Dairy News 30 October 2018

LIC’s $20m bill ‘money well spent’. PAGE 3

POWER OF THE TONGUE Colourful clue PAGE 10

IRRIGATION REVOLUTION Critics uninformed PAGE 5

OCTOBER 30, 2018 ISSUE 411 // www.dairynews.co.nz

AT HOME AS TATUA BOSS Tatua chief executive Brendhan Greaney delighted to be leading an iconic company .

PAGE 4

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

NEWS // 3

Money well spent SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

Apprentices like industry. PG.14

Family values reign. PG.18-19

Auto-brake stops mishap. PG.29

THE FARMER-OWNED co-op LIC says the $20 million cost to transform the business has been money well spent.

LIC chief executive Wayne McNee says the revamp is contributing to the co-op’s success: it posted record total revenue of $236m in 2017-18 -- up 16% on the previous year.

McNee, a former director-general of the Ministry of Primary Industries, says new processes put in as part of the transformation are working well.

The LIC annual meeting in Hamilton this month heard that the transformation delivered a one-off benefit of $30m and recurring benefits of $60m annually.

In his report to shareholders, LIC shareholders council chairman Mark Meyer questioned the $20m bill. He asked if the same results could have been achieved at lower cost.

pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

OPINION �����������������������������������������������12-13 AGRIBUSINESS �������������������������������14-17 MANAGEMENT ��������������������������������18-19 ANIMAL HEALTH ���������������������������������20 MILK COOLING ������������������������������� 21-28 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS ��������������������������������������29-30

shares into a single class of shares.

McNee says the changes accelerate LIC developing products and getting them faster to markets.

“It’s also helping us keep costs down, reflected in part in our underlying earnings.

“We definitely think it has been money well spent; we couldn’t have done as well by spending less.”

LIC embarked on the transformation after recording its first-ever loss in 2015-16 and starting to make cuts into its R&D spend.

“We didn’t want to do that so we decided to make big changes in the business.”

LIC has an ambitious R&D spending programme that will drive its

sustainable growth and profitability into the future and deliver more value to its farmer shareholders.

King says LIC’s spending on R&D and innovation ($13.2 million last year) is over 5% of its revenue – well above the NZ primary sector average of 1%.

Wayne McNee, LIC chief executive.

STILL DECIDING M.BOVIS LEVY SPLIT PAM TIPA

NEWS ����������������������������������������������������� 3-10

LIC chairman Murray King told the meeting he didn’t believe “we could have achieved it for less”.

“If you give me an opportunity to invest $20m and turn it into $60m, surely that would be a good investment I would have thought.

“The $60m benefits are recurring; the $20.7m is a one-off cost and it won’t recur.”

Over the last year, LIC separated into two businesses -- a herd improvement company (LIC) and an agritechnology subsidiary (LIC Agritechnology Company). LIC’s core products Minda, AB and herd testing remain with the co-op. Minda is owned by the co-op but operated by the subsidiary.

It has also sold its Deer Improvement subsidiary in Otago and its herd testing and diagnostics laboratory facilities in Riverlea, Hamilton which included a leaseback arrangement to allow continued operation of LIC services at the site.

In July, LIC simplified its share structure, bringing together its existing two classes of

BEEF + Lamb NZ and DairyNZ are working through the cost-sharing process for the industry share of eradicating Mycoplasma bovis, says BLNZ general manager policy and advocacy Dave Harrison.

“To come up with a fair approach we have been making use

of an independent panel,” he told Dairy News in a joint statement from both industry-good bodies.

“We have had initial advice and are providing feedback. Once the process has finalised, a recommendation will go to our respective boards and be shared with farmers.

“Given this is a sensitive and important process, we can’t comment on the specifics until it has been agreed and approved by our

respective boards.”

The cost of the eradication programme is reckoned at $886 million over 10 years. MPI says $16m of that is loss of production and will be borne by farmers, while $870m is the cost of the response, including compensation.

The Government will pay 68% of that and the two levying bodies, DairyNZ and BLNZ, will pay 32% (about $278m).

But exactly how it will be split between them remains under discussion. Earlier this year dairy industry sources said an 80/20 split between dairy farmers and beef farmers would be fair. However, beef farmers were pushing for a 90/10 split, pointing out that dairy farms are at the centre of the outbreak. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

4 // NEWS

Leading his neighbourhood co-op SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

GROWING UP in the

dairy heartland, it was perhaps inevitable that Brendhan Greaney was going to end up in the industry.

In December, Greaney completes his second year as the chief executive of Tatua Dairy, having joined Tatua as general manager operations over eight years ago.

Tatua this month released its annual results

and once again the co-op topped the payout stakes, paying suppliers $8.10/ kgMS after retaining 52c/ kgms for reinvestment In his first full year as chief executive Greaney is pleased with the results: record revenues of $357 million, $24m higher than the previous year.

He attributes Tatua’s continued success to a wonderful group of staff and farmers associated with the 104-year-old company as well as the hard work and good decisions of many who have

gone before.

“People involved with this business are committed like no other business I have been part of,” he told Dairy News.

Greaney grew up in Waitoa, not far from the Tatua factory in Tatuanui.

His father was the operations manager at Fonterra’s Waitoa site as part of a 42-year career with the NZ Dairy Group.

Greaney recalls the school bus driving past Tatua on its way to St John’s College in Hamilton.

LIKE A FAMILY TATUA’S FARMER shareholders and staff operate like a family, says chief executive Brendhan Greaney.

The co-op has 108 shareholder farmers and 370 employees.

Greaney says at a farmer meeting, one shareholder said to him, “I hope you have really looked after your people because they have really looked after us.

“This catches the connectivity

and inter-dependency we have on each other; farmers rely on us to take their milk every day.

“They don’t worry knowing full well that we will do the best we can with their milk; and we rely on our farmers supplying us high quality milk every day as well. Like every family, we have our challenges; we look after and look out for each other and take on challenges together.”

After St John’s College, Greaney went to Waikato University to study for a bachelor of management studies. His OE took him to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, where he worked in the mines for four years.

But the NZ dairy industry was never far from his mind. He returned in 1995 and joined the NZ Dairy Group in Te Awamutu.

Five years later he joined the NZ Dairy Board as a commercial analyst.

He transferred to Saudi Arabia as plant manager and in three years became the general manager of Fonterra’s brands business in Saudi In 2006, Fonterra appointed Greaney Regional General Manager Operations for SE Asia, Africa and Middle East business.

Greaney says he was ready for a change after four years in the role and nearly 10 years offshore.

And working in a com-

pany located four minutes drive from where he grew up “feels quite special”.

“To still be in the industry my father was in is a privilege for me.

I’m delighted to be part of iconic company like Tatua.”

Greaney recalls there were three phones in their NZDG house they occupied when he was growing up: two private phones and a green one known as the factory phone. His father would use the factory phone to speak to the nightshift operator every morning to get an update on the overnight production.

One morning he overheard his father using expletives to describe Tatua while discussing the payout.

Greaney says when he got the chief executive’s role, the first thing he did was to drive home and tell his father the good news. His father’s reaction was,” Oh, Tatua has always

tears rolling down his cheeks “ticked a big box” for him.

been a good company.”

Greaney lost his father last year and says giving him news of his appointment and seeing

Brendhan Greaney, Tatua Dairy chief executive.

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The co-op is in no hurry to grow its milk pool; last year it produced 14.7 million kgMS, about 1.8% down from the previous year.

Milk flow this season has been strong: July was down 1.7%, August 4.1% but September supply rose by 3.9%, October is also tracking very well and supply to date this season is up 2%.

Tatua exports 95% of its products; about 50% of exports are bulk ingredients (caseinates, whey protein concentrate and anhydrous milk fat) and the remaining 50% are value added products like specialty

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nutritional ingredients and bionutrients.

Greaney says fat prices continue to hold up; with milk fat price paid in the US and Europe still higher than NZ prices there’s scope for further increases.

He says Tatua’s value added business is growing well and it doesn’t rely on the milk curve. It gets enough milk to turn into bulk ingredients.

Tatua buys both dairy and nondairy raw materials from NZ and overseas to batch them into specialised ingredients.

The co-op enjoys a good relationship with other NZ dairy processors.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

NEWS // 5

Irrigation critics ‘not well-informed’ NIGEL MALTHUS

TEN YEARS at the helm

of Irrigation New Zealand is soon to end for chief executive Andrew Curtis; he leaves the post next March.

Curtis has seen 10 years of change, a time when irrigation technology and efficiency have progressed in leaps and bounds, yet irrigation has been pilloried in some quarters as the enabler of environmental degradation.

No surprise that British-born Curtis claims solid environmental credentials: his degree and

post-graduate studies were in environmental and conservation management.

He worked for wildlife trusts before becoming an estate manager in southwest England for a “very very green” woman keen on sustainability, wind generation and habitat restoration. Her husband “didn’t want to do anything unless it made money”.

“That role set me up with my love of farming,” Curtis says.

Do New Zealand greenies hate irrigation? we ask him.

“They do and they don’t. Some of them

aren’t as well informed as they could be,” says Curtis.

“Don’t get me wrong: irrigation in certain places is not a good thing. That’s where we’ve probably pushed the boat a little bit too far.

“Some places you really shouldn’t irrigate because it intensifies land use and the environment can’t cope with it in those places. But in other places irrigation is great; it will benefit the environmental footprint.

“What we’ve failed to do, to date, is recognise environments where irrigation which leads to certain land uses probably is

BIG IS GOOD ANDREW CURTIS says he cannot understand the current government’s belief that “large is bad”.

“Actually big is beautiful because it helps you change quickly. I know there’s the whole irrigation/dairy thing going on, but actually scale is powerful.”

