Buying their first dairy farm, at Thornton on the Rangitaiki Plains 13 kilometres west of Whakatane, has realised a young family’s dream that was 10-years in the making.
After stepping onto the dairying ladder in 2014 and climbing from contract milking to sharemilking since, a move into ownership started to become realistic for Eastern Bay of Plenty couple Jeremy and Angharad Brady about two years ago.
“Jeremy grew up on a farm, went to Lincoln, then worked mustering cows in the Kimberleys, in the Australian outback, which is where we met. Jeremy’s parents bought a farm in Whakatane, and we came back from Australia to work on that. I’m from Wales and a real townie who fell into farming, so for me it was a big learning curve,” says Angharad.
Share milking developed their farming skills, their partnership and their equity, and last year they found a property that met their criteria, listed for sale by Phil Goldsmith of PGG Wrightson Real Estate, Whakatane, a 106-hectare farm milking an average of 357 mixed age Kiwi Cross cows through a 40 a-side herringbone shed to produce a three-year average of 162,000 kilograms of milksolids.
Jeremy says the locality is what first appealed.
“It’s close to Thornton Beach and a few minutes from Whakatane. We’ve been sharemilking nearby, so know this area and have established ourselves here, which helped make the farm an interesting option for us.
“It’s been well set up, with good irrigation, and although we’ve done some contouring and drainage, with maybe a bit more of that to do, it is close to what we want. Longer term we would like a support block to go with it. We rear our own young stock, and at present they go away for a year grazing off the farm, which is expensive, and means we can’t keep as close an eye on them as we would like.
“Overall, the productivity is satisfactory, and we aren’t looking to make any major changes.”
Angharad says the sense of freedom is the best thing about owning their own property.
“We worked previously for good people, though you can’t beat being able to make your own decisions without other things being tied into it, and not relying on anybody else’s input.”
Going unconditional in January coincided with another big event: the birth of the Bradys’ second child, son Lachlan joining daughter Imogen, who is now two and a half. Off the farm, Angharad works for Fonterra as an Associate Programme Lead in the On Farm Excellence Environment team, planning to return from maternity leave in February.
“In my job, the focus is on efficiency: making milk matter, with minimum wastage. On the farm, we mirror that by trying to keep to a low cost, simple system. Efficiency underlies everything, starting with the cows, for example looking at conversion of energy to milk solid production rather than volume, and refining our genetics,” she says.
They are also looking forward to raising Imogen and Lachlan in the dairying lifestyle.
“Thinking about our future, that’s how we want our children to grow up. It gives them so much freedom and adventure, and a chance to learn how to take care of our land and animals. Imogen already enjoys helping me feed the calves, and exploring the farm on the two wheeler with dad. It’s a cool childhood for them,” says Angharad.
Phil Goldsmith was delighted to match the Bradys with their ideal first farm.
“This is an excellent property, well located, with a high standard of presentation and improvement. Its longevity of environmental and consent compliance means Jeremy and Angharad can enjoy the freedom of farming it into the foreseeable future, on their own terms, and without needing to unnecessarily adjust their management practices,” he says.
Related posts
Back to News & Publications
