Our Farms
Our farm business has grown over the last few years and now consists of approximately 1750 Friesian dairy cows, 600 young and replacement cows and 100 Friesian and Angus cross bulls. We have three dairy farms of approx. 130, 153 and 390 hectares effective. We also have two support blocks in close proximity of approx 130 and 63 hectares.
We are a system 4, with pasture being the predominant feed and a key focus and driver of profitability. We are spring calving with dry cows wintering off on the support blocks.
We utilise Halter collar technology for our pasture management, animal health management and feed management.
One dairy platform is irrigated by travelling irrigators from the Oroua River and the second dairy platform has no irrigation.
We invest in our infrastructure and technology to ensure that we stay modern, relevant and productive. We have three automated rotary sheds - two 50 bail sheds and a 80 bail sheds. All of our sheds have ACRS, in shed feed, automatic teat wands, herd management software, automatic washes and other technologies.
Our Animals
Our animals are our athletes and a vital asset. Thanks to them we have a fantastic product that provides high quality, nutritious, and vital food for babies and people all around the world. We care about and respect our animals and look after them as best as we can with animal welfare being a priority for us. We work hard to ensure our animals always enjoy the five freedoms defined by the NZ Ministry of Primary Industry.
Our animals enjoy luscious green grass and free ranging pasture every day. They are in their natural environment and are very happy cows.
Five Animal Freedoms
Freedom from hunger & thirst
Freedom from discomfort
Freedom from pain, injury & disease
Freedom to express natural behaviour
Freedom from fear & distress
Our Technology
We are striving to be a leader in innovation and technological advancement on farm. As part of the Rural Innovation Lab, we are a pilot SmartFarm. This means we are privileged to be the first to test cutting edge Ag technology that will improve farming practices.
We utilise Halter collar technology on all our farms to enable high precision farming and decision making with real time data for our pasture management, feed management and importantly animal health management.
Our dairy sheds run MilkHub software, and we are able to capture significant amounts of data daily on our cows including production, health, weight, feed. We use various other technologies such as Onside, GembaDocs, Xero, Office 365, Teams, WhatsApp to digitise our work as much as possible, simplifying and streamlining operations and improving communication across the business.
Our Enviroment
Our Environment including soils, water and air are the basic elements of our farming systems. We take great care in preserving and enhancing these to provide a healthy future for our farm and future generations. Our farm is set on the banks of the Oroua River which is a beautiful, clean river that our children swim and play in, and is an important resource for our farm in dry periods.
We have undertaken many initiatives to ensure our natural resources are protected such as fencing all waterways, planting native trees, investing in infrastructure to ensure we capture nutrients. Sustainability is a key focus for us and part of our strategic plans, with key projects such as real time nutrient measurement, waste reduction and carbon capture being investigated.