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Right now, on dairy farms around the country, farmers are managing feed, animals, budgets, machinery, and weather. They’re having conversations with their bankers and insurers and finding time for their kids. That is just life for farming families, and everyone has to balance their own challenges.

South Island dairy farmers have the perfect tool at their disposal this calving season to set their herds up for future productivity - the rumen in their replacement heifer calves.

Calving can be an exciting time of year, with lots of calves around and milk starting to flow into the vat, but it is a tiring time of year too. It’s worth spending a bit of time now thinking about how you will prioritise animal care and looking after your staff through this critical period. Some aspects you could focus on are preparing your heifers for milking quietly and fostering stock skills in your employees.

As South Island farmers head into winter grazing, supplementing dairy herds with the right minerals is critical because even bumper winter crops can still be nutritionally deficient, says a ruminant nutrition expert.

When a calf is born, we hope they have a long, productive life ahead of them as future members of the herd. We know that productive cows begin life as healthy calves, and therefore the job of calf-rearing is incredibly important.

Growing better calves comes down to better nutrition; that’s what dairy farmers Sam and Jo Spencer-Bower learned last season.

While many of us aren’t quite ready to say goodbye to summer, we do need to look ahead and start planning for winter. 

There is a lot of pride that comes from working in a sector that has the most emissions efficient dairy farmers in the world.

No two farms are the same and that is even more so when it comes to the mineral needs of livestock upon them. Variations in soil type, feed inputs and fertiliser levels will all have a complex, interacting impact upon an animal’s level of valuable nutrients and trace elements.

Words & images supplied by Jacqueline McGowan, DairyNZ