omplete please contact me immediately. A couple of times this season calf meal has been delivered to the wrong address and it’s much easier to find it straight away rather than 7-14 days later.

I am often asked when should we switch to Low Protein Calf Meal? The physical difference between the two diets is that the High Octane contains much more soybean meal which is high in digestibility and in by-pass protein. I usually advise that if you want to switch it is ok when the calf is weaned, on good pasture and chewing its cud. However this month I have asked Paul Drew from Vitec Nutrition to go into more detail on this, I have included an abbreviated version of what he sent me.

I have looked at what cost cutting measures could be done with the Low Protein Calf Meal. One option I looked at was reducing the coccidiostat to standard levels and removing some of the other extras that we use. However it would only result in a saving of $20 per tonne (less than a $1 per animal) and while every dollar counts there is little advantage in saving a $1 on feed costs if you then end up spending more on animal health or have poorer production in years to come. So at this stage the diets stay the same. Though in case it does stay dry and feed supply becomes tight I will look to make a summer budget meal option for older calves.

In recent weeks we have had new customers switch to us (usually happens at this time of year when farmers start comparing calf growth rates) if you are one of the new customers, previous editions of our newsletters are available at www.aorakistockfoods.co.nz/news.html if you wish to read them.

Extra Help

In late September our youngest daughter Eva arrived home after working at an American Summer Camp to help us for a couple of months. And our oldest son Brendon has once again taken two weeks of his annual leave (works at Gordon Handy, Timaru) to help us at the peak of the season. And with Daniel our youngest helping us when he is not at school it is fair to say we truly are a family business.

Auger Positioning Pads

One of the transport truck drivers has commented positively a few times on our concrete pads which I use to correctly position the tractor driven augers. They save lots of time and were simple to make – place the auger in the exact position so that it is centred in the top of the silo, block one side of the axle, dig under the wheel by 75-100mm then fill up with concrete making sure the concrete comes up high enough to create a hollow. I am then able to shift the auger with the quick hitch knowing when the wheel drops in the hollow it will be in the correct position to fill the silo.

Protein – an important nutrient for growing calves

Ruminants rely on protein formed by their rumen microbes as a major protein source. The microbes form their own protein from the crude protein in grass and other feed material. Microbial protein is very good quality and is well utilised by the ruminant. However young calves have undeveloped rumens which are poorly colonized by microbes. It takes time to build up a microbial population and a fully functional rumen which is then able to utilise forage and low quality protein to produce microbial protein.

For the calf to be able to utilise the protein in grass, its rumen needs to be developed and functioning optimally, which is a full function of the microbial development and population in the rumen. Younger milk fed calves are only going through the process of developing their rumen and are unable to utilise the grass protein, so it is important to feed the higher protein calf meal (High Octane) during this stage.

Calves also rely on bypass protein which is protein from feed that is not converted to microbial protein, and instead “bypasses” the rumen and is digested in the lower gastro intestinal tract. Bypass protein is low in grass and high in soybean meal.

It is important that calves meet their growth objectives for the overall benefit of their productive life cycle. Ensuring that enough protein is fed for the calf to grow and reach those targets is critical.

If the calf is weaned and is unable to reach satisfactory growth rates due to the lack of crude protein in forage and poor forage quality, it is worth keeping the calves on the higher protein High Octane Plus meal. However, in spring and early summer, forage proteins are usually high enough to allow the use of a lower protein meal in older calves. The Low Protein Plus provides extra energy which helps with the conversion of forage protein into microbial protein in the rumen. The microbes require energy to form their own protein, much the same as any living organism.

Feeding the correct calf meal to your calf is a balancing act to achieve your growth objectives. The young calf will need a higher protein level with good quality protein to achieve its development and growth targets. The weaned calf needs protein supplemented in a meal form to fill the protein requirement which is not totally fulfilled by forage. This amount of supplemented protein to be fed is dependant on the grass quality and the intake of forage. Growth in weaned, older calves requires protein to be supplemented over and above normal forage protein levels, if growth targets are to be met.

Current Prices

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $750 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $710 + GST and Delivery

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

October is when it gets really busy at our end, at the time of writing this production is starting to average 40 tonne a day and we are still four weeks away from the peak which is normally the short week after Labour weekend. While we continue to improve the capacity of the feedmill to cope with peak demand often it’s not that easy for the freight companies and they can come under some extreme pressure. Please do what you can to help them cope, have a tractor ready to go with some good forks. Thank you to the farmers who do have good forks on their tractor and who take care with our pallets, unfortunately the truck drivers tell me there are still some farmers unloading in a hurry and using a silage grab, which never ends well. We really like to get our pallets back in reusable condition, if you have some pallets to come back and truck driver isn’t very cooperative in picking them up then please send me a text.

