Business Rural South_Autumn 2013 by Waterford Press Limited

Autumn 2013

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Kiwi firm creates ‘technical cringe’ for Americans – p14 INSIDE

‘New breed’ – fresh approach – PAGE 10

Grass growth fuels ambition – PAGE 23

Seed grassroots under threat – PAGE 39

Yield grading ‘big boost’ – PAGE 45

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Karen Phelps A forecast lower-payout for the July 2012–July 2013 period has been good for Colin and Rachel van der Geest. The West Coast couple say it has forced them to manage and control their cashflow closely, and to run a tighter business. They are now on target to achieve costs of $4.15 per kilogram of milksolid. “When I was at AGITO, the tutor said that even in a bad year, a good farmer still makes a profit,” says Colin van der Geest. “That’s something I’ve always remembered, and this year it has forced me to ask myself how I can do that. “Over the years, we’ve been conditioned to put feed into cows. The payout forced me to analyse our costs and our business. We’ve changed our policy on grazing and will send more cows out so that we can turn as much of our grass on the farm into milk as possible.” It’s a marked turnaround for the van der Geests who have previously concentrated firmly on being as self-sufficient as possible. Colin van der Geest says they have come to recognise that wintering all their cows on their farm and making all their silage comes at a cost: “You get wastage when you harvest, in the pit, and when you feed out again. You can also have issues with quality of silage. We were applying nitrogen to grow a surplus, and when you grow that surplus, you can lose quality of grass over the whole farm. By grazing off farm, we have eliminated a lot of these problems,” The strategy also means the couple can turn more of the grass on their farm into milk. The figures put things in perspective. The van der Geests pay roughly 50 cents per

Colin van der Geest: ‘The payout forced me to analyse our costs and our business.’

‘Even in a bad year, a good farmer still makes a profit’ kilogram of dry matter to winter their cows on farm, against 33 cents per kilogram when they send their cows off farm for winter grazing. The 730-hectare farm at Atarau, in the Grey Valley, is a family unit run by the family farming business, Logburn Farm 2005 Ltd. The company shareholders are: Colin and Rachel van der Geest;

West Coast Vets 2 High St, Greymouth Ph: 03 768 0370 Providing professional veterinary services to Colin van der Geest

PUBLISHER James Lynch Ph: 03 983 5500 | Email: james@waterfordpress.co.nz EDITOR Dion Crooks Ph: 03 983 5505 | Email: dion@waterfordpress.co.nz

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aim for high production, but, as we have found, it’s the bottom line that counts. 362,000 kilograms of milksolids, and is on target for 4% above this figure in 2012-13 – but this time with virtually no bought-in supplements. The farm supplies Westland Milk Products. “It doesn’t hurt to have a low payout from time to time to refocus you,” says Colin van der Geest. “We have cut a lot of costs, and production is up. In everything you read you get conditioned to aim for high production, but, as we have found, it’s the bottom line that counts.”

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Colin’s parents, Peter and Anna; Colin’s brother, Rick; and their sisters, Maria, Jo and Annette. The land has needed a lot of development, which has involved improving poor drainage by humping and hollowing, and clearing areas of bush and re-grassing. The van der Geests milk 985 cows on a 400ha milking platform. They are developing a further 15ha block to bring into the milking platform. The farm is supported by a 148ha run-off. The cows are run in two herds (each of which has its own manager) and are milked through two sheds – a 50-bail rotary and a 24-bail Ardco rotary. Although the herds are separate, the farm is operated as a single unit. Five full-time staff are employed, including Colin’s brother, Rick van der Geest, who was a national finalist in the 2001 Young Farmer of Year and third-placegetter in 2002. Rick van der Geest is currently the regional chairman for AGITO on the West Coast, and says he is very focused on providing opportunities for staff to develop their skills. Last season the van der Geest farm produced

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Autumn 2013

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Kiwi firm creates ‘technical cringe’ for Americans – p14 INSIDE

‘New breed’ – fresh approach – PAGE 10

Grass growth fuels ambition – PAGE 23

Seed grassroots under threat – PAGE 39

Yield grading ‘big boost’ – PAGE 45

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Complete soil mapping services for variable fertiliser applications and variable irrigation.

To farm smarter and lift your operations overall performance, ring Bruce Hore on 03 318 0133 or 027 576 0303 www.agriganics.com

RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Water transforms economics Ensor does not put the merinos onto the irrigated land because they are more likely to be disturbed by people or machinery, and it lacks the Paradoxically, giving up 7800 hectares of leased sort of shelter they need at lambing if the weather high country to the Hakatere Conservation Park has turns nasty. made Redcliffs station a somewhat more economic The merino lambs are kept through the winter, business. and shorn before being sent off the farm. Getting Redcliffs, on the south bank of the Rakaia River, a fleece off them first adds value. They are sold on surrendered the land west of Mount Hutt under contract through Alpine Origin. a tenure review that took 16 years to complete. Having the lambs sold as merino meat appeals Station owner Willy Ensor philosophically recalls to Ensor. how “political games” kept the process on hold for “For the first time, a programme has got some four or five years, even though most details had traction. I have said, facetiously, that if the wine been settled and the station had made changes to industry was run by the same people who have reflect the new situation. been selling meat, all the red grapes and all the white “It cost us a lot of money. grapes would go into the It was like selling a It was like selling a farm, same vat! but not getting paid for five “When you go to a farm, but not getting restaurant, you choose what years,” he says. “We surrendered a big sort of wine you want. You paid for five years. area that carried a couple of select a type of fish. But if thousand wethers only in you order steak, you just get summer. Now we carry more steak. If you order lamb, you stock units, because 10 years ago, we put in a little just get lamb. There has been no emphasis on meat irrigation scheme. It waters 86 hectares where we characteristics.” grow as much grass as the whole 7000ha we lost Restaurants that now identify particular beef or in the review.” lamb breeds are doing the industry a great deal of He calculates that for every thousand wethers, good, at last, he believes. 300 ewes compensate economically – and he is Despite many farmers being somewhat hesitant now carrying 750 more ewes than before. Plus he about selling on contract, Ensor says it has generally now has 80 more cattle in the herd of 200. The worked well for them. Most of the ewe wool is sold irrigated land means calves can be wintered rather through the Merino Company to Icebreaker or Ibex. than always being sold at weaning. Calves are kept for a year, then steers go to Five Star The flock has 3200 merino ewes, plus 400 Beef, but cull heifers are sold to local trade. halfbred ewes. The halfbreds result from a black The irrigation scheme which has helped change face ram over merinos, and give early lambs to the whole system is an extension of a power be sent away. Border leicester rams are put over scheme using the first crossflow turbine developed 500-600 poorer merinos. One hundred of their by Graeme Martin, of Crosstech Engineering (See lambs are kept to go into the halfbred flock. South Crosstech story, page 12) suffolk rams over these produce a three-way, “It’s an easily maintained system; very simple, hybrid-vigour flock which uses the lush feed on the very robust, and self cleaning,” says Ensor. “It has irrigated paddocks. been running here for 30 years.”

Neil Grant

Above: The ‘little’ irrigation scheme on Redcliffs was put in 10 years ago as an extension of a power scheme. Willy Ensor says the 86 hectares under irrigation grows as much grass as the 7000ha the station lost in tenure review. Left: Sheep graze on the lower flats on the south bank of the Rakaia River.

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

New job brings more challenge – more control Kelly Deeks Fifty:fifty sharemilkers Tim and Lorraine Johnson have moved to a new farm and a new job this season – milking 550 cows on Lesley and Lynette Dick’s 320-hectare, self-contained farm at Tapanui. The Johnsons, are milking 200 more cows than last season, while learning to manage the property, which includes a 120ha run-off block. “That is a lot more challenging,” Johnson says. “At our previous job we would send the cows off for winter and someone else dealt with them. Now there’s a lot more work involved, but we get the benefit of having more control over our cows and over our business.” He says that when he comes to evaluate the cost of being self contained, he thinks it will work out on a par with sending the cows off farm to graze for the winter.

Johnson started this season wintering his cows on the Dicks’ farm, putting them into winter-calving mobs which, he says, was useful come calving time. “They calved in their mobs which made drafting a lot easier. Our early-calvers got some of the best crop at the start of winter, then with the late-calvers we opened up a few more paddocks and they got preferential feeding later on. We were able to change the system to suit the cows.” Luckily this season has been a good one to be at the mercy of the environment in West Otago. A kind winter and an awesome spring and summer allowed the Johnsons to make 250 tonnes of silage and 450 bales of balage. “We’re still learning about the farm, and there are some paddocks that grow fast, while some grow slow,” says Tim. “Sometimes we put the cows in a certain paddock and the milk supply rockets; with some other paddocks, it drops off.”

A lot of development work is being done on the Dick/Johnson property. Next season he plans to up cow numbers to 580 or 590 as looks to achieve the perfect stocking rate. He is mindful that this has been a good growing season, but he will have the back-up of extra silage and balage made this season. Johnson says the Dicks are a great couple to work for – very supportive and doing a lot of development around the farm. Races have been upgraded, fencing completed, deferred maintenance done in the dairy shed, workers’ accommodation improved with a new house built and the cottage gutted and renovated. They are now building a palm-kernel bunker,

and an upgrade of the effluent system is next on the agenda. “We want to get ahead of compliance, so we’ve been looking at some designs of doubleweeping-wall systems, and a new 120-day storage pond,” Johnson says. “We’re fully compliant at the moment, but we want to get ahead of the pack. A wet spring would put us under pressure with our 50 days storage.” A a better system for separating solids out of the effluent will allow Johnson to spread nutrient rich liquid over the milking platform, and spread the solids right up over the run-off block.

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feedback.,,It makes Declining numbers of entrants in the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards have changed the face of the competition for the Otago region. Only four managers and three sharemilkers have entered, and they will not be part of the national competition. The Otago conveners, Tim and Lorraine Johnson, who won the 2011 Otago title, are concerned about the lack of awareness about the value of the competitions. They have been working hard – visiting farms and talking with dairy-industry representatives and anyone else with a stake in the industry – to generate interest and get people motivated to enter. If Otago could come up with at least six entrants for each category, the region has the potential to put out a national winner, says Tim Johnson. “There are some great farmers in this region. But we’re not getting enough numbers to make it a full and robust competition.”

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anyone who’s judged a better farmer. New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards national convener Chris Keeping says it has always been difficult to get entrants in Otago, and the region has been running on minimum numbers for a few years. She says the number of sharemilkers working in Otago is dwindling, with many farm-owners region employing managers and 2Ics instead. Johnson says the benefits of entering the awards are enormous for both farmer and farmowner. “The feedback you get from the judges really gives you a sense of purpose. When we entered, we had just started 50:50 sharemilking. After the judging was completed, we realised what we needed to improve on before going to a bigger farm. It helped us develop a five-year plan otherwise we would still just be plodding along.” He says the competitions also gave him the opportunity to meet other sharemilkers from Otago who were experiencing the same things. “When you’re out struggling in the snow, someone else is out there doing the same thing and getting the same reaction from their cows.” Johnson suggests farm-owners in Otago think about including a clause in their sharemilker and manager contracts to obligate them to enter the awards. “With the way the competition judges your farm, the manager or sharemilker gets incredible

Tim and Lorraine Johnson...fear for future of sharemilker competition. feedback, and the owner gets that feedback as well. It points out your strengths and weaknesses, and it makes anyone who’s judged a better farmer.” Despite missing out on the national competition this year, Johnson says the Otago entrants are still in for an awesome competition. “We’ve made it as good a competition as we can this year. The entrants will still be judged and will still get that critical feedback. This year’s competition will give those that have entered a really good head start on next year, because they’ve already been through the judging.” However, the dairy trainee category has not suffered for Otago entrants this year. Fourteen have entered and judging has been completed. Johnson says the standard is very high.

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Advice proves extra-timely Jo Bailey Clydevale dairy farmers Mark and Andrea Shore have learned the hard way about the importance of good insurance cover. Just over two years ago they were in Auckland heading to see friends after a U2 concert when they got the news a devastating fire had ripped through their dairy shed. “The shed was only about 10 years old and was in immaculate condition, “ says Mark Shore.. “Unfortunately a hot water circuit-breaker shorted and up she went. Luckily there were no people or cows in it at the time.” Just four months earlier, the Shores had reviewed their policies with their insurance broker, and had increased their cover to include extra income protection as well as the standard plant replacement. “You never think something like this will happen,” says Mark Shore. “But when it did, we were pretty well covered thanks to our broker’s good advice.” They managed to complete repairs to the badly damaged, 65-bail, rotary shed in just 23 days – this included rebuilding the exterior buildings, re-roofing and rewiring the entire shed, and putting in new Protrack and ACR technology. “We lived on adrenalin for about three weeks,” recalls Mark.. “To get it back up and running in such a short time took a huge effort. We were so proud of everyone involved.” He says the community also rallied around to ensure that their 940 cows continued to be milked. “We had offers of help from far and wide. At the time we were also sharemilking on a neighbouring farm, so we were able to milk the cows through

PHOTOS Left: The remnants of Mark and Andrea Shore’s dairy shed after the fire.

there as well as our neighbour’s other dairy shed. Fonterra put a vat on site for us, so we were extremely fortunate.” Shore Farm, a 306-hectare (290ha effective) property south of Balclutha, was converted in 2001 in partnership with Mark’s parents, Chris and Sandra Shore. Chris and Sandra retired from the business nearly four years ago. Mark has worked on the property since finishing his degree at Lincoln University in 1996. The Shores farmed sheep, beef and crop, then moved into intensive cropping for five years before deciding to convert to dairying. “We reached a point where we either had to

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We like to see well-fed cows reaching the potentlal of their genetics. However, it’s always a challenge to find the balance between and a high-input/output system and cost-effectiveness. invest heavily in updating our farm machinery and equipment, or put that money into a dairy shed. With the dairy developments going on down here at the time, and the better returns, it was a bit of a no-brainer,” says Mark. “The transition wasn’t too difficult as my parents were dairy farmers in the United Kingdom before immigrating to New Zealand in 1980. Dad was adamant he wanted to own the cows, so we bought our own herd and got on with it.” Mark and Andrea run a high-input/output system which has resulted in their 940 cows achieving production well above the district average. Production this year is expected to total 540,000-550,000 kilograms of milksolids – around 600kg per cow.

“We like to see well-fed cows reaching the potential of their genetics,” says Mark. “However, it’s always a challenge to find the balance between a high-input/output system and cost-effectiveness.” Crushed wheat and molasses is fed through the shed and ,usually, palm kernel and some kind of protein – soya, cotton seed or canola, depending on cost. Whole-crop barley silage and grass silage is used on the shoulders of the seasons. “We built a feedpad around 18 months ago which has given us greater utilisation of our feed and proved to be some of the best money we’ve spent.” Mark Shore says the couple have put themselves into “consolidation mode”, but are always looking for the next opportunity.

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

South a land of opportunity Jo Bailey When Troy Hinton-Bosch says life is “fairly hectic”, it’s a bit of an understatement. He and his wife, Michele, are in their second season of milking 850 cows at Penmar Farm, a 206-hectare property at Westerfield, 20km southwest of Ashburton. In addition: They have bought a 127ha neighbouring property, which has been incorporated into the milking platform; they have become shareholders in a 330ha dryland sheep-and-beef unit being converted into a 1300-cow dairy farm and in a 230ha property they are developing into a dairy-support unit. The Hinton-Boschs owned several farms in the North Island and were operating a 400-cow unit just out of Hamilton when they decided to move south. “It was getting harder to develop our business there as the larger properties just aren’t available,” says Troy. “We’d been looking at Canterbury for quite a while. Then we had the opportunity to purchase Penmar Farm from my aunty and uncle, who had almost finished converting it at the time.” They brought their early-calving Waikato herd south, and have bought additional crossbred cows from the North Island to make up the numbers. “We have another 300-odd heifers arriving from the North Island in May to increase the herd to around the 1100 mark that we plan to milk next season.” They have shifted calving dates by about 10 days to meet the Canterbury norm and say they are “pretty happy” with the herd’s performance so far. “The cows have adapted well to the new 54bail rotary cowshed after being milked through a herringbone in the North Island. They are also producing well. We set ourselves good targets and achieved 350,000 kilograms of milksolids last season. This year we are aiming for 1800kg/ha, which is fantastic really.” They bought the dryland sheep and beef property, around 10km from Ashburton, in partnership with Troy’s uncle and aunt. It is being used as a support block for both their home farm and the uncle and aunt’s 1300-cow dairy farm.

Above: Troy Hinton-Bosch (second from right) with Valin, Bert and Nikita. Below: It would be nice to consolidate for a while, says Troy Hinton-Bosch.

The two couples, in conjunction with a third shareholder (a local cropping farmer), are converting the property under the Norvo Holdings partnership, “We have put in centre-pivots and we’re building an 80-bail rotary with Milfos plant that we also run in the shed on the home farm,” says Troy. Cows for the new property are being sourced mainly from Canterbury, and the shareholders hope to have around 1300 ready for next season. They will be milked by a manager, already employed. The couples are also regrassing, irrigating and fencing the 230ha property they bought under the Tua Tahi Land Company. “This development farm will take the place of our current conversion as support land for the two existing dairies,” says Troy. • To page 7

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Simon and Beck Riordan say they have struggled find Kiwi staff interesting in working large cow numbers. Their staff tends to be multi-cultural. Here’s their present line-up: From left, Simon Riordan, Beck Riordan (on the rock), Jaspal Lidder, Shannon McCraw (2IC) Mel Sibley, Keerthi Kulasinghe, Rajan Sharma, Bharat Patel and Reetesh Prasad (2IC). Photo: Emmily Harmer, Good Taste Photography.

The little things mean a lot Jo Bailey Skilled staff are vital to Simon and Beck Riordan’s large-scale dairy operation just north of Ashburton. The couple, who trade as Rokeby Ventures, are in their third season as 50:50 sharemilkers on a 515-hectare farm where they winter around 2400 cows. “Milking that many cows through an 80-bail, rotary cowshed and completing all the daily tasks on a property equivalent to around three averagesized Canterbury farms is quite a challenge,” says Simon Riordan. “We are fortunate to have eight excellent staff, who are our greatest asset.” One of the keys to the smooth running of the farm has been the appointment of two seconds in command, Shannon McCraw and Reetesh Prasad, he says. “I take an overall management perspective, putting systems in place and providing an overview of each day. However Shannon and Reetesh handle all the day-to-day management and staff delegation. They probably have the hardest job on the place.” To ease the additional pressure, Shannon and

When you produce more than a million kilograms of milksolids, a 2-3% increase in productivity or a 1% saving in expenses can make quite a difference. Reetesh have two or three days off in eight, but it’s an investment that pays off, says Simon. “The advantage of having two 2ICs is that there is always at least one of them working; and on the days they are both rostered on, one of them is free to deal with management jobs such as farm walks and maintenance.” The Riordans have struggled to find enough Kiwi staff interested in working with large cow numbers, so have assembled a mainly multicultural staff, which is both “fascinating and challenging”, says Simon. “We have had staff from India, South America, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Fiji. Blending different cultures and religions can be challenging. However it is really important to us that we employ only people who are team players; who want to become a positive member of our community and society; and who have tolerance and understanding of the people they work with.”

