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Best practice NZ farming studied by UK farmers

Rural News
Best practice NZ farming studied by UK farmers

One of the major differences between NZ and N.Ireland farms was the much bigger scale of NZ farms. The message is NZ farms have increased in size since subsidies ended in 1984 through consolidation after the withdrawal of some producers from the industry.  NZ recognised that one of the major costs that had to be cut was that of labour, and it is now common place for one shepherd to be managing 5000 to 8000 ewes reports The Beef Site. Additionally the fixed costs associated with machinery and buildings had to be cut. The way this has all been done is to use easy lambing/calving genetics and to increase the use of contractors.

Ewes, and the rams to which they are mated, are genetically selected with high positive EBVs for easy lambing regardless of breed, to enable ewes to lamb and mother their lambs without human intervention. The best farms are achieving a 'tailing percentage' of 150, whereas NI struggles to get up to 175% reared with a high labour input at lambing. The same applies to suckler cows "“ they must be able to look after themselves by being good foragers, easy calvers, good mothers and fertile to produce a calf every 12 months. Genetically most cows are crosses or composites to capitalise on hybrid vigour, and are based on easy-keep traditional breeds (Angus and Herford), which are more suited to grassbased systems. NZers feel that big continental suckler cows would require too much extra feeding in order to maintain breeding performance  in what is predominantly a grass-based production country. One of the other management processes that allows one man to look after a large number of ewes and cows is that all of the common tasks "“ shearing, dagging, vaccinations, worming, spraying "“ are done by contractors, using skilled labour gangs that have all the necessary equipment. Fixed costs have been pruned to the bone and the only buildings on most farms are the woolshed and a small workshop for an old tractor, pick-up or quad bike.  NZ farmers believe that producing slightly fewer lambs with no labour is the way towards sustainable profitability. Conventional UK and Irish practices of breeding suckler cows for bigger taller frames, muscular conformation and even colour are just not considered "“ it is getting a live calf every 12 months without human labour that is the performance key to NZ success. One of the recommendations of the group is that NI should focus more on selection for overall economic performance.

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