58 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Ian & Carmen Comins Hugh de Lacy One of the more unique dairy operations Ian is also a co-director with his brother Bryan in their rural contracting business, Comins Contracting which occupies much of his work time and it is the robotic technology that eliminates a lot of labour Managing a huge surplus of grass this season in tandem with the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle has been an unusual challenge for Ian Comins. The Te Awamutu farmer likely has one of the more unique dairy operations in New Zealand, milking 100 cows through a Lely robotic milking system. Ian works on the farm just an hour a day while his wife, Carmen’s work is cut out in about four hours, but there is more to their overall business operation than the farm alone. Ian is also a co-director with his brother Bryan in their rural contracting business, Comins Contracting which occupies much of his work time and it is the robotic technology that eliminates a lot of labour and gives Ian the flexibility he has. “We run pretty much everything; we’ve got three trucks and trailers, two diggers, seven tractors, trailers and loader wagons. We run two balers and two loader wagons doing a lot of grass silage all around the district.” “There’s not a lot of difference in the hours you are working, you’re doing the hours differently, you are not in a cow shed putting cups on, you’re doing other things on or off the farm.” The season has been typical of much of the North Island with a cooler wetter spring, summer and autumn and much more rain than usual which has meant Ian and Carmen have been able to bank a lot more supplementary feed than usual. “We struggled to get our maize crop in, trying to make silage, everything was just a challenge this year and even right through till now we’re in autumn and the challenge is still trying to manage the pasture. “It was almost like spring growth still in the summer. [The grass growth] was leaving us for dead. We were having to dry cows off because of the autumn calving and it really has created a huge surplus in front of us; the cows are going into 4500 to 5000 cover [kilograms of dry matter per hectare] so it’s created a huge surplus of grass in front of us.” Although the farm was largely unscathed in the cyclone, 11 large trees blew down and a third of its three hectares of maize was flattened. Its cows have traditionally been split calved, but the seasonal operation is trending towards autumn calving because conditions are generally drier, as well as to attract Open Country’s winter milk premium. The robotic system was installed four seasons ago and makes a lot of information available. “It really interested us, and I was just keen on DIGGER TRACTORS TRUCKS COMINS CONTRACTING LTD FOR ALL YOUR AG. REQUIREMENTS Phone: 07 872 2865 - Bryan 027 476 8215 - Ian 027 259 5033 - General Cartage - Silage / Hay Cartage - Lime delivered & Spread- 8 Tonne Spreader - K2 muck Speeder - Chicken & Duck Manure - Ploughing & Discing - Loaderwagons x2 - Round and Square Bales - Undersowing - 3 Mtr Air Seed Double roll Roller Drill - Grader Blade - Ripper - Thumb - Laser Levelling - Race Upgrades - Vee Draining - Tilt Bucket Where quality and service count For all your contracting requirements Phone 07 872 0000 .nz www.johnaustinltd.co 2023 giving it a go and it has worked out really well. “We are not standing on concrete for four hours a day, we’ve got a lot more information at our fingertips, I can look up something about a cow, what she produced today and what she was doing a month ago in production or her general health and history.” The cows themselves also seem to be liking the system; just one of the herd did not get in calf this season and Ian attributes this and their general well-being to a lack of pressure and them “doing their thing in their time.” “It was almost like spring growth still in the summer. [The grass growth] was leaving us for dead. We were having to dry cows off because of the autumn calving and it really has created a huge surplus in front of us; the cows are going into 4500 to 5000 cover [kilograms of dry matter per hectare] so it’s created a huge surplus of grass in front of us”
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