Tony Allcock had a vision: a cow 'moo-tel' on his Waikato dairy farm.
His idea was virtually unique in New Zealand: a self-composting barn that reduced environmental impact, increased milk production and transformed the housing conditions of his 270 cows.
It was a bold vision, but a challenge that Aztech Buildings rose to meet.
Four years on, the Allcock's barn is delivering in every aspect.
Production has risen by 63 per cent without adding a single cow, nitrogen leaching is virtually nil, and cows are cool in the summer and warm in the winter, with pastures able to perform to their maximum potential by removing excessive cow impact.
Pre-construction, winters were a messy affair on Tony's farm. Paddocks were muddy, and the environment wasn't pleasant for the cows.
"I needed to get my cows off the paddocks to improve their welfare, and to enable the paddocks to recover," Allcock says.
With cow welfare and reduced environmental impact front of mind, Tony went to Aztech Buildings with a very specific, and unique, design in mind - and they delivered.
The barn, measuring 60m x 41m, has a 5m-wide race down the middle which accommodates the delivery of feed to parallel troughs by tractor and feed out wagon. Each cow has a generous 7.7m of space.
But the real stand-out feature of the barn is its ability to self-compost.
The barn is designed so liquid can flow out of the compost trough under floor drainage and into the dairy effluent management system. In practice, there is no liquid, as it evaporates.
The floor has a 600mm-thick layer of woodchips covering the floor, and once a year Tony scrapes off 200mm of the woodchips to recycle as fertiliser for his maize crop.
The construction of the barn meant the Allcocks have moved from a typical grazing system to one where the cows spend part of every day in the barn, and part grazing outside.
Cows are able to escape the summer sun and resulting heat stress, which can cause a drop in production; and in the winter, they spend a cosy night inside out of the chill.
Under the new system, the increase in milk production has been dramatic.
Pre-construction, production varied between 88,000- 99,000kgMS, but over the past four years, it has steadily increased from 128,000kgMS in the first year to 163,000kgMS in the fourth year, and the target is 180,000kgMS.
Tony believes the investment has already paid for itself.
"The welfare of the animals is paramount and it's evident the cows are now better fed, better housed and better cared for," Allcock says.
"The barn has triple-bottom-line benefits: reducing nitrogen leaching, transforming cow welfare and stacking up as a successful financial investment."
"Everyone should have one of these barns; it is a complete package that works well and is easy to manage."
Aztech has a strong industrial and agricultural building process, using box beam roll-formed steel which allows for up to 40m of ClearSpan; this provides more useable space and a clean and tidy, bird-free perch solution.
Customers can select from kitset, part-constructed or fully constructed options anywhere in New Zealand.