Bryan Hayward breeds Ayrshires to have more red than white markings. Photo / Catherine Fry
Putaruru dairy farmer Bryan Hayward didn’t immediately follow in his father’s footsteps and go farming.
His dad, Barry, wanted him to pursue an off-farm job before joining the family farm business.
Bryan worked in a Putaruru bank from 1981 to 1988 and said he really enjoyed the numbers side of things, especially when working as a teller.
“I returned to the farm as planned, and in 1988 I bought my parents’ herd of pedigree Jerseys and sharemilked on the family land,” he said.
As a child, Hayward had seen Ayrshire cows at A&P shows, and they appealed to him.
Before he began sharemilking, he had already started breeding them and introducing them into the milking herd, with very pleasing results.
The Ayrshire breed originated in Scotland in the 1700s when different strains of native cattle were crossed with other breeds.
Early breeders carefully crossed and selected strains of cattle to develop what is now known as the Ayrshire, an efficient grazer noted for their vigour and efficiency of milk production.
They are known for the quality and shape of their udders and the high quality of their easily digestible milk.
The first Ayrshire bull, “Rob Roy”, arrived in New Zealand in 1848 on the immigrant ship Philip Laing, which arrived at Otago in April 1848 carrying the main body of the first Scottish settlers to New Zealand, who founded the settlement of Dunedin.
The first cow arrived the following year.
Ayrshire New Zealand, the national breed society, was founded in 1909 in Palmerston North.
The first Herd Book (a record of all registered pedigree Ayrshires by year) was published in 1910, and the first magazine in 1937.
Ayrshire New Zealand celebrated its centenary in 2009.
In 2000, Hayward bought a second farm with his parents, and they merged the two. He bought them out entirely in 2006.
Today, he milks 230 to 240 cows on 85ha and has a 60ha support block for 200 young stock, where dairy beef calves are grown to 600-700kg, and the replacement heifers are raised.
“I didn’t get rid of all the Jerseys in one go; it was a natural reduction over time, where I replaced Jerseys, leaving the herd with Ayrshire heifers.”
The current milking herd has 85 pedigree Ayrshires, four pedigree Jerseys and 150 Friesians, including some Friesian/Jersey crosses.
The farm runs a production system 4/5 using a feedpad with homegrown maize silage, PK and soya twice a day in spring and once a day at other times.
The Ayrshires are less fussy about what they eat and are well-suited to Hayward’s land.
They are also keen to get to the feedpad, eat and then be first through the shed and back to the pasture.
“As the ratio of Ayrshires grew, it was noticeable that they outperformed the Jerseys.
“The Ayrshires averaged 620 kgMS per cow last season, and our total herd average, including the Friesians, was 650 kgMS per cow.”
Milking cows usually leave the herd at 8 to 9 years old, whereas the Ayrshires stay up to 12 years of age.
Some of Hayward’s individual Ayrshires have produced 800+ kgMS in a year.
His Ayrshires have been the top milk-producing Ayrshire herd in New Zealand for the past three seasons.
Hayward is committed to breeding high-quality, pedigree Ayrshires and wants to increase the number of them in his herd, but has been left scratching his head the past two seasons.
“Instead of the usual 50:50 ratio of heifer to bull calves, we’ve been getting 80% bull calves, which has thwarted me a bit.
“Some bulls are giving bull calves to early calvers, but the same bulls are giving heifers in later calvers.
“It’s very weird, and I don’t know why it’s happening.”
The New Zealand gene pool for Ayrshires is limited, but semen can be imported from the US, Canada, and the UK, which are moving more towards red Holsteins, and Hayward prefers straight reds in his female line.
It’s a family affair, with Hayward and a full-time milker on the farm, with his wife Lynley, relief milking and raising all the calves, and son Thomas, 15, relief milking and doing tractor work.
“It looks like Thomas is keen to take over one day, but he needs to finish his education first, and wants a couple of years driving tractors.”
In the meantime, to lighten costs and the workload on himself and Lynley, Hayward will reduce cow numbers to 160 to 180 and grow on the Ayrshire male calves until they are 2 years old, for beef.
“I would still like to have a completely Ayrshire milking herd, and if we can manage to breed some heifers, I can keep going with that goal.”