Friday, March 29, 2024

Steady as she goes

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Converting part of Te Mara Farm to dairy has helped Campbell and Helen Clarke build capital and earn a steady income. Until recent years, dairy has been a saving grace especially during velvet price slumps.
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The Clarkes were able to employ staff to run the dairy farm, freeing up their time to focus more on velvet production and start enjoying some time off-farm.

Three seasons of poor milk prices do not bode well for any dairy farmer, but the Clarkes have chosen to focus on the opportunity in positive outlook for deer.

They are considering their options and if milk prices don’t lift next season they will look to further reduce their exposure to the industry within their larger farming business.

Campbell, Helen and their son Hamish are debating what that change will be – reducing cow numbers on marginal dairy country and bringing back some Friesian bull beef, or taking back some of the old deer unit and lifting stag numbers?

They have re-entered the beef industry this season, keeping their own beef-cross calves, born to late-calving dairy cows to finish.

Campbell started his career share milking for his parents Brian and Davida as a means to get into farming.

When the Government introduced a supplementary minimum price, guaranteeing more stable income from meat, the family bought Te Mara Farm (originally 317ha) near Otorohanga in 1981.

Campbell bought part of the farm and leased the balance, farming with his parents for many years until he and Helen gradually increased their share – buying the farm outright two years ago.

Campbell and his father Brian quickly went into deer farming and within four years had replaced sheep with bull beef.

When they first started in the deer industry, breeding hinds were worth up to $3000. The Clarkes had to borrow money to develop and stock the deer farm.

Many of their original deer herd were captured from nearby Rangitoto Station, which backs on to Pureora Forest. They gradually grew numbers and farmed up to 900 deer in the height of the industry.

The original deer farm was developed in three stages, starting with 70ha. Campbell and Brian did the majority of the fencing themselves over 10 years.

Their first deer shed was an old converted Skyline garage, which was replaced with a shed they built themselves 24 years ago.

The Clarkes have tried a few different methods for selling velvet, before joining the velvet co-operative Provelco, a model that they are strong supporters of.

When beef, velvet and venison returns plummeted, the Clarkes decided to phase-out bull beef and convert the easiest part of the farm to dairy.

“We no longer had to sell stock to keep the bank manager happy in October,” Helen says.

“We’ve had a couple of exceptional dairy years. The rest have been average. This is the third year in the row we’ve been struggling.”

Campbell’s parents supported the idea, allowing him and Helen to buy a herd and become sharemilkers. Their first season milking was in 2000.

Then, after three years of poor velvet prices ($40/kg) deer numbers were reduced to lift the cow herd from 450 to 600.

“We couldn’t take it any longer and we’d make more money increasing the dairy cow numbers,” Campbell says.

This could be achieved without adding an extra staff members on the dairy farm, while intensive culling on the deer unit increased profitability per stock unit.

The dairy unit is now 240ha and is run by a manager, with two staff, and produces about 200,000kg/milksolids (MS) a year, roughly 50kg MS/cow shy of their 400kg MS/cow target.

Hamish says one of the biggest obstacles to increasing milk production on the mostly rolling to hill-country farm is topography.

“This is a challenging dairy unit and we’re always going to have abnormal management challenges.”

The Clarkes also hoped dairying would help build capital to buy a larger drystock farm.

They struggled to find land at the right price with similar production potential, especially when their children Hamish and Katrina were still at school and location was more important.

“We’ve expanded this farm and we’re probably getting to the stage now where this farm is becoming big enough to meet our original goals,” Helen says.

The extra labour unit

Once the farm is fully stocked Hamish Clarke hopes to toughen up hind selection so they can farm more velvet stags and fewer hinds.

Hamish Clarke has returned home this year to work with his parents on their northern King Country farm.

The challenge of getting a new deer breeding block up and running was enticing, but Hamish’s parents always encouraged him to gain experience away from home.

After gaining a bachelor of agricultural science and a post-graduate diploma in agricultural science he is completing his masters, researching robotic milking.

The 26-year-old loves working with animals, especially deer, but at this stage thinks he will follow a career in agricultural technology.

When Campbell and Helen expanded the farm, they planned to go the first 12 months without extra labour.

Dairy prices were poor and it would take time to start earning a return on the new investment.

When the Waipa Advance Party, which Helen chairs, visited Te Mara Farm the group helped Campbell and Helen to realise another labour unit was a wise investment.

If Hamish leaves, his parents plan to replace him but say that might not be easy given a lack of deer-experienced staff available for employment in Waikato.

The family is enjoying their involvement in the advance party, where they are finding a good support network of people with common goals who are openly sharing their knowledge on deer farming in the upper North Island.

Related story: The right mix

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