Stories from moving day

Moving Day means different things to different people. For some it’s moving to new farms big and small, for some sharemilkers it’s moving to farm ownership and for other sharemilkers it’s a case of changing hands, and all on the day that NZ officially celebrated the Queen’s birthday.

A day of emotions, relief and joy

For 38 years Kerry Walker has farmed a 110ha-effective farm at Te Horo just a few kilometres from the coast. From the highest point on the farm you get a magnificent view of Kapiti Island. For most of the time his Friesian cows have been milked twice a day but in recent years he moved to once a day (OAD) milking and never regretted the change.

He did an ag economics degree at Massey University, then came the obligatory OE and then to the farm in 1983. But for Walker, moving day this year was more ‘transitioning day’. He has sold his OAD herd to another OAD farming couple in Dargaville and for him that was a defining moment.

“I have been breeding these animals for nearly 40 years. They are our babies and it was sad to see them go on the truck. But I am really happy that they are going to a nice farm with nice people and are replacing a herd that was affected by Mycoplasma bovis. The people came down and met me so I feel happier,” he says.

However, Walker is not moving and plans to stay on his farm, go into dairy beef, do some grazing and maybe sub divide some of the land. He says being within commuting distance of Wellington helps and the fact that he has paid off most of his mortgages also is an incentive to quit. 

“But the reason for giving up after 36 years on the same farm is a combination of old age and some physical problems with my hips and stuff, but more probably the new regulations required for compliance, which is now making it very hard for small operators like myself,” he says.

Kerry Walker will no longer be milking cows.

Walker has no regrets about his career as dairy farmer saying he wouldn’t have swapped it for anything. He says he loved the community he lives in and the fact that it has stayed constant for the whole time he’s farmed at Te Horo. But while the community may have remained the same, the world of dairy farming has changed massively. 

“In that time we’ve moved away from little herds where we knew all the cows to the present day when the cows are just a number. 

“Also the fact that we have had to continue to strive to be better just to remain virtually in the same place,” he says.

This year the Horowhenua has seen little by way of a drought. The solid green grass is a sharp contrast to the bare brown pastures further north and especially in Hawke’s Bay. 

He feels for the farmers in these areas and echoes the comments of others who point out the impact of Covid-19 is virtually nil when compared to the drought.

“There is nothing more stressful than not being able to feed your animals and it gets quite personal. We flood here, but every day after a flood it gets better, whereas with a drought every day gets worse,” he says.

Finally, Walker says he’s especially enjoyed being a OAD farmer. 

Hard work pays off for couple

While Kerry Walker was farewelling his cows, Grant and Kathryn Lovelock were in the final stages of transitioning from being sharemilkers to first farm owners. 

For the past six years they have been sharemilking on a farm just north of Levin and were handing the role onto John Ellis and his wife who have come all the way from Invercargill to farm in the Horowhenua.

John has bought some of the Lovelock’s cows and on the day before moving day he and the Lovelocks were busy running the cows through the shed to make sure that the right animals were staying on the farm. John was also bringing stock from his previous farm up north and they were due there on moving day.

Originally from the North Island, John has spent the last 30 years in the South Island, some of it as a builder, but a lot of it as a sharemilker.

“We have family in this area and after six years on the last farm we decided it was time for a change,” he says.

But under Covid-19, coming north has not been easy. He’s been unable to travel during lockdown to view the stock he was buying and his ticket on the Cook Strait Ferry was cancelled at one stage. He eventually made it to Horowhenua a couple of days before final settlement.

Grant and Kathryn Lovelock.

For Grant and Kathryn Lovelock and their three daughters, moving to their own farm near Dannevirke has been a mixture of excitement and frustration due to Covid. They had been sharemilking on the farm near Levin for nine years and at one stage were also running another sharemilking operation.

Grant Lovelock was raised on a dairy farm near Palmerston North but when he left school he studied electrical and electronic engineering, but couldn’t find a job and started milking cows which he has done ever since.

Farm ownership has always been the goal of the couple, but Grant says they were prepared to bide their time to get the right farm so it met all their needs.

“Most sharemilkers initially transition to a small farm with a couple of hundred cows, but we didn’t really want to do that. Instead we wanted to be in a position where we could have a larger farm with a minimum of 400 cows and maybe two labour units. So that’s why it’s taken us a bit longer,” he says.

Waiting for this day has put pressure on the couple and they have taken on extra work such as raising in-calf heifers to generate more income to make the move of a lifetime.

Covid-19 has meant their move has been more of a nightmare than a dream, says Kathryn. They started moving some of their possessions to the new farm as early as January – things like calf rearing equipment, hay and baleage. But when lockdown came she says they couldn’t move anything, and having to work in a family bubble and keep their distance from staff added to their woes. 

“So everything got crammed into this short period and with so many restrictions made it very hard.  Then John (Ellis) couldn’t get here to do the final selection of his cows, so we couldn’t sort out what cows we were keeping and selling. There was a whole lot of stuff we simply couldn’t do and then everything got crammed into a very short space,” she says.

Grant Lovelock (right) hands over his sharemilking role to John Ellis.

To add to their woes, moving day fell on a public holiday and that meant they had to bring forward the settlement date for their new farm in the Tararua district. Such has been the rush that both Grant and Kathryn admit that while farm ownership is awesome, the fact that this has actually happened hasn’t really sunk in and probably won’t for a couple of months.

In other ways they are lucky that while they are going to a region that has been badly hit by the drought, their farm is in good shape. The stock on that farm were moved off in April, so the pastures have had time to recover. They also have plenty of supplement.

Despite all the challenges of moving fourteen years of ‘goods’ to a new location, Grant, Kathryn and their three daughters are in love with the new farm. 

“It’s just stunning and the kids love it and think it’s cool. They want to go there and that has made it easier for us,” says Grant.