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Bush gang skills put to good use
01-05-2007
Great communication and exceptional organisational skills are essential in running any business, but are even more important for Sam and Davina Webb, who manage the country’s largest dairy herd at Taharua Farm Ltd.
The 2095ha 4521-cow dairy operation is located near Rangitaiki, 30 minutes southeast of Taupo
Sam says the huge scale, the harsh climate, the high staff rate and the long walking distances for cows are the biggest challenges in managing the property. Last year they milked 902,569kg milk solids (MS) from 3442 cows.
“There are a lot of cows to milk and we have to have good organisational and communication skills and use the information that we have to help us make informed decisions.”
They recently won the Central Plateau Farm Manager of the Year title, the RD1 Farm Management Award and the Dairy Insight Human Resources Management Award.
The Webbs held a field day last month showing 80-100 farmers how they manage such a large property and encouraged them to enter the awards.
“I fully recommend it. It’s been a good experience for us and made us have a good hard look at our business,” says Sam.
He says only about 10% of the operation was on show at the field day because there was simply not enough time to show the scale of the place.
The herd is divided into five with the first herd milked at 4am, running three shifts, and milking does not finish until 10pm at night, during the peak.
The Webbs have developed a rigid schedule so that every one of the farm’s 15 milking staff knows where they should be. They use a 30-day cycle, working eight days on and two days off and everyone has at least two days in 30 where they have to do the 3am shift, getting the first herd to the shed.
Sams day begins at 6am and throughout the day he tries to complete as many jobs as possible that he knows need to be done.
“But if I don’t get through everything then I won’t spend until midnight working because if you do, you just run yourself into the ground,” he says.
Veterinary consultant Hugh Jellie says Sam and Davina focus on the important things on the farm and are aware of everything that is going on around the farm
“If something isn’t right, he’ll fix it,” he says.
Hugh says what impresses him is that they are able to achieve this on such a large sale property.
“The thing that I find, working with them, is that they are really passionate about their cows and it’s really great to see, and that’s on a large scale too as you’d expect to get to have results the same as a 400 cow farm.”
Ollie Gibberd, who manages a nearby 1400ha dairy farm, says the Webbs are similar to the Taharua Farm Ltd’s owners Alan, Frank and Beth Crafar of the CraFarm Group, as both think outside the square in all aspects of their business.
“They have their good days and bad days and ups and downs, but they always keep the big picture in mind. They come from different backgrounds and it’s their personalities that make them work well as a team. They are passionate about what they do and they do it well.”
The 4521 cows (of which 900 are milked once a day, due to the long walking distances) are milked through an 80-bail rotary shed, collecting on average 69,749L of milk/day over the peak.
There is also an 18-aside herringbone penicillin unit and they are currently building a twin-pit 40-aside herringbone shed.
Sam says there are plans to intensify production as he is only stocking 2.1 cows/ha at present and is considering building another dairy shed on 309ha that has come back from lease last September.
“The cows have a long walk and a lot of energy is used up. Another shed out there would solve a lot of problems.
“I’m also a great believer in not letting the cows walk a great distance to get to the crops.”
He says 97% of the pasture on the property is utilised for feed and would like to convert more of the feed into milk outputs, but is hampered by the energy the cows use walking to the milking shed.
There is 300ha of winter crop and they are on target to produce 1,125,000kg MS for this season.
Calving takes place late from September 10 because of the harsh winters that they experience. They recently extended their calf shed to house 1000 calves. Davina says this has made a huge difference to their calf rearing operation.
Another new addition to the farming operation is the calving home, which houses up to 1000 ‘springers’ overnight. Sam says 1500 heifers were calved over spring and the calving home made a huge difference.
Sam met farm owners Alan and Frank Crafar, when they were looking for a lower order sharemilker on the Crafars’ farm at Broadlands Road in 1997.
From this position he moved to another Crafar farm on the edge of Taupo before making the move in 2004 as manager and equity partner on the Taharua farm.
Davina met Sam in 2002 and swapped her office job at Harcourts Real Estate for mud and gumboots in 2005.
Sam says his experience in managing people in bush gangs in the forestry industry has helped him develop top people management skills.
“Man management is a huge part of it. Cows do what they’re told, it’s humans that have to be taught.”
Sam says staff development is a big feature of being employed at the farm, and sending workers to workshops and field days who then pass on any newly developed skills is encouraged.
Staff recruitment and retention are a critical part of running Taharua, and staff retention is a challenge because of the climatic conditions.
“It’s a harsh climate, long hours in the shed and is some distance from the nearest town and friends,”
But the farm has good accommodation, food and on-farm education and training so they can further their own careers.
All potential staff are given an informal interview and then driven around the property, so Sam can judge them from their observations as well as their work history and references. All new staff are ‘buddied up’ with an established staff member while they learn the ropes.
Sam and Davina’s future goals are to realise enough capital gain from their equity share in Taharua and the rental properties they own so that they can invest in a dairy farm of their own.
In the mean time, they will represent their region in the Farm Manager of the Year final held in Invercargill on May 12.