April 28, 2025 • 44 mins
Tune in as Wade and Matt Towers, local Area Manager, sit down with Dave Swney, the 2025 maize silage catalogue cover and Waikato Dairy Farmer. Dave shares his journey of returning to the family dairy farm, transforming it into a sustainable and efficient System 5 operation south of Te Awamutu.
In this episode, Dave shares the challenges faced over this period, including learning the importance of ‘time budgeting’, dealing with health issues and reducing the stocking rate to improve farm performance. By bringing young stock management back to the farm, Dave highlights the gains of better control and reduced costs, while balancing growing maize on farm with buying in feed to spread risk. The team then delve into Dave’s strategic approach to maintaining feeding consistency, improving reproduction results from 20% to 12% empty rates and emphasising the value of external expertise and farmer networks in continually improving the operation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
G'day and welcome to Feed for Thought, a regular
podcast from Pioneer coveringeverything from farm systems to
crops and products and much,much more.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to this episode of Feed for Thought.
So we've got a privilegeopportunity with another farmer
guest today.
But before I introduce him,also got another sidekick today,
another Matt from the teamMattie Towers, Great to have you
along.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Thanks, mate.
I'm not really sure if it'll bean upgrade or a downgrade, but
the people can tell us afterthis, you will see, we'll see,
mate, I'm confident you're goingto be an upgrade, but we'll see
how we go.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And Dave Sweeney, local farmer here just south of
Te Amuru today.
Dave, great to have you alongBeen on the farm here for a few
years now.
Do you want to just tell us alittle bit about yourself, your
background and kind of what youwere doing even before farming
more recently?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, no thanks , team.
Been back on farm for 11 years.
So Alice and I contract milkingon farm.
We're in equity partnershipwith my parents, phil and Deb.
Alice and I have two young boys.
Walter and Rex are two and one,so sort of very much in the
trenches still at the moment,but coming out the other side,
(01:26):
out the other side.
And yeah, phil and Deb havebeen on this current farm for
about 37 years.
Prior to me coming home, I wasworking for Dairy New Zealand as
a consulting officer for aboutfive years and then spread my
wings overseas a little bit anddid a bit of travel and worked
on some farms over there andthen come back to the dairy farm
and sort of settled in here andtaking things over from a
succession point of view there.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What was it like coming out of Dairy NZ and
coming on farm?
You would have had all theneighbours looking over the
boundary, no doubt going who'sthis young guy?
How's he going to go?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Bit of pressure, bit daunting, to be honest.
Yeah, a lot of pressure.
I think even when I was atDairy NZ, I had quite a close
connection to the farm and whatwas happening on the farm.
So we've always been a sort ofhigher input farm as well, and I
think Dad always sort of heldme to things a little bit and we
always chatted about what washappening on farm and so that
(02:23):
sort of kept me quite groundedin my role at DairyNZ.
Yeah, as you said, wade, it wasquite a shift, you know, on the
other side of the fence, so tospeak, yeah, from the talking
about it to the doing it.
Got to put my money where themouth is.
I'm still here, though.
Yeah, it's gone by pretty quickA lot of challenges along the
way, a lot of successes, but noloving it, and I guess, yeah, at
(02:43):
the time was probably a littlebit early for me to come home.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I was enjoying myself , you know five day a week job
and yeah, bit of travel and atime on the weekends to
socialize no responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But look, you know, I didn't want to miss out on an
opportunity and and if I didn'tjump at the chance the farm
might not be there, um down thetrack.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So some of the colleagues you used to have to
deal with at dairy and z, though, were a bit questionable yeah,
no, I mean, that was a greattime, though, too, with dairy
and z, and that presented itsown challenges.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know, straight out of university, I had never
been north of the harbour bridge, and they posted me up to
northland as my first area andcut my teeth up there and, yeah,
learned some things.
I'm picking yeah, absolutely,absolutely so.
No, it was really good.
It was a great time in my lifeand and learned a lot from good
farmers and and differentsystems and yeah, just on the
systems front, do you want tojust share a little bit about
(03:41):
your system here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
you've touched on it system four or five, but the
farm info in the in the systemyeah, so a system five.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Here we milk 410 crossbreed cows.
They're quite big crossbreedcows so would be sort of pushing
about four sort of 430 440 liveweight average.
We feed maizeize, piquet strawand a little bit of grass
foliage on the side, quite a bitof summer cropping through
(04:10):
maize and chicory Calves at homefor the first 12 months of age
and then they go out to grazingSpring calving, early calving.
We're quite an early farm here,so we're on myra ash ash soil
so things do take off and heatup pretty quick.
So first of july calving forthe heifers, in 10th of july for
(04:32):
the main herd, yeah, and sothat's a mating date of first of
october.
Yeah, yeah, so the.
I guess the system helps usachieve the early calving.
We also have a winter blockwhere we can winter some cows
for four weeks.
But I've kind of just taken thebaton and run with it.
You know phil's always been ahigher input farm.
He got into my solid earlysupplements early quite a few
(04:57):
years ago.
So yeah, we've sort of just runwith that system and on yeah,
and we both enjoy it.
We we love feeding cows andthat's been quite a focus.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, nice and you mentioned earlier on about sort
of some of the challenges whenyou came back and kind of how
that's sort of shaped somechanges that you've made along
the way.
What were some of those thingswhen you arrived on farm or
opportunities they might nothave all been challenges.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Probably the big challenge for me personally was
that changeover from you know,from jobs you know, and actually
putting the theory into action,but also, I think, as a team
and and as a farm, trying todevelop a system that we could
replicate each year, and and Ithink that's been a continual
challenge and we're only juststarting to get to a point.
(05:46):
Now I feel like we're in quitea nice space with our system and
what we're trying to achieve,so that's sort of been quite a
big challenge.
Yeah, I think in 10 Shit.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
11 years, mate.
It's taking a wee while.
Is that fast or is it slow?
Yeah, it's slow.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, and that's the thing I think, as farmers too,
we're always trying to do thingsbetter and that's the thing I
think as farmers too, we'realways trying to do things
better and that just snowballssometimes, and for the good or
the bad, you know, I think thesedecisions we've made over the
years that have been greatdecisions and some that have
probably created more challengesthan we wanted along the way,
(06:21):
but overall, I think I guessthat biggest, the biggest
challenge and it is for mostpeople is just creating that
happy medium, you know, betweensort of work-life balance but
also a profitable, efficientsystem.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so what have been those sortof key changes or what have
what have been the catalyst forchanges?
As you've gone along from sortof thinking back 11 years, are
there some things that sort ofstand out in your mind to go
actually we tried something herethat perhaps did or didn't work
and review it and kind ofreassess yeah, I think, probably
(06:58):
going back a step again, um,looking at those opportunities.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
When I come, come home, phil had already had a
system and an operation that wasgoing really well and so, in
terms of massive opportunitieson farm to take production to
the next level and things likethat, we didn't have that
opportunity.
Yeah, but it was more aboutfine-tuning things and making it
sustainable year in, year out.
Yeah, and that comes back tosome of the animal health stuff,
(07:25):
um, and targets that we had.
But, yeah, some of the big um,I guess catalysts for change.
I guess, to put it intoperspective as well, from where
we were to where we are now, myfirst year on farm I was milking
520 cows on 124 hectares, Iguess to build a bigger picture,
(07:47):
in that, you know, we were 21days on, three days off roster,
oh yeah, yeah, you know, a lotof cows, a lot of feeding, yeah,
um, we were just full noise,full noise, yeah, yeah, we had,
in that first year or two that Iwas at home, we had quite a big
challenge with lame cows, whichwas kind of one of the biggest
(08:09):
catalysts, I guess, to sort ofsaying, look, we need to step
back from this and take a biggerpicture approach and see what's
actually going on here.
We did that and we brought inexperts.
So we come across a guy calledFred from the South Island who
is an expert in hoof care andhealth and he came and actually
(08:31):
we did a workshop on farm forother farmers around hoof
trimming.
We paid for a consult with Fredto have a look over the farm,
look at the challenges aroundfarm layout, how we manage our
cows and that sort of thing.
And I think probably one of thebiggest things I've taken away
which has kind of developed theway with sort of farming now, is
(08:52):
he asked me to do a time budgetfor our cows.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
How's this all?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
about.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
What's a time budget?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, you know sort of where are you getting at with
this?
But I sat down and you know Iwas thinking what time do you go
for your cows?
How long does it take for themto walk to the cow shed time on
feed pad, you know, milking time, all that sort of stuff,
raising time, raising time, allof that.
So we put that down on paperand we worked it out and there
(09:18):
was just a massive light bulbmoment and it's like, well, you,
you know they've got time towalk and everything else and to
eat, but there's actually you'vegot no time for the cows to
rest and sit down and toruminate and and that sort of
thing.
And that was a massive momentfor us because we're we were
sort of chasing all these otherthings and and, but in the
(09:38):
background we weren't quitehitting the mark with some of
these, um, animal health andanimal behavioral things.
So so that's stemmed a snowballof events, I guess, from there.
Yeah, um, as a result of thatvisit and after that we took on
a nutritionist to help withfeeding the cows the right diet
to promote good hoof development.
(10:00):
Yep, we had been a little bitfrustrated with the lameness
stuff in terms of a lot of themessages out there and that
today are focused on managementand staff and races and that,
and we knew we'd tick thoseboxes and we're confident in
that.
Um, and so we're like well,where do we go next?
And nutrition was kind of theonly thing left on the table
(10:23):
that we could look at.
So, as a result of Fred comingup and looking at the farm and
the time budget, we brought on anutritionist and we went from
there with some of our feedingchanges on farm.