Curtis says the state of the art of irrigation now is automated centre pivot systems with variable-rate application. Not everyone needs it, but most soils are highly variable in New Zealand, making it beneficial.

“Give it another five years and the human element will be removed because you’ll actually have a series of sensors talking through to the machine... and the machine will

not a good thing unless it’s done in certain ways.”

Curtis and his wife Josie came to New Zealand in 2000, initially on working holiday visas to pick fruit.

Curtis then joined the Hawkes Bay Regional Council, working with farmers on irrigation, wind erosion and soil health, before moving into strategy, including early planning for the Ruataniwha Dam. Curtis was “touched on the shoulder” by Irrigation NZ in 2009, which necessitated moving the family to Canterbury.

“Water is important in

Outgoing Irrigation NZ chief executive Andrew Curtis.

Hawkes Bay, but the scale of water use in Canterbury is second to none in New Zealand.”

They now live with daughter Holly (14) and son George (7) on a 4ha

block at Kirwee, where he runs a small herd of Belted Galloways, mostly to sell calves to lifestylers.

“But the meat’s very good on them; we usually kill one a year. The meat

off them is much better than your bog-standard stuff.”

Curtis has seen huge changes since he started with Irrigation NZ 10 years ago.

MANAGING LAND IS KEY decide for itself whether it irrigates today or not.”

Curtis believes the next move, as is now starting to happen in the US, is to regard irrigators as applicators, applying variable rates of water, nutrients and chemicals as, when and where required.

“They’ve got variable rate fertigation working over there now, where you can actually look at where you need to target nutrients and apply nutrients just to those areas.

“And the benefit of fertigation is you can apply little amounts of nutrients frequently. In theory there are fewer losses from either volatilisation or leaching.”

THERE WILL always be a place for dairy, says Andrew Curtis.

“I keep saying it’s not about too many cows but how the land is managed.”

He says he knows some “very very good” dairy farmers with good environmental footprints and some “very very bad” dairy farmers with horrible footprints – and the same goes for good and bad cropping farmers.

“So let’s stop going on about the land use thing; it’s all about land management practices.

We’ve got a limits regime in place now and the limits regime basically says ‘set the limits at a catchment level’. To me, as long

as those limits are being met who really cares what the land is being used for?”

“I’ve always found that where people start interfering with the market you end up with perverse outcomes.”

Curtis notes “a lot of fuss” about the dairy development of the Simons Pass Station in the Mackenzie Country.

“But I’ve seen that development, and they’re retiring an awful lot of that land. It’s going to be well-managed: instead of it being pine-infested, heiraciuminfested, rabbit-infested as much of it is at the moment, they’re going to set aside

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management funds to restore it properly.”

Curtis says if the public wants the Mackenzie Country brown with no green then it must work out what mechanism will achieve that and pay for it.

“There’s no free lunch.”

Curtis will stay in the Irrigation NZ role until next March but has already mapped out his next move: two complementary consultancies -- one providing practical independent irrigation advice for individual farmers, and the other more strategic, engaging more with councils, industry bodies and larger schemes.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

6 // NEWS

Natural areas plan could affect farmers NIGEL MALTHUS

LOCAL COUNCILS would be required to map significant natural areas in their plans, as recommended in a draft National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB) just released by the Biodiversity Collaborative Group (BCG).

Such a move would likely impact farmers; the report notes that “Much of New Zealand’s remaining biodiversity is on privately owned and managed land, meaning that landowners have a vital role in ensuring that Aotearoa New Zealand’s indigenous biodiversity thrives.”

The report also points to a wider role for farm environment plans (FEP) in enhancing biodoversity.

BCG includes Federated Farmers, Forest & Bird, the Forest Owners Association, Environmental Defence Society, the Iwi Chairs Forum and representatives from infrastructure. It has worked for 18 months to advise on a

new national-level policy on indigenous biodiversity, covering native plants, animals and ecosystems.

“The group is made up of people with a strong interest and passion for ensuring our unique biodiversity thrives and can be enjoyed by future generations,” says group trustee and Federated Farmers board member Chris Allen.

“From the outset, the group acknowledged we need a step change in NZ’s approach to biodiversity if this is to occur.

“With a significant proportion of NZ’s remaining indigenous biodiversity on private land, we want to enable local communities and landowners to continue their great conservation work on the ground, while also giving them certainty and clarity through more effective RMA plans,” Allen said.

A key recommendation is that councils would have to map significant natural areas in their plans.

And they would have to work with tangata whenua, landowners and the wider community to set regional strate-

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gies for biodiversity enhancement.

The report notes that many farmers, horticulturalists, foresters and others already operate to various forms of environmental management plans, some voluntary and some mandated by commercial demands.

“There is a real opportunity for the development of these plans to include biodiversity objectives and associated monitoring and reporting obligations.”

In a related move, the Farming Leaders Group has acknowledged the possibility of making FEPs mandatory for all farmers. Federated Farmers president Katie Milne said that would be formalising what was already being done by most, but there would have to be a transition period to mandatory plans.

Forest & Bird lawyer Sally Gepp said the report, which was handed to Government on Thursday, followed several unsuccessful attempts to produce a NPS-IB under previous governments.

“This stakeholder-led process has been a breakthrough. Just as impor-

Chris Allen, Federated Farmers.

tantly, the group has collaborated to identify measures beyond the NPS-IB that should make a real difference for our native species and ecosystems.”

Gepp said a robust NPS-IB was essential for halting and reversing the biodiversity crisis in NZ. “NZ’s unique biodiversity continues to be lost, largely due to habitat loss and introduced pests.

“Without clear, directive policy it can be hard for decisionmakers to see

the cumulative impact of incremental habitat loss.”

Allen said the group thanked Associate Environment Minister Nanaia Mahuta, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage and former Environment Minister Nick Smith for their support over the last 18 months.

The Government will seek public feedback before the draft agreement progresses to an operative NPS-IB under the Resource Management Act.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

8 // NEWS

West Coaster wins media prize

MARKET OUTLOOK STATIC AT BEST PETER BURKE

MEGAN ROBERSTON,

from a dairy farm at Hari Hari, Westland was a joint winner of the Rural News Group sponsored visual media prize at the annual Massey University agricultural awards dinner last week.

The other winner was Lachie Davidson who is currently studying in the US. The award is for the best video or photograph

Massey University.

“They talked about their finances and their experiences as farmers and that really struck an interest in me and made me pursue my degree in agri commerce -- the business side of farming.

“In my major in international business I am looking at international trade and sales and that really makes me tick because it is such a big

that represents life as a Massey ag student. The picture in Megan Robertson’s entry was taken on the family farm. Lachie Davidson produced an excellent video.

Megan, now finishing her second year of studies for an agri commerce degree majoring in international business, says her experience of life on her parents’ dairy farm influenced her to study at

peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

FARMERS ARE being warned of

Megan Robertson

thing for NZ and there are so many opportunities.”

In the summer break she will work at Fonterra’s Longburn Farm Source store near Palmerston North.

PASSION FOR COWS BRADFORD SMITH, who was awarded the William Gerrish Memorial Award at the annual Massey University Ag Students Awards dinner, is passionate about the dairy industry and already has his career mapped out.

The award recognises outstanding performance in farm management.

At least 250 students, industry leaders and Massey staff

attended the event which has been held for 25 years.

Smith was born and raised on a dairy farm in Mangatangi, north Waikato and attended Hauraki Plains College.

From a young age he took a keen interest in farming and working with animals, going out on the farm with his dad and grandad.

“This developed in me a keen interest in the numbers

side of things and the breeding of cows. I particularly enjoy choosing which bulls went to which cows to improve their gene pool and overall productivity.

So it made sense for me to study at Massey University, taking a bachelor of agri commerce majoring in farm management to build on my underlying passion and practical background.”

potentially lower milk prices this season.

This comes in the latest update of MPI’s Situation and Outlook Report for Primary Industries (SOPHI) which updates the outlook for the global market and what might happen down on the farm.

It bases its forecast on “weakening global price sentiment” which points to a likelihood of a lower price this season. It notes that milk price future contracts have recently fallen as have the GDT prices, the latter mainly due to weakening demand in China.

In the year ended June 30, 2018 dairy exports rose by 13.9% to $16.7 billion, but this season the rise will be modest at a mere 2.1% which would see dairy exports rise to $17b. Another modest increase is expected the following season.

Any increase it says will probably come as a result of a favourable exchange rate and a shift to more high value dairy exports.

Down on the farm MPI is predicting that production growth is likely

to be relatively flat over the coming years and that any increase will be by increased production per cow rather than by an increase in cow numbers.

The report cites a few warning signs which will not be big news to dairy farmers – the ongoing issue and effects of Mycoplasma bovis and the 63% prospect of El Nino making an appearance. This would bring more rain in the west and potential droughts in the east.

A senior analyst with MPI, Matt Dilly, says meeting the requirements of consumers who will buy our ‘value add’ products is challenging. He says it’s a fast moving environment and MPI is working hard to better understand consumers.

“People often underestimated just how engaged consumers are in some countries with provenance, traceability and technology at centre stage. We are operating in an exciting world now where those sorts of enabling technologies are being developed,” he says.

Dilly says some of the most engaged consumers in technology terms are in Asia and in particular China where people frequently go online to check out or purchase items. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews

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Wairarapa Moana has increased their six week in-calf rate from 59% to 72%.

That’s building nicely.

For over five years LIC has worked as a team with Wairarapa Moana to improve herd records, in-calf rates and their bottom line.

