In the middle of the tanker turning ring by the dairy shed is a large, beautifully mown area of grass with rugby goalposts where he and his son Cameron spend a lot of the free time he has as a once-a-day (OAD) dairy farmer. For Stu, OAD means more time to spend with his family.
He loves dairy farming and enjoys milking cows, and he expects to be able to do this longer than twice-a-day (TAD) farmers, who tend to quit in their fifties. Longevity as a working dairy farmer is Hopkins’ key goal.
He has been a dairy farmer most of his life and did a diploma of agriculture at Massey University which he says taught him to “think”. He runs his farm according to what he sees and feels, but who also advocates DairyNZ’s DairyBase scheme. He ‘sees’ on the land what many conventional farmers might measure with technical equipment.
The farm is not far from the coast and on a good day you can see the South Island and Kapiti Island.
He runs 280 Jersey cows in two herds – one third mainly young cows or needing special attention, two thirds the older animals – on a 71ha (eff) milking platform and a 32ha support block. This season he is targeting 90,000kgMS, up from the 85,300kgMS he did last year in the drought. Farm working expenses this year will be about $2.70/kgMS. He and wife Tania, helped by the three children, run the farm themselves so labour costs are low.
“We’ve been here 12 seasons: six were TAD then we moved to OAD. We were at a crossroads: either we poured some concrete and fed the maize on there, or gave OAD a crack. With OAD we didn’t have any infrastructure expenses – that was the key. Our shed is 25-a-side so we could double our cow numbers and not have to make the shed any bigger. So we now have fantastic low-cost dairying.”
Hopkins says he and his wife and kids are “cranking out reasonable numbers”. Eeryone’s got a wage book including kids and they all enjoy the farm and get stuck, then have time for recreation.
“I’m one of the only dads who can do that because these others guys are always working. In the middle of spring I was Cameron’s coach. He and I were on the rugby field by 8.30am, then straight back here calving. I was a bit buggered by then but had my daily 11 o’clock nap then I back into it and we never lost any cows.”
Hopkins has halved his empty rate from eight to four and has now bred a good OAD cow. He likes Jerseys for OAD, finding them more adaptable than Friesians. The big gain for him has been breeding good cows and so having to rear fewer replacements: there is a big gain in having to rear only 15% rather than 20% replacements.
Staff, fertiliser and grazing are big ticket items on the farm.
The pastures on Hopkins farm impressed the farmers attending the field day. Most said they couldn’t believe how good they were.
Hopkins pays close attention to re-grassing, but not in the conventional way. He just broadcasts the seed – a mixture of chicory, plantain, clovers and fescue, and some ryegrass – by towing a small harrows behind a spreader on his quad. Occasionally he’ll spread the seed with a hand spreader. It might seem unconventional but for him it works and it saves money on not spraying out pasture. He also applies fertiliser strategically.
The quality pasture provides excellent hay which Hopkins likes. He uses supplements, but does not like palm kernel. He’s fenced waterways and native vegetation on a lake in the middle of the farm and has seen regeneration as a result.
Solar heating of water in the dairy shed has made a huge dent in power bills.
His move to OAD has given Hopkins ‘two lives’: farming and family. He see OAD as a means of attracting younger people into dairy farming, knowing that the long hours are not attractive to young people.
“Imagine working for me. You might start early but I could send you home before three o’clock. You can pick your kids up from school,” he says.
