City Boy Gets A Farm

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31071, 28 May 1966, Page 8

City Boy Gets A Farm

Much has been said in recent years about the difficulty that a young man experiences in acquiring a farm. Young men with determination and enterprise can still do so as was clearly shown when two told the Lincoln College farmers’ conference last week how they had broken into farming with limited resources. Their approaches were quite different but apparently equally effective.

The conference chairman, Mr S. M. Wallace, said the farmers had earned “the sincere admiration” of their audience.

“I believe that the opportunities to get into farming in New Zealand are there,” said Mr I. Weston-Macpher-son, a former city boy, aged 24, who got his farm when he was 23. “There always has been, there is now and always will be openings available to young farmers who are prepared to equip themselves in readiness for opportunity. I am convinced, after my own experience, that any young man who works hard, learns keenly and saves well can have his own farm by the time he is 28. He can achieve his ambition without large amounts of private or family finance, which means that every young farm worker in New Zealand has the opportunity to obtain a farm of his own.”

Emphasis A Banks Peninsula man, Mr C. W. Weir who is now 29, got his farm when he was 21. In obtaining a farm he put particular emphasis on gaining experience. both practical and theoretical, saving as much money as possible, developing contacts and establishing oneself as being worthy of credit, and being prepared to look about the country and try one's luck wherever the opportunity offers.

Mr Weston - Macpherson, ' who is a dairy farmer at j Norsewood in Hawkes Bay. I was a Wellington boy living! in one of the suburbs with; his parents and younger! sister. He said his parents had helped him, not in a monetary way, but by understanding and taking a direct interest in his endeavours in life and as a young farmer. "My father, a Scotsman, taught me to recognise the value of money, to discipline my spending and save conscientiously without entertaining meanness. My mother is responsible for introducing me to farm life and thus opening an avenue of adventure hitherto unknown to a I city boy.” He “endured" ■ three years at the Hutt i Valley Technical College. Then in 1958 at the age of 16 he went to Morrinsville and worked on a 100-acre dairy farm for 13 months. “It proved to be a tough introduction to dairying compared to my enjoyable holidays spent on my uncle’s farm. It was real hard work, often boring unimaginative work and in return my weekly wage was £3 17 6d nett." He returned to Wellington and worked in a freezing works and tin-making factory for a time. “These jobs proved substantially more remunerative than farm labouring but they fell far short of providing any sustained interest."

Challenging i Then, he returned to farmi ing on a 150-acre dairy ! property in southern Hawkes Bay. “This particular farmer was young and keen on his work and progressive in outlook. He expected a similar attitude from his employee. I was given responsibilities of my own which proved challenging and rewarding. My season there gave me re- ; newed interest in continuing I to strive to farm ownership.” j Then a mishap befell the i young Wellingtonian. After la Young Farmers’ Club barn I dance he rolled over the seci ond-hand car in which he had I invested his entire savings of '£4so, but had not bothered

to insure. Finding himself faced with a £l2O bill on a £6 a week job, he packed his traps again and returned to the bright lights. He worked in a biscuit factory on night shift for nine months, and during the day time in neighbours’ gardens doing any type of work offered. Factory life, he found painfully dull and “finally the approaches of rather desperate looking green-eyed factory girls towards adolescent young men sent me scurrying back to the pastoral scene and cows.”

There was a period on a dairy farm in the Wairarapa and then he returned to the Hawke’s Bay property again .where he was accepted as a I member of the family and encouraged to take an active part in Young Fanners’ Club I activities “the principle ' benefit has been the confidence it has given me in debating various farm topics with other club members.”

After a session on a property in the Waikato the young man applied for a 50-50 sharemilking position at Te Awamutu. “I had saved £IOOO plus £BOO tied to the body of a fully-insured car. A point of interest is that from a total of £3OOO net income over the preceding five years I had saved 60 per cent of all money earnt. As a fann labourer I saved £IOSO in four years compared with £750 saved in nine months’ factory work."

Sharemilking Now Mr Weston-Macpher-son bached and milked 70 cows on 70 acres and produced 21,0001 b of butterfat in the first season. By the next season he had married —“her companionship has proved invaluable and her presence constantly enlightens an otherwise dull farming day." That season butterfat production was to 22,5001 b.

For this enterprise Mr I Weston - Macpherson had ' bought 72 cows, a tractor, implements and sundries, in- ; eluding one pet goat, for [£2400. He had a deposit of £IOOO and borrowed £I4OO I from the dairy company which was repaid within 18 months, and the herd and machinery were sold for £3400, representing a net non-taxable gain of £IOOO on the stock. From the herd of 70 cows they were able to accumulate assets totalling £3OOO in the two years on sharemilking.

Search l or Farm Next came the search for a farm. “I eagerly chased up every potential farm sale within the £12.000 to £20,000 going concern range. In all cases we ran a short race for funds. State Advances Corporation only lent their full £IO,OOO dairy loan on well producing farms which were priced beyond our limit. However we were able to locate a 104-acre farm in Hawke's Bay producing 25,0001 b of butterfat. This farm was producing well and the financial returns were sufficient to allow us to purchase it with 80 per cent of mortgage money. We paid £16,500 for it as a going concern, the finance being found as follows: our deposit £3500, State Advances loan £IO,OOO and second mortgage money £3OOO, including a dairy company loan of £ISOO and the balance from two individual private sources.

i “Our first season is nearing completion ... we have increased stock numbers and production has risen 15 per cent from 25.0001 b to 28,0001 b of butterfat.” ; Speaking about some of the j factors required to get into I farming quickly and success- | fully, Mr Weston-Macpherson > suggested that the person con- ■ cerned had above all else to I be convinced that he wanted to go farming—“if we want to ! become farmers, well let’s be enthusiastic about it” A knowledge of the occupation was an invaluable asset—“membership of the Young Farmers’ Clubs is more desirable than membership of the golf club or motor-cycle club if the objective is farm ownership.” A well-known fact amongst the farming community was that all the knowledge in the world was not sufficient to purchase a farm. To buy a farm it was necessary to have money. A young man working on a farm and earning £lO net a week and saving half of his earn- ! ings would over five years ' have accumulated £l3OO and he would have established a useful credit rating with the banks and other financial institutions. “£l3OO is enough money to put down as a deposit on a herd of cows to go sharemilking and at the same time take the next step towards farm ownership.” ' Education

Mr Weston-Macpherson was questioned after the presentation of his paper as to why he had not gone to an agricultural college. “I do not think that the experience gained would have offset the financial loss I would have suffered,” be said bluntly. “I felt that I would get more benefit by working for a progressive dairy farmer and learning from him the facts of dairying than in going to Lincoln or Massey. At the same time I would have saved £5OO in the year that I would have gone to college, and the

year at the college would have cost me £4OO or £5OO so that the loss would have been about £lOOO. 1 feel that I would still have been slogging away and would not have had the money to get a farm at the stage that I did.”

“I am quite convinced that the farmer employee is better to get his money first then experience afterwards,” he said at another stage.

i A basic reason why fann workers reached a state of indecision about farming he said, was that a lot of farm owners who employed labour undermined fanning itself by complaining bitterly about their lot before their employees. Another reason was the monetary side and also that the fann labourer was not given any business training and got the idea that he was only a cog in the machine. “1 think that we, as farmers, are not doing sufficient for our fann employees and that is a real reason for creating the present position.”