Friday, March 29, 2024

Breeding polar bears

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Keeping it simple and breeding for the conditions have proved a winning combination for West Coast sharemilkers Mark and Debbie van Beek. They told Anne Hardie a wet climate means the need for considerable self-discipline when it comes to managing their cows.
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Mawhera Incorporation sharemilkers Mark and Debbie van Beek constantly monitor the cost of production of the Hokitika farm and have achieved an operating profit of $1700 a hectare that puts it in the top 10% of Maori-owned farms in the country.

They don't have top production in the region, at about 900kg milksolids (MS) per hectare, but their simple grass-based system and ensuring staff are on the same page when it comes to stock and grass management means there's more money in the bank.

The Federation of Maori Authorities enlisted DairyNZ to carry out whole farm assessments around the country for the 2012-13 season and compared them with 98 farms that had 50:50 sharemilker contracts where the benchmark was $1204 a hectare. That season, Westland Milk Products paid out $6/kg MS.

Mawhera Incorporation has two neighbouring farms in the Arahura Valley just north of Hokitika on the West Coast, with the van Beeks sharemilking with 580 cows on one near the coast and a manager on the inland farm with 450 cows. Further up the coast at Karamea it bought a third dairy farm last year and took on a sharemilker for the 400-cow operation.

In the Arahura Valley, the van Beeks milk their 580 cows on a 300ha farm that stretches from the windswept coast towards the Southern Alps, with several roads and the Arahura River dissecting it along the way. About 290ha is effective and 230ha makes up the milking platform, with the rest on the other side of the river for young stock.

‘If everyone is doing things the same way, then the cows are going to respond in the same way. It's just about flow.’

It has a top production of 204,000kg MS from a grass-based system in a climate that dumps 2.8m of rain a year onto poor-draining soils. In the back corner of the farm, peat soils are a challenge to manage, while a hard clay pan sits under the other soils and the surface pugs easily. Cows are wintered on the farm and often July is one of their drier months, then spring hurls the coastal storms at them. However, this season they had a dry early spring, and then persistent rain in November.

The van Beeks have been sharemilking on the farm for eight years, after initially managing it for a year. Mark trained as an engineer, then ran a river rafting business, while Debbie was an occupational therapist before they switched to dairying.

After nine years, the van Beeks feel they have a relationship built on trust with the Mawhera Incorporation board and Mark says they work hard to not betray that trust.

Their focus now is generating maximum profit from their business by getting sufficient drymatter into the cows and keeping a tight lid on costs. The farm's operating expenses for the 2012-13 assessment were $1.11/kg MS for Mawhera's part of the costs and $1.80/kg MS for the sharemilking side. The van Beeks aim at about $2/kg MS for their costs, so anything less than that is a bonus.

It's a grass-only system most of the time, though higher stock numbers in the past two years has meant a little palm kernel and balage was bought in. Usually it's just 200 tonnes drymatter of pit silage that contractors cut on the farm and put in the pit for about 16 cents/kg DM, including Mark's tractor time at $120 an hour.

In the past couple of the years, higher stock numbers have pushed the cost of production up to about $2.10/kg MS – about 15% – and Mark isn't happy about that so they plan to reduce the stocking rate to get back to the basics. Cow numbers will be reduced to about 500 and Mark says that number should produce 200,000kg MS with only a bit of straw bought in to counter a flush of growth and its higher nitrogen content.

The goal is to have a herd of squat, round "polar bears" that copes with the climate.

Cows should feel happy enough to come within a metre of the humans in charge, so they take part in the selection process for new staff. Mark says the easiest staff to train are often those without previous stock experience, who haven't picked up bad habits like hurrying the cows.

"When we're interviewing people, we take them among the cows or into the shed and see how the cows react to them."

They employ a herd manager, a full-time milker and another full-time staff member, with casuals filling in the gaps through the season. It's a fairly labour-intensive farm with the different herds constantly crossing roads. In a good payout year, they will give local students holiday work to get a few extra jobs done around the farm. If they don't find the right people they will get contractors for jobs like fencing as that can work out cheaper than trying to do those jobs themselves.

Teaching staff the common sense approach also saves money, especially when they're a grass-only system and need to look after it well.

"It's little things like putting out silage to a consistent depth so all the cows can get it without making a mess of the paddock. It takes a lot of work to maintain habits and procedures with people. It's amazing how many people in dairying don't know how to take cups off properly or can't be bothered and that can cost you.

"We've got the stock and farm set up to function a certain way and we try to make sure staff are on board with all that. If everyone is doing things the same way, then the cows are going to respond in the same way. It's just about flow."

Lameness is a rarity, despite cows having to walk up to 3km to the dairy, and Mark attributes that to staff following procedures and giving the cows time to walk up and down the laneways. That saves time spent on lame cows and avoids hiccups in production.

‘We tell people we're trying to breed polar bears that are squat and round to cope with weather off the sea.’

All the little things add up so they become important in the big picture and that's the cost of production. The van Beeks use Cashmanager to track the cost of production or the "worry line". That guides them if opportunities arise through the season that weren’t part of the annual budget.

"You do the annual budget, but then there will be opportunities you see to make things easier for next season, so you can pull that into the budget and be happy to reap the benefit next season."

A lower payout this season will be tough, especially for the start of next season, Mark says, so they may go on to OAD for the entire herd sooner and encourage their staff to take their holidays a bit earlier.

"We would love to be able to hang on to the excellent staff we have at present and if we get all that to come together and stick to our system we should be able to hit the ground running for next season."

Mawhera Incorporation

Mawhera Incorporation is a stand-alone business that owns three dairy farms on the West Coast, land and buildings in Greymouth's central business district and the Arahura River up to its headwaters, along with its pounamu.

Its 1500-plus shareholders are whakapapa of the original West Coast landowners in the reserve areas that were vested to it by the Government in recent decades.

Chairwoman Natalie Win says Mawhera Incorporation's role is to manage the assets and take up opportunities as they arise, such as the Karamea dairy farm and joint ventures in Greymouth's business hub.

The Arahura Valley near Hokitika is always going to remain part of Mawhera Incorporation because of its historic connections, she says, so dairying is an obvious choice. With the addition of the Karamea farm, it now milks about 1350 cows on the West Coast.

Key points

Owners: Mawhera Incorporation
Sharemilkers: Mark and Debbie van Beek
Location: Arahura Valley, West Coast
Area: 300ha, milking platform 230ha
Herd: 580 crossbred cows, reducing to 500
Production: 205,000kg MS
Operating profit: $1700/ha
Operating farm expenses: Farm owner $1.11/kg MS, sharemilkers $1.80

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