Andrew and Jill Stewart are fifth generation sharemilkers situated on the edge of the Taramakau River on state highway 73, not far from Kumara. They operate a 234-cow herd on one of the family blocks. Andrew’s parents are on the Home Farm while another brother runs a Beef herd over the river.
Andrew say’s his Great, Great, Great Grandparents arrived in the area during the Hokitika Gold rush, and the family has been there ever since. The couple have been share-milking for about ten years they operate a traditional low input all grass system, buying supplement as required.
He has a policy of ‘least number of trucks in the gate and maximum of produce going the other way.’ Andrew says, he tried once a day milking for three years but in the end found they were missing out on the peak production months and those important returns.
More recently he has found what works in their situation is once a day milking over calving for one month then they jump to twice a day over the peak season until mid-December when they switch to twice daily three days a week with the other four days on once a day.
Once they hit March its back to once a day until they dry off. This regime means they get some family time with their three young children, have time to get other jobs done and manage their own energy better. Andrew is also involved in Federated Farmers; he says the work they do advocating for private landowners is impressive and vital for all landowners. They tackle important issues impacting the wider rural sector which is often taken for granted.
One of his farming interests is how to make de-budding of heifer calves less of an animal health risk to the sector. Somehow, he can’t explain how, the polled gene turned up in their herd. They ran all the genetic tests and found it to be a naturally occurring thing! Both LIC and CRV Ambreed are working with him to generate bulls carrying this gene for the national herd.
This season of the sixty heifer calves he’s kept one third did not require de-budding. The process of de-budding requires calves at four weeks old to have an anaesthetic to remove the buds which left can cause other issues.