A hint there’s more to come • From page 6

Working in partnership has been one of the highlights of the Hinton-Boschs’ move, says Troy. “It has been a fantastic opportunity to take other peoples’ ideas on board and reach outcomes we may not have come up with on our own.” Troy and Michele operate Penmar Farm with the help of a “fantastic team” – 2IC Nikita, plus two Filipino workers (herd manager Valin and assistant

herd manager Bert). They are all “sticking around” for their third season. The couple have three children: Antony 15, Kiri 13, and Samuel 8. All of them like to get involved on the farm. “It is a busy life, but we really enjoying what we’re doing,:” says Troy. “I wouldn’t say these are the last developments we will be involved with, but it will be nice to consolidate for a while once they are finished.”

Stocker Dairy Services and Stocker Dairy Plumb were proud to be involved with Troy & Michelle’s new Dairy Shed. Together we are Keeping Them Milking.

They milk around 2300 cows at peak, and Riordan says production is on track to top a million kilograms of milksolids (445 kg/cow) for the second year in a row. However production isn’t the sole focus of the operation, he says. “We’re always trying to make small efficiencies in the cowshed and our management to make the life of the cow and the person milking them better.” One initiative was the introduction of a 16-hour milking regime in March last year to shorten the cows’ walking time through a reasonably wet summer. “We still met our production targets despite milking the cows three times over two days instead of four times,’ says Riordan. “This season we decided to introduce the regime three weeks earlier. It works well as it takes a bit of pressure off the staff, and the cows still reach productions targets but have a bit more body condition going into winter.” The property is well irrigated by four pivots,

k-lines and a few hand-shifted sprinklers. Supplements include 560kg-dry-matter/cow grain; 125kgDM/cow molasses and 280kgDM/cow grass and maize silage. Around 20 tonnes-drymatter grass/ha is grown on the farm in an average season. The cows are wintered off-farm on a property 30km away. Simon Riordan has been in the industry all his life. He grew up on a dairy farm near Rangiora, in North Canterbury, and he and Beck farmed in Methven, Cust, Clydevale (South Otago) and northern Victoria, Australia before moving to the Mid-Canterbury. Simon managed a property for Dromore Dairies for a season before taking on their present 50:50 position. Beck does the calf rearing, accounts and human-relations work. The couple have three daughters, aged 14, 11 and nine. Over the last four years Simon has been concentrating on improving the herd, animal health and soils, cutting costs, lifting production, and increasing irrigation efficiency. “Now we’ve made the big changes, we’re fine-tuning the operation without compromising on the gains we’ve already made,” he says.” When you produce more than a million kilograms of milksolids, a 2-3% increase in productivity or a 1% saving in expenses can make quite a difference to the bottom line.”

Proud to be a supplier of quality grain to Rokeby Ventures Office. 03 308 7166 Reps Corey Hastie 0274 335 793 • Paul Winter 0274 341 787 Patrick Davis 0274 796 094 • Nicholas Williams 0272 732 786 Martin Reid 0274 323 269 West Street, Ashburton P. 03 308 7166 or 0800 900 308 • E. info@cates.co.nz • W. www.cates.co.nz Main Road, Rakaia • Phone. 03 302 7319

Proud to support Rokeby Ventures HOURS www.stockerdairyservices.co.nz www.stockerdairyplumb.co.nz

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RURAL PEOPLE

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Above: Left, Evert and Cattelijne van Sante say they enjoy the Kiwi dairy farming lifestyle. Right, Seven-year-old Eefje van Sante extracts added value from the Tussock Creek farm conversion.

New owners beat target Neil Grant

027 433 9989

A/H 03 236 0068 Winton

PROUD TO SUPPORT EVERT & CATTELIJNE VAN SANTE

The first potential immigrants from Holland to New Zealand were on Abel Tasman’s ships in 1642. A skirmish with local Maoris in Golden Bay, resulting in four dead sailors, put a stop to that, and Tasman departed these shores. Nineteenth century settlement saw a few notable Dutch arrivals, such as painter Petrus van der Velden, but it was not until after World War 2 that people came in any real numbers from the Netherlands. Agreements between the The Hague and Wellington saw hundreds of new settlers from Holland and the Dutch East Indies arrive to take up trades, farming, and other work desperately needed in this country. The Netherlands became the largest source of non-British immigrants during the 1950s. Most stayed on, relishing the open spaces and plentiful food. Others missed their tight-knit communities, and returned home. Dutch immigrants have made significant contributions to the arts, sport, business and hospitality in this country, but one of the most

Proud to support Evert & Cattelijne Van Sante FOR ALL YOUR REQUIREMENTS FOR • Eﬄuent & Muck Spreading • Hay & Straw • Silage • Cultivation • Baleage • Excavating • Lane Maintenance WHEN EXPERIENCE AND QUALITY COUNTS CONTACT MALCOLM ON

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important has been the friesian cow. More recent arrivals from Holland have been Evert and Cattelijne van Sante, who have been dairy farming in Southland for nine years. Evert van Sante had dairying experience in Holland. He worked part-time on a farm as he grew up, went to an agricultural school, and worked selling milking plant. “He liked the challenge of being a farmer,” Cattelijne says. “Through people he knew in Holland who knew people in New Zealand, he got a job here for one year. He liked it here. He was used to robotic farms, but here he liked the outdoor farming, and the seasonal thing is good. “He went back, took me on to a farm in Holland and taught me to milk cows. I had never seen a cow so close. But I had always thought ‘If I can find a farmer to marry, I will’. So we moved here.” They started work in Winton for a year, then had a year at Lumsden. Their daughter was born, and they moved to a Hedgehope farm which was later bought by its current owners, Brett and Susan Cullen. The van Santes are now in their seventh season of contract-milking 1200 cows. They had always planned to be farm-owners within 10 years. To earn the money, they raised 80 cows a year and sold them on. When a farm came up at Tussock Creek, nearby, they bought it, and have nearly finished converting it for dairying. The lanes are in, the water troughs established, two houses bought, and the consent to build the dairy shed just about approved. The plan is to put a contractor on the 100-hectare property with 300 cows, while they work out their current contract.

Evert van Sante in Southland work mode. “We hope we will make it a profitable farm with good production,” says Cattelijne van Sante. “Then in the future...in the next 10 years, we might make it bigger, or buy another farm, or two.” “I like the lifestyle. “I have liked the challenge of converting the farm. Evert works hard. Sometimes I have to bring him down to earth and say, ‘Hey! You have a family as well.’ “I like the rural views. It is beautiful here.” Tasman never knew what he was missing.

He took me on to a farm in Holland and taught me to milk cows. I had never seen a cow so close. But I had always thought ‘If I can find a farmer to marry, I will’.

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

VEGETABLE GROWING

Golden Gourmet ‘a standout’ through trials Jo Bailey A new gourmet potato, claimed to have a “superior” flavour, has hit New World supermarket shelves in the South Island. The Golden Gourmet potato was launched by Canterbury producer Oakleys Premium Fresh Vegetables in late February, after almost five years of intensive trialling to make sure it “ticked all the boxes”, says owner Robin Oakley. “We’ve invested a lot of time and money in the Golden Gourmet and we’re confident it will develop a strong niche as a premium potato product.” Feedback from the market is already promising, with early sales exceeding the company’s expectations, he says. “We have had a fantastic response from the instore tastings at several New World stores. A lot of the customers have tried it, agreed that it’s a great tasting potato, and bought a box on the spot.” He says the company trialled up to 10 varieties of potato, but the Golden Gourmet was “always a standout” in terms of flavour. “The potato has a soft, buttery texture that sits somewhere between a waxy and floury potato. It is extremely versatile when it comes to cooking. You can boil it without it breaking up, and its golden skin

has a nice finish when it is roasted or baked.” Oakleys Premium Fresh Vegetables has acquired specialist equipment to harvest the potato, which is susceptible to minor cosmetic marking on the skin with mechanical handling, he says. “The new machine is the gentlest harvester we could find.” Robin Oakley says the careful handling required to deliver the potato to the washed market has put a lot of producers off, but he believes it is worth persevering with because it is “such a good product”. The potatoes are being sold in two sizes – a 1.5kg box of baby (each up to 75g) potatoes, and a 2.5kg box of medium-sized potatoes. The company has put a lot of emphasis on the packaging and branding of the product with the aim of positioning it at the top end of the market, says Oakley. “It is not the cheapest potato out there, but for people looking for a special occasion or everyday potato with a great texture and taste, it is the one to go for.” In terms of growing, he says the company is more concerned with producing potatoes that meet the appropriate size-profile than with trying to achieve maximum tonnage. “The advantage is that we’re not growing the

Robin Oakley (above) describes the Golden Gourmet (seen in its shelf outfit, lower left) as ‘extremely versatile when it comes to cooking’. potatoes for as long, so there is less input as far as fertiliser and spray programmes are concerned.” Limited quantities of the Golden Gourmet potatoes are available this season. The 2.5kg box may be sold in Pak ‘N Save stores in the South Island as well as New World if demand grows as expected. “We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin at the moment, but will step up production next season as demand increases,” says Oakley. “The plan is to meet the South Island market first, then gradually expand into the North Island with the variety.” Canterbury-based Oakleys Premium Fresh Vegetables is one of New Zealand’s larger horticultural businesses. In the last 12 years it has invested in “top-ofthe-range” packing and cool storage facilities that process more than 300 hectares of vegetables grown for the national market. These include potatoes, broccoli, pumpkin, beetroot and parsnips, with brands such as Fresh Express, Lucky and Purple Heart. Most of Oakley’s products are sold through Foodstuffs’ Pak ‘N Save, New World and Four Square supermarkets.

Proud to Support Oakleys Premium Fresh Vegetables Ltd

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VEGETABLE GROWING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Commerical and Domestic Plumbing Digger and Truck Hire Drainlaying • Irrigation Trenching • Ditch Clearing Excavation

P: 03 542 3888 M: 0274 434 562 Brendan O’Connor (left) discusses spraying with Dave Johnston (right) and Ron Kjestrup (rear)

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Mark O’Connor is a relative newcomer to largescale commercial vegetable-growing. He’s also one of a new younger breed to the industry, something he says has made a difference to how he has gone at the “growing business”. “We’ve had Appleby Fresh going for 15 years,” he says. “They haven’t all been easy by any means but it’s a good life, one I share with my family who are involved in the business with me. By family he means his two brothers, Michael and Brendan, plus his two sons, 24-year-old Oliver

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All Makes & Models

Marketing practices, in particular, need to be right up to the moment. and 21-year-old Joseph. A nephew, Kerry, also works with them. Mark is managing director. Each has a specific responsibility, from controlling the planting programme and doing ground prep through irrigation to supervising the shed. The company – based on 130 hectares of owned and leaded land on the Waimea Plains, just out of Richmond, Nelson – produces about 360,000 crates of produce a year across a whole raft of veges. To manage this volume in the peak of the season, from mid-October to the end of April, it employs up to 60 workers. “We have a core of 35–40 permanents and then this gets topped up with backpackers,” says Mark O’Connor. “I’ve found those from countries like Myanmar and Thailand are very good workers. They have come from countries where the thinking is ‘the harder you work, the more you will get.’ He praises the introduction of the Recognised

Seasonal Employer work policy. In the sort of business he’s in, being able to employ additional workers from overseas has given him the capacity to expand production and has taken out the uncertainty attached to securing the quantity of labour needed to work the gardens. While this season has produced good growing conditions the absence of rainfall has bitten a bit. A 35% cut in water for irrigation caused Appleby Fresh to scrutinise its use.. “We water the young plants and the older ones near cutting, and the in-between plants make do. The nice hot summer has produced good quality fruit and veges, and I think people are getting more into eating them because they’re fresh in the store.” He says melons are becoming increasingly popular, and the mainstays of spinach, cabbages, lettuces, celery and leeks retain their appeal. “We’ve started growing fennel and celeriac to meet demand. Fennel, in particular, has become popular, with some shops reporting a 300% increase in sales.” O’Connor in blunt about what he thinks is important to succeed as a commercial grower. While he’s newer than some other large-scale operators in his area, he says he can see some of the older guard sticking with the practices and marketing approach they’ve always used rather than

• To page 11

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

VEGETABLE GROWING

‘We’re not political as such, but we have our say’ • From page 10 reacting flexibly to changing market conditions. “The way the world is moving in horticulture, with all the regulations and compliances bearing down on growers, it’s tough, Marketing practices, in particular, need to be right up to the moment if you’re going to keep ahead.” He thinks some growers are missing the mark by not thinking through their volumes of crop production – relying instead on having produced the same amount year in, year out. This leads to a lot of waste and, worst of all, over-supply, which causes prices to drop. He also senses a ‘turning the corner’, with consumers spending more on fresh vegetables than they were a few months ago. “We know the economy is tight. Consumers are wary of price leaps with things like fruit and vegetables. I guess that at the end of the day, if they’re not getting the product at a price they can afford, they’ll go to a frozen alternative. This is something wholesalers and retailers have to be conscious of.” O’Connor extends his passion for the industry to Vegetables New Zealand, a product group under the Horticulture New Zealand umbrella. He chairs the organisation’s Brassica Crop Advisory Group, which was set up to provide information and

They’re all O’Connors: From left, Michael (owner), Kerry (a nephew), Brendan (owner), Oliver (Mark’s son), Mark (owner and general manager), and Joseph (Mark’s son). support on issues affecting growers. “There’s a lot going on in the regulatory and environmental sectors that directly affects growers,” he says.

It’s almost getting to the point where the red tape and compliances connected with operating a commercial garden will cripple the industry.

“It’s almost getting to the point where the red tape and compliances connected with operating a commercial garden will cripple the industry, and this is something we’re very concerned about. We try to represent the voice of the grower on the land and, while we’re not political as such, we certainly have our say.” Biosecurity is a big concern. The great white butterfly arrived in the Nelson area in 2010, with the first one found near the port. It’s a menace to growers because it produces especially big caterpillars with big appetites; thanks to the efforts of a number of agencies (including the Department of Conservation) and the vigilance of the public, it hasn’t spread too widely in the district.

Full customer back up and support with full field and workshop service

Left: Kerry O’Connor (centre) with Hanis Wantoko (left and Somkhuan Sriyot (right). Mark O’Connor praises the introduction of the Recognised Seasonal Employer work policy, which enables him to employ additional workers from overseas. He says this has given him the capacity to expand production and has removed the uncertainty attached to securing the quantity of labour needed to work Appleby Fresh’s gardens.

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IRRIGATION

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

New turbine goes with flow Neil Grant Criss-crossing the Canterbury Plains are many water races. One early one, the Rangitata Diversion Race, takes water from the Rangitata River and heads north-east. On the way, it irrigates 64,000 hectares of farmland, then drops what’s left down penstocks into the Highbank Power Station beside the Rakaia River The increasing number of Plains dairy farms using pivot or k-line spray irrigators led engineer Graeme Martin to establish a business making water turbines that can economically use the race water-flow to directly drive pumps to feed the irrigators, or generate electricity to power pumps further away, like from storage ponds, or feed back into the national grid. Crosstech Engineering Ltd is a small company that employs extra staff as required. It does pretty much everything...design, earthworks, concrete work, turbine manufacture, project management, and installation. Capitalising on the steady flow of water in the races and on the steady rate of fall, the idea is to divert water from the race, channel or pipe it to a point 3.5 and 7.2 metres lower, pass it through the turbine, then return it to the race. There is, therefore, no loss of irrigating water from the system, and pumps can be powered without using electricity from the national grid, or diesel. The turbines used are a crossflow design, particularly suitable where there is a low head, but with high and sometimes variable flow The rotor – made of curved vanes attached to two disks at either end – rotates horizontally. (Imagine a venetian blind with the top and bottom

• To page 13 Above: This 70-year-old plant on Omarama Station has been refurbished by Crosstech Engineering Ltd. A new crossflow turbine and generator were installed and connected to the grid, and the plant produces about 19kW continuously. This services the station houses and its other needs, and the balance is exported to the grid. Left: Crosstech Engineering’s Graeme Martin believes his is the only company doing irrigation and electricity schemes using plant designed and manufactured in New Zealand. Thus any maintenance or replacement parts are quickly and readily available.

Proud to be associated with Crosstech Engineering More than 60 years of supplying power transmission and materials handling products Phone: 03 377 0025 Fax: 03 377 0086 Website: www.rrfisher.co.nz

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IRRIGATION

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Crosstech Engineering Ltd developed a system on Minaret Station, near Wanaka, that is independent of the grid and the alternative is a diesel generator. The powerhouse (picture left, the building up on the stream up the gully) draws water from high up the stream through a pipeline, producing about 160m a head. A pelton-wheel turbine and generator (above) produce up to 20kW depending on stream-flow. No battery storage is required as electricity is produced continuously.

‘Live in luxury’ with private plant • From page 12 joined together to make a tube, and you will get the picture.) Water is directed at the vanes at the top, then because of their curve, flows down the inside past the axle and hits the vanes at the bottom, giving an extra kick before passing down the draft tube. Installations can be manufactured to suit different requirements. One near Methven has an output of 240kW and pumps water to irrigate five farms. It replaces four diesel and three electric pumps. The capital cost was $600,000, and the annual savings in diesel and electricity are $150,000. A smaller one near Mayfield drives two

irrigation pumps, plus it can deliver up to 190kW back into the national grid. Its capital cost was $350,000. The annual electricity offset is $90,000. A slow-down in new irrigation systems has led Martin to diversify into small electricity generating plants for remote properties such as high country stations, which either have a huge capital outlay to connect to the national grid, or use diesel generators or photovoltaic cells and banks of storage batteries . The crossflow turbine is very simple, so is easily maintained and has a long life. Because the water hits the vanes twice, it tends to clear any debris which has managed to get past the intake filters. “All it needs is a small, consistent stream to take

water from and you can produce five or ten kW going 24 hours a day. You can live in luxury.” Martin believes Crosstech is the only company doing irrigation and electricity schemes using plant designed and manufactured in New Zealand. Thus any maintenance or replacement parts are quickly and readily available. “Using turbines, generators and control equipment from overseas may be cheaper initially,

but in overall costs don’t represent a huge saving,” he says. “You have this problem of replacement parts being several weeks off. “I’ve got a number of feasibility studies going where people think they have a resource available, and I can look and see if they can generate for their own needs or export power for the grid. In some cases the dollars don’t stack up, but I’m in a good position to determine the feasibility for them.”

The crossflow turbine is very simple, so is easily maintained and has a long life,

Compliance ‘better than thought’ Close to 90% of Canterbury irrigators have installed water meters – and the installation of many others is awaiting paperwork confirmation, according to an Environment Canterbury report. The compliance picture is far better than we thought, says Irrigation New Zealand chief executive officer Andrew Curtis. The report relate to water takes of more than 20 litres per second. Water use data for the 2011-12 year shows that 39% of allocated groundwater and 43% of allocated surface water across Canterbury Curtis says that once all water-takes with an abstraction rate of more than 20 litres per second, are equipped to measure water use, more than 97% of allocated groundwater and 99% of allocated surface water across Canterbury will be monitored and reported on. However, IrrigationNZ says water storage needs to be fast-tracked as New Zealand can no longer carry the cost of a significant drought every five years. The answer lies in a few billion dollars’ worth of investment in a combination of regional and onfarm water storage development, says Curtis. “A few billion dollars worth of investment could future-proof New Zealand’s agricultural sector and, thus, its economy. We simply cannot afford to bail out our agricultural industry twice every decade – the recent turn-around for a serious dry spell.”