A key question was how could they move from a six week in-calf rate of 59% and head towards the industry target of 78%? The Wairarapa team, vets and LIC worked seamlessly together to improve herd record keeping, heat detection, young stock management and body condition score at key times of the season. The result? A 72% six week in-calf rate across 9 dairy farms. They also became self-sufficient in breeding replacements and even had surplus young stock to sell.

It’s a massive turn around, but there’s always room for improvement.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

10 // NEWS

On the tip of their tongues PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

A MASSEY University

PhD student has discovered a way to identify certain newborn dairy and beef-cross-dairy calves by the colour of their tongues.

Lucy Coleman (25), from a sheep and beef farm near Dannevirke, is completing a doctorate on the Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) Genetics Dairy Beef progeny test. Early in her research an Angus breeder came to Massey

University and said they noticed all their cattle had black tongues.

The NZ dairy herd is mostly Holstein-Friesian, Jersey and Holstein-Friesian-Jersey crossbreed cattle. While Jersey and Holstein-Friesian calves are easy to identify, both the Angus-cross and Holstein-Friesian-Jersey calves may have a completely black coat, making it difficult to identify the breed of newborns.

The Angus breeder’s comment led to Coleman experimenting to identify whether tongue

colour could be a useful predictor of breed in Angus-cross-dairy and dairy-breed calves.

“I was recording birth weights, sex of the calves and breed at birth so it wasn’t a big thing for me as I was looking at every calf anyway,” said Coleman. “It just fitted into my daily routine and then we separated it out as another project.

“The first year we recoded it to see if it was useful and found that it had potential, and in the second year we tried to refine it a bit more by

adding horns and see if it could become a bit more accurate. Now it has become a chapter in my thesis although it wasn’t always intended to be that way.”

In the first year of the project she studied 476 Anguscross-dairy and dairy calves, experimenting with calves from the BLNZ Genetics dairy-beef progeny test at Limestone

Identifying the breed of a newborn calf could be right on the tip of their tongues. Inset: Lucy Coleman.

Downs farm in Port Waikato. The findings

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showed that selecting calves to rear for beef solely on having a black tongue would correctly identify 73% of Anguscross calves and 90% of dairy-breed calves.

The second study recording the presence of horns and tongue colour of 418 Angus-cross-dairy and dairy calves revealed that 95% of dairy calves had horn buds present at birth, while none of the Angus-cross calves had horn buds, indicating that horns were exclusive to the dairy breed calves.

Coleman says the outcome of the second study provided separate recommendations for dairy farmers and calf-rearers buying beef-cross-dairy calves.

“The advice was that dairy farmers should keep only calves with horn buds as replacement dairy heifers, meaning no Angus-cross calves would be incorrectly identified and kept. For calf rearers, the recommendation was to buy only calves without horn buds and with a black tongue which greatly reduces the chances of inadvertently purchasing dairy breed

calves,” she says.

While it’s only one chapter in her PhD, which she hopes to complete next year, Coleman says her findings are significant for farmers. Before the focus on tongue colour she and others in the industry had difficulty in determining the breed of calves at birth.

“When you have a dairy crossbred herd and you put an Angus bull across them, a lot of calves come out looking the same, and we’ve put pictures to people in the industry and they can’t tell them apart by looking at them.

“So we needed something that gave the farmers a bit of confidence about which breed they thought that calf was.

This is because the calves have different purposes in the industry.

“You don’t really want an Angus cow in your dairy herd and lot of beef buyers don’t want to buy a dairy calf which they think is an Angus,” she says.

Coleman says being able to tell what they are before they are sold or put into the replacement herd is important.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

12 // OPINION RUMINATING

EDITORIAL

Crunching the numbers

MILKING IT...

Bizarre ravings

Not so cheesy

ANIMAL RIGHTS group Peta is ruffling feathers with its latest claim, alleging that cow milk is a symbol used by white supremacists.

Its logic (!) runs this way: cows are controlled by humans in a way that resembles the mindset of a white supremacist.

Twitter users are furious. One tweeted, “Hi @ peta we darkies drink loads of cow milk and buffalo milk and eat stuff made of that milk, nearly all of it white. Your post-truth bull is just that -- a load of cattle crap which we put to good use as manure and fuel. One more reason to #DitchPeta”.

Another recommended yoga to the activists: “Have you gone insane @PETA? Do some yoga headstands and pray for your idiocy to drain out of your ears.”

Even Judith Collins joined in, “What an entirely foolish statement,” she tweeted.

WHAT DO Italians offer as collateral when seeking loans from the Italian bank Credito Emiliano (Credem)? Cheese, of course.

Cheese happens to be acceptable collateral at Credito Emiliano bank. Take Mauro Rossi, for example. His small business – Gavesetto – annually produces about 20,000 ‘wheels’ of Parmigiano-Reggiano (the so-called ‘king of cheese’) in the Emiliano region.

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese needs ageing for 18-36 months and one wheel could be worth thousands of dollars.

Fonterra links Germany, China

Milk is us – not you!

FONTERRA HAS launched Anchor Pure Up drinking yoghurt in China.

One consumer tweeted that it tastes very different from Fonterra yoghurt available in New Zealand supermarkets. But it suits the Chinese market.

And, unlike most Anchor products, this one isn’t made in NZ, but in Germany!

NEW ZEALAND dairy farmers are joining the push against the alternative drink producers milking consumers over the naming of their products.

An international movement of dairy farmers and organisations is demanding the term ‘milk’ should apply only to the product of the udder of a cow, sheep or goat, and not to an almond nut or soya bean.

The latest combatant in this war is Milkadamia, squeezed from macadamias and processed by US retailer Walmart.

Farmers say they want to see NZ rework its labelling to ban the use of the term ‘milk’ for these nutty products. And pressure is growing in the US and the European Union to make sure package contents are true to the label.

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IT’S CRUNCH time for dairy and beef farmers as they decide how much the two sectors will pay, respectively, toward cleaning up the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis, likely to cost $870 million over 10 years.

Taxpayers are, through the Government, putting up $592m and DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ will pay $278m.

The Government has already paid out $25.6m in compensation to farmers and all infected properties remain linked by a single strain.

Of NZ’s 24,000 farms, 74 have been infected to date with 36 subsequently destocked and cleared of M. bovis.

On dairy and beef sector contributions things still aren’t clear.

An independent committee has reported to industry leaders on how the bill should be split. The leaders remain tightlipped about the report and negotiations.

There is the risk the costs of eradication would grow if more livestock were culled.

There were about 20,000 dairy and beef farms in total. Much of the estimated cost was for the response and compensation.

High-risk animal movements have been traced to 3000 farms and 858 are under surveillance.

ASB economists had done some early calculations on how dairy revenue might be affected, assuming all the losses were confined to that sector.

The impacts on dairy revenue were not straightforward. The cull was equivalent to 2 - 3% of the national dairy herd, after conservatively assuming 10% of those culled would have been culled anyway.

An assumed 3% loss of dairy production at a milk price of $6.05/kgMS implied $356m of foregone revenue. The value of slaughtered cows would be about $250m.

The beef industry would also bear impacts. The impact of additional livestock slaughter on meat prices needed to be seen in the context of 4.2 million cattle being slaughtered every year.

Federated Farmers, which has a foot in both sectors, is hoping for a fair split.

Dairy industry sources say an 80/20 split between dairy farmers and beef farmers would be fair. However, beef farmers are pushing for a 90/10 split, pointing out that dairy farms are at the centre of the outbreak.

The leaders have a decision to make, one which must satisfy everyone on this crucial and challenging journey to eradicate M.bovis.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

OPINION // 13

Too late to plant maize silage?

ABOUT THIS time

of the year we always seem to get calls from merchants and farmers asking several versions of the same question: “Is it too late to plant maize silage in November?”

The next question we usually get is “If it is not too late, do I suffer any yield penalty by planting in late November?”

In the past we tended to say, based on experience, that it was fine to plant maize in November and you shouldn’t suffer much yield loss, but we didn’t have any actual data to go on. We also used to say (based on US data coming from the grain industry) that the earlier you plant the better because you maximise sunlight harvest and therefore increase the crop’s yield potential.

Fortunately for NZ

maize growers, in 2011 a colleague of mine, Dr Rowland Tsimba, completed his PhD at Massey University. Amongst a number of things studied, he looked at what is the ideal planting window for maize silage by region and what, if any, is the potential yield loss if the planting date is delayed.

Optimal planting window A planting window is the period between two dates when it is best to plant maize. Rowland’s

work showed that with maize silage, early planting doesn’t necessarily mean that you will optimise yield potential. In fact, his work showed that each region has quite a wide planting window during which there was no difference in yield potential if you planted on one day as opposed to another.

His work quantified just how long the ideal planting window is and showed that the best planting time is determined by how warm the region or season is.

For some regions (e.g.

Waikato and Bay of Plenty) the ideal planting window is about a month starting October 1. In other cooler regions (e.g. Manawatu) the optimal planting window is slightly shorter (three weeks) and starts about a

week later (i.e. the second week of October).

Later planting Rowland’s work also showed that while there was some drop-off in yield potential through planting later (midlate November), it was nowhere as great as some people feared. Once again there are a lot of factors involved (e.g. region, hybrid maturity and season) but in the situation where you were

having to plant mid-late November, as opposed to mid-October, the reduction in yield potential was only about 6-10%.

Rowland’s work enables us to quantify just how much this yield loss will cost you. Let’s assume that your maize silage planted 20 October yields about 20 t/DMha and it costs $3800/ha to grow and harvest. This means the maize silage costs you 19c/kgDM. Now

let’s assume you have to plant on November 20 which reduces your yield potential by 10%. Instead of yielding 20 t/DM/ha you now yield 18 t/DM/ha.