Also a thank you to those calf rearers who text their order to me, often I am away from the office when an order is placed and sometimes it’s not convenient to stop and write the order down. With the texts when I get back to the office I can easily scroll through them trying to make sure I miss none. Just remember you have to use the 027 299 3484 number the 0800 does not receive texts even though it’s the same phone. This month I’ve asked Paul Drew from Vitec Nutrition to provide some info on coccidiosis. The following is an abbreviated version of what he sent me.

Ionophore use to prevent Coccidiosis in calves and the dangers to non-target species

Ionophore use in calf feed is important to prevent coccidiosis and to improve the rumen environment. A typical calf feed is formulated to protect the calf with sufficient ionophore to fight against coccidiosis, once the calf is eating 1 kilogram of feed. Aoraki Calf Meal includes Bovatec® (active ingredient - lasalocid) at a higher level, protecting the calf once it is eating 650 grams, an estimated two weeks earlier than typical calf feeds.

Calves become infected with coccidiosis when they ingest the oocysts (or eggs) of the Eimeria parasite. Once ingested, the parasite invades the mucosal lining and progress through the various stages of development in the cells of the intestinal lining. It’s during this period that the parasite does damage – reducing growth rates, feed intake and feed efficiency and eventually causing diarrhoea. By the time the signs of bloody diarrhoea become apparent, the damage is already done.

Coccidia are passed from calf to calf by ingestion, so good sanitation and isolation help to protect against coccidiosis. However, the oocysts are particularly resistant and can survive for extended periods of time in tough conditions. Once calves are infected, the number of oocysts in the environment increases rapidly and so even calf rearers, with good management practices, can have coccidiosis problems.

It is the reduced feed intake, poor growth rates and ill-thrift seen in sub-clinical cases which results in the greatest losses for the producer. Heifers affected by coccidiosis may never achieve their full potential for growth and milk production. Independent research has shown that at 12 weeks, Bovatec® fed dairy calves are on average 11.7% heavier than non-treated calves.

In the case of this disease, “prevention is better than cure”. Ionophores are very effective in preventing the disease as they disrupt the functioning of the oocysts in the gut lining and prevent the disease from occurring. In the case of Bovatec®, the lasalocid dosage required to prevent coccidiosis is 1mg lasalocid /kg bodyweight. However, because the required dosage for protection, changes with increasing bodyweight, it is evident that protection from cocciodiosis is dependent on Calf Meal intake and level of ionophore in that Calf Feed to provide the correct dosage dependant on calf weight.

Ionophore Toxicity in non-target species

Ionophores affect the transport of ions in the various cell membranes. This ability makes ionophores capable of controlling the parasite coccidia in chickens, calves and other animals, but it also makes it deadly for horses and dangerous for dogs. While it does affect many systems, its main impact is on the dog or horses muscles, especially the heart as it affects the flux of potassium and sodium across the muscle membranes.

Toxic signs and degree of symptoms are dependent on the age, sex, weight, health and intake of ionophore containing feed. There is also a difference in level of toxicity depending on the type of ionophore. There are two main types of ionophores used in New Zealand ruminants, Bovatec® (active ingredient - Lasalocid) and Rumensin® (active ingredient - Monensin). Lasalocid is known as the “safer” of the two ionophores by up to 10 times safer than monensin in horses.

LD50 is a figure used to indicate toxicity levels. LD50 is the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration. The LD 50 of Lasalocid for a horse is estimated to be 21.5mg/kg bodyweight per day and 10-15mg/kg for a dog. LD50 for monensin in horses is 2 to 3 mg/kg body weight and 5-8 mg/kg for a dog.

