Friday, March 29, 2024

Halving the herd

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When Waikato dairy farmers Richard and Christine Lansdaal decided to split their 700-cow herd in two they had a lot of decisions to make about building a new dairy.
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“It had been at the back of my mind for some time, as we wanted to run our own unit with our daughter Megan. But 700 cows by ourselves was too much and 350 sounded great,” Christine said.

“Daylight saving starts too early and ends way too late and the cows were spending too much time walking to and from the dairy in the heat of the day and too long in the yard. It was too stressful for them. We thought both we and the cows would do better with two smaller herds and 350 cows is a convenient size.”

Richard believes there’s nothing wrong with milking 700 cows.

“We’d do it again if we were younger,” he said.

“But we’d done our dash. We didn’t want to get off the farm so we thought we’d restructure.”

The answer was to divide their Jersey herd in two and split the 206ha farm into two separate units. They decided two years ago to milk half their cows through their 48-bail internal rotary sited just down from their house and build a new dairy.

When it came to that planning they narrowed down preferred sites then chose an elevated position close to the road. That made it cheaper to connect electricity and easier for tanker access.

The site at the back of the farm has an entrance off their no-exit road, rather than the alternative of having to turn off and on to the busy Hamilton to Morrinsville highway. It also means both herds of cows have less than 1km to walk to the dairy to be milked rather than the previous distance of up to 2.5km they were doing twice a day.

The Lansdaals looked at dairies on other properties, noting features which they particularly liked, as well as plant from a number of different manufacturers. They would have loved to build exactly the same rotary again but when they decided to sign up a 20% sharemilker they realised a herringbone would suit their requirements better because it would be more suitable for teaching staff.

“We went for a 36-aside herringbone with all mod cons so it would be easy for the sharemilker,” Richard said.

“The number of cups was the hardest question to decide.”

The answer was to allow room for four more sets to be added in future if needed.

Builder Don Chapman from Morrinsville was hired to build the dairy once they agreed their final plan.

“We nutted it out and changed things about three times,” Richard said.

One piece of fine-tuning was taking weather conditions into consideration which saw them alter the angle of the building slightly to better suit the site.

Christine was adamant about having one long rectangular piece of concrete as the yard in front of the dairy to ensure good cow flow.

The pendulum gates from Leask Engineering make an easy exit to concrete bins where up to 2-3kg palm kernel/ cow/day is fed, depending on pasture availability.

About 4% of each farm is used to grow maize which is made into silage and fed out in the paddocks.

“We’re a DairyNZ System 2 farm but System 3 in a drought,” Richard said.

They chose Waikato Milking Systems plant, the same as in their rotary dairy. Automatic cup removers and an ADF teat care system, the same as they have installed in their rotary, were non-negotiable, they said.

They also added a Protrack drafting system rather than the full management system which could be updated in the future.

With new milk chilling regulations due in 2016 both dairies might have to be upgraded.

Green water is collected in a pond then used to floodwash the yard, saving time.

“It’s quick, easy and efficient,” Richard said.

Both herds are Stolle cows and need more handling to accommodate the Stolle process so suitable races and facilities were needed. A roof over the area was also installed.

‘We’re thankful we included all that we did. It’s really a one-person dairy because there’s no pressure and that means more production.’

Sharemilkers Gareth and Isabel Griffiths were interviewed when there was only a bare site where the new dairy was to be built. They employed one staff member at the start of last season but building delays meant the new dairy wasn’t ready in time for the herds’ July 8 calving date. The answer was to milk through Richard and Christine’s rotary for a month until the first pick-up from the new dairy on August 6.

“We had the farm, the staff but no dairy,” Christine said.

“Gareth was worried he couldn’t put the cows through the dairy to train them and he had to train heifers on our rotary.”

But once in the new dairy it took only four days to get two rows of cows happily milking.

“They didn’t like the smell at first,” she said.

“It was too new.”

In retrospect they say they should have sorted out the drainage system earlier on but were lulled into a false sense of security by dry weather during the first part of the build. There was also the issue of whether drainage would be additional to work on the dairy or earthworks.

A lined two million litre storage pond was built into the hill behind the new dairy where an existing pump was installed to pump effluent out to travelling irrigators.

When a neighbouring 20ha lifestyle block came up for sale six months ago it was too good to pass up so the Lansdaals bought it to add to the sharemilking block.

Gareth is now milking 375 cows, intending to increase to 400 in the next few seasons. But the Lansdaals intend to stay at 350 cows, instead concentrating on boosting the weights of their young stock, which have been grazed off the farm.

They have bought a new 235ha grazing property at Karapiro where young stock will be grazed under their management to reach target weights, along with their Jersey bulls.

“Our heifers have been under target weights and they have cost us a lot of money,” Christine said.

“We’ve missed out on a lot of production because they have been growing instead of milking in the first year.”

The Lansdaals’ herd is in the top 30 by Breeding Worth in the country and they contract mate cows for LIC and CRV Ambreed.

“We want to be in the top 10,” Christine said.

After achieving 1130kg milksolids (MS)/ ha with they’re targeting 1190kg MS for the home farm with Gareth aiming to go from 1132kg MS/ha to 1200kg MS/ha this season.

The Lansdaals also have a 360-cow, 128ha farm close by on Piako Road, which has a 36-aside herringbone and a 160- cow, 52ha farm at Tauhei where the 50:50 sharemilker is moving to a larger position next June. It has a 16-aside herringbone.

When it comes to the cost of the new dairy they put it at between $800,000 and $900,000.

“It doesn’t take long for costs to add up,” Richard said.

“But we’re quite pleased with how it all turned out. We’re thankful we included all that we did. It’s really a one-person dairy because there’s no pressure and that means more production.”

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