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Contents Contents CONTENTS

UPPING THE CROP COMPONENT 39

MILKING PLATFORM 10 Chris and Carla Staples review their animal performance 11 Kate Robinson faces the challenges of stress

UPFRONT 12 Rachel Baker gets the measure of Fonterra’s palm kernel guideline 14 Rose McVeagh finds business lessons from recent earthquakes 16 DIRA change would give Fonterra right to say no to new milk 18 Gimme shelter: DairyNZ consults farmers on animal welfare

BUSINESS 22 Canlac focuses on nitrate leaching 25 Racheal Bryant persists with plantain 28 Tim Mudford deals with an unexpected succession 30 Starting the succession conversation 31 DairyNZ’s John Roche asks if it’s costing to produce more milk 32 Hard rock makes way for the McLennans’ new Irish rotary

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SYSTEMS 34 Special film gives maize a chance in the south 38 Kale works wonders for the Powells in South Taranaki 42 Chicory helps fill the vat in Golden Bay 44 Extension 350 set to benefit Northland 45 Keeping an eye on that crop

STOCK 48 Alister Hall’s bulls push protein potential

SPECIAL REPORT 52 Making every drop count in Canterbury 55 Matching water to your soil 58 App ensures irrigation efficiency

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HARD ROCK MAKES WAY FOR ROTARY 32 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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59 Good practice: Aids to getting it right 60 Getting it right from the word go 62 Working out water use on the West Coast 64 Gavin Russell’s old bore comes to the rescue

YOUNG COUNTRY 66 Help is at hand with Canterbury’s Handy Landys 68 Zach and Laura are buying low

DAIRY 101 76 Going with the flow

COLUMNS 20 Market View: Milk price forecast looks safe 46 Vet Voice: De-stressing your cows #2 71 Farm gear: Side-by-sides 74 State of Play: New Year, new hopes 75 Demonstration Farm: Palm kernel myths and legends 78 Solutions 79 Property

FILM GIVES MAIZE A CHANCE IN THE SOUTH 34

BUYING AT THE BOTTOM 68 Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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DAIRY DIARY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY FONTERRA FARM SOURCE

NZFARMSOURCE.CO.NZ/STORE | 0800 731 266

JANUARY January 27-29 – Top dairy genetics from around the country will be showcased at the New Zealand Dairy Event held at Manfeild Park in Feilding. It will also feature the latest technologies available to the dairy industry and hosts the Semex Summer Sensational Sale. Visit www.nzdairyevent.com.

FEBRUARY

February 7-9 – The 30th annual Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre (FLRC) Workshop at Massey University covers nutrient management challenges for the next generation. For further information on papers being presented, or to register, visit flrc.massey.ac.nz/workshops/17/ workshop2017.

February 7-10 – The four West Coast monitor farms hold their annual field days, beginning at Kowhitirangi, February 7, then Greymouth, February 8, Westport, February 9 and Ikamatua, February 10. Each field day looks at the management systems and the impact on production and profitability. This year Professor Danny Donaghy from the Institute of Vet, Animal and Biomedical Sciences at Massey University talks about making pastures perform better. For further information on the field days visit www.dairynz.co.nz or contact Ross Bishop on 021 277 2894.

February 8 – The Mini Milksmart 2017 Roadshow heads to 26

locations throughout the country, beginning in Kaitaia. Leading experts will provide practical solutions to save time and money through more efficient milking. For more information and to register visit www.dairynz.co.nz.

February 14-16 – The Australian Dairy Conference takes place in Adelaide, South Australia. For more information visit www. australiandairyconference.com.au February 24 – The 2017 Ballance Farm Environment Awards begin, with regional winners heading to the National Sustainability Showcase held in Invercargill on May 31. The awards begin in Bay of Plenty, February 24, followed by East Coast, March 1; Horizons, March 16; Northland, March 22; Waikato, March 23; Auckland, March 29; Canterbury, March 30; Southland, April 6; Otago, April 7; Greater Wellington, April 11; Taranaki, April 12. For further information on the awards or to enter, visit www.nzfeatrust.org.

MARCH March 2-4 – Tickets for the Northland Field Days can be bought online at www.northlandfielddays.co.nz.

March 13-14 – The 2017 Sheep Milk NZ Conference in Palmerston North will look at increasing per ewe production and connecting consumers with sheep dairy products, as well as sessions on farm operations, breeding and genetics. The conference is part of the New Zealand AgriFood Investment Week (NZ Ag Invest). For further information and to register visit www.nzaginvest.co.nz.

March 14-15 – Central Districts Field Days are held at Manfeild Park

in Feilding. For information on field days go to www.cdfielddays.co.nz.

March 14-15 – The 2017 New Zealand Future Farms Conference will be held at the Palmerston North Convention Centre. Visit www. nzaginvest.co.nz for more details.

March 28-29 – The 2017 New Zealand Food Summit as well as the Food Value Chain Conference are both being held at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland and look at the country being a leading producer of high-quality, safe food. Visit www.conferenz.co.nz/events/2017-nzfood-summit for further details.

Prevention is your protection.

Act early to prevent facial eczema.

Talk to the team at your local Fonterra Farm Source store today.

NZFARMSOURCE.CO.NZ/STORE

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0800 731 266

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:09 pm

Editorial EDITORIAL

Challenge of leadership

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elcome to a brand new year, 2017. The past few years have been challenging for dairy farmers – enduring the trough of low milk prices. If that was a cyclical commodity downturn, let’s hope the added-value strategies of the various dairy companies lift product prices enough to ward off the next cycle for good, and that those of you who have survived the downturn will enjoy the benefits of an upswing coming soon.

I had the pleasure of attending the Dairy Environmental Leaders Forum in Wellington last month and really enjoyed the occasion and the positivity, sense of environmental responsibility and collegiality shown by the attending farmer delegates. They came from around the country and filled three action-packed days showcasing regional initiatives, networking and learning from each other’s experiences.

All Blacks manager of leadership and people, Gilbert Enoka, was a keynote speaker, talking about the All Blacks’ journey from Great to Great – keeping the momentum going through back-to-back World Cup wins.

He imparted five messages to help cope with the challenges of the dairy industry.

Set the challenge high was his first message – to be the most dominant team in the history of world rugby was the challenge set for the All Blacks and many thought the challenge was too much. Enoka said the vision must energise and excite people to the point that they are willing to make sacrifices.

“You need to create discomfort at the thought of staying still.

“Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.”

His second message was to get the mindset right. “You have to have the hunting mindset – because in the land of opportunity, mindset is king.”

Number three, practice clear thinking – “not positive, not negative, but clear thinking”.

Fourth is building the team – “coming together as one force – a surging mass of black with one identity – the team are connected and so strong”.

For the dairy industry – think about how you come together and get a sense of shared identity, Enoka said.

And the last note – fear is okay.

“Fear is an image of something that hasn’t happened yet - but you need to feel it, move through it. Just don’t get stuck. Keep moving.”

Enoka’s added message – move from best practice to next practice – what is possible in the possibility gap?

Best practice tells Roger and Sue Bates how much water they should aim to irrigate on to their Canterbury pastures, but with a shortage of water, they are having to get creative and look at the next practice – stretching their supply by using crops, strategic nitrogen use and efficient irrigation practices.

Read about them and other efficient irrigators in the Special report on page 52.

The summer cropping theme covers innovative use of maize in the deep south, lucerne in Taranaki and chicory in Golden Bay (pg 34) showing farmers are pushing the boundaries to lift biomass through the summer and add in drymatter on the shoulders of the season without adding costs.

SNEAK PREVIEW

NEXT ISSUE SPECIAL REPORT:

RENEWING PASTURES: How to get the best bang for your buck.

INDIVIDUALISED TRAINING PLANS How staff training pays off for your business.

DAIRY 101: Fixing water troughs

Jackie

NEW ZEALAND

Learn, grow, excel

NZ Dairy Exporter is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740, Toll free 0800 85 25 80, www.nzfarmlife.co.nz Dairy Exporter/Young Country editor Jackie Harrigan, ph 06 323 0734, M 027 359 7781 jackie.harrigan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Lead sub-editor: Andy Maciver Reporters Hugh Stringleman ph 09 432 8594; Glenys Christian ph

027 434 7803; Sheryl Brown ph 021 239 1633; Cheyenne Stein 06 323 1660; Anne Hardie 027 540 3635; Anne Lee 021 413 346; Karen Trebilcock 03 489 8083; Designer: Joanne Hannam Account Managers: Warren McDonald, National Advertising Manager, Ph 06 323 0143 John McMaster, Auckland/Northland, ph 09 3756 007 Janine Gray, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, ph 027 474 6094 Donna Hirst, Lower North Island, ph 06 323 0739 Livestock, ph 06 323 0761

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Shirley Howard, real estate/international, ph 06 323 0760 Debbie Brown, classifieds/employment, ph 06 323 0765 David Paterson, South Island, ph 03 382 6143 Subscriptions: www.nzfarmlife.co.nz subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz ph 0800 85 25 80 ISSN 2230-2697 (Print) ISSN 2230-3057 (Online)

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21/12/16 12:09 pm

Tru Test

Word in your ear Reduce power costs by ‘wrapping up’

Milk Tanks wrapped in a Tru-Test Polar Wrap.

A recent study by the Electricity Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) shows how much milk vat insulation can reduce the load on farm refrigeration systems and the time needed to cool milk.

EECA found that milk vat insulation typically reduces the energy needed for refrigeration by around 40% and in summer months vat insulation can speed milk chilling by up to 20%, at minimal cost.

For between $2,500 and $2,800 (based on average vat size) Tru-Test’s durable Polar Wrap makes an ideal way to reduce your chiller running costs.

3067TTMC01

EECA has estimated that the payback time on energy savings from vat insulation alone is between three and seven years in Northland and between four and eight years for the rest of New Zealand (excluding Southland and the South Island’s West Coast).

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Of course where installing insulation removes or reduces the need for upgrading systems, the savings equation is even more favourable.

In view of the new cooling regulations in 2018, EECA suggests

Weighing & EID

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that insulating vats could be the logical first step for farmers in complying with the regulations – in some cases it may be all that’s needed to avoid additional upgrade costs.

Vat insulation also adds capacity to a farm’s refrigeration system without affecting peak demand, an important consideration on farms with power line capacity restraints.

EECA has developed a simple online tool to calculate the money you can save annually and the payback period by insulating your milk vat. A link to the tool can be found at www.tru-test.co.nz/vatinsulation

So how much are we using – and wasting?

According to EECA: • Dairy farm chilling systems use the equivalent electricity of 25,000 households across New Zealand • Around 80% of milk vats on New Zealand dairy farms are uninsulated, wasting up to $7 million of electricity and emitting around 4,000 tonnes of CO2 annually • This is equivalent to the energy used by 3,000 households and the CO2 emissions of 1,800 cars simply to store milk

Dairy Automation

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

Milk Cooling & Tanks

21/12/16 12:09 pm

DPS

Remove risks and increase reassurance with Vat Manager Cooling problems can be notoriously difficult to detect. Often, they are caused by staff forgetting to turn on the vat refrigeration, unexpected power outages, or mechanical failure.

Statistics show that almost 90% of claims for milk loss are due to human error – farmers forgetting to turn on the chiller before milking!

Tru-Test’s all-in-one vat monitor and controller systems provide dairy farmers with new levels of confidence that their milk is cooled and held to temperature with the introduction of the tougher new milk cooling regulations and gives the heads up to act before any milk loss occurs.

Developed and manufactured in New Zealand, Vat Manager draws on Tru-Test’s technical experience in agricultural weighing & EID systems, dairy refrigeration and data management systems.

Vat Manager will alert you to cooling issues wherever you are and will send milk cooling alerts via 3G text messaging and email. Alerts can be sent for vat too hot, milk too cold, wash temperature too low, hardware fault, too long to cool and mains lost. Alerts can be sent to one or more phones.

Vat Manager lets you know milk and vat milk temperatures 24/7.

The system features a robust vat-side temperature display that is easily viewable at a distance, in low light or extreme brightness. A 30-day history is accessible from the vat-side unit with extended online history.

It’s suitable for any style of farm dairy – herringbone or rotary, single or multiple vats, indoors or outdoors and regardless of how many cows are being milked.

The Vat Manager series comprises two models – Vat Manager Plus and the premium model Vat Manager Auto. Vat Manager Plus is easily upgradable to the Vat Manager Auto at a later point.

Vat Manager sends handy text alerts.

mistake of not turning it on. It’s a big issue on farm. I’m forever hearing others say someone forgot to turn the refrigeration on.

Vat Manger Auto offers all of the features of Vat Manager Plus however in addition, it offers the unique feature of automatically turning on the refrigeration when sufficient milk is detected in the vat and includes a second Auto on function for vats with side wall refrigeration. The auto model also provides four additional alerts: slow cool, milk in too warm, vat nearly full, and vat full.

“It’s a no brainer. It’s a risk management tool that has taken a big risk out of our business”.

Don Moore, Regional Manager for Dairy Holdings is one of the first to integrate Vat Manager Auto into his milk cooling system.

Vat Manager Auto model current awaiting approval from DITAG for market release.

The Auto On function is also really efficient as it switches on refridge 2 when there’s enough milk in, rather than when staff remember.”

“It’s been a great investment and the Auto function is fantastic!

It gives peace of mind that my staff and myself can’t make the

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

www.tru-test.com

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How are you tracking?

Let’s talk.

0800 878 837

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Milking pPlatform Milking MILKING PLATFORM │ REVIEW Chris and Carla Staples’ cows on farm.

Chris and Carla Staples

T

his season has thrown us a few curve balls since calving and it seemed everything we had no control over was not going our way. Two months of wet, cold weather and little-to-no sunshine has really cut grass production in our part of New Zealand over a difficult mating period, but on the upside we seem to have turned a corner in terms of lifts in payout.

This will also affect the amount of supplementary feed that will have to be brought on to the farm later in the season.

With the last of the calves weaned early December it has been pleasing to see good continued growth rates in these animals. We fed our calves for about two weeks longer this season compared to last, mainly due to the weather. This season we sold surplus bull calves at four to 10 days old and also some Hereford calves which had come out of our lower BW cows. This was pleasing to see great-looking calves being sold, instead of sending them as bobby calves. This increased revenue for our business and we have locked in more sales for next season.

Over the last three years we have been very strict on our replacements and only kept heifer calves with a BW over 100 as replacements. In return, yes that has meant sending AI heifer calves as bobbys but has fast-tracked our herd’s BW gain and as herd-owning sharemilkers our cows are our biggest asset.

This is the time of the season when we sit down and look through our business’s performance to see how things are tracking in regards to budget, animal performance, production and – for the first time in a while – payout increases.

We also include our bank manager and accountant in this review. At the same time we also review our goals set at the start of the season and set new ones leading into next season.

With the difficult spring we have had this season’s production is tracking lower than budgeted but with the new lift in 10

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Time to review animal performance payout and some savings in FWE we will still be in a much better position than this time last season.

Once again our farming model has stood up against another financially difficult year. We have for the first time this year been involved in DairyNZ’s online farmer budgets having put forward our budget for the current season with some attached comments on areas we target for savings.

While we have seen a lift in payout for this season (maybe more will follow) we cannot lose focus on what we have learnt from the past few years and not get carried away with financial decisions until the money is in the bank.

This has been an informative experience it has also been interesting to see where other farmers have targeted cost control.

While we have seen a lift in payout for this season (maybe more will follow) we cannot lose focus on what we have learnt from the past few years and not get carried away with financial decisions until the money is in the bank so to speak.

While involved in the online budgeting programme we were asked by the DairyNZ team “what areas would we change if the payout increases in the future?” The

answer from us was none, but we may increase our level of debt-reduction.

Our budget hasn’t really changed in many years as we always try to maintain an even keel and look for further ways to reduce costs especially within our FWE. Monthly reviews on our businesses spending via banklink gives us a great indication of where the money is being spent or potentially over spent.

Another discussion in our household at the moment is around what options we have for the second half of the season.

OAD is one option we are always looking at and we usually change to OAD milking in early April to give the cows an easy run into winter. It’s something that has worked well for us in the past and we find that the cows start to build condition moving into the winter break.

As we have been running the farm with no permanent staff over the Christmas and New Year period this year the OAD option is looking very attractive earlier this season or even adding some automation into the shed in the form of cup removers to free up some labour. But some more number-crunching will have to take place before either of these options are taken any further.

Hopefully everyone has had a chance over the Christmas, New Year period to spend some time away from the coal face with family, friends or neighbours as we have.

We’ll be hoping the weather outlook has improved for all of us in the back half season.

Two months of wet, cold weather has left paddocks under water.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:09 pm

11 MILKING PLATFORM │ WELLNESS Kate Robinson says her husband Chris was reluctant to come home from the farm some days as he didn’t know what state he would find her in.

Human element challenging Kate Robinson My husband Chris and I recently attended one of the GoodYarn farmer wellness workshops run by DairyNZ. It’s all about helping us recognise and respond appropriately to friends, family, farming colleagues or customers suffering from stress or mental illness.

It was a good session and we met some interesting people with their own stories to share. I believe there is still a lot of work to be done to build people’s understanding of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, no matter what industry you work in.

People’s attitude towards depression is softening, but there is still a strong stigma attached to it.

I know. You’ve heard all this before.

But, like it or not, it is important, it is serious and it is real. The tricky thing is depression manifests itself in so many different ways and each person’s symptoms can be different.

I’m certainly not an expert, but as someone who has suffered from depression and anxiety for more than six years, I have some experience. I

Kate Robinson: sometimes the wheels still fall off.

was diagnosed by a health professional when our son was five months old. I was sleep-deprived, out of control and wasn’t coping. Chris was reluctant to come home from the farm some days as he didn’t know what state he would find me in.

‘I don’t want to use my depression as an excuse, but if my friends and family are aware of it, they understand if I say no to something and know not to hijack my daily schedule with too many surprises.’

I don’t lock myself away or mope about as the term depression suggests.

In fact, most people are surprised when I tell them I have a mental illness as I am chatty, bubbly and an extrovert by nature. Rather, my illness rears its ugly head when I feel out of control, disorganised, I try and juggle too many things, or I’m out of routine. I get angry, short with people and extremely anxious.

I take medication to help manage my mood and try to look after myself as best I can by eating the right things, not over-doing the Christmas cheer and managing my commitments. But sometimes the wheels still fall off.

These days I’m open about where my head is at. I don’t want to use my

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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depression as an excuse, but if my friends and family are aware of it, they understand if I say no to something and know not to hijack my daily schedule with too many surprises. We’ve recently had experience with depression onfarm too.

As an employer, we were humbled our staff felt they could talk to us about their mental illness without being judged. We worked with them to understand their triggers and adapted day-to-day duties to help them manage their depression.

Deciding where in the paddock to put the palm kernel trailer became too much for one of our team. Milking in our 50-a-side herringbone was suffocating for her.

It goes without saying that our staff are our business’s most important asset, and their health and well-being is paramount.

But to what extent do you go to accommodate an employee with a mental illness without it having an adverse impact on your business?

As a good person, it creates a moral and ethical dilemma. But you still need to do what’s best for your business. Is your employee still fit to do the job they were employed to do before they were diagnosed with a mental illness? Are they measuring up when it comes to their performance review?

If we look at it from that perspective, an employee with a mental illness should be treated no differently to one who is unable to work to his or her full capacity because of an injury. In reality it is different because we’re talking about a person’s emotional state. A certain amount of diplomacy and empathy is required to deal with the situation. The last thing you want is a suicide on your hands.

I don’t pretend to have the answers. I think it’s about being fair to each other, which does sound a bit wishy washy. As the employer, you want to do the right thing by your staff – talk to them, offer support, put them in touch with the right people. But don’t forget to look after number one in the process.

Your employee also needs to be fair to you and step down if they are struggling to perform. If they’re not focused, or are stressed or anxious, that’s when accidents happen on farm and the health and safety of everyone is at stake.

When you’re dealing with people things aren’t always clear-cut. The human element will always provide some real challenges. As farm owners and/or employers, it is our responsibility to ensure we educate ourselves about mental health issues. All we can do is our best and rest easy at night knowing we are doing the right thing for ourselves and our staff.

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21/12/16 12:09 pm

Upfront UPFRONT │ PALM KERNEL Rachel Baker.

Meeting Fonterra’s palm kernel guideline

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New Zealand palm kernel meal imports by year 3000 2400 1800 1200 600

Year

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

0 2003

P

alm kernel use has grown unchecked over the last few decades despite volatile milk prices, leading New Zealand to be the world’s largest single importer, accounting for about a third of all trade in the supplementary feed.

This reflects NZ’s proximity to the source, lack of large-scale supporting feed industries, dairy farm intensification and its cost-competitive price onfarm.

In response to this and growing concerns on the manufacturing issues that could come from milk with a higher milkfat composition, Fonterra announced in September 2015 its new guidelines around the feeding of palm kernel.

The guidelines stipulated a maximum of 3kg a cow a day be fed in a bid to ‘future-proof the co-operative’s position as a world-leading and trusted producer of pasture-based milk products and to stay ahead of global consumer expectations.’

But what does this mean for farmers?

And is the guideline achievable for the many farmers who rely heavily on the use of palm kernel in their systems or as a backup plan during severe weather events. Rachel Baker looked into this for her report completed for the Kellogg rural leadership programme.

“When I undertook the Kellogg programme I wanted a project topic that was of interest and would contribute to industry. We received an email from Fonterra in early September 2015 out of the blue like all dairy farmers around the

Palm kernel use by the farmers varied considerably, although all fed more than 3kg a cow a day for all or part of the season. Seasonal feeding levels per cow ranged from 265kg to 1.4 tonnes while daily feeding levels above the guideline ranged from 4kg to 7kg/cow/day.

The farms ranged from 225 to 1400 cows and had an average stocking rate of 2.9 cows/ha (range 2.3-4.2) and production of 1253kg milksolids (MS)/ ha (range 770-2307) and 432kg MS/cow (range 320-550).

“There is no profile of what a user, looks like, who is feeding over the guideline, farmers are using palm kernel for different reasons, in different ways and in different systems.”

Farmers could broadly be categorised under six headings for their reasons for using palm kernel: cost-effectiveness, consistency of product, ease of purchase, ease of management, risk management and animal performance.

country. It was certainly going to affect us as we farm in a summer dry area, as well as many others, so that pre-empted this as a topic for my Kellogg report.”

To gain understanding of individual farmer use of palm kernel and gauge the understanding of the new guideline and the perceived impact on farmers, Rachel interviewed 10 Fonterra farmers who were all feeding more than the 3kg/cow/day palm kernel guideline for all or part of the season.

“Palm kernel isn’t a high-quality feed as it has only a moderate energy and protein content but it has a wide safety margin, is a convenient and consistent product and is relatively easy to feed out, making it a popular choice for many farmers.

“A lot of farmers tend to use palm kernel as an option when pasture growth isn’t as expected or when there’s an adverse weather event. Then there are farmers, like the ones I interviewed, who feed it at higher levels in a planned way.”

1000 MT

Cheyenne Stein cheyenne.stein@nzfarmlife.co.nz @CheyStein2

Source: index Mundi website (b)

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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“Many of the farmers said they never intended to be so reliant on palm kernel.

Now they are forward planning and putting in contracts for a large portion of what they think they might need so they can address risk in terms of pricing.”

‘As farmers we have an individual choice whether to feed palm kernel or not. But ultimately the marketplace or our borders will decide whether as an industry we will be feeding it or not.’

Farmers indicated they could remove palm kernel from their systems over two or three seasons if the value proposition was high enough. However seven out of 10 farmers felt a nil directive was unlikely or highly unlikely due to risk of supplier loss and lack of widespread consumer demand to remove it completely.

Although many farmers see benefits in feeding palm kernel, Rachel says every farmer needs to be aware and understand the risk associated with feeding it, from the environmental and social effects through to the bio-security risks which were highlighted this year when the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) turned away a ship-load of uncertified palm kernel.

“As farmers we have an individual choice whether to feed palm kernel or not. But ultimately the marketplace or our

Animal welfare Fonterra has indicated the milk testing threshold will remain, regardless of what happens during a season. Rachel says a common thread among all farmers interviewed was the question of what they would do during a severe weather event.

Where most farmers would normally use palm kernel this option will carry consequences if usage crossed the 3kg threshold.

As the guideline does not apply to feeding levels to non-lactating cows or young stock, the consequences would only apply to lactating cows.

“Farmers will have to make choices about the benefits versus the consequences but something all the farmers said was that animal welfare will always come first and they will deal with the consequences later. They had no issues breeching the guideline to ensure the welfare of their animals.” borders will decide whether as an industry we will be feeding it or not.”

FARMER UNDERSTANDING OF THE GUIDELINE When the guideline first came out there was a much uncertainty about the rationale for the guideline driven by a lack of clear messages and supporting evidence from Fonterra.

“There has been a lot more information coming out about the science behind it all which has been a long time coming. Farmers are very astute and don’t like being asked to do something without understanding why.

They know that if they provide milk that will adversely affect the end product

then they need to change things.”

Since the release of the new guidelines Fonterra has shed more light on the rationale behind the move stating “palm kernel does not affect the natural goodness of milk and does not significantly affect the percentages of fat and protein and other major components within in milk. However, at high levels it can affect the ratios of various components in milk fat”.

“All the farmers I interviewed said that if there were issues with the type of milk components that interfered with the end product or the marketing of it then they would be silly not to abide by the guideline. It wouldn’t make good business sense to do so,” Rachael said.

If the key driver of the guideline was milk composition farmers were generally supportive of and understood the need for a reduction in their use of palm kernel but required more information to help them with their feeding decisions.

Farmers said they were looking at ways to feed less palm kernel and optimise their farm systems to reduce the effect on their business. They were confident the guideline was achievable but would require time to adjust systems. Lowering stocking rates, growing more home-grown feed and altering culling and drying off decisions would all come into this system change which for some, may take longer than others.

“Farmers are clever and adaptable so they will find a way to make this work and figure out what pushes them over the threshold. In time the 3kg figure will be relatively obsolete as they understand how their own farming practices influence the milk test.”

As part of the wider research for developing a milk test that will eventually be put into place, Fonterra is also looking at how a variety of things such as stage of lactation, level of milk production and breed, affects the levels of the milk components that cause manufacturing issues. It is thought the guideline will evolve over time to take into account the findings from this research.

“For the milk test Fonterra are developing there will likely be a long lead-in period for it before penalties are imposed, the farmers will effectively test the test before it’s fully enforced. It gives farmers a chance to adjust their systems instead of penalising farmers from the get go.”

Farmers indicated that they saw a 12-month transition to implementation as being workable to adhere to the guideline to take into account not only system changes, but working out existing palm kernel contracts.

•

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Read Brian Hocking’s stance on PKE. Pg 75 13

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14 UPFRONT │ EARTHQUAKE

James Moore and Faye Dobson say their Kekerengu farm has been ripped apart in the quake.

EARTHQUAKE LESSONS: protecting the farm business Rose McVeagh

tsunami, volcanic eruption, landslide, fire, pandemic or something else. Consider how you would: • protect people and animals • ensure that day-to-day business continues and how you would continue milking • protect assets including the farm dairy.

The November 14 earthquake had a significant impact on Kaikoura. We can’t help but feel for the people involved, but it also gets us thinking, what if it happened in our area? How can we be better prepared?

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, businesses are required to have procedures in place for dealing with workplace emergencies? So, employers are legally required to have an emergency plan.

PARTIAL PREPARATION Most dairy farmers have lots of things already in place should disaster strike, both at home and around the farm – for example fuel, wet weather gear and firewood.

But some extra steps could be taken to ensure you are well-positioned in case of emergency or disaster.

When Jo Back, a DairyNZ consulting officer based in Canterbury, was in Kaikoura and Culverden recently she found some farmers had a generator for the dairy, but if it hadn’t been checked then there was work needed to get it going. Or if the dairy shed generator was working, some farmers needed a second generator for the farm houses, or for the water bore pump.

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Rose McVeagh, DairyNZ people management specialist.

Are you ready for an emergency or disaster? Below are four steps you could take to ensure your farm business is better prepared.

THINK AND PLAN Think about worst-case scenarios.

Identify what could cause injury or illness, property damage or disrupt production.

Think about the likelihood of an event– earthquake, severe storm, flood,

PREPARE • Once you’ve identified the vulnerabilities and the potential impact, how could you prepare?

• What is needed to mitigate risk or minimise the impact of a disaster?

• What equipment is required?

• Which paddocks are safest for animals and how can feed be protected?

• Who needs extra training? Do you have a trained first aider?

• How would you communicate? Do you need two-way radios?

• How could emergency services locate the farm?

IMPLEMENT • To implement your plan, write a list of actions.

• Is your onfarm emergency plan written and communicated?

• Do you have all the equipment you need?

• What training needs to happen?

• What needs checking or updating?

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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PRACTICE Once your plan is in place and you’ve completed the action list, it’s time to see if the system is effective. Just like a fire drill, do a trial run.

• Does everyone know their responsibilities?

• What could be improved?

• Does the equipment work?

workmates will come looking for you.

To meet legal requirements, keep the team safe and ensure business continuity in adverse events or in an emergency, it makes good sense to have a think about this stuff and put together a contingency plan.

