Chooks, baby girl help with new start after farm disaster
There was a new job and a new baby — ‘‘I don’t think even the most stable person would have found that relaxing,’’ Mrs Campbell said — and it was the arrival of their daughter that made the couple realise they needed to make change.
So they slowed down their pace of life and bought a 5.5ha lifestyle block at Hunter, near Waimate, with the idea of becoming more selfsustainable and living the ‘‘good life’’.
Had it not been for M. bovis, she acknowledged she would never have exited the industry.
‘‘I miss my cows daily but I definitely have a different perspective,’’ she said.
She started with 70 hens in 2019, when Sage was a baby, and the initial idea was it was going to be a ‘‘stayathomemum business’’, producing enough money to compete with a minimum wage working in town.
But it kept growing, and gaining a following, and she discovered she was really enjoying it.
Heading into this winter, she would have 1700 chooks and it was a ‘‘one and abit man business’’.
Mr Campbell, who continued to work in the dairy industry, was the ‘‘bit’’, doing all the heavy work.
Initially, Mrs Campbell started selling eggs from home. As her numbers increased, she gingerly approached several cafes, gradually increasing her own confidence.
She was now making deliveries from Hampden to Temuka and had picked up the odd supermarket. Interest continued to grow as people saw how they ran their business.
They tried to farm well above industry standard and the birds had ample space. They were moving into planting more different species, that were more digestible for them to eat, to forage on.
Mrs Campbell also grew masses of vegetables that she shared with the hens.
‘‘I don’t find it wasteful to give them a lovely big courgette or pumpkin. They get the same food we eat out of the garden. We’ve tried to farm best practice and beyond.’’
She acknowledged there had been ‘‘ups and downs’’ and mistakes made along the way as she got to grips with a new industry. She would never kill any of her birds and they were all rehomed.
Learning about keeping the quality of eggs to the standard they needed to be was something they both had to learn but she felt they were probably on top of now.
They described their operation as sustainable and environmentally sound. The waste was aged and reapplied to the land.
Mrs Campbell still had five nurse cows which were her ‘‘therapy’’, but she enjoyed her feathered flock.
‘‘They are funny, they are cool. Not like big docile old dairy cows. It’s a different way of life, it’s a different lifestyle
. . . I still get up early because I think that’s ingrained in me,’’ she said.
That also meant she could do three hours of work before Sage woke up, so she got to spend more time with her daughter — something that was important to her.
‘‘I didn’t want to not spend time with my baby after waiting for her for so long. I wanted something we could do with her being a part of it.’’
And young Sage was a fan of the farming lifestyle.
‘‘That kid is half chicken,’’
Mrs Campbell laughed.
‘‘She loves it.
‘‘Sage is the light of our life
. . . [she] is amazing. Without her, I don’t know we would have made such drastic changes. We’re so grateful we have made the changes because we just have a different mindset in life.’’
At the moment, they were consolidating but, in the future, there was scope to expand.
‘‘Just wait and see really, watch this space. I’d like to think we get to a point where we can both be fulltime at home,’’ she said.
Their experience with M. bovis had not dented Mrs Campbell’s love of the dairy industry, and she still milked cows locally every second weekend.
‘‘I love cows, they soothe me,’’ she said.
Had M. bovis not come along, they likely would have been the ‘‘classic story’’ in the dairy industry — provided the payout stayed right — moving hopefully to owning their leased cows and eventually farm ownership.
On reflection, they were ‘‘full of dreams’’ prior to M. bovis — ‘‘but it’s damn near impossible when you think of it now’’, she said.
‘‘I miss them [the cows], but I just like coming out the other side. I’m a different person. I feel like I’m probably living more now.
‘‘You’re learning all the time, doing things you didn’t know you were capable of.’’