16 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Cleams Dairies Recalibrating work-life balance a priority Russell Fredric Implementing a good work-life balance has necessitated some changes for a Taranaki couple who describe themselves as ‘driven’. Sharemilkers Owen Clegg and Hollie Wham have a big little reason for changing their priorities in the form of their rst child, Ellie, who was born 23 months ago. “We decided we couldn’t stay as busy as we were, and that family is far more important to us that working our butts off at out,” Owen says. The couple are in their second season as 50/50 sharemilkers, milking 300 cows on 92 hectares just out of Hawera and a short distance from the Fonterra processing plant they supply to. “We were running two farms out of Manutahi; it was quite busy doing that, but we were doing well out of it. We were milking 180 on one and 210 on the other.” “We were just going to work ourselves ragged and we were probably in not a good space even though we enjoyed what we were doing; it was just good to take that pressure off and discovering, I guess, enjoying what we are doing a bit more.” Owen has been working on dairy farms since 2008 and Hollie since 2011. The couple were the 2018 Taranaki Share Farmers of the Year. The farm has a 20 a-side herringbone milking shed and the cows are split into two herds. “It takes about two-and-a half to three hours to milk and wash up, which is our reason why we run two herds; less standing around on concrete time not eating or making milk.” “It’s not ideal and that’s one of the bigger reasons we employed a labour unit, just so we can be rotating around the cow shed and doing other things.” Owen and Hollie installed automatic drafting in the shed this season and tted collars on their cows four ago when they were running the two farms. “It was little bit of extra security and peace of mind for us because we weren’t on one of the farms all the time and it helped the staff members Cleams Dairies Peter Laurence 027 252 2174 William Moynihan 027 279 7099 Conan Rowlands Contracting Phone Conan on 027 415 7017 or email conan.rowlands@xtra.co.nz For all grass and maize harvesting, round and square baling, wrapping, cultivation, maize planting, drilling, hedge mulching. Milking & Water Systems Ltd - 11 Te Tahi Street, Whakatane 07 307 0704 milkingwatersystems@yahoo.com Existing Dairy Plant Maintenance Taranaki sharemilkers Owen Clegg and Hollie Wham. to pick up on cows that were on heat, and it helped out with animal welfare. “Now that we’re on the one farm they’re fantastic.” The farm runs a system two to system three operation and annually supplements with grass silage, palm kernel extract, hay and maize, with six hectares of turnips grown on-farm. “We have a runoff up the road where we have all our calves and half of our heifers. It also brings home some silage and winters cows.” This season there was not a lot of sunshine which inhibited grass growth until mid-November. “Normally the rst of October we’d be humming whereas this year it was the start of November.” The higher milk solids pay-outs of the past two to three seasons has allowed Owen and Hollie to reduce debt and by the end of this season they expect to be debt free. They are not exactly sure yet what their next step will be, but it puts them in a good position to have choices and to take advantage of opportunities as they arise, including to achieve their goal of farm ownership. “That’s been our main goal, to smash down our debt, that’s been our big driver and to achieve that is pretty exciting.
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