The New Zealand System

Milking cows in New Zealand at 31 January 1964 numbered 2,010,868, and of these 1,563,951, or 78 per cent of them, were to be found in the North and South Auckland, and Taranaki Land Districts. The Wellington Land District carried 205,704, or a further 10 per cent. Such a preponderance of dairying in the North Island, and more particularly in its northern and western areas, is not due to chance but to an awareness by dairy farmers that these districts possess certain natural attributes that favour it as a system of farming. In these areas a method of dairy farming has been evolved which is successful and competes favourably with other agricultural enterprises for the use of land.

Early Self-contained Arable System

The early European settlers who came to New Zealand last century were familiar with agriculture as practised in their home countries and followed similar methods here. Broadly speaking, their system was a self-contained arable one, including areas in grain, with roots as a supplementary food for stock, and some pasture. Oats were grown as feed for the working horses and a little pasture hay was made. The pastures were of nondescript type and usually deteriorated rapidly. No fertilisers were applied. The following statistics relate to farming in the Auckland Province in 1855 and give some idea of the system followed:

In many places this system was not a success. The cash cropping and continued cultivation inherent in the plan depleted the supply of plant nutrients and organic matter in the soil, and declining fertility frequently resulted. Where the natural fertility of the land was low, production could not be sustained at a profitable level. Towards the end of the century it became known in New Zealand that artificial fertilisers were in use overseas and were proving successful in replenishing and building up the supply of plant nutrients in impoverished and naturally infertile soils. In 1904 the first fertiliser trials in the Waikato district were laid down by the Department of Agriculture, a phosphatic fertiliser, basic slag, being used. Excellent responses were obtained and a new era in farming techniques was opened up.

Artificial Fertiliser Cycle—Clover Plants and Nitrogen Supply

The chain of events started on a farm by the application of artificial fertilisers is quite a complex one. Usually the fertilisers chosen are those supplying such additional plant nutrients as may be required to fulfil the needs of the clovers. One way in which clovers differ from grasses is their ability to support certain bacteria which grow in nodular colonies on their roots and have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The host clover plants utilise this supply of nitrogen which is a nutrient essential for plant growth. With their nitrogen provided by the bacteria, and other nutrients by the fertilisers and the soil itself, the clovers are able to grow. Under grazing conditions the next stage occurs when the clover plants are eaten by stock. From their food, stock extract nitrogen and minerals useful for their needs and void the balance in their excrements. Usually the smaller portions are retained and the greater amounts voided and returned to the soil. Again, when clovers are eaten by stock, some of their nitrogen is liberated in dung and urine, and grass plants, which have no nitrogen-fixing bacteria of their own, are now able to use this secondhand nitrogen and grow along with the clovers in the pasture. Grasses also have access to nitrogen when clover roots rot underground and liberate some of their supply. Continued applications of fertiliser accompanied by the sowing of clovers and the subsequent utilisation of growth by grazing stock, builds up the supply of plant nutrients in the soil. Organic matter also slowly increases and soil structure improves. Where such practices are incorporated into a system of agriculture, soil fertility is enhanced and profitable farming at high levels of production usually achieved. These fertility principles apply not only to dairying but also to other systems of grasslands farming. Among these, fat-lamb production is of great importance and is the greatest competitor of dairying for land. Whether sheep or dairy cows are run on an area depends partly on an assessment of which type of stock is likely to prove the more profitable. Climate influences production costs, and is therefore a factor determining profits.

Feed Requirements

The New Zealand climate is generally favourable for grassland farming. Stock are not housed in winter, and their feed requirements are normally provided by pasture and other farm-grown feeds. Very little reliance is placed on purchased feeding stuffs. Over the country as a whole, however, important variations in climate affect the suitability of land for different systems of livestock farming.

Feed requirements of a herd of dairy cows over a year are more demanding and less flexible than is the case with a flock of ewes producing fat lambs. While in milk, a cow needs more feed than when she is dry, and with seasonal dairying the herd is milked for about 10 months and dry for two. Those engaged in dairying in districts tending to suffer from shortages of pasture growth due to dry summers or prolonged winters face difficulties in organising farm-feeding programmes. Shortages of feed are overcome by growing special fodder crops, conserving surplus grass as hay and silage, buying feed, and so on. As all such steps involve work and cost money, dry summers and long winters are matters of concern to dairy farmers. Turning now to the sheep situation, the time interval with heaviest feed demands is much less than is the case with dairying. Lambs may be sold fat when four months old, and in districts with dry summers it is possible to have a proportion of them off the property before feed shortages develop. Where long winters are experienced, mating can be arranged so as to have the lambs arriving on the scene when spring feed is also on its way. Fat-lamb production thus fits quite well into conditions where dairying output can only be sustained by high added feeding costs.

Climatic Factors

These matters are among those determining the distribution of dairying in New Zealand. Northern and western districts experience high summer rainfalls and short winters, and their pastures thus have the capacity to produce feed in accordance with the requirements of a dairy herd. These districts also have areas of well drained soils which withstand trampling by cattle. In such areas dairy farmers have been able to outbid sheep farmers for land. Conversely, sheep farming predominates in southern and eastern districts.

The following statistics from the dairying province of Taranaki illustrate the importance of dairying and the system of grassland farming followed:

Separate figures for the different systems of farming are not available, but the statistics show the cultivated area to be nearly all sown to pasture with the greater proportion topdressed. Feed supplementary to pasture is supplied by hay and silage with some fodder crops. There is very little emphasis on cereals and cash cropping.

