NZ Dairy Spring 2021

| 59 nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Peirce Family Farm / New Creek Jerseys The barn has added 132,000kg Milk Solids (220kg MS per cow) to the Peirce family’s production. brings flexibility to farm operation Diversity drives success Dianna Malcolm Fred Sorensen, 31, farms New Creek Jerseys at Okaramio, Marlborough. D airy, sheep and beef has allowed a mother and son duo to weather industry ebbs and financial flows, while making the most of a 1700-hec- tare property that redefines “steep”. Fred Sorensen, 31, and his mother, Lone, farm New Creek Jerseys at Okaramio – a small Marlbor- ough settlement that is nestled in the Kaituna Valley between Renwick and Havelock. Fred’s partner Emma Baker – and their one-year-old twins Harlan and Charlotte – complete this family operation. Their dairy unit includes two dairy farms operat- ing 15km apart up two different valleys. One milks 550 cows on 190ha (effective) milking through a 54-bale rotary. The second is a 350-cow herd (on 110ha effective) milked through a 34-a-side swingover herringbone. Both dairies have in-shed feeding and ACRs (Automatic Cup Removers). This enterprise isn’t for anyone who likes to sleep in. Because it also winters 1100 Romdale (Romney x Perendale) ewes, 350 hoggets, in addition to 200 Angus breeding beef cows and 50 replacement heifers. This year it will also rear 100 Jersey bulls to sell for breeding throughout the region. A new 16m bridge is also being built – thanks to some matured forestry – to make the most of an additional 25ha which used to be inaccessible to the dairy cows. The blend of livestock combined with their work ethic makes every corner of this property work, because it includes country where the hills are too vertical for a four-wheeler. It also gives them some welcome wriggle room if there is a downturn in any of the three businesses. “Everything complements each other quite well,” Fred said. So, we will make a bigger mix and keep them in the barn until the sun comes out and defrosts the paddocks. With the barn, our plans can just change to keep the cows comfortable, well-fed and safe.” They milk around 200-head through the winter, which has given some high producing cows a sec- ond life. “When we built the barn, I didn’t realise it would offer cows second chances,” Bridgette said. “Some of these high-producing cows are fantastic but they are putting it all in the bucket and they can’t do everything, which includes getting in-calf during peak milk. “If they miss that spring mating, but they’re real- ly great cows we carry them over, because they’re off-peak by the time autumn mating happens, and its highly likely they will get in calf second time round.”And, while the herd peaks at 600 for three weeks during the spring, the numbers don’t stay there indefinitely because they start drying off their autumn calves from early October. It means milking through the herringbone, which has Automatic Cup Removers, takes 2.5 to three hours. Bridgette says a rotary is in their future, but it’s not urgent.They grow about 60% of their feed, and source the balance off-farm. “We have huge feed costs from November through to January when we are making our silage, balege and hay for the winter,” Bridgette said. “But, obviously we’re not paying for grazing during the winter. “We try and make as much as feed as we can at home, and we’re careful with our grazing plan over the silage-making season.” Resting easy This is also a family with a big social con- science. Bridgette studied business management and she and her husband, James, own a mechanic business, MGM Auto 2014, in Gore with a dozen employees. In between raising their two children and the farm, Bridgette is heavily involved within the Na- tional Party in the Southland electorate – her side passion for the last eight years. Richard is a member of a discussion group of 12 barn farms working with Fonterra and DNZ. He is Chairman of the local Rural Water Scheme working on The Three Waters Reform Programme. Alex completed a building apprenticeship before he returned home, and his fiancée, Brinly Weller, is a beauty therapist who has taken to farming on her days off like a duck to water. “We wouldn’t be dairy farming if we didn’t have the barn, that’s for sure,” Bridgette said. “It was always going to ease our family con- science regarding cow care. And, now we fully appreciate its multiple seasonal purposes, which have been life-changing for us.” Proud to support New Creek Jerseys Locally owned & operated Paul 027 422 5893 | Phil 027 372 9864 | accounts@lesliecontracting.co.nz “When the dairy payout was absolute rubbish, the sheep and the beef almost carried us through because their prices were quite good at that time. On the flip side, the milk payout is not only good right now it comes every month, which fills in the gaps in the sheep and beef whose whole income comes in over four months. “The sheep hang in the hills,” Fred said. “You can’t drive a motorbike up there anywhere apart from on the track. And, I used to do a lot of motor cross when I was younger. So, I’m confident on a bike. I go around to other farmers who say they have hills, and I’m thinking, ‘You can still drive a four-wheeler around this hill’. Our hills are literally straight up and straight down. “That’s why we got the Perendales, because if you put them in paddock they’ll be at the top of the hill within 30 seconds. But they’re mad, and they also tested every fence on our farm. The Romneys wouldn’t graze to the top of the hills, but when we crossed them with the Perendales that was the mix that worked for us.” Both milking herds are Jersey. The 550-cow herd produced 233,000kg MS last season and the 350-cow herd did 150,000kg MS. It came in at a 450kg MS average. In-shed feeding includes 2kg of a combined mix of Palm Kernel and Dried Distillers Grain (DDG). Transport costs make wheat and barley undoable. Contract milker Asanka Gamage runs the 550- cow herd. The 350-cow herd comes under Fred’s care, along with the finances, the sheep and the beef. Three years ago, they put in the new rotary, which gave them a lot of additional hours in their days, because the old 30-a-side herringbone had no ACRs or in-shed feeding and it was gobbling up eight to nine hours every day. The 54-bale rotary design was also set up by Lone’s husband, Tony, who died of a heart attack just two weeks before they broke ground on the build. Fred was lower order sharemilking at the time. “We’ve really jumped forward with technology and infrastructure in the last three or four years. It was all stuff Mum and Dad had started, and Mum and I just finished it,” Fred said. Great season includes a Tsunami of work This season – outside of a late, wet spring – has New Creek Jerseys perfectly placed to capitalise on their commitment to workload. “We are poised to have an absolute cracker of a year. We just managed to take on another 52ha of lease land so we will be able to finish our lambs this year and keep 100 Jersey bulls and run them as well. However, that late spring will create timing over- laps in workload, and they are also gearing up to be chasing heir tails. They grow 12-14ha of Maize for silage, in addition to making 400 bales of hay (buy- ing in another 300). They get one cut of silage and they aim to cover 200-300 tonnes of pit silage. “Most of the time things go pretty smoothly. This spring has been a definite challenge because it’s been so wet. We’re quite delayed and that means we’re lining up to face a massive Tsunami of work that is all going to happen in a short amount of time,” Fred said.“We haven’t been able to do our ground work, so that may happen at the same time as tailing, and then mating will start. The fertiliser windows are also squeezing together in these first rounds.“We’d normally get a window to get a start on our ground work in August, when we would get our new grass in. This year, it’s rained all the way through August. We haven’t done anything. And, it’s been too wet to get too much fertiliser on. It’s bloody cold as well, and that will delay the baleage and silage season.”They have been grateful for leftover baleage and maize silage from last season, which has bridged the feed deficit on both fresh herds. “We’re 12% behind in production so far, but we’re also only six weeks into the season, and because it’s over such a short time frame we should be able to catch up,” Fred said.“While it’s definitely going to be busy once things warm up, overall it’s coming together pretty nicely.” Tractor Repairs & Spares are proud to supply New Creek Jerseys CONTACT OUR TEAM TODAY Renwick: 42 High Street | 03 572 5173 Seddon: 2 Wakefield Street | 03 575 7195 CON ACT OUR TEAM TODAY Renwick: 42 High Street | 03 572 5173 Seddon: 2 Wakefi ld Street | 03 575 7195