NZ Dairy Spring 2014

Spring 2014

www.waterfordpress.co.nz

‘Unique design’– The effluent does the work: See page 20 INSIDE

Job perfect for pair’s passions - PAGE 5

Sire-proving a ‘smart option’ - PAGE 13

Ambition, hard graft pays off - PAGE 28

Couple chase national award - PAGE 34

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DAIRY PEOPLE » Rob & Sharon Klaus

NZ Dairy

Improvements key to raising production Kelly Deeks With one season of farm ownership now under their belts, Waikato dairy farming couple Rob and Sharon Klaus have made some improvements to their herd this season, aiming to set themselves up to achieve production of 400 kilograms of milksolids per cow.

The Klauses bought their 60-hectare Okauia farm last year, after just seven years of 50:50 sharemilking.

Their first 50:50 sharemilking job, a 220-cow herd, lasted for three years. They then stepped up to 500 cows for their final 50:50 sharemilking position.

They are now milking 160 cows on their own farm, which Klaus says they bought because it was a tidy little block that had been improved up by the previous owners through re-fencing, re-racing, and re-watering of the farm, and renovation of the house.

A new feedpad had also been put in the season before the Klauses took over. When Rob and Sharon arrived on farm, they put in an 80-tonne concrete, maize bunker to keep their silage off the ground and out of the dirt.

The have also re-developed their water system, – it now goes through a neighbouring property to get water straight from the surrounding bush.

“The water we had been getting was from a creek running through the farm,” says Rob Klaus.

“When we got a lot of rain, the water would become quite dirty with a lot of sediment running through it.

We’ve gone to the bush to get better, clean water.”

Before they took over the farm, the Klauses sold their excess cows, putting them on the market in September and targeting the South Island market.

Their buyer bought pretty much every two to eight-year-old cow in their herd, as well as 70 of their 100 rising two-year-olds.

“We did have a lot of older cows last season,” Rob Klaus says. “We’ve culled a lot of them now,

112 Wrights Road, Addington PO Box 37 346, Christchurch www.waterfordpress.co.nz

We did have a lot of older cows last season. We’ve culled a lot of them now and the yearlings we had are coming in this year.

We’ve had a big tidy-up and we’ve got 48 heifers coming into the herd this year. and the yearlings we had are coming in this year.

We’ve had a big tidy-up and we’ve got 48 heifers coming into the herd this year.”

He says these are well-grown heifers and he is confident – because he has maize on hand – that he can achieve 400kgs of milksolids per cow.

The couple bring in 80 tonnes of maize and 40 tonnes of Pro Cow 30, which has 30 per cent molasses content. This is fed together on the feedpad.

The farm gets too much wind for the Klauses to grow their own maize, but they made about 80 bales of silage and 40 bales of hay last season.

The cows were all wintered on farm this year, but that may change next year when they start winter-milking about 40 cows.

Rob Klaus says he is getting a bit fed up with dry Waikato summers.

“It’s starting to get to the stage where we can grow more grass in the winter. We’ve applied for 50 solids per day, deciding to go in a bit lower while we go through this learning curve.”

Rob and Sharon Klaus (top) milk 160 cows on their 60-hectare Okauia Farm in the Waikato.

Improvements include a redeveloped water system and a new silage bunker.

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Spring 2014

www.waterfordpress.co.nz

‘Unique design’– The effluent does the work: See page 20 INSIDE

Job perfect for pair’s passions - PAGE 5

Sire-proving a ‘smart option’ - PAGE 13

Ambition, hard graft pays off - PAGE 28

Couple chase national award - PAGE 34

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4|

DAIRY PEOPLE » Tim Booker

NZ Dairy

Tim Booker manages this former Maori Education Trust farm near Lake Wairarapa. It’s a former swamp and a metre below sea level, and flooding (left) has become a major issue. The farm flooded five times last year, with a third of it under water. Wet-weather management means the farm grows good grass in the spring and summer. A significant investment was made on farm drainage last year, with more to come.

Low profile poses challenges Jo Bailey Tim Booker is not one to shy away from a challenge. Which is just as well given the task he faces in transforming a run-down former Maori Education Trust farm into a viable dairy business.

Booker took over as manager at Mapuna Farm just over a year ago, when Te Tumu Paeroa Dairy Ltd entered a partnership with the Maori Education Trust to farm the 290-hectare property, about 20 minutes south of Greytown in South Wairarapa.

He works alongside management consultants FarmRight: a consultant and investment manager visit the property each month.

“The farm was very run-down when we took over last June, with fences falling over, no power around the property, and wrecked machinery,” says Booker.

“The cows came back from winter grazing extremely skinny, which had a massive effect on the season.

“We had six per cent empties, which was less than what we predicted, but this was an advantage with a sub-standard herd as we had more room to cull.”

The biggest issue facing the property’s new management was its four-year-old cowshed which had been built by an Australian firm with materials from Italy.

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“The shed was pretty sub-standard and the relationship with the Australian builders had already ended badly. We couldn’t access parts for the shed in New Zealand and no one here knew how to service it. It was a mess.”

After a couple of months it was apparent they couldn’t get the shed working without spending huge money, so last November they “pulled most of the guts out of it”, putting in new Milfos plant and rebuilding the shed between milkings.

“In the end it was a good project and it’s great to have a shed that works and washes properly,” says Booker. “We’ve been grade-free this year. It’s a huge improvement and a credit to our team as it had a reputation for being a problem shed with Fonterra.”

“Extremely wet” ground is another major issue on the farm, which is a couple of

The goal over five years is to have the farm in the top 15% in the district. kilometres from Lake Wairarapa.

“The land sits about a metre below sea level and was originally a swamp. Last year it flooded five times, with about a third of the farm under water. It makes it pretty difficult to farm.

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• To page 5

NZ Dairy

DAIRY PEOPLE » David & Lee-Ann Sharp

|5

Job perfect for pair’s passions Kelly Deeks David and Lee-Ann Sharp’s combined passions for education and dairy farming have them in the perfect position as farm managers at Taratahi Taranaki training farm, Grassmere.

Taratahi contract-milks Ross and Suzy Bolton’s 397-hectare Grassmere farm, which is on the edge of Egmont Village, in Taranaki.

The Sharps are just beginning their third season of managing the farm. They were previously managers on the Livestock Improvement Corporation Innovation farm in the Waikato, which is used to develop, trial, and showcase new products, and to train LIC staff.

David Sharp has been involved in dairy farming since he graduated from Massey University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Agriculture and a post-graduate diploma in rural studies. Lee-Ann shares her passion for education with her husband. She has a background in sports and has spent a lot of time working in schools.

Their respective roles as farm manager and assistant manager have grown with their enthusiasm for turning out agricultural graduates with the knowledge and skills potential employers will need on their farms.

“Lee-Ann and I have been farming for a long time and we understand what a farmer wants,” Sharp says. “Being able to look after yourself and getting to work on time is all part of it.”

Students staying on farm learning how to milk, build fences, and handle stock, but Lee-Ann takes time to help develop their life skills, such as learning how to cook. Reading recipes together also provides an opportunity for some mathematics and literacy learning.

Lee-Ann is a huge part of what we do. She loves the education side of it, and that’s why it works so well for us. We both love what we’re doing.

Lee-Ann and David Sharp...share enthusiasm for farming and education.

“Lee-Ann is a huge part of what we do,” says David Sharp. “She loves the education side of it, and that’s why it works so well for us. We both love what we’re doing.”

He says Grassmere is a really nice farm thanks to a lot of work put in by the Boltons, who bought the original part of the farm, converted from sheepand-beef to dairy about 15 years ago, from Ross Bolton’s parents.

“Over the years they have taken down six cowsheds to build this farm,” Sharp says. “The scale we have now is a huge advantage for Taratahi.

We are running three herds; we can have two or three groups of students here learning different things at the same time; they hardly see one another.”

This season, a new lease agreement on a neighbouring farm and slightly higher inputs will

Drainage ‘pretty high priority’ • From page 4 terms of wet-weather management so that we end up with more grass than mud.”

Around 740 of the property’s 970 cows are wintered off farm for eight weeks with replacements carried through.

Booker uses on-off grazing – the cows are on feed for five to six hours, then stood off for the rest of the day. In spring the cows are fed supplement on the feedpad. Significant investment has been made In farm drainage in the last year, with more to come.

“New drainage is a pretty high priority for the board. It will give us a direct return through utilised feed and improved pasture persistence.” he says.

Last season’s production was 20,000

kilograms of milksolids below budget, but Booker says this wasn’t too bad given the huge number of cows he got rid of in spring.

“We’re already up 14,000kg milksolids up on this time last year with fewer cows and less feed going in. We expect to push around 250,000kg milksolids this year and increase this to 300,000kg the following season.”

Born and bred in the Manawatu, Brooker started farming when he was 18. He was managing a 700-cow farm before taking on his present position.

“My main goal is to get the farm tidied up and operating well,” he says. “In the short term, I’d like to see it become a profitable unit comparable with the district average. The goal over five years is to have it in the top 15% in the district.”

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The 2014-15 production target is 280,000 kilograms of milksolids, which means the Sharps are looking for a 46,000kg increase from last season, which was a drought year just like the year before.

Sharp says cow condition at the start of the

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6|

DAIRY PEOPLE » Evan & Shirleen Smeath/Byron West & Laura Ward

NZ Dairy

Soil science sets benchmark Karen Phelps Looking after the land has always been a key part of Evan and Sherleen Smeath’s philosophy.

They are presently following the Albrecht soil-test programme and say it has made a huge difference to their Northland farm.

“I’m absolutely impressed with it,” says Evan.

“We’re seeing better pastures, more clover and I’m not having the metabolic problems I used to have,” The system is based on the research of William Albrecht, who, through soil samples and analysis, documented the effects and remedial properties of the various minerals, trace elements and humus content in soil.

“Essentially the Albrecht soil-fertility model uses soil chemistry to affect soil physics, which determines the environment for the biology of the soil,” says Smeath.

A soil audit using a specifically developed set of soil testing procedures determines and corrects the soil’s mineral content. Soil nutrients are then supplied based on any deficiencies or excesses.

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The Smeaths have identified five main soil types on their property and apply a specific fertiliser programme to each block.

“I’m a firm believer that every mouthful the cow eats has to be a balanced diet,” says Evan. “I’m looking at the base level of key minerals – 60-70 per cent calcium, 10-20% magnesium, potassium at 2-5% and sodium at 0.5-3%. I aim to get my soils up to these figures and apply whatever is lacking, as well as minerals such as boron, selenium, manganese, copper and zinc.”

The Smeaths farm a 100-hectare dairy platform on 189ha at Hukerenui, halfway between Whangarei and the Bay of Islands. They use 70ha of steep hill country to run young stock.

They achieve this by fertilising the block and subdividing it into 40 small paddocks for easier management. They graze in controlled blocks and use electric fencing to control feed breaks.

“Regular shifting is the key,” says Evan. “We have split the cows into two mobs – 130 two and three-year-olds, and 150 making up the balance.

We put one mob on one hectare per day, moving the stock every 24 hours.”

It’s labour intensive, but the Smeaths manage without employing staff. Son Clinton and his wife, Pam, are contract-milking on the property, and Evan and Sherleen are hands on.

They winter 290 jersey cows and milk 280-285 through a 28-a-side herringbone shed. They’re after maximum production, but only if they can do it in an environmentally sustainable way. They

Evan and Sherleen Smeath’s Northland farm borders the Wairua River, and up to 70 hectares of it can flood after heavy rain. have a moderate stocking rate of 3.8 cows per hectare and focus on feeding well.

Their main challenge lies in geography – the farm borders the Wairua River and the Hikurangi swamp, which means the predominant soil type is Whakapara clay silt loam. After heavy rain, up to 70ha of the farm can flood, so one of the

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Smeaths’ key management tools is to grow 6-10ha of maize as part of their re-grassing programme. The fertile soils, with a pH of 6.3-6.4, yield good crops of 25-30 tonnes per hectare cut and measured weight.

The Smeaths don’t metro-check cows or use CIDRs. They do AB for four weeks and put the bull out for five weeks.

“That’s it; if the cows don’t perform, they’re gone,” says Evan. “We’re trying to keep things really simple and have just a 6% empty rate.”

Production averages 800-1000 kilograms of milksolids per hectare. They have a no-pugging policy and their dairy-effluent system has three back-ups to prevent over-application.

A covered feedpad allows them to feed cows a balanced diet and protects pastures. In 2007 they won the supreme award, plus the dairy-farm and nutrient-management awards, at the Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards.

The Smeaths are embarking on a fescue pasture-management programme as they believe this is the best species for the region’s extremely dry summers. “If managed correctly, fescue is as palatable as ryegrass,” says Evan.

He is a member of the Hikurangi Swamp Scheme Liaison Committee, on the Whangarei A & P Society executive, and chairman and governing co-ordinator for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Northland.

Young couple sold on the dairy Sue Russell Byron West and fiancé Laura Ward, a former hairdresser from Newcastle upon Tyne, are relishing.life on a high-altitude family farm at Kaponga, not far from the base of Mt Taranaki.

West, who qualified as an electrician when he left school – because gaining a trade qualification was seen as important at that time – says his future is now very much aligned to dairy farming.

“This is a family farm. Mum and Dad still run the calves, and Laura loves the stockwork and enjoys milking.”

At 300 metres above sea-level, spring can be

very wet and cold. But the farm operates with a very low-input feeding regime, although this is starting to change.

The farm’s 330 jersey-cross cows were dried off in the third week of May after what West describes as a very good season – 104,000 kilograms of milksolids produced, 10,000kg up on the previous year.

A “nice, mild winter and relatively warm and dry spring” led into a very good growing year, he says.

