Helping dairy women through stress

While it's too early to predict the season's outcome, milk prices are declining and the 2011-12 farmgate milk price, while slightly above forecast, is lower than last year, says the Dairy Women's Network.

It is hosting a series of spring workshops to equip women with the skills and knowledge to understand the pressure points of the farm business and give them some practical tools to help them manage financially over the next 12 months. The day will also include a discussion about coping under pressure, with attendees sharing ideas for coping with stressful situations and where to go for help.

The Dairy Days workshops will also cover what information banks need if additional finance is being sought, and how to communicate effectively with business partners and farm owners when taking control measures. Participants will create a personalised action plan to help them identify and manage what they can control when the business is going through tough times.

Workshop facilitator Julie Pirie is a dairy farmer and farm consultant with more than 25 years' experience. Julie and husband Brian own a dairy farm and support block at Ngatea in the Hauraki Plains. They purchased their first farm in 1993, and have grown their business from 150 cows to 820.

Pirie says this was done without any financial assistance other than their bank. She says they have been through financial cycles from the early 80's, and have had to operate their business very prudently during the past five years.

"Dairy farming is a business that comes with its own unique stressors such as pressure caused by milk price forecasts, trying weather conditions, long hours, resourcing and the on-farm impact of global economics. Some of these stressors are within our control to manage, others aren't," says Pirie.