Talking Dairy
Talking Dairy is your go-to podcast for New Zealand dairy farmers. You'll hear from farmers, scientists, and experts who share practical tips and insights to help you succeed. It's all about giving you the tools and knowledge to make the best decisions for your farm. Brought to you by DairyNZ, we help farmers lead the world in sustainable dairying by investing in research, new solutions and advocacy. Follow now and stay informed with the latest episodes.
Talking Dairy
In 10: Small changes that can get hours back in your week
Every minute in the farm dairy counts. Research shows the right milking routine can save you hours every week. In this episode of Talking Dairy in 10, host Jac McGowan chats with Dairy Training tutors Julie Morgan and Pete Morgan about how small changes at milking can make a big difference.
They explain how the free MilkSmart workshop can help you fine-tune your milking routine using proven DairyNZ science including MaxT, which can shave minutes off every milking, and in some cases over three hours per week.
If you’d like to know how you could get time back in your day, tune in to hear more and then check out Dairy Training to find a MilkSmart workshop near you.
About Dairy Training
Dairy Training is a subsidiary of DairyNZ and registered NZQA provider. With funding from the Tertiary Education Commission and support from DairyNZ, it delivers free training to help farmers build capability.
Courses are expertly designed, teaching practical skills farmers can use immediately. Dairy Training also delivers popular DairyNZ-designed workshops such as MilkSmart and CalvingSmart
Check out dairytraining.co.nz to find courses and workshops available near you.
Have feedback or ideas for future episodes? Email us at talkingdairy@dairynz.co.nz
Stay up to date with advice, latest research, tools and resources. Read, browse, scroll, listen, or be there in person. Visit dairynz.co.nz/get-connected
Kiora and welcome to Talking Dairy in 10. I'm your host Jack McGowan from DairyNZ. Today we're talking about time because every minute in the farm dairy counts. Milk Smart workshops show you how small changes at milking could save you hours every week. Joining me are Julie Morgan and Pete Morgan from Dairy Training to explain more. Let's get into it. Tienakuru, Julie and Pete. Welcome along. Let's start with quick intros, and Julie, I'll give you the floor first.
SPEAKER_01:Hi Jack, thanks for that. So I'm Julie Morgan. I'm based down in Taranaki, born and bred dairy farmer, now um working for the Wonderful Dairy Training. Going out on the road shortly with Pete, who I'm not related to. So we'll get that out for the start. Yeah, so really looking forward to getting out and meeting people out on the road. And how about you, Pete?
SPEAKER_02:So my name's Pete Morgan. I um dairy farm just south of Talmudu. Built 500 cows, got an awesome young team on the farm, and an important part of my life is uh like Julie being involved with dairy training. It keeps me connected with what's happening in the industry, all the latest work from Dairy and Z, but most importantly, with just this great, rich range of farmers' different stages of life and interests and um and the range of topics that uh DairyNZ covers.
SPEAKER_00:You've both mentioned dairy training. Would one of you like to tell us what dairy training is?
SPEAKER_02:Sure, I'll have a crack. Dairy training is a teaching arm of DairyNZ. The idea of Eurotraining is just to provide practical, easy-to-access training to dairy farmers on topics that have been supported by DairyNZ science, uh the best of the industry, contemporary information, and taught often by farmers like Julie and I, who are boots on the ground. A range of courses, feeding, profitability, business, a really cool leadership course, contract milking and farm environment planning. And the range of courses is evolving over time.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. One of the events we're talking about today is Milk Smart. What's that all about, Julie?
SPEAKER_01:So, Milk Smart, well, for once, it's a free course. You don't usually get often free courses. So it's going to be a fun and interactive workshop where you'll learn some really cool ideas and tools so that you can start to making milking more efficient and fun for all the team. The focus of the MilkSmart is to improve milking efficiency. And by just making some small changes, farmers have seen significant gain in performance, quality, and profability. This leads to, as I said before, better outcomes not just for the people, but for the cows and farm profitability. Milk smart strategies enhance milking performance for both the herringbone and rotary dairy. So it's not just for the herringbone, it's for how we can improve with our rotaries as well.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, Julie. And Pete, why is milking efficiency such a big deal?
