Manager of Fairlie based Shamrock Fern Dairies, Will Green, has been working for farm owners Leonie and Kieran Guiney since he started his dairy career.
He rang them, asked for a job and hasn’t looked back. Will has progressed through the system quickly and is now about to take on a lower order sharemilking position for the Guineys next season.
It will be just his fifth season since starting dairy farming.
“They’ve been great mentors and have allowed me to experience a lot of different aspects of farming. I’ve been involved in farm decisions and allowed to make mistakes, which has really increased my learning.
“ It’s also worked well for them because as I’ve been here for so long I really understand their farming goals and objectives,” he says.
Will, who originally hails from the UK, grew up on a mixed dairy, beef and sheep farm. He was drawn to New Zealand due to the clear path for progression through the system.
As farm ownership is the ultimate goal, signing up for a three year sharemilking contract with the Guineys, who own three other dairy farms in the Fairlie area, is a good step in the right direction.
Shamrock Fern Dairies is 255ha total/240ha effective and milks a herd of 840 crossbred cows
through a 45 aside herringbone shed. Will’s main focus is not on production but on pasture utilisation.
“If we get the stocking rate right and utilise our grass we’ll get the production. Aiming for production targets can be counter-productive as there will always be things out of our control like the weather. The more milk we can produce from grass the lower our costs will be.”
In order to achieve this a firm rotation length, planner and feed budget are important. Rounds are pushed out to 20 days in the summer months.
Grazing to 1500 residual levels is non negotiable, says Will, closing at 2300 cover from 31 May so calving can start on 1 August with 2600 average cover.
Weekly pasture walks involve all staff members and are done by eye.
Afterwards everybody works out the round length and growth rates together. Will says all staff are fully involved in any decision made guaranteeing buy-in from everybody. Nitrogen is used efficiently at the right times of the year.
Will says they want to avoid going into surplus at all costs and so limit nitrogen during summer months. No silage is made and all additional feed is bought in
. He does not feed more than 300 kg of imported supplement per cow each season. In fact during the last two seasons not more than 150 kg has been fed.
Cows head to run offs owned by the Guineys for wintering on kale and grass. Around 210ha of the farm is irrigated by centre pivot, sprinklers and k line.
Having high quality stock is important and high BW stock and bulls are used to keep producing efficient fertile livestock that will convert grass to milk efficiently.
Will uses an independent body condition scorer to better identify how the animals are doing so they can be fed appropriately. Will says owning a profitable grass-based dairy farm is his goal and livestock ownership and a 50:50 share milking position will be the intermediate goals to get him there.
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Sharemilking position a step in the right direction
