The benchmark for heifer-growing
Since its inception in 1987, the New Plymouth-based New Zealand Grazing Company has established a benchmark for this country’s replacement heifergrowing industry.
Prior to setting up the New Zealand Grazing Company, Ian Wickham, in company with representatives of DairyNZ, embarked on a nation-wide tour of New Zealand. As part of his address, he proclaimed to farmers that his company could grow replacement dairy heifers better and more cheaply than the farmers themselves could.
Three words struck immediate accord with his mostly rural audiences - “better” and “more cheaply,” he recalls.
“The main focus which the dairy farmers had, of course, was their dairy herd. The feeling was that dairy replacements tended to be viewed by farmers as an expense until they could come into the herd and the cost should be minimised.
“Ours was quite an easy message to sell.”
“The idea came from my previous involvement in the dairy cattle breeding industry, which I had been in for quite some time. I had a 12-year stint with Livestock Improvement, which was then called Herd Improvement. Then I spent 14 years with Ambreed.
“There was a focus on breeding better cattle, but after a while I started to realise that although more efficient cattle were being bred, the advantages of this were not being realised by farmers in growing their animals well enough to take advantage of the improved genetics.”
Prior to the establishment of the NZGC, dairy farmers grazing their stock away from their own properties, usually paid the graziers $3 per week, per heifer on a May-to-May basis.
“This was quite a lot when you look at the price of milksolids (then milkfat) at that time. It was actually quite expensive, but the most expensive part was the poor performance which was achieved,” says Wickham.
“The very first step for New being