Apple industry housing workers
Hawke's Bay's apple industry will spend $30 million on building accommodation totalling 1500 beds for RSE (recognised seasonal employment) workers.
Sales manager Simon Clare says the company’s designs suit animals and the demands of milk production rather than human or construction preferences.
He says in a typical North Island dairy farming scenario, farmers want the ability to stand their cows off in a hybrid scenario, rather than the intensive 365 day/year model.
“It’s intended to improve the pasture based farming system, using the cow-in-the-paddock model, but in the wet months standing the cows off.
“However, farmers are finding benefits [during hot weather, from housing’s] lower temperatures and shade reducing cow heat stress…, which is a costly inhibitor to profitability, estimated at up to 2L of milk/day/cow during summer.”
Clare says the company works to optimise the design and ventilation of each structure to make conditions more consistent and comfortable for the cows, so they can convert that feed into milk more effectively.
Its clients have many different reasons for wanting dairy housing, and a one-size-fits-all solution does not necessarily maximise a farmer’s return on investment.
“At the start of the process we ask what the farmer is hoping to achieve,” he says.
“He may want to reduce land costs, increase stand-off ability, get more out of cows by taking them out of the heat…. Taking the stormwater component out of the effluent by using the roof to divert it is a massive benefit.”
The company consulted such industry experts as Dr Sue Macky, clinical veterinarian, dairy cow nutritionist and principal dairy consultant at Dairy Production Systems.
Clare says Macky referred to a lot of misguided perceptions about needing to keep cows warm, when in fact a cow’s optimum ambient temperature is below 15oC.
“Something cold to a human is not cold to a cow,” Clare says.
“The ideal cow environment should be unpleasantly cold to a human. The critical thing is air movement, so in all areas we try to maintain the optimum 2.5-5m3 second.”
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