Lean Dairying
Using the Lean business approach to successfully run a dairy farm.
Manawatu farming couple Mat and Jana Hocken are revolutionising the way many farmers – here in New Zealand and overseas – are running their businesses by introducing Lean thinking and management practices. With its origins at Toyota in the 1940s, Lean is based on simple common-sense principles. Jana worked at Toyota for almost 10 years before becoming a Lean consultant for the next 10 and has spent the past six years applying the Lean principles to their farming business in Colyton, near Feilding.
“Lean enables you to work smarter, not harder, and do more with less while achieving better results through more efficient processes and systems and the elimination of waste. Your time is spent only on value added activities and jobs,” says Jana. She adds the Lean approach has been embraced across a range of industries internationally – transport, mining, IT, defence, healthcare and the public sector – and in recent years by the agriculture sector.
Jana and Mat agree farming is different to making cars, and other sectors that have adopted Lean, but there are also a lot of similarities. “In farming there are a lot of variables that are not as easily controlled – weather, cow health, global stock markets, environmental changes – however, we also have many farm inputs, outputs and processes which we can control.” says Jana. “We have people, cows, materials, resources, equipment and machines – our business inputs – that work together to give us our ideal output – high quality milk at the lowest cost with zero safety incidents and minimal environmental impact.”
She says with farming being full of processes that repeat every season, month, week or day: calving, crop management, mating, dry off, feed out, milking, shifting cows – farms are perfect places to apply Lean methodologies.
“Lean helps to define our processes, optimise them by eliminating all waste (non-value-added components) and standardise these processes across our teams and farm so that everyone is using the one best way of doing something. Lean principles then help continually improve our processes so that we get better and more competitive every day.”
Jana says Lean can help with many of the key problems farmers face, such as improving production and quality results, reducing cell counts, improving cow health and reducing the likes of empty rates, while creating better maintenance systems to stop unexpected breakdowns, eliminating waste and permanently fixing problems, as well as creating more engaged, accountable teams – and ‘of course, saving our farms money’.
Using their farm, Grassmere Dairy, as a case study Jana has authored and published The Lean Dairy Farm. The book lays out how to apply Lean principles to farming, including how to create an on-farm culture that supports Lean thinking.
Sitting alongside the book is the leanfarm.nz website and Facebook page with both providing information about online learning and discussion opportunities that include a workshop programme, The Lean Farm School and The Lean Farmer Club. The Hockens’ farm website (link below) describes the Lean journey in detail.
Grassmere Dairy stocks 950 Friesian dairy cows, 500 young and replacement cows and 150 Friesian and Angus cross bulls. There are two dairy platforms with 130 and 153 hectares effective, each with a 50-bail automated rotary shed, along with one support block nearby of 155 hectares. Mat’s father supports the operation doing all cropping and grass sowing, and providing grass and maize silage, dry cow grazing and maintenance from his own nearby farm of 80 hectares.
The farm is a system 4, with pasture being the predominant feed and a key focus in the drive for profitability. The Grassmere herd is spring calving with dry cows wintering off on the support blocks. One dairy platform is irrigated by travelling irrigators from the Oroua River and the second dairy platform has no irrigation.
Mat is the fourth generation of his family to farm Grassmere, returning home in 2013 after spending a decade living and working overseas in international policy. He has overseen the continued expansion of the farm. In 2017 he was a Nuffield scholar travelling to 14 countries researching innovation in agriculture and food.
He says introducing Lean has transformed Grassmere’s culture, empowering the team and continually improving everything done on the farm. “Our people are highly important to us and share our values. They are positive, accountable, take pride in their work, show initiative and leadership, care about our animals, environment and their colleagues. They challenge the status quo too and enjoy being involved in decision making and taking responsibility for outcomes. They share our passion and vision for innovative, sustainable, high performing, enjoyable and continually improving farming.”
Mat, who refers to the Grassmere cows as ‘our athletes’, adds that animal health and welfare are also high priorities. “We all work hard to ensure our cows always enjoy the five essential animal freedoms.”
As part of the Rural Innovation Lab, of which Mat is the current chair, Grassmere is a pilot SmartFarm where cutting edge agricultural technology is tested that is aimed at improving farming practices. The farm’s two dairy sheds run software capturing daily data about each cow including; production, health, weight and feed. The Hockens also use Halter to manage grazing, mating and animal health for their herds. “We also use various other technologies to digitise our work as much as possible to simplify and streamline operations and improve communication across the business.”
The Hockens and their team are keen protectors of their environment with all waterways being fenced, including the banks of the Oroua River that borders the farm and is a favourite swimming spot during the summer months, as well as being an important source for irrigation during dry periods. Other initiatives are focused on planting native trees and investing in systems and infrastructure to ensure nutrients are measured and captured.
https://www.grassmeredairy.nz/
https://www.spcacertified.nz/learn-more/article/five-freedoms-vs-five-domains