When I arrived in Christchurch airport on 17 January, temperatures were reaching close to 34° and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, even after what seemed like an eternity to get here, I knew I made the right decision rather than do my 16-week placement in Ireland.

The farm I was placed on is made up of 2,400 cows (breeds from Jersey, Friesan and Kiwi cross) on a milking platform of 620ha, with a lower order share milker Will Grayling - young farmer of the year 2011 - and his wife Kim and equity partnership with Jim Van Der Poel - current DairyNZ chair - and his wife Sue. The milking parlour is an 80-unit Waikato rotary parlour with ACRs and an automatic teat sprayer.

When I first got here the cows were split into six herds, anywhere between 300 and 500 cows plus a 'red' mob of about 60 cows. These were any lame ones or cows with mastitis.

At the moment the cows are split into four herds, depending on the condition and age of the cows, and only the third and fourth herd being milked in the evening.

Shift work

A typical day in January started at 2.45am for the person bringing cows in, milking started at 3.45 am and went on until about 10am.

The way the roster worked was if you were bringing the cows in you worked until 7am, had an hour for breakfast, work from 8am to 12am, have an hour for lunch and work from 1pm to 3.30pm.

If you were milking it was the same, two people on from 3.45am to 7am, then two people swapped in until end of milking so you had an hour for breakfast, then back at 8am until 12pm, an hour for lunch and back at 1pm to 3.30pm.

If you started at 7am you worked until 12am, have and hour for lunch and then you might be on milking from 1pm to 5pm, usually finish at 5.30pm after wash up.

If you were on early milking or herds in, you were in at 7am the next day.

On your last day on before getting two or three days off (worked seven, off two twice, then work seven, off three), you were always bringing the cows in and finished at 3.30pm and on your first day back you were always on early milking.

Irrigation and calves

In January and February I did a lot of Rotorainers and irrigation work. In March and April worked in a rented block across the road, where we had a mob of 650 calves, the rest being reared at Towerpeak in Queenstown seven hours away in a lorry along with our 720 heifers.

We grazed beet from the middle of April for all milking herds and the heifers.

This May we've been teat sealing heifers and milking time has decreased as the first herd, second herd and red mob are once a day.

Soon we will be shifting cows to winter grazing blocks 20km away from the farm by walking them along the road.

Experience

The best thing about this whole experience is how much I've learned about grassland management. I was given the responsibility of assistant herd manager of the third herd after just a few weeks working here. Grass walks are every Sunday using a plate meter over 136ha. All covers are put into Agrinet on a laptop and we present results every Monday morning for 10 minutes. Each meeting takes an hour and I think of it as the most important hour of the week.

I've learned more than enough to bring home to our own farm of 300 winter-milking cows in Crookstown, Co Kildare.

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