At the age of 57, the steps Rowan has taken to achieve this milestone have all been based around doing something he was passionate about and meeting the goals of his family.
“I felt that I was good enough to take on the challenge and I wanted to gauge myself against the best in the business. I’ve got the trifecta now,” Rowan says.
“I’ve had a second and a third and now I’ve got the first.”
Rowan is currently in his fifth season managing 900 cows for Kaiwaiwai Dairies near Featherston.
With 10 shifts in the last 27 years, Rowan has a wide range of experience and a keen awareness of what makes him tick.
“I got my introduction to dairying as a teenager when my father bought a small farm. He was managing director of the Dairy Exporter, so he’d milk in the morning and head off and I’d milk in the afternoons.”
“I saved up to go to Massey [University] where I got my Diploma in Agriculture. From there I got a 50:50 position, sold that herd and bought a house. Then I got another 50:50, sold that herd and bought a pub.”
The farm has an evenly split calving, with 450 cows calving in spring and 450 in autumn. The unusual calving pattern creates a close match of feed demand to feed supply under the farm’s growing conditions.
“Having the winter milking herd makes it easier for us to get the covers right in spring. By the time we bank our winter supply quota and take advantage of a flat milk curve, a $4.70 milk price turns into $5 on this farm.”
The wintering feed regime uses grass silage, maize silage, palm kernel and kale to good effect. Other feeds used are fodder beet, oats and chicory-plantain. Rowan times the use of these feeds for the most beneficial effect.
“We don’t look at average cow condition score, we get every cow to 5 for calving. You don’t want to get tied into a system and spend a whole lot on feed to keep up production levels if it doesn’t pay off. Production is vanity, profit is sanity. You should be able to switch your system to fit the payout.”
Rowan also has a firm grasp on environmental matters. The farm is installing a 12,000m3 effluent pond, which Rowan aims to use to eliminate winter applications and use when conditions get dry, because there is no irrigation on the property.
There is also a wetland established on the farm that incorporates a measurement system to ascertain how much nitrogen is being taken out of the water.
Rowan would eventually like to be an operations manager across several farms.
“I think every farm has a certain way in which it runs the most efficient and most profitably and I want to be able to prove what is the best system. I’m 57 now and I spent 25 years being the main worker on the farm. I want to employ others and focus on my passion for management.”
Second place in the Farm Manager competition went to Jeremy Daysh and Anna Bergstrom from Carterton while third went to Shawn Hanson and Dyana Barnes from Masterton.
