'Benefits' in winter cow sheds

BY MARK HOTTON

Hundreds of Southland dairy cows spent the winter indoors, with one farmer a strong advocate of its benefits to the land, the cows and the industry.

The housing of cows indoors has been a contentious issue this week because of an application by three companies to build 16 dairy farms in the Mackenzie Basin, where about 18,000 cows would be housed in cubicle stalls for about eight months each year.

There are believed to be more than 20 wintering sheds on Southland dairy farms.

Heddon Bush dairy farmer Abe de Wolde runs a 2700-cow operation among four farms and winters 900 cows in two large sheds.

The cows are inside for about 10 weeks during winter to prevent pasture damage but are not confined to cubicles.

He plans to build sheds on the other farms when finances allow.

Mr de Wolde built the first of the two $750,000 sheds in 2005 and believes it produces healthier, more productive cows and is better for the environment.

It prevented soil damage from compaction, improved animal health because cows did not stand in muddy paddocks, and lifted productivity because they could be milked for 305 days a year, instead of the 250-day Southland average.

While Mr de Wolde would not be drawn on the Mackenzie Basin proposal, he was adamant his system had a place in the industry.

"My personal passion is to see a healthy dairy industry co-exist with a healthy environment in Southland, and this is part of it."

"When it is a sleety, muddy sort of day that you don't want to go out in, you don't have to be a brain surgeon to work out these animals are not the most comfortable creatures in the winter."

VetSouth director Mark Bryan has studied the indoor system and believes the research showed the sheds made cows more comfortable

Indoor housing for cows was a positive step forward in Southland, where the weather could be "quite crappy", Mr Bryan said.

"From a wintering point of view we haven't seen any major negatives for cows housed in the winter. Health and welfare has been very positive, so we don't really see any issues," he said.

Environment Southland consents manager John Engel said there were recognised benefits to wintering systems such as Mr de Wolde's.

Keeping herds off the land when paddocks were wet reduced the chance of soil compaction and pugging, he said.

The cows also ate less, reducing the amount of effluent discharged, Mr Engel said.

Federated Farmers Southland dairy chairman Vaughan Templeton said there was a good argument that having cows wintered in large sheds was beneficial because it produced less nitrate in winter.

"By storing that, you can apply it back to the land at the right time and get very good use of the nitrate by the grass."

He had visited many indoor systems in Europe and believes they have benefits.

"It's different. It's not better or worse, it's just a different way of doing things."

Feed wastage has declined with only 2 per cent of feed wasted, compared with 53 per cent from crop feeds. Somatic cell counts have also dropped – high levels can indicate udder infection.

- © Fairfax NZ News