“Land was too expensive and we had a pool of cows that were not meeting their potential – that was the driver,” Ross said.
The nucleus of the farm had been in the Hocken family since 1890. When Ross’s turn came at the helm expansion was achieved through buying neighbouring land. The cows tended to hover close to the national average for milksolids production, clocking up between 300kg and 350kg milksolids (MS)/cow each season. With rapidly increasing land prices in the mid-2000s, Ross decided to focus on lifting per cow production.
“We decided to focus on our cows. The potential there is probably 600kg MS/cow, depending on how much you want to feed them.”
A new 50-bail Waikato rotary was built in 2007, and Ross embraced technology, installing the AfiMilk herd management system, along with in-dairy feeding, automatic drafting and walk-over weighing. A few years later, AfiLab, a system that allows real-time individual cow estimates of milkfat, protein, and lactose along with somatic cell counts (SCC), was added.
Mat returned from overseas last year, renewing the family’s focus. His arrival coincided with the commissioning of a second 50-bail Waikato rotary on the platform to overcome the limitation of long walks through a stock underpass.
This season, 1000 cows are being milked through the two dairies on the 290ha milking platform. The stretch goal was for 450kg MS/cow and while the dry late summer and autumn has had an impact, they will still achieve more than 430kg MS/cow – a record for the farm.
Both the dairies run the Afimilk system. During lactation, the cows have an activity meter attached on their rear right legs measuring the number of steps they take as well as identifying each individual animal in the dairy.
The individual cow is very much the focus for both data gathering and decision-making.
“We call the cows our athletes because that is how we treat them – we can individually lift them and we want them performing at their highest level,” Mat said.
Both dairies record milk yield and conductivity, have walk-over weighing and the ability to feed individual cows to their level of milk production. The activity meter also lends itself to automatic heat detection and drafting as cows who deviate from the herd mean by 35% or more are automatically drafted off; the heat is confirmed by visual signs and cycle time data, and the cow is then inseminated.
This season, the team operating the herd through the new dairy relied totally on the auto-detection and drafting feature for mating. The herd going through the other dairy used the more traditional method of tail-paint with someone stationed to operate the drafting gate. With similar empty rates between the two herds – 7% using automation, a 71% six-week in-calf rate, and 8% using tail-paint – Mat was happy with both the performance of the automated set-up and the extra time created by not having to have someone manning the drafting gate.
The in-dairy feeding system is used throughout lactation. Feed levels range from 2.5kg to 5kg of pelleted meal a cow a day, depending on each animal’s level of milk production as measured by the meters at each milking. The theory is simple – higher producing cows are fed more.
Working with Waikato-based consultant and nutritionist, Bryan McKay, the menu is planned and updated at four to six-weekly intervals. Strategic use of different minerals is also incorporated depending on the time of the year and stage of lactation.
Milk conductivity is used as an early warning system for mastitis. Cows identified as having elevating conductivity levels generate an alert that has to be acknowledged at the bail before the cups can be attached. These cows are part of the group Mat calls “extra care cows”. They remain with the main herd but have their quarters checked before being cupped and are kept on the platform to make sure they are properly milked out. They are only treated for mastitis if they start to show clinical symptoms. Mat’s average for the season is 148,000 SCC.
The walk-over weighing system allows staff to monitor liveweight and can flag cows under pressure and potential diet issues at the herd-scale. The Afi set-up enables a linkage between individual animal liveweight and condition score, which can be used to trigger alerts.
The high-tech dairy generates an almost overwhelming avalanche of information at the individual animal level, but the development of decision rules allows for automation to be adopted at the herd level.
For Mat and Ross the benefits are clear – in the hands of the right people with the right supporting systems in place, automation can drive both human and cow productivity.
