From their highest paddock, named ‘cloudy’ on the farm map, Richard and Pauline Kean have a bird’s-eye view of the Waikato.
“We bought the farm for the view,” Richard says.
But it’s more than the scenic outlook that compelled them to invest in transforming a difficult property into today’s tree-studded Jetstream Farm where 12,000 trees have been planted.
Below them, on a milking platform of flat to rolling 70ha, are their sharemilkers’ 200 crossbred cows producing close to 70,000kg milksolids (MS) in a good season of grass – their 350kg MS/cow comparing well with the 337kg MS average for Matamata-Piako herds.
Other paddocks have their own identifying names given by Pauline, such as ‘above the walnuts’, ‘behind the willows’, ‘cork oak’, ‘sweet grass’, ‘lush bucket’ and ‘duck haven’. But more importantly, each paddock has two troughs filled from re-installed water lines supplied from either a reservoir on the flat or another installed in the hills for greater pump efficiency.
New races, fences, and countless culverts now enable vehicle access around the whole farm where previously access was from paddock to paddock. It’s certainly far more efficient than during the Keans’ first season when a sharemilker left as soon it was over “because the races were poor, the water supply was poor and the cows could walk through the fences”.
‘We liked the views and aspects that didn’t really matter to a dairy farm, except we did like having our own water supply from a stream.’
A former aircraft engineer with the Royal Navy and then an aircraft consultant to oil companies and billionaires flying helicopters and Learjets, Richard has been “fixing things” on the property. Pauline, a nurse who specialised in intensive care, has planted with spade in hand most of the trees that create today’s mature woodland areas and paddock shelters.
They had searched for three years for the right farm in their price range, less than $1 million, and in 1992 eventually drove their campervan on to the almost treeless farm near Te Poi, south-east of Matamata, that rose up the west side of the Kaimai Range to an altitude of 200m.
They waded through a stream, walked a track too slippery for any farm vehicle and while looking out over farmland that stretched towards Maungatautari Mountain in the hazy distance, decided their search was over.
Pauline met Richard while on a working holiday in Bermuda, where he was maintaining a helicopter for an Australian billionaire who took to the air when his driver’s licence was suspended. During the next 10 years of apartment living in Hong Kong, Darwin, and Sydney, and airplane commuting, the idea of a rural haven easily took hold.
Pauline’s ideal abode would be a home among trees while Richard relished the idea of having space in which to listen to Pink Floyd played loud without disturbing anyone.
Initially they thought of a lifestyle block near Rotorua but heeded the advice of sensible friends who suggested they invest in a dairy farm that could pay for itself over time.
“We knew when we bought this property that is was not a purist’s dairy farm,” Pauline says.
She readily admits to not knowing anything about heifers or electric fences in the beginning.
“We liked the views and aspects that didn’t really matter to a dairy farm, except we did like having our own water supply from a stream.”
There was a comfortable house on the farm but that was for the sharemilker’s family so they made do with other accommodation, such as a tent erected in a usually quiet corner. The irony was not lost on Richard while camping one night when they were kept awake by a bad choice of music blaring from a neighbour’s party some distance down the road.
When Richard was overseas, Pauline would camp in a disused dairy room after a day of planting trees.
“I had a power plug for the light and a camp stretcher and I tried to seal it up to keep the rats out,” she says.
“But other times we would stay at the local hot springs where the beds were too short for Richard or stay in a motel.”
One advantage of not knowing much about farming was that they had no qualms about seeking advice and were soon talking to Te Aroha accountant, Kelly Diprose, who recommended Matamata dairy farmer, Ross Sainsbury, as a farm consultant.
“Ross advised us for two or three years and became a good friend,” Richard says.
He appreciated his help selecting sharemilkers and recommended drain-diggers, fencers and other contractors who would make time to explain the job to Pauline on site.
One project was to replace water pipes of different gauges leaking at the joins and Richard set about repairing the effluent irrigator, a backing gate in the yard, electric fences “and odds and ends that I like to think are fixed for the next 20 years”.
“Ross would arrive, do a farm walk and talk the entire way about what’s right, what needs to be improved and through it all he was very positive,” Pauline says.
The next day she would work her way through his list of bullet points.
