Edition 3
Office/home – 03 2362897 Fax- 032362893
Dave/office- 03 2362898 Cell- 027 520 0740
381 Boundary Road, Drummond RD3 Otautau
Southland 9683 NZ
[email protected]
20th August 2013,
General- The beginning of July was a challenge due to the large amount of rain frustrating cows and the staff
shifting them. It was very wet. Federated Farmers were seeking any sort of supplementary feed for animals
in Southland at this time due to the critical shortage of winter feed. It became clear in the beginning of July
we would have some excess straw so a decision was made to sell around 700 bales. The last three weeks of
July and the beginning of August received very little rain making conditions for the beginning of calving
excellent. Grass growth so far for August has been well above average, around 20kg/DM/ha per day.
All of you should have now completed your first performance review in the last few weeks. I hope you all
found these useful and constructive, after all this is what they are meant to be. Geoff and David certainly
found them useful and had we some great ideas come our way. It was discussed about the need for three
performance reviews per season, upon reflection we think two will be enough, one after mating and one at
the end of the season (winter).
Winter milking cows on the feed pad at Drummond
Cows wintering on the pad eating silage/PKE mix at Oreti
Dairy- Winter milk production at GV1 this year has been around 10% higher than last year mainly we believe
due to a good culling policy carried out in March-April 2013. We have averaged around 1.45 kgs/MS per day
throughout winter. As you can see on the table below we are currently only 800 kgs/MS below our target for
June and July production. Early season SCC is looking good so far, down around 20% on the same time last
season hovering around 200,000.
Individual targets for Gladvale 2013/2014 season
Around 800 heifers came home in late July from Avondale to Oreti and made very minimal mess in the crop
paddocks. This was followed by a second mob of around 650 cows in the second week of August.
The 400 cows that were wintered on the Oreti feed pad came off in good condition and went onto crop in
late July. We should end up with 800 cows milking at GV3, and 1300-1400 at GV2.
As of 20th August we have had approximately 1200 cows and heifers calve and around 500 spring born
replacement heifers. This gives us a total of 1750 currently milking (including winter milkers) with 2000 left
to calve. Over the past four weeks we have managed to purchase another 170 in calf heifers for an average
of $1000 per head (included in the 2000 left to calve). 120 of these were meant for export so are fully
recorded animals. This will allow us some more options for culling or selling of some stock at a later date. We
are very happy with the recording of calves to cows so far with minimal uncertain sires showing up on our
records. Please keep it up.
Winter milking cows on a cold July morning at Drummond Cow 458, Age 8, SCC 128, Kg/MS 476 from 278 days in milk
We still have a lot of silage left over on all the farms which is great. At GV1 we have used around 40% of the
stack on the pad and still have a full stack at GV4. The Oreti farms have used 80% of the main stack at the
dairy shed but there is still one unopened stack of whole crop/grass in the 85 acre block over the road.
Hopefully with some good spring growth we will still have some surplus to carry over through spring. We
have recently finished our first application of urea across the dairy farms to help boost early spring growth.
We held a presentation a couple of weeks ago with all the managers to identify our targets for the season,
you should all now have a copy of this and there should also be one kept in the dairy shed at all times in the
display folder on the wall. You should all have been given a copy of our new farm policy manuals as well. If
you haven’t please ask for one. These have been produced as a result of our performance reviews for a clear
understanding of what we expect, they are a living document and we welcome any other ideas to add in or
modify anything. There is also a copy of the farm policy manual in the display folder on the walls of your
staffrooms meaning you have visual access to this policy at all times.
Cropping- There is nothing much to report on the cropping front as it is the quietest time of the year.
Gladvale History- the following article is compiled from the best recollections of Ritchie Lindsay, along with
information out of ‘The History of Drummond and Gladfield’ and ‘The Land of the Lindsay’s’
The homestead at 154 Boundary Rd in approx. 1930 on left and mid 1920’s on right supplied by Ritchie Lindsay
The house pictured is located at 154 Boundary Rd Drummond on the new farm purchased off the
Hardeggars. Looking at the first photo (on the left), the building on the left is the implement shed, and the
middle shed with the pointed roof was the stables for the horses. The lean-to on the right side of the stables
was where the oats were stacked for the horses. Both no longer exist. The house originally had three
bedrooms. The building in behind the house was a wash house and storeroom. There was no bathroom built
in the house in those days. You can see the small ‘outhouse’ just to the left of the house and wash house, no
toilets inside in those days either. On the second old photo (on the right) you can see the chimney from the
copper used to heat the water so the family could have a bath and wash their clothes. Note the swedes in
the foreground, Geoff’s grandfather won a competition for the best swedes, hence the reason for the photo
being taken.
