NZ Dairy Summer 2020

50 | nz dairy We believe Silver Fern Farms can create positive change for our environment, our people, and our communities. We care deeply about doing the right thing and doing it well, striving every day to be the world’s most successful and sustainable grass-fed red meat company. All New Zealanders should be able to eat red meat, and we’re proud to support Meat the Need in making that a reality. Contact your Silver Fern Farms Livestock Representative today to learn more. Get in touch with your local Livestock Rep to donate ON FARM » James & Shannon Burke J ames and Shannon Burke moved one step closer to their ultimate goal of farm ownership earlier this year when they took up the role of 50/50 Sharemilker on Bruce and Lesley Gordon’s farm next door to their previous position in Ngatea. With 12 years industry experience behind them they’ve spent the last seven contract milking, most recently variable order sharemilking for the Town- shend family, and they’ve just started their current three-year contract, sharemilking 400 cows on a 125 hectare milking platform. “The Gordon family are great farm owners to deal with,” says James. “They keep in touch and we plan ahead so everything flows well. It’s a similar system to our previous one so basically, we’re trying to grow and harvest as much grass as possible whether that’s by the cows eating it or putting it in a stack or a bale. We make strategic use of nitrogen where it’s needed but we’re trying to keep costs as low as we can while optimizing the grass utilization.” James describes their system as somewhere between a two and a three. They’re not pure grass but they aim to limit what they bring in. In the past they’ve used a lot of Palm Kernel, this year they’ve planted four hectares of Turnips to help cut their costs back. “Turnips cost us somewhere between 10 and 15 cents a kilo of dry matter,” explains James. “So that’s obviously a lot better for us versus buying in palm kernel which is at least 30 cents a kilo.” James and Shannon supply Fonterra and are firm supporters of the farmer co-op model. “I believe we need to stick with the co-op model for the whole fu- ture of the dairy industry in New Zealand, because I don’t think the corporate style of milk processing overseas works that well for suppliers, whereas with Fonterra we’re guaranteed a fair milk price.” They’re considering boosting their numbers to 420 cows next year in their predominantly Jersey herd. “We’re on heavy marine clay soil here so the lighter, smaller cows give us a lot less pasture dam- age and they’re easier to manage. More animals mean more feed but if you look at a per kilogram of feed per live weight it probably works out the same,” explains James.“Also with Jersey’s we can normally expect our pregnancy rate to be 4-5% higher to that of a Friesian herd.” This year they target 1000kgMS per hectare and they’re aiming to increase that to around 1100 next season as they balance their goal of best production Dairy has Virginia Wright PHOTOS: The Burke family: McKenzi (1), James, Shannon, Karstyn (5), Bryah (3). Karstyn helping dad get the cows in. James checks the turnip crop.