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• Migrant's Stories
  • Alastair and Leslie Macdonald
  • Chris and Suzanne Cowley
  • Marcel and Emma Leifhebber
  • Michael and Cheryl Hughes
  • Ashley Ker
  • Drew and Kate Carter
  • Matthew and Pippa Gunningham
  • Ralph and Louise Heathcote
  • Herman and Suskia van luloff Umbgrove
  • Jon and Caroline van Adrichem
• Doing Business

Michael and Cheryl Hughes

With a motto of "work hard, save and increase production" you can be sure that Michael Hughes and his family are running a successful dairy business in Tasmania.

Michael and his wife Cheryl decided to make the move to Tasmania after seeing some job advertisements in New Zealand newspapers.

"We came over for a look and I immediately saw the enormous opportunities that existed here in Tasmania," Michael says.

"At that time, cows were also very cheap and land was selling for about $4,500 per hectare, which was very attractive."

They started out as sharefarmers on a corporate farm at Togari, in north west Tasmania, before moving to a 30 per cent sharefarming arrangement at Cygnet Dairies in Woolnoth.

"In our second year, we took on a second farm as well, with both farms winter milking.

"We were able to save enough money to buy 180 cows, as well as the associated young stock. We moved to a privately owned farm at Irishtown, which we leased."

While Michael and Cheryl would have liked to buy this farm, at that stage they did not have enough equity. They spent three years at Irishtown until recently, when they bought a farm of their own at Edith Creek. They now milk 315 cows on 142 hectares.

Michael says that the climate in Tasmania is ideal for dairy farming, and that they have been able to progress far more quickly than anywhere else they know of.

"We did think about the mainland, but we felt that it was too busy and that the water problems would have created too much pressure for us," he says. "In Tasmania, the rainfall is consistent and predictable. It is also sparsely populated and not as hectic, which we like."

Like many other dairy farmers, however, they are faced with long hours and hard work.

"We have two sons and a daughter, and at times it has been tough to spend quality time with them, which we feel is very important," Michael says.

"We have found that, to get ahead, we need to carry the entire work load and this becomes a major challenge. However, we feel that by doing this we are able to progress quicker, but we are considering employing people so that we can have more time with our family and enjoy our life in Tasmania."

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