The pressure to ensure calf survival is higher when you’re managing some of the best genetics in the country, yet Bellevue Enterprises farm manager Ivan Deed takes it all in his stride. Sheryl Haitana reports.
Some of the country’s top dairy genetics are born at Bellevue Enterprises’ dairy farm, a 10-minute drive from Hamilton.
The company was founded by Waikato and Canterbury farmers in 2013 and works with Animal Breeding Services (ABS) to breed dairy and beef calves with high genetic merit.
The focus is on genetic gain through using the best breeding technologies on behalf of NZ breeding companies and individual dairy farmers.
Farm manager Ivan Deed is usually on midwife patrol doing most of the night checks on the springers, which calve all year round. Checking on a cow at 10pm and not going back until the morning is not good enough when the calf is potentially worth thousands of dollars.
“It’s much like a foal watch. It’s long hours and late nights but it’s a rewarding job – it’s definitely not boring,” Ivan says.
He doesn’t hesitate to intervene early either if he feels a cow needs help calving and will make the call early to get in a veterinarian if necessary. An embryo transfer (RT) Friesian calf can weigh up to 45-55kg and the health of both cow and calf are vital.
“The ET calves traditionally are a little bit bigger: when it comes to assisting them or calling in a vet I make the call and make it early.
“You can cause cows more harm than good by leaving them too long to calve on their own.”
Recipient cows can have less of a bond with their calf and can sometimes show fewer labour signs, he says.
Ivan and his staff do several checks on the springers during the day, looking out for the cues and monitoring individual cow behaviour.
Ivan’s skillset is invaluable when it comes to calving down the cows with success, operations manager John Elworthy says.
“He is up all night checking the springer mob because they’re so valuable. Some of them are so expensive you can’t insure them.”
John was contract milking up to last year when he decided he wanted a different opportunity in the industry.
“Bellevue is a really diverse company to work for – every day is different, with new challenges.”
Newborn calves are given gold colostrum, an iodine spray on their naval, and a dose of Calfbrew – a live probiotic from BioBrew.
Of all the products he’s trialed over the years, the liquid probiotic is what Ivan swears by to give calves the best start.
“It’s getting good bugs into their gut. I’ve tried other products and nothing comes close to the Calfbrew. We’ve used it for about six seasons.”
The calves get a daily dose in their milk, and if any of the calves have an upset stomach they get an extra drench.
“The beauty with Calfbrew is it’s a natural product, you can’t overdose. It’s completely safe. It mixes easily, unlike other probiotic powders I’ve tried to use in the past.
“The calves like the taste of it so much they come up for a drench.”
Calf rearing costs are higher than on the average dairy farm but it’s an A-grade job where they don’t cut any corners.
They can hold 100 calves indoors at any time, with 10 calves to a pen. They are sprayed weekly to keep on top of bugs, and new woodchips are put down for new pens.
The calves go out into the paddock after a few weeks, depending on the weather, but always have access to a shelter.
Ivan has been managing the daily operation of the Bellevue dairy farm for the last eight years. The farm calves and milks year round, peak milking 300 cows at any given time. They calve up to 450 cows throughout the year.
The milking operation is run at a DairyNZ System 4, feeding maize silage, palm kernel, and grass silage.
Bellevue has a drystock operation where in-calf cows are kept until they are moved to the dairy farm 10 days before their due date. The company buys young, highbreeding-worth (BW) cows under five years old, mostly big Friesians to handle the bigger embryo transfer calves.
“The recipient cows need to be able to calve down efficiently – across the breeds, Jersey, crossbred, Friesian, and beef,” Bellevue Enterprises ET and recipient manager Gina Roberts says.
Bellevue averages a 60% hold rate for fresh embryo transfers and 50% for frozen transfers, which is higher than the average because they are using non-lactating donor cows.
“We are also using non-lactating cows as recipients, which is a big advantage.
“Our fresh embryo hold rate was 59.4% last year. It is 30% with frozen embryos in non-Bellevue cattle,” she says.
Farmers have to use frozen embryos unless they’re close to the laboratory. ABS is ramping up its ability to do embryos.
On average each cow produced 10 eggs from a TVR session, that equates to 2 -3 viable embryos, Gina says.
“ABS is using the TVR approach, which is less invasive, a less hormone approach.”
TVR (Trans-Vaginal Recovery) is the name given to the non-surgical, ultrasound-guided method of collecting eggs (oocytes) from the ovaries of donor cows.
TVR can be performed on post-puberty heifers, on lactating and non-lactating cattle, and even on cattle up to three months pregnant.
Embryo transfer technology is always advancing and they can now take a biopsy of the embryo that tells you the sex of the calf before it is implanted, she says.
Farmers need to understand the true cost of doing embryo transfers on their own farm. Factors that increase their costs are having lower hold rates, which results in a higher empty rate and fewer in-milk cows, Gina says.
It is 9% cheaper to use Bellevue Enterprises recipients to do embryo transfer work, Gina says.
Gina’s role is client based, communicating with clients including keeping them informed of how calves are tracking.
“Some of these are the most valuable calves in the country. If you put aside their genetic value, the cost of getting them on the ground is high.”
The calves are weighed four times from birth to weaning to monitor growth rates. They are fed twice a day for four weeks then put on once a day. They wean Friesians at 100kg, crossbreds at 90kg, and Jerseys at 80kg.
Farmers can opt to get their calves back either at 10 days old or when they are weaned at 100kgs. Most clients get Bellevue to rear their calves through to weaning.
“If we can do our job correctly we provide a fantastic service and a top genetic calf,” John says.
The recipient cows are put back in calf via artificial breeding and sold into the market as an in-calf spring cow. Ideally, Bellevue would like to purchase a second dairy farm in the future to take on these cows, he says.
KEY FACTS:
• Owners: Bellevue Enterprises
• Location: Matangi, Hamilton
• Area: 130ha
• Cows: Milking 300 peak Friesians, calving up to 450 cows
• Production: 380kg MS/cow average
• Farm dairy: 28-aside herringbone, Protrack
