How Good's Year One - First Season On Your Own Farm

George is a season into milking his own cows, and he's already doing things his own way: a colostrum mob that never goes behind a wire, and a breeding rule with no science behind it at all. From there it's the ideal cow for a wet, heavy farm, why Conan gets a bit miffed at being called a regenerative consultant, the three legs of the stool on compaction, why effluent ends up in the wrong paddock on most farms, a planting plan going in this autumn — and an honest word about what eleven-hour days do to a body. George Dodson farms at Leeston, Canterbury. Conan Moynihan is an agribusiness coach and co-founder of Groundshift. They're keen to do more of these, drop a comment with what you want them to get into next, and if they don't know enough about it they'll find someone who does. Chapters below. Search How Good's Dairy wherever you listen or watch. Time Chapter 00:00 Cold open 00:21 How good's dairy right now? 01:14 Calving so far, and the mag debate 03:00 Breeding a herd worth selling in ten years 04:01 "I don't put my colostrums behind a wire" 05:35 What the ideal cow looks like 06:36 Why no white on a cow 07:39 Building a low-input system around the cow 09:37 Heavy soils, and fixing compaction with money 10:17 Three legs of a stool: biology, minerals, structure 13:02 What works in your context, not over the fence 15:44 When a farm compounds up instead of down 17:17 Troughs, back-fencing and nutrient transfer 19:39 Effluent goes where it's cheapest, not where it's needed 23:30 Trees, shelter and what Canterbury's missing 26:11 "We can't be green if we're in the red" 26:48 Return on investment in time, not just money 28:51 Eleven-hour days until October 30:55 Farmers are strong. Are we fit? 32:34 What do you want us to cover next?