Friday, March 29, 2024

Small players do own training

Neal Wallace
When the ADB Williams Charitable Trust established a farm training school manager Jed Murphy didn’t have to look far to find a successful model he could replicate.
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The trust owns two Dannevirke farms, Pukemiro Station and Coonoor, covering 1441ha and for four years worked with Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre by providing training access for students.

In January last year it introduced its own cadet scheme, a move in keeping with the trust’s aim of using farm proceeds to fund agricultural training and community-good projects.

“I guess we got a taste of training and development and a desire to work with a smaller number of people ourselves,” Murphy said.

He looked to schemes at Smedley and Waipaoa and set up a two-year, on-farm cadet training programme, a model also used by trainers including Coleridge Downs in Canterbury and Jeff Farm in south Otago.

The trust takes three trainees a year so has six training at any one time.

The trainees spend the first year working alongside station staff and are gradually given more responsibility as their knowledge and ability expand.

By the end of their first six months they get to rear a heading dog pup which they train and begin working on stock the following year.

Their training includes one day a week of classroom work as they progress towards level three and four qualifications through the Eastern Instituter of Technology.

Experts, such as dog handlers and shearers, are called in as needed but the students’ pastoral care is also important so the trust employs someone to ensure their personal, social and academic needs are looked after.

“By the time they leave they can cook meals for the team, put up a fence, shear sheep and work their heading and huntaway dogs.”

The trust meets the students’ course fees.

Like Pukemiro Station, Coleridge Downs in Canterbury has many more applicants each year than the three places available. Last year it had 15 applicants.

“My worst job is saying to the ones that can’t come that we can’t take them,” manager Tony Plunkett said.

The small intake ensures students have the necessary one-on-one tuition and he can keep a close watch on costs and students.

But while  bigger providers like Taratahi have a role in the sector that business model is not working, which is concerning for the industry.

Pukemiro Station manager Jed Murphy with farm cadets at work on the Dannevirke training farm.

Theland Purata Farm Group agribusiness chief executive Justine Kidd said it is in discussion with Dairy Training to replace Taratahi as the education provider but there are several issues, meaning the earliest start date could be June 1 but more realistically January next year.

“We have agreed that the academy is an exciting potential asset for the industry and the concept of the academy is one we all want to progress with, however, at this point in time the commercial model relies totally on significant financial support from Theland-Tahi Farm Group, $200,000 a year, and there has not been any progress made to reduce this cost in the time the academy has been operating,” she said.

Chinese-owned Theland consists of the Tahi Farm Group of 16 North Island farms and the Purata Farm group of 13 South Island farms.

In 2012 Shanghai Pengxin and Hunan Dakang Food and Agriculture bought 16 former Crafar Farms with Landcorp contracted to sharemilk the properties.

In 2016 Shanghai Pengxin bought the 13 Synlait farms taking its total holding to 12,000ha milking 30,000 cows.

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