end of the milking outside the shed. An address the issue of diverting stormwater before the complete finishing off of the project to the in-shed fold down vetting platform and built-in the sand trap instead of the usual after the surrounding site, with all fences, races, site conaccess area were also installed with separate touring and grass sowing, done before calving sand trap on a flood wash yard. Once all the chemical and storage room with easy access started. This is a credit to Brendan and Anna’s decisions on the design features, such as site for 200 litre drums. In-shed feeding was part hard work and endeavour. location and effluent management were made of the overall farming system, so a bird proof and approved by Fonterra, TRC and Dairy
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A finely tuned design
Alastair Hodgkinson from Rural Taranaki.
Andrew Robinson from GEA Farm Technologies.
Chris Slinger from Slinger Earthworks. From an initial consultation, Heritage Farm Dairies starts from a standard shed design with the choice of a round or rectangle yard with standard pens and drafting layout. From there, they work closely with the customer to fine tune the design and layout that best suits their farming and herd management practices. This is achieved through close consultation throughout the entire construction of the project with Doug. Seeking feedback from the customer on the finer points of what does and does not work for them, Doug uses his experience to ensure no common design faults come into the shed. There is an emphasis on working together with the customer to achieve a seamless milking operation, future proofing the design and layout and ensuring completion of the project to the required time frames. During construction, Doug takes special care to make sure the building and yards are completely earthed out. Imported FRP grating is used for all open drains, which has the strength and longevity of galvanized grating, but is very light to handle and is a non-conductive prod-
uct, which helps to insulate against any possible build-up of static electricity or stray voltage, which can have an unseen adverse affect on milk production. Design and layout of the automated ID drafting system, holding pens and head bail areas were thoroughly thought out and worked through with Brendan and Doug to work in with their farm management practices, with careful consideration to the management and handling of stock movement. Sheds are constructed from masonry block work allowing flexibility in design and construction and allowing services to be concealed in wall cavities, thus avoiding untidy pipe work and conduits. All block work has a water-proof protective colour coating to keep walls free from slime and algae build up. The shed features aluminium joinery throughout with sliding windows and self closing doors, bird proof roller doors with ventilated grills allowing for good air flow in those hot summer months, well placed clear sheeting to the roof also allows for minimum change of lighting when stock are entering and leaving
WestfaliaSurge
the shed. It all creates a stress-free environment for stock and staff. During construction, a close working relationship with specialised and experienced subcontractors in farm dairy construction is established to ensure the coordination and placement of all services. I was joined by Andrew Robinson from GEA Farm Technologies WestfaliaSurge and Alastair Hodgkinson from Rural Taranaki Ltd who took me around the shed and explained the system to me. The Harvies chose the GEA FT WestfaliaSurge equipment because they really liked the technology, including the platform, which comes standard with nylon rollers. It means the system required no grease or oil and provided a nice smooth operation. The platform is concrete and all bolted together with minimum welds. “A lot of platforms still run on steel rollers and although cheaper, they require a lot more maintenance” says Andrew. “Nothing needs greasing apart from the centre bearing. “The nylon rollers move along with the plat-
form. They never wear out; farmers are after technology, but want less maintenance,” says Alastair. “The Yarroweyah platforms are distributed all around the world and every WestfaliaSurge system that is sold pretty much has one of these platforms.” The Yarroweyah platforms are made in Colac Australia and the Harvie’s platform is about the 2800th made. They are sturdy and, once out of the container, are bolted together with minimum welds. It takes half a day to weld the necessary bits and then the rest is all bolted together. It is a very easy package to put together. The platform arrives on-site where the concrete is poured onto it. Brendon is impressed with the service he receives from Rural Taranaki’s Alastair Hodgkinson. “Their service has always been reliable and nothing is ever a problem,” says Brendon.
HARVIE
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Coast & Country
Four-way technology
The floodwash system in operation. A 50 bail WestfaliaSurge milking system has been fully installed by Rural Taranaki. The system comes complete with retention arms and feed troughs. The clusters are equipped with silicon liners. The vacuum system is a 5CL Tuthill blower vacuum pump. This new blower type vacuum pump with Teflon coated lobes and oil bath gear boxes at both ends allows for less maintenance and longer life. The IQ Clusters are the world’s first four-way milking clusters. IQ is the first four-way teat cluster in the world. Its revolutionary four-way technology ensures that you always have maximum milk quality, quantity and udder health. The new milk guide piece has been designed following the natural structure of a cow’s udder. It is sub-divided into four guide chambers. Thanks to the incline in the respective cluster
chamber this process is faster and more gentle. IQ has always securely adhered to the teats because the flexible part of the short milk hose has been doubled. The nipples and sight glass have been removed and the shape has been trimmed for maximum flexibility. Quick and non-stressful milking of all four quarters of the udder can be realised without any air ingressions and with a high throughput. Because there are four individual chambers, it ensures there is no cross contamination during milking.
ROC System at its best
The new-to-New Zealand ROC system uses an angle encoder attached to the centre swivel, which gives the precise position of each milking bail. Using the encoder positioning system the ROC can make intelligent decisions and platform functions at precisely the correct
o
safe link
IQ clusters.
YOUR PERSONAL MEDICAL ALARM
Central Silos impressive setup.
time. The system is capable of controlling the platform speed automatically according to cow milking speed. The system uses an ear tag or collar ID reader on the entrance bridge to the platform and uses the angle encoder positioning system to place the correct cow number in each bail. It decides how much feed is allocated to each cow based on cow weight, condition and milk yield. Jan Winke comes down from Cambridge to give in-depth instruction on how to make the most of DairyPlan Herd Management software.
Feed to succeed
Bernie and Sean Currie from Central Silo Systems at Ashhurst manufactured and installed the feed silos. They do a complete design, supply and install services for storage and animal feed systems.
Donald Jennings from Jennings Engineering in Manaia was contracted to do all the yard and pipe-work as well as the impressive backing gate, which has dung cleaning capabilities attached to it. Sinclair Electrical were the electricians employed to power up the shed. Based in Opunake, Brian Sinclair and his team specialise in cowsheds among other electrical work. Chris Slinger from Slinger Earthworks did the entire site preparation from scratch removing the topsoil to building up the site. Chris also did the tracks and races as well as the effluent ponds. Chris has been running his own business for the last five years and has been in the industry for 20 years. DR Gray from Hawera were sub contracted to apply the acraflex coating for the Harvie’s new dairy shed. By Lois McKinley
HARVIE
PH 07 578 0030
Page 55
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used for agricultural, domestic and commercial purposes including the storage of molasses and chemicals.
More recently Devan have introduced their range of septic tanks and wastewater treatment systems. Devan’s septic tanks are watertight, strong, lightweight and easy to install. Devan also manufacture and market an environmentally friendly multi chambered household Wastewater Treatment System. This system treats household wastewater to a level that produces effluent which is a clean, clear and
odourless liquid suitable for irrigation of landscaped areas.
Devan have developed a range of drums (100 & 200 litres) which have attained United Nations dangerous goods safety ratings for the transport and storage of chemicals. These drums can be manufactured to suit a range of applications and come in an extensive range of colours. Over the past few years Devan have exported into several Pacific Islands, this business is growing with further development in the
Pacific region. Devan’s prime location near Tauranga and Lyttleton Ports have made exporting their product range into the Pacific a simple and easy process. Devan Plastics’ Head Office is located in Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, one of New Zealand’s fastest growing regions. Devan’smanufacturing and distribution centres are located in Tauranga and Christchurch which have the benefit of being able to provide excellent customer service to both North Island and South Island customers.
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NEW FARM DAIRIES
A 100% New Zealand owned and operated company
Coast & Country
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NEW FARM DAIRIES
waikatomilking.co.nz | P +64 7 849 8755
Page 58
Leaping into the future Eugene ‘Frog’ Le Lievre’s father paid the deposit on a farm at Edgecumbe in 1919 and took it over the following year. By Sheryl Brown
The Le Lievre family has farmed the land since, with Frog building a new cowshed on ‘6-6-1960’ – which is etched in the concrete yard. The original six a-aside herringbone was converted to an eight a-side then a 10-aside double up during the years, with the end two cows in each row being milked standing on the ramps. Frog’s son Pierre says the old cows didn’t particularly like walking over the fold-down bridge at the front of the shed to exit the row. The only positive part of the shed, being a ground-level pit, was having a good view down the farm. “I don’t like being stuck in a hole.” It was this viewing advantage that Pierre wanted kept when he decided to build a new shed. Foundations started in February with Pierre building up the site up by about two metres up,
LE LIEVRE
Coast & Country
16-6-1960 – the date the old cowshed was built, etched into the concrete.
Pierre and Eugune Le Lievre: Two generations; two cowsheds. “Dad thinks he still hasn’t got his money worth out of the old shed,” says Pierre. Eugune (Frog) paid £800 for the old cowshed and now jokes that he is “the ATM” for the new one.
after digging out more than one metre of peat first. Stephen Smith from Smith Builders in Whakatane originally wanted to build the shed the other way around so the cows were flowing straight into the rows, however Pierre wanted the view down the farm from the pit. “We had to raise it up, normally there are steps down into the pit, but Pierre wanted a ramp so he could have a view down the farm. “It’s the first shed I’ve built that the cows come around into the shed – usually they go straight into the yard. “I tried to suggest going the other way. But the client is always right – you can only suggest things. “I like a challenge and it’s not going to make much of a difference to the cows.” Pierre says Stephen did an excellent job. “He fought against the elements because it was so wet. “He was out there in the rain working away. I was quite impressed by that. “He said he’s be out by June 1 and he was out by June 1 – considering the wet autumn we had, he did really well.” Stephen says with the wet season, Whaka-
tane-based Tracks Concrete Limited came to the rescue when they finally got some good weather. “You go like hell to get it ready and pray for a fine day and give Tracks Concrete a ring and they were there laying all the concrete. “They do all my sheds. They do a great job and they’re always there when I give them a ring, which was especially important this year.” Tracks was delighted to play a part in the construction of the new cowshed and holding yards at Pierre’s new dairy shed and wish him many happy years working in his new cowshed. The other contractor Stephen works with regularly is welders WJ Dippie. “They’ve been in the area for more than 40 years so there wouldn’t be many sheds in the Bay they haven’t done. “They were here for at least three weeks doing all the pipes and putting the backing gates together.” Originally Pierre considered altering the old shed, before Innes Richardson from Mike Bird Electrical talked him into building afresh. “It made it easier building on a new site,” says Stephen. “I don’t think they are going to regret it. Eve-
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rything has gone really well – It’s an excellent shed.” Innes was the one that really started the ball rolling on building a new cowshed says Pierre. “Innes was designing and putting it all together right from the start – he was the project coordinator.” Mike Bird Electrical put in the meal system in the shed, linking it with the meal silo along with the water and electrical work. “Most of it is PVC piping,” says Innes. “You can remove the one in the yard if you need to.” Mike Bird says they do most of the cowsheds around the Bay of Plenty plains as well as doing other electrical work as well. Pierre is milking 210 cows through the new 25 a-side herring bone off 74 effective hectares. He says he has always been a fan of herringbone cowsheds “because you can easily see and know the cows and be more hands on”. His new automation system will help that process even more. Pierre went with the automation from Waikato Milking Systems because it is mostly New Zealand made.
LE LIEVRE
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Better udder health
Page 59
The contractors (pictured right) worked well to pull everything together despite working in wet conditions.
“The other shed (on the front farm) had Waikato cups put in a couple of years ago and I wanted everything to be compatible. “And it worked in with Minder in our LIC Protrack,” says Pierre. “The automation is more than I wanted, but I had a big mastitis problem. I know how hard it is myself (to detect and manage mastitis) so I wanted to give my staff the best tools.” Dave Cassells from Waikato Milking Systems says the SmartD-TECT early warning mastitis system makes Pierre’s shed one of the most advanced cowsheds in the district. “ The system identifies what is happening to a cow before you see it physically – three or four days before she shows symptoms.” He says many farmers have staff in the dairy with little or no experience in detecting mastitis – so this system becomes crucial. “The system measures the conductivity of milk. Each quarter is milked individually during the first 60 seconds of milking and compared against the other three. “If a deviation in conductivity is detected between quarters that falls outside the pre-set threshold the system will alert the farmer. In a herringbone, a visual signal via a flashing LED light at each bail is provided – in a rotary SmartD-TECT can be linked to LIC’s Protrack
Vantage. This system automatically alerts the milker to a potential problem and drafts the cow for inspection. Along with the early warning mastitis system, another new product is the Waikato Swing Arm. The Waikato Swing Arm gives the ability to move clusters left and right – which avoids all the pit clutter during milking and ensures the clusters are properly aligned, says Dave. “The primary reason is to ensure the best possible cluster alignment. This helps milking speed, promotes even and faster milking and maintains better udder health”. The shed also has swing down jetters, which make it easy for shorter people to use them. Dave says it’s all about integrating products together. The cup removers are inside the Swing Arm. On this farm they are fully featured and include AutoStart. All pre and post milking peramters are adjustable easily from the SmartController. Whakatane based Bay Milking Equipment Ltd have been installing Waikato Milking Systems for more than 20 years and continue to enjoy the challenge of installing the new
technology – as has been installed in Pierre’s new shed. Bevan Thomas says the easy to use touchscreen controller is the central control system for the automation, which includes the SmartD-TECT system, SmartSRAY and SmartECR. Pierre even has the technology to change the pulsators ratio at the push of a button says Bevan. “It will be a really easy shed to use. You push a button to milk or the button to wash and you’re set.” Which will be ideal for Pierre’s worker, Glenn Ramel who comes from the Philippines. Glenn will have easy technology at his fingertips to control the cowshed and alert him of any problems. When it came to refrigeration, Pierre called in ESP Electrical who is based in Whakatane. They modified the refrigeration system from the old shed to cool both vats, which required a little bit of modification with the main refrigeration system says Rhys O’Brien. “We had to specially design and build to suit the customer’s requirements.”