The house was originally built by Bill Lindsay (Geoff Lindsay’s grandfather) in 1915. It cost 400 pounds to
build ($800). Bill bought the 200 acre farm (known as ‘Lindisfarne’) off George Chilton in 1915 who also
owned and lived on 100 acres on the north side of Chilton Rd (hence the name of the road). George had
owned the farm since 1901. The only other earlier recorded owner of the property before George Chilton
was I. C Turnball in 1880.
The homestead at 154 Boundary Rd as it stands today
Drummond Dairy Factory before it burnt down in the early 1900’s
It is unknown what George Chilton farmed on the property before Bill bought it.
Bill began as a sheep farmer in 1915 but started dairy farming in 1920 because he got paid each month for
the milk whereas with sheep farming he had to wait until the wool was sold and the lambs were ready to kill.
He began milking 40 cows, a big herd in those days and retained 200 sheep along with replacement cows,
along with a paddock of oats to make chaff to feed the horses. He used to take the milk to the Drummond
dairy factory (of which he was a director for 13 years) on a horse and cart up until 1925 when the
Drummond dairy factory burnt down. The factory was originally built out of timber in 1908 and subsequently
in 1925 out of concrete after the fire. It went into liquidation in 1957. During the re-build Bill had John
Hamilton who worked for him take the milk to the Otahuti Dairy Factory which still stands today as the old
Otahuti garage.
Bill had 4 milking machines in the dairy shed. It is now part of the old woolshed on the farm. The concrete
floor and formed drains are still underneath the grating. In around 1928 Bill bought a second hand 1924
Chev truck and used this to cart the milk to the factory instead of the horse and cart. Top speed was 25 mph.
He also used this to cart 1 tonne loads of bagged fertiliser, (lime and super) on this truck from either Fairfax
or Wrights Bush railway stations. He would order it through Wright-Stevenson’s and it would arrive at the
railway siding for him to pick up.
Bill used to take the sheep to the old sheep dip that was located next to the Waimatuku Stream on the IslaBank Fairfax road. It was one-mile closer than the sheep dip that was located on the corner of the
Drummond golf course, although he used to lease 22 acres of what is now the Drummond golf course and
grew oats there in 1935-1937. Bill got rid of the cows in approx. 1936-1937 and continued farming breeding
Romney, Southdown and Border Leister stud sheep. He bought a W-12 McCormick tractor in 1938, prior to
this all the jobs on the farm were carried out using the horses, ploughing, drilling, harvesting etc.
Bill had three children which he bought up in the house, Ritchie, June and Arnold Lindsay. Ritchie bought a
224 acre farm just north of Drummond in 1948 leaving his brother Arnold to take over ‘Lindisfarne’. Arnold
took it over in 1953 and retired in 1990 to Winton. Stu Bath, Arnold’s son in law then took over in 1990
before selling it to Steve Bevins in 1996. He purchased at the same time the 100 acre block off Jim Lindsay
(George Chiltons on the north side of Chilton Rd), the 88 acre Robbie block located at 268 Boundary Rd
(which was owned by Geoff Lindsay from 1989-1994, then Bernie O’Meara 1995-1996), and Audrey Beggs
(105 acres) at 368 Boundary Rd not long after. Steve bought the cowshed second hand off the farm where
the Fonterra’s Edendale dairy factory is now located and converted all the land to dairy. The total size of the
farm was then (and still is) 493 acres. Adolf Hardeggar was the last owner purchasing in June 2002 before we
purchased it taking over on the 1st June 2013.
Matt Teaz and Lance Peters getting calf sheds prepared
The Scania and split tipper ready to cart cows in early June
Workshop- Has been very busy in the lead up to calving doing maintenance on cowsheds, calf sheds and
yards. In addition we have been attempting to get through the long list of winter maintenance on the other
farm machinery.
We spent a bit of time in July modifying sheds on GV4, the new farm at Drummond for calves. We hired a 2
tonne digger for the month of July to help pull out the floor in Beggs old woolshed down McLeish Road, and
pulled a heap of soil out ready for gravel to go in. We also did the same down at the other old woolshed on
the Baths old farm. The little digger has been very busy around the farms tiling at Oreti and digging in
alkathene at Dipton and helping install the wash-down pumping facility in the yard at Drummond.
Trucks have been kept busy moving stock from Dipton and Avondale back to the dairy farms as well as
keeping grain silos and sheds filled up with PKE/wheat, hauling fertiliser up from Bluff, carting gravel to calf
sheds and crusher dust to dairy lanes. We have also rebuilt a lane at Nelsons over the winter while the cows
have been off farm.
The lane after being built up at Nelsons Oreti dairy farm
The partially complete pumping station in the yard now finished
Staff- Aldrin Gaslang has now started at GV4. Leo Lambayan left us in early August due to family reasons so
we are still looking for two or three more staff for GV2 and GV3.
David and Geoff.