| 21 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Janet Schultz Balancing farm and family in the Taranaki Kim Newth Moving back to home ground at Inglewood was not something that Taranaki dairy farmer Janet Schultz thought she’d be doing after having moved to a lifestyle block in New Plymouth last year. “Unfortunately, due to a change in circumstances, the New Plymouth property is now going on the market and I’m heading back to Inglewood and looking at other options.” It is not the only unexpected recent development for Janet. In October 2023, her daughter and son-in-law – Kelsey and Matt Brooks – resigned as contract milkers on Janet’s farm. “They have three young children and it was just getting too much for them. They thought long and hard before choosing to resign, but it has been the right decision for them. Kelsey’s now working as a Primary ITO advisor and Matt works for Associated Auctioneers at the Stratford Saleyards.” Their resignation decision caused some soul searching for Janet who considered selling her 104ha (86ha effective) farm at Inglewood that she had originally bought in 2006. In the end, after consulting with farm advisor Brendan Attrill, she opted to keep it and went on the hunt for new contract milkers. “We found some very good ones with a lot of experience: Jason and Nicole Chesswas have been with me since the first of June. They had been farming in the past but left it for eight years. They had four young kids and were finding it too much, but as the kids got older, they realised they missed farming and decided to come back. They took a late contract milking job for a year before jumping at the opportunity of a two-year contract here. We have a good working relationship and I still have my finger on the pulse so it has worked out really well.” The farm continues to run a productive pedigree herd, calving 280 cows and milking 270. It’s 60% straight Friesian and 40% straight Jesey and Janet says they’ll be keeping it that way. “We recently sold some weaner Friesian bulls in the market – there’s strong demand for the F16s [three generations of Holstein Friesian pedigree] as they’re hard to come by with all the cross breeding these days.” Janet still manages the 36ha runoff near the farm that’s used for grazing heifers and calves as well as for growing supplementary feed and is in regular contact with Jason and Nicole. A big positive for the farm, which is crisscrossed by multiple rivers and streams, has been reaching full compliance on water and effluent. Looming large had been a consent change ruling out discharge to water, but Janet says land spreading “cost an arm and a leg”. Through discussions with the regional council, she learned that it was acceptable for them to use small-scale pod irrigators that can be moved by motorbike. ‘Jason and Nicole Chesswas have been with me since the first of June’ - Taranaki dairy farmer Janet Schultz. “Using small-scale pod irrigators is working fine. We were also able to use our existing ponds in the end and didn’t need to buy a bladder.” Supporting your rural business www.tandemgroup.co.nz Proud to support Janet Schultz Effluent and Irrigation Services Please give us a call for all your effluent pond pumping & irrigation needs (06) 765 6668 Proudly supporting Janet Schultz “That’s working fine and the regional council is more than happy too. We were also able to use our existing ponds in the end and didn’t need to buy a bladder that would have cost $60,000 to $80,000.” It is a big relief for Janet, who says many farmers are facing huge expenses around managing effluent as they work through compliance requirements.
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