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Otago Daily Times
29-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Farms not always just for farming
Lancashire agribusinessman Olly Harrison makes more money from outside income than from his cropping business, Tim Cronshaw writes. United Kingdom's farming YouTuber Olly Harrison has developed 14 different income streams, but the "bleak" truth is off-farm businesses are the only ones making a profit. The agri-businessman has a large YouTube following of nearly 150,000 subscribers on the online video sharing platform. Among his many income earners are his OllyBlogsAgricontractfarmer channel, cropping, dog walking fields, a pet hotel, chipping tree waste for biomass, sunflower mazes and office and holiday rentals. The charismatic farmer often had an audience in fits of laughter as he took them through his many businesses during a speech via video link at a Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) conference at Lincoln University. Mr Harrison said the future of agriculture was in a difficult place in the UK, particularly in the cereal sector, as the economics did not stack up. Fertiliser and chemical costs are up and the price of wheat at about $337 a tonne is at a three- or four-year low. "We either have to sell it better or stop growing it or carry on what I've been doing for the last 10 years thinking the next year is going to be a better year ... It is very much crunch time at the moment. The government incentive for sustainable farming is sort of propping the farm up for three years." Only YouTube and other outside income had allowed him to expand the farm. "The percentage of the turnover, I would say it's around 50/50 [farm versus off-farm income] and we are still farming a considerable acreage and turning over lots of cash. "Basically the income is 50/50 in turnover, but the profits are 100% definitely from the diversification." The Government's Sustainable Farm Initiative (SFI) scheme had worked well for him, but new applicants were no longer being accepted and it was looking "bleak" he said. "Diversification seems to be the only way at the moment." Some of his business ventures had been more successful than others — such as buying three motor homes during Covid-19 to rent out. "They were a little bit of a hassle because people kept crashing them ... I think anything involving not many staff is good because staff can be hard work. "We have dog walking fields and I know that sounds pretty strange, but we have fields fenced off with deer netting and you hire them by the hour and people pay £10 ($NZ22) to let the dog run around off the lead. That is by far the most profitable bit of diversification because it paid for the land in six months that it's on, but you do have to deal with the public, and that can be hard work." Since leaving school at 16 after struggling with dyslexia, he has built up a farm to about 600ha. He grows about 320ha acres of wheat and a lot of barley, 60ha in spring beans as well as grass, sunflowers and oil seed rape — a difficult crop to grow now because of seed dressing restrictions. Spring flowers are also sown, mainly for wild bird food seed as part of a SFI incentive on 400ha at about $585 an acre. After checking the SFI guidelines, he began double cropping this about five years ago, harvesting barley two to three weeks earlier in June and barley again in October. "I thought I would push the boundaries a bit with this and drill a crop immediately after harvest if we harvest early and broadcast it into the standing crop and let the birds harvest it in the winter, and then I would drill winter wheat as soon as I possibly can." When his SFI agreement ends in 18 months he plans to harvest some of the crops himself for a blend to sell in garden centres and perhaps by mail order on a subscription-based model. "Because if you get someone on subscription, it's harder not to buy it than it is to buy it. I've seen a few people do it with eggs and veg boxes so I just thought I like combines and I like growing cereals, so why can't it work for cereals? And that's probably my next venture." Energy options also appeal to him. On the farm, he tries to use no tillage as much as possible, putting crops in with a 12m drill on a combine followed by a 36m sprayer. Branching off into business outside of farming began in 2006, when he borrowed money to convert old brick buildings, formerly housing cattle, into office space. Mr Harrison said the development had provided regular income for the past 20 years at the urban fringe property near Liverpool, and this had been much needed over "turbulent times" for crop prices. Solar panels installed on the top of south-facing grain store sheds from 2015 means they are self-sufficient in electricity, with surplus power sold back to the grid. He said a big part of the business was recycling tree waste provided from city gardeners and tree surgeons, which kept them busy over winter. "They have nowhere to put that tree waste so they bring it to us and we process it and it used to go to power stations, but now we use a lot of it ourselves in a biomass boiler we use then to dry our own grain." A commercial grain store used to be filled with oilseed rape, but the crop has become so difficult to grow in the UK a replacement crop will need to be found the storage may move into imported animal feeds coming from the Liverpool port. Another business set up with an ex-girlfriend about eight years ago made great use of sandstone barns as a small animal hotel. Little used now, he still considers it a good business option after a cheap renovation kitted it out with rabbit hutches and animal runs for holidaymakers housing pets at $33 a day. "Talk about a fool and their money easily parted — one person actually brought a pigeon while they were away and that was around for about six months and [cost them] $4500 for this pigeon with a broken wing. It was a very good business because there were lots of people for cats and dogs, but no-one was really specialising in small animals like hamsters, guinea pigs and predominantly rabbits." By accident, the innovative farmer invented a seed sock to clean a seed drill without putting all the contents on a floor. His neighbour makes Bouncy Castles and he got him to make a 3m-square sheet with a hole in the middle to act as a spout from offcuts. Farmers seeing the sock on his YouTube channel made inquiries about buying one, which spawned a manufacturing business with another company distributing them. Mr