The university’s vice-chancellor, Dr Andrew West, told the South Island Dairy Event in Invercargill late last month that the move was part of a greater plan to increase the amount of farmland the university is involved with in terms of development, research and training.
It already had associated links with about 4000ha and was considering increasing that by about 1000ha.
The Northland College and St Peter’s Cambridge school farms (see page 32) are part of the plan.
West said the housing facility on the high-input, possibly five cows/ha unit, wouldn’t be used for 24/7 housing but as a means to manage pasture damage and nutrient loss.
The unit will have its own dairy and will be located on an irrigated area of Ashley Dene.
He expected it would have little difficulty reaching high profitability targets but meeting new, stringent environmental limits would be the challenge.
The robotic unit would be unirrigated and operated at a much lower stocking rate of about two cows/ha.
West expected it would cope with environmental limits but its challenge would be to develop systems that ensured it too would be profitable.
Both units were still in the early stages of planning and it’s likely they’ll involve sponsorships and farmer involvement.
West said the university was steering away from a cubicle housing approach on the dryland, high-input unit. The public had only just got chickens out of cages and he was interested to see what their attitude to the increasing number of freestall barns in New Zealand would be in the long run.
He would take himself out of the decision-making team when it came to selecting the housing system, given his interests as a director of HerdHomes Systems.
