LIC’s new chief executive David Chin says he is really excited about unlocking those opportunities for NZ’s farmers.
After fifteen years at the company David Chin has made is way to the top of LIC. David Chin told Gerald Piddock about his plans and what the future of dairy genetics will look like.
New Zealand’s declining cow population is an opportunity rather than a challenge for LIC, new chief executive David Chin says. It will make the dairy improvement company more relevant to the industry because farmers will need their most productive cows.
“I celebrate that because we don’t need more cows in New Zealand, we just need the best cows,” Chin said.
The latest dairy industry statistics, produced by LIC and DairyNZ, showed NZ milking cow numbers fell from 4.92-4.9 million for the 2020-21 season, while average milk production per cow was 397kg of milksolids, a 3.1% increase from 385kg last season and the highest on record.
Ten years ago, he remembers farmers having to carry over cows because per cow production was less important than it is today.
“Now people are saying, ‘I really need to be able to milk a good cow’. It’s ironic that this is the most relevant we have ever been to the industry and when the industry needs us the most is when we’re facing a declining cow population,” he said.
Chin says they cannot have it both ways after the growth that occurred during the years where cow numbers grew.
“We just have to run the business smartly,” he said
He sees the next decade as an exciting period for the dairy industry.
“We have come off a big wave of growth and the challenges are far more interesting and exciting and I think as a sector we’re going to respond to them really well,” he said.
Chin says those challenges are around climate change, animal welfare and other regulations, which brought into question the industry’s licence to operate, are LIC’s as well.
“LIC is as much of the fabric of the dairy industry as the processors are,” he said.
He says the role LIC can play goes beyond just genetics.
The company can also help provide data to prove a new idea or technology was or was not working. It can also assist with animal health and diagnostics testing when it comes to disease mitigation.
“It’s also about making sure we can work with other players in the industry. Partnerships are really important and a big part of our strategy going forward. When I speak to others in the sector there is a strong realisation that no one can do this by themselves,” he said.
LIC did have a lower profile outside the dairy industry. When he is asked what LIC does, he tells people that eight out of 10 dairy cows in NZ have been bred using LIC genetics.
“It’s a pretty important job and I see our fates fundamentally intertwined. I’m really excited about unlocking those opportunities for our farmers,” he said.
It was also well-placed to meet those challenges, thanks to its well-established genomics programme.
“It’s really humming and it’s really setting us up so we can respond very quickly – far quicker than traditional breeding methods to the changes we need to make going forward,” he said.
He begins the new role on January 17 and hopes to be able to get out and talk to farmers about LIC’s strategy and make sure that it is embedded.
That strategy has LIC making clear commitments to its farmers in areas to deliver value to them on-farm.
“A key focus for me as CEO will be making sure we are meeting those commitments,” he said.
Chin has been at LIC for 15 years, having started in 2006 and has held various roles, including chief transformation officer, key account manager and marketing manager.
Most recently, he was LIC’s general manager of operations and service on the co-operative’s senior leadership team.
He was responsible for LIC’s laboratories, farms and the field teams that deliver services on-farm, including artificial breeding, herd testing and FarmWise consultancy.
LIC is a complex business with a number of moving parts and he says having been in such a variety of roles will give him a good grounding for the chief executive role.
“Being here for a while and having experienced a number of different parts of the business, I sort of understand well why things are the way they are. You get good at figuring out how to get things done,” he said.
The farmer connection with LIC being owned by shareholders gave the business a different feel compared to a more conventionally run business.
“How it all fits together is really important. It sets you up well,” he said.
Being asked to lead LIC’s transformation in 2016 played a big role in setting him up to be chief executive.
“It was very successful and was right across the business, taking very much a CEO-type of view of how we get all parts of the business operating,” he said.
The transformation occurred just after the dairy payout fell to $3.90/kg MS.
He also held a key accounts role in 2012, which enabled him to talk to large multi-herd operators and hear their views of the dairy industry.
“It was an amazing experience and that was bringing together all of LIC for the benefit of customers and farmers,” he said.
After that, he led LIC’s central North Island sales team and those two roles gave him experience of the breadth of the business and the value it can provide to farmers.
His predecessor Wayne McNee has also left the business in extremely good shape.
“The finances are very sound and the way that Wayne and the board have responded to the downturn – we had a loss for the first time ever and that took some managing to see that one through,” he said.
As a leader, Chin says he values empathy and listening to people. It is something he says he has learned throughout his career.
“There are plenty of headwinds out there for dairy farmers and we have to listen to them and make sure we respond,” he said.
