DAIRY PEOPLE: Kerry, Annette & Ryan Walker
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NZ Dairy / Winter 2013
Red tape threatens ‘little farmers’ Kelly Deeks As the owner of a smaller dairy farm, Kerry Walker worries about increasing levels of bureaucracy, regulation and red tape. “I agree with the regulations in principle –. it’s important to do all the things like fencing waterways and controlling nitrogen leaching. “But as there’s no recompense for the cost, it squeezes the profit and can make smaller farms uneconomic,” says Walker. He, wife Annette and son Ryan own a 48-hectare dairy farm at Te Horo, on the Kapiti Coast. This is one of the reasons we’re seeing a lot more 500-plus-cow farms, and the average age of farm-owners being pushed up, he says. “The little farmers can’t afford the cost of putting in a new effluent system, for example. And compliance costs are a barrier to new entrants being attracted to the industry, as they can’t afford to buy and run the farms. “Soon, the only people who will be able to afford to buy a dairy farm will be people from overseas. That’s the way its trending; people won’t be able to move up the ranks as I did.” Running a low-input system is an important factor on Walker’s Te Horo farm. He works hard on pasture management to avoid becoming reliant on external inputs. He owns what was one of his father’s dairy farms – and it’s the only dairy farm he has worked on in New Zealand. After university and a stint working overseas, he returned home in 1983 and worked his way up the ranks as farm worker, contract milker and 50:50 sharemilker, then bought the 48-hectare farm in 1987.
Kerry Walker and best friend. He says that while it’s important to do things such as fencing waterways and controlling nitrogen leaching, there is no recompense. The cost squeezes profit and can make smaller farms uneconomic.
In the next few years the farm doubled in size as Walker bought four more blocks around the edges. He is now running about 250 cows. Having been paying off debt as quickly as possible for the past few years, his emphasis is on reducing costs. This comes down to better pasture management and ensuring he is running the right number of cows for the area, he says.
This means making small changes to herd numbers when necessary – in the 2012-13 season, for instance, he dropped herd numbers by just 15 cows, milking 235 and making sure they were all fully fed all the time. He has also improved his in-calf rate after having had trouble with his empty rates the previous season. “It just happened out of the blue and doubled in one year,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of liaison with the vets, and we’ve made
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sure we’ve got all the staff up to speed with heat detection. We scanned the cows early, in November, so if there was a problem then, we could do something about it as soon as possible.” Despite the higher empty rate, Walker achieved his second-best production season in 2011-12, He says 2012-13 was second best again. His best production was in a “brilliant season” 10 years ago, and he has been unable to match it
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The managers of Macland Farms and Kaiwaiwai Dairies (both near Featherston and both owned by the Peveral Industries syndicate) were celebrating after this year’s Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Farm Manager of the Year dairy industry awards. Jay Harris, just finished his first season as manager of Macland Farms after being promoted from second-in-charge, finished third. Kaiwaiwai Dairies manager Rowan McGilvary was runner-up and won the farm management merit award Aidan Bichan, one of the syndicate directors, says Harris is in his mid-20s and relatively new to the industry, but very keen to learn. “He has good systems and is keen to seek out information. He has very clear goals of where he wants to be and how he wants to get there.”
Bichan says McGilvary is running a complex operation involving winter milking, summer-dry conditions and diverse feeds, including pasture, palm kernel, kale and oats. “His staff management is exemplary. He is well organised and meets regularly with staff. Both managers are very good at encouraging everyone to give everything on farm a go. Staff have individual responsibilities, but are all equipped to undertake most jobs on farm.” Bichan says this is an important aspect of the farm philosophy, and possibly contributed to the success of the managers. “Our philosophy is that we want people to have a good grounding in all aspects of the farm. We aim to produce well rounded people. Our choice is to promote internally, so this benefits us as well. We have a pretty stable workforce, and this is also an indicator of success.”
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