Milk production soars for the Sparks

Press, 26 October 1984, Page 23

Milk production soars for the Sparks

Installation of irrigation and a return to generally milder and wetter growing conditions have given the Rangiora town milk supply brothers, John, Bob and Richard Spark, confidence that a few more production, records will fall this year. •Production records, obviously of interest to the highly-geared Rossbum Friesian Stud, were few and ■far between during the drought years of 1981-82 and 1982-83. “It has taken a full 12 months to recover,” said Bob Spark last week. “I wouldn’t like to see our cows go through that drought stress again,” he said. Having just sent 6100 litres, for 24 hours production, away in the Canterbury Dairy Farmers Ltd tanker that morning, the Spark brothers were in a mood to look confidently ahead to excellent results from the town milk production team effort for 1983-84. The enterprise has regularly bettered 1.2 million litres for 12 months production during the last few years and more than 1.4 million litres seems a realistic target this year. The Spark’s herd was also the first in the South Island, with more than 200 cows, to average better than 5001bs (227kgs) of milk fat for a year’s production. The peak on this scale has been 238 kg average just before the last drought. Last year production

slipped to 223 kg, a clear reflection of the drought. Nevertheless the herd was the highest in the South Island under test lor over 250 cows. Some 285 cows are presently giving 22 litres a day each, on average, with a fat content of 0.96 kg per cow. At 2028 litres a day of town milk quota, the Spark brothers are one of C.D.F.’s largest quota suppliers. At 6000 litres a day production, the Sparks are also obviously big non-quota suppliers at this time of the year. So Bob Spark, as deputy chairman of C.D.F., has a strong personal stake in the success of the milk company’s initiatives with diversified products. He looks forward to the day, as no doubt do all other suppliers and directors, when C.D.F. will be able to pay for increasing amounts of non-quota milk at a price in excess of that paid for surplus production. The static and gradually aging population of Christchurch means that extra quota is not likely to come the way of any C.D.F. suppliers unless white milk consumption is substantially boosted or more suppliers leave the industry. The Sparks had a peak quota a few years back of 2305 litres a day, some fifteen times the original quota taken up by the brothers’ father in the 19405. Quota was expanded by large non-quota production. The present partnership

was formed in 1965 when the land area owfied was 43ha on Boys Rd, Rangiora, and a further 40ha run-off at Ashley. “I suppose we could have been content to stay still,” said John Spark, “but there was no challenge in that.” They have bought seven or eight separate titles (all at one time separate dairy farms) and now Rossburn has 195 ha at Rangi ora and 80ha at Ashley. Cow numbers have consequently expanded to the present 300 and the herringbone shed built in 1964 with 11 bales each side now 17 each side.

Even with the larger shed, milking can take up to three hours. Faced with the requirement to do that twice a day every day in the year, it is not surprising that the Sparks share the task between themselves, the married, man and the farm workers on the property. The 300-cow herd, in effect, supports four families and one or two single workers.

The high labour requirement must come about, in part, to the philosophy of growing all pasture, conserved and supplementary feed on the property and to the outside interests each of the brothers has. Bob’s involvement with C.D.F. also includes chairmanship of C.D.F. Milk Station Ltd and being chairman of the Plains Dairy Company, the joint-venture milk power company between C.D.F. and Tai Tapu Dairy Company. He has also been active in Rangiora community affairs for many years.

John Spark represented the brothers’ interests in vintage farm machinery when he was president last year of the Case and Vintage Farm Machinery Club, a thriving concern which is often a star attraction at country fairs and shows. Richard is the secretary of the Woodend and districts branch of North Canterbury Federated Farmers and attends the dairy section executive. A fourth brother, Harold, owns a menswear shop in High St, Rangiora. Back on the farm, a high priority is fodder conservation during the spring and summer so that the herd can be kept producing the daily quota throughout the bleak winter months.

The Sparks have invested a lot of time and effort into finding, and applying, the most suitable supplementary feeding methods. They haye settled on a huge concrete pad, 30 metres by 40 metres, which is the floor of a silage silo. Every year 1500 tonnes of silage are taken with the partnership’s own cut and carry ' equipment and packed into a stack about two metres high. During the winter months up to 220 cows can spend from mid afternoon to mid morning on the pad, eating their way along the exposed 30-metre ends, or sleeping in the large “loafing shed” or the equally large cubicle shed. The loafing shed can accommodate 120 cows at night but there is always a big clean-up job with shovels in the morning. The cubicle shed has 104 raised stalls, where , most cows seem to like sleeping, and two wide races which can be shovelled with a frontend loader. The open pad is also cleaned with the frontend loader and all the proceeds are taken in a six and

a half tonne capacity manure spreader out into, the fields. The Sperry New Holland spreader is a specialised imported machine which does a great job in scattering manure on to grass paddocks until about the end of July (which are then spelled six or eight weeks until spring) or to workedup paddocks during August. The manure coating for barley paddocks really helps the crops along, say the Sparks, contributing to the 80 or 90 tonnes of barley harvested each year and stored in silos before being ground and fed as a supplement to the cows in the depths of winter. Some 20,000 bales of hay and straw are still made each year, down from a peak of 27,000 bales before silage grew in importance, and with the area of silage cut each year the flail mowers get well used. The Sparks bought a Wilder flail mower 15 years ago and although it is still going, the abrasion of pasture from countless acres has actually worn holes in the casing. But the Wilder machine gave such good service, said John Spark, that they bought another one, new, but exactly the same model.

Respect for a well-de-signed piece of agricultural machinery is obviously one of the factors in the brothers’ passion for vintage machinery and restoration. Over 50 old tractors, crawlers, headers, balers etc. now sit silent in rows under lean-tos, restored and unrestored.

Mr Fred Brown, of Rangiora, a workshop man employed by the Sparks, has any amount of restoration work ahead of him when he is not working on the pre-sent-day machinery. The farm has a workshop and spare parts store, both new and used, which would put a big-city motor dealer to shame. One of the most interesting machines is an Allis Chalmers Crawler model W.K.0., which is an oil ignition diesel and one of 12 imported by Andrews and beaven in the late 19305.

Richard Spark is also building up a collection of old household and machinery items and is gradually expanding into a museum. The competitive urge in the Spark brothers has been channelled into milk pro-

duction records and machinery collection and restoration and they have not been tempted into the show ring with their Friesians. But obviously they put a lot of thought and effort into herd selection, always trying to boost per cow production. Artificial breeding has been extensively used in the last 20 years but now one or two of their own very proven bulls are used selectively in the herd. One fellow is out of a cow which averaged more than 8000 litres of milk annually for eight years and another is from a cow which did more than 454kgs of milk fat in a year. Heifers from both these bulls are coming

into the herd and performing very well. Richard Spark, who has oversight of the breeding and calf rearing, said that emphasis on improving production through breeding was important but that good feeding of cows far outweighed any production effect of breeding. “We endeavour not to pinch the cows for feed at any time during the year,” he said when talking about the test results of the herd. Some cows still doing better than 20 litres a day after calving in January were evidence of this. The pasture production boost given by irrigation is the big challenge for the

brothers in the future. Two pumping stations supplying tow lines which can cover half the property and drawing out of creeks have been installed in recent years.

It has been six or seven years since the Sparks expanded their land holdings and nearly that long since the herringbone was extended. An obvious question was whether a massive rotary milking platform would be the next big expansion? Bob Spark replied that while the family’s present partnership worked very well it might not be very wise, to commit future generations to a similar-sized enterprise by building a large and extensive rotary.