NZ Dairy Autumn 2021

16 | nz dairy CENTURY FARMS » Enton Farms Love of the great Richard Loader W hen David Millar’s father was just a kid, his father instilled upon him the idea of finding what you love doing, then find out how you can get someone to pay you to do it and make that your career. Sound advice that has been passed on through the generations as has the love of farming. Growing up on the Waikato farm that has been loved by the same family for over one hundred years, David has vivid memories of helping his parents feed small bales of hay out from a crate attached to the back of a John Deer tractor and reckons he wouldn’t swap that childhood for quids. Finding his passion for farming through his childhood David says it’s the variety that farming provides with no two days ever the same. “I love working out doors, working with animals and being my own boss. There are some wonder- ful opportunities in farming but you have to be prepared to do the hard yards.” After leaving school David made the decision to work on other farms before settling down on the family farm. “Dad was extremely well known in the area. He cast a pretty big shadow and it was important that I got to where I am by my own doing. I’m very proud of my dad and we’re best of mates with similar personalities but we’re our own men.” David and his wife Marie returned to the family farm in 2003 to work with David’s dad. In 2012, David and Marie bought into Enton Farms as equity partners on the farm that includes land that has been in the family since 1919. And so the story really starts in 1919 when David’s Great-Grandfather Walter Chipman, who had a carrying business in Auckland, became ill and was advised by his doctor not to do any hard work for two years. So Walter and his wife Violet became farmers, selling their Auckland home and buying 208 acres of manuka, kanuka and flax covered land for £10 pound an acre in Mangatangi, 10 kilometres west of Miranda. Supported by Violet and their daughters, Walter and his sons set about developing, clearing and ploughing land to milk cows. Early settlers in the area, when the schoolhouse opened three out of seven of the first day pupils were Chipmans and during the school’s recent centennial celebrations, which coincided with the family’s centennial celebrations, the Chipmans were well represented. In 1925, the family began a horse and cart con- tract for the Dairy Company. A glassed-in cab Stuart truck was purchased in 1929 for carrying cream and general goods. During the Great Depression years 200 acres was purchased for £1 an acre and in 1935 the transport Bill and David Millar Photos: Haymaking in the 1920s. Athol (left) and Alan Chipman (1950s). 9LVLW ZZZ WKHJDPHFKDQJHU IDUP WR ÀQG RXW PRUH ‡ 7UDLQLQJ DQG 7HFK 6XSSRUW 6SHFLDOLVWV ORFDWHG DFURVV 1= ‡ 8QOLPLWHG IDFH WR IDFH V\VWHP WUDLQLQJ ‡ &XUUHQWO\ PRQLWRULQJ FRZV LQ 1= ² DQG JURZLQJ ‡ $FFHVV WR JOREDO 5 ' GHSDUWPHQWV ‡ 7UXVWHG E\ IDUPHUV IRU PRUH WKDQ \HDUV Allflex Monitoring Collars Need Convincing? Chat to a local.