The Waikato Milking Systems Swing Arm which declutters the pit during milking. ESP Electrical put in the main refrigeration system to cool the milk going into the main vat, while the refrigeration system from the old shed is used as a pre-chilling water cooling vat to add the chilling process. “Both are set up with the pre-chilling, so the milk will go into the vat at a lot cooler temperature,” says Rhys. “We have modified it to cool both vats. It’s unique, it’s a good way to do it – so much pre-cooling water – utilising what you’ve got without spending more money.” Ryan Clark from ESP Electrical says milk will be entering the vat at between 7-12 degrees, well below Fonterra’s requirement of less than 18 degrees. Pierre says the entire team of contractors made it all come together. “They’ve done it all in the past and I’ll do it once in my lifetime – well hopefully.” “I just want to thank everyone for all pulling together.”
®
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CLEMENT
A quick upgrade
Tony McFadgen of DeLaval, Paul and Hamish Keith of CCM.
Old yards, new shed.
Most new rotary sheds can take months to be completed on new sites, but when Paul Clement opted to build a larger shed, the only suitable site was where the smaller existing shed already stood. So it was a case of out with the old and in with the new – all within a period of 10 weeks maximum – the time between drying off and calving commencing. Paul’s 800 acre farm and runoff on the Pyra-
Coast & Country
mid Waiparu Road, near Riversdale in the hills west of Gore, isn’t overly blessed with flat land. The area along part of the Waikaia River has some good flat land, but the rest seemed to go up and up. His 500 cows either have two short and two long legs – or are used to hill climbing. The year before the new shed went up, the pumps had been moved into a new small shed outside the farm dairy and a new 11,000 volt line had been brought in, but not connected. Milking for the season finished on a Tuesday morning and the contractors swooped immediately. By Thursday afternoon, the
whole main shed and its contents had done a disappearing act. The intact platform was cut into four pieces and moved to sit in a nearby paddock. (Paul was hopeful that someone might have a need for a 36 bail platform and offer to take it away.) The switchboard had been moved into the new pump shed and the rest of the building was dismantled and removed. The main yards were left intact, although some alterations were made later by Brian Mahon Engineering to accommodate improvements, including a race for a Protrack drafter and a loading gate, as well as matching
up entrances and exits to the new shed. CCMP Integrated Farm Solutions had been managing maintenance on the farm for Paul for some time. They had been appointed to project manage the changeover in the 8-10 week timeframe available. Hamish Keith says Southland weather in June and July is not the best time for construction. However, needs must – and everyone was glad of their considerable experience at this sort of thing, which saw the last details being finished as calving started in August.
CLEMENT
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An impressive cowshed to boot View from shed to river and distant hills.
What did Paul and Linda do while all this was going on? Why, went for a much needed overseas holiday of course – that’s real trust. Paul’s lower order sharemilkers, Edwin and Fungai Mabonga had arrived from Africa a few years earlier carrying one suitcase.
Determination
Determination and hard work, plus the arrival of a son, Mako, had seen them progress rapidly to their present position and Paul was delighted that Fungai was working ably with Paul Clement, Fungai Mabonga and son Mako. the cows, while Edwin was away doing an AI training course. Since visiting, Edwin and Fungai have bought in to an equity partnership on a farm further south and are sharemilking to build up their equity. Paul and Linda’s daughter Genevieve and her partner Morgan Crooks stepped in to take their place as sharemilkers. Paul says the shed site had been built up by one metre this time to enable them to cope with floods from the nearby river. The extra altitude also allowed for gravity drainage to the nearby existing effluent pond. One small miracle was the new shed had been designed so there was still a one metre gap between the outside wall and the newish pump shed, thereby ensuring little noise in the dairy itself during milking. The new shed has used the corners to include an office, a storeroom, a vet area and the usual milk cooling and water heating space.
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Tony McFadgen, district manager for DeLaval, joined Hamish to show off the special features of the new plant and feed system. Designed to be operated by one person, the 50 bail platform has a PR1100 concrete deck. They installed Proton clusters and automated MPC150 cluster removers. Controls for both the milking plant and the Protrack drafter are sited at cups-on.
Feed managers
To cater for the all important energy requirements of the cows in what can be a cold climate, they also installed DeLaval feed mangers, which provide each cow with a helping of molasses at each milking. With the river winding round part of the boundary, this is an attractive farm with great views over the surrounding countryside and now an impressive cowshed to boot.
By Sue Edmonds
OVERGAAUW
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Coast & Country
Self service milking system By Sue Edmonds
Peaceful queues for the robot bails. A chin scratch after milking. Roomy and comfortable wintering shed.
Having cows which get themselves milked when they feel like it must be the dream of many farmers and milkers. No more rising before dawn, getting cows into the yard, walking miles up and down a herringbone pit or lifting heavy clusters with one hand. No matter how automated modern rotary sheds get however, there’s still got to be a human milker involved at each milking. Bill and Janet Overgaauw of Winton in Southland love trying new things. Bill already had a dairy farm with a rotary shed milking 500
cows. When the opportunity came to convert the smaller farm of 100ha next door, they decided to try a robotic shed. Now having done three seasons with the robotic system, they wouldn’t have it any other way. They opted for four Lely Astronaut A3 milking robots to milk 320 cows over 24 hours a day, with split calving. The cows love it – coming in mostly twice a day, with some opting for a third round. They wander individually up the race and stand quietly in the four queues. The shed is flood washed twice a day, with the individual bails washed after each cow. The milking process is surprisingly fast, with cows immediately
replacing each other in the bails. At the start, Bill says about 90 per cent of the cows got the hang of the new system within two weeks, with the other 10 per cent taking up to two more weeks. As part of the conversion, he also ripped out all existing fences and used GPS to create three spoke races, each with five paddocks of equal size along each side. Lely Grazeway automated drafting gates switch the cows to new grazing every eight hours as they leave the milking shed. There’s also a wintering barn nearby, built largely to Overgaauw’s design and from which cows have free access to the milking shed when the barn is in
use. There are no troughs in the paddocks, but several in different parts of the milking area. Reese Hegarty of JJ Ltd, Southland agents for Lely, who installed the new plant, took great length to explain how the robotic system operated. The Lely system has the cows walking straight into the bail towards an automated feed system, which can be used to provide two different feed types and molasses to a manager in front of the cow. A brush system then gently cleans the teats, before the cups are sought and put on using a laser system on the robotic arm. Separate milk lines from each cup test the milk for bacteria, cell counts,
milk yield, fat, protein and mastitis. Any high counts or substandard milk see the milk in that quarter diverted into a Milk 4 Use bucket system on the other side of the bail machinery. The rest goes to two milk socks, through a Lely tube cooler and into the vat. The cleaning brushes are cleaned and disinfected and the cups are washed between each cow. The cows all wear collars, with numbers and a Qwes H tag responder on the side and a weight at the bottom. The responder not only records when a cow arrives and leaves, but also operates as a motion sensor to indicate heat detection.
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OVERGAAUW
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Robotic personal assistance
Bill Overgaauw. Lely Juno keeps feed in line. If the system considers a cow is not ready to be milked, she is drafted back to the paddock for more grazing. If a cow gets to a bail, but is for some reason rejected, there is a central-railed row which allows her to either join the queue again or be drafted out for inspection. Bill feeds his cows well with grain and molasses as 10 per cent of feed intake all year round and the cows are very quiet and calm, both of which result in amazing milk yields. In the second season, production was an average of 640kgMS/cow, giving a total of 181,000 with 200,000 anticipated in the third season. He says some springers were giving 43 litres
Reject milk from each quarter goes here.
each a day at the beginning of the season. Supplements are all supplied by CRT Co-operative, both in the milking shed and the wintering barn. Nick Morris Engineering did all the steelwork for the shed, the yards and the wintering barn as a design and build job. There are two places in the milking shed where entry and exit lanes cross – to accommodate the three spoke races – and these have been fitted with Texas manual push gates at chest height on all four sides of a frame. Cows can go straight through in either direction, but cannot make a right angle turn as the gates only open one way. Graeme Healey of McDowall Exca-
Nick Morris and four-way gate.
vating says reshaping a hill, forming the races, digging the manure storage pit under the wintering barn and excavating the huge effluent pond took 12 months, with levels changed up to one metre in various places. The entry track is 8m wide while races are a generous 6m. As the cows come in individually, in hindsight these could have been narrower, but it’s the finish on these races which is really special. They have used rice gravel, which are very small smooth stones acquired through dredging of river gravel and a local shingle plant. The cows have found this surface easy on feet, allowing them to walk as fast or slow as they choose. The races
Reece Hegarty of JJ Ltd, robot installers.
had been completed two and a half years beforehand and the surface was still smooth and slightly humped in the centre. Underneath the wintering barn, there’s a massive manure storage facility, easily holding 90 days storage of around three million litres. The storage is stirred with a spiky propeller mounted on a shaft behind a tractor. The manure is only spread in dry weather and not at all in winter, using an 18,000 litre bulk slurry tank towed by a tractor. This allows the whole farm to benefit from the manure, with nutrient levels tested. The wintering barn, built largely to Bill’s design and with some European
influences, has raised resting places for each cow and its own share of robots. A small one called a Lely Discovery automatic manure scraper trundles about over the slatted floor on a pre-defined route and brushes both solids and liquids down into the trenches below, keeping slats and cows clean. A larger one, the Lely Juno, is used up and down the wide central aisle to sweep back feed tossed up when the cows flick their heads up while eating. This robot does its job around 10 times in a 24 hour period, can trundle up and down the shed slightly faster than a man can walk and reduces wastage, while keeping the aisle clean and clear.
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Coast & Country
Taking advantage of growth Dairy farmer Alistair Megaw, who made the move to Southland from the Waikato, always does his homework for new farm projects. By Sue Edmonds
Now based at West Heriot, his milking platform is 215ha, with an extra 200ha runoff. Last season, Alistair milked 540 cows, with plans to increase to 580 this season. With the increas-
ing number of cows, a new farm dairy was required, which was completed in January 2010. At the same time, Alistair invested in a Freestall Cowhouse wintering shed. At the time of New Farm Dairies visit in late November, he was taking full advantage of the phenomenal grass growth which occurred after the late winter storm, with truckload after truckload of grass silage being brought in from his runoff. These were being compressed into what looked like several mountain ranges of silage
heaps and were a sharp reminder that when the grass stops growing down South, you need a lot of feed to keep 580 cows happy. After considerable consultation with Reporoa Engineering and visits to several Reporoa sheds, Alistair went for a 64 bail rotary, with a wonderfully light and airy building surrounding it. The shed itself has a raised, but bird-proof gable, lots of large windows and sliding doors in the sides for both easy access and summer ventilation. One feature which really appealed – and which was a Megaw
idea – was curved steps up in the corners, from the milker position to platform height. Unlike those in the corners of many sheds, the curved ones give full foot width on every part of every step. Everything about the shed had a spacious feel. There’s an underpass below the one on and three off bridge area, which allows access both to the centre and from cups on to cups off.
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The Cowhouse in the background. Big glass side doors for air and light.
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Page 65
Efficient and operator-friendly
Fold-down vet platform. The indoor vet area has a fold-down metal grille which goes out to the milking platform. An office is situated at the yard level, with the hot water cylinders and double banked plate cooler beneath it. The machine room is sound proofed so milking is quiet. The main yard is rectangular, 14m wide and 60m long, with a three-way drafter leading to side yards and a loading ramp. A Herdflow Crowd Gate moves the cows a few at a time towards the bridge and a Dungbuster wash system makes yard cleaning easy. All the earthworks were done by Heriot Earthmoving and had involved two weeks work for Murray Young. The site was built up to allow for efficient drainage. Steve Miller of P & W Engineering says how they created a platform and system which is not only super-efficient, but very operator-friendly. He was
Sound-proofed pump room.
keen to show off all the special features they had incorporated. The deck itself slopes inward with large drains running from the inward side to connect with the outer ring drain. So the two milkers stay dry, rather than getting boots full of draining water. There are stainless feed bins, which have drains and below them is a continuous splash skirt down to the platform. This means that platform hosing can begin at the shield at the top of the feed troughs, with all water draining from the inside of the platform. The bails themselves are extra large – 770mm – for cow comfort. On the outside there is overlapping galvanised double splash skirts below the platform, so the milking equipment inside and under the platform is doubly protected from water. It certainly seemed to work; as the centre floor was completely clean, even after 10 months of operation.
Inward sloping platform – no wet feet!
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Page 66
Controlling all aspects The in-bail milking equipment is protected by individual stainless cabinets for each bail and the jettors are sited underneath the control panels. There are, of course, automatic cup removers and retention straps for slow milkers and the variable vacuum is activated when the cluster is picked up. There’s a large control panel at cups-on which controls all aspects of the plant; including the wash cycle, pumping out milk cans and purging the delivery line. The levels of vacuum during milk and wash are different,
with the pumps working flat out during wash to ensure the most effective clean. Wetit also were in on the act, with their ‘waves’ on the deck of each bail and pre and post-spray teat spray, using an iodine spray at cups on. The shed’s electrics were all installed by Dusky Electrical and Terry Brand proudly talks about how the growth of dairying in Southland had grown his business. Beginning with a car in 2005, his firm now operates with four vans and has recently incorporated plumbing into its offered services.
The milk cooling system for nearly 600 cows needs to be pretty effective and Alistair opted for the iConverterDirect from NZ Cold Ltd. Glen and Lindsay of NZ Cold’s Southland staff were happy to explain how it worked. Half of the double-banked plate cooler uses water and the other half has glycol running through it, which comes from the main iConverter unit. This snap chills the milk to four degrees before it enters the vat, which on the Megaw farm is a massive 21,500 litre size. The glycol itself is cooled by passing in and
Coast & Country
out of an energy storage tank, filled with liquid-filled plastic balls. The balls are frozen and work like chilly pads, providing latent extreme cold as they thaw very slowly. The glycol is also used to keep the vat – or vats – cooled and the system can be easily adjusted if more vats are needed in future. While all this cooling is going on, the heat exchange in the iConverter provides 85 degree hot water to the cylinders, in quantities which allow for two hot washes a day through the plant. Glen and Lindsay with the iConverter cooling system.