He says well over a billion dollars has already been wiped out through drought this summer. Agriculture is what New Zealand is built on, even Auckland, so combating drought is an issue we all need to get to grips with If hill-country farms could store water and irrigate a small area (as little as 20 hectares), it would create a strategic advantage for New Zealand agriculture, says Curtis. Irrigation enables feed and production to continue in a consistent and predictable fashion year in, year out. “The country would not be in such dire straits if we had water storage on farm. Winter storage is key for hill-country environments as stream flows are often erratic. Analysis in Hawke’s Bay showed that when sheep and beef farmers irrigated part of their farm, they produced a higher rate of return per irrigated hectare than dairying. “Imagine how much more efficient our meat and vegetable processors would be if drought didn’t wipe out crops and stock every five years. It’s not just farmers who lose out; it’s their staff, the surrounding community, and businesses that rely on agricultural income.” He maintains the development of a reliable water storage and distribution network should be considered “a nationally significant strategic investment”.

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Andrew Spencer Cell: 022 693 4368 Phone: 03 323 4548 59 Coutts Island Road RD1, Belfast, Christchurch 7670, New Zealand

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Services include irrigation design and installation, dairy shed water reticulation, effluent design and installation, water meter installations, stock water supply, lifestyle and domestic water supply, plus 24/7 servicing and backup. Products we supply: • Bauer Pivots, Linears and hard hose irrigators • K-Line, solid set, lawn and long lateral sprinkler irrigation systems • Deep well submersible pumps and surface pumps • Comprehensive supply of valving and pipe fittings in our retail showroom • Water Meters • Mainline PVC and Polythene Pipe • Plus many other pumping and irrigation associated products

Come in and visit or call us on

03 324 3880 22 Station Street Leeston, Canterbury Email: leeston@thinkwater.co.nz www.thinkwater.co.nz

Think Water Leeston are members of Irrigation NZ (INZ) and the NZ Milking and Pumping Trade Association (NZMPTA)

IRRIGATION

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

PHOTOS Above, Rainer Irrigation’s Roto-Rainer irrigation systems have become a familiar feature of the South Island landscape. Left: Brothers Gavin (left) and Rodger Briggs share the Rainer Irrigation general-manager role.

US tastes a Lindy Andrews

Ideal Electrical are proud to be a preferred supplier of quality electrical products to Rainer Irrigation. From the team at Ideal Electrical, we wish them every success.

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FOR ALL YOU EFFLUENT DISPOSAL SOLUTIONS Yardmaster Effluent and Solids pump combined with the Yardmaster Irrigator, stationary or travelling, will deliver effluent back onto your pastures, savings you $$$’s on your fertiliser. The Yardmaster YS200 screw compactor is designed to separate solids out of liquid.

Rainer Irrigation’s latest innovation – an effluent application system designed to work in conjunction with pivots – debuted at this year’s South Island Field Days at Lincoln. Drawing on technology found in the oil industry, it uses a filter to separate the solids, allowing liquids to be applied while irrigating, even on rolling country. “If they can put a pivot there, we can run it,” says Gavin Briggs, joint-general manager of the Ashburton-based irrigation company. “It’s cost-effective because we’re using and enhancing existing equipment. We’re doing things the Americans would cringe at.” The system allows farmers to switch between effluent application and normal irrigation at the touch of a button. And the corrosion issues that are inherent in most effluent-distribution systems have been resolved, he says. “The problem with effluent is that it is highly corrosive; stainless steel and cast iron bearings wear out easily. The new Rainer system is made from polymers.”

The new system is just the latest example of the company breaking of new ground in the irrigation world. For generations the Briggs family name has been synonymous with Mid-Canterbury farming. To many, the Briggses have been the region’s irrigation pioneers. “There’s nothing better than taking a farm, redesigning it, then pushing a button and seeing the eyes of the cocky light up,” says Gavin Briggs, who shares the general-manager role with his brother, Rodger. “That’s the biggest reward.” When, in 1989, Rainer rose from the ashes of

Costly times lie ahead for farmers who fail to manage effluent, water placement and usage effectively.

IRRIGATION

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Rainer Irrigation staff member Louis commissions a new high-tech pump station.

bit of technical cringe Briggs Irrigation, it was a small company with “just 10 or 11 employees” and big plans. The self-propelled Roto-Rainer low-pressure system was pivotal to the company’s success. Devised in Turkey, tweaked in Australia and perfected by the Briggses, it provided farmers with a long-awaited option to flood irrigation, crop damage inflicted by high-pressure guns and high energy bills. Rainer Irrigation’s embryonic “big plans” have long since reached maturity. It has widened its brief

to include all forms of water reticulation and effluent management systems, while embracing newgeneration information technologies. The company now employs 90 specialist staff, ranging from design and electrical engineers to computer programmers, builders, plumbers, drainlayers and electricians. “We used to manufacture just Roto-Rainers,” Gavin Briggs says. “Now we can provide the

• To page 16

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IRRIGATION

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Waimak hope: stored water early next year Neil Grant When the Waimakariri River has squeezed its way between the Torlesse and Puketeraki ranges to begin its braided passage across the Canterbury Plains, it passes under the spectacular Gorge Bridge. Just downstream, an intake diverts some of the river’s flow into a system of water races that irrigates 18,000 hectares of the land between the Waimakariri and Ashley rivers, reaching from near Oxford to the outskirts of Rangiora. In mid-February Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd’s farmer shareholders were stopped from drawing water from the scheme because of low river levels. The only farms able to irrigate were those with groundwater bores or their own on-farm storage. To alleviate this situation in a future believed to be increasingly drought prone, WIL is, it hopes, in the last stages of getting approval to build an 8.2 million cubic metre storage facility on a 120ha block it owns just east of Burnt Hill. Where water is involved, there is controversy, and WIL general manager Brent Walton is conscious of the concerns. “We are making huge efforts to ensure the facility is built to meet safety standards. It will be built to survive a one-in-10,000-year seismic event. The walls will be 75 metres thick [at the base] and 13 metres high.” Some people downstream of the storage

ponds are concerned that their properties would be flooded in a catastrophic event. Walton says he understands their concerns, but believes the company’s engineers have covered the requirements to ensure people’s safety. They say the structure has been designed so it will not fail in an earthquakes, rain and flood, or wind. Once the application to build the ponds has been processed by Environment Canterbury and the Waimakariri District Council, there will be public hearings under the Resource Management Act. “We have no issues with the act – it is doing what it’s intended to do,” says Wilton. “We hope to be able to start construction by the end of the year. It would be great if we had water in storage by early next year.” He says the scheme will give more certainty to WIL’s farmer-shareholders, provide employment, increase the money spent in the area, improve livestock health by not putting animals under stress, and improve the emotional and mental health of farmers by reducing the likelihood of drought. There is nothing new in people getting wound up over irrigation schemes, Back in the 19th century there were proposals to draw water from the Waimakariri. They met opposition then. Many of the irrigation races built during the 20th century are part of WIL’s distribution system. It was recognised early on that the Waimakariri River could play a major role in making the land productive. Its catchment is on the main divide, and

Construction of the second intake at Brown’s Rock is the next step in the development of the Waimakariri irrigation scheme. flows increase during nor’west conditions. These same conditions cause rivers, such as the Eyre and Ashley, which originate in the foothills, to become dry riverbeds, or very nearly so. So Waimakariri water that makes its way to the end of the system improves the Ashley, for instance, and maintains fish and other aquatic life that would otherwise die. Walton says WIL is involved in the proposed regional land and water plan, which includes playing

a greater role in promoting farm management plans to reduce nutrient and nitrogen levels getting into the environment through leaching. “By 2017, we want to be ahead of our environmental missions and consent conditions. We are taking 10,500 litres a second from the river, so we have a responsibility to see that that water is used appropriately.”

US gets taste of technical cringe • From page 15 Roto-Rainers, Zimmatic pivots, effluent and trough systems, broad-acre sprinkler and Irr-Pod systems and electrical systems, including underground supply cables to pivots. “The client comes to us and we do everything, other than supply the power and the water. We’ve gained by keeping everything in house and keeping everyone on the same page, so to speak. From the design right through to the installation, everything is monitored and double-checked.” The company is highly aware of the complex wave of legislative change engulfing farmers, he says. Briggs, who has been working with central government on the New Zealand Taskforce for Flow Meters, says costly times lie ahead for farmers who fail to manage effluent, water placement and usage effectively. “We are getting into a regulatory system where farmers in general have to prove how they operate,” he says. “So the old days of ‘she’ll be right’ are long gone.” By far the greater part of Rainer Irrigation’s business now centres around upgrading inefficient or inappropriate systems and providing designs for

the increasing numbers of farmers switching from sheep and cropping to dairying. Gavin Briggs urges clients to look at what type of farming they want over the next five to 10 years: Devising irrigation schemes that can evolve to suit these needs is essential. “That’s pretty much what we’re doing in most cases. It doesn’t matter what type of operation the farmer has, Rainer Irrigation puts the correct equipment into the right place. We will not sell a piece of equipment just because we’ve got it.” While the brothers Briggs may be at its helm, Rainer is no longer just the Briggs family, says Gavin. It is powered by a loyal staff – some have been with the company for 18 to 20 years, he says. It is a “big animal that we control and steer”. However, he maintains that despite its size, Rainer Irrigation has not lost the personal touch. And farmers’ confidence in the company continues to run high, he adds. “I’ve had jobs over the years where I haven’t quoted. It’s one of the greatest feelings you can get – because you can be talking about a million-dollar job and it’s done on a hand-shake and a lot of trust. “It’s a long-term commitment to back up and service the client over his or her working lifetime.”

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

DAIRY

Life rosy in ‘green belt’ Karen Phelps With their farm in Marlborough’s “green belt”, Brent and Caralyn Morrison don’t foresee the drought affecting their farming system. Tucked into the edge of the Marlborough Sounds and bordered by the Rai River, their 276-hectare (160ha effective) farm has weathered the conditions well. “It was getting quite serious for us, but we were lucky to have a good turnip crop and a good stack of pit silage to tide us over,” says Brent Morrison. “Now we’ve had some rain and good growth, we don’t see the drought affecting us next season. But water levels in the streams and rivers are low, so we do need more rain. But I think the worst is over.” He is the third generation of his family to farm the land. The original block was bought in 1924 by Brent’s grandfather, Billy Morrison. The area was native forest and Billy was drawn to the region with his team of horses to help clear the land. A herd of just six to eight cows was typical in the area at that time, as much of the land was barely farmable. Families supplemented their farming income by working at the local Brownlee Mill, which operated from the land the Morrison’s farm is now on from 1885 to 1915. Brent’s father, Dennis Morrison, started running the farm when he was just 12 years old after Billy suffered a broken leg. Dennis worked on the farm for his whole life. He had extensive business interests, including being one of the founders of the Marlborough Cheese Company. Carrying on the family tradition, Brent Morrison started working on the farm after he left school in 1972. By 1980 he was lower-order sharemilking and progressed to 50:50 sharemilking in 1989. The next year, 1981, Brent and Caralyn bought another property. It was a run-off block, which they converted to dairying in 2002 and run by a manager. Meanwhile, in 1992, the couple had bought the family farm. They sold their other farm in 2010 to reduce their workload. Today the home farm in Marlborough milks 420 crossbred cows through a 30-a-side herringbone shed. Two or three full-time staff are employed. Brent and Caralyn have been concentrating their efforts on tidying up the farm. This has included building a lined pond and installing a k-line irrigation system a year ago. Brent says this has given them much more control over this aspect of the farm compared with the previous system of two ponds and a travelling-irrigator. “We’ve had amazing results and are growing extremely good grass. We spread fertiliser over 30ha – we don’t have to put any other fertiliser on this area now, so it will be quite a cost-saving over time,” says Brent. The farm also has 50ha of water irrigation using

Brent and Caralyn Morrison...looking to less time and activity on farm, and more time with their family long lateral sprinklers and water sourced from a shallow aquifer from the Rai River. The Morrisons grow summer turnips each year on 7% of the farm, then put this back into new pastures. Production last season was 187,000 kilograms of milksolids and they are on target for a similar figure this season. Brent says he thinks the farm has reached peak production on a virtual all-grass system. The Morrisons say their next aim is to take a step back. The recent appointment of a herd manager marks a stark contrast with their past employment policy of employing younger less experienced staff. They plan to continue to do the calf-rearing and help out until Christmas each year. But after that, they intend to take a less active role in the farm and spend more time with family.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Conversion on target through year one Jo Bailey Duncan and Lyn Barr are happy with their decision to buy and convert a 180-hectare property, near Hinds in Mid-Canterbury. The couple, who trade as Barrhill Farms with North Island equity partners Brian and Linda Hill, moved from a 100ha farm at Coldstream, closer to the coast. “It’s going pretty well for a year-one conversion,” says Duncan Barr. “We milked about 390 cows at Coldstream but have increased the

herd size to 650 at the new farm. We’re hitting production targets, which is the main thing.” Brought up in Taranaki, he has been involved with dairying most of his life. He sharemilked on several Taranaki properties and owned a farm with his brother in Feilding. He took a year off to live in England, where Lyn is from. On their return to New Zealand the Barrs bought the Coldstream property in an equity partnership and farmed it for seven years. They took possession of the Hinds farm in December 2011. “We were lucky the new farm was partly converted with pivots up – we just had to get some

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Duncan and Lynn Barr, with their new dairy shed in the background. water into the corners,” says Duncan. “Otherwise we capped the races, did a bit of fencing and planted around 3500 trees for shelter.” He and Lyn built a new 54-bail rotary cowshed, with a Waikato plant and a lightweight composite Waikato platform instead of concrete. “This is pretty new technology that basically saves around 25 tonnes in weight. The idea is that it won’t wear out the bearings and rollers as fast as a concrete deck. It does cost a bit more, but the hope is it will generate long-term savings.” They also installed Protrack in the shed and Duncan says it is “bloody marvellous”. “I hadn’t used it before. It’s a wonderful tool.” He tried to use local firms where he could for the shed construction, and was impressed at how smooth the process was. “Local builder Greg Sim was the main contractor driving the project. He and his crew were fantastic to deal with. They communicated well and quickly found solutions to any issues that came along.” The Waikato plant and platform was sourced from Paul Morrison; the in-shed feed system from Paul Whitbread, of PMR Contractors, and Laser

Electrical provided electrical services. “Everyone cracked on and did an awesome job.” He is assisted on the property by two full-time staff, and Lyn helps with the calf rearing. Half of the mainly friesian/jersey-cross herd will be wintered at a run-off the Barrs own around 18km from the home farm; the rest will go to local grazing. The new property is on the Mayfield/Hinds water scheme, and despite 50% restrictions in midMarch, Duncan says they were still “keeping their head above water”. “At the moment we’re feeding a bit of wheat and just starting to feed some silage. This will help us lengthen the grazing round and set us up for the winter. Overall the cows are looking pretty good.” The Barrs are now building a new house on the property. After that, they intend to consolidate. “We’re pretty comfortable with the size of the operation and probably won’t look to grow too much bigger,” says Duncan. “It’s large enough to give us economies of scale while maintaining efficiencies, and small enough that we don’t have to employ a lot of staff.”

Scottish Officers find ‘fair Neil Grant When the Officers arrived in New Zealand from Scotland in 2006 to go dairying, they discovered there were a fair few contrasts to deal with. “I grew up on a crop farm,”says John Officer, “Claire grew up on a dairy farm, and had been dairying all her life. “But it was different there. The cows were inside all winter, and were mostly fed inside throughout the year. When we started, we had 120 cows; big holsteins.” Now they are milking nearly 2000 smaller friesians, crosses, or jerseys. The cows live outside all year, eat mostly pasture, and the Officers have had to learn the art of staff recruitment and management, and pasture management. In summer, dealing with the pivot and k-line irrigators can use up four hours a day. Their three children, who love working around the farm with their parents, add another dimension. It could hardly be more different; the constant is milking cows. The couple sharemilked on a dairy farm for a year when they arrived in New Zealand. They then took on a lower-order sharemilking role for Blair

and Sarah Hamilton, at Georgetown, near Oamaru. Now in their fifth season with the Hamiltons, they manage the first farm they took on – 850 cows on 228 hectares, plus, for the last three seasons, 1100 cows on 300ha. Each farm has its own rotary shed with cup removers, Protrack auto drafting, and automatic cell count monitoring. Nine or 10 full-time staff, who mostly live on-farm, are needed. The larger farm has both a pasture and a shed manager; the smaller one has a herd manager. The Officers are full-time involved in all aspects of running the business. “We enjoy it mostly,” Officer says. “The cows aren’t the problem, getting staff is. We want them to run things as we used to do it. Staff retention is a problem.” Safety issues are a constant concern. The farms are on downlands, with some quite steep parts. Staff using motorbikes and tractors need training and monitoring, and it makes pasture management just a bit harder. “But North Otago is great. We’ve got everything we need here. We have reliable water, and we like seeing the farm do well.” Production has increased under their management. They have worked hard to push

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Bradleys make the top grade Karen Phelps The Bradleys met when Sarah took over Neil’s job when he headed to Germany to gain experience on a dairy farm. When Neil returned from his OE to work on the neighbouring property, they managed to avoid becoming competitive; instead, recognised one another’s skills. And the rest, as they say, is history. The Bradleys are now contract-milking a 406-hectare (237ha effective) unit at Pahia, between Tuatapere and Riverton in Southland, for farm syndicate Pahia Dairies Ltd. The operation is overseen by FarmRight. They milk 710 friesian, friesian-cross and jersey cows, and are aiming towards a predominantly crossbred herd. They say crossbreds suit the land best – the property can get wet in winter and spring, and a moderate-size breed therefore works well. The farm is largely flat, rising in the middle then dropping back to the sea where animals graze right up to Foveaux Strait. It incorporates gullies, bush and coastal cliffs. The sometimes harsh weather that blows in from the sea has had he Bradleys planting shelter belts of flaxes and Chatham Island olearia, both plant species that cope well with the salty environment. Salt can burn the grass off in exposed parts of the farm, as well as rust fences and machinery. Neil Bradley hopes that when the shelter belts mature, they will help reduce these problems as well as providing protection for stock.

The Bradleys describe the farm as being in the development stage, and say that each year, they notice the improvements from the previous season. They work on draining around 25ha of the farm each year. These paddocks are cropped and put back into grass. “The farm still has a lot of potential to realise,” says Neil. “We are improving the herd each year and we are continually growing better and better heifers. We have full control here – calves go for their first winter away off farm, otherwise they’re here all the time.” The couple employ just one full time staff member. In their first year on the farm the Bradleys achieved 221,000 kilograms of milksolids. This season – their fourth – they are aiming for 260,000kg. Their somatic cell count is also impressive – they have never had grades, and last year they achieved gold grade-free certification from Fonterra. They put this down to attention to detail, focusing firmly on animal health, and maintaining spotlessly clean plant. Neil Bradley came with his family to New

Zealand from the United Kingdom when he was 10 years old. He went into farming straight from school, taking a polytechnic course while living on a dairy farm. Sarah Bradley grew up on a sheep farm in Central Southland and went straight into dairy farming. The Bradleys, who have two children – Matthew, 11 and Hayley, 9 – are in their last season on the Pahia farm. Their next goal is to buy a small dairy farm in Northland. “Overall, in our time here, the farm has come a long way,” says Neil. “It feels satisfying to see milk production come up and we are now getting the rewards of that.”