A 400 kg horse will have to eat 86kg’s of a calf meal in a day containing 500 grams of Bovatec® 20% per tonne to reach the LD50 and in effect, have a 50% chance of dying. This is no recommendation that the horse or dog can eat feed containing lasalocid. Remember that the LD50 describes the level of intake where half of the tested population died (the other half lived). If a dog or horse has ingested feed containing ionophore and doesn’t die, there could still be long term damage to that animal. We recommend you follow all label cautions against feeding ionophores to dogs, horses and camelid species.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

The month of August is when we finish our feed mill maintenances and we get to test out our changes that have been made since last season and to do extra fine tuning. I am pleased to report the addition of the new calf meal bagging line is working very well and certainly will help us increase production. This new bagging line is where we used to mix and bag pig and poultry meal. We still have pig meal and layers mash available however we no longer use meat meal or dried blood in those diets or in any other diets. Interestingly changing the layer mash diet resulted in a $1 per tonne saving (meat meal prices have risen significantly in recent years) and the eggs off our own hens have actually increased slightly
in size.

Prices remain the same this month

Prices remain the same for September, on the free market there has been significant rising in soya meal prices while locally there is evidence of easing in grain prices..

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg - $750 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg - $710 + GST and Delivery

Another change during August is the regrooving and refluting of the grain crushers. We use three roller mills, two for grain and one for peas. We have two quite different roller mills for grain crushing, one I had made locally using rolls from my first roller mill that was built in Poland. We get these rolls lathed down and regrooved once a year. I regroove them using a small angle grinder with thin cutting discs and using the old grooves as guides (if you leave it too long these grooves disappear making it much more difficult). I then get a local engineer to lathe them and true them up. They only take the minimum off and the grooves are left in place. If you lathe them first and groove them second you risk losing the old grooves. What I have learnt is that it is better to do it more often rather than leave them that long that the old groves are gone or deep wear lines have developed.

My other roller mill is a precision made mill from Australia. The rolls of this mill only get done every third year and we send them back to Australia for refluting. In the past we have had these rolls fluted with 18 flutes/inch, a saw tooth profile and 10% spiral on the rolls. This was to crush it fine enough for the pigs. This time we have gone with having 12 flutes/inch, equal angle profile with a sharp tip and 5% spiral. This is designed to break the grain with not much flour. And it has made a noticeable difference to the amount of fines present in the meal.

I often get the comment about rats and mice causing damage to the bags of calf meal on farm. At the feedmill we use poisoned wheat that's designed to give birds hypothermia. I like it because the cats and dogs are less inclined to eat it and if they do eat it or the poisoned animals you just need to keep them in a warm area for an hour or more for recovery. Another reason I like it is the rodents can't carry the bait away. Sometimes I will also coat with some vegetable oil to make it extra attractive. However it works best in colder temperatures and if the temperature is over 15 degrees at time of ingestion it will be less effective.

Often I get asked "what do I do in the off season" perhaps the answer is too much! Although we only have 100ha, during the off season we have to play catch up with the other farm work and this year amongst other jobs we were still working on wind damaged trees. More recently I have started grazing what I call Barbers Block (35ha at the top of Waimate Golf Course) with 150 bulls so the need to get a hot wire around that block become urgent.

I also have various roles off site and took on another new project this year which has the intention of building a shared use trail with a 5% gradient from the edge of Waimate up to the Whitehorse lookout (approx. 7km). We have formed a new club called Whitehorse MTB Riders Incorporated (for some reason I ended up as President). It has been very challenging and time absorbing, with sorting out a club constitution, access agreements with various land owners as well as helping to design and mark out the top 3km of the trail. A special thanks to lawyers Ken McKenzie (RSM Lawyers) and Tony Tweed (Hope & Associates) for their free assistance and guidance, Rooney Earthmoving and Rotary Club of Waimate for jointly funding the cutting of the top section, and Roger Small for flying me over the site so I could take some aerial photos. If you are interested like us on Facebook – Whitehorse Big Easy.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

The last week of July has been interesting for us, on the Wednesday evening we received 10 minutes of really strong winds which saw Daniel and I shifting fifty 2 year old bulls out of a tree paddock right on dusk and naturally they behaved just like 2 year olds, then we had to go remove three trees that had fallen cross the road. Thursday morning saw the power go on and off numerous times as the winds caused more problems in other parts of the district. On a more positive note on Wednesday the engineer finished the off season alterations and maintenance. We have made changes in the feed mill that will now give us two bagging lines for calf meal instead of the previous one, enabling us to yet again lift our production capacity.

This month we are also trialling Canola Oil as replacement for Soya Oil, it does present some small savings and the processors claim that because it's a fresh product, made in Canterbury compared to Soya Oil that is imported and the way it is processed it offers extra health benefits for the calf. I am not sure if you will notice any difference, however it's nice to support a local product that is potentially better as well as cheaper.

