Like all farms, there are periods of the year when we are run off our feet, with things happening all at once and other times when work is a bit more monotonous. However, there is always something happening.

For more information on farm activites, click on the "what's happening now?" link

For many years, our business used solely family members for labour. However in recent times, we have employed staff to perform various functions. This has arisen out of the realisation that we just cannot do it all ourselves. Our own family dynamics have changed (parents retired out of the business, the birth & raising of children which reduces Sam's time in the business) and the development of other related interests have developed (such as Mark participating on dairy industry review committees). In addition to the staff that we directly employ, we also try to use industry representatives to our full advantage. We believe that it is important to keep everyone that is having an input into our business abreast of the issues that we are dealing with (as they affect them) and we find that this results in us getting better and more tailored services and products.

For more information about our staff, click on the "staff" link.

The cows are the backbone of this business. Obviously, without them, we are not in the business of dairy farming. We go to great pains to ensure the health and welfare of each and every animal on the farm, from before they are born to the day they either die, or leave our farm. There are fantastic records kept on individual animals going back many many years, and as a direct result, we have been able to register a number of animals quite quickly using the HFAA registration system. We have identified some clear goals that we want to acheive with our cow breeding and together with representatives from ABS and BOS Trading, we have been steadily moving towards acheiving them. Of course, the goal posts are always moving and we need to constantly keep up to date with genetic improvements within the industry.

For more information about our livestock, click on the "cows"  and "calves" link.

Like many farms, our old dairy shed was not conducive to growing our buisness. It was taking around 7 hours a day to just milk cows and then there was all the other work that had to be done. The whole system needed a huge overhaul. So in 1993 we installed a 44 bale rotary platform with automatic animal identification (Westfalia). At the time, this was quite a technological leap forward, and as a result, we hosted many farm tours from other likeminded dairy farmers. Since then, much has changed. Mark says that if his grandfather were alive today, he would not recognise the farm. It has changed that much.

For more details on the technology we use on the farm, click on the "technology" link.

Making sure that the cows milk to their capacity and are in condition to calve, to get back in calf and to maintain themselves is an important job. One of our goals is to create cow longevity within the herd. This means that they must be able to do what it is that we are asking them to do. As such, a lot of emphasis (and money!) is spent on getting the nutrition side of things right. We work closely with nutritionists, agronomists, veterinarians, external suppliers of hay and others to make sure that we are getting it right - both on our own farm and with the product we buy in. Nutrition is one of the largest cost areas of the business, and the recent drought has definately impacted dramatically in this area.

For more details on nutrition, click on the "nutrition" link.