NZ Dairy Summer 2014 by Waterford Press Limited

Summer 2014

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Fencing career skills nailed Fencing skills can create a pathway into other industries and a path around the world. Story: page 37

INSIDE

Double trouble for daring duo – PAGE 3

Breeding ‘all about risks’ – PAGE 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

Cash release ‘a game-changer’ – PAGE 29

‘Natural’ effluent system in focus – PAGE 42

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Anchor Jerseys

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Aleasha Shaw’s parents, Judy and the late Mark Shaw (left) and her grandfather, Don Shaw, enjoy a February 2011 visit to Anchor Jerseys by delegates to the International Jersey Conference.

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Stud jersey mantle now with Gen4 Dad always wanted me to

Kelly Deeks Aleasha Shaw and partner Adam Veart are continuing the family dairying and stud breeding work of Aleasha’s father, Mark Shaw, who died in November 2011. The young couple are managing the dairy farm and Anchor Jersey Stud, which was started by Aleasha’s great-grandfather, George Shaw, in 1935. The farm peak-milks 550 cows, and winter-milks 270. Aleasha Shaw had been dairy farming for two years when she was called home to run the family farm. Veart has worked on the farm for the past 10 years, and was second-in-charge to Mark. He and Shaw now manage the dairy farm and the stud together, with support from three other Shaws – her mother, Judy; her younger brother, Matthew; and her grandfather, Don. Don Shaw, who was at the helm before Mark took over and is now a representative for CRV Ambreed, helps with breeding decisions. Coming back home was a big change, says Aleasha. “I was working my way up to a 2IC role where I was. I wasn’t really ready to manage, but we’re

learn from other people as he reckoned his way was not always the best. doing okay, with my training and Adam’s knowledge of the farm and the cows. This farm is more intensively feeding the cows than where I was, but I was able to learn a lot of grass management there, which has helped a lot here. “I would loved to have been able to work with Dad, but he always wanted me to learn from other people as he reckoned his way was not always the best.” Mark Shaw had been using AgriSea, New Zealand native seaweed products for a few years in an attempt to minimise chemical fertilisers. Veart says that after trialling AgriSea on three or four paddocks, Mark saw a response in the soil and clover yield,and applied it to the whole run-off.

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• To page 3

Summer 2014

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Fencing career skills nailed Fencing skills can create a pathway into other industries and a path around the world. Story: page 37

INSIDE

Double trouble for daring duo – PAGE 3

Breeding ‘all about risks’ – PAGE 17

Cash release ‘a game-changer’ – PAGE 29

‘Natural’ effluent system a focus – PAGE 42

www.waterfordpress.co.nz

DAIRY PEOPLE: Hamish & Katie Flett

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Waikato sharemilkers Katie and Hamish Flett have taken up the challenge of running two farms.

‘Double trouble’ for daring duo Kelly Deeks Waikato sharemilkers Hamish and Katie Flett have embarked on a controversial career move this season. Each of them has taken on a job so that they can make the most of a new opportunity and still honour their current contract. The Fletts, with their three daughters (Grace, 8, Ellie, 5, and Lucy, 3), have been lower-order sharemilking 680 cows at Arohena Pastoral for the last five years. They had one more season to complete on their contract when they were offered a 50:50 sharemilking job at Te Awamutu, just half

The Fletts: Hamish, Katie and daughters (from left), Grace, Ellie and Lucy.

an hour’s drive away from the Arohena farm. “We’re always open to opportunities and a 640-cow, 50:50 job is hard to come by these days, especially on a prime Waikato dairy farm 10 minutes from town,” says Katie Flett, “To be phoned up and asked if we were interested, it was exactly what we would have looked for next season. “We had one more year on our Arohena contract and we really wanted to honour that. We owe that to the farm shareholders, they’re our first priority. We thought about it long and hard, and decided Hamish would continue to run Arohena, and I would take up the new job by myself for the first season. “That’s how we showed the shareholders at Arohena and the new-farm owners we would make it work. We are very grateful to both parties for allowing us to take on both jobs. We bit the bullet and did it, and it’s working out pretty well.” She says that, when they work together, she and Hamish complement each other on the farm. “I’ve definitely noticed he’s not around,” she says. “There are certain things he would normally pick up on. Now we are going through everything on each farm and making sure everything is good. I’ll give my opinion on what is happening at Arohena, and he will come over here and pick up on bits and pieces I’ve missed.” She says they are assisted by “awesome” staff. They promoted Jonel Sobas to second-in-charge, working on the Te Awamutu farm, Ian Pambid is 2IC at Arohena. Each farm also has one other staff member. Katie says her first challenge was calving. Once through that, she knew she had got through the

Ground ‘moving in front of them’ • From page 2 “We started using it on crop paddocks,” says Veart. “We had contractors heading out in their tractors, and they couldn’t believe the amount of worms we had. The ground was actually moving in front of them. “Within four months of using it, the cell count started dropping off and the cows’ coats looked like they had been shampooed,” he says.”Healthy cows are happy cows, and happy cows are producing cows.” AgriSea products are now used for pasture, soil, and animal health across the farm. Five millilitres of AgriSea per cow is added to their water every day, and this amount is doubled during mating. The calves get AgriSea in their milk. AgriSea is sprayed on paddocks at the beginning of autumn, and helps break up the hard, dry soil, leaving it much more aerated. It is applied again

at the beginning of winter to reduce pugging and improve recovery. A farm production record was set during the 2011-12 season – 217,000 kilograms of milksolids was produced, topping the old mark by 20,000kg. Veart says he and Shaw were still finding their feet, and he decided to carry on with what Mark had been doing. “The only thing I stopped doing was pushing the cows. Mark made the cows work hard, and he had nice looking cows, but we’ve pulled back a bit and kept cow condition on. They seem to be happy enough to produce for us.” By their second season (2012-13) he and Aleasha Shaw found their rhythm, and the farm produced 205,000kg milksolids, even with the drought. This season they are targeting 210,000kg milksolids, and have with a long-term target of 220,000-plus kilos.

worst she was going to face. Next, it was mating. “But we love challenges,” she says. “We do things outside the square and a lot of people have looked at us sideways when we’ve told them what we are doing. Most have been really supportive and encouraging, which is very motivating.” There’s healthy competition between the couple, who take photos of their milk dockets and send them to each other, trying to outdo the other. As Hamish says, sometimes opportunities don’t come at the right time, and they had to see how they could make it work. “The owners here have been very good to us and have helped us get to where we are now. Katie and I owed it to them to continue our contract, although we knew it was going to be tough.” But if you don’t push yourself, you don’t get ahead, he says. “If you do something that’s hard, when you come to tackle the next hard thing you think ‘I can do it’. A couple of times I thought that I’m in over my head, but it’s not how deep the water is, it’s how hard you have to swim to get out.” And the Fletts are succeeding – blessed with an exceptional growing season, a record payout, and production running at record levels on both farms.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Eliot & Mary Cooper

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Small tweaks add up to sizeable gains Karen Phelps Sometimes it’s not just the big changes that net results on farm; the small, seemingly insignificant tweaks to the system can add up to gains in production and savings. This has been the experience of Central Hawke’s Bay farmers Eliot and Mary Cooper. Farming a 260-hectare (effective), 280ha (total) unit at Takapau, just north of Dannevirke, the couple milk a herd of 600 predominantly friesian cows through a 30-a-side herringbone shed. The installation of rubber matting on the pit floor last season was one of the latest tweaks, and Eliot Cooper says it has made a real difference for minimal investment – around $2000. “I saw the matting at the Fieldays and it made sense to try it,” he says. “The staff’s bones and muscles don’t ache at the end of milking now; rather than crawling out of the shed, they run.” The real gains, though, have been made in productivity: “We’ve knocked 10 minutes off the milking, which is 20 minutes per day. Over a week that’s over two hours.” Cooper was raised on a mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm in the region. After going through the farm cadet scheme he, and later Mary, progressed through the sharemilking system on farms in the Manawatu. The couple bought their farm in 2001. A mixer wagont was acquired to help them towards their goal of achieving 100% of bodyweight in production, a target he aims set to reach this season. The farm has a 300-cow feedpad and the mixer wagon helps them use the feed better. “The older cows used to sort their way through the feed and the more dominant cows picked the good stuff out. Now the feed is mixed better, the herd gets fed more evenly. We’ve never achieved more than 2 kilograms of milksolids per cow during winter, but last winter we reached 2.1-2.2kg. We put this down to the mixer wagon.” They also replaced a Roto Rainer irrigator with a centre-pivot two years ago, and this has enabled them to make better use of water by varying the rates of application.

Cooper has also been investing in new pastures. This year he is soil-testing every paddock instead of a cross-section, to establish the condition of the land accurately. Their aim is to grow 16 tonnes of grass per hectare. Last year they averaged 12 tonnes, and they hope to reach their goal quickly as the effects of the irrigation system kick in. The Coopers are also striving to improve their herd. Their goal is a 12% empty rate. At present they are sitting at 15%, down from 16% the previous season. They have also invested in synchronising cows to cycle within 48 hours with CIDRs and are now getting a high percentage of heifers calving within the first 10 days. They employ four full-time staff. Mary runs her own human-resources business and also looks after the farm accounts and staff management. The Coopers have also developed a partnership with Flaxmere School through which around 25 children come on farm once a week for 6-8 weeks each year. Each child is assigned a calf to care for and groom. Finally a pet day is held at the school where the children have to groom their calf and lead it before judges: “It’s good to give kids an opportunity to get a taste of farm life,” says Eliot Cooper. “When they come to choose a career, perhaps they might look at farming. Feedback we’ve had is that being involved on a farm also changes academic performance as the kids get more focused and motivated.” The next step for the Coopers will be to build another cowshed – a 40-a-side herringbone – and run the herd through the two sheds. “We’re hoping it will improve the running of the farm and reduce milking and cow walking times,” he says. “The new shed will mean that the cows will be within 15-20 minutes’ walk of the shed rather than one hour. If they don’t need to spend so much energy walking, that energy can go into milk production. Our aim is to be in the top 5% of the district in terms of production and we’re not far away from that.”

Takapau farmers Eliot and Mary Cooper have developed a partnership with Flaxmere School to encourage the next generation to have a go at farming. The children are assigned a calf to care for which culminates in a pet day at the school where children have to groom their calves and lead them before judges.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Luke & Shannon Pepper

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Leaching limits make farming a balancing act Sue Russell Dairy farming is in Luke Pepper’s blood. His extensive family of 16 siblings have by and large all stayed in farming, following in the footsteps of their parents, Murray and Margaret Pepper. Luke and wife Shannon began their farming journey sharemilking 220 cows in Tirau in 2000. They remained there for three years, then moved to milk a 500-cow herd in the district for another six years. The now own their own dairy unit at Tirau, where a farm manager milks 255 cows on 100 hectares. Meanwhile, the Peppers are in their third season, milking a “licorice all-sorts” of a herd of 600 friesian and friesian-cross cows at Waimiha, south of Bennydale. The property is owned by the Te Tarata Trust and was converted from beef and sheep to dairying in their first season. “No conversions are easy and the trust made the decision quite late to change the farm,” says Luke Pepper. “So, by the time everything was completed, we did our first milking late September.” The farm has a Grant McMillan 54-bail rotary, and the expectation this season is to produce around 220,000 kilograms of milksolids. The farm is the first property to come under the Horizons Regional Council’s Horizon 1 plan, which prescribes nitrogen soil leaching limits for the farmer to operate within. In the Peppers’ case, the rate is 28kg/N/ha. To work within this regime, they have to balance herd size, feed and other farm inputs: “It means we can’t winter all our cows here and we have to milk

fewer cows than we could,” says Luker. “March each year, we have to figure out our leaching rate. It sort of feels like the ultimate big brother because we have to plan three or four months before the season starts.” In the short-term he can manage within the limits, he says, but in three to five years, drying off earlier may well become a reality. The leaching policy’s history stems from the poor health of the Manuwatu River. The policy is self-policed and the Peppers report annually to the council. “I think Horizons is making it difficult and bordering on uneconomic to convert more land to dairy,” says Luke. The Peppers are third-generation farmers and, with so many in the clan involved in the industry one way or the other, there’s plenty of farming talk, especially when the entire tribe, including 45 grandchildren, gather on Boxing Day. Luke thinks it is important that his own children – 13-year-old Liam, 12-year-old Poppy and nine-year-old Sam – spend time on the farm, even though two of them are at boarding schools. “It’s important they see where the money comes from. They have to do a couple of hours work as their share.” The Peppers plan to stay where they are. They have found the trust great to work with and say the surrounding community is too good to move. Their goal is to stay with sharemilking and to enjoy every moment of their time with their family who are growing up, just as they did, on the land. Milk man: Luke Pepper, above, takes time out for a ‘cuppa, and, left, with Daniel Martelli, appraises one of his 600 friesian and friesian-cross cows on the Te Tarata Trust-owned property at Waimiha, south of Bennydale.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Bruce & Donna Arnold

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

486 Alexandra Street

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Farming with pride: Morrinsville’s Donna and Bruce Arnold.

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Bruce and Donna Arnold’s hard work was recognised when the couple won the Waikato Best Farm award in the 2013 Dairy Business of the Year competition. The competition, managed by Intelact, aims to identify the industry’s best farmers so that others can learn from them. The Arnolds milk 600 cows on the 156-hectare Morrinsville farm where Bruce has lived since he was about two. The couple bought the farm from his father in 1992, after Bruce came home to help when his dad bought a neighbouring block and just about doubled the farm to 70ha, and 240 cows. A subsequent purchase of 20ha saw cow numbers climb to 350, and, then to 600 six years ago when the Arnolds bought another 66ha. Two herd managers now look after a herd each, with Bruce Arnold taking over management of the whole farm in the spring: “The spring sets you up for the whole season. By managing the farm over this time I’ve got good control, and I’m there for calving and mating time.” While the primary focus of the Dairy Business of the Year competition is profit, it also recognises the importance of sustainability to ensure continuing

profit – people management and environmental management each make up 15% of the final score. All entrants receive an independent assessment of how their business is performing, and this was what encouraged the Arnolds to enter when the competition began in 2007. “We’ve been entering the competition since it started,” Keith Arnold says. “We took on a pretty big mortgage with the last land purchase we made, and thought we needed to get some figures down on paper to see where our strengths and weaknesses were.” For the next few years the Arnolds worked with their farm consultant, Andy Collier, on areas where they could improve, based on the information and recommendations returned to them after the competition. In 2012 the couple won the high-input award in the competition, then in 2013 the regional award for the 2011-12 season. Arnold says they had a great year, and the farm scored highly on all three judging categories. Production was 1985 kilograms of milksolids per hectare – a record for the farm. A two-year-old upgrade to the effluent system allows them to control when effluent is applied to paddocks. Two

• To page 7

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Duncan & Kim Fraser

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Prizes part of bigger picture Jo Bailey Entering the New Zealand Dairy Industry awards was a worthwhile experience for Manawatu lowerorder sharemilkers Duncan and Kim Fraser. The couple scooped $15,000 worth of prizes after finishing runners-up in the Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the year in the Manawatu/Horowhenua/ Rangitikei region in both 2012 and 2013. “It’s a lot of work to enter, but the rewards can be well worth it,” says Duncan. “Although it’s great to win the prizes, we also learned a lot, particularly around improving our financial management. With fixed costs and few variables on the farm we used to have a pretty lax attitude towards budgeting, but we’ve taken more control of it now.” The Frasers are in their third season as 22% lower-order sharemilkers (milk price only), milking 450 cows on a 172-hectare property at Halcombe; this follows six years as lower-order sharemilkers on another property, and three years of contractmilking. They have made eye-catching production gains since taking over at Halcombe – from 168,000 kilograms of milksolids from 425 cows in their

Manawatu sharemilkers Duncan and Kim Fraser have made some eye-catching gains since taking over at Halcombe.

Although it’s great to win the prizes, we also learned a lot, particularly around improving our financial management.

first season to a projected 195,000-200,000kg milksolids from 440 cows this year. “Before we started, the four-year average on the farm was 155,000kg from 470 cows, so we are very happy with how things are going,” says Fraser. He puts the gains down to three factors – a focus on condition score at calving; sorting out their calving spread; improving pasture management. “Getting the basics right can add up to some pretty significant gains. We have achieved a five-score at calving, and managed to get 51% of our cows calved down in 12 days this season as opposed to 30 days when we started here.” Feeding the cows well is also a major thrust: “If you don’t feed the cows properly, you’re wasting the energy that goes into getting everything else right.” Since completing a Pasture Plus course through

Award winners ‘farm with pride’ • From page 6 of their three staff go to AgITO on farm-training through Morrinsville’s Animal Health Centre. “We farm with pride,” says Donna Arnold. “We’re proud to grow good food, but we also wanted to increase production with less environmental impact.” The Arnolds have been supplying their milk to the Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company since they took over the farm in 1982. They are one of Tatua’s 109 suppliers. Keith Arnold says that before he joined Tatua, he

always thought of it as “the dream little company”. The couple jumped at the opportunity to supply Tatua...one of the best things he ever did, he says. The Arnolds have three children. Todd, recently turned 21, has a Bachelor of Sport and Leisure degree from Waikato University; he is doing a season on the family farm and enjoying milking cows before he heads to Europe for his OE. Kurt, 19, has a Diploma of Agriculture from Lincoln University, and has headed back home to work for a local contractor, driving tractors. The Arnolds’ youngest, Carlie, is in year 12 at Morrinsville College.

Dairy New Zealand, the Frasers have carried out weekly pasture walks and used feed wedges to monitor pasture availability. “We haven’t looked back and I believe anyone not doing this is missing out on at least 5-10% production,” says Duncan Fraser. In late January, the Frasers hosted the Sanson/ Bulls Discussion Group, which concentrated on practical pasture management and how to get the best results – “It’s a great way to share ideas with other farmers.” The couple operate an almost all grass-based system, with 60% of the property irrigated. The only supplement is 20 tonnes of hay fed out in the winter; 180 tonnes of maize is grown off farm as an “insurance policy”. The equivalent of 150 cows are wintered off farm for six weeks; all other cows remain on-farm.