For those of you who have tried talking to me on the cell phone (either 0800 or 027) you will be aware cell phone reception at the feed mill is very patchy causing frustration. Last season we had a cell phone signal booster installed which certainly helped however it turned out to be illegal and I subsequently got fined $1280. So back to patchy reception, sometimes I will take a while to answer the cell phone as I will move to an area of better reception before answering. Another change for this season is that I've removed the fax machine. When I receive orders via text or email, even with patchy reception they still come directly to me. Where as faxes can go unnoticed in the feedmill office for a period of time, especially in the off season. It also makes it easier for me to recheck any orders or order numbers when I'm doing the accounts in the home office. Please note when texting use the 027 299 3484 number as the 0800 doesn't receive texts.

Prices remain the same this month

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg - $750 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg - $710 + GST and Delivery

During the last month we increased some of our protein contracts and while I won't rule out a price rise later in the season it's only likely to happen if we need to go to the free market for more grain.

Getting calves started on meal

Every season we get feedback on how well the calves have started eating the meal from a number of customers, especially new customers. And also every season we get a smaller number of farmers who want to know why this year their calves won't touch it even though everything is supposedly the same as the previous year. So here are some tips that I found worked for us when we reared calves and also tips from other calf rearers.

1. Keeping the meal fresh.
The meal is a grain based product and while it has shelf life of 6+ months we have found that for the first 3 weeks of the calf's life the fresher the meal is the faster they will start. So where practical buy small amounts and often at the start of the season and make sure you only have enough in the trough for one day at a time and ensure the trough is clean before you add more (any old meal can either be fed to older calves or crook cows). We used to milk feed once a day and do the meal twice, remember a calf has 25,000 taste buds compared to our 9,000.

2. The amount of milk you feed.
Most farmers are now feeding a maximum of 4-5 litres per day and most farmers are once a day after 7-10 days of age (some farmers are once a day from day 1 and others still twice a day until weaning). Most farmers do not increase the amount of milk as the calf gets older. Naturally the more milk you feed the less inclined the calf will be to eat meal. Likewise with the frequency of feeding.

3. Keeping the calves inside for 4-6 weeks.
This isn't possible on all farms however the farmers that are able to do this extoll the benefits. Not only for getting the calves to eat the meal and therefore develop the rumen quicker but also health wise as generally these farms are not reusing the same pens multiple times in the same season. Day by day as an animal gets older it sheds more bugs so when you reintroduce a new born calf to a previously used pen it faces a higher disease challenge.

4. Restrict grass until rumen is developed. If you are putting the calf outside at an early age try and use a small paddock that has no grass. As until the rumen is functioning they can't digest grass and while they certainly will eat it you don't want a baby animal filling up on a product it can't digest.

5. Provide straw not baleage.
Research shows benefits in providing straw for calves however the problem with baleage is that it's only 35-40% DM as compared to calf meal 85-90% DM. Bulky fibres are good for stretching the rumen however grain produces butyrate and propionate which once fermented promotes the growth of long healthy rumen papillae that provide the large surface required for nutrient absorption.

6. Positioning of the trough and trough space.
For inside the shed positioning the trough near the area where you feed the milk often works best. One farmer told me how he removes the milk feeder and places the meal feeder back in the same place with fresh meal. In the paddock if you are still feeding milk try and feed the milk in a similar place each day and position the meal trough close to this area, also being near the water trough works well.

In our pens we used 20 litre containers with sides cut out for meal troughs, though some farmers say the troughs are best at knee height. In the paddock we used 240 litre plastic drums cut into thirds likewise with PVC pipe and the tractor tyre in half works really well but can be difficult to make.

I am sure there are lots of other successful calf rearing tips amongst you all and if you are willing to share yours then please forward it to me.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

Welcome to the first newsletter for 2014. Again the off season has gone by too quick and as I write this I still have some customers to visit. I made a good start in April however for various reasons haven’t got around everyone yet. One of those reasons was in May I took my Stepfather in-law and my youngest son to Queensland for two weeks where we drove over 4,000km from Brisbane through the Queensland Highlands up to Townsville and back to Brisbane. Our aim was to avoid cities and instead see farming Queensland  style. The main farming types we saw were cotton, sorghum, cattle, prawn and sugar. I even managed to call in and see a couple of feed mills as well as Australia’s biggest cattle sale in Roma (14,200 head the day we were there).