The Bradleys put their Fonterra gold grade-free certification down to attention to detail, focusing on animal health, and maintaining spotlessly clean plant.

few’ dairy contrasts production without having to buy in more feed. “We are milking a bit longer. We milk through June, and are calving by the end of July. Winters are not the quiet time any longer.” All calving occurs on the bigger farm, then the calves are split up between the two. The herds are wintered on the Hamiltons’ run-off. They grow fodder beet on the farms, and use it, palm kernel, barley and silage as supplement when pasture growth stops.

The Bradley family: From left, Neil, Matthew, aged 11, Sarah and Hayley, 9.

“It’s hard to know what we will do in the future,” Officer says. “We are unlikely to go 50:50 sharemilking because there are not so many of those jobs around. And because of the capital involved, it’s no better than doing larger lower-order [sharemilking]. “So, we are likely to go equity farming, and then move on to ownership.” It is all a bit different from milking 120 big holsteins in a big barn

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Whiteboard the ‘systems’ hub Neil Grant New Zealanders like to think they can be successful without having to get a university degree. Holyoake and Kirk got to the top in politics, Denny Hulme drove a pretty mean racing car, Katherine Mansfield is revered for her writing, and Hone Heke was a chief, warrior, and champion axeman. All had basic educations. So, when dairy farmer Mark Phillips says he is “a North Island Maori boy” who “didn’t do very well at school” and has been working on dairy farms since he was 14, he fits the mould. He and his wife, Diane, run three dairy farms just north of Oamaru. On two they are lower-order sharemilkers; the third is their own farm on leased land nearby. The sharemilked farms run 760 and 600 cows; their own has 540. The Phillipses farmed in various parts of the country before settling in North Otago where until this season they sharemilked several properties, building up to four at once.

“I reckon we’ve been successful because we’ve now got reasonable systems.,” Mark Phillips says. “We’ve learnt how to retain staff. Finally. I’m not sure how we’ve done it, but we’ve done it somehow. Some guys have been with us for five years.” He thinks that not expecting too much from people may be part of the deal. He has a number of foreign staff, whom he praises for their work ethic. He thinks they work the way Kiwis did 20 years ago, while many young New Zealanders don’t find dairying fits in with their lifestyle. Although each farm has its own dairy shed, in many ways the three are run as one. There is only one tractor, so it’s all over the place. The systems Mark Phillips talks about are dependent on whiteboards. Everything is written up

on them so that everyone knows what they should be doing, where, and when. “Farming is changing. We have to work out how we cope with water use, effluent, and fertiliser. There’s a lot of pressure to irrigate better. This may be a way to make everyone be less intensive and drop cow numbers.” The Phillipses have 11 staff in total. Each farm has key workers, but none has a designated manager. “We’re hands on. We’re responsible. We have intermediate guys who know what we’re trying to achieve, but we call ...oh... 95% of the shots.” The sheds – two rotary and one herringbone – are not automated. “They are quite basic. We feel that if there are people in the shed, they might as well be taking

We’d rather invest in people. Technology is taking away from making people responsible.

cups off. We’d rather invest in people. Technology is taking away from making people responsible. If you want to find sick cows, you do it by looking.” The herds are fed palm kernel at times, but basically these are grass and silage farms “Some people invest in fantastic systems, but we all get paid the same for our milk. We’re about feeding and breeding. If cows are well fed, they produce well.” The Phillipses end-goal is land ownership, probably at the finish of the 10-year lease. They want to have something to pass on to eight-year-old Bella at some stage. In the meantime, their philosophy is that for them, farming is not about capital gains; it is more about strong cashflows and realistic budgets. This interview has dealt with education, progress through the dairy system, land management, animal husbandry, staff relationships, employment, technology, pasture management, the future, and succession planning They’re smart fellows, these North Island Maori boys.

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Karen Phelps The installation of a Smart Farm Systems package this season has made a big difference on Dunns Farm, a little seaward of Balclutha, says manager Neill Casey. The effluent monitoring system automatically shuts off if problems are detected. It also has a web-based system that can monitor how much effluent is dispersed on the farm, when and where. The farm has a 114-day effluent storage pond with k-lines. “It enables us to fully capture the nutrient value and apply it at low rates,” says Casey. “It also shows regional councils we have a sound effluent management plan in place.” The fact that Dunns Farm is on historically swampy ground is a challenge for Casey. The 220-hectare (effective), Landcorp-owned property lies on flat to rolling country, varying from sea level to below sea level, and has challenging soil types, including raw peat, peat/silt loam and clay. It not only gets very wet at times but, despite the high water table, the land can also dry out quickly during warmer months. To counter this problem,

there are drains every 60 metres across every paddock. Previously a sheep and beef station that was converted in 2002, Dunns is part of Landcorp’s Waitepeka complex, which includes two dairy units (220ha and 300ha), a dairy 270ha support unit, and a 650ha drystock unit. The support block is used to make grass silage and rear replacement calves and bulls for the dairy units, and to run 100 beef cattle depending on the season. Dunns peak-milks 690 crossbred cows through a 50-bail rotary dairy with automatic cup removers, Milkhub herd management software and an in-shed feeding system. The stand-off and calving pad are both essential in the often wet conditions. It’s a system 3 farm and around 600 kilograms of dry matter is usually fed to each cow every season. The farm typically grows 40-45kg of dry matter per hectare in February, but this year the figure rose to 60kg. Normally this would be a positive, but Casey is trialling barkent summer turnips and says it will now be hard to get an impartial idea of their value. This type of turnip was selected for trial as it has a metabolisable energy (ME) content of 12-13

• To page 21

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PHOTOS Left: These Dunns crossbred cows look contented enough. Opposite page, far right: The control unit for the dispersal of effluent.

DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

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Above: Cows on Glasgarton Farm, near Rotherham, in North Canterbury. Right: Smoko time for (from left) Ben Lissington, Anthony Misterio and Jamie Lissington. Below: Glasgarton Farm, viewed from the dairy shed.

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compared with the 9-10 ME of balage and silage. The aim is to put a herd home on the farm as presently all cows are wintered off farm to protect soils from pugging. “A herd home should help us reduce wintering costs and give us greater control. We will also be able to use it to stand cows off during the season to avoid pugging so that we can grow more grass: Casey, who has been managing the property for four years, stresses that it is a real team effort. David Woodrow is second in charge, and Angela Nicholson and Victoria Rundle are the farm assistants. Achievements for the season include improved peak production, a 77% six-week, in-calf rate, and a season average somatic cell count of 89. The production target is 272,000 kilograms of milksolids, using less supplement.

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“Grass management and quality is the key to our operation,” says Jamie. “We do regular monitoring and strategic re-grassing of around 20% of the property each year.” The Lissingtons are pleased with their high producing crossbred herd that achieved 1625kg/ ha milksolids last season and is on track for around 1650kg this year – which, says Jamie, is “up there for a grass-based system”. All cows are wintered off the milking platform and on local grazing. In December the Dairy NZ Culverden Farm Systems Group met at Glasgarton Farm to take an in-depth look at the family’s operation and goals. “It was a valuable exercise,” says Jamie. ”We threw some ideas about where to from here. Do we stick to our low-input system or start putting more feed into the cows to try and achieve more production?” The family has decided to stick with the current regime in the meantime. “We think we’re going well the way we are. Although there are definitely small improvements we can make, we are pretty happy with our systems. It’s something we intend to replicate at the new farm and see if we can do it all again.”

Herd home on the horizon • From page 20

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Jo Bailey Supporting the next generation into the family dairying business is high priority for Rotherham farmers Shaun and Lynn Lissington. Their son, Jamie, already manages the 160-hectare (effective), 565-cow home property, Glasgarton Farm, with assistance from their other son, Ben, and Antony, a Filipino worker. The family has also just bought a 168ha irrigated block at Waiau, 15 minutes away, that will be converted and managed by Ben Lissington. “Mum and Dad have been stepping back over the last couple of years to help Ben and me progress our careers,” says Jamie Lissington. “We’ve been looking for another property for some time.” When they develop the new property the Lissingtons intend to mirror their home operation “almost exactly” in terms of cow numbers and the construction of a 40-a-side cowshed. In the meantime it will be used as a support block. The Lissingtons, originally from Eketahuna, dairy-farmed in Australia for four years before moving to North Canterbury four years ago. “Mum and Dad had been in an equity partnership in this area for around 10 years, so knew it was pretty reliable,” says Jamie. He says the family works closely together to maximise the physical and financial performance of their fully irrigated, low-input operation. “We replaced the sprinklers and Southern Cross irrigators with three centre pivots and a few k-lines and lateral sprinklers, and also re-did all the stockwater. It has given us a lot of benefits.” Effluent upgrades are “in the planning stages”. The Lissingtons run a largely grass-based system supplemented by around 280 kilograms of supplement each year, mainly grass silage and a small amount of palm kernel. Around 250kg of nitrogen is applied annually and surplus grass is cut for balage.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

There’s more than one way to move ahead Neil Grant A typical line of advancement through the dairying industry involves starting as a farm worker, managing a farm, becoming a lower-order sharemilker, then moving to 50:50 and so on to farm ownership. But that’s not the only way to get satisfaction, and develop a sense of responsibility as experience and knowledge increase. Ricky and Mel Hutchinson are lower-order sharemilkers on a 320-hectare property at Papakaio, a little south of the Waitaki River and near the Oamaru airport.

They have invested in a share of another farm and plan to make other investments, not necessarily in farming.

The couple have been in this position for five years, and are in no hurry to seek something different. “We like our job,” Ricky Hutchinson says, “and we like our community. We’re involved in Playcentre and the school, and get on very, very well with the two owners. It’s a good relationship.” But this does not mean they are happy to just let life roll on by. Rather than seek the usual promotion through the ranks, they have invested in a share of another farm, which has a sharemilker on it, and plan to make other investments, not necessarily in farming. There’s more than one way to get ahead. Ricky Hutchinson grew up in the small South Otago town of Owaka. While studying at Otago Polytechnic, he had a holiday job on a dairy farm. He was making good money, so he took a job on a farm near Oamaru. Later he followed Mel back to Dunedin and farmed on the Taieri Plains for a year. The herd manager on the Oamaru farm had taken on sharemilking, and asked Ricky to be herd manager. He did this for five years. From there the Hutchinsons shifted to Papakaio to manage a farm for a sharemilker couple, who

later went south to the Maniototo, in Central Otago. Ricky and Mel Hutchinson say these two sets of sharemilkers were influential mentors who gave them the little push to take their next steps; they continue to give good advice. “The Papakaio farm-owners asked if I wanted to sharemilk for them,” says Ricky. “That was five years ago.” The Papakaio farm has a 70-bail rotary plant with Protrack in the yard, auto cup removers, and a grain-feeding system. It takes about three hours to put the 1300 mainly friesian herd through. Getting good staff can be difficult at times. The Hutchinsons have five staff, four of them from the Philippines. All staff live on the property. “When I first managed, I worked with Filipino staff,” says Ricky. “They were good people who wanted to work. It’s a massive climate change for them. They struggle at first, not just with the cold. It is very humid there, but not as hot as it can get here.” During the summer, the Hutchinsons usually employ a couple of university students as well. Another rural community involvement for staff is Time Outside, a Dairy New Zealand training programme for young dairy workers. “They get time off from about 10am to 2pm so that they can still do the milking,” says Ricky Hutchinson. “We think it should be encouraged. It means they can be networking with other young dairy farmers. When it comes up, we ring around to make sure it’s known that it’s happening.” Mel Hutchinson is responsible for looking after the calves and the bookwork.

PHOTOS Above: Ricky and Mel Hutchinson with their children, Ryley(left) and Olivia. Below: Staff meeting...from left, Allan, Seg, Noel, Reis and Felicity. Opposite page, lower left: Rickie, Mel, Ryley and Olivia with the tractor and front-end loader.

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• To page 23

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Grass fuels ambitious stocking Karen Phelps The high stocking rate – 4.4 cows per hectare – on Emerald View is ambitious even for the local area where the average is just below four cows per hectare. But according to farm manager Vaea Churchward, it’s achievable because the farm grows so much grass. This grass growth is backed by a re-grassing system that sees around 20% of the farm done each year. Between 70% and 80% of the feed is made on farm, with silage and grain bought in to fill in gaps. Emerald View is one of five dairy units owned by Craig and Helen Elliott in the Lauriston and Lyndhurst areas, between Methven and Ashburton. Churchward, who has been farming for 10

seasons, has been the manager of Emerald View for two years. He managed one of the Elliotts’ smaller (99 hectares and 400 cows) farms before moving to Emerald View, which sprawls over 324ha and milks 1500 friesian and crossbreed cows. His aim this season is to increase production and deal with the lameness and a higher-thandesirable somatic cell count. Between November to January, as many as six cows were being identified as lame. Careful management has reduced the lame herd from 93 last season to 10 this season. Feet are treated manually and a vet comes in weekly to help keep on top of the problem. Churchward says careful management has also been the key to reducing the somatic cell count. A quarter of the udder of each cow is tested every day, all year. This helps Churchward and his five

full-time staff pick up problems quickly. The average somatic cell count was 300,000 last season; it is averaging around 260,000 this season. The entire farm is irrigated – by a combination of three centre-pivots and 25 single-sprinklers. Two effluent ponds provide seven days of storage. The herd is milked through a fully automated, 80-bail, rotary shed. The farm is supported by a run-off 15 kilometres away where silage, kale and fodder beet are grown for winter feed, and

around 4000 cows (from the Elliots’ five farms) are wintered. Craig Elliott looks after the run-off block. Churchward is supported by partner Kelly Comer, who is the chief calf-rearer and filler-in where needed. The couple are aiming for farm ownership and are concentrating on saving this season. Churchward plans to stay on Emerald View for at least one more season before exploring opportunities to further his dairy career.

PHOTOS Top left: At 4.4 cows per hectare, Emerald View’s stocking rate is significantly higher than the area average. Top right: Farm manager Vaea Churchward and his partner, Kelly Comer, intend to stay at Emerald View for at least one more season. Below: Emerald View’s 1500 friesian and crossbred cows are milked through a fully automated 80-bail, rotary shed,

Mel keeps ‘steady hand’ on things • From page 30 “She also keeps a steady hand on what’s going on on the farm, and also, our two kids,” says Ricky. The Hutchinsons buy in supplementary food each year – mainly silage, palm kernel and barley. Some balage is made from surplus feed on the farm.

About 30ha of pasture in renewed each year, with the work being done by contractors. The farm is watered from the Lower Waitaki irrigation system. Fortunately for the Hutchinsons, at a time when so much of the country is being ravaged by drought, their allocation is assured. Another reason for staying put.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Greg enjoys ‘total control’ opportunity SHAND THOMSON C H A RT E R E D A C C O U N TA N T S

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Karen Phelps Greg Cowley is aiming for record production on the 185-hectare, 600-cow farm he contract-milks at Clydevale. Last season the farm produced 203,000 kilograms of milksolids; his target this season is 223,000kg – 10kg above the farm best of 213,000kg. He has worked to improve pastures, re-grassing around 18ha a year, and on tidying up small details such as spot-spraying thistles and fixing fences. A new lame-cow frame allows him treat cows quickly – he is recording every lame cow and plans to cull animals with recurring problems. He is also concentrating on maximising grass and feeding animals fully. His partner, Jess Langley, produces a weekly grass budget, and Cowley uses a C-Dax pasture meter to determine the kilograms of dry matter per paddock. Non-performing paddocks can be identified, and remedies taken. The herd of 600 jersey and friesian-cross cows is milked through a 50-bail rotary shed. Around 70 tonnes of molasses and 84 tonnes of palm kernel will be bought and fed during calving and mating this season. There is no water irrigation on the property; a

Jess Langley (left), Greg Cowley (centre) and Bineati Teriuea in re-grassed pasture.

Non-performing paddocks are identified and remedies taken. travelling irrigator spreads effluent over 90ha. Cowley is slowly building stock numbers, and the 50 heifer calves he will breed this season will take his herd to 83 cows. He is aiming for a sharemilking position in two seasons. He operates with the property, which was converted in 2000, with autonomy. The farm is owned in partnership by: his parents, Barry and Rosemary Cowley; Rosemary’s parents, George and Christine Cleland; another farming couple, Nigel and Mia McLachlan. He can seek advice from a farm adviser and the partnership, and has two full-time staff. He also

compares notes and swaps equipment with twin brother Cody, who contract-milks 550 cows on a 210ha farm (also owned by the partnership) at Clinton. The Cowleys were dairy farmers in the Morrinsville area, in the Waikato. After leaving school Greg did a four-year building apprenticeship before working as a dairy assistant for his parents on their 330ha, 950-cow farm at Clydevale. A year later, when Barry and Rosemary Cowley acquired a sharemilking position on the neighbouring farm, Greg and Cody took on the home place. When the 12-month sharemilking contract ended, the boys shifted to their current, respective farms. The dairy farms are supported by a 450ha runoff at Waipahi, where all the cows are wintered. Greg Cowley says that after learning the ropes alongside his brother, this season has been a good opportunity to take the reins and have total control over decision-making. .

Roger Douglas sparked Karen Phelps A strict regulatory environment has been the biggest challenge to farming Ray and Anne Cattle’s 330-hectare dairy unit at Mokotua, in the Lake Waituna catchment area, 20 kilometres east of Invercargill. The couple have responded by investing heavily in their effluent-management system. They now have 90-day storage and have installed four pods and a Plucks irrigator with GPS proof of placement and automatic-shut-off technology. They plan to add another eight to 12 pods. Ray Cattle says a recent assessment of output from the irrigator and pods has shown that they are well within consent – a major improvement on their previous system which, although in consent, was more marginal.

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“The investment has given us better control of our system,” he says. The Cattles’ kiwicross herd is milked through a 60-bail rotary shed with automatic cup removers, Protrack and MilkHub. The recent expiry of their lease on a 173ha run-off forced them to cut cow numbers from 1000. However, they have renegotiated access to 100ha of the run-off and plan to milk 800 cows next season. Some change is involved though. The Cattles were making all of their own supplement and were wintering cows on the lease block. They will now winter 300-400 cows off farm. The leased 100ha block will also be incorporated into the milking platform, and another 100ha from their farm will be used to grow and make the supplement. The farm is managed by Ron Taylor, and five full-time staff are employed. Production last season

Heavy investment in their effluent-management system has brought Ray and Ann Cattle’s farm ‘well within consent’ and has given better control of their system.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Cost, personal touch drive dual-supply Karen Phelps

aller

Alan and Lynette Smith have added a second dairy shed to their 305-hectare property at Mount Somers. While their original 36-a-side herringbone will continue to milk 400 cows and supply Fonterra, the new 40-a-side herringbone will milk 500 cows and supply Westland Co-Operative Dairy Company. The move will allow them to diversify. “The cost of buying more Fonterra shares was prohibitive,” says Alan Smith. “Westland shares were cheaper and we also like small co-operatives as they have a more personal, friendly touch.” Both sheds have Protrack drafting and mealfeeders. The new shed has helped the Smiths increase cow numbers from 650 to 900 in total. The cows do not need to walk as far and milking times are significantly reduced. A lower-order sharemilker is employed on the farm and local contractor Brian Waller does all the drilling of crops. Smith, originally from Christchurch, got into farming while studying for a Bachelor of Agriculture at Lincoln University. He worked on dairy farms in the North Island, starting as a farmhand on a 280cow property in Taranaki, before quickly moving to his first lower-order sharemilking position on a 150-cow farm next door. After two years he went 50:50 on the same unit – a move that, 12 years ago, helped finance the Smiths into their first farm, at Mayfield, in MidCanterbury. They have built up to 300 cows, and bought a 100ha run-off at Mount Somers and converted it to dairy. Other purchases have also contributed to their present 305ha unit. The farm is supported by a 194ha run-off at

move to dairy was 351,000 kilograms of milksolids from 970 cows. This target this season is 333,000kg from 870-880 cows. A 5ha block just out of Wellington – which the Cattles bought when they got married to run a few sheep and grow a vege garden – got them interested in rural life. When Ray finished his career in the Royal New Zealand Air Force they bought 29ha at Warkworth and ran beef cattle, buying the stock as yearlings, grow them out and selling them. The stock numbers were small – around 35 cows per year – but the operation stirred the Cattles’ interest in looking at a more dedicated farming career. They bought 142ha in the Kaipara Hills where they ran sheep and beef breeding cows, and then added another 120ha to their property. When the Roger Douglas years ended supplementary payments on sheep, the Cattles assessed the benefits of dairying. They bought their first dairy farm at Kaipara Flats, where they ran 180 cows on 80ha. Ten years later they sold that, and bought a property at Mangawhai, then 243ha at Dargaville milking 500 cows, and then their present farm. They plan to sell up within five years and take things easier.