The 24-a-side herringbone shed meets the current needs of the herd; if improvements were to be made, they would involve extending the shed and looking at automatic cup-removers.

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NZ Dairy

DAIRY PEOPLE » Alister & Lyn Candy

|7

Northerners enjoy ‘slice of paradise’ Sue Russell When Alister Candy’s father and uncle bought 1500 acres (600 hectares) west of Kerikeri in 1960, the land cost £3-10 an acre. Assistance to purchase came in the form of a loan from Marginal Farms.

“It was covered in scrub and rubbish, but as they cleared the land, my dad’s skills as a builder were put to good use,” says Alister.

This was 10 years before he and Lyn were married. Their little slice of this paradise, broken in in 1975, is now home to 320 jersey cows.

“We approached Marginal Lands and got a loan for $48,000,” says Alister Candy. “It was one of the biggest loans given out at the time; with that money, we built a house and a cowshed, and did all the farm lay-out work. We did a lot of the work ourselves.”

Lyn Candy says there are good reasons to choose jersey cows: “They’re a smaller-frame cow, easier for us to manage, and, as our farm is quite wet, they’re much easier on the land.”

The stock ratio is 3.1 per hectare, and an 85-hectare block acquired in 1990 is useful as a run-off. As cow condition and farm management practices have evolved, milk production has increased. The 2012-13 season’s 87,000 kilograms of milksolids has been eclipsed by a record 111,000kg in 2013-14.

Lyn Candy puts down to several key factors.

“We’re managing our pasture better, our cow condition is good, and we’re calving earlier. They’ve all contributed to this production increase.”

That, and walking the farm every 10 days. The farm walks keep the Candys well aware of subtle changes in pasture and soil condition, and give them a real hands-on feel for what is going on.

Another source of help has been the opportunity they have had to be selected as a focus farm for the region.

“That all started when we had a discussion group here and we wanted to know whether it was

better to feed meal or maize,” says Alister Candy.

“By the end of that field day, the focus-farm board had decided we could benefit from outside advice and ideas. You can always teach an old dog new tricks.”

The Candys’ daughter, Christine, helps on the farm and is very much part of the operation.

“We all try to teach one another the same jobs,” says Alister. “We all have turns doing everything.”

Students from Kerikeri College, through the school’s Gateways programme, visit regularly to get a feel for what dairying is all about. Other students come through the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation (AgITO) and work a whole farm day shifting stock, drenching, milking, using farm machinery, and experiencing what’s it like to work with other people.

The Candys have seen some significant changes to the farming industry over their 44 years together.

“Dairy farms have dropped off and are being turned into subdivisions,” says Alister. ”Sometimes

PHOTOS: Alister and Lyn Candy milk 320 jersey cows west of Kerikeri, in Northland. Part of their farm has been gifted to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and 171 hectares of flourishing native bush is now a sanctuary for native trees and birds. Each June, the couple venture out at nights to record kiwi calls – this information is sent to the Kiwi Foundation to help in the assessment of kiwi numbers. this is because costly essentials like the milking shed aren’t up to scratch and farmers can’t afford to invest the capital to continue to operate successfully, so they look at alternatives.”

A special piece of their farmland has been gifted to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust. This 171ha of flourishing native bush is a sanctuary for native flora and fauna with 60 traps keeping predators at bay. Each June the Candys head out at night with fold-down chairs and thermos flasks to record kiwi calls – part of a Kiwi Foundation project to gather

information to help in the assessment of kiwi numbers.

Alister and Lyn Candy believe Northland dairying is in very good heart.

“Dairying has been a wonderful life for us, but I think these days it’s almost impossible to start out from scratch and achieve owning your own farm,” says Lyn. “It’s just too much money.”

life – and to the Kaponga area of August to beginning of December, the couple employ a full-time farm assistant.

The couple are looking towards a 50:50 sharemilking job after one more season. But they want to remain in the Kaponga district, 20 minutes from Stratford and half an hour from Hawera.

Environmental regulations have had impact on the property: “Five or six years ago there was a big investment in the effluent system. Something had to be done to bring it up to standard. That investment has future-proofed the farm in terms of environmental issues.”

Input from farm adviser Peter Moffit, from Farm Wise, is proving valuable. “It’s another set of eyes having a look at the farming systems, and with

Dad’s thinking alongside, we have the best of both worlds.”

With long-term ownership of the family farm in mind, a strategy has been developed with the input of risk-management company Triple Jump.

“The sharemilking route is the best for us at this stage,” says West. “Having about a third of the farm leased gives us the scale to build up quite quickly.

We’re looking at a 10 to 15-year time-frame.”

He says the smaller-frame jersey cows are ideal for the farm’s ground conditions – 330 cows began calving in mid-August.

“We enjoy the cycle to farming life. In the quieter time, I do projects in the workshop, and Laura has a chance to get about more in the neighbourhood.”

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8|

DAIRY PEOPLE » Brendan & Vicky Kerr

NZ Dairy

‘Cruisers’ reassess their goals Jo Bailey Entering the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and taking part in Dairy New Zealand’s Mark and Measure course have helped South Taranaki couple Brendan and Vicky Kerr refocus on their goals.

“They were extremely useful exercises which helped us analyse the way we do things, how we might improve, and the need to set some positive goals for the future,” says Vicky Kerr.

“There is a bit of groundwork involved, but I would recommend the process to any farmer, especially those feeling a bit lost.”

She says that before the awards, the couple were “cruising along, enjoying the 50:50 sharemilking lifestyle”.

“The judges asked us what our final goal was and how we were going to achieve it. Brendan and I looked at each other, and realised we didn’t have a proper plan or clear ideas about where we were going. It really helped us to focus.”

As a direct result of entering the awards, they have taken the first step towards their new six-year goal of farm ownership, with the purchase of a 48-hectare run-off at Pukengahu, just outside Stratford.

“We are looking to maximise our cash through achieving highly profitable production on the dairy unit, and topping that up with grazing income from the run-off,” says Vicky.

“We’ll grow some extra stock out there as well to provide another income stream. We’re hoping this will help us progress towards farm ownership.”

The Kerrs have employed a full-time labour unit to manage the run-off block, which will also be used for young stock, some wintering, and cropping.

“We took over on May 1, so it’s all fresh and new. The run-off is 25 minutes away, so having our

Kaponga crew: Brendan and Vicky Kerr with daughters (from left) Elysse, Olivia and Ilana

employee, Gavin Ede, and his wife, Michelle, living there is great. It means Brendan doesn’t have to continually drive backwards and forwards.”

The Kerrs have just started their fifteenth season at Tom and Val Gibson’s 91-hectare, 430-cow dairy unit at Kaponga, and their first season with two fulltime labour units.

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“The idea is to take the pressure of Brendan so that he can eventually spend more time overseeing both farms.”

Brendan Kerr’s involvement with the Gibsons goes back to 1995, when he took up a farm worker’s position with them.

“I grew up on a dairy farm, but went into engineering after school and qualified as a fitter and welder,” he says. “When times got tough in the trade, I took the job with Tom and Val, who were looking for someone with my sorts of extra skills.”

After three seasons he wasn’t sure if dairy farming was for him, so headed off to the United Kingdom on his OE where he met “city girl” Vicki.

The centre-pivot irrigator will cover 40 hectares and should make a big difference.

They came back to New Zealand in January 2000 and now have three daughters, Ilana, 11, Elysse, nine, and Olivia, six.

Vicki worked off-farm until they became lowerorder sharemilkers for the Gibsons in 2002. In 2006 they progressed to 50:50 sharemilking.

“We have a great relationship with Tom and Val with good open discussions between us and the consultants we use,” says Brendan. “They’ve always helped us to grow our business when we’ve been ready to make the next step.”

The last two summers on the flat-land farm have been pretty dry, prompting Tom Gibson to invest in a centre-pivot irrigator this season.

“The irrigator will cover 40ha and should make a big difference, as we seem to have to budget for dry conditions now,” says Brendan Kerr.

But, despite the two-year drought, production has held up well, he says.

“We peaked at 374 cows last season after culling early and drying off back in April last year,

• To page 9

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NZ Dairy

DAIRY PEOPLE » Nick & Cathy Prendergast

|9

Farm fortunes on track once link in place Kelly Deeks The Prendergast family’s Waikato farm is still undergoing improvements and making gains – 85 years after coming into Cathy Prendergast’s family.

Nick and Cathy Prendergast are milking 525 cows this season on their 147-hectare dairy farm near Arapuni. The property has changed markedly since her grandparents bought it in 1929.

When Cathy was growing up on the farm, it was running sheep and beef. With a large family to support from a farm that was ‘always too small’, things could be tough financially, she recalls.

A 54ha dairy unit was eventually added, and Nick started contract-milking 140 cows there in the 1984-85 season.

After a couple of years on the family farm, Nick and Cathy moved to a sharemilking position near Tokoroa for one season, then returned home to relieve Cathy’s father. They formed an equity partnership with her parents and bought a thirdshare in the business.

At that stage the farm was milking 160 cows and the remainder of the property was grazing about 200 heifers.

In 1989 the farming policy changed from grazing heifers to beef bulls, rearing 130 friesian bull calves through to slaughter at 18 months.

In 1993, the Prendergasts installed two technosystems, which resulted in more intensive and efficient pasture use and allowed them to double their bull numbers. The couple farmed 260 bulls side by side with a very hot wire between them.

By 2000 the Prendergasts had bought out the entire farm, and had switched policy again from beef to service bulls. They learnt to keep their fingers on the pulse about what breed farmers were wanting as times and demand changed.

The 2008 year was huge for the Prendergasts.

First, they took a 42ha lease block, which, offered opportunity for growth through dairy support. The block now winters cows and is currently grazing 60 heifers.

It was also the year of the most monumental change to happen on the farm.

“Our farm is two plateaus with a very steep gully in between,” Cathy says. “We had the technosystem on the far plateau as it has the best contour on the farm, but we couldn’t get cows to and from the cowshed. Over the years many contractors had looked at how to get a track across the gully so that we could milk off the entire farm.”

No one could come up with the answer until the Prendergasts met JRK Drainage and Roading Contractors, who were doing a similar job for a neighbour.

Rising-two-year heifers head down the farm track that, in 2008, transformed the Prendergast farm.

“We thought that if they could do their job, they could do ours. The track has been a monumental change for the farm and it has established our future.”

With the track complete, all the bulls were sold and the herd was upped 300 cows; the whole farm was now milking through an 18-a-side herringbone shed. The next year the shed was extended to 40-a-side and cow numbers rose by another 40.

The herd grew again, to 400, the following year, then again last season when the Prendergasts leased a 30ha neighbouring block and the 500

cows produced 226,000 kilograms of milksolids.

With a family farm and three of their five children involved in agriculture, the Prendergasts see it as their responsibility to carry the baton.

With support from Livestock Improvement Corporation representative Deb Smith and farm consultant Andrew Gould, the Prendergasts say they can see the farm responding positively.

This season the Prendergasts and their staff, Michelle Leigh and Charles McCavanaugh, are targeting production of 250,000kgs milksolids, with 525 cows and hopefully, no drought.

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M: 0274 740 979 P: (07) 889 6476 Email: broomvr@infogen.net.nz PO Box 306, Morrinsville Nick and Cathy Prendergast (left) with staff Michelle Leigh (second from right) and Charles McCavanaugh (right).

Egg programme ‘really exciting’ • From page 8 which had a big impact on how many cows we calved.

“We still managed to achieve top production per cow, with an overall total of 170,000 kilograms of milksolids, not far behind our top season of 171,400kg.”

The Kerrs’ pure jersey herd is now back up to 430 cows. One of their mixed-age cows

was recently selected to be part of a Livestock Improvement Corporation breeding programme.

Eggs from 40 top jersey heifers and yearlings and eight mixed-age jersey cows, including the Kerr animal, will be harvested and crossed with top jersey bulls. The resulting fresh and frozen embryos will be implanted into surrogate mothers.

“It’s really exciting for us, with huge potential to make improvements in the herd and some good cash returns,” says Brendan.

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10 |

DAIRY PEOPLE » Jarrad & Natalie Drysdale/Peter & Charlotte Giddy

NZ Dairy

Once-a-day milking proves its Kelly Deeks

PHOTOS Above: The original 114-year-old shed on Jarrad and Natalie Drysdale’s farm at Eketahuna. The land was first settled by Jarrad’s great-great grandparents. Left: Jarrad Drysdale’s parent’s MarIlyn and Ewen Drysdale, at the homestead.

Northern Wairarapa dairy farmers Jarrad and Natalie Drysdale have taken to milking their cows less often to make production gains above what they were achieving with twice-a-day milking.

The couple own two neighbouring farms near Eketahuna, 240 hectares in total.

The home farm is the family farm, first settled by his great-great-grandparents and bought by Jarrad and Natalie two years ago (they lease a small area that was left in a family trust).

The couple bought the next-door property about seven years ago while they were 50:50 sharemilking on the home farm.

“When I bought that farm, we extended the cowshed on the home farm, put a track between the two farms, put in a feedpad, and milked all the cows through this shed,” Jarrad Drysdale says.

“We did that for about three years. We were getting a lot of feet problems on the home farm as the cows had to climb a hill every day, and milkings were taking a long time.

“Dad (Ewen Drysdale) said ‘Let’s put them on once a day’, so I got the next-door shed up and running and put a manager on there, and put the home-farm herd on once-a-day milking.

“There are not many farm-owners who would say to the sharemilker, ‘Let’s do once a day all year round’, but it has all fallen into place and we’re now doing more production than we were when we were milking twice a day, with a lot less cost.”

The herd has responded very positively to oncea-day milking.

