More at stake for annual moving day
returning to the dairy farm just before calving.
Grayling and his wife Kim are equity partners in Singletree Dairies, near Ashburton, with DairyNZ chairman and former Fonterra director Jim van der Poel, the other main shareholder.
‘‘We won’t be the only ones on the road but we work in together to let people know. A little bit of communication goes a long way.
‘‘If there are cows bounding the road we will put in a single wire electric fence to separate cows by a metre or two. This is to avoid cows’ noses touching.
‘‘Luckily with cows it’s easy enough to put up a single wire to keep them apart. So there is more awareness of keeping herds apart, rather than cows sniffing each other through the fence,’’ Grayling said.
As Singletree Dairies had such a big herd, it was not having to share winter grazing blocks with other dairy farmers.
‘‘With Mycoplasma bovis people are more aware of the importance of recording animal movements, whereas in the past it was probably viewed as compliance,’’ said Grayling, who won the national Young Farmer of the Year in 2011.
While his cows were only moving to winter grazing, the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak meant there was a lot more angst among people moving dairy farms.
‘‘One of our managers is moving to a sharemilking role on June 1 and has had to purchase cows from different herds and check their animal health status. It’s a big investment and a lot bigger thing for him to deal with than us just walking cows around the district.’’
MPI said it was important to note movements had been taking place throughout May and would continue for some weeks.