FULL PREPARATION Even though you can never be fully prepared, having systems in place will help, should something happen.

For peace of mind, it’s worth spending an hour or two getting organised so that you’re as prepared as possible. It could be as simple as checking a few things like ensuring next-of-kin phone numbers are up-to-date, everyone knows where to find the farm GPS co-ordinates and planning how to contact each other if phone lines are down.

It’s a good idea to keep closer tabs on where everyone is during the working day, especially in areas with limited cell phone coverage. It’s just a quick chat about where you’re headed and when you’ll next meet up. That way you don’t end up with a staff member lying injured in a back paddock for hours and everyone knows, if something terrible happens, your

‘For peace of mind, it’s worth spending an hour or two getting organised so that you’re as prepared as possible.’

CHECKLIST • Water supply – for personal use and for the business.

• Firewood for heating/cooking.

• Food supplies for two weeks.

• BBQ for cooking plus a spare gas bottle.

• Fire extinguisher, torch, radio and spare batteries.

• Wet-weather gear and warm clothing.

• Fuel.

• Onfarm emergency plan – written

down, up-to-date and everyone has been briefed.

• Farm GPS co-ordinates available to all on the farm – including staff and families (so emergency services can easily find the correct location).

• Generator is available and being run and tested quarterly.

• A car charger for your cell phone so you can recharge from your vehicles if power is out.

• First-aid kit supplies are well-stocked with no missing or expired items.

• Contact details are up-to-date including staff next-of-kin phone numbers.

• Meeting point or assembly point has been decided and everyone knows the location.

• A system is in place for communicating if phone lines are out.

• Stock of basic things like candles, stock treatment, hand sanitiser, matches, personal medication, sun screen, can opener etc.

For more information on preparing for an adverse event visit dairynz.co.nz/farm/ adverse-events. For advice to help you put health and safety systems in place visit dairynz.co.nz/healthandsafety.

• Rose McVeagh is a DairyNZ people management specialist.

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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16 UPFRONT │ MILK SUPPLY

DIRA changes could erode supply Bob Edlin bob.edlin@xtra.co.nz

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Andrew Hoggard has farmed with differentials and is not keen to return to those days but says Fonterra shareholders should decide the terms of supply not the Government. quite frankly you have a lot of farmers in some catchments that are approaching nitrate limits or are over-allocated,” Hoggard said.

This didn’t mean Fonterra would refuse all milk from new conversions, Hoggard said. Fonterra already has a tanker going to his farm and was likely to take the new milk, if the sheep farm next door to him suddenly converted to dairying, so long as all the regional council rules and other requirements were met.

But the change would give Fonterra the right to say no.

‘It’s an example of how Fonterra might tell a farmer to stick to sheep farming by saying it doesn’t intend to pick up the milk.’

Hoggard cited the example of a farm on rich sheep farming land in the hills of the Manawatu which converted to dairying last year.

“It would be hard to think it is of great value for Fonterra to have to send tankers there to pick up the milk,” he said.

“It’s an example of how Fonterra might tell a farmer to stick to sheep farming by saying it doesn’t intend to pick up the milk.”

Fonterra didn’t have much say in the control of its milk supply under the existing rules, but a crash in lamb prices could precipitate a rush to convert to dairying, Hoggard said.

He cited Manawatu-Rangitikei as one

region especially with a lot of flat land still in sheep farming which in theory could be converted to dairy.

“If those guys all overnight suddenly decided to switch, Fonterra would have to expand Whareroa or upgrade Longburn or Pahiatua and buy extra tankers, when they would rather establish – let’s say – a new mozzarella plant,” he said.

Changing the rules would enable Fonterra to limit conversions to those that make sense for its plans.

Hoggard was aware of a dislike among farmers of DIRA and its rules but said they put a lot of safeguards in place, rightly or wrongly.

Removal of all rules, on the other hand, might pave the way for transport differentials to be included in the conditions for accepting new suppliers located far from a factory.

The Government was not proposing differentials, Hoggard emphasised. Nor was he saying they would or should be introduced.

But a complete erosion of the DIRA rules over time would allow Fonterra to operate in the same way as its rivals.

If farmers were not happy with this, they should express their concerns to Fonterra and seek the assurances they want.

Hoggard attributed his own dislike of differentials to his experience during his first three years of farming.

But he would assume the processors would steer clear of them.

“They will want to secure milk and can be expected to do the right thing,” he said.

“But in five years’ time… who knows?”

In the upshot, this aspect of supply conditions was a matter Fonterra shareholders, not the Government, should decide.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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No rules required dairy processing companies to pick up everybody’s milk or to treat all suppliers the same before the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (or DIRA) was passed in 2001, allowing Fonterra to be established. Each co-operative had its own rules and terms and conditions of supply.

When Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard first started farming at Kiwitea near Feilding in 1997/98 his parents had been supplying the Tui dairy company which merged with Kiwi “and in my first three years I had to pay 30c a kilo to Taranaki dairy farmers for the privilege of supplying milk to them – so we had a differential”.

Hoggard recalled that experience while discussing the overhaul of the DIRA announced by the Government in October to generate greater competition in the industry.

Farmers who haven’t experienced dairying before DIRA might take the rules for granted but they need to understand what their removal means, he said.

The DIRA requires Fonterra to pick up milk from all new farmers, no matter how far-flung they are or the commercial sense of doing so. One change will free Fonterra from the obligation to accept milk from new conversions.

Hoggard was confident most farmers would welcome this as a good and sensible change because they didn’t want conversions happening willy-nilly – not only because of the impact on Fonterra’s ability to process milk and high-value products, but also because of some of the environmental effects.

Fonterra further wants to be allowed to decline milk from suppliers who have moved away but want to come back.

Definitions of “new shareholder” or “returning shareholder” will become important.

“If I sold my farm the buyer will be viewed as a new shareholder so there is no compulsion for Fonterra to take the milk,” Hoggard said.

“Undoubtedly Fonterra would take the milk in 99.9% of cases, but …”

When he bought his parents out of the Hoggard farm, in effect he became a new shareholder, so the new rule would apply in cases like that, too.

Potentially, this meant some sheep farmers in some parts of the country might have their land values cut back.

This probably was a good thing “because

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Dairy Exporter www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017 Use antibiotics responsibly.

DXP 01-17 book.indb 17

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18 UPFRONT │ ANIMAL WELFARE

Farmers consulted on animal welfare Sheryl Brown sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz @sherylbrownnz DairyNZ has started another round of 500 onfarm consultations to monitor animal welfare practices on New Zealand dairy farms.

For the past five years, 500 consultations have been done annually, with the farms randomly selected, representing dairying activity across the different regions.

Data collected is confidential with the anonymous information used by DairyNZ to understand practices onfarm and to monitor trends and changes.

It was also evidence DairyNZ could use to show the reality of animal welfare practices on farms when issues arose.

The spike of interest from the general public on animal welfare was a global trend and the industry had to be on the front foot, DairyNZ animal husbandry and welfare team manager Chris Leach said.

Consumers wanted more clarity about onfarm practices and to know the products they were buying off the shelves had been produced ethically without any harm to animals.

The dairy industry had a responsibility to not only ensure the Animal Welfare Act was met on farms, but also bridge the divide between rural and urban communities to inform consumers about what happened on dairy farms, Leach said.

NZ had some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world and there was a real opportunity for the dairy industry to add value to their products based on that, he said.

The grass-fed NZ system was a morenatural approach than a feed lot which was a positive story NZ could take to world markets.

The expectations of the general public around animal welfare standards would continue to change, however, and the industry had to be ready to adapt, Leach said.

“We are on a continuous journey.”

The 2014 regulation change which prohibited calves being killed by bluntforce trauma in the Code of Welfare was a positive example of how NZ farmers had adapted.

The consultation results showed the

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practice onfarm had shrunk from 30% of farmers using blunt-force trauma to less than 2% in the last two years.

There was still a bit of work to educate farmers about this change in practice, but it was a good gauge of how farmers had reacted to the change in practice, Leach said.

This year farmers faced another significant animal welfare change with new bobby calf regulations for 2017. There was an entire section in the consultation based on bobby calf facilities and practices to assess what changes farmers had made and educate farmers to make any other changes needed.

The surveyors who carried out the consultations, who were mostly farmers, would be able to give advice as part of the process on how farmers could adjust facilities or build new facilities before the new regulations come in next year.

The surveyors were key to the process, gathering good tips from farmers with exceptional practices that could be relayed back to DairyNZ and shared with all farmers.

‘If I was given a crystal ball I would say shelter is an area we will have to look at.’

An example was a farmer using a brisket strap along with hip clamps to help move a cow and to distribute the cow’s weight when she was being supported by hip clamps.

This was a method picked up in one of the consults which DairyNZ had now relayed out to other farmers as bestpractice.

Another animal welfare issue that could become more prevalent in the future was shelter, including cows having adequate shade in summer and warm stand-off areas during winter in colder climates.

There was a perceived shortfall of shelter on NZ dairy farms and it was an area the Ministry for Primary Industries had flagged as a future issue, he said.

“If I was given a crystal ball I would say shelter is an area we will have to look at.”

DairyNZ’s Chris Leach: ‘We are on a continuous journey.’

With 500 consultations done every year DairyNZ was building a good picture of the animal welfare practices and the data was tracking trend changes, Leach said.

The questions asked were formed on the three codes of welfare that outline the industry-agreed standards of animal care and good stockmanship practices; Dairy Cattle, the Painful Husbandry Procedures and the Transport of Livestock within New Zealand Codes of Welfare.

Examples of the questions covered were what happened onfarm around calving, what the farm’s standards were for calf-rearing and bobby calf practices.

There were questions around the way farmers identified and treated mastitis and lameness, what drugs were used for dry cowing, how painful procedures such as dehorning were done and what was done onfarm for humane slaughter.

Questions were also asked about supplements on-hand, stocking rate, resilience in the farm system and onfarm facilities.

Some of the information was shared with dairy companies where it could help them with market access, but it was mostly designed for DairyNZ to get a better understanding of farm practices and to target its resources to upskill and inform farmers.

“This is not about compliance. We are here to help provide peace of mind around onfarm practices so farmers know they are doing the best for their animals.

“We appreciate farmers that allow us onfarm. Farmers have the opportunity to opt out but we have had a really low nonresponse rate so far.”

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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PASTURE January 2017

Slowing down can add years Seed freight to your pasture post quake If you want better, more profitable results from your new grass this autumn, it might be a good idea to try and slow down the pasture renewal process.

To help achieve this, we’ve published a new free farmer booklet called Every Seed Counts, covering six key practices for great pasture renewal.

Following these guidelines can literally add years to the life of new pasture, says agronomist Will Henson.

“The question we ask farmers is this: if we offered you three more years of pasture persistence in exchange for you spending an extra two weeks getting pasture establishment perfect, would you take it?”

Many farmers are time poor in autumn, meaning pasture establishment can often be rushed, but Will says this is one job that will reward you for taking the time to get it right.

“When it is done right, sowing new grass and clover gives a return on investment few other areas of farm spending can match, as much as 50% per annum. That’s because it provides tonnes of extra high quality feed for as little as 10c/ kg DM.”

Every Seed Counts shows how to achieve these results by focussing on six key practices, namely: 1. Choosing the right paddock(s), which will give the highest gains for the lowest cost.

2. Correcting underlying problems that caused the original pasture to run out in the first place.

3. Using the right renewal method for your farm system.

4. Picking the correct pasture cultivars and endophyte, using the DairyNZ Forage Value Index (FVI) to identify which genetics offer the most profit for your farm system.

5. Sowing seed carefully, including creating a good seedbed and sowing at the right depth.

6. Managing new pasture through the first 12 months until it is fully established.

7. For your copy of Every Seed Counts, ask your seed merchant or visit www.agriseeds.co.nz

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

It’s always a good idea to order seed for autumn pasture renewal early, because it helps everyone involved organise the right product to be in the right place at the right time.

This year, however, it’s more important than usual. Why? Because most grass and clover seed is grown in the South Island, and normally road freighted to North Island farmers via State Highway 1.

With much of that link out of action as a result of the November earthquake, we are working through a new set of logistics for supplying our North Island customers this season.

Alternative freight options will almost certainly create extra costs and transport delays, so the seed supply chain will be under pressure.

The sooner you order, the better, for you (so you get seed when you need it) as well as for your merchant and for us, to help our planning and organisation.

For further information freephone: 0800 449 955, email: mail@agriseeds.co.nz or visit: www.agriseeds.co.nz

DXP 01-17 book.indb 19

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20 MARKET VIEW │ MILK PRICE

Milk price forecast looks safe The priority for many farmers is to contain burgeoning overdrafts rather than produce more milk.

Susan Kilsby

W

hat a difference six months makes.

Dairy commodity markets were in the doldrums six months ago but slowing global milk supply finally resulted in a rapid recovery in prices in late 2016. The milk price has now ascended to a level where the majority of New Zealand dairy farmers can expect to turn a profit this season.

Milk prices have been below the cost of production for the world’s dairy producing countries throughout 2016.

This eventually prompted a slow-down in milk output in most parts of the world. But it was the poor spring weather experienced across NZ’s main dairying regions that has had the greatest impact on the milk price our farmers will get this season.

The sharp drop in milk intakes in NZ through the peak production months was been driven by weather-related events, but lower cow numbers and a reduction in the use of supplementary feed also played a part. If a higher milk price had been forecast earlier in the season then at least some of the impact of poor pasture could have been mitigated by greater use of supplementary feed. But of course the milk price wouldn’t be where it is today if production hadn’t dropped so quickly.

After two seasons of exceptionally low prices the priority for many farmers is to contain burgeoning overdrafts rather than produce more milk. Overdraft levels typically peak towards the end of the calendar year then ease back in the later part of the season – although this trend has been obscured in recent years as low returns have not allowed for financial recovery. Many costs are incurred in the early part of the production season at a time when advance rates are low. As the season progresses expenses fall and incomes rise as advance rates increase.

The slowdown in milk output has impacted the price of whole milk powder (WMP) more than any of the other dairy commodities. NZ supplies most of the WMP traded globally so a drop in milk supply here will have a significant impact on the amount of product available to international buyers.

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A strong butter market is also taking some milk away from the production of WMP. Butter is now back in vogue with first world consumers who favour natural products over artificial products.

The all-important WMP price broached US$3000 a tonne in early November and continued to firm for the remainder of 2016.

A long-overdue lift in demand from China pushed WMP prices to a level that seemed impossible when the season began.

Prices have also been assisted by activity on the demand side of the equation. A long-overdue lift in demand from China pushed WMP prices to a level that seemed impossible when the season began. China has needed to buy more milk powder on the international market to make up for a shortfall in its domestic production.

Farmers in China – like the rest of the world – have also struggled to turn a profit which has impacted their own milk supply.

Buying from South-east Asia has continued throughout 2016 even as milk powder became progressively more costly.

But consumers in the poorer African nations are very price-sensitive so demand there world backed off in the later part of 2016 as prices lifted.

The flow-on effects of low oil prices has significantly impacted demand from the Middle East. Through the latter part of

2016 this region relied heavily on existing stocks to meet its subdued consumer demand. The absence of buying from this part of the market has been very noticeable but at some point the Middle East will run out of stock and will need to return to the global markets to replenish stocks. This latent demand is expected to contribute some extra demand in the first half of 2017, taking up the slack should demand from other regions falter.

WMP is expected to continue to trade at a higher premium than usual over skim milk powder (SMP). Supply of SMP is more abundant as NZ accounts for a much smaller portion of the global supply than for WMP. SMP can also be stored for much longer than WMP and there are significant volumes in storage. The European Commission is expected to release more product this year which will compensate for the drop in milk supply from Europe through the northern hemisphere winter.

Milk prices in the United States continue to be favourable meaning ongoing growth in output is expected. Most of the additional milk produced in the US in the past couple of years has been sucked up by its thirsty domestic market. Some extra SMP (or non-fat dry milk) and cheese is expected to show up in the export markets this year but this region is not a large producer of WMP. Therefore this additional supply will have little impact on the WMP price which is the main driver of Fonterra’s farmgate milk price.

Global demand – relative to supply – is expected to be robust enough to keep WMP prices near current levels for the remainder of the 2016-17 season. So long as this occurs it is safe to assume a milk price of at least $6/kg milksolids (MS) will be paid this season.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

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Business BUSINESS │ SCIENCE IN ACTION Tony Coltman – sowing plantain in the pasture mix.

FOCUS ON NITRATE LEACHING

S

ince its conversion in 1999 Canlac Holdings has been one of Canterbury’s top-performing farms in terms of production and profit, and amid changing environmental regulations the farm’s owners want to keep it that way.

That’s why Canlac’s 50-50 sharemilkers and equity partners Tony Coltman and Dana Carver are one of nine farms involved in the Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching (FRNL) programme.

Last season the farm peak-milked 1391 cows to produce 502kg milksolids (MS)/cow or 2082kg MS/ha using 729kg drymatter (DM) of bought-in supplement – all at a cost of $3.58/kg MS farm working expenses or $3.85/kg MS operating expenses. They’re impressive numbers that have come from attention to detail and a very strong focus on measuring, monitoring, analysis and action.

The couple make use of industry experts and are always looking to the latest information, backed by science so they can not only maintain a high level of performance but push on even further.

They’re also actively involved in industry groups helping with thought leadership when it comes to driving productivity and meeting some of the challenges in areas such as the environment.

“We’re in the Selwyn zone here so we’re looking at pretty big nitrate leaching restrictions coming in.

“We need to know what we can do to achieve them without compromising the business’ performance,” Tony says.

“We joined the Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching farmer group because we saw it as a way of upskilling ourselves on this whole area.

“It’s going to have an impact on our business and rather than sit on the outside and throw stones we wanted to get

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involved and maybe be able to influence it.

“By being involved we’re also going to hear about new technologies sooner,” he says.

The farm is relatively highly stocked at 4.2cows/ha and by DairyNZ’s definitions is a system 4 using about 25% imported feed in spring and autumn.

Maximising intakes of high-quality pasture has always been a key factor at Canlac and Tony’s sought to maintain that and drive the system even further by pushing breeding worth (BW) and feeding cows so they can fully express their milk production potential in a profitable way.

That initially saw stocking rate climb from 3.9 to 4.1 cows/ha and supplement jump to 880kg DM/cow in Tony and Dana’s first season which was up from the 300-500kg DM/cow that had been fed over the previous eight years.

The additional inputs brought close to an extra 20kg MS/cow and 170kg MS/ha in the first year and since then they’ve consistently increased production and carried more cows while decreasing bought-in feed and increasing pasture eaten on farm.

Last season pasture eaten was 18.5 tonnes DM/ha which was up from 15.7t DM/ha in their first season.

Tony says last season was an exceptional one in terms of pasture growth and climatic conditions.

This spring and early summer though

have been more difficult to manage.

He says the conditions have already meant they’ve had to feed a little more supplement and monitoring is showing pasture growth hasn’t been as consistent as last season at the same time.

Towards the end of last season a new 78-metre x 34m feed pad was commissioned but rather than any departure from a pasture-first, pasturemaximisation focus it’s been constructed to drive greater efficiency and reduce supplement wastage by 10-20%.

That in turn should help cut total supplement use even further without compromising milk production.

Tony says the feed pad should help them maintain their high level of production to within 1-2% every year regardless of climatic conditions.

His business case analysis forecast a 30% return on asset driven largely by the ability to maintaining the high level of production, reducing feed costs and minimising wastage. With an autumn and spring now under their belt it looks like his calculations are panning out.

The more-difficult start to the season that’s seen pasture growth stopping and starting and grasses going to seed quickly has meant staff have really had to be keenly focused on managing pastures well, first and foremost.

They can’t let the presence of the feed pad allow them to take their eye off the ball when it comes to grazing

Grazing to consistently low residuals to maximise high BW cows’ intakes of high quality pasture is the first aim at Canlac.

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management, Tony says.

Just because it’s there doesn’t mean they can let anything slip when it comes to correctly allocating daily pasture breaks and achieving residuals.

The feed pad has also allowed them to reduce pasture silage and swap it out for lower protein sources of supplement.

Tony believes that’s likely to have had an effect on nitrogen inputs to the soil in the spring.

“We’ve fed feed maize silage and fodder beet which are low in protein as well as palm kernel that’s a medium-protein content supplement and a little grass silage all put through the mixer wagon on the pad.”

Milk urea levels were down 26% in August and with urinary nitrogen concentrations correlated with milk urea Tony expects that nitrogen loadings from cows either directly or via effluent collected off the feed pad will be down.

Through the autumn lower-protein supplements may also have the same effect and the fact cows are fed all their boughtin supplement on the pad will also help to reduce the amount of nitrogen going on to the soil via the urine patch.

That’s because the feed pad captures any urine deposited while cows are there.

It’s directly linked to the effluent system so urinary nitrogen captured there is then able to be spread by the effluent irrigation system at a much more even and lower rate than if it was deposited directly by the cow. The effluent system allows for 60days’ storage.

The caution though is that one of Tony’s aims is to use the feed pad as a way to mimic a dry season in terms of supplement utilisation giving him the ability to feed cows through wet periods at either end of the season.

That will give him more days in milk which could have a negative effect on the nutrient budget.

Last season’s exceptional pasture growth and the feed pad made it possible to continue milking carry-over cows into the winter – another factor that boosted

Tony Coltman – the new feed pad has cut supplement wastage and collects urinary nitrogen. productivity but could be a challenge when it comes to reducing nitrogen loss.

He’s sown 12ha of fodder beet on the milking platform and two of the farm’s three herds will graze it in situ in the autumn to help extend the grazing round and transition cows for wintering.

It will be lifted and fed to the third herd on the pad. Fodder beet is also low in protein and has been shown to reduce urinary nitrogen content.

Research showing significant cuts in leaching losses when fodder beet is followed by a catch crop has caught his attention and Tony is considering how he can use that to achieve the combined goals of lowering nitrogen loss and improving productivity.

The additional drymatter production from the cereal crop could be harvested and fed back to cows on the feedpad but again care has to be taken with what will be a higher protein feed so that it doesn’t add an input to the nutrient budget that outweigh its benefits. Tony’s bringing plantain into the pasture mix with his pasture renewal programme as research is showing the pasture species can significantly cut urinary nitrogen without any limiting affect on milk production.

He is also part of a trial to see how it can be established in existing pastures too with high rates to be undersown with clover.

That study is mirroring work being done at Lincoln University’s Research Dairy Farm this summer. (See page 25).

Canlac has always used nitrogen as a tool to boost grass production but this

Canlac Holdings - Tony Coltman and Dana Carver 2013-14

2014-15

2015-16

2016-17 target/ budget

Milking platform (ha)

335

335

335

335

Peak cows (cows)

1370

1390

1391

1400

Stocking rate (cows/ha)

4.1

4.15

4.15

4.2

Bought-in supplement (kg DM/cow)

880

802

729

700

Nitrogen applied (kg N/ha)

286

271

292

260

Production (kg MS/ha)

1901

2043

2082

2100

Production (kg MS/cow)

465

492

502

503

Pasture eaten (t DM/ha)

15.7

17.6

18.5

18-19

70

68

3.53

3.58

Leaching (kg N/ha) Farm working expenses ($/ kgMS)

3.41

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 23

3.49

season Tony aims to cut back on its use slightly.

“Last year we followed the cows with about 70kg/ha of SustaiN nitrogen fertiliser but his year we’ve cut it back to 60kg/ha.

That should work out to about 14% less nitrogen going on over the whole season.”

Irrigation management is a key driver of nitrogen loss within nutrient budgets and models such as Overseer.

Actively managing water application to limit if not eliminate drainage events through the soil profile mean nitrate leaching too is limited.

Canlac has taken on Central Plains Water last season but retained its groundwater takes as backup rather than using stored water from the scheme.

This season it’s using the Lake Coleridge supplied stored water through CPW. Until 2013 only half the farm was watered by pivot irrigation with the rest irrigated using higher-application-rate spray irrigators. The addition of a second pivot has helped lift irrigation efficiency and pasture production and it’s also helped improve water management so drainage events are minimised.

Aquaflex soil moisture monitoring tapes are installed under the pivots and Tony schedules irrigation to ensure soil moisture remains in the ideal band between the refill point and field capacity.

That means watching the graph produced by the Aquaflex software as well as keeping a close eye on weather forecasts.

Managing soil moisture to sit in the ideal band has win-win-win outcomes in terms of production, profit and environment in that it maximises pasture production, reduces water costs and minimises nitrogen losses.

For Tony working on all of those areas – irrigation, nitrogen fertiliser, supplement, forage crops and capturing urine on the pad – are his first port of call to try and reduce nitrogen losses from the farm system.

“When we see what we can achieve with all of those things then we’ll see where we sit and that’s when we might take a look at things like stocking rate.”

Right now he’s not convinced that cutting stocking rate is going to achieve all three goals of production, profit and environment.

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24

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This year we’ve helped our farmers to manage the drop of income that has followed sustained low dairy prices.

The Farm Source Support Package, our Fonterra Co-operative Support Loan and advancing dividend payments are just some of the ways Fonterra is supporting our farmers.

So let’s talk about being stronger together.

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STRONGER TOGETHER.

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DXP 01-17Win book.indb FEG0008 Back DE24 297x210.indd 1

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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:26 AM

25 SCIENCE IN ACTION │ N LEACHING

Plantain – direct drilling at 8kg/ ha is one of the establishment methods being tested at the Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm.

Planting plantain and persistence Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee Getting plantain into an established pasture in quantities large enough to help cut nitrate leaching and then managing plants to ensure they persist are the aims of a new trial at the Lincoln University Research Dairy Farm.

Lincoln University scientist Dr Racheal Bryant is leading the study that’s part of the wider Forages for Reduced Nitrate Leaching (FRNL) programme.

She says previous studies have already identified plantain as a plant that can help lower nitrate-leaching losses because of the effect it has on cutting the concentration of nitrogen in cows’ urine.

“We know the concentration of nitrogen in the urine is significantly reduced when cows consume 30% or more of their diet as plantain,” Bryant says.

“And that happens without any negative effect on milk production.”

As well as scientific trials the FRNL programme involves nine commercial farmers allowing research findings to be scaled up to a whole-farm systems level.

It also gives farmers a chance to provide feedback to the scientists and help keep a practical steer on what the scientists investigate and how the findings are implemented.

Bryant says farmers shared their experiences of plantain with researchers as part of a workshop looking at diverse pasture species and researchers queried

whether farmers would consider sowing plantain on its own adjacent to a moretypical ryegrass-white clover pasture.

“We think that managing plantain as a monoculture could have its benefits but farmers weren’t too keen on that idea.

“We haven’t got enough data yet either on how to manage spatially separated pasture species so, after talking to them, we decided we’d investigate some more immediate options for getting plantain into the pasture using different, costeffective methods of establishment.

‘We know the concentration of nitrogen in the urine is significantly reduced when cows consume 30% or more of their diet as plantain.’

“We’re also looking at what management’s necessary to keep plantain plant populations up for longer because we know farmers have trouble with persistence.”

Three different establishment methods are being tested: • Broadcast pre-grazing with cows used to trample seed into soil.

• Broadcasting post-grazing (farmers could do this when spinning fertiliser on).

• Direct drilling post-grazing.

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The plantain effect Inclusion of plantain in cows’ diets can reduce the nitrogen concentration of their urine without having a detrimental effect on milksolids (MS) production.

Lisa Box of Lincoln University found that when plantain made up half the sward along with a ryegrass/white clover mix, urinary nitrogen concentrations were reduced by 33%.

If plantain was all cows ate, urinary nitrogen concentrations were more than halved.

Box’s study, published in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production in 2016 measured milk production and urinary nitrogen concentration from cows over a 10-day period in March where cows grazed either a diet of plantain only, 50-50 plantain with a ryegrass-white clover mix, or ryegrasswhite clover only.

The urinary nitrogen concentration for cows grazing plantain only was 56% lower than for cows grazing ryegrass-white clover.

Milksolids production was greater for cows grazing plantain only (1.67kg MS/ cow/day) than those grazing pasture (1.50kg MS/cow/day), with milksolids production from cows grazing 50-50 diet intermediate (1.60 kg MS/cow/d).

In her discussion Box points out that while plantain has a lower nitrogen content than the ryegrass-white clover mix, the difference was not great enough to fully explain the drop in urinary nitrogen concentration.

She says previous studies published

by AgResearch scientist Stewart Ledgard in 2015 suggested plantain caused cows to have a greater volume of urine per urination and the dilution effect may also contribute to the lower concentration of nitrogen.

Further studies are underway to understand more about what’s behind the plantain effect on urinary nitrogen concentrations.

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In each case very high seeding rates of 8kg of seed per hectare were used. When plantain is sown as part of a pasture mix in irrigated pasture it’s typically sown at 1kg/ ha. Its seeds are much smaller than those of ryegrass so there are more seeds per kg.

“Eight kg per hectare might seem excessive but it’s a numbers game. We’re trying to get a situation where there’s more than 30% in the pasture beyond the first year.”

Broadcasting too requires higher sowing rates to account for the fact that a higher percentage of the seed might not find itself in close contact with the soil.

Bryant says the plot trials were sown in early December and measurements to gauge the effects of each establishment method include taking a botanical composition survey just before each grazing to determine what plants and how many are in a pre-determined area.

