Zac Haderbach reckons he has it pretty good working as a farm manager for corporate Pamu Farms New Zealand.
Pamu, which in Maori means ‘to farm’, was launched as Landcorp’s brand in 2015 to better reflect itself as a producer of wool, red meat, sheep milk, and deer leather.
French by birth, Zac is a New Zealand citizen having lived here for 20 years. It is his fourth season on Pamu’s Eyrewell Dairy at West Eyreton, North Canterbury a few kilometres from Oxford.
The 316 hectare effective property supports about 1000 cows milked through a 60 bail Waikato rotary shed with automatic cup removers, Milkhub technology and in-shed feeding.
“The farm has been set up really well. There’s a very reliable water supply.”
Pivot irrigation enables a grass-based system, which means the farm qualifies for a premium through Synlait’s Grass Fed programme. This requires cows to be exclusively grazed on a pasture and crop-based diet with no grain feeding and for feed grown solely in New Zealand.
It is also a part of Synlait’s Lead With Pride programme which focuses on environment, animal health and welfare, milk quality and social responsibility.
To achieve and maintain certified membership, suppliers are subject to independent annual audits by AsureQuality and must achieve excellence in efficient water and irrigation management, effective effluent management, improved biodiversity, soil quality, emissions and energy management.
Supplementary feed is grass silage, maize silage and fodder beet grown on 24ha. The cows are wintered about 10 kilometres away, while a 92ha block over the road is used to rear calves and rising two-year-old heifers.
The past season’s production was 408,000kgMS; the coming season’s target is 420,000kgMS which Zac believes can be achieved with good quality feed.
Five full-time staff, including Zac, work on the farm; this allows for an extremely favourable roster based on six days on, two days off and a maximum of hours that can be worked per fortnight.
A reliable water supply and pivot irrigation enables a grass-based feed system at Pamu’s Eyrewell Dairy, which means the farm qualifies for a premium through Synlait’sn Grass Fed system.
He believes safety benefits come with the roster as tiredness from excessive hours could potentially cause accidents, he says.
“We try to be the leaders in the industry in all aspects of farming.”
“I don’t think you would find better conditions than working for Pamu, because I have worked in the private sector as well for a few years.”
Most of the staff have worked on the farm since its conversion and their knowledge and experience have been an asset to its operation and to Zac as a manager.
“It’s a good retention rate, we are quite happy with that. The people know the farm, it makes life so much easier.”
Like most dairy farms today, Eyrewell Dairy has had a strong focus on reducing any environmental impact in what Zac describes as a very sensitive area situated on aquifers. Mitigating nitrogen losses includes using oats as a catch crop.
“Once we’ve finished the fodder beet we sow oats, again to capture some of the nitrogen. It’s just best practice when you carefully use water, effluent and you watch soil moisture.”
This article was brought to you in association with the following businesses…
- Cresslands Contracting Ltd
- Morrison Agri
- AG-WORX
