6 Jun 2012

Ideas sought to combat sharemilking shrinkage

6:37 am on 6 June 2012

Ideas to help boost a declining sharemilking industry are talking points at Federated Farmers annual conference of sharemilkers in Hamilton.

Sharemilkers section chair Ciaran Tully says there are about 4000 sharemilkers across the country, 35% fewer than a decade ago.

Aggregation of farms into bigger properties has been eroding the traditional pathway for turning labour and equity in a herd into farm ownership, and there are now fewer jobs for sharemilkers taking a slice of the farm-owner's payout.

Mr Tully says a new report which takes a snapshot of the sharemilking industry is being unveiled at the conference on Wednesday and a memorandum of understanding between Federated Farmers and the Arbitrators & Mediators Institute of New Zealand will also be signed.