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ROSS McDONALD ELECTRICAL Peel Forest, which is used for wintering and raising young stock, and for growing around 40ha of wheat and barley for feed – important as the farm has no water irrigation system. Smith says close monitoring of pasture growth is essential. “You have to really be on the ball. We grow summer ‘insurance’ crops and keep one step ahead of things at all times.” Because of the vital need for good grass growth on the property, he is working to improve pasture species. “Ryegrass species are improving all the time,” he says .”We are putting more chicory in the mix because of the deep tap roots which can get moisture out of the ground at greater depths.”The farm has a storage pond and k-line pods spreading effluent over 133ha of the farm. Last season the Smiths produced 260,000

A Westland Co-operative Dairy Co milk tanker pits at Alan and Lynette Smith’s new 40-a-side herringbone shed. The 500 cows milked through this shed supply Westland, while the 400 cows milked through the Smiths’ 36-a-side herringbone continue to supply Fonterra. Alan Smith says the cost of buying more Fonterra shares was prohibitive. ‘Westland shares were cheaper and we also like small co-operatives as they have a more personal, friendly touch.’ kilograms of milksolids. Production this season is up 15%, but as the farm is very dry, Smith is conservatively targeting 340,000kg– possibly more if rain comes. The couple have three children: Kate, 24, Melissa, 21 and Jeremy, 19. “We still enjoy farming but I guess the aim now is to step back a bit,” says Alan Smith.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Above: Left, K-line irrigation waters the complete 185ha effective area Trevor and Rebecca Lemmens farm at Waimate. Right, Trevor Lemmens shifts break fencing.

Pasture management ‘crucial’ Karen Phelps Grass is king for Trevor and Rebecca Lemmens who farm 185 hectares (172ha effective) at Waimate. The couple, in their fourth season of sharemilking for owner Joy Burke, run a grassbased system and use silage only at the shoulders of the season. Pasture management is therefore crucial. All of the effective area is under k-line irrigation and the Lemmenses shift this twice a day to get

maximum growth. If grass growth takes off, they mow and make silage, or get a contractor in to rake out paddocks and re-grass. Typically, they re-grass 10% of the property each year. At present a lot of the grass on the farm seeds at the same time, so they are re-grassing with a mix of early, medium and late-heading grass to make management easier. They say diploids work best on the farm. They peak-milk 630 cows through a 60-bail rotary shed. One stubborn problem is a high empty rate – 20% for the past two seasons. After trying various ideas, including fully feeding cows all the

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way through the season and blood-testing the herd for bovine viral diarhorrea, they are still at a loss as to the cause of the problem. The couple have recently bought their first farm – a 143ha unit at Otaio which they are using as a run-off and for dairy grazing. It is in a red zone and there is a slight possibility it could be converted if the Hunter Downs irrigation scheme goes ahead. The community irrigation proposal, developed by the South Canterbury Irrigation Trust and Meridian Energy, would have the potential to irrigate up to 40,000ha of the 60,000ha between the Waitaki River and Otipua, just south of Timaru. Trevor Lemmens says that if the scheme does not go ahead, they will be happy to use the land as a stepping stone to farm ownership. He was born and raised on dairy farms, and says owning his own dairy has been his goal he left

‘Obvious’ results prove Karen Phelps

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school – “and that’s where we are heading”. Trevor Lemmens says the run-off will give them greater control as they can winter all our cows. “If anything goes wrong, I have no one to blame but myself.” They are also grazing 210 young stock for another farmer on the run-off. Last season the Waimate farm produced 262,000 kilograms of milksolids and they’re aiming for a similar figure this season. They say they are quick to dry off their herd if the weather gets too wet, which obviously affects their target production levels. They employ three full-time staff. Rebecca is the chief calf-rearer and her talent with stock showed through when he won the heifer competition at the North Otago A & P Show last season. The Lemmens have two children: Bradon, 11 and Kirsten, 8.

Concentration on re-grassing has allowed Graham and Rosalie Fleming to operate an all-grass system on a Mid-Canterbury farm without irrigation. Eighty per cent of the old sheep pastures have been re-grassed over the last six years – and the Flemings say the results have been obvious, with no need to scientifically measure them. “The farm has amazing soils and new pasture grows like mad,” says Graham Fleming. “We used to get one and a half grazings off an old paddock, but we get three off the paddocks that have been re-grassed. That’s quite a difference.” The Flemings – who are in their seventh season of sharemilking on the 196-effective-hectare farm

at Methven – use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle in their business. They milk 640 crossbred cows through a basic 40-a-side herringbone shed with no mod-cons. The property, owned by Julie and Dave Barlass, lies in an area known as the “golden mile”, gets 1200mm of rain a year, with rain clouds blown over the Southern Alps by the nor’west. The combination of rainfall and KISS philosophy means the Flemings rely heavily on their pastures. The farm was converted in 1997, but some of the pastures were 35 years old when the Flemings arrived in 2006. Thanks to their aggressive regrassing, only two paddocks are now more than six years old. The Flemings do not buy in additional feed for the milking season, just 500 bales of straw used for

We used to get one and a half grazings off an old paddock, but we get three off the paddocks that have been re-grassed. That’s quite a difference.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Just 10 minutes to first 50:50 Jo Bailey Kenneth and Catherine Pottinger are looking forward to their first 50:50 sharemilking position next season – on Donald and Fiona Sutton’s property at Hinds, about 10 minutes from where they are now. “We’ve worked really hard for the opportunity and are excited about the move,” says Kenneth. The couple will trade as Pottinger Farms (NZ) Ltd, and will be assisted by a full-time employee and a 2IC, who is “excited” to be returning to New Zealand with his young family after eight years in the United Kingdom. Kenneth (a Scotsman) and Catherine( an Australian) have been in New Zealand just six years, and in the dairy game for even less. Kenneth, from a large sheep-and-beef operation in Scotland, took on a stock manager’s job at Dunsandel soon after the newly-married couple arrived in New Zealand in February 2007. “After a few months I started to look around for something new and could see how fast the dairy industry was progressing in the region,” he says. ”Then Juliet Maclean (Synlait Farms’ chief executive officer) offered us a 2IC position, which led to our current role as managers, then contract milkers at Decade Dairies, a 169ha Synlait farm at Willowby.” Apart from a brief stint spring-milking during his New Zealand OE in 2002, he had no dairying experience. “It was a real learning curve, but working under Synlait’s structure and systems has been really beneficial. Catherine and I wouldn’t be in the position we are now without the professional and business development the group has put into us.” He says Synlait’s technical adviser, Brett Walter, has been a “great help”, along with Maclean and the rest of the staff. The fact that every Synlait farm is run under the same management system with a common goal is another big plus.” This season the Pottingers have peak-milked around 605 cows at Decade Dairies and should achieve budgeted production of around 245,000

Kenneth Pottinger at work in the dairy shed (left) and on holiday with Catherine, Milli, Edward and Henry in Queenstown (right). kilograms of milksolids (405-410kg /cow or 1450kg/ha) on a fully irrigated, all-grass system. “In the four-and-a-half seasons we’ve been here, it has been on budget both financially and production-wise.” The mainly kiwicross herd is wintered off farm in June and July. This year the cows have been mated to friesian bulls to add some hybrid vigour. The couple and their three Kiwi-born children – Milli 5, Edward three-and-a-half, and Henry 16 months – consider New Zealand home, he says. He likes the way Kiwi farmers make every dollar count, which is quite different from the European style of financial management. However, he says, staff management on dairy farms here could be improved. “High staff turnover is one of the biggest issues. More professional development for farmers in terms of attracting and retaining staff would be really beneficial. If staff are managed properly and can

the value of a KISS

wintering. They make all their own silage on farm. Owning their own mower gives them the flexibility to cut smaller areas as needed, which would not be worth getting a contractor in for. The farm is supported by a 100ha block, 60ha of which is adjacent. This means the farm is not at the mercy of the outside markets,says Graham Fleming. The couple are also big on animal and people welfare. For example, they don’t believe in working the stock with dogs because they don’t want stressed-out cows. “The slowest cow sets the pace for the herd,” says Graham. “My philosophy is that you should drive the motorbike 50 metres behind them. If you can see a wall of bums, you are pushing them too far.” He sources minerals from Essential Nutrition, which is also the agent for the SurePulse triangular liners he uses. The results show in the ease of calving and the lack of damaged cows, he says. “Our calves hit the ground running.” The Flemings employ two full-time staff and a full-time milk harvester during the milking season. The farm typically produces more than 400

kilograms of milksolids per cow – last season it was 434kg per cow, or 1400kg per hectare. The Flemings and the Barlasses have recently entered into an equity partnership on a 250ha farm they have converted 6km down the road. The new venture has allowed the Flemings to give Al Harkness, one of their senior staff, an opportunity at lower-order sharemilking – just as somebody gave Graham Fleming an opportunity to enter the dairy industry. Rosalie (a teacher from Christchurch) and Graham (off a chicken farm at Rangiora) didn’t get into dairying until Graham decided to apply for a job as a dairy assistant. Although he was 40 and his only dairying experience was a six-month stint helping out on a dairy farm, Bronwyn and Dave Marsh (who were sharemilking on the Barlass farm at the time) gave the Flemings a chance. Within a couple of seasons the Flemings had progressed to a management role, then lower-order sharemilking on a 110ha (effective), 350-cow farm the Marshes had bought on the West Coast. Two seasons later the Flemings ended their contract and moved back to 50:50-sharemilk the Barlass farm.

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see a pathway towards their own goals, they are a lot more productive.” While the Pottingers plan to continue to expand their dairy business, farm ownership is not necessarily amongst their goals, he says.

“At this stage we plan to continue as sharemilkers for the next 10-15 years given the greater returns compared to land ownership. One day we may look at buying a dairy, beef or dairy grazing unit, but that’s still a long way off.”

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

NZ ‘best’ for would-be owners Neil Grant The impossibility of farm ownership is a regular refrain in this country. Overseas buyers scooping up the best bits at phenomenal prices, large companies aggregating farms, and parents facing difficulties parents in passing on family farms are all held up as barriers to young couples fulfilling their ambitions. Jeroen Brok disagrees: “If you really want to, you can make progress [on farm ownership] in New Zealand more than anywhere else.” Brok is from Holland, where his parents farm He took agricultural courses through school, and, at 21 or 22, wondered what he might do. An internet advertisement for a second-incharge on a Southland dairy farm seemed like a good, if somewhat adventurous, idea, so he came to New Zealand. When the owner asked him if he would manage one of his other farms, he decided he wanted to be a New Zealand dairy farmer, and accepted. While he was manager, the farm expanded from 900 cows and one shed to 1800 cows and three sheds. He built up a herd of his own from cows acquired as bonuses, and leased them to the farm. The next step was to apply for a sharemilker’s job milking 550 cows at Lumsden.

If you’re really keen and prepared to work, New Zealand’s the best place to progress towards owning your own farm, says Jeroen Brok. Brok, from Holland, and his girlfriend, Hannata, are sharmilking at Oteramika, in Southland. They milk 450 mainly frieisian-cross cows (left) and have a 10-month-old daughter, Nicole (below). “Once you realise what you want to do, go for it,” is his advice. “In New Zealand you can still own a farm, but you have to work hard and make sacrifices. You need to develop a good relationship with owners and your bank. And always leave on good terms. That’s how you get your name out there.” Brok’s parents were not too thrilled when he decided to move to New Zealand. “They didn’t like it for starters, but once they had been here, seen what I’m doing and the progress I’m making, they understood why I am here.” The farming systems are vastly different between the two countries. “They milk all the year round in Holland, and feed more supplements. Here, the herd sizes are bigger, and I had to learn about grass and grazing management by doing it and watching what happened. I learnt from good farm advisers.”

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He and his girlfriend, Hannata, are now 50:50 sharemilkers on a 165-hectare farm at Oteramika, just east of Invercargill. They have a 10-month-old daughter, Nicole. The farm has 450 mainly friesian-cross milking cows, plus 110 rising two-year-olds and 125 rising one-year-olds. The young cows are the investment they need to build their equity to buy their own farm. Irrigation is not an issue. In the event of a dry summer, and at times during spring and autumn, they feed palm kernel; otherwise this is a grassbased business. The cows are wintered off farm. Crop is planted on perhaps 10% of the farm, and the returning cows graze that before it is returned to pasture. “The goal is to get our own farm,” says Brok. “We will stay in Southland, now that we know what we’re working for. It is hard work, but this is just the best place to be.”

Couple out to maintain Karen Phelps Regular updating of their skills has helped Tania and Ross Hughes further their dairy careers. Tania has a Diploma in Agribusiness and has done a Dairy New Zealand rural staff management course. Ross has finished a DairyNZ production management course. They have both done a Mark and Measure course. “All of this training has made a huge difference to us,” says Tania Huighes. “It has given us good financial and business planning skills, which gives us credibility with the bank. For me coming from town it has also been really helpful to get a good grip on things.” It also helped that Ross grew up on a dairy farm in Taranaki. After finishing school he worked on the family farm and was soon joined by Tania. The pair progressed to become 25% sharemilkers over

four years. They then took on a 50:50 sharemilking position on a 300-cow farm at Matapu, in South Taranaki where they stayed for three years. Three weeks after they had signed a 50:50 sharemilking contract, the opportunity arose to buy their first farm at Taramoa, near Invercargill. They put a 25% sharemilker on their new 91-hectare, 250-cow farm and worked out their sharemilking contract on the other property. That was more than 10 years ago, and their Taramoa farm has now grown to 480ha; they milk 1000 kiwicross cows through a 64-bail rotary shed with automatic cup removers. They are now intent on increasing production – re-grassing 40ha a year, putting cropping paddocks growing swedes for winter feed back into grass. And, as their herd improves, they are culling more selectively. They winter 700 cows on the farm. This is their first season using a grain-feeding system that was installed in the shed after the farm

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Brothers work to clear the debt decks Kelly Deeks Brothers and business partners Peter and Jack Steeghs were motivated by their farm consultant to expand their business, leading them to buy a second farm five years ago. The brothers both work on their 335-hectare farm at Croydon, near Gore, which they bought as a 180ha sheep farm in 1995 in partnership with their mother, Valda Steeghs. They added to the property in 2000 with the purchase of a neighbouring 155ha sheep farm, which they converted; they added a second dairy shed in 2008. At this point, sold their 150ha Waikato family farm and moved south. “Land was better priced down in the South Island, and it was starting to get very expensive in the Waikato,” says Peter Steeghs. “The unknown thing for most people when they went down south to farm was is they didn’t quite know the potential of the land. But most people would have been very happy with the way the land in the South Island farms, and the cows milk well.” Steeghs says the big difference between Waikato and Southland dairy farming is the winters. “In the North Island the grass would grow in the winter, so you can feed pasture all year round. You’d have a slow rotation of grass, but most

winters you could grow grass. Here in Southland, you’ve got to have winter crops or silage.” The home farm is milking 1000 cows, and most of them are wintered on farm. The feedpad winters 500 to 600 cows, and the Steeghs anywhere from 150 to 300 cows on their run-off block 5km from the home farm, depending on how much crop it has grown. The installation of a new centre-pivot two years ago has completed development on the home farm. But the brothers, who were sharemilking on the home farm, and owned about a third of the land, wanted to increase their land ownership. To do this, they bought a 127ha (effective) dairy farm at Charlton, on the other side of Gore from the home farm. They had intended to hire a contract milker to run the Charlton farm, but, having borrowed a lot of money, decided to appoint Marlon Paderanga as manager. He was one of four staff working on the home farm, and was doing very well. He milks 380

Peter (second from right) and Jack (right) Steeghs with two of their farm workers, Gilbert (left) and Alllen (second from left). cows at Charlton, helped by two employees. The Steeghs now have seven staff across the two farms – very good people and very good workers, they say. They are now concentrating on reducing debt. Cost-cutting is a priority, but also a balancing act, says Peter Steeghs. “We have to put on fertiliser to grow grass, but

The unknown thing was the potential of the land. But most people would have been very happy with the way land in the South Island farms, and the cows milk well.

skills and production was hit with snow, then drought, in successive years. This brought home the vulnerability of their system. They use palm kernel to fill in gaps in their system and make 1200 bales of silage on farm each year. “We’re not reliant on the palm kernel, but it’s a good contingency plan if we need it,” says Tania Hughes. Their coastal farm is made up of waikiwi loam and peat soils. The couple have been carrying out riparian planting to provide shelter for stock from the prevailing winds. With 1200mm of rainfall on average each year, there is no need for irrigation. They use a lowapplication effluent system run by k-line pods and spread over 100ha of the farm.

Both Ross and Tania are hands-on farmers, and they employ three full-time staff. They would like to expand their business by buying a second farm, especially as they have four children showing interest in the rural life. Sixteen-year-old Brooke is relief-milking for friends and family, as well as helping out on the farm. Eleven-year-old Trent also helps on the farm, shifting cows. At four, Taryn is still a bit young to be involved on the farm, but Tania Hughes says two-year-old Callum is already fascinated by the cows. “He absolutely loves cows,” she says. “If we have them in a paddock near the house, he’ll stand at the window and look at them all day if we let him.”

