Hugh and Sue live at Mount Maunganui so he starts each day with a 100km drive to the farm, leaving at 5am and returning in the evening. “A lot of people, including my wife, think I am mad but I have been doing it for 16 years so I don’t see it as a problem,” says Chisholm.
Trading as H and S Chisholm Farms they 20 years ago bought 50ha. Now they have 374ha of flat to rolling land, where 85% can be mown. They also lease 90ha at Tokoroa for wintering some of the milking herd and dry stock. Kale and swedes are grown there for winter feed.
At home they grow and conserve 37ha of maize, 60ha of grass silage and buy in a further 30ha of maize silage. They use contractors for planting and harvesting of crops.
“Best season’s production was 509,000kgMS – an average of 484kgMS/cow, but the present drought is not helping this season’s production,” commented Chisholm.
All feeding is done in troughs on feed pads along with onions, squash, PKE and some cotton seed. The feed is mixed in a NDE mixer wagon that can hold 12t. Molasses is fed in a trough on the milking platform.
The dairy shed is a 64 bail rotary with a DeLaval milking plant and automatic cup removers. It has an Alpro system for recording yields and all animals are electronically ear tagged.
Chisholm is active in the day to day running of the farm, with four full time staff and relief milkers.
The stock are Friesian and Friesian cross and 1035 head are milked at the peak in two and sometimes three herds. Chisholm milks 500 cows through the winter on contract with Fonterra to supply a minimum of 900kgMS/day for May, June and July. “We get penalised if we do not reach this figure but the premiums make it worthwhile.”
He is now calving three times a season to fully utilise the grass grown, the feed supplied and to get any premiums available from Fonterra.
For calving there is an area set aside where all cows due to calve are brought to. It has wind cloth for shelter and a thick base of bark. It can hold up to 200 cows. This has Novaflow piping, a layer of drainage metal and 500mm of bark on top. Twice a year the bark is scraped off and replaced
“Even if there is rain there is no mud; all the newborn calves get a good start and with the floodlighting and remote cameras somebody can be there if there is any trouble.”
Chisholm Farms do not use any artificial breeding, preferring to buy in all replacements. He chooses instead to run Taurindicus bulls. These animals are noted for a slight hump, droopy ears and a dewlap to help heat loss. All heifer calves are reared under contract to PGG Wrightson Export and leave the farm when they are 100kg to be exported to Malaysia and the Philippines as two year olds, where they are used on tropical dairy farms. He has a market for the new born bull calves.
“We have only 9% empties which is good for us and it is successful financially.”
The farm has extensive areas for holding and feeding cows especially when running two or three herds. The original feed pads are concrete based with only the feed troughs protected from the weather. They can feed 400 cows. The two newer feed pads can hold 220 cows each and the standing area is covered in bark to a depth of 600mm. These pads are covered by Redpath shelters which are thermostatically controlled.
“When the inside temperature reaches a certain figure either from the sun or from the stock beneath they open to allow more air movement.”
There are five large bunkers that can store 300t/DM each as well as bunkers for squash, onions and other supplementary feeds when available seasonally.
