Taranaki's old Young Farmers wanted for new alumni network

This was written for Taranaki, for a Stuff Farming First feature, but applies to the whole country! Visit www.youngfarmers.co.nz/nzyf-alumni for more details.

Former Taranaki Young Farmers are being urged to join a newly formed Young Farmers alumni network.

In 2022, New Zealand Young Farmers has five clubs in Taranaki – Central meets in Stratford, Coastal meets in Oakura, South Taranaki meets in Hawera, and then there’s Inglewood and Urenui.

In Toko dairy farmer Greg Jones’ day, coastal and central were better known by club names such as Toko, Midhurst, Cardiff and Eltham. Now well past the aging out cut-off of 31, Greg was only 21 when he was working on his neighbour’s dairy farm and joined for the “social outlet”.

“It was good to get off the farm and have some fun, but still have everyone involved in or knowing about farming. I wasn't really interested in all the competitions back in those days. It was just a social gathering and to get out and have fun and do some other stuff,” he says. “A lot of that early influence to join was from my parents, Dad [Colin] was in Young Farmers; he competed at a national level and was regional chairman. Mum [Trish] was in Country Girls and she was also Toko’s advisory member when I first started.”

Greg then went overseas for three years, working with the International Agricultural Exchange Association (IAEA) programme in Canada and Europe.

“In Canada, I was on a 50/50 beef and cropping farm in the prairies of Saskatchewan. Then I spent a winter in Holland on a little 80-cow Holstein-Friesian milking farm.”

When he came back to the family farm, he got back into Young Farmers, holding club and then zone and regional positions. That spurred him into attending regional conferences and national conferences – Ashburton in 1993, New Plymouth in ‘94, Picton ‘95, Rotorua ‘96, Dunedin ’97 and Auckland 98. He missed Mt Cook in 1999 but made it to Hawke's Bay in 2000.

“Somewhere in there I meet Fiona at a regional Young Farmers weekend in Levin. We were married by the Dunedin conference because we flew to Invercargill to visit our best man, and the following year we took a nearly one-year-old to Auckland,” he reminisces.

“The aim was just to have a good time. I did some of the competitions, but I was a good participant; I never really did any good at them. But having said that, we didn't realize what we had learned until we left. You generally picked up a lot of skills, and they could be physical ones or things like running a meeting. It was good experience. When we were young, you could tell the older generation that had been through Young Farmers because they were holding positions through politics and industry organisations. They were the people who just got things done.”

Greg and Fiona were no different once they aged out, with Fiona stepping up to school PTA and board of trustees, and Greg is still on the local hall committee. Greg’s mum went on to be involved with the Life Education Trust and bought a life-sized cut-out of Harold the giraffe that remains on the farm today.

Greg and Fiona farm 97 hectares (effective) of flat to rolling country at Toko, milking 280 jersey-cross cows through a 36-bale rotary shed.

?“We’re slowly dropping cow numbers, so if I can get to 100,000 kilograms of milk solids I’d be happy. That’s the target.”

The land has been in the family since 1908.

“When my great grandparents bought the farm it was only maybe 59ha, but we bought a neighbouring block in 2000. My grandfather and his brother had two farms side by side, and they're now one.”

He says they’ve done riparian fencing and planting where they needed to, but the farm doesn’t have a lot of steams and drains to deal with, despite the 1500mm annual rainfall. He says the cows are the key to improving the farm.

?“The key for that is to have better genetics, improving milk solids per cow or per hectare, whatever works. And without overstocking yourself, trying to do everything efficiently and economically. We’ve always had Jersey cows. They’re smaller for this country, they don’t have big feet, and they’re generally quieter, without the bellowing.

“It’s hard work here to winter 300 cows through without making mud, and the cost of sending them off the farm for six to eight weeks over the winter is astronomical and it's not getting cheaper. We graze our weaners off from May to May and that’s not cheap either. So maybe the next step is taking everything in house, which might mean dropping in numbers again.”

It’s an all-grass system with maize bought if it’s needed – and cheap enough – as well as a reducing amount of palm kernel (PKE).

“We farm better with just grass. I’m happy with that; just filling a couple of gaps with PKE.”

Fiona rears about 65 heifer calves, as well as about 20 bull calves to sell as weaners to the farm where their heifers graze.

The couple has three daughters – Monica, 24, completed a mechanical engineering degree (honours) but a love of horses has seen her move into her dream job working for a Waikato horse trainer. The youngest, Karen, 14, attends Taranaki Diocesan in Stratford, while Jessica, 22, is farming, which, as Greg explains, is a story that goes back to Young Farmers again.

“We have friendships with people all over the country from those days, particularly those I met through national committee. Facebook helps now too, although I’m pleased it wasn’t around when we were playing up,” he laughs. “I mentioned my IAEA exchange; well my parents also hosted more than 20 IAEA exchangees from Canada, Europe, and the UK over the years and they were all encouraged to join Young Farmers. One of those was a Dutchman called Hennie Amtink, who was our best man when we got married. He worked on my parents’ farm, now our farm, when he came out to New Zealand in 1986, and was in Midhurst Young Farmers. He went home afterwards, but came back to stay, and is now down in Southland, and that’s where Jessica’s working.”

The NZ Young Farmers alumni network allows ex-NZYF members to stay connected or reconnect with the organisation, take part in mentoring initiatives, and help support its future, as well as catching up with old YF mates.

Visit www.youngfarmers.co.nz/nzyf-alumni for more details.