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Keeping power costs down The power bill is very low; particularly as at the Megaw shed it runs for about 75 per cent of the time on a night rate power tariff. Belynda Norrish of TechniPharm and Martin Treadway of Cowhouse Ltd, both based in Dunedin were delighted to talk about their input into the project. TechniPharm now supply a large range of dairy management products and systems, with bases both in New Zealand and Australia and exports
Page 67
to other countries. For the Megaw shed, TechniPharm had not only supplied Alistair with a Reporoa Engineering designed Dungbuster – something he had used and liked in his old shed – but also its own ‘Supreme’ Dairy Handler for hoof and vet work. It also provided yards for young stock on the runoff and provided the designs and installation of the components and equipment for the Freestall Cowhouse wintering shed. Drafting and weighing system.
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Coast & Country
Extended effluent system In addition, their equipment had been used for the extensive effluent system which collects and distributes effluent from both dairy shed and wintering shed. From the dairy shed, effluent from the yard goes first to a stone trap and then sump, from there it is pumped to a storage pond. The latter is being extended. Distribution is through a high pressure Eisele pump
with an auto shut-off system to a Mega Irrigator – which is twice the size of the usual ones. The system is also capable of operating two irrigators at a time and drives them faster than normal, for lighter application of high volume sludge. Alistair was planning to extend the farm’s effluent line out to 2km by installing an additional pump half way along it. Martin is the dairy management
systems expert for Cowhouse – who act as both system consultants and run and maintain dairy management systems. He says the management system for the farm, the dairy and the wintering shed was created by Afimilk – an Israeli firm – and included milk meters, the ID system, take off and all milk recording products. The cows wear pedometers to link with the system.
Molasses tank for well-fed cows.
th the Terry Brand wi ls. ica ctr ele lex mp co
By Sue Edmonds
Most of those who created it all.
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“we make farming ezy”
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Page 70
SOUTH COAST DAIRIES
Coast & Country
Blending into the environment Backed by the Catlins Conservation Park, it’s a pretty unspoilt environment, with its waters home to Hector’s Dolphins, yelloweyed penguins and the fossilised remnants of a 180 million year old forest.
Going the extra mile
Until recently, it wasn’t a place where you’d find a 200ha dairy farm (135ha effective) about a kilometre inland. So when an equity partnership wanted to do a dairy conversion there, they recognised the special nature of the environment and
wanted to protect it by going more than the extra mile. Even so, they were initially met with some resistance. In order to show how environmentally conscious they are, the owners have continued to plant areas with eco-sourced natives. All around the new dairy shed are carefully staked plantings. Elsewhere, there are a number of shelter belts and the existing podocarp forest is being extended with new plantings.
Replanting
Vulnerable sand country on the back boundary of the farm has been replanted with grasses to stabilise it. The shores of the lake, known as The Reservoir, have also been planted with
Lots of light and a feed system.
Undercover vet area.
natives – a further 1500 plants were put in this autumn. All this plant material has been supplied by Pukerau Nursery Ltd, based near Gore. Some bush-clad areas are already fenced off and a large area of podocarp forest is in the process of being covenanted with the QEII National Trust.
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Page 71
Hidden in the hills behind
The shed itself had to be built on the far side of a bluff, out of sight of the road, which is part of the tourist highway route. It was completed in August 2010. A 46 a-side herringbone, the exterior solid walls are painted a nice ‘bush’ green, with much use of clear panels to give good light. Interior walls are done with Acraflex, provided by Bruce Cameron. Munro Electrical did all the wiring and switchboards and brought in the mains power. Both are based in Invercargill. The yards have a circular collecting space, with a Protrack three-way drafting system at the exit end. There is also a vet holding yard underneath the wide roof. Local firm Doug’s Engineering did all the welding for the shed. Like most Southland sheds, the cows get fed supplements of crushed wheat and barley, delivered from individual hoppers as they get milked. The plant itself and control systems were supplied by Waikato Milking Systems and installed by Progressive Engineering of Invercargill. They chose a Waikato Herringbone Loopline system, which has two milk pipes – instead of the usual one – and run to a 90 litre receiver, specifically matched to a 60 litre sanitary trap. This helps spread the load on the system and stabilise the vacuum. These are matched to NT24 electronic pulsators with filtered air and Waikato 320 claws, which are not only lightweight, but engineered to cope with high milk volumes. There are variable speed milk pump controls and a SmartAir vacuum pump controller,
with a Waikato Blower vacuum pump. Dairy conversions require a lot of earthworks and Clayton of Kelso Kontracting had been kept busy creating laneways all around the farm and the shed site – and digging out the complex and largely invisible effluent pond system. Russell of Dairy Green Ltd says because the effluent system had to be foolproof, the shed waste goes first into one of a two rectangular pond area sited downhill, with a bund and a double weeping
A growing farm helper.
wall in between them. This catches the solids, transfers the liquid to a second pond and then this is pumped to another huge effluent pond hidden in the hills behind. From there, it is irrigated via a K-line system over 60ha. The shed milked 385 Friesian and Friesian cross cows through it in the first season and raised 98 weaned calves to add to the herd when fully grown. The farm is run by Chris and Lynsey Stratford. They have one fulltime farm worker, Jowell Cabrera. By Sue Edmonds
Twin effluent ponds to remove solids.
It’s a long, long shed.
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KRIEGER
Page 72
Coast & Country
Simply sensational shed
Phil and Shelley Krieger and their suppliers.
View across the Krieger farm.
Not all dairy conversions in Southland and Otago are huge. By Sue Edmonds
Phil and Shelley Krieger have worked through the ranks of dairy farming and while 50/50 sharemilking they bought 109ha of a sheep farm to use as a run-off. They then sold their herd of 550 cows and converted their run-off (67ha effective near
Balclutha), where Phil this season will milk 180 cows. Shelley had a desire to make a mark in Agriculture herself and at the time of my visit had recently set herself up as an independent dairy stock and grazing agent. Using her farming and stock handling experience, plus enormous enthusiasm, her new business called ‘Moos 4 U Ltd’ was really taking off and has since become a more than
full-time occupation. The Krieger’s new cowshed was a turnkey project given to CCMP Integrated Farm Solutions, who oversaw the building, construction and DeLaval milking plant installation. The 30 a-side herringbone shed is light and airy with alternating roofing iron and clear panels forming the roof. Lyndon Cross Contracting had been
responsible for the various earthworks, which included the building’s foundations, 1.5km of farm races and the excavation of two effluent ponds. The effluent system was designed and installed by Dairy Green Ltd and the two pond system has a weeping wall and storage capacity of about 90 days. The filtered effluent is then spread over 24ha through a K-line irri-pod system.
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Page 73
Optimising live elements
Dieson backing gate.
Greg Findlay supplies the minerals.
An immaculate and well lit shed.
Milk vat. The DeLaval milk plant has swing arms for ease of movement and swing down cleaning jetters. The milk line has also been installed with the milkcan offset to one side, allowing for easy access into the pit. Five teatspray hoses are installed along the pit, servicing six sets of cups each. Cup removers will be installed at a later date.
Easy cleaning
The pit itself has poured concrete walls, making for easy cleaning and the exit gates at the end of the rows have solid blue panels, which obscure the cows’ view ahead, stopping them from trying to run into the gate – and also they help comfort nervous cows when they don’t like being at the front of the row. The breast rail is adjustable and there is a vet race which holds about nine cows.
The rectangular holding yard has a Dieson backing gate. There are plans to build a wintering shed in the future when funds allow, so at the moment the cows are wintered off-farm. Because of the steeper terrain on some of the farm, Phil has found that because of snow storms during winter and the dryer times in summer he needs cows, which will forage for themselves, rather than wait for food to be brought. He has therefore been experimenting with Ayrshires, Swedish Reds and Brown Swiss.
Maintaining body weights All of these are more likely to forage and maintain their body weights, even in trying climatic conditions and are cows that will eat anything offered, get back in-calf and still produce milk. Running the farm by himself (apart from when Shelley rears the calves)
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Phil has looked for labour saving devices and has installed an automated mineral dosing plant. Greg Findlay of Aackland Chemicals has been able to supply their Wonder Minerals, now packed in small quantities for smaller farms. Their 900 gram bags are sufficient for 180 cows per day, with each cow receiving five grams of product.
Daily dosing
This makes for easy daily dosing and they are planning to expand the range to include other necessary minerals. A meal feeding system is also in the process of being stalled in the new cowshed where Phil will feed pellets made up of maize, barley, wheat, molasses and copra to further enhance milk production, condition score, fertility and to use as a buffer during bad weather.
Vet area next to shed.
WESTHOLM DAIRIES
Page 74
Converting land to dairy A number of Southland sheep farmers are now converting all or part of their land to dairy. The Kane family have converted their home farm on the Tapanui-Waikoikoi Highway to dairy, while still running two sheep farms. Son Luke has happily become a dairy farmer and manages the farm, after training with and working for Kelso Kontracting doing earthworks. The dairy farm is 210ha, milking 520 in a 54 bail rotary shed. The shed itself is almost identical to the Megaw shed, sited further up the road. When that one was being built, Robert Kane liked the look of it and got Reporoa Engineering to build him one also. However, this shed is equipped with a Milfos plant, installed by their Southland agent Eastern Dairy Solutions, who also installed all the electricals. EDS also run two other companies which participated, Gas and Tool Direct; and Scott Sheetmetal. Reporoa Engineering provided the backing gate for the large rectangular yard, with a Technipharm Dungbuster attached.
The Milfos platform runs anticlockwise, allowing one on and three off. The Kanes were keen to have optimal cow flow from yard to platform and this was achieved. The platform itself has a double beam system, with nylon roller running gear and is hydraulically driven. The platform slopes inwards for ease of cleaning and at the bridge, the clusters drop down below to avoid tangles as the cows back off. Automation is through the use of Intelscan Plus ACRs, which have smart pulsation to add milking efficiency and increase udder health. There is a yield and flow display which is integrated with the Protrack Vantage 3 way drafting system. This provides individual cow information daily and can produce powerful reports to aid in decision making on farm. The refrigeration system is NZ Cold units using glycol and saline filled plastic balls for rapid cooling and assistance with water heating. The plate cooler is double banked. Aakland Chemicals supply the dairy detergents. There is an in-shed feed system installed by Tim Connor of PPP Industries and the feed supplier is CRT Cooperative. The cows have individual bins to each bail, allowing for measured feed amounts.
View across the farm showing shelter belts.
Robert and Mary Ann Kane at left and right rear, with some of the many faces involved.
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WESTHOLM DAIRIES
Page 75
Proud of the new shed A drop-down vet platform has become a popular feature of rotary sheds and there is a huge arched window opposite the bridge area, giving lots of light in addition to the clear panels in the shed roof. There are also wide glassed side doors for ventilation and light. An interesting feature of this shed is that there is not only a separate toilet, but also a shower room and washing facilities. Luke is obviously hugely proud of the new shed and there are copious whiteboards in the office area with areas covering cow details, ‘to do’ lists and areas to write requests. He also took time to show me the effluent system, which has one large and two smaller ponds down a long slope near the shed, which separate the solids before the liquid reaches the main pond. The travelling irrigator is controlled by GPS, covering an area of 50ha. There is a storm diversion pump which can cope with four days of heavy rain. The farm has been designed so that the cows have to walk no more than 1200 metres along the races and there are 46 paddocks. The vats are huge, holding a very necessary 30,000 litres. All in all, an excellent setup, being run by a young man keen to get it all right. By Sue Edmonds
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Luke Kane in a well-equipped office.
Three pond effluent storage system.
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BROWN
Page 76
Coast & Country
Heading in the right direction
Hayden Brown is a young man going places.
At age 25, Hayden Brown had decided on a career as a motor mechanic, but things did not quite go to plan and he has now taken on the responsibility of running the large family dairy farm at Kohinui near Pahiatua in the Manawatu. Hayden’s father, Terry Brown bought the farm in partnership with his brother Arnold 30 years ago. It was a sheep farm which they converted to dairy and built a 32 bail rotary dairy shed, which was very innovative for the times. When Hayden left school he tried for a mechanics apprenticeship, but missed out so he decided to take a dairy farming job in Taranaki. He started out as the “boy” and worked his way to herd manager in four years. Terry Brown’s poor health was preventing him from running the dairy farm properly so Hayden decided to come home and take over as the farm manager. The 300ha farm is beside the Tiraumea River and 120ha is used to dairy on and the rest is for dry stock farming.
A view of the dairy building.