Harrison gains income from merchandise sales on his YouTube channel after a company approached him to manufacture, sell and distribute sales. But he ended up getting too many order requests and updates himself, so he brought it in-house and today it turns over $225,000 a year. At a nearby farm he rented for about 12 years, he noticed a digger doing test holes and learned it was for sale for $2.7 million for 30ha. So he arranged finance to buy the property, including a house and full set of farm buildings. "But I didn't know what to do with it and I wasn't sure what to do with the buildings and didn't want to borrow more money to convert them into offices — which do really well because we are so close to the city — so while I was finding my feet randomly this girl turned up in the yard to put her horse somewhere while she was at university at vet school." Realising vet intakes were mostly women, often with horses, he drew up plans to convert them into stables and rent the farmhouse as student accommodation. When Covid-19 arrived halfway through developing the stables, he changed tack as there was a huge demand for holiday lets, so he upped the specs for the living quarters, and after putting in a hot tub it "absolutely flew" when they put it on Airbnb. Another opportunistic tumble into business was after a visit to Ukraine before the Russian conflict, when he marvelled at the miles and miles of snowy-white fields from the window of a train. A translator told him it was even better when sunflower crops were in flower. That spring he replaced a 2ha field of wheat chewed out by rabbits with sunflowers after going to the garden centre. He showed photos on social media and a friend's wife suffering from cancer asked for a bunch; he worked out there would have been value in the flowers if they were not so busy harvesting grain. In a brainwave, he wondered if the public might buy unharvested plots of sunflowers so birds could feed on them over winter — well before the taxpayer-funded SFI was introduced. Realising they were more likely to give him money if it was for charity, he started a JustGiving fundraiser page. "I needed a charity so I Googled the words sunflower, charity and Liverpool and what pops up is the Liverpool Sunflower Cancer Charity. That was brilliant, as I had just been with someone that has got cancer." Overnight, after going live, the page raised $13,500. After thinking the sunflower fields would make a good maze, the next year he tried to grow 8ha, but drought left them tatty and another attempt was thwarted by pigeons and slugs. When the BBC contacted him asking if they could film David Attenborough in a sea of sunflowers for a Green Planet programme in 2020, he put in such a good crop that he was finally able to put a good maze in, with half the profits going to a local children's charity and the other half to him. The sunflower maze ended up being a "roaring success", making $225,000. Raising money for charity became addictive, and after seeing a tractor with Christmas lights he organised a convoy to make money for a local children's hospital. The police were unimpressed when the 40 to 50 expected tractors turned out to be so many that some of the procession heading into Liverpool had not left the farm yard by the time the first tractor was several kilometres down the road. More than $115,000 was raised, and the fundraiser has been repeated every year since. In much the same fashion, his entry into posting daily on YouTube started when the local newspaper came to film him from a distance during Covid-19 and asked him to take some footage from his phone while explaining what he was doing on a tractor while rolling wheat. He put the same video on Instagram and Facebook and when it was well received, did another small video the next day and each day after. School teachers approached him asking if they could use it for online learning and he put them on YouTube and sent a link. The channel has grown to just under 150,000 subscribers, with daily posts candidly showing the successes and failures, often with his trademark humour. The farmer's 1500-plus videos have been watched more than 77 million times, with his content resonating with farming enthusiasts and urban people curious about rural life. About a year later he ended up rescuing a young man from a flooded car with his tractor during a big flood and it was widely shared. When it was being watched 9000 times a day, he opted to monetise the page, and after waking up the next morning it had earned $3.40. "To me it was like free money." His earnings steadily increased to the stage he calculated the income could cover finance for a new sprayer. More classic tractors followed, which are used on the farm and make the videos more interesting. While looking for a second-hand combine, he was deeply shaken when a friend struggling with depression took his own life. "A mate of mine who was doing a Nuffield scholarship in New Zealand actually told me people were well looked after out there and milk tank drivers [were] trained to spot signs of depression, so we ran a few workshops to try and educate farmers in our local area about mental health and talking about things." When the Claas Lexion combine harvester arrived he told this story to the guy servicing it, who had also lost a good mate to depression. "I said 'this is ridiculous, we need to do something about it' and said 'why don't we drive a combine from John o' Groats to Land's End?'." About seven years passed before they took on the 1500km challenge in four and a-half days, raising $240,000 for charity. His charitable contributions to date total more than $1 million. Mr Harrison was named the International Agricultural Influencer for YouTube by the German Agricultural Society, and recognised by the National Farmers' Union as a Community Farming Hero. He has promised to leave a farm to each of his three children. That was complicated in the UK government's Budget last October, when it decided to introduce a 20% tax on agricultural land and business assets on death. "That basically means any farm trying to pass on to the next generation, you have to find 20% of what the whole land is worth — all the buildings, all the livestock, all the inputs, all the stuff in the shed and the field. "As you know with farming there is not 20% around very easily, especially if you have just lost a member of the family at the same time, so it's pretty scandalous and not really possible to do, and there's been an uproar." Thousands of irate farmers staged a