FARMSTRONG
No need to struggle alone Dairy farmer Graham Berry milks 240 cows on a 145-hectare West Coast farm near Franz Josef. Farmstrong caught up with him to get his thoughts on living well to farm well.
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ou’ve been farming for a long time. Tell us about your operation. We’ve been here 17 years. We milk 240 cows, we’ve got some yearlings on, calves and a few beefies. How’d you get into farming? I was brought up on a sheep and beef farm in Atarau up the Grey Valley. Then when I left school, I worked on the neighbour’s dairy farm. What do you like about dairy farming? I like working outside and the fact that you get to do a bit of everything. You’re always multitasking. How I feel about it on any given day depends on things like the weather, but every job has its perks and downfalls. I just enjoy getting outdoors among the cattle. They don’t argue back, unless they kick you. You’re heavily involved in your local community too, aren’t you? I was on the Franz Josef Community Council for a number of years and I’ve been part of Civil Defence here for the past seven or eight years. I’m also chairperson of SERF (South Westland Emergency Relief Trust for Families) working with families from Ross down to Haast. We’ve been busy helping people who’ve lost jobs due to the impact of covid on tourism in this area, or people that are just having a bad run and need a yarn. Why do you put your hand up for these things? I enjoy getting off-farm and connecting with other people. This is a one-person farm. I get staff in to help me through spring and use relief milkers, but I’m mostly here by myself all day so getting off-farm is important. I also find it rewarding to be able to contribute my skills to the community. I was raised in Grey Valley where people
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West Coast farmer Graham Berry has been dairy farming for a long time and says while he enjoys it, getting away off-farm is important. Graham with the hydropower system he installed on his farm.
always dropped what they were doing to help each other. You coach sport too, don’t you? Yes, I used to play rugby and rugby league, actually anything sport I would give it a go. Now I coach some South Westland rugby and over the past seven years I’ve really got into coaching kids’ badminton. I’ve played badminton for most of my life. I regularly head away to tournaments and training camps for kids that get selected for the Mainland Team. That’s another big commitment. Yes, but it just gives you that wee break from the farm, which is important. It’s good for the brain, it’s good for your mental health and wellbeing. The reward I get from doing
the coaching, seeing the kids grow as people, is also huge. And the friendships I’ve made with other coaches around the mainland and NZ have been great too. They’ve kept me learning. One of my mottos in life is that I want to keep learning. Learning keeps you fresh. Has that philosophy carried over into your farming? Definitely. For example, in 2015 we built our own hydropower system here and set up a 55 kilowatt power scheme on-farm. It runs the farm and any power we don’t use, we sell back to the grid. That was a really cool project. How do you manage the workload onfarm?
DAIRY FARMER
March 2022
