Advertise on podcast: How Good's Dairy

Soil compaction, urea and the cow: ex-vet Dr Allan Piercy on growing the same grass on less nitrogen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Calving’s nearly done, mating’s a week away and the grass is going gangbusters. George and Conan catch up on what mid-October really looks like on George’s Canterbury dairy farm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mastitis microbiologist Natasha Maguire on subclinical cases, cell count, antibiotics and bought-in heifers, and why the answer starts with testing before you treat. 00:00 Coming up 00:28 How good's dairy? 00:47 Meet Natasha and how it all started 03:11 What is mastitis? 04:17 Finding subclinical mastitis: herd tests and RMT 04:58 What somatic cell count actually measures 06:33 Why test every case 07:56 What the bugs tell you about your farm 08:56 Benchmarking your herd's udder health 11:27 When the cell count spikes 12:47 Guessing is expensive: the teat spray trap 14:08 Can teat spray damage teats? 14:58 George's farm: where to start with bought-in cows 16:28 Fresh cow procedures and the first four days 18:05 What's really behind early-season mastitis 19:28 Next steps: just test 21:33 Antibiotics and selective dry cow 24:27 When there's nothing to treat 26:14 Prevention: buying in cows and heifers 28:08 Teat spraying done properly 31:16 Staph aureus: the big one 33:32 Culling, cell count and "it's not the farmer" 34:50 Don't wait, find out 35:52 Takeaways 36:43 Where to find Natasha Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ash des Landes and his wife are 50/50 sharemilkers on the Canterbury Plains, milking 650 cows at Dunsandel and, from this season, another 585 near Leeston. That's 1,200 cows producing around 600,000 kg of milk solids. In this episode George and Conan dig into the technology behind that operation and what it has actually changed on farm: Culturing mastitis samples in the farm office before treating. Antibiotic use is substantially down, the bulk cell count is holding around 110,000, and Staph cows at dry-off went from as many as 20 to zero. Virtual fencing collars. The fuel bill has halved, lameness is down, the team spends less time on motorbikes, and kale and pasture breaks are shifted several times a day. How Ash weighs up what a piece of tech is worth, and how he gets a young team using it properly. Why the tech is what let the family take on a second farm without giving up time together. Ash's take: we all do effectively the same thing; what separates the good from the best is the timing of the decisions we make. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Canaan Ahu of Agrownomics on soil biology, nitrogen, compaction and carbon, and why the best soil test starts with a spade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beef over dairy is the fastest-growing decision on a New Zealand dairy farm — and most of it gets made in about three seconds, standing behind a cow at mating. George Dodson sits down with Ben Watson, co-founder of GENEZ and a dairy farmer of close to thirty years, to work out what putting beef over your dairy cows actually does to the bottom line. Conan's away this week, so producer Andy Rowe takes the second chair. They get into why the beef decision drives genetic gain in your replacement heifers, how GENEZ picks a different sire for week one than week six, what calving ease really means next to birth weight, and why a 40kg calf can still come out easy. Then the money. A bobby calf gets you thirty or forty dollars. Contracted beef calves are running one fifty to one eighty in the South Island — both sexes, the whole of spring. But Ben won't call it free money: every kilo of calf birth weight costs the cow around 0.67 of a milk solid, which is $6.70 a kilo on a $10 payout. Also in this one: what a "marker" calf is and why it has to be obvious at three in the morning, the $118 difference in rearing cost between the slowest and fastest bull in the catalogue, and the 156kg weaner that turned up the week after Show Week. GENEZ: @ Dairy's good — how good? Let's find out. Chapters 00:00 INTRO 00:32 "Ben, how good's dairy?" 00:51 Conan's away — Andy fills in 01:23 Where GENEZ started 03:07 Why put beef over your dairy cows 04:21 Picking the right sire, week by week 06:14 Calving ease, birth weight and gestation 10:16 What the calf rearer actually wants 11:37 The $118 gap between two bulls 12:58 Why the smaller calf can win 15:10 "Who's dropped the ball here?" 16:23 Wearables, beef price and the perfect storm 18:01 What a marker is 20:05 Why you don't use Angus at AB 22:11 The bottom line — $30 bobby vs $180 beef calf 26:08 Contracts, scale and a 156kg weaner 28:10 What that beef calf costs the cow 30:52 Bridging the gap — markers, then SGL 32:34 Coming up — George's beef mating plan 33:20 Where to find GENEZ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George is a season into milking his own cows, and he's already doing things his