mass protest in London. Mr Harrison was among lobby group members who happened to be at the Ducati motorbike factory on the way to attend an agricultural show in Italy. Concerned about the farmers' potential reactions, they quickly contacted police — via Zoom from the Ducati headquarters — who accommodated their requests for a gathering point and stage where protesters could listen to speakers, and provided access to Whitehall Rd. "We came out of this broom cupboard in Italy thinking 'we can't believe we've just shut central London down for the day in a week's time' and that's what we did." Celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson was part of the day, attended by about 45,000 farmers, with donations to a food bank reminding the public that farmers are valuable food producers. "The YouTube income has allowed me to expand the farm and it's been great and also allowed me to have bit of a voice when it comes to getting people together and lobbying the government for something that will work better."
Otago Daily Times
24-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Call to check stray voltage in cow sheds
An Ashburton farmer is advising dairy farmers to get their milking sheds checked for electrical faults after leakjing power was found to be making his cows "twitchy". Tim Cronshaw reports. Canterbury dairy farmers have found their "twitchy" cows are getting shocks from electrical faults in dairy sheds by voltage leaks up to 60 times above recommended levels. They are advising other farmers to get their sheds checked by professionals using peak voltage meters and oscilloscopes to trace voltage differences in a two to three hour test. Distressed cows reluctant to go on and off platforms are excreting more, prolonging milking times and becoming susceptible to mastitis as they would rather retain some milk than get a shock when the milk pump starts to operate. Stray voltage is caused by wiring failing to be earthed properly or two surfaces conducting electricity. Small electrical currents make contact with cows through metal pipes and rails in the dairy shed and they become agitated by the tingle or mild shock. Ashburton farmer Willy Leferink was aware of the risk of electrical shocks when he was in the Netherlands and began noticing his herd displaying unusual behaviour in the rotary milking shed. The cows were defecating just before they came into contact with a teat sprayer and this was traced to a live reading of 3.8voltage, he said. "The cows sensed any minute they were going to get a shock so the first thing they did was a number two. "That creates a lot of mess and is not good for the cows. "We fixed the issue with a copper piece in the line to neutralise the voltage to the frame so power would go through the frame and not to the cows. "At the following milking not one cow defecated and the cows were a lot calmer." Another voltage issue preventing "scared" cows from going on the platform was also sorted. "What happened was we cut about 20% off the milking time. "For me that was an hour per day and for bigger sheds that might be more. That means staff can do other work and the cows are relaxed. I always felt the cows were a little bit tense and twitchy when you touched their udders and that's all gone." Mr Leferink said the shed wiring was earthed when it was built in 2012, but some of it had likely corroded. The cost of electrical repairs was "chicken feed" compared with quicker milkings, less water used to wash down the shed and having happier cows. He said many farmers would probably have no idea they had stray voltage and this was becoming more likely as farm electronics increased in sheds, fencing and irrigation. "I was trained in this field back in the 1970s and particularly in our area there was a big problem because the Germans didn't earth their power generation properly. "It was feeding back underground into the power grid east of the Netherlands and when they started developing free stalls and steel was involved all of a sudden these cows were getting shocked. "A cow can feel 0.36voltage and we found 20volt on our platform and wondered why the cows didn't want to come off the platform." The 0.364volt is based on research finding this is when 10% of cows exhibit a negative reaction. Electrical circuits put in by contractors had met building codes when the shed was first built and he had earlier brought in since-retired inspector Brian Rickard to check for stray voltage and fix some of the problems. Since then, teat sprayer and variable-speed drives had been put in. Continuing to sense the cows were unhappy, he got his electrician, Lawrence McCormick, who had since bought Mr Rickard's Stray Voltage Solutions business, to test the shed again. Mr McCormick said he had been the electrician on the farm for 10 years and, without the correct test equipment, had no idea anything was wrong. "I believed that everything was OK because when they pushed 'go' the machine started and the cows got milked. "I tested the way Brian taught me with the gear I purchased off him recently and we found quite a few problems and the best thing is that I have found solutions to them." Mr McCormick said there was a lot of leakage from variable drives and voltage differences between weigh scales and the rails around the yards. The teat spray was live so cows were getting live liquid put on to them on the last four or five bales before they came off and this was causing them to defecate, he said. "Cows are flight animals so when they think something will hurt or go wrong they will run away and the best way to run away fast is to lighten the load." He said extra steps were taken above the electrical code to improve the wiring of the drives and remove voltage from the equipment. "We fixed the earthing and put in filters and ferrites [chokes] which are like the little lumpy bit on the cable before they plug into laptop chargers. "Every switch-mode power supply in New Zealand is supposed to have one of them. "So your variable-speed drive is just an over-size switch-mode power supply. "The results have been unreal." Most rotary sheds have variable-speed drives on the platforms, vacuum pumps and milk lift pumps and some farms have them on meal feeders. All of the 40 dairy sheds he has tested since March have showed faults to varying degrees. "I can tell by the quality of their stock and the ways their properties are maintained that the farmers who are getting me in obviously care about what they are doing and just don't know there was a problem."