We're getting a pretty easyride here, mate, aren't we?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
He's filling the gaps quite well isn't he?
Yeah, so.
Okay.
So the lameness was thecatalyst for the nutrition.
Did you change?
Like your stocking rate waspretty hefty.
I assume there was a whole lotof feed coming into the system,
like when you started going downthat track and got into the
(10:59):
nutrition.
What did you change?
What did you change?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, I think there's a couple of other challenges
that were sort of thrown at usthere as well.
From memory, we had that $8payout year.
It was my first year on farm2012, 13.
Oh yeah.
And then that was followed bythe $3.90.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Oh right, $4 payout.
Yeah, Very challenging 15, 16.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
My first year here.
You know 520 cows, first yearfarming.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Dairy farming's easy, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
We had a sweet winter , sweet spring, high payout year
.
And I was like, well, this ismint, this is pretty easy.
A good mate of mine, ben samething, he was first year out of
a similar job and we were kindof like, well, this is Riding
the wave, let's go this isawesome, put walkouts on.
Yeah, and then it was like itall just come crashing down.
(11:53):
You know that next year ourpayout got cut in half.
I remember we had a hard spring.
You know the lameness wentthrough the roof.
We were banging our headagainst a brick wall.
So that's when all this sort ofstuff happened and and yeah,
from a stocking rate point ofview.
(12:13):
So that was sort of workingalongside some of this nutrition
and lame cow stuff, um.
But because of the payout we hadto sort of look at our cost
structure as well and ourbiggest um cost was feed at the
time still is, you know, in asystem, five um so and grazing
um.
So we did the numbers again.
We got an expert in um anotherguy I've worked with before um
(12:35):
at dairy and zed come in and didsome pharmax modeling for us
and we looked at growing up in amaze at home and bringing our
calves home onto the milkingplatform.
So that achieved two things forour business.
One was, if we could reduce ourtotal spend on supplement, even
in a small way, it's going tohave a much bigger effect on our
(12:57):
bottom line because that'salready our biggest cost within
our budget.
So growing some maize on farmhelped us achieve that.
The second fact was takingcontrol of the young stock.
So we took control back of ourcalves.
We also reduced our grazingbill on farm On heifer grazing
(13:17):
yeah, on the heifer grazing andwe also grazed them down the
back of the farm.
So the long walks that we'rehaving to do with our cows, we
shortened that up.
So that helped some of theanimal health side of things
with the cows and it brought ourstocking rate down as well.
So that meant less feed comingin too.
So it had quite a big effect onthe bottom line.
(13:41):
So that's sort of where we ranwith the stocking rates, sort of
stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So were the young stock a problem Like out grazing
?
Was that really a problem?
Or was that more about thesystem here at home?
Or were you trying to?
Kill sort of two birds with onestone.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, funny you ask that because I was thinking that
this morning Did we actuallyhave a problem and I can't
remember a problem with theyoung stock at grazing.
But yeah, it just achieved aslightly different goal to what
we're trying to do, rather thanjust growing good stock, yeah,
so you think the element ofcontrol over your young stock
improves your overall business.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Not seeing them all the time, the inputs into them?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Absolutely.
And I think when we look at thefirst two years of a cow's life
, I personally think the calvesare the hardest to do and grow.
They're so finicky with theirgrazing habits and that sort of
thing.
So by us taking control of that, you know, it gives us a bit
more confidence and helps wethink it helps us achieve some
(14:39):
better live weight targets lateron.
We also have the ability onfarm with good infrastructure
and that we can manage themeasily.
Yeah, that's right.
And from a live weight targetslater on, we also have the
ability on farm with goodinfrastructure and that we can
manage them easily.
Yeah, that's right.
And from a live weight point ofview, the calves don't actually
take up a massive footprint onfarm compared to an R2.
Yeah, right.
So the area we had to kind ofallocate for those calves in the
(15:00):
big scheme of things wasn'tmassive.
So to give you an example, I'vegot 60 calves on farm and I
allocate about five hectares tothose animals.
For the summer period inparticular, we do graze out
another 30 and that's because Ifelt for our farm, our cow
numbers, 60 is about the max Ican carry.
(15:21):
Yeah, and so what's your regimefor them?
So the calves about Decemberthey start on chicory, yep, and
we just run around five hectaresof chicory on about a 24-day
round.
In a season like this, with thesummer dry, we extend that
round to sort of 30 on thechicory and bring in a bit more
supplement.
And bring in a bit moresupplement.
(15:42):
But they're typically grazed intwo-day breaks and they have
straw and a little bit of PKabout a kilo per calf per day.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And what's a live weight gain?
I know you measure them.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a leading questionwaiter.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I just want to make sure our listeners know, yeah,
so we do weigh them regularlyand I mean it's anywhere from
sort of 0.7 to a kilo.
Wow, lightweight gain a day.
Pretty happy with that, yeah,so we're sending them out first
of May at a minimum averageacross the line of 230, sort of
230 to 250 kilos.
(16:20):
Awesome, first of May, andthat's for a cross-breed animal.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, and so look, we're real happy with that
regime.
We feel like it's such a smallfootprint in the area in the big
picture For the amount ofbenefit it gives you.
Yeah, yeah, and we enjoy it.
We like growing stock.
It's great for staff becausethey're learning a different
skill with animal health andlive weight targets and that so
(16:45):
yeah, you mentioned too aboutbringing a little bit of your
maze on farm.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know, I couldn't help but suggest that Matty T is
one of your experts.
You know, surely he is.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
There is a team involved with this to be fair.
Dave's number one, but thelocal contractor, john Austin.
He is a massive part of whatDave does here and he gives a
lot of expertise throughout theyear, especially what you bring
in and what you do here as well.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, I think you've raised a good point there too.
A lot of these experts andpeople that were brought into
the business have just carriedon from Phil and Deb as well.
They've established they'vebeen here for 35 years, you know
.
So there's we've got some greatrelationships with our service
(17:34):
providers, and John Austin's akey part to that and and look,
we're not machinery peopleeither and we don't want to be
um John lives in his depot.
It's just 2K down the road, soit's a great relationship with
him that we have with the maizeon farm and we buy maize off him
as well to make up our total.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That's been a long relationship.
I do need to throw this in.
It's been like ever since,pretty much day one for Phil,
isn't?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
it yeah, it has, and it's pretty cool and look as we
hand over's pretty cool, andlook as we hand over the baton,
and that as well.
I'm now working with MichaelAustin, john's son as well, and
it's just quite cool.
You know, we we've almost grownup together, you know, in the
ag industry and it's great.
So so, yeah, there's a lot ofwork that goes in behind the
(18:22):
scenes there and we sort ofvalue their advice and their
service.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Do you just want to give us a bit of a picture on
why you buy in some of yourmaize and why you grow some?
On the platform you touched onit earlier, it's around your
feed cost, which is your biggestcost to your business, but sort
of some of the other elementsand decision making you go
through there.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, definitely.
I guess it just spreads ourrisk um a little bit.
That's probably the biggest oneyou know financially.
We know we can grow maize quitecheaply, especially on effluent
ground, because we're quite ahigh input farm and have been
for a number of years.
Our soil tests are quite high,I guess, um or for a better word
(19:04):
is high across the farm, so wewant to try and harvest that and
capture that as well.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
When you're bringing in a lot of supplement too.
There's a lot of excessnutrient available that we can
then grow good maize crops on.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Absolutely, and any crop I guess as well.
But maize seems to be quite agood fit for what we're trying
to achieve here and I guess withthe new technology with
strip-till and that sort ofthing now as well, it's given us
a bit more confidence to maybegrow more on farm because we're
looking after the soil a bitbetter once it goes back into
(19:37):
permanent pasture.
So that's been really cool.
But yeah, primarily it's beendoing a bit on farm and buying
in a bit.
It's just spreading our riskfinancially.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Especially in dry seasons like we've just been
through, isn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
and stress.
I think you know like a lot ofwork goes into the planning of
establishing crops and spraysand pressures from insects and
cyclones.
We've had our fair share.
It keeps.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Matty T busy yeah exactly Get the phone call from
Dave and I go.
What do we have this year mate?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean in the last couple ofyears we had a cyclone come
through and bowl out like a lotof people.
It was just over a hectare ofmaize on farm.
The stuff that we buy in acrossthe road was sweet 500 metres
difference.
But look that adds to our costand stress and risk profile.
This year we had cutworm bledout a whole paddock.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, we probably had a hectare and a half just
demoed.
But I mean, the good thingabout that story is you
replanted it and we, you know,through the chopper we got 20
tonne and we were about four tosix weeks different.
So that's quite resilient inthat respect and the strip tool
having that system, you justplant straight into those rows,
you spray it out and start againand you're away.
(20:55):
So from a bad sort of start weactually got a result that was
quite good and we're not puttinga lot of food inputs, like Dave
was saying, into those areasbecause they're effluent ground.
So there's not that added costof wasting that food or that
nutrient you put in there.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, and I think that's yeah.
You know like I wouldn't wantto go all our allocation on farm
because I don't want that riskyeah it's too big an area, yeah.
You know, like I know, we canpurchase, we can make a plan and
say that's what we're going toget and that's what we're going
to pay.
It's easy.
We got a bit more this year.
Yeah, we got a bit more becausethe yield was good.
But yeah, it always averagesout, I guess, and it just seems
(21:33):
to be a nice happy medium.
So over the 11 years I guess,we've gone from growing no maize
at home to growing five andwe're growing 10 of chicory.
A couple of years ago to thisseason or the season just gone,
we've grown 10 hectares of maizeand five of chicory.
Yeah, so we've grown fromnothing to 10 hectares on farm
(21:55):
in the space.
