Paul and Abby’s story
Paul Clement admits to being a “one-eyed Cantabrian”, but he has no regrets about buying his Awatuna farm on the West Coast. It has turned out to be a successful shift for him, his wife Abby, who is a GP, and young family.
“I think the goal was always to own a farm,” says Paul. “When you have kids life changes quite quickly and getting away from the large-scale Canterbury systems was our motivation for coming here. The corporate environment is not the sort of place you have kids on farm.”
Why a smaller herd?
Paul learned a lot from his early years working in large operations; however, he wanted something different in the next stages of his career.
“Large-scale farming gave me a lot of experience, says Paul, “but the higher I got the more I was doing day-to-day stuff that I wasn’t enjoying as much. You still get satisfaction out of it but I grew tired of the very high level operational type tasks, staff administration and coaching. I had a lot of decision-making autonomy but at the end of the day I was still working for someone.
“Smaller farms are also more affordable. We had ruled out farm ownership because we didn’t think we had the equity to do it. We looked at a few opportunities, sharemilking, equity partnerships, they were very competitive markets. I got to a point where I didn’t really know what the next step was. I knew it was time for a change, but I hadn’t been looking at the West Coast. By chance we happened upon a seminar that Property Brokers were running. It really opened our eyes to the opportunities on the West Coast. I couldn’t believe the price of land, and they are good farms as well. The only hesitation when we started to look over here was that it was too good to be true. Whatever we were worried about it hasn’t come to fruition.”
The benefits of smaller herds
Smaller herd farm ownership has opened up a new appreciation for dairy farming for Paul.
“Having smaller operators in the industry is a must,” says Paul. “You have to think about sustainability. If I think about my personal situation, I wouldn’t have had anywhere really to go and I love what I do. It has actually rekindled my passion for dairy farming coming here.
“Some people also use them as a stepping stone, to get into bigger farms.”
Paul believes smaller farms are the breeding ground for the farmers of the future.
“I love the fact that it is much more family-orientated, that is much more sustainable from a people perspective. My kids will grow up like I did, getting out on the farm, helping Dad in the shed. Ultimately, that is where the next generation of farmers comes from. I think we have done well to attract people from the urban setting, but I don’t think that is sustainable. You have to have environments where you can bring up families and that is one of the big benefits of small herds.
The benefits of SMASH
Paul believes SMASH’s focus on smaller scale farming is a real plus.
“I had never heard of SMASH before I came over here. Canterbury has that many discussion groups or events it gets overwhelming and you struggle to get to them all. It was the other extreme when we came over here, there was nothing; no discussion groups, no training days, literally nothing. The very first event we heard about was a SMASH one, and it was brilliant!
“I really like the fact that they target smaller operators because the way the industry has gone large scale can dominate. Smaller scale has its challenges but also a whole lot of pros. It is awesome to be able to go somewhere for a day that highlights that.
“People like me don’t have as many resources at the fingertips, like some larger farms, so to be able to get that information is great.”
Why go to SMASH events?
“SMASH events are unique because they are really targeted and well run,” says Paul.” Some of the events you go to you come away thinking ‘that was a complete waste of time’, whereas I have never had that with SMASH. The topics always seem on point, they get really good guest speakers, and they are really well organised, so they do a really good job from that perspective.”
Paul has got a lot out of attending SMASH events.
“I generally come away with little flecks of gold not nuggets. It is often tiny little things that might save you ten minutes a day or make things easier. In our industry there is no silver bullet for anything so if you go to a field day expecting to get all the answers you will be disappointed. You won’t come back and make wholesale changes. It might be one little throw away comment, one thing that the host farmer is doing that is not necessarily even related to the topics. It is not always about profitability but what makes things easier or faster or makes things safer.”