Eight years ago, Galatea dairy farmers Aran and Sharleen Sealey’s decision to enter the Dairy Industry Awards (DIA) was one made without a great deal of consideration.
“Aran entered the Dairy Trainee of the Year in 2013 because someone told him he’d get a free feed at the awards dinner,” Sharleen laughs.
“He asked me if I wanted to go on a date – and with two children under two at that stage – I was all in.
The evening went even better than expected: Aran not only received his promised dinner, but also came away with the practical skills component award for the Bay of Plenty.
While proud of his achievement, the couple gave little thought to the awards again until late last year and in 2021, they came up trumps, winning the title of Bay of Plenty Share Farmers of the Year.
They are 50% equity partners with Sharleen’s parents, Eric and Margaret Smeith, milking 440 Jersey and crossbred cows on a 136ha milking platform.
The Bay of Plenty farm has great significance in Sharleen’s family. Her grandfather bought the farm in 1951 as a ballot farm after returning from WWII. He established the land as a dairy farm, which was later purchased by Sharleen’s father Eric.
The couple’s entry into the 2021 DIA was not something they had planned to do, but it came at the ideal time.
“Several members of the community had encouraged us to enter and it was around this time it became apparent that Joel would not be able to come home for Christmas as planned due to covid-19,” she says.
“Entering the awards was a positive distraction from missing him. He was our motivation.”
They decided they didn’t want to regret not giving it a go and put their entry through on the afternoon of the last day.
“Finishing our entry was such a good feeling,” she says.
“We dug so deeply into our business, but in some areas, like the environment, I felt we were only scratching the surface.”
Their hard work paid off and the couple not only came away with the title of 2021 Bay of Plenty Share Farmers of the Year, but four merit awards: the Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene award; Honda Farm Safety, Health and Biosecurity award; LIC Recording and Productivity award; and Meridian Farm Environment award.
“We just couldn’t believe it,” she says.
“On the way to the awards, we were discussing how we had already got so much more out of the process than we had expected.
“We had been so focused on the day-to-day running of the business and reaching the next goal that we hadn’t stopped to acknowledge what we had already achieved so far.”
The couple says they would strongly encourage other farmers to enter.
“It was exciting to get advice and feedback from people who didn’t even know us,” she says.
“The other competitors were like-minded and supportive and were all out there just doing the best they can.
“And our community just got behind us; the dairy industry is full of people wanting to help others move forward and achieve.”
They are giving back to the dairy community by being the Share Farmer of the Year team leaders for 2022, supporting award entrants.
They acknowledge the part Aran’s mum Sue played in getting him involved in the industry back in 2009.
“She encouraged me to give it a go,” Aran says.
“She has a real love for the land, like Sharleen’s parents do, so there is a lot of common ground there and we can have good, productive farming conversations with her. She is a dairy farmer at heart.”
Sharleen grew up on the farm and remembers it being at the centre of many extended family gatherings and celebrations; she has many happy memories of playing around the farm with her cousins.
She also remembers “tagging along” with her father on-farm when she was young, although she admits her parents were surprised when she decided to go dairy farming.
“Despite growing up on-farm I wasn’t really a farm girl – I was quite scared of the cows.” she laughs.
After she left school, she went on an OE before heading to university in Christchurch.
“I didn’t stay at uni for long, because I’d met Aran before I left,” she says.
Aran, who grew up in Rotorua, “didn’t pick up a pair of cups” until he was 18, even though his parents were dairy farming when he was born.
He moved around a little with his mother who remained passionate about the dairy industry despite no longer farming.
Aran attended Te Awamutu College, leaving school at 16 before having his first son Joel. It was then that Sue suggested Aran give dairy farming a go, having seen that the college was advertising the Agriculture Academy.
He returned to school at 18 and ended up loving the course. Before it had finished, he had secured a dairy farming job at Te Kawa, near Te Awamutu. He stayed for one-and-a-half seasons before moving to Galatea.
He was working on the neighbouring farm when he met Sharleen, but he soon moved to a management position on the Smeith farm.
Sharleen returned from university and started working on a local farm, before starting their family. Joel also came to live with them full-time.
The couple has now been working on the farm for 14 years, progressing from a management position to contract milking, before forming the equity company with Eric and Margaret three years ago as part of a succession plan.
The couple have three children – Haven, six, Ashlyn, nine, and Jayda, 10, and Joel who moved to Melbourne with his mother in early 2020.
They both work full-time on the farm, with one full-time staff member, Daniel Ford. They are looking to revise their staff structure in the future and will consider adding another staff member to relax the roster and step back a bit.
Eric also works part-time on the farm.
“He’s living the dream,” Sharleen laughs.
“He enjoys cropping and tractor work and he organises the fertiliser that comes in. He keeps his hand in.”
Their philosophy around staff is to help them on their farming journey, training them to prepare them for a ‘better’ job. She says Aran has a particular strength in training staff, a responsibility he really enjoys.
The farm is a well-oiled machine, set up to maximise work-life balance and a work-hard, play-hard outlook.
Last season the 440-cow herd produced 160,000 kilograms of milksolids and the target for this season is the same or higher.
The herd milks twice-a-day until January, when they move to once-a-day milking.
“Heat is a big contributing factor – it gets so hot out here,” she says.
“Once-a-day milking goes well for us and we don’t tend to lose much production; twice-a-day the herd produces around 1.9l/cow/day, and once-a-day it produces 1.7l/cow/day.
“Once-a-day is better for us and better for the staff. It also means we can go on a 10-day beach holiday every year. We work pretty hard for the rest of the year.
