Isaac Cook is employed by large farm operators OB Group near Bulls and is aiming to milk 4000 cows across three of the company’s rotary dairies over a 12-hour shift from 3am on March 17.
But he is also using the goal as a pathway to getting fitter and healthier in an industry where increasing body weight and health problems are as common as they are in more desk-bound careers.
The record-setting exercise is the brain-child of healthy farming campaigner Ian Handcock who was responsible for the Farmstrong initiative, aimed to improve farmers’ mental and physical health.
In 2013 Handcock’s Kellogg rural leadership project on dairy farmer health highlighted how sedentary the job had become, and its effect on farmers’ fitness.
Handcock said he was keen to highlight the importance of health and fitness to farmers as an ongoing awareness in the wake of the Farmstrong campaign, and wanted a high-profile event to achieve that.
“We did approach Guinness about making it a Guinness world-record event, but they told us they would only accept an entry for a single person milking cows by hand, which was not going to happen.”
The record will be set in dairies operated by OB Group, all within proximity of each other and all of a 60-bail rotary design.
“Isaac will be going for 10 hours with four half-hour breaks in there, so nutrition and training is going to have a lot to do with his success,” Handcock said.
Cook said he has been travelling regularly into Palmerston North to train in a gym with weights and a medicine ball, and working on stretches and flexibility. He said leaving the farm and heading into the gym was a welcome break to his daily routine.
He was also eating healthier, getting advice from a nutritionist and learning to eat smaller meals in the evening, leaving room for a decent breakfast including oats before going to milk.
He was learning to have lunches earlier in the day “rather than just running myself right down and eating the wrong food at the end of the day”.
So far he had lost 6kg in six weeks and reckoned he was halfway to his weight-loss goal.
He said Stuart Taylor, operations manager for OB Group, had done much to encourage him in preparing for the record.
“And OB Group has been generous in giving me time off the farm to prepare.”
Handcock said the children of OB Group employees were also involved in the health-focused campaign, designing a “healthy eating” milking apron for staff to wear.
“And Stuart Taylor is a very innovative manager who is aware of the need for his staff to be in top condition mentally and physically – we are a competitive nation and farming is a competitive business where it pays to be in the best shape you can be,” Handcock said.
The milking-record event will be live-streamed via Facebook and played in sponsors’ tents on Friday, March 17, during the Central Districts Field Days.