Your costs to grow and harvest will stay much the same as most of the costs are fixed. Despite the lower yield the cost of feed only goes up by about 2c/kgDM to 21c/ kgDM. Cheap feed This still makes laterplanted maize some of the cheapest feed around.

Compare this to boughtin grass silage. Everyone knows that the price of feed rises when the dry kicks in. Let’s assume you are offered a 180 kgdm round bale of silage.

At 21c/kgDM (i.e. the equivalent price for lateplanted maize silage) you would need to buy your grass silage for about $38/

bale. That simply is not going to happen. Going on past years, an $80 bale is good buying. At this price, the cost of your grass silage is 44c/kgDM -- double the cost of late planted maize.

Hybrid choice It is very important to look at the hybrids you choose if you are in a situation where you need to plant later. Some traits to consider are drought and leaf disease tolerance as the chance of either one of these increases with later planted crops.

Talk to your merchant or Pioneer rep as they will help you best choose a hybrid that will enable you to plant later and yet still get your new grass back into the paddock on time.

• Ian Williams is a Pioneer forage specialist. Contact: iwilliams@genetic.co.nz

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

14 // AGRIBUSINESS

Apprenticeship draws a crowd ONE IN five people inter-

ested in taking up dairy apprenticeships are from Auckland and one in three people placed in apprenticeships are women.

Those statistics were revealed as Federated Farmers marked the first anniversary earlier this month of its Apprentice-

ship Dairy Programme.

The pilot programme supported by MBIE, the PrimaryITO and Feds, was launched last year to find more Kiwis keen to work in the dairy industry on farms, and keen to upskill into a farming career.

Feds dairy chairman Chris Lewis says the

apprenticeships are available in all areas where the Primary ITO has training, i.e. every province of New Zealand.

“This is primarily to get young and not-soyoung New Zealanders to work on our dairy farms,” he told Dairy News.

They can register at

www.farmapprentice. co.nz and will be contacted within a week.

“The employers have to go through a farm charter about certain standards; not onerous, but improving our employers and making sure they will look after our apprentices.

MANY MORE NEEDED WHILE ONE in five of all people wanting to take up a dairy apprenticeship are from Auckland, many more will be needed where they came from, says Primary ITO chief executive Linda Sissons.

More than 40 people from Auckland have registered interest in the scheme. “It’s a good signal that dairying is a great career and starting out as an apprentice puts you on a premium pathway to leadership and even farm ownership,” says Sissons.

The dairy farming industry needs an estimated 17,000 new workers by 2025, and Sissons says with over 85% of New Zealanders living in urban areas, employers will be looking to the cities.

“We’re pleased to see that Aucklanders are interested in learning to be dairy farmers.

When we launched the apprenticeship programme with Federated Farmers, we wanted to encourage smart, innovative and ambitious people onto

Chris Lewis

farms. One year in, it’s great that people around New Zealand are seeing the benefits of a dairy apprenticeship.

“The benefits of a dairy farming career in the regions -- like affordable living and short commutes -- are obvious and there are real benefits to the regions too from people joining their communities.”

At this stage, about 60 people have started apprenticeships, mostly in Taranaki and Waikato.

“And to make sure they want to train young New Zealanders and improve their skills and be great employers themselves.

“If they are just looking for a farm worker to work hard then this may not be the scheme. Our apprentices do work hard but we want employers who are like-minded and want to train the next lot of Kiwis who manage or buy our farms.

“On the apprentice side we don’t take everyone; we have rejected a few. The message is ‘if you want this apprenticeship you have to study hard, be a good employee and all those sorts of things.”

The scheme aims to create great farm managers, Lewis says.

“We want to take them from farm system level and make sure they get well educated and

well-trained and take them from farm assistant to farm manager or herd manager.

“If we do that we will have achieved success in our minds.”

An apprentice who is good at the education side and really practical might get through in about two years, Lewis says. For someone who requires more of a helping hand, it is probably about two and a half.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

AGRIBUSINESS // 17

Ethics matter most at Oz creamery INNOVATIVE WESTERN Australian dairy

farmers Mat and Sue Daubney have added another feather to their cap.

This month a state-ofthe-art processing facility called The Creamery was formally opened on their Bannister Downs Farms in Northcliffe, 350km south of Perth.

On hand to open The Creamery was Australia’s richest woman, the mining magnate Gina Rinehart, a friend and business partner of the Daubneys.

Sue Daubney told Dairy News that a huge financial investment was required to make the project possible.

“A partnership was formed in 2014 with Gina Rinehart, who owns Hope Dairies WA, in order to commit to a project of this scale,” she says.

Daubney says The Creamery has been built to cater for ongoing growth in the business while also achieving continual improvement in product quality and animal welfare practices – the main focus of the Daubneys and Rinehart, joint owners of Bannister Downs.

Bannister Downs started in 1924, run by Mat Daudney’s grandfather James. Mat and Sue took over the farm in 1998. However, things weren’t smooth sailing at first. The dairy industry was deregulated in

ECO PACKAGING BANNISTER DOWNS has been a long term user and supporter of the Ecolean packaging concept.

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2000, causing the sector to destabilise.

They saw this as an opportunity. “We were young, enthusiastic and ready for the challenge,” says Sue. In 2005 the Daubneys started a business producing and creating a range of dairy products including fresh milk, flavoured milk and cream.

Bannister Downs has grown to produce just over 10 million litres of raw milk annually; it also buys milk off a neighbouring farmer who “is also focussed on ethical farming and the production of high quality raw milk”.

“Currently this volume satisfies market demand with some volume for growth,” says Sue. Bannister Downs Dairy product range – fresh and flavoured milk, cream and smoothies - are available throughout Western Australia. They do not supply other states and only have small volumes going to export markets.

“The local market is the cornerstone to our business and the support we enjoy from our customers in WA has under-

pinned our business,” Sue says.

“We work very hard to supply and deliver a high quality product and service to our customers. In the future we hope we can develop opportunities outside our existing customers, however we will always be focussed on quality rather than growth irrespective of the market we are operating in.”

Sue says the journey has been long and the learning curve huge.

“At times, we questioned ourselves: were we doing the right thing?

Like all new businesses, we had our doubts in the early days but we also had support from our team, the industry and our community; we chose to be courageous.”

What makes Bannister Downs different? Sue points out that Bannister Downs’ farming practices are based on an ethical and traditional model.

“We are dairy farmers because we are passionate about raising healthy cows.”

Bannister Downs also has a plan to expand its herd to about 5000 cows

in the next few years as demand grows for products.

The cows are milked twice daily in the main dairy; the farm will install robotic milking, using a DeLaval AMR robotic dairy.

Sue believes this will enable cows to be milked according to their stage of lactation and better suiting their health requirements.

Gina Rinehart (left) joins Sue and Mat Daubney to launch the creamery in Western Australia.

FEWER BUT BIGGER THE WEST Australian dairy industry has 145 dairy farms, producing about 337 million litres of milk per annum – 4% of total Australian output.

Sue Daubney says the state’s industry has consolidated over the past few years to become a solid and consistent supplier of fresh high quality milk to the domestic market and a small number of export markets.

“While the number of dairy farmers in WA is relatively small compared to other states, we have the largest herds, the most profitable farms and the most positive outlook on the future of dairy in Australia,” she says.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

18 // MANAGEMENT

Family first for l NIGEL MALTHUS

CANTERBURY FARMING company Rylib

Director/owner of Rylib Group Kelly Nicholls.

Group is firmly based on family values, says director John Nicholls.

This theme was underlined when Dairy News met the ‘other half’ of

the team, his wife and partner Kelly Nicholls, on Fairmont Farm, one of the Rylib Group’s six dairy farms near the midCanterbury township of Hinds.

Even the name Rylib is a family thing -- a contraction of their children’s names, Ryan and Libby.

“We are very much a family-based business,” says Kelly Nicholls.

They offer an equity scheme for their top performing managers, with shareholding and dividends to help them build ownership.

“We want our young guys in farm ownership.

We want to give them the opportunity to run and own their own businesses,” she said.

Fairmont is managed

by Todd Halliday, now a 10% equity holder, with his wife Renee and four young children. With three fulltime staff, he milks 850 cows on 196ha effective, producing 425,000 kgMS. Halliday says the reason he is there is because Rylib’s values aligned with his own in terms of supporting its people, animal welfare, feeding levels, infrastructure -- “the whole package”.

Rylib is big on community giving and encourages their team to volunteer. Their managers are involved with the local Fire brigade, Search and Rescue the local rugby club and Halliday is the board chairman of the local school.

“We try and give as much as we can – an example is free flu vac-

cines to the community every year. The Rylib team are core to this community.”

Halliday is grateful for Rylib’s support through the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak last year. All 415 of Fairmont’s 1- and 2-year-old replacement stock had to be destroyed because they were potentially exposed while offfarm on a grazing block.

Halliday said his herd was clear but was deemed at risk because one animal in another herd on the block tested positive.

“So we’ve had a very difficult year last year with Mycoplasma bovis.

But we had the support of John and Kelly through that whole process and that was huge for us.

“It was very daunting dealing with MPI, with the whole process. We learnt a helluva lot about ourselves and about emotions.

“We reared animals here that would come up for a pat and a scratch and basically act like a dog, and we had to tell the children that the Government’s said they were a risk and were to be destroyed. That’s pretty rough.

“It’s hurt us deeply but we’ve worked through it, we’ve replaced the stock, we’ve had pretty much all

NO BULL MATE THE RYLIB Group runs a no-bull mating system, depending instead entirely on artificial insemination.

Todd Halliday says using tail paint, a heat detection camera in the shed and other visual aids allows them to rely on AI the whole way through mating.

