Business Rural Winter 2021

18 | Income from cattle exports under threat Richard Loader DAIRY PEOPLE » Gladvale Farms: David Lindsay B eing a family owned portfolio of dairy farms and support blocks in Central Southland, Gladvale Farms Ltd is agile when faced with industry challenges that include shortages of skilled staff and the ever-increasing compliance load. Consisting of five dairy units encompassing 1350 hectares and two support blocks totaling 900 hectares, Gladvale Farms is owned by the Lindsay family, with sixth generation farmer David Lindsay at the helm. Four of the dairy units are in the Oreti Plains area, with the fifth unit forty kilometers away in Dipton West. Heavy investment in cow barns and feed pads enables lactation to be extended to winter milking on three of the properties, with elite producing dry cows bought in and mated to calve in the autumn. Gladvale Farms generally milks 4000 cows across its farms. While cows on the other two properties are wintered out to graziers, the support land is used for rearing beef cattle and dairy heifers. David explains that because replacement heifers are not required, Gladvale Farms has benefited from the export of cattle overseas, an income stream now under threat. “We’re going to have to look at our business model if exports are ceased. It will have a signifi- cant effect on our bottom line which cannot be matched by diversifying to any other land uses on the support blocks. We’re not the only ones down here exporting and it will have an impact on the local communities.” As from the June 1 Gladvale Farms will transition from farm managers to contract milkers on the four Oreti Plains dairy units, with two contract milkers having responsibility for two farms each. “We had a couple of really good guys looking for that opportunity. Ultimately if we didn’t offer a posi- tion here they would have been looking elsewhere. The change gives people the ability to run their own businesses. It will also provide incentive to have a little more attention to detail.” Gladvale Farms currently provides employment for around thirty-five staff across its entire operation including nine people involved in the contracting side. “There’s no question that staffing across the board is tight within the dairy industry, and also skilled contractors. It’s been a battle because there just aren’t the people out there with the necessary skills. “We’ve taken the attitude that we have to train people. We have been doing that with some of the young guys, and creating systems that are the same across all properties. It doesn’t matter what property staff go to, all systems are the same and teach them how to manage the farm in a consistent way.” Despite the size of the business and the com- plexities scale attracts, being a family business that cares about how it farms and its people has ena- bled decisions to be quickly made and acted upon. “We’ve a written a farm policy that’s common across all the farms and we often talk about those farm policies. Sometimes you have to remind people about how we do things and that can bring up points of discussion. We will sit around the table and ask are we doing this right? Is there a better way, or should we be doing things differently? We can make decisions and changes straight away.” While the volume of compliance is a real challenge David says it is about coming up with systems to be able to manage the amount of com- pliance so that people are not loaded up with more and more paper work. “You actually need people out there doing the farm work.” Photos: Consisting of five dairy units and two support blocks, Gladvale Farms in Central Southland is owned by the Lindsay family, with sixth generation farmer David Lindsay (above) behind the wheel. “We’re going to have to look at our business model if exports are ceased. It will have a significant effect on our bottom line which cannot be matched by diversifying to any other land uses on the support blocks. We’re not the only ones down here exporting and it will have an impact on the local communities.” ETHAN MATHIESON M 027 634 7534 E mathiesonelectrical@gmail.com PROUD TO SUPPORT GLADVALE FARMS Please contact your local RLL agent Livestock Specialists – Store and Prime – Auctioneers Valuations – Clearing Sales – Prime Stock Drafting Specialising in all stock - Dairy, Sheep, Beef, Deer and all other livestock requirements www.rurallivestock.co.nz Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd Farmers, are you concerned about improving your fertiliser efficiency and environmental footprint? Then Fert Wholesale Direct Ltd can help, as we have helped Gladvale Farms Ltd The ONE System which through independent trials shows a doubling of response to N. And more recently, our Revolutionary Compound Urea/SOA product where every granule contains both forms of N. Contact Shane Harold on 021 0235 6491 or shane@fertwholesale.co.nz