Farmers head for South Island

South Island pastures are beckoning for Central North Island dairy farmer Mark Feather.

Mr Feather is joining a growing number of dairy farmers who are convinced the grass is greener across Cook Strait.

The Reporoa man's family has farmed in the Reporoa district for the past 26 years.

His father, Roger Feather, will continue to operate the family farm at Reporoa while his son heads south after the family formed a business and bought a 350ha property at Balfour, near Linton.

Next season he will be milking 850 cows on the South Island farm belonging to Feather Holdings Limited (FHL).

The appeal was the availability of cheaper land.

"We wanted to go bigger and saw a lot of opportunities down south to do that," Mark Feather said.

"You are only paying about $24 per kg of milk solids [per hectare of land] compared to $36 or $38 here."

He's already eyeing neighbouring properties to boost the family's land ownership.

"We would like to expand quickly and will be looking at two or three neighbouring farms as soon as we can."

He admits the climate may make farming a little difficult at times in the south, but is looking forward to the challenge.

"It's dead flat where we are going but the weather conditions can make farming down there quite challenging. It never stops raining down there which might make it hard in the winter and the spring but the summers should be good with lush green grass growing."

Former regional Sharemilker of the Year winners Louise and Warren Berry of Ngakuru are also heading south. They are moving to a 130ha Westport farm with their family and stock.

They couldn't afford to own their own farm unless they went south, Mr Berry said.

"The price of land up here is just too dear.

"We wanted to own our own farm and just couldn't swing it up here so we are heading south to swing it there.

"The only other option was equity partnership and we didn't want to do that."

More farmers are also thinking about the opportunities the South Island offers.

"We have had a lot of people ask us about it since they heard we were going. I think the South Island offers a good lifestyle but the isolation could be a problem for some people," Mr Berry said.

A spokesman for Whakatane's Heikell Transport said there had been an exodus of farmers to the South Island about six years ago and while there had been little demand in recent years to cart cattle south the trend was changing.

In the past week the company had taken about 650 head of cattle to Canterbury.

"This year has been the biggest since the influx about six years ago. We took thousands of cows down then," he said.

Rotorua Livestock Transport owner/manager Tony Crack said his company was carting more herds to the South Island from the Central North Island this year.

The company has moved more than 3000 cows to the West Coast, Southland and Canterbury this year compared with about 1000 in previous years.

Mr Crack said he believed the mass exodus was because of farming and irrigation developments which offered more opportunities at a cheaper price to farmers.

"There have been a lot of dairy farm conversions in the South Island and new irrigation systems being set up.

"The West Coast is changing a lot to dairy along with a few other areas," he said.