We Must Look After Our Good Staff on Dairy Farms

We must look after our good staff on Dairy Farms. 

How do we prevent the increasing “churn” of employed staff?  Turnover (or tenure) of staff employed on NZ dairy farms is expensive. There is a general feeling that the “churn” of dairy farm staff is getting faster. 

The NZ dairy industry doesn’t compare well with other employment sectors. The greatest “Churn” appears to be amongst the young or in the first year that people are in the job.

“Annual churn out of the industry is estimated at 15% for 2010/11 with a cost of $64 million to the industry in lost investment.

 Tenure of staff within their job is approximately 1.6 years on average, leading to an estimated turnover in the order of 60% of staff annually within each farm business. This equates to 11,400 jobs being vacated and filled annually.” Geoff Taylor DairyNZ.

From an OneFarm survey (Tipples & Greenhalgh) of 480 AgITO trainees (2011):

Average time spent working in current position 1.6 years (median 1 year)

40% of respondents had been in their current position for less than 1 year

Average time respondents have spent working in the dairy industry 3.8 years (median 3 years) Range 1 month-25 years

The Californian dairy industry has data over time reported by Gregorio Billikopf from the University of California that indicates an improvement.

The Californian dairy industry has data on Dairy Turnover

There are some excellent online resources that could help dairy farm employers do a better job of keeping good staff.

         I was most impressed with a webinar called “Getting to We” presented by Dr Bob Erven from Ohio State University. Bob is part of an AgHR network which includes Ag professionals from USA, Canada, Australia, NZ & Chile. This is an interesting concept that farm employers should adopt. It means changing the culture of the farm business.

 “How do employees make the transition from thinking of it as ‘your’ business to thinking of it as ‘our’ business?” Dr Bob Erven.

There are 7 changes needed to change the farm work culture to “We”

1.  Commitment from Top Management

2. A supporting organizational culture

3. Employees compatible with the “We” culture

4.  A change process of Unfreeze>Change> Refreeze

5.   Delegation & Empowerment

6.  Communication

7.  Rewards

Listen to Bob Erven's Webinar It's a must do!

(be patient it takes a little time to get started)
  OneFarm (The Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management in New Zealand) has produced a very good webinar presented by Justine Kidd. Justine spoke about keeping the right staff. This webinar (with downloadable presentation notes) looks at improving staff retention. 

 NZ Dairy Womens Network

 How can Farmers Retain the Right Staff    A must see webinar!

It is estimated that losing & replacing a farm staff member costs you approximately 1.5X the annual salary of the person you lose. These costs include advertising, interviewing, lost productivity & training the new staff member. “Churn” is very expensive and is a threat to animal welfare & environmental compliance.

Spot the Cumbrian Farmers from the UK visiting NZ

The Questions get harder

I was really pleased to attend a Dairyman Field day at Gary and Val Wright of Longbeach Dairies in Canterbury and see an attempt by the Headlands Consultancy group to include HR Metrics and environmental measures in their competition as well as profitability.  

 Headlands Consultancy

I’m left feeling very uncomfortable about what’s happening within the NZ dairy industry regarding staff turnover or “Churn”. 

Young people are our most valuable resources on a dairy farm. What are we doing to them? Is it the systems on the farms or the lack of skilled HR management of people? 

What are your thoughts?

Dairy Cow Fertility..UK Pasture Dairy Farmers Thrash Kiwi Counterparts

Pasture based dairy farmers in the Pasture to Profit network of Discussion Groups in the UK can now proudly claim “World Best Practice” in herd fertility. Most of the credit must go to the very good herdsmen & farm staff who understand the goals, whose observations are spot on & their determination to succeed & do better each year.

 The block calving herds (both spring & autumn calving herds) in a survey of 2010-11 calving seasons indicate incredibly good herd fertility levels & extremely good on farm management. The data was collected & analysed using the Australian InCalf Analysis which NZ has finally adopted too.  http://www.incalf.com.au/  

The data collected from 35 herds (10548 cows) shows that on average 81% of the herd calved in the first 6 weeks of calving. 56% of the herd successfully calved in the 1st 3 weeks so that the av. Number of days until half the herd had calved was 18 days (Days to mid point after PSD (Planned Start Date)). The empty rate across these 35 herds was 11% after 12 weeks of mating. The average farm herd size was 365 cows & the actual replacement rate (2yr old heifers entering the herd) was 24%. These farmers can rightfully claim “World Best practice” as this incredibly good herd fertility has been achieved with no induction & minimal veterinary treatment (30% of these herds are now organic).The vast majority of dairy cows in these herds are now NZ bred (LIC genetics) & all herds have a very high % of crossbred cows e.g. NZ Friesian, NZ Jersey, Kiwi Cross genetics.