Otago Daily Times
29-05-2025
- Science
- Otago Daily Times
Farm sustainabilityfund to help farming family trial biostimulant
Dewhirst Land has eliminated synthetic nitrogen from its Canterbury soils which are about to get a bacteria and fungi boost, Tim Cronshaw writes. A Canterbury dairy farming family with a herd of 1700 cows is about to go deeper into soil health after being free of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser for three years. Dewhirst Land has just won a $35,000 grant from The a2 Milk Company's farm sustainability fund towards a project testing bacteria and fungi added to the soil with a tailored pasture mix. The supplier of a2 milk for Dunsandel-based processor Synlait Milk will foot the remainder of the bill for the $90,000 project on part of the 435ha property in Selwyn. As a structural engineer by trade, managing director Isaac Williams takes an engineering lens to the farm he jointly manages with his wife's family. He said the family had been running regenerative, diverse multi-species pasture for three or four years on about 85% of the milking platform. This had been producing good results and they looked to push this further with a trial based on a RespondBio biostimulant system. "We are a farm trying to push the boundaries a wee bit and be innovative in sustainability and regenerative pastoral farming. "In doing so it's a bit of a space where there's no real hard and fast research or evidence supporting it, not because it's not working, but because it's just that nobody has put the money into it." Mr Williams said they initially dismissed RespondBio as another "sales pitch", before revisiting its fungi and bacteria-enriching potential to test it for themselves. "We had always known with the soil health on Canterbury dairy farms it is a challenge to maintain high populations of fungi and bacteria, particularly fungi as the bacteria we've still got. "For us, we have been very much on that journey with agronomists and soil specialists Agrownomics and AgResearch who have been doing some trials on our farm as well. Time and time again the fungi side of things had come up." Fungi helped to breakdown organic matter and spread and mobilise nutrients within the soil and between the root systems, he said. "We asked ourselves how we could get more fungi and nobody really had an answer and I recalled this conversation that RespondBio had floated to us about fungi and bacteria and we picked up the phone. The prices were a bit up there and as a structural engineer by trade I'm all about numbers ... The numbers they had were relative to a North Island system which didn't really relate to our system here in Canterbury. So I told them if we are going to do this I wanted to substantiate it with our own measurements and track it, but by the time you factor in the product cost and the time doing the recording I didn't know if it would stack up as a trial." However, the claims for substantial increases in dry matter yields were appealing as it would mean they could reduce their supplementary feeding of palm kernel extract by growing more pasture on the farm. About the time they were toying with canning the idea, they came across a2 Milk Company grants. Mr Williams said they were pleased to get the funding to progress the project after preparing a proposal with input from their agronomists and AgResearch. Dewhirst Land will begin the trial over one year on 40ha in about October. This land will be split into two parts of four paddocks each, with one of the paddocks in conventional multi-species pastures as a control site, another sown in a customised dairy seed mix with no biostimulant and the other two paddocks sown in the seed mix with the biostimulant. This will be repeated at another site. "The idea there is we get a feel for whether it is the dairy seed mix or the bacteria and fungi which are doing wonders. So we can control for those two things to get some idea of what is giving us the best bang for buck. If it's successful we will look to roll it out across our farm and if it's not we carry on." Dewhirst Land is part of several benchmarking groups as the only farm with zero nitrogen and growing and feeding well above average pasture rates. Mr Williams said the farming system was working and he credited his father-in-law for making the change. "I don't think anyone's excited about removing nitrogen from the system when it has for so long been associated as arguably almost an additional feed as you just put it on and