NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

94 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Rob & Sharon Klaus Calf rearing right fit for farming couple Friesian bull calves are weaned at 90kg and sent off the farm at 100kg. Virginia Wright N ow in their early 50’s it was a relatively straight-forward decision three years ago for Rob and Sharon Klaus to keep their cow numbers low in favour of Rob’s calf-rearing sideline. Eight years ago they were milking 160 cows on their original purchase of 60 hectares in Tetuhi Road just outside Matamata. A year later they upped their numbers when they leased 60 additional hectares from their neighbor and went to 280 cows being milked through two sheds. They bought that farm three years ago and decided to sub-divide, sell the house, the buildings and 26 hectares of it to another farmer -and to keep the remaining 95 hectares with 200 cows, split calving and a significant increase in the number of calves to be reared. “Obviously we had more land and more cows but our cowshed was too small and we didn’t want to spend a whole lot of capital,” explains Rob. “With 95 hectares we could have been milking up around 300 cows but we didn’t want to do that and calf-rearing seemed to be a good fit, so we build a purpose-built calf-shed and I’m now doing 200 calves in the autumn and 550 in the spring.” Given that he was already rearing 100 calves, including their replacements, Rob knew that calf- rearing could be quite lucrative if you get it right. “I do all the calves every day and Sharon does all the milking which I’m not really into, although I’m here to help with things and give her a hand to finish off once I’m done,” says Rob. “We didn’t want to get back into a staff situation and it’s all manage- able by ourselves. It works really well.” Rob sticks to Friesian bulls for his calf-rearing, knowing that he can get the calves early and secure a good contract for them in the spring. He’s surprised himself by how much he’s now enjoying it, which he puts in part down to the sim- ple fact that they’re already four days old when he gets them. “So you don’t really have to teach them to drink,” he explains. “The farmer I buy them off has already had to do that. When I get them we start by feeding them Cnr Tui & Tainui Sts, Box 48, Matamata p 07 888 7524 e admin@ag-worx.co.nz w w w . a g - w o r x . c o . n z » Water Pump Sales & Service » Water Reticulation System » Field Irrigation Systems » Spa Pool Sales & Service » Pool & Spa Chemicals and accessories » Water Filtration » Free Pool water testing Morrinsville | 07 889 5179 Matamata | 07 888 4840 or 0800 275 548 Email aslgeneral@xtra.co.nz ‘Trucking since 1945’ A S L Andy Smith Livestock Ltd Matamata / Morrinsville Livestock Cartage | Metal | Sand | Fertiliser twice a day for the first week, then once a day with as much meal and clean water as they want and by the time they’re 60kg they’re out in the pasture although they’re still on once a day and meal. Then they get weaned at 90kgs and a Hawke’s Bay beef farmer takes them at 100 kilos.” It sounds simple enough but there’s plenty of careful management and planning involved in get- ting it right, as well as some good, long-standing relationships which help Rob at both ends of the process. “I don’t travel around myself,” says Rob. “I work with Terry Howard. He’s a dairy farmer himself and a stock agentso he knows what he’s doing, and there’s bit of criteria we work with. I call it the BAND for short, so they have to be a Big size, be Alert, dry Navels with no infections, and no sign of Diarrheoa. “So he goes around the same 10 farms in the spring and brings me calves every Tuesday and Friday. There’s a lot of trust from my point of view given I’m the one paying for them but he does a good job and I work on only about 3% or 4% attri- tion.” On the other end Rob works with Dyer Livestock through their agent John Stevens who sorts out the contract usually with the same couple of Hawke’s Bay beef farmers. Rob has to take variations in the market into account because although the price of milk powder and meal stay more-or-less the same the price being asked for the calves he buys, and that being offered for the animal at 100kgs, can vary a lot. “Last year I got $500 an animal whereas the spring before I got $550 so that’s why you have to be careful,” he explains. “I always want the contract on paper by the end of June before I get the first calves. The contract gives an end price at the 100 kilos, and the number they want and there’s a time frame, so normally the first lot have got to be ready by the 20th October and they’ve all got to be gone by the 20th Novem- ber. It’s hard work for a few months but then it’s done, which I like. ” Calf rearing has turned into a lucrative business sideline for Matamata farmers Rob and Sharon Klaus.