Thousands of pregnancies credited in 54 year career

IN 1956, Taranaki man, Don Henry embarked on what has turned out to be a life-time working in the dairy industry, when he trained as an artificial breeding (AB) technician.
Having dedicated more than half a century and 75% of his life to dairying while becoming a familiar friendly face on many a Taranaki farm, Don is hanging up his gloves and putting away the gum boots to take up a new challenge – retirement.
During his 54 years of service with farm improvement company, Livestock Improvement (LIC), Don has worked with dairy farmers in Taranaki, Palmerston North and the Wellington/Hawkes Bay region and estimates in the last 25 years he has clocked up nearly one and a half million kilometres.
A varied career spanning more than five decades, Don has been responsible for many thousands of pregnancies - as an Artificial Breeding Technician – (in 1968 and 1974 he achieved record breaking conception rates), has worked with dairy farmers as their LIC District Manager, been involved in daughter photography, and until Christmas this year has been responsible for ensuring semen and AB equipment is delivered on farm, on time every mating season for the past 15 years.
Now in his 70s, Don says he has had a good life, and looking back the experiences and memories he has as both a dairy farmer himself and in service for dairy farmers are 'great', however, he did have some concerns when he started out as an 18-year-old.
While many of his friends were out socializing the dairy skills he was learning in the mid 50s while training as an AB technician meant going out and meeting people - shaking hands - was limited.
"In those times we didn't wear gloves during training, so a social life was not really considered," laughs Don.
Trained by Nolan McEwan, in the Spring of 1956, Don, a newly qualified AB technician was earning £12 a week (plus travel costs), and was responsible for 24 dairy herds, or about 1500 cows in an area covering Douglas, Toko, Huinga, Wharehuia and Stratford.
Over five decades Don says he has seen many changes to dairy farming, and in particular to artificial insemination.
"Most dairy sheds were walk-through, the mailman delivered the semen, in test tubes, for the day and on Sunday we collected it from the dairy in Stratford.
"I would turn up on farm carrying semen for up to eight different breeds, three dairy and maybe five beef, with farmers deciding which they wanted to use on my arrival.
"Today mating and breeding plans are all done in advance and farmers choose and order the semen and bulls they require."
In Taranaki in the 1960s and Wellington Hawkes Bay in the 1970s Don topped the non-return rate – with a very high conception rate. "In Taranaki, where I learnt my trade, DIY breeding was not a term we were familiar with – in fact in Taranaki cows were only mated by trained Herd Improvement Technicians (AB Techs).
"So when I joined Ian Hook and Dave Olsen in Palmerston North I got quite a surprise when they asked me to see eight or nine of the region's farmers who had expressed an interest in inseminating their own cows.
"At the time I believed for their businesses, it would not be in their best interest to inseminate their cows themselves and that they should remain using the AB Tech service.
"I learnt a very valuable lesson from this about customer service, listening and meeting the needs of individual farmers – eight of those nine farmers went ahead and trained to become AB Technicians – but with a company other than LIC." In 1984 Don returned to Taranaki and says during his absence from the district the number of dairy farmers inseminating their own cows had increased dramatically.
"The number of DIY farmers wanting LIC semen had increased beyond expectation and in early 1985 I was asked to visit all non users of LIC semen in Taranaki with a view to supplying their DIY requirements. DIY quickly expanded across the whole province."
In the late 1980s Don's bovine skills and experience expanded and took on a new direction when he was asked to help well known bull and animal photographer Neil McDonald to take photographs of about 50 cows.
"The cows we were asked to photograph for the Bull Catalogue were among the best producers and had among the highest TOP scores (traits other than production) in the country.
"I remember that first year Neil and I had to stalk the cows in the paddock  - these paddocks were as large as six hectares.
"Some of the cows had never seen a person other than their owner, so they would take off at great speed when they saw us – by the time Neil had his camera ready they were just dots in the distance."
Fortunately, says Don, with the help and advice of breeders and farmers their photographs and photography techniques have improved greatly over the years, as has the style of photograph.
"Early cows were clipped for daughter photography and let into a small area where we took photos of them standing naturally in the paddock. Then for a period of two or three years it was fashionable for cows to be trained and led, then stood with their front feet elevated and heads held high – these photos looked unnatural and it took their owners many hours to teach them.
"Fortunately a few years later daughter photographs went back to a more natural style, taken today, in the main, with the cows quietly grazing – though they are still clipped and washed before their photo shoot."
Still involved with daughter photography, Don says the highlight of his career was when he was presented with a special General Manager's Award for, "total commitment in assisting with the identification and preparation of in milk Sire Daughters for the Checkmate Catalogue photographs."