Water from the river is used to irrigate the dairy pastures in summer. The old rotary dairy shed is still there, but it “wore out” and the decision was made to build a bigger, more efficient dairy shed. The farm provides seasonal milk and calving started at the beginning of August. This year they are milking 330 cows. To free up some time to spend with his two and a half year old son, Hayden decided on a 54 bail rotary. “We employ four full time staff, including me, three on the dairy farm and one looking after the drystock farm. It seems a lot of staff for this size farm, but I have my son, Tyson, who I like to spend time with.” Terry still gets around the farm on a quad bike and is very much involved with the decision making. Hayden’s mother is there to help out too with feeding the calves and looking after Tyson. The brand new design and first-in-the-world, Waikato Milking Systems 54 bail Centrus Rotary Platform was chosen for the dairy shed. The Composite Kevla platform is 80 per cent lighter and five per cent stronger than a concrete equivalent. There is less wear and tear on
the drive gear and the finish will last for years to come. “Waikato Milking Systems started installing this type of platform about three years ago and farmers have been very pleased with them,” says Waikato Milking Systems herd management specialist Brent Crothers. “They are not prone to cracking, the deck is non slip and cows stand on rubber mats that add considerably to cow safety and comfort.” The milking machine is a Waikato 100mm rotary milking system with SmartPuls digital electronic pulsation. It has a Blower vacuum pump with SmartDrive variable speed controls and milk recovery. The milk pump is equipped with a variable speed SmartDrive controller and milk recovery system. There is also a feed system on the platform. “One reason for choosing Waikato Milking Systems, apart from being a great product was the excellent service provided by the Dannevirke Dairy Supplies (DDS) in the past. Any break downs of pumps etc they are always just a phone call away and fix the problem quickly,” says Hayden. Lance Gundersen is part owner of the business and comes from a dairying background
so has the expertise to advise farmers on their requirements. “The point of difference on the Brown’s rotary dairy shed is the Centrus Rotary Platform, the plant is a basic straight forward option with room to add extras in the future. “We installed the wash down plant, vat wash system, hot water cylinders, effluent system and filtration. We even tidied up the farm water supply,” says Lance. DDS also do light engineering work and cover an area from Wairoa, out to the East Coast and Eketahuna. They provide a 24 hour, seven day service. When the Brown family were making decisions on what technology to put into their new rotary dairy, they were after something with a good dollar pay back. After reviewing the refrigeration equipment available on the market, a Milfos iConverter snap chilling unit was selected due to its great advantages and payback. Installed by a local farm refrigeration support company, Crozier Refrigeration, the unit is able to cool their milk to four degrees at the plate cooler, ensuring milk quality is preserved and reduces the risk of costly grades.
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PH 07 578 0030
Page 77
Geared up for future farming
The Wrangler used for hoof trimming.
The iConverter chills a tank of food grade glycol using cheaper night rate power and then uses this stored energy to achieve the four degrees instant cooling of the milk into the vat. Every time the iConverter runs to chill the glycol it also provides 80 degree free hot water to the cylinders. This advantage enables the Browns to wash their machine twice a day. As national power costs go up, the Browns are in a good position to reap the benefits of this technology. Making sure everything works at the flick of a switch was the responsibility of Paul Finucane of Kinetic Electrical based in Dannevirke. “This rotary dairy shed has been wired to be user friendly and easily maintained. All electrical components have been designed and installed to ensure any potential faults can be located and fixed quickly to reduce breakdown time allowing for the milking to continue. I come from a background of industrial electrical installation work which meant I could use that experience to create an easily worked system,” says Paul.
Some of this year’s calves. He wired and installed all required electrical components from concept to completion. Paul and Nicola are the owners of Dannevirke Electrical which trade as Kinetic Electrical Tararua. “Being a Kinetic Electrical franchise means we are always competitive on price and the standard of work is the same throughout New Zealand. We are looking forward to working with more farmers in our area.” A Protrack Drafter has been fitted which is suitable for all shed designs. Animal EIDs are pre loaded into the computer so each dairy cow can be indentified and drafted out automatically if needing attention. It has an easy to use interface and requires a low level of computer literacy. The system is suitable for all shed designs and can integrate seamlessly with your on-farm practices and is driven by a single in-dairy touch screen that is simple to use. A remote control unit is supplied with all Protrack Drafter installations and is effective up to a distance of 50 metres from the drafting gate. The remote control allows the milker to respond immediately by just pressing the
Electrician Paul Finucane from Kinetic Electrical Tararua. appropriate draft direction button as the cow approaches the drafting gate and she will be waiting for you after milking. Surfatex is the specialist in the application of dairy wall coatings and create a low maintenance, easy to keep clean finish with coloured specks to “hide any minor dirt on the wall.” They are designed specifically for the dairy industry, seal against bacterial build up and are guaranteed for 20 years. Lame cows reduce profit; it is therefore important that any lame cows are checked and treated at the first sign of lameness. The Browns have installed The Wrangler which enables staff to quickly, easily and safely assess a suspect hoof before it develops into a bigger problem. “We have found The Wrangler the best cow constraint on the market as it is comfortable for the cows. It has straps to hold the cow up and prevent injury from kicking when attending to sore feet,” says Hayden. A Bell Booth Dosatron mineral dispenser has been fitted to make sure the cows are receiv-
The new Waikato Centrus Rotary Platform. ing accurate amounts of minerals through their drinking water for good animal health. There has been no sign of bloat on the farm for several years. One of the by products of dairy farming is effluent and a Dungbuster automated yard washing system produced by Technipharm can save farmers time and expense. It can reduce the amount of water used by up to 40 per cent, which means much less water is pumped out of the ground. This system will also reduce the amount of effluent by up to 40 per cent, which has to be beneficial to the environment and the farmer. It also saves time as there is no need for anyone to wash the yard down with a high pressure hose; it has been done by the Dungbuster during milking time. With the support of his family, a new low maintenance rotary dairy shed and good staff, Hayden looks set to have a rewarding dairy farming career on the family farm. By Helen Wilson
SANDERRY FARM
Page 78
Coast & Country
Working with a blank canvas Sanderry Farms at Santoft near Bulls in the Manawatu was a drystock farm when it was bought three years ago, but has now been converted into a 395ha dairy block milking 750 cows.
started from scratch. The most important aspect was locating the new dairy shed in a central position on the farm, with good entry and exit races.” David is the farm manager and is also an equity partner, along with farm owners John O’Brien and Steve Tickner. David has been dairying for 23 years. The farm was kept as a drystock farm for three years and the dairy cows were milked at two other local farms until the dairy shed was finished. The cows came home last August when the dairy shed was
By Helen Wilson
“We had a blank canvas when designing the layout of the farm,” says farm manager David Stone. “We ripped everything out and
finished. Sanderry is only six kilometres from the coast and has a very sandy soil. The pastures tend to dry out in the summer, so a large centre pivot irrigator is used in summer for better grass growth. The farm provides winter milk so calving takes place in April. There is a large feed pad attached to the new dairy shed and the cows are brought onto that before milking in the afternoon and then moved to the dairy shed. There are four full-time staff, including David. The cows are run in
two herds. To make sure the paddocks were the same size and to ensure good cow flow to the new dairy, Sanderry Farm used ‘Wheresmycows Farm Mapping’ (WMC) from Feilding. The farm was professionally GPS mapped by technician Nicholas Bitsh Bidart in September 2010 and some additions added in November.
Farm manager David Stone in front of the feed pad and irrigators.
The troughs on the feed pad are filled with dry feed waiting for the cows.
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Each paddock – and other features such as troughs, races, drains, trees and buildings – are marked using a hand-held GPS. If the weather is kind, this usually takes a day. Once collected, the GPS data is imported into a WMC farm mapping software, which created a farm map for Sanderry Farm. Draft copies are sent to the farmer to check and once any adjustments are made, an A1 laminated wall map and an A4 map pad are printed off for the farmer’s use.
SANDERRY FARM
PH 07 578 0030
Page 79
Increasing productivity and efficiency
A view of the large rectangular yard. The new dairy building.
Accurate farm maps are an important tool for any farmer wanting to increase farm productivity and efficiency. The accurate paddock areas reduce the unnecessary expense of incorrectly ordered seed, fertiliser and spray which can be very costly. The map pads and wall maps are also excellent communication tools for young and new staff and contractors working on the farm. Once the central site was chosen for the new dairy, the owners did some research and went and looked at other Humphries Construc-
The 60 bail rotary. ness since 1996 and is based in Palmerston North. They work closely with their clients to understand each aspect of the project. MacDougalls is the DeLaval agent in the Manawatu and has branches at Pahiatua and Palmerston North. DeLaval has developed a range of rotary integrated milking systems that give farmers greater flexibility and control. “Sanderry chose a 60 bail DeLaval standard PR 1100 rotary milking machine, coupled with a variable speed vacuum pump and automatic cup removers with retention which hold unmilked cows from exiting,” says MacDougalls manager Brett MacDougall.
tion dairies and DeLaval milking plants in the Manawatu and Canterbury. “There are so many designs to choose from and we decided to go with Humphries Construction as the hexagonal shape was the same as the dairy shed on the farm next door and it worked well,” says David. The building has concrete walls and freezer panel lining which washes clean with very little effort. Humphries Construction was exceptionally good to deal with says David. “They have a lot of experience in commercial building design and dairy sheds and it shows.” Humphries Construction has been in busi-
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“It’s what we call mid-range automation. It helps make the milking easier and has the capability of upgrading in the future.” The DeLaval company has four platform fabricators – some travelling the world – advising on dairy sheds so that the high standard is the same throughout the world. Hotter Engineering based at New Plymouth has been involved in the manufacture of rotary milking platforms since their invention in 1969. They have focused on continual development of the platforms and can now offer a comprehensive range of Rotary Milking Platforms for any sized dairy herd.
SANDERRY
Page 80
Pleased with performance
Coast & Country
The effluent pond.
MacDougalls manager Brett MacDougall and David Stone.
The herd manager’s house, put there by Central House Movers. Sanderry Farms chose a 60 bail high-strength concrete deck, finished with a brushed surface to stop the cows slipping. All platforms are open centre and monoslope design and prefabricated at the factory and assembled on-site to exacting requirements. The bail construction is pipe, which is hot dip galvanized after all the welding is completed. “We have been very pleased with the way the new dairy shed has performed,” says David. “Everything runs in synch; the cow flow is
excellent and the cows seem to like the new dairy. Because MacDougalls offer a full range of services to dairy farmers, it means the farmer is only dealing with two people when taking on a large project such as this,” says Brett. MacDougalls employ 22 full-time staff between its two branches, including three electricians, two apprentices, two tractor mechanics and four engineers. “With this expertise, we can do pretty much anything that a farmer requires,” says Brett.
SERIOUS MACHINERY FOR SERIOUS WORK
There was only one dwelling on the property when the farm was purchased. “We decided to have three dwellings shifted here by Central House Movers, based at Bulls,” says David. “We purchased a three bedroom house for the herd manager and two smaller houses from Linton Army Camp near Palmerston North.” The two smaller houses are accommodation for the other permanent staff. “There were no problems, it all went accord-
ing to plan and the houses were placed where required. “Central House Movers are a very experienced house moving company and they were extremely good to deal with.” The farm has only been converted to dairy for a year and with good farming practice David has noticed a significant improvement in the pasture quality. He predicts in another three years it will be providing some top quality grass and the numbers milked will increase to well over 800 cows. By Helen Wilson
PH 07 578 0030
SANDERRY
Page 81
RATANA DAIRYLANDS
Page 82
Ownership that suits the property
Coast & Country
Ag Equities is a company involved with investing in dairy production. By Helen Wilson
“We will look at a property and do a feasibility study to see if it is worthwhile considering for conversion to dairy production. We then look at setting up an ownership structure that suits the property,” says director Russell Sears. Russell then project manages the commission process by putting out tenders to companies who are interested in taking on the different components required to turn a property into a productive dairy farm.
Ratana Dairylands is one such property. It is situated at Ratana, near Whanganui and 12 months ago it was a sheep and beef farm. It was set up as an equity partnership and has five investors. The farm is 250ha, 150 effective. The land is flat to hilly, shaped like a horse shoe and surrounds the small historical village of Ratana. The conversion process started in May 2010 when farm manager Hayden Scott was employed. Hayden lives on the farm and is a shareholder in the company. He has had a long career in dairy farming and came from a sharemilking job in Feilding. “We are lucky to have someone of this
to the dairy
A glimpse in
calibre to manage the farm,” says Russell. One other full-time staff member is employed. Once all the tenders had come in and the contractors were selected, the dairy shed complex was finished within 90 days. The first milking was on August 31, 2010. “It was a hectic time as some of the cows had already calved. It is usually best to do conversions during the winter, but last year we had the wettest July in 50 years, followed by the driest November in a hundred years, however, the contractors all worked in well together and managed to get it finished in time,” says Russell. This year, the farm will milk 450 cows, calving started on July 28. Hayden hopes the weather gods will be a bit more sympathetic this year. One of his goals this year is to increase production. Ratana Dairylands decided on a 54 bail WestfaliaSurge as they came in as the most favourable tender. “There is the opportunity for future proofing the conversion. Another
e yard.
shed from th
reason was the excellent service from Ian Mackay of Machinery Maintenance based in Whanganui, who was a pleasure to deal with,” says Russell. “It is the first time we have used WestfaliaSurge and I was very impressed with the expertise of their staff. We have incorporated automatic drafting and weighing and computerised herd management.”
WestfaliaSu rg
e equipment
This year’s calves waiting to be fed. The large pit area.
in the pit.
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RATANA DAIRYLANDS
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Looking forward to a bright productive future Machinery Maintenance is the Whanganui dealer for WestfaliaSurge. They installed a new GEA Farm Technologies WestfaliaSurge 54 bail Rotary Milking System, with automatic cup removers and Variotherm automatic wash system, a drafting gate and walk-over teat spray unit, the hot water cylinders and wash system for the plant and milk silo washing. Machinery Maintenance also supplied and installed the water tanks, washdown pump and dairy shed washdown requirements, cooler pump and the farm pump with dispenser.
A concrete feed pad is at the bottom of the circular yard and the cows are fed palm kernel and maize each day before milking. The prospect of some sweet tasting supplements means the cows are not slow in coming to be milked. “The farm was set out so the paddocks are all four hectares with two troughs in each one and three wire electric fences. The new dairy shed is situated close to the road so there was no need to put in a long tanker track,” says Russell.
To increase production, Ratana Dairylands lease extra land around Ratana Pa. This is on the other side of a road and for easy access they decided to put in an Emmetts Civil Construction Ltd underpass. These come in a pre-cast concrete modular form and can be installed easily without too much disruption to passing traffic. It allows the cows to walk easily to and from the dairy shed. Russell has an accountancy background and has been interested in farming all his life. With these projects he gets to do both. He comes out
from Whanganui once a month and checks everything is running smoothly. He also looks after the financial side of things. The management team is made up of Russell, Hayden and Rob Gollan – a farm consultant – and they have regular monthly meetings to look at production and any other issues that may arise. With this level of expertise, this new dairy conversion is likely to have a bright and productive future.
The herd of
The large circular yard.
