A breed apart

Ian Lupton with three cows produced since he began importing Fleckvieh semen in 2011 to crossbreed with his largely Fresian milking herd. Photo / Mike Barrington

Ian Lupton kept talking about Fleckvieh cattle even as his veteran Land Rover slithered sideways down a long, steep hill he's dubbed "the Ski Slope" on his Dargaville farm.

"There are 41 million Fleckviehs worldwide - they are the second most numerous breed on the globe after Fresian Holsteins," he said as he expertly jockeyed the Land Rover back into line, demonstrating the skills he needed landing Boeing 737 airliners loaded with passengers on icy runways in Europe before taking up farming full-time.

"Fleckviehs have been the top producing dairy cow in Europe for the past two seasons. Kiwis have never heard of them, but they are suitable for both milk and meat production and are what New Zealand dairy farmers need to profit in modern international markets."

Once at the foot of the slippery Ski Slope, Mr Lupton joked: "We don't bring the trailer down there."

But today he intended to load the trailer early with Fleckvieh cattle he has bred using imported semen and embryos and take them to his 277A site at the Northland Field Days in Dargaville, where they will provide the first public showing of the dual-purpose breed in New Zealand.

The Fleckvieh originated in Austria and Bavaria from cross-breeding of local stock with Simmental cattle imported from Switzerland about 1830.

Why don't New Zealand farmers know about them?

"We fought two world wars against Germany so not many German farmers came here. We got British breeds first, then Fresians with a later wave of Dutch immigrants."

Mr Lupton, 55, knows more about war than most farmers his age. Raised on a sheep and beef farm in Dargaville, he served six years in the New Zealand Army and nine years with the British Army's special forces, his military service ending in 1991 after the First Gulf War.

He then spent 10 years flying big game hunters around Africa but when he couldn't find suitable work after returning to New Zealand in 2001 he went to Brussels with his wife and their two children and flew 737s for the giant holiday group Touristik Union International for eight years.

Their 250ha farm just north of Dargaville was bought in 2005, with a manager employed to handle milking the 180 mainly Fresian cows, while Mr Lupton worked as a pilot overseas, returning in the summer.

He began importing Fleckvieh semen in 2011 and embryos in 2013, convinced their meat and milk production would be the answer to NZ dairy farmers' woes when international dairy prices collapsed - which he could see coming happened two seasons ago.

"If you drive from Limerick in Ireland to Athens in Greece the trip takes 40 hours and you pass through lands home to 258 million people, which dairy factories provide with kitchen-ready products soon after cows are milked," Mr Lupton said.

"European farmers began gearing up in 2012 for the lifting of dairy subsidies in 2015 by building new barns to house bigger herds. At the same time the United States' interest in biofuels waned and extra grain grown for energy production was channelled into dairying."

A 4.2 per cent rise in European Union and 3.5 per cent increase in US dairy production equalled double the total output from New Zealand, which had only 1 per cent of world production, nearly all of which took 90 days to reach overseas markets as dried powder.

The sale of 100,000 New Zealand dairy cows to China, now filling the gap left by trade sanctions imposed over Russian action in Ukraine, was also "dumb marketing", Mr Lupton said.

Mr Lupton's milking herd, containing many Fleckvieh-Friesian crossbreds, produces 320kgMS per cow in an average season.

Ninety-seven weaner steers he sold this year averaged $604 with the top line weighing up to 250kg each and bringing $720.

The two 18-month first cross steers, an older first-cross heifer and five embryo calves that he's taking to Northland Field Days aren't for sale.

But Mr Lupton will be there to provide interested dairy farmers with information about how they can improve their income by switching to Fleckviehs, which he believes is the New Zealand dairy and beef cow of the future.