Consultants talk, money sings

Lachie McLean (left), nephew Harris and cousin Jack on the Waipu farm. Consultants' advice has helped more than double milk production. Photo / John Stone

Money , Money, Money - life may be sunny in the rich man's world, but Lachie McLean faces farming reality when the curtain falls on the Mama Mia! stage show he has been directing in Whangarei for the past three weeks.

And although he doesn't make a song and dance about it, the action on Mr McLean's Waipu farm has been as dramatic as his work with the Abba music production which closes in the city's Capitaine Bougainville Theatre on Saturday.

Mr McLean, 65, was milking 120 cows on 72ha until 2012, when he amalgamated his land with his cousin Grant McLean's similar sized property and followed this up by buying 113ha from another neighbour.

Lachie now has 385 cows to calve and production has increased from about 40,000kgMS five years ago to 100,000kgMS, with a traffic jam in the 17-bail milking shed built 46 years ago urgently demanding replacement with a bigger facility.

Lachie said he couldn't see the wood for the trees for many months when his expansion project started. But fortunately his cousin, Jack McLean, had come to work on the farm and now shared management duties and decisions.

The project has also had advice from a pair of elite rural consultants - there are only 14 in the country certified so far - who are helping boost farm incomes by thousands of dollars through improved farm management.

Two Northland consultants among the 14 now certified - Tafi Manjala from AgFirst Northland and Neil Smith from FarmWise - both worked on the McLean farm, giving Lachie advice he said was "hugely beneficial".

Their recommendations ranged from once-a-day milking to subdivision of runoff land for possible sale as lifestyle blocks to fund farm development.

The new class of consultants have competed New Zealand Institute of Primary Industry Management (NZIPIM) Dairy Farm Systems Certification and People Management Certification schemes which increase the value and consistency of advice provided by dairy farm systems consultants to farmers, and hence increase farmer confidence in the use of consultants.

Among another 50 consultants making their way through the certification process are three more Northlanders - Gareth Baynham from AgFirst Northland, Karla Frost from AgroSpecialists and Aaron Baker from Total Ag.

The certification schemes were developed in a collaborative partnership between DairyNZ, NZIPIM and eight consulting firms. The scheme was funded through the PGP Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Initiative.

To be certified, NZIPIM members complete an ethics module, 16 online assessments covering all aspects of the farm system and business, a Whole Farm Assessment (WFA), and receive feedback from five clients.

Consultants complete a WFA with a client as part of their certification and continue to offer the WFA as a commercial service following certification. The WFA takes a whole-of-system approach to identifying the biggest levers that can be pulled to meet farm business and personal goals.

The process combines financial and physical benchmarking with a discussion with the farm team and on-farm observation. A comprehensive report and agreed action plan are provided to the farmer following the assessment.

DairyNZ programme facilitator Kate Sargeant said the value of a farm consultant using a WFA approach was measured in the DairyPush project in 2012 at $400/ha/year.

More recently, farmers who had completed WFA with certified consultants under the new programme had identified potential financial benefits of up to $2000/ha/year if agreed actions were implemented, she said.

Other benefits ranged from gaining clarity of financial targets as they relate to personal and business goals; establishing a pathway to wealth creation; greater time efficiency; improved production efficiency (reproductive management, pasture management, feeding, etc), improved staff management; and more informed system choices.¦