The cows exit the platform from here. The stuff that cows love.
for their cows coming g. before milkin
feed
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Coast & Country
A delightful sight at Opiki My travels led to Opiki, which is a small rural community just out of Palmerston North. I visited with Philip and Susan Ingram who own and operate Philsan Jersey Stud. With the stunning Tararua Ranges as the backdrop to this farm it was a delightful sight. By Lois McKinley
Due to the ranges, the farm has good rainfall. The soil is mainly silts and peat so is free draining for the most part, but when it gets a bit wet in winter a standoff pad is used. Philip was born and bred in Hawera, whereas Susan is a local. When I arrived, the shed was about 10 days away from full completion, although milking was being done through the new shed. There were still finishing touches being done to the feed system, yard and backing gate, as well as completing the water connections. Susan commented that they had deadlines
Susan and Philip Ingram and Darin Wallace.
and stuck to them all the way through and when I arrived they had completed their eighth milking in the new shed. The cows are milked in two herds. The main herd has 300 and the small herd 50, which consists of slow walkers, the higher genetic animals and a few older cows. The farm is on seasonal supply with Fonterra. Calving begins in late July and a few of the better bull calves are sold off to breeding companies to include in the sire proofing scheme. Philip and Susan employ one full time labour unit; Darin Wallace. There is a run-off down the road, which grazes the calves and yearlings. The
in-calf heifers stay at the run-off until they are ready to calve. It had always been Philip’s dream to own a rotary system. When Philip and Susan were first married, Philip’s parents had a rotary shed and therefore Philip saw the practicalities of someday owning their own rotary. Reducing milking from three hours to one and a half hours was also very appealing. Philip and Susan have four children. The eldest Rachel is 19, Louise 17, Karin 14 and the youngest is Brendan at 11. It was mentioned that now that there is a flash new shed to milk in, there will be no shortage of volunteers.
Susan Ingram.
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INGRAM
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A fully future proofed shed The Ingram’s opted for a Waikato Milking System based on their own particular requirements and also the price package suited them. The shed just has the basics for now, but has been well set-up to allow for advancement as finances allow. The new plant also has an in-shed feeding system with a silo, which has been installed by Central Silo Systems in Ashhurst. The cows readily come onto the platform with the feed troughs placed continuously around the platform. Rotary Platforms NZ Ltd supplied and installed the feed troughs. The aim is to eventually milk 360 cows. The rotary platform has been set up with SmartSpray bullets and although the system has not yet been activated, when the time arrives they can just install the spray nozzles and the system will be up
and running in no time. The shed has been fully future proofed for the Ingrams 10 year plan. The 44 bail Waikato Orbit Rotary Platform has a well-earned reputation not only in New Zealand, but other parts of the world as well. The Orbit Rotary platform has a 2.7m wide concrete deck that includes an internal walkway. The most popular model in Waikato Milking Systems’ range. Orbit platforms are built to very high specifications and come pre-bracketed, ready to accept a 101mm milking system with cup removers and BailGates. From the optional features list additional mounting systems can be purchased to enable the installation of Frontier Dairy Automation, SmartD-Tect or if you want, you can mount the breach rail from the roof. On an Orbit platform the standard bail is aligned straight across the deck.
Bevan McQuilkin from Central Silo Systems welding part of the feed system in place. The Waikato Milking Systems platform.
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Coast & Country
System changed to suit the operators
The shed from the bottom of the yard.
Susan Ingram feeding some newly born calves. The system is also equipped with SmartPuls digital electronic pulsation, a Blower vacuum pump with SmartDrive variable speed controls, Milk recovery, SmartDrive variable speed milkpump controls and a SmartWash automatic machine wash system. SmartWASH is an automated wash system with the flexibility to manage any wash scenario. SmartWASH controllers feature modern touch-screen displays that can be programmed to meet any wash requirement.
The design brief called for a user friendly interface whereby the system could be changed to suit the operators needs easily and quickly. By working through a “step by step” menu on a large touch screen an operator can modify the wash programs almost infinitely. “All the drain covers are made of fibreglass by Rotary Platforms NZ Ltd, which are so much more flexible,” says Philip. The exit to the platform has been installed with rubber matting by Waikato Milking Systems also. The drafting system, which is
Philip Ingram, Brent Crothers from Waikato Milking Systems and Darin Wallace. operated by remote control, is also supplied Keven carted away the old concrete from the by Waikato Milking Systems. yard and re-instated it for the contractors to A selection of dairy detergents from Aakbegin their work. The area for the yard had to land Chemicals is used for plant wash in the be built up quite a lot, as there is quite a slope new shed. to this yard. Site preparation was done by Roberts ConAs the base for the yard was soft, 150 metres tracting, as well as the demolition of the old of base rock was brought in from Pratt Quaryard. Keven Roberts has owned this business ries from Palmerston North. This had to be for 20 years and has a good reputation in laid prior to the concrete being poured. the region. Roberts Contracting covers the There was 720 metres of metal carted onto Manawatu, Horowhenua, Rangateiki and the farm to increase the height of the yard. Wanganui regions.
INGRAM
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Maintaining dairy sheds part of the business The engineering was contracted to Pickett Partners from Wanganui. The Ingrams say they have a good reputation and good integrity which is what they wanted in this project. Brent and Alison Pickett recently formed this new company. Brent has a wealth of knowledge in the engineering industry and wanted his own company for security reasons and also to accommodate his two sons, Aaron and Eoghan, for the future.
Brent and the boys not only did the yard and pipe work, plus all welding for the dairy yard, but they also assisted with various other jobs from water installation and general building work as well. Scanpower from Dannevirke sorted all the power poles prior to Ants Electrical coming in and doing the full electrical install. The work undertaken was a turnkey design and build power solution, which included; Construction
of a 50m 11kV high voltage power line to the site of the shed, installation of a 100kVA pole mount transformer as well as the trenching and laying of 50m underground low voltage cabling. As an electricity lines company, Scanpower has been in the power line industry for more than 80 years and their team of engineers, electricians, line mechanics and arborists now provide power line related services all across
the central and lower North Island. Ants installed all the underground conduiting, pre-wired the new switchboard and also did some interlocking between the old shed and the new shed. Ants has been in business for four years in Bunnythorpe. He took over an existing business and although this was his first full install, he regularly maintains dairy sheds as a part of his business.
Ant from Ants Electrical checking out the switchboard. Aaron, Brent and Eoghan Pickett.
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INGRAM
Coast & Country
Effluent a free fertiliser for the farm
The curved end of the yard.
The Promax Plastics water tank. The yard is also rather unique in that it has a grooved exit ramp for the cows to get down to a race. With Philip’s previous building knowledge, The yard is also equipped with a Michael he elected to oversee the construction of the Bloemen backing gate, which has a Technipyard. Philip project managed the yard conharm dungbuster attached. struction, which was the Ingram’s own design. One of the by-products of dairy farming is The entrance to the yard has a very distinctive effluent. In reality, effluent is free fertiliser for curve to it. This is to enable better cow-flow. the farm, so it makes sense to utilise it. The Because of the sloping yard, it allows for good dungbuster is an excellent device to assist with runoff into the new stone trap and sump. The this process by scraping the dung from the effluent goes into the pit area and then to the yard using minimal water, thus making the existing ponds. hosing process a lot easier.
The sloping ramp exit race. Bromley Dairy & Pumps in Feilding supplied pumps for the shed. Bromley Dairy & Pumps guide their clients through the entire dairy building process, assisting with initial set-up layouts, then pre-plumbing work, through to the final installation and commissioning of the new dairy shed. Bromley Dairy & Pumps congratulated Philip and Susan on the construction of their new rotary dairy system and wished them every success in the future. After the build was completed, Surfatex came in and applied the acraflex coating for
the shed. “Fritz Van Echten has a really good reputation, so he was our obvious choice,” says Susan. Surfatex is the only registered acraflex applicator in the lower North Island. A Promax Plastics water tank was selected to store the farm water. Featuring a tough, one-piece corrugated construction these ultrastrong tanks are engineered to last. The tough one-piece construction means there is no maintenance on the tanks and they come in a range of colours to suit surroundings. By Lois McKinley
Visit us.
Minimising costs on overall ownership INGRAM
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Minimising costs on overall ownership Visit us. OPEN: Monday-FridayÊ8.00am-5.30pmÊÊÊ SaturdayÊ9.00am-5.00pm OPEN: Monday-FridayÊ8.00am-5.30pmÊÊÊ SaturdayÊ9.00am-5.00pm
116 Hewletts Road, Mount Maunganui.
116 Hewletts Road, Mount Maunganui.
Tel:Ê07Ê578Ê6017 Tel:Ê07Ê578Ê6017
www.farmerautovillage.co.nz www.farmerautovillage.co.nz
Visit us.
SEAFIELD DAIRIES
Page 90
All the bells and whistles
Coast & Country
The lovely new shed.
The in-shed feed dispenser.
Bruce Cave grew up on the original 300ha drystock farm which his family has owned since about 1950.
Annette Cave, Brent Crothers from Waikato Milking Systems and Bruce Cave.
The spacious interior including the Frontier milking system.
By Lois McKinley
Bruce and his wife Annette have been farming the property for 20 years before they converted it and added a further 280ha of neighbouring land. Situated near the sea, the farm, Seafield Dairy has amazing views and makes it a very sandy farm too. Bruce and Annette have an amazing operation. Contract milkers Gerrard and Heni O’Donnell employ four labour units on the milking side of things and this will increase to five for the new season. Gerrard and Heni are both born and bred in Wanganui and own their own dairy farm at Fordell, which they have a manager running. Mark Christiensen is the farm’s builder and jack-of-all-trades and Daniel McKay is the bulldozer and heavy machinery operator. Daniel has recently returned from Australia where he took up employment at the Cave’s farm. There
is a huge amount of earthmoving work on the property, which means a full time labour unit is employed to oversee the job. Due to the fact the Cave’s have quite a selection of their own earthmoving machinery and their own contracting machinery, they require the services of David Robinson who is employed as a full-time mechanic in the farm’s workshop. The current 44 a-side herringbone was not big enough for 1200 Friesian cows, so it was a necessary requirement to build a new cowshed. Bruce and Annette decided to go for a Waikato Milking System, which was installed by Hunts Farm Services at Hawera. The result is Seafield Dairy has a brand spanking new 54 bail Waikato Orbit Rotary Platform. The platform has a 3m wide concrete deck and was made by Rotary Platforms NZ Ltd, which is a division of Waikato Milking Systems. It has a
Waikato 100mm milking system equipped with Frontier Automation. There is an on-platform feed system with a continuous stainless steel feed trough around the platform so the cows can eat while being milked. This shed has all the bells and whistles: SmartPULS digital electronic pulsation, a Blower vacuum pump with SmartDRIVE variable speed controls, Electronic cup removers, Bail Gates, SmartSPRAY, Milk recovery, SmartDRIVE – variable speed milkpump controls. It has been very well thought out and coordinated. SmartSRAY is an automatic teat spray system mounted on the platform at each bail. It kicks into gear as the cups are removed; two spray nozzles spray directly upwards for full teat coverage prior to the cow exiting her bail. The Frontier Automation system used on this farm is an extremely powerful and fully inte-
grated herd management tool – that when used to its fullest potential provides production, health and general information that will help boost the profits of the farm, while at the same time building a substantial herd database. The system electronically identifies each cow as she enters the bail. The software programme then gathers, stores and sorts data as each individual cow is being milked. Productivity, weight, heat, sick cows flagged for antibiotics or withheld for treatment, are just a few of the many reports or alerts available to help manage 1200 cows on this property. Bromley Dairy & Pumps from Feilding were contracted to install all the water reticulation side of this project. Owner Steve Bromley was a natural choice, due to great work ethics and customer service.
SEAFIELD DAIRIES
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From the ground up
The underpass being dug out.
The newly installed Viking pond liner. Annette just loves the water cannons that were installed for the yard washdown. They looked at many different sorts of yard wash systems, but due to the large amount of sand that would need to be hosed away, the water cannon seemed like the way to go. The fact that the Cave’s have their own earthworks machinery made a huge difference in getting things done fast and with top workmanship. Daniel did all the site preparation for the shed, as well as preparing the site for the underpass that was installed by Emmett Civil Construction in Wanganui. Before the effluent ponds were lined, Daniel
dug them out – the main holding pond is 2000 cubes and the second sludge pond is 700 cubes. The ponds were then lined with Agrishield HDPE liners from Viking Containment. Agrishield HDPE is a High Density Polyethylene – HDPE – geomembrane. It is the most commonly used geomembrane for a wide range of applications due to its UV resistance, low permeability, good overall chemical resistance and competitive cost. Agrishield HDPE is manufactured to meet the test properties and testing frequency as per GRI-GM13 specifications. The liner sheet dimensions allow fast application with reliable dual track wedge welding and all seams are 100 per cent testable.
The ponds run on two separate systems: The sludge pump agitates the pond and this is pumped out through the sprinkler, which is attached to a pivot at the far end of the farm. “It’s dryer down that end of the farm,” says Bruce. The pivot is a 320 degree irrigator system. With all the contouring on the farm, there are four irrigators setup and running. There are irripods operational on the drier part of the farm also. The pumps installed have the capacity to run the pivots as well as the irripods. The effluent from the old dairy shed, which is still operational, is also pumped two kilometers down to the new ponds.
Green waste from gardens is brought in by Waste Management and is dumped on the farm. Mulches are brought in once a month and mulch the green waste up into windrows. It is composted down and used as fill whenever Bruce needs to cut into the sand hills. “We can never have too much of that stuff.” The weeds are killed off in the composting process. Because the composting pile heats up, it can self-combust – so there are occasionally small fires at times. The fires are controlled by taking the digger over and pushing sand over the smoldering areas. “As soon as you open them up and the air gets in you’re in trouble.”
