Dry cow management is key
OPINION: We need to stop treating the dry period as just a rest between lactations and understand that it’s a significant biological reset that impacts the health and productivity of the next lactation.
Sharemilking at Duntroon near the Waitaki River, Nathan and Amanda Bayne have close to the most registered black and white dairy cows in the country and 144 lots for sale at their upcoming Busybrook Obsession Sale on April 10.
Busybrook Holsteins runs one of the largest dairy embryo implant programmes in New Zealand, implanting about 500 embryos annually. This allows them the opportunity to sell a large group of females every few years.
Looking ahead to the Busybrook sale, Nathan Bayne is confident this will be their best offering yet. A feature is the number of imported females from North America out of some of the hottest cow families in the world.
“We’ve put a massive amount of effort into putting this group of cattle together,” he says.
The sale will be run by PGG Wrightson in partnership with Aussie auctioneer Brian Leslie, who says it will feature some of the world’s best dairy pedigree.
“I haven’t known anyone to buy top genetics from so many countries. It’s a world-class catalogue and he’s selected the absolute top shelf.”
The Busybrook catalogue contains some of the best Breeding Worth (BW) in the country, and some of the highest yield and conformation scores. “It’s the very top bracket in the world.”
PGG Wrightson dairy genetics specialist Andrew Reyland has high expectations for the sale.
“The team at PGG Wrightson are excited about the opportunity it creates for farmers to buy some of the best possible dairy genetics from around the world. Nathan is well known for his attention to detail and ticks a lot of boxes. This sale will be one of the most exciting catalogues offered by a single vendor with depth and strength of pedigree throughout the catalogue.”
Having animals being offered in both NZ and Australia through the bidr platform adds a unique aspect to the sale, Reyland says.
Nathan and Amanda’s herd is 70% bred for commercial, high indexing NZ genetics with a strong focus on medium sized, efficient high fertility cows with a big emphasis also on functional type.
Nathan chases production and other performance figures as hard as any breeder “but they’ve got to be on an animal that can last,” he says.
“We aim to breed a commercial cow for New Zealand herds. I guess efficiency is the word I’m looking for with those animals. There’s no point having an animal with a Breeding Worth (BW) of 700 if its udder falls off after the first lactation. They don’t need to be a show winner and they don’t need to be fancy, but they do need to hang around in the herd for as long as possible.”
Amanda and Nathan breed the remaining 30% of their herd specifically for type and production traits, with no emphasis placed on index these are mainly imported animals with deep pedigrees.
Busybrook likes to hold a sale every two to three years so they can offer up only the very best animals from their herd.
The stud has introduced flexible payment terms for this latest sale to make it easier for people to purchase the animal at the top of their wish list. Buyers can pay off their cattle over 12 months.
Nathan and Amanda have three children, Brooke, Sophia and Lilly- Grace. Their Busybrook stud originates from a small farm that Nathan’s parents ran on the Taieri Plains near Dunedin airport. Nathan says he’s been interested in dairy genetics ever since he was at high school. “I wasn’t brought up in the pedigree world; it came out of an early job which sparked my interest.”
The Baynes’ are sharemilking on a mixed contour property, ranging from flat, to rolling to steep.
This is Busybrook’s third pedigree sale at Duntroon after at least two sales back on the Taieri.