get new grass. From a mathematical production point of view I understand it, but we've been on a journey with a focus on soil health for five years now and the soil health has come a long way." Nutrients are added to plant leaves via foliar applications by PFA Contracting rather than the soil at Dewhirst Land, with pastures added with fish hydrolysate soil improvers, seaweed, amino acids, potassium humate and fulvic acids which are tailored every grazing round. Depending on the time of year they might do a pre- and post-graze spray of paddocks to get trace elements and nutrients into feeding cows, and follow this with a nutrient mix to improve soil and plant health. Over the past two years they have been harvesting about 16.2 tonnes of dry matter to the hectare compared with an average 15t/ha to 16t/ha in central Canterbury. "This season coming up we will be more than that." Only 15% of the farm remains in conventional ryegrass and clover pastures, which also go without synthetic nitrogen. Nor are their nearby 220ha support blocks fertilised with nitrogen. Mr Williams said there were still costs involved as they had to pay for other products and higher spreading costs, but they were at a point they could reduce some of this soon on balanced soils. "We have also partnered with Synlait and are doing full farm soil testing and they are helping support us to do that. Every paddock will be tested every season. The idea is Synlait's milk has a sustainable market placement adding value to their customers." Other ongoing projects are soil carbon measurements, methane inhibitors via the seaweed and technology measuring cow health in the rumen. Another interesting part to Dewhirst Land's system is it operates Roto Rainer irrigators instead of centre pivots which partner well with multi-species pastures as they respond well under moisture stress. Leaching losses monitored via modelling remain relatively high as the farm has a lot of nitrogen-fixing clover in the system. "This is where we hope the fungi and bacteria will help redistribute that nitrogen to the plants that need it, rather than just having it fixed in the clover and immediately around it. So we do lose a bit and we are still very much learning." Multi-species pastures include three different clovers, Italian and other ryegrasses, tetraploids, plantain, chicory, fescues, lucerne and timothy. A trial of sunflowers in a paddock was not repeated because of the mess left after grazing. The cows complete about 10 grazing rounds per paddock for the season. Three plate meter readings will be taken of the pasture's dry matter cover before and after each grazing round, followed by a pasture cut which will be bagged, then sent for the testing of herbage data as well as plant sap testing for the nutrient uptake. Then the dry matter percentage is monitored with the initial wet weight gathered for each cut compared with the residual result to get an exact picture of each yield. This is repeated for each paddock over the season for a total of 80 herbage and 80 plant sap tests. On top of this will be the trial's 16 soil tests with the soil's microbiology also to be analysed by Soil Foodweb for a micro-organism count in the soil before and after the trial. As a larger farm, Dewhirst Land typically runs its cows in four herds with paddock-to-production performance also to be tracked. Some of the split herd are winter-milked with the herd generally milking twice a day during the peak of the season. Up to 30% of the herd is reduced to once a day in the shoulder of the season if they need their condition improved or for animal health reasons. Mr Williams said the family was grateful for the support of The a2 Milk Company to do the work. "This project aims to enhance the farming system, improve the profitability of the farm to ensure the land is protected for future generations and also maintain the welfare of our cows. Through this project we hope to produce beneficial results that can be shared with the wider industry." A total of 19 projects received grants from the $575,000 fund, including 12 in Southland and Canterbury, with the rest in Australia. They included initiatives reducing greenhouse gas emissions by replacing diesel operated machinery with electric machinery run through solar, and building calf sheds to provide shade and shelter. The a2 Milk Company chief sustainability officer Jaron McVicar said it was encouraging to see the impact the fund was making for positive environmental outcomes on farms.