Address 57 Mihaere Drive, Roslyn Palmerston North, 4414 Email
centralsilosltd@xtra.co.nz sean@centralsilosystems.co.nz bernie@centralsilosystems.co.nz
Phone (06) 358 5805 Fax
(06) 358 5806
Mobile 027 275 6575
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SEAFIELD DAIRIES
Coast & Country
Reducing costs and noise levels
From left; Josh Munroe from Walker & Thomas Electrical, Brent Crothers from Waikato Milking Systems, Glen Van Echten from Surfatex, Chris Watkins from Waikato Milking Systems and Bruce and Annette Cave. Walker & Thomas Electrical Ltd and Tiger Automation both work under the same roof, but are very different companies. Josh Munroe from Walker & Thomas Electrical Ltd has been on-site as the main electrical installer, working with all other companies to bring all the systems together, while installing the main plant and building wiring. He has completed many cowsheds and knows what to expect, which saves time and confusion.
What the client wants
Dave Dudley runs Tiger Automation Ltd; he has automated the bore pumping system, supplying not only the shed water, but also the irrigation system. This is controlled by a Rockwell PLC and a touch screen panel view, giving the ability to adjust and read all settings from water tank levels to pump speeds and pressures. Both companies work well together to achieve just what the client wants.
When Central Silo Systems Ltd first discussed options for the feed system with Bruce and Annette, it was clear that a versatile and functional On Farm Feed Mill was required – allowing the farm to have various options of use. Not only can the feed system deliver mixed meal; including additives and minerals such as Lime flower, magnesium, bloat control products, minerals and salts – it can also deliver PKE and molasses into the shed in front of the cow. It can also be used to fill mobile feed trailers for use around the farm, as well as making bagged meal for calves or dry stock via the bag off chute. The On Farm Feed Mill is versatile enough to allow for the use of barley, maize or wheat – depending on season prices per tonne with PKE. The system consists of one 100-tonne silo, a 36 tonne silo, a 4.5 tonne mixing silo and a Hammer Mill and Additive Injection
Hopper, a 30 tonne molasses tank and a complete molasses in-shed system and a portable fill auger. Besides its versatility, the main advantages of the Central Silo Systems On Farm Feed Mill is its compact layout. Because of the use of a Hammer Mill, it eliminates a number of augers and motors, allowing for a reduction in its floor area layout, reducing its overall costs and noise level.
Supplementary feeds
The Caves won’t be growing as much maize this year due to the fact the cows will be receiving other types of supplementary feeds. They are planning on growing some barley this year to use in the feed system. This will be grown at the run-off. The cows will receive a welcome treat of Agrifeeds molasses in their feed troughs when they are on the milking platform. Blackstrap
On farm feed mill. Molasses is the base feed used in the Agri-feeds range of products. The molasses is derived from Australian cane sugar and is characterised by its excellent palatability and flexibility of use. Molasses products are the key ingredients for cost-effectively managing the performance of other feeds in the diet – including pasture – as molasses is an excellent balancing feed due to its low levels of protein and high levels of sugars. There are both short and long-term milk responses from feeding molasses. The immediate effect is increased total energy content of the diet. This gives the cow more energy for maintenance and milk production due to an increase in appetite. Other flow-on effects include the manipulation of solids, increased lactation length and increased dry-matter intake due to improved rumen functionality.
SEAFIELD DAIRIES
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Do the job once, do the job right
Jennings Engineering backing gate. Cows enter the shed more enthusiastically when a molasses system is in place. Molasses in the shed is a valuable aid in training heifers or brought in cows to a new environment. Wanganui Welldrillers do quite a lot of work for the Caves, so were the obvious choice for the well drilling job. They were initially hired to install the big water bore. The bore needed a 12 inch casing on it, so it was a big heavy job. Lyle from Wanganui Welldrillers offered to hire his crane to the Caves for the remainder of the construction process once the bore was completed. The crane had plenty of use doing such things as lifting the timber portals onto the building, putting the pumps down the well and installing the huge feed silos. Wanganui Welldrillers have been involved with
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6-300mm irrigation bores to varying depths. These bores are running a number of irrigators for the Cave’s dairying operation. Wanganui Welldrillers has specialised in installing irrigation bores in the Manawatu, Wanganui and Taranaki regions. The company has the largest mobile drilling rig in the country for undertaking this type of irrigation bore work. Lyle congratulated the Caves on the completion of their latest project. Jennings Engineering from Manaia put all the yard and pipe-work in place. The caves have also installed one of Donald Jennings’ impressive backing gates in the yard. Donald is in hot demand for his dairy shed work in the area. An underpass was a necessary requirement for the new cowshed so the cows could get safely across the tanker track.
Emmetts Civil Construction undertook this task. This is a stunning underpass, with concrete leading into it from the dairy shed yard. Glen Van Echten from Surfatex in Palmerston North explained the intricacies of applying the acraflex coating. Not just a quick coat of paint – the process is actually a very labour intensive job. The blocks are prepared in the first instance by sanding and – where necessary – grinding them to the correct uniformity. This ensures they are ready for the acraflex coating. This is followed by a couple of coats of paint, which is rolled on and worked into the pores of the blocks to fill in the voids, as the blocks are so porous. Once the blocks are nice and smooth, the top coat is sprayed on. This just smoothes everything
out further. Once this is dry, two coats of different coloured fleck are sprayed on, followed up by a glaze which hardens and gives the hardwearing and easy to clean finish that is associated with all of Surfatex’s applications. Glen purchases all his product through Bruce Cameron of specialised coatings. Surfatex has a 10 year guarantee on all new sheds. Surfatex is the only licensed applicator on the lower North Island and they complete all their work to the highest standard. In all, Bruce and Annette’s new cowshed is lovely and spacious, with a most impressive smoko room, lots of windows and doors for natural lighting. The overall work quality is obvious everywhere you look. By Lois McKinley
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WOODLEIGH TRUST
The oak tree has to stay usefulness. The old shed peaked at milking 550 cows. The family decided it was time to future proof the farm and build a more efficient dairy shed.
Coast & Country
Dave. The farm employs three fulltime staff and there are two milkers in the dairy shed at any one time. Master Roads of Masterton was involved from the beginning and in order to complete the project on time. The site was stripped of topsoil and metal sourced from the farm was used as backfill material to build the dairy foundation and yard area to the required levels. Once completed, the raceways leading to the dairy
ilding.
tary dairy bu
The new ro
When the site was chosen for the Woodleigh Farm Trust farm at Te Oreore near Masterton, 80-year-old owner Beryl Stuart insisted that the majestic old oak tree had to stay. So the new 54 bail rotary dairy complex was built around it and it now provides shade for the cows in summer. “It can be a bit of a nuisance as the cows don’t want to leave the shade to be milked and the leaves cause a few problems in the winter, but I think it
This old oak tree provides shade for the “Before I came here I was runcows in the ning three farms and I decided I summer. needed a quieter life and when the opportunity came along to contract milk for the Woodleigh Farm Trust gives the complex a bit of character,” we decided to take it, a decision we says contract milker Dave Crawford. haven’t regretted,” says David. Dave and Sonja Crawford have From the early 1950s, the farm was been the contract milkers for the an amalgamation of three adjoinWoodleigh Farm Trust since Deceming dairy farms making a total area ber last year. Dave was born on a of 220ha flat dairying land with the dairy farm in Taranaki and worked Tararua Ranges as a backdrop. The on the family farm for a few years cows were milked in a 38 a-side when he left school. He moved to the herringbone dairy shed, which had Wairarapa and managed lower order experienced a few upgrades during dairy farms for 16 years. its lifetime and finally out wore its
The farm provides winter milk and this year calving started in March with 300 cows milked over the winter. This will increase to 630 cows later in the spring. The Waika to M The plans had been Kevlar com ilking Systems selected and building posite platfo rm. began in November, a month before David shed were constructed along with the arrived. “The concrete had been sealed tanker track. poured when I came here, but I The 100,000 litre effluent pond was was able to contribute a little to the constructed by Master Roads. layout of the new dairy shed. It has been designed to accommodate 1000 cows in case of expansion. It won’t take much to include add-ons,” says
mIlKInG macHIneRY • IRRIGatIOn & RetIculatIOn PumPS & fIltRatIOn • effluent manaGement
RuRal InfRaStRuctuRe SPecIalIStS
masterton 219 High street
0800 ORDISH (0800 673474)
www.ordish-stevens.co.nz
Our People, Your Solution
WOODLEIGH TRUST
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Page 95
Fully automated for ease of use “Their work has improved the exit and entry ways and the cows don’t take as long now to walk to be milked,” says Dave. A Waikato Milking Systems 54 bail Centrus composite Kevlar Rotary Platform was chosen for the dairy shed. The design of a Centrus platform is innovative, unique and a world first. It is 80 per cent lighter and five per cent stronger than a concrete equivalent. “Waikato Milking Systems started installing
Centrus platforms three years ago and farmers have been very pleased with their performance,” says Waikato Milking Systems herd management specialist, Brent Crothers. “They are not prone to cracking, the deck is non slip and the rubber mats add considerably to cow safety and comfort.” A Waikato 100mm rotary milking system with SmartPuls digital electronic pulsation has been installed. It has a Blower vacuum pump with SmartDrive variable speed controls. The machine is equipped with a SmartWash auto wash system that is fully programmable and the systemis set up in readiness for additional equipment to be added as time goes by. The milk pump has a variable speed SmartDrive controller and milk recovery system. Masterton company Ordish and Stevens are the Wairarapa agents for Waikato Milking Systems.
“We project managed the installation of the milking plant, electrics, water and effluent disposal. The electrical system is set at a low voltage for safety reasons,” says Brian Deller from Ordish and Stevens. The effluent system has a holding capacity of 100,000 litres, held in a Hypond storage system complete with pump and stirrer. When conditions are right, it is then sprayed onto the pasture. “Everything is fully automated for ease of use from washing the plant to distributing the effluent,” says Brian. Brian Deller has been the sales and design manager at Ordish and Stevens for 38 years, so he has a wealth of experience behind him and is able to offer advice on all dairy shed requirements. Most of their work is with the rural sector and they have just completed and upgraded a 47 a-side herringbone dairy for Taratahi Training Farm. Suratex is the specialist in the application of dairy wall coatings and ensure a low maintenance, easy to keep clean surface. The cow muck
Dave Crawford in front of the new rotary dairy.
washes off with ease with a high pressure hose. They are designed specifically for the dairy industry, seal against bacterial build up and are guaranteed for 20 years. An LIC Protrack Drafter has been fitted which is suitable for all shed designs. Animal EIDs are pre-loaded into the computer so each dairy cow can be identified and drafted out automatically if needing attention. It has an easy-to-use interface and requires a low level of computer literacy. The system is suitable for all shed designs and can integrate seamlessly with on-farm practices and is driven by a single in-dairy touch screen that is simple to use. A remote control unit is supplied with all Protrack Drafter installations and is effective up to a distance of 50 metres from the drafting gate. The remote control allows the milker to respond immediately by just pressing the appropriate draft direction button as the cow approaches the drafting gate and she will be waiting for you after milking. “We have been tagging the cows as they calve. We are not using the system fully yet, but I can see it will be really brilliant when it is upgraded,” says Dave. Standing beside the old oak tree this new rotary dairy will be in use for many years to come. By Helen Wilson
The vats
are place
TKTD2514R
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cover.
TKTD4015R
TKTD2412F
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PRESTON FARMS
Coast & Country
Old foresight recognised Lyall and Garth Preston have their grandfather to thank for putting down roots in Ruawai near Dargaville back in the early 1900s. He bought 164 acres of tidal swamp and the 30 cows he milked often got lost in the mangroves. The swamp was drained, stop banks put in and the land became a high producing dairy farm. He had two sons; one bought land in the surrounding hills, while Rex Preston stayed on the flats and bought two neighbouring farms in 1972 – doubling the size of the farm. To finance it, he sold off a hill block and this was the turning point in the dairy farming enterprise with a total of 320 acres of productive dairy land on the flats. About this time, brothers Lyall and Garth left school and decided on a farming career. They both worked on the farm for wages. “We were pretty lucky really that our parents trusted us and at the
young age of 20 we were more or less running the farm,” says Lyall. By now they were milking 300 cows and in the mid 1970s had the second highest producing milk solids farm in Northland. At this time they were milking in a 25 a-side herringbone, but during the ‘80s and ‘90s the brothers continued to acquire neighbouring farms increasing their landholding to 920 acres.
Less time in the shed
“The old dairy shed was 47 years old and not in the centre of the farm, so we decided it was time to consider building a modern dairy shed that was compliant and meant less time in the dairy shed.” Lyall and Garth are involved with 12 other dairy farms in Southland, many of them conversions, so taking on a
project of this size was not at all daunting to them. “We have dabbled in commercial property, but found it a bit boring so decided to re-invest in dairy farming,” says Garth. Whangarei company Barfoote Construction was the chosen contractor for building the 60 bail rotary dairy shed. Trevor Barfoote is a farmer himself and experienced with the requirements of an efficient dairy shed. “With his dairy farming background, Trevor understands farmers’ requirements and will design a dairy shed to suit individual requirements. This is a solid shed with concrete wall panels with a high stud and coloursteel roof, covering the vat stand,” says Barfoote Construction’s project manager Colin Spedding. The site chosen for the dairy shed
had to be back filled with 12,500 cubic metres of limestone strippings, brought in from a nearby quarry by Ruawai Transport. “We are lucky to have a quarry so close which saved transport costs. “Barry from Ruawai Transport also carted the limestone for the farm races,” says Lyall.
Weeping wall
Back fill was brought in for the large concrete feed pad adjacent to the new dairy shed. Being on flat land, the site had to be constructed so there was at least a two per cent fall to allow for flood washing the effluent into a ‘weeping wall’ disposal system designed by Barfoote Construction. The 60 bail custom-made iFlow Milfos rotary platform is made from
solid concrete and is built to last. The Milfos iConveyor milking machine with ICR cup removers, cow restraints and cluster drop down system, were fitted by Darren Green of Greens Farm Services – the Milfos dealer for Dargaville and Whangarei. The milking machine has a high level of automation. All the pipe work is fully galvanised for longevity. Darren Green is no stranger to dairy farms. He was a dairy manager for a time and then switched to installing and maintaining milking machines. “Recently my wife Raewyn and I saw an opportunity to come to Northland from the Waikato and start our own business supplying and fitting Milfos milking machines,” says Darren. “For a new business we have been pleased with the response from local farmers and have enjoyed working with Lyall and Garth.” The wash down pump, hoses and vat wash systems were all installed by Darren.
