It's been a while since the website has been updated.
The 2017 year has been a difficult one, with 3 major weather events creating wet conditions in the autumn, which caused issues through the winter as we tried to manage calving cows and milking.
The Tasman Tempest hit first, in March, followed closely by Tropical Cyclones Debbie and Cook.
We were able to reduce the contracts for winter milk that we had, which helped us avoid penalties.
Kelly and I reared 340 calves through to weaning. The last 40 are still being fed milk and meal as of late November. We were hit with Rotavirus in the calves - very early - the first time in 19 years. The wet, warm conditions did not help, as did not vaccinating the herd. Stopping the rotavirus vaccine 3 years ago was a direct result of lower returns for our milk. It's always a balancing act - prevention is usually cheaper than cure! We got through this ok, but it was very difficult.
