'My father, Jim Gore, came here from Ngahinapouri in 1936 and the farm was then 760 acres,” says Ralph.
'Only 500 acres was in pasture, the rest was semi developed and included a 100 acre swamp.

'Dad sold 310 acres to his brother after he came back from World War Two.
'The farm used to be a racehorse breeding property owned by the Ring family.”
Started with sheep
Jim Gore started with sheep and some cattle and when Ralph bought the farm in 1972 he carried on the sheep farming tradition along with some maize and barley cropping.
'In the latter years I got concerned about the soil structure with continuous cropping.
'It is Tirau ash and a very ‘forgiving' soil. It can be abused with pugging in the winter and continued cropping, but with good husbandry will still produce good pasture.
'My challenge this year is to get some worm life back into the cropping pasture.”
In the early 1980s there was a downturn in lamb prices and Ralph diversified with deer.
'I had 200 breeding hinds on part of the farm for 25 years. Later I farmed yearling hinds and fattened them up for venison.”
The switch
Lamb prices improved in the late 80s and early 90s, but the wear and tear on Ralph's back from sheep work was starting to take its toll and for a few years they grazed dairy heifers. About this time the couple's 24-year-old son, Brad, had just finished a building apprenticeship and indicated that he would like to go dairy farming.
Numbers stack up
'I thought this would be a good opportunity to take things a bit easier so we sought some advice on the merits of converting the farm to dairying and the numbers stacked up,” says Ralph.
After a lot of research and advice from Rob Broomfield of Broomfield Construction, Ralph decided to build a 50 bail rotary. It is similar to other Broomfield Construction dairy sheds and has been refined to suit this client's requirements.
The dairy shed was started in 2008 and completed for the 2009 season. It is centrally located on the farm so the longest distance the cows walk is 1.6km.
To start with, Ralph bought two dairy herds of Friesian cross and Kiwi cross cows totalling 420 cows and this year that has been increased to 450 cows.
After milking in the new rotary for one season, Ralph and his farm manager, Kevin Thoms have nothing but praise for the dairy shed.
'It pays to do the job right from the start,” says Ralph, 'everything has run smoothly at the flick of a switch.”
And what about Brad Gore, the herd assistant, 'he is rising to the challenge”.

Waikato Milking Systems have a sound reputation for supplying quality milking machines to suit New Zealand dairy farmers. The plant at Glenrowan Farms is no exception. It has a Full Frontier herd management system which includes ICRA approved electronic milk metres, auto feeding to production on the platform, efficient drafting and a weighing scale.
Individual cow information
The cows have a pedometer fitted around their back leg so the device can measure the activity of an animal. Information about each cow is recorded at milking as the cow is identified when entering the platform, building a complete history over the entire life of each animal. This information is recorded on the farm computer.
'It gives us a good picture of each cow and her production. We have three herds. The age of the cow determines which herd she goes in to,” says Kevin. The milking plant needs to be fitted by an expert, and Matamata company, Morley Engineering, is the local agent for Waikato Milking Systems.
'In this dairy shed we fitted a Waikato rotary 101mm looped milk line with electronic cup removers managed through the Frontier system.
Minimal maintenance
'We have installed a Fristam milk pump which we have found very reliable and economical. It is a high performance milkpump that requires very little maintenance. It is able to pump large volumes of milk and wash water and uses less power to deliver a better result,” says Steve Morley of Morley Engineering.
Waikato Milking Systems Smartwash automated wash plant is a new product launched at the Fieldays in 2009. It has a touch screen panel that lets the operator make programming changes and formulate wash regimens to suit individual needs. The programming is MENU driven, easy to understand and simple to programme.


Smartwash has 10 key wash functions with infinite programming ability and can alert the operator if a fault occurs. Monitored detergent availability is available using sensors that determine the presence of chemical and report to the farmer if the chemical containers run dry.
It's a first
An efficient water system with under floor reticulation was installed by Morleys using a new product called fusiotherm.
'It's the first time we have used this product. It is a type of plastic pipe, bright green and has less resistance to corrosion,” says Steve.
'We have had 100 per cent positive results from it so we will be using it in more dairy sheds.”
The washdown pump is a Kelco GPS with 15 horse power. The pump is controlled by a flow switch with pressure backup.
The Elite 50 bail platform has a concrete deck, angled bails and dual control consoles.
'Over 30 years of product development has gone into making these platforms, and the integration of the entire installation is very apparent,” says Steve.
The dairy shed walls are covered with an easy care hygienic covering supplied by Nuplex and applied by Dave Sutherland of Matamata.
Automated measurements
Area manager for FIL, Greg Duncan, set up the dairy hygiene programme. The automated wash system meters the detergents automatically to ensure the correct dilution rate. The teat spray used on the farm is a new iodine and manuka honey based product which is proving very popular with farmers.
'The healing properties of the manuka honey help keep the cows teats in excellent condition,” says Greg.
FIL is a New Zealand company based at Mt Maunganui. It has 15 area managers throughout the country. The company offers a full backup service for their farmer clients.
The non intrusive Wetit Teat Sprayers automatically give the cow's teats an even covering as they exit the platform. They are a labour saving system and do not interrupt cow flow.

Andrew Arts of Electrico does all kinds of electrical work. For the Gore's dairy shed he installed a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) with Human Machine Interface (HMI) and integrates with the Frontier system so the operator has a central control via an LCD touch panel for total system control. This system is becoming vey popular, is user friendly and any changes are software related. Electrico provide a 24/7 service backup.
Planned for everything
A well planned yard is essential for easy management of cows during milking, drafting, vet care and AIing. The yards were designed by the builder Rob Broomfield and Leask Engineering did the construction work.
'The yard's rails are made from galvanised pipe and the large circular yard has two entrances for convenience and another holding yard so cows can be moved from one to the other while other cows are entering and exiting at the same time,” says Rom Stellingwerf, design and construction manager for Leask Engineering.
AI friendly
A fold down platform in the shed allows easy access for the operator for AIing, vet work or tail painting.
Leask Engineering is based at Tatuanui near Morrinsville and has been there for 52 years. Their expertise has recently taken them to Ireland to help with dairy shed constructions.
A byproduct of dairy farming is effluent. Farmers often see this as a nuisance but it can be used as fertiliser and if less water is used effluent production can be reduced.
All that water turns into effluent, which has to be pumped on to the pasture. When it is wet and soils are saturated, the water can cause a reduction in application rates and increase the area to apply the effluent to, all of which cost money and soaks up time.
The Gores have installed a Dungbuster automatic yard washing system which reduces water by at least 40 pre cent, if not more. There is also a saving in electricity costs and time.
Quality services
Okoroire Excavators prepared the ground to build the dairy shed on and prepared the raceways. Centigrade of Matamata knows the importance of efficient farm refrigeration and the urgency when something goes wrong. They offer a 24 hour breakdown service where one of their technicians will be on site whenever needed. This sort of quality and service was a good enough reason for Ralph to choose this company to keep the farms product in the optimum condition ready for pick up by the tanker.