The construction team: Laurence Roy and Conrad Green from Barfoote Construction, Lyall and Garth Preston, Colin Spedding, project manager for Barfoote Construction and Jake Hansen, site manager for Barfoote Construction.
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PRESTON FARMS
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Page 97
Solutions to suit requirements A Bell Booth Dosatron mineral dispenser has been fitted to make sure the cows are receiving accurate amounts of minerals through their drinking water for good animal health. There has been no bloat on the farm for at least 10 years. A Protrack Drafter has been fitted which is suitable for all shed designs. Animal EID’s are pre-loaded into the computer so each dairy cow can be indentified and drafted out automatically if needing attention. It has an easy-to-use interface and requires a low level of computer literacy. The system is suitable for all shed designs and can integrate seamlessly with your on-farm practices and is driven by a single in-dairy touch screen that is simple to
use. A remote control unit is supplied with all Protrack Drafter installations and is effective up to a distance of 50 metres from the drafting gate. The remote control allows the milker to respond immediately by just pressing the appropriate draft direction button as the cow approaches the drafting gate and she will be waiting for you after milking. To stop the cows slipping while entering and exiting the platform rubber matting from Numat Industries has been fitted. Large dairy sheds require large amounts of water. Rainwater will be collected off the expansive roof and stored in large polyethylene storage tanks which have a corrugated profile for a contemporary look and improved strength. “We can supply tanks from 30,000 litres capacity down to 30 litres,” says Promax Plastics Northland sales representative Joe Allison, “They come in several fash-
The solid roof construction.
Milfos milk cluster.
ion colours to match coloursteel roofs.” Promax Plastics is a family owned business and was established in Whangarei 18 years ago. Their vast range of products caters mainly for the agricultural sector. In the last five years they have released several new innovative and unique products. “We are always ready to listen to our customers requirements and come up with a solution to their requirements,” says Joe. “We have noticed that more urban dwellers are installing tanks to collect rain water now.” Making sure all the electrics do the right thing at the right time was the responsibility of Bruce Metzener from Laser Electrical based at Dargaville. Laser Electrical also installed the iConverter chilling system for which they are the local agents. This innovative system will snap chill the
milk, maintain the vat temperature and supply 80-plus degrees hot water in one machine and running all this for less than the cost of running normal hot water cylinders. At the time of the visit, this dairy shed was about two weeks away from being finished and there was a hive of activity as the finishing touches were completed. “It will be ready for when the cows start calving at the end of June and we are looking forward to a new season in a brand new dairy shed. “We will have the cows in two herds for easy management. This project has been on track from the beginning and all the contractors have been a pleasure to deal with,” says Lyall. By Helen Wilson
Page 98
CLEAR RIDGE STATION
Steeling the show again Dargaville farmer Dave Webster has a very busy life. Along with members of his family, he is involved with several dairy farms and has recently completed a dairy conversion at Waiotira in the fertile rolling hill country south of Dargaville. Dave and his wife Kim, son Benjamin, brother Jim and sister and brother-in-law Barbara and Stephen
Geange, bought 1100 acres eight years ago at Waiotira as a drystock farm. Three years later, they bought another 600 acres adjoining the original block. “Deciding to convert to dairying was the logical choice as there are better returns than sheep and beef,” says Dave. One of the first requirements was choosing a dairy shed that would be efficient and cope with at least a 1000 cows. A site central to the farm was chosen and building got underway. “I have built eight dairy sheds in the past – five of them being rotaries –
and have found that they are the most efficient and labour saving. So we decided on a 54 bail rotary. “We milk all year round and employ a farm manager and five other staff. Barbara and Stephen are responsible for calf rearing and drystock.” With his experience of building dairy sheds, Dave was able to be the project manager and organise all the materials and fittings. The dairy shed was built by Steel Shed Systems, part of the Whangarei company Paramount Construction. “This is the second dairy shed we have built for Dave Webster,” says
Steel Shed Systems Northland sales manager Grant Walls. “It is pre-engineered, so all the guess work was taken out for the client. The wide span roof and walls are made from coloursteel for strength and works out cheaper than concrete. “It has a bird proofing system and the steel stands up well to high pressure washing. By coincidence, the colour Dave chose for the cladding is “smooth cream”, which is appropriate,” says Grant. The company offer farmers flexibility of design, works within the budget
Coast & Country
and, as in this case, will build as a “labour only” contract. “I was very pleased with the other dairy shed Steel Shed Systems built and with doing some of the work myself, I was able to build this one for about the same cost as a 40 bail rotary,” says Dave. Advance Dairy and Pump is the DeLaval milking system agent from ‘the harbour bridge to Kawakawa’ and has branches in Dargaville, Whangarei and Wellsford.
Background: A view of the dairy shed with the Manganui River in the background.
Dave Webster, Barbara and Stephen Geange with their dogs, Jesse and Kai.
Trevor Hutchinson and Dave Webster with the water cannon.
Grant Walls from Steel Shed Construction.
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CLEAR RIDGE STATION
Page 99
Allowing for excellent cow flow
By Helen Wilson
Looking into a cow bail on the platform.
The Dieson backing gate. It looks like a shed but it’s the cooling system. “This is the third Alpro shed that the Websters have installed,” says Advance Dairy and Pump owner Trevor Hutchinson. “The Alpro computerised milking system has a low profile rotary platform which allows for excellent cow flow. “It has milk metering, automatic cup removers and automatic drafting. The electronic ear tags enable storage of individual cow information into a database that allows for strategic management decisions to be made on the information such as milking, feeding, mating and animal health treatments. “It also has the possibility for weighing, blood and conductivity monitoring and communicates with LIC’s MINDA database.” They also installed all the plumbing for the dairy shed, including a unique wash down system that uses high volume pressure yard water can-
Background: The 900Sqm rectangular yard. nons which can clean the 900 square metre yard in 10 to 15 minutes and consume less water. Both Trevor and his wife Monica come from dairy farming backgrounds. Their company, Advance Dairy and Pump, employ 13 staff who between them have a wealth of dairying, water and effluent knowledge – so always look at options that are best suited for each individual dairy shed. The rectangular yard has been fitted with a Dieson backing gate. “I can’t speak too highly of this backing gate,” says Dave. “This is the first one I have installed and have found it easy to operate and excellent value for money.” The Dieson backing gate, made from aluminium and steel construction, can fit any sized rectangular yard and can be installed between milkings. It is cable-operated with a retracting aluminium boom and has
a weather proof drive unit. Based in Taneatua, Dieson can ship their gates anywhere in New Zealand. To keep the cow teats in good condition, Dave has fitted Wetit teat sprayers, which automatically spray the cow’s teats as she enters and exits, to help eliminate mastitis. This is the fourth shed Phil Doouss of North West Electrical has been involved in for the Webster family. The Dargaville based business was responsible for making sure the electrical system worked efficiently. “There were no surprises doing this dairy shed, it all went pretty smoothly,” says Phil. One special feature is a radical new way of cooling the milk. “We installed a prototype of this system at one of Webster’s other dairy sheds and since then have made some improvements. Dave has had some great results and was confident enough to install a second one.
“It looks like a small shed, but is in fact an ice bank – made up with a mixture of ice and water which is pumped through the milk cooler and chills the milk to 3.5 degrees Celsius when it goes into the vat.” Ice has the advantage of having a huge amount of thermal storage. This effect is known as latent heat. The ice is made during the cheaper night power rate and it would take a very large quantity of chilled water to do the same job. “I have had this idea for a more efficient and cost saving cooling system for the larger sheds for some time, even though ice banks have been in dairy sheds for 40 years,” says Phil. “It is a challenge in the hot Northland summers to get the milk chilled to the required temperature before going into the vat. Some farmers rely on creek or dam water that can heat up to 23 degrees Celsius.” North West Electrical has been
electrical and refrigeration contractors for 24 years and were also involved in the shed’s effluent system. They are local agents for all the major brands of effluent pumps, irrigators and sprinkler systems. Dave is part owner of an earthmoving company and this has proved invaluable when building the tanker track, which is 1.7 kilometres from the road, had to cross two big gullies and still retain a 1.9 gradient. “The other owner, Jan Moorhead, is an experienced bulldozer operator and he formed the tanker track and the 12 metre wide races,” says Dave. “There is still some development work to do so Jan is going to be kept busy for a while.” The new dairy shed was first used in March with 450 autumn calving cows. The numbers will increase to about a 1000 in the spring, split into two herds. By Helen Wilson
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CABOLIMA FARM
Page 100
Coast & Country
Making life more interesting There is nothing like a challenge to make life more interesting as Bob and Carolyn Franklin have discovered by entering the dairy industry. In 1992, they bought a 327 ha beef farm on the outskirts of Dargaville and ran a Maine Anjou stud – a French breed of beef cattle. “There was a limited market for the bulls and we were tired of the beef industry’s pricing structure,” says Bob. “With the highs and lows of the beef schedule, it was
hard to calculate accurate budgets. I was on the beef council for a while and found there had been minimal changes in 30 years. “We decided to try something different with a certainty of income. I was well over the beef industry so the logical step was to convert to dairying.” Bob had never milked a cow in his life and Carolyn had limited experience, but the gutsy couple decided to bite the bullet and, as Kiwis always do; ‘give it a go’. They approached this drastic change in lifestyle in a practical way – by enlisting the help of others who did have the expertise and experience in the industry. “One of our best decisions we made was to employ Hayden Foster as our farm manager, along with Mark Dewar as dairy assistant.” Hayden has 19 years of dairy farming experience. He started out on his parent’s dairy farm at Maungaturoto as a 25 per
cent sharemilker and then progressed to 50/50 sharemilking at other dairy farms around the area. He was looking for a new challenge and arrived at this job at the beginning of February and got ‘thrown in at the deep end’. “We were fencing paddocks and putting in troughs just ahead of the cows calving, so it was a bit hectic during autumn,” says Hayden. At this stage, the Franklins are dairying on 250ha with some land in pine trees and more land to be developed. They have an 80ha runoff about three kilometres away which is used for dairy support. Bob and Carolyn had heard only good comments about Whangarei company Barfoote Construction, so decided to contract them for the construction of the dairy shed and feed pad. After doing some research, they decided to build a 40 a-side herringbone dairy shed that could take a maximum of 600 dairy cows. “It’s a user friendly dairy shed, easy to maintain and I feel we have got value for money,” says Bob.
Colin Spedding from Barfoote Construction was the project manager. “Trevor Barfoote (managing director) and I came out and walked around the farm and persuaded Bob and Carolyn to reconsider the site they had chosen. They had decided on a hill site, which was not quite big enough for what they had planned and would require more earthmoving work,” says Colin. “They were open to suggestions, so the site was changed to a larger area and was more central; and construction was underway.” There was some excavation work which was carried out by Wilson’s Earthmoving of Dargaville, including all the farm races, the tanker track and the track into the site before construction began so the contractors’ vehicles could get in and out.
Owner Bob Franklin, farm manager Hayden Foster and dairy assistant Mark Dewar.
The dairy shed sits nicely within the farmland.
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CABOLIMA FARM
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Every shed is slightly different Once the site was levelled and ready, the pre-cast dairy shed was put up. It will still be there in 50 years time and the galvanised steel was treated with a special e-poxy coating to protect it from the sea air. Arfootes also supplied approximately 70 cattle water troughs with ballcock protectors, which the Franklins are very pleased with. “The Franklins listened to our suggestions about cow flow and Trevor walked them through constructing a feed pad with a flood wash and a weeping wall effluent disposal system,” says Colin. Trevor’s vast experience with dairy farms meant he was able to help design the central race with its various arteries to minimise the distance the cows have to walk to the dairy shed. Northland gained some milking machine expertise when Darren and Raewyn Green and their 15-year-old daughter Sophie moved from Paeroa to Whangarei to take over the Milfos
dealership. “About 12 months ago there was an opportunity there to start my own business, so we decided to make the move north,” says Darren. “I have had dairy farming experience and have sold milking machines for a while, so I can advise on the Milfos milking machine to suit individual dairy sheds.” The Franklins chose a classic New Zealand designed and manufactured iXPRESS 4 milking machine with swing arms and a swing down jetters system. It has a variable speed milk and vacuum pump with an energy saving iCONVERTER chiller that snap-chills the milk down to five degrees before going into the vat. It will maintain the vat at that temperature and the process provides free hot water for the plant washes. Greens Farm Services is based in Whangarei and Dargaville and provide a 24/7 back-up service. “I enjoyed the working relationship with the other contractors and Bob and Carolyn. They are very happy with the Milfos milk-
ing machine and I am sure it will be in use for many years to come,” says Darren. A Bell-Booth Dosatron mineral dispenser has been fitted to make sure the cows are receiving accurate amounts of minerals through their drinking water for good animal health. On its way through, water activates the Dosatron to draw the exact required percentage of concentrate from a container stored directly beneath the unit. The Dosatron precisely mixes the required concentrate with water and then forces the combined solution downstream to a holding tank for continuous feed. Once set, the dispenser requires no further attention. FIL has a range of dairy hygiene products which are made in New Zealand to suit all farms. “I was involved with the project early to make sure Bob and Carolyn had the right
detergents for their requirements,” says FIL Northland area manager Brian Salvigny. “Every dairy shed is slightly different. This one was straightforward and the products are doing a great job.” FIL provides an on-going advisory service for all its customers. Laser Electrical, based in Dargaville, has been doing electrical work in the area for 25 years. “Most of the work is rural based, doing new dairy sheds and alterations to existing ones,” says Laser Electrical owner Bruce Metzener. “We also do commercial and domestic work and with a staff of 10 we can provide a prompt and efficient service.”
