Now their Top Notch Calves operation at Okoroire has been scaled down as the couple diversify back into dairying for the returns and also to spend more time with their three sports-loving children, Cameron, William, and Rebecca.
Joanne told a business session at the Dairy Women’s Network Conference earlier in the year that she grew up in Tirau, gained an agricultural science degree at Massey University, and worked as a consulting officer. At a discussion group she met Jon, who managed one of his parents’ Te Awamutu dairy farms for eight years after a career as a professional golfer.
Before they married she bought 26 heifer replacements to get a start in dairying, then they went 50:50 sharemilking on a 320-cow farm on the edge of Te Awamutu, where they reared extra Friesian bull calves.
After three years they took on a second sharemilking job, then bought their first farm at Otorohanga, milking 200 cows and with a drystock block attached. The couple converted that block to milk 200 cows once-a-day before selling up and moving to Mt Maunganui, where they bought an apartment freehold.
“We’d made our first million and wondered what to do with the cash,” she said.
The answer was to borrow money to buy 12 houses in Invercargill at an average of $54,000 each. They also bought three flats in Mt Maunganui, reasoning that while rent paid the outgoings it was the capital gain they were after.
Their next investment was a Mt Maunganui apartment, six months away from completion, which they bought for $800,000. One month later they on-sold it for $100,000 more, having had the fallback position that they could sell their own apartment if their plan fell through.
“Then we realised we were farmers at heart and we were missing family and farming life,” she said.
They sold half their Invercargill rentals to buy a 40ha farm running 100 cows, which they decommissioned to set up Top Notch Calves. Within a short time they’d sold the rest of their southern rentals as well as their apartment in order to renovate the farm house and buy some land next door.
With this neighbouring block of 23ha, they increased the size of the calf-rearing operation before dropping calf numbers back to 3500. They now rear more heifers than bull calves. On their re-established dairying operation a dairy herd manager looks after 200 autumn-calving cows supplying a winter milk contract.
Asked where they would be in five years’ time, Joanne said they aimed to remain on the farm which was now more sustainable after they’d reduced calf numbers and invested more capital in better machinery.
And queried as to whether they weren’t concerned about having all their eggs in one basket, she said they felt they were quite diversified.
“My parents diversified into kiwifruit and angora rabbits and neither lasted.”
What they’ve learned
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Do lots of research instead of relying on what someone else says
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Know your end goal
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Read lots of books as they open your mind. Write down those which are recommended and read them
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Attend courses to aid personal development – dairy farming isn’t like working for a corporate entity where staff are sent on courses regularly
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Speak to others – they will be happy to share their experiences
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Keep a careful watch on finances – do the numbers
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Identify any risks, plan to cope with them or minimise them
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Maintain control and ownership. Make decisions yourself
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Be honest with yourself about personal skill level and work to your strengths. If you’re not good in a particular area then don’t go down that path.
