Their debt-free 94ha farm milks 220 Jersey cows; the cows are fed mostly grass and some silage; no feed is bought in. This season they switched processors.
They first thought of independence 10 years ago when they looked at setting up a boutique cheese company using milk from the farm to make boutique cheese for sale.
Jean went to Brisbane to learn cheesemaking but on her return found that setting up a cheese plant in New Zealand, with high annual compliance costs, was beyond their reach.
“To be a cheesemaker and sell cheese in NZ, the compliance costs are huge… you would be paying thousands,” she told Dairy News.
She dropped the idea but soon the Queensland Department of Agriculture contacted her, following up on her cheese-making course.
Much to her surprise the Queensland government offered to help her teach cheesemaking in NZ, sending her containers of moulds and starters.
Soon Jean was teaching NZers to make cheese, hiring catering rooms at high schools and teaching groups.
“I would approach a local farmer to supply me milk to make cheese at each location,” she says.
She launched her own company, Make Cheese, and started making cheese from goat milk; at one of those classes a magazine editor asked her to write a monthly column.
While the magazine writing contract has ended, Jean has published her own range of books and DVDs; her first title was How to make cheese with Jean Mansfield - 50 artisan cheeses step by step.
Two volumes on cheese -- and other dairy products -- have been released.
“Because I had so desperately wanted to learn I thought other people might like to learn also, and it turns out I was right.
“I was inundated with enquiries and went on to create the ‘Make Cheese’ company.
“For ten years Dave and I travelled all over the North Island running cheese-making classes. I talked about cheese to groups of farmers, goat breeders, chefs, teachers and anyone interested in food.
“These days our teaching is mostly to smaller groups on the farm.”
Cheese has become a large part of their lives. Jean is a judge for the NZ Cheese Awards and shares information with farmers and cheese makers worldwide.
“Facebook and web pages have brought ‘cheesy people’ together which has been great to see. Being a dairy farmer, I’m also interested in everything ‘milk’. I make butter, cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream and even paint and buttons -- with milk. Its properties are ever-expanding as technology advances. We can look to the past for inspiration but the future holds wonders yet to be discovered about milk.”
Jean and David live in South Auckland; their Waihi farm is run by a lower-order sharemilker but they both visit the property regularly.
She says dairying has been a roller-coaster ride.
“We came to farming in our forties with no experience. Dave was a painter and I was a librarian. We both love the land and our animals and have always regarded ourselves as caretakers who wish to leave the farm in better heart than when we took over.”
They bought the farm 25 years ago from the family trust.
David’s uncle and his brothers won two adjoining farms in a ballot for returning wartime soldiers and ran 300 sheep and pedigree Jersey cows.
“Since we knew nothing about farming we straight away had to employ somebody; we got a sharemilker and decided to quit the sheep to concentrate on dairy. When the farm was bought 25 years ago, there was a dip in sheep meat and wool prices so to make it work we had to go dairy.”
The farm still runs high quality Jerseys with LIC semen used for AI.
They both had to learn the ropes on the farm.
“I learned to milk and do animal management, and Dave did mechanical work, fencing and races.
“Although we aren’t on farm full time we had to learn in case our sharemilkers were unable to work or we had to step in at short notice.”
Jean’s How to Make Cheese books and DVDs are available from www.makecheese.co.nz
