“But those dates were getting earlier and earlier,” Georgie says.
Late in the 2014-15 season they started talking to Dawn Dalley at DairyNZ, attended the 2015 OAD conference in Taranaki where they met Massey University professor Colin Holmes and then they went to the Otago-Southland OAD discussion group.
“Everyone at the discussion group was so enthusiastic about what they were doing,” Adam says.
“We told them we’d think about it and wait a few years and then maybe change. They said, why wait?
“In the truck on the way home from the discussion group both of us didn’t say a thing because we were trying to come up with reasons why we should wait and we couldn’t come up with one.”
Now into their second season, they were the first West Otago farm to go full-season OAD and are still the only ones as far as they know, although the neighbours are keeping watch.
“I’m sure there’s been talk in the pub that we’re crazy but there have been lots of phone calls from people wanting to know how we’re going too,” Adam says.
“At the time it was a business decision, it was nothing to do with the payout drop, but now we think it was as much about the cows as it was about the business.”
Adam, a self-confessed stockman, lists better cow condition, fewer downer cows and cases of milk fever, fewer lame cows, more cows in-calf and happier and relaxed cows as just some of the benefits.
Georgie and Adam McCall of Tapanui don’t miss afternoon milkings.
They’ve also found employing people with proven milking skills essential.
“Observation is key. With OAD we need to pick up mastitis quickly and our 2IC Justine Waugh is exceptional in the dairy as is our milk harvester Neal Brunton. They have been crucial to our success so far.”
The farm is mostly river flats – great early country but it dries out quickly in summer.
“In some places we’ve only got a couple of centimetres of top soil on the gravels,” Adam says.
It can also flood, with half the milking platform going under for a day or so at least every couple of years, and at least half the runoff going under once a year.
Cows are grazed on 24-hour breaks and the mower or drystock clean up paddocks if needed.
“We were shifting the cows midafternoon to start with and then we asked ourselves why?”
Palm kernel, fed in troughs in the paddock, is used to fill feed deficits because they can guarantee the quality of it unlike their own silage, which can be flooded at any stage.
Summer turnips are grown for January onwards and fodder beet for April until the end of lactation.
“With OAD, the milking platform boundaries have become elastic so we can grow crops anywhere and it opens up our runoff to being milked off. With two roads to cross it was not really an option on twice-a-day,” Georgie says.
They haven’t changed the herd but increased the numbers for their first year.
“Everyone told us we’d find cows in the herd that just wouldn’t do OAD milking so we bought more cows to bump numbers up and wintered 720.
“And they were right. We had 116 cows, that’s 17%, which just dried themselves off in February or had udder breakdown.
“But a lot of those cows were just average cows. They had stayed in the herd because we couldn’t cull them, because we were losing cows because they were empty or lame or had other health problems.”
The McCalls have always bred for type rather than BW, looking for good udders, capacity and high fertility.
They’ve done a three-way cross with Friesians given a Jersey straw, Jerseys bred with either an Ayrshire or Swedish Red, and red cows going to Friesian.
Now they’re committed to OAD, they’ll be letting the red breeds go.
“Our ideal cow I think will be a black one, something like 10/16 Jersey and the rest Friesian,” Adam says.
“If we can get the weight down from 500kg to more like 480kg I think that will do better too in terms of cow efficiency.”
They’ve also diversified their business. After finding wintering at home by feeding silage on a pad unsustainable, they looked at all the options and finally leased 410ha overlooking the Roxburgh hydro dam 65km away.
“OAD has also meant a significant drop in winter feed requirements because the cows are in better condition in the autumn. It’s another hidden benefit of the system.”
As well they bought 50ha at Edievale, about 15 minutes from the farm, which was initially used for young stock but is now solely a bull beef block.
With Roxburgh now used for wintering cows, the young stock are on the farm’s adjacent runoff.
“Dad is always encouraging us to think outside the box, to think laterally and OAD is a whole change of thinking.”
They also have a Belted Galloway stud and commercial herd with the bulls for use over their own herd and to sell.
“But the dairy farm is still the engine room for everything,” Georgie says.
“We’re still flat out farming, we’re just not spending all of that time in the dairy,” Adam says.
The couple, in their early 30s, met at Lincoln University then Georgie came down milking for Lloyd and his wife Robyn while Adam worked for DairyNZ.
Now they’ve bought the other equity partners out and are 50% owners with Lloyd and Robyn.
“We’ve got a lot of debt but we’re very lucky to be so young and in this position. A lot of people don’t get this opportunity,” Georgie says.
They work as a team with Georgie doing the pasture walks and grazing management, fertiliser, rearing calves, and office work while Adam does the heat detection and mating decisions, and looks after the young stock, beef herds and the management of the other blocks.
“We don’t mess with each other’s roles but when we need a fresh set of eyes or something is going wrong then we’re there to help each other,” Georgie says.
If the payout goes back up to $8, the McCalls will still be milking OAD.
“There are so many hidden benefits and we’re still finding those. We would struggle to go back,” Georgie says.
“At the time we were looking for a new challenge but it has been really good.”
“Dad is always encouraging us to think outside the box, to think laterally and OAD is a whole change of thinking,” Adam says.
“It’s just not about milking the cows once a day instead of twice. There is so much more to it than that.
“Now we wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.”
FARM FACTS
Kelso Dairy – Tapanui, West Otago
Equity partnership – Lloyd and Robyn McCall, Adam and Georgie McCall
Farm – 215ha milking platform, 90ha runoff across the road, 50ha beef block 15min away, 410ha leased at Roxburgh for wintering
Herd – 650 crossbred peak milk (695 2015-16 season)
Production – 256,000kg MS 2015-16 season (290,000kg MS average when twice-a-day milking with 650 cows)
