Learning the land game

It was all about learning to run a dairy farm and making your way in the industry at the Big Day Off, held at Massey Universityreports the Manawatu Standard. Most of those who got along to last week's Big Day Off were in their early 20s. They wanted to learn what a cow needs to eat, how to carry out everyday maintenance on the quad bike, and just how to end up owning their own cows, or farm. Nardeen Nobilo is an assistant on a family-run farm near Eketahuna that has a brand new 40-bail rotary run by a computer. It has 370 cows, and they want to get to 450. She says she is the only worker on the property who is not part of the family."Today was great. I learnt so much. And just the fact that someone put the day together to look after us younger farmers, who are just starting out. It feels we're not all alone."Industry progression was a big part of what the Big Day Off was all about, and the DairyNZ consultants and Massey University staff were there to drive that. They all believe dairying is a great career, and with knowledge and motivation there are no limits to what can be achieved. The day was not only about knowledge, but about inspiring the young people in the industry as well.Organised by Dairy 3, a combination of dairy farmers, dairy farmer-owned DairyNZ and Massey University, it was held at Massey's Number 4 dairy farm.The groups of about 10 young dairy workers each rotated through five seminars and there was plenty of hands-on learning.Peter Hutton, a lecturer in dairy production at Massey University, had the attendees out putting electric fence standards in to show what they thought a cow would eat in a day. They had a minute to pace the area out in the paddock. Two groups went with a 7 x 6-metre area. The winners, though, went with 10 x 12 metres - close to the 150 square metres of area required for an average cow each day. Feeding cows is a science and getting that through to the young people was what Dr Hutton was after. He asked for a volunteer - and that guy had to try to plough his way through as many of 17 Weetbix as he could, to show what a cow would need to eat every day for a month to put on one condition score (a bodyweight score system). Another volunteer had to munch his way through two Moro Bars, to make the same point.Both the 17 Weetbix and two Moro equivalents would need to be extra food to the cow's daily requirements for milk production.