Situated in a beautiful part of the Waikato at Te Kauwhata, is the home of Brian and Natalie Geck. Now in their third season share milking on the property, they have a way of life they obviously love, despite all the hard work. With a young family and a farm to run life is never quiet, as anyone who has done both will know only to well. The couple met five years ago, Brian was from Te Kuiti and already in farming, Natalie from Pukekohe, had spent the previous twelve years as a children’s nanny, working six of those years in Canada. Brian was working as a farm manager and when he and Natalie got together, he decided she needed to see what working on a farm was all about before they made any big steps themselves. For the next year Natalie got some hands on experience of farming before they decided it was going to be the life for them. They have been with the same farm owner since 2005, originally managing a smaller farm of his with a herd of 165, just across the road from where they are now .That was in June 2005, by October they were managing the larger property of 155 hectares and a herd of 400. “That all came about” says Natalie “because the farm manager and worker both quit at the same time. So we got the job.” The couple, have been married three years, and now have a young son. Natalie is expecting their second child in a few weeks, “right on calving, so we shall be doing it together” she says with a laugh. Both Natalie and Brian would like to have their own land in time. Natalie would love to rear calves, “But realistically, with farm prices what they are it will be some time before it happens. At the moment I think we just need to focus on getting any debts paid off.” she says. Like many farmers in the Waikato, Brian and Natalie have felt the effects of the drought losing twenty cows in the last few weeks. Drains that had dried up leaving behind poisonous, noxious weed were too tempting for stock. “The cows began eating the weed, and were poisoned by it, we had the vet out but lost quite a lot,” said Natalie “we have fenced off the drains since then.” While Brian and Natalie both work on the farm together, one very important part of the farms management is in Natalie’s hands alone, managing the finances. She is the first to admit she is not overly fond of figures and in her own words says, “numbers and I do not mix!” Despite this claim, she seems to be managing very well, in fact not just managing but doing an excellent job. Like any farmer knows, to do a job well and as easily as possible the right equipment is essential. When you try to make do, that is often when things can go wrong. Just as Brian has to use certain equipment on the farm, Natalie decided from the beginning she wanted the right equipment to help her manage the finances. The owner of the farm they are on recommended a program to Natalie that he already used himself, Cashmanager RURAL. “After looking at the program and on his recommendation, we decided to buy it,” says Natalie. That was in 2005, she believes now she could not manage without it. “If I got stuck or needed help with something, I could ask him to explain it. But the program is not difficult and I soon picked it up.” “Plus there is the support line you can ring if you have any questions and they are really good.” Since buying the program Natalie has recommended it to others, even her brother and sister-in-law, and does regard it as an important farm tool. “I don’t think I could cope with the finances now without it,” Natalie says “ our accountant knows the program and finds it good, everything is there for him.” Produced and put out by CRSsoftware, Cashmanager RURAL has been a leader in farm financial software for more than twenty five years. Designed by farmers, for farmers the program is constantly developing to keep up with the current and changing needs of the farmer. Recently, Cashmanager RURAL became available online. CMR online is ideal where it is necessary for two or more people to share information. Perfect for equity partnerships, and corporate farms. Your software and your data are run and stored from a central server and you access it across the internet. This means that several people can share the same data from their place, anywhere in NZ (or the world). For Natalie CMR online is not necessary, she is managing very well with Cashmanager RURAL keeping the books in order. “Because the program is easy to use it cuts down on the hours spent on the accounts” she says. “This gives me more time to spend on other things.”