The Trust decided to remove the title from the Bertrams on July 10 for offensive social media posts on Twitter that Bertram made in 2016 and 2017 that were brought to light by animal rights group SAFE.
Nick said he was under the impression the issue of the tweets was dealt with at the time after he was told to “pull my head in” by the Trust.
“The Trust confirmed their prior knowledge and investigation into the tweets three years ago,” he said.
As a result, he thought he was free to compete in this year’s awards without recrimination.
“When we questioned them why did they allow us to enter? Their response was they didn’t know we were going to win, ” Nick said.
Adding after their national win, a member of NZDIA Trust contacted them to delete the tweets, and he and his wife then spent two hours cleaning up their Twitter feed.
On July 13, the Bertrams released a statement saying: “We are happy to see that NZDIA have reflected on their mishandling of the situation, which has resulted in two Trust members tending their resignations.”
However, a spokeswoman for the NZDIA Trust said this was not correct.
“That’s not true. At this stage no one from the Trust has resigned,” she said.
The review will be undertaken by Susan Hughes QC.
Alongside the Bertrams, Bay of Plenty’s Andre Meier became the 2020 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and Grace Gibberd from Waikato was announced the 2020 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year.
Meier stood out as a quiet yet confident person who is very capable and connects with a wide range of people in the community.
The 30-year-old manages Ao Marama Farms on 250ha near Te Puke, milking 800 cows.
Dairy Manager head judge Mark Shadwick from DairyNZ said amongst a strong group of finalists, Meier stood out as a proactive manager and leader who constantly seeks opportunities to grow and learn and helps others to do the same.
“Andre is an all-rounder who has established himself as a successful dairy manager whose track record speaks for itself,” Shadwick said.
“He is involved in his community as chairman of the Te Puke Young Farmers, through his involvement in the A&P Show Committee, as a Federated Farmers area rep and by hosting Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology students.”
The Dairy Manager runner-up was Paul Mercer from Manawatu and Waikato’s Daisy Higgs, 24 was third.
Judges predict the 2020 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year, Grace Gibberd will be a great ambassador and role model for the Dairy Industry.
“Grace displayed an exceptional overall understanding of general knowledge and was clear, confident and articulate with her answers,” says Dairy Trainee head judge Mark Nicholas.
The 21-year-old has a passion for animals, people and her role as Farm Assistant on the DairyNZ 115ha property at Newstead, milking 360 cows.
She has sound knowledge and in-depth understanding across all four practical modules of pasture allocation requirements, dry matter conversions, condition scoring and her attention to health and safety was clearly evident and comprehensive.
The judges say all the Dairy Trainee finalists are passionate about higher education and they are very well-rounded young men and women who possess a great understanding of national and global issues.
“It was remarkable to see how much the finalists appreciated their employers, their good working conditions and the amount of knowledge that other people in the industry were willing to share with them,” ,” Nicholas said.
“The New Zealand dairy industry is in great shape with these young people coming through.”
The Dairy Trainee runner-up was Sam Dodd from Taranaki and third placegetter is Tom Quinn, 24 years from Hawke’s Bay/Wairarapa.
