Meet dairy farming triplets Min, John and Mark Edwards. Pages
For the Edwards triplets doing things together comes naturally. When Min, John and Mark were born in Otorohanga in 1968 it was a bit of a shock for their mother Colleen.
Fifty years ago there were no scans so she had no idea she was pregnant with three babies.
The doctor said she was either carrying one big baby or there might be two so when three came along it was a big surprise and threw the Otorohanga birthing unit into action.
The triplets were quickly sent to Waikato Hospital where they spent some months, firstly in incubators and later in the nursery. All three were born just on 2lb but they have obviously not only survived but thrived.
Today John and Mark Edwards are partners in a 1000- cow dairy farm and their triplet sister, Min Sanson, has come back to the area and is working for her brothers rearing the calves this season.
The triplets certainly come from great farming stock. Mother Colleen and father Wally Edwards were awarded the Ahuwhenua Trophy in 1982.
They have lived in the Otorohanga area for many years, sharemilking before purchasing their 98ha farm.
Wally died at age 52 but Colleen continued to farm and still lives on part of the family farm today.
She was working alongside her sons on the dairy farm until this year, when at 70, she decided to hand over her calf rearing responsibilities to daughter- in- law Tanya and daughter Min.
Interviewing the three siblings is a bit like trying to hold on to an oil slick.
They all respond to questions immediately. They finish each other’s sentences, there is plenty of banter and joking, so it is hard to sort fact from fiction. It is obvious they are a tight threesome.
The triplets remember their childhood and schooling with fond memories. They all played plenty of sport.
‘‘ Mum and Dad were both keen on us playing sport and even though we weren’t particularly well- off they always made sure we had the right sports gear and they always encouraged us.
‘‘ We played together a lot. It just seemed we were always there for each other. We all had work to do on the farm but it was all good fun,’’ says Mark.
hey all attended the local Hangatiki school just down the road from their farm and then they all went to Otorohanga College.
After college Min went to Rangiruru nanny school in Christchurch.
Mark went to Flock House for a year before completing a Diploma of Agriculture at Massey University while John worked at a local orchard.
A couple of years later the brothers joined forces both sharemilking for Jim and Audrey Bevege in Aria.
‘‘ They really stuck their necks out for us. We had little work experience but had plenty of experience working on the farm at home. We both worked for them in a couple of sharemilking contracts.
‘‘ It was about 11 years all up. They were wonderful bosses and really set us up,’’ says Mark.
Both John and Mark had several sharemilking stints before the two young men joined forces to go sharemilking on the family farm. John had 100 cows, he had been able to raise them on the family farm. He sold them to raise money to go sharemilking.
Once established they bought the neighbours farm and then bought parts of other neighbouring farms. ‘‘ It was tough then,’’ says John, ‘‘ we didn’t have enough finance to get a loan, we were both working at different sharemilking jobs and we had staff on the home farm we had to pay. I even worked at the meat works at night to get cash.’’
‘‘ Dad always said if you can’t do it yourself, don’t do it. But I had John and he had me. We just worked as hard as we could. Looking back now – it was nothing,’’ says Mark.
Little by little they increased their landholding, their cow numbers and now they have been partners for 26 years.
While the brothers were carving out their place Min was also off making her way in the farming world. She also went sharemilking. Using her family- farm skills to build up herd numbers and even sold a friesian herd to her brothers when they wanted to introduce friesian back into their predominantly jersey herd.
Last season Min and her husband Craig sold their Dargaville farm and moved back to the Otorohanga area where Craig is working for Dairy Worx and Min will raise the calves on her brothers’ farm this season.
‘‘ We have always been close,’’ says Min, ‘‘ we tease, mock, laugh and play fight. But we have always got each other’s backs. No one can ever say a bad word about my brothers!’’
‘‘ Min was always the fiery one,’’ the two brothers say with one voice!
The farm is now 400ha and this season they will milk 1000 cows. They have three herds – a jersey and a friesian and a once- a day- herd. A new 60- bail, external rotary cowshed has made the day- to- day milking and farm management much easier. Their farm is an amalgamation of four farms and the new shed is located in the centre for ease of operation.
‘‘ We sold a herd to get the shed,’’ says Mark with a grin. ‘‘ Yep,’’ says John, ‘‘ sold them to a Wanaka farmer, it was enough to pay for the shed.’’
The two run their property very much together. They make collective decisions, they discuss, and compromise and they obviously enjoy having their sister back in the fold. Their close links with each other is a positive which makes their farming together work well.
The future for the triplets is positive and they say as they get older things will change as they ease back on the day to day running of the farm.