| 5 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Cam and Cassy Spencer Marlborough move a lifestyle win Rosa Watson Making the move from the deep south to sunny Marlborough has been a lifestyle win for award winning sharemilkers Cam and Cassy Spencer. The couple relocated to Canvastown with their three young children to take on a sharemilking opportunity of 650 cows. They had been 50:50 sharemilking on a on a 141ha, 420-cow New Zealand Rural Property Trust (NZRPT) farm near Otautau in Southland. They were runners up in the Share Farmer of the Year category of the 2020 Southland-Otago Dairy Industry Awards, and received merit awards for pasture performance, along with recording and productivity. However, when the farm went on the market in 2022 the family landed an opportunity further north in sunny Marlborough. Instead of selling their herd, and buying further north, they decided to hold onto their cows they had been breeding from over five years and top up the herd with various lines from the Tasman area. With Cam as the AI tech, they have made big improvements in their cows, and valued holding onto them for the move. Wintering them in mid Canterbury made the shift a little less stressful for their animals, before continuing onto the farm late July before calving, Cam said. Although it had been a huge undertaking, the move has been great, and the cows have performed well so far in their new environment. “Putting aside the challenges that moving up here involved, the lifestyle’s been awesome. Every week we have been exploring the area, meeting new people, and getting immersed in the different culture of diversity the area brings. That side of it’s been great.” Canvastown School – that their eldest attends – is five kilometres down the road and has been an amazing support for their children. Their second child will start in May. The 3.5 kilometre farm had its logistical challenges, as it was “quite a long farm”. To manage this, Cassy came up with an adapted milking routing not only to suit the herd, and long walks, but to sustain production for the season taking into account the varying weather and drought this area brings. “To manage this, we split our herd into two milking mobs on a 3-in-2 alternating roster, therefore the milking times remain the exact same day in day out (5am & 3pm), however the herds alternate their days. “So Herd A will be twice-a-day milking one day, and once-a-day the next, and Herd B on the opposite. (This means) the herd that is on once a-day can utilise the further away paddocks.” She said the benefits had been great, and so far, the season has already shown that production had followed in tow. “We are still maintaining this current milking routine sufficiently through the drought, where a lot of farms around us are all on OAD milking.” Currently they are milking 600 cows, and employ three fulltime staff, including their staff member “Norbelt”, that followed them from Southland. The dairy shed was an “older style” herring-bone milking shed, that had required some work. They were pleased with the performance of their herd this year - so much so they had to readjust their targets that had been set lower due to the dry conditions. For the future, the couple still have the dream of owning their own farm through sharemilking and working hard. But it was getting harder to find those jobs, Cam said. “The pathways to farm ownership are becoming a lot harder, and maybe the farm owners need to start looking at who’s coming in to take over when they want to sell their farm and move on” Cam said. However, there had been a few more jobs crop up for next season, Cam said. And the recent dairy price announcement had been promising. Making the move from Southland to Marlborough has been an ‘awesome’ lifestyle move for the Spencer family. Proud to support Cameron and Cassandra Spencer Locally owned & operated Paul 027 422 5893 | Phil 027 372 9864 | accounts@lesliecontracting.co.nz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=