Drysdale has been able to milk them right through until the end of May and gain some

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Peter Giddy got his first taste of farming life as a youngster helping out on an uncle’s farm in Taranaki. So, when he started studying for a Diploma in Agriculture, he was already familiar with the rhythm and flow of the farming cycle.

He says it was helpful to come into the formal learning process with practical experiences to relate to.

Peter and wife Charlotte own and operate a dairy farm carrying 380 cows on the peat soil that is common across the Hauraki Plains.

A new 50-a-side herringbone shed and feedpad, built by Don Chapman Waikato and engineered by Leasks Engineering, has been designed to operate with two milkers, freeing up a third person to do other farmwork.

“The GEA Milfos plant has automatic cup removers and swing arms installed by McLarens,” says Peter Giiddy. “These technologies will eventually flow through to reducing total working hours, giving me and my staff more family time.

The Giddys expected the shed to be operating by the start of August.

They have also installed a new, 3.5-million-litre effluent pond with a GEA sloping screen for solids separation. Green water will be used to wet the feedpad, and for the dung buster and backing gates for cleaning the cowshed yard.

It’s about using feed better.

All maize grown has been fed out through autumn with the aim of getting cow condition back to a BSC 5 before calving, “Because the farm is on high-risk soils for effluent, we required 3.5 million litres of storage,” says Peter Giddy.

“We’ll be separating solids to prevent the need of removal from the pond, so the liner won’t be damaged.”

The effluent system is based on the Larall 2 system, which is designed to pump high volumes of effluent, from 36 to 130 cubic metres per hour.

The system works through permanently installed sprinklers in each paddock of the effluent block.

“Each paddock has a tap connecting the main to a lateral line and you simply turn on a tap in the paddocks you want to irrigate,” says Giddy.

“To complete spreading over all the paddocks would take 12 hours and would spread 864 cubic metres, equal to one month’s effluent.”

NZ Dairy

DAIRY PEOPLE » Jarrad & Natalie Drysdale/Peter & Charlotte Giddy

| 11

worth production there, hardly any vet bills, and calving ‘flat out’ with a 5 per cent empty rate on the home farm (the farm next door sits at 11% empty).

Drysdale’s best production on twice-a-day milking was 90,000 kilograms of milksolids; since he started milking once a day, he has imagined being able to match that figure.

He cracked it last season with 90,500kg milksolids, and will now turn his attention to the next-door farm.

That farm produced 99,000kg milksolids last season in drought conditions, and 104,000kg milksolids two seasons ago. Drysdale is confident it should be able to do 110,000kg milksolids.

The immediate focus is on feed. Drysdale is working with Dairy New Zealand consulting officer Scott Risdale on a sustainability programme, and will monitor the effects of different types of feed on production while Risdale monitors how different feeds affect nutrient issues.

The battle to comply is ongoing on property, as it is through most of the Wairarapa. Few dairy farmers in the district are coming in under the Horizons Regional Council’s proposed nitrogen leaching limits, says Drysdale.

He believes the whole issue has been overcomplicated.

“If farmers had lined effluent ponds and fenced off their waterways, that would go a long way towards reducing nitrate leaching levels. There have been farms here for more than a century, so it’s not going to be an overnight fix.”

He installed lined effluent ponds on both his farms three years ago, and says they have worked really well. They allow him to capture all the effluent while it is raining, then apply it to the paddocks when the weather clears.

Eketahuna farmer Jarrad Drysdale and daughter Emma.

and new effluent system The effluent system is very labour-efficient, taking 30 minutes to set the pump up, two and a half hours in shifting, and 30 minutes to put the pump away.

The farm’s best production – 160,000 kilograms of milksolids – was achieved in the 2011-12 season. Droughts the next two seasons have had an impact and contributed to the decision to build the feedpad. The aim is to combat the seasonal extremes of dry summers and wet winter springs.

“It’s all about using feed better,” says Giddy. “All maize grown has been fed out through autumn with the aim of getting cow condition back to a BSC 5 before calving. Feeding out in paddocks results in

high wastage and pasture damage from the maize.”

The combination of wet springs and peat soils means that maize is not fed out over spring.

“If we fed out on pasture over spring, wastage would be as high as 40-50%. This causes problems with some cows because energy demand exceeds intake, creating ketosis and difficulties with getting cows in calf early.”

Because the new infrastructure would not completed for the very start of the season, he has set the 2014-15 production goal at 430kg milksolids per cow. His five-year goal is to achieve 500kg milksolids while building stocking rates to four cows per hectare.

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ON FARM » Vaughan & Sonja Dearlove/David McConnell

12 |

Couple seize the moment to buy own farm

Vaughan and Sonya Dearlove farm near Apiti in the Mananwatu. At 540 metres above sea level, grass growth is always an issue.

Kelly Deeks

When he is not milking, Vaughan likes to hunt and fish. Here he is with a 12.25-inch bull thar shot on the West Coast.

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Though starting his career in dairying in the plentiful Waikato, Vaughan Dearlove is enjoying farming in the Manawatu where he has been settled for more than a decade.

Having risen through the ranks, working hard managing and then sharemilking on farms around the Te Aroha district, and building capacity to one day own their own farm, Vaughan and wife Sonya seized the chance when a positive bubble in cow prices saw them sell their herd and buy their own farm near Apiti.

“When the price per cow went from $1100 to about $1400, we sold the majority of our herd,” Vaughan says. “We were left with 70 budgets and brought 30 more to add to our own 75.”

The 67-hectare (effective) farm is carrying 190 kiwicross cows. Dearlove says he will be happy to reach 80,000 kilograms of milksolids this season and “very happy” to get to 85,000kg.

Last season was a record on the farm, something he puts down to just a moderate impact from the drought because of the plentiful rain that fell long and well through spring.

“We’re a high-input farm in terms of palm kernel – about a tonne per cow. But palm kernel is the only supplement I use. PKE is fed in a trailer trough in the paddock, and as we don’t have the in-shed feeding systems, it is the best product for our situation.”

This season he has gained 13 effective hectares by bringing a 20ha block he owned back into pasture – he is running two cows per hectare on this block as opposed to three per hectare on the rest of the farm.

The 16-a-side herringbone milking shed copes adequately with volume at present, though there is provision to extend to 20-a-side.

Exactly when such decisions are made is

tempered by Dearlove’s understanding that in dairying it’s easy to spend a lot of money with little return.

“It’s a case of building up in the most costeffective way and knowing when is the right time to invest in infrastructure.”

Sonja works on the farm with Vaughan, takes care of rearing the calves, and does the odd bit of relief milking. They also employ a local relief milker as necessary. It’s a good arrangement that works well for the size of the farming operation, says Vaughan.

He says he’s very happy with where has got to in farming.

“I toyed with the idea of going dry-stock farming for a while. Most of the farms around this district are sheep and dry-stock, but I like the rhythm to the year and the connection with the land that dairying provides.”

He has three nearly grown-up children, two daughters and a son. Jacob is keen to be a farmer or a tractor driver.

On the strategic front, the couple have put a plan in place by buying a 35ha run-off, 15 kilometres from the home farm. It will be used for calf and weaner grazing and wintering cows.

Vaughan Dearlove has some advice for newcomers to farming: “It’s getting harder and harder because there aren’t the small farms around these days, so do your homework on the employer. Farm workers are expected to produce three references and should be asking prospective employers to provide the same to them.”

He says he doesn’t harbour great ambitions to expand the farm: “I’m quite happy. We make quite good money for this block, though at 540 metres above sea-level, grass growth is always an issue.”

Away from farming, hunting and fishing are his recreational activities of choice: “I do a spot of deer-stalking just down the road. We never seem to run out of venison in the freezer.”

Robots, new feeding method Kelly Deeks Waikato dairy farmer David McConnell has spent the past couple of years on a steep learning curve, first bringing out his hidden techno whizz to manage his new Lely Astronaut A4 milking robots, and now getting his head around a total mixed ration (TMR) feeding method for his new wintering barn.

McConnell, who has been milking cows for 30 years, installed four Lely milking robots two years ago after becoming a bit tired of milking twice a day, but still enjoying dairying and wanting to remain hands on.

After installing the robots, he began winter milking, with 110 spring-calvers and 130 autumncalvers in the first season.

Next season he intends to up his cow numbers to 300.

The robots have improved things dramatically on the McConnell farm. There are no more early starts, although with the robots running 24 hours a day, there can sometimes be a call-out in the middle of the night if the machines need attention.

Reporting includes cow weight, milk quality, and rumination. The system also includes a pedometer for each cow, and tells McConnell when cows are cycling so that he can draft them accordingly.

Per-cow production is on the way up. The McConnell’s cows averaged 430 kilograms of milksolids in their first season with the robots, which incidentally was one of the driest years seen in the Waikato, and 530kg milksolids last season.

He is targeting 600kgs milksolids per cow in the coming season, and believes that within five years,

NZ Dairy

ON FARM » Tim & Rachael Phillips

| 13

Sire Proving a ‘smart option’ Kelly Deeks Tim and Rachael Phillips have proven their dairycattle breeding success this year. The northern King Country couple have been rated Livestock Improvement Corporation’s sire-proving scheme (SPS) 2014 Farmers of the Year.

The Phillipses were described as an excellent example of the qualities looked for in a SPS member, and were recognised for their huge contribution to the scheme, their high level of commitment, their dedication, and their attention to detail.

With a breeding worth (BW) of 136, a production worth (PW) of 175, and 98% recorded accuracy, they are showing what can be achieved genetically with the latest crop of young bulls.

The couple have been members of the scheme for the past eight years, since they started sharemilking the Phillips family farm, owned by Tim’s parents, Ken and Liz Phillips, at Otorohanga.

They are the fourth generation of the family to farm the property.

In 2008 the younger Phillipses bought their own farm, half a kilometre away from the family farm. All of their 630 cows are now part of SPS. Tim Phillips says SPS is a smart option for sharemilkers. The programme has been worth a lot of money to them over the past eight years, he says.

There is a huge saving – close to $20,000 a year – in insemination over both herds; and, on top of that, the Phillipses receive a $50 rebate on each proven heifer.

He says there is a bit of extra recording work to do, and he has to be meticulous about matching cow and calf. But ,genetically he sees no downside, as the herd continues to progress.

Tim and Rachael Phillips bought their own farm at Otorohanga in 2008 after sharemilking for eight years.

“Herd-test figures for BW and PW, show that both of our herds are ranked on the threshold of the top five per cent of herds in the country,” he says.

“Some people will be surprised to hear that, given that we’re doing sire-proving. If we can hold that, I’m happy; but if we start sliding below that, I’ll kick it for touch.”

Even the highest PW herd struggles to produce well in a dry season, and, over the past couple of years, drought has caused the Phillipses have fallen slightly short of their production targets.

There is a huge saving – close to $20,000 a year – in insemination over both herds; and, on top of that, a $50 rebate on each proven heifer.

Last season offered a great spring and a good early summer for production, and the Phillipses looked better than ever production-wise.

“That all came to a halt when it stopped raining,” Tim Phillips says. “We bought a lot of silage into the system and the cows held quite well, but it still didn’t rain, so the main herd went once-a-day miljking on February 10 and was dried off on April 16.”

When the rains finally came, the Phillipses were hit with another problem.

“The cows went from eating really dry grass with lots of silage and drinking plenty of water with zinc, to eating lush grass with a high water and low dry matter content, drinking less water and therefore were getting less zinc,” says Phillips.

“This caused an increase in spore counts and a breakout of eczema, which he monitored closely.

After being refenced, a new 35-hectare lease block will provide extra support land – spring and early-summer silage or hay; grazing for young stock after Christmas; then some winter grazing.

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prove their value in Waikato he can get each of his cows producing 700kg milksolids.

“That will take more genetic improvements, planning, and feeding,” he says. “That is stuff I have only just got in to. I’ve never done any TMR. I’ve just started that in the last three months since I’ve built this new wintering barn.”

The wintering barn houses 300 cows, so McConnell is set for the increase in cow numbers next season.

He says he still puts the cows outside whenever he can.

“I still think you can farm with a bit of grass outside – I’m not going to go total cut and carry.”

The cows are housed for four hours in the morning to eat their silage, then four more hours in the afternoon; at night they choose whether they want to be inside or outside.

In summer he will house the cows from 10am to 5pm to protect them from heat stress.

He says the cows took a couple of weeks to learn how to use their rubber mattresses; they preferred to stand to start with, but are starting to lay down more.

He says he has a low breeding worth (BW) herd, but he has cows at nine on the BW scale that are producing more than 500kg milksolids.

Next spring he will enlist the assistance of the experts from his semen suppliers, CRV and Worldwide Sires, to ensure he uses the best bulls for each cow and can improve the genetics in his herd.

With development on farm pretty well finished, McConnell’s system requires just one labour unit, with an extra half-unit during calving – two months in the spring and two months in the autumn.

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ON FARM » Robbie & Alistair Sherriff

14 |

NZ Dairy

Robbie Sheriff (above) and his father Alistair farm a dairy and stock unit at Arohena, in south-east Waikato. Robbie runs the dairy side of the business while Alistair looks after the dry-stock farm.

Stock levels a fine balance Jo Bailey Robbie Sherriff says he and his father, Alistair, have worked hard to get the stock levels right on their sizeable dairy and dry-stock unit at Arohena, in the south-east Waikato.

“We’ve figured out when we need to take pressure off the dry stock to make sure we’ve got slack in the system if something goes wrong on the dairy platform,” says Robbie.

“It has taken us a fair while to get the stocking levels right so that we’re not wasting feed or pasture.”

Father and son farm a 300-hectare (effective) dairy platform and an adjacent 450ha (effective) dry-stock unit under Huirimu Farms Ltd, a family company set up by Alistair Sherriff and his wife, Judy.