Here seems to be a bit of asweet spot.
Yeah, I like it.
I think we've actually broughtour total cropping area down a
smidgen.
We felt it was putting too muchpressure on our system at a
critical time of the year, beingmating, and I felt like we're
robbing Peter to pay Paul alittle bit.
So we've reduced that croppingarea a little bit, changed the
(22:17):
make up of the crop, so we'vegone for more maize in the
system and brought in a littlebit less as well, and it just
seems to be a really nice fit.
So we're sitting around 12percent from memory of cropping
area of the platform with theyoung sock taking a piece of the
young sock.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, so just a question.
Uh, environment you touched onthat with the strip tool.
Is that a key bit of yourbusiness and a major part of
your thinking and what you'redoing in decision making going?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
forward?
Yeah, it definitely is, and Ithink, like I said, the strip
tool gave us a bit of confidenceto use a bit more maze, um,
within our system at homebecause of the environmental
piece, we're not turning soilover and and phil's always had a
great reputation for being anearly adopter with direct
drilling and I remember he's hedid a lot of trolls years ago
(23:08):
with ants, ants, roberts, yeah,um, about the programmed
approach and drilling and andall sorts of things.
So we've always been, um, yeah,I guess, big campaigners for
not turning dirt over, I guess,and just trying to look after,
look after the soil structure alittle bit more, and that's
probably my rush is probablythanks you for that.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It does.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
In terms of a soil type?
Yeah, absolutely, I wanted topick up on so you've touched on.
You know lameness was acatalyst for change.
Nutrition started to influencesome of your decision making.
I know more recently becauseI've known you for a fair while.
Dave Repro was also one of thethings and you've had a little.
(23:51):
Actually, you put yourself outthere on the Smash one of the
online events with Smash butwhat happened there and how big
an impact did that have and whatchanges did that drive?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, when you really sit down and write things
down.
We've had our fair share ofchallenges, like everyone, I
guess, and look, just like Isaid, it snowballs to some of
these things.
But we hit a high empty rate acouple of years ago.
So we had a 20% year year,which was.
(24:25):
It was just so disappointing.
You know, it was heartbreakingbecause we put a lot into the
mating.
Your season starts and stopswith your mating results
basically that's.
You know, we're driven by that.
So so it was.
It was a hard one to take, butwe had to just sit back from it
and think look, what happenedhere and what can we do
differently.
So we again, we got experts into try and help us figure that
(24:48):
one out.
There was no real big concrete,I guess, things that jumped out
at us to say, look you, youmade a mess of this, we'll do
that better next year.
Um, it was a really hard one, Ithink.
Nationally we saw empty ratesrise and six-week and calf rates
reduce.
It's not an excuse, but therewas a higher.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There was something going on in terms of the
environment.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
At the time I was sort of also playing around with
quite a few different things interms of feeds and byproducts
and that sort of thing, and Ithink just a bit of sort of you
know, uneducation there withwith some of the feeds and that
sort of thing, just um, Iprobably just didn't quite get
it right, yeah.
So, yeah, I guess, movingforward from that, we sat down
(25:34):
and we just said, right, we, wewant to just try and be as
consistent as possible with ourdiet.
Um, through that critical timewe've we've already discussed
about the cropping and that sortof thing putting quite a bit of
pressure on feed supply at thattime of year.
So we reduced that croppingarea but also just had a bit of
a blueprint for our diet overthat period as well.
(25:55):
What do we need in the diet Ifthis happens?
What are we going to do?
If this happens?
What are we going to change?
So we were quite consistentwith the diet through that
period.
And in the two years post thatpoor result, we've had two great
consistent years.
You know, it's one thing doingit one year but it's replicating
it again the next year.
And we've had two great years.
(26:16):
And so this last season.
For a nine-and-a-half-weekmating period, we were 12% empty
and a 73 percent six wing calfright.
So so we're happy with thatthere's still room to move, yep,
but we're heading in the rightdirection just with your, uh,
with your diet.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I remember you using the, the phrase or the language,
something like you have a goodday diet and a shit day diet.
You know, going through thespring I don't know if that was
talking about you, yeah yeah, um, you do make some adjustments
as you go, but do you want tojust expand on that, trying to
get the consistency of feedingthroughout?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Talk us through the spreadsheet, mate.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
That's what he's really good at the spreadsheet's
the real gold, yeah yeah.
Look, I guess it's hard toowhen you've got a team on farm
as well.
You know, you might think onething, but someone else is
thinking another thing and youcan't be on farm all day, every
day.
So it was the good day dietversus the shit day diet come
(27:15):
about because I was busy andaway for a week or something.
We took some time off and theweather was atrocious and I was
like, well, how am I going to dothis because I'm not going to
be able to see the farm.
Um, so I'll keep in touch withthe team and and I'll just
create two differentspreadsheets for for our diet.
And it was a good day and ashit day.
(27:36):
So it worked really well and itwas simple and and look, we've
been using a feed system.
Just recently that dairyairyNZactually offers the feed
calculator, and I'd been playingaround with that and it's
amazing, when you play aroundwith your utilization, how much
more feed you actually need inyour diet to deal with a shit
day yeah 100%.
(27:57):
So that was that was how we um,yeah, yeah, sort of work through
that, that sort of challengeand and that's how I've sort of
approached things now as wellwith the farm and in feeding.
You know, we're actually beingproactive with our feeding and
if we see bad weather coming, weincrease the diet and and stuff
(28:17):
accordingly.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, and you're keeping that diet pretty just.
Apart from the quantities,you're keeping the, the
components of the diet prettyconsistent all the way through
that period.
I guess you're changing it forsummer, obviously, but for that
period changing the quantitiesonly.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, that's right, and I guess that comes back to
trying to create a simple systemand diet for the year.
And maize is basically our basefeed.
We've got PK in there as well,which I would include as bit of
a base feed.
Yeah, just not in such highquantities.
And then if we need anythingelse, um, like protein, we'll
(28:56):
just add it in if we have to,but as as sort of rare.
Yeah, you know we don't want toget into the high value um
products too much.
Yeah, but a year like this, um,you know we've had two and but
it's paying dividends, yeah yeahso have you done much different
this year with like, uh, yoursystem's fairly consistent,
(29:16):
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
you've probably not been too reactive to, yeah,
what's going on in the payoutenvironment.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
That's right.
The only difference we've madeis, um, buying in protein yeah,
which we've had to do, and inlooking at in in the payout
environment.
That's right.
The only difference we've madeis buying in protein, which
we've had to do in a good payoutyear and the system we're in.
You know, a lot of our costsare locked in.
If we just decided to shut upshop tomorrow because it was too
hard, we've already paid forstuff.
Yeah, we need to get paid forit.
You've got a lot of sunk costs.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
I can see it in the paddock behind me we're deep.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I've got a maize stack, like you said.
Just looking out the window inthe house paddock and it reminds
me every day of that invoiceand so we've got to make it pay.
So we're fortunate, even thoughwe've got a hard time at the
moment with the drought, we'vegot a good milk price and look,
we've done the numbers.
At the moment, with the drought, we've got a good milk price
and yeah, and look, we've donethe numbers.
At the moment we we feel ourdiets costing us around eight
(30:08):
dollars a cow a day.
Yeah, we're doing about $1.7 acow, and so you know, we feel
there's about an $8 margin inrough figures to give us the
confidence to do what we'redoing.
So we're feeding quite a bit ofmaize PK and then we've brought
in that high-value protein justto top them up, to fill that
gap.
I'm going to play devil'sadvocate here.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Good man, good man.
You're actually proving to be alot better than Matt Daly on
this podcast so far man.
We had a conversation before westarted recording and Dave was
saying that the challenges withmoving into these systems he
didn't really realize werecoming.
So tractors they break downwhen you're running the system.
That's quite a criticalcomponent, and when we're
(30:51):
getting through dry spells it'sactually being on top of what
feed you're buying in and leadtimes as well.
So that planning piece is quitecritical, but you didn't know
that before you made the switch.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
No, that's right.
It's huge and once you do getinto these systems you do have
to really think about that.
What are the implications?
And it's been a big learningcurve and, like I said, we're
not machinery people and wedon't want to be, but we have to
learn quite quickly the basicspretty quick.
Yeah, and like matt said, justbefore you guys arrived, I was
(31:22):
on the phone trying to figureout a problem with my tractor
and you know that he's not amachinery guy.
It's gonna be a costly exercise,but but it's the result of, of
the system we're in right so.
So we've got to factor thatinto our budgets and in what we
do.
But also in a in a year likethis where we've got droughts
and that sort of thing, I think,where farmers can stand out in
(31:48):
terms of performance andprofitability and resilience and
resilience is being ahead ofthe game so we can see a dry
spell coming.
What are the prices doing at themoment with feeds?
We'll lock these in now so wedon't get caught on the spot
market.
What's the lead-in times fordelivery?
One load of PK, for instance Ihad a couple of weeks back was
(32:09):
three days, was on farm.
The next time I called it was Ithink it was eight days lead-in
time.
So if I'd have worked on mythree days, it would have been
you would have been baguetteyeah, yeah, so big challenges
around that space, for it's justan awareness yeah, no in it for
you, now that you know when weget into these periods you need
to be thinking about thesethings coming forward, yeah, but
(32:30):
it can be costly and I thinkthe spot market on some of these
other feeds is where the dangerlies a little bit with some of
the system stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know you've got asystem which relies on the feed.
It's a total requirement andyou just keep rolling that in
front of you for six months or12 months in advance.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, yeah.
And it comes back to some ofthat relationship stuff again.
