High-tech dairy farm ticked off bucket list

At the top of Graham Bagrie’s bucket list was a new dairy shed and he’s done it in style: an estimated $1.7 million state-of-the-art dairy complex. 

To call it a shed is wrong because apart from the 54-bail rotary platform with all the mod cons, there is a small separate herringbone dairy shed as part of  the complex. This is designed so AB technicians or vets can work with cows without interfering with the milking platform.

The other week Bagrie invited all the contractors and suppliers he deals with to see the shed in its pristine state. They wandered through the shed munching sausage rolls or sandwiches, looking at the array of technology. But more than the technology, it was the design of the complex that drew gasps of amazement.  

Bagrie formerly milked his 580 cows – 40% straight Jersey, 60% Friesian – in a basic 26-a-side herringbone shed near his house. He says having the cowshed near the house was fine when he had young children, but now having the shed that close to home was intrusive – especially at weekends. “It was a case of move the shed or move me and so I decided to build the new shed a long way from the house,” he says.

As well as dairy farming, Bagrie runs a large contracting business on the same site on the road to Waitarere Beach, north of Levin. He employs up to 50 people in this business and still does about 1000 hours year himself on machines. But the dairy farm and the contracting business are run as separate entities. He also runs about 300 beef animals on a 200ha run-off.

Bagrie’s reason for building the new high-spec shed was because he always wanted to – arguably not a great reason he admits.

“I always like a challenge in my life and have been around a lot of sheds as a contractor. When I looked around sheds it was not all about what was right or wrong but personal preference and in my case functionality. Then there’s providing a good work environment for staff and what looks right. I like a bit of elbow room and so I wanted it to be roomy with a nice staff room and an elevated office that overlooks the whole operation for the herd manager. After all the dairy shed is the hub of our operation.”

Bagrie says his great interest was in the design; one idea was to have an integrated veterinarian and AB set-up. This was to prevent any animal remedies contaminating the milk. The small herringbone shed was designed to make it easier for AB technicians and was linked to the new system of heat detection installed.

“One of the problems with heat detection is you must have somebody continually watching the cows and there is a risk of missing one or two that are on heat. We have installed a camera to do this job and it doesn’t get tired and have a day off. It picks up the heat patches or tail paint and automatically drafts the cows to a separate pen. 

“The thing about this is that it over-drafts. For example, if there is manure on a heat patch the cow will be drafted out or if a patch is only just broken it will do the same. By doing this it enables the herd manager to make the final decision so it’s a good combination of technology and human decision making.”

The newly designed shed is intended to be run by one person. The latest in technology from DeLaval includes automatic cup removers and automatic feeding systems, some of which still has to be installed. LIC technology with links to Minda are part of the design.

 Also fascinating the 200 or so people at the open day was the underpass into the centre of the rotary. This makes it easier and safer for his staff and contractors to service the shed.

Environmental issues are a big priority for Bagrie; his system meets special local conditions and link in with his contracting business.

“Normally you try to clean out the stone traps with a tractor and front loader, but because we have a fleet of excavators I have made it so that I can clean it with an excavator. The stone trap is large so it won’t need cleaning as often and in our case we have a lot of issues with sand. So it’s more to trap sand than stones,” he says.

A big benefit for the 580 cows that produce about 210,000kgMS is that the new shed is 500m closer to their pastures so their walking time will be much reduced. The farm, a mix of sandy and peat soils, can dry out badly in summer, so maize silage grown on the farm and PKE are used to keep the cows milking.

Minister opens dairy shed

Not too many farmers can persuade the Minister for Primary Industries to come along and open their new dairy shed. But Nathan Guy, himself a dairy farmer, is but a few kilometres away.

So the minister duly turned up on a fine day – when Wellington and the Kapiti Coast were under siege from floodwaters – and unveiled a gold plaque in the new shed.

“This complex has some of the best technology available in NZ and we have an opportunity to showcase this technology and export it to the world,” Guy said. “Many countries are interested in what we do here and we have an opportunity to grow our exports of agritech and IT.  If we don’t do that, other countries like Australia or Holland will.”

Guy says he’s impressed that Graham Bagrie paid so much attention to making the complex people friendly. He says by 2025 the country will need 50,000 more workers in the primary sector and to reach that number our farming facilities must be good.

“It’s easier to attract staff if you have a modern facility. The dairy industry needs to attract the people with higher skills and facilities such as this will help people make a career choice in agriculture.”