That determination culminated in winning the Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa Farm Manager of the Year contest this year – his second in the contest. Last year’s judges awarded him the most promising farm manager and in 2014 he delivered.
Nick, 27, is in his second year on the 120ha property owned by David and Lorraine Osborne, though it is his first year contract milking.
After achieving record milk production in his first year in charge, he had already exceeded that amount by mid-March this year.
About 20ha of the platform is irrigated by lateral sprinklers, offering some relief in the fickle summers. Regrassing and capital fertiliser inputs have been kicked up a notch over the past two seasons, and Nick believes the farm is now starting to reap the benefits.
To harvest the extra feed being generated by the development programme, next year peak cow numbers will lift to 280 with an additional 40 scheduled to come on board the following season.
Nick’s aim is to farm the property in an environmentally sustainable way. Under the current system, the Overseer nutrient budget models a miserly nitrogen leaching value of 14kgN/ha/year. While that will change as the stocking rate is increased, the target is to keep the leaching value well below the regional average.
Nick grew up in Masterton and his only early exposure to agriculture was through a farming uncle. By the time he was 13 he had managed to find a friend who would give him his weekend farming fix. Convinced dairying was the life for him, Nick left school just before his 16th birthday and spent the following year studying at Taratahi. He spent some time as a dairy assistant before going overseas for four years.
Three years were spent in the Britain where he would spend the summer harvesting and the other nine months of the year working on dairy farms.
With the aim of 50:50 sharemilking on the property by 2016, Nick has an arrangement with his employers that allows him to rear 40-50 bought-in heifer calves every year. These calves will form the foundation of his herd.
To help him in his goal of progression, he is working towards a National Diploma in Agribusiness Management through Taratahi.
Nick also won the Westpac Financial Planning and Management Award and the Primary ITO Human Resource Management Award. Second place in the farm manager contest went to Featherston contract milker Adam Giddens, who also took out the Bell-Booth Best Livestock Award.
Featherston farm manager Rowan McGilvray was third overall and won two merit awards – the Fonterra Best Practice Award and the RD1 Farm Management Award. Jeremy Daysh and Anna Bergstrom of Carterton took out the BEL Group Most Promising Farm Manager Award while Mangatainoka contract milkers Ben and Deanne Parkes won the MacDougalls Leadership Award.
