My partner Matthew Herbert and I, plus our two border collies Rufus and Coco, moved to Taradise on June 1.
We've swapped a split-calving farm in the North Waikato, for a farm at Kaponga, near Stratford, where we contract milk 370 cows. The mountain, with its steep snow-capped peak, towers above the 100-hectare (effective) property.
It only took a couple of days for the pet cows in the herd to give us a nudge and point out that our job description included being massage therapists. #91 likes a scratch along her back, #277 lingers at the back of the mob so she can have her tummy tickled and #54 enjoys a firm neck rub.
The farm's a bit different to our previous job. All the cows are wintered on the property and the volcanic ash soils are easily pugged. 'Taranaki rain radar' is now the most Googled phrase on my laptop.
If a wet night is forecast the dry cows are stood off, to protect the pasture. The springers spend most of their time on a sheltered loafing pad, which makes night checks easy. We've also gone from a herringbone milking shed to a 54-bail rotary with ProTrack and in-shed feeding. We officially started calving on July 25th.
Prior to our move, we bought 80 in-calf R2 heifers, which we've leased out until June 2018, when we aim to go 50/50 sharemilking. We spent the first two seasons of our dairying careers saving.
The next two are about building equity. To assist with that, I'm studying the NZ Diploma in Agribusiness Management through PrimaryITO.
My first assignment earlier this year involved writing a Business Plan for our partnership. It included goals, targets, SWOT analysis, budgets sensitivity analysis and most importantly timeframes.
It's a useful document which we regularly refer to and plan to update annually. It impressed the Westpac bankers on our judging panel in the recent Dairy Industry Awards, where we won the Auckland/Hauraki Share Farmer of the Year.
My tutor was a highly-respected 50/50 sharemilker who was skilled at relating the course work and assignments to our farms and businesses. My classmates were other contract milkers, 50/50 sharemilkers, LOSM and managers.
One of the classes on business structures was presented by a knowledgeable guest tutor from the Rotorua-based rural law firm BlackmanSpargo.
She outlined when people operating in a partnership should consider setting up a company, which got me thinking, as we head down the path of buying more cows and taking on debt. It's always rewarding to work on your business instead of in it for a change.
