6 | nzdairy Following their dream Kelly Deeks 50/50 sharemilkers Carlos and Bernice Delos Santos continue to follow their dream towards farm ownership despite low milk payouts, rising costs, and challenging seasons, as they make good decisions about spending with their future in mind. Carlos and Bernice have been in the dairy industry for 23 years, working their way up from relief milkers, through lower order sharemilking, and continuing to grow their business and their herd. By 2017, they were 50/50 sharemilking 300 cows at Ngakuru and entered the Central Plateau Dairy Industry Awards with a view to improving their business. As well as the title of Central Plateau Sharefarmer of the Year, the couple walked away from the competition with a firm plan for how to achieve farm ownership. They immediately started grazing all their young stock off farm, enabling them to increase their herd from 300 to 360 cows, and they worked out how many cows they needed to be milking each year in order to get to 1000 cows, with a view to then selling the majority of the herd and putting that money into a deposit on their own farm. “1000 cows will get us a farm, but there will be a few obstacles on the way so we always need to be mindful of our expenses.” Carlos and Bernice are now in their second season 50/50 sharemilking 1000 cows at Hamurana near Rotorua, scaling up from their previous 50/50 position on a 600 cow farm at Rerewhakaaitu. Cows are still milked twice a day. The farm will milk over 1000 cows next season. DAIRY PEOPLE » Carlos and Bernice Delos Santos They had a tough first season on the new farm, with reproduction issues creating high empty rates and impeding on early calving. Although they missed the boat on intervention, they got quickly on to the issues for this season. Now they are facing a new set of challenges. “It’s been a hard season financially, and it’s been about getting through and surviving,” Carlos says. “We’ve cut back on personal expenses but on the farm, I’m probably spending more to make sure we don’t have another bad season.” Carlos and Bernice have spent money on reproduction, CIDRing some cows and continuing to synchronise yearlings to get replacements from them as they have done for the past 10 years. “That was one of the things we didn’t really want to give up,” Carlos says. “We are making good genetic gain out of doing that and we didn’t want to compromise it.” His says his approach this season is it’s easier to ask the bank for forgiveness than for permission! Meanwhile he is making some new savings by doing all his own fertiliser application, a bit of mowing, undersowing, and spraying. The family budget is now under additional but worthwhile pressure with the recent arrival of Carlos and Bernice’s fifth child, a son, and his siblings are very much enjoying him. Bernice and Carlos have a genuine partnership and they both work hard towards achieving their dreams, having built up their herd together, right from the first 30 cows they bought. “My wife does a lot of work, whether it is on the farm, or looking after our budget, or looking after our kids, or looking after me. I couldn’t have done it without her.” Carlos and Bernice Delos Santos Bernice, Casey and the newly born Caleb with Carlos in front of the vats.
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