26 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Chris & Desiree Giles Emphasis back on The Giles Clan: Alan, Debbie, Chris, Desiree Giles. Front: Danielle and Andrew Giles. Bottom: Waimumu Downs. Virginia Wright It’s been nearly 10 years since Chris and Desiree Giles made the initial purchase of a 147 hectare sheep and beef farm just out of Gore, converted it to dairy, and named it Waimumu Downs. With the most recent purchase of the 89 hectares next door, which they’d been leasing for five years, Waimumu Downs has grown to 269 hectares milking 580 Jersey cows wintered. Originally an old DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) research farm it borders the town boundary and came complete with old glasshouses and garages including the still operational Met Service weather station. The things that attracted DSIR research to the land also work for a modern dairy farm. It’s quite heavy land with good soil on rolling contours and not very free draining which means the Giles have taken steps to deal with potential pugging. “We do make mud in winter so we’re getting away from crops, spreading the cows out, and make sure we have a good root structure under the cows with plenty of grass.” They graze their 140 each of heifers and calves on older, established pasture with root structure sufficient to hold the soil together, avoiding more recently cultivated paddocks. After trialing various mixes of oats, moata, clover and the high-protein vetch with good results they were still making a lot of mud so now they stick solely to whole grass paddocks with excellent results. Their emphasis is on making their own quality baleage and they generally get two cuts off their paddocks before Christmas, cutting it while it’s still quite short and leafy, applying more fertiliser and letting it take off again. “We get the bailage off the paddocks we’re going to graze in winter so we do another graze or a bale in March then shut it up start of April and start feeding it off in May, June,” says Chris. “We’re constantly moving the cattle, so unless there’s torrential rain there’s very little mud. Normally it would have been in crop which doesn’t grow back but with just doing grass and bailage we get another one or two grazings before we work it up in November for the new grass.” Meanwhile they winter 400 cows on the wintering pad making the most of their home-grown silage. Their system, working their way round the older paddocks on the farm for winter grazing, with a rotation of between 10 and 12 years, depends on having a revolving run-off which changes every year. “Everything’s central to the cowshed so we can milk off our furtherest paddocks. We milk off the better stuff and rotate the animals around the rest of the paddocks,” says Chris. It’s the information they get from a Tasmanian programme ‘Pasture IO’ which makes it all possible. “It’s pasture measurements using satellites and it works really well,” says Chris. “It helps us identify our yields and growth rates on each paddock.” With paddocks measuring 6.8 hectares having this accurate information is an essential part of their 24-hour grazing system. Their focus on being self-contained, always trying to push surpluses to grow enough feed on farm for the winter, combines with their fluid response to conditions almost day-to-day, to give them the results they’re after. “We’ve been at 450/ 460 kgs but this year we should be doing about 480kgs of milk solid per cow,” says Chris. Put that together with no down cows, no milk fever, and healthy calving rates and it’s clear the Giles’ system works, and a stack of awards show that it’s good for the environment too. They’re looking forward to a couple of years of status quo, keeping those systems in play, while they wait to see what they might have to tweak in the wake of any further government regulations. “We’re constantly moving the cattle, so unless there’s torrential rain there’s very little mud. Normally it would have been in crop which doesn’t grow back but with just doing grass and bailage we get another one or two grazings before we work it up in November for the new grass.” Your electrical and refrigeration specialists in Southland and South Otago • Farm vat refrigeration and pre cooling • Heatpumps • Dairy services • All electrical maintenance and installation Hayden Baxter 027 765 8427 or Hamish Heaslip 027 215 0362 contact@handh.co.nz 0800 SGTDAN (748326) Gorton Street, GORE Ph: 208 3965 E: admin@sgtdan.co.nz Email: mikedynescontractingltd@gmail.com Earthmoving & Drainage Contracting Throughout West Otago/Eastern Southland Proud to support Chris & Desiree Giles • Farm Drainage • Track Maintenance • Silage Stacking • Conversion Work • Root Raking • Rock & Gravel • General Maintenance
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