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OPS Dairies Ltd

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OPS Dairies Ltd

50:50 Sharemilking 900 Cows in Valetta, Mid Canterbury.

13/08/2026

A little bit of magic over the farm this morning 🌈✨

One of those moments that makes you stop and appreciate where we get to work every day. ❤️

29/07/2026

Calving is well underway at OPS Dairies! 🐄🐮

✔️ 220 cows calved so far.
✔️ Just 12 heifers left to calve on-farm, with a handful of later calvers returning from grazing on 3 August.

Our heifers are settling into the milking routine really well—no naughty girls so far! 🙌

The cows are starting to come in hot now, and our second mob of springers will arrive home on 4 August.

We're currently milking once a day (OAD), with plans to split the herd into young cows, mixed-age cows, and OADs over the coming week. It's great to see the cows transitioning smoothly from springer to colostrum to the milking herd, with rumination levels sitting right where we want them. Our focus remains on feeding the colostrum cows well to give both them the best start.

Behind the scenes, the team is working together to grow big, healthy calves and keep everything running smoothly. 💪

And of course... shed snacks and hearty lunches are back to keep everyone fuelled through the busy calving season! 🍪🥪☕

29/05/2026

Dry-off has been in full swing over the past couple of weeks, and today marked the last milk in the vat for the season. 🥛✅

Teamwork really does make the dream work. It's great to look around and see everyone pitching in, helping each other out, and making a big job far more enjoyable. The well-oiled machine we've built here at OPS Dairies is something we're incredibly proud of.

A huge thank you to the team for the effort, commitment, and laughs along the way. Now it's time to enjoy a break from milking moos and shift our focus to setting ourselves up for another great season ahead. 🐄

Well done team! 👏

09/04/2026

Farm Update 🐄

We’ve been running a lighter team in the shed recently, with two of our boys away in the Philippines visiting family for five weeks each. Lucky to have taken on Chanel as a milker to help cover the shortfall.

We’ve had our shed audit and are glad to have passed and have that out of the way until next time. Our heifers have also been teat sealed by Paddock Vets as we start to wind things down heading toward May.

A bit disappointed with our Johne’s results this round, with an increase in positive numbers compared to the last couple of years—something we’ll keep working through and managing closely.

We’re slowly pushing the round out and throwing in a bit of grass silage. Milk production is slowing slightly but still sitting within 1% of last year’s numbers.

We’ve also had a few irrigation pump issues, but thankfully the rain has kept demand low. And we had a friendly surprise visitor with a hot air balloon dropping in on farm!

07/03/2026

Busy month on farm here at OPS 🐄🌱

We’ve added some extra water troughs around the farm, which the girls have definitely been appreciating on the warmer days.

Pregnancy scanning is done and dusted and we’re pleased with the results — a slight improvement on last season. We also completed a herd test this month to see how everyone’s tracking.

The yards have been busy with weighing and drenching young stock, and the team have been working well to keep things ticking along.

The weather’s been a bit up and down. Colder days through the week have slowed grass growth slightly, but we’re still grazing on a 23-day round and will look to push that out over the coming weeks.

The cows are milking well at 2.05 MS/cow, although we’re still sitting about 1% down on production, with slow gains over the last few months.

While I was away at a Dairy Women’s leadership forum, Blake was holding down the fort solo parenting the boys. To make herd test morning easier they set up the rooftop tent and had a sleepover on the tanker loop — not a bad spot for it.

19/01/2026

🌱 Ops Dairies – Summer Update 🌱

The last couple of months have been a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise — off and on 🌦️
Great for farming… not so great for summer holidays 😅

That said, we’ve been lucky to get everyone some well-earned time off farm to enjoy family time over the break.

Pasture growth has been steady and the cows have consistently had plenty of grass in front of them. All calves are now off farm and the whole platform is back in the round. Considering we lost our mower earlier on, pasture quality has held up really well and is now looking very good 🌾
This past week has been a bit average with the weather, meaning we’ve had to offer cows more area during the wetter periods. Growth rates dipped to around 60kg DM/ha, with an average cover sitting at 2385.

Production has held strong through December and January 💪
We’re currently sitting at 2.21 MS/cow and are now only 1% behind last season, making solid gains on catching last year’s production.
We’ve had a few early scans done in December with solid results and slight improvements on last season 🤞 Final results will come through after the full scan in February.

Mastitis has been a challenge at times, with small waves popping up after weather events, but the team has been onto it early and doing a great job finding and treating cases quickly 👏

At this time of year the focus is on maintaining pasture quality, hitting residuals, keeping a close eye on pre-grazing covers, and making sure cows are fully fed to hold production. We’re also ticking off odd jobs on farm while staff take extended leave before autumn rolls around.

We did have a few curveballs over Christmas with irrigation pump issues and a mainline burst 😬 — never a quiet moment!

To top it off, we wrapped up early December with a great staff Christmas party at the Christchurch races 🏇🍻
Good food, a few bets on the horses, and plenty of laughs — well deserved after a big year.

Onwards into the rest of summer 🌞🐄

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