Business Rural Winter 2021

| 25 1800 crossbred cows on 750ha. In total, they employ eight or nine full-time staff, including farm managers, along with three part-time staff. “We have one bigger farm and two smaller ones, milking respectively 1000, 375 and 430 cows. All have rotary sheds with good cup removers, auto teat spray and electronic drafting.” Over the past 20 years, 13 bridges have been built on the farms to keep stock out of waterways, along with countless culverts of varying size, plus more than 50km of waterways fenced. “It has been a huge investment and really beneficial both for animal health and the environment.” Land that is unsuitable for farming has been redeveloped for forestry. “We’ve put in 470ha of pine trees over the last three winters, with some help from government grants.” Stephen travelled overseas after leaving school, but says the pull of farming brought him back home. “It’s what I enjoy. I’ve always loved farming and the variety of work you do is just so satisfy- ing.” • from page 24 ‘Huge investment’ worthwhile Staffing problems a region-wide issue Karen Phelps O btaining steady staff is posing a challenge for many businesses in Southland. And it’s a region wide issue, says Imran Ismail who is a contract milker with wife Zehra on Orauea Pastoral in Otautau. This has led him to take steps to make working on his farm more attractive including a five day on, two day off roster and ensuring staff do not work more than 40-45 hours a week. He also encour- ages staff to regularly use up their leave so that they get breaks at key times of the season. This is made more possible because he ensures all staff members know how to do all the jobs on farm rather than specialising in certain areas. He says this also means staff remains engaged and has opportunities to learn, grow and progress through the dairy system, ultimately achieving their own personal goals. Imran and Zehra know the New Zealand dairy system from the ground up and both the challenges and opportunities it presents. They emigrated from Pakistan with Imran arriving in New Zealand in 2011. He had never farmed before but over the subsequent years worked his way up through the system ending up at Orauea Pastoral around two years ago. “On many farms people work 60-70 hours per week but that’s not sustainable so that’s why I’ve taken a more positive and healthy focus on Orauea Pastoral,” he explains. He says that although the government is trying to direct new immigrants to Southland to fill labour gaps, that because it is not made a stipulation of their visa that they stay there for a certain period of time at the first opportunity many leave. For exam- ple after lockdown when many farms further north were experiencing labour shortages due to workers being trapped overseas they started offering incen- tives for farm workers to shift. This proved a challenge for Orauea Pastoral and they lost some member of the team who preferred working in Canterbury to be closer to a big city. But Imran is grateful he now has a dedicated team and says keen staff plus the right opportunities provided by employers pave the pathway to a successful long-term dairy career. Orauea Pastoral, owned mostly by DAH Agri- management with a small shareholding by a small group of locals, spans 360ha effective and the Friesian-Crossbred herd is basically split into two herds of 400 R2s and R3s and 415 older cows. The farm has two 54 bail rotary sheds with Protrack which means they can each be run by a single person. Imran says the first season he was basically learning how the system in Southland worked after spending his career farming in Canterbury. The wet proved a challenge but this year the herd is on target to produce 445kgs of milk solids per cow. “There the challenge is the dry but you just push a button and the irrigation will start. Here the chal- lenge is the wet and the button you need to push is supplement. But of course you can’t just keep pushing that button indefinitely so it’s about good management and utilising feed wisely,” he says. The herd heads to a grazing block over winter. Orauea Pastoral makes baleage and also buys in standing grass silage, palm kernel and soya hull. A calving pad and feed pad next to the shed makes it easier to manage feeding out on the farm and calving. Zehra, who was a qualified pharmacist in Pakistan working for a multinational company, provides business acumen and takes charge of key roles such as calf rearing and spraying. The couple have two young children, Musa, 5 and Essa, 3, who also keep them busy. Their long-term goal is farm ownership and they are in talks with the owners of Orauea Pastoral to see if it might be a good fit for them to purchase this farm one day. “On many farms people work 60-70 hours per week but that’s not sustainable so that’s why I’ve taken a more positive and healthy focus on Orauea Pastoral.” Problems with attracting steady staff has led contract milker Imran Ismail to take steps to make working at Orauea Pastoral more attractive. 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