Duncan Fraser has worked in the dairy industry for 24 years, after taking on a part-time relief milking job as a 16-year-old high school student. Northland-born Kim has recently given up her job as a farm consultant with Dairy NZ to work Duncan full-time on the farm. Duncan says they are now actively looking for a 50:50 sharemilking position up to around 500 cows: “We’d like to stay in Manawatu, but would consider moving south if the right job came up.” If nothing turns up in the short term they will stay with their current owners, Des and Marion Webb, for another season. ”Des and Marion has shown a lot of faith in us, allowing us to treat the herd as if it were our own, and to make the improvements that needed to be made on-farm. We’re really grateful for the opportunity we’ve been given here.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Craig & Dee Hockly

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

South Taranaki farmers Craig and Dee Hockly inside their new Waikato 60-bail rotary dairy shed, complete with the Afifarm herd management system.

Hi-tech shed result of long search Sue Russell After 12 months of travelling the country looking at dairy sheds, Craig and Dee Hockly settled for a Waikato 60-bail rotary, complete with the modern technology of a Afifarm herd management system. The new system includes Afimilk, measures milk production twice a day as an aid to management of the milking process. Replacing his old 40-bail shed gave Craig – who farms in South Taranaki – the chance to look seriously at available milking systems. The Afiact monitoring system he chose gives him animalhealth and breeding data from pedometers on the cows’ legs, which makes it possible to have detailed knowledge of each cow. Also included is the Afiweigh – walk-over weigh scales that record individual cow weights each time they leave the milking shed. Building the new $1.65 million rotary shed and feed platform went well, although some delays

couldn’t be avoided, he says. The new shed is also on a different site, positioned in the middle of the farm and giving both herds the same distance to travel to milking. “I wanted to be in and using the shed by April 2013,” he says, “but we were delayed by changes in foundation compliances from the Christchurch earthquake resulting in a lot more reinforcing work.” While the heifers and young cows took to the new shed ‘like a duck to water’, it took some patience and time for the older cows, more used to the old ways, to cope with the new environment. “We’re saving a good hour and a quarter off milking time from the old shed. That builds up to be a huge saving over time.” The farm carries a herd of 600 crossbred cows on its 168 effective hectares; to assist with supplementing feed, a further 26 hectares are used to grow maize. Craig is the third-generation Hockly on the farm. He returned there 19 years ago. Since taking over, Craig and Dee have bought a neighbour’s block and

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extended the herd to 300. They have since bought two other neighbouring blocks, which gives them the capacity to carry their present herd size. “I like having 600 cows, but I would never say that’s the size it will always be,” says Craig. “Opportunities always come along.” Deanne looks after the farm accounts and shares responsibility for rearing the calves with Craig’s father, John. Mainstay employee Brendon Fleming has been on the farm for 10 years. The other farm worker, Brian Flynn, is in his third season and will be moving on at the end of this season, something Craig says is important for him in advancing his career in farming. “I will advertise for a new worker to replace Brian. From experience I’ve learnt to rely on a gut feeling you get from talking to potential staff. If you find it hard to maintain a conversation, then it isn’t going to work.” The farm is eight kilometres from Hawera, and Craig says the year in-year out weather conditions

mean it dries out regularly. Given this, the drought conditions of the 2012-13 season had a comparatively small impact on productivity. The goal for this season is to 290,000 kilograms of milksolids. He bel;ieves the ultimate goal of 300,000kg is achievable and all to do with the tweaking of feed in the dairy shed to promote optimum cow condition. When Craig, Deanne and their children, 10-yearold Lara and six-year-old Ryan, returned from their annual holiday at Urenui b each over New Year, Craig began putting time into setting up “on-farm” health and safety systems. These apply to anyone working on the farm, and include visiting contractors. “Farming has always been mostly about applying common sense, but that doesn’t work any more in these days of liability with health and safety,” says Hockly. “So these systems I’m working on are really important and worth putting good energy into creating.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: John & Erika Fransen

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Never discount the value of a good wife Karen Phelps Total determination and a good wife are the keys to successful farming, believes Morrinsville farmer John Fransen. “My wife (Erika) has been very helpful and supportive. In the early years, she was very actively involved in working on the farm as well as raising five children,” he says. “We’ve been through droughts, high interest rates and near bankruptcy, but we’ve stuck with it and never given up.” The Fransens – who today farm their 512-hectare unit, Emeraldvale, at Tauhei in partnership with their daughter, Rita, and her husband, Clayton – come from a varied background. Erika was raised on a sheep and beef unit at Tapawera, near Murchison. John, originally from Holland, arrived in New Zealand as a lad and grew up in Hamilton. It didn’t take long for him to become interested in the cows on his neighbour’s property. He left school and took on a farm cadet role for five years on a unit at Te Aroha, bought his first cows when he was 20, and went sharemilking in Te Puke with a herd of 150. After he met Erika, the couple bought and developed various dairy farms before buying their present property. Emeraldvale, formed in 2005, has grown to milk a mixed herd of 850 cows through a newly built 50-a-side herringbone dairy shed. As a smaller unit – 260 cows before land acquisitions – the farm was producing 75,000 kilograms of milksolids. In 2012-13 its 750 cows produced 250,000kg milksolids in a season of major drought. This season the herd has been increased to 800 and the target is 275,000kg. The land is still being developed (the last land acquisition was 38ha last year) and the Fransens are cultivating and putting in a summer crop – 40ha of maize – to put back into new grasses. Around 1400 metres of water lines have been put in recently, and paddocks are still being re-fenced. Clayton and Rita manage the farm; John is

employed on a wage and helps out where needed. A new all-gravity effluent system has a weeping wall for solids separation and a lined 9200-cubicmetre storage pond. The liquid effluent is spread over the dairy flats through a low-rate sprinkler system. Emeraldvale winter-milks and is concentrating on increasing per-cow production by improving feed, says John Fransen. They presently buy in 300-400kg/cow of palm kernel each season. Apart from this, the unit is self-contained and cows are wintered on farm. The Fransens could never be accused of not diversifying. They are involved in two other equity partnerships. With their son, Ivan, they own a 1200ha sheep and beef-grazing unit in the Bay of Plenty where they run 1700 ewes and 1000 grazers, and grow 200ha of pine trees. They are also involved in a 100ha dairy-goat farm at Tauhei with Stanley and Felicity Wilson. “We’ve worked hard; we’ve had no family money,” says John Fransen. “It’s stubbornness I suppose that meant we have never given up.” His advice for younger farmers is simple: “Be smart with money – there are not many jobs we don’t do ourselves. And, of course, be totally determined to succeed.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: John Butterworth/Robert Gibson Methodist Trust

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Young farmer’s success ‘quite incredible’ Karen Phelps Rotorua-based John Butterworth admits he never thought he would be able to achieve such impressive results – he has taken his parents’ 186-hectare (effective) dairy farm from best production of 149,500 kilograms of milksolids to being on target for 250,000kg this season. It’s the result of dedication, talent and hard work on the part of Butterworth – a 26-year-old, 50:50 sharemilker on the property – and his staff, over the past five years. “I never dreamed that I’d be able to get the farm to the level it is now, but it’s quite incredible what can be done.” His success was recognised in 2012 when he was Central Plateau Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of the Year and runner up in the nationals. He hopes what he has managed to achieve will provide inspiration for other dairy farmers. Butterworth has his sights firmly set on farm ownership. He is fulfilling a three-year sharemilking contract and plans to buy into the farm, which has been the family for 29 years. The sheep-and-beef unit was converted to dairy in 1990. Even though he was raised on a dairy farm, John Butterworth trained in sheep and beef, following in the footsteps of his relatives who own a property down the road. He did a sheep-and-beef course at the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre where he won a scholarship with to work on one of Landcorp’s properties.

All my classmates were dairy farmers and I was quite envious seeing the gains they were getting in their lives.

He headed to the 4000ha Mangamingi Station where, over five years, he worked his way up from farm trainee to stock manager, and completed a Diploma in Agribusiness Management through AgITO. It was then he decided to change career path to dairy. “All my classmates were dairy farmers and I was quite envious seeing the gains they were getting in their lives. At one point, a bank manager came to the class and we had to sit with him and do a proposal; he offered to back me right then and there to go sharemilking if I wanted to.” At the same time Butterworth’s father had an accident, which forced him to take a step back from the family farm leaving the door open for John Butterworth to go 50:50 sharemilking. The family farm was underperforming and he saw the opportunity and the challenge of getting things running to peak. He instigated a programme based around pasture, cows and feeding. The primary thrust was on increasing herd indexes, and he achieved this through getting to know each individual cow, something for which he claims a natural instinct. He culled hard – a 25% replacement rate each year; breeding worth (BW) across the herd now averages 118, and [production worth (PW) 156. When he took over, most of the farm was covered in browntop, so he instituted an aggressive re-grassing programme and applied large capital amounts of fertiliser. Butterworth has concentrated on establishing a mix of good perennial ryegrasses and clover, with a preference for Trojan. The farm has gone from producing around 9.5 tonnes of dry matter per hectare each year to just over 14 tonnes per hectare. Another big change has been in feeding regimes. An in-shed feed system has reduced waste and ensured that all of the cows are fed equally – which, he says, gives him more control and evens out the herd. Maize silage is fed on a feedpad. Each cow receives around 1.1 tonnes of dry matter a year. The herd of crossbred cows is milked through a

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Young Rotorua sharemilker John Butterworth has achieved impressive results on his family farm at Mamaku Village. 48-a-side herringbone shed. Butterworth admits he hates milking – in fact he gets in the milking shed only at the weekends. The 283ha (total) property, on the edge of Mamaku Village 15 minutes from Rotorua, is dotted with rhyolite rocks and little hills where Butterworth

has planted a crop of pine trees as an additional income stream. He also runs around 60 deer that are bred and sold as weiners. John Butterworth’s parents, Jack and Shelley, both help on the farm.

Farm helps fund students Sue Russell A legacy from a Scot who farmed in South Taranaki has contributed more than $3m in the last 20 years to support students of agriculture Robert Gibson emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in 1886, and established a farm at Riverlea, near Manaia. When he died in 1932 he left the properties in the Robert Gibson Methodist Trust, trust, to be administered by the Methodist Church for the benefit of young people. The original terms of the will provided for the establishment of an orphanage, but this was deemed impracticable. A group of local people, under the leadership of Magnus Hughson, considered alternatives and the trust deed was approved by the then Supreme Court in 1965. The current beneficiaries are tertiary and school students, and students of Wesley College. Smaller amounts are distributed for youth ministry, and the erection and maintenance of the Robert Gibson Memorial Hall in Manaia. Grants are made primarily on the basis of need, with preference to Taranaki students, agricultural students, and students from Methodist and Presbyterian backgrounds. Recipients have to be New Zealand citizens. Current trust chairman Bill Yateman says the

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board members are extremely proud of the trust’s achievements: “It has made a real difference to many tertiary students, enabling them to obtain qualifications. Tertiary grants are in the vicinity of $1000-2000, with around $65,000 given annually, and a further $55,000 is given for students at Wesley College.” The farm was originally two adjoining properties (130 hectares total). The trust board bought a small farm at Pukearuhe and leased an adjoining property. When the lease expired in 1983, the board bought a 65ha farm close to the original properties. This farm was sold in 2004 and a 123ha property abutting the rear of the original properties was acquired – a 253ha block, farmed as two units. “Trust board membership is skills-based,” says Yateman. “We have farmers, a solicitor, a retired bank manager and a past administrator, together with the general secretary and Lower North Island synod superintendent of the Methodist Church. We also employ a farm consultant, who is an integral part of the farms’ management.” Justin Feek and his wife, Naomi, who 50:50 sharemilk on the 123ha home farm unit, say their working relationship with the board’s farm committee is excellent. “They are extremely supportive of us,” says Justin. “Naomi and I have been working our way up from lower-order sharemilking positions to AUDIT • TAX • ADVISORY

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Dries & Mary de Jong

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Couple seek perfect match Karen Phelps Mary and Dries de Jong take a very individual approach to their breeding programme, mating each cow with the bull they think will match the deficits in the cow. “We’re not looking for a breed; we’re looking for a cow that milks well and handles the weather,” says Dries. Their herd, which numbers just 150, is an eclectic mix of jersey, ayrshire, friesian, brown swiss and milking shorthorn, all intercrossed. They were attracted to brown swiss, which is a popular breed in Europe and North America, when seeking genetics that would enable their herd to deal with the vastly fluctuating weather conditions in the Tararua district of the Wairarapa. “If we can breed an animal that can deal with the changes, our production doesn’t vary much,” says Dries. Six years after introducing brown swiss to the herd, they are pleased with the results. “They take a year longer to mature. We milk them as two-year-olds, but it takes another year for them to reach their potential. However, once they’re there, there’s no stopping them,” he says. “They are very strong, fertile cows and bring more size and capacity to the herd, but they produce lower milk volumes than friesians.” He says that because the breed is not well known by Livestock Improvement Corporation, brown swiss do get penalised in terms of breedingworth and production-worth figures. But, still, their figures stack up with the national average. The de Jongs’ herd has a BW of 70 (the national average is 83) and a PW of 100 (national average is 102). But they value traits other than production strongly. Dries de Jong comes from a small village in

Wairarapa couple Mary and Dries de Jong have an eclectic mix of jersey, ayrshire, fresian and brown swiss, all intercrossed, in their herd. the Netherlands and worked on dairy farms during his school holidays. He studied at an agricultural college before heading to Canada to work on a dairy farm for a year. He was attracted to New Zealand by the sharemilking system and the opportunities it presented – unique in the world, he says. He worked on various farms in roles from farm assistant to manager. When he and Mary married, they took on their first sharemilking position together and worked their way through the system. In 2000 they bought their 60-hectare (effective) farm between Pahiatua and Eketahuna, where they

milk their herd through a 12-a-side herringbone shed. The farm is supported by a 20ha run-off used for growing silage and winter grazing. They run the farm on biological principles using no chemicals. If cows are ill, the de Jongs favour homeopathic remedies, but will use antibiotics if necessary. Production last season was down to 41,000 kilograms of milksolids because of the drought. They are on target for 50,000kg milksolids for 2013-14. This season they will continue to put bulls over their herd – selectively. They chart out all of their

cows pre-mating and decide which bull they will use for each cow. “For example, if a cow is high in litres but low in protein and fat tests, then we might put a jersey bull over her,” says Mary. “If she is high in tests but low in litres, we would look at a friesian or brown swiss bull.” Dries says he has always had an intense interest in breeding, but put it aside to concentrate on farm ownership. With that goal achieved he is free to indulge his love of seeking “ever better” animals. And they are having success; LIC has contractmated one of their kiwicross cows.

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where we are now. The board gives us plenty of opportunities to make our own farm decisions.” Plans for property include building a 40-a-side herringbone dairy shed in the middle of the farm, which will involve developing a tanker track. This work is due to start this summer. Life on the farm was been very busy through spring, but things have settled down a little, says Feek. “Last year, because of the drought and drying our herd of 360 friesian/friesian-cross cows off early, our milk production dipped. But, this season,

we are well ahead of last season on milksolids production. Our goal this season is 145,000 kilograms of milksolids.” Bill Yateman, who now lives in New Plymouth but originally farmed in the Manaia district, says all those on the farming committee have had their own farms and are committed to the ideals of the trust. “South Taranaki is one of the best dairying areas is the country. The more we look at the farms, the more we appreciate this locality. Even in the drought last year, we found the farms recovered quickly. Climatically, they are in an excellent situation.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: John & Wendy Allen

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Breeding goals recognised Sue Russell Lightburn Holsteins has produced its best bull yet – Lightburn Fireraze-ET S2F has been ranked 12th in New Zealand by New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd. Stud owner John Allen says it’s proof that the stud is heading in the right direction after just seven years of breeding bulls for AB companies. “We’re very pleased that our breeding goals are being recognised as breeding good stock for the national breeding objective.” He is continuing to use multiple ovulation and embryo transfer (MOET) technology extensively. In his 2013 calving, 85 calves born from embryo transfer resulted in a total of 100 calves bred from his top 20 animals. He has also dabbled with less success in transvaginal recovery (TVR) technology on yearlings as part of the Discovery Project, a joint venture between the Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) and the New Zealand Holstein Friesian Association. TVR involves inserting a needle into the ovary to remove oocytes, which are then fertilised in a test tube before being implanted back into recipient cows. With MOET, hormones are used to mature the eggs inside the cow, which is then artificially mated. The embryos are flushed out a week later and implanted in a number of cows. TVR would give Allen the ability to get more progeny from his yearlings. He had two heifers in the Discovery Project, but obtained just five embryos from one of them, which he considers a poor result. Thirty-seven heifers took part in the 10week project, and other farmers had more success. As part of the Discovery committee, he will be assessing the results and looking for answers as to why some heifers produced good numbers of embryos and others performed poorly. Allen and wife Wendy farm 247 hectares at Kairanga, near Palmerston North, on which they sharemilk 720 cows. Their herd breeding worth of 123 is in the top 5% in New Zealand for holstein friesians; the herd’s production worth is 143.

The value we are putting on cows now is affecting the type of cows we breed for the future.

Lightburn Holsteins’ Lightburn Fireaze-ET S2F has been ranked 12th in New Zealand by New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd. The Allen herd’s average protein-to-fat ratio of the milk was 85% last season when the Fonterra average is around 76%. The herd produced around 400 kilograms of milksolids per cow even in the drought. The farm’s bulls have also been popular. Twentyseven are being genomically tested by LIC,15 by CRV Ambreed and two by Liberty Genetics. Allen, who is also a NZ Holstein Friesian Association councillor for the lower North Island, is vocal about the importance of good breeding for the industry and is involved with the discussions around the National Breeding Objective. “The values we are putting on cows now is affecting the type of cows we breed for the future. We need to get it right now to ensure that in the future we are breeding the right type of cows.” The Allens have just installed 5.5 kilometres of new water lines and troughs on their farm and will put in an additional 15 kilometres to complete the project. The couple have their sights firmly set on owning their own farm and are keeping their eyes peeled for the perfect property.

