NZ Dairy Winter 2021
6 | nz dairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Belinda Price New season brings new venture for Dairy Kim Newth T aranaki sharemilker Belinda Price has not had a lot of time as yet to think about what she will do with the $20,000 scholarship she received along with her 2021 Fonterra Dairy Women of the Year title in April. It has been a busy end to the season as her and husband Ben pre- pared to leave their 50/50 sharemilking position at Waitotara and take up a 350-cow lease farm. The couple own an 80ha farm near Opunake, about an hour’s drive away from Waitotara. The lease farm is only just down the road from their property, which will save a lot of driving time for the couple this coming season. “It also has a run-off attached so we can rear our own young stock, which I’m really looking forward to,” says Belinda. “The travel we’ve been doing is horrendous. We’ve only had our own farm for three seasons and want to put our own mark on it, but it is difficult doing that when it is so far away.” Taking up the lease farm has also brought a reorganisation of stock and finances. “We’ve been selling down all our cows in the sharemilk- ing business and some on our own farm and put- ting that money into debt reduction. We’re getting another herd together on our farm and leasing cows on the lease farm.” As Belinda observes, there is no ‘one size fits all’ pathway to farm ownership. “We don’t have family backing and we need to be able to show the banks we can sustain the debt that we have and pay it down in order to progress.” Belinda impressed the Fonterra judges in April with her passion, energy and leadership qualities. She has considerable mentorship experience in the dairy sector, including PrimaryITO, DairyNZ’s Dairy Connect Programme and Rural Support. PRICE TRUST PARTNERSHIP w w w . c a m p b e l l c o n t r a c t i n g . n z Taranaki sharemilker Belinda price with husband Ben and sons Tobi (left) and Hayden.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=