CSB - Paul Edwards - DairyNZ senior scientist

Talking about the use of different milking frequencies throughout the 23/24 season. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the show. Now catching up with Paul Edwards from
Dairy in Z. He's the senior scientist at Dairy and
Zed and we're talking about milking frequencies and one of
those is once a day milking. Paul, thank you for
joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Are you very well? Thank you. We've now completed the
twenty three to twenty four season. What insights do you
have about the use of different milking frequencies.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yees.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
So, looking at the twenty three twenty four stats which
we keep from looking at Fonterra fat monitoring data, about
ten percent of herds were milked full season once a day,
and there was another two percent that we're either using
flexible milking approaches like three and two and ten and
seven end once a day for the whole year, so

(00:47):
no use of twice day at all. There was about
twenty six percent that we're using a combination of twice
a day and once a day milking.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Then there was about twenty.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
One percent that we're using exable milking approaches at some
stage of elactation, so either twice a day inflex for
milking or twice a day flexed milking end once a
day and that leads about forty one percent that would
been milked full season twice a day, and those stats
have been reasonably consistent over the last three seasons. There
was a slightly more greater use of once of twice

(01:20):
a day sorry in the twenty two to twenty three season,
most likely driven by a good summer conditions in the
Upper North Island, where there was probably people stayed on
twice a day for the longer fascinating stats.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do you see any any regional variation to those stats?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
There's definitely some considerable regional variation there. I just run
through a couple of them, and Altland, for example, is
the region that we see the greatest use of full
season once a day is about over forty percent of
herds in the twenty three to twenty four season were
full season once day. The White Cano, they have plenty
of taranaki in North Island that the sort of rest

(02:01):
of the North Island group in there are all relatively
consistent relative to the other regions, but there are some.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Snuances there where there's a bit more use of part
season months done. The Waikato and the Low North Island has.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
A bit more full season once a day the tas
Molba region top of the South Island there has the
most even kind of use of different milking frequencies and
the lowest use of full season twice a day, so
only fifteen percent of herds in that region using full season.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Twice a day.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
And then if we look at Canterbury and Otago, Southland,
those two regions are also reasonably similar to each other
and about forty percent of herds and those two regions
are using a flexible milking approach at some stage of
the lactation, with ultimately similar use of full season twice

(02:54):
a day to that to those Upper North Island kind
of regions.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
So, Paul, for those using combinations of milking frequencies throughout
the year, when do you see them being used.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
So it's pretty consistent across the regions that the switch
point is about that forty to fifty percent of the
way through the season, which you know, obviously depending on
when you start carving the data that differs, but tends
to coincide around about Christmas where we start to see
a real divergence there in terms of people using different
milking frequencies. The other thing that we see is the

(03:29):
use of once a day for a short period at
the start of the season post carving. On average across
the country it's about fifteen percent of herds doing that.
They should clarify that's spring carving herds only. Yes, so
about fifteen percent of them are using.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Parts once a day for the early stage of the lactation.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
But again some regional variation there where for example Canterbury,
Otago and Southland there's twenty to thirty percent of herds
there being milked once a.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Day for that early stage of the lactation. I should
just clarify as well.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Sorry that those previous stats I was covering off. In
order to be classified as having used a milking frequency,
the farmer needed to have used it for at least
four weeks, so you know we're not using We're not
talking about instead of just the last few days or
a week or so of the lactation here where they are.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Using it for a considerable period of time.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Paul, fantastic to hear all those stats. Are fascinating and
thank you for joining us this morning on the show.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
You're welcome