Michael (28) and Raewyn (26) Hills manage a 300ha (250ha effective) property owned by Michael’s father, uncle Peter and Brian Hills and their wives at Colyton near Feilding. The couple are in their fifth season on this farm, have been married for four years and have two young children.
The dairy farm operates on system four, with 690 cows milked at two separate sheds – a 20-aside and a 36-aside. Several other properties are associated with ‘Burnside’ farms but these are not the responsibility of Peter and Raewyn, whose focus is solely on the dairy operation.
Winning the regional final has been a challenge. In 2003 Michael was in a serious car crash, spending 78 days in hospital and two years rehabilitating. It also left him paralysed on his whole left side. This year, just days before the judges arrived at their farm, the couple had their second child, but as judge Gray Beagley commented, they were well organised and showed great maturity and knowledge.
Hills have a clear vision and goals. They aim to build a viable operation to allow a good lifestyle and provide for retirement. This requires improving land utilisation, improving the herd base, maximising the existing infrastructure and being environmentally sound, Raewyn says.
“One of our aims is to feed the cows better through better pasture management and supplement use to put on cow condition and therefore improve the in calf rate On that one we’ve made gains every year we’ve been here. The more cows you get in calf, the better the options on which cows we keep and which cows we cull.”
The Hills’ teamwork impressed the judges. Michael does most tractor and pasture work, Raewyn takes care of the numbers side of the business.
“A focus for us has been improving environmentally for compliance and good practice,” says Raewyn. “Every year we tick something off. We also brought technology to the farm in the form of an automatic drafter, in shed teat spraying and larger water troughs. We are a generation of big spenders.”
The farm is long and narrow, some rolling country with its own challenges. So far 9km of waterways have been fenced and by this time next year this will be up to 14km. Trees are preventing erosion and there is ongoing re-grassing. Average farm leaching losses are 18kgN/ha/yr. Their effluent ponds allow two months storage.
This year the drought affected production, down from 245,000kgMS to 225,000kgMS. But the Hills have decided clearly to protect next season. They dried off their first cows in February and have tried to keep costs down. Being on system four they import about 28% of the feed consumed.
Also impressing the judges was Hills’ consideration for other people.
