For young couple Brad and Courtney Edwards, farming is a way of life.
The ambitious 23 year olds have two young sons, a 50/50 sharemilking position on the Hauraki Plains – and a handful of awards under their belts.
“I love it, absolutely love it,” Courtney said.
“The best thing we ever went was share-milking. Just the lifestyle – and having two young kids, and having that little bit more freedom… It’s good to have that balance of farm work/family life.”
From their first farm together in Otorohonga – Brad as farming manager and Courtney as a farm assistant – the couple have now grown into a fully-fledged business, sharemilking with 240 cows on a 90 hectare property.
They aim to be the best that they can be, in all aspects of the farm. One way Brad and Courtney have embraced that ethos is by becoming certified milk suppliers with sustainable milk company Synlait.
“To us, to be saying we’re ‘Lead With Pride’ certified, it means that we are portray[ing] dairy farming in the best possible light,” Courtney said.
“You’re looking at greenhouse gases, animal welfare, social responsibility, milk quality… You’re fully transparent about everything.”
Entering the Auckland Hauraki Dairy Industry Awards was the next step in developing their business, and Courtney said they were thrilled to come runner-up in the Share Farmer of the Year category, as well as receiving the Federated Farmers Leadership Award and the Diprose Miller Business Performance Award.
“[We entered] to look in depth into the business a bit more and what… our practices are against what other people say they’d be doing on their farm because no two farmers are the same,” Courtney said.
“You think you know your business until you sit down and you pull apart each part of your business.”
Brad agreed, saying the financial insights they gained through working with the experts was invaluable.
“It’s a good exercise regardless, and the awards pushed us to do it a little bit more,” he said.
But among the new business goals and day-to-day work, Brad and Courtney still have plenty of scope to follow their own interests.
“Business and milking and cowshedding and calves is my domain, those are my strong points; and pasture management and the breeding side of cows – that is Brad’s,” Courtney said.
“Us wanting to progress with our production targets and breeding targets is the biggest thing,” Brad said.
“We’ve gone on a new venture doing sire proving, so all the younger bulls for [herd improvement company] LIC.
“And we’re real pasture-renewal-based this year. Within six years, we’d like to have all the farm to be in new grasses, more or less.”
For now though, the couple are focused on growing their young family and their business, and they’re thrilled with the community they’ve chosen to do it in.
“With hockey and Young Farmers and just the neighbours and friends that we’ve made over here, it’s been amazing,” Courtney said.
“They’ve been really welcoming, and Young Farmers has been amazing – it’s just a good way to get out in the community and meet like-minded people.”
“The last two years, it’s been good,” Brad said.
“It’s the next generation that’s going to be the hardest, I think, for the industry. Because trying to get your head wrapped around the sustainability stuff, all the legislation that will come into industry, dealing with the likes of global warming, changing seasons, I think, will be the hard one.”
