Legacy in the Hills – Breeding Success with Ruanui Jerseys
Pam Goodin, JerseyNZ
At the foot of the Ruahine Ranges, Rob and Steph Trainor have spent the past four decades building Ruanui Jerseys into a testament of hard work, smart breeding and deep-rooted family heritage. With a strong focus on pedigree Jerseys and a love for the land that’s been in Steph’s family for over a century, their story blends tradition with performance – proving passion and persistence truly are the right balance.
Rob and Steph Trainor of Ruanui Jerseys farmland that has been in Steph’s family for over a century. Situated at the foot of the Ruahine ranges about 10 minutes’ drive from Dannevirke in the Tararua District, the farm was farmed as sheep and beef by Steph’s grandparents and then her parents until about 40 years ago when the switch to dairy was made. With just one sheep and beef farm between them and the ranges, the farm sits at 400m above sea level (the same altitude as Taupo).
Proud of her heritage, Steph is slowly working through the Centenary Farm process, with the original mortgage document still in the family. However, most land records from the region were lost in the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake and subsequent fires.
Steph grew up on the farm, but Rob was a townie who had caught the farming bug after spending time on a farm as a child. Discouraged from farming by his parents, he wasn’t allowed to leave school until he got a ‘real’ job. He tried a few jobs – woollen mill, agricultural contracting, sheep farming and six months on a small antiquated dairy farm – and knew he was still drawn to cows. Eventually he joined his father and started a building apprenticeship, taking on some relief milking work. By this time he was dating Steph, and she got him his first relief milking job. Rob was thrilled with the relief work on a modern farm and shed and just loved it! After another year relieving on a new farm, he was convinced that dairy farming was the role he wanted. He finished his apprenticeship, completed his trade certificate, and promptly started milking a Jersey/crossbred herd just a few minutes away. This was a good farm with good machinery and the farmer was an excellent teacher – Rob soaked it all up. They both worked really hard for two years to save, with Steph working off-farm in a legal office.
Steph’s father had always thought that the farm would make a good dairy farm, but he didn’t want to milk himself or have a sharemilker. So when Rob & Steph married, he took a punt and made the conversion to dairy. Stephs parents kept a portion of the farm in sheep and built a home on a nearby lifestyle block. Rob & Steph were lucky to be able to leave their job before the end of the season and came onto the farm in late March 1985, initially living with her parents. Starting with a five-year contract and supported by the farm ownership scheme, they had purchased 120 cows. Rob & Steph then saved another $50,000 to be able to purchase the farm from Steph’s parents, who leased some back for the sheep for a few more years. 40 years later they are still here – Rob comments that they worked and saved really hard to make it work, but Steph’s parents also took a real chance by giving them the opportunity at such an early stage in their farming career. They are forever grateful for that opportunity.
40 years on there has been no change in the farm size, but a further 40 ha block has been purchased one farm away as a runoff. This is in addition to the main farm of 60 ha. The original local farms were all 40 ha ballot farms following World War One, until this farm which is made up of two of the original blocks owned by Steph’s grandfather, and a further block purchased by her father that now houses the cowshed, all on separate titles. The shed was also extended to accommodate larger numbers and an in-shed meal system in the past. The block over the Rokaiwhana Stream is used for dry stock, supplements, dairy grazers and beef cattle. The shed is a 21-aside herringbone, and the cows are milked twice a day through to dry off, with no winter milking. The farm gets an annual average rainfall of 1900 mm compared to less than 1300 mm p/a just 2 km down the road.
Now easing out of dairy as they approach retirement age, Rob & Steph are currently milking 120 cows down from up to 286 Jerseys about 20 years ago. Reducing the size of the dairy herd means that they still have options with beef and dairy grazers, along with Steph’s flock of predominantly Romney sheep. Fewer cows makes the work easier for Rob, and with the assistance of a part-time labour unit he hopes to get another couple of years milking in yet. He’s not ready to go cold-turkey from the cows just yet!
The current herd of 120 is about 40% Jersey, with the balance Holstein-Friesian and one solitary crossbred cow. In the 2023/24 season, 40 pedigree Jerseys averaged 520 kg milksolids, the fifth highest pedigree Jersey average in New Zealand. This was also a farm record, and the first time they had achieved an average over 500kg. The favourable season helped; they usually sit at 480-490 kg.
Rob likes a nice typey cow, commenting that he likes to milk a cow that he likes to look at. Breeding mainly for conformation, he will use both New Zealand and overseas genetics in the Jersey component of his herd. It can be a fine line maintaining indexes while focusing on conformation, and as a result Rob admits that his herd index is not as high as it could be. Lynbrook Terrific has been a standout sire in the Ruanui herd, high index and good conformation saw the first six heifers all receive an Excellent award at two years. Also with outstanding temperament, Rob used Terrific as long as he could, including purchasing straws privately. While he is not prepared to compromise on bull selection, Rob now finds less interest in contract matings with the herd full of the genetics of such a popular bull and his sons. He has just two contract matings offered for Jerseys this season, well down on previous years.
The herd is fed 3 kg (1/5 kg per milking) of dairy pellets in the shed daily all season. This is supplemented by baleage early in the season if necessary and in the summer they will get 4 kg of turnips daily for a couple of months. When the turnips are gone it’s just grass baleage and meal, and the cows really notice when the meal runs out! The meal is a standard mix, but the protein levels alter depending on the time of year.
