10 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Adam Hands Virginia Wright Adam Hands and ancée Zoe Haylock are in an equity partnership with Adam’s parents, David and Barbara, using a 50/50 sharemilking business relationship that’s more complicated than usual as they set-up for succession. Normally 50/50 sharemilking involves one party owning the herd, paying the cost of running that herd, and getting 50% of the milk cheque in return. In this instance, however, half of that 50% milk cheque is going towards paying off the half of the herd that David and Barbara still own, as they help ease Adam and Zoe into having more equity in their equity partnership. Now 28, Adam did a diploma of Agriculture when he left school at 17 which took him into a herd manager job in Dar eld, followed by two 2IC jobs in succession on sister farms of the rst. Next followed a contract-milking job with 850 cows in Hinds where he spent two years before taking on a sharemilking job with 300 cows on the family farm, bought by his parents in 2007, on which they had a manager. With succession on the table, and with some lease land disappearing which would mean a drop in cow numbers, the Hands family decided they needed more cows if they wanted to support two families. Hence the purchase of their current 186 effective hectares, one of the rst farms on the Manawatu River in Norsewood. They leased an additional 380 hectares to provide additional milking platform and run-off to support their 700-cow milking herd and dry-stock. ‘What we’re doing is setting up the business so that if that lease disappeared we could still milk 500 cows on our own farm,” says Adam. The farming business is named 247 after a pet cow Adam had years ago with the same number. The name doesn’t have anything to do with how busy life on the farm is, but the arrival of twins, George and Charlie, for Zoe and Adam not long after the move, means it’s probably not far off the Work across all sectors, especially sustainability Phone: 06 374 7090 Email: scott@dannevirkehonda.co.nz www.dannevirkehonda.co.nz Proud to Support Adam Hands mark, especially with Zoe just starting back to work fulltime in a new role with ANZ. “The goal is to purchase Mum and Dad out of the share-milking equity partnership within the next two years. They’re ready to step back and enjoy a bit of travelling so we’re keen to make it work nancially for everyone.” Having looked at the farm when it was in drought it was dif cult to assess the exact condition of the pasture with the result that bringing it up to scratch took more work than expected. So far across both blocks they’ve done around 300 hectares of direct drilling with a mix of temporary grasses to bring the quality up in the short term, and they’ll slowly roll that over into permanent grasses in a seven-to-10-year paddock rotation. With a desire to give back to the community, combined with wanting to understand what’s happening with the stream of new regulations coming into play, Adam has taken on the role of Assistant Vice-chair for the Sharemilkers division of Tararua’s Federated Farmers. “I wanted to help drive forward farming in New Zealand. I’m learning a lot and getting some insight and understanding across the whole Primary Industry Sector. We’re doing a lot of work across all the sectors, especially around sustainability, and the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) legislation, which is the Greenhouse Gas emission legislation.” Research speci c to New Zealand’s farming systems is now underway to develop tools that might be useful in reducing methane emissions. The genetics companies such as LIC, Ambred and others are already selecting for low methane producing bulls. Results could take up to 10 years though and Adam, and Federated Farmers, would like to see more time before the legislation comes into force. In the meantime he’s got his work cut out helping raise twin boys and getting the family farm producing the way he knows it has the potential to do. “I wanted to help drive forward farming in New Zealand. I’m learning a lot and getting some insight and understanding across the whole Primary Industry Sector. We’re doing a lot of work across all the sectors, especially around sustainability, and the He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) legislation.” Paul 027 244 3354 | Kyllee 027 688 8677 Paul & Kyllee Henton • DAIRY • DEER • EQUINE • PIGS • BEEF • SHEEP • ANTI-FATIGUE • WINTERING @AgriTechImportsNZ pkhenton@xtra.co.nz www.comfycow.co.nz
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