Dairy goat farmers hopeful co-op will turn a corner
Farmer owners of the Dairy Goat Co-operative (DGC) in Hamilton say they believe in the business’s long-term future.
There is a definite Swiss connection on Rene and Verena Burri’s dairy goat farm at Te Aroha, Waikato.
Their 700 goats milked twice daily are Saanen, a highly productive Swiss domestic breed.
Rene, from Switzerland and Verena, Germany, in equity partnership with Schuler Brothers Ltd, two years ago bought the property (42ha including leased land), previously part of a cow dairy farm. They named it Swiss Belle after the 700 Swiss beauties they have milked since June 2015.
The farm supplies milk to Dairy Goat Co-op, Hamilton. It employs two full-time staff, Rene and Mitchell Van Dam.
Burri, who grew up on a dairy, beef and pig farm in Switzerland, spent four years in New Zealand on dairy farms; managing a farm for a year then sharemilking for three years at Te Poi.
When the Burris looked at options for farm ownership dairy goats caught their attention.
“We are always open to challenges and goats always keep you challenged,” he told Dairy News. “You need to keep a close eye on the goats; they are highly sensitive.”
Before moving onto Swiss Belle Farm, the Burris’ helped a neighbouring farmer set up a large goat farm.
The goats are kept indoors and fed freshly cut grass, silage and dried distillers grain (DDG) from Oilseed Products NZ.
Milking takes about 1.5 hours. For their milking platform, they opted for a 44-aside Supa4 herringbone from Waikato Milking Systems. A rotary platform was ruled out as too costly. “We wanted to have something simple,” says Burri.
WMS goat milking system specialist Gary Feeney says the Supa4 standard installation process ensures the plant’s integrity.
Its features include a 100mm milk pipe draining into a receiver at one end of the pit; the milk pumping system ensures fast and uninterrupted milking and the simple design makes for fast milking.
The milking plant was installed by Paeroa Farm Services, who also do the annual services.
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.
OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.