Susan O’Regan and John Hayward make a habit of looking beyond what they can see when it comes to ensuring their Te Awamutu dairy farm is economically and environmentally sustainable.
A Waikato dairying couple credit a Walt Disney movie for crystalising their approach to environmental and business farming, writes Gerald Piddock.
Look beyond what you can see.
The line from the classic children’s film The Lion King has played an important role in dairy farmers’ John Hayward and Susan O’Regan’s decision making when when it came to farming sustainably.
Gerald Piddock
John Hayward and Susan O’Regan’s dairy and drystock farm has 12 wetlands of various sizes, 5ha of manuka planted and another 8ha planned.
The Waikato Farm Environment Awards supreme winners make a habit of trying to predict what is going to happen in the industry from an environmental and economic perspective.
“To date we have got it pretty well right,” Hayward told close to 200 people at a field day held on their Te Awamutu farm.
Hayward was watching The Lion King at home with his children one day when he first heard the film line.
It fitted in nicely with what he and his wife were trying to achieve on their farm, he says.
“I watched this and got up and stood outside and thought, that’s quite good advice.”
They had asked each other what sustainability looked like when they bought their first 99 hectare property as equity partners in 2008, which was to become their farming business Judge Valley Dairies.
“We asked ourselves, can we be doing what we do today in 100 years.”
They looked at the environmental impact their farm was having while at the same time maintaining profitability because he saw little point in being environmentally sustainable if the farm was not profitable.
The dairy industry was changing and the couple knew it was just a matter of time before tighter regulations from the Waikato Regional Council were introduced.
In their first year, they milked 250 spring calving cows and produced 83,000 kilograms of milksolids. At that stage, they also had two lease farms which they used as grazing blocks, allowing them to sell jersey bull calves for extra income.
They also undertook a major infrastructure change, including the building of a staff house, race, water and effluent systems and a 30-aside herringbone cowshed.
They viewed effluent as a positive input, and used it to fertilise 90ha of the dairy platform including their 33ha maize crop. They also had to preserve and protect the property’s natural resources.
“It allows us to use our effluent and turn it into something that we can produce milk from. We aim to harvest 30 tonnes of feed off those paddocks and every year we continue to use those paddocks. We don’t chop and change.”
In 2013, they added a 350-cow feedpad and feed bunkers with 500 tonne capacity after realising between a quarter and a third of their feed was being lost through wastage.
The feedpad has allowed a greater efficiency of conversion of supplementary feed into milk production and an improvement in cow health and condition.
Hayward says their farm needs healthy cows that reached their potential and they also have to grow as much feed as possible while creating a minimal environmental footprint.
“We have a lot of amazing cows out there but the way I look at it, we have a lot of Ferraris that are being fed like Minis. Cows are missing out on their potential and people are missing out on an opportunity that’s right in front of them.”
They want their cows to produce 500kg of milksolids and the feedpad is helping them shift towards that goal and although it increased demand on labour, the benefits are phenomenal, he says.
They have also embraced technology, using a Halo system for electronically monitoring and recording their water system operation and milk temperature status.
In addition, a flood wash system using green water recycled through the effluent pond and a weeping wall at the feedpad “gives us the chance to capture solids and use them strategically in places like our maize paddocks”.
They undertook a land use capability assessment in 2014 which made them realise the parts of the farm which were unsuitable for livestock and areas that should be retired.
Erosion and sediment falling into water were big issues in their district so they chose to retire these parts of the farm into either wetlands, bush or manuka plantations. They have 12 wetlands on the farm to date.
Hayward and O’Regan have 5ha of manuka plantations for high-potency honey production established and another 8ha underway which is part of an expanding joint venture with Comvita.
The manuka establishment will mitigate erosion and reduce the overall nitrogen leaching factor on the property, O’Regan says.
“It’s a win-win situation on land that was marginal in any event. The manuka deal turns it into land that is productive on three fronts and this use sits very comfortably with our views environmentally.”
In 2012, they bought the neighbouring drystock farm and integrated it into the first property and last year the couple bought the farm outright.
Today, 140ha of the 245ha farm operates as a dairy platform, there is an 80ha self-contained drystock farm and 25ha in pine, wetlands and manuka. Another 8ha will be further retired this year into manuka plantations.
They milk 480 cows, aiming for 235,000kg milksolids, operating a split calving system, milking both friesian and jerseys cows. The jerseys herd calves in the spring and the friesians in the autumn.
They work closely with their accountant and banker as well as the regional council and employ two full-time staff, married couple Amardeep Singh and Mandeep Kaur, and one permanent casual, Jeremy Reader, on the farm.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without our staff. They are a key part to our business,” Hayward says.
Despite their success to date, the farm is still a work in progress, he says.
More manuka plantations are planned and another wetland is being constructed this year. They also recently upgraded their Halo system to include soil temperatures rain, and tank monitoring.
They are also into the final round of the Waikato Dairy Business of the Year Awards which will give them good feedback on their economic resilience in a low payout year, Hayward says.
“This year has been been a good one for us…It’s hard for all of out there now but we haven’t had to shift too much and we have managed to keep our costs at a minimal all the way through.
“We think we have got that part right and we are not going to change too much going forward.”
Source: Stuff
