24 | nzdairy Target of a 10% reduction by 2028 Richard Loader DAIRY PEOPLE » Jared Crawford and Paramount Dairies For the past six seasons Jared and Sara Crawford of ‘Paramount Dairies’ have worked on beautiful Lamorna, one of a group of dairy farms owned by NZ Super Fund. The farm is located at Orari, between Ashburton and Timaru and this year is home to 2000 cows after reducing from 2200 to help reduce brought in feed and GHG and to achieve the in-house target of a 10% reduction by 2028. The property converted to dairying 21 years ago and stretches 524ha over fertile flat South- Canterbury pasture. “NZSF bought the farm in 2022, one of two dairy farms and a support block purchased from a private land owner and now part of the FarmRight Management group. Lamorna was developed with excellent infrastructure and environment for staff to enjoy working on, including a 100-bale rotary, several homes, good roading and races. It’s a pleasure to live and work on the property that has garnered a huge reputation in the district,” says Jared. The herd is a mix of Friesian/Friesian X stocked at a rate of 3.8 cows/ha. Since NZ Dairy last spoke with Jared, the staffing situation had remained the same with a team of nine; a mix of overseas and kiwi workers. The farm shares a support block to winter graze the herd at Pleasant Point, with another one of the NZSF farms. For the first time, this year 4.5ha on-farm has been planted in fodderbeet to assist with transitioning the cows before they head off to the wintering block. Drying off is expected to commence about 20th May and will be handled in two or three different stages. We are now using more cross-bred bulls across the herd during Ai and there’s been a focus on trying to get the live-weight and milk production insync. “This is also the first year we have had Allflex collars so we AI’d right the way through with no bulls. For the first six weeks our lower 25% are put to Charolais and from week 7 we use short gestation semen. We mate for a total of 11 weeks. Asked his assessment of the overall farm, Jared says it is an extremely well set up property. There’s a plan to undertake more plantings for shade and shelter on the farm. The farm shares a support block to winter graze the herd at Pleasant Point. “When the farm was converted and centre pivots were introduced a lot of trees were taken out, so that’s a focus for us annually to enhance the farm further.” Since the NZ Super Fund took over two pivots have been replaced and long line sprinklers replaced with solid set sprinklers which are a lot more efficient. “We’ve enjoyed a really easy irrigation system, though depending on water hardness and the quality of effluent running through, there is the need to maintain the system’s infrastructure.” The decision to invest in the collars was a prudent one Jared says. “I pushed for them for a couple of years, given we’re performing in the top % for milk production, I could see we had the ability to recoup the cost. We’re a lead farm, so other farms in the network will be looking at what we achieve with the introduction of this technology.” Prior to the collars being introduced to the herd, Jared and a couple of his senior team, went on a course to learn how to get the best from the clever tools. “That learning in turn pushed down to the junior guys, in areas such as animal health alerts and what to do if collars are missing. The big tell-tale for us will be when we do our final scan.” And the impressive milking shed has put through a significant number of revolutions with the size of the herd put through. Jared says the plan is to undertake a full service of the very reliable Milfos plant. Each Monday a weekly checklist is worked through to ensure the infrastructure is operating at peak. BDC - Working with Jared Crawford & Paramount Dairies • General Excavation • Dairy Conversions • Dairy Lane Development and Maintenance • Drain Clearing • Stump and Tree Removal • Digger 4-25 Ton • Truck & Trailers • Bulldozer • Mobile Shingle Screen Phone 0800 343 551 blake@digger4u.co.nz EXCAVATION / LAND DEVELOPMENT www.pyegroup.co.nz KEN CAIRD SALES m 027 268 4299 k ken@pyegroup.co.nz JAYDEN WARNER OPERATIONS m 027 686 1173 k jayden@pyegroup.co.nz Baling | Chopping | Mowing | Feeds Sales | Beet Harvesting | Cultivation | Drilling | Cartage | Effluent Your Agri business partner we partner with you so you can focus on doing what you do best. Give Brent a call for a free no obligation chat to find out how we can help you reach your full potential. Brent Love T: (03) 683 1871 | M: (027) 528 1537 | E: blove@kpmg.co.nz kpmgenterprise.co.nz | facebook.com/KPMGFarmEnterprise Lamorna Farm is one of 11 dairy farms in the Canterbury FarmRight collective. Other farms are scattered across Waikato and Southland. “It’s a very well governed and managed network of farms. Each farm operates independently, however we all run with an open book so we can all benchmark against each other as well as share strategic goals, such as reducing emissions.” With kind weather-gods Jared says his farm has enjoyed solid pasture production most of the season. “We haven’t had to use as much irrigation and the property has maintained very well which transfers into good animal health and milk production and happy stress-free staff.”
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