68 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Walsh Enterprises Rewards are worth it Virginia Wright In a scenario neither of them would have imagined when they met and married over 20 years ago as they each embarked on a career in teaching, Mike and Susan Walsh are now into their 11th season working alongside Susan’s father John Walsh in the family dairy business known as Walsh Enterprises. Mike is Operations Manager, and while he doesn’t necessarily enjoy the paperwork side of things he’s found farming on the self-contained unit just out of Morrinsville surprisingly to his liking. Mike and Susan live next door to the 163 hectare Home Farm on Maungatapu Rd milking 430 Fresians. Along the road towards Matamata the Cuff Road farm milks 230 A2 Friesians and the system is supported with a 26 hectare run-off where they run their 110 rising 2 yr olds. 13 hectares of the home farm are a recent acquisition from a neighbouring farm which became available once it was transferred onto a separate title. Known as D block it adjoins the original farm Operations Manager Mike Garrud. Servicing the Waikato since 1932 Milking Machines | Water Pumps | Effluent Systems hutchies.co.nz 12 Canada Street, Morrinsville 0800 HUTCHIES 57 Great South Rd, Taupiri 0800 488 244 PROUD TO SUPPORT WALSH ENTERPRISES Paul Steiner C o n t r a c t i n g L t d ž Drain Cleaning, New Drains & V Drains ž Bridge Installation ž Race Work ž Truck & Trailer Hire ž Tractor & Scoop Hire ž Excavator, Bulldozer & Grader Hire ž Site work & Demolition ž Effluent Pond Construction ž Cattle Underpass Installation ž Metal, Sand, Fertiliser & Lime Cartage FOR ALL DRAINAGE & EXCAVATION 13 Keith Camp Place, Morrinsville Ph: 07 889 3143 or 0800 763 869 | A/Hrs: 027 497 6386 and although in pasture this year, last year they grew maize on it. “We didn’t increase our cow numbers at all but we used it to grow surplus feed which gave us some breathing room to get through what was a really dry season. Even though we went through 100 ton of maize more in the autumn than we would normally we got through,” explains Mike. Now part of what is roughly a four-year rotation designed to allow them to improve any paddocks identified as needing a boost in quality, D block is in long perennial pasture and the maize crop moved elsewhere. “We like to grow the maize on farm and we don’t want to do it in the same place every time so by moving it around we have less damage to the soil structure and at the same time we improve our pastures,” says Mike. Not all the paddocks on their milking platform are croppable and the four year rotation is for anywhere between 15 and 25 hectares of planting a year. The new 30-a-side herringbone cow shed under construction on the Cuff Road Farm will include automatic cup removers making the milking process easier for the contract milkers who next season will see an increase in cow numbers from 230 to 260 and a planned increase to 280 the season after that. “We’re removing the young stock off that farm and bringing them to the home farm making use of D block, and making the production on Cuff Farm more efficient,” says Mike. They’re retrofitting automatic cup removers in the Home Farm’s 36-a-side herringbone as well, so that if necessary one person could manage milking their 430 cows, although it’s usually a two person job. For Walsh Enterprises as for so many dairy farms the biggest issue they face is staffing, so as well as making things more efficient on a practical level they’ve changed to a five and two roster and taken on an extra staff member. “It’s a little early to tell but it certainly seems to be appealing to the workers we’re advertising to rather than the traditional 12 and two. It seems more people would like to have a better work-life balance,” says Mike. He’s looking forward to starting the new season fully staffed and having both farms performing well with the smaller, flatter Cuff Road farm heading towards 400 kgs of milk solids per cow, and the Home Farm trending towards a reliable 350 kgs per cow. “We like to grow the maize on farm and we don’t want to do it in the same place every time so by moving it around we have less damage to the soil structure and at the same time we improve our pastures.”
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