Happy being small herd farmers

But still it's all smiles: the small herd farmer was sharing jokes with his farm worker Mark when Dairy News visited to discuss the results of a recent Lincoln University survey of 330 small herd dairy farmers.

One key finding was that small herd dairy farmers appear more content with their lot than bigger dairy farmers.

Inch said it all had to do with scale: smaller farms wouldn't want the debt of larger farms but wouldn't get the economies of scale the larger farms get; smaller farms tended to be more traditional and labour intensive and not as cost efficient.

Inch said despite this they had looked hard at the bottom line and were doing well. Carrying 10% fewer stock than a year ago they were producing more milk than back then and even though the overnight Global Dairy Trade auction was down again they were tracking well.

Inch's family has farmed at Bellgrove for 96 years and the 230 cows they now have are grazed on the 94ha they own or lease.

Because the farm is close to Rangiora, Inch has had do big farm things like installing an underpass under a main road for easy access to 34ha on the other side of the road. Before the underpass they needed four people to manage traffic.

Citing the benefits of a small herd operation, Inch said you get a taste of everything: one day fencing, the next day digging up thistles, and everything in between.

However on a bigger farm team there could be a downside: you could be on the irrigation roster or the herd round-up for a month, not giving you the variety of work you experience on his farm.

There's a flipside though: Inch said he'd only had four days off so far this year and wasn't banking on getting anymore time off until June. With a larger team you can allow staff to have time off.

The survey also highlighted the preference of small herd farmers for getting information in face-to-face meetings or at field days. Inch agreed, saying, "farming is forever changing: if you stand still you're going backwards" and "there is wonderful technology out there for farming: it's the cost of it that's a concern".

The survey also showed there was little interest in succession planning, which Inch disagreed with, saying, "they're fools: it's much better to deal with that when people are alive and can voice their opinions than trying to sort it after they have died".

Describing his style of farming as a bit old-school, he and Mark agreed that compared to a big farm it was easier to control things, more hands on. They felt like they were getting somewhere and the work was more personal, hence they seemed genuinely happy in their work.