12 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Celene Taylor The ownership dream will soon be a reality Russell Fredric The dream of farm ownership will soon be a reality for Adam and Celene Taylor. For the past six seasons the couple have been 50/50 sharemilkers for Adam’s parents, Kevin and Lily Taylor on their 140 hectare farm at Tirau, Waikato, but on June 1 Adam and Celene will take ownership of the farm. Their herd comprises 420 cows of which 220 are registered Holstein Friesians. With Adam previously having been builder by trade and Celene working in hospitality, they never thought they would go dairy farming. Adam grew up on his family’s farm, previously a dairy unit, until his parents bought the farm in Tirau and converted their farm at Te Puke into dry stock grazing. “When we started dairy farming it was a massive change and a big learning curve,” Celene says.” “I was pregnant at the time with my oldest daughter and ready to have her in June, so we were heading straight into dairy farming fresh off the street and ready to welcome our first child.” Adam and Celene now have three children, aged to eight to 11. “We are just so happy that we have actually gotten to that stage in our lives now to be able to own a farm, and with real gratitude. It’s a big thing to accomplish.” They both love breeding cows. They have used CRV as their breeding company for the past 12 years and have a partner herd among their cows. “We do a few embryo transfers over our girls and they always give us the elite bulls to test over ours which has massively improved our breeding worth which was sitting around the 50 mark, but now is around 400.” Fonterra’s forecast farmgate milk price mid-point of $10 per kilograms of milk solids and forecast earnings of 55c to 75c per share for the current season is a welcome ray of sunshine that will make a big difference for Adam and Celene. The farm has a 36 a-side herringbone milking shed with newly installed automatic cup removers and automatic drafting, and employs a 2IC farm assistant. “It makes it a little bit easier for us now, but then we’re really wanting to make it future-proofed so that we can have a manager in the future.” The farm is currently run on a system two operation, but Adam and Celene are wanting to move towards system three to four, but this will require a feed pad to be built which is planned for after this year. “We just want to be able to breed better cows so that we can get that production gain.” Last season’s total production was 164,000 kilograms of milk solids from 390 cows. The farm is currently run on a system two operation, but Adam and Celene are wanting to move towards system three to four. Celene says she has always loved Holstein Friesians more than any other breed because they are a “better, stronger animal.” “I find they last longer.” Genetically, the focus during has been to breed a full Friesian herd. “We actually started off with probably half Jersey and a handful of Friesians, but we’re starting to get them back into Friesians.” The herd has always returned good somatic cell counts, but Adam and Celene are aiming to have more robust cows with greater milk capacity. EAST WAIKATOAG FOR ALL YOUR MILKING AND WATER NEEDS Luke 027 360 9436 admin@eastwaikatoag.co.nz 24 HOUR CALL OUT SERVICE
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