| 35 nzdairy Calf rearing field day a big success The couple are in their third season of 100% farm ownership and this year have gone up to 520 cows from 480. Karen Phelps Te Awamutu farmers Michael and Lindy Bennett have recently hosted a calf rearing field day for Smaller Milk and Supply Herds (SMASH). The couple demonstrated how they have improved their calf rearing by brix testing the colostrum of the first milk. “This allows us to feed newly born calves milk with 22% and above colostrum, which helps their immunity so they are not so likely to succumb to disease,” explains Lindy. The focus on this came about after the Bennetts calves suffered from cryptosporidium and rotavirus in the couple’s first season on the farm in 2017 when they had 80 calves come down sick and lost 12. As proof, testing brix works this season they had three calves get navel infections and two of them did not have high enough colostrum first milk. The Bennetts are now doing a trial where they have blood tested 80 calves to test how well the colostrum was received. 73 of them were above the threshold of 52. Another win has been in condensing calving, which this year saw 392 cows calved in four weeks with over a 76% six week in calf rate. Good nutrition has been key. “Three years ago we brought on a nutritionist Grant Richards and technical sales representative Colin Munro from Blue Pacific Minerals, which has had a major impact in terms of herd health,” says Michael. “We started with soil and herbage tests and Grant came up with a brew for us and it’s really worked. We only had five cows with milk fever out of nearly 400 cows that have calved so far this year.” The high six-week in-calf rate has also been due to metrichecking the cows two weeks after they have calved and tail painting the cows a different colour every week once they come out of the colostrum mob. This helps them to identify and treat infections earlier. The couple are in their third season of 100% farm ownership and this year have gone up to 520 cows from 480 with no cropping on farm. The farm is 80ha and they lease another 70ha across the road. They have the use of a10ha support block in the area where they plan to use to make maize and grass silage and for winter grazing. Another big focus for the Bennetts has been on reducing lameness and mastitis. They have invested in a flood wash system for the feed pad and mastitis has dropped off hugely. DAIRY PEOPLE » Michael and Lindy Bennett Average somatic cell count has improved from an average of 164,000 to 144,000 last season. They have staphylococcus aureus in the herd as well, a mastitis based bug that’s spread from cow to cow, and serratia, which although it doesn’t spread from cow to cow it can spread through water meaning they cull cows with serratia also. The Bennetts employ two full time staff: “We’ve got a really awesome team on this year which makes such a difference,” says Michael. The couple have two children Abby, 3 years and Olivia, 5. The next goal is on paying down debt.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=