“ As things go with family businesses, things didn’ t really work out. We split up and I had to buy my brother out of The Plains, then milking about 200 cows. The contracting business was the primary income, while farming was draining money. I bought the land and dairy equipment, which left me with a very high debt-to-asset ratio.”
Bigger herds, bigger challenges
According to Graham, things have changed dramatically since then. He joined a study group led by Darryl Twiddy, a leading dairy consultant in the Mooi River area, who has been his consultant since 1992.
His wife, Shirley, assists with the bookkeeping for the three farms, while his son, Chad, runs his own baling, silage-cutting and slurry business. Chad is heavily geared and is now in his sixth year of cutting silage. He is already regarded as one of
3. A worker on The Plains inspects the attachment of the milking machines to the cows in the parlour.