Otago Daily Times
27-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Dairy award fast-tracks farm-ownership dream
A Canterbury dairy farming couple with three children sharing a birthday on the same date are ready to find their first farm, Tim Cronshaw reports. Nobody told Braden and Brigitte (Biddy) Barnes that buying their first farm would be so stressful. The 50:50 sharemilkers on a 1150-cow farm at Eyrewell Forest have worked and saved hard to get into a position to progress their dairy farming business into buying an entry level property. After scouring the market for their next home, preferably without equity partners, they have their eye on a few farms. Finding the ideal property is not easy as they are competing with cashed-up buyers. Then there is the legal, due diligence and counter-offer process to navigate in a high-payout season of $10 a kilogram of milksolids when cow and land prices swing upwards. Nonetheless, they take the view their perseverance will be rewarded in the end. So they have set their sights on something as close to perfect as they can find with compromises intermingling with non-negotiables and must-haves. "Yes, it has been stressful because we are running a business and family and it's a whole load of more work that's out of the norm," Mrs Barnes said. "It's not like buying a house where you go and look at 10 houses in the weekend. You have to be flexible all the time while sticking to your goals, and also knowing you can't get everything you like." Mr Barnes said the limited farms on the market were soon narrowed down after being ruled out for being too big or too small. "Everybody said your first farm isn't going to be perfect. But your second or third farm isn't going to be perfect either. We will just have to find something that is as perfect as it can be. Then there is the stress of multi-offers and the market at the moment has probably just gone berserk because of payout, cows and people trying to get in, but you have to stay positive." They joke they are happy to buy a farm anywhere as long as it is in Canterbury which is where their hearts are set for a new home. The Barnes have managed to get into a farm-buying position by working up the dairy ladder from the bottom and through savvy investing. Their dream has been "fast-tracked" by the couple in their late 30s becoming one of three Fonterra and ASB First Farm winners at the Dairy Industry Awards. Within the prize package is a loan facility of up to $1million fixed at a 1% per year rate for three years. Putting the generous loan to one side, the award was gratifying for another reason, Mrs Barnes said. "It's been incredibly validating to be recognised and celebrated by the industry because it confirms we are on the right path and we have a place in dairy farming in New Zealand. The award removes some of the biggest barriers of farm ownership like financing and start-up costs and gives us the confidence to take the next step. It's not just a financial boost, it's a vote of confidence in our vision, work ethic and our long-term commitment to the industry." In 2021 they narrowly missed out being a top three placegetter in the Canterbury North Otago Sharemilker of the Year competition, after winning three categories. So, feeling slightly out of their league, the big win was a special moment. Mr Barnes said the judges recognition of their potential had given them momentum. They were at the South Island Field Days at Kirwee talking with milk suppliers about the ins and outs of signing up as a new farm owner when they were put on to the new award. A visit to the ASB tent confirmed the competition was at the closing stages of accepting entries. "Anyway, we sent in our application and got an email we might want to rethink this to next year as there is quite a bit of work to do," Mrs Barnes said. "I asked how much time we had to do this? We got given to midnight and that's what we did. Luckily, we were already in the process of running these numbers so we just needed to package it." Among the other prizes are $20,000 of Farm Source account credit to invest in their first farm and a tailored package including mentoring and special offers by Fonterra to transition into farm ownership. She said they were already close to financially being in a position to buy a farm, but would not have got there this season because of the high payout. The award had made it more possible, she said. "So, it has fast-tracked us ... we would ideally like to stay here, but we are realistic and it's probably not going to be the dream farm right away. We are open to compromises like run-down infrastructure and just something that needs a bit of love. But we don't want to compromise on things that you can't change so it needs to have good soils and access to water and eventually have the potential to become a very efficient, profitable little farm." Mr Barnes said they were trying to avoid being too prescriptive. "We have to be realistic that a 300,000kg milksolid farm is probably going to be another couple of million dollars, whereas a 200,000 milksolid farm will be cheaper and more realistic if we want to buy it ourselves. It would be ideal to have a farm like here, but we are not there yet." He said a first farm in Canterbury would need irrigation, possibly with an older system which could be improved later. Budget-wise, they could not afford a 1000-plus cow farm unless they found an equity investor. They were not dismissing this option, but their first choice was to go it alone. "So 500 to 800 cows seems to be do-able on our own, but anything beyond that we would need a partner." A visit to a herd home had convinced them a pasture management property was for them, he said. He said the rural real estate market was competitive. "A lot of people want to stay in Canterbury or own a farm in Canterbury because it's profitable and reliable. And then the other reason is there are a lot of buyers out there because somebody might own two or three farms and can just leverage that and go buy another one and that's why it's competitive. If the neighbour's block pops up you don't get a shoe in because they can just go in with a higher price." Everybody wanted to be in dairy farming during a $10/kg payout because of the better return on assets than other investments, he said. The Barnes met on a Culverden farm. Returning from overseas travel, he worked on the family farm before heading south in 2012. Over four years he