| 13 RURAL PEOPLE » Hayden Smith and Isla Pringle SHEARING CONTRACTORS COVERING SOUTHLAND & OTAGO Jake Hume 027 748 6136 Scott Cameron 027 592 5824 swshearing@gmail.com Isla and Hayden have come into farm ownership at a good time. Suppliers of Crushed Rock & Gravel Phone Daryll • Grading & Rolling • Building Platforms • Lane Maintenance • Drainage • Bulldozing • Tip Trucks Proudly supporting Isla Pringle and Hayden Smith Providing expert farmmaintenance, hedge cutting and excavation services across Southland for over 20years. Proudly Supporting Hayden Smith & Isla Pringle Contact Us 027 444 9577 deanmoore.excavation@gmail.com Chris 027 293 9800 (Waimata Depot) Norman 027 611 9595 (Browns Depot) office@hughescontracting.co.nz • Silage • Round Baling • Cultivation • Precision Planting • Effluent Spreading • Excavation • General Cartage Southland pair celebrate early farm success Hugh de Lacy Not too bad for a couple of 26-year-olds” is Hayden Smith’s reaction to his and business partner Isla Pringle’s achieving full ownership of the Southland dairy farm on which they’ve been 50/50 sharemilking for the past four years. Reaching the summit of the work-to-own structure of the New Zealand dairy industry reflects the two streams of specialist knowledge that the two brought to the 470-cow operation they’ve bought from Sarah and Lachie McLeod. Hayden was born into the industry, growing up on his family’s dairy farm on Forge Road, near Edendale and its giant Fonterra factory, while Isla has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Otago, and works full-time for the Dairy Green consultancy in Invercargill. Isla, who grew up a dairy farm in Clydevale, near Balclutha in Otago, brings her specialist knowledge in ecology and geography to the dairying business in which she also works in her spare time. The final step from 50/50 sharemilking to farm ownership came for Hayden and Isla when the McLeods, earlier this year, offered to sell the 175ha farm at Hedgehope so they could retire to Central Otago. “We went to see the accountant, and he reckoned the numbers all stacked up, said ‘Good idea, do it,’ so we went ahead, and we’ll be taking over the farm by June 2 next year,” Hayden says. “It goes without saying that we’re pretty thrilled to have reached the goal of farm ownership so young, and we’re grateful to the McLeods for the opportunity they gave us to sharemilk milk for them, and then the offer of the farm. “While we were share-milking for them, they used to come down from their place in Timaru every three or four months to see how we were getting along, but otherwise they left the running of the farm to us.” With the farm purchase behind them, Isla and Hayden can focus on bringing their Friesian herd up to the production goal of 500kg/ms per cow – and with a current per cow average of 490kg/ms they haven’t got far to go. “We’re concentrating on fine-tuning the herd to reach the 500kg/MS goal by culling out the lowest-producing 10% of the herd every year, “ Hayden says. “We inseminate the herd with sexed semen from LIC (Livestock Improvement Company), and it’s a policy that’s working, bringing us steady annual improvement.” Automatic cup removers allow the herd to be milked in the 40-a-side herringbone shed by just one person if necessary, though generally two people do it. The couple have just one staff member, Torben Sullivan, who has been with them for four seasons and is “worth his weight in gold,” Hayden says. “Torben’s on-farm knowledge and ability, combined with the cup removers and the local relief milking business ‘The Gofer,’ allow us to have time off the farm.” Isla and Hayden have come into farm ownership at a good time for the New Zealand’s dairy industry, with the Fonterra payout surging over $10/kg/ms this year.
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