I didn't drive there directly. I took a very out of the way route, for two reasons. Firstly because I wanted to see Lake Tekapo - I had heard it was a lake worth seeing, and secondly because I didn't think it would add three whole hours on to my journey. As photogenic lakes go, I have seen a few now. The ones on the Waitaki were as always, spectacular. As I drove past the crystal clear water, edged with trees of varying autumnal shades of rust, my trigger finger started twitching so I jumped out of the car and took a few snaps.
As I drove North the mountains got higher and snowier and at Lake Tekapo, the scene in front of me looked decidedly more wintery.
When I eventually got to Daniel's, the 'Roast of the Day' and a few handles of Speight's at the pub did the trick to pick me up from what turned out to be a five hour drive.
I was very jealous of the woodburner that was dominating his new accommodation. With a free supply of logs he can keep his house toasty, while here at mine, we have just one heater which savages the electricity bill. What was even more impressive was the cage around it, the previous occupants must have had kids, or maybe they kept large predators in it. To call the cage sturdy is a massive understatement, but at a guess I would say it was at least bear-proof.
The next morning I was taken on the tour of the farm, as is obligatory for anyone who goes to see someone who lives on a farm. It is pretty different to where I work, which is probably one of the steepest dairy farms in New Zealand. The main difference being it is pretty much completely flat. That is due its location on the flood plains of the very wide Rakaia River. Looking on Google maps the area looks pretty cool, and gives you an idea of the scale of the river. You can also see the obvious shapes of dairy farm paddocks, dictated by the pivot irrigation.
At Rakaia (off the map), the road and rail bridges that span the water are the longest in the country at 1.75 km (over a mile) in length.
Anyway back to the farm tour. Mounted on two-wheeler bikes we set off for a look around. The weather was disappointingly grey, and the country probably didn't look its finest.
Milking approx 580 cows (mostly small ginger ones), 'Dairy 2' is one of eight or nine dairies that make up a pretty large business of over 2000 ha (Canterbury Grasslands). These numbers and any more I include are partially guessed, I have slept numerous times and also drank alcohol since I was told them, so the accuracy may not be great.
The milking platform had a couple of big pivots on it, these roll over the fences, so the electric wire is kept pretty slack. This is very handy for crossing over a fence on the bikes, using the old 'boot holding the wire to the ground whilst the wheels go over' technique. This is a lot trickier to do on a quad bike, unless of course you are a lanky gymnast. Which I am not.
So I followed Daniel about the paddocks, keeping a safe distance away to avoid being sprayed with mud from his rear wheel which had a very inadequate mudguard.
Every now and then we would stop, and I would ask some interesting dairying questions, and then I would comment on how flat it was.
When I was visiting, about half the herd had been dried off, they were eating straw with their grass.
The other half still being milked (also 16 hourly), were getting palm kernel as a side dish. This is a supplement feedstuff that is quite popular in NZ. From what I gather, it is mostly fibre, and contains a fair bit of oil which helps keep milk fat up.
Here is a big shed of it, and then the cows digging in.
The milking shed did not look fun to milk in. Apparently because of the shorter stature of the Filipino workers that are pretty popular in the area, they had to raise the pit floor. Bashing your head on the pipes above became a real risk for those of us of normal height. There was also a ramp down too, I don't know, maybe for wheelchair access? It is a 50 a-side shed, which is getting quite long, at this size they usually bend them in a circle and call them a rotary.
A few thing stood out from this farm, not just the huge stones littered across the paddocks, but the way the pasture was grazed down to carpet length. With no silage, it is a pretty low input system, but the cows seemed happy enough.
The stand out feature of the place was the irrigation though, it can get very dry on the Canterbury Plains and this impressive set-up helps to combat that.
These huge pumps will be able to move a ridiculous amount of water.
There are two types of pivot irrigation used, this is one of the huge fixed pivots:
And this smaller pivot is dragged around by tractor and plugged into one of a number of hydrants in the paddock. It is also perfect to rub against to get those hard to reach itches!
Righto, that is all I have for you today. Keep reading!
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