Sharemilkers strike out for fresh fields in annual trek

The Fowlies (from left) Jess, 16, Heather, Joanna, 7, Stuart and Blake, 6, with dogs Bandit and Chevy. Picture / Amos Chapple

For Waikato couple Stuart and Heather Fowlie, yesterday marked their fifth move - lock, stock and barrel - in nine years.

In traditional terminology, June 1 is "Gypsy Day" for the dairy industry, when sharemilkers like the Fowlies transport family, belongings, farm equipment and herd from one farm to the next.

They usually change regularly in order to build up stock and equity, with the aim of eventually having their own dairy farm.

"I hate shifting but I'm from a farming family and it has been a lifelong thing," said Mrs Fowlie, as she tried to bring order to the chaos of all their worldly goods transplanted to yet another temporary house.

Accommodation has to be found, too, for a bucketful of goldfish, a new aviary organised for the birds and kennels and runs set up for the dogs.

In their time, the Fowlies have lived in a "beautiful" family homestead and had to sell off furniture to fit into a two-bedroom cottage.

The children - Jessica, 16, Joanna, 7, and Blake, 6 - find the changes more exciting than their parents do.

Said Mrs Fowlie: "It takes a little while to feel at home, but I try to get most things in place on the first day so I don't get up to face a mess in the morning."

The best thing about the latest move is that the couple, in their late 30s, have transferred only 9km up the road at Te Awamutu and this time the children will not have to change schools.

Although many of the 4000 or so sharemilkers around New Zealand start as employees, gradually acquire bigger herds and enter a 50/50 share agreement with a landowner, the Fowlies have had something of a ladders and snakes career.

Mr Fowlie began as a farmhand for his father at Whatawhata, near Hamilton. During their first year of marriage he was on wages while his wife continued work as a registered nurse at Waikato Hospital.

Then the couple became variable order sharemilkers on the family farm, earning 25 per cent of the milk cheque in the first year and 29 per cent the second year.

In year three they bought Mr Fowlie snr's herd of 210 cows and went 50/50 with him before the farm was sold.

They bought 30 more cows and moved their herd to another 50/50 job in Putaruru, but that property also sold within a year. On to Taupiri under the same arrangement - and another sale.

Unable to find a replacement sharemilking job, the Fowlies were forced to sell their cows when the market was low.

For the next year they managed a friend's farm before being offered a variable order post at Te Awamutu. The latest move means milking a 310-strong herd for a percentage of the profits.

"We are trying to get back on the road to 50/50, where we were before all the bad luck," Mrs Fowlie said. "We are in a hurry to get somewhere and are collecting cows along the way [to build their own herd again]."

Now on a renewable annual contract and with a 10-year plan, they would like to stay put for a few years.

The dream of owning their own farm is not dead, but the skyrocketing price of land has put it out of reach of many sharemilkers.

Sometimes the Fowlies feel like gypsies - "like us, they move absolutely everything" - but for all that they reckon their chosen lifestyle is ideal for raising children.

* The sharemilkers' migration coincides with nationwide rolling bank strikes. It is not known how many rural transactions will be affected.

Sharemilking

* The farming financial calender finishes on May 31.

* Sharemilkers start new positions on June 1 under contracts that can be for one or more years.

* New Zealand has about 4000 sharemilkers, 70 per cent of whom have their own herds.

* Although arrangements can be flexible, herds are moved at this time because that is when milking cows have dried off.

* Some farm sales are also completed now for accounting purposes.

* Sharemilking allows farmers to step through the system as they can afford to, from employee on wages to contractor sharing costs and income, to dairy farm owner.

* Under a 50/50 milk cheque split, the farm owner has the land, fixed assets and buildings and the sharemilker supplies the labour, the cows and the machinery.