Friday, March 29, 2024

High performing team

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Creating a high performing team is a winning formula for this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy winners – Canterbury-based Rakaia Incorporation.
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The little-known Māori incorporation won the coveted award for its 216ha effective Tahu a Tao dairy farm near Dorie in mid Canterbury.

Much of the operation’s success stems from the fact everyone involved in the farm has a clear sense of what their role is and they carry out those roles to an exacting standard.

Governance is ably handled by the seven-person management committee led by chairman James Russell and his deputy Hohepa Johnson, assisted by long-time incorporation secretary and chartered accountant Mark Tynan.

The management committee sets the direction and strategy and are careful to leave the day to day running to 50:50 sharemilkers Mark and Julie Cressey and their staff with guidance from Canterbury farm consultant John Donkers.

The vision for the governance body stretches far beyond the next generation – rather than a 10 or 20-year plan they think in terms of 200 years.

Sustainability is necessary to ensure the health of the land and water that will sustain the great-great-greatgrandchildren – the mokopuna, yet to come.

It’s also necessary in a financial sense to ensure the farm is in good heart to allow well-timed, prudent growth in the incorporation’s assets.

Farm consultant John Donkers has worked with Rakaia Incorporation for 20 years, coming on board in 1996 when the land was converted.

John facilitates the separation between governance and management acting on behalf of the owners when it comes to operational matters and as the go between, giving Mark and Julie one point of contact.

The formula works well.

Rakaia Incorporation’s history dates back to 1886 when it was formed to take up one of 16 land blocks in the area, set aside as Māori reserve land. It’s now one of just two blocks that hasn’t been sold off over the years.

There were 27 original owners recorded for Tahu a Toa, now there are 300 with that number growing all the time as whānau pass their holdings on to successive generations.

Over the years Rakaia Incorporation’s management committee members recognised value in the land and the potential it held for helping whānau and mokopuna of the original 27.

They were always committed to managing its funds wisely and shareholders supported their decisions to retain profits made from leasing the land in early years.

The intergenerational view extends backwards as well as forward, with James acknowledging the foresight and wisdom of his forebears at the Ahuwhenua Trophy awards night.

“I accept this winner’s medal on behalf of our tipuna, who diligently held on to their land, and now our land, so we and our mokopuna can benefit from our holding of their mana.”

Retained funds meant the incorporation had been in a financial position about 10 years before conversion of the farm to buy another block near the coast, Longview Farm.

It was sold shortly after the conversion to allow them to buy a small area adjoining the farm to allow better access to Tahu a Toa and defray some of the conversion costs.

Before conversion Tahu a Toa was valued at about $100,000. There’s been about $2-$2.5 million of capital investment since then, but 20 years later it’s valued at $13m.

In 2005, with prudent retentions and the increase in capital value of the farm, the incorporation was in a position to buy a second farm, Pahau, near Culverden. Bought for close to $4.2m, it is now valued at more than $8m.

The same fiscal prudence and the farms’ low-cost, pasture-focused strategies using top-quality people has continued to pay dividends and the incorporation is now in a position to buy a third farm.

The long-held goal is to one day have a farm for each of the 27 original owners.

While other farms are run with the same intergenerational view of sustainability, Tahu a Toa does hold a special place in the incorporation’s overall operation because it will always be Māori reserve land and the original property that connects all whānau back to their tipuna and the whenua.

“The competition highlights the governance, financing, management, environmental sustainability and the tikanga Māori in our business activities,” James says.

“While there is a dominant focus on finance and production outcome (within the judging), there was a strong emphasis on governance, environmental standards and the commitment to the retention of the whenua and its resources for future generations – an approach that resonates with New Zealanders from all walks of life.

“We, the present kaitiaki, have developed a dairy business enterprise that benchmarks for our future mokopuna. For our mokopuna we have set the standard for them to equal or better as they will gain a business that will give them a benefit from the land.”

On the farm

Mark and Julie Cressey came to New Zealand from Nottingham, England in 2004 in search of the progression opportunities that weren’t available back home.

