| 33 nzdairy During the past three seasons Rex trialled running the dairy platform. Russell Fredric Kim Newth Third-generation owner Stuart Honeyfield. After investing over many years in infrastructure, systems and animal performance, Rex Butterworth feels his farm and its dairy herd is hitting a sweet spot. Married to Sharon, Rex is also a rural real estate agent; the couple own a 113 hectare, 106 hectare farm at Walton, near Matamata. The farm has two Herd Homes built in 2012 and is supported by a nearby 55 hectare run-off block, used for winter grazing for about six weeks each year, with calves also sent there after they are weaned. During the past three seasons Rex trialled running the dairy platform on a reduced stocking rate. “We did quite a lot of system changes over the last three years to see how it was going to pan out milking less cows, doing less production, but trying to get more from the smaller number and essentially it hasn’t worked out.” The assumption was animal health might improve and less supplementary feed would be needed because of more grass being available, but “we didn’t have enough mouths in the paddock for long enough to eat the grass that this farm grows,” Rex says. “If we were to leave the cows in the paddock for long enough to do that they would then be exposed to heat stress or pugging the paddocks in the wetter weather.” “Our production dropped, our profits have dropped, everything scaled down at about the same rate.” The herd was reduced from around 495 to 465 with the lesser number producing 220,000kgMS It is a big achievement for a family to reach 100 years on the same farm. This milestone was achieved by the Honeyfield family last year on their Taranaki farm, home to their Te Matai pedigree Ayrshire stud. Third-generation owners Stuart and Delwyn, together with their son Scott, continue to seek out improvement at the start of the family farm’s second century. Their 161ha coastal dairy farm, north of Waitara, milks 360 cows and is targeting production of around 155,000kgMS. Scott is increasingly putting more time and effort into pasture management, with flow on benefits not only for production but also herd health. “He’s trying to feed the cows fully and working out exactly what they need so the quality and amount is right. We’re seeing improvements in production: we’re milking a few less cows, feeding them as well as we can and getting the results. We don’t use any synthetic nitrogen and use our own silage baleage to fill any feed gaps. “We know that fully fed cows have less problems and this year’s production is up 12% to date on last year, with a lot of that due to having more cows calving earlier due to them being well fed for the last spring mating.” A purpose-built calf shed supports a smooth calving season. As well as rearing 90 heifer replacements, the farm rears around 90 beef calves (Shorthorn Hereford cross). Herd health is tracking well with somatic cell counts down 57% on last year. Stuart credits that improvement to strategic dry cow therapy, effective Reduced stocking rate Pasture & feed focus DAIRY PEOPLE » Rex Butterworth / Stuart and Delwyn Honeyfield use of cup removers and proactive RMT with paddle mastitis testing in order to check cows before they go into the main herd. “We’re more than happy with how that’s working.” Installing an in-shed feed system four years ago has also been key to lifting production. In spring, a mix of PK10 (with 10% molasses), DDG grains, maize and minerals is fed at the rate of 3kg per day through to Christmas. In summer, the cows get a mix of PK10 and DDG. Summer crops this year will be 3ha of soft turnips and 3ha of long-lasting kale, with 500 bales of wrapped silage made on farm also good insurance against a dry summer. Stuart is a board director with Ayrshire New Zealand and serves on the national Semayr committee, which is seeking to increase bloodline diversity in the pedigree bulls going into the progeny test scheme. “We’re currently waiting on genomic evaluation of this year’s crop of calves before making a choice on them…Some of our proven bulls at the moment have some of the highest indexes that we’ve had for quite a while. Semayr has made available to members a bull called Vesty, probably one of the top Ayrshire bulls in the world.” Vesty will be used by Te Matai for mating this year along with Riverlea Samuel and Ayrshire progeny test bulls. He says there are plenty of benefits to using top Ayrshire sires, noting they are ideal for farmers targeting strength and confirmation in their cross breeding programmes. “We have started a relief milker recently and one of their first comment was that they couldn’t get over how quiet our cows were too.” Hamilton 07 834 8173 Matamata 07 888 4841 info@begovichbuilders.co.nz www.begovichbuilders.co.nz Proudly supporting Rex Butterworth Is your business performing as well as it could be? We can help www.velocite.co.nz Proud to support Stuart and Delwyn Honeyfield Learn more at from two good summers. Not being able to utilise the extra grass available was exacerbated by the cows having (managed) access to the Herd Homes. “Our cows are used to coming in out of the heat so that was determining when they were coming in, not how much feed was in the paddock and as soon as they are inside you’ve got to feed them with supplement. They know that there’s good food, good shade, good water elsewhere so why wouldn’t they go there?” Despite realising this in the first season, it was decided to trial the lower number over three seasons to eliminate any possible false assumptions, but it became clear there was not only no advantage, but disadvantages in the altered farm system. “I needed to find out for myself. I wouldn’t have done it if I thought the likelihood of an upside wasn’t there.” Rex agrees the trial highlights the uniqueness of each farm system and it is never a case of one-size-fits-all. During the past three seasons, reducing the average cow age along with targeting lower somatic cell counts and improving the six week in-calf rate have been other areas of focus. Across all dairy herds in New Zealand for the in-calf rate, during the past three years the Butterworth herd has moved from sitting at around 50% to being in the top 25%. Calving is completed over a nine-and-a half week period. “The empty rate hasn’t really changed, but the number of cows that we’ve managed to push into the first six weeks without intervention – so no CIDRS or prostaglandin so it’s totally natural – that’s shifted 25% which is pretty good.” PHONE: 0274 338 808 / Email: hayden@kaiserag.co.nz
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