Southlander Berwick Settle on setting up dairy farms in Cambodia, China, Vietnam and Russia

Berwick Settle, second from left, with translators and calf team leaders in Russia. The calf barn is in the background. Photo / RNZ, Sally Round

By Sally Round of RNZ

From extreme heat to extreme cold, the cows that have been in Berwick Settle’s care live in some challenging situations.

Over the past two decades, the former Southland sharemilker has helped set up dairy farms in Cambodia, China, Vietnam and Russia.

His first introduction to fully housed dairy operations, where cows are fed rations in huge barns, was in Indonesia.

Milking 1200 cows in very warm temperatures “on the side of a volcano” was different from the New Zealand pastoral system, where cows mostly forage paddocks for their feed and only come to the shed at milking time.

He went on to help set up one of the first of China’s large dairy farms – 10,000 cows with a tourism operation alongside – in China’s dairy farming centre, Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia.

In some Asian countries where he has worked, temperatures can get up to 39C with very high humidity, so managing heat stress is critical, he told RNZ’s Country Life.

“If you don’t get it right, production can crash,” he said.

“Reproduction can drop down to about 10% conception and [there are] a lot of abortions, and animal health issues also increase massively.”

Settle said there was a lot of science and developing technology involved in keeping the cows cool, including sprinkler systems and huge fans.

“When the cow comes to the feeding line, a sprinkler goes on them, they sprinkle them for about 30 seconds, and then the fan blows on for about four-and-a-half minutes,” he said.

“So, it’s exactly the same situation where you hop out of a swimming pool on a windy day, you cool down very quickly”.

The Hohhot operation allowed tourists to watch the cows being milked in the multi-parlour arrangement.

“A 50-a-side parallel herringbone, a 60-bale rotary, a two-by-eight herringbone and a robotic milker all in the one facility.”

They would watch from a visitor’s gallery “so they could sit, walk around and see all the different parlours, milking and the cows coming in and out”.

Settle also spent three years managing operations at Hua Xia Farms near the Chinese capital, Beijing.

It grew to five farms with 35,000 cows.

Cleanliness and management of manure were also challenges with such a high density of animals indoors, he said.

There are several steps to make sure udders are clean before milking in such an environment.

“Trying to get some sort of, you know, sustainability practice into the farming operations is very difficult,” he said.

“The number of animals per hectare … is incredibly high, so all of the manure needs to be dealt with and carted off-site.

“So you must have good systems around how you deal with your manure.”

At present, Settle is based in Russia, working with the Vietnamese company TH Milk, resurrecting a dairy farming hub at Efimsevo, southwest of Moscow and not far from Kozelsk.

Here, there is the challenge of extreme cold – it can reach -25C.

Barns are well insulated but not heated, and water troughs must be fitted with elements to keep the water from freezing.

But his latest assignment has more than just climate challenges to deal with, as Kozelsk is a base for several Russian missile regiments.

The farm site is next to a strategic missile base, and drone attacks are constant reminders of the war with Ukraine.

Settle said they were “part of everyday life here”.

- RNZ