Bruce Metzener, owner of Laser Electrical, Dargaville. The large feeding pad.
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MAKING YOUR JOB EASIER
Page 102
CABOLIMA FARM
Coast & Country
Designed to be super-tough The electrical system for this dairy shed was relatively straight forward, with extra power supply needed for the large calf rearing shed. Laser Electrical combined with Milfos to ensure chilled water and refrigeration units run smoothly. Rural supplies company Farmlands has only been in Dargaville for the last three and a half years and has been embraced by the dairy farming community. “Bob and Carolyn were customers from the start and we have built up a good relationship with them,” says Farmlands business manager Annie McGregor. “It has been interesting watching this project progressing. We supplied water pipe fittings, culverts and water tanks, fencing gear and gates for the calf shed.” Farmlands is run as a cooperative and is owned by the famers who support it. “We have enjoyed being on this amazing journey with Bob and
Carolyn and will be there to provide the support service and advice in the future,” says Annie. Carters in Dargaville has the knowledge and expertise with farm buildings and fencing supplies. Its prices are competitive; so it was the logical choice for building the welldesigned calf shed and supplying the fence posts. The herringbone pit has been fitted with rubber matting specially designed to provide comfort and yet be super-tough. Manufactured by Numat Industries of Oamaru, it can prevent aching and overall body fatigue which often occurs when standing on concrete for long hours. It also reduces noise, is anti-slip, easy to install or remove and easy to keep clean. There are six different colours to choose from and comes in a choice of one metre by one metre square tiles interlocking on all four edges or 1.8 metre by one metre tiles with two interlocking edges.
The people who contributed: Barfoote Construction project manager Colin Spedding, Dargaville Farmlands manager Annie McGregor, farm manager Hayden Foster, Keith Hay Homes Whangarei manager Dave Airey, owner Bob Franklin, FIL’s Brian Salvigny, Greens Farm Services’ Darren Green, Milfos area manager Mark McKewen and Dargaville Farmlands account manager Garry Fraser.
Milfos milk cluster.
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CABOLIMA FARM
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Page 103
Well built and economical Keith Hay Homes has had many satisfied customers since it started building transportable houses back in 1939. Its reputation to provide a house or building within a certain time and budget is well known. The organising of two new staff houses on the farm was Carolyn’s job. “We wanted something quickly, that was well built and economical and Dave Airey from Keith Hay Homes could not have been more helpful,” says Carolyn. “The houses were here on time for the staff to move into.” Keith Hay Homes built a three bedroom home for farm manger Hayden and a two bedroom house for dairy assistant Mark Dewar. “We supply transportable homes, education and commercial buildings all around New Zealand,” says Keith Hay Homes Whangarei manager Dave Airey. “We guarantee our contract prices so there are no surprises at the finish.
“We have an expert team of builders, with many years of experience, based at Kamo.” Keith Hay Homes can supply larger houses for larger families and can adapt its basic plans to suit clients’ requirements – right down to the colour scheme. The houses arrive on the farm completed and just need to be connected to electricity and plumbing, a ‘plug in and play’ house. A family owned business founded by Keith Hay, it is now owned by his son David who gives his personal five year guarantee on every building. Arnold Franks from Whangarei was employed by Bob to design and supply equipment for the water supply and effluent disposal systems. For the water supply, water is drawn from a bore and pumped to the highest point. Storage is used here to ensure a continual supply of water in case of power outage or if the pump needs repair. It also means pump starts are limited to a maximum of two per day. From here, the
supply is via gravity. All pipes used are medium density with a combination of nine and 12 bar. The effluent system covers a 40ha area of Te Kopuru sand. This soil type responds well to the high levels of potassium present in the effluent. A 1400m 90 MDPE mainline feeds the area. A DODA 11kw (15hp) progressive cavity pump has been used and drives eight Hi Tech pods. The pump was selected for its high head capabilities,
while having lower power consumption than conventional sump type models. Thirty cubic metres per hour are applied at around 4mm per hour application rate, which gives more flexibility when irrigation can take place. Patrick White from Arnold Franks installed the effluent system, while both water supply and effluent were designed by Steve Nightingale. The company supplied 63mm, 50mm and 40mm water lines for the entire farm.
Arnold Franks also supplies a design, supply and installation service. Deciding to convert their existing farm to dairy instead of buying elsewhere was not a difficult choice for Bob and Carolyn as they love living where they are; close to Baylys Beach, friends and family. “We have invested in dairying for the long haul, have wonderful staff and are looking forward to the spring when another 220 cows will be calving,” says Bob.
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TE KAINGA FARMS
Page 104
Building an organic operation
Coast & Country
Jamie Lyons and his business partner Scott Martin built their Te Kainga shed after they had just let go of a lease on a farm with a 30-year-old rotary shed on it. Jamie says when the lease expired, they wanted to build a shed on a place of their own and be masters of their own destiny. And they didn’t waste much time in getting on with it. “We dropped the lease in March, started building the shed on April 12 and we had it done by July. We were very motivated because we had to get our cows in there as quickly as possible.” Luckily for Jamie and Scott, many of the contractors weren’t as busy as they normally would be at that time. “So we had guys lining up to build the shed for us and they were all pretty competitively chasing the work.” Te Kainga shed, which is located at Mangatawhiri, differs from many in that it is part of an organically certified farm. Jamie and Scott run it with the help of ‘Willing Workers On Organic Farms’ – WWOOFers. At the time of visiting, they had a young French couple helping out. Five years ago the land Te Kainga occupies was used for cropping, but when Jamie and Scott bought the farm it was already in the process of undergoing a conversion to organics. The AsureQuality organic certification process takes three years and the farm was certified in stages. So to start with, Jamie and Scott had to run their organic dairy herd partly on a leased organic block across the road from their current dairy and partly on the parts of the main farm that had already gained organic certification. Scott says now the whole process is completed it has made things much easier. “Now we can put the cows anywhere on the farm, whereas before, we were very limited to what we could do and we couldn’t really expand until we got that certification.” As an organic operation, Te Kainga runs fairly low stocking rates compared to other dairy farms. The 70 effective hectares is currently home to 180 dairy cows – although Jamie and Scott are considering expanding the
The milking pit where the hard work is done. Waikato Milking Systems’ 320 claws are fitted. operation to take in another 30 hectares. The new herringbone is built to take 26 a-side in the future. Te Kainga is more than a dairy operation; Jamie and Scott also raise organic beef and sheep. Like many organic farmers, Jamie sees some major benefits from running such a mixture of stock. “It’s good that we’ve got the sheep because they are quite good with ragwort and we do get a bit of ragwort on the flats. Having that mixture of cattle and sheep is good for the organic side of it because you can mix things up and when your animals get worms, you put the sheep where the cows have been getting worms and give the cows a rest off that pasture and let it break up and freshen up and then away you go again.” Jamie says since they finished the shed a new rule came in forbidding the use of tanalised timber on organic farms. “Our posts were put in just before that came into effect so we were able to use them. But if we hadn’t already bought them we would have been able to use wire or steel or untanalised hardwood.
Brian Nicholson of Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions with owners Jamie Lyons and Scott Martin.
“You can get your hardwood posts made, but they’re really quite expensive. The guy up the road is doing plastic posts made from silage wrap, but once again they’re expensive compared to normal posts. But it’s things like that which make organics a more expensive option.” One thing Jamie and Scott have had to be mindful of is their cleaning chemicals, teat sprays and drenches. They drench their animals with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and seaweed and Jamie says it works very well indeed. “All our calves up to yearlings and our sheep are drenched with it. Basically, once the rest of the animals get immune, they’re away and just look after themselves. The cows don’t need much drenching.” Another difference you will see in pasture at Te Kainga is a selection of what might otherwise be called weeds. But Jamie says this sort of mixture is ideal for the animals. “It’s important to have different types of plants out in your pasture and not just a rye clover mix. If you’ve got a good mixture of quite a few different things; for example a bit of plantain, some lucerne and chicory and
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even some sunflowers, then if the animals want it they can eat it. “The animals can find what they need. It’s like having their own pharmacy in the paddock.” As for inputs into the pasture, Te Kainga uses organic chicken manure and Jamie says they have been mixing it with lime. Although they are still trialling this, Jamie says it seems to be working very well. To get things started before the build Scott says they did all the earthworks themselves over Easter with the help of a group of their friends. “We had a crew of about eight of our mates here and we hopped on a machine each and over four days and quite a few beers we built the site up. Our roller driver put the roller over the edge at one stage so we had a few laughs along the way.” The choice to go organic was influenced partly by the fact their lease block was already certified and the remainder of the farm was undergoing the certification process – and partly because they like to do their bit for the environment.
TE KAINGA FARMS
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Low tech approach to farming “It’s taken us a few years to get the system in place, but we’re learning every year. We knew hardly anything a few years ago. But every year we learn something different and new ways of doing things – it’s a challenge isn’t it? “And they’re always throwing challenges at you. There are new rules coming out all the time so you’ve got to change things and diversify and try to make it work for you – because every farm is different.” A very quick build Waikato Dairy Builders of Te Rapa were the lead contractors on the Te Kainga shed build. “We were very pleased with them. They just kept the others rolling,” says Jamie. “And they were very good and competent builders too. They were very flexible and like any build we had a couple of little hitches, but they were very good at sorting things out. “They made sure the main part of the project was completed in five weeks.” Aaron Collett of Collett Electrical did all the electrical work at Te Kainga shed. Aaron says he laid all the ducting over the top to the pit and then everything down to the pumps was laid beneath the concrete. “We put in a Smart Air system for them with variable speed so when it doesn’t need to have full capacity – such as when they don’t have all the cows on – it’s not running flat out. Each time they take a cow off, it slows down and then speeds up when they put another back on.”
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the Hi-Tech Enviro dairy effluent calculator – which is based on the Overseer programme – he calculated the effluent would be worth at least $5000 per year Te Kainga dairy shed. to the owners, based on A pipeline with four hydrants Aaron a 20 bail Waikato Supa 4 for Te current fertiliser prices. extends 500 metres across the Collett of The effluent system they designed farm from the effluent pond. Kainga Farms Ltd – installed by Collett Rural Supplies Pukekohe. The for the farm included a pond to Electrical. Waikato Supa4 is a premier herbe used for water irrigation during ringbone milking system that uses speed vacuum controller that the drier months. A sand trap was proven technology. The electronics are pretty simple controls the speed of the installed to remove as much of the Dave says it is an efficient, robust because Jamie says they didn’t want vacuum pump and sets the vacuum solids as possible and a sealed storage and very low maintenance machine. any computerisation. pump speed according to the system area built for them after they have “Equipped with SmartPuls electronic been removed from the trap. “We wanted a simple shed because vacuum demand during milking. This pulsators, Waikato 320 claws, G2 cluswe just like doing things naturally – maintains it at a constant and stable Diverters take rainwater away from ter washer mounted on swing-down we’re just old school. “Also we wanted working level. SmartAir is a power the pond when the cows are not in brackets, variable speed electronic something that was easy to fix and that saver too and it is believed to save up the yard, to prevent it overfilling with wouldn’t mean we had to be mucking to 47 per cent of the power cost to run milk and vacuum pump controls – rainwater during the wetter months plus a powerful BP200 blower vacuum and a Firestone rubber lined pond has around with technology too much.” the vacuum pump. pump and a milk recovery system – Aaron says the shed still has a certain The milk recovery system sends a been built to store effluent until conthis dairy is well established and will amount of automation. purge of air through the pipework ditions are suitable for spreading it. provide many years of trouble free “All the hoses are set up so all to get the last of the milk out of the A 20HP pump ensures a pressure of milking for its new owners.” you’ve got to do is crack the nozzle delivery lines prior to washing. Milk is 30PSI can be achieved at the furthest Jamie and Scott say they are very and she starts up – they’re all autopumped to the vat through a maxi milk point from the hydrant at the top of happy with the plant, which allows matic – you don’t have to go and filter and an industrial plate cooler. the hill with a total head of 65 metres them plenty of room for expansion later. calculated using pipe length, diameter, turn anything on.” Dave Cassells of Waikato Milking The walls of the pit were coated with fittings and the overall lift. Rural Supplies Pukekohe 2000 Ltd Systems says while rotary systems tend Acraflex, a coating that makes cleaninstalled the milking equipment in to make up the majority of new work, The pontoon in the pond is Jamie and Scott’s 20 a-aside herringthere remains a solid herringbone base ing up very easy. Scott says spills and equipped with a stirrer and 500 metres splashes wash off it easily during the bone shed. in New Zealand. of pipe was installed along with four normal wash down process. They are the authorised agents “This type of dairy better suits hydrants – which should enable the There’s money in muck for Waikato Milking Systems and smaller holdings and is an ideal solumajority of the farm to be irrigated. Hi-Tech Enviro Solutions designed the plant they installed includes a tion for farms such as that belonging The system includes a Williams the dairy effluent system and general blower vacuum pump and Smartto Jamie Lyons and Scott Martin.” Greenback travelling irrigator. manager Brian Nicholson says using Air controls. SmartAir is a variable Waikato Milking Systems supplied By Ken Usmar
Proven Designs, Proven Profits
Waikato Dairy Builders are specialists in the design and construction of herringbone dairy sheds. A Waikato Dairy Builders shed is designed to maximise milking efficiency and provide better profitability.
• We have built hundreds of high producing sheds • Completed to your requirements and budget • Innovation, workmanship and experience Ph Jim 07-850 5971 Mob. 0274 936 693 Ph Chris 07-849 3630 Mob. 0274 936 692 0800 P.O. Box 10 188, Te Rapa, Hamilton
WAIKATO DAIRY BUILDERS
www.dairybuilders.co.nz
226974 2 C OW S H E D
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.................................................................................................................................................................................................... A 100% New Zealand owned and operated company waikatomilking.co.nz | P +64 7 849 8755
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