Dairy Operation
Last year, we had a record production year for the farm. We produced 292,627.7kg of milk solids (protein and fat) from 550 cows (about 530kgMS/cow. This is over 3,300,000 L of milk produced between August and May each year.
In 2017, at peak period we will milk 585 cows twice a day between August and the end of May. A seasonal herd, we don't milk all year round.
We use the protrack system from LIC for managing and drafting the herd. Our De Lavel plant for milking has been upgraded and features pulsators that work with the automatic cup removers to measure milk flow and remove the cups when the milk flow drops off, and teat spraying. This allows milking to be done by one person while a second person bring in herds and tend to other jobs.
We use targeted supplementary feeds at different times of the year to complement our pasture based diet. This is because the nutritional composition of the grass changes according to the time of the year, stage of the day and with the weather conditions that it is exposed to. Targeted supplementary feeding enables us to balance the fibre, carbohydrates and protein in the cow’s diet.