Around 1000 cows have been wintered on the self-contained farm – 700 on the dry-stock unit and the balance on the dairy platform.

Once milking starts, they are split into two herds – a larger herd of up to 650 cows, all three-yearolds and above, and a smaller herd of heifers and struggling cows.

The dairy side of the business is managed by Robbie, with Alistair looking after the dry-stock operation of 1200 romney ewes, up to 250 rising

-one-year and 250 rising-two-year heifers, around 100 rising-one-year and rising-two-year bulls, 60 to 70 steers a year, and a few finished lambs.

Alistair and Judy Sheriff bought the original part of the farm in 2002, and converted the former sheep-and-beef unit in 2007 following the acquisition of an adjacent 300ha.

“Mum and Dad have always been involved with dairying, converting and selling two other properties at Western Bays in 1995 and 2002 before coming here,” says Robbie.

He was still at school at this stage, so it wasn’t until the latest conversion that he became involved and quickly moved into the manager’s role.

Brother, Matthew, sister Joanna, and aunty Rose (who lives in Noosa) are also part of the family company. but are not involved in its day-to-day activities.

For the last three years the Sherriffs have introduced friesian genetics to produce a “biggish black cow with high capacity” to handle the property’s rolling to steeper country.

“We’re aiming for a bigger predominantly kiwicross herd, so will probably look at crossing again for the next couple of years to hold them where they are,” says Robbie Sherriff.

He they are happy with the production gains

• To page 15

Huirimu Farms’ Alistair Sheriff drafts some of the 1200 romney ewes at Arohena.

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NZ Dairy

ON FARM » Steve & Lynell Roach

| 15

Rethink signals growth spurt Sue Russell The last few years have been a time of change and development for Kiwitahi, Waikato couple Stephen and Lynell Roach. and it is a situation the couple have embraced.

With two sons both keen to become involved in the dairy industry and with the opportunity a year ago to buy another dairy unit just over the road from the original family farm, all of a sudden the small family business had tripled in size.

The purchase is seen as a generational move, and the Roachs describe the support they have received from the ASB Bank as “positive from day one”.

This has forced Stephen into a rethink his approach towards the operation. He also felt that with family coming back to have an increasing involvement in the business, it was a good time for him and wife Lynell to look at their own situations.

“When members of the family decided to go farming, it seemed a good time to reassess where Lynell and I were in our farming journey. So, I spent three years teaching the boys what dairy farming is all about.”

The original family plot, a successful 82-hectare (effective) property, wintered 340 cows this

When members of the family decided to go farming it seemed a good time to reassess where Lynell and I were in our farming journey. So, I spent three years teaching the boys what dairy farming is all about. season, while the new, 150ha (effective) acquisition across the road is home to 550 cows.

The Roachs’ 26-year-old younger son, Daniel, is managing the larger property, while older brother Matthew, who has a position with Fonterra, is part of the management/governance team.

The decision was made to run the two properties independently, something Steve Roach says just made sense.

“Each farm has its own farm manager because the property we purchased was a successful operation. So, we decided to keep them operating as separate units to maintain their current efficiencies.

“One farm manager, Jeff Peek, came from a civil-engineering background. I had already asked

The Sherriffs are introducing friesian genetics to produce a “biggish black cow with high capacity” to handle the property’s rolling to steeper country.

Let us spread it all...

Feed payback ‘in the vats’ • From page 14 they have made since converting the farm.

“The first season here, we milked 720-odd cows and did 262,000 kilograms of milksolids. Last year we peaked at 925 cows and produced 473,000kg milksolids. We’re really happy with the way last season went, but we want to keep progressing.”

If the Sherriffs had a motto it would be to “try and fully feed the cows every day with quality feed, and do better each day than we did the day before,” says Robbie.

“We feed maize grain in the shed all year round, as well as a bit of molasses and minerals, especially during calving. We also feed palm kernel as the cows exit the shed, and grow turnips and chicory as summer crops on the flat.”

This all equates to just over two tonnes of supplement per cow, including wintering off.

“We hope we get the payback in the vats.”

him whether he would be interested in becoming a manager if we bought another farm.”

Daniel, on the larger farm is four years into his dairying career and Likes pushing the boundaries for better performance by seeking out expert advice from different sources in the industry.

He is concentrating on divining the best breeding for the herd and is on a drive for grass residue control.

The home farm produced 138,000 kilograms of milksolids and reared 270 heifer calves last season, while output on the larger farm was 250,000kg milksolids and 400 heifer calves reared.

The plan is to achieve two tonnes milksolids per hectare, a goal Steve Roach says will be achieved through modifying feed, more intensive planning, and especially by the decision to change the grass the farm grows.

“We’ve put 100 acres (40ha) in easton tall fescue with MaxP endophyte from Agricom.,” he says.

“We gained a lot of information through Agricom agronomist Ben Trotter – he produced a lot of trial results which showed us that this variety is very much suited to our variant climate, particularly the hardy drought conditions in recent seasons.”

The plan over the next five years is to cover all the land area with this grass cutivar because it grows better in spring. As it is more deep-rooted, it

stays vegetative for a lot longer than ryegrass. And through MaxP, it is a lot more resistant to threats and produces more spring feed that requires a higher stocking rate and faster rotational grazing.

While the smaller herd was dried off in early May this year, 400 cows from the larger herd were milked through to the third week of May. Milk is collected through a 30-a-side herringbone shed servicing the smaller unit and a 40-a-side shed for the larger herd. Both sheds have in-shed meal feeding systems, which Steve Roach says easily pay for themselves.

Looking ahead, there’s interest in robotic milking. Daniel has been to some field days on the subject.

“These days farmers are much more aware of their footprint on the land and environment.” says Steve.

“Cowbarns and feeding pads have become common place, and I guess it’s a case of striking the right balance.”

He is keeping himself busy filling where he is needed and checking the stock. And, he adds, there was a lot of fencing to be tackled over the winter down-time.

“Especially, we all need some down-time for everyone. I’m very conscious of how important this is to make sure everyone has a break.

Both Lynell and Steve Roach have completed Dairy New Zealand’s 12-month governance course, which involved four meetings spread through the year.

Steve describes the programme as the best investment he has made for cementing sound governance protocols and for heightening awareness of the business of farming.“I would thoroughly recommend the programme to those in the industry who want to achieve the most satisfaction from their years of farming. You really gain ownership of your future.”

Alistair Sherriff also grows 30ha of maize and 20ha of winter-crop swedes on the dry block, and cuts around 80ha of silage.

“We also grow about 25ha of plaintain on the dry-stock side, which goes to the lambs. It works really well.”

Robbie’s wife, Shannan, is busy with the couple’s 18-month-old son, Lachie, and they have another baby on the way.

Four full-time staff assist Robbie on the dairy unit, and a fencing contractor is brought in to help on the dry-stock side as needed.

Judy Sherriff handles all the accounts and staff recruitments.

Robbie says he enjoys working alongside his parents in the family business.

“It has been great to work with Dad to develop and tweak the operation over the last few years.

We’ve definitely got enough scope to handle most things now.”

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16 |

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT » Archway Group

NZ Dairy

Bunker system goes down well Jo Bailey Bay of Plenty firm Archway Group says it received “very good” feedback at field days for its new modular concrete bunker system, TRI BLOCK. “People were impressed by the system’s strength and the speed at which it can be erected, with an entire bunker built in just three days,” says director Matt Hodgson.

“We have had similar feedback from the owners of the first two TRI BLOCK bunkers we built last year. It’s exciting to be finally bringing the product to the market,” The system can be used for silage, fertiliser or any material requiring bulk storage.

Its points of difference are its triangular bracing panels (which provide strength) and the modular design, which allows extensions or additions to be made with ease.

“The bunkers can be built as wide or long as needed, and, once complete, the bracing for a second bunker is already in place on the walls,” says Hodgson. “This results in considerable cost savings should the farmer wish to go ahead with an additional unit.”

The bunker walls can be built from 1.5 to 3.0 metres high. The floor is 150-millimetre-thick reinforced concrete and 300mm-thick footing concrete sits around the TRI BLOCK panels.

“We have designed the bunkers in conjunction with consulting engineers to withstand 20 tonnes of machinery. High-tensile ductile steel is used throughout to meet new earthquake standards.

They are super-strong.”

Hodgson says the splayed walls provide superior compaction and minimal wastage, allowing farmers to retain dry matter and energy in their silage, increasing its longevity.

The bunkers are sealed, reducing the risk of mycotoxins and nutrient leaching, and protecting against rodents “The use of a chemical-resistant sealer and additives in the concrete help ensure nutrient containment, something local councils are really starting to clamp down on.”

According to Hodgson, the new bunkers have “ticked all the boxes”.

Archway Group, which specialises in silage bunkers and weeping walls, showcase their products at a recent Waikato Regional Council field day.

“There are already a lot of bunker options on the market, but most are not designed fit for purpose. We believe there is a real market for a professionally designed and engineered system that is strong, versatile, completely sealed, offers greater compaction, and is built to last.

We have designed the bunkers in conjunction with consulting engineers to withstand 20 tonnes of machinery...

They are super-strong.

Firm opts for specialist expertise Archway Group has two divisions: Archway Environmental, which sells and markets weeping walls and silage bunkers; and Archway Construction, which builds them.

Matt Hodgson and his wife, Amanda, run the 10-year-old business from their home. The group employs 10 full-time and up to six part-time staff.

The firm has worked on a variety of rural, commercial and residential projects, but is now concentrating on silage bunkers and weeping walls.

“We’ve developed expertise by specialising in these areas and have the ability to give farmers advice,” says Matt Hodgson. “This allows us to innovate with new products.”

He says Archway has built numerous weepingwall, effluent-drying beds for clients in the North Island.

“The weeping wall is an effective, nonmechanical, solid-separation system that has no real ongoing costs apart from emptying it once a year. It is a great alternative to a lot of the expensive solid-separators, screens, pumps and presses that many farmers are putting in.”

He says the company provides nutrient testing with every weeping wall to assist farmers with their effluent application rates.

“It’s a bit of an expense for us, but it’s important that we provide the information and education to help our clients get the most out of the system.

“By providing farmers with extensive data, we can help them apply the effluent at the right time at a rate that is beneficial for the plants, rather than just emptying the pond and throwing it on the paddocks.”

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NZ Dairy

| 17

• Can apply rates below 7mm/per hr and depths down to 3mm, while still dealing with raw effluent • The GBMagnum has a mounted rain gun to provide twice the application area you would cover with a conventional travelling irrigator • Low Application rates, while cutting down the labour input

18 |

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT » Waikato Regional Council

NZ Dairy

Trial seeks to bring farmers A Waikato Regional Council trial for farmers and regulators to work together on monitoring compliance with dairy-effluent management rules is showing promise.

The system involves one-on-one meetings between council staff and farmers in areas with soils judged to have a higher risk of effluent-borne

contaminants getting into surface waterways and groundwater. The council looks to see if effluentmanagement systems are up to scratch and points out what needs upgrading to ensure compliance.

Monitoring programme manager Ross Wightman says the main aim is to reduce the incidence of effluent run-off from saturated soils in to surface

water. This usually results from irrigating effluent on to already saturated pasture. Farmers are advised about the need to have enough adequate storage so that they don’t need to do this.

“Without adequate storage on high-risk soils, it is not possible to comply with our effluentmanagement rules,” he says.

Farmers without such storage have to come up with a plan on how they intend to provide such storage and outline a time frame for the work.

Anyone installing a new pond needs to ensure it is properly constructed and sealed so that it can comply with effluent rules, says Wightman. The dairy industry has developed guidelines for farmers on how to build a safe pond.

The options for lining ponds are properly compacted clay or artificial membranes, and the council is recommending that farmers seek advice from an accredited effluent-designer to work out what is best for them.

Farmers with concerns about whether their ponds are sealed adequately are being advised to seek advice from an engineer to determine if the pond is sealed, and if an upgrade is needed.

“We recognise there are considerable challenges in proving whether a pond is sealed when there is no record of construction methods or postconstruction engineer’s approval,” says Wightman.

“That is why we strongly recommend that farmers get engineering support if they are installing new ponds, so the farmer has independent corroboration that the pond has been constructed according to recommended industry practice.”

The suitability of off-pasture feedpads and stand-off pads is also assessed during council farm visits as recent research has pinpointed them as potentially high-risk areas from which effluentborne contaminants can get into waterways or groundwater.

• Detailed information on these issues: Dairy New Zealand Waikato section, www.dairynz.co.nz/ page/pageid/2145874264/Compliance_With_ Rules. This document was developed by DairyNZ and the Waikato Regional Council..

NZ Dairy

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT Âť Waikato Regional Council

| 19

and regulators together

PHOTOS Before and after: A farm in the Thames-Coromandel district used to have just the sump (far left) for storing effluent. After a Waikato Regional Council discussion with the owners about the most effective methods of dealing with effluent, the farmer has installed a much bigger pond (above)).

The Waikato Regional Council’s trial programme for farmers and regulators involves one-on-one meetings between council staff and farmers in areas with soils judged to have a higher risk of effluentborne contaminants getting into waterways and groundwater. A council inspector (left) measures effluent ponding at a property near Waiuku.

20 |

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT » Barfoote Construction

NZ Dairy

‘Unique design’ – the effluent does the work Karen Phelps Barfoote Construction’s weeping-wall design is helping farmers separate their effluent more effectively, according to company director Trevor Barfoote.

The weeping walls are distinctive in that they are made entirely from concrete and have a gap of 18mm – about double the industry norm.

“As the wall fills up, the water layer naturally breaks through the solids and forces its way sideways out through the weeping wall,” he says.

“The effluent itself does the separation; all the wall does is hold the effluent back.”

“A lot of farmers using our weeping walls are able to pump effluent straight through an irrigator without risk of blocking it.”