The data I have collected suggests that the OAD herds have higher herd fertility as measured by the number of cows in calf in the first 6 weeks. The OAD herds are over 90% with a lower empty rate.

The Discussion Group target performance in the UK for herd fertility/Calving pattern analysis is 80% to calve in the 1st 6 weeks & the target for heifers calving at 22 months is for 75% to calve in the 1st 3 weeks of the calving.
Why are the Kiwis falling behind? New Zealand seasonal dairy herds are falling well short of the UK pasture based dairy farmers & are failing to meet their own dairy industry targets. How can this be when we are using the same semen & farming in a very similar way using a low input pasture based system. In the June edition of the NZ Dairy Exporter (Page 102) http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/dc3fc6ea#/dc3fc6ea/ 1 highly respected NZ Vet Chris Burke wrote of the herd fertility in NZ & in particular at the well known Lincoln University Dairy Farm. His best estimate of the current NZ dairy herd fertility was that 64-65% of cows calve in the 1st 6 weeks (predominantly spring calving) which is below the industry’s target of 78%. LUDF had 67% calving in the 1st 6 weeks. In a survey of 16 herds the average empty rate was 13%.
You might well ask “what an earth is going on in NZ?” Why is the on farm performance so poor?

It pays to measure & monitor your progress! While NZ performance is now both below par & declining the UK farmers are rapidly improving. Pasture to Profit Discussion Group members (approx 300) will be rightly proud of the astonishing progress made over the past decade in the UK.


In 2002 I conducted a similar survey shortly after my arrival in the UK. At that time fertility in the pasture based dairy farms was not good. Many herds had a high percentage of Holsteins in the herds & farmers were in transition from spread calving patterns to tighter block calving. Discussion group members will now be horrified to realise that the analysis I conducted in 2002 was based on a 21 week calving block. The results of that 2002 survey were that on average 49% of the cows calved in the 1st 6 weeks. Days from PSD to Mid Point was 71 days (wow!). The NIC rate after 21 weeks was 13%. Only 31% of heifers calved in the 1st 3 weeks but interestingly the empty rate was 11.4% (but after 21 weeks of mating).


So how have the UK pasture based dairy farmers achieved such amazing results in an incredibly short period of time (considering the starting point was with poor fertility Holsteins)? Apart from the obvious care & attention to the basics of dairy cow fertility which must be the focus of every dairy farmer. I think the key issues have been, firstly, that herd fertility has been a focus of farm management & Discussion Group attention & analysis. This is one area of farm management that has benefitted hugely by the regular analysis & Discussion Group competitiveness. Secondly the cross breeding with highly fertile NZ bulls & LIC semen (although this doesn’t explain the NZ decline). The intense culling of infertile cows, that fall outside of the 12 week block. Another factor is the care & attention given to Cow Body Condition (CCS) pre & post calving. And lastly the front end loading of the calving pattern with the heifers. This last issue is a “could do much better” as we still are only achieving 67% calving in the 1st 3 weeks when our target is 75%. However the best herds now have over 90% of heifers calving in the 1st 3 weeks….very good calf & heifer rearing (weighing heifers regularly).

Although the 2002 study was sent to the MDC (read DairyCo) it appears to have been ignored as overall dairy cow fertility levels in the UK continue to decline.

Congratulations pasture based dairy farmers on achieving “World Best Practice” I’m very proud of what we have achieved together. As for the Kiwis….”catch up as you are being left behind your UK counterparts who are now much more efficient”.

