Incentives needed to get more young farmers
Work is under way in the Waikato to ensure young people continue to have opportunities to get into dairy farm ownership.
Concerns were expressed at the Federated Farmers Waikato province annual meeting in Hamilton this month about the effects of the declining number of sharemilking agreements, robbing young people of the opportunity to buy their own farms.
The decline is being caused partly by the growth of corporate farming in New Zealand, with corporate owners generally preferring contract milkers or managers over sharemilkers.
The growing size of farms and herds in New Zealand is also pricing many people out of the market.
Federated Farmers Waikato dairy section chairman Chris Lewis said the move by many corporate farms to use contract milkers or managers, rather than sharemilkers, made it harder for young people to get into farm ownership.
Farmers at the meeting noted that many of their number had benefited from a ‘‘hand-up’’ in the industry, and they wanted future generations to have similar opportunities.
‘‘A lot of older people here are very grateful for the hand-up they’ve had in the industry,’’ Mr Lewis said
Waikato sharemilkers section chairman Craig Littin said a future problem with the declining number of 50 per cent sharemilking agree- ments was that there would be noone who could afford to buy farms.
Waikato sharemilkers employers section chairman Tony Wilding said research was under way in the Waikato to identify pathways into farm and herd ownership.
‘‘We should be careful we’re not negative and only defending the traditional herd-owning models including sharemilking,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve had better payouts in recent years. Maybe at the higher payout level there needs to be more flexibility. Sharemilking is a very good stepping stone to land ownership but we might need to retain it in a slightly different form.’’
Federated Farmers was working with Agfirst and Dairynz on a study, entitled Ensuring a viable progression path in the dairy industry.