TE AWA LAND CO
Page 74
Coast & Country
Loving new dairy - even on a cold, wet, windy day a The backing gate with ic at tom Dungbuster Au Yardwashing system.
The solar powered backing gate.
The new dairy on the Schrider family’s Te Awa Land Company farm near Temuka in South Canterbury has already won the heart of the property’s production manager Courtney Menzies. By Helen Wilson
“I love this new dairy shed. The cows ow in and out smoothly; it’s quiet and easy to keep clean,â€? says Courtney, who reckons a lot of thought has gone into its design. “Noel Schrider and his son Brent Schrider have made an effort to work out what works best for a rotary dairy shed,â€? says Courtney, who has been the production manager since June 2013. She looks after the dairy, cow production and pasture management and then reports back to Brent. Judging by the condition of the new dairy and the farm she’s doing a great job and enjoys her work – even on cold,
wet, windy days. The farm is 290 hectares with 275 hectares effective, milking 490 cows and up to 670 cows during the peak of the season. Courtney tells New Farm Dairies there hadn’t been much rain during summer. “And there were only 12 paddocks with irrigation, so we had to reduce the cow numbers and decided to send them to the Schrider’s other farm for the rest of the season.� The farm was originally bull beef and grazing but at the end of 2012 the Schriders started converting to dairy. They already had a dairy farm next door so were able to use their experience gained from that development in making the second conversion a lot smoother. The two farms are run completely separately.
Tried and tested
Brent had been very impressed with the performance of the Waikato Milking Systems plant in his other rotary dairy shed and decided he’d stick with what was
This is the ďŹ rst of the new generation tried and tested. The South Canterbury dealCentrus composite platforms in the 60-bail ership, Waikato Milking Systems Timaru at conďŹ guration installed in South Canterbury Washdyke, installed the complete plant. “We have provided a back-up service for the and has proved to be a good choice. Mark says Brent opted for a high performother dairy shed, so Brent approached us to install the milking machine for this one,â€? says ing Waikato Milking Systems Smart package, which includes Smart-ECR electronic cup Mark Wilkes, who owns Waikato Milking removers, SmartWASH, which is an autoSystems Timaru with his wife Sue. matic washing system, and SmartSPRAY – an The 60-bail rotary has a Centrus composite automatic teat spraying system. platform, which is 80 per cent lighter and The South Canter bury dairy shed’s ďŹ ve times stronger yard on a wet day. than a concrete one – and it saves a lot of wear and tear on the running gear. It has a 2.7 metrewide deck with rubber matting constructed into it, which gives it a smooth, easy care surface and adds to cow comfort.
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