“We use Dairy Base and it has been incredible for showing us how well our cows do hold on in the summer. We’ve also found that Jerseys tend to cope better in the heat.”
They irrigate 84ha of the farm with a lateral line irrigation system; without it, the grass doesn’t stay green for long in the warmer months.
“We’ve found that it only takes four days of 30degC weather for the farm to turn from green to brown,” Aran says.
“With free-draining soil, it can change very quickly.”
They have four irrigators per paddock and move them with a quad bike. Irrigation is turned on at night to allow the water to soak in without evaporation from the sun.
Across the road, the 24ha support block is a ‘dry’ block, which provides real benefits to the system in both winter and summer.
During the warmer months they grow 14.5ha of maize and 15ha of Lucerne. The lucerne is a cut-and-carry crop, used to top up the cows and give them some variety in summer.
“It is a nice, summer-safe crop,” Sharleen says.
Chicory-mix crops are also grown on the dry block of the milking platform. The maize is fed over winter and into spring as silage until it runs out and then from March onward to extend lactation.
“Silage is a reliable method to get minerals into the cows as well,” Aran says.
Eric is passionate about soil quality and has worked hard to overturn the soil on the support block to improve water holding capacity.
The soil flipping practice was the subject of both Waikato University studies and a three-year DairyNZ cut-and-measure research project.
The studies showed the benefits of soil flipping using three different soil flipping methods, demonstrating a growth difference of between 18-40% drymatter growth over 12 months.
The support block is also invaluable during the winter to keep cows off the milking platform for as long as possible, to avoid pugging. They return to the platform before they calve, but are kept on the dry part of the milking platform for longer.
Calving starts on July 12 and the herd is fully calved down by the end of September, as they use short gestation semen at the end of mating to achieve this.
They rear 50-80 Jersey bulls annually, which are sold as weaners. They also need to rear 100 replacement heifers annually, but choose to rear a little more – 130 this year – as a risk management tool. Young stock is weaned at 90kg and grazed away at Minginui.
“You just never know what will happen within the herd throughout the season, or even what opportunities might arise,” Sharleen says.
“If we have to sell them that’s okay, but it’s better to sell them as in-calf heifers. We just don’t want to be left needing to buy cows. We also want to keep the herd young.”
Mating, which begins on October 9, is another busy time for them, with Aran having been an AB technician for the past eight years.
The herd which originated with Sharleen’s grandfather, has been bred into the top 10% of herds nationally for BW.
With genetic gain a big focus for the couple, the herd has been part of the LIC Sire Proving Scheme for two years, which means their genetics are chosen for them.
“It’s a neat opportunity to be part of the scheme and it works out to be more cost effective too,” Aran says.
“LIC are interested in a few of our cows.”
He says the next step to further improving genetic gain in the herd is to start weighing their cows.
“We would like to collect even more precise data so we can see exactly what’s going into the cow and what’s coming out,” he says.
“We need cows that can produce their body weight in milk; Jerseys are quite efficient, so we want to sharpen up that trait even more.”
They also use some nominated Angus semen over the lower producing cows, or cows that won’t be in the herd for much longer, so they can keep genetic gain strong.
An important feature of the farm is the Whirinaki River, which runs along the back of the farm. It is well fenced-off, with a large distance between the river and grazing areas.
“In the summer, we swim in there every day,” he says.
“The kids are always asking for a swimming pool and I say, nope, you’ve got a river.
“We are deeply connected to the river and fiercely protective of it. We consider it our job to look after it.”
Sharleen says the river also holds a special place in the hearts of her extended family.
“Instead of sitting around the table when they visit, we take a walk down to the river,” she says.
“Just like we did when we were kids.”
The couple have a plan to plant along the riverbank where possible, although there are some restrictions due to the gradient of the bank in some areas.
They believe farming is an ideal environment in which to raise children and work alongside their family. The couple works well together as a team and have found harmony in their day-to-day routines.
“It’s great to be able to work from home,” she says.
“We also alternate sleep-ins each day so we get adequate rest.”
She says she loves the different seasons of farming and the variety of work they undertake throughout the year – no day is ever the same.
And thanks to a great system, even the most typically demanding time of year, calving, is met with excitement.
“Some people dread calving, but I think it’s the most enjoyable time of the year,” she says.
“We have established a system that works. I deal with the calvers and Aran takes care of the milkers, grass rotation and supplements.
“Calves are the future of the farm and it’s exciting.”
Once the busy period – calving, mating and irrigation – is over and the herd moves to once-a-day milking, they take a non-negotiable 10-day beach holiday every January.
The family is also very “outdoorsy” and enjoys an active lifestyle.
They have started a tradition whereby when each of their children turn nine, they are taken on a tramp for some quality time with their parents.
“We did the Abel Tasman walk with Jayda – I don’t know how we’re going to top that,” she laughs.
“It was absolutely beautiful.”
Aran is very mechanically-minded and can often be found fixing things in his workshop.
He also enjoys riding dirtbikes and has built several tracks and jumps on-farm for himself and some local boys who previously had nowhere to ride.
Their balanced approach to work and life means they are extremely focused and determined when it comes to upskilling and achieving their business goals. Aran holds a Certificate in Dairy Farming Level, 4 while Sharleen is studying towards a Diploma in Agribusiness Management.
Their ultimate goal is farm ownership – first owning the company outright, then setting their focus to purchasing the land.
“Our farming philosophy is to leave the farm better than when we found it,” they say.
“And to do that, we are working extremely hard. We’re not just cruising along, we are trying our best to learn new skills and take the opportunities that are presented to us, while striving for excellence.
“A lot of people think a generational farm is just handed to you, but that’s not the case at all. There was a lot to change, and the change came with us.”