You know I've got goodrelationships with my feed reps,
yep, so they'll call me a lotof the time now, if there's good
prices and that sort of thingtoo, yeah, Just rounding off the
margin thing, would that beconsidered like at the moment?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
that would have to be one of your tighter margin
periods, wouldn't it?
In terms of I'm assuming it'sprobably you've got the biggest
level of inputs going in at themoment with with not a lot of
grass in the in the diet yeah,that's, that's right.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I mean, in my 11 years on this farm, I this would
be the hardest, and and philwould agree, in terms of grass
growth.
In terms of feed, yeah,available like grass, available
on farm.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So how much grass do you think you're feeding a day
at the moment?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
just out of curiosity .
I worked it out last night andI mean, of course we'd be lucky,
we'd be lucky to have two, twoor three kilos, two or three
kilos a day.
So we're up around that sort of21 total.
Yeah, um, at the moment for 21,22 kilos total diet.
So so there might be.
I based on that, there'sprobably a little bit more than
(33:55):
the two kilos of pasture inthere, but rough, there's a
sniff of pasture.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Change of scenery.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's the classic line change of scenery for the
cows every day.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
But then again, it's been amazing how consistent our
cows are.
But it's basically a full10-hour, isn't it At the moment?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
yes, yeah, we get a buffet breakfast, buffet lunch,
you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Buffet dinner yeah yeah, and we're hoping that this
little bit of uh drizzle on thewindow turns into something
more more substantial.
Yeah, yeah so that's a good sortof reflection going back, going
forward.
What are the?
You know it sounds like and andmaddie t just sort of
emphasized that you know youfeel like you're hitting a
little bit of a sweet spot withthe system, with, you know, the
young stock getting the dietsright.
(34:41):
You've got a lot of animalhealth stuff sorted, repos going
a lot better.
What are the levers to finetune it a little further from
here?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, I think, just consolidating what we're doing
as a team.
We're really happy with wherewe're at with the cropping and
the young stock, um, so it'sjust about trying to make it a
little bit more efficient.
We know we've sort of droppedthe ball a little, a little bit
with the passion crop, even alittle bit, in the last couple
of years.
We sort of want to target aboutthat 14 ton young farm and, and
(35:12):
we've, we've been a bit off themark there.
So just driving a little bitmore efficiency there and same
with around the reproperformance and then I think if
we can get those couple ofthings right, some of the other
efficiencies will just fall intoplace.
Going back to that initialcatalyst of lameness, we feel
like we've got on top of thatnow and learned quite a lot
along the way to sort of managethat going forward.
(35:34):
Learned quite a lot along theway to sort of manage that going
forward.
Something I didn't mentionright at the start is the layout
of the farm um, with 2.2 k tothe back paddock and so that
goes back to that time budget, alot of walking time, time on
feet, um, that was creatingquite a big challenge.
So, um, yeah, we've, we've.
(35:55):
I feel like we've sort ofovercome a lot of those
challenges with the lameness andthat and we're heading in the
right direction.
So just want to continue thatperformance and replicate it
every year um going forward yeah, yeah, um, and that's another.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Another point that we didn't probably expand on with
the walking is you know, there'sa lot of energy burned in that,
in that walking distance, everyday too.
So, coming back to your diet,you're feeding energy
requirements to get the level ofproduction that you're doing.
Some of that will be churned upin significant walking
distances.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, and that's why we do run a two-herd system here
.
We've got a twice-a-day herd atthe moment and a once-a-day
herd.
So in January that young herdwent once a day and they stayed
down the back of the farm and wekeep the twice a day herd close
and close to the feed pad andfeed them twice on the feed pad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nicenice.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Look, I kind of want to get pretty close to wrapping
up, but you've mentioned this afew times, a number of times
actually on the way through,about the use of kind of
external advice and and thevalue in that in your business.
But I'd add farmers into thatmix too, right?
Yeah, you know, I know you'reon, I know you're on the phone a
bit, you've got a, you've gotquite a tight network of farmers
(37:08):
, but you know, is that, is thatsomething that really kind of
stands out and is something thatyou kind of put a heap of value
in?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, massively, and it's on the daily kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
You know it's coming back to Alice in the phone again
.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Alice is probably wondering who he's talking to.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, she's like what boyfriend's bringing you down
yeah, but it's Matty T yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But look, I think it's really important,
especially when times are tough.
You know it's hard out there atthe moment with this drought
and mentally you know it doesget really hard on farm.
You just feel like you'reloading up, feeding out and when
is it going to end and what'sthe right avenue to take.
You know where are the nextsteps.
So I am really fortunate.
(37:56):
You know, I've got a reallygood core group of mates in the
area and further afield that wesort of lean on.
I guess, coming from my DaringZed job, I always I guess
networking and catching up withpeople is something that we love
.
So yeah, that's sort of driven,that sort of thing yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And I actually didn't touch on it either but you're
involved in a lot of industrystuff.
I mentioned Smash.
You've got a role there, butyou've sort of put yourself out
there on a number of occasionsto get involved in industry
stuff, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, that's right, and Alice is the same.
Before we had kids, alice was acatchment manager officer for
Waikato Regional Council and shewas in the role of helping
farmers with riparian plantingand hydrology and that sort of
thing.
So yeah, it's been importantfor both of us to keep those
(39:00):
networks going and so we do findwe get involved in at times too
much, but we love it and we nowhave a native tree nursery
business on farm as well.
Alice's baby.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Alice's baby.
You have to put that out there.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
You just get told what to do out there mate, I do.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You lost your tennis court and quite often I'll you
know I'll be there in fiveminutes and you know I get there
the next day.
But actually, but actually onthe phone to your mates pretty
much um, but yeah, that'sanother cool avenue for us to
connect with farmers.
We're a small business in termsof the nursery business, but we
(39:39):
do a lot of our own deliveriesto farm.
Alice does planting plans andthat sort of thing, so we get
out on farm and, yeah, alongsidefarmers trying to do cool stuff
.
Yeah, and it's what we'retrying to do at home and that's
been really important for usjust to try and get people
around us that are trying toachieve the same thing, which is
(40:00):
just doing a better job.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
How many plants do you do out there so for the
listeners listening?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
it's the size of a tennis court.
We need to plug the business.
We do need to plug the business.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
It's an area the size of the tennis court.
Yeah, areation set up.
Yeah, irrigation set up.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, yeah, I was a pretty average tennis player and
when Alice suggested we turn itinto a nursery it was a pretty
easy decision.
But yeah, so we grow about40,000 plants out there, yeah,
primarily for the sort ofriparian zone of planting.
We've got a few shade trees inthat as well.
But yeah, it's a great littlebusiness and complements the
(40:37):
farm really well and, like Isaid, it allows us to keep that
connection too.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
And it fits with that ethos around environmental good
.
You're doing the right thing byour waterways, by generations,
your sons.
They might take over the farmone day and they're going to get
a pretty nice piece of landwith some nice riparian prying
thing and native trees.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, you know, and it is cool.
You know, like you said, wewant to just keep doing better
by the land and we've got bigplans to keep planting trees and
that sort of thing.
But it's a little bit like thebuilder with the house falling
apart.
We find it hard to get outthere and have time to to do it
because we're normally busy withorders and that sort of thing.
(41:20):
But the other big part to thatis the business names called the
native dairy farmer and Alice.
One of her big goals was tryingto link the nursery to what we
do on farm and her role with thecouncil.
She was seeing a lot of farmersretire a lot of land, spend a
lot of money and try and do somereally cool stuff.
(41:43):
But we quite often only hearthe the negative um stuff, um
through the media.
So I I wasn't that keen on itand it's a bit like this podcast
.
At the beginning, um to to shoot, you know, to go into the media
platform and facebook and thatsort of thing.
(42:04):
But it's been really cool tosee how that's sort of developed
and and alice does a great jobwith that behind the scenes and
in linking the two and tellingstories on farm and the good and
the bad we we try and cover,cover both.
Um, it's not always beer andskittles out there, so so it's
been a great platform to sharewhat we do on farm and and even
(42:27):
our own family you know mysister's um made numerous
comments before it's.
It's cool to follow what you dobecause we've we've been off
farm for so many years now yousort of lose touch, yep, so it
gives them a connection.
It gives them a connection andit's been really cool.
I had a lady tell us a fewmonths back that some of our
(42:50):
content's been used in theclassroom with kids and that
sort of thing.
So that's really cool.
Yeah, so that sort of thing.
So that's really cool.
Yeah, so that sort of thing hasgone really well.
Yeah, nice one.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Oh look, I think that's a bloody great spot to
wrap up.
Matty T, have you got any finalthoughts?
Speaker 3 (43:07):
I just wrote down, like the experts and the network
you have around you is reallykey to your business, and
actually you're telling yourstory and reflecting on it like
how far you've come in the last11 years.
It's a phenomenal journey andit's awesome to be a part of
from a pioneer perspective aswell, because, like you said,
you're trying to push theboundaries and always
continually getting better, butnot trying to go too far.
(43:30):
It's just one step at a time,making sure you're going in the
right direction.
So, no, I really appreciatebeing a part of this business,
and our conversations aren'tmostly around farming, not about
May, so that's always a goodthing.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, no, bloody good .
Yeah, thanks, dave, you're atop bloke.
It's great to have you on Lovethe kind of progressive kind of
nature, always thinking aboutcontinuous improvement.
That's awesome for us to sortof join and be part of that
journey with you.
So really appreciate, eventhough you know sort of
reluctant, reluctant podcastdidn't sound too bad, so yeah,
(44:05):
awesome to have you along.
uh, so and and really appreciateyou.
Uh, you're opening up a bitabout your business and and
what's happening with thenursery For the listeners.