“That’s a biosecurity risk, bringing bulls onto the farm, so we can protect ourselves a wee bit that way. It’s safer for the staff. It’s safer for the farm, with the fences, because [bulls] don’t like fences. They just walk through them.”

Residual empty rates were low and the calving period was condensed by using shorter-gestation semen for the later rounds – which a bull can’t do – so it was a win-win, said Halliday.

Kelly Nicholls pointed out that six-week incalf rates was one of the markers Rylib rewarded in their annual in-house performance awards, and the best were 79 – 83%.

“We’re pretty proud of those sorts of results.

When I say that we employ the best and expect the best it’s very true,” she said.

Halliday said not many farmers could avoid using bulls, but it was the technology Rylib provided in the sheds that enabled it.

“Within the Group we do a lot of self-analysis.

And John I’m sure spends a lot of time on that computer working out exactly how to make it profitable.”

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MANAGEMENT // 19

r large-scale farmer the compensation. We’ve moved on; as farmers we have to.”

Halliday believed the rules had now changed and a herd in the same position would undergo more testing before any blanket cull.

Kelly Nicholls said farmers who chose to become more self-contained and insular in their systems to combat M.bovis would be “a little bit community-negligent”.

She said Rylib had two priorities through the episode: the wellbeing of Todd and Renee and their team, and the welfare of the grazier on whose land the disease struck.

“That’s their livelihood,” said Nicholls. “If we were to say, ‘you’re putting us at risk and we’re going to wipe our hands of you’, what happens to their future? What

happens to their generational family? We’re still in an industry where we need to support and nurture each other.”

Their people-first values also came to the fore when the milk price collapsed in 2015, said Nicholls.

“We just got into a room together as the management team of Rylib and said the number-one focus here is that nobody loses their job.

Everybody’s employed at the end of this.”

Without compromising any essentials and even honouring expensive feed contracts pre-arranged on only a handshake, they kept everyone employed, got the cost structure down from $4.20 to $3.37 and still managed a record production year, she said.

Running a work hard, play hard ethos, Rylib

employs the best but demands the best, said Nicholls.

All managers meet monthly to compare performance, and a big point of difference is the annual in-house performance awards, supported by substantial sponsorship from key suppliers.

When the Nicholls first arrived in Mid-Canterbury the first farm they bought had surplus water in the form of irrigation company shares which they were able to sell to neighbours to give them the cash to grow.

Fairmont was their second farm. It was already a dairy farm but

Todd Halliday manages the Rylib Group’s Fairmont Farm, near Hinds.

Inset: John Nicholls

Nicholls said they did a lot of development to get it up to where they believed it should be operating.

“We do spend money on infrastructure, because if you have simple systems behind a good infra-

structure then there’s no reason why it won’t perform.”

Nicholls said the shed is now 27 years old but “you wouldn’t know it”.

Fairmont had always been one of highest performing farms in the group.

“When we look at growth -- and we are always looking at growth -- our blueprint is really Fairmont.

“It is that 600 to 900 cow farm with a solid environmental adherence history, good water and good solid infrastructure.

You get a good manager on there who knows what he’s doing and it’s a recipe for success.”

“John and I are very fortunate to have not a good but a great team beside us – delivering the results we strive for and are proud of”.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

20 // ANIMAL HEALTH

Update NAIT account regularly WEST COAST farmer

Andrew Stewart believes the key to animal traceability is to keep your National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) account regularly updated.

“This might seem another bloody thing to do at the end of a busy day onfarm, but not doing so compromises the integrity of the NAIT online system,” he says.

“You can’t have effective traceability without reliable information, and this includes recording any livestock death or loss.”

Stewart is a sharemilker on a 300-cow farm; he’s also involved with a family owned business of two dairy and one beef finishing unit.

He says he runs a tight ship, being a family busi-

ness; all trade is done only between the three family farms.

NAIT has been an integral part of the business.

“I’ve been in NAIT from the start and got my younger brother who runs the drystock set-up on NAIT and my parents who run the home farm.

“All animals or calves we rear are tagged with a NAIT RFID tag within six months of birth or before they move off-farm. We register them in NAIT as soon as possible, ideally within seven days of being tagged. If someone has forgotten to do anything I will chase them up.”

Stewart says putting emphasis on NAIT is to safeguard the business against a biosecurity incursion or livestock dis-

NO-BRAINER ANDREW STEWART says the value proposition of NAIT was properly sold to farmers.

“Before the M.bovis outbreak, I think it was looked upon as another compliance thing to do, and farmers were already under the hammer with other issues like RMA and more recently health and safety.

“The cold, hard reality of dealing with a disease response and having systems like animal traceability suddenly resonated because of M.bovis and now it’s a no-brainer.

“If we don’t have NAIT and lifetime traceability of animals, we simply can’t guarantee our food quality or safety and that has implications for our reputation overseas as a food exporter.”

West Coast farmer Andrew Stewart.

ease response.

He says farmers have an obligation to declare all animals onfarm; it does not happen automatically.

“Not declaring your animals’ movement on and off farm is bloody

irresponsible.”

He advises farmers to create and record all livestock movements in the NAIT online system within 48 hours of the movement happening.

“If the other party

does not confirm the movement, let them know about it or you can actually make a request online for them to do so; this will be picked up by the NAIT organisation and they can act on that information you have entered in the online

system.”

With Mycoplasma bovis lurking on some farms, raising calves is a challenge.

Stewart says their business is lucky because unlike other sharemilkers their calves or livestock only move between the

family owned farms.

“So we know all animals are going to be tagged and registered. It’s important to complete your ASD (animal status declaration) with any movement; this way you can share the animal’s health and history with the next buyer or seller.”

Despite all the family farms being within 10km of each other, Stewart says they are registered separately under NAIT. “This is probably a legacy of managing TB and movement controls on the Coast, back before NAIT even existed.

It is actually good practice, because if you have an issue with livestock disease it might only be affecting one farm, meaning the rest of the business does not have to be locked down.”

PREPARE FOR SMALLER, MORE PRODUCTIVE HERDS DAIRY FARMERS worldwide are being urged to prepare now for a future with a smaller herd of higher producing cows, says the general manager of World Wide Sires New Zealand, Hank Lina.

For this farmers would need dairy sires superior to their contemporaries of even a year ago, he says.

“In the US and around the world, farmers are recognising that genomic sires are light-years ahead of daughter proven sires because they have been selected for the traits farmers need today, and tomorrow – not yesterday,” he says.

Demand for genomically proven bulls in the US is now greater than for daughter proven.

“That’s not surprising,” says Lina.

World Wide Sires began genomically proving bulls in 2009 based on a population base of at least 1 million genotyped animals.

“The size and depth of that dataset provides a very high level of accuracy in genomic prediction – and that has led to the confidence we are now seeing amongst American farmers,” Lina says.

“The NZ experience with genomics is at odds with the rest of the world, largely because this country simply doesn’t have the large dataset of genotyped animals needed to generate strong and consistent daughter performance.

“In the US, UK and Austra-

demand for proven bulls lia genomic sires now for farmers who prefer account for more than homogeneous genetic prog65% of World Wide Sires’ ress over maximum speed sales, and this percentage so World Wide Sires is still is increasing year on year delivering these proven because those bulls are bulls to the market with delivering. reliable calving ease and “Genomics technology semen fertility informahas allowed the indusHank Lina, World tion.” try to shorten the gener- Wide Sires.

Lina says the Productivation interval aggressively in the last five years, and the increase ity Commission’s report, highlighting in the number of animals being com- the need for the herds of the future to mercially DNA tested has expanded be smaller and more productive, reinthe genomic database increasing forces that farmers need to be using the reliability. This explains why US sires selected for that purpose.

“Three or four years ago, when dairymen are switching more of their many of the daughter proven sires breeding to genomic sires.

“However, there remains a strong on offer to Kiwi farmers today were

selected, the breeding imperative was different; we were still in a growth phase.

“A quick look at the latest dairy statistics confirms the productivity of the NZ national herd is increasing slowly, e.g. 20 years ago the average kgMS/cow was 301; ten years ago it was 330 and today it is ‘only’ 380kgMS. “Contrast that to the genetics that World Wide Sires’ parent AB cooperative, Select Sires, has generated – upwards of 550 kgMS/cow per year.

And those cows are bred to last.”

“The figures speak for themselves: milk 414 (average NZ herd size) cows doing (the average) 381 kgMS or fully feed and milk 286 cows and produce 550kgMS,” says Lina.

0800 888 212

info@onfarmsolutions.com www.onfarmsolutions.com

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MILK COOLING // 21

What if things go wrong?

MPI SAYS a farm dairy

must act to correct milk cooling performance if data show the milk is not being cooled within the required parameters.

In such cases the milk cooling performance checks must be repeated to confirm compliance with the milk cooling requirements.

Milk not cooled as the rules require must be withheld from supply, unless it has been assessed and confirmed

as fit for intended purpose by the RMP (risk management) operator or dairy company via measures such as sensory evaluation, microbiological testing, titratable acidity or a validated risk assessment model.

Note that a farmer thinking about upgrading equipment to deal with repeat failures to cool milk as required should consult a farm dairy assessor or dairy company

before going ahead on the upgrade.

Where an electronic monitoring system is installed, that system must be capable of

holding data about the delivery line and bulk milk tank temperature for at least 30 days (this applies to milk and CIP solutions).

Milk not cooled as the rules require must be withheld from supply.

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Highly suitable for AMS (Robotic Farming Systems) with low milk flows – no risk of freezing the milk.

Energy Saving with Packo Ice Builders (PIB’s) – thanks to the ice energy store build-up during night time hours, a smaller refrigeration unit can be installed, plus the potential savings of off-peak power rates.