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NZ youth breaks new ground Fifteen aspiring young breeders came together for New Zealand’s first all-breeds youth camp at the Manfeild Park Statium, Feilding from January 25-28. Stephen Booth, the New Zealand Holstein Friesian Association which co-ordinated the event, says the response was very pleasing. Participants’ ages ranged from 15 to 26, and there was a good spread across the breeds. The common factor was their interest in learning about the art of showing and breeding, New Zealand’s individual breed societies have run similar camps, but this was the first cross-breeds gathering. Booth sees considerable advantage for the participants in meeting likeminded peers from other breeds. An all-breeds youth camp has been held in Australia for some time, and the NZ Holstein Friesian Association, in conjunction with Romanac Stud, has sponsored young Kiwis to attend this event. The aim of the camp was to develop young people’s skills in handling stock, showing and its attendant clipping, preparation and requirements, and judging. In addition, they were given opportunities to enhance their public speaking confidence, and social interaction skills. The core activity was working in groups on a project to market a technology. This involved bringing together the full mix of skills – stock,

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marketing, promotion. The youth camp was also timed to lead into the the New Zealand Dairy Event, which followed at Manfeild Park on January 29-31. To begin with, the organised timed the event to precede the NZDE because they thought that youngsters would be interested in going to it as well. However, the link evolved into something stronger. The youth-camp participants were involved in helping with stock leading up to the NZDE, culminating in a practice mini-show and then the youth show at the NZDE. They also had the opportunity to be part of the national youth challenge event at the NZDE. The youth challenge is a contest between teams of five. In involves public speaking, agricultural knowledge, stock skills, clipping and preapring an animal for showing, judging, and a quiz. Teams accumulate points across all of these activities. John Allen, the New Zealand Holstein Friesian Association’s councillor for the lower North Island, sees the concept of an all-breeds youth camp as an opportunity for building relationships and encouraging enthusiasm for livestock, and the art of showing and breeding. It’s about bringing the next generation through,” he says.“There is not a lot of this type of training for young people in New Zealand and we see a need.” says Allen.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Noldy & Bev Rust

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

The little guys have ‘a large part to play’ Kelly Deeks Running 200 cows on a 52-hectare (effective) farm at Te Pahu makes Noldy Rust a smaller-herd farmer, and for the past couple of years, he has been involved with SMASH (Smaller Milk and Supply Herds) – a group of farmers offering support, information and a sense of community for smallerherd farmers. Rust, now SMASH’s national committee chairperson, believes the group offers huge value to smaller-herd farmers through presentations from speakers and opportunities to network with other farmers with herds of similar size. “The good thing about New Zealand’s dairy industry is the fact that farmers are happy to share their knowledge and stories,” he says. “They get a buzz embracing new ideas and making them work. That’s something that’s unique and a real strength of our industry.” More than 58% of New Zealand’s dairy farm businesses have fewer than 350 cows, he says. “Smaller-herd farmers may not be seen by the industry, but we have a large part to play. A lot of dairy farmers still like to be one-man bands.” Rust and his wife, Bev, changed their farming system about five years ago. They moved from a relatively all-grass system to a more intensive system, lifed their stocking rate from 3.2 to 4 cows per hectare, and brought in maize and palm kernel. “We started growing maize on the run-off block and we put on 30 more cows,” Rust says. “We tried to feed them better, really looking at our comparative stocking rate and how much feed we

need for them all the way through the season. In the Waikato we can grow maize cheaply, so we’re growing 4ha on the home farm as well.” Around the same time, he took a sideways step away from the farm when he started working as the King Country area manager for Pioneer Brand Products, and employing a farm manager to run the farm. Bernard Kelly is now in his second season as the Rust’s farm manager. An expat Irishman, Kelly married a Kiwi girl and set his sights on New Zealand’s dairy industry before he even arrived in the country. He had three years’ experience working on dairy farms before he started with the Rusts, and has completed AgITO courses. “Our farm is a perfect stepping stone for people like Bernard,” Rust says. “He’s making changes and he’s really grown it to another level.” One of the major developments under Kelly’s management is his attention to detail in maximising pasture use and using maize silage effectively to optimise cow intakes, says Rust. With Kelly and the Rusts focused on maximising per-cow production, they are trying to make sure the cows are being fully fed all season. Rust says that over the drought of last season, he learned that having feed on hand is like having money in the bank. “We had maize on hand and palm kernel on contract, and we managed to keep milking through the drought. “We were feeding about 90% supplement for about six weeks, but even at the low pay-out last year, we can still make a profit.”

Bernard Kelly (left) is in his second season as farm manager for Noldy Rust (right), who runs 200 cows on a 52-hectare farm at Te Pahu. Rust is national committee chairperson for SMASH (Smaller Milk and Supply Herds), a group of farmers offering support and information to smaller-herd farmers.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Roger Dettling

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Curtain set to fall on Dettling dairy dynasty One full-time staff member is employed on the farm, Albert Dettling looks after the run-off and young stock and is on call, and Mary Dettling does the farm bookwork. It’s a farm that has been in the Dettling family for Roger Dettling says the biggest challenge facing three generations, but now it’s time for the family to the farm has been high somatic-cell counts, which sell up and let somebody else take the reins, says they are seeking to address. After having had no Roger Dettling. heifers in the herd for two years (he admits this has According to Dettling the farm is ripe for not helped their cell count), they have introduced 90 development – it has a 60-bail rotary cowshed with this season. capacity to easily milk 1000 cows. They have been culling heavily based on cell “Someone will probably come in here and put count and are focusing on general milk hygiene on a feedpad and increase cow numbers. There’s as well as good mixing of teat spray. They have a lot of smaller areas of land close by that could be purchased. We positioned the cowshed for growth.” invested in a Dairymaster ClusterCleanse system, which completes a His grandfather backwash of chlorineJosef, bought the original It’s a bit sad, but we’re treated water after each 25-hectare property at cow has been milked. Midhurst, which sits at the also looking to the future The system will pay for foot of Mt Taranaki, moe itself in one year, says than 50 years ago. Roger. Roger’s parents, Albert and new things. There’s “The cost of this and Mary, took over and system is no more extended the farm, which always something else than the dumped milk now totals 190ha (160ha and gradings,” says effective). Until recently around the corner. Roger Dettling. “It has the farm was larger, with definitely meant fewer a separate 90ha block cases of mastitis and with its own dairy shed it’s stopping the spread from cow to cow.” and a 86ha farm with a dairy shed across the road Cell counts started at 46,000 this season, the from the home farm. The three farms were milked lowest they have ever been. Over September the separately. count has been averaging 130,000, compared with After completing a National Certificate in Agriculture level-three and level-four course with the the 350,000 of last season. A lot of attention is being given to managing Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, Roger Dettling pasture. The farm has acquired a pasture meter returned to work on the family farm in 2006. that attaches to a motorbike, allowing the farm to To begin with, he managed the three separate farms. The home farm and the farm across the road be assessed in just 90 minutes, and enabling faster and more accurate farm decisions. Dettling has were later combined to form one dairy unit and a also been following the Dairy NZ rotation planner, fully automated 60-bail rotary shed was built in and has improved planning and grass management. 2008. The 90ha farm was then used as a run-off Normally around 200 tonnes of palm kernel is until it was sold recently. bought in spring, but because of the better pasture The Dettlings now milk 400 predominantly planning and the mild winter, only 20 tonnes of friesian cows on their 160 effective hectares, and use a further 25ha of the farm as a run-off. Roger is meal was bought for this season. Around 10ha of presently contract-milking the farm until it is sold. • To page 15

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Nigel & Juliet Riddell

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Above left: They’re all Riddells (from left) – Thomas (Nigel’s son), Roscliff Ivins Gilda ET Ex, Ross (Nigel’s father), Thornlea Jos Dolly Ex, Nigel, Ellie-May (Nigel’s daughter). Above right: Roscliff Mans Dennie, Ex3, one of the Thornlea herd’s feature cows,.

Equity partnership family affair Kelly Deeks Fourth-generation jersey breeder Nigel Riddell has this season stepped up from the sharemilking industry into an equity partnership with his wife, Juliet, and parents, Ross and Esme, on a new farm near Otorohanga, which combines his and his father’s stud herds. Riddell has been milking cows for just four seasons, leaving sales and marketing behind to follow his calling. He is extremely active in breeding and his jersey stud, Thornlea, carries the same name as the stud started by his great grandfather many years ago in Te Puke. Riddell says he owned his first animal when he was about 10, a pedigree jersey his father bought for him at auction. “She was absolutely useless,” he says. “The

second and third ones were as well, so I started doing some homework and I established what I was looking for over time. It fast became my passion.” Riddell has always worked in the dairy industry...as a stock agent, auctioneer, manager of the marketing service for Jersey New Zealand, working with dairy stud cattle in the United States and Canada, creating a rural photography company, CowShotz. “I never milked a cow for a living, but I helped out in the cowshed as a young fellow,” he says. “It was something I probably resented at that stage! “Now, operating a dairy unit by yourself when all you’ve been doing is selling products to dairy farmers for a long time was a big learning curve. It wasn’t easy, but it was the best way to raise equity towards our goal.” The Riddells’ first sharemilking contract was a two-year stint: “We had no staff and did it all

ourselves. I did all the farm work and Julz reared the calves. She comes from a townie background and has become a very useful part of our partnership. She now does all the AB and rears the calves, as well as doing all the books.” Since they joined forces with his parents, the stud has become stronger than ever, he says He reduced his herd from 470 cows to 230, and sold property to buy a share of the new farm. After his father’s small herd had been incorporated, they sold 240 in-calf animals. “The cows we retained were all the cows that we wished to work with. We kept all the pedigree jersey cows that have a lot of history, and we believe we can do good things with them.” When the Riddells arrived on the new farm it was pretty well set up, except the feedpad was too small for the number of cows they intended to milk.

“Rather than extend the feedpad, we worked out that we could put a meal-feeding system in the shed for half the cost,” says Nigel. “We’ve fenced all the waterways to comply with the Fonterra sustainable improvement plan, and we’ve started development work on one section of the farm that needs a lot of drainage and contouring.” The Riddells believe the strength of their stud herd is in cow families, rather than the latest fly-bynight bulls: “Our cow families can be traced back to the 1880s and they have proved they can deliver the goods.” The family competes at local shows as well as at the New Zealand Dairy Event in Feilding every year. Last season, Thornlea won the national individual two-year-old cow, with a cow sired by a bull from Vision Genetics, the AB company formed by the Riddells seven years ago.

Farm ‘ripe’ for development • From page 14 the farm is planted in crops each year with mixed success. Fodder beet has proved difficult, time consuming and costly to grow, but kale has proved a winner. Grass kept growing over last winter, giving the Dettlings a good start to the new season. The farm is heading for record production. The targeting is 150,000 kilograms of milksolids, up from the 126,000kg produced last season. Once the farm is sold, Roger Dettling plans seek a lower-order or 50:50 sharemilking position on a

smaller farm as well as continue with the AI run he does for Livestock Improvement Corporation. “My partner, Sam, and I have a couple of small children now – Charlotte, 18 months, and Taylor, 6 months – so I’m looking for something where I can spend more time with the kids.” He understandably has mixed feelings about relinquishing the land that has been in his family for so long. “It’s a bit sad but we’re also looking forward to the future and new things. There’s always something else around the corner.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Justin & Liesl Downing

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

A quality feeding regime and a lot of attention to pasture management keeps Justin Downing’s 510 friesian-cross cows in top shape on the family farm near Morrinsville.

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Karen Phelps The cows on Justin and Liesl Downing’s farm have to be fit – they need to walk 1.8 kilometres uphill to reach the furthest paddock. Despite this, the herd still peak-milks 2.2 kilograms of milksolids a day. “It has been a real achievement to get the cows milking so well because they’re working hard,” says Justin Dowling. The key has been better feeding. An in-shed feeding system installed in 2007 has enabled them to feed an average of 600 kilograms per cow of bought-in supplement each year. This included palm kernel, molasses and maize. Better pasture management has also been vital. With such steep areas on the farm (one fifth of it has to be aerial-topdressed as the terrain is so challenging), the Downings need good pasturemanagement systems, including regular farmwalks, to maintain a high quality. The Downings milk 510 friesian cows through a 36-a-side herringbone shed on their 185 hectares (effective) block (198ha total) They employ two fulltime staff. Lloyd keeps his hand in on the property feeding calves, fixing stuff and driving the tractor. In 2007 the farm produced 200,000kg milksolids with 580 cows; now the same production figure is achieved with just 510 cows. Using good quality semen from Livestock Improvement Corporation has helped, and this has been complemented by quality feeding. The Downings winter on farm and grow 4-6ha of maize.

It has been a real achievement to get the cows milking so well. Following a mild winter, their target for this season is 205,000kg milksolids, all going according to plan. Seven years ago Justin and Liesl bought their own farm around the corner from the home farm. A contract milker milks 290 friesian-cross cows through a 26-a-side herringbone shed on the 100ha property. The Downings, who have two children (Anica, 6 and Delta, 4), believe in tight control of spending even when the payout is good; they prefer to put the extra cash into debt reduction. Their main aim at the moment is to reduce debt to safeguard them against interest-rate increases and get them into a position where they can buy the family farm. The Downings moved to Morrinsville about 20 years ago. After doing a Diploma in Farm Management at Lincoln University, Justin worked on farms in the South Island before heading off for his OE. He returned to New Zealand and worked as herd manager on a couple of farms in the Waikato. Twelve seasons ago, when his family bought more land and expanded the farm, he moved home to go into an equity partnership with his parents, Lloyd and Olwyn.

DAIRY PEOPLE: HSS Genetics

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

We are all very interested in genetics but the main driver is that we have a lot of fun together.

Jan Schep (left), an Olympic horse breeder and one of the largest dairy farmers in Holland, with HSS partners (from left) David Fullerton, Henk Smit, Theo Griffioen and Alister Hall.

Breeding ‘all about taking risks’ Karen Phelps HSS Genetics stud has a unique approach to breeding. Rather than own animals individually, the stud partners own genetics together. “We’re not too hung up about who owns what; we just grow the pie and share it. The main thing is to have fun,” says Henk Smit, who is one of the stud owners. HSS (which stands for Hi Speed Sustained) Genetics was started more than 10 years ago. Today, it involves: Henk Smit; his sons, Floyd and Ryan; North Island dairy farmer David Fullerton; South Island farmer Alister Hall; and Dutch farmers Kees Lambalk and Theo Griffioen. The stud sells holstein friesian semen, bulls and embryos. In general, it deals with CRV Ambreed and Liberty Genetics, and markets genetics under the stud banner. Some genetics are sold overseas. Each of the partners develops genetics individually on his own farm, and the best genetics are then shared with the group. On Henk Smit’s farm, for example, there are no dedicated stud animals. “We really focus on population genetics over the whole mob rather than individual cows,” he says. As an example of how the stud functions, Alister Hall has just produced a bull, Stravaganza, that has been ranked highly by CRV Ambreed. The mother will be sent to Smit’s farm for embryo transfer as the process can be performed more easily there because of the location of technicians. Once Smit produces a good cow from the process, he’ll keep some of the calves and send some to Hall and David Fullerton. The stud’s organisational approach may be unorthodox, but it seems to be working. Take the example of Skelton, a bull Smit produced in 1989. “Skelton’s grandmother was bought from the saleyard as a cull cow and her grandson became one of the legends of the dairy industry,” says Smit.

“To this day he’s still in the pedigrees of a lot of the best bulls in New Zealand.” “You can’t predict things in breeding. You’ve got to create opportunities and hope for the best. Breeding is all about gambling and taking risks.” This philosophy can be seen in the fact the stud does not sell bulls outright, preferring to lease them and take a cut of royalties. “We prefer to take a risk and get the possibility of good royalties and longer income rather than a one-off sale. Everything in life is a gamble; you’ve got to try and roll the dice and get as many sixes as possible.” Smit, who moved to New Zealand from Holland, has had a lifelong interest in breeding and genetics. He came to New Zealand in 1985 with $4000 and, eight years later, owned his first farm. He studied at an agricultural university in Holland majoring in economics, breeding and animal feeding. When he arrived in New Zealand he was employed by Livestock Improvement Corporation to research somatic-cell-count data. Always interested in the practical side of farming he then took a job on a dairy farm and realised his real passion lay out in the field, not behind a desk.

By 1993 he owned his first farm: “It was just about jumping on opportunities and hard yakka,” he says. That farm was a sheep-and-beef unit he converted to a 180-hectare dairy farm milking 300 cows with the help of a financial partner. Two years later, the farm was sold and Smit bought his own sheep-and-beef property at Winton, in Southland. He converted it to a 120ha dairy unit milking 250 cows. Ten years on, in 2005, he moved back to the North Island buying a 120ha unit milking 450 cows at Cambridge, which he sold in 2009. Today Smit is in equity partnerships with his sons on dairy farms, and owns a horse stud at Kaipaki, running 50-60 horses. Paxton Park Stud breeds warm-bloods for show jumping and eventing, and thoroughbreds for racing. He admits that his breeding philosophy has changed since his sons have come into the business. Floyd is an equity partner on 324ha at Tirau, milking 500 cows and farming 500 drystock cattle, a mix of young stock and trading cattle. Ryan milks 400 cows on 133ha near Cambridge. “If I look back 15 years ago, I wanted to breed

the highest producing cow I could,” says Henk Smit. “But the boys have brought different ideas into the business. We are now focusing on breeding an easy-care cow – low somatic cell count, gets in calf easily, easy to milk – that produces well. The aim is to breed a herd that produces 100,000 kilograms of milksolids with one labour unit.” He sees the main benefit of HSS Genetics in the fact that all owners benefit from one another. “I’ve certainly learned over the years that nobody has all the answers when it comes to breeding, and that, together, we can create something really nice. We are all very interested in genetics, but the main driver is that we have a lot of fun together.”