Just make sure that you likeand subscribe and follow and
tick all those right boxes.
It does help us make sure thatwe're providing good content and
(44:26):
that you're interested in thestuff that we're doing and
listening up for the nextepisode when it comes around.
So, thanks, guys, and thanksfor listening.
Cheers, cheers around, sothanks guys and thanks for
listening.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Cheers.
G'day and welcome to Feed for Thought, a regular
podcast from Pioneer coveringeverything from farm systems to
crops and products and much,much more.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to this episode of Feed for Thought.
So we've got a privilegeopportunity with another farmer
guest today.
But before I introduce him,also got another sidekick today,
another Matt from the teamMattie Towers, Great to have you
along.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Thanks, mate.
I'm not really sure if it'll bean upgrade or a downgrade, but
the people can tell us afterthis, you will see, we'll see,
mate, I'm confident you're goingto be an upgrade, but we'll see
how we go.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And Dave Sweeney, local farmer here just south of
Te Amuru today.
Dave, great to have you alongBeen on the farm here for a few
years now.
Do you want to just tell us alittle bit about yourself, your
background and kind of what youwere doing even before farming
more recently?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, yeah, no thanks , team.
Been back on farm for 11 years.
So Alice and I contract milkingon farm.
We're in equity partnershipwith my parents, phil and Deb.
Alice and I have two young boys.
Walter and Rex are two and one,so sort of very much in the
trenches still at the moment,but coming out the other side,
(01:26):
out the other side.
And yeah, phil and Deb havebeen on this current farm for
about 37 years.
Prior to me coming home, I wasworking for Dairy New Zealand as
a consulting officer for aboutfive years and then spread my
wings overseas a little bit anddid a bit of travel and worked
on some farms over there andthen come back to the dairy farm
and sort of settled in here andtaking things over from a
succession point of view there.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
What was it like coming out of Dairy NZ and
coming on farm?
You would have had all theneighbours looking over the
boundary, no doubt going who'sthis young guy?
How's he going to go?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Bit of pressure, bit daunting, to be honest.
Yeah, a lot of pressure.
I think even when I was atDairy NZ, I had quite a close
connection to the farm and whatwas happening on the farm.
So we've always been a sort ofhigher input farm as well, and I
think Dad always sort of heldme to things a little bit and we
always chatted about what washappening on farm and so that
(02:23):
sort of kept me quite groundedin my role at DairyNZ.
Yeah, as you said, wade, it wasquite a shift, you know, on the
other side of the fence, so tospeak, yeah, from the talking
about it to the doing it.
Got to put my money where themouth is.
I'm still here, though.
Yeah, it's gone by pretty quickA lot of challenges along the
way, a lot of successes, but noloving it, and I guess, yeah, at
(02:43):
the time was probably a littlebit early for me to come home.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I was enjoying myself , you know five day a week job
and yeah, bit of travel and atime on the weekends to
socialize no responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
But look, you know, I didn't want to miss out on an
opportunity and and if I didn'tjump at the chance the farm
might not be there, um down thetrack.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
So some of the colleagues you used to have to
deal with at dairy and z, though, were a bit questionable yeah,
no, I mean, that was a greattime, though, too, with dairy
and z, and that presented itsown challenges.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know, straight out of university, I had never
been north of the harbour bridge, and they posted me up to
northland as my first area andcut my teeth up there and, yeah,
learned some things.
I'm picking yeah, absolutely,absolutely so.
No, it was really good.
It was a great time in my lifeand and learned a lot from good
farmers and and differentsystems and yeah, just on the
systems front, do you want tojust share a little bit about
(03:41):
your system here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
you've touched on it system four or five, but the
farm info in the in the systemyeah, so a system five.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Here we milk 410 crossbreed cows.
They're quite big crossbreedcows so would be sort of pushing
about four sort of 430 440 liveweight average.
We feed maizeize, piquet strawand a little bit of grass
foliage on the side, quite a bitof summer cropping through
(04:10):
maize and chicory Calves at homefor the first 12 months of age
and then they go out to grazingSpring calving, early calving.
We're quite an early farm here,so we're on myra ash ash soil
so things do take off and heatup pretty quick.
So first of july calving forthe heifers, in 10th of july for
(04:32):
the main herd, yeah, and sothat's a mating date of first of
october.
Yeah, yeah, so the.
I guess the system helps usachieve the early calving.
We also have a winter blockwhere we can winter some cows
for four weeks.
But I've kind of just taken thebaton and run with it.
You know phil's always been ahigher input farm.
He got into my solid earlysupplements early quite a few
(04:57):
years ago.
So yeah, we've sort of just runwith that system and on yeah,
and we both enjoy it.
We we love feeding cows andthat's been quite a focus.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, nice and you mentioned earlier on about sort
of some of the challenges whenyou came back and kind of how
that's sort of shaped somechanges that you've made along
the way.
What were some of those thingswhen you arrived on farm or
opportunities they might nothave all been challenges.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Probably the big challenge for me personally was
that changeover from you know,from jobs you know, and actually
putting the theory into action,but also, I think, as a team
and and as a farm, trying todevelop a system that we could
replicate each year, and and Ithink that's been a continual
challenge and we're only juststarting to get to a point.
(05:46):
Now I feel like we're in quitea nice space with our system and
what we're trying to achieve,so that's sort of been quite a
big challenge.
Yeah, I think in 10 Shit.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
11 years, mate.
It's taking a wee while.
Is that fast or is it slow?
Yeah, it's slow.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, and that's the thing I think, as farmers too,
we're always trying to do thingsbetter and that's the thing I
think as farmers too, we'realways trying to do things
better and that just snowballssometimes, and for the good or
the bad, you know, I think thesedecisions we've made over the
years that have been greatdecisions and some that have
probably created more challengesthan we wanted along the way,
(06:21):
but overall, I think I guessthat biggest, the biggest
challenge and it is for mostpeople is just creating that
happy medium, you know, betweensort of work-life balance but
also a profitable, efficientsystem.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so what have been those sortof key changes or what have
what have been the catalyst forchanges?
As you've gone along from sortof thinking back 11 years, are
there some things that sort ofstand out in your mind to go
actually we tried something herethat perhaps did or didn't work
and review it and kind ofreassess yeah, I think, probably
(06:58):
going back a step again, um,looking at those opportunities.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
When I come, come home, phil had already had a
system and an operation that wasgoing really well and so, in
terms of massive opportunitieson farm to take production to
the next level and things likethat, we didn't have that
opportunity.
Yeah, but it was more aboutfine-tuning things and making it
sustainable year in, year out.
Yeah, and that comes back tosome of the animal health stuff,
(07:25):
um, and targets that we had.
But, yeah, some of the big um,I guess catalysts for change.
I guess, to put it intoperspective as well, from where
we were to where we are now, myfirst year on farm I was milking
520 cows on 124 hectares, Iguess to build a bigger picture,
(07:47):
in that, you know, we were 21days on, three days off roster,
oh yeah, yeah, you know, a lotof cows, a lot of feeding, yeah,
um, we were just full noise,full noise, yeah, yeah, we had,
in that first year or two that Iwas at home, we had quite a big
challenge with lame cows, whichwas kind of one of the biggest
(08:09):
catalysts, I guess, to sort ofsaying, look, we need to step
back from this and take a biggerpicture approach and see what's
actually going on here.
We did that and we brought inexperts.
So we come across a guy calledFred from the South Island who
is an expert in hoof care andhealth and he came and actually
(08:31):
we did a workshop on farm forother farmers around hoof
trimming.
We paid for a consult with Fredto have a look over the farm,
look at the challenges aroundfarm layout, how we manage our
cows and that sort of thing.
And I think probably one of thebiggest things I've taken away
which has kind of developed theway with sort of farming now, is
(08:52):
he asked me to do a time budgetfor our cows.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
How's this all?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
about.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
What's a time budget?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, you know sort of where are you getting at with
this?
But I sat down and you know Iwas thinking what time do you go
for your cows?
How long does it take for themto walk to the cow shed time on
feed pad, you know, milking time, all that sort of stuff,
raising time, raising time, allof that.
So we put that down on paperand we worked it out and there
(09:18):
was just a massive light bulbmoment and it's like, well, you,
you know they've got time towalk and everything else and to
eat, but there's actually you'vegot no time for the cows to
rest and sit down and toruminate and and that sort of
thing.
And that was a massive momentfor us because we're we were
sort of chasing all these otherthings and and, but in the
(09:38):
background we weren't quitehitting the mark with some of
these, um, animal health andanimal behavioral things.
So so that's stemmed a snowballof events, I guess, from there.
Yeah, um, as a result of thatvisit and after that we took on
a nutritionist to help withfeeding the cows the right diet
to promote good hoof development.
(10:00):
Yep, we had been a little bitfrustrated with the lameness
stuff in terms of a lot of themessages out there and that
today are focused on managementand staff and races and that,
and we knew we'd tick thoseboxes and we're confident in
that.
Um, and so we're like well,where do we go next?
And nutrition was kind of theonly thing left on the table
(10:23):
that we could look at.
So, as a result of Fred comingup and looking at the farm and
the time budget, we brought on anutritionist and we went from
there with some of our feedingchanges on farm.
We're getting a pretty easyride here, mate, aren't we?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
He's filling the gaps quite well isn't he?
Yeah, so.
Okay.
So the lameness was thecatalyst for the nutrition.
Did you change?
Like your stocking rate waspretty hefty.
I assume there was a whole lotof feed coming into the system,
like when you started going downthat track and got into the
(10:59):
nutrition.
What did you change?
What did you change?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, I think there's a couple of other challenges
that were sort of thrown at usthere as well.
