| 77 Bull beef operation another income stream Susana Khan-Calf Rearer. Heifers grazing on Pamu’s Eyrewell Dairy unit. Dairy assistant Jordan, 3IC Alana and Dairy production manager David Senior. Russel Fredric DAIRY » Eyrewell Dairy Reducing cows numbers while still remaining profitable is part of a strategy to carry Pamu’s Eyrewell Dairy unit into the future of a lower emissions business model. The 424 hectare farm previously peaked milked 1000 cows, but now milks 700. To compensate for the difference it has bull beef operation that supports 175 R2 bull beef calves and 175 yearlings on a run off, while heifers are run on farm in their own designated area on the 424ha. The cows are milked through a 60 bail rotary shed with automatic cup removers, Milkhub technology and in-shed feeding and are being bred towards being an A2 herd. Business manager Brendon Stent manages Pamu’s five Canterbury dairy farms, two of which have A2 herds. “We are breeding to develop the whole five farms into A2. We are using low N (nitrogen) and low greenhouse gas bulls through CRV. The theory behind some of those bull breeds are that they’re going to produce less nitrogen and less greenhouse gasses,” Brendon says. Part of the plan on Eyrewell is to rear and grow out young stock including bobby calves and keep them on the farm as a means of reducing in total milk production, but to add beef as another income stream from the farm system. “The reason we dropped the cow number down to where we are today was to diversify to reduce nitrogen leaching. We graze under pivots and produce a lot of fodder beet and winter on farm so we are controlling our whole nutrient loading. That was the main driver of why we changed the system.” The farm has been transitioning to this system during the past three years with initial assessement of its viability including biological modelling along with training staff to understand a bull beef system. While there is a regulatory framework to operate under, Pamu also has its own strong commitment to care for the land, water, livestock and the overall environment. This includes excluding imported ingredients such as palm kernel expeller (PKE) and a focus on reducing synthetic nitrogen Supplementary feed comprises grass silage, maize and fodder beet and lucerne. Every paddock is soil tested and because the lucerne is grown under the pivots, no nitrogen is used on these paddocks. The farm supplies Synlait and is involved in its Lead With Pride programme which focuses on environmental, animal health and welfare, milk quality and social responsibility. Membership is subject to annual audits by AsureQuality. Managed by Mahraaz Hussein, Eyrewell Dairy employs four full-time staff, plus two calf rearers during the calving season. Of the 350 bull calves on the farm last season 260 were wintered to be grown to premium weight and sold to Silver Fern as grass-fed prime beef, however the number carried this season has been cut by 50%. This means that although 185 bull calves are now reared annually, during the crossover of the seasons there are actually double this number on the farm. Last season’s milk solids production averaged 390kgMS per cow however this was lower than usual due a challenging spring and a staff shortage, Mahraaz says. “This year we’re targeting to do 420 [kgMS] a cow. The start of this season was quite good, we had a full team on, everyone knew what they were doing so it started off well.” The preferred milking systems partner for Dairy Farmers Ph 0800 577 583 | www.morrisonagri.co.nz Proud to support Eyrewell Dairy Celebrating over 100 years in business
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=