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at the same time, we cut back where we can. We can maybe not use as much urea as other years, we can use other fertilisers, and we can cut back on other things we don’t really need to spend money on. “An example is the farm lanes: while we have spent a bit on them this year, we’ve tried to cut back in some areas.” Steeghs credits his farm consultant. Alistair Gibson, and his advice on pasture management and feeding, with having a lot to do with an increase in production on the home farm over the past five years. The Steeghs are aiming for 470,000 kilograms of milksolids this season on the home farm, and 170,000kg at Charlton.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

‘Gumboots on’ – and the farm goal lives on Karen Phelps While Kiwis have been enjoying the long hot summer, it has been a different story for farmers. Darfield farmers Richard and Joanna Greaves count themselves lucky they made the move this season from farming in the Hawke’s Bay to Canterbury. The conditions may be dry, but they are now on a fully irrigated unit. The Greaves are just completing their first season 50:50 sharemilking 1280 predominantly crossbred cows through a 70-bail rotary on a 334-hectare effective (358ha total) farm for owners Annemieke and Warren Thomas. The property has a mix of centre-pivot, Roto-Rainer, k-line and sprinkler systems. It comes at a cost with the electricity, but has enabled the Greaves to produce 1.7 kilograms of milksolids per cow each day well into April. “One of the big reasons we moved south was the ability to put water on when we needed it. As sharemilkers, we rely on having good infrastructure to help us perform,” says Joanna Greaves. “As a result, it is cheaper to feed our cows as supplementary feed costs have been escalating because of the drought. People we know are seeing the costs of feed literally doubling overnight. We secured a couple of maize and silage contracts quite early on in the season, Richard thought he

might have over-capitalised in this area, but now we are grateful.” This is the first time the couple have undertaken a sharemilking contract on their own. In Hawke’s Bay they were in a 50:50 equity sharemilking partnership for three years with Dean and Kristen Nikora and two other business partners; they milked 970 cows in their last season on the 325ha (effective) farm. They admit that the growth of their business this season has been a huge change in terms of their level of leveraging, but it is also bringing them opportunities. They will increase their herd to 1450 cows next season. Richard grew up on a sheep-and-beef farm in the Gisborne area, while Joanna was raised on a dairy farm in the Manawatu. They met at Massey University and had two shared goals - to have four children and to own a farm, although they had no idea how they were going to achieve the second part of their dream. However, while Richard was working as a sales manager for a farm-machinery company in Hawke’s Bay, a piece of advice from a client hit home. “He said that if you want to own some land, you need to get your gumboots on and give dairying a go,” says Richard. With a large mortgage, a new baby and another

Joanna and Richard Greaves with (from left) Lucy, Hannah, Jack and Ella, and some of their 1280 predominantly crossbred cows. on the way, the timing for a huge career change was far from ideal, but “having the courage to make this change has been our biggest success”, says Richard. “Richard’s family, who are sheep-and-beef farmers, thought he was having a breakdown when he decided to go dairying as he had never milked a cow,” adds Joanna. “But, coming from a dairy background, I was supportive of the idea.” Four years later they left the Hawke’s BayWairarapa Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year awards with an armful of trophies – the overall title and five of the eight merit awards (for human resource management; leadership; pasture performance; financial planning and management; farm safety and health). They went on to finish runner-up in the 2011 national finals of the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year competition, and win the leadership and human resource management merit awards.

Richard has a management and marketing degree and Joanna is a chartered accountant, and they say their sound business and financial understanding has aided their rapid progression. The Greaves employ seven full-time staff, with another next season. They say they look for the right attitude over qualifications. “You can teach people skills, but not attitude,” says Joanna. The couple have already achieved one of their goals; they have four children - Ella, 7, Hannah, 5, Jack, 4 and Lucy, 3. They are well on their way to their second goal, farm ownership, which they plan to make a reality in the next five years. “It’s important to us that we not only achieve our goals, but also do things well,” says Joanna. “We think it’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one, than to be offered an opportunity and not be prepared.”

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

‘A smaller piece of a bigger pie’ We’re using this as a

Karen Phelps Two years ago Scott and Collette Keenan finished a sharemilking contract at Clydevale and sold their 1300-cow herd to buy into an equity partnership at Wairuna Peak, near Waipahi. The partnership – which involves United Statesbased Jock and Sue Fulton and two other couples – peak-milks 900 cows on 560 hectares,. “We have a smaller piece of a bigger pie and we’re using this as a stepping stone to farm ownership,” says Scott Keenan. Their next step is to find a sheep farm to convert; they are on the look-out for a property. The equity arrangement is working out well, they say. They have plans for improving the farm. One option is a second dairy shed, more cows, and a split herd. If milksolid prices reached $7 a kilogram, this would be a serious consideration, they say. Meanwhile, their main aim is to increase production while maintaining the low empty rates they have achieved on once-a-day milking. They have trimmed the herd to 880 this season and moved to twice-a-day milking. 2011-12 production was 345,000 kilograms of milksolids; the ;12-13 target is 350,000kg with 50 fewer cows. It’s rolling country with no flat paddocks – not what’s typically considered dairy country. And it’s a long unit with one 50-bail rotary cowshed, which means milkings of five hours in the peaks, and cows walking up to two kilometres. Because of the shape of the property, lameness is the biggest challenge, says Scott Keenan. The herd usually goes onto 16-hour milking in March and the cows are looked after closely. “We are really diligent on identifying and treating lameness. We have three of our five staff trained in this area.”

stepping stone to farm ownership. The next step is to find a sheep farm to convert; we are on the look-out for a property.

Collette and Scott Keenan...on ‘a stepping stone to farm ownership’./ Flexible grazing management is also important. Such as ensuring there are paddocks close to the shed that can be grazed in a wet spell to avoid cows having to walk too far and damage pastures. Both of the Keenans have farming backgrounds. Scott was raised on a small sheep-and-beef farm and managed sheep farms until making the switch to dairy in his late 20s.

when it comes to ideas each two days. This was one of the topics people talked about on the day, along with such weighty matters as how to cope with the drought, and how to feed their cows through the winter. Ricketts discussed the three-time-every-twodays-milking idea with his staff on the Stoneleigh Park farm in North Canterbury, who were keen to give it a go. Milking starts at 5am, 5pm and the next 10am – not the typical 16-hour pattern that involves a wee-small-hours milking. Ricketts says their chosen times are more agreeable in a shed with 730 cows to deal with. The word is that the cows don’t seem to mind, so milk production does not suffer. The cows miss one walk to the cowshed, and pressure on droughtaffected pasture is reduced. The 320-hectare farm, south of the Ashley River, near Oxford, is part of the Waimakariri irrigation scheme. However, the scheme has been affected by low river levels, and there have been many recent occasions when water could not be taken.

Fortunately, the farm owners had installed a 5.5ha storage dam a few years ago, and this has been used to sustain irrigation right through the season. The dam has enough water for about 17 days of spraying. When water has been extractable from the race, it has gone straight into the dam for storage. Ricketts and his wife, Emma, are lower-order sharemilkers on the property. They have two years to go on their contract, and are now considering their next moves. Fifty-fifty sharemilking is a likely prospect, so developing equity is at the top of their minds. Buying cows is not a goer at the moment, because they cannot keep them on this property. Buying a rental property is a possibility. So the emphasis is on saving up. Whatever they decide, the chances are good that their decision will be influenced by the exchange of ideas among their farming mates in the Waimakariri Discussion Group over the next couple of years.

Milking starts at 5am, 5pm and the next 10am – not the

He worked for eight months as a dairy farm assistant at Lauriston in Mid-Canterbury before he and Collette took on a 50:50 sharemilking position on a 180-cow unit at Paretai. They leased the cows and gradually bought the herd as they could afford to. Over their six years on the property the herd grew to 350 as the farmowner bought additional land.

In 2001 the Keenans were judged the best first-time entrants in Otago sharemilker of the year competition, then finished third in 2002 and 2004. Publicity generated by the competition helped secure them a sharemilking position at Clydevale on Gary and Alison Stirling’s farm. The Keenans say they are indebted to the Stirlings. In the Keenans’ first season on the farm, the Stirlings bought 100 cows to increase herd numbers and allowed the Keenans to buy them the following year. After nine years on the 240ha farm, where they peak-milked 720 cows, the Keenans went next door to sharemilk for David and Christine Benny on a 180ha unit with 450 cows. The Keenans’ three children – Sam, 14, Jordie, 12 and Zoe, 10 – all get involved on the farm. Sam also does relief milking on neighbouring farms.

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DAIRY

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

New shed will be better for everyone Karen Phelps Mike Ashley expects milking time could be cut by three and half hours next season when a new 60-bail, rotary dairy supersedes the 49-a-side herringbone shed on the Southland farm where he sharemilks. “Trying to keep staff motivated in a shed that takes up to five hours to milk is tough,” he says. “The new shed will improve production and animal welfare as the cows won’t be standing in the yard as long. Staff should be happier as well; it’s vital they have a life too.” A new irrigation system is under construction and will be operative next season. It will have with two ponds, with a total of 9 million litres of storage capacity. Mike Ashley and his wife, Chantel, are lower-

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order sharemilkers on a 270-hectare farm owned by Peter and Cathy Donnelly at Centre Bush, near Winton. A 43ha run-off block across the road is used for silage, while the cows are wintered on another 230ha run off at Mossburn. Last season the farm produced 350,000 kilograms of milksolids, and this season’s target is 380,000kg. The farm owns a great deal of its own equipment, which makes jobs easier as they can be done at the workers’ own pace, says Ashley. The Ashleys plan to stay on the farm for the foreseeable future. “There’s a lot of work to be done between now and next season, but the farm will be improved a lot and the overall operation will be a lot more timeefficient for me and the staff,” says Mike. “Farm ownership is a lovely thing, but I don’t think it’s achievable for us at current prices. Our goals are to look outside the farming business and invest in property.” He grew up with a farming backgound at Te Awamutu and started working on farms straight from school. After a year of sharemilking in the Waikato, he headed south because he saw more opportunities there. After taking on a manager’s role for a year

growth, and managing pastures is the key in the warmer weather. “I wasn’t used to the instantaneous flushes,:” says Mike Ashley. “It’s once again about being proactive and identifying surpluses rather than waiting until the last minute to act. It’s about going with your gut instinct.” The farm employs four fulltime staff and Mike Ashley oversees the operation. Chantel does the calf-rearing and relief milking. The Ashleys have two children Cailem, 11 and Ella, 9.

to learn the ropes of dairy farming in the South Island, the Ashleys contract-milked 600 cows for two years before moving to the Donnelly farm this season. They say the biggest change from farming in the North Island has been adapting to the colder winters. “You learn from word of mouth around here. Just feed, feed, feed basically, and really looking after the stock. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive. Conversely, in summer, there is rapid grass

PHOTOS Top: Chantel and Mike Ashley...keen to look outside the farming business and invest in property. Left: A new dairy shed and a new irrigation system will transform life on 270-hectare Centre Bush farm where Mike and Chantel Ashley are lower-order sharemilkers.

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

The concrete is poured in this Advanced Cow Barns wintering barn. While company director Rodger Short says the ‘contemplation stage’ can drag out for farmers, there’s a critical point for decision-making of it’s going to be installed and fully operational before winter sets in.

Talk turkey on cow barns Planning needs to start early in the year so that by October, all consents are in place, materials have been sourced, and building can begin. In its three years of operation, Southland-based Advanced Cow Barns Ltd has built 13 barns in the South Island. The company was formed when Winton Engineering Ltd and Invercargill-based Southland Concrete and Construction Ltd decided to harness their collective expertise in building covered barns. The company lost one job by sticking to its standard of always allowing a contingency when committing to deadlines for building winter barns. But it’s something that Rodger Short, who is one of the four directors, has few regrets about. “We lost the job as we couldn’t guarantee it would be finished in the time-frame the farmer

Sue Russell There’s a lot to weigh up when it comes to winter barns. Often, the best thing is to look at working barns and talk to the farmers who built them, says Rodger Short, of Advanced Cowbarns Ltd. “Farmers are happy to talk turkey about their experiences with the barns, and the chance to get questions answered often helps clarify issues for our clients. “It’s about giving them experiences and information at the right time so that we can deliver the completed barn on time, which is always our promise.” “The majority of farmers want barns finished by April, so from October until April, we’re flat out.”

wanted. It was a very frustrating process for us, but we’re not prepared to promise delivery dates that we know are simply not achievable.”. Now, as it happens, the out-of-town company the farmer chose to build with is behind schedule and unable to meet the original deadline. The farmer faces the prospect of filling the gap and paying out for expensive winter feed for his herd of 750 cows. “He wanted us to build the shed because our shed was the best cost. While I feel for the farmer, I’m glad we stuck to our guns. Our reputation would have been on the line if we hadn’t met a time-frame we had doubts about achieving in the first place.” Because there’s so much for farmers to think through when planning a winter barn, Short can understand why the “contemplation stage” can drag out.

But because most farmers want their barn installed and fully operational before winter sets in, there is a critical point by which decisions have to be made. Advanced Cowbarns’ most recent sheds – two at Glenavy (South Canterbury) and one at Centre Bush (Southland) – are similar in design, though one has the distinction that part of its floor is being put down in straw so that it can be used as a loafing shed for calving. “We did a shed last year at Centre Bush, which had a completely straw floor,” says Short. “For this to work, a farmer has to have good access to large quantities of straw.” He says the outlook for barns is good, with quite

• To page 34

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Sth Americans chase dairy skills in NZ Jo Bailey A Christchurch-based rural training organisation is welcoming the New Zealand government’s push for closer ties with South America. “From our experience there are great opportunities in these markets, particularly for the export education and rural sectors,” says National Trade Academy (NTA) managing director Craig Musson. Since 2007 he has worked closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise to build partnerships with South American schools and rural training organisations. Several hundred students, mainly from Chile, have since come to Christchurch to study at the NTA, which offers courses in agriculture, equine, horticulture and animal care. “South America has similar pasture-based farming systems to New Zealand and a growing

Most of them are looking for practical, hands-on experience – something not usually available in South America.

dairy industry,” says Musson. “The students are keen to learn about our farming methods – particularly around increasing productivity and the use of technology on dairy farms.” Most of them are looking for practical, handson experience – something not usually available to them through the South American, rural-training organisations. The international students begin their studies at the academy with six weeks of English lessons that concentrate on everyday language, farming terminology, and slang students may hear on the farm. They then move onto the full agricultural study programme, which covers a range of rural topics with a strong focus on dairying. Bárbara Peña Barra and Esteban Pitripan Mainsail are among the academy’s current crop of 35 South American students. “It is a great opportunity for us because milking is big in New Zealand,” says Bárbara “We can take what we learn back to Chile and show others.” Esteban Pitripan Mancilla says studying in New Zealand “is important for our future”. The Chilean Ministry of Agriculture is funding the students to study full-time under pilot study-to-work visas. These visas enable the students to work on New Zealand farms for up to four months once their studies are complete. “The students and their parents are investing several thousand dollars to come here to study and live, so want some sort of guaranteed return on their investment,” says Musson.

Monica Cahullan (nearest camera) and Marcelo Delgado get hands-on dairying experience at the course.

Bárbara Peña Barra (left) and Esteban Pitripan Mancilla...among current crop of 35 South Americans. “That’s why it is critical that the students are able to put what they have learned into practice before they take their new knowledge and skills back home.” Musson helped establish the pilot visas in conjunction with the Chilean government and New Zealand Immigration, but would like to see the work period extended to a maximum of two years once the visa model is formally adopted. “This will give students the opportunity extend their learning in the New Zealand environment, and still opens the way for subsequent groups of students to find pathways into employment.” Most of the students move onto farms in Canterbury once their course is complete, with some going further to Otago and Southland. “We have no problem placing them given the lack of local staff and demand for keen, well-trained workers,” says Musson. Rangitata Island dairy farm manager Adrian Munoz has employed several South American students from the academy on an 800-cow farm since 2010. He would also like to see the study-to-work visas extended to around two years: “On the current visa, the students are able to spend only a few months in work after they finish their studies. I think

I think a two-year programme would work much better. a two-year programme would work much better. If they can experience at least a full year on a dairy farm, they have a lot more expertise to put into practice or to teach others when they return home.” This is also a more attractive arrangement from an employer’s perspective, he says. “We invest a lot in the development of our staff, so have to ask ourselves if it worth having them here for only a few months.” Musson, who continues to visit Chile twice a year to recruit new students, says there are emerging markets for export education in Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. “The cost of international marketing is expensive, so the trips have to be well planned to make sure we are getting the most out of it.” He says the academy has a “fantastic” agent in Chile and has just started working with an agent in Brazil where there is “some good interest”.

Talk turkey on cow barns • From page 33 a lot of interest gathering in the Canterbury region. He puts this down, in part, to the potential for sheltered barns to increase milk production by reducing heat stress in cows. “One of our clients in Waimate experienced a 20% increase in milk production in the space of one month by putting his cows inside after the morning milk and feeding them silage, then letting them out to graze following the afternoon milking. By the morning, they’re standing waiting to get back inside again.” Beyond building winter barns, Southland Concrete and Construction Ltd maintains a busy presence in the concrete construction business both for the rural sector and in town. The company’s concrete manager, Mark Allison,

says winter is a busy time on Southland farms with remedial work on silage pits, dairy lanes, stand-off pads and feedpads. In town the work involves mainly pouring driveways and house-pads. “We have a loyal client base of well over 500 who use our services repeatedly, and while the more expensive work, such as building winter barns, is affected by the Fonterra payout, we’re doing nicely.” About five years ago Southland Concrete and Construction began to specialise in lining dairy effluent ponds – an option that farmers were quick to see as economically viable. “We have staff who are very skilled in what they do.” says Allison. “It’s important for farmers to have the work delivered on time and at the right cost, and this is something we pride ourselves on.”

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

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Supplements made easy in molasses Sue Russell Molasses importer and supplier Winton Stock Feed Ltd has developed an ingenious way of adding mineral supplements to molasses The system mixes by using vigorous air agitation, then holds it in suspension by using a low rate of agitation while the mix is fed out in liquid feed during milking. The supplements include nonwater soluble products such as magnesium oxide and lime flour. Operations manager Paul Jackson says the Conedose hopper is capable of blending up to one tonne of liquid feed at a time, and presents farmers with several advantages. “Cows need quite a lot of minerals in their diet every day. When these are spread on the pasture, up to 50% of their value is lost. Some of them also taste awful. “So, to have the ability to blend the minerals into molasses and feed them in this way makes for a much more palatable experience. The system also gives farmers the flexibility to adjust quantities of supplements daily.” He says the system was devised two years ago to replace pasture dusting, where application is time consuming and so hit-and-miss that much of the product is wasted. Farmers using the Conedose have not only parked up the dusting spreader, but have also turned off water-dosing systems and are putting all their minerals into the herd. The Conedose design was tweaked last year to enhance its user-friendly capacities, says Jackson. Refinements have turned the blending process into a job of only a few minutes. Takaka dairy farmer, Wayne Langford, who runs 850 jersey cows on 250 hectares, was advised to

see what the Conedose could do for him. He hasn’t been disappointed. “This is a goldmine for us. We’re saving on the cost of spreading minerals and on time – what took an hour, plus the cost of the spreader, is now done in 15 minutes in the shed. We won’t be doing any spreading on the farm next season. In terms of service and setting it up, it has been great. The company even gave us a back-up pump because of our isolated situation.” Conedose is available only by a $1200 annual lease. Installation is free, and for every tonne of molasses bought from Winton Stock Feed, $10 is taken off the lease. Jackson says the company is so confident of the product it has no contracts or commitments; farmers are free to get their liquid feed from other suppliers. Winton Stock Feed has been importing molasses since 2003 and, early on, began importing in container form rather than in bulk. Using containers to transport the molasses makes sense for servicing the country’s dairying regions, says Jackson. “We began by importing molasses from Fiji, using flexible liners inside containers. This allowed us to bring smaller amounts more often into any container port. We can buy the product at much better rates from smaller sugar mills that have trouble filling a ship tanker-load from a number of markets.” Winton Stock Feed now also imports molasses from Mauritius, Thailand and the Philippines. “The more markets we can access the better security of supply and shipping options, and the better we can broker adds to savings we get on the cost of landing the product,” says Jackson. “With seven distribution depots we’re able to pass on cost savings and supply capability directly to farmers.”

