“It worked well for building numbers but it’s quite labour intensive and I haven’t stopped milking for three years,” he said.
“You see a lot of calving so it’s a good way to learn.”
He started out as farm assistant on the farm before stepping up to 2IC and said he had been fortunate to have numerous opportunities on the farm to grow his knowledge, readying him for the next step.
“In the next two to three years I want to be in a sharemilking role or managing a large-scale farm. I’ve started buying my own stock this year with artificial breeding calves from James and I’ll find a grazing option when they’re weaned.
“There’s so many opportunities and you don’t know when those opportunities are going to arise, so you need to have the tools available to jump in and throw everything you have at it to make the best of it.”
It’s the second time he’s entered the awards and said he enjoyed the challenge of the competition, while the publicity for his career was well worth it. He also won the New Zealand Dairy Exporter Farming Knowledge Award.
Second placegetter was Stratford trainee James Holgate and third was Stratford 2IC Joe Churchman. In the merit awards, Normanby herd manager Nga Apaapa won the Taranaki Veterinary Centre Leadership Award and Opunake assistant 2IC Simon Embling won the DairyNZ Practical Skills Award.
