NZ Dairy
FARM PEOPLE » John & Jill Bluett
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Animal husbandry a core value Russell Fredric Holding a degree in agricultural science and experience in animal husbandry continue to be strong influences in the way John Bluett runs his family farm. John gained his degree at Massey University in 1977 and subsequently worked for two-and-a-half years as a New Zealand Dairy Board consulting officer. A former national vice-chairman of Federated Farmers dairy section and Waikato Federated Farmers chairman, he presently works in a private consultancy role. The consultancy work and dealing with rural professionals provides a good insight into other dairy operations, he says. The Bluett family, John and Jill, along with family members Nathan, Pamela and Aaron are equity partners in their Te Pahu, Waikato, home farm comprising 230 hectares effective. The farm has been operating under this structure for the past 12 years, since the family moved from Matamata. Nathan and his wife Ashlee took over a separate 500 cow dairy unit at Rangitoto, about 60 kilometres south of Te Pahu last June. The home farm’s annual milk solids production of 250,000kg comes from a crossbred herd of 690 cows. “Last year’s farm working expenses were $2.78 because we weren’t buying in a lot of feed. Even in the low payout year we made quite a good profit,” John Bluett says.
“We run quite strict financials on the budgeting side.” The farm’s profitability is helped by a high breeding-worth herd, “probably in the top two or three per cent”; the quality of the herd is reflected in a low empty rate of just 6%. Stock sales are also an important driver of profitability, helped by low death rates, and being proactive in animal husbandry. “We (also) sell surplus cows each year, about 10% of the herd gets sold as in-calf dairy cows. Our income from stock sales last year was (equal to) $1.40 per kilogram of milk solids compared to the national average of 40 cents a kilo.” The climate is winter wet and summer dry; drought has been a feature of several past summers, however this season and last season conditions have been much more favourable with plenty of grass grown. As a result, the farm is transitioning from (Dairy NZ) system three to system two which means from 4% to 14% of total feed is imported, instead of 10% to 20%. The dairy unit is supported by a nearby 40ha run-off block on which 70 heifers and 10 to 15 carry-over cows are usually grazed and 60 late calvers wintered. Maize for silage is grown on 7ha. John’s animal husbandry background was a catalyst for the addition of a second, 16 bale milking shed. Installed three years ago, its facilities, include a calf milk vat, stock handling facilities, a calf drench race, a covered veterinarian’s race, truck and car trailer loading facilities, and
a wrangler for treating cow’s feet. “We use that cow shed in the spring time, when we usually have three staff on, so one gets the second herd in and milks all the colostrum and penicillin cows, so it actually keeps them separate.” “One of the advantages is that we get a lot better gold colostrum for the new-born calves.” During spring, having the second shed eliminates having to wait until milking in the farm’s main 50 bale rotary shed is finished and the system purged. “It makes everything run a lot more time efficient.” Because the person running the second shed has a specific role and more time, animal health issues such as mastitis and lameness are more readily noticed and treated. “Every cow gets checked before the cups go on because staff have time to do it.”
“With having that facility, we are a lot more proactive because we’ve got good animal husbandry facilities; things get done in a timely manner and there’s less risk of injury to animals and operators.” Built a cost of $110,000, excluding its plant which came from a farm sold two and a half years ago, it can also serve as a back-up if the main shed is affected by an outage or breakdown.
“We run quite strict financials on the budgeting side.”
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