NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

112 | nz dairy DAIRY SERVICES » Gibson Construction Sheep, goat milking sheds ‘becoming big business’ Kelly Deeks M any years of doing the right thing have seen the services of Te Awamutu building firm Gibson Construction sought throughout the country in the rural, residential, and commercial sectors. “Our clients know what they’re going to get,” says Gibson Construction director Blair Atkinson. “We know what we’re doing and we’re leaders in our game, especially with innovation.” An extensive project portfolio, unrivalled knowledge, and outstanding craftsmanship are the results of Gibson Construction’s pursuit of building excellence. In the rural market, where Gibson Construction began back in 1998, the company rapidly gained significant market share and has continued to strengthen its position. “We are recognised as a dominant player in the cowshed building arena because of our reputation for quality and state-of- the-art building and system designs.” Gibson Construction has been just as quick to recognise opportunities in the construction of mod- ern dairy sheds, milking systems, and the related infrastructure of the burgeoning small ruminant dairy market. Te Awamutu based Gibson Construction is recognised as a dominant player in the cowshed building arena. “This is becoming a big business for us,” Blair says. The lesser environmental footprint of sheep and goat dairy farming as opposed to cow dairying is seeing dairy farmers, particularly in the Waikato with the nearby Maui Milk and Spring Sheep Milk Co, converting their cow sheds into sheep and goat milking sheds, and building goat houses on their cropping paddocks. Blair says the Waikato is changing, as five years ago the activity was all around cow dairying. “To get a land use consent to convert to cow dairying now is near on impossible,” he says. A cow shed conversion to small ruminant milking involves removing the cow bales, changing the pit size, and for sheep dairy, adding sheeting around the yards because sheep being sheep, if they see each other, they will try to follow each other. Small ruminant dairy construction is becoming a specialised area for Gibson Construction, whose many years of experience building cow dairy infra- structure has built a high level of knowledge within the company. “You’ve got to know how the animals flow. Most animals move the same way and do the same thing, apart from the sheep…” Gibson Construction has built two sheep milking sheds at Reperoa and Monavale for Spring Sheep Milk Co, and has three sheep conversions to com- plete this year. At the end of last year, Gibson Construction com- pleted a large goat farm infrastructure project at Waharoa, building two 14,000sqm goat barns which each house 3000 goats, and a brand new 80 bale goat rotary shed with another one earmarked for next year. The Waikato isn’t the only region where • to page 113 “To get a land use consent to convert to cow dairying now (in the Waikato) is near on impossible.” Working together to achieve your goals. Phone: 07 872 6444 Fax: 07 872 6446 Email: info@gfa.co.nz Website: www.gfa.co.nz Scott Schuurman Director / Operations Manager 021 429 858 scott@swsiteworks.co.nz 912A Ngahape Rd RD 3, Te Awamutu PO Box 3873 CALL TODAY 027 497 1020 | 07 377 2190 | arcengineering@xtra.co.nz • QUALITY DAIRY YARD FABRICATION • GENERAL ENGINEERING • ON SITE SERVCING • ALLOY AND STAINLESS REPAIRS • STRUCTURAL STEEL WORK • CERTIFIED WELDING Engineering Taupo LTD Effluent system solutions include solids bunkers, concrete tanks, stone traps, solids bunkers and Firestone EPDM lined ponds.