The number of plantain plants and the number of leaves on plants within an area are also being recorded.

Those measures are also being used to assess the results of another set of treatments within the study related to time to first grazing and the use of pre-graze mowing.

In scientific parlance the study is a 3x4 trial because not only is it looking at the three establishment methods it’s also looking at the other two in two different combinations.

• Pre-graze mow the plot and graze after 21 days.

• Graze after 21 days without pre-graze mowing.

• Pre-graze mow and graze on a 29-day rotation.

• Graze on a 29-day rotation without pregraze mowing.

“Twenty one days is a typical round length for farmers in Canterbury in

Plantain – keeping plant populations high is the aim.

December but we know from the literature that plantain needs a certain amount of thermal time to get established and that has an effect on persistence.

“By delaying first grazing so the round is at 29 days we’re allowing another 100 growing degree days for the plantain and we want to see what effect that has.”

Pre-graze mowing is also under investigation because the scientists want to see if it can limit cows honing in on the

plantain and selectively grazing it or even over grazing it.

“It’s also a competition thing. The hypothesis is that the pre-graze mowing may help reduce the competition from the ryegrass in the next round too. By removing greater leaf area it may slow the re-growth of the ryegrass.

“That may let more light in or get more even distribution of light into the base of the pasture which is good for the plantain.”

Accounting for diversity Reaping any benefits from sowing diverse pastures when it comes to Overseer modelling isn’t likely to be straightforward.

When included in the pasture mix, plantain and chicory have been scientifically proven to cut nitrogen losses.

The degree those losses are cut, though, depends on what percentage of the sward is made up of those plants.

Lincoln University scientist Dr Racheal Bryant says that’s where accounting for diverse pastures in a model such as Overseer becomes a bit tricky.

“It’s not as simple as asking what percentage of the farm is sown in diverse pastures,” she says.

The number of plantain and chicory plants in the sward declines over time so every year the percentage of the beneficial diverse pasture species will be getting lower.

If new paddocks are being sown each year then across the farm there are going to be a number of paddocks all with different percentages of diverse pasture species in them.

It may be that an algorithm can be worked out to calculate what reductions are likely based on when pastures were sown but that’s fraught with difficulties too in terms of accuracy of results.

One farmer may have great persistence of plantain for instance in some paddocks while not in others and another farmer may have a different experience – all for a whole range of climatic and managerial factors.

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‘The hypothesis is that the pre-graze mowing may help reduce the competition from the ryegrass in the next round too.’

Bryant says pre-graze mowing may also ensure target residuals are met in the 29-day grazing interval treatment and counteract the effects of what will be a much higher pre-grazing cover.

Dairy Exporter will be following the results of the trial and Bryant is hopeful she’ll have preliminary results to report on in February.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 27

21/12/16 12:10 pm

28 BUSINESS │ GOVERNANCE

Unexpected succession FARM FACTS Location: Woodville Area: 192ha Cows: 360 Friesian Cross, wintered off farm.

Farm dairy: 36-aside herringbone Production: 120,000kg milksolids (2015) Staff: Tim and two full-time

To help out his mum, Tim Mudford has spent three years back on the family dairy farm getting his head around the operation.

Nicholas Allen Business Torque Systems Tim Mudford is excited about moving into the family villa with his wife Lynnea and two kids. Now a fifth generation Tararua farmer, Tim was called back to the farm after the unexpected loss of his father.

It’s been a tough transition, but Tim is optimistic – a confidence he puts down to good governance practices.

Tim looks forward to the villa’s extra space: “We can entertain people easier.”

“And it has a dishwasher!” Lynnea added, laughing.

The young couple also admit to feeling nervous. “There are a few tricky things to work out,” Lynnea said. “In many ways, moving into this house is symbolic of us taking over the management of the farm.”

Tim’s parents, Pete and Angelina, had run the farm for years. That was until Pete was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumour and died a few months later, in 2014.

With no clear succession plan, documented procedures, or established governance practices, the sudden transition was difficult. Nearly three years later, the family is beginning to get control of the business again.

Tim and Lynnea’s long-term goal is to move off the farm, allowing Tim to pursue his passion: engineering. However, they also want to continue overseeing the farm in a governance role.

“We are trying to move the business from something that had no formal processes into something that is quite simple – so anyone can manage it – and we can help with the governance,” Lynnea said.

Tim’s parents moved into the family

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villa when he was 12. The house is filled with memories. The couple said it’s easy to feel the pressure of filling the boots left by Tim’s parents.

Pete was a capable DIY person. He even built his own dairy platform – and a few for neighbours. “It was a lot of fun, helping Dad with building projects,” Tim said.

With a clear sense of what he wanted to achieve, Pete never stood still.

“He was always looking for ways to expand the farm.” Lynnea said. “He had a momentum. If an opportunity came his way, he took it.”

Having grown up on the land, Pete was a natural farmer.

“Dad was very much an old-school farmer who did everything on intuition,” Lynnea said. “Farmers like that can look at the cows or the pastures and just know things. Pete had been farming since he was in nappies and he had that ability.”

“He farmed for the love of it,” Tim said.

“He just loved pottering around.”

The farm was set up as a partnership between Pete and Angelina. True to his intuitive style, Pete didn’t have any governance structures or practices in place. Policies and procedures were never documented.

Pete didn’t keep record of important KPIs like pasture or stock health. “He didn’t even have a budget,” Lynnea said.

Surprisingly, Pete’s approach, coupled with a natural entrepreneurship, seemed to work, Tim said. “The bank manager said he ran a really tight ship.”

Then tragedy struck unexpectedly. In September 2013, Tim’s brother David noticed that Pete was acting strangely.

David, a medical professional, was concerned and took his father to the

hospital. A short time later, Pete was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour.

It quickly became obvious Pete was no longer able to manage the farm. The family had a meeting to figure out who would take over. Hesitant to bring in someone they didn’t know, Tim and Lynnea were the only choice.

Tim and Lynnea were living in Tauranga at the time. Tim trained as a software engineer and was working as a web developer. Neither had seriously considered a career in farming.

“I have said, ever since I was a little girl, that I would never marry a farmer,” Lynnea laughed.

Nevertheless, they wanted to support Tim’s mother and decided to move on to the farm.

“When this came up, we just knew it was the right thing to do,” Lynnea said. “It all happened very quickly. We quit the job, packed up the house and off we went.”

The couple arrived on the farm a few weeks later, in November.

Tim spent time with Pete, trying to

It was a tough time taking over the farm while his dad was so ill and then after his death, but Tim Mudford has battled through with ITO training and guidance from a farm consultant.

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While his dad grew up and thrived on milking cows, Tim is keen to get out of the cow shed and pay staff to milk and manage the farm while he has an active governance role.

learn about the farm. Impaired by the brain tumour, Pete struggled to convey information. “He was too far gone,” Tim said.

It was a difficult time. “He was really trying to show Tim the ropes, but he couldn’t formulate the words and he couldn’t quite make sense of things in his own head,” Lynnea said.

“No one expects to be taken out of the game suddenly. If you don’t write it down and it’s all in your head and something happens, then no-one can take over.”

Compounding the difficulty, Pete’s employee of 13 years had decided to move on. Tim had two months to glean information from the farm labourer.

“I was trying to learn stuff, but there was so much work to do.”

The farm labourer left and Tim entered survival mode. “I thought, I just need to continue on and learn the rest. It was a huge learning curve.”

With the death of Pete, the business reverted to Angelina as a sole trader.

Overcome with the grief of loss, she was not in a position to run the farm. “It was

Tim Mudford is hoping to get back to his passion of engineering and software once he and his family can set up the governance structure for the farm.

really tough on her,” Lynnea said.

Unprepared, Angelina struggled to make the decisions needed to run the farm.

When Pete was around, Angelina had handled the accounts, rather than the management of the farm.

“She couldn’t offer Tim a lot because she didn’t know things on the level of detail Tim needed,” Lynnea said.

Nevertheless, Tim’s goal remained to support his mother. Tim filled in the gaps through Primary ITO and DairyNZ courses, and through the help of a farm consultant.

‘No one expects to be taken out of the game suddenly. If you don’t write it down and it’s all in your head and something happens, then no-one can take over.’

“The farm consultant has been the most valuable thing,” Tim said. “He has journeyed through this with us. He has become a friend — he is more than just an adviser.”

Under the guidance of the consultant, Tim began to get a handle on the business.

Learning to manage the farm and the science of pasture management has given Tim confidence. It has also enabled Angelina to step back.

Three years later, Tim reflects on some of the things he wished had been in place before Pete’s unexpected passing.

Tim wishes the farm had been set up as a company with a board of directors, before his father’s death. He believes a board of

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 29

directors would have been an invaluable support to everyone during the transition.

Sharing the responsibility for decisionmaking would have given Angelina the time to focus on her family and space to grieve.

Likewise, Tim believes a board would have provided the support he needed during this unexpected succession. Making decisions with others could have provided the guidance Tim needed in mapping the farm’s strategies, policies and procedures.

At the very least, Tim wishes there was a documented set of values, a purpose or vision, by which to run the farm.

Documented policies and procedures would have helped as he took over management of the farm.

Farm statistics and figures are another thing Tim wishes he had.

“Some recordings of anything would have been good,” Tim said. “Then we would’ve had something to benchmark our progress against.”

With the help of their farm consultant, the couple are making progress. Their goal is to build the farm to a point where it can run itself.

“Our roles will change,” Tim said. “We are hoping to leave the management role and step into a governance role on the board of directors.”

Tim and Lynnea’s plan to step into a governance role will enable them to achieve two things. First, the couple wants to support Angelina and govern the farm.

Second, Tim wants to pursue his dream of running an innovative engineering business.

“We came here because we wanted to help [Tim’s mum],” Lynnea said, “but Tim’s real passion is in engineering and computers. Technology is what he loves.”

Originally, Tim and Lynnea were unsure how they were going to achieve these two goals. “We knew where we needed to go, but had no idea how to get there,” Lynnea said.

After attending the DairyNZ Rural Development Governance Programme, the family have begun implementing proper governance practices. “It’s all heading in a good direction,” Tim said.

Confidence is one of the key outcomes from the DairyNZ course. Tim and Lynnea are confident governance will help them achieve both objectives. Angelina now has confidence the farm is being run well.

Angelina’s confidence is seen in her decision to move out of the family home. Angelina works with refugees in Palmerston North and now has the freedom to pursue a life outside of the farm.

That’s why Tim and Lynnea are moving into the old villa. Despite the few remaining obstacles, they have every reason to be excited about their future.

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30 BUSINESS │ FAMILY FARM

Starting the

succession conversation Cheyenne Stein cheyenne.stein@nzfarmlife.co.nz @CheyStein2 Family businesses have always run farms and there appears to be a strong desire for this to continue within New Zealand agriculture – this makes farm succession an important issue for NZ farmers, even more so considering the ageing farming population.

DairyNZ consulting officer Nathan Nelson says the most important thing to remember when it comes to talking about succession planning is no one size fits all.

“It’s a hard conversation for people to have, but people need to remember that it is just a conversation or really, conversations.”

Nathan, a recent graduate of the Kellogg Rural Leadership programme decided on his report topic “Starting the succession conversation” after it became apparent from discussion groups he ran that farmers weren’t sure where to start.

“I had one discussion group with a bunch of older farmers, not quite past farming yet but at the age they were starting to think about who would take over the farm and they were stuck. There are a lot of myths around the topic and people tend to put the conversation off but the future is inevitable.”

DairyNZ identified a lack of information on dairy farm succession as an area of risk to NZ dairy farmers. Information is not freely or readily available along with few specialists in the area. This can make starting the succession conversation difficult.

“The most important thing to remember is that it is actually a series of conversations and should include all Barriers to Succession – Family Business Compared with Non-Family Businesses

people involved in the family business from sons and daughters to their partners.”

People have a number of perceived fears which can make farm succession a challenge, from loss of control of business to wondering how to start the conversation and dealing with the change succession will entail. All of these should be addressed in conversations.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to succession conversations, Nathan says there are processes that can enable the conversations and focus them on the desired outcomes for everyone.

“There are often triggers to the conversations starting from a death in the family, an accident or injury, marriage or divorce.

“The trigger point will vary depending on the family situation and it’s often best to start thinking about succession before you’re forced to.”

Once succession has been identified as a priority the process can begin.

“Communication came up again and again through my literature review as underpinning the succession conversations because this is where and how the process has to begin. Being able to clearly articulate desired outcomes and addressing the ‘icebergs’ within a family business.”

Part of conversation often forgotten is listening. As George Bernard Shaw said “The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place”.

Starting early allows longer time for discussion and for issues to be identified and concerns to be raised before it’s too late.

Starting conversations about the family business could start when children are young which means they are involved

Nathan Nelson.

Key points: • Start the conversation early before it’s forced upon you • C onsult with accountants and lawyer to ensure proper legal structure for business • R ecognise that succession is a continuous process • B uild and run a strong business ommunication is key.

• C in the business from the start and begins the process of sharing ideas, listening and discussing plans early. When it comes time for more formal discussions around succession this can be a good skill for the family to have already established, Nathan says.

“Something that was clear from interviews with professionals and farmers was that strategic business planning is an area of running a family business that isn’t given enough priority, time is often spent working in the business but not on the business.”

Addressing the “icebergs” within the family business is an important aspect of the conversation many people skip over but discussing the unspoken expectations and aspirations are a key part to a successful conversation.

“Getting below the surface and talking about things like money, what the parents want when they retire and how they want to be involved with the business going forward.”

It is for the family to decide together what they want to see happen in the next phase of the family business cycle, how they determine that to occur, when the transfer will take place and why they want that to be their future.

Footnote: To read Nathan’s full report see www.kellogg.org.nz

ANZ Barometer insights • 10% of businesses have a formal succession plan • 17% have an informal plan • 24% are developing some form of plan • 50% have no plan at all

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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31 BUSINESS │ NORTHLAND

Many costs in producing more milk Glenys Christian glenys.christian@nzx.com Northland dairy farmers had plenty to think about when DairyNZ’s principal scientist, animal science, Dr John Roche, asked whether they were making money from milk or milk from money?

“The average cost of milk production can be a misleading statistic in evaluating the cost/benefit of system change,” he said at a field day at the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) just north of Dargaville in early December.

It was important to focus on the marginal response, but at the same time account for all the costs which would change to achieve extra production because that would determine which of the two scenarios applied. He’s been involved with the trial of reducing reliance on imported feed at NARF for the past year and said it was a great opportunity to look at some of the costs associated with changing a farming system to one which relied on more bought-in feed.

‘Between 50-60% of the operating expenses on a dairy farm relate to each individual cow.’

Roche said talking about margin over feed only accounted for milk production associated with supplementing cows and the cost of feed, but not other costs. In the NARF trial time budgets had been kept for people and machinery, but further costs needed to be accounted for related to those incurred in milking more cows.

“Between 50-60% of the operating expenses on a dairy farm relate to each individual cow,” he said.

So increasing the stocking rate led to an increase in most expenses such as animal health, and needed to be added in for any evaluation of the system change.

Disregarding the chosen farming system, it was important to understand the point at which further milk production was

John Roche - don’t be misled. costing farmers more than they were receiving for it. That was the point where the marginal cost of milk production was greater than the milk price or marginal revenue, he said.

When marginal cost was less than marginal revenue, profit per hectare increased with greater production. But when marginal cost was greater, the increased production eroded profitability.

Roche said profit per hectare was maximised when the marginal cost of the additional milk produced equalled the price farmers received for that milk.

“To be profitable supplements can’t replace pasture,” he said.

“They must be used when there’s a genuine feed deficit.”

The NARF trial is comparing grass-only, cropping and palm kernel feeding systems on similar farmlets. Based on farm working expenses but with no allowance for depreciation or debt the cost of production of 870kg MS/ha on the pasture-only farmlet was $3.59/kg MS. The average cost of production of 1044kg MS/ha for the cropping farmlet was $4.20/kg MS and for the palm kernel farmlet with 1029kg MS/ ha, $4.01 which did not seem to be a large difference.

Roche said the trial had shown there could be high responses to supplements when there were strict rules which meant there was high pasture utilisation. But even when milksolids responses to palm kernel were high at 120 grams MS/kg palm

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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kernel and the supplement was well-priced at $245 a tonne, the cost of marginal MS was $6.28/kg MS on that farmlet. That meant unless the milk price was above that level milk from palm kernel cost money to produce.

The marginal cost of milk produced from the cropping farmlet in the trial was calculated at $7.22/kg MS, which was again quite significant, meaning feeding crops to boost milk production needed to be carefully considered.

Roche said the results were consistent with other trials DairyNZ had carried out including one at its Number 2 dairy in the Waikato on seven farmlets including a control with a low stocking rate of 3.3 cows a hectare, no nitrogen applied and no purchased feed. Two low-stocked farmlets had nitrogen applied at 200 and 400kg/ha along with two high stocked herds at 4.4 cows/ha. Another set of high-stocked cows which grazed 200kg N/ha pasture saw one fed 1.3t maize grain a cow and the other the same amount of maize silage. While the control’s cost of production was $3.91/ kg MS the marginal cost of milk using maize silage was $5.54/kg MS and with maize grain $6.30kg MS. Roche said more data was needed to understand the cost of producing milk as well as taking into account environmental constraints farmers faced. While the NARF trial only had one year of data so far the results were relevant to most of the country.

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32 BUSINESS │ AUTOMATION Robyn, Ben and Bruce were drawn to the fullyintegrated Dairymaster farm dairy.

HARD ROCK MAKES WAY FOR ROTARY Timely capital infrastructure investment is part of making a business more efficient and profitable.

South Waikato farmers Bruce and Robyn McLennan told Sheryl Brown why they invested in a high-tech rotary dairy to compliment their business’ growth and chose an Irish-made product.

Bruce and Robyn McLennan had to spend four times their earthworks budget when they hit rhyolite volcanic rock on the site of their new rotary farm dairy at Putaruru.

Builder Bernard Manders from K & B Builders says he has never come across such hard rhyolite, which was even bending steel rods. Consequently he spent a lot of time on a jack hammer digging out the rotary and drainage depths.

Despite the pinch being on cashflow during a substantial dairy downturn, the McLennans didn’t want to cut corners in other areas to accommodate the blow-out in their budget.

They had committed to a significant sum for the Dairymaster 54-bail rotary, which has all the latest technology trimmings to boot and they didn’t want to compromise.

“If we were worried about the bottom line all the time, we wouldn’t have got this sort of result. I think we’ve got a better product,” Bruce says.

The build was part of their growth strategy, having boosted cow numbers in the last few years milking high numbers through smaller herringbones to be ready for when the rotary was finished.

A return on capital should be the result of any good dairy infrastructure. While it depreciates over time, without it a business is limited by time, labour and the ability to remain efficient and sustainable.

With the cost of production increasing 32

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on farms, there is a greater demand for efficiency around power, water use, effluent management and labour requirements.

If the rotary makes a similar return on investment to the 30-aside herringbone they built 26 years ago, they will be more than happy, Bruce says.

The couple have been farming at Putaruru for 37 years. They own three dairy farms within a 5km distance from each other with a fourth at Mangakino, 40km away.

They also own three runoff blocks where they grow crops and rear all their young stock.

Bruce and Robyn manage their original farm on Soldiers Road with two fulltime staff, a part-timer and themselves.

They have contract milkers on the other properties, including son Ben who is milking 600 cows through the new dairy.

They bought the neighbouring farm four years ago to take the pressure off their 30-aside herringbone on the home farm which was milking 1000 cows, taking up to six hours a milking during the peak.

The new farm had a 20-aside herringbone on it so they knew going in, along with their bank manager, building a new dairy was going to be essential.

They visited a lot of dairies to do their research before they came across Dairymaster and immediately the Irish concepts resonated with their business,

Bruce says.

They liked the fully integrated system, from the dairy design, the plant and equipment, through to the technology.

“I like that it was a standalone set-up, and the ruggedness of it – the whole platform is stainless steel,” he says.

The set-up of the dairy for everyday milking also had its advantages. The ergonomic moveable and springy floor at cups on can be adjusted to lower or raise the floor to make it a more comfortable milking environment for the milk harvester has been a hit, as well the oil vacuum for the platform is more compatible and efficient, and quieter, Bruce says.

The technology that came with the Dairymaster plant also stood out. They haven’t installed any technology on their other farms apart from automatic cup removers, but wanted to invest in a farm dairy that was going to offer efficiency and sustainability.

FARM FACTS Farm: Fernaig Farms Owners: Bruce and Robyn McLennan Contract milker: Ben McLennan Location: Putaruru Area: 165ha effective Cows: 600 Jersey and Crossbred Production: 210,000kg MS Supplement: 2kg/cow/day of 60% palm kernel, 10% tapioca, 30% DDG and molasses blend 2015-16 empty rate: 11% prior to MooMonitor + Dairy: 54-bail rotary Dairymaster automation: MooMonitor + heat detection, in-dairy feeding, milk meters, automatic drafting, backing gate, ACRs

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

33

INVESTMENT IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

The Irish-made platform is stainless steel.

The milk meters measure milk yield, temperature and flow as well as conductivity which helps to identify mastitis issues.

MooMonitor + is a health and fertility monitoring system, with the cows wearing collars that measure their specific activity.

The three-dimensional analysis works to define whether a cow is eating, lying down, walking or standing still with her head raised to be ridden.

The millions of pieces of data collected on each cow every day is analysed and an alert is sent for any cow that is acting uncharacteristically to identify any cows on heat, or any cow who may be unwell, lame or even calving.

The cloud-based technology links to a computer or an app on a smart phone which can be used to receive alerts as well as identify any cows and enter data on the spot.

A big kicker has been how the data instantaneously shows any cows not cycling after calving, which identifies any problems and allows for earlier intervention before mating starts, Ben says.

With knowledge advancing every day Bruce and Robyn wanted to be in a space where they could be using the latest technology while having the ability to keep upgrading as more improvements are made.

The MooMaster+ software is able to be upgraded every year with technology developments.

While the investment in technology should continue to improve herd management, it also saves on time management and ultimately labour.

Ben was milking 450 cows through the 20-aside herringbone which was taking him up to four hours before the rotary was finished. In the new rotary he can milk from 300 to 400 cows an hour.

“It’s a one-person shed and it cuts down on the time spent in the shed.”

Having one person being comfortable in the dairy frees other staff during calving and mating to be out doing the other jobs.

A second person doesn’t have to be there to draft cows manually or tail paint. The system knows the cows and it gives Ben

confidence that whoever is milking has the tools at hand to monitor cows and make decisions.

“It makes it easier for staff and it takes the pressure off me having to be at the shed.”

The new rotary also has in-dairy feeding with the cows fed 2kg a day during the season. They also plan to build a feed pad onfarm next season.

The four McLennan farms range between a DairyNZ System 2, 3 and 4 with the home farm in the process of switching to winter milking.

Any system can be profitable, it depends on what suits the farm and making sure you keep an eye on your outputs, Robyn says.

Their low-input systems have definitely been less-stressful during the downturn, however.

They have always milked Jerseys having both grown up with Jersey herds, with Robyn’s family farm just down the road.

They adjusted the bail measurements on the new rotary to cater for the smaller Jerseys, bringing the breast plate back and narrowing the bails.

Two years ago a number of their cows on the Mangakino farm had reactions to the regular TB skin test. It would prove to be the start of a frustrating and long-winded process to get their herds back to TB-free.

Because the four milking platforms have all been linked with cows moving between all seven properties in the past, they are all now classed as infected and must all get successive clear test results.

They’ve had a total of 228 skin test positives, with 116 cows slaughtered in the last two years, predominantly from the Mangakino farm. Of those slaughtered, 66 had lesions found on them at the works.

All farms are tested every 60 days to identify any TB-positive cows with the goal of going six months without a positive result to be clear.

“A consultant said at the start they could get us TB-free within a year, but I knew with 4000 animals it wasn’t going to be that easy,” Robyn says.

Their ability to sell stock has been hamstrung. They typically rear Jersey bulls to sell which they are no longer able to do, apart from rearing their own service bulls.

They’ve been fortunate that they have been building cow numbers in the last few years in anticipation of the new dairy so they’ve been able to keep all their replacements, but going forward they will likely have an excess of heifer replacements they are unable to sell into the market.

“We are between a rock and a hard place,” Robyn says.

Although it’s been a stressful time, they feel lucky to be established in a strong position where they can support themselves until they can get a clear result.

The four McLennan farms range from a System 2 to a System 4.

Farm 1 (Soliders Road)

Farm 2 (Crossing)

Farm 3 (Youngs Road)

Farm 4 (Mangakino)

Area:

210ha

280ha

165ha

210ha

Cows:

715

850

600

530

Production (kg MS/cow):

370

450

350

330

Farm dairy:

30-aside herringbone

54-bail rotary

54-bail rotary

30-aside herringbone

Automation

ACR

ACR

Dairymaster

ACR

DairyNZ System:

2

4

3

2

The rhyolite volcanic rock on the right of the yard elevated the earthworks costs immensely.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

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21/12/16 12:10 pm

34 SYSTEMS │ MAIZE Farmlands technical field officer Kieran Fowler and Taieri dairy farmer Brian Michelle in Brian’s paddock of maize in mid-December.

ready all at once.”

Farmlands technical field officer Kieran Fowler, of Mosgiel, who has worked with the Pioneer product with Brian, said the expectation in February was 10t DM/ha at a cost of 10c/kg drymatter.

It was fed just the same as summer turnips with cows given access for a couple of hours then taken off.

“They milk on it really well,” Brian said.

But it’s not the only maize he is growing on his 200-hectare-effective dairy platform.

Right next to State Highway 87 is what looks like a paddock covered in plastic.

“It’s certainly got a few people looking as they drive past,” he said.

This is Pioneer maize P7524 and it’s not plastic in his 6ha paddock but a biodegradable film.

The technology was developed in Ireland and is recommended for growing maize in New Zealand from Dunedin south.

‘We put a soil probe in and it was 5C warmer under the film. The film protects the plants from frost and we can get late frosts here, into November.’

Film gives maize a chance in the south Karen Trebilcock ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz @KT_at_Exporter

S

ummer crop options in the south for dairying are either summer turnips or summer turnips but a few farmers have started to give maize a go.

Known as Forage King from Pioneer, the maize is planted in mid-December and grazed in the paddock behind wires from early February onwards.

Taieri dairy farmer Brian Michelle grew it last year for the first time and was happy

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with the results, especially as he could feed it to his cows when and if there was a grass deficit.

“With summer turnips you have to feed them whether you need to or not,” he said. “With the maize you can just keep it growing until you need it which might be in February or it might be in March.

“If we get rain all summer and we don’t need it we can chop it and put it in the silage stack.”

The maize doesn’t have time to mature and does not form a cob so is low in carbohydrate but high in protein.

“We stagger the sowing as well so it’s not

The film, which has breathing holes, creates a micro-climate allowing the seed to germinate and for the plant to develop a larger root system.

“We put a soil probe in and it was 5C warmer under the film,” Kieran said. “The film protects the plants from frost and we can get late frosts here, into November.”

The film also retains soil moisture, keeping out the cold and drying Taieri spring winds.

By early December the plants have come through the breathing holes and a few weeks later the film is broken down

by UV light and soil organisms and gone completely. By harvest, the maize will be close to 2.5m high.

A contractor from Winton, about threehours’ drive away, planted the crop in mid-October, using a SAMCO 3-in-1 maize planter – drilling, applying a pre-emergent weed spray and laying the film over the seeded-rows all in one pass.

“It certainly looks an interesting piece of machinery as it has a spray tank on the front and the film on the back. The contractor said he got stopped a few times on his way here with people asking him what it was.”

The same contractor will be back in late March to chop the maize for Brian’s silage stack.

The specialised chopper cuts it finely

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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36

and also has a kernel crusher. Inoculant is added to the stack.

Cultivation is the same as for sowing swedes or kale and Brian soil tested before applying fertiliser.

“We’ve had the effluent going on to the paddock since the autumn and we added more fertiliser as well. It was already at a pH of six so we didn’t need lime.”

Helicopters Otago apply urea twice in the growing season.

This is the second year Brian has grown maize. Last year he achieved 14t DM/ha from 3.3ha.

“It was a poor crop,” Kieran said. “We had a week in late January when it didn’t get above 9C and that was the week it should have been pollinated but it was just too cold. There should have been more kernels in the cobs.”

“But it still made us money last year,” Brian said.

“It cost us 16c/kg DM which is a very cheap feed for cows and it has a great milk response because it’s high in starch.”

He fed it to his 150 winter milkers along with lifted fodder beet and high-protein pellets.

“We had it in the stack at the end of March and 10 days later we were feeding it out because we needed it.”

After harvesting, the paddock had to be re-ploughed as the laying of the film leaves ridges in the soil. It was then planted in winter barley for silage.

“That whole paddock grew 26t DM/ha in a calendar year which isn’t bad.”

The barley needed no extra fertiliser, soaking up instead what was left behind from the maize.

“What we’re doing also works really well with Overseer. Growing maize has brought my nutrient budget way down because it takes so much nitrogen out of the soil.”

The difference between plants grown with and without the film is easy to see.

Kieran said maize has been grown in the south near Winton, at Kaitangata which is coastal Otago and in other parts of Southland in recent years.

