My wife Bek and I have just leased a farm in Yannathan after 22 years of farmhand into manger to sharefarmer roles - with an equity share partnership with the Campbell family. I am a first-generation dairy farmer.
We milk our 200 cows twice per day in a 16 swing over dairy. We calve in Spring starting mid-July and have crossbred cows – three-way cross Friesian, Jersey and Reds. Ours is a dryland farm of 75 ha with about 800-900mm rainfall. We employ one part-time staff member.
Away from the farm I am involved with Rotary, the School Council and Football Committees.
We have three children that all love their sport - so between football, netball and tennis, this keeps us on our toes. Bek also works as a bookkeeper off-farm 3 days a week. When we can, we love to get away camping and fishing. At this stage we are happy to have taken the next step to leasing with no real burning desire to buy a dairy farm at the moment.