NZ Dairy / Spring 2013
ON FARM: Dean & Sharon Peterson/Shaun Brighouse
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Roof puts a lid on flooding Kelly Deeks With three dairy units under their leadership at Opotiki, in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Dean and Sharyn Petersen made production gains last season and farm development saw roofs established over two feedpads to combat the effects of the flooding. The Petersens own two farms, one run by a contract milker and one by a manager, and 50:50 sharemilk on the third. Dean spent about five years driving trucks and diggers before the couple jumped on the dairy industry ladder as farm managers. They moved to contract-milking, then 50:50 sharemilking for seven seasons before buying their first farm 12 years ago. After milking 250 cows at home for about three years, they took on their present sharemilking job, milking 680 cows. Three years later they bought the third farm, which is now milking 330 cows. “We got quite a bit of flooding on that farm,” Dean Petersen says. “The first flood was three years after we bought it, the following year it flooded four times, then twice, then last season just once.” Last summer the Petersens built a feedpad on the farm to hold all 330 cows; it includes a roof to comply with regional-council regulations. “We’re keeping the rainwater out of the system so that we don’t have to have as big an effluent pond,” says Dean. “We also get the benefit of having the herd sheltered, even on hot days as its cooler in there.” When the farm floods, they can lose 80% of its land and it takes about 48 hours to get the water off.
The first flood was three years after we bought it, the following year it flooded four times, then twice, then last season just once.
Dean and Sharyn Petersen built a feedpad, complete with roof to comply with regional-council regulations, on their farm last summer to hold all 330 cows. “Having the roof over the feedpad means that when the farm floods, we are able to feed the cows supplement,” he says. “The 20% of land left over is hills, and if they have been grazed and we have a flood, we’ve got nothing left to feed.” The new roof has also cut down on feed wastage, even in really wet conditions; if there is any feed left over, the cows can go back for more a few hours later. A roof has also been installed over the feedpad on the sharemilking farm, and additional development saw an upgrade to the effluent system with a new lined pond, 50 metres by 50 metres and four metres deep, to allow for 90 days of storage. Petersen says the next job will be to put a roof over the feedpad on the home farm. This season the Petersens are intent on improving pasture management across all three farms. “We want to get the quality pasture into the cows, and use maize silage and palm kernel strategically,” he says. Last season the home farm grew 6ha of maize, the sharemilking farm 12ha, and the home farm’s run off block 6ha. They used 60 tonnes of palm kernel on each farm as well.
Drought tests debut season been working with the farm for about 16 years. Before that, he was the Brighouses’ vet. “I’ve known him all my life, and he knows this farm as well as I do, which is really handy,” Shaun After six years of his working way up the dairying says. ladder, Shaun Brighouse has completed his first “We go through all our diets and do a pasture season of contract-milking on his parents’ 500walk with him, then we figure out where we’re going cow farm at Kaipaki, between Cambridge and Te for the next four weeks.” Awamutu, in the Waikato. Brighouse had a good first season despite the He was farm manager for the 2011-12 season drought, with production sitting about 1% below the and, in his new role, has taken over the pasturefarm’s 2011-12 record. management responsibilities from his father, “We spent more money and fed them more Michael, who continues to look after the run-off out of the back of the truck, as opposed to what block and the young stock. came out of the paddocks,” The farm has been Calving is only six he says. “We went through winter-milking for the last a pretty harsh drought, so five years. weeks each time, so weather-wise, this season “Kaipaki is mainly should be better. The way it’s summer dry, so to have one herd dry in January makes it’s no different from going, we’re going to have two seasons in one, one wet sense for us, and calving in and one dry.” March is a breeze compared seasonal calving. He continues to work on with calving in August,” the farm’s historically high Shaun Brighouse says. somatic-cell-count problem, and has managed to “The cows are coming to the feedpad every reduce it from 310 to 182 over four years. day in the winter anyway, so we might as well milk “We spend quite a lot on mastitis treatment, some of them. It’s a bit harder on the staff, but we roster year-round and their time-off doesn’t change. we treat it aggressively and double the treatment if we feel the bug warrants it. Sometimes the milk And calving, for us, is only six weeks each time, so may pass the test, but the bug is still sitting in the it’s no different from seasonal calving.” The two herds receive quite a different diet while background.” Two and a half years ago, Brighouse changed to they milking, with the winter-milkers getting through square milking-liners from Skellerup. He says they quite a bit of supplement, and the spring-milkers on have a big contribution to lowering the somatic cell a lot less. count. Farm consultant Chris Pike, from Interlact, has
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