Farmers must have a procedure in place to dispose milk.

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DISPOSAL OF MILK A PROCEDURE must be in place for the disposal of milk.

For a variety of reasons RMP operators may not always be able to collect milk. Milk may also be rejected by the RMP operator for any of the reasons specified in the regulations.

Farmers can face prosecution, under the Resource Management Act 1991, if they discharge milk directly into water or if they allow milk to flow into water.

Milk is a potent pollutant -- 1000 times more potent than farm dairy effluent. So its intrusion into waterways will have a serious impact.

Contact the RMP operator if a major disruption occurs, as they will have contingency plans.

Possible methods for disposing of milk onfarm are: discharge into effluent ponds, waste ponds, or trenches; spray irrigation; discharge to a sacrifice area; and feeding it to livestock.

Farmers should check with their regional authority before disposing of milk onto land.

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

22 // MILK COOLING

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Milk must be down to temperature before the tanker comes to collect it.

Fast cooling, better quality MILK COOLING affects milk quality: the faster milk is cooled after milking, the better its quality at collection.

According to DairyNZ, choosing the right cooling system for the farm means lower energy costs and lower risk of penalties due to milk temperature.

Milk cooling accounts for about 30% of the total energy costs of operating a dairy; energy demand and farm dairy operating costs can be reduced using different options that involve heat recovery from a cooling system.

Raw milk grows bacteria rapidly above 7°C. Meeting the new milk cooling standards, which took effect for all farms on June 1 this year, may require changes for some farm systems.

The MPI New Zealand Code of Practice for the design and operation of farm dairies has new milk cooling standards.

From June 1 this year raw milk must: ■■ be cooled to 10°C or below within four hours of the start of milking; and ■■ be cooled to 6°C or below within the sooner of six hours from the start of milking, or two hours from the completion of milking; and ■■ be held at or below 6°C without freezing until collection or the next milking; and ■■ must not exceed 10°C during subsequent milkings.

A dairy must efficiently cool milk before it enters the vat, using reliable and cost-effective systems to chill it

quickly. Plate coolers, water chillers, ice and glycol systems are available and can be configured to meet farm needs.

Through the season, herd size, flow rates and water source temperatures change.

A farmer must be sure milk will be down to temperature before the tanker comes to collect it. Pre-cooling the milk before it reaches the vat is often the best way to confidently achieve low milk temperatures.

When assessing the best method of cooling onfarm, a number of factors come into play: site constraints, power reliability, size of herd, water availability and variable costs.

Selecting the right pre-cooling systemcan help to reduce energy costs by reducing peak power loads and ongoing shed operating costs.

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MILK COOLING rules are focused on getting a good result.

Compliance is determined with reference to the vat milk temperature at the end of the stated timeframes -- not the temperature of milk going in. It also depends on meeting the required temperatures at the end of a milking cycle -- whether single or blended.

Farmers must first ask themselves ‘does my milking take less than, or longer than, four hours?

If the answer is less than

four hours, two factors are of concern: 1) that the milk is down to 6°C within two hours of completing milking, 2) that blended temperature does not exceed

10°C at the end of any additional milkings.

But if milking takes longer than four hours it’s a little more complicated. The milk must be cooled down to 10°C within four hours of the start of milking; and it must be cooled down to 6°C within six hours.

Snap chilling is only required in two instances: if milking takes longer than six hours or the dairy is using a robotic milker.

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MILK COOLING // 23

Plate cooler helps take heat out PLATE HEAT exchang-

ers (PHE) are the most cost-effective way to cool milk, says DairyNZ. A PHE consists of a series of very thin stainless steel plates. Water flows along one side of each plate while milk flows along the other; heat is transferred from the milk to the water via the plate.

The capacity of a plate cooler is adjusted by adding or subtracting plates.

The easiest way to check the effectiveness of a plate cooler is to compare the difference in the temperature of the incoming cooling water and the outgoing milk leaving the plate cooler.

An efficient PHE should cool milk to within 2°C of the water temperature before it enters the PHE. For example, if the temperature of the incoming cooling water is 14°C, the temperature of the milk exiting the plate cooler should be about 16°C. Several factors affect the performance of precoolers; one is the flow rate of cooling fluid.

The system should be designed for the peak flow of milk expected from the milk pump. Water flow matched to the milk flow will make the plate cooler system easier to size and make efficient use of the cooling water.

M-series plate coolers work most efficiently with

a water-to-milk flow ratio of 3:1, although 2:1 or even 1.5:1 is adequate for newer industrial models.

It pays to check the cooling fluid-to-milk flow rate ratio; use a bucket of known volume (e.g. a 20kg detergent container = a 23L bucket) and a stopwatch.

Flow rate (litres/ second) is calculated by dividing the number of litres (L) by the time in seconds (sec) it takes to fill the bucket.

Turn on the plate cooler water pump and record the time taken to fill the bucket at the water discharge point. Measure at the discharge point to account for any flow rate restrictions in the pipework downstream of the plate cooler. Calculate the cooling water flow rate; for example, if it takes 15 seconds to fill a 23L bucket the flow rate is 23/15 = 1.5L/sec.

At the next milking, if it is easy to do, record the time taken to fill the bucket with milk at the tank entry point.

For example, it may take 45 seconds to fill a 23L bucket (23 divided by 45 = 0.5L/sec).

Aim to take this measurement while the milk pump is working at capacity (i.e. lots of clusters attached to cows at peak milk flow, just after cupping up a whole side). For larger dairies and bottom loading tanks these measurements are best done

using water (instead of milk) at a simulated milking.

Divide the cooling fluid flow rate by the milk flow rate to determine the ratio. In our example this would be 1.5 divided

by 0.5 = 3. Therefore the cooling fluid flow rate is three times the milk flow rate – a ratio of 3:1. This ratio would indicate that the problem lies elsewhere as it is in the correct range.

Plate heat exchanger

Since you have to do it You may as well do it right

LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS CLEANING THE plates is not an easy task; it is time consuming and best left to experts.

Inefficient systems may need resizing, extra pumping capacity, additional cooled water storage or a complete dismantle and service.

The additional capital and service costs should be considered against the annual costs of using an inefficient plate cooler.

The cost of an inefficient plate cooler increases in proportion to the annual milk production of the farm.

B&DEL0278/A

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

24 // MILK COOLING

Taking the sting out of milk IF YOUR milk cooling system is not capable of meeting the new milk cooling regulations, you may need secondary cooling.

This may be costly and have a long payback period but may come with the benefit of heat recovery, enabling you to save on hot water costs.

Carefully evaluate all options to ensure the system is fit for purpose without over-capitalising.

Cooling towers Cooling towers can be very effective especially in areas of low humidity.

Water can be cooled to within 5°C of the wet bulb temperature in a properly designed plant.

The most effective plants are fan forced and turn over a large store of water every hour. They operate overnight to cool a large volume of water, usually 4.5 times the volume of the daily milk yield.

Cooling towers reduce cooling water temperature, save power as they are economical to run, reduce the use of refrigeration units and efficiently remove heat using water.

Ice banks Ice banks generate ice along evaporator coils using night-rate power. The ice is used to chill water for the precooler. The warm water is then returned from the

pre-cooler to the top of the ice bank and cooled again as it runs down the ice.

If working on night electricity rates they may save money even though they use more energy. Ice banks take up less space than storage of chilled water.

Ice banks last longer, they chill on off-peak power rates; chilling at night in cooler temperatures lengthens refrigeration unit life expectancy.

Ice banks have the power to build the ice for pre-cooling, with the additional benefit of the refrigeration load being greatly reduced.

Snap chillers

Vat wraps are utilised by only 20% of the farms.

Another option is to use a refrigeration system to cool water or a food

Your milk cooling system must meet MPI’s new requirements.

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grade glycol/water mixture. Glycol systems tend to use a very small volume of fluid and create the chilled fluid on demand (at milking time).

Note that a system designed to chill milk to 4°C in line, i.e. prior to vat entry, will need a much larger (and more costly) compressor than an in-vat system.

Snap chillers’ economic chilling is ‘storing’ the cheaper off-peak energy. Overnight, ice is made and sorted in an insulated tank. At milking time the ice is used to chill the milk between the cow and the vat. It enters the vat at about 6 deg C. As ice is formed and the milk chilled, heat energy is produced. It recovers the heat and

CSL Chillboost TO SORT MILK COOLING? REALLY?

uses it to heat water. Typically, 800L of water is heated to over 80 deg.

C, which is plenty for a hygienic plant wash.

Thermal stores Thermal storage systems chill water using off peak power and require an insulated storage tank to hold a large (one day’s milking) volume of chilled water. Using more energy than a direct expansion tank they have advantages relating to installation and maintenance procedures.

Vat wraps Vat wraps are only used by 20% of dairy farms in New Zealand but can save about 15-25% of milk cooling costs. They insulate milk from outside temperatures and weather, preventing it from heating up and reducing energy used by the refrigeration unit.

The effectiveness of a vat wrap will depend on whether your vat is inside or outside and where in NZ you are located.

Estimate savings from vat wrap installa-

tion and payback using the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) calculator.

EECA data suggests farmers can save up to 25% of the energy used for refrigeration and speed milk chilling by up to 20% in summer months. They estimate the payback time to be between three and eight years.

On a national scale, according to EECA, the uninsulated silos on NZ farms waste up to $7 million of electricity (about 3000 households) and emit about 4000 more tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, (similar to 1800 cars).

Silo insulation, unlike some other measures taken to meet the new regulations, does not increase peak power demand, which is critical in some areas.

