Friday, March 29, 2024

Building a strong base

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Aggressively developing their farm to drive up their equity has landed Matt and Tracey Honeysett the title of 2015 Hawke’s Bay-Wairarapa Sharemilker-Equity Farmers of the Year.
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No strangers to Dairy Industry Awards success, Matt won the regional Farm Manager of the Year title in 2009. In this year’s competition, the Honeysetts also won four merit awards – the Federated Farmers Leadership Award, the Meridian Energy Farm Environment Award, the Ravensdown Pasture Performance Award and the Westpac Business Performance Award.

“The industry awards have helped us define our goals, which helps us to keep on track,” Matt says.

“It’s motivating and it provides a lot of networking opportunities. I entered in 2008 on a dare and it has become a vital part of our progression. It’s helped us achieve our goals by setting up networks with likeminded people.”

‘Our focus is on cows and grass for the immediate future.’

The Honeysetts, with three children, open their farm frequently to school groups, so children can be exposed to dairy farming in a positive light. They have also hosted the DairyNZ Pasture Plus course and discussion groups.

Commitment to the wider success of the industry is a strong driver for the Honeysetts.

They have been involved with several community and industry groups, including Matt being the local Sharemilkers’ Section representative for Federated Farmers in the past. They would like to get involved in industry governance in the future, but Matt says “our focus is on cows and grass for the immediate future”.

The couple seized the opportunity of the equity partnership to strengthen their financial position. They have modelled several different pathways to build their equity, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each.

“The capital gain we’ve had from developing the farm is more than we could have achieved in a 50:50 sharemilking position,” Tracey says.

The Honeysetts have a 10.3% shareholding in Pahautea Limited Partnership, with four other equity partners. Matt and Tracey’s personal company is contracted to run the farm.

“We’ve got an excellent group of people as equity partners. They provide support and advice that helps us grow the business.”

The equity partnership model allows the Honeysetts a financial stake in a large-scale dairy farm, which covers a 420ha milking platform, 266ha support block and three full-time staff employed as well as Matt and Tracey’s management contract.

Attentive management of the farm’s finances is a strength of the business.

“Budgets are revised monthly to keep track of any variance, which can save a lot of money,” Matt says.

“We report to the other owners, which keeps everything up to date.”

The Honeysetts are keeping their options open for equity growth in the future.

“We’re using the equity partnership to grow our own business. Once we’re through this phase we could expand our shareholding, the equity partnership could expand or we could set up our own secondary business on the side.”

Limitations of the property have been managed well, with the decision made to milk 600 of the 1200 cow herd once-a-day.

“It’s a distance consideration mostly. The farm is very long and skinny so walking to and from the dairy can just get too much.”

Information from their in-dairy yield and conductivity meters is put to use to determine suitability for the once-a-day mob, as well as health history and age.

The approach is paying dividends, achieving an empty rate of 5.5% with no interventions like CIDRs. The productivity has also increased, with the annual milksolids production up from 330,000kg milksolids (MS) to 416,000kg MS.

Maximising pasture growth and utilisation is the key driver of this change. By the end of this season, the Honeysetts will have renovated 48% of the pasture on the farm.

They have used a large number of different ryegrass species so they can observe which ones work well in their system to make the most informed decisions on future regrassing. They also have a number of trial plots on the farm for Agriseeds. Once they have reached “status quo”, their aggressive regrassing strategy will mean replacing 20% of their pasture every year.

Pasture allocation is a major focus on the farm.

“Cows here get fed when they need to get fed, not just at milking time,” Matt says.

“We aim to hit our grazing residuals and keep our round right, which means the cows get shifted outside milkings. We do a pasture walk three times per round, which helps us make sure cows are always walking into our target pre-grazing window.”

Managing pasture damage through the grazing management is also important.

“We aim for no mud or pugging, but with the soil types we’ve got here it can be a bit of a challenge sometimes.”

The pastures are definitely being maintained at a productive level, with a pasture and crop eaten of 13 tonnes drymatter/ha on the milking platform.

‘Once we’re through this phase we could expand our shareholding, the equity partnership could expand or we could set up our own secondary business on the side.’

The farm has two centre pivot irrigators, one of which was installed by the equity partnership. There is also an EziRain system bringing the irrigated portion of the farm to 45%. The Honeysetts have overseen the construction of water storage ponds which maintain consistent supply and treat the water for excess iron.

A new lined effluent pond has been installed with solids separator. Liquids are dispersed through the irrigators and the solids are distributed to non-irrigated areas of the farm, to maximise nutrient efficiency.

“We keep a fairly careful eye on our nutrient budget. We want to make sure our system is right,” Matt says.

“We’ve done some plantings with the regional council, and these are ongoing. With the heavy infrastructure development over the last two years we are now getting to the point where we are ready to tidy the place up.”

From humble beginnings where Matt took up relief milking on his gap year because he’d got down to his last few dollars and his digital camera, the Honeysetts have established a foothold in the industry and will continue to demonstrate what dairying can offer.

“We are going to stay in dairying to provide a good future for ourselves and our family.”

Second place in the Sharemilker-Equity Farmer competition went to Dannevirke equity sharemilkers Mark and Jaime Arnold while Tutira variable order sharemilkers Glenn and Trish Rankin were third.

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