92 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Whakatohea Charolais beefs up cross-bred herd Sue Russell These past nine years Josh Collier has been managing a dairy unit near Opotiki owned by Whakatohea Maori Trust Board. As such, Josh is responsible for overseeing staff and farm management practices. It’s a role he enjoys for its variety and challenges. “It’s a very busy operation. This season we’re calving down 760 cows and over recent years we have shifted our breeding policy a bit, introducing a bit of Charolais into the AI, to complement our beef side of the farming operation with good solid coloured calves. With the cross-bred herd we have the Charolais producing quite a nice calf and very good growth rates.” Calves are reared on the farm until 100kg in weight and then shifted to a nishing block 1 ½ hours drive inland. Josh is pleased that the reproductive performance of the herd has improved with 74% six week in-calf rate. “We have dropped our empty rate and it’s settled at 9% for the past four seasons, so I’m pleased with that because it used to be much higher.” Adopting a no carry-over policy has contributed signi cantly to this drop. Josh is also pleased to see that the farm’s heifers are coming in right on their best weight for rst time in-calf. The herd is split into two mobs prior to mating with the rst and second calvers mixed in with any cows over nine years of age and any lighter cows these are kept closer to the shed to keep their walking distances to a minimum the rest of the cows aged four to eight years tend to do more of the walking. There is an adult learning programme through the iwi of supporting people within the tribe to gain important numeracy and literacy skills. Josh says this has been a very good thing, giving them the tools to then step into learning situations, such as taking up farm working life. Josh Collier has clocked up nine years managing the dairy unit for Whakatohea Maori Trust Board. “Even just ensuring they have a driver’s licence is a big thing. We also have students from the local high school. You can pick up pretty quickly when someone shows an aptitude for farm work. What’s important I’ve found is that its critical for those working on a farm to like animals, so that’s where we start them off.” The farm has a 60 bail rotary with protrack, automatic cup removers and teat spraying systems. We have four full time staff including myself and one casual, we also employ two extra calf rearers to help rear the 650 odd calves we rear each year. our calving roster is ve on two off – six on one off before we switch to an 11 on 3 off roster for the remainder of the season staff usually get two rostered sleep ins during their 11 day on.” Milking has switched from twice a day to a three milkings in two days in early January. Josh says it seems to be good for both the staff and cows especially as the summer temps climb. Asked what goals he’s set for himself and the farm now he’s been on it nearly a decade Josh says there’s still plenty to do, including environmental improvements. “We’re starting to plant our waterways and have so far planted two kilometres in conjunction with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. There’s still thee kilometres to do.” He describes the farm system as quite robust and feels there’s potential to improve milk production and get the herd to 430kgMS/cow each season. DNA testing is assisting with this and informing cow selection decisions. And Josh says he has some of his own learning to complete in the form of a couple of papers to complete his Diploma in Agri Business through Primary ITO. “I have struggled a little bit with the zoom meetings form of learning.” Josh is also pleased that he’s become involved in the DairyNZ Eastern Bay of Plenty Maori discussion group. “Intermingling with other Maori trust farm has been worthwhile and very enjoyable and the group has been operating these past three years.” www.rmt.co.nz E. dispatch@ rmt.co.nz P. 07 315 6454 (Opotiki Depot ) Proud to supply logistics and transport solutions to Whakatohea Carriers of Kiwifruit packaging – Bins – Export fruit – Shipping containers – Bulk fertiliser – PKE and animal supplements Agent for Graymont Lime Agricultural Spreaders available (Opotiki / East Coast / Matawai) MPI Approved Transitional Facility (27901) – AS/NZS ISO 9001:2015 0274 749 813 / 07 315 4613 admin@wbeltd.co.nz Opotiki EARTHMOVERS LIMITED
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