“It’s a crop that needs a lot of sunshine hours.

“If the conditions are right it can grow 16 to 18t DM/ha but the window is as tight at the end of the growing season as it is at the start. An early frost in the autumn can really damage it.”

On the plus side there are very few insects or diseases that cause problems.

“Stem weevil can be an issue but we haven’t seen it down here. Maybe, because it is grown so little and the crops are so far apart there is no build-up of pests and diseases that affect it.”

Pioneer maize P7524 is recommended

for the south as it is quicker-maturing than other hybrids.

“The really short maize plants grown overseas which mature really quickly are genetically engineered so we can’t grow them here,” Brian said.

“Maize is certainly proving it has a place in the south, either as a short-growing summer feed or as a longer-growing crop that is for silage,” Kieran said.

“It fits into certain milking systems well. The silage is very finely chopped so you have to have a place to feed it such as a feed pad or there is too much wastage.”

Brian just wishes Pioneer would put a sign in his paddock next to the state highway so he doesn’t have to keep explaining to people what it is he’s growing.

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 36

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 37

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System SYSTEMS │ FORAGE Impressed by how well lucerne is growing on their south Taranaki dairy unit, Michelle and Martin Powell appreciate the way they can feed it or bale it for later in the season.

UPPING THE CROP COMPONENT Jackie Harrigan

M

artin Powell is a thirdgeneration south Taranaki farmer who has always taken a higher systems approach and embraced supplements on his family’s 88-hectare milking platform and runoff.

Getting involved in the Waimate West Demonstration Farm forage trials has encouraged the family to push their forage cropping to 19% of the platform and proven drymatter yields of up to 45-47 tonnes drymatter/ha in 16 months were possible with a 23t winter kale crop followed by a 22t maize silage crop.

Martin grew his first maize crop 18 years ago when the 280-cow herd was producing 1000kg milksolids (MS)/ha and has now built supplementation to 1.7t/cow of maize plus other supplements fed with a wagon on to the feedpad at the cow shed.

While he says the system is lots of work break feeding seasonal crops and feeding out wagon loads of supplement the system is “a cash cow and very profitable” producing 593kg MS/cow for a total of 166,000kg MS two seasons ago yielding 1886kg MS/ha.

Martin’s way of filling seasonal feed gaps and in particular nutrient gaps with bought-in or homegrown supplements has seen him trying many different crops and options before settling on his current regime.

With a high-producing Friesian herd and farming in an area of increasingly dry summers when the normal 1200mm rain

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 38

has been as low as 900mm last summer, he and wife Christine and daughter Michelle, (farm manager) who 50:50 sharemilk the Powell family farm, are committed to the system to feed their cows well and keep them producing through the autumn till the last day of May. “I’m not into maintenance-feeding the cows – I prefer to give them as much as they can eat,” he says.

The stocking rate of 3.2cows/ha is not high, Martin says, but he prefers not to stock up to the spring flush but to take a cautious level and conserve the flush to feed later.

Spring feeding consists of winter-saved pasture and up to 6-8kg maize silage/cow through the first round to avoid what Martin sees as the widespread stripping of condition off the cows between calving and mating on an all-grass feeding operation, translating into inevitably high rates of empty cows.

“We try to keep the empty rate down to the 9% mark although it can range from 9-12%.”

Pre-grazing topping is used when the grass growth goes reproductive along with making grass balage with any excess. A 20-day round is used from mid-spring through till April, which Martin says simplifies the operation and suits the paddock sizes and layout of the farm, situated on rolling hills divided by numerous small creeks on the outskirts of Hawera township.

The summer-dry feeding regime can last from Christmas until April, including

homegrown maize (14ha from the runoff and 8.4ha off the milking platform) to provide extra carbohydrate and bulk, and a higher-protein feed to balance it out.

Cropping 3ha of chicory and 2.5ha of lucerne and strip-grazing it lifts the protein component, providing a cheaper protein than alternatives bought in at $500-700/t.

The extra protein forage along with maize on the feed pad keeps the production levels pumping over summer, after peaking at 2.4kg MS/day.

“We have peaked higher – up to 2.7kg but have wound back the supplements slightly with the lower payout over the last two years and dropped production from a height of 166,000kg MS to 146,000 last year and around 140,000kg MS this year,” Martin says.

FARM FACTS Martin and Christine Powell, Michelle Powell, farm manager 50/50 Sharemilkers on family farm Area: 88ha effective Cows: 280 Friesian BW/PW: 76/95 Farm Dairy: 24 bail herringbone Spring calving with 50 milked through winter (late calvers + empties) Production: 146160 kg MS (2015-16) Production per cow: 520kg/cow Production per ha: 1660kg/ha Area of farm in crop: 19%

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

39

Chicory has been grown for the past eight years and the Powells have tried a lucerne-chicory mix with the chicory dominating in the first year and lucerne filling in the gaps in the second and third years. Using the same strip-grazing management they were disappointed when the chicory tended to go reproductive in the second year and it proved impossible to bale any surplus.

“We gave it a go but the chicory was far too high in water content and it went slimy and the cows hated it,” Martin laughed.

Now the family are moving to swards of straight lucerne – appreciating the fact that it can be easily strip-grazed in conjunction with the straight chicory sward or mowed and baled early in the season or if not required in a more growthy summer.

Martin is impressed at the speed of growth of the lucerne, but says he needs to pick the establishment paddocks carefully to ensure they are not too wet.

Drying off at the end of May at body condition score 4.8 the winter feeding regime increases BCS to 5.1 pre-calving and the spring feeding holds the score to 5 pre-mating before dropping to 4.7 in January.

A 5ha kale crop is grown for the winter and strip fed out at night at a rate of four square metres a cow with the addition of 3kg maize, 1kg straw and 1.5kg palm kernel each fed on the feed pad for a couple of hours each day and added balage and straw fed in the paddock.

“The kale works really well through the winter and we can keep the herd milking until the end of May.” Through 2016 the family took the opportunity to winter milk 50 cows which was a real help financially with the lower payout as the extra income covered their wages and fuel bills, although Christine was less than impressed with having to milk all winter and not getting a break while Michelle and Martin fed out and

Michelle with one of the Speckle Park cross calves the family produce for beef, the calves are very friendly and grow well, the family say.

shifted breaks. Now the payout is lifting the family plan to employ another worker and give them more long weekends and downtime fishing at their Foxton bach.

Regrassing into permanent pastures after the cropping, Martin favours a mixed sward and has taken advice from their son and family agronomist Andrew.

Adding plantain into the mix with a tetraploid ryegrass Base, chicory and two white clovers means they get good growth over 12 months with the plantain taking over through the winter when the chicory is less active.

Under the Taranaki Regional Council the Powells’ effluent ponds consent runs out in 2023 and while monitoring pond discharge into the stream has shown no degradation of water quality, the family will have to move to spray irrigation of all effluent. Liquid effluent will also keep going on maize and grass paddocks and solids on to cropping areas.

Maize cropping follows the kale and doesn’t usually require any extra fertiliser and Martin says he has had yields of 22-

24t/ha maize/ha after a 23t/ha kale crop without extra fertiliser.

Only the cropping paddocks have required phosphate over the past 10 years and Martin says the nutrient budget indicates effluent spread all over the platform would remove the need to buy in much fertiliser at all.

Nitrogen is used to grow grass, applied at a rate of 160-200kg/ha/year.

“We try to apply it behind the cows every day, but it’s a big job to be doing it that regularly and sometimes we get behind.”

Having tried and discarded turnips as too unreliable yield-wise and fodder beet as too risky with transition and breakout issues, the Powells will be sticking with their kale, maize, chicory and lucerne regime to maximise drymatter production.

Maize and Italian rye are grown on the run-off for silage.

“We will keep fine-tuning and maybe drop the chicory in favour of the lucerne – we want to drive costs down and maintain our production.”

Checking out the direct drilled kale crop on their way to see the maize.

Maizies sown following the kale crop after power harrowing.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 39

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40 SYSTEMS │ FORAGE Emmanuel Chakwizira, Plant and Food Research crop scientist.

Cropping lifts biomass production in Taranaki A four-year trial concluded on the South Taranaki Waimate West Demonstration farm recently proved growing supplementary feed crops on 25% of the milking platform can improve whole-farm productivity.

An earlier five-year trial proved increasing cropping to 10-12.5% of the milking platform showed an increase of biomass yield of one tonne drymatter/ hectare/year and milksolids production increase of 100-200kg MS/ha and further demonstrated that an increase of 3.6t DM//ha/year biomass could be obtained by increasing the cropping area to 25% without higher inputs of nitrogen.

Further improvements were shown by including a greater land area and growing a higher yielding summer crop like fodder beet.

The one-year extension to the Sustainable Farming Fund-supported project was to validate the results and confirm increased production levels at the higher cropping level of 25% of the platform. Three local farmers, all of whom had been using intensive cropping to increase their biomass production, were included in the trial to validate the results at the research farm.

The objectives of increasing the cropping percentage from 12.5 to 25% were to increase annual total farm biomass by up to 4t DM/ha/year and to lift MS production per cow by 15%.

While the trials missed the four-tonne biomass target, they came close at 3.6t, Plant and Food research crop scientist Emmanuel Chakwizira, who ran the trials along with fellow Plant and Food research scientist John de Ruiter, says.

“Longer durations than planned between successive crops was the main limitation – the original plan was to sow the autumn crop within two weeks of harvesting of the summer crops, but this was not always possible due to wet soils after harvesting or fitting in with the contractors’ busy schedules 40

DXP 01-17 book.indb 40

during that time of the year. So some paddocks remained bare for up to four weeks, reducing the overall DM yields,” Chakwizira says.

“Farmers need to work towards reducing the gap between harvesting of the summer crops and sowing the autumn crops, and arranging contracting services well in advance.”

Results showed a highest annual yield with fodder beet or maize included in the sequence as a summer crop over chicory or turnips, with maize yield ranging from 1729t DM/ha and fodder beet between 25-28t DM/ha compared with turnips, sorghum or chicory which yielded less at 8-12t DM/ ha. The sequences that were assigned crops of turnips, chicory and fodder beet for the 2015 summer rotation yielded totals of 63, 59 and 77t DM/ha respectively, after 3.5 years.

‘Farmers need to work towards reducing the gap between harvesting of the summer crops and sowing the autumn crops, and arranging contracting services well in advance.’

Nitrogen uptake was high for all crops ranging from 255-326kg N/ha for maize, 400-560 for fodder beet and kale, 290kg N/ ha for turnips and 360kg N/ha for chicory based on 72kg N/ha/grazing with five to six grazings a season.

Over the four years, at least 50% of the cropped paddocks had higher soil nitrogen content after the crops at both the WWDF and the three trial farms, thus, better control was needed of N inputs to achieve a better environmental outcome.

In all cases, the initial soil N content was adequate for crop production with no additional N needed, Chakwizira says.

“The key to N management, especially when cropping paddocks are coming out of long-term pasture, is soil testing before sowing and only applying nitrogen fertilisers if required. This is even more critical in paddocks that are receiving effluent or where the previous crops have been grazed in situ.

“Our experience at both WWDF and on the three commercial farms is that most of the cropped paddocks had enough soil N to grow crops such as maize without added N fertiliser. However, small amounts of N are needed after each grazing of the other crops such as chicory, or when growing crops into the second and subsequent years of crop sequences.”

Additional fertiliser needs to replace the nitrogen harvested during grazing or removed for conservation, in order to maintain good early growth of subsequent crops, he added.

Across the WWDF and three trial farms crude protein was highest for oats/Italian ryegrass, chicory and sorghum at 21-31% and the lowest for barley, fodder beet and maize at an average of 7%, with the brassica crops in the middle at 17-19%.

The metabolisable energy (ME) was within 10-13.6 megajoules ME/kg with fodder beet producing the highest total energy. Fibre content also varied with neutral detergent fibre (NDF) high and averaging 43% for all crops excluding fodder beet and acid detergent fibre (ADF) averaged 25% for all crops except chicory (17-19%). Fodder beet NDF and ADF levels were less than 13.6%.

Overall, 14 of the 16 cropping sequences achieved the target yield of 40t DM/ha over an 18-30-month period, starting from spring sowing to the second or third autumn harvest, and four of the 14 sequences attained the target yield in 18-19 months. To achieve high yields, the summer crops must produce more than 50% of the targeted yield, Chakwizira says.

“This limits the crop choice in summer to maize and or fodder beet, because the other crops used in the trial like turnips and chicory do not produce sufficient biomass to meet the target yields.

However, if the objective is the availability of quality feed and not biomass in the summer months then these other crops like chicory are a better fit.”

Chakwizira says Taranaki farmers, and indeed most NZ farmers crop 5-10% of their milking platforms and the research shows lots of room for expansion of the cropping programme with associated improvements in the amount of biomass and milk produced.

Fieldays will be held on February 15, 2017, 10:30am start at Martin Powell’s farm, Glover Road then on to Waimate West Demonstration farm.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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42 SYSTEMS │ FORAGE Corrigan Sowman shows his fixed grid irrigation on a paddock of chicory.

Chicory helps fill the vat Anne Hardie verbatim@xtra.co.nz Ryegrass struggles in Golden Bay even under irrigation due to the high soil temperatures through summer, but now irrigated chicory is filling that feed gap on the Sowman farm as well as putting more milk in the vat.

Warm, humid summers raise soil temperatures beyond 20C both day and night on the Upper Takaka farm run by Corrigan Sowman and his brother, Sam, and despite irrigation, the ryegrass stalls in its growth.

They run a self-contained 805-cow dairy operation that includes a 270-hectare milking platform divided by the main road and a 130ha runoff nearby. On the milking platform, fixed-grid irrigation now covers 196ha, while another 30ha has K-line and the remainder is dryland pasture.

Production sits about 1300kg milksolids (MS)/ha and was up to 1500kg when payout allowed them to put more inputs into the system with a higher stocking rate.

Instead of a tonne of supplements per cow, they’re down to half a tonne of the same mix which includes palm kernel, barley, grass and maize silage, plus fodder beet.

‘We did notice that whenever they were on the chicory, the milk in the vat went up.’

It’s planned around the Golden Bay climate which sees pasture growth curves providing great spring and autumn growth, but a hole in summer when soil temperatures are just too warm for ryegrass to perform well. Consequently, the farm harvests just over 12t drymatter (DM) of pasture a year and the goal is to reach 12.8t.

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Chicory was added into the system six years ago when they became one of the first farmers in the region to give the energy-dense crop a go. They ran a completely different farm system then where they relied solely on K-line to keep pasture growing through summer. Initially they planted 12ha of chicory and the following year another 12ha, with the first crop going into its second and lessproductive year.

“And what we found is we didn’t have enough chicory to feed it every day,” Corrigan says. “But we did notice that whenever they were on the chicory, the milk in the vat went up. But back then the farm couldn’t support taking 30ha out.”

It showed promise, but shifting fences on the chicory as well as moving K-lines was another job in a very complicated farm system and they dropped the chicory for a while.

Much has changed in just a few years, including the installation of 196ha of a fixed-grid irrigation system with radiocontrolled solenoid valves that requires no labour. Today, the system is fully

automated and can be operated from mobile phones to irrigate different blocks at different rates and in Corrigan’s words, works “exceptionally well”. Not only is it less labour, it is in keeping with the landscape of mature totara trees and has very high water use efficiency that is close to that of a pivot – and at much the same price.

It was time to revisit chicory and this year they have planted 30ha of the energydense feed on the milking platform, or 12.5%, which will give the cows 4-5kg every day for 70 to 75 days.

Chicory has a metabolisable energy (ME) of 12-13 megajoules (MJ)/kg DM, compared to ryegrass which is about 11 and because it is highly digestible, Corrigan says the cows eat more when it is hot, providing a double whammy of more feed at higher energy levels.

Most of the chicory is planted in paddocks reasonably close to the dairy, apart from one paddock at the far end of the long, narrow farm and a 2km walk for the cows, where a paddock of spring-sown ryegrass failed to get established through

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Heavy-cropping rocket fuel Dairy farmers in the top of the South Island average as much as 15.6 tonnes drymatter/ hectare of chicory under irrigation and are getting four to five grazings a season off the “rocket fuel” crop.

Farmwise consultant Brent Boyce says chicory is being grown mostly by farmers using K-Line irrigation and they are averaging between 12 and 15.5t DM/ha, with one farmer averaging 15.6t DM/ha over five paddocks.

Weed issues initially prompted farmers to move toward chicory as a break crop they could use with K-Line as moving the irrigation with turnips was not an option.

Turnips are still grown on dryland areas where they harvest water through to the end of December for their growth, while chicory paddocks have been planted on the irrigated areas.

“Chicory grows a heck of a lot of feed in a short period of time and gets rid of a lot of weeds, as well as getting nutrients from

deep in the soil. The chicory root will go down about a metre and a lot of fertiliser ends up down there, so it’s very high in zinc and selenium and other nutrients and it’s a very juicy plant that the cows can harvest very easily.

“From a sustainable point of view, it will get down to the root zone and pick up all those nutrients and the tap root opens up the soil a bit to get better drainage.”

Farmers report a 5-10% lift in milk production when the cows graze chicory – for example lifting from 1.3kg milksolids (MS)/day to 1.5kg MS/day.

On pasture, K-Line irrigation through the heat of summer often struggles to keep up with the plant’s water requirements through to the next irrigation, whereas Boyce says chicory can harvest the water deeper in the ground and keep growing.

The benefits then escalate for the farm, he explains. If farmers have 10% of the

A young chicory crop that will help fill the feed gap this summer.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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farm in chicory, they have the ability – like turnips – to slow the round down and allow pasture paddocks longer to achieve the necessary production. That means less silage or other supplements to fill the shortage that was there previously, which can be a huge saving, as well as creating opportunities on the farm.

“That’s when they can go to three-intwo milkings and stick to a paddock per milking and not have to put breaks up. The cows are walking less and they’re down to a 30-day round in summer.”

One farmer worked out the chicory had saved him 254 hours in milking time last year by enabling the farm to switch to three-in-two milkings and then once-a-day milkings while still achieving the same production.

“The cows are getting absolute rocket fuel,” he says. “And people are making some pretty stunning changes to their business.”

the persistently wet spring and was then resown late with chicory.

The long, wet spring has taken its toll on all the chicory crops as well, pushing the start to grazing it toward the end of December when they would have liked to get the cows on to it a bit earlier.

“December to February is the difficult period for high-quality feed going down cows’ throats, so raising that ME profile through chicory will allow those cows to capture autumn growth.”

During spring, the farm typically grows feed that is higher than its requirements and is enough to run 3.5 cows/ha, whereas in summer it drops to a level suitable for 3.1 cows/ha.

During that period, the irrigated chicory growth reaches 120kg DM/day, so it will fill that gap.

And it has been a cost-effective and relatively low-labour crop to add into the system.

The Sowmans have their own drill to sow it directly into the soil, sowing it at 9kg/ha with treated seed and adding 100kg/ ha of DAP. At the beginning of December the crops are given 2530 units of nitrogen and again as they are grazed.

Insects aren’t a problem, though ducks have flocked to the drenched paddocks this year and taken their share of young seedlings. All up, the chicory has cost 14-15c/kg DM which

includes the costs of their own drill and that puts it on par with silage which needs to be fed out to the cows.

“We can throw a heap of silage to the cows in summer and we don’t get the response we do from chicory,” he says. “This year we will probably move to three-intwo (milkings) because I don’t think it will have a detrimental effect on milk production and we can drop a milking in the middle of the afternoon heat. It’s the response to a hot environment on a long-distance walking farm.”

Grid irrigation does add another dimension to sowing the chicory crop, requiring them to drill one way across the paddock and then on the diagonal to fill in around the posts. It’s a bit slower and needs more patience, but it is achievable, Corrigan says.

At the end of summer, they will follow the chicory with shortrotation ryegrass so they can get as much out of the chicory crop as possible. They want the declining chicory crop to continue with the ryegrass, so will spray the chicory in late February or early March, just enough to stunt its growth and give the ryegrass a chance to establish.

The short-rotation ryegrass, Shogun, is their choice to plant into the chicory and Corrigan says it will provide two good seasons and possibly a third. In some paddocks they sow just 43

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44 CO DIARY │ EXTENSION

Extension 350 to benefit Northland Chris Neill In Northland, “off the shelf” solutions don’t necessarily fit because of topography, farm size and climate, which all influence how individual farms are run.

That is why a new project, Extension 350, will be invaluable as it is focused on farmer-to-farmer learning and addresses the issues Northland farmers face, to boost profit in a sustainable manner over the long term.

Over the next five years, 350 farmers will take part in Extension 350, launched at the end of 2016 to help farmers share knowledge and gain access to specialist advice.

Farmer mentors and local farm consultants will support a series of target farms to work towards improving their performance. The target farmers will invite farmers who they associate with to join them on the journey.

The project, a priority within the Tai

ryegrass without clover because Golden Bay has “just about every weed man has identified”, including the prolific giant buttercup, which often requires sprays that hit clover as well. So if it’s a weedy paddock they leave the clover out and just plant ryegrass.

Weed control options are also limited with the chicory paddocks as the battle against giant buttercup requires the rotation of different modes of action in sprays and Preside is the only one they can spray on chicory without destroying it.

Once established, the chicory not only provides a high-energy food to the cows, but trace elements that it’s long tap root have taken up from the soil. That long tap root also captures more of the nitrogen applied above ground before it leaches through the soil, which means less nitrogen loss.

Some of the chicory is planted in the effluent distribution area of the farm where it can make good use of those 44

DXP 01-17 book.indb 44

Tokerau Northland Economic Action Plan, is a collaboration between Ministry for Primary Industries, Northland Regional Council, DairyNZ, Beef +Lamb New Zealand and Northland Inc (Northland’s regional economic development agency).

The objective is to understand individual farmers’ goals and work with them to achieve these. The focus will be on improving profitability, sustainability and wellbeing. The impact of change on 350 farms will have a ripple effect throughout the Northland economy.

Extension 350 is partly based on the Northland Focus Farm, owned by Alister and Lyn Candy, which wrapped up in 2014. The Candys increased their annual profit by $185,000, assuming a $6/kg milksolids (MS) milk price, over the three years they were involved.

The improvement was down to the changes they had made across a range of areas. With advice from a focus farm committee of local farmers and DairyNZ, the Candys improved their pasture management, cow condition and herd reproduction, young stock growth, budgeting and financials.

What worked well on the Candys’ farm was local farmer involvement in the discussion on action areas for onfarm change. They saw results which in turn

influenced their own decisions. Two partner farms were also created, following on from the Candys’ success.

The focus farm and two partner farms have shown how Northland farmers can benefit from a project like Extension 350 and we expect those who participate will be well rewarded.

While many dairy farming issues are common nationally, there are also distinct regional differences, even within Northland. Recognising these differences, we want to represent the diverse range of farming businesses in the region. Both sheep and beef and dairy farms will be involved.

We are starting with three clusters engaging 105 farmers in year one (each cluster will include five target farms), building to a peak in three years with 350 Northland farmers involved.

Farmers for the target farms are being selected. Details about their farms and updates on their progress will be made available online and through regular Extension 350 events throughout the year.

• To register your interest email chris.neill@ dairynz.co.nz.

• Chris Neill is DairyNZ regional leader for Northland.

Enough chicory sown this year will give the cows 4-5kg every day for 70 to 75 days.

nutrients. The effluent is distributed via travelling irrigator and through an 83ha area of the fixed-grid system which can apply effluent at a rate of 1ml/application and Corrigan says there’s 6kg of nitrogen/

ml in that application.

Chicory’s deep tap root can take up more of those nutrients from the soil to grow a high-energy plant the cows harvest easily.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:10 pm

45 SYSTEMS │ MAIZE

Keeping an eye on that crop Sheryl Brown sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz @sherylbrownnz Farmers need to stop shutting the gate on a newly sown crop and forgetting about it until harvest.

Observing that crop regularly is vital to understanding what is prohibiting its yield potential, Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) agrichemicals research manager Mike Parker says.

Maize silage yields in New Zealand average 21 tonnes a hectare, with some growers managing 30-plus tonnes, but there is the potential to harvest even more.

Farmers need to take the time to identify the yield limiting factors present on their farm and in individual paddocks so they can deal with any specific issues for those paddocks.

Walking into a maize crop after 10 weeks and seeing rows that have limited growth or plants missing, it’s too difficult to accurately determine the cause.

“You’ve got to be out there scouting your crop to determine your yield-limiting factors,” Parker says.

For maize, 85% of its yield is directly influenced by radiation, temperature and rainfall, which are out of a farmer’s control.

However, issues such as compaction, drainage, pests, weeds, planting techniques, sowing time, plant population and what hybrid is planted can all have an impact on yield. These are issues farmers can identify and manage.

Alister Holmes – profit advantage from growing maize with precision.

highlight different management zones within the paddock and then preceded to do a seed rate trial to investigate the effect of planting different populations in the different zones. They planted strips of 75, 90, 105 and 120 thousand seeds per hectare across three zones established in the paddock.

From the harvester’s yield monitor and GPS data they were then able analyse the yield and gross margin results for the management zones.

Mike Parker – check your crops for yield limiting factors.

‘You’ve got to be out there scouting your crop to determine your yieldlimiting factors.’

Once these issues are identified, farmers can also turn to precision technology to maximise yield potential and profitability.

INCREASING PROFITABILITY WITH PRECISION YIELD DATA Crop yields vary considerably between areas within a paddock and managing this variability can improve profitability.

As part of a Sustainable Farming Fund ‘Transforming Variability to Profitability’, FAR looked at eight years of harvester yield data from a Waikato maize paddock to understand the impacts of maize yield variability on profitability. The results showed the yields in the paddock varied from six to 20t/ha, with profitability ranging from $0-$1500+/ha.

They used the yield-harvest-date to

They concluded that rather than planting at a constant seed rate in the paddock, highlighting different management zones and using a variablerate seeding could increase the paddock’s gross margin by $212/ha.

“There is a big variation in yield where the grower is losing money,” FAR research and extension team leader Alister Holmes says.

A lot of growers have this data available if the contractors have yield harvesters and record GPS location, he says.

FAR is keen to work with growers who have five or more years of harvest data for a specific paddock to help identify management zones. They can then either do a population trial, or set different seeding rates for the different zones.

FAR has established a variable-rate seeding trial at the Northern crop research site near Hamilton this season to look further at the impact on profitability.

FAR trial: Gross margin generated from different management zones and seed rates Planting rate ('000's/hectare) Management Zone Unstable Low stable

75

90

105

120

Average

n/a

$591

n/a

$72

$332

$803

$598

$619

$447

$617 $868

High stable

$936

$968

$1,013

$554

Average

$870

$719

$816

$358

Unstable (greater than 30% coefficient yield variance over 8 years) Low stable (low-yielding zone with less than 30% coefficient yield variance over 8 years) High stable(high yielding zone with less than 30% coefficient yield variance over 8 years) * Highest value for that management zone Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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46 VET’S VOICE │ STOCK STRESS

5

De-stressing your cows #2 Neil Chesterton

N

othing could be more idyllic – “it’s a cow’s life”. You would think nothing could stress or frighten a big animal like a cow – all she has to do is eat grass, stroll to the shed and back, then just relax in green pastures.

However, as I said in last month’s article the cow is an animal of prey. She is motivated by food and fear. One way to reduce fear and stress in cows is with strict use of routines such as how you use the backing gate and by allowing voluntary movement into the bails. Another way to reduce fear is to have people who understand the cow.

Here is a photo of this idyllic life – let’s look a bit closer.

As I walk past and stop to take this photo, all the cows are watching me. I can even see the sun glinting on the eye of that cow over there who has her back turned to me.

Imagine being able to see 330 degrees all around without moving your head. Cows have panoramic vision and although they have a small blind spot directly behind, a slight turn of the head suffices to complete 360 degrees. What a great view. But why?

The cow does not have just a vague interest in me – this could be life or death – I could be a predator. As a prey animal a cow invests a lot in keeping herself safe.

However, in this case all is well – the cows recognise me as possibly another of those humans who bring food.

On another farm all is not well – the cows all get up and move away. Possibly they have been frightened in the past by people so they want to keep me further away, otherwise you never know – if I climb the fence these cows will probably panic and run away.

Let’s go back to the first paddock and see if we can make friends with those cows.

Can I go up and stroke one?

Let’s do this slowly. The cow looks at me but as I get closer, she suddenly begins to get anxious, starts to back off and then turns to move away – she is keeping herself safe.

This is what we call the flight zone.

How near a cow will allow someone to approach before reacting is very definite and depends on the cow’s experience of people and you in particular.

When you get closer the cow will start looking for a way of escape. If you are standing in front of the shoulder, we call this her balance point, you are limiting the way forward so the cow will either reverse or turn away to open up a bigger area of escape.

If you are in the blind spot – the cow will turn to look at you and then walk in the direction her head is pointing so that

she can keep her eye on you.

Just then across the paddock I see the farmer, so I wave. All the cows react and move away. What did I do wrong – just a friendly wave? Yes, but too fast and sudden for the cows to have time to assess the situation. Maybe I was a predator after all.

All this should affect how we handle cows, both in the paddock and even more importantly in yards. You can frighten a cow into moving, or you can gently encourage a cow to move so that she feels she has escaped danger and is safe.