own way: a colostrum mob that never goes behind a wire, and a breeding rule with no science behind it at all. From there it's the ideal cow for a wet, heavy farm, why Conan gets a bit miffed at being called a regenerative consultant, the three legs of the stool on compaction, why effluent ends up in the wrong paddock on most farms, a planting plan going in this autumn, and an honest word about what eleven-hour days do to a body. George Dodson farms at Leeston, Canterbury. Conan Moynihan is an agribusiness coach and co-founder of Groundshift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fonterra CEO Richard Allen on what the co-op actually does with your milk, how the milk price is really set, and why New Zealand dairy farmers are the envy of the world. Dairy's good — how good? Let's find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feed is the biggest controllable cost on most dairy farms, and the easiest place to quietly lose money. George Dodson and Conan Moynihan sit down with dairy nutritionist Shaun Balemi (myCOW) on feeding efficiency: fillers vs concentrates, early vs late lactation, palm kernel and protein, what rumination data is really telling you, and what nutrition does to in-calf rates. Plus why a hungry cow is a stressed cow — and an expensive one. George puts his own farm up for some free consulting. More from Shaun: https://mycow.nz CHAPTERS 00:00 A hungry cow is a stressed cow 00:32 How good's dairy? 01:11 Thirty years in, and what farmers taught him 03:08 Three big opportunities for New Zealand dairy 05:01 Drowning in data: which numbers actually matter 06:46 George on farm: stock sense vs the computer 10:06 Collars, rumination and reading the paddock 11:32 Feeding efficiency without breaking the bank 14:30 What counts as a starchy feed 15:23 Pasture-only vs a complete diet, and the digestion army 17:23 Fillers vs concentrates, and what NDF means 19:25 When early lactation becomes late lactation 20:07 Palm kernel, DDG and getting the protein right 22:53 Can you actually measure the payback? 25:08 Pasture harvested per hectare: the number that pays 27:29 Silage quality: New Zealand's blind spot 29:13 Nutrition and reproduction: consistency is the lever 31:53 Minerals, selenium, B12 and the transition window 35:06 Soil, nutrient density and where this is heading 36:58 Shaun's one piece of advice 39:46 Where to find Shaun and myCOW 41:02 Takeaways and wrap Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Calving is relentless. And the decisions that shape an animal's entire life get made in the middle of it, thirty seconds at a time. Karen Fraser has reared calves through just about every version of this job — from converting a Hawke's Bay potato farm to 1,500 cows in the early 2000s, to running young stock on Rakaia Island and Woodstock Farms, to teaching people who'd never touched an animal how to rear calves properly. These days she's one half of The Calf Experts alongside ruminant nutritionist Stacey Cosnett, and a technical specialist at Farmlands. She sat down with George and Conan on George's farm to go through calf rearing the way it actually happens at 5am, not the way it looks in a manual. We get into the five Qs of colostrum — including the one nobody talks about, and why a frightened calf absorbs less of what you just fed it. Whether to tube a calf or teach it to drink, a question George and his dad have never agreed on. Why topping up a water bucket with a garden hose is quietly teaching your calves not to eat. Rumen development, and why you're really feeding two animals at once. Ad lib feeding, and why the step-down needs 21 days rather than 14. And the question we finished on: what's good calf rearing actually worth in lifetime production? 00:00 How good's dairy? 00:47 Welcome — Karen Fraser 01:01 From potato growers to 1,500 cows 02:34 How The Calf Experts started 04:19 The five Qs of colostrum 06:56 Squeaky clean — and the Q nobody talks about 08:52 The first two feeds 09:34 Tube it, or teach it to drink? 12:06 Water: why a bucket is a problem 15:07 What skimming does to the grown cow 16:16 Rumen development — you're feeding two animals 18:54 Fibre, acetate and the 10% rule 20:13 Ad lib feeding, and the 21-day step-down 23:02 What George does on his farm 25:40 The best calf sheds Karen has seen 27:46 What's good calf rearing worth? 29:48 Takeaways 32:32 Where to find Karen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to How Good's Dairy — the podcast that celebrates dairy farming and the people behind it. In this first episode, George Dodson (Young Farmer of the Year winner and Canterbury dairy farmer) and Conan Moynihan (Groundshift co-founder, agribusiness coach and Kellogg Scholar) introduce themselves, share why they started the show, and set out what's coming: one topic at a time, unpacked with farmers and experts, with practical advice you can take back to the farm. Dairy's good — how good? Let's find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.