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ON FARM: Henry & Jason Christensen/Greg Maughan

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Expansion tied to caring for environment Kelly Deeks Father-and-son dairy farmers Henry and Jason Christensen have expanded their operation – 12 months after they went into equity partnership on their 110-hectare, 200-cow farm in the Wairarapa. Jason – the fifth generation of the Christensen family to work on the home farm – is runs the farm and manages the two staff, while Henry takes care of the maintenance work, except for spring, when it’s all hands on deck. The purchase of the new property, a 400ha neighbouring block, has allowed the Christensens to up their cow numbers to 400, milking off 150ha with the remainder used for run-off and some of the hill country in Queen Elizabeth II Trust land. Once the purchase of the was finalised, the Christensens built a new 44-bail rotary dairy shed to replace the old 16-baile rotary that had been built in 1971. The new shed has a Mifos heavy duty iDURO rotary platform, an iDATA management system, and an iCONVERTER milking system, which manages milking, heating, and cooling - it heats the water at the same time as it cools the milk, which produces some great savings on electricity. Meal feeding and heat detection in the shed are also helping the Christensens to tackle their 14% empty rate from last season. The new shed was built by Foxpac Cowsheds,

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and the plant was installed by Cooper Farm Services. The old shed is now being used to milk the colostrum mob. The Christensens have a policy of environmentally friendly farming, saying it is important to them to produce safe products and to protect their waterways so that everybody gets clean water further down the stream. Four blocks of their hill country is in QEII Trust land, and a recent visit from a QEII representative unveiled the presence of rare brown mudfish in their waterways. “They were surprised to find them there,” Jason Christensen says. “They are classified as endemic to New Zealand, vulnerable and declining, so there’s another important reason to look after our waterways.” The Christensens’ environmental policies cover everything from fertiliser to fencing. A lot of fencing work has been done on the home farm, and the Christensens have been working on fencing off waterways on the new block for the past couple of years. The first creek crossing was installed about 10 years ago, and, now, on the home farm all the creeks have been fenced off and culverted. The Christensen farm suffered through the drought last season, losing 3-4% of production. They started drying cows off in February, but got through to the middle of May before the last ones were dried off, and still milked twice a day.

Work starts on the new 44-bail rotary dairy shed (above) on the Christensen farm in the Wairarapa, while (left) a digger excavates a trench for new water mains.

They ended up producing 112,000 kilograms of milksolids in 2012-13, and this season they are targeting 125,000kg – with high hopes for more.

They are ahead of target and say they are having a great season despite some windy weather that has caused a few power outages.

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Karen Phelps Determination, motivation and plain hard work have helped Greg Maughan achieve farm ownership despite not having a family background in farming. “I’ve had no family money and have got where I am by pushing the boundaries,” he says. “If you have a goal, save 50% of what you earn, make some sacrifices and go for it, there are plenty of opportunities out there.” Maughan, who grew up on a small lifestyle block in the Waikato, says he “saw the light” on a dairy career literally. One morning when a young lad, he saw the light on early in a dairy shed and wondered what was going on. At 13 he decided to become a dairy farmer and began working weekends and holidays on a dairy farm for Ray Johnson, from Te Awamutu, who would become an important mentor. After leaving school he did a farm cadetship, winning the cup for most promising cadet in his first year, coming runner-up in his second year and winning it again in his third year. He started working as a contract milker at the age of 18 on a 110-cow farm for Johnson. “I credit him with laying my foundations. He was a ‘do it once and do it right’ kind of guy. He’s 80 now and I still call in on him from time to time.”

Because of his youth, Maughan found it difficult to secure another contract-milking position, so a year later, moved to manage a 180-cow farm at Ohaupo for a year. Jobs at Otorohanga and Te Kowhai followed, and then experience on a dairy farm in the United Kingdom. As luck would have it, the man who had been building a cowshed on the Otorohonga farm also happened to own a couple of dairy farms. Les Woods was so impressed with Maughan he snapped him up when he returned home from OE. Maughan spent two seasons 29%-sharemilking on Woods’s 230-cow farm at Ohaupo, the next two seasons 50:50 sharemilking a 160-cow farm at Cambridge, and then six years sharemilking a 230cow farm at Te Awamutu. His Young Farmer club involvement, through which he judged a farm on flat land at Marton, got him his next position. The farm-owner just happened to be thinking of converting to dairy and wanted Maughan to take on the sharemilking job. He increased cow numbers from 430 to 700 over 10 years before buying his own farm nearby. He continued to sharemilk until 2004 when he sold his herd and shifted to his own farm. He now milks 400 friesian cows through a 30-a-side herringbone shed on his 125-hectare (effective). Because of the farm’s wet, clay soil, a feedpad and a herd shelter have been necessary

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ON FARM: Paul Franklin

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Dam plan offers water security Sue Russell The loss of irrigation to his Hawke’s Bay farm for three and a half months during last season’s drought has spurred Paul Franklin into action. He is looking into building a 400,000-cubic metre dam on the Waipawa River, which is the source of water. The water would be stored from the Waipawa’s winter flow and would be available for use in irrigation if the river reaches its minimumflow level. Until the 2012-13 drought, water restrictions typically came into effect and cut irrigation to the farm for only about 10 days a year. Having the security of this storage capacity would increase his peace of mind when river levels next drop, he says. The need for irrigation became obvious after his first three years of dairying (he converted from sheep and beef in 1996). However, despite the set-backs from lack of irrigation over the summer of last season, Franklin is happy with this season’s progress. “It has been good to see that milk productivity has bounced back since the big drought. We’re up 15-18% on last season’s total and expect to produce 900,000 kilograms of milksolids this season.” After graduating from Lincoln University in 1979 with a degree in agricultural commerce, Franklin returned to the family block, which was then a

In beef and sheep there are too many middle-men taking their cuts.

LEFT: A river runs through it: the scenic Waipawa River is the crucial water source for Hawke’s Bay farmer Paul Franklin’s farm. sheep-and-beef operation. Over the next two years, the farm was expanded. Twelve years on, in 1994, he went out on his own, still in beef and sheep. Two years later, he converted to dairying. “Both dairying and sheep-and-beef cycle up and down, but the gradual trend has dry stock decreasing and dairying cycling up. In beef and sheep, there are too many middle-men taking their cuts,” he says of his decision to convert. A sharemilker worked the farm for five years

farmer who ‘saw the light’ improvements. An up-to-the-minute effluent system, with mechanical separator and a fourmillion-litre storage pond, built in 2012 gives him the capacity to put on effluent when conditions are right. A ReGen weather station, combined with sensors in the ponds, provides data on rainfall, soil temperature and moisture. Maughan says that, after a lengthy development phase, he is consolidating and concentrating on the basics. He is also tuning systems and developing operating manuals to make life easier for his two full-time staff. Staff work a five-days-on, two-daysoff roster for most of the year. “I remember when I started farming, we got only a weekend off a month. I wanted to give my staff good working conditions. I don’t believe that working on a farm should be any different from working in town in that respect. It also helps attract good staff.”

“You’re in luck, we can spread your Muck.”

Maughan has had a heavy involvement in the broader dairy industry too. He was on the Fonterra Shareholders’ Council for five years, and has been an entrant and the convener of the Sharemilker of the Year competition, and chairman of the national committee. He has also chaired the national committee for the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and has just completed four years as a member of the Dairy New Zealand Human Capability Leadership group. He recently took the 12 finalists for the Dairy Trainee of the Year awards, who were aged between 18 and 30, on a three-day study tour “It was one of the most rewarding things I’ve been involved with in the dairy industry,” says Maughan. “Meeting motivated young farmers who will go places gives me faith in the industry, and motivates me as well.”

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until 2001 when Franlklin bought his own herd and took over the running the operation himself. He bought additional support blocks in 2008, then two further properties, in 2007 and 2011. He now has a total milking platform of 1200 hectares, with as additional 300 hectares in two support blocks. Between the three farms, the business milks more than 3000 friesian and friesian-cross cows through two 50-bail rotaries and one herringbone shed.

Franlklin has 22, mostly Fililpino, staff working across the three farms, and he gives them plenty of credit for their strong work ethic. Each of the three properties has a farm manager, and Paul Franklin’s wife, Rosemary,looks after the increasing amount of administration for all three farms. Franklin himself is hoping to gradually take a step back from the day-to-day, hands-on running of the farms – although he’s the first to acknowledge that this will be easier said than done.

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ON FARM: Jarrod Greenwood & Ian Strahan/Wing Point Station

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

DCAD diet deals to disorders Kelly Deeks Contract milker Jarrod Greenwood is on a learning curve this season with a new job on Ian Strahan’s farm near Opiki in the Manawatu district. Strahan has owned the farm for three seasons. The pair are using the Dietary Cation-Anion Difference (DCAD) concept pre-calving, to control milk fever and hypocalcemia. With a dairy cow’s metabolism under severe stress as she transitions to lactation, her body has a high nutrient demand to meet requirements for milk production. During the early lactation period, cows are most susceptible to some diseases and metabolic disorders. Hypocalcemia, or low blood calcium, resulting from inadequate calcium metabolism, is common among fresh cows and can lead to milk fever and other health disorders. Greenwood and Strahan use a DCAD diet for three weeks before calving, feeding the cows up with maize and restricting their intake of grass to ensure they have a negative pH balance in their stomachs once they calve and start lactating. Greenwood has got the hang of the system and says it has benefits that reach into the day-to-day running of the farm during calving. “Our cows stand on the feedpad all day to consume their transitional feed and return to the paddock at night for their allocated 1kg of grass per cow” he says. “We leave the ones that have calved behind in the paddocks so that we’re not having to chase cows around and run them all into the shed. It is a lot less stress on the animals.” Greenwood is targeting production of 500 kilograms of milksolids from each of his 350 cows this season; the cows averaged 465kg milksolids last season. “That’s where the nutrition really comes into

The Strahan farm near Opiki, in the Manawatu, is targeting production of 500kg of milksolids per cow this season. effect, just fine tuning the cows,” he says. “We grow really good grass here, so we are trying to find where we can make a little bit more production.” With 3.4 cows to the hectare, Greenwood is running quite a high stocking rate, so starts to feed out chicory halfway through September. The farm has 21 in chicory this season.

He also has a new role and as convener of his local Dairy New Zealand discussion group for the Central Districts. This is also a learning curve for him, he says – having to be the talkative one who keeps people interested and attending the group discussions, and persuading them they can get something out of it.

Manager takes slice off cost Kelly Deeks

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Greenwood says high-input farmers in the area feel the discussion groups aren’t geared towards their needs: “But it’s great to hear the range of feedback you get from the groups,” he says. “It makes you open your eyes and see where you can make improvements.”

Landcorp’s Wingpoint Dairy farm manager Casper Meyer has reduce the farm’s production cost from about $5.30 to $3.85 per kilograms of milksolids over the last couple of years.. The reduction has come mainly through a move from high inputs to low inputs. However, the same time, the stocking rate on the 322-hectare Wairarapap property has also been lowered 1050 cows to 900. “That has helped reduce our feed costs, and we’re now making a bit of silage on farm and growing our own maize on the run off block,” Meyer says. “That has reduced the cost of feed to about 20c a kilo. We’ve also cut our labour costs, with fewer staff for fewer cows.” He says the reduction in cow numbers has allowed the farm to produce consistently to a level of around 360,000 kilograms of milksolids each year. “We’re looking at much more sustainable profit levels every year, and in a low-payout year, we can still make something.” Meyer also points to a change in the use of the farm’s run-off block. It used to be where the cows were wintered,.But Meyer says the land is not suitable for that purpose because it gets extremely wet, and the soil structure

is such that winter crops cannot be planted there successfully. As a result, 350 of Wing Point’s 900 cows are now wintered off the farm, and the remainder still at home. “Three seasons ago we started using the run-off block for growing extra feed and rearing young stock,” Meyer says. “We’re now rearing 180 heifers that used to be transferred out, so that is another saving for the farm. “That has lifted the return on the run-off block with our income from young stock. This year we’ve reared 400 calves; next year we will rear 500; and that contributes about 40c per kg of milksolids to our profit.” However, the introduction of a new Landcorp policy will see an increase in the farm’s cost of production this year. Staff working hours are no longer allowed to exceed 110 per fortnight, even during calving. “We will have to look at employing a full-time tractor driver,” Meyer says. “With that, the cost of production per kilo of milksolids will increase, but our overall income will also increase with the calf sales.” Meyer has been working on Wing Point for the last six years. At the age of 47, he has a plan in place to facilitate his exit from the dairy industry in about 10 years. He has been researching beekeeping and is

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ON FARM: Jason Halford

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Cows eat way to records on ‘never-gohungry’ basis Karen Phelps The cows on the farm Jason Halford sharemilks decide how much they want to eat each day. He’s a big believer in putting high-quality feed in front of cows and letting them eat as much as they can. “Cows can eat a lot more feed than we give them credit for, and will do, given the opportunity. I’m just giving them the opportunity to eat more. “It does turn into a fussier cow, but that just means you have to keep doing things even better. I believe that through quality of feed, we can increase the capacity of the cows.” Halford is in his third season 50:50 sharemilking a herd of 265 predominantly friesian cows at Opiki, south of Palmerston North, for John Seymour. The 91-hectare (effective) farm – a new conversion from a beef fattening block – has a 30-a-side herringbone shed. Halford acknowledges his system is simple –

of production looking for a North Island property with lots of manuka trees where he will eventually be able to set up an operation with more than 100 hives. But for now, he remains keen to make an impression on the dairy industry in New Zealand. “There are lots of little things I’m looking at, that could be ways of making more money,” he says. “At the moment I’m working on an idea involving chicken coops trailing behind cows. They lay eggs, then open up all the dung heads and get rid of the fly larvae. “They reckon your farm will be fly-free within a few years, and you will have the extra income from the eggs.”

but, as he says, it works. “Cows never go hungry. Seventy-five per cent of their diet is pasture and the remainder is supplements.” He uses farm walks, monitoring of growth rates, soil testing, assessing weather conditions and being proactive in applying urea to achieve high-quality pasture. “It’s about doing simple stuff consistently,” he says. Key is making sure cows are always in front of feed: “If a paddock is not cleaned up, I don’t force them to eat it because that restricts how much they can eat. It means this is undesirable feed they didn’t eat the first time. “Cows are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. It’s like kids – if there are peas and chocolate, they will choose the chocolate. If they can’t be bothered eating it, they will just wait until they’re moved onto the better pasture. “There are only so many hours in each day and, therefore, only so much time a cow can eat as she obviously needs to sleep, socialise etc. Grazing

He has been researching beekeeping and is looking for a North Island property with lots of manuka trees where he will eventually be able to set up an operation with more than 100 hives.

In the past three seasons, sharemilker Jason Halford has lifted production from 500 to 600 kilograms of milksolids per cow on the Opiki (near Palmerston North) where he 50:50 sharemilks for John Seymour. time is precious, so I want to make the most of it and feed has to be good quality.” If the cows reject feed, Halford is happy to top: “That grass then goes into the soil, which helps to grow more grass. I don’t see it as wasted; it’s all adding to the organic profile of the soil.” Halford grows chicory crops on about 14% of the farm. It’s part of his re-grassing programme and also provides top-quality feed for summer. A snapshot of his feeding regime shows cows receiving four kilograms of crushed barley and 1kg of palm kernel in the shed, with the remainder of their feed coming from pasture. From this, the cows are producing 2.95 kilograms of milksolids per day. After leaving school Halford worked as a dairy assistant on a 220-cow farm at Pahiatua. This whet his appetite for the dairy lifestyle and, back from his OE, he went to Massey University to do a Bachelor of Applied Science. He progressed quickly through the dairying ranks, rising to a managerial position in two years and winning the national Dairy Farmer of the Year title in 2011. Wife Nikki does the business accounts and helps as needed. The couple have a 10-month-old son, William. In the past three seasons Halford has taken

Cows are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for. It’s like kids – if there are pease and chocolate, they will choose the chocolate. production on the Opiki property from 500kg to 600kg milksolids per cow and has constantly exceeded targets. His first-season target was 100,000kg milksolids, but he achieved 133,000kg. In his second season the target was 140,000kg; the result was 158,000. This season the target is 177,000kg. Although feeding is a major priority, Halford is quick to point out that it is still secondary to breeding. “My highest-breeding cows are producing the most milk, and I am using DNA proven semen this year to speed up my breeding programme.”

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ON FARM: Graeme, Stu & Brad Burling

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Winter-milking bonus on dry block Kelly Deeks

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Beginning winter milking last season has allowed the Burling family to capitalise on the drier land of their 150-hectare, winter-milking block. Graeme Burling and his two sons, Stu and Brad, own the family farm near Sanson in the Manawatu. Last year the family added to the 440ha farm with the purchase of a neighbouring 95ha block. They also brought another 30ha block they owned neighbouring into the milking platform and set off winter-milking 230 cows. “We were a bit light on numbers, but the farm hit 390 kilograms of milksolids per cow,” says Stu Burling. “This season we’re aiming to do the same production per cow, but with 290 cows. We might get a bit less with it being more heavily stocked, but we’ve got the land over there to do it.” The limiting factor on the winter-milkers’ block is the dairy shed – a 16-a-side herringbone shed is scheduled for replacement with a 36-a-side herringbone over summer while the winter-milk cows are dry. Development on the block started last season with the construction of a 400-cow yard. Burling says the winter-milk farm has really complemented the spring-milking operation, where 1100 cows are milked through two dairy sheds on the original block.

“When we have a few empties, especially young empty cows we would normally carry over, we can now send them over to the winter-milking side.” With additional cows needed for the wintermilking herd, the Burlings have held off culling for the past two seasons. “There’s a bit of rubbish in the herd at the moment, but we’ve got a good crop of replacements coming through this season and we’ll cull a bit harder,” Stu Burling says. The spring-milkers produced 300kg milksolids per cow last season, and the Burlings are aiming for the same this season. They hope a 25ha block bought in Foxton last year and put into maize will allow them to see an increase in production next season. “This is our first crack at maize,” Burling says. “We’re budgeting 500 tonnes of maize silage from that block. From there we need to work out how much to feed and when, before we see how much production increases.” The Burlings run a mainly pasture-based system, feeding out 2kg of palm kernel per head on the winter-milking block last season when the drought took hold. “We’ve got no irrigated land, and summer is a bit dry for us anyway,” Stu says. “We had a lot of grass silage made the previous year that we hadn’t used. Since the drought, we’ve been feeding out non-stop from January, the wagon’s been going flat out.”

