He is second in charge (2IC) for lower-order sharemilkers Martin and Kim Axtens on a 760-cow farm south of Winton owned by equity partnership Platinum Dairies but will take on the farm manager’s role in the coming season.
After completing a Bachelor of Commerce (agriculture) at Lincoln University, he spent two and a half years working in operations for a refrigeration transport company in Christchurch and then moved to Southland for a year to work as a spray contractor for Booth Ag at Otautau.
He and his partner Chantelle Ross, who works for VetSouth, aim to have $60,000 saved from their wages to go contract milking in the 2015-2016 season.
“Martin and Kim have been amazing to work for and have let me grow in the job,” Lavender, 26, said.
“In the future, we need to keep finding people like them to take us on. We want to be able to choose the people we work for, instead of taking the only job we can get, which is why winning this competition was so important to us.
“That’s what’s great about this industry and the competition. It’s focused on bringing the next generation through.”
Runner-up trainee was 28-year-old Wyndham 2IC Ben Worker and third was Winton assistant Jeremy Anderson, 24.
Stu Dillon, a 25-year-old Balclutha 2IC, won the AWS Legal Farming Knowledge Award, the Clutha Vets-Terry Bently Animal Husbandry Knowledge Award and the Shand Thomson-Karen Vreugdenhil Memorial Leadership Award.
