| 73 nzdairy 73 | DAIRY PEOPLE » Adam and Becs Giddens Adam and Becs make an exceptional team Kim Bowden Husband-and-wife farming duo Adam and Becs Giddens are in their third season on a 340-hectare dairy farm in Eketahuna. “We milk on 220 hectares, and the rest is dairy support,” Adam says. “It is a flat to rolling contour, generally summer safe and wet in the spring, with about 1,800ml rainfall.” They milk 540 cows – mainly Friesians – and rear 120 replacements and approximately 100 beef cross calves. “It’s another revenue stream, and I’m trying to reduce the number of bobby calves each year,” Adam says of the cattle. The Giddens are equity partners in the farm – they’ve pooled resources with six other shareholders to get themselves on the property ladder much earlier than otherwise would have been possible. “You have to have a more open mind on how to get to farm ownership, but farm ownership is still possible, you just have to think outside the square a little bit from what was probably the norm,” Adam says. “The scale of farms has gotten bigger. Twenty-five years ago you might have been able to buy a 150-cow dairy farm; nowadays a 150-cow dairy farm’s not quite economical enough. You need to go bigger, but to go bigger you need more money.” This season they’ve seen a dramatic increase in milk production, attributed to the introduction of in-shed feeding, which allows them to feed the cows more consistently day to day. “We’re on track to produce 242,000 milk solids this year, which is 15 percent ahead of previous years,” Adam says. For him, the business of dairy farming is satisfying, and that drives him. “Every day you get to see how you went, if your decision making was good, because you get a milk docket,” Adam says. “You can see if your cows were happy yesterday or if you underfed them? You get to measure yesterday’s performance every day, and I like that.” Along the way, Adam’s learnt where to direct effort, energy and resourcing to stay sane and improve the business. “Farming’s about controlling what you can control and not worrying about the other stuff - that’s my motto,” he says. Adam didn’t grow up in a farming family – he lived in town and his parents were funeral directors, but he did spend a bit of time with his uncles and aunties on farms. Likewise, Becs grew up in town, in Ashburton. The couple crossed paths while Adam was studying at Lincoln University, and a life on the land became their shared dream. Becs and Adam Giddens. “We got work on a dairy farm in Canterbury for three years or so, and then Becs and I came up to the Wairarapa and went contract milking for five years. After that we went 50/50, sharemilking 240 cows EKETAHUNA ENGINEERINGLTD For all your Engineering Requirements. Contact Adam or Tony 06 375 8382 eketahunaengineering@yahoo.co.nz for four years.” Over that time, there’s been three additions to their team, and Adam and Becs have juggled work on the farm and raising a family, with Becs “a mum first, farmer second”, Adam says. It’s a good life for the next generation. “They’re all involved on the farm. They love the cows – they’ve all had pet calves - and probably a bit of the machinery-side of things too,” he says.
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