progressed from being a farm assistant to a manager in the North Canterbury district. She moved to work on the same farm as him in 2013 and rose through the ranks to become second-in charge on another farm. A qualified veterinary nurse, she had worked previously in the horse racing industry in Singapore for three years and then six months in the United Kingdom. "I had always wanted to go farming but didn't come from a farming family and every advertisement I ever saw you needed a team of at least three dogs and dairy farming seemed a way to get my foot in the door. As long as you are keen most people will take you on." A challenging contract milking role was taken on at a 1500 cow herd farm with two sheds, 10 staff and K-line irrigation in Duntroon in 2016. To build on their farming leadership they signed up to as many courses as they could and learned how to work on the business rather than in the business. Returning to Culverden, they took on another contract milking role for two years before heading to Eyrewell Forest. This is the Barnes' fourth sharemilking season with another season to go. Their large herd on 351 effective hectares will complete 546,000kg of milksolids when they are dried off this week at about 475kg per cow. A Friesian dominant herd being bred into a Kiwicross base is milked twice a day and then three times every two days from January onwards and then once-a-day towards the end of the season. They are shaping the herd towards more compact-framed cows with high production and less of an appetite. A pasture-based 3 system is topped up with grain in the shed, canola added in the spring, alongside a mineraliser and silage with maize brought in during the shoulders of the season. While they own the herd, their closed system contract stipulates they had to buy the cows on the farm and will have to sell them back. That means they will have to start up again, aside from potentially being able to take some surplus replacements this coming calving. They had already invested in 1000-plus Allflex cow collars, Mrs Barnes said. "So we will be able to take those and keep up with technology. The cows have been on them for one season and it's opened our eyes up how it saves you all that time in the shed and it's invaluable." They have managed to build up equity and pay down debt as fast as they can by accumulating cow numbers and investing in residential rental housing. One of the properties is in Rangiora and the others are in Katikati between Tauranga and Auckland. The northern houses were inherited from Mr Barnes' dairy farming family and remortgaged to help them buy the first 960 cows and in-calf rising-two-year-old heifers when they entered sharemilking. Another 230 leased cows have since been paid off for a debt-free herd. "It's part of our succession planning and using our inheritance by leveraging to pass it on, " Mr Barnes said. "We want a succession plan for our children. It's not about buying more and more farms, but more about being financially secure to give them an opportunity when they are ready if they want to farm, buy a property or start a business and not being stretched when we get to that point." They want their children, Heidi, 6, Jock, 4, and Ginny, 2, to enjoy a rural upbringing. Against the odds, all of them have the same birthday on November 16, more by plan than coincidence. "It's very suitable for rearing calves," Mrs Barnes said. "It's a busy time of the year anyway when you're not being sociable between August and November so you may as well be pregnant." With Mr Barnes' birthday three days before them, they came close to beating the trifecta and both of their fathers were November babies. Over the past 14 years their nest egg has also grown by trading stock and rearing surplus calves and selling empty cows. Breeding up their herd with LIC premier sires has been another way they have increased equity. "We've improved our herd since we've owned it," Mrs Barnes said. "It was below national average for Breeding Worth when we started and now it's in the top 10% over four seasons. We really honed in on the younger animals and breeding replacements from them and breeding our low BW cows to beef." Over time they have recognised each other's strengths and divided roles accordingly. With the arrival of three children Mrs Barnes has spent less time in the milking shed, but fills the gap on occasion to put the cups on, get cows in, drive a tractor or test the herd. Other than that, she is in charge of calf rearing, administration, finance and the contracts. The life of a sharemilker or contract milker means they live in farm accommodation and always have the Gypsy Day shift at the back of their minds. They cannot wait to put "roots down" on their own farm with their own family home, hopefully soon.
Otago Daily Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Former farmer's story a boost for charities
A retired Lowry Hills farmer has just signed off as an author after a successful book run raising money for charities dear to his heart, writes Tim Cronshaw. Doug Archbold's self-published memoir More Than Just a Farmer has sold nearly 450 copies after three editions. If the Christchurch retiree had known it would have been this well read he would have printed more, but he has ruled out a fourth print run. After covering production costs, he raised more than $12,000 for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, Cheviot Museum and North Canterbury Rural Support Trust from his walk down memory lane. In a "tremendous gesture", a man he met at a funeral bought the entire run of 150 copies in the first edition when he heard it was for the latter charity. The bulk buyer kept one for himself and gave the rest back so they were sold twice over. Mr Archbold said many people gave more than $20 for their signed copy. There would be no further editions as production costs would require a larger cover price and they had reached the charity target, he said. "The feedback was just amazing. After reading the book, the two main things people couldn't get their heads around are the fact I was very shy when I was a boy and that I'm still alive — because I've had some horrendous car accidents in my early years and quite serious medical events including a broken neck and cardiac arrest. But I'm still here and I've been blessed." Mr Archbold can literally credit his wife, Jill, for everything he has achieved in his latter years as she saved his life