Making the Move to New Zealand
Five years ago in the rural hinterland of Lincolnshire, England, the Davey family were about to make potentially the most difficult decision of their farming career.
Bill, a fourth generation arable farmer and his wife Lynda were facing an increasingly uncertain future on land that had become uneconomic to farm.
Their 280ha property was being cropped as efficiently as systems would allow, yet it was only the annual subsidy top-up cheque at Christmas that provided any profit.
Their situation was symptomatic of the peeling away of the British agricultural industry - an industry in which input costs were inflated to match subsidy cheques so that farmers found it near impossible to turn a profit.
Added to that was the pressure of increased importation of cheap produce from Eastern Block countries for bullish British supermarket chains.
And with Britains entry into the European Union, farmers fates were sealed. The costly initiation included Britain committing to phasing out all agricultural subsidies by 2013. This commitment by Blairs Government is for most farmers the end of a proud agricultural history in the UK.
Without subsidies, with declining land prices and in many areas little to diversify into, Britains farms will be reduced to little more than quaint parks.
For Bill and Lynda Davey, who love the land and are passionate about farming, the decision to pack up was made at the right time.
Back in 2001 the British pound was extremely strong and coupled with good land prices the Daveys were able to contemplate a move that Bills father would have found unfathomable, not to mention unwarranted, two decades earlier.
Bill and Lyndas son Nick had just finished a BSC at Newcastle on Tyne University and was keen to farm with his parents. Bill and Lynda recognised that the family farm would not provide any kind of stable future for their son.
It wasnt fair to throw Nick on to that sinking ship, Bill says.
The aggressive culling of agriculture by Blairs Government made it possible for the Daveys to travel to look at Canada, Australia and New Zealand in search of a new life.
In Mid Canterbury, New Zealand, they found their future.
At 44 Bill went from a stable climate with maintenance rainfalls, staple crops such as sugar beet, and the madness of not being able to pull a hedgerow out, or burn stubble without kilometres of red tape, to the relative freedom of a 480ha farm in Rokeby, Mid Canterbury.
It had not been an entirely easy journey for the couple. Selling a farm in England is more complicated than putting a sign out at your gate, with capital gains tax of 40% to deal with - not to mention fare welling four generations of history including Paul, their accountant son.
And of course on arrival in New Zealand there were the occasional comments from locals regarding rich poms buying up their land.
It is true that when Bill and Lynda left England their land was worth around $8300/acre in comparison to Mid Canterburys $4500/acre. However, when capital gains tax and costs of moving coupled with development costs on the new property were accounted for, there wasnt as much of a difference as many would believe.
Ironically, New Zealands high dollar and skyrocketing land values in relation to declining land values in England meant the situation has almost completely reversed in the past five years, meaning, any who still want to make the move down under will find it an expensive career move.
Once here the couple believed strongly in not looking back, nor visiting England. And there was much to do.
When the Daveys first visited the farm in 2001 it was a dry summer and Bill immediately knew from sighting the scorched landscape, that decent irrigation was a priority. The farm was split into two blocks, one dry land (200ha) and another 280ha partially irrigated home block.
The 280ha block is now almost completely developed with lateral irrigation.
Its given us so many opportunities. Bill says.
Development of the dry land block now hinges on a water application before Environment Canterbury.
The farms are made up of Barhill silt soil structures and although the land is similar to their farm in England there are still many differences.
In the first season Bill, Lynda and Nick struggled with the idea of seasons opposing the Northern Hemisphere.
and finding that the warm wind comes from the North. Climatically, we were in turmoil.
The weather proved to have more extremes, in particular the famous parching North Westerly winds that grace the province, and the occasional extreme hail storm. This was a little different to the calmer nature of the skies over Lincolnshire.
The family also had to quickly get used to growing specialist seed crops such as grass seed and clover, something they had never attempted in England.
For Bill, a champion sugar beet grower, it was stimulating.
This season the Davey farm harvested 70ha milling wheat, 135ha feed and malting barley, 40ha grass seed, 50ha white clover and 20ha kale seed.
They will also finish 10 000 lambs this season.
After five years Bill still cant believe how good the move has been for the family.
I have to keep pinching myself. I thought wed had some boom times in the first couple of years of farming here but it just keeps getting better and better.
He emphasizes how lucky the Kiwi farmer is compared to his farming friends back home.
Here I know what I am going to get at the end of the day and I can plan cashflows. New Zealand farmers are not disabled by politicians.
And although arable farmers are struggling with increased input costs and low returns on traditional cereal crops Bill believes New Zealand farmers dont realise how good it is here.
Its no good fighting the situation. Specialist crops can be grown and land values are high with no capital gains tax.
There are no regrets, no hankering for English life. In fact, the Daveys have plans to expand their acreage at some stage in the future so that Nick and any generation that comes after him can continue to live off the land - something that will no doubt be a distant memory to their English cousins in another ten years.