All this is accomplished by standing in the right place – where the cow can see you, not too close. By stepping in and out of the flight zone and in front of or behind the balance point of the shoulder you can gently move cows in whichever direction you like. Just remember not to move too quickly and don’t block her way of escape.

Don’t pretend to be a predator by raising your hands or shouting. We want to encourage, not terrorise. Within two weeks a herd of frightened cows will dramatically respond to low-stress handling and quieten down, and cow flow will improve.

Neil Chesterton is an Inglewood vet. You can access some of this information at Neil’s website: www.lamecow.co.nz

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Stock STOCK │ BULLS

FARM FACTS Owner: Alister Hall Breeding company: HSS Genetics Farm location: Southland Area: 280ha effective Dairy: 64-bail rotary, Delaval milk meters, ACRs, in-dairy feeding, automatic drafting Supplement: 2kg crushed barley, 1-2kg DDG, 0.5 tonnes DM/cow/year grass silage Pasture grown: 13t DM/ha Herd: 700 Holstein Friesians Production: 420,000kg milksolids, 600kg MS/cow in 270 DIM

PUSHING PROTEIN POTENTIAL

HSS R Stravaganza S2F and HSS Mint Rivington both had a 49kg protein breeding value last year.

Top bulls with high protein values has been one of Alister Hall’s key breeding philosophies. The Southland farmer has bred some of the country’s top bulls for protein and tells Sheryl Brown about what he focuses on for his herd’s breeding programme.

W

hen a bull has a protein breeding value index of more than 40kg, it’s impressive.

When it’s more than 45kg it’s extremely exciting for a breeding company, CRV Ambreed breeding team manager Aaron Parker says.

“When it comes to assessing bulls, seeing a protein value of above 45 protein BV is a real outlier – they are bulls that will make a difference.”

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Southland farmer Alister Hall had two Holstein Friesian bulls, HSS R Stravaganza S2F and HSS Mint Rivington, with an initial 49kg protein BV, which has since been updated to 43.1 and 43.2kg.

Alister has focused on protein as part of his breeding philosophy for a long time and is producing extremely productive animals, Aaron says.

“In Alister’s case, he’s hit the sweet spot.

His cows are not huge, they’re a bit above

average, but they produce a lot more relative to their size.”

Alister who farms 30 minutes out of Invercargill owns HSS genetics with Henk Smit and David Fullerton.

His Holstein Friesian herd averages 565kg liveweight (LW) and produce 600kg milksolids (MS) per cow.

“The aim is to do more than 1:1 – they’ve got to be able to do a milksolid for every kg of liveweight,” Alister says.

Any cow producing less than that ratio is considered inefficient.

With growing environmental pressures on dairy farmers and the possible restrictions on stocking rates in the future there will be even more emphasis on production per cow, Alister says.

“We will have to have less cows per hectare so we need more production per head.”

Any regulations around stocking rate will likely be rationed per head of cows rather than liveweight because not every farmer weighs his cows regularly, he believes.

The goal for any farmer should be to milk fewer cows for the same production.

Breeding more efficient cows makes sense regardless of environmental pressure because a lot of the fixed costs onfarm are per cow, such as wages, electricity and feed, he says.

Alister wants to keep farming a basic system and the herd’s diet is still 80% grass. They get fed 2kg crushed barley and between 1-2kg dried distillers’ grain each day year-round in the farm dairy.

The rotary has the technology to feed individual cows differently based on production, but Alister prefers to keep them all on the same playing field.

“I treat them all the same, I want to know who the good ones are and who the poor ones are, rather than feeding the top producers 6kgs.”

In-dairy milk meters allow him to have a daily measure of how many litres each cow is producing so he can monitor per-cow efficiency.

“My cows are averaging 600kg MS in

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Table 1: Bulls graduated on CRV Ambreed Sire Team Grad Year

Graduate Name

Sire

Dam

Comment

2016

HSS mint Rivington

Mint-Edition

Halls Favour Ruth

Udder and protein improver

2014

HSS TALENT SAHARA-ET S2F

Talen

Halls Pierre Sharon S1F

Proven production and type

2014

HSS FORMAT PASCAL-ET

Format

Halls Justice Pam-ET

Health trait specialist

2013

HSS R STRAVAGANZA S2F

Roumare

Halls Pierre Sharon S1F

Udder and protein specialist

2012

HSS TEF PAYTON

Firenze

Halls Justice Pam-ET

All-rounder and conformation improver

2012

HSS MD OLLIE S3F

Dauntless

SRC Halls Extasy Olive

Proven NZ bloodlines

2012

HSS ADF SIROCCO S2F

Favour

Halls Pierre Sharon S1F

Proven production and conformation family

2011

HSS Favour PEER-ET S3F

Favour

Halls Peirre Perl-F-ET S2F

Well liked, proven performer

2010

HSS OMAN PAYOUT

O-man

Holim NZ Donor Pam-ET

International performance bloodlines

Each year CRV generally produce 8 to 10 graduate Holstein Freisian bulls, new bulls available to the market. Since 2010 Alister has bred 9 graduates, almost 1 every year.

270 days-in-milk so they’re efficient. Any inefficient cows go down the road.”

When it comes to breeding decisions, protein has been the big driver for Alister and he has veered from the traditional Breeding Worth (BW) programme.

“The BW system doesn’t really suit what I’m doing now. I used to chase BW, but not anymore.

“The BW system puts a lot more emphasis on liveweight, a lot of the bulls today are lower in LW and are a smaller animal, which if I want to continue to do 420,000kg MS, breeding cows with the

“The protein test is money for jam. We typically run fat-to-protein ratio of 90%.

At the start of the season we are usually 1:1, but as your season goes on your fat increases.”

Alister herd-tests four times a year. Last season his cows averaged 3.7kg protein, 4.2kg fat and the herd had an average 130,000 somatic cell count.

When it comes to selecting bulls, Alister is focused on maintaining a balanced cow.

“I’m looking for bulls that have got protein BV above 35kg under the new

current BW system I will have to milk more cows in the future and I believe that’s wrong.”

Instead of lifting BW, Alister’s focus has been on improving efficiency by improving key herd traits, particularly protein.

Protein is worth more in the Fonterra milk payment system and a higher protein-to-fat ratio is an advantage at a positive price.

“I’m breeding to how we’re getting paid at the moment. Most of our payout is based on protein.

4 STEPS TO A HERD YOU’LL

LOVE TO MILK

1 Book Book an on-farm breeding consult

2 Select Select the traits best suited to your herd.

3 Monitor Monitor your herd using our easy herd testing and InSight recording options

4 Mate Mate with confidence with our AI technicians, using PortaBull and SireMatch Mark Harris Waikato Dairy Farmer

Debbie Young Waikato - Gene Team PAN1027-2

0800 262 733

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crv4all.co.nz

BETTER COWS | BETTER LIFE

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system, udder of 0.5 or better. I don’t want high pins so we’re keeping an eye on rump angle, I want good capacity and at least the breed average for fertility and somatic cell count.”

Once he eliminates bulls using that criteria he’s usually left with a selection of between eight and 10 bulls across the various semen companies.

“I don’t use just one semen company.

It’s whatever company has bulls that meet my criteria.”

He hasn’t used a great deal of overseas genetics, but one of the big successes is the progeny in his herd from World Wide Sires bull O-man.

“We used a lot of him three or four years ago. We are milking a lot of his daughters now and they are big strong cows. They hold their body condition, it doesn’t just melt off them and they get back in calf.”

The increase in production across his herd is certainly testing the cows, but so far their udders are handling it, he says.

“I’m quite happy at the moment, we’re putting a lot of emphasis on udders.

“CRV Ambreed bull Zulu has been very good for us. He produces a moderate-sized cow. He’s been very good.”

The herd’s 15% empty rate last season is still higher than Alister would like, but he

has shortened his mating period to seven weeks artificial insemination (AI) and three weeks with pedigree Friesian bulls.

Yearlings are all synchronised and mated with AI once and then Jersey bulls go out after that.

Alister typically replaces 22-23% of the herd annually and sells any surplus heifer replacements as in-calf two-year-olds.

He has a lease block where he keeps his young stock, which averaged 530kg LW coming into the herd this year.

He sharemilks 500 cows on a 205ha neighbouring property that he also has an equity share in. That herd averages 540kg MS/cow. He keeps the two herds separate and doesn’t mix the genetics.

Alister is a talented breeder and has worked hard to achieve bulls of such high calibre, Ambreed’s Aaron Parker says.

“That’s the feature of what he’s breeding - very productive and profitable animals and protein production is very, very strong. It’s a breeding philosophy he’s had for as long as I’ve known him.”

Travelling the country, there are different trends happening. In Southland there is a need for these very productive animals, he says.

“They need high levels of production to be profitable in many cases.”

But it all comes down to efficiency, and

a highly productive animal needs to be able to last and needs strong supporting traits such as capacity and conformation.

Farmers want cows that can produce well, and if they can get them to last an extra lactation it’s more profitable.

CRV Ambreed has been going to Alister for a number of years for genetics because he has highly productive animals, but they are well-balanced, he says.

“That’s something Alister has done very well. Alister works hard to have cows that last a long time, because he’s a businessman, and why he’s a talented breeder, he’s a successful businessman.”

Table 2: Top bulls Alister used this mating: Hothouse

LIC

Delta G-Force

LIC

Fire-Up

LIC

Franklin

CRV

Pascal

CRV

Oakley

CRV

Stravaganza

CRV

Rivington

CRV

Mogul

WWS

McCutchen

WWS

more progressive gressive with a legendairy team

Buying or selling livestock?

Andrew Leggett: 022 038 3216 andrewl@progressivelivestock.co.nz Luke McBride: 027 304 0533 luke@progressivelivestock.co.nz

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Special Report

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Making every drop count

A centre pivot irrigator in action.

Strategies for stretching water • Pasture management • Spring rotation planner • Lengthen round early (can be December –January) • Crops • Summer turnips • Fodder beet to graze in late February-March • Sow crops in areas where irrigation is less efficient • Strategic nitrogen use • Turn irrigators off based on application efficiency and labour requirements • Cull cows • Once-a-day milking • Dry off 52

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T

SPECIAL REPORT IRRIGATION

here’s nothing like scarcity when it comes to sharpening the focus on efficient use of a resource.

For Roger and Sue Bates and their contract milkers Tony Dodunski and Clare Pate that’s certainly the case when it comes to water.

The 300-hectare farm, just to the west of Burnham in Canterbury, is water-short.

It’s set up to water 270ha but only has enough to fully irrigate 160ha.

Additional land bought three years ago came with no consented water takes but when Roger and Sue set up the operation the second stage of Central Plains Water (CPW) was due in 2018.

That’s when they’ll be able to tap into 160 litres a second delivered right to the farm boundary and will be guaranteed enough water to fully irrigate their whole property.

The water is drawn from Canterbury’s mighty Rakaia River via a run of river take with reliability enhanced, albeit at a cost, with stored water from Lake Coleridge.

From 2018 the giant scheme will also be drawing water from the more northern Waimakariri River.

It’s piped and the gradient from the headrace canals down the plains means the water arrives onfarm under enough pressure to drive pivot irrigators.

But until the CPW stage two tap gets turned on the farm is reliant on two deep bores – both drilled to an aquifer 120 metres below ground.

They’re consented to pump at a rate of 90litres/second and have a total annual volume allowance of 1,101,283 cubic metres.

That was enough to irrigate the area of the original farm but it’s fully stretched with the extra 100ha.

The farm is in a red zone which means no further consents to take groundwater for irrigation are permitted.

The additional land didn’t come with its own bores or consents to take any more water but at the time, the payout was looking like it would remain high and cow numbers were set at 850 because, until CPW came on line, the purchase of supplements stacked up to make up for any shortfall in irrigation and rainfall.

So too did the proposal to put irrigation infrastructure on to the newly purchased dryland and stretch their bore water over that area at key times of the season.

At the time the US dollar was sitting at 83c to the New Zealand dollar.

“We knew if we could average just 1mm per day out of the sky – so 30mm a month – on top of what we can get out of the bores we could use the water to strategically get crops established.

“They could then help us going in and coming out of a drought – we’d be better set up in both cases,” Roger says.

But they then got hit by the double whammy of drought and rock-bottom payouts so in November 2016 the tough decision was made to drop 100 cows and head into the back end of the 2015-16 season and the new 2016-17 season with a lower stocking rate.

There was a high risk dry conditions would prevail and a predicted shortfall in pasture and crop production because of the shortage of water meant they would have been in a situation that equated to fully feeding 100 cows on supplement.

With payout still looking dire and supplement costs

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factored in at about 30c/kg drymatter (DM) 100 cows had to go.

“We knew we were going to struggle to feed those higher numbers on grass and that’s the primary aim of this system.”

It hit last season’s production hard, cutting per cow production to 392kg milksolids (MS) per peak cow milked which was 850.

With their consented take of 90litres/ second an application depth of 5mm/ day means they can only fully irrigate 150-160ha.

If they apply water across the 160ha at 5mm/day their annual volume means they only have a total of 140 days irrigation available to them.

The irrigation infrastructure covers 270ha and to run all eight irrigators at the same time a flow rate of 160litres/ second is required.

That’s almost twice their consented take so they pick and choose which ones need to be run and have set up a cropping regime and adopted strategies to help stretch their water and get the most out of every drop.

Some are strategies Roger and Sue have drawn from their Northland experience such as the use of crops, strict adherence to the spring rotation planner and lengthening grazing rounds earlier in the summer than those with full irrigation.

CROPS

The system’s been set up so they can winter cows at home and both the winter and summer crops fit into their pasture renewal programme well.

Most importantly the crops also need a lot less water than pasture.

Turnips are sown in October and can be used as early as December if need be, depending on when hot dry nor’westerly winds push irrigation.

This season they’re not expecting to go into them until January and use them through till late February or early March.

“Turnips are still one of the cheapest options around,” Roger says.

At a yield of eight tonnes/ha Roger reckons the cost at 5-6c/kg DM but that can vary from anywhere between 4-10c/ kg DM depending on what you want to include or exclude, he says.

“There’s the lost opportunity of the pasture taken out. We’re using the turnips as part of our regrassing so you’re probably only talking growth rates of 35-40kg DM/day that we’re missing out on.

“Then there are the gains we make from cutting back on the amount of more expensive winter feed we’d otherwise need if cows lost condition

Contract Milker Tony Dodunski in a six-month-old paddock of fodder beet. Fodder beet needs less water than pasture.

over January-February and we had to get it back on over winter.

“There are probably also savings in reduced weed sprays and one less pass when it comes to establishing pasture out of the crop.”

The crop allows Tony to push the round out to 28-30 days in summer and in spring effectively transfers surplus pasture from spring to autumn.

That’s because it takes paddocks out of pasture during the peak when they’re sown in October, bringing pasture feed supply back in line with demand, and allows summer pasture to be pushed forward to autumn.

The crops are sown in strategic areas to help make the most of irrigation.

The turnips, for instance, will probably only get one irrigation this season, thanks in part to this season’s well timed rainfalls.

They’re not sown in the middle of the milking platform where the pivots are working to maintain soil moisture at the ideal levels of pasture.

Instead the 8ha of turnips grown this year has, for instance, been grown in two paddocks – only one under centre pivot irrigation with other crops on the new, mostly dryland block.

Fodder beet needs less water than pasture and when it’s sown under the linear spray irrigation it means what would normally be an eight-day return becomes a five-day return because the linear can be turned off over the fodder beet.

This season late spring and early summer has seen some well-timed rain for Canterbury and by early December

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the fodder beet crop for the coming winter had received no irrigation at all.

The crop was sown almost a month early on September 15 and, given last season’s crop was about 21t DM/ha, Roger and Tony are expecting the extra month will give them another 3-4t DM/ ha on top of that.

Cows go straight off the turnips and on to fodder beet in early autumn helping to keep round length out and transition cows for wintering.

Cereal was sown after last winter’s fodder beet crop to help mop up any excess nitrogen in the soil. Fodder beet was also sown into an area that had come out of trees under the large pivot on the new mostly dryland block.

The cereal was harvested in December as whole crop cereal silage and it’s also required little water, only

Farm facts • Location; Just west of Burnham, Canterbury • Owners: Roger and Sue Bates • Contract milkers: Tony Dodunski and Clare Pate • Area: 300ha • Milking platform: 224ha • Cows: 720 Jersey cross • Production: 440kg MS/cow • Supplement: 270kg DM/cow 201516 • Farm dairy: 50-bail rotary • Soils: Lismore silt loam, Templeton silt loam • Wintering: Winter cows on.

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receiving one irrigation in December to help with grain fill. It yielded 8t DM/ha.

Kale is grown under the same pivot for similar reasons and is used to winter the heavier cows.

Roger says they’ve been ripping paddocks to 300mm over the past year to break up a plough pan at 200mm.

Getting rid of that barrier allows the roots of crops to get down further to access water making them more wateruse efficient.

Lucerne is grown on 25ha of dryland and used as silage because of difficulties with animal health when it’s grazed.

Roger Bates in a paddock of feed barley.

Cereal was sown after last winter’s fodder beet crop to help mop up any excess nitrogen in the soil.

SCHEDULING

Tony says they watch water use closely and schedule irrigation strictly according to what the moisture meters are telling them and what the weather forecast is predicting.

For pasture areas the aim is to maintain soil moisture between the stress or refill point and field capacity as shown by their Aquaflex soil moisture monitoring system.

If it dips below refill or stress point it will check pasture growth and if it goes above they risk a drainage event, where water is effectively wasted as it drains down through the soil profile and below where the majority of the pasture’s roots can access it.

It’s also an important environmental factor because good irrigation management ideally means no drainage and that means no nitrate leaching.

Tony says they have good decision rules around when to irrigate and they aim to keep enough of a buffer in terms of soil moisture deficit so as not to limit plant growth but still allow for rainfall events. This first half of this season has been one where soil moisture monitoring has really paid off with some good rainfall events of 20mm-30mm helping to keep irrigators parked up more often and water use down.

By early December they had used 20% of their annual volume compared with last season when they’d used 40%.

This season’s still been tricky to manage with stop and start growth patterns and grasses shooting to seed virtually overnight.

“What we’ve saved this year in irrigation costs we’ve probably spent in extra feed conservation making silage,” Roger says.

They’ve also cut back nitrogen fertiliser applications as a result of good pasture growth thanks to rainfall and their reduced stock numbers with only 21kg N/ha applied across the farm by early December.

But again Roger says what they’ve

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saved there has gone into reinstating maintenance fertiliser that had initially been kept low again in the budget which was drawn up when payouts were again expected to be very low.

Typically though, nitrogen is a tool used to help boost pasture production.

Last season they used 240kg N/ha.

Tony says if the weather heats up and irrigation capacity becomes stretched they strategically shut down irrigation sections according to the labour involved in each system to reduce the potential for human error.

Hand-shifted sprinklers are the first to go, then the systems furthest from the farm dairy and those on the lighter soils.

They also speed up the Rotorainer on the heaver Templeton soils which have a greater water-holding capacity and speed up the linear.

While they don’t expect to have to take the drastic steps they did last season, culling early to reduce feed demand is a go-to option if the season heats up and there’s no help from rainfall. So too is drying off groups of cows early.

Irrigation • 6 pivots • 1 linear • 1 Rotorainer • Consented take: 90 litres/second • Annual volume: 1,101,283 cubic metres

When CPW water arrives in 2018 Roger is considering keeping his bore water as an alternative to buying the more-expensive stored water when CPW is on restriction.

“As pumps break down we probably won’t replace them and move to CPW stored water but until then it makes sense to use the bores as back up,” he says.

They’ll also keep wintering at home and may use some summer crop.

He expects they’ll be able to push cow numbers up to 900 as they expect to increase home-grown feed to lift by 20% when the farm is fully watered.

Caption: Roger Bates and contract milkerTony Dodunski discuss cow condition.

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SPECIAL REPORT IRRIGATION

Matching water to your soil KNOWING YOUR SOILS

As regional councils put a focus on farm environment plans, getting up to speed on all things irrigation is becoming increasingly important not only for compliance but also to improve irrigation efficiency.

Most areas of New Zealand have seen massive growth in the use of irrigation, IrrigationNZ project manager Steven Breneger told a group of Wairarapa farmers in December, and it was important for them to understand their irrigation system from the ground up.

“Irrigation isn’t going to get any smaller, what’s irrigated now will be irrigated in the future along with some more land. There are two drivers: economy and climate change. The only place that it won’t grow is the West Coast.”

“It’s important that we understand the soil because it really affects everything else we do in terms of irrigation.”

Soil is half solids (sand, silt, clay and organic matter) and half macropores (for draining) and micropores (for water storage). Pores must be connected in order for water to move. Cultivation disrupts those connections.

Well-structured, medium-textured Indonesia based Chief Dairy Husbandry soils have a good mix of macropores Advisor / Dairy Husbandry Advisor and micropores.

The AgriBusiness Development Group, is looking for a Chief Dairy Husbandry Advisor / Dairy Heavy, collapsed Husbandry Advisor, based in Central Java, Indonesia, to provide hands-on technical and management leadership to dairy farmers and local project staff, and to manage the operational soils have many activities of a dairy development project. The Project is funded by the New Zealand and Indonesian micropores so hold Governments, designed to achieve the following outcomes: water well but very i. Improved quality and supply of local milk; and few macropores so ii. Improved dairy farm productivity and profitability such that dairy farming families enjoy a water movement is good standard of living. very slow.

Working with focus farmers and farmer groups, the aim is to establish more profitable farming systems that can then be transferred out to other farmers in the province.

Light or stony

Estimated water holding capacity (WHC) mm/100mm Soil class

WHC (mm/100mm)

Clay Loam

17.5 - 19.0

Silt loam, no stones or gravel

15.5 - 16.5

Silt loams, approx 30% gravel

11.0 - 12.0

Sandy loam

6.5 - 11.0

Sand

4.5 - 5.5

**Determine effective root depth and adjust accordinly For soils with stones, adjust by percentage accordingly For soils with distinct layers, sum layers to effective root depth

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The role of the Chief Dairy Husbandry Advisor / Dairy Husbandry Advisor will include: • Managing a team of locally based staff; • Liaising with the development partners; • Developing a simple approach that leads to practical and relevant improvement in farming practices; • Coaching and mentoring farm extension officers; • Ensuring that appropriate farm recording schemes are maintained; • Implementation of work plans and managing budgets; • Providing timely reports on project activities; • Developing sound project planning, implementation, management and monitoring and evaluation systems.

Experience in South East Asian dairying systems will be an advantage but not essential. The ability to adapt NZ farming principles for small holders with limited land, farming in tropical conditions, will be critical. That and the skills to train farmers and local advisors in the application of the adapted farming practices.

For more information or to apply please contact: Fay Oxenham, The AgriBusiness Group P.O Box 85016, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647 fay@agribusinessgroup.com

LK0085280©

Cheyenne Stein cheyenne.stein@nzfarmlife.co.nz @CheyStein2

soils have many macropores but few micopores so lack water-holding ability.

Knowing your soil type is an important consideration in irrigation as this will determine frequency and rate of irrigation.

In NZ, spatially, soil types vary greatly over a short distance, particularly in regions like Canterbury.

A number of tools are available to help identify soil types. S-map online provides a printable report with soil type, soil drainage and soil depth. These can be used as part of your consent process with regional councils.

Soil testing is a one-time investment which gives an accurate map of the soil types on your property, however the soil sampling must be done at the right time of year to give an accurate picture.

“Soil mapping after a long dry period when soil moisture is low gives an incorrect picture so you should really be doing it when soil moisture is near field capacity.”

Or, you could simply dig a hole, take some photos, look and measure your horizons.

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THE JAR TEST

An at-home do-it-yourself way of identifying soil types is the jar test.

• Take samples from representative areas within your irrigation area • Take samples from and measure your soil horizons • Clearly mark on the containers of soil what site they came from and what depth.

• Take about 500 grams per soil type • Remove all foreign material and stones from sample • Estimate the amount of stones removed as a percentage of sample or weigh the sample before and after removal • Crush any large particles to produce an even sample consistency • You should end up with half a cup of sifted sample • Pour this into a glass jar as one part soil and four parts water – eg: half a cup of soil and two cups of water.

• Add one tablespoon of clothes washing detergent for every two cups of water and shake for five minutes (the detergent acts as a surfactant which allows the bonds between the dirt particles to easily break apart and settle at the bottom of the jar.

• Let sit for 24-48 hours.

• Layers will form in the jar. Soil is made up of sand, silt and clay. The sand will almost immediately settle at the bottom, the silt settles in about five minutes. However, the clay can take one or two days to settle at the bottom.

• Once settled you can measure and calculate each horizon as a percentage of the total and use these in combination with a soil identification triangle to work out your soil type.

SOIL WATER AND HOW IT MOVES

Infiltration: How fast water moves into the soil. This is affected by things like compaction, soil type, farming practice, organic matter etc.

The infiltration rate curves the first

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Soil mapping must be done when soil is near field capacity to get an accurate picture.

five minutes of water being applied to soil as there has to be enough mass for gravity to push it in. After that infiltration starts off quite high and then it pans out. Hydrophobic soils (water repellent) are high in organic matter and have a very low rate of infiltration.

Centre pivots have low rates of infiltration at the centre with high rates at the end.

Permeability: The rate at which water moves through the soil. Each horizon has to fill up before the next one will. Water moves down the soil profiles as soil nears field capacity with gravitational water moving through macropores and capillary water moving through micropores.

Preferential flow: This is what happens when we apply water too fast – it finds cracks and worm holes and HOW BIG IS THE FUEL TANK?

out it goes. Typically you get this where applying more than 100mm an hour.

This is a major contributor to leaching.

Soils aren’t inherently consistent so what we imagine our soils will look like when we irrigate isn’t right.

“Our soils are our limitation, it’s how we minimise this and maximise the outcome. Once we understand that we have to apply water at the right rate in order to get any use out of it.”

HOW MUCH AND HOW OFTEN?

“When I first got to NZ I wanted to find out how farmers use irrigation and I got top three answers: I irrigate when the sun’s shining, I irrigate when my neighbour does and I start irrigating in December and stop in March. The best one was a young farm manager who said he applies 20mm more just before Christmas so he gets an extra few days off over Christmas and New Year,” Breneger said.

But soils don’t work like that, he said.

Soils are like a sponge, they can only hold so much. The official term for this is soil water-holding capacity; the amount of water a given soil can hold.

It is described in millimetres per 100mm of soil and calculated using the field capacity minus the wilting point. Actual amount depends on root depth. Only half of the available water capacity is readily available.

Field capacity is a term used to describe the point where the soil

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The rules of scheduling irrigation • Soils are a lot like the fuel tank of a car, there are rules around them.

• The fuel tank only holds a certain amount of water • You can only put in what’s been taken out • You can only take out what’s been put in • You need to know when to refill to avoid yield loss water-holding capacity has reached its maximum for the entire field.

The water-holding capacity depends on the primary active root zone. In a plant there is a root zone and an active root zone. Active root zone is the top tip to the roots and extracts 75% of the water and nutrients anything below the active root zone is used for survival.

HOW BIG IS THE FUEL TANK?

The fuel tank is split into two parts: the readily available water and the survival water. Between those two points is the stress point. Water above the stress point is readily available water and production water. Water below the stress point is used for survival only.

Trying to access the survival water will

result in losing money and yield as the plant uses up too much energy trying to access it.

“In an irrigation sense we want to irrigate between the stress point and field capacity.”

However, any water applied above the field capacity is “lost” as runoff water.

Over-watering soil will have the same effect as starving soil.

“Soil has to be a mixture of air and water. If you over-water the plant it will shut down because it can’t breathe.”

For irrigation there’s a couple of metrics. One is the risk profile of your crop. If I’m growing rice my risk profile is quite high so being accurate with irrigation is important.

“If I’m growing pasture the risk profile is quite low because if I don’t irrigate today or tomorrow the grass isn’t suddenly going to retreat into the ground and stop growing.”

CALCULATING THE FUEL TANK

• Readily available water = 50% soil water holding capacity per 100mm • To determine a crops readily available water adjust by the active root depth Example: A soil with a water holding capacity per 100mm = 20mm 50% of this is 10mm The crop has an active root depth of 400mm Readily available water = 4 x 10mm = 40mm

Soil profiles on a farm: Each soil profile has to fill up before the next one will.

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THE FUEL TANK Field capacity Readily available water

Irrigation zone

Stress point

Survival water Wilting point

So the trigger point for irrigation is when 40mm of water has been used by the crop How do you know when plants used 40mm of water?

Now that we know how much water we can store in the soil, we can calculate how fast it will be used. Two numbers are involved in this calculation.

Crop factor and the potential evapotranspiration rate (PET).

Crop factor. Every plant has one.

This number is derived from full height maturity full cover because that’s when evapotranspiration is the only influence; evaporation is the factor when a plant is growing because the surface area is exposed.

Pasture has a crop factor of 1.0. In other words the plant will consume 1mm of water a day.

That’s one millilitre a day of water that it’s going to consume.

PET the potential evapotraspiration rate this is a monthly number that is mainly affected by wind. These figures can be looked up on NIWA. PET x crop factor= Crop evapotranspiration If the PET is 4.5mm per day and the crop factor is 1.0, the soil is going to lose 4.5mm of water each day. By dividing the 40mm of water needed by the 4.5mm lost per days this will calculate how often you need to irrigate.

