| 15 Paul and Lesley Grey. RURAL PEOPLE » Paul and Lesley Grey “We’d actually rung a land agent about another farm in the Waikite Valley and they gave us a heads up. We drove around it with him, and it went from there. It was the sort of farm that we wanted in the location we wanted.” They brought a Friesian herd and “basically got started”. Dairy farming is in Paul’s blood, along with a passion for Friesians.“I was 13 when my father went back farming and he was share milking. “He moved to Papakura and share milked on a town milk farm and had a Friesian herd.” “That’s where the love of Friesians came from.” His father joined Holstein Freisan New Zealand in the mid-1970s, and Paul himself became a full member in 1986. “That was when the interest really started to fire.” Traits that he bred for were udder health, capacity, fertility and foot health. “A cow needs to have good feet.” And maintaining udder health was critically important. “They’re carrying a lot of milk in the udder, so I don’t want them breaking down before they get to their best years.” It was early days to tell how the herd was developing. “It’ll really be another couple of years where you really start to know whether you are heading down the right track. “With breeding, it doesn’t happen overnight. “I’ve been playing around with Friesians for years. You can have just as many disappointments even as a well-established breeder.” Owning the farm had given him a chance to trial things and be a bit bolder. That included trying out different AI suppliers. “In share milking ... I felt that staying with the crowd I could be limiting some choices and Atiamuri Dion 027 2911 269 Hayden 027 277 8626 SPECIALISTS IN: Livestock Cartage • General Cartage • Excavator & Bulldozer Hire 021 272 3646 advantages. “I’ve started to do a bit more homework on what might better for us. We reap the benefits of what we get right.” While they are not looking to build up the herd size, they are looking to build the best Friesian herd they can.“Everything’s just going to Friesian and we are just targeting 550kg – 500kg maximum. “We’re focusing more on better output and better producing cows.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=