Water saving crucial factor in dairy conversion

“Water is one of the main environmental issues in Hawkes Bay right now and we wanted to front foot opportunities in this area.”

Hence, the dairy shed and feed pad were purposely built up to have a natural fall. “This allows us to separate the stone trap solids (stones and sand that gather on cows’ feet) and then take that water to a pumping station and recycle from there back to the flood wash for the feed pad and dairy yard.”

The farm’s target is 30-40 % dairy shed water savings, with water recycled up to four times in a variety of ways. “Normally it would be used just once. We are maximising the amount of water we recycle in order to minimise the amount of water needed to run our system,” says Chard.

“In a dairy shed it’s easier to manage recycled water than it is to save water. We have a reservoir that we pump from that has a three way split at the pumping station. Water can be recycled back to the feed pad or the dairy yard.  There are holding tanks on both of these.  From the pumping station, recycled water can then either go back to the tanks, the dairy shed yard and effluent pond or it can be applied to land.” 

Chard, his wife Yvette and her sister Justine Kidd – the current NZ Dairy Woman of the Year – are part of Avance Ltd, a large-scale, dairy farming corporate, family business they set up in Waikato in 2004.

Avance moved to Hawke’s Bay in 2008 to run BEL Group dairy farms, owned by the late Peter Barry and his wife Andrea.

Chard is general manager and Kidd is the business manager of BEL Group, which now has 10 farms in Central Hawke’s Bay

The current conversion, known as Dairy CHB, is a joint venture between BEL Group owner Andrea Barry and the Avance partners. 

The conversion began in November 2012 and was ready for milking by May. Come September, Chard was beginning to relax a little. “To date, we are on budget and on plan.” 

Spring calving has happened with 15% of the herd yet to produce. “The slowness of it is a bit disappointing but that is not in our control, since we bought cows from three different properties.”

The decision to convert this particular farm was an easy one says Chard. “It’s a block we always thought we could do something with.  It used to be a support farm for our other dairy farms and is irrigated. We’ve designed it to be uncomplicated: all the paddocks are the same size, the races are down the centre of the property, we have a simple shed layout and are recycling water using gravity rather than a lot of pumps.”

Ideas gleaned from dairy colleagues in the area went into the design mix.  “There are some excellent farmers here in Hawkes Bay who have very efficient systems. Kevin Davidson from Plantation Dairies has a similar layout and he helped me to design the shed.” 

He says because the farm is not owner-operated it has to be simple so the least amount of moving parts or motors the better.  “That’s where the concept of using gravity to move water and using the recycling option came in, to keep down the use of machinery and labour around the shed.” 

The other reason for keeping it pared down is the scale of their operation.  “Dairy farms are busy; we do long hours. You can’t run multiple site properties with intensive, complicated systems without expecting serious issues, whether its people, animals or quality of product.”

The aim is to apply effluent to up to 50% of the farm. “We will grow crops on the areas we put a lot of effluent on, therefore keeping our fertiliser inputs down.”

Currently, base soil fertility levels on the farm are not high: Olsen P’s (phosphorus) are only 25. “This means we will need to raise our base fertility to optimise the amount of grass growth. Once this has happened we will use effluent as a tool to reduce our running costs.”

The only teething problems Dairy CHB has experienced are those that go with a new conversion: getting used to a new shed and staff, tweaking the feed pad and easing into the routine.

While it is too early yet to tabulate any exact data, the plan is to achieve 1500-1800 kgMS/ha. Now, says Chard, it’s about staying on “mission critical” which is feeding the cows. 

Compared to their other farms which are 2, 3 or 4 on Dairy NZ’s production systems rating, Dairy CHB is a 5, and as such is an intensive operation with a higher stocking rate, less fertiliser and imported feed.

Is it a bit of test case? “Yes we want to try out this system so it’s a bit of suck-and-see. Whether you are in system 1 or 5, you can make good money, but you need to know what the rules are in each,” he explains. 

“Dairy CHB is different, not for the sake of being different but because we think there is an opportunity there.”