Dairy farmers high in the Hunua ranges

Iain and Megan Lockwood run their family owned dairy farm high in the Hunua ranges 50 minutes from the center of Auckland.  As keen mountain bikers they are ideally located to the Hunua National Park and by working smart and having a pro-active attitude to animal health, Iain and Megan get to spend more time doing the things they enjoy!

A small herd by national standards Iain milks 150 cows and rears all his replacements as a one man (and better half) operation.  Emphasis is placed on increasing per cow production and implementing nutritional programs to sustain herd health.  Somatic cells and lameness have been kept in check by administering Aqua-Trace™ Hoof’n’Udder inline and they have noticed a correlation between water intake and somatic cell count.  Iain takes the view that what you put in you get back, commenting “Once they go dry I really concentrate on getting condition back on the cows.”   Pre-calving Iain feeds the springers as much hay as they want, he believes it has a two fold effect.  Firstly, providing the fibre needed for rumen stimulation and secondly, he finds that they drink more.  Since adding Nutritech’s Springer Cow Mineral Balancer™ to the hay, he rarely has a problem with downer cows, “Milk Fever just isn’t a problem here any more!”

All calves are kept and reared following Nutritech’s Calf Program which Megan finds quick and convenient: Newly born calves are given ImmuBoost™ on arrival as a precautionary measure to prevent scouring, if calves come in looking sick they are given StockADE™, a nutrient rich tonic.  The Lockwoods are extremely pleased with the system and say that  “none of it is time consuming- we can’t go around in circles as we don’t have additional labour!”  Even though this spring was wetter than usual they didn’t loose any calves, Megan jokes that the only draw back was getting penalized at the local Calf Club Day because the Judges didn’t believe that they are the same age as the others!  When asked if they will be using Nutritech products next year in view of the payouts they both replied  “Why would we change, we are extremely happy with the results?”