From memory, we had that $8payout year.
It was my first year on farm2012, 13.
Oh yeah.
And then that was followed bythe $3.90.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Oh right, $4 payout.
Yeah, Very challenging 15, 16.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
My first year here.
You know 520 cows, first yearfarming.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Dairy farming's easy, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
We had a sweet winter , sweet spring, high payout year
.
And I was like, well, this ismint, this is pretty easy.
A good mate of mine, ben samething, he was first year out of
a similar job and we were kindof like, well, this is Riding
the wave, let's go this isawesome, put walkouts on.
Yeah, and then it was like itall just come crashing down.
(11:53):
You know that next year ourpayout got cut in half.
I remember we had a hard spring.
You know the lameness wentthrough the roof.
We were banging our headagainst a brick wall.
So that's when all this sort ofstuff happened and and yeah,
from a stocking rate point ofview.
(12:13):
So that was sort of workingalongside some of this nutrition
and lame cow stuff, um.
But because of the payout we hadto sort of look at our cost
structure as well and ourbiggest um cost was feed at the
time still is, you know, in asystem, five um so and grazing
um.
So we did the numbers again.
We got an expert in um anotherguy I've worked with before um
(12:35):
at dairy and zed come in and didsome pharmax modeling for us
and we looked at growing up in amaze at home and bringing our
calves home onto the milkingplatform.
So that achieved two things forour business.
One was, if we could reduce ourtotal spend on supplement, even
in a small way, it's going tohave a much bigger effect on our
(12:57):
bottom line because that'salready our biggest cost within
our budget.
So growing some maize on farmhelped us achieve that.
The second fact was takingcontrol of the young stock.
So we took control back of ourcalves.
We also reduced our grazingbill on farm On heifer grazing
(13:17):
yeah, on the heifer grazing andwe also grazed them down the
back of the farm.
So the long walks that we'rehaving to do with our cows, we
shortened that up.
So that helped some of theanimal health side of things
with the cows and it brought ourstocking rate down as well.
So that meant less feed comingin too.
So it had quite a big effect onthe bottom line.
(13:41):
So that's sort of where we ranwith the stocking rates, sort of
stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
So were the young stock a problem Like out grazing
?
Was that really a problem?
Or was that more about thesystem here at home?
Or were you trying to?
Kill sort of two birds with onestone.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, funny you ask that because I was thinking that
this morning Did we actuallyhave a problem and I can't
remember a problem with theyoung stock at grazing.
But yeah, it just achieved aslightly different goal to what
we're trying to do, rather thanjust growing good stock, yeah,
so you think the element ofcontrol over your young stock
improves your overall business.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Not seeing them all the time, the inputs into them?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Absolutely.
And I think when we look at thefirst two years of a cow's life
, I personally think the calvesare the hardest to do and grow.
They're so finicky with theirgrazing habits and that sort of
thing.
So by us taking control of that, you know, it gives us a bit
more confidence and helps wethink it helps us achieve some
(14:39):
better live weight targets lateron.
We also have the ability onfarm with good infrastructure
and that we can manage themeasily.
Yeah, that's right.
And from a live weight targetslater on, we also have the
ability on farm with goodinfrastructure and that we can
manage them easily.
Yeah, that's right.
And from a live weight point ofview, the calves don't actually
take up a massive footprint onfarm compared to an R2.
Yeah, right.
So the area we had to kind ofallocate for those calves in the
(15:00):
big scheme of things wasn'tmassive.
So to give you an example, I'vegot 60 calves on farm and I
allocate about five hectares tothose animals.
For the summer period inparticular, we do graze out
another 30 and that's because Ifelt for our farm, our cow
numbers, 60 is about the max Ican carry.
(15:21):
Yeah, and so what's your regimefor them?
So the calves about Decemberthey start on chicory, yep, and
we just run around five hectaresof chicory on about a 24-day
round.
In a season like this, with thesummer dry, we extend that
round to sort of 30 on thechicory and bring in a bit more
supplement.
And bring in a bit moresupplement.
(15:42):
But they're typically grazed intwo-day breaks and they have
straw and a little bit of PKabout a kilo per calf per day.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
And what's a live weight gain?
I know you measure them.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's a leading questionwaiter.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I just want to make sure our listeners know, yeah,
so we do weigh them regularlyand I mean it's anywhere from
sort of 0.7 to a kilo.
Wow, lightweight gain a day.
Pretty happy with that, yeah,so we're sending them out first
of May at a minimum averageacross the line of 230, sort of
230 to 250 kilos.
(16:20):
Awesome, first of May, andthat's for a cross-breed animal.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, and so look, we're real happy with that
regime.
We feel like it's such a smallfootprint in the area in the big
picture For the amount ofbenefit it gives you.
Yeah, yeah, and we enjoy it.
We like growing stock.
It's great for staff becausethey're learning a different
skill with animal health andlive weight targets and that so
(16:45):
yeah, you mentioned too aboutbringing a little bit of your
maze on farm.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know, I couldn't help but suggest that Matty T is
one of your experts.
You know, surely he is.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
There is a team involved with this to be fair.
Dave's number one, but thelocal contractor, john Austin.
He is a massive part of whatDave does here and he gives a
lot of expertise throughout theyear, especially what you bring
in and what you do here as well.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, I think you've raised a good point there too.
A lot of these experts andpeople that were brought into
the business have just carriedon from Phil and Deb as well.
They've established they'vebeen here for 35 years, you know
.
So there's we've got some greatrelationships with our service
(17:34):
providers, and John Austin's akey part to that and and look,
we're not machinery peopleeither and we don't want to be
um John lives in his depot.
It's just 2K down the road, soit's a great relationship with
him that we have with the maizeon farm and we buy maize off him
as well to make up our total.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That's been a long relationship.
I do need to throw this in.
It's been like ever since,pretty much day one for Phil,
isn't?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
it yeah, it has, and it's pretty cool and look as we
hand over's pretty cool, andlook as we hand over the baton,
and that as well.
I'm now working with MichaelAustin, john's son as well, and
it's just quite cool.
You know, we we've almost grownup together, you know, in the
ag industry and it's great.
So so, yeah, there's a lot ofwork that goes in behind the
(18:22):
scenes there and we sort ofvalue their advice and their
service.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Do you just want to give us a bit of a picture on
why you buy in some of yourmaize and why you grow some?
On the platform you touched onit earlier, it's around your
feed cost, which is your biggestcost to your business, but sort
of some of the other elementsand decision making you go
through there.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah, definitely.
I guess it just spreads ourrisk um a little bit.
That's probably the biggest oneyou know financially.
We know we can grow maize quitecheaply, especially on effluent
ground, because we're quite ahigh input farm and have been
for a number of years.
Our soil tests are quite high,I guess, um or for a better word
(19:04):
is high across the farm, so wewant to try and harvest that and
capture that as well.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
When you're bringing in a lot of supplement too.
There's a lot of excessnutrient available that we can
then grow good maize crops on.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Absolutely, and any crop I guess as well.
But maize seems to be quite agood fit for what we're trying
to achieve here and I guess withthe new technology with
strip-till and that sort ofthing now as well, it's given us
a bit more confidence to maybegrow more on farm because we're
looking after the soil a bitbetter once it goes back into
(19:37):
permanent pasture.
So that's been really cool.
But yeah, primarily it's beendoing a bit on farm and buying
in a bit.
It's just spreading our riskfinancially.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Especially in dry seasons like we've just been
through, isn't it?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
and stress.
I think you know like a lot ofwork goes into the planning of
establishing crops and spraysand pressures from insects and
cyclones.
We've had our fair share.
It keeps.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Matty T busy yeah exactly Get the phone call from
Dave and I go.
What do we have this year mate?
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean in the last couple ofyears we had a cyclone come
through and bowl out like a lotof people.
It was just over a hectare ofmaize on farm.
The stuff that we buy in acrossthe road was sweet 500 metres
difference.
But look that adds to our costand stress and risk profile.
This year we had cutworm bledout a whole paddock.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, we probably had a hectare and a half just
demoed.
But I mean, the good thingabout that story is you
replanted it and we, you know,through the chopper we got 20
tonne and we were about four tosix weeks different.
So that's quite resilient inthat respect and the strip tool
having that system, you justplant straight into those rows,
you spray it out and start againand you're away.
(20:55):
So from a bad sort of start weactually got a result that was
quite good and we're not puttinga lot of food inputs, like Dave
was saying, into those areasbecause they're effluent ground.
So there's not that added costof wasting that food or that
nutrient you put in there.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, and I think that's yeah.
You know like I wouldn't wantto go all our allocation on farm
because I don't want that riskyeah it's too big an area, yeah.
You know, like I know, we canpurchase, we can make a plan and
say that's what we're going toget and that's what we're going
to pay.
It's easy.
We got a bit more this year.
Yeah, we got a bit more becausethe yield was good.
But yeah, it always averagesout, I guess, and it just seems
(21:33):
to be a nice happy medium.
So over the 11 years I guess,we've gone from growing no maize
at home to growing five andwe're growing 10 of chicory.
A couple of years ago to thisseason or the season just gone,
we've grown 10 hectares of maizeand five of chicory.
Yeah, so we've grown fromnothing to 10 hectares on farm
(21:55):
in the space.
Here seems to be a bit of asweet spot.
Yeah, I like it.
I think we've actually broughtour total cropping area down a
smidgen.
We felt it was putting too muchpressure on our system at a
critical time of the year, beingmating, and I felt like we're
robbing Peter to pay Paul alittle bit.
So we've reduced that croppingarea a little bit, changed the
(22:17):
make up of the crop, so we'vegone for more maize in the
system and brought in a littlebit less as well, and it just
seems to be a really nice fit.
