With seven farms under his belt and another to join the stable later this year, Chris Procter could be excused for thinking it's time to relax on the beach.
His seven farms are in south-east South Australia while his new addition, which he expects to occupy by December, will be his first in Gippsland in Victoria.
Mr Procter has been on a buying frenzy, adding four farms in the past two years, but has no plans to slow down.
When asked if he was ever going to stop buying farms, Mr Procter doesn’t hesitate in saying no as he loves being on the land.
“There won’t be any more buying farms . . . for another 12 months or so.”
Speaking at a WestVic Dairy Young Dairy Network (YDN) Getting Ahead in Dairy field day, Mr Procter said he had always had too much energy to simply relax on the beach, but he had devised a plan that meant he could step out of the spotlight and enjoy a bit of sun at some stage.
“I’m trying to get enough scale so that my job disappears,” he said.
“We’ve set up the governance around an independent chairman of the family board, my three sons and accountant. We hope to appoint a COO by the end of this year to ease my workload.”
Mr Procter has three sons who don’t plan to be active farmers but have invested money in two of the farms.
“They want to grow as well,” Mr Procter said.
“I want strong governance to keep the business going forward so I can maybe have a little holiday at the beach.”
He has different management structures for each of the farms with share farmers, managers and contract milkers.
Mr Procter has always thrived on independence and setting goals. He didn’t inherit the family farm, but knew he wanted to build enough capital to step back from the milking shed by the time he was 40.
With advice from good mentors, teenage Mr Procter in his native New Zealand started as a farm cadet on three different farms in the Waikato region before winning a scholarship to Massey University to study agriculture. He then contract milked for two years before 50/50 sharemilking on two farms for seven years. He bought his first farm in Ashburton in 1994.
In 2007 with increasing land prices in New Zealand, and poorer cash returns, Mr Procter looked to Australia.
“I have always worked on cash returns,” he said.
Mr Procter entered an equity partnership with two friends that ended up with two farms milking 1025 cows while still farming in New Zealand.
He moved to Australia permanently seven years ago and since then the expansion has been huge.
“Six years ago, I had 25 per cent share over the two farms. I have since brought the partners out of those farms and purchased another five and with the Gippsland farm it will take us over the 5000 cows producing up to 2.8 million kg/milk solids.”
His constant growth is part of a long-term strategy.
“I love buying and developing farms and bringing people into it and helping younger people along,” Mr Procter said.
“I’m hoping in another few years the business will be still investing in agriculture with some serious governance around it.”
Four of the farms are run by 50:50 sharefarmers, one has a contract milker and two are run by managers.
When purchasing, Mr Procter looks for simplicity of the system, water and profit potential.
“I want simple systems for the people and the cows; one calving, usually around 550-650 cows that will be run in one herd, and irrigation. Having farmed with irrigation for 25 years, I understand how to apply water to grow grass.”
The farms usually run around a 4.3 cows/ha stocking rate — 2400 kg of liveweight per hectare under the irrigation, so they need to grow 20,000 kg/DM/pa under irrigation.
They usually start calving on August 5 and finish in the middle of October. Even though there’s only one calving, most of the farms milk every day of the year with the system built around growing a lot of grass under the pivots.
The system is pasture-based and uses two perennial rye-grasses and two white clovers that have performed well in the forage variety trials under irrigation.
About eight to 10 per cent of the irrigated platform is renovated each year.
All the farms use Agri Net, an Irish-developed pasture software to monitor pasture growth, demand and pasture curve, with the results posted on a WhatsApp group weekly.
Mr Procter also wants farms close to a staff pool and properties that have aesthetic appeal.
All his farms’ names finish with `park'.
“The aesthetic side of it is almost as important as the returns,” Mr Procter said.
“If anyone drove past any of my farms, they’d say it’s well presented.”
He also wants a 10 per cent cash return. The farms don’t have a nutritionist or agronomist.
“We do that ourselves; we have a lot of experience amongst all of us.”
The machinery is basic and just what the farm needs.
“If I’m buying a farm, I budget on $180,000 - $190,000 for machinery,” Mr Procter said, with one tractor, farm utility, mower, bale buggy, motorbikes and calf equipment.
“I like getting as much cash out of the farms as I can, not to reinvest in machinery and concrete but for putting into more land and cows.
“I don’t change the farming system to match the milk price,” Mr Procter said.
“Our system matches the pasture growth curve. We're stocked to the hilt but only feed one to 1.4 tonne of grain and only put silage into the milkers at the end of autumn and winter.”
When looking for staff, Mr Procter seeks farmers who want to grow their own stake in the industry, but they need to have skills “at the far end of the bell curve” to contribute to the financial and physical performance.
“For me to employ sharemilkers I need people with outstanding skill sets and attitude to give me the returns I need,” Mr Procter said.
“I’m confident a number of my share milkers will go on to their own farms either on their own or in partnership with me.”
Mr Procter has been able to replicate a sustainable model of farming around Mount Gambier and is confident his first Victorian investment will be a success.
“When I first came across from New Zealand, I thought I would be buying in Gippsland,” he said.
“I struck it lucky in South Australia.
“With a number of farms, people have rung to see if I would be interested in buying them. I only got caught in one bidding war.”
He also hopes to continue to play a part in developing young farmers, saying “they keep me young”.
“It’s a great industry,” he said.
“There is a way for young farmers to grow capital that maybe isn’t there in other agricultural sectors by using the share farming, contract milking model.
“I’m on the farms most of the time and I enjoy being out there with staff and sharefarmers.
“My skill sets have changed over time. A lot of those running my farms have more farming skills than me.
“I don’t have any target. It's around growing a sustainable business and having superb young farmers running the farms.
“I had a couple of great employers back in New Zealand when I was a teenager who gave me great advice and were very supportive to me. I hope I can do the same.”