Dairy Calf Opportunities, Canterbury, Sharemilkers Ben and Allie King

Having a calf-outcome focus when designing mating programmes

Since 2019, Ben and Allie King have been dedicated to increasing the number of calves they rear. Their aim is to enhance the value of calves born on their farm in an efficient and sustainable manner for their business.

Key lessons

• Ben and Allie have had mixed results using sexed semen. Reducing the use of sex semen has improved in-calf rate.
• They choose Speckle Park and Charolais breeds based on individual sire traits, including calving ease, and so far they haven’t encountered any difficult calving issues.
• Additionally, they’ve found value in rearing high-quality, high-BW Jersey bulls.

Background

Located in North Canterbury, Ben and Allie didn’t follow the conventional career route into farming. Ben was working as a livestock agent and Allie as a customs officer at the airport when they made the decision to become dairy farmers in late 2014.

Since then, they’ve set ambitious goals to climb the ladder from farm assistant to manager. In three years since being self-employed, they have transitioned from contract milking to becoming 50/50 sharemilkers. Allie and Ben manage one herd, running them separately in two mobs: one predominately jersey breed and one jersey cross breed.

The farm they are currently on was purchased by the farm owners at the same time they employed Allie and Ben as 50/50 sharemilkers. Unlike many new conversions in the Canterbury region, this farm was older and required modernisation. The pasture was under pressure from weed burden and required extensive re-grassing and weed control.

The farm owners installed in-shed feeding and extended the herringbone from 36 to 48 cows per side. Additionally, they set up fixed-grid irrigation to complete the platform in irrigation alongside the three existing pivots. The heavy soils are advantageous during dry summers, but in the winter they can become muddy. Allie and Ben say, “Overall, it had been a pretty interesting and exciting two years already.”

Allie assists with calving and busy days such as herd testing and animal health, and does all the administration, bringing her creative mind to the farm. Ben, on the other hand, works full-time and approaches tasks with an analytical brain. Both minds contribute to the strength of day-to-day operations and farm vision. Additionally, they have two full timers: herd manager Armando Talampas and second-in-charge Justine Adrejilo. They also employee a part-time relief milker.

A mating programme for a happy farm owner and sharemilker

Ben is passionate about genetics and creating a better herd for the future. It was essential to both Ben and Allie that they were satisfied with the mating programme strategy and that the farm owners were also content. Allie explains, “It was about working towards our goals together and discussing our options on how to achieve them.”

Split herd management

Operating a split herd based on breed provides the freedom to breed a herd according to specific preferences. Ben and Allie can assess the herd’s performance data separately, including production, body condition score, and weights and cross compare. The Jersey herd produces 133 percent of milksolids per liveweight, while the Jersey cross herd achieves 112 percent. This approach allows them to selectively choose individual sires for each cow, rather than relying on the ‘bull of the day’ for all cows.

Selecting sires and matching dams

Ben and Allie utilise nearly every available breeding company, both from New Zealand and overseas. When selecting international dairy sires, understanding the differences in the farm systems is crucial.

Each cow is individually nominated; there’s no generic ‘bull of the day’. Ben hand-picks bulls based on udder, production and fertility. He filters the sires for each trait, adhering to his own baseline standards.

Once the bulls are selected, Ben assigns the best to each cow to address their weaknesses. For example, if their top producer has low fertility, Ben selects a sire to enhance the fertility in the progeny. However, this process can be somewhat tedious when implementing the mating programme with the AI technician.

Using sexed semen

In 2023, Ben and Allie experimented with using sexed semen to produce higher-quality heifer replacement calves for sale. At the time, the average breeding worth was 348. They retained the Jersey calves and sold the cross-bred ones. Ben and Allie aimed for around 100 crossbreed calves, knowing they were more desirable among other dairy farmers. This allowed them to rear more calves for heifer replacements and increase the use of beef semen across cows that were not mated to sexed semen.

However, Ben and Allie are condensing their calving spread, which has a flow-on effect on their mating programme. When they tried sexed semen, they discovered that cows didn’t always conceive on the first attempt, leading to a wider calving spread. In the year they used sexed semen, their six-week in-calf rate was 74 percent. The following year their six-week in-calf rate had improved to 81 percent. While other factors also influence in-calf rates, Ben and Allie have since shifted away from using sexed semen.

Using beef sire genetics

Allie and Ben allocate a portion of the herd to beef semen. During a period when calf prices declined, they explored various scenarios involving different dairy-beef breeds. For instance, they considered mating dairy cows with Angus- or Speckle Park-bred semen. Through thorough trend research and a profit analysis, they determined that breeding with Speckle Park would yield the best results. “Fortunately, finding buyers for our beef progeny has never been an issue, and we’ve consistently followed this approach,” says Ben.

Calving ease

This year, Ben and Allie have diversified their approach by mating the bottom of the herd using Charolais-bred semen (approx. 5%). Alongside this, they’re selling high-BW Jersey bulls. Ben nominates for low-birthweight high-growth-rate polled beef bulls. The Charolais breed they use is known for producing progeny with lighter birth weights at calving and impressive growth rates.

Calf rearing process

All calves receive two litres of ‘gold’ colostrum via tubing within the first few hours of birth. The calves are fed warm whole milk twice daily and offered ad-lib muesli, transitioning to a 20 percent protein pallet. They DNA test all calves reared on-farm.

Allie and Ben prioritise calf feeding process and shed hygiene. They annually vaccinate the herd with rotovac to reduce the chance of rotovirus and apply fresh woodchip in the shed weekly. To prevent spread of illness, each pen has a boot dip and, in the past, they have used tarps between pens. Additionally, calf enrichment toys like balls are placed in pens. Calves go outside early, typically at three weeks old after disbudding and if there is favourable weather.

They feed them five to six litres of milk daily, until weaning. Bulls and heifers are kept in separate mobs after reaching 80 kilograms.

Heifer replacements:

• Milk intake is reduced once calves reach 70 kg.
• Jersey calves are weaned once they reached 85 kg.
• Friesian calves, although rare for Ben and Allie, are weaned at 100 kg.
• All heifer replacements are reared on the farm until they reach 100 kg, after which they are sent to the contract grazier.

Dairy-beef calves:

• Beef calves follow a similar process: they are reared on-farm and then sold to pre-arranged buyers.
• Buyers pick up beef bulls from farm or Ben and Allie drop them off.

High-BW Jersey bulls:

• Ben and Allie have discovered the value of rearing high-quality, high-BW Jersey bulls.
• They currently have two buyers lined up to purchase the Jersey bulls.
• Many of their connections are made through word of mouth and local farming events.
• Both buyers are dairy farmers. They utilise their bulls for their own young stock, especially as Ben and Allie’s are DNA tested.

Farm investments

• The farm owners initially invested in calf sheds, as six bays that could rear 15 calves was insufficient when they were rearing 300 calves.
• Allie and Ben acquired a weigh scale platform and regularly weigh their stock. Based on the weights, they determine if calves need to change groups.
• Their approach involves running mobs on weight size, allowing some movement of calves between mobs. This ensures that each calf receives the treatment it needs.