So we're sitting around 12percent from memory of cropping
area of the platform with theyoung sock taking a piece of the
young sock.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah, so just a question.
Uh, environment you touched onthat with the strip tool.
Is that a key bit of yourbusiness and a major part of
your thinking and what you'redoing in decision making going?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
forward?
Yeah, it definitely is, and Ithink, like I said, the strip
tool gave us a bit of confidenceto use a bit more maze, um,
within our system at homebecause of the environmental
piece, we're not turning soilover and and phil's always had a
great reputation for being anearly adopter with direct
drilling and I remember he's hedid a lot of trolls years ago
(23:08):
with ants, ants, roberts, yeah,um, about the programmed
approach and drilling and andall sorts of things.
So we've always been, um, yeah,I guess, big campaigners for
not turning dirt over, I guess,and just trying to look after,
look after the soil structure alittle bit more, and that's
probably my rush is probablythanks you for that.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
It does.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
In terms of a soil type?
Yeah, absolutely, I wanted topick up on so you've touched on.
You know lameness was acatalyst for change.
Nutrition started to influencesome of your decision making.
I know more recently becauseI've known you for a fair while.
Dave Repro was also one of thethings and you've had a little.
(23:51):
Actually, you put yourself outthere on the Smash one of the
online events with Smash butwhat happened there and how big
an impact did that have and whatchanges did that drive?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yeah, yeah, when you really sit down and write things
down.
We've had our fair share ofchallenges, like everyone, I
guess, and look, just like Isaid, it snowballs to some of
these things.
But we hit a high empty rate acouple of years ago.
So we had a 20% year year,which was.
(24:25):
It was just so disappointing.
You know, it was heartbreakingbecause we put a lot into the
mating.
Your season starts and stopswith your mating results
basically that's.
You know, we're driven by that.
So so it was.
It was a hard one to take, butwe had to just sit back from it
and think look, what happenedhere and what can we do
differently.
So we again, we got experts into try and help us figure that
(24:48):
one out.
There was no real big concrete,I guess, things that jumped out
at us to say, look you, youmade a mess of this, we'll do
that better next year.
Um, it was a really hard one, Ithink.
Nationally we saw empty ratesrise and six-week and calf rates
reduce.
It's not an excuse, but therewas a higher.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There was something going on in terms of the
environment.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
At the time I was sort of also playing around with
quite a few different things interms of feeds and byproducts
and that sort of thing, and Ithink just a bit of sort of you
know, uneducation there withwith some of the feeds and that
sort of thing, just um, Iprobably just didn't quite get
it right, yeah.
So, yeah, I guess, movingforward from that, we sat down
(25:34):
and we just said, right, we, wewant to just try and be as
consistent as possible with ourdiet.
Um, through that critical timewe've we've already discussed
about the cropping and that sortof thing putting quite a bit of
pressure on feed supply at thattime of year.
So we reduced that croppingarea but also just had a bit of
a blueprint for our diet overthat period as well.
(25:55):
What do we need in the diet Ifthis happens?
What are we going to do?
If this happens?
What are we going to change?
So we were quite consistentwith the diet through that
period.
And in the two years post thatpoor result, we've had two great
consistent years.
You know, it's one thing doingit one year but it's replicating
it again the next year.
And we've had two great years.
(26:16):
And so this last season.
For a nine-and-a-half-weekmating period, we were 12% empty
and a 73 percent six wing calfright.
So so we're happy with thatthere's still room to move, yep,
but we're heading in the rightdirection just with your, uh,
with your diet.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I remember you using the, the phrase or the language,
something like you have a goodday diet and a shit day diet.
You know, going through thespring I don't know if that was
talking about you, yeah yeah, um, you do make some adjustments
as you go, but do you want tojust expand on that, trying to
get the consistency of feedingthroughout?
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Talk us through the spreadsheet, mate.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
That's what he's really good at the spreadsheet's
the real gold, yeah yeah.
Look, I guess it's hard toowhen you've got a team on farm
as well.
You know, you might think onething, but someone else is
thinking another thing and youcan't be on farm all day, every
day.
So it was the good day dietversus the shit day diet come
(27:15):
about because I was busy andaway for a week or something.
We took some time off and theweather was atrocious and I was
like, well, how am I going to dothis because I'm not going to
be able to see the farm.
Um, so I'll keep in touch withthe team and and I'll just
create two differentspreadsheets for for our diet.
And it was a good day and ashit day.
(27:36):
So it worked really well and itwas simple and and look, we've
been using a feed system.
Just recently that dairyairyNZactually offers the feed
calculator, and I'd been playingaround with that and it's
amazing, when you play aroundwith your utilization, how much
more feed you actually need inyour diet to deal with a shit
day yeah 100%.
(27:57):
So that was that was how we um,yeah, yeah, sort of work through
that, that sort of challengeand and that's how I've sort of
approached things now as wellwith the farm and in feeding.
You know, we're actually beingproactive with our feeding and
if we see bad weather coming, weincrease the diet and and stuff
(28:17):
accordingly.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, and you're keeping that diet pretty just.
Apart from the quantities,you're keeping the, the
components of the diet prettyconsistent all the way through
that period.
I guess you're changing it forsummer, obviously, but for that
period changing the quantitiesonly.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, that's right, and I guess that comes back to
trying to create a simple systemand diet for the year.
And maize is basically our basefeed.
We've got PK in there as well,which I would include as bit of
a base feed.
Yeah, just not in such highquantities.
And then if we need anythingelse, um, like protein, we'll
(28:56):
just add it in if we have to,but as as sort of rare.
Yeah, you know we don't want toget into the high value um
products too much.
Yeah, but a year like this, um,you know we've had two and but
it's paying dividends, yeah yeahso have you done much different
this year with like, uh, yoursystem's fairly consistent,
(29:16):
isn't it?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
you've probably not been too reactive to, yeah,
what's going on in the payoutenvironment.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
That's right.
The only difference we've madeis, um, buying in protein yeah,
which we've had to do, and inlooking at in in the payout
environment.
That's right.
The only difference we've madeis buying in protein, which
we've had to do in a good payoutyear and the system we're in.
You know, a lot of our costsare locked in.
If we just decided to shut upshop tomorrow because it was too
hard, we've already paid forstuff.
Yeah, we need to get paid forit.
You've got a lot of sunk costs.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
I can see it in the paddock behind me we're deep.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
I've got a maize stack, like you said.
Just looking out the window inthe house paddock and it reminds
me every day of that invoiceand so we've got to make it pay.
So we're fortunate, even thoughwe've got a hard time at the
moment with the drought, we'vegot a good milk price and look,
we've done the numbers.
At the moment, with the drought, we've got a good milk price
and yeah, and look, we've donethe numbers.
At the moment we we feel ourdiets costing us around eight
(30:08):
dollars a cow a day.
Yeah, we're doing about $1.7 acow, and so you know, we feel
there's about an $8 margin inrough figures to give us the
confidence to do what we'redoing.
So we're feeding quite a bit ofmaize PK and then we've brought
in that high-value protein justto top them up, to fill that
gap.
I'm going to play devil'sadvocate here.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Good man, good man.
You're actually proving to be alot better than Matt Daly on
this podcast so far man.
We had a conversation before westarted recording and Dave was
saying that the challenges withmoving into these systems he
didn't really realize werecoming.
So tractors they break downwhen you're running the system.
That's quite a criticalcomponent, and when we're
(30:51):
getting through dry spells it'sactually being on top of what
feed you're buying in and leadtimes as well.
So that planning piece is quitecritical, but you didn't know
that before you made the switch.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
No, that's right.
It's huge and once you do getinto these systems you do have
to really think about that.
What are the implications?
And it's been a big learningcurve and, like I said, we're
not machinery people and wedon't want to be, but we have to
learn quite quickly the basicspretty quick.
Yeah, and like matt said, justbefore you guys arrived, I was
(31:22):
on the phone trying to figureout a problem with my tractor
and you know that he's not amachinery guy.
It's gonna be a costly exercise,but but it's the result of, of
the system we're in right so.
So we've got to factor thatinto our budgets and in what we
do.
But also in a in a year likethis where we've got droughts
and that sort of thing, I think,where farmers can stand out in
(31:48):
terms of performance andprofitability and resilience and
resilience is being ahead ofthe game so we can see a dry
spell coming.
What are the prices doing at themoment with feeds?
We'll lock these in now so wedon't get caught on the spot
market.
What's the lead-in times fordelivery?
One load of PK, for instance Ihad a couple of weeks back was
(32:09):
three days, was on farm.
The next time I called it was Ithink it was eight days lead-in
time.
So if I'd have worked on mythree days, it would have been
you would have been baguetteyeah, yeah, so big challenges
around that space, for it's justan awareness yeah, no in it for
you, now that you know when weget into these periods you need
to be thinking about thesethings coming forward, yeah, but
(32:30):
it can be costly and I thinkthe spot market on some of these
other feeds is where the dangerlies a little bit with some of
the system stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, you know you've got asystem which relies on the feed.
It's a total requirement andyou just keep rolling that in
front of you for six months or12 months in advance.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, yeah.
And it comes back to some ofthat relationship stuff again.
You know I've got goodrelationships with my feed reps,
yep, so they'll call me a lotof the time now, if there's good
prices and that sort of thingtoo, yeah, Just rounding off the
margin thing, would that beconsidered like at the moment?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
that would have to be one of your tighter margin
periods, wouldn't it?
In terms of I'm assuming it'sprobably you've got the biggest
level of inputs going in at themoment with with not a lot of
grass in the in the diet yeah,that's, that's right.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
I mean, in my 11 years on this farm, I this would
be the hardest, and and philwould agree, in terms of grass
growth.
