NZ Dairy Summer 2020

4 | nz dairy Servicing the Puketapu, Patoka & Puketitiri area for baling, cultivation, drilling, maize / beet planting & earthmoving requirements CONTRACTING 1012 Omahu Rd 06 879 9998 We keep you growing PROUD TO SUPPORT MITCHELL DAIRY FARMS LTD DAIRY PEOPLE » Mitchell Farms: Greg & Gail Mitchell H awke’s Bay farmers Greg and Gail Mitchell say dairy farming is the perfect way to start from wages to building your own multi million dollar business. And with Covid-19 making some industries redundant it is a great opportu- nity for people to transfer their skills to the dairy industry. “Dairying is all about having good people, organi- sational and management skills. It could be that, for example, someone coming from the tourism industry has these same skills that could be applied to dairying. You can quickly learn how to milk cows but it’s the operational side that’s really important,” says Greg. The Mitchells are a case in point. They shifted careers to dairy in their mid 20s – Greg was previ- ously a butcher and Gail a nurse. They purchased 12ha just out of Hamilton and ran bulls on it, while still working in their usual jobs, then got a job contract milking 170 cows while Gail continued working as a nurse. They didn’t make much in that job but it acted as a spring board to their first 50:50 sharemilking position milking 220 cows. They quickly reached production targets and were offered a second sharemilking job of 450-500 cows while getting third in the Central Plateau region in the dairy industry awards for their first 50:50 job. In their second year of 50:50 sharemilking they bought a 100ha farm at Atiamuri milking 300 cows, which they had for five years while keeping one of the 50:50 sharemilking jobs. They sold this Atiamuri farm to fund them into their second farm, a 150ha unit, which meant they could afford to employ staff, and purchased a run off. This funded them into their first 460ha effective High Road farm at Patoka in 2013 that milks 1550 cows before adding a second 300ha effective farm 10 kilometres away in 2016, which milks 800 cows. Both admit they never thought they would one day be where they are – milking over 2000 cows on PHOTOS: The Mitchell’s 25,000 cublic litre effluent pond and weeping wall, which is 50m long and 12 wide. Dairying viable option for jobless Karen Phelps two farms they own and on track to produce close to one million milk solids. Gail says the key to their success has been to always adapt. “You have to look at where things are going and start adapting your business to change all the time. It’s about embracing new technology, being open to ideas and being innovative.” Their next goal is to have a contract milker on their High Road farm so they can take a step back and to purchase a support block to run their own heifers, giving greater control, as well as diversify their income by adding in a beef component. “With Covid-19 there could be milk price volatility so it spreads risk,” says Greg. “But farming has always had challenges of one sort or another – drought, disease, milk price etc. If you look for solutions rather than problems you can do a lot. “There are not many businesses like dairy where you can come in as a wage earner and build a multi million dollar business from scratch. If we’d both stayed in our old jobs there is no way we could have what we’ve got now. There are huge oppor- tunities for people to come into dairy and do what we’ve done to have a secure future.” Hawke’s Bay Farmers Greg and Gail Mitchell.