The Country 28/05/25: Bruce Thorrold talks to Jamie Mackay

DairyNZ’s Chief Science Adviser looks back on 40 years of change in the dairy industry.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Haven't chatted to this bloke. It seems for Ages always
enjoyed his company on the country, probably back in the
farming show days as well. Bruce Thorold these days is
the chief Science Advisor for Dairy and Zy. Bruce, along
with the chief executive, Campbell Parker, you guys have released
today You're one hundreds Talking Dairy podcast. I'm going to

(00:22):
have a look at this one because you're going way
back in time, and I love this stat of nineteen
eighty five, the average herd size was one hundred and
forty seven cows. And believe it or not, if you
had more than three hundred cows in your herd, you
could go to the Large Herds Association conference. Times have changed, Bruce.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, Jamie. When I went back and did those numbers,
I actually couldn't believe it, which is shows you how
your memory plays tricks on you, because I've only had
the three hundred number of my mind. But if you'd
ask me, I said, the average farms probably at two
hundred and fifty cows. And yeah, you go and check
the stats.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
No.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Two and a bit tower Hectare you know one hundred
and one hundred and forty odd cows is the average
head size. So yeah, we've we've come a long way
since then.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, nineteen eighty five, I was a young struggling sheep
farmer in a town called Riversdale and Southland Bruce and
there was no there wasn't a dairy cow on site.
I think the first ones came in in the early nineties.
We all thought they were mad. Now the place is
dominated by dairy cows.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, Well, nineteen eighty five I was a young scientist
working in Rhodau, just at the same time that rogernomics
started to shake up the science funding system and we
started to move towards usipees and the pressure started going
on the sector, which was which has led us to
During Research Corporation in nineteen eighty two. So yeah, the

(01:46):
landscape is as different from a whole lot of perspectives.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Okay, back in nineteen eighty five, you've gone to the
trouble of doing the numbers, so let's run through the
last of them. There were two point three million dairy cows.
What have we got now? Five or six or just
under six, isn't.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It milking cows? We're at about four and a half
I think Now, all.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Right, I've got to brush up on my numbers, sorry, Bruce.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
So yeah, but yeah, big huge growth growth and all
the expansion to the South Island and parts of the
North Island. So yeah, you know, we're making a lot
more milk, a bigger force in the economy anywhere else
than we were forty years ago.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
You and I were talking in the commercial break before
going to air, and we were talking about Southland and
what a terrible, terrible spring Southland had had. And I
said to you off hand and an off hand manner, perhaps,
I said, well, Bruce, that's better than a drought like
the North Island farmers have suffered. You said, maybe not
tell me your thinking on that.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
So I've got an interest in a dairy farm in
the southern Waiketo in Orthernteenth Country, which is used to
be regarded as summer safe and these days nowhere near it.
So we were probably the driest of the White Caddo
this season. You know, there's pretty much no rain from
material rain from the end of January until sort of

(03:09):
mid April. But we're ready for those sort of droughts
now up here, you know. Two seven, two thousand and
eight was was a bit of a shambles. Three years
later we had a worse drought and it was almost
like nobody noticed. You know. So we've got better at
a feedbuffers, better at decision making. And yeah, if you

(03:32):
asked me, would I rather have three months of wet,
miserable spring weather pugging up every paddock or three months
of drought where I've got an inch heir, feeder and
feed contracts and the ability to handle demand. I'll take
the drought.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Heye, Bruce, talking about pugging up paddocks, I think one
of the real changes, and change is much needed and
much for the better as wintering practice, as they're still
not perfect, don't get me wrong there, but gee, we've
done a lot to improve them, especially in the South
where dairy cattle are being wintered often on fader crops.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, this is a huge success story I think for
the sector, Jamie, and how science and farmers and the
regulators have worked together to get to good practice. You know,
if I think back fifteen years, there were some pretty
boody dodgy practices going on, and we did a lot
of work with farmers research through the P twenty one program,

(04:30):
looking at buffer strips, looking at the order in which
you grazed your paddict, looking at slope where you put bails,
and then you work with farmers to go here are
the risk points, how are you going to manage on
your farm? And big changes in practice. And my recollection
is a couple of years ago the Regional Council did

(04:51):
a flyover in Southland. They spotted five or six farms
that where things weren't going well, drove up those driveways
in a week day sorted it out. So yeah, compared
to where we were, I think a big, big, true
doss to everybody in the sector who's made that happen.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Bruce Thorold Dairy and Z chief science advisor. That hundreds
Talking Dairy podcast episode with yourself and the chief executive
Campbell Parker is out today. I'm going to have a
listen to that. It'll be good. Thanks for your time,
see you at field Days.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Great Jamie and looking for forward to field Days. It's
going to be a pretty fun experience. I think