In this case you would need to irrigate every eight to nine days and apply 40mm. This would prevent the crop becoming stressed and thus lost production.

Irrigation is not uniform so inefficiencies are unavoidable. There are various types of losses in irrigation, from leaking pipes, evaporation in the air to uneven application or excessive application depths and rates which can account for 5-30% of losses.

“The aim is to adequately water most of the crop. Some parts will be too wet, others too dry so you have to try and minimise these differences.”

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SPECIAL REPORT EXPERT EYE

App launches to ensure irrigation efficiency Everyone working in the rural sector knows that efficiency increases production and profitability. That’s why Irrigation NZ has developed the Check It – Bucket Test app. National Projects manager, Steve Breneger, walks you through what the app is and how it will make your farm more successful.

WHAT IS A BUCKET TEST? A bucket test measures how much and how evenly irrigation systems are applying water. A series of buckets are set out in a line under the irrigator in front of the wetted length so samples can be taken. For drip micro irrigation, individual sprinklers or emitters are tested. The bucket test is a very simple way of understanding if you have a problem without any prior knowledge of complex hydraulics and pressure.

So how does the Check It Bucket Test app work?

The Check It app gets rid of variability, delivering better, more accurate results.

“If you were to test the same machine using current methods – say Irrig8lite with its 24 buckets or putting three buckets under each span – as well as this app, you’d get three different results. That’s because even with the same machine, spacing between buckets will be variable, which will affect the consistency of your results,” Breneger said.

The Check It app uses the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) methodology as its benchmark and the results it delivers are more closely aligned to the USDA than any other software currently on the market.

Basically, it will deliver information that you can act on with confidence because it has taken out the variance so you get consistent, reliable data.

Check It walks users through an annual performance assessment, provides the results instantly to their phone and e-mails a report to them.

For farmers undertaking bucket tests as part of their farm environment plans,

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Ecan summer students William Wright and Beth Turner field-test the Check It app.

this app provides a consistent, proven method to measure how well their irrigator is performing.

Check It has been rigorously tested in the field for the past two months by university students who don’t have a technical background. Their feedback is that “it’s bloody good” and “really simple to work”. And that’s what the goal was – to create the most robust yet simple way of doing a bucket test.

“When the app is released I need to be 100% confident that it will provide a positive user experience from day one,” Breneger said.

The Check It app works with linear and pivot systems. Spray lines and travellers will be included in future updates.

THE PROBLEM IT SOLVES: All farmers know that focussing on the efficient use of water is an investment in good business. Aside from its importance in managing nitrogen loss, efficient water use is a fundamental factor in ensuring great pasture production, which has a direct impact on animal welfare and profitability.

Check It looks at the irrigator itself, not anything beyond it. It assesses

the accuracy of the wetted footprint and gives farmers an instant and easy indication if there are any problems with their application. The app can be used for a wide range of irrigation methods, farm environments and user capability.

Benefits it delivers: • Increased profitability through increased efficiency • Early identification of issues means farmers don’t waste water, time and money operating inefficient systems • The industry standard for annual performance assessments of irrigation systems in New Zealand • Provides evidence that you have undertaken an annual performance assessment of your irrigation system for your farm environment plan audit.

It’s a great tool for farmers to show what they’re doing to ensure efficient use of water.

The underlying premise behind the app is that we wanted to develop something so intuitive and easy that farmers would want to go out and use it themselves. Sure, they can get someone in to do their testing and mail them a report, but then there’s a disconnect – “do I really have to be worried about this; I’ll put it aside for later”.

What we’ve found is that if you engage farmers, if you give them a tool that then gives them insight into performance, they’re much more likely to use those results to take some sort of action.

We think the Check It app will become the one tool irrigators need to check efficiency. It is intuitive, accurate, practical to operate and simple to understand.

Where can I get it?

The app is available for download free of charge from the App Store or Google Play. For more information, go to: www. buckettest.co.nz or the Regen website www.nzregen.co.nz.

• Steve Breneger is national projects manager for Irrigation NZ.

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ORT P E R L SPECIA PRACTICE GOOD

Aids to getting it right Sheryl Brown sheryl.brown@nzfarmlife.co.nz @sherylbrownnz

Irrigation contributes more than $2 billion to the national economy, with the potential for further growth, a report from Agfirst and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in 2014 found.

Irrigation boosts agricultural production which boosts farm-gate returns, which also increases agricultural services and activity in the primary sector, resulting in higher employment, wages and return to capital and land.

Government has committed to $400 million to support early-stage irrigation and water storage developments in the regions to enhance the potential onfarm return.

The appetite to advance irrigation opportunities is hampered, however, by the issue of water quality and aquifers.

The demand on water resources nationally and regionally is growing as well as the emphasis being placed by Government and the community on improving water quality.

The dairy industry is under pressure for its water use and its impact on water quality. As a result, there is a need for farmers to be more efficient and measure their water use so the industry has data to advocate with.

Farmers should be keeping records of their annual water used onfarm as

well as pasture grown to showcase the return per unit of water applied.

Farmers can improve water use efficiency through monitoring soil moisture and temperature to determine the best time to irrigate. Using precision technology and matching irrigation systems to soil type and plant demand are other ways to facilitate greater water efficiency.

When it comes to protecting water quality, farmers can use these precision irrigation techniques to minimise drainage from their soils and any run-off into waterways.

Having good riparian planting margins also alleviates run-off into wetlands and streams.

A big factor to industry best-practice is having good management onfarm to ensure all staff are trained and educated about irrigation.

Staff should understand the importance of good irrigation techniques including knowing when and when not to irrigate. There should be a plan onfarm for staff to deal with any operation or maintenance issues with irrigators.

Staff should know when to irrigate, how to achieve the correct application depth for different soils and plants.

They should also know what to do if the irrigator or pump breaks down or what to do if there is a leak to minimise over-watering and any excess run off.

To calculate irrigation depth, DairyNZ has developed an Irrigation

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Soil water holding capacity Textural Class

Available water holding capacity (mm per metre depth)

Down to 0.3m depth

Below 0.3m depth

Sand

150

50

Loamy sand

180

110

Sandy loam

230

150

Fine sandy loam

220

150

Silt loam

220

150

Clay loam

180

110

Clay

175

110

Peat

200-250

200-250

Average available water holding capacity of soils (of various textural classes). DairyNZ Guide to Good Irrigation Part 2.

Depth Testing Calculator. DairyNZ has also developed a guide to good irrigation Part 1, with a breakdown of information for staff and managers on how to operate an irrigation system on a daily basis, including maintenance troubleshooting, with information on soil and plant types and timing and volume of water application.

The good guide to irrigation Part 2 covers conditions of water supply, protecting water quality, efficient water use as well as improving an irrigation systems performance.

Visit www.dairynz.co.nz/environment/ water-use/irrigation

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SPECIAL REPORT IRRIGATION

Hayden and Jessie Dorman – irrigation essential to their system.

Right from the word go Anne Lee anne.lee@nzx.com @Cantabannelee

Some times the biggest gains can be made by going back to the basics, by making sure you’ve got the fundamentals right, Mid-Canterbury couple Hayden and Jessie Dorman say.

That’s especially true when it comes to irrigation.

“There are definitely gains to be made from new technologies but for many people I think there are pretty big gains to be had by firstly making sure you’ve ticked off the low-hanging fruit,” Jessie says.

Hayden and Jessie are milking 920 cows – their own Riverstone Holstein Friesians – on a 200-hectare milking platform at Dorie.

The farm’s total area is 411ha with about 386ha of that effective.

They’ve leased the property for the past three years from Italian owners and having sharemilked on it previously have a good understanding of its infrastructure and history.

From 2012 to last season it had been run as two blocks each with its own farm dairy and milked up to 1700 cows.

But this season they’ve almost halved cow numbers, shut down one of the two 50-bail rotary dairies and restructured their farming operation to be almost fully self-contained.

All young tock are now being reared at home and all stock wintered on with a big shift to growing much more of their own milking and wintering feed themselves.

“We’ve gone from bringing in 35% of the cows’ diet to 15%,” Hayden says.

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As with almost all Canterbury dairy farms dairying wouldn’t be possible on the coastal property without irrigation.

It’s a lynchpin of the operation and without it pasture production would be less than half of what it is no w.

The farm’s not limited by the total amount of irrigation water it can access from shallow wells but without ongoing monitoring and maintenance as well as tweaks to how the irrigation infrastructure is set up and run there would most definitely be limitations to pasture and crop growth.

And that’s exactly what they want to avoid as central to their restructured system is producing as much of their 600kg liveweight cows’ diet as possible at home.

Jessie says last season their total feed intake was 7.03 tonnes drymatter (DM)/cow with 16.2t DM/ha of pasture harvested on farm and 2.98t DM of other feed going into their diet.

Having efficient irrigation is critical to maximising forage crops and pasture yields so cows can consistently produce their liveweight in milksolids (MS) production.

Jessie says if you go right back to the beginning it’s about making sure the irrigation system is well-planned and designed to water the property as efficiently and effectively as possible taking into account your own farm system.

The farm was converted 15 years ago and was originally set out for Rotorainers.

As technologies changed all but two were replaced with two large centre pivots and hand-shifted sprinklers.

“Ideally there should be five or six

Farm facts • Riverstone farm • Owners: Barilla family • Lessees: Hayden and Jessie Dorman • Cows: 920 Holstein Friesian • Production: 631kg MS/cow • Total pasture, crop and concentrate eaten: 7030kg DM/ cow • Lactation: 305 days in milk average • Calving: Spring - 460 cows, autumn - 382, December - 78 • Irrigation: two centre pivots (268ha), 3 Rotorainers (90ha), sprinklers (28ha) smaller pivots for what we want to do but that’s not going to happen any time soon so we have to look at ways we can really get the most out of what we have and every drop of water,” Hayden says.

What every farm should have is a commissioning report that tells the farmer the irrigators are doing what they were designed to do, Jessie says.

If you’re putting in a new system you should be demanding that as a matter of course.

“People pay a lot of money for these machines so I don’t think anyone should feel like that’s not a reasonable expectation,” she says.

They should also be making sure it’s fit for purpose.

“One of the benefits of pivots is supposed to be a reduction in labour but if you’re taking scheme water that’s got a lot of silt in it or you’re tacking new, above-ground infrastructure on to old, underground infrastructure like mainlines then you need to be careful or you could spend a lot of time unblocking nozzles,” Hayden says.

It’s the same if you’re looking at putting effluent through the pivot or even underslinging it.

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If a lot of feed is going into the cows via a feed pad then effluent has to be well-screened to ensure blockages don’t become a big problem.

Automatic flushing systems to clean nozzles could also make sense in those circumstances.

If you work with irrigation designers to make sure the system is a best-fit for your situation it may mean a little extra cost upfront but in the long run it can save significant time and money.

“If you’ve got to have staff out unblocking nozzles all the time then that’s going to cost you time and labour.

You’re not going to be maximising pasture or crop production either,” Jessie says.

For an existing system it’s important the installers can supply the sprinkler plan for each pivot.

It will map out sprinkler sizes and nozzle settings for each nozzle along the pivot.

“Then you’ve actually got to get out and check that what you’ve got fitted is what’s on the plan.

“Over time it’s pretty easy for the wrong nozzles to be put on as they get replaced. Everyone does it – uses the nozzle they have in the truck or on the bike rather than necessarily replacing like-for-like,” Hayden says.

It doesn’t take long until the nozzle pattern is a pretty different picture to what it should be and that can affect distribution uniformity and irrigation efficiency significantly.

Bucket tests too are important, Jessie says.

“They really do show up any problems and, like the nozzle check against the original plan, they should be done regularly,” she says.

It can’t be a one off, there are always things that can affect how well the system’s working and if you don’t check regularly you just won’t know, she says.

Hayden Dorman – finds a blocked nozzle.

They’ve recently done another bucket test and found a number of issues with nozzles.

“We’ve got to keep on top of blocked nozzles. It’s just something we have to do,” Hayden says.

They’ve had effluent underslung on the pivot but are now going back to a travelling irrigator to reduce the wear and tear on the pivot and to help with efficient irrigation in areas watered by hand-shifted sprinklers.

“Because we’re winter-milking, putting effluent out using the pivot really isn’t ideal.

“It’s hard on the gear – I think we’ve replaced just about every motor in the pivot – and using them over winter means wheel ruts become an issue,” Hayden says.

“By putting effluent through the travelling irrigator we can get better application depth uniformity and have more options for deferring irrigation,” Jessie says.

It also gets around the difficulties of trying to manage both grazing and cows going in and out of paddocks Hayden and Jessie Dorman in a peas and cereal paddock before its harvested for cereal silage.

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around effluent spreading. Hayden says he wants to lift the efficiency of sprinklers by changing to the small Rotorainer or travelling irrigator setup.

The sprinklers are shifted twice a day but ideally that should be every eight hours.

“They’re really not efficient either – people run over them, there are too many places where leaks can happen and cows love rubbing on anything out in the paddock.

“Before you know it a hydrant’s been knocked and you’ve got a geyser shooting water up into the air,” he says.

They’re also ineffective in crops as they get higher and with crops becoming a much bigger part of the now self-contained system that’s become a significant factor.

The crops don’t need as much water as pasture and need it at specific times so the smaller irrigator makes it easier to more efficiently schedule irrigation to them.

With some of that low hanging fruit taken care of Jessie says they have also begun to utilise the variable rate irrigation (VRI) system installed on the farm by its previous owners.

To date they’ve largely used it to turn water off on the pivots as they pass over avoidance areas such as races and the farm dairies.

“We’re now using it for our crops and paddocks where we’ve cut silage,” Jessie says.

They’re growing maize for maize silage, a pea and barley mix for wholecrop silage, kale for wintering and rape followed by oats which will be grazed in late winter.

They’re also sowing lucerne into dry corners in spring.

They can pre-set the VRI so the crops all get what they need, avoiding over or under-watering affecting crop yields as well as cutting out water wastage and making savings on pumping costs.

The farm’s been electromagnetically (EM) mapped and they have recently broken the property out into three soil management zones.

That’s the next step in terms of varying irrigation rates based on the zones, Jessie says.

“It’s a way to really optimise our pasture and crop production but it’s been very important for us to tackle those fundamentals first.

“There’s little point getting to that level of detail when your pivot’s not nozzled right to start with, you’ve got blockages or you’re being really inefficient with scheduling water.”

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SPECIAL REPORT IRRIGATION Stu Bland knows the soil in every paddock.

Farm facts

Working out water use Despite their West Coast location being blessed with rain, there are efficiencies to be gained and savings to be made with water on Stu and Debbie Bland’s Reefton dairy farm.

Anne Hardie reports.

Debbie, Stu aims to use their water resource efficiently; a goal in line with other environmental policies on the farm that earned them recognition from Westland Milk Products for its Farm Excellence Programme.

The couple have milked cows around New Zealand, including Taranaki, Otago Stu Bland’s budget doesn’t extend and Canterbury, where they farmed to electromagnetic technology to 1500 cows in an equity partnership and determine the moisture capacity of his relied heavily on irrigation. soils, but his hand-drawn map of the soil Now on their own farm with 255 variations on his West Coast farm is a crossbred cows and a simple system good guide for irrigating specifically for producing their own supplements each soil type. as well as wintering the cows on On the 97-hectare farm at Mawheraiti the milking platform, they are using near Reefton he farms with his wife, low-cost methods to achieve those environmental goals.

In an ideal world, Stu would have a pivot installed on the farm to deliver water efficiently to each soil type. But apart from the budget not stretching that far, a pivot would overcapitalise the small farm, so instead he works with the K-line that was on the farm when they arrived nine years ago.

The farm gets A basic hand-drawn map details soils in every 1.8 metres of rain a area of each paddock to guide irrigation. year, quite low for the West Coast, but

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• Owners: Stu and Debbie Bland • Location: Reefton • Area: 97ha • Rainfall: 1.8m • Cow numbers: 255, 2.6 cows/ha • Production: 430kg MS/cow with no bought-in supplements • Irrigation: K-line for about 30 days/ year stony river soils dry off without regular rain in temperatures heading into the 30s and on average they will irrigate for about 30 days of the season.

Though the West Coast is synonymous with water, Stu says it’s still a valuable resource that has to be shared with other groups and used wisely, which is why he is emphatic dairy farmers need to irrigate according to the soil and not the irrigation system.

“We were originally told we needed 90 litres per second, but from what we’ve learned from our own observation and looking at the soils up we only need 38 litres per second.

“We were also finding that paddocks with a 10-day return were going brown by day five because they couldn’t hold enough water and that comes back to your evaporation transpiration.”

In some areas they now have two lines in a paddock, which they shift twice a day, and have put finer nozzles on areas with drier soils that he knows from experience will only hold 25mm with each pass. And now they grow more grass.

“It’s the return time that is important and not the amount you’re putting on. By concentrating on that, you’re not wasting the resource. And the advantage of K-line is you can do one pass over heavy soils and then a faster return time on lighter soils.”

The key to effective use of water for irrigation, Stu says, is understanding you

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need to look at the soil first and work up.

“You have to really understand your soils and not rely on the engineers to put a system on for you. Some farmers have to have certain systems, but if you have the opportunity to have a more appropriate system on your farm, you have to be thinking about it.”

Like many areas around the country, water use is a hot issue in the Grey Valley and he says farmers need to look at how they can irrigate effectively and efficiently.

“We have to have a social licence to farm because everyone driving down the road can have a say on it.”

The more he learned, the more interested he became in water as a resource, prompting him to form a water users group for the Grey Valley area and inviting Irrigation NZ to hold training days. The group also began to liaise with the West Coast Regional Council to ensure farmers were part of the process as it assessed the region’s rivers and water resource.

“We also wanted the council to know we are credible farmers and when they are driving around, they know we’re using those irrigators with what we’ve learned.

“I know what it was like in Canterbury to have an irrigated farm and not be able to irrigate because of restrictions, and that can happen if you don’t get everyone involved and thinking about it. If you’re complacent, it just gives environmental groups ammunition.”

Whether farmers like it or not, Stu says the public’s perception of dairy farming is important, which is why the industry has to be proactive and always look ahead. A story in the local paper three years ago, slamming dairy farmers for poor use of irrigation and nutrients ending up in waterways, spurred him to do something about changing that image.

Since then he has twice attended DairyNZ’s Environment Leaders Forum and formed the Coast Dairy Environment Group with other dairy farmers who attended the forum. One of its goals is to include the West Coast in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and the other is to get school kids on to dairy farms to provide urban NZ a better understanding of the industry.

“We’ve been going to local schools and some schools have had groups out to farms, though health and safety isn’t helping because principals are liable.”

Another aspect they’ve focused on at home is effluent; testing it for nutrients and then using it in the nutrient budget

Stock are fenced out of the hollows of the humped and hollowed land.

by using an effluent tanker to spread it on crop paddocks such as fodder beet, maize and sometimes silage.

“It really needs testing at different times of the year and our intention one day is to upgrade the effluent system to include a screen so we can put it through the K-line. But everything comes back to payout so that will be a little while yet.”

Through winter the cows are kept on land made up of gold mine tailings, so it’s solid ground that contains nutrients better than the crops they have grown on heavier ground that turns to mud.

They grow supplements like maize and feed it out in bins on the gold tailings, which is more expensive but easier, and mitigates damage to the soil and water.

A small area of the farrm has been humped and hollowed in the past, which is a common practice on the West Coast to drain wet land, and the bottom of the hollows on the Bland farm tend to pond with water during winter and spring. Though it isn’t required, Stu fences the hollows during those periods to keep the cows out of the ponding water and has installed culverts for the cows to cross over.

“There was water there and we don’t want cows in water. We’re just trying to stay ahead of the game really – if you can work out a way to do it before you have to do it with a rule.”

Following the cows with nitrogen is commonplace, but Stu and Debbie go a step further and add sulphur and potassium as well, and find they grow more grass.

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“It’s little and often, just like the irrigation, because we have quite leaky soils.”

One of the next steps they want to take is mapping the soils properly and applying specific fertiliser rates to the different soils, because like water, fertiliser is a resource.

“If you keep using the resource, eventually it will run out, so you have to use it efficiently.”

Seven years ago they dropped their stocking rate to 2.6 cows/ha to concentrate on production/cow and look after the cows and the soils better.

Today they average 430kg milksolids/ cow with no bought-in supplements apart from some nearby standing hay, while in a good year they reach 450kg MS/cow.

After all the hard work and thinking, Stu has welcomed Westland’s Farm Excellence Programme, which brings a staff member on to the farm to assess every aspect and give advice where needed.

“It makes everyone aware of all the things to look at on the farm and it’s quite a nice process to follow and make a plan around it. It’s also really nice to finally take someone around the farm and show them what you’ve done and be acknowledged for that work.”

Too often, it’s the public’s criticism of dairy farming practices that is heard rather than the positive actions taking place on farms, he says.

“What I’d like is for anyone to be able to come on our farm and not be able to fault it.”

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SPECIAL REPORT POD IRRIGATION

Outram dairy farmer Gavin Russell with his cows coming in for afternoon milking.

Farm facts • Owners: Equity partnership between Gavin and Kerrie Russell and Hughes-Crowley • Location: Outram, Otago • Area: 190ha effective • Herd: 600 Friesian and crossbred cows • Production: 245,000kgMS 20152016 season • Planned start of calving: August 1

OLD Bore to the rescue Karen Trebilcock ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz @KT_at_Exporter

When Gavin and Kerrie Russell came to the Taieri 12 years ago from North Otago, they brought with them not just a young family and a passion for cows, they also brought a knowledge of irrigation.

After several years of sharemilking, in 2009 they entered an equity partnership with Southland-based Hughes-Crowley milking 600 cows at Outram near Dunedin.

And they found a 26-metre bore unused, ready and waiting for them.

No other dairy farm on the Taieri plain had irrigation and they were advised they probably wouldn’t get consent from the regional council.

But their first year on the farm was a dry one so they hired a hydrologist who tested the bore and he advised them to have a go.

“He said we should have a crack at it so we did,” Gavin said.

“We were brought up on irrigation in North Otago so we knew what it

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could do for us. We actually came here to get away from having to use irrigation.

“The hydrologist did all the paper work for the consent and we had to get the okay from nine neighbouring properties. There was a bit of concern that it would affect all the bores around us which are for houses and stock water.”

Otago Regional Council came back with a yes.

“We’ve got consent to use 24 litres a second. We asked for more because the bore can do more than that but it was enough. And we can use it from the start of September until the end of March.”

The Russells then got CRT to draw up a plan, the local plumber worked on the pump shed and installing the pipe network over a 60-hectare block and Gavin and his staff fitted the pods together. They opted for a low-cost system of Irripods with a hydrant in every second of the 23 paddocks. It cost them $120,000 which included a new transformer to get the power to the pump shed.

A Datalogger monitors water use and they use Prosol to give them and the regional council reports.

“If we use too much water we get sent an email and if there is a major blow-out somewhere the whole system automatically shuts down so it’s pretty safe.

“We, and the regional council, know exactly how much water we’re using and when.”

They usually set it going for eight hours at a time which gives them the equivalent of 3mm/hour.

“The rest of the farm will be on a 25day round by February but we will be back to the paddocks with irrigation in seven to 10 days.”

A nine-metre bore supplies the house, dairy and troughs.

“It’s all artesian water below us. It’s really good water.”

The Taieri has an annual rainfall of about 700 to 800mm but there can be months when there is very little, or it’s blown away by the wind.

However, its heavy soils (it used to be a swamp and some of the land is below sea level) can soak up the moisture and the water table is usually not far below the ground.

One of the hydrants in the paddock.

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“We have to be careful with the irrigation. We usually turn it on at night because the power is cheaper then but if it rains as well we can make a mess of the paddocks. And if that happens late in the season it can be spring before it really dries out again.”

But if they get it right it means they don’t have to feed out supplements through the summer unlike their neighbouring dairy farmers and they can milk through until the end of May. Shifting the pods takes about an hour and a half using a four-wheel motorbike towing a trailer designed for the job.

“It just lifts up the pods and you drive to where you want them next. It’s pretty quick and we’re usually not busy at that time of year.”

They estimated the running costs are an extra $1300/month on the power bill when they’re pumping water, the annual fee for the monitoring, replacing the odd sprinkler nozzle, labour for the hour and a half a day to shift the pods and fuel for the motorbike.

“When you’re towing 23 runs you get through a tank of gas pretty easily.”

Part of the consent is that if they don’t use the water for two years in a row then they could lose it.

“The first year we had it we never used it and we got nervous that if we didn’t use it the following year that would be it and we had already spent all this money,” Kerrie said.

“But then it turned really dry and we used it a lot.”

The workings of the system.

“Of the six years we’ve had it, we’ve used it for four of them,” Gavin said.

Otago Regional Council monitor the water table at the nearby Dunedin

airport and last summer, one of the driest on record on the Taieri, it started dropping so the Russells’ water take was cut in half in mid-February for the first time.

“We fed palm kernel and went on 16hour milking which we’ve never had to do before to get through. So that’s how important the water is to us.”

They also use the irrigated land to grow swedes on to winter 200 of their 600 cows at home. The swede paddocks then go back into new grass in the spring.

“It means we can grow a really good crop and know we can winter those cows well.

“We just have that guarantee all the time that if it doesn’t rain we will be all right.”

With their effluent system covering another 40ha, more than half of the farm receives moisture of some sort through the summer months.

“We’ve thought about doing the rest of the farm, we’ve got the water to do it, but we’ve been focused on other things.

“We’ve had to upgrade the effluent system and this year the milk cooler so maybe next year or the year after.

“A lot of people said we were mad when we put it in, that we didn’t need it. But now in February when it gets dry there are a lot of farmers looking over the fence at us.

“There’s a lot of water down there, probably plenty of water for the whole Taieri.”

The Irripods which deliver the water.

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HANDY LANDYS Words by Cheyenne Stein

Students

rally to a

cause

L

ike most good ideas, this one was thought up over a few beers. Six mates who were all part of the Lincoln University Future leaders scholarship, were challenged by the programme to do something to give back to the community. Thus, the Handy Landys was born.

“We knew there was always going to be someone in the industry that could do with a hand, particularly in Canterbury with the drought and low payout and there just isn’t anything around that can help them out,” Handy Landys co-founder Matt Risi says.

The Handy Landys is a free volunteer service with a membership base of more than 100 keen and like-minded young adults willing to give their time to do whatever they can to lend a hand in their rural communities.

“We do anything from crutching to milking cows, fixing fences for people who are doing it tough. We think of ourselves as the helpers at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom,” Matt says.

Students who want to get involved are profiled to assess their skill sets, what they want to learn and where they would prefer to work, as well as assessing if they want to take on the role of foreman, taking the leadership role in a group.

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‘After every job we always take out a BBQ and some drinks to share with the farmer at the end of the day and that’s often the best bit.’

This helps match jobs to volunteers to make sure jobs are done by the most proficient, as well as making sure students get some value out of the experience as well.

“When you’re at university quite often you get really stuck in your books and most of the students here are actually off farms so it’s nice for them to be able to get back out on the farm and actually doing things.”

Before any of the volunteering work could actually begin, strict health and safety regulations needed to be created to ensure the safety of the volunteers and the farmers they would be helping.

Matt says they took their time to ensure they got everything right including sourcing public liability insurance through FMG Insurance. Before work is started on any farm the group’s foreman will make visit the property to assess if the job the farmer wants doing can be done, what the risks are and how those risks can be managed.

“It’s just making sure things like people are wearing covered shoes and have high visibility vests on and making sure the person has the right skills and experience to actually help carry out that job. At the end of the day these are still working farms and we need to comply with health and safety.”

Despite the obvious benefits to the farmer of getting free labour and to the students for getting valuable onfarm experience, Matt says the most valuable thing they are able to provide farmers is a bit of time out and someone to talk to.

“After every job we always take out a BBQ and some drinks to share with the farmer at the end of the day and that’s often the best bit.

Farming can be really isolating and sometimes seeing a bunch of young keen students is a breath of fresh air for them.”

The uptake to start with was hard going, with many farmers not willing to accept the help when it came along, but Matt says that’s been changing.

“A lot of farmers aren’t willing to accept

help, for whatever reason, but they really appreciate it.

When I was a kid, helping out people was already there in the Kiwi culture but that seems to have been lost a little over the years and we are trying to get back that culture of helping people and not expecting or asking for anything in return. It’s just what you do in farming.”

Although the Handy Landys only cover the Christchurch area they were chomping at the bit to help out when the November 14 earthquake hit and were quick to send up two van loads of people to help out as best they could.

“We were a bit limited because of the timing, a lot of students had left uni for the year, but we sent a few vans to Waiau and Cheviot to help a few farmers move out. Since then we ended up running through Federated Farmers and they’ve been amazing.”

Matt is hoping that come March when students descend on the Lincoln campus again they will be able to pack up their vans and head out to quake-affected properties and lend a hand.

“There will be things that need repairing or doing as a result of the quake for a while to come and we are keen to get stuck in and help out.”

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 67

The Handy Landys has been operational for nearly a year now and in that time they have been involved in some neat jobs from their Drought Shout in Scargill Valley where they assisted in helping run a drought shout comedy night, to training heifers on to the rotary platform for the first time before calving when a farmer was three staff down through to putting their green thumbs to work by planting 400 native trees at Greenpark.

