BUSINESS FORUM
Dairy farmer and South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) organising committee chairman Andrew Slater says the SIDE dairy conference is set to recharge and enthuse Southern farmers.
“Fantastic” industry to be in Words by: Anne Lee
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ndrew Slater swore he wouldn’t be a dairy farmer but after 13 years dairying in Canterbury he admits it was the best decision he and wife Hayley could have made. They sharemilk 600 cows at Dorie, east of Rakaia, for Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown and are also in an equity partnership with him in a 430-cow farm near Burnham. Andrew is the organising committee chairman for the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) and says being part of the committee is his chance to give back to the sector and region that’s been so integral in his ability to grow and progress. He grew up on a beef farm near Helensville, north of Auckland, went to Lincoln University and completed a Bachelor of Commerce in Agriculture, going on to work on both a large-scale
deer farm and an intensive sheep finishing farm. “We started looking at trying to buy land of our own back then but we were so far off the pace I could see that dairying was what offered us a way forward. “I put a 10-year time limit on it though and said if I hadn’t made it in 10 years I’m out.” Andrew says he spent a year on a small farm at Rakaia as second in charge (2IC) learning as much as he could as fast as he could. He then found farm owners willing to take a leap of faith on him and lower order sharemilked at Ealing for two years before taking on a larger lower order sharemilking job at Lowcliffe for a year.
GOING FOR GOALS From there, it was a big jump into 50/50 sharemilking at Dorie for the Browns. “All the way along I had goals – the first
Dairy Exporter | www.nzfarmlife.co.nz | April 2021
one was to be working for myself by the time I was 30 and I did that. “The next one was to own a farm by the time I was 35 and although it was at the end of my 35th year we achieved that too – buying the equity partnership farm with Neil. “The dairy industry has been fantastic – it’s delivered.” Andrew says the ability to partner with good people and the sector’s willingness to share – probably drawn from its cooperative foundations – are what create this unique industry that grows great businesses and people. “We stretched ourselves to the absolute limit to go 50/50 sharemilking after just four years dairying and there were some roller coaster years in terms of payout. “I remember Neil coming over to sit down with us when the payout dropped to find out how we were doing – it meant a lot to us that he checked in, it gave you a 127