SPEAKER_02:On the obvious level, milking efficiency is linked to just the amount of time in the shed. And we all know that it's the core function that we have in dairy farming, the time we spend there milking cows, checking them, managing them. But the overall efficiency, of course, is about what we actually get for that time. And to not just streamline the time. There are a whole lot of other features that I'm Julie mentioned. So having the cows flow through quickly, spending less time in there, less time with cups on means it's far better for them. They're the cows' own confidence in being there, less impact on others, and more time for actually observation as well. So you're picking up cows with any issues, uh drafting for mating and other things. And a whole range of interest level that we'll see lifted and as Julie said, fun in the shed. There should be far more stimulating rather than sort of enduring milkings. We've noticed, I've did the course years ago, our staff, we put through it every year, and I'm always amazed they come out of it. Just this whole new zest of life for the cow shed, rather than enduring and milking the far more engaged and interested. As farmers, we're pretty competitive, so just shaving a few minutes off each milking and then finding it adds up to sort of well, we took 45 minutes off being more efficient and using max tea.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so it sounds like milking efficiency can save time for both cows and people and free up time elsewhere on the farm, but also make milking a bit more fun and and allow for, you know, a bit more observation as well. That sounds really good. Julie, can you give us an example of how much time? I mean, Pete's already given us one example, but I'm sure you can give us more. How much time can be saved by applying these milk smart principles?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so as we know, Jack, time is money, right? And all of us farmers want to be saving money one way or the other. So just by making some small changes, we can achieve that. So the average herd in New Zealand, this is the last stats that come out, is about 448 cows. So if we can save two seconds per cow, then we can save 15 minutes per milking. So that adds up 30 minutes a day, up to three and a half hours per week, which is a lot of time we can be doing things outside of the shed, whether that be recreational, taking the boat out, spending time with the kids, or getting some more work done on the farm.
SPEAKER_00:Can you give us some examples, Julie, of what are the principles of Milk Smart or what might people do?
SPEAKER_01:So there's things like the way we use a backing gate, where we position ourselves in the shed, what our machines are set at. Just some simple things like that can make big changes to the whole milking time.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and I know that one of the things is MAXT, and that will be covered in the workshops. Pete, what is MAXT and how does it help save time?
SPEAKER_02:MAXT is a great concept that Dairy and Z came up with. It is an approach to understanding in your unique shed, number of cows, number of rows, the way the milk flows, what is the optimum time that cups should actually be on a cow? And doing some very solid research and lots of farmer experience, right against what was traditional, whereas you would leave the cups on until the milk absolutely stopped, thinking that would cause all sorts of problems. We've realized that leaving some milk in there has no impact at all on the cow, on mastitis, cell count, or productivity. So MAX T at the heart is how we define the exact amount of time that cows as a maximum should have the cups on. And the idea of milking faster without changing production, without changing the shared infrastructure, no impact on animal health. It's a fixed time, or if you work on when milk flow drops to a certain level, based on some very simple calculations. And the DNZ website's got some great tables on it, and we walk them through it, the real workings of it in the workshops to be at the heart of actually streamlining the whole milking operation.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we adopted Max T ourselves many years ago when I was milking. And aside from the time saving, I just recall the pressure that came off when we were milking at the right speed and how much more relaxed I was in the shed.
SPEAKER_01:Takes a lot of the thinking out of it. Is she milked out? Is she not milked out? Yes, she is. Time's up. Yeah, just a flow.
SPEAKER_02:It's a real stress, and you're always second guessing yourself when you're trying to make the assessment and leaning on cups and doing all those little things.
SPEAKER_01:There's no more leaning.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, not at all.
SPEAKER_00:I'd forgotten about that.
SPEAKER_02:And for our staff, just that feeling of being more effective and productive, that level of interest in there. And as you said, Jack, just relaxing during milking and through that become more observant. The cup changing technique can be concentrated on, so you have less repetitive strains on things. And so rather than enduring milkings, they they become just sort of this cool key part of the day where you get to engage and do your thing.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, Julie, what can I expect if I come to a Milk Smart workshop?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so as I said, they're free. So taking that out makes it more accessible. So I can keep my wallet in my pocket. Yes, you can. So these sessions are great for a whole team to come to. Because we want everybody on board and be part of the decision making. That's what's happening on farm. Because if you don't, one person can stuff it up for everybody. Cows are easier to change routines than people are. So we're giving some ideas and some skills to the people to help with that change. We're going to look at three main areas where improvements can be made. And this can be cow behaviour, people's skills and behaviour, and the milking plant or the infrastructure of the shed.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and finally, Pete, where can I find out about the Milksmart workshops?
SPEAKER_02:The best place to find out about the MilkSmart workshops in your area is go straight to the dairy training website. You'll be able to register there, find out the dates, and remember it's free. As Julie said, bring your whole team along.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so workshops are happening this summer. How many? Where are they?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so we've got at this stage 20 workshops booked in. We start in early December, where we will be in the Upper South Island and then in Waikato. And then come February and March, Pete and I are on the road for five to six weeks, where we will be covering the rest of New Zealand. They start 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock, so you've got time to get the milking done in the morning and those early jobs, and then come up to the workshop. And you may even get a free lunch. So well worth coming, even if it's for the lunch.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much, Julie. And thank you both for joining us on this episode. If you would like to find out when and where the Milk Smart workshops are happening this summer, check out dairytraining.co.nz and we'll link to it in the show notes too. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Talking Dairy in 10. If you'd like to get connected with DairyNZ's latest advice, research, tools, and resources, whether it's reading, scrolling, listening, or in person, you can visit dairynz.co.nz forward slash get connected, and don't forget to hit follow to keep up to date with our latest episodes. As always, if you have any feedback on this podcast or have some ideas for future topics or guests, please email us at talkingdairy at dairynz.co.nz. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time on Talking Dairy.