Cow health underpins income

A decision to go sharemilking has meant bigger bills, but it has also meant bigger pay cheques and more autonomy for a young Southland couple.

Bayden Williams, 38, and fiancée Steph Kennedy, 35, are fully immersed in their first 50/50 season, milking 570 cows in partnership with Steph’s parent’s, David and Dawn Kennedy, on 187 effective hectares at Drummond (18 kilometres west of Winton).

The couple is projected to finish this season with 515kg per cow of milk solids – 293,550kg total MS – on their Friesian and Friesian-cross herd at Kennedy Studleigh Dairies.

Two new supplements and a new grazier has made sharemilker Bayden Williams excited about the potential in his next generation at his Drummond dairy, near Winton.

QUESTIONING AND CHANGING

Their sharp focus on animal health has led them to follow the Dairy Business Centre’s (DBC) Southland Technical Sales Representative, Neville Hamilton.

Bayden said when he heard Neville had joined DBC, he was open to looking at the options the Mid-Canterbury based business offered their operation. DBC specialises in quality feed supplements, which are tailored to a farm’s needs.

Neville is a big personality who has been a popular part of the Southland landscape in different roles over a number of years. His extreme commitment to his customers has contributed to the high level of trust his clients have in him.

Bayden and Steph are poised to embrace more DBC products after noticing two significant advantages with the first two changes they introduced to their operation.

Their first inclusion was quality Maximize Calf Pellets.

Maximize Calf Pellets boosts skeletal growth in calves, in addition to supplying calves with minerals and trace elements to strengthen their immunity and general health. A heifer’s skeletal growth is determined by the multiplication of cells achieved within her first 12 months, which helps to reach early weight-gain goals that are critical to long-term health and production.

Bayden said, “We don’t weigh our calves all the time, and this year was the first year using the Maximize Calf Pellets. We’d usually wean in November, at 3.5 months of age, with the calves weighing more than 95kg – and I’d say [this year] we weaned a good month earlier at the same weights.

“Steph does the calves and she fed Maximize Calf Pellets from the get-go. We usually use muesli and move to pellets, and they seemed to struggle to transition in the past.

“But getting them onto the Maximize Calf Pellets this season was easy because they were into it within four days of age. They were easily eating more than 1kg per calf a day in the end, in addition to their milk and pasture hay.”

The couple feed up to six litres of milk a day, which was Calf Milk Replacer this season because of the solid pay-out.

Steph added, “I also haven’t needed to use as much electrolytes or antibiotics, which has also helped our vet bill significantly.”

The spring-born heifers are now grazing on Dave and Paula Hurley’s property – just 12km from the home farm – in a new arrangement this season. Bayden is excited for the future as he watches the heifers flourish. Having a committed grazier in Dave has been critical to his confidence levels.

“The difference in the heifers this year is unbelievable, and the only two changes are the Maximize Calf Pellets and Dave,” Bayden said.

They recently also incorporated DBC’s Loose-Lick, a dry, water-resistant formulation supplying essential vitamins, macro and micro-minerals for their replacement heifers.

“Dave says they love it,” Bayden said. “I want to go all the way on this mineral journey, but it’s a time thing.”

MILK UP 1100 LITRES

A big decision in the milking herd last season was the inclusion of a water-soluble multi-mineral and trace element mix, Max-T-Mins, which is specifically formulated to promote herd health and performance.

“I had been using another company for my minerals, and I was having issues with lame cows before mating,” Bayden said. “It was early October, and my lanes aren’t too bad. I was speaking to Neville, and he recommended the change.

“The levels in the Max-T-Mins were higher, so I decided to have a go, and within three weeks the lame cows disappeared, and I changed nothing else.

“Something else that really shocked me was that my cows used to only drink one Dosatron a day on the old minerals. They are now drinking three of them, and the milk was up 1100 litres on the pick-up after we switched, and again, it was the only change.

“I think there was something in that old mineral that was tainting the water. Man, can my herd eat now! They are getting through 20kg of dry matter a day.” This includes in-shed feeding up to 3kg per cow per day of dried distiller’s grains, and palm kernel.

“Honestly, I swear by that mineral; I’ll never change.”

88% SUBMISSION RATE

As the herd health improves, Bayden was pleased to register an 88% submission rate in the first three weeks of mating this season. He also decided to push his mating by using sexed semen from World Wide Sires for the first time on his top-100 cows; although he said this still requires some fine-tuning.

Neville said watching Bayden and Steph’s progress fuels his passion, and is what drives DBC.

“When farmers own the company, the products have to work,” he said. “DBC is built on people. It’s not about numbers and sending a bill.”

Bayden smiled: “Actually, I put an order in yesterday, and the product turned today. That is pretty impressive.”