It was a late call for Mark, who was 45, but one neither Mark nor Julie have ever regretted.

They learnt their pasture skills in Central Plateau on their first job in NZ with the Wairarapa Moana Trust at Mangakino before moving on to contract milking 320 heifers on 90ha, their first step on the Kiwi progression ladder, a ladder they’ve wasted no time climbing.

A year later they sold their house in England and bought their 850-cow herd so they could step up and take on the 50:50 sharemilking job at Tahu a Toa.

That was nine seasons ago and they’ve got no intentions of going anywhere soon even though they bought their own 500-cow farm in the Waitaki Valley three seasons ago, which is run by a lower-order sharemilker.

Mark and Julie are meticulous managers with their focus firmly on pasture management and having cows harvest as much high-quality feed as possible every day.

“Our job is to grow as much energy as we can and harvest it with the cows,” Mark says.

“Milk is the by-product of that,” Julie says.

“If we’re growing and harvesting as much energy as we can that means we’re making sure cows are grazing it at the right time and it’s high quality feed every time they go into the paddock,” Mark says.

Mark places a lot of importance on teaching staff to not just monitor pre- and post-grazing covers, he also aims to build their decision-making skills.

“We don’t just ask them whether they think cows have hit the residual and if they think they need to go back to the paddock. If you ask that, they have a 50% chance of getting that right anyway.

“If we also ask them how long they think they need to be put back, it makes them stop and think a bit harder about what’s actually happening – about what’s in the paddock, about the conditions or what they’ve gone into,” Mark says.

They have clear decision rules in terms of pasture cover trigger levels on when to take off silage to maximise feed and supplement quality as well as when to step in and feed supplement.

Mark says the status quo for the farm has been about 540kg drymatter (DM)/cow of bought-in feed as pasture silage and palm kernel but this season they’ve slashed that thanks to an aggressive regrassing programme started last season.

They sprayed out 30% of the milking platform over the whole season starting with regrassing with a short-term Italian on 5% of the farm in September 2014. Once that was back in the grazing round they sprayed out three more paddocks, sowing them in Italian too. As soon as those too were back in the round they began renewing additional paddocks straight into a perennial Trojan-Bealey mix with white clover.

“We’d done 30% of the farm by Christmas and although we’d bought in extra feed because we thought we’d have a deficit we didn’t need it – the new paddocks grew that much more.

“The Italians were growing 100kg DM/ha/day through the summer and what we’ve found is that we’ve got 15% of the farm now growing more through the winter as well,” Mark says.

The renewal programme has given them additional pasture yield of 3.8 tonnes DM/ha/year. The Italian paddocks cost about $250/ha to renew, putting the cost of that extra pasture at 6.5cents/kg DM.

The perennials, while costing more – at $800/ha – will give additional yield for longer, lowering the cost to just 3.3c/kg DM.

This season they’ve left a couple of the Italian paddocks for a second year and have found that by maintaining their stocking rate they’ve ended up cutting more silage than ever and have bought in just 120kg DM/cow of palm kernel.

It’s allowed the owners and the Cresseys to slash their farm working expenses so this season, despite the pitiful payout, both will make a small profit.

Mark and Julie also place high importance on people management and health and safety, and aim to create a happy, safe workplace where people learn and grow.

The farm is watered using four Rotorainer irrigators with irrigation scheduled using Aquaflex soil moisture monitoring.

The farm is now growing fodder beet on the milking platform as autumn supplement to transition cows incorporating the area into the regrassing programme.

To limit nitrate losses they sow a catchcrop of green feed oats as soon as cows have grazed, further adding to annual drymatter production while also reducing environmental effects.

Mark and Julie say there’s a family feeling that they love both onfarm with their five staff and about working and growing with the incorporation.

Farm facts
Owners: Rakaia Incorporation
Sharemilkers: Mark and Julie Cressey
Area: 217ha effective
Cows: 817 crossbred
Production: 360,000kg MS
Bought-in supplement: less than 200kg DM/cow
Farm working expenses owner: $1.52/kg MS
Farm working expenses sharemilker: $1.79/kg MS

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