Milkmaids for Life

Milkmaids For Life

Project 2023-03-17 12:20:44 +1300

I have been in the dairy industry all my life. It has been our youngest daughter, a fifth-generation farmer who has been working beside me for the past 25yrs. We run an all 'girl farm' apart from a couple of Bulls named L Jay and Links. My daughter and I do all the farm work, fencing, tractor work, feeding out silage/hay, digging postholes, milking & managing the machine hygiene, water pump problem, fixing water leaks, rearing calves, assisting cows having difficult births, trimming cows feet, plus more.  This is our love and passion.

Decades ago, New Zealand introduced a system where over time a young farmer could work up the ladder, gaining experience and finally purchase a property. At the bottom of the ladder was labourer, then contract milker, followed by a 29% or 39% position where that percentage of the farm's income was given to the worker for his employment. A few years later the worker might then have enough money to apply for a 50% position where he/she  purchases a herd of cows and gives half of the milk cheque to the landowner. Years further on, the last step is farm ownership.

We lived and worked on many properties as we climbed that ladder, each farm was very different to the one before.

In 1989 my husband and I purchased our first herd of dairy cows and went 50% sharemilking. During the third year of our contract the land owner's marriage broke up and the property was sold.

We packed up our four children and found another 50% sharemilking position. We had just completed our second year and were informed because of ill health these landowners also felt the need to sell their land.

Our next position was different. We leased a dairy farm for 8yrs and lived some of our happiest years there, until the banks interest rates topped 23%.

Another two different lease farms followed as we attempted to keep ahead of the tide.  It was around this time I began to question protocol.  I questioned the medical establishment because I wasn't satisfied with the diagnosis of our third child's health.  I also questioned the health of the land we were farming on which was having a huge impact on our cow's health.  I studied all the soil tests and contacted 'experts'.  Nothing was making sense.

Too many cows were failing to get pregnant, antibiotics was not curing mastitis, youngstock had to be de-wormed every 8 weeks, our vet bills were enormous, cows dying without explanation.  The cow's coats weren't glossy and healthy, they were rough and didn't smell right either.  Every step we took was costing us more money as we invested in bigger machinery.  There was no profit and we were just breaking even.

In 2006 my daugther and I decided to turn it all around and farm organically.  We didn't make the change gradually, we went 'cold turkey'.  My husband said 'if you lose production and cows start dying you are going straight back again'.

We had alot of learning to do, so we attended every organic fielday taking notes of how others managed there pasture and animals. No two farmers used the same organic/regenerative methods, so we opted for what suited us.

There was no going back to factory farming.

We began to work more intuitively with nature, listening to her needs, witnessing our cows amazing habits revealing a world we had been taught to ignore.

Farming with a reignited love and respect, it became pure joy to be with our family of cow's.  The change in our management practices opened our minds to how animals feel and interact with their surroundings.  We discovered their health problems were also our health problems because we were consuming their milk which lacked nutrients.

In the next few weeks we will be leaving this 50% sharemilking position which has given us more than a few challenges, but is also responsible for our biggest reward.  We fertilized every paddock 6 - 8 times a year with our own fish emulsion with added biodynamic preps, seaweed fertilizer and EM (efficient micro-organisms).  After seven years of converting the property and weaning it off the chemical regime.  We witnessed it detoxify before the 'magic' began. 

I always said I would write a book sharing my life's challenges and discoveries.  In 2017 'You Have Been Given a Gift' was published revealing it is much easier to farm with Mother Nature than against Her.

Today we find ourselves at a crossroads. Being sharefarmers in Northland, NZ needing a new home as of June 1st, 2023.  We own our 296 animals and are financially secure, but we do not own any land to continue farming on.

Our dream is to have ownership of a property where we can plant our fruit trees, vegetables, Herbs and collect milk from our girls.

A successful Pledge Me campaign would help us to purchase a home we would never have to leave, a home for us and our cow's.  A property suitable for our project will cost approx. 2.3m here in Northland.  Our available cash is $450,000 plus herd as collateral.  The banks won't accept our request for a loan to cover the rest saying we have a shortfall of $500,000.

We've found many farmers are giving up and leaving the dairy industry.  Over 50 dairy farms have disappeared from Northland in the past two years.  We have looked everywhere and are completely exhausted.  In need of a permanent home for ourselves and our family of cow's.  

The stress of not knowing where we will be in a few weeks is indescribable.  We not only have the household of Nana, Poppa, daughter, son in law & two grandsons to move and pack, we have 296 animals young and old that also need to be transported.  

If our campaign is unsuccessful, we will search for a grazier to look after our cows and find a house to live in until we can be together again.  We will not be giving up farming.

To complement our dream we want to share our discoveries with others.  That is how we learnt, we owe it to the next generation so they too can produce nutritious food. 

In the past we have hosted several groups of farmers on farm visits as well as individual people who have stayed with us.  Six Japanese students lived with us for four weeks (one at a time) to learn our way of life.  We also had a Rugby player from Argentina live with us for six months and two girls from Norway who stayed on another occasion for two weeks. 

Waikato Polytech enlisted us to give some of their students on farm experience for a week as part of their agriculture course. It was an awesome experience sharing knowledge.

To establish a one bedroom unit separate from the main dwelling for our guests would cost approx. $30,000 and would give some privacy.  

Our education project will be called 'Farming for Life' because that is exactly the gap we want to fill.  We will charge $50/day teaching how to grow food by feeding the soil and managing animals to ferilize it.  Mother Nature provides everything and has survived without human intervention for eons.  She is alot wiser than us.

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