in 2011. Early one morning she woke up to find him groaning. Dialling 111, she was told to start CPR which she did, until three ambulances arrived. "It took 35 minutes to get the heart started and I was in a coma for a week. It was touch-and-go and later they put a defibrillator in me." When his aortic valve packed up seven years later this was replaced with the pericardium of a cow — he jokes it came from a stud Angus cow. Surgeons had to put this up his femoral artery because open heart surgery was ruled out because of too much scar tissue. And before all of that, while still living on the farm, he had had a triple bypass. The neck injury arose when he broke his C6 and C7 vertebrae at the top of the spine after he lost concentration on a quad bike towing a light trailer on a hill. As he jumped off the bike, the trailer came around and struck him on the neck. Somehow he stumbled to the manager's cottage about three-quarters of a kilometre away and the ambulance crew took one look at him and called in a helicopter. Confined to a specialist trauma unit, he had a titanium plate successfully inserted by a surgeon. Grateful for a second or third lease on life, his run of ill health forced him to rethink life. "I've just been so lucky. Having a broken neck and a triple bypass in 18 months was probably the catalyst for me thinking it's time to leave the farm. Looking back, technology was starting to get beyond me. I had a farm of 5000 stock units, didn't have a tractor and I got everything done by contract with an old guy with horses and dogs working for me. It was a low-cost farm, but probably not sustainable. Farms were getting bigger around me, so at 57 I sold the farm and came to Christchurch and had another career and did a lot of other things." In the book he described driving out the gate the last time and leaving their Heathcote-Helmore designed home and surrounding farmland in 2001, as an emotionally draining experience. This was shortlived. They built a home designed by their architect son and a builder offered him work as a casual labourer. So he happily worked in the inner city on tilt slab apartments for $11 an hour with not a care in the world. That still left him time to help get the Ballance Farm Environment Awards off the ground in Canterbury and volunteer his services for the Rural Support Trust which progressed to him being trust chairman for 10 years. A challenging two decades included the big drought of 2014-15 and the Kaikoura drought, as well as market and political upheaval. When he started there was a six-person team and today its numbers have grown to include 20 facilitators who go out to farms after an 0800 call. Easily the biggest change he has seen is the de-stigmatising of mental health and farmers more open to getting help. Visits by All Black great Sir John Kirwan helped to break this down. "If you went to a funeral 50 years ago and showed any emotion at all, that was a sign of weakness supposedly. But now it's OK to show emotion and that macho thing of people being told to pull yourself together has changed and it's talked about and come out a lot more which is great." Mr Archbold wanted to be a political scientist, but in those days there was pressure to stay on the land from his father who had run 731ha Lowry Hills west of Cheviot since 1955. The reluctant farmer made the most of his unchosen career and ended up pursuing his first choice after becoming involved in farmer politics. Immersed in the Cheviot community, he was a local Federated Farmers leader, a councillor for Hurunui District Council and spent eight years on the Meat & Wool Board's 25-farmer electoral committee. The committee screened farmers wanting to become a director on either of the two producer boards and put them through a probing questioning session. For him it was a sad day when the committee was disestablished, replaced by direct elections and high-profile candidates without the committee grilling. He said it was telling that both boards had since disappeared. If he had his time again, he wouldn't change much. "If you go right back, I'm an academic at heart and fortunate that my parents in difficult times could send me to Christchurch Boys' High School. I always hankered for a university career, so in a way I was a reluctant farmer. But when I look back it's ironic now because all I wanted to do at university was become a political scientist and of course they only come out of the woodwork every three years if there's an election coming up. So I was better doing what I have done." Mr Archbold is immensely proud of their architect son Richard and veterinary daughter Kate, both of whom excelled academically, and a 14-year-old grandson who's already showing promise in competitive cycling. He keeps busy on Burlington's residents' committee and one of his jobs is to welcome every new arrival. Time is found to be part of a men's book club and a member of the learning group U3A. Two other Cheviot farmers are in the village and they've organised full bus trips to their home district, stopping at Lowry Hills and the domain where his great grandfather designed the mansion for "Ready Money" Robinson in the 1860s. "You can take a boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. People say 'do you miss the farm' and I always say I probably miss the people more than the farm, because we were so involved with the community." For Age Concern he's an approved visitor, including for 93-year-old Ngai Tahu woman who lives on her own and he sees her weekly, often calling her on the phone two or three times a week. He's also a pen pal with an inmate in the women's prison and she's finally opened up to him about her tough background after three years of correspondence. It was also Mrs Archbold who suggested he transcribe 60-odd years of diary entries into a book to keep him busy over the Covid-19 lockdown and retain matrimonial harmony. He did this by longhand and she typed it out. Good friend Cheryl Colley was brought in to give it some order. Mr Archbold was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday honours list in 2014. He acknowledges it was only possible with the support of a woman he met on a blind date who became his wife. "Several people have told me it's Jill that should have got the medal, not you because she saved my life. She woke up and I was literally dead and [she] started CPR until the ambulance arrived. I couldn't have done all this without her."