He acknowledges it’s a slightly different way of approaching the process of effluent separation, but says it has proved extremely effective. The system is long-lasting as concrete is robust, and has been designed so that panels can be removed and replaced easily.

Barfoote says the company has also applied its innovative design skills to cowsheds.

The Barfoote dairy shed is split level with offices, smoko room, toilets and viewing areas on a higher floor.

This design makes the shed easier to clean, he say, while the curved roof allows more light in, making the workplace more comfortable and functional. This is enhanced by the all-concrete structure, which is not only sturdy and durable but also provides a more consistent temperature within the shed and a more soundproof environment.

The open-plan interior has been designed for ease of use, and under-cover vats keep milk at a more constant temperature and reduce power bills, says Barfoote.

He says the company has built sheds in Australia and the United States, as well as in New Zealand.

“Basically, if anyone is considering building a dairy shed, they shouldn’t build without looking at one of these first. The style, the design and the functionality has impressed many farmers who have come to look at them.”

Barfoote, who has around 30 years of building experience, started his company almost by accident when his uncle asked him to build a cowshed. It was such a success he launched his new business.

Barfoote Construction has been operating from Whangarei since 1989, and now also has a base in Otago. The company works nationally and internationally in the commercial, industrial,

As the wall fills up, the water layer naturally breaks through the solids and forces its way sideways out through the weeping wall. The effluent itself does the separation; all the wall does is hold the effluent back. A lot of farmers using our weeping walls are able to pump effluent straight through an irrigator without risk of blocking it. infrastructure, agricultural and residential markets.

It is supported by Barfoote Contracting, an excavation business run by Trevor’s brother, Kerry Barfoote, and a trucking company run by another brother, Gareth Barfoote Trucking.

Barfoote Construction employs a workforce capable of doing pre-cast concrete, earthworks and roofing in-house.

It employs its own engineers, project managers and trade-qualified carpenters, and offers project management services that include concept design, engineering, PIM and building consent, and coordination of sub-contractors.

Although the company does commercial and industrial builds, the agriculture sector remains a specialty.

Barfoote Construction builds herringbone and rotary dairy sheds, feedpads, concrete raceways, cattle underpasses, silage bunkers and pads, feed troughs, palm-kernel bins, fertiliser bins and specialist farm buildings. It has built numerous milking sheds in New Zealand.

“One thing about this company is that we like to have a go at anything,” says Trevor Barfoote.

“Each project has its unique points and we get passionately involved. It’s not just an income – we love what we do.”

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Barfoote Construction’s weeping walls (top) are made entirely from concrete and use a larger gap – about double the industry norm. Above: A distinctive Barfoote dairy shed, with its curved roof which allows more light in. The vats are also under cover to keep milk at a more constant temperature, which helps keep power bills down.

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NZ Dairy

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT » Gibson Rural.

| 21

Effluent storage growth area Jo Bailey Tighter effluent regulations have resulted in a big growth area for Gibson Rural’s new owners, who say it is “business as usual” for the Te Awamutu building firm.

The company’s founder, Pat Gibson, recently sold the business to Brent Bird and Blair Atkinson, who had both completed apprenticeships with the firm and had become equity partners in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

“Pat’s plan was always to bring in people he could trust to ensure the long term sustainability of the business,” says Bird. “ He knew Blair and I were hungry to boost it along and see it reach its potential.”

Although it’s “exciting” to be at the helm, he says the pair had been “pretty much running the ship” over the last 12 to 18 months anyway.

“It has been good to make the transition to full ownership with Pat still around.”

When Gibson founded the firm he 1998, he initially concentrated on residential work, but soon realised there was a huge opportunity in the rural market, particularly in the construction of modern cowsheds and systems, and their related infrastructure.

Gibson Rural quickly gained a significant share of the rural market in the Waikato and became a major player in cowshed construction, with a reputation for workmanship, and building and system design.

“Our modern-looking cowsheds are designed for optimum herd performance and are constructed to handle high production demands,” says Bird.

Since the recession, the company has enjoyed strong growth, he says. It now employs around 40 staff across three divisions – rural (which makes up around 70 per cent of its portfolio), commercial, and residential.

Gibson Rural remains a strong operator in the cowshed construction market and has a growing effluent business, overseen by Bird. One or two two crews are dedicated to these projects.

“The tightening effluent regulations are resulting in quite a big up-front cost to farmers,” says Bird.

“However it has been years since they’ve had to

• To page 22

Gibson Rural specialises in large, concrete inground tanks for storage of effluent (above) and various designs of stone-trap and weeping-wall set-ups. The company also builds and lines ponds with EPDM rubber lining.

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22 |

EFFLUENT MANAGEMENT/DAIRY SERVICES » Gibson Rural/Built Wright

NZ Dairy

Effluent storage a strong area of growth From page 21 invest in these systems,” he says.

The company builds and lines ponds using EPDM rubber lining. It also constructs large, concrete, in-ground tanks for storage of effluent, and different designs of stone-trap and weepingwall set ups.

“Every client is different,” says Bird.

“The most appropriate system depends on how clients wants to manage their effluent and how much they want to spend.

“There is such a variance. Some guys might spend around $40,000 to meet compliance, and others in excess of $300,000 to $400,000 to future-proof their effluent system.”

Blair Atkinson says the company’s cowshed work continues to grow strongly.

“We’ve recently built three sheds for Landcorp Farming at its dairy development on Wairakei Pastoral land on the Central Plateau, and we are about to start our first shed in the South Island, for a Timaru client.

“We’ve also built quite a few robotic sheds for clients through Lely.”

He says the company’s ability to build rotary, herringbone and robotic cowsheds is a competitive advantage, along with its ability to project manage of the entire job.

“We can build pretty much whatever farmers want, whether it’s a cowshed, effluent system,

Gibson Rural has the ability to build rotary (below), herringbone (left) and robotic cowsheds, and to project-manage the whole job. implement shed, pole shed, feedpad, storage bunker, or even a farm house through our residential division.

“We have good resources, including earthworks contractors on board, which allows us to cover most bases.”

Overall, Gibson Rural’s new owners are “very happy” with how the business is going, says Atkinson.

“We’re extremely busy and we’ve started branching into more nationwide projects.

“It’s great to be building our first cowshed in the South Island and we have a bit more work in the pipeline there too. The plan is to base a team there permanently if things continue to go well.”

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The goal of Built Wright Construction is to offer farmers every service needed for a dairy conversion, from cowsheds to houses, says Ben Wright.

The company can do design and construction of rotary and herringbone parlours, dairy-yard systems, feeding pads, silage bunkers, feed and fertiliser bins, he says.

Its other services include farm housing, pump sheds, concrete effluent systems, calf-sheds...any building work needed on a farm. Wright says this has included wool sheds on some occasions.

He was brought up on a dairy farm and thinks the knowledge he has of the dairying industry allows him to offer farmers more value than a builder with no rural background.

“It’s about understanding cow-flow and how a farmer’s business operates,” he says.

After completing his building apprenticeship, he made his way in the building industry constructing residential houses. Now that he is combining his rural roots with building, he feels he has found his true calling.

Ben Wright thinks his knowledge of the dairying industry allows him to offer farmers more value than a builder with no rural background.

In 2006 he started building Chapman Dairy parlours under contract before taking on the licence for the Taupo region. He says he was drawn to the system because the parlours are designed for maximum cow-flow, worker ease and low maintenance.

Originating in the Waikato region Chapman Dairy has recently licensed constructors around New Zealand.

Wright his workers’ experience in this field ensures that the finished facilities will help farmers improve their operation by optimising labour resources and providing a good working environment for staff.

“Cows benefit from the Chapman Dairy free-flowing yard and handling areas, resulting in less stress on animals during milking or feeding operations. “ Because we operate independently from milking-machinery companies, farmers have their own choice of milking equipment to be installed in their dairies.”

Wright has built dairies for the large number of Carter Holt Harvey conversions (forestry to dairy).

One of his recent jobs was a dairy parlour for

a Tauhara Moana Trust farm east of Taupo. It was a large project – a 60-bail rotary dairy, a 700-cow feeding pad, a full-concrete effluent system, and a customised calf rearing house. The yard and feedpad have flood-wash set-ups.

“The calf-shed project was designed and built in conjunction with the client, who wanted a large space down the middle of the shed so that you can drive through for ease of filling the calfetarias. This really minimises the time taken to get the feed out to calves.”

Wright is presently building a 54-bail rotary for Pengxin New Zealand Farm Group at Reporoa, after finishing a 60-bail rotary for the company in February.

He has also just completed a fully covered 30-a-side herringbone for Ruaview Family Trust at Ohakune.

Built Wright Construction employs seven staff and works in the Central Plateau region.

“We aim to offer farmers the whole package so that they have fewer worries and know they’re in good hands for their conversion. It’s about giving them one point of contact to make the whole process easy.”

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NZ Dairy

DAIRY SERVICES » Don Chapman Waikato

| 23

PHOTOS: Don Chapman Waikato has options in rotary and herringbone styles, yard layout, plantroom design and pipework configuration. The company claims its dairy “parlours” have high cow-flow efficiency and high-quality materials, and are designed for low maintenance and easy cleaning.

Dairy arm ‘quadruples with shed purchase Karen Phelps Waikato-based rural builder Shanan White says his business quadrupled overnight when he took over Don Chapman Builders.

White says the changeover, which took effect in February, has been seamless as he has retained his experienced staff. Staffing levels in the company, now re-named Don Chapman Waikato, have risen from four to 20.

He has been building for more than 15 years and his firm had been contracting to Don Chapman Builders for many years. This work included building AgResearch’s Tokanui dairy research complex in 2009.

So, when Don Chapman decided to sell off the building arm of his business to concentrate on expanding his Chapman Dairy business, he approached White.

As a Chapman Dairy licensee, Don Chapman Waikato is entitled to build Chapman’s dairy “parlours”, as he calls them.

White, who hopes he can bring fresh ideas to Don Chapman Waikato, says trying to keep up

with the workload is the biggest challenge. The company is working on seven new “parlours” and three alterations.

Most of the Morrinsville-based firm’s building projects are in the Waikato and neighbouring areas. The business has its offices and yard in Morrinsville.

The company owns all of its plant and equipment, which includes 10 vehicles, trucks and forklifts. White says this gives him greater flexibility in organising contracts and keeping to time-frames.

White says he took on the business because he knew the quality of the product Chapman had been offering since 1967.

“I’ve been involved with a couple of other shedbuilders and I could see that Don Chapman parlours were the best value for money. The product has a very good reputation.”

Don Chapman Waikato offers options in rotary and herringbone styles, yard layout, plant-room design and pipework configuration.

Some of the key features of its dairy “parlours” are high cow-flow efficiency,

high-quality materials, and designs for low maintenance and easy cleaning. The company also builds dairy-yard systems, feeding pads, silage bunkers, feed and fertiliser bins, and does new houses and alterations. It is involved in commercial work (such as office blocks, retail premises and fit-outs and refurbishments) and industrial projects (such as heavy manufacturing structures, warehouses, coldstores, coolrooms and food processing areas).

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24 |

DAIRY SERVICES » W.D.Davenport & Co

NZ Dairy

Diversity the name of the game Karen Phelps Diversity is everything when you’re running a building business in a small, rural town, says Morrinsville-based Warren Davenport.

“We have to be able to do anything our clients want – rural, commercial, residential,” he says.

Davenport started W.D.Davenport & Co around 30 years ago – not long after he completed his apprenticeship in Morrinsville.

His farming background has helped him build a business that services predominantly ruralbased clients. The mainstay of his work is dairy sheds and, more recently, as the trend towards animal housing has grown, covered feedpads and wintering barns.

“Production has gone up by more than 20 per cent for one client for whom we built a covered feedpad last year. He’s had better animal health and more milk in the vat. He sees the feedpad paying for itself in just five years,” says Davenport, His firm is presently building a 40-metre by 90-metre lwintering barn for a client at Matamata.

The company also does all types of rotary and herringbone dairy sheds, and has built two rotary and two herringbone sheds for goat farmers. The first large-scale goat-shed – a 108-bail rotary – was completed last year for Gavin Grain.

W.D.Davenport & Co also does residential housing and is an agent for Metra Panel, a pre-cut panel construction system for residential and commercial buildings.

“Metrapanel is a system that uses BRANZappraised, 36mm walls, 25mm floors and 25mm ceilings. It is delivered with battens, insulation, trusses and fixings on site ready to be erected in one to one to two days depending on the project size,” says Davenport.

He has found that diversifying more heavily into residential housing has proved useful during the quieter times in the dairy industry each season to keep the business busy. Although this year has bucked the trend with demand for dairy sheds continuing right through the year.

On the commercial front, W.D.Davenport & Co worked as a sub-contractor for Watts & Hughes on the Westpac bank in Morrinsville. The company also worked on the Morrinsville Museum refit and

While W.D Davenport & Co tackles a wide variety of building projects, rural work (above) is a significant part of the firm’s mix, which also includes commercial projects and residential houses (below). Some of the firm’s vehicles park up at its base in Morrinsville (left).

• To page 25

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DAIRY SERVICES » Wade Contractors | 25

NZ Dairy

A custom-built laser blade (above) enables precision lasering of earth to an accuracy of plus or minus 10mm. Another piece of machinery, a muck spreader, is often used in conjunction with the laser blade machine to spread the soil which has been removed evenly onto pastures

Laser blade ‘really taking off’ Karen Phelps A new custom-built laser blade machine is helping Wade Contractors cut down the costs and increase value for farmers across.

The laser-blade service, which has been offered by the company for about three years, enables precision lasering of earth to prepare the ground for concrete laying.

