Clutha dairy farm’s new feeding system ensures all cows well-fed

A Jersey cow eats a mix of palm kernel and distiller's dried grain during milking on a Clutha dairy farm. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

The Bearman family have invested $100,000 to allow their cows to eat during milking. The Otago Daily Times’ Shawn McAvinue speaks to Gareth Bearman about running a simple farm system to keep milk production up and costs down.

A $100,000 investment has given cows a greater incentive to get to the milking shed on a Clutha dairy farm.

Gareth Bearman, 34, was a boy when his family bought the nearly 250ha Kilkenny Farm, southwest of Milton.

Nugget Point Lighthouse can be seen from the highest point of the hilly farm.

He is in his fourth season contract milking nearly 450 cows, a mix of Jersey and Jersey cross, with his partner Willow and their children Mazikeen, 3, Zipporah, 2, and Milo, 2 months.

About the same time Milo arrived on the scene, a new feeding system, which cost about $100,000, became operational in their 40-aside herringbone milking shed.

The new system was a “wee bit of a learning curve” and had been good so far.

Each cow is served a feed mix of 85 per cent palm kernel and 15 per cent distiller’s dried grains at both milkings each day.

Before the new system was installed, about 500kg of the feed was served in a mobile trough and towed to a paddock for the cows to eat.

An issue with the old feeding system was some of the herd struggled to find a space around the trough and did not get any of the feed.

The new system in the shed ensures every cow gets its fair share, which ensured the cost of the feed was benefiting the whole herd.

Another issue with the old system was the health and safety risk for whoever was driving the quadbike or side-by-side vehicle to tow the heavy trough across the hilly terrain.

The new feed system allows staff to use that time to focus on other farm duties.

“It is all done as the cows walk through the shed.”

Contract milker Gareth Bearman and a new silo at his family’s milking shed. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

A contract has been signed to supply 100 tonnes of the feed up to the end of April this year.

The feed is of good quality and cost-effective.

A silo outside the milking shed can hold about 40 tonnes of the feed.

“Basically a truckload and a bit,” he said.

Cows eat a mix of palm kernel and distiller’s dried grains during milking on the Bearman family farm near Milton. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

Last season, the farm produced 179,000kg of milk solids and is targeting 190,000kg of milk solids this season.

A farm principle is to get the basics right, including a fertile herd.

The cows are given nine weeks of mating to become pregnant to keep the calving spread tight.

Last season, 79 per cent of the cows in the herd became pregnant in the first six weeks of the mating period.

Cows wait to eat at an afternoon milking on the Bearman family farm. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

The nine weeks of mating consists of five weeks of artificial insemination and four weeks with a bull.

Any cows empty after mating are sold.

A tight cost structure is another focus on the farm.

Kilkenny Farm statistics. Image / Otago Daily Times

Bearman’s parents, Brendon and Suzie, have always been conscious of the costs to get the milk in the vat.

The farm working expenses for the 2022-23 season were $3.73 per kg of milksolids and the operating expenses were $5.07/kgMS.

“Mum and Dad have always tried and do most things themselves, which is getting harder as they get older.”

A herd of cows walk to the milking shed on the Bearman’s Milton farm. Photo / Shawn McAvinue

They make their own hay and baleage, do their own spraying and apply the fertiliser themselves.

A second staff member was employed last year so his parents could take a step back from the day-to-day farm work as they approached retirement age.

“Old dairy farmers never retire do they?”