Buildings, what buildings?

As I have driven around New Zealand looking over fences and meeting with farmers, I have been struck by the complete lack of farm buildings, even far into South Island. On sheep farms there is usually one building - the shearing shed. On beef and deer farms there are no buildings at all (except the farmhouse), and on dairy units there is generally only an open-sided milking parlour.

The only other significant construction on beef and sheep units is a handling system with a raised single file loading ramp, similar to others I have seen in the US and Canada. Having watched these systems in action it’s clear that the flow of animals is very much more controlled than when using full width loading ramps. Baulking is reduced and turning eliminated. It makes me wonder why we in the UK are wedded to our full width ramps, which give animals the opportunity to turn and make loading difficult.

There have been moves in the New Zealand dairy industry to introduce winter housing, but this is regarded by many as a dangerous precedent. The argument goes along the lines that housing farm animals is not natural and could ruin the green image of New Zealand livestock products. Farmers over there point out that they have spent many years breeding cattle and sheep that are genetically ‘designed’ to cope with such a life, and buildings represent an unnecessary cost. I met with one pedigree cattle and sheep breeder who intentionally uses his harder hill paddocks to help weed out the weaker animals.

This method, which could be termed genetic selection by environmental challenge, is quite different from the approach we take in the UK. It does, however, align with certain messages that EBLEX has been highlighting in literature and at meetings. Breeding sheep and cattle that can look after themselves in a given system is a valuable way of reducing costs and improving welfare. Animals that need less husbandry make commercial sense. Vigour and survivability are valued traits in New Zealand. Several breeders I have spoken to expect shearlings to mate 100 ewes as a minimum - anything less is unacceptable.

My other observation on New Zealand buildings is that houses and motels are not really designed with winter in mind. We stayed in one motel when the outside temperature was -2 degrees (inside +2 degrees). As usual we turned up the heating, expecting to get to a comfortable temperature after 30 minutes or so. Motel heating usually consists of just a small fan heater - upmarket motels have two fan heaters. On this occasion, the heaters were not up to the task, so with bedtime approaching the only option was to go to bed pretty much fully clothed with the exception of my shoes. Perhaps the motel owners were on a carbon efficiency drive.