Pricing for 2014 Season

As most of you will know grain prices have risen substantially this year. We have a certain amount contracted from last spring, which was lucky, and have contracted more recently. It’s unlikely prices have peaked, however with palm kernel becoming available again and under $300 per tonne, this may have some impact on grain sales. Ironically grain is about $50 per tonne cheaper in the North Island as they are importing from Australia. We can’t use Australian grain as we don’t process it enough to meet quarantine specifications and with some of my friends and neighbours being grain growers it’s not a path we want to go down.

Soya meal prices had been quite high until about the start of June and then dropped by nearly $100 per tonne over a couple of weeks. We have now secured 50% of our requirements at a good price. Only time will tell if they are going to continue their downward trend or will they start to climb again.

It always a guessing game on when to contract, sometimes I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong. Also unknown is what our production levels will be which has an obvious effect on how much I need to contract.

Our prices for the start of this season are:
High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $750 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $710 + GST and Delivery
This price will be reviewed in September or October.

Although we have enough grain contracted to maintain this price based on last year’s sales, price movements could happen if some of our other raw material prices move up or sales increase and we have to go to the free market for more grain. Read more in our latest Newsletter for July 2014 here...

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

Earlier this year I visited most of the customers that purchased 5 tonne or more from us in 2012. These visits can be as short as 2 minutes or as long as an hour. I even did a Raspberry cream bun run to the West Coast on a Sunday.

We did sneak away in August and at long last we got to see Pink live. Awesome. The winds in September certainly stumped us and gave us our longest power cut since 1975.

Half way through November the soybean importers ran out of stock so we stopped making High Octane to make our soybean meal last until the next shipment arrived. We now have plenty of soybean meal and High Octane calf meal is available again.

The raw material prices have continued to go against us and while the calf meal price should have gone up every month I decided I just didn’t want to go there. So the prices remain the same for the third month in a row. It was a struggle to find peas all season and we have now seemingly exhausted all supplies and have had to look at alternatives. After lots of interesting research I choose lentils to replace peas rather than broad beans or faba beans.

Yet again we run out of bags and Daniel had to make a new stencil (Daniel made the Hi O stencil at age 11) and as the printed bags come from China they take a while to turn up. The temptation is to buy heaps for next year the flip side is if I do buy heaps I will possibly have $10-20k of bags still in the shed at the end of the season.

In October and November with our peak production up 30% from last year often our yard just didn’t seem big enough. What this photo doesn't show is that Interfreight is also towing a flat deck trailer and there is another truck and trailer waiting around the corner.

We always enjoy getting positive feedback from the customers and I always think I must get out and take more photos of customers in action. It has been a tricky season however the end result we are all after is happy healthy calves.

We thank you for your support during 2013 and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2014.

We are no longer open all day or every weekday, however we continue to make calf meal and one of us is generally not too far away, just ring or text before you visit. I look forward to getting on the road again in 2014 and catching up with as many of you as possible.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

Only a brief newsletter this month due to the focus being on making sure we keep up with the orders. It has been another record breaking month for us and we have been able to keep up with the demand through having extra staff and working longer hours. Our peak production has climbed 30% from last year.

It is has been helpful that most farmers order their meal about 2-3 days ahead which gives us targets to work to and also makes it easier for the freight company to do a number of deliveries together in the
same area.

Don’t wean too soon

At this time of year some farmers will find the temptation to wean the calves off the meal too great to ignore. However often we find those who stop the meal too soon will buy more meal in the autumn as they suddenly realise their calves aren’ t at target weights. Make sure all of your calves are up to weight before weaning off meal and monitor their weights closely. With heifers in particular the financial penalty for not meeting target weights is considerable over the lifetime of the cow.

Returned Pallets

Thank you to those customers who have returned the empty pallets back especially if they have been returned in one piece. It has become like a tractor skill test on each farm as to how well they can unload the calf meal. Most tractor drivers are great however some either need more practice or training or better forks on the tractor. If you do have empty pallets please return them ASAP. For the customers who send them back via the freight company please contact me if the truck driver is reluctant to pick them up.

It’s happened again! We have run out of printed High Octane bags and
are still waiting on our next shipment from China to arrive. Until then e will be using plain bags with some blue stripes sprayed on.

Even some of our strongest pallets don’t survive!

And a special thank you to Peter and Helen Gilder who brought back 50 pallets all the way from Waitepeka (south of Balclutha).

