Heres to a super herd

Production boundaries reset.

Farmers are continually resetting the bar for extending the boundaries of agricultural production, and this story in the Timaru Herald indicates that.

The herd average of over $3500 per cow is huge, and the per head production is over 80% above the milk solids produced by the average South Canterbury dairy farm.

And the answer to this success is no surprise , its"feeding and breeding". The top producing cow produced a staggering 895kgs of milk solids for the season!

Breeding "super cows" has led to super production results for Clandeboye dairy farmers Alister, Bridget and James Sherriff, who have produced the highest-earning dairy herd in the country for the second year in a row. The achievement was recognised when the farmers won the Performance Award at the Holstein Friesian New Zealand centennial conference in Palmerston North recently.

Mr Sherriff said winning the award two seasons running was very pleasing and confirmed they were on target with their breeding objectives."He said the high production rate on their 306-cow herd was a result of "breeding and feeding".They run their 130ha dairy platform at a lower stocking rate, using pure holstein cows raised and milked on farm.

The herd averaged $3539.11 for the 2008-2009 milking season.In production terms this equates to 9123 litres of milk, 670kg of milksolids and 307kg of protein per cow.The top-performing cow in the herd was a six-year-old that produced a staggering 11,766 litres of milk, 418kg protein and 896kg milksolids over the season.

The Sherriffs won the same award for the 2007-2008 season when they produced 629kg milksolids and 306kg protein per cow. Production for both seasons was well above the average for a South Canterbury dairy farm of 4094 litres, 356kg milksolids, and 156kg protein per cow, according to DairyNZ statistics.