After a year on their Kanieri farm, Chris and Carla Staples are pleased with their progress.
Well as another season winds down, we have been looking back at photos of how the farm looked when we arrived and all the work and improvements that have been undertaken in such a short time. We are very happy with the progress that has been made onfarm in our first season.
The cows have exceeded our expectations in regard to production as we had sold the top third of our herd to make the jump into farm ownership. The cows are on target to produce 430kg milksolids a cow and with our next line of heifers coming in our genetic gains will be well back on track, we both said if we ever achieved farm ownership, we would not put as much focus on BW for our mating programme, as our herd would not be our only asset, but as we reached our goal and over the years have been able to see the benefits of nominating all our bulls we have stayed on this track.
The swedes had their last application of fertiliser in March so fingers crossed we can now just shut the gate and sit back and watch them grow until early June when we start grazing them.
The 6.5 hectares of swedes we planted in mid-December are growing very well as are most crops in our area. It will be interesting to see what everyone’s crops weigh in at this season, as most people we have talked to are saying this year’s winter crops are some of the best they’ve grown, as is the case with ours. The swedes had their last application of fertiliser in March so fingers crossed we can now just shut the gate and sit back and watch them grow until early June when we start grazing them.
We have also managed to re-grass two paddocks in February and March as part of our re-grassing programme. We have chosen to use a diploid perennial ryegrass clover mix which we found successful at our previous farm, the cropped areas will be sown in either late September or early October (weather permitting) using the same mix. This will give us just over 10% of new grass which is our target each season.
With eight months of the season down, March has been one that we have finally been able to get some time off-farm, first a trip to Christchurch to see our daughter and spend a weekend with friends and then an overseas holiday (to the North Island) Napier, with a group of friends and family for St Patrick’s Day which we have never really celebrated before, but why not.
Then the South Island Agricultural Field days in Kirwee, which also falls in the same time as our son’s birthday. He has been attending these since he was a little nipper and still loves attending them.
It has been great to get away and a massive thankyou goes out to our awesome relief milker – without her it wouldn’t have happened.
Big congratulations to all the winners in this year’s Dairy Industry Awards, good luck moving forward to the national round of judging and awards dinner, such a nervous and exciting time for you all, best of luck and enjoy your time in Wellington with an action-packed week of activities, and one where you’ll make a lot of new contacts and friends.
Finally, by the time this goes to print, Westland Milk Products shareholders will have some clarity around the mysterious Project Horizon we have been waiting to be updated on, which will set the future path of our co-operative, needless to say something needs to be done in regard to the under-performance of the company. Hopefully it is a positive step towards the future of dairy farming in our region.
