And the Aka Aka 2IC has firm plans to get into sharemilking or an equity partnership within the next five years.
He left school at 16, after a year boarding at Auckland Grammar School then completing his education at Rosehill College in Papakura, where a Gateway programme allowed him to study papers from Telford campus.
“I always wanted to get into dairying,” he said.
Through that programme and with help from employers, Dave and Lisa Ritchie, he was drawn to the attention of Stu and Kim Muir. They farm on the northern banks of the Waikato River, and dairy training adviser Karen Whiteman knew James was just what they were after. He was offered a job and worked there for two years but an accident followed by six months of rehab saw him do a hay and silage season at Clevedon, south Auckland. He then worked for 18 months on a 550-cow, split-calving farm at Waiau Pa, with two dairies. He entered the Dairy Industry Awards last year while working there to gain experience and hear the judges’ feedback, but admits he was very nervous.
“I found that coming into it for the second time round I was better prepared,” he says.
He’s completing Primary ITO level 3 courses at Pukekohe this year.
The Muirs milk a herd of 460 cows, dropping numbers by 10% this year. Their 54-bail rotary, installed in 2007, is fully automated with cup removers, teat spraying, weighing and drafting, making it a one-person milking operation. It also has a feeding system that won’t be used in the coming season because they cut back to 2kg of supplements per cow being fed. This will mainly be potato waste from nearby vegetable growers and maize silage, grown onfarm. Calving is done on the feedpad, which was built 10 years ago and recently covered.
Karli Searle, 22, from Waiuku was runner-up and third place went to Hauraki Plains farm assistant Emilio Bargiacchi, 24.
