Successful calf rearers milk cows

Calf buyer and rearer Steve Drake has never made a loss in 20 years

01-05-2009 | Marie Taylor

The most successful calf rearers milk cows and feed the milk to calves, says Steve Drake.

The Hastings calf buyer and rearer knows: he's been in the business 28 years and has never made a loss rearing calves.

Calf-rearing is widely perceived as a boom and bust industry, with calf-rearers the meat in the sandwich between dairy farmers and bull finishers.

Steve, who trades as Drake Livestock says: "I have seen demand for calves go through boom and bust."

But he has four clients from very early on in his career who are still buying four-day old calves from him, and still making great progress - because they are milking cows.

He says it's better to build a small cheap "number eight wire type" cowshed to milk cows, each of which produce enough milk to feed 10 calves over a 10-week period.

Setting up a $10,000 cowshed to milk 10 cows makes better economic sense than spending $7000 for milk powder to raise 100 calves for the season, he says.

"While it does require a bit more work, at the end of the season the cowshed is still there."

About 20% of the calves he on-sells are reared by this method, and also do better on cow's milk than on milk powder, he says.

"One farmer client started 21 years ago with nothing, and now has 600ha. He raises 500-600 calves a year and then sells enough at 100kg so that they cover the purchase and expenses of all the calves. The stock left are "free" and then he leases the cows out to dairy farmers for the remainder of the season."

The free stock he runs through to killing at 20 months, Steve says.

Last year of the 4500 calves Steve bought from Waikato dairy farmers, he sold most to rearers, and he reared 828.

"In the last two years my daughters have been rearing 24 calves each and they made just over $100 a calf."

The only benefit they get from Steve is free grass, which over six weeks equates to about a $12 benefit per calf, he says.

"It is an educational process for them, as they are getting to understand business, and they register for GST, do budgets, feed calves, clean out sheds and monitor weights."

And the income helps them when they go off to university, he says.

Steve says one reason he has never made a loss from rearing calves is he contracts about three-quarters of the calves reared, and doesn't panic with the rest.

"You have to have a way of farming them until someone else wants to buy them.

"A sale at the Frankton yards in early November saw 100kg calves make only $220. Those guys made a loss because they panicked."

Steve has a small block at his home in Hastings, 2ha of land at Pakipaki where he rears his calves and a lease of 60ha on Middle Road.

His calf rearing business is focused on selling the calves when they reach 100kg.

Seven years ago he bought a second-hand shade-house for $8000, turning it into a 35m by 19m calf shed.

The shed can fit 400 calves at a time. He doesn't milk cows himself because of lease constraints, but uses the tried-and-true method of calf rearing developed by Paul Muir at Poukawa.

This milk powder feeding system is simple and he can feed 400 calves in an hour-and-a-half per day.

The calves are fed two litres of milk once-a-day for five to six weeks with the concentration of the milk powder progressively strengthened, until it is at double strength after 10 days.

The calves are also fed water, meal and straw ad lib, and after five weeks are weighed every week, and then weaned off milk at 65kg.

"That is a very good economical system which develops the calf rumen fast."

At the Middle Road property he takes the calves through to 100kg. He recently sold the last 170 bull calves from the 2008 spring calves, and still has 180 white-faced calves grazing.

Steve also has two contract rearers in Central Hawke's Bay who he supplies with calves, milk powder and meal.

"I pay them on a rate per day and pick the calves up at 65kg. It's a good little earner for the rearers, and doesn't cost them anything." And for Steve, it's a no risk business, adding another angle to his calf portfolio.

And out of the calf season he has done all sorts of things, cutting back recently to contract drilling work.

"Up until last year I used to hay contract and for 10-12 years I fattened up to 4000 lambs on orchards, but I'm getting too old for that."

In his spare time he also buys houses and does them up. "I will do anything. I have to love what I am doing: my philosophy is to have fun and profit, if either is missing I am out."

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