By Chris McCullough

YOUNG Scottish couple, Lynne and Gregor Ramsay, are currently in their second season of a three-year sharemilking contract in New Zealand and are enjoying relative success with the venture.

Having emigrated down under in 2015, Gregor (34) and Lynne (30) are now milking 140 Jersey cows at a farm on the Taieri Plains, outside Dunedin, in South Otago. Gregor is originally from Biggar and Lynn is from Newhouse Farm, Barrhead.

Life has changed a great deal for the Ramsays in New Zeland. They have progressed from working on dairy farms, got married and celebrated the arrival of son George five months ago, right in the middle of the first New Zealand Covid-19 lockdown.

With aspirations to double the size of their herd in the future, the Ramsays are working hard to make their dream of having their own farm someday come true.

“We are 50/50 sharemilking 140 Jersey cows on 40 ha of dairy platform and 15 ha of support land five kilometres down the road,” said Lynne.

“Gregor and I moved over to New Zealand in 2015 and both worked on separate dairy farms, before Gregor got an area manager position with Fonterra in 2017 which also meant a change of region from Southland to Otago.

“During this time, we also got married and became residents of New Zealand, which is an important step to be able to borrow money from the bank. Through contacts Gregor made in his job, we secured our first 50/50 sharemilking job and are now in our second season of that three-year contract.”

As 50/50 sharemilkers, the couple had to set up a company and purchase the herd plus the machinery and equipment required. They entered the first season in June, 2019, and calved down the cows in August.

Gregor said: “The farm is owned by the Wilson family that has farmed this land for more than 100 years and own three dairy farms in total, as well as a number of support farms.

“In our first season, we calved down 100 Jersey cows and 35 Jersey heifers keeping 31 heifer calves to rear as replacements. This year we are calving down 145 in total.

“We chose the Jersey breed due to their milk production efficiency, 420 to 430kg of milk solids from a 420kg cow; the value of fat and the saleable bull calf. Our bull calves sell for $80 (£40) per head at four days old to a rearer who then sells them as service bulls as one or two year olds,” said Gregor.

The Ramsays milk twice a day in a 14-per-side Read Industries herringbone parlour from August to the end of April, then drop to every 16 hours and finally to once a day for the last week in May, before drying the herd off for two months.

Last season, the herd averaged 420kg of milk solids per cow with an average 5.2% BF and 4.13% P.

Lynne said: “We supplied 54,328 kg of milk solids last year and hope to reach 60,000kg this year. That came from 568,507 litres of milk, or around 4370 litres per cow.

“Cows are kept outside all year round in one mob. For the last two years we wintered them on grass and 'balage' and in the milking season they have a diet of grass, silage, grain and brewers draught fed out in the paddock. Our stocking rate is 3.5 cows per ha.

“AI is used for eight weeks then bulls for a following four. We use a CIDR programme on the group of cows that calved before September 15 but then didn’t have a recorded heat before the planned start of mating. This seemed to work really well.

“We also used a CIDR programme with the heifers and have them start calving around 10 days before the main herd. Last season, we achieved a six week in-calf rate of 78% and an empty rate of 6%,” she said.

Lynne is currently on maternity leave from her job as a meat inspector and, with Gregor, makes up the only staff on the farm aside from a relief milker. Milk prices are set ahead of the season and farmers get paid in advance for their production.

Lynne said: “We sell our milk to Fonterra and the milk price for season 2020/21 is set in the range of $5.90 (£2.98) to $6.90 per kg MS. Farmers get paid an advance on this throughout the season and that advance rate is based on the mid-point of this range at $6.40 per kg MS.

“The milk from the 2019/20 season is still being paid for as the payments are spread over 16 months to reach the actual milk price achieved by Fonterra. It is looking like a milk price of $7.15 per kg MS which equates roughly to UK price of 34p per litre.

“Although we fixed 25,000 kg MS at $7.38, we will find out our final milk price in October when it’s settled as we would tend to be above the average Fonterra price with our high quality Jersey cows’ milk composition.”

The Ramsays use a Giltrap silage wagon to feed a ration in the paddock. Cows are mainly fed a grass based diet with quality pasture in the paddock and 2kg/head of grain (mixed with minerals), 5-7kg DM brewers’ grains and silage added each day.

As sharemilkers the Ramsays try to keep the costs down and not invest in the latest technology which even means no ACRs in the parlour.

Lynne added: “The idea is to keep costs below $2/kg MS for a 50/50 sharemilker, and try to reach $400 (UK£202) profit per cow and pay back our mortgage on the cows, so we can ask the bank for more when the time comes.

“In the future, we would like to get to a 300-cow 50/50 sharemilking job, or perhaps even another small dairy farm to keep us both entertained. At this current scale, it still requires one of us to work off-farm. However, a 250 to 300 cow job could allow us both to work full time together on the farm,” she said.

Ramsay sharemilker income and expenditure

Farm owner Sharemilker

Income

Milk income 50% 50%

Fonterra dividend 100% 0%

Stock sales 0% 100%

Expenses

Fonterra shares 100% 0%

Rates/water supply etc 100% 0%

Farm infrastructure 100% 0%

Capital fertiliser 100% 0%

Bought in feed 50% 50%

Nitrogen fertiliser 50% 50%

Animal health 0% 100%

Power/machinery/fuel 100%

Staff 100%

Silage made on dairy farm 100%