| 17 Couple heading for record production The pursuit of hybrid vigour, which sees the Friesians and Kiwi Crosses inseminated with Jersey genetics, has delivered a vigorous herd. Hugh de Lacy For a Wairarapa dairy farm constrained by limited irrigation and a policy of not buying in any feed, the past couple of seasons have been record-breakers, with contract milker Chris Hillier looking at production this season of 93,000kg/ms from 215 mixed-breed cows. Chris, with wife Amy, who has taken maternity leave from teaching to care for their new-born son Archie and his two-year-old sister Lucy, run the 69ha farm near Carterton owned by Bev and Neil Wadham. “The weather’s been brilliant this season, and we’re heading for record production – higher even than last season which was also a record,” Chris says. “It’s dried up enough lately that we’re back irrigating through the night due to daytime water restrictions using a sprinkler system moved in a circle by hand daily, and it takes about 10 days to get round the farm. “We’ve got a 40ha support block down the road where we rear all the replacement, and that provides all of our hay and baleage. “We make about a hundred big round bales of hay and about 500 bales of baleage, but that’s highly dependent on what the weather allows the paddocks to grow, and we’re in a spot where the rain seems to slip round the sides, missing us.” RURAL PEOPLE » Hillier - Wadham Chris runs the farm with regular meetings with the owners, and he has no plans to shift from the policy of not buying in feed regardless of the weather. “Obviously it takes a lot of planning, and the resultant cost savings are a bit of a bet on the weather remaining kind, but we’re confident we can keep running with the same number of cows gradually increasing individual production.” The key to those increases is careful culling, tight grass management, and the farm’s harnessing the power of the heterosis effect – hybrid vigour – by crossbreeding their herd over three main dairy breeds: Friesian, Jersey and Kiwi Cross. Chris runs a six-week programme of artificial insemination using genetics from the Livestock Improvement Corporation, then six weeks of Hereford bulls Hereford bulls afterwards to deal with cows that don’t take to the AI. The Herefords’ progeny are sold off on the seasonal calf market. The pursuit of hybrid vigour, which sees the Friesians and Kiwi Crosses inseminated with Jersey genetics, has delivered a vigorous herd where Chris says the improvement is “constant and real.” “The result is a herd comprising some straight Jerseys, some straight Kiwi Crosses and some straight Friesians, bringing together the best available genetics of all three breeds,” Chris says. “We record and condition-score meticulously, and ORDISH & STEVENS while it’s difficult to measure the improvement in performance over the short-term, because our system is so weather-dependent, the long-term production gains are indisputable. “We’ve seen our annual production rise over the past five years from 80,000kg/ms to over 90,000kg in each of the last two years.” Chris and Amy are still looking for the right 50/50 sharemilking opportunity, but right now they and the Wadhams are happy as things are. “The result is a herd comprising some straight Jerseys, some straight Kiwi Crosses and some straight Friesians, bringing together the best available genetics of all three breeds.” SPREADING WADHAM We are proud to support Hillier - Wadham Dean Wadham 027 480 4151 | wadhamspreading@xtra.co.nz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=