As a Ray White Te Awamutu rural real estate agent with a dairy farm and numerous extra-curricular responsibilities, including as chairman in several organisations, it’s a wonder Noldy Rust ever sleeps.
He and his wife Bev have owned a 56 hectare property at Te Pahu since 1996. The farm is run by a contract milker and currently supports 200 cows.
The couple have three adult daughters and a 14-year-old foster child. Noldy has enjoyed the rewards and challenges that dairy farming brings, along with the doors and connections it opens.
He felt real estate would also be a good challenge, while also offering the opportunity to work with his good friend, Neville Kemp. “It’s always been in the back of my mind so I thought let’s give it a crack.”
Before his move to real estate he worked for Pioneer Brand products for over six years, helping dairy farmers and maize growers achieve their onfarm goals with the use of maize/silage.
While it has taken time to gain momentum and to build his listings, being closely connected with the area and his local community have been great assets, Noldy says.
It has also been a blessing having the farm providing income, which has meant he has not been under financial pressure.
“There’s never a dull moment in real estate. You can make a sale one day and get another listing the next day. I love working with people; it’s really about helping them achieve their goals.”
The lifestyle market is booming around Te Awamutu as a result of the spillover of high property prices in surrounding areas such as Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.
“The district we live in is very sought after, it’s in a great central location, it’s close to everything, it’s not far to Auckland, it’s not far to the beaches and it’s a good climate.” However farm sales are a different story and prices appear to have peaked.
“That’s what the market is telling us now. Vendors have got high expectations and purchasers are not willing to pay that [higher] sort of money this year. The confi dence just isn’t there; we’ll see what the autumn brings.”
On his own farm, he has focused on keeping a simple operation and is reasonably happy with where the farm is at in terms of its overall operation and production, normally close to 90,000kgMS a year or 460kgMS a cow, which equates to 96% of their body weight.
This is achieved through feeding 2.5 tonnes of supplement of maize and palm kernel per cow per year on a feed pad, in addition to grass silage.
The maize was previously grown on farm, but the block it was grown on has been sold, so this season is the first it has been bought in. It is also the first season the Rust’s have had a contract milker, although previously a employing a farm manager enabled Noldy to work off farm.
He is relishing the opportunity of spending more time among people and a little less time among his cows than he did during the earlier stages of his life Outside of his work life Noldy is currently chairman at Vetora, a local vet club, chairman of the Roger’s Charitable Trust Dairy Farm and chairman of the Smaller Supply Herds and Milking association (SMASH), an organisation established to help dairy farmers, particularly those with smaller operations, to run successful businesses.
His leisure time is spent at The Woolshed Theatre, either serving as president of the Te Awamutu Light Operatic Society, or taking part on stage in some of the many musicals it puts on.
“I now have the best of both worlds, still dairy farming, albeit not on a regular basis, and also meeting others and assisting them in any way I can to buy or sell rural properties.”
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Real estate role yet another string in a long bow for Noldy
Noldy Rust with wife Bev.