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Hereford connection proves

A line of hereford steers set for the Hereford Prime programme. All Hereford Prime cattle are solely grass-fed, and must be at least 50% hereford.

Sue Russell Invercargill-based Bowmont Wholesale Meats Ltd may be a relatively small player in New Zealand’s meat-processing and distribution industry, but the company’s Hereford Prime beef specialisation rates it as far more influential than its size might suggest.

The hereford connection, which represented a significant shift in the company’s business, goes back to the early 1990s when John Flynn (a son of Jack Flynn, who started the business selling meat from his van at Tisbury, in Southland, in the 1930s) got together with the late Don Goodall (a hereford breeder), Graham Hawks (from Flannagans Restaurant) and Laurie Paterson (the then president

of the New Zealand Hereford Association) to create the brand known as Hereford Prime. Stephen Flynn, another of John’s sons now involved in what is still a family-owned and -operated business, sees a number of reasons why Hereford Prime is unrivalled for quality. He says they begin with stringent and rigorous assessment of carcase characteristics. “Carcasses are stringently assessed 24 hours after slaughter for characteristics such as marbling, pH levels, meat and fat colour and ribeye size. Grades apply in each of these areas and all the quality boxes must be ticked before a carcase qualifies for the Hereford Prime branded beef programme.”

Grading inspections are done by trained staff approved by the Hereford Prime board of directors. After 21 days of ageing, which helps give consistent flavour and tenderness through all the cuts, the carcasses are processed by Bowmont in Invercargill. The company’s supply of prime beef is sourced by local stock agent Robin Gamble from Southland and Otago. The cattle are solely grass-fed, which, says Flynn, produces healthier beef, high in omega fats and free from growth promotant. To be eligible for the Hereford Prime brand, cattle must be a purebred hereford or hereford british breed first cross. This guarantees that every carcase is a minimum 50% hereford.

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

a coup He says herefords are recognised as being extremely efficient at converting pasture into beef – which means farmers can carry more cattle and make more profit. Hereford cattle are also renowned for their quiet temperament, says Flynn. “Because of this, they spend their energy quietly grazing fresh lush pastures, converting grass to beef that is tender and tasty. A relaxed animal also means pH levels stay low.” Restaurants, supermarkets, hotels and resthomes through Southland, Otago and Canterbury are supplied by Bowmont; the company also has customers as far north as Auckland. “Providing a consistent beef product is important to us – it’s area we pride ourselves on”, says Flynn. The company processes all its own small goods, hams, bacon and cooked meats. While Hereford Prime is the principal meat processed, lamb and pork are also on the menu. The Hereford Prime brand is governed by a board of directors on a voluntary basis. In a strategy to safeguard the brand’s status in the industry, the board chooses to work only with family-owned and -operated businesses.

Above: Hereford Prime carcasses hanging on the bone at Bowmont Wholesale Meats. Carcasses are assessed 24 hours after slaughter for characteristics such as marbling, pH levels, meat and fat colour and ribeye size, then aged for 21 days before being processed. Left: A Hereford Prime eye fillet seared in a frying pan before being roasted in a pizza oven.

Contractor gets his head ‘more in the future’ Sue Russell The decision five years ago to “spread the umbrella wider” and diversify his contracting business between cultivation and excavation work has given Dunsandel-based contractor Chris Swanson the surety of work all year round. He set up his own operation, Chris Swanson Contracting, seven years ago, initially concentrating on cultivation work in the Leeston area, south of Christchurch. Two years later, in what would prove a strategically sound move, he made the decision to spread his operation and skill-set to include excavation work – and it has created a good flow of work in and out through the year. “The cultivation side ticks over 12 months of the year, though it’s quieter in the winter months,” he says. “Having the excavation work fits in well

because I can move staff around. They all have their own expertise, but I’ve got the flexibility to fill the gaps as needed.” A year ago – with the business growing steadily by word of mouth recommendations – he shifted his attention more fully to managing the various arms of the business. While he enjoys opportunities to get ‘hands-on’ on the machinery, he says his head has to be more in the future these days if he is to do justice to the business and its six full-time and one part-time staff. “I drive all the gear, but mostly I’m doing the paperwork, running around, filling the gaps when needed, and concentrating on looking at jobs.” Swanson has discovered that quoting jobs demands different skills from doing them. The ability to convert an understanding of ground conditions into an accurate assessment of the time taken to complete the job and tailor a quote with a competitive

edge is something comes only through practice and time, he says. Harder by far is getting the right staff with the right combination of skills and aptitudes. “You can be a skilled operator on the machinery, with high standards about the quality of your work, but to assess the aptitudes of potential staff is a whole other thing. I expect and get a high quality of job from my guys.” That’s something that has helped the firm secure the work of carting out rubbish from three residential sections in Christchurch’s red-zone. The company had to get accreditation to do the job and he expects it will take about two months to complete the work. When he’s not dealing with the demands of

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cultivating and excavating work, Swanson and his partner, Brooke, are kept busy raising two children, four-year-old Blake and six-month-old Kadie, on 15 hectares that they dairy graze. They also lease eight hectares over the road which he says keeps them busy when things are slower in the winter. “The grazing side keeps me and one other guy busy at a time when there can often be less work around. It’s also good to be hands-on with the stock as a separate interest from working on the machinery. It gives a balance to the annual cycle of work for me.”

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013

PHOTOS This page – Left: Lovett Contracting owns two top-of-the-line MacDon windrowers and leases a third. Below: The dairy-effluent tanker is the only one operating in MidCanterbury. Bottom: Hybrid rape harvesting. Facing page – Upper: Grass-seed harvesting. Lower: Work in an effluent pond.

Specialised services exceed expectations Sue Russell Ashburton-based agricultural contractor Matt Lovett always had it at the back of his mind to one day steer his own ship and run his own business. He has achieved that over the last five years – and established two specialities within his Matt Lovett Contracting business. One of these is windrowing; the other is the purchase of a 24,000-litre, dairy-effluent tanker – the only one operating in Mid-Canterbury. His decision in 2011 to diversify and buy the

purpose-built effluent tanker has proved a smart strategic move. “We’re really busy with our core specialty, windrowing, from December through to March/ April. Having the tanker means we’ve got another string to our bow and can work all year. “If we were going to get into the effluent business, we needed a point of difference. The tanker is this, with its capacity to remove large volumes of effluent in cost-efficient time-frames for farmers.” There’s obviously a demand for the tanker service. Matt and Hilary Lovet, who run the

business, set a goal of breaking in their first year with the tanker. It out-performed this aim – which didn’t surprise Matt Lovett. “We can take the tanker Canterbury-wide at short notice. We’ve got as much as a million litres of effluent out in a day’s work; we’ve done this six or seven times so far. It’s very satisfying deliver this capacity to our clients.” The Lovetts have recently acquired an 18-metrelong dribble bar, for “tidying up” as Matt puts it, the look of spreading effluent. The boom has hoses every 30 centimetres, which deliver effluent directly down on to the paddock. They thought about an effluent injector instead, but doubted it would work on the sort of terrain the tanker spreads on. The business owns two top-of-the-line MacDon

windrowers, made in Canada, and leases a third. It’s a competitive industry and, at the peak of the season, the machines are working day and night. When things get busy, Hilary drives one of the windrowers. Matt has come to appreciate that word of mouth is by far his most effective advertising, so

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Seed industry could lose its grassroots Sue Russell As a lad of 17, Peter Stevens got his first experience of shouldering responsibility when the Canterbury Seed Company took him on, visiting farmers in the district. They must have seen potential in him, given that the list of 30 applicants was whittled down to just three, and he was offered the job. “I had a Mk 1 Cortina then,” he says. “Thought myself pretty fancy in it. “I remember one time visiting a farm where three brothers all farmed together. They gave me a really hard time, and when I talked to Dad about it, he said I had to go back and sort it out. Said they were having me on, testing me to see what I was made of. “So I did and, you guessed it, over time they became our best customers.” At Riccarton High School, in Christchurch, the self-declared “square peg in a round hole” kid wanted to get into the seed industry. Coming from a farming background – Dad owned a mixed cropping and sheep stud farm at Highbank, near Methven – it was only a question of time before he was on that road. Nowadays, Stevens Seeds Ltd operates from his home, a block of land at West Melton where he runs stock. The company is one of only two large privately owned ones still operating in New Zealand’s seed and grain industry. The great thing about working in this industry is that no two days are the same, he says. All those years ago when he first got involved, it was clear that longevity and success depended on being

able to shoulder responsibility well. Since 1994 Stevens has also been a licensed seed exporter inspector. He thinks the benchmarks that Australia’s quarantine and inspection service sets for exporters from New Zealand are too tough, a little like the situation we have with exporting Peter Stevens: concerns apples. for future of industry. “I have a friend who’s involved in imports in Australia and he has helped at times to steer the process through. Australia’s my biggest export market, so it’s important I get things right.” The company offers a proprietory cultivars for seed production for the local market and for export. These include; Boxmore, a tetraploid hybrid ryegrass; Grazmore, a tetraploid perennial ryegrass; Gromore, a tetraploid italian ryegrass which is very quick establishing and quick maturing; and Leafmore, a semi-erect, multi-stemmed plant with large dark green leaves. The company also specialises in mixing seed to meet the specific geographical and climatic situations of individual farms, and imports varieties for multiplication here to be re-exported to plant breeders in the northern hemisphere.

It’s not just a matter of having a degree. It’s about ability at the grassroots, something I got from hands-on because I started out fresh from school, worked my way from office junior, and learnt at every step of the journey. These are things that can’t be understood theoretically.

Stevens has some worries for the future of the seed and grain industry in New Zealand, especially around how succession to a new breed of seedand-grain practitioner will eventuate. “It is not just a matter of having a degree. It’s about ability at the grassroots, something I got hands-on because I started out fresh from school. I worked my way up from office junior and learnt at every step of the journey. These are things that can’t be understood theoretically.” Pride of place among his equipment is the Model KM 1952 Bedford, bought new by his father when Stevens was 3½ years old. It has been in the family since and he has restored it to its former glory. “When Dad sold up in 1964 it stayed on the farm, but when it came into my ownership in 2002, I spent 12 months restoring it. It has even got a bullet hole in the door from way back, which I decided to leave as part of the history.” Bill Richardson who owns a truck museum in Invercargill, was interested in acquiring the truck to put on show. But Peter Stevens wasn’t having a bar it. “It’s meant to be a working vehicle and I’m just pleased that, after all these years and with its connection with Dad, I’m still using it for the business.”

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Effluent looms as ‘huge issue’ • From page 38 concentrates on the quality of work and his ability to react, often at short notice, to client requests. “The effluent work will grow in response to changes in compliance as the dairying industry in Canterbury continues to evolve,” he says. “As more cow houses are built on farms, managing effluent disposal becomes a huge issue.” Beyond developing the business and the many hours it needs to nurture long-term plans, Matt Lovett still finds time to pursue another passion – clay target shooting.

He has been shooting for 21 years, starting as a 13-year-old high school student, and is among the sports national elite having represented New Zealand several times. He was in the New Zealand team that competed in the world champs in Wales last year. Ashburton is a “farmers’ town”, and the Lovetts’ patch of land is a lifestyle block north-east of the town where, along with six-year-old Emily and five-year-old Lachlan, they enjoy being part of a tightly-knit community. “We plan to stay put. This is a good place to be,” says Matt Lovett.

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Business Rural / Autumn 2013 PHOTOS (left, below, bottom facing page): Mary Ann Kane says the family is particularly excited about the quality of the stock on their 2013 sale schedule on May 28. “I believe this is the best we’ve offered for a long time.’ The sale will include: 10 rising-two-year registered Blue Mountain Angus bulls; 20 rising two-year Westholm Polled Hereford bulls; five rising two-year registered KL1 Hereford bulls. Bruce Robertson (Duncraigen) has also been invited to sell five polled hereford bulls from his herd.

Three studs breed ‘fair bit’ of competition People often think we live in an easy climate, but we can be severely challenged by the weather and feed

Jo Bailey When you have three cattle studs on one farm, run by three different family members, there’s always room for some friendly rivalry, says Mary Anne Kane. “When our son, Peter, was in his last year at school, he made an aluminium trophy for the heaviest bull calf each year – so, yes, there is a fair bit of competition.” The Kanes’ farm, Westholm, is a sizeable

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operation at Tapanui that has been in the Kane family since 1929. Her “baby” is the Blue Mountain Angus Stud that she and her husband, Robert, established in 1998 after buying an angus heifer at the Black Magic sale and some pregnant recipients from Neil Sanderson’s Fossil Creek herd. Robert runs the Westholm Polled Hereford Stud that was founded by his father, Murray, in 1964. Peter Kane, the youngest of the couple’s three sons, is developing the KL1 Hereford Stud that he established in 2008 with four hereford cows, and a heifer and bull calf from the Leader dispersal. Mary Anne Kane says the family is looking forward to the annual bull sale on May 28; it usually attracts around 80 people. Ten rising-two-year registered Blue Mountain Angus bulls, 20 rising two-year Westholm Polled Hereford bulls, and five rising two-year registered KL1 Hereford bulls will be on the sale schedule. They have also invited Bruce Robertson to sell five polled hereford bulls from his Duncraigen herd for “added interest”. Mary Anne says they are particularly excited about the quality of this year’s stock: “I believe this is the best line we’ve offered for a long time.

“One of our hereford bulls is entered in the South Island division of the Hereford Super Sires and we’re hoping he’ll make Beef Expo. I won the angus junior yearling bull at the Canterbury A & P Show – I will put him up for sale, but hope to be able to have him here for the optional tour of our farm during the World Angus Forum.” The Blue Mountain Angus stud usually has 40 to 50 calves hitting the ground each year. “We aim to take 10 bulls through to each autumn sale at 20 months, and supply a few bulls into the dairy industry as well,” she says. The Kanes aim for easy-going, sound and quiet animals. “I do all the calving, and weighing and tagging at birth, and, believe me, a cow chases me only once. Angus cattle are inclined to get upset easily, so, if they show any signs of being uncooperative, they are gone immediately.” Hardiness is another attribute of Blue Mountain stock, she says. “People often think we live in an easy climate, but we can be severely challenged here by the weather and feed.

• To page 41

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Time arrives for succession Jo Bailey Colin Gibson won’t pick a stand-out animal from the line-up of around 30 hereford bulls he and wife Lynne will present at their annual Seadowns Stud sale on May 27. “I like people to see the animals for themselves and make their own minds up,” he says. He does concede that some of the sons of the stud’s successful Seadowns Top Gun 0547 “have bred well – but that’s only my opinion”. He says the bulls are of similar quality to previous sales. After a cold, wet winter, they were a lot lighter than usual in spring, but have come right and are in good order. He says buyers can expect to see solid, medium-sized bulls with “good meat in the back end”, excellent temperament and, it is hoped, ability to sire good milk-producers. “But rather than talk them up too much, we just prefer people to come and have a look.” Around 20 hectares of the Gibson’s 300ha of rolling to steep hill country farm, 10 minutes northwest of Oamaru, is irrigated, he says – “handy” when it gets dry. “Having the irrigated ground means we can have the bulls looking well each year.” The Gibsons bought the farm in 1979 and established Seadowns Stud in 1994. “I used to buy in a few fattening cattle and always liked the hereford temperament,” says Colin. “Eventually we decided to have a go at breeding them ourselves.” They started their stud herd with females bought

Lynne and Colin Gibson... rather than talk up their bulls up too much, they prefer buyers to come, have a look, and make up their own minds.

from Bushy Downs, and added females from Maryvale, Broadacre and Waihau. They bought polled cows from the 2001 Norfolk dispersal, then added stock from the 2006 Kiwi dispersal and cows from the 2009 Leelands and Braxton dispersals. In addition to their 130 hereford breeding cows,

Having around 20 hectares of the farm irrigated is handy when it gets dry. The irrigated ground means we can have the bulls looking well each year.

From page 40 “If it’s a wet winter or a cold, miserable spring, we can lose up to half our feed under six inches of mud. We also have a high stocking rate, so the animals have to be tough.” The original Westholm farm was bought by Robert’s grandparents, David and Nellie Kane, and the family has acquired two neighbouring properties, Burnfoot and Pomahaka. The three are now run as one enterprise.

Robert Kane’s parents, Murray and Joyce, farmed the property before him; they are now retired and live on the farm. Robert and Mary Anne’s eldest son, Andrew, runs his own business in Christchurch, and middle son Luke manages Westholm’s 600-cow dairy unit – the result of a 2010 conversion of the original home farm. The remainder of the property is taken up with dairy support, the Kanes’ cattle business, and 2000 head of sheep.

the Gibsons run a dorset down stud sheep flock of around 70 ewes, and a commercial flock of around 1000 mainly romney and romdale ewes. “We had 2500 ewes until about three years ago when we sold part of the farm to a neighbour to use as a dairy run-off,” says Colin. “We had hoped to buy a run-off block in the hills, but didn’t find one, so dropped stock numbers instead.” He and Lynne have also just wound up the homestay business they ran “on and off” on the property for over 25 years. They have recently set up a family company with son Scott and his wife, Nicky, who are now assisting in all aspects of the farming business. “We’re getting a bit older now, so it was time to get Scotty involved and start thinking about farm succession.” Before buying the farm in the late 1970s, Colin was a shearer in New Zealand and overseas. It’s still a passion, and he’s regularly called on as a shearing judge and referee for competitions and world record attempts. He was a highly-regarded shearing instructor for 36 years until he hung up his handpiece and moccasins four years ago. “I thoroughly enjoyed instructing, which included a four-and-a-half-month stint teaching in the United States. I worked with a lot of nice young people over the years.”

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

‘Real quality herd’ spin-off Jo Bailey Their move into dairying has resulted in a smaller charolais stud operation for Southland breeders Bryce and Karen McKenzie. Five years ago they set up a family company with their sons, Warrack and Jared, and converted their home farm at Pomahaka, near Gore, into a 200-hectare (effective) dairy unit, milking 520 cows. Breeding-cow numbers in the McKenzies’ charolais stud have since dropped to 40 and, for the second year, they will sell around 10 bulls privately rather than hold an annual on-farm sale. “It’s mainly regular clients who buy off us now,” says Bryce McKenzie, a former president of the New Zealand Charolais Cattle Society. However, the smaller number of stud animals allows him to keep a “real quality herd”, he says. “We focus on calving ease and maximising growth rates. For convenience sake, we tend not to do AI now, but bought a bull from Drew and Carolyn Dundass, at Taiaroa Charolais, and we’re very pleased with the results from him.” Bryce McKenzie has been involved with the breed for around 45 years since he, his father, Warrack, and his brother, Jim, established the McKenzie Downs Polled Charolais stud. Jim had worked with charolais in the United Kingdom and convinced them to start breeding these cattle. The first season following the dairy conversion was a “steep learning curve” for the family, but things have settled down and are “going well”, says Bryce McKenzie. “We were lucky that our son-in-law, Paul Butson, managed the dairy unit for the first six months. He has been involved with dairy farming his whole life, so it made the transition a lot easier for us.” The McKenzies continue to milk a 520-cow

herd and have enjoyed good production gains each season thanks to more streamlined management systems and improved pasture quality. “We’re on track to do 440 kilograms of milksolids per cow this year after doing 405kg/cow last season. It’s a big leap.” The McKenzies run a mainly medium-sizedcrossbred dairy herd on a farm that is prone to wet winters and not suited to heavier animals. They have leased a 136ha block next to the home farm for several years, which they use as a run-off. “We try to keep the dairy unit self sufficient, except for grazing heifers off, and run a reasonably

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low-input system, apart from grain, palm kernel and molasses fed in-shed as needed.” The property has a fully automated 54 bail rotary shed with automatic wash, cup removers and Protrack system. One staff member assists Warrack and Jared McKenzie with the milking. “Although I’ve pulled back from the farm work, I’m certainly not retired,” says Bryce. “I help out when needed, doing tractor work and things like that.” Three years ago he took on an off-farm role, as an independent contractor for Southern Soil Solutions, selling solid and liquid fertilisers to farmers between the Clutha and Mataura rivers.

