Friday, March 29, 2024

More than a free hat

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Manawatu Farm Manager of the Year winner Sam Ebbett may have entered his first Dairy Industry Awards (DIA) with the aim of scoring a free hat but that first experience kindled a desire to do better next time.
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Sam, 24, is in his fourth year of involvement with the DIA, having entered the trainee contest twice before stepping up to his management role in 2013 season.

“I didn’t really understand what it was the first year I entered,” he said.

“I’ve got a bit of a hat fetish, so I thought I’d get a free hat – and I did.

“Then that first year I went along to all the DIA days and met some pretty cool people – everyone says networking at the awards but it’s actually pretty true.

“So the next year I actually understood what I was entering and tried a little bit harder and made the top six.”

Sam moved up to his current role managing a 300-cow, 100ha lease farm for the Te Paratai Farms equity partnership and immediately put his hat in the ring for Manawatu Farm Manager of the Year.

He exceeded his goals that year by making it into the top six, following that up with victory in this year’s contest.

Although Sam’s parents owned farms when he was growing up, as a keen motocross rider his only interest in the land was having access to it to ride motorbikes.

That eventually changed and dairying came on his radar in late 2008 when he took up a farm assistant’s role with Hopkins Farming Group (HFG) on a farm his father was managing.

He remained within the HFG for three years before starting in his current position.

Sam also won the Macdougalls Leadership Award, something he attributes to his history of involvement with Agriculture New Zealand trainees. Sam was approached by the local team to take on a Level Two trainee from April to December. The trainees are onfarm four days a week, starting the programme with effectively no farming skills. He enjoys helping them develop skills that can help them get into a workplace.

Sam took on the role of player-manager for the Te Kawau under-21 rugby team in 2013.

With low player numbers, they received a dispensation to field an older player, and Sam enjoyed the leadership role with the club.

He also took home the Fonterra Best Practice Award. With strong protocols in place around dairy hygiene and effluent management, they are responsibilities he takes seriously.

Sam credits farm assistant Hayley Hoogendyk with helping him win that award. As part of her onfarm development, Hayley has picked up responsibility for managing the effluent system.

It is a strategy that must be working as Hayley won the Manawatu Dairy Trainee of the Year contest this year after Sam encouraged her to enter.

Sam’s overall aim for his farming career is to be in control of his own future by 2020, a state he believes will most likely involve some sort of equity managing role. Next step is variable-order sharemilking. Runner-up in the competition was Palmerston North farm manager Jagath Kukule Kankanamge, who also took out the Bell Booth Best Livestock Award and the RD1 Farm Management Award.

Third place went to Longburn-based contract milker Jarrod Greenwood. He won the Westpac Financial Planning and Management Award. Quentin and Stephanie Bruntlett of Opiki took home the Primary ITO Human Resource Management Award.

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