| 63 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Johno & Tania Burrows No production gains from wet summer Hugh de Lacy Canterbury’s crazy wet summer of 2021-2022 has meant that Johno and Tania Burrows didn’t turn on the irrigators all February for the thousand cows they milk on Ian Hopping’s dead- at 260ha at Valetta in Mid-Canterbury. The Burrow run a share-milking operation, Alpine Dairies, employing seven full-time staff on Ian’s two farms – both of which, and a 178ha run-off – are centre-pivot irrigated, apart from a 15ha block on the run-off watered by RotoRainer. There’s been almost an embarrassment of feed in Mid-Canterbury over the past summer, even as Southland squirms under the worst drought in decades, but the unprecedented rainfall has not led to any great increase in production, Johno Burrows says. “If anything our system has been growing less quality feed than usual, and production is back a bit because we simply haven’t had the sunshine hours. “So, surprisingly, all the rain has had an adverse effect.” The Burrows’ herd, owned by Ian Hopping , is mostly Friesian, leavened by a few Jerseys, and the operation breeds between 300 and 320 replacements a year. The fully enclosed farming system is built round a 10 weeks arti cial insemination programme for the cows, while the heifers get an eight-week stint on the run-off with bulls reared on the property. “We are a closed system and nothing comes into the herd.”. Alpine Dairies grows 50ha of kale for wintering on the run-off, along with 25ha of triticale harvested as cereal silage for the winter, and 250 tonnes of grass silage. Milk production is an impressive 2100kg of milk solids per hectare – 550kg/cow – on the fertile Lismore and Ruapuna silty loams. Johno is in his twentieth season as a dairy farmer after growing up on his parents’ sheep and beef property near Waipukurau in Hawke’s Bay. The family sold the farm and moved to a lifestyle block up in Paeroa, then to Australia to follow Johno’s father’s ambition to go dairying there. Johno ended up buying his father’s 350 cows and going sharemilking in Tasmania before selling up and returning to the Waikato in 2004. With wife Tania, a quali ed early childhood teacher, he spent 10 years managing dairy farms there, followed by four years on a lower order milking contract that included equity in the host farm. Six years ago they exited that arrangement, moved to Mid-Canterbury and set up Alpine Dairies providing machinery and labour to Ian Hopping’s farms, and supplying Synlait with exclusively A2 milk for the last three years. Alpine Dairies has managed to dodge the dif culties in obtaining staff that have been the bug-bear of many dairy farming operations around the country since the onset of the Covid pandemic more than two years ago. “We’ve been focussed in this space for a long time, and offer fair and rewarding employment that gives our team a great work/life balance – very lucky,” Johno says. “We’ve had a solid team running Alpine Dairies with no staff shortages throughout the pandemic, and we hugely value the commitment of our staff to our operation.” “If anything our system has been growing less quality feed than usual, and production is back a bit because we simply haven’t had the sunshine hours. So, surprisingly, all the rain has had an adverse effect.” Johno and Tania Burrows moved to Mid-Canterbury six years ago and set up Alpine Dairies providing machinery and labour to Ian Hopping’s farms, and supplying Synlait with exclusively A2 milk for the last three years. - STOCK - BULK - GENERAL FREIGHT - BLOWER TRUCK - FERTILISER SPREADING - SHINGLE SUPPLIES - PUBLIC WEIGHBRIDGE - RAVENSDOWN STORE MAYFIELD Ph: (03) 303 6102 - 0800 687 267 (0800 mtrans) | Email: office@mtrans.nz Post: 74 MAYFIELD KLONDYKE ROAD, MAYFIELD, ASHBURTON 7778 | WWW.MAYFIELDTRANSPORT.NZ Proud to support Johno and Tania Burrows IRRIGATE WITH CONFIDENCE · IRRIGATION SYSTEMS · REMOTE MANAGEMENT · PRECISION VRI Charlie McKerchar – Owner Operator 142 Wilkins Road, Tinwald, ASHBURTON 7774 call. 0274 324 051 email. office@agspread.co.nz Proof of placement using Tracmap Family owned and operated Proud to be associated with Johno and Tania Burrows For all your Ground Spreading requirements contact Charlie today.
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