“Ninety percent of our opportunities are still to be realised,” Jody says.
Their names will always be on the trophy, and being early on in their careers, as lower-order sharemilkers when they won it, meant it was really exciting to think what lay ahead of them.
When they won the award in May last year they were finishing their second season on the 162ha farm owned by Origin Energy and leased to the Taranaki Community Rugby Trust. They were milking 500 cows on a 21% variable-order sharemilking contract after winning the Taranaki Farm Manager of the Year competition in 2011.
Before that neither had any dairying experience, although Jody grew up in Taranaki. The couple met in Bristol in the United Kingdom where she worked as an air quality research scientist and Charlie had an office job. They returned to New Zealand in 2008 where a number of relief milking opportunities came their way.
They are now 50:50 sharemilkers who will winter 275 cows, up from 250 last year, on the 79ha effective farm owned by Ian and Judith Armstrong, who farm a larger property nearby at Te Kiri. The McCaigs are pushing cow numbers up by about 10% a year to increase production and grow equity in their business, allowing for more staff.
While they budgeted on 90,000kg milksolids (MS) this season, their “moving target” forecast has always been 100,000kg MS.
“We will get within a whisker of that,” Charlie says.
That’s despite, after exceptional spring production, a tough and dry summer.
“Ian had never seen January rainfall in single digits”.
Green pastures turned to brown but early in March with some consistent rainfall prospects were looking up. They’d already dried off their heifers and put the rest of the herd on once-a-day milking.
“There’s no money in taking condition off cows,” Charlie says.
They run a DairyNZ System 2 operation, bringing in palm kernel just to fi ll feed gaps. No feed was contracted this season but silage was made from a support block. About 2.5ha of turnips are grown every year as part of a regular programme which involves contouring the paddocks used, on the older volcanic soils which are pocked with lahars. Ian’s involvement with the local clover root weevil group which brought in the parasitic wasp to counter its incursion means he’s not a fan of more general pasture renovation.
“He believes you don’t disturb the pests,” Charlie says. “It’s too costly.”
In mid-March they attended the Taranaki regional Dairy Industry Awards, passing on the title they won at the same function last year and reflecting on some of the high-profile events they’d been involved in through the year it had been theirs.
“But the real value comes into focus from now on,” Charlie says.
In June they attended the AgResearch dinner at National Fieldays and were seated at a table with a high-profile range of industry leaders.
“It was outside my comfort zone,” he says.
But those concerns were soon allayed when they left tablemate and Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, to babysit their six-month-old son, Miles when they were asked to speak to the gathering. They also have an older son, Finley, 3.
Shortly after that they were off to Palmerston North, which for Charlie was a fi rst, to attend the Cream of the Crop dinner at Federated Farmers’ annual conference. The celebration of the achievements of a variety of different award winners allowed them to network with a large number of people higher up in farming than them.
“Dairying is great for being able to call anyone in the industry,” he says.
“But the award gave us more of a foot in the door.”
In July South Taranaki mayor Ross Dunlop hosted special drinks and nibbles, also presenting them with a certificate recording their achievement. That was a great chance to catch up with friends Michael and Ruth Prankerd who were also being honoured. They’re 50:50 sharemilkers on 170ha owned by Te Rua te Moko, a combination of four Maori trusts, which took out last year’s Ahuwhenua Maori Dairy Farmer of the Year title.
The function was recognition that the McCaigs’ win meant a lot to South Taranaki, particularly coming in the year when the 25-year celebration of its humble origins in the province were being marked.
“It was a good sentimental win,” Charlie says.
He describes himself as using Twitter “a healthy amount”. He was sought out by farmers from Ireland and the United Kingdom who were visiting New Zealand and contacted him through it.
“It was really interesting to have them come and see us,” he says.
“We ended up interviewing them. It was a great way to make those connections. It was unexpected but very cool.”
Twitter also found them a Welsh farmer who worked for them full-time for three months in spring, a welcome relief because in their previous position they’d had two full-time staff.
“We’re still getting used to not having any,” Charlie says.
“You forget how tricky it is.”
But they are now very definitely in the market for a worker who they hope will be full-time through the coming spring, then part-time for the rest of the year.
They are taking on the role of regional managers for the Taranaki competition for 2016 and are already thinking forward to the day when they can look at taking up other off-farm roles within the dairy industry