Their current farm consultant is Morrinsville dairy farmer, Peter Kane, a former rural manager for National Bank, who has become a sounding board for sharemilkers Phillip and Kim Dykzeul, who are starting their third year of a 50:50 contract at Jetstream.
“I like Peter speaking from his own experience as a farmer and how he runs his business,” Kim says.
“He also has very good people skills.”
She’s an accountant, working part-time for a Te Aroha accountancy while looking after their daughters Summer, 8, and Molly, 6. She also rears the calves in a purpose-built barn and implement shed that now has a flat upstairs for the owners and guests.
Phil was putting his science degree to good use working on environmental land management for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council until he decided to go farming. He sees the collaborative planning between the farm owners, sharemilkers and farm consultants paying off.
“They have been thorough and kept things simple and the approach is specific for this farm with its steep hills that we can’t renovate,” he says.
“There’s no set of rules to impose, just good ideas like cropping chicory and annual grasses for more drymatter through late summer and cleaning up after the dairy herd with Angus and white-faced Hereford cows.”
Their combined efforts were recently recognised when Richard, Pauline, Phil and Kim received three merit awards in the Waikato Ballance Farm Environment Awards; the LIC Dairy Farm Award, the Hill Laboratories Harvest Award and the Waikato Regional Council Water Protection Award. The judges commended the partnership on being “an excellent example of a sharemilker-owner working relationship”.
Phil and Kim had only been dairying for four years when the Keans offered them the sharemilking position and appreciate the opportunity to progress.
“We couldn’t get better partners than Richard and Pauline,” Phil says.
“They want sharemilkers who enjoy farming here, and we love it here.”
He’s fully aware of their hard work in planting and riparian protection, and makes environmental care part of his day-to-day management. He has brought in four beehives to enhance the mix of bees, birds and flowering native plants and is keen to protect waterways and streams where he’s discovered native freshwater mussels and koura.
‘We couldn’t get better partners than Richard and Pauline. They want sharemilkers who enjoy farming here, and we love it here.’
Pauline says their partnership with Phil and Kim is ideal because there’s no tension and no worries about anything to do with the farm. That leaves her and Richard free to develop the runoff at Mamaku where they now live, and look after Phil and Kim’s young stock.
To maintain cow condition and reduce any summer feed stress, the Te Poi herd is only milked once-a-day from mid-December and that hasn’t been at the expense of milk production.
Chicory has proved to be a successful summer feed crop, now grown on 10% of the farm. Regrassing is carried out by direct drilling and instead of topping paddocks on the hills a mob of 25 beef cows follow the dairy cows to maintain grass quality.
Other advances have been enabled by the purchase of neighbouring land to carry 80 more cows, an extension of the herringbone dairy to 18-aside, the permanent laying of rubber matting for cow comfort in the dairy yard and the owners’ investment of farm profits into debt reduction.
Environmental best practice tips
- The Keans and Dykzeuls have some simple reminders for other dairy farmers about ways in which they too can improve their farm environment.
- All stock out of waterways and off steep slopes is a no-brainer. On-off graze wet paddocks.
- The use of standoff areas (we have a rubber yard) to eliminate treading damage and pugging of pastures.
- Lower stocking rate and as little feeding out in paddocks through winter as possible. We dry off a little earlier to get good pasture cover through winter, and don't have to feed out so much in winter.
- Apply nitrogen fertiliser when appropriate and conditions allow, following DairyNZ guidelines. Put it on in smaller doses, more regularly, with no more than 30 units of nitrogen a hectare.
- Switch to once-a-day milking when production is still good – about 1.3-1.5kg milksolids/cow/day – but don't reduce feed levels. Our production didn’t significantly drop but our cost of production did. The cows, the land and your family will thank you for it.
- The use of annual grass and crops can push drymatter through to late summer and is more cost effective for us than grass silage.
Key Points
Owners: Richard and Pauline Kean
50:50 sharemilkers: Phil and Kim Dykzeul
Location: Te Poi
Total area: 83ha, milking on 70ha.
Peak milked: 200 crossbred cows
Production: 70,000 kg milksolids
Summer crop: chicory
Drystock: 25 beef cattle.