“Basically, it gives very accurate levelng and contouring so the concrete layer can turn up and complete the job quickly,” says Wade Contractors’ operations manager, Klinton Wade.

“The precision with which the machine can prepare the ground allows for much more accurate estimating of the materials required for the job, and reduces wastage,” “We have three sets of laser gear that can be fitted to other equipment as well as the laser blade, giving accuracy of plus or minus 10 millimetres.

This service is really taking off as word gets out.”

The equipment has been used to good effect for plastic effluent storage tanks that sit above ground, feedpads, storage bins and around the sides of effluent ponds.

Another piece of the company’s equipment – a muck spreader – is often used in conjunction with the laser blade machine to spread the soil which has been removed evenly on pastures.

“We can spread to about 10-20mm thick which means no problems with run off,” says Wade.

Based in Te Aroha, Wade Contractors is a family-based business that has been providing agricultural contracting services to the greater Waikato area for 30 years.

Basically it gives very accurate contouring and levelling...

The business was started by Klinton’s parents, Kevin and Robyn by accident when Kevin’s father, Arthur, adapted a Ford 5000 tractor for contracting, which ended up on the farm. When neighbours saw it, they began asking Kevin to use it to do work for them.

Today, the company’s services extend to earthmoving and site works, track and race repairs, sand and metal cartage, effluent spreading, and water and effluent storage facilities.

Cutting trenches for the installation of Novaflow systems has been popular lately as farmers invest in their farms on the back of a healthy dairy payout, says Klinton Wade.

The company’s machinery and equipment includes diggers, a grader, rollers, trucks and trailers for sand, metal and fertiliser cartage, tractors and scoops, an effluent spreader, and a mole plough.

Large projects completed by the company include preparing the new Fonterra factory site at Waitoa, earthworks for a large water-storage tank which required very precise contouring, construction, and cleaning of effluent storage ponds, using a digger with a 10-metre extension.

Wade Contractors is a real family-run affair.

Kevin and Robyn still take an active role in the business. Klinton’s brother, Gary, is a diesel mechanic and driver for the company as well as

Firm a real family business • From page 24 the Wallace Gallery, which involved converting an old post office to an art gallery.

Although employing 18 staff, it’s a real familyrun business. Warren’s wife, Sandra, takes care of the office and administration; Michelle (a daughter) contracts her drafting skills to the business through her own company, Footprints Drafting, which she has recently started; another daughter, Melissa, helps Sandra for two days a week in the office.

Morrinsville Hamilton Matamata Paeroa Putaruru

Using Michelle’s skills, the firm is designing transportable houses for the rural sector. They will be marketed under the DavenHomes brand.

The company employs licensed building practitioners, and is a member of the Certified Builders’ Association of New Zealand and Hazardco.

“When your clients need something done, you have to make it happen,” says Warren Davenport.

“I make a real point of servicing my clients well. It’s great to get continuing work and I really focus on our local area.”

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running the family’s dairy-goat and dairy-cow farming operations.

The company also employs three full time staff plus casuals. Klinton Wade says that as the family is dairy and goat farmers themselves, they are in a unique position to understand farmers’ needs and expectations.

“Because we are farmers, we know what’s needed on farm and we understand the challenges farmers face. This provides us with a real point of difference and is part of the reason the business has been successful for so long.”

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DAIRY SERVICES » Quinton Oakes Builder

26 |

NZ Dairy

Word-of-mouth advertising big driver for builder Karen Phelps Design is all well and good but when it comes to a new farm dairy there’s nothing like seeing something in reality, says builder Quintin Oakes.

“When a farmer is looking at building a dairy parlour I like to take them to see one that I’ve built for a customer. It’s easier to see something in the flesh rather than looking at plans to see how it all works,” he explains.

Based in Stratford, Oakes builds Taranaki-wide for his predominantly rural based clients.

It was in 1999 that Oakes qualified as a builder.

In 2001 he returned to New Zealand after gaining international experience working as a builder on his OE. He built a house in Wanaka for a mate and admits he was fortunate when he started Quintin Oakes Builders in 2002 that the building boom was in full swing.

“If you have a good product and do a good job farmers love to talk. Word of mouth advertising is huge for this business,” he says.

Oakes has recently taken on the license for Chapman DairyTM as farm dairy construction has become such a big part of his business. He presently has two dairies under construction and another three in the design and consent phase. He says he favours Chapman Dairy due to good design and value for money.

“Chapman Dairy has listened to farmers and adapted the designs to their requirements over the years as well as developing new technology,” he explains.

He says feedback from farmers is that they like the light, airy feel of Chapman Dairy milking parlours, which have clearlite roofs running the

full length of the ridging with vents and lots of sliding windows to give greater control over airflow.

Colorsteel sandwich panels on the outside of the shed run down to a concrete nib at floor level, making for an easy to clean surface.

Through its association with Chapman Dairy Quintin Oakes Builders builds rotary parlours, herringbone parlours, dairy yard systems, feeding pads, silage bunkers and feed and fertilizer bins.

During the design stage Oakes listens to what farmers want but the final design is approved by Chapman Dairy.

“The experience of Chapman Dairy in building farm dairies is key. The brand’s whole reputation is built on good cow flow so Chapman Dairy won’t let a customer build a parlour that won’t work for them,” he says.

As Quintin Oakes Builders operates independently from any milking machine company farmers can choose exactly what milking plant brand they would like to include in their dairy.

“Milking plant is a big decision. Because the owner deals directly with the milking plant company they can choose the brand they want and it gives them greater flexibility. We have worked with all the major brands over the years.”

Oakes says offering farmers a personal service is important to him. He is on site regularly and is the main point of contact for each project for the client from beginning to end.

Although farm dairies have now become a large part of business, Quintin Oakes Builders established its reputation on its residential services. Oakes says once he has completed a dairy parlour for a client he is often engaged to do other building work on the farm including new homes, kitchen and bathroom renovations and other farm buildings.

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Quintin Oakes builders, through its association with Chapman Dairy, builds rotary and herringbone sheds, dairy yard systems, feeding pads and silage bunkers. The Stratford-based company also specialises in new homes and renovations.

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NZ Dairy

DAIRY SERVICES » Reporoa Engineering

| 27

Feedback drives new gates Karen Phelps A combination of customer feedback, combined with changes in farming has resulted in a new generation gates for Reporoa Engineering.

“As herd sizes have increased and more hired labour has become involved in the milking process, our gates have had to change,” says Reporoa Engineering director John Perrin.

The biggest changes have been to the HERDFLOW crowd and highlift gates. To deal with derailment and slippage problems, the company has developed a patented pinch-drive for the crowd gate, which runs on an i-beam with a drive on the side.

Wheels clamp the drive onto the i-beam, and because the drivewheel is tensioned with a spring, the opportunity for slippage is reduced significantly, and the gate can no longer be derailed, says Perrin.

Because the system has been successful, the high-lift gate now also runs on an i-beam to prevent derailing, he says. However, it still drives on the top The gates also include breach sensing technology. If the gate begins to push up against cows, it automatically stops and reverses a couple of metres, awaits the next command from the operator. Pulse-forward technology allows farmers to programme the gate to make automated stops at set distances as it travels forward.

“Both of these gates really automate the whole cow-management and loading operation into both herringbone and rotary sheds,” says Perrin.

“Cows are encouraged to moved easily from yard to shed, resulting in minimal operator involvement and, consequently, less stress on animals and operators. It also helps farmers minimise labour requirements and maximises the other advantages of labour-saving innovations such as automatic cup-removers.”

• To page 28

The biggest change to Reperoa Engineering’s HERDFLOW Crowd Gate (above) and HERDFLOW Highlift Gate (below) has been to the drive system. A new pinch drive system runs on an I beam with a drive on the side.

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DAIRY SERVICES » Reporoa Engineering

28 |

NZ Dairy

Add-ons allow farmers to customise systems • From page 27 Farmers can customise their system with addon, labour-saving features the company produces.

The most popular, says Perrin, is the DUNGBUSTER automatic yard cleaning system.

“It cleans the yard while the last row of cows is in the shed. On the return, it can wash the yard for a second time ready for the next milking – the operator just has to touch the button twice. It reduces labour costs (the yard can be washed in less than five minutes) and can save farmers up to 400 labour hours a year.”

There is also a reduction – more than 50% in many cases – in the volume of water pumped onto the yard, he says.

Other add-ons include a remote control to allow the system to be operated from up to 300 metres away, dual-system controls for rotary sheds so that the gate can be operated at cups-on and -off, a pull-cord option that runs the length of the pit in herringbone sheds, four-wheel drive to provide additional traction and a closed-circuit-television yard surveillance system (GATECAM).

Reporoa Engineering has also come up with a bolting system that allows gates to be assembled quickly – often between milkings – instead of having to wait until outside busy times. All gates

can be installed on rectangular or round yards.

Perrin says that although the highlift gate offers a lot of the same features as the crowd gate, its electronic features are optional, allowing for more manual control. As an example, the crowd gate will wash the yard at the touch of a button with the DUNGBUSTER system, whereas the highlift gate requires the DUNGBUSTER booms to be lowered manually before pushing a button to activate the system.

Highlift gate technology has also been applied in the development of the top gate, he says. This electrified curtain can be used in front of solid backing gates in both round and rectangular yards to collect small groups of cows to take to the shed for milking.

HERDFLOW was launched in 2008 with emphasis on reducing animal stress to increase milk yield, ease of use, and more efficiency in shed yards, says Perrin. The previous year Reporoa Engineering had expanded and relocated its main office and workshop to Rotorua.

Partnerships have now been forged to market HERDFLOW products in South America, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In New Zealand, they are supplied through local agents, who are also on hand for installation and maintenance.

A popular add-on for Reporoa Engineering’s HERDFLOW gates is the Dungbuster (top). The automatic yard cleaning system can save farmers up to 400 hours per year as well as reducing water and electricity use by up to 40%. Bottom: HERDFLOW’S rectangular yard top gate.

Mixture of ambition, Karen Phelps

A HERDFLOW round yard backing gate.

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Craig and Stephanie Dunphy have managed to amass a sizeable farm business that is now targeting more than a million kilograms of milksolids.

The rapid development began when Craig’s uncle rang to tell him a local property was on the market and asked if he was interested in forming an equity partnership to buy it. It didn’t take long for the Dunphys to accept..

“We’ve always been aggressive and pushed things to the limit,” says Craig.

The couple sold their herd from their sharemilking position and moved to Wallacetown, on the outskirts of Invercargill in Southland, in 2006 to enter into a 50 per cent equity partnership with Peter and Cathy Donnelly on a 564-hectare unit milking 1500 cows.

Craig Dunphy manages the farm, while Stephanie does the office work and rears the calves. But this is only part of the business they operate through their company, Waitoru Farm Ltd. The company also owns a 225ha dairy property, milking 550 cows, at Mossburn in Northern Southland, and a 252ha, 750-cow farm at Waianiwa, also near Wallacetown. Both farms are run by managers.

The Dunphys favour a low-cost structure of around $4.20 farm working expenses. Total production over their farms is 1.182 million kilograms of milksolids. They target increases as they continue to fine-tune their systems and improve the quality of their herd. They employ 11 staff, plus managers, over the units.

The Dunphys’ ambitions are not surprising considering that Craig got his start early.

He worked on his parents’ farm, then went shearing. When he was 21, he leased a 56ha farm at Mokauiti, in the King Country, and farmed bulls there. Within a few years he had raised enough capital to buy the farm, and he was also managing his parents’ farm.

We’ve always been aggressive and pushed things to the limit...

We knew sharemilking was the best way to get ahead in farming and we wanted to fast-track things as much as could..

After meeting Stephanie, he sold up and, together, they bought a 182ha sheep-and-beef farm at Aria, in the northern Manawatu, where they ran 2000 stock units. Two years later, over a weekend, they made the decision to start milking cows.

“We knew sharemilking was the best way to get ahead in farming and we wanted to fast-track things as much as we could,” says Craig. “Steph quit her off-farm job as we got serious about dairying.”

They leased out their farm and took on a married couple’s position for a year on a dairy farm at Kio Kio, north of Otorohanga. A position contractmilking 350 cows at Piopio, also in the King Country, followed. At the same time, they bought 50 heifer calves and grazed them out.

Two years later they took on their first 50:50 sharemilking position, at Te Pahu, near Pirongia, in the Waikato, where they bought the 220-cow herd off the farm.“There was no cow stress as the herd was used to the farm and sharemilking is all about your stock,” says Craig.

At that stage they sold their Manawatu farm and invested in developing an avocado orchard with Craig’s parents, Leo and June, and his brother, Paul.

They say they were fortunate to be silent partners and are grateful for the support as it helped

NZ Dairy

ON FARM » Matt and Sharon Stevenson

| 29

Sharemilkers target record Kelly Deeks Matt and Sharon Stevenson are back lower-order sharemilking former employers Russell and Tracey Bouma’s 90-hectare property at Reporoa.

The position is a step up for the Stevensons, who used to contract-milk on a different farm for the Boumas about four years ago. They then moved to Tokoroa to manage a 1200-cow property.

Now milking 300 cows and able to run the farm without staff, the Stevensons are finding the numbers a lot more manageable and the work a lot less stressful– at least until calving in early August.

The couple, with their two daughters, aged 8 and nearly 4, are also glad to be working for themselves again. They intend to save up and eventually buy a few hectares where they can raise calves and graze replacement heifers.

On the Bouma farm, the Stevensons have one goal for this season – to beat the previous production record of 115,000 kilograms of milksolids, achieved last season.

“The sharemilker did that with all heifers, so now they are a year older, we should get 10% more production out of them,” Matt Stevenson says.

The Stevensons will still have 100 heifers in the herd. They have kept an eye on the cows since they

started on the farm on June 1; about half the cows wintered at Taupo, the others were at home.