Current UK Pasture Measurements
Pasture growth still very variable dependant on rain. If you've had rain you've got very good growth if not pasture growth is still slow. Organic farms struggling with poor clover growth due to colder soils than normal.
TheAverage Pasture Cover (kgsDM/ha) & Pasture Growth (kgsDM/ha/day)
Belfast, Northern Ireland, AFC 2150, pasture growth 75kgs/ha/day
Northern Ireland coastal, AFC 2300, Growth 74, demand 54 pregrazing 2800 cut & bale longer pasture
Dumfries, 2160, growth 90, dem 48 just right rain, quality improving
Cumbria, 2419, growth 88
North Wales, 2044, growth 47, demand 50
Cheshire organic 2050, gr 27, V Dry feeding 2.8kgs 35 day round
Shropshire organic, 1805, gr 29 no significant rain but when it comes clover will take off big time!
Staffordshire, 2488, gr62 now made more silage than last yr grazing stubble turnips
East Staffordshire, 2100, gr 30 raining now pre mowing some paddocks
Nottingham, gr 20, dem 60, feeding maize 30 day rotation V Dry
Somerset Organic, 2300, gr 35, 30 mm rain today
Oxford, 2085, gr 40, dem 40, had drop of rain
Dorset 2345, gr 35 but rain last 2 days grazing forage rape
Pembrokeshire organic, 2170, gr 58, demand 48, clover kicking in
Pembrokeshire, 2030, gr 63 had rain this week expect growth to increase
East Sussex, 2300, gr 70, grass getting out of control about to dry cows off
Cornwall, 2450, gr 65, cows on OAD feeding turnips more silage to cut
Cornwall, AFC 2200, growth 102 (this is not England surely!)
Limerick Ireland, AFC 2600, growth 90, taking out silage bales.

What is a GB Olympic Oarsman doing Sharemilking in New Zealand?

Richard & Louise Hamilton are highly successful sharemilkers in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. However Richard was in the 1996 Great Britain Rowing team at the Atlanta Olympics.
This 6.5ft giant of a man was in the GB Rowing Men's Eight. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ha/richard-hamilton-2.html

So why is this English Olympian milking cows in New Zealand?...did he ever imagine he would be milking cows in NZ?....after the Beijing Olympics Richard & Louise moved out to NZ. Initially he was a rowing coach at nearby Tauranga but discovered an opportunity to go dairying in the Bay of Plenty.

Richard & Louise make a great team as they have both strived to succeed.

Sharemilking in the NZ dairy industry provides opportunities for young people to establish their own businesses & to gain equity. Opportunities abound for the adventurous & those with determination.

Richard & Louise have two sharemilking jobs at Pongakawa, one 50:50 & a second job which is a "Lower order Sharemilking" job. (both for the same land owner & across the road from each other....just perfect!)

Here he explains to our group the financial returns from both types of sharemilking contracts he & Louise have at Pongakawa. The Lower Order sharemilking jobs do not involve much investment or capital costs by the sharemilkers but do provide an opportunity to get a foot into the industry & an opportunity to save cash from earnings. The herd must be purchased to be a 50:50 sharemilker....the income & cost sharing reflect the different share %.

The next step for Richard & Louise maybe an equity partnership.

Colin & Hazel Grainger-Allen moved to NZ from the SW of England (once members of both Ankle deep & GrassRoots DGs). They are also making tremendous progress up the equity ladder as 50:50 sharemilkers in the Rotorua area....Waikiti Valley. Today they are members of the "Green to Gold" dairy discussion group. Thornbury Farms now milks 500 XBred cows on 160ha thru a 44 aside Herringbone parlour. Colin & Hazel are paying off debt as fast as they can but continuing to build cow numbers to build equity & savings."Our goal is farm ownership & we want our money to work for us NOT us work for money"

This farming district can be very tough, its not the easiest dairy country....it was very dry when we visited..... some of the land is steep....very steep by UK standards. Colin & Hazel use this block for summer milking heifers on OAD milking & then outwinter the herd on direct drilled forage crops. Fertilizer is flown on from the farm's airstrip high up at the back of the farm.

The NZ sharemilking system allows young people to enter the dairy industry sometimes with very little experience but to then progress by gaining equity. This is hard work but also requires intensive management of the farm business cashflow.

The world is a very unstable place right now.....care needs to be taken to closely manage cashflows. Sure milk prices are lifting but costs are going up even faster. In some countries there is a credit crisis that will "crash & burn dairy farmers" who dont control cashflows. Everyone needs to be very aware of the global credit risks.

Those NZ sharemilkers/farmers who can demonstrate cashflow control & savings will progress rapidly despite the global risks.

The saying goes that "If you want to fly with the Eagles then don't mess around with the Turkeys". It's important to seek out the "Eagles" & look at how they farm so successfully.

The "DAIRY OLYMPIANS" soon identify themselves as champions.