NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

64 | nz dairy No more staff on the vet stand looking for the cows to be AI’d offers a huge saving in labour as well as improving results. “If someone’s sitting up there for six weeks they’ll be getting fatigued for the back half of that and their hit-rate will be a lot less, so we won’t have that,” explains Alan, “and DAIRY PEOPLE » Alan Harvey: Borst Holdings Least likely dairy farmer now ‘into it’ Virginia Wright A lan Harvey reckons that if you asked his friends from university who was least likely to end up on a dairy farm it would be him – but two years ago when he heard about the job going as farm operations manager for a combination of four dairy units near his own sixth generation sheep and beef farm it was too good an opportunity to ignore. “I thought it would be a good chance to try something different,” he explains. “My home farm isn’t quite an economic unit so I do need some outside work, so I changed profes- sions and now I’m into it.” Borst Holdings runs 3400 crossbred cows over 1000 hectares of dairy and 950 hectares of runoff scattered around North Otago from Five Forks to Weston. It’s split into four units with a new manage- ment structure planned for the new season, as Alan explains. “We’re going to have a share-milker on each unit instead of the two share-milkers and two farm managers we’ve got now.” Alan will work with the share-milkers oversee- ing what’s happening on each of the farms and especially how they’re producing. “Everyone has their strengths and weak- nesses,” he says, “so the challenge for me is to work towards their strengths and help out with any weaknesses and to ensure they’re working with our system and its policies, even though everyone will have their own spin on it.” Borst Holdings is a year-round milking, high pro- duction, reasonably high input farm system. Alan’s focus is on growing a better cow and he intends to make good use of technology to help achieve that. They’re already using sexed semen and along with the other changes coming in with the winter season at the start of June is an Allflex collar for each of the cows. “We’re already pretty picky about which cows we use for our replacements,” says Alan, “and then the collars will take the guess-work out of heat detection and we’ll be submitting all the cows for AI at the right time.” Alana Harvey is operations manager for Borst Holdings, four dairy units running 3400 cows. SH 1, Pukeuri Junction, Oamaru 9436 | 03 431 3760 027 433 8030 | 03 431 3764 | www.stillsfarmmachinery.co.nz Proprietors: Kerry & Raewyn Still • Hydraulic Hose Repair Service • All Makes & Models of Machinery • Tractor & Farm Machinery Repairs in Workshop or on Farm We always start by doing the groundwork. Our solutions start from the ground up. To increase your yield you need a tailored solution that takes everything into account, fromyour soil, to your rotation plan, to your stock, to the colour of your gumboots. We develop unique end-to-end solutions for each customer, working smarter, byworking together. wholesaleseeds.co.nz PROUD TO WORKWITH ALAN HARVEY AND BORST HOLDINGS ON CALL 24/7 0800 434 840 • APPLIANCE REPAIRS & SERVICING • SECURITY CAMERAS SYSTEMS • DAIRY SHED & PLANT • IRRIGATION • DOMESTIC SERVICES • COMMERCIAL SERVICES • HEAT PUMPS & VENTILATION Civil/Earthworks and Irrigation Chris 0272249424 | chris@ssg.co.nz Building and Construction Mark 0276152700 | mark@ssg.co.nz Proudly supporting a highly valued client, Borst Holdings Civil/Earthworks, Irrigation & Building/Construction Specialist. At SSG we o er our clients turn key solutions and will help with any sized project. We are based in North Otago and service the central South Island region. r l rti i l l li t, r t l i i il/ rt r s, Irri ti il i / str ti i list. t r r li ts t r s l ti s ill l it si r j t. r s i rt t s r i t tr l t Isl r i . then we’ll AI for longer but we won’t bring bulls on farm so that’s another huge saving.” It’s the arrival of those collars on the 1st of June that Alan’s looking forward to the most along with getting all the share-milkers on board. In the mean- time they’ll be starting to batch-dry cows from May onwards and Alan will keep working on balancing his time better between his new job and his home- life, which got a lot busier five months ago when his partner Alice gave birth to their baby daughter Ella. ”Obviously they’re only young once and I’ve just got to enjoy it when I can,” he says.