Regional Optimisation Days highlighting their resilient and profitable systems will be held on the regional winners’ farms in October and November.
DBOY focuses on and measures against three key aspects of operating a successful dairy enterprise: profitability and business resilience, environmental management and human resources.
Its manager David Densley said the field days are a great opportunity to learn how these farmers operate their businesses across these agribusiness principals and to understand why they do what they do.
“These field day events are a great day out and an excellent opportunity to hear and learn from some of New Zealand’s most resilient, sustainable and innovative dairy farmers.
“Attending these events provides an opportunity to see first-hand how these leading farmers are operating their business and how farming principles are applied on these high-performing farms and the strategies used to allow them to remain sustainable and viable within the current economic climate.”
Presentations include an overview and history of each farm, herd and breeding strategies, pasture management, profitability and resilience.
“Visitors will also hear from No8HR who will discuss the human resources side of the business and Headlands, who provided the data analysis and reports on the farms’ environmental footprint,” Densley said.
“The field days will be full of information. There are a number of factors which contribute to running a successful dairy business and these will be covered.
“These days are a perfect time to ask questions, share ideas and to expand your own farm knowledge that could then be applied to your farming system.”
And they are a great chance to network with people who could potentially make a constructive difference to agribusinesses by providing ideas or inspiration to implement changes.
The Sulzberger family of Taranaki won the 2017 Dairy Business of the Year supreme award.
“We have met a lot of people and get a lot of comments about our win,” Andrew Sulzberger said.
“Winning the award has reinforced the years of hard work that have gone into getting the farm and the business to this point.”
The detailed physical and financial analysis from DBOY consultants gave them a better understanding of key performance indicators in their business and the environmental report highlighted several areas where they could make improvements.
“The reports reinforced our low-cost structure and identified areas that we could tweak to gain even greater efficiencies.
“The on-farm field days provided us with many ideas and opportunities to keep improving the farm.”
The competition is managed by Headlands and sponsored by NZ Chartered Accountants, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Theland and Headlands along with Dairy Farmer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pioneer, NZI, CRV Ambreed, JobDone, No8HR, PGG Wrightson Real Estate and the Dairy Exporter.
All regional field days run 9.30am-1pm and are free. A light lunch will be provided so RSVP to monique.stewart@intelact.com or phone the DBOY team on 0800 73 55 88.
The days are:
October 23, Taranaki, Cleaver Farm
October 25, Manawatu, Garvaghy Gold
November 1, Waikato, Riddings Farm
November 6, Canterbury, Dalaborin TheLand
November 8, West Coast, Pan Farm
November 13, Southland, MOBH Farm