Prices

Barley prices have moved up by $10 per tonne in the last month and soybean prices aren’t being very kind either, however we have decided to absorb these price increases for November and review it again for December. We have reduced the amount of peas in the meal as they are still hard to find and increased the wheat and soybean meal to compensate. And over the last couple of months we have been replacing some of the barley in the diet with wheat as wheat is now cheaper and more readily available then barley (plus its a higher quality grain).

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $734 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $694 + GST and Delivery

Aoraki Calf Meal can be delivered to your farm, or you can uplift it directly from our Feedmill in Waimate

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

A difficult September

This September has been memorable for all the wrong reasons. On September 10th we had our worst wind storm in nearly 40 years resulting in us losing power for four days (also our longest period for 40 years). And such a mess to clean up on the farm with hundreds of trees uprooted or snapped. We did have to ration out some of the meal to keep everyone going over that period and I thank you for your patience.
Also during the first half of September grain prices continued to rise and while they now seem to have plateaued they are still above what I had budgeted on. We currently have to pay $50 more per tonne than what we were this time last year. We also had to go and buy soybean meal on the open market some of which was over $200 more per tonne than our earlier contracts. As a result our prices are lifting again this month by $14 per tonne. Personally I am disappointed that its another price rise as I take pride in producing a top shelf product for a mid shelf price.

Learn more here Newsletter September 2013

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

Price changes from September 1st

As stated in previous newsletters our prices are reviewed monthly and unfortunately we can no longer sustain our current prices. The reason for the price increase this month is that local grain prices have increased. It's hard to get a clear picture of what is really happening, autumn reports showed there was a good harvest and farmers still had 2012 grain in their silos which meant there was an excessive amount of grain available. However reports now indicate this has disappeared and a shortage is possible although one grain trader tells me activity has been lighter than last year and a local transport truck driver tells me they have carted very little.

September prices

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $720 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $680 + GST and Delivery

Soybean prices are also of concern and while a few months back the commentators were all saying it was going to be a record harvest and we would see prices continue to fall, the opposite has actually happened. The prices are set and traded on the futures market in USA which means it can change very quickly from a bear market to a bull market. I suspect most of the increase in price is profit for traders rather than farmers. The prices we pay in NZ are adjusted daily, based on movements in USA. We are currently still using soybean meal we contracted in April. The chart below shows the price in $USD and doesn't include shipping costs.

Freight Companies

At our feedmill we are currently taking on and training extra staff to cope with the extra workload that happens from mid-September on. It's not so easy for the freight companies to do the same. They simply don't have extra trucks available for the two months when it's really busy (busiest day last season saw 83 tonne go out the gate). Our local freight company does a fantastic job of keeping up with the demand. However it does put a lot of extra pressure on them so it's important that farmers are ready for their delivery, as when they get held up on one farm that makes them late for the rest of the day (disrupting other farmers). So please do what you can to help out in this area. Sometimes when the truck driver is busy they are also reluctant to bring back the empty pallets however we need them back ASAP otherwise we have to use less desirable pallets (harder to use with the tractor), so please have them ready and encourage the truck driver to take them. We do not charge for pallets but we do rely on you to send them back.

Future Farmers

Every year we make improvements at our feedmill, always fine tuning as well as increasing our production capacity. This year some of these improvements needed a small amount of concrete. So for the first time in a long time we decided to mix our own concrete. I borrowed a mixer and Daniel my youngest son, age 13, volunteered to do the mixing. Daniel enjoyed the experience and it made me think of the things we did as kids growing up on a farm that are no longer done. Like plunge dipping sheep, carting conventional bales of hay, feeding out that same hay with the Bedford truck. The list of jobs we did then that are no longer done today is long. And I am sure that work shaped us for our adult lives. So what jobs can our kids do today that will teach them good work ethics for later in life? I'm not sure but I'm glad I borrowed the concrete mixer.

When we were in Sweden last year we visited an agricultural training college (Telford on a much larger scale) they had their own dairy herd (photo shows part of the dairy shed), fully equipped cropping farm and a large commercial forest. Sadly though, the two most popular courses were domestic dog handling and equestrian for personal purposes.

The actual farming courses were short on numbers. There doesn't seem to be much interest in making farming a future career in Sweden.

