In this week’s Dairy Focus, Agriland meets Andrew Macky, who is better known on YouTube as ‘The Once A Day Farmer’.
Andrew farms in the Waikato region on the north Island of New Zealand and milks 320 Jersey cows in a once-a-day (OAD) milking operation, alongside his father.
Having a look around
The farm was purchased by Andrew’s great grandfather in 1912, with the farm converted to dairy in the 1930’s, making Andrew the fourth generation on the farm.
The farm size has increased since it was first purchased, from 46ha to around 100ha currently being farmed.
Andrew has been home full-time for four years farming alongside his father, before that Andrew spent a few years traveling.
In 2011, Andrew finished college with a diploma in farm management. He always knew he would return home but before doing so, as Andrew said: “I had a good look around.”
Andrew started in the US and did the harvest run, before heading to Europe, worked on a dairy farm in the UK and finally spent a season contracting in New Zealand.
The Once A Day Farmer
As his name suggests ‘The Once A Day Farmer’ cows are milked OAD on the farm. OAD milking is not overly common here in Ireland, but it is a little more common in New Zealand.
Commenting on why the farm switched to OAD from twice-a-day (TAD) milking, Andrew said: “Dad converted to OAD seven years ago, with the main reason behind it being the summer.
“The summers here were getting really dry and he would have to go OAD after Christmas due to the weather, so he bit the bullet and did it from the start.
“Another reason was dad wants to milk until he is 65 and he wasn’t going to do it TAD – it was taking it out of him.
“We love it; lifestyle wise it is awesome and condition wise for the cows it is better. Once they calve, they put condition back on quicker heading into the breeding season.
“Reproduction wise for herds over here, the figures are better, so you can get a lot of gains out of it.
“You drop about 10% in production, but you can raise your stocking rate a little which can offset it.
“Another major reason was that we milk 20 rows so it takes five hours in the morning, so to do it TAD would not really work.”
Jersey cows
Commenting on why they milk a herd of Jersey cows, Andrew stated: “Jersey cows have been on the farm since it was converted to dairy in the 30’s.
“We like them, they are quite good converters of grass to milk solids, they are also a lighter-framed cow.
“We are grazing cows all 365 days of the year, so they do not cause as much damage to the ground as a heavier-framed cow would.
“We also find them easier to handle, we are drenching cows every morning during milking. A bigger cow would be a little harder to handle.”
Breeding
Commenting on the breeding goals of the herd and what Andrew is hoping to achieve he said: “Breeding Worth (BW) and fertility are the two big main things we are breeding for.
“We are looking for cows to achieve one kilo of milk solids for every one kilo of liveweight. We are not there yet but that is the ultimate goal.
“We only use Jersey sires, we artificially inseminate (AI) for four weeks and then we put Jersey stock bulls in to clean up.
“The reason we don’t use beef sires is mainly down to ease of calving. We have used beef sires in the past and had issues, even when we used easy-calving angus bulls.
“This year we calved down 320 cows and had the vet out three times, with only two calves pulled.
“It is such a time saver and we are not fans of pulling big calves out of cows, it takes a bit out of them.
“We want to start using more sexed semen and maybe AI a little longer, we are trying to get cows cycling a little bit quicker.
“Last year our three-week calving rate was 53% so I want to get that above 60%, which should give a more evenly matched batch of heifer calves.”
Continuing Andrew said: “Our heifers are contract reared, it does not make sense for us to keep heifers here. We can make more from the milking cows.
“They leave the farm here at about six months and come back just before they calf.
“The replacement rate is 25%, it is probably on the high side and is something that I am looking to improve.”
Production
Moving to the production of the herd and some of Andrew’s short-term goals for the herd, he stated: “Last year we produced 320kg of milk solids, it is low but we are a low input system.
“Short term, we want to improve that, with a target set at 350kg of milk solids. We probably need to change a few things, with the genetics playing the biggest role.
“As long as we continue to increase year on year I will be happy, it is all very weather dependent.
“We can get really bad drought here and that has a major impact on our production.”
365 grazing
Unlike the majority of Irish dairy farms, Andrew’s cows spend 365 days at grass, he said: ” Unlike Irish and UK dairy farmers we build fodder supplies for the summer rather than the winter, that is probably the biggest difference.
“We grow more grass in the wintertime than the summer, mainly because we can go two months without rain.
“We split the herd, there are 176 cows in my herd and Dad has 144. Dad’s herd is made up of the first calvers and older cows.
“They are on a grass and chicory diet during the summer, with chicory fed on a 22-day grazing rotation from December until April. Once we stop grazing the chicory we feed them silage bales as needed.
“We grow about 4ha of chicory each year and find it a great feed for cows. It also lasts a little longer in the summer during the drought due to the root system.”
Commenting further, The Once A Day Farmer said: “My herd is the more high-producing cows, so they are fed maize and palm kernal, along with grass.
“The cows are moved twice a day to fresh breaks, once after milking and then again after they’ve been fed their maize.
“About 6ha of maize is grown each year, we have a mixer wagon and feed pad; all the infrastructure was here so we might as well use it.
“Other than the palm kernal everything we feed is grown on the farm. Palm kernal is great, I find it puts more milk in the tank and condition on cows.
“But it will probably be banned here one day and we can get away without feeding it so it is not really that much of an issue.”
Grazing technology
Commenting on the future of the farm and the role technology might play on the farm in the future, Andrew said: “Me and Dad are running the farm together and he is planning on remaining active on the farm for another few years.
“We are currently milking in a 16-unit herringbone with the plan to increase the number of units over the winter.
“This will reduce our milking time. I’d love to get automatic cluster removers (ACR’s) but we will just have to wait and see.
“There is a massive amount of grazing technology coming out so potentially in seven years I could run the farm by myself.
“Halter is one I am interested in, it lets you take all the fences out on your farm. The cows wear collars and you can assign them an area to graze.
“It is definitely something I would look at, it would save a lot of the time setting up breaks and even herding cows. The system also picks up cows when they are going to calf.”
Climate
A lot like Irish farmers, New Zealand farmers are coming under environmental pressure, commenting on this The Once A Day Farmer said: “It is pretty scary what is coming down the line.
“Grass-based milk production is the most efficient and environmentally friendly way of producing milk so it does not make sense for us to be punished.
“Here in New Zealand we have a large amount of agricultural production compared to our population size.
“So the emissions from the sector are going to be bigger than our transport sector.
“To me, farmers in all countries feel like they were the horse that won the race, but they’re still whipping us.”