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DAIRY PEOPLE » TW Moore Ltd/Glenn & Lisa Wingate
NZ Dairy
Changes makes difference Sue Russell
T W Moore Ltd also builds effluent ponds to meet the strict standards required by regional councils along with developing and maintaining farm races.
A family run business that’s part of the Rotorua community Sue Russell T W Moore is a Rotorua family business that has been operating from its current site for the last 32 years. One of the first major contracts the company took on after forming was the digout and fill of the then new aquatic centre facilities in the city. Company owner and founder Terry Moore has now taken a back seat and the management is now carried out by his son, Allan, who maintains the fleet of eight bulk trucks, diggers, a roller and a bulldozer. While this time last year business was relatively quiet for Rotorua, having a range of activities including cartage and earthmoving equipment and services led to the year ending on a solid note, says administrator Tina Marshall.
“Housing has knocked back quite a bit in and around Rotorua so we were not so busy working on site development. However, our cartage service was in good demand, particularly later in the year.” T W Moore also owns a quarry located next door at its Okareka Loop Rd site, approximately 12km east of Rotorua. It’s is in an ideal location for the wider Rotorua district it mostly supplies. The quarry provides aggregate for roading contracts, while the bulk trucks deliver fertilliser and palm kernel to farms in the district. With the lower dairy pay-out, Tina says there has been some reduction in demand from that sector but generally she has observed farmers thinking long-term and keeping up the absolute necessary applications to maintain pasture health. “The cartage business is a competitive one but we have a loyal base of customers who use our services. They know they can rely on us and we very much value their business as the mainstay of the company.” There’s a real family feel to the way the business operates, says Tina, and the fact that the majority of the staff have been working with the company for many years makes things feel very stable, even when the company experiences the up and down cycles of demand. T W Moore Ltd also builds effluent ponds to meet the strict standards required by regional councils along with developing and maintaining farm races. “The company has been in existence long enough to have become a well established part of the building and contracting landscape in Rotorua. We take pride in our involvement in the growth of this community,” Tina say. Sponsoring events like the Childrens’ Christmas Party, The Rotary Childrens’ event, the Radio Networks Childrens’ with Special Needs party, Heart Children and Autism NZ are examples of that commitment to the community T W Moore serves.
Now heading into their eighth season on a farm at Tikorangi, near New Plymouth, sharemilkers Glenn and Lisa Wingate are confident their proactive approach is making a difference. The couple are 50:50 sharemilkers on Kevin and Leonie Sarten’s 96 hectare dairy farm. They were contract milkers on the farm before moving into the sharemilking role. Mentors Kevin and Katrina Knowles, along with Dairy NZ and independent farm consultant Murray Mace, assisted the couple as they set about making changes to ensure the whole farm would be more profitable. A 26 hectare run-off block is leased nearby, growing 8.5 hectares of maize. Glenn and Lisa selected a maize hybrid that has enabled them to harvest earlier and it is also producing a higher yield. This year’s harvest weighed in at 217 tonnes, compared to 201 tonnes last year. “That has made a huge difference. By growing our own maize we can fill in the gaps over the summer dry, gaining cow condition and enabling us to milk longer based on cow condition and average pasture cover. We also have silage and hay so there is plenty to roll out through the dry months,” says Glenn. Previously, very little urea fertiliser was being used but this is now being applied regularly during spring and autumn to provide a good source of quick release nitrogen. A rotation system used with the run-off land, operating from May to May, involves calves being swapped for heifers at key times of year. Changes have also been made to the old 26-bail rotary shed, with an extension to the yard along with the addition of a snap chiller. “It really takes the
pressure off us during the hot months.” Having culled empty cows quite early, the farm is currently milking some 225 cows. “We culled quite a few to help with the bank situation. You have to look at every aspect of the farm to manage costs in the current environment.” Regular herd testing means any cows with a high somatic cell count and low producing animals are quickly identified. Heifers are milked once a day from early January to maintain condition. In the last couple of years, changes have been made to their calf rearing methods and calves are weaned systematically by weight at the right time. Glenn and Lisa share the work of the farm between them. “We both feed the cows. I do the milking and Lisa does the drafting during AB. We feed and rear the calves together.” The couple have two daughters, aged 11 and 14 years, whose big focus is on their schooling but they help as much as they can during calving and help with herd testing. By making these small changes, Glenn and Lisa are starting to see the results. In the 2014/15 season, record production of 107,662kg of milksolids was achieved for the farm, (the previous record being 94,500kg). For the first time, the farm also had a grade free season. Changes made with mating are also proving fruitful. A great result on reproduction has been achieved by running the bulls with the heifers 10 to 14 days earlier than the main herd. “Our previous three-week submission rate for the whole herd was seventy five per cent and for the current season is eighty four per cent. Our calving pattern of first calvers in the first three weeks was sixty six per cent and is now 80 per cent. “Bull power for the heifers has been a big contributor, with a ratio of twenty one cows to one bull.”
Glenn and Lisa Wingate are heading into their eighth season on a farm at Tikorangi.w
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