SHAREHOLDER STORY
Delighting in the details Sharing their lifetime of dairy learnings is part of the journey to farm ownership for Canterbury dairy farmers Brent and Rebecca Miller. The contract dairy farmers attribute their success to their 'Farmily', acknowledging the calibre of the people around them who support their journey. With a dairy farming knowledge spanning the North and South Islands and experiencing family-run and corporate-owned farms, the Millers have consolidated their skill base through their consultancy business Milk IQ – and are committed to authentic performance through solidarity.
While they now milk 1,150 cows, the Millers began at River Terrace in its first year as a dairy conversion farm.
Last season River Terrace produced 565,845kg MS and Ealing Pasture Holdings 732,460kg MS.
2 years ago, they also took on the Morris’s second farm, Ealing Pasture Holdings, a larger block of 435ha a few kilometres down the road with a 394ha milking platform and 1,450 cows.
The daughter of dairy farmers, Rebecca grew up immersed in farm life. Her parents worked their way up the career ladder through contract milking, sharemilking and eventually farm ownership in Whangarei.
Their first-year milking at Ealing Pasture Holdings saw them increase production by 12 percent and decrease costs by 15 percent.
“We are able to apply the knowledge we’ve gathered over more than 20 years and put that against what farmers are trying to achieve,” Rebecca says.
The couple pride themselves on running a tight ship, focussing on cost control and doing the small things well. This was a contributing factor to their award wins with River Terrace Dairy having the lowest cost of production at $3.84/kg MS, operating expenses are contained to 40 percent of gross revenue and a very good pasture harvest of 15.5 tonnes of dry matter a hectare, with pasture being 78 percent of all consumed.
“We have seen lot of different systems, no one system fits every farm and every farm has different goals.”
They achieved an impressive 495kg MS a cow, based on data from the 201718 season.
The Millers have spent the past seven seasons at River Terrace Dairy farm, near Carew, south of Ashburton in mid-Canterbury
Attention to detail, by both management and staff, is a key focus and they actively involve their team in management decisions.
The 362ha farm, along with a 75ha support block, is owned by Andrew and Rachele Morris.
They are also vigilant record keepers with collected data giving them a large bank of information to draw from.
They look holistically at the whole business, crunching strategies, systems and applications for farmers.
Brent started dairying while a student in Telford, where he did relief milking to get some money and enjoyed it. He describes dairying as a way to make good money and progress, with people, stock and machinery adding lots of variety. The couple currently employ 11 full-time equivalent staff, plus relief milkers and extra helpers over calving. Brent and Rebecca want to raise up the people in their business, so they can keep the talent and those staff members can take on management roles. “It’s a full circle. For us the whole reason why we’re here is for our people and to have a positive impact, not just profit. If we have a positive impact with our people, profit will come anyway. “We have worked hard to create a good team culture and our staff turnover is zero.” They say that with the help of their staff they are able to run the two farming operations effectively and efficiently. “We are still working with the same staff we brought with us from our previous job. Andy and Rachele are the same, two of their staff members, who now work for us, have been on the farm for 16 years.”
| Brent and Rebecca Miller
14 | THE FARMLANDER
This season the Morris’s have offered the Millers a 10 percent equity in River Terrace.
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