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Friday, November 21, 2008
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McKenzie Dairy
The Farm:
- Located in Invercargill, New Zealand
- Currently milking 470 cows
- The herd consists of Friesian and Friesian/Jersey crosses. Their breeding program is designed to produce cows that are not over-big and are capable of walking the laneways and producing well.
- This is a pasture based operation.
Farm Location: New Zealand
- View a video clip of the McKenzie Dairy in our videos section.
- New Zealand has primarily pasture based farms.
- New Zealand has no milk subsidies, and BST and genetically modified foods are illegal.
- New Zealand Dairy Industry website
- Dairy InSight
Farm Management:
Owned by Gordon and Bernadine McKenzie
Minor partners Kevin and Lynne Burns.
Manager Mark Radick.
There are 2 full time employees and two part time staff for spring and relief milking.
The farm is run as a partnership. Decisions are made by the owners, the farm manager and farm consultants. The farm manager is responsible for the day to day farm management, and regular meetings are held to keep everyone up to date.
Local environmental groups also have input.
The owners live off of the farm and visit the farm at least once a week to communicate with the manager and staff.
The owners set the farm goals and give the manager the opportunity to achieve them.
Nutritient Management:
Dairy effluent is spread by irrigator on paddocks. Any waste from the feed pad is also spread on paddocks.
There are very strict environmental controls in New Zealand, therefore the managers focus on making the farm sustainable.
Feeding/Cropping:
The farm is predominately grass feeding with grass silage used as a feed supplement in the spring and autumn.
In winter, when the cows are dry, they feed brassica crops with baleage.
Excess pasture in the early summer is converted into grass silage, and some grass silage is purchased from a neighbor.
Approximately 60 acres of brassica crop is grown for winter feed.
Pasture testing measures the thickness of the grass to calculate dry matter content per hectare.
Milking:
Milking herd is 470 cows.
95 are first calvers (20%), 80 are second calvers (17%), 70 are third calvers (15%) and 48% are mixed age.
Use a 40 bail rotary cowshed with DeLaval milking plant.
Milk twice daily for 9 ½ months of the year.
The aim this season is to produce 200,000 kg of milk solids (425 kg milk solids per cow).
Average somatic cell count 80,000-100,000.
Milk picked up daily.
This year, payout is $3.95 kg/milk solids.
Young Stock and Replacements:
Rear 20-30% replacement stock, with 20% used for the herd and 10% sold (total of approximately 100-140 calves reared).
Calf management is a top priority, with Bernie caring for the calves.
Calves receive colostrum for 4 days, then meal. They always have fresh water available.
First calf heifers are 2 years old.
They aim to breed 20% replacement stock from the herd, rear their own calves and graze them on another farm.
Use AI (artificial insemination) on cows for six weeks then use bulls for six weeks.
Housing:
Cows are on pasture 100 % of the time.
There is a concrete feed pad and a bark chip stand off pad that is used in wet conditions.
Economics:
- Employ two full time staff and two part time staff for spring and relief milking.
- Last year, labor costs were just under 20% of the milk cheque.
Community:
Heavily involved in dairy promotions and farm groups.
Encourage farm managers to attend farm discussion groups and conferences.
Future:
They intend to maximize the farm and cow production on the farm.
Also constantly working to promote good staff relationships and encourage staff to grow within the system at the farm.
The children will enter the farm system after they have traveled overseas and found their future ambitions.
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