Where insulating the silo is enough to meet the new milk cooling regulations this can save a lot on upgrading cooling systems.

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Vat wraps insulate milk from outside temperatures.

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MILK COOLING // 25

Two cooling audits each year FARM DAIRY operators must have an auditable system that confirms milk cooling requirements are met.

As a minimum, milk cooling performance must be monitored and recorded on at least two occasions per dairy season including about the time of peak milk production and February each year.

Where electronic data capture and recording systems are installed, MPI recommends that such systems be capable of holding delivery line and bulk milk tank temperature data for the previous 30 days for milk and CIP. Fonterra recommends using a checklist to assess whether the farm’s cooling system is likely to meet the proposed new cooling regulations.

By assessing your system at two specific times in the season, you will get a bigger picture of its performance relative to the new standards.

These times are: 1. Peak milk produc-

tion, when milk cooling systems are likely to be under the most pressure; and 2. February, when air temperature is usually highest.

By completing this assessment you are taking a snapshot of your cooling performance, which only provides an indication of current temperature. It does not necessarily mean you will meet the standards for 365 days of the year.

If you remove milk from the milking system to determine its temperature, do not return it to the vat.

Use an accurate temperature gauge suitable for use in the farm dairy (i.e. no glass thermometers).

If you answer ‘no’ to any of the questions that apply to your situation, contact your refrigeration specialist to review your vat refrigeration and discuss changes needed to meet the new standards.

Look at simple solu-

tions before implementing expensive changes.

Fonterra recommends you research options and shop around if you decide to install a new cooling system. Acting early will mean you are less likely to

get caught by higher costs and long waits for refrigeration suppliers.

New raw milk temperature standards set by the Ministry of Primary Industries took effect for all dairy farms on June 1.

Freeze your power bill at the same time

PROTECTING CONSUMERS FARMERS SHOULD consult their dairy com-

DeLaval chillers use snap-chilling technology, which unlike other more basic methods, makes it possible for you to actually reduce your power bill.

In addition to this, for every litre of milk chilled, a DeLaval chiller can also produce 0.7 litres of hot water. And because they only run during milking you save on electricity costs at both ends of the process.

Since you have to do it You may as well do it right

B&DEL0278/B

panies, refrigeration service providers, farm dairy assessors and the EECA website before committing to spending money, says the Ministry for Primary Industries.

MPI says it will work with Federated Farmers, dairy companies and other organisations to help inform farmers affected by the changes to milk cooling rules.

The MPI says its priority is to protect the health of consumers.

All farmers supplying milk for processing also need to operate under a registered risk management programme, says MPI. They will be audited by farm dairy assessors and MPI-recognised verifiers.

Non-compliance will be dealt with primarily through assessments and audits, says the ministry.

Assessors and verifiers will work with farmers to fix issues.

MPI says the rapid cooling of raw milk is one of the most important steps in ensuring milk quality is preserved. The new cooling standards are intended to reflect the rise in New Zealand herd sizes, longer milkings and greater variation in farming systems.

According to the ministry, the likelihood of a new milk-cooling regime was first flagged in 2013.

A long transition period was given so that farmers contemplating an upgrade could opt for a milk cooling system that met the new requirements.

Dairy companies have also assisted farmers in understanding the possible impact of the new requirements on their farms.

delaval.com | 0800 222 228

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

26 // MILK COOLING

Reputation of milk quality i CRAIG PURCELL, FARMWISE CONSULTANT, BAY OF PLENTY

WE HAVE ALL had to

deal with milk quality issues onfarm at some stage in our farming careers -- whether it be a freezing point grade or high bulk somatics on the first pick-up or perhaps an antibiotic scare during the season.

These three issues are some of many we are tested on and any one of them could result in demerits or a grade, thereby lowering our income.

We also need to be aware of regulation changes on feeding (FEI) and milk cooling. What we have always done is often not the way of the future. We need to understand and adapt.

The key point is that we are in the business

Fonterra must get high quality milk from suppliers to turn into high quality food products.

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of providing high quality food to people around the world. If we cannot provide a high quality product then our respective dairy companies cannot provide one either.

Reputation in food safety and quality is paramount when securing the best possible prices for our milk.

Below are some key short points on providing some of the highest milk quality standards in the world.

Note that some of the values below are specific to Fonterra as I am more familiar with their requirements. These values may be different depending on your milk processor.

Milk chilling The new MPI requirements came into effect on June 1, 2018.

Under the new standards, milk must: ■■ Be cooled to 100C or below within four

·Not exceed 100C during subsequent milkings.

A simple check of your system should identify the area you need to focus on to meet the new standards.

■■ Start with your water temperature into the plate cooler ■■ Temperature tabs can be sourced from your milk processor ■■ What is your plate size, what is the temperature of milk out of the cooler?

■■ Is your plate size sufficient?

■■ Is your chiller size sufficient?

■■ If so, water chilling may be your best option ■■ If not, a larger chiller may be your best option ■■ Is your power transformer large enough?

Research these options and discuss them with many providers who will ■■

Summary of new standards:

MILKING TIME DURATION (HOURS)

This single large refrigeration system accommodates growth in milk volumes... ➤ Efficient ➤ Superb milk quality ➤ No risk of milk freezing ➤ Industry proven NZ & Australia ➤ Provides lower stresses on milk ➤ Fully installed and peformance guaranteed ➤ Compatible with Mahaha Blue & Desuperheater heat recovery systems

MILK TEMPERATURE AT COMPLETION OF MILKING

TIME

HOURS

N/A

2.0

6

4.0

10

2.0

6

4.5

9

1.5

6

5.0

8

10.0

6

5.5

7

0.5

6

6.0

6

0

6

1.0 to 4

DAIRY COOL LTD Lee Gilbert : Ph 03-307 8903 : 027-334 4365 email : lee@dairycool.co.nz • web : Dairycool.co.nz

TIME YOU HAVE AFTER COMPLETION OF MILKING TO REACH 6˚C

Solids Damage k l i M r e w o L lk Cooling i M e v o r p m I

■■

hours of the start of milking Be cooled to 60C or below either within six hours from the start of milking or two hours from the end of milking

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New Zealand has a reputation of providing the highest quality of milk in the world.

be able to provide quotes.

I have seen costs range from $5000 to $70,000 onfarm.

Some time spent researching information to obtain the correct advice and installation

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MILK COOLING // 27

y is paramount can be a high $/ hour rate saving to you. Most dairy companies have more information on this topic to aid your research. Use a trusted installer.

Milk quality Most milk quality issues onfarm are management or people issues.

Plant issues do occur but often we identify issues too late then react once the grade is already incurred; whereas proactive management will avoid most issues.

Key points: ■■ Training – even if we think we know it all; revise at least annually ■■ Regularly inspect milking plants ■■ Use correct wash cycles every day ■■ Check and ensure wash cycles are working properly. Too often I hear “the purge wash was playing up and didn’t clean properly”; that is not the purge system’s fault; we can monitor these things at a glance on a daily basis ■■ Ensure all staff are familiar with plant systems ■■ Check milk sanitary traps (if applicable) ■■ Open pulsation line daily; are there milk deposits?

It is up to us to complete our plant checks and determine whether our cowshed is operating optimally.

Most dairy companies provide you an early warning system, and some of the tests take time to confirm; we cannot control that. What we can control is our monitoring via alerts, dockets and internet.

There is lots of information and prevention methods available from your dairy processor; spend some time training yourself and your staff. Take nothing for granted; “this has never happened to me before” will still incur penalty for

the grade.

Fat Evaluation Index (FEI) FEI has been a talking point in the last 12 months.

Our first reaction is generally scepticism followed by anger at a perhaps ‘nanny state’ and what a lack of PKE inputs at certain times of the year may have on our profitability, production and overall performance.

Once we square all of that away and focus on the outcome, we can then determine how FEI grading might affect our farm’s strategy.

FEI is not a PKE test, although PKE has a far greater impact on fatty acid profile than any other feed source. We have now had quite some time – if we are feeding high fatty acid feeds – to determine where our farm system sits on the grading profile.

A and B grades will not require any changes C and D grading will certainly require some planning and thought on future management.

Key points: ■■ Cow breed will affect FEI outcome. For any given input, Jerseys will have higher FEI reading than crossbreeds followed by Friesians ■■ FEI will be higher for any given input the lower the LWT is ■■ A higher proportion of fatty acid input as a percentage of total intake will increase FEI ■■ As milk volumes decrease FEI will increase eg 3kg PKE in late autumn will increase FEI higher than 3kg PKE in spring ■■ There are no other feeds that reverse the effect of PKE I have seen large variations in grade outcome between farms: 3kg PKE to a Jersey herd equated to C grading; 4kg PKE to a high LWT Friesian herd equated to B grading.

Also a combination of feeds, e.g. 2kg PKE combined with 5kg of summer turnips will have an effect on FEI. Monitor your graphs regularly. It is important to know how your farm may react. I understand the criteria for grading are due to be released

very shortly. Ensure you are informed if your farm system might be affected.

All the topics above are manageable. We need to spend the time required to understand and adapt to those changes.

• This article first appeared in Getting the Basics Right 2018 issue

Use a trusted installer.

We don’t just snap-chill your milk. We’re also freezing our interest rates at 0% on any purchase of a DeLaval chiller for the next 24 months.

This is a deal that will be hard to beat. Visit your local DeLaval dealer to put the best chiller on the market, onto your farm.

Since you have to do it You may as well do it right

Check out our websites

B&DEL0278/C

www.ruralnews.co.nz www.dairynews.co.nz delaval.com | 0800 222 228

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

28 // MILK COOLING

Fast way to better quality DAIRY FARM milking plant maker DeLaval says fast, effective milk cooling is the only way to retain optimal milk quality.

