24 | nzdairy Home to 930 cows and four staff Polled gene strong Sue Russell Kelly Deeks DAIRY PEOPLE » Jeremy Duckmanton and Blake Gordon / Josh Sneddon Since NZ Dairy last spoke with dairy farmer Blake Gordon, he’s continued to progress his, and partner Ashleigh’s farming business. Today, Blake manages a 235 ha dairy unit, for sharemilker Jeremy Duckmanton, he moved to in June 2022. The farm is home to 930 cows and four staff work with Jeremy on the property. The AI herd is predominantly Friesian and the learnings of the past three years have resulted in the decision to reduce the stocking rate. “Our goals are definitely to do more per cow production rather than the total overall herd production and this is where we’ve put our energy,” says Blake. The farm is located between Mayfield and Ashburton and Blake says given the climate doesn’t encourage really good pasture growth at times, the emphasis is on providing supplementary feed. “The whole idea of reducing cow numbers was to see good gains in animal health and I’m pleased to see this has happened. Cow health is a very big thing because in the absence of it, so many issues can flair up, taking time and coming at a significant cost.” Blake has regular visits from Jeremy to discuss how the farm is performing and to undertake a farm drive. That improvement in cow health has resulted in a significant increase in production, almost up 22%, or 16,000 kg milk solids. In fact figures over the past three seasons on several production fronts have been impressive, resulting in: mating: 76.3% 6 week in calf rate (10.5% gain), 10.9% empty rate It’s been another busy spring on Josh and Kareena Sneddon’s Tahau Jersey Stud near Tokoroa, where along with the normal spring jobs, the couple has been flat out collecting donated bull calves for a Cystic Fibrosis Waikato fundraising drive which raised more than $30,000 to provide valuable support for people with the condition and their families. Josh and Kareena initiated this fundraising initiative in 2021. Their daughter Natalie, recently turned five, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at eight days old. Kareena says CF Waikato has made the family’s life easier, and she and Josh really wanted to give something back. Initially donating some of their own surplus calves, local support for the fundraising drive saw that number rise to 56. Josh collects donated bull calves which have been raised to weaning weight from local farms and brings them home to check them over before they are picked up for no charge by Mowai Transport. Most are sold privately and the remainder are sold at the Frankton bull sale, where agents waive their fees. Meanwhile at Tahau Jerseys, Josh and Kareena are now mating 100% of their 290 cows to polled genetics. Disbudding is an invasive and painful procedure Award winning dairy farmer Blake Gordon. and production at 529kgms/per cow last season. “This season we’re expecting 550kgms/cow while still achieving similar or better mating results.” Last year, Blake recalls, an issue with some cows contracting Johne’s Disease impacted production significantly. Johne’s disease is a chronic, contagious infection that can be fatal. It is caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). Johne’s disease is the cows immune reaction that develops in response to the MAP infection.z “We test for this now as we didn’t know we had a problem.” When NZ Dairy spoke with Blake early October, they had only 30 cows left to calve and were getting ready for mating. The introduction of Allflex collars has had a considerable positive impact on the herd’s performance and management. The collars deliver many benefits to farmers and to animals alike. Now marketed as SenseHub® Dairy, the smart collars give Blake valuable real-time information on heat detection, animal health indicators and rumination data. “It’s meant we’re able to identify genuine non-cycling cows and treat them.” Working with Blake is a relatively new crew who came on to the farm last year. Blake says his plans are to be on the farm as long as he can. With two young children, aged five and three, he says its important to have some stable years as the children enter schooling. “This is a great farm and we’re happy here. It has a great set up and this is also a really nice community to be a part of.” *Terms & Conditions Apply 021 884 909 duncan@agplus.co.nz www.agplus.co.nz Exclusive importers of Strautmann mixer wagons for the Waikato and Bay of Plenty 3 Year Warranty Finance packages available* • to page 25 for calves and it carries costs for farmers, not only of time and money, but also of the global perception of the dairy industry. Seeing markets increasingly seek more humane methods of dairy farming, the couple started using polled genetics eight years ago. By 2021, they were mating 75% of the herd to polled genetics, and 25% to base genetics to mitigate the risk. “The market has continued to change as people see less of the downfalls,” Josh says. “Polls are being used more and more. There was early concern that a polled gene could be lacking in other traits like production and type, but we have seen no difference. Some of our polled bulls are actually better, and all of our top animals in the past couple of years have been polled. When you’re running a mixture of polled and horned, it’s easy to see the difference.” Josh has big markets for polled genetics from calf rearers, who don’t need to worry about disbudding their calves, and from breeders who want polled bulls to run with their heifers. Tahau aims to breed cows that can go into any herd and produce the same, without the horns. The Sneddons have always focused on breeding bigger, more capacious Jerseys, and the results of capacious genetics used about seven years ago are now seen in the fully mature eight year old Jerseys on the farm. JeremyDuckmanton andBlakeGordon Specialising in Irrigation, Solar & Rural Electrical Services Mid Canterbury
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