NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

78 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Lawn Hayes: John Totty Off farm, John still indulges his passion for hunting, fishing and diving. Family history shapes farming practises at Lawn Hayes • from page 76 Shorthorns were the favoured cows in the very early days of dairy farming in Staveley but with the introduction of the creamery and then cheese fac- tory, jerseys became predominant because of their high yield in butterfat. The Totty family was an early adopter of the jersey cow and John’s grandfather, Eddie, started a jersey stud in 1961. While the stud no longer exists, John remains passionate about the breed, and enjoys looking back at all the family lines. Eddie took over the reigns of the farm in 1941, with John’s father, Ian taking over in 1969. “Each generation grew and developed the farm and diversified the business, which included cows, sheep and arable farming. When growing up I con- sidered myself as much a sheep farmer as a dairy farmer. At one stage we ran 3000 ewes with 150 jersey cows. We’re now solely dairy with a jersey focus. I sold the last 20 sheep just recently.” Located dangerously close to the famous Stave- ley Store, renowned for jolly good coffee and date scones, Lawn Hayes lies just 30 minutes north of Ashburton heading towards the hills. The farm now encompasses 465-hectares/440- hectares effective, inclusive of a 130-hectare run- off where all cows are wintered. Four permanent staff milk 1000 cows, with an additional resource employed to manage the run-off. John was not entirely sure where his future lay when leaving school and completed a BCom at Dunedin University with the intention of pursuing a career as a financial stock trader or analyst. With the only good jobs in Sydney, John took a good hard look and what he really wanted to achieve in life and what was really important to him. “So I ended up hunting guiding in New Zealand and overseas for seven years, while also travel- ling as well. In 2015 I took a Dairy Assistant job in Dunsandel, enabling me to continue my hunting guiding. The following season I became the 2IC on that farm. That year the sharemilker was finishing up his contract on the home farm and in 2017 I decided to return home and buy the farm.” Since returning to the farm, John has made a number of key changes to improve productivity, performance and efficiency on the farm, investing all profits back into the farm for development. He is now beginning to see positive results. Changes have included off-farm grazing for young stock and changing the milking system to a 10 to 7 regime, effectively a fusion of classic twice a day and once a day milking. A reduction of paddocks and improved races has enhanced general farm management and this year the smaller of two herringbone sheds will be upgraded from 20-aside to 30-aside, complement- ing an existing 36-aside shed. Through all the hard work, John still manages to satisfy his passion for hunting, fishing and diving several weeks each year. “When growing up I considered myself as much a sheep farmer as a dairy farmer. At one stage we ran 3000 ewes with 150 jersey cows. We’re now solely dairy with a jersey focus.” AgraforumNZ is providing New Zealand farmers with the opportunity to increase quality and yield at reduced costs, by improving soil structure, reducing fertiliser and irrigation needs, and toughening up plants and crops, making themgrow better and produce more feed of higher quality. While working as a rural vet in Mid Canterbury, Agraforummanaging director Allan Piercy had a realisation that many of the animal health problems he regularly sawwere being caused by low quality food being grown in poor soil structure which needed increased fertiliser inputs to produce enough dry matter. “I knew these problems had something to do with the overuse of urea,” he says. “One of my bosses was one of New Zealand’s irst farmers to apply urea - he and his mates converted the irst urea spreader in Taranaki in 1983. After four or ive years, they all had trouble with their cows and their soil went hard. Yes they grew grass, but they also caused all sorts of problems.” Today, these problems are compounded by nearly 40 years of excessive application of salts, such as those found in most fungicides, insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides.“We’ve altered the electrical properties of our soil,” Allan says. “The resulting soil compaction has created an anaerobic environment where air-breathing microbiology is non-existent, and the circle of life begins to grind to a halt.” Allan got to work on inding solutions to correct the cause of the problem, namely Growing innovation with Agraforum poor soil structure and soil compaction, so farmers wouldn’t need to continue to treat the symptoms and continue to contribute to the problem. He scoured the world and discovered ComCat and then GSR Calcium, and his business has snowballed from there. Allan says calcium is the single most important mineral in the soil and without it, none of the others can do what they need to in order to achieve optimum plant production. “Think of calcium like the ‘Mother’ of the soil, sorting out con lict between the other elements. This then leaves the ‘Father’ (the phosphate) free to do all the work in carrying the minerals in the right order and ratio into the plant, ultimately giving it more energy to increase its growth, structure, and nutrient content.” Calcium uses its electrical power to adjust other mineral ratios and create a healthy soil that produces quality food, and to solve a wide range of soil induced problems, including weeds, insect attack, pH, salinity, erosion, and drought. All calcium however, is not created equal. Lime (Calcium Carbonate), Gypsum (Calcium Sulphate), Dolomite (Calcium Magnesium Carbonate) and Calcium Nitrate are blends which aren’t as potent as the extremely electrically powerful calcium in its pure form. “Like a very strong magnet, pure calciumwill immediately attract and bond with other elements nearby. GSR Calcium releases pure calcium into the soil and starts a chain reaction, rearranging the soil colloids, thus aerating the soil.” Growing Innovation • Fix Soil Compaction • Reduce Soil Nitrogen Inputs • Improve Animal Health • Increase Crop Yield and Quality • Reduce Irrigation Water Volumes 0800 488 118 www.agraforum.co.nz