The eight investors have owned the farm for only three years so the property is in the early stages of a development programme.
The gains so far have been made in the quantity of product while keeping a lid on costs. Despite a challenging year, the farm still produced and sold 20% more product (480,000kg) than when the shareholders took over.
Both farm and stock have since recovered well from the drought and barring climatic events the farm looks well set up for a good year.
Winter lamb contracts have been an important part of the business.
Geoffrey sees his role as supporting the team and coming up with ideas to keep the shareholders happy. This includes keeping shareholders informed about what’s happening on Kaiangaroa. Weekly pictorial newsletters were initiated by Jennie and keep investors abreast of what is happening on the farm on a weekly basis.
“The only way I feel connected with Kaiangaroa on a weekly basis is with the photograph diary,” Geoffrey says.
The shareholders have an AGM on the farm once a year.
Guy says he enjoys being part of a business that has discipline around tracking the financial side of it. One of the reasons he and Jennie chose to be shareholder managers on Kaiangaroa was the opportunity to work with shareholders from diverse business backgrounds.
The shareholders see the business from different perspectives and Guy says he is enjoying learning different skills from them all.
Before buying into Kaiangaroa, the couple farmed 9000 stock units spread around Manawatu so saw Kaiangaroa as an opportunity to consolidate their business.
While they are majority shareholders, there may well be opportunities to grow their shareholding in the future as people’s circumstances change.
According to information supplied by MyFarm, the financial performance of Kaiangaroa compares favourably with Beef + Lamb NZ economic service data on similar hill country.
In 2011-2012 profit before interest and tax on the Beef + Lamb NZ average sheep and beef farm on North Island hill country (Taranaki-Manawatu) was $270.65/ha – Kaiangaroa generated $561.82/ha.
Barring climatic extremes, Guy and Jennie plan to have Kaiangaroa going at full steam in 2015, when increases in drymatter production and changes in stock policy should see investors reap the rewards of five years of clever thinking and hard work.