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Having spent a month sorting out herd records when he started as farm manager on Mike Moran’s South Wairarapa farm last season, Cory Wildman can now manage the cows much more effectively and is set for a second record-production year. Wildman is milking 600 cows on a 201-hecatre farm at Kahutara, in the Wairarapa. He says there was a lot of work to be done when he, wife Crystal and their three school-aged children arrived to take over from the previous sharemilker – there were 73 double-ups and triple-ups of tag numbers in the herd. After a month of comparing MINDA herd records with birth IDs and tags, Wildman got the herd sorted and was able to tackle the next issue – condensing the calving spread. “In my first season here, we had a long, drawnout calving. Our last cow calved when we killed our bulls, about January 20.” After 34 cows were culled and replaced with young stock, mating produced quite a good empty rate of 6.3% over the whole herd. Wildman used the Why Wait programme and 150 off-sync and CIDRs to bring cows forward to the first two weeks of mating. He condensed the calving spread to 14 weeks after the first cow calved on July 15. “We got more days in milk and we weren’t losing production waiting for cows to calve,” he says. “We still had to pull the pin at the end of the

season because of the drought, but we did a record of 197,000 kilograms of milksolids, and this season we’re on track for 225,000kg.” Post-drought, Wildman has been concentrating on pasture renovation – 20% of the farm was regrassed last season, and he is aiming to regrass a further 15% this season. He has just started using plantain after a trial run last season proved it would grow well. “We’re growing our grass with urea, as it’s what the business needs,” he says. “My travelling irrigator, called Berta, spreads effluent for 20ha around the cowshed, so we use no fertiliser there.” Wildman has split the cows into two new herds, after running one friesian herd and one jersey herd last season. “One thing I noticed last season was that we had a lot of bullying. We decided to run it differently this season, and I’ve split them into young and old girls. The young girls are producing a lot better, and they’re not getting beaten away from the best looking grass.” The farm is now running three herds – the result of Wildman pulling about 20-odd cows “that were a bit light” from each herd and milking them once a day. He and his two staff spend about seven and a half hours a day milking the cows through a 34-bail rotary dairy shed. Wildman, who has been dairy farming in the Wairarapa area for 17 years, says he is working his way towards a contract-milking position. He hopes to get to 50:50 sharemilking in about six years.

ON FARM: Neil & Glenda Gray

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

The Hauraki Plains farm owned by Neil and Glenda Gray has been in the family for nearly 100 years.

Couple value historical family links It is healthy to think

Sue Russell One of the gifts that comes with owning a farm that has been in the family for nearly 100 years is that your relationship to farming carries a sense of stewardship with it. For Hauraki Plains dairy farmers Neil and Glenda Gray, this is very much the case. The couple bought the original 70-hectare family farm block, 10 minutes’ drive from Ngatea and Thames, in 1996. Over the next 15 years, additional blocks – 116 hectares in all – have come into the farm. Two other small support blocks – one owned, the other leased – are 15 kilometres away from the main farm. The farm has a total effective milking platform of 220 hectares. While this season started very well following a “kind winter”, Neil Gray feels the quality of the pasture has been below average, and his 650 kiwicross cows have been milking only average. “We can usually rely on 1000 kilograms of milksolids per hectare, and now that we have added a covered concrete wintering pad and we’re

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that there will always be innovation and new technologies in dairying. tweaking feed systems with some supplementary feed, our goal is to produce 240,000kg milksolids this season,” he says. Building the wintering pad’s foundation began in February last year and construction of the pad began in early May. “We went with a company called Aztec Farm Buildings, which constructed the roof. They partnered with Warren Davenport Builders, from Morrinsville, who took care of all the concrete work.” The key driving force in the decision to put in the pad was to get the cows off the soil in winter with the aim of minimising pugging damage.

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Gray is philosophical about the changing nature of dairy farming. With his family having farmed in the same district for so many decades, he has a close relationship to that history – and to the hard work and good future-bearing decisions his forebears made. “I think it is healthy to think that there will always be innovation and new technologies in dairying,” he says. “Go back 40 or 50 years and you could house maybe 80-100 cows in a barn. But now, with farms becoming bigger and trying to do more with fewer staff, new approaches to farming have been created. I expect this will always be the case.” From his perspective, the covered wintering pad offers two big positives. In winter he can minimise the volume of effluent he has to deal with, and in summer when the temperatures get quite high, the building offers the cows some respite from the sun.” The milking side has been taken over by contract milkers Kylie and Mike Cox, who are in their third season. This frees Neil to concentrate his energy on the business of the farm, on herd testing and on rearing calves. Glenda helps with herd

testing and calf rearing, and also takes care of the administration and finances. Plans to expand the farm are not part of the couple’s strategic plan: “With the current unit we have got, we have reached our ideal size, and that feels good,” Neil says. That’s not to say the Grays are not interested in developing other farming connections. “We have invested in a large-scale farming operation in Chile,” says Neil. “It’s a passive investment, but it’s also really interesting for us to see how the enterprise has grown to date and it will develop.” He is keen to encourage and support the next generation of farmers. “My ancestors helped provide the platform for me to grow from. When they came onto the land a century or so ago, it was developed from swamp land. With these connections to the farm going so far back, it puts our journey and tenure on the land into perspective.” Eventually, the Grays may move to one of their support blocks up in the hills, which commands an extensive view over the Hauraki Plains.

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ON FARM: Ollie & Kim Gibberd

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

The 850-hectare Te Hara Moana Maori Corporation property, near Taupo, has been split into two farms with two dairy sheds.

Reduction in workload opportune Kelly Deeks Ollie Gibberd’s workload has been cut in half this season as the 850-hectare Te Hara Moana Maori Corporation farm he has worked on for eight seasons has been divided into two, each with its own dairy shed. Gibberd is now managing one 950-cow block. He is suffering from kidney failure and has been continuing his dialysis treatment at home every second evening for the past 18 months. His new

management position takes some pressure off as he was previously lower-order sharemilking 2500 cows. “Sometimes I get a bit tired, but its child’s play now with 950 cows,” he says. “When we did 2500 cows, sometimes the cow shed never switched off between morning and afternoon milkings.” While he enjoyed running the larger herd, he says the 60-a-side herringbone shed with rotating breast rail was too small, and it took so long to milk. “Big numbers don’t scare me, but the facilities

were too small. It was hard on the staff and hard to manage them.” He now has four full-time staff, plus part-timer back-up, and his wife, Kim, does the calf rearing, administration and cow records for both farms. He prides himself on his people management, saying communication is a two-way process and organised management filters through the whole system. “We have good rosters that have worked for several years. Year round, our system is six days on, two days off. “Everyone knows the importance of their jobs, staff are in control of their time off, and we always get a fresh person coming back on every two

days.” A few staff go back five or six years. The feeding of young stock at the run-off starts in December and goes until August: “We were feeding a lot of stock, and you’ve got to feed your people too. We provided breakfast at the cowshed through the spring, and tried to let our guys know we can’t do it by ourselves.” The ‘pretty much’ self-contained farm grows silage, swedes and kale on the adjacent 250ha runoff, which supports both units. Cows are wintered and young stock reared there. The farm has recovered well from the drought and no feed was bought in for the winter. Gibberd is targeting production of 1100 kilograms of milksolids per hectare.

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South Taranaki farmer John Luond is the first to say he never planned to become a big dairy farmer when he started out in 1975 with 40 hectares and 100 cows. “I left school at 15. Never did so well academically, but my father who emigrated from Switzerland was a hard worker and a good farmer and I have always worked hard.” He bought his first land at auction for $94,000, and paid it off in 11 years. He retained this block, and also went into partnership with older brother Donald for nine years on 57ha – “a choice bit of land” - at Mangatoki, near Eltham. When Donald wanted to make changes to his lifestyle, John bought his 51ha farm on Mangawhero Rd and Don kept the Mangatoki farm. Dead flat and with no waste, the property is run by a lower-order sharemilker and produces 60,000plus kilograms of milksolids from 170 cows. “I was also keen to buy the farm behind my original block. It never pays to fall out with your neighbours because the day may come when their

land comes available and being on good terms can make all the difference in the world,” he says. When that neighbouring 51ha property became available in 2003, he was thrilled to buy it. The adjoining farms were run as individual units for three seasons, each milking 160 cows, and a 44-bail rotary shed was built in the middle with a 1km tanker track running along the side boundary of Luond’s home farm. When son Phillip bought 63ha on the other side of the road in 2010, an underpass became a necessity. John has leased the farm and extended his milking platform to 154ha. Cow numbers have increased to 500 and the ‘licorice all sorts’ herd is milked by Phillip, daughter Gina and married couple Kelvin and Chantell Phillips. The operation produced 222,000kg in 2012-13 and this season’s target of 240,000kg is looking highly achievable. Additional feed, provided year round, is mixed and measured through a De

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ON FARM: Ross & Suzy Bolton

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

NZ’s biggest chicken farm takes shape Karen Phelps Ross and Suzy Bolton are in the midst of constructing what will become New Zealand’s biggest chicken farm on their dairy unit. Stage one of the farm, which will see 50,000 chickens raised on their property, will be operating by this April, and within a year, nine sheds will have been built. The complex will be capable of housing 500,000 chickens. The Boltons – who will own the land and the buildings, which will be leased to Tegal – say the venture is their way of diversifying. The chicken farm will be built on land previously

operated as a quarry from their property. “The quarry had come to the end of its useful life and we had to decide whether to turn the land back into productive dairy land, which would take time, when Tegal approached us,” says Ross Bolton. “The chicken farm will provide better returns.” . It is just over a year since the Boltons handed their farm, Grassmere, over to Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, which has taken on a contractmilking position for the couple. The farm, at Egmont Village between New Plymouth and Inglewood, has a total milking platform of 320 hectares. The herd is made up of 750 friesian and friesian-cross cows.

Farm managers David and Lee-Ann Sharp talk turkey with farm owner Ross Bolton (right). The Taranaki dairy farmer is diversifying into chickens with plans to build nine sheds housing 500,000 birds on an old quarry site on the property. It’s a reduction in herd size from 850 the previous season, which Ross Bolton says, has made management easier and enabled them to cull the older cows to concentrate on per-cow production. This is the result of having to buy poorerquality cows in the spring when they acquired a neighbouring property several years ago. The farm is managed by David Sharp, a past Massey University graduate with a Bachelor of Agriculture degree and a post-graduate diploma in rural studies. Three staff are employed and students studying in North Taranaki are rostered onto the farm for full working days for up to two weeks at a time. Bolton says the main benefit has been freeing up his time to work on the business. “I’ll never step back and do nothing. I’m still out on the farm, but my time is better spent on working on how to make the farm more productive. “There’s no magic bullet – it’s about doing what you’re doing, but doing it better. Taratahi has allowed me to be able to stand back and look at the farm objectively.” One example is that this season he has had time

The milking shed on the Bolton property.

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basis for farming journey Laval meal-hopper with magnesium, calcium and molasses added. A 16-hour milking rotation when climatic conditions require, as the stocking ratio is relatively high at three cows per hectare. Heifers are grazed mostly off farm on a leased 12ha runoff 7km away, and on a 47ha former dairy farm at Kaponga bought two years ago as run-off. The run-offs also produce extra supplement. John Luond is still very much hands-on: “My work is my sport. I like going to work every day and I’m quite happy to carry on as I am for as long as it takes.” Wife Win is a keen horse-trekker, and they are heading to the Wairau Valley, in Marlborough, in March to do part of the Great New Zealand Trek. The Luonds also have two daughters. Gina helps is one of the main milkers on the farm, and Tracey is in the hospitality industry in Australia. John maintains his success has sprung from basic and simple ways of working: “I worked hard to be free of debt as soon as possible, I maintained good relationships with my neighbours, and accepted that on a bad day all you can do is the best you can.”

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to identify the poorer performing pastures through a combination of observation and soil testing. “It turned out to be the paddocks we had been cropping and taking silage off. We had thought these were the good parts of the farm, but maybe we had pushed them too much. Now we are applying specific capital dressing on these particular places in addition to our general fertiliser programme over the whole farm.” Another tweak to their system has been feeding cows more over winter and early spring to lift performance. They feed 550-600 tonnes of maize and 60 tonnes of palm kernel each season. Last season the Bolton herd produced 250,000 kilograms of milksolids with 850 cows during the drought. Despite the smaller herd, they are on target for 280,000kg thanks to an excellent season weather-wise. “I like the concept of having training on the farm and putting something back into the industry,” says Bolton. “Taratahi was doing a good job, had identified areas in which they can improve. I think these changes will be positive and I’m looking forward to seeing how things pan out.”

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ON FARM: Carlos & Bernice de los Santos/Matt & Naomi Hoskin

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Hard yards, good teacher pay off Sue Russell Carlos de los Santos’s commitment to knuckle down and work hard for more than a decade is beginning to reap rewards for the young man, his wife, and their two pre-school children. The 30-year-old, who moved to New Zealand from the Philippines in 2001, is the only one of his family of four siblings to go farming. His commitment to carve out a career has been hallmarked by several moves as he has worked his way up to variable-order sharemilking on the 180 hectare (effective) farm he runs near Walton, in the Waikato. “I’m in my fourth year on this farm owned by Tim and Wendy Watson, and I partly own the herd of 600 jersey/jersey-cross cows,” says de los Santos. He employs three full-time staff – an Argentinian couple and a farm worker from Sri Lanka. The farm has a 46-a-side herringbone shed and the herd is milked in two and a half hours. Freed from the milking shed, unless required, de los Santos spends his time planning pasture rotation, checking the property, and dealing with maintenance issues as they arise. While most of the farms around the area run friesian/friesian-cross herds, he says the lighter

Carlos’ crew (from left): Carlos de los Santos; his son, Carl; farm worker Chanaka, from Sri Lanka; farm workers Marcos and Maria, from Argentina; Carlos’s wife, Bernice; and their daughter, Claire Nicole. jerseys are ideal for the hilly and sometimes steep terrain. “We needed to have a lighter cow or otherwise considerable pasture damage would happen over winter.”

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Two years ago, production was running at 183,000 kilograms of milksolids; in the droughtaffected 2012-13 season, that dropped to 173,000kg, but with a mild 2013 winter and good growth, this season’s 210,000kg target looks likely to. Eleven years ago, needing a job, bored and having heard you didn’t need to be a brain surgeon to be a farmer, de los Santos decided to give farmwork a go. “I didn’t get paid for the first two months for my first job, as I got used to what farming was about. That was at Mangakino. I found the farm, asked if there was any work, having push-biked for an hour. “They took me on and, by the time I finished working there, I knew the basics. The boss of that 1000-cow farm taught me a lot.” His decision to move was prompted by a desire for a higher position, qualities he found in his next position as second-in-charge on a Maori trust farm. After a year there, he secured a sharemilking position with a 300-cow herd near Kiwitahi, near Morrinsville, for three years.

“I was told not to move too often from farm to farm. In your first year on a farm you don’t get too much out of it. “In the second year you start to do well, and in the third year you start humming away. It was good advice. Four years ago we found his present job at Walton.” This June the family will move to Pio Pio, to a larger farm (also owned by the Watsons) and carrying 1300 cows. All of his staff will be moving to Pio Pio as well. de los Santos’s approach to getting the best possible production figures from his herd is to pour as much feed as possible into the cows in the first part of the season. “You do as much production as you can for the first six months, then whatever you get from January is a bonus.” When it comes to staff, he says he likes to employ people with little or no experience, either locals or from overseas. “I like teaching my staff so that they learn farm practice the way I want them to.

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Kelly Deeks As one of Morrinsville’s Stolle specialty milk producers, 50:50 sharemilker Matt Hoskin has to make a high level of hygiene in the dairy shed and excellent somatic cell counts a priority. He has been running 380 cows on the Kiwitahi farm for the past four seasons, having stepped up from a 180-cow 50:50 sharemilking job in 2010. The larger herd required Hoskin and his wife and chief calf rearer, Naomi, to employ a staff member; they took on a farm assistant to fulfil the labour requirements of the farm. Hoskin says he and Naomi have been working hard to build their equity, with the aim of reaching their long-term goal of farm ownership. “Coming here has provided really good leverage to take that next step towards farm ownership,” he says. “We’ve grown in the last four years.” As a Stolle farm, the Hoskins have to run a very

tidy operation. During the Stolle season – which runs for 10 weeks during spring until November – their cows are injected once a fortnight with a range of standardised bacterial antigens. The milk is processed into a dried, standardised, pasteurised whey substance that is sold in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, as well as in New Zealand. With Fonterra’s Stolle plant based in Morrinsville, all of the Stolle farms, about 100, are in the Morrinsville area. Hoskin, who also ran a Stolle farm on his previous sharemilking job, says knowing the system was helpful when the couple took on their new job. “Stolle farms have got to be tidy, with high levels of hygiene,” he says. “The sheds need to be good, the operators need to be good, and the somatic cell counts need to be low.” Farm-owners Paul and Marg Rowe are supportive, as they have been in the same position as the Hoskins, working their way through the

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ON FARM: Braeside Dairies

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Genetic-gain cows ‘at top of their game’ Neil Grant Getting a genetically superior herd of cows to increase production without having to increase the herd size has been Brent Pocock’s focus over the last two seasons. Pocock manages Braeside Dairies, on the outskirts of Palmerston North, a 700-hectare (effective) farm peak-milking 1800 mainly friesianjersey cross cows. “We could milk more cows, but we don’t want to put more pressure on infrastructure,” he says. “So we decided instead to go for cows at the top of their game. Better animals means more production per cow. Our philosophy is that numbers gives us choices – we can make informed decisions.” Last season, 240 three to eight-year-old cows that had been empty but had good genetics, and 300 heifers selected from the 440 replacements, had

controlled internal drug release (CIDR) devices inserted on a selected day. The bulls were put out with them 10 days later. Sixty per cent got in calf to the artificial insemination programme. His other 1800 cows were mated using a Why Wait programme that has cows short-cycled and then inseminated when they show signs of heat, a natural cycling programme, and a CIDR programme. This was spread over 10 days and saw 90% of the cows mated over this time. “We have always had good cows, but not as good as the genetic-gain animals we have now created,” Pocock says. “The programme with the heifers provides genetic gain over their dams, and has produced a 50% increase in replacements to choose from, all with higher-than-average breeding worth and production worth scores.” The 650 superior replacements, plus the 1800 in the herd, have given Pocock the ability

speciality milk producers Stolle farms have to be tidy, with high levels of hygiene. The sheds need to be good, the operators need to be good, the somatic cell counts need to be low. system, including some time as sharemilkers. They now own two farms. Hoskin says the inoculations have no negative effects on the cows, their health, or their production capabilities – except for the performance when the technician turns up to give them a jab. He has been tackling the farm’s biggest challenge – reproduction. “We’re slowly making gains there,” he says. “Our first year here, we had a horrific empty rate, but the last couple of years have been better. We’re really working hard to improve reproductive performance.” This includes CIDRing more proactively,

and ensuring that every step of the way, cow condition is right, and feeding levels are right. “We’re using data management every step along the way to make sure we’re hitting our targets,” Hoskin says. “We’re working alongside a vet consultant from LIC (Livestock Improvement Corporation), and my own vet. We’re really close to doing everything we can.” The Hoskins – who have also used Dairy New Zealand as a source of guidance, technical research, and business analysis – rate their farm business management and strategic management as significant in their success.

