In autumn this year, Southern Rural Life covered Mr Berkers and his wife Cherie selling nearly 190 of their best cows, heifers and bulls to raise money to help buy their first dairy farm.
The Berkers and their four children had been 50:50 sharemilking for Doug and Jan Fraser, milking 400 cows on a 138ha dairy platform in Gropers Bush for nine years.
On the eve of the cattle sale, Mr Berkers told Southern Rural Life, a dream farm could run between 400 and 700 cows, be far from a river and within a 40-minute drive from Invercargill so their children could get to school.
All of the cattle sold.
"It went extremely well."
Everything was going to plan except they could not find a farm to buy.
"Everything was perfect, we just couldn’t find the right farm."
Farm prices were too high to have the financial viability they were seeking.
"We didn’t want to buy something we didn’t really want."
He believed dairy farm values would continue to rise due to a strong dairy payout.
They were willing to wait for prices to drop to buy their first farm.
"We will settle in for a year or two and see what happens."
Maybe farm ownership would be realised another way, such as an equity partnership, he said.
"There is always going to be opportunities, it is just being aware of them and doing what you do."
Since leaving Gropers Bush, they had bought a house in Invercargill and he had been farm manager on the more than 300ha research farm Southern Dairy Hub in Wallacetown since mid June.
They had sold most of their sharemilking herd.
"It was hard especially when they sold really easily. I miss them but it is all part of it."
They sold cows holding embryos and got to retain the resulting calves and they also kept about 100 yearling calves.
"We still have the core of our herd, so that’s nice."
The hub was a good place to work and was a good fit for him because he liked being part of a team, working with cows and upskilling.
"I’m not going to go all old and crusty and stale, I’ll still be able to keep up with the times. I’d call this farm a learning extension."
The hub was set up to be able to play a major part in an amazing research project, which could lead the industry into the future.
The topic for a research project could range from methane, rumination or the best way to convert grass to milksolids
"There is a lot of stuff out there we don’t know and it would be nice to be part of getting the answers."
At Gropers Bush, he did not use any technology to run his herd, such as automatic cup removers in the Rotaflo milking shed, smart collars on the herd or GPS tracking software Protrack.
"I use Brotrack — it is just me, I’m always in the shed," he told Southern Rural Life when he was sharemilking in autumn.
In contrast, the milking shed at the hub was "automated up to the hilt" and the cows wore Allflex collars.
The calving of the 745 cows at the hub started on August 1.
"It has been absolutely stunning conditions."
The bottom quarter of the herd were mated with semen of beef breeds, such as Angus, Charolais and Murray Grey for calf rearers to buy.
Conditions in autumn and winter had been beautiful and if the weather turns in spring, the soil had capacity to hold water.
"In Southland you expect a hurry-up now and then."
He never worried about the possible arrival of stormy weather — he preferred to focus on the good weather at the time.
"Why worry about something bad that might not happen. Enjoy what you’ve got and after spring last year, we deserve a good one."
The cows at the hub were split in two herds.
A "standard" commercial herd had 525 cows.
The herd had a stocking rate of 3.1 cows per hectare and was run similar to a typical Southland dairy farm.
A "future" herd of 220 cows were the top 20%, with the highest breeding worth data of each age group.
The herd was given more room in the paddocks and fed more grass and less grain.
A research objective of the future herd was to discover how many kilograms of milksolid a cow with a high breeding worth could produce on the diet.
The hub was set up well to hit or exceed a production target.
"The feed is there and there is a lot of levers to pull."
Most of their children enjoy living in Invercargill and being closer to mates, but their youngest daughter, Danica, misses life on a farm.
"She lets us know about once every few weeks," he laughed.
