Saturday, March 30, 2024

Filling up the empties

Avatar photo
When it comes to keeping empty rates down, former Sharemilker of the Year Enda Hawe comes up trumps. He told Anne Lee the secrets of his success are a yellow notebook and an obsession with observation.
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Farm owners: Trevor and Janet MacAulay

50:50 sharemilker: Enda and Sarah Hawe

Milking platform: 230ha

Cows: 760 cows

Production: 484kg MS/cow

Supplement: target 500kg/cow grain and silage

Costs: $2.22/kg MS sharemilker

Irrigation: centre pivot

Farm Dairy: 60-bail rotary

Technology: Protrack, automatic drafting, automatic cup removers

It’s always risky to bestow an accolade on someone that suggests they’re the best at something. The minute you say they’re the fastest or the first someone will pop out of the woodwork with a story topper.

So while I won’t risk saying they’re the uncontested best I can confidently say Canterbury sharemilkers Enda and Sarah Hawe are among the echelons of the elite when it comes to mating results.

An 0.5% empty rate after 13.5 weeks mating, with just four out of 680 cows empty, is only one of the outstanding mating metrics the 2012 New Zealand Sharemilker of the Year winners can boast.

Then there’s the fact 96% of the herd is in calf to artificial insemination (AI) after 9.5 weeks AI.

And the six week in-calf rate – well that’s 82%, nearly 20% higher than the national average. Last season’s mating was the third year he’s been able to boast a six week in-calf rate that’s higher than 80% even though, during that time, the couple has gone from lower order sharemilking to 50:50 sharemilking and combined cows from three different herds.

Conception rate to first service averages 53% in Canterbury but Enda and Sarah consistently achieve 68%.

However, average isn’t a word that Irishman Enda even contemplates so the couple are striving to build even further on their outstanding results and have taken LIC’s six week challenge, aiming to boost the figure by another 5%.

The benefits to their business of getting reproductive performance right are huge, Enda says.

LIC’s online calculator bears out just how enormous those benefits are estimating that at a $7.50/kg milksolids (MS) milk price their current six week in-calf rate boosts their earnings by $240,000 a year compared with what they would have achieved if they’d been at the national average.

Even at a much lower payout the extra value of more AI calves to sell, more days in milk, less intervention and greater choice in culling decisions all add up to a significant gain.

If there’s one word that could be Enda’s slogan or maxim it’s “observation”.

Monitoring and observing the herd closely means he can react quickly when needed but be proactive as well.

As mating approaches his watchword takes on even greater importance.

“I can’t emphasise the importance of observation enough. I’m looking at my cows five times a day, observing heats at milkings, when we shut them in the paddock, when we collect them. It’s about getting out there, looking and then writing it down.”

His yellow notebook is a permanent fixture wherever he goes on the farm.

Expert advice

Enda makes full use of industry information and points to advice in the six week challenge booklet and its tips for the pre-mating period as well as the work sheets and readiness guides.

He tail paints six weeks before planned start of mating, with the paint checked each day to see if it’s been rubbed off as an indication a cow’s been ridden. They’re also observed in the paddock for signs of standing heats, restless behaviour and mounting especially the heifers.

All pre-mating heats are entered in the Protrack herd management system via the computer in the farm dairy so that as mating draws nearer he has a good idea of which cows may be non-cyclers.

The calving dates are also recorded so it’s easy to see where each animal should be in terms of cycling.

Then it’s about treating non-cyclers early and giving them the best chance to get in-calf.

That said, Enda only used eight CIDRs last year.

Once mating gets underway accurately picking cows to put up for AI is critical.

“You only need to mistakenly draft out two cows a day over 42 days and for 650 cows that would be a 12% drop in our six week in calf rate. We’d be back down to the average.”

 “It does come down to good stockmanship and an eye for detail when you’re looking at your animals. But if in doubt I say draft her out and take a closer look.”