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Braeside Dairies, near Palmerston North, milks 1800 mainly friesian-jersey cross cows. Manager Brent Pocock (above) says the aim is to create a genetically superior herd of cows raising production. ‘To be able to look at top cows and guarantee heifer calves, you can speed up the genetic make-up of the herd,’ he says. ‘It all comes down to converting grass to higher milk yield,’ to make informed culling choices, and they provide good surplus heifers to put on the local or overseas markets if needed. Mating time was hectic, especially as 300 heifers and 200 cows were in Hawke’s Bay. So was calving, with 1100 cows calving within 10 days. It takes planning and good staff, says Pocock.. In addition, the Pococks have built up a herd of their own, based on heifers bought from the Waikato, put through the synchronised AI programme, calved, and then sent back to the Waikato. A couple of years ago, Braeside jumped the gun and ID-tagged all of its animals before it became a requirement through the national animal identification and tracing (NAIT) scheme. All of the animals have since been DNA-profiled. “We have created animals on farm at their best potential,” says Pocock. A lot of farms have only half-recorded cows. Ours are fully recorded, which allows better culling, and we can breed better animals with better conception rates, and less lameness and mastitis. “We have created a good thing. Length of lactation and production per cow are outstanding. We are a large dairy farm, but with a small farm philosophy.” He says the next step to be examined is to get involved in a sexed-semen programme. This involves laboratories providing AI straws, which currently have a 90% purity of having only female semen cells. The straws are more expensive, but farmers can pretty much guarantee they will be calving only top-of-theline heifers. “To be able to look at top cows and guarantee heifer calves, you can speed up the genetic make-up of the herd. It all comes down to converting grass to higher milk yield,” he reckons.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Gavin Windley & Sonia Ransom/Kurt McPike

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Drought proves rollercoaster ride Karen Phelps

Better times: Gavin Windley with baby Grace and fiancee Sonia Ransom.

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A cracker of a year followed by a drought presented a number of challenges for Gavin Windley, who farms at Orakei Korako, 32 kilometres from Taupo. Especially, as he had just extended his milking platform, increasing cow numbers from 700 to 880. Windley says this decision had its pluses and minuses: “It enabled us to increase production, even with the drought, but obviously on a per-cow, per-hectare basis we were well down on our usual production. It was tough in terms of feed costs, but we also benefited from producing extra milk during that time. It was definitely a long and painful journey for us during the period.” While most farmers in the area had dried off their cows by the end of March, Windley was able to keep milking until the end of May. He figured he could either dry his cows off and still have to feed them two-thirds of usual requirements, or buy in feed and continue to produce milk. The decision left him with no pasture silage and not much crop heading into winter, and he had to buy in palm kernel over this period. Freight was the biggest issue rather than supply, as Windley had been fortunate to secure contracts for a lot of his feed before the drought hit. “The trucking companies couldn’t keep up (with demand), so we had to try to be in the queue early, and we were lucky.” Windley’s farm is comprised of a 170-hectare home farm, a 160ha run-off and two lease blocks – 200ha and 20ha – used as support land. The herd of friesian/jersey cross cows is milked through a 40-a-side herringbone shed with an in-shed feeding system, Protrack and automatic cup-removers. Windley was keen to build a bridge on the 200ha lease block so that part of it could be brought into the dairy platform, and a contractor suggested using an old railway carriage as the

base – a saving Windley estimates of up to 50% on a traditional build. Timber was bolted on top of the carriage. A relatively kind winter and spring and good pay-out in October has helped overcome the effects of the drought, and Windley says he is now back to “ground zero”. Cows have calved in excellent condition this spring because of the palm kernel over winter. For the past two years Windley has not used CIDRs and he hasn’t induced for the past year. With a history of dry spells in the region for the past five years or so, he keeps a keen eye on feed – cost versus results. He has looked at the option of growing maize on his run-off, but decided against it. “This area is not great for growing maize because it is prone to cold and frosts. Since we extended the milking platform, we have already had to lose some land we were previously using as support, so it didn’t make sense to take away more unless we could be pretty sure of the result.” Production is running 4% above the same time (pre-drought) last season. This, in spite of not winter-milking, which he has done for the past two seasons and which, initially, put him 5000-10,000 kilograms of milksolids down on those seasons. With 490kg milksolids produced per cow during the cracker 2011-12 season, that has become the benchmark for the farm. Windley acknowledges weather conditions were ideal that year, but thinks the same figure is achievable again with the larger herd. He is aiming for 430kg milksolids per cow this season and a herd total of 380,000kg. There has been more good news: Windley and fiance Sonia Ransom now have a three-month old daughter, Grace. Windley says the aim now is to look to the future, which might involve converting the run-off to dairy and putting another shed on it or looking at buying another dairy farm.

Once-a-dayers ‘have just Karen Phelps Looking after the once-a-day herd has helped Kur t McPike reduce empty rates and improve cow condition and performance on the 370-hectare (effective) farm he manages near Te Kuiti. All 1020 cows in the mixed herd get equal treatment, and it’s paying off, he says “Some farmers might consider the oncea-day herd as second-class citizens and prioritise the needs of the twice-a-day herd. But, as I see it, they’ve just got a different job to do and they need to be fed right as well,” says McPike, who is in his third season as manager on the farm. The cows are run in two herds because of the lie of the land, which has varying contour and soil types ranging from flat slit loams to steep mudstone hills. Because they are smaller, the jerseys and the young cows are better suited for the longer walks and grazing the steeper land. This herd, which makes up 40% of total

cow numbers, is milked once a day from September, while the friesian and kiwicross cows are run together on the easier land, and milked twice a day. McPike is breeding towards a herd of jersey/kiwicross as the region is prone to wetness. He is achieving this by selling the friesian heifers and buying high-breeding-wor th (BW) jersey and kiwicross carry-over cows in autumn. The herd has a BW of 76/42 and production wor th of 102/71. “The heifers don’t perform as well on this farm because of the steep country. We get only around 240 kilograms of milksolids out of the heifers and 350-375kg from the older cows,” he says. The farm is a system-two unit. Around 200 tonnes of grass silage is grown on farm and 180 tonnes of palm kernel was bought last season. An autumn crop of 30-40ha of kale was being grown, but this took the land out of production in October and it was not back in grass again until April/May, he says.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Paul & Donna Davies

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Cash release ‘a game changer’ Karen Phelps Four years ago Te Awamutu farmers Paul and Donna Davies decided to cash in their Fonterra shares and switch supply to Open Country Dairy. They say it’s a decision they don’t regret. Because they don’t need shares to supply Open Country Dairy, the Davies have been able to invest in and develop their farming business. Since selling their Fonterra shares, they have paid down debt, bought an autumn-calving herd, and put in a new feedpad and bunkers. “Open Country Dairy has some incentives that I felt improved our opportunities to increase production and productivity,” says Paul Davies. “For example, there are seasonal incentives where, if you produce milk at certain times of the year, you get paid more.” At the same time, the Davies moved to split calving to take advantage of the incentives. They started with 130 autumn-calvers and 310 spring-calvers, and have increased herd numbers to just over 500 – a split of 250 autumn-calvers and 260 spring-calvers – to pick up more of the premium for shoulder and winter milk. They have also moved to a more high-input system, and production has risen from 96,000 to 276,000 kilograms of milksolids over four years. They have upgraded their plant and equipment to handle the increased production on their 104-hectare unit. They milk their herd through a 30-a-side herringbone shed, but have installed a larger vat, chillers and a Protrack drafting system, and have invested in larger claws and cups.

The Davies are now consolidating after their growth phase and are fine-tuning their system. In particular they are looking at how they can increase the protein-to-fat ratio of their herd. They are tackling this by concentrating on feeding and breeding. Their targets are production-driven, but they say feed inputs still need to be competitively priced. Their next goal is 600kg milksolids per cow; they managed 550kg last season. The farm is supported by a 52ha run-off block 10 kilometres away. They grew 14.1 tonnes of pasture on farm last season, up from around nine tonnes. This increase has been achieved through a programme of re-grassing, change in fertiliser programme, weed control, and increasing their effluent area to 63% on the farm to encourage more grass growth. For four years they have used biological fertilisers with a compost base. They say this has not only proved more environmentally friendly, but they are also growing more grass, although they acknowledge this is a result of everything they are doing over the whole farm rather than any one aspect. “We use half the amount of urea now and spray this directly on the plant so it is used sooner rather than on the paddock as a solid fertiliser,” says Paul Davies. He comes from a farming background...raised on a farm at Paterangi and working there when he left school doing AI runs and night shooting for the rabbit board. His eclectic career has also included commercial eel fishing, and hunting possums and deer. This set him up financially to buy his first dairy

Switching their milk supply to Open Country Dairy and selling their Fonterra shares has enabled Te Awamutu farmers Paul and Donna Davies to invest in and develop their farming business. cows in 1979, and he then went sharemilking on the family farm for four years becoming a finalist in the Waikato Sharemilker of the Year along the way. This success helped banks view him favourably when he wanted to buy his first farm in 1984. Paul and Donna Davies milked 140 cows and grew popcorn. They weathered the mid-1980s interest rates and payout crisis, which saw rates shoot up to above 20%, by making extra money where they could – AI runs, planting raspberries, Donna taking on a teaching job, growing and manufacturing popcorn. They own Davies Foods Ltd, and sell their

popcorn under the Pop’n’Good and ACT II microwave popcorn brands. Paul is a firm fan of higher-input farming. “It’s amazing when I think of our cows and how they have just about doubled their production. How we used to feed them and their condition is miles apart from what we’re doing now. Our cows now are always in good condition and contented, and animal health issues have reduced markedly. Farming is all about cashflow, he reckons. “Farmers don’t need money tied up in shares. Releasing that cashflow and investing it in our own business was the best thing we ever did. It was a game changer.”

got a different job to do’ “Removing the cropping programme from the system has enabled us to make more grass silage. Silage is relatively cheap feed and, with this land out of the round, it helps keep the pasture quality on the hills during the spring by speeding up the round a bit. “Basically we’re trying to protect ourselves from market fluctuations and have more control over feed in lower pay-out seasons.” McPike doesn’t use CIDRs or inductions, preferring to make sure the cows are in good condition and doing four weeks of AB, then following up with the bulls for six weeks. Empty rates have historically sat around 14%, but last season dropped to 9%. McPike also puts this down to looking after his oncea-day herd and maintaining grass quality on the hills. This allows him to cull more heavily and improve the herd, he says. As a result, production has increased. The farm best before he arrived was 297,000 kilograms of milksolids. He reached 342,000kg in his first season and is targeting 320,000kg this season.

Some farmers might consider the once-aday herd as secondclass citizens and prioritise the needs of the twice-a-day herd. But, as I see it, they’ve just got a different job to do and they need to be fed right as well.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Stephen Sing/Damien Roper

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Son returns on a mission of Sue Russell Returning to work full-time on the family dairy farm at Tatuanui, near Morrinsville, Stephen Sing had some pretty clear goals to achieve. His first season was in 2010-11. He had finished a Bachelor of Agriculture degree at Lincoln University and spent six months getting the feel for hands-on farming at Ngatea, on the Hauraki Plains. His overall aim has been to improve all aspects of the 152-hectare farm’s infrastructure to achieve maximum production and returns from the herd of 580 jerseys. His on-farm development has been guided by this statement of intent. A big project – to replace the two milking sheds with one – is waiting for the green light, It depends on the farm operating to its capacity. However, a new feedpad has already been built on the site near to where the new milking shed will stand. “I think that in terms of everything that needs to be in place, I’m about halfway along the journey,” says Sing. “We are making progress each season with total farm infrastructural improvements.” Last season the farm produced 185,000 kilograms of milksolids, about 20,000kg less than the previous season because of the effect of the drought. But the Sings’ decision to feed out a lot more saw their cows came through the experience relatively well. “We were spending up to three hours a day feeding out at that time. Grass silage in the paddock and maize and palm kernel on the feedpad. We did this for nearly 10 weeks and, while it was a huge time commitment, it was worth it in terms of outcomes.” He says they have been looking carefully at their feeding system, making adjustments season

Stephen Sing with some of his 580 jerseys on the family’s ‘dead flat’ 152 hectares at Tatuanui, just north-east of Morrinsville.

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Damien and Jane Roper see a new 50-bail rotary dairy shed, which will replace two old herringbone sheds, giving their Waverley farm a new lease of life next season. Roper says the herringbones are no longer up to the job. They had been functioning well, but have got old. We’re finding it hard to justify throwing money at two old sheds, and the maintenance has been climbing every year. “Also, Fonterra regulations are becoming more stringent, and rightly so. We want to be the best and cleanest and tidiest producers in the world, and we want to have great facilities.”

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Damien and Jane Roper see many benefits coming from their new rotary shed. The Ropers will amalgamate their two neighbouring dairy farms around the new dairy shed. They have run two sheds for the past five years since buying the neighbouring property and increasing the scale of their operation to 150 hectares (effective) and 475 cows. They made decision about two and a half years ago that a new shed was the best way forward, and began the planning process. They spent around six months considering the location of the new shed before deciding to put it quite close to where one of the herringbones sits. Wind, sun, and views of the mountain were factored into the decision, as well as considerations to the neighbours and the environment. With a 500-cow feedpad to be attached to the shed, it was important to get the elements in the right position for optimum cow-flow. Construction of the new shed will be completed for the start of 2014-15 season. Alan Moulder, from Waikato Milking Systems, is project-managing the job, with Emmett Civil Construction doing the build. Donald Jennings is the engineer for the project, Steve Watson will do a lot of the concrete work (including the feedpad, the troughs, and the silage bunkers), and Mid-West Machinery, Fonterra, and the South Taranaki District Council are all involved in the planning of the effluent system.

DAIRY PEOPLE: Stephen Sing/Damien Roper

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

development

Lower left: Stephen Sing at the front gate of the family’s Tatuanui farm,which supplies the close-by Tatua Co-operative Dairy Co Ltd. The farm’s 2012-13 production was down on the previous season because of the drought, but the Sings’ decision to feed out a lot more saw their cows come relatively well.

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It’s a family farm, with Stephen’s father still working five days a week and doing a lot of the financial dealings as well as maintenance. “He has been milking for 30 years and is enjoying the maintenance work especially these days,” Stephen says. He employs one full-time farm assistant manager, and part-timers right through to February. His mother, Claire, works full-time as a nurse in Morrinsville, but still finds time to look after the books and come to staff meetings. In 2005 Stephen’s parents bought an additional 50ha, bringing the farm to its current size. This season didn’t get off to the best of starts. The farm had an over-supply of feed, but they couldn’t get the heifers to eat it. However, in-calf rates were a very good 80% in six weeks. Stephen says a contributing factor in this very high percentage was his decision to milk the heifers in their own mob until AB was completed.

by season “to maximise outcome from the cost of inputs per cow”. “You don’t have to get something very wrong for it to have a major impact on income.” The dead flat land is good fertile country for the smaller jersey cows, but Stephen Sing would like to breed towards a bigger cow. He has several reasons why the jersey is their breed of choice. “They are very easy-calving and have a really good reproductive performance. They also handle the heat well and are easy to deal with when food supply is tight in winter and drought conditions.” . He describes the herd as almost pedigree and says that each year, some really good cows are beginning to come through. “We’re starting to do some contract-mating for Livestock Improvement Corporation. One of our herds is in LIC’s sire-proving scheme.” Longer term, there are plans to develop a jersey stud, something in which has a special interest.

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milk they’ve produced, what our somatic cell count is... Damien Roper says it is a small team, but very effective. “We’re enjoying going through the process. Our staff are helping us through, and we enjoy Alan’s style of managing the project. He’s full of knowledge and ideas; he’s quietly spoken, but when he speaks, we listen. We’re thrilled to have him on board as it allows us to be 100% focused on our sharemiking job.” The Ropers are absentee owners of their farm as, for the past 14 seasons, they have had their own sharemilking job on Grahame and Diane Lance’s farm, which they say they enjoy very much. With this in mind, the new shed will be decked out with a full Protrack system, with links to the Livestock Improvement Corporation website for MINDA Land and Feed and MINDA Weights data.

“It’s going to be the central hub of the operation,” Roper says. “As absentee owners we can see at the push of a button how many cows we mated that day, how much feed is going in, how much milk they’ve produced, what our somatic cell count is. We can monitor it all from a distance.” He is also looking forward to seeing improvement in efficiencies around labour and feed wastage. “Feeding out on the paddocks, we can waste 30 to 40% of our maize. If we can reduce that to 5%, the whole operation becomes more efficient, and that flows on to better feed for our cows, better reproductive performance, less pugging and more grass grown. “And production should flow through. Everything will be monitored and measured, and compared to the system we run at the moment.”

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Brent & Rachele McLaughlin/Bob & Adam Scott

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Winter milking suits summer-dry Kelly Deeks

Clan McLaughlin: Rachele and Brent McLaughlin with their children (from left) – David, and Kayla, both 12, Sharelle, 7, and Larissa, 5.

