John has seen many farming fads come and go around rural Gisborne. Some created new work for contractors. Others took work away.
Apart from hay, the bulk of John’s work these days was maize and pasture renovation – cultivation, spraying, planting crops and new grasses – and cartage.
Barley and soybeans had come and gone. Given the relative isolation of Gisborne, where grapes and citrus are popular and there’s a scarcity of dairy farming, options are limited.
John was born at Puha near Te Karaka, a small village 30km north-west of Gisborne.
His father Russell was a local farmer and had baled hay for locals himself.
John developed a general affinity with machinery, and in particular an interest in tractors, from an early age.
He worked for several local contractors during high school. When he completed sixth form, John got a loan to buy a baler, tractor, and two hay rakes from a retiring contractor.
In the off-season he worked for other contractors and helped his father on the farm.
He then bought a planter for maize, discs for cultivation, and his equipment collection progressively increased.
John started drilling peas for Wattie’s, and after five years, bought his first maize and barley harvester. Barley was a popular crop around Gisborne at the time but had become uneconomical to grow in the area, John says.
Changes in farming since John started contracting in 1976 have had an impact on how rural contractors make a living.
Farmers had become bigger by buying out neighbours, and corporate or absentee owners were more common.
Many farming operations were big enough to buy their own equipment and do the work that a contractor was once employed for, or landowners leased their cropping land out to specialist growers.
“When I started every farmer who couldn’t do a job themselves would hire a contractor.
Despite years of contracting John Allison still loves the smell of fresh cut hay.
“You might have had two great weeks of harvesting maize, only then to have a gear box blow up and all that income is spent on repairing it.”
It would be easier to meet farmers’ needs if they talked in advance to their contractor about their plans, John says.
A lot of contractors have made big commitments to buy equipment and had become an “on-demand” service but they did not always have the right piece of equipment available immediately.
Rising costs have also made it harder for people to pay their bills on time. That has a flow-on effect for business.
It cost 40 cents to make one hay bale when John started out, compared to $3.20 today.
“Farmers want things done when it should be done but they might not have any money in the bank to pay me until their crop has been sold.”
Compliance issues – accident cover, GST, and Growsafe – all cost time and money. There is now even a code of compliance for water carrying.
Enforced break
John Allison was forced to take a three-month holiday eight years ago to recover from by-pass surgery after having a heart attack on the job.
Since his heart attack he tries to take time off every year to travel overseas and enjoy a change of scenery.
He has fond memories of growing up in what was a very different district in his youth and collects and records history of the wider Te Karaka area.
