NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

52 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Des & Colin Hickey Jerseys open borders for breeder Three generations: Colin and Nicola Hickey with Thomas (11), Makayla (9) and Des Hickey. Des with Jersey New Zealand’s Distinguished Member Award. Richard Loader W ith a farming history spanning over half a century, Des Hickey is a passionate and committed supporter of Jersey New Zealand, receiving the Distinguished Member Award in 2017. While saying commitment was without any real intention, he adds that he has enjoyed every bit of his involvement, which has taken him to countries like Albania, Colombia, Rwanda and Kenya, making life long friends along the way. Having attended every world conference since 1995 and numerous Bureau Annual Meetings dur- ing intervening years Des says through the Jersey breed he is assured of a bed in an awful lot of countries. “When I was younger I just thought that if I was going to milk cows I might as well milk cows I liked. I had grown up with the breed and liked their temperament. They’re a nice quiet cow, not too big and they’re easy to get in calf. There’s very little lameness and they’re lighter and easy to winter. They have the ability to produce their body weight in milk solids, which I didn’t know at the start but as time has gone on that has become very relevant.” Des grew up on his family’s small dairy farm in Waiuku that has been in the family since the mid 1860s. Going farming on his brothers’ farms in the locality straight from school Des managed to buy a herd of cows when he was 24 and went 50/50 sharemilking before purchasing his first farm in Te Kauwhata, northern Waikato, as a 28 year old, farm- ing there for 26 years. “I joined Jersey New Zealand in 1974 and registered the Kaitaka Stud, but it wasn’t till I came to Te Kauwhata that I started to buy calves. In 1978 I went out and bought a couple of pedigree heifers. One had a dead heifer calf and the other had a bull calf that went on the bobby truck. Three months later brucellosis testing came in and both heifers went to the works. That was my introduction to pedigree cows. So it got away to a slow start.” Des became increasingly involved in Jersey New Zealand, taking responsibility as a TOP Inspector — a position he held for 20 years right up to the start of Covid. He has judged on numerous on-farm competitions around the North Island and was on the National Board Expenses Review Panel. Unable to expand his farm in Te Kauwhata, Des and his son Colin moved to Morrinsville in 2004 where they began converting a dairy farm to a goat farm before selling their share in the venture two years later and moving back to northern Waikato. While Des leased farmland in Waiterimu from Transpower and continued to milk 150 pedigree jerseys, Colin decided to take time out to pursue other interests. In 2005, Des was the winner of the RAS Gold Medal for National All Breeds in-Milk Heifer com- petition and has had three JerseyJET elite animals. He is the only person to have had both dam and daughter achieve the elite status. When Colin returned to farming in 2014, he bought the farm from Transpower, and the herd. “I’ve had my turn running the farm and it’s Colin’s turn now. He wouldn’t want his father look- ing over his shoulder all the time. But I wasn’t ready to look at four walls in a retirement village. We built a little 100-sqm cottage on the farm and I still do all the AI, rear the calves, fix water troughs, mend fences, the general dogs body work.” The new BW rankings were released in February with Colin holding the number one herd in New Zealand. Where the grass is green, B&S has been Spreading of bulk lime, fertilisers & Urea Baggedfert delivery Bulk spreading off the ground GPS guided& Spreadmark Certified Semi solid & organic spreadingFeed pad/herd homes/effluent waste spreading 0274785917 | 078285829 Mc Connell Stafford-Bush & Associates Specialist Accountants to the Farming Sector Lynda McConnell Phone - 09 238 0699 Phone - 09 238 0699 Visit our website for a full list of services www.msbca.co.nz Σ Summing it upwithPractical Business Advice Proud to be associated with Des and Colin Hickey O ces Pukekohe and Waiuku