The new year will bring a brand new executive to the club, which is also a Lincoln University-affiliated club. Having already got funding from ASB and Rural Support they are looking into long term partners to help with the financials of running a volunteer club.

“I would love to see the model go across the country, either through Young Farmers or other universities. I think our generation can get back to that feel of paying it forward.

We want to keep it on the ground and make sure it stays a simple model that doesn’t stray from our core focus of helping the rural community.”

• Need a hand from the Handy Landys?

Head to their website: http://www. handylandys.co.nz/ for more information.

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r

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BUSINESS BUILDER Zach and Laura are strict on their budget to make profit rather than chase production.

Buying at the bottom Zach Mounsey has gone from balancing a $15 billion Fonterra fund, being a DairyNZ economist and Kellogg graduate, to now sharemilking in the King Country along with his partner Laura Campbell.

Sheryl Brown spoke to them about what drives them to succeed.

A

merican investor Warren Buffett’s philosophy is to “buy it when it’s ugly”.

That’s the advice Zach Mounsey, 26, and Laura Campbell, 22, adhered to when they bought their first herd and started sharemilking this season on the basis of a $4.25/kg milksolids (MS) milk price forecast.

An economist and accountant, respectively, both had done their figures thoroughly to show they could make it work, but more importantly had the passion to get into the dairy industry and an appetite for risk.

Zach had looked at the long-term trend for cow prices and knew they would be paying under $1400 on average, which was close to the lowest cow prices in 10 years. Zach and Laura felt prices were bound to recover and, taking Buffett’s words on board about buying in a dip, it was a good time to enter the industry.

“When a market experiences lulls there are opportunities if you have the risk threshold to take it, which Laura and I did.”

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DXP 01-17 book.indb 68

‘FROM WHAT I’VE SEEN LOOKING AT SOME OF THE TOP DAIRY FARMS IN NZ, THE BEST FARMS FOR PROFITABILITY, OFTEN HAVE MORE MODERATE

PRODUCTION.’

Their bank manager told Zach he was leaving a good job as an economist at DairyNZ to work for nothing, but he disagreed and told him he wasn’t going farming to make a loss.

“It’s not okay to accept that losing money is the status quo, we are more disciplined than that.”

The milk price recovery has certainly

helped them, but they are maintaining their strict budget based on the $4.25/kg MS payout.

For every dollar they spend they want to make a margin return on it.

They budgeted conservatively for their costs to be $1.74/kg MS, but they’re looking more likely to be about $1.60/kg MS. They would have been another 10 cents down if they hadn’t had such a wet winter and spring. The farm has had 45% more rain half way through the season than their total average annual rainfall and consequently milk production went down and animal health costs rose.

Now the milk price is improving they are not trying to capture extra production by adding more costs to their system, Laura says.

They are focused on their profit margin rather than total production and cash income.

“It is tempting to chase production, but it’s not how we want to do our business. You’re adding another layer of risk. It’s gambling on estimated milk price and feed price inputs.”

There is also a lifestyle cost involved from buying in extra feed into a system because more labour is required, she says.

“Part of the joy of farming is the lifestyle.

Why spend all that time working not to earn more money, or only marginally more, especially if you value your time and consider opportunity cost?”

Zach has always had a strong passion for dairy farming, spending as much time on his family farm at Otorohanga as he could growing up, throughout university and once he started his professional career.

“I ate, breathed and slept farming.”

At 21 while he was a third-year student at Waikato University he bought into the 108ha conversion farm at Te Kuiti, where he is now sharemilking, with his parents.

Although his goal has always been farm ownership, when it came to tertiary education he wanted to give himself broader opportunities outside the dairy industry.

“I wanted to add a set of skills to my current aptitude, something that was not farming but would compliment farming. I didn’t want to limit my options, I wanted to be able to jump into any industry.”

He studied a Bachelor of Management Studies in Finance and Strategy and, as it happened, his degree took him straight into the dairy industry regardless.

He started working at Fonterra three days after his last exam in a short-term role as a TAF specialist to support farmers adapt to the Trading Amongst Farmers scheme, in which his farming background and financial knowledge was a good fit.

He later moved to Fonterra’s shares and payments division and was part of the team

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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69

that managed the $15-billion fund that is ultimately paid out to farmers. The role included share forecasting and the liquidity needed for the co-operative shares, being responsible for monthly dividend payments and the capacity adjustment, and designing and implementing share contracts for farmers.

To go from a small Waikato farm to the corporate office in Auckland and be responsible for such a large fund and transferring billions of dollars at a time was daunting.

“I’ve never sat at a computer shaking so much, looking at the numbers you were responsible for was a bit nerve racking at times.”

While working in Auckland he met Laura, who is off a Hawke’s Bay drystock farm.

“I somehow managed to find the only girl in Auckland who knew how to milk cows.

She’d reared calves and done a lot of relief milking.”

Laura is now in her last year studying for a Bachelor of Business Studies in Accounting and Finance. She did a summer internship with Fonterra and was offered an entrylevel role as an accountant last year so she is working fulltime while finishing her degree and helping to manage the farm, milking most weekends.

She was the real driving force for him to take the plunge into farming now, Zach says.

Working and living in the big city was always going to be a short-term step for Zach as the life onfarm was where he wanted to be.

“I prefer the wide-open spaces of the King Country and the Waikato. I lived for two years in Auckland and spent one weekend there – so that gives you an insight to where my commitment was to the farm.”

A move to DairyNZ offices in Hamilton to work as an economist helped him move back to greener pastures.

His role at DairyNZ was providing economic insight on New Zealand dairy farming, doing analysis on profitability, sustainability and competiveness of NZ farmers, including NZ’s international competiveness.

He was also looking at farmers’ debt levels, which in the dairy downturn was significant data to showcase the impact of the low milk price on regions across NZ. He studied top performing farms and analysed their onfarm economics, including debt levels and costs.

He still does contract work for DairyNZ in that space. The work is beneficial for him to keep his finger on the pulse in economics while the work also relates back to his own business.

‘IT IS TEMPTING TO CHASE PRODUCTION, BUT IT’S NOT HOW WE WANT TO DO OUR BUSINESS. YOU’RE ADDING ANOTHER LAYER OF RISK. IT’S GAMBLING ON ESTIMATED MILK PRICE AND FEED PRICE INPUTS.’ “It just so happens to be work I can apply back to my own business. I’m forever looking at the way we are running our business because I’m doing so much work on identifying profit drivers.”

Subsequently he is constantly writing budgets, analysing profit drivers in the business and adjusting their margins throughout the season.

“I think the big one is people need to understand how the different parts of the business work together or are correlated.”

The wet winter and spring this year put

their target production back and ultimately Zach had to adjust his spending.

“We were aiming to do 100,000kg MS this year, plus, but production has fallen back 8-9% this season and if we had just left our costs stand-alone without going back and adjusting them, we would have close to 30 cents more cost, per kilo.

“The challenge is holding capacity as much as we can while keeping a close eye on operating expenses and really understanding the drivers of our business.

“For every 1000kg MS production drops we need to adjust working costs per kilo to ensure we keep performing profitably when benchmarked against performing budgets.”

It’s important for farmers to go back to the drawing board and they have to realise to remain efficient, something has to go sometimes, he says.

Farming can be an emotional business, but you have to apply those economic lenses to make it perform.

There are always costs that are unavoidable onfarm, but there are usually some costs that can be taken out of the business, deferred or looked at more closely in terms of the performing margin.

One of the biggest risks to farmers keeping a tight budget is not understanding the impact of buying in supplements, Zach believes.

While he knows any system can be profitable, because farmers don’t know that marginal benefit at the time of buying supplements (due to the milk price only being an early estimate in most cases in spring) they are adding another layer of risk to their business, he says.

He uses palm kernel as a buffer if they have any adverse weather conditions and a feed shortage, but ultimately it’s a simple, grass-focused resilient system. Some of the most profitable farms are those simple systems that are not achieving 400kg plus MS/cow or 1000kg plus MS/ha, he says.

“From what I’ve seen looking at some of the top dairy farms in NZ, the best farms for profitability, often have more moderate production.”

FARM FACTS Sharemilkers: Zach Mounsey and Laura Campbell Location: Te Kuiti Area: 108ha milking platform Cows: 289 Jerseys Target production: 100,000kg MS Farm Dairy: 32-aside herringbone, ACRs, in-dairy feeding Farm working expenses (sharemilking): $1.50/kg MS

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Taking the plunge into sharemilking amid a $3.90 milk price was calculated risk for Zach and Laura.

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Side by Side report

Side by side with Steelfort

New 2017 models available UXV 450i – 450cc, 2wd/4wd, downhill braking, benchseat – $14,339 + gst UXV 700i – 700cc, 2wd/4wd, downhill braking, powersteer, winch – $17,383 + gst KYMCO products are distributed and serviced through a growing dealer network with locations New Zealand-wide.

KYMCO dealers deliver professional service, expert advice and great deals on KYMCO products.

The KYMCO product range is internationally renowned for delivering advanced product features, yearafter-year durability, and the staying power required to excel in diverse and demanding conditions.

STE/7501/NZC

Scooters

DXP 01-17 book.indb 70

A Steelfort product

Side by sides

Quads

Visit steelfort.co.nz for stockists or call 0800 4KYMCO

21/12/16 12:11 pm

Dairy design

A side-by-side for sure, but which one?

Tim McVeagh

M

any dairy farmers have voted with their wallets and decided a side-by-side is a worthwhile investment. Their choice is usually guided by past experience and the influence of sales staff, as there appears to be little independent objective information on specific models. With 13 models available from Kawasaki alone, there’s a lot to take in. By running through a check list of requirements and features, suitable models can be shortlisted.

THE CHECKLIST • Passengers: Side-by-sides have from two to six seats and with many dairy farming families including young children, three-seaters are popular.

• Deck capacity: Deck carrying capacities range from 180 to 550kg. The tipping mechanism may be manual, hydraulic or electric. Gear commonly carried on the deck includes sprayers, calves and fencing gear.

• Towing capacity: Towing capacities range from 450 to 950kg. Terrain and track conditions must always be factored in and erring on the conservative side is advised. Calfaterias, feed trailers, calf trailers, sprayers, K-line pods, harrows and farm trailers are among the items often towed.

• Engine: In general, petrol vehicles will be cheaper to buy, with lower engine repair bills.

Diesels generally have more torque, are more dependable, have better resale value and run on cheaper fuel.

• Dimensions: Smaller models fit on most single cab ute decks, while the bigger models need to be trailered between farms. Smaller models are generally more manoeuvrable too.

• Safety: Much has been made of the safety of side-by-sides compared to quads. A significant effort has been made to make these vehicles as safe as possible, as evident by the range of safety features as standard or optional extras.

All come with rollover protection. Seat belts are standard and must be worn to make these Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 71

vehicles safer than a quad. Seat belt interlocks mean that without seat belts coupled the speed is governed to around 20km/h. Different “speed keys” allow different maximum speeds, so inexperienced or even gung-ho drivers are limited to reasonable speeds. Side curtains are fitted to some models to contain the driver and passengers within the vehicle in the event of a roll over. Down-hill braking systems to prevent the dangerous freewheeling associated with continuous variable transmission (CVT) should be a must. Some models rely on pressure being applied to both brake and accelerator pedals simultaneously when descending hills to prevent freewheeling. While this technique is reasonably easily mastered, a more secure braking system is recommended. Most dealers will fit an orange flashing light where road work is anticipated.

• Cabin space and accessibility: Both space in the cabin, and driver configuration vary, with some models being very constrained for bigger people. Access should be unimpeded because the driver may be often getting in and out for gates.

Tokomaru dairy and deer farmer Alistair White bought his first side-by-side, a Polaris 800, some years ago. In shopping around for a suitable machine, he found the limitation of some models was their layout. On a number of machines he couldn’t fit his 190cm frame into comfortably.

They were not easy to get in and out of, the side retaining bars dug into his hips, or the ergonomics were just not right. In some models there was just not enough room for his size 13 gumboots to operate the pedals comfortably. The Polaris was retired and replaced six months ago by a Can Am Defender HD10 DPS 1000.

OFF-ROAD ABILITY: If a high degree of off road capability is important, then a good start would be to check the following........

• Two or four-wheel-drive: And whether 4WD is engaged manually or automatically.

• Front and rear diffs: Limited slip, or manual or automatic diff locks improve off-road ability, especially in slippery conditions.

• Suspension: Long-travel independent 71

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Table 1: Summary of supplied mechanical details and summary of carrying capacity and price data.

Seating

Deck Capacity (kg)

Towing Capacity (kg)

RRP $ + GST

CVT, Descent control,Hi/Lo range, Selectable 2/4WD, Auto locking front Diff.

3

454

907.2

16,564

Petrol; 799.9cc; Rotax V twin; EFI

CVT, Descent control, Hi/Lo range, Selectable 2/4WD, Auto locking front Diff, Power Steering.

3

454

907.2

19,434

CFMOTO U550 EPS

Petrol; 495cc; Single cylinder, 4 valve, SOHC.

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock.

2

230

550

12,000

CFMOTO U800 EPS

Petrol; 800cc; V Twin, 4 stroke.

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock.

2

230

550

14,500

Cub Cadet Challenger 500

Petrol; 471cc; Single cylinder; Hisun; EFI

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking

2

160

545

13,912

Cub Cadet Challenger 700

Petrol; 686cc; Single cylinder; Hisun EFI.

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking

2

160

545

15,651

Honda Pioneer 500

Petrol; 475cc; Single cylinder; PGM-FI Honda

Automatic, Electric shift, 5 Speed (1st is LOW) CW Rev, Selectable 2 & 4WD

2

180kg

453

17,386

Honda Pioneer 700 2P

Petrol; 675cc; Single cyclinder; PGM-Fi Honda

Automotive style, hydraulic torque converter, 3 forward gears, 2WD/4WD/4WD with front diff lock

2

454kg

680

21,734

Intimidator Diesel 4x4

Diesel; 1000cc; Kohler

CVT, 3 ratios. Final drive shaft driven. Electronic 4WD selection.

3

540

950

24,950

Intimidator Petrol 4x4

Petrol; 750cc; Kohler Fuel Injected

CVT, 3 ratios. Final drive shaft driven. Electronic 4WD selection.

3

540

950

21,950

John Deere X590

Petrol; 586cc; 32hp; John Deere.

CVT. Inertial clutch fully enclosed. Hi/Lo range. Selectable 2wd/4wd.

2

181

500

16, 263

John Deere XUV855D

Diesel; 854cc; 23hp; Yanmar.

CVT. Inertial clutch fully enclosed. Hi/Lo range. Selectable 2wd/4wd.

2 or 3

454

680

21,913

Kawasaki Mule SX XC (Big Foot)

Petrol; 401 cc; Single cylinder OHV; Kawasaki.

CVT, Forward/Reverse, Hi/Lo Range, Selectable 2WD/4WD, Dual Mode Rear Diff.

2

181

500

13,909

Kawasaki Mule Pro-FX

Petrol; 812 cc; 3-cylinder DOHC; Chery.

CVT, Forward/Reverse, Hi/Lo Range, Selectable 2WD/4WD, Dual Mode Rear Diff.

3

453

907

22,604

Kioti Mechron 2200

Diesel; 1007cc; 3 Cylinder; 22hp; Kioti.

CVT. Hi/Low range. Selectable 2WD/4WD and diff Lock

3

500

590

19,990

Kubota RTV400Ci

Petrol; 404cc; Single cylinder; Subaru EFI.

CVT with inertial clutch. Hi / Lo range.

Selectable 2WD / 4WD.

2

200

500

16,500

Kubota RTVX900 GP

Diesel; 898cc; 3 cylinder; Kubota.

Variable hydro Transmission. (VHT-X); Hi, Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD.

2

755

590

24,990

Kymco UXV 450i

Petrol; 443cc; Single cylinder; Kymco; 33hp EFI

CVT. Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking

2

200

550

14,339

Kymco UXV 700 LE EPS

Petrol; 695cc; Single cylinder; Kymco; 45hp EFI

CVT. Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking

2

190

550

17,382

Mahindra mPACT 750s

Petrol; 750cc; V Twin OHV; Kohler EFI.

CVT. Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD

3

545

950

19,991

Mahindra mPACT 1000s

Diesel; 1000cc; 3 cylinder OHV; Kohler EFI.

CVT. Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD.

3

544

950

24,991

Massey Ferguson MF500

Petrol; 471cc; Single cylinder; Hisun EFI.

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking.

2

160

545

13,912

Massey Ferguson MF700

Petrol; 686cc; Single cylinder; Hisun EFI.

CVT drive, Hi / Lo range. Selectable 2WD / 4WD / Diff Lock, Active downhill braking.

2

160

545

15,651

Polaris Ranger 500 NEW MODEL

Petrol; 499cc; Single cylinder; EFI

CVT. Hi/Lo Turf Mode/2wd/4wd.

2

226

680

12,170

Polaris Ranger 570HD

Petrol; 570cc; Single cylinder DOC; EFI.

CVT. 4WDC Turf Mode, 2wd, 4wd EPS.

2

226

680

14,995

Tuatara 1100EFI

Petrol; 1100cc; 4 cylinder OHC 16 valve; 67hp.

Manual 5 speed, hydraulic clutch.

Selectable 2WD/4WD. Individually selectable diff. lock front & rear.

3

550

750

19,995

Yamaha YXM700

Petrol; 696cc; Single cylinder SOHC.

CVT; L, H, N, R; 3-way diff lock, 2WD, 4WD, locked. 4WD; shaft drive. All wheel engine braking.

3 or 6

272

680

From 20,498

Yamaha YXE700

Petrol; 708cc; Single cylinder DOHC.

CVT; L, H, N, R; 3-way diff lock, 2WD, 4WD, locked. 4WD; shaft drive. All wheel engine braking.

2

136

680

From 20,999

Make and model

Engine; Fuel; Size; Cylinders; Make

Transmission/Final Drive/ Engine Braking

Can Am DefenderHD8 Base

Petrol; 799.9cc; Rotax V twin; EFI

Can Am DefenderHD8 DPS

Prices are those provided by suppliers as at November 2016. They may vary from those provided from local dealers with specials, trade-ins, financing deals, and free extras.

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REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE: suspension with coil springs Most service intervals are at 100 over shock absorbers allows for hours, while models like Can wheels to get good traction.

Am Defender have a 200-hour or • Ground clearance: High 3000km service interval. Fixedground clearance is an cost servicing, local mechanic advantage in the bogs and servicing and onfarm servicing are bumps, but a disadvantage on options offered by some dealers the sides of hills where lateral and will influence the running stability is critical.

Tokomaru dairy and deer farmer Alistair White found he and costs. Availability and price of parts • Wheel size and tyre type: others who fill the number 4 or 5 jersey could not get into, nor is important and can really only Bigger tyres usually get a better sit comfortably in some models. This Polaris suited him well, be assessed by asking dealers and grip, do less pasture damage but has since been replaced by a Can-Am Defender HD10 DPS. learning from others’ experience. and sink less in boggy areas. not on all models.

• Wheelbase and track: A COMFORT: A range of creature comforts • DC outlets: To run equipment like longer wheelbase is better for climbing come standard or as optional extras, sprayers. hills, but can be a disadvantage in depending on the model. These include…

• Electronic fuel ignition: This bumpy country. A wider track gives • Roof and front and rear generally means better cold weather greater stability, but again can be a slight windscreens: These are standard on starting, more responsiveness and better disadvantage going through the humps some models and optional extras on performance at low revs. and hollows. others. Adding a roof and windscreens • Instrumentation: The basics include ENGINE CHARACTERISTICS: INCLUDING to some side-by-sides results in hour meter, fuel gauge, temperature POWER AND TORQUE. unreasonable noise levels in the cab, so gauge, and speedo/odometer. this should be checked out. Models like • Winch: Some models have these as • Turning circle: A small turning circle the Tuatara have a roof rack as standard. standard and can prevent the walk of is an advantage in general farm use.

A windscreen wiper is a useful addition shame.

• Roadworthiness: The legal aspects to a windscreen.

• Adjustable suspension: This can be of using side-by-sides on public roads • At the top of the comfort range, altered for load and terrain. is documented at www.nzta.govt.nz/ the Kubota RTV-X1100C has an air• Storage: Storage is found in every nook vehicles/vehicle-types/quad-bikes-andconditioned cab with defroster and and cranny of these vehicles and it is atvs heater. all useful. It includes compartmental • Mechanical reliability: Warranty • Tilt-adjustable steering wheel to enhance storage and racks. periods are from six months to three the driving position.

• Lighting: Good headlights and working years and are an indication of the • Radios feature in some models. lights are essential after the sun goes manufacturer’s confidence in the down. product. Objective information on PRICE: The price range for the models • Skid plate: Damage to running gear mechanical reliability of the various recommended as most suitable for dairy underneath a side-by-side can cost a models is scarce, so while this is often a farmers in this investigation ranged from lot more than a skid plate, so if you are major consideration prospective buyers $12,000 to $24,991. The range in engine fording streams or in boulder country can only learn from others’ experience. type and size, drive system, load and these are an asset.

Our local mechanic was working on one towing capacities, features and extras • Brush guard: This may save headlights off a sheep farm when I visited recently. which come as standard, and reputation, is from damage.

He described this model as suitable for just as extensive.

• Digital encoded security system, useful an airport or golf course. The chassis is So there’s lots to consider in buying one where the vehicle may be left in public. of powder-coated electro-welded steel, of these vehicles. Having a clear picture of • Indicators, mirrors and horn: which he believes is not heavy enough your wants and needs will help to identify Useful where the vehicle will be used on and rust would take its toll as the paint the most suitable candidates. Before the road. wore off. The hand brake pads it needed making the final choice, talk to farmers • Power steering: This is standard on cost more than $350 and there were who own the models being considered, many models and some with the more none available in NZ. He made up two and those who fix them. refined electronic power steering. sets from car brake pads at a cost of $60. The front drive shaft universals had flogged out and he was told that he would have to replace the complete drive shaft for $800. He fitted universal $ joints from a car at a cost of $40 each. + GST deliv ered Anecdotal comments like this from reliable sources are worth noting.

For the last five years we have surveyed owners of 479

THE QUADBAR - PROVEN BEYOND DOUBT!

595

QUADBIKES fitted with Quadbars.

DRIVER SKILL LEVEL: Where inexperienced drivers are to drive the sideby-side, a governed engine or more sedate model may be appropriate. The Kawasaki Mule 610 is governed to a maximum speed of 40km/h.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS: THESE FEATURES MAY BE STANDARD OR OPTIONAL EXTRAS...

There were: • 61 rollovers • 0 deaths • 5 injuries - NONE from the Quadbar itself We think the Quadbar has done just what it was designed to do - PREVENT farm injuries and death.

We could not be happier with the results and Worksafe NZ is fully aware of this survey.

Call Stuart Davidson - Owner of Quadbar NZ - Orewa 021 182 8115 • email:sales@quadbar.co.nz • www.quadbar.co.nz

• Tow bar: This should be standard but is Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 73

JH0084898©

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21/12/16 12:11 pm

STATE OF PLAY │ NEW YEAR

New year, new hopes Glenys Christian

W

hat should dairy farmers be hoping for in an election year?

Plenty, is the answer with whatever shape Government they see through 2017.

A lower New Zealand dollar certainly wouldn’t hurt but with the economic strength new Prime Minister Bill English has assiduously built over his time as finance minister, that doesn’t seem very likely. Investment continues to flow in from overseas and while that may contribute to infrastructure headaches associated with Auckland’s growing pains and southern earthquake recovery it’s an economy in good shape which is attracting immigrants and funds, along with favourable prospects for the future.

Just as dairy farmers have made sound economic decisions through the tough times of low payouts so too have those looking for their land of opportunity.

A big boost for Fonterra farmers would come if the Government rethought its requirement for the co-op to take all new milk supply as it needs to under the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA).

Chairman John Wilson, opening its new dryer at its Lichfield plant in early December, was quick to praise John Key’s Government for what it had done in signalling the co-op won’t need to supply milk to start-up companies at favourable prices from the start of the 2019/20 season. But he argues it’s a strategic cost to Fonterra to keep processing capacity available just in case milk turns up on its doorstep.

“Farmers are carrying that cost,” he said.

While it was accepted that competition was required when Fonterra was formed this provision for open entry and exit was now “well past its use-by date”. And he made a comparison which would make most NZ farmers’ blood run cold – Fonterra could end up with stranded assets in the same way the meat industry has.

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…for a better future?

Will English take a different tack, given his close connections to the rural sector?

Farmers everywhere will certainly be hoping for some let-up in the slew of environmental constraints, present and future, which they’re facing. The Greens will be more active than ever in an election year and lobby groups will ride on their coat tails, painting a picture of a countryside being ruined by those who actually care about it the most.

What about the idea of an environmental summit, just as there have been economic and jobs summits in the past? It’s easy to say those gatherings didn’t produce tangible, on-the-ground results, but in the environmental space surely there’s sensible middle ground to be gained when people come together and talk things over?

‘The devastation caused by the Kaikoura earthquake shows how fragile reliance on tourism really is.’

Some of the ill-feeling and abuse in the wake of Waikato Regional Council’s Healthy Rivers Wai Ora proposals is simply not the Kiwi way when it comes to finding solutions all can live with. Farmers need to have the freedom to make what they know are the best decisions on their own properties. And regulation only brings with it a torrent of unexpected costs and outcomes. Going to court just cements opposing positions and often costs more in frustration than the time and money involved, both of which are considerable.

Can’t commonsense drive some consensus?

Dairy farmers can now thankfully hope their sector might once again replace tourism as the country’s largest earner.

The devastation caused by the Kaikoura earthquake shows how fragile reliance on tourism really is, and that was built on the back of the former Minister of Tourism helpfully being able to promote the country round the world at every photo opportunity.

And if dairying does take top spot again it’s an opportunity not to be wasted when it comes to promoting the industry and its value to all New Zealanders. What better chance too to attract young people who run a great deal less risk of their multifaceted tasks on dairy farms being entirely taken over by robots as workers in many other careers do.

Is it too much to hope there will be more women elected or appointed to top positions in 2017? Three women directors on Fonterra’s board is a great start and the Dairy Women’s Network is doing more in this space all the time. But there’s much that could be done to unlock talent onfarm, in smaller towns and in cities. Local body elections will be coming around again all too soon.

This month also marks my last column for Dairy Exporter. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity I’ve been given to reflect on all that’s going on in dairying. Without reflection, there are the dangers of not learning from mistakes, neglecting to mark successes and forgetting what’s good about what you’ve got.

Accountant Pita Alexander put it well at a field day, saying his top group of clients always kept a good diary and when the going got tough made sure they wrote things down.

And he also warned about accepting advice from anyone who took your watch off to tell you the time.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:11 pm

Demo farm DEMONSTRATION FARM │ PKE Cows chow down on palm kernel – a waste by-product of the vegetable oil industry.

Palm kernel – the ugly Brian Hockings Finishing the trilogy of Palm kernel – the good, the bad, and the ugly, we now have to look at the ugly. It’s probably not hard to guess where I’m coming from on this – and that is the misguided, ill-informed or ignorant linking of the use of palm kernel to the destruction of tropical rain forest.

That the continued removal of the planet’s forest cover is, in these days of increasing global warming, a cause for concern is indisputable.

However, to attribute responsibility for this to the use of palm kernel by dairy farmers is nothing short of ludicrous.

As has been stated ad nauseam, palm kernel is a by-product of the production and extraction of palm oil. I’m not sure what part of the word by-product opponents do not understand. The Oxford English Dictionary definition is: Byproduct, n. Thing produced incidentally in manufacturing something else. The keyword is incidentally. It is the demand for palm oil that drives establishment of plantations.

Surely this is a concept capable of being grasped by even the meanest intellect.

If the misguided attempts to curtail the use of palm kernel for stock food were to succeed I understand it would be burnt –and obviously produce more greenhouse

gases. Alternatively its use by dairy farmers is, in effect, converting a useless and unwanted by-product into milk – which adds to the food supply of an increasingly hungry world.

Trying to prevent the clearing of forest for palm oil plantations by prohibiting the use of palm kernel makes as much sense as it would be for those of a vegan persuasion to attempt to curtail the meat industry by banning blood and bone fertiliser.

The average urban citizen now has little concept of what happens on the land.

The reason for the strong demand for palm oil is that it is a significant ingredient of a very wide range of consumer goods – mainly foodstuffs and cosmetics but certainly not exclusively so.

Estimates are that 50% of products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil – often to a high degree. There is no requirement for mandatory labelling of palm oil use in foodstuffs sold in New Zealand – although there are encouraging moves in this direction. However, look at the ingredients list on the label of any foodstuff sold here and when you see

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vegetable oil, it is virtually axiomatic that this will be palm oil.

So where are the banner-wavers and placard-bearers outside supermarkets?

Instead, they could well be demonstrating against the unloading and distribution of palm kernel to farmers, for productive use and benefit to the economy as a whole. After demonstrating they probably head home, stopping on the way for an ice cream and chocolate, freshen up in a shower with soap, shampoo and conditioner, then smarten up using toothpaste and lipstick. All contain palm oil and if that’s not enough our protester then may sit down to a meal, most likely prepared with or containing palm oil.

