For Stu and Tania Hopkins, being unafraid to stray from the herd has paid off.
The Hopkins' bought their 71ha effective dairy farm just north of Wanganui 14 years ago, after seven years of 50:50 sharemilking in Taranaki. They made the leap to once-a-day (OAD) milking about seven years ago, and Stu says they have no regrets.
“I’ve been milking cows all this time and I’m probably enjoying it more than ever,” Stu reckons.
“You’ve got to enjoy your farming. If you’re not enjoying it, you’re not going to do a good job. But it’s got to make you money.”
Their 280 cows yielded 1188kg milksolids (MS)/ha (84,331kg MS in total) in the 2013-14 season under OAD milking and on Stu’s low-cost system clocked up an operating profit, as calculated through DairyBase, of $4591/ha.
“Basically here we’ll do around 90,000 milksolids and we don’t have to share it with anyone. It’s just me and the family and a little to the bank.”
With four children ranging from 19 to two years old, family is at the heart of the farming operation. Stu is the main labour unit but Tania and the kids also contribute to the enterprise.
After farming the property for seven years, Stu was not satisfied with their system.
“I decided there’s either got to be a feedpad go down or we’re going to try this OAD. I thought if I put concrete down I could be a slave to this for quite a few years. It’s a commitment, it’s a labour unit full-time, and I just thought that maybe we could do it a bit different.”
They had dipped a toe into OAD milking when they were sharemilking. Eventually, a desire for Stu to spend more time with his family was the catalyst for them making the change.
“What’s the point of being a dad if you’re always buggered and every night after school you can’t do anything because you have to milk in the morning?
“We thought we would give it a go and if it didn’t work, we could switch back to TAD. There’s no capital outlay like building a feedpad for going OAD – it’s just use your brains and see how it goes.”
The 280 dominantly Jersey cows are run as two herds. The second herd of about 100 cows, or four rows of the 25-aside herringbone, is made up of lower condition priority cows as well as those Stu likes to keep an eye on because of higher somatic cell counts or other issues.
‘You do your best to get it right, but you always make mistakes. It’s not about just doing your best to not make a mistake – you have to have a plan to repair it.’
Maximising pasture harvest is top of Stu’s mind for making the system profitable and describes his fence reels and standards as his “main set of farming tools”. A stocking rate of 3.9 cows/ha – high for the district – also aids him in his quest.
His guiding principle for pasture management is that grass grows grass.
“You’ve got to use the photosynthesis – that’s what we’re all about.”
The fastest grazing round adopted is 24 days, generally while area is out for silage. They usually drop out 6-9ha for silage in early-mid October, tracking at a 35-day round before that.
Stu Hopkins – enjoying farming.
Stored colostrum stabilised through yoghurt bacteria is introduced. There is a focus on keeping the quality of the stored colostrum consistent to minimise any diet disturbance that could result in scours.
About four years ago the Hopkins stopped feeding calf meal, focusing instead on getting the calves transitioned on to good quality pasture and hay as soon as possible. Calves are drenched with an anti-coccidial agent when they leave the calf sheds.
Experience comes into play for the weaning decision but is largely based on stature. Stu’s rule of thumb is once they are as tall as the 200l drum feeder, they are mature enough to wean. He weans in small batches of half a dozen or so – enough to fill their calf trailer – transferring them immediately to the nearby run-off.
No frills, no worries
The 25-aside herringbone dairy is an original fixture from the conversion from sheep and beef, which occurred about decade before the couple bought the property. With few bells and whistles, the Hopkins have added an in-bail molasses feeding system, using lick balls, solar water heating, and retro-fitted slide pulsators.
Each tweak to the dairy has been carefully weighed up. For example, the solar water heating system reduces the farm electricity bill
Stu credits the molasses with helping to resolve a persistent grass staggers problem that had developed in the herd. In a one-man dairy it has the added benefit of encouraging the cows to row up efficiently.
“The molasses also gives us the confidence to push the cows while knowing they will come out and milk well, too. It gives you a bit of back-up.”
He says the cows eat less than a kilogram of molasses a day as they have access only at their single daily milking. He puts the price onfarm at about $370/t.
“It’s not cheap but I’m a little bit hooked on it to be honest.”
The Read slide pulsators were installed to reduce ongoing baseline maintenance requirements. Stu is impressed with the performance of the simple mechanism and says once set up correctly, they have effectively operated maintenance-free over the past few years.
Key points:
Location: Maxwell, northwest of Wanganui
Owner/operators: Stu and Tania Hopkins
Area: 71ha effective (89ha total)
Herd: 280 Jersey and Jersey-cross cows
Support land: 32ha, 10km from platform
Production: 84,331kg MS (2013-14)
Supplements: 67.5 tonnes drymatter (DM) hay, 140t DM grass silage (pit), 80t molasses
