Taking a calculated risk when the Southland dairy industry started to take off has paid off for Invercargill contractor Daryl Thompson
Almost 30 years after Daryl and his wife Colleen purchased the family contracting business from Daryl’s parents, staff numbers have increased from a modest five employees in the beginning to now 60 in the busy season.
“We are now at a size that we look to stay at,” Daryl says.
Daryl grew up on a dairy farm, and his father had a “fair bit” of machinery with which they did their own contracting work, as well as a bit of the neighbour’s, too.
Daryl completed a mechanical apprenticeship and then worked in the police force for 10 years until he saw an opportunity to return to contracting.
“I slowly got back into contracting around 1995, when the dairy industry really started kicking off in Southland,” he says. “In 1996, I got a self-propelled silage harvester – and my wife got a baby.”
For a while, Daryl worked alongside his parents in the business, who had a few tractors for mowing and raking.
“It progressed from there,” Daryl says. “I bought my parents out a few years later and the business got very big, very quickly.”
A busy operation
Today, the D Thompson Contracting Ltd team is kept busy for the majority of the year.
From August to December, the staff is busy with cultivation work, including ploughing, discing, sowing, levelling, power harrowing, direct drilling, aerating, heavy rolling, and precision planting for fodder beet and swedes.
Grass silage and baleage start in October and continue until April or May, depending on the conditions.
The business runs five McHale Uniwrappers and a Gowell individual wrapper, as well as three self-propelled forage harvesters and loader wagons. Baleage services include mowing, raking, baling, carting, stacking, and loading. Grass and whole crop silage services include mowing and conditioning through to oxygen barrier covers and inoculants.
The business also supplies feed they grow on lease land – grass silage, baleage, and hay – and runs a 15,000-litre slurry tanker and three muck spreaders as part of its effluent management services.
June to August is spent organising the recruitment of the seasonal staff and for the machinery to go through the workshop for maintenance, conditioning and repairs, or replacement if needed.
“The maintenance period is a necessary task,” Daryl says. “We have over 50 machines going out each day during the busy period.”
Navigating challenges
Because of the size of the business, D Thompson Contracting Ltd relies heavily on overseas staff.
“Staff recruitment is a very challenging issue in the sector,” Daryl says. “When our current Government was in opposition, it said that it wanted the agricultural industry to thrive. However, a month ago, it made it even more difficult for us to secure returning overseas staff. It’s very frustrating.”
Daryl says the employees they would like to bring back into New Zealand are people who have been here before.
“They know their way around, they know how New Zealand farms operate, and they are good, experienced operators,” he says.
“The machinery brought here to operate is a: very expensive and b: very technical to operate. Conditions here are so varied that we need people who can manage the risks and hazards in a paddock; it’s not a position we can put trainees into and expect good results.”
Support and advocacy for contractors
Daryl has been a member of Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ) for “a long time” and has been an RCNZ Board member (Zone 4) since 2018.
“One highlight that stands out for me during my time on the Board was – during the COVID years in particular – when my background in dealing with immigration helped us navigate the issues we faced around overseas staffing. That has probably been the biggest hurdle I’ve had to deal with and the biggest accomplishment.”
With Board members coming from a variety of backgrounds, Daryl says his time on the Board has given him a wider perspective of the challenges contractors in other areas are facing.
“We have both similarities and differences,” he says.
Despite a few challenges along the way – “we’ve faced a few southerlies, that’s for sure,” – Daryl says having an organisation like RCNZ has been invaluable for the industry.
“Having someone in the background – a governing body – that is looking after lots of issues so they can be all distributed collectively is great,” he says. “Other strengths of the organisation include our partnerships with insurance and fuel providers and the benefits those bring to members.”
Daryl says like most other businesses, rural contractors are struggling to keep up with the inflationary costs that are built into their businesses.
“We have so many costs, and we only have one body to increase prices with, and that’s our farming clients, and they’re feeling it too,” he says.
Outside of work, Daryl coaches rugby and likes to take his boat down to Te Anau to water ski and sea biscuit. He and Colleen have been married for 30 years and have two children, Cory and Kelly.