| 33 Significant investment in Allflex collars Cows are housed from May to September, feed a TMR diet of grass silage, maize silage, lucerne silage, grain, soya and minerals. Kelly Deeks Mid Canterbury’s Barwell Farm, a family farm whose cows are housed and winter milked, has recently made another significant investment and hopefully a meaningful step forward in production with the application of Allflex monitoring collars in September. Barwell Farm has been run by TJ, Mark, and Mark’s wife Stacey Stewart since June 1, 2021. They bought the equipment and the herd, which today peaks at 550 cows, and lease the 218ha farm from David and Maree Stewart. The farm includes a 140m x 70m freestall barn which was built in 2013 to house the cows and improve their winter milking programme. If that’s the good news, the bad news was on May 30, 2021, the farm was flooded in one of the worst rainfall events the Ashburton region has seen for 200 years. The farm at Greenstreet lies between the north and south branches of the Ashburton River, and had 14.5ha buried under riverbed rubble, a further 20ha of pasture under deep layers of silt, stones, and trees, and 15km of fencing was wiped out. “The year we took over the farm was supposed to be our year but when the flood happened, we pretty much wrote it off,” Stacey says. “But we actually had a really great season. We had a huge amount of support from our local community, and we got all of our land back apart from 3.5ha. It was an amazing recovery, and the help we were given was absolutely critical.” Now focused on their succession plan and refining their winter milk programme, the Stewarts have invested in Allflex collars and got rid of their bulls. With heat detection data at their fingertips, the Allflex collars have allowed them to lose one labour unit, meaning Maree now gets a sleep in rather than heading to the shed at 5am to check for bulling cows. Against advice, they got rid of their bulls straight away, thinking if they were going to have this technology, they were going to use it. All mating is now AI, which suits the winter milking programme in particular, reducing the risk of injury for cows being ridden on wet, slippery ground. DAIRY » Stacey and Mark Stewart STACEY AND MARK STEWART New Zealand Certified Builders Association CB Construction LTD - New Builds - Additions - Alterations - Farm Buildings Pleased to be associated with Stacey and Mark Stewart OFF-ROAD LIVIN’ PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH STACEY AND MARK STEWART ashburtoncanam.co.nz 445 West Street, Ashburton, 7700 64 3-307 4846 james@ashburtoncanam.co.nz Stacey says signs of heat activity can be harder to pick up in the barn, and also observing activity to detect heats can be a bit hit and miss. “Cows don’t become fertile until they hit the peak of their fertility window and stop their activity. A lot of people AI based on heat activity, and it is often too early. With these collars providing us timely insights into each cow’s reproductive status, we can identify the optimal time to inseminate.” The Stewarts are leasing their Allflex collars, giving them the ability to upgrade at the same pace as the technology progresses. Winter milking with Synlait has been going so well for the Stewarts since the barn was built, that the family was getting up towards a 70/30 split of autumn and spring calvers. This season, with a high milk payout and a restricted premium on winter milk, they have opted for a 50/50 split, with 600kgs milksolids per day of winter milk. Mark and Stacey Stewart milk 550 pedigree holstein freisians, calving twice a year.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=