NZ Dairy Summer 2020

| 65 nz dairy Telling your story with numbers By combining our Business and Farming knowledge with Xero and Figured for all your Planning, Forecasting and Monitoring Helping you move forward. 378 Crozier Street, Pirongia 3802 07 871 1866 We do lucerne, maize & grass forage harvesting, balage, buying & selling grass, cartage & transport, fertiliser spreading, direct drilling, power harrowing, discing & air seeding. or Mike on 027 484 9117 Call Dave on 021 84 91 17 CODD CONTRACTORS WE INVEST IN THE LATEST EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY ON FARM » Trent & Judy Paterson The Paterson family – Callum, Reece, Trent, Hannah and Judy. Trent and Judy’s Karapiro property extends over 230 acres with Jerseys the breed of choice. Goal setting, good fortune successful mix Sue Russell T rent Paterson grew up on a dry stock and deer farm north of Tauranga and started his own farming journey by undertaking a degree in Agriculture through Massey University. That decision to take up formal learning Trent says was significant in forming his subsequent farming success. “It gave me a foot in the door to get Managers jobs at a very young age. I came straight out of varsity into management of a large deer farm with four staff and took care of all the financial work as well.” He worked on the deer farm for three years where he married Judy and their first son Reece was born. As a result the couple travelled often to the Waikato. “I reluctantly handed in my notice and started looking for jobs in the Waikato at 25 years of age. I looked at deer and dry-stock farms but there was no real pathway to grow equity like there is in dairy- ing.” So Trent set himself a goal to grow equity in his farming business in 10 years through contract milk- ing, sharemilking to eventual farm ownership. He attained a manager’s job in Morrinsville with 400 cows but within six months had acquired a lower order sharemilking job for the next season with 650 cows in Ngutunui. Their second son Callum was born while in Morrinsville. Trent stayed in the LOSM job for two seasons and borrowed heavily to acquire a 50/50 sharemilking job back in Morrinsville. Along with the Jersey herd, milked once a day, Trent’s farming business also includes 350 deer and up to 200 bulls. Borrowing money from the family helped solidify Trent’s ambition to own an asset based business. In total the couple sharemilked at Morrinsville on a farm owned by a Trust for 10 years and in 2007-2008 when cow prices doubled Trent seized the opportunity to quickly get himself out of debt and with a large amount of equity built up by this time the couple secured a 500 acre run-off in Hoe ‘O’ Tainui, as well as running a 50:50 sharemilking operation. This was a move that he says moved their equity out of a variable asset of stock and into the more stable asset of land. While in Morrinsville, their daughter Hannah was born. When the Trust decided to sell their farm in 2014 Trent again used this as an opportunity to advance his goal of farm ownership and through his bank, attained an equity partnership. He sold the bulk of his herd and took 200 with him to their farm in Karapiro and within six months of settling his neighbour offered his 140 hectare fully fenced deer farm to Trent to buy. “I managed to put that together as a separate equity partnership and sold my run-off at Hoe ‘O’ Tainui.” In total the Paterson’s Karapiro property extends over 233 hectares and they have now brought the bank equity partner out of the business. Trent’s a great believer in making the best of opportunities that come out of the blue. “I have used equity partnership to grow my scale and I know that isn’t for everyone.” The dairy unit operates through split calving 220 cows in autumn and 110 in spring. The breed of choice is Jersey. “They are just a nice cow to be around and work with and their efficiency to convert feed into milk and their higher fertility.” For the last three of the seven years he has owned the farm Trent has converted to milking once a day. He describes the farm as a lovely rolling to steep property with a smattering of flat and along with his dairy herd the farming business includes 350 deer on the run-off and up to 200 bulls. As for advice to his three children, aged 20, 18 and 15 Trent’s told them to enjoy this time in their life. “These are their best years but I have also told them to save a large proportion of their income. I’ve always said to them you don’t want to be a person on wages all your life and I’m pleased they are preparing themselves well for a good financial future.” ‘ Fantastic’ season a morale boost • from page 64 even this positive progress came with a catch. “We had to regrass 80% of our milking platform last year. We pretty much started with a drought when we arrived here, the grass species were so bad and there was a lot of weeds that nothing grew.” The pasture was so poor it was like walking into a season-long drought and feed had to be imported during the entire season, Rob says. Fifty per cent of pastures were regrassed with Mohaka because of its durability though the hot Hawke’s Bay summers and good growth in other seasons. “So to start out our second season in a better position we sowed the other half in Shogun, known for its high performance in winter and spring. “This paid off this season with our first cut of silage in August of 30 hectares and a second at the end of September of 30 hectares put into baleage. “The cows are in better condition and our peak per cow production peaked at 2.5kgMSms per cow with no bought in feed.”