This also helps farm-

ers command the highest milk prices from processors.

DeLaval says it offers farmers the modern closed tank technology:

DO YOU KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH YOUR MILK COOLING?

KNOW WITH MILK VAT MONITORING

“All ranges of pre-cooling and tank options are sized and priced to meet most farmers’ cooling and budget needs.” elliptical DXCE tanks have the optimum ratio of milk content and evaporator surface for medium to large quantities of milk.

“This results in short cooling times, with optimum energy consumption and low cooling costs,” the company says. “Due to the special design of the lid hinge, it is possible to open the cover both upwards and laterally, to obtain easy access to the tank.”

DeLaval says it’s large tank is the latest answer to all requirements for the cooling and storage of large quantities of milk.

“With different dimensions and shapes you can choose the best capacity for your farm and the right tank size for your existing milk room.”

Each tank contains four independent DeLaval stepped evaporators for reliable milk cooling.

As the tanks increase, the quality of the first litre of milk flowing into the empty tank must be protected. The evaporator arrangement in the DeLaval DX3S has a lateral configuration that ensures the

milk quickly covers the full evaporator surface for efficient heat exchange.

NZ-owned milking plant developer Waikato Milking Systems says refrigeration is a key element in ensuring milk is stored at the correct temperature.

WMS says it’s onfarm refrigeration is cost effective, energy efficient and reliable, helping farmers meet and exceed the new milk cooling regulations.

“All ranges of pre-cooling and tank options are sized and priced to meet most farmers’ cooling and budget needs.”

WMS says its precise load matching with an inverter-driven compressor automatically compensates to ensure maximum energy efficiency.

The soft-start compressor reduces shock loads on the electrical supply.

Low global warming-potential refrigerant increases control of synthetic gases and helps a farm contribute to environmental protection, the company says.

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tion target has been set by a key player in the dairy sector.

Synlait’s news that it intends to reduce its milk processing greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 50%, and never to build another coal boiler, is an impressive and much needed commitment, says Andrew Caseley, chief executive of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

“The detail on Synlait’s strategy to reduce emissions, energy use and overall environmental impact reveals a bold yet achievable ambition. Rarely has New Zealand seen commitment on this scale by a primary industry business to be an environmental leader,” says Caseley.

Synlait expects to commission a large scale electrode boiler in January 2019 at its Dunsandel site.

This technology, the first of its type in NZ, will be a demonstration project supported by EECA. It will point the way to phasing out fossil fuels in dairying and other industries.

DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 29

Trailer autobraking helps stop mishaps MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

A NEW trailer braking system from Case-IH looks like it could markedly improve safety, particularly at high road speeds or when towing heavier loads.

The Advanced Trailer Brake System can be spec-

ified as an option for Puma 185, 200 220 and 240 CVX models.

As well as in haulage situations in general, the system is said to be of use on wet roads, and in field conditions where gradients, turns or speed reduction are often compromised by heavy trailers or implements pushing the tractor as speed

decreases, increasing the possibility of jack-knifing.

In operation, when the driver requests a speed decrease -- either via the multi-controller lever or the brake pedals -- the system estimates the deceleration force required by comparing the vehicle’s target speed with its actual speed. It then adjusts the brak-

ing force applied by measuring the transmission input torque based on information from a flywheel speed sensor and ECU data. In turn, this information is used to calculate and apply the appropriate pressure needed to balance the deceleration force on the tractor with the momentum exerted by the trailer

Case-IH has introduced a new trailer braking system.

or implement.

Aligning both allows the combination to remain stable under braking, optimising perfor-

mance, increasing safety and eliminating the incidence of jack-knifing.

A 35km/h speed threshold allows the driver to

make minor speed adjustments when travelling on the open road without the trailer brakes being applied.

SUB-SOILING HAS MANY BENEFITS MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

THE PRACTICE of subsoiling, by no means

new, has been acknowledged by farmers and contractors as helping improve drainage and creating healthier soil conditions with increased worm activity that ultimately results in higher yields.

Many sub-soilers tend to leave an uneven surface and are often unable to go deep enough to penetrate the compacted pan layer to achieve the required results.

Alpego claims its Super Craker overcomes this problem with specially designed legs that enter the ground surface at an optimal angle, allowing the machine to penetrate through the compacted pan layer to depths of up to 600mm, while breaking the pan with minimal mixing of the subsoil into the upper soil profile.

Alpego says the profile of the soil is left in such a way that in a dry season the moisture stored deep down can move freely up the soil profile to the plant, and yet in a wet season

the opposite occurs with the excess moisture freely draining away, resulting in higher cropping yields in all seasons.

The machine should prove to be popular among contractors and maize growers looking to improve their crops suffering from soil compaction.

Manufactured from Swedish high tensile rated steel in the construction, and castiron clamps to fix the legs to the frame, three models are offered from 3 - 5m working width, suitable for tractors from 100 - 500hp, while a choice of shear-bolt or hydraulic auto-reset systems offer protection from foreign objects.

The 500mm or 600mm legs allow the user to target different compaction depths, while a Franter double-spiked rear roller crushes any clods left on the surface, leaving a level and semi-cultivated finish ready for the next pass before final planting, while also helping to conserve moisture.

The implements have either shear bolt or hydraulic auto rest protection to suit all conditions and tractor sizes from 100hp up to 500hp. www.originagroup.co.nz

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DAIRY NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2018

30 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Butterfly mower with a twist IN A market crowded with rear butter-

fly-style mowers it’s no surprise to see entrants looking for a slice of the overall pie.

Irish company Keltec is well-known for its shear grab that slices upwards through a bale, allowing the material to fall while the bale wrap and netting is held at the top for easy disposal.

The company’s new twin rear mower system has both conditioner and grouping elements, with a layout that keeps weight close to the rear of the tractor that is said to reduce comparative

weights by 150 - 200kg against competitors.

The compact design is achieved with a transfer system after the conditioning element that uses augers, rather than the more conventional solution of belt conveyors that tend to impart heavy weight.

The screw-type auger design is not new but has been avoided by other manufacturers due to a perception that augers ‘twist’ rather than layer the crop in the swath. This is said to create difficulties in crop feed into fol-

lowing machines, particularly balers or forage harvesters. Keltec claims to have addressed this problem by directing the post-conditioner grass flow over the top of the grouping augers rather than underneath the units.

The conditioning element has heavyduty, v-shaped steel tines, said to be more aggressive on the crop and ultimately reducing the wilting period.

For large crops where grouping is not required, a deflector plate is installed allowing grass to bypass the auger units and return to the ground.

Keltec Butterfly mowers

JCB takes on the world DESPITE BREXIT

being foreshadowed as a handbrake on Britain’s exports to Europe, it seems the future holds no fear for construction and farm machinery maker JCB, which has just released impressive year 2017 financial results.

The company produced 75,693 machines, up from 66,011 in 2016, resulting in a sales turnover increase of about 28% to GBP 3.35 billion (NZ$ 7.37b), up from GBP 2.62b.

Earnings rose by 19% to GBP 341 million (NZ$ 685m), and the company notes that since 1975 the average return on investment has always

exceeded 30%.

The global market is said to have risen by 21% in 2017, but JCB was ahead of trend with growth up 28%, much of it derived from big gains in its Loadall telehandler product range.

It has 22 factories worldwide, including 11 in the UK, and about 15,000 employees (7600 in UK).

Production figures for the 2018 year are trending upward: daily production is 500 machines.

This continued growth is said to be the stimulus for building a GBP 50m factory at the Uttoxeter base for cab production, scheduled for opening in 2019.

– Mark Daniel

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2017, the Q-companion was designed to allow operators to record weights of materials loaded, so proved useful for mixing rations or loading trucks with produce for hauling away from a farm.

For the 2019 season, several improvements will see a wider range of languages, better colour rendering in the screen and most importantly, Bluetooth connectivity. This last feature will allow users to automatically upload weighing results to the cloud for accessing later on a PC or tablet.

Other new features allow operators to monitor the loader position and boom angles from the tractor seat, while also getting a visual display of how much loader lift capacity remains available and the cumulative weight of materials already loaded.

A further nod to efficiency and speed of operation is delivered by an audible notification that beeps when a pre-set height of implement angle is achieved.

This will allow the user to set items like ‘bucket level’ or perhaps when pallet forks or bale grabs are just slightly higher than the bed of a truck or farm trailer.

The system also includes a reminder of maintenance schedules, such as when the loader/implement needs lubrication. – Mark Daniel

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Terms and Conditions: Information on how to enter the competition forms part of these terms and conditions. Entry in to the Win a Suzuki Kingquad competition is deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions. Entry is open to all New Zealand residents except for employees of Rural News Group and their immediate family. Each entrant may enter more than once. To be valid, each entry must contain the correct answers as determined by the Rural News Group. The competition opens on Monday August 6, 2018 and closes Friday November 2, 2018 at 11pm. The prize winner will be drawn on Monday November 5, 2018 and will be contacted by phone and email by Wednesday November 7, 2018. The winner will be announced via email by Friday November 9, 2018.The promoter’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to. By accepting the prize, the prize winner consents to the promoter using his/her details, photographs and recording of the prize acceptance for promotional and media publicity purposes. There is one prize of a Suzuki Kingquad 500 XE ATV. The winner may be required to pick up their prize from their nearest Suzuki dealer. The prize is valued at $16,995. The prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash. All insurance and any on-road costs are at the winner’s expense. All entries become the property of the promoter. The promoter is Rural News Group, First Floor, Bayleys Building, 29 Northcroft St, Takapuna, Auckland 0622

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