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With three years of dairy farming under their belt, former bull and cropping farmers Brent and Rachele McLaughlin are now milking year round on their 155-hectare (effective) conversion. Both of the McLaughlins brought a background in dairying with them when they moved to Central Hawke’s Bay, from the Manawatu. “On arriving we re-fenced and put races in, so every paddock was off races,” says Brent McLaughlin. “We put in more water troughs in more paddocks, and set it up to be easier to shift stock.” But their move to convert was no instant decision, even though plenty of friends and family told them the property would make a great conversion because of its contour. They were on the Takapau farm for 10 years before making the switch. But when they did, it was all action: They decided to convert in April 2011; by August they were milking 230 cows. The new 36-a-side herringbone shed was fitted with a Waikato plant, including cup removers, swing arms, Detect, and auto plant wash. They also added in-shed meal feeders and Protrack. The shed was built in four months by Foxton’s Foxpac Cowsheds. There were still 200 bulls on the farm; after they were killed in autumn, the couple calved another 160 cows. McLaughlin, who now milks 380 cows in total, says winter milking suits the summer-dry area. However, last summer’s drought hit the farm hard. He says he went into summer under-supplemented, and had to buy in a lot of feed at high prices. “But I’m glad we did it, as our cows stayed in good condition and managed to beat our budgeted

production of 160,000 kilograms of milksolids with 163,000kg. All the winter-milking cows were fed was supplement, because we had no grass. They calved on 100% supplement.” With his cropping experience coming to the fore, McLaughlin does most of his own cropping and balage. Following the drought, half of the farm was undersown, and it has recovered amazingly well, he says. “We eventually got rain and it stayed warm all winter. We had a great winter and great spring.” It was still growing well before Christmas when the McLaughlins had 900 bales of balage on hand, and another 400 to harvest. Last year the McLaughlins bought a 34ha run-off block just down the road, where the spring calvers are wintered and 15ha of turnips grown. Eighteen hectares of the home farm grows maize, and once that is harvested, goes into oats, then turnips, and then new grass. The McLaughlins use little urea – about 100kg of nitrogen. McLaughlin says he wants the clover to make its own nitrogen. “All our soil tests are good apart from lime and magnesium. For the past two years we have been applying four tonnes of lime mag per hectare.” They use CRV Ambreed for their AI, and this season are aiming to bring the spring-calving date forward to July 27, with the aim of getting more production before the summer dry arrives. They want to breed a nice tidy herd of straight friesians, and they get a lot of satisfaction out of feeding their cows well with high-quality feeds. This season the McLaughlins have budgeted for production of 165,000kg milksolids, and are on track to for 185,000kg..

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Rachele and Brent McLaughlin milk 380 cows through a 36-a-side herringbone shed.

Pair seek ‘valuable insights’ Kelly Deeks A return to discussion groups for Bob and Adam Scott this season comes at a good time to get some valuable feedback while the two are debating whether they need to change some of their farming systems. The Scotts have been working together for the past three years, with Adam assistant manager on Bob’s farm in the Papawai area, near Greytown in the Wairarapa.. The farm has been winter-milking for the past four years, initially as a way of keeping empty cows, then autumn-calved for the next three years. The Scotts are wondering whether to continue.

“We’re trying to weigh up whether the winter production is costing us our spring production,” Adam Scott says. “We always struggle to get that spring-growth boom because of pasture damage in the winter.” For the first time, they didn’t winter-mate this year. After winter-milking 190 of their 450 cows last winter, 115 of them were empties, and 75 were calved. This winter they will milk only empties. He says the farm did good production last season despite the drought. But towards the end of the season, it was costing them to keep the condition on the cows. A lot of the dry cows are wintered at home, which takes up quite a big area of the just under 200-hectare farm.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Steve & Cherry Blyde

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Farmers look long-term on feed system Sue Russell A new feeding system in their 40-bail dairy shed, is engaging the attention of the Blydes on their Taranaki farm. The system – where the cows eat anywhere between 300 grams and 3 kilograms of supplementary feed as they cruise around the rotary cycle – came into operation fully on November 10. “Right now, each cow is fed an additional half a kilo each day during milking,” says Steve Blyde. “We dabbled with feeding palm kernel using trailers and the like, but it was a messy process and the bossy cows got the big share. This way we can deliver to each cow exactly what she needs in the form of additional nutrients. “We’re not expecting great things in the first year. It’s more about learning to observe and calculate feeding regimes that is most important at this time.” Nevertheless, he can see the goal of a 20% increase in milk production as very much within reach He says they have had invaluable feeding advice from Inghams’ Rodney Hosking, in the content of taking one day at a time and learning from experiences. The Blydes can recall the last big change to their milking – the installation of a new Octolok rotary shed eight years ago. “It felt like going from “a Morris Minor to a Rolls Royce”, says Steve..“With automatic cup-removers and teat-sprayer, we can have the whole herd milked in an hour and a quarter.” The Blydes were affected by last season’s drought, with the 84,500 kilograms of milksolids produced 10,000kg down the farm’s best.

We’re not expecting great things in the first year. It’s more about learning to observe and calculate feeding regimes that is most important at this time. “The drought cost us six weeks’ production, but with a mild winter, we’ve come through it as well as we could have hoped,” says Steve Succession planning is also exercising the Blydes’ minds. In 1990 Steve Blyde and brother Greg each bought half the original family farm at Lepperton, near Waitara. The 82-hectare (effective) block owned by Steve and his wife, Cherry, straddles a mix of flat, rolling and steep terrain, and is carrying 240 friesian/ friesian-cross cows at a stocking rate of 2.9 to the hectare. Their eldest son, 20-year-old Christopher, has inherited their passion for farming and is helping run the farm. “We’re really conscious of the next few years ahead being a time to look at options for Christopher,” says Steve. “Around this district there isn’t a lot of land up for sale, so another thought is to set him up 50:50 sharemilking. But if something local comes up,

from on-farm discussions Scott is hoping for a good in-calf rate this year. “We get quite good rates for our younger stock, but we have got a few older girls in the herd as well which drops down our rates. We’ve got a few 12, 13, and 14-year-olds, but the majority are eight years old or younger. Most of the older girls do get in calf each year, but takes them a few more matings than just one or two.” The cows are getting their minerals every day with the mixer wagon. They are fed a transition mix before calving with the aim of keeping metabolic issues to a minimum. The Scotts are getting back into discussion groups this year. A discussion day planned for their farm will be Adam’s first experience and Bob’s first for about 10 years.

Adam Scott says he is looking forward to gaining some valuable insights into their operation. “We need to hear what other guys are doing, rather than us doing the same old thing,” he says. He says he is particularly interested in other local farmers’ opinions on whether they should be spending more time on getting more out of their pasture. “All our soil tests are fine, but maybe we should spend a bit more time direct drilling, and get the plant population back up.” The winter farm has feed barns with compost floors and roofs overhead, where the milking cows spend an hour a day. Wintering and dry cows are fed on sawdust pads where they spend 12 hours a day.

Steve and Cherry Blyde’s 40-bail Octolok rotary dairy shed (left) with automatic cup removers and teat sprayer (below) allows the 240-cow herd to be milked in an hour and a quarter. Chris has a good reputation in the area to build from.” The Blydes recognise that the time is approaching for the two of them to make some longer-term decisions about their own farming situation. Steve believes that having a full-on family life means any transition away from being hands-on and tied to the farm will be a somewhat easier process than it might otherwise have been. “I think the hardest thing is for the farmer to let go. Not for the one coming up next to take over. It would be nice to have the time to follow other interests and those of the children more.” Steve and Cherry are, however, already very much involved in their children’s sporting and educational achievements. As well as grappling with the demands of NCEA level 3 at New Plymouth Girls’ High School, their 17-year-old daughter, Michaela, has been selected for the national women’s sevens squad after playing for Taranaki in the women’s provincial championship. The Blydes’ twin boys, Liam and Cole, are just beginning year 12 at New Plymouth Boys’ High School.

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DAIRY PEOPLE: Hamish Rabarts/Northland Dairy Development Trust

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Record production beckons in King It’s a case of seeing how these farm businesses can improve their bottom line by applying a few management techniques

Kelly Deeks Hamish Rabarts is heading for a record season on the 320-cow family farm he has contract-milked for the past seven seasons. Rabarts works on his Peter and Jill Rabarts’s (his parents) 160-hectare King Country farm. The family moved from a 130-cow Coromandel farm in 2007, upsizing so that his parents could step back and semi-retire.

The Otorohanga farm was initially 100ha, and the Rabarts began milking 280 cows. They continued at this level until four years ago when they bought a 60ha block in the middle of their farm. The 130ha (effective) farm of steep to rolling country is fully self contained, with the milking platform taking about 100ha, and the calves and heifers grazing on about 30ha. Hamish Rabarts says that last season started very well, and since he had the cow numbers, he

ended up milking 330 cows. When the drought hit, he ran out of grass and was forced to dry the herd off in March so that he could keep condition on the cows. He still achieved production of just over 100,000 kilograms of milksolids, second only to the record 106,000kg milksolids recorded on the farm the year before . “That’s what brassed me off about the drought, what our season could have been like,” says Rabarts.

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Having identified the key principles for managing kikuyu pasture, the BNZ Northland Dairy Development Trust is now looking to apply them in a commercial situation. The trust is looking for three to five partner farms in the region. Dairy New Zealand regional science manager Kate Wynn says these farmers need to be willing to make some on-farm changes, which she believes will be very exciting and full of potential for the farmers who take it up. “It’s a case of building on the core principles and seeing how these farm businesses can improve their bottom line by applying a few management techniques they may have not tried before. “These farmers will be well supported and we see great gains coming from the next phase of research, for ourselves and for them.” Wynn, who has been with the trust since its

inception in 2006, has overseen the first five-year study on optimising dairy farming on kikuyu pastures. This work has shown that, because kikuyu’s growth pattern is different from that of perennial ryegrass, kikuyu areas should be mulched in autumn to break up the stolons and reduce the amount of thatch that builds up at the base. The exception is in very dry years when pastures are grazed very low and build-up is minimal. Wynn’s pasture research has based on three farmlets, one studying the growth and performance of ryegrass, and two concentrating on kikuyu; one of the two kikuyu plots included mechanical interventions such as mulching and seed drilling. DairyNZ also continues to monitor plots at Jordan Valley, one of three sites taking part in a major trial comparing the effects of five sowing rates and four cultivars on pasture persistence and performance. No major differences have yet surfaced between sowing rates and cultivars in terms of dry-matter yield.

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NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

DAIRY PEOPLE: Hamish Rabarts/Northland Dairy Development Trust

Country He says the cows are milking much better now than at the same time last year. He is targeting production of 120,000kg milksolids, and is on track to achieve that, as long as everything continues to go as planned with the pasture and the cows. Grass growth has also exceeded last year, with Rabarts making his third cut of silage in early December. “It has been such a great growing year,” he says. “We did the first cut of silage in October, then one in November, and then one in December. We normally get, at the most, one or two cuts of silage. This year we’ll have hay as well, whereas for the past three years, we haven’t.” He says drying the cows off early gave the pastures time to recover. This, followed by a good dry winter and a bit of extra rain early summer, has been a bonus. Rabarts has been concentrating on pasture management, ensuring he stands cows off quickly in the winter to save the pasture, and regressing about 10ha of the farm each year. He says he started with the older-style perennial ryegrass, Nui, and wasn’t that happy with the results on his farm, and has now switched to Trojan, the latest perennial ryegrass from RD1, and has had good results from that. Four years ago the Rabarts installed a new travelling irrigator system for the effluent, which covers 12ha that no longer needs to have fertiliser applied. Further developments on the farm will include expanding the area covered by the travelling irrigator – with 20 to 30ha coverage the ultimate aim. The family plans to to extend the yard in the coming winter. Hamish Rabarts says the existing yard is too small and as old as the hills. “We’re going to extend it to a big, round yard, so we’ve got a better space for the flow of cows, and somewhere for our stock to stand off in the winter,” he says. “At the moment I normally have them in the races as the yard is just not big enough.”

PHOTOS Above: The Rabarts farm 130 hectares of steep to rolling country near Otorohanga. Left: Some of the Rabarats’ 320 cows leave the dairy shed.

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year project, it’s too early to draw any conclusions around persistence.” Strategies on how to gain new research these farm businesses proposals were considered at the trust’s annual meeting, says Wynn: “The question we asked can improve their bottom ourselves was ‘What information will the dairy industry, and Northland farmers in particular, line by applying a few require in the next five to 10 years to keep them profitable?’ We have 18 months to decide what we management techniques want to do next and this decision will be based on farmer and industry representative feedback. “Research workshops have indicated a need they may not have tried for more information around pasture management, reproduction, nutrient management and the before. environment.” The trust is a joint venture between the Northland Agricultural Research Farm, which dates An older, traditional cultivar is being compared back to the 1920s and Fonterra, with support from Dairy NZ and the Bank of New Zealand. The with three more modern cultivars; yields have been similar, although there may be differences in aim is to offer Northland farmers proven research on issues affecting milk productivity and on-farm persistence, says Wynn. “As we are only two and half years into the five- profitability.

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DAIRY SERVICES: Lowe Builders & Silos NZ

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Dairy-builder touts flexibility and inhouse control Karen Phelps Having its own blocklaying and concrete gang has enabled Matamata-based Lowe Builders to offer a complete service, says company owner Paul Lowe. “Taking care of every part of the job in-house allows us to keep good control over timing of projects,” he says. “Our many years of experience means we are good at thinking outside the square and making it all work.” Lowe, who was originally a house-builder, started his company in 2004 and has diversified into farm dairy shed out of his passion for wanting

to be involved in the dairy farming business. Lowe Builders specialises in dairy sheds, cow houses, cowsheds, feed pads, blocklaying, stonework and farm buildings. It employs four full-time staff, including carpenters, concrete and blocklayers. Paul Lowe is a licensed building practitioner and a member of the Certified Builders’ Association of New Zealand. The company works across the Greater Waikato area, and Lowe says things have been busy, even during the economic downturn. He says a recently completed project offers a good example of the company’s work – a 60-bail rotary dairy shed, feedpad, sand wedges and a

Matamata-based Lowe Builders specialises in dairy sheds, feedpads and farm buildings. The company is supported by Silos NZ, which supplies and installs Permastore tanks and silos.

drying bed for a Maori trust-owned farm in the Mamakus. Paul Lowe says the project took six months and, with generous annual rainfall and volcanic rock to contend with, it presented plenty of challenges. “We needed a digger to break up the ground and then re-lay it again before we could build on it. We couldn’t rely on the weather forecast each day as the area has a distinct climate. I had to drive there each morning to see what was happening, then plan the work schedule based on weather conditions. We had to be flexible.” The company has also started a 44-a-side herringbone shed, yard, feedpad and wedges for a farm just outside Rotorua. Lowe says he aims for good light and airflow

We couldn’t rely on the weather forecast as the district has a distinct climate. I had to drive there each morning to see what was happening, then plan the work schedule.

• To page 37

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NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

DAIRY SERVICES: Fencing Contractors’ Association of New Zealand

Assn nails fencing career skills Jo Bailey Fencing skills can create a pathway into other industries and create a path around the world, says Fencing Contractors’ Association of New Zealand president Simon Fuller. Like most industry associations, the FCANZ is keen to attract more young people to the industry, he says. “The issue was widely discussed at our 2013 conference in Queenstown. For young people who prefer working in the outdoors rather than sitting in an office or warehouse, fencing is a great career path. It can take them around the world and give them a broad base of practical skills that can lead into other industries.” The profession offers apprenticeships and training towards a New Zealand Qualifications Authority Certificate in Fencing Level 4. Fencing contractors get the opportunity to work in some of the most beautiful and most remote parts of New Zealand, says Fuller: “What other workshops have the views that we do?” They also have the opportunity to travel and meet people from around the country: “I can find a bed pretty much anywhere thanks to the contacts I’ve made through fencing.” Networking and family-based activities formed a big part of the conference programme,he says. “A lot of our members work alone or in small groups, so to be able to get together to share business ideas, tips and solutions to problems, with their peers from around the country was fantastic.” Delegates visited the historic Hayes engineering works at Oturehua, where both the parallel and permanent wire strainer was invented by farmer and flour-miller Ernest Hayes in the 1920s – products that revolutionised fencing around the world. Delegates also had the opportunity to see a new Kiwitech four-wire, sprung-pivot flexi-fence in action on a dryland sheep and beef farm near Cromwell. “Fencing pivot irrigators is not easy, and it’s

The FCANZ offers apprenticeships and training towards a NZQA Certificate in Fencing.

essential to spend time at the planning stage to get things right from the start,” says Fuller. “Our North Island members don’t come across a lot of centre-pivots, so it was interesting for us to see the different types of set-up.” The Fencing Contractors’ Association of NZ was founded in 2006 by a group of fencing contractors and a strategic partner, Wiremark, with the aim of encouraging and developing professionalism and

Fencing wasn’t classed as an industry, and contractors had no voice before the FCANZ was founded. The profile and standard of the industry has really been lifted.

Tank technology transportable • From page 36 in every shed he builds so that conditions will be better for both staff and cows. Lowe Builders is supported by Silos NZ Ltd, a company owned by Lowe and Brett Clow. The business supplies and installs Permastore tanks and silos from the United Kingdom, These are produced by fusing glass to steel technology. The result, says Lowe, is that farmers can create storage above ground while using less ground space. “Glass fused to steel is a unique tank finish. Two materials are fused together to achieve the best properties of both – the strength and flexibility of steel combined with the corrosion resistance of glass. This is applied to both the interior and exterior

’

surfaces, and can provide many years of troublefree service in harsh environments, he says. The system has been proven over many decades on thousands of installations, and is supported by international standards that cover the design-and-finish requirements, says Lowe. Tanks can be built up with capacity of up to 50 million litres, and can be used for a variety of uses, including effluent storage and silos. “The tanks have no liner, so can be cleaned more easily,” says Lowe. “The agitation and pumps are on the outside of the tank, which makes it simple to do maintenance and repairs. Tanks can be extended, dismantled and re-sited.” Lowe sees many opportunities to use this technology in other markets, such as councils (drinking water, sewerage and wastewater), and the mining, industrial and biofuel industries.

high standards in the New Zealand industry. Fuller, who runs Waikato-based Fuller Fencing, was on the steering committee when the association was formed and is a second-timeround president. “Fencing wasn’t really classed as an industry and contractors had no voice at all before the association was founded. Now there are very few contractors not qualified or skilled. The profile and standard of the industry has really been lifted.” FCANZ accepts both regular members and accredited fencing contractors, who have to provide evidence of their professional skills and company policies – in the same way builders apply to become members of Master Builders. FCANZ provides training and information to its members through regional meetings, and

through resources such as fencing technical-fact sheets, legal-fact sheets, and advice for running a business. It can also investigate and resolve disputes. Fuller says that over the next 12 to 18 months FCANZ will be working to set formal standards for industrial fencing, which includes fencing for commercial and industrial premises, security, pool, sports and Corrections Department facilities. He says the recent reference to FCANZ by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) in a tender document highlights the growing awareness of the association and its goals. “It is great to see fencing grow as a stand-alone industry, with the FCANZ recognised as the group raising its profile and setting standards nationwide,” he says.

