42 | nzdairy Technology and infrastructure upgrades Russell Fredric Mid-Canterbury contract milker Tharanga Senavirathna and his team are happy to be enjoying reaping the rewards of technology and infrastructure upgrades over the past two seasons. Tharanga is responsible for 1600 cows on a fully irrigated 405 hectare farm northeast of Ashburton. The game-changing upgrades included essential repairs and maintenance to the farm’s rotary milking platform and a new milking system, plus automatic teat spray, automatic cup removers and automatic drafting were installed. “We had issues with the milking system on the [2022-2023] season because the pulsation system was faulty and it was a really old milking system and it was taking too long too milk, but after the upgrade was done the cows milked fantastically.” Along with the positive effect of the upgrades as well as the staff and Tharanga better understanding the farm, the Kiwicross cows last season produced 744,500 kilograms of milk solids, despite the very dry summer and autumn, compared to 674,200kgMS for the 2022-2023 season, “We feel so great and happy, everyone feels so proud,” Tharanga says. “The drought had a bad effect on the pasture production, but we feed a lot supplements; it’s a high stocking rate farm, we went into the drought with a lot of supplements.” This season’s production is budgeted at 790,000kgMS. Last season the automatic teat spray system helped contribute to 90 consecutive days of “excellent” somatic cell counts. “This season we are strict on pulling mastitis cows out consistently and trying to keep the cell count down to keep as much possible for the excellent milk grading.” The cows’ six week not-in-calf rate has likewise been heading in the right direction and Tharanga is happy this has reduced to 11% from 15% in the 2022-2023 season. “It’s great achievement actually.” The cows have had Allflex collars for the past two seasons which have been a “fantastic” asset, especially in such a big herd, not only for providing data about the cows cycling, but also for monitoring feeding activity and rumination after calving. DAIRY PEOPLE » Tharanga Senavirathna - Dromore Calf shed. “Then they go into the once-a-day milking herd again and we milk once-a-day for eight days, and we draft into twice a day only if they have a good rumination of over 400 [minutes a day]. The collars do it by themselves. The system has been set up so all we have to do is enter the numbers into the system and the collars do everything for us. It saves a lot of stress and pressure.” This season there is a strong focus on the pastures, starting with regrassing 15% of the farm late August, plus a consultant has been engaged to help with the pasture and feed management “We are going to focus on feeding cows right, maintaining the pasture quality and optimising the pasture production and at the same time we supplement the cows with premium quality supplement. We are going to start a high protein diet when the cows are peaking production.” “This coming season we are pretty confident that we will do better than last season. We are trying really hard to improve more, but we’ve got a really good system, we know the farm and the staff, we all keep learning so obviously we should do better than last season.” Despite this, Tharanga recognises there is more to dairy farming than production and that the staff’s wellbeing and work-life balance is equally important, consequently a roster of five days on and two days off is worked. Peter and the team are proud to support – Dromore Dairies Hobbs and Banks Ltd T/a Hobbs & Banks Transport 244 Racecourse Road Orari, Geraldine Peter – 027 4373169 Phone : (03) 693 8352 Dromore Dairies PROUD TO SUPPORT - RESIDENTIAL - INDUSTRIAL - - COMMERCIAL - AGRICULTURAL - FOR ALL YOUR ELECTRICAL NEEDS David picking up calves. “That’s why we keep six fulltime staff, to keep the 5/2 roster.” Tharanga has a brand new tractor, experienced staff, and the dairy shed has an upgraded milking system which is putting a smile on everyone’s face, plus the rotary milking platform has had essential repairs and maintenance. The milking shed has automatic teat spray and automatic cup removers that were installed with the upgrade, plus automatic drafting. “It makes everything fast and smooth, and the milk quality is better. It makes all the guys happy.” The farm runs a system four operation for feed input for most of the season.
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