In last month’s newsletter I mentioned I would look at having a summer meal option for older calves, for most of us the weather has continued to be dry which means a shortage of grass is now a real possibility. A few years ago I made a mix with wheat, PK and molasses which was fed to our own calves (plus some customers used it) through autumn and winter. While I haven’t fed it to such young calves before I believe it will also be ideal for calves that are 110kg or more.

The main ingredients for this year’s summer meal will be wheat, barley and palm kernel. And molasses, vegetable oil, calcium, salt, coccidostat, vitamins and minerals will also be included. A typical analysis of this diet on a DM basis will be 13.5% Protein and 11.8 ME. Priced at $560 per tonne (40 x 25kg) + GST and freight. This price will be subject to any movements in the prices of the raw materials.

Please let me know if you are interested.

I was disappointed to hear recently that a number of dairy farmers had very good Hereford Friesian cross calves that they couldn’t sell and ended up putting them on the bobby truck. Such a waste especially when the beef industry is looking so good for the life time of those animals. Unfortunately too many calf rearers have come unstuck in recent years and have left the industry. However in the future if you do have good calves that you can’t sell then please let me know and I will try to place them within in my customer base.

During last off season I was lucky enough to bulk buy a significant number of used pallets, unfortunately sometimes the nails in these pallets weren’t really strong enough. Congratulations to those of you who were able to successfully unload them without breakage and commiserations for those who couldn’t. The feedback we had from the truck drivers was that the successful tractor drivers had a steady hand on the controls to gently lift and then tilt back before moving to far. Those in a hurry or inexperienced tended to lift too quickly and then not tilt back and ended up spreading bags all over their yard. A job for us in the off season will be to re-nail a significant number of pallets (thank goodness we have a nail gun). If at the end of the season you have a number of good or repairable pallets please let me know and I will either get the freight companies to pick them up, or if time allows, I will come and collect them myself.

The main change at the feed mill for us this season was stopping the use of meatmeal and bloodmeal in our pig and poultry diets. Which then meant, after some alterations, we were able to use the pig and poultry section of the mill for bagging the Low Protein calf meal. This improved our throughput and also allowed us to do some bulk bags for the first time in a number of years.

This will be our last newsletter until next July. We thank you very much for your business for 2014 it is appreciated. I look forward to visiting most of you in 2015, hopefully in March, and remember we do make calf meal every month of the year. The team from Aoraki Stockfoods wishes you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham