The Nel family farm west of Johannesburg.


A new arrival in the maternity coral.


old. “We keep the heifers for the main herd and the bull calves go into our feedlots for fattening as bull beef. With the intense heat the calves are kept under shade during the sum- mer times in open pens to protect them,” he says. According to Pieter the biggest challenge affecting dairy farmers in South Africa is decreasing milk prices which reached R5.50 (€ 0.34, US$ 0.39, £0.29) just a year ago.


Heat and mud stress In order to increase margins per litre the Nel farm is investing in new equipment, technology and ideas to increase milk quality and reduce costs. As well as the new efficient rotary


24 ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 6, No. 2, 2019


Newborn calves stay in this house for one week after birth.


parlour and a new hygiene programme along with it, milk quality has started to improve already. “Our somatic cell count was in the region of 600,000,” says Pieter. “Thanks to the new parlour and a strict hygiene programme of wiping the teats before milking and dipping afterwards we were able to bring the SCC down to its current level of 80,000 in a period of five to six months. “Heat stress for the cows is another ma- jor issue as they spend all their time in the open corals. We do have shade cloths erected in all the corals and you can see the cows lying in a row under the projected shade during the day. “Another issue in the corals is mud stress because when it rains the ground gets very wet and muddy for them to walk


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