“The job gets me out meeting people and seeing some different countryside. I really enjoy it and am able to fit it in around the farm work, which is ideal.”

PHOTOS Bryce McKenzie, who has a 45-year involvement with charolais cattle, continues to breed them even though the family business is now concentrated on dairying. The stud has a much smaller number of animals than it used to, but he says this has allowed him to keep a ‘real quality herd’.

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

PHOTOS When Drew and Carolyn Dundass say their Glen Ayr stud charolais don’t have it easy, they’re not joking. They say having to work hard and forage for food on the hills in hard winters and snow (see photos) produces hardy bulls that shift well. Left: The cows head to a new paddock. Below: Sale bulls in an early (May) snowfall.

‘Huge margins’ for beef breeds Jo Bailey Charolais breeders Carolyn and Drew Dundass believe there are “huge margins” to be gained by choosing beef breeds over dairy bulls when fattening them to maturity. “Although the initial outlay is a bit more, you get the turnover much faster, as beef steers mature in 18 months compared with 24 to 30 months for dairy-beef bulls,” says Drew Dundass. “This means you can get through twice as many cattle in a three-year period, and save the cost of wintering them twice.”. The beef steers also come with the benefit of being easier to handle, he says. “Dairy bulls tend to wreck fences and dig holes, whereas the beef steers are generally more settled and content.” He and Carolyn farm the homestead block of Glen Ayr – a 1600-hectare, mostly hill-country property at Paerau, in the Maniototo – where they run Taiaroa Charolais Stud, which was founded by Carolyn’s father, Tom Aitken, in the late 1960s. Also under the Glen Ayr operation is a 940ha property further down the Maniototo Plain; it is run by Carolyn’s sister and brother-in-law, Dawn and David Sangster. The Dundasses, who will present 20-25 charolais bulls at their annual on-farm sale on May

20, say stock are “looking good” despite a tough spring. “There was no growth here early on and it was very cold,” says Carolyn. “However, the weather turned at the right time and we had a great clover crop that seemed to hang on. The stock also like the heat and have picked up well.” The couple aim for “big muscled, solid, strong and structurally sound animals”, with good feet and a quiet temperament. “We also use polled genetics as it saves dehorning. There seems to be a myth around polled cattle not being as hardy. We don’t agree with that at all.” The couple say their stock are “made to work hard” by the property’s challenging nature and climate. The Glen Ayr homestead is about 550 metres above sea level, with the charolais stud breeding cows and rising-three-years wintered around 920 metres above sea level on a block that hasn’t been grazed the rest of the year. “They go up in April after weaning and stay there up until August when they are due to calve,” says Carolyn. “The stock don’t get any hay until they come back down to the paddocks. They have to forage for their food, but they don’t seem to mind.” The couple purposefully produces large cattle with enough condition to handle the regime. “Because of their harder winter, our bulls may

not be as heavy as some bulls in Canterbury. But when they move from here, we feel they’ll shift well, which is a huge advantage.” The couple are also “very pleased” with the 2600 texel-cross ewes they run on the property. “Our growth rate and yields are up there, but we’re trialling some texel romney and texel coopworth rams to try and increase our lambing percentage,” says Drew. Carolyn says Glen Ayr produces some “tasty texels”. Its first entrant in section 3 of the Glammies awards reaching the finals. Dawn and David Sangster also made the final in another section.

Both Carolyn and Drew are members of the New Zealand Charolais Cattle Society, with Drew elected as one of three South Island councillors in 2011. The breed was established in New Zealand more than 45 years ago when semen was imported from the United Kingdom the society’s first president, J.M.Sutherland, from Waimate. The Dundasses say they remain huge fans of the charolais breed and think it has an important role to play in the New Zealand cattle industry: “It is a great breed to use over other cattle for increased growth and yield, and charolais-cross calves continue to sell extremely favourably at the weaner sales.”

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

PHOTOS – Left: Young angus bulls on the move. Right: Dougal and Gay Stringer say they get a lot satisfaction from knowing their stock perform for clients.

Southerners hard to beat Jo Bailey They may be a little biased, but angus breeders Dougal and Gay Stringer reckon Southland-bred beef bulls are top value. “They’re right up there in terms of quality, structure and size, but, on average, are a couple of thousand dollars cheaper than you pay further north,” says Gay Stringer. “At our 2011 sale Kowai Angus bulls averaged $3900, making them very good value.” The Stringers would like to see a few more northerners swell buyer numbers at their annual bull sale on May 24. They usually get a gallery of around 100, many of them regular clients for up to 18 years. “When selecting bulls for sale, we consider attributes such as the dam’s performance, carcass quality, deep bodies with plenty of volume, sound 459 Clinker Road, Wendon Valley, 3 RD Gore 9773 P: 64 3 207 2895 F: 64 3 201 2895

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structure and good temperament,” says Gay. “Some animals will be nominated as suitable for heifer mating.” Of the 100-plus bulls born each year at Kowai Angus, around 50 are retained for selection for the stud’s beef clients. A “lot of whittling” takes place to determine the final 30 bulls for the catalogue – a process that continues right up to the sale date: “We are very fussy about the quality of the animals we put forward.” One that has made the cut early for this year is a rising two-year son of American bull GAR Ultimate. He’s right up there in terms of carcass quality, says Gay. “The scanner got quite excited by this bull, because he has an exceptional intra-muscular fat reading combined with a large eye muscle area, something that is normally in conflict. We expect there to be a lot of interest in him.” She says they get a lot of satisfaction from knowing their stock perform for clients. “One long-term client whose herd is closely aligned to ours has people lining up to buy his in-calf heifers and steers. We have several clients top local calf sales in autumn. We have just bought back a bull we sold as a yearling. An easy-doing sire, his first crop of calves averaged more than 300kg hung up at 17 months.” “We just concentrate on the doing the basics well and making sure the animals that end up in

the sale ring have the attributes needed by the industry.” The Stringers have run the Kowai Angus stud at Clinker Hill – a 267.9-hectare rolling to steep hill country farm in the Wendon Valley of Eastern Southland – since 1994. The stud was established by Dougal’s father, Colin Stringer, in 1961. The first cut of Kowai Angus bulls is made as yearlings when animals are selected for use as dairy sires or for mating over yearling beef heifers. The Stringers use a mix of home-bred sires, one or two outside herd sires, and up to three AI sires at a time. “We’ve used American sires for more than 20 years and have had more success with them than the Australian sires we’ve tried.” Rather than focusing on a single trait, the Stringers’ focus is more rounded – aiming for a sire whose progeny can be finished before the second winter, and moderate framed cows that will rear a calf every year from two years. Although the Breedplan-recorded Kowai Angus stud herd is the Stringer’s “main passion and focus”, they also run a dairy support operation, wintering around 1200 stock units on a nearby 120-hectare property they bought in 2007. This year they have also planted 20ha of feed barley on contract. On the home block the females are wintered,

19th Annual Sale Friday 24th May 2013 2.30pm

Undercover on farm, Wendon Valley, Gore

• To page 45

Back on the block: Dougal and Gay Stringer sold this bull as a yearling and have just bought him back. He’s an easy-doing sire and his first crop of calves averaged more than 300kg hung up at 17 months.

Mark Cuttance

Gore Livestock Manager 0274 424 742

24 R2 Bulls R2 in calf heifers Featuring sires GAR Iltimate; Stevenson Cattleman; Fossil Creek Update 103 and others.

Contact Dougal & Gay Stringer 03 207 2895, or any stock ﬁrm.

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

Yield grading seen as big for limousins Karen Phelps If yield grading comes to the New Zealand market, the limousin breed will experience a rise in popularity, breeder Rob Johnstone predicts. “The meat companies are currently looking at yield grading, which will recognise higher yielding animals that produce more meat,” he says. “When this happens and payments increase for higher yielding cattle, limousins will come into their own in New Zealand.” His predictions would certainly follow on the tails of what has happened in the United Kingdom where Johnstone says 31% of animals going to the meat works for beef have been sired by limousins. The Johnstones, who operate Glencairn Limousin stud from their 700-hectare farm near

In the United Kingdom 31% of animals going to the meat works for beef have been sired by limousins.

Outram, have been successful in breeding exactly the kinds of animals that are doing well in the UK. They dominated against 31 other entries at the 2012 Alan Dodd Trophy competition. They won the overall trophy, They swept the intermediate export sections, with their limousin heifer entries first, second and third in both the hoof and hook judging. They produced both the champion and reserve champion carcasses. Rob Johnstone says they won because the limousin produces a more muscular animal, and he has been breeding them for more than 25 years. “This has been brought out all around the world at beef-carcass competitions. The animals we entered in the competition were commercial and cull animals. Glencairn limousins are grass fed. The Johnstones do a lot of AI on the herd, sourcing genetics predominantly from France, and North American polled genetics. Johnstone says he is trying to increase the number of polled animals in the herd to meet customer demand. “More people buying our bulls are asking for polled. They are easier to manage as they do not need to be de-horned.” The Johnstones say they are also very conscious of temperament when breeding, use this as one of their selection criteria. The first limousin lines that came to New Zealand in the early 1970s were not renowned for

PHOTOS – Young limousin bulls (above) and a more mature bull (lower left) on the ground at Rob and Jean Johnstone’s Glencairn Stud at Outram. their good temperament, and Johnstone thinks this has scarred the breed’s reputation here. But a recent analysis of 48,435 docility scores for Australian and New Zealand-bred limousin cattle has shown the breed is making excellent progress for this trait, says Johnstone. The figures show that the average docility estimated breeding value 2012born calves was +28.3, compared with +2.9 for calves born in 2000 and -1.7 for calves born in 1990. The average docility EBV for cows has

increased from +0.4 in 2000 to +20.1 in 2012. The Glencairn stud has 70 registered limousin cows and 30 non-registered limousin and hereford/ friesian cows. Eight to 13 bulls are sold privately each year. Two to three of these are destined for the South Island Limousin Bull Trial and will then be put up for auction. Bulls are available for purchase from May. The Johnstones also run 3400 Wairere Romney ewes and 1000 ewe hoggets.

Exceptional Farm Performance is all about a Team Approach We are pleased to be part of the team working with Rob Johnstone At Harvie Green Wyatt we work with our clients to assist them to build and achieve a better business. Talk to one of our Rural Advisors. Contact: Doug Harvie, Craig Wyatt, Todd Miller, Brett Challis and Robyn Friedrich

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Stock skills passed on to sons • From page 44 according to age, on one of three self-feeding silage pads from June until mid-August for the early calvers, and September for the others, whilst the bulls are behind a wire on crop. Gay says Dougal’s stock skills and eye for quality play a big part in the stud’s success. “He was taught basic skills by his father which were reinforced at Young Farmers stock-judging

competitions. He learned that good structure of stock is essentially the same no matter whether the animal is a beef or dairy cow, sheep or pig.” These skills have been passed onto the couple’s sons – Joe, who helps on the farm as well as running a wireless internet business, Yrless Ltd; and Andrew who has just started as an agent for CRT in Canterbury. “We hope they will continue on with the stud after us,” says Gay.

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

PHOTOS Right: Angus cows and calves on typical Taimate country. Paul Hickman says Taimate Angus uses New Zealand sires for breeding, with just limited use of overseas bloodlines. This result is a traditional angus bull - deep, thickset and well-muscled. Facing page: This view of the Taimate homestead captures its mix of north-east Marlborough farmland – 25% flat, 20% medium rolling, and the balance hill country. Annual rainfall is 500 millilitres.

for all enquires contact KRIS ORANGE P. 0800 163 013 E. kris@downlandsdeer.co.nz

Taimate backs bulls Karen Phelps Taimate Angus is so certain of the quality of the bulls it produces it is offering a guarantee to customers: “The entry of any bull in the Taimate Angus catalogue constitutes a full three-year guarantee of fertility, structural soundness, penial problems, temperament and anything that affects the bulls ability to breed,” says Paul Hickman, one of the owners of the stud. “The purchaser will be refunded should the bull prove unable to meet these rigorously high, Taimate standards.” He believes this offer is unique in the New Zealand market, but feels confident in making it after 57 years of breeding pedigree stock on the extremely dry coastal property in Marlborough.

The family farm, which has been run by the Hickmans for more than 100 years, is owned by Paul and his wife, Nadine, in partnership with his parents, Ossie and Mary, and Paul’s brother, John, and his wife, Andrea. Paul Hickman is responsible for the day-to-day management of the farm, and John Hickman is predominantly in charge of the farm’s 20 hectares of sauvignon blanc grapes, half of them grown on contract for Brancott Estate Wines. The 600ha farm is on the east coast of Marlborough, in the north-east of the South Island running along State Highway 1, five kilometres north of Ward, 40km south of Blenheim. The land is 25% flat, 20% medium rolling, and the balance is hill country. Annual rainfall is a meagre 500 millilitres. The farm’s angus stud winters around 700 cattle, including 220 calving females. The Hickmans run around 250 weaner calves through the winter

We produce a bull that shifts well...Our bulls are raised without irrigation in one of New Zealand’s driest climates. They are run on hill country for three-quarters of their lives to sale day.

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BEEF BREEDING

Business Rural / Autumn 2013

PHOTOS – Above: Evert Strauss, with a simmental friend. Below: Leafland Simmental cows and calves.

“Not really a hobby any more’ • From page 48 and frequently have had to get a helicopter in at mustering time to find some of them.” With working in the city, he says winter calving can be a challenge. “Last year I fed out around 500 big bales by myself before and after work, and personally tagged and weighed every calf. “At times I’ll get someone in to give me a hand and I regularly use contractors for things like

cultivation, balage, fencing, and maintenance or building work.” He also breeds, sells and races thoroughbreds “with a little bit of success”: “It’s just a sideline really, but I enjoy it as much as the cattle breeding.” With 250-300 cattle wintered on the farm including rising one-year and rising two-year progeny, plus 20 horses; he says the farm “isn’t really a hobby any more”. “But I really enjoy it, and wouldn’t carry on if I didn’t.”

to do the job and 60 two-year-old bulls are offered for sale each year. Paul Hickman is a firm believer in breeding bulls on the country for which they are intended. “A bugbear of mine is that a lot of studs breed their angus cattle on what is essentially dairy country – flat, irrigated land. But what a commercial client needs is an animal that can run hills and fight for its meal. “Our bulls are raised without irrigation in one of New Zealand’s driest climates. They are run on hill country for three-quarters of their lives to sale day. “They are able to handle climatic conditions throughout the country, and are still able to perform and hold their condition. We produce a bull that shifts well – that’s why our cattle have been so successful.. He says Taimate Angus uses New Zealand sires for breeding, with just limited use of overseas bloodlines. This enables the stud to produce a traditional angus bull - deep, thickset and wellmuscled. The bulls have human contact from an early age, resulting in an excellent temperament, says Hickman. The farm also has romney and coopworth studs with 1000 sheep. About 120 rams are sold each year in private sales. Hickman says the aim is to breed a traditional sheep – big boned and well framed – that has high fertility, is high yielding

and scans 185%. The stud is currently producing fast-growth sheep –170% weaning lambs to ewes mated with an average close to 500 grams per day of growth. This year hogget lambs were chilled at an average age of only eight weeks and killed out at 17.5 kilograms. Taimate guarantees sheep sold by the stud for a minimum of two years. “We haven’t had a client come back to us yet” says Hickman, “If your breeding and fertility are correct, there should be no issue.” Right now the Hickmans are concentrating on increasing Taimate’s soil fertility and pasture quality; the farm’s old, native grass species have not been replaced for decades. Most paddocks currently have an Olsen P level below 10. Their main thrust in slowly improving pastures is growing lucerne seed on contract. Around 10% of the farm is presently sown in lucerne and the Hickmans are looking to increase this to 20-25% with a further increase in lucerne mix (lucern and other grass species). Because lucerne is a nitrogen fixer, Paul Hickman hopes this will also result in an increase in soil fertility. The plan is to spread 40 tonnes of superphosphate a year. Taimate Angus will offer 45 rising-two-year bulls at its annual bull sale – on the farm on June 17. Details avaliable: www.taimateangusbullbreeders. co.nz.

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Evert Strauss has been mixing his work as an anaesthetist with breeding simmental cattle for nearly 20 years. While he concedes it has grown to the point where it ‘isn’t really a hobby any more”, he says he really enjoys it – ‘I wouldn’t carry on if I didn’t.’

Simmental ‘golf’ therapy Jo Bailey Otago anaesthetist Everd Strauss says breeding simmental cattle is his “golf” – “I love it, it’s my relaxation.” He established Leafland Simmental stud after he, wife Marie and their family arrived in New Zealand from South Africa in 1993. He is now running around 100 simmental breeding cows. The couple own a 260-hectare property, 16km from Dunedin – where Everd works full-time as an anaesthetist at the public and private hospitals, and Marie, a fashion designer, runs the Dada boutique and shows regularly at Dunedin Fashion Week. Everd Strauss also leases an adjacent forestry block, which is a similar size to the farm. Both properties are mainly steep hilltop country, with a few flats where the bulls are fattened and prepared for the stud’s annual on-farm sale. This year it’s May 22 to coincide with the Southern South Island Simmental Bull Sale Week. Buyers can expect moderate-framed, structurally correct bulls bred with high retail beef yield, softness, and high intra-muscular fat, he says. “I aim for short-gestation, low-birthweight bulls for calving ease with high growth rates to weaning and 18-month weights. Around half the bulls will be polled, which is something we’re tending more towards.”

Temperament is another key trait – which used to be a “big problem” with simmentals, he says. “The first strains into this country were a bit wild and sometimes called sim-mentals. New Zealand breeders have focused on breeding quieter animals. I always cull really hard on temperament. Sometimes I’ve had to close my eyes when my fastest growing, most handsome bull goes out the gate because of bad manners.” One of his bulls topped the national sales in 2002, and clients’ progeny from his bulls regularly top local calf and yearling sales. “It is always satisfying to see the bulls performing for our clients.” Strauss grew up on a farm in South Africa with simmentals, so is “very familiar” with the breed. “As the largest of the terminal sire breeds, it obviously puts a lot of weight into other herds. Although simmentals are not commonly milked in New Zealand, the females have pretty high milk production. We used to milk them in South Africa where they are considered more of a dual-purpose breed.” His cattle are wintered on the forestry block from mid-April until around the end of June, when they are brought back to the farm to go onto balage, and calve near the house. “I’ve lost a few cows in the forest over the years

• To page 47

Proud to support Everd and Marie Strauss and their Leaﬂand Simmental Stud Queens Gardens Court Building Cnr Crawford & Rattray Streets, Dunedin (opposite Queens Gardens)

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