In terms of feed, yeah,available like grass, available
on farm.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So how much grass do you think you're feeding a day
at the moment?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
just out of curiosity .
I worked it out last night andI mean, of course we'd be lucky,
we'd be lucky to have two, twoor three kilos, two or three
kilos a day.
So we're up around that sort of21 total.
Yeah, um, at the moment for 21,22 kilos total diet.
So so there might be.
I based on that, there'sprobably a little bit more than
(33:55):
the two kilos of pasture inthere, but rough, there's a
sniff of pasture.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Change of scenery.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's the classic line change of scenery for the
cows every day.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
But then again, it's been amazing how consistent our
cows are.
But it's basically a full10-hour, isn't it At the moment?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
yes, yeah, we get a buffet breakfast, buffet lunch,
you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Buffet dinner yeah yeah, and we're hoping that this
little bit of uh drizzle on thewindow turns into something
more more substantial.
Yeah, yeah so that's a good sortof reflection going back, going
forward.
What are the?
You know it sounds like and andmaddie t just sort of
emphasized that you know youfeel like you're hitting a
little bit of a sweet spot withthe system, with, you know, the
young stock getting the dietsright.
(34:41):
You've got a lot of animalhealth stuff sorted, repos going
a lot better.
What are the levers to finetune it a little further from
here?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, I think, just consolidating what we're doing
as a team.
We're really happy with wherewe're at with the cropping and
the young stock, um, so it'sjust about trying to make it a
little bit more efficient.
We know we've sort of droppedthe ball a little, a little bit
with the passion crop, even alittle bit, in the last couple
of years.
We sort of want to target aboutthat 14 ton young farm and, and
(35:12):
we've, we've been a bit off themark there.
So just driving a little bitmore efficiency there and same
with around the reproperformance and then I think if
we can get those couple ofthings right, some of the other
efficiencies will just fall intoplace.
Going back to that initialcatalyst of lameness, we feel
like we've got on top of thatnow and learned quite a lot
along the way to sort of managethat going forward.
(35:34):
Learned quite a lot along theway to sort of manage that going
forward.
Something I didn't mentionright at the start is the layout
of the farm um, with 2.2 k tothe back paddock and so that
goes back to that time budget, alot of walking time, time on
feet, um, that was creatingquite a big challenge.
So, um, yeah, we've, we've.
(35:55):
I feel like we've sort ofovercome a lot of those
challenges with the lameness andthat and we're heading in the
right direction.
So just want to continue thatperformance and replicate it
every year um going forward yeah, yeah, um, and that's another.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Another point that we didn't probably expand on with
the walking is you know, there'sa lot of energy burned in that,
in that walking distance, everyday too.
So, coming back to your diet,you're feeding energy
requirements to get the level ofproduction that you're doing.
Some of that will be churned upin significant walking
distances.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Yeah, and that's why we do run a two-herd system here
.
We've got a twice-a-day herd atthe moment and a once-a-day
herd.
So in January that young herdwent once a day and they stayed
down the back of the farm and wekeep the twice a day herd close
and close to the feed pad andfeed them twice on the feed pad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, nicenice.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Look, I kind of want to get pretty close to wrapping
up, but you've mentioned this afew times, a number of times
actually on the way through,about the use of kind of
external advice and and thevalue in that in your business.
But I'd add farmers into thatmix too, right?
Yeah, you know, I know you'reon, I know you're on the phone a
bit, you've got a, you've gotquite a tight network of farmers
(37:08):
, but you know, is that, is thatsomething that really kind of
stands out and is something thatyou kind of put a heap of value
in?
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Yeah, massively, and it's on the daily kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
You know it's coming back to Alice in the phone again
.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Alice is probably wondering who he's talking to.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, she's like what boyfriend's bringing you down
yeah, but it's Matty T yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
But look, I think it's really important,
especially when times are tough.
You know it's hard out there atthe moment with this drought
and mentally you know it doesget really hard on farm.
You just feel like you'reloading up, feeding out and when
is it going to end and what'sthe right avenue to take.
You know where are the nextsteps.
So I am really fortunate.
(37:56):
You know, I've got a reallygood core group of mates in the
area and further afield that wesort of lean on.
I guess, coming from my DaringZed job, I always I guess
networking and catching up withpeople is something that we love
.
So yeah, that's sort of driven,that sort of thing yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
And I actually didn't touch on it either but you're
involved in a lot of industrystuff.
I mentioned Smash.
You've got a role there, butyou've sort of put yourself out
there on a number of occasionsto get involved in industry
stuff, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, that's right, and Alice is the same.
Before we had kids, alice was acatchment manager officer for
Waikato Regional Council and shewas in the role of helping
farmers with riparian plantingand hydrology and that sort of
thing.
So yeah, it's been importantfor both of us to keep those
(39:00):
networks going and so we do findwe get involved in at times too
much, but we love it and we nowhave a native tree nursery
business on farm as well.
Alice's baby.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Alice's baby.
You have to put that out there.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
You just get told what to do out there mate, I do.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You lost your tennis court and quite often I'll you
know I'll be there in fiveminutes and you know I get there
the next day.
But actually, but actually onthe phone to your mates pretty
much um, but yeah, that'sanother cool avenue for us to
connect with farmers.
We're a small business in termsof the nursery business, but we
(39:39):
do a lot of our own deliveriesto farm.
Alice does planting plans andthat sort of thing, so we get
out on farm and, yeah, alongsidefarmers trying to do cool stuff
.
Yeah, and it's what we'retrying to do at home and that's
been really important for usjust to try and get people
around us that are trying toachieve the same thing, which is
(40:00):
just doing a better job.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
How many plants do you do out there so for the
listeners listening?
Speaker 3 (40:05):
it's the size of a tennis court.
We need to plug the business.
We do need to plug the business.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
It's an area the size of the tennis court.
Yeah, areation set up.
Yeah, irrigation set up.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, yeah, I was a pretty average tennis player and
when Alice suggested we turn itinto a nursery it was a pretty
easy decision.
But yeah, so we grow about40,000 plants out there, yeah,
primarily for the sort ofriparian zone of planting.
We've got a few shade trees inthat as well.
But yeah, it's a great littlebusiness and complements the
(40:37):
farm really well and, like Isaid, it allows us to keep that
connection too.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
And it fits with that ethos around environmental good
.
You're doing the right thing byour waterways, by generations,
your sons.
They might take over the farmone day and they're going to get
a pretty nice piece of landwith some nice riparian prying
thing and native trees.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, you know, and it is cool.
You know, like you said, wewant to just keep doing better
by the land and we've got bigplans to keep planting trees and
that sort of thing.
But it's a little bit like thebuilder with the house falling
apart.
We find it hard to get outthere and have time to to do it
because we're normally busy withorders and that sort of thing.
(41:20):
But the other big part to thatis the business names called the
native dairy farmer and Alice.
One of her big goals was tryingto link the nursery to what we
do on farm and her role with thecouncil.
She was seeing a lot of farmersretire a lot of land, spend a
lot of money and try and do somereally cool stuff.
(41:43):
But we quite often only hearthe the negative um stuff, um
through the media.
So I I wasn't that keen on itand it's a bit like this podcast
.
At the beginning, um to to shoot, you know, to go into the media
platform and facebook and thatsort of thing.
(42:04):
But it's been really cool tosee how that's sort of developed
and and alice does a great jobwith that behind the scenes and
in linking the two and tellingstories on farm and the good and
the bad we we try and cover,cover both.
Um, it's not always beer andskittles out there, so so it's
been a great platform to sharewhat we do on farm and and even
(42:27):
our own family you know mysister's um made numerous
comments before it's.
It's cool to follow what you dobecause we've we've been off
farm for so many years now yousort of lose touch, yep, so it
gives them a connection.
It gives them a connection andit's been really cool.
I had a lady tell us a fewmonths back that some of our
(42:50):
content's been used in theclassroom with kids and that
sort of thing.
So that's really cool.
Yeah, so that sort of thing.
So that's really cool.
Yeah, so that sort of thing hasgone really well.
Yeah, nice one.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Oh look, I think that's a bloody great spot to
wrap up.
Matty T, have you got any finalthoughts?
Speaker 3 (43:07):
I just wrote down, like the experts and the network
you have around you is reallykey to your business, and
actually you're telling yourstory and reflecting on it like
how far you've come in the last11 years.
It's a phenomenal journey andit's awesome to be a part of
from a pioneer perspective aswell, because, like you said,
you're trying to push theboundaries and always
continually getting better, butnot trying to go too far.
(43:30):
It's just one step at a time,making sure you're going in the
right direction.
So, no, I really appreciatebeing a part of this business,
and our conversations aren'tmostly around farming, not about
May, so that's always a goodthing.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, no, bloody good .
Yeah, thanks, dave, you're atop bloke.
It's great to have you on Lovethe kind of progressive kind of
nature, always thinking aboutcontinuous improvement.
That's awesome for us to sortof join and be part of that
journey with you.
So really appreciate, eventhough you know sort of
reluctant, reluctant podcastdidn't sound too bad, so yeah,
(44:05):
awesome to have you along.
uh, so and and really appreciateyou.
Uh, you're opening up a bitabout your business and and
what's happening with thenursery For the listeners.
Just make sure that you likeand subscribe and follow and
tick all those right boxes.
It does help us make sure thatwe're providing good content and
(44:26):
that you're interested in thestuff that we're doing and
listening up for the nextepisode when it comes around.
So, thanks, guys, and thanksfor listening.
Cheers, cheers around, sothanks guys and thanks for
listening.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Cheers.
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