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You have to have the 'Bulls' to do it

Ngakuru, south of Rotorua, is home to the Brown Family and their once-a-day dairy farm, which was converted from a twice-a-day system five years ago.

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Ngakuru, south of Rotorua, is home to the Brown Family and their once-a-day dairy farm, which was converted from a twice-a-day system five years ago.

Fergus and son Jason farm the land in partnership. Despite the significant change in 2005, a visit to their property provides a great insight into the fantastic job they are doing in managing both the farm operation and their relationship.

Fergus and wife Joy have a 50% share of the farm, with Jason and his wife Diana owning the other half.

The 230 ha (effective) milking platform, along with the 185 ha run-off, allows the Browns to milk 725

Holstein-Friesian cows once-a-day using all grass and silage.

The Browns believe they are making "a real success of it" with their Holstein-Friesian cows.

"A high BW cow is the one you need to have, that's what the research showed us," Fergus says.

"Holstein-Friesians can handle once-a-day as well as any other breed," Jason adds. "Friesians are also good for the beef. We're not going to the cross or Jersey, because the Holstein-Friesian calves sell better."

As with most changes in direction there is often a catalyst. For the Browns, a number of key staff left the farm - two of them during calving - leaving Fergus and Jason to calve down 750 cows by themselves. Their conception rate was low and the calving spread widened.

"We just realised that if we kept going we were going to kill ourselves," Fergus says.

The pair knew a pragmatic change in direction was essential. They looked at the research, did the sums, and decided to make the move to a once-a-day system. They found they could compress their calving and increase their stock numbers to compensate for the lost production per cow.

"Days in milk - that's where you gain by having a compressed calving," Fergus explains.

Jason continues: "It was recommended we move up by 18 percent, but we moved up by eight percent so that we didn't add any extra pressure."

The Browns stocked up with heifers for their first season. When making their selections, they carefully considered BW and the quality of the animal as their top priorities.

A big fear among many farmers moving to a once-a-day system is the resulting drop in production, and the Browns were no different.

"In our first season we dropped about 10 percent compared to the previous season," Jason says. "But we knew you needed to push through that season to get the rewards."

Fergus says there is a logical explanation for the drop in production, which should be expected, and accounted for, ahead of time. "The drop in the first season is because the stock are not in the right body condition to handle it," he says.

By the end of the second season the Browns had pegged back their production losses, and found they were only back by half-a-percent compared to their twice-a-day production.

While they have found their cows do not hit the 2 kg MS-plus peak they did on twice-a-day milking, Fergus and Jason are getting their Friesians to reach longer peaks (of about 1.6 kg MS).

The shift to the new system has made farming more manageable for the Browns, and some of their farm statistics provide a good insight into the some of the significant advantages of once-a-day milking.

"For example, in the final season of twice-a-day we had a 17 percent empty rate," Jason says. "The average now - through three droughts - is only eight percent."

The condition of cows on the Brown farm is clearly significantly better than their industry counterparts who milk twice-a-day. Jason explains that fewer cows in the herd are now struck with lameness, compared 20-plus cows that were the norm on the twice-a-day system.

Other benefits of the change include race maintenance, which is now minimal. The reduced time pressure of once-a-day milking enables Fergus and Jason to keep on top of other farm maintenance; repairs and ‘other essentials' get done.

"The main benefit is that there's just more time for everyone, including our staff," says Jason.

Jason and Fergus have a simple approach in managing somatic cell counts: "You need to monitor it and cull hard on those that need to be treated too many times," Fergus says.

Since making the shift to the new system the Browns have consistently selected LIC's Alpha OAD Pack for their semen requirements.

"We take the attitude that the scientists know about breeding, so we we've gone with the Alpha OAD Pack," Fergus says.

Each bull in the OAD Pack is chosen on its once-a-day index, specifically created and measured by LIC for each of its bulls.

However, this season the tradition of going with the Alpha Pack is to be broken: To take advantage of the high-BW offering from the Holstein-Friesian team, the Browns have decided to switch to Premier Sires DNA-Proven

"Through breeding we can get the per cow (production) up to where we were at on twice-a-day," Jason says. "The genetics are there - we just have to use them."

For the Browns attitude is all-important in making dairy farming a success. They say good farmers do what is right for their particular farm, stock, staff, and systems.

For them, the move to once-a-day has been a great success and they put their results down to thorough research and perseverance. The business, the family, and the staff have all benefitted.

Would they ever go back to TAD?

"You can never say never but the probability is pretty low," they say in agreement.