They plan to follow the same guidelines as last season. The 26-a-side herringbone’s in-shed feeding system will be used to give the cows palm kernel with tapioca mix during the season.

They had oats to feed as the cows started calving, and hay for the skinnier cows as well. They were to talk to a farm adviser about how many calves to keep, and what do with the remainder.”

Matt Stevenson expected the first half of the herd to be quite condensed within the first three weeks, then more spread out. Her says the vet has indicated this will be the last year of inducing cows on the property.

PHOTOS Top: The Stevensons feed out on the Bouma farm.

Right: One of the Stevenson girls confirms grass levels. Left: About half of the Stevenson cows were wintered on the property.

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0800 VETPLUS Stephanie and Craig Dunphy’s sizeable business turns a million-plus kilos of milksolids a season. them financially to continue their path in dairying.

The competition for larger jobs in the Waikato made them consider a move south, and they shifted to Clydevale, South Otago, where they sharemilked 500 cows.

They admit that the first year was tough... transporting a North Island herd that had never seen swedes or snow before. Three years later they moved to milk 1100 cows at Patearoa, near Ranfurly, in Central Otago.

The large herd enabled them to build their equity.

They sold the cows and the avocado orchard on a good market two years later to buy and convert their present Wallacetown farm.

The couple have two children – Tamsyn, 15, and Paris, eight. Outright farm ownership remains their goal, and they have no illusions that their hard work

Dairying is all about being in the position to take the opportunities, doing the hard graft, and sticking with it. will need to continue for some time yet.

“Nothing comes easily,” says Craig pragmatically. “Dairying is all about being in the position to take the opportunities, doing the hard graft, and sticking with it.”

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30 |

ON FARM » Preston Farms

NZ Dairy

Drought hangover flows on Sue Russell Lyall Preston and brother Garth have dairy farming firmly fixed in their blood and their connection with Ruawai, south of Dargaville, runs deep.

Grandfather Bill Preston first settled in the district in 1919.

“This district is regarded as some of the best farming land in the country because of the alluvial soil but we can get very dry in summer,” Lyall says.

Having farmed through two consecutive summers with droughts hasn’t been easy either.

The 373-hectare farm still doesn’t have a good cover of grass.

Two seasons ago a record production of 288,000 kilograms of milksolids was achieved.

Drought the next year caused this figure to drop by 30,000kg and last season production was 240,000kg.

“It’s at least a good pay-out,” Lyall reflects philosophically.

Because there was little grass produced through late October, supplements (including palm kernel) were fed out – an expensive business but unavoidable given the lack of rain.

Lyall says the drought was very localised – extending from Kaipara Harbour up the west coast.

Until recently the farm, which carried 830 cows last season, has always operated as a low-cost farming system.

While he has found palm kernel a very good product, the problem of fluctuating price brings its own budgeting challenges.

“The palm-kernel industry can just change in price in a week. It can increase from $10,000 up to $13,000 for a truck-load with little warning.”

Most years the farm’s working costs are 35 per cent but Lyall expects that was around 40% last season.

The last couple of seasons have come with challenges attached, balancing the cost of input with attaining the maximum possible productivity however he believes the dairying industry itself is amazing.

“There are so many things you can be involved with. It is just a great industry.”

Lyall and Garth have also invested in dairy farms in the South Island through their association with Tony and Alison Cleland, one of the founders of Farmright, a farm investment and management consulting company based in Lumsden.

This season the first of these investment farms produced 489,000kg milksolids, up from the previous record season of 400,000kg.

We looked at many standoff systems and decided to go with a covered concrete and rubber floor pad with a flood wash. We can floodwash the floor with brown water and because the floor is rubber it is kind on the cows feet.

“The reason we invested there was because of Tony and Alison. We also didn’t want to expand our Ruawai property too much because the farm works very well with four permanent staff. ” He says it has been a wonderful experience to be involved in.

“We have met lots of people through these farms and we have had a lot of enjoyment. It is not only as an investment that we have had valuable experiences.”

The Ruawai farm is now well developed, but just over 96ha have been added to the original. The herd is run as two mobs, and all the first-calvers are milked once a day for the first year. Three years ago a new 60-bail rotary milking shed was installed, along with a 500-cow covered feedpad.

“We looked at many stand-off systems and decided to go with a covered concrete and rubber floor pad with a flood wash. We can flood-wash the floor with brown water and, because the floor is rubber, it is kind on the cows feet.”

Local firm Barfoote Construction drew up the plans and built the feedpad in what Lyall describes as a very simple system.

Away from the world of dairying, Lyall and Debbie have had a three-week trip to Vietnam.

It was a chance to rest up after a busy and challenging farming season.

“We try to get away somewhere every year and we’re going with friends, so it was a good break before we start the new season,” says Lyall.

“One thing I’m certain of – we’ll be better prepared with supplements stored ready for whatever the weather brings.”

Top: The Preston brothers Garth (left) and Lyall farm 373 hectares at Ruawai, south of Dargaville.

The farm, which carried 830 cows last season, has been developed through the construction of underpasses (above), a new 60-bail rotary milking shed and a 500-cow covered feedpad.

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DAIRY PEOPLE » Brent & Angela Wallace

| 31

Pugging pegged as production pitfall Karen Phelps It’s a common problem on farms during winter and it costs farmers in production. Pugging has been identified as an area that could net real returns for Brent and Angela Wallace.

The couple farm a 210-hectare dairy platform (307ha total) 16 kilometres east of Te Kauwhata and have found that this year’s drier winter, which meant less pugging, has resulted in an increase of 10,000 kilograms milksolids increase (to 190,000kg) on the previous season.

They plan to raise the issue at their next local discussion group and pick other farmers’ brains.

“It’s obviously a real area for improvement,” says Brent. “We don’t want to join fads, so we’re not going to rush into anything in deciding how to tackle the problem. It’s about looking at what options are out there, substantiating it with figures and seeing where we could get the most bang for our buck.”

The couple are looking at in-shed feeding systems as a possibility. They would consider a cowbarn, but once again, the figures would have to stack up.

The Wallaces currently use trolleys to feed palm kernel out in the paddocks, but “the novelty of coming home and filling up trolleys at night for the following morning has soon worn off”,Brent says.

“It’s about how long you want to spend on the farm. We will look at investing in what will give the best profitability and create the best efficiencies.”

His grandfather bought initial 89ha property in 1972 when it was sheep and beef. The farm grew when a 53ha dairy unit was acquired across the road and Brent’s father, Lance, and uncle, Colin, returned to run the dairy farm.

By the early 1990s Lance and his wife, Sandra, had taken over the family farm outright.

Brent returned from completing his Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Massey University to work on the farm in 1994.

He had stints as a policeman until he decided to wholeheartedly pursue dairying in 2011 and began taking over the farm. He now owns everything apart from the land, which he leases from Lance and Sandra. Brent and Angela’s target is to own the farm outright in 10 years.

The farm milks 580 predominantly friesian cows through a 44-bail rotary shed. Around 90ha is used for running young stock and carry-over cows as well as 15 beef steers.

The Wallaces re-grass around 5 per cent of the farm each year and undersow 15ha. Around 40ha is covered by a travelling irrigator and a two-pond effluent system has 30 days of storage.

The aim is to farm more intensively to increase production, says Brent Wallace. They presently buy in around 450 tonnes of palm kernel a year. They

Lance and Brent Wallace have found that a drier winter and less pugging has resulted in a 10,000-kilogram increase in milksolids production in 2013-14. rear the calves and take them through to 10 months on the milking platform.

Because only around 150ha of the farm is flat and the rest is medium hill country they cannot break-feed the hills over winter.

“We try and graze it off in late autumn before it gets too wet,” says Brent.

Improving herd quality is another focus. The herd is 80% recorded and he aims to increase this to 100%.

“We have managed to concentrate the calving down to eight weeks. Our submission and conception rate has been great over the last two seasons, which has resulted in a low empty rate and being able to sell surplus cows. The aim is to carry this on with targeting the poorer-quality cows as culls.”

Brent employs two full time staff and Lance still works on the farm; Sandra is the bookkeeper, while Angela works as a teacher. Brent and Angela have four children: Brittany, 17, Charlotte, 14, Kimberley, 11 and Kate, 8.

Left: Brent Wallace takea a peek into the 44-bail rotary dairy shed.

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32 |

DAIRY PEOPLE » PJ van Dongen

NZ Dairy

Digger knowhow handy in farm development Karen Phelps

Peter (PJ) van Dongen with farm manager Alastair Phillips discuss strategy.

Office (07) 825 9870 George 027 496 6723 Graeme 027 451 8143 Email: gcl@no8wireless.co.nz 525 Te Pahu Road, RD5, Hamilton

Young Waikato farmer Peter (PJ) van Dongen has started his second season in charge of the family dairy farm at Ngahinapouri and the first since his parents, Pieter and Joy, shifted off the farm to live at Matangi, near Hamilton.

“Mum and Dad have semi-retired and leave the day-to-day running to me although they’re both still pretty involved. Dad does all the accounts and book work as well as some mowing, spraying and a few other bits and pieces. Mum will probably give us a hand with calf-rearing during the busy period.”

The van Dongens are long-time dairy farmers, although they spent a few years dry-stock farming and dairy grazing at separate properties before buying the Ngahinapouri farm 12 years ago.

Back then PJ, who had just qualified as a builder, decided to return home to give dairying a go.

“I went back to the family farm and after a couple of years, realised I was a bit too young to settle down to a farming career. I left on my OE and spent the next seven or eight years overseas where I drove diggers during the off-seasons.

“I’m glad I went because I saw and did heaps of cool things, and gained a lot of life experience which helps me handle what I’m doing now.”

On his return he worked for a local contractor, then moved back to the family farm where he took over the management role last season.

The van Dongen’s 260-hectare milking platform is made up of a 240ha home farm, plus part of a 130ha lease block next door, which is used mainly for young stock.

They also have a 30ha block across the road used for growing maize.

“We’re pretty much self-sufficient apart from bringing in some palm kernel,” says PJ van Dongen Last season started well with a fantastic spring,

but the summer “kicked us in the teeth” for the second year in a row, he says. “We had plenty of supplement on hand, so could handle it being dry.

But it wasn’t ideal.”

When he took over the farm management, he immediately reduced cow numbers from 900 to 800 to make it easier for his four staff to put the herd through the farm’s 20-year-old, 44-bail rotary cowshed.

“It’s still a good shed, but we probably had a few too many cows for it. I got rid of 80 or 90 late-calvers and the high somatic-cell-count cows before we started calving. I plan to consolidate around the 800 cow mark and focus on developing a top friesian herd.”

He says he runs a “pretty tight ship” when it comes to building and plant maintenance work.

“We do most of the work ourselves and try to keep on top of it to avoid things going wrong in the spring.”

Six months ago the van Dongens bought a new digger to do their own development work.

“I worked as a digger driver for six months when I was overseas, so am pretty handy on it. We have heaps of race development and drain work to do, and the 60 per cent of peat land on the farm also needs constant attention.”

He believes it will take at least five years of development to get the farm where he would like to see it, with a new shed nine or 10 years away.

“The shed is straining, but it’s not deteriorating.

We’ve spent a bit of money on it and will get a few good years out of it if we keep looking after it.”

His partner Sarah, a nurse, and his sister, Mary, who is in the police force, now live in the main house on the farm.

“I’m sure it will take a while for my parents to adjust to not living here. But we hope it’s a lot less stressful for them now they don’t have to worry about getting up to feed 800 cows every day.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE » Rob & Shiralee Seerden

NZ Dairy

| 33

Second contract puts family in frame Karen Phelps Life is busy for Rob and Shiralee Seerden. They are 50:50 sharemilking an 82-hectare (effective) farm wintering 245 cows at Norsewood in southern Hawke’s Bay, contract milking a 190ha platform next door – and they are bringing up seven children.

Understandably, achieving a good balance between work and family life is important to the couple.

“The key is getting good staff,” says Shiralee.

“I think that now we are employing a manager on the contract position this season, we’re finally achieving a good balance.”

She comes off a dairy farm near Morrinsville, in the Waikato, while Rob gained early experience on his grandfather’s farm at Tokoroa. As soon as he left school, he went to work on another farm at Tokoroa as a farm labourer – for $100 a week.

He met Shiralee when she came onto the 400cow farm near Hamilton where Rob was working on as a relief milker. They took on a lower-order sharemilking position with 230 cows on farm at Matamata for three years, then moved to contractmilking 600 cows at Feilding for two years.

The long milkings persuaded them they needed a break from dairying, and they managed a deer and cattle farm at Feilding.

But it wasn’t long before someone gave them a nudge to get back into dairying.

“We missed it,” says Rob. They took on a 400-cow, lower-order sharemilking position at Feilding for three years and ran a contracting business, also in Feilding, for five years. This gave them the equity to move to their present role at Norsewood, between Dannevirke and Waipukurau.

They aim for a low stocking rate (2.8 cows per hectare currently) but high production – around

500 kilograms of milksolids per cow – on an allgrass system.

This season they are aiming to raise this figure to 520kg per cow, a long way above the 375kg/cow they achieved in their first season six years ago.

Condition score has been one of the main factors in how much milksolids they achieve.

“We aim for a condition score of at least five at calving,” says Rob. “We achieve this by feeding the cows well through winter. When they calve, we keep putting that feed into them no matter what, even if we have to buy in some palm kernel.”

They milk the predominantly friesian herd through a 25-a-side herringbone shed. The farm is supported by a 60ha run-off three kilometres away, which is used as a wintering platform and for growing silage.

The Seerdens are in their second season of contract-milking the farm next door, which winters 550 jerseys. The herd is milked through a 50-bail rotary shed and the farm is supported by a 70ha run-off 10 kilometres away. A new manager and two staff run this farm.