Bill, a fourth generation arable farmer and his wife Lynda were facing an increasingly uncertain future on land that had become uneconomic to farm.
Their 280ha property was being cropped as efficiently as systems would allow, yet it was only the annual subsidy top-up cheque at Christmas that provided any profit.
Their situation was symptomatic of the peeling away of the British agricultural industry - an industry in which input costs were inflated to match subsidy cheques so that farmers found it near impossible to turn a profit.
Added to that was the pressure of increased importation of cheap produce from Eastern Block countries for bullish British supermarket chains.
And with Britains entry into the European Union, farmers fates were sealed. The costly initiation included Britain committing to phasing out all agricultural subsidies by 2013. This commitment by Blairs Government is for most farmers the end of a proud agricultural history in the UK.
Without subsidies, with declining land prices and in many areas little to diversify into, Britains farms will be reduced to little more than quaint parks.
For Bill and Lynda Davey, who love the land and are passionate about farming, the decision to pack up was made at the right time.
Back in 2001 the British pound was extremely strong and coupled with good land prices the Daveys were able to contemplate a move that Bills father would have found unfathomable, not to mention unwarranted, two decades earlier.
Bill and Lyndas son Nick had just finished a BSC at Newcastle on Tyne University and was keen to farm with his parents. Bill and Lynda recognised that the family farm would not provide any kind of stable future for their son.
It wasnt fair to throw Nick on to that sinking ship, Bill says.
The aggressive culling of agriculture by Blairs Government made it possible for the Daveys to travel to look at Canada, Australia and New Zealand in search of a new life.
In Mid Canterbury, New Zealand, they found their future.
At 44 Bill went from a stable climate with maintenance rainfalls, staple crops such as sugar beet, and the madness of not being able to pull a hedgerow out, or burn stubble without kilometres of red tape, to the relative freedom of a 480ha farm in Rokeby, Mid Canterbury.
It had not been an entirely easy journey for the couple. Selling a farm in England is more complicated than putting a sign out at your gate, with capital gains tax of 40% to deal with - not to mention fare welling four generations of history including Paul, their accountant son.
And of course on arrival in New Zealand there were the occasional comments from locals regarding rich poms buying up their land.
It is true that when Bill and Lynda left England their land was worth around $8300/acre in comparison to Mid Canterburys $4500/acre. However, when capital gains tax and costs of moving coupled with development costs on the new property were accounted for, there wasnt as much of a difference as many would believe.
Ironically, New Zealands high dollar and skyrocketing land values in relation to declining land values in England meant the situation has almost completely reversed in the past five years, meaning, any who still want to make the move down under will find it an expensive career move.
Once here the couple believed strongly in not looking back, nor visiting England. And there was much to do.
When the Daveys first visited the farm in 2001 it was a dry summer and Bill immediately knew from sighting the scorched landscape, that decent irrigation was a priority. The farm was split into two blocks, one dry land (200ha) and another 280ha partially irrigated home block.
The 280ha block is now almost completely developed with lateral irrigation.
Its given us so many opportunities. Bill says.
Development of the dry land block now hinges on a water application before Environment Canterbury.
The farms are made up of Barhill silt soil structures and although the land is similar to their farm in England there are still many differences.
In the first season Bill, Lynda and Nick struggled with the idea of seasons opposing the Northern Hemisphere.
and finding that the warm wind comes from the North. Climatically, we were in turmoil.
The weather proved to have more extremes, in particular the famous parching North Westerly winds that grace the province, and the occasional extreme hail storm. This was a little different to the calmer nature of the skies over Lincolnshire.
The family also had to quickly get used to growing specialist seed crops such as grass seed and clover, something they had never attempted in England.
For Bill, a champion sugar beet grower, it was stimulating.
This season the Davey farm harvested 70ha milling wheat, 135ha feed and malting barley, 40ha grass seed, 50ha white clover and 20ha kale seed.
They will also finish 10 000 lambs this season.
After five years Bill still cant believe how good the move has been for the family.
I have to keep pinching myself. I thought wed had some boom times in the first couple of years of farming here but it just keeps getting better and better.
He emphasizes how lucky the Kiwi farmer is compared to his farming friends back home.
Here I know what I am going to get at the end of the day and I can plan cashflows. New Zealand farmers are not disabled by politicians.
And although arable farmers are struggling with increased input costs and low returns on traditional cereal crops Bill believes New Zealand farmers dont realise how good it is here.
Its no good fighting the situation. Specialist crops can be grown and land values are high with no capital gains tax.
There are no regrets, no hankering for English life. In fact, the Daveys have plans to expand their acreage at some stage in the future so that Nick and any generation that comes after him can continue to live off the land - something that will no doubt be a distant memory to their English cousins in another ten years.