Rumours around the country over the last few years have been that there have been fewer and fewer Herd Owning (50/50) sharemilking positions available. And those that are advertised are swamped with applications! The rungs in that progression ladder seem to be getting further and further apart.
If this is the case how are young people ever supposed to get to the goal of farm ownership....is this now just a DREAM??!!
- If there are fewer sharemilking jobs around...why?
- Is it all just greed?.....and by whom.....the owners?....the current sharemilkers taking on multiple jobs....creaming the money?....or is it the price of land?
What happens if sharemilking dissapears? how will the industry survive? Do we even need it?
What do you think the issues are? Is this even a problem? If it is how do we fix it? How does a young farmer progress to farm ownership?
There is a trend that farm sizes are increasing. This is changing the dynamics of sharemilking - sharemilkers require larger herds for 50/50 positions and have to employ staff.
ReplyDeleteThis has two impacts - 1. there are less sharemilking positions available as mutliple farms are joined together. 2. those that can get smaller sharemilking positions stay for longer or get multiple positions to get enough equity/increase cow numbers to work towards larger scale 50/50 positions.
Whilst 50/50 positions are harder to come by and return less profit to the owner than historically, progession in the dairy industry is not completely doomed. We can't forget good old Kiwi nature - innovation and thinking outside the square will the future. Equity partnerships are becoming more commom which barely even existed 10years ago.
Can't blame the sharemilker ... they have to think how best to invest their money to get their best return. Sometimes, land ownership of a smaller property is not that great with working harder. Maybe equity partnerships enable them to get scale and give the other investors a fair slice of the pie too.
ReplyDeletewhere to start with this topic............
ReplyDeleteFirstly agriculture in NZ in my eyes is still a very sun rise industry, full of potential.
We will no longer hear of the "farmer Teds" that go out conventional hay bailing for the summer whilst their wife milks on their 180 cow share milking job to make a farm deposit. The industry has/ is changing....... keep up!
There are still 50/50 jobs out there, but its a pyramid affect. With a few really good ones at the top and a lot of average share milking jobs at the bottom - but the question is how are you the 50/50 share milker creating an identity for your business to get those top jobs?
Farm Ownership, still possible - YES. but like always, it starts from a pathway that you chose late teens into the industry. Be smart with your money, progress to the right jobs. Young People (earlies 20's) in the Dairy Industry can earn 70K plus per year, if they are smart with that the options are un-ending.
But in saying all this with our business, we've set out to network well, build a reputation and plan to buy into a small piece of an elephant rather than own an entire mouse.
Equity ownership is for us. for reasons being, stability, security and the larger farms with staff.