64 | nzdairy • from page 62 DAIRY PEOPLE » River Edge Dairies: Jason & Pam Brock Jason with 2IC Monique Warnaar (top). Jason and Pam (above). IMAGINE... NO MORE TAIL PAINT, USING SEXED SEMEN WITH CONFIDENCE, ACTUALLY TAKING A BREAK DURING MATING AND HAVING THE OPTION OF NO MORE BULLS. or about 467kgMS per cow which is the best season Jason and Pam have experienced. Jason attributes this to better feeding along with having greater understanding of the idiosyncrasies of the cows, the farm and the climate. “We’ve also done some culling on a production basis, for low producers and higher somatic cell count.” The farm’s winter feed regime has also been subject to change. “Following on from the lessees using all fodder beet we carried it on for a couple of years afterwards, but we’ve found it’s a lot of work for staff, transitioning onto fodder beet. It’s so risky, if someone feeds them slightly wrong you can have big consequences.” The past two winters the heifers and rising two year-olds were fed kale and performed well, so last winter only kale was used but this involved more work, consequently next winter the feed regime will change to kale for the younger stock and swedes for the mature cows. “This year with our R1’s at the run-off we are actually going away from crop completely and to grass and baleage for an experiment to see how it goes. “We are definitely heading in the right direction, my target over time is getting up to that 500 kilograms per cow milk solids. We are aiming with our breeding to get a more efficient cow that’s not huge.” The farm borders a state highway, a river and a town consequently Jason is very conscious of public perception towards the industry and the farm itself. “You don’t want to be seen as the bad guy or anything like that. Most farmers are trying to do the right thing, but there is definitely a lot of pressure there from the public.”
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