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DAIRY SERVICES: Fabish & Jackson

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Octa-Lock still hot in the Naki Jo Bailey

The entry gate for the Octa-Lock Dairy Parlour (above) and interiors (above right).

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Twenty-five years after Steve Fabish and the late Trevor Jackson designed the Octa-Lock dairy parlour, it is still a favourite among Taranaki dairy farmers. “We’ve built up quite a high market share in the region. There’s one on just about every road in South Taranaki,” says Steve Fabish. His company, Fabish and Jackson (2010) Ltd, has built sheds in most parts of New Zealand and has exported a 70-bail parlour to Wales and a 30-bailer to Chile. The octagonal shape of the shed was “quite revolutionary” at the time it was developed, says Fabish. “We came up with the design after being approached by Merv Hicks, who had designed a platform himself and wanted a building with no centre structure to house it. “We came up with the Octa-Lock design, which suited the platform and minimised space wastage around it.” Fabish says the “functional, efficient and cost effective” Octa-Lock dairy parlours are best suited to rotary platforms. Standard designs range from 28 to 60 bail. However the company has built sheds for up to 100-bail platforms. “All our sheds are custom designed, so each one is unique.” With most of the construction work of the kitsetstyle sheds done off site, the time spent on site is

minimal compared with conventional building, says Fabish. “Once we get on the job, it’s completed very quickly.” The Octa-Lock roof structure is supported on eight poles. The walls are suspended between them, with no footings required. “This makes the installation of the drainage, water and power more straightforward and cost effective.” Fabish says the design has been modified and developed over the years, with steel poles replacing the original wooden poles, precast panels replacing block foundations, and aluminium windows installed in the sheds instead of clearlite. Fabish and Jackson has its own pre-cast factory, concrete finishers, and laminated beam plant. This allows the company to build everything in house and maintain controls over the quality of materials, he says. “We like to have control over what goes in and what goes out without relying on anybody else.” Fabish says the company gets great feedback from its Octa-Lock clients. “The guys who have them tell us they like the way they operate. The sheds are nice and light inside and with space minimised, there are fewer areas to clean and no corners to accumulate junk.” Steve Fabish and Trevor Jackson started the company around 33 years ago with Fabish taking it over after Trevor died in 2009. The rural market has always been the

• To page 39

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DAIRY SERVICES: Tetley-Jones Agriculture

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Driving force crucial in contracting Sue Russell A passion for driving has to be high on the list of qualities required to succeed as an agricultural contractor, says Ross Tetley-Jones. “It started out for me being about the machinery and loving driving,” says the man in the driving seat of Otorohanga-based Tetley Jones Agriculture. “But there are many challenges I thrive on, including handling the logistical side. It’s a business you deal with every day.” The dynamics of managing staffing are part of the challenge. With a large fleet of tractors, it can be a bit of a juggling act to ensure you have the right number of staff available during the busy spring and summer months. Tetley-Jones has one full-time tractor driver in the seat year round, and Ross spends time working in the field too. He also tries to employ three fulltime seasonal drivers – people who come at short notice are valuable in this business and it isn’t always easy to get good seasonal workers. The fleet includes six tractors, five of them John Deeres. Growing fodder crops and making hay silage are the mainstays. Winters can be busy, although Ross does try to get away for a week during this time. His 10-year-old son, Jacob, loves being on the tractor. He’s now old enough to help with some very basic tractor processes, while younger sister Emma. who is eight, and four-year-old brother Liam have a way to go. “Jacob has a motor-bike which is proving very useful as well,” Ross says. Agricultural contracting is demanding on family time and Ross admits that his wife, Diane, has pretty much been a solo mum for all the years the couple have been together. He says he “very very blessed” with his full-time

Left: A line-up of Tetley-Jones Agriculture equipment. Below left: Drilling with a roller in tow. Below: A truck transport round bales.

staff and finds it gratifying to see seasonal staff wanting to return: “I must be doing something right. We’ve had some really good staff.” Beyond the day-to-day rhythms and routines of working in such a seasonally-driven industry, Tetley-Jones finds time to be involved in the Agricultural Contractors’ Federation. This national organisation seeks to improve the infrastructure and environment contractors

work within. Recent lobbying by the federation has resulted in benefits in the employment of seasonal staff. “It’s going to be much easier to get people in. You don’t want some idiot on a machine,” says Tetley-Jones He finds employing staff to be more about gutinstinct than reading through CVs. “If we have a cup of coffee and a natter, and I

Effluent sumps to chicken sheds • From page 38 company’s main focus, with its 23 staff working all over Taranaki on a variety of jobs, including effluent sumps, feed pads, maize and silage bunkers, farm buildings, races – “basically any rural construction project”. Fabish and Jackson also builds a couple of houses each year, and is involved in the odd light commercial-building project. “We also specialise in commercial chicken-shed construction and have a couple of those on the go at the moment.

Foundation work for the energy sector is another area of involvement. It’s a pretty diverse business.” The company is a member of the Taranaki Registered Master Builders’ Association. Steve Fabish is proud of the long history of the locally owned and operated Inglewood company. “We have a good bunch of guys who know what they’re doing, and do their best to get to a job on time and finish it on time. “I’m proud of the reputation we have gained as trusted builders who take pride in the high levels of workmanship and service we offer our customers.’

feel good about the guy, then I’m likely to take the person on. This industry tends to work this way because you have to put a lot of trust in anyone working your machinery.” He also has speaks very highly of his key suppliers: “CT Engineering is a huge part of our operation, maintaining my equipment in top-notch order and I wouldn’t have had the history and success I’ve had without them.”

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DAIRY SERVICES: McIntyre Contracting

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Contractor on job for nearly 40 years Aggregate for all projects is sourced from the McIntyres’ quarry 15 kilometres from the Apiti headquarters. The company also has consent to extract aggregate from the Oroua River. McIntyre Contracting Ltd has been a part of the local The quarry has its own plant of diggers, loaders, community in the Manawatu for nearly 40 years. bulldozers, trucks, a metal crusher and a screening “We were born and bred in the rural environment, plant. It can supply all grades of aggregates. If a client so we understand what’s required,” says Tony has suitable rock on the property, a mobile crushing McIntyre. “We have a good loyal client base and and screening plant can be taken to the site and the we’re on hand to meet our customers’ needs.” . client can save on raw materials and transportation. The business was founded by his parents, Roger “We provide very competitive rates by not having and Ruth McIntyre, who still operate the company. to buy aggregate or transportation through a third Roger has worked as a bulldozer operator since party as we can do this ourselves. This also assists leaving school before starting his own company with the timing of projects,” says Tony McIntyre. with an International TD9. The company cut its A development in the pipeline is the establishment teeth on general bulldozer work on farms before of a maintenancesecuring forestry roading programme service, A recent project for a contracts. aimed particularly at dairy Now based in farmers: dairy farm involved Apiti, an hour north of “We will map out their Palmerston North, McIntyre races and come up with Contracting offers a full excavating 500 cubic a maintenance schedule civil-construction service, of where work will be does council and forestry required to ensure the race metres of fill and roading contracts, and is always at top standard is heavily involved in the to maximise animal health. installing a concrete rural sector. The company This will enable us to give is a council-approved the farmer quotes up front underpass. contractor. and programme costs Its services so that they can plan for include farm tracks, dams, fencelines, contouring maintenance costs in their budget.” of paddocks, drainage, effluent ponds, design and Recently completed projects include a dairyconstruction of races, maintenance, grading and farm underpass just north of Apiti. This involved resurfacing. excavating 500 cubic metres of fill and installing a McIntyre Contracting is supported by Tony’s concrete underpass across the road. The company had to excavate 4.5 metres deep to form the exit and building company, McIntyre Construction. A licensed entrance races. Aggregate was supplied by McIntyre building practitioner with nearly 20 years’ industry Contracting to surface races and reinstate the road. . experience, he has a background in a variety of Tony McIntyre says the market has been steady building, from residential housing to large-scale for the past few years because of a loyal client base. commercial projects. The company employs six operators who are all Contracting work for rural clients includes Site Safe accredited. There is a free quotation service underpasses, retaining walls, silage and feedpads, on jobs and works in the Manawatu area.. fertiliser bins. Plus tree-felling and stump removal.

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Tony and Roger McIntyre, from McIntyre Contracting (above). The Manawatu-based company specialises in farm tracks, drainage, design and construction of races, effluent ponds, dams, fencelines and land contouring.

DAIRY SERVICES: Peppers Building Supplies

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Farmers get a taste for new kitset sheds Jo Bailey New kitset, custom-designed implement sheds developed by Bay of Plenty firm Peppers Building Supplies are proving a big hit with farmers. “We’ve produced 25 in the last year alone,” says Charelle Stevenson, whose father, Gary, founded the business in the 1980s. “The selling point is that we can tailor them to whatever size, height or specification customers want, rather than them having to buy a standard shed with no flexibility.” Peppers bases each design on client specifications. The kitset shed is then delivered with fully engineered, council-approved plans ready for the client, or approved builder, to work from. “We take all the hassle out of the process for customers, but they still have full control over the design, whether it’s an entry-level or more elitestyle shed,” says Stevenson. Clients can also make considerable savings, she says. “They’re pretty much getting their whole shed at builder’s rates.” The company offers a diverse range of products and services. Stevenson says the rural market is its “bread and butter”, accounting for up to 60%t of turnover. “When Dad started the business 28 years ago, the main focus was on second-hand building supplies. It has evolved a lot since then. The rural market became a big focus after he moved the company to the Edgecumbe Plains around 10 years ago.” For the dairy industry, the company provides a “huge amount” of fencing supplies and timber for on-farm construction or maintenance projects. “We’ve also started getting into some specialised flooring products such as Firth Superset and some of the Sika Plug products that help dairy farmers mend and repair small areas of their dairyshed floors instead of having to rip up whole areas.” The company also supplies materials for a lot of other projects, including farm bridges and

maintenance to farm cottages and other buildings. “We stock carpet and vinyl as well, so farmers know they can come in and source just about everything they need in one place.” Peppers recently supplied materials for some substantial new stables for a client who flew builders in from Scotland, says Stevenson. “They wanted materials to replicate something they had seen used in Scotland, which we were able to source. We’re happy to find products if required.” Peppers is also getting into gabion baskets for stopbank stabilisation on farms. “Whatever our customers need, we’ll pretty much give it a go.” She says the firm is “the largest stockist of timber in the eastern Bay of Plenty”, and is well stocked with other timbers and products. “We like our customers to be able to drive in, get what they need, and drive off without having to wait for it to be brought in.” Peppers has its own treatment plant on site. The plant treats the company’s timbers as well as timber customers have milled themselves. The firm also carries decking timber, fascia boards, gib, plywood, insulation, Color Steel, modular kitchens, french doors, landscaping materials, barbecue tables and planters, paint, nails, electrical tools and handyman equipment. Its alignment with the privately owned BuildLink group of 25 companies allows Peppers the same group-buying benefits as larger companies. ”We won a national service award with BuildLink last year. which was really pleasing,” says Stevensone. She works alongside Gary, brothers Kyle and Garrick, and an uncle, Johnny. Together they make up more than half of its staff of eight. “The fact we are a family-owned and operated business is one of our biggest advantages. We don’t have staff turnover and know all our customers by their first name. “Our business ethics around delivering good, honest service are very similar to a lot of the families we deal with.”

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DAIRY SERVICES: Agfirst Engineering

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

‘Natural’ effluent system focal Karen Phelps Getting the opportunity to design a new dairy farm from a greenfields site gave Agfirst Engineering Ltd the ability to come up with a complete gravity-feed, dairy-effluent system for a conversion on one of Waikato’s largest drystock properties. The 2500-hectare Limestone Downs, which is on coastal country south of Port Waikato, is owned by the C.Almer Baker Trust. The 425ha dairy platform runs 700 cows. From the 60-bail rotary cowshed, effluent gravity feeds through a large concrete drying bed used for solids removal into an 11,000-cubic metre effluent storage pond. The feedpad and silage bunkers have also been located next to the cowshed so that all waste water, leachate and run-off can flow under gravity into the effluent treatment and containment system. “Designing an effluent treatment and containment system that operates naturally using gravity overcomes the problems associated with power cuts, pump blockages or failures and the need for staff to continually check mechanical component,” says Agfirst agricultural engineer Ian Howatson. “The system has been designed to accommodate a one-in-100-year return rainfall event and therefore will continue to operate during the night or when no one is on site.” The farm had to be partly re-contoured to accommodate a gravity-fed system. The 70m x 80m, 4.5m-deep effluent storage pond was designed with a high-density polyethylene liner to prevent seepage. The liquid flows into the pond after going through two drying beds (50m x 8m, and 1.5m deep) lying by the side of the pond. Howatson says it is predicted it will take about six months for a single drying bed to be filled with wash-down and feedpad run-off; the intake will then

The feedpad and silage bunker at Limestone Downs are next to the cowshed so that all waste-water flows under gravity to the effluent-treatment system

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NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

DAIRY SERVICES: Agfirst Engineering/Archway Group

point of farm be moved to the other pond while the first pond drains through metal-grate, weeping walls. Liquid-effluent irrigation comes from a large single storage pond over 50ha of the dairying land, through reticulation to hydrants connected to lowrate application pods at 3mm per hour to prevent run-off and loss of nutrient below the root zone of pasture. The concrete feedpad has been designed to be self-cleaning, with green water pumped back from the effluent storage pond. At the top of the feedpad two 25,000-litre concrete tanks are linked to 400mm distribution lines. With a slight gradient back to the drying beds, the feedpad can be automatically flushed and cleaned by water and gravity. A drainage pumping station has been installed, enabling ground and floodwater to be pumped from a 90ha, low-lying area. The diesel-driven drainage pump can be operated manually or automatically, depending on open-drain water-levels. The system has been designed to remove 25mm a day over the 90ha area. For the Limestone Downs project, Agfirst Engineering’s input included initial estimation of costs for development planning, preparing and applying for consents and the design of the farm

Metal grate weeping walls drain the drying bed. water reticulation, dairy effluent system, flood washing of the feedpad and floodwater-drainage pumps. The project, which took place over an eightmonth period, was completed in August last year. Agfirst, formed in January 1995, has 40 consultants in 12 New Zealand locations, with skills in sheep and beef, dairying, engineering, horticulture and valuation. Most of the staff have more than 15 years of consultancy experience. Howatson says Agfirst is an independent organisation with the ability to carry out nationwide and cross-sector projects. The firm is in the process of designing and building a second pump station for Limestone Downs and will also take an ongoing, monitoring role.

All effluent from the cowshed is gravity fed to concrete drying beds and into an effluent storage pond.

Gravity powered effluent sludge beds – it’s all downhill from here • From page 44 Providing cost-effective, innovative solutions for effluent and silage management is the current focus of the Bay of Plenty-based Archway Group of companies. Owner Matt Hodgson heads the group’s two divisions, Archway Environmental – which sells and markets weeping walls and silage bunker – and Archway Construction which builds them. “Our team of hardworking, good buggers, at Archway Construction has built 11 weeping wall effluent drying beds from Taupo to Port Waikato in the last year alone,” says Matt. He says the “efficient, low cost” system, harnesses gravity to passively remove effluent solids. “The weeping wall is an effective, non mechanical 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.” Raw effluent from the dairy shed and feed pad is flood-washed into sludge beds, with the weeping wall at the end only allowing the green water through. Removing the solids prior to irrigation results in less frequent pond cleaning, lower pumping costs and fewer blockages in irrigation equipment, says Matt.

BUILDING CENTRE Archway Group’s effluent sludge beds under construction. “It’s an awesome system as we can recycle the green water back through for flood washes, helping to conserve water and combat the water limits being put in place.” Archway Construction 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 to 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.” “We’re trying to lead the way in innovative

thinking and come up with cost-effective solutions that really make a difference.” Archway Construction’s latest innovation is a silage bunker wall system that will achieve better compaction, and cut the company’s onsite construction time from two weeks with 15 guys, to three days with four guys. “We designed the fully engineered system ourselves in conjunction with consulting engineers. We hope to launch it at Fieldays next year and already have a couple of jobs pending.” The company has its own pre-cast yard and is gearing up with other plant and equipment to enable it to produce all its own concrete and steel. “We can keep a closer eye on quality when we do it all ourselves.”

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DAIRY SERVICES: Archway Group

NZ Dairy / Summer 2014

Archway Group’s weeping wall effluent drying bed (right foreground) uses gravity to remove solids before entering the pond (rear). Raw effluent is flood washed into the sludge beds with the weeping wall at the end allowing only green water through.

Weeping wall ‘efficient, low cost’ Jo Bailey Providing cost-effective, innovative solutions for effluent and silage management is the current focus of the Bay of Plenty-based Archway Group of companies. Owner Matt Hodgson heads the group’s two divisions, Archway Environmental – which sells and markets weeping walls and silage bunker – and Archway Construction which builds them. “Our team of hardworking, good buggers, at Archway Construction has built 11 weeping wall effluent drying beds from Taupo to Port Waikato in the last year alone,” says Matt. He says the “efficient, low cost” system, harnesses gravity to passively remove effluent

It is a great alternative to a lot of the expensive solid separators, screens, pumps and presses that many farmers are putting in. solids. “The weeping wall is an effective, non mechanical 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.” Raw effluent from the dairy shed and feed pad is flood-washed into sludge beds, with the weeping wall at the end only allowing the green water through.

Removing the solids prior to irrigation results in less frequent pond cleaning, lower pumping costs and fewer blockages in irrigation equipment, says Matt. “It’s an awesome system as we can recycle the green water back through for flood washes, helping to conserve water and combat the water limits being put in place.” Archway Construction 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 to 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.” “We’re trying to lead the way in innovative thinking and come up with cost-effective solutions that really make a difference.” Archway Construction’s latest innovation is a silage bunker wall system that will achieve better compaction, and cut the company’s onsite

• To Page 43

Specialising in farm materials » Timber Treatment » Implement Sheds » Posts, Poles, Rails » Cotec Paint » Steel, Mesh, Gates

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