Feedback

We had one customer comment on the fineness of the meal and I have been trying to make it a bit coarser this week. It's always a balancing act between too fine (can make it dusty) and too coarse (where you see grain particles in their dung). At times you will also see some brown nuggets in the meal this is from the molasses building up inside the mixer and auger and then breaking off. Think 'chocolate' for calves! Both the mixer and auger are cleaned down in the weekends (twice a week during peak weeks). We do welcome your feedback (both positive and negative) so please don't hesitate to contact me. Also if you have any photos you think I could use for a future newsletter please email them to me.

Cheers

Ken Buckingham

Calves now grow faster on 18% Protein calf meal compared to 22% Protein

In 1998 when we first started making calf meal it tested at 22% protein or higher and we marketed it as High Protein calf meal. During the next 7 years with experience we strengthened and improved the calf meal, switching the focus from high protein to rumen development and growth rates. We than renamed the calf meal as High Octane. However even though our inclusion rate of soya bean meal has increased and we now include wheat our protein levels dropped to 18%. Ironically our original High Protein meal is even cheaper to produce. However I have no doubt that calves are growing faster on 18% High Octane compared to the old High Protein meal. Ask me if you would like to know more.
4 on farm factors that influence meal uptake and rumen development

#Milk, once the calf is 7 -10 days old it's now common for Dairy farmers to be feeding only 4 litres of milk per calf and only once a day. This encourages the calf to eat calf meal resulting in grain fermentation stimulating the development of rumen papillae. If practical feed calves late in the day so they go to sleep after a warm drink of milk and are then hungry looking for alternative food in daylight hours. PHOTO LEFT Calf milk heater in Sweden. Calf milk will always end up at calf body temperature. It's better to achieve this with electricity rather than calf energy. Feeding cold milk to calves would be like us drinking cold coffee on a cold day.

#Meal, fresh is best. While the calf meal has a shelf life of 3 + months calf meal is a grain based product and like all grain based products the fresher the meal is the better it tastes. Once they are over 4 weeks of age it doesn't seem to matter so much. So if possible buy little and often at the start of the season. Presentation of meal is also critical. Only have enough in the pen to last 23 hours, so it stays fresh and it trains the animal to eat more if it's not there 24/7 (this is a method I have used with great success with calves and pigs). Also pay attention to the amount of trough space per animal, trough height and location.

#Fibre, avoid feeding Lucerne baleage or similar as while it will stretch the rumen it doesn't develop the papillae and is also low in DM. Independent research shows that barley straw or rough hay is what works best.

#Grass, calves eating grass before their rumen is developed means you have an animal filling their stomach with a product they can't digest, resulting in a slower growth. Our top calf rearers limit access to grass until the calves are eating a minimum of 1kg of meal per day. PHOTO LEFT Haymaking near the Swiss Alps. Three people were hand raking the hay..

Additional info

We use Bovatec as our coccidiostat and it is included at 50% above the standard rate for extra protection. We continue to include Xtract a natural product that improves digestive efficiency, promotes a healthy rumen microbial population (works similar to a prebiotic) and also Organic Selenium to improve growth, fertility, and boost the immune system. Molasses, sometimes we get the comment that our calf meal hasn't got any molasses in it. Actually we use the standard amount however our molasses is added in while mixing all the meal. Some feedmills use a different process coating their product with molasses after mixing and just as it's about to be bagged, hence the reason it goes solid in the bag.

Congratulations to the Moffat family who won the R2 section of the South Island Dairy Heifer Competition. Mike & Christine have been dairy farming in Morven for 26 years and today trade as Deltop Dairy together with their son Ryan and daughter-in-law Billie. They milk 500 cows on 140 hectares and their herd is Holstein Friesian (100 % Ancestry). The Moffat family have been using Aoraki Calf Meal for over 10 years.

PHOTO ABOVE LEFT Pouring concrete fort the effluent saucer the evening before milking is due to being at the Deltop Dairy, the saucer will hold 100,00 + Litres and the above ground storage will hold 600,000 litres.

PHOTO ABOVE RIGHT 15/7/13 the day before Mike & Christine Moffat commission the families new 54 bail rotary shed. Their first new shed in 26 years.

Price stays the same for August

High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $720 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $680 + GST and Delivery

Soya bean prices are still of concern and we still advise budgeting on $720 for High Octane and $680 for Low Protein. Prices will be reviewed again at the end of August. For ordering or inquires you can normally get me on my cell phone (0800 632 548) though sometimes reception is not the best, you can also order meal 24/7 by texting and email.

Cheers

Yours sincerely

Ken Buckingham