Last season this unit’s production hit a record 190,000kg of milksolids from 500 cows. This season the Seerdens are targeting 220,000kg.

They say part of their decision to take on a second milking contract was to help them prepare to assist their children into a dairy career.

“This will give opportunities for the kids to work for us if they want to, something that wouldn’t have been possible if we had just had the original farm,” says Shiralee.

Son Jorden, 16, will be full-time relief-milking between the two farms, and Samuel, 13, is showing interest in a farm career. Ashton is 17, Suzannah 11, Peter 5, Daisy 2 and Bob, the newest member to the family, 11 months.

Shiralee home-schools most of the kids as well as helping out on the farm. The Seerdens’ goal is to own their own farm.

Rob and Shiralee Seerdon are 50:50 sharemilkers on an 82-hectare farm at Norsewood (above) and contract-milk a 190ha platform next door. However there is still time for a friendly snowball fight in between farm work and raising their seven children.

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DAIRY PEOPLE » Tim & Melissa Parsons/Phil Sherwood & Marlene Shadbolt

34 |

NZ Dairy

Awards focus milkers’ minds Kelly Deeks Tim and Melissa Parsons have some key areas to improve on next season in their second year of lower-order sharemilking.

They intend to enter the 2015 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Sharemilker of the Year competition. And they aim to give themselves the best chance possible of taking out the title.

The Parsons are sharemilking on Sue, Spencer, and Dan Radcliff’s 175-hectare, 580-cow farm at Urenui, in North Taranaki.

The farm has a 30ha run-off block which grows silage and hay for the dairy farm, and winters about 380 cows (the remaining 200 cows stay home for the winter).

Essentially two farms in one, the property runs two herds, 300 cows and 280 cows. The Parsons, with two-and-a-half staff members, milk the larger herd through a 35-a-side herringbone dairy shed and the smaller herd through a 22-a-side herringbone.

Parsons says this system requires three people to milk every day, and it can be challenging to create a roster that works with adequate time-off for all staff.

With one season of sharemilking and the increase of paperwork that comes with it, the Parsons have identified human resources and health and safety as key areas for improvement in their business .

Melissa has been working on these areas and has completed the Primary ITO agribusiness management course, Ownership and Risk, which she says has helped in developing a health-andsafety policy for the farm.

She is keen to undertake some more training, but this will have to wait for a while as the couple have

Taranaki dairy farmers Tim and Melissa Parsons have a busy time ahead with the arrival of new baby Sam.

recently welcomed baby Sam to the family.

So far, the Parsons have put together a healthand-safety-policy folder so that all procedures are detailed for staff to follow. They are also intent on personnel development, and are putting their two full-time staff through Primary ITO training..

Next on the agenda is identifying the staff’s key skills to ensure that these are being used in the best way on the farm, and where improvements can be made in their skills.

Both employees are also keen to enter the 2015 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Dairy Trainee of

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the Year section, and the Parsons are keen to help and support their involvement in the competition.

On farm their first season of lower-order sharemilking was a dry one, resulting in their production of 170,000 kilograms of milksolids – 10,000kg shy of their target.

Their first calving was slow as well, but this year they have condensed the calving pattern; this has involved bringing the mean calving date forward 10 days.

Parsons says this should sort the issues they faced last calving and help them to get on track to achieve this season’s targeted production of 200,000kg milksolids.

Good weather will go a long way towards

Essentially two farms in one, the farm runs two herds of 300 cows and 280 cows, and with two-and-a-half staff members, the Parsons milk the larger herd through a 35-a-side herringbone dairy shed and the smaller herd through a 22-a-side herringbone dairy shed.

Under-30s take the fast Kelly Deeks

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helping them achieve their target, as would an in-shed, meal-feeding system, which the farm-owners are looking into installing into the 35-a-side herringbone dairy shed once the budget allows.

Tim Parsons has worked with an in-shed, meal-feeding system on other farms and is confident that feeding mainly palm kernel will make a substantial difference to the farm’s bottom line.

Another good reason to use an in-shed feeding system, he says, is the flat to steep terrain of the farm, which causes issues when throwing palm-kernel bins around, especially on the hills.

Waikato dairy farmers Phil and Marlene Sherwood, both aged 29, have achieved their goal of farm ownership in an impressively short time line – they were 50:50 sharemilking for just seven years before the couple bought their 78-hectare dairy farm on June 1.

The Sherwoods also have a stake in a 56ha, 230 -cow family farm which they are continuing to 50:50 sharemilk this season, with a farm manager running the farm.

Phil Sherwood says their new Richmond Downs, Waikato dairy farm is a property with good

bones, with the previous owners putting in some good groundwork including a large effluent system and new effluent storage pond, a 300 cow feed pad, and a beautiful five-bedroom home.

The Sherwoods have been building a new 30-a-side herringbone shed to milk their 300 cows.

It wasn’t part of the initial plan. But after buying, they decided to go ahead with the construction of the shed to improve efficiencies on the farm. It is replacing a 20-a-side herringbone shed that has already been upgraded four times.

Sherwood says the new shed will include plant from DeLaval, automatic cup-removers and automatic teat-sprayers, mimicking the set-up on the family farm.

“The idea of the shed is to help to make this

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NZ Dairy

DAIRY PEOPLE » Ryan Gooding & Emma Butter

| 35

Ryan Gooding and fiancee Emma Butter are in their second season of contract-milking a 500 cow farm at Tokoroa.

Contract milkers ‘really pushing production’ Karen Phelps Ryan Gooding and fiancée Emma Butter, in their second season contract-milking a 500-cow farm at Tokoroa, are determined to put a robust system in place.

The couple had an 11 per cent empty rate last season as a result of the high number (44%) of heifers in the herd. They bought the herd from the previous sharemilker and extra heifers were brought in to make up numbers. They have been fine-tuning with the aim of cutting the empty rate to below 8%.

“We did five weeks AI and five weeks with the bull last season,” says Gooding. “This season we will do inductions to tighten up the calving spread.”

They milk through a 40-a-side herringbone and produced 455 kilograms of milksolids per cow last season; they want to raise that to 500kg this season. They aim to achieve this by feeding the herd better and getting cows to calve earlier and create more days in milk.

“The heifers will also be more mature this season, so they should perform better.”

Gooding was brought up around farming – his grandparents had a farm in the Wairarapa where he was always keen to spend weekends and holidays.

He did a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln University and managed a herd in Canterbury to gain experience before returning to the Wairarapa where he worked his way up the dairy system.

He started as herd manager on a 460-hectare farm at Featherston, and worked his way to contract milking. After filmmaker James Cameron bought the farm, Gooding eventually ended up at Tokoroa.

The 180-hectare effective (236ha total) farm is an ex-Carter Holt Harvey forestry unit that was converted to dairy. Elliott Group administers it for a family trust.

Cow numbers are rising to 530 this season in a bid to increase production. The predominantly friesian herd is being moved towards crossbred as Gooding believes they are more efficient converters of grass to milk.

“The farm is a bit hilly, so a slightly lighterframed cow should do less damage,” he says.

There are not many flat paddocks, and that can be challenging: “If stock make tracks, more weeds grow. We are working on contouring the land and do around 20-30ha per year as well as getting rid of tree stumps leftover from when it was forestry.”

He has been busy pulling out fences and refencing paddocks to more suitable sizes for easier management.

lane to their own farm farm a one-man operation,” he says. “With the use of the feedpad and bunkers, the shed is a nice and handy set-up to be a one-man-band with a helping hand from the wife.”

The transition from sharemilkers to farmowners has gone smoothly, with winter milking on the family farm for the past five years part of the Sherwoods’ strategy to build their stock numbers.

“Winter milking has allowed us to consolidate our position,” Sherwood says. “We haven’t had to sell any stock, empty cows haven’t had to be culled, and we’ve been able to use our replacements to build our numbers.”

The Sherwoods have a production target of 100,000 kilograms of milksolids for their first year on their new farm. They have been achieving this on the 56ha family farm with 230 cows and winter

milking; and at their previous sharemilking job in the south Waikato, they achieved 1280kg milksolids per hectare with slightly lower inputs.

The couple are now coming to grips with the Tirau ash soil on their new farm, saying water seems to come from everywhere.

Sherwood also works as an AB technician for Liberty Genetics, heading off every mating time to do a 5500-cow AB run.

On his own farms, he says getting cows in calf is important. “We work with an eight-week calving spread and a seven-week calving spread for the winter cows. We don’t use CIDRs and don’t induce, we have a 7% empty rate and we’re pretty well hitting our four-week submission rate, sitting between 98% and 100%. It has taken a few years to get there!”

The idea of the shed is to help to make this farm a one-man operation. With the use of the feedpad and bunkers, the shed is a nice and handy set-up to be a one-man-band with a helping hand from the wife...Winter milking has allowed us to consolidate our position. We haven’t had to sell any stock.

“We’re really pushing production, making sure we’re feeding cows well and maintaining good pasture control getting more days in milk.”

The herd is fed a palm-kernel mix through an in-shed feeding system – around 4kg per cow each day all year.

Gooding also uses palm kernel in the paddocks to fill in gaps. This is important as the farm doesn’t grow much grass over winter and growth does not take off until the beginning of November.

“Also, now we’re getting more land under the tractor, we can mow a bit more and get more silage,” he says.

Cows are wintered on crop on the farm, mainly swedes, and a paddock of kale is grown. Young

stock graze off from May 1 and the rising two-yearold heifers return to the farm the same day ready to come into the system.

Although Emma has a strong history of working on dairy farms (the couple met because she was working on the dairy farm next door to Ryan), their children – Ryder, nearly 2 and Mason, 4 months – take up the bulk of her time these days. She helps on the farm as needed, and they employ a secondin-charge and a calf rearer/relief milker.

Gooding plans to enter this year’s Farm Manager of the Year competition. At his first attempt, in 2012, he was runner-up for the Wairarapa/Hawkes Bay region. He hopes the exposure will bring opportunities for 50:50 sharemilking.

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Farm Machinery Centre

36 |

ON FARM » Sofus & Jacqui Hahn

NZ Dairy

Sustainability put in to action Jo Bailey There are a few interesting conversations around Sofus and Jacqui Hahn’s dinner table, given that Jacqui is a “bit of a greenie”, and her husband is not.

But one thing they do agree on is setting aside around 50 hectares of native bush on their 761ha in the Rangitoto district east of Te Kuiti to go under the Queen Elizabeth II Trust.

“It’s a major project which requires around 10 kilometres of sheep fencing to protect the bush from stock and preserve it under the trust for generations to come,” says Siofus Hahn. “We’re paying a third of the costs alongside the Waikato Regional Council and the QEII Trust.”

The project is largely the result of Jacqui’s Bachelor of Environmental Management studies at Massey University which she completed a couple of years ago.

“With the greater emphasis on sustainability these days, I think it’s important we start to change our ways of thinking,” she says.

“Putting the land into trust is one of the changes we’ve made on the farm, as well as planting pines in higher-risk erosion areas.”

She is a Waitomo Federated Farmers dairy section representative and is representing dairy on the Waikato TB-free committee for a second term.

“Waikato Federated Farmers has shouldertapped me into the position of joint vice-chair of the Waikato dairy section this year, mainly because of my degree.

“I hope I can help get farmers thinking more about long-term sustainability. Some reasonable environmental gains can be made simply through better timing and planning.”

Her next step is to complete an overseer intermediate course which will enable her to model the nutrients leaving the farm.

Jacqui hasn’t quite fully converted Sofus to her way of thinking and says they have some “interesting discussions” at times, although they usually find some common ground.

He grew up in Denmark on a dairy and cropping farm, and came to New Zealand at the age of 20 on a work-exchange programme.

He met Jacqui, and 16 years ago, they converted her parents’ 220-hectare sheep-and-beef farm and became its 50:50 sharemilkers.

In 2007 the couple bought the farm outright, which had already grown significantly through acquisition of neighbouring land.

A further 200 hectares was added two years

Sofus and Jacqui Hahn own 761ha of rolling hill country in Te Kuiti, wintering around 1100 cows. The couple, who have four children aged from 11 to 16, have set aside 50ha of native bush to go under the QEII Trust. ago, taking the self-contained farm to 761ha total, and 620ha effective.

The couple has been wintering around 1100 cows, 350 ewes and 100 white-faced hereford/ friesian-cross steers out of their own cows, which they will carry through to 18 months.

During the season the cows are milked in split herds through two herringbone sheds, a 44-bail and a 50-bail, at opposite ends of the rolling hill country farm.

“We have a farm manager on both dairies with friesians mainly going through the larger shed and crossbred cows through the smaller shed,” says Sofus. “However, over the winter, the cows are

pretty much all mixed up and spread around the farm regardless of where they are milked.”

The cows are split again at the end of calving, with the bigger ones going onto the easier country.

He says their dairy support block is fully contained within the farm.

“This land is too far from the cowsheds, so we use it to grow silage and maize for the milking platform. We’re at a higher altitude than most, so we get a bit more rainfall in a normal year. However, the season is also a bit shorter, meaning we have to supplement them with maize through autumn.”

The couple employ five staff, including their two managers, who all have two days off a fortnight.

“I’m pretty much the relief-milker full-time and Jacqui helps out in the holidays and does all the calf-rearing and bookwork,” says Sofus.

She is also kept busy with their four children.

Their two eldest daughters, aged 15 and 16, board at New Plymouth Girls’ High, while their youngest daughter, 12, and son, 11, both go to Rangitoto School.

Last season the property achieved total production of 345,000 kilograms of milksolids, which Sofus describes as a good result.

“We’re very happy considering the season got a bit dry in the end. Over all, we’re pleased with how things are going.”

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