SPECIAL REPORT • SUPER SPREAD-SHEETER
Family time is very important for James and Ashleigh, pictured here with Henry, 8, Payton, 6, Kyan, 4 and Emersyn, 5-months old.
KNOW THY NUMBERS On the Oakes’ farm, carrots are not a go-er but 3-in-2 definitely is, and James Oakes has the numbers to prove it. Jackie Harrigan explains.
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ames Oakes says he has new ideas all the time – but 90% of them are thrown away by the end of the day and 99% within the week. Having a good set of budgeting skills means the Taranaki dairy farmer can quickly run the ruler over new ideas and discount them or take them further. “Our motivations are family and lifestyle,” he said at a recent SMASH field day in Stratford, “and that’s what we measure everything against.” James and Ashleigh Oakes have four children – boys Henry (8), Payton (6), Kyan (4) and five-month old daughter
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Emersyn – and James values time spent with the children, helping Ashleigh and supporting and coaching the children's sports and activities. He told the Dairy Exporter he measures his lifestyle by how much time he has available to spend with family and to watch rugby and cricket during the day. At the end of their first season on their 320-cow, 135-hectare dairy farm at Midhurst, he and Ashleigh questioned their work/life balance. “I directly compared our time off with our urban siblings and friends and thought ‘would they work these hours?’ ” Reassuring questioners that his friends
are building equity at the same rate that he and Ashleigh are, James says it is important to the couple to have a similar quality of life with similar opportunities for time off the farm and with the children if they want it. Their big change for this season is the shift to 3-in-2 milking for the entire season, which is helping them tick those boxes, all with just a $10,000 reduction in milk income but an overall increase in profitability. “We have always done some 3-in-2. In February 2019 we moved to 3-in-2 to finish the season to cover the feed shortage, but milking at 5am and then 7pm made it too late – we weren’t happy with it.” In January 2020 milking times were changed to 5am and 4.30pm, which James says worked out much better. He enjoyed being able to do more and pick up the kids every second day after the midday milking. In July they brought on a new staff member – Tony Smith, who had been working long hours and was looking for a lifestyle change to spend more time with his children – and promised they would start 3-in-2 in December, but then thought why not look at doing it full-season? “We started breaking it down and worked out it would cost us $2000 for August
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | December 2020