“I don’t want to be wasting good money putting in semen from the likes of (LIC bull) Checkpoint when there’s no chance of conception.”

Last mating Enda used 1.13 straws of semen/cow to get them in calf.

Having good, well-trained staff who are also observing cows and writing down numbers not only adds to the sets of eyes working on the issue, it means they can provide further evidence to help when it’s not so clear cut if a cow’s on heat.

Enda and Sarah have two staff members, both Filipino, Rodel Manuel and Jomel Pasalo who’ve been with them for five and three years respectively.

“It’s a team approach, you all have to be working with the same focus,” Enda says.

Even in a large herd, such as the 1400 cows Enda and Sarah lower order sharemilked previously, there’s no real excuse, Enda says.

“It’s two herds of 700 and that’s the way you have to look at it.”

Enda’s advice on achieving top mating results is to start today – no matter what day of the year it is – because there are always actions that can be taken that will ultimately impact on fertility.

At calving he hires a calf rearer, Allie Ryburn, so one person is solely focused on that job and the rest of the farm team can concentrate on ensuring cows are being managed well.

New calves are fed warmed, day-one colostrum twice a day. They’re provided with fresh water and have access to hay as well as calf muesli and pellets that contain 20% crude protein.

By day 10 they’re out on grass, still being fed milk twice a day and given access to ad lib grass and pellets.

Regardless of breed they’re not weaned until they’ve reached 100kg. As with all aspects of their business there’s no guess work when it comes to weights. Enda and Sara have invested in portable electronic scales and every calf is weighed monthly.

In December they head off to a local grazier, ex-dairy farmer John Aarts, who does a great job at getting these exceptionally important animals to target weights on time.

Year-round attention

Monitoring and attention to detail across all facets of the operation all year round are key, Enda says.

He’s in the milking roster so he sees the cows almost every morning.

“We condition score (CS) the cows six times a year. At dry-off they’ve got to be CS4.5 and at calving the minimum’s CS5. They’re not averages, they’re minimums. That’s important.”

They’re scored through the winter and at mating, late summer and through autumn.

He will actively preferentially feed lighter cows, run a second herd or put a group on once-a-day milking to make sure the CS targets are met.

They’re all tactics Enda looked to last season when dealing with a long spell without irrigation.

Last season was the couple’s first on the new conversion near Oxford and unfortunately also one of the toughest for the Waimakariri Irrigation Scheme with restrictions imposed due to low flows in the river.

“We’d no water at all from the scheme here from February 6 to March 27,” Enda said.

They had known irrigation restrictions were a risk and had stocked the farm accordingly at 3.3cows/ha but Enda was also proactive when he saw conditions worsening in January and moved to a longer grazing round early.

They ended up feeding 800kg drymatter/cow as supplement but their early actions meant that with the help of additional grain fed in the farm dairy they were able to protect cow condition, still milk twice a day until May 31 and produce 480kg MS/cow when they’d budgeted 380kg MS/cow from the 650-cow herd.

That’s not say that production came at any cost. They managed to keep their share of farm working expenses to $2.22/kg MS.

“Feeding cows well – that’s important regardless of payout but I’m not after throwing money around – I’m pretty tight,” he adds with a grin.

At the right stocking rate, with good residual management and accurate break allocations, cows will produce to a high level and get in calf off a mainly pasture-based diet so there should be no need for extensive, costly intervention, fancy animal health supplements or high supplementary feed inputs.

This year they’ve lifted cow numbers and the milking platform area allowing them to calve 760 cows. Providing the summer’s not as harsh as last year they’re hoping to feed roughly 500kg/cow of supplement and achieve similar production to last year.

Enda and Sarah’s animal health costs are $36/cow. That’s spent on drench, vaccination for BVD and basic minerals that include magnesium chloride, iodine, selenium, copper and cobalt administered via the dosatron over calving and mating only.

“We’re operation green – green grass – they get plenty of high quality green grass and everything flows on from that.”

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading