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Dairy farm operated the New Zealand way
A group of agriculture students at Fort Scott Community College got a close-up look at overseas farming production practices on Tuesday.
About 40 students and other FSCC officials boarded a bus early Tuesday morning to tour the Frontier Dairy Farm near Nevada, Mo., to learn about agriculture from an international view and some of the techniques and farming equipment available in other parts of the world.
FSCC President Jim Miesner and incoming president Clayton Tatro made the trip with students. Wayne Pruitt, a research and extension specialist in Nevada, Mo., spoke to students about the benefits available to the dairy farming industry.
"It's wise to learn business practices from New Zealand because of possible cost savings," Pruitt said. "Milk prices are very good in this area. There are many opportunities for these practices in the U.S."
Students were also able to meet and visit with Chris Kempson and Trevor Barfoote, two dairy farmers from New Zealand who talked to students about how they are operating the transformed dairy farm in Missouri much like it's done in their homeland, a country of two islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Both men are from the upper north island of New Zealand.
Barfoote said New Zealand typically receives much more precipitation than the Midwestern U.S.
"It's slightly more tropical -- it's quite dry (here)," he said, comparing the two climates. "We get a lot more rain than here."
FSCC agriculture instructor Ryan Edgecomb said the owners of the farm, when they arrived last year, killed all of the existing grass on the farm with chemicals, then replanted rye grass -- a type of tufted grass that is related to fescue -- on the 50-acre farm.
While Barfoote is only working on the farm temporarily, Kempson, who has been in the U.S. since January, is working with FSCC to help benefit agriculture students. The FSCC Agriculture Department is partnering with the University of Missouri to provide Kempson with a working Visa that will allow him to work in the United States for three years, at which time his visa can be renewed.
One of the requirements of Kempson's visa stipulates that Kempson will perform and offer adjunct work at FSCC while he is visiting, such as tours, guest lectures and possible internships for students, Edgecomb said.
The opportunity students received to tour the dairy farm provided them with a valuable educational experience, Edgecomb said in a statement.
"There are not too many of these (dairy farms) around, and to partner with the college -- we're pretty excited," Edgecomb said Tuesday.
Kempson has been in the area since January, but this is the first time FSCC students were able to meet him, listen to his lecture, and view the special farming equipment that he brought from New Zealand. The dairy farm in Nevada is being operated with the goal of trying to minimize production costs, rather than trying to maximize milk production per cow as U.S. dairy farmers do with other similar systems.
"We can't control how much we turn over, but we can manage costs," Barfoote said. "What we're focused on is profit. New Zealand produces the cheapest milk in the world, but it's a different pay system."
Cows on the farm eat an all-grass diet, much different than the grain-fed diet that cows in the U.S. are exposed to. Farmers monitor grass growth so the pastures can then be "flash grazed," a very limited schedule where cows graze briefly in a limited area for a short period of time.
Barfoote said that the herd of cattle consists of about 600 cows on a 560 acre farm. A water-driven system of machines is used to obtain milk from the cows. Two full-time employees handle all of the cows on the farm, which has about 100 paddocks, or small patches of pasture land.
Barfoote also talked to students about irrigation practices used on the farm. Many different types of grasses can be grown on the farm, and most are available in this area, Barfoote said.
Students on the trip also realize how information the tour provided could be valuable to their potential careers in the agriculture industry.
"To see how well they utilize their grazing system," Luke Kagarice, an animal science major at FSCC, said. "I'm amazed at how they cut costs, it's pretty scientific too."
Kagarice said he will most likely work in a beef operation system after college rather than a dairy system, and that the Tuesday tour was very worthwhile to anyone who is interested in the agriculture industry.
"You can apply this to any beef farm," he said. "You could profit quite a bit more."
Dana Kramer, an agriculture major at FSCC, said she heard about the trip through a dairy and poultry science class in which she is currently enrolled. Kramer, who said she will also most likely pursue a career in animal science, said she was impressed by the effectiveness and productiveness of the farm's operation.
"How they're able to lower their costs and still get their cows to produce at a maximum," Kramer said. "To be that financially efficient and use your resources so wisely."
Kramer agreed with Kagarice in that knowledge obtained from the tour will be helpful for farmers both now and in the future.
"It's a really neat farm, to see how they've turned it around and done a nice job with it, especially from what it was 30 years ago," Kramer said.