1. Dairy Farming in New Zealand
Jemima and Thomas Bebbington
50/50 Sharemilkers

2. Quick Facts – Dairy Farming in New Zealand
Dairy farming in New Zealand is a growing industry and has been climbing since the larger payouts of the last few years. Some facts over the country are
-total effective hecters of dairy land in NZ is 1.7 million hectares
Milk processed by dairy companies is 20.7 billion litres – containing 1.8 billion kgs of milksolids
- total number of herds in NZ 11,927 with an average size of 413 cows. A total number of 4.9 million milking cows in the country
As you can see it is a large industry for such a small country. And more cows are added to the system every year. Now with the down tern of the last two years there has been a hult in some growth but personaly i still see it happening.
Facts from dairy nz:

3. Quick Facts – Dairy Farming in New Zealand
Looking at dairy farming across the country you will see most of the dairy hers in the Waikato – which is the area we are now in. 34% of herds are in this area. The weather is kind over winter and growth is maximised through spring. Also the land is flat to gental rolling and ammenities are close for processing and the area a good one for families to live in. This large population will also mean farm prices in the waikato will be the highest when averaged out over the country.
The north island have 74% of the dairy herds in nz and the south island has 26% but very interestingly the south island produces 42% of the total milksolids for production. This is due to the size and large input systems the farms run down south. The north island farms you will find will be a system 1-3 for imputs on the majority while the south island will be more towards a 3-5 input system.
NZ produces 3% of the total milk consuption in the world. We are the worlds largest exporter of diayr productds worldwide but we are only the 9th larges producer. So most countries are supplying their own population while new zealand is sending majority over seas.
- the dairy insdutry is very important to our ecomoic well being. The total system from on farm workers and processing and wholesaling persons the diary sector imploys around 40,700 people.

4. Farm Systems Majority are Grass based systems Rotational Grazing
Production Systems 1-5
Most New Zealand farms are feed on a grass based rotational grazing system.
They also calve seasonally. Majority of farms all cows calves once a year over July, August. Some farms do calve in March April and these are autumn clavers.
There is then the 5 production systems which Dairy NZ has put out to illustrated easily how much imported feed farms are using. These systems do change as you move around the country.
System 1 - All grass self contained, all stock on the dairy platform
No feed is imported.  No supplement fed to the herd except supplement harvested off the effective milking area and dry cows are not grazed off the effective milking area.
System 2 - Feed imported, either supplement or grazing off, fed to dry cows
Approx % of total feed is imported. Large variation in % as in high rainfall areas and cold climates such as Southland, most of the cows are wintered off. – these farms in southland may sometimes have lare irragation units and stock is grazed off the farm from the moment they are dried off and come back a week before they are mean to calve.
System 3 - Feed imported to extend lactation (typically autumn feed) and for dry cows
Approx 10-20% of total feed is imported.  Westland - feed to extend lactation may be imported in spring rather than autumn.
System 4 - Feed imported and used at both ends of lactation and for dry cows 
Approx % of total feed is imported onto the farm.
System 5 - Imported feed used all year, throughout lactation & for dry cows
Approx % (but can be up to 55%) of total feed is imported.
*Note: Farms feeding 1-2kg of meal or grain per cow per day for most of the season will best fit in System 3.

5. Our Experience Worker Manager Sharemilker Farm Ownership
We are currently 50/50 sharemilking. This means we own the cows, our boss owns the land and we split the milk cheque 50/50. there are other share milking contracts with different percentage break ups but it depends on what the farm system is like and what the farm owner wants for his land.
Tom started out as a worker on his family farm and as that farm grew he too up more responsibility to farm manager of 750 cows. We then started purchasing stock and running it on our parents property. The stock numbers climbed and enabled up to borrow money from the bank to buy more cows and take up a 50/50 share milking contract.
Share milking for some people is all they want, its a great cash position where we are able to pay off cows quickly and grow if desired. We have the aim of farm ownership in our future. Our view is there is no security long term in a sharemilking position. We are really at the mursey of the farm owner so if they wish to sell at any time our job would dissapear and we would have to find another position. Sharemilking positions are very hard to find so for our future we want security and farm ownership.

6. Our Experience
We are currently milking 250 cows on 77 effective hectares.
About 45 of those animals are Guernsey cows.
We have about 60 R2s and 70 calves which are grazed on a run off block.
We produce about 440 milk solids per cow – the average from last statistics is 346ms/cow

7. Dairy Industry Awards Share Farmer of the Year Awards
Farm Manager of the Year Award
Dairy Trainee of the Year Award
In New Zealand we have the Dairy industry awards. We have entered these twice and managed to come 3rd the 2nd time.
The awards are for share milkers, managers and farm workers. Each group of people go up against each other in a two hour on farm interview. You have to present your business across all aspects to the judges for creticking. You need to cover financials and future plans, lifestock and breeding, animal health, farm health and safety and also a few other minor areas.
We entered this compition to spend time focusing on our business and it has been a great learning experience for us. It forced us to look at why we were really farming and make sure we had 5 and 10 year plans which we both agreed on.

8. Our Life On Farm
We farm because of the life style. We love being able to work with our children along side us. We love being outside and looking after the animals.
Farming has enabled us to travel, enter awards and experience things we would of missed out on in town.
Farming in New Zealand has been nothing but positive for us. What we love is there is no wrong way to farm and plenty of right ways, the differences across all the farms are what keep us interested and moving forward.