The couple also can claim the rare distinction of having direct proof of how successful they have been in nurturing young talent. Their farm worker Josh Hedley picked up the DPS Farming Knowledge Award in the Dairy Trainee section.
Both Thomas and Stacey come from non-dairying backgrounds and went against the tide by moving from the deep south to the Bay of Plenty to kick off their dairying careers. Stacey was a lab technician with AgResearch at Invermay, while Thomas’s qualifications as a design engineer had him working at Fisher and Paykel in Dunedin.
For Tracey, very strong memories of growing up on a dairy farm when her parents sharemilked in the Bay of Plenty were a motivator to consider a return to the industry, as her parents have also done after a respite from dairying.
The couple have tried to combine the professional human management aspects of their earlier careers into their dairying operation to ensure staff learn as they go, and also enjoy being in business with them as bosses.
“We focus on keeping the job fun, and being flexible. That is a big thing for staff on any dairy operation, so they can get away when they need to.
“Staff are your biggest asset in a dairy business today – for me AgResearch was an incredibly good place to work, being as flexible as possible, and I wanted to ensure we bought that with us to dairying, which we see as just as much a profession as our earlier career industries,” Stacey said.
With three small children they are working hard to ensure they are interchangeable when it comes to making decisions and acting on them, at a family and farm level.
“We believe it will also make the whole business more flexible as we move further into it.”
Thomas’s first position was as a farm worker on the Bay of Plenty DairyNZ focus farm owned by Richard and Creina James at Matata.
“A big focus there was on monitoring pastures regularly and getting used to a lot of scrutiny, given the farm’s position as a focus farm. You learned how much difference you can make by knowing exactly what your cover is, and what decisions to make about it,” Thomas said.
He moved up the ladder to herd manager and ultimately farm manager on the property, before taking on the contract position with Stacey for boss Malcolm Clark.
The pasture management skills have proven invaluable on the property where a low stocking rate is dictated by terrain that includes a third flats, a third rolling country and a third steep hills.
Typically over winter they will only get one shot at grazing the cows, making spring management of the remainder of the farm critical to optimise milking pasture and silage supplement.
Given this is their first year contract milking the couple are still assessing how best to continue building their equity, and intend to discuss investment decisions with an advisor early next season.
Onfarm, their key goal is to improve the six-week in-calf rate that sits at 69%, paying particular attention to body condition score. The couple also won the Primary ITO Human Resource Management Award.
Te Puke contract milkers Luther and Jessica Siemelink placed second and also claimed the Wrangler Best Livestock Award and Westpac Financial Planning and Management Award. Tauranga contract milker Tony Baker was third, also winning the Fonterra Best Practice Award and the RD1 Farm Management Award.
