Our records indicate that dairy heifers in our care are grown to heavier target weights than historical trials indicated were satisfactory. However, during the past 25 years there has been a downward trend in the fertility of the national herd. This lowered fertility is correlated to imported genetics and the fertility decline was masked by the widespread use of induction as a management tool to abort the pregnancy of later calving cows. This practice is now outlawed.

Recent LIC research* indicates that improved heifer rearing management may profitably offset the long term decline in the national herd’s reproductive performance and six-week in calf rate.

*McNaughton & Lopdell, 2012 (study involved data from more than 100,000 animals)

An increased emphasis on fertility in the Breeding Worth (BW) calculation.

Farm management programs designed to improve management, knowledge and increase nutrition, such as “In-Calf” and “The 6 Week Challenge”
Improved growth rates in replacement heifers achieves puberty earlier and increases the in-calf rates for the first 2 or 3 pregnancies.

We provide a complete service to both heifer Owners of stock and to Growers (sometimes referred to as Graziers) with a separate contract for each to properly cater for the aspects that are important to each party. Think of the different relationship you have with a Bank, depending on whether you are a borrower or a lender. Our role is more like that of a good Bank with the motivation and desire to be fair to all parties because unfair relationships are not sustainable.

Yes, some of them are, and this depends on what their speciality is. The New Zealand Grazing Company experience is that well fed and cared for dairy replacements have a very low requirement for veterinary input.

We keep veterinary costs under control by implementing sound preventative animal health protocols and using good nutrition to build strong immune systems in the young stock under our care. In this way our input is not diverted to some other farm’s urgent veterinary dilemma. A veterinarian’s highly qualified input and cost structure is well utilised when diagnosing and containing disease outbreaks commonly found when animals are not fed properly.

During the past few years it has become increasingly obvious that dairy support payment systems based on time and/or weight gain are not adequately or fairly rewarding the higher standard of feeding, husbandry and care of heifers that is being required by dairy farmers who operate more productive herds. Being calculated on the actual feed utilised by the animals, all payments are able to be compared with other systems in an open and transparent way.

Yes. The MDM system is proving to be an excellent way of motivating Growers to want to have the heifers (and weaners) in their care monitored on a monthly basis because they are paid on a current performance basis. With such motivation, we see Growers fairly rewarded and keen to improve growth rates and make every day a growth rate day!

As dairy farm owners, we currently graze our dairy heifers with a Grazier who has been in the business for more than 10 years dealing directly with dairy owners. He says that he used to deal with a grazing company and is very experienced and will supply weights. He is located quite handy to our dairy farm so transport cost is reasonable and he does NOT want or need to use a detailed formal contract and in this way he can keep costs low and we pay $xx per head per week for May to May grazing.

This is exactly the situation that is causing the problem of undergrown heifers entering the dairy industry. Graziers such as this are motivated to increase the numbers of stock to be profitable as compared to being motivated to increase the performance of all heifers. Animal weights may be on target for the period right through until the final two months of April/May when the feed requirement is greatest and the feed quantity and quality is low. The Grazier will be skilled at balancing the growth/condition of the heifers at this time to be just adequate to prevent a complaint.

Because dairy support space located in dairy provinces is not plentiful, if the heifer owner expresses disappointment, the option will be given him to find a different Grazier because dairymen are waiting for local space. When the price/performance of heifers grown under this system are compared to the MDM system, it becomes transparent which system is value for money.

LIC is offering MINDA Weights to their clients as a way of monitoring heifer growth performance using the Breeding Value Liveweight (BV Lwt) information they are required to calculate as part of the Breeding Worth evaluation. How do these targets match up with New Zealand Grazing Company Limited targets?

Five years before LIC introduced MINDA Weights, New Zealand Grazing Company asked LIC to include BV Lwt information on the MINDA “Calves Reared Report” to enable the BV Lwt system to be conveniently used as a scientific way of calculating heifer target weights. To date this has NOT been done and the proprietary system of MINDA Weights has instead been built and offered to MINDA clients. If our clients provide the BV Lwt data for their heifers, New Zealand Grazing Company will use such data for comprehensive reporting, and we have some clients who use both systems.

DairyNZ is now offering “Focus Farms” field days in our main dairy areas as part of an Industry Strategy to improve the quality of ‘dairy support’ services available to levy paying dairy farmers and others. Do you recommend dairy farmers and graziers attend these days?

Absolutely! For too long NZ dairy replacements have not had the attention paid to them that they warrant, and this is from all sectors and levels within the farming industry. We have always encouraged the development of an industry strategy designed to enhance knowledge, improve relationships and examine the economics of heifer growth. The DairyNZ Focus Farm in Northland is a Grower client of our company.

Why would I want to put my dairy replacements with New Zealand Grazing Company Limited?

We know each of our clients probably have a different set of reasons that fit with their particular set of circumstances and it is important to us that we meet or exceed their expectations.

As part of your farm support team, we can assist you to achieve your goals.

Within the wider industry it is recognised that more effort is needed to improve farmer skills in the following bullet points;

• Knowledge
• Relationship Management
• Economics

NZG takes the holistic view that all these points are equally important, however, there are no ‘silver bullets’ that will by themselves, achieve the optimum result. Not only do we focus on these points, we also have the benefit of decades of dedicated experience, professionally applied for your benefit.

Being a Leader means being out in front, or being first …

1. In addition to being the very first “Grazing Company” in New Zealand (and the world) as specialist dairy replacement growers, we also were the;
2. First to recognise that well grown heifers entering the NZ dairy herd are more profitable than poorly grown heifers.
3. First grazing company to offer service from Northland to Southland.
4. First to write and use documented contracts to define the terms and conditions of one party taking care of another party’s cattle.
5. First to routinely and regularly weigh, record, analyse and report the liveweight gains of dairy replacements.
6. First to benchmark Grower (Grazier) performance and publish as “Heifer Watch”
7. First to organise and present field days and seminars dedicated to rearing dairy replacements.
8. First to use and transmit weight data from the field to a computer via phone lines using a modem, pre-dating the availability of the internet.
9. First to use a relational database (Oracle) to record and store dairy replacement records.
10. First to use higher target weights than those recommended by academic studies.
11. First to use the Liveweight Breeding Value (BV Lwt) to calculate dairy heifer targets in 2007.
12. First to develop an App named ‘BlueLinker’ for an Android phone to transfer data from electronic scales to format and send as an email attachment.
13. First grazing company in NZ to design and implement a comprehensive bull heath test and control protocol to control disease spread through this route.
14. First to offer a hybrid payment system whereby a weekly rate and a weight gain rate are combined designed to offset the problems associated with weekly rate and weight gain rates.
15. First to offer guaranteed payment systems whereby if target weights are not achieved, then money is refunded.
16. First to offer Modeled Dry Matter™ (MDM™) payment system whereby the actual energy utilised by the animals is calculated on a transparent and fair basis.
17. First to recommend our holistic approach (where everything is important to get it right) and achieve our goal of helping people grow great heifers and ensure a desirable result for our customers.

New Zealand Grazing Company Limited is truly “A Leader in the Field”

We Help People Grow Great Heifers

This is our promise to you.