The couple have just closed out their second season operating the 162ha, 500-cow operation against the Taranaki coastline near Manaia for the Taranaki Community Rugby Trust.
The farm is owned by Origin Energy with the company’s Kupe gas production station located in the middle of the property. The trust leases the property and employs Charlie and Jody on a 21% variable-order sharemilking contract.
The trust was formed to facilitate the provision of grants to non-professional grades of rugby throughout the Taranaki region. Funding comes in the form of donations and from the farming enterprise. Initially, cows donated by the community made up half the herd on the property.
Securing the position came on the back of the couple’s victory in 2011 in the Taranaki Farm Manager of the Year competition – a great achievement considering that before 2009 neither had any farming experience. Jody grew up in coastal Taranaki but had no hands-on exposure to dairying. With a background in environmental science, she went overseas where she lived in Bristol and worked as an air quality research scientist.
There she met life-long city-dweller Charlie. Both were dissatisfied with their office-based careers and after a few months cycle touring through France and Italy, decided to come to New Zealand. Dairy farming was not on their radar.
In late 2008 they based themselves in Taranaki to be near Jody’s family while she looked for a job – Charlie would then find something in the same location. Jody’s brother had gone into dairy farming and offered them some relief milking. Other offers soon followed as did opportunities for full-time work. Taking into account the cost of city living, the dairying jobs stacked up relatively well. More importantly, both Charlie and Jody enjoyed the outdoor lifestyle.
Charlie took a job as a farm assistant at Easter 2009 and started study towards the AgITO (now Primary ITO) Level 4 production management qualification. Jody worked as a herd testing assistant.
Though happy in the role, to prepare for progression in the industry they applied for some jobs to get feedback on areas of farming they were weak in. The move paid off and they were offered a contract milking position on a farm at Pihama owned by Michael and Barbara Stevenson. Charlie said the role was great for learning about dairying.
“Michael is a really good farmer, very passionate and very knowledgeable about pasture management.”
They learnt a lot about the technical aspects of pasture management but that also gave him the confidence to go with the gut in some decision-making.
“Farming is 75% science, and 25% art.”
They won the Taranaki Farm Manager title in their first season on the property. That success cracked open the door that would lead to their current sharemilking position at Manaia.
With three and a half seasons of farming experience under their belt – and the addition of a son, Finley – the McCaigs took the next step up.
The farm presented some challenges.
First order of business was to tighten the calving spread. Through the use of CIDRs and a Why-Wait programme along with a strict six-week use of tail-up bulls, they reduced the calving mid-point from 38 days to 17.
Charlie said there were some casualties of the regime with a 16% empty rate in the first season. He believes that as the herd age structure stabilises this rate will improve. With the aim of getting as much milk in the vat as possible before the summer dry, the planned start of calving is July 8.
The farm also presented them with their first experience of employing staff.
Jody studied rural staff management through AgITO and they based their systems on that structure. They also put effort into the more intangible aspects of building a good employment relationship through things like staff and family barbecues and other off-farm team events.
They pay bonuses twice yearly, operating a system where staff members start out with the full bonus but certain actions – or non-actions – will reduce it. Things like not checking a water trough before locking the cows away or leaving a gate open will result in a reduction.
They pay attention to recruitment. Charlie refers to a quote from a retiring dairy farmer that he read in a local newspaper – he hired people he wanted to work with him not for him.
“You are in each other’s pockets all year around and you want to be with someone you can have a beer with at the end of the day without pulling your hair out.”
Winning the DairyNZ Human Resources Award suggests the judges believe Charlie and Jody are on the right track. Financial planning and management has been a real focus for the couple, something that was also recognised by the judges in giving them the Westpac Business Management Award.
“We have always had goals about where we want to get to,” Charlie said.
He had worked at a pension company in the UK and one of the lessons he learnt there was to think about how retirement was going to work. They imagined what they would like in their retirement – the ability to travel as they had in their 20s but this time with money behind them – and worked out goals and milestones that would help them achieve that.
They attribute their success in the industry awards in accelerating their progress. For the 2014-15 season they are taking up a 250-cow 50:50 sharemilking position at Te Kiri. In what has proved to be a busy year, the couple also welcomed their second son, Miles, into the family.
Charlie and Jody also won the Honda Farm and Safety Award, the Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award, and the Fonterra Interview Award.
Second placegetters were Kevin and Sara O’Neil who sharemilk 1190 cows at Waiau in north Canterbury. Kevin said they were new to the industry, having been farming for only two years.
“We’re trying to maximise the opportunity we’ve been given.”
Third place went to Duncan and Kim Fraser who sharemilk 445 cows at Halcombe, Manawatu.
Kim said when they first entered the awards they thought they were quite average.
“Then we realised we were not managing our business – it was taking us for a bit of a joyride.”
They also won the LIC Recording and Productivity Award and the Triplejump Risk Management Award.
Donald and Kirsten Watson, sharemilking 990 cows at Rangitaiki, took out the Federated Farmers Leadership Award and the Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award.
The Ecolab Dairy Hygiene Award went to Chris and Carla Staples who sharemilk 365 cows at Whataroa on the West Coast.
