Rates And Expenses (Part 5)

In this, the final, segment of our five-part series, we’ll conclude by looking at a couple aspects of relief milking that can crop up from time to time.

Milking For Cash

For reasons of your own, you may wish to be paid with cash. Some farmers will be happy to oblige, but most will probably prefer that payments are made ‘through the books’, with appropriate invoicing, PAYE deductions etc. Ultimately, this is something both farmer and relief milker will need to discuss between themselves in order to reach a mutually acceptable arrangement. However, the relief milker will need to keep in mind that, legally, they would still have to declare all income tax from any cash jobs they take on, or just hope that nobody reports them to the IRD if they decide to pocket everything.

Milking For Rent

One of the perks of being a reliever is that you may come across a farm that has a spare house you could live in, in exchange for a set number of milkings. Case in point, several years ago I discovered a vacant house on one of my relief milking jobs. It was a nicer and bigger house than the one I was then living in, plus it was closer to town. I made some enquiries with the farmer and a deal was made. In exchange for ninety milkings per season I could use the house.

Ninety milkings might sound a lot but I was doing an easy three hundred per season relief milking, so it still left me plenty of scope to earn a good income outside of the milkings for rent. To keep things nice and tidy and legal, myself and the farmer had a tenancy agreement in writing. The agreement detailed the conditions of our arrangement, including a declaration to state that the house was watertight, insulated, free of mould, and generally fit for purpose. I would invoice the farmer for the ninety milkings as per usual. They would retain those funds and use them to cover the rent. No actual money changed hands.

So, if you are in the market for a farmhouse in exchange for milkings in similar fashion as I mentioned above, ask around to see what might be available, or put up a post on social media. However, it’s strongly recommended that a tenancy agreement exists between the parties and that the house is declared legally compliant (if need be, ask rental inspectors to assess the property), otherwise the farmer could find themselves in deep trouble with the tenancy authorities if the house is deemed unhealthy or even potentially a fire hazard. Don’t settle for living in a dump just because you are needing a house. The property must be legal.