All grass-based supplement and the turnips are grown on the farm or at the runoff. 4-6 ha of turnips is grown on average, at 15 tonnes per ha dry matter the crop will feed the herd for 60 days, which works for the local weather conditions. The cows are all wintered at the runoff where it is drier, while the young stock and dairy grazers winter on the home farm which suits the lighter animals better as the soil is heavy and prone to pugging. This can still affect the runoff, but it is more easily fixed there.
The land also supports about 30 mixed age beef cattle through winter (some ET recipients and some fattening cattle); up to 100 dairy grazers and carryover cows and at the runoff, calves and Steph’s sheep (currently increasing from 40 to 80).
AB starts on 15 October for 12 weeks with calving commencing 25 July through to late October. There are no bulls on farm as Rob finds this easier, and no short gestation beef semen is used. All AB matings are breed to breed, although he will occasionally use a Jersey straw in a late mating for calving ease and not retain the calf. Rob retains calves out of high BW, good producing and consistent cows with good temperament. There is really no science to this, it’s just how he feels about the dam. Some years he will AB mate the heifers at the runoff, and some years he may lease bulls to run with them. He always ends up with more heifer calves than he needs, so he will keep the calves that he is happy to milk himself and sell the surplus. All late calves are bobbied, and male calves are bobbied as surplus if they are not under contract. Any not picked up by the AB Company will be sold through the national bull sale. One year he topped the sale for both the Jersey and Holstein-Friesian breeds. For the first time this year he has kept three Jersey bull calves (based on index) and one Holstein-Friesian specifically for the bull sale.
Rob is not a fan of using beef over late-mating Jersey cows to reduce the number of surplus calves, simply based on past experience. Any gains in calf value can be blown away by the loss of just one cow though a difficult calving.
When selecting sires for his Jersey breeding programme, Rob will select half based on conformation and half on index. He puts the highest emphasis on udder and rump angle for the conformation bulls, and for the balance selects the highest BW bulls with at least 0.6 BV on udders and correct rump angle. He comments that narrow pins can spread for calving, but high pins will always be an issue and wide rump also allows room for a wide udder. He also pays attention to temperament in the farmer scored management traits and actively avoids negative BVs on legs and capacity.
If a polled bull meets his conformation criteria for selection, that is a bonus. He also uses some sexed semen on cows that he will definitely keep heifer calves from, but this also depends on how the cow is cycling for better conception rates.
Bulls used recently include Glen Kaycee Sherlock JG, Rockland LQ Berkley, Shelby Integ Labyrinth ET and Okura Pepper Lucca along with Semex bulls Lencrest Tobefamous, Avonlea Chocco Chip ET and Lencrest Broadband P.
Temperament is vital to Rob, and he works with the herd right from the beginning. Calves are fed meal until 12 months of age so he is spending time with them and they are being handled daily. Rob believes that this sets them up in terms of temperament for when they come into the herd. It was certainly noticeable when visiting the herd that it was almost impossible to get a ‘traditional’ herd scene photo – the cows were just so friendly and interested in us.
The Jersey component of the herd is all registered with the exception of 3-4 animals that have been bought in from other herds. All two-year-old heifers are TOP inspected annually, along with any older cows that look as though they can improve on their two-year-old score. Rob and Steph have also supported the local NZ Dairy Event sale with an embryo package this year and have had success with Ruanui Oliver P Muffin winning her two-year-old class, Intermediate Best Udder and Intermediate Champion three years ago on her first show outing as part of Isaac Kelsen’s team.
Rob comments that they have been lucky with cows purchased over the years, with most exceeding expectations. He has purchased very few Jerseys, two from Glenalla via NZ Dairy Event sales; and four from Ferdon’s sale in 2024 including one Allandale heifer. They also purchased a Canadian embryo package at the NZ Dairy Event Sale in 2024. These were the most expensive embryos they had ever purchased and resulted in one pregnancy from five embryos.
Rob and Steph will flush 5-6 good empty cows per year, with the cows going up to ABS for flushing as they get better results that way. The embryos are then implanted surgically by another company, and they enjoy a 75% conception rate rather than the standard 50%.
Rob and Steph don’t feel that they have achieved anything particularly special through their farming career, but he has been reminded by David Fullerton of a couple of notable successes. One third of the Ruanui herd is classified Excellent, with another five cows going Excellent in 2024; and they once had the highest two BW cows in New Zealand for about three weeks with a dam and daughter. While not anti-modernisation, they see themselves as traditional farmers now moving towards retirement. He admires those farmers early enough in their careers to be embracing technological progression with collars and robots, as they have the long-term ability to recoup those costs.
None of the family have any desire to take over the farm. Daughter Claire lives locally in Dannevirke with her partner while Helen (an anesthetic technician) is married to an Englishman and they are currently living in the UK with their daughter Mia (15 months). Helen’s husband has applied for New Zealand residency and they may spend time in New Zealand. So for now, Rob & Steph will continue to move the farm more towards dry stock in the short term until they decide it’s time to sell up and move to town. Like Steph’s father before him, Rob is not interested in having a sharemilker on the farm, he always planned to use the land in other ways once he had had enough of the cows. For Steph it’s more that she has lived most of her life on the farm and is not ready to see someone else working it. It will be hard to leave, but they are pragmatists.