I would confidently predict that if one were to go through the pantries of anyone who protested against palm kernel they would find goods containing palm oil. If this is not hypocrisy on a monumental scale, I don’t know what is.

The wider issue is the growing divide between town and country. The average urban citizen now has little concept of what happens on the land, the complexities of modern farming, its contribution to the national economy, hence its importance to the economic wellbeing and prospects of all citizens.

With a growing awareness and concern with ongoing environmental degradation it is very easy to simply condemn farmers as scapegoats for all sorts of environmental problems – conveniently ignoring the fact that the vast majority of farmers, being close to nature, consider themselves custodians of the land, with a desire to leave their farms in better shape than when they took it over.

As in any group, there will be some bad apples. The tragedy is that the public at large, driven by a sensation-seeking media, comes to regard the bad farmer as the norm. This is about as fair and logical as the extreme women’s lib credo that all men are rapists.

There are plenty of good news stories out there – putting farmers individually and collectively in a very positive light.

Unfortunately, most of these stories are buried in farming publications, (as this one is) and seldom see daylight in mainstream media – thus perpetuating the divide.

What the industry urgently requires is a well-funded and resourced permanent public relations organisation to ensure the public get a well-researched and credible appreciation of the positive activities of farmers, particularly on the environment, and, equally if not more importantly, rapid and cogent rebuttal of scurrilous and erroneous negative reporting of farming.

The Fonterra TV campaign is a step in the right direction, but I’m not sure it addresses the real issues – certainly much more is required, now and in the future.

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Dairy 101 DAIRY 101 │ COW FLOW

Going with the flow Karen Trebilcock ak.trebilcock@xtra.co.nz @KT_at_Exporter

I

t’s 2pm, it’s hot and about 300 cows are on the track between you and the dairy and none seem to be moving.

There is not a lot you can do. Turn the motorbike off, find a tree to sit under and tell the dog to chase a rabbit.

Revving the motorbike, yelling at the cows and getting the dog to bark will do nothing but get everyone and everything upset and agitated, and could cause lameness in the cows.

The cows will get to the dairy, it’s just going to take time. But don’t despair – there are ways to improve cow flow.

You can’t do anything about the afternoon heat or the cows, but you can do something about what they are walking on.

Before you find that shady tree, have a look at the track and see where the hoof prints are. The track will be metres wide but there are probably only hoof prints on both edges and in the middle.

If the cows were walking four or five abreast they, and you, would get to the dairy a lot quicker so why aren’t they?

It’s possibly because of the camber of the track. Most tracks are built so water runs off to drains on either side which is great for the track but not great for cows which like flat surfaces.

Slopes are uncomfortable to walk on so they choose the flattest part of the track – just like we would.

Take a look, too, at large puddles and muddy patches– the hoof prints will go around and not through them, again slowing the time it takes to get to the dairy.

The other tell-tale sign is cow manure on the track. You will usually find it and lots of it, at tight corners. Cows aren’t great fans of turning from one direction to another and they will almost always stop and poop, before moving on again.

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Shadows on the concrete can appear to a cow as a step or a barrier.

You will also find cow manure where the surface they are walking on changes, like bridge approaches and where the surface of the track becomes rougher. At these places, the cows will have stopped, pooped, then slowly started walking again.

Of course all that manure isn’t great for your track surface which then makes the problem worse as the cows will walk slower and slower on that section.

Troubled cows like lots of space so they get down to single file on rougher sections.

Got a straight piece of track with lots of cow manure on it and no apparent reason?

It could be a stray short from a nearby electric fence that needs fixing. The cows will feel it with their four feet but you, in your gumboots, won’t.

So on your to-do list goes checking for stray voltage, filling pot holes, repairing track surfaces where needed, making 90-degree or sharper corners more gradual by doing some refencing and considering lessening the camber of the track.

Dairies built on rises are great for fall to effluent ponds but not for cows having to

walk up to them twice a day. Take a close look at the track they have to walk on and consider ways to improve it.

Steps, grating and anything the cow has to walk over such as yard hoses also slows cow flow as cows are wary of slipping or hurting their feet.

They may seem able to cope with steps and grating because they have to walk over them or on them twice a day but for heifers and cows with sore feet it will be a different story and will again disrupt cow flow.

Also think about some shelter for the cows in the yard – maybe sun shades for the summer and wind protection for the rest of the year. If the cows know that they will be out of the weather standing in the yard they will want to get there quicker.

Ideally cow flow should be straight into the dairy and straight out with no turns due to walls or rails.

If cows slow down or are hesitant or unwilling to go on to a rotary platform or into the herringbone, have a good look at your dairy to find the problem.

Cows are neither dumb nor vicious but they are honest. If they don’t want to go somewhere or do something they will show it by the way they behave. What you have to be is intelligent enough to figure out what they are trying to tell you and fix it.

To do that, you have to think like a cow and understand how they see, hear and smell.

Cows don’t like standing with a pole by their eye.

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They don’t like vertical poles, especially by their eyes, breast rails at the wrong height and slippery surfaces.

In rotaries, make sure the gap between the platform and the bridge is as small as possible so cows won’t worry about their feet getting caught and make sure the entry is narrow enough so only one cow can enter at a time stopping cows shoving each other on.

Check where their shoulder and hip bones are in relation to the rails – these are their most sensitive areas as the bones are closest to the skin and can get easily bruised.

Don’t use chains to hold the last cow in the row – they can easily lean on them and flip over. Use a rail instead.

Stray voltage in the dairy could also make them hesitant to enter.

Or it could be something as simple as the line of shadow from the sunny yard to the covered dairy in the afternoon.

Because the eyes of a cow are on either side of its head, they can see 300 degrees around them compared with our 140 degrees.

However, most of what they see is only with one eye so they have little depth of field and have trouble processing how far away what they are seeing is and whether a line of shadow is a step or not.

It means they need more time to process the information from their eyes and they want to give anything they are unsure of a good look and figure it out before moving forward.

As well they can only see colours in shades of blue and green (we see in shades of blue, green and red) so contrasting light and dark spaces are even harder for them to understand.

Always remember the saying: happy cows, happy people, happy people, happy cows.

Making it worse, cows with their heads up can’t see their feet so if they are being pushed forward in a mob they are even more agitated and wary.

Like most animals, they don’t like being eyeballed. If you look directly at a cow walking towards you she will most likely stop.

Turn around and they will start walking again.

It’s something to remember when cows are coming into the dairy – poorly positioned platform operators in rotaries or someone standing at the start of the pit in a herringbone staring straight up at them can slow cows down.

Loud noises, high-pitched shed motors, and possibly music from The Rock FM radio station (studies in the United States have shown cows prefer country music, although in the US that’s maybe all they get to listen to) also may make cows jumpy.

So maybe try not to yell in the dairy, shut the doors to where the plant is, if possible, and keep the radio speakers pointed at the milkers and not at the cows.

Cows also have a very good sense of smell and know when a silage stack is opened even if it is 8km away. If they can’t figure out what something is by looking at it they will usually sniff it as well.

They are sensitive to the smell of blood so try not to treat sore feet, do vaccinations or dehorn cattle in the dairy. They also don’t like strong-smelling aftershave or perfume if they are not used to it.

And they can also be extremely sensitive to your moods. If you are grumpy, yelling, running up and down the herringbone pit or around the rotary and into the yard trying to get things done fast, using the high pressure hoses before milking has finished, it’s most likely your cows will be jumpy and maybe not too keen to come into the dairy next time.

If you are quiet, calm and relaxed around them they will be just fine. Always remember the saying: happy cows, happy people, happy people, happy cows.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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Look for the hoof prints – the cows are walking on the extreme edge of this track because the camber is too steep.

What can happen when you try to get a cow to stand with a pole by their eye.

Tight corners cause cows to walk in single file.

FARM NUTRITION SOLUTIONS 0800 SEAWEED

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Solutions

DairySolutions Automating the platemeter

M

ore measurements, faster and without human bias or error was the wishlist behind Colin McFadzean’s drive to develop a vehicle-mounted data-capturing rising platemeter.

The Jenquip owner was well aware of the accepted place rising platemeters have on New Zealand farms as the trusty and simple pasture measuring tool, but McFadzean was keen to speed up the process and automate it.

The Rapid Platemeter attaches to the towball on any farm vehicle and the lightweight kayak-plastic plate rises up and down on the pasture and takes mechanical readings every metre the guide wheel moves.

The readings are saved digitally and uploaded by cable, Bluetooth or wifi into a

The Rapid Platemeter is lowered on to the pasture and retracted to pass through gateways and roads.

pasture recording programme as a kml or csv file. The robust arm holding the meter swivels for ease of going up and down hills and the arm is remotely moved up and down by the Bluetooth app installed on the user’s cell phone for transitioning through gateways and around obstacles or stony patches.

The unit starts recording at a speed of eight km/h and stops at maximum of 20km/h.

Auto paddock recognition with an uploaded farm map with GPS co-ordinates makes data capture and transfer into Minda Land and Feed or Farm IQ seamless.

“We can send the data to anyone, it depends on what the farmer wants,” developer McFadzean says.

Launched in June 2016, the unit was trialled for eight months and calibrated

against platemeter measurements in comparative trials. Each unit comes with a default formula for converting pasture height into mass, with a tool to recalibrate for individual pasture types on different farms.

The three models have different levels of sophistication in terms of amount of data stored and the data transfer system.

A console is mounted on the vehicle with lower-level models where farmers may prefer not to use Bluetooth.

Sold online by Jenquip or through Lely and farm supply stores, the cost varies from $3800 to $4500 and McFadzean says the robust unit with two shear points comes with replacement plates in case of accident.

More?: www.jenquip.co.nz Ph: 06 323 6146

FE: A preventable perennial problem Facial eczema (FE) is a highly prevalent disease year-to-year across many areas of the North Island and the upper part of the South Island.

FE is a liver disease of cattle, sheep and other grazing ruminants which occurs seasonally when moisture (rain), follows long dry periods but during summer/ autumn. These conditions in the presence of dead or dying pasture litter are ideal for the growth of the causal fungus, Pithomyces chartarum.

The fungus multiplies rapidly releasing spores on to the grazed pasture that contain a toxin, sporidesmin.

This toxin, once ingested, finds its way into the bloodstream then the liver

where it attacks the cells of the bile ducts.

FE not only has animal welfare repercussions but impacts on production.

Animals affected suffer losses equalling millions of dollars each year. These losses

are due to depressed milk production, poor breeding outcomes and ultimately farm income. It is therefore important for all farmers to understand how FE damage occurs and how to prevent the disease.

By the time FE becomes visible, the damage to the liver has already occurred.

Prevention is not just better than a cure – prevention is the cure, so don’t leave it to chance, enquire about The Time Capsule from your local reseller and have 100% confidence this season. The Time Capsule has been a proven and reliable facial eczema preventative for sheep and cattle for over 20 years.

Supplied by Agritrade.

SUPPLEMENTARY FEED Maxammon Maize and Maxammon Maize blends • Palm Kernel & blends Barley, Wheat, Maize & Soybean Meal (forward contracts available).

Custom made Dairy Mineral Pellets To join our Palm Kernel Pricing Text Service.

Please text your name and area to 027 214 9761 Palm Kernel Pricing Text Service

Intergrain NZ LTD 78

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LK0085221©

Call Susanna at Intergrain NZ 0800 244 744

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:11 pm

Property PROPERTY │ WAIRARAPA

a p a r a r i Wa s k e e s n o i operat tners new par

F

or the past 11 years, the equity partner who has managed a 214-hectare dairy farm near Greytown in the Wairarapa has run an operation achieving 500kg milksolids (MS) per cow and a good economic farm surplus (EFS).

The farm with its 196ha irrigated milking platform is now for sale and the manager is keen to retain his position and continue his record of good production and returns.

Blair Stevens from NZR Real Estate says it has been a good operation for an equity partnership, with its location and profitability lending itself to a new team of investors who can continue the business with an experienced manager already at the helm.

“It’s really made for investors because it has a manager keen to stay on and it has the ability to lift production by turning the feed back on through its in-shed feeders as payout allows. Only about 10% of the cows’ diet is bought-in feed at the moment, but it has a proven history of higher production.

“And it’s a sweet spot for location as well, so investors from Wellington can pop over the hill to see the farm and then head to Greytown or Martinborough for the weekend.”

The farm has six titles and is just a fiveminute drive southeast of Greytown on Battersea Road where it spreads over flat contour, with 144ha on one side of the road and 70ha the other side. Almost all of the milking platform is irrigated and includes a sophisticated K-Line Irripod system over 160ha using GPS Trac-Map for placement precision, while a Southern Cross travelling gun irrigator and effluent irrigator covers the remainder. Five different irrigation zones are covered by six different consents.

At the peak of the season the farm milks 450 cows, then milks 100 through

winter for a budgeted production between 225,000kg MS and 230,000kg MS. It averages 500kg MS/cow, with about 2kg of barley grain per cow fed per day through to Christmas. Historically the farm has produced in excess of 280,000kg MS from 570 cows under a higher-input system.

A 120-tonne silo with a disc mill and 8t holding silo cater for those inputs which are fed through the in-shed feeding system of the 38-aside herringbone dairy, while a 300-cow feed pad provides further options for feeding supplements and standing cows off paddocks.

Numerous sheds for implements, calves, storage, hay and a workshop are wellplaced on the farm which is planted with numerous attractive shelter belts.

Three races lead to the dairy and the bulk of those have a lime cap for the cows to travel the maximum walk of 1.4km to the furthest paddock. Stock water for those paddocks is sourced from a bore with a Bell Booth dosatron and fertigation unit.

Between 10 and 20% of the milking platform is regrassed each year and all but 2ha of the farm has been regrassed at least once in the past 11 years. Pasture growth estimates are between 14 and 15t DM/ha, with 11 and 12t harvested by the cows.

The farm now has paddocks in chicory, oats and Italian ryegrass, with another paddock of barley going into kale. Each year the farm usually makes grass silage, hay or straw for supplements and has historically had 15ha of maize silage contracted, though none this season. Part of the operation has been a 22ha lease block on the boundary which winters some of the cows for a short period and provides more silage.

Stevens describes the fertility of the farm as impressive, with the most-recent soil test indicating fertility levels for pH at 5.88 and Olsen P averaging 36.8. Soils are a mix of Moroa loam and stony loam on 148ha, Tauherenikau stony silt loam on 52ha and

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Taratahi peat loam on 14ha.

In the past, the farm has been staffed by four full-time employees including the manager, but that has dropped to three plus relief milkers.

Three houses provide accommodation for staff and Stevens says they are all sound family homes that have appeal for those who live in them.

The main home is a character house with some renovation completed and french doors opening to a deck and wellestablished garden setting. The second home is a 1940s roughcast house with three bedrooms, while the third is a 1950s weatherboard home. One of the staff commutes from nearby Featherston each day and Stevens says the proximity of those communities makes it easier to source staff.

“Its location provides lifestyle options and working prospects for partners as well.”

The farm can be viewed at www.nzr. nz ID W014, along with a video. Further information, contact Stevens on 027 527 7007.

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80 PROPERTY │ MARLBORUGH

Sounds appealing The balance between work and leisure is easier to achieve in Rai Valley where you can clean up after milking and launch your boat at Okiwi Bay 20 minutes later.

And it gets even better because the 161-hectare dairy farm for sale in the valley that is milking 350 cows is easy to manage with two staff and only one is needed at milking.

Rai Valley and its small township lie between Nelson and Blenheim and is close to numerous access points in the Marlborough Sounds for boating, fishing and exploring.

The farm with its five titles is split into 57 paddocks, with 52 on the milking platform covering 150ha and five paddocks of hill grazing. Ronga silt foam soils cover the flats of the valley floor and terraces above it, then a claybased soil covers the lower hills.

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A good rainfall between 1600mm and 1800mm is boosted by summer irrigation over 110ha of the farm using K-Line from a reliable bore, with brassica planted for summer feed. About 15ha of the farm is regrassed each year and generally follows a brassica crop.

Andy Poswillo from Bayleys says it is a good, tidy farm that is easy to manage and in a location offering an appealing lifestyle.

“One person can milk comfortably with the shed setup and it’s a very easy farm to manage. And the beauty is it offers several lifestyle opportunities.”

The herd grazes off the farm for six weeks in winter and returns at the beginning of July as good pasture growth continues through that period. About 30 yearlings and 15 carryover cows remained on the farm this winter and the returning herd began calving at the beginning of August.

Last season the farm produced 150,294kg milksolids (MS) from 380 cows and this year it is expected to achieve a similar

result from the good crossbred herd which is also for sale. Some palm kernel and wheat are added into their diet through its in-shed feed system.

The 44-bail rotary dairy was upgraded in 2006 and has automatic cup removers, teat spray and cup washers as well as the feed system. Effluent is collected in a 30,000-litre concrete storage chamber with a recent resource consent and irrigated over 14ha via a travelling irrigator.

Numerous sheds and outbuildings cover every need and include implement sheds, calf sheds and workshop.

Considering it only needs two staff to manage the farm, it has more than ample accommodation with three houses, including the main five-bedroom, twostoried homestead and its in-ground pool.

Rai Valley township, including an area school, is just five minutes away, while both Nelson and Blenheim are about 45 minutes.

The farm is for sale at $4.7 million.

It can be viewed at www.bayleys. co.nz/4131609. For further information contact Andy Poswillo on 03 578 7700 or 027 420 4202.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:11 pm

81 PROPERTY │ TARARUA

EKETAHUNA AWARD-WINNER An award-winning 117-hectare dairy farm near Eketahuna that milks 240 cows at the peak of the season to produce a three-year average of 93,532kg milksolids is for sale by negotiation along with its 26ha support block.

Rickie Morrison and Sharleen Hutching were the supreme winners of the Horizon Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2011, winning the LIC Dairy Farm Award, the Ballance Agri-Nutrient Management Award and the Hills Laboratories Harvest Award.

The farm is 8km south of Eketahuna on Morgans Rd where it spreads over 100ha of flat to undulating contour on the milking platform, with some sidlings fenced off and strategically planted adding to its aesthetic appeal.

Jared Brock from Property Brokers says the farm is a prime example of a model dairy farm and a credit to its owners.

It was originally an amalgamation of two different properties that now work together well as 53 paddocks with good access races leading to the 26-aside

herringbone dairy. On the nearby support block, 16 paddocks connect to a central race.

“All the farm improvements are of a very high standard and have basically been constructed in the last 10 years.”

Among those improvements are a 250-cow wintering barn, two haysheds, a nine-bay calf shed, five-bay shed including a lock-up workshop, plus palm kernel and fertiliser bins.

Eketahuna is considered a summer-safe farming location with an annual rainfall of about 2000mm distributed through the year on to silt loam soils on the milking platform. Pastures on these soils have nearly all been regrassed since 2008 and the farm traditionally grows 4-5ha of summer turnips yielding 8-10 tonnes/ha, while this year a chicory/clover mix has been sown.

Through winter, about 150 cows are grazed on the support block, while another

100 cows are wintered on a lease block which also grazes the R2 heifers. Calves are reared on the milking platform.

The homestead is a two-story fully refurbished four-bedroom home with two bathrooms, double internal access garage and north-facing deck.

Nearby Eketahuna provides a range of commercial services including two farm supply centres, a local hotel, supermarket and primary school, while Pahiatua is 25km to the north and Masterton 25km south.

To view visit www.propertybrokers. co.nz ID PR52888 and the support block, ID PR52919. Further information contact Jared Brock on 027 449 5496 or Phil Wilson on 021 518 660.

For Sale

Otago | Taieri Plains 183 Hectares Meadowbank Farm. This is an excellent dairy farm situated just 6km from Mosgiel and 24km to Dunedin City. Providing a full complement of improvements which include a main homestead of four bedrooms, three bedroom versatile workers house, 40 aside herringbone shed, woolshed and covered yards for calf rearing, lock up workshop, implement shed, two haybarns and cattle yards. Well maintained fertiliser and regrassing program, milking 630 cows from 225 hectare milking platform (50 hectares leased), three year average production 259,566kgMS (50/50 share milked). Meadowbank has been operating since 1993 as a dairy farm and provides an excellent dairy opportunity for those looking for a tidy farm with great location, all flat contour and semi self contained with 160 - 200 cows wintered on. | Property ID DU2472

Deadline Sale Closing 12pm, Friday 3 February 2017 (unless sold prior)

Inspection By appointment

Contact Craig Bates 027 489 4361

Licensed under REAA 2008

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

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82 PROPERTY │ WEST COAST

Milking on Buller River terraces On terraces above the Buller River near Murchison with hunting, fishing and swimming on its doorstep lies a 351-hectare dairy farm milking 850 cows that is for sale at $6.85 million.

Elevated terraces and river flats at the end of Fern Flat Rd make up the farm which is just 10 minutes from Murchison and 1.5 hours from Nelson.

The farm has a four-year production average of 277,670kg milksolids (MS) from its 256ha milking platform, with 220ha of that irrigated by K-Line using a consent to take from the Buller River. A further 14ha of the property provides supplements and winter grazing for the herd.

Andy Poswillo from Bayleys describes it as a farm with affordable scale and upside, set in a peaceful location between the bush and river.

The milking platform is fenced into 50 paddocks, laned to a 44-aside herringbone dairy that was built in 2004 and boasts an in-shed feed system, dosatron inline mineral dispenser, Milfos cup removers, NuPulse plant and a 500-cow yard. An effluent system installed in 2014 has storage for 1.7 million litres before it is irrigated over 100ha via the K-Line.

The 44-aside herringbone dairy that was built in 2004.

A regrassing programme has resulted in a ryegrass/clover mix that includes AR37, one50, matrix and revolution, often following turnips and this year fodder beet as a crop. The consent to irrigate these pastures allows it to take 10,714 cubic metres a day at 124l/sec. A consent is pending for further water at 7l/sec to irrigate the 14ha as well.

About 200 tonnes drymatter (DM) of balage is made on the 14ha of extra grazing land on the farm, with 100t of that fed to springing cows and late calvers. The balance is fed to cows wintered on that area over winter. A further 450kg DM/cow of supplements is sourced off farm in the form of palm kernel, maize or balage.

Ample shedding caters for the farm’s

The 54 paddocks are linked by good wide lanes.

Coastal life near Riverton Scale at the affordable price of $25,000 a hectare and the option of leasing to buy are just part of the appeal of a 244ha farm near the coast in Southland.

Major regrassing is set to increase the potential production of the farm which already milks 610 cows for a target this season of 250,000kg milksolids (MS). In its first season in 2013-14 it milked 700 cows with more palm kernel in the system for 296,000kg MS. The farm sits at Pahia, 25km west of Riverton near a coast renowned for its fishing, paua and picturesque bays. So close and so plentiful, that John Hay from Southern Wide Real Estate says you can collect the paua in your gumboots.

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“For those guys who want to get paua for smoko or dinner, they can walk out in their gumboots at low tide and get some.”

The real key to the farm, though, is its scale, ease of contour and affordability, he says.

“It can open the doors for people looking for a farm with scale at an affordable price of $25,000 a hectare and there’s the option of lease-to-buy to allow people a gradual process into a farm.”

The farm has had a focus on regrassing with palm kernel filling the gaps due to large areas under cultivation at any one time and that regrassing will now reap rewards.

“That is going to provide future benefit,

needs, from sizeable calf sheds to those housing implements, hay and workshop.

Added to that are three three-bedroom homes including two built in the 60s and the latest in 1995.

The predominantly crossbred herd with its C10 status is also for sale at valuation and includes 700 mixed-age cows artificially inseminated by Friesian bulls for six weeks, followed by short-gestation bulls and the later-cycling cows run with Jersey bulls. The 150 R2 heifers are artificially inseminated and then run with Jersey bulls, with the herd due to calve from August 5.

To view, see www.bayleys.co.nz/4131616 and for further information contact Andy Poswillo on 027 420 4202. so there’s still more potential in the farm.”

In the past four years, 80ha of new pasture has been sown and it now has 11.77ha of fodder beet planted and 8.2ha of summer turnips that will be sown with grass in autumn. About 17ha of the farm is covered in bush or scrub.

The 54 paddocks are linked by good wide lanes that lead to a 50-bail rotary with automatic cup removers, in-shed meal feeding and a large rectangular yard.

Other farm infrastructure includes two large calf-rearing sheds including former covered yards, a stand-off calving pad, implement shed, workshop, plus a silage and balage pad.

Effluent from the dairy goes through solid separation via a weeping wall and is pumped to a lined pond before being pumped via underground hydrants to maxi pods in paddocks.

It has a consent through to 2023 for 750 cows.

A two-storied weatherboard home with three bedrooms is the main homestead and a two-bedroom cottage provides further accommodation.

The farm is for sale at $6.12 million. It can be viewed at www.southernwide.co.nz ref SWI1770 For further information contact Hay on 03 218 2795 or 0274 350 138.

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:11 pm

January Events Delve into detailed budgets See how the top operators are spending their money. New in-depth budgets from top performing farms with a focus on low ‘per unit’ cost of production are now available. Visit dairynz.co.nz/tactics.

DairyNZ’s budget case study farmers are now sharing more of their story via videos and audio interviews. Find them at DairyNZ.co.nz/tactics.

Discussion Groups Interested in farm systems, reproduction, progression, pasture management, budgeting, people management, or milking smarter? We hold a range of different discussion groups on specialist areas of interest as well as other topical field days and road shows around the country. Find out what’s on near you at dairynz.co.nz/events or phone your local consulting officer.

What dairy industry events are happening near you?

Now there is one place where you can find out what’s on near you! Explore upcoming dairy industry events in your area and keep up to date with the latest learning and networking opportunities. Visit Dairyevents.co.nz

Change of Address If you’ve shifted farm or changed your supply company, make sure you’ll still receive your copy of Inside Dairy – visit dairynz.co.nz/address and let us know your new details.

Mini Milksmart 2017 – coming to a farm near you!

DairyNZ is taking its Mini Milksmart events on the road in February as part of a nation-wide 26-event roadshow.

Focused on practical ways to save time and money through efficient milking, the events feature the top farmer-rated topics from previous Milksmart events, presented by some of New Zealand’s leading experts.

These events are designed for the whole farm team.

Registrations are essential – for more information visit dairynz.co.nz/milksmart.

Consulting Officers – Contact Details Northland Regional Leader

Chris Neill

027 499 9021

Far North

Graeme Peter

027 807 9686

Lower Northland

Mark Forsyth

021 242 5719

Whangarei West

Corey Thorn

027 886 0221

Regional Leader

Phil Irvine

027 483 9820

South Auckland

Jamie Haultain

027 486 4344

Hamilton North

Phil Irvine

027 483 9820

Matamata/Kereone

Brigitte Ravera

027 807 9685

Morrinsville/Paeroa

Aaron Traynor

027 293 4401

Hauraki Plains/Coromandel

Annabelle Smart

021 242 2127

Regional Leader

Wade Bell

027 285 9273

Te Awamutu

Stephen Canton

027 475 0918

Otorohanga

Michael Booth

027 513 7201

South Waikato

Kirsty Dickins

027 483 2205

Regional Leader

Sharon Morrell

0274 922 907

Western Bay of Plenty

Colin Grainger-Allen

021 225 8345

Central Bay of Plenty

Kevin McKinley

027 288 8238

Central Plateau

Wilma Foster

021 246 2147

Whakatane

Julian Reti-Kaukau

027 593 4123

Regional Leader

Katrina Knowles

021 831 944

South Taranaki

Erin Hutchinson

021 246 5663

Central Taranaki

Sarah Payne

027 704 5562

Coastal Taranaki

Michelle Taylor

021 276 5832

North Taranaki

Lauren McEldowney

027 593 4122

Regional Leader

James Muwunganirwa

027 499 9020

Horowhenua/Wanganui/South Taranaki/Southern and Coastal Manawatu

Scott Cameron

027 702 3760

Wairarapa/Tararua

Abby Scott

021 244 3428

Hawkes Bay

Gray Beagley

021 286 4346

Central/Northern Manawatu/Rangitikei

Julie Morris

021 222 9023

North Waikato

South Waikato

Bay of Plenty

Taranaki

Lower North Island

Top of South Island/Westland Regional Leader

Wade Bell

027 285 9273

Nelson/Marlborough

Mark Shadwick

021 287 7057

West Coast

Ross Bishop

021 277 2894

Regional Leader

Virginia Serra

021 932 515

Hurunui

Virginia Serra

021 932 515

North Canterbury

Jo Back

021 246 2775

Mid Canterbury

Erin Christian

021 243 7337

Central Canterbury

Natalia Benquet

021 287 7059

South Canterbury

Caleb Strowger

027 593 4124

North Otago

Trevor Gee

021 227 6476

Regional Leader

Richard Kyte

021 246 3166

South/West Otago

Guy Michaels

021 615 051

North West/Central Southland

Nicole E Hammond

021 240 8529

North East/Eastern Southland

Liam Carey

027 474 3258

Western Southland

Richard Kyte

021 246 3166

Southern/Coastal Southland

Nathan Nelson

021 225 6931

Canterbury/North Otago

Southland/South Otago

Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

DXP 01-17 book.indb 83

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Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | January 2017

21/12/16 12:11 pm