Competition entry opens doors
Having bought their own farm earlier this year, former Taranaki Sharefarmers of the Year, Ben and Belinda Price, now have to re-evaluate future goals.
Prior to that purchase last June, farm ownership was the main goal, say the Prices.
The couple are 50-50 sharemilkers with a 650 cow Kiwi-cross herd on a 235 (effective) hectare property in the Waitotara Valley past Waverley.
They have employed contract sharemilkers, Tony and Claire Edgcombe to run their 80 hectare, 285 cow property on Oeo Road, in South Taranaki. An additional 14 hectare farm which adjoins this, is leased.
Winning the 2016 Taranaki Sharefarmers of the Year competition opened doors for Ben and Belinda.
‘‘Doing DairyNZ’s ‘mark and measure’ which focused on business planning and goal setting, was a step towards entering the Taranaki Sharefarmers of the Year,’’ says Ben.
‘‘In fact, one of the reasons which led us to buying the Oeo Road farm was because the people who judged the competition on the two occasions we entered it, rang us to say that it was on the market.
‘‘Similarly with the Waitotara sharemilking job, the farm owners showed particular interest in people who had entered dairy industry awards because they saw them as go-getters. If we hadn’t entered dairy industry awards we would probably not have got that job.’’
Plans are, say the Prices, to continue with the Waitotara sharemilking job for as long as the farm owners are happy with the arrangement and then return to Oeo Road at a yet to be determined time in the future.
The two farms, say the Prices, have little in common and are managed completely differently.
‘‘At Waitotara, we operate on system two, which means that it’s basically an all grass system, with supplementary feed in the form of maize being fed to the cows in spring and autumn,’’ says Ben.
‘‘About 200 tonne of maize is sourced annually from a local grower. We try to avoid using palm kernel on this farm and feed it only if it gets really dry.
‘‘Our annual production at