Reference has been made several times to the necessity of providing feed other than pasture to help supply the stock during periods of pasture shortage. Such provision is but part of a wider problem—that of feed organisation to cater for the overall needs of stock.

Under “seasonal” dairying, an endeavour is made to see that all the cows are dry during the winter when feed is in shortest supply, though there is much variation from farm to farm in dates when cows are dried off and intervals over which they are calved down again. Thus calving may start any time between early July and mid August, and drying off take place from late April to June. A good correlation between pasture growth and stock requirements usually results if calving is started about six weeks before spring growth is expected to be under way. This time varies from district to district.

Control of Grazing

When pasture is at a relatively young stage of growth, it is a very nutritious feed, being superior to the common farm supplements such as hay, silage, and crops. If a herd is to milk well, or if the cows are to put on condition when dry, the inclusion of pasture in a ration is advantageous. Good farmers give much thought to the problem of how to achieve this. Paddocks are frequently “shut up” or “saved” to be used at a later date. Sometimes supplements are fed in the autumn when grass is still plentiful, and this provides a reserve for feeding later on when growth is poor in winter and early spring. To give effect to these ideas, some control of grazing is necessary, and this is achieved by the use of fencing. Fencing enables stock to be confined to certain areas of the farm and the grazing available to them is then restricted.

At times severe restrictions may become necessary to maintain a steady ration of grass and supplements over a prolonged period, and temporary fences are used to give added control. The single-wire, electrified-type of fence is popular as it is cheap to erect and easy to shift. Such temporary fences are also frequently used to ration fodder crops.

Factors in Herd Management

Movement of stock is an important matter on dairy farms as the herd must be driven to and from the milking shed twice a day. On well-managed farms, fencing is often used to provide some sort of farm road or race, to enable the herd to reach paddocks without traversing others on the way. Not only is this a great help to the planning and utilisation of feed but it also leads to greater convenience and saving of time in carrying on the work of the farm.

An orderly layout around the milking shed also reduces work. The milking-shed yard should have easy access from the race and individual cows should be able to return quickly to a grazing paddock after milking. If calf-feeding facilities form part of the cowshed yard, time involved in using and cleaning them is likely to be reduced. Bull paddocks need to be so placed that it is possible for an adjacent mating pen to adjoin the exit race and also be visible to workers in the shed. And ease of access for a milk transporter should not be overlooked.

Changes in shed design have also contributed to a lessening of work. The walk-through shed has undergone many refinements in its 50 years of service and has generally given great satisfaction. A new innovation, the herringbone shed, is now gaining favour and, with round yards and specially designed gates as adjuncts, offers prospects for further streamlining the work of milking. In some one-man sheds of this type, cows are milked at the rate of one a minute. Mechanisation of milking is almost universal. Since the war tractors have almost completely replaced horses, and many new improvements have been introduced in cultivating, harvesting, and transport machinery. Machines, however, are costly things to run, and decisions on their purchase are important problems for the farm managers.

Where whole milk has to be delivered to processing factories, it has been customary for each farmer to transport his own. But many factories are now changing to a system of tanker collection which is generally cheaper and certainly more hygienic. This elimination of a daily task, with a consequent saving in farmers' time, is one of the ways in which costs are reduced.

Routine work, notably milking and associated work, takes up much of a dairy farmer's working day. Further, a great deal of seasonal work arises which must be done to time. In August and September a peak of work occurs with care of calving cows, calf feeding, feeding out to the herd, and generally initiating the start of the farming year. Towards the end of September paddocks are shut up for silage. Mating is under way in October and November, as well as silage making and the cultivation of ground and sowing of fodder crops. In December and January hay is harvested and perhaps a start made with summer feeding of supplements. During February and March summer-feeding work continues and the summer crop area may be recultivated and sown back to pasture. Manuring may be commenced and continued during April. The herd is probably dried off towards the end of May. Over the winter, supplementary feeding is necessary, and during late autumn paddocks will be shut up to save pasture growth for winter and spring feeding. Development and maintenance work are usually put in hand in the autumn and winter since routine work is then at a minimum. Farmers may take their annual holidays when cows are dry in the winter.

A capacity for working with stock is usually a characteristic of good dairy farmers. Such work is exacting and requires patience together with keen powers of observation and the ability to review a situation and make a decision quickly. But stock work is directly remunerative. Good stockmen are usually interested in their charges and keen to do everything possible for them. Should a prospective dairy farmer not be interested in stock, he may do well to consider some other vocation.

Butterfat Output

The average output per cow in New Zealand is around 270 lb of butterfat actually supplied to the factory, and is rising slowly. The average output per acre is not known, but the great bulk of national production would come from farms producing in the range of 150 to 250 lb. Good farmers on favoured land achieve outputs of 300 lb and more per acre. Specialised farms of 100 acres carrying, say, 70 cows and producing in the vicinity of 20,000 lb of butterfat are not uncommonly run as family units employing no permanent hired labour. Over recent years notable increases in economic production have occurred on many farms, due in the main to the increased use of machines, improvements in farm layout and milking-shed design, changes in technology such as the development of improved cattle-breeding techniques, and the adoption of labour-saving practices like non-stripping and tanker collection of milk. Progress depends not only on continued development of improved techniques but also on overcoming the many problems of adjustment entailed in their economic application to individual farms.

by James Nixon Hodgson, B.AGR.SC., Senior Lecturer in Farm Management, Massey University of Manawatu.

• Annual Reports, Department of Agriculture
• Annual Reports, New Zealand Dairy Board
• Reports on Farm Production Statistics of New Zealand