“It’s a grey area. We don’t have the power to prosecute.” DairyNZ regional leader for Southland and South Otago, Richard Kyte, said although there were no accurate figures on how many southern cows were trucked to winter grazing, it would be in the many hundreds of thousands.
“There are half a million dairy cows in Southland and not many farms are self-contained,” he said.
Although the shift to winter grazing was mostly concentrated into the last week of May and the first week of June, the return to milking platforms was more staggered, starting mid-July with some not returning until late August, he said.
“Looking after cows coming back is even more important than good preparation for them going away as they usually have no recovery time between trucking, then calving and the start of lactation.”
He said it was important for farmers to make sure cows were fit to travel and able to bear weight on all four limbs.
Before loading, cows needed to be stood off green feed for four to 12 hours with access to hay or silage and water.
Stress due to trucking caused cows’ magnesium levels to drop and supplementation either side of the date of the move was important – 12 to 20g/day/cow of magnesium for three days before and three days after, he said.
Transitioning back from winter crop to grass also needed to be planned with many farmers in the south opting to grow the same winter crop on the milking platform the cows had been grazing during the winter months.
“Farmers then can transition them back onto grass themselves instead of leaving it to the grazier to do,” Kyte said.
Taieri 50:50 sharemilker Paul Urquhart’s herd was split into four for the winter with some of the cows staying on the platform and others going to three different blocks nearby.
“We’ve done it on calving dates. The ones going the furthest are going to Hindon and they’ll be back the first week of August when they are due to calve.”
He’s using local company Cook Transport, which is based at Hyde, and a representative from the company said trucking dairy cows to and from winter grazing was becoming an increasing part of their business.
“We start with heifers at the beginning of May and then the last two weeks in May and the first week in June is our busiest. We still have to fit it around everything else that we do, trying to backload as much as possible,” she said.
A truck and trailer unit could carry 40 to 45 cows, depending on their size and weight.
Snow on May 26 delayed some movements with gravel back roads not cleared for several days.
“It was just a matter of juggling things around for a couple of days.”
Effluent on roads
Environment Southland spokeswoman Gail Jefferies said there had been no complaints on the regional council’s pollution hotline about effluent on the region’s roads as cows were shifted at the end of the milking season.
“We hope that’s an indication that things went well,” she said.
However The Southland Times reported otherwise, with residents in the Te Anau basin complaining about “the mess left on the road after Gypsy Day”.
Southland has no effluent tanks on its roading network, although construction will begin soon on one at Five Rivers and another at Mataura.
Otago Regional Council manager of environmental services, Martin King, said Otago’s seven effluent tanks had been well used during the period with the Raes Junction 10,000 litre tank emptied three times a